“This job the only reason you wanted me here?”
Raya raised an eyebrow and looked up from their blueprints, a bit distracted. “Hmm?”
Joss sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. She hated having to talk about this but... Well, no matter how much Raya insisted that this was to get back at XS, to prove to the world that she existed, Joss couldn’t stifle the sense that there was something more to this. After all, not everyone would steal cold and heat guns from S.T.A.R. Labs just to prove a point and get their old partner back.
She wasn’t sure if she was still angry or not about the latter, even if Raya promised a big payoff in the end.
“Taking down XS can’t be the only reason you wanted me here,” she said. Her voice wasn’t nearly as steady as she tried for. “Why go to all that trouble, huh?”
Raya’s lips curled into a sharp smirk. She considered Joss for a moment - long enough for the latter to start squirming in place - before standing, moving to stare her down from a couple inches away. Joss swallowed hard at the look in her eyes, dark and knowing.
“Why indeed.” Raya tilted her head. “Didn’t get much of a chance to make it up to you before.”
“Making up for the burns or for lost time?” Joss muttered.
Something, a hint of remorse perhaps, flickered behind her stare. That smirk softened, just a smidge. “Both.”
Joss laughed dryly. “Helluva a gift, then. Giving me a gun that could burn me just as bad as that house fire.”
“And a chance to burn this nosy little speedster in our city,” Raya purred.
Oh. Oh, Raya hadn’t...
Joss wet her lips and wanted to smile when the other watched the movement, expectant in a way she realized came from a faint sense of nerves and anticipation.
It’d been a long time since she’d gotten to burn something.
“When’s the job?” she whispered, and Raya’s eyes lit up with delight.