His lips were sticky and his mind was fuzzy with champagne.  A pleasantly warm feeling seemed to have overtaken his entire being and he laid back in the grass, propping himself up on his elbows.  The night air was freezing, but he was for once too content to care.  The blue-black of the sky was speckled with stars and Domon Kasshu absently wondered in a quasi-drunk sort of way why he never noticed how beautiful they were before.

                It wasn't just the stars; there was a goodness in everything that he hadn't seen before.  The world itself had slowed down since yesterday.  He felt like a blind man who suddenly regained sight; a drowning man who finally surfaced for a breath of air.  A splash of color, like red on white.

                "Tranquillity," he whispered.

                "Domon?" questioned the woman by his side.  She sat in the grass, her knees drawn up to her chest, shivering in the December breeze.  Her dress was red.  He adored red.  The day before, she had gone shopping, citing they needed evening wear for the two-fold celebration being held in the name of the destruction of the Devil Gundam and the end of the Gundam Fight.  He needed a tuxedo for the event, so she had brought him with her.  She let him choose her dress and it was red.

                "When Schwarz taught me to control the Shining Gundam's Super Mode, the key was Tranquillity of Still Water..." he trailed off, wondering why he suddenly thought of such a thing.

                "What made you think of that?" Rain asked.

                "I don't know," Domon replied, his voice smooth and his eyes drifting shut.  "Maybe because it's so peaceful."

                "What's it like?"

                "What?"

                "The water tranquillity."

                "It's..." he faltered, "calm."

                "Oh," she answered.  She wrapped her arms about her knees.  On an intellectual level, Rain knew Domon wasn't good at articulating his ideas.  He would never be able to explain it in a way that would let her understand the way he did.  Yet a small part of her feared maybe he just couldn't tell her because they were so different.

                "I like it," he said finally.  "A strong fighter is one who knows why he fights.  With Still Water Tranquillity, I know.  I can see it."

                "What do you see?"

                Domon sat up and wondered why a random comment should spark such a conversation.  Still, that pleasant feeling of late was still with him, so he told her.  Besides, keeping things from her never had beneficial results and he did so hate to lie to her.  He saw his family and his friends and, of course, he saw her.  The vision of Rain was last, the catalyst that made it all happen.  He had even called her name that first time, when he fought against Schwarz in the Gundam Speigel with nothing but that old rusty sword to protect himself with.  Of course, he didn't tell her that.  Some things he just didn't like to say.  Maybe he would tell her someday.

                "That's what I saw," Rain said suddenly and quickly, as though the fact just dawned on her and she needed to say it before it would be forgotten, never to be drug up from the depths of her subconscious again, "when I transferred the battle data from Shining Gundam to God Gundam."

                "It's why I fight," Domon answered, "of course you would."

                "I think I'm jealous you see the others before you see me," Rain teased.  "And you keep spouting snide remarks about your male friendships."

                "Rain!" Domon cried in exasperation, "Would you drop it already?"  He made a show of falling backwards so that he was lying on his back in the grass again.  "Don't be stupid."

                She giggled.  "Like that."

                Domon smiled up at her, pleased that he had made her laugh.  He had trouble recalling a time when he had done that before.  Probably, he reflected, he hadn't.  At least, not since they were kids.  Seeing his smile, Rain cupped his head in her hands, one at his forehead, the other at his chin, leaned down and over and kissed him.

                Domon tasted overwhelmingly of stale champagne and Rain made a face.  "How much did you drink at the party?" she asked.  Rain herself had only had one and a half or so glasses.  Champagne, despite its reputation, was an acquired taste.  Rain didn't drink enough to get used to the way it seemed to burn all the way down.

                He shrugged.  Domon didn't really remember.  Champagne had a nice taste to it and it was so much more mild than what he normally drank.  He had quite a bit, he knew that much.  Enough to get him mildly tipsy, and that was with his particularly high level of alcohol tolerance.

                "You drink too much," Rain sighed.  "I guess can see why you would..." she trailed off.

                By this time, Domon wasn't really listening to her anymore.  The way she looked in that red dress with the backdrop of stars from the sky and the lights from the city in the distance had caught his attention.  He stared in some sort of trance that could really only be described as awe.  He had noticed how beautiful she was before, but it still could catch him off guard.