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"Wilderness"Written By: Dentelle_noir Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing AC or the
characters. GW belongs to Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. This
is a work of fiction and written for fun, not profit Rating: R Warnings: AU, Viloence, angst, fluff Pairings: 3x4, 1x2, 5x13. Summary: Stuck on a Wilderness vacation, Father
‘toughening him up’, a deadly coincidence brings a forest
ranger and the trouble following him, into their group. Quatre will
have to prove to everyone just what the nancy-boy can do. " Wilderness" Chapter 18: Flying Quatre felt his body come back to stark awareness in a flash. He was being pulled over the cliff-side by Heero! Quatre began to flail, but he was already to far gone to stop. He was falling. Falling! Quatre’s breath stopped as his vision tilted. Something around his stomach was pulling him towards the hard, unforgiving rock at the side of the cliff. Instinct told him to throw his hands in front of him, and as his already bruised and as abused palms made contact with the wall they screamed in pain, but gripped. They gripped for dear life as Quatre’s feet kicked and flailed. “To the left. Move your right foot to the left.” Quatre didn’t even take time to realize it was Heero’s voice, Mr. pusher-off-the-cliff himself, and just did it. His foot finding a little ledge big enough he felt half steady. “Listen, Quatre. We’re going to do this steady and slow. Alright? Just follow what I tell you.” Heero said. Quatre gripped onto the side, hard, but gave in to that instinct to look down at death. Thankfully, he couldn’t crane his neck far without letting go of the rock face; which he refused to do. All he saw was the wall, and Heero doing some interesting maneuvers. Heero was gripping tight and starring below through the gap between his arms, trying to find places to step. Quatre’s brief knowledge of climbing told him this was highly not done. But then again, he’d never heard of a group having to go DOWN a cliff without a rope or the ability to simply belay down or let gravity do its work. Like when were highly trained people stuck in a situation like that? Now, obviously, Dumb ass. His inner voice was cynical enough to make him giggle despite the situation. Heero looked up, quirked an eyebrow, then proceeded to order him, “Right hand down to your waist, over right, good. Put your weight on your hand. Now, just let yourself go down to it by crouching.” Quatre repeated this process. Stick his leg out as far as he could, grab a rock lower, than distribute his weight to his hand as he bent his straight-out leg to get lower, then grab again, and extend his legs further down. Heero was lower than him, and had it trickier, not having someone tell him where he could stand. But Quatre really wasn’t focusing on Heero’s dilemma at the moment. Quatre was getting the rhythm; he couldn’t even see the ground, so he was forgetting how high they were, when the sound of gunfire above his reminded him of the dire situation. His intuition was warning him that they had to move, FAST. So he squashed his fears and began to adopt Heero’s method; looking and then stepping. He even beat Heero to the punch a few times. He was moving the best he could, just listening to Heero’s calm breathing and instructions. The top of the cliff was getting further and further away, and he was comfortable feeling the rope around his waist shift a bit as the others, tied to it further below him, moved or slowed. It was trippy, all right. He knew if he fell it would mean his neck, but he was surrounded by friends who would do their best to help him. They were in a bad situation, he knew, but he could almost feel everyone else mirroring his thoughts: just climb. No tomorrow, no yesterday, just down and up, nothing else. His moment was short lived, though, when he looked up. There was a hulking brunette and an equally hulking blonde with a shining pistol pointed down. “Shit.” He heard Duo, just below him, say. “MOVE!” Heero ordered, and began to scale down faster, moving more daring. “Only four of us are still on. Tro and Treize are already down. We’re almost there, just climb.” Heero instructed. The first shower of bullets rang out. They were sitting, well, ‘climbing’, ducks! They couldn’t even move away! Their only saving grace was the cliff itself. It sloped larger at the top so that Alex and Muller couldn’t get a straight shot. The shots were barely skimming their backs. Bullets continued to sound, but they weren’t hitting even close to the climbers. Quatre was a little confused, but continued to just look for his next foot hold. He couldn’t even see Heero anymore, but he could hear him talking to Duo, and Quatre could feel the rope pulling around him. Then a sickening, almost slimy, silken thing fell onto him in a heap. The shear surprise had him pressing close to the wall and digging into the large foot hold he had. What the HELL! Quatre’s movements sent whatever had slid onto him further down the cliff. He looked to the side in time to see that long snake-like thing was the rope, shot to cut it from the top, falling down in a coiled heap. Quatre didn’t miss the significance of no rope to hold on to, and was thankful Treize, who had been lowered solely with the rope, was already on ground. “DUO!” Heero screamed. Quatre, gripping the wall hard enough that his palms were screaming in pain, twisted around to see Duo. The rope that had just glazed Quatre had twisted all around Duo’s neck and shoulders cutting off his movements. Heero was reaching out, trying to steady him to the wall, where he was only able to get one hand grip and nothing like the solid footing Quatre had. Then, with another round of sadistic laughter, the three playing assassin let loose another round of fire, aiming for Duo! The bullets smashed the rocks around them, and like in the cave, the bullets that couldn’t hit them were enough to dislodge roots, ground, and pebbles to rain down on top of them. With a sickening grunt, and Heero’s scream, Duo lost his grip. A huge mass of rock and ground was covering Duo and more rained down as he windmilled, trying not to let gravity have him as he tipped further and further out of Heero’s reach. Then he was away from the cliff, sailing in the open air. “DUO!” Heero screamed, his voice crying out in helplessness. Quatre couldn’t see! He couldn’t see what was happening. Oh God, Quatre heard a tell tale crunch as Duo smashed into the ground, then nothing. Not even a moan of pain. Quatre started to hyperventilate again. Duo! DUO! Duo fell off the cliff! He fell off the cliff! Heero was sobbing, trying to get down to his fallen lover, Quatre could hear him, but not see anything unless he let go of the cliff now and shared Duo’s fate. Quatre felt the tears streaming off his face. Duo didn’t deserve it. He was a good person. A young person with his whole life ahead of him. He loved this forest, he loved Heero, he loved his friends and now he was probably mush on the forest floor below for doing what he could to save the forest he and so many other’s loved so much. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right! And they were laughing! Those bastards above them, raining the bullets down on them. The ones who shot their only safety rope, the ones who made the ground and rocks weigh down on them and pummel Duo until he couldn’t balance any longer. They killed him and they were LAUGHING! How dare they! Quatre was so upset he couldn’t see straight. He couldn’t think straight. No. No. NO! “QUATRE! GET DOWN HERE!” “QUATRE! NOW!” That was Trowa. Screaming. Screaming! Everything was screaming! Everyone was screaming at him! He couldn’t hear it anymore! STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP! He couldn’t even hear himself think. Everything was slamming around in his head, ‘he can’t do it’, his high school gym teacher had said. ‘Be a man’ his father growled. The looks of apathy, ridicule. Everything was slamming in his head a mile a minute. His father screaming, Trowa screaming, Bullets screaming, Heero pushing, Duo falling, screaming, screaming, SCREAMING! “QUATRE YOU HAVE TO GET DOWN HERE!” Trowa called out, his voice horse and eyes wet and wide. Quatre couldn’t breath, he couldn’t think. His chest was tightening and his arms shook. He couldn’t move; he was petrified in place, shaking and trembling and his head wouldn’t stop screaming. “He’s not moving! QUATRE!” Wufei yelled, standing below with the rest, watching as Heero dragged Duo away from the open and into the trees they all waited in. Wufei was worried about Duo, but not like he was about Quatre. Duo was on ground and in pain, but he could be fixed. Quatre was still in the thick of things. Heero looked up from his injured boyfriend and to the cliff side. Heero realized he had left Quatre. Just left Quatre up there alone! What WAS HE DOING! Heero knew he’d never forgive Trowa if he’d done the same to anyone. But Heero had just LEFT HIM! “Shit, he’s not even moving!” Treize’s hollow voice stirred. He was watching Quatre frozen on the cliff side. Heero stared and saw it, that trembling, shaking Quatre that he had seen above the ledge, the one that had all but vanished once he started to climb. “He’s having another panic attack!” Heero realized, eyes wide as saucers. “WHAT!” Wufei bellowed. “Another?” Trowa demanded. Another shower of bullets came down, just to remind the rangers that the three were still there and climbing down to meet them. They had ropes, though. And, unfortunately, they were catching up. “Yes, he had one up top, too. I had to throw him over the ledge to get him over. He’s hyperventilating and trembling and- and he just shut down. I was trying to talk to him and he didn’t even seem to hear me. He’s- Oh Fuck! I left him up there like that! He’s terrified of heights and I left him alone to get Duo!” Heero clung to his injured lover and starred at his guilt on the cliff side. Trowa, furious and terrified, ran out to the open, getting as close to the cliff side as he could. “Quatre! Quatre!” He called, “Angel!” Quatre heard the voice. Heard the terror and the tears. He couldn’t stand people crying. Not for him, not for anything. “Tro-?” He warbled out. The joy everyone screamed echoed through the forest like a firecracker. “Quatre, you have to get down.” “I can’t. I can’t move. I- If I move, my legs will give. I can’t. Trowa, I’m sorry, just go on! Get out of here! Please!” Quatre sobbed, unable to even move his fingers that were fused to the rock. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t move. His legs and arms were stuck; he was paralyzed with the panic. “DON’T YOU EVER SAY YOU CAN’T!” Trowa screamed. “Don’t you EVER say that again! You CAN, Quatre! You can do this! I know you can. Just let go and jump down to me. You’re not that high. Just turn around and let go!” Trowa ordered. Quatre’s head was begging ‘no, he couldn’t do that’. Rallying excuses and apologies, he just had to tell Trowa that he couldn’t. But when Quatre looked down to tell Trowa he couldn’t turn, he was facing the trees, not the cliff. He had turned. His head screamed ‘no’, but his heart had already listened. Quatre looked down, holding onto the rock behind him backwards, both his feet were firmly planted on a footing hold just large enough to stand pointing outwards. He looked down to see the terror struck face of Trowa, always so strong, so fierce, so totally beautifully controlled and calm; now just begging with his tearing eyes. He wasn’t that far away. He wasn’t. It was like standing on a second story balcony and looking down. If he grabbed the edge of the outcropping and lowered his full body down, his feet might just skim the top of Trowa’s head. It wasn’t that far. He kept rehearsing it: It wasn’t that high. It wasn’t THAT HIGH! YES IT WAS! “God, Trowa, I can’t-” “Don’t you dare say CAN’T!” Trowa bellowed, regaining some of his steel as he took two steps away from the rock wall. The sun caught his hair’s golden-red highlights and the determined emerald chips in his eyes. “You will let go of that cliff, and you will jump into my arms.” Trowa demanded, holding out his arms up to Quatre. “And I WON’T let go, Angel.” Quatre squished his eyes shut. Oh hell. Oh HELL! “C’mon, Cat!” That was Wufei, calling from the forest. “You can do this, Winner. Just jump!” Heero bellowed. Quatre brought panicked eyes to his form, and saw Duo crumpled in his arms. But just as he couldn’t take the sight, Duo stirred and reached his arm up to grab Heero’s hand. He was alive. “Duo’s Alive!” He didn’t realize he screamed it. “Yeah, Cat. He’s alive. But he’s hurt. And we can’t get out of here without you! You have to get down here!” Trowa called, pleading and begging. Quatre swallowed hard. He knew he couldn’t make this jump! He couldn’t. He couldn’t even climb the wall or paddle the raft without falling in. He couldn’t do these outdoorsy things. He couldn’t! But the others wouldn’t leave until he tried. Trowa was standing there, arms open and waiting. Alex and Muller were above them, climbing down to kill them all. Wufei was curled around Treize, watching. Duo was holding Heero through his pain. Heero had tears running down his face. Everyone was watching Quatre. They were all depending on him. Quatre closed his eyes and gasped his final breath. One flying step was all it took, and he flung himself off the cliff. Air swirled around him and his whole body just relaxed. He was going into Trowa’s arms or god’s arms. He had no control anymore. He just let it go. All the pain, all the ‘I can’t’ all his father’s words and screams and looks, all the bullies that had ever picked on him; all the things he worried over every day let go in that split second of absolute freedom. And then he was being scooped up into powerful, hard, protecting arms and being swung around to help stop his propulsion. And he was flying. Flying! Flying free with only Trowa’s hard arms anchoring him to reality. Then they were rolling; the ground, then Trowa, then the ground again, as he was turned and flipped and together they careened into the brush. With trees scraping Quatre’s back, and rocks hitting them as they rolled, and even a hard knock Quatre felt as Trowa hit a rock, through all that Trowa never let him go. They stopped with Quatre lying with his back to the ground, Trowa braced on top of him, legs knelt open over his hips and elbows on either side of his head. Trowa’s face was inches away for Quatre’s, both of them were breathing hard and hot and gasping from the excursion. Quatre, free and still flying, closed his eyes again and with that deliciously safe heat, and pulsing, beating, weight on top of him, he moved the millimeters needed and touched his lips to Trowa’s. With the adrenaline and testosterone and emergency catapulting around them, they were devouring each other’s mouths in seconds. Pillaging all they could like starving men on a morsel of bread as their bodies vibrated and came down from the high. The other’s let them go at it for the seconds it took them to gather themselves and see Alex and Muller almost at the ground. “WE HAVE TO MOVE!” Heero bellowed, grabbing Trowa’s collar as he ran and hauled his friend off the very willing blonde beneath him. Wufei swooped in next, grabbing Quatre and running in the opposite direction Heero and Duo had gone. “Where?” “We’re splitting up so the three can’t follow us. I know where the boats are, so you need to be with me.” Wufei explained while pumping his legs against the ground. Quatre’s body, still not crashed from the adrenaline, caught up to the pace within moments, and Wufei and he were striding through the forest, twisting and turning and dodging. End ch 18 Author’s note: for those that didn’t read the top note, please read it. Here’s the extra that fits in the chapter, but is a little OOC for Omar, although I’m sure many of my reviews will enjoy it because of that! Extra: Back at Camp Mr. Chang paced the well manicured ‘adventure stop’ grass frantically as the rest of the troop merrily went about their fishing. His body shook with suppressed anger and frustration, but he could do nothing, and he knew it. He almost wished one of the others would make a crack about his son or the Winner boy just so he could pummel them and let out some of his pent up emotions. “What are you doing over there, Ryu? No fish biting for you today? Most of the group got at least two already, today. It’s going to be a great supper tonight! You look so tense, why don’t you just sit on down with a pole and take your mind off work. You’re here on vacation after all, no need to get worked up over whatever’s going on back at the office. See, like me, I’m here and I’m not even worrying about work. My company is working in a big client, rival with your company you know, trying to snag our services. It’s going to be a quick one, that deal, if Chang company wanted our company’s product, you’d have to jump right on that.” Did Omar Winner ever shut up? “But there’s no use worrying, you’ll give yourself grey hairs.” Obviously not. Omar was a good enough businessman. Mr. Chang respected his shrewdness and diligence to his company. When they really were talking about business, Omar had an intelligence about himself that Mr. Chang almost feared in light that Omar’s target was Mr. Chang’s company. But Omar’s false friendliness was grating on Mr. Chang’s nerves. It was as if the man had no idea how to go about being kind to another human being and was trying to mimic television or something. “I’m not worried about work, Omar. I’m worried about my Son.” Mr. Change replied tersely, sick of the man. Mr. Chang was dead worried about Wufei. He had just started to get to know his son again and he couldn’t stand loosing him now. But Omar didn’t seem to get the hint. Social cues were lost on Omar, it seemed. “Oh, I’m sure Wufei will turn out fine. He’s got good blood, he is your son after all, that whole having a BOYfreind thing is just a stage, probably.” Omar replied. “What are you talking about!” Ryu Change finally exploded, “I’m worried about his life! He’s out on that river risking his life to save this forest and these people!” Ryu Chang was on his feet, pacing with red faced determination, “He’s riding class four rapids and paddling 20 hours a day and working his ass off in a place that could snatch his young life away in a breath. There are poisons and predators and those people trying to stop them; and I’m under no illusions that they will stop at nothing to do so, even kill them if they have the chance.” And now he was pulling his graying hair in agitation, taking a moment’s breath and blustering on, “All of those boys could be dead right now, as I speak, and I wouldn’t know anything until we make it back to the lodge two days from now. And even if something has happened to Wufei, there’s nothing I could do!” The other vacationers had rested up and got the poison out of their systems quickly. They were all ready to move on from the station. Milly was glad no on had said the word ‘sue’ and it seemed Mr. Chang was the only one who cared about the two boys! Not even Quatre’s own father showed any signs of stress over the danger his son was in! Omar blinked, “huh?” Ryu continued, slowing down now that he had let off some of his steam, “I know he’s capable, hell, he’s the most capable out of the lot here. But any minute he could be snatched away, with the snap of a finger, or hurt. I’m worried, damn it! Aren’t you the least bit worried about your own son, as well?” Omar blinked, “Huh?” “You’re boy is such a good man, Omar. He knew what he was getting into, joining them, he knew the risks; that there were people trying to kill them, that the journey would be hard and tough, that he was out of his expertise. But Quatre went, even when the leader refused him in. All to save the people of this group! The people who ridiculed and mocked him the whole time, he went into danger to save them! He showed true bravery and honor, leaving safety for the good cause. But even so, he could be killed at any moment! He may not come back!” Ryu Chang gulped down air, and tried to calm his now trembling voice. “I at least have the reassurance that Wufei has been through tons of survival training and is familiar with these parts. But Quatre has none of that! All you have is the hope that the others will take care of him, but sometimes, no matter who you’re with, there is nothing that can be done. He could be injured, or lost, or killed at any moment!” Mr. Chang raged. Jerry, the one who pushed Quatre from the raft earlier, and second in rank of the homophobe squad, piped up “One less fag.” Milly took a swing, shutting them all up like he had since the very beginning. Mr. Chang growled, actually nailing the bastard with all his might since Milly couldn’t legally. Omar blinked, “Huh?” “I’m worried about the danger Quatre and Wufei are in.” Ryu bellowed, ready to hit the man right between the eyes from pent up annoyance that had been boiling under his skin since the first day meeting the businessman. He couldn’t fathom how such a sweet and honorable child like Quatre could share genes with the man in front of him. Omar blinked, “Where is Quatre anyway? I haven’t seen him since those fag forest rangers left... Well, he’s not embarrassing me, so why look a gift horse in the mouth.” Ryu’s jaw dropped. He was livid! His hand tightened into a fist and he swung, pouring all the annoyance and disgust into it and leveling the Arabic man. Then chin held high, he stalked off into the forest to cool down. Milly, blinking at the display and looking down to see the unconscious bodies of Jerry and Omar fallen practically on top of each other, and the bushes still moving from Ryu’s flight. Milly began to howl in laughter. Gripping his shaking ribs and slapping his thighs, Milly
let out peel after peel of laughter, “That’s where Wufei
gets it!”
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