Title: Jinx Goes To Central City

Author: Mad Mab

Pairing: Kid Flash/Jinx

Fandom: Teen Titans

Word Count: 1,257

Bad luck seemed to follow her everywhere. It followed her as a powerful compatriot into battle. And it followed her as a sore-loser into a police wagon at the end of fore-mentioned battle. It also liked to tag along on days she wasn't left picking dirt out of her teeth, like on a day that she decided to leave the Hive Five.

Which brings Jinx, here, to a bus stop in the pouring rain, in about eighty percent humidity, with a "Bus Stop" sign to the left and a fat, sweaty nerd trying to get her to join him under his umbrella to her right with about thirty minutes until the next bus. Which I'm sure you're all thinking, "That is, like, mad gross, dude." And that is where you are wrong because it isn't "like mad gross", it totally is mad gross.

The only thing that could make that worse would be that Jinx would have no money, but as luck would have it, or hours spent robbing ATMs would, she has more money than a white-collar criminal on Wall Street in her pocket. So, maybe she isn't turning over a new leaf or maybe she is going to Jean Valjean it, but with money instead of silverware.

She had thought about leaving anything to do with the Hive for good since Cyborg had stabbed her in the back. She could never call him "Stone" after she had learned he was a one of the Titans and the bitter fact that "Stone" never really existed. She was lost for awhile, but who wouldn't be? She certainly wasn't the only Hive student to feel like that! It had been a school, a home, and a philosophy for each and every person there! Their entire lives had revolved solely around the Hive.

And then, some of her fellow lost souls formed the Hive Five. But that had just as quickly left her wanting, when Ralph "Private Hive" Thompson ditched out on them. And she was left in charge of a team with an ever-changing roster. With his spot open, she set out to look for a new member.

She first went to Kitten. The two of them first met when they had been robbing the same store in the mall and later found out that they had a lot more in common on their way to jail after the Titans had busted them. Kitten was a good scraper and with her boyfriend and father she could be a great ally, but she ditched after a particularly bad break with Fang.

So, a week after recruiting Kitten, she was back on the prowl. She then tried to recruit Cheshire. She was a girl Jinx had met when the Titans East had come to town. Cheshire had a similar story like Cyborg's and Jinx's, but instead of a half-robot, half-man protagonist, a red-haired archer played the leading man. But that is neither here nor there as Cheshire ultimately declined.

She had had similar experiences with Red X (who, to paraphrase, "wouldn't work with the Hive, but wouldn't mind sleeping with her"), Shimmer (because she could never be in the same group as her brother, no matter how long Jinx and her had been friends), Blackfire (who Jinx had rejected after Blackfire had insulted her), and a long list of others until Gizmo brought in his rejects.

She quickly dismissed Gizmo's friend Control Freak. She didn't need another video game playing nerd, especially one who seemed like he was in his thirties. His other friend, though, was quiet, a mute. And Jinx realizing that he was as good as it was going to get, accepted him as Hive Five's newest member.

Sometime after Kyd Wykkyd had been inducted, Billy Numerous had just started showing up at the base. And after months of video game playing, the boys had wanted him as a member. She was overwhelmed by their childishness when she told them "No. No more guys. I'm sick of finding boxers in the freezer." So, after the boys had set the freezer on fire (Mammoth crying all the while over the burning ice cream), Billy Numerous became a member of the Hive Five.

And so it was no surprise that she was ready to move onto bigger and better things, like the Brotherhood, quickly. But maybe she shouldn't have wished for it to go as fast as he did because she couldn't catch him.

Kid Flash had burst onto the scene after the Titans East had gone back to Steel City. Though he was supposed to bust them, he gave her a rose and ditched his duties. It was an arrogant move on his part and he would pay as dearly for it as the rose he had given her.

Or he wouldn't. He not only escaped and destroyed their base and violated her privacy. No, not just entering her room or looking through her sketches. He had taken a pair of her unicorn underwear, which Jinx supposed counted as theft. Or maybe it had been one of the Hive boys? Maybe Billy?

So, somewhere between trying to catch Kid Flash again and Madame Rouge's condescension Jinx decided it was time to actually do what she had wanted to do for a long time.

As she had left the warehouses, she saw another rose and having been in a good mood smiled with no abandon and made it the symbol of finally going through with leaving the Hive Five.

Which brings us back to the bus stop, same "Bus Stop" sign to the left, same fat guy to the right, same Jinx in the middle with the same rain and the same god forsaken humidity, but with one major difference. The bus is twenty minutes late.

"Please! I insist! Stand under my umbrella! You're…you're completely soaked," said the fat guy as he leered at her.

Or maybe two because the fat guy was getting more disgusting. He was pretty much drooling over her drenched form.

She could have understood if she was wearing her normal dress, but she was wearing tight, black jeans and a black hoodie with a grey, long-sleeved shirt that had a positive-negative space portrait of Grace Jones on it underneath, and knee-high, black chucks. Not exactly drool worthy.

"No. I have a hood. I'm fine," came her reply. The fat guy was beginning to open his mouth to speak again, before she had cut him off. "I said, 'No.' and I mean 'No!' I don't want to hear you say it again! So, if you so much as try and ask me again, I will get off this bench and rip out your vocal cords! Got it?"

He turned away from her and murmured a quiet "Rude."

She sighed in exasperation. "This bus better get here soon." She thought.

And speak of the devil, the bus to Central City had decided it was time to show up. Jinx picked up her suitcase and bag from under the bench and got on the air-conditioned bus after the fat guy. They were the only two on the bus save the bus driver, but that's fine as there was plenty of space that could be put between them.

Jinx shoved her suitcase in the over-head compartment before she sat down. As the bus driver said, "Next stop Central City," she laid her head back against the head-rest of the seat and fell asleep.

Author's Note: I think falling asleep when the next stop is your destination is a bad idea.

Anyway, Kid Flash wasn't the one who stole Jinx's underwear. It was Seemore.

Also, I wrote this about a year ago. It is unfinished, but I will probably not continue it. Sorry.