The flames jumped and danced within the fireplace as the Young Justice team relaxed in the common room. A Christmas tree glowed in the corner, and lights and greenery were hung up around the room. Wrapping paper and candy wrappers littered the floor. Most of the teens were asleep, some on the couch, some on the floor.

Wally looked over from the kitchen to see Artemis holding the gift he'd given her. It was a picture of her in her costume, pulling the string on her bow back and taking aim. The photo had been taken by some reporter, and Wally had requested to keep it. It wasn't like she could have said no to Kid Flash, so she'd handed it over.

Bearing a tray of cookies and hot chocolate, he seated himself at Artemis' side and looked over her shoulder. "You know, I think the arrow is a little crooked in this picture."

She rolled her eyes. "I was having such a great moment a minute ago."

"And now it's even better. I just rock, don't I?"

"Whatever, Kid Dork. Don't you have food to be scarfing down?"

He put a hand on his chest, mock-offended. "Artemis, I'm hurt. How could I eat when distracted by such a beautiful sight?"

She snorted. "Okay, what do you want?"

"To fulfill a tradition."

She raised an eyebrow. "Tradition?"

He gestured for her to look up. She did, and then wished she hadn't. There was a little sprig of green leaves and white berries dangling over her their heads. How she'd managed to miss that, she'd never know, but-

The picture fell from her hand as Wally placed his lips on hers. This wasnot what she had expected. She wasn't exactly sure what she had expected, but this was definitely not it. Instead of a light, playful kiss, it was fiery and... whole. Nothing was missing. Screw tradition, this was a real kiss. Who knew Wally could be so incredibly... good at something.

He pulled back and winked at her, but she could see the emotions raging behind his cocky expression. "The mistletoe tradition." He looked down at the tray between them. "Cookie?"

She glanced around the room, and found she was slightly surprised to see the others were still asleep. After something like that, how could they be? But, she supposed it was better this way. No witnesses. Maybe a few cookies wouldn't hurt...

Wally handed her a small napkin with some of the treats on it, then a mug of hot chocolate. He was desperately avoiding her eyes, trying to contain this overwhelming feeling of... something clawing at his insides. He hadn't expected that to happen. He was just going to kiss her, for a laugh, for tradition. But it had ended up being so much more than that...

"Wally?"

He glanced up from what he was doing and looked at her. She leaned forward, hesitantly, and he didn't stop her. He should have. He should have run for the hills. But he let her kiss him. This one was much softer than the one he bestowed upon her. It was less head-first and more testing the waters.

This time, emotions didn't rage around inside of him. It was like this little candle lit itself, and he had this wonderful feeling of warmth instead of burning fire.

She pulled back first, looking a little nervous. "Just tradition." she whispered.

"Just tradition." he agreed.

. . .

Sorry this chapter took so long. I didn't have anything but a prompt for it for a while. Anyway, here's for Christmas. Happy Holidays!