Author's Note: This feels almost strange. I haven't written fan fiction in a very long time and yet here I am. I blame it on Tin Man… and it's awesomeness. ANYWAY the following story was very spontaneous and I really shouldn't be writing it because I should be doing so many other things. Oh well.

DG/Cain pairing, post series. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Tin Man, just borrowing the characters for my own nonprofit story. Obviously, otherwise the ending wouldn't have been so…not an ending? And Cain and DG would be doing it like bunnies at this moment. 8D

Jealous

By Youkai Yume

Wyatt Cain did not consider himself to be a jealous man. Well, not often anyway. In fact, he could count the times when he had ever felt the green-eyed monster on his fingers. The first time was when he was six years old and his best friend, Thomas Fletcher, got a new wooden rocking horse and wouldn't share it with him. Even then it had lasted a very short amount of time, for his Father sat him down that night and whittled him a miniature horse and even taught him how to make one too--much to the chagrin of his mother.

"He's too young for a pocket knife!"

The neighborhood kids seemed more impressed with his skill and willingness to give all the horses he made, and soon Thomas's rocking horse was all but forgotten.

The second time was when he first started training as a Tin Man. Despite also being one of the cadets, William Davis seemed to move with the agility and precision of a professional, and no matter how hard Cain tried he always seemed to come in second. Others remarked that Davis had a natural talent for it, which simply meant, to Cain's ears, that he had to try very little. So he worked twice as hard and devoted his time twice as much and before he knew it, he was top of his class and the first to earn his badge.

"It's not always the skill of a man. It's the heart of him."

The third time was when Adora ran into an old friend of hers in the marketplace and she remarked that he had proposed to her once. When she saw the look of murder in his eyes she scolded him for acting ridiculous and that when it had happened it was right after he took her home on their first date.

"Obviously I said no, because I married YOU didn't I?"

The truth is that Cain wanted very little, and what he did want he always made sure to work for it, knowing that he would earn it in the end. With this knowledge in mind, Cain had very few circumstances to be jealous.

However, it seemed that ever since meeting DG he found himself falling prey to the emotion more and more, and learning all the different kinds of jealousy that lay within himself.

She had come into his life right out of the blue. She swung her stick at a dozen Long Coats and declared that he knew nothing about her to assume her a coward with so much fire and conviction in her eyes that it had almost hurt just to look at her. He envied DG for her fierce determination, her spirit and naiveté.

He knew that he still had that somewhere inside of himself. But it was twisted and dark, reserved for revenge and blood.

He remembered watching her as she slept once, curled into herself to keep warm as the shadows played over her form. His shoulder had tingled from where her hand had laid so innocently in a comforting gesture, and despite the fact that he knew, without a shadow of a doubt that he had lost, truly lost Adora forever, her tiny touch made him believe that perhaps things would be alright.

And he remembered…as he stared at her with such intensity that she might burn under his gaze in her sleep, how much he wanted to hate her. To tell her to back off and leave him alone. For making him feel guilty about believing for a second that he was able to move on. What did she know of loss? Real loss? She may have lost her own family, yes. But at least she knew that there was a chance she could get them back.

He envied her for her hope. Because he had none left.

But as he continued to watch her, he saw the way her blue eyes fluttered open just for a moment to stare back at him in the dark, a compassionate smile strained on her lips, he wanted to thank her for giving a little bit of it back. Especially when hers seemed to be fading so rapidly since they met.

Cain was jealous of the way she was able to stay so damn cool and collected when they were on the precipice of the end. The way she silently said goodbye to her friends just before battle as if she was simply bidding them a good evening for tea. He was jealous of how easily she kept on her mask, while he could barely keep on his own indifferent face. Silently, Cain wondered when she had gotten so good at it when he was so used to seeing her wear her heart on her sleeve.

But he knows she is keeping a front all the same because as a Tin Man, he was trained to find others' vulnerabilities, bringing them out, using it against them.

She had held out her hand and he found himself holding her instead because a handshake was ridiculous between them at this point, and in that brief moment Cain envied her ability to make him feel so vulnerable without even trying. He hasn't felt that way in so long that he is surprised he trusts her enough to let it show.

In the end she saved her family, and restored the Kingdom, and he knows in his heart that if he should ever be jealous, it should be now because she found the kind of happiness he wishes he could have. But instead, any jealousy he had ever felt towards the girl was dispelled because he had never seen her smile that way before, and that her happiness became their happiness…became HIS happiness and he knows he has been a fool to feel anything but warmth and admiration for DG.

Cain honestly thought that it would end there. Being jealous of DG seemed preposterous now that he thought about it because all of the things he had envied her for were also things that he adored and loved about her. But soon, he finds himself deathly wrong and he falls deeper and deeper into frustration as the days go by. And a part of him WISHES that he was jealous of DG, instead of feeling the dark burn towards everyone else.

"What do you call a seagull that flies over they bay? A Baygull!"

"Oh, Glitch… that's so lame."

"Hey, what do you call a seagull that--"

And she would laugh and laugh despite the fact that the joke was so obviously unfunny that Cain finds himself almost wishing that he had told that lame joke just to get her to laugh like that. He envies Glitch for being able to easily talk to the Princess. The way they touch and joke and laugh as if they had been friends all their life--and he supposes that when he thinks about it perhaps they had been. He envies the way that Glitch could interact with her and talk about silly things like a child, without letting his years of knowledge and growing age get in the way.

Once, he barged right into her room because she was screaming and screaming in her sleep and when he shook her awake with concerned hands she batted them away and told him it was nothing. A shaky smile passed her lips and he hated how she still put up a front even in front of him. But he didn't pry and left her alone, and still left her to her own thoughts as she stares vacantly out the window of the balcony the next day. He bites his lip and stands his ground and tells himself that it's none of his business.

And as he is busy fighting with himself, Raw brushes by him and places a gentle hand on her shoulder and says in his rough, rumbling Raw voice that's strangely soothing at the same time:

"Raw understand."

DG lets out a small sob that was never meant to come out and embraces the Viewer, her tears soaking his fur but he doesn't seem to mind.

Cain is jealous of Raw's ability to read other people and sometimes wishes that he was part Viewer too. The way he could communicate with DG without saying any words at all and offer solace and comfort to which she would so readily accept when she could not do the same when he himself offered it. He is jealous of how much Raw is able to feel and wonders if all of his own ability to feel is still locked away in that Tin Suit, cursing Zero all the while. Or perhaps he is jealous that, even though Raw is, in all honesty, a coward, he isn't afraid to feel, and Cain is more afraid that he hasn't lost his ability to feel, but now he feels more than ever.

He is jealous of Tutor because for all of his repetitive lessons and strange dog-like tendencies, he is able to instill knowledge and teach skills that DG might find useful in life.

He is jealous of Ahamo who is guilty of nothing except being her Father, and wonders why he can't feel fatherly affection for DG as well because that's how he should feel. But what he does feel is anything but.

He is jealous of all the suitors that come far and wide just to kiss DG's hand, flirting and smiling and admiring her with their eyes because even though they might not really be interested in her per say and more her wealth and power, they are still eligible and able to court and wed DG and give her everything she might want, whereas he was just a Tin Man and besides being her bodyguard it was completely unheard of.

In fact, he was jealous of any male that came within a hundred mile radius of DG, including her Robo-Dad because she likes to fix weird mechanical knick knacks with him, and even his own son, Jeb just because he was closer to DG in age than he was. His own son for Pete's sake!

But on this particular day, where the sky is as blue as her eyes and the lake is sparkling like all the stars in the world are contained in it, he feels her hand slip into is own as if it was the most natural thing in the world and looks up in surprise to see her smiling a smile that seemed to be made just for him. And for some reason, the way she tugs on his arm and doesn't pull away when he tightens his grip makes him forget about all the ways he is jealous, and reminds him why he is jealous.

A chuckle escapes him as he wonders idly to himself, how many other men are jealous of him as he stands by DG now, marveling at the perfect way her small hand fit in his.

Fin

Author's Note: Very short. But enough to get some Tin Man fangirling out of my system. Un-beta'd so hopefully it's not entirely unreadable…

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW! Yes… even you lurkers. DON'T THINK I DIDN'T SEE YOU! It takes infinitely more time to write a story than it does to read it, so please at least leave your thoughts for me to savor. Good or bad

BY THE WAY! Me and TheShoelessOne are collaborating on a DG/Cain mini comic based on a chapter in her fic "Heard of Gold Heart of Tin" and half of it is up on the following website for your viewing pleasure. It's called "The Suitors" :

http://youkaiyume (dot) deviant art (dot) com/gallery/#Tin-Man-The-Suitors

Just replace the (dot) and remove the spaces.

Thanks for reading!