Snippet from an unfinished DP fic I started in 2016
~~~~
Bertrand nodded his agreement, before shifting into what was unmistakably a bloodhound; he gave several pointed sniffs, tilted his head back to let out a booming bay, then shifted back into a camel and advanced toward Sam with his fangs dripping green saliva.
Spectra quickly turned to Desiree, her smile never faltering. “Desiree, dear, don’t you think the girl would be more, well, agreeable if I were to feast on her a bit, hmm?” She floated around the much larger ghost, placing her hands on her shoulders and smirking. “I know how you do love granting wishes, and well, just think about how much more likely she’d be to make a wish!” She looked down at Sam with false sympathy, shaking her dark head. “Humans are such fragile things. Bring them down a bit and they’ll wish for anything to get out of it!”
Sam knew they were fucked the moment Desiree grinned wickedly, but she simply couldn’t react fast enough to the situation. She tried to get a shot off with her Fenton Bazooka about the time Tucker yelled her name in worry, but the genie ghost snapped her fingers and the boy let out a sound of alarm.
“Hey!” Tucker gasped, and Sam became more worried about his well-being than getting at the two ghosts, instead whirling around in haste with his name falling from her lips. The techno-geek was being restrained by the gaggle of harem girls, all of whom now looked devious as they held onto him with vice-like grips, forked tongues hissing out of their mouths as they obeyed Desiree’s sudden change in mood; the Fenton Thermos was resting in the sand next to Tuck’s boot, having obviously been dropped when the ghosts pinned him.
Panic welled up inside of Sam.
“Bertrand!” Spectra called sweetly.
Sam felt all of the air suddenly expel from her lungs as something slammed harshly into her back, causing the Fenton Bazooka to go flying from her grasp as she staggered forward, hitting the green sand with her knees, struggling to regain her breath from the blow. Pain radiated from her back, making her eyes water and her vision blurry.
“Danny…” she wheezed, even though it was completely stupid; Danny wasn’t there, he wasn’t going to come bail her and Tucker out like he always did when things got too intense, and now they’d probably never even find him. Spectra would drain her to a near husk and then use her insecurities against her to get her to make an awful, awful wish. Sam looked down at her hands, curling them into the soft sand, her eyes catching the glint of the turquoise gem set of her ring.
But she sure as hell wasn’t going to go down without at least attempting to fight. The girl sensed a ghost approaching her from behind and, with a low snarl, twisted herself in a flurry of sand and searing back pain, aiming with one of her Wrist Rays haphazardly. A shot went off, wild, and the cold, black hand of Spectra closed over the exposed skin below the metal bracelet that secured the compact weapon to her body. Sam gasped, feeling like she’d just been submerged under a lake of ice cold water; gooseflesh erupted along her arms and an unsettling wave of horrible despair twisted in her stomach, making her feel sick and hopeless all at once.
The goth winced and fell to her knees again.
I can’t do this!
“Marvelous, marvelous!” Spectra said gleefully, her other hand shooting out to claim Sam’s other wrist. “Yes, such despair… why even bother continuing, girl? Your boyfriend is probably already dead by now.”
“Hey, let go of her!” Sam vaguely heard Tucker yell from somewhere behind her, then came a muffled sound and she was sure one of the harem girls had slid her palm over his mouth to stifle him.
“Stop,” Sam groaned weakly, trying to tug away, but the claw-like fingers merely tightened, the malicious grin growing on her face. Behind her, Bertrand and Desiree were equally delighted by the situation, reveling in her mounting misery.
Oh god, she’s probably right, Danny’s probably dead by now, and it’s all my fault!
“Look at it this way,” Bertrand piped up, looking ecstatic to be contributing. “The little loser was probably getting tired of you anyway, I bet that’s why he came here in the first place! To get away!”
“Oooh, an astute observation, Berty!”
What if he really was coming here to see some girl ghost? What if he doesn’t want me anymore? He’s been coming in here so much alone, he never mentions why, and he’s never done it before now. It all makes sense, he’s done with me and he’s found someone else, if he’s still alive he’ll be asking for his ring back before I know it… oh god…
Her heart pounded against her chest, she felt weary, like if Spectra let her go she’d collapse into the sand. Somewhere in the recesses of her mind she knew that none of this was true, that the ghost currently latched onto her was feeding on and fueling every miniscule bad thought that had passed through her mind since they’d been searching for Danny, but she couldn’t get herself to calm down and rationalize. It all seemed so hopeless in this desert surrounded by ghosts and nothing.
~~~~
((A/N: I would dearly like to write again, and I often come back to an unfinished fanfiction I started ages ago where Danny goes missing in the GZ and Sam tears through it like a hurricane. Maybe I could try to work on it sentence by sentence and see where it winds up. It would make it my first completed DP fic since like... god, 2008 or something? I deleted every one of my old DP fics years ago because they were super bad, lmao.))
“This is my big brother, Hunter,” Luz stated proudly, placing one of her hands on his shoulder and turning to beam at him.
Hunter paused, his eyes going wide, mouth parting and ears leveling at a slope in surprise. He gazed down at Luz, at her sincere brown eyes that his matched in intensity these days, and felt a swell of emotion threatening to overwhelm him.
Oh. Brother?
It… was that what Luz saw him as? A sibling, the way she saw Vee and King?
Did… did Hunter have what it takes to be a brother? Someone Luz could count on, look up to, confide in, lean on?
Looking down at her, seeing what seemed like pride and confidence in her visage, made him believe so. Maybe he had already been doing all those things. And maybe she had been doing the same for him. Maybe somewhere in his mind, in the part that was still learning and figuring out what real family was, he had already been thinking of her as a sister.
Hunter swallowed, sniffing, and brought a palm up to quickly wipe away the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. Luz made a noise and used the hand resting on his shoulder to guide him to her side, jostling him affectionately.
“Esta bien, hermano,” she said warmly.
He let out a choked laugh, catching a tear that escaped, and put his own arm around her, keeping her close.
“Thanks, Luz… you’re the best little sister.”
(Apologies in advance if the Spanish is wrong)
(Just, slowly trying to write a little again. Wanted to do something with the siblings <3)
Also it should go without saying, this is not a ship.
Summary: Hunter learns something about gryphons, Puddles, and himself while waiting for a gryphon Beast Track lesson to start with Viney.
Characters: Hunter, Viney, Puddles the gryphon, Willow
No Pairings
(This is the first thing I’ve written in ages, so please bear with me. I’m just happy for the inspiration and that I managed to finish a story without losing steam or interest, even if the flow might not be perfect. Enjoy!)
@sergeantsporks
~~
Hunter felt like he was navigating a field full of traps. Long, wiggling traps that shifted dangerously around his feet as he tried to make his way over to a familiar face amongst all the feathers and shrieking. Viney waved him down as soon as she saw him, and Hunter offered a meek wave in return, nervously pointing down at the veritable sea of gryphon tails between the two of them.
Viney seemed to take a moment to realize his dilemma, then chuckled and patted Puddles’ shoulder, pointing over at the nervous boy. Puddles caught sight of Hunter and shrieked, bounding over like a predator for prey. Hunter yelled in alarm and tried to turn to run; how foolish had he been to think Puddles had finally forgiven him for stepping on her tail!
Fully prepared to teleport away to save himself, Hunter was surprised when Puddles rammed her head under his legs so that he slid down onto her back, nestled right between her large, fluffy wings. Puddles hissed and swiped the air threateningly at the other gryphons, whose tails she had trampled and disturbed as she went to rescue Hunter and whom were cawing and roaring in protest. Hunter grinned apologetically at the Beast Track students who were now having to calm their beasts down as Puddles took slightly to the air and glided them both over to Viney.
“Hi, Hunter. Thought you could use a little rescuing!” Viney chirped, patting Puddles’ flank. The large avian made a sound like a hacking cough and sat down, causing Hunter to spill onto the grass unceremoniously. He picked himself up and dusted off his pants.
“Uh, yeah. Thanks. I didn’t want to make “friends” the same way I did with Puddles,” Hunter said ruefully with air quotes, glancing back over at the still slightly chaotic corral of gryphons, some of whom were eyeing Puddles and Hunter with murder in their striking eyes. The grimwalker flinched, wondering if he still might be in for it, but just then Puddles stood and hissed back, fluffing her feathers out and stepping slightly in front of Hunter. The other gryphons growled but seemed to slowly quell. Puddles turned her head sideways to look at Hunter, her large eye blinking. “Uh... thanks?” he asked, then laughed lightly when she used her beak to preen his hair.
The gesture reminded him of Flapjack, sending both a pang of affection and sadness blooming in his chest as he stroked her with one scarred hand.
“Aww, look at that, I think Puddles really is coming around to you. It’s all over once she starts preening you. A friend for life,” Viney gravely informed him as she grabbed a small bag of dead dire rats and held it open to him, her expression dark. “You better feed her a snack to seal the deal or she might change her mind.”
Hunter looked into the sack of contents and contorted his face, blanching at the thought of touching something dead. Feeling Puddles still meticulously picking through his recently shortened hair, Hunter took the time to dig one of his gloves out of his bag and pulled it on, reasoning that he could wash it later. Or burn it altogether. He had a spare pair.
Sticking his tongue out, he grabbed one of the dire rats, glad that the material on his hands kept him from feeling how soft and squishy and dead it was, and turned to hold it up so that the gryphon could see it. He heard the sound of her sniffing, then suddenly she cawed and snatched it out of his hand fast as lightning, not so much as nipping any of his fingers in the process. She snapped her beak down on it once, twice, then swallowed it whole and began nudging Hunter’s hand roughly.
Viney laughed. “Whelp, you’re in it now! Better feed her the rest of this bag.”
Hunter smiled, despite how disgusting it was, and continued pulling out rats to feed to Puddles while his friend held the bag open.
“Wow. This is... kind of nice. I thought she would hate me forever,” Hunter confessed, averting his eyes each time Puddles devoured a rodent.
Viney tutted. “Nah, Puddles always liked you!”
Hunter shot her a look of disbelief. He very much begged to differ.
“Really! I mean, sure, you probably shouldn’t have stepped on her tail, but she enjoyed playing air chase with you! Those feinting moves of yours? Really something, it kept her on her toes. I’ve been trying to work on them myself to make things more interesting for her, but there’s a reason you’re one of our star players!” Viney praised him, looking sincere.
Hunter felt his cheeks and ears heat up at the commendation, a soft smile forming on his mouth. He hadn’t yet rejoined the Flyer Derby team, but it wasn’t for not wanting to. The Palistrom tree Willow had helped plant still had a lot of growing to do, but Eda had managed to procure another chunk of the precious material--from where, she wouldn’t share, though Luz had confessed the owl lady had looked even more scuffed up than when she’d brought her piece of Palistrom wood. Under the gentle tutelage of Dell Clawthorne, Hunter had been practicing his whittling skills, and thought he might soon be brave enough to bring a new friend into his life.
Not a replacement, he thought, placing a hand on his chest absently. Never a replacement. But a new friend he could bond with and cherish. Being back in the air again without Flap would be hard but... he just had to remind himself that his little buddy was still with him, always, and probably missed the Flyer Derby field just as much as he did.
“And you know,” Viney continued, interrupting his thoughts. “When you sat in on practice last week, I saw you lying against Puddles and reading. I don’t think I’ve seen her lie down for a nap so easy, she must really love your company! Or your voice. It looked like you were having a pretty good time reading out loud to her, or discussing plot details, whatever you were doing.” Viney waved a hand dismissively.
Hunter felt his face heat up again in embarrassment, not knowing anyone had noticed that, but she didn’t appear to be making fun of him. He was still getting used to the fact that his friends wanted to listen to him and encourage his interests.
“Oh, uh, it’s, it’s a habit,” Hunter said, grinning a little and touching the back of his neck (with the non-dire rat feeding hand). “Gus and Willow and Camila and I, we all like the same series of really awesome books, and we talk a lot about them, and I get kind of... passionate about this one character, you see. Chief O’Bai--”
A loud rumbling sound interrupted his explanation, his ears pricking up.
“Oh boy,” Viney mumbled, sighing and closing the bag of treats. “Here we go again.”
Before Hunter could ask, Viney stomped around him on the red grass, holding her hands up and wagging a finger at a new gryphon that had just trotted over behind him. It was eyeing Puddles, but not in a hostile way.
“Oh no, not this again! Puddles isn’t interested, do you want another scratch on your other eye?” Viney scolded, drawing attention to the two faint slashes running down and over the new gryphons left eye.
It seemed to ignore her and stepped toward Puddles, making a high trilling sound and puffing out it’s feathers in a show-off-y way. It spread its wings out above its head, seeming to make itself taller, and fanned them out. It made little steps in the dirt with its front legs, lightly clawing up dirt and looking like a strange little dance.
As soon as Puddles caught sight of it, she shrieked and raked her talons in the dirt, fluffing her own feathers out but in the same threatening display Hunter had seen her use at the angry gryphons earlier. She slashed at the air in front of it, but it seemed to not take heed, shuffling closer.
Viney put a hand on Hunter’s upper arm and moved him aside just as Puddles lunged forward and grabbed a beak full of feathers from the gryphons neck and yanked them all out in a savage tug. It let out a noise of pain and staggered back, a bald, angry red patch flaring up on its chest. Before it could recover Puddles struck again, pulling out more feathers before spitting them out with a loud hiss, wings puffed out the whole time as she advanced forward.
The new gryphon hesitated before backing down, lowering its body and then turning to run back to the other group of gryphons and their witches.
Hunter stared in confusion at the place where it had disappeared, then back to Puddles, who seemed to be instantly calmed down as if nothing had happened. She startled Hunter out of his dumbstruck state by nudging his hand for more rats.
“What... what was that?” Hunter asked, simply petting Puddles’ beak.
Viney brought her fingers to her forehead, the other hand on her hip, and sighed. “Gryphon romantic drama. Or lack thereof.” She added, eyeing Puddles.
Hunter felt his brows furrow. “That was... romance?”
Viney nodded. She picked the bag of rats back up and pulled one out bare-handed, much to Hunter’s disgust, and tossed it for Puddles to catch.
“Supposed to be. You see, the thing about gryphons is that they mate for life. Usually, anyway. Sometimes they form multiple mate bonds, it’s not always just two, but that’s not the point. The point is, they usually wind up in a pair of some sort. But, Puddles... well.” Viney patted her side. “Let’s just say she’s way past the age for it, and she reacts the same way every time.” She gestured to the spot the gryphon had just attempted to woo Puddles in.
“Oh.” Hunter said thoughtfully, looking down at the red grass. He felt suddenly reminded of the fact that he was seventeen, getting ever closer to eighteen, and had never once felt... anything like that toward anyone. One of the first things he’d learned about Hexside had been that everyone was romance obsessed, and that according to Luz and Amity, he’d already been quite the “hit” with several giggling students in the halls. He had a vague idea of what that meant, and it made him feel uncomfortable.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure Puddles just isn’t interested. That’s probably the hundredth gryphon I’ve seen her reject, and I’ve never once seen her try to impress one herself.” Viney said, feeding Puddles the last two dire rats at once. Puddles trilled happily and actually seemed to chew them a little this time to relish the flavor. (Hunter’s face turned a bit green).
Hunter fidgeted, feeling self-conscious. “Is it... okay that Puddles doesn’t...feel like that? About other gryphons?” He asked offhandedly, gesturing at the gryphon that had finished with her rats and now came back over to nibble Hunter’s hair once more. He tried not to think about her still having rat bits in her beak.
Viney seemed to study him for a second, then smiled and nodded. “Absolutely! It’s not the first time I’ve heard of it. It’s actually fairly common in the beast world. And,” she added, smile widening. “Among witches and demons, too.”
Hunter perked up, ears lifting as he gazed at Viney. “It-it is?”
Viney nodded. “Absolutely. There’s no shame in it! Isn’t that right, girl?”
Puddles cawed loudly near Hunter’s ear and then started purring, nuzzling up against him. Hunter looked down at her as she gazed up at him with one big yellow eye, and felt like there was a strange level of understanding shining through it. Hunter smiled at her softly, petting the feathers near her beak.
“That’s... good to know.”
Viney tapped her chin. “If you’re interested in the subject, I think there might be a book or two on the subject somewhere in the library. Willow’s told me you like your research. You want to go look for it after class?”
Hunter nodded gratefully, soothed by Puddles soft feathers.
~~
Later, when Hunter was tucked away in his room at the Clawthorne’s, he cracked the book open on lack of attraction and felt his chest tighten with each chapter, understanding washing over him.
Thank you, Puddles, Hunter thought, sniffing.
He felt even more understood when he hesitantly told the Flyer Derby team chat that he was sure he’d never felt sexual or romantic attraction for anyone and never could, and that he was happy he’d learned it was normal. Amongst the replies of “That’s great!” and “I’m so glad, dude!”, he noticed Willow typing.
Hello_Willow said: Oh! Hunter, that’s so amazing! I think you checked out the same book I did!
Hunter’s breath hitched.
RulerzReachF4n said: YoU... DID ReSearcH f0R SomeTHng?
Hello_Willow said: Yes! For myself. Luz told me the human realm term for it. Asexual, I think? I don’t feel sexual attraction, I never have. It sounds like you have that part in common with me! Wow, this is great, I wish I had known sooner!
The other Flyer Derby team members chimed in more while Hunter silently laid on his bed and took that information in. Eventually, when Willow grew concerned by his silence and asked if he was still there, Hunter grinned through water-y tears and told her he was just fine.
So I watched all the Artemis and Jade flashbacks from season 4, and oh my god, they truly showed how horrible Lawrence was, I was terrified for little baby Artemis being left alone with him. Seeing that really adds new weight to her insecurities and things back in season one.
Anyway, seeing those also made me feel pretty validated with this drabble I wrote way back before we even got season 3. I may have posted it somewhere on my blog before but fuck if I’m digging for it.
~~~~~
Threat (word prompt)
The blade clattered to the floor. Artemis cried out in fear, her tiny voice echoing off the walls.
“Quiet, baby girl,” Lawrence commanded in an even tone, satisfied when the small blonde brought both hands to her mouth; her head nodded imperceptibly in understanding, eyes glassy with tears unshed. He turned his attention back on his eldest daughter, whose hand he had snatched up and twisted roughly until the pain forced the knife from her thin fingers.
“Let me go!” Jade hissed out, her free hand trying without success to pry his meaty fingers off her aching wrist. Her dark eyes stared into his own, filled with a defiance that was overshadowed only by the discomfort.
To the surprise of both daughters, Lawrence promptly released Jade. She stumbled back a few paces with a hard scowl on her features, free hand rubbing at her smarting joint. Artemis watched in terrified silence.
“That was an impressive move, little girl,” he said in a gruff voice, bending down to pick up Jade’s knife by the bloody blade. He tossed it up casually, the weapon twirling once in a glinting arch before he caught it neatly by the handle. Artemis’s features, in her naivety, relaxed slightly at the seeming words of praise; Jade’s expression, however, hardened into an even deeper scowl. “It was ruthless. Good.”
Jade’s brows knitted in confusion. Lawrence took two deliberate strides toward her, wiping the blade clean on his pants leg and feeling the shallow cut in the flesh of his arm already beginning to crust over. He gazed down at her with neither pride nor anger, merely offering the knife back to her. She looked at the weapon for a long moment, as if she expected it to explode, before tentatively reaching for it.
Lawrence drew the object back slightly, reaching out to grab her wrist again before it came in contact with it. Jade startled and Artemis gasped loudly, though this time it was stifled by her hands.
Once more, Lawrence’s expression betrayed neither pride nor anger, but his cold tone was laced with the promise of harsh consequences.
“But the next time you decide to try another stunt like that, I hope you think you’re ready, little girl.”
When Dragon’s memories finally come back enough, she only remembers a little from when the world went crazy. She was small. She remembers being scared. The crashing sound of the TV hitting the floor, thick glass shattering and flying across the floor. An electric sound, her dad out of breath, sweat on his face. She remembers looking at him and crying, the unexpected noises having frightened her. Her dad rushing to pick her up, trying to speak softly to her, soothingly, checking to make sure none of the glass had caught her.
She was fine, though. Dragon held onto him as he took her hurriedly to her bedroom. There were a lot of screams and other loud noises scattered around, drifting to their ears from other apartments above and below them. Her dad sat her down on her bed, and began rummaging around for her shoes and her blanket. He told her everything was going to be okay as he put the shoes on her feet and then wrapped the blanket over her torso; as always, the cloth was an immediate comfort as soon as it touched her skin. Dad put his hands gently on her shoulders
“Sara, look at me. Everything’s going to be just fine. We’re going to leave. We’re going to stay with a friend of daddy’s, okay? Just for a while. It’s not safe here.”
Dragon didn’t understand. She started to nod, but a loud crash that shook the building and a scream from outside stopped them both. Dragon drew in a scared breath and reached for her dad, and he scooped her up, starting to leave the room.
“W-wait! My book, my book!” She reached out toward her room, towards the bedside drawer she knew it was stashed in. She had many books, but there was only one she needed, the most important one.
“Sara, sweetheart, we can’t--”
Dragon wiggled in his arms, tears in her eyes, until he relented and set her down. She ran over to the drawer and pulled out the book about mythological creatures that she had so recently been fascinated with, the one with the dragons in it. Her dad had enthralled her so with it, reading it with his voices, showing her the pictures, making them sound so impossible but so real.
Dragon hugged it to her chest and ran back to her dad, motioning for him to pick her up again. She tucked the book into her shawl as he moved them through the house and into his bedroom, where he reached into his own bedside table for something a little less sentimental.
A gun. She remembered the sharp glint of it, the object she’d been told to never touch.
Dad grabbed several boxes of something and stuffed them into the pocket of his jacket. Then, he grabbed a duffel bag from his closet and began stuffing some things inside. They stopped in the kitchen briefly to grab some canned foods and then dad was moving quickly toward their front door, breathless and sweating more terribly than when he’d shoved the TV onto the floor. He opened the door slowly, so slowly.
Gun pointed first into the hallway.
“Sara...” Dad said softly to her. “Put your head down.”
“W-Why?”
“Put your head down, and don’t lift it back up until I tell you it’s okay. Alright? Can you do that for me?”
“...yeah.”
If she tries hard enough, she can still remember the smell of his shirt.
The blade clattered to the floor. Artemis cried out in fear, her tiny voice echoing off the walls.
“Quiet, girl,” Lawrence commanded in an even tone, satisfied when the small blonde brought both hands to her mouth; her head nodded imperceptibly in understanding, eyes glassy with tears unshed. He turned his attention back on his eldest daughter, whose hand he had snatched up and twisted roughly until the pain forced the knife from her thin fingers.
“Let me go!” Jade hissed out, her free hand trying without success to pry his meaty fingers off her aching wrist. Her dark eyes stared into his own, filled with a defiance that was overshadowed only by the discomfort.
To the surprise of both daughters, Lawrence promptly released Jade. She stumbled back a few paces with a hard scowl on her features, free hand rubbing at her smarting joint. Artemis watched in terrified silence.
“That was an impressive move, little girl,” he said in a gruff voice, bending down to pick up Jade’s knife by the bloody blade. He tossed it up casually, the weapon twirling once in a glinting arch before he caught it neatly by the handle. Artemis’s features, in her naivety, relaxed slightly at the seeming words of praise; Jade’s expression, however, hardened into an even deeper scowl. “It was ruthless. Good.”
Jade’s brows knitted in confusion. Lawrence took two deliberate strides toward her, wiping the blade clean on his pants leg and feeling the shallow cut in the flesh of his arm already beginning to crust over. He gazed down at her with neither pride nor anger, merely offering the knife back to her. She looked at the weapon for a long moment, as if she expected it to explode, before tentatively reaching for it.
Lawrence drew the object back slightly, reaching out to grab her wrist again before it came in contact with it. Jade startled and Artemis gasped loudly, though this time it was stifled by her hands.
Once more, Lawrence’s expression betrayed neither pride nor anger, but his cold tone was laced with the promise of harsh consequences.
“But the next time you decide to try another stunt like that, I hope you think you’re ready, little girl.”
The words sounded far away, reaching her ears from a distance, yet they stirred memories in her foggy mind. Her eyes shifted restlessly beneath heavy lids as consciousness tugged persistently at her in the form of recognition.
She’d heard that voice before. Not in years… not in person, anyway. But the very real pain that throbbed dully in the back of her skull reassured her that this wasn’t a dream.
“Come on, babe, open those gorgeous eyes.”
The words were a bit clearer now, closer and more distinguishable. There could be no doubt now of who they belonged to; Artemis would never forget the sound of his voice. But this couldn’t be right.
He was gone.
Deciding she no longer wanted to have to hear his heart wrenching voice echoing against the inside of her obviously concussed skull, Artemis stirred and groaned, one of her palms coming up to press against her forehead as she stirred. At least whenever she heard and saw him in her dreams, she was vaguely aware that it was all just pretend; she didn’t like hearing him so clearly, as if she could open her eyes and he’d be hovering over her with a sparkling smile and bright green eyes.
It made the hair on the back of her neck prickle in unpleasantness.
Artemis slowly pried her heavy lids open, bit by bit, blinking back the too-bright light until it became more manageable. The discomfort in her head didn’t feel too serious, which did little to explain the voice she’d heard so crystal clear only moments before, but that would have to take a back seat for now.
She had to assess her situation first.
As the archer groaned and closed her eyes to bring herself slowly into an upright position, she became aware of a parched mouth, and hot skin, and sand sifting beneath her clenching fingers as she shifted into position.
Altogether a way too familiar setting. She braced for the worst scenario as she finally opened her eyes.
What she didn’t see was the horribly unwelcome back drop of a vast desert stretching beyond her vision, heat waves rippling with searing clarity above the gentle slope of dunes.
Her vision was only a sea of green.
Her heart stopped. Her eyes widened and her dry, cracked lips parted in shock.
Wally smiled at her. A smile that morphed into the biggest, toothiest grin she had ever seen grace his features. It pushed his cheeks up and crinkled his eyes, which looked in danger of spilling over with tears.
Artemis tried to choke out his name in disbelief, but her throat was too parched to form words and all she managed was a strangled croak. She would have been embarrassed by her lack of coherent words if her addled brain hadn’t been too busy rapidly trying to understand exactly who or what she was looking at. It certainly looked like her long lost (not dead, never dead) boyfriend was crouched just inches from her face. He looked exactly the way she remembered him, the way he looked in the pictures Megan had pasted into the impossibly huge scrapbook she’d made for her. Yet he looked a bit different too; three years older, his strong jaw a bit stronger, his shoulders wider. Stubble dotted his jawline.
This couldn’t possibly be real.
Tremors ran through her body, and her fingers clenched into fists at her sides as she closed herself off to what she was seeing. It was a mirage, it had to be.
She wouldn’t fall for this.
Wally was gone.
“Deja vu, huh, Artemis?” Wally managed to get out, his voice cracking but clear. He let out a strangled laugh and his hand came up to cup her face. Artemis remained still, and his palm hesitated for only a moment before closing the distance and resting along the swell of her cheek. She couldn’t stop the sharp intake of breath at the skin on skin contact of his bare hand on her face; it was an all too familiar touch, one that she remembered well even after all these years. Electricity seemed to arc out from the place where they touched, and she knew by the solid, warm press of his fingertips against her jaw that there was no way this could be a mirage. Mirages didn’t feel like that; mirages didn’t feel like anything.
But Wally West felt like something. He felt like warmth and love and home, something solid. And she could feel all those things in the hand on her face.
“...Wally?” Artemis managed at last, her voice just as parched as her throat felt, and perhaps for more than the fact that she was sitting in the middle of a searing desert.
The speedster just smiled and nodded, his eyes wet, and he stroked his thumb along her cheek.
“You know, I knew my memories weren’t doing you justice, babe.”
