"Jo, would you cut that out?" Jo was still staring at her hands, and Meg rolling her eyes because dear god did Jo have a short attention span, tried to keep her irritation in check. Yes. Calm. She was calm. Deep breathe. Deep... Jo hadn't stopped staring at her hands and Meg--with a small prayer sent up to the heavens in hopes of some benevolent god listening--promptly slapped them away from her face, like she was a small child. Okay, now she was calm. "Jo, look at me, I really think I need an explanation." It was then that the other girl had turned to her with her hands offered up, like they held within them a gift that could wipe these past few horrible days out of her memory. Unfortunately, those offering hands were empty, and Meg suddenly thought about these nice pair of earrings she had found, but didn't have enough money to buy. Then she thought quickly that this was neither the time nor the place, since she wouldn't forgive Jo for earrings. Although if she threw in a bouquet of flowers then maybe she could... No! "Yes Jo, we all like your hands, now"- "That's not what I meant." Meg stopped herself from replying. There was something in Jo's voice that made her want to sit down next to the girl and console her, but she beat that reaction down. She couldn't forget that she was having a fight here. "These hands...I've done a lot of things with these hands." Meg without her having realized it had sat down next to Jo on the steps, inexplicably drawn to the other girl and the strange words that were coming out of her mouth. Meg nodded her head wanting for more than anything --more than anything in the world--for the other girl to continue. "Things that...I don't regret, or feel sad over. I've killed, I've maimed with these hands. I've hurt so many people and I won't take those things back." They were now facing each other. The setting sun spilling orange light over the pair and catching dusk motes that tumbled in the air. Meg felt herself hold her breath. "You're," Jo looked to the side, and her eyebrows furrowed together in what Meg had to say was the strangest expression the other girl had ever worn. "You're clean." Jo really looked like she was struggling with her words, and balling up one of her hands in a fist she held it in front of her face. "This is...the only thing I have to offer to you." Jo then placed the other hand on her shoulder and shook her as if she was in a daze --for all her sense, she probably was--The other hand unclenched and she brought that one to rest on the other side of her shoulder. "Are you fine with that, Meg?" The shock of having Jo's hands on her, the girl's red eyes staring right into her blue ones, and the soft warmth from the departing sun were making Meg wonder if they were having a moment. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks, that they were--indeed--having a moment. Her and stone-faced Jo were having a moment. She thought she would have keeled over in shock, but surprisingly, she was too caught up in her long-awaited moment that she could hardly look away from Jo. "That's not fair to you. I don't want to be unfair to you. I just want you to know that...I think you deserve better than this, Meg." The hands on her shoulders clenched around her bare shoulders. They were warm, so warm, and with Jo so close Meg could smell her. She could smell all the scents that made up the other girl. Strong scents: gunpowder, the leather she used to holster her guns, and the soap she used to try and wash it all away. This was Jo, Jo's scents, Jo's calloused, warm fingers, Jo's beautiful eyes. It didn't hit her fast enough that she was leaning forward in Jo's hold. She suspected that that had something to do with the whole being caught up in the moment thing and the way Jo didn't seem to be pushing her away, like she always did. And so, before she knew it, she was wrapping her arms around Jo and burying her nose in the other girl's neck, trying to get more of that smell, the really nice barely there smell that was buried under all the guns and violence. It was cool, like wind and Meg couldn't identify it even if she did know the exact name for it, but if there were that fitting name for it, Meg would have liked to think it would be called freedom. Jo had stiffened up in her loose embrace and Meg knew that wasn't a good sign, but damn if she wanted to let go. Well, Jo would just have to tough it out and let her do this, surely the other girl had gone through worst situations. She didn't think that Jo could die because of a small hug, and anyway, she had hugged Jo as many times as she had been kidnapped. Oh jeez not a good comparison. "Jo, I don't really understand what you're trying to tell me, but to tell you the truth, I don't care about any of that stuff. None of it ever mattered. The only thing that ever mattered...was...well...you, Jo." She pressed herself further into Jo to demonstrate her point, a point that she had been trying to make for some years now, but was never given the chance. The sun was losing its brilliance out to dusk, as the sky turned a dark, feathery pink that brushed against the heavens like a warm hand. A few bright stars were uncurling their luminance from behind clouds that seemed like melting cotton and Meg turning her stare directly to the faint fingernail moon in the sky watched a flock of birds wrinkle the glow as they passed in front, like a petal touching the surface of a pond. Jo had her eyes closed and was breathing deeply, taking in the scents of the night, of Meg's hair pressed up close to her face. The drifting redolence of lilacs and vanilla, and the smells underneath all the sweetness: Nail polish, plastic, lipstick, leather, and the metal from the large gun she towed behind her. This was Meg, defined by her fragrance and the softness of her manicured fingers, and her stubborn touch. Jo opened her eyes and looking down at Meg, she found herself pressing a kiss on the top of her red head. Meg lost within her own world of memory and sensory had startled awake. She could hear the chirp of cicadas and the cry of migratory birds as their flight carried them onward toward another star in the far away sky, but those weren't the things she was paying attention to. No. She was paying attention to the space between her and Jo and how with each passing breath how it seemed to get closer and closer, until... "Meg, did you guys make up yet because I gotta go outside and you two are blocking the way out." Meg turned her head sharply to the side, and spotted Amy, with her hands on her hips, at the top of the stairs, staring down at them in all her moment-killing glory. She turned her head back to Jo, and Jo was slowly getting up and pulling away from her. NO! She turned her head back up to glare at Amy, aka Moment-Killer as Meg was now going to dub her as, and she felt her left eye twitch as the brunette was fiddling with her hair, looking completely unapologetic for the murder she had just committed on Meg's love life. "Did you two work things out?" Someone else was approaching the door and Meg could now make out Sei, the matronly features, somber with concern. "Yeah, we're fine. It was nothing. Look, good as new." Meg now on a new mission to dispel the worries from Sei, pointed to herself, then Jo, her commenting as if on a broken machine instead of a human relationship. Sei smiled warmly at them, like the big sister she was and Meg letting out a relieved breath suddenly felt like taking it back as Jo started for the door to the RV. "Ah, Jo, ah where are you going? I thought"- Jo turning from her vantage point on the top step met Meg's gaze for a brief second before breaking eye contact and going back inside. Meg wasn't sure if she should follow or just wait things out, but one look from Sei seemed to confirm the latter in her head. "Don't worry Meg, Jo's just...," Sei smiled warmly at her and Meg felt the burden in her chest buoy up like a gasping swimmer. "Yeah, Meg, Jo's shy." Amy--Moment-killer, that name was going to stick--popped a gum ball in her mouth and then went forward with chewing noisily and obnoxiously for a good second or two until the flavor was gone. "I would have never guessed Jo could be so...," She blew a bubble the size of her face, popped it and started smacking away again, in a effort to finish her sentence, " so cute, huh?" She grinned and flew up the stairs to go harass any living creature within her vicinity. Kyouhei had better watch his ass. Meg tried to comprehend fitting the word cute into the context of Jo. She pictured bunny rabbits, she pictured pink jump ropes, she pictured sweaters with panda bears on them and then she tried to fit Jo in this picture and it went along the lines of Jo using the bunny rabbits as target practice, Jo using the pink jump rope to strangle random bad guy, and Jo using the cute sweater as a rag to clean the barrel of her guns. Cute, yeah right...more like sexy. At the thought, Meg giggled to herself stupidly and attempted to do away with the goofy expression smeared all over her face as she made her way into the RV, closing the door behind her.
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