Grimmy: I'VE FINALLY UPDATED! I just want you all to know that I did not forget about this fic but I'll explain just what happened in the final author's note. Just, thanks so much to you all who decided to continue reading this. On a side note, those of you who are interested, I have a tumblr now and I'll be posting sneak peeks there every now and then. The link is on my page. Oh, and because she's so important, I'm dedicating this to Astoria Goode. Because she distracted me with awesomeness the entire way(as in all day while I wrote over half of this chapter). I thank you for the laughs my HOTHOTHOT over 100F friend. You get all the hearts.
The fourth hour
I'm not crazy no matter what I say and this place isn't getting smaller. We are not going to breathe up all the air and we are not going to die. And I'm not going to puke. I shouldn't have eaten breakfast because I think I am going to puke. Distraction. That is what I need... Dammit. WORK BRAIN WORK!
…
WHY IS IT SO DAMN MUGGY IN THIS ELEVATOR!
"Are you okay?"
Artemis' head snapped up and her blue eyes focused on the vigilante across from her. She groaned softly and resisted the urge to gag. The scent of vinegar and mildew somehow found its way through the air filter she'd created with her hand and she wound up gagging anyways. She couldn't understand how anyone could eat those salt and vinegar chips. The smell was terrible and she wrinkled her nose out of habit just thinking about them. She huffed and covered her face, hoping that would somehow help block out the smell.
"If you feel like you're going to puke then take this."
She looked up again only to twist her head away from the bag of chips in his hand. She squinted and her upper lip curled comically. "Get that stuff away from me," she whined, weakly pushing at his knees. Artemis groaned and curled back up. She took a moment to glare at him before burying her face back against her knees. Tears collected on the edge of her eyelids as another burst of pain shot through her head. That... Was not getting any less painful.
"You should eat something." He paused, probably thinking of something else stupid to say. Even if it was getting hard to ignore the poorly timed low, long grumble from her stomach. Apparently, it wanted to ignore the strong smells in the elevator and request food anyways. "And try not to fall asleep."
She lifted her head slightly, her blue eyes narrow and glittering dangerously. "Like I would fall asleep in a place like this with a guy like you." Her following snort was obnoxious and the side of her upper lip pulled up into a sneer that looked entirely too practiced to be uncommon.
His domino shifted, arching upwards on one side, indicating that he was raising an eyebrow. "Don't flatter yourself, you're giving off the impression that I might actually be interested in feeling you up. And really, that's almost implying that I'm the untrustworthy one here." He balled up the empty potato chips bag and sat it beside his leg. If it weren't for the fact that she knew he'd have a witty retort waiting she would have called him out on littering.
Artemis huffed angrily, leaning forward a bit as she leered at him. "I don't trust you. I don't like you." She leaned back against the wall, resting her head on her knees again. Tears started to collect in her eyes and she bit her lip. What she wouldn't kill for an aspirin.
He was quiet for entirely too long and she could hear him shifting, doing whatever. "Yeah, I suppose I'd have trouble trusting a perfectly decent guy if I were Ollie's niece too." And the way he said that... She couldn't help but to imagine him rolling his dumb eyes, which were probably red in color. Since she was completely convinced he was part of some sort of evil, annoy people to death society. And maybe that was an over exaggeration but her head was hurting and her stomach was empty. Those seemed like completely plausible reasons.
Her eyes widened and she flushed, feeling extremely uncomfortable. She didn't exactly have a comeback for something like that. How could she? "God, you seriously don't ever shut up, do you?" she said, irritation obvious. She peeked from behind her knees to see him frown.
"I'm sorry..."
"You should be," she wanted to say.
"But are you on your period?"
Anger flashed in her eyes and her head snapped up. She bared her teeth and clenched her fists. "Excuseme?" Her voice was sharp, high pitched, and ended with a slight growl. And he had the nerve to look completely indifferent. She was about ready to snap and leap across the elevator to strangle the life out of his stupid, stupid body.
He shrugged and tilted his head to the side before nodding a little. "I can't really fault you for being so grumpy if you're PMSing. You're probably, maybe, okay when you aren't... Maybe..." He frowned a little.
Artemis clenched her teeth so tightly that her gums started to hurt and exhaled harshly. She trembled as she forced out another rough breath. Because really, he was asking for it and she was so tempted to just beat him to death. Preferably with some blunt object. Like a really big pipe. Even a crowbar would suffice. "Just. Shut. Up. Do not talk. At all. Ever."
He almost looked like he was pouting.
The fifth hour
Why am I so tired? Really want to sleep. Brain journal, tell me a story. Keep me awake. And stop making the goddamn... wait. Why the hell are we still in this elevator? Blink. Just blink and remember. Blink and, oh, yeah. Noooo, don't growl out loud. He'll look over here with that stupid mask and stupid hair... Stupid.
Ah dammit, he's looking anyways. Just glare. Yeah, that'll show him not to... look over here. Wish he'd stop smirking. That's not cool, he needs to be intimidated. BE AFRAID.
…. Crap.
"Yes?" And really, Artemis didn't mean to actually say that aloud. She was trying to ignore him after all. It really didn't seem like her mouth wanted to adhere to that. She started to scowl but it came out as a small, somewhat confused frown.
He shifted uncomfortably, or at least as uncomfortably as he could manage while still looking entirely to not... uncomfortable. And that didn't make any sense to Artemis but it was the only was the only way she could describe the way he moved. Uncomfortably not uncomfortable, or something like that. "Bored. Silence isn't really appreciated right now."
"You really want to talk?" she asked, her frown deepening. She had every right to be skeptical and was more than happy to exercise that. And it wasn't just because every time he opened his dumb mouth she got angry. What would they talk about in the first place? Archery would only get them so far and she had a feeling that he'd somehow make that frustratingly annoying too.
He shrugged. "Sure, why not."
She really wanted to slap herself. Why ask him anything, ever, at all? "Probably because you're the most annoying person ever and every time you talk it's something beyond the acceptable level of stupid." At least she'd managed to get that all out with a straight face.
He stared at her. Just stared. And stared some more. He was probably blinking slowly behind the protective lenses of his domino mask and she sort of wished she'd continued to alter her costume so that her eyes would be hidden too. Things were a lot easier when people couldn't see your eyes. She supposed that was why certain people chose certain masks.
Kid Flash's expressions were always obvious, costume or not, because he left his face so open. Meanwhile, his best friend Robin always kept his eyes hidden and that made him so much harder to read. She was willing to bet there were even times where Kid couldn't pick up on his subtle expression changes either. And Kaldur didn't wear a mask at all. He was open in a completely different way. It was almost calming.
She thumbed the green hem of her mask and lightly scraped her teeth over the side of her lip. And even still he hadn't stopped staring. It was starting to make her feel... awkward. Not in a good way either. She didn't think so anyways.
"How is the team doing?" he finally asked, lips pursed slightly. She'd never really seen a poker face before but she was pretty sure that he'd completely mastered it. His expression was blank, telling nothing and it made her a little suspicious. Because really, what did he care?
"If you really wanna know you should join them. I'm sure they'd love that," she said with an exaggerated eye roll. It wasn't entirely untrue. She'd grown on the team, made her own place, and as far as she knew they enjoyed her company most of the time. They probably wouldn't jump all over the idea of him joining the team, finally, but she doubted they would turn him down.
He was quiet for a moment, frowning a bit. "They already have a decent archer, I'm not needed." Decent her ass. She scoffed and glared at him and his frown deepened. "Relax, I didn't mean that as an insult... Really." He actually seemed sincere. She swallowed and didn't say anything.
"Soooo..."
Artemis curled her toes and huffed softly, not quite sure what to say next. "You know Robin's identity?" It was random but now that she thought about it, she was a little curious. As far as she knew, the younger boy had only told his best friend but she suspected that Kaldur knew. It would only be fitting, they did all know each other before the team was formed.
He actually smiled, well grinned, flashing his seemingly perfect teeth. She ran her tongue over her own, memories flashing to a time in which she'd actually required braces. Thankfully those years were long behind her. "He hasn't told you yet?" It was a tease, he was dangling that bit of information in front of her but she was determined not to bite.
"Nope. So I guess you do know? Figures," she said with a half hearted attempt at not caring. She rolled her eyes a bit, eyelashes fluttering as she looked off to the side. Not that there was really anything to really look at aside from peeling wallpaper and half ripped up carpet. She looked back at him out of the corner of her eyes, a little, very little, smile tugging at her lips. Because this was kinda, sorta, a little nice... Maybe.
Slightly less agitating at best. Yes, that was an appropriate description.
He tilted his head a little. "Yeah, it was accident really. A while back, around when I started being serious about this superhero thing. Kinda easy to forget that he was just a kid." He shook his head and his smile softened. "Felt so guilty after I found out that he went and told Kid." And he actually chuckled a bit.
And yeah, she had to admit...
That was nice.
The sixth hour
You know, most people don't realize how dangerous that hero thing is. I mean, sure, they know heroes risk their life and stuff but not all of them have super powers and stuff. They can't do stuff like lift buildings or fly. They can get hurt... just as easily as I can and that's a little unsettling because how do they do it? Keep going.
I dislocated my shoulder once when I was nine. That hurt a lot. A whole lot... So I quit ballet. They don't quit though...
Artemis frowned as she chanced a glance at his arm. She had her fair shape of scrapes and bruises but that... looked so painful. And he wasn't, as far as she could tell, even batting an eyelash. He just sat there, head tilted back against the once beautiful golden wallpaper. Legs bent close to him, one on its side. He'd probably done this before. Something like it anyways.
"Your arm," she muttered. It didn't feel right, not saying anything about it. But now that she'd pointed it out, she felt awkward. Like it wasn't any of her business. He didn't need her concern, even if she didn't wish to express it, he was a pro. That was just the way it was.
His head lobbed forward and he exhaled softly, through his mouth, she noticed. "What about it?" She wondered if his moods always shifted so easily. Just a while ago he'd been trying to get along, despite her verbal jabs. And now he seemed... Well upset didn't seem right. Agitated?
She yawned and tried her hardest to ignore that. "Looks gross. Aren't you worried about it healing wrong or something?" It would have to be broken again once they get out of there. She wasn't really sure how long it took before bones started mending, she was trained to move, not take hits.
He shrugged and sighed. "You tired?"
Just the word tired made her want to yawn. Because tired really felt like a bit of an understatement. Her eyelids were heavy and she wanted to sleep forever. And maybe even a bit longer still. Maybe... Forever didn't seem quite like long enough. "Maybe... So what."
He was quiet for a while, repositioning his arm. "Sleep then. You look like you need it."
"Thanks," she responded dryly. She slumped forward, resting her chin on her knees. "Don't trust you, remember?"
"And why would I want to hurt you?" That was a pretty good question. He was supposed to be one of the good guys. But that knowledge didn't stretch very far. Good guys were only so good, and that's when people were watching. People weren't watching here which meant he could be as regular as any other guy. His getup excluded.
She sighed loudly and closed her eyes slowly. "Dunno. You aren't exactly a goody two shoes." Not from what she'd heard anyways. He had quite the reputation with females in particular. Of course that could have just been idle gossip but she doubted that.
"No... I'm not. But I'm no creep either."
"Riiiight. And these blonde locks came from a bottle."
"And to think I thought you were natural." He laughed softly.
"Mmnhmm." So tired... So sleepy...
Grimmy: Okay, so for the longest time I had a majority of the fourth hour written. I was stuck on it, for about three months really. And when I finally remembered just where I was going to go, writers block struck. This honestly would have been out about a month earlier but as soon as I got back into the mood to finish writing this shit happened. I was banned from the computer. My cell was disconnected. And now I'm staying with my best friends. Sooo, lots of shit excluding my utterly awesome birthday. WOOT! So close to being legal. I really do thank you faithful readers. I know it's been a long time and even still, I should have buckled down sooner and finished this.
OHOHOH! And next chapter will be the last chapter. I'm thinking about writing an epilogue but I'm not entirely sure about it yet so opinions are appreciated.
Last thing, I was so eager to post this that I didn't go back and proofread so it would be appreciated if you all could point out any errors to me. I'll probably go back and revise it later.