Artemis slowly opened her eyes and the alarm clock came into her view. 9:23 AM the red letters read. Moaning she laid her head back on her pillow. Moments later she shot up sending her long blonde hair flying. She flung off the white covers, shoved her feet into her slippers and threw her fluffy, sky blue robe on.
9:23 AM is early for most sixteen year olds, but not Artemis. For Artemis anything past eight is late. When she was growing up her dad would surprise her with early morning wake ups, so she just naturally wakes up early now. She wakes up hours before her fellow team mates, but today she only woke up before Wally, Zatanna, Connor, M’gann and Raquel. Only Kaldur and Robin woke up before which is a lot of people for her. She was surprised to not wake up earlier even though she and the rest of the team were out until one last night. They were out until one because it was none other than New Years and what better way to celebrate then to stay up and watch the new year come.
“You slept late for you,” Robin stated as she walked into the kitchen.
“I know, I know. Although we all did stay up pretty late last night after our tango with the League,” Artemis said heavy with sleep. She reached up in the open cupboard for a mug and once gotten she poured the rest of the coffee pot in it.
“True,” Robin nodded. “So, I have to ask, how was that kiss Wally planted on you last night?”
“How was the kiss that Zatanna planted on you last night?” She played along. She wanted to dodge her younger teammates question as much as possible. Her and Wally have always had a complicated relationship. They have always cared about each other, but showed it in a teasingly, abusive way. As of midnight that all changed with a kiss from none other than Wally which mad it all the more complicated. Was she suppose to love him or hate him for it? She couldn’t decide because she couldn’t sort out her feelings right now.
“A plus. You?” The thirteen year old boy with dark, shaggy hair and black as night sunglasses pressed. All Artemis could do was shrug and hope for something to happen so she wouldn’t have to talk about her love life to a kid that even worse she went to school with. Finally, she was saved. Not by a bell, but by Connor who was walking down the corridor to them. She was jumping with glee because he could care less about her love life.
“Hey Connor,” Artemis greeted the sleepy teen while getting up from her barstool next to Robin’s.
“Oh, hey,” he shrugged.
“How was your sleep?”
“Good, good. You?”
“Good I guess.”
“Artemis, your dodging the question,” Robin said from behind his glasses. She ignored him and continued her conversation with Connor.
“I’m going to go get ready,” Artemis ignored Robin and walked down the corridor. Robin knew that she wasn’t going to get ready, but go out outside on the ledge of the mountain that they lived inside to clear her head.
She looked out over the still water and watched the suns reflection. Everything was peaceful unlike her life. There was a light breeze that made the trees lightly dance in rhythm with the grass blades. This was her dream world where you didn’t have to think and there was no confusion. Her dream land was the complete opposite of her real life. In her dream land she had a normal father that hadn’t left and doesn’t turn corrupt, the same with her sister and her mother could walk and they didn’t live in an apartment, but a house. While imagining all this she slowly sipped the steaming coffee in her personalized mug M’gann gave her for her birthday.
“Hey,” someone said behind her disrupting her dreams. Sluggishly she turned around to see a sixteen year old with bed head red hair, heart melting emerald eyes, black and white plaid fleece pants and a grey t-shirt.
“Oh, hi Wally,” she said turning back to her dream land and sipped her coffee. “Have you ever realized how peaceful it is up here? Nothing but you, the trees, long grass and the salty water.”
“Yeah, beautiful,” Wally sighed looking at Artemis’s frizzy hair. He walked up to her side and followed her gaze.
“Sometimes I come out here and just think of what my life could be. I mean if my dad and sister didn’t walk out, my mom wasn’t paralyzed and money was nothing. Wish that there was no corrupt and no war. Everyone lived in peace and respected each other. Who am I kidding? The world will never be this perfect utopia at least not with everyone disagreeing every moment they can and believing that they will always be right,” she chuckled to herself and then took another sip of coffee.
“Well, you have to look at the bright side of things,” Wally looked into Artemis’s grey/blue eyes. “Like people falling in love and what we do. We help the corrupt and help citizens.”
“Do we really ‘help’ the corrupt or just give them another reason to hate us and the law?” She questioned Wally.
“Point taken, but we do help the citizens.”
“From other citizens. The corrupt are just as much citizens as the innocent until proven guilty. That’s what’s wrong with what we do. We say that we helping citizens, but we are locking up citizens. Why don’t we say that we are helping the innocent or the bystanders?” The strength of her argument blew Wally away and tempted him even more to kiss her.
“From now on I won’t say citizens,” he concluded making her smile in victory. “You know you’d be a great lawyer.” Her laugh wasn’t helping with his temptations.
“Please, save that job for Robin,” she smiled as she took her last swig of coffee.
“No, he’d be the detective. You would be the lawyer,” Wally smiled.
“And you’d be the one in the audience that would have to be removed from yelling too much,” Artemis teased.
“No, I’d be the forensic scientist like me uncle.”
“Fine and Kaldur will be the judge.”
“And Connor will be the officer there.”
“M’gann will be the one in the audience flaunting over how hot Connor is.”
“Yeah,” Wally laughed. “Zatanna will be the jury.”
“And Raquel will be the witness,” the two laughed almost loud enough that it could be heard in the heart of the mountain. “Just in case we need to go to court it will be like that.” Artemis snorted.
“You might need to go to court,” Wally suggested. This made Artemis stop dead in her tracks and asked, “How so?”
“Because you stole my heart last night and you won’t give it back,” Wally looked dead into her eyes.
“You mean earlier this morning? And no, I will never ever give it back that is not until you give me mine,” she whispered in his ear. He could feel her hot caffeinated breath on his neck. He watched her walk off into the mountain. His eyes never left her black sweat pants.

An hour later everyone was up, showered and dressed. Artemis sat on the couch flipping through the thousands of channels that they received. She finally settled on a rerun of New Girl. She was half paying attention half thinking about Wally and their conversation earlier that morning. She laughed to herself about their court.
“What’s so funny?” A familiar voice asked behind her.
“Oh, nothing Mr. Forensic Scientist,” Artemis giggled.
“Really Ms. Lawyer? I would have never guessed,” Wally played along.
“What lawyer? I hate lawyers. They always get in the way. You know that Bats has rules about never getting involved with lawyers. They just screw up the entire investigation,” Robin rambled on.
“Well it’s a good thing that you’re the detective,” Artemis interjected giggling along with Wally once more. Wally was now sitting next to her watching his best friend’s reaction.
“Got that right. Wait ‘the’ detective?” Robin looked at the two questioningly under his dark glasses.
“Yeah, and I’m the forensic scientist,” Wally said very seriously.
“Dude, you are not a forensic scientist. Not even close,” Robin said shaking his head while walking out of the room confused. In unison Wally and Artemis laughed until they nearly forgot what they were laughing about. The two were starting to cry from laughing too much and Artemis clutched her stomach for it was starting to hurt. Artemis leaned her head on Wally’s shoulder as they laughed and laughed. Finally, their laughter dissipated into thin air as they went back to the TV with Artemis still on Wally’s shoulder.
“You know,” Artemis broke their silence. “I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier. About the heart stealing and well, let’s just say it Wally, we’re in love.”
“I know,” he didn’t have to think for he had been thinking all morning and it was making him hungry. “Hey, since you love me so much, why don’t you make me a sandwich?”
“Fine,” she sighed. “What do want on it?” She made her way to the kitchen and proceeded to take out the bread.
“A BLT please,” he hollered towards her.
“I’m right behind you. You don’t need to shout,” she told him. Artemis got to work on sandwiches. One for her and one for him. She got down the peanut butter and jelly and slathered it on the bread. She then slapped the pieces of bread together and put them on plates.
“Here,” Artemis said while shoving a plate in Wally’s face.
“This isn’t a BLT,” Wally said taking the plate.
“Your right, I’m sorry that I don’t want to make a fancier sandwich than PB and J,” she said with sarcasticness drowning in her voice. With a sigh he ate the sandwich in half the amount of time Artemis finished hers.
“Make me another,” Wally half demanded handing Artemis the plate. Artemis looked at him with those cold eyes and Wally got up and put his dish away, too lazy to make himself a sandwich. Together they walked out of the kitchen to find something to do and ran into their least favorite friend; the mistletoe.
“Wasn’t M’gann suppose to take that down after Christmas?” Artemis asked the grinning red head.
“Who cares? Let’s keep it up all year and see if anyone notices. Although before we do that tradition is tradition,” Wally answered. Artemis barely let him finish his sentence before she laid her lips right on Wally’s. It was quiet a scene if do say so myself. Artemis was pressed up against the wall and Wally. The only thing that stopped them was the yearning for air.
“Better than last night,” Artemis teased in between gasps for sweet air.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” Wally returned. “Now let’s put up that sucker somewhere else and see if anyone notices.” They both looked up to see an empty ceiling.
“But it was just right there,” Artemis pointed confused.

Meanwhile, Robin was hiding out in the air ducts watching the scene unfold before his eyes. Oh so carefully he opened the vent and reached for the mistletoe. Not making a sound he crawled back into his hiding spot. Holding the mistletoe he crawled through the duct until he ran into, “Zatanna, what are you doing here?”
“Trying to find you. What are you doing here with the mistletoe?” She asked peaking around his shoulder.
“Nothing,” he blushed.

In the hallway Artemis and Wally continued to ponder on the disappeared mistletoe.
“How could it just disappear like that?” Wally asked.
“Hello Artemis,” Artemis said while smacking her head imitating M’gann. “Robin.”
“He’s going to pay,” Wally said.
“Oh come on,” Artemis whispered in his ear and wrapped her arms around him from behind. “You can do that later, right?”
“I guess,” he said turning to face her. “So, I know that we have already defined that we love each other, but are you my girlfriend?”
“Are you my boyfriend?” She asked staring right into his deep green eyes.
“I sure hope so.”
“Then I guess I am your girlfriend.” The two stared at each other for a long moment and were about to kiss when, “Team report for debriefing.”