Chapter Text
Artemis let herself fall into the bath face down, causing splashes to explode out of the tub and drop onto the tile floor; her muscles finally giving in after days of exertion. The close-to-blisteringly hot water surrounding her head did nothing to soothe her exhaustion and oncoming headache, but it did make her flap her arms out behind her, looking for something to hold onto as she struggled to pull herself upright. Sitting on her knees, she sputtered and tried to sneeze the excess water from out of her nose, succeeding only partially. Her wet mane of hair was stuck in front of her face and dripping more hot water into her already irritated eyes. With an exasperated sigh, she turned around and fell backwards to lounge against the end of the tub, slightly more cautious about the force with which she did so, stopping just after her shoulders hit the water level.
She tried to relax and poured in some of the bath salts her mother had given her for Christmas, but with her throat newly sore on top of all her other injuries and her mind racing a mile a minute, that proved easier said than done.
They'd done it. Baywatch—, no, Wally, had kissed her. In typical Wally fashion, he'd made an event out of it, went overboard more than was probably necessary, which somehow made it less of a big deal, but it was just so them. Of course he would pick her up bridal style when a simple embrace would do (not even an embrace; her first kiss had happened with a yank of her arm). Of course she would wrap her arms around his neck and cross her legs in their almost automatic effort to one-up each other.
Question was, she thought, lifting her foam-filled palms and blowing on them, making the bubbles scatter on the already wet and slippery tiles, where they went from here. They had danced around it ever since they first met—and if she was being honest with herself, pretending that Bialya was not how their first meeting would have gone under less stress-filled circumstances was exhausting and hypocritical; even mocking the hell out of him hadn't stopped her from noticing how good he looked in beach boxers, though she'd never tell anyone—, and part of her was glad they were both finally on the same, relatively calm page, but, then again, the entire five months they'd known each other had been plagued by misunderstandings and secrets, and insecurities, and crushes on other people. What were the chances those would stop if they entered... whatever their thing was? "Actually, scratch that," she thought, sinking deeper into the water, staring at the cracks in the ceiling and wincing when her back hit the tub at a particularly sensitive spot where a bruise from her fight with The League was forming. "What are the chances it wouldn't become ten times worse?"
Putting the team in jeopardy was the last thing she wanted to do. Not now that she finally felt safe in her position.
"M'gann and Conner manage it just fine, though," said the voice in her head that was responsible for replaying the kiss over and over again every time she closed her eyes. "They don't bicker nearly as much, but that doesn't mean you and Wally are doomed to fail."
"It doesn't mean every secret identity relationship is destined for success, either; look at Mom and Dad," said the other voice in her head, the one which had prompted her to plant a decoy tracker for Wally and Red Arrow weeks earlier.
Remembering the way things turned out then and how much she regretted going off book, she decided then and there she wouldn't let fear stop her from being with Wally, if things developed that way. Which was a big 'if', considering that of the four couples kissing earlier that night, only M'gann and Conner were in a relationship or getting into one in the near future as far as she knew. Wally could have just been acknowledging their UST, as Zee liked to call it.
Kissing was not the same as wanting to date someone; that she knew from experience.
What a kiss it was, though. Artemis wasn't particularly prone to obsessing over guys or doing happy dances when they liked her back, but she allowed herself a small smile at the memory. It had been a little sloppy, a little rushed, and she was ninety-percent sure their noses had bumped into each other at one point, but it was perfect in its imperfections. It was so... her. And very Wally.
Seeing her skin turn wrinkly and red and feeling her muscles having relaxed, she deemed the day to have had enough events and that sleep was required.
Sleep. Just the word itself was making her moan with need.
She slowly stood up on her slightly wobbly feet, holding the side of the tub for support, and put one foot out on the floor... at which point she slipped and landed in a very strange-feeling position that barely kept her nose from having connected with the tiles - one of her hands was on the floor, the other clutching a bathrobe that hung on the wall, one leg bent at the knee and the other still in the tub. A sort of weird crouching vertical split that a monkey would do.
"Fuckity fuck fuck fuck!" she screamed, almost whimpering and lightly banging her head at the floor.
"Artemis? Artemis, are you okay?" her mother called from her bedroom.
"Fine, mom!" Artemis called back. Then she lowered her voice, muttering to herself. "I'll just sleep in the bathroom tonight if that's okay with you."
And with that she took her other leg out of the bath tub, somehow managed to get the robe off its hook from her crouching position, and collapsed on the floor with the robe as her blanket, falling asleep almost immediately.
Wallace West turned the doorknob slowly, careful to make as little sound as possible. The night was by no means dark and even less quiet, stray fireworks still going off periodically somewhere in the distance, but disturbing his parents' sleep in the middle of the night was a bad idea on any day, even New Years Eve.
He tiptoed across the living room to the kitchen, yanking open the fridge and taking out half the contents. It had been a long day and an even longer night, he mused, taking out a spoon and scarfing down the cookie dough ice cream absentmindedly. It wasn't even night anymore, really, he realized, accidentally catching a glimpse of the oven clock. Nearly seven in the morning.
After finishing about a gallon of ice cream—hey, he was allowed to eat his feelings every once in a while—, he took off his mask threw it on the table, sitting down and rubbing his eyes. How long had he, Robin, and Aqualad sat there in the kitchen of Mount Justice after everyone else had gone home or to sleep? How many minutes passed without them even saying a word?
He still couldn't believe that the Roy Harper he'd known for three years was not the same Roy Harper he'd met just after becoming Kid Flash. He still couldn't believe... he'd betrayed them. Not intentionally, of course, but he just couldn't help thinking that if only they'd known, if only they'd picked up on the clues, then M'gann could have rebooted his brain or whatever it was that she did and none of this mess would have happened.
Or maybe The Light would have found some other way to make it happen, who knows.
All Wally knew for sure was that the group of friends he considered to be the core of his superhero life was broken. The team had only existed for barely six months, but he, Dick, Kaldur and Roy had always been a... solid, even if they'd never all been at the same place at the same time before July 4th.
He thought of Green Arrow and the immense amount of guilt he must have been feeling ever since finding out; a guilt that probably wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He thought of Kaldur and the pain of having one more person turn away from him. He thought of Conner and all the issues the force-grown boy had gone through despite him being an entirely original and unique person.
And he thought of the clone who, despite leading a kickass life for the last three years and being a damn good friend now had to live with knowing he was a replacement. A pawn.
Man, and Wally'd thought his issues were bad.
He'd thought of his all for hours and hours already, but it just wouldn't go away. Where was the original Roy? Was he still alive? Would they ever find him? How long would it take? What kind of condition would he be in once they did? Was it possible to live through that kind of trauma? Was it possible to live after it?
"I thought this was a night for celebration, dammit," he muttered, slamming his open palm on the table, scattering his half-eaten sandwich's remains. And just like that, his mind flashed back to the image of Artemis in his arms, the feel of her body in her hands, her lips on his.
His frown immediately turned into a crooked grin as he put the sandwich back together, a tone of red flooding his ears. He wasn't really sure what had come over him in that moment; where he'd gotten the courage to be so bold, after all they'd gone through, after all the merciless teasing. But it was about time.
And she didn't exactly seem to mind, if he did say so himself.
"Uh oh, is someone talking about you?" his mother asked, walking into the kitchen and frowning at the mess he'd made, making a nod toward his flushed ears when he looked at her in confusion.
"No, no, just... remembering a thing that happened today."
"Was it a funny thing?" she asked, coming over to her son and hugging him tightly.
"No, just a thing."
"An embarrassing thing?"
"It. Was. A. Thing." Wally snaked his way out of her arms and took a loaf of bread along with a container of peanut butter. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I am sweaty and filthy, and bloody and I really need to take a shower now that you and Dad are awake." And with that, he was off to his room, sending the papers posted to the fridge flying off from under their magnets.
"Must have been a girl," Mrs. West mumbled to herself, yawning and pouring herself leftover champagne.
Upstairs, Wally had just stuffed his costume into the laundry basket and stepped into the shower, finally realizing how exhausted he was. The cold water rinsed away the dirt and the blood and with it went some of the grief about Roy.
They were superheroes, after all. There was nothing they couldn't do if they put their minds to it. And had strength in numbers. And weren't afraid to take the bull by the horns. First thing after he woke up, he'd go find Robin and start a search for the original Speedy. Now that they knew to look for him, it'd be a piece of cake. Mmm, cake. Why did nobody ever serve cake at New Years' parties?
The point was, it would be just another mission. Maybe a little more personal than he was used to, but they'd deal with it. And Red Arrow would help. And come to terms with his origin. Eventually. He had to... right?
It would all be fine. In time. Of that Wally was sure, or at least he tried to be.
And in the meantime, he had freaking kissed Artemis, which he had given far too little thought to so far in the night. What was the protocol for going forward? Was it automatically assumed they were a couple or did he have to ask her out? If they went on a date, would they go straight to the making out or would they have to create another 'first kiss' moment, making this one a prompt for the start of a relationship, but not part of the actual relationship? Did Artemis even want to be in a relationship? Should he have asked? Oh, God, was it just a New-Year's-slash-big-win fluke?
Were they capable of going more than five minutes without fighting? Did either of them want to?
With a wide-eyed, unblinking stare at the shower wall, Wally realized he didn't even know why he liked Artemis. Or when he'd started to. Or why he'd kissed her. And the mere prospect of talking to her about it filled his veins with cold dread.
"Ohhhh, boy, this was not what I signed up for," he muttered, turning the water slightly hotter to warm himself up. He could feel cold sweat rise unto his skin, and his heart beat abnormally at every thought about Artemis that wasn't of the kiss.
Hitting on girls he had down. Some would say a little too down, but he couldn't help being affectionate toward the ladies. They were pretty magnificent creatures, you know. But actually going out with someone? He'd never made it that far. He had absolutely no idea what to do.
Shutting the water off and pulling on his boxers, he decided to make a slight change in plans. First thing when he woke up, he'd go find M'gann and ask her. Then he'd track down Robin and focus on the search for Speedy with everything he had.
And with any luck, all his problems would be solved in a month or two. Really, the day hadn't been quite so bad, if you thought about it hard enough. And with that notion, he climbed into his bed and fell asleep instantly.