Ugh. What time is it? As her limbs slowly tingled in the small bed she was in, Jinx felt awful. Like drinking-a-bottle-of-tequila-stumbling-around-and-finally-blacking-out-then-waking-up-in-a-paint-ball-field-with-no-idea-why-you-were-wearing-a-mermaid-costume-awful. Don't ask. (Seriously, it was H.I.V.E. graduation, a lot of people were doing crazy stuff, there was a polar bear involved- and Jinx will be shutting up now.)

She turned to face the analog clock above the television. Squinting, she looked to see if she had read it right. It's 3 pm? Double ugh. What happened? Why was she such a bum? And why was she sleeping in her clothes? Her closet with perfectly comfortable pajamas that didn't dig into her back (as her bra was doing at this very moment) were right over … It was here that Jinx finally slapped herself awake (literally), and opened her eyes completely, bolting upright.

Red alarms started going off. In Jinx's mind, the power went out, and the recorded voice calmly saying danger, danger ( why was the voice calm? This was no time to be calm!) went on. Where was she? Glancing around, she noted quiet dully that she that NOT in the cool, damp, steel cocoon of the H.I.V.E. Five base, but instead in the warm, almost cheery glow of an apartment whose tenet obnoxious shoved joy down the collective world's throat. This was a place where Jinx would not usually find herself, and made her wonder if either she had had a really good one night stand or a really bad, murder ridden evening.

But no, as her mind slowly untangled itself from the metaphorical bed sheets that she remembered what transpired previously. Oh. Kid Flash. His apartment. The Great Villainy to Non-Villainy Switch. Wussing out. Of course. The automated voice stopped, and the lights flickered back on. Triple ugh.

Jinx flopped back down on the bed, and something akin to regret washed over her. Maybe this was a terrible idea. Who did Jinx think she was? Randomly coming up to teenage superheroes' apartments and forcing herself upon them? Wait, wait, Jinx thought. First of all, that last sentence sounded wrong. I'm no two dollar Bangkok whore! ( Woo, go Jinx's self worth!) And second of all he offered. Does that count for nothing? Even though for her pride's sake she tried to convince herself otherwise, in her heart Jinx knew that no, Kid Flash's offer didn't count for anything at all.

For, though nothing had really been dependable in her life, (crime doesn't form friendships everlasting) the one thing Jinx knew she could count on was herself. Through it all, it had always been Jinx who looked out for Jinx. If she didn't have that self reliance, then what did she have? A weird bad luck power that made her destroy everything she touched, and the notion that doing the walk of shame in a mermaid costume isn't the way to garner respect among your peers, that's what. (It also isn't the most practical way to hike five miles, but that was for another time.)

She bit her lip, and then shook her head, inadvertently messing up her hair (which now looked as if she were a Gorgon sister ) even more. Silently cursing herself for not removing her hairspray from the night before, Jinx tried to banish these thoughts from mind. It was a process that was to get her nowhere, pitying herself, and then letting her pride get the best of her. Pride itself had in the past always seemed to foil everything she did, for each time she had to apologize for her powers causing another staircase to collapse or computer mainframe to shut down, a little piece of her seemed to die a slow and exaggerated death, rubbing it in her face that she was not worthy. Needless to say, her psyche couldn't take the strain much longer. Besides, where was she to go if she let Kid Flash's? From experience, Jinx knew the people really freaked out when your eyes glowed an unnatural color, which subsequently allowed for no real job opportunities, or housing for that matter.

With her daily allowance for a half-assed attempt to sabotage herself completed, Jinx swung her feet over the bedside. As the aforementioned Gorgon sister look alike comment showed, she really needed to stop, and take a good hard look at herself. Was this where she was going with her life, walking around with hair shaped similarly as a toaster? Jinx was nothing if not a little vain, and couldn't help but feel that looking properly would deeply increase her mood.

Though, as she turned to face the wall that separated the living room from the bathroom, Jinx squinted, and then stopped completely. Something didn't feel right. Why was a thin piece of sheet rock disturbing her so? Was there some unknown vendetta against the wall? Did she stub her boot on it walking in? Should she go interrogate the wall?

It looked completely fine-

Jinx's eyes widened as she came to a realization. It looked completely fine! Didn't she just the night before put a sizable hole through it? What was this madness, having things fixed? It was something she surely wasn't used to, being that from where she came from, such trivial things as holes in the walls and fire damage from that oven she maybe exploded were largely left unnoticed.

It was then that she looked down, and for the first time felt that the floor was acutely damp. Wasn't there also a burst pipe in all that nonsense? She sighed, and then felt slightly better that in her coma, the hard wood wasn't repaired as well -

"Hey, the floor guy is coming later, so don't mind-"

"AAAAAAAAA!" Jinx let out an ear piecing shirk that all girls, no matter how tough, have in their arsenal. It rocked Kid Flash's bones, and made him vow never to sneak up on her again, if only for his eardrums sake.

It took all but three seconds for Jinx to realize that she was indeed not being attacked, and living with a roommate meant that said person was bound to show up sometime, but that no lessened the damage that had been done to Jinx's fragile ego.

It also didn't help that the moment she stop screaming, Kid Flash stared to laugh.

It wasn't his fault really. After the previous night, and the prospect of having the Death Scream make a return, he really didn't want to anger her further. But, to say the least, when you walk around with hair that looked like a badly pruned topiary, the weaker willed would not be able to resist.

And Kid Flash wasn't to strong.

"Hey stop it! Don't look at me! It's not that funny!" Jinx gritted her teeth. Even though she was going to try not to break anything today, Kid Flash was making it incredibly difficult, by this time rolling on the swampy floor, tears streaming down his face.

" S-S-Sorry, it's just-your hair-"

" I know!" She hissed, and stormed into the bathroom.

" Hey, wait!" He was suddenly in front of her, and she stumbled back into the newly repaired wall. Jinx wondered if all their confrontations would be in the bathroom. What did this say for them as people? And could it be in a more confined space? She was never one for claustrophobia, but it seemed by that by the second the walls were closing in on her.

She watched, arms crossed, as he made an idiotic attempt to make the situation right. It was a futile operation though, as there are two things that you do NOT negatively comment a lady on, and the only way he could dig himself even further into the ground would be to call her pudgy and walk off.

Which Kid Flash knew.

" I was just kidding," he smiled sheepishly at her, though that did nothing to dial down her glare. What could I say to her? "You… look very thin … today?"

After a moment, Jinx sighed. It was many a time when one of the other members of the H.I.V.E. Five would do something completely stupid (monster truck go kart comes to mind) and would use that phrase on her. It wore her down to no end, and had her think that all guys took commands from a secret underground network of secret underground morons.

"Fine," At this point, Jinx would take what she could get. Kid Flash brightened considerably, and before she knew what was happing, had left and returned with a variety of shampoos, soaps, and towels.

He was talking very fast, and Jinx could barely pick up on what he was saying. "I'mreallysorryand don'tknowwhatyoulike soIwentto thisawesomelittle shopinLondon-"

" Whoa, whoa, slow down, what?" Through all this Jinx was somewhat groggy, and didn't really want deal with the magnitude of word vomit that was spewing out of his mouth. It seemed he was now talking about Paris, or something of the sort, and she couldn't really keep up as he over enthusiastically described … French toast? She couldn't really tell. Her eyes glazed over, and she looked upon him dumbly, for the first time today taking in his appearance. There was something different about him. Did he get a hair cut? No, his hair was as it usually was, windblown beyond belief. But, there was something not right with his face…

" Your not wearing your mask!" Jinx shouted and clapped her hands as if she had won the grand prize on a game show. Her exclamation stopped his sentence onslaught long enough to look at her strangely.

"Yeah …" He nodded sarcastically (I know, shocker!) at her. "It's not like I spend my entire life in uniform. Spandex can get really uncomfortable after a while." Plus there were some skin problems with that that he was not about to go into.

She bit her lip and looked down. "I know, it's just that people like Robin and company always run around like it's freaking Halloween-"

"Trust me, I understand, but they don't have to pose as civilians when calling for a contractor to fix their apartment." Was Kid Flash a little pissed that he didn't get to stay in the Tower? You could say that.

At mention of her destruction of his apartment, Jinx grimaced, and then tried just maybe a little bit too hard to change the subject. "So, you aren't afraid I won't, like … revel your secret identity." For effect she wiggled her fingers and did a bad impersonation of a jazz hand.

He didn't look to impressed. "Who would you revel it to?"

Jinx hadn't exactly figured that out. She assumed there was a shadow organization that paid (preferably in cash) for this type of information, though she soon remembered that said organization went by the name of The Brotherhood of Evil, and she wasn't on their best of terms at this juncture. Plus, if she reveled Kid Flash, that would mean she would probably be out of a house, which wasn't to exciting to think about.

She huffed out, and he knew he had got her in her own game. "Can we just pick this up again later? I would love to shout your real name from the rooftops, but I really need to fix my hair -"

"You don't know my name. I haven't told you." His smirk said round two for Kid Flash.

"Well …Well…" Jinx was grasping at straws. Being constantly around idiots had allowed her usually razor sharp wit to grow rusty, and now her comebacks to something like that had grown moot.

He flashed a grin at her. "Name's Wally West." And with that, too fast for her eyes to process, he gave her the bath products, turned on the shower, and sped out, closing the door behind him.

She stood there for a moment, looking at the ghost of where he stood, before breaking the spell, and stepping in the hot water, not realizing she was fully dressed until it was too late.

A/N: Chapter three! I know this one is kind of wordy, but I have taken a new approach to writing. Insted of having it written en masse and then just posting willy nilly all in about two hours, I now write a few paragraphs evey couple of days, that way I can go back and look at the little things like sentence structure and word choice. And guess what? Though it may not look like it, this chapter is the begining of the plot! Let's just all disregard the fact that nothing happened in this particular word stew, it all will make sense soon!