Jinx groaned again for the thousandth time since they got back to their apartment, burying her face in her hands and cringing as she listened to the whoosh of her speedster boyfriend as he went around, grabbing up more food. To him, the party had been a total success, and the only way he could be happier was if more food had been present.

However, clearly, Jinx could not say the same. The boy bit into his sandwich and stared at his miserable, and likely very embarrassed, pink haired girlfriend. Smiling, he gulped the rest of his meal down, and knelt down in front of her.

"Aww, c'mon Jinxie. It wasn't that ba-Ouch!" he called out, pouting as he rubbed his shoulder where she had hexed him.

"I told you never to call me that" she muttered. He smiled at her sheepishly and sat down cross-legged in front of where she had plopped down on the couch.

"But I like the name."

She groaned as she covered her face once more. "You didn't need to call me that in PUBLIC."

His tenor chuckle, cheerful and peppy dampened her mood even more. "Why not? I'd say the results were pretty satisfactory."

When she lifted her head, her glare could melt the glaciers.

"Wally, Starfire congratulated us on shmangling our zorpthan."

"And I have no idea what that means, but it can't be anything we haven't done already!"

"Robin asked me if I was knocked up."

"Well, he IS my best frie-OW!"

He rubbed his other shoulder.

"Even RAVEN was smirking at us."

"Now THAT might have just been a trick of the light."

"Wally! It was humiliating! I thought we were supposed to keep this thing on the "down low". You know, because you weren't "ready to put it out in the open"?"

"I changed my mind. Why wouldn't I want to flaunt my beautiful girlfriend around?" he asked, his teeth almost gleaming from how large his grin was. However, it faded down in brightness when he saw that it didn't cheer her up at all.

A sigh.

"Why Jinxy? It sounds so…juvenile." The disgust etched itself upon her face.

"Because it's cute, and so are you."

Wow, he didn't think she could look more like a kitten who had her fur rubbed in the wrong direction.

"Ooookay, so, you don't want a cute nickname?"

"Not at all."

Suddenly, he sped off and returned before she could blink, kneeling in front of her on one knee, a hand on his heart and another holding out a very familiar flower, this time in pink.

"A rose for my Rose?" he asked.

She scowled. "That is SO corny!"

She turned her head so that her cheek faced him, but the boy only smirked, counting down in his head as he watched her mouth scrunch up to the side. After 7 seconds, she quickly snatched the flower out of his hands and brought it to her nose, inhaling in deeply.

"Yes to flowers, no to the nickname" she corrected, and he rubbed the back of his head.

"Okay, um…Babe?"

"Generic."

"Beautiful?"

"Both true, and flattering, but too common."

"Maybe something in a different language? Mi corazan? Mon amour? Mijn liefde? Watashi no ai? Meine lieblisch?"

"Stick to English, please" she requested, even though he saw that she didn't seem nearly as opposed to those as she was to the others. He made a mental note to sweet talk her in a different tongue the next time he wanted something.

"How about Lucky?"

"Ugh, bad memories."

"Slowpoke."

He should have known better than to stick his tongue out at her. If he was someone who didn't heal at an increased rate, he was sure that those burned off tastebuds would take a rather long time to grow back.

"And anyway, why do I need a nickname? I HAVE a name, you know."

"Oth courth you do, I juth wanna give you thomething thpecial becathe I love you" he replied, his poor mouth still feeling a bit odd, speech thick. She smirked.

"Oh? So maybe YOU should get a nickname as well?"

"Awww, you'd do thath for ME?"

"Of course, carrot top."

He chuckled. "Cute."

"Pretty boy?"

"You really think so?"

"Fire crotch!"

He struck a pose, running his hand down his side. "Oh, baby. Don't you know it-OW."

These were kind of starting to hurt.

"Ugh, you're impossible."

"Is that another nickname?" he asked.

"No, but Rudolph is."

"That isn't a nickname, it's my middle name" he pointed out, looking more and more amused as she seemed to get more and more irritated at his happiness. "But if you want me to pull on a pair of antlers, you're gonna have to ride m-OUCH! Jinxie, for a second there, it really seemed like you wanted to make that one hu-OW! Okay, okay!"

"Jinxie is so LAZY. You just added an "ie" at the end and that was it."

"Too bad you can't do that with my name, hm?"

She slumped her shoulders and brooded. "Nothing affects you, does it?"

"Nope!" he chirped, blue eyes shining. "Besides, I think Jinxie is a pretty good nickname. It's just meant to be affectionate."

"That's the problem!"

He furrowed his brows. "What? The fact that it's affectionate?"

"…Kind of…"

Her dampened tone, a defeated kind of slump to her words brought Wally back to earth and he looked at her critically.

Of course.

All her life, she was bad luck. The only person he had heard a half decent nickname for her from was her ex-boyfriend, and, according to her stories of playground bullies and some more serious rude people, it was an anomaly.

"Jinx, you know it's only because I care about you, right? I'm not gonna turn around and make it into a bad thing."

She looked away, clutching her rose closer to her as if she could hide behind it. "I know…"

Shaking his head at her stubbornness, he simply grabbed hold of her and pulled her from the couch, a hand instantly against her lower back, pressing her closer to him in a hug. He smirked cockily at the fact that her natural pink flush darkened almost to the shade of the bloom in her hand.

He kissed the top of her head, his smile bumping up to megawatt status when she loosely allowed her arms to settle around him as well.

"See, Jinxie! I knew you cared."

"Shut up, Wallaby, before I hex you again."

"I love you, too, ma chérie. I love you, too. "

I'm telling you that this had to be done. HAD to be!

.

.

I regret not a single thing.