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Artemis snored in her sleep.
Not loudly. And not obnoxiously, like they did on TV. But with every soft exhale, there was this quiet rumble almost akin to a cat’s purr. Artemis denied it every time Wally brought it up, but whether she believed it or not was irrelevant. Because regardless, Wally thought it was fucking adorable, and he was none too hesitant when it came to telling her so.
He made a mental note to add that to the list. Along with the mole on Artemis’ shoulder blade and the way she made even better root beer floats than Iris—in spite of the fact that she thought they were disgusting. All worthy additions to the Things I Missed About Artemis list.
Wally lay on his side, facing Artemis’ closed eyes and relaxed facial features. His arm had gone numb under her body hours ago, but he had no intention of moving. Not when a week ago, he would have paid every penny he’d ever made just to have her sleeping in his embrace the way she was now. Close enough that he could feel her breath on his face and her pulse beating steadily beneath her skin.
To have her within arm’s reach, instead of who-knew-how-many miles away underwater, behind enemy lines and the risk of getting caught increasing with each passing minute. Wally had been sure he would go crazy before the mission was halfway up.
To put it simply, the past three months had been hell. Worse than hell. It had felt like the oxygen was stolen from his lungs—like his heart had fled his chest cavity and left him empty and hollow. Even now, just thinking about it made Wally tighten his hold on Artemis, reassuring himself that she was here, that she was safe, that she was real.
Judging by the rays of sunlight gradually peeking through the blinds, it was just about sunrise. Birds chirped outside, and the apartment was blissfully warm—a testament to the throes of summer. With the encroaching light he could see Artemis’ face perfectly, and he dedicated himself to memorizing every last detail so he would never forget.
As if that were possible.
In her sleep, Artemis shifted closer until her head was pillowed on Wally’s shoulder. The motion caused a tress of hair to fall so it rested over her cheek. She made a small snuffing noise and stilled again, chest rising and falling in a lax rhythm. It made Wally’s chest shake with silent chuckles.
With his free hand he brushed the hair off her face, fingers ghosting over warm skin. He was unsurprised when Artemis’ eyelids fluttered open at the contact—ever the light sleeper she was. Blinking, her gaze focused and landed on Wally, and after a moment she smiled tiredly before closing her eyes again.
“Morning,” Wally whispered, not wanting to disrupt the morning stillness quite yet.
She hummed without opening her eyes. “How long were you watching me sleep for?”
Bold of her to assume he went to sleep himself. “Couple hours. I almost forgot how loudly you snore.”
“I don’t snore.”
Artemis curled in closer, wrapping an arm around Wally. Her eyes opened again, and she exhaled softly as she gazed at her boyfriend—taking in the tousled hair, the green eyes, the freckles covering the bridge of his nose; tiny dots spreading over his flushed cheeks and broad shoulders. Her fingers rested at the nape of his neck, tickling the short hairs there.
“I missed this,” she said quietly.
Months spent lying in bed alone, taking hours to fall asleep without her next to him, being pummeled by images of the worst until morning— “Yeah,” Wally said. “Me too.”
If Wally had a dollar for every time he’d wished to wake up with Artemis beside him again, he would be richer than Dick. And with her here, in his arms, he knew he already was.
After the summit, the rest of the team had gone back to the warehouse for the mission debriefing while the leaguers dealt with the cleanup. Luckily, Wally and Artemis had been excused from the whole ordeal, courtesy of Nightwing.
(Artemis may have threatened to castrate him unless he allowed the two of them to duck out early for some much-needed alone time, but you know, details.)
Wally had pushed nearly 700 miles per hour running them home, desperate to have their first time alone together since the morning before she left with Kaldur in that submarine.
“What time is it?” she mumbled, nuzzling closer until her face was buried in the crook of Wally’s neck.
“Sunrise. We’ll have to get up soon.”
Artemis made a grumbling noise, arms tightening around Wally like a teddy bear. “I’ve got a better idea. Let’s not.”
“Who’s going to walk Brucely?”
“We’ll hire Bart. He loves that dog.”
It was true. The kid had visited often during the time Artemis was gone, though it was undetermined whether that was of his own volition or if Iris had paid him to keep Wally from puttering around the apartment like a lonely old man.
When Artemis walked through their front door for the first time, she was all but trampled by their fifty-pound pitbull as he threw himself at her, jumping up and licking her face eagerly. That dumb dog had missed Artemis almost as much as Wally had, it seemed.
Having Artemis back felt like a part of him had been returned. Like for the first time in weeks, he was finally whole again.
The two of them stayed up until the late hours of night, having already changed out of their suits and showered before moving to the couch where they talked for the better part of eternity—recounting every detail the other had missed during their time apart and never parting more than a few inches. Like they were magnets. Like she was the sun and he was forever drawn to her orbit.
Still, it felt as though if Wally took his eyes off of her for a second, she would disappear into thin air and it would all have been a dream. But she was solid beneath his fingers. She was solid when he ran his fingers through her hair, when she traced the freckles along his arm until goosebumps rose wherever she touched.
Eventually they’d relocated to their bedroom long after they were both heavy-eyed and slurring their words together. And even then, they didn’t go to sleep for a long, long time after that.
“The room is clean.”
Wally was pulled from his thoughts, looking down to find Artemis peering at him. “Hm?”
Artemis shifted up a bit, rolling onto her back while keeping her hand twined with Wally’s. “The room. It’s cleaner than how I left it.”
She gestured to the organized bookshelf, the smudge-less windows, the vacuumed floor barren of strewn socks and clutter. If she opened the dresser drawers, she would also see that all of their clothes were folded, rather than hastily shoved in and awaiting wrinkles.
Aside from the clothes they’d left on the floor last night, the place was immaculate.
Wally shrugged. “I may have gone a little stir-crazy while you were gone.”
Artemis arched an eyebrow. “A little?”
“Fine, a lot stir-crazy. Finally got around to fixing that broken hinge on the closet door. And all of the cupboards may or not be arranged in alphabetical order now.”
Artemis snorted. “And I thought I was supposed to be the clean one,” she said with a teasing grin.
“You, the clean one? No way.” Wally rolled over until his arms were braced on either of Artemis’ sides, caging her underneath him. His face hovered inches above hers. “I found at least five of your protein bar wrappers in the couch cushions. Face it, babe,” he said, planting a kiss on her cheek. “You’re just as much of a slob as I am.”
Artemis laughed, hands coming up to grasp Wally’s shoulders. “You keep a tiny apartment clean for three months and suddenly you’re the most responsible person in the world.”
“Yep,” Wally replied. He kissed her again, this time on the underside of her jaw. Artemis’ next sound turned into a shiver when he pressed more sucking kisses to her skin.
“We should...probably get up soon.” Though she didn’t stop him as he moved down to her neck, her clavicle, her shoulder.
“Probably,” Wally agreed. But he made no attempt to do so, and neither did she. He picked his head up and captured her lips in a proper kiss this time, uncaring about morning breath. Artemis made a noise in the back of her throat and her fingers tightened in his hair, holding him in place.
It wasn’t long before the kiss grew more fervent and heated, and all thoughts of getting up flew out the window. Wally trailed the tip of his finger along Artemis’ jaw, lightly tracing a bruise that had bloomed there not long after the summit battle. Artemis hooked her ankle around one of Wally’s knees, lips passionate and unrelenting against his.
That is, until a loud whine sounded from beside their bed and broke the spell.
Wally pulled away, chuckling under his breath as he rested his forehead against Artemis’. “Fuck you, Brucely.”
He rolled off of her with a sigh, just in time for the dumb dog in question to clamber up onto their bed, unapologetically stepping on Wally’s chest and making him groan as he made his way to Artemis’ side. He gave her a slobbery, wet kiss before plopping down, curling up beside her and effectively stealing Wally’s spot.
Wally rolled his eyes. He and Brucely had become rather tight during Artemis’ absence, but he couldn’t blame the mutt for gluing himself to her now. Not when Wally found himself doing the exact same thing.
Artemis ruffled the dog’s ears, ignoring Wally’s pout. “There’s my favorite buzzkill,” she said fondly.
“Speak for yourself.” With a sigh, Wally accepted defeat and got up, grabbing a pair of pants from the floor. “I guess that means I’m making breakfast?”
Artemis stretched her arms above her head with a wink. “It would be the polite thing to do, seeing as I’ve been eating bad guy cafeteria seafood for the past three months.” Wally’s frown persisted. “Don’t worry, babe, we’ve got the whole day to ourselves. And I plan on spending all of it in this bed.”
“Now there’s an idea.”
With one last pat to Brucely’s head, Artemis picked up her phone on the nightstand, which had been dutifully ignored since they’d gotten home the night before. World War Three could have broken out and they would have had no idea, nor would they have cared.
Wally pulled on his pants and tossed Artemis a shirt, already planning on just running to the nearest IHop and buying enough pancakes to feed an army. Seconds later, he heard her groan. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He looked at her then; at the crease in her brows. “What’s up?”
“Dick. There’s some situation with the Reach and he needs us to come in.”
And just like that...
Poof.
Lazy morning gone.
“Seriously? Hell no, tell him to get someone else. He’s got plenty of on-duty people lying around who can handle it.”
Artemis shook her head. “Apparently it’s all hands on deck.”
Wally mirrored her earlier groan, flopping onto the bed. He wrapped his arms around her tightly and buried his face in her stomach. “No fairrr. He’s got a whole team of superheroes, and he’s making us deal with this? I want to spend a day with the love of my life for once.”
Artemis laughed, swiping his hair from his eyes with her thumb. “And to think, for a while there I forgot how much of a baby you can be.”
Wally kissed her palm, eyes twinkling. “Please. You could never forget how much of a baby I am.”
“Get up.”
“No.” He nuzzled into her skin. “Tell Dick we’re dead.”
“It’s one mission. We’ll be back before you know it, and then we can cuddle and watch TV for as long as you want.”
Wally opened one eye. “And order pizza.”
“And order pizza.”
He huffed, crawling up to kiss her deeply once, twice. “Fine.” He held up a finger. “One last mission. And then we’re getting the lazy morning we deserve.”
Artemis kissed him back, hand trailing down his arm until their hands met. “We’ve got the rest of our lives to have lazy mornings.”
Something about that made Wally’s heart flutter. “Amen to that.”
She shoved his shoulder. “Now get off of me. I’m showering first.”
“You kidding? I’ve been in Artemis Crock withdrawal for three months straight. I’m not spending another second away from you if I can help it.” He punctuated his point with a kiss to the tip of her nose, making her snort.
As they took their time getting up, fighting over who had to feed Brucely and dragging out the fraction of alone time they still had left, Wally couldn’t help grinning to himself like an idiot.
The rest of our lives.
After this mission, it would just be Wally and Artemis again. Just the two of them in their retired bliss—no crime-fighting, no uncover missions, no separation. No more wondering if the next battle would be their last. No more sitting up in the middle of the night, hoping that Artemis was still alive, wherever she was.
From then on, nothing but death would do them part if Wally had anything to say about it.
And he had to say—he was looking forward to every second of the rest of their lives.