#aquarocket

Word Count: 1900+ Characters: Raquel Ervin/Rocket, Kaldur’ahm/Aqualad, Amistad Ervin, Zatanna Zatara (sort of), Nightwing (sort of), Artemis Crock/Tigress (heavily mentioned) Set during the invasion. Raquel knows Kaldur’s secret. Written for @sand-son and anyone else who’s wondering who the fate Raquel’s getting married to, whether it be lady or gentleman.

---

"You're getting married!?" Karen squealed.

Raquel nodded, grinning as she held up the hand with the diamond ring sparkling for all her friends to see.

"When's the big day?" M'gann asked.

"Who's the lucky guy?" Zatanna added.

Amistad burbled loudly, and spit out half a dozen bubbles from his spot on Artemis's knee. the women all laughed, and Zee turned on him, her fingers wiggling threateningly.

"Maybe you can tell us, Ami. Who's your new dad gonna be?" She tickled his ribs, and Raquel smiled as her little boy laughed.

"You'll just have to wait and see."

-------

Amistad was put to bed and Raquel poured over a draft with a critical eye, tapping a pen against her gritted teeth. She should be getting some rest too, Amistad rarely slept, but she had English homework to finish, and that was almost as important as sleep.

A tapping at the window made her jump, literally, out of her train of thought. And then she saw who was at the window and smiled.

"Hey, fishface," she said, helping him in the window. He'd ditched the suit, opting for an inconspicuous hoodie and jeans.

"Hello my dear," Kaldur took her hands in his and kissed her on the lips.

"Oh lord, I missed you," She gasped a moment later, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"And I missed you," Just as he was about to kiss her again, Amistad started whining.

Raquel was annoyed at being interrupted, but Ami was too cute for her to stay mad at him for long. If Kaldur was annoyed, he didn't show it. He obediently followed Raquel to the nursery helping her tend to their son.

"You are wearing the ring," he observed, handing her a warm bottle of milk.

"Well yeah, did you think I wasn't?" She asked, bouncing Amistad gently as she tried to coax the bottle into his mouth.

"Didn't people ask questions?"

"Well sure they did, but I didn't tell them. Look, I know it's a risk, but I want to wear it. I want people to know that I'm taken, that I'm yours," she squeezed his hand.

"Besides, it's fun to see the looks on the girl's faces when I refuse to tell them who I'm getting married to," she grinned.

"Raquel Ervin, you are too much."

"Don't pretend you don't love it," She sang, walking Amistad up and down the hall while she burped him.

Kaldur smiled to himself, watching her pace and coo at their son.

"Yes," he said quietly, "that is why I proposed to you."

-------

Zatanna had just called to tell her about Malina island the next time she saw him. She made up an excuse about Amistad being fussy, hung up, and quickly let him in.

"I just heard," she said, noticing his heavy breathing. She helped him stumble into a chair at the kitchen table and got him a large glass of water. Amistad was sitting in his high chair, and banged his tiny fists against the tray. He was always excited to see Kaldur.

"I couldn't save them," Kaldur said, staring at the glass Raquel placed in his hand. "I couldn’t save the Kroloteans.”

He raised his glass half-heartedly. “But at least Manta has sealed his place within the Light and I have won his trust," he said sarcastically. Amistad cooed, raising his arms like KAldur did and flinging food everywhere.

"I know, I know, don't beat yourself up, Kal," she squeezed his empty hand. "You did all that you could, I know you did. And that's all we can do."

Kaldur set aside his cup, and kissed Raquel, much to Amistad's delight.

"I love you, Raquel Ervin."

"I love you too, Kaldur'ahm. Even if you are a hopeless idiot. Now help me feed the baby before he tosses out all his food."

-------

The next visit was much shorter than the last two.

"I have to report to my father, but had to tell you-"

"Artemis and Wally are in on it and you had to win the trust of the other Light whackjobs. Nightwing told me." She told him, placing her hand on his chest.

Kaldur held her close, kissing the top of her head. "It's getting more dangerous. Nightwing thought that sending Artemis undercover would give me a boost, she has more knowledge of the criminal world workings than anyone else."

"Well you cost me my best babysitter, Fishface. You owe me." She warned.

Kaldur leaned down so that their foreheads touched. "Then let me make up for it."

-------

She felt guilty having the bridal shower Karen and Dinah threw at her, both keeping the identity of her fiance and the knowledge of Artemis's survival from them, from her friends, the ones who loved her so much they put together a bridal shower for her without even knowing when the wedding would be or just who the heck she was getting hitched to.

"To the bride!" M'gann cheered, wearing that same smile she used to give everyone years ago, back when she was still that peppy cheerleader that Raquel only found slightly annoying.

And as everyone toasted her a happy marriage, Raquel made her own silent prayer that she'd actually get to be married.

-------

She left Amistad with the elderly next-door-neighbor and barged into the team's makeshift base the moment she heard.

"What the heck happened, Nightwing, you tell me right now!" She shouted, lifting him by the collar of his kevlar suit. Rick looked to Connor for help, but the boy of steel was staying out of it.

Impulse, Beast Boy, and Wonder Girl had gathered at the commotion Rocket was causing, and long story short that's how Nightwing's plan came out to the rest of his team.

"Tigress- who is Artemis- took M'gann to help Kaldur. So long as the three of them have each other, I think they should be okay." He finished up. "All we can do is wait."

"You think!?" Raquel snapped as the freshman watched in terrified awe. "You're the freaking boy wonder, Richard John Grayson, you'd better darn well know that they'll all be safe the next time you try to pull a stunt like this."

-------

Zatanna visited that night, finding Raquel on the couch watching informercials with Amistad asleep on her lap, the two surrounded by unfinished homework and empty junk food containers.

"Oh, Raquel," she whispered, taking Amistad from Raquel to let her friend curl up and cry.

"I knew it was gonna be like this when I said yes, why did I say yes?" she sobbed as Zee rubbed her back in circles. "He could be dead right now! And so could M'gann and Artemis!"

"They aren't, you know they aren't!" Zatanna insisted. "Artemis is a fighter and M'gann is so incredibly powerful, they won't let anything happen to Kaldur. And now that we know that he's not evil, neither will the rest of us."

"So you know?"

Zee giggled, "You're not the only one with an affinity for bad boys," She admitted.

Raquel leaned her shoulder on Zee's head. "I miss when we were on the team, back when everyone trusted each other."

Zee kissed her forehead in a totally platonic but completely loving way. "I think I know just what you need."

-------

She came home from Zatanna’s suggested mission to Bialya tired and sore, pondering if she still had some ice cream left over in the fridge or if she had enough energy to take Amistad out to the frozen yogurt place down the street. She said good-bye to the sitter, and then the tapping came at the window.

With Amistad still propped on her shoulder, she ran back to the kitchen. And there he was, still there, still alive.

He opened the window himself, whispering her name over and over as he held her and their son in his arms.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too," she sobbed. Then Ami started crying too. Kaldur took him without hesitation, carefully bouncing him and rocking him as he'd seen Raquel do.

"So what happened?" She asked at the two sat on the couch, watching Amistad play on the blanket with his toys from Auntie Dinah and the rest of the League.

"M'gann was able to fix what she had destroyed, I feel fine, nothing out of place, and my memories are still intact-" he paused suddenly, looking at Raquel's hand.

"Why do you have a ring on your finger?"

Raquel grabbed pillow after pillow and lobbed them at him. "And you said I was a tease!" She spluttered as they both laughed. Amistad gave a laugh of his own.

Kaldur blocked her pillows with his arms, and grabbed Raquel, holding her in his arms.

"Soon, my dear," he promised soothingly, "The team is pulling Artemis and me out in a few days. You do not have to wait much longer."

-------

Like any good mother, Raquel made sure her boy was far from the danger of aliens threatening the world. She put him on the Watchtower with Catherine Cobert and Simon Carr to watch him, while she and literally every other League member, team member, and ally gathered outside of Lex Luthor's building, of all places, to stop the Reach's Endgame.

She stood by Kaldur's side, while Luthor droned on, holding his hand so tightly you'd think the heavy winds would suddenly carry him away from her again.

They were each put on different squads, Kaldur with his old friend Lagoon Boy, and Raquel with the, er, strange Doctor Strange.

"Good luck," He whispered, quickly kissing her forehead. Dang, he looked so good back in his old red-and-black uniform again.

"Go save the world, Fishface," she smiled at him.

And they did.

-------

Raquel had been waiting for six months. You'd think that two weeks would be easy.

It. Was. Torture.

Since they didn't really know when Kaldur would finish his job undercover, and since Raquel couldn't quite tell everyone exactly who she was engaged to without blowing his cover, plans that would have spanned over a few months or maybe even a year were crammed into those two weeks.

Raquel wanted to just have a plain and simple wedding to get it over with, but then Dinah and Oliver stepped up and offered to pay for the whole thing, and she couldn't refuse that. And then there were Atlantean and surface cultures clashing where both Kaldur and Raquel each wanted their partner to be able to have their culture represented as much as possible.

Somehow, it all worked out.

It was held in a small church in Dakota city, on the edge of the street where she grew up. Atlanteans and metas and normal human friends crowded the tiny white building, each fighting for a better view of Augustus helping Amistad walk down the aisle as the ring bearer, or Roy Harper carrying his daughter and her basket of petal bombs which she promptly pelted at the guests more so than the floor, and of course, the beautiful bride herself.

Raquel met eyes with Kaldur as she entered the chapel, watching his face glowing and his smile growing as she approached him step by step.

After all she'd been through and all the time she'd waited, the ceremony flew past, and soon enough they were kissing and people were cheering and Amistad was clapping his chubby little fists as he was handed back to his parents.

"So was it worth the wait?" Kaldur whispered lowly, kissing her again.

Pairings: Spitfire, SuperMartian, Chalant, Torpedo/Aquarocket Word Count: 3K+ Powerless AU No warnings, just fluff. And ‘Dick’ is ‘Rick’ due to personal preference.

~

Wally, of course, was the one to realize it.

"Rick. Rick." He poked his roommate in the face. Richard pulled the blanket up over his face, rolled over on his stomach, and put his pillow over his head.

Wally glared at the lump of blankets and bedding. "I know you're awake, Grayson."

"Go 'way, I gotta case tomorrow," Rick slurred a second before he started snoring again.

Wally immaturely stuck out his tongue at Rick, grudgingly pulling on pants and a shirt over his bright yellow boxers before leaving their shared bedroom again. He walked down the hall quietly, trying not to wake more roommates than he had to. Connor was grouchier than Grumpy Cat if anyone woke him up too early.

Wally, Rick, Connor, and their five other friends shared a three-room apartment, mostly because the three of them and their friend, Kaldur, all wanted to share an apartment together after college and then they brought along their girlfriends, who were also good friends. Megan, Artemis, Zatanna, and Raquel shared the master bedroom, and Connor roomed with Kaldur because Kaldur was, apparently, the quietest of them all.

He quietly opened the door to the master bedroom. Raquel and Zee had fallen asleep in the middle of a braiding session again, with Raquel sitting on her bed leaning against the wall, and Zatanna leaning against Raquel's twin bed, opposite her own.

Megan and Artemis shared a bunk bed, with Artemis, fortunately for Wally, on the bottom bunk. Megan loved heights.

"Hey, babe," Wally gently brushed Artemis' bangs out of her face. Even in the darkness of the early morning, her golden hair seemed to glow just like Rapunzel's.

'Artemis sighed and shifted in her sleep. "What is it, Wally?" She asked, keeping her eyes closed.

"We're out of food." Wally put his lips in a tight line.

"Go buy some," His girlfriend told him, rolling over to face the wall.

"But it's dark out." Wally made puppy eyes, even though Artemis couldn't see them. He froze his face in that position until she finally spoke again, two minutes later.

"Give me five minutes."

Wally punched his fist in the air and began to take giant tiptoe steps back towards the door.

He jumped at a loud clanging noise that rang out from behind him, and spun around to see Artemis sitting up in bed, holding her head, and shouting in her native language of Vietnamese.

"What's going on?" Megan was instantly awake, and turned on her lamp. Artemis' shouts also woke Zatanna, who's tangled hair whipped around her face and made her spit out the hairs that ended up in her mouth.

"Wallace Rudolph West you better have a good reason for being in our bedroom at..." Raquel rubbed her eyes, searching the room for the digital alarm clock.

"Twelve-o-four at night."

"Morning, actually," Zee corrected with a yawn, shoving her hair back out of her face with sleepy strength.

"Sorry girls, it was all me, go back to sleep," Artemis told them.

"What are you doing?" Megan asked.

"We're out of food, and Wall-man needs a protector from the beasties in the dark," Artemis pulled on her jeans and a pair of mismatched socks she'd worn earlier today.

"Hey!" Wally said, burning red-faced in the bedroom doorway.

"Really? I'm coming too!" Megan pushed through her mess of a bed and slid down the ladder.

Artemis yawned as she tried to smooth her hair into a single ponytail. "Nah, Megs, I got it-"

"It's cool! I've always wanted to go out in the middle of the night!" Megan threw on her cheer jersey and began searching for something to replace her pajama bottoms.

"I'm coming too. Last time you two went shopping together you only got half the stuff we needed and when you went back you still got the wrong box of Kal's tea." Raquel lunged across the room and joined Megan on the quest for proper clothes in their mess of a closet.

"Can I come too?" Zee asked, grasping for a hairbrush for her poor hair.

"Wally sighed. "Fine. But be quick-"

"Be quick about what?" Wally jumped a foot in the air at Rick's ninja-like approach

"Would people stop doing that!" He shouted. Artemis yanked the two of them out of the room so that her friends could get dressed.

"We're going shopping. You in or not?" She asked.

Before Rick could answer, the door to Connor and Kaldur's bedroom was thrown open.

"Okay, who's the one yelling out here!?" He yelled.

Rick and Wally pointed at each other.

Megan left the room next, shouldering her purse. "Morning Connor!" She pushed past the other three and kissed her boyfriend's cheek. "You wanna come shopping with us?"

"That's what this is all about?" Connor growled.

Wally shrugged helplessly. "We're out of food!"

Zatanna and Raquel opened their bedroom door one last time, the latter holding up her phone.

"Shopping's gonna have to wait. Kal's flight just got in."

"His delayed flight?" Rick asked, well aware that he and Connor were the only ones still in their sleepwear.

"I was braiding Zee's hair to keep me awake until he got in, but if we're going shopping we're getting Kal first.

Connor shrugged. "Why not?"

"We also need hairspray," Zee said, tucking her hair under the hood of her tiny hoodie, which threatened to pop out at any moment.

"One sec, Zee," Rick dashed into his bedroom, and Connor followed suit.

"Okay, what else do we need?" Raquel pulled up the notes section of her phone to make a list.

"Food." Wally hugged Artemis from behind, and she elbowed him in the gut.

"My spatula melted when I was making eggs last week." Megan put in.

"Chocolate." Artemis gave the girls a knowing look.

"Wolf chewed through my charging cord," Rick came out of his room, fully dressed, and helped Zatanna into his two sizes too big Police Academy. A familiar whine echoed down the hall from where Connor's giant husky dog slept in the kitchen.

"I'm coming boy," Connor and Megan walked down the hall. With everyone being awake, Wolf thought it meant it was time for his walk and his breakfast, and no one wanted Wolf to annoy the neighbors and get them kicked out. They all loved Wolf too much, though he was definitely closer with Connor and Megan.

"What was Kal doing, anyway?" Zee asked as the others grabbed their wallets and purses and reusable shopping bags and followed Connor and Megan.

"Temporary internship at Seaworld, getting up close and personal with the animals." Raquel clarified.

Kal was an animal enthusiast, but especially with marine life. He currently worked at the vet clinic around the corner. Raquel was an author, and worked as a secretary at the publishing company she hoped to sell a book to one day. Zatanna worked at her father's secondhand antique store, the one he insisted she own one day, but she wasn't fully set on a career one way or another. Megan worked at a bakery, next to the grocery store where Connor had just gotten a promotion that doubled his pay. Artemis taught self-defense classes at the gym next to the vet clinic, and Wally was a CSI-in-training at the precinct where Rick was the newest cop. Together, they all made enough to keep themselves comfortable, but on more than one occasion Rick's father would swoop in with a family heirloom and raining greenbacks to keep the kids home intact. He was also the reason they got to keep Wolf, much to the chagrin of their landlord.

"Hey!" Megan exclaimed. She held up the empty cake box that had been left on the kitchen countertop. Inside had once been the first cake she'd ever been allowed to bake at the coffeehouse where she worked. She'd brought home the remains at the end of the day, but now it was gone.

"What happened to the last piece?" Zee's face fell. "We all said we were gonna share it!"

Everyone looked at Wally.

He laughed nervously. "I was...hungry?"

"I thought we were going to pick up Kaldur." Connor grumbled.

"Everyone in the van. Now!" Richard decreed before things could get any more heated between the seven of them.

One bark was enough to have them bring Wolf with them too. Megan's big red van was parked in the alleyway between the apartment building, and the grocer's next door where Connor worked.

Rick had a sports car that was authorized to be used as a police cruiser, Connor had his grandfather's old truck, and Artemis and Raquel each had a motorcycle, but the van was the only vehicle that they collectively owned that was big enough to hold the kids, their dog, and their groceries.

The city was almost asleep, but not quite. Reflections of neon signs painted the wet streets and sidewalks in between the spotlights of the lamp posts and the instructions of the traffic lights. The old radio of the huge van played soft music that drove Connor, Richard, Zatanna, and Artemis back to sleep. Megan was awake and alert in the bouncy driver's seat, and she, Wally, and Raquel rolled down the windows to look out and let the cool night breeze keep them awake.

"I love this time of day," Raquel said, leaning her head out the window while Wolf rested his gargantuan head in her lap.

"It's night, Raquel," Wally reminded her. Artemis's head rested on his shoulder, and a few bangs fell out of her ponytail and into her face. In the back seat, Zatanna and Richard were snuggled together against the window. He used her as a blanket, and she used him as a pillow.

Raquel shrugged off Wally's remark as they splashed a woman in an overcoat with an umbrella. "Call it whatever you want, kid."

"Might want to start waking up the others," Megan made a sharp turn that nearly threw Wally off his seat. A bright green sign with the words "Happy Harbor International Airport. 10 miles" flashed past the window, with so much writing he hardly had time to read it all.

"Hey, Babe," He kissed Artemis on the forehead, "We're almost there."

Artemis groaned, sleepily punching her fist into his gut. "That is the second time in one hour, Wallace. That does not bode well for you."

Wally laughed nervously, trying to catch his breath from her hit.

There was a chorus of yawns all around as the group tumbled out of the van, barely managing to trap Wolf inside.

"Stay there boy, we'll be right back," Connor said gently but firmly. He walked arm-in-arm with Megan, following Wally and the others while Raquel sprinted for the airport's automatic front doors.

"Where are you, where are you..." She muttered, biting her lip and standing up on her tiptoes to try and get a good look over the crowd. Her friends were still coming in, taking it nice and slow while Raquel ran through the crowd, anxiously searching for her boyfriend.

"Why the heck are there so many people at the airport at midnight!?" She shouted, making her friends laugh.

Someone grabbed her from behind, planting a kiss on the top of her head. Raquel went spread-eagle in self defense, freeing herself and spinning around.

"Kal!" She cried. She jumped into his arms for a real kiss while her friends "Aww'd".

Kaldur smiled down at Raquel, still hugging her. "I missed you."

"Missed you more," Raquel dared with a smirk.

"Welcome back, bro!" Wally clapped Kaldur on the back while Connor hefted up Kaldur's duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder. Everyone got a chance to hug Kaldur several times as the group slowly made their way back to the exit.

"Hope you won't mind a little longer until you can go home and rest," Zee said with an apologetic tone.

"No, I would not, mind, I had plenty of time sleep on the plane, but why are we not going home?" Kaldur asked, his arm around Raquel as they walked out to the van.

"Wally ate everything in the house, so we're going shopping so we can have something to eat this week," Rick said, adding item after item to the list on Raquel's phone.

Connor tossed Kaldur's things in the trunk, and they got back on the highway. This time, Wolf's excitement to see Kaldur again kept them all awake. But that was okay, because they all had loads of questions for Kaldur and wanted to hear about his trip.

"Yes, it was a good job to have, yes I had fun, and yes, I have your souvenir, Wally." Kaldur answered with patience. Megan and Connor were back in the driver's seat and shotgun, Wally and Artemis sat in the row behind them, Kaldur and Raquel were in the third row, and Zatanna and Richard were back in the back row with Wolf.

Everyone was laughing as M'gann parked in front of the grocery store. Since no one else in their right mind was shopping at this hour, they managed to get a decent parking space for once.

"I call riding in the shopping cart!" Zatanna climbed over the two rows of seats and forced the door open, sprinting for the grocery carts all lined up in front of the store.

"No fair!" Rick cried. He quickly caught up with his girlfriend and they began to fight over which of them would get to sit in the cart.

Connor and Artemis dragged Wolf back into the van while Megan broke up the fight, and Wally was busy making sure Raquel had the complete list of everything that they needed. All of them could see their breaths misting in the morning air, but they were too excited to feel cold. Finally, it was decided that they would get two shopping carts: The girls would take the one with Zatanna in it, and the boys would take the one with Richard in it. Raquel texted half the list to Kaldur, and that's when things got competitive.

"Whoever finishes their half of the list last gets to buy breakfast!" Artemis declared. Grabbing the cart handles, she flew down the empty aisle with Zatanna hanging onto the cart for dear life.

Raquel, Megan, and the boys looked at each other for a moment. Not wanting to be left out, they took off too.

It was a good thing they were doing this in the early morning. The only other person there was a night-shift checkout clerk who was too tired to try and tell the college kids to stop goofing off.

"I got the cinnamon and sugar!" Robin said, standing up in the cart to reach the highest shelf. He nearly fell out when Wally took off without warning, on to the next item.

Megan jumped and reached the pint-sized can of spackle. "Got it!"

The carts got crowded enough that both Zee and Rick relented to giving up their seats for the groceries, and soon each team was double-checking their list to make sure they had everything.

"Run they're almost there!" Zatanna warned Artemis.

Wally was the track star, running from the boy's team down at the frozens past thirteen aisles to the only cashier at aisle three. The girls were coming from the bakery at the other end of the store.

"I'm fastest, givit," Raquel demanded. Artemis did so, even though the cashier was right there. Raquel had already started unloading her groceries by the time Wally shoved the cart into line.

"Are you sure you got everything on that list?" Wally demanded with narrowed eyes.

"Yup. But I know y'all forgot Kal's tea," Raquel grinned. While his friends moaned, Kaldur excused himself to buy a box of his favorite tea.

"So where do you guys wanna get breakfast?" Zee asked as they all helped unload the carts onto the conveyor belt.

"Please say McDonald's, it's cheapest." Wally begged.

"I dunno, I got a craving for pancakes." Artemis smirked.

"Why do you guys get to chose?" Connor asked.

"Because we won, Kon!" Raquel grabbed the box of tea from Kaldur and slammed it down on the conveyor belt with all the other food.

"IHOP?" Megan asked.

The girls nodded.

"IHOP." Even the boys all agreed at once.

The hostess at the said restaurant was surprised to see so many people at once, especially at two in the morning, and burning with such energy. Usually one or two people would trickle in for an especially early breakfast, but they were always separate, and they never had the enthusiasm of this group.

"Table for eight, please," Kaldur requested while Richard and Wally again tried to see who was strongest with a quick thumb-wrestling competition.

"Um, uh...I don't think we have a table that big," The hostess said, suddenly wide awake.

"Would you mind if we pushed some tables together, then?" Megan asked sweetly.

The hostess looked around the seating area, empty except for one waitress.

"Um, no, that-that would be fine." She stammered. She had to count out their menus twice to make sure she had eight.

The eight continued to chatter loudly as they pushed together four two-person tables (the only moveable ones) to make a table big enough for all of them. Wally was spoiling their favorite TV show for Kaldur, who had been too busy to keep up when he was at Seaworld. Zatanna was repeatedly telling Wally to shut up, Artemis and Raquel were going over their last English class to make sure they didn't forget any homework that would be due on Monday, Megan was trying to wave over a comatose waiter, Richard snickered at everything being said, and Connor watched everything with a blank expression.

Among the eight of them, they joked that they must have ordered one of everything on the menu. Connor liked his breakfast steaks rare, Artemis had to have chocolate chips and blueberries in her pancakes, along with banana slices on top, Kaldur preferred slightly burnt toast and eggs to pancakes, Raquel just wanted a ton of chocolate muffins, Megan and Richard liked palin pancakes buried in whipped cream, syrup, and strawberry slices, and Wally tried something new every time, and he always ordered seconds.

"We coulda just come here for breakfast instead of shopping," Raquel mumbled in a food-trance as they left an hour later. The sun was just starting to rise now.

"Yeah, but we still would have needed food for the rest of the week." Megan reminded her, swinging her and Connor's joined hands as they trooped back to the van.

Wolf ignored them, upset at being rejected, until Connor gave him the second steak he'd stolen off of Wally's plate. The humongous dog happily devoured it all the way home.

They parked in their usual spot in the alley, taking their groceries and Kaldur's duffle and climbing up the fire escape to the kitchen window. Richard had devised it to be opened by a special key-number combination. It was much better than going through the front door and dealing with the nosy front secretary and the rude landlord.

"So what are we gonna do now? It's just now officially morning." Wally asked.

"Put away groceries," Megan said, taking cans out of Connor's arms and shoving them in the formerly-empty cupboard shelves.

"Go back to bed," Connor grunted as Raquel opened all the windows to let in the cool, humid morning air.

"Now that it's light out, I'm finally gonna watch Wicked Scary Part three," Artemis held up her brand-new DVD, still in the shrink-wrap.

Richard and Wally's eyes went all sparkly. "Me too!"

Kaldur and Raquel were in too, and Zee would take any chance to cuddle with her boyfriend. Megan was interested to see what the fuss was about, so Connor agreed to stay up and watch it with her, just in case she needed security.

Halfway through the movie, half of them were asleep.

"This is much less whelming than I thought it would be." Robin said, his chin barely propped up by his hand. Zee had fallen asleep on his shoulder, both of them huddled beneath her blanket because they were cold, but Raquel refused to let them close the windows.

"Hush." Wally said, shoving another mouthful of popcorn into his mouth.

"What a waste of money," Artemis said with disgust. "They're totally lacking the emotion and insane special effects of the first two movies.

"Speak for yourself," Wally said, his eyes wide and glued to the screen, "I'm gonna have nightmares for a week."

"You are not allowed to come and sleep in my bed if you have a bad dream." Artemis told him.

"Or mine." Richard smirked.

"Noted."

"Come on," Richard grabbed the remote and changed the channel right before a half-hearted jump scare. "Let's play Smash Bros." He said.

"I call Kirby!" Wally grabbed his favorite remote, tossing the pink one at Artemis like he always did.

"I'm in too," Raquel raised her hand sleepily. Rick guided her hand to a remote.

The change in music and fighting sound effects roused the others from sleep, and soon everyone was fighting for a chance to play.