The Blame Game

Disclaimer: I would like to honestly tell you that I own Young Justice. Problem is, that's an oxymoron because you can't honestly tell a blatant lie.

So, after I did my story 'Spitfire' I loved loved loved doing Flinx. But I also wanted to do a Young Justice fic, and Waltermis has the same sort of banter Flinx does.

While I'm a fan of Wally/Artemis, this isn't really a romance fic. There's no flirting whatever – although I suppose that arguing is pretty much how they flirt. In that case they spend pretty much the whole fic 'flirting'.

"This is all your fault." The blonde archer said flatly.

"It is not!" Kid Flash protested.

"Then who's fault is it?"

"It's all yours."

"Oh, really?" Artemis smirked. "How so?"

"You're the one who shot that knock-out arrow in the first place!"

"That was not my fault! How was I supposed to know the villain could move like that?"

"I dunno, maybe his name? I mean, come on. Stretchy. It's not original, but it tells you what he can do."

"Names don't necessarily have anything to do with powers! I mean, Red Arrow used to be called Speedy but he can't run any faster than normal! Robin is a type of bird, but the actual kid is an acrobat and last I checked, he can't fly. And Miss Martian, that tells you what her species is. Not what she can do. For that matter, if you had no idea what Superman can do the name 'Superboy' wouldn't tell anyone either. And-"

"But seriously Artemis, he has the name Stretchy. Couldn't you at least sorta guess he had super-stretchiness?"

"Well, it wasn't my fault that he dove towards the arrow. People don't usually do that – and it would have worked on anyone else."

"No, it wouldn't have! And guess what? Your brilliant knock-out gas arrow bounced off and hit Robin. You managed to knock our team-mate out instead of the villain."

"It didn't hit him!"

"No, but the gas was close enough to knock him out!"

"That was not my fault. My aim was perfect. And considering what you did to his leg, a deflected arrow – which was not my fault – is nothing. And anyway, the whole fiasco was your fault, Baywatch."

"How so?"

"Who was the one who let them see us in the first place?" Artemis snapped. "Who was the one who was a big enough klutz that he got every villain in the place breathing down our necks? Oh, right – you."

"So not my fault."

"So yes your fault."

"I was told to go get a sample of the drug. So that's what I did. You know, actually listening to orders? It's a good thing that really helps the team – you might want to try it sometime."

"Oh, yeah. And you tripped over your own feet. Why Kaldur didn't just send Robin or M'gann after it I'll never know."

"I did not trip over my feet! There was a tripwire there!"

"So why couldn't you look where you're going?"

"Running with super-speed is a lot harder than running normally! You've got to adjust to everything in a split-second, plus your feet are going faster than your brain."

"So? Firing an arrow with my accuracy isn't exactly easy, but I wasn't allowed to go out onto patrol until I could prove I knew it all. We have to practise our skills – and not while we're on a mission! If you can't use your powers properly than you shouldn't be let out of the house!"

"Well, whatever. Anyway, you're the one who first started firing as soon as Stretchy found us."

"Duh. That's what I do when a villain is trying to kill me. You run away, I fight back."

"Which is of course such a rational move. And anyway, that's what caused all the robots to be jumping out at us."

"Uh-huh. Which did I thank you for your help with?"

"Hey, we had to get that drug. So that's what I did! And besides, that's about the time you shot Stretchy, and we all remember how that turned out."

"Oh, and you helped so much with that? Robin is unconscious, so what does the fastest boy alive do? Drops a robot on his best friend's leg."

"Hey! That's way out of context."

"You dropped a robot on Robin's leg. Come up with a way to excuse that. I dare you."

"I was busy saving your life, and then his!"

"I didn't need saving Baywatch! I was doing perfectly fine on my own when you crash tackled me."

"Oh, thank you Wally for rescuing me from the huge giant robot about to squash me flat." Wally said in a higher voice. "No problem at all." He added in his own. "Now would that be so hard, Arty?"

"Yes! I knew the robot was there, I was just waiting for it to get close enough for me to hit it with an arrow!"

"You had your back to it and were still firing at Stretchy. You have the weirdest way of fighting robots I've ever seen."

"I was luring it into a false sense of security."

"A false sense of security for a robot?"

"I was waiting for it to get closer." Artemis hissed. "And then suddenly you crashed into me and threw me away."

"How much closer did you need it to be? It was right behind you, with it's fists above your head! I saved your life."

"No, you really didn't! And let's not forget what happened after I was thrown into the ground. You know, as you noticed Robin was about to get pounded?"

"That was your fault!"

"I'm not the one who dropped the robot on him!"

"You were the one who fired the arrow just as I was running. Your stupid arrow tripped me, which was why I knocked the robot off balance."

"Spinning right towards the youngest member of our team…"

"Hey! I got him out of the way, didn't I?"

"Just barely. His leg, however, lagged behind, leaving him not only unconscious but he'd be unable to walk if he was, what with the huge gash in his leg and all. He's lucky Kaldur knows first aid."

"And so do I!"

"So why didn't you bandage up the huge gaping cut across his leg? Didn't think too?"

"I was a little busy carrying him and trying not to get killed by huge smashing robots! Oh, and your arrows since you managed to shoot me in the arm."

"Don't be such a baby. It barely nicked you."

"Yeah, but what if it had been a little bit further? What if it went into my shoulder instead of against it?"

"You shouldn't be running where I'm firing."

"You shouldn't be firing where I'm running!"

"I wasn't. You ran into the path of my arrow."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"No, I didn't. And anyway, Stretchy was nowhere near me. If you weren't aiming for me, what were you aiming for? Robin?"

"This another bit of you not looking where you're running? Stretchy and three of his robots was directly behind you! Cause as much as I'd love to, I don't shoot my team-mates while we're on a mission."

"Well, you did. Both me and Robin."

"Urgh! If I had my bow I would shoot you right now!"

"Well, you don't, so suck it up Arty."

"Enough with the nickname, Flash Boy!"

"Fine. Suck it up, Artemis. Fact is, we're stuck here, and it's all your fault!"

"My fault? Excuse me? Besides all the excellent reasons I've listed above, you're the one who freaked out over one little graze when you ran into an arrow."

"I didn't freak out."

"You spun around three times and tripped. I mean, you were flying better than M'gann at that. How far did you go – five feet? Six?"

"There was another trip-wire that I caught on after being distracted by your stupid arrow!"

"Sure there was. Whatever makes you feel better about yourself, Baywatch."

"There was! Anyway, how should I know what type of poison you put on your arrows?"

"If that had been anything other than a regular arrow, you would have known pretty much instantly. And it was just a tiny little graze. Not worth you going into hysterics."

"That wasn't hysterics!"

"Yeah, it actually was. And then you tripped over the 'trip-wire' – which, considering it didn't exist was quite an achievement, well done Flash Boy – and sent both you and him flying! We were lucky Conner managed to catch Robin, and you were lucky that you didn't break your neck. But then again, crashing into Kaldur and throwing him away from the battle must have really helped with that. Pity that meant he lost control of the waterspout he was currently controlling."

"Did you expect me to control where I was falling?"

"It would have been nice if you hadn't tripped in the first place! Anyway, I totally blame you for breaking the drug against him."

"That was not my fault! How was I supposed to know how fragile the glass was? And anyway, the mission was get the drug. So I got the drug. Where was I supposed to hold it, behind my ear?"

"You could have tried wherever you hold all those stupid souvenirs."

"You mean my hand? That's where I was holding it, genius. Anyhow, it's not like the drug got into Kaldur or anything."

"That was because his skin is tough enough that the glass didn't pierce it, not because of you! I'm amazed you didn't slice your own bloodstream and inject yourself with it, though."

"Well, yeah. As soon as I realised it was broken, I used super-speed to move the pieces to the side where no-one would get hurt."

"I guess everyone has at least one brain-wave in their entire lives. Pity that means that you'll never have an ounce of smartness again."

"Excuse me? Did you know every single element on the entire periodic table, plus their symbols, when you were thirteen?"

"Nup. But I knew how to be careful when running with dangerous objects in preschool." Artemis weighed the two in her hands like a scale. "Which do you think is the more important knowledge in our line of work? I mean, it's not like the villains are ever going to ask 'what is the symbol for iron' or anything."

"Remember every crazy nut-job villain we've fought, Arty, and tell me that again."

"…Okay, you may have a point there for the first time in your life. But still, that left Kaldur's concentration broken, which in turn meant that his fountain of water he was busy using to keep Stretchy captive broke off."

"Hey, Supey and M'gann caught him didn't he?"

"Oh, so you planned that? You expected Supey to be able to catch Stretchy before he shot out the roof, or was it how M'gann held him telekinetically that you'd already discussed?"

"Yeah, well you…" Kid Flash blustered. "You weren't helping then either."

"Not on Stretchy. I was busy trying to keep Robin and Kaldur alive, since you hadn't noticed the huge giant hole in his leg. And Kaldur was already working on the leg, so instead I had to cover them. So what exactly where you doing at this point? M'gann and Conner were beating Stretchy – what about you?"

"I was looking for another sample of the drug."

"Which, of course, you failed miserably at."

"I don't remember you finding any samples either! There weren't any to find!"

"So you probably shouldn't have broken the last one!"

"I didn't break it!"

"It was in your hand when it snapped!"

The two heroes glowered at each other. "It wouldn't have snapped if you hadn't shot me."

"I wouldn't have shot you if you hadn't run into the way of the arrow."

"I wouldn't have run into the way of your arrow – which I still don't believe I did, just to be clear – if you hadn't made me trip while going to help Robin. Who you made unconscious in the first place."

"I wouldn't have fired that knock-out arrow if you hadn't gotten us caught out in the first place!"

"It wasn't my fault there was a trip-wire there!"

"No, it was just your fault you weren't watching where you were going!"

"How long are they gonna keep at it?" Robin wondered, sitting on a chair and looking into the room through the two-way mirror.

"A while." Conner folded his arms and looked into the room.

"Perhaps it was not the wisest punishment to place them in the room together…" Kaldur admitted.

"Nah, it's fine. They need to work out their frustration with each other somehow, right?" Robin shrugged, running his fingers along the bandage across his leg.

"As long as they don't end up with physical violence…" M'gann paused, hovering outside the window.

The speedster and the archer had been locked in the interrogation room together as it was the strongest room short of the cell.

After the two of them had caused the mission to fail so spectacularly - although the team had admittedly caught Stretchy - Batman had chewed them out and then ordered Artemis and Wally into the room. They had followed the order without question, only realising what was wrong when Batman locked the door behind them.

Since it was soundproof and they couldn't see through the two-way-mirror, they didn't know Batman had told Young Justice that they needed to work out their differences, before being called to leave. However, both figured out that they were grounded.

The team had unanimously voted that they would have to watch to be sure that neither would kill the other.

"Just as long as we don't get any of the blame, I don't care who's fault it is." Conner decided.

Kaldur glanced at the still arguing teens in the interrogation room. "I believe they are going to have some trouble deciding who it was…"

"So who's fault was it?" M'gann wondered, leaning against the wall.

"The villains. It's always the villains fault." Robin answered, rubbing the bandage along his leg.

"Personally, I am inclined to blame both of them for the result of the mission." Kaldur admitted, looking back through the window side of the two-way-mirror.

"Fair point." Robin shrugged.

"Should we tell them that?" M'gann asked.

"Nah." Robin shook his head. "Let's let them work it out themselves."

"We're going to be here forever then." Conner groaned.

Personally, I'm very happy with how this turned out. Now if you don't mind, I have an oral presentation due tomorrow which I should probably be practising for.