Disclaimer: Like a thief in the night, I use Sunrise's characters without shame… but I always give them back for they are not mine.

Rain Down on Me

Nao Yuuki was seventeen years old, a high school junior, and soaking wet from the god damn rain. Was there more to it? She supposed there was, assuming anyone gave a damn. She took a moment to hope that Kuga was as soaked as she was and on the brink of terrible illness (somehow she couldn't even fantasize about death- which annoyed her). Speaking of annoyance, envisioning that psychopath girlfriend of Kuga's 'taking care' of the once-delinquent took all joy from the image. Damn it.

It was still raining, and with the joy of petty fantasies currently ruined, she found herself lapsing into honesty. She did have a moment to be grateful it was only with herself. It was bad enough to say certain things in her mind. She'd rather make creative use of a razorblade on sensitive parts of her anatomy than say them aloud to anyone else. Things like the fact that she had a crush on Kuga. Damn it.

That one thing was really enough to deal with all on its own. The very concept pissed her off to no end. Nao wasn't supposed to be a freak like that red eyed, snake woman- but she was. A bitter laugh went naturally here. Nao was supposed to be attracted to men, but really, how could she expect to be? She'd put so much effort into disdaining of them as a species. She'd sought out those pathetic dregs, desperate pedophiles to punish, until that was the only association she had with the sex. She even knew that she was being unfair, but couldn't make herself care enough to correct it. Fittingly, in that act of selfish sloth, she became just like the woman she hated. And just to add insult to injury, she made the comparison impossible to ignore by sharing the object of (obsession) attraction.

The street child had abused Natsuki's 'butchness' but she'd always known the biker was, musculature aside, all woman. Beauty, brawn, danger and protection- it wasn't a mystery to Nao in the slightest what Fujino saw in the girl.

Fujino… When Kuga had stood between Nao and certain death-by-lunatic (and creepy-oversized-pet), she had told the psychopath that Nao was like her- like Kuga. There were some similarities, but vengeance aside, Nao knew that she was far more like Fujino- only less good at it. That smarted worse than her eye ever had. That lunatic was a bane on Nao's existence, and now her happiness was doubly poisonous for the young red head. Once it stung for the resentment she had of Fujino's unending calm and ability to manipulate. Twice it stung that the woman's happiness came at the expense of Nao's unvoiced desire for their beautiful, brave, brilliant, clueless warrior.

Thinking in the rain sucked. Damn it. Fujino sucked. Kuga sucked. Men sucked. School sucked… and right now she suspected that she, Nao, also sucked- which wasn't cool at all. She desperately needed something to distract her from this crappy line of thought- and the rain would make hunting a no go, so her usual was out. She was half heartedly considering harassing a store clerk or librarian when she was startled by the cessation of water hitting her face.

She first looked up at the umbrella that was blocking the deluge's access to her face. She then shifted her attention to look up into familiar golden eyes. Yes, as of last summer she had to look up at Mikoto. Nao wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that. The red head distrusted change at the best of times, and Mikoto's ability to change profoundly while most of the time seeming exactly as she had been before was doubly suspicious… and perhaps a little comforting.

Mikoto's life, Nao mused, had been just as demanding, unforgiving, and just generally hard as any of them. Somehow the sometimes feral girl was almost unaffected by it, however. Oh, Nao was sharp enough to see that the past had its hold on Mikoto. It shaped her actions like everyone else's- it was just that Mikoto steadfastly refused to let the past steal any of her happiness. Perhaps knowing so little joy early on only made the girl learn to truly treasure it, rather than teaching her to take refuge in misery.

So many contradictions: Innocent. Jaded. Strong. Vulnerable. Observant. Naïve. Something masculine balanced by something overtly feminine… was she still thinking about Mikoto? Nao frowned, noticing that her action caused Mikoto to frown in answer. She also noticed that she had been standing there, staring at the other girl in silence for far too long. "Uh… Hey." Wasn't there something else she should say? Oh, yes, "Thanks," Nao added with a shrug. Mikoto nodded, her concern fading into peace as they fell into step together towards the dormitories.

It struck Nao that Mikoto was a lot like Natsuki in a lot of ways. Sure, she wasn't the freaky quantum physics type smart the older girl was, but she had her own way. Mikoto could look right to the depths of a person, a situation, and see it for what it was. She could take the heart of it, and *say* it. That had to be intelligence. Mikoto was a fighter like Natsuki too, as the current kendo club could attest. Now that she'd grown out of her childish looks, the youngest Minagi looked the part of an action heroine too. Both of them had that quality that, despite the strength and the solitude they'd already survived, made otherwise sensible, perfectly cynical, not nice women want to scoop them into protective arms and make sure those sensitive spirits never broke…

Well that wasn't a particularly safe line of thought. That way led to madness, dragons, the useless, totally inane transference of feelings from one frustrating woman who was in love with someone else to another frustrating woman who was in love with someone else. Best case scenario was that Mikoto used Nao to get over the heterosexual Mai while Nao used Mikoto as a scapegoat for her feelings for Natsuki. In the end, who was that fair to?

Tokiha'd be a lot easier competition than Fujino. Nao was a redhead. Nao could learn to cook. Nao could get breast augmentation… Nao could remember that this was a terrible idea and that she'd agreed not to think about it.

She mostly succeeded in not thinking about troublesome things for the rest of the short, silent walk to the institutional-style rooms they called home. The silence was kind of nice, actually- a silence of choice rather than through a lack of options. The feeling was even mutual, Nao noted, when at her own door, Mikoto turned with a pleased look in firm residence on her features.

"I'm glad I saw you, Nao." There was a distinctive way Mikoto said her name, sort of like a purr. "You might get sick if you walk in the rain." No, Nao thought, the depth this voice had acquired didn't hurt it at all. "I'd be sad if you got sick and weren't around at school anymore." The depth was nice, but the compassion might undo her.

"Like a little rain could have any effect on me." Well, she'd never claimed that gratitude and grace were her stronger points.

Mikoto grinned and Nao could swear the other girl had heard her gratitude despite her actual words. "Yeah. Good." And then a smirk that was altogether too worldly, "I'll see you around."

"Yeah," Nao breathed out. Then she felt her own, comfortable smirk settling in. "You just might." Nobody said anything had to be a big deal, that huge 'true love', and it certainly didn't have to be forever. What was wrong with a couple of girls hanging out, not being upset over the women that didn't want them?

Absolutely nothing.

Notes: This was also written for the Teaparty for MUses oneshot project. And again I owe Crosswood for a tremendous amount of grammatical house cleaning. All remaining mistakes, as always, are mine alone.

This is meant to stand alone, but I also suspect that there is a sequel or companion (perhaps Mikoto's perspective) lurking in the corners of my mind.