Once back in their…well…it couldn’t exactly be called home, but it was where they stayed every night, Toby and the boys went about distributing their prize to the others. The money, of course, had gone straight to Mimi, but everything else she let her people get the first pick.
That was something that Toby didn’t understand about his little Mimi- she didn’t know that she had been claimed by him, but he had. Oh, her taking the money was understandable.
She was the leader of their little band of misfits and she would make sure that the money was used smartly as opposed to just wasting it.
She was pretty smart for a twelve-year-old girl.
As the gang picked through what they had taken off of Aaron- which was more than they expected but still not enough-, Toby took the time to look at Mimi.
Or, look for her at least.
It took several seconds, but he eventually spotted her in a shadowed corner on the other side of the warehouse they were using for their base. Toby didn’t even have to see her eyes to know that she was watching the entrances as well as her followers.
It was as though she were a mother lion watching and protecting her cubs.
Ah, but who protects the lioness? Toby wondered idly, bending over to pick up a small bag containing something that everyone liked to call red gold- something the rest of the world called Red Sand.
She may not want to take for herself, but he would take for her.
Strutting over to her, he smiled down at her, standing in her view of the warehouse. She eyed him expressionlessly, not saying a word.
“Oh, Divine Leader, might you let me be graced by standing in your presence?” he drawled, letting his eyes wonder up and down her small, lithe figure.
Were it not for her bum leg, she’d’ve been absolutely perfect. Maybe her bum leg was the Maker’s way of reminding the world that she was human and not some Goddess sent down to grace the world.
Mimi just eyed him, almost as though she were taking in a threat level. With a small nod- just a jerk of her head, really-, she stepped slightly to the side and gestured for him to sit. It wasn’t until he had that she sat down as well, her eyes being drawn from him to continue her visual patrol.
“So, JoJo?” he asked after realizing that she wasn’t going to strike up a conversation with him.
With barely a glance at him, she shrugged her small shoulders. “They don’t need to know my name. Anyway, Mimi is the name from another life- a life of semi-innocence and one with potential hope. I think I’ll go by Jo now.”
“You don’t have hope anymore, Mi…Jo?”
She looked at him, her eyes never wavering from him. “Do you know what I see now, Toby?” she asked him after a few moments of silence.
“No, what d’you see?”
“I see Curt attempting- and failing- to make Ana over there realize that he wants her. I see Pete and Frank trying to not be so obvious while watching you talk to me. I see every single entrance point in the warehouse. I can even see how difficult it’s going to be for a while before we get set up good enough to not have to worry about where our next meal is gonna come from. Toby, I see damn near everything except for one thing.” She paused and looked away from him back to her followers. “I don’t see how any of this is going to lead to a better life for any of us.”
Well, Toby really didn’t have a reply for that.
In that moment, the little twelve-year-old Mimi sounded like a wise, a very tired adult Jo.
Shifting uncomfortably in his seat, he held up the small bag so that she could see. “Wanna try it?”
“I don’t know what it is.”
Toby went about grabbing a piece of steel that was leaning up against the wall beside of them and laid it out in front of the two of them before emptying the bag out on it and dividing it into two, somewhat straight, lines.
“You sniff it,” he informed her before doing just that. He snorted the entire line closest two him and shook his head from the sudden onset of…ecstasy that burned through his entire being. He wiped away the excess powder from his nose and licked it off of his fingers- not wanting to waste a single bit of it.
Never in his life had he felt so…so good.
His little Mimi, or Jo, or whatever the hell she was going by, eyed him curiously as he stood up and just took a deep, fulfilling breath. He felt like he could walk on water and sing for joy.
Then he felt the crackling of…energy…building up under his skin.
Jo looked down at the line of powder left and shrugged. She bent down and took her entire line before righting herself and cleaning her nose off. She narrowed her eyes at the sheer elation that filled her. Had she not known it was fake- forced upon her due to the drugs-, she would have thought all of her problems had been solved.
“You’re glowing blue,” Toby whispered reverently.
That kind of took her back a few years when Kaidan had said, “I glow a funny color and make things move,” when she had asked if he was sick. Scrunching her eyebrows together, she focused on the metal on the floor in front of her and, almost immediately, it rose in front of her.
That was about the time that she realized she had the attention of everyone in the warehouse.
She set it down again before walking forward to speak to them.
“Your walk…” Toby whispered, a huge grin on his face, “You can walk right.”
Had he not said anything, she might not have noticed.
Jo (now even refusing to consider herself Mimi, even in her mind) stood before her followers (her mind supplied the word minions, but that was something she would keep to herself). “We all are bound together,” she informed them, her hands letting off small discharges of blue power, “and the name we have must gain the respect that it is due. Whether by force or deceit, it doesn’t matter. The Tenth Street Reds will be respected and feared.”
“You’ll lead us there, Mimi!” Curt cried out, only to be answered with the loud agreements of the others.
“I will, just not by that name. From here on out, I am Jo and we are the Reds!” she cried out, holding her right fist high in the air.
The gang all answered her cry with one of their own, “We are the Reds!”
As Jo lowered her fist, she smiled triumphantly at the sight of everyone committing themselves to her cause.
She could learn to like that.
