You Don't Own Me

The next morning, Violet jerked awake to the sound of someone pounding heavily on her bedroom door. Throwing on a robe, she went to answer it. J stood before her completely dressed and ready for the day and she wondered for a moment if he ever slept at all.

"What?" she grumbled, tossing a look behind her to the alarm clock on her bedside table. It was a little after 6AM.

"I've got something for you. Get dressed and come downstairs, please," he said simply, turning and walking away down the hallway.

She rolled her eyes at his retreating back but obliged anyway, shutting the door and changing out of her pajamas. A few minutes later, she met him in the giant dining room downstairs and was only a little bit surprised when the huge dining table was covered in different types of weaponry. Guns, knives, baseball bats, brass knuckles, and even what looked to be hand grenades littered the table, and when she looked at J he was beaming with something that resembled pride.

"What's this?" she asked, and he smiled again.

"Take your pick. You need to be armed before you come with me tonight," he said, and she nodded. Of course. It made sense, she supposed. She looked at the weapons and picked up one of the pistols hesitantly. She hadn't held a gun since... that day, and it felt weird in her hand. As she rolled it around and looked at it, she absently wondered if it had ever been used to kill anyone. Given the person who was offering it to her, she figured it probably had. She placed the gun back on the table and selected another one and a few knives. She made a small pile with them and J smiled at her again.

"I'm assuming you know how to use those?" he asked her, motioning to the two guns.

"You could say that," she confirmed for him, nodding. In reality, she was actually pretty good with guns. The one good thing her father had done for her in his miserable life was teaching her how to use guns. The one activity they ever bonded over was going to a gun range a couple times a month. If only he knew that the skill he'd taught her would eventually end in his demise.

"Good," he said, smiling and giving her a look that told her he wanted to say something else but was holding back.

"What?" she asked, and he blinked hard.

"You're very beautiful, Violent Violet. You know that?" he asked her, his voice thick like honey. She stared at him for a moment and then scoffed.

"Yeah," she said sarcastically, and his face clouded over with annoyance.

"You need to learn how to take a compliment," he growled, and she shook her head.

"Maybe it's really that you need to learn how to be a little less creepy when you give a compliment," she said, looking him in the eye and holding his gaze. They were stuck in their staring contest for a few long moments before he turned and walked away. She heard him moving upstairs and then heard a door slam.

"Weirdo," she mumbled to herself, taking her new weapons back up to her bedroom.

Once there, she heard J talking down the hall in his bedroom. She couldn't make out his words but she could definitely tell that he was angry. Rolling her eyes at him again, she dropped her new weapons off on her bed and made her way down the hall.

She knocked on his door quietly and he stopped talking at once. She heard footsteps and then he opened the door a crack. His face appeared in front of her and she could tell once again that he was annoyed.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked him, mostly just to keep the peace. After all, she was kind of stuck with him. She had to keep reminding herself that she was technically an escaped criminal.

"No," he said simply, moving to shut the door.

"Wait," she said, jamming her foot in the opening so that he couldn't close it.

"What, Violet?" he asked quietly, and she shrugged.

"I don't want you to be upset with me. I know I owe everything to you right now," she said, surprised at herself for sounding so genuine. She knew the words were true, of course, she just hadn't expected them to come out the way they had.

"I'm not upset with you," he said, his clear blue eyes holding her gaze. Butterflies rose in her stomach as he looked at her and suddenly she got that urge to kiss him that she got every time she let herself look into his eyes. She still couldn't figure out what it was exactly... something about him just made her want to touch him, to run her fingers over his face and push them through his hair. He looked away a moment later and broke her out of her trance.

"Okay. Good," she said, and he nodded slowly. She wanted to stay; to tell him about the feelings she really had for him, but for some reason she couldn't force herself to. Instead, she stared at him for a few seconds before turning around and heading back to her own room quickly.