Really, the rest of the team should have seen this one coming. Honestly.

For Wally, it begins the minute he sees her curled up on couch in Titans tower and thinks fuck, suddenly understands he loves her with his whole heart and then he has a small seizure and then he falls over an invisible something in his path and she laughs big and open and—

And fuck.

She just tosses her long pink hair over the back of the couch and grins at him, teeth sharp and eyes catty, but when the others turn to giggle amongst themselves about his tumble, her lips soften and her eyes close, a smile only for him. The party is in full blast around them and all he can do is watch the ashen skin of her thigh, where her stockings (stockings!) show skin and her ripped rides up her thighs.

In the aftermath of the greatest battle that any of them have ever fought, everyone seems to come together and push aside past differences. It warms his heart the thought that all of them can sit around together and watch movies or plot or just hang out. He likes it. He likes that battles are easier and that he can see her afterwards, a little dustier than the rest of them, see her when they 'lock her up' for all of 20 minutes before he goes to see her. He likes it. He likes them working together. He likes her, even though she's got one foot in the door and one foot in the door of the Hive 5.

That was years ago now, and today they are getting along and laughing at Cyborg's long-awaited party.

Well, Starfire is trying sincerely to keep Robin and Speedy from killing each other at a pool table and Raven and Beast Boy are, as ever, arguing in the corner about something—but it's the message that matters, that all of them are here. Before the night became so long some kids Raven apparently knew had been here, along with the two little speedsters that held hands to run. Others have trickled in and out too: Gnark and the girl he fought with had left early, and Aqualad had vanished to the training pool with another girl—Argent?—who was British and set things on fire with her hands about an hour ago. Looking around the room though, he's shocked to find it full of all his favourite people in the world actually getting along.

When he glances back at the couch, it's been maybe a second, but Jinx has run off somewhere and he frowns. Scanning the crowd, he jumps into hyperspeed for a moment, blazing around the room and outright scowling when he cannot find her familiar head of pink hair anywhere.

Coming up behind Robin and Speedy, he quickly claps his hands on their shoulders and startles them from their bickering. Starfire's big green eyes give him a look of such gratitude he can't help but chuckle.

"Alright boys, I know the measuring tapes were just about to come out, and I hate to interrupt-"

"No, you don't." Robin cuts in.

"-whatever, I have a situation."

Robin's shoulder tenses under Wally's hand and the aura around them tenses. Speedy groans, "Didn't we just finish fighting? I want to drink some shitty beer and relax for one night, man."

Wally flaps his hands. "Chill, Rob! I can't find Jinx."

Robin, being Robin and unable to let go of anything ever, has his communicator out so quickly even the speedster couldn't see where he pulled it from. "Kid, this is a serious situation." He flips open the little circle and presses a button, beginning with "Code red, enemy in the tower-" before Wally slaps the damn thing out of his hand and rounds, indignant as all hell, on his friend.

"Dude! What was that?"

The eyes of the domino mask, kept on even when paired with jeans and a shirt that proudly reads 'I went to Tamarind and all I got was this shirt' don't move even as he hits Robin with his best angry face. "If there's a situation in the tower than we need to sort it out as soon as possible. This could be dangerous."

"I'm trying to date her!"

"That doesn't mean that she isn't up to no good. One good deed doesn't erase a thousand bad."

Wally slaps his palm into his forehead and resists the urge to whack his best friend. He does pause for a moment—a normal person moment too, not just a speedster moment—to remind himself that he loves Robin, and they are best friends before he can get out a word. "She literally saved your ass today! I grabbed her a drink," he waves at where the toxic looking pink concoctions lie, abandoned, on a coffee table, "and then I fell over because I think I'm in love, and when I recovered from that she was gone!"

"Love?" Shouts Robin.

"Hey!" Cheers Beast Boy, in the same moment.

Wally chooses to ignore Robin. "Hey Gar, have you seen Jinx?"

Beast Boy is more than a little tipsy, giddy off the strange mixture in his glass that seems to be changing colours, and smiles widely. "Yeah, she ran off with Raven somewhere. Dude, I was totally making my move!"

"Sure." Wally rolls his eyes. "You're gonna finally break her tonight, I've heard the routine."

"This is different!"

He is not impressed. Regardless, Gar launches into the same old speech about how this is the night, and I promise Rob nothing is going to blow up she loves me. Robin, who's heard it even more than Wally has, merely rolls his eyes and nods along. The speech derails quickly into how pretty Raven is and how Beast Boy loves her legs. Wally is biting his lip trying not to laugh at the glazed-over look in his green friend's eyes.

"Beast boy…" Robin begins after a good few minutes of drunken rambling about how pretty Raven's hair is, looking around for an exit in that Batman-y way of his.

Ardently waving the mystery drink, Beast Boy defends himself. "No, listen. Star made me this drink, and I can feel it! Courage! Drink of the brave!" The drink in question shifts from a hot pink to orange, and Wally swallows audibly.
Leaning forward a little, he whispers "I think we found the situation." Robin lets out a massive sigh, no doubt already imagining the shit that he'll be picking through tomorrow morning in the aftermath of a classic Beast Boy drinking session. Last time, several months ago, Raven had sent the microwave through the floor with such force it had torn through four floors before becoming wedged in the cement corridor that housed the spare bedrooms. No one had let Gar drink after that. Wally took a moment to be very thankful that he didn't actually live at the tower and therefore didn't need to worry about any damages inflicted to the infrastructure.

Robin speaks gently but firmly when he says; "Garfield, we just replaced the microwave."

Gar waves a green hand, going a touch clawed at the end, in the air to swat away Robin's worries. "Nah, this time its gonna work. I've got a good feeling."

Thankfully, they're spared the length of another ridiculous plan to woo Raven by the entrance of the girl in question, followed by a familiar pink haired shadow just behind her.

"Jinx! He shouted cheerfully, and sped over to her. "I was just looking for you. Robin though you were breaking into the tower and I was convincing him that you're too in love with me to run back into evil's embrace."

Jinx takes a step forward and tosses her hair over her shoulder to look at him, chin raised and eyes narrowed. They spark for a second and he swears that the sensation is meant just for him, lighting up his insides like fireworks. Except this hurts a little bit. Those pink cat eyes widen again, blink, then narrow as she smirks. "I did take over the tower once. It was fun. Security sucks."

"What?"

But she is already walking ahead, and Wall slaps his forehead again because how could he have missed the change? Gone is her tattered dress and the faint smell of gunpowder that lingers around her after a battle, instead she smells of something floral and something all herself, thick and sweet. Her dress has been replaced with what is clearly a purchase Starfire made for Raven; it's short and black, the kind of flowy that looks casual but reveals so much with every move she makes. His mouth dries up and he swallows nervously when he notices that her striped tights are gone, leaving her creamy skin on show. The cherry on top, however, is that she is barefoot.

And tiny.

"Jinxy," he crowns grinning from ear to ear. "how tall are you."

"Tall enough to kick your ass." She retorts, still weaving her way through the crowd towards the drinks table while glaring back at him over her shoulder.

"Jinxy, baby, you're adorable!" he cries.

She rounds on him in an instant, face cleared of the blood and grim that had speckled in before, but no less terrifying as she grinds out "I. Will. End. You." Through clenched teeth, pink energy crackling around her in a way that makes him pale and throw up his hands.

"Sorry, sorry." He speeds up, pours her a double pink gin and tonic, tosses a few slices of strawberry and kiwi inside, pops one of those tiny paper umbrellas in, and has the drink held up in a peace offering in the time it takes her to blink.

She wrinkles her nose (painfully cute) and doesn't smile, but she snatches the drink from his hands anyway.

"Are you going to say thank you?"

"Are you going to leave me alone?" She snarks back, but her voice betrays the smirk she hides behind another sip of her drink.

"Never baby, you know I can't bear to go without seeing you for more than twenty-four hours." He takes a tiny step closer, and she doesn't step back.

"I regret telling you about the base."

"I knew where it was anyways." Her eyes are lighting up more and more with every barb they throw, and she hasn't noticed him coming closer at all, even though he is so close to her, he could reach out and take a sip of the silly drink he made her.

"If I didn't want you there, I'd kick your ass."

While every exchange of words has the evil fading from her eyes, their words only increase the mischief in his. "So, you're saying you want me there?"

Her reaction is instant, the shock so quick even he can't dodge it. She shocks him, again, a little harder, when he just laughs off the first one. "Aww, Jinx, don't leave!" He calls, already following as she spins around to head into the thick of the gathering, where the couches she'd been on early have since been pushed to the side, clearing a space for a makeshift sort of dance floor. The lights have been dimmed too. It only makes her look more inviting, stomping away from him in the half-lit room, just begging him to chase after her and pester her with pretty things until she relents and can't help but smile.

Jinx is not foolish, but she thinks Kid Flash might be. Kid Idiot, she calls him, and today the name really rings true.

He swept her into his arms the second the fight was over, and he smelled like burnt rubber from the worn out soles of his runners and sweat but she hugged him close, arms tight around his neck, as she cheered and squeezed her a touch too hard. She thinks it might have been the sheer relief of the fight being over, she thinks that maybe he loves her a little, she thinks that she doesn't know what to think because he almost kissed her. He'd stared deep into her eyes with those bright blue orbs and they had honest to god fucking sparkled in the light, and pressed their foreheads together, and they'd been so close—but then she shocked him and he set her down gently, but kept a hold on her wrist to keep them together as they ran around and checked on all the Titans.

Her. Checking on the welfare of heroes. And not to see if they were ill and kick them while they were down.

She'd be the first to admit it had been a strange few days.

When he stumbled in the middle of the party, two drinks in hand, she'd laughed at his falling; and then, something hard and cold in her just melted and a terrible, horrible, unbearable sense of fondness overtook her as her grinned back at her. He only looked at her, in this whole big crowd of people. Redheads blush just as bad as they say. Wally's lit the brilliant red of police car lights. Just like the police lights, it had the overwhelming effect of making her slightly sick and want to run as fast as she could.

Thankfully, Raven had drifted over and, looking up and down at the tattered clothes she sported, offered her in no short words to come home with her and change.

Once in Raven's room—just as dark and full of candles and mirrors as it'd been years ago when Jinx had broken in—the two had looked at each other for a moment in silence.

Jinx, trying this new thing called being sociable, and (gag) nice, broke it. "Hiding from Beast Boy?"

Raven, so tense under the hood of her cloak that her posture looked like it could shatter at any moment, let out a tremendous groan and pulled the hood from her head. "I figured you'd understand."

The strained silence gone, Jinx relaxed enough that a small cackle escaped her mouth and she smirked. "You have no idea. At least he doesn't show up in your room randomly."

Raven quirked an eyebrow, then opened the doors of a looming dark oak wardrobe and began rummaging.

"I regret ever telling him about the base." Jinx groaned, sitting on the floor. It was, to be honest, a little exhausting pretending to be all strong and mysterious and unfriendly. Raven was a little like her, a little too dark to run on moral black and white. A little grey, if you will. "I mean, now obviously he knows where I live because duh, I'm undercover and had to tell stupid Robin, but he was always showing up before! And the roses! Always with the roses!"

Having pulled something black and short out of the closet, Raven eyed her up and down before seeming to settle and floated the object over to her. "I've seen those, in your cell."

"You figure if he liked me so much, he'd get me out of jail, not just visit!"

Raven quirked the side of her mouth almost imperceptibly. "Robin hates that."

Giving the sorceress her best deadpan look, Jinx leaned back on her elbows and sighed, "What? That he's in love with me, or that he visits?" She grabs the black dress off the bed and nods at Raven in thanks.

Raven doesn't reply to that but smiles just a little bit more. "There's a bathroom for you to change."

She'd never say it, but Jinx appreciates the clothes a lot. Being scary is easier being covered in blood and it's not like this is the first outfit she's torn to shreds fighting before— losing is a destructive habit. Something about it, when Kid Idiot looks at her all wide eyed and happy, makes her skin crawl when she's this filthy. Not that she wants to feel pretty around the loser, but no girl likes feeling disgusting and she was the worst off of all of them, given the explosive nature of her fighting. She smelled like burnt gunpowder, metallic and a little sharp.

The bathroom was just as dark and covered in candles as the rest of the room, but Jinx was happy to find it was immaculately clean and a shelf full of clean towels was on the back wall. Already half out of her clothes, she paused for a moment. Be considerate. Tossing her dress into the bin, she opened the door and poked her head out. Raven is sitting on the edge of her bed, looking at a picture of what looks like her, cyborg, and the blurry shape of Beast Boy on the edge of the photo.

"Mind if I shower?"

Raven doesn't look up, but nods.

"You know, staring at a picture of the green menace isn't going to make him bother you any less"

"I'm not looking at him." Raven grinds out.

Rolling her eyes at the empath's classic cold demeanour, Jinx turns to head for her much-deserved shower when a soft voice stops her.

"And I don't hate him."

Jinx really does grin at his. "Honestly, no one believed you anyway." She replies, then shuts the door.

Fiddling with the taps and ripping off her old stockings takes no time at all, and the water against her skin is divine.

Honestly, she feels like a new woman when she walks out of the bathroom. Her hair is hopelessly wavy and tangled but her skin is scrubbed clean and she surprisingly the light dusky floral scent of Raven's lotion wasn't terrible. She smells like the candles (which seriously are everywhere) and most importantly she doesn't smell faintly burnt the way battles tend to do. Or sweaty. She hates sweat.

But there is one thing that bothers her quite a bit…

"Raven, why is this dress so short?"

The empathy, sans cloak for perhaps the first time ever, cracks the tiniest smile. "We're having a party"

"What?!"

Raven looks like she's about to actually smile. It's a startling thing to see. "Cyborg's idea, apparently since some of us are no longer 'teen' titans" Jinx rolls her eyes at this, remembering the argument that Raven and Cyborg had in the middle of an actual battle a few months ago. "So we're having a party. To celebrate. Because this is worth celebrating."

"Don't sell it too hard Raven." She quips back.

There's a truly massive mirror facing Raven's four-poster bed and Jinx pulls at her tiny dress. It wiggles its way down her thighs and then, miraculously, finds itself back up just below the small curve of her ass. "Raven, really?"

She gets a shrug in thanks.

Jinx sighs. "When does this stupid thing start anyways? Also, I can't believe you kidnapped me to make me got to a stupid party. Aren't you supposed to be totally against that?"

"I have my reasons."

Jinx's eye twitches, and across the room something cracks.

"They're good reasons." Raven deadpans. "Brush your hair." The brush smacks into the side of her head and she snatches it out of the air with a huff. Admittedly, it, and the bottle of leave in conditioner that also smacks her lightly in the head, do wonders. It's not her usual horns but it'll do.

"I can't believe you all are having a party, underage drinking and all that shit."

Raven looks almost wistful. "The last time I put Gar through four floors of the tower."

She can't help her eyes widening and the shudder of fear. "Jesus Raven."

"He deserved it." Jinx doesn't doubt that. "Let's go."

Jinx protests, the empath pushing her out of the room while she talks. "Hey, can I at least get my shoes?"

She does not, it turns out, need to get her shoes. The party has really come up in volume in the twenty-odd minutes she'd taken to clean up. In the time it took anyone to notice that she was gone she'd have her shoes and be out the door.

Titans are everywhere, dancing and laughing amongst the pounding music echoing from a truly excellent speaker system.
She's checking them out, imaging the nice check she could get for pawning them, when Cyborg approaches.

"Man, not the speakers."

She crackles, turning to the familiar metalloid face. "Nah, not worth Robin yelling at me."

Cyborg mirrors her smile. "Yeah he didn't like them at first. Think they've grown on him."

"Really? Boy blunder having fun? I'll have to see it to believe it."

Cyborg's face lights up, and he gleefully points out Robin, red in the face beside Starfire, caught between laughing at him and calming the argument. She doesn't blame the princess for her laughter or her desire to stay back; Robin is facing off against his two favourite arguing partners in the whole world.

Speedy is smirking and waving a hand as if to brush away any worries the leader might have—a bold tactic she herself uses regularly to piss him off to the point of a meltdown in meetings and on the battlefield—and sipping on a drink without a care in the world. Beast boy is there too, because of course he is, looking close to tears and well on his way to drunkenness.

She leans into her companion "Ten bucks says Raven puts the microwave through the wall trying to hit him."

Cyborg groans. "I'm not taking that, you know she's gonna try something." Jinx snickers.

The third member of the party is the one she averts her eyes from. Unmasked and red in the face, blush spreading to the tips of his freckled ears, he's an all too familiar sight. Maybe it's the drink settling into her system, but his eyes are so blue tonight.

And those blue eyes are looking dead at her.

Before she can look away, Beast boy's patented horrible timing echoes in a shout above the din of the party. "Dude, she totally loves you too! She came back for you!"

Loves her too?

Wally ducks behind Robin, but unfaltering in his uptight-ness, Robin pushes him back out and storms around to face her. Her eyes go wide and she stares right at the space where he used to be.

Thankfully, boy wonder doesn't give her a moment to indulge in her crisis. "Here comes trouble." She mutters. Loves her too? Her mind helpfully echoes.
"I'll make you a drink." Cyborg mutters and disappears behind her. Some support he is.

Robin is barrelling towards her, full steam ahead.

"To what do I owe the pleasure." She deadpans, hoping Cyborg returns with that drink quickly.

"You disappeared." His frown is startlingly clear, even through the mask that he never takes off. She figures it'd get in the way of his eyebrow usage, but she isn't afraid to admit it's impressive. "Where were you."

"Showering."

"You were gone for a long time. What were you up to?" Clearly, somebody was not keen on the idea of having a drink and relaxing.

"I stole the nuclear codes."

The drink makes an appearance in her hand right as Robin begins to sputter, and she smiles at Cy in thanks. She shoots it back in one gulp.

"Well, Stone, since I've done my crimes for the evening, care to dance?"

He has a smile on his face and an arm around her waist in the time it takes for Robin to take a deep breath and get his indignant "Hey!" out.

Cy is, as ever, a good dancer. It must be programmed into him, the 6th sense for a rhythm and just the right time to spin her around. Light on her feet she gives him a good run for his money, darting around him to the tune of some generic pop song. She can feel a pair of eyes on her, and twists her hips in Cyborg's hands just on the wrong side of friendly.

It does make her laugh.

"I knew I liked you. I got a good sense for that."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." She steps back and he pulls her close again.

"I mean it."

Jinx wrinkles her nose. "If this is a love confession…" Her fingers light up pink in warning, and the metal man takes a step back with a smile.

"Nah, I wouldn't mess with you." She smiles. A good response. She likes him too. "I just meant I'm glad you're here and all. Good to see you around more."

Jinx shrugs, rolling her body along his front. "Free booze?"

"Not a certain speedster?"

She totally loves you too.

She steps back, stumbling from the rhythm for a moment. She recovers quick enough and drops to dodge his arm with a clever bend and twist. Backs to each other, she replies. "He's a nuisance."

"You like him."

"I'll short circuit you!" The threat doesn't land.

"Take it easy sparkles." She rolls her eyes at the nickname. "I won't tell anybody, you know me. He's not so bad."

She already knows this. She knows it like she knows to keep her weight on the ball of her foot, knows the clicks of a successful safe cracking. Like she knows how her heartbeat doubles in tempo when she looked at him across the stupid party. How her unfaithful heart jumped when Beast boy shouted at her moments ago.

She totally loves you too!

Does she?

Cyborg pulls her hand, tugging her into his arms. She stares up at him, completely lost.

"He's staring."

It shakes her from her reverie. "So is everyone."

It hadn't escaped her, the feeling of so many eyes on her. They make quite the sight.

Cyborg, for all his valour and kindness, fit in well enough back at the old HIVE academy. When they'd dated (for all of a week, but it riled up everybody on the Titan's team every time it was mentioned) they looked good together. He cut an imposing figure with his broad shoulders and red eye, and she, well she moved like she meant trouble. On the dancefloor they were a sight to see, and she'd happily walked into a few seedier undercover missions with him in nightclubs and stepped out onto their fair share of shadier dance floors with him at her side.

"Yeah, but you don't care about everyone staring. You care about him looking at you."

Jinx just sighed, coming to a stop in the middle of her dance.

"C'mon Stone, do I really have to do this?"

A slight whistle of air behind her ear was the only heads up that trouble was incoming.

"Do what!?" Was the indignant shout from just behind her. Jinx slapped her palm into her face as he pressed a protective hand on her shoulder. "What are you making her do, huh, Cyborg?"

"It's none of your business." She sniped at him. "Fuck off Kid."

"But Jinxy!" He whined. "I want to protect you!"

She spun to face him, staring up at his ginger eyebrows. It wouldn't take more than a twitch of her hands to fry them right off his stupid face. "Protect me?"

He had the decency to look sheepish. "Uh, sorry?"

She loves you too.

"You're gonna be!" The pink sparks in the air were clearing the dance floor of fellow dancers, and she could feel her hair frizzing up around her shoulders. "I swear to god Kid!"

If this was what got her kicked out of the titans, so be it. Wally was inching his way into the number one most hated spot in her books day by day, and she would gladly, with gusto, splatter him on the wall. It didn't matter how many roses she received or how often he dropped off takeout after a particularly shitty battle, or how much she wondered if his hair was as soft and fluffy as it looked. He was toast.

"Don't kill him! You're in love!"

"Shut up Beast boy—" "Shut up Gar—" Wally and her shouted at the same time.

It was a bit hard to keep up any attitude when Beast boy genuinely looked like he was going to cry at the sight of them fighting. Christ, who kept letting that guy drink?

"Whatever." She huffed, stomping away.

She had less than a second before Kid was trotting after her like a dutiful dog.

"Would you quit following me?" She snaped.

Of course, this in no way deterred him. "Can I make you a drink?" He darted in front of her, rubbing the back of his neck and blushing furiously. "I'm really sorry for getting in the middle of you and Cyborg, I didn't realize you guys had a thing going on and I thought… well…"

"I'm not dating Cyborg." They had arrived in the kitchen. Jinx hoped up on the counter while Wally dutifully fetched two glasses from the cabinet.

"Really? You guys looked close out there."

She smirked. "What's it to you?"

His face turned a red to match his mask. "Look, if I'm really really really honest with you and you do hate me after can we pretend that this never happened because we were both drunk?"

"But I'm not drunk?"

He's shoved a drink into her hands by the time the sentence has left her mouth. She sips it, and it tastes like strawberries and a hint of vanilla.

"Well, let's get drunk then!"

She cocks an eyebrow at him. What the hell is wrong with him? He's leaning up against the counter she's perched on, staring off at the party like the wisdom of the world was contained within its drunken mass. She watches Beast boy for a moment, sitting on the edge of a sofa and looking intently at a particularly relaxed Raven sat next to him, their legs almost brushing. She doesn't care about him, though. She wants the man beside her, all ropey muscle and lanky limbs, ginger hair and bad jokes. In the light of the distant multicoloured party lights that are filtering into the kitchen, his jaw is sharp, and the faintest bit of pale stubble catches her eye. If she reached out and ran her hand down his face, would it scratch at her skin? If she kissed him, would it leave tell-tale red on her skin?

She loves you too.

"Okay." She hops off the counter, steading her nerves. Standing in front of him she can see just how tall he is. Not like Cyborg, broad and impenetrable like a steel safe, but lithe and muscled. "Spit it out. For the fastest man on earth you sure do take a while to get anything out."

"You said the fastest man."

If she rolls her eyes again, they're going to get stuck in the back of her head. "C'mon Wally."

He winces and leans back against the counter. He sips his drink, pauses and then starts. "You look really nice tonight."

Admittedly, the compliment takes her aback for a minute.

It's just the two of them in the kitchen. Nobody knows they're there, and she doubts anybody is looking for them.

She downs the rest of her drink. Bad luck meet liquid courage? Whatever.

Jinx takes a step towards him. "Thanks."

She loves you too.

"Is that all you wanted to say to me?" 'Speak now or forever hold your peace', she wants to say. She doesn't. If she says something too sharp he might run, and for the first time in a long time, she doesn't want him gone. Hell, did she ever want him gone? Drunk words are sober thoughts, but she's never been very good at saying what she means anyways, so maybe her drunk thoughts are just sober thoughts she's afraid of.

Wally gulps. Her eyes trace the bob of his adam's apple.

She doesn't have time for this. She doesn't have time to spend sitting around staring at him, waiting for him to move. She needs to move. Put one foot in front of the other and march herself back to her fake team and use her very real anger at a very real hero to pretend to hate them all.

And yet, she finds herself taking another step towards him. They're less than a foot apart now.

"You're not easy to talk to, you know?" He finally mutters, sounding defeated.

It stings.

"But I guess I never know until I try." He sucks in a deep, fortifying breath, and uncrosses his arms. The slump in his shoulders and the loss of his tense posture make it all the more apparent the fear and weakness within him in that moment.

Really, he's begging her to zap him.

"I like you."

What?

Wally clears his throat. "I mean, I like, really, really like you. As a friend! And I really like having you on the team. And sometimes you're, like, the only thing that makes me want to get up everyday and go to the stupid meetings because I know you'll be there to make fun of me and I'll tease you for your crazy pink hair and then we'll bicker and then I'll go break you out of jail even though Robin says I need to stop doing that because its going to blow your cover and then we go eat 3am pizza on the roof and it's the best part of my week and probably my whole life. And actually, I think I'm probably maybe totally in love with you and I literally realized when you were sitting on the couch like an hour ago laughing at me because I'm an idiot and I fell over my own feet and I realized that I want you to laugh at me for the rest of my life and spend all of your time just sitting around the tower with me being happy and just knowing you're happy makes me happy, and I guess I just had like a breakthrough that I'm in love with you?"

Her mouth fell open about halfway through his speech.

I'm in love with you.

It echoes around her head.

The party booms on behind her, the lights flash on Wally's face.

"Jinx?" He asks, but she's already surging forward to smash her lips against his.

It feels… well it feels pretty damn good, if she's being honest. He's quick to react, curling his hands around her waist and leaning in where she's cradling his face in her hands.

"I love you too, idiot" She manages when they pause for breath.

He grins, that big, wide smile that only he give her, and it's all she can do to pull him back in again.

She can't say that she regrets a damn thing when her hands drop to claw at his shoulders and one of her legs lifts to press along his thigh. Wally, brilliant, fast, perfect Wally, grabs her leg and pull her even closer, opening his mouth and turning their kiss into something truly filthy. She gasps, and he takes the opportunity to nip gently at her lower lip.

"So that's how you want to play?" She whispers.

His eyes sparkle, face flushed and joyful. Quicker than she can blink he has her spun around and pinned against the countertop, on hand sliding wickedly close to the curve of her ass and the other insistently pulling her to his chest, playing with the strings at the back of her borrowed dress.

"I don't want to play." His voice is lower than she's ever heard, and it sends a shiver down her spine that makes her toes curl and her knees a little wobbly. "Do you have any idea how long I've wanted you?"

Jinx gasps. It's all she can do to pull him in for another burning kiss.

"I love you." He mumbles, lips chasing the curve of her jawline. "I love you; I love you; I love you." He whispers it like a prayer to the sharp line of her collar bone, presses the words into her skin like a tattoo.

Her heart is in her throat and it's so unbearably hot, and his hand is definitely curled around the back of her thigh, brushing the bottom curve of her butt and making her shift just a little uncomfortably, wanting more and not sure how to ask for it with words or with actions.

Finally, his lips return to her own and she just lets herself drown in the sensation.

Naturally, nothing good lasts in this godforsaken hero-filled hellhole.

"Oh my god!?" Exclaims the jubilant voice of everyone's favourite alien princess, startling them both from their private world and back into the unfortunate reality of having just been damn close to passing second pass in the very public kitchen of titan's tower.

"Wally," Jinx hisses. "get your hand out of my pants!"

The hand withdraws, but his hold on her doesn't relent.

"Hi star." He says, only the tiniest hint of shame sneaking into his voice. "Sorry for taking up the kitchen?"

"It is okay, friends, I am the understanding that you wish to be alone. Can I direct you to the rooms of the guests?" Jinx has never liked Starfire, but she damn well might kiss her in this moment.

Wally turns to look at her, question clearly posed on his face.

She sighs. "Wally, if you stop touching me, I will literally kill everyone in this tower. Including you."

He nods. "Got it. Noted. Glad to hear. Hey Star, where are those rooms?"

Star beams at the two of them. "They are down the hall to the left, friends!"

There might be something else Starfire is trying to say to them, but considering Wally had scooped her up and tossed her on a clean white bed before Jinx could blink, it hopefully wasn't important. She bounces once from the force of the drop and then props herself up on her elbows, taking a moment just to gaze at the man in front of her.

Even though he's taller, and filled out, and there's the beginnings of worry lines despite his young age, the look in Kid Flash's eyes is the same as it was almost a decade ago, staring at her eye to eye in a museum with her hands full of jewels and his with a rose. It's the same it has been for years; the warmth of what she now knows to be love beaming back at her just the way it has every day since they were fifteen and fighting on opposite sides of a battlefield.

"I can't believe you didn't know you were in love with me."

"Hey!" Wally protests, flopping on to the bed next to her. "It was a really big deal for me!"

She snickers, sliding herself along the crisp cotton sheets until they're pressed chest to chest. "I'm sure it was, kid idiot."

"That's a low blow." He pretends to pout. "Besides, I'm not even kid flash anymore! I'm just flash!"

She laughs.

"I love you." He says again.

There might be tears in her eyes when she looks at him, laying with his hair all flopping in his face and around the pillows, grinning at her with dimples and teeth.

"I love you too."

It's dark in the room, but not so dark that she can't see him blink furiously for a few seconds. It's okay; she's sure those are tears in her eyes too.

"Quit being dramatic and get over here."

With a grin and an easy roll of his body atop hers, Wally replies "Anything for you, Jinxy"

The next morning, sleep mushed and with Wally shirtless and Jinx proudly sporting his god-awful kid flash merch tee shirt, they'd expected to make more of a splash.

The kitchen and living area is decently clean, all things considered, and Jinx is impressed to see that all of the dishes have been stacked beside the sink while the dishwasher hums away. The late morning sun is streaming through the windows and sat around the breakfast table are the scattered members of the original 5 and a few leftover party guests.

Wally stands there, clenching her hand, for a moment before he shouts, "Doesn't anyone care we're in love?"

She zaps him, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

Cyborg blearily lifts his head from the table, and only then can she see the rings of dark exhaustion around his eyes.

"Jesus, what killed you?" She demands.

Cyborg drops his head to the table and groans.

"I don't even have the energy to be mad at this." Robin says, flapping a hand half-heartedly at the two of them. "So tired."

"Did we keep you up? Sorry, got a little bit carried away for a while there…" Wally apologises, forcing the both of them to turn a bright red. Nice, 12 hours as a couple and the whole team knows all about their sex life. All of it. Literally their entire sexual experience together. Perfect.

"Not you." Robin groans. "Raven."

They both wince.

"Cyborg owes me if she threw the microwave again." Jinx adds.

"No, they did not to the fighting with the powers." Starfire pipes up, even her cheery demeanour flattened. "They did the fighting of the bodies. All night long."

WHAT?

"They did what?" She and Wally demand.

Cyborg sighs, long-weary expression on his face. "Turns out those two have been sneaking around for a year and didn't bother to tell anyone." Jinx feels a slow smile creeping up on her face, whilst Wally's mouth is open so wide it might hit the floor. "Snuck off last night after Star caught you too. Nobody noticed until we started hearing…" He shudders deeply. "Noises. From her room."

Jinx can't tell it, she bursts into laughter, shaking and doubling over with the force of the smile on her face.

"Damn, she really pulled one over on me." She mutter when her laughter subsides. "She had me dress up in that stupid tiny dress, knowing it would force the speeding wonder" she waves her hand at Wally, who gapes at her. "to finally make a move."

Nobody seems to get it, staring at her blankly. She turns to Wally. "We were a distraction."

"I confessed my love to you because Raven needed a distraction to get freaky with Beast Boy?" She really should take a picture of his face. It seemed like something she'd want to keep for posterity.

"Really, we all should have seen this coming". Is all she says, tucking herself into Wally's side and looking at her teammates around the table. "Wasn't it obvious?"