Canary Cry

Chapter 8: Home

Star City, Arrow Cave

August 5, 16:30 PST

Heavy breathes filled the room as the two girls circled each other, Artemis as she had been introduced to Kate, watching every move her opponent made. Just like Kate was doing herself. The two adults watching on the edges of their seats, ready to jump in and break up the training and impromptu meeting short.

They had been at this for about ten minutes by this point, each girl acting conservatively with their strikes, as if afraid to actually punch the other. Artemis's trepidation clear at the notion of sparring with Kate, a girl younger than her and smaller than her felt a lot like the training her dad would put her through and it didn't sit right with her as she stepped into the ring.

But someone had to make the first move and that person was Artemis, Kate staying in the defensive to draw her out.

"I can't believe you thought this was a good idea." Dinah muttered under her breathe to Oliver, who had encouraged the last minute training.

"Decisions were made, I'm not saying they were smart ones, but they were made all the less and now we have to deal with it." Oliver awkwardly chuckled and shrugged. Both of the adults tuning back in when Artemis went after Kate. The younger girl ducking under the older girl's wide swing and rolling to the ground. Her leg swinging out to try and trip Artemis but the taller girl back flipped over the attack. Going through a complicated looking tumbling pass to put distance once again. Kate taking the bait and following.

Artemis twisting gracefully around Kate's attack and grabbing the girl's arm and using her own momentum against her. Kate being flipped onto her back with a wheeze. Artemis huffing out a breath and offering a hand up to the younger girl.

"Not bad, color me impressed." She laughed, her smile dimming as Kate pushed her hand away and got up on her own with a glare.

"Okay, I think that's enough for today." Dinah stepped in, an uneasy smile on her face as she approaches the girls, Oliver right behind her sheepishly grinning.

"Yeah, we should get you home Artemis. Time difference and all." Oliver motioned for the older girl to follow him, the girl sparring one last look at Kate and Dinah over her shoulder as Oliver led her out of the cave and up into the Queen mansion.

Kate met her eyes with a glare that could turn the sun to ice, Dinah seeing that and sighing. Placing a hand on her shoulder, grabbing her attention.

"Let's go home."

Kate nodded after a second, her frown not moving from her face.

~~*~~

Kate had beelined for her room and then the bathroom to take a shower and then retreating right back into her space again. Leaving Dinah to go to her to get her to talk about today, which she knew wouldn't be easy, but knew she still had to try. They had made a lot of progress and the last thing she wanted was Oliver springing this on them both to cause a setback in Kate's progress.

"Hey, it's me." Dinah knocked solidly, not sure if Kate had taken off her hearing aids yet or not, as she did usually when she got back to the apartment. Relying more and more on ASL when in the privacy of their home the more she learned. Dinah doing the same, knowing the headaches Kate had to deal with sometimes after wearing the high tech devices all day. They had created 'quiet hours' where Kate simply left the devices on the kitchen counter and didn't put them on again until she wanted to.