Shadow and The Outlaws (On Hold)

Chapter VIII

"Let's waste time."
Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars

As Artemis and I make our way down the road, I can't help but feel intimidated. She is only perhaps an inch taller than me, and yet I feel so inferior. But the again, I'm like this with everyone. She makes no attempt to start conversation, nor she looks at me. Not sure what to do, I just follow her. The streets are silent from the morning air. It's summer, so the humidity is starting to get to me outside. I regret putting on jeans heavily.

"Where do you come from?" She asks suddenly, almost making me jump.

"England," I answer quickly.

"And?" She questions, giving me a sideways look.

I frown, "And?"

"I know you come from somewhere in eastern Europe," she says, making me go pale. "There is a trace of it in your British accent."

"Really?" I blink a couple of times. I thought that being brought up in London might have wiped away all remnants of my Ukrainian heritage. Then again, I spent a significant amount of time in Kharkiv with Dad, so maybe that has something to do with it. Then again, I stayed in Sacramento, Moscow, London... God, I can't pinpoint where my home city would be for the life of me.

"You don't know where you really come from, do you?" She asks.

"I am on a team with psychics," I mutter, causing her to break into unexpected laughter.

"You remind me of Natasha," Artemis remarks thoughtfully.

"Well, we were under the same roof, for some time..." I say quietly, my eyes glancing across the street. Is the tar melting on the road? My God. "Where are you from?"

Crap, where did that come from? The moment the query exits my mouth, I slap a hand over my lips, but Artemis is already answering the question. "I am from Bana Midall," she says carelessly, "what I like to call my home."

"That's nice," I mumble, starting to feel less scared by her presence.

"You don't seem very confident," she comments.

"I could set a world record for the world's lowest self esteem," I sigh. Artemis glances at me, then back to the street, before speaking again.

"You also remind me slightly of Jason."

I'm sorry? I blink a couple of times, then frown, and question, "How?"

"You don't want to open up," she states dryly. "You are doing exactly what that stubborn ass does."

Well, okay. Maybe we have something in common...

"You two will get along," she continues, "I have a feeling he will eventually warm up to you."

That "eventually" makes me nervous.

"What about the others?" I mumble.

"Kori's an idiot," Artemis says bluntly, "but she means well. I don't know what Roy sees in her. Bizarro will just be nice to you in general, and Roy probably likes you already."

"And when did that happen?" I can't help the note of sarcasm that creeps into my sentence.

"I believe it happened this morning," Artemis shrugs. "He'll try to be extra nice to you now, because he thinks you don't like him. He has trouble keeping friends. Like Jason," she adds.

Why is Jason slipping into every damn conversation? I don't know this guy.

"That man has trouble with keeping a girl though," she growls. "Honestly, that's the one bad thing about him."

So, I'm on a team with an alien stripper, a fuck boy and a stoic Amazon warrior. 

Fantastic.

Well, Artemis doesn't seem too bad, for that matter.

"Are you going to tell me where you're from then?" She asks.

I shrug, a slight smile creeping into my lips, "Guess."

"Czechoslovakia," she tries. 

I shake my head.

"Russia,"

"That's Natasha," I chuckle.

"Hungary,"

"Nope."

"... Korea?"

I burst into laughter, "Have you gone crazy?" I inquire.

"Ukraine,"

Okay, I didn't see that coming.

(A/N: *Pietro from the Avengers runs by*)

"Got it," I say, snapping my fingers.

Artemis looks at me, interested, "Have you ever been there?"

"Several times," I reply.

"Which cities?"

"Well," I say thoughtfully, "I spent most of my time there in Kharkiv, but I also visited Luhansk, Zhytomyr, Lviv, Odesa, Kam'yanets'-Podil's'kyi, Kryvyi Rih..." I stop abruptly, when I see that my prononciation has threw her for a loop. "We went to a lot of places," I say quickly, to avoid confusing her even more.

"You speak Ukrainian?" Artemis asks.

"так (yes)," I reply.

"How many other languages do you speak?"

I take a breath, "Arabic, German, French, Dutch, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Afrikaans, Portuguese, Japanese, Mandarin, Hungarian, Welsh... Uh, I think that's it, not including English and Ukrainian."

"That's it," Artemis repeats in disbelief. "You can speak fifteen languages!"

"There are much more that that figure," I remind her. "Besides, I still need to get a grip on tenses."

"Shadow, you are a very interesting person," she says, surprising me.

"Thank you." I blink.

"So... I know you don't want people to know your identity, however, can I at least get your first name?"

Okay, how do I say this nicely? But it's only my first name, they couldn't really go from there unless they were desperate.

Alright, only Artemis can know.

"Listen," I say carefully, "please don't tell the others, alright?" She nods, and waits for me to continue. "Emilia," I sigh, "or just Em, whichever you prefer,"

"Nice to meet you," Artemis smiles, "Emilia."

"I am going to bloody regret this," I grumble, and she laughs slightly at my absurd comment.

Well, it's not really absurd.

"лайно," I curse softly.

"What does that mean?" Artemis inquires.

"Shit." I supply.