An/ Hey guys. I've been away for quite some time dealing with a few things I needed to get sorted out. I've got a lot to catch up on, but I thought it would be nice to share with you something I wrote while I was gone. At the moment I'm going to leave it as a stand alone piece, but I'd like to know if you guys would like to read more stuff around the other trinity of John, Flash and Shayera. If so, please do let me know and I might turn this into a series of some kind :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and hopefully I'll be able to share some other stuff with you before long. Best wishes :D

The characters here of course do not belong to me and instead belong to their creators :D

Bad Influence

In the Watchtower cafeteria, John Stewart regarded the Flash with a distinct look of disapproval. It was almost the same kind of expression he offered to the rookies during training when they completely ignored his advice and wound up failing the test simulation.

"What do you mean you got her into heavy metal?" His voice was slightly dubious as he lifted his coffee mug to his lips. Perhaps in some distant part of his mind he was hoping that Wally was just pulling his leg and hadn't really introduced his girlfriend to the screaming sounds of metal music.

Wally on the other hand was looking extremely pleased with himself. His smile stretched from ear to ear as he arranged his monstrous pile of food, absently picking up one of John's pasta shells in the process. John however was oblivious, his attention more interested in the details of this recent revelation.

"I listen to a lot of music." Wally was saying as he shovelled something into his mouth, it might have been a potato fry, but John had only seen it for perhaps half a second before it disappeared into the Flash's mouth. Wally continued talking, but with his mouth full John only caught the words 'music' and 'eclectic'. John didn't even know Wally knew a word like eclectic.

"Anyway…" Wally swallowed and continued, wagging a fry in John's general direction for some kind of emphasis "Shayera heard some while I was on monitor duty the other night, and she loved it."

John frowned.

"Aw come on John. Seriously it's not that bad." He chugged down some soda "Besides, she's been on Earth for eight years now and this has to be the first time I've seen her enjoy Earth music."

"She likes Elvis." John mumbled, disappointed. Flash either hadn't heard him or was too busy chatting about what Thanagarian music might be like.

"It makes sense really." Wally was saying "I mean she's always hitting stuff…it figures that she'd like angry music."

John rolled his eyes. He hadn't thought of that. That's all he needed, Shayera listening to angry music and being twice as aggressive as usual.

With a deep intake of breath though, John finally relented. In silence he skewered several pasta shells before putting them into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "You've got a point." After a moment of thought he grinned broadly, "Come to think of it, it's not that far off from the music they play at her favourite bar."

At that, Wally's eyes bugged out of his head. "Shay has a bar?" He was positively astounded by this information "How come she hasn't taken me there?" He added on an afterthought, sounding almost disappointed. "I've taken her to my favourite pizza restaurants..."

John chuckled "You wouldn't like it Hotshot. It's not your kind of place."

Flash snorted "She took you didn't she?" He grinned cheekily as John raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to ignore that remark."

In response, Wally stuck his tongue out, amusement shining in his eyes. He did love spending his lunch times with his best friend, and John certainly was. They had been friends right from the off…well maybe not right from the off, but they certainly had been friends for a long time now. One of the key reasons was how well they complemented one another. Wally was witty, sometimes immature and liked to have fun while he worked, whereas John was serious, often rigid and a military man to the core. Over time though the ex-marine had certainly softened up which Wally took most of the credit for. His partner in crime in this regard however, had just arrived to join them for lunch.

"How are my boys?" Shayera was stood by the table, her mace dangling from her hip as it often did. She put a hand on Wally's shoulder and affectionately fiddled with John's ear with the other "Keeping out of trouble I trust?"

Wally grinned "You know it." Was his response before he shovelled a burger into his mouth. Shayera watched him with marked fascination before she made a comment.

"For a second there I thought you were going to take more than one bite…you ought to be more careful lest you choke."

Flash made an expression which informed Shayera sarcastically that he hadn't found her comment amusing. "You're so funny." He mumbled as he swallowed "I've got to keep my fuel up."

She patted his head "I know, I know…but seriously, one day you're going to bite off more than you can chew."

"That day has been and gone," John remarked with a grin as he slipped his arm around Shayera's back and indicated that he wanted her a little closer. Wally meanwhile carried on eating, his eyes watching the subtle tenderness between his best friends. He honestly enjoyed seeing them together and wasn't at all bothered when they were affectionate together around him. Usually he supposed he ought to feel like the odd one out, but it didn't feel that way at all. They didn't make him feel like that.

Wally grinned as Shayera scolded John for being a little too hands on with her in the middle of the cafeteria. She was smiling the whole while though and he noticed how she tickled John's ribs when she leant down to kiss him.

"I'm going to go and get my lunch…that pasta looks good." Shayera informed them, she winked at John "It tastes good too." She added as she licked her lips after kissing him a second time. Both men watched her as she joined the queue and started chatting to Ice as the pair waited to be served.

When she returned she sat down with them and began shovelling her food down. Both John and Wally watched her as she made short work of her meal.

"Tell me I don't look like that when I eat." Wally laughed even as Shayera lightly smacked his arm.

"I'm starving." She declared "I had to fly over half the country chasing some idiot in a plane he'd stolen. Never mind how much crap the military base gave me over not being able to bring it back in one piece."

John opened his mouth to comment but decided against it and instead continued to let her chug her food down. Flying used up a lot of her energy when she didn't glide and it was best to let her eat her fill. If she didn't get her energy levels replenished she'd either be extremely cranky later or very much asleep.

"So…er…Flash tells me that he got you into heavy metal." John finally managed to ask. He hadn't wanted to bring the topic up really, but he felt like he needed to get a better idea of what it was she was listening to.

Shayera rolled her eyes as she chewed on her pasta "I knew this was going to come up sooner or later." She let out a huff as she sat her fork down and took a swig of her water "John, not everyone is into Motown and Jazz."

Wally sniggered at this which earned him a glare from John across the table. Flash was unperturbed though and continued to laugh despite the death threats he knew John was sending him in his mind.

"You can't beat old school jazz." John defended his music taste rather strongly, particularly since Shayera was always teasing him about it when she was over at his apartment. Which, by the way, was getting to be more often than not these days, it reminded him about the conversation he was planning to have with her about moving in. She was practically living with him as it was but John rather liked to make things official. Maybe he'd discuss it with Wally first and see if the kid had any bright ideas on how John could arrange it for them. He'd been more than helpful when it had come to the last 'birthday' celebration they had arranged for her. Well…not her birthday in the strictest sense, but the anniversary of her arrival to Earth. She had seriously gotten a kick out of the sparring tournament they had arranged within the League for the day which had resulted in Batman's rather expected victory. He was surely a hand to hand combat master and an expert on everyone else's fighting technique. Wally had commented on how rather scary it was.

"Uh uh." Shayera smirked as she stabbed a few more pasta shells with her fork "It can't hurt to listen to a few other things, Lantern."

John pulled a face, but remained quiet. He was probably trying to think of a scathing remark but for the time being was stumped. Shayera had that effect on him more often than not. Wally had even seen her reduce John to a blithering mess when she wiggled her hips in just the right way and fixed him with her intense eyes. She'd won many an argument that way. Wally found it outrageously amusing. Even more amusing when she did it just by out smarting him and tying him in knots, the method she chose often depended on her mood.

"I was trying to explain to John earlier that it's the first kind of Earth music you really like." Wally re-entered the conversation, his lunch completely devoured.

Shayera's response was a bright nod "I can't stand all that mushy stuff." She told them out loud even though she secretly had an affection for a select few that reminded her strongly of the relationship she had with John. It was a little difficult not to appreciate some of them for their meaningful lyrics, but she would be damned if she was going to tell John about them. She was admittedly a little worried that he'd find it funny. After all she had never heard him listen to anything quite like that and Wally was always cracking jokes about sappy music. She wouldn't normally care but she did have a reputation to uphold. In response to that thought she grinned like the Cheshire cat before adding "Except for Elvis. Elvis rocks."

"See." John declared "I told you she likes Elvis."

Wally balked "Well, who the hell got her into Elvis?"

John was admittedly stuck for an answer and Wally equally so. Neither of them listened to Elvis and no one else as far as they knew did either. Shayera just smiled and drank her water, watching them wrack their brains for an answer. She wasn't about to tell them that she had once sat with Bruce on a lengthy stakeout in the years before the Invasion, and that he had played Elvis Presley's greatest hits for the majority of the night. Batman had grunted when she had made a remark about it but she had promised him her silence on the matter even though he had never asked for it. As she sat there though she remembered something she had either heard or seen somewhere, although she wasn't sure from where so decided to pose it to her companions. One of them would surely know.

"I heard that Elvis went home." Shayera stated out loud "What planet was he from?"

Both John and Wally sat there in silence, the two of them staring at her as if she had sprouted an extra head out of her shoulder. She stared at them in return, slightly offended and uncertain of their questioning looks. Perhaps she should check to make sure she hadn't grown an extra head. Just as their blatant stares were in danger of triggering her annoyance, the two of them burst into fits of hysterical laughter, leaving her sitting there positively confused and a little frightened.

"Just what is so funny?" She demanded, when neither answered she shoved John in the shoulder who was wiping away tears. After that she folded her arms and glared at them, just what exactly had she missed?

Flash was curled up, laughing so hard she thought he might fall off of his seat. She was tempted to assist him before John finally answered her.

"He wasn't an alien." He laughed harder as she fixed him with a puzzled expression, she was so blissfully ignorant of general pop culture and why her reference to the Men in Black movie had stirred so much amusement. John had watched it with her some weeks ago and it seemed that Shayera had forgotten just where she had heard this information. "It's what K says to J in Men in Black." He snorted as her expression indicated that she did now in fact remember where she had heard of Elvis' return home.

She raised an eyebrow "Well how do you know for sure? For all you know he was an alien and the movie makers knew. After all…how many of us are from other planets?"

Flash and John looked to her just as Orion and Superman walked past and Shayera grinned as she saw their expression.

She really did love spending time with her two favourite superheroes.

AN Just wanted to say thanks to Guest: Lovefanfictions, I've removed the abusive review beneath you. Thanks for feedback too, I really appreciate it and I'm glad you liked it :D