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I woke up and regretted that decision immediately. I had not expected to drink as much as I had, but there was nothing to do but die quietly and pray there was a Gatorade left for me. I doubted it with my house mates.
At least I had the foresight to close the blinds before I went to bed. I was actually in better shape than I normally was after a bender. I didn't feel any bruises on my shins, when I drank too much my sense of direction turned off which resulted me in running into everything. I had even managed to avoid the headache of sleeping with my pins still in my hair. I did not need to double dip in head pain.
Though I started to doubt my self reliance on making it to my own bed when I saw the glass of water. Drunk me was not this nice to me. I checked my phone which had been plugged in on my nightstand. The fact it was plugged in hinted more so I had help. It was 2 pm which was not that surprising since I had no reason to be awake. I turned the camera on to make sure Gizmo didn't write some shit on my face and besides some raccoon eyes from my make up my face was pretty clear. It ran down my cheeks so I probably had a drunk crying session. Hopefully once I was alone.
I closed my eyes again and just laid in bed enjoying not needing to do anything. I didn't feel queasy fortunately, but I wasn't sure I wanted anything in me beyond water. I let myself fall into the soothing darkness behind my eyelids. I must have fully fallen asleep since it wasn't until there was knocking against my door that I woke back up. I gave a sound that could have been words and got into motion. I was a bit sluggish which was okay.
I tugged my hair up into a bun so it wasn't as wild and realized why my door had been knocked on instead of bust open like normal. Someone had locked it from the inside since the button was pressed in. Of course with a house full of boys who broke the rules for a living a locked door would not stop them without fail, but it was a measure of protection. A gesture none of them would do.
"You look like shit." Was my warm greeting from Gizmo. I was sure that was an accurate assessment, but he was still a dick for saying it out loud.
"At least I don't look like this all the time." I said without as much bite as I could have added. I did a quick look around and saw that Mammoth, Kyd Wykkyd and Gizmo were on the couch eating Chinese food on the couch. Seemore was serving up himself a plate and I did not see our newest member. There was still a bit of sunlight left which made me believe it possible she was charging up. I made my way over to him and realized something was immediately off. He had taken off his helmet and his hair had been tamed into new rows. There was something else off as well as he seemed in a better mood plating me up.
"Why are you taller?" I asked as I got closer and noticed it was like he had a growth spurt overnight.
"I fixed him." Starfire said as she suddenly appeared behind me. For someone so big and bright she had a been giving Wykkyd a run for his money in giving me jump scares this week. She was wearing a shirt of mammoths tied off with a belt from another one of her dresses. It had a skull and a metal band I knew he listened to, but did not personally enjoy. She seemed in a good mood with a yellow snake draped across her shoulder that I knew had to be named Banana. She must have been hiding out in Mammoths room. I remembered that they had bonded yesterday and must have continued if he was letting her wear his clothes. He was desperate for attention, but it was still weird since he had been her primary punching bag out of all of us.
"Fixed you?" I asked him since that could have been taken a couple different ways. He seemed in too good of a mood for it to be the way I was thinking. Though it was one of her listed skills…
"My back." He gave as justification and I remembered he had scoliosis. His spine apparently represented the first letter of his name pretty accurately. She must of straightened it out a couple inches for it to be noticeable.
"Also your hair I see. It looks nicer that way." I didn't hand out compliments often, but he smelt obviously better and was much more attractive with hygiene and a couple inches. I wasn't actually interested, but if he looked half decent maybe he could bag more than wasted chicks as the object of his affections. A sudden flicker of memory passed through my mind of last night. She had been perched on his lap and had seemed very comfortable. I knew she backed off when I asked, but I seemed to remember a snippet of a conversation between them later. I suddenly didn't want to take the plate from him if I was remembering right.
"It does." Starfire said agreeing with her handiwork. "My brother had a similar hair texture, and was even more tender headed." She took the plate that was supposed to be mine.
"I didn't know you had a brother." I said quietly since that had not been a topic of conversation. Her sister was infamous, but her brother was a void in her stories and files.
"I do." Was her simple response as she grabbed started to turn her paper plate into a funnel. That seemed to be end of discussion since she went away from us to watch the sunset out the window.
I tried to read Seemore's face to understand what had happened after I fell asleep. He waggled his eyebrows and I doubted my ability to eat the eggrolls left standing.
"You're a bastard." I said inferring what he had done.
"Wrong, careful Jinx I'd think your jealous. You two can share if you're so concerned." He was lower than gross. He had gotten her drunk and tricked her into his bed. I didn't particularly care for her, but she had made sure I was safe.
"I am just impressed at the fact she didn't rip it off." I said coldly and decided to take an eggroll and take a deep bite. His cringe of discomfort was worth the mild burn on my tongue. " She's not somebody to fuck around with. We don't even know what she's capable of." I was trying to get him to use that brain he claimed to have.
"I look forward to finding out." He said and I decided I needed some air. I grabbed a couple of wontons and walked out the door to the beach. I just walked until the waves licked upon my toes and angrily stuffed a wonton in my mouth not enjoying it as much since my tongue was slightly singed.
I walked parallel to the water feeling the change of tide causing water to seep up my ankles. I felt eyes on my back as I made it a certain distance. I knew who was my shadow this time.
"Starfire I left because I wanted to be alone, not followed." I did not want to look behind me. I had not heard the crunch of sand beneath feet in her approach so I could not know for certain if she left. I kept walking hoping she would get the hint. I heard no noise, but I knew after several more yards she was still there. I charged a hex and turned back to let it strike her as a way of communicating my seriousness. She wasn't behind me so my bolt struck sand and made it fly up in the air. She was in front of me when I turned back around. She had ditched her snake, but her eyes seemed more sober now I knew the difference.
"Your instincts and stance are respectable." She says and I guess that was high praise coming from Miss Warrior Princess.
"Your listening skills are not." I responded since I did not want to have a conversation with her. I did not want to think about what she had done.
"I want to understand your anger." She said and neatly dodged when I threw another hex at her.
"You wouldn't get it." I didn't even get what my feelings exactly fell. I was mad at Seemore for being an idiot and predator. I was mad at her for not being able to protect herself from obvious threats like him. Though there was more boiling inside me.
"Anger is an emotion I get, often. I want to understand yours." I kept walking past her and she did not relent. I couldn't outrun her. It was stupid to try. Though my legs were stubborn as they broke into large strides. It was short lived as I tripped, but instead of falling face first into the sand I was suspended by two arms catching my waist.
"Let go." I said since I did not feel like being touched. She helped straighten me up before releasing me and once I put weight on my ankle I realized I had twisted it like a dumbass. "Shit." I said and shifted to sit so I could check the damage. I was closer to crying than normal since I was already mad so I blew away any water that wanted to bubble and drop from my eyes.
"Let me help." She said and ran a finger up my calf and applied steady pressure by my knee somehow numbing it. She gently set it in the water where I knew it was cold enough to act like an icepack, but it was weird not being able to feel the water rush up my skin.
"What the fuck did you do?" I couldn't wiggle my toes.
"It hurt, so I stopped it from hurting. I learn by taking things apart, it is little use if I can not put them back together. Bodies are easy, minds are less. Why does your mind hurt you?" I wanted to find distance from the pure green eyes staring at me without subtlety. Her question was that a child would ask, which made Seemore's actions that much more disgusting. She was vulnerable, she had lost her memories of earth, her English was bad, and she obviously was processing her own issues. She had also been intoxicated. She wasn't a light weight, but he had picked touchy subjects in the end.
She had survival skills and the ability to do damage. Why the fuck hadn't she used any of those abilities to keep Seemore off of her. I hadn't sensed any increased chemistry or tension between them. Though she had gotten close and comfortable enough to 'fix' his back and hair. Did she not know or was she too damaged at the moment to know how wrong it was?
"Jinx." She repeated my name when I did not speak.
"Starfire, just fuck off. I just get tired of living in the house sometimes. No big deal." I did not want to explain it out to her like I had for practically everything else in the past week. I was not a toaster, I didn't have to explain how I worked.
"You could leave." She said and once again I felt annoyance at her simplicity. I launched a hex at her over my shoulder I knew she dodged when I felt sand rain down on my head. Her hands went through my hair and released my bun and particles. She was obviously not going to leave me alone and I could not run away with a bum ankle.
"I did once." I said since I felt the need to correct her. "But I got tired of there too." I got tired of feeling judged and not good enough. So much of the welcoming nature of Titans had felt fake. She had not been, but it had been too much. Kid Flash had been too much.
"We could go somewhere else." She offered and I released a scoff.
"I don't think you'd make me feel any better." I said since at the moment it was true.
"I want to." She said and moved so she was beside me. My hair fell into a braid she had constructed.
"Why?" I asked since I didn't quite understand her. I felt like I understood her on the surface level when she was old Starfire, but now she flitted between violence and tenderness at the flip of a coin.
"I do not have many people in my life and I do not want to see the people I like upset." I was one of her limited options for friends, great.
"I assume Gizmo is not included in people you like." I sighed knowing that she was not going to leave me alone easily.
"Seemore is not either. Though I will tolerate them both if that is what you want." I was surprised by her openness. Though I really should not of been. She had not been charmed or ignorant to Seemore.
"Where does Kyd Wykkyd fall?" Now I was curious since I knew Mammoth had been adopted by her.
"I respect his silence and cunning, he's adorable with how enamored he is with whoever he visits." I think that was the first time adorable and Kyd Wykkyd had met in descriptions.
"How do you know he visits someone?" I knew for a fact we had not mentioned Angel to him.
"The clothes he brings me and him share the same smell when he returns. His mood is also palpable as well in his body language. It is... cute. The lack of insults and advances also boost my opinion of him." I guess that made sense, but I hadn't realized she had been watching him so closely to tell.
"Are you happy in the house?" I asked since obviously she had been watching us closely.
"No. I do not belong here, but I have no where else to go. Much like you." We had all put effort into convincing here she wasn't safe elsewhere and it was partly true in space. A part of me wanted to break the act and point out she had a home just across the water. She belonged with them. Though I was not going to betray my team again. "I just want to make it the best out of it for both of us."
"Why me?" I asked since besides feeding her I hadn't really tried to do anything for her sake.
"Because I want to." She said and shrugged. "Let me know when you are ready to go back." She laid down in the sand reminding me of when I found her. Though I was appreciative of her silence, I was still unsettled by everything she revealed.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
Tonight officially marked a week she had been with us. We had been subtly communicating in the group chat what our next step was. Did we want to sell her back or did we want to keep her? Mammoth had voted to keep her, Seemore and Wykkyd had kept that idea going to. Gizmo wanted her gone, no question why since she had earlier in the day thrown a grape down his throat as he insulted her causing him to choke before Seemore saved him. I wished he would just stop. Though I had voted along side him to give her back and take the money. She was too much for me to handle.
There was a memorial tonight which would have been the perfect time to sell her back, but they weren't going for it.
Starfire herself was much more antsy than normal, she had been pacing. I wondered if she sensed our tension or if she was just feeling better and finding the house too small. She was still not healing, but she seemed to be feeling better.
"Take a chill pill, Candy." Seemore said as he had entered her pacing path and almost been ran over. He was still playing off the fact she smelt like sugar and was playing nice.
"I just feel like I am forgetting something." She said and changed her path to be less in the walk way.
"Yeah the last 3 years." I said since I knew I could get away with it. She had carried me home last night when I had gotten cold and tucked me into bed like she had the night before. I did not want to get used to her or comfortable with her doing that. It was dangerous.
"Earth humor disappoints me." She had gotten a little more wise to when we were joking.
"Why don't you go pace on the roof? You're going to create a tornado in here." I said trying to get her agitation out of the room and to have a shot to argue with the boys.
"Fine." She says and jumps out the window to get up to the roof. I shut it behind her.
"She needs to go back." I said making my voice clear it was more an order.
"C'mon she's listening to us and fitting in just fine." Seemore argued.
"She listens to me." I corrected. "It's too risky, what if she remembers something? She knows we've been lying to her, she just feels like we are her only option. It's just luck she hasn't murdered Gizmo yet."
"Hey!" Gizmo said but I knew he didn't want to argue with my point to get rid of her. "Why don't we just ice the bitch?"
"She'd take us with her." Mammoth said. "She is fine staying here." He said and crossed his arms. Dammit.
"She has plenty of potential." Kyd Wykkyd said. "We should see if she lives up to it before we make any final decisions." Fuck him and his sense.
"You want to put her on a job? I hope its arson." Gizmo muttered. Though before we could continue further a scream coming from outside brought our attention to our front door. It was high pitched but it was not Starfire. We went out to see who was the victim.
Billy Numerous was pinned with Starfire on top of him with her hand at his throat. It was dark so a starbolt would have been visible. She was perched sitting up and it was obvious she was growling. Her hair had caught fire and was moving like tendrils behind her making her look like some kind of avenging goddess.
"Hey he's one of ours, let him go." Seemore said and she looked back at him, but all she did was shift her hand a little still pressing him down.
"Release him, Koriand'r." Kyd Wykkyd said. He did not adopt any nicknames and called her by her Tamaranian name she gave us. This seemed to be a test of her listening ability. She was certainly selective, but she rolled up and obeyed him. Seemore and I caught the smirk briefly cross over his features before it vanished.
"Who are you?" Starfire asked the prone man and I wondered why Billy was not getting up. Maybe he was paralyzed in fear?
"What the hell? You're supposed to be dead!" Billy asked and I wished he would shut up. A starbolt began to grow in her hand and I had learned from the concentration of color it was likely going to be a lethal one.
"Starfire, he is one of us, so an idiot." I said trying to prevent Billy from becoming Barbeque. "He thought you died in the explosion that gave you that headgear." Her starbolt dimmed.
"Why do I always have to ask questions twice? Who are you?" Starfire said in her deeper growl.
"Billy Numerous, what the hell is Starfire doing here?" He asked us and remained on the ground.
"She lives here doofus." Mammoth said and then after Gizmo kicked his shin caught on. "Starfire lets get some food." He put his large hand on her shoulder and gave a little tug.
"Let me fix him first." She said and bent back down and shifted his arms. He released a cry of pain as she popped them back into socket. Oh that's why he had not moved. I wondered if humans were something she considered like blocks or toys she could take apart and fix. Was she playing with us? Or caught on to the fact we were playing with her? "Sorry." She said and turned back to let Mammoth lead her back inside.
He stayed on the ground until she was out of sight.
"What in the Sam's hell is going on?!" Billy asked his drawl becoming apparent with his absolute confusion.
"It's a long story." I said and debated if it was a good idea to let this be discussed out in the open.
"Basically just know she's with us, and with me. She has amnesia so she only knows what we tell her and has no clue about the Titans. Though she's a little testy to strangers." Seemore explained and I wanted to slap him for his insinuation she was with him since she had made no moves or that impression. She acted no different in the morning after and certainly not how she treated Robin.
"Hot damn! You guys get all the fun while I'm locked up. So she has no idea who I am?" He said rubbing out his shoulder.
"No, I'll catch you up to speed about what we've been doing. She's normally chill unless you steal her food or insult her. Just be careful until she warms up to you since obviously she has no problems fucking up your shit." Seemore once again was oversimplifying things.
"Isn't it weird?" Billy asked and I appreciated he was another mediating influence.
"Yes it is." I answered since I could not pretend it was anything else.