(A/N)- Back with part two. Took less time to write than the first part.
Disclaimer: No I don't own Teen Titans. I wish I did, but I don't.
Of Mistletoe and Mum's cookies- Part Two
Argent sat in a plush chair by the window, feet propped up on a footstool, headphones covering her ears, and nose buried in a book.
Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! came the sound of someone rapping on her door.
She lifted up her head, listening. The knocking came again and she grabbed the headphones and pulled them off her ears.
"Yes?" she called.
"Argent?" Herald's voice. "Could you, uh, come out here for a minute?" He sounded nervous, as though the boys had just done something bad and wrecked the Tower.
Argent frowned. She put down her book, got up, and went over to the door. She slid it partway open to reveal the worried countenance of her teleporter friend.
"What is it?" she asked.
Herald scratched the back of his head. "Well, uh… me and Wildebeest feel a little better but, uh… Hot Spot's throwing up in the bathroom."
Argent looked at him critically. "Are you sure?"
At that moment a loud raspy heaving noise came from the direction of the boy's bathroom.
"Uh, yeah. Pretty sure." Herald replied.
Argent sighed. "All right, I'll take a look." she decided, stepping into the hallway. It sounded serious enough.
The door to the bathroom was open. In his haste to dispose of the contents of his stomach, the pyro must have forgotten to close it. Hot Spot himself was bent over the "porcelain god" in his powered-up state and looking more than a little nauseous.
As soon as she entered a wave of heat hit her face. She flinched and raised her arm to block some of the heat. "Power down would ya chap."
"Uhhhhnn…" Hot Spot groaned in reply. The heat radiating off him, however, did not abate. He retched and bent over the toilet again.
Argent pursed her lips. "I'll be right back." she announced, turning to rush out the door.
Once she was out of earshot, Herald poked his head into the bathroom.
"Doin' great man. Keep it up!"
Hot Spot's stomach twisted as he felt another wave coming.
"Not all of it's acting." he confessed, bending over once again.
-TT-
Argent rummaged through the bottles in the medicine cabinet.
Where's that blasted ipecac? Aspirin… decongestant… Ah! There it is!
She grabbed the bottle and checked the label, which read in neat little printed letters, "Ipecac Extract".
She frowned. They were running low. The liquid contents took up only about one-fourth of the bottle. She'd have to pick up some more later. Not that they used ipecac habitually, but in a tower with three boys, a human wildebeest, and only one girl you never knew what might happen.
She shook the bottle up and hurried back to the boy's bathroom. In her haste to help Hot Spot, she didn't see Jericho waving and signing frantically to her.
Wait! Argent! Hot Spot's not sick! The boys are gonna trick you into-
His warning fell on deaf ears, or in his case blind eyes. Argent slipped out of the room before seeing his frantic gestures. Herald, however, arrived just in time to catch them.
He glared.
"Traitor."
Jerks.
-TT-
Hot Spot's face flushed with heat. His insides burned. It was uncomfortably hot, even for him.
And his stomach felt terrible.
He almost regretted agreeing to this prank. After throwing up the first time, he had actually felt a little better. Then Herald had come in and pitched Wildebeest's idea and Hot Spot had agreed that it was brilliant.
Though admittedly he'd probably gulped down more of the ipecac extract than he should have.
As if that wasn't enough, the rum and the ipecac weren't mixing very well in his stomach. Neither substance had been designed with the internal furnace of a human flame-thrower in mind after all. And the combination of heat, alcohol, and Amazonian plant made for a rather unpleasant concoction.
This will all be worth it when it's over, he reminded himself.
In spite of everything he managed a brief wily grin.
Which faded quickly as his stomach began to churn again.
"Ugh…" he moaned, slumping over the toilet bowl.
Soft footfalls met his ears. Argent had entered. Hot Spot managed a glance in her direction. She had knelt down beside him and seemed to be unscrewing a small bottle.
Hot Spot's eyes widened and his stomach did a flip. Oh no, not that stuff again!
Argent held the bottle under his nose, trying to ignore the heat coming off of him, though her face betrayed her discomfort.
"Swallow." she ordered.
A groan of refusal was her only reply.
"You need to get the rum out of your system. This will help. Swallow."
"But that stuff tastes terrible!" Hot Spot protested, knowing from experience that it did and not that eager to see what introducing more ipecac into his stomach would do to him.
"Are you going to drink this or do I have to shove it down your throat?" she asked huffily.
"No. Ipecac." Hot Spot said flatly. "My stomach can't take much more abu-"
He gagged as he tasted the unpleasant liquid dripping down his throat.
"Stubborn." Argent said, screwing the cap back on the bottle and backing off a bit, her skin tingling from the pyro's body heat.
If there was ever a time when Hot Spot felt seriously tempted to cuss out a girl, regardless of the fact that she was one of his closest friends… or the fact that her parents could sue the pants off of him… this was it.
"Oh man…" The pyro bent his head over the bowl and his stomach graciously emptied itself of its contents.
Argent felt a small stab of guilt. She really should have warned them about the cookies. True, they hadn't given her much of chance to do so, but still…
She bit her lip and cast about for some way to help. Spotting a washcloth on the counter, she grabbed it, quickly twisted the faucet on to full blast and held it under the cool stream. When it was fully soaked, she turned off the faucet, held the cloth over Hot Spot's head, and slowly wrung all the cold water out over him.
Well, he had to admit THAT felt good.
Argent resoaked the cloth and repeated the process several times as Hot Spot continued to dispose of the rum and the ipecac. Finally Hot Spot's inner furnace began to cool. His stomach settled and he gave off less and less heat until he was able to power down at last. For a few moments, he stayed where he was, breathing heavily.
"Better?" asked Argent a little nervously.
"Don't do that again. Ever." Hot Spot replied, getting up off his knees and flushing the rum-soaked cookie remains down the toilet.
"Sorry." Argent mumbled apologetically. "I didn't know what else to do and I knew we had ipecac on hand so… well…" she trailed off, slightly embarrassed. "But you are feeling better now, right chap?"
Hot Spot scratched the back of his head. "You really need to re-take that first-aid class."
-TT-
Herald and Wildebeest waited by the door to the main room, snickering to each other. Jericho sat on the couch playing his guitar, having given up trying to dissuade them from carrying out their plans.
"Shh! Here they come." Herald told Wildebeest as the two took up positions out of sight.
-TT-
"I really should have warned you about th' cookies." Argent said softly, trailing after Hot Spot as she followed him out of the bathroom.
Hot Spot waved her off. "Don't worry about it." he told her as they walked down the hallway from the boy's bathroom to the main room, knowing full well she would regret that apology later. Very soon as a matter of fact; they were coming up on the main room.
"You… sure you're all right?" asked Argent, a little unsure.
"I'm fine." Hot Spot insisted. She was making him feel uncomfortable. His hands had started shaking and he sweated a little anxiously. They were coming up on OPS. "Really, quit worrying already." he mumbled. They were friends after all. They played pranks on each other all the time. And speaking of which-
The door to the main room slid open and Hot Spot paused in the doorway. Argent came and stood with him. "Well, if there's anything else I can do…" she trailed, unknowingly sealing her doom.
Hot Spot "caught" sight of something above them and smiled.
"Actually, there is one thing you could do…"
Argent became immediately edgy. She didn't like that nervous and strangely excited grin on his face. And what in the bloody heavens was he looking at?
She followed his gaze to see a small but unmistakable sprig of mistletoe hanging in the frame of the doorway above them.
"Oh don't you even think-"
That was about as far as she got before Hot Spot suffered a sudden bout of courage, took her face in his hands, pulled her swiftly to him, and planted a kiss on her lips. Argent's eyes widened in shock and she swore she saw a camera flash somewhere in her peripheral vision.
On cue, Herald piped up.
"Aww, I didn't know you two had the hots for each other!"
Argent broke off the contact, pale cheeks flushing a deep red. "I-What?!-Why that-he didn't-I don't-we aren't-I mean-" she stuttered in a panic.
"Isn't it cute WB? I think it's cute." Herald told his animal friend, who grunted affirmatively.
Argent, flustered and at a loss, couldn't begin to form a reply. Hot Spot, however, emboldened and in maximum ego mode, decided to push it one step further.
"Yeah, we're just on fire with wild passion for each other." he put in, slinging his arm around her shoulder for good measure.
Her eyes flashed with anger.
"Why-why you little-"
"Uh, Hot Spot? Think ya better run for it." Herald said.
The pyro didn't need to be told twice and bolted from the room just as Argent sent a blast of red plasma energy hurtling after him.
"Wild passion, eh?! Why you arrogant, insensitive, gutter-brained-"
She took off after him.
Herald and Wildebeest stayed where they were, and waited until her shouting faded into the distance.
Then they burst out laughing.
"Ha ha! Didja see her face?"
Wildebeest made a low gruff chuckling plus a series of grunts and growls that made up his own comment on the success of their prank.
"So, didja get the picture?" Herald asked eagerly.
Wildebeest held up a perfectly captured still picture of Argent and Hot Spot's little "kiss".
"Ha! Great work man, now we've got blackmail on her for months!"
Jericho rolled his eyes, got off the couch, and headed out the door.
I'm going to go make sure they don't kill each other.
(A/N) You know, Argent's actually pretty fun to write for. The only hard part I think is writing her dialog so you can hear the British accent when she speaks.