You know I'm gonna find a time to catch your hand and make you stay.

[hexyoutotuesday]

Who: Invisiboy (thecrowingtobe ) and Princess (hexyoutotuesday )
When: After this is all over and done with.
Where: The White Star Hotel.
Summary: Jinx is doing a little something for herself and decided to invite Claudio along as her date.
Warnings: will add as needed

Comments

[thecrowingtobe]

He couldn’t have felt odder if he tried. The suit was fit to him and fit him nearly perfect. He kept nervously smoothing down the front of it expecting himself to look out of place some how, but the tie always lay perfect and the buttons never pulled in the wrong place. Perhaps when your room mate spends huge amounts of money on a monkey suit like this it was meant to fit perfect. He had to admit, the vest and shirt were form fit but didn’t feel uncomfortable at all.

It wasn’t the suit that was a discomfort but his own awkwardness. He never dressed up for anything. His first Dance with Newo consisted of an outfit she picked out for him, and it was nice? Dressy? Sure… but it wasn’t this high class kind of suit that you only saw in movie. Suit Porn. He was sure he heard someone make a comment to that about a movie he saw not long ago. He didn’t feel well suited to THAT of course, but he did have a bit of a confidence when he saw himself in it.

When he saw Jinx all dressed up though he had to work hard not to let his jaw hit the damn floor. The limo ride to the Underground mall and then the trip to the hotel was awkward, hard conversation if that, and he was sure he complimented her one too many times. She looked… good. Really good. It surprised him for some reason.

The evening was nice. At least he didn’t notice any huge monster attacks of poisoned food, yet. He was keeping an eye on everything though. Trying to be ready for the worst. Maybe AGI wanted to make off with some high class people. Feed them something in the salmon and have them sign their lives away with out them realizing it. ‘Why yes sir, I’d like to sign up for dinner and a free trip to the slave house. Let me jot my name down here, thanks’ though thankfully no one asked him to sign anything.

And none of the food seemed bad. That was something else to be thankful for.

Not old enough for the wine, even if he was a bit of a drinker anyhow, he didn’t mind. Jinx slipped him some here and there and after a while he just… became more relaxed. It was either the food, or the fact he felt a little less paranoid after the first place had turned out nice, or just the nice company that had him loosening up more. Less awkward.

By time they were done for the evening he was trying to figure how long he could keep them invisible and get home properly. But Jinx remedied this by a room. A hotel room in the White Star, one of the Undergrounds most pricy places to stay. He still wanted to protest her spending so damn much on all this, but as long as she was happy, he wouldn’t complain out loud.

When she returned with that little smile across her mouth he couldn’t help but smile back. He didn’t say anything at first, just gave her a nod. Somewhere in the middle of the evening he had picked up on the general habit of a good young man of social standing, though the tired was wearing it thin. None the less he offered her a hand as he met her, intent on taking the key if she let him, and to lead the way.

[hexyoutotuesday]

Even with the near five inches added by her heels, Jinx still felt tiny compared to Claudio. Usually she wore baggy enough clothes that she did not have to worry about how her chest looked in a low cut gown, or how her hips looked with something so tight across them it made running difficult. Claudio seemed to think she looked all right. She could tell that from the start. Just like she loved the way his shoulders looked in that coat, or how the suit made his body look tall and graceful instead of gangly and awkward. The colors matched him well. She matched him well. This was a long way to go from a frumpy sorceress and a guy in a dirty sweatshirt.

When he offered her a hand, Jinx was hesitant on taking it. First, she leaned toward him and slipped the key in his breast pocket. She then turned from him to look at whatever was on the opposite wall. Some painting... or whatever. It did not matter. She used her peripheral to slowly slip her hand into his, careful with her freshly manicured claws.

God, what were they doing? They were roommates. Just two kids who were supposed to work hard for their money, spend it on Hot Pockets, and channel surf on the weekends. Yet here they were, strutting around like a modern day Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. She kept that to herself, since she knew Claudio would be so lost to the reference. But despite him not getting her pop culture jokes, they still had a lot more in common than she thought. The theater, art, little jokes, little nicknames.

It was stupid, really. She should have asked Trauma to come with her, or something. They would have spent the entire night making snarky remarks and throwing things at each other, but she still would have had fun, right? Right. Well... maybe. Maybe not as much fun as Jinx was having. And maybe she would not feel as elated. That was probably the wine talking.

For a moment, she let him lead the way, but stopped in the lobby, a little before they reached the stairs. "Claudio, I--" She what? What was she going to say? It was stupid. Trying to walk up the stairs holding hands would be stupid, too. So she let go and turned to him. "--never mind." Biting her lip, she turned back around and started walking again.

[thecrowingtobe]

He truly though Trauma would have been a better choice, to start with though he would admit that it was kind of fun pretending to be some big shot rich young man out on the town with some wealthy witchy woman. It was partway through the evening before he realized Trauma would have either hated it… or made the evening a bit more fun; though really, Jinx seemed to be enjoying herself. The teasing banter once in a while was fun.

What they were doing, he wasn’t sure, really. He enjoyed the company, the laughing and the evening. This was something he never would have done on his own, no matter what. It was interesting, to say the least. No, he never got the pop culture references, at least not all of them. Sometimes he would think he would find one he should know, but it was always ass backwards. None the less he had fun with the strange conversations they had.

It was true, they had a lot in common. He had a lot in common with both his room mates, more then he would ever want to admit. This though, this evening in ‘costume’ as he was starting to think of it in his mind was different for some reason.

A hand patted the key in his breast pocket, watching her pull away and start in on him. A brow raised, a confused look breaking out over his face and bringing back a better image of the boy he generally was. Not this confident looking guy with a bit of wine in him. “What did I do this time?” He asked, surprised and following. They had a long ways to go, and she wouldn’t use the elevator. He knew where they were headed at the moment.

He’d been trying to make sure she was smiling through out the night. Wanted to make sure she was happy with her evening. He couldn’t do his duty and escort her if she wouldn’t let him, now could he. He was trying to keep the though of how nice she looked out of his mind all evening. Why it crept back just now, while she started to walk again was beyond him. He reached out to grab her wrist, trying to stop her walk a moment, giving a small tug to get her attention, a curious and kind of worried look crossed over his face.

“Never mind what…” he asked in a soft voice, watching her face a moment, trying to check on her. Perhaps she wanted him to leave her alone? Game time is over?

[hexyoutotuesday]

It would have been best if Jinx could just keep her mouth shut. In retrospect, that was a common solution to a good ninety-nine percent of her problems. However, she rarely learned the right lessons from her mistakes. Instead, she repeated them with a slightly different twist each time and hoped for different outcomes. It may have been the definition of insanity, but in her book that was called persistence, which was usually rewarded in the end. Either that, or she was just too stubborn to think before she acted when it was not a matter of life or death. Even then, it got a little iffy.

She laughed at his line. At that boyish confusion on his face. This was the Claudio she knew, her dumb roommate who always forgot whether he was invisible or not while watching TV, and always drank milk out of the carton when he thought no one was looking. Despite how nice he looked in that tailored suit, and how expensive her ensemble was, they were still two super powered teenagers who shared the same tiny living space. They were friends. He was like her family. And whether or not he knew it, he got to see more of Jinx than anyone else in her life, save Trauma.

When he grabbed her wrist, she stopped, her dress sweeping the floor as she turned back to him. What was she thinking? She did not pull her hand away. She shook her head a little, bouncing around the curls that had fallen out of her bun. The smile forming on her mouth pulled her bottom lip away from her teeth. A smile was not something that often crossed her face. Grins? Yes. All the time. Smirks? Of course. A genuine smile was rare, though. Especially one that showed off that she was, still, just a young girl, and despite her appearance and what she said, she was still only human.

It took her a moment to speak. When she did, her voice was hushed, and not as confident as she wanted to sound. "Our room. The bed. You don't have to... on the couch - it's big enough. I mean, the bed. We could - I figured you wouldn't mind if..." It was not a big deal, right? They had fallen asleep on the same couch dozens of times. Tripping over her tongue must have been a side effect from the wine. "It's our room. And tonight is... almost perfect."

[thecrowingtobe]

It had been a kneejerk reaction to her own reaction, the saying his name, then never mind and storming off. It had come across to him like he had done something wrong, thus his confused question. He was glad she hadn’t pulled away when he grabbed her wrist, for he was sure, somewhere in the back of his mind, that she would have slapped him for it, or at least slapped his hand away.

This was Jinx after all. You didn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to do, and if she wanted to storm off she was going to storm off (or else the belt on your pants would rest, buttons would fall away and everything would fall, it’s just how she worked).

While she seemed to stumble over words to find the right sentence he tried to figure out what the hell he did wrong. Apparently… nothing. She was just trying to tell him they could share the bed? Hell, he hadn’t even thought about or worried about any of that. He didn’t mind couches, or the floor, and if she didn’t mind him being in the same bed he wouldn’t have minded either. It just wasn’t something he had thought about just yet, or focused on at all. Hell, all he had thought about was how nice it would be to get out of these overly priced shoes and how it would be great to not have to walk home in the darkness tonight in them. Further arrangements and the hotel room had escaped him till now.

They were still kind of escaping him at the moment too. Something about that look on her face as she spoke, as that a smile? He had wanted her to smile, a real one for tonight. He wondered if that was it, because it did feel like one of those rare ones. It kind of amused him, a bit of a lopsided smile on his own face. And…

Geeze, when did he start thinking in these terms? In the idea that he wanted to make her smile like that? Or that it was okay to dress up in this kind of suit, go schmoozing with the high class at fancy places and seem to have a good time of it too? There was that one really strange point in the back of his mind. That one that says he really did have a good time with all of this. That he really was enjoying Jinx’s company tonight. And that one that in the back of his mind kept commenting on how she looked tonight. About the look on her face as she laughed, or how she reacted to a comment or a joke or to the taste of food tonight, or the look on his face at the wine she offered. The way a strand of pink hair stuck out and fell, curled and simple. Those little things he tended not to notice normally.

The voice in his head was fully his tonight; not clouded with anything else that he couldn’t recognize, but he still wasn’t sure why he thought half of what he did tonight, or why he was reacting the way he was now. Perhaps it was the wine. As she was done rambling, saying something about tonight being almost perfect, he nodding, just slightly in agreement. His hold on her wrist tightened just a bit as he pulled her back towards him more, his other hand moving up to touch that small lose strand of hair. He would never admit it, but he liked playing with girls hair. It was always abnormally soft.

“I’m sorry. I was trying for a perfect evening.” Where his mind had gone that moment, he really couldn’t have told you. The hand on her wrist let go and moved to her waist, pulling her closer. The hand that played with the strand of hair slipped back to her neck and drew her forward as he leaned down, smirked once, almost smugly but a little… endearing, and leaned in to kiss her. No, really, he wasn’t sure where the idea came into play, or why he wasn’t scared that she would knock his head off in a moment. Nor where the hell the courage came to even attempt it, but with out much thought to it, and all because he wanted to he had pulled her close to kiss her and meant it. A soft but meaningful kiss to add to her almost perfect evening.

[hexyoutotuesday]

Jinx only kept people close who could fight back. Doormats were rarely used in her world, and they had no place in her home. She spent a good month walking all over Trauma until he finally snapped at her. They fought, and she gained a certain respect for him. Otherwise, she would have ditched him the moment she found her own place to live. Claudio also gained his place in her tiny universe. He was brave enough to make her mad, to joke, poke fun, and laugh. The boy threw a cat on her face. That took guts. So over the past year, Claudio had become a permanent fixture. He was someone she held not only on equal ground, but he was hers. When AGI took him away from her, she broke their toys and took him back. If they tried it again, she would kill a lot more than just one hunter.

God, she had killed for this boy. What was wrong with her? ...aside from the obvious. What was wrong with her tonight? Better yet, why was she just standing by, letting him pull her closer and play with that loose strand of hair?

Though she may have made stupid mistakes, Jinx was not a dumb girl. She knew signs when she saw them. That did not mean she was not taken by surprise, though. Her eyes fell half lidded, pupils drifting to his hand at her hair. She fell quiet and her smile turned into something almost shy. When he spoke, she blinked a few times and looked at his face again. By all logic, she should have stopped him. Or maybe she should have indulged him more playfully. For some ungodly reason, she was taking this seriously, and it scared her. Yet when he put an arm around her waist and pulled her in close, all she felt was comfort. When he placed the hand at her neck, she was still, not moving when his lips met hers.

Not at first.

Her eyes stayed opened for a second, half veiled and watching. Slowly, she leaned into the kiss and her lids fell shut. Where did this come from? This courage, and the ability to make her melt. One hand went to his chest, and the other came to rest on his shoulder. Parting her lips, she tilted her head and kissed him back. It was slow, slower than she was used to, and that made it feel... more. More significant than the first two times, at least. The first was when she rescued him from the hunts. She kissed him so quickly he barely knew what was going on. The last time was terrible. She was a mess, half sobbing, and desperate for the tiniest bit of affection from anyone. Then there was this. And this was so perfect it terrified her.

It wasn't until she pulled away from his lips that she remembered to breathe. When the kiss parted, it was just as slow and delicate, and when she opened her big eyes, they were focused on only him. There was something soft about her look. For once, she was acting like young girl instead of a powerful leader, and it suited her.

[thecrowingtobe]

If you asked him what the hell he was doing he couldn’t have told you. There really wasn’t a proper thought in his voice riddled head to explain to him why he wanted to kiss her. Perhaps I was the smile, or just the fact that he actually had a good time that evening. Or perhaps it was the fact that out of everyone in this god forsaken city she was one of two people he felt this comfortable with.

It was strange for him to find comfort in people. Sure he had no problem talking to others or even going out and talking to him. Hell in the past few months he had gotten better about talking openly to others about who he was. What he could do. They never learned more then his basic ability, sure, but he was getting better at saying it. When he first arrived he kept it hidden and closed. Kept himself that way for ages.

After a year he had changed. A lot. Still, all that change didn’t change the fact that just two people had managed to get into his comfort zone. He could handle being around Trauma, even in close quarters. He could open up to him easy enough now, even to the point of confessing that he was… ah, well hearing things. That he was sure he was really god damn crazy. Jinx on the other hand was someone he could open up to as well, but in different ways. He didn’t mind having the small thing in his space, at all. He didn’t mind being bossed around from time to time either. It was different but the same.

Perhaps it was that strong feeling of comfort around her that pushed him to kiss her. Perhaps it was something else entirely. At the moment it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that the last girl he kissed like this was Newo. That was over a year and a half ago and… and it was mostly in his past now. It didn’t matter that he had two kisses from Jinx before, mostly because he was so traumatized by the events of the Hunt that he didn’t even realize she kissed him then, and because that second one was such a mess that… well neither of them were him, were they?

This one was his to her. It was a thoughtless move on his part, but meaningful and a bit passionate on his part. There was an actual feeling to it that he wouldn’t be able to explain. It was slow, it was warming and felt good. The fact that she didn’t take his face off with those claws of hers was a good sign, but more so the fact that she kissed him back. It seemed to last for ages, which was fine with him at the moment. It was a really dumb move, to kiss her, he was sure of that, deep down. It would be something he might regret on some level or another later but… as she drew back from it, looking at him with big eyes focused only on him; he smiled to her, much softer, caring and a little less smug. She looked more like a normal girl just then more then he had ever seen her. Still… he didn’t go back into his normal awkward boy mode and instead tipped his head towards the door to the stairwell. “Made you smile, Princess. Shell we check out the room?”

[hexyoutotuesday]

If Claudio had not spoken, Jinx would have continued staring at him like that for a good, long while. It might have turned into another slow kiss, or they could have awkwardly slipped away from each other and held hands all the way up the stairs. However, processing his words made her actually use her brain, and it snapped her out of her romantic daze. A little.

Those big, soft eyes of hers changed to match the smirk tugging at the side of her mouth. Her gaze sharpened, and her voice came out as a purr. "I'd say this night was perfect now, but I guess it's not over yet." Her words were playful, and may have been a teasing implication. They were, after all, dressed up and making their way toward a nice hotel room. The joke was there to be made.

The haze of the spontaneous kiss had not warn off yet, though. When she pulled away from his grasp, her movements were slow and delicate. She left her hand lingering on his chest until the last moment. A claw brushed his tie, giving its edge a slight tug. Then she moved to the stairwell. A nice thing about having a gentleman for company was she did not have to dirty her own hands on doors. Another was that she could walk first up the stairs. She held her dress up the entire way, her tall shoes making a soft, clicking echo with each even step. Every so often she turned her head just enough to glance down at him, fighting back a soft smile.

When they made it to their floor, she was not winded. Her heart was beating quickly, but for other reasons. All she could focus on was point A and point B, not the journey. Point A was Claudio in the lobby, and the latter was, well, him in their suite. Yes, it was a silly little fantasy, and nothing would probably come of it. They would explore the place, undress, and go to sleep. The most that would happen was she would steal another kiss. That was all. There was no sense in ruining their current relationship over wine and some illusion of prosperity and romance. No, she would not, in good conscience, do that to him.

So, looking forward to an evening of sleeping between expensive sheets, and not one on top of them, she stood by their suit door as Claudio opened it. Then she casually stepped in.

[thecrowingtobe]

[If I have to rewrite this one more time I will kill baby kittens]

The comment of this night not being over yet did bring that surprised look back on his face for a moment, followed by a little grin. In his mind he had flashed across with two ideas for what that meant at the same time, both of which said Good idea and Bad idea. Neither or which he bothered to follow as at the moment he was following her up the steps.

For the uncounted time tonight he had decided she looked good. Very good. He had even managed to tell her that a few times. Perhaps it was a bit of her witchy powers or perhaps it was just that he felt like her knew her well enough and this seemed new. Perhaps it was just the wine but he found himself enjoying the slightest teases too.

When they made it too the floor he too felt his heart racing, though from all those steps or other things he couldn’t be sure. He past her, looking down with a smile and moved to the door, sliding the key and opening it up. With a push of a hand he held the door open for her, a slight bow to acknowledge an ‘after you’ and then after she walks in he would follow, letting the door close with a heavy but silent thump.

The first thing his hand went for was the light switch, flipping it on to light up the room, all while the other hand went to loosen his tie. A low deep whistle escaped him, rather impressed. The room was large. Queen sized bed that seemed to stand forever tall with impressive thick bedding and pillows. Jinx would have to jump to get into it after she took her shoes off. There was a long and wide plush couch, some interesting modern artwork, a long desk/counter space that held a huge flat screen TV as well as a mini bar. The bathroom was right to their right, a glass sliding door made it hard to see as it was closed, but a large tub was defiantly in the mix. She must have paid a ridiculous amount of money for this room.

“Impressive…” was all he managed out right after seeing the room.

[hexyoutotuesday]

[kill 'em like we're in St. Edelweiss]

Well, at least she got what her moneys worth on this place. Really, all they had needed was a bed in a room with a heater. They probably would not use the television, or touch the bar. Everything was pretty superfluous, but it was nice to stay in a place that felt as fancy at they looked. Jinx would see the true reason for getting a room this expensive every time once she walked into the bathroom. That bathtub was going to be the love of her life later.

But for now, she just examined what was in front of her. Slowly, she walked past the couch and to the bed. Her fingertips ran along the top blanket, all the way to the folded over sheet. The thread count on it all was ridiculous. With all that fluff, the damn bed came up to her hips, even with her heels on. Standing beside it, she turned around to look at Claudio again. Her eyes softened a little before she strode back to her date.

"People work their entire lives for money and power," she began in a low voice. "It happens so often that it's like a part of living." She got close to Claudio and put her hands on his tie. She loosened it a little more for him, then moved her hands down to his jacket. While she spoke, she did not look him in the eye, and undid the buttons on his tailored coat. "For the past several years, I've had more money than I could spend, and more power than I could handle. I could destroy this entire city by myself tomorrow, and I doubt many people would be able to stop me. Yet I always fought for more when it never made me feel like... likw I feel in our tiny apartment. Like how I feel when I'm dancing. It made me feel... happy."

Jinx looked up at him. "I spent a lot of money on this, and I got that money with power. I picked at better food than most families eat on Christmas, and now I'm going to sleep in one of the fanciest places in this city. And none of it, not a single damn thing on its own, would make me this happy if I wasn't here with you."