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Chapter 5
"You're going to regret this…" the shorter man warned. The barrel of his ARM as well as the threat was aimed at Jet but the young drifter didn't miss the fact he sounded far too unsure for his big words.
"Quit babbling, ugly! Let's start already!" Jet responded in impatient annoyance.
He then moved with such speed Virginia didn't even understand what had happened until she saw him land, boots first, in his opponent's face. A terrified sound escaped the man's throat as he went down.
To his credit the short man somehow managed to twist Jet's ankle and trip him as the two hit the floor with a loud thud.
Virginia snapped out of her momentary awe as she saw the larger man, dubbed "scar-face" by herself, raise his heavy cannon toward her. It looked almost like the cannon of the Sandcraft she thought as she watched his finger on the trigger. Leaping aside in the last moment she caught some splinters in her hair as the wall behind her disintegrated from the massive blast. Her own ARMs blazing as she sprinted in a wide circle around the heavy built man, she managed to put a bullet in his shoulder. A low grunt escaped his lips but he didn't so much as sway. A second bullet ricocheted off the barrel of his massive ARM and his aim was momentarily thrown off.
"You bastard!" his smaller companion sputtered as he stood up from the floor. He tore the handkerchief from his face and spat a few teeth onto the floor. "I'm going to kill both of you!" he exclaimed, his eyes darting wildly around the room.
Jet, however, didn't allow his opponent much time to realize his threat. All the man saw was a quick blur of movement in the corner of his vision and then his already aching cheek bone made sudden contact with a certain drifters fist. He staggered backward and received another blow in the abdomen. Doubled over in pain and his teeth (save the few that were on the floor) gritted together in a mad grin the man raised his rifle and began emptying the clip into the ever-moving blur he assumed was his victim turned assailant. Somewhere beside him his partner in crime, the bulky man known as Hector to his friends and "scar-face" to his newer acquaintances was blowing holes in the walls trying to get the female drifter.
A bullet graced Jet's cheek and tore open a shallow gash across the side of his face. Blood ran from the wound and entered his mouth as he reached over, grabbed the firing ARM and pushed the weapon upward. Another bullet graced his shoulder and tore a hole in the red scarf flowing behind him before he completed the movement.
Pieces of the ceiling rained down upon them until the handkerchief-man, if you really could call him that sans handkerchief, finally ran out of bullets.
His ARM's modified all right, Jet thought in the back of his head as he pushed the muzzle of his own ARM, still unused and fully loaded, into the face of his opponent. Virginia had now disappeared into the next room and "scar-face" had followed her causing plenty of collateral damage along the way.
"Tell your buddy to stop shooting!" Jet bellowed over the explosions.
"H-He won't listen! Once he starts shootin' there's no stoppin'. Please don't kill me…" the man was trembling, staring cross-eyed into the barrel of the Airget-lamh. Jet frowned.
"You wait here" he said and skillfully rendered the man unconscious with a single punch, "If he hurts the girl I'll kill you both."
Almost instantly after his announcement another explosion rang in his ears followed by the scream of a woman. Jet felt his blood turn to ice and he froze on the spot, his eyes widened to an extreme. Was that…Virginia?
No!!
He broke into a frantic run. Stumbling over some debris scattered on the floor his knee suffered a heavy blow. Completely oblivious to the pain Jet rushed through the doorway and into the next room.
In amidst the general wreckage of the once tidy room lay the mountain of a man that had been her opponent. His knees were pulled up underneath his chin as he had curled up in a fetal position. He was covered in fragments of the piece of ceiling his last shot had obliterated.
Beside him Virginia had just kicked the large cannon away from them and Jet watched it roll across the floor until it came to rest against a pile of rubble that had once been a wall.
She was unharmed! Jet found his eyes drawn back to the young girl standing beside the defeated giant.
Virginia's all right!
Before that day he had never known relief so very intense and he didn't quite know what to make of it. For a moment he could only stare at her, silently debating how or if to express the very foreign emotions stirring inside of him. Virginia finally took notice of his presence and he had to say something.
"…What happened to him?" he managed to ask, in the end forcing himself to simply ignore the maelstrom of feelings that had yet to settle down. Virginia was safe. For a moment there he had thought…
"I kicked him where you're not supposed to kick a guy" she replied happily "or supposed to, I don't know. Depends on how you see it, I guess."
"But I thought I heard a woman-" Jet began.
"Please don't let her hurt me any more..." the large man cut in. His voice was nothing but an unnaturally high-pitched whimper. He appeared to be crying as well.
"Ah" Jet said. Everything was suddenly very clear. If anything will make a grown man shriek like a girl it's a well-placed kick in the privates. He felt a natural urge to pity the man, any man who met such a tragic fate, but in the end he said nothing. The guy had tried to kill Virginia, after all. He had it coming.
Glancing up from the sobbing giant he caught her staring warily at him.
"Don't worry," he told her, "I'm done freaking out." as a matter of fact he was actually feeling more relaxed now than he had done the whole past week. There's nothing quite like a short lapse into insanity to relieve you of your tensions. It's good exercise for the mind and the body.
"You're hurt!" the girl suddenly exclaimed, her eyes widening at the realization. Her caution completely forgotten, she hurried over to examine the wound.
"Huh?" at first Jet didn't know what she was talking about, then he remembered the graze on his cheek. "Oh, that? It's just a scratch" he shrugged.
"How can you say that?" Virginia sounded upset, "Another inch to the left and you'd be dead!" she pulled a tissue out of her pocket and began cleaning the blood off his face.
"Whatever…" Jet sighed, squirming as she worked the tissue around the shallow graze.
"Don't say that…" she nearly whispered and he was taken aback by the distraught in her voice, "If you died…" she retracted her hand from his face letting it fall down to her side. Staring down at her feet for a moment she felt unsure of how to continue. "I…I'd cry." she closed her eyes tightly shut as if she was afraid the mere thought of it might cause her to weep, "I would be so sad I…I don't know what I'd do…" she finished somewhat awkwardly. Could Jet relate to this, she couldn't help but wonder. Or was it all foreign to him?
When she finally dared a hesitant glance up at him, Virginia found him watching her with an undecipherable, somehow distant look on his face his. They stared into each other's eyes for the longest time and all she could think of was how badly she wanted him to understand.
Then suddenly becoming aware of how close they stood Virginia felt her heartbeat quicken dramatically. She tried to look away for she could already feel herself blushing, but found her muscles unwilling. His intense violet eyes showed no sign of shying away.
Slowly Jet finally opened his mouth to speak and Virginia didn't even dare to breathe.
"…Do you have a Band-Aid or something?" he wondered.
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Limping back into the room where the smaller man still lay unconscious Jet marveled at the complexity of women. Virginia had stomped on his foot again. Hard. It had NOT been the expected reaction. Somehow his request for a Band-Aid must have had insulted her. He had always been very good at insulting people but never could he have imagined he was this good.
Perhaps he ought to listen more attentively the next time Gallows went on a rant on the subject of women. He usually did a couple of times every week, anyway. But then again, maybe he wasn't as adept with the opposite sex as he claimed to be. At least if you were to believe Virginia, and why shouldn't you? She was a girl after all. Hell, even to Jet, whose experience on the subject was only greater when compared to less than none, some of his ideas seemed kind of skewed.
No, he would have to look for a more suitable mentor. Perhaps Clive would do? The man was married after all. He ought to know something.
While he was pondering these things Virginia entered the room behind him, still pouting. She was muttering something about the moment being ruined although Jet wasn't quite sure what she meant by that. He had a feeling it had something to do with the Band-Aid incident but he still couldn't figure out why such a natural and harmless question had triggered such aggravation in his female companion.
Then, right after she had brutalized his foot, Virginia had gone on to silently bandage his wounded shoulder and carefully applied the Band-Aid she had indeed been carrying to his cheek. Jet shook his head; women truly were a mystery.
The two of them had tied up "scar-face" in the other room with some drapes borrowed from the windows and a lengthy lamp chord they had saved from the rubble of a collapsed wall. He wasn't likely to brake free any time soon. Next up was his smaller friend.
Jet made the mistake to blink and found himself having to struggle in order to force his eyes open again. Sleep would come easy tonight if only he could ever get home…
"With my luck there's probably not even a bounty on them…" he muttered as Virginia walked up beside him.
"Thinking about money, are we?" she asked with a smile, the anger from before forgotten, "Well of course you are…" Jet scowled and Virginia giggled heartily. Her giggle was soon brought short by a tired yawn. She realized how tired she really was. "Hey, Jet?" she asked innocently, "will you carry me home?" she stretched out her arms toward him, making sure to wear an expectant look on her face.
"You carry me…" Jet muttered and went on to tighten the last knot around his ex-opponents legs. At his current state of fatigue he didn't find the idea all that bad.
He waited for her to stop laughing before he spoke again.
"Let's go," he said, "we'll send the sheriff to get them"
"Is that ok?" Virginia wondered. "What if they break free?"
Jet shrugged. He was really too tired to worry anymore.
"Well, with any luck they might come back and crash the party tomorrow…" he started walking toward the door.
"You really…hate the idea that much?" her question stopped him before he reached the exit.
"I don't hate it." Jet said sending her a glance over his shoulder, "I just think it's a bad idea that's all. It's wasted on me, you know." he sighed, "It's not really my birthday… and even if it was I doubt I'd choose to celebrate it."
"Why? 'Cause you'd rather not have been born? Is that it?" Virginia couldn't help herself. For someone who preached the importance of letting go of the past he sure seemed to have a hard time letting go of his own. Then again, his past was quite extraordinary…
"I never say that." the boy replied dully, "Jeez, do I come off as suicidal, or something?" he turned around to fully face her, looking somehow amused in a humorless way. "I'm glad I was born," he paused for a moment with a distracted look on his face. Virginia wondered what he was thinking, "or whatever you'd call it in my case, what I don't understand is what you got to do with it. Why do you wanna celebrate my birth? An ungrateful guy like me?"
"That's what friends and family do." she met his gaze with an unwavering stare, "In case you haven't noticed I care a lot about you," she was tempted to stop there but added: "we all do." which was of course true but made her seem less special. "I just want you to be happy but I guess that's wanting too much. We'll just call the whole thing off if that's what you want." she started walking toward the door while silently praying that wasn't what he wanted.
Please say something! her minds voice screamed. Of course it was nothing Jet could hear.
As she passed him he was still staring forward at the spot where she had stood moments earlier, his mouth a thin line. She felt her own eyes brimming with tears. How could be so cold? She only wanted to do something nice and he refused to accept it?
"Virginia" the sound of Jet's voice broke the silence. She whirled around to face him. He was still standing with his back to her one hand resting on his forehead as if he was fighting off a migraine, "…what am I supposed to do tomorrow?"
"What do you mean?" she asked in a quiet voice, she didn't want to get her hopes up.
"I've never been to a birthday party before, let alone been the center of one. Am I supposed to dress up? Do I wear a special hat or something? I don't know."
For some time Virginia could only stare at him. Then, despite great efforts, she couldn't keep from laughing. Jet turned around at the sound, he didn't look very amused.
"Forget I asked" he muttered.
"N-no" Virginia struggled to subdue her laughter, "I'm sorry. It's just…You sound so…I…" she tried to explain but failed in forming a complete sentence. "Thank you, Jet." she smiled sweetly.
"I'm only doing 'cause of you, though. Remember that." Jet said before he realized what that implied. "I mean-"
"That's so sweet!" she cut him off before he could modify his statement, "It means a lot to me, thank you" she looked about ready to hug him.
"Uh…" Jet said.
"You don't have to do anything." Virginia told him, with that strange affectionate smile that made him uneasy, "Just look happy when you get your presents." a cold feeling of insecurity came over her as she remembered her own disastrous purchase, "Especially when you get mine, ok?" she whispered looking down at her feet.
"Well, I guess that doesn't sound too hard…" he said with familiar indifference.
Virginia smiled even wider. "Thanks" she said again.
Jet shrugged, "Whatever."
The two started off toward the exit but before they left the room Virginia turned around to take one last look at the resulting carnage from their little treasure hunt. She couldn't help but marvel at the coincidences that brought her and Jet together in that dark cellar far underground. And let's not forget the unlucky outlaw duo who showed up just in time to experience Jet's wrath.
The whole thing was actually quite funny when you thought about it.
"So much trouble over a little cheese, huh?" she said letting her gaze traveled over the devastated room once more.
"Don't," Jet said at the mention of that certain dairy product, "don't remind me."
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Next: the birthday (finally).
I'd say about two more chapters to this story.
