Cat like theif

chapter twelve

Kid Flash noticed that something was up with Jinx the moment they got home, she cleaned and bandaged the giant graze on her face calmly without a bad word at Robin, she sat and acted normal at dinnertime, laughing with Starfire and teasing Beast Boy with Raven who she seemed to have developed a bond with, but he knew something was up. There wasn't the usual sparkle in her eye and when the others were distracted with talking to each other the mask slipped a little. He watched her carefully, not that he ever stopped watching her really but this time it was with a worried intensity. He watched her as he leant against the table in silence as she piled plates on top of the ones Raven was levitating into the sink. He followed her quietly when she excused herself and walked down the hallway to her room, when he judged that they were out of the way of where the others could accidentally walk in on them he grabbed her wrist, not, in retrospect, one of his brighter moves.

"Jesus!" Jinx shouted holding a hand to her beating heart as she looked down at the stunned and hexed Kid Flash on the floor.

"Ow." He groaned leaning up on his elbows and trying to blink his vision back to normal and tried to ignore the parts of his clothing that was, yet again, smoking.

"Sorry, just… don't sneak up on me like that!" Jinx gasped waiting for her heart to slow down.

"Are you kidding me? Even with super speed I've never managed to sneak up on you before, not like that. Tell me what's up!" Kid Flash demanded as he got shakily to his feet.

"What up is you scaring the living daylights out of me!" Jinx snapped having regained enough of her composure to shout at him.

"No, that's not it, something else was up at dinner-" Kid Flash paused, what could he say? 'you were acting too normal'? That wouldn't go down well, he knew that much. "look, I know you well enough to know when something's up, so please, tell me?" he sighed.

"How the hell can you say you know me?! You don't know anything about me!" Jinx snapped angrily, Kid Flash barely raised an eyebrow at this.

"Now you're just being defensive, come on, just let me help." He said gently brushing her arm, Jinx glowered at this, it was pretty much her default defensive expression after all and it had previously kept everyone else at what she deemed a safe distance away from her, that was of course until Kid Flash came along.

"And what if I don't want your help?" Jinx sniped, hoping to hit a nerve, Kid Flash merely let it wash over him. Jinx could be abusive like this when something was up but he knew she didn't mean it, it was just meant to keep him away when she was scared of being vulnerable, just like Robin's mask or Raven's hood, everyone had their way and this was hers.

"So you admit there IS something up." He pointed out calmly, Jinx turned on her heel and made to storm off at this, but she only got a few steps before she stopped. He moved closer but stayed silent and simply watched Jinx's shoulder muscles tense.

"It's what Kitten said." Jinx muttered in barely more than a whisper.

"What? Calling you Jinxie?" He joked, a angry flash of Jinx's eyes warned him that his humour was NOT appreciated in this matter.

"Ah, sorry." He said quickly, Jinx turned her head away from him and glowered along the corridor.

"That… that I was doing all this for you. Becoming a Titan, leaving the HIVE five, all of it, just for you." Jinx said tensely, Kid Flash thought carefully about how his was going to word his reply.

"But I know that's not why you did it, you're a hard enough person to convince when you even agreed a little bit with what I was saying in the first place, I'd never be able to convince you to do all of this just for me; however gorgeous I may be." He added with a slight smile, the corner of Jinx's mouth twitched upwards at this.