Consider it disclaimed.

enjoy.

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first date.

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Artemis didn't bother stopping off at her locker once her AP Lit class ended, she had things to do and Central City was calling. She glanced at her phone and reread the last text she received from Wally.

'Dont be l8, im starving'

She didn't stop herself from grinning or rolling her eyes at antics of the Team's resident could really be childish sometimes. Like after the kiss in the Watchtower, they had been taking it slow. Extremely slow, as in there has been no kind of progress towards even talking about their kiss. When they would get a moment alone, always at the Cave, Robin had a very innate talent of popping in at the right (or would it be wrong?) moment and making them both too uncomfortable to talk.

Ignoring the calls of one particular freshman troll, Artemis walked towards the bus stop before the transportation arrived. She counted her lucky stars that Grayson hadn't abandoned his butler like he had last time to board the bus just to tell her to have a good day. She didn't have to wait long for the bus to arrive and she boarded, snagging a seat near the back. Staring out the window she carefully calculated the time she had to make it to Central before Wally got out of class.

The bus ride would only last about fifteen minutes. Then from the bus stop she would have about a five minute walk to the apartment and if she didn't change out of her uniform she could get to the phone booth in ten minutes by foot. Once she got to Central, she would have to figure out her way to Wally's high school, which hopefully wouldn't take the thirty minutes she would have until he got out of class. For the most part, the people in Central were nicer than the citizens of Gotham and she was sure that she could find someone to give her directions in the case of her getting lost.

Artemis took no time getting off once the bus came to a screeching didn't notice that she walked quite a bit faster than normal, eager to get home and head to Central. It wasn't long until she was mounting the stairs two at a time to get to their apartment. It only took one fluid movement to pull her house key from her blazer pocket and swiftly unlock her door. Before she had even stepped through the door she could hear her mother greeting her from the kitchen.

"Artemis, is that you?"

"Yeah, mom. It's me," Artemis called back, shutting and locking the door behind her. It took her no time to find her mother and give her a quick kiss on the cheek as she continued on to drop her bag off in her room.

"You look like you're in a hurry. Are you going somewhere?" Paula Crock watched her daughter from the open entryway of the kitchen as Artemis rushed into the bathroom to touch up what little makeup she was wearing. "Maybe on a date?"

Artemis pulled back from the mirror to stare at her mother incredulously, nearly stabbing herself in the eye with the mascara wand in her hand. "Definitely not a date, mom."

"Such a shame that you can't go," her mother turned her wheelchair to go back into the kitchen.

"What! Why?" Artemis finished applying a thin coat of mascara without poking herself in the eye and followed her mother into the kitchen. If her mother kept this up, she would be late.

"If you aren't going to tell me where you're going, you can't go," her mother repeated pulling a container of yogurt from the fridge. "How am I supposed to know you're not joining some gang?"

"Mom, come on. A gang, really?"

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady."

"Fine. I'm going to grab a bite to eat with Wally in Central," Artemis relented, her eyes catching the time in the microwave. "And I'm going to be late."

Her mother chuckled lightly and gave her a small wave. "Fine, fine. Go and you can tell me all about your date when you get home."

"Mom!" Artemis gave her mother a look and hurried out of their apartment without another glance. She bounded down the stairs and rushed out to the street, dodging the odd pedestrian here and there. The phone booth was across the street and taking a quick look in each direction she strolled across the street and before anyone noticed, she entered the the Zeta port.

Another Zeta later and she was in Central City. The first thing she noticed about the city was that multiple sirens were blaring fairly close off to her left. Pulling out her phone, she was down to twenty-one minutes, but without a second thought she raced towards the origin of the offending sirens. After having pushed through the crowd of people, she turned off onto a deserted side street and after passing one block she was nearly run over by a familiar red blur.

The Flash stopped before she did and steadied her as she came to a sudden stop. "Artemis? What are you doing here?"

"Is everything okay? Do you need any help?" Artemis ignored his question in favor of her own.

"Nah, everything is fine. Didn't even need Kid for this one. Now what are you doing here?" He gave her a stern look at the repeated inquiry.

"Just...uh...hanging out with Wally," Artemis mumbled. She could feel the flush rising up her neck in embarrassment.

"It's about time you two finally went out! He won't be out of school for another fifteen minutes though," the Flash pointed out good naturedly, looking over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I figured I'd meet him there. Which reminds me..."Artemis trailed off, looking around a bit unsure of what direction to go.

"Six blocks down, take a left, and go straight. You can't miss it," the Flash pointed down the street, and was off. "Have fun on your date!"

"Well that wasn't embarrassing at all," she mumbled, heading in the direction he had pointed her in making sure to count the blocks carefully. She finally got to the end of the sixth block and the sirens had stopped behind her. Taking the left as instructed she could already see the school lingering off in the distance. She crossed the street just as the final bell started ringing and just as her foot hit the sidewalk, the unmistakable red head burst out the doors before anyone else.

"Well would you look at that," Wally grinned in her direction as he approached her seconds later. " Right on time. Nice uniform, babe."

"Nice shirt," Artemis commented dryly on his Batman shirt. "It's pretty sad that I had to come pick you up for our first date."

"Date?" Wally's voice broke on the simple word and Artemis had to bite her tongue to stop the caustic remark that had come to her mind. It only took him a few seconds to laugh it off. "Oh, yeah. Well I'll have you know I don't put out until the fifth."

"Look at that guys! West wasn't lying! Aright, Wally!" Artemis glanced over Wally's shoulder at who she presumed was his friends waving and yelling in their direction.

"Go get 'em, tiger!" Another yelled and Wally took a second to turn away and make a cutting movement across his throat in their direction. This just caused them to laugh and call out more.

"Fifth date, huh? Shame," Artemis joked, attempting to get him to stop silently threatening his friends. "So where do you wanna go?"

"Wait, what? What do you mean?" He was quick to turn back around and looked slightly surprised.

Artemis ignored him to repeat her question, "Well you're the one that's hungry. Where to?"

"Make sure to be home before dark, Wally-kins!" Wally groaned and tugged her arm, leading them across the street away from the catcalls.

"I guess your choice since you're the one that picked me up," Wally finally answered, shrugging as he added, "I don't really care as long as it's food."

The two started walking in the direction she had come from. "Alright fine then. Star City or Gotham?"

"That'll take too long. Just pick somewhere in Central. The food is just as good here as it is anywhere else."

"You realize that I have no idea what places are good here," Artemis deadpanned giving her companion a flat look.

"Well let's see: Chester's has the best burgers, Mimi's puts IHOP to shame in the breakfast department, Cornerstop is famous for their ribs, the Jasmine Dragon is arguably the best chinese buffet in the country, Tino makes a great pizza, Totty is by far the best dess-"

Artemis choose to stop him before he decided started reciting the take out menus of all his favorite places to eat. She pointed across the street at a shabby little diner. "How about there?"

Wally stared extremely hard at the small building before turning his stare towards her. "Are you sure you want to eat there?"

"Hey, you said as long as it's food," Artemis reminded him as she took her turn to pull him across the street. Wally stared over his shoulder longingly, probably in the direction of Chester's or Totty, and Artemis felt nothing but satisfaction. It was his own fault for letting her pick.

They entered the establishment and Artemis was pleased to see that it was in no worse condition than the diner she frequented in Gotham with her friends from North. Wally was far less pleased than she was, she could tell by the slight snarl of his lip.

"Artemis, I don't think it's safe to eat here," he had moved closer to whisper in her ear. "If we leave now, they'll never noti-umph."

A stiff elbow to the stomach had shut him up fairly quickly and she took the forced silence as a go ahead. Making her way to a booth towards the back, she gave a slight smile to the woman working behind the counter.

"I'll be right with you, dear. Just sit wherever you like," the older woman informed her as she went back to pouring coffee to the few men sitting on the stools.

Artemis slid into one side of the booth, noting that it was much cleaner than the outside of the building and seconds later Wally joined her.

Except instead of sitting across from her, he decided to plop down on the red vinyl beside her.

"You cannot be serious."

"Hey, it is a date, babe." He reached across her to grab the menu from the holder against the wall. "It's meant to bring us closer, right? Sitting next to you brings us closer. Twice as close in half the time."

"And you are serious," she muttered to herself, receiving a grin from Wally at the comment. She ignored it and leaned over to skim over his menu, rather than grabbing one for herself. Closer and whatnot.

The older woman had finally left the counter and approached their table. "Welcome to Bambi's, I'm Sharon. Can I get you two something to drink?" The woman must say the same thing to every single customer as her voice had a practiced lack of inflection as she spoke.

"I'll have a chocolate malt," Artemis responded first, getting her a strange look from Wally. What did she not seem like the chocolate malt type? "Wally? Do you want something to drink or not?"

"Uh, yeah. I'll just have a Coke," he turned his attention back to the waitress.

"Alright, chocolate malt and a Coke. Do you two need a few more minutes on the food or do you know what you want?" Sharon spoke as she jotted down their drink orders, looking up at them once she was finished.

"I know what I want," Wally offered giving her a questioning look.

"I just want the seasoned cheese fries."

"Alright, cheese fries for the lady and for you?" Sharon asked Wally.

Artemis paid no mind as Wally began to rattle off a long list of the menu items that he wanted. Finally, he finished and Sharon left the table shaking her head mumbling about metabolisms.

"So you'll never believe who I ran into on the way here." Artemis had never been good at small talk, especially when she was the one that had to initiate it.

"Oh god, the 'ran into' pun. Not you too," Wally frowned as he lamented.

"I didn't even think about it until now." Huh, she had kind of made a pun. Her bad. "But since you didn't guess. It was your uncle."

"Well that's reassuring," he muttered. "And what did he have to say about seeing you here?"

"Other than telling me 'it's about time' and 'to have fun on your date', nothing of interest," she replied, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Well that's Uncle Barry for you." Wally paused to thank Sharon as she sat down their drinks and promised that their food would be out soon. "I expect I'll hear all about it when I see him."

"I'm sure you will, he seems like that kind of uncle," Artemis agreed, plucking the cherry off the top of her malt and popping it into her mouth. The two fell silent, unsure of what to say next. Artemis occupied herself with spooning the perfect amount of malt and whipped cream before taking a bite and Wally played with the paper wrapped from his straw.

Surprisingly, Sharon was the one to break the silence between them as she came over with two plates, sitting the food down in front of them. She regarded Wally before speaking, "The rest of yours will be out soon. I figured I should bring something out, since the two of you can't even keep a conversation going. If this is the first date, you're going to have to try a little harder or there's no hope for the two of you."

She left as quickly as she came, leaving the two of them more stunned than anything. Wally gave exchanged a rather disbelieving look with Artemis and the next thing they knew, they were shaking with silent laughter.

"That really just happened, didn't it?"

"God I hope not, Baywatch. Maybe we're both hallucinating."

"We really are bad at this," Wally sighed as Artemis picked at her fries.

"So bad that we might just have to date each other just to spare other people from our lack of conversational skills," she popped a particularly cheese ladened fry into her mouth and was surprised at how good it was.

"You know, we just might have to," Wally agreed through a mouthful of burger.

"I get to pick the place again though," Artemis said after savoring the flavor of another fry.

"No way. This place-" Artemis shut him up by holding up one of her fries in offering. He didn't take the fry, instead biting down on it. Artemis let it go, rolling her eyes as she did so. "Feeding me already, babe? Beautiful start to a beautiful relationship."

"I was handing it to you, if I had know you were just going to eat it, I would have tossed it on your plate," Artemis corrected him dryly making a show of wiping her hand on her napkin despite the fact he hadn't even touch her. "And yes I do get to pick the place next time."

Wally didn't say anything until she had smacked his hand away from her plate. He gave her a pitiful look as he pretended to nurse his abused hand. "Seriously, you can't keep those to yourself. They've got to be the best cheese fries I've ever had."

"Exactly why I get to pick," Artemis relented smugly, nudging the plate in his direction just a bit. Wally happily took one of the feed himself.

"On our second date, right?"

"Well unless you want to go ahead and say it's our fifth date," Artemis teased the now red Wally. "Then yes. Second date it is then."

I was trying to work on a new chapter for Cracks in a Mountain, but this idea kept coming at me.
Hopefully, I'll get this out of my mind so I can get back to that.
It's all because of the season finale...which I am still not over.