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::Karen has her butler bring Duo a dry set of clothes while his are being washed::
Karen: "So tell me, why were you fighting a squad of mobile suits?"
Duo: "Well you're gonna find out anyways when you dredge up my suit, I'm the pilot of a Gundam."
Karen: "Those mobiles that are giving OZ so much trouble?"
Duo: "Yep!"
Karen: "Wow. Tell me more." ::Duo tells her all he can about his mission and why he is there on earth, his story is interrupted by the butler bringing him his now dry clothes:: "You can tell me the rest later. I'll send one of my teams down to dig out your suit." ::leaves Duo to dress::

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::Three days later. Duo jumps down into the cockpit of his Gundam, he begin a systems check::
Karen: "Ohayo! Gomen about it taking three days for the team to dredge this thing up."
Duo: ::looks up to see Karen leaning into the cockpit:: "It's alright." ::he had found himself growing closer to this girl since he had met her:: "I didn't mind too much, the food here is great."
Karen: "I'll tell cook you liked his food." ::leans into the cockpit a little more::
Duo: "Hey! You really shouldn't be on my suit."
Karen: "Oh why not?" ::leans in further and tumbles in, she bumps her head on the way in:: "Ite."
Duo: "That's why. Woah!" ::Karen lands on top of Duo, her face only centimeters from his own:: "You ok?"
Karen: "Uh huh." ::she leans in and kisses him lightly on the lips. Duo's eyes widen in surprise and he pushes her back, a little too hard, she hits her head again, this time passing out::
Duo: "Damn." ::he lifts her into his arms and carries her back to the mansion::

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::The butler, Gile, looks up as the door opens and sees Duo caring the unconscious Karen::
Gile: "What happened?"
Duo: "She fell into my mobile suit and hit her head." ::Well, it's the half truth. Duo says to himself::
Gile: "She always has had a love of mobile suits. You had better take her to her room." ::they walk up the flight of stairs and enter Karen's bedroom:: "Lay her on the bed." ::Duo lays her down but she won't let go of his arm::
Duo: "Um... she won't let go." ::try as they might, they can't detach her from him::
Gile: "I'll get you a chair to sit in until she wakes up." ::leaves and returns a few moments later with a chair:: "I hope this isn't too uncomfortable for you."
Duo: "Arigatou." ::sits down. Gile leaves. Duo looks down at Karen and sighs:: "Oh well, it could be worse." ::he sits by her side all day::

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::The next morning. Karen opens her eyes to see she was sleeping with her head on Duo's chest, sometime during the night he had fallen asleep and had without knowing crawled onto the bed::
Karen: "Nani?" ::she sits up and sees Duo is still asleep on top of the covers. As she gazes at him a cruel idea occurs to her, she straddles his waist and begins tickling his sides::
Duo: ::wakes up:: "Huh?" ::sees Karen sitting on him:: "Oh, your awake. Good morning, and why are you sitting on me?" ::she leans down and kisses him again, this time wrapping her arms around his neck. He acts in surprise and tries to push her off, but as he experiences the kiss, he gently returns it. When she pulls away, he is left feeling disappointed:: "Your strong. For a girl."
Karen: ::looks insulted:: "Oh yeah! I could beat you at arm wrestling, unless you don't wanna cause i'm a girl."
Duo: "Alright, but don't start crying if I hurt you."
Karen: "Yeah yeah, sure sure. Anyways, if I win, you... um... take off your shirt and we return to what we were doing before you woke up."
Duo: "Which was?"
Karen: "I had my head on your chest. And if you win, i'll stay away from your mobile suit forever. Deal?" ::holds out her hand::
Duo: "Deal!" ::they shake on it. Karen jumps off of Duo and seats herself at her desk, Duo  follows her:: "You ready?"
Karen: "Yep!" ::they begin the match, soon her hand is mere inches from the desktop::
Duo: "Looks like you'll have to stay away from my suit." ::Karen smiles and effortlessly slams Duo's hand down, making her the winner:: "Huh? How you do that?"
Karen: "My secret. Now come on, take it off." ::Duo removes his shirt, grumbling the whole time about her cheating:: "Come now, I thought you would be a graceful loser." ::she pulls him back to the bed and lays her head on his now bare chest, soon she falls back to sleep::

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::Gile enters the room caring a tray of food, he sees the young couple and smiles::
Gile: "Good morning Mr. Duo."
Duo: ::tries to sit up but can't:: "It's not what it looks like! We didn't do anything!"
Gile: ::chuckles:: "Calm down. I know her well enough not to suspect anything."
Karen: ::mumbling in her sleep:: "Die Jake! You baka onore, kisama!"
Duo: ::looks up at Gile:: "Who's Jake?"
Gile: ::sighs and his voice and face harden:: "A young man Miss Karen fell in love with about two years ago."
Duo: "What happened?"
Gile: "Well, he was older then her, her father didn't approve of him, but he made Karen happy and that's all that mattered to him." ::sighs:: "One morning, Miss Karen woke up to find Jake missing, along with her diamond necklace. the one she's wearing now. It has her initials in it, but what makes it special is that the initials were formed naturally in the rock itself. Most people would call the letters a flaw, but Miss Karen adores it. Anyways, we got the necklace back, a pawnshop owner turned it in after seeing one of the police reports. But we never heard or saw Jake again. Since then she has poured herself into martial arts, sword play, and other activity for when she meets him again." ::they look down at Karen as her light breathing turns into a wheezing sound::
Duo: "What's wrong?"
Gile: "I don't know. I'll call the doctor." ::rushes out to the hall phone::

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Doctor: "She has pneumonia. Give her these pills and make her stay inside for at least two weeks. And don't let her do any strenuous activities." ::turns to Karen:: "That means no martial arts, sword play, or boxing young lady."
Karen: "Ano.."
Doctor: "No. Just rest." ::Duo and Gile thank the doctor as he leaves::

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::A couple days later. Duo takes his Gundam out for a test drive to see if his repairs will work. When he returns to the mansion, he sees a squad of mobile suit surrounding it::
Suit1: "Gundam pilot. Surrender and come out!" ::Duo answers by drawing his scythe, the squad attacks as he draws near::

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::The noise of a battle draws Karen to look back out at the mobile suits, she gasps as she recognizes Duo's Gundam being attacked, she runs out of the mansion::
Gile: "Miss Karen! You can't go outside yet!"
Karen: "I don't care!" ::when she gets to the fight, only one suit is left battling Duo, this suit is somehow different from the others. Karen sees she can't do anything on the ground and races back to the hanger:: "Pilot! Take me up there now!" ::the helicopter pilot hesitates, but moves quickly when he sees the look on her face::
Pilot: "Yes ma'am!" ::Karen hops into the helicopter just before the blades come to life, they fly out to the battle. The battling mobile suits stop when they see Karen::
Suit1: "Nani? Karen get out of here!!!" ::Karen turns to the enemy mobile suit::
Karen: "I know that voice." ::the mobile suit opens and the pilot, a pretty-boy with black hair and blue eyes, steps out:: "Jake?!?!? What are you doing here?"
Jake: "You look gorgeous babe. How have you been?"
Karen: "How have I been? You onore! What the hell do you want?" ::Jake leaps over to his mobile suit's out stretched hand and Karen jumps down to him::
Jake: "I got a report a Gundam was out here, so I came to protect you."
Karen: "Yeah right."
Jake: "What's wrong babe? I would have visited, but i've been too busy. If your still mad about the necklace, I went back to the pawnshop, but the guy told me he had returned it to you, so that's taken care of. I needed the money."
Karen: "You could have asked me for the money, I would've given it to you. I would've given you anything had you asked." ::tears fall down her cheeks::
Jake: "Aw, don't cry. I'm back for good now." ::hugs her. Duo pulls his mobile suit up next to Jake's and emerges, he makes his way towards Karen::
Karen: ::pushes Jake away and slaps him:: "Jerk!! Maybe if you had showed up about a week ago, I would have just slapped you and then I would've welcomed you back with open arms. But not now, not ever. I hate you with all my heart and soul."
Jake: ::slaps Karen back:: "Bitch! Don't you ever slap me! And what is this crap about hating me? You know you love me. What, you find some guy that's poisoned your mind against me?"
Karen: "No, you've already done that. And yes I have found another guy." ::Jake pulls his hand back to slap her again, but she leaps onto the Gundam's hand behind her:: "You can go to hell for all I care you fucking bastard!" ::Jake jumps over to Karen, she punches him in the chest and karate kicks him in the stomach just as Duo reaches her, he holds her back from doing any further damage::
Jake: "Is this the asshole you left me for?"
Karen: "You left me. This is Duo."
Duo: "Who's this idiot?"
Karen: "Duo, Jake. Jake, Duo. Jake use to be my-"
Duo: "Gile told me." ::he steps in between Karen and Jake:: "What you did is unforgivable. I the Shinigami, will terminate you."
Jake: "Yeah right, wussy boy." ::Duo punches Jake in the stomach making him double over in pain. Jake swings at Duo and misses, Duo kicks him back to his mobile suit::
Duo: ::turns back to Karen:: "Are you ok?"
Karen: "Yeah, i'm fine. You don't need to worry about me."
Duo: "Hey, that's my line." ::Karen suddenly slumps forward, Duo catches her:: "Your still weak from the pneumonia, you shouldn't even be out here, let alone fighting. Let's get you inside." ::he picks her up and turns to leap down when a gun shot sounds to his right, before he can react, the bullet hits Karen in the upper outer thigh. Karen screams in pain, Duo carries her into the Gundam and somehow manages to pilot it while holding her. He slices Jake and his mobile suit first vertical and then horizontal::
Karen: "Heh, he slices, he dices, he cuts julienne mobile suit." ::winces in pain as she removes the bullet from her thigh with her fingers, she holds the bullet up to Duo:: "Cool trick, ne?"
Duo: "Great. Now I know a guy who can set his own bones and a girl who can remove bullets from her own leg." ::he bandages the wound with a strip of clothing:: "You are quite some lady, you know that?"
Karen: "You'd better believe it." ::Duo opens the door to the cockpit and jumps out carrying Karen:: "Are you going to leave now that your Gundam's fixed?"
Duo: "Yes, unless you want me to stay a while longer." ::Karen reaches up and kisses him on the lips::
Karen: "Does that answer your question?" ::Duo kisses her back and grins::
Duo: "Yep!"

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~Kindori-kun
Didn't know I also like Gundam, did you? Anyways, as usual, all basic exclaimers apply. If you have any comments please send them to [email protected]. Thank you and have a nice day.