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WHO: Artemis (

real_archer) and Wally (

runningstart)
WHERE: The school, after hours
WHEN: Night of the 22nd
WHAT: Secrets exposed (but probably not that secret. Or the other one.)
WARNINGS: Spoilers for Season 1 of Young Justice also teenage angst

[Artemis has spent the last couple hours standing in her bathroom mirror practicing the story she's about to tell and who knows how long running it over in her head. She's repeated it often enough that it almost sounds smooth and natural. It hides the things she still needs to hide and explains the things that she needs to explain neatly and succinctly. What's best is that she already knows it's a story Wally will buy--after all, he's the one who came up with it.

But when it comes down to it, she has no idea if she's actually going to be able to go through with this confession. If it weren't for Robin, she probably wouldn't even try. But Robin remembers now and she can't ask him to hide it from his best friend forever.

Well, actually, she could. But there's some tiny traitorous core of herself that maybe wants to tell Wally the truth. For once. It's going to hurt, but it's time to rip off the bandaid and pick off the scab.

As she paces the darkened halls (what's a little breaking and entering among superheroes?) she can only hope that when he shows his annoyingly freckled face she doesn't choke.]

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[Excuse you, his face is not annoyingly freckled. It is adorably angel-kissed. His mom told him that when he was little and it still stands, thank you.

Wally doesn't look at the stadium as he passes by it, slips through the shadows and zips inside once he finds an open door. He darts past Artemis before he skids to a halt and back tracks over to her, trying not to think how weird it is to not only be in a school at night, but in one that isn't even his.]

Okay. What's up?

[Artemis whirls around to face him and suddenly all the words she's practiced so hard fly right out of her head.

Damn.]

... Hi.

Uh, hey. [Wally squints at her before shoving his hands into his pockets and looking around.] Weird, huh? This is the school they want us to go to.

Umm... Yeah. Weird.

[She shoves her hands in her pockets and then realizes that is exactly what he just did and quickly takes them out.]

Looks like my school, I guess...

[Maybe like Gotham North, but nothing like Gotham Academy. And why is she even thinking of this? What happened to her speech? Why is she on the verge of spilling her guts instead?]

I mean, I guess it looks like any school.

Doesn't look like my school. More gum everywhere, for one. [Then again, Wally's high school is in a nicer part of town in a sleepy part of Kansas protected by the Flash, so that's no surprise.

Wally wanders over to a classroom door and jiggles the knob. Locked. He cups his hands up by his face to peer in through the window.] Spooky. I wonder if we'll see the ghost of some poor kid's hopes and dreams in here before we leave.

[Artemis makes a short huff of amusement, watching him as he peeks into the empty classroom.]

Maybe ghosts get the summer off.

[Yes, lets just... talk about this. Whatever this is.]

[This is Wally deflecting in an attempt to make her feel more at ease. Don't ask him why he did it because it's kind of subconscious.]

That's true. Hope can't exactly come here to die if there's no classes.

I am never, ever coming here. Never.

[She is both grateful and fully aware that this is not something that can last. That almost makes it worse.]

Me neither. I'm sick of this place. All of it.

[The recent memory of paintball induced pain and the stress of Robin's disappearance (while someone in Cape Canaveral presumably pressed buttons and watched things unfold) lends extra bitterness to the statement.]

Yeah, it could be better. [Could be worse, too. But more importantly Wally is really starting to get hit with the homesickness. He misses the rest of his team, he misses his family. He misses his aunt and uncle. He misses his old room with all his stuff and he misses Chicken Whizzies.

God he misses Chicken Whizzies.]

Soooo...not that walking around in a creepy empty school in the middle of the night isn't compelling, but what'd you want to tell me?

Right. That.

[She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. It only sounds a little bit shaky and her voice is stronger when she speaks again.]

Okay, so... I already know what you're going to say when you hear this because you've already said it. Fine, say whatever you want, I'm not going to stop you. Just... Hear me out first, okay?

Not really a great way to start, but okay. I'm listening. [Wally leans against a set of lockers, folding his arms.]

[It's show time. The rehearsed lines come easily enough once she gets started. She wants to keep this short, simple, and to the point. All she has to do is keep her cool and let him draw his own conclusions. As terrible as it is, it's better than letting him know the truth.]

In early December we got word that Sportsmaster had been seen going through the New Orleans airport. Green Arrow sent us on a mission to follow him and see what he was up to. It was you, me, Aqualad, and Red Arrow.

[The speech is sounding good so far--very cool and businesslike. She manages to keep her head held high, though eye contact is a little too much to ask for.]

It was going okay... and then Cheshire showed up.

[Her voice catches briefly on her sister's name and she quickly clears her throat.]

She ambushed us and tipped off Sportsmaster. You and I fought her while Aqualad and Red Arrow pursued Sportsmaster. They lost him, so we got the order to plant a tracer on Cheshire and throw the fight so we could track her to their rendez-vous.

... I did something stupid. I... thought I could take her on myself so put the tracer on Cheshire... so I planted a decoy tracker on a train going the opposite direction for you guys to follow while I went after Cheshire.

The mission was a failure. On so many levels. Just... [She shakes her head, she's getting off script] It was bad. Cheshire and Sportsmaster got away. We found out who they were working with, but not much else. I blew it. I put the mission at risk because I was insecure and selfish.

[Those were Wally's words. Artemis doesn't think she'll ever forget them. He may not have understood a single thing about why Artemis had done what she did--none of them do--but the worst part is that in many ways he was still right.

She stares at the floor, no longer able to keep her head up as she waits for him to explode.]

[She's not disappointed. Or at least, she's right about him being angry. He glares at her, arms folded tight and fingers digging into his sleeves.

She-]

You're serious? You- why? Why was going after them alone that important to you? You're supposed to be a part of a team, you wanted to be a part of a team!

You did this in December?!

[She's tried to prepare herself so manages to avoid wincing, but it still hurts. All she can do is shrug.]

It was just before I came here.

Not even three months- [Wally throws his hands up in the air, turns around and runs them through his hair before resting them on his hips. He breathes hard through his nose, head down, back to her.]

Did you just not trust any of us? [Something occurs to him and he turns to regard her, disbelief mixing in with the anger.] Did you- is that why you didn't tell me about the mole thing?

[Her head jerks up and she looks at him, eyes wide. Whether he's considered it before or not, he's never actually come out and accused her of being the mole.]

I didn't--I'm not the mole. I made a mistake, but I'm not... I would never...

[It looks bad though, she knows. Red Arrow reminds her of that all the time.

In his own way, so does her dad.]

I don't get it. Why?

[Wally turns away again. He can't stand still, he just-]

I thought- [we were working together. He frowns, setting his jaw.] ...but I guess it doesn't matter what any of us think. Because you're gonna do what you want no matter what, huh?

... It matters, okay?

[That's all she can say. She can't even defend herself, because her only defense is worse than anything he can say to her.

... Right?]

How?! [Wally spreads his arms with a bark of incredulous laughter.] It mattered because you wanted us to think you were great? Because you wanted to outshine Red?

I have done some stupid stuff, I'll say it, I've done some really dumb stuff in my career, but I've never lied to my friends and tried to take down people solo to make myself look good. That's why you did it, right? You didn't think you were- I don't know, special enough or something?

[Artemis shrinks down into herself. She told him this story the way she did because it was a lie she needed him to believe. Now he believes it, and she doesn't have anyone to blame but herself.

And just like he somehow knew the right thing to say to her on the bio ship, he somehow knows the right thing to say to make her feel even worse about the situation.]

I get it, okay? You told me this stuff already.

[Wally takes a deep breath, but whatever he was about to say just...it's gone. He lets it out and turns away from her again.

They were getting along. They were working together. They were even enjoying each other's company. Why did she even tell him?]

Don't- don't tell me what I've already said. I'm sick of people telling me what I'm going to do.

... Are you kidding me?

[For the first time since the conversation began, Artemis is able to really look at him.]

Do you think I wanted to tell you this? You freaked out when I didn't tell you about the mole, and now you don't want to know?

No! I mean- yes, I want to know, but I don't want to know when it's stuff like this! [which is incredibly childish but let's not dwell on that]

What the hell, Artemis?! I even thought you were actually kind of cool after all, and then you tell me you did this? In the future!

Oh yeah? Well, I thought you were--

[Her mouth snaps shut and she looks away. Too much.]

Doesn't matter.

No you know what? It does matter. You thought I was what? [And Wally doesn't even know why he's so angry about this. It's not like he and Artemis were every really close; they got on each other's nerves more often than not. They were probably only starting to get along because there wasn't a choice, because there was nobody else but the three of them and so they had to support one another. It's not a big deal.]

[There are so many ways she could answer that and none of them make this situation any easier.

It's confusing, too, because this isn't the Wally she's fought beside all these months. It's almost been like Bialya in reverse--and she's just as guilty of falling back into her old patterns as he is of... well, being Wally.

But back home, things had changed. Changed in a way that she knows she can't explain.

Especially not now.]

... you were my friend.

[It's the most honest lie she's ever told.]

Edited 2014-06-27 06:02 (UTC)

Yeah.

[Wally scrapes his teeth over his lip, hands curling to fists again. He takes a couple steps back.]

Yeah, I did too.

[His sneakers squeak on the tile and then he's gone, door at the end of the hall clanking shut too loud in the dark.]

[Artemis slumps back against the lockers and then slowly slides down the wall to sit on the ground.

For some reason she'd thought it would be easier this time.

It wasn't.]

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