Gingerbread Boys and Devil's Food Girls

"I still don't like him."

Wally chuckles. He always does that when she gets like this. He thinks she's adorable, 95 pounds of pure, unadulterated snark.

"I know," he says. "I don't like him either. But you won't even have to talk to him at all. You and Jade can just like, get your nails done or something and I'll deal with him, okay? He just, he says she could really use a friend. And you know what it's like. You know, to be an ex-villain."

Jinx huffs a breath. She can't quite find an argument when he puts it that way and it kind of pisses her off. "Why does being around you make me so nice?"

That just makes Wally laugh harder. "Because you are nice," he tells her. He's playing it off like a joke, laughing through the words. But they both know how much he means it. "And even if you don't see it that way, I do."

She can't help but smile at that. "Oh-kay, I'll do it," she says, sing-song, like it's huge burden on her. It's not. Not when he's the one asking. "But you owe me, big time."

"Oh, do I?" He wags his eyebrows. Suggestively. It's kind of a thing they do. Drives Donna off the wall, but they think it's hilarious.

"Mm-hmm," she hums, tossing her pink curls over her shoulder with a deliberate haughtiness. "I expect your… Specialty."

"My lips are happy to oblige."

She smirks. "I was talkin' about you cooking me pancakes."

He cracks up, laughing so hard he near bend in half. He legitimately did not see that one coming. "I can work with that."

Jinx laughs, and that makes him smile. He really loves the sound of her laugh, the look of her smile. Just seeing her happy, in general, makes him really happy too. She pulls him in for a kiss, and he discovers that her lipgloss isn't just bubblegum colored.

"I'll take your lips too, though," she quips. "If they're still part of the offer."

He slips an arm around her waist, nearly lifts her off the ground as he kisses her back. In the past couple of months, he's finally finished growing, reaching his adult height of a full six feet tall, and damn is he happy to be taller than Dick again. Makes kissing interesting, though, given that Jinx barely scrapes past five-three.

"Yeah, they are," he says. "If you can handle them."

She smirks again. "Cocky, are we?"

It is tasteless even for them, and they both dissolve into a fit of giggles.

"You really don't have to do this for me." She's got her arms around her stomach like she wishes she could make herself smaller and it kinda feels like it's makin' his heart bleed to see it.

"Jade," he says. "You're eight months pregnant and you've been sitting around the tower by yourself all the time. I kinda do."

"But you don't like them," she protests. It's a pretty weak protest. She sighs. "We should have asked Dick and Star."

Roy rolls his eyes. "And put up with him brooding all day and her constant perkiness? Please, I will take Beetlejuice and Lydia over goddamn Alice and Jasper, any day of the week."

Jade's not sure if that's supposed to be funny or not, especially given that she is the only reason he knows anything about Twilight. "I'm sorry."

His face softens. "Don't be. You deserve to have friends, Jade. I'll do anything I can to make things easier for you, okay?"

She nods, and offers him a gentle smile. "You're sweet."

He smiles, sheepish. "Only 'cause you make me be."

She shakes her head and that, and kisses him. Coffee is his replacement vice these days, and she doesn't usually like the taste of, but on him it seems sweet.

The four of them meet up a manicure place in Steel. It's a pretty nice day, middle of spring so it's warm but not uncomfortably so, with birds chirping and flowers brightening up the trees. Jade and Wally smile and hug while Jinx and Roy just kind of do the brisk nod thing- they will tolerate each other for Jade and Wally's sake but it does not make them friends.

"So we'll pick you girls up in like, an hour and a half?" Wally suggests. "And then we like get something to eat?"

"Sounds good." Jade says, smiling. Just trying to break the ice.

Jinx has to stand on her toes to kiss her boyfriend on the cheek. "Bye."

"Love you," Wally replies. He's never shy about saying it.

Roy kisses Jade on the lips, not the cheek. He's not shy about that. But he is shy about saying it. "Have fun."

Jade smiles. "You too."

Roy's thinking "As if" but he manages to stop himself from saying it. "See you later."

"So what do you want to do?" Wally asks. Some days his superspeed makes it easy for him to patient, like he never has to rush because he has all the time in the world. But today an hour and a half feels like ages. He does not know what to make of Roy, and Roy does not know what to make of him.

Despite their both being Caucasian, blue-eyed and ginger, no one would ever mistake the two of them for brothers- cousins, maybe, but even that's a stretch. Wally is seventeen to Roy's nineteen, but three inches taller and rail-thin to Roy's muscular and broad. Both are handsome, but differently so. Roy's features are harder, more pronounced, while Wally might be more accurately termed "cute", with a face is almost as slender of the rest of him and a smile that lights up the room. Even the exact tones of their skin and eyes and hair are different. Roy's tanned and dark with eyes that are really more grey than anything else, his hair cut short and the color of slightly dingy copper. Wally's hair is as wild and impossibly bright as a forest fire, and his skin and eyes are equally technicolor, aquamarine and gold. Their clothes, too, betray the differences between the them. Roy's in his usual uniform- white wife-beater, baggy jeans, Army reg combat boots and his leather jacket slung over his shoulder. Wally, meanwhile, looks a bit like a Warped Tour exploded on him: red and black striped hoodie over a grey shirt with the logo of some punk band Roy's never heard of, red pants and an armful of wrist bands and a pair of bright red Chuck Taylors. Roy has five-o-clock-shadow. Wally has a pierced ear. They have nothing to say to each other.

They have exactly two things in common: red hair, and supervillain girlfriends.

Roy gives Wally the once over, taking in just how truly stupid that outfit is. Beetlejuice indeed. "Who do you think you are, anyway, Gerard Way?"

Wally glances down at himself. "You think I look like Gerard Way? Cool!"

That said, Wally's pretty sure Roy doesn't really know who Gerard Way is, because, as truly awesome as this outfit is, Gerard would never wear it. Wally was going for Pete Wentz, but he's pretty sure that reference would fly right over Red Eminem's head.

Roy rolls his eyes. "Maybe we should just not talk."

Wally clucks his tongue against his cheek. "Okay."

They get as far as the nearest Starbucks before that stops working for Wally. He drums on his knee with his fingers, jittery like he's the one who's already had six cups of coffee today.

"So how's Jade?"
Roy glares at him. "What happened to not talking?"

Wally flushes, red as his hair. "Sorry."

"So do you always get black?"

Jinx glances at the bottle of nail polish in her hand, not entirely sure how to take that comment. She is confident about her look- goth, punk, emo, all of the above. But somedays, when people comment on it, she isn't sure if they're judging her. And as much as she tells herself she doesn't give a shit what other people think of her… Well, somedays she does.

But Jade is smiling, friendly, nervously. And Jinx is sure- pretty sure, anyway- that she is just trying to strike up a conversation.

If Jinx is here because Jade really needs a friend, then she feels like she probably wasn't the best choice for the task.

"Yeah, I guess," is the answer she comes up with and it makes her feel like an idiot. "What are you getting?"

Jade holds up a ballet pink. "It's called "It's a Girl!"," she giggles. "Felt appropriate."

Oh. Right. That. Jade is eight months pregnant. She keeps a hand on or just under her stomach most of the time, like it's heavy, like she's uncomfortable. She's happy to be having this baby, but it is, at the moment, a little uncomfortable. That due date can't come fast enough.

"Well, congratulations," Jinx says. She means it. "Do you have a name yet?"

Jade nods, smiling. Her whole face has lit up. She glows, when she talks about her baby. "Lian."

"That's pretty."

"Roy picked it out," Jade explains. Jinx is a little shocked at that, but she keeps the thought to herself.

They sit down in the pedicure chairs, magazines in hand. Jade is happy to get off her feet, and putting them in hot water feels pretty luxurious. A lot of little things like that have felt quite luxurious to her while she's been pregnant. Really, that due date can't come fast enough.

The truth is, most of the patrons of this rather-expensive nail salon are probably up-to-date enough on their celebrity gossip to know exactly who these two girls are and how they know each other. If they weren't, though, they would probably be a baffled to see two such different looking girls associating with each other at all. They're close in age- Jinx is seventeen, Jade just-barely-eighteen- and similar in stature, though Jade is an inch or so taller, and curvier even without the pregnant stomach. And both are quite stunningly beautiful. But visually, the similarities stop there. Jade is half-Asian, with olive-tones in her fair skin, glossy black hair and green eyes that match her namesake, perfectly. She's dressed femininely, a pale pink, sleeveless sundress dress with a ruched top, empire cut since nothing else fits her right now, off-white ballet flats and a matching off-white ribbon tying her hair in a ballerina bun. She has a charm bracelet and dangling, heart-shaped earrings, both silver, and a silver-and-jade locket, that Roy gave her. That she never takes off. Jinx is Caucasian, probably, she thinks. Her skin is unnaturally, chalkish-ly, white, a result of her mutation, so it's kind of hard for her to be sure exactly what she is. She has neon pink hair and eyes and an outfit that is probably eighty-percent from Hot Topic- a black tanktop and a red-and-black leopard print mini, fishnets and fingerless gloves, wristbands and a bullet-shaped necklace. She has six piercings total- two on each lobe, one in her cartilage and one in her belly button. And she's wearing red Chuck Taylors.

She and Wally did not plan it that way, honest.

The goth girl and the girly-girl. Hardly a thing in common. And even though they're both beauties, they're beauties in different ways. Jade has soft eyes, long eyelashes and full lips, the face of a pin-up a girl and the smile and boobs of one too. Jinx is frail and thin, with a more classical face, the sort of haunting eyes you see in old paintings rimmed by a heavy layer of black eyeliner. If they were just a couple of students at some high school nearby they'd probably never speak to each other, much less get mani-pedis together. But here they are. It's a sight to see.

Twenty minutes later and halfway through coffee number seven, and the silence has finally gotten to Roy, too.

"Jade's fine," he answers, finally.

Wally, who has been staring into space, counting down the minutes with his head in his heads, perks up, at the fact that Roy has, finally, decided to talk to him. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Roy replies.

"And, uh, how's the baby?"

"Good."

Well, so much for that conversation.

Wally sighs, audibly, and rolls his eyes. He is trying, really, trying. He always tries. But this guy is really pushing his last nerve. Because's he not trying back. The least he could do is goddamn try back.

This makes Roy defensive. "There a problem?" he asks, crossing his arms over his chest.

Wally shakes his head, rapid. "No."

"Then why are you huffing at me?"

"I'm not."

"Look, if you don't want to be here, you don't have to be but can you just stop looking at me like that?"

Now Wally's defensive too. "Like what?"

"Like you think I'm an asshole and you can't wait to get away from me?" Wally rolls his eyes. "You're doing it again."

"Well, I wouldn't be if you'd just be a willing to just have a goddamn conversation!"

"Well you're the one who insisted we split up!"

"Only because you're a douche to my girlfriend!"

"Only because she's a bitch!"

Okay, that does it. Wally slams the table. "You blackmailed her, okay?" he snaps. "Blackmailed. Or did you forget about that? Were you too busy getting waitresses killed to remember how you started down your little path of darkness?"

"You want to talk path of darkness?" Roy snaps backs. "How about all the shit she's done?"

Wally nearly throws his chair to the ground as he stands. "Screw you!" And he starts to walk away.

So maybe they have three things in common. Red hair, supervillain girlfriends, and extremely volatile tempers.

Roy drowns the rest of his coffee- black- and bites his lip. "Wally, wait."

Wally whirls around. "What?"

"I'm…" He throws his hands up, like a white flag. "I'm sorry, okay? I… I'll try to be nicer. To get along. For Jade's sake."

Wally has to think about that, for a fraction of a second anyway. Then he nods and sits back down.

"You know, I'm not still mad. I'm willing to give you a second chance, man. You just…" Wally shrugs. "You were a real dick to her. And she gets enough of that."

The look in eyes says it all. He cares about her. Wants to protect her.

Roy respects that.

They're mostly quiet, until finally Jinx can't deal with the quiet.

"I'm sorry, she says, finally. "I suck at this. I'm a terrible friend and I really don't know why you'd ever want to hang out with me."

Jade's a bit taken aback by that comment. Jinx seems so confident, so strong, all studs and eyeliner and sure of herself. And yet here she is, admitting to feeling like she's not good enough.

"That's okay," Jade says, gently. "I'm not good at this either. Roy just really though it wasn't good for me to keep sitting around by myself and… Well, I just don't want him to worry, you know?"

Oh, she knows. "Yeah."

"It's really, really nice of you to do this for me."

And there's that word again. Nice. She's kind of sick of it. She doesn't feel nice. Wally is nice. And she's not Wally.

Truth is, Jinx is still pretty legitimately convinced that she is a bad person. She is supervillain. She'll probably never get over it.

"I blame Wally," Jinx quips. "I just can't resist that damn puppy dog smile."

Jade giggles. "He seems like a really great guy."

"He is, "Jinx answers. Without skipping a beat. "He's just the sweetest, most…" She blushes. "I'm sorry. I'm gushing."

Jade smiles. "It's okay. You should hear me go on about Roy."

"Yeah, well…" Jinx doesn't finish that. "Can I ask you something? You don't have to answer."

"Go ahead."

"Why were you a villain? I mean, I've known a lot of us in my time, and you don't really seem like the 'hell-bent on world domination' type."

Jade giggles again. "No, not that. Just, umm…" For some reason she can't go on.

"The survival thing?"

Her smiles fades. She nods. "Yeah."

"Me too."

"I'm sorry, okay?" Roy says, well into coffee number eight. "For all the shit I did to you and… And to Jinx. I'm really, really sorry."

Wally has bought about six different desserts and he covers his mouth as he nearly swallows a chocolate chip cookie whole. He's starving. He's always starving. His metabolism works quickly. He couldn't gain weight if he tried. "It's okay," he says. "You've already said that, I… I forgive you. I really do. My little… Outburst, there, aside."

Roy smirks "Little outburst?"

Wally shrugs, blasé. "So I punch things when I'm angry, it's better than what you do, no wonder they call you 'Speedy'."

The sheer audacity of that statement actually makes Roy laugh. "You did not just say that."

"Damn right I did," Wally says, grinning. He likes making people laugh.

Roy exhales, heavy. "I kind of want a cigarette…" he grumbles, to himself.

"I don't mind."

He didn't expect Wally to respond to respond to that, actually. "No, I mean, uh… Promised Jade I wouldn't."

"Oh." A beat. "That's really sweet of you."

Roy avoids eye contact. "Yeah, well… Don't want Lian catching lung cancer."

"Lian?" Wally asks. "That the baby's name."

"Mm-hmm."

"It's beautiful."

Roy looks up. "Thank you."

Wally nods, just about inhales a muffin, and then. "Dude, you are really brave, you know that? I mean, I would so not be ready for… You know."

Roy knows. "Yeah, well… Use protection."

Wally chuckles. "Oh, we will."

Roy's taken aback. "Will? You mean you haven't… Omigod, are you still a virgin?" He can't help but think he sounds like a girl right now.

Wally drinks about half his frappuchino in one go. Never gaining weight is such a perk. "Yup. Why so surprised?"

"Because, I mean… You and her haven't… It's you and her."

"Yeah, so?"

"Have you ever heard yourselves talk?"

Oh, that. Wally laughs. "That doesn't mean we've done it. I mean, she was fifteen when we got together."

"Yeah, and it's been over a year." Roy rubs his forehead. "I don't believe this."

"I just…" Wally shrugs. "I'm waiting for the right moment. I want it to be special. She deserves that."

Roy half-laughs and rolls his eyes. "Oh, you're one of those."

Wally sticks his tongue out. "One of what?"

"A romantic."

"Oh." A beat. "Yeah. I am."

"I just didn't know what else to do," Jade says. "I was only eleven."

Jinx was six. Hearing Jade's story… Jade didn't choose it. Jade was a victim.

Jinx wasn't "I knew what else to do," she says. "I wish I could say I didn't choose it but I did. I could've been good at it."

Jade nods, solemly. "Can I ask you something now?"

"Shoot."

Jade gestures, lightly, at Jinx's arm. "I noticed your scars."

"Oh." A beat. "Yeah." A beat. "I know, they're pretty gruesome. I brought a sweater, I can…"

"No, that's okay. I've done it a few times too."

Jade's scars aren't visible if you don't know where to look. Jinx's are, in fact, pretty gruesome, bright red and gash-like and everywhere. This was not, clearly, a few-time. This was years. This still goes on.

"I'm trying to stop," Jinx admits. "It kinda freaks Wally out."

"It doesn't freak him out," Jade says. "It scares him. He's not freaked out by you. He's scared for you. Scared that you're hurting and that he can't help."

Jade knows this feeling. Very well.

"Roy almost died," Jade continues. "When he overdosed. And I just… I was so scared. So scared I would him and I wouldn't have been able to save him and…" She's a bit choked up.

Jinx gets it. The thing about her is she always gets it. She gets exactly what people are feeling.

She gets exactly what Wally is feeling. "That's why I'm trying to stop."

"Hey, so, uh… So I heard you almost died back in Santa Fe?"

Roy side-eyes Wally, carefully. "What on it?"

"Nothin'." The word comes out twangy, much more accented than he'd intended it. Every so often, his voice betrays that Southern upbringing of his. "I just was thinkin' it must have been tough for Jade, is all."

Oh. Yeah. That. "She was…" Roy doesn't even know how to finish. "I felt so bad. I scared her so much."

"Do you think she still worries?"

"All the time."

"Yeah," Wally murmurs. "I feel that."

He does. Some days he doesn't know if the black streaks on her too-white face are ruined mascara or just charcoal, if the red spots on her jeans are just acrylic paint or if they're blood. He's terrified of losing her. More than that, though, he just hates knowing that she's hurting, that she doesn't like herself, that she hates herself enough to destroy herself like that.

He just wants to wants to see her happy, keep her safe.

He just loves her so much.

She knows it, though. She gets it. That's the thing about her. She always gets it.
He knows she trying to stop, for him. It means more to him than he has words for.

"I feel that" is the best he's got, but it's just the tip of iceburg.

"I worry about her too, though," Roy says. "She's lonely. Doesn't want to say anything 'cause she thinks it'll make her a burden but I know she is."

"Jinx too," Wally replies. "She doesn't have a lot of friends. Mostly it's just me and Toni. She thinks people don't like her."

A pause, and then, "We don't." It's a not a judgement. Just a statement of fact.

"Well your loss," Wally says. Not defensive. Just a statement of fact. "'Cause she's pretty amazing."

"Was it hard for you?" Jade asks, suddenly. "Adjusting to this? Because I think… I think Roy's having a harder than I am. I think he still sees himself as a villain."

Jinx has to consider that. "I'm not like you. I'm a pretty rotten person. And I could've been good at it," she says again. And then, "Could've been."

Jade smiles. "Because he came speeding by."

Jinx laughs, kind of. "Does that make me totally pathetic? One of those girls who changes herself for a guy."

Jade shakes her head. "I don't think that's what happened."

No, it's not. "He saved me from myself. I could have done a lot of bad things, but he saved me from that."

Jade smiles, softly. "You really love him."

"Yeah."

A pause, and then, "I don't think you're a rotten person."

Jinx chuckles, darkly. "You don't know me very well."

Jade smiles, softly, again, and then, "I'm just really worried about him." There are tears in her eyes.

Jinx brushes a lock of hair out of her face, takes a moment to breath that one in. The tears makes Jade's eyes look like stars. When she talks about him, it's like… Like that Renoir with the couple dancing.

"You really love him, huh?"

Jade blushes, the same pastel pink as her nail polish. "I know you think he's a bad guy."

Jinx is silent, for a moment. But just a moment.

"No," she says, firmly. "I don't think that. I think that he's made some mistakes. But so has everyone. So have I. I've been exactly where he is, so… So as much I don't want to admit it, I don't think he's a bad guy. Not at all."

A beat.

"I don't think anyone's a bad guy. I think it's just… We've all got flaws. Shades of grey."

A beat.

"I guess if there's anything I believe in it's that."

A beat. Jade looks at her.

"Well doesn't that apply to you, too?"

Jinx doesn't answer. Maybe it does.

"You really love her."

Wally makes a face. "You're only just now getting that?"

Roy half-laughs, and then, "I don't know what she sees in me. We're about to have a kid and she has no support system except for me and I'm… I'm kind of a bad person. I did a lot of shit in Santa Fe."

"Jinx has done a lot of bad shit too. So what? Doesn't make her a bad person. Doesn't mean I don't love her."

"It's not about what I did. It's about what I'm capable of."

Wally snorts. "We're all capable of-"

"Could you kill someone?"

A beat. "No."

"Could she?"

"Yes. But she wouldn't. It's not about what you're capable of. It's about the choices you make."

The sun has started to set by now, and dusk casts purple on their face, tints their red hair bronze and gold.

"You care about her. You love her." A beat. "I don't think a bad person would choose to let themselves love someone like that."

Silence.

"So about that one time you tried to hit on me-"

"Oh, god, Wally, how many times do I have to apologize for that?"

"I dunno." A beat. And then, very quickly, "but just for the record I don't swing that way."

The four of them meet up, and have a surprisingly pleasant dinner. They're friends now, it seems. Funny what a few hours can do.

As the leave the restaurant, Roy wraps his arms around his girlfriend, rubbing a hand gently across her stomach. "How are my girls?"

Jade smiles. "I'm good. And she'd been kicking all night."

Roy smiles back."Good. Means she's healthy."

The starlight glitters on their faces. "Jade?"

"Yeah?"

"I told you I love you today?"

Jade giggles. "A couple of times."

"Well I'm telling you again. I love you."

Jade smiles. "I love you too."

They kiss, passionately.

Same time, slightly different location, Jinx pulls her boyfriend into a passionate kiss.

"Wally?" she says.

"Yeah?"

"I just… I wanted to say thank you."

He grins, that million-watt smile. "What for?"

"For saving my life. I don't think I tell you enough just how greatful I am for that."

"Jinx…" He kisses her. "No thanks necessary."

He kisses her again, just for good measure. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

And they go home, arm-in-arm, starlight glittering in their faces.

Author's Notes:

So a while ago muddie won a oneshot for me, and she asked for Wally and Roy friendship, with some Flinx thrown in. So this is what she got. XD hope you like it, muddie!

And, coincidently, I'm uploading this on Valentine's Day. I didn't plan that, but it's totally appropriate. So yay. XD

Um, so, if you've read Trainspotting, my just finished story, you'll understand what they're talking about here. If you haven't, I'm sorry, this probably doesn't make any sense but I hope you still enjoyed it at least a little? Other than that, um, I don't really have a whole lot to say about this. It's really just… About these two couples, I guess. And they're kind of similar, in some ways. So that's what it is? I dunno, I'm not sure how to explain. XD The title was just going to be "Ginger Boys" but then it became just as much about the girls as the boys so I added the "devil's food" part, since the girls were both villains.

Also, that Beetlejuice and Lydia joke is so wrong in so many ways but I was just in stitches when I wrote it so it has to stay. XD And also, my bestie has coined Roy/Jade "Joy" and WE ARE MAKING IT A THING, FOR REAL YOU GUYS. XD And I'm like the only one who writes them anyway so I get to decide. XD seriously, though, we should do this. Wally/Jinx is Flinx and Roy/Jade is Joy. Spread the word.