I had a thought… what if Juno's NOT an innocent as she's always portrayed to be? The results were… interesting. Written in about 5 minutes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Angel…

The men who slept with Juno were frail and old and sick. They liked to crush her angel wings and believe they seduced a saint who had fallen only for them. In private, she would laugh at their fragile exertions.

"Why, girls, that last one was so old, I could have pushed him and he would have keeled right over!"

The girls would exclaim at how clever she could be.

Let us be dreamers, my darling, and talk of things we cannot see.

By night she spun and sighed, letting her groans of boredom be mistaken for cries of ecstasy. They crushed her against velvet pillows, pushing her halo askew, lifting her petticoats about her pretty face. "Oh sir, no one's ever done that to me!"

Garden Girl would sip her emerald jewel, letting it sparkle on her lips. "What an actress you are, Juno!"

What an actress she could be. A dancing, singing marionette. A butterfly pinned on a backing of card.

Let us be poets, smiths of words, and see swirls in absinthe green.

The man above her was so old; she could have killed him in a heartbeat.

"You are such an angel, Juno."

"Yes dear, so I am."

The knife was for her protection. It slid out with a bump when he thrust too hard. It was an experiment, she whispered. A simple exercise of might-have-been.

He looked almost comical with the blade protruding from his belly, sluiced between his rips. His blood stained her stockings. They were new; it was a shame. The ruby liquid was a salt-sweet wine against her tongue.

Let us play with sticks and stones, feel the rot that lies in our bones…

Juno cried for Garden Girl. "He tried to hurt me, I had no choice!" Candle light glowing on feathered wings. "Oh, do you know what I should do?"

Garden Girl came and kissed her hair. "We'll let him sail away, Juno, and then all will be well."

They dragged him to the river, with the help of Tarot (she would not tell).

A rough whisper, a gentle breath across the cheek. "How scared you must have been, Juno!" Flame drenched curls blowing in the icy breeze.

Juno cracked an icy smile. "Oh, yes. Yes I was."

They held each other as he drifted down the Seine. Juno's lips were red.

For let be frank, my darling, and accept things that cannot be.