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[Young Justice] Normal is Overrated
Title: Overrated
Fandom: Young Justice (animated series)
Relationship: Tom Bronson/Artemis Crock
Summary: AU; set during Season 2. Artemis and Tom want a normal life, but pesky things keep getting in the way of it... and maybe, Artemis doesn't want a normal life anymore.
You'd always wanted a normal life. When your boyfriend asked you a few weeks ago if you wanted to move in with him, you immediately agreed. What could be more normal than attending NYU with your civilian boyfriend Tom Bronson? He was a Statistics major, and even thinking about becoming a certified actuary. The guy couldn't get more boring than that if he tried. And you? Well, you weren't quite sure at first, but you'd settled in pretty nicely with your Linguistics degree.
With only three semesters of college left, you still couldn't believe that you were hanging out in your living room with your dweeb of a boyfriend. You'd wanted a pet dog, but Tom immediately balked at the idea. He hated dogs, ever since you were little kids. You figured he was allergic, but dogs mutually hated him back. Chalking it up to the universe's weirdness, you didn't ask about it again. Nor did you attempt to test the waters with another pet: you suspected a ferret or a cat wouldn't last long in this household.
"Hey," you called, glancing over at him in-between translating verses of Vietnamese poetry. "You feel like having dinner soon? I was thinking I could grab some take-out."
Tom paused his video game (some JRPG, from the looks of those anime characters) to look at you better. "Maybe in a couple of minutes. Are we getting Chinese again?"
You shrugged. "I guess."
Neither of you expected the doorbell to ring. Tom rose first, turning the TV off before he lazily pulled on a band t-shirt and ran for the front door. When he swung it open, you could clearly make out the Flash's traditional logo, Wildcat's cowl, and... Green Lantern? No way. No freaking way.
After all this time, they'd finally found you? After you'd gone to all this trouble to hide yourself away from the world? You didn't know what to do. You immediately rose, nearly tripping over your own two feet as you approached them.
Tom spoke first. "Uh." Then, to you, he motioned for you to step back. "It's okay, I'll just see them outside."
This wasn't supposed to happen. You weren't supposed to drag Tom back into your old life, nor were you supposed to be dragged back in, kicking and screaming.
"It's alright," the Flash responded, reassuringly patting your boyfriend on the shoulder. "We won't be here for long."
You hesitated, realizing that playing dumb was probably your best option right now. "Tommy? Who are these guys?"
Guiltily, Tom rubbed the back of his neck. He was clearly nervous - and he wasn't telling you all that he knew about the situation if he could help it. You'd long recognized the tell-tale signs of his worry, from the way his blue eyes nervously shifted from you to them and the awkward way he crossed his legs just to keep his head on straight. "The original Flash, Sentinel, and Wildcat. Um, this is my girlfriend Artemis."
Folding your arms, you narrowed your eyes. That didn't answer your question and both of you knew it. "It's nice to meet you guys." Why were you guys getting pulled into this life again? Rather, why were you getting pulled into this life again? Tom had nothing to do with superheroes, save for his relationship with you, and it wasn't fair to him! You wanted him to have a cape-free (and stress-free) life!
"Your girlfriend, huh?" Wildcat whistled softly. "You know how to pick 'em."
Tom's face turned so red that you couldn't help smiling, despite your anger at these superheroes. He laughed, "Thanks."
The Sentinel and the Flash turned to leave. "We'll leave you three alone," the Sentinel called, just before his feet left the ground and he started to fly. "Let us know how things go!"
In milliseconds, they were gone, and you, Tom, and the original Wildcat were left to... talk, discuss life, and whatever else those old men wanted you to do. Experience a bonding moment?
"So uh... does this have anything to do with me?" You ventured to ask.
Wildcat chuckled loudly. "You? No offense, but it has nothing to do with you and everything with Tom over here."
Since when? Tom looked even more nervous by the second, and you could even see the sweat starting to trickle down his face. Very, very nervously, he stepped forward and squeezed your hand. "I know I should've told you sooner, but uh... I didn't think it would ever come up and---"
"Just say it," you groaned.
"I'm Wildcat's grandson."
Oh.
Well, that changed... just about everything. Wildcat pulled off his cowl, and in that instant, you could spot the resemblances immediately. They had the same jawline, the same blue eyes, even the same jet-black hair. The only visible difference (besides their ages) was that Tom clearly lacked his grandfather's confidence.
They wanted to talk about this. Alone. "We'll talk about what this means later," you said, sighing with some relief. They weren't here to pull you back in. Thank God. You could handle them wanting to talk to Tom - after all, Tom never wanted to be a superhero. He wasn't a fighter. You'd only seen him fight when his life depended on it, and you knew these men wouldn't succeed in pulling him back into the world of capes and cowls.
So you turned and you headed out the back door for some fresh air. Mentally, you went through what you remembered about Tom's life. You both had single mothers, you both attended Gotham North until you got that scholarship to Gotham Academy - and Tom eventually moved to Brooklyn with his mom. Then, you'd applied to New York University on a whim and received a sizable merit scholarship from the place and you'd heard that Tom had gotten accepted too.
You didn't hesitate to ask him if he wanted to catch up again over lunch. One lunch meeting had become two, two became four, four became a formal dinner date... and before you'd known it, you'd fallen in love all over again with your best friend. Thankfully, he'd felt the same way. You'd known him for as long as you could remember, and you knew just about everything about him. Or so you'd thought.
Tom had never talked about his dad, not beyond a name and a mention once or twice. You knew Tom's maternal grandparents, so the Wildcat had to be his paternal grandfather. How did Tom know he was related to Wildcat? Every time Aunt Marilyn had spoken about Jake, she'd spoken about him fondly, but they'd never discussed Jake's parents. As far as you'd known, Jake had a fatal car accident while Aunt Marilyn was pregnant with Tom - and ever since, Tom'd been raised alone.
If Jake had parents, then wouldn't his dad have come by once or twice? You supposed you didn't want to ask. Families were complicated and difficult things, and you had enough first-hand experience to never question others' home lives. Idly, you stared up at the night sky and rubbed your arms.
The sound of glass breaking interrupted your melancholy mood. Without hesitation, you headed back inside and stared at the enormous man in your doorway. If you thought having Wildcat over was bad enough, just why the hell was Vandal Savage here? Without hesitation, he'd already knocked over Wildcat and was about to pounce on Tom. "Your legacy ends right here, little boy."
You stepped forward---
Tom growled. He balled his hands into fists, motioning for you to run upstairs and grab your bows. You didn't want to obey his orders. For crying out loud, Tommy couldn't fight! But his eyes glowed yellow, and you didn't think twice about running up. Then, you made the mistake of looking back at him over the stairwell.
His skin was melting into a sea of black fur, he was growing a tail, he was roaring with the ferocity of a cat... and where your boyfriend had once been, a giant cat was standing in his shadow.
Vandal Savage let out a low whistle as Tom - who was now a cat? - lunged forward for the attack. You didn't think; you just ran for your arrows and your bow. Jumping down, you aimed an arrow for Vandal's heart.
"Since when could you do that?" You hissed in his ear.
"I might've left a few details out," Tom sheepishly responds, crouching down to avoid an incoming coffee table.
Wildcat slowly lifts himself off the ground and nods. "Hope I live long enough to hear 'em." Secretly, you hoped you did too.
Your brain was working on auto-pilot as the fight dragged onto the streets. It'd been a while since you'd really fought like this, as if your life depended on it, and your muscles were rapidly trying to catch up to your brain. You felt slow, sluggish, as if your energy was being drained from you. This whole 'normal life' thing had done a number on your ability to really think through a crisis. Thankfully, your muscles remembered how to move before your brain did.
You could dodge incoming branches, incoming knives, incoming everything. You needed to distract Vandal Savage somehow, and you needed to distract him now. The sooner, the better.
Then, Tom did the unthinkable. Your boyfriend (your kitten??) ran into the middle of the street. Vandal Savage followed - and when an incoming 18-wheeler rushed forward, Tom neatly ducked underneath the wheels. Vandal Savage wasn't so lucky.
You winced. Even if he was immortal, getting rammed in-between two trucks and getting your face all over the local scenery had to hurt. Wildcat immediately bounded over to Tom and laughed loudly, "Nice job, kid."
Tom purred softly - oh god, he was purring! Your boyfriend really was a giant cat!
"Yeah, nice job," You said, without any traces of sarcasm whatsoever as you placed your arrow back in its quiver. "You think you'd mind telling us about your party trick now?"
He hung his head in shame (no doubt because of this huge freaking secret he'd kept from you for years), before looking up at you and slowly, slowly nodding. "Sure. No time like the present."
"Before you do, though," Wildcat interrupted, noticing the incoming police cars. "You two should come by the Brownstone tomorrow afternoon."
You and Tom exchanged uneasy glances before slowly nodding in unison.
"Alright," you said, trying your best to hide your reluctance. "We'll be there."
After grabbing some takeout from the local McDonald's (the Chinese places were closed by the time you'd cleaned your injuries, assessed the damage, talked to the police, and hopefully got a quote on the property damage for the insurance company), you flopped back on the couch and stared at your apartment. You were long-used to seeing damage from your fights, but rarely had it ever come to your front door.
Tom walked out of the showers. You immediately turned to look at him, dressed in a loose pair of sweatpants and a NYU t-shirt, before you sighed and took another french fry.
"Why didn't you tell me about your... cat?"
Maybe it was a recent development, something that had only happened after they'd started college. Knowing Tom, he'd probably tried to keep it under wraps because he'd feel guilty about you and your (completely normal) obsession with a white picket fence and 2.5 children.
Your boyfriend heaved a sigh before he approached you. Unwilling to make eye contact, he slowly admitted, "I didn't want to worry you."
Before Mr. Grant left, he'd told you the bare backbones of his story, that he'd been born with super senses and these weird powers that seemed related to cats. It explained why he couldn't have a dog; most of them hated his guts. You'd always suspected there was more to his story than he was telling you; after all, you'd been around when his mother died. You remembered him wandering out on the streets for days and not telling you where he'd been.
If it weren't for you, you know he would've actually continued to drink like there was no tomorrow. Instead, you'd forbade him from drinking (and actually patrolled the bars just in case!) and got him away from a good smoke before it became a bad one.
How your nerdy dweeb of a boyfriend could be so stupid and so badass at the same time, you had no earthly idea.
"Didn't want to worry me?" You groaned. "You know how much I hate secrets."
"Well, how was I supposed to tell you? 'Hey, Artemis, I'm actually a giant cat?' Yeah, that'd go over really well back in elementary school."
You gasped. He'd known that he could transform for that long and he didn't tell you? Just because he didn't want to worry you? Damn. Tom really was good at keeping things under wraps if he wanted to.
"Plus," He said, more firmly now that he was closer to you. "We both know I suck at fighting. I'm not a fighter... not unless you're on the line."
Was he trying to butter you up? Even if he was, you couldn't help blushing as you pulled him down next to you. Ruffling his hair, you leaned forward and kissed him.
"Glad to hear it," you admitted slyly, "but you still owe me big-time."
"In the bedroom?" He teased, grabbing a french fry and feeding you with it. "Because you know, it's probably the only room in the house that wasn't hit by Savage."
Mmm, that sounded pretty good right about now. Mr. Grant said you didn't have to be at the Brownstone immediately, just that you had to be there tomorrow... and neither of you had work tomorrow since you were both on break...
"Sure," you grinned, letting him pull you up into his arms. "Then we'll be even."
As Wildcat must've figured out, you didn't have the heart to refuse him. If your friends from the Team had heard you'd refused a personal invitation to the one place they'd never been to, they'd throw hissy fits at you. Even most members of the League didn't come down to the Brownstone unless invited; it was like becoming a member of a Secret Society within a Secret Society. Besides, you were kind of curious. The second you stepped inside the front door, you heard the familiar security system announce your arrival.
"Recognized. J12, Wildcat II. J13, Artemis."
They used 'J' before their numbers. While unusual, you didn't mind it too much. It sounded a little weird to you after years of hearing B right before your number. Personally, you were more impressed that the JSA had thought ahead and added you at the same time as Tom. After last night, you were more than glad that he could take care of himself. Both of you had agreed that you'd visit the Brownstone, talk their offer over, and then decide whether or not you wanted to come back.
As Tom was well-aware, you were trying to leave the world of capes and cowls behind, and you didn't need to be pulled back in. Yet after last night, you doubted that you'd ever break free. Vandal Savage had been trying to erase the family trees that made up the Justice Society of America, ones that had ended with Tom... and maybe you, if you ended up marrying him some day.
You still felt resentful about him not telling you, especially since you'd rescued his sorry butt in Gotham once or twice. At least he'd told you that you were hotter than Batgirl - and in your book, that counted pretty damn high. Now, as you stood in the Brownstone's lobby, you couldn't help feeling awed as you stared down and saw the gaggle of various superheroes chatting it up at the table.
This was the Brownstone in history books! You were still deliberating on if you were going to work with them or not, but just being here was a step-up from working with the Team (and even the League). The JLA may currently be the strike force and the heavy hitters in America, but the JSA had a better reputation and was certainly more well-respected. No longer were you working undercover for the Team. Nope, you'd be front and center as one of the newest members of their legacy.
If you weren't so determined to live a normal life, you might've enjoyed this moment. As it is, your heart sank just a little bit faster as you and Tom headed down to meet the others. The second Tom stepped forward, he was immediately embraced by two people you didn't recognize (the woman was blond and tall; her companion was a hooded man with an hourglass necklace around his neck). Glancing around at the rest of the table, you realized you barely recognized the other people. You'd seen Power Girl on the news once or twice, and Stargirl was looking off into the distance at something or another... there was a man with sunglasses, reading some braille book, and you didn't want to bother him. You noticed an empty seat next to the African-American man working on a Sudoku puzzle, so you seized it. He looked up at you immediately and smiled widely.
"So you're Artemis," he said cheerfully. "It's nice to finally meet you."
You smiled back, holding out your hand. "I am. And you are...?"
"Mister Terrific."
You racked your brain, but the name was too unfamiliar for you to place it somewhere. You'd definitely seen him before - it was hard to live in New York and not know of him - but you'd never worked with him, not even when you were on the Team. "It's nice to meet you, sir," you said, trying to be polite but really wishing you were elsewhere.
The second the blond lady released Tom, Wildcat announced, "Hey everyone! This is my grandson, Tom, and that lady over there's his girlfriend Artemis. Treat them well!"
"I think we will, sir," an eerily-familiar voice called. Captain Marvel descended the staircase and eagerly hugged you from behind. Oh gosh, how long had it been since you'd last seen Billy?? You thought he was on the League; he was certainly a heavy hitter and one of the most beloved members. He whispered to you, "I didn't know you were dating Wildcat's grandson."
You laughed, whispering back, "Neither did I."
The idle chatter died down, and everyone turned to face Sentinel as he rose to face you and Tom. "I know you two said you wanted a normal life," he said softly, placing his hands on your shoulders. "And we respect that, so we won't ask you to join right away... but would you like to try being with us for a little bit?"
Tom gave you a sheepish shrug.
"Would it be anything like working for the Team?" You asked after a moment of eternally awkward silence. "Mostly covert operations and maybe the occasional fight?"
"It's kind of the opposite," Captain Marvel elaborated helpfully. Floating towards you, he said, "We're mostly out in the open and do stuff like help with evacuations and fight time-travelers and people who don't really like the time stream."
"So the weird stuff."
Everyone laughed, but Flash couldn't help confirming, "Pretty much."
They weren't undercover or covert or anything that dealt directly with lies and secrets. In a way, it was kind of refreshing. Still, you had to clarify, "and most everything's out there for the world to see?"
"Yeah," the blond lady piped up. "We're not really into scheming and plots piling on top of each other."
While you liked Nightwing and all, you were getting sorta-kinda tired of his tendency to not tell you everything. That was the problem with the Bats: their secrets had secrets. So you knew you were smiling as you took Sentinel's hand. "Then we accept your offer. We'll stay with you guys for a couple of weeks and see how we like it."
"Best part?" Hourglass man joked, wrapping his arm around Tom's shoulder. "It won't interfere with your college life too much."
It didn't? Throwing your reservations out the window, you grinned and glanced around the entire table. "Then we're definitely in."
That's when everyone immediately started introducing themselves to you, all at once. The hourglass man was actually Hourman (so you weren't too far off), Liberty Belle was his wife (and she was the one hugging Tommy a lot); Dr. Mid-Nite was the guy murmuring medical science-y stuff that you honestly didn't understand; Captain Marvel was still Billy; the girl he was eying was Stargirl; Power Girl was the woman who could pass for Conner's long-lost sister; and Sandman was the weirdo who was playing with... well, you didn't really want to know what.
Remembering everything all at once was hard, but you suspected you'd remember their names and faces pretty quickly. Once the meeting had been dismissed, everyone rose - but no one left the building. Instead, they piled upstairs and headed towards the right, into a room that you knew had to be the kitchen.
"Hey," Captain Marvel said, hanging back to see you and Tom. "You wanna join us for lunch?"
Tom blinked back surprise. "Lunch? But I thought superheroes just met for... superhero stuff."
You giggled. "Nah, we're also friends---"
"Well, in the JSA, we're also family." Captain Marvel smirked. "So you'd better get used to a LOT of lunch meetings."
Without really thinking, you stepped on your tip-toes and pinched his cheeks. "And you'd better get used to me doing this. And me asking you about that cute girl you've been looking at."
Poor, poor Captain looked like a deer in headlights. "I-it was that obvious?"
"Ew." Tom wrinkled his nose. "Captain, you're like, a whole generation older than her. Courtney's gotta be about fifteen-sixteen---"
You rolled your eyes. "Looks like you've got more to catch up on than just lunch."
Patiently, you and Tom waited for Billy to say the magic words and de-transform before you told Tom everything: about Billy, about how he was only fifteen years old (and therefore very worthy of Courtney's time) and how the JSA probably knew Billy was 15 and how you'd met on the Team and just... everything you could think of. It felt good, letting your secrets out in the open like that, and it felt even better when Tom kissed you in the doorway before you met everyone and sat down at the other round table.
So maybe you wanted a normal life. As far as you were concerned, you weren't so sure you wanted it anymore. Normalcy was overrated.
Fandom: Young Justice (animated series)
Relationship: Tom Bronson/Artemis Crock
Summary: AU; set during Season 2. Artemis and Tom want a normal life, but pesky things keep getting in the way of it... and maybe, Artemis doesn't want a normal life anymore.
Brookyln, New York
January 5, 2016 8:30 PM EST
You'd always wanted a normal life. When your boyfriend asked you a few weeks ago if you wanted to move in with him, you immediately agreed. What could be more normal than attending NYU with your civilian boyfriend Tom Bronson? He was a Statistics major, and even thinking about becoming a certified actuary. The guy couldn't get more boring than that if he tried. And you? Well, you weren't quite sure at first, but you'd settled in pretty nicely with your Linguistics degree.
With only three semesters of college left, you still couldn't believe that you were hanging out in your living room with your dweeb of a boyfriend. You'd wanted a pet dog, but Tom immediately balked at the idea. He hated dogs, ever since you were little kids. You figured he was allergic, but dogs mutually hated him back. Chalking it up to the universe's weirdness, you didn't ask about it again. Nor did you attempt to test the waters with another pet: you suspected a ferret or a cat wouldn't last long in this household.
"Hey," you called, glancing over at him in-between translating verses of Vietnamese poetry. "You feel like having dinner soon? I was thinking I could grab some take-out."
Tom paused his video game (some JRPG, from the looks of those anime characters) to look at you better. "Maybe in a couple of minutes. Are we getting Chinese again?"
You shrugged. "I guess."
Neither of you expected the doorbell to ring. Tom rose first, turning the TV off before he lazily pulled on a band t-shirt and ran for the front door. When he swung it open, you could clearly make out the Flash's traditional logo, Wildcat's cowl, and... Green Lantern? No way. No freaking way.
After all this time, they'd finally found you? After you'd gone to all this trouble to hide yourself away from the world? You didn't know what to do. You immediately rose, nearly tripping over your own two feet as you approached them.
Tom spoke first. "Uh." Then, to you, he motioned for you to step back. "It's okay, I'll just see them outside."
This wasn't supposed to happen. You weren't supposed to drag Tom back into your old life, nor were you supposed to be dragged back in, kicking and screaming.
"It's alright," the Flash responded, reassuringly patting your boyfriend on the shoulder. "We won't be here for long."
You hesitated, realizing that playing dumb was probably your best option right now. "Tommy? Who are these guys?"
Guiltily, Tom rubbed the back of his neck. He was clearly nervous - and he wasn't telling you all that he knew about the situation if he could help it. You'd long recognized the tell-tale signs of his worry, from the way his blue eyes nervously shifted from you to them and the awkward way he crossed his legs just to keep his head on straight. "The original Flash, Sentinel, and Wildcat. Um, this is my girlfriend Artemis."
Folding your arms, you narrowed your eyes. That didn't answer your question and both of you knew it. "It's nice to meet you guys." Why were you guys getting pulled into this life again? Rather, why were you getting pulled into this life again? Tom had nothing to do with superheroes, save for his relationship with you, and it wasn't fair to him! You wanted him to have a cape-free (and stress-free) life!
"Your girlfriend, huh?" Wildcat whistled softly. "You know how to pick 'em."
Tom's face turned so red that you couldn't help smiling, despite your anger at these superheroes. He laughed, "Thanks."
The Sentinel and the Flash turned to leave. "We'll leave you three alone," the Sentinel called, just before his feet left the ground and he started to fly. "Let us know how things go!"
In milliseconds, they were gone, and you, Tom, and the original Wildcat were left to... talk, discuss life, and whatever else those old men wanted you to do. Experience a bonding moment?
"So uh... does this have anything to do with me?" You ventured to ask.
Wildcat chuckled loudly. "You? No offense, but it has nothing to do with you and everything with Tom over here."
Since when? Tom looked even more nervous by the second, and you could even see the sweat starting to trickle down his face. Very, very nervously, he stepped forward and squeezed your hand. "I know I should've told you sooner, but uh... I didn't think it would ever come up and---"
"Just say it," you groaned.
"I'm Wildcat's grandson."
Oh.
Well, that changed... just about everything. Wildcat pulled off his cowl, and in that instant, you could spot the resemblances immediately. They had the same jawline, the same blue eyes, even the same jet-black hair. The only visible difference (besides their ages) was that Tom clearly lacked his grandfather's confidence.
They wanted to talk about this. Alone. "We'll talk about what this means later," you said, sighing with some relief. They weren't here to pull you back in. Thank God. You could handle them wanting to talk to Tom - after all, Tom never wanted to be a superhero. He wasn't a fighter. You'd only seen him fight when his life depended on it, and you knew these men wouldn't succeed in pulling him back into the world of capes and cowls.
So you turned and you headed out the back door for some fresh air. Mentally, you went through what you remembered about Tom's life. You both had single mothers, you both attended Gotham North until you got that scholarship to Gotham Academy - and Tom eventually moved to Brooklyn with his mom. Then, you'd applied to New York University on a whim and received a sizable merit scholarship from the place and you'd heard that Tom had gotten accepted too.
You didn't hesitate to ask him if he wanted to catch up again over lunch. One lunch meeting had become two, two became four, four became a formal dinner date... and before you'd known it, you'd fallen in love all over again with your best friend. Thankfully, he'd felt the same way. You'd known him for as long as you could remember, and you knew just about everything about him. Or so you'd thought.
Tom had never talked about his dad, not beyond a name and a mention once or twice. You knew Tom's maternal grandparents, so the Wildcat had to be his paternal grandfather. How did Tom know he was related to Wildcat? Every time Aunt Marilyn had spoken about Jake, she'd spoken about him fondly, but they'd never discussed Jake's parents. As far as you'd known, Jake had a fatal car accident while Aunt Marilyn was pregnant with Tom - and ever since, Tom'd been raised alone.
If Jake had parents, then wouldn't his dad have come by once or twice? You supposed you didn't want to ask. Families were complicated and difficult things, and you had enough first-hand experience to never question others' home lives. Idly, you stared up at the night sky and rubbed your arms.
The sound of glass breaking interrupted your melancholy mood. Without hesitation, you headed back inside and stared at the enormous man in your doorway. If you thought having Wildcat over was bad enough, just why the hell was Vandal Savage here? Without hesitation, he'd already knocked over Wildcat and was about to pounce on Tom. "Your legacy ends right here, little boy."
You stepped forward---
Tom growled. He balled his hands into fists, motioning for you to run upstairs and grab your bows. You didn't want to obey his orders. For crying out loud, Tommy couldn't fight! But his eyes glowed yellow, and you didn't think twice about running up. Then, you made the mistake of looking back at him over the stairwell.
His skin was melting into a sea of black fur, he was growing a tail, he was roaring with the ferocity of a cat... and where your boyfriend had once been, a giant cat was standing in his shadow.
Vandal Savage let out a low whistle as Tom - who was now a cat? - lunged forward for the attack. You didn't think; you just ran for your arrows and your bow. Jumping down, you aimed an arrow for Vandal's heart.
"Since when could you do that?" You hissed in his ear.
"I might've left a few details out," Tom sheepishly responds, crouching down to avoid an incoming coffee table.
Wildcat slowly lifts himself off the ground and nods. "Hope I live long enough to hear 'em." Secretly, you hoped you did too.
Your brain was working on auto-pilot as the fight dragged onto the streets. It'd been a while since you'd really fought like this, as if your life depended on it, and your muscles were rapidly trying to catch up to your brain. You felt slow, sluggish, as if your energy was being drained from you. This whole 'normal life' thing had done a number on your ability to really think through a crisis. Thankfully, your muscles remembered how to move before your brain did.
You could dodge incoming branches, incoming knives, incoming everything. You needed to distract Vandal Savage somehow, and you needed to distract him now. The sooner, the better.
Then, Tom did the unthinkable. Your boyfriend (your kitten??) ran into the middle of the street. Vandal Savage followed - and when an incoming 18-wheeler rushed forward, Tom neatly ducked underneath the wheels. Vandal Savage wasn't so lucky.
You winced. Even if he was immortal, getting rammed in-between two trucks and getting your face all over the local scenery had to hurt. Wildcat immediately bounded over to Tom and laughed loudly, "Nice job, kid."
Tom purred softly - oh god, he was purring! Your boyfriend really was a giant cat!
"Yeah, nice job," You said, without any traces of sarcasm whatsoever as you placed your arrow back in its quiver. "You think you'd mind telling us about your party trick now?"
He hung his head in shame (no doubt because of this huge freaking secret he'd kept from you for years), before looking up at you and slowly, slowly nodding. "Sure. No time like the present."
"Before you do, though," Wildcat interrupted, noticing the incoming police cars. "You two should come by the Brownstone tomorrow afternoon."
You and Tom exchanged uneasy glances before slowly nodding in unison.
"Alright," you said, trying your best to hide your reluctance. "We'll be there."
Brooklyn, New York
January 6, 2016 12:32 AM EST
After grabbing some takeout from the local McDonald's (the Chinese places were closed by the time you'd cleaned your injuries, assessed the damage, talked to the police, and hopefully got a quote on the property damage for the insurance company), you flopped back on the couch and stared at your apartment. You were long-used to seeing damage from your fights, but rarely had it ever come to your front door.
Tom walked out of the showers. You immediately turned to look at him, dressed in a loose pair of sweatpants and a NYU t-shirt, before you sighed and took another french fry.
"Why didn't you tell me about your... cat?"
Maybe it was a recent development, something that had only happened after they'd started college. Knowing Tom, he'd probably tried to keep it under wraps because he'd feel guilty about you and your (completely normal) obsession with a white picket fence and 2.5 children.
Your boyfriend heaved a sigh before he approached you. Unwilling to make eye contact, he slowly admitted, "I didn't want to worry you."
Before Mr. Grant left, he'd told you the bare backbones of his story, that he'd been born with super senses and these weird powers that seemed related to cats. It explained why he couldn't have a dog; most of them hated his guts. You'd always suspected there was more to his story than he was telling you; after all, you'd been around when his mother died. You remembered him wandering out on the streets for days and not telling you where he'd been.
If it weren't for you, you know he would've actually continued to drink like there was no tomorrow. Instead, you'd forbade him from drinking (and actually patrolled the bars just in case!) and got him away from a good smoke before it became a bad one.
How your nerdy dweeb of a boyfriend could be so stupid and so badass at the same time, you had no earthly idea.
"Didn't want to worry me?" You groaned. "You know how much I hate secrets."
"Well, how was I supposed to tell you? 'Hey, Artemis, I'm actually a giant cat?' Yeah, that'd go over really well back in elementary school."
You gasped. He'd known that he could transform for that long and he didn't tell you? Just because he didn't want to worry you? Damn. Tom really was good at keeping things under wraps if he wanted to.
"Plus," He said, more firmly now that he was closer to you. "We both know I suck at fighting. I'm not a fighter... not unless you're on the line."
Was he trying to butter you up? Even if he was, you couldn't help blushing as you pulled him down next to you. Ruffling his hair, you leaned forward and kissed him.
"Glad to hear it," you admitted slyly, "but you still owe me big-time."
"In the bedroom?" He teased, grabbing a french fry and feeding you with it. "Because you know, it's probably the only room in the house that wasn't hit by Savage."
Mmm, that sounded pretty good right about now. Mr. Grant said you didn't have to be at the Brownstone immediately, just that you had to be there tomorrow... and neither of you had work tomorrow since you were both on break...
"Sure," you grinned, letting him pull you up into his arms. "Then we'll be even."
Manhattan, New York
January 6, 2016 2:10 PM EST
As Wildcat must've figured out, you didn't have the heart to refuse him. If your friends from the Team had heard you'd refused a personal invitation to the one place they'd never been to, they'd throw hissy fits at you. Even most members of the League didn't come down to the Brownstone unless invited; it was like becoming a member of a Secret Society within a Secret Society. Besides, you were kind of curious. The second you stepped inside the front door, you heard the familiar security system announce your arrival.
"Recognized. J12, Wildcat II. J13, Artemis."
They used 'J' before their numbers. While unusual, you didn't mind it too much. It sounded a little weird to you after years of hearing B right before your number. Personally, you were more impressed that the JSA had thought ahead and added you at the same time as Tom. After last night, you were more than glad that he could take care of himself. Both of you had agreed that you'd visit the Brownstone, talk their offer over, and then decide whether or not you wanted to come back.
As Tom was well-aware, you were trying to leave the world of capes and cowls behind, and you didn't need to be pulled back in. Yet after last night, you doubted that you'd ever break free. Vandal Savage had been trying to erase the family trees that made up the Justice Society of America, ones that had ended with Tom... and maybe you, if you ended up marrying him some day.
You still felt resentful about him not telling you, especially since you'd rescued his sorry butt in Gotham once or twice. At least he'd told you that you were hotter than Batgirl - and in your book, that counted pretty damn high. Now, as you stood in the Brownstone's lobby, you couldn't help feeling awed as you stared down and saw the gaggle of various superheroes chatting it up at the table.
This was the Brownstone in history books! You were still deliberating on if you were going to work with them or not, but just being here was a step-up from working with the Team (and even the League). The JLA may currently be the strike force and the heavy hitters in America, but the JSA had a better reputation and was certainly more well-respected. No longer were you working undercover for the Team. Nope, you'd be front and center as one of the newest members of their legacy.
If you weren't so determined to live a normal life, you might've enjoyed this moment. As it is, your heart sank just a little bit faster as you and Tom headed down to meet the others. The second Tom stepped forward, he was immediately embraced by two people you didn't recognize (the woman was blond and tall; her companion was a hooded man with an hourglass necklace around his neck). Glancing around at the rest of the table, you realized you barely recognized the other people. You'd seen Power Girl on the news once or twice, and Stargirl was looking off into the distance at something or another... there was a man with sunglasses, reading some braille book, and you didn't want to bother him. You noticed an empty seat next to the African-American man working on a Sudoku puzzle, so you seized it. He looked up at you immediately and smiled widely.
"So you're Artemis," he said cheerfully. "It's nice to finally meet you."
You smiled back, holding out your hand. "I am. And you are...?"
"Mister Terrific."
You racked your brain, but the name was too unfamiliar for you to place it somewhere. You'd definitely seen him before - it was hard to live in New York and not know of him - but you'd never worked with him, not even when you were on the Team. "It's nice to meet you, sir," you said, trying to be polite but really wishing you were elsewhere.
The second the blond lady released Tom, Wildcat announced, "Hey everyone! This is my grandson, Tom, and that lady over there's his girlfriend Artemis. Treat them well!"
"I think we will, sir," an eerily-familiar voice called. Captain Marvel descended the staircase and eagerly hugged you from behind. Oh gosh, how long had it been since you'd last seen Billy?? You thought he was on the League; he was certainly a heavy hitter and one of the most beloved members. He whispered to you, "I didn't know you were dating Wildcat's grandson."
You laughed, whispering back, "Neither did I."
The idle chatter died down, and everyone turned to face Sentinel as he rose to face you and Tom. "I know you two said you wanted a normal life," he said softly, placing his hands on your shoulders. "And we respect that, so we won't ask you to join right away... but would you like to try being with us for a little bit?"
Tom gave you a sheepish shrug.
"Would it be anything like working for the Team?" You asked after a moment of eternally awkward silence. "Mostly covert operations and maybe the occasional fight?"
"It's kind of the opposite," Captain Marvel elaborated helpfully. Floating towards you, he said, "We're mostly out in the open and do stuff like help with evacuations and fight time-travelers and people who don't really like the time stream."
"So the weird stuff."
Everyone laughed, but Flash couldn't help confirming, "Pretty much."
They weren't undercover or covert or anything that dealt directly with lies and secrets. In a way, it was kind of refreshing. Still, you had to clarify, "and most everything's out there for the world to see?"
"Yeah," the blond lady piped up. "We're not really into scheming and plots piling on top of each other."
While you liked Nightwing and all, you were getting sorta-kinda tired of his tendency to not tell you everything. That was the problem with the Bats: their secrets had secrets. So you knew you were smiling as you took Sentinel's hand. "Then we accept your offer. We'll stay with you guys for a couple of weeks and see how we like it."
"Best part?" Hourglass man joked, wrapping his arm around Tom's shoulder. "It won't interfere with your college life too much."
It didn't? Throwing your reservations out the window, you grinned and glanced around the entire table. "Then we're definitely in."
That's when everyone immediately started introducing themselves to you, all at once. The hourglass man was actually Hourman (so you weren't too far off), Liberty Belle was his wife (and she was the one hugging Tommy a lot); Dr. Mid-Nite was the guy murmuring medical science-y stuff that you honestly didn't understand; Captain Marvel was still Billy; the girl he was eying was Stargirl; Power Girl was the woman who could pass for Conner's long-lost sister; and Sandman was the weirdo who was playing with... well, you didn't really want to know what.
Remembering everything all at once was hard, but you suspected you'd remember their names and faces pretty quickly. Once the meeting had been dismissed, everyone rose - but no one left the building. Instead, they piled upstairs and headed towards the right, into a room that you knew had to be the kitchen.
"Hey," Captain Marvel said, hanging back to see you and Tom. "You wanna join us for lunch?"
Tom blinked back surprise. "Lunch? But I thought superheroes just met for... superhero stuff."
You giggled. "Nah, we're also friends---"
"Well, in the JSA, we're also family." Captain Marvel smirked. "So you'd better get used to a LOT of lunch meetings."
Without really thinking, you stepped on your tip-toes and pinched his cheeks. "And you'd better get used to me doing this. And me asking you about that cute girl you've been looking at."
Poor, poor Captain looked like a deer in headlights. "I-it was that obvious?"
"Ew." Tom wrinkled his nose. "Captain, you're like, a whole generation older than her. Courtney's gotta be about fifteen-sixteen---"
You rolled your eyes. "Looks like you've got more to catch up on than just lunch."
Patiently, you and Tom waited for Billy to say the magic words and de-transform before you told Tom everything: about Billy, about how he was only fifteen years old (and therefore very worthy of Courtney's time) and how the JSA probably knew Billy was 15 and how you'd met on the Team and just... everything you could think of. It felt good, letting your secrets out in the open like that, and it felt even better when Tom kissed you in the doorway before you met everyone and sat down at the other round table.
So maybe you wanted a normal life. As far as you were concerned, you weren't so sure you wanted it anymore. Normalcy was overrated.