"Hey sweetie!" Karen ran into the warehouse, shed her winter garb, and placed a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek while he stared blankly into the fireplace.
He watched her put her presents in the stockings hanging over the fireplace. Since the team was so big, they had all decided to get smaller presents for each other and put them in their stockings this year.
He watched her smile steadily grow as she put each present in its proper stocking, his heart sinking as she finished off with his present.
Then her phone buzzed, and Karen rushed outside to answer it.
Mal was about to give up when Artemis walked in.
He thought of everything, flowers, a new shirt, maybe some shoes, but nothing he can think of is good enough for his girl.
"What's wrong, Mal?" Artemis sounded concerned as she slung her bags over the couch and sat next to him in front of the fake fireplace.
"Everything." Mal grumbled, pitying himself. He leaned back and rubbed his eyes before resting his arms along the back of the couch. "Well, I shouldn't be complaining to you. I mean, this time of year, you must really be thinking about..." He rubbed the back of his neck, nervous about the possibly dangerous path he was heading down.
"It's fine, Mal." Artemis assured him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I do miss Wally, but I'm not going to kill you just for bringing him up."
She smiled at him sadly, and Mal could see she was lacking it in her eyes.
Silently, the two of them settled deeper into the couch and watched the holographic flames flicker.
Mal could tell Artemis was nervous about something, probably what he'd said before. He decided to distract her.
"I can't decide what to get Karen this year." He admitted.
Artemis chuckled lightly. "Well that's a problem, isn't it?" She teased. Mal was pleased to see that she was smiling now.
She sighed, appearing to be thinking something over. Mal watched Artemis undo, and then re-tie her hair back in a ponytail, pushing her hair back over her shoulder. She placed both feet flat on the ground, rested her elbows on her knees, clasped her hands, and held them in front of her mouth one by one.
"You know, Mal," she said quietly, "I loved Wally. I still do. But one of the things that I most regret was that he never proposed to me."
Proposed.
That word set the wheel in Mal's mind turning. He loved Karen, but did he really think that he could be that good for her for the rest of his life.
"What's that?"
"What's what?" Mal asked, confused at Artemis's question.
She leaned in closer, squinting her eyes at him. "You've got this weird look in your eyes, like you've got some big trouble or something planned." She said.
Well, now he did. There would be no going back from this. Mal grabbed his jacket, which had been lying on the floor, and stood up.
"Get Connor, I'm gonna need the both of you to help me."
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Superboy hadn't felt like coming. It was winter break, and Superman's angst-y clone wanted to sleep in, but to Mal's relief, Artemis had insisted (and quite possibly blackmailed) Connor into coming. Now the three of them were walking the snow-covered streets of Gotham as more snowflakes fell from high up above. Mal hated snow. He much preferred summer weather to winter, but he couldn't deny that the snow had a magical quality about it.
"Remind me what we're doing that had to get me up before noon?" Connor rubbed his eyes blearily, blindly being dragged by Artemis, who nearly had to run to keep up with Mal; Happy Harbor High's star Quarterback.
"Yeah Mal," Artemis mimicked Connor's sleepy tone, "What are we doing?" She sounded innocent, but Guardian easily heard the undertone that stated that Artemis clearly did know what they were here for.
((Eee, I'm picturing the three of them like the Golden Trio right now, is anyone else? :3))
Mal stopped outside a jewelry store, watching the silver rings glint in the display lights.
"I wanna propose to Karen for Christmas." He mumbled.
"I knew it!" Artemis pumped her fist, and Connor nearly slipped on a patch of ice when he heard those words.
"Really? You're gonna do it?" Connor pushed himself back up to his feet and shook the snow out of his hat, hand-knit for him by Ma Kent for a past Christmas.
"I'm gonna do it, Kon." Mal said seriously. He tore his shaking gaze from the display case, and stared his friend in the eyes.
"I wanna do it."