AN: NOTE: There is no lemon in this, but it does get steamy with Jericho and Kole. Warning over. Read if you want, 'cause no one's forcing you. I'm not.

Also, if you wanna get right to the JeriKole, skip to the first break.

Disclaimer: I don't own any TT character, nor have I ever.

"A'ight, a'ight!" Herald regained his teammates attentions. "Ain't no way Gwen died in last week's episode." His theory was met with loud protest from the two. "Hey, hey! We never explicitly saw the zombies bite into Gwen, so we can't say for sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that it was her and not that crazy girl who shot herself that the zombies were feasting on. They fell off that platform together, and the show is not gonna kill off their beloved character so early into the season."

"But Darlene is the fan favorite!" Argent had to protest.

"Gwen is a close second," Hot Spot reminded. "She's my favorite, 'cause she's wily."

"Mine too."

"'Wily'? I didn't know your vocabulary to be that broad, Spot." Argent was a teaser who loved to ruffle Hot Spot's delicate feathers. "Sorry, Herald, but I saw the zombies munching on Gwen's innards! She is most definitely zombie chow!"

"You know I hate to say it, bro, but the kiwi's right. And even if Gwen is alive she has all those hordes to escape from, which might be too much for even her. I mean, weaving in and out of traffic on a scooter delivering pizzas is one thing, and maneuvering your way through a horde without getting scratched or bitten is another."

"The actress who plays Gwen, her name didn't even appear in the opening credits this episode!"

Herald sat up straighter, more engaged with the conversation than before. "One episode goes by without her and you give up? C'mon..."

"I think she's screwed this time too." Hot Spot placed a hand dramatically on his pal Herald's shoulder. "She's a goner man, and we," -he sniffed; "we have to move on!" Both of the boys chuckled at his acting.

"Thank you!" Argent had to admit that it was good to have an ally, be he Hot Spot or anyone else.

"Thanks for what?" An unexpected question, but one that begged to be answered. Kole stood patiently, groggily, in the entryway to the common room, leaning heavily on the door frame.

"Sorry, blossom. Did we wake you?"

"Uh-huuuuuh." The crystal girl's trite response was drawn out by a long yawn.

Wincing, Argent turned back to her colleagues. "We were a bit... loud, weren't we?" Guilt shone plainly in her red eyes, and the two facing opposite her felt doubly guilty for that.

"Can't you just fall back to sleep?" Hot Spot asked. "I mean, you sleep like a rock."

"Nope. Once I'm up, I'm up. And you guys were super loud."

The cogs in Hot Spot's mind began to turn, generating a devious idea. His devilish smirk said it all. "Hey, Kole... who relaxes you more than anyone else?"

"Any one of you when you aren't yelling."

"One of us in particular, though? He doesn't have to be here to count."

Kole yawned again. "So Jericho would count?"

"Yep!"

"Then Jericho, definitely."

Hot Spot almost giggled, but started talking before a single chuckle could slip out. "Well, why don't you climb into bed with him? That should do the trick!" He burst into hyena laughter.

"You get giddy when you're tired," Herald noted.

Once the notion of sharing a bed with her adorable curly-haired boyfriend registered in her foggy mind, Kole's face lit up bright red. Suddenly, she was more awake than ever!

"Hot Spot, that is not helpful!" Argent scolded while leaning over to smack him.

"She's gotcha there, man." His friend hung out to dry, Herald told Kole, "But maybe you should go to Jericho's room. Ask him to play something for ya on his acoustic, something calming or psychedelic. He's a light sleeper. And I'm sure he's been awake for awhile."

"Thanks, Herald. I'll tell him you sent me..." She slumped away, her second wind spent.

"Good cover." Kole whirled around, glaring daggers at the pyro. "Kidding! Geez... Hope Jericho likes girls who have no sense of humor."

Argent cut in. "Night-night, love! Tell Jerry I said good early morning!"

"Night, Argent."

"G'night, Kole." She waved.

Hot Spot waved back. "Later." Kole didn't respond to that.

After the crystal girl left, Argent spoke first. "Smart sending her Jerry's way, gents. She'll be konked out in no time."

Hot Spot looked genuinely offended. "'Gents'? What on earth would make you think that we are gentlemen?"

"Well, it's a word from New Zealand that we use to refer to two strapping young men who we think of as friends, not necessarily well mannered types."

"... Thanks."

Naturally less polite than his hooded pal, Hot Spot quipped, "I'm sorry, Arge, but your country sucks."

"What?! How so? You better have a good reason, Spot."

"Okay, first of all, New Zealand is next to frickin' Australia, where England dumped all its criminals and troublemakers back around... a really crap long time ago. Second, it's right next to frickin' Australia again, so it's got poisonous fish, octopus, and jellyfish infesting the waters around it. Oh, and sharks! Just another reason to book a vacation in the Bahamas. And, last of all, your country is overrun by sheep. Sheep, Argent. They outnumber people seven to one!"

Argent laughed softly, keeping Jericho and Kole in mind. Hopefully they had drifted off by then. "Wait a second... How did we get from 'Gwen is dead' to 'New Zealand sucks' in just five minutes?"

"Dunno."

Herald's answer was more thoughtful. "I think we went off the rails when Kole came in."

"Probably. And I do hope that she's fallen back asleep, and Jerry too."

"I'm sure Jericho is taking good care of her."

"Me too." Hot Spot's devious smirk was back. "I am positive that he is taking very good care of her."

"Wow! Was that innuendo? What are you getting at?"

The pyro let the question hang in the air for a bit, eventually answering, "It might be nothing, but... our little Jericho might like our sweet Kole a tiny bit more than the rest of us do. Get me?"

Smiling a smile similar to Hot Spot's, Herald nodded. "I saw how it was, so I wasn't surprised."

"So we are all aware of Kole's and Jericho's secret crushes on each other?"

"Yup."

"Wasn't hard to figure out Jer was diggin' on her. Least it wasn't hard for me. I know him better than both of you, though, so..."

"Ya do, ya do. I couldn't believe it, myself. Captain Killjoy crushing on Miss Giddy? Not in my world."

"Really? I think they are just darling."

Herald spoke up. "Now, don't you two go getting any crazy ideas about hooking them up."

"No worries there," Hot Spot muttered. Rubbing his eyes, he took a long look at the wall clock. Almost three-thirty already?

"They'll come together when they come together."

"Right."

Argent pouted, plans foiled. If Herald and Hot Spot wouldn't be her lackeys, who would? "Now where's the fun in that?"

Simply put, "The fun is in staying out of it."

With a cocked eyebrow, Hot Spot asked, "So what we've been doing to Jericho...?"

"That don't count as meddling. Just... We just pick on him and put him in embarrassing situations that some closed-minded people might think of as cruel and unusual punishment. No big."

"Like...?" The goth chick's probe wasn't subtle, but Hot Spot was proud of his work. He would have told anybody about his and the Herald's boyish antics.

"Like when I was holding Kole up on that building so she wouldn't fall to her death and then I accidentally dropped her on Jericho. Watching him lose it trying to catch her was frickin' hilarious. Watching him try to do it while not looking up her skirt... even more hilarious."

Herald chuckled at the memory. "And how she landed. Where she landed. That was unfortunate."

"For him!"

"Oh, right... Has he forgiven her for that yet?"

Shaking his head, Hot Spot said, "No, he hasn't forgiven me for it yet. He knew from the getgo that she was the innocent party."

"Isn't she always?"

Hot Spot squinted and tapped a finger to his chin contemplatively. With uncertainty, he contemplated romantic things that frequently escaped him: the casual closeness of two bodies, and the significance of it; the longing that interested parties felt to be with each other, and to what lengths they would go to in order to be together; and the potent, dreamy stares shared by lovers. These things, to his knowledge, Hot Spot had seldom been able to detect.

"I wonder, Arge... Sometimes, I really do wonder about those two..."

A few stories above the trio, Jericho sighed again and yawned again. He was pinned to his mattress, one arm under Kole and the other under his precious guitar. If he moved either one Kole would awaken, by the movement or by the noise of the guitar being placed on his nightstand.

Great... How am I gonna be able to sleep in this position? Looking down at the beautiful girl slumbering innocently at his side, he wondered, Do I want to sleep with her now? Well, we would just be sleeping, nothing else, but she's so pure that it makes me wonder if she'd be okay if I drifted off next to her, while sharing the same bed and blanket as her.

"Hey, Jericho...?" The hero in question jumped, and he wanted to smack himself for it. Why was he so finicky? The answer to his own question sat up, giving him his much desired mobility back. "Sorry. Were you still playing? You're holding your guitar like you were."

A man who preferred speaking with his actions, Jericho carefully set Yellow Rose on the nightstand to his right.

Kole rubbed her arms, although she didn't look cold. Nor did she appear any more well rested than she had when she knocked on his door ten minutes ago. "This might sound bad, but... could you play me something? I know you've already played alot, so you don't have to if you don't want to. If I'm overstepping or something just tell me and I'll back off and let you go back to sleep."

With a small, tired smile, Jericho picked up his sweet Yellow Rose once more. What to play, what to play? What hadn't he already played?

"Do you know 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'?"

"No, I don't know the exact chords, but I can improvise since I know the beat already."

"It is a popular song."

Jericho stopped tuning his strings to answer, "Infamous. Wish I could write like he did."

"I don't like Mozart's music as much as I like yours. Every piece you create is a Joey masterpiece in its own right."

"Careful where you use that name."

"It is just us in here... right?"

The instant Kole bit her lip, Jericho knew what she wanted. Ever since she had begun calling him 'boyfriend' in the privacy of their rooms, she had needed alot of kisses to keep their relationship happy and quiet. Under no circumstance could the guys discover that their stupid plans had worked. He could not let them take the credit for the success of his and Kole's friendship or the blossom of their close personal relationship.

Kole's lips curved into a smile as he obliged her, as he pressed his thin lips firmly to hers. Although he would never tell her, Jericho loved that intimate sensation her kisses gave him. Kole grabbed the wooden neck of his Yellow Rose while he was distracted, and discarded it onto the floor. Hands free, she brought one to rest enticingly on his back.

Responding as she usually did to kisses, Kole retreated first and let her intuition guide her. In her compromised state, she could hardly resist its pull downward to the dip of Jericho's exposed shoulder. A second or two after the contact of his skin and her sensitive lips, the bold girl shuffled to be in his lap.

His arms reinforced her, and urged her to continue.

An amorous caress of his upper back reminded Jericho of their interlocked state, so did the slow path of her right hand dragging from his tender neck to his stomach. She would go no further than that, he knew, but his adrenaline spiked in spite of that promise. If his voice had been present, she would have heard him growl.

Kole acted as if she had by moaning. Often, she found herself romantically lost and frustrated. The erratic pounding of his overactive heart had spooked her, in a sense, causing her to doubt her ability to control how he reacted to her advances. Him throwing his arms around her she had predicted, but the crazy heartbeat she had not been privy to. Her left hand had felt the low rumble of his inaudible growl. What would he do if she really pushed him?

Unsure, she backed off.

"Joey..." The young man tucked his head beneath her chin, sucking the previously untouched flesh at the base of her throat. Humming instinctively, Kole struggled to wrest control of her train of thought. "No further... please. I'm getting tired." Her hands found safety on his shoulders, and she was hard pressed to keep them far from danger.

Jericho had to disengage her in order to nod, and did both. The break didn't last long after, to Kole's discomfort, as her sweetheart's hungry lips latched fast to her collarbone again not a full second later, to a new patch of skin. If the foreign presence of his lips wasn't enough, his sharp teeth breaching her flesh was quite enough. Controlling herself so she wouldn't scream at the stunt, Kole allowed herself a gasp and a light, warning push on his shoulders.

Playing the innocent, despite having been the instigator, Kole softly kissed his cheek. Drawing close to his ear, she whispered, "Please... stop." Another cheek kiss cooled Jericho's blood so that he could stop.

Gaze apologetic, Jericho grimaced. He signed, "I should have stopped before. Now you have a very red mark on your collarbone."

Kole winked at his concerns. "Isn't that what scarves are for?"

"If you want everyone to know about it."

"Argent wears scarves all the time, and she doesn't have a boyfriend."

Jericho raised both of his eyebrows critically. "HS?"

"And as far as he knows, I don't have a boyfriend. I've gotten good at pretending that we're still just friends who really like each other."

"It's sort of pointless, pretending like..." He failed to find the words. More and more, Jericho had come to resent his own inclination to secrecy. What he and Kole engaged in behind closed doors wasn't harmful or illegal, so why did he feel so pressured to conceal it from the world? In order to protect it? Yes, from someone particularly evil.

His mouth set into a frown, and he rolled Kole off to the side. The threat of Slade's prying, all-seeing eyes catching him and his love in a vulnerable way made him sweat, almost shake for fear.

"What's wrong, Joey? Did I go too far too fast?" His answer was nonexistent, so Kole probed elsewhere. "Or are you beating yourself up over this?"

"I feel like we're being watched."

"The guys aren't here, and even if they were I don't think I'd care. Honestly, you might be the only one who does worry about whether we're caught kissing and touching or not."

"It isn't the guys I worry about. Our friends would never hurt us."

"Who's gonna hurt us?"

"Slade."

Kole threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. "Why do you worry about him so much? He's a big time villain and Robin is his arch-nemesis, not you! He probably doesn't even know you exist!"

"But he does."

"Quit being ominous. He's never even met you, and you've never even met him!" Looking him in the face, and noting the tears on the cusp of spilling over, Kole recognized her boyfriend's need for tact and reassurance. Her voice dropped in pitch, and she spoke carefully. "And I've never met him either..."

If you meet my parents, like you say you want to, you'll have to meet him. Jericho didn't dare say that.

"Do you not want... to go public with our relationship because you think Slade will see us then?"

Kole had asked the terrible question with such detectable fragility that Jericho couldn't risk to sign. He always let slip more than was proper when her guard lowered, and he would not make that mistake. Any answer he gave could kill all they had going for them.

"Yes."

Shit! Why did I tell her that? I didn't need to tell her anything!

A plethora of emotions lit up Kole's eyes, and he could isolate not a single one of them before they hid from view. She wrung her hands, biting her lip pensively.

Jericho didn't know what she was debating within herself, and brought his knees to his chin to create a semblance of protection. It was an empty defense, since it couldn't protect him from Kole's words, but it still comforted him.

Kole had heard of Slade's choking presence. Those who met him instantly feared him, and those who crossed him prayed for death to seize them by the hands of any other man. Perhaps Jericho had met and opposed Slade once, while on assignment, and felt that same eclipsing fear. From where else could such paralyzing terror emerge? "Have you ever met Slade? Like... Is there something going on between you and him that I'm not aware of?"

I could lie. I could lie and get out of this!

But his hands were moved by the truth, and communicated to Kole that he was connected in some unspeakable way to the criminal mastermind and mercenary.

"You can't tell me..." Hope welled inside her. Maybe he had needed to lie to her! "Is it a secret mission from Robin?" The Boy Wonder had his unorthodox, downright outrageous ways of getting to Slade. Kole couldn't put using Jericho past him, or his obsession.

"No." Jericho's protective blockade disintegrated as he prepared to sign the important details.

Tell her! Just tell her! You've already dug your own grave, ya stupid idiot!

"It's more than that... because we're related, by blood. We're immediate family."

Jericho's expression brightened. The weight of secrecy lifted from his conscience, and it felt great.

Then he considered the negative repercussions of his admission. Pursuing a relationship with me is a raw deal, with Slade being the hidden fee. Kole might realize that, and then we'll be done for. That is, unless she thinks I'm good enough to stick around for despite my family ties. But is Slade too... powerful of a figure? Is he still able to pull my life's strings, even from a distance?

Kole unpacked Jericho's confession. "Then you must be his son."

A dismal nod answered her.

The tears flowed, and Jericho was too afraid to reach out and brush them away. Kole would slap him. She would scream at him. The dear young woman would hate him for his deceit. His treasured girlfriend would walk away without a word. So he fought his own tears and guilt, accepting the miserable end to an authentically loving relationship.

But he had to know something before the end. "Were you happy being with me before tonight?"

"I was so happy..." - rubbing her puffy red eyes, she added; "and that hasn't changed." Jericho's confused expression delighted her, and she laughed. "You could have kept it a secret and never told me. Heck, you could have crawled back to him and betrayed us at any time, but you didn't! You love being a Titan more than you love your own father!"

Overwhelmed with relief, Jericho brought his hands to his face and wept. Kole sprang a hug on him, and he captured her in his arms, clinging to her small body as if it were life itself. His worrying had been for nothing! If anything, the confession of his heritage had worked to improve Kole's opinion of him and his loyal character.

Jericho pulled back the minimum distance required in order for his lips to find hers. His arms remained tightly wound around her lower back, and her slim fingers edified him by weaving themselves into his thin blond hair, knotting it at the back of his head.

While considering his watery hiccups and tensed muscles, Kole briefly wondered if they would stay locked in that scandalous position until their teammates came looking for them in the morning. Surely, if they lingered like that for too long they would miss morning roll call, she thought. But then the kiss tilted its angle, and all pattern of logic and foresight was lost to her.

No worry existed to Kole when Jericho's strong body became her pillar and his love shone clear and true by way of hot and heavy action.

Despite his messy, teary appearance, Jericho felt like he was on top of the world. He grew bolder thereby, and acted boldly, sliding a hand from his buxom girlfriend's hip to her full chest. Truthfully, he wanted her to feel good for making him feel good about everything he had once counted as detrimental to his character. Everything suppressed deep in his heart was out in the open; and everything exposed was alright. The word overjoyed would fail to describe his elation.

As they came to rest on his adventurous right hand, Kole's prudish hands shook. "No..." Her sexual dignity was her treasured possession, and Jericho knew it.

He came to respect her virginal wishes, after a final, careful pinch on her soft breast, one which made Kole gasp and hold her breath. Her bottom lip was bitten, and her chest reflexively puffed out to chase the young man's retreating fingers and the unimaginable feeling they had seared into her brain.

Drinking in her satisfaction with his deed, Jericho stopped to ask himself, Should I stop, or keep going? 'Cause she wants it, and she deserves it. But then, he reasoned, she never wanted to lose her virginity before marriage.

Innocently, the same hand that had thrilled Kole's senses traveled up her throat to her chin without further violation, cupping the latter fondly.

Some manner of critical thinking was restored to Kole because of that move. She turned her head away, blushing and saying, "I don't know..." Whether she should say "about this," or "what's wrong with me," Kole was unable to decide. The end of her sentence dropped indefinitely like a stone into a bottomless pit.

"I should have known."

"Known what? That I can't handle touching like other girls can?"

"I should have known not to give you a slice of the forbidden fruit before you were ready to eat it all."

"Do not make me think of you as something I can eat. I feel hot enough as it is. And don't refer to yourself as the forbidden fruit. It makes me queasy, in the good way. In the too good way." Kole dared to eye him up and down out of the corner of her eye, and what she saw pleased her. His handsome image had caused her heart to skip and occasionally stop now and again, but his smile then had been especially dazzling, reaching his bright green eyes so they shined.

He cocked an eyebrow, asking, "Tempted? I can teach you things, Kole... Wonderful things... Things other men have never dared try."

"... Later, Joey."

He was laughing at her embarrassment and still at his own forbidden fruit innuendo. Jericho crossed his arms, and both his eyebrows shot up. Really?

"Much later."

He patted her on the head, and signed, "That is my girl."

AN: I will probably revise this later. My little bro wants to get on, and I said he could, so...

Just so you know, I have three alternate endings that I want to explore for this fic, which is why I haven't filed this fic under "complete" yet. NONE of them involve a lemon, so nyeeeeeeh, everyone who wanted one. I let this get a little risque, but no more, 'kay? I believe in celibacy and it isn't against the law for me to have my characters ("my" characters) believe in it too, or just one.

Thanks for reading! Be responsible. :)