Faltering Bonds

I was waiting there on the couch for about fifteen minutes. I wasn't thinking about anything except how Cyborg was going to react and what Robin was going to do. I was physically exhausted, and it took a lot to stay up on the soft, comfortable couch.

Cyborg walked back into the room with Robin right behind him. Cyborg sat a few spaces away from me and avoided eye contact. Oh, great… he was upset. Robin took the seat between us, having taken the hint from Cyborg. Robin sighed and looked down at the ground.

"Honestly… I have no clue what to do here. I've never heard of this spell, and I know Jinx can't just go on without sleep. I'm afraid I'll just have to ask Raven about this, but her door is closed and she won't answer. I guess you'll just have to wait until tomorrow. But for now, you may want to get as much caffeine in you and be prepared to stay up all night, because there's no way I'm letting you go back to sleep," said Robin after composing his thoughts into a non-formal mini-speech. He was good at that.

"Right," I muttered. "I'll see if someone will stay up with you. Cyborg?" he asked, looking over at Cyborg. "You know I have to stay on a very strict sleep schedule to keep my battery charged. I am half-machine," said Cyborg with a hint of iciness to his voice. Somehow I had a feeling he could've stayed up for a little while but simply didn't want to.

"Yeah… Okay, I'll see if Starfire is still awake. She should be," said Robin, rising from the couch to go get up. "Thanks," I called loudly after him. "I'm going to bed," said Cyborg as soon as Robin left. "W-wait. I really want to talk to you," I said, trying to get him to stop. He turned around in one motion, looking right at me.

"What about? About the fact that you don't trust me with something like Brother Blood coming into your dreams? About how you don't even trust me to help you? About how you won't even trust me with the fact that I am in danger?" he asked coldly. "In certain, words…yes," I said and looked down, breaking eye contact with him.

He sat on the couch, and looked at me intently. "I just… didn't want you to get hurt," I said, hoping he would understand. "Hurt? What do you call how I am now? Now that I know you don't trust me with vital information?" "I thought it shouldn't be your problem, that it should be my problem."

"Jinx, when people are really close, one person's problem becomes the other's, too. I thought you understood that after being on this team where we all help each other out. Where we all make each other's problems our problems. You should've told me you and I are in danger. I could've helped sooner. But no, you ended up hurting me by not trusting me and protecting me."

"Cyborg, I—" I began to say, but was cut off by Cyborg saying, "Save it. Jinx, I think we should take a break from out relationship for the next couple of days or weeks." He got up and left. "Good luck with staying up, though!" he called over his shoulder sarcastically. I looked down at the ground, and whispered, "I'm really sorry Cyborg. I lost my head for a moment. Forgive me?"

"Friend Jinx, are you of the… okay?" asked Starfire innocently as she came into the room. "No. I messed up. I didn't tell Cyborg what was going on or Robin sooner. I lost the best thing I've ever had in my entire life. Right now, I'm not okay," I admitted to her. "Did you try the apology?" she asked. "Yes. He cut me off…" "He cut you? I do not think you deserved the cutting, Jinx!" "It's an expression… he started talking before I could finish my apology," I explained to a bewildered Starfire.

"Oh…" she said softly. "You tried, friend Jinx. He might need time to do the cooling off." "I hope so… but this could really end up being a disaster." "Come, Jinx. You mustn't do the moping any longer. Come, we'll watch a movie or two." Starfire helped me up out of the couch and led me to my room.

The next morning I was worn out, even though we only did stuff like watch movies and read. The kind of things that didn't take up a lot of energy, you know? I trudged to the kitchen for breakfast. Beast Boy and Cyborg were arguing over the breakfast foods, as usual. I, being the one person who cold stand tofu besides Beast Boy, ended up with tofu and real sausages with one 'fake' egg (I had no clue what it was made of) and a 'real' egg.

Cyborg took the seat beside me (it was the only one empty) and downed his breakfast quickly. Without even looking at me, he turned and said, "I think I'll go wash and wax the T-Car." He exited the room without even a glance at me.

Robin looked at me and said, "Okay. Now that everyone knows about Jinx's situation, we need to tell her what's going to happen. Obviously, Jinx is going to crash and burn unless we can get her some sleep. The idea of our plan is to go after Brother Blood before he can attack Jinx in her dreams. She will stay here… we can't let her go there because she'll be too tired to fight and she won't exactly be safe there. We need to be ready by this afternoon, so let's start getting prepared!"

"Um, what exactly do I do?" I asked. "You stay up and do something that will keep you from going to sleep, but won't exhaust you. How about cleaning or organizing?" replied Robin. "Fine. The kitchen is a mess, anyways," I muttered. I looked over at the sink, which was overfull. The fridge had some food that was moldy and green. The counters had various forms of grime and dirt. The floor was muddy and dirty (I guess someone walked in without wiping their feet).

"Friend Jinx, perhaps you could borrow my CD player. I have a few CDs you may wish to hear," said Starfire. "That'd be great, Star. Thanks," I said. "Very well, I shall go retrieve them from my room!" she said before leaving to go get them.

While she was gone, I managed to find various cleaning supplies, trash bags, gloves, aprons, rags, a bandana (to keep my hair from getting messed up), and sponges. I had the bandana and gloves on, and was just about to put the apron on when Starfire came in holding a pink CD player with a CD in it already. I threw on the headphones, set the CD player (includes radio!), and thanked Starfire. "No problem, friend! However, I must leave for the training room to get prepared for the battle!" she said before leaving.

I prodded the play button to hear 'Break Away' by Kelly Clarkson on. I didn't hear a lot of Kelly Clarkson songs—I mainly listened to rock (various categories of rock). As I listened to the lyrics, mindlessly washing the dishes, I realized that it reminded me of my childhood. I sighed and remembered wanting to get out from under my parent's wings to do great things.

The song changed to 'Since U Been Gone'. "Great, now it's about Electron…" I muttered to myself. Actually, the song described exactly how I felt when I left Electron. Once that song ended, 'Behind These Hazel Eyes' began playing. "Seems like just yesterday,
you were a part of me. I used to stand so tall, I used to be so strong…" I switched the CD player to its radio part.

"I don't think Starfire would put that on purposely, but still!" I said angrily as I instead listened to 'American Idiot' by Green Day (which I thought was a little overplayed, but still a good song). I finished washing, rinsing, and drying the dishes about twenty minutes later. I began tackling the floors, just listening to the radio.

Hours later, the kitchen was really clean. The fridge had been emptied of certain furry foods and had been cleaned out. Now it looked eerily empty, but clean. "Titans, we begin our attack now," said Robin to the other Titans as he came into the room. "Friend Jinx, we are about to leave. Will you wish us luck?" asked Starfire. "Yeah, break a leg," I said with a smirk.

"But, I thought you were wishing us luck, not injury!" said Starfire with a small gasp. "I gotta stop using these sayings… It means good luck, but saying good luck out loud means bad luck. So you say 'break a leg' to mean good luck," I explained. "Oh," said Starfire before blushing. "Bye!" said everyone besides Cyborg and Raven. Raven nodded in a firm way, but Cyborg just glared.

Next chapter won't focus on Jinx… It'll be the fight between the Titans and Brother Blood. XP R&R!