I wanted to do some drabbles to start off the New Year (2014). Apparently I need to redefine what I mean by drabble. I ended up wanting to explore different character's thoughts on time, change, or just the New Year's Eve holiday.

I really got swept up in this first one. I love Jojo and Lil and want to know more about them. They are so wonderful to write, and I enjoyed the dynamic that developed between them as I wrote and I would definitely like to write more exploring them. I hope you will enjoy them too!

Lil bit back a swear as she fell hard on the ice. It took just a moment for her to sort herself out and sit up. He palm stung and her elbow ached from how she had landed. Of course, walking behind everyone, no one had noticed she had fallen, except-

"Lil!" Jojo was instantly hovering over her. "Are you hurt? Did you hit your head?"

"M'fine." Lil pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the hands Jojo held out to help her. "I can't exactly accept a hand up from a ghost," she muttered, avoiding the wide blue eyes fixed on her. A twinge went through her left wrist and she rubbed it absentmindedly.

Her mother looked back long enough to call, "Stay with us, Magill."

Not even bothering to argue, Lil followed behind her family. Her guardian angel trotted along beside her, bare feet leaving no mark on the dirty snow.

She had no interest in going to the neighbor's New Year's Eve party. She had a headache before they even arrived, but it wasn't like she had a choice. That was how holidays were with family, getting shuttled around like a child. It wasn't even worth complaining about. Lil discarded her coat and shoes with everyone else's, said hello to her parents' friends, and slipped into the bathroom.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jojo poked her head through the door just as Lil was pushing up her sleeve to get a better look at her wrist. She spotted Lil's hand and offered a sympathetic, "Oh, ow!"

"It's fine," Lil muttered, sticking her hand in the sink to rinse away the blood with an involuntary hiss at the cold water. It wasn't a bad scrape. The heel of her hand stung, and a few of the cinders they scattered on the roads had dug into her skin. Her wrist still hurt, but nothing looked wrong with it.

"I can help, if you'll let me." Jojo slipped into the bathroom and hopped up onto the counter, leaning so she was right in Lil's face.

"What, you have angel healing powers or something?"

"Yeah."

"Seriously?" Lil blinked at Jojo's casual shrug and turned off the water. "Okay. Go ahead."

"I have to kiss you. Is that okay?"

If it had been anyone but Jojo saying that, Lil was pretty sure she would have socked them just out of suspicion. Instead she was shocked silent for a few seconds before wordlessly holding out her hand.

Jojo cupped both hands around hers and pressed a soft kiss to the scrapes on the heel of her hand. She shifted down to leave a lose triangle of kisses on the area of Lil's wrist that had been bothering her.

The twinge disappeared. The blood that had been starting to well up suddenly dried up. The skin closed before her eyes, leaving only slightly softer patches like the new skin under a scab. Lil flexed her fingers and rolled her wrist, but every annoying pinprick of pain was gone. Her hand didn't even feel cold anymore.

Jojo flashed a proud grin at her. "Told you so."

"I also hit my elbow. Can you?" Lil gestured to her right elbow.

"I can fix that."

Jojo hopped down and lifted her arm to kiss her elbow as well. Lil rubbed it, searching for a bruise that was no longer there.

"That's amazing."

"Isn't it?" Jojo put her hands on her hips, tossing her head so her ponytails bobbed.

"Thanks."

Jojo's smile disappeared as her mouth hung open for a moment before snapping shut with an audible click. "That's the first time I've actually been able to help you. That's the first time you've thanked me!"

Flipping down the toilet seat so she could sit down, Lil tried to throttle down her guilt. Jojo really was doing her best to help. She was working hard just putting up with Lil, probably. "I told you I don't need a guardian angel."

"Well you've got one, so stop whining about it! What do you have against me, anyway?"

Lil glared, and was met with a stubborn frown from Jojo. That was part of the problem she had accepting this. Jojo was so obviously human, proud and stubborn and excitable. Even when she was playing divine therapist, it was more like having a friend listen and offer advice and empathy and the occasional verbal kick in the pants than going to confession.

"I don't have a problem with you. It's just the whole angel thing." Just the idea of being so broken she needed divine intervention.

Jojo sighed and took a place in her lap. "I don't know what to tell you. I'm just trying to help."

"You're too lazy to even float," Lil pointed out, snickering when Jojo stuck her tongue out. "How much can you even do?"

"Not much, actually. Even the healing thing is just. . . it's really limited." Jojo put two fingers to her lips thoughtfully. "They tried to explain it during training. It's like energy, and it doesn't conduct very well. If you don't accept it, it might not conduct at all."

Lil found that interesting. She didn't really know much about angels, and Jojo refused to talk about anything connected to her own death, so the only information she had was the tidbits that slipped out now and then.

"So if I was dying-"

"Don't talk about that! I'm supposed to keep that from happening!"

Lil smoothed a hand over Jojo's arm to soothe her, but only received a suspicious glare. "Can you cure a headache?"

It took a few deep breaths for Jojo to calm down. "I can try."

Jojo braced one hand on her shoulder and leaned forward, her other hand stroking Lil's bangs out of the way as she kissed a few times at Lil's temple before kissing her way straight down to her jaw. She wiggled around, in Lil's lap as she switched sides and did the exact same thing, seeming to take a long time on the last few kisses. Lil's headache was easing, but something warm was fluttering around in her stomach instead.

"Why are you kissing me there?"

"You clench your jaw. That's why you get headaches all the time." Jojo sat back, bracing her hands on Lil's knees and giving her a cheeky smirk. "And you grind your teeth."

"I do not!"

"You shouldn't lie."

"Then why don't you 'cure' all my bad habits while you're at it?" Lil snapped, all too aware that she was tensing not only her jaw, but her abdominal muscles, trying to crush the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach.

"Are you kidding? If someone tried to give you a magic kiss to fix everything wrong in your life, you'd punch them in the mouth."

There were a lot of things Lil wished she could change that easily. She thought of features she wanted to dig out and discard; how she had to clench her hands into fists to stop them from shaking, the awkwardness of her smile, the cadence of her voice and the sound of her laugh. She didn't even know how to remove the feeling of being empty inside, dull and lonely.

Desperately as she wanted to change, it was a sickening thought to leave it in someone else's hands, to be carved up and rearranged into a pattern of their choosing. She refused to let that happen.

"I'd do worse than punch them."

"See, I know you." Jojo shrugged. "Not like it's an issue. My job is just to comfort and stuff like that."

Comfort wasn't exactly the word for what she was feeling right now, but maybe it was close enough. Now that she thought about it she didn't feel quite so lonely these days, with Jojo following her around being relentlessly cheerful at her and trying to get her to talk. Jojo actually listened to her. It seemed like she should know better by now.

"I probably can't be fixed anyway."

"Lil, stop that. I thought we were making progress."

"I'm just getting in the New Year's spirit."

"You know what your problem is? You think you have one big problem," Jojo held her hands up like she was squeezing something about the size of a basketball between them. "But it's actually tons of little problems all piled on top of each other. And then when you can't figure out what it is you get mad and start just being like that. But instead of beating your head on the whole big mess all the time, we could focus on one small problem at a time."

"So you think my problems are small?" Lil asked, gearing up to be offended.

"Small enough to fix. Maybe even small enough for angels to fix," Jojo teased gently.

Lil let out a long breath, facing the hopeful quirk of Jojo's eyebrows, and relaxed her annoyance enough to tease back. "Small enough to fix with kisses?"

"I don't know, maybe." Jojo's face flushed, which meant Lil had won.

She didn't know what to think of Jojo's assessment. It was true there was more than one thing wrong, but she didn't see how it could do any good to focus on one thing or another. Why couldn't she just be tougher and deal with everything?

"So, you gonna listen to me for once?"

One small problem she had was a lapful of hopeful angel. Jojo was biting her lip, watching her with what Lil thought of as her 'angel look.' Innocently wide eyes saying she was putting everything she had into her job, trying to be nothing but this ideal of perfect, loving care.

"Okay, I think I've got one." Lil automatically looked away from how Jojo's face lit up, then made herself look back. "Is it okay if I kiss you?"

"Of course."

Lil touched a soft kiss to Jojo's cheek and drew back again. "I never said thank you. For putting up with me."

"Don't say that too much or it won't be special." Jojo bumped her nose playfully against Lil's. "And while we're setting things straight: I'm not 'putting up with you.' I like you."

Lil shifted, tilting her head so their noses were no longer pressed together, and had Jojo meet her. The first brush of a kiss was soft, uncharacteristically shy as both waited to see if the other would wince away.

They shared a wordless breath, a silent agreement, before coming together again in a firm kiss. Jojo hummed happy noises against her mouth, one hand cupping her jaw while the other stroked her bangs back behind her ear.

Lil wanted to laugh at the unanticipated gestures of affection, but more than that she wanted to keep kissing Jojo, moving her lips slow and firm as if to spell out what she needed to say. Jojo wasn't using the same healing energy, but Lil still felt something inside of her relax. It was as if one hair-thin thread out of the mess of her self had been teased free.

When they parted her lips tingled with the urge to be pressed against Jojo's again. She licked them absentmindedly, watching Jojo's deeply satisfied smile.

"I still don't think I need an angel, but I like you too."