Sara was taking it easy while Shadow was at work. She combed through Maria's quills while the child sat on her lap watching a movie about a group of bunnies. They were searching for a new home after the psychotic one in the bunch predicted death and destruction to them. Sara was finding the movie a bit disturbing and brushed her girl's quills a bit roughly, evoking a verbal complaint from her.

"Oops... Sorry, sweety." Sara kissed the top of her girl's head and began brushing her hair more gently.

"The seagull's funny." Maria giggled.

"Yeah, he's a little odd." She tried not to read too much into the movie. "Want to watch a movie about a unicorn after this, honey?"

"Oh sure! And then we can play with my ponies!" Maria beamed. She'd gotten another My Little Pony a few days ago, and its hair was already getting frayed.

As the first movie was drawing to a close, it began raining outside. The drops clinked against the window and the metal rods of the fire escape. Maria looked over at the window with its ash gray skies. The drops began blurring the image outside. She was never afraid of the rain, which was a good thing, and seemed almost mesmerized by the growing downpour. Her little ears perked up, taking in the rhythmic sounds of the rain drops, a slow smile forming on her face.

"Something interesting?" Sara asked gently when her daughter had been spellbound by the rain for several minutes.

"It's raining," she said simply.

"Yes...yes it is. The movie's over; did you want to watch The Last Unicorn now?" she prompted.

"Huh? Oh yeah…. Did the bunny die at the end there?" she asked in reference to the last movie.

"Hmm... Yes, but his spirit lived on." She set her daughter aside and got up to change DVDs.

"Do we live on when we die too?"

There was an awkward silence before Sara replied. She made a mental note not to take Mina's suggestions for kids' movies next time. That yellow mongoose always did have strange tastes…. "Yes, we do. Why are you asking?" She got out the unicorn DVD and slipped it into the player.

"Daddy was telling me about another Maria last night. Did you know that Maria, Mommy?" she asked from the couch, her hands clasped on her feet so she looked like a strange spidery ball.

"No. That was a long time before Daddy and I met." As Sara hit the play button, the TV and lights flickered and died. "Heh...looks like no more movies." She opened a drawer in the entertainment cabinet and fished around for a flashlight. There was still enough light coming through the window that it wasn't totally dark. She aimed the LED-based light at the ceiling and set the flashlight on the coffee table. "So, what do we do now?" She smiled and sat back down next to her little spider, tickling her sides.

Maria giggled as expected and rolled over onto her back, kicking at her mother's hands. "Was Maria pretty?"

"Mm hmm. I know she was." She leaned in and nuzzled Maria's belly, earning yet more laughter from the ticklish one.

"Are there pictures?" She asked between fits of laughter.

Sara placed a considerate look at her child. In the dim lighting of the power outage, her fur was almost black, and her reddish bangs seemed almost blood red. She really is like her father, isn't she? "My you're being persistent. Yeah, there's a few pictures. I'll have to ask your daddy about that, though... Why are you so curious?" She lightly touched a finger to Maria's nose and pressed it gently.

"Because Daddy said I was named after her. Was she a nice person?"

"Well...I think she was Daddy's guardian angel while she was alive," Sara replied. "He speaks very fondly of her...she was his very best friend. Remember he talked about being in space and seeing the blue planet below? She was up there too; he said she wanted everyone to be happy."

"Oh wow! Then she was really special, right, Mommy?" Maria's crimson eyes shone brightly up at Sara.

"Yes. Very special. You are too." She smiled and pulled the girl in for a tight hug. "You're my little angel, right?"

"Hee hee! Okay!" Maria nodded and nuzzled against her mother's chest.

"Now...what do you wanna do while we wait for the lights to come on?" She smiled softly and smoothed out her daughter's quills once more.

"...Go Fish!" The little girl slid off her mother's lap and reached under the couch. She drew back a beat up cardboard box that had a host of card games and board games that never saw the light of day. Just perfect for a rainy afternoon.

The power was still out when Shadow arrived home several hours later. Rain continued to beat down on the landscape, and only the faintest hint of light filtered through the rain-splattered window. His eyes quickly adjusted to the fleeting light given off by a few candles flickering against the darkness. He traced the form of his lovely mate moving on the couch and headed over to her after letting himself in.

"We're going to have to throw out all that food, aren't we?" he said as he leaned over to give her a hug.

"Not all of it. Ahh...you're soaking wet!" she complained as a few chilly rain drops dripped onto her fur.

"Yeah, no umbrella." He gave her a kiss on the cheek before releasing her.

"Were you out in all that? You'll get a cold," she fussed, even though the idea of him getting sick was silly. Aside a couple cases of mild food poisoning, she'd never seen him in anything but perfect health.

"Good. About time you babied me some, huh?" He smiled a bit before she pushed him off the carpet and into the bathroom.

"Oh, just dry off first." She wrinkled her nose.

"With what? You can't see in here." He smiled, knowing he had her off balance from her usual composure.

"Pretend you're a cat." She rolled her eyes as she went to retrieve the flashlight she'd put on the table earlier.

"Hmm...no good, I don't want a tongue bath." He shrugged.

"Har har." She pushed the button and the light went on before she thrust it into his hands. "Find a towel. Dry yourself off, then have fun trying to find me in the dark, okay?" She gave him a quick kiss and shut the bathroom door behind him.

"...Is that a challenge?" he called after her, but she refused a response. He liked having fun with her every now and then. "If that was a challenge, you're bad at hiding," he said idly after returning in a drier condition, though his quills were fairly messy from the toweling off. He then sat next to her on the couch.

Sara ran her fingers through his quills, smoothing them down gently. "Who said I was supposed to hide?" She smirked a bit.

He enjoyed her grooming him and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. "So what'd you do in the dark?" He smiled a bit inwardly thinking about things they could do in the dark, but didn't suggest that...yet.

"Played card games with Maria mostly. She was asking me about her namesake today," she replied softly. She continued to run her fingers through his quills, tediously making sure that every one was in place just so.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. She'd like to see a picture of her, you still have one or two somewhere, don't you?" She examined him in the low lighting, fairly sure she'd gotten his quills back into shape. She then glanced at his chest fur…all matted up...tsk tsk. "You did this on purpose, didn't you?" She made a slightly sour face as she set her fingers to work on his fluffy chest.

He let out a brief laugh, "Ahh…. Yeah, I have a picture." He lay back on the couch and pulled Sara with him.

"Okay, well that was intentional." She rolled her eyes and lay there against him, trying to look him in the eyes in the low lighting. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat in the darkness. "Are you going to show her?"

"...I don't see why not. Wonder why she's interested now." His smile faded a little bit but he rubbed Sara's shoulder's and neck, pleased at how at ease she was with him.

"We watched a disturbing movie about bunnies and she asked me about death." Sara shrugged in reply. "Mmm...a little lower and to the left... Mmm hmm...just about...ahh there!" She smiled as he kneaded a particularly tense muscle.

"I guess she was bound to ask eventually." He smiled softly. "I haven't had you this relaxed in a while."

"Blame the weather... Rain's soothing, you know?"

"We didn't have rain in space. Tell me about it." He held her close after tiring of massaging her. Though he was paying attention to what she was saying, his mind was also contemplating how to liberate her from her jeans without significantly altering the mood.

"Mmm... My mom used to sit me by the window whenever it rained. She didn't want me to be afraid of rain or lightning. She said she liked the sound it made on a tin roof," Sara explained. "She'd tell me how the rain nurtures the flowers and trees...fills the rivers...told me all about the life that water brings, so rain's always been a comfort to me. Even though the gray skies make me drowsy or I get bored...I like hearing the rain fall."

"Sounds pretty good to me." He felt her legs twine around his a bit more and the grin tugged at his mouth again. "...Is Maria in bed?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Shadow partly sat up and leaned toward the coffee table. In his next breath, he blew out the candle sitting on it, and the room was plunged into near total darkness.

"...Shadow!" Sara's surprised exclamation was cut short by a pair of lips touching hers. The sound of rain filled her ears, still beating against the window in the silence. She could hear the rain, and her lover's soft breaths.