9PM AUGUST 12 HAPPY HARBOR

Battling the bad guys and fighting for peace and righteousness was typical of the Young Justice team. This summer it seemed like evil never took a break; it was villain after villain every night. The team could barely enjoy their summer vacation because of all the crime-fighting—not that they would really complain; putting their lives on the line is what they, ironically, lived for.

Nights like these, though, were ones they treasured. After an epic battle and victory, against members of the League of Shadows, Batman had let them know that the Justice League would not need their assistance in reconnaissance for a while. The team was a bit disappointed by the upcoming lack of action but was content nonetheless.

It's been almost two years since the Justice League was on trial and the team battled the Light. The team changed much in that time; this is especially true because most of the team had undergone puberty as the time passed.

Aqualad did not change much when it came to his appearance. He was the oldest of the team with twenty years of age and the most mature. Being a leader, he had to keep a level-head to make sure the team ran smoothly. After a while leading the team, however, he learned to be a little more laid-back. He made sure that the team felt comfortable around each other and had days to relax. He would call them "team-building exercises" but everyone knew it was just a chill day to laugh and relax among family.

Superboy was now nineteen years of age according to his "birth certificate" and his forged school record. He was 6'1ft but nothing else had changed. Although Conner still remained the same in terms of his looks, his attitude has changed drastically as things got more serious between him and Megan. He's helped plenty around the Cave and managed to control his temper just a bit—he was still prone to get irritated a bit faster than the rest though. Overall, he had become calmer and was a great boyfriend to M'gann.

Miss Martian had also changed little in terms of appearance. She still adopted the same face and lean body she had before but her hair was now styled to short, pixie cut. It framed her face really well and—everyone agreed—it was a rather cute look on her. She was documented as also being nineteen years old and played the unassigned role as the mother figure around the Cave. She learned various recipes throughout the years and the quality of her meals had increased exponentially—much to the team, especially Wally's, delight.

Robin was now sixteen years and still adjusting to life as a teen. He's gotten a bit taller; he no longer held the title for the shortest on the team—now he held the title of the shortest guy on the team. He staggered at 5'10 ft and his body was lean yet still very fit. His voice cracked time and again and he was now privy to the biggest struggle of being a teenager: hormones. Especially with the official introduction of Zatanna to the Young Justice team.

Zatanna had also gone through a series of physical changes but none that could be considered drastic. She had just turned sixteen, 5'6 ft, and was getting used to the changes in her body. She had become slightly bustier, she grew half a cup in her bra size, and her hips were a bit wider. She still rocked the same uniform yet her hair was slightly longer; it now stretched to the middle of her back. She still mourned the loss of her father to Dr. Fate but thanks to the help of the team, she felt like she found a new home.

She had a very loose relationship with Dick that could only be described as a friendship with benefits; they were still best friends but with perks. Zatanna had a brotherly relationship with most of the other boys, especially with Wally—she would always tease him, mostly about Artemis. She considered the girls of the team to be her best friends, most notably Artemis. She had a flirty, chill friendship with her; they could say anything to each other and not take each other too seriously.

Artemis was now seventeen years old. Her golden locks remained luscious and extremely long; her hair ended at the small of her back. She had grown in terms of her bust and now measured as a 34D. Her ass had also become bigger as her hips widened. She had a small waist that allowed her to adopt a perfect hourglass figure. She didn't grow much in terms of height and only acquired a few inches leaving her at 5'5 ft. Over the years, she became more open with the team. Although, old habits die hard and she still kept to herself more than her team members did.

Wally had one of the biggest changes in appearance; he was now seventeen years old, 6 ft tall and was more muscular than he was before. He still adopted that lean, runner's body but you could see his pronounced muscles anytime he would stretch. His hair was shaggier and, somehow, his eyes were greener. The years had been very good to him and people—mostly women but some men—noticed.

Although Wally and Artemis kissed that one New Year's Day, nothing really came to fruition after. They were both too embarrassed and stubborn to vocally admit they had feelings for each other but the sexual tension was still there. Both of them never acknowledged it but everyone knew it. They mostly bickered but nothing ever escalated to a high degree.

Tonight, the Cave was tranquil. Conner and M'gann were baking cookies in the kitchen while talking about god knows what with Kaldur. Kaldur was sitting on the kitchen island reading a book but occasionally answering Superboy and Miss Martian's questions. Robin and Wally were playing video games on the couch while Zatanna watched them on the couch adjacent to them with boredom in her eyes.

"You're going down, dude!" Wally exclaimed as he frantically pressed the buttons on the controller.

Robin simply smirked, "Yeah, we'll just see about that", eyes glued to the television screen.

Zatanna looked at the TV screen. Then she looked at the boys with a bored look. "Why do you guys even play this game. Wally always loses."

"Hey! A little bit of confidence in me would be nice", as soon as those words left Wally's lips, Robin's race car crossed the finish line.

Robin held his stomach while laughing at Wally and his naiveness.

"Oh man" Wally whined as he let go of the controller. He leaned back on the couch and crossed his arm.

"I bet you're cheating. You must have hacked the game" Wally grunted. He was aware that it was the immature, sore loser in him talking but he didn't care. How can Robin win every single time? Wally played this game longer than Robin had!

Robin finally ceased his laughter and wiped a tear from his eye, "that was too good". He looked back at Wally beside with a mischievous look in his eye, "Rematch?"

Wally sat up and grabbed the controller. He leaned towards the screen, "Oh, you are so on! Prepare to get your ass handed to you!"

Zatanna looks at both of them with a deadpan expression. She sighed and rolled the eyes. She muttered under her breath, "boys…"

Just as the game had started, Green Arrow stormed into the common room and gave a once over to the team and the room.

Robin paused the game and Megan, Kaldur, and Conner ceased their conversation to face the Justice League member. Kaldur was the first to speak, "Green Arrow, it is pleasant to see you. Does the Justice League need our assistance?"

Green Arrow sighed and grunted. He rubbed his face, clearly annoyed, "Aqualad, is Artemis here in the Cave?"

Kaldur replied, "No. It was to my knowledge that she was going to stay at her home in Gotham tonight. Is Artemis missing?"

At the thought of their teammate potentially disappearing, the team looked at Green Arrow intently. The concern and anxiety were slowly but surely dominating their faces.

Green Arrow looked to the floor in annoyance and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, I know exactly where she is. That girl, I swear, is going to be the death of me…" He kept grumbling nonsense under his breath that only Superboy could decipher. He made his way to the kitchen, grabbed a piece of napkin and a pen that was lying around, and wrote down an address.

"She's here. Do me a favor guys, pick her up, and bring her to the Cave. Do not let her go home, I will come back tomorrow to speak with her. I'm honestly too tired to deal with this…" He didn't wait for a response and walked back to the zeta tubes grumbling, "it's too much. First Roy and now Artemis? Damn teenagers…"

Kaldur picked up the address. "Superboy and M'gann, you will both come with me to retrieve Artemis."

Zatanna jumped from the couch, "no fair, I wanna go!"

Robin also looked to Kaldur, "and if she goes, I want to go"

Wally joined in, "me three!"

Kaldur looked at all of them and sighed, "Let us all go to the Bioship then. There is no time to lose."

They all sat in the Bioship and were a bit nervous as none of them knew what situation Artemis was in. They figured it wasn't anything life-threatening or else Green Arrow wouldn't have been so passive.

The team finally got to their destination; it was in the lower end of Gotham. M'gann parked the Bioship in an empty, dark alley and made it invisible to avoid detection. Everyone was dressed in their civilian clothes to blend in; they knew they wouldn't need to fight. Robin now held the napkin with the address in his hands and pointed to the building at the end of the block.

"It's that one right there", all eyes followed his finger and looked to the building that was quite literally pounding with the sounds of music. They went inside to the apartment number that GA had written and were met with loud music and a sea of sweaty bodies grinding against one another.

The small apartment reeked of booze, sweat, and sex. All of the lights were turned off with the exception of some party lights that were flickering red, blue, and green. There were so many people, it was hard to see anyone.

"How the hell are we supposed to find her? There are too many people" yelled Zatanna.

Kaldur yelled back, "I suggest we split up and ask around"

They all went their separate ways in search of Artemis and most had little to no luck until they heard Megan's voice ring in their heads, "Guys, I found her. We're in the kitchen"

Everyone congregated to the stuffy kitchen to find Artemis sitting on the kitchen island. She was wearing a white wrap around crop top, that showed most of her cleavage, and dark blue, loose floral shorts. She was wearing brown sandals and had her hair down in loose beach waves—although it was getting slightly frizzy in the heat of the apartment. She had a mostly empty red solo cup in her hand. She appeared sober but her breath smelled of alcohol.

"What are you guys doing here?", an annoyed Artemis questioned.

"We're here because GA came by the cave and told us that we had to pick you up. He failed to mention you were drunk off your ass though", explained Wally. He was a bit pissed off, how could Artemis be so irresponsible to go to a party and get wasted? And that's coming from him! Also, why does she look so hot?!

"Oh shut it, Wally. I'm not drunk, I only had like one cup. I just got here!" She was clearly pissed off and didn't want to leave.

The team looked at each other knowing that if they let Wally and Artemis continue with their conversation, they'd end up making a scene. Megan quickly interjected, looked at the green archer, and tried to say in the most sympathetic and sweetest voice she could muster, "Come on, Artemis. I know it sucks, but Green Arrow told us we need to take you back to the Cave."

Artemis looked into her eyes for a second, then to the rest of the team and groaned, "Urgh, fine! Let me just get my purse. You guys can go wait outside, Megan you can come with me."

The rest of the team went outside and made their way to the dark alley. They got inside the Bioship and waited for the girls. Wally let out a groan, "Why do we have to pick her up? We're not her babysitters? God, I could've been kicking Robin's ass on the PS4 right now."

Kaldur faced him and said, "remember that it was you that wanted to come along. You could have stayed at the Cave."

"Well, I only came because I thought she might be in trouble. Not because I thought she was going to be drunk at a party. She was probably grinding on guys and doing god knows what", Wally said with annoyance and frustration dripping with every word.

"So… you're jealous?" said Robin as he turned to face his best friend.

"What? No, I am not jealous! What do I have to be jealous about? We're not even together, I don't even like her! Why would I be jealous?", questioned Kid Flash.

Zatanna looked at him with a taunting smile on her face, "I don't know Wall-man, you sound jealous to me. Does he sound jealous to you, Rob?"

Robin smirked as he responded, "Oh he's definitely jealous. Kaldur? Conner? What do you think?"

Conner chuckled to himself, "Oh yeah" as Kaldur replied, "it would seem so".

Wally frustrated with the teasing his team felt he oh so deserved replied, "Oh shut it! Where's Arty-Farty anyway? It's been like ten minutes, how long does it take to get a purse?"

"As long as I feel like taking and also do not call me that", Artemis said as she entered the Bioship along with Miss Martian. To her side she carried a big white tote bag, that seemed packed with a lot of things.

"What do you have in that bag? It's huge!", asked Wally.

Artemis looked at him and winked with a smile on her face, "stuff".

No more was said for the duration of the trip to the Cave. Before they arrived, Artemis propositioned, "Guys, I'm not really tired. You guys up for a game night?"

Megan squealed in excitement, "That would be so much fun! Please, everyone! We rarely have any time to do anything fun!"

Zatanna joined in and added "sounds cool to me"

Quickly but surely, everyone decided to have a game night. They got to the Cave and headed to their individual rooms to shower and change to their pajamas. Once they were done, they all congregated in the common room.

Kaldur was wearing a form-fitting, dark blue long-sleeve t-shirt and grey basketball shorts. Conner donned a black tank top and blue shorts. Wally had on a plain white t-shirt that clung to his muscles and lean body; he also wore long, yellow pajama pants that had little red Flash insignia all over them. Robin wore a form-fitting black t-shirt and white basketball shorts—and of course, his infamous domino mask.

Zatanna tied her black hair into a ponytail and wore an oversized pink t-shirt. She had a white bralette under the shirt which could be seen slightly since the pink shirt draped slightly below her left shoulder. She wore long and flown pajama pants.

Megan wore a t-shirt that had the slogan "Hello, Megan!", printed on the front. She wore tight black shorts to accompany the ensemble.

Artemis still had her hair down and wore a white cropped tank top; accompanying the top were dark green, flowy shorts that rode a bit too high on her. She was the last to come inside the common room. As she entered, she carried the big tote bag with her.

"What are you still doing with that?", asked Conner while raising an eyebrow at her.

She eyed her team one by one, they moved the furniture in the living space and were all sitting on the floor in a circle—Megan's idea, no doubt. She sat down between Wally and Zatanna with her bag. Slowly, she pulled out the contents of the bag.

Artemis took out three bottles of tequila and a half-opened package of plastic shot glasses. With a mischievous grin, "I might have borrowed these from the party".

Zatanna immediately hugged Artemis, "Alright! This is what I'm talking about!"

Wally looked at the bottles shocked and then back at Artemis, "You stole these, you stole them from the party".

The green archer simply rolled his eyes and waved him off, "potato, to-mah-to"

Wally exclaimed, "That's not even how the saying goes!"

Artemis turned to face him. "Baywatch, what crawled up your ass?", she said chuckling. "Come on, let's have some fun!"

M'gann looked at the bottles apprehensively, "I don't know, Artemis. I'm not sure if this is a good idea."

Kaldur chimed in and added, "She is right, Artemis. We should not be drinking, especially because we are not of legal age."

Artemis looked at Kaldur—she knew he would be the hardest to convince—"Come on, Kal. We're young, this is the time to have fun! And Batman did say we won't be getting missions for a while. It's just light-hearted fun, think of it as a 'team-building' exercise". She tried her hardest to adopt a puppy dog look. She could hear Robin cackling at her attempt.

Kaldur looked deep in thought, "Hmm, it is true that we will not be assigned missions for a while… and I suppose it would be a bonding experience…"

Zatanna and Artemis gave Kaldur puppy dog faces. As Artemis quickly looked to her side, she saw that Wally and Robin had also joined her in trying to convince Aqualad with cute looks.

Kaldur looked at the four and sighed, "I guess there is no harm in doing this one night in the name of bonding."

Artemis high-fived Zatanna and grinned, "Fuck yeah! Everybody take a shot glass!"

Megan took one for herself. "If Kal says it's okay, I'm in! Oh my gosh, this is going to be my first experience with alcohol here on Earth! This is going to be so exciting!", she squealed.

Conner took one as well, "If M'gann is down, so am I."

Everyone had their own shot glass and Artemis poured the clear liquid in all of their mini cups.

Zatanna spoke up as she watched Artemis fill every shot glass to the brim, "Um shouldn't we have some sort of juice? You know, as a chaser?"

Megan looked very confused, "Wait, what's a chaser?"

Artemis responded, "A chaser is a drink, usually non-alcoholic, that you drink after drinking alcohol. To soften the blow, so to speak. You can chase the tequila by just sucking on a lime too".

Megan looked a bit concern, "Is alcohol that harsh?"

"Some are, it depends on what you drink and how often you drink. There's some cranberry juice in the fridge, can bring that. And you can cut limes too." Megan quickly got up to the juice from the fridge and cut slices of lime for everyone.

"How the hell do you know so much about drinking?" Wally asked suspiciously. Honestly, he had had a couple sips of wine and, on occasion, beer at family functions but that was about it. He never really had the time, or the reputation, to go to parties in high school so he never really drank. With his fast metabolism, even if he drank a lot of alcohol, the most he could get was tipsy—not that he was complaining.

Artemis looked to her side to face Wally, "I just do". She made sure to smile coyly as she said this. He could tell Wally was frustrated at her lack of a response but it just amused her more.

Artemis grew up around crime, booze, and drugs for most of her life; she was bound to know a few things. It's true that she drank once in a while but she made sure that it was rare; she knew from experience that alcohol addiction was no joke.

She looked around at the family and thought to herself, "But drinking with those closest to you can be fun". She assumed this; Artemis had never drank with friends because she never had any before joining the team—

Megan interrupted Artemis' train of thought and came out with a big tray; on the tray was a huge pitcher of cranberry juice with plastic cups stacked to the side, and a bowl of sliced limes. "Okay, here they are."

Everyone poured themselves cranberry juice and grabbed a slice of lime. Artemis began to speak, "Okay, just one rule: do not get blackout drunk. No one wants to clean your puke. Know your limits, people! If you feel like you shouldn't drink anymore, just stop drinking. Y'all got it?"

Everyone agreed.

Artemis, then lifted her shot glass and her teammates did the same, "Alright, down the hatch bitches!"

She quickly tipped her head back and drank the liquor. She had a content smile on her face as the warm liquor made its way down her throat. She looked around at her teammates and began to chuckle.

Megan made a face of disgust and quickly down her cranberry juice, "How do humans like this?!"

Superboy and Aqualad weren't any better; they scrunched up their faces and took sips of their juice.

Robin drank the tequila like he just drank a shot of water. It's times like this that Artemis wonders what truly goes on in the Batcave.

Zatanna seemed to drink hers with small hesitation and used lime to chase the alcohol. Artemis could tell it was harsh for her but she took it way better than her older teammates did.

And Wally, he drank his with ease. He also seemed to enjoy the feeling the alcohol left in his body. He looked to his side to find Artemis staring at him; they held each other gaze for a moment.

"So what now?", questioned Rob and, simultaneously, shattering whatever moment Wally and Artemis seemed to be having.

Artemis tore her gaze away from Wally and looked at her family. She smirked, "Why don't we start with some 'Never Have I Ever'?"