Umbrella For Two


Summary: "Umbrella for two?" he asked with an amused grin. "I'm pretty sure the weather reporter said to bring a boat 'cause it would be raining cats and dogs today." — College 'verse AU: meeting for the first time, drabble!
Rating: K
Characters/Pairing(s): Wally, Artemis, slight Spitfire


Artemis scribbled the words furiously onto her paper, scrambling to get the Shakespearean English essay done before it started to get dark out. Studying Shakespeare and his plays and sonnets was actually quite fun. But her laptop just decided to break down the day her teacher told them to them copy down an entire act of one of Shakespeare's plays and 'translate' it to modern English, as well as write a brief, two page reflection on how many of Shakespeare's invented words are still used today. The blonde had been working on the first part all last night, and only the reflective essay was left to be completed.

Artemis had been sitting in the courtyard since one 'o' clock that afternoon after her early AP French class writing the essay, and a few hours later, she was almost done and the sky was beginning to get even greyer and cloudier than before. She saved her paper before the wind tried to blow it away for the nth time and continued to write. As she jotted down the final thoughts of her reflective essay, a crash of thunder boomed across the sky, causing Artemis to flinch slightly. The rain started falling— first a small drizzle, but then rapidly escalating to quick, staccato drops on the college campus.

Artemis swore profoundly and rushed to shove her papers into her French textbook; the report she had worked countless hours on and sacrificed her racket hand for was more important than a textbook at the moment. A gust of wind blew again, and away flew the first page of her essay.

She darted after it, but it had gotten a good head start and was already starting to get drenched by rainwater. She jumped a few paces and caught up with the page, grabbing it gratefully and shoving it unceremoniously into her textbook.

The rain was starting to pour quite heavily, and Artemis— in her high-heeled cowgirl boots— wasn't in that good of a condition to be running on the slippery ground.

Suddenly, the rain stopped pounding on her blonde hair and a shadow was cast over her. She turned around and was faced with a green-eyed redhead, smiling at her and examining at her drenched visage with the slightest hint of amusement.

"Umbrella for two?" he asked with an amused grin. "I'm pretty sure the weather reporter said to bring a boat 'cause it would be raining cats and dogs today."

She frowned at him, wiping as much water as she could off her face and textbook.

"You gonna thank me, blondie?" he asked half jokingly, bumping her lightly with the fist not holding his umbrella. "I'm pretty sure your report would thank me," he added, gesturing to the papers stuffed into her book.

He leaned toward her papers and cupped his hand over his ears dramatically. "Yea, I think I hear them— 'Thank you for saving us from the rain, Wally! Blondie was just going to let us drown!'" he exclaimed in an exaggeratedly squeaky voice.

Artemis rolled her eyes at his joke. "The name's Artemis— not blondie; I don't really appreciate the nickname."

He nodded. "Wally West at your service, oh great goddess of archery," he said melodramatically.

The corners of her lips twitched up slighty at his jokes. "Um, thanks for the umbrella, by the way," she added with the smallest hint of awkwardness.

"No problem," he replied. "Just finished my AP Chem class and was heading back to my dorm on the east side of campus. Where're you headed? I could walk you there," he offered.

"Oh, my dorms on the east side of campus too," she said. "Fourth floor."

Wally's eyebrows rose up in surprise. "I'm on the third. Why haven't I seen you around before?"

Artemis shrugged as they walked together toward the dorms. "I get up late," she said simply.

"That's probably why. I wake up at six every morning to go out for a run; I'm on the track team."

"That's cool; I play tennis."

They suddenly stopped at the front of the dorm building. Wally graciously opened the door for Artemis before stepping in himself. "It was nice meeting you, Artemis," he said with with a grin so infectious, Artemis felt herself smiling back, too.

"You too, Wally," she replied.

They stood there before the stairwell for a moment before Wally opened his mouth to speak once more.

"Hey— um— would you like to go get some coffee together sometime? You know, after the rain dies down and stuff?"

Artemis' smile stretched into a grin. "Sure. Saturday?"

Wally nodded energetically. "Saturday," he agreed, eyes sparking with a gleam similar to that of a child that was just given a brand-new toy. She bade him goodbye with a grin and hopped up the stairs with a new spring to her step. As she reached the second floor and could no longer see the red head, she heard him cheer loudly with an excited whoop.

Wally had cheered loudly, jumping and fist pumping once, an ear-to-ear grin gracing his face. Artemis couldn't help but smile silently to herself as she opened the door to her dorm— a smile that remained all day, even when her roommate asked her why she was so happy with a coy grin.