Disclaimer; I do not own the Gundam Boys, that would be Sunrise inc. I just play with them.

Chapter 1 - Raimei

Enter Duo

Duo was happy. The mission he had been assigned had been an easy one. It didn't even take three days before he had located the group of terrorists that had been sending threats at various public buildings in central London. He had gathered the evidence needed and set up the raid where he and the local Preventer unit and police force had caught them with their hands down the proverbial cookie jar.

That group of morons where now safely tucked away at the local prison, awaiting court and thanks to all the evidence they had managed to collect against them it was highly unlikely that they would be able to get out of a very long stay at the state prison. Duo grinned. He really loved putting these kinds of idiots away for trying to disrupt the peace that he and his friends had worked so hard for.

On his way towards the hotel he had been staying in he walked past an animal shelter. On the front window of the office were several sheets of paper taped up. Every one of them displayed a picture and some side information on an animal that you could adopt. Duo would have just continued past the window but as he walked past it he glanced at the picture a woman inside was just putting up and he froze.

The picture was of a small kitten; its fur was raven black except for a patch in the shape of a lightning bolt over its right eye that was slightly more silvery than the rest. What breed it was he couldn't tell, but it looked like a normal housecat. While all the other ads had pictures of cats and dogs playing and just being plain cute this one sat in a regal pose with its tail wrapped around its paws and it was staring straight into the camera. It had the most amazing emerald green eyes he had ever seen. He thought for a moment how unusual that colour was, especially for a cat, sure some cats had green eyes, but this kittens eyes weren't green. They where a deep dark emerald colour that sparkled with intelligence.

Duo was in love. Scanning the side information he saw that the kitten had been in some sort of accident and had been left at the animal shelter. He, for it apparently was a boy, had had several broken bones and it had taken several weeks for them to mend. Luckily all the bones had healed properly and no artificial supplements, like metal pins or such, had been used. The kitten had also had several deep gashes over its entire body and the staff had suspected that the kitten had been abused by its previous owner. The kitten was approximately a year old and very well behaved.

Deciding on the spot Duo marched inside the office and asked the woman who was still working on putting up the picture of the black kitten if he could see that precise one. The woman seemed a bit surprised a possible new owner for the dark little cat had appeared so soon, she hadn't even put up the poster properly for heavens sake! But she nodded and assured him that of course he could do that. She got up and walked over to a glass door that stood on the far side of the office, from there she led him down a short hallway into a room that held a set of cages on one side of the wall. Large ones for dogs and other large animals that might come in for treatment where positioned close to the floor and smaller ones, for cats and such, where placed on top of those.

The woman, who had introduced herself as Jane Bowman, walked over to a cage at the far side of the room and peered inside. The cage was empty, its door slightly ajar. She glared at it with a disgruntled expression on her face.

"He always does this, always breaks out of the cage and then he hides somewhere in the room." Duo heard her mutter under her breath, his interest peaked. "Please close the door; we don't want him to have a chance at sneaking out of here. Then it will take several hours to find him." Jane sounded weary and annoyed. She started looking around the room, under tables and above shelves, obviously trying to spot the elusive kitten. Duo looked around also, at first it didn't seem as the kitten was anywhere in the room. Then Duo looked higher and then he saw it; the tip of a black tail was visible, hanging over the edge of a shelf close to the roof beside the door. With a grin he grabbed a chair that stood beside a small desk and, as silently as he could he climbed up on it to reach the top shelf and the black kitten. He noticed Jane stopping and looking at him curiously.

Peering over the edge he saw the kitten curled up and apparently asleep on a stack of papers, grinning, he started to scratch the tail.

It twitched once and was moved away from the annoyance to rest beside a box of paperclips. Grinning wider Duo scratched it again. An annoyed sound came from the cat and the tail was pulled up against the body, then the kitten turned its head and it seemed as if it was glaring at Duo for having interrupted its sleep. Duo just smiled impishly at the cat. He was really beginning to like it.

"Hello there Raimei." he said to it. It gave him a curious look and turned around as to better get a look at him. It mewed at him, cocking its head to the side.

Duo laughed, this kitten was incredible, he had never seen any kind of animal that was as expressional like this one.

"Would you like that name? Raimei? It's Japanese and means Thunder. It suites you" He smiled at the cat again. It actually looked like the cat was considering it. The small black kitten cocked its head to the side as it regarded him with strangely expressive eyes for a moment. It mewed at him again before it took a step forward and gently head butted him on his forehead. Duo laughed.

"Come on Mei-Chan; let's get you down from here." He said as he reached forward and gently lifted the cat from the shelf. Holding the small cat close to his chest he easily jumped down from the chair he had been standing on and landed on the floor with a light tap. Jane was looking at him with approval in her eyes. Scratching the cat behind its left ear, earning a purr of delight for his efforts, he looked back at Jane curiously. She smiled and shook her head.

"That cat has never allowed anyone to pick him up like that. He must really like you for allowing you to hold him." She smiled down at the purring mess of black fur that was laying in Duos arms. "He's a loving and adorable little guy, but I think he has been abused by his previous owner. He almost never allows anyone to touch him unless he instigates the contact. Just the other day he gave Nathan, one of the wets on the staff, a really nasty swipe with his claws when Nathan tried to pick him up." Apparently the kitten had had enough of the petting now. He twisted and fidgeted in Duos' grip until Duo loosened up enough for him to turn around and attach his claws to Duos jacket. He then proceeded with climbing his way up Duos chest up to his shoulders where he then burrowed himself in under Duos braid and laid across his shoulders behind his neck and started to purr again.

Duo smiled at the cat, he could feel the claws holding the cat in place on his shoulders but the cat seemed to be careful as not to hurt him with them.

"Well, Mei-Chan. Do you want to come with me home then?" he asked the cat. He got a curious mewl in response and a wet nose pressed against his cheek. Duo took that as a yes.

He looked over at Jane to ask her what he needed to do to adopt Raimei but found her in front of him, smiling and holding out a form she told him to fill and once he was done with that she told him that all he needed to do was pay the 40 $ adoption fee and then he could bring the newly named Raimei home. She gave him some pamphlets with information of how to care for a cat and what he would need to buy once he got home. He bought a black travelling box at the shelter as well as two small water and food bowls and some food. Raimei took all of this in stride, still perched on Duos shoulders and expertly staying in place despite Duo moving around.

Soon Duo was on his way back to his hotel and three days later he and Raimei was on their way home.

Raimei – Thunder

Mei-Chan – Little Dark.

Mei can mean dark, (it can also mean Command, Decree, Destiny, Life and Niece, according to the online dictionary I'm using) and Chan means small, though it's used in reference to girls. But it's so adorable and I can so picture Duo calling someone that, besides he already refers to Heero as Hee-Chan most of the time. laugh

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Common! You know ya want to! (grins)