Chapter 2 - Odd Man Out

It was nearing noon as Speedy walked down the hall towards the common area of the Tower. He stretched his arms as he yawned and entered the doors of the upper deck. After reaching the railing he leaned down upon it and looked at his fellow teammates below. They were lounging on the couch in front of the television.

Mas y Menos played happily with their Game Station on one end of the large couch while Aqualad watched as they played. Speedy then watched as Bumblebee emerged from the kitchen area and walked over to the couch. She grabbed a magazine from the table and laid on the couch as she rested her head on Aqualad's lap, who didn't seem to mind at all.

The two of them had been friends for a long time and felt pretty comfortable with one another. If one had a problem or just needed to talk, they would simply go to the other. The same thing went for the twins, they had one another to confide in.

At that, Speedy sighed angrily, he hated being the odd man out. "We should be training!" he yelled loud enough for the rest of the team to hear. Because at least when they were training, he felt like he was apart of them.

A little startled, by the sudden outburst, the others were surprised to see Speedy. Bumblebee looked at the clock. "You want to be serious about training now? This coming from a boy who usually isn't up before noon?" she said annoyed as she looked up at him.

Aqualad then leaned into her and whispered something in her ear. "We should mark it on the calendar, this may be a once in a lifetime event." Bumblebee smiled and giggled at his joke.

Speedy didn't know what he had said to her, being so far away, but he knew it was about him; it was always about him. He hated being the butt of their jokes. He was usually a very serious person when it came down to their work, but she always had to make him feel like a fool. And when he did feel like a fool, he got angry, which usually just ended up with him looking like the jerk. "So are we going to train or what?" Speedy stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest.

"For your information, Speedy," Aqualad began calmly. "We've already trained for the day." He then turned around as if the matter was settled. Mas y Menos, picking up on his cue, began their game again.

"Bee, aren't you suppose to be the leader or something? How come you didn't wake me up?" Speedy yelled as he called down to her. His hands had found the railing and he was squeezing it tightly in anger. How dare they leave me out? he thought.

"Hey!" Bumblebee yelled back up at him. "I am not your mother, Speedy! I'm not going to beg every time I need you do something!" She was angry as well. "If you want to train with us then get your lazy, high-maintenance @$$ out of bed sometimes and train." Speedy's mouth fell open and the twins once again paused their game.

Aqualad turned to Bumblebee and put his hand on her arm. "Bee, you're being too harsh on him," he told her.

"I don't care." She swatted away his hand. "Because I will not!" She pointed at Speedy. "I repeat, will not, put up with your pompous attitude any longer. I'm tired of it, Speedy."

"What are you trying to say, Bumblebee?" Speedy asked her. "You don't want me a part of his team anymore?" His face was full of hurt and concern which his mask hid very well.

Bumblebee cast her head down and a took a deep breath. She then rose her head. "That's not what I meant. I want you apart of this team, Speedy, we all do," the others nodded their heads as they agreed. "But you need to learn how to be a teammate. You make it so hard to depend on you."

"I know what it is to be teammate," he spat.

"Then for the sake of us all," she began gently. "Start showing it." She then turned back around to sit on the couch properly. The others stared at Speedy for a moment before going back to what they were doing.

Speedy turned around and headed towards the doors. "dog."

"I heard that, Speedy!" she roared from the couch.



Speedy was underground in the training area of the Tower, honing in on his skills as he shot his arrows at the targets he had set up before he began. He hung upside-down from a pipe on the ceiling as he readied an arrow on his bow. He then released the hold his legs had on the pipe and started falling towards the ground head first. His body began to swirl around as he released his arrow quickly and grabbed another to shot at his targets.

When his last target had been marked, Speedy began to lift his head, changing his position before he reached the ground. He than landed with a thud in a squatted position with one hand on his thigh and the other bracing the ground for balance. "How long have you been watching me?" he asked, panting heavily as he slowly looked up to see the black girl with her hands on her hips.

"Long enough to figure out where all my pictures went," Bumblebee told him as she looked around at Speedy's targets which were pictures of her. Speedy then stood up to his full height as he looked down at his leader. He smirked at her. "You don't intimidate me, Speedy."

"Never said I was trying to," Speedy said. "So what do you want?" he asked as he turned around from her to take down his targets. "I'm busy."

"I've come to train with you," she told him as she helped him take down his targets.

"Why?" He looked at her suspiciously.

"Because I figured if I want to be able to depend on you," she handed him back his arrows, "that you have to be able to depend on me too." She smiled. "So we'll get you an alarm clock so you can be up for morning training sessions."

Speedy shook his head. "They don't work," he explained. "After about a week, my ears learn to block out the sound."

"Hmm," Bumblebee thought it over. "Then I guess," she was a bit hesitant, "I just have to wake you up each morning."

"Stop right there." He shook his head. "Don't do me any favors, Bee." He began to walk away from her. "I know how much against your nature it goes."

"Where are you going?" she asked as she followed him. "Dammit, Speedy. I'm trying to be nice."

"Oh, yes," he rolled his eyes, "making yourself do something for me, that you really don't want to do, is exactly what I define as nice," he spoke as he grabbed a towel and draped it over his head before heading out the training area door and down the hall.

"Well, at least I'm trying to make an effort," she spoke intensely as her hands balled up into a fist and the sound of her high-heel boots echoed in the empty hall. "Unlike you, who starts ordering people around the moment they come into view, like they're your own personal service crew."

"Who are we talking about again?" Speedy asked. "Because that sounds a whole lot more like you than me," he spoke with his back to her as he continued to walk. "I don't know what Cyborg was thinking when he named you his successor." He then stopped in a doorway. "He should have given the job to me or at least Aqualad at that. You know, a man who could handle the job."

"Why you arrogant, conceited piece of-"

"Are you taking a shower with me?" Speedy cut her off as he looked over his shoulder.

"What?" She looked absolutely outraged at the question.

"No?" He turned around to face her. "Then I suggest you stop following me now." That's when Bumblebee noticed that the doorway he had stopped at led into a bathroom. Speedy then took a step backwards before closing the door, but before it was fully closed he spoke. "Now why don't you be a good little girl, run off, and make me a ham sandwich or something."

"You're a pig!" She kicked the door in frustration.

"And you're bugging me," he cried from the other side of the door. "So buzz off!"

"Ahhh!" Bumblebee screamed as she stretched out her wings and flew down the hall towards the elevator.



It was a little pass five thirty in the morning as Bumblebee opened her blinds to greet the rising sun. She hated to admit it, especially after the argument she had with Speedy about who would get what room, but she loved waking up to the view the sun rising over the city of Steel.

She hummed happily to herself as she continued getting dress for morning training which usually took place three times a week. The other days they trained were in the afternoon and on Sundays they didn't train at all. Bumblebee was in the middle of brushing the rest of her hair into her all too familiar pigtails, when there came one single knock at her door. She continued what she was doing as if she never heard it.

After finishing her hair, she opened her top dresser drawer where she kept her favorite snack which were little cracker goldfishes. She couldn't eat them in front of Aqualad, he would have a fit. Following her snack, Bumblebee walked over beside her bed where she had her Bee Stingers hung on the wall. She placed them both on their designated holsters located on her pants and headed towards the door.

She pressed the button on the wall and the door slid open. "Impatient much?" she asked as she saw Aqualad leaning on the opposite wall with his arms crossed over his chest and one foot against the wall.

Aqualad then pushed himself off of it. "No, but you're usually not one to be late," he told her as they started towards the elevator.

"Yeah, I know," she told him. "I got a little distracted this morning."

"Oh," Aqualad looked at her curiously. "About what?" he asked as he pressed the down button for the elevator and stepped inside when they opened.

"About how I'm stressed and how it's your fault," Bumblebee stated once inside.

"My fault?" He looked at her. "What did I do?" he asked and then pressed the button for the lowest level of the Tower.

"What did you do?" She looked at him as though the answer should have been clear. "Tell me if this sounds familiar. 'I've fought him once and he's good. I think he'll make a great addition if we're going to form our own team.' Remember that conversation, Water Boy?" she asked as the elevator doors closed and she pressed a button for one of the lower floors.

Aqualad shrugged. "Vaguely," he responded as he put his arm over her shoulders. "But your problem with Speedy, isn't what I would decribe as stress, Bee."

"Oh?" She shifted her weight to one side as she put a hand on her hip.

"Yeah," he put his lips close to her ear and whispered as if it were a secret. "It's sexual tension."

Bumblebee rolled her eyes. "You know what? You play too much." She gently pushed him away as the elevator doors once again opened.

"Really?" Aqualad began as he held the door, so it wouldn't close too soon, and Bumblebee stepped out. "Then why are you getting out on the fourth floor?" he asked.

"I'm only going to wake him up. I told you about that yesterday."

"Yeah, you told me what you thought about him and how he didn't want you to wake him up for morning sessions."

"I don't care what that fool wants. He's going to wake up whether he likes it at not," she told him as she turned and started towards Speedy's room.

"Sometime I wish you would just listen to people," Aqualad commented as he stepped back inside.

"Yeah, when that happens, you'll know we're in the middle of 'Invasion on the Body Snatchers'," she told him right before the doors closed and he headed towards the basement.

Bumblebee then walked down the hall until she came to Speedy's door where she gently knocked on it. When she got no response she simply knocked a little louder. When she still got nothing, she grew impatient and after another moment she just started pounding on the door. She growled softly as she finally just opened the door herself and stepped inside.

With Speedy's room on the west end of the Tower is was still very dark as Bumblebee searched for the light switch on the wall. When she found it she flipped it on and a low light filled the room and she looked around. It was the first time since Speedy moved into it that she had stepped inside.

As she looked around, she observed how tidy his room was. Everything was in its proper place, right down to the neatly folded clothes he planned on wearing for the day. "Figures," Bumblebee said to herself while noticing how warm Speedy kept his room as she made her way over to his sleeping form.

As she came closer and stopped at the edge of the bed, she saw that he slept with his mask on. Bumblebee didn't know why, but she was a bit disappointed at the discovery. She then noticed how peaceful he looked as he slept and noted she liked him like this, quiet. She smiled at the thought as she reached out for his bare shoulder to nudge him awake. But before her fingers even touched his skin, she was grabbed roughly above the elbow and flipped on to the bed.

Speedy rolled on top of her quickly and then just as fast had his forearm tucked under her neck almost choking her. "Speedy!" she yelled out as her free hand came up to his arm.

"Bee?" He looked baffled as he loosen his hold on her. "The frack?" He still looked a little out of it. "What are you doing? You scared the hell out of me."

"I came to wake you up for morning training," she told him.

"I thought I told you, you didn't have to do that." He propped himself up and looked down at her.

"I don't like being told what I can and can not do," she began, but then looked at him softly. "Look Speedy, I know you feel like the odd ball when it comes to rest of the team. I'm only-"

"Shut up," he told her. "You don't know how I feel and I'll be damned if I let you sit here and analyze me."

Bumblebee shook her head. "Fine. Whatever. I'm sick of trying anyway, so just get off me," she explained in a dull voice.

"Huh?" Speedy said softly as he blinked a few times behind his mask. It was just way too early for his brain to be functioning properly. A slow smirk then started to appear on his face as he realized for the first time what kind of position they were in. "You know, I could kind of get used to this," he told her as he brushed the back of his hand along her cheek.

Bumblebee looked at him with deadpan eyes. "You have lost your ever-loving mind, haven't you?" she asked him before smacking him hard across the head. "Now off!"

"Ow!" he yelled angrily before he grabbed her arms and forced them down to her sides. "I'll put up with a lot of things from you, Bee," he began darkly. "But don't ever hit me. Understand?" Bumblebee then gave him a half concern half frighten look as she was about to answer him, but before she had a chance, she saw the smile that Speedy was trying to force back, but couldn't. "But then again, if you like it rough, I guess I can make an exception."

Bumblebee glared at him with venom in her eyes, but then her expression turned to complete horror as she felt Speedy's pelvis press into hers. "frack you!" she yelled and started struggling underneath him, but soon realized he was stronger than she once thought he was.

Speedy only laughed. "What an interesting choice of-" he was cut off as he felt something sharp on his side. Bumblebee hadn't been struggling for nothing; she had grabbed one of her Bee Stingers.

"Unlike you, Speedy," her voice was low. "When I make a threat, I mean it. So if you don't get off me in the next two seconds, I swear I'll blast a hole in your stomach so big, it'll take Mas y Menos a day to run around it."

The smile finally fell off Speedy's face. "I was only playing, Bee."

"Well, I don't play like that," she said as she stuck the Bee Stinger further into his side. She then sighed a bit as her voice calmed. "Why can't you just respect me?" she asked him.

Speedy looked a little taken back by the question. "But I do," he confirmed.

"And this is how you show it? By harassing me like this?"

Speedy then cast his eyes away from hers as it was followed by a moment of silence. "Dammit," he finally said to himself. "Fine. You win," he said before he untangled himself from the sheets and got out of bed. He stood with his bare back to his teammate. "Happy now? I'm up," he said as he grabbed a bottle of pills from his nightstand and popped a few of them.

Bumblebee said nothing as she replaced her Bee Stinger, rose out of bed, and started walking towards the exit. The door opened and she was about to step out when Speedy called her. She still had her back towards his naked form as he spoke. "Oh and Bee, just for future reference," his smile returned. "I like it when you scream my name."

Bumblebee merely shook her head before she responded with her own smile. "Just handle your business. I 'm sure, with a name like yours, it won't take you long." She then allowed the door to close behind her as she walked down the hall to the elevator, but before she even reached it, she put one hand to her stomach and the other to her mouth.

She then started to run down the hall, pass the elevator, and to the bathroom on that floor. She couldn't quite make it to the toilet and so she emptied the contents of her stomach into the nearby sink. "shoot," she said quietly to herself as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before running the water in the sink. She then looked at herself in the mirror, she was slightly trembling. She realized then that she had let Speedy get to her. "I can't work like this," she concluded.

A few minutes later, Bumblebee joined Aqualad and Mas y Menos in the training room. Speedy hadn't arrived yet. "Aqualad, we need to talk," Bumblebee called her second-in-command.

"What is it?" he asked as she pulled him into a corner. He could tell there was something off about her.

"I want him gone, Aqualad. Today."

To Be Continued. . .

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