---White---
Disclaimer: G-Gundam not mine.
Rating: K+
a/n: After having written this chapter, I'm not too sure if I did that whole "Allenby-bashing" thing that people advertise on their summaries. Even though I've found that I really detest her, personally I don't think bashing her is the maturest (?) thing to do. So hopefully I didn't, but maybe I did. I really have no idea, and at this point I really don't care because it's going on two in the morning. But tell me anyway because I'd like to know for future reference!
Because the last segment was so lemon-esque, I decided to do something fairly innocuous to neutralize it. So don't worry, you don't have to cover your eyes for this one. But then again, innocent stuff to me is K+ to the rest of the world, so maybe it isn't that innocent . . . eh, whatever. Enjoy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Domon grabbed a towel set thoughtfully aside for him on the table as he entered the garage where the God Gundam was kept. He wiped the sweat off of his brow in almost perfunctory carelessness; he was that used to this everyday ritual.
The towel was also a sign that Rain was in the garage, going about her usual routine just as he went about his.
"Rain?" he called when he didn't see his partner at her usual station before the computer. "Rain, where are you?"
"I'm up here." The voice echoed about the garage, making it impossible for Domon to locate its origin.
Domon rolled his eyes. "Gee, that tells me a lot. I don't know where 'here' is."
"Oh, too bad. Guess you'll have to come find me then." Domon could hear the laughter in her voice. He grinned and began his search.
It took him ten minutes, during which he became considerably more frustrated by the second, before he thought about the cockpit. That's funny, he thought. There wasn't any damage to the cockpit in the previous match. Why would she be up there? But seeing as how he had already scoured the other areas of the garage clean, he figured he'd give the cockpit a shot.
Needless to say, he was a bit surprised when he found Rain in the one spot hedidn't think she would be. "Uh, what're you doing here?"
Rain Mikamura beamed at him and shrugged, not bothering to get up from her sitting position on the floor. "Oh, I don't know. I guess I've always wondered what it'd be like to see the world from your point of view." It was nowhere close to a confession of any kind, but nevertheless Rain suddenly took on a profound interest in her boots.
"Is that so?" Domon grinned and sat down on the floor next to her. Rain only then saw that he was eating little heart-shaped candy-seeming-things from a gigantic, and blindingly flamboyant, cardboard box.
"What're you eating?"
Domon frowned andlooked thoughtful. "You know, I really don't know."
Seeing Rain's amused expression, Domon laughed and held up his hands helplessly. "Some girl gave them to me on my way back from training. She spoke in really fast English that I couldn't understand--something about Neo Japan and winning matches and being her hero."
"Ah yes, the streets of Neo Hong Kong are riddled with fans, aren't they?" Rain rolled her eyes and grabbed the cardboard box out of his hands to read the pink English plastered across the top of the box. "Sweethearts. Seitt used to give me those all the time." She handed the box back to Domon.
He seemed hesitant to take it, eyeing her warily. "I hated those," she added to reassure them. For some reason any mention of Seitt set him on edge.
"Why? Because he gave them to you?" Domon ventured tentatively.
"No, of course not. Because they're drenched in pink and yellow dye and they taste awful."
"Really? I kind of like them."
She raised her eyebrows. "That's cause you'll eat anything, Domon."
"Except for your cooking." He laughed at her anger but duly shut up when she punched him on the arm.
They settled into a companionable silence. Rain picked up a pen that she had left in the cockpit and tried to balance it on her nose. Domon watched in silent amusement as she failed five times in a row.
"You know--" Rain sat up as a thought overtook her and snatched the pen from its precarious perch --"those sweethearts could be poisoned. Or anthrax-infested, or they could have blood on them--"
"That's your paranoid-doctor side talking, Rain." Domon smirked. "Besides, I checked the packaging. It was all secure."
"Ahh. But that's why needles are so fabulous."
"What!" Domon sat up and sputtered, spitting out the candy in his mouth and got up with every intention of getting a paper towel. Rain laugheduntil her sides hurtas she tugged at his sleeve to stop him. "It's probably okay. Sugar's a monosaccharide, which expends energy almost immediately upon intake."
Domon looked suspiciously over his shoulder at her, not reassured. "Meaning . . . ?"
"That if it was poisoned, then you'd be dead already."
Domon stared at her, sputtering. "Wow, thanks for your tremendous concern about my welfare." He sat down again, cross-legged, this time facing her. "So what about anthrax or blood?"
"Well . . . " Rain raised an index finger to the side of her cheek as she thought. "If it was a virus or a disease, then it'll have already entered your system." She picked up the box and sighed, laughing. "Yeah, you've eaten half the box. That's around 500 of those things, Domon." She handed the box back to Domon, who took it but stopped eating its contents. "Meaning that if there was disease, you've already got it. 500 more wouldn't make a difference.
"As for blood, well one of the biggest dangers is AIDS, and if it is AIDS, then it's not going to be spreading anytime soon."
"Hey!" Rain, laughing, was on her feet and on the other side of the cockpit before Domon could even lunge at her for her PG-13 insult. Who knew that she could move that fast?
Domon waited for her to cautiously make her way back to him and to sit back down on the floor before he asked the question that had been tugging at his mind for quite awhile now. "So did any guys other than Seitt give you those?"
He blushed when Rain stared at him long and hard. He was about to tell her to forget it when she grinned and teased, "My, my, we are so full of questions today, aren't we Domon? Let's play a game."
Domon blinked, caught too off-guard to protest when Rain took the box of Sweethearts out of his hand and set them on the floor between them.
"So basically, we're going to ask each other yes-or-no questions. Anytime the askee--Is that a word?" Taking Domon's dumbfounded expression as an answer, she shrugged and continued, "Anyway, anytime the askee has to say yes, instead of saying yes he or she has to eat a sweetheart. When the asker gets the askee to say yes, then he or she can ask the askee a non-yes-or-no question for his or her next turn."
He stared at her, amusement plastered across his features. "This game kind of sucks."
Rain glared back, indignant. "Give me a break. I'm making it up as I go along!" She punched him on the arm again, hard. The seasoned Neo Japan fighter winced despite himself--who knew women could punch so hard?
"But Rain, we could just lie and--"
"--well we're just going to have to rely on the honor system here. You're a fighter, you fight fairly. It should be pretty simple. You go first."
It's you that I'm worried about, Domon grumbled to himself. "Okay. So how many guys other than Seitt gave you those sweetheart-things?"
"Ah-ah-ah!" Rain held up a finger. "Yes-or-no questions only."
Domon rolled his eyes, wondering why he was going along with her for this stupid game. "Did other guys give you those?"
Rain glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, bemused to say the least. She slowly reached for the box, took a sweetheart out of the box and read the letters on the candy. She rolled her eyes in exasperation at the genius of the American candy industry. "TLC. Sooo original." Without a second thought she popped it into her mouth. "Okay, my turn. Are you bothered that other guys gave me those?"
Mentally sighing, Domon eyed her before taking a purple heart out of the box. Suddenly he hated those little things. What do you know, it says TLC on it too, he thought. In his head he began to organize all the questions he wanted to ask her. Choosing the safest one, he said, "What does TLC mean?"
Rain blinked at him, surprised, before she remembered that she was more proficient at English than he was. "Tender loving care. It kind of goes with heart-shaped candy, I guess, but mass-producing ideas like that makes it less tender and less loving."
He felt his cheeks heat up at the last word and tried to cover it up by asking, "Okay, so what's your question?"
"Hmm . . . " Rain chewed at her lower lip as she thought. Domon watched her furtively. She has no idea what she's doing to me, is she?
"Ahh, I've got it! What do you think of Allenby?"
"Allenby?" Domon registered genuine confusion at the question. Where had that come from?
He noticed that she was purposefully avoiding his gaze now but didn't have a single inkling as to why she did that. "A-as a person, I mean. I know how you think of her as a fighter," Rain half-whispered.
"I mean, she's a good friend, I guess. She helps me with training and stuff. And she seems lonely sometimes, so she hangs around here all the time." Domon didn't notice the emphasis he put on the word 'all'. "I guess I really hate it when people are lonely."
Rain glanced at him with those compassionate blue eyes. She hadn't thought about that before--that Domon hated it when people got lonely because that reflected his own loneliness at the abandonment of his family, and of Master Asia. Meanwhile it was all Domon could do to try to ignore her eyes and their effect on him as he sped on.
"And she's really boyish. Sometimes I think she's like my brother instead of like my sister. And it's kind of funny how well she gets along with Hoy and Ming--they're like playmates."
Domon looked at Rain, and a small smile tugged at his lips. "I'm kind of surprised that she isn't here right now, interrupting us."
Interrupting us . .. Rain laughed nervously and averted her gaze from his piercing brown eyes. "Okay, your turn."
Domon studied her mischievously. It didn't take him long to pick out a question to ask her from the over-growing pile in his head. "When you were in the Shining Gundam at the Guyana Highlands--as in, piloting it and everything, with a mobile trace suit--"
"Y-yes?" Rain had no idea where this was going.
"--did you enjoy it?"
Rain thought about that. She thought about the utter shock with which she awoke to the pain putting on a mobile trace suit, and to the incredible sense of resolve, that fire,the suit gave her in the task that followed--to deliver the Gundam to Domon at all costs. Despite the pain, despite the confusion, despite the terror of the Death Army . . .
"Yes." Her conviction rang in her voice. The thrill that she got from piloting the Gundam . . . it was phenomenal. She reached over and at random drew out a pink heart. On it in red read the words, "Be mine."
Domon smirked at her, gloating over some personal triumph that Rain somehow understood.
"Okay, my turn," Rain said. "Did Allenby train with you today?"
"No." Rain shouldn't have been so happy over some infinitesimal detail in Domon's day--she really really shouldn't. She really, really, really shouldn't . . .
"So I guess my next question is, why are you so hung up about Allenby?"
All the cartwheels Rain was doing in her head came to a sudden halt. She absolutely hated this question. "Oh . . . wow. That's a toughie." She stared at the cardboard box full of those corny little hearts without really seeing them. "I-I guess--" She faltered. The silence that dragged on seemed like hours for Rain when it was only seconds. Domon watched her with silent interest, willing her to go on.
That arrogant jerk, he's probably enjoying how uncomfortable I am! thought Rain angrily. Man oh man, Rain. This game was your idea. What a mess you've gotten yourself into.
"I guess I feel threatened by her," she finally said, feeling a full-on blush coming on. "The fact that she's a fighter, the fact that she saved you during that tag-team match when I couldn't, even though I was your partner." She glanced at him to see his reaction but just as quickly looked away out of embarrassment before she could even read his expression. "The fact that you're so nice to her, the fact that she's cute and everything--" She stopped suddenly at the sound of Domon laughing at her.
And that really didn't help the state of her blush. "D-Domon!" she shouted, furious. But all she could do was wait for him to subside.
"Silly girl," he murmured, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes. "C'mere." Before she could protest he had put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him, knocking the box of Sweethearts between them over and spilling the contents across their laps. I'm really starting to like this game, he thoughtUnmindful of the spilled hearts (hehe) and still with an arm draped around her shoulders, he said, "Okay, your turn. Ask me a question."
"O-okay." Still blushing, Rain looked everywhere but up at him and thought about her question. "Domon?"
"Hm?" He glanced at the ceiling, lost in his own thoughts.
"When you went to train with Master Asia, did you miss me?"
Domon smiled and glanced stealthily at Rain before scooping up a Sweetheart from her lap and depositing it in his mouth. Rain froze--she was sure her heart had stopped beating.
Everyday, Rain. Everyday.
The heart had said "Marry me".
Domon quickly settled on his next question. It wasn't especially profound, but it was something that had been tugging at his curiosity for awhile. "Uh, Rain?"
"Yeah?" She squeezed her eyes shut and thought, Please don't make it as hard as the last question!
"When you sit on the ground, do you ever have trouble standing up in such a short dress?"
However proficient he may be as a fighter, Domon Kasshu clearly lacked skill when he interacted with women. It was only this notion that could explain his sheer surprise when Rain broke away from him and clearly had no difficulty springing to her feet, face flushed with fury as she scooped up a handful of Sweethearts and hurled them in his face. "Sometimes, Domon, sometimes you are just so--oooh!" Rain shouted and made as if to leave the cockpit.
"Sorry . . . " Domon mumbled before he burst out laughing again at her embarrassment. Rain glared at him, as indignant as ever before snatching up another handful of Sweethearts and throwing them at him again.
Rain bit back her own laughter as she watched Domon ignore the shower of candy and stare at her with a stupid grin on his face. "I really do hope you get AIDS, Domon Kasshu."
She helped him to his feet, a gesture which Domon correctly interpreted as one of forgiveness. She watched her retreating form as she made to leave the cockpit.
I'm really happy you're here with me, Rain. Even if I didn't get to ask you all the questions I wanted to. Just stay with me until the Gundam Fight's over. Then, then I promise I'll make it up to you. All the anger, all the sorrow that I've taken out on you, when you only deserve all my love . . . I'll make it up to you. And then--
--he grinned. --then I can ask you all the questions I want.