[Fanfic]

Title: Wally Not Wallace

Characters: Artemis, Wally, Dick

Necessary Warnings: none, save for some mild language

This idea came to me at random and egged to be written, which is why I sort of put Unappreciated on the back burner (this and the Bruce/Wally fic I'm working on) but no worries, I'll get back to it soon enough. I'm doing a Hal/Wally fill for 'Blackpantherwolf' now. Anyhoo I hope people like this cause I worked hard on it. Reviews are love.

Also I'm not particularly sure if I'll be continuing with this as it was just a random idea, but if anyone does like this tell me and I'll finish, because I do have some vague ideas of where this could go next.

Her tampons were missing.

She hadn't realized it at first, when she counted them she had six left. And later when she looked in the box and only found five more, she just assumed she had miscounted. But now there's only three left, and she's definitely missing her tampons. Artemis isn't sure why someone would be taking her tampons, Megan couldn't use them and she was the only other girl on the team, so she figures this might have something to do with some elaborate prank Wally was probably pulling on her.

Which is why she walks into his room without knocking (and Wally should have put a lock on the door if he was changing) and is met by a rather...unusual (and unusual is the kindest way to describe it) sight. There's Wally poised in an awkward stance shirtless without any pants on. and Wally, well Wally had slender hips and curves she probably would have killed for some time ago, but Artemis has learned to appreciate her body. Although there is maybe some lingering jealousy over breasts Wally didn't deserve if he was just going to pretend to be a boy anyway.

Neither of them say anything, they kind of just stare at each other for a long awkward moment before Artemis backs out the room quickly and slams the door shut. She's not sure what to think, but it didn't matter much because all her brain is cumming up with 'Wally's a girl?', and 'Why the hell was he- she lying?'

They don't talk about it, it seems they both have an unspoken agreement that what happened, didn't actually happen. Not really, there was some awkwardness between the two of them but it wasn't long before they fell into their respective roles. Wally hits on Megan and Artemis insults him and Wally snarks right back, so expect for some silent questioning glances Artemis sends towards Wally (the kind that screams Why and The hell is going on with you) everything was sort of back to normal.

The subject doesn't come back up between them until Artemis finds Wally in her room a few days later trying to swipe another one of her tampons. He, no she (the pronouns were a lot to get used to) smiles nervously and flushes a deep crimson.

"Get your own tampons." Artemis says, and she only half joking, because what happens when she actually needs to use them and she can't find any, that would have been one awkward conversation with Red Tornado because Black Canary was never around when they needed her.

"Oh sorry-I just...sorry" Wally mumbles softly then it's quiet and awkward again.

"So, you're a girl." Artemis says when she's tired of just standing there and feeling the awkward.

"Yeah," Wally agrees but doesn't say anything else.

"Are you seriously going to just pretend this never happened?" Artemis demands, and she can't help but think it's so much easier to talk like this then to say things softly and carefully. But Wally flinches away at her harsh tone and she can't help but think things might be a little easier for him- her (God's that was hard to get used to) if she toned it down a little.

"I was kinda hoping to, yeah." Wally mumbles softly with a shrug then adds "You can't tell anyone" in a pleading voice Artemis had never heard Wally use before it sounded completely out of place.

Artemis rolls her eyes instead though, she figured things might be easier for Wally if she tried to pretend everything was still normal between them. "Idiot, of course I'm not gonna tell anyone. You trusted me with your secret identity and you can trust me with this too." It's meant to sound condescending but it came out sounding more reassuring then anything.

Wally grins at this new bit of information, wider and brighter then Artemis had ever seen from her before; if that was even possible. Artemis doesn't return the grin, instead she settles for handing Wally what was left of the box of tampons and pointedly does not meet her amazed and thankful gaze.

"Um thanks, but I can't ta-"

"Cut the B.S and take the tampons, you need them more then I do right now anyway." Artemis says forcefully completely cutting Wally's polite decline off. Artemis would never understand the point of lying that she didn't need the tampons if Wally had just been stealing them anyway. But then Artemis figures there's a lot she may never understand about Wally.

And when Wally takes the last half empty box of tampons from Artemis, it was the start of a rather unusual friendship.

"I don't hate you y'know." Wally says conversationally, they're sitting in Artemis' room, Wally is at her desk and Artemis is laying in her bed. Shes trying to sound nonchalant but Artemis can tell that Wally is being at least half serious. And that alone sort of irritates her, because she had sworn to herself that this wouldn't change anything, and Wally was being nice to her like they were friends are something. But still, it unnerved her how little this fact actually irritated her.

"I just kind of," Wally continues, she stops for a moment to take a breath, like what she was about to say was difficult or something. And Artemis didn't really want to hear it, because they weren't best friends sharing secrets and braiding each others hair while they giggled about they boys they liked, and yes Artemis was a girl too, but she wasn't that kind of girl, Wally seemed all bubbly and happy like those kinds of girls anyway, and even if she was she so didn't want to be that kind of girl with Wally. "It was supposed to be me Aqualad Robin and Spe-Red Arrow." Wally says softly.

"Hey none of that is my fault." Artemis says defensively and maybe a little harsher than she intended because Wally wasn't trying to be mean she was actually being kind of civil about a subject that normally led to a screaming match between them, but she was really getting sick and tired of getting blamed for crap that wasn't even her fault anyway.

"I know, I know." Wally says quickly trying to diffuse another argument with a disarming smile, "I'm just saying, no one told us you were cumming and it just made me so mad that Green Arrow could replace him so fast. Then all of a sudden you were part of the team and I just, I don't know." Wally trails off staring at the desk in front of her like it could solve all her problems for her.

"I get it." Artemis says not softly but her voice does lack the usual edge to it.

"Get what?" Wally asks dumbly and yeah, Artemis thinks, this is definitely Wally.

"You have a crush on him." She says simply and takes great pleasure in watching Wally's cheeks grow warm with embarrassment and her eyes go wide with shock and Artemis can't help but smirk at the reaction.

"What...why would you...that's not even...What?" Wally sputters and Gods this moment could not have been more perfect.

"You like him." Artemis says simply and Wally's blush deepens.

"I do not like him." she tries, but Artemis wasn't having it.

"Um thanks, but no thanks, I'm not buying" Artemis says sarcastically much to Wally's dismay. "I could tell you liked him the second he walked in the door dressed up like Red Arrow." she says smirking Wally blushes harder, and Artemis thinks Wally's face seriously might spontaneously explode if she doesn't calm down soon.

"But how?" Wally rasps her voice suddenly tight and nervous.

"Women's intuition." Artemis explains simply with a shrug "That and when he walked in I thought you were gonna rip off your clothes and jump him right then and there." she adds not missing a beat and it seemed Wally's face finally broke, or was at least frozen in that wide-eyed disbelieving expression. "Oh I'm sorry, was that a secret too?" Artemis asks sarcastically and that at least makes Wally snap her mouth shut and her eyes return to some semblance of their normal size.

"I don't like him like that." Wally mutters softly, then adds "Anymore." at Artemis' utterly unamused look. "That look was just cause," Wally trails off but that was alright because Artemis was more then happy to pick up where she left off.

"He's extremely hot." and this time Wally shares the smirk with Artemis before they both dissolve into not unkind laughter (it's a testament to how much fun she's having, they're both having, that neither of them freak out at how that moment looks, like they were actually friends) before tings get sort of serious again.

"I used to be completely in love with him, when I was like thirteen, but after the hundredth time he called me dude," wally stops for a second and looks genuinely upset for a moment, but it passes "I uh eventually got the message." she tries to laugh it off, but it's pretty obvious it still kind of hurt to think about.

"So, um why exactly are you pretending to be a guy anyway?" Artemis asks because in the last week and a half she realizes she's never actually asked Wally why, even though she was dying to know, seriously she thought the very question and desire to know was burning holes into her forehead.

"I, uh-" and here, wally causes for a moment, words caught in her throat that she doesn't even remotely know how to unstick again, so she coughs takes a breath and tries again. "My dad didn't want a girl." she whispers just loud enough for Artemis to hear, and it's obvious that wally doesn't want to say anything else but Artemis can't for the life of her figure out how those six little words are supposes to explain it all.

So she asks "What?" in an impatient voice that she's maybe a little bit ashamed of.

"Trust me if you ever meet my dad, you'll get it." and it's supposed to sound like a joke, but Wally actually sounds so terrified Artemis can't believe she even tried joking about it.

"Wanna go raid the fridge for Megan's baking?" Artemis asks in an attempt to change the subject and that at least seemed to be enough to completely derail the dark place Wally's thoughts were going, she smiles brightly back at Artemis and is out the door with a cheerful whoop and excited of laughter.