Custard
by Concolor44
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Author's Note: This little vignette serves as the first of several sequels to my story "Death and Taxes". Enjoy!
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Jump City, 23 August, 2:10pm
"Looks like you missed a drip."
At the first couple of syllables of that gravelly monotone, Jinx had frozen, her tongue still in contact with the multicolored mound decorating the waffle cone in her hand. A very faint pink glow quickly suffused her skin, not really visible in the afternoon light streaming in through the ice cream parlor's tall windows.
"It's just that … well, Banana Fudge Crackle's such a fantastic flavor, I'd think you wouldn't want to miss even a little of it."
The pink eyes darted up and to the right. She nearly dropped her ice cream. Leaning away just ever so slightly, she let out a shaky, "Ruh … Raven?"
"Call me Rachel." She took a quick lick of her own ice cream and treated Jinx to half a grin. "I'm off the clock."
That's for damn sure, thought Jinx. The empath stood beside her booth, sporting a dark red spaghetti-strap top in sheer silk that let her slight dip of a navel peek out, some lacy white very-low-rise capris, and cobalt blue canvas sandals. Besides that, she'd turned her hair black, her eyes brown, and her skin light tan. The low tingles Jinx could sense, now that she was paying attention, told her it was being done with magic. The overall effect put her in mind of a curvier version of that actress who'd played Padma Patil in all those Potter movies … and she found it all disturbingly attractive.
"Mind if I sit?"
Jinx's elbow suddenly slipped off the table top, and she had to move fast to keep her own cold confection safely inside its cone. "Um …"
"Thanks." Raven (Rachel? Where'd she come up with that?) slid into the other side, scooted her back up against the corner by the wall, and propped her left foot up on the seat's pastel plastic. "Bloody hot today." Then, while she ran her small, pink tongue all the way around the cone, catching a couple of drips and getting the sides evened up, she allowed her eyes to resume their usual dark-heliotrope shade. "Gotta make sure you get to it before it melts, am I right?"
Jinx just stared at her.
"Not feeling talkative? That'd be a first."
"… Um … I'm … uh …" She shook her head, drew a long breath and let it out slowly through her nose. "What are you, um … doing here?"
"Enjoying one of the best ice creams in existence. Actually, you know, it isn't technically ice cream. It's frozen custard. Lots richer." She chuckled. "Only discovered this place about a month ago." She held her waffle cone out and admired it. "I don't even want to contemplate the calorie content here. Darn good thing I can control my metabolic rate, or I'd be squeezing out of all my clothes by now."
And that mental image took all of Jinx's attention for several seconds.
The dark girl suppressed – sort of – a smirk. She went through a few more licks and nodded at Jinx's cone. "Dripping again."
Jinx quickly ran her tongue up the cone's sides, catching the melted custard.
Raven watched with careful interest all the while, then reached over and gently clasped the pale wrist. She pulled the icy treat closer, leaned toward it and took a small bite, then released the other girl, sat back, closed her eyes and let it melt on her tongue. "That's just heavenly. Should have gotten that one."
Jinx, whose wrist was tingling so hard she could barely grip the cone, tried to come up with something halfway intelligent to say, but instead finally stuttered, "Wh-wh-what'd you get?"
In answer Raven extended a bare arm and tipped her own flavor over to the hex-caster, her smoky violet gaze gripping Jinx's own fuchsia eyes. "Cherry Almond Toffee Swirl. Try it."
It took her a couple of false starts, but Jinx managed a decent bite. She blinked in surprise and licked her lips. "Whoa. That's good!"
"It is, isn't it?"
Some twenty-odd seconds passed in silence as the young women concentrated on their frozen custards. Raven's eyes never left Jinx's face … which was growing unusually warm.
"Look, um … Rachel …"
"Yes?" She had yet to blink.
"I'm … um, a little confused."
"Perhaps I can alleviate said confusion. What seems to be its locus?"
"Well. You, in a word."
"Me? Why, whatever might you be referring to?"
"Oh, come on. Why are you acting so … weird?"
"I'm quite sure I don't know what you mean."
"That gleam in your eye says otherwise."
Raven took another slow lick, then crunched off the top edge of the waffle cone. "The day before St. Patrick's Day, you tried to snatch the Star of Carolina emerald."
Jinx averted her eyes. "Oh." She slumped very obviously. "So you're here to collar me."
"Not in the least. Besides, I consider that a fluke. It's the only time you've fallen off the wagon in recent memory."
That instantly brought on a frown. "Huh?"
"I told you, I'm off the clock. No hero work today."
"… Ooooookay?"
"Anyway, what I meant was, we tangled over that emerald."
"Hah. What you mean is, you handed me my ass."
"Oh, to be quite sure, we'll get around to the subject of your ass, but not just yet."
High color suffused her cheeks, matching and then exceeding that of her hair. She suddenly found her ice cream most fascinating.
"First I want to cover your little hiccup."
She glanced up. "Hiccup?"
"You know what I'm talking about."
"… Sorry?"
"There in the museum, you had an opportunity to drop a wall on me. Yet you didn't."
Jinx opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, but nothing coherent came out.
"Why," asked Raven, leaning forward slightly, "do you think that was?"
Looking anywhere except at the gorgeous half-demon on the other side of the table, Jinx finally shrugged. "It … wouldn't have been fair."
"So despite that one lapse, you really have changed. I knew it."
Jinx took a bite of her ice cream, then another, then a bite of the cone, then another.
Raven observed, "Last year you showed up with Kid Flash to fight against the Brotherhood."
Cocking an eyebrow, the pink-haired girl muttered, "Well, that's nothing like a non-sequitur."
"You hung around with him for a month and a half or so, and then vanished."
"Oh. Yeah, well, he was kind of a jerk."
"No argument there. He's the only guy I know who gets on my nerves worse than Beast Boy."
"… Even worse than Speedy?"
"Frankly, I haven't spent enough time around Speedy to make a judgment one way or another."
"Trust me, he's a bigger jerk than Wally. And that's goin' some."
"Oh, he told you his name?"
Jinx nodded.
"He must really have trusted you."
"What he really did was he really wanted to get into my pants."
Raven grinned broadly. "I'd be the last person on Earth to blame him for that."
Her color intensified. She dropped her gaze. "It's not … He just … Okay, it's not as if he wasn't, you know, interesting. Just, I guess, turned out not to be my type. But he couldn't take a hint. So I tried being more direct. Then he basically told me I was wrong, and he could prove it with one good night in the sack. So I left."
"So you not dropping a wall on me … was that flirting?"
Having no clue how to respond to that, Jinx retreated into munching on her ice cream.
"Thought so."
Those pink eyes concentrated on the tabletop.
"So you've been on your own for, what, close to a year now?"
One short nod was her answer.
"Why?"
She glanced up. "Why, what?"
"Why are you going solo? Why drift back into the darker gray areas of life? Just because Wally was a jerk doesn't mean the rest of us are."
"And yet here you sit, picking on me."
"Picking up, maybe, but not picking on."
Jinx had to wonder if her face could actually spontaneously ignite.
Cocking her head and studying the interplay of color in the girl's pale cheeks, Raven observed, "That's a mighty cute reaction."
With a huff, the hex-caster turned her full attention to her table-mate. "Okay, that's another thing. What happened to you?"
"That depends on context."
"You …" She held out a hand and indicated Raven's lush, relaxed form and the skimpy outfit half-heartedly attempting to cover it. "… you … look different."
A slow, unblinking lick. Another. "And you don't like it?"
"I … didn't say that. I don't understand it. You've always been so … reserved."
"That was one of the things you used to taunt me about." Lick.
Jinx caught a few drips and nibbled off more of her cone, but didn't say anything.
"Jinx, how old are you?"
That brought a confused blink. "What does that have to do with … um … I'm nineteen."
"When's your birthday?"
"May Day."
"Cool. That's easy to remember. I'll be nineteen in October."
"Yeah? So?"
"So, four months ago, I turned eighteen and a half."
Her mouth opening and closing twice, Jinx finally said, "That's an odd way to keep track."
"Wasn't up to me. Eighteen and a half years is two hundred and twenty-two months."
The aura of confusion around the pink-haired girl bumped up about three notches. "You are totally losing me."
"Oh, I really hope not. I have such plans …"
"Damn it, Rae!"
"Heh. Sorry. No, see, the thing is … well, you know a bit about my unusual heritage, right?"
"I know your ol' man's a demon, if that's what you mean."
"Right. But do you know which one?"
"Uh … I don't think Wally ever said."
"His name was Trigon."
Jinx frowned in thought then shook her head. "Not ringin' any bells."
"He was a Demon Lord."
Her pink eyes widened. The capital letters on that title were pretty obvious. "Okay. And … 'was'?"
"Was. He's dead."
"Oh. Okay. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"Definitely a good thing." Lick. Nibble. "And he's dead because I killed him."
That made her sit up. "You … killed a Demon Lord?"
"Yes. Oh, there were what you might call extenuating circumstances, but yes. I took his power from him and used it to blast him out of existence."
Jinx shrank into her seat a little.
"Aw, Sweetie, you don't have to worry about anything." She grinned again, wider. "In fact, that's what led to my … sort of coming out of my shell, you could say."
"I still don't get it."
"When I turned eighteen and a half, I inherited his title."
The chill that passed through Jinx had nothing to do with the ice cream. "Really."
"Yep." She nodded and used her cone to indicate the other girl's cone. "Dripping again."
Having suddenly a lot to think about, Jinx paid strict attention to her treat until it was gone. She licked off a few of her fingers, then got a paper towel off the roll at the back of the table and slowly wiped them. Then she sat and brooded quietly.
Raven finished her frozen custard. "You're thinking awfully hard."
"So you're a … a Demon Lord now."
"I go by Dread Lady, if you want to be technically correct."
A long pause. "So, what all does that entail?"
A chuckle followed a half smile. "I'm still coming to terms with it. But basically I'm in charge of the Eighth Circle."
Jinx shrank even further.
Raven gave an exasperated sigh. "Don't be dense. I'm not here after your soul."
"… Really?"
"Really. Gaining the title didn't change my basic nature, it simply afforded me a bit more … leeway, let's say, in how I live my life."
"… Okay."
"For instance, I don't care to hide in my cloak anymore."
Taking in Raven's garb again, Jinx muttered, "Yeah. Shocker."
"And I don't have any trouble controlling my powers. In fact, my control is pretty much perfect now."
"… Huh."
"And expanded."
"… ? …"
"I picked up a few things after visiting, um, Dear Father's old stomping grounds."
"… You … you mean you … went to …"
"Yep."
"Whoa."
"So, yeah, the last four months have been something of a revelation."
Having a great deal to absorb, Jinx sat in silence for a minute. Two. Then she noticed Raven playing with a small, black disk, letting it flop back and forth over her knuckles. She frowned. "What's that?"
"You remember this. It's my soul-self. You ran into it a few times."
"Uh … yeah. It was, uh, bigger, though."
"Oh, it can be any size I want it to be." She flipped it up in the air like a quarter and caught it, then tossed it to Jinx, who didn't quite fumble it.
"Aighhh! What am I s'posed to do with it?!"
"Just hold it."
Eyes flicking rapidly between the disk in her palm and the demon at her table, she tried to control her breathing, with somewhat spotty results.
"Tell me what it feels like."
"Um … well …" She concentrated, and then blinked a few times. "It's … not cold."
"How 'bout that."
"But it was always cold. I mean, well, the few times I … that is, whenever you'd … you know … use it."
"Like when I wrapped you up in it to keep from getting hexed?"
"Um, sure. And those two times you used it to transport us all to jail. Felt like it was made out of living ice. Billy shivered the rest of the day, even under four blankets."
"That's because it was always trying to get loose. Also, he pissed me off."
Jinx fought off a smirk.
"The connection it had to Trigon tended to pull energy from its surroundings, and the more work it did, the colder it got. Not that it ever bothered me, but you can obviously see a downside."
"Okay. So why is it warm now?"
"Once Trigon was dead, it was a lot easier to work with. Didn't resist me so directly. Then, after getting … let's say 'installed' as the Queen of the Eighth Circle, it finally recognized my authority. Also, my own ability to control it took an order-of-magnitude leap."
Jinx seemed to be listening with only half an ear as she cradled the small, black object. "It feels … nice. Almost … happy."
Raven's smile was a bit softer than her earlier ones. "It likes you."
"Well I like it."
"It's me, you know."
She raised her head, questions crowding her face.
"I'd like for you to come with me."
Apprehension. "Where?"
"The Tower, to start with. Starfire and Terra know what I'm doing, but the guys don't. I want to introduce you around."
"Um, I'm pretty sure they could all pick me out of a line-up. Blindfolded."
"I don't want to introduce you as Jinx-the-approximately-reformed-we-all-hope-criminal. I want to introduce you as Jinx-my-girlfriend."
"… G … Gir … Girlf …"
"Don't pretend the idea hasn't crossed your mind."
"Well …" She had to swallow hard a couple of times. "Maybe not exactly."
"Lover, then."
The hex caster hid her face in her hands. Really, she thought, I could probably light a cigarette off my cheeks. She must be loving this.
[ [ I am. ] ]
That produced a very satisfactory startle response. "… Are you in my head?"
"As hard as you're projecting, it wouldn't take an empath, trust me."
"But …"
"I'd toyed with the idea of doing the whole courtship thing, but after some thought I considered it unnecessary. You're interested in me. That way. This I know for a fact. And I want you for my own. Cutting to the chase seemed logical."
"… Your own what?"
"Lover. Friend. Confidant. Partner." She leaned forward, resting her crossed arms on the table. "Wife, at some point."
Those wide, wide pink eyes dilated alarmingly. "… Wife …"
"That's my eventual goal. Oh, you might not be feeling it at present, but-"
"No, it's not that. I … I think it's a great idea. I just … never considered that you'd … want me. Like that."
"Oh, but I do. Very much." Reaching over, she twirled a lock of that cotton-candy hair around a finger. "Meanwhile, we'll just have a lot of fun."
"… You've given this some thought."
"More than you suspect."
"Well." For several breaths Jinx's gaze held Raven's as a small, slow smile grew, then she reached up and clasped Raven's hand in hers. "I think summer just became my favorite season."
Raven gave her a reassuring squeeze. "I'll make sure of it."
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End Note #1:
And that wraps up Installment One. My Muse is excited about this project and keeps giving me ideas. We'll see where it goes.
End Note #2 (addendum):
Just an FYI ... the next story in this series is called "Regrets", the second sequel in the "Death and Taxes" universe.
Reviews = Love!