Modo was in the middle of turning the chicken when he heard the faint rustling of fabric followed by an inaudible curse and paused in mid motion and cocked his head to one side to listen as his ears twitched. A second or so went by and he heard another inaudible sound and sighed.

Damn. It looked like Rain was awake.

He finished turning the chicken and then put the top back on the pan and lowered the heat to simmer and set aside the tongs then walked around the small island and over to the door and peeked out wondering if Rain was okay.

If she was awake now then she must either be in pain. Or in desperate need of a bathroom.

He flushed a little bit under his fur and flattened his ears against his head and trapped his tail at his side with his hand to keep it from twitching as he stepped out into the hall way and walked to the living room and peeked in like a child would when they were up past their bedtime. He wasn't sure exactly why he was sneaking around, Rain didn't seem like the type to mind having someone watch over her when she was laid low.

But for some reason he couldn't help being cautious.

He scanned the room and found Rain half sitting, and half laying exactly where he had left her. She had a pained look on her face and he could have kicked himself for hurting her in the first place. Accident or not it was inexcusable for a man to ever hurt his woman.

He studied her in the dim light for a moment or so longer before stepping into the room, and froze when her head snapped up and she looked right at him and quickly blanked her expression. Silly woman was hiding her pain so that she wouldn't make him feel bad. And while he admired that quality in her, at the same time he found it unnecessary for her to hide her pain from him.

He was supposed to feel guilty about hurting her. He was supposed to want to make it up to her.

"Ah. Modo...I was just wondering where you were." Rain said in a strained tone as she pushed herself completely upright and flopped back against the couch shaking and panting a little bit. Modo felt his chest ache for a second before he walked over to the couch and dropped to his knees in front of her and gently took her hands in his and kissed the knuckles of both hands.

"I'm sorry sweetheart. I sort of got hungry and decided to fix dinner for us both."

Rain got a slightly surprised look on her face and tipped her head back a little bit and sniffed the air. "I smell chicken-" It sounded almost like an accusation but then she looked at him and smiled. "I haven't had chicken since the last time I went to see my parents."

Modo's lips twitched in amusement before he asked. "Was it nice? The last time you saw your family."

"Yeah. Every time I show up mom fries a whole thing of chicken, makes a huge batch of potato salad, some mac and cheese and then we all load up into dad's van and we drive back to the river and have a picnic. Sometimes if mom doesn't feel like cooking then my dad will. And when he doesn't, my brother does. But no one eats his cooking. His cooking sucks so bad that I'm not even sure how he's even still alive. So instead of risking time in the hospital we buy some hot dogs and a few other things and have a weeny roast."

Modo's lips twitched again as he bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing. Rain's brother sounded like a trip. "He must have a few women cook for him sometimes."

Rain scrunched up her nose a little bit and gave him a doubtful look. "I dunno Modo. My brother is a bit of an odd duck. He couldn't keep a girlfriend to save his life so there is no way that he could have a few girls cooking for him."

"Maybe he looks pitiful when he goes to see them." Modo said helpfully and Rain got a funny look on her face as she seemed to picture her brother looking pitiful for some nameless, faceless woman. After a second or so she snorted, her lips twitching.

"I wouldn't doubt that. Storm looks pitiful no matter what he does. I think it's his secret to success. I went to work with him once when I was sick and I remember deciding to take a nap and when I woke up he had one of his hands super glued to his desk, his tie was stuck in a pencil sharpener and his fax machine had gone AWOL. It was so bad. And yet when his boss came looking for him, instead of firing him, he gave Storm a promotion."

Modo stared at her with an comical expression on his face before he snorted and quickly clapped his hands over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Rain's brother sounded like he had almost as many screws loose as Vinny. He also sounded a mite accident prone...

"I'm tempted to invite him to dinner with my bros sometime." Modo said after several heartbeats of silence. Rain shrugged her slender shoulders and grinned wryly.

"Well if you did, just make sure that an ambulance is standing by. And sit back and enjoy yourself."

"Oh. We would sweetheart-" Modo promised her before sombering up and asking, "How bad does your stomach hurt? Do you need some asprin? Are you going to be able to eat?"

Rain blinked at him and sighed, her earlier humor vanishing somewhat. "It doesn't hurt too bad-" She started to lie to him when he made a low angry sound in the back of his throat and grasped her hands in his again and hissed something under his breath that she couldn't quite understand then gave her a dark look before letting go of her hands and leaning in so that his face was just a hairs breath away form her own and growled.

"Don't. Lie. To. Me. I saw the pained look on your face when I was watching you move earlier." Rain gave him a strange look before blanking her expression and looking down at her hands, neatly folded in her lap and Modo leaned back and sighed as he tried to reign in his temper. She was trying to hide her hurt from him again. And again he found it unessesary for her to do so.

Even if it was to spare him any feelings of loathing and guilt. "I'm sorry Rain. I didn't mean to growl at you. But I need you to understand that I know that you are hurting and while I appreciate the lengths you'll go to make me feel better, I'm supposed to feel badly about hurting you. Now please, stop acting like nothing happened and let me take care of you..." Modo said in a softer tone as he stood up and looked down at her.

Rain chewed her bottom lip for a second and considered his words before tipping her head back and looking up at him. He had an expecant look on his face as he waited for her to say something. "It only hurts when I move too suddenly. I could use a few asprin. Three maybe. And something to drink."

Modo gave her a small smile. "Do you need anything else while I'm up? The TV on, a book- Dinner should be ready in a few minutes but you might want to amuse yourself until then."

Rain's lips twitched and she held up one hand and made a shadow of a puppy dog with lop sided ears on the wall behind her and said. "Woof, woof. I can amuse myself easily. Woof, woof." She flushed in the dim light and he couldn't help but think that she was the most beautiful thing that he'd ever seen before when she flushed like that.

"I'll go get your asprin and drink then." Modo said before turning and walking out of the room and stopping just in the hall way outside of the living room when he heard Rain ask,

"Was that too much I wonder?"

"Woof, woof. He probably thinks that you're loopy. Woof, woof." Modo turned around and peeked back into the room, curious to see what she was doing. And nearly laughed out loud when he saw her sitting on the couch talking to the little shadow puppet that she had made with her hand.

She had a look of consideration on her face before shrugging her slender shoulders. "Well if he does think I'm loopy, there isn't much that I can do about it. It was a short trip after all."

"Woof, woof. Not a short trip. Genetic. Blame mother. Woof, woof." Modo moved away from the door shaking his head in bemusement as he walked down the hall to the bathroom and went through the medicin cabenet until he found what he was looking for then headed into the kitchen to fix his adorable woman a drink.