Young Justice: Christmas

Winter Wonderland

"Dude! No fair!" the green kid shouted as Virgil Hawkins raised his manhole cover in front of his face as a shield. Static didn't have super strength, but he could levitate materials made of metal with his electricity. 

The snowball fight had turned to a free-for-all when Static arrived. Using his manhole cover as a portable shield, he'd begun attacking both forts at random and even Robin and Cassie, who weren't even part of the fight. Beast Boy turned into a monkey, much to Superboy's dismay, and with his long arms, became a living machine gun as he threw volley after volley of snowballs at his friends. Virgil aimed a snowball at Bart, who was going to be hard to catch. The speedster was easy to see with the trails he left behind in the snow when he ran,you just had to aim where he was going to be, not where he was.

Jaime was the one who finally caught Bart with a snowball across his face. Stupid alien AI luck. The floppy-haired boy fell flat on his face and skidded into a drift of snow while his companions laughed. And then Virgil got a tingling in his back, sort of like spider-sense.

"Uh guys?" He asked, tapping Gar on the shoulder. Cassie, who was helping Bart up, looked over at Virgil curiously.

When he had the attention of his five super-powered friends, Static held out his hands.

"Where's Supey and Miss M?"

With fear striking his blue eyes, Bart shakily pointed a finger behind Virgil.

Virgil turned and looked, but all he could see was the warehouse.

Then he looked up.

Connor stood next to a giant pile of snow on the rooftop, leaning almost casually on the shovel he'd used to scrape it together. M'gann floated in the air beside him, hands over her mouth to cover her childish smile.

Heads up, rookies." Superboy gave a last-minute warning to the younger team members a second before the Martian's eyes glowed green and the snow toppled over the edge-- on top of the six young heroes.

Twenty minutes later, the said six young heroes were inside the warehouse with plenty of blankets and hot chocolate, huddling together by the makeshift fireplace.

When Miss Martian offered to make cookies, Virgil and his friends had readily accepted the apology from their senior team members. Virgil hadn't seen Beast Boy this excited since he joined the team, and that made him happy. Christmas was his favorite time of year, and everyone deserved to be happy. 

Except for the bad guys, maybe.

"Recognize: Batgirl, B14" 

Everyone turned to look as Barbra entered the room. As trained covert operatives, they could easily sense that she was trying to hide her exhilaration.

"Hey BG!" Bumblebee, aka Karen Beecher, called from the loft, where she was sitting in front of the TV with her boyfriend, Mal Duncan, aka Guardian.

"How's Nightwing?" Artemis asked, walking down the metal staircase to greet Batgirl. Everyone sat up at attention at the mention of their old leader.

Barbra looked at the floor and gave an exhilarated sigh. "He's fine. Getting ready for Christmas." She smiled as she hugged Artemis.

A timer dinged from the kitchen corner, where M'gann and Conner were hard at work.

"Cookies are done!"

Garfield and Bart threw off their blankets, crashing into chairs and tripping each other to be able to get there first. Even though Beast Boy somehow managed to beat the second Kid Flash, M'gann made them wait until everyone else had a cookie first. Even when Aqualad said that he wasn't hungry, Artemis took a cookie and forced it into his hand.

Virgil smiled at his new team, the new sort of family that he'd found. There was a tree, however bare, standing proudly next to the door, and a few stockings hanging on the wall over the fake fireplace (it was really a heater built to look like a crackling fire, since Atlanteans and Martians didn't do so well with flammable things).

Even though the fireplace was fake, Virgil had the warmest feeling of peace just sitting there with cookies and cocoa and his new friends.

"Anyway, I was wondering..." Batgirl broke her cookie into smaller pieces as she spoke.

"Yeah Babs?" Artemis took a candy cane from the jar on the counter, and began to stir it in her fresh cup of hot chocolate.

Barbra was quiet for  a moment, perhaps for dramatic effect, perhaps she was trying to find the right words.

"What do you guys want for Christmas this year? And not just presents, what do you guys really want?"

Gar didn't waste a second. "For Connor and Megan to get a hint already!"

Everyone laughed at the alien duo's expense.

Barbra grinned at the two as they blushed. "Well, what do you guys want?" M'gann didn't need her mind powers to tell that everyone wanted them to say "Getting back together with my Significant Other who is currently standing next to me."

"Pass." Superboy muttered, hurriedly heading back out into the snow with Wolf and Sphere hot on his heels. He even forgot his jacket.

"Um...I really don't know. I haven't though about it much." Miss M blushed a bright red against her green skin, as she looked after Superboy.

Virgil shrugged. "I just want to be able to share Christmas with you guys and my family, and be grateful that I'm not still held by the Reach." He took a sip of his chocolate, which was now at a lukewarm but pleasing temperature.

"I want Nightwing back." Robin said quietly. Cassie squeezed his hand gently.

Aqualad was no longer worried about his computer work. "It would be nice to have someone special to share Christmas with, but I am happy to just spend it with all of you."

"Aw, come on, man! You'll find a girl someday! Why not on Christmas?" Mal clapped Aqualad on the back, and Kaldur seemed to take comfort from these words.

Artemis was clutching the handle of her cup tightly.

"Hey, Arty? Everything okay?" Bart asked, shoving another six cookies into his mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." Artemis rubbed her eyes as every on  looked at her. She looked back at Babs.

"All I want for Christmas is to have Wally back."