Disclaimer: I do not own Chrno Crusade.

[In this chapter, Rosette is twelve, Joshua is eleven, and Chrno is fourteen (but he looks like a twelve year old.)]

Story Part 1
Chapter I
First Half

"Then Billy tripped and I had to take him to the infirmary," Rosette told her one-year younger brother Joshua.

Rosette was visiting Joshua in the hospital. Their father, Vinsent, could not visit very often because he was busy working to pay off bills.

They lived in an one-bedroom apartment. The room was too small to put a lot of things in it, so Joshua and Rosette slept in there. It was used for other reason, but let's get other things straight first. Their dad worked late so he would just sleep on the sofa.

Joshua had been extremely sickly lately, so they had to take him to the hospital. For one hour after school, Rosette would go to the hospital to visit her brother. Then, later in the day, she would visit him again, but only for thirty minutes.

The reason Rosette didn't stay longer was because of money problems. Their father somehow made enough to pay for bills, but not the smaller, still important things. Any extra money would be emergency money or college money. It was usually up to Rosette and Joshua, now only Rosette, to make enough for the smaller things.

Joshua would do small jobs for store owners or someone else. Rosette would babysit some of the neighbor's kids. They both worked hard, even though it was difficult. Rosette usually started babysitting at six, the time after school was to get things ready or cleaned up. They also used the bedroom as the babysitting room.

Now that Joshua was in the hospital, their father had to work even harder to pay the hospital bill. But, even if he worked to death, there still was some missing money from the hospital bill, and Rosette had to make up for that.

Joshua hated being in the hospital, not because of the way it smelt (or smelled?) like medicine and other things, but because it affected his father and sister the most. He couldn't work for the money they needed. So not only did they have to worry about Joshua's sickness, but also about making ends meet.

After Rosette was done catching her brother up on daily things, school and other things, she got ready to leave.

"Okay. Joshua, I'll be back later on to check up on you. If you need something urgent for me and dad, tell the nurse to contact us, okay?" Rosette said while getting her things together.

"Yeah, whatever," Joshua muttered.

Rosette smiled tired-fully (what is the right way for that?), then went into 'mother' mode. "Be sure to do your homework and don't give trouble to anybody, understand?"

"Yeah," Joshua muttered again, a smile crawling on his lips.

Rosette began tickling Joshua. "What was that?"

Joshua laughed. "Yes...ma'am," he said between laughs.

Rosette stopped tickling her brother. "Really Joshua," she sighed. Joshua looked at his sister confusedly. "If you don't want to worry me and dad" — she patted his head — "what you can do for us is get better."

Joshua gave his sister a faint smile then said cheerfully, "I'll do my best!" Joshua always said that when he got a job. Before asking for a job, he would tell them he was sick, but really needed the money. If they still gave him the job, he would say he would do his best.

Rosette smiled and hugged him. "That's the spirit!" She stopped hugging him and went towards the door. "Bye Joshua," she said before leaving. "See you later."

After Rosette closed the door, Joshua replied, "Bye," even though she couldn't hear him now.

XXXXXXX

Rosette went home, did her homework, took a quick shower, and then got ready for work. Rosette now did half of the jobs Joshua did to make the money for the hospital bill. She would always explain that with Joshua in the hospital, someone had to do his part of the work. Some accepted and some didn't.

Rosette was delivering packages to people around town. Simple, easy, two reasons why Rosette like doing it. Until five 'o clock she worked other jobs, too. When she was done, Rosette went home to get ready to see her brother again.

XXXXXXX

When Rosette walked into Joshua's room, he was using his friend's laptop while eating the hospital jell-o. When Joshua saw his sister, he closed the laptop and put it aside.

They talk a little bit more, and Rosette tells Joshua about the jobs.

When it's almost five-thirty, Rosette says goodbye to her brother and leaves. On her way to the stairs, she hears some nurses complaining.

"The Sinner kid got out again," one nurse complains.

"He may not be able to use his legs (Hi Whispering Lotus!), but he sure does have some upper-body strength," the other nurse says.

The first nurse nodded and looked to her left. "Ah, there he is!" she said pointing to a kid in a wheelchair.

The kid zooms past the two nurses and goes in Rosette's direction. The kid didn't see her, for he was too busy paying attention to the nurses chasing him. He stuck his tongue out at the nurses and looked forward, to make sure he didn't run into anything. But when he turned around, he saw he was about to hit Rosette!

Story Part 1
Chapter I
Second Half

There was almost no time to react. Rosette for some reason couldn't move, so the kid made an attempt to stop the wheels with his hands. He managed to slow down, but he still hits Rosette. When he does, he flies out of his chair and lands on Rosette.

After five seconds of having swirls for eyes, he sat up and rubbed his head. "Ow, ouch," is all he could say. He looks at Rosette, only to see she still had swirls for eyes.

When she recovered, Rosette glared at the kid and hit him on his head. He yelped in pain. "Be careful! Think of other people before yourself!" she yelled at him. He glared back at her and complained too. Rosette didn't pay attention to what he was saying, but instead was studying him. The kid had tanned skin and his eyes were ruby or crimson red. His hair was long and violet, and even though he looked like a girl, you could get a weird feeling he was a boy.

When the boy was done yelling, he rubbed the spot Rosette had hit him. He turned around just in time to see the two nurses running down the hallway towards them. Rosette heard him curse in a different language, then he tried to get back in his chair. Rosette had a weird feeling that she should help him. She got up and helped him into his chair, then grabbed the pushing handles on the back and faced him in the direction of the nurses.

"Hey, what are you doing!" he yelled at Rosette.

Rosette ignored his question and said, "What room?"

The boy stared at her. "What?"

Rosette sighed and started running forward. She ran past the nurses, and asked again, "What room are you in?"

The boy scoffed. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm helping you," she said and smiled at the boy.

He looked away, it looked like he was somewhat blushing and pouting. "Room 317."

Rosette smiled again. "Got it." She kept running, turned a couple of times, and stopped at the room the boy said. She was panting. "This...it?"

The boy nodded and Rosette pushed him in. He got out of the wheelchair by himself and sat on the bed. Rosette just stared. "You have a lot of upper-body strength huh?"

The boy glanced at her and nodded. He had his hands in his lap, they were trembling.

Rosette looked at his hands and saw that they were bleeding. She gasped and gently grabbed his hands. The boy winced in pain. "When did this happen?" she demanded him, but with worry in her voice.

The boy only looked at Rosette's hands holding his. "Probably when I tried to stop the chair."

Rosette let go and looked around. She looked through a couple of cabinets in the room. Then she found what she was looking for, a first aid kit. She went back to his side, opened the first aid kit, and took out the disinfecting spray. She sprayed his hands. The boy nearly yelled out in pain, but Rosette said, "It's either this, or something worse." After disinfecting, she carefully wiped his hands with a cloth. Then she bandaged his hands.

While she was still treating them, the boy talked. "Why did, more like, how did you know I didn't want to be helped by the nurses?"

Rosette shrugged. "Gut feeling. Also because you cursed in Japanese."

The boy's eyes widened. "You knew I cursed in Japanese?"

Rosette shrugged again. "Two things. One, I didn't need to know you were speaking Japanese to know that you were cursing. Two, I only knew it was in Japanese because my brother is an anime slash manga fanatic." Rosette finished bandaging the boy's hands, then held them up for him to see. "Ha! See, all better."

The boy only blushed. He wasn't used to having a girl, not a nurse, not even a nurse, holding his hands. Thing is that, Rosette was holding them fairly close to her chest, even though there was nothing there, it's still a girl's chest.

When Rosette let go, the boy said, "Thanks." Rosette smiled and looked around. It was the boy's turn to study Rosette now. She was blonde (I forgot how to spell it! T^T), and her hair were in two braids on either side of her head. Her eyes were fairly big and were ocean blue. He thought that her look fit her perfectly. The boy blushed and told himself, 'Idiot! Don't think about a girl younger than you that way!' Then he wondered if she really was younger. Now that he thought about it, he didn't even know her name.

The boy coughed to get Rosette's attention. When she looked at him he asked, "Um, this might seem a bit late, but, what's your name?"

Rosette stared at him for a moment, then hit her forehead. "How stupid of me!" She held out her hand. "Rosette Christopher." She smiled.

The boy just stared at her hand for a while, then shook it. "Chrno, Chrno Rennis. Everyone calls me 'Sinner' because my last name is 'sinner' backwards. I'm fourteen."

Rosette gawked at him. "What?" Chrno said.

"You're fourteen?" Rosette yelled. Chrno nodded. "I thought you were twelve!"

Chrno nodded again. "Everyone does. It's not my fault I look and am short like a twelve-year-old." He looked at Rosette. "How old are you? Don't tell me you're fifteen and look like a twelve-year-old too?"

"Ha, freaking, ha. No, unlike you, I am the age I look like." Chrno nodded like he didn't understand. Rosette rolled her eyes. "Twelve idiot."

"That's what I guessed," Chrno said playfully.

"Whatever," Rosette said. Then she looked at the clock. Almost six. … ALMOST SIX! Rosette panicked and got her stuff together.

"What's wrong?" Chrno asked the panicky Rosette.

"I have to be home at six! I missed the bus so I have to go walking! I'll never make it!" Rosette yelled.

Chrno held her shoulders. "Rosette, calm down," he said with a seriousness that made Rosette blush. "Just run."

It clicked. "I will!" she said. She finished getting her things and left the room. Chrno laughed slightly when she left. Then, at that moment, she opened the door again and stuck her head in, and surprised Chrno. "Um, thanks Chrno." Then she left for good. Chrno calmed down from his surprise and blushed.

"Rosette, is pretty interesting."