X Marks the spot

It was a bit funny, the difference in emotions felt when X mentioned Jinx then Melvin one after the other. Even if he and Jinx were on decent terms now, the mentioning of her in this capacity, reminiscing the past, was a sore subject, but bringing up Melvin and her tiny hero antics made him chuckle.

"The only Titan I like, even if I only got a single cool point right now. Though, I think that's better than you." Billy shot a smirk over to the other, giving him a light, friendly shove of his shoulder. "I dunno though. Kids got wacky insights sometimes n' she's one a' them ones who definitely does. Yeah, grain a' salt, sure, but that lil' one has definitely dealt with her fair share a' crazy shit, 'specially durin' that time." Maybe footage of the fight would be nice to have; it'd give him a chance to see all of the chaos rather than the team-centric hurricane he was focusing on during that time.

"Then with Jinx—that's kinda funny, actually. A lil' frustratin', considerin' everythin', but it tracks. She ain’t outta her mind evil like the head guys we dealt with, but she ain’t no Titan. None a’ us could ever be." A short, scoff-like laugh left his lips as he absentmindedly flips the bottle in the air in front of him and catches it again. Younger him was a different story, but at this point, he knew she never necessarily wanted to be a Titan; it was more she wanted an escape, and he didn’t blame her for that at all. "Didn’t see her ‘gain for years up ‘till not super long ‘go. Real warm reunion, but we’re fine now. Though I’m sure by now witchu bein’ in every nook n’ cranny in this city, ya already knew she was ‘round ‘gain, yeah?"

Billy caught that shift in visage from the other side of the couch, as slight as it was. That paired with what was said was all he really needed to know about that scenario. "Yeah, family shit's always messy. 'm sorry 'bout that."

His own was practically nonexistent and had been for a while, yet was still complicated in its own unique way. Hell, he hadn't even addressed it since it happened over a decade ago. Clearly X wasn't in the same boat in his dealings with his own, and unless he decided to share more willingly, the duplicator wouldn’t be one to push. Instead he opted to entertain his next inquiry, which was a fair one.

"Well, was a fun few years after all that BS, but since then I’ve just been flyin’ solo—‘r as solo as I can be." At least he was never truly alone, even it was technically all just him. "Ya think after everythin’ it’d be easy ta leave n’ start fresh somewhere else but I dunno. Guess Jump's gotta way a' keepin' ya hostage. Lotta bad memories here but a lotta good too." Hard to fully leave a place that's shaped everything about oneself after such a lifechanging event. "I have been venturin’ out a lot though, doin' some stuff in Gotham mainly. That place is a whole other type a’ shitshow. I dunno how people actually live there fulltime." He chuckled, fingers tapping on the bottle.

The cool-point dig earned a long-suffering sigh. “I didn’t want to like her,” he admitted. By every metric he still shouldn’t. Titan. Pain in the ass. Future problem with a capital P. “She just… crept up on me. And for the record, I should have at least one cool-point." At least for helping her fight a literal dragon anyway. "But she’s stubborn as hell. Maybe only out-stubborned by Jinx herself.”

Speaking of.

"Yeah, I knew." He'll leave it at that. He feels for Billy about the whiplash. Being frozen and then being back, and then catching up with what his old team was up to seemed rough. And a little familiar. Finding out what the people you care about were up to while you were out.... was something.

The being alone "as I can be" joke is so stupid, he hates that he laughs at it. It's terrible, and that makes it worse that he's laughing at all. Mentioning Gotham though pulls another laugh, running a hand through his hair with a grimace.

"I like visiting Gotham, and there's a lot of fun jobs from folks who always want hard-to-get shit. Wouldn’t ever want to live there, though. Visit too much and there are consequences. One day you’re pulling a job, next day Riddler’s girls are casually dropping your full government name while holding your death certificate.” And that was a humbling experience.

He shouldn't laugh at the stupid confidential dig but he chuckles anyway.

She had had a hunch that he had. Now she had confirmation. There were just too many things that he had let slip around her for her not to have her suspicions. He may not have gone looking for her stuff, but he had certainly taken his time to read them. She's rather unsure as to feel about that. "I settle for incapacitating those who wander too far from their nest." She's not going to elaborate on how. He has an imagination; he can use it.

Her heartbeat quickens as he leans in close. His words were sweet, comforting. "Anyone else would have." Sold her information, used it against her, use her weaknesses against her. She's aware a certain birdboy has contingencies for everyone. No doubt the Titans would have loved the information that Grant so closely guarded from others.

Her free hand reaches out to grip his in her own, threading their fingers together and giving it a squeeze. Her awkward attempt at comfort for the pain he's about to feel. Slowly she begins to melt his healing skin and the fibers that had embedded themselves. It takes more concentration than normal.

Anyone else probably would have used the files. Sold them. Weaponized them. He knows that much is true for the world she grew up in. HIVE certainly would have. The Titans might have, if they’d ever gotten their hands on the real paper copies. Boy Wonder especially—contingencies for everyone, right down to the people he claimed to trust. Grant’s not going to pretend otherwise.

“Careful,” he murmurs, voice low and a little rough. “You keep talking like I’m a good guy and it’s going to ruin my reputation.”

He doesn’t pull away from the way her fingers lace through his. If anything he tightens the hold for a second, grounding himself in the contact before the real work starts. A deep breath. Then another. He already knows this is going to suck.

The green flame meets half-healed skin and fused fabric and burns. Not the same as the serum—never the same—but close enough that a rough, strangled sound escapes him before he can stop it. His grip on her hand spikes hard for a heartbeat, then he forces himself to ease up so he doesn’t crush her fingers. Jaw locked, eyes squeezing shut. Breathing through it the way he’s learned to breathe through worse.

It takes longer than either of them probably wants. Piece by piece she works the melted synthetic free while his accelerated healing tries to close over the damage again. Every time the flame flares the pain spikes sharp and bright, but her hand in his stays steady.

When the worst of it finally eases he sucks in another breath and forces the next question out past the residual sting. Half distraction. Half genuine curiosity. Something that keeps them both talking instead of sitting in the quiet with the pain.

Though hearing him talk about that final battle, that whole-ass mess, was... interesting to say the least. At the time, Billy didn't really focus on anyone else surrounding him besides his team and himself, both during that last fight and just in general. Nobody else really mattered to him. The Brotherhood themselves, they were the head honchos, the overseers, the ones he had to follow or it was bad news. They weren't the ones he considered to be friends or family or anyone close; that was a clear given.

So, final fight comes around and he barely paid attention to any other matchups besides his own and his teammates'. And once the betrayal happens, it was curtains from there. Thinking about it again after so long of not was giving the duplicator a weird flood of emotions, and it settled right in his gut. All subdued within him, but apparent.

"Not part a' that fight itself n' yet y'know a lot 'bout it with all them matchups. 'm guessin' ya were watchin' from some hidden camera 'r somethin'?" Watching all the villains get their ass kicked. Watching Jinx switch sides in real time while Billy and the rest of his team get turned into human popsicles and left to be forgotten about. Of course he was still bitter about it—anybody would be—but it wasn't like he was mad at X or anything like that. If anything he was a bit jealous; the other thief was never really in, sure, but he got out before shit hit the fan.

"Boy Wonder was probably real goddamn done with all a' us at that point. Hell, I would be too. Considerin' everythang, I'm s'prised we were only frozen n' nothin' more. Though, like I said b'fore, wasn't real fun bein' stuck in time then only bein' brought back by sheer luck. Otherwise, I truly dunno where I'd be right now if it weren't for that."

Maybe someone else would've come along to risk it all and let everyone out. Maybe whoever ran that section of containment would've moved them or figured something else out or disbanded it all together. There were so many what ifs and maybes that would cause anyone to spiral if thought about too much. Good thing he was here right now instead.

"The thing with Jinx I found out after. Partially because I kept running into her in not-Titan-approved criminal underground spaces while she was supposedly with them, and partially because there's a pint-sized Titan who will spill gossip for good sweets." To an extent anyway. Melvin kept plenty of secrets on her own. "Granted, I take an eight-year-old’s version of a multi-person brawl—especially one where she was scared out of her mind—with a grain of salt. Still. She was there."

Listening to Billy reason out how it could have been if Robin were maybe a bit more vindictive was a decent point though. Then again, being frozen in time seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. Having everyone just... move on without you was a little too familiar in trauma.

"Yeah. Another reason I’m glad I dipped early. Frustrated with everyone is putting it mildly, but I’m pretty sure he still hates my guts specifically for lifting the suit straight out of Titans Tower." One more failure for the Boy Wonder to chew on. Having the X persona he built to get close to Slade get stolen and turned into an actual recurring problem? Grant was willing to bet that one still kept him up.

When Billy asked if he’d found who he was looking for, something complicated and almost regretful flickered across his face before he schooled it.

"…Yeah. I did." A short beat. "Sometimes the answers are worse than not knowing. Family shit’s complicated." His, anyway. Most people’s probably weren’t quite this much of a disaster.

He shifted, rolling the empty Gatorade bottle between his palms.

She can hear him stir from her spot on the couch, but she doesn't move. He'll get up when he's ready. He's familiar enough with her place to know his way around. Jinx can hear him walking closer and is about to tip her head back to look at him when he bends down and presses a kiss to her temple.

That coupled with the murmured good girl causes her stomach to flip and her breath to catch in her throat. It was so annoying what his words could do to her. Anyone else would have been flipped to the ground and threatened if they had dared uttered such words. But with Grant she found herself delighted by it, wanting him to say it again. If only he knew how wrapped around his fingers she was.

"In exchange, I'll reserve judgements that I can reasonably get dressed with my clothes in your room," there's almost a laugh under the pointed teasing. "No honor among thieves I guess also applies to hoodies and tees. Which explains so much of why I thought I was losing my mind at my place." Way more relieving to know that a certain pink haired sorceress was just stealing stuff than for him to keep wondering if he was that forgetful.

Have a Drunk Deb || Accepting || @fxllenwilson

Finding Deb in a bar or a club is hardly an unlikely scenario. It took pretty much no tracking ability to figure that out. Though, it wasn't often she saw X in her town.

The way he slides so casually into the booth across from her, like he just assumes his presence is permissible. ( It is. She genuinely doesn't mind his company. )

There are worse people to see her drunk. She just gestures for a passing server to bring them both more drinks. She's feeling generous; she'll cover your tab. X has to cost less than Thad does.

"You know," she says, blinking at the other. "you're rather good looking when you're not in your suit." Would she ever admit this sober? Maybe.

"I know I give you a hard time," she slurs before downing another shot, "but I don't dislike you. You're fun." Even if he couldn't always be pulled into her mischief against Thad. She knows she can get away with a lot more than anyone else can with the speedster.

Thad had stopped just short of the mixture of blood and rainwater that slicked the ground before him. The scent of copper faintly wafted in the air and the taste danced on his tongue. It was that mixture of scent and taste that hit him first before the scene truly unfolded before his eyes and he understood just what he was looking at.

He hadn't been expecting to run into a body today. In fact, he hadn't expected to run into Grant and a body. He knew mercenary work was a part of the other's repertoire, but he had never had the fortune or perhaps the misfortune to see him at work.

It was a shock even for Thad. One that he couldn't help but stop and stare at for a moment as he took everything in.

"Oh, well excuse me. I wasn't expecting to find you with a dead body." He says gesturing a hand to said dead body.

"Personal. I apparently have not worked out all the anger shit at HIVE yet." Considering everything, maybe that wasn't all that surprising. He honestly can't tell if the adrenaline rush is the anger, the kill, or both, but it doesn't really matter. He needs to move, so he just keeps walking with Thad away from the mess.

"Honestly, merc stuff isn't worth the trouble most of the time." Paid better, sure, but came with racking up a lot more enemies. At least right now his biggest ops were the fucking Titans. And maybe his mother if he kept swiping xenothium from Searchers Inc.

She finds herself letting Grant drag her closer to his person, relaxing against him. He can hold her possessively all he wants. Anyone else would have been elbowed, kicked, and possibly thrown to the ground with threat to never touch her again. Grant, however, gets ease of movement and one of her arms going to rest over his.

A shiver runs down her spine as he whispers in her ear. She's sure he felt her reaction; she's just glad he can't see her face. And if she was a cat, she'd practically be purring at the term of endearment he used for her. All she can think about is how she wants him to use it again and again.

"I was close, but I like this club. I'd hate to be thrown out. Besides, I didn't have to," she drawls, "I knew you would come. A safe bet in her opinion. "You always have this weird ability to show up when I need you." He can't deny that. He was her stalker after all.

"Careful, sweetheart. Let’s not get too used to me riding in like the cavalry every time.” His voice stays low, teasing, but there’s a genuine edge of seriousness. "I like knowing you can handle your own, and contrary to belief, I'm not always in this city. I've got a thing in New York next week so I'd appreciate it if you didn't need saving during then."

Literally just a week without getting in over her head would be fucking fantastic.

That grin of hers is infectious, the kind of trouble he should be running from. Instead he chuckles, not quite ready to let her go yet. “Oh, demands from the sorceress tonight, huh?” He leans in again now that the idiot has finally slunk off, lips brushing her ear. "Bold of you to assume I can dance at all, Pinkie." Not this kind anyway. Clubbing experience? Lacking in military school.

He stills for a second, giving her the out even as every instinct wants to keep her right here. “You want me to let go?”