Transition

"Why don't we just use the other bathroom?"

"Because she said we couldn't."

"But we have been out here for a friggin' hour!"

"I know and you smell like a friggin' trash truck, but just let her be…"

"No, screw that. She's had her time ten fold, she's coming out now." The usual calm and cool Lupin had had his fill of waiting. "JESS, COME OUT RIGHT NOW! YOU HAVE BEEN IN THERE FOREVER!"

"Shut the hell up, Lupin. I'm almost done." A moment later the cause of the two men's wait opened the door to the only bathroom in the house revealing a transformed version of their hostess.

"Where are you going?" asked Jigen.

"It's Saturday, I'm not going to just sit around like a lump. I do that enough in school anyways. No," she remarked as she fashioned an earring in, "I'm going on a lunch date with this guy I know and then my usual loser night with Kim. I'm getting all the fun in since he's coming home."

Lupin looked to Jigen and whispered, "He?"

Jess heard him though and answered, "yes, he, also known as Joe. The one man in the world I absolutely detest. It's of your extreme resemblance to him that I noticed you all at the museum anyways." She stared at Lupin a bit and added, "Yea, he even used to have those ridiculously long sideburns."

Jigen remembered all too well the story of Joe. Jess related it to him that night he came back over some burnt grilled cheese sandwiches. "Whoa, how did I remember all that," he thought to himself. But with that memory came the overall disgust he had with the mentioned man and how he messed with Jess.

"Whatever, it's of no concern. I will be home around 1 AM tonight. Toodles." With a wave, she sauntered to her car and drove off for the night.

"That gives me an excellent idea," the master thief remarked with a devilish grin.

"OK whatever, I'm going to take a shower than," but he was stopped by a locked bathroom door. Goemon had slipped into the bathroom while the other two men were distracted with conversation. "Well, son of a bitch…"

When Jess arrived at her aforesaid destination of lunch, she was greeted by an overexcited thin man in a suit. His hair was combed back in such a fashion as to denote possible style, but his messy tie and crooked glasses made his overall appearance detestable.

"Oh no," Jess thought to herself, "He's dressed up for a reason." She put on a fake smile and embraced the jumpy man who was possibly a little too happy to see her for comfort. He motioned for her to sit down and attempted to take her hand.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Listen, I asked you to come here today because I have something of extreme importance I must tell you."

"Oh, crap," Jess thought to herself, "I knew I shouldn't have agreed to this." She began to recline further back in her chair to keep herself as far away from slightly overaggressive man who was continuously leaning towards her.

"Jess, through all the conversations we had…"

"What conversations? I never talk to this guy…" she thought.

"…I have grown so attached to you. You give me butterflies every time you say a word… and just everything about you makes me so excited."

"Gross, I don't need to making this guy any more excited than he is," Jess mused to herself as she continued to try to release her hands from his kung-fu grip.

"So, my question is this: I sense a real mutual attraction between us and was wondering if you want to give us a chance?"

Suppressing her initial reaction of throwing up and/or screaming, Jess decided to take the polite route and said, "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to decline." The boy across from her, although very sweaty at this point, clutched her hands tighter, so much that it began to hurt. "Now see here…"

"No, you see you here. How can you just deny me when I have professed my heart to you! This isn't how it's supposed to work. You led me on, that's it!" Jess' hands began to bruise against the rage he exerted through being rejected.

"Get off of me this moment," she said in a low and stern tone. When he didn't slacken his grasp she took matters into her own affair. With a swift kick under the table to his shin and another to his crotch, the brunette was finally free. While the man was groaning in pain at being given his justice, Jess threw some money on the table for the drink she ordered and swiftly left the scene. "F-ing asshole men thinking they can tell me what to feel. Bastard."

Since the angered woman didn't want to go home, she chose her next option which was to see her closest friend, Kim. She was the only one in Jess' life our heroine could properly trust. Before getting out of her car, though, she noticed her hands had turned a deep purple. Concealing this would be tricky, but she found some old Drum Major gloves in her back seat that would suffice for now.

"You are very early, I thought we were meeting at 7," a confused Kim enquired when she opened the door to see her friend standing there.

"Something happened so that I was able to break from lunch early. Please let's just do something so I can forget about everything."

"Everything? Hey why are you wearing Drum Major gloves?" Her question was never answered though and Kim attributed it to the quirks Jess exerted every now and then. Jess' behavior, though, was of concern but the small friend left well enough alone. The night itself lent itself to lightening the troubled girl, but not so much that it made her forget.

As she promised, Jess returned home at 1 AM. Another beautiful night out, she noticed. She took a deep breath of air, but instead of clear crisp air, she smelled a hint of cigarette smoke. The source of the smell was the man standing on the porch in the black fedora who had his eyes fixed on the road in front of the house.

"That is a terrible habit, you really ought to quit."

"It keeps me calm enough, how was your date?"

She had never called it a date and was a little perplexed at his calling it such but answered, "Well, it was absolutely terrible if you must know."

"Oh," was all he remarked on the subject. The scene was quite odd as the two stood at opposite ends of the porch. Jess hated the smell of cigarettes and refused to get any closer than necessary. "Listen, if it bothers you so much you should just say so," he said with a quick extinguish of the hated cigarette.

"Thanks, but you really ought to just stop altogether. It'll give you cancer and…"

"Listen, I know that." The two were silent for a moment. Jess wasn't exactly in the spirits to be arguing twice in one day. She merely turned her body and looked out to the streets just as the man next to her was. A quick glance to Jigen's left, though, provoked the following question, "Why are you wearing those goofy gloves?"

"It's cold out."

"No it isn't, why are you wearing them?" He could already surmise as the gloves she was wearing were white and slightly translucent and as the day had progressed the bruises had become darker and were now showing through their camouflage.

"Please, it's of no concern, I handled it."

"It looks like it handled you. Who did this? Was it that lunch date guy? What a classy guy to be hurting a girl…"

"Listen," she was becoming angry again, "don't worry about it!"

"Fine, just let that scum bag get away with that shit."

"That's it. You want to see it so bad, here!" She threw off her gloves and thrust her hands into plain view. "He got rough with me and I let him know my feelings on the subject then with a swift kick to his crotch. That's what happened, are you happy?"

Jigen took her hands lightly and looked at them closely, "What a bastard. Let's put some ice on these to get the swelling down." The two went inside where Jess found a bowl and ice and sat down to let her throbbing hands soak. "You certainly have a tendency to get into trouble."

"Tell me about it." While the two sat in silence, Jess remembered what the samurai had told her the night previous and took it upon herself to make amends. "Listen," she began in a low tone, "I'm sorry for the things I said earlier, I realize you can't just drop everything…"

"Don't worry about it." He had forgiven her a long time ago; there was no point in bringing up. "What was that guy's name anyways? I should go show him how to properly treat a lady. Listen, I don't think you should be going on any more outings with this guy…"

"Don't worry; he'll be lucky to see me from a distance after this." With some inspection of her hands Jess declared them better and quite numb. "Thanks for everything, but why were you standing outside so late anyways?"

"In the words of an angry brunette I know 'it's of no concern,'" he said with a smirk.

"Well, if it's of no concern to you, I'll be off to bed." But, she was halted when her friend put his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, I don't want to see you getting hurt anymore. You need to be more careful with the guys you choose to go out alone with. It's just not right to let these guys get off the friggin' hook anyways. Just be careful, OK?"

"Awwww, were you worried about me?" she asked with a broad smile.

"Jess, it's not funny. He could have inflicted some serious harm on you…"

"If it's OK with you," she cut in calmly and stepping toward him, "I don't see myself in any more situations with strange men since I think I found myself a rather good one to look after me." Jigen was silent and stared at the girl who always looked down in such critical situations. She was the hardest person he ever tried to read.

"What did she mean by that?" he thought to himself.

"But for now," she continued with a peck on his cheek, "I'm going to bed."

He had his answer.