A Little Change

by Lise

It was a Wednesday when Nate turned into a girl. He thought.

Domino barely rolled her eyes. It was actually Julio that gave the loudest scream -- though that was probably because he was the only one to catch Nate in the bathroom without a decent set of clothes for his new body.

Nate couldn't speak Spanish, but he was sure that was the word for 'pray'. Or possibly 'melon'.

Nate looked down, after that. He muttered, "Melon?"

To be fair to Julio, the shirt *was* far too big, and, it was too early in the morning for any sort of gender-swapping.

He pulled his shirt closed, and frowned. #Dom?#

She was barely awake. #Mmm?#

#Can I um. Borrow some of your clothing?#

#Huh?# He could feel her rub her eyes. #You're way too big for me, macho, and I don't want to know why right now.#

#No, see.# He could feel the beginnings of an actual blush. #There's this... little problem...#

Domino was wandering into the bathroom by this point, thoughts muggy and full of pillows and blankets. She yawned, coming around the corner. "Why do you--"

She broke off.

He reluctantly dragged his eyes from the tiled floor to her face. "Dom, I..."

She stared, mouth agape, for all of five seconds, and then her shoulders started to shake. Nate bit his lip. Domino's face was all twisted up, mouth pressed tightly together.... and then she couldn't help it.

Julio stuck his head in the door, hearing the laughter all the way down the hall. "Domino, are you all right?"

She was gasping too hard to answer.

--

"I'm not putting that on."

Domino sighed. "It's not that uncomfortable."

Nate had his arms crossed over his chest, and was scowling. His mouth had been scowling fairly consistently this morning, though it had dipped upwards briefly when Julio tripped over his own two feet and fell into Shatterstar's lap at breakfast. The grin was hidden quickly, though.

Now, Nate looked positively dour.

Domino tried again patiently. "Put this on."

Nate's lips remained in a straight line. "I'm not wearing that."

Domino clicked her tongue, praying for strength. "For chrissake, Nate, if you don't put a goddamned bra on, Julio's going to have a heart attack."

"What?"

"Look at the size of your tits."

"*What*?!" Nate looked outraged. "There's nothing wrong with my--"

Domino considered throwing a tantrum, realized that Nate had that market fairly well covered, and decided to be extremely pissed off. She then considered throwing something at him. "They're huge, Nate."

He raised an eyebrow. "Are you coming onto me?"

"No, baby." She sat beside him on the bed, and put a hand over his. It was odd -- his hands were the same, thick fingers and course palms, though the rest of his skin had softened, somewhat. "But if you don't start wearing a bra, I'm going to..."

He grinned, actually grinned. "You're going to what?"

She smacked his shoulder. "Quit with the menacing smile. It's just freaky."

"Did you actually say 'freaky'?"

She hit him again, and stood up, thrusting the sports bra in his face. "Put it on, and come to practise. We've got to reassure people that something like this isn't going to stop the team."

He grumbled, but slipped the thing over his head. He asked, "Do we really have to train right now?"

She glanced at him, the new cheekbones, the strong jaw. It was Nathan, for sure, but so different that she felt a bit akward for a moment. Her voice didn't shake, though when she answered, "Yes, we do."

That was another thing; his voice had changed, so that if she wasn't looking somewhere she could see him out the corner of her eye, Domino thought, for a split second, that it was someone else.

--

It was definitely Wednesday, a week later, when Nate woke up bloated. Domino saw his sickly face at the breakfast table, and grimaced. She just *knew*.

When she took him aside, by the hand, she looked at him and told him frankly that he was going to have to adapt, and quickly. Nate wrinkled his nose -- longer, and a teeny bit thinner than before -- and did it. He was unbearable for exactly forty seven hours, so much so that Dani and Sam and the rest of them took off for the weekend, and Domino took to headphones a lot.

It was justice, somewhere, but not any kind that Domino wanted any part of, she thought sourly.

--

It was Domino, Nate was *sure*, that started leaving the fashion magazines around. Him or Bobby -- Sam wouldn't, Dani wouldn't bother, Julio would be frightened to in case of retaliation, and Shatterstar didn't have the fashion sense to buy 'Elle' and leave 'Cosmo' on the rack.

Nate was flipping another one into the garbage can in disgust when Sam wandered in. "Morning, sir."

Nate barely nodded to him. "Hi, Sam."

"Coffee?" Sam handed him a cup, and smiled charmingly. Nate took the cup and gulped it, loving every burning drop right down to his toes. Sam pulled out a chair for Nate, and Nate sat absently. Sam sat himself, and added, "Looks like you needed that."

"Yeah." Nate ran a hand through his hair, which was basically the same. "Late night."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Mm." Nate filled his cup back up from the pot on the counter, coming back to sit down with a cranky face.

Sam put his face in his palm, and watched Nate with a little smile. "So how are you feeling?"

"What?" Nate began to feel a bit bewildered. "What do you want?"

"Nothing." Sam was still smiling. Nate glanced around the kitchen, and began to get very suspicious. He stood up, and backed out mumbling something about work.

Domino met him in the hallway. "What's up, Ginger?"

"Nothing."

Domino put a hand on his shoulder. #What's got you all flustered?#

#Nothing.# Nate glanced in the kitchen. #Sam was just being very odd. Kids.#

She said, "Right. Why don't you go back to bed, grumpy," and went into the kitchen. The first thing she saw was Sam's guilty face. "All right, fess up. What hex did you put on Nate?"

"Me, ma'am?"

She eyed him. "He said you were acting strangely."

Sam answered patiently, with a perfectly innocent and blank look, "All I did was pull out his chair, and get him a cup of coffee. Tried to be hospitable."

A thought started worming its way through Domino's subconscious and finally it glimmered in her brain. Sam had done exactly the same thing to Theresa. She bit her lip, hard. "Sam," Domino said sternly, "were you hitting on Cable?"

He said again, "Me, ma'am?"

"Sam, I thought you were a gentleman -- it's not nice to try and unsettle naive women like that."

Sam grinned. "Of course. Never happen."

Domino bit her lip, harder, and decided she had to get out of the kitchen, right away, like, right *now*, before Sam saw how amused she was. And before something awful happened, like Nate saw her laughing. It wasn't right, to take advantage of him all the time, but it was so easy now, and it sure did make training more interesting, everyone trying not to tell him when his shirts flew up or when he sat, legs splayed, in a perfect display of manliness. Theresa hadn't managed to convince him that miniskirts were in, but Domino was sure that as soon as she did, Julio would just up and die on the spot.

Shatterstar, it seemed, was unfazed. He had said, right away, "Things like this happen," and went back to eating a sandwich. Nate preferred this kind of treatment, most of the time, except when Shatterstar used that stoicism and practicality to point out that Nate's breasts were showing.

--

Two weeks passed, and Nate actually seemed to get the hang of breasts instead of rippling pectorals, and sitting down, and clothes that fit. Domino still had moments where she looked at him, and, didn't see *him*, but they were getting farther and farther apart. It was just his voice that still creeped her out a little bit.

"I can't *help* it, Dom."

He was threatening to whine. She shook her head. "No way, fellah. We wait until things get back to normal."

"You're not even the least bit attracted to me?"

Domino eyed him. His tone was light, and teasing, but the link showed he was nervous. She sighed. "nate, it's not that."

"Whatever." Gruff. He couldn't pull it off with this new, higher voice.

She sat beside him, and, in a gesture that was becoming increasingly familiar, put an arm around his shoulders. She said affectionately, "Damn, you're needy as a woman. Look, it's not your body."

He grinned hollowly. "I knew you couldn't resist my charms."

"That's lame, even from you."

Nate grinned for real. "Flonq off."

She shrugged, leaning back. "That's the way lust goes, pal." He tried to tickle her, but she hopped out of reach. "Oh, no, you! We have to go in ten."

Nate's fingers, already trying to get at her ribs, though whether to cop a feel or just dig mercilessly at her sides, Domino had no idea. She shoved him off, and he laid back. "Damn, woman."

"Damn, woman, yourself."

They hadn't actually done anything besides flirt since he'd changed. It's not that Domino was that adverse, it just, never felt like the right time. Also, she could hear his high voice in her ear, trying to be gruff and fight and, she couldn't do it. Something made her want to stop.

--

"Cable, are you--"

"*Fine*."

Sam backed away, and Julio raised an eyebrow behind Nate's back. He mouthed, 'what?' and Sam shrugged, small. It was obvious that things were getting a bit strained, but no one could figure out where. Having two women lead them, instead of Cable and Domino, really didn't change much except they got into places a lot easier with two tough broads to intimidate people. For some reason, the scary look worked twice as well with a woman with a metal eye.

Nate said, clipped, "Get ready."

They'd all hop to it, too, now that he barked those orders in a crisp, unwavering alto. Something about it meant, they didn't want to see what he'd do if things didn't run smoothly. Something said, it wouldn't be pretty.

--

"Domino--"

She rubbed her eyes. It was almost four in the morning, and they'd gotten back from the mission not two hours ago. "What?"

"Can we," it was so unfamiliar, "talk?"

She reached out with her mind, easily worming her way past his outer defences. #What the fuck's wrong, Nate?#

He shrugged, pulling off his uniform, and trying to shield his body while he got dressed in normal clothes. #I--#

She kicked her boots off, and said, #We don't have all night, we have to be up in five hours and on a plane, and I can't play--#

#How does, this woman thing.# He finally turned around, and cleared his throat. "This. If it's permanent, what do we do?"

"Deal with it."

He said it quietly, and she could have sworn it sounded like any other upset woman would have; "I don't know if I can."

"What?" Domino squinted into the dark. "Of course you can."

He didn't say anything else, but she sensed a little bit of, fear, and also, confusion. Women, he thought, were this other creature, and he was trying to adapt to being a different species, and there were these minute differences that were all catching up all at once. She smiled, fondly, as he sat rather uncomfortably and let her analyze his mental state. Finally, she said, "Oh, you ass."

He looked up, plainly bewildered. She continued, "Nate, you gained some nice breasts, lost a bit across the shoulders, and got smaller feet. You didn't suddenly turn into a llama and want to go graze in the fields or something. You're still cranky, you're still tough as nails."

"I suppose I should take that as a compliment."

She kneeled in front of him, touching his cheek briefly. "Nate. This is nothing."

#We haven't...#

She tilted her head, looking at him levelly. "Do you want to?"

"Of course, woman." He grinned wryly.

She slid an hand up his arm, feeling the muscle -- still corded, still tight, but smaller and a little more dainty than before. His shoulderblades, his collarbone, still the same. His face, no stubble, lips a bit smoother, kiss a little less demanding. When he pulled back for a second, she murmured, "You idiot. It's still you."

Nate could still pick her up and throw her on the bed, and if he did it a bit more gently, Domino could be grateful because she wouldn't have a bump on the head from the wall in the morning. He still said dirty things, and if his voice was a little higher, she kind of liked it. It was a change. A little one.

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