prompt—christmas things and angel wings

Rating: K+
Genre: Romance, Fluff, Friendship
Fandom: Young Justice
Couple: Artemis/Cameron, Article Jr., Frostbite, CamArt
Inspiration: holidays and things and stuff

AU no timeline. Artemis doesn't know who Robin really is.

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It started like this:

"So, what are you doing tomorrow night?" Cameron, who had sidled up to her not three seconds before, looks calm and—no pun intended—cool, in his full iced form and bright smile. Artemis reacts by grabbing his shoulder and pulling him out of line from an attack missile that explodes several feet behind them. "Wow, you're agile."

Artemis flushes and tilts her head, dragging Cameron to the trench after her as attacks rain overhead. "Well, I would be if you would stop distracting me." The comm link in her ear goes haywire with the amount of interference she was getting. Cameron unhooks it from her ear. "Cam!"

"You're nine o' clock."

She whirls, bow ready and shoots down the faceless minion before he could raise his weapon. In the distance there are several more explosions and Robin's signature cackle. "Three o' clock!" she snaps at Cam from some old instinct.

"Already on it." He says and she watches several troopers tumble over the foreign element crackles across the ground before arching up into a cage, wrapping around them. The ice morphs more like water than solid rock over the muzzles of the guns. With the threat eliminated, Cameron speaks again. "There, so about that date—"

"Date—?"

"I'd love to. I'll pick you up around five."

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Which leads them to here: Artemis in jeans and a fluffy sweater with her mother sitting anxiously behind her as she answers the door to Cameron's elfish face.

"No."

"Tiger," Cameron pouts, using her childhood nickname. "You promised."

"I didn't promise you anything! You snuck up on me during a high profile mission and asked me when I wasn't pay attention! Besides, it's Christmas Eve. I'm going to spend time with my moth—" Paula rolls up behind her.

"Actually, Artemis, your father and I were going to catch a movie."

Artemis stares at her because seriously? and wasn't that like breaking her parole?Paula gives her a sweet smile, the very same one Artemis received upon her first day of nursery school and her mother said to her, "give 'em hell."

So now she's on a date with her ex-best friend, Cameron Mahkent, convicted criminal and Belle Reve's favorite parole kid.

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Artemis guesses, at best, that she should not be surprised when Cameron takes her to an outdoor skating rink. It's the seasonal thing to do. And it's cold. Artemis is bundled in a coat, scarf, and gloves and wants nothing more than to make an unannounced Zeta-tube visit to Happy Harbor just to get away from the cold. Even if it heightened her chances of running into Wally.

"What cold?" Cameron asks. "It's in my bones."

"Figures." She says and shoves him because he's a stupid cyrokentic and he feels no cold. She gestures back to the skating rink. "So, you're going to make me pay?"

"No, actually it's free today. Because some people are in the Christmas spirit." Cameron says with a little too much cheer to be normal and they step in line, cutting ahead two couples that aren't paying attention. That would explain the crowd. She notes and glances back at Cameron who looks like a three-year-old on a sugar high.

"What's with you?"

"Uh, nothing."

". . ." She places her hands on her hips and Cameron, at least, has the decency to look serious for a second. "Is it the sort of 'nothing' that will lead to you telling me halfway through this date that you're going to Moscow for two months to train or you stole a panda from the zoo with Eric again and you need help getting it back?"

Yeah, she and Cam have been on a lot of these 'dates' recently.

"No." He says drawling out the word. His cheeks puff out childishly. "I just wanted to spend time with you—er, well, anyone. Eric was busy. Well, he had—Eric's doing Eric things."

Artemis nods slowly.

"And—my dad's sentence has been lengthened." He says like the words were teeth we was pulling out.

"What? I thought his sentence ended."

"Well, they 'dug up' some things so now good ole dad is staying in the big house a little bit longer." Cameron smiles like a way of masking everything and nudges her shoulder. He's smiling again. "Just spend tonight with me so I don't go back for the penguins."

"I will." She jokes, but there's that part of her that wants to reach out towards him. "Cam, you know I'm always—"

"No heavy talk. I just want to have a worry free night for once."

His voice is high and comical but Artemis can take one look at him and know he's dead serious. He doesn't want to talk about it, and it has him on edge. He'll talk when he wants to.

So, with a heavy heart, she drops it and they wait the rest of the way in silence and get their skates. Cameron takes their shoes back in exchange and Artemis inspects the blades and laces, wondering if the contraptions were safe.

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Cameron steps onto the ice first and glides seamlessly like he was still on land. Artemis glares at him enviously when he turns around to help her onto the ice. He offers to hold her hands until she used to it.

"C'mon, Tiger, where's that fire?"

"Frozen." She deadpans, but Cameron smiles unhindered as always and his white teeth look like stars. "Don't let me fall." Cold fingers slide against her wrist from her gloves and Cameron's fingers lock with hers.

"Don't count on it." He smiles and tugs her out onto the ice. Her legs stiffen instinctively and her eyes lock on the ground as Cameron gives her instruction on how to move, bend her knees at the corners and all ways on how to basically not kill herself.

Before long she's rounding corners and circling around like an old pro. Cameron does the same and catches up with her easily, with a wicked grin he turns, skating backwards. Artemis nearly tumbles, watching him maneuver like he was born doing nothing else. As a final bravado, he skates to the center and leaps.

"Okay, Olympic Gold—you training for Rio in a few years?" she calls.

"You know it babe!" He curls back into pace with her and the rest of Gotham public who look awestruck by now. "That'd be pretty cool, huh? A cyrokentic in the Sochi Games?" He says this like there already are.

"Really," she drawls. "Is that all you want for Christmas?"

"Maybe." He hums. "And you?"

"I don't need anything this year. Green Arrow already got me some new bowstrings." She reins herself back and feels odd for even mention her mentor in front of Cameron. But he doesn't leech on the new information that Oliver Queen, millionaire of Star City, often fashions himself as her second-father.

It had been months since they started . . . well, whatever this was, and Artemis was still mastering the rules on what and what not to say in front of Cameron. Since, you know, he was a convicted felon. But Oliver—who she believes to be under strong influence of both Dinah and Felicity, his secretary—gave her leeway in making those decisions for herself. And then hastily ending the conversation due to the unwanted 'boy talk.'

"Just stuff for your bow? Nothing else?"

"No—I don't need anything."

"Don't be so boring. What do you want for Christmas, Tiger? C'mon there's gotta be something. Hmm, what do normal people get for Christmas? Movies? Books?"

"We're not exactly normal Cam."

Cameron's eyes sparkle. "Okay. Hope Diamond?"

"No, it's cursed I don't want it."

"A cherry red, new sports car."

"What would I do with that?"

"Drive it?"

"We live in the city. No."

"A three-day spa trip?"

"No."

"A hat?"

"No."

"Wow, you are hard to shop for. Honestly, someone could get the—" Cameron rounds the corner with her and glances up. "Okay, what about the moon?"

Artemis glanced up at the full belly disk hanging in the clear winter sky.

She smiles at her namesake and shrugs. "Sure, why not? I'll take the moon."

"Of course you would." He mutters. "Okay, Artemis Lian Crock—I, Cameron Mahkent, give you the moon this Christmas. You may do what you please with it."

Tiny snowflakes, like stars, filter down the sky around them. Just around them. Each snowflake was specially crafted and swirling around them but never landing. "Are you—?" Artemis glances at Cameron and takes notices of the frosted tips of his hair from under his hat. "When did you learn how to—?"

Cameron's hand closes around hers.

"Don't ask. Just go with it Tiger."

"That's so cool." She sticks her tongue out to catch a flake and Cameron watches her intently. "I wish I could do something like that."

Cameron cocks his head to the side, cheeks flushing with the biting cold. "Glad I can still be amusing." He smiles and they continue skating under the moonlight.

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An hour later after laughing until her sides hurt and pelting Cameron with snowballs while shouting "no cyro-powers allowed!" they were practically kicked out of the ice rink. Cameron suggested they track down a coco stand for Artemis to warm up at. "I am the iceman, cold never bothered me."

Artemis tugs at his woolen scarf. "Oh really? What's this for then?"

"I'm fabulous." Cameron says flippantly and tosses the length of the scarf over his shoulder.

Artemis flicks the excess ice from her gloves at Cameron. Her ears perk, "Hey, do you hear that?"

"Yeah, sounds like Christmas music." Cameron notes. "You wanna check it out?"

They continue for a few blocks, past busy shoppers and laughing children wielding candy canes as long as their arms. Teenagers pelted each other with popcorn and hazelnuts and couples cuddled close on benches.

"Wow."

"My words exactly."

The music had led them to an open park area with white lights lacing through the barren trees along with dark blue bulbs and fake glass snowflakes. Between each tree was a vendor selling one thing or another, and further beyond kids were going all out in a snowball fight. At the farthest corner, between two outdoor space heaters was the band. They were dressed in red and green with Santa Clause hats. In front of them was a glass case marked, FOR THE KIDS filled with dollar bills.

"Sweet set up," Cameron remarks and Artemis catches sight of the banner saying "Curtsey of Wayne Enterprises."

Seriously, where was that man not?

They make a circle around the vendor's shops, categorizing everything. Artemis stays behind a few stands, inspecting some Vietnamese jewelry (that was really made in China) and moves on, trying to find Cam in the mass of people hustling around. She spots him at the jewelry several stands down but doesn't get far.

"Well, well, well," she turns slowly to see the grinning face of Richard Grayson decked out in some black-and-blue winter coat that looked ready for either the runway or some covert mission in the Alps. "Artemis Crock, whatever are you doing here on such on Christmas Eve? Alone?"

"Not alone," she jerks her head back towards the vendor's carts where Cameron stood. "Impromptu date. An old friend of mine made me swear to go with him so he wouldn't be alone."

Dick's eyes glance over her shoulder and widen slightly. "Uh, extra points for the vocab word, Crock."

"What's up?"

"The sky and seven hundred dollars' worth of fairy lights."

"No," she does a double-take at Cameron to make sure he wasn't doing anything stupid—like flirting with the vendors or stealing anything or using his ice powers—and then back at Grayson, sizing him up.

"Well, wasn't he on the news earlier this year? Some big heist in Star City?"

Artemis felt ice flush through her veins and quickly makes up a lie, adding a little annoyance to her tone. "Oh my God, he gets so many people pestering him because of that. He looks like that guy Icicle Junior, right? And then he had to go and milk it by dying his hair."

Dick looks a little less than convinced, but smiles. "Wow," they laugh. "I get that a lot too. People say I look a lot like Robin, crazy right?"

"Yeah. No offense Grayson, but he's way taller."

"Artemis!" he gasps. "I am offended. Trust me, when I hit my growth spurt I will have you eat those words."

"Whatever, see you later Grayson. I've got to keep an eye on this idiot." She waves and hustles back over towards Cameron, trying not to look over her shoulder and Cameron jumps when he sees her. His eyes flint back towards where she came from.

"School friend?'

"Yeah, Richard Grayson, adopted heir to all this." She makes a gesture and Cameron's lips purse.

"Yeah, I heard about that—lucky kid."

"Smart too, he remembers you from the news."

"Yeesh," Cameron hisses and looks entirely uninterested again.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, nothin', browsing," Cameron holds up a pair of chandelier-like earrings and gives a smile. "Tell me honestly—are they me?"

"Darling, they don't go with that hair." Music begins to rumble through the speakers again. When she looks back Dick and another girl with a mess of red-orange hair—Barbara Gordon from school—are standing by the band, feeding a few bills to the glass case and talking animatedly, occasionally glancing over at them. Dick then takes her hand, saying something that's probably reassuring and begins tugging her in their direction.

"C'mon, Frostbite, let's dance!" Artemis decides and yanks Cameron out of his daze into the center of the dance floor made up from multi colored blue and purple tiles. Cameron yips like someone just dropped an icicle down his back.

"Wha—are you sure?"

"Yeah!" She exhales and stops in the center of the icy mosaic decorating the ground. "Alright," Cameron stands frozen, hands still tangled with hers.

"Uh, Art? I, ugh, can't dance."

"Oh, well that's easy. I hold your hand like this and—Cam. What are you doing?" Artemis stares at Cameron's hand resting on her shoulder.

"Isn't this how?" he asks, unsure.

"No, this hand goes on my waist." She presses his hand against her hip. "My hand goes here." She grips his shoulder and continues to go through the schematics of how to do a basic waltz that Ollie hammered into her head along with other useful things. Like backwards flips and how to steal a car from valet. "And go."

They glide awkwardly for a few seconds, Cameron glances between her face and the ground every two seconds, brows furrowed. His hands turn icy in irritation. "Cam," she mumbles. "Relax."

"Wha—?" His foot went down hard on hers.

"Ow."

"Sorry."

"It's s'okay." She pats his cheek. "Just relax, fun, remember?"

So they continued to awkwardly stumble until Cameron found his rhythm as they worked they're away across the mosaic and in circles. When Cameron was feeling daring he broke away from Artemis to twirl her around, and swung her back into his arms bring her to a low dip. Artemis shrieks when Cameron hoists her back up and they stumble back into step, Artemis falling against him.

"Artemis?" Cam asks.

"Yeah? She mumbles from the warmth of Cameron's sweater.

"It's almost midnight."

"Mmhm," she nods back up at him. "Do you want to go yet?"

His eyes are blue and frosty. "No . . ."

She makes a noise of conformation and nudges her head against his shoulder.

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When they finally do break they noticed a few other couples had taken their lead and a few others clapped. Dick and Barbra are nowhere to be seen. They both flushed embarrassed before deciding to go find the hot chocolate they originally came for. An older vendor woman waved them over and offered up a few Styrofoam cups steaming up from the lids. "Here ya go dears, on the house—er, cart, I guess I should say."

They both slip a few dollars into her tip jar anyway.

"So, how long have you two been together?" She asks, her eyes stealing down toward their practically conjoined hands. Neither could really find it in them to let go.

"Oh, ah—"

Just then an older man snuck up behind the woman wrapping his arms around her and pressing a kiss to her cheek. The old woman jumps and smiles up at him, eyes welling. "Me and this ole bat have been together some thirty-eight years now."

"Two more years and we can finally get that divorce." The old man winks.

She elbows him in the gut for that and Cameron snickers behind his mug. Artemis kicks him in the shin and he spews hot coco. "Wha?"

"Don't laugh!"

"It was funny."

"Don't laugh."

"Sorry, I didn't know I had to await permission to laugh."

"Oh my God," Artemis rolls her eyes.

This time the old couple was laughing at them.

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The walk home was quieter than the first walk. The streetlight glowed brighter, the cars were fewer. They're hands were still linked and Cameron asked Artemis if she wanted to take the bus six times already.

Finally, she kicks up her leg to hit him in the rear. "Ow!"

"Cam, I'm fine. I don't mind walking in the cold."

His grip on her hand tightens reflectively and he smiles. "Gettin' use to it, Crock?"

"Maybe." She hums and sips her hot chocolate daintily. "You never know, I could decide any day now that I was just caught up in the whimsy of Christmas magic—"

Cameron pulls at her hand and his nose bounces against hers, his lips scrap across hers for a fraction of a second. Artemis gasps and Cameron pulls again, face flushing.

"Er, sorry—I—"

Artemis drops her hot coco and pulls Cameron towards her, pressing her lips to his almost tentative then fierce all at once. And Cameron hesitates to kiss back under shock, but he does so obediently. She breathes and Cameron's mouth opens under her lips. She pulls him deeper, tasting mint and hot chocolate—she swipes her tongue across his lip.

She pulls away glancing into his wide eyes and mirrors his earlier expression. "Um. . ." She fiddles with the edge of her scarf.

His face breaks out into a grin and kisses her forehead. "After twelve dates, I'd say the kiss was worth the wait."

She hits his shoulder. "You made me drop my coco."

Their heads bow together, eyeing the cup rolling across the ground, the coco bleeding into the snow.

"You dropped it all your own."

"Humph."

"Do you want another?"

"No . . ."

"Where are we?" They glance around and Artemis wants to smack herself.

"We walked past my house . . ."

". . ."

". . ."

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Artemis wakes hours later with a bad cold and a small mountain of presents to exchange between her, her mother, Jade and her father (the latter two having left gifts outside the windows). Paula gives her tea and changes into the sweater she bought her and Artemis twists her hair up in the combs her mother passed down to her, smiling when her mom said she looked like her maternal grandmother. Artemis jibs back that grandma probably wasn't blonde and tries to get out of bed to make more tea.

Her mother waves her down and tells her to get some rest.

Artemis picks up the book her sister got her and sets her mug on the window ledge pushing aside tissues and the medicine her mom brought in. Something clatters to the ground. Artemis tosses down her book and reaches between the space of her bed and the bedside table and retrieved it.

It was a simple velvet box with a blue ribbon.

Glancing back at the makeshift wrap on her bed and the window she realizes that this is not a gift from her family and sits up on her bed to lean closer to the window. When she and Cameron were kids, if he wanted to meet at a certain time he would leave fog-messages on her window.

She blows a stream of air against the window and a foggy message reflected back at her.

For you the moon.

Curious she glances back at the box on her lap and untied the ribbon, she pops open the box and her breath catches in her throat.

Nestled in the box were two silvery white earrings. They were spheres like two full moons.

"Stupid Cam," she mutters, tears well to her eyes.

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Count how many movie references. Count, I say!

So, the day before Christmas Eve (actually two days before) I got in a big fight with my parents and went about doing everything I could to get away from them. Well, the spirits of Christmas decided "no, Bree, shan't no do that" and I came down with a terrible cold that crippled my voice and gave me nose bleeds (and/or the flu ((the nosebleeds part is normal for me, don't ask))). So my mom came to my rescue and took care of me while I texted her apologies.

Then I also remembered I wanted to write this so I got to work.

I always thought of Paula/Lawrence's relationship being more of a "Better Dig Two" sort of thing (listen to the song for reference). And for those who don't know Eric is Black Spider because yes, both DC and Marvel have the rights to their own spider men. (Ps to any who wish to correct me: I know the whole story, please don't go about telling me again, I just don't feel like typing it out. I think it's amusing.)

This is just a funny, hurried, one-shot of Artemis and Cameron Christmas, and I will work on my other stories later!

Merry Christmas everyone!