A/N: For Spitfire week (if that's still going on…), a sequel to "Could've Worked". Read the other one before coming to this one. Set literally minutes after the first. Of course, the ending on the last one was set for other times, but this is what happened when Robin left the room…

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own Young Justice.


Might've Worked

"Can I talk to you?"

He'd just been talking about her with his best friend. For like twenty minutes, he'd been talking about her. And two minutes and twenty-six seconds ago, he'd found out his best friend was in love with this girl. This girl. Not the other one like he'd previously thought, this one. Robin turned and found himself staring into the shadows at Artemis in her black leather jacket and dark jeans, her blonde hair pulled back in that perfect ponytail, not a strand out of place. And he could only see this going badly.

But who was he to refuse? "Sure…" The words were reluctant, but he could tell by the way Artemis's face brightened up just that tiny bit that she hadn't noticed the fact that he had just gotten done talking about something he was hesitant to talk about. And if she had the same thing to talk about then… He let his yo-yo roll from his fingertips to the ground below before it was drawn back up to him by the thin white string.

The darkness soon returned to her features and things got serious. "You saw… what happened in Bialya, right?" Her eyes were focused on him although he could detect a certain nervousness in the way her words were only the faintest bit shaky and the way her fingers worked to weave together and then pull apart before being interlocking once more. She seemed fidgety. "When…"

"Yeah." He had already figured it out. She had the same thing to talk about. Wally. This would be much more awkward though. He could talk with Wally because, well, he was Wally, his best friend, his partner in crime, but this was Artemis. "When you guys were holding hands and stuff and he saved your life. I know." He tried to keep his head from exploding. All the teenage drama… Sometimes, he wished he had joined a team where they were all younger than him instead of the other way around. The yo-yo dropped once more before returning to him.

"Do you think-"

Another roll of the toy down the string. "It might've worked?" The small yo-yo rolled back up to the boy. Robin figured she wanted to know what Wally thought of it. So he'd finished her question for her on that assumption. It was the most logical thing, wasn't it?

He was wrong.

Her blue stare seemed to widen with a bit of horror. Artemis's muscles tensed, her body going rigid in an instant. "I was going to ask if you thought I was being too harsh on him…"

Clearly, Robin was not one to play Cupid. The young boy sighed and rubbed his temple with two fingers as his hidden gaze strayed to the floor. He counted the nine tiles that surrounded him and then counted them once more just to be sure there were really nine. The yo-yo was quickly shoved in his pocket, the string still wrapped tightly around his finger. Then he looked back up to Artemis, nine tiles clearly around him after triple-checking. "Yeah, you're a bit hard on him."

Now it was her turn to ask her own question. "Why do you think it might've worked?" asked Artemis, her head tilting to one side and a yellow brow rising in a both curious and questioning way. The girl had a taste for wanting to know the truth, having been telling secrets all her life. She took a step towards the little boy so she could stare down at him in an almost threatening sort of way; her arms folded across her chest. This was an answer she wanted to hear.

"Because you and Wally just click." Wally'd said it, Robin was just using it. He hoped that was a good enough cover.

The girl now mentally took a step back. Her gaze found the edge between the wall and the floor that was suddenly very, very interesting. And her mind began to whirl.

Click. That was exactly what it'd felt like. A sudden piece of the puzzle had been put into her life and that noise when you know something's complete just rang out in her mind. He'd saved her from death, a fate that would've been certain had he not come in and told her that "they have bigger arrows". Because, well, they did. She had just been too stubborn to back down.

She'd been grateful. That was something that she appreciated. The fact that he'd been kind enough to save her life. It was so… not Wally. He saved her. And held her like he cared. She nearly shuddered at the remembrance of it; extreme self-control was the only thing that kept her body in check and out of her emotions. The way the curves of her own body had fit perfectly against his, the way she rested her head in the crook of his neck could only feel so right…

These thoughts couldn't be happening…

And in the fear of being found out as a criminal, a crook, an assassin, she'd reached for his hand. Wally. Not Superboy. No, she couldn't reach for Superboy. But would she have? He'd been a killing machine at that point in time, living off of only primal instincts. Wally had just seemed… so tamed compared to the Kid Flash that had come back after every last memory was replaced.

Wally. And having Miss Martian tell her his name… That was funny in a strange way, but she was almost relieved to know who it was behind that dark mask. To know that there was a real name to this mysterious stranger. To know that he was just as human as she was. Because that name had reassured her that she wasn't searching for something impossible.

Searching for…

Artemis regretted ever being able to think once the thought struck her mind like an arrow or lightning or something else sharp and painful and horrible. Because when she'd heard his name, she felt like she wasn't searching for something impossible. She was looking in the right place, looking at a guy with a heart, a mind, and a soul. A guy who could possibly be her perfect other half.

They did click. She'd reached for his hand. He'd held her to his chest. She'd found solace in his company. He'd saved her life. She'd been worried about him. He'd tried to protect her.

She couldn't help but think Why me? What did I do to deserve this?

Robin wasn't stupid. He could read the signs. And the same as before, he was blunt in his questioning, obvious in what he wanted to know. He was sometimes as cryptic as the pyramids of Egypt, but there was one thing he had come to admire about some people and that was their ability to be straightforward.

"Are you in love with him?"

It was the same question as before, one word changed. Two letters, actually. But the meaning came across the same way. Straightforward question that would evoke a surprised and almost hateful response.

In a surprised and almost hateful way, she out of her dreamlike state asking, "What?" The word was almost spluttered, the shock written across her face as if her features were the pages of a book.

He smirked his usual smirk. Strangely enough, that was the exact same response that Wally had given only minutes ago. Seven minutes and fifty-eight seconds ago, actually. Robin let that little string around his finger tighten a bit as he clutched the small orange trinket. "You heard me." Cocky wasn't even close to his confidence level. He was over-the-top ready to hear her say it the same way Wally had.

"No way!"

Totally right and he knew it, that was the worst. Robin's grin widened and those hidden blue eyes glimmered with a knowing sparkle. Yeah, he knew now. Artemis was in love with Wally. And Wally was in love with Artemis. But he wasn't destined to play Cupid. It wasn't who he was. He'd leave it up to Megan; if she screwed things up, she'd have Superboy playing defense. Robin would get pummeled by a couple of angry fifteen-year-olds. No way was he willingly jumping into that battlefield. No way, no how. They hated each other enough, and Robin wasn't in the mood to find out what that combined hate could do if directed at him.

So he held up his hands and took his step back, the yo-yo in his fingers. "Alright, alright, you don't love him, whatever." And he shook his head before turning to head out. "But don't tell me that Bialya was an accident." The boy vanished into the shadows like a phantom of the night, his dark sweatshirt the last thing she could see before he was gone.

Artemis put a hand to her pulsing temple. Not even she was going to call the events of Bialya an accident. They had clicked. It was real. He'd called her beautiful. She thought it felt real. And never before had she felt as safe as she had in his arms.

Wally, of all people, was her perfect other half. The girl let out a long sigh, knowing she could never say anything, never tell anyone, and never explain how she felt to any other living being without having to kill them afterwards. Wally could never know. She could never tell. She wouldn't, couldn't be in love. And she definitely wouldn't say how good it felt to have his hand in hers. It wouldn't happen. Never.


A/N: Can anyone say "denial"? Haha. Episode title and Artemis's opinion. Anyways, thanks for reading, be sure to check out the other half of this if you haven't already. Reviews are great!

~Sky