Isn't it weird how you're in the middle of creating one long story and ideas for other stories that have nothing to do with that story come to mind.
ETA: I know I've gotten some requests for a sequel/ another chapter, but right now I don't have any solid plot bunnies for a story follow up and I currently have lots of other stories I haven't finished. Not to mention that annoying thing called 'life' that keeps getting in the way of my introverted escapades. I do, however, have a whole chapter (Ch 6) dedicated to Flinx that can serve as a prequel of sorts in another story 'Titans on Social Media', so feel free to check that out.
I don't own Teen Titans, anything in the DC comics universe, or Lucky Charms. Please R&R and Enjoy.
Background:
The Teen Titans aren't teens anymore. Though they are still fighting crime, the Titans are now maturing young adults. Robin and Starfire have been married for 2 years and just welcomed their first child, a daughter named Mar'i. Beast Boy and Raven have been engaged for over a year and are getting married in a month. Cyborg and Bumblebee just recently got engaged 3 weeks ago. Más y Menos decided to go to college abroad, in Spain. Speedy has a daughter, Lian, who he is trying to raise as a single father. Aqualad is thinking about returning to the sea and changing his identity.
Honorary Titans Jinx and Kid Flash, who was no longer a 'kid' and has now starting to go by the name of his late uncle/mentor (Flash), have been married for about 8 months. They just found out they were expecting their first child together. They are both excited; however, Jinx can't help but worry.
Present:
It's dinner time in the West home. Wally has noticed that Jinx has been unusually irritable today, but chalked it up to pregnancy hormones. The speedster decided to cheer his young wife up by surprising her with dinner. While Jinx was on her laptop in the study her husband made dinner: her favorite lasagna with a side salad. After 2 hours on the computer, Jinx finally came out of the study and walked into the kitchen to see what smelled so good.
"Oh, good. You're just in time for dinner, Jinxy." Wally commented to his wife, after he finished setting the table.
Jinx walked to her chair with a now slightly displeased expression on her face.
"Please don't call me 'Jinxy'. It sounds like a cat's name." She complained as she started filling the plate in front of her.
"Duly noted." Was his only response, not wanting to irritate her more. A moment passed of the couple just eating in silence before he broke the ice: "So speaking of names, have you-".
"I'd rather not talk about it right now." Jinx interrupted him mid-sentence, looking at the food on her plate to avoid making eye contact with him.
"Oh, okay." Wally responded, he figured she probably wanted to wait until they knew if it was a boy or a girl. "Well, what about the study?" he continued.
"What about it?" She asked.
"What color were you thinking of painting it?" The speedster asked.
"I didn't know we planned on painting it." The sorceress countered.
"Well, I thought that was going to be the nursery. Unless you want the baby to sleep in our room for the first couple of months, which I'm totally fine with if that's what you want." Wally considered, not sure what Jinx's plans were.
"I already told you: I don't want to talk about it right now." Jinx retorted.
"You said you didn't want to talk about baby names right now." The speedster replied.
"I just don't want to talk about the baby right now, okay?" The sorceress blurted out in frustration.
Wally was confused and sat in silence for a few moments contemplating: 'Why was she so angry tonight? Did I do something wrong? Why didn't she want to talk about the baby? Is she okay? Is the baby okay? Did something happen that she's not telling me? '
"Jinx, is everything alright?" He finally asked, trying to appear calm as he helped himself to another serving of lasagna.
"Everything's fine." She said in a flat tone, slowly picking at her dinner.
"The baby's okay and everything, right?" The sorceress's husband asked with concern in his voice.
Jinx just stood up with an annoyed look on her face.
"I'm not hungry anymore." She proclaimed as she tried to calmly walk out of the kitchen towards their bedroom.
This frightened Wally and he ran to their room to block the doorway before she could lock herself in, as she often did when she was upset. Though he beat her to their bedroom door, she pushed him out of the way before walking over to her side of the bed to lie down. The pink sorceress tried to avoid her husband, who proceeded to sit next to her on his side of the bed.
"Jinx, what's wrong? You know you can tell me anything." Wally tried to comfort her. "Did we lose the baby?" He asked softly as an attempt to keep his voice from breaking.
"No, the baby's fine for now." She said with an irritated voice. "Just leave me alone!"
Wally was relieved to hear that their child was okay. However he couldn't help but think about her response. "What do you mean 'the baby's fine for now'?" he questioned the pink sorceress.
"Just forget it." She mumbled under her breath as she got up to walk out of the room. Her speedster husband quickly reached out to gently grab her wrist to stop her from leaving. "Let me go." She commanded in the calmest voice she could manage still facing the door.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong." Wally said in an urgent tone. Jinx still wouldn't face him, so he stood up behind her and lightly wrapped his arms around her not-yet-showing waist while resting his chin on her shoulder to whisper in her ear: "Listen, I know we were planning to wait a year or two before we started trying for a family. But I'm still happy about this baby and I thought you were happy, too." The ginger said with a hint of sadness in his voice, causing it to break on the last word.
She broke from Wally's embrace to turn around and face him.
"I am happy." Jinx stated in an even but still slightly sad voice.
"Then did I do something wrong?" Wally asked concerned. "Why are you so upset?"
"Well now that you mention it, I did have an interesting conversation earlier this afternoon." Jinx commented, which brought a confused expression to Wally's face. "I called Starfire to see if our bridesmaid dresses for Raven's wedding were ready and the first thing she did was congratulate me. Apparently she had heard that I was pregnant." Jinx stated, crossing her arms and giving an accusing look to the father of her unborn child. "I thought we agreed that we weren't going to tell anyone until at least the end of the first trimester."
"Ok look, I know I promised not to tell anyone just yet." The speedster started explaining, "But the other day I was thinking about yours and the baby's safety. So I called Robin to ask him about how far along into her pregnancy with Mar'i did Starfire stop participating in missions. He wasn't 100% sure, so he asked Starfire to confirm. She stopped at about 4 months along, by the way. Though, apparently Robin wanted her to stop sooner; but she resisted for a while..." Wally started getting off track before he noticed his wife's impatient expression waiting for his excuse. "Well, then they both asked me if you were pregnant and I wasn't going to lie to them. But I told them not to tell anyone else." The redhead defended, as he finished explaining.
"So you didn't think to just ask me what I thought about it or to even just think about mentioning it at my next doctor's appointment?" Jinx asked a little less angry at him; but still a bit upset.
"I figured most doctors weren't used to this type of question, seeing as most of them don't have superheroes for patients." The speedster reminded her before he continued. "Anyway, other than that I am still trying my best not to tell anyone for a while. But it's difficult because I'm just really excited for us. I still don't understand why you want to wait to tell everyone."
"I have my reasons, Wally." The speedster's wife said with a flat, yet somewhat sad tone in her voice; not wanting to look into his eyes.
"Jinx." The sorceress's husband said as he gently tilted her head up from under her chin so he was looking her in the eyes: "Are you embarrassed about having a baby with me?"
He couldn't help ask the question that has been sitting in his mind.
"What? I'm not embarrassed to have a family with you, I love you." Jinx defended.
"Then are you mad at me for getting you pregnant sooner than we planned? Are you planning on ending the pregnancy? Do you even want this baby?" Wally worriedly asked his spouse, trying to remain neutral.
"No, I'm not mad at you for getting me pregnant. And no, I'm not planning on having an abortion. And yes, I really do want this baby." Jinx replied, trying to convince her husband that she wasn't mad at him or their unborn child.
"Then why do you want to wait to tell our friends? Why can't we just tell everyone now?" Wally asked before he realized something else he had just noticed: "Come to think of it, why don't you ever want to talk about our plans for the baby?"
"Because it's bad luck." Jinx finally replied, trying to hold back tears.
"What?" Her confused husband asked.
"It's bad luck to tell people you're pregnant or to talk about plans for the baby before the 2nd trimester. I just don't want to get all excited only to miscarry." Jinx finally revealed to Wally burying her head into his chest, as if she was trying to hide her face from him.
"Jinx, that's just a silly old wives' tale; a superstition. I thought you didn't believe in that stuff anymore." The ginger haired man said as he hugged his pink haired bride, trying to understand why she was upset.
"I don't believe in all superstitions, but that doesn't mean I'm not careful when it comes to certain ones." Jinx informed her spouse as she broke away from his warm embrace and led him to the foot of their bed where they sat facing each other. "I've always been told that I'm bad luck. And while I know intellectually that it's not true, emotionally I still can't help but feel it is. All my life, every time I had a reason to be happy or got excited about something, that's when something bad would happen. The more I looked forward to something and the more I talked about it, the worse the results when it didn't work out. This is one of the best things that has ever happened to me and I'm afraid of losing the baby… and you."
"Why would you be afraid of losing me?" Wally asked while cradling her cheek in his hand.
"Well, what if the baby's not perfect? What if the baby is deformed or mentally challenged or cursed?" Jinx inquired; afraid her child will inherit her bad luck.
"Then we'll get through it... together." The speedster assured his nervous wife while validating her concerns.
He moved his hand from her face and held Jinx's hand. She sighed.
"And what if I lose the baby?" Jinx questioned the speedster; the sorceress pulled her hand away from her husband's hand, as she stood up to take a breath before continuing. "Ever since we found out I was pregnant, all you ever want to talk about is the baby. The baby isn't even here yet and you're already in 'dad mode'. The reason I got upset earlier when you asked me if the baby was alright was because I thought that you already assumed I was destined to miscarry because of my bad luck. It felt like you anticipated that I'd screw this up; just like I've screw up everything that was ever important to me. I'm afraid that if we lost the baby you would blame me and would never forgive me. Then I'd wind up alone and you'd probably find someone else; someone who's not a Jinx!" She said her own name with revulsion, as if it were a curse word, as she broke down into tears.
"Jinx." Wally whispered softly as he stood up to hug his distressed wife and kiss her forehead. He then gently lifted her chin up for her to face him as he looked into her eyes and said: "I love you and I will never leave you. I loved you long before we found out about this baby and I'll love you when all our future children are out of the house and having babies of their own. I only asked if everything was okay because you looked really upset and I was trying to find out why. Even if, heaven forbid, we did lose the baby I would still be here for you." Wally declared.
"Promise?" Jinx asked with a concerned expression, but a slight smile on her face.
"Always." He whispered his vow, leaning in to kiss her.
A moment later, Wally pulled away from their kiss and released her from their hug.
"So... Are you finally ready to talk about what color you want to paint the new nursery?" He asked cautiously, trying to lighten the mood and test the waters to see if his wife was truly feeling better.
"I was thinking pink." Jinx said almost automatically. "And I was also thinking of having a unicorn and horse theme."
"Okay, I guess that's kind of cute for a girl's room; but what if it's a boy?" The speedster asked, playing devil's advocate.
"Then I hope he likes pink and unicorns." She teased with a devilish smile.
"Ugh." Wally moaned jokingly, hoping that she was only kidding. "Well if it is a boy, can we name him Wally Jr? Or call him 'Little Flash'?" He asked, changing the subject.
"Nah, I think kids should have their own identity." Jinx stated.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense." Wally agreed, "So what names were you thinking about?"
"I was thinking Lucky for a boy and Charm for a girl." Jinx proclaimed.
"You want to name our kid after cereal?" Wally joshed and Jinx playfully punched him in the shoulder.
"I have a feeling this is going to be a long 9 months." Jinx sighed before her husband wrapped his arms around her and gave her another kiss.
The End