Scavengers Rights

It's my birthday! And, since I published a fic last year on my birthday, I figured I might as well do it again this year. Plus, I just happened to finish it yesterday, so…

I also wanted to write something on Bart/Jaime friendship and the whole 'Before the Dawn' thing. So, I did. This was originally going to be something along the lines of an Easter-egg-hunt, but the characters didn't want to cooperate. This is close enough, I suppose.

Disclaimer: Sorry for the confusion, but no, I do not own Young Justice. Although that would be a really awesome birthday present.

"Hungry, Bart?" Gar asked, passing him a part of the pizza as the four boys chatted at the Garrick's place.

"No thanks." Bart shook it off with a smile, still half-focussing on the video game he was playing.

Gar shrugged it off.

"Is it just me, or does Bart never eat?" Robin whispered, practically teleporting over to where Jaime was. The scarab was suddenly on alert at the instant movement.

"Barely ever." Jaime muttered back, frowning. "Don't speedsters need to eat all the time?"

"Kid Flash does." Robin pointed out.

"Maybe Bart's a different type of speedster. What else would it be?" Jaime asked, an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

'Where I come from, it's not stealing, it's scavenger rights.'

Robin frowned. "Last week we were sparring. I did a move that flipped him over. He weighed about half what I thought he should."

"Robin, it's Bart." Jaime whispered back. "He probably raids the fridge every time he's left alone for a second. Eventually even a speedster's going to get full eventually. Or maybe he feels guilty about it but still raids the fridge."

Robin nodded, accepting it.

Of course, Robin didn't know Impulse was from a post-apocalyptic future. Why wouldn't Bart be used to eating as much as he needed to – or at least as much as other speedsters ate?

"What are you two talking about?" Gar asked, looking up from where Bart was killing zombies onscreen.

"The mental block Blue Beetle has on Manoeuvre Seven." Robin said easily. "For someone who can fly, you really seem to have trouble with it."

"Hey!" Jaime said, pricked.

Tim shrugged, grinning behind his sunglasses. "Can I play you afterwards, Bart?"

"Sure." Bart said, fingers moving quickly. "Die, you undead thing! Die!"

Again, his slice of pizza was untouched next to him.

X

Bart took his ear-phones out as Jaime walked into his room at his 'honorary-great-grandparents' place.

"Heya Blue. What's up?"

"Nothing." Jaime said. "Chicken Whizzee?" He offered the bag to him.

"No thanks."

"What? You need to steal it from my locker to eat it?"

Bart hesitated for barely a second. "Course not." He grinned.

Jaime frowned, sitting down. "Bart, what's your issue with eating?"

"I don't have an issue with eating." Bart blinked. "Why would-"

"Almost every time I've ever seen someone offer you food, you refuse." Jaime said calmly, raising an eyebrow. "For anyone else I'd think they were just being polite. But you're a speedster, so…"

Bart waved it off. "You're overthinking it, Blue." He grinned. "Seriously, I turn down a few snacks and suddenly I'm anorexic or something? It is possible for me to just be not hungry."

"Not according to Kid Flash."

"Come again?"

"Kid Flash said that he hadn't ever been truly full since he was twelve years old." Jaime raised an eyebrow. "Are you a different type of speedster or something?"

"You asked him?"

"This was a few weeks before you turned up. I asked about the quadruple decker sandwich with peanut butter, honey, nutella, crackers, and who knows what else."

"Oh." Bart paused. "Um… I suppose I might be a different type of speedster?" He offered weakly.

Jaime just kept looking at him, raising an eyebrow.

Bart sighed, putting his iPod on the bedside table. "Okay, I'll be honest. You know how in my future it's… hard to survive?"

"Yeah." Jaime nodded.

Bart smiled uncomfortably. Most traces of the façade he kept putting up had disappeared. "Well, I'm still having trouble with the idea of there being so much food. I've spent most of my life scavenging for scraps, so…"

"So you can't accept food that's just given to you?" Jaime asked, piecing it together.

"Not really, no." Impulse admitted. "So yeah. I'm always hungry. I'm used to taking what I can get, though. Not being given it. And… you know, half starving my whole life? Speedster or not, there's only so much I can eat at once."

Jaime stared, and then winced. "You okay, ese?"

Bart shrugged. "I'm used to it by now. And anyway, it won't take long before I learn that I can eat more around now. But yeah, it's just easier to just keep scavenging for now."

"I see…" Jaime said slowly.

He still wasn't quite comfortable with this. But really, what could he actually do?

"Any more questions?" Bart said, grinning as he slipped back into the familiar role. "Or did you just come to chat about my eating habits?"

"No, I was just… wondering…" Jaime trailed off. "You want me to go?"

"Nah, it's crash if you wanna hang, but I've actually kinda got some homework to do. Then again I can get that done in like, three seconds."

"But you won't." Jaime smirked.

"Probably not."

"I'll leave you to your homework then, shall I?" Jaime glanced at the iPod Bart had been listening to as he walked out the door.

"I guess. Come back when you feel like hanging." Bart waved as he started listening to the music again.

Jaime saw the speedster absently reach for the bag of Chicken Whizzees Jamie had left behind on Bart's bed out of his peripheral vision.

X

Jaime flipped open his cupboard at home easily, seeing the bag of Chicken Whizzees. He was reminded of Bart and how he used to steal every crumb Jaime left at the cave.

He paused, his mind beginning to work.

Bart needed to eat more, but he could only really eat when he scavenged the food.

In a moment the Hispanic boy was in his kitchen, holding a plastic bag. Fruit, biscuits, a few sandwiches, chips, twinkies, spaghetti, cookies – anything he felt would survive a few days went into the bag. After he was confident that he had raided the entire kitchen, he slipped back out.

Armour coated his skin as he shot into the air.

Jaime wondered absently how he would try explaining this if anyone saw him. He could see the headline now: Blue Beetle goes grocery shopping.

Well, he'd just have to make sure that he wasn't found.

'This is a waste of time.' The Scarab informed him.

"It's helping my friend." Jaime hissed back, reaching the nearest zeta. "I think it's plenty worth my time."

'Impulse does not require help.' Scarab pointed out as Blue Beetle pressed the buttons to take him to Central.

"Maybe not, but I'm helping him anyway. It's my fault that he's half-starved anyway." Jaime growled under his breath, slipping out of the box in the other city.

'It is of no concern or fault of yours that Impulse is undernourished.'

"If future me is the reason there is no food, then it's my fault." Blue Beetle took to the sky again.

'There is no evidence to support the idea in the future you will withhold food. Impulse has mentioned nothing of the sort.'

"Indirectly or directly, I've had – going to have – something to do with it. Now shut up." Jaime growled as he neared the Garrick's place.

Blue Beetle landed in the garden, hidden from any civilians. In a moment the armour had retracted. The house appeared deserted.

For a place in which there were two super-hero residents (okay, a retired one and a junior one, but they still counted) the security was pretty terrible. The door was left open.

Then again, speedsters were notoriously bad at that. Jaime could easily see Bart crashing into the door and breaking it down. Maybe it was a whole lot easier just to leave it open.

Jaime slipped into the two speedster (and Joan, of course)'s house, holding a plastic bag of food intended for a time-traveller who had issues eating food he hadn't scavenged for.

His life had become a lot stranger since a homicidal alien scarab had attached itself to his spine.

Reaching into the bag, Jaime pulled out a sandwich and slipped it under the couch. He dropped fruit behind the TV, biscuits on top of the fridge and food wherever else he thought Bart would look.

Now all he needed was for Bart to find it.

X

Bart zipped into the house. "Heya guys? Miss me?"

No-one answered.

The speedster shot around. "Hello? Anyone here? Hello? Huh, guess I'm home alone. Okay then."

Casually the speedster zipped to the TV, looking for the remote.

He slipped a hand down under the couch cushions, feeling around. His hand curled around a plastic circle instead.

Pulling it out, Bart found a container full of cookies.

In a moment the empty container was in the dishwasher as Bart brushed crumbs off.

So, who dropped a container of cookies behind a couch? That was hardly something one expected to find back there.

Bart shrugged it off and continued looking for the remote. His fingers slipped under the couch and pulled out a glad-wrapped sandwich.

Again, he devoured it hungrily, frowning.

The people in this era were certainly much less cautious with their food, but this was the first time he'd found pristinely contained food just abandoned.

He paused thoughtfully.

I wonder what else is left behind?

In a moment the time-travelling speedster had zipped around the room, finding multiple different snacks. All of which seemed barely a day old, if that, and left behind in just the places he'd look.

Was this stuff left behind purposely for some reason or another? Bart thought he'd heard of something called 'Easter' which had a scavenger hunt like this…

Well, he hoped it wasn't being left behind on purpose.

"Oh, hiya Bart." Joan said with a smile as she walked in.

"Hey!" Bart jumped forwards and hugged his honorary great-grandmother. "Quick question, when's Easter?"

"Easter?" The elderly woman blinked, pulling the time-traveller off from her. "Not for several months – don't they have it in the future?"

"It's kinda died down a little." Bart said casually. Technically not a lie, just an understatement. "I so wanna try it though. Sounds crash."

Joan smirked. "Well, you can, just not quite yet."

"Okay. Hey, is there any other holiday or tradition involving spreading food around the house?"

"Not that I'm aware of. None that we celebrate, at any rate."

"Okay." Bart said thoughtfully. "So is there any reason that there would be food randomly placed around the house?"

"Not really." Joan paused. "Why?"

"Nothing. I just thought that it sounds like some really crash holidays we could try." Bart mused.

Joan smiled. "Okay. We can celebrate your birthday with a scavenger hunt."

"Crash!" Bart grinned, genuinely excited about that idea.

He was still a little confused, but shrugged it off. "Hey, speaking of my birthday, would I be turning negative years since I haven't been born yet or something?"

X

One week later

"Umm… what are you doing?"

Jaime jolted, spinning around to see the teenage speedster staring blankly at him.

"Uh, hi Bart."

"Hi Blue. What are you doing?" Bart said, his eyes on the bag of food Blue Beetle had in his hand.

"I was – um… this is a tradition you haven't found yet?" Jaime offered.

Bart blinked. "Come again?"

"Sure! Don't you have… Gorb Gorb in the future?"

"Gorb Gorb." Bart repeated. "The traditional day of sneaking food into one of your friend's houses?"

"Um… yes."

Bart raised an eyebrow. "And so every few days for a bit over a week you've been sneaking in here?"

"…Yes."

"Okay." Bart smirked. "So, tell me more about this holiday. I am honestly quite curious about it."

Jaime hesitated, and shrugged. "Gorb Gorb started when I found out one of my friends was so used to starving to death that he needed to scavenge food for him feeling comfortable enough to eat it."

"I… umm…" Now it was Bart's turn to be uncomfortable. "So you've been doing this… because you were worried about me?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Jaime admitted.

"I…" Bart blinked. "Wow. Um… thanks, I guess. Mildly creepy, but appreciated."

Jaime smiled awkwardly, reaching into the bad. "Chicken Whizzee?" He pulled out a bag and offered it to the speedster.

Bart hesitated, and then zipped forwards, taking the bag. "Thanks." He said cautiously, opening it. "So where do you get all this food, anyway?"

"To be honest, Mum probably thinks we have gremlins or something since it's been disappearing for the past week." Jaime grinned.

"Crash." Bart grinned, swallowing a mouthful of Chicken Whizzees. "Well, not for her, but still."

Jaime shrugged. "So, I actually have to go. I'll see you later, ese?"

"Yeah, sure." Bart agreed.

Blue Beetle shrugged, armour spreading out. He shot into the air and lightly flew out.

Bart watched him go, and then casually walked over to the abandoned bag and picked it up.

No sense letting good food go to waste. He had a hard time imagining Jaime would mind.

X

"Hungry?" Robin passed a container of cookies around.

"No thanks." Bart shook his head subtly.

"Sure." Gar took a cookie. His eyes widened. "Oh, wow. This is one of the most delicious cookies I've ever had, and my sister is M'gann."

"Who makes these?" Jaime said, amazed.

"Agent A." Robin grinned.

"Bart, you've got to try this." Gar insisted, passing the container.

"I…" Bart hesitated, looking at his friends. Then he paused and slowly took a cookie.

Jaime grinned at him.

"Oh, wow. These are good." Bart's eyes widened, biting on his cookie.

"Mmm-hmm." Robin nodded with a grin. "One of the unexpected perks of being a Bat."

"What?" Gar raised an eyebrow. "Batman eats cookies?"

Robin cocked an eyebrow behind his glasses. "You've tasted them. You tell me whether you reckon anyone might not like Agent A's cookies."

"Fair enough." Jaime agreed, reaching for another.

The speedster was still looking at the container. His fingers were twitching, like he wanted to go for more.

Jaime subtly pushed it towards him with a smile.

Bart caught his eye, and smiled awkwardly. But he hesitantly reached for another cookie.

Breaking it in half, Bart offered half to Jaime.

Jaime shook his head, one eye on Robin and Gar as they got into a conversation about some video game or another. "You eat it."

"No, I-"

"I don't have issues with accepting food." Jaime said in an undertone. "Nor am I half-starved to death."

"Neither am I…" Bart muttered, eating the cookie anyway.

"Sides." Jaime smirked. "You were hungry."

"Okay, yeah, I was."

"Another cookie?" Jaime offered the container to him.

"…Don't mind if I do. Thanks, Blue."

"Anytime."

So, review! Please? It can be my birthday present!

Bonus part/Deleted Scene that Nari thought I should keep:

Jaime jolted up from his homework as a blur zipped past him.

'It is Impulse. Eliminate him.'

"No." Jaime hissed back, jumping to his feet. He scanned around.

The room was empty. The only sign that Bart had been there a few moments ago was a small packet on the bed.

Jaime slipped forwards, ignoring the Scarab announcing that it was unwise to approach such an object.

It was a bag of Chicken Whizzees. A card was attached.

'Happy Gorb-Gorb, Blue!'

Jaime couldn't help but laugh.