FIC: But Keep the Old [DCU; Tempest, Argent]

[schizoauthoress_library]

Title: But Keep the Old
Author: D.L.SchizoAuthoress
Rating: PG
Spoilers: up to Final Crisis
Prompt: none
Warnings: Final Crisis, vague allusions to characters who died
Word Count: 141
Summary: Tempest fools himself for a second
Word of the Day: mucro, noun: A short point projecting abruptly, as at the end of a leaf.

Originally posted on Tumblr

Make new friends...
But Keep the Old
...some are silver,
and others gold...

For just a moment, as he balances effortlessly on Argent’s silver plasma slide, Tempest can pretend that they aren’t gearing up for a battle against an implacable enemy made up of their friends. All of this, in this moment, is so familiar — so exactly as it used to be, years ago, that he can forget.

For just a moment, this isn’t a team assembled under Article X — he’s on the Titans again, and Dolphin and Cerdian are waiting back at the Tower and everything is okay.

For a moment.

Then Argent looks back at him, just briefly, out of a long ingrained habit of checking on her passengers. And her eyes are too old for even a comforting lie to stand up to.

"You ready?" Argent asks.

And Tempest answers, ignoring the ghosts that he wants to see, “Always am.”

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