With Artemis there, he felt less out of place in the group yet he still didn't feel like he slotted in perfectly. It felt like he was left out of the loop of two friend groups joining and he didn't quite know what to do with himself. He was friends with Wally, hadn't seen Artemis in years and the others were basically brand new to him. Now he had to live with them? At least they were all new to each other but for some reason, that didn't help. He ignored the feeling the best he could and focused on the different conversations happening around him. M'gann was explaining the plot of her favourite Earth show to everyone and Wally kept dramatically sighing every time he heard a cliche. "Let me guess, they had an episode where she had two dates to the prom and she spends the entire night bouncing between the pair before they eventually find out about one another and the audience makes that aww sound as a to be continued slot comes up?" Kitten offered, deciding to jump into the conversation. He needed to do something other than stare. Despite having his sunglasses on, he feared the group would feel his eyes burrowing into them and that was admittedly quite creepy. It wouldn't help with feeling out of place either. 

"They did! It was such a good episode because she has two love interests and it was the perfect season finale," she replied.

"It's a pretty problematic episode. Encouraging lying, two-timing, tries to justify manipulation by making it seem okay as long as they don't know the truth," he rambled. M'gann gave him an odd look and he suddenly felt that alienation hit him harder than a truck. Funny how an alien made him feel like that. There was a joke to be made there but he wasn't sure if he should voice it. The last thing he needed was for his teammates to dislike him. Of course, he knew Wally would like him still but the others were shaky. Even Artemis considering they hadn't seen each other in years and how she must feel about criminals having to grow up around a dad who forced her into the business. "Don't mind him, he picks things apart all the time. It's part of his training," Wally explained on his friend's behalf. She nodded and seemed to forgive him for nitpicking her favourite TV show. He should've just continued to stare. "I tried to show him Ocean's 12 and he spent the entire movie explaining how he would've done it instead." Kitten remembered that night. He met Wally as Wally for the time and had been dragged into watching the movie at his house even though he insisted that he didn't want to be seen near the speedster's home. The apartment was small and his parents weren't there. After the movie, he ended up having to climb out the window because the ginger hadn't exactly told his parents he was having a friend over and Kitten didn't want to get him in trouble. Besides, climbing was one of his favourite things so it was a win-win situation really. "If they're gonna make a whole movie about a heist then I have a right to pick it apart. I've done enough to know," Kitten defended with a smirk. 

"You certainly have," Artemis grumbled though now with their new understanding of one another it was a lot less prickly. To the others, it was judging by the glare Wally gave her. Good. If they switched it up too early it would give away the game and he did love to go back and forth. That's probably why his clients kept out of his way lest they be met with his chattering taunting.

"Still salty I stole your mentor's arrow bike?" he asked, his smirk still firmly set on his features.

"It is not called that...I hope."

"Maybe he took after Batsy. He puts bat in front of everything. We never did that," he reminisced. Of course, he could appreciate a theme and a dedication to an aesthetic but naming everything the bat something or other was too far. It just sounded like an eight-year-old skipped around and named everything so he went with it. That was pretty adorable now he thought about it.

"We?" M'gann asked, looking for clarification. 

"Catwoman and I," he told her. "We did the cat thing but that's because we're Nekos and burglars. Cat burglars if you will." Artemis scoffed loudly whilst the alien nodded in understanding. He let out an inaudible sigh of relief that she didn't start poking at that sore spot. 

They grew confident in their new spaces and felt less like anything they touched would suddenly break which helped ease the intensity in the room. Kitten thought it was rather funny that these were the prospective heroes of tomorrow but they got anxious around people their own age. A villain hell-bent on killing everyone? No problem, just don't make them stand in a room together after the fight. Wally soon found the video games and their console so that kept both him and Kitten busy. Connor sat behind them and watched although he didn't seem to catch onto the plot. They happily explained it in between rounds and accusations of hacking. "You accuse me of that every time. Maybe you just suck," the younger teased.

"How dare you!" Behind them in the kitchen, M'gann, Kaldur and Artemis gathered together to continue the conversation about Earth shows. She filled them in on the newest drama in her favourite soap and both of them listened along although they'd both dropped off at the season one finale. Neither had the heart to tell they did though. 

"-And right now David and Linda might get a divorce! I hope they don't," she rambled on. "Oh! We should do a marathon all together! That could be our thing."

"We'd have to ask Black Canary," Artemis told her, hoping that would deter the idea. It didn't and just set off a whole new point about dramas. "Don't you have any other exposure to Earth? People aren't just boiled down tropes," she asked after listening for too long. Her mind felt like it was going to melt if she listened further. 

"Well, no but people are tropes," M'gann insisted. "You're the spitfire, Kaldur is the calm one, Connor is the innocent one, Wally is the flirty one and Kitten is the bad boy."

"I'm the what now?" Kitten asked, picking up on the conversation. He didn't take his eyes off the screen though because he was not going to lose to Wally. What could he say? He got competitive. 

"The bad boy," she replied with the same confidence as previously. "You know, he breaks the rules and hates authority but he actually has a super tragic backstory and a heart of gold." He laughed at the assessment and thankfully only Wally noticed how forced it was.

"Oh yeah? What trope are you then?"

"Duh, the main character who's new to all this," she supplied, a bright smile showing she'd missed his unease. 

"Why isn't Connor the main character then? He's new to all of this and you're just as innocent," he countered. He didn't know why he decided to argue with her but it just felt right to. Categorizing things was part of his job and another part of his work was catching the correct client. There was no leaning on tropes there and it could always go wrong. You needed to see it from an unbiased perspective and her sweeping generalization of the group just made him feel icky. "Arty is new to the scene therefore she could be the main character and instead I'm the spitfire. Connor is calm so maybe Kaldur is actually the innocent one. Categorization is all well and good but you gotta do it correctly with supporting information. People can branch out from their spots."

"You've been hanging out with Bats too much," Wally commented. "You get too analytic."

"I'm not too analytic. I'm just good at reading people. Can't beat me at my own game, just like you can't beat me at this game."

"Low blow."

"Right hook actually," he corrected just as he landed the final move and the winning screen came up. The ginger threw himself back dramatically in defeat as the criminal cackled. 

"It's a valuable technique to recognize patterns. Perhaps you could give us some lessons," Kaldur suggested.

"Sure."

After a few hours, Black Canary popped her head in to check in on the group. She smiled upon finding they hadn't killed one another before announcing that Wally and Artemis had to go home to begin their patrols. They sighed dramatically but didn't bother begging for more time. Wally ruffled Kitten's hair, ignoring the light-hearted protests from the younger, and Artemis sent him a look which he subtly nodded in response to. He watched them leave with a frown and that feeling he'd been trying to ignore suddenly came back. "I think I'm gonna do some training," he announced. 

"Alright. Dinner is in a few hours. Any preferences?" Canary asked. He shook his head and walked out of there as quick as he could. "How's he settling in?" she asked once he disappeared down the hall. 

"He's doing well. He's going to teach us to read people," Kaldur answered. 

"Was he really a criminal?" M'gann asked. The older nodded and walked further into the room, sitting down with them. 

"He was," she answered. "He and Catwoman together committed many robberies that amounted to millions of dollars worth of things stolen. Over the course of a few years, he made quite the name for himself and specialised in leaking information."

"So why is he here?" she continued, sounding frightened.

"Because he's only thirteen and he isn't a bad kid. He's just had a bad go of it and found success in the wrong thing. Don't worry, you're safe with him here." The alien nodded. 

"I've worked with him to save Connor. She's right in saying he's not a bad kid," Kaldur added. 

"Okay. I trust that he's changing. It's just weird that we're heroes and he's committed crimes." 

"Get used to it," Connor stated matter of factly.