Author: thecivilunrest

Title: "We'll Be Alright"
Fandom: Young Justice
Characters/Pairings: Roy Harper/Donna Troy/Kaldur'ahm, Lian Harper
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Obviously.
Notes: This is what happens when I go on tumblr too much. I get ideas like this, and then I get a one way ticket to fanfiction hell. Blame Annica (annicaFARTSfire) for this, really. I do like this story though, so whateva whateva I do what I want.

We'll Be Alright

Lian loves watching Aunt Donna put on her make-up. The way she makes her lips redder, her eyes seem more blue. The tubes and things that she uses seem like magic wands, the things inside of them like spells that transform her face.

"You look really pretty," Lian tells her, sitting on the sink of the bathroom.

Donna smiles. "Thank you baby. Do you want me to do your make-up?"

This is Lian's absolute favorite part, though. Aunt Donna makes her feel like a princess, like her older sister, when she puts make-up on Lian's face. The younger girl nods, and Donna smiles again.

Lian loves Aunt Donna's smiles too.

"Okay, close your eyes," Donna says, and Lian complies. She can feel Donna's warm breath on her face, can smell the flowery smell of her perfume. "Now pucker you lips, like this." Donna shows her, and Lian copies her as well. Then she sucks in her cheeks, the way Aunt Donna always asks her to, and Aunt Donna puts on the blush. Then comes the perfume, and then Lian is a princess.

"Hey Donna," Daddy says, but then he freezes when he sees what's on Lian's face. Aunt Donna always said to keep this game a secret from Daddy. Oops. "What did you, do? She looks like a hook…" he stops there.

"Like a hook?" Donna asks, smiling again.

"A hook," Daddy agrees. "Now take it off of her!"

"No Daddy, I really like it. Please. Please?"

Daddy opens his mouth to say something, but a calm voice from behind his shoulder.

"I think you both look lovely, Donna and Lian," Uncle Kaldur tells them, which makes Lian grin so hard her cheeks start to hurt, because she knows that the make-up makes her look as pretty as Aunt Donna, even though no one has ever told her that before. "Will you both be my date?"

"Of course," Aunt Donna replies, lifting Lian easily off the sink before putting her on the floor and grabbing her hand.

"No dates for Daddy!" Lian sings.

"That's right, no dates for Daddy," Donna agrees, sending Roy a kiss from where he's still standing behind them, shaking his head.

.x.

Uncle Kaldur is the best person to go to the beach with. While Daddy and Aunt Donna like sitting on the beach making sandcastles more than going into the water, Lian loves the ocean.

She likes the waves, how they can push her over, and the way that Uncle Kaldur smiles when he's around there, like he's a part of it.

"You're like a little guppy," he tells Lian, and she giggles before running into his arms. He picks her up as easily as Aunt Donna, but easier than Daddy, before he takes her into the water with him.

He doesn't take her very far, but he takes her farther than Daddy or Aunt Donna would. Lian can hear the two of them bickering about whose sandcastle is better, but she doesn't bother to pay attention. Not when she's in Kaldur's arms in the sea.

"You see this?" Uncle Kaldur asks, and she peers at the thing in his hand. It isn't very pretty; it's brown and round and other than that nothing is particularly important about it. "It's a sea dollar."

"But those are white!" Lian protests.

"When they are dead. But when they're alive…" he trails off, and he doesn't have to go any further to let Lian know that what he's holding in his hand is a real, alive sea dollar.

"I don't want this one to die," she tells him an he smiles before dropping it into the sea with a plop.

"Uncle Kaldur?"

"Yes?"

"Are sea dollars what you use for money in Atlantis?" Lian asks, and Kaldur laughs.

"Almost," he tells her, still smiling. She loves it when he smiles like this. He doesn't do it often enough, or at least that's what Aunt Donna says. She can hear Daddy and Aunt Donna still arguing, Daddy calling Aunt Donna a cheater because she can make her castle taller because she can fly, but then she's focusing on Uncle Kaldur again.

"I wish I could go to Atlantis with you one day," Lian tells him, and he nods.

"I wish for that as well. I wish I could bring you all with me," Uncle Kaldur says, looking towards land with Aunt Donna and Daddy before bringing her back to shore.

.x.

"Daddy?" Lian asks one night at bedtime. Daddy is always the one that reads her books before bed. Aunt Donna might be able to do the best voices, but she loves the way Daddy's arms wrap around her best of all. "Why do I have two mommies and two daddies? No one else does."

"Well, you know where your other mom is right now," Daddy says, and she nods solemnly. He had explained to her before that her real mommy was off working, and couldn't take care of her like she needed to be taken care of. That was why Daddy had her instead.

"Yes."

"Well, Uncle Kaldur and Aunt Donna live with us because I love them both, and I couldn't choose. And they love me, and couldn't choose either. So instead of choosing one person, we all chose each other instead."

"I'm glad," she tells him before kissing his cheek and going to sleep.

.x.

It's late, late at night when Lian is awoken. She never wakes up this early. Never ever ever. But the doors are being shut, and she can hear Mia-her babysitter-tell Daddy something.

That means that they're home. Hooray!

Lian hates it when Daddy and Aunt Donna and Uncle Kaldur have to go off at the same time. It doesn't happen very often that they all go together, but when they do Lian knows that it's a Big Deal, and she isn't to give Mia a hard time, even when she misses them.

She runs to the kitchen, only to find just Uncle Kaldur and Daddy there instead. No Aunt Donna.

"Where's Aunt Donna?" Lian asks, because Aunt Donna is never the one to stay behind. Lian can't remember a time when Aunt Donna was gone. They always came back at the same time.

Daddy can't seem to speak. He's staring at the microwave, but Lian can't tell what's so interesting about it.

"Go back to bed," Uncle Kaldur sighs, and that's how she knows that it's Bad News. She doesn't like Bad News. Bad News usually means that something Bad happened. That someone was hurt.

So she goes to the hallways instead, but Lian isn't going to let the kitchen leave her sight. Aunt Donna has to be coming. She has to be. Their family can't survive without her.

"I want to be back there!" Daddy is whispering, and Kaldur is holding his hand up.

"We have Lian to think about. Donna will be able to heal without us."

"Like hell she will!"

"Roy. Don't. Your daughter is still here, and you know that she will want to know why her Aunt Donna isn't here. You will have to be the one to tell her."

"I know. But God. I just can't believe she was so stupid. Donna's never stupid."

"She was saving you, Roy. It's what any of us would have done." That makes Daddy blink once, twice, before grabbing Uncle Kaldur around the neck and hugging him, tighter than Lian's ever seen Daddy hug anyone.

"We'll tell Lian in the morning," Kaldur sighs, running his hands up and down Daddy's back. "Donna will get better. She has to."

.x.

Aunt Donna and Daddy are getting married, and Lian's going to be the flower girl.

She's excited about it too! She gets to wear a big puffy dress (but it's not as big and puffy as Aunt Donna's) and throw flowers everywhere, and it's going to be tons of fun. That's what Aunt Donna said anyway. But there's just one thing she has to ask Aunt Donna first.

Because if it's true, she doesn't want Aunt Donna and Daddy to get married anymore.

Uncle Dick, one of the uncles that don't live with her, is with Aunt Donna. She looks beautiful in her big white dress, her hair all pulled up and a lacy veil covering her hair. Uncle Kaldur said that Uncle Dick was going to walk Aunt Donna down the aisle, while he was best man.

They stop talking as soon as they notice Lian.

"Aunt Donna?" Lian asks, her voice small. "Can I ask you something?"

"I'll go. I wouldn't want to get in the middle of girl talk," Uncle Dick says before walking out of the room.

"Yes, honey?" Donna asks.

"If you and Daddy get married, does that mean that Uncle Kaldur has to move out? Because that's what-"

Aunt Donna cuts her off. "Of course he won't! The only reason that I'm getting married to him is because after I got hurt the last time we figured it would be better if I was related to one of them. Your Daddy just happens to be the one that asked first." They both smile that that.

"Don't you worry," Aunt Donna reassures her. "We'll be just fine. No go! I want my flower girl to look just as gorgeous as me."

.x.

Lian hates getting nightmares, but they still come occasionally. Things coming out of the abyss, under her bed, choking her and killing her. Sometimes she hears laughter while she dies. Sometimes not.

So she runs to the strongest people that she knows. Her family.

Daddy and Aunt Donna and Uncle Kaldur all share a bed. A big bed. Aunt Donna says it's the only way that Daddy and Uncle Kaldur can sleep together at all.

"Daddy," Lian whispers. "Daddy," she tries again, louder this time. Aunt Donna is the one that hears her.

"Roy. Your daughter needs you." She pushes Daddy, which makes him sit up, his hair a mess.

"Yes Lian?" Daddy's voice is thick with sleep.

"He tried to kill me again." Lian shudders at the memory.

"We won't ever let anyone kill you, Lian. Ever. I promise," Daddy tells her.

"Come sleep with us tonight," Uncle Kaldur says, just like he always does, and he makes space for her between him and Aunt Donna. "You'll be just fine with us."

And she is.