ANI: Oh man I don't know how I feel about this. Here's me, being like "I should try writing in the past tense!" without realizing how hard it is to switch tenses. I'd just be halfway through a sentence and reverse back, so I'm sorry if the style is a little stilted feeling. ALSO so little introspection, which is a new thing for me, the total newbie at plot and dialogue based stuff. So this is a testing ground in so, so many ways.
Idea got it's roots from Hinn-Raven's Come With Me, I thought the story was awesome, I think you should check it out~
OH YEAH I don't own anything.
Jinx sat on the ledge of the building, pulling her legs towards her and resting her chin on her knees. The breeze tugged at her hair gently, and she sighed, tilting her head so that she was looking to the side.
"Hey." She said, fatigued. "Busy night?"
She heard him laugh from behind her. "How'd you tell? I thought I was being super sneaky."
"There isn't any wind tonight." She replied, a small smile gracing her lips.
"Ah." He said, walking up beside her. He sat back on his haunches and looked her over searchingly. There was a few seconds of silence between them, but it wasn't awkward or tense. It was almost comfortable, and that was as disconcerting as anything else.
"Busy night?" She asked again, just to break the silence. His eyes were still locked on hers, completely serious for once.
"Not so much." He answered conversationally. He cocked his head and gave her that searching look again. "Might not be over yet."
She felt very miserable all of a sudden, and pulled her legs in closer. "The Hive Five are done. Off to jail. A good night's work." She refused to meet his eyes. "Why don't you just go home."
He moved in closer to her, and she shied away. "Hey," he said, eyes gentle, "are you okay?"
She sighed, and then looked down at her hands. "Yeah. Sure. I guess."
Something in her voice must have tipped him off; he wasn't smiling anymore. His eyes narrowed, fractionally, and when he spoke again his voice was a little tight. "You gonna break them out?" He inquired evenly.
She laughed breathily, and shook her head, looking up to the sky. "No point."
He relaxed, visibly if marginally. "That's good, I guess." The teasing grin was back on his face, and he elbowed her gently. "No fun in chasing after a pretty lady if I don't get any chance of a date."
"You still don't have a chance." She shot back, barb softened by the grin on her face.
He gasped dramatically, clutching at his chest. "Oh, the pain! I thought we really had something special!"
She snorted, mood lifting every second. "Oh, stop being such a drama queen."
He bowed, though it was a little lopsided. "Your wish is my command, fair maiden." He said, eyes twinkling with mirth.
She flopped down onto her back, staring up at the stars. "Is that so?" She murmured, voice a little distant. He laid down next to her, cradling his head in his hands. They stared up at the sky for a few minutes, before he rolled over onto his side to face her.
"Jinx?" He asked, tentatively.
"Yeah?" She said, keeping her eyes glued to the sky.
"Why…" He began, losing his footing. He regained it quickly enough, and kept going. "Why'd you quit?"
"Who says I did?" She retorted smoothly, rolling over and raising an eyebrow. She met his eyes, and realized they were scarely inches apart.
"Come on." He implored, eyes dark. "Be serious here for a minute. It can't have been for me. I mean I'm awesome, but even that's too much for me." Her heart started to beat wildly despite her best efforts to keep it calm.
"It's…" She faltered, not sure how to proceed. "My team, they were…"
He seemed to grasp her meaning. "Well your friends are all kind of lame, so I get why you'd want to quit that team, but –"
She cut him off abruptly. "They're not my friends." She rolled away from him, brow furrowing with an emotion she couldn't quite place.
He blinked, taken aback, before sitting up. "Sorry, I didn't… I just assumed…" He managed, confusion clear on his face. "I thought teams all worked like that."
"Yeah, well, you play for the other team, remember?" She muttered sulkily. She adjusted her position and used her arm as a pillow, curling up into a ball. "No friendship allowed. Gets in the way of betraying your teammates if things get bad."
He made no effort to move to see her face, something she appreciated very much, because for some reason tears were welling up in her eyes. It frustrated her immensely.
"That's a little sad." He said bluntly. She heard him shift around on the roof, and then in her peripheral he was leaning on railing for the fire escape. "I mean, what's a team without trust. Maybe that's why you guys never succeeded."
Indignant pride welled up in her, and thought she tried to quash in a little still crept into her tone. "We won plenty of times." She grumbled, sounding very much like a petulant child to herself.
"Sure, sure." He conceded. "You did."
She sat straight up and glared at him. "Don't patronize me."
He held his hand up in front of him. "I'm not, I promise. Until I came around, you were doing just fine."
Her glare faded, though she was still irritated. She couldn't tell with whom, though.
"Small time heists, robbing taco stands." She said bitterly, leaning back and looking at her feet. "Yeah. The height of success."
He laughed brightly, and it rang through the night like a bell. "Am I supposed to be comforting you on how good of a villain you were? That's messed up."
"Oh, shut up." She snapped, but there was no bite to it.
"Seriously, though." He continued, as if she hadn't said anything. "No friends? None at all, in all those years at Hive?"
"What of it?" She looked away, feeling as if she were suddenly on the defensive.
"It just sounds lonely, that's all." He turns to meet her eyes, and her face turns red for no particular reason.
"Wh- Whatever." She stammered, standing up and brushing nonexistent dirt off of her tights. "You done talking yet?"
"Almost." He replied easily, walking towards her. She crossed her arms as he approached, trying to break eye contact but unable to. When he was maybe a foot a away from her, he stopped suddenly. There was a split second of stillness, before her pulled her into a crushing hug.
"H-Hey!" She gasped, indignant. "What're doing, idiot, lemme go!" She struggled to get out of his grip with no real conviction, before giving up. His hand moved to the back of her head, and he pulled her into his chest.
"You've got a friend, Jinx." He whispered above her head. "Okay? You're not alone." He let her go and stepped back, grinning widely. "Don't forget, alright? Call anytime you want."
She was suddenly furious. "How am I supposed to do that if I have no way to contact you, stupid?" She shot back. That infuriating grin was still plastered onto his face, and she punched him in the arm, hard.
"Ow! What was that for?" He yelped, rubbing his shoulder.
"Your face was irritating me." She grumbled, looking away from him.
"Mean!" He exclaimed, a wounded look on his face. "Well, I gotta go. Crime to fight, bad guys to apprehend. You know. Hero stuff." He turned around and started walking away, slowly. He stopped suddenly. "Oh yeah, if you want to call me, just shout my name into the wind and I'll come running!"
She gave him a very flat look and he laughed. "Yeah, just kidding. Here you go!" He lobbed something at her, quickly, and her hand shot out to catch it. She pulled her hand in and examined the object in her hand, gaping.
"This is…" She muttered, flabbergasted.
"Yup!" He replied cheerfully, "Your very own."
She looked up, eyes filled with doubt. "But… are you sure it's okay if I…"
He shrugged nonchalantly. "Whatever. Not my problem if they've got a problem." She looked down again at the communicator in her hand, the bright yellow T staring at her. "Welcome to my team, Jinx. The only one that really matters."
She scoffed, embarrassed. "Whatever. Bye." She dismissed, turning her head haughtily in the opposite direction. He laughed again, and she felt a faint breeze rustle her hair. She turned around, expecting to see him gone, only to jump back when his face was centimetres from hers.
"Gotcha!" He chirped, before leaning in and kissing her lightly on the lips. She froze up, mind drawing a blank. She could feel him grin through the kiss, and then he leapt back and dashed away.
"Call me!" She heard he call out as he ran away.
"As if." She muttered to herself, but she couldn't stop the smile from creeping onto her face. "Jerk."
ANII: Also I didn't know how to end it so I just kind of stopped. It felt done. Well, let me know? I'd love feedback on this.