Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans… so, um, yeah (like the end of every HS presentation I've ever done)
Chapter 2: Uncertainty
Jinx
He said it was possible for me to lead a different life, away from all of… this… He said that if I wanted a home, a family, someone to depend on when things got a bit hard… I'd know exactly where to find him…
Tempting, Kid Flash… Very tempting, but I'm going to have to vehemently decline that valued offer… You know why, KF? You wanna know why?
Because I fucking hate you! That's goddamn why!
And that, Kid Flash, is something that will never change! Never, ever, not in a million years! There is absolutely nothing you could possibly do you could do to change that! Nothing short of a goddamn miracle is going to-
A light shoulder tap sent chills through my spine, although I couldn't tell if it was the kind that you get when someone plays tonsil hockey with you or if it was the kind that you get when you're standing at death's door and the tapper is the doorman.
Well, if I'm ever going to die… I'm taking KF down with me…
I turned around in hopes of finding the source of that shoulder tap, mostly expecting to find myself face-to-face with yellow-and-red. Instead, I found nothing.
"You actually fell for it… I can't believe you actually fell for it! Wow, you are so much more gullible than I expected!"
And yet you ask why I don't like you… Even Mammoth could figure this one out…
"All right, Kid Flash, very funny," I said, exasperated, turning back around to find the same amount of nothing.
"Fall for it once, shame on me, fall for it twice… That's entirely on you, Jinxy… And… don't call me Kid Flash out here… Makes me feel like I'm on the clock or something. Superheros like to forget they're saving the world every now and again, 'specially when they're with a pretty girl… Or in this case, absolutely gorgeous…"
I blushed a little and rolled my eyes until they felt ready to pop straight out of my socket.
Wait, what am I doing, blushing in front of a superhero? Have I completely lost my marbles?
"Then what am I supposed to call you by? Not like you would be dumb enough to just tell me your secret-"
A partially well-dressed figure appeared in front of me, and even though I wasn't about to admit it… Kid Flash cleans up nice…
"Name's Wally! Or if you wanna get formal and everything, it's Wallace Rudolph West… the Third," he articulated cleanly, holding out his hand as if he wanted me to do something with it. He smiled at me, expecting me to take it, I guess, so I did. I placed my hand in his and threw him halfway to the nearest tree.
That… was payback, Wally… Payback for something, okay, I don't know, you've probably done something in the past 24 hours to piss me off, so… Yeah…
Sometimes, a girl just feels like throwing someone into a tree, okay? Don't question it too much!
"Owwwww, Jinxy…. What in blazes did you do that for?" Wally whined, feigning agony.
"Do I have to pick just one reason or does everything work as an answer to that question?" I retorted.
"I swear, one day, I'm going to get at least a handshake out of you… Hopefully more…" his voice trailed off as he stood up and rubbed his head. "And after I made Raven portal me here so I wouldn't drain all the moisture from the hair too…"
"I suppose I'd… allow a handshake with a hero," I spoke, swallowing a mixture of air and saliva, careful not to choke on my words. I extended my hand out to him and closed my eyes, waiting for it to be over. We were in public, and although I didn't mind a little touching within the confines of my bedroom… If anyone even so much as saw the two of us together and recognized us… Wouldn't be difficult at all with the pink hair, as long as they knew who Wally really was… Or who Kid Flash really was… They're the same person, so I guess that bit's open to interpretation. If I had a secret identity, then I might have these problems too, but that's one of the perks about being a villain. Doesn't matter who you used to be cuz you're who you are now…
"So, you gonna try to catch me or not, Jinxy?" He asked, running circles around me.
If I stick out my leg and try to trip him… He'll probably just shift his molecules through it like how he comes into my room… But he can't avoid magic, so…
"If you stop running now, Wally, I won't hurt you," I calmly articulated, summoning pink energy bolts to my fingertips.
"You know, you are no fun sometimes… Robin's been more entertaining than this," he muttered, pouting and seated himself on a bench, leaving enough room for one more.
Being here was his idea, so why do I feel like I'm the one who invited him here? Usually, it's pretty blatantly obvious just what he wants, but he hasn't tried to hold my hand, touch my hair, tell me that he'll change me… not yet, anyways…
It's a weird vibe I'm getting from him, a new, unprecedented sense of uncertainty between us, as if being out here, in a public place… changes everything…
For once, I'm not even completely sure Kid Flash knows why he wanted me here. But in all the time I've spent mulling over that, he hasn't moved an inch, probably a new record for him, knowing how fast life usually moves in his lane.
"So you can sit still," I mused, sitting down next to him. "Your name's really Wally, huh?"
Wally? That's kinda… normal… Too normal. Like he might actually have a private life from the heroing where he goes to parties and hangs with non-superhero friends or something…
You know, just the part of life us supervillains don't really get to experience…
"Yeah, don't wear it out or anything… You don't like it?"
"Nah, I just… wanted to know if you were serious… It's not a good or bad name… It's just different…"
Why did I justify asking that? It's not like answering yes would've made a difference? After all, I don't care if his feelings get hurt.
"Like Jinx is any less different," he remarks,reaching into his pocket and pulling out a slightly-damaged rose, no doubt meant for moi.
How original… Another rose…
Not that I don't want another rose… Roses are… nice…
You know, if they came from anyone but Kid Flash…
"Sorry 'bout that… It would've been more intact if I hadn't been thrown into a tree… Or if I didn't shove it in my pocket… Guess that makes it as much my fault as yours?" he speculated, offering it to me.
Oh well, a bent rose is better than none… Besides, it's not like I don't have more back home, so…
I held it up to my nose and took a deep breath. "You know, I really don't mind the roses and all but… I really think you should stop… You and I should stop, Wally… before…"
Before this goes too far and I start falling for you… Before that train wreck starts… Before I completely lose what little control I have over my rage… Before he starts holding my hand again and I start not hating him as much and the warmth gets to me and makes me think that maybe, just maybe, we could be something… something more than enemies…
His eyes brighten as he looks at me decisively. "Stop what, Jinx? Stop… chilling here? Just two normal teenagers, sitting on a park bench, talking about how their lives are?"
"We aren't normal, Wally, not even by our standards… This hero-villain thing isn't normal either… What, did the world run out of super-hot blond chicks or something?"
He laughed, casually, as if he thought I was joking when in reality I was being quite serious.
Another reason I hate you, Kid Flash, is because you don't have anything but light-hearted bones in your body… You think it's so simple to change, to give up everything you've ever known for a life that… might be better… but could end up being even worse.
"Jinx, Jinx, Jinx… the world doesn't have any blondes that hold a candle to you… No one does… Believe me, I've been all over the world, and you're just about the only girl I've fallen this hard for… Which is to say that it kinda doesn't matter to me, if we aren't normal… If this isn't normal… I bet there have been plenty of these types of couples throughout history?"
"Whoever said we… were a couple?" I inquired, glaring at him before shifting my gaze to a passing tree.
"Whoever said we can't?" he countered, giving me ample food-for-thought. "So, Jinxy… Even though this wasn't mandatory or anything… You still came…So I guess what I'm trying to figure out here is… why? Was it my charismatic voice? My charming good looks? Was it the hair? Come on, it had to be the hair, right?" he asked, running a finger through fiery-red strands of it like superhero boys so often feel the need to do.
"Course not," I scoffed at the very thought. "I'm here cuz this happened to be a better option than what the H.I.V.E. had in mind," I explained, waving a hand in the air to emphasize that my being here had absolutely nothing to do with him. It was my call, something I chose on a whim. Nothing more, nothing less.
Damnit… Telling him that isn't going to do anything but make me being here look worse…
"And what did the H.I.V.E. have planned anyways, if you don't mind me asking? Don't worry, it's my day off, so I'm not too keen on stopping crime if the rest of the Titans will anyways… Just was curious, is all," Wally nonchalantly asked; I had seen the boy put more thought into eating a sandwich.
"They're, uh, out on a mission…"
Mayday, Jinx, if this was a video game, your health would literally be in the red!
Just… stop talking and run or something! Anything to get away from this… situation… catastrophe…
"What kinda mission? The stealthy kind? The action-packed kind? The wild-goose-chase kind?"
Damnit… If I tell him, then he'll ask why I'm not there… If I don't, I'm just wasting a lie for no reason…
"They're, uh, hitting up the Brotherhood of Evil for some Crime and Chill…"
"Sounds nice, sounds nice… But you know what it doesn't sound like, Jinxy? It doesn't sound like you'd pass up for someone you hate?" he inquired, scratching his head.
"I'm here strictly cuz I wanna be, Wally! And I can leave whenever I want to, you know? I say you should start to make being here worth my while and cut the chitchat. Let's get this over with, start your usual spiel so I can reject it and we can both move on with our lives"
Wally completely ignores what I'm saying, instead getting off the park bench and waltzing over to a little girl playing in the grass with her toys underneath a tree, probably not more than 5 years old.
"Jinx, you coming or not?" he asked impatiently, motioning me over.
As if he had any right to be impatient when he was the one that just up-and-left without so much as a word…
"Care to explain why you invited me to a park so that we could talk to small children?"
The girl looked up at me, then over to Wally, picking up a doll and throwing it at his head. Wally let it hit him, as usual, and even groaned to complete the performance.
"My mama says all men are pigs and that if I ever see a boy, I should punch him between the legs and run," the little girl spoke without batting an eye.
"That makes two of us," I said, a wry smile rising to my face. "So, Wally, 2 against 1, what are the odds you win?"
I kinda like this girl… What are the odds she wants to grow up and be a supervillain?
His eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he realized this wasn't going to end well… well, for one of us, anyways.
"Well, if you're going to do anything to me, you'll have to catch me first," he joked, running at a somewhat-normal speed for once, constantly looking back to make sure we weren't too far behind.
His path was erratic, running on and off the sidewalk, almost crashing into passerby or trees, forcing us to change directions several times as I realized just how futile this really was. Every now and then, he turned around and ran in place facing us, making faces or other mocking gestures, prompting the girl to throw something, anything, at him, sometimes grass, sometimes a fistful's worth of dirt, sometimes sand, but he would just brush it off, shake his hair to get the dust out, and keep on going. His occasional taunting pauses were what kept the chase going, but also what made me want to seriously pound his face in when we did catch him, which was inevitable, right?
Eventually, he stopped at a water fountain to take a drink, playfully glancing at us to make it painfully obvious we'd never catch him.
Whew… There's no point to this, is there? No way we're catching the fastest kid alive unless he wants us too…
Fuck, I'm exhausted and I haven't even run a mile chasing after him… This little girl has twice the energy I ever will.
I rested my hands on my knees and caught my breath, then took the little girl's hand, walking over to him.
"All right, Wally, you're too fast for any of us… Even without your powers," I murmured softly enough so that the girl wouldn't hear. "Truce?" I asked hopefully.
"Why call a truce when you can win?" Wally asked, taking my other hand and holding it while I overlooked it for the moment. "See, you've caught me! Now you just have to figure out what your next move is…"
"What should we do with him now?" I wryly asked the little girl.
"Mama threw shoes at the last guy…" her voice trailed off as she became lost in thought.
"Nah, that'd be a waste of a good shoe… Speaking of your mother…Where is she?" I asked, worried that we dragged her away from her parents. An angry mother would be worse to deal with than jail.
"She said she would come back to the park after she finished some… business…"
I looked Wally in the eye. "What's our game plan, chief?"
Great, now I'm basically stuck at the park with a small child and Kid Flash. I could've left ages ago if we weren't with the kid, but now… I'm trapped here… without any escape until we find this child's parental unit… Guessing she only has one because her mother's views are… quite anti-male…
It's good advice, Jinx, take it while you can! Hanging around Kid Flash isn't going to get you anywhere in life… You'd get farther if you got rid of him, trade him for a new coffee machine or something?…
"What are you looking at me for, Jinxy? Like I would know what to do now…"
"You're the resident hero in this situation… Do your… heroing! Or something… I don't know… I'm not the one who's supposed to be experienced in this area!"
"I guess we… just walk around the park until we find her mom… Don't have much other choice, do we?"
I grumbled and squeezed the girl's hand, walking along the paved path of the park rolling my eyes.
"You know, Jinx… The unsuspecting civilian might think she's our daughter…"
"Please… Like anyone's going to believe that I would-"
"And so I said to him- Oh my God, Susan! Look at that nice couple hanging around at the park with their little girl… Aren't they adorable… Let me get a picture so I can show you later. Yeah, I'll be at the diner tonight, working the late shift… Uh, huh. Yeah, okays, Mary, I'll see you then. Excuse me, can I get a photo with you and your daughter?"
"What was that you were saying, Jinxy?"
"If another goddamn word comes out of your mouth, I will-"
"Don't forget to smile for the camera," Kid Flash issued a reminder, cutting me off.
I am never going to live this down, am I?...
I sighed, knowing that this "victory" was going straight to Wally's head, and that he'd never let it go.
"Wally, you're holding my hand…"
"Yeah, so, any complaints?"
"Hold the girl's instead…"
"But Jinxy…"
"Don't you "but Jinxy" me if you value your life, Wally!"
He let go of my hand and walked over to the girl, trying to grab her hand.
"See, Jinx?... You're already ordering me around like we're married…" Wally smugly spoke, a light smirk coming to his face.
"I fucking hate you," I said through gritted teeth.
"And I love you too, Jinxy" he whispered, just barely loud enough for me to catch wind of it.
God, is he ever not excruciatingly unbearable?
"You enjoyed it, didn't you?"
"Enjoyed what? Enjoyed being dragged out here to play your little games? Having to hold hands with you and pose for photos? Being forced to smile and play along as the little girl's mother told me that maybe my boyfriend wasn't a pig after all?"
"Wait, I'm your boyfriend now?" he asked coyly, leaning in too close for comfort.
"N-no, that's not what I- You know what I meant, Wally! I- you're not my boyfriend! Ugh, you really are an insufferable little-"
"Hey, as far as I recall, those were your words, not mine… My only regrets are that I don't have a recording device of any sort, otherwise I would've captured that moment on tape…"
"Whatever. Either way, you and I are not in any sort of relationship…"
"Jinx… Are you-Are you breaking up with me now? After all we've been through? Are you leaving me for some muscled biker who wears a leather jacket , no helmet, and can go almost as fast as I can?" he asked, visibly shocked, the faintest hint of a tear rolling out of his eye.
Oh dear God… is he about to actually… cry? Was that more hurtful than I-
"What? No, Wally? Haven't you been listening to anything I've said? We can't… We aren't… Because we never were- Wally! No, we aren't… It's not like that, Wally We- We're just… It's not… We're not- There's nothing between us to-"
Get a grip, Jinx! It doesn't matter! He can go to hell for all you care! The last thing you need is to feel sorry for this prick! That's got to be exactly what he freaking wants, right?
Kid Flash bursts out into laughter and starts pointing his finger at me, clutching his stomach like he's on the verge of throwing up. And believe me, if he doesn't stop laughing, he might very well be…
"You should've seen your face when I asked you that. Oh, my God, it was priceless! What I wouldn't give to have that moment on camera!... But seriously, let's never break up, shall we?"
He really never is serious, is he?... I get why the villains that hunt Kid Flash down do what they do…
"Whatever… Just when I was starting to think you were mildly tolerable…" I began, rolling my eyes.
"You know, if you keep rolling your eyes like that, you might just get them stuck up there, Jinxy… Wouldn't want that, now, would we?"
He almost had a point there. Almost is the key word…
"I'd rather have them stuck up there than looking into yours!" I smirked, gazing at him for a second.
"Sure about that, Jinxy?" he asked puckishly, leaning in closer than before and maintaining eye contact all the way through, the icy-blue almost daring me to say yes.
God, what do I do now? I kinda wanna say that I am entirely… sure of what I want… But this… is entrancing, like I almost never want it to end… God, I fucking want to murder you… But at the same time, if we never moved from this position, I don't think I'd mind… much….
Focus, Jinx! Have you forgotten already? The humiliation he put you through? The awful life you've had to suffer through because of him? When did all of that disappear?
But a small, insignificant part of me dares to inform me that none of that is KF's fault… It's my own… It's entirely my fault for choosing the life, and not at all his. He was just… doing what he had to do, just like any other hero…
Except he did it differently than any hero I've ever met… Most would throw you in jail without a second thought, but this one… Wally asked me why I'd live this way, with those… idiots, as he referred so kindly to them…
You know, he's got a point… They have the IQ of a rock on a good day… On a bad day… Let's just say there's no way in hell I keep them around for their brains…
He's usually right about these things, which is the scary part. I'd rather him be totally wrong and try to convince me that he isn't rather than him be totally right and know that he is…
What am I saying to myself? Right? Kid Flash? Of course not! He can't be right! He can't change me! He'll never change me because I'm not like him… I don't have a heroic bone in my body… All I have is a burning desire to end Kid Flash, even if it ends me in the process…
I contemplated what to do as I held his gaze in a mix of sheer intensity, passion, and hatred between the two of us. I blinked a few times, unsure if this was really reality, then stood up on the park bench.
What am I thinking? Of course I'm sure! I'm a supervillain, there's no way in hell that I, of all people, would want to change my life… No way in hell that I'm… attracted to this idiot!...
"Of course I'm sure! You think I'd be moronic enough to want to stare into a hero's eyes! I'd rather be blind than live a lifetime of that! After all, I'm the greatest supervillain that ever lived! One day, they'll build statues of me all 'cross Jump City cuz I'm just that-" I began my monologue before I was rudely interrupted by an incessant tug on my left leg. I looked down to see the little girl from earlier.
"She made you a little something to thank you for helping her find me. She would've made one for your boyfriend over there too, but I didn't think he'd really be into these," her mother explained.
I jumped off the bench and ruffled the little girl's hair while inspecting the flowery… thing…
"Thanks, but you really didn't have to do this for me… After all, I was just following the lead of that moron…"
After they left, I sat back down on the bench and fiddled with… whatever this ornament was supposed to be…
"Here, let me," Wally said, gently taking it from my hands and placing it atop my head. "All hail Jinx, queen of Jump City Central Park!"
"Gwah?" was apparently the only intelligent thing that managed to come out of my mouth.
"You've never made flower crowns, have you?"
"So that's what these are…" I murmured, secretly a little enchanted by it.
"Anyways, you were saying?..."
"Saying what?" I inquired, genuinely curious at what he was referring to.
"You know, you were starting your whole villain rant about how one day you'll rule the world and stuff?"
"Yeah, I, uh…" I began, looking back into his piercing, enthralling, icy blue eyes.
He smiled, a friendly smile, something that sent my heart into my throat, into my stomach, and back where it belonged so fast I didn't even know what to think. Every ounce of rational thought vacated the premises, and every moment he'd ever given me a rose flashed before my eyes, every single time he'd asked me for mustard, every time he told me I could change. Every time he had that… irritably cute smirk on his face, every time he walked off slowly away in tight spandex that left nothing to my imagination and left me wondering what I was supposed to do with the image…
I leaned in closer and tilted my head a little, smushing my lips against his forcefully, full of the rage, the hatred I had for him for trying to make me change, for just showing up in my life. My arms hooked themselves around his neck, pulling him down and closer to me. If he thought he could escape me this time, he was dead wrong… Tonight, we were going to see if it was possible to kill someone by kissing them. I wasn't about to give him a single inch in this liplock, and it was almost like we fought for domination, Wally finally awakening to just what the hell was going on.
I broke the kiss for a brief moment. "I hate you" I seethed, whispering in his ear before my lips collided with his for the second time, except this time, there was no fury left within me . Emotion flooded my very being, but it wasn't hatred or lust or anything even close to it. It wasn't anything like I wanted to be… It wasn't like some part of me needed to keep kissing him, but rather that I simply just didn't want to stop. Wally leaned into the kiss and one of his hands moved to trace its way down my spine. I, in turn, let go of his neck and began to run my fingers through his hair, in hopes of discovering just why superhero boys do that all the time.
I came up for air, and Wally looked at me concerned, confused even.
"What was that for?" he questioned, wondering what would've driven me to do such a thing.
"I… don't know," I answered him, still entirely unsure of why on Earth I would've kissed him first.
"You don't know?" he squeaked in disbelief.
"No, I don't goddamn know!" I yelled at him, perhaps a bit too loudly. "I-I just don't… Is that so hard to understand, Wally?"
"Well, I've never heard of kissing someone because you hate them, so…"
"Would it kill you to just shut up? I told you, I don't know why…"
"In that case… You want some help finding out?" he asked hopefully, his smile reaching his eyes.
I reached for his hand and got up off the bench, dragging him along and sighing rather peacefully.
"Wait, Jinx, where are we going? Jinx, you know I'm not allowed out past city limits after 9! Jinx…"
"Somewhere that'll help us find out," I replied. "You gonna shut up now?"
"How about you make?-" he started to ask before I cut him off with my lips. As I pulled away, not a word came out of Wally's mouth as he moved a hand to touch the lips graced with the presence of moi.
If nothing else good came of today, at least I've found a way to keep him quiet?
A/N: Tbh, I don't know if this is the end or not… But it's kinda conclusive, so… If anyone wants another chapter, tell me that in a review? As always, constructive criticism is appreciated! And thanks for reading!
~Lefauxlucifer