Shadow and The Outlaws (On Hold)

Chapter VII

"The dreams in which I'm dying, are the best I've ever had."
Tears For Fears, Mad World

I stay in my room for the rest of the night, afraid to come out. Or maybe I'm afraid of embarrassing myself. Or maybe I'm afraid of the people I'm actually staying with. One of the two.

The bad thing is, at eight the next morning, I can no longer ignore the growling coming from my stomach. I've always had an eating problem.

With a pissed off sigh, I rip the bedsheets off, before deciding it would be better to show up in the kitchen not in my Star Wars pajamas.
Goodness, why did I even pack these?

I change into some jeans, and a navy jumper, not bothering to brush my hair. The last time I so much as tried that, Natasha had to call in a professional hairdresser to take it out of my knots, without cutting it all off.

I stare at myself in the mirror. My hair is sticking up in odd places, and is curling kind of like Natasha's, except a little more... Tame, I dare say. Not very satisfied, I open the door to my bedroom. I peek out, watching the hallways.

God, I hope no one's up.

I tiptoe to the living room, remembering the built in kitchen. Cautiously, I poke my head around the doorway, and breathe a sigh of relief, when I see nobody. I then slide behind the counter, and open the fridge. My eyebrow raises, at the sight of hardly anything in there, only a few plastic containers, filled with things I can't really identify.

I may be a street rat, in a roundabout sort of fashion, but I do not eat ramen for breakfast.
Luckily, I spy some eggs, and after checking the expiry date (you can never be too careful), I find a pan, and start cracking. I'm not the greatest cook, but I can fend for myself.

I turn on the heat for the stove, and as I whisk the eggs, I wonder if I should make some for everyone else. Would that make a good impression?

I am about to pour the eggs into the pan, when a voice interrupts me. "You need milk,"
I turn around quickly, my face almost flushing at the sight of a disheveled Jason.

"Oh," I mumble, setting down the bowl, and heading back to the fridge.

"Are you... Making breakfast for everyone?" I hear him question, as I pour the milk in with the eggs.

"I suppose I am now," I mutter, finally pouring the mixture into the warm pan.

"Can I have toast?" He asks, and I whip my head around to eye him skeptically, until I notice he doesn't have a shirt on.

Fuck, those abs... Snap out of it, damn it!

"Ok," I mutter, quickly returning my attention to the eggs. I hear a chair pull out, and I hear Jason seat himself on it.

"So..." He says casually, "what's your real name?"

"Can't tell," I say abruptly. If anyone knew I was a Brookston, they would firstly freak out, and then try and throw something at me. Yup, that's how bad my family is.

"Bad family?" He asks, as if reading my thoughts.

"Are you a psychic?" I blurt out, immediately covering my mouth afterwards. Jason starts laughing, obviously amused by my embarrassment.

"No, princess, but it's written all over your face," he grins.

Princess? I am not a stinking princess, where'd he get that from? Good-looking asshole. I eye him suspiciously, before returning my attention to the eggs. I hear another person enter the kitchen.

"Mornin' Jason. Shadow," Roy yawns.

"Hi Roy," Jason answers, scratching the back of his head.

"I smell food!" Roy's face turns from exhaustion to excitement. I chuckle, still pushing the eggs around the pan. "You cooked breakfast?" Asks Roy, seating himself next to Jason. "Thanks!"

"No problem," I mutter, keeping my eyes down. I hear another person enter the room, and I almost yell, "Oh for fuck's sake!"

"Oh, breakfast." I recognize Kori's lazy voice. 

No thank you? Bitch, try me, I'm being nice!

"Bizarro am hungry," the clone states, whilst walking in as well, closely followed by a brooding Artemis.

This is turning into my worst nightmare, period. I switch my eyes to the eggs, and realize that they are almost done. I look around helplessly for any sign of plates, before Roy calls out, "The plates are all in the left cupboard,"

I breath a sigh of relief, and collect five of them from the mentioned storage unit. Without turning around, I then started transferring the eggs to each plate equally. I hear conversation, so thankfully nobody is focused on me.

I'm still stressed though. God, I'm stressed. I stand there for around six seconds, just to mentally prepare myself, before I mumble, "Food's ready,"

I hear the scraping of chairs, as my heart starts hammering. What if one of them touches me? Luckily, nobody does, and I am immensely relieved at that fact. I sit down in the only chair available, between Artemis and Bizarro, and quietly begin to eat, listening in to their conversations.

"Roy, have you had any calls for any jobs?" Kori asks, yawning loudly.

"Nah," Roy answers, a mouth full of half chewed egg, which makes me want to laugh and be sick at the same time. Seriously though, manners. "We're free tonight, but we have to bust a drug shipment tomorrow."

"We do?" Asks Artemis, poking the food around suspiciously on her plate with her fork. That makes me a little insulted, but not my problem if she doesn't trust me yet. It's not like I'll ever trust her. "No one ever told me," she continues, shooting a glare at the archer.

"That's because you're too busy brooding in your room," Jason snickers. Artemis sends a glare his way as well. My eyebrow flicks up at all this banter, and unfortunately, it doesn't go unnoticed.

"If you think this is bad, Shadow, you should see these idiots on a mission," Artemis informs me.

"Hey, that's not fair, Arty, turning the new girl against us!" Roy whines.

"Roy, stop being a child," Kori sighs, finishing up the remains of her breakfast.

"Bizarro am bored!" The clone announces.

"Oh deal with it, Superman," Roy mocks.

"Hey!" Jason snaps, clearly not happy with the statement. "Don't call the guy something he's not!"

An argument breaks out across the table, Roy and Jason barking at each other, Kori telling them to be quiet, but not looking very caring and Bizarro simply yelling for the sake of it. Artemis looks down at me, with a pissed looking face.

"This," she gestures to the ongoing fight, "is what I have to deal with."

"Must be... tiring," I comment, observing with mild interest.

"You have no idea. I'd talk to Kori, but she'd probably forget everything I told her within two minutes," Artemis leans back in her seat.

"Oh," I squeak. "Bad memory?"

Artemis snorts, "Absolutely. Her alien race has a problem with long term memory, so the last team she worked with, she has no idea who the hell they are."

"Good grief," I blink.

"She slept with half of them too." Artemis abruptly sticks her fork in her untouched eggs, and starts shovelling them into her mouth.

Ok, didn't really need to know that. But I pick up my own cutlery and copy her actions, with less vigour. When I am done, and I feel my stomach is satisfied, Artemis stands up next to me.

"Shadow and I are going out," she tells the table, who suddenly stop arguing.

"Wait, we are?" I say confusedly. Artemis shoots me one of her looks, and I raise my hands in surrender, as I get up as well. "Alright, alright."

She heads towards the door, and I stumble after her, trying to ignore the skeptical looks the others are giving us.