Friday August 31: Powerless

And if it all goes crashing into the sea

If it's just you and me, trying to find the light

Like ships in the night.

It's an awful feeling—being powerless. Completely unable to break away from the strings tying you down, unable to resist temptation, incapable of action.

There's no excuse for what they're doing right now, but Dick is powerless to stop it. Because her hands are in his hair and he's groping her waist and—oh—Dick can't stop the moan from bubbling to the surface as Artemis grinds against him like that.

They fall onto the mattress, a tangle of roaming hands and rough kisses, and Dick thinks for a moment that this is his best friend's girlfriend and he shouldn't be doing this, he needs to stop, he has to control himself—

Until Artemis drags her nails down his abdomen and runs her teeth along his pulse point that is.

He doesn't think about Wally after that.

When Artemis wakes up in the morning, she feels her legs tangled around someone else, and there's and arm wrapped around her waist. She's slightly groggy still and shifts, feeling that familiar soreness course through her body. She feels both exhausted—from last night's activities—and energized, if that's even possible.

She doesn't feel anything but completely satisfied even when she opens her eyes and sees a head of black hair on the pillow next to her, rather than the normal ginger haired head.

She should be freaking out right now, ripping herself from Dick's arms and running back home to apologize to Wally. But she knows that that's not the right thing to do considering that Dick isn't just some guy she picked up for a one night stand. He's—he's Dick — her friend, her team leader, Wally's best friend.

And Artemis would be stupid to just brush off what they'd done last night as if nothing had happened. Because Dick was way more than just a one night stand, and for quite some time—years maybe—she and Dick had been caught in a sort of limbo between just friends and maybe something more.

The previous night had just been the culmination of five years of unresolved sexual tension and Artemis wasn't feeling too bad right now. Until she began to think about how Wally would feel, the look Wally would get on his face when she told him what she'd done—what they'd both done. God, she was supposed to be his girlfriend, not Dick's, and she should be in Wally's bed right now, not Dick's. She shouldn't be feeling this good after cheating on her boyfriend no matter what her feelings for Dick were.

She lets out a heavy sigh, causing the black head next to her to finally stir. She watches as his eyelids peel open and his blue eyes find her, the tiniest hint of a smile playing on his lips.

"Morning," he says, tightening his arms around her.

"Hey," she says lamely and she shivers when Dick squeezes her hip gently, so unlike the rough touches and gripping hands that they'd attacked each other with last night.

Dick just smiles at her—fully now—and leans forward to press his lips against hers sweetly.

She doesn't think about Wally after that.