Jinx was a clever girl. But there was more, so much more to the extent of her knowledge than her wit and intuition. She got excellent grades at H.I.V.E., enough to buoy up her teammates Mammoth and Gizmo; the latter of which was too preoccupied with his classes involving technology to care about his other grades, and the former of which was as dumb as a stop sign. Hee hee. Raven had come up with a good one there.
Anyways, Jinx favored history, writing and language arts, drawing, and psychology classes. She was quick-witted, well-learned, and had an almost intuitive understanding of how others felt and acted in different circumstances. Thus, she knew immediately that Raven was hiding something when herself and the other girls came back in. Pale and slow to respond, it was plain to see that something was bothering Raven immensely. Jinx had a hunch that even Starfire could see it, felt that Kole could see it, and knew that Cheshire could see it.
However, since none of the others acted on it - Likely since Raven was so terrifying when upset - Jinx decided to take the initiative. "Hey Raven!" Once she looked up at her from her book, Jinx looped her arm through Raven's own and tugged her away. Setting her book down, Raven sighed and went along with her. Good, Jinx thought, She's making it easy for once. Seeing that the other girls were watching TV, Jinx felt reasonably assured that she could get Raven to talk - And she fully intended to use quite drastic measures. This would be fun.
Soon, Raven and Jinx arrived in the training room. All around were heavy boulders, which Raven and Cyborg had worked together to bring in to add some dynamics to the training sessions. It was nothing compared to the H.I.V.E. training courses, but it had a charm that Jinx liked. "Well, Ray-Ray," Jinx giggled, "You ready to spar?" As black energy fields coated a number of small rocks, Jinx smiled wider. "I take that as a yes?" She backflipped over the first projectiles.
In a flash, Raven was flying closer to get better aim. Jinx snapped her fingers, and pink sparks flew to crackle about a large boulder. Atop it formed a crack that violently ruptured, spraying Raven with dust and debris and causing her to drop most of her projectiles. She sent the two left - Particularly large - Towards Jinx, and wiped at her eyes. Jinx proceeded to kick off of one, then the other stone, flying towards Raven.
Her kick was met by an energy barrier, before Jinx kicked off just in time to avoid the shield fragmenting into a number of projectiles. Landing atop a boulder, Jinx smiled. "Feel like talking about whatever happened, yet?" She watched as Raven's eyes glowed white, and two large boulders levitated in place beside the sorceress. "I take that as a no?" Giggling, she cartwheeled away to dodge the first boulder. Watching as the second was launched towards her, Jinx snapped her fingers. In a crackle of pink sparks, the huge rock cracked down the middle with a plume of dust and fell in two halves past her.
Right after that came a swift, spherical telekinetic field of Raven's make. Jinx swung to the side to dodge, still smiling. She continued swaying, dodging more and more. "You're getting too flustered, Ray-Ray," Jinx said as she frontflipped over a boulder. "I don't wanna make you more upset than you already are, but you're getting prettyyy sloppyyy!" She went on one hand and narrowed her profile to dodge two simultaneous shots. Lowering herself, she pushed off and flipped through the air, dodging more and more blasts. Bringing down her heel, she shattered the barrier Raven brought up, but was still sent flipping away.
Finally, Raven spoke to her. "I understand you want to help, Jinx," she said lowly, "But this isn't something you can help with." She sent a large pulse of energy, which was dodged by Jinx twirling to stand atop a boulder. "You're smart, but you don't know enough about me." Her eyes narrowed as she shattered the rock, but still missed Jinx due to a backflip to land atop a new perch. "This is something even I don't understand about my own mind, so I seriously doubt you could get it." Her brow furrowed and her lips pursed. After five more shots, Jinx had dodged them all, and had leapt towards her again.
Throwing a kick for Raven's shoulder, Jinx expected her to raise a barrier. In that case, she'd just deflect herself off and reposition, like she'd already been doing. She expected to Raven to do either that, or counter with an energy blast in mid-kick; Jinx had enough energy stored up to knock out such an attack in time to reach her. She was anticipating any use of magic and how counter it as time seemed to slow down right before the impact.
What she didn't expect was for Raven to grab her leg with both hands, spin once, twice, thrice, and hurl her down to the floor. Jinx narrowly rolled away and up to her feet to avoid a volley of quick blasts. "Getting more aggressive, are we? I guess I should've expected you to know jujutsu after training for so long with Robin." Jinx smirked. "This is really fun. But what's not fun is how far down you're looking at me." She calmly stalked around Raven from the floor.
Pausing, Raven let her next energy field disappear before it was thrown. "Raven," Jinx said softly, "When I had that sleepover with you, I felt like we were becoming good friends. Like we could understand each other." She could see a softening look in Raven's eyes. "I know it's not the kind of thing you do, to talk about your feelings so openly...But you were there for me, and showed me that I have friends I can depend on.
"You showed me that with the Titans, with you, I'd always have a place I'd be understood," Jinx continued. Now, a new feeling arose in Raven's eyes. Was it...Shame? She was starting to hover lower and lower. "I understand if you don't want to talk now. But you need to talk when you know the time is right - And you, only you, will know when that time is." Eyebrow lifted, Jinx waited to see what Raven would say.
With a shakey sigh, Raven landed on her feet. Jinx walked over to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. Jinx asked, "Don't feel like saying anything?" Raven shook her head. "That's fine," Jinx said cheerfully. "We can listen to some music, I can cook up some curry, it'll aaall be fine!" She guided Raven out, towards the common room.
Jinx snickered. "I'll make sure to fix you Little Prince curry, since you don't like my spicy curry." She snorted back a louder laugh at Raven's glare. "Sorry, sorry, couldn't resist. Let's listen to some music!" When the two reached the common room, they found the other girls still watching TV.
Starfire was absolutely fascinated by the Reality show on, Kole was explaining things to her whenever she asked, and Cheshire was draped over the couch arm, staring out the window. Taking out her iPod, Jinx asked Raven, "You like ZZ Top?" She smiled at the confused look.
Looking through he iPod for a song, Jinx soon gave Raven one earbud and plugged in her own. Cautiously, Raven plugged in her own.
Jinx promptly started Tube Snake Boogie.