Assessment

Author's Notes - Ha ha! Here it is, Dom's point of view. So, since we don't have much canonical evidence to work with this is my own take on the character. Deal. Spoilers up to "Race to the Nexus".

All legal stuff is in chapter one.

Assessment

Dominic was not expecting a whole heck of a lot when he showed up at R.J.'s place to break up the monotony of his trip. A friend to catch up with, some food, some laughs, a soft place to lay his head, and possibly some fun, and strenuous activity to lead up to the laying of heads; that was all that he expected when he hopped off the ferry at Ocean Bluff. He did not expect three impossibly young Pai Zhuq students, one absolutely beautiful and intriguingly quirky pizza parlor manager, and one best friend so close to the edge that it was difficult to tell that he hadn't already crossed it. Unless you knew him really well.

So, Dom did what he was good at, he played goofy, and observed. He observed Lily and Fran's obvious affection for one another, he observed Theo's crush on Lily (which had all the hallmarks of a long standing, slowly fading, hanger-on), and he observed R.J. and Casey. He also observed the girls observing R.J. and Casey.

R.J. and Casey were exceedingly observable.

He hadn't gotten to know Casey very well in the short time they'd been teammates. Every time the kid seemed ready to give in, and try being friends something seemed to make snap back to being, well, a little bratty.

Dominic could understand it, sort of. Casey was young, even by Pai Zhuq standards. The fact that Master Mao had chosen him when he'd been a first year, (if Theo was to be believed), said a lot for him though. Well, either that, or it said a lot about Master Mao's senility rating. A supposed threat to his leadership, or more significantly his place with his friends and his master, would be treated with hostility. Still, Dom hadn't been quite sure what was going on with the little tiger. He'd done his best to make it clear that he wasn't after anything but a place of his own to belong, a place where he fit. Casey just hadn't seemed to want to get that.

Now, as he shuts R.J.'s door behind him, he smiles to himself. Casey hadn't been responding to the overtures of friendship that he'd made because of R.J. Dominic wanted to laugh; but R.J. was still awake, and would probably come kick his ass if he heard Dom laughing at him again.

He'd gone to R.J.'s room for a bit of companionship, (hopefully the naked kind), and it had all gone swimmingly up until the moment R.J.'s stomach had decided it needed to be empty right that second. So, he'd damped down a washcloth, left R.J. to it, and waited. He was better at waiting then anybody ever gave him credit for.

It had been worth the wait.

After R.J. had finished attempting to remove his internal organs by way of his throat, he'd come back out to the main room, apologized, and started to talk. Some of it Dom had known, or assumed; the best parts were new. When R.J. got to the bit about the girls and the closet, Dom hadn't been able to hold in his laughter any longer. They'd had to stop for nearly fifteen minutes. Five while he laughed, and other ten while he'd fought off R.J.'s attempts to alternately smother, or bludgeon him to death with a pillow. Dom had won, and with the pillow as his spoils, had made himself comfortable for the rest of it.

His best friend, had, somehow in the course of his time away from the academy, gotten to be the star of a modern melodrama. He'd become teacher and mentor to a pack of cubs that had been violently deprived of their first, he'd patched things up with his long estranged father, he'd become a werewolf, (and he'd been irritatingly close lipped about that. All he'd done was look uncomfortable, rub at his shoulder, and change the subject), and he'd become a Power Ranger. And somewhere in there he'd managed to fall hopelessly in love with one of the aforementioned cubs. Dom felt a little like a piker in comparison. All he'd done was visit six of the continents, (darn Antarctica!).

Apparently, the love part had come to a head a few weeks before Dom's ferry had landed, with a drunken kiss from the cub that had shocked R.J. out of oblivion and into denial. A denial that, fittingly enough, he'd been ripped out of by Dom's kiss. Dom still wasn't sure if he was proud of that, or insulted by it. Sure, it was cool that the animal knew exactly what it wanted, and was unwilling to accept any substitutes. Every Pai Zhuq student got a nifty private conversation with their mentor about it just before they graduated from the academy. Dom's had consisted of a lot of eye contact avoidance, and a warning "that once you've found your mate, that's it…no one else, or there might be some unpleasant consequences." Dom supposed that compared to turning into a werewolf, barfing up your lungs might be a little tame, but then again how often did the werewolf thing happen under normal circumstances. Seriously.

'So' he thinks as he makes his way back to his hammock 'to sum up: R.J. is in love, Casey is in love, the girls are aware, Theo is either oblivious or playing opossum, and Fran is single.' Satisfied that he's hit all the major bullet points, Dom nods to himself. And walks straight past Casey in the dark, almost without seeing him.

Because Dominic has been well trained at a secret ninja academy he only goes a couple of steps before his brain snaps to and orders him backwards. When he gets back he half expects to find that he was seeing things, but nope, there's Casey sitting in the dark staring at nothing.

"Casey? Casey, are you okay? Did something happen?" Dom keeps his voice low and soft, as much not to startle Casey as to keep from waking the others. "Casey? Casey, c'mon man, answer me."

Dom reaches out a hand towards the still form, and the tiger's head snaps around. His next clear sight is the ceiling of the loft. His chest feels tight, and he realizes that's because he's had the wind knocked out of him. It might also have something to do with the nineteen-year-old boy currently sitting on his chest.