Disclaimer: Me no own Eureka 7.

Warnings: Swearing. Light sexual themes, light. Calm down, you pervs. :B

A/N: Ah yes, the result of five weeks worth of paragraph-by-day editing has finally come to fruition. (Seriously. It took, like, twenty minutes to type this out, and then I got lazy and decided I'd spell-check and edit it later, and, Lo and fucking behold, school starts and I get no free time. Meh.) So yeah, it's an AnemonexDominic one-shot, using the ultra lame-yet-sweet skyfish theme. Enjoy. :D

Skyfish

There was a glint of white light as the sun's beams struck the surface of a small, circular mirror, held loftily in a pale, delicate hand. With a sudden jerk of movement, it was drawn level with the girl's face, so that the pair of lilac eyes gazed into themselves. There was a pregnant pause as the girl stared back at herself, blinking only once before attempting the momentous feat.

Anemone smiled.

It was awkward at first, and slightly too toothy. Her mouth fell back into a placid line before it curved upward again, albeit more slowly and softly. She felt the corners of her mouth relax and ease down. She liked this smile far more than the previous.

Much better.

In the few weeks following the events at the Tien Shan Mountains, Anemone had made this a regular habit of hers. She had, after all, promised herself she would. She wanted to give him a genuine, humane smile, not that weird sadistic one she got when she had been on the drugs.

She bit her lip. Dominic didn't seem to mind at all. He had told her (repeatedly) that all her smiles were beautiful, and that he treasured them all. It was a nice sentiment, but he was just telling her what she wanted to hear, A.K.A, complete bullshit (well, not bullshit, but something to make her happy–and bullshit couldn't do that). She wanted to learn to really smile, for herself, if not for him.

Her legs swung rhythmically over the edge of the dock, rocking back and forth in the setting sun's twilight; the glow made the lake beneath her glisten as she dipped her toes. She was glad Captain Jurgens had been able to secure them the quaint cottage they now occupied. It was a humble abode, but homely nonetheless.

She heard a faint squeal and felt a warm presence on her hand. "Gulliver," she cooed, taking the creature up in her arms. "How'd you get out here?" He nuzzled against her skin as she ran a hand through the grey fuzz what was his mane.

Anemone pulled at a lock of her pink hair, which rested splayed against her back. She had discarded the white bell-shaped dress in lieu for a simple, sleeveless, maroon gown. Her former attire held far too many awful memories. She didn't want to taint her new, normal life.

Which, she was glad to say, was turning out to be just that: normal. Dominic took her shopping at every mall he could find (when he could afford it), picked out the newest music with her, and allowed her to taste dulce de leche-flavored ice-cream and beety-borscht soup (though she didn't like the latter very much; to be blunt, it was gross). Best of all, he let her spend every waking moment in his nervous, timid, gentle company.

She felt a spurt of affection as a soft smile spread on her lips.

Dominic was awfully clumsy, and he turned red and stuttered at the simplest of questions. Was it so wrong to ask what an 'erection' was? She had only brought it up in passing as they swam in the lake, and he had spluttered and nearly drowned. But she wouldn't have it any other way; he made her smile the best.

Two hands clamped over her eyes and shrouded her vision. "Guess who?" came the sing-song remark

"We're the only ones out here, dummy," she chided with a chuckle.

"Guess that kind of gave it away," Dominic replied. His hands dispersed as he took a seat besides her on the small wooden pier. There was a moment of intimate silence as they gazed into the twilight. Then–

"I like it a lot, here."

"Yeah," Dominic breathed, letting out a sigh of bliss. "Apparently, the Captain use to come here with his family. He kept bragging that you could see the sunset and stars here better than anywhere else on the planet."

"He's probably right." The place was soothing to her; it was a local of quiet reflection and calm. She privately found it culpable for the steep drop in the frequency of her splitting headaches, which were painful to say the least (to be honest though, they hurt like one helluva bitch).

Anemone winced as a subtle and dull throbbing began pounding in her temples. "Dominic," she mewled, eyes shut in pain, "it's hurting again." No sooner had the words been said had his fingertips found her temples and began massaging them gently.

"Are we going, tonight?" she said quietly, as the pain subsided.

"Sure, if you feel like you're up to it." She snorted.

"You don't know me at all. If I can eat a bucket of ice cream without a headache, I can do anything."

-

Night had fallen by the time the two of them had trudged up to the acme of the nearest of the numerous hills surrounding their home. In comparison to the mountains that loomed behind them, it was small. Still, the view it offered was undeniably gorgeous.

Dominic dropped the knapsack he had been carrying and unfurled a mat upon the grass-strewn earth. Anemone sat first, and he followed, sitting beside her so that she could rest her head upon his shoulder as Gulliver perched lazily in her lap. The moon, engraved with an eternal missive of Renton's unwavering devotion to Eureka, hung above.

"Renton loves Eureka," Anemone murmured. She didn't particularly like the message, but you couldn't say it wasn't cute all the same. Besides, there weren't any other moons orbiting around their rainbow-ringed planet.

Love, huh? she mused. What a strange concept it was. She couldn't remember if she had ever really felt love for anyone. Oh, yes, there was that (terribly placed) girlish infatuation with Dewey, but he had turned out to be a madman, bent on revenge and planet-wide genocide. And, worst of all, he hadn't even liked her back.

Then there was the Summer of Love. Perhaps the Second lived up to its name, but the First (as she recalled) had been no more than a wave of carnage. How was that love? Was she missing something important?

Anemone blinked as a flimsy green arc wafted lazily into view, painted in stark contrast against the night sky. It was followed by a group of others, all lobbing purposefully through the air.

"Skyfish," Dominic said. "They're suppose to gather where positive emotions are." He smiled and looked down at Anemone, who looked back with lips pursed in a quizzical moue.

"Yeah, but only when a Compac's near." She peered at him intently for a moment longer. "Dominic, explain love," she demanded.

"L-love?" He faltered for a moment, seemingly taken aback by the question's brazen abruptness. "Well," he began slowly, clearly still in the process of thinking, "love is the feeling that people get when they care about each other. Sometimes, it's for our friends, and sometimes it's for our families."

"I know that," she said, with the air of talking to a dim-witted child. (Seriously, he was acting like one. Who didn't know what love was? She was a different–special–case, because her life had been screwed up by those creepy weirdos who thought poking people with sharp objects and needles was fun.) "I meant real love, like Renton's and Eureka's."

Dominic scratched his scalp at the perplex nature of her question. "...Love is something special shared between two people with strong feelings for one another."

"But," Anemone interjected, befuddled, "Ms. Schneider told me that was sex." She had done it again, and couldn't help but giggle inwardly as Dominic flushed and tugged at his collar uncomfortably.

"Well, that's really a physical thing–"

"Are we going to get 'physical,' then?"

Dominic spluttered, coughing uncontrollably as he glowed a faint red in the moonlight. His gaze turned to the pack of aerial marine life. "Love is like skyfish!" he blurted out.

"Skyfish?" Anemone inquired skeptically.

"Yeah, skyfish," he offered tentatively. "It's... strange, but beautiful. You don't have to understand it to know that it's something sincere, that it makes you feel good inside."

There was a pause as Anemone mulled this over, before she burrowed her face into Dominic's chest. "Dominic?"

"Yes, Anemone?"

"I like skyfish."

She felt his sigh of relief as they continued to gaze in unperturbed tranquility at the passing class of airborne fauna. She nuzzled deeper into his chest and smiled in contentment.

Renton and Eureka had the fickle moon, but she and Dominic would always have skyfish.

-End-

A/N:

-I actually enjoyed writing this one. I dunno why, but I did. It made me feel fuzzy inside, and not with just bodily man hair, cuz, yanno, that'd be weird. :B So...review. Now. Go on. Yesh.