A rose by any other name...

Confirmation of disclaimer, please see first chapter.

After dinner, le Crueset led Tamuril to her quarters. Unfortunately, because they had not known she was a girl, she would have to stay in Dearka's room, until another suitable room was found. Dearka found this quite humorable.

"Hah ha! Now you se, this'll work out great won't it Ichi-chan" Sincer she had eaten basically nothing at dinner, probably from his comment about space food, as well as nerves, Dearka had taken to calling her little one. Yzak seemed to think this was cause for another smirk. Athrun hung his head at the embarrassment of being associated with such ridiculous comments to say about a lady.

"O-oh my goodness...I-I do not want to uh, intrude sir." Tamuril turned bright red from the thoughts she assumed were traveling through Dearka's head right now.

"Nonsense my good lady," Dearka countered readily, "I'm sure there's room for both of us on the bed if we stack ourselves correctly." He gave her a suggestive wink, before his ear was taken ahold of by le Cruset, who gave Tamuril a reassuring smile.

" We will find you a more suitable place tomorrow, tonight, Dearka will stay with Nicol.

And with that, the company of five exited the room, shutting the door for her behind them, their voices could be heard slightly, echoing as if from far off.

"Awww c'mon Crueset, I wasn't reeeaaaallllyyyy going to sleep in the bed with her."

Tamuril sighed, wondering if her acceptance of this position would prove to be a rather, unenjoyable experience. Not that it would have mattered whether or not she had accepted, either way she would have been sent. After changing, and repacking the last day's things, she lay down on the bed gingerly, rather awkward being in a male's bed, even if he wasn't in fact, in there with her. She blushed from her self consciousness, berating herself mentally. 'He's not here, he isn't going to be.' Try as she might, she couldn't get to sleep until rather early in the morning, around two. She knew this because she had been staring at Dearka's digital clock that was setup by his bed-stand. At 6:00 AM, she was awakened by the sound of "Too Sexy", this, apparently, was Dearka's wakeup call.

Tamuril got up, and put on the uniform someone had folded on the table for her, when they had come in was a mystery to her, she was glad she was not one to sleep in underwear, preferring a white tank top and ladies boxers. She figures out how to open the door, and does so, surprised by a crisp-looking Dearka holding a bouquet of white roses at her pushing her back inside the room and giving her a quick hug, squashing the flowers in between them. Tamuril's eyes widened in shock, once she figured out what was going on, she stepped back of course holding both hands straight in front of her.

"W-w-what are you doing in here?!" Were her first words of the morning. Dearka smiled and pushed the rose's into her face.

"For you! For yesterday," Dearka rubbed the back of his head in completely convincing bashfulness, handing her the roses, which, turned out to be fake, and popped confetti up her nose and her open mouth, which had become an O at being given flowers. Tamuril brought her hands to her neck, coughing up the confetti. Dearka stood behind her giving her the Heimlich and she whirled around angrily once she was un-confettied.

"I wasn't choking! And even if I was it's your fault!" Dearka smiled at her mysteriously.

"My deepest apologies, Ichi-chan." It was then that Tamuril noticed he still had his arms around her, and her turning around had made it an...interesting position to be in, which she quickly broke, stepping backwards indignantly and marching out the door, leaving Dearka crumbled in a heap with the flowers, laughing his head off.

Tamuril reported to the general eating area, her hair in the same bun as before, pieces too short for the bun falling around her face in thin strands. Her face was flushed as though blushing, from embarrassment, and from anger. Bits of confetti stuck in her white-gold hair.

"What happened to you?" Yzak asked scornfully as she entered.

"...Flowers...I got flowers." Was her faint reply. Dearka then reappeared behind her in the doorway, flicking pieces of confetti off the back of her head. She angrily hit his hand away. Muttering things about "perverts" under her breath. Athrun sighed from his position on the left of the table.

"What have you done to make her hate us already Dearka?" To which Dearka replied. "Nothing I didn't do anything, the world would be better if we hugged more often." Yzak found this incredibly funny.

"That's right Athrun, why don't you and Dearka have a nice hug to improve the karma in the room." Nicol sighed and rose to help Tamuril get her tray and she sat down beside him, eating a bran muffin with a fork, cutting the muffin up in teensy weensy bites before putting it in her mouth.

"Dearka, please...", Nicol trailed off as le Crueset entered the room.

"Well Miss Tamuril I am happy to see you in your uniform. You look lovely. But...it seems we will be going to battle today. A screen appears on the right side of the room, those sitting there moved to the opposite side of the table, Tamuril ended up between Nicol and Yzak.

"An Earth Alliance Gundam has been spotted at these coordinates." A voice through an intercom tells them, probably someone from the top deck, as the coordinates flash on the screen.

"So team, "le Crueset began, "Let's get ready to rumble. The "team" looked at him as though he had gone mad, "let's get ready to rumble?" what on earth had gotten into him, they wondered.

Nicol took a hold of Tamuril's elbow as she was about to walk over to le Crueset, and lead her toward the door. "You can fly with me today." He said in a kind voice, he wanted to add "But please don't get in the way," but figured he wouldn't want someone to say that to him.

Sorry guys, I'll save the rest for later. It may be awhile until my next chapter because I have to take my computer to be fixed. Thankyou for reading my story, I know it isn't very good, but I'm trying. A nice Gundam Battle is waiting for you in the next chapter, so make sure you read it

- Tibby