Born For This

What A Best Friend Is For

MOUNT JUSTICE

December 23, 00:52 EST

"Wait a minute..." I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, huffing in annoyance, "He didn't even consider our help? And they just left with him?"

Wally tried calming me down, placing a firm hand on my shoulder. "Em-"

"He can assign missions now? What made him think he could do that?!"

I mean, seriously? What gave him the right to ditch his best friends?

Sighing, the speedster shook his head and led me in the direction of the kitchen. All the work we had done with our mentors earlier must have left him starving. Thankfully, Miss Martian and Red Tornado always kept the kitchen fully stocked in the Cave.

I decided to pout, folding my arms as we stopped by the island in the center of the kitchen. "It's not okay."

"I know, babe," Wally replied absentmindedly as he scavenged the fridge to make himself a sandwich.

Just as he pulled out certain ingredients, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Exhaling the rest of the irritation I had, I answered it, surprised to hear the familiar voice of a friend. The conversation didn't last too long before we hung up mutually.

Glancing over at my boyfriend, who was in the middle of stacking meat atop the slice of bread, I revealed to him, "We need to call him."

Green eyes met mine worriedly, setting the other slice of bread on top of the meat, completing the sandwich. "That bad, huh?"

"We'll find out when we call him."

Wally nodded in agreement and pulled the small comm from his pocket, placing it in his ear. I mirrored his actions with my own earpiece. Using my phone, I set up a private call between the three of us. I was concerned for him, after all, the mission they were on seemed to be hitting too close to home. And he could use his best friends.

It took a couple of minutes to get in touch with him when finally—

"Uh, yeah?"

Leaning against the island counter, I twirled pieces of my hair, questioning him, "And where are you at this hour?"

The Boy Wonder responded hesitantly, "Confidential mission from Batman."

Lie.

I looked over at my boyfriend, seeing right through it with a shake of my head. Wally took a bite of his sandwich before pointing out, "Wow. You know what I'm doing? Making a bologna sandwich. Kinda like you just did."

I jumped in next, "We already spoke with Tornado. We know you're not on an official mission." When I was met with silence, I took the opportunity to ask him, "You got spooked by my friend's story, huh?"

"Don't know what you mean, Ems."

Another lie. He could barely get out his lies to me like it was a struggle just to come up with them.

"Who called you anyway? Roy?"

I scoffed with a small roll of my eyes, "Please."

The Boy Wonder guessed again, "Artemis?"

"M'gann," I divulged with a slight shake of my head.

"Anybody wanna fill me in here?" Wally questioned with a mouth full of his sandwich.