Comment Fic Dump #4
there's no place like home (young justice; girls; 603 words)
Zatanna moves out of the cave the day after her high school graduation. It's not an impulsive decision or act of rebellion or any of the hundred other things reflected in M'gann's worried eyes as she helps Zatanna pack up her room.
If she could, Zatanna would explain it to her, but she doesn't know how to make M'gann understand. The cave is the only home on Earth M'gann has ever known, and Zatanna knows that the idea of wanting to leave is one that M'gann will never quite grasp. But even if Zatanna got used to the cave, to its long silences and abrupt bouts of life, it's never been her home. The cave was just where she lived.
Zatanna had a home once. She knows the difference.
But even though it makes her feel like a terrible person, it's still a relief when Artemis comes to join them, when all the boxes are unloaded from the bioship and into the tiny studio that Zatanna found in New York.
M'gann hugs her tightly when she leaves, and asks, "Are you sure you'll be alright?"
Zatanna smiles at her, doing her best to reassure but knowing that it's not possible. "I'll be fine," she says. She nods her head towards Artemis. "Besides, I won't be alone."
M'gann wants to say more, Zatanna knows that she does, but all she does is nod and hug Zatanna one more time before leaving. M'gann's silence means more to her than Zatanna will ever feel comfortable saying.
Artemis, bless her, knows this and simply says, "If we want somewhere to sleep tonight, we should probably get started on the boxes."
Zatanna lets out a loud breath, surveying the stacks that suddenly feel like far too much for such a small space. But she hadn't wanted to leave anything behind. She nodded. "You're right. We should."
So together, they cobble together her new home. Artemis unpacks the brand new pots and pans Mrs. West sent her as a housewarming gift in the postage stamp sized kitchen. Zatanna hangs her clothes in the closet and tucks the rest into drawers. By tacit agreement, both of them leave the television for Dick and Wally to deal with tomorrow when they're finally allowed to visit, not because the girls aren't perfectly capable of doing it themselves, but because it's not worth the headache of the boys telling them how they could have done it better. They've both lived through enough electronics related lectures to know that's exactly what would happen.
Boxes get broken down and stacked. Order starts to reign where before there had only been chaos.
It's night by then, and Artemis makes the bed that they're going to share for tonight just like they did years ago when Zatanna was first settling into the cave. Zatanna sets the picture of her and her father on her tenth birthday on the bedside table, in the same place it's sat for the last four years. She stares at it, her chest aching the way it always does whenever she lets herself think about all the things that her father should have been there to see. She doesn't want to cry, but she feels the tears well in her eyes and knows that stopping them entirely is a lost cause.
Artemis puts an arm around her shoulders and squeezes tight. Zatanna takes a shuddering breath and dashes away the tears she wasn't able to force back.
"I think we're done," Artemis says. "Pizza?"
Zatanna looks around the room where she's going to build her life and nods her head.
"Pizza," she agrees.
study buddies (young justice; wally/artemis; 436 words)
They don't study together. It's a combination of things really, mostly their very different schedules and their very different study habits. Artemis is a planner, with color coded study schedules and outlines and summaries of the readings. Wally is more haphazard in his approach, pulling all-nighters with a frequency that makes Artemis roll her eyes, but it's not like she can argue with his results when he makes the Dean's List every quarter.
But then they decide to take a lit class together their junior year, and suddenly studying together is something that makes all the sense in the world. And it is terrible.
They're sitting in the library together (because they both agreed that studying in their apartment was an awful idea), and Artemis is ready to tear out her hair. Wally keeps saying hello to everyone, because apparently he knows everyone and they haven't gotten anywhere on her outline and if she fails this test she is never sleeping with him ever again.
She tells him this and Wally's eyes go wide.
He picks up his highlighter with a gulp and says, "Well why didn't you say so?"
"I just did," she points out, and Wally just frowns and shakes his head, like he can't believe she just said that.
"What do I get if we get an A?" he asks, changing the subject as he thumbs through his copy of Norton until he finds the first poem that's going to be on their exam.
She tilts her head to the side, considering. "Sex?" she says, because it's clearly the answer he's looking for.
Wally makes an impatient noise. "Please. I want specifics."
"What do you want?" she asks, almost afraid of the answer.
"Sex here," he says immediately.
Now it's her turn for her eyes to go wide and she glances around her to the full tables that surround them before looking back at Wally. "Like, here here?"
"I was thinking more like the stacks," Wally says, amusement laced through his voice, "but okay, if you're into that."
"Wally," she hisses, and he laughs. She hates him.
"You love me," he says, like he can read her mind.
And yeah, she does. "Deal."
"Deal?" Wally asks, like he's forgotten what they're talking about. She raises an eyebrow and his confusion clears. "Oh right, deal."
He nudges her book closer to her and gives her a pointed look. "Weren't we supposed to be studying?"
Artemis is suddenly very sure that she will be having sex up against shelves of books very soon.
*
She's right.
cream and sugar (young justice; wally/artemis; 566 words)
It's Saturday night and without planning it, they're all at the Cave. Deciding on a group activity is almost impossible; they have never all agreed on a movie or tv show, board games are too violent, and video games are even worse. So they divide into groups; M'gann on Conner's lap on the couch watching Ace of Cakes, Dick and Wally playing pool, and Artemis, Zatanna, Raquel, and Kaldur play an increasingly violent game of Egyptian Ratscrew.
After a trick where Kaldur is slapped at from multiple directions, he says, "Perhaps we should try something else?"
Artemis doesn't mind the hitting, she's in favor of the hitting really, but she's not going to force someone to play when they don't want to. So she starts to nod, but then she gets distracted.
Wally's standing at the pool table, bent low to take a shot that from the sounds of Dick's heckling he has no chance to make. But he does and when he raises his arms over his head in triumph, his shirt rides up over his abs and she's struck by the sudden and frankly quite desperate need to lick them.
She pushes her chair back and stands. "You guys decide without me," she says, already moving in the direction of the pool table. "I'm going to go get some... coffee."
"Right," Zatanna says, snickering into her hand. "Coffee."
Artemis grins at her and then goes after her boy. She isn't Dick, but she's a pretty good sneak so Wally doesn't see her coming. She slips her arm around his waist, and hooks her thumb in the pocket of his jeans. He doesn't jump. It's kind of disappointing.
"Well, hi," he says, looking down at her with an easy smile on his face. "Want to play winner?"
"Actually," she says, pressing her body closer into his side, hoping he'll get the hint. He doesn't. "I was hoping I could borrow you for a little while. I want to go make coffee."
"Coffee?" Wally frowns. "Babe, really?"
"Really," she says. She tries to beam the actually meaning of what she wants into his brain with her eyes. "Coffee."
Dick snickers, just like Zatanna had. "I think she wants coffee, man. You should go get coffee."
"Oh," Wally says, his confusion clearing. "Coffee." He drops the pool cue against the table and wraps his arm around her waist. "Why didn't you just say so?"
She stares at him, trying to decide if his total Wally-ness has done anything to turn her off. It hasn't. "I did."
He shakes his head but starts steering her in the direction of their bedrooms which is in the opposite direction of the kitchen. "You know that I'm bad with code words," he says.
"Yes," she says and then they're in her room and he has her crowded back against the door. "But it's coffee. I figured you could work it out for yourself."
"Let me make it up to you," Wally says, kissing her quickly and then dropping to his knees. He kisses the exposed skin on her stomach and unbuttons her jeans, slipping his hands below the denim and tugging it down. "In fact, it would be my pleasure."
Her hands knot in his hair and she lets him do just that.
*
She finally gets to lick his abs later. Much later.
the principal's office (young justice; dick/zatanna; 800 words)
The door to his office is closed. Zatanna knocks, at first hesitant and then more sure. She shuffles her feet while she waits for him to answer. She knows that the waiting is part of her punishment.
"Come in," he says finally, and she pushes open the door.
Dick -- Mr. Grayson, she corrects herself -- is sitting behind the desk, a stern look on his face. His eyes sweep over her from head to toe, taking in her too-short plaid skirt and fitted white blouse and tie. She sees him study her legs, as if measuring the space between her knees and the hem. He makes a low tsk-ing sound and raises his eyes to hers. She shivers.
She knows what is next.
"Miss Zatara," he says, his voice pitched low and gravelly. "Why are you here?"
"Dinah -- Ms. Lance -- sent me," she answers, stumbling over her words.
"And why did she send you?"
"I was late."
"She wouldn't send you to my office just for being late," he says. He sounds amused, but his eyes are hot on hers, and she presses her thighs together as if it can stop the ache that's building between them. "What else?"
"I was rude," she says, adopting a sullen tone. "I talked back."
"You shouldn't have done that," he says. "That was bad."
She nods. "I know."
"Do you know what happens to bad girls in my office?"
She does. It's why she's been wet since before she even stepped inside. "No, sir.'
He sighs and crooks his finger at her. "Come here, Miss Zatara."
She walks towards him, trying to walk slowly like she's dreading her fate when all she wants to do is run to his side. She rounds the corner of his desk on shaking legs and he pushes his chair back, pats his knee.
"Sit down," he orders.
She obeys, perching primly on his leg, but he has other ideas. His hands go to her hips, shifting her body until her back is pressed against his chest and she's straddling his hard thigh. It's not the only part of him that's hard and she has to bite her lip to keep from crying out.
He skims his fingers up her bare thighs, until they creep just beneath the hem of her skirt. They don't go further. Her head tips back against his chest, and his breath is hot against her neck when he laughs.
"Is this skirt regulation length?" he asks. "You wouldn't have come for punishment in something that you'd need to be punished for too, would you?"
She shakes her head weakly. "No, sir," she says. The lie isn't in the least bit convincing and he laughs again.
"Liar," he says, and his fingers finally move higher.
She gasps when his fingers brush against the cotton of her panties, moans when the slide beneath it.
"You're wet," he says.
"Yes."
"Do good girls get wet from being punished?"
"No," she says, shaking her head. "No."
He takes her ear between his teeth. "Does that mean that you admit that you're bad?"
She shakes her head desperately, pressing herself down against his leg, trying to make him move his fingers to where she needs them. He doesn't move and she cries out in frustration.
His mouth skims lower, pressing wet kisses against her neck. "Admit it," he says. "If you admit it, I'll give you what you need."
She shakes her head again and he bites at the spot where her neck meets her shoulder.
"Admit it," he orders, his voice gone hoarse. "Admit it, Zee --"
"Yes," she gasps. "I'm bad."
His fingers plunge inside her immediately and with his other hand he turns her head so that his mouth covers hers. Their tongues tangle together in imitation of what he's doing to her with his hand. She rocks against him, riding his hand and thigh and god, this is all going to be over in seconds.
She tears her mouth away, gasping his name. "I'm going to --"
"Yes," he says, twisting his fingers inside her. "Now."
She comes and he works her through it until she's nothing more than a quivering mass of aftershocks and all she wants to do is curl up in his lap and purr. She tells him this, and he laughs.
"You know," she says, twisting her neck so that she can look up at him, "this made me realize something important."
"What's that?" he asks.
"If we ever have kids, they are never going to a school where there are uniforms."
He laughs again, low and deep, and gathers her more firmly against his chest. He kisses her hair.
"Pervert," she says.
"I love you too," he answers.
Zatanna moves out of the cave the day after her high school graduation. It's not an impulsive decision or act of rebellion or any of the hundred other things reflected in M'gann's worried eyes as she helps Zatanna pack up her room.
If she could, Zatanna would explain it to her, but she doesn't know how to make M'gann understand. The cave is the only home on Earth M'gann has ever known, and Zatanna knows that the idea of wanting to leave is one that M'gann will never quite grasp. But even if Zatanna got used to the cave, to its long silences and abrupt bouts of life, it's never been her home. The cave was just where she lived.
Zatanna had a home once. She knows the difference.
But even though it makes her feel like a terrible person, it's still a relief when Artemis comes to join them, when all the boxes are unloaded from the bioship and into the tiny studio that Zatanna found in New York.
M'gann hugs her tightly when she leaves, and asks, "Are you sure you'll be alright?"
Zatanna smiles at her, doing her best to reassure but knowing that it's not possible. "I'll be fine," she says. She nods her head towards Artemis. "Besides, I won't be alone."
M'gann wants to say more, Zatanna knows that she does, but all she does is nod and hug Zatanna one more time before leaving. M'gann's silence means more to her than Zatanna will ever feel comfortable saying.
Artemis, bless her, knows this and simply says, "If we want somewhere to sleep tonight, we should probably get started on the boxes."
Zatanna lets out a loud breath, surveying the stacks that suddenly feel like far too much for such a small space. But she hadn't wanted to leave anything behind. She nodded. "You're right. We should."
So together, they cobble together her new home. Artemis unpacks the brand new pots and pans Mrs. West sent her as a housewarming gift in the postage stamp sized kitchen. Zatanna hangs her clothes in the closet and tucks the rest into drawers. By tacit agreement, both of them leave the television for Dick and Wally to deal with tomorrow when they're finally allowed to visit, not because the girls aren't perfectly capable of doing it themselves, but because it's not worth the headache of the boys telling them how they could have done it better. They've both lived through enough electronics related lectures to know that's exactly what would happen.
Boxes get broken down and stacked. Order starts to reign where before there had only been chaos.
It's night by then, and Artemis makes the bed that they're going to share for tonight just like they did years ago when Zatanna was first settling into the cave. Zatanna sets the picture of her and her father on her tenth birthday on the bedside table, in the same place it's sat for the last four years. She stares at it, her chest aching the way it always does whenever she lets herself think about all the things that her father should have been there to see. She doesn't want to cry, but she feels the tears well in her eyes and knows that stopping them entirely is a lost cause.
Artemis puts an arm around her shoulders and squeezes tight. Zatanna takes a shuddering breath and dashes away the tears she wasn't able to force back.
"I think we're done," Artemis says. "Pizza?"
Zatanna looks around the room where she's going to build her life and nods her head.
"Pizza," she agrees.
study buddies (young justice; wally/artemis; 436 words)
They don't study together. It's a combination of things really, mostly their very different schedules and their very different study habits. Artemis is a planner, with color coded study schedules and outlines and summaries of the readings. Wally is more haphazard in his approach, pulling all-nighters with a frequency that makes Artemis roll her eyes, but it's not like she can argue with his results when he makes the Dean's List every quarter.
But then they decide to take a lit class together their junior year, and suddenly studying together is something that makes all the sense in the world. And it is terrible.
They're sitting in the library together (because they both agreed that studying in their apartment was an awful idea), and Artemis is ready to tear out her hair. Wally keeps saying hello to everyone, because apparently he knows everyone and they haven't gotten anywhere on her outline and if she fails this test she is never sleeping with him ever again.
She tells him this and Wally's eyes go wide.
He picks up his highlighter with a gulp and says, "Well why didn't you say so?"
"I just did," she points out, and Wally just frowns and shakes his head, like he can't believe she just said that.
"What do I get if we get an A?" he asks, changing the subject as he thumbs through his copy of Norton until he finds the first poem that's going to be on their exam.
She tilts her head to the side, considering. "Sex?" she says, because it's clearly the answer he's looking for.
Wally makes an impatient noise. "Please. I want specifics."
"What do you want?" she asks, almost afraid of the answer.
"Sex here," he says immediately.
Now it's her turn for her eyes to go wide and she glances around her to the full tables that surround them before looking back at Wally. "Like, here here?"
"I was thinking more like the stacks," Wally says, amusement laced through his voice, "but okay, if you're into that."
"Wally," she hisses, and he laughs. She hates him.
"You love me," he says, like he can read her mind.
And yeah, she does. "Deal."
"Deal?" Wally asks, like he's forgotten what they're talking about. She raises an eyebrow and his confusion clears. "Oh right, deal."
He nudges her book closer to her and gives her a pointed look. "Weren't we supposed to be studying?"
Artemis is suddenly very sure that she will be having sex up against shelves of books very soon.
*
She's right.
cream and sugar (young justice; wally/artemis; 566 words)
It's Saturday night and without planning it, they're all at the Cave. Deciding on a group activity is almost impossible; they have never all agreed on a movie or tv show, board games are too violent, and video games are even worse. So they divide into groups; M'gann on Conner's lap on the couch watching Ace of Cakes, Dick and Wally playing pool, and Artemis, Zatanna, Raquel, and Kaldur play an increasingly violent game of Egyptian Ratscrew.
After a trick where Kaldur is slapped at from multiple directions, he says, "Perhaps we should try something else?"
Artemis doesn't mind the hitting, she's in favor of the hitting really, but she's not going to force someone to play when they don't want to. So she starts to nod, but then she gets distracted.
Wally's standing at the pool table, bent low to take a shot that from the sounds of Dick's heckling he has no chance to make. But he does and when he raises his arms over his head in triumph, his shirt rides up over his abs and she's struck by the sudden and frankly quite desperate need to lick them.
She pushes her chair back and stands. "You guys decide without me," she says, already moving in the direction of the pool table. "I'm going to go get some... coffee."
"Right," Zatanna says, snickering into her hand. "Coffee."
Artemis grins at her and then goes after her boy. She isn't Dick, but she's a pretty good sneak so Wally doesn't see her coming. She slips her arm around his waist, and hooks her thumb in the pocket of his jeans. He doesn't jump. It's kind of disappointing.
"Well, hi," he says, looking down at her with an easy smile on his face. "Want to play winner?"
"Actually," she says, pressing her body closer into his side, hoping he'll get the hint. He doesn't. "I was hoping I could borrow you for a little while. I want to go make coffee."
"Coffee?" Wally frowns. "Babe, really?"
"Really," she says. She tries to beam the actually meaning of what she wants into his brain with her eyes. "Coffee."
Dick snickers, just like Zatanna had. "I think she wants coffee, man. You should go get coffee."
"Oh," Wally says, his confusion clearing. "Coffee." He drops the pool cue against the table and wraps his arm around her waist. "Why didn't you just say so?"
She stares at him, trying to decide if his total Wally-ness has done anything to turn her off. It hasn't. "I did."
He shakes his head but starts steering her in the direction of their bedrooms which is in the opposite direction of the kitchen. "You know that I'm bad with code words," he says.
"Yes," she says and then they're in her room and he has her crowded back against the door. "But it's coffee. I figured you could work it out for yourself."
"Let me make it up to you," Wally says, kissing her quickly and then dropping to his knees. He kisses the exposed skin on her stomach and unbuttons her jeans, slipping his hands below the denim and tugging it down. "In fact, it would be my pleasure."
Her hands knot in his hair and she lets him do just that.
*
She finally gets to lick his abs later. Much later.
the principal's office (young justice; dick/zatanna; 800 words)
The door to his office is closed. Zatanna knocks, at first hesitant and then more sure. She shuffles her feet while she waits for him to answer. She knows that the waiting is part of her punishment.
"Come in," he says finally, and she pushes open the door.
Dick -- Mr. Grayson, she corrects herself -- is sitting behind the desk, a stern look on his face. His eyes sweep over her from head to toe, taking in her too-short plaid skirt and fitted white blouse and tie. She sees him study her legs, as if measuring the space between her knees and the hem. He makes a low tsk-ing sound and raises his eyes to hers. She shivers.
She knows what is next.
"Miss Zatara," he says, his voice pitched low and gravelly. "Why are you here?"
"Dinah -- Ms. Lance -- sent me," she answers, stumbling over her words.
"And why did she send you?"
"I was late."
"She wouldn't send you to my office just for being late," he says. He sounds amused, but his eyes are hot on hers, and she presses her thighs together as if it can stop the ache that's building between them. "What else?"
"I was rude," she says, adopting a sullen tone. "I talked back."
"You shouldn't have done that," he says. "That was bad."
She nods. "I know."
"Do you know what happens to bad girls in my office?"
She does. It's why she's been wet since before she even stepped inside. "No, sir.'
He sighs and crooks his finger at her. "Come here, Miss Zatara."
She walks towards him, trying to walk slowly like she's dreading her fate when all she wants to do is run to his side. She rounds the corner of his desk on shaking legs and he pushes his chair back, pats his knee.
"Sit down," he orders.
She obeys, perching primly on his leg, but he has other ideas. His hands go to her hips, shifting her body until her back is pressed against his chest and she's straddling his hard thigh. It's not the only part of him that's hard and she has to bite her lip to keep from crying out.
He skims his fingers up her bare thighs, until they creep just beneath the hem of her skirt. They don't go further. Her head tips back against his chest, and his breath is hot against her neck when he laughs.
"Is this skirt regulation length?" he asks. "You wouldn't have come for punishment in something that you'd need to be punished for too, would you?"
She shakes her head weakly. "No, sir," she says. The lie isn't in the least bit convincing and he laughs again.
"Liar," he says, and his fingers finally move higher.
She gasps when his fingers brush against the cotton of her panties, moans when the slide beneath it.
"You're wet," he says.
"Yes."
"Do good girls get wet from being punished?"
"No," she says, shaking her head. "No."
He takes her ear between his teeth. "Does that mean that you admit that you're bad?"
She shakes her head desperately, pressing herself down against his leg, trying to make him move his fingers to where she needs them. He doesn't move and she cries out in frustration.
His mouth skims lower, pressing wet kisses against her neck. "Admit it," he says. "If you admit it, I'll give you what you need."
She shakes her head again and he bites at the spot where her neck meets her shoulder.
"Admit it," he orders, his voice gone hoarse. "Admit it, Zee --"
"Yes," she gasps. "I'm bad."
His fingers plunge inside her immediately and with his other hand he turns her head so that his mouth covers hers. Their tongues tangle together in imitation of what he's doing to her with his hand. She rocks against him, riding his hand and thigh and god, this is all going to be over in seconds.
She tears her mouth away, gasping his name. "I'm going to --"
"Yes," he says, twisting his fingers inside her. "Now."
She comes and he works her through it until she's nothing more than a quivering mass of aftershocks and all she wants to do is curl up in his lap and purr. She tells him this, and he laughs.
"You know," she says, twisting her neck so that she can look up at him, "this made me realize something important."
"What's that?" he asks.
"If we ever have kids, they are never going to a school where there are uniforms."
He laughs again, low and deep, and gathers her more firmly against his chest. He kisses her hair.
"Pervert," she says.
"I love you too," he answers.