Thank you to my lil sis. She helped with this as it formed, and I stole the 'slade sense' I used in 'I never saw it coming' from her.
This had to be done. We even worked out the flavors each girl was eating, but I never felt the need to mention all of them.
"Please Raven? I really, really wanna go with you." Melvin begged the half demon, teary eyed, and stealing a pouty look she had seen Starfire use on Robin before. It wasn't working nearly as well as it had for the Tameranean. Raven was being firm in her denial, saying Melvin was too young. "I promise to be good, and I don't wanna be left alone in the tower with all the icky boys."
"Let her come, Raven. I know how that feels enough." Bumblebee added her support, which should have been enough to break her, but Raven was very protective of Melvin. A responsible big sister wouldn't take a seven-year-old out with a bunch of teenaged super who would become targets the minute they ordered their ice cream. It wasn't safe.
"Sheesh Ravy, when I was her age I was running around with a knife in one hand, getting lost in woods that were supposed to have tigers." Jinx snickered, finding this coddling of the girl hilarious. "And I didn't have six super powered body guards with me. Let her come."
Raven scowled at the hex witch. "You are not exactly a prime example of what a girl Melvin's age should be doing, Jinx. In case you haven't forgotten, you have a year of probation under Titans watch to finish."
Starfire and Kole whispered together for a moment, and then nodded in agreement. Taking places on either side of Melvin, they added their pouts to the mix. That broke all resolve. Starfire alone was hard to resist, this was Starfire cubed. "All right, you can come." She finally sighed, and received cheers from all present. Taking the younger girl's hand, they made their way out of the tower.
It had been Robin's idea to have a get together every so often, and when Argent suggested a girl's day out, Starfire had jumped on it so quickly Raven had gotten no chance to protest. When they reached the island coast, Jinx frowned. Of the girls present, only she, Melvin and Kole couldn't fly. Raven noticed this and made a disk of dark energy for them to stand on. Kole looked apprehensive at the thought of that supporting her, but Melvin was very excited, and Jinx just sat down with no cares, so it wasn't worth worrying.
When the group of girls had reached the ice cream place, another problem presented itself. Ordering. Starfire was having trouble deciding, Melvin wanted an extra large cone, Bumblebee was frowning at the choices, saying they didn't have her favorite. Argent and Kole had no problem getting their strawberry and rainbow sherbet. Jinx, on the other hand, was locked in a staring match with the cashier, who was hesitant about taking her money. "Who cares where it came from, it's not poisoned! Money is money. You don't ask where your paycheck comes from, do you? Neither do I. Just give me my moose tracks already." She said in a harsh whisper, not too soft Raven couldn't hear it, but enough that if you hadn't been listening you couldn't.
Once things had settled down long enough for them to take over a large round table, Raven having to help Melvin carry her huge bowl of cookie dough ice cream, conversation started that seemed almost natural.
"So, Argent, what inspired the tattoo?" Jinx asked, seriously interested. The two had spent all of ten minutes sizing each other up before they reached some sort of fashion agreement. It had been an eerie sight to see, really, them circling each other silently as if they were going to attack. Starfire had at that point started to ask what was going on, but Bumblebee shook her head frantically and told her no one would understand it.
"Actually, it was a scar first. I got the ink over it a few years ago. It's not a good idea to let yourself get in the middle of to wet cats. Even if you treat it properly, it can still scar." Argent gave a bit of a laugh, which prompted Kole to ask how she got into the middle of a literal catfight. Argent explained that she had been volunteering at a shelter, and ended up taking care of a dozen for an hour. It had been inevitable.
"Ouch. Can't have hurt as much as taking a ride down a waterfall, though." Bumblebee said, wincing a bit as she remembered. Melvin wanted to know about this and Jinx was happy to fill in the spots that Bee would rather have left out. "It was a dare, really." She started, Jinx responding that no it was a bet. "Well, I was supposed to see how much force my wings could take on them, and we went to this big park, and the waterfall was huge." Bee shot and angry glance at Jinx before continuing. "When you make a bet in the HIVE, you keep it. So when Gizmo said I couldn't possibly fly ten feet away from the water from the bottom to the top, I took it." And she was a very competitive type, Jinx added. "Well, I tried, but even ten feet out there's a lot of water coming down, and I hadn't gotten half way up before these things gave out on me" Bumblebee flexed her wings with a bit of a frown.
"And she goes crashing down onto the rocks. Broke her arm. Of course, she insisted it was fine, a hairline fracture at the most." Jinx snickered, remembering. "Those were good days, eh Beecher?" She elbowed Bumblebee, referring to the early incarnation of the HIVE.
"Only when I was beating your team into the ground, Murphy." Shot back the winged teen. At the confused looks from some of the others, she proceeded to explain. "I was a HIVE member back when it danced the line of legality. When we were being formal, or when we were angry, students would use last names instead of codenames. Jinx and I were on rival teams, fighting for the top. Any time we addressed each other it was 'Beecher, Murphy,' Very funny, actually." She added thoughtfully.
"Murphy?" Raven asked, arching a brow. "Tell me you weren't born with a name like Murphy. That's just too cliché." It seemed she at least knew where Murphy came from. Or rather simply recognized it as being associated with bad luck. "What's your real name?"
Jinx bit her lip. "I don't speak my birth name. Murphy is the name I took when I became an American citizen. Jayati Yuvarani Murphy. I took my paternal grandmother's name and the name of my father's favorite sister. But that's only the legal name. Call me anything but Jinx, and I'll smack you silly. Well, Beecher can call me Murphy." The last came as an afterthought, mostly because she had tried many times to slap that girl silly, and failed.
Melvin was a bit confused. "How did you get a new name? I thought that you get your name and your last name gets changed when you get married. Well, I know some heroes take a hero name besides their real name. But you can't just get a new name."
Kole shook her head. "No, if you come to a new country, sometimes when you become a legal member of that country, you are asked to give your name. Or, rather, the name that you will be known by. A lot of people pick an entirely new name when they come to a new country, because it's like they're a different person than who they were in their old country. Where are you from, anyways, Jinx?"
"The land where McDonalds went bankrupt." Bumblebee answered for her, earning a sound slap in the back of the head.
"She means that I'm from India." Jinx scowled. "You would never know it, with this dratted paleness. And only half of that is due to magic bleaching the melanin from my skin." Jinx sighed, taking another large bit of her ice cream.
"Oh, but Jinx, the paleness is most becoming on you. I am sure it makes your hair seem much more interesting, and less bright." Starfire added, adoring the color of Jinx's hair and not seeing any reason for dislike of her skin coloring.
"Starfire, she was just fishing for compliments there." Argent informed the Tameranean gently, not aware that the term might not be completely understood.
"No, she was fishing for idiots." Raven deadpanned, avoiding looking at her own skin. "She can complain about it all she wants, but she won't dare change how her skin looks, because she knows the boys love it."
"Which is why you have so many falling all over you, right Raven?" Bumblebee said; a deliciously evil glint in her eyes. Raven looked bewildered, as if she had never had such an accusation thrown at her.
"Oh, of course. They all just want to get of piece of-" Raven threw her hands around Melvin's ears, at the same time Argent and Bee clasped Jinx's mouth shut.
Hands still firmly on the child's ears, Raven hissed "Watch what you say around the girl! Virgin ears, for Azar's sake my ears should be bleeding from you." Shooting a glare at the hex witch, she released the blonde-haired girl's head.
"Raven, why did you cover my ears? I couldn't hear what Jinx was saying." Melvin asked, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest.
"How old are you Melvin?" Jinx broke in before Raven could respond.
"Seven"
"Well, you are plenty old enough to hear that, Raven is just a prude. When I was you age I'd already-" A glare from Raven made her pause. "Oh give it a rest Ravy; I didn't kill anyone till I was ten." This earned shocked gasps all around. Jinx blushed; she had forgotten that she hadn't told anyone how young she had been when she killed her mentor. Not to mention they only knew about the guru and the other four students. She had taken artistic license and left out the fact that the rest of the village was killed in the same incident. "Oops…."
"You've been killing since age ten? What kind of monster are you?" Raven demanded, furious. "We should never have given you such an easy sentence; you should be in jail for life! How many more people have you killed since then? A dozen? A hundred?"
"Who are you calling a monster? I haven't killed a human being since that time." Jinx was on her feet now, eyes starting to glow dangerously "The only killing I've done in this country is of demons and other such beings who were trying to kill myself, or on several occasions, YOU."
Argent coughed slightly, taking Melvin by the hand and bringing her over to a sticker machine, to keep them both out of the crossfire. Starfire had placed herself between the shouting witches, while Bumblebee and Kole scooted their chairs back a few feet. "Please, you will do no good by shouting. Raven, Jinx has said that she has not killed people since that time. Also remember when I was not much older I killed many Gordanians, should I too be in prison for life?" Raven simmered at that, it was true. If she had taken the time to read Jinx's mind instead of just jumping to conclusions, she would have seen that Jinx had not killed anything except supernatural beings since she came to this country. Apologizing, and receiving one in return, the spell casters settled back down.
"So, when's the wedding." Jinx asked after a few minutes of silence. Raven was suddenly overtaken by a coughing fit, seeing the hex witch staring at Starfire, fingers laced under her chin. When she simply looked confused, Jinx elaborated. "The biggest pool in the criminal community is the bets on when you and Robin become an official couple. If you hook up in the next week, I win a good thousand."
"No, you have to wait a month, then Speedy will owe me a day of silence." Bumblebee said, thinking of how wonderful a day of silence from the archer.
"Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver." Argent mumbled, having heard comments about the volume level of Titans East. It could stand to go down a decibel.
Melvin was feeling out of place, she didn't understand everything, and she was starting to get tired. "Raven, I'm bored. Can we go back to the tower now?"
"I think so. Don't the rest of you have teammates to get back to as well?" Raven agreed, throwing away the trash and heading for the door.
"Yeah, gotta make sure Speedy hasn't murdered the twins…" Bumblebee reluctantly admitted.
"Uhhg, right. Time to reel in that line, my idiot is hooked for sure." Jinx added, remembering the joke from earlier.
"I don't have anywhere to go really, but those blood tests Cyborg was running should be back soon." Argent joined them heading for the door.
"We should do this again sometime. You will return?" Starfire asked, joining them as they made their way back.
"We've got to; us girls have to stick together. We're outnumbered." Kole said enthusiastically.
"Not when it comes to brain cells we aren't" Raven's dry wit was, as usual, perfectly timed. They had barely stopped laughing at it by the time they reached the tower.
Buahahaha. That was fun. I wuv one shots.