Snow Queen (Young Justice Fanfic)

Chapter 16: Meeting

"So..." Jace trails off, pausing to grin at each of us. We all sit at the dinning room table. "Let's talk business." Our forced laughter echoes throughout the room, sending chills down my spine. It feels strange to be doing this.

"Right," Wally laughs, wiping a fake tear from his eye. His expression then turns serious, and he fixes Jace with a focused look. "Look," he rests his hand on the table. "My company, my boss, is very impatient. Where's the goods?" Suddenly, this causes the team to erupt into yelling and angry shouts, leaving me silent. Next time I'll remember to do that.

"'Right, 'right." Jackson looks around angrily and stands up. Seeing no turned heads, he picks up his chair and throws it to the ground with a heavy CRASH. He growls at all of us and shouts, "SHUT-UP!" Dead silence after that.

I find myself drawing long breathes. That was a little unexpected, I think to myself. Now having our full attention, Jackson pulls his chair back up and sits down with a satisfied grin.

"Now listen. All of you need to calm your sh-" Nick clears his throat loudly, nudging him with his elbow. He gives us a friendly smile, clearly trying to be polite.

"Excuse Jackson. He's very...tense." Jackson mutters a curse and looks away.

"So," Nick continues. "What's your price?" Artemis breaks the following silence with a lighthearted laugh. Hmm, I don't think I've ever heard her do that before. She smiles sweetly at him.

"Nick, your asking for a price. But I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we don't know exactly what this 'Eximius Serum' is." Nick nods to Leo, who turns to her. His expression is impossible to read. But then, he cracks a knowing smile.

"The Eximius Serum. The thought by Proff. Mallory over here." Jace waves a dismissive hand at Leo, laughing graciously.

"Aw, you don't have to. But please, go on." Leo rolls his eyes and looks back to us, an annoyed expression on his face.

"Anyway, yes. The serum. We call it Eximius because it means 'super' in Latin. And, obviously, these days everything is just cooler in Latin, if you were wondering. It basically makes you, like, twenty times more powerful than Superman. But..." an uncontrollable smile creeps onto his face. "It get's you as high, and is as addictive as heck." They laugh, while we exchange cautious looks.

"That's important information," Kaldur notes. "We should remember to tell Batman." We nod in agreement, and look back to Leo, who begins to continue.

"At any rate," he says, still chuckling. "It really does give you superpowers. The only drug in the world. Right here. That 'nough for ya?" We nod simultaneously, as if we'd thought of a reaction before-hand.

"Awesome." Leo grins and rubs his hands together. "Now, Name your pri-"

"Wait," Robin straightens his posture and fixes Jace specifically with a curious, yet harsh expression. "How do we know this isn't a scam? How do we know you actually have the goods?" I know my cue this time. The team and I exchange curious glances and conversations spark, along the lines of: He has a point.

"Dude!" Lance chuckles at Robin. "Trust me. We've got everything. But for security reasons, they're hidden."

"Hidden?" Kaldur raises his eyebrows at the dealers curiously. "Could you possibly be more specific?" They exchange nervous looks at each other, scratching their heads or looking around randomly. I realize that we may have said something wrong. Looks like it's time to cover-up for them and fail.

"That's understandable." I nod to them. "Especially in your line of work. You can't trust anyone."

"Yes!" Leo grins and points to me. "Yes. Exactly. But look. We wanna make some deals here, people. Clearly there are trust issues...but no biggie." He shrugs carelessly. "We're not here to become BFFs anyway."

••••

I knock on Kaldur's door impatiently. I feel like I'm pouring out my excitement into the rapping of my hand. Please answer, PLEASE answer. My heart soars when he opens the door, smiling.

"How may I-"

"Can I come in?" I ask, looking around impatiently. The hallway is normal, I'm just expecting someone to walk in and jump to some crazy conclusion. And by someone, I mean any of the dealers.

"Of course you may." I dash inside, grinning ear-to-ear. Jumping for joy would be an understatement. I'm practically leaping!

Kaldur closes the door, and turns to me with a concerned expression.

"Arabella, is something the matter? You didn't take any of the drug, did you?"

"No matter at all!" I now pace back and forth, waiting for him to ask what's going on. When he just stares at me, I sigh and face him.

"Look, call came in from Black Canary on Robin's laptop. She wanted to talk to me privately. Since we couldn't bring our phones, I gave mine to her for safekeeping." He smiles warmly at me, walking towards the bathroom to get a sip of water.

"How trusting of you." He remarks from the other side of the room. "Please, continue your story." I nod impatiently.

"Thanks." I reply. "Anyway, so I got a text from my dad! He wants me to come over and talk to him. So since your the Chase of our team, the Buffy of our gang, I thought I'd have to ask you. Can I go, Kaldur? Please?"

He turns to me with a thoughtful expression, then looks away as if nothing had happened. He shifts about softly, refusing to meet my gaze. Finally he opens his mouth to say something, but looks away, causing me to feel outraged. Studying his expression, I begin to clench my fists and grit my teeth. Why is he ignoring me?!

"Well?" I demand angrily, struggling to keep calm. I slowly breath; inhale and exhale, doing what Canary said to maintain control.

Kaldur sighs, and finally makes eye contact. He walks up so that he is now standing in front of me, regret written all over his face.

"Ara," he begins. "I understand that you miss your parents. Believe me, I know what it is like to miss someone you love dearly. However, under the circumstances, I think it would be unwise to let you leave."

"WHAT?!" I exclaim. I can feel hot adrenaline rushing through me, pumping hard.

"That's not fair! Robin goes out, like, every night!"

"Yes," Kaldur agrees. He seems genuinely calm. This upsets me, because I need to start a fight.

"But that is because Robin is Robin. He and Batman are still working together."

I study him cautiously. I want him to lose it. I want him to yell at me and attack me. I want to make him angry! But no! He just stands there watching me. Almost...smiling.

"DO SOMETHING!" I yell, my fists clenched so tightly that my nails now dig into my skin. It would usually hurt, but I barely feel it.

Kaldur turns away, to face the door. He extends his hand to the silver knob. Before he leaves, he looks over his shoulder. "I think you should learn to calm down." And with that, he steps out and closes the door softly.

I stare at the mahogany wood for a few seconds, stuck in a state of pure shock. I can't believe it...he turned me down. He's aware of my abilities, I got upset, but he didn't. I wish I could control my emotions like that. My anger slowly turns into admiration.

"Wait," I say aloud, shaking my head sharply. "No, no, no. This was so stupid!" I find myself laughing, I almost sound insane to my own ears. It's funny that I decided to ask him in the first place, I should've known he'd say no. Oh well. I shrug it off, and set eyes on a window. It's not like he's going to stop me anyway.

[A/N: Hi! I know it was shorter than usual. Just wanted to put out a quick I'M STILL HERE!!!! signal. Oh, I went to a taking thing to see Rick Riordan two days ago!!!! It was ssooo fun! What can I tell you from it? Well...for his Norse mythology series, the main character (Magnus Chase) and Annabeth are REALTED!!!! That man is just TOO smart. I can't think of any more, sorry. :/

Ah well, hope you enjoyed this little chapter! More to come!]