Seeing the Sun
Chapter- Holy shit, 13!
A/N: Being the supersticious son-of-a-bitch that I am, 13, being an unlucky number, may take a while to come out. But do not fear, I will try my best to have it out as soon as humanly possible.
Meg turns the corner, slightly more adjusted to the groups of thugs scattered around the neighborhood. She does, after all, have her gun with her, so she'll be safe (more or less) if one of them approaches her. Naturally, she's on her way to see Jo. For some reason, she found herself more willing to practice with her revolver after discovering Jo's motives, so the two decided to go again.
She buzzes in the number for "Carpenter", and finds herself greeted by the same woman from the last time she was there. Jo's older sister, she knows.
"Uh, hi, is Jo here?" she asks, nervous. The older girl seems to have what feels like... an air of importance around her, for whatever reason. Not in a conceited sort of way, it's almost as if it's the natural order of things.
"Oh, sorry. You're Meg, right?" When said girl nods, she continues. "Sorry, there was a sudden issue that Jo had to take care of. She said to apologize, though in her exact words she said 'Tell her that she can't expect time to always be free'."
Meg chuckles a bit, and the woman's dark eyebrows raise a little in surprise. No one has reacted to Jo's bluntness with laughter. "While we're waiting, how about you come in? Jo usually gets things done fast."
Meg nods, following her in. She never looked at it when she was there the first time. It's a simple place, the walls painted a nice, light brown color. She's in the kitchen, she knows, seeing the stove and sink there, along with various black-blue cupboards. But it doesn't seem like somewhere Jo would be. She looks to a black door, with a wing-like pattern carved into it. That must lead to the basement. Jo's room.
The woman pours Meg some tea, already having a cup for herself. They sit at the dark-wood table, calmly drinking before one of them decides to talk.
"I'm Sei, by the way," she states, sipping her drink. "I'm Jo's adoptive sister. So, you are familiar with Jo's line of work?"
Meg is about to say yes, but stops. "You work with her, right?" Sei confirms it. "Good then. Yeah, I know what she does."
"She told you?"
"I found her out. It's a long story, and she almost killed me, but I promised not to tell anyone."
"I'm surprised she trusted you."
"Well, we already knew eachothe-"
"No," Sei looks into her eyes. "Even if Jo is familiar with someone, she doesn't trust them. She barely trusts me and Amy as it is, though she is close to us and wouldn't hurt us. I believe," she puts down her cup "that it has something to do with how she got those scars of hers."
"She said that while I hadn't proven her wrong about how no one should be trusted, I hadn't proven her right either. So I promised not to tell. And also, I promised because she said she would die if I told anyone."
"I see." Sei gets up, heading over to another cabinet. She takes out a bottle of something, a clear jar with pure black pills in it. "She's referring to this. I don't know why, but those scars make her fatally sick without this medicine to keep it in check. Something to do with heat. The syndicate never tells me. But I think Jo knows."
"So you're group gives her the medicine?"
"As long as she works for them. Before, when I first met her, it would only get really bad after a year. But now... the power of her sickness is growing, so she needs more medicine. But Bai Lan will give her as much as they want, seeing as she is their best fighter." She puts away the bottle. "Sorry for dropping all of this on you so suddenly. You just seemed close to Jo, that's all."
"It's alright," Meg puts up her hands reassuringly. "It's interesting to know more about Jo. But I'm a bit worried about this whole sickness thing."
"It's understandable."
"Of course it is," says a voice. Meg looks to see a hyper-looking little girl, about six years younger than her from what she can tell. "It's gotta have something to do with it. That mark always reacts in some way when she's sick, right?"
"This is Amy," explains Sei, gesturing to the small girl. "The youngest."
"Well, you didn't have to point that out," Amy pouts, crossing her arms. "I think it's easy to tell, don't you think?"
Meg chuckles, causing the smaller girl to glare at her. She shrugs apologetically, but can't help it. It feels normal to pick on Amy for some reason, something that she can't put her finger on. They then hear the familiar roar of a motorcycle. Sure enough, when they look, Jo is stopping outside, spinning the bike until she's facing the apartment. She locks it up before walking in, dropping her jacket.
"Hey Meg," she greets, waving a gloved hand. She'd already taken off the mask, jacket and guns, putting them in the trunk of her bike. She knew several hiding places in the city where no one would find her, so that's where she hid her stuff. She grabs a roll of gauze from the cupboard where her medicine is, and all of them see that her arm is bleeding, right near her markings.
"What happened this time?"
"Damn guy had some sort of wolf as a pet," she explains. "Didn't see it coming. The bitch bit me, and from where they did you can guess what happened to them, right Sei?"
The eldest sibling nods, putting her now-empty cup in the sink. Meg walks over to her silver-haired friend, looking at the bite-marks that are uncomfortably close to the dark tattoos. A millimeter, it looks like. So close to biting the scar that stung Jo just by having it there.
"It would've hurt." Meg looks up, seeing Jo looking down at the wound with crimson eyes. "For most, the agony of having it bitten would be unbearable. Thankfully, he missed. But still, it hurt. The marking flared out of instinct, and the wolf was charred beyond recognition."
Meg sees it, though it's very brief. In Jo's eyes she can see sadness, something along the lines of regret. She probably would've killed the wolf anyways, but it was like she regretted that she killed it in that way. Something along those lines. But why? Jo seemed to love fighting. She really did. She'd seen the hint of a smirk on her face when she'd threatened those guys in detention, so long ago. But she'd also seen the rage on in her eyes when that one murderer had attacked her, when she had to defend her.
But then Jo blinked, and it was gone. Her eyes were cold again, unfeeling and unreadable. With quick, practiced movements she wrapped the bite marks in gauze. Meg watched, slightly uneasy. It had looked like it hurt. But Jo wasn't showing any signs of pain. Though judging by the little to no space between the wound and her scar, it probably hurt like hell.
"So," Jo finishes up, grinning at her friend. "Let's get going. This time, I hope you don't miss the target."
"That was one time, Jo!"
"Well, you didn't completely miss it..." Jo looks at her, mischief in her eyes. "But you hit the wrong target."
"Sh-Shut up!"
A/N: Hehe... Meg sucks at shooting. Well, my chapter flow is recovering. It's just, oddly enough, I can't seem to write very fast when I have things planned out, because then I'll want to skip past everything and just write the scene I had in mind. But, well, what can you do?