Seeing the Sun

Chapter 12... damn, now I'm tired.

A/N: I seem to have hit a sugar-fueled wall.

Nevertheless, I will try to give you chapters. Thanks to the new reviewer, by the way. -claps- Anyways, the next "Jo's past" will be up in about... two more chapters. This chapter will try focusing on how close Jo and Meg get over time.

Next chapter... Meg will properly meet Sei and Amy.

Read on!

"Again?" asks Sei, arching one dark eyebrow. "Really?"

Jo and Amy stand there, soaked head to toe in rainwater. They're smirking, knowing that Sei won't punish them for it. It's never an uncommon occurrence, which annoys the older girl but doesn't seem to get to the two younger siblings if it doesn't get them sick. Jo, dripping onto the wooden floors of the apartment, goes to get a pair of towels, tossing one to Amy with expert aim.

"It's fun," is the taciturn girl's only answer as she vigorously scrubs her hair, having thrown her jacket over a chair seconds after entering the room. She then pops more of her medication into her mouth before offering a faintly apologetic look to Sei. Though it's made as sort of an apology, there's humor in there, too. "By the way, you shouldn't fall asleep on the desks. Next time, I'm going to throw water on your face so you can wake up and go to your bed without me having to carry you."

Though her words seem to be teasing her, Sei knows Jo well enough to see the real meaning. She doesn't want her to work too hard. Still, the black-haired girl shoots Jo a look letting her know that the feeling is mutual; she doesn't want Jo fighting too much.

Jo rolls her eyes before disappearing into the basement. It would be safe to bet that she's going to watch horror movies. But with Jo, you never know.

Jo walks down the surprisingly calm streets. Her hair is gray, darkened by the water from the earlier rain. She doesn't know why she's walking aimlessly, but decides not to question it. She finds herself in a library, not knowing how she got there and walking through aisle by aisle of bookcases. She comes across a table, a familiar head of red hair bent down over a book as Meg calmly reads.

Jo leans over, tall frame pressing against the girl's back as she whispers quietly:

"What are you reading?"

Meg jumps at this, stifling a yell as Jo chuckles quietly, a shit-eating grin on her face. Meg, face red with embarrassment, crosses her arms. "A book."

"No, really?" Jo asks, voice dripping with sarcasm. "I didn't know that was what these were called." She scans the pages, lips twitching and forming a smirk as she sees that her prediction is correct; a romance. "Typical." She chuckles, pulling out a chair next to her friend. "I knew you would be reading that type of book."

"How could you possibly predict that?"

"Well, you seem naive enough for it, that's for sure." Jo leans back, resting her feet on the table as the librarian glares at her. "Seriously, Meg, sometime reality's gonna smack you in the face, and it's gonna smack you hard."

"How so?" Meg seems genuinely curious.

"Well, think about it. You're friends with a famous criminal and you were stupid enough to not run away from them. I mean, really? Come on, Meg, I don't look like the friendliest person."

That much was true for most people. Jo always seemed to be glaring at everything somehow, and her default expression was an impatient frown. If you looked her in the eyes, you would see a devilish glint in them and a deep desire to fight. She looked like she would win if she fought, too. And she smoked, if you caught her at the right time.

But to Meg, Jo was simply Jo. The harsh glare of hatred in her eyes softened into mischief when she saw her, a teasing smirk forming on her face. She wasn't an attacker to Meg, but a protector, someone who would help her out. And the smell of smoke was now so familiar to Meg that it would be weird if it wasn't around Jo. Where Jo was, smoke was, whether it be smoke of a cigarette or smoke of a fire.

"How the hell would this come back to haunt me?" Meg is confused, now, thanks to Jo's words.

Jo opens her mouth, but stops herself. She doesn't want to scare Meg without reason. "I don't know," she says, rather than tell her the truth. "It just seems like a bad idea, in my opinion."

"Wait... aren't you said criminal?"

"Yeah, but if I were you I wouldn't be friends with... myself."

"That's a really weird sentence, Jo."

"Of this, I am aware."

"Why is your hair wet?" Meg questions, changing the subject. She runs her hand through Jo's slightly damp hair, smoothing it down. Her hair is, however, wild and uncontrolled and refuses to stay down. Though it suits her, matching the rest of her appearance, and it actually looks good.

"I was standing in the rain."

"The rain stopped a half hour ago. How long were you out there?"

"About...the whole duration of the storm."

"Jo! You'll get sick!"

"Relax; if I get sick, Amy does too." Jo finally sits upright, ruffling her own hair casually so to get some of the water out.

"Your sister?"

"Yeah. My little sister."

"She was there, too?"

"It's routine," explains Jo. "We love watching the rain on the pavement reflect the lights of the city. It's actually pretty beautiful."

Meg is almost surprised at this. She never imagined Jo would like doing something like that. But the girl was full of surprises, she supposed. "That's unexpectedly... deep, of you."

Jo shrugged. "It's an old habit."

"Please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's stupid."

"No it's not!"

Jo raised an eyebrow. "I don't see the point of an amusement park, Meg."

The two friends walked down the street, towards Meg's house. Jo kept in the shade as much as possible while Meg kept her place on the sidewalk the whole time. At this moment, Meg wanted to go to the amusement park. With Jo. The latter, of course, did not want to go.

"Amusement parks are fun!"

"So is shooting things."

"Okay, how about this..." Meg began, attempting a compromise. "You do this, and you can drag me somewhere too. Deal?"

They walked in silence as the gunslinger thought it out. When they finally reached Meg's house, Jo nodded. "Fine. Deal." She continued to walk down the street, waving at her friend over her head. "Bye."

Jo turned the corner, heading into the less favorable part of town. She can feel the stares of many thugs, all of them following her every mood. Her crimson eyes dart around, making eye contact with a few of them and sending them glares. People know about her in her town. The minor criminals feared her, though some of them respected her.

She finally makes it to her own apartment, walking in. Sei is there, on the phone. Said older girl raises an eyebrow at Jo, who is in the middle of taking off her jacket when she stops. Sei might be talking about a mission. Upon seeing Jo's questioning glance, Sei nods. Sighing, Jo goes to the basement and gets ready for another mission.

The sunset is bright. The colors are bright. The fucking people are bright. Jo hates this, but decides to endure it. She made a deal with Meg, after all. But still, she groans inwardly at Meg's excitement. She finds herself reluctantly dragged to a booth.

Despite her displeasure, she does smirk when Meg ultimately fails. After watching the red-head try twice, she decides to stop her. She takes the baseball from Meg's hand, tosses it up and down for a little, and then beams it at the tower of steel bottles. All of them fall down at once, the ball crashing against the wall of the booth and cracking the dark wood. Jo grabs a prize and hands it to Meg, ignoring the shocked stare from the guy managing it.

"Satisfied?" she asks as they walk away. Meg chuckles, toying with the stuffed bear. They continue walking through rows of booths, towards the rides.

"I used to come here a lot, with my family."

Meg looks at her, shocked. "I thought you were abandoned."

"Before that," states Jo, grinning a bit. "I came here with my mom and my little sister." They stop at an ice-cream booth. "My sister always made me win prizes for her, and she would scream like crazy on the rides." Meg sees, at that moment, a small sense of longing in her blood-red eyes. "Maria... she could be a brat, but she was a good kid."

Maria? Thinks Meg, remembering the voice she heard at times, the image of a small girl. "What happened to them?"

Jo takes the ice-cream from the vendor, handing one to Meg. She doesn't reply, her eyes icing over, becoming hard and unreadable. She stops walking, putting a hand on Meg's shoulder to stop her. Meg looks at her, curious. Jo points to a giant, terrifying roller-coaster.

"Let's go."

"Jo, what are we doing here?"

The two friends are standing in a shooting range, gunshots ringing all around them. Jo seems perfectly at ease, polishing a desert eagle as she casually leans back in a chair. She sighs, picks up a revolver, and holds it out to Meg.

"I'm going to teach you how to use a gun."

Meg hesitantly takes it. "But I don't have a weapon permit."

"I'm doing this so you can defend yourself, Meg. I don't normally teach people. Not even my sisters." She looks at her. "You don't need a permit if it's for emergencies only." She picks up her two guns, sliding the chair over as it makes a metallic screech against the gray stone floors. "Let's start."

They approach one of the stations, Jo demonstrating to Meg how to hold the gun. "Be ready for the kick-back," she instructs. "That shit can surprise you." She shoots, using one hand. "Bulls-eye." She looks at her friend, gesturing to the smaller gun in her hands. "You might want to use both hands. Brace yourself. That thing may be tiny, but it's got recoil."

They practiced for a while, Meg's arms becoming more sore with each shot. Jo looks at her, seeing her exhaustion, and sighs. "We can stop, I guess." They each pull up a chair, sitting down. "Keep that gun. Now if some thug comes, you have a chance at either scaring him off or trying to shoot him. Good thing, considering you're danger prone."

"Why, though?"

"Well, you see, you tend to have dangerous things happen to-"

"No, I mean why did you do this?"

"You really like making me get philosophical, don't you? Well, then I'll just say it. I don't want you to get hurt, simple as that. It's not that-"

She's cut off as Meg wraps her arms tightly around her, cutting her off.

"I just wanted to hear you say it."

A/N: Damn writers block to hell, where the deceased Cy will riddle it with bullets and send shock-waves of electricity through it. This took a while to get up, which I apologize for. But hey... that wall is indestructible. Give me a fucking break.