"You look like shit." The brunette laughed out.
"Shut up bitch." Leo groaned out in pain.
This was what Leo came home to after his first day of training, a mocking sister and sleeping Miso being showered in snuggles, by said sister.
"Did you call Kiko a cow again; you know how she reacts to that"
"Bitch" was the muttered reply as the tired and bruised blonde dragged himself to the shower.
"I guess if I am such a bitch then I get to keep dinner for myself, I even went to get a cake for dessert." Jessica wistfully sighed out.
Leo replied in a highly creative use of Japanese, English, and the broken Spanish he picked up. It was enough to almost make Jessica blush, almost.
Later that night after eating their fill of a fish hotpot and peach cake the two sat under the heated table and started to play a game of poker.
"In all seriousness, how was your day Leo?"
"Fine, Sensei will push us hard, but with Kiko and Meigestu, we will make a great team." Leo replied as he petted Miso's huge head.
"I am glad" his sister smiled over her cards, and then proceeded to throw them down. "Three of a kind, bitch!" she gloated, showing her hand of three aces and two queens.
Leo just smirked and gently laid down his hand, a royal flush. "I think the win is mine." He laughed out as he pulled the coins they had been betting with to himself.
"Suck my dick!" Jessica screeched out as she jumped over the table to wrestle the change from her brother's hands.
After a few seconds of 'battle' Miso joined the fray, covering Leo and Jessica in slobber and brown fur. The fight quickly dissolved into the three rolling around and laughing, until they became exhausted. Once their breathing had calmed the adoptive siblings stood and shook hands, and dissolved into giggles again as they walked to their rooms for the night.
"Big sis, now that I am a ninja it is my turn to protect you." The blonde stated very seriously as he looked up to his sister's face.
She quieted down at this claim, and turned to look down at her brother, only to realize he was taller than she remembered. When had her little baby grown up? Smiling down sadly she could not speak, for fear of her voice cracking.
"Sis, why are you crying?"
Jessica could not muster the drive to reply to the boy's question, and instead crouched down to pull the startled boy into a bone crushing hug. A few seconds later, or minutes, or hours; Jessica released her brother and shooed him to bed.
The next day the two pretended nothing had happened, but the bags under Jessica's eye told a different story. She still had the energy to make a nice packed lunch for the boy to share with his new team, and shoo him out of the house.
Flopping down on a dining chair, the tired brunette watched her little blonde run to his training ground. She was feeling her age, at thirty-three Jessica was no longer the spry young thing she once was, and she was one of the oldest women in the village truthfully. With her fairly safe life-style, having not birthed a child, and the clean air, she lived longer and was healthier than many other civilians and even other ninjas, but she was still feeling it. Her bones were aging, her muscles weakening; her hair even had a few grays streaking the mud-brown waves. Jessica knew she could no longer protect the only thing keeping her sane in this crazy world and that knowledge caused her to let out a quiet sigh.
Jessica knew she had taught all she could to the boy; he had surpassed her in martial arts, could beat her in cards no matter how well she cheated, and could slip in and out of the shadows like an eel in water. He was a true prodigy, the heir of all Jessica was or could be, and she could no longer guard him from the dangers of the world.
Tears trickled out of the aged woman's eyes. She would still try, and would take a knife for her brother if she had to, but she could not stop him from running to fight for his village and the people he loved. That was her promise, she had sworn to protect the boy and even if he could fight for himself, she would always look out for him.
With this promise to herself her resolve hardened and her eyes took a sharp gleam. "Nobody will take my brother away from me, not even death himself." She growled out.
This was mostly a building/family chapter. Short and bittersweet.