Seeing the Sun

Chapter 17

A/N: I have to wake up early tomorrow and I'm so tired my vision is blurry, so all logic says that I should start writing something right now.

"..."

"..."

Silence is met with more silence. Takane's jaw is wide open, amethyst eyes wide as she stares at Jo in disbelief. Jo, on the other hand, is looking more and more irritated by the second, though she's absentmindedly petting Kannibal. The sleek black coat of the horse-sized dog feels familiar to her toughened fingers, and the animal leaned into her touch obediently.

"Did you lose all control of your mouth or are you gonna answer me?"

Takane recovers, however slowly. She seems to be having a hard time seeing this beast act so friendly. At the station, he'd caused an uproar. It took a strong tranquilizer to keep him still. He'd been tackling officers, scratching the few brave souls who'd tried to fight him down. She hadn't been there, but she'd seen it. The damn animal was trained to fight, she thought. Made to, at least. Then again, considering what Jo had done in her many visits to the police station, this shouldn't be such a surprise.

"Oh, right." She drops the now useless chain to the floor, finally regaining her ability to speak. "I wasn't there, but I hear they found him on some boat. The boat was headed somewhere else, but was forced to stop thanks to this mutt." She bites her lip when Jo's eyes narrow at that last word, but the girl calms and smirks, petting Kannibal's head. The dog straightens up in pride. She was congratulating it.

"Took twelve officers, five hours and two strong tranquilizer to get 'im here. And you..." she looks at the scene before her. "He just listens to you..."

"And my other two questions?" Jo raises one eyebrow, sharp eyes scanning the brunette's face.

Jo's gaze is too angry, too intense. Takane has to look away, look somewhere else. Like at the... corpse on the floor with a bullet through their brain and a sniper rifle in their hand (A/N: Who remembers that?). "The dog was trying to fight everyone, so we got him again and put a muzzle and a leash on the thing."

"The thing has a name," snaps Jo, protective of the dog who's sitting down calmly next to her, tongue hanging out from the right side of his mouth. "He's Kannibal. My dog," she scratched Kannibal behind the ear, "and a good dog at that. I know him. He wouldn't seriously hurt anyone who wasn't a threat. Not enough to bruise them or draw blood. He probably fell asleep on the boat and was startled awake by a passenger. And then you guys came in, weapons and all, right?"

"You seem to trust this dog a lot."

Jo's expression, demeanor and manner of speaking all seemed to become a lot more serious. "It's easier to trust a dog than a human being." She snaps twice, once with her ring finger and once with her middle finger. Kannibal sits down obediently, eyes trained on his master. "I'll be taking him back. He's mine." She pulls her scarf off, unraveling it and revealing, hidden in the folds of worn yellow fabric, a spiked dog collar. She fastens it around Kannibal's neck.

Katsumi picks this time to intervene.

"Surely, that's a harsh view to have on the world. You must trust some people, Jo."

"I trust good people." She finishes up, unfastening the harness that the police put on her dog. "No human being in the area has proven themselves to be 'good'."

Something cool and wet wakes her up from a medicine induced half-sleep, and she opens her eyes to find the cheerful pit-bull waking her up, lapping at her face. She smirks. She remembers this. The familiarity of it.

On the other hand, she also remembers the familiarity of the color of blood.

Jo shakes those thoughts away, out of her head. Those kinds of thoughts are unwelcome. Her resolve hardens further. She won't allow those thoughts. Kannibal looks at her, questioning. Jo snaps out of it, smiling warmly at the animal as she pets it. "Good boy..."

She checks his collar, loosening it up a bit. "Let's go for a walk, Kannibal."

The dog is trained well enough that she doesn't need a leash, so after a quick shower Jo is out the door. She walks down the street, as always, keeping to the shade. When she reaches the park, she stops, sitting on the same bench she sat on with Meg a while ago. Her dog lies down at her feet, and she smirks. Huge as hell or not, he's a sweet dog.

"Jo?" she turns, but she already knows it's Meg. She grins, gesturing next to her. Evidently, Kannibal can tell, like Jo could, that Meg is a good person, because he just sticks out his tongue in a dog-grin and let's her sit down. "Who's your new friend?" asks the redhead, smiling as she pets Kannibal.

"Kannibal," says Jo, leaning back on the bench. "My dog. From America. Don't know how he got here, but I'm not complaining."

"You never talk about America," stated Meg. "Both of us are from America, and I'm pretty sure I told you."

"That's not how it works, Meg." Jo buried her face in her scarf. If Meg didn't know her better, she would've sworn Jo was about to cry. "You wanted to talk about it. I could tell by the way you seemed... happy. You were happy, talking about the times in the orphanage with Shirley, Dorothy and the others. I was listening. I always listen. Carefully. You never know when you'll see a person again, so you have to listen. Back to what I was saying... you wanted to talk about America. I don't."

"You can't be serious. You must have some happy memories." Meg almost reached over and hugged Jo. Almost. But Jo looked... like she was alone. Separated from anyone else. Sad and alone. Only her dog seemed to share her misery, for some reason. "You talked about your sister when we were at the fair."

"That's different." Jo looks down, then closes her eyes. "Maria... was a good kid."

At that moment, a strange sort of thing sort of happens. The scene around Meg disappears. She sees what looks like a younger Jo, with longer hair. Head down, crying. Almost in the same position as she is right now, with the same scarf, though it looks newer.

Then she has to hug Jo. When she does, Jo's head snaps up, and she stiffens. But before Meg can think it was a bad idea, the older girl slowly wraps her arms around her and returns the hug. Jo's grip is surprisingly soft, but protective nonetheless. Meg feels Jo's short hair brush against her nose. It's smooth, and smells of smoke. Just like Jo.

The moment, of course, is ruined when a certain dog licks Meg's face.

Jo let's go, pulling back to watch Kannibal, smiling his dog-grin at Meg as she has a blank, confused expression on her face.

Jo starts laughing, and is soon joined by Meg. When the laughter dies down, Jo smiles. Like she did before. "Well, I kind of walked here, so... let's go back."

A/N: SPOILER ALERT! They kiss next chapter. :)