Disclaimer: Don't own the Teen Titans just borrowing without asking and maybe failing to return said titans…we can do that right?
Alright, well this is my third and longest chapter, which is surprising, but then Mondays are kind of boring and I'm probably not going to be able to write for a while since I've got family coming in and I have to basically bleach the entire house, I told my parents burning it down would be the fastest way to clean it, but they fair to come to any reasoning…ah well, on with the chapter…
Rainy Monday
The world was peaceful, calm even, something the criminal was not used to. It also smelled differently, entirely differently from the well known aroma of her own room. She moved her head in an attempt to identify her surroundings, or possibly just adjusting to a more comfortable position. Either way Jinx suddenly notice arms around her waist and the heat of someone else hugging her back.
Her eyes snapped open, the room was dark but the girl's cat eyes easily adjusted, she already knew where she had awoke in from the smell, lavender, she thought to herself with a mental sigh. It didn't take much to connect the dots and figure out just who was behind her, but Jinx didn't want to dwell on that currently, she was more concerned with the problem of waking that person up.
The sorceress could simply turn over and wake up the empath, but then she'd have to explain how she ended up in the other girl's bed, something Jinx herself was confused about. Then again she could untangle herself from said girl and get out of the bed and waken her from the other side, standing on the ground rather than lying in her bed.
Plan B seemed more appealing and Jinx began to scoot away only to feel Raven's arms cling tighter to her and feel the girl move closer, mumbling something incoherent into Jinx's ear. The feline shuddered at the intimate contact, this was not what Jinx had bargained for and once again she was stuck in a very compromising situation. The sorceress attempted to move Raven's hands from her stomach but heard another murmur from the girl and felt legs begin to entangle with her own.
Jinx swallowed hard, shit, she thought and bundled up her courage, no time like the present, she thought and carefully rolled over so she laid with her head bear inches away form Raven's.
"Wake up," Jinx mumbled blushing a deep shade of red. Raven groaned and turned her head away from Jinx. "Wake up!" Jinx said a little more urgently and Raven turned back to Jinx.
"Will you shut-up I'm trying to sleep. Go back to sleep, Jinx." She said sleepishly and curled further into Jinx's body.
"Raven," Jinx said weakly utterly confused as to what to do next.
It only took a few seconds for reality to set in on the drowsy titan and suddenly Jinx felt Raven nearly jump, "What the hell are you doing in my bed?" Raven asked irrationally, pulling away from the nearly hyperventilating sorceress.
"Oh, thank the goddess you're awake, I tried to wake you up already, and you…" Jinx blushed at the thought.
Raven on the other hand, was busy jumping out of her bed, "Why were you in my bed?" She asked suspiciously.
"I was wondering if you could tell me that," Jinx answered yawning, "I remember falling asleep on your floor and then waking up in your bed, maybe it's your fault, you're the one with," she paused to yawn again, "haywire powers."
"My powers aren't haywire," Raven corrected and grabbed her comforter. "Get out of my bed."
Jinx looked at the empath sheepishly, "You know, usually you buy a girl a drink and maybe even dinner before you kick her out of your room." She said grinning at her own joke.
"Jinx!"
"Fine, fine, fine, I'm getting up, don't have a cow." Jinx said rolling out of the bed and landing on her feet. She stretched out her arms and legs much like a cat and Raven looked away and then hiked her thumb back.
"You gata go?"
"Huh?" Jinx asked looked at the other girl quite confused and then she understood, "oh, yeah." She said and practically ran into the bathroom.
When she came back she noticed Raven was dressed in a pair of what appeared to be boxers coupled with a tank top, how Jinx had failed to notice this earlier she had no idea, but suddenly a very good idea struck the feline. "You better change, it's freezing outside."
"I know that." Raven snapped glaring at the other girl.
Jinx shrugged, "Just thought you might want to be dressed appropriately when I take you to lunch."
"Lunch?" Raven repeated skeptically.
Jinx looked over at the classical clock on the wall, "Well it's nearly one now so one can only assume it would be lunch."
There was a knock n the door, "Raven? Are you okay? It's nearly one…"
Jinx was suddenly very surprised to feel hands on her back, but she let Raven pull her into the closet, wincing when the door closed and left her in the darkness. She put her ear against the door and listened carefully, expecting at any moment to have the door swing open.
"Everyone's getting worried, did your spell go okay? Are you alright?" The Boy Wonder's words were muffled and Jinx figured Raven hadn't gotten the door open, a few beeps followed by a swoosh told her the assumption was true.
"I'm fine Robin, just slept in late. You can go back to your videogames now, I have to go out and fix something."
Jinx heard another swoosh of air followed by Robin calling through the door, "Just check in every now and then!"
"Stupid boy," Raven muttered under her breath and Jinx smiled and then fell out of Raven's closet when the door suddenly jerked open.
"Very graceful, cat." Raven joke smirking as Jinx picked herself up.
"Do you make any noise at all?" Jinx asked as she brushed the bits of sand off of her clothes.
"Not normally, no. Now I'm going to drop you off—"
"And then go to lunch," Jinx interrupted with a grin, "You're going to lunch, I'll not risk my neck trying to help someone out only to have them just kick me out."
"Risk your neck?" Raven asked arching a brow skeptically.
Jinx sighed and sat down on Raven's bed dramatically, "I could've died in there Raven, that would've sucked for you though, a rather annoying girl stuck in your head forever because she's been severed from her body? Oh I can think of it now, beating up Happiness and becoming so crazy I begin to impersonate her…hmmm, that actually might be a good back-up plan if I ever get stuck in there." Jinx looked up at Raven, "What are you doing standing around in your pajamas?" The feline stood up and walked back to Raven's closet, pushing her uniforms out of the way and searching for suitable normal clothes.
"What are you doing?" Raven asked in monotone, but Jinx knew the girl was very alarmed at the invasion of privacy.
"Ah, hah!" Jinx grinned victoriously and held up a pair of black jeans, a long-sleeve plain black shirt and a T-shirt with The Jinx written on it in pink. "I love this band!" She announced ecstatically and turned back to Raven throwing the clothes at her, "Put these on."
"What makes you think I'm going out with you?" Raven shook her head, "that came out wrong, what makes you think I'm going to lunch with you?"
Jinx grinned and glanced side-ways at Raven, "What was that? What did you just say?"
"I'm not going to lunch with you."
"No, you said it differently," Jinx corrected and smirked, "Oh, you're definitely going to lunch now, especially after I found that T-shit."
Raven looked at the shirt she had in her arms and blushed, "We had to go to Texas for this thing…and I found it…and they were actually pretty good, you know?...why am I explaining myself to you?" Raven said and glared at Jinx, "Stop smiling!"
"When you stop making me smile," Jinx commented and tilted her head, "Aren't you going to change?"
"No!"
Jinx sighed, "Fine, you can just go outside in forty-degree weather and shiver to death in that." Raven looked down at her shorts, "Yeah, I didn't think so."
Raven glanced at her bathroom, "But don't think this means I'm going to lunch with you."
Jinx shrugged, "Right, just flying me out, oh look, there's a nice restaurant, I'm starving why don't we go there?" Jinx impersonated in a high pitched voice, pointing to imaginary restaurants.
"Why did you just fly out?" Raven asked suddenly, changing the subject abruptly.
Jinx looked down at the floor, "Is everything in your room violet?" She asked copying Raven's maneuver.
"Jinx," the empath warned and Jinx sighed.
"Have you ever seen an exponential curve?" Jinx asked and turned her gaze to the window whose heavy blinds kept the room so unbelievably dark even though it was one o'clock in the afternoon.
"Yeah…" Raven said not really connecting the dots.
"Well it's like that, if I jump off a building I can fly for a little bit, it's more like freefalling, and I never actually hit the ground," the teen hovered a feet above the bed to accent her point, "So it's not like I can ever get hurt from a huge height, but it's not exactly flying…"
Raven rolled her eyes, "Why didn't you 'hover' from the tower?"
Jinx rubbed her feet in the carpet, "Water's not zero…it's gata be ground..."
Raven's lips twisted as she held in laughter and Jinx brought her arms up ready to deflect anything that might come flying out. "So, so, you would've ended up…"
"In the water, yes."
"Cats," Raven guessed and Jinx nodded, the sorceress might not mind water, say from a sink or in a glass, but definitely when it was a giant moving body of water. "Well, I don't see why you couldn't just fly out, I'm sure you a very good swimmer."
"Just go put some clothes on." Jinx muttered and leaned back onto Raven's bed, trying to conceal her embarrassment. "Stupid, git." She mumbled after she heard the door to the bathroom close. Jinx looked around and then smiled, she stood up and opened the blinds to let the afternoon light illuminate the room, "Ahh," she purred and flopped down on the bed stretching out to feel the warmth of the sun on her stomach, "So much better."
The feline grinned to herself and yawned lifting her hand up to rub away the gunk from her eyes, she pondered what had gotten into her. Here she was on Raven's bed in the Teen Titan's Tower for the goddess' sake, a criminal with a track record long enough to rival the line of Chinese people that circle the world and never actual ended. She shut her eyes and tried to pretend she was in her nice apartment, with the soft, cushy couch and incense smells.
Raven walked out to find the sorceress sprawled out on her bed, taking up as much room as possible. The empath looked at the other girl and her eyes caught the bit of skin that was exposed on her stomach, Raven could make out the beginnings of some tattoo, but the majority of it was covered by the rest of Jinx's shirt. The empath looked cautiously at the girl, unconsciously trying to memorize her appearance, she was caught off guard when Jinx's he tilted up.
"Why are you staring at me?" She asked causing the empath to blush. Jinx tilted her head curiously, Raven was dressed in the clothes Jinx had thrown at her which was something Jinx hadn't expected. She'd figured the girl would deliberately pick another outfit out just to prove she didn't need Jinx's help, or presence for that matter.
"Ready to go?" Raven asked and looked over at the curtains which were currently letting sunlight into the room, "Why'd you have to open those?"
Jinx slid from the bed and walked over to the spot she had originally fallen asleep on, she sat down and pulled on her jacket grabbing her pair of boots as well. "Sunlight is a good thing if you hadn't noticed, Raven. Haven't you heard the jingle? 'Seaweed is good, seaweed is fun, it makes its food from the rays of the sun.'"
"You got that from Finding Nemo." Raven observed rolling her eyes at Jinx's adolescent comment.
"And you've just admitted to seeing Finding Nemo." Jinx countered and gestured towards the window, "Now you were saying something about leaving?"
"Right, now you would probably feel better if you grabbed my waist again, I have to fly kind of fast to get us out of here without Cyborg's camera's picking us up."
"Can't you just use you magic to make me all black 'n shadow-y?" Jinx asked trying to find words to describe Raven's magic.
"'Black and shadow-y'?" Raven repeated arching a brow, the empath shook her head, "Cyborg's stuff operates on heat signatures too, so the fast I get you out of here the blurrier the image is and the less detection, you should be well educated about the whole sneakiness factor."
Jinx glared at Raven but didn't attempt to argue, she knew she was getting her way anyway, Raven was avoiding the whole lunch subject which meant she was going to give in. "Fine, but you better not drop me into the water."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Raven said grinning and grabbing the feline, the empath's eyes glowed red for a moment and Jinx watched as a shadow began to wrap itself around her and the other girl.
"I hate flying." Jinx groaned through clenched teeth as the two flew at a rapid rate away form the tower. Jinx closed her eyes and listened to her increasing heart rate refusing to acknowledge the other reason for its sudden jump. Then she felt safe, safe ground beneath her feet and sighed in relief letting go of the titan.
"If we're going to lunch I get to pick." Raven said suddenly catching Jinx off guard once again.
"So you're giving in?" The feline asked grinning in triumph.
"Do you want me to go to lunch with you?" Raven warned and Jinx grinned but didn't comment further.
The feline looked around and found herself still within sight of the giant letter shaped tower, "Where are we going?"
Raven nudged her head towards the restaurant on her left, "City Burgs?"
Jinx's mouth fell open and then snapped shut in a matter of seconds, "Maybe we should go somewhere else…I know of a great place for fish and I don't really feel up to a burger right now…" Raven studied her closely and Jinx could feel the empath trying to pick up on what was wrong, "It's rude to be messing with people's heads."
Raven tilted her head at the sorceress, "What's wrong with this place?"
Jinx looked up at the sign and raised her hands in defeat, "Fine, we'll go here, but don't act all surprised when I already warned you that I didn't want to come here with you."
Raven shrugged at the other girl's warning and walked into the burger joint without hesitation. The woman behind the desk smiled, "Hi, table for two?" Her expression suddenly brightened, "Jen! It's nice to see you again, and not on a Tuesday even, do you want me to get Karen?"
Jinx shook her head from behind Raven, but the empath spun around, "I told you so," Jinx whispered to the dark teen, she looked up at the woman, "No, I'm just here with a friend, actually, no need to get Kare."
The woman nodded and grabbed two menus, "Booth?"
Jinx nodded, "That'd be great." And the two followed the woman to their seats.
"You know, you're brother's working today." She commented, "figured you'd like to say hi to him."
Jinx nodded her eyes showing how much she was currently despising the woman, "Thanks."
The woman nodded and left to seat the increasing crowd of hungry middle class workers on their lunch break. Jinx looked over at Raven who was currently trying to hold in some snarky comment, "What?" Jinx snapped.
"You have a brother?"
"Oh course she has a brother," said their waiter, he had neon orange hair that was spiked and a fairly well cut body to add to it. "I can't believe you wouldn't tell you friends about me Jenny, it's so hurtful." He fained hurt and Jinx glared.
"Roy, just take our order." Jinx said coldly not even attempting to hide her contempt for the man.
"You never had much of a sense of humor." He joked and glanced at Raven, "What can I get for you?" He winked at her and Jinx glared at her older brother, he always flirted wit her friends, usually it only slightly bothered her, but now…
"Iced tea, you're Jen's younger brother?"
"Oh no," he said melodramatically and Jinx rolled her eyes, "I'm her older brother, but only by a couple years. I'm actually twenty-one, how old are you?"
"Don't you have someone's order to take?" Jinx asked glaring at her brother, he looked at her and sighed.
"What would you like?"
"I wasn't talking about me," Jinx snapped.
"So you don't want anything to drink?" He asked and Jinx glared at him firstly for flirting with Raven, and secondly for making Jinx look like an ass.
"Tea, and I'm going to get you for this, Roy."
He grinned, "I don't doubt that…"He left the table and moved on to another next top them.
"So is he why you didn't want to come here?" Raven asked smirking, "He seems cute…"
"Shut-up," Jinx said glaring now at Raven, "he's my brother, that's disgusting."
Raven giggled and Jinx braced herself for something to go flying and then uncringed when nothing happen, Raven didn't seem to notice though she was busy talking, "I thought maybe you owned this place or something."
Jinx glanced around again and then turned her attention back on the dark teen, "My brother just flirts with all my friends." Jinx explained wile opening a menu, "So what's good here?"
"They have good chicken wings…"
Jinx frowned, "and here I thought you were a vegan…"
Raven shook her head, "No, are you?"
"Hell no, I love food, you know…the dead kind…" Jinx said and Raven smiled and glanced at the menu deciding what she wanted.
She looked back at Jinx, "Bathroom," Jinx nodded and Raven left. Jinx sighed and put down the menu ending her charade of never eating here, she had no idea why she kept it up when her brother made it obvious she'd been here before. Her eyes suddenly widened at a familiar sight.
"Hello, Jin," A tall woman with her hair in buns called as she sat down in the booth, "Heard you were here, and I wondered what my favorite mage was doing."
"I'm not mage, and my names Jen, try to get it right, Karen." Jinx corrected and looked at the woman, "What are you even doing in town anyway, did Titans East go south or something?"
Karen shrugged, "Just got tired of it, I guess. You know, a life of fighting evil is highly unrewarding." Jinx grinned at the comment and Karen leaned in on the table, "I hear you're with a real cutie, Roy says if you're not dating her he'd love to."
Jinx rolled her eyes, "If he wasn't my brother, I'd—"
"So you are seeing her?" Karen asked smirking.
Jinx sighed, "There's no way a girl like that'd take much interest in me, Kare."
Karen frowned at her friend who was beginning to dive in self-pity, "Come on Jen. You're loaded, you run a life of adventure and do whatever you want. To top it off you can glow in the dark."
"You're not helping much," Jinx said but smiled anyway at the joke. "She's just…you ever think about going legit?"
Karen raised an eyebrow at this, "Whose been chasing after you?"
"Look, you went out with Cyborg, right?" Jinx began in a quieter voice, "You must've thought about going legit for him."
Karen leaned away form the table, Jinx was treading on shallow ice talking about her former lover so blatantly, "Who are you here with, Jinx?" Jinx looked away form Karen and the older woman looked around for a moment and then back at the pink-haired teen, "You better be real careful if you're messing around with a titan."
"We're not even messing around, Karen. We're just talking, you know? I just," Jinx shook her head and sighed, "wish I could talk to someone every now and then…"
Karen looked sadly at her old friend, "You know you've always got my number…"
"Yeah, but I can't flirt with you." Jinx said sighing and yet grinning at the joke, Karen laughed.
"I knew it!" She announced through broken laughs.
"Bee?" Raven said looking at the woman in her seat who nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Raven, you seriously need to start making noise when you walk, you scare the shit out of people." Jinx suggested looking over at the girl who stood in front of the table. Just at that moment Roy decided to walk by.
"Oh, hello boss." He said looking at Karen, or Bee, whichever.
"Hi, Roy, I think I'll be joining these two so I guess I'll have a coke." She look a Raven who glanced at her and then Jinx, the empath seemed to be deciding where to sit and finally seated herself next to Jinx. Roy frowned at this and looked at the girl expectantly.
"Half order of spicy wings and a chicken pita." Raven ordered and pass Jinx's menu to the waiter. He nodded and looked at Jinx.
"Make that a full order." She said glancing at Raven and then looked back at her brother, "and an American Burger, too."
He nodded and relayed the food to each person, allowing Bee to order food for herself and then turned to leave for the kitchen.
"So you two know each other?" Raven asked glancing from Jinx to Bee.
"Well we did go to school together, and take class together, and live in the same dorm…and uhh, oh yeah, get stuck on the same team for a while." Jinx began.
"Yeah, that sucked. You always try to be the leader," Bee interrupted and Jinx smiled at this.
"So did you," she snipped back and then looked back at Raven, "so I guess you could say we interacted."
"Sarcasm does not become you," Raven said glaring playfully at Jinx who smirked back and then shifted her gaze to Bee's knowing smile.
The lunch was nice and Jinx secretly disliked her brother and Bee for interrupting the whole thing, yet continued to add to the conversation and glare at her brother, when the check came Bee attempted to take it but Jinx reached over Raven and swipped it. "I'm still faster than you," she joked and stuck out her tongue.
"Seriously, you owe me, you always get the check and I can never thank you." Bee argued and attempted to take the little leather book out of Jinx's grasp.
Jinx just moved it away and smiled, "Well you run a good shop."
"The pay is very good." Bee purred and grinned, "I can afford it, you pay my salary."
"And think of the scandal, employee buys boss dinner, wouldn't want anyone to think I play favorites." Jinx said and looked at Raven who was glaring at her, "What? I never said I didn't own this place, just declined to correct you when you assumed so. You should be grateful, I give the titans a discount since they save the city 'n all."
"And bring in paparazzi." Bee added and Jinx nodded reluctantly.
Jinx reached over Raven again and handed the book to her brother who quickly took it form her, "Keep the change," she mumbled and her brother tilted his head.
"You gata stop leaving big tips, it's not good. I feel like I'm taking advantage of you." He said folding his arms against his chest, "You're my little sister, and I'm supposed to be taking care of you."
Jinx rolled her eyes, "Fine, give it to someone else. I'm just trying to help you out, college is expensive."
"Yeah, but mom 'n dad help out, you know? I don't need my little sister using up all her money trying to help me, go save your money for college." He said shaking his head at his kid sister.
"I'm not having his conversation with you." Jinx said dismissing him and he walked away in frustration.
"How much did you give him?" Bee asked and Jinx shook her head at his retreating form.
"It doesn't mater," she mumbled and Raven glanced at her curiously. "Look, you better get home," Jinx said to Raven and looked back at Bee, "I'll catch you later."
"Yeah, see you Tuesday." Bee said and watched the two get up from the booth and walk out of the restaurant.
"That was interesting." Raven said as they cleared the building and walked outside, Jinx suddenly grabbed her head.
"Raven, seriously, I'm getting this weird feeling of déjà vu all the sudden!" Jinx said melodramatically and Raven snorted at Jinx's antics.
"You're making a scene." She whispered and Jinx just grinned and shrugged falling in next to the paler girl as they walked to the beach.
"So how many places to you own?" Raven asked breaking the silence as they crossed the street to the sandy coastline. Jinx looked away and refused to comment, "Not very talkative huh?" Raven asked and sat down in the sand, Jinx did the same.
It was quiet for a moment and then the feline interrupted, "Have you ever felt alone in a crowd?" Raven looked out to the water and nodded, "It—I—I'm just tired of that stuff, you know?" Jinx said and looked at the dark girl who continued to avert her gaze. "I own a lot of places, Raven." She answered when she realized she wasn't sure where her one sided conversation was leading.
"What…are you like some mob boss or something?" Raven asked finally looking over and Jinx's breath caught. Raven's hair had fallen in just the right way and she noticed the way it lit up Raven's violet eyes.
Jinx tore her gaze form the girl and looked up towards the tower, "Mobs work in families, I don't have much to speak of."
"Roy said you have parents." Raven said softly as she studied the now quiet girl, this wasn't the Jinx she was used to. The Jinx she always fought with was happy and excited, always jumping around and throwing pink bolts at the titans, the Jinx Raven was used to acted like it didn't matter what people thought, like everyone and everything was her toy and she was five. This Jinx was quiet and brooding and Raven had only seen it at the Circle, even then Jinx was still very energetic.
"Had parents," Jinx corrected pulling Raven out of her thoughts, "he pulls money out of an account I set up in our parents' name so he could pay for college."
Raven looked at the sad girl next to her, "Did he ask about the account?"
Jinx breathed slowly, "I got Angela—my older sister—to lie for me. She's very good at that…lying, 'n all. We're the only ones left and our parents weren't loaded but it was easy enough to tell Roy it was from the insurance," Jinx smiled sadly, "he's not that bright for the only one of us to go to college." Raven didn't interrupt knowing Jinx was just pausing to collect he thoughts, "Dad always wanted us to go to college, and I'm glad someone could do it. I'm too busy these days…"
Raven moved her hand up to Jinx's face but Jinx moved away, the girl was feeling far too vulnerable for that sort of thing, "Look, I need someone to talk to, you know? Somebody I don't have to lie to…I don't mind telling you about things, you seem like somebody who might get it, for the most part." Jinx said as she laid down in the sand and looked up at Raven, "You don't have to say anything, it's okay… You know what? I think I'll send you something, when it gets there you can tell me whether you'd like to see me again."
Jinx watched Raven for a second and then nodded, excepting her own idea, "You should go."
Raven nodded and stood up feeling hurt and confused by the way Jinx had moved away form her, maybe I'm reading this wrong, Raven thought and then let her magic whisk her away to the tower.
Jinx watched the girl disappear and then let her head rest in the sand and attempted to rehash the situation and remind herself how much she had just screwed it up. The feline laid out in the sun for an unknown amount of time, shivering occasionally but never noticing the cold enough to actually go inside.
Then he phone rang,
On a rainy Monday
...a feeling inside me
Like the days of summer
She caught it at that lyric and answered, "Gizzy, what'cha want?"
"I got the blue-prints to that building you were askin' about, are we in?" Gizmo's eight year old voice rang back.
Jinx smirked, "Oh, my friend, we very, very in."
Author's Side-note:
Well that was it, wasn't it magical everyone? I'm trying to figure out how to get this pairing going but it's kind of hard because the characters are just very stubborn and refuse to do anything to jeopardize their fragile hearts, though Jinx is kind of a one-night stander who's fallen for the emotionally detached loner so you'd figure thing would heat up fast…I guess stories are just unpredictable, especially when the writer doesn't have the resources to make those dumb commercial with "Next time on insert name here."
Oh and he songs from Shiny Toy Guns like I promised titled "Rainy Monday." And I'm hoping to add more chick-rock that isn't all gushy but it just doesn't seem to be coming…anyway next songs gana be less mushy, promise.
Anyway, review is you'd like, or just read something else until I can update…