Disclaimer: Characters here are property of their owners, none of which happen to be me.

Initial note: Not set during any other of my continuities.

A Cup of Sugar.

Despite the time in the Hive Academy for Exceptional Young People, college life was as much culture shock as that small time she'd spent working with the Titans. Jinx sighed, the puff of air disturbing the fall of pink hair that fell before her eyes, as she looked over the latest essay assignment. Her art history class was more a challenge than she'd expected, having some first-hand experience with a number of rare pieces.

Stanford was a very prestigious college, one she'd never thought to find herself attending. Truth be told, it was likely she'd never have been able to attend, if certain things hadn't come to pass. Smiling, she recalled the few weeks she'd spent with the odd heroes, shacking up in their Tower briefly, more for her protection than any comfort. Having recently turned her back to the Hive, the target on her back grew exponentially. "Funny, those guys were just like my old team," she mused, tapping her pencil on the paper before her, the essay forgotten for the moment.

Time and habit had eventually led her away from her time with the Titans. Oh, she admitted it was comfortable enough, but her penchant for being on her own, and a restlessness at so many people watching her had driven her away. Not one to be caged, or idle, she'd made her own way, and in time refocused her life on something positive. College had seemed the normal thing to do... so here she was.

It helped that when the Hive was literally blown apart, most of the financial records were lost as well. Fast thinking on her part let her capitalize on this, the windfall of Blood's personal accounts being in her hands greasing many wheels. The ex-Thief smirked slightly, looking over her condo with a deep sense of complacency. That feeling lasted about ten seconds, when her stomach growling roused her abruptly. Glancing at the clock she started, realizing it was nearing afternoon, "Huh, what I get for skipping breakfast."

Making her way to the kitchen, Jinx straitened her hair, kept these days more often in a pair of braids where her usual horns were kept. She still put it up for special occasions, but at home, it was just easier to braid and forget. Starting some water to boil, she was sorting through her various bins of rice when a noise chimed through her home. Blinking at the unfamiliar sound, she looked around, thinking perhaps she'd dropped something when it pealed again. "Oh Christ it's the doorbell," she muttered, scrambling for the front door. "Coming! And you better not be selling insurance, or you'll need some!" Somewhat abashed, she realized that no one had come to visit her, since she'd cast off both the Hive and the Titans. Little wonder really, she wasn't "Jinx" these days, and wasn't in contact with either faction.

Opening the door suddenly, she winced at the afternoon sun bearing down on her. Blinking furiously, she grinned at the silhouette standing there, waiting. "Sorry, I was-"

"Jinx?" A feminine tone, albeit low and with a slight rasp, shook her from her greeting. Having not gone by that name in nearly a year, the quirky ex-Thief stalled completely, a hundred things rampaging through her mind in a moment. Notions of warrants, forgotten crimes, tax evasion, jaywalking, library fines, lost rental movies, skipped study sessions, and then there was the newspaper subscription... Shaking off her wandering paranoia, she squinted against the sun and peered at her guest more closely.

"Sorry, I think you have the wrong person," unable to see past the glare, she figured it safest just to leave it at that, and closed the door again, leaning against the jamb to settle her nerves. Shaking her head slowly, the girl was half way through a step when the cursed bell sounded again, causing a tic under her eye to fire. Peering through the peephole, she grumbled again at the placement of the sun today. "Stupid perfect Bay weather."

Pulling the door open once more, she leveled a stern glare at the person standing there, head tilted slowly as she waited. "Yes? What can I do for you?"

The figure sighed and shifted into the shadows a bit more before answering, "Sorry, I just came by to see if you had a cup of sugar you could spare me."

Blinking slowly, Jinx pushed the door open a bit more, gesturing her guest inside. "Yeah. Sure, just come in. Kitchen's this way," without really looking at the young woman, as her voice identified her, Jinx turned and made her way back into the kitchen herself, wanting nothing more than to be rid of the interrupting person, so she could get back to studiously ignoring her assignment.

She'd almost written off the use of her taken name when the person called her by it once more, "Jinx, don't you recognize me?" Their tone was nearly pained the girl realized, and she thought for a moment that it could be an old Academy member or one of her past contacts, something she'd be wary at best to admit to. Shrugging slightly, she barely turned to face the person, stopping by the portal to her kitchen.

"I hadn't really looked at you, to be honest, with the sun," she admitted, figuring if the person was going to be persistent about this, there really was nothing she could do to avoid it. Turning to fully look at the young woman before her, Jinx fumbled with the glass she'd pulled out to measure sugar in, dropping it to the floor with a crash. "Raven... you're Raven."

"You always were the observant one," the shorter woman said with a slight laugh.

Still shocked and somewhat nervous about the reality of a Titan in her home, and this particular one to boot, the ex-Thief nearly stepped on the same glass she'd dropped before Raven reached out and stopped her, pointing down in a reminder. "Oh. Right. Let me... yeah. Clean up. Have a seat, I guess," waving dispassionately to the table nearby, where she was just recently working, she padded into the hallway, intent on fetching her broom and dustpan. Cursing quietly, she regardless felt a slight thrill at Raven being here. Things had gotten quiet, tranquil in the year she'd spent shuffling money, cleaning her record and laying low. Now that she was happily, if also bored with, her new life, the sudden appearance of those that had previously ripped her stability away was like a face full of cold water.

Returning to the dining room, she found the Titan reading over her essay, sitting in the seat she'd been occupying not five minutes previous. "What are you doing?"

Startled, the shorter woman stood quickly, fidgeting with her hands. "Sorry, I just... well I didn't realize you were you."

"I know we're in the habit of not making much sense to one another, but what?"

Sighing and shaking her head, Raven retreated to another chair and sat, as Jinx busied herself cleaning up the broken glass. "You're a bit popular on campus, at least in the art circles."

Brow furrowing, Jinx looked to her quizzically, "What do you mean, I've never heard of this."

"I don't really expect you to, it's more of something," quieting suddenly, the dark-haired girl looked away, making Jinx pause. "I guess," she began slowly, seeming to pick at her words a few moments before letting them escape, "that among the people taking art history and appreciation classes, the applied history, your papers are really well taken."

A bit put off by what she was implying, Jinx none the less had to admit, she was doing excellent in those fields. She'd advanced quickly, even if it was through effort as opposed to some talent for the particular work she was doing. "I suppose. I do get good marks," pausing a moment to watch the Titan, she emptied the broken glass into the dust bin, "I take it that means you're also in the art history program?"

Nodding slowly, Raven seemed to curl into her hooded jacket a bit, a gesture Jinx nearly laughed at. It looked like something she would do in a cloak, which reminded her of how much the young woman before her seemed to have changed. Gone was the cloak and leotard, replaced by a simple hooded jacket in lavender, on top of what Jinx could only guess was a high necked blouse or shirt. Much like herself, she looked like an other college student, minus a few small glaring details. The small red gem still adorned her forehead, and her hair as well was a few shades out of the usual. Two locks seemed to be free, framing her face while the rest was in a braid that escaped the hood and rested along her collar. "You're staring."

"Oh! Sorry, um." Jinx blushed a bit, before returning to the cabinets, remembering why Raven was in her kitchen in the first place. "So you're at Stanford too? Coinkydink. I didn't think you guys got personal time," finding a less destructible plastic cup, she located her baking stores, but paused a moment, turning at Raven's slight laughter. "Hm?"

"So you really don't know. Where have you been?"

"Pardon?" Brow furrowing, she leaned on the counter and crossed her arms, leveling a slight glare at the Titan again.

Sighing, Raven stood and made pretense of looking over the china, modern and less the sort of thing one would usually display, so much as use day to day. "The Titans... when things went south after my father, I left. There's a team on either coast now, more than enough hero to go around," Facing away from the other woman, she shook her head slowly, a hand reaching out to trace the slight pattern on the wood shelving. "I needed to be away. Find myself, now that I have that option. Which brings me here," grinning slightly, she nodded to the half measured cup of sugar the bad luck charm was still holding. "I was attempting to make cookies."

Stifling a laugh, Jinx finished doling out the sugar, wrapping the cup in plastic cling to keep it all in place. "I see. So what's your major?" Coming back to the table, she sat and closed her books, curiosity winning the moment as she wondered what else she'd missed, during that year.

Raven looked at her a moment and seemed to shrug slightly, coming to sit to the young woman's right. "History, I was going for a teaching degree. Not really... hrm. It's not going as well as I'd hoped."

Jinx nodded slightly, gesturing at the books arrayed on her table. "Yeah, real change from the usual huh?"

"Indeed," the Titan agreed, smiling slightly. "Actually... ah." Looking uncomfortable suddenly, the shorter woman seemed to sink back into her jacket again, something Jinx was fast identifying with nervousness in the young woman. "I'd thought, after seeing the results for some of the essay and test work, to ask 'Jennifer Wrangler' for some help in studying and maybe some tips."

Blinking, Jinx looked to her essay still resting on the table. The name she'd picked up, assumed and made her own scrawled there in her arcing script. J. Wrangler it read. "As in, me to tutor you," she said, somewhat blankly. Shaking off the unreality of the moment she stood, shaking her head slowly. "Listen, Raven... we have history. Hell we have bad history at that," the suddenness of Jinx's standing startled the former Titan, and she did as well, following the pink-haired girl to the door where she'd stopped. "I don't think I can just... gloss over that. I'm sorry." Feeling awkward, having been bantering with the girl, albeit clumsily, moments before, the former Hive operative continued, "It was nice seeing you again, and I'm glad to hear you're getting your life going and all... but..."

Raven looked from the cup of sugar held out in a slender hand, the other opening the door for her. Seeming to draw into herself she nodded once and took the offered cup. "Sorry to have bothered you."

"It's no bother. You can keep the cup,"

Raven took three steps from the door before the meaning behind those words unfolded. "Keep it... ah." The sound of the latch catching, door shutting behind her made her wince slightly.

Jinx leaned on the door frame, hand over her face as she kept her eyes shut, mind a blur of thoughts in the afternoon light. "I'm sorry Raven," she murmured with a sigh, shuffling back to her makeshift desk in the quiet of her home. "Maybe in another life, we could do this. Be normal, be friends. But I've worked too hard, spent too much of myself on this.

"Sometimes, last chances aren't about parole or jail. Sometimes it's about just living." Feeling the odd urge to sniffle, she shook her head hard in the failing light and went back to her essay, drowning her thoughts in the words of her material.

I oOo I

A week can feel like the longest part of your life, if there's nothing to make it memorable, Jinx mulled as the lecture went on. Finally succumbing to the mind-numbing drone of the professor, she flicked the record switch on her hand recorder and left to get a soda. The professor didn't really condone such things, as it was a participation component lecture, but understood that everyone needed a moment.

Jinx figured her outstanding score in the class so far also granted her a bit of slack.

Lazing by the vending machines a moment, she stretched and worked the tension from her muscles, stiff from hours of sitting and listening in classes. Promising herself never to skip her morning exercises again, the ex-Thief lifted a leg and wrapped her arm around, balancing on the ball of a foot in a vertical split as she tried to work out the kinks.

"Jesus how do you still manage that," the voice, familiar but sudden, surprised her and old instincts kicked in, resulting in her swinging around and bringing her sneaker clad foot in a swift arc toward the voice. Recovering from her surprise, she jerked back in time to avoid an incident, if only barely.

Raven stood there, wide-eyed as she had just gotten a very good look at the tread-wear on the pink-haired girl's sneaker. Wincing as she hopped, a sudden cramp in her thigh from the unaccustomed motion, Jinx muttered an apology and sat hard on the ground, leaning against the vending machine behind her. "Jeez, don't sneak up on me."

"Sorry... didn't know you'd try and kill me," the former Titan sighed, picking her bag up from where she'd let it fall. "Sorry," she muttered again and walked off, as Jinx's cat's eyes tracked her slowly.

Banging her head slowly on the vending machine, in time with her heartbeat, Jinx let loose a breath she didn't realize she was holding. "Why am I so... disagreeable to her?" she wondered, running through all the things in her mind that could cause her to be so.

Jail time. Physical injury. Destruction of her home and way of life. Generally being a creepy emo kid all the time. Smirking at the last idea, Jinx cracked her neck swiftly and stood, claiming her caffeine charged sugar water from the vender.

"Sugar," she murmured, remembering the afternoon a few days past. Sighing, she shook her head and rounded the table, on her way to the lecture hall again and back to the hypnotically numbing drone of the professor. She stumbled as something slipped under her foot, and looking down she spied a few slips of paper, where Raven's pack had been.

Taking the small note and a folded printout, she debated just throwing them away. No business of hers, after all. Curiosity, as always, won out and the girl opened the small slip, brow furrowing as she read over the rather ornate script.

Jennifer,

I'm sorry about the other day. Really I am. I didn't meanto disturb you,
I guess it was a bit thoughtless of me to just show up like that. I know
we've got history, as you put it, and not the good kind. I guess, and
you can laugh if you want, I was remembering how alike we are. The
odd ones. Sorceresses. Distant and disturbed, sometimes. I guess...
well after it all, since we're both starting over, I thought we could be
friends. I understand why we can't. I think I do anyway.

Sorry to ramble. All I meant to say was I'm sorry and

Squinting, she tried to read the rest of the note, but the script went ragged and wild, like the hand holding it had suddenly lost interest and just ran amok. Biting her lip, Jinx reread the note, stalling a moment on the way Raven had used her new name, rather than the moniker she'd taken in the Hive so long ago. Feeling her stomach lurch, she sighed. "Goddamn heroes. Always know just how to..." trailing off, she remembered the other paper, also dropped from the Titan's pack.

Slipping the note carefully into her pocket, the ex-Thief opened the printout, realizing immediately what it was. The transcript was standard at the college, an on-demand printout available in the councilor offices for one's current GPA, course progress and any notes available from teachers. She boggled a moment at the numbers there, scanning to the head of the document again to make sure she was reading it correctly.

"However you did as a Titan, "Rachel Roth", as a student you suck," she mumbled, scanning over the print again as she made a slow trek back to her own class. There was the possibility that the paper belonged to another, but she had a feeling that the name there was one Raven would take, if not her actual name. Stopping in the middle of the hallway, partially obstructing the flow of students leaving from another lecture, the girl narrowed her cat's eyes at the paper, biting her lip again.

"Oh fuck it, what have I got to lose," she railed suddenly, scattering nearby students like birds at her sudden vicious tone. She pointedly ignore the nagging little voice in her head, that whispered "Everything" to her rhetoric. Slipping the paper into her back pocket, the girl named, for the moment, Jennifer Wrangler, strode toward her class to collect her pack, waving off her professor's raised brow at her behavior.

She'd email him when she got home and beg off someone for the end of lecture notes. Bombing the next quiz would still have her in the top five of that class. Smirking, despite the cold lump seemingly taking root in her stomach, Jinx tried to ignore the voice in her head that warned her away from what she was about to do.

The library was a familiar sanctum, the place other than home she was most likely to be found. Waving happily to the staff, most knowing her by name, the quirky girl strode to the periodicals and grinned at her friend, working the posts that evening. "Yoko, I needs a favor."

Yoko raised a brow, shaking her head slowly, "Jenny, I don't want to set you up with my brother, you know he's not into-" giggling as the other girl vaulted over the desk and proceeded to tickle her, the smaller Asian girl crossed her arms in front of her and backed away.

"See, always better to just agree with me," laughing quietly, the pink-haired girl smiled and leaned on the wall near the smaller girl, watching her go back to her task. "But seriously, I'm not into Hiruma. He's not my type, and besides, I think he has something for that girl on his football team anyway. The redhead."

The shorter Asian girl nodded, going back to putting print up on the posts she'd later hang in the main area for people to scan through. Tedious work, but necessary, print still being used often. "Likely. But what brings you here, I mean it's not like we don't have a room for you in the back or anything," her quiet voice going droll, she winked as Jennifer rolled her eyes. Common knowledge in the library, was that the quirky girl was allowed almost everywhere, a habit that started early on as she was the student of one of the archivists, and they often met in the the lounge to talk. The habit had continued since. Some time during spring break, Jennifer had redecorated the room, tired of bare walls and brown cabinets, into something more festive and in her opinion, "breakroomy".

The result had been something like a drunk pinata wearing Halloween regalia exploding in the room. Despite the outlandish décor, the staff had added their own flourishes, and where the room was hardly used before, it now was something often visited.

Jinx grinned and motioned to the discarded newspapers and periodicals nearby, with a glint in her eye. "I need some material. You're going to help."

Raising a brow and taking half a step back, Yoko paled as the somewhat odd girl before her burst out in maniacal laughter. "On second thought, maybe you and Hiruma would work just fine," she muttered. Jinx, hearing said comment tackled the girl.

A passing shelver, only a week into her internship, stalled as a hand was seen, grasping for the tabletop near periodicals and a muttered "Not the ear!" could be heard from behind the counter. Seeing the rather conspicuous pack of the girl Jennifer that seemed to nearly live in the library perched there as well, the nervous student dashed back into the shelves. No sense in being collateral damage, she figured.

Raven sighed as she finished copying down noted in her psychology class. Despite the achingly familiar subject, she was still struggling with the material more than she should be. Grumbling to herself, she nearly missed the ping of her phone, sounding almost at exactly the same time as her laptop popped up a small window, warning her of new mail. Blinking and looking between the two, she raised a brow and started with the phone.

--Irony: Check your mail.

Blinking at the cryptic message, she spared a sidelong glance at the blinking indicator on her laptop. Licking suddenly dry lips, she opened the hinted at mailbox and noted the one new message.

From: Irony (at) situations (.) here
To: RRoth1134 (at) stanford (.) edu
Subject: Irish Lesbian Bookies!

Message:

Not this mail, the one in your PO box. Go go. I don't have all day.

(A ridiculously frantic smiley face darted about here, seemingly inspecting the message frame)

Glaring at the obviously spoofed address, she rolled her eyes and debated sending it to an old friend to have tracked back to the source. Seeing as it was sent through the school messenging and mail systems though, it could be hard as anyone with database access could have potentially simply inserted the message into the queue without notice. Sighing expansively, she looked to the left and right, before closing her laptop, leaving the mail there for later inspection.

Class was over, and her curiosity was winning the battle against her better judgment. Making her way to the campus post office, she mulled over the mail again. Could it have been a coincidence? Someone could have gotten her mail and phone addresses from one of the school messenger boards, after all the online discussion forums were public. To the school at least.

The common link was starting to annoy her. Someone at the school was playing games with her. Stalking past a row of bicycles, she reached up and fidgeted with a lock of her hair, set up as it was often these days. The two forelocks she kept down, and the braid that swept forward onto her collar. The former Titan winced as a small spark of her kinesis snapped loose from her control and toppled a bike, a little giggle in her mind alerting her to the cause. "Behave. I'm trying to be normal here. We don't need to have more going wrong, do we?" The silence that met her mental scolding was answer enough.

The post offices were a fairly crowded affair, being a common hub of activity and traffic. They also managed to serve the immediate area, being an actual postal hub. Finding her small mail box, the Titan nervously opened the door and removed a small stack of neglected mail, most college program advertisements and military promotionals. She rifled through the stack, finding a table in the nearby commons to read the few important, if not suspicious mails sent from friends and a professor. Nearly missing the one letter she was looking for, the violet-haired girl blinked, the envelope itself confusing her.

It looked to be made out of... magazine covers.

Opening the parcel warily, ready for a number of bad scenarios she'd imagined as she walked to the offices, she instead found only a single piece of paper, folded yet oddly bulky.

Taking out the odd note, she scanned around, looking to see if anyone was watching her. Feeling silly for her paranoia, she opened the thing and boggled.

Cutout letters from magazines, newspapers and who knew what else were glued and stapled to the backing paper, neatly chaotic in their presentation.

Mz. R0tH

PlEEaze meET Me in the lybRary break room, 6pm toonight.
(Here there was another of those preposterous smileys, just the printed version.)

CoMe aloon, or the kiTTen getz eet.
(Pasted below the haphazard text there was a picture, obviously picked off the Internet, of a rather unbelievably adorable kitten. Her teeth ached looking at it.)

YoUrz TrUly,

Irony

Raven blinked at the letter, before numbly sliding it back into it's envelope. "Who the hell..." she shook her head and checked her phone for the time. 5PM. "Well, whoever it is, can wait for me to have something to eat," she muttered, slinging her pack over a shoulder a she tossed the bulk of her mail into a nearby garbage can. The odd letter, she slipped into her jacket.

To those that knew the quiet girl, the look on her face would have seemed out of place. Those who were just students there, like her, found her quiet smile rather fetching.