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Rating: K+

Disclaimer: G-Gundam isn't mine.

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Rain Mikamura sighed as she dropped herself on the couch, permitting herself the first break she had had after four hours of working nonstop on the Shining Gundam. It was then that she wondered to herself, not for the first time, what exactly she was doing here.

She sighed again and closed her eyes, recounting what had happened in the past months. She remembered the college student Rain, much younger and not just in terms of years, filled with the scientific fervor and rationality that had seemed to her innocent eyes so relevant to the world. She remembered the same Rain dazed and confused at being plucked out of her logical, orderly existence by the Neo-Japan government and shipped home to be reacquainted with the ardent brown eyes of a young man she recognized yet did not know anymore. She remembered how fragmented her life felt, how dreamlike and surreal it was in those first few days she had spent with Domon. One day, she would be cooped up in small rooms with chalky blackboards and a mind drunk with memorizing capillaries and researching the functions of endoplasmic reticula. The next, she would be out in the open wilderness with only a tent and the silent companionship of determination epitomized, far beyond what was logical and orderly and rational. She had never realized how small her world had been until then.

Domon Kasshu was far beyond rational as well. That was what she liked about him. And here he was right now, loudly opening the door and stopping to inspect her unfinished work on the Gundam's right hand. Her eyes were still closed, and she knew that she looked asleep. Tentatively she opened one eye and peered between her long lashes at Domon, whose back was to her and who was taking inordinately long to inspect the Gundam's hand. It didn't take long for Rain to realize that he wasn't merely inspecting the Gundam's hand, no, not at all--he was thinking about what the Gundam stood for. His mother's death, his brother's betrayal, and his father's cryogenized state.

"You don't need to beat yourself up over what happened to them, Domon. You aren't responsible, you know," she murmured quietly, her eyes still closed. She knew what she would earn for saying something like that, she knew that she had crossed an invisible boundary that he had established between himself and the world. She knew that he wouldn't like it. Sure enough, his words were exactly what she had expected.

"What makes you think I was thinking about them? You don't know me, so don't judge me, and stop trying to read me." Domon knew his tone was harsh, even for him. He just didn't know what to do when Rain saw through him like that, when she touched sides of him that no one else could touch. So he resorted to anger, the emotion he was most comfortable with.

Rain tried to brush away the pain his words had inflicted; indeed she had adjusted so well to this new life that her emotions didn't even translate onto her features. Instead, she merely chuckled, opened her eyes, got up, and walked over to the Gundam to resume her work. By now, she had realized that when Domon lashed out at her, he didn't mean to lash out at -her-. He was lashing out at himself.

The notion gave her some small comfort, even though in no way did it eliminate the pain. She had come to that discovery only after months of dealing with him. Or maybe it was just that she thought about him a lot?

Out of the corner of his eye, Domon watched the brown-haired woman kneel to finish her repairs of his Gundam's Shining Finger. She seemed completely unfazed by what he said, and he didn't know how to react to that. A part of him was relieved; he knew that she didn't deserve that savage side of him. The other part of him was frustrated, to say the least. Had she stopped caring about his words? Did he have no effect on her at all? Sometimes she was so professional that it...hurt him. It seemed so unfair, when every little crease on the corners of her mouth or every little twinkle in her eye drove him cr--No.

No. He was not going to go there.

He shook his head to stir himself out of his reverie and tried to concentrate on the Gundam before him. But out of the corner of his eye, he was still painfully aware of her. He hated it when he couldn't stop looking at her.

"How was training?" asked Rain casually.

"It was fine," he answered.

"You know, you really should bring more water with you out there. With all the water you displace from your system, it's potentially damaging to go on the way you do."

"Uh-huh," he murmured, less attentive to what she was saying and more attentive on her.

'She's got really nice legs,' whispered a voice in his head that he didn't know he had. He was shocked. Where had that come from?

Now Rain had gotten up, and she smiled at him pleasantly while saying, "I'm going to give you a couple of extra bottles for tomorrow, just in case you forget."

'Or in case you weren't listening,' she thought to herself sardonically.

Domon nodded, not trusting himself to speak. 'Dammit, why does her dress have to be so short!' he thought to himself. He blushed profusely and hoped to God that Rain didn't notice.

He hoped in vain; Rain noticed everything, and he knew it. She cocked her head to the side cutely and asked, "Domon? Are you okay?"

Suddenly he found his voice. "Uh, y-yeah. I'm gonna go uh, shower." With that he sprinted out of the room.

Rain frowned, she was still worried. Maybe the lack of water had gotten to him? If so, the heat from the shower definitely wasn't going to help. "Drink some water before you do, okay?" she called after him.

Now safely separated from her prying gaze (and the thoughts that resulted from -his- prying gaze) Domon obediently went to the kitchen and poured himself a glass from the tap. Just as he finished, Rain came into the kitchen to check up on him. "You should probably wait half an hour before showering," she advised.

Domon rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Yes, mother." He leaned against the kitchen counter and drank the water, trying to look nonchalant as Rain laughed at his words. Then Rain remembered how uncomfortable and red he had looked back in the garage. Mistaking his symptoms for a fever, she walked over to him and wordlessly put her hand against his forehead.

Predictably, Domon blushed at her touch, and an onslaught of his previous thoughts returned. Suspicions confirmed, Rain mercifully stepped back. She didn't know how to begin her news, especially since she knew the Gundam fighter wasn't going to like the idea of a fever delaying his training. But as his doctor, her first priority was to maintain his health, even if that meant that his anger was going to cost her emotional pain. "Uh, Domon?"

Cautiously Domon raised his eyes to meet her firm blue ones.

"You're coming down with a fever. I'm going to have to put you to bed for a few days."

Domon stared at her, bewildered. He felt perfectly fine...at least when she wasn't around. As he opened his mouth to protest, Rain cut him off hastily, anticipating his anger. "Look, I know you're upset about this, and I know that it's going to delay your training, and I know that your training is important to you. But all that training is going to be worthless if you work yourself even sicker later on. It's better to recover now for a few days than later on for a few weeks. So please--"

"Okay." This time, he cut her off.

It was Rain's turn to be shocked. He had rarely been so obedient before--what was going on?

Right then, Domon wasn't functioning enough to protest. The naughty side of Domon's head had taken over again and it was currently replaying over and over for him Rain's words: 'I'm going to have to put you to bed for a few days.'

If Rain hadn't been there and if she hadn't already been concerned enough for his state of health, he would've slapped himself for all his current mental state of chaos.

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a/n: I guess I could call this little piece of silliness my first attempt at a G-Gundam fic. I apologize if anything seemed OOC or out of the plot line--I tried to keep it as true to the series as much as possible, but that's difficult given that I haven't seen that many episodes to begin with. (That's gonna change though--I just got the entire series in the mail, so I wrote this to celebrate!)

As for the OOC-ness...well part of the inspiration for the fic came from a conversation my friend and I had late last night about the drama in our lives. Predictably a lot of my drama has to do with my attitude as a result of spoiled, upper-class almost-white-and-really-bored teenage angst. So even though I took liberties with Domon's behavior, it was because I feel like my personality is a lot similar to his sometimes.