Teen Titans – Side Stories and After – Snippets; Foxes Upon Foxes and Magical Girls Galore
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A First Snow – Sealed With a Kiss – Part One: Winter Wonderland Much!
I know! Sounds so romantic, but you'd be shocked to know this chapter falls into being of drama/comedy territory! Tis the season!
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Sitting by the window in December, Jacklyn Stone was just minding her own business, readying for the next exam she'd have to take in a few weeks. Come spring, she'd be going to try to get into a school in another country to further her understanding of all thing space and outer….She wanted to be an astronaut for a long time. In fact, her girlfriend…well, they were only going steady since the end of that fight on earth a few weeks ago – that would be…
Jackie stopped typing. Her screen, her mind drew a full blank. She screamed and threw her head back.
"Dang it!! –
"Jax??" Her dad was home today as he swung open the door to find his little chip off the old block digging into her coding and exam prep booklets. Strewn about the room, she had plans once high school came up, but Jackie was only fifteen going on sixteen. She needed to get out of her room, or his head would go and blast off.
"I think that this idea of goin' for Nasa's exam is gonna make you scream like that." He chuckled and stood in her doorway, trying to humor this "child of his own flesh and blood."
"I do have a life, pops." She groaned and pushed back a stray brown ringlet from her scalp, toying with it between her fingers as images of her GF didn't die with those words. She knew he knew it; they all had heard Amelia Grayson's confession at Titans tower. As if she could forget those coos….
"Is it just me, or are you not even gonna help your old man decorate for the holidays?"
He smiled at her and sighing, Jackie got up from her computer chair and left the paper strewn den of her making to have a bit of down time in the living room for once.
Jackie's older brother Julian was looking over some job offers in the kitchen on his laptop. Since he'd just finished college, his next step was to travel a bit and find more to keep his mind busy….
Their dad was a senior hero of heroes; a Titan known as Cyborg, while her mom was a Titan for the East coast location once known as Bumble Bee around the same time. It was how they'd come to be, and how Jackie had been given the brains of a super computer and a scientist all rolled into one package. Julian was more composed like a hipster, one with the universe. He usually took his work on the road, so she was surprised to see him so used to being back in that one week before the holiday buzz broke the silence.
"We've got a bunch of new decorations; Gar and I went out to see Dick and Aunt Kori, so we stopped in the old store the Titans knew had the best swag." Cy pulled out of the closet a rather large set of boxes and bins with both past and present décor pieces all stacked in with care. Jacklyn shrugged and set over to a spot by the floor where the tree had gone last year. No mark remained and the hardwood floor wasn't exactly going to seem like it held a memory of her childhood antics. Besides the scuff marks from the skateboard fiasco. Or the glue and glitter that took weeks to remove by hand – since that epoxy had been from her daddy's tool box.
Jackie pointed at the spot to ask her dad if this year, they might give the tree a proper home.
"Why not by the window?" She asked her dad, who seemed to contemplate the idea of the wires being a fire hazard by the outlet's main center.
"What if we do solar this year? I mean, we can power a country with how much sunshine Cali gets year-round."
Mr. Stone nodded. "Thing is, will it power all night? You may be onto something." He looked into one of the boxes and found a timer that could sync to any device via the outlet. "I can take some of this back. Why don't you take a ride with me; Jules? You wanna come too?" Mr. Stone turned his head, not to leave out his eldest who waved but shook his dreadlocks out of his eyes with a crinkle and a gentle smile. "Naw, pops. You and the munchkin can have your day off. I maybe will see y'all for supper if you get back before mama does. Let me know if I should order in or cook up something."
Mr. Stone nodded appreciatively. "You got it. We'll see you in a few hours. An' I'll let your mama know we won't be as far away as Gotham City."
Jackie rolled her eyes. However, she didn't know they'd be going a different way to San Fran in a shorter period of time. After all, she was born to a family of super geniuses and super heroes.
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Jackie left with her poofy hair tied back to avoid looking like she'd rolled out of bed. She had a light jacket and a pair of black jeggings with her favorite tee on. She wore a classic pair of converse sneakers since they could get her places. Nothing fancy, they would even get to see ….
Her heart hammered. Titans…Ami, maybe?
"Something wrong, Jackie?" Cy in his lighter casual wear only tried his best t give the kid some space, but she was in a deep space. A place he was still out of reach of.
"We can meet up with Gar, I took the quickest route so he's gonna join up with one of the others. Didn't say who. Dick and Kori are at work so we won't see much –
"It's not because of that." Jackie sighed and leaned into her palm as the bridge came into view. The bay. Jump City.
"How big or crazy good is this party store you guys were so obsessed over?" She asked his with a skeptical gaze from the backseat.
"Well, I think it'd be around as big as half the Jump City mall. Like an emporium but it is a bit more….messy?" He stopped the car as they came to a stop sign. Jackie looked out her window at the massive building by the bay. Getting around the Tower was a bummer. Ever since she'd known what her parents were capable of being…. They had kept driving. Cy licked his lips and explained that he'd meet Gar closer to their destination. Something had changed with their plans, but Jackie was still going to be in the exact same place no matter what.
"We gotta park and walk a bit. Sorry. You don't mind?"
"Ah, why didn't we just meet him there in the lot?" She wondered. Wondering if this was some kind of trick, Jackie tried to be compliant even when she felt confused by this timing…. just as her Uncle Garfield tended to be good to her family, he was also a jokester at other times. Much better with age.
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He wore his custom "Cali wear" ensemble of a real beach bum the last time, but this time he was in a red track suit. Vic Stone and his kid gave the green skinned meta male a look, until Cy pointed at the green troll's now bleach white beard.
"You got sick of that thing? When did that happen??" Gawked the surprised pops and his eye rolling middle school daughter.
"I uh, had to make room…. we should get going! I'll tell you I promise when we get there!" Gar begged.
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"A Santa gig." As it looked to him, the suit was in Gar's gym bag. Hidden beneath a wad of protein bar wrappers and clean towels.
"At the emporium, yeah. Why, and when did you dye your lil' buddy??" Cy couldn't get the image out of his head. "You look like Deathstroke, man...uh, minus the missing' eye."
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In the Rockies just farther north of their Cali, Slade Wilson sat in his seat by the fire and his nose twitched. With a yelp, the man let out a harsh sneeze. From the kitchen, William Wintergreen shielded himself with a serving tray. "Dear god, Slade! Warn a person when you are about to become a waking nightmare to avoid…Are you alight?"
Slade sniffed and pulled a tissue from its box by the side table. With a grumble, that also struck him like an explosion. Far too deliberate. But... Nothing…
"Must be some stray dust….no wait –
And the shit hit that fan, hard. Will was up in arms and so was that metal tray.
"I dust daily, never in my life would that be from MY job! You must have a gossiper on the loose. A sneeze that wild is only justified, or it could be a dried crust of, blood?"
"A what?" Slade blinked up at his old friend. "Since when are baseless superstitions reason to panic?"
" I'm not panicking." Will smiled and walked off with his tray to do some more tidying in his spare time, while Slade "Wikied" the hell out of such a cause for his little sniffle attack. " Talking about someone? Are you serious! Will!" Slade bounded after his friend, demanding an explanation for not knowing that much about Japanese customs and old wife's tales. That, or he was getting a cold…
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Back in Jump City.
"I'm with Reyas on this and…. they want to close the emporium down before Christmas!" Gar let his puppy tears go wild. "I decided to plan this with Beetle and M'gann and Conner ta' help out. Make a few people happy, and the rest goes to charity! I swear."
"So. You got into Santa mode to….keep a… mall from closing it's doors…" Jackie bit her lip. "That never works ya' know."
"But even if we mess up, I want the kids to see Santa one more time…" Gar smiled as he usually did a lot more than this... As it stood, the place wasn't as busy as the last month when he and Cy had done their worst on their annual Christmas budget. Titans Tower had to install a special timer for the lights after the last outage had left the pier hopelessly in the dark. A holiday horror had once ensued to get them fined. The Titans had almost become the unholiest "Grinches" in one night…
"Thing is, this place isn't a mall, Jax." Explained Cy as they got out of the car and found the path to the plaza.
"It was a village square if you knew what was up with my team's home back in the day."
Jackie walked after her pops, not realizing how long ago this place had been with a better reputation. She stood against the path and as soon as the doorways opened, she gasped. "Whoa."
Jackie was in Toyland. Period. She'd stumbled into another dimension. The fake snow and decorations, big blocks that spelled out each local mid – point's location in the shape of an arch…had she been here before?
"We aren't in Jump, what is this place?" Jackie looked up at her father. Without words to describe her disbelief, she was now at his mercy.
"Where we wanna be." Gar got his bags out and readied to find his working location. A great big seat for the big man sat right in the front of the cobble square. Jackie watched as the jogger suit was removed out of view to have the toned green male in his hat and suit – sweat proofed thanks to a few modifications.
As he got up closer to the elaborately decorated seat; pictures of his only memories of this place made Gar's cheeky grin pop up. He was certainly getting into character.
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The line wasn't a bad one. Long enough to be enough, the Titan had the knack for keeping even his "dude vocab" to an "all time low" (joke there.) Cy stood and was impressed. Gar waved them to go on, that he'd catch up to his family on his break later. "Is it only part time?" Jackie asked her dad as his eyes located an inventory sign. "Yeah. Bein' a Titan advisor means he has to be needed back in the city. Even if nobody else can be a green Santa." Chuckled her dad, calmly leading them then to the store from his days as a full-time hero.
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"Um…Hey?" Jacklyn called to her father from behind the racks hanging tall with biodegradable tinsel. The future, was a really interesting time right now
"What's up?" He was so very much like her friend at the mall that the reply threw Jackie for a loop. She ignored the after thought. "When you said that Uncle Gar was…. I thought he was bringing someone else to come with us?"
"They had to cancel." Cy frowned and looked over some special items in their cases up a few feet from him. "Gar told me earlier that they might, so I wouldn't worry. We may even see some more of the team walking around shopping. Dry work day, wait until the fifteenth of December."
"When it becomes a warzone all over again?" Jackie snorted and pushed her way past an item that triggered an interest. "Hey, dad?" Jackie remembered her promise…. She felt like…. maybe it was time to –
"Jack???"
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The fro of hers bobbed to the right. Eyes grew as the figure with a longer set of tails just ran into her; knee highs and a big blush as if she were going to cry.
"Jackie!!"
The face smiled up at her girlfriend's shock. Jackie was frozen in place as the bone crunching hug….was Ami a super – woman??
"Sorry…. still learning control…" The skirt wearing fifteen-year-old stepped back and then dusted off Jax's jacket nervously. "Surprised to see you in these parts! I thought you had prep work to do for school?"
"Ami…yeah. I'm super busy…" Jax was having a hard time expressing herself as Ami's sun – shiny energy dwarfed her own.
"Ah! Uncle Vic!" Ami grinned and waved to Mr. Stone through the stray displays of inflatable snow persons.
"What you doin here, Amelia? Did you take a trip out to see someone with your family too? How did you get here?"
Ah, that? Annie dropped me off?" She almost sounded just as confused by the timing. "Oh, yeah…I went to see Aunt Rachel for lessons but we had a little bird tell us that you'd be in town –
"Impulse…" Sighed Victor. "We can't keep anything from that kid, can we?"
"Nope, so here we all are! And if you don't mind Mr. Stone?" Ami dipped her hands to grip at her girlfriend's two sweating ones. "Oh! If you wanna go too, Jacklyn? I saw a smoothie place with plenty of coffee options. I'm super hangry from the trip." She turned to her. Jackie was…conflicted, but a part of herself didn't want to be standoffish. They'd come all this way after all.
"Sure. Let's go, mama."
She tugged Ami along to find a new place to chat. She wanted to know if it was true. Did Ami have something to tell her or not?
Cy waved back; glad his kid wasn't just brooding in a corner. "Have fun you two! Call me if you get lost!"
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They waltzed among the sugar – plum designs that were nearest to the elevator. To their surprise (not really,) the space was empty enough to have some private time between these newly made nervous lovers.
Well, friends to GFs was what Ami wouldn't admit openly without putting a spin on things.
She sat down with Jax by the first benches outside that hole in the wall smoothie shop. Jax wondered how Ami looked like an exact copy cat prep school kid from Tokyo. "You havin' fun busting demons in Tokyo?" Jackie swirled her cup and waited to take a sip.
"Ah, about that…" Ami seethed and looked the other way; kids were playing by the snowy display in the square as the two sat off to the side, hoping to not be so distant.
"What about your classes?" Ami asked her Bff and GF. "You were studying really hard then, we never got to talk again…I was worried, since last time I saw you… Aiden had saved us from –
"Ah, sure. I wasn't aware a' that but…. you know…yeah…" As a habit, Jackie chased a ringlet from her scalp and tugged at it, trying to make sure her real feelings weren't so rushed. Ami was flush red from showing off that she could open up, but she probably still wasn't great on keeping promises. She was a free spirit and an important figure since the guardian's last battle on earth had come to an end.
"We…have not hung out since then, Jackie…And I really wanted to see you –
"Ami…" Jax pushed away, finding that trying to do the right thing for her emotionally sweet… girlfriend was…
She bit her lip and couldn't stop choking back those three words. "I….am gonna get us something to eat. Be right back!"
Jacklyn mentally slapped herself for running the other way. Ami was just too clingy and they were going to be in high school next year! At fifteen, they'd gone through so much but the one thing Ami hadn't lost was her happy go lucky attitude. Even with mercs bent on destroying her family, monsters from the great beyond and spirits from the nether realms of mortal "imagination," Ami always had a smile on her face.
And Jackie…just wanted them both to accept that there was no never ever land. That one-day Ami would also be leaving her childhood behind to work a job from nine to five. A high paying one, hopefully. Not a covert op one or a diplomatic role like Ava or Ann. Or even a babysitting job like Aiden…
No, Ami would move as she liked, or as she had to and Jackie would pursue her dream of working for N.A.S.A. Her dad thought it was a long shot, but Jax had that one wish…
She peeked over to see Ami waiting, wistfully sighing as her eyes spotted the nearest time.
Time…
And like that, Jackie remembered something from a few years ago. They'd been invited to spend time during the holidays with a family friend of the Stone's. Her mama had Ami join in, so away they went and to a snowy county that Ami fought not to hide her smile by. Piles of white mounds, all for sledding and…
Jax had an idea. Ami wanted snow; she'd even said it back then!
~ Ami made me promise that when we were older, we'd go to the tallest mountain and shout off of it together…~
This wasn't what Ami meant, she wanted snow! She wanted it to snow…in California??
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Is our little science whiz up to something big?? Remember! Jackie, mom – talks down to Ami all out of her own insecurities, and how she feels about advancing their relationship is not clear here . Ami is open and definitely ok with coming out of the closet, but what about Jacklyn? We are about to find out. How will she propose that they become closer? And will California really get a freak snowfall??? Think Luz and Amity from Owl House sort of blushing, not the heavy stuff at fifteen. Find out!
