AN: Just a lil something influenced by a conversation on Ships Haven discord – Drunk Raven
Robin put down the case file and looked at the clock face on the wall. 10:30pm. Cyborg's birthday party would be well underway, if not beginning to wind down, and apart to welcome people when they had started to arrive, Robin hadn't shown his face. As much as he would have preferred to continue trying to locate Mad Mod's most recent hideout – the British pensioner having once again managed to break out of prison after faking a heart attack – Robin knew he had to be seen celebrating his friend's birthday at some point.
The music reached him before he got to the common room and Robin found himself practicing his best smile. It wasn't that he disliked parties – he certainly liked them more than Raven did – but he had been trained by his mentor that parties, or any event bigger than tea and cake, were to be used to his advantage; a place to convince people that he was nothing more than a drunk ward of a billionaire or a place to dig for information. Sometimes it was a chore to remind himself that it wasn't a charity ball and everyone there were his friends.
The door opened and he was assaulted by a mix of music, laughter and conversations, each one louder than the next as they fought to be heard.
Beast Boy – on a mission to give his best friend the biggest party he could – had invited every honorary titan on their list, and the majority had accepted. The common room truly felt like he had walked into a club. He studied the crowd from the door, trying to locate his teammate, deciding he would have one drink before slipping out again.
Not only did he have work to do, but with a lot of America's heroes in Jump City, someone needed to remain sober. From what he was seeing, he and Raven would be the only two alert enough to safely deal with any alerts, Raven probably having already retreated to her room. Robin had grown up around enough superheroes to know alcohol and powers didn't always mix well.
He carefully slipped through the crowd, throwing a smile at anyone who caught his gaze, making good progress until Speedy grabbed him, shoving a beer bottle into his hands.
"Great party Rob. Really didn't think you'd agree to it, what with Bats and being a stick in the mud." The archer nudged Robin with his elbow, grinning.
Robin frowned at him. "I'm just cautious, that's all. All of us in one place…"
"Whoever they are, they'd be stupid to try. You might have some damage control on your hands later though." Speedy said and Robin raised his brow in a silent question. "Jinx is… an interesting influence."
That didn't reassure him. Despite Jinx having been an honorary titan for over a year she still didn't quite fit in. She had started off working with Kid Flash, which had gone well until their breakup. Since then Robin had struggled to find her a permanent team, Jinx having a certain skill of rubbing people up the wrong way.
Speedy had read his face. "She's not done anything wrong, exactly. She-"
There were a few shouts of alarm as something exploded. In the short silence that followed, conversations having stopped, Robin could hear someone laughing over the music and quickly recognised the lilted tone of Jinx's voice.
"I thought you said she hasn't done anything wrong?" Robin asked as conversation picked back up again, everyone seemingly less concerned than he was.
"That's not Jinx. The destruction, I mean. Just… go find her. You'll understand."
Speedy patted Robin on the shoulder and left him with his cryptic comment, disappearing into the crowd, dancing as he walked. Speedy had always liked parties. It didn't take Robin long to decide what should take priority. Between finding Cyborg and finding the source of the explosion, he was going to prioritise the explosion.
Robin worked his way around the edges of the room, figuring he would have a better chance of spotting Jinx this way than he if was stuck in the middle of everyone. His instinct had been right, and he quickly spotted her pink hair near the windows overlooking the bay. She was sat on the ledge leaning up to the windows, facing the crowd, still laughing
The man paused after drawing closer and realising who she was sat with. Her hood down, Raven leant into the ex-thief, a smile on her face. Robin wasn't entirely sure how to approach them, unable to remember the last time he'd seen Raven look cosy with anyone. He certainly couldn't remember Raven and Jinx being anything more than civil with each other.
Raven leant back, reaching behind Jinx before sitting forward with a glass in her hand. Robin didn't need to see any more to figure out who had caused the explosion – though he still didn't know what had been damaged – and decided to approach them.
Raven spotted him first, and he noticed her lean away from Jinx slightly before asking him, "Hey wonder boy, enjoying the party?"
"You're drunk." It wasn't a question and Raven's cheeks flushed pink.
"Who knew, all the woman needed to enjoy herself was a drink," Jinx grinned.
"Are your powers going to be an issue?" Robin asked Raven, ignoring her companion.
Jinx quickly wrapped her arm around the empath and pulled her in closer, scowling up at Robin. "Chill out for once. We've lost two glasses, a sofa cushion and whatever that last thing was."
"The cushion was your fault," Raven scowled, ignoring Robin. "In fact, I'm pretty sure it was you who got me drunk."
"I didn't force you to drink anything," Jinx laughed, the two women grinning at each other before Jinx told Robin, "It's fine. I'm looking after her."
"That's what I'm worried about," Robin told her.
"I'm looking after you. In case you piss someone off." Raven countered as though Robin hadn't spoken.
Robin just blinked. Tonight was a night of firsts, and he wasn't sure he was keeping up.
"And you're doing a fantastic job of keeping me out of trouble."
He quickly interrupted as the two women seemed to get closer to each other, focusing on Jinx – the seemingly more sober of the two.
"Where's Kid Flash?" Robin asked her.
"We broke up, remember? Who cares?" Jinx shrugged, before smiling at Raven. "I've found someone much better."
Robin was certain his head had exploded – or someone had tampered with his drink – when Raven giggled. He stared at the pair a moment before trying to get back to his original mission. "Right. You haven't seen Cyborg, have you?"
"He was dancing over there somewhere," Jinx waved towards the centre of the room, but she wasn't looking, her eyes on the empath.
Robin quickly left them, only pausing when he bumped into Kid Flash. His old-time friend was stood by himself, drink in his hand and wearing a frown. He didn't need to look round to guess what he was looking at and put a hand on his shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Honestly I'm not sure if I'm sad or happy right now. Know what I mean?"
"Umm… no. Not really." Robin followed the young man's gaze, wondering what he'd missed.
Jinx had pulled Raven onto her lap, their drinks clearly forgotten as they kissed enthusiastically enough to make Robin blush. He quickly looked away, feeling as though he had invaded their privacy, and looked back at Kid Flash who seemed to have no such concerns.
"Don't let Raven catch you watching. She's already exploding furniture and that's just because she's had too much to drink. I don't need her exploding people too."
The comment was enough to get his attention and the speedster looked at Robin with wide eyes. "What?"
"Honestly, I wouldn't risk it. I don't think I've seen her drunk before. It could get messy. Anyway, don't suppose you've seen Cyborg?"
Robin almost choked on his coffee as Raven's door opened and Jinx stumbled out, her hair a mess and wearing nothing more than an oversized shirt. She froze as her eyes landed on him. "Shit. I can explain."
"I don't want to know. That's between you and Raven."
The woman let out a sigh and collected herself. Within seconds she no longer looked like a startled cat, but the cocky thief they had fought for so long. "Good. Can I get in the common room? Raven wants tea. She's got a hangover."
"You might want to get dressed. There are at least twenty people crashed out in there."
Jinx grinned and shrugged. "I'm sure they've seen worse."
She had started walking away when Robin stopped her. "Jinx, how's it going in New Orleans?"
She winced, her aura of confidence disappearing again. "Who spoke to you?"
"No one. Yet. Why?"
She turned to face Robin, figuring she would be there for a while.
"Dove's lovely. Too lovely if you ask me. But I heard her saying to Hawk that Ravager and me are… too much. Ravager's got her issues – major issues, may I add – and well I'm still trying to figure out how to do this hero gig and Ravager was there first, so I kinda figured she'd ask you to move me somewhere else."
"She hasn't. But thanks for the heads up."
"I keep fucking this up, I know." Jinx run a hand through her hair, frowning when she found a knot. "I just… clash with a lot of people. I'm trying."
"No-one said you weren't trying. I'll speak to Dove before she leaves. We have a spare room here, and a few teams we can still look at. There's no rush."
"I'd take that back till you speak to Rae. She was pretty drunk. It's what? 10am? I'm surprised she hasn't already kicked me out. Or murdered me."
Robin raised his brow, certain now that the empath hadn't just offered Jinx somewhere to sleep for the night. "I'm surprised you risked it. You saw her destroying things in the common room."
"I thought you said that wasn't your business?" Jinx said, grinning. "Besides, I've always liked to live dangerously."
Robin let her leave, not sure how he was supposed to respond to that and continued down the corridor. He still had people he needed to check on.