Jealous Much?
James Jesse was pretty good at reading people, and angst-prone emotional twenty somethings like the Pied Piper didn't make it much of a challenge anyway. He noticed pretty early in that the Piper had a crush on him. At first it weirded him out, but then he'd discovered how useful it could be...
It's not like Piper had made a move on him or anything. Mostly he just stared at Trickster a lot with a dazed smile, laughed at jokes that weren't funny, and got talked into really stupid team ups.
Plus it was a really nice confidence boost.
So when Piper started skipping team ups, James noticed the distinct lack of his favorite starry eyed fan boy. He told himself he didn't care, but after a few weeks of being told to shut the hell up when he cracked a joke and not getting any takers for some of his more bizarre team up offers, he was forced to admit he missed Piper. He decided to investigate where the hell his fan boy had gone.
_
'I am not jealous. Nope, not jealous in the least.' James lied to himself.
But really, if Piper was going to ditch out on teaming up with the Rogues (and thus ditch out on indulging his infatuation with James) to make out with some random schmuck, the random schmuck should at least be cute. That asshole that James had never met, he just instinctually knew he wasn't good enough for Piper.
He wasn't jealous.
The slinky cocoon, glue pies and exploding yo-yos he'd tossed at Piper's ugly date, well, that was just James being protective. There's a difference, after all.