The Hunt ⋆ Young Justice (o.h.)

twenty : you're different

( CHAPTER TWENTY : YOU'RE DIFFERENT )

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"I HATE THIS."

Kaldur glanced at her, unimpressed. "We both know why we cannot go."

"I understand why. The Team is going undercover as siblings in the circus, and neither of us would fit in for obvious reasons." She frowned as she glanced at him. "But what if they need us?"

"If they need us, they will let us know. Two people who look nothing like them would not fit the cover."

It wasn't Hearne's fault she wasn't white (or, in M'gann's case, a shape-shifter.) Sitting there while they were on a mission made her feel helpless, especially as things were starting to come to a head. At any moment, things would boil over, and Hearne would never forgive herself if something happened to them because she wasn't there.

"What are we supposed to do? Wally's at school, and we already finished ours." Hearne sighed. "I can't believe I am going to say this, but I don't think I can keep going to the gym. If I go for a fourth time today, I might just die."

Kaldur laughed. A small, controlled laugh, and Hearne wished he didn't always try to stop himself. "I thought you said that it helped you focus?"

"Which I don't want to do," Hearne said with a point of her fingers. "I simply want to avoid what we can't control at the moment. Wouldn't you?"

"That would be nice, I suppose."

Hearne looked down to her hands, defeated. "I have no other way to do that but the gymnasium."

"Nothing else?" Kaldur questioned, a small flick of humor in his tone. "Do you only go to the gym?"

"Well...," she said, "do you like music?"

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HEARNE DIDN'T KNOW how to explain this feeling. It was light, consuming, like a heavy rock pressing down on her chest, demanding her to feel it. It was suffocating, yet she found herself wishing for more, with the same fascination she held as a small child when she ran through the jungle, barefoot and wild.

This feeling made her feel young and free, in a way she'd only felt when she was one with the trees hanging high above her, and she wanted to feel it forever. She wanted to feel like she was alive forever.

She was always acutely aware of her surroundings, it was impossible of her to not be. But this was different. It felt like her heart had moved to the crook of her arm, exactly where Kaldur's shoulder touched, beating impossibly warm, making her skin flush with heat. Despite the loud beating of music in the room, soft and melodic, she could hear the sound of his heart beat, one thump after the other, paced just so, as if it was a soldier, too.

It was suffocating, and she would gladly go down with it, even if she wasn't supposed to. If this was her downfall, she would take it with a quick-beating heart and a smile on her face.

"This is nice," Kaldur said, and she could pick out his words over the music, "it is relaxing."

"I know. That's why I do it."

The song reached its end with a strum of a ukulele string, stretching off into silence as the next started to begin. It was eerily silent, and a small part of Hearne was squirming at it. She did her best to ignore that part.