The loud music, which could somewhat be described as a horrendous rap/disco mash up, pounded through the soles of Jinx's stilettos, shaking her legs and vibrating up her body to finally nestle in a throbbing spot just above her temple. Looking around angrily, she squinted against the colorful strobe lights to spy the writhing, sweaty masses of closely packed bodies doing something that could only be called " The Robot Grind." Yes, no small wonder this trash seemed only to be popular in that sleazy gray area known as Jump City nightclubs.
On a scale, it ranged from disgraceful all the way to mildly disturbing that she had never noticed how terrible the music was. Like screeching metal on tar. Or seagulls fighting over a piece of bread. It rattled her brain and sent shockwaves through her head at an unrelenting pace.
Of course, Jinx had never really been sober at a club before, so she liked to think her obliviousness could be overlooked.
She winced as she turned to peek at the person sitting next to her, wondering how he could have sat there so many nights, metabolism burning up the mind numbing alcohol before it could even effect him, with the musical equivalent of vomit blasting throughout. Kid Flash looks thoughtful, eyes glazed over, fingers rapidly tapping on their small table, a nuance that only came to appear when he was really agitated. His good nature never allowed for him to take much of anything seriously enough to get as pissed off as he seemed to be in this instance, fingers like gunshots, hand blurring into an indefinable shape. Though really, Jinx wouldn't put it past him now to drag Robin off the dance floor himself. Being well after three in the morning, she had long ago reached her breaking point, and his other hand that held steadily on her arm was the only thing keeping her from throttling the Boy Blunder.
It could be safe to say that Robin didn't get drunk often, let alone totally trashed, as he was currently. Some would say it was even a myth that he had come to a nightclub at all. It was only through much egging on (by Speedy), followed by childish insults and proclamations of how Robin was a sissy (Speedy again), and then finally a challenge for an all out drinking binge (guess who?) All of which resulted in Robin accepting the call with much aggression ("Being shorter than you doesn't mean I still can't kick your ass Speedy!") and subsequently losing. By then he was so wasted that he happily complied to be led out to the badly scuffed wood floor, where he was given a wide berth from the rest of the club goers as he ground the good Titan name into the dirt, preferably with his pelvis.
"Why did I agree to sitting with you again?" Jinx's voice is an odd mix of playful and icy; it cut into Kid Flash, breaking him out of his trance to look over at her with a slight smirk on his face.
" Because you wanted to see my way of having fun when Titans East is in town." The only reason Jinx and Kid Flash were ever called away anymore from their city to Jump was to do regular check ins with the Titans closest to them ( teams East and West), as per Robins request to have everyone more interconnected. Though unfortunately, Robin's good intentions almost always got overruled by teenage hormones, and the hard partying of Titans East, which had gone virtually unchecked in Steel City to become something of legend. ( Seriously, between the elephants and the hot tubs crashing through their tower every five minutes, it was a wonder how Team East ever even got up in the morning.)
He gestures around him grandly, like a king showing off his court. " What, do you not like perpetual designated driver status, m'lady? Rather be queen of booth number five?" He snickers and she looks away, glaring at the floor. Booth number five was an infamous table in the club's back corner. The light was broken above it, and in the seedy darkness it was the perfect place for girls so drunk they couldn't walk straight to do … things. Many things. Jinx didn't like to think of how many guys had felt her up back there before she had met Kid Flash. Not to say Kid Flash hadn't felt her up back there either but…
Trying desperately to get her mind out of the gutter and failing, Jinx decides that it is best to go on the offense. She looks coolly at Robin, who is doing some sort of dog impersonation that includes putting his leg up to his ear, before speaking. " It's not like you haven't used my "royal" stature to your advantage in the past, so I really wouldn't be talking if I were you."
Now it was Jinx's turn to smirk and Kid Flash to be the coy one. Even the nicest guys in the world could be a bit lecherous when given the chance.
That didn't mean she hadn't enjoyed it, though she wasn't about to let him know that.
After a moment of awkward silence (save for the screeching music and Robin slurring "Who's da Boss!" to no one in particular) Jinx sighs, and leans back to rest her head in Kid Flash's lap. His eyes flicker between hers and Robin, hand idly running through her silky hot pink tresses, which were let down for once, and ran in waves across his legs to almost touch the floor.
The distractions she offers him are too short to keep from the fact that the two, fasted boy alive and ex villainess bad luck witch, were indeed, forced to babysit their noble team leader for the night. Sure it had started out innocently enough. Maybe even it had been funny. Robin, great hero to millions, doing the electric slide? Priceless. Soon enough though, it had turned downright depressing, with their fearless leader pretending to be a fountain, and shouting to the unsuspecting public at large. It was here that Beast Boy and Cyborg both had to escort an increasing confused Starfire home, mumbling something about Raven getting worried. Jinx had internally balked at this. Why the hell would Raven, comfortably reading her books and not having to feel connected to the general populace by going to such trivial events thank you very much, care what time everyone showed their unwashed, bedraggled faces?
But at least they had some excuse.
There Kid Flash is again, nearly pounding on the table. She bites he lip and tries to think of a way to reach him before he shuts down so completely. Jinx is not about to be stuck with the one man party, who was now butchering a pop song in stuttered, almost intelligible speech, and frankly starting to scare her.
" Titans East are a collective of jackasses."
He looks down at her, a rueful smile playing on the corners of his lips. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, for starters, they got Robin drunk, which, obviously, is not advisable. Then," she says, ticking off the points with her fingers, " They all just happened to leave without telling us, making us have to stay here to watch-"
"No, I think Speedy is in the bathroom-"
"With Cheshire." His eyes narrow at this information and he moves his hand from the table to pinch the bridge of his nose. Well, that's one mission accomplished. Sort of.
"And so now, in edition to the Robin issue, we're going to have to pull Speedy off of Cheshire in all of his sweaty glory? That's a delightful image."
Jinx sighs, blowing her bangs out of her face. " It's getting to that point." She scoots up from his lap to check the wall clock above bar. A quarter past four. "And it looks as if that point is getting sooner all the while …" She mummers, and Kid Flash looks upon her for a moment before pulling her back down into his lap. They stare each other down for what seems like an eternity until he breaks the silence and her gaze, looking back to Robin.
" I feel old." He states it plainly, as if he is talking about how it was unusually warm yesterday. She closes her eyes, letting the hurricane of exhaustion she had been holding back finally hit her in all its silent fury. She feels old too, like the den mother for a screaming bunch of eight year old boy scouts.
"It's rather ironic, don't you think? Usually everyone's telling us we're the immature ones." Jinx opens one eye at Kid Flash as he says this; one eye conveying more than enough annoyance necessary with this statement.
"What do you mean 'we'? I led my own team for god sakes, I am the perfect picture of maturity! You on the other hand …" She lets the sentence hang, unspoken between them just how well deserved the Kid in Kid Flash was.
He sits pleasantly through her outburst before retorting " So then secretly sucking on my collarbone while Robin wasn't looking during the team debriefing yesterday is a textbook example of maturity then, hmm?"
She swats him in the chest before returning to her own seat, all the while (poorly) hiding the faint red blush painting its way across her cheeks. " Well … um … ," She stutters avoiding his eyes. Rarely is Jinx ensnared so thoroughly in her own deception then with Kid Flash.
Suddenly, almost too quick for his careful gaze, an iron curtain comes over her features, and he represses a grin. Though he would never admit it, even under torture and threats of death, Kid Flash had always found Jinx incredibly sexy when she was angry. Sure, he may had been constantly in danger of being hexed through a wall, but that was nothing compared to the strange rush he got when seeing the cruel glint come into her eye, and an evil smile spread across her face.
… Kind of like right now.
… Crap.
He braced himself for the worst, perhaps having his chair collaspe under him, or maybe even the roof cave in to crush him, though instead all Jinx does is raise her perfectly penciled in pink eyebrows, and snort. "Yeah, well, that is a different thing entirely." In unison the pair looks to the dance floor again to watch as Robin begins to do the Worm, (well more like the Crawl and Roll Around on the Floor Dance, as he has lost most motor skill capability at this point) flashing the peace sign with his middle and index fingers and getting odd looks from the bar tender.
She gestures toward the spectacle. "It seems as though the standards are set pretty low to begin with. Compared to that," Cue Robin executing a hand jive. " I'm a freaking southern debutante." Then, in a smaller, more sinister voice that makes Kid Flash shiver in the best possible way, " And don't tell me you didn't like it."
His expression becomes slightly dreamy, before quickly shaking it off. If Jinx was to use her awesome powers of seduction to win this battle of wits, than he himself would use … maybe … well, Kid Flash didn't really have an idea of any tactics he could use against her, so he would just have to go with the usual plan of picking out a half formed, completely random thought from his mind, and be prepared to haul ass if she decided to destroy him.
" You know," her condescending sneer begins to falter as he continues. "I think I'm having a good influence on you."
"Why is that?" She snaps, mouth forming a hard line.
" Because," he puts his hands behind his head and tips his chair back; the picture of ease. " You haven't tried to hex me into oblivion the entire night. I think this is a new record for you, Jinxy." He's pushing it with the Jinxy part, but takes full pride in it anyway.
Big mistake.
The next thing Kid Flash knows, he is being dragged from the table, through the dim light being able to see the faint glow of pink emitting from Jinx's eyes. This is where having an anger fetish gets painful.
He doesn't know what to make of it though when she pushes him into a deserted back alley, closing the steel fire door to the club with enough force to almost set it off its hinges. Kid Flash glances around, wondering if she was going to bury his body after she has killed him, or just burn it in the dumpster in the next side street.
It shocks the hell out of him then when, miracle of miracles, she launches herself at him, violently shoving him against the dirty brick wall, kissing him with all the force of a tornado in someone so small. He eagerly leans into her, and she returns the favor, deliberately biting his bottom lip before pulling away.
Their foreheads touch, and both breathe a steady, albeit labored, breathing. Kid Flash doesn't care where that had come from, nor does he really want to know. Lust clouds his better judgment, and he knows he needs Jinx right this very instant. To hell with Speedy and Robin! They can fend for themselves, right?
He states all this to her desperately, and she looks at him with a stable contemplation, before grinning that ruthless smile he loves so much.
Slowly and carefully, Jinx removes herself from the entanglement of his arms, dusting herself off. Without her on him, Kid Flash feels cold and dismal. He can't tell if the ringing he hears is in his head, or just the last call bell.
" To begin with," her tone is light, giving no implication to the events that had previously transpired." Don't call me Jinxy. And second," She stalks up to him again, close, so very close that she has to whisper. " I think I been having a bad influence on you."
Point proven, she pulls away, and he relinquishes his hold on the wall behind him, stepping away and catching the club door as she swings it open. The chime is louder, signaling Jinx and Kid Flash to collect their friends (Robin, who is mumbbling incoherently on the floor, and Speedy, feeling the walls as he walks towards them in a stupor) and get the hell out.
"You know, that isn't a very nice thing to say to a queen," Kid Flash says, quite cheerfully, to the bouncer, who stops screaming in Jinx's face about leaving to look at him with a confused expression.
" Huh?" His voice is the raspy growl of all bouncers, grisly with years of free booze and and one to many drunk patrons.
Jinx shakes her head slightly in disbelief, but doesn't say a word, as she takes Kid Flash's hand, steering him to help get Robin from off the floor. She had just had him the the palm of her hand, and had been winning their little mind game. What the hell happened?
" I'm not a queen of booth five; I didn't even drink!" She hisses, grabbing one of Robin's arms.
" Well I beg to differ. You don't need to get drunk to be a queen," the ghost of innuendo is heavy in his voice, and she wants to kiss and hex him for it, preferably at the same time.
She ponders this for a moment." So then do you want to go?" Her words have double meaning, and he considers them for a moment. Speedy has reached them now, slurring something about how " this really hot chick had, like, claws!"
They finally get Robin upright, who blinks against the hot, bright lights above them.
" I'm open to it." Robin looks very pale, and Kid Flash grabs him quickly before speeding away. Jinx sighs, and leads Speedy by the arm outside the club, where the postcard perfect sight of Robin spewing into the gutter greets them.
She drops Speedy without much ceremony next to her leader before walking over to where Kid Flash stands impassively. No way was he about to take this night from her, damn it!
"So," Jinx says lurking around him. "You said I was a queen, right?"
" Of the mighty land of dark nightclub corners."
"Well then," she smiles, and he waits in anticipation. " We'll just have to see the next time we go to a club, won't we?"
With that complete shutdown, she turns on her heel, going back to try to pull Robin's face out of the street.
Kid Flash just sighs, though he can't help smiling through it. We're having a influence on each other all right. As he goes to help Jinx, it is safe to say, neither of them know whether effect each is having on the other is a good or bad thing, but really, neither seems to care.
A/N: Finally finished with this! I can not tell the joy I had while writing this. Usually I just go for when Jinx and Kid Flash are begining their relationship, so it was fun to have them speak the verbal S&M that I can see them say in the later years. I would estimate that this takes place maybe a couple of years after Titans Together, after everything has died down a bit. I don't think that Robin getting drunk is completely OOC, considering his perchant for accepting challenges in haste that seem quite stupid in retrospect. Add that on to what looks like a fondness to going to clubs (Blackfire or no Blackfire) and you have got yourself a story.
I'm going to put this story in the Jinx/KF section for now, as I don't know if I will get back to it, but I am trying to get this to be a drabble series, with all the Titans, where everything takes place at night. Yeah. I know it's weird. I think it would just be good to try my hand at writing some of the other Titans for a change, and maybe stop fangirling every time I hear about Jinx and Kid Flash. (That last part is increasing unlikely though. Ugh, I'm in too deep!)