It's Not Real: By Luna Mrow

Disclaimer: I don't own Young Justice or its characters.

Warning: High-ish T. Takes place after Failsafe, so spoilers inside.

The fifteen year old archer closed the door to the martian's room. Artemis's eyes were down on the carpeted floor as she trudged along the hallways of the cave. M'gann would be fine. She was strong. Artemis didn't blame M'gann for what happened, she would never blame her for that. M'gann truly thought she had died. The whole day had been a mess, a stupid, stupid, mess.

Artemis passed Superboy while she crossed to the kitchen. She jumped when she saw the clone in surprise. "Hey," she said quickly.

Conner nodded but wasn't in the mood for chatting. However, he saw she came from the hallway leading to M'gann's room and asked, "How is she?"

"You should go see her. I'm sure she'll be a lot better." Artemis gave him a weak smile. "Oh, and you should take her some dinner. She's too upset and she wouldn't eat for me, but something tells me she'll eat for you."

Superboy gave her a crooked smirk and grabbed a box of Ritz crackers, heading towards Miss Martian's room. Artemis stayed in the kitchen and watched the digital clock on the oven go from 7:04 to 7:05 P.M.

She didn't feel like going home. She already talked to Green Arrow, and her uncle told her it'd be alright to spend the night at the cave. She stood there another five minutes in silence, not saying a word, not thinking a thing, just watching the oven clock.

Finally she shook her head and snapped out of it. "Come on Artemis, focus," she told herself. She needed to clear her head. The archer decided star-gazing would do the job.

For some reason she wanted to run and quickly she was outside in the forest of trees surrounding the cave, and finally on the sands of the beach. October was here but the nights were still warm like summer, so Artemis was wearing her cerulean blue nightgown. If she was herself she would've been embarrassed to wear it in front of the others (it was sleeveless with two little spaghetti straps to hold it up and went halfway down her thighs).

But she wasn't herself. Not tonight. Tonight, she was... was... sad. Was sad the right word? Well, she sure as hell wasn't happy.

She thought she died. Almost slipped into a coma. That was heavy. That was... was so... unimaginable.

Artemis laid down in the sand, listening to the tides wash up. She thought about being in the snow with the others, the alien space ships that were attacking. M'gann couldn't fight the ships, she was working with her own Bio-ship. Robin was working the controls. Everyone else... they didn't see the ships coming.

Artemis remembered being there in the blistering cold, and for one sharp second thinking the rays would shoot her friends and she'd watch them disintergrate and die. She would watch Wally die. She would watch a yellow light consume him, kill him, break him down to his skeleton and disappear. No. No, not Wally, she couldn't let that happen!

So yes, in a sense, she died. But it was to save him. Save them. Save him. Save everyone. Save him. Him. Wally.

~X~X~X~

He couldn't sleep. He had been trying for almost three hours now and it was to no avail. It was like a cloud of angst was over the whole team and he could still feel it. That simulation... that was just horrible. That messed him up. He thought everyone was dead, and he was just as convinced he was, too. He thought she was dead.

Wally sat up in his bed and ran a hand through his fiery hair. He looked at his alarm clock; 8:54 at night. He had dinner before trying to sleep but he was hungry all over again. The speedster raced downstairs to the kitchen of the cave. He didn't feel like going home, no one did actually. The only one who wasn't here was Robin, the Boy Wonder went home with Batman.

"Damn, the Ritz box is gone," Wally sighed. Crackers sounded good. He decided eating could be done later and used his superspeed to run outside into fresh air out of the cave. Walking along the beach cleared his mind. Maybe that's why he couldn't sleep, he was thinking too much.

Well actually, he was only thinking of her. Artemis. She died. At least, he thought she did. Those emotions were still strong with him.

Anger. He couldn't save her.

Grief. She really was dead.

Hope. Was she really alive.

Despair. There was no hope. She was gone. She was dead.

But it turns out, they were all alive. It was all apart of a simulation.

Sure, but for how long? What if there wasn't a simulation, what if there was a mission and he really couldn't perform. What if the bad guys really did manage to...

"No," he told himself harshly. "No, don't think like that, don't think like that!" He suddenly noticed a figure on the beach. Artemis. Wally raced to her kneeled beside her a few seconds later. "Artemis!" he exclaimed.

Her eyes slowly opened and she groaned. "Wally? Is that you?"

Oh. She's sleeping. Or at least was until he said something. "Sorry babe, I didn't know you were sleeping," he whispered. He was still getting emotional. There she was, she was really there.

Artemis yawned and leaned up, not knowing Wally was leaning over her, so their faces became only inches apart. But for once, the two didn't flinch back, they stayed how they were and stared in each others eyes. "Wally," Artemis whispered. "You're... really here?"

"In the flesh," he grinned. "Sleeping on the beach tonight?"

"I was star-gazing. I guess I fell asleep. Your reason for being out here?"

"I... I wanted to see you." This threw the archer off. The speedster too, actually, he wasn't going to say that to her, he thought it and his mouth blurted it out. "I-I," Wally stammered, "I thought I lost you."

He was being serious with her. No games. "I'm here, Wally," Artemis whispered. Bravely, she put a hand on his bare neck. "I'm here. It wasn't real."

His hand went on her wrist gently. "I was so convinced it was," he mumbled. "Artemis, I really thought you died. I really thought... that... I wouldn't see you again."

"I did too," she murmured. "I thought I died saving you. All of you."

"I was so angry, so filled with hate, I was this close to going AWOL, Superboy style." She smiled softly. He breathed out a choked laugh himself. "I felt rage I have never felt before. I wanted to kill those aliens. Take everything away from them. Send them into the sun. Anything."

"Calm down," she said. "It wasn't real."

"But what if it was? What if we're sent on a mission and... and we're in that situation again? You would be gone, I'd be here, and I... I'd still not know that much about you." With his other hand Wally gripped the sand and let it squish between his fingers.

She was touched. Really, truly. He cared. Wally West, Kid Flash, the most annoying bull headed guy in the world- he cared about her. She carefully leaned into him until their foreheads were touching. "You want to know something about me?" she whispered. "I like guys who make the first move."

That was really all that needed to be said.

As soon as those words left her, his lips were on hers, and Wally was kissing Artemis. Nothing about this was sweet, slow, or gentle. This was filled with desperation, grief, sadness, passion. He kissed her like it was their last when really it was their first, roughly molding his lips with hers.

Of course, she was kissing him the same, and she pulled him closer and tugged his tee. Wally groaned as he pinned her into the sand, making a sandwich out of her, using the muscles in his arms to hold him up so he didn't crush her. She didn't expect his hand to grip her curves and she gasped, letting his tongue slip in easily. Like the waves crashing on the beach their tongues crashed with each other. One of her hands gripped his fiery hair and the other tugged his tee. Moans, coming from both teens, almost drowned out the sounds of the waves.

However, breathing was evident, and for two teens who never had make-out experience it was certainly evident. Artemis broke the kiss first with a breathless gasp of, "Holy shit."

Wally chuckled as she panted beneath him, trying to ignore the feeling of her chest rising up to him with her breaths. He kissed her neck and she moaned softly again, hugging him closer tenderly. His kissed her down to her collarbone before she brought him back to her mouth again, and finally they kissed softly with gentle tenderness.

And in the morning, when she woke up in her bed, and he woke up in his, both teens had a huge smile from memories of last night. The atmosphere was finally less dire among the team, M'gann felt better too. When everyone gathered to eat breakfast, he couldn't help but smirk at her, and to be defiant she stuck her tongue out at him.

But the two knew how much they meant to one another. They knew.

Author's Note:

Haha wow, it's getting, erm, hot in here. I'm like cherry tomato red right now. Um... I usually don't do... make out scenes. At all. Ever. So... don't... judge me... if what I wrote was bad. Or not good. JUST TRYING TO KEEP IT REAL! XD

Yeah, wow, Failsafe was intense. And by intense I mean, OMFG DID ARTEMIS REALLY DIE?

Yeah, that kind of intense. That episode was by far the most dramatic. So far. Oh jeez. Anyway, I loved Wally's blind rage for Artemis. So cute. Inspired me to write this.

Anyway, um, please review? Thank you for reading. Means a lot. Oh, and I'm in mini celebration, this is my 30th story! Whoo! opens fire on a cannon on confetti* Whoo hoo!

~Luna