Blush

I stood at the doorway of his house, biting my lip as I knocked.

You'd think it would be hard to find someone who moves so fast, but he had an ad in the paper- Kid Flash's Cleaning Service. Do-gooding must not pay well. Like that's a surprise.

He opened the door in normal clothes, his orange hair tousled and his blue eyes sleepy. They focused, however, as soon as he saw me. "Jinx?" he asked, somewhat incredulously.

I shrugged. "Who else?"

His usual grin settled onto his face and he leaned on the doorframe. "Never know. After all, it's happened before."

I rolled my eyes. "Would you like me to prove it?" I asked, my eyes glowing pink.

He held up his hands. "No, no, I'd really rather not." He looked me up and down, and frowned slightly. "You must be freezing." I nodded. He took my hand and pulled me inside, shutting the door behind me.

His house was small and cramped, but nevertheless cozy.

"This isn't really my house," he said as I pulled out of his grip and looked around. "It's the actual Flash's."

I raised an eyebrow at him, pausing in my inspection.

"Do you think I would go around as Kid Flash if Flash wasn't already patented?" he replied.

"Oh, good. I was hoping you'd have better taste."

He laughed. "What about you? Did you actually get to pick your codename, or was it foisted upon you like so many bad eggs?"

I blinked a moment at the analogy, then shrugged again. "It's not my codename, it's my name," I answered. "I don't remember my real name. I got sent to a temple at home when I was little."

"Boy, I like this city," he said, shaking his head. "All you weird people make me feel positively normal." He sat down on the couch and glanced at me, as though expecting me to do the same.

I wasn't that comfortable with the idea of him, though, so I just leaned against the wall. I may've sought the guy out, but I wasn't bold enough to sit that close to him yet. "You are positively normal," I answered.

"You haven't seen my passion for marshmallows and hot dogs yet."

I glanced at him, but he just smiled at me.

After a minute, he cocked his head. "Are you hungry?"

I blinked. This was one of the things I didn't get about the guy. I show up at his house, and he doesn't ask what I'm doing there, he asks if I'm cold, and when I say I am, takes me inside. And then he asks if I'm hungry. "...Yeah," I said after a moment. I hadn't realized it, but I hadn't eaten since yesterday, when I had ditched the H.I.V.E. Five HQ.

"Great!" he said. "Come on, coffee shops await us." He started for the door.

"Not much of a cook, huh," I said, following him.

"No, not really," he replied.

"I figured with all you eat..."

He rolled his eyes at me. "Always being hungry doesn't make me a good cook. I live off those little soup cup things."

I snorted, rolling my eyes.

He took me to a little coffee shop place. "I love coming here," he said. "They have those little pastries with the cream in the center... don't give me that look! They're really good!"

"Is food all you think about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

To my surprise, he looked away quickly, and I could've sworn I caught a blush. He mumbled something and then went inside.

Rather amused, I went in after him. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that," I said, stepping beside him as he squinted up at the menu board.

He looked at me, the grin back on his face. "I'll tell you later, maybe."

"All right..." I joined him in inspecting the options. From what I saw, it was equally a coffee shop as a normal food place, and the selection made my stomach rumble.

"I'll pay," he said after a moment.

"Good," I replied. "I don't think paying my way with stolen money would be an ideal way to start this whole 'going straight' thing."

His grin widened. "So you finally took my advice, huh?"

"Why else do you think I showed up at your house?" I answered. "I've got nowhere else to go."

"Well, then, you can definitely stay with me," he said, nodding in agreement with himself. He smiled at me, a little shyly.

I think that might've qualified as a moment if the woman behind the counter hadn't cleared her throat just then. He ordered for me (why they couldn't just call things small, medium, and large was beyond me) and we sat down, him idly sucking the cream filling out of his pastry and me sipping a coffee.

"So you quit the H.I.V.E. Five?" he said. There was amusement in his voice as he said the ill-fitting name.

"Yeah," I replied. "They're actually five now. You should be proud."

He laughed. "I can see my new tagline now: stomping out the mathematical irregularities of the world!"

Now it was my turn to laugh, just a snicker over my coffee. Kid Flash, however, seemed to count this a personal victory. "You know," he said, fiddling with his pastry, "your smile is actually quite pretty when you're not taunting me."

Now it was my turn to duck my head and change the subject. "Where are you from? I've never seen you around here before."

"Me? I came in here as a favor for Robin, since the Titans are 'otherwise involved'."

"I should've guessed you were involved with them," I muttered.

"What?" he said. "This is their city. I'm from Star City."

"Fascinating."

He frowned and leaned over the table so he was closer to me. "Don't be like that. I'll never expect you to like my friends, but if you're serious about quitting the villainy biz, you're going to have to deal with the idea of running into them and having to be pleasant."

I just stared at him.

"Ok, maybe not pleasant, but at the very least you have to stop treating them like the devil."

I sunk down in my seat. "Ruin all my fun, don't you."

"I'm just saying," he replied, shrugging.

"I shall never like them," I stated.

He studied me for a second, and then quickly looked out the front way, as though something about me bothered him.

I bit my lip, wondering if I'd said something wrong. I had simply been stating what I thought. The Titans and I would never get along. There was too much bad blood. Even if I went all out with the turnaround bit and became a hero myself, I would always stay as far away from them as I could.

His fit of brooding apparently finished, he turned his attention to the coffee he'd ordered. "I really shouldn't have this," he murmured, looking at it like a smoker going cold turkey would a cigarette. "Caffeine is bad for me."

I glanced at him.

"With my metabolism, it makes me nuts," he explained.

A corner of my mouth went up as I imagined this. "So you're like a six-year-old on a sugar rush?"

This seemed to amuse him as much as it did me. He grinned. "Yep."

"Then I'll have it," I said. "Mine's gone, and anyway, you do enough damage when you're sober." I reached over and snatched it.

He pulled a face at me. "That's just not nice."

"You said you shouldn't have it."

"This is true. I don't think Flash senior would take to me trashing his house or something."

A slight smirk came onto my face as I took a drink of his coffee. I looked at him from under my lashes, licking foam off my upper lip.

"...That's just not nice," he mumbled, after about thirty seconds of staring at me.

"What?" I said. "Do I have some on my nose or something?"

He just kept on staring. "And you don't even realize you're doing it," he mumbled.

It was right about then that I realized that the whole smirk/lick thing was associated with flirting in most circles. I blushed. I hate it when I blush. Red really shows up against grey skin. I didn't do anything to realign his impression, though. Flirting with him wasn't a bad thing. He'd done it enough to me the day before. "So," I said, a little quicker than I would have normally, "what do you do all day when you're not in uniform?"

"Nothing," he replied. "Or as much nothing as possible. Believe it or not, I have a problem sitting still for very long."

I smiled. "Somehow, that doesn't surprise me."

"What about you?" he asked. "I don't know anything about you. What do you do when you're not stealing or," he smirked himself now, "drawing unicorns?"

I glared at him. "For that, I shouldn't even tell you."

"Aw, come on," he said. "Please?"

"Not much," I admitted, propping my chin on my fist. "It's pretty hard to get alone time when you live with idiots like I do- did. Mostly I just enjoy the peace of not having someone bugging me."

"Oh," he said, the smirk still in place. "I should've figured that out myself."

"I said you were slow," I replied.

He stuck his tongue out at me. Then he grabbed my hand, pulling me out of my seat. "Come on, let's go somewhere."

"Bored already?" I asked, amused.

"Guess." He walked outside and it wasn't until we were a block away from the coffee shop we realized we were still holding hands. We glanced at each other and both of us blushed, letting go and looking away. "It gets dark so early in December," he sighed after a moment.

"The sun's not done setting yet," I replied. Then I smiled. "I have an idea. Follow me."

I led him down the street, a few blocks over and through a few back alleys, to- "The mall?" he asked.

"Come on, we're not there yet," I replied. I led him into the mall and up the stairs to the second level.

"Still not getting it," he said.

I grinned at him. "We're still not there yet." I looked around, then went over to an emergency exit. Kid Flash frowned at me as I put a hand on the handle.

"That sets off an alarm, you know."

I just stared at him. My eyes and the alarm glowed pink and it broke.

"Oh. Right. Forgot about that."

I rolled my eyes at him, pushed open the door and climbed the stairs behind it. "This may not be the most legal way to get up here," I said, "but this place has the best view in town." I went over and leaned against the edge of the roof, watching the sunset.

"Wow..." he said, coming over by me.

"Yeah," I said. "I used to come up here when it got too insane back with the Five. They never knew where I went. Except maybe See-More. He was smarter than the rest. Still an idiot, but all the same..."

"You never did tell me why you stuck with them for so long..."

I shrugged, perching on the ledge and turning so I could see the sun. "I don't know, really... they were the closest I had to a family, I guess. They looked up to me... and I kinda figured that without me around they'd probably end up killing themselves... You kinda pointed out what I already knew. At the time, it really annoyed me but now..." I glanced at him and shrugged at him again, feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

"So if I annoyed you," he said, "why did you come to me?" I thought he sounded shy, but put it off as wishful thinking.

"Because you're the one who got me to quit the H.I.V.E. Five in the first place," I said. "Where else was I supposed to go?"

He smiled at me. "For the record, I'm glad you did," he said, looking at the sunset instead of at me. "I do like you a lot, you know. You're the most interesting girl I've ever met."

"Um..." I said.

"You're pretty when you blush," he said, obviously enjoying my discomfort.

I crossed my arms, not holding onto the ledge anymore. "I never noticed," I replied stiffly.

He frowned at me and was about to say something, when a security guard beat him to the punch. "Hey! What're you kids doing up here?"

Startled, I overbalanced and fell off the ledge.

He didn't cry out; he caught me. It wasn't extremely far to fall, but I was still expecting pain... instead, I got Kid Flash's arms, which was not an unpleasant experience. "I told you I was bad luck," I mumbled as he set me on the ground.

He frowned at me for a second, looking indecisive, and then he kissed me. Yeah, it was that abrupt. I didn't get a chance to react, because he pulled back as quickly as he initiated and all I could think was Damn... why didn't he give me a chance to kiss back? Don't give me that look; I never said I didn't like him.

"Don't scare me like that, huh?" he said.

I just nodded dumbly.

"We'd better get back before it gets really dark," he said, slipping his hand into mine.

"Ok," I said, smiling at him now that I had my sense back.