"Back To You" (Aqualad x OC)

Part Five

The brown paper bags hit the countertop with a loud "CLANK" and it might as well been as if all Tartarus had broken loose.

"I'm sorry." Kaldur said.

"I know you are," Emma snapped, dropping onto the stool.

"You're sorry about everything. You're sorry about going undercover. You're sorry about lying to me, you're sorry that we're here, you're just-" She folded her hands over her mouth before she could say something she would regret.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" She asked. Somehow, Kaldur could tell that she wasn't just talking about the cover story he'd sprung on her.

Kaldur approached her from the other side of the counter, hands shoved uncomfortably in his pants pockets. "Black Canary was the one who suggested the alibi. I assumed that she would have told you." he said, "But I should have checked with you to make sure that you were comfortable with it. I am sorry"

Emma groaned, resting her arms on the countertop, "I'm pretty sure both Dinah and Bruce knew that I would have been harder to convince with that cover story, even if I'd already said yes."

"Then I could have come alone. I would be just fine on my own."

"Would you, Kal? Would you?" Emma snapped.

"You are certainly not fine here with me," Kaldur pointed out, hands braced on the countertop, "I hurt you, you should not have been all but forced to stay up here with me."

"It wasn't your choice, it was mine."

"Was it?" Kaldur asked cooly, reflecting her tone.

"You're not the only one who has issues, Kaldur," Emma bolted upright, chair screeching, fists curled at her sides as she glared up at her ex-boyfriend.

"You're just the one who's running from them," She said, her voice almost a whisper as she turned and marched down the hall, slamming her bedroom door behind herself.

She sat on the floor, back against the door, legs splayed in front of herself as she looked up at the window. The sun was already starting to go down. She could hear Kaldur slowly, patiently putting away the groceries, and after a few minutes, a note was slid under the door, nudging her hand. She waited for the front door to shut, and then she read it.

"Down to the river's shore. Back for dinner."

Emma crumpled the note, sparks flying from her fingers and singing the paper with a faint smell of smoke.

She missed the trash can, grabbed a pillow, and screamed.

She was one to talk. Here she was blaming Kaldur for his secrets when she had her own.

But could she trust him? She couldn't trust him. He didn't trust her. No matter how much he insisted he shouldn't have. Since when did he, of all people, follow orders exactly to the letter? They were from a team of covert operatives that blew something or other up every two days.

She groaned as the itching sensation in her back multiplied exponentially the moment she first noticed it. It had been so cold so far, but now she was starting to get used to the cold with all her layers, but the pain in her back was definitely not something her body would let her get used to.

She took off her layers until it was just the t-shirt with the invisible slits constructed by Alfred to salvage her sweaters before she unwittingly tore them apart to relieve the pain welling up inside her.

It wasn't just physical, it was mental as well, she knew. It started the day Nightwing took her aside and said that his intel in Bludhaven reported Kaldur, her Kaldur, wearing Manta armor and leading Black Manta's troopers. Then there was the denial, then Malina island, then losing Artemis, and then Richard and Willow admitted that Kaldur had not betrayed them, and then they had to get him back and help fend off the near-end of the world, and then Willow, her best and closest friend, had left. At the very least, they were all alive, but it felt like such a small comfort in comparison.