Robin sighed as he laid his bag on the living room floor, he stretched his tired back upwards and looked around at the other weary titans.
"It's just until his leg heals, plus… we need the break. Just some time to… refocus." He said softly, his eyes were unreadable under his mask.
"I thought he was meant to be covering for us, not the other way around." Beast boy yawned scratching his head.
"Yes, well, there's only so much covering for him that Mas y Menos can do. Speedy said they were practically passed out from all the work of covering both cities all the time. I thought you'd be glad to be home, even just for a little while." Robin frowned at them.
"Home is good, we are just tired is all Robin." Starfire replied for the others in her sweet tone of voice. Robin looked around, they all looked exhausted. Fighting the brotherhood of evil was certainly no walk in the park, and to top it all off he wasn't even certain they could win. The other titans knew this, oh they'd faced hard times before, but never like this, it'd taken its toll on all of them. They just needed to re-group here, to relax and re-focus their attack, and look after the city now that Kid Flash was temporarily out of commission.
A loud noise jarred the five titans from their reverie, it sounded like something heavy colliding with the metal of the tower, the vibration through the floor and the walls added to this affect.
"What on earth was that?" Cyborg muttered heading towards the door. It slid open to reveal a rather confused and stunned looking Kid Flash laying on the floor shaking his head.
"Missed the door." He muttered straightening up and swaying slightly.
"Nice co-ordination, I thought you couldn't run." Cyborg frowned as the red-head entered the building and headed for the kitchen.
"Mnah… that was…" He seemed to think about this for a while as he rounded the kitchen island, "last week. C'n run fine now." He slurred a little.
"What's wrong with him?" Cyborg blinked confused as he watched Kid Flash's unstable walk.
"Too many collisions with the tower if you ask me." Raven said dryly. Kid Flash began rummaging through their cupboards looking for something, the titans just stared at him.
"Dude… are you… drunk? You smell like cheap liquor." Beast boy wrinkled his nose, to his sensitive sense of smell the titan smelt like a distillery. Kid Flash tilted his head back, he was suspending himself from the doors of two high up cabinets and his feet were on their kitchen work surface, he was looking at them upside-down.
"Pft. No. If I was drunk I'd be a lot happier, but- ooh! Vodka." Kid Flash smiled happily as he dropped to the floor and unscrewed the bottle. Robin looked over at Cyborg suspiciously.
"How did that get there?" He asked darkly.
"What? I'm old enough… in… some countries…" Cyborg muttered looking away.
"What is that Kid Flash?" Starfire asked floating over to the boy who was now sitting on their counter-top knocking back the booze.
"This, my alien friend, is alcohol, the best invention ever." Kid Flash smiled, his red hair flopping into his eyes as he looked at her with a drunken grin on his face.
"Oh! The alch of hol. We have that on Tamaran, here, try ours." Starfire smiled joyfully before bringing a bottle of her own down from the top of the kitchen cupboards.
"Starfire!" Robin gasped scandalized.
"Star, you're a star." Kid Flash grinned uncorking the bottle, it fizzed slightly and the noxious vapours promised oblivion.
"Why are you drinking so much anyway?" Raven asked in her monotonous voice as she watched Kid Flash take a cautious sip from the bottle and letting a slow smile spread across his face.
"Not that I'm an expert you look like you're drinking to forget something." Cyborg added looking at the speedster. "So what is it?" he asked.
"If I tell you, I'll have to remember, thush making thish whole exshershize pointlesh. Thish is good…" he slurred as the strong alien alcohol kicked in.
"Y'know… I don't even really remember what it-" he stopped mid sentence, an image of Jinx flashed through his mind, despair filled him.
"She LEFT me." He moaned slumping forward as the memories flooded back.
"This is just a girl problem? So what? You've always had hundreds of girls following you around, I've never seen you get like this." Robin glowered angrily.
"She broke my heart. I love her." He muttered looking down. "She wasn't like all those other girls. I'm not like I was."
"Are you just acting this way because it was you that got left for a change?" Raven asked dryly, she'd never approved of Kid Flash's reputation with women.
"No, I've been left before, just never cared. I never thought I'd say this but I'm in love, and I don't like it. It hurts. She was so different, I knew it from the moment I saw her that something was different, and I thought she thought so too." He said remembering them curled up on the sofa, remembering all the nights he spent at her bedside and more painfully Jinx's hurtful words as she left him.
"This stuff's wearing off, it hurts again." He muttered raising the bottle only to have robin snatch it from his hand.
"Hey!" Kid Flash protested weakly.
"No, you're going to deal with this the way normal people do." Robin growled corking the bottle back up.
"I was." Kid Flash said coldly.
"Who was she anyway?" Robin asked stowing the bottle in the cupboard and looking over at the red head who was looking very much worse for wear now the alcohol was gone, he supposed having a fast metabolism could really suck sometimes.
"Jinx." Kid Flash sighed knowing what was coming, he closed his eyes to try and block out the oncoming tirade.
"Jinx?! She's… she's a villain!" Robin spluttered shocked.
"She's not. She left the HIVE five, she saved my life and my powers, without her I would be out of commission permanently. She's not bad, just misunderstood. And I love her." He said through gritted teeth, Kid Flash wished he had the booze back; it made this whole thing just that much more bearable. He wasn't normally the type to drink to forget things, he wasn't usually the type to drink even, it was more or less pointless, he'd be drunk for a few minutes and that'd be it. His body worked the alcohol out too fast for him to accumulate enough nastiness for a hangover but it meant he couldn't really get plastered either.
"I'll believe that when I see it." Robin said darkly.
Jinx's feet pounded on the floor as she ran towards the two men, the alarm of the bank rang painfully in her ears and her feet connected with their jaws. She landed on the ground gracefully and her blood pounded in her ears, adrenaline from the exhilaration of the chase flooded her system, suddenly shock crawled into her mind. The money, where was the money?! Her head snapped around as she surveyed the area, spotting them she picked up the bags of cash and jewels in her arms and sighed in relief. The alarm blared loudly, she growled and glared at it, it fizzled into silence with a crackle of pink energy. Confidently she strode towards the door with the money in her arms.
A police officer headed over to her, his face serious.
"I can't tell you how much we appreciate your help, those men have been trouble for some time now." He said with a curt nod.
"I think that's all of it." Jinx nodded putting the bags on the floor, she looked over her shoulder at the two unconscious men.
"You might wanna check on their person though, I'd- they'd be likely to hide something valuable on them in case they had to drop the rest and run." She added a little out of breath. The policeman nodded gratefully at her and Jinx turned the corner to where her motorcycle was parked, she hadn't expected anyone to be there.
"Robin!" She exclaimed before spreading her feet in preparation for any attack that he might try, her muscles coiled like springs ready to catapult her to safety.
"I see you've really changed your ways then, that was quite an act." He said idly as he looked up from her black and pink motorbike.
"It's not an act." Jinx growled at him and glared through narrowed eyes.
"I meant before." Robin smirked at her, he was referring to her previous position in the HIVE five, she said nothing at this.
"I heard the HIVE five came to a nasty end, four of them with broken legs and Mammoth missing. And then you." He said leaning on her motorbike and eyeing her carefully.
"I know I shouldn't have taken revenge, but I did. I let Mammoth go on the condition that I never saw him again. He was an old friend. It was my last criminal act I'll have you know." She added dryly.
"I know, I was trained by the greatest detective in the world you know." Robin laughed slightly.
"So if you know all this already why are you here?" Jinx demanded, she was sick of these games, the titans were always this way, always acting condescendingly superior.
"I want you to become a Titan." Robin said offering her a communicator, the shiny gold T stared up at her from his outstretched hand.
"I don't have to live with you people do I?" She asked after a second.
"No, you can be wherever you want. This city doesn't have a Titan, it could use one." Robin commented looking around at what little of the city he could see from the alleyway's entrance.
"None of that 'honorary' crap that you give to people who save your ass once and never hear from you again?" Jinx asked raising what would have been an eyebrow.
"Hah, no. A real Titan." Robin laughed for real this time.
"Okay…" Jinx said slowly as she reached out for it, Robin snatched it back at the last second.
"There's just one condition." He smirked, Jinx glared at him and gritted her teeth.
"What?" she said trying to keep her voice level and resisting the urge to blow him up.
"You have to talk to Kid Flash, just once, what you do after that is your business." Robin smirked more.
A/N: Sorry I was away so long people, I had my 19th birthday and have been busy revising for my exams as well, but I hope you enjoy. Just one or two chapters of this story left so I hope you've enjoyed it so far.