Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Johnny the Homicidal Maniac books

The weeks went by. Summer was passing quicker than most had thought. The days of heat were dying away slowly as the green in the trees calmly faded into yellows and reds. But those living in the city were still celebrating to the fullest their time off of school and work. Johnny's progress, however, had surpassed everyone's expectations, especially the doctors. Now only had his ribs and leg healed much quicker than they planned. He was already walking again. A bit clumsy, but Johnny seemed to be doing his own therapy just by walking around the apartment. Rose and Squee couldn't have been more pleased. Speaking of Squee, he was not under the care of Rose today, but instead invited to a birthday party. Today's morning was quite eventful.

A tall girl with yellowish tan skin and straight black hair in pigtails trotted up the stairs. Her tall black knee high boots pounded loudly on the floor. She wore a bright pink pleated skirt with a thick black belt heavy with silver notches. The white tank top under the black leather jacket had a sassy pink cat that read 'Kitty Kat'. Her thin almond eyes were heavily lined and shadowed. She knocked on the door of Rose's apartment on the third level.

Four sharp knocks sounded at the door. The only one who heard these was Johnny, as he stumbled across the living room. With much difficulty his good and bad leg slouched towards the door. He found that knocking was a young lady about Rose's age. She appeared to be from Japan or some Asian country.

"Uh…hi. Is Rose home?" she asked.

Right on cue, Rose walks by with a basket full of dark colored laundry. She sees her friend standing outside the door, perhaps a little frightened by Johnny.

"Oh, Hello Yoko," Rose greeted her and motioned with her hand to step inside.

Yoko looked at Johnny one more time with a sense of slight displeasure in his presence. He looked as though he needed to prop himself on the door to stay afoot. Without hesitation, she snagged Rose by the arm and dragged her roughly into her room, quickly shutting the door behind them.

Yoko started, "Who is he? I thought you of all people would have much better selection skills than that!"

Rose blushed fiercely and retorted, "He's not my boyfriend! I'm just taking care of him!"

Yoko sighed heavily, "Woo, that's a relief. I thought you were dating the king of the vampires! But why are you taking care of him?"

Rose answered, looking to her shoes, "Neither of us could afford to pay for his treatment. So he has to stay here until he is well enough to take care of himself. But anyways, why are here?"

Yoko grabbed her friend's shoulders and bounced a bit in excitement, "Rose, you know that awesome new dance club that is opening tonight…"

Rose nodded, "Yes. The premiere is invitation only."

"I got invited!" she squealed, "And I'm taking you with me!"

The two girls embraced each other in a giddy hug. They both jumped and laughed. Anyone who was a Someone was going to this premiere. And Rose never passed up the opportunity to show the world her dancing. Then, reality hit her like a freight train.

Rose froze, a hint of panic in her tone, "Wait, what about Johnny?"

Yoko persisted, "Come on, he can take care of himself for one night."

"Perhaps your right, it's only for one night." Rose contemplated. Her mind was arguing with itself and not getting very far.

It was a good thing the door was closed, or else the two would have heard Johnny's episode of hitting the floor and taking the lamp with him. He was making progress.

"I'll talk to him," Rose compromised, "And in the case that he is well enough to take care of himself for one evening, then I'll go."

"Yes!" Yoko hissed as she clenched her hands into fists of victory, "Grab your purse in three hours. We're gettin' dresses."

Rose sat in the corner of Johnny's room, stroking paint smoothly onto the unfinished painting. Johnny meanwhile, was reading to her sonnets from a book of Shakespeare while sitting up in bed:

"Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou are more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Rose listened quietly as Johnny read aloud. Then broke the silence when she gently dropped her paintbrush into a tall glass mason jar with the rest. She took a deep breath.

"Johnny," she sighed, "We might need to move our rematch at Demon Crash Racers to tomorrow night."

He gave a confused look in question, "How come? It is because of something your friend Yoko said?"

Rose nodded silently, "Tonight, I'm going to the premiere opening of Club Sonic. I'm afraid that you will have to take care of yourself for one night."

Johnny raised an eyebrow. But he understood. Rose hasn't had a night off from taking care of him for weeks. Perhaps it was finally her turn to relax.

"But I do think you can do it. I know that you are able to walk around now." Rose looked into his eyes with courage.

There was a knock at the door.

Rose called out, "I'm coming!"

Johnny merely watched as she cleaned her hands from all the paint, grabbed a fuchsia leather purse from the kitchen table, and opened the door.

"I'll be back later, Johnny." Rose waved one last time before disappearing through the door and marching down the stairs.

Johnny just sat there in bed. His mind spinning in a vortex with something new. Something he's never felt before.

For a long, long time, I have been striving myself to become stoic. To have no emotions beneath my flesh. I wished to be as cold as the bodies of my victims. Because I always believed that my emotions were just something that tied me to this world of insolent and disgusting people. But for some reason, I don't want that anymore. How is it that the will has just vanished?

I think it is because of Rose. When I first saw her, I thought of her as someone who only wants to make an easy buck by watching someone's kid. Then slowly I have come to see that she is really kind and loving. But truly, she is a creature who deserves to be intangible to the scum of this earth, to be respected and admired by her fellow man. Rose deserves so much more than she is given.

But what was that emotion I felt when she said where she was going. I have no hatred for dance clubs, only the people in them. But even so, if she goes, then maybe might find some guy she thinks is special. Doesn't she know? They could hurt her. Men are grotesque mounds of slime that try so hard to shadow their flaws by impressing people with the most disgraceful of things. Those swine! Wait a moment, I'm being…defensive. Could it be that I'm, I'm…jealous? Look what you did to me Rose!

"Rose?" Yoko snuck up behind her and gave her a little startle, "What are you looking in here for? All the dresses are at Fab Grab."

Rose took in a deep breath to recover, "I just wanted to get something for Johnny. I kind of feel bad that I'm leaving him all by himself tonight."

Yoko rolled her heavily made up eyes, "Well, hurry up! This freak store is a real reputation breaker."

She walked out and waited outside the store. Rose was feeling a bit awkward herself. A lot of people in the store were staring at her. It was probably because she didn't fit in. Everyone in the store had piercings or strangely colored hair, and everyone was wearing black. Rose took her bad up to the check out counter.

The girl behind the register had short blue hair in pigtails. She wore enough dark eyeliner for three people and her lips were painted black. Her black t-shirt had large white letters reading 'I'm a freak, bite me!'

She chewed her gum loudly as she spoke, "That all you want?"

Rose replied quietly, "Yes, that's all."

She hurried back after paying to rejoin her friend outside, carrying a Darkside Shop bag in her lift grip.

Meanwhile, Johnny was pacing back and forth across the house. In fact, all over the house. Nervous he was not, but practicing he was.

Yoko came out from behind the curtain to her dressing room, dressed in a bubblegum pink cocktail dress with reserves of shimmer here and there.

"Tada!" she cried out as she presented to the world her new dress.

Rose complimented, "It looks great on you. But what is it was you and pink?"

Yoko retorted with a smile, "And what's with you and always hesitating to show me what dress you have on?"

It was true. It actually took some coaxing for Rose to come out of a dressing room with something fancy on. In this case, a lovely short angel white dress with two outer layers of wavy Toole that flowed to her knees and were cut in diagonals. The back laced up and tied into a small bow on the bottom. It fit nicely to her petite shape but that still didn't make her feel comfortable yet. She always needed Yoko to say something to make her see that it really was beautiful.

After a few hours, Rose walked back into her home with a few shopping bags. She found that Johnny was sitting at the kitchen table with a notebook of drawing paper and scribbling madly a comic of a strange stick figure. He didn't even notice Rose walk into the room.

She spoke softly, afraid to shatter his concentration, "Uh, Johnny?"

His head suddenly shot up with wide eyes, "Yes?"

Rose set down all her bags on the floor except one, the one from the Darkside store. She placed it on the table next to him, "Since, you're pretty much all well again, you're probably ready to go home. And while I was at the mall, I thought I should get you a gift."

She picked up all her shopping bags off the floor and headed towards her room.

Johnny couldn't help but wonder why she was so quiet, "Rose?"

She turned to him before she entered her bedroom, "Yes?"

He was slightly lost for words. For once Johnny couldn't think of something to say. But eventually something came out, "I…uh, thanks."

Rose gave him her classic sweet smile before disappearing into her bedroom. Johnny looked at the bag beside him. Never before had someone given him a gift like this. He slowly opened the bag and reached inside. Out he pulled a long black coat made of leather. His eyes magnified to the amazing present. As quickly as he could, he slipped it onto his shoulders and slid his skinny arms through the sleeves. The coat fell all the way to the back of his knees. It fit him perfectly, not to mention it looked great with the shirt he had on, which said 'You're just jealous because the voices talk to me!' He shoved his hands into the pockets. They were deep enough to fit every knife and dagger he owned into them without anyone noticing. Rose had to have paid a lot for this coat.

"Rose," Johnny sigh sadly.

Rose, meanwhile, was idly staring at the painting she had finally completed. The dark man in the hooded cloak was helping the fallen angelic woman. It was beautiful. But it was there where she had realized something she never meant to do. The woman had her face, and the man had Johnny's.

The Maiden of Light: Now we're getting somewhere. It seems like Rose's love and care has finally warmed Johnny's stoic heart. Bring me reviews!