Lost File: Corbin Love Sub-Rosa.
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Two quick notes: (1)My beta reader is back! Has been back since the end of No Room Left in Hell actually. Send your praise to Wabbit. Well... go on then!
(2)This story won't be very long.
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Chapter Two: "I create another day"
'There's a Titan in my home!' Jinx was reminded with every sound Raven made as she walked around her apartment. Jinx cursed when Raven's eyes settled on the pile of trash that had once kept various fast foods fresh and appetizing. It was now a huge eye sore.
"Sorry about that!" Jinx said, bounding between Raven and the mess. "I think the housekeepers got drunk again and forgot to clean my room..."
"Right..." Raven said dryly.
"Ok! So I've been a little busy," Jinx said, raising her hands and concentrating on the pile. Her eyes flashed pink. A sudden gust swept the litter all into one corner. Jinx was relieved. Now all she had to do was stuff it all into a bag. Having no trash bags, she settled for reusing the bags they came in.
"I thought your power only made things worse..." Raven commented.
"Yeah...I got lucky tonight. Usually when I try this trick stuff goes everywhere," Jinx said, finishing her task then moving the bags into the kitchen. All the while her attention was glued to Raven even when she wasn't looking directly at her. Raven gave her attention to the window. She looked casual enough. Why had she decided to stay?
"How are your friends?" Jinx asked from the kitchen.
While Raven continued to enjoy the falling sun her tone managed to become a tad darker seemingly in response to the question..
"Miserable. Robin went off alone after Umbrella. He insists on doing it on his own which makes Starfire miserable. Beast Boy's parents took him off the team and banned him from joining another and that makes Cyborg miserable. So together their miserable and that makes me miserable."
"I'm...sorry...?"
"Don't be. Things are as they are," Raven said.
"You want something to eat? I've got food. You might as well have some. It'll turn blue by morning. This fridge don't work so good," Jinx said.
The hospitality of a criminal, Raven thought. She briefly wondered how Jinx obtained her meals. Not that it mattered much anymore. The Titans, for the time being, were out of commission. She didn't feel she had the right to tell this girl what to do. But should she be sharing bed and board with such a dangerous individual?
"Ow!" Jinx howled. Raven looked to see soda cans escaping a cardboard case that lay at Jinx's feet. "Dropped it on my foot..." Jinx explained chasing the fleeing beverages.
'Like I said. Dangerous individual,' Raven thought. A tingle pulled at the corners of her lips as she watched Jinx recover the soda cans.
"Guess that means you're on vacation then," Jinx said and handed Raven half a Subway sandwich and a drink. Jinx sat on the floor and motioned for Raven to join her. They ate mostly in silence. The mere presence of Raven caused Jinx's mind to blaze with questions, but right now she focused on Raven's crest fallen expression.
"Cheer up Raven. It could be worse."
"How?"
"Hey! You're not supposed to ask that!" Jinx exclaimed.
"Sounds like a reasonable question to me," Raven told her.
"Well...I'm trying to cheer you up and I'm not very good at it, so cut me some slack, ok?"
Raven thought over the request. Raven was a girl who liked to confront the reality of the situation. She was not in the habit of imagining bright sides to grim circumstances when there were none. It was how she functioned and she had long considered it a strength.
"I'm fine," Raven said. "I have to accept fate."
"Oh, you're fine, huh? They why aren't you smiling?" Jinxed challenged.
Raven looked at Jinx blankly. Jinx nearly mirrored her expression as she awaited an answer.
"I'm not saying I'm happy about it," Raven dropped her gaze, "just that I can deal with it."
"Really?"
"Yes. It looks highly likely that the Titans will be disbanded. Then I'll just go home-"
"That sounds like a plan!" Jinx cheered. "'Sept you don't sound to happy about going home either."
Raven reflected on this point.
"I'm...not..." Raven admitted. She hadn't expected to miss her team as much as she did. Two weeks ago she would never have conceived a longing for Starfire's mindless babble and overwhelming nativity, Beast Boy's kindness and immaturity, Robins intelligence and over-competitive streaks and Cyborg's cooking and his temper. She missed their flaws and their specialties. She missed her team. But she wasn't the kind of girl to let her desire destroy her. She didn't need a shoulder to cry on.
"I can handle this," Raven vowed, her resolve restored.
"If you're sure," Jinx said, finishing her meal. By this time the heat was getting to her. She had only dawned her leather witch-like outfit because she intended to leave. She tried to ignore the sweat pouring down her body in clumps. Another irritating silence had found them. Jinx attacked it with words.
"I don't mean to sound mean," Jinx started, a smile tugging at her lips as she tried to remain serious, "But I kinda hope that super-villain bully squad you call a team doesn't get back together. Then maybe I can keep you here forever."
Raven didn't take offense to this.
"And why would you want to do that?" Raven challenged.
"I donno. Can you sing? I've been meaning to pick up a cheap radio but if you can sing, well!" Jinx started.
"Wish I could say I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not," Raven said, shaking her head.
"Ah, well. Music is not the only reason people cage birds. They keep pretty ones too. Kinda like roses. Beauty and tragedy...Admired while the wither. Ya know?"
Raven was blushing. Was she being compared to birds and roses? She believed her cheeks must not be as red as they felt, because Jinx hadn't noticed. She was still rambling.
Jinx paused to consider something then. Raven took another bite of her sandwich.
"Lost my train of thought..."Jinx confessed.
"I'll bet that happens often..." Raven commented.
"Was that a joke? How cruel! I saved your life!"
"Now you must deal with the consequences of your actions," Raven told her.
"Eh?." Jinx was surprised by Raven's retort. She burst into a fit of laughter.
The rest of the evening was more of the same. Without a TV Jinx felt obligated to entertain her guest with wry comments and stories. While Jinx seemed like a typical teenage drop out and adolescent there were often thought provoking observations mixed in the enigmatic way in which she spoke that revealed a respectable level of intelligence and a near equal level of silliness. Raven actually liked trying to 'decode' her commentary.
"Raven..." Jinx said.
"Yes?"
"Clothes."
"What of them?"
"You're wearing some! What's up with that?"
"I didn't want to scare your friends off by showing up dressed as a Titan."
"But you still got that thing on your head," Jinx said.
Raven realized she was talking about her chakra.
"I...forget it's there," Raven admitted. The sound of Jinx's resounding laughter had become commonplace by this time.
"It's getting late," Jinx said. She sat on the widow sill.
"It is," Raven agreed. Rising and only now considering where she would slumber.
"You can take the bed," Jinx said, hopping off the windowsill. Raven took a quick scan of the room and noted that there was only one bed.
"This is your home. I'll take the couch." Raven said.
"You can't fit on that thing. Even of you could, you'd be cooked like bacon. It's been sucking up heat all day." Jinx said, whipping her brow. Raven found this to be true. The strange couch was only big enough for two people to sit next to each other side by side. The huge, irremovable arm cushions would thwart any other arrangement.
"I think a guy made this couch," Jinx commented. Raven snorted.
"Say I do take the bed, just where did you plan to sleep?" Raven asked. Jinx thought over her response. She had a plan, but a pawky remark came to mind and she just couldn't resist.
"The bed," she answered Raven's question and walked up to it. Her heartbeat sped up once those words left her mouth, but it was meant as a joke...mostly. She turned to receive Raven's reaction. Raven's expression was blank.
"I'm kidding, look," Jinx recovered. She placed a foot against the mattress and shoved it off the box spring. It now resided in front of the desk and lamp. Jinx hopped onto the box spring and laid down.
"Are you sure?" Raven asked her.
"I'm sure," Jinx said, rolling to face the wall. "If it gets to uncomfortable I'll just roll off onto your bed and kick you out." She snickered.
"Hmm..." Raven sounded and said nothing more. She turned the lights out and settled into bed.
Jinx listened to the night and its surprisingly soothing chimes and beats for an own known amount of time. She could hear cars passing by her home, a train rumbling through the darkness, Raven's soft breathing and her constant shifting.
"It's hot," Jinx said.
"It is," Raven agreed.
"You want me to get you a fan?"
"From where?"
"Walmart?"
"Are they open?"
"I really have no idea."
"Forget it," Raven said.
As Jinx continued to listen, the sound of a zipper being undone hit her ears. Next she heard the ruffling of clothes confirming that Raven was indeed stripping. Jinx could only make out the silhouette. She tensed then as her eyes strained to see the display. Then it was over and Raven laid down again.
'What is wrong with me?' Jinx wondered closing her eyes tightly while analyzing her reaction to Raven's shedding of clothes. 'I didn't do anything! It's not like I could see anything… though ... if I wake up in the morning before she does...Ah! I didn't just think that! I didn't!' Jinx sighed, not liking this line of thought. It was new. And new things could be scary.
'It's not coming onto a girl that bothers me so much. Hell, I use to do it just to piss off my mentors. It's Raven. Even if she weren't my enemy, or former enemy, she's still...She's Raven! Man, what would she do if I came on to her?' It wasn't long after this thought that Jinx managed to finally fall asleep.
She could throw a thirty-five ton tank like a soft ball. She could level a building with little more than a thought and here she was watching pancakes go cold. Such was the faith of Raven. How had it come to this? Her eyes traveled back over to the slumbering girl on the box spring.
Raven inhaled deeply, then exhaled. It was almost noon. Her attempts at showing thoughtfulness by providing her roommate with breakfast were being foiled by said person's prolonged state of rest. Raven dismissed the idea of dragging her out of the bed. She was the guest after all.
"Very well. I know how to pass the time," Raven said, crossing her legs and raising her arms to begin her meditation. She levitated two feet off the ground.
"Azerath. Metrion. Zinthos," she chanted.
Jinx stirred then. A moment later she was propping herself up and rubbing her sleepy eyes. Her eyes sought out Raven first. Raven was dressed the same as the night before: black jeans, sneakers and a simple white shirt.
'Dressed? Damnation!' Jinx cursed her luck. Her intentions of getting a peep show were squandered by her own laziness. Jinx's eyes locked onto the stack of pancakes behind Raven. As she tried to understand their presence her head cocked in the direction of a soft breeze. It was a fan standing on her desk.
Jinx moved towards Raven. Before she was halfway into the room, one of Raven's eyes opened. Jinx grinned.
"Good morning." Raven said plainly enough.
"Top of the day to you," Jinx called back smartly. "Did you..." Jinx said eyes traveling back to the fan.
"Yes," Raven said.
"Why?"
"You were hot,"
"I still AM thank you very much," Jinx said cheekily. One of Raven's brows furrowed. "What about them?" Jinx said, looking at the pancakes.
"All yours, although they may be cold now."
"Wow!" Jinx said, darting for them like she'd never seen food before. Raven made little attempt to understand this.
"What time is it?" Jinx asked, looking at her wrist for a watch that wasn't there. She also noted now that she was still in her usual sleeping attire. Boxers and a tank top. It didn't seem to bother Raven so Jinx shrugged and started on her pancakes.
"It's eleven forty," Raven said.
"You have'n any?" Jinx asked.
"I already ate breakfast. You know...in the morning. Around the time most people eat breakfast?"
"Oh, sure. If you want to be normal or something," Jinx said flippantly. Raven did something rare then. She grinned. It caught Jinx by surprise and for seconds she just stared until Raven spoke again.
"Well, I'll be going now."
Jinx stopped eating. Though she said nothing, her expression revealed this was not what she had hoped for.
Somehow, Raven knew this girl wouldn't take the news well. There was some kind of link growing between them. A bond perhaps was a better word. Dare she say friendship? She almost wanted to deny its very existence. She didn't fully understand the forces that had drawn her to her own friends. How was she to comprehend one developing for a former enemy?
"I should probably try to help patch up what's left of my team. Assuming it can be mended..." Raven explained.
Jinx swallowed and prepared to speak. She could let the Titan go, she decided. But not without a fight! Jinx's mind scrambled for a diversion. A postponement. Anything!
"Well, if it's as bad as you say...wouldn't a phone call suffice..." Jinx said in a tone forced to sound careless though she was far from it. "I mean...if you fly all they way back just to find out things are still screwed up then you'll want to escape again."
Raven's eyes traveled to the phone waiting beside Jinx and her pancakes.
One of his eyes was blood red. Normally his chocolate colored human eye didn't near it in hue, but this was not a normal day. Victor Stone was pissed. He was steaming. He wasn't sure if he had ever felt this angry in all his young life.
"Pointy haired little punk. Who does he think he is skipping out on us like this?" Cyborg fumed as he paced the government building. He had seen too much of it in the past week. It was here, day after day since escaping the city of the dead, that he and his teammates were interrogated as if they had destroyed the city themselves. Well, most of his team. Robin had managed to get himself excused and was out hunting Umbrella with government aide. Beast Boy had been retrieved by his parents and was probably rotting away in a classroom somewhere.
"They're all treating us like the damn enemy! Even B's parents. They didn't even want to hear out our side of the story," Cyborg grumbled.
Starfire was no comfort. If she muttered Robin's name one more time Cyborg was sure one of his mental circuits would overload and fry what was left of his patience. And Raven...Where was Raven? Like she was any better. She probably had another lecture about how inevitable this scenario was or something. She probably thought sounding unfazed made her tougher than everyone else. Better than them all even.
Through the fog of anger he could see he was exaggerating the wicked. He knew his friends reacted reasonable for the most part. But Cyborg had the tendency to feed on negative thoughts when things were bleak.
The phone rang then. The woman at the desk Cyborg paced in front of traded words with someone then looked at Cyborg with a hint of confusion.
"It's for you Mr. Stone," she said. Cyborg walked over to the desk and accepted the phone.
"Hello?" Cyborg barley stopped himself from grumbling. "Raven? I don't know where you've been, but you might as well stay there. No...no...no... Yeah, she's still moping around. Right...bye."
There. Now Raven was miserable too. Perfect. Everyone had a piece of what he was going through. He just balanced the universe.
Cyborg crossed his arms and stared out the large glass doors that overlooked a quaint courtyard. He stared while thoughts battled thoughts for several minutes until guilt finally kicked him upside the head.
'Man, why do I do things like that! I gotta call her back..." Cyborg said, taking the phone and preparing to dial. His metallic dialing figure became idle while he came to terms with the fact that he didn't know where Raven had called him from.
"Can you trace that last call?" Cyborg asked the woman.
"I'm sorry Mr. Stone, but I can't do that. She was transferred from several different departments before her line came here. Even if she had called directly to this office, I would not be allowed to disclose such information."
Cyborg repressed a wave of annoyance. That was reasonable. Nice to see that the government respected the privacy of it's citizens... damn!
"Guess I'll wait until she calls back..." Cyborg sulked.
Raven dropped the phone and frowned at it.
"Maybe I will stick around a little longer," Raven said, biting her lower lip.
Jinx's lips slowly curved into a smile.
"Great! Now you get to play with me some more! Let's go do... do...something!"
"I don't know..."
"I do know! We will do something! Come on! I'll give you candy..." Jinx teased.
"..."
"Strangers have the best candy, Raven,"
"You would know..."
"What's that mean?"
"I'm just assuming you take little caution when dealing with those you don't know."
"Oh...that's probably true. Anyway. Come on! It'll be fun. And you need some of that."
"Nothing illegal," Raven warned. Jinx paused to think.
"You drive a hard bargain. A fun legal evening with you... hmm...I'll have to do just a little thinking, but I got you covered. You deserve to relax!"
"And who would know how to do that better than the one who helped bring me to my current state of fatigue?" Raven quipped.
"I think that's the closet you're coming to a complement so I'll take it!" Jinx said.
"You're..." Raven shook her head and buried the oncoming grin.
"Yes I am!" Jinx said raising her arms and flexing muscles she didn't have. Now that Raven thought about it, those skinny limbs really packed a punch. "Lets get ready."
"For what?" Raven asked.
"Stop asking so many questions. It won't hurt...much."
Raven went silent for moment then, "How's your leg?"
Jinx looked at her legs with a hint of confusion when it came to her. The last time Raven had seen her was after an Umbrella-made bio weapon had nearly hacked one of her precious legs off.
"They work. Still kick ass when I tell 'em too..." Jinx said.
"May I see?"
"Wha?" Jinx gaped slightly.
"The wound," Raven said, eyes trailing up Jinx's pale left leg.
Jinx stalled, but found she had no logical reason to deny the request. So why the hell was the very idea making her so nervous?
"Ok..." she said. Raven closed the distance between them and squatted before Jinx. A pale hand traced up the thigh moving the article of clothing to inspect the scars. The contact ignited a feeling of rapture that flushed through Jinx in a heartbeat. She fought to remain tranquil as the vim exited her in a shallow breath. A small eternity latter, Raven rose.
"Thought I did a better job than that. Do you want me to remove the scars?"
"No!" Jinx said, pulling away too quickly. The thought of prolonging this strange experience, though inviting, was too much for her to handle at the moment. Raven looked her quizzically. "I mean...scars are sexy! 'S-sides...you changed the subject! I was supposed to be dealing with you. Not the other way around."
An hour later they neared their destination. Jinx had learned of the carnival during her night outings, but had filed the information away under irrelevant until Raven showed up. With no transportation the girls had a nice long walk. Jinx found it necessary to talk the whole way of course. Jinx traded her bewitching outfit in for a black tank top with slit shoulder straps. It covered half her stomach. Her pink hair was tame and straight similar to Raven's. A black skirt and her usual purple and black-stripped socks and platform boots completed the look.
A large parking lot had been transformed into a colorful city of entertainment. The tops of Ferris wheels and tilt-a-whirls towered over trees and multi-colored tents. A small ocean of people filtered through the admission based property. The scent of sugary snacks and various other unhealthy foods carried from the place for a near quarter mile around.
"Ta da!" Jinx said gesturing to the establishment. "Doesn't this place look fun?"
"You don't want to know my answer. Let's just get this over with," Raven said, pushing ahead.
"I like your spunk!" Jinx cried, running after her.
"Here you are girls," the gentleman said handing Jinx and Raven their plastic guns and vests.
"You ready?"
"Wait," Raven said examining the gun. "You paid for this game,"
"Uh...yeah?"
"I can't accept this," Raven said retrieving her own wallet.
"Why not?" Jinx asked.
"I cannot enjoy leisure purchased by someone else's suffering. What hapless individuals were inconvenienced so you could live as you choose to do?" Raven quizzed her preparing to hand the man so her own money. Jinx caught the hand.
"They weren't happy-less-!"
"I said hapless-"
"What ever!" Jinx exclaimed pulling Raven away from the confused ticket man.
"I'll have you know that all the money I have at the moment was taken from other criminals,"
"Really?" Raven said, her eyes narrowing.
"I don't have much reason to like to you," Jinx pointed out.
"Alright," Raven said pocketing her cash. "What you did still isn't right. I had to ask. It's just the way I am."
"I guess ... it's cool. Don't let this get around, but you little motto actually kinda makes sense.
Raven turned to the cave like labyrinth before them. Inside a dozen other youths were engaged in a game of laser tag.
"Give me a head start?" Jinx asked.
"If you insist," Raven said, disinterested.
"Sweet!" Jinx said, disappearing into the dark maze. "And no powers!" Jinx said.
Two minutes later Raven entered the game. The battlefield was lit only by multicolored lamps that spun, throwing blue and green patches at the cave like wall and anything that got in the way.
Raven ventured cautiously deeper and deeper into the heart of the maze. As time ticked by she found herself anticipating an encounter with her pink-haired friend. But every time she turned a corner she found no one. This continued for several seconds more before-
"All your base are belong to us!" someone shouted. Raven reacted with the reflects of a super heroine. She darted to the side, away from oncoming red laser beams and fired. There was more than one coming at her. She moved again, several lasers screeching by her head and sides and she fired several more shots of her own. When it was all said and done, six gamers had been taken out of the game. Jinx was not among them.
"Man that chick's good..."
"I got beat by a girl! What will I tell my kids?"
"I can't die yet...I've never been loved!"
--were phrases among the chorus offset by Raven's display skills. She felt a small sense of gratification from her victory. She began to wonder if she could take Jinx out without using her powers in this silly human game. Interest led to desire and Raven decided she'd give in and entertain the idea of blasting Jinx to kingdom come.
For a time, Raven forgot the stress of responsibility. For once she reserved only enough concentration to keep her powers in check and focused all of her energy into hunting down Jinx.
"The air is fresh with blood. Your body count hangs over you like a pawn... I saw what you did to those poor saps." Her voice echoed off the fake walls.
"Where did you learn to talk like that?" Raven said with a hint of amusement. As she looked around, adrenalin was being released into her system. She wanted to win! She had to be ready, but she couldn't use her powers to pluck Jinx from the shadows.
"I...have no idea... Listening to you, I think..." the voice responded. Raven whirled in the direction she thought the voice came from to find nothing.
"Marko..." Raven said flatly. Jinx snickered.
'Damn. Where is she,' Raven cursed.
"Ah...you look so cute down there..." Jinx said. Realization hit like lighting. Raven's head snapped up to see a red laser coming down. She darted back and it hit the ground near her sneakers. Jinx, by this time, was running across several high rises in the cave like dwellings.
"No powers, huh, Jinx?" Raven accused firing several shots from her gun at the fleeing target.
"I didn't use my powers to get up here!" Jinx called back. She resisted the urge to cartwheel away from the oncoming fire and slid down a slope of the small mountain. She let off a round then dived for cover. Her heart was pounding in her ears. Once again, and she and Raven were on opposite sides.
"Seems like old times, aye Ravy?" Jinx said, peaking from behind her rock and firing at Raven's fleeting form.
"Why don't you like my name?" Raven asked, finding cover of her own. She fired at Jinx but she had ducked out of sight again avoiding the lasers.
"Wh-what makes you say that?" Jinx asked, listening for Raven's movements and fearing she may have done something wrong. Not that that was anything new to Jinx.
"You keep changing it to your liking..." Raven said, stealthy closing in on Jinx's location.
"Actually I think people give more than one name to things they think about too much. Like money. How many words do you know that are slang for money?"
"How many words do you know of that are slang for 'I got you,'" Raven said. Jinx had only enough time to peer up at the smug dark haired girl sitting on her barrier before a low red laser beam ended the bout.
Raven stared at her beeping plastic chess piece, astounded. She didn't care that her emotions were painted clear on her face. She didn't care that she had managed to take Jinx out of the game as she planned. She just wanted to know how Jinx had managed to hit her as well.
"You're a sneaky one. I will remember that," Jinx said, tapping her temple. Her chest piece was also blinking.
"How-?" Raven started.
"Quickest set of hands this side of the Rio Grande, they is!" Jinx said, blowing her nails and whipping them on her top. "Who's up for a rematch!"
Raven's trained expression didn't reveal her want for another game.
"Well, don't all jump at once," Jinx said.
"Oh man my feet hurt," Jinx whined as the girls entered her quite apartment. Jinx stumbled onto the couch then rolled onto the floor. Raven came to stand over her from, sprawled out as it was, and looked down at her for a minute before dropping to sit beside her.
"My feet.." Jinx whined, kicking her boots off. "Too much walking. Usually I sprint across roof tops."
Raven wasn't really listening. Rational thought had found her. She was sharing company with a criminal. Why was she associating with a criminal? How did she convince herself this was ok again? She could scarcely remember.
"What's wrong?" Jinx said, becoming concerned herself.
"Shouldn't be doing this," Raven confessed.
'Not this again...' Jinx thought.
"I'm supposed to be a Titan... and you're a-"
"A what?" Jinx spat sitting up, eyes for the first time hard and offended. She reminded Raven of a snake. "A criminal? Vermin? Evil? Well, I'm sorry! But there is nothing I can do about that now! I was attacked while in prison, remember? Why don't you drag my ass back to one. That way at least you can feel better," Jinx huffed on the verge of tears. Did she really mean that? Well it was already out now, so she supposed she'd just have to deal with the mess her big mouth had gotten her into.
"No wait...Jinx," Raven said, flustered her hand reached for her then fell to her lap. What could she say? "I'm sorry," she said first. "This is just new to me."
"Good..." Jinx whipping at her eyes lids. "I didn't really want to be mad at you."
"I shouldn't be upsetting you. This is my problem. I just need to-"
"Shut up already. If you were perfect I wouldn't want to be around you," Jinx said removing her socks and rubbing he feet. Raven smirked.
"Fair enough," Raven said.
"Damn..." Jinx cursed looking at her lonely TV stand.
"What's wrong?"
"I meant to get a TV while we were out,"
"And we still don't know if Walmart's open twenty four seven. It wasn't in Jump city."
"We should have gotten some food too. This is all your fault Ravy."
"How do you figure that?" Raven said, narrowing her brows. Jinx loved when she did that.
"You distracted me aaaaaaall day," Jinx sang.
"Yeah. I'm sure you're normally much more organized than this. How long have you been living here? And it wasn't until I showed up that this air-condition impaired room got a fan."
"Ouch. Touché," Jinx said, flicking her index finger across her forehead at Raven as if whipping blood from an imaginary cut.
"And don't call me Ravy."
"Awww..."
"Zip it," Raven cut her off. Jinx was grinning. "That was good observation you had earlier."
"Eh?"
"About people having more than one name for things they think about too much..."
Jinx swallowed. Surely Raven didn't suspect her own need to give Raven more than one came stemmed from a growing adoration? Raven's expression was unreadable again. 'She probably thinks I'm just being silly,'
"Yep. People think entirely too much. That's the real problem here," Jinx said, eyes shifting away from Raven's gaze.
"Yeah. We should be more like you and forget necessities like electric fans," Raven said.
"You don't get tired of busting my bubble do you?" Jinx asked.
"I suppose I don't," Raven said, smirking.
"I made you smile!"
"So what?" Raven said, crossing her arms. People really got too much of a kick out of seeing her smile. It wasn't that amazing.
"Who else makes you smile this often?" Jinx attacked, leaning forward until she was on all fours. "Starfire? Robin?"
"I...donno. I don't count..."
"What's the funniest thing you've ever seen?" Jinx asked, fully intending to take notes on whatever information Raven would spare.
"I...Cyborg being knocked off his feet by a ball of...old underwear and sweat socks..." Raven said, quickly in an effort to end the conversation. Jinx, of course, wanted more details.
"How did this come about?" Jinx's pink catlike eyes were wide with interest. Subconsciously, Raven found she liked something about them, but was unable to determine what. The words kept attacking her thoughts though.
"I threw it at him." The mere memory of the big tin man's expression as he ran from a projectile of his, and Beast boy's own creation, was starting to make her giggle now.
"You did?" Jinx was beside herself. "Aw Raven. You think you know a girl then you find out she used old underwear as a weapon."
"He didn't even see it coming," Raven said, reliving the moment. "He had just beamed Beast Boy with it and I just happened to be standing there. I grabbed it and turned on him..."
"Hah! I knew you had it in you! Here," Jinx cheered, then extended her foot to Raven's lap. "Rub my feet."
"Yeah, then -," Raven said, accepting Jinx's foot then letting it go with a start. Jinx exploded with laughter. Raven looked at her own hands like they had betrayed her.
"Don't feel too bad Raven," Jinx gasped between fits of giggles. "I hypnotized you!" Raven waited for further explanation. "I did! I do this all the time to Gizmo. If someone is going on and on about something and you ask 'em to do something at just the right time, they'll do it! You should try it. I once got Mammoth to clean my entire room!"
"I see..." Raven said, still looking at her hands as of they were not her own for the great Raven and founding member of the Titans did not rub the feet of the enemy willingly. What surprised her more was that she had not heard of this very human fault that Jinx knew of.
"I think it's like how if you hold a chicken upside down and draw lines in the sand, it's suppose to got into a trance," Jinx explained. "But who would want to? When alive, those things are pretty damn ugly."
"Similarly, they say if you rub an alligators belly it'll fall asleep," Raven said.
"Mmm...that works on me too."
"We'll take you're word on that," Raven said yawning.
"Awww..."
"Zip it."
"Zipping!"
"Now lets go get some food," Raven instructed.
