Author's Note: Imagine that our favourite couple never professed their love for each other (or kissed) and subsequently never got together like they did by the end of the animated version. Okay? Okay. So this is a sweet-nothing revolving around Dominic, an admittedly OOC-naive Anemone and ice lollies, written dominantly from Dominic's POV.

Disclaimer: Maa, I don't own Eureka Seven.

House Arrest

#

It was an ordinary evening in the makeshift Anemone-Dominic household, and peace was settling over the apartment complex for the night; dinner had since long been cooked by Dominic to be greedily devoured by Anemone, and like any other evening they had withdrawn to the living room to lazily digest the meal, the pink-haired of the two immediately pouncing on the sofa, quickly spreading her lithe body across its thick cushions to gleefully claiming it as hers. Dominic, on the other hand, had retreated to his usual armchair closest to the lamp, laptop perched on his knees and impatiently drumming his fingers against the hard black casing as he waited for the familiar logo to appear on the still-dark screen.

Come on, come on...

As much as he enjoyed living with Anemone in such close quarters, Dominic had always found inactivity to be the absolute worst kind of pastime, and despite of his pretty companion's impressive knack for creative and time-consuming requests, boredom and uncertainty were beginning to take their toll on his nerves – if someone would please just tell him what the hell was going on!

Indeed, certain, principal events leading up to the Second Summer of Love had turned everything that Dominic had ever known completely on its head, and he found it especially difficult to adapt to the many insecurities left in their wake. Of course, he had known that once everything was over and done with, he would have no life to return to; rather, assuming that he was one of the lucky ones, he would have to build himself a new one from scratch. But this never bothered him, since the alternative had been to lose Her forever, which naturally wasn't an option: he would gladly throw away his past many times over if that was the sacrifice required of him to prevent their separation from ever happening.

Unfortunately, this didn't change the fact that being placed under house arrest really was utterly pointless and so damned provoking in so many ways.

Dominic glanced over at the lovely creature occupying the full length of their sofa, and he couldn't help but to smile through his annoyance at the sight of her. She was resting flat on her back, her feet propped up against the cream-coloured wall and arms spread widely apart on the plump cushions, and with her long pink hair spilling over the side, nearly touching the floor. But what caught his attention was not the unorthodox position, but the unmistaken calm over her features. Even as she was hanging off their sofa, basically upside-down, Anemone looked truly at peace; her eyes were closed and the puffs of hot air escaping from her half-open mouth were shallow but even.

He swallowed hard, barely resisting the sudden urge to drop the laptop on the floor in favour of launching himself forward towards the sweet pair of cherry lips, which were offered to him so innocently, to—

Wait. No.

Dominic ran his hands through his unruly hair as to physically rid his mind of the indecent thoughts that had entered his head quite uninvited. Only that the actually ridding himself of anything wasn't going so well.

His efforts to maintain even the appearance of basic civility were then interrupted by a three-note jingle, indicating that his laptop at last had come to life, and he was relieved to shift his focus away from the sleeping beauty on the sofa to his email account.

[No new messages]

After harassing the refresh button a few more times just to be certain, Dominic heaved an irritated sigh. Still no news and his patience with the Establishment was wearing dangerously thin.

Once again he let his eyes wander to Anemone, who so far had shown no particular reaction to their loss of freedom. At first, her blatant disinterest in their situation had bothered him a little, but then he had supposed that to someone who had been confined to empty rooms and loneliness for most of her life, this wasn't much different from what she was used to; while he, on the other hand, was pacing back and forth over the floors of their secure accommodation like a caged animal.

But it was absurd. Just for how long were they planning to keep them like this, anyway?

After Renton Thurston and his Eureka somehow saved them all with the Second Summer of Love, no one had really known what to do; Dewey had destroyed The Council of Sages, the capital lay in ruins and people were lacking even the most basic necessities like food, water and shelter. In the end, a state of emergency was declared under the flimsy pretext that only the military was equipped to provide any effective aid to the thousands of citizens in need. Of course, in actuality, martial law had been established – and also grudgingly accepted by the faceless shadows stalking the corridors of powers – for the sole reason that it was the only system that could be properly regulated, with the other usual ruling bodies either dismissed by Dewey Novak or effectively exterminated by the same.

Yes, Dominic had foreseen this particular development with ease, though he could never have predicted that the swiftly reinstated, cat-loving General Kajim would be so efficient at his job. Media was reporting massive relief efforts that seemed genuine enough, but while everyday life was returning to some sort of normality, the extensive cleaning up of the mess behind the scenes was only just getting started. From what he understood from Captain Jurgens, the entire U.F Force stood to be scrutinized (by whom or what was anyone's guess at this point) for its involvement and cooperation with Dewey's plans, and what remained of the SOF had been disbanded until further notice: bureaucracy alone ensured that the process would drag on for years to come.

And as Dewey Novak's former lieutenant and commanding officer of the SOF, Dominic knew that he stood to be court-martialled for his personal connection to Dewey, the TheEND project and ultimately the implementation of the Ageha Plan. This was all quite straightforward; what complicated matters was that Dominic had committed high treason by abandoning his command at the SOF and defecting to the rebels on the Gekkostate, who had opposed Dewey and his plans from the very beginning. Distributing and redistributing responsibility, fault and due punishment was therefore a rather thorny issue, and he supposed that he couldn't seriously blame whoever the unfortunate souls in charge of his case if they had no idea what to do with him – and any less Anemone, a gene-manipulated experiment that had piloted TheEND out of no real will of her own.

But all things duly and carefully considered, his best guess was that they eventually would be stripped of their respective military ranks and let go in disgrace. Still, he knew from experience that the most difficult cases were usually deal with last, and he and Anemone were definitely pushing the boundaries of what might be considered 'difficult'.

Though, that did in no way mean that he couldn't try to speed up the process.

So he decided to compose yet another email to General Kajim to ask him to investigate them as soon as humanly possible, so the damn wait finally could come to an end and he could start preparing their defence cases and do something.

"Dominic."

Anemone had cracked open an eye to watch the young man she had known since she was just a little girl, and who's calming, strangely eternal presence had been part of her for so long that she couldn't seriously imagine a life without him.

"...uh, yes?" he replied, not taking his eyes from the email message in front of him.

"I want something."

"Is that so?" Dominic didn't dare to raise his sight above the top of the computer screen, fearing that attention would only encourage her. Perhaps, if he sounded disinterested enough, then perhaps her request would go away by itself so he could finish the blessed message and send it off through virtual space. "But we had dinner less than half an hour ago."

"Dominic, please," she pleaded in a voice that made it impossible for him to ignore her any further.

"Yes?" he inquired somewhat reluctantly when he finally met her steady gaze. "What is it?"

"I still want something," she insisted, impatiently with a small pout, and Dominic swore that she was doing it purpose.

"...I suppose that there's no helping it," he sighed as he regretfully closed the lid to his computer. Years of experience had taught him that the chances of getting anything of importance done in the presence of a peckish Anemone was close to absolute zero, so he might as well give up and do what she asked while he was still in possession of his dignity. "What would you like, then? It's getting late, but I could call down to the kitchen for a sandwich."

"Dominic." Anemone sensed that her friend was agitated, even though he tried so hard to keep his feelings from her, so she smiled her sweetest smile before she continued, "Dominic, could I have an ice lolly?"

"An ice lolly?" he repeated, and from the sudden inquisitive look in his eyes, she arrived at the satisfying conclusion that the smile indeed had done the trick. Dominic no longer seemed as annoyed, though he was looking at her with a slightly befuddled expression on his face, as if her request had actually surprised him. Adorable.

"Yes," she confirmed with a slight tilt of her head.

"But of course you may, why are you asking me—oh."

He stopped mid-sentence when realization dawned on him. Anemone hadn't asked for his permission; oh no, far from it. She had asked him to deliver one to her, and he had totally fallen for it.

"A red one, please," she smiled serenely, well-aware of the fact that unconditional victory was securely within her grasp. "Strawberry is my favourite!"

After carefully putting the now-hibernating laptop on the floor, Dominic got up from his seat to go to the freezer and retrieve said lolly. "I'll be back in a second."

"Thank you!" she called after him, quite happily, as he disappeared down the hall in direction of their small, private kitchen.

#

"Here you go."

He threw something at her, and she squealed when the hard, brightly coloured lolly made contact with her T-shirt clad stomach.

"C-Cold!" she exclaimed before proceeding to noisily attack the wrapper.

Then silence prevailed mostly unchallenged, with the only real interruptions to the peace being the soft tapping of fingers flying over a computer keyboard, until Anemone decided to speak. "So have they decided what to do with us yet?"

"No," mumbled Dominic in reply, "it would seem that it's still pending."

"How boring," she sighed, holding the red-coloured ice lolly up to the light and regarding it thoughtfully before popping it back into her mouth. "They're so slow."

"Mm-hmm," he muttered in agreement.

"Dominic?"

"...yes?"

"Why don't you like ice lollies?"

This was unexpected. The question was unusual even for her and before Dominic could think better about it, he asked, "What makes you think I don't?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Maybe because I've never seen you eat even one?"

"It's not that I don't like them," he said. "I just never seem to get around to it."

"And why's that?" she persisted.

"That, Anemone," he said lightly, "is because they're always gone before I can. You know, that thing in your hand is the last strawberry lolly. Now there are only orange flavoured ones left."

"Orange?" She shot up from her horizontal position with a start. "Eww! I hate orange!"

Dominic smiled. "I know you do."

After all, he had only known her for years and years, and was thus very well acquainted with all of her likes and dislikes. "I don't particularly like that flavour either," he added.

"So what flavours do you like then?" Anemone was regarding him intently as if he was the single most interesting thing in the known universe, and he couldn't say that he wasn't enjoying the undivided attention.

"Blueberry, banana, raspberry and grape are all quite tasty." Dominic was counting them off on his fingers before returning his attention back to the laptop screen. "Strawberry isn't too bad, I guess... It's just the orange that tastes absolutely atrocious! Too strong and artificial, I think."

"And now there are no good ones left, because I got the last one," she said. "Poor, poor Dominic!"

At the last part, Dominic once again looked up from the screen, only to find that Anemone no longer was lounging on the sofa but instead was leaning over him.

"A-Anemone, w-what are you doing?" he squeaked, barely noting that his voice had risen well above two octaves above its normal range, but thankful that somehow he had successfully refrained from twitching or flying four feet into the air. "Ah, I mean, uh, aren't you a bit... close?"

"You're strange," she observed soberly, still refusing to remove herself from his face. "And here I thought I would do you a favour and share."

"...share?" he asked, this time managing to sound somewhat normal. "Share what, exactly?"

"The ice lolly," she explained as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "Since this was the last one."

"That's, uh, nice of you. But, eh, Anemone, you can't since you ate it alread—hmphf!"

She suddenly interrupted him with a quick peck to the lips, and for a glorious few seconds his senses were completely overwhelmed by soft pink, sweet warmth and the faintest taste of strawberries.

After they broke apart and she returned to her sofa, all he managed was a stupid-sounding, "Ah."

"So what do you think?" She looked at him expectantly. "Well? Good, wasn't it?"

He stared blankly at her, not entirely sure if she was referring to the ice lolly or the kiss.

"The flavour, of course!" Now the expectant look had been replaced by indications of slight annoyance. "...duh!"

"Oh, that," he breathed, undecided on whether or not he was thankful or disappointed of her ignorance about the implications of the gesture. "It was, uh, delectable, even better than I remember."

"Too bad we're out, then." She frowned. "I don't like the ones we have left."

"I can call for new ones tomorrow," he offered after a moment. Honestly, though, it wasn't as if he really had a choice in the matter.

"Thanks, Dominic!"

And a second later, the pink whirlwind phenomenon that was Anemone had breezed out of the room, but not before landing a soft thank-you peck on his cheek, leaving him feeling positively dazed.

Two kisses in one night.

Dominic stared blindly at the screen, then closed the lid of the laptop, ignoring the warning that his unfinished message would not be saved.

On second thought, maybe house arrest wasn't such a bad thing after all.