Categories > Cartoons > Teen Titans > A Dish Best Served Cold

Land Ho!

by Count-Le-Madphantom 0 reviews

They've finally arrived, and not a moment too soon. Things are gonna get hot in the cold kingdom tonight.

Category: Teen Titans - Rating: R - Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Romance - Characters: Beast Boy, Cyborg, Gizmo, Jinx, Mammoth, Raven, Robin, Slade, Starfire - Warnings: [!] [V] [X] - Published: 2006-02-12 - Updated: 2006-02-13 - 1880 words

0Unrated
Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans.



A Dish Best Served Cold-Chapter Fifteen



After clearing up the misunderstanding the other day, Jinx had been more than happy to share the bed with Sub-Zero... It WAS his bed after all, and he didn't have any more beds below deck; the Titans were using them all... At first, he had been reluctant to invade her space, but she insisted on it.

"I can't just steal it from you." She'd insisted, "Besides, I won't flip out again, I promise." She giggled jokingly.

It had been a couple days since then, and this particular morning, Sub-Zero awoke to a welcome sight: Snow.

He got up carefully, not wanting to wake up Jinx (who generally liked to sleep late anyway), and looked out the porthole to see clouds of small, white snowflakes falling down. (A/N: I'm not sure if it's actually possible for it to snow out on the ocean, but this is fiction anyway, so I guess it's no big deal. ^-^ )

He had to contain the urge to shout for joy.

Seeing snow out on the sea like this was clearly a sign that they were getting very close. In fact, every other time he had seen snow while traveling back and forth, seeing snowflakes usually meant you'd arrive at Norblitz the same day, provided you kept a steady speed.

'Just wait Slade... by the time you catch up with us, we'll be waiting... just you, me, the Titans, and a posse of Ice Knights...' he thought venomously.

In truth though, he was nervous. Most of these 'tough guy' thoughts he was having were just an attempt to make himself less nervous, and make himself believe everything was under control.

He sighed heavily and turned his attention back to the peaceful snow outside... it seemed to soothe him for some reason, but at the same time, it made him think of home... which made him uneasy again.

He was interrupted from his reverie by a pair of hands clamping around his head.

"WHOA!"

"Guess who?..(giggle)"

"Uhh... Jinx? I hope?"

"Come off it. You knew it was me."

Jinx let go of him and smirked as he turned to face her.

"Well, you did startle me a little." He admitted shyly.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to, I just-hey... it that snow?" she asked mid sentence as she looked out the window.

He grinned and nodded. "Yep... we're getting close."

"To your home?" she asked looking surprised.

"Yeah... if all goes well, we'll arrive today."

She blinked and smiled widely at him. "Oh, Zero, that's great! I can't wait to see it." The witch chirped.

He chuckled nervously. "Well... I'm glad to hear it, but... I ... I just want to apologize in advance... I'm not sure how welcoming my people will be. I think I can reason with them, though." He sounded thoroughly nervous.

Jinx put her arms around his chest and hugged him, saying reassuringly: "Zero, I don't care if they come after us with torches and pitchforks, I'm glad we came with you."

He smiled and blushed. "Jinx, ...I... thanks." He stuttered embarrassed and touched at the same time. It was... nice, having her hug him like this, and he almost groaned in disappointment when she let go.

After a moment, he perked up a little and had an idea.

"Hey, Jinx..."

"Hm?"

"Want to go watch the snow?" he asked hopefully.

"...Sure, why not?" she said with a shrug.

Zero walked over and opened the cabin door, but he didn't walk out immediately... he stopped and held it open for her.

"Ladies first." He said with a cordial bow.

She looked at him for a moment and blushed heavily, then hurried out the door before he noticed. Sub-Zero strode out after her and walked with her over to the side of the deck, looking over the wooden railing at the peacefully falling snow.

Jinx laughed merrily as a snowflake landed right on the tip of her nose, causing a tickling sensation to spread across her face... It was like music to Zero's ears...

They stood there watching silently for another couple minutes... until Jinx shivered violently. Zero noticed and looked over at her, concern in his expression.

"Jinx, are you okay? You're shaking!" he said softly.

"Me? I... It's just a little chilly that's all..." she insisted, trying to ease his mind.

She gasped in surprise as he abruptly embraced her gently with both arms, and wrapped his large, thick, soft cape around her like a blanket.

"Any better?" he asked softly.

Jinx couldn't speak for a minute, but her face told it all: her pink, feline eyes went wide as coffee saucers and her face turned apple-red. Finally, she smiled and nuzzled her head against his torso armor, giggling giddily.

"Yes... mmm... you're warm." She purred.

As they were embraced, she gazed intently at his chest plate and his shoulder pads, both made of a deep blue, crystalline material she couldn't identify. There was an awkward silence, so she decided to make conversation.

"Zero... what's your armor made of?" she asked curiously.

"Puissancevanskeliginite." He said coarsely, sounding as though he was clearing his throat and hawking a loogy at the same time while he said it... obviously, he's talkin' in 'Norblizian' again.

She stared at him like he'd just pulled a polar bear out o his cape.

"U-uh... whaaaa....??"

He burst out laughing.

"Sorry! I should explain: It's in my native language... means 'metal stone of power'. We just call it that because it looks like a precious stone, y'know a jewel, but it's as powerful as any metal... makes for excellent shields and armor, though everlasting ice is better. We have mines for the stuff in the caves on the island."

She stared incredulously. "And that was all one word?" she asked sounding amazed.

"Err...well, yeah, it was... why?" he asked. She just shook her head, still looking like she'd just seen someone perform a miracle.

"You know, I never realized English wasn't your first language." She giggled. "You don't have an accent, or anything."

He chuckled darkly. "No, but I used to... back when I was first learning. I always made my 'W' sound like a 'V' ...and I had a Hell of a time keeping 'kitchen' and 'chicken' straight... and I could never understand the difference between words like: 'read' and 'reed', or 'knead' and 'need'." He lamented jestingly.

She laughed again, and Zero was once again reminded of how beautiful her laughter was. It must've been infectious, because a moment later, he started laughing also.

After they settle down, she cuddled a little closer to him and gazed at his chest armor once again. The early morning light glinted off of it's crystal looking surface and made it glow, almost ethereally.


"Mmmm, it's beautiful..." she purred looking at it with dreamy eyes.

"Not as beautiful as some things..." he whispered, taking her chin and tilting his head up very gently so he could look into her eyes, catlike and luminous in the morning atmosphere with his eyes, like small pools of crimson blood in pools of blank whiteness.

Suddenly, their faces began inching slowly toward each other... both their lips puckering up into 'kissing position'....

"Well, you two are up early."

For the second time that morning Zero was nearly sent into cardiac arrest, while Jinx made a small noise almost like a small, sick kitten.

They simultaneously whipped their heads around with shocked expressions to find that Raven had just woken up and come back above deck for a little bit of fresh air.

"R-Raven! H-how long were you....uh, nevermind." Sighed the knight "Good morning."

"Yeah... the others are awake, too. I just thought I'd see what you were up to."

"Oh, er, we...were..just.....watching the snow." He stammered softly, with an unnaturally wide grin plastered across his face.

"Right...well, I think I'm going to go back below deck and have some tea..." she said.

"Oh, All right! We'll be down with you guys in a second." He replied, trying to regain some of his former calmness.

After Raven had gown back down, he sighed heavily to himself and thought, 'DAMN! How does she DO that?', remembering she had done the same thing when Zero had introduced Jinx to the Titans. 'Bah! Oh, well...'

He looked down at Jinx, who was staring at the deck blushing VERY heavily.

"Well... shall we?" he asked, and pointing toward the Trap door with the ladder leading below deck.

She nodded silently and took his arm, and they went down together.





SEVERAL HOURS LATER ...



The Titans were sitting in a large kitchen room below deck, which Sub-Zero referred to as the 'Galley'. They had soon realized that the ship was huge below deck. There were the guest rooms they stayed in, the Galley, the Armory (filled with crates of cannonballs, cannons, swords, axes, spears, bows, arrows, clubs, whips, boomerangs, and God knows what else...), the cargo hold, the Gunwales (corridors on the sides of the ship where the cannons were), and also a large room filled with dummies and wooden targets in which Sub-Zero practiced his swashbuckling skills.

The Galley had several rows of cabinets filled with bottles of water and rum, and also an assortment of mugs and cups, and several crates with loaves of bread or pork that had been heavily salted so it would stay fresh.

The Titans were on a long, squishy, leather sofa that stretched around the sides of the compartment, and several lamps hung from chains and ropes from the ceilings and torches on the walls, providing plenty of light and giving the room a warm, welcoming mood.

A big, window was on the sidewall, giving a nice view of the sea, and a metal table for eating on was near the center of the large room, bolted to the floor.

Beast Boy looked around at the surroundings and whistled impressed.

"Wow, these are some nice digs! 'Specially for a ship." He said.

Zero grinned and nodded. "Thanks."

They had just finished dinner, and Zero had gotten up and decided to have a little walk outside.

"Guys, I'll be right back, I'm gonna go above deck for a second..." he'd said.

"All right." Cy nodded.

So, he went up above deck and sighed heavily. It had not yet stopped snowing, but he had seen no trace of home.

He walked over to the side of the ship and leaned lazily against the railing... and that's when he noticed it: The ship was moving slower, because it was having to make it's way through frozen water.

'My God... the water's frozen, that means...'

He literally yelled out loud and jumped up and down.

After calming himself, he ran over to the main mast and climbed up some of the ship's rigging, making his way to the crow's nest. Once there, he squinted his eyes and looked out into the horizon.

There it was.

Out in the distance loomed a massive, dark shape; it jutted out of the water like some huge, unearthly artillery piece. It was too tall and steep to be a reef, but too wide and massive to be a mountain or iceberg...

It was an island.
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