Recently, I participated in the YJ holiday exchange on tumblr and ended up word vomiting this in like three days. For those keeping score, this has been on tumblr, but since I wrote it so quickly, I didn't have a chance to revise it. So, this is the revised edition! (and there are still probably more mistakes... let me know if you see any) I had intended to write it as chapters, so it will be posted here in sections as I revise them. :) I wrote this for the ever lovely sarcatt and had a total blast writing this. I hope you all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or The Decemberists (the title comes from their song Summersong)

I taste the summer on your peppery skin.

chapter one

"You know," Dick Grayon's voice comes through the phone in a near cackle, "for someone as fast as you, you're always so late."

Wally West might have growled in response had he not be awkwardly trying to avoid running into people in his mad dash across the boardwalk. He's just glad it's still early enough in the morning that the boardwalk isn't completely congested with beach bums and eager tourists.

"Whatever, dude," he exasperates, pressing the phone closer to his ear as he edges between a group of slow walking senior citizens and an inconveniently placed bench. "I'll be there in about four minutes. Just stall."

"Well, dude, everyone already knows you're late."

Wally does actually growl this time. He thinks a woman to his left might have given him a wayward glance, but he's too busy bounding over a spilled mess of something sticky to really care.

"Fine," Dick sighs with an air of mock defeat before his tone turns wicked. "I'll just tell them about the time you told me you wet the bed until you were twelve."

"I did not wet the bed until I was twelve!"

This time Wally definitely does notice that people around him are giving him strange looks after his rather loud defense. A cackle sounds over the phone before a clicking noise indicates that the conversation is over, proving that, once again, Dick got the last laugh.

With another frustrated noise through his clenched teeth, Wally shoves his phone into his pocket, nearly tripping as he does so, and launches forward even faster. He can see the Justice Beach lifeguard station just beyond his sight and his eyes narrow at his target. The wooden boards of the boardwalk shutter with each hit of his red and yellow sneakers until finally he's in front of the door and wrenching it open.

Wally feels a certain level of pride about arriving only a few minutes late before he suddenly trips over the threshold and his chin makes resounding contact with the tiled floor below him.

Above him, he can hear the annoyingly familiar laugh from his best friend mixed with a sotto voice he can't quite place.

"Yeah, I can definitely believe this is someone who wet the bed until he was twelve."

Blushing furiously, he looks up to find an unexpected someone smirking down at him. His blush deepens as he realizes this not just an unexpected someone, but a highly attractive unexpected someone. And maybe he can blame his lack of memory on his recent indiscretion with the floor, but he can't think of a time when he's seen more blonde hair before in his life.

From beside the still open door, Conner Kent rolls his eyes and lifts Wally up from the back of his shirt until he can stand on his own. He jerks himself out of the strong grip and digs his heels a little harder into the floor as if determined to never fall again.

"Glad you could join us, Wally," comes the tentative voice of Megan Morse. He glances over to see her standing on Conner's other side, her lithe fingers waving a sweet hello.

He nods in their direction before turning a sour expression onto the blonde girl still grinning at him with maddening superiority.

"Uh, who's this?" Wally manages to spit out, wishing more than anything the blush would finally reside from his cheeks. And ears. And neck.

"Name's Artemis," she offers offhandedly. Her grin quirks a little in greeting. He can see the sharp point of her canine teeth and for a moment his eyes are caught on her lips. "I'm the new lifeguard."

Her statement draws his attention away from the curve of her mouth as he looks around the room punch-drunkenly.

"Where's Roy?" he asks, eyebrows furrowed as he glances around the room, not yet seeing the typical shorn red hair or yellow baseball cap of his friend.

From the opposite end of the shack by the portable whiteboard, Kaldar Ahm clears his throat. Behind him, Wally can see names written on the board in Kaldur's cramped handwriting in a crude form of a schedule, signifying that he had arrived in the middle of duty delegation. Kaldur looks at Wally with such a grave expression that he half expects Kaldur to declare Roy's recent demise.

"Roy has opted to work elsewhere this summer as he has completed his undergraduate courses."

"Our little Roy," Dick quips from his perch on the corner table, pretending to wipe a tear from underneath his sunglasses. "All grown up and getting himself a big boy job."

"Indeed," Kaldur nods, either not recognizing Dick's mockery or else choosing to ignore it, "we should all extend our well wishes to him." He then inclines his head to the girl standing in the middle of the room, hip still cocked out and eyes still smirking at Wally. "In his place, we have Artemis Crock. She is Oliver Queen's niece and thus Roy's cousin. She will be staying with Oliver this summer and has since agreed to be our sixth lifeguard for this station."

Megan lets out a single note of glee before Wally cuts her off with a snort.

"Is she even qualified?" he asks, directing his question to Kaldur. He spares the new girl half a glance only to see that something about his tone makes her smirk turn into a sneer.

"Yes, she is," Artemis responds indignantly before Kaldur can get a word in edge-wise.

Wally turns his full attention on her, and the way she rakes her eyes over his face makes him painfully aware of the line of sunblock he had slathered onto his nose that morning. She holds his stare for a moment and Wally thinks he can hear Megan hold her breath behind him.

"Whatever, Baywatch," Artemis finally says, waving him off with airy dismissal. "I'm here to stay."

Before Wally can even respond, she turns on the spot with her arms crossed and waits for Kaldur to resume duty delegation. The rest of the room follows suit and Kaldur takes advantage of the silence to continue his previously interrupted explanation of their rules as lifeguards.

Throughout the entire speech Wally convinces himself that he's ignoring Artemis wholeheartedly. That pipedream shatters rather anticlimactically when he feels his blush return the moment she looks at him. She spares him a single sidelong look with arched eyebrows and a smirk that could start a war.

Wally groans internally with the realization that this is going to be the longest summer of his life.

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