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"Defying Gravity"A Romance in Three PartsWritten By: Kaeru Shisho Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing
or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story. Rating: NC 17 Warnings: AU, yaoi, some language Summary: A multi part story of romance starting
with a turning point vacation, developing throughout a dangerous UC
mission, and moving ahead through the unexpected challenges of a summer
vacation. "Part Three: It's Another Vacation"
Chapter 17
"You first," Quatre demanded. Trowa gave a brief rundown of his harrowing experiences. "Lucky for me, our agents came equipped for action or it would have turned out differently." "You might have been captured, but by whom and why?" "Bunch of dudes out of New Germany." Quatre watched him shrug off the details. "Not my case." Or of any fucking interest right now, Quatre mentally filled in for him "Your turn, Quatre." Trowa's soft voice lowered another few notches, loaded with leashed-in emotion. "Why are you here?" "You know I'll want a more complete story later. I'm just letting you off this time because you're injured," Quatre said sternly. ""You don't scare me," Trowa chuckled softly. His demeanor remained cautious, which was better than Quatre thought he deserved. "Quatre, you are avoiding my question. Why have you come? If it's just to check on my condition, then you've done your duty and, well, you should go back now." Go back? No! Quatre had to say what he had come to say, and delay it no longer. "I came because I need you so much I'll just wither up and die if you go," Quatre admitted. "But I can't stay, Quatre. I have to—" "I called off the wedding! I told Nada and my sisters about you. And...and...they don't all hate me. My youngest sister found the letter you left." "Damn it, the letter," Trowa said. "I should have hid it better, or emailed you." "I'm glad you didn't! It really helped me, you know?" Quatre said happily, "And it supported me because she could tell how sincere you were. I told them all that I loved you with all my heart, and once I did, the pain in my heart lifted. I could see my future brighten significantly; that is, if you weren't injured seriously and could find it in your heart to forgive me." Trowa guarded his expression and emotions tightly. "And Nada. What about Nada?" Quatre looked at his hands, fingering where the engagement ring no longer shown. "She understood, and I think she's happy to have avoided a bad match." Trowa moved slowly, and got up from the bed. "Trowa? Let me help you." "I can do this fine, Quatre," the young man said kindly. Trowa sank to the floor, pushing Quatre gently back onto his hospital bed, and kneeling at Quatre's feet. "Trowa?" Quatre looked at him in wonder. Trowa's long fingers delicately touched the fine, straw-blond hair, avoiding the bruise spreading from Quatre's cheek into his hairline. "Your poor, beautiful face." "It's...nothing. Trowa--" "You love me?" Trowa asked. "You gave up...everything to come here and tell me that?" "Yes." "That was quite a risk." "For a chance at happiness? I don't think so." Quatre shook his head. "You took the same risk coming to L4. Even if you can never love me the same way again, I had to try, didn't I? I almost made a terrible mistake; well, I mean I did hurting you, but I almost made a fatal one and a monumental one." Trowa studied his face without a word. He was the consummate symbol of long-suffering patience, and yet, Quatre found something wonderful there, too. It stripped him of all his fears and gave him the courage to tell Trowa the rest. "I tried to shoot myself with Duo's gun after you left. Duo stopped me; although, I'd flubbed it up anyway. Not since the Zero incident had I felt so out of control! Everything I did after that time seems so..." "Surreal?" "Yes. It was as if I was trapped in somebody else's tragic life and there was nothing I could do to get out." "But you weren't. It was up to you all the way," Trowa told him gently. "I know. I realize all that now. I learned a lot about myself and how I've been avoiding making the important decisions in my life. Oh, Trowa, what kind of terrible person am I? It took you getting injured and the horror of possibly losing you to shock me to the core... and then I figured it all out! You were unwilling to fight for me and I sensed that, confusing it with some kind of fear of commitment and my own mixed up feelings. That damned empathic ability of mine got all out of whack, but still, I should have known. I should have known how selfless you can be! I owed it to you to let you know how much your coming here meant, how much your support has meant to me, how much you mean to me, how deeply sorry I am for hurting you, even if I've lost your friendship... even if it's all too late." "It's not too late. It'd never be too late, Quatre. Not for you." "Thank...you," Quatre whispered into his ear. He rested his hands on Trowa shoulders and leaned over, resting his forehead on top of his gold-brown head. "Thank you." "Quatre." Trowa's voice could be so tender at times, Quatre thought. He soaked up that tenderness, marinating it, never wanting the moment to end while letting his insides turn to mush. But Trowa moved. He turned up his chin, dislodging Quatre's resting place. "I have thought of doing this since... for awhile. When I came here, I thought of doing this here, in your homeland. But with all the complications—" Trowa paused and gazed into Quatre's eyes. Quatre let him explore his azure depths, and gather the strength to continue with what he feared would be the compassionate let down. His fears heightened when Trowa broke contact and looked down. Quatre looked away, too, but caught the sound of rustling and traced the sound to Trowa hand. Trowa removed a little box from his pocket and opened it. Quatre sucked in his breath with an audible gasp. A small golden ring twinkled in the sunlight escaping the edges of the drawn shades and shining into the previously gloomy hospital room. Trowa patted his pocket, which crinkled with the sound of a paper. "You still want to make that commitment we once dreamed about?" Quatre knew that he would never forget the moment. Trowa was kneeling in front of him. And looking at him were those green eyes that held so much love and sincerity. Warm butterflies swarmed in his stomach and started fluttering. Eager and enthusiastic tears leaked from Quatre's eyes and washed his bruised face. Everything was working, but his mouth. Or his breathing. He couldn't draw the air to breathe much less to speak. "It all comes down to what you want, Quatre. I mean, what you really want to do." "I... I—" "Breathe first or you'll pass out." Quatre didn't dare close his eyes and make the magical moment disappear on him, but he obeyed Trowa and gulped three long, deep breaths. "Now," Trowa urged him. "I want to run an antique store in Sanc," Quatre blurted out. He jumped to his feet, lifting Trowa with him. "And marry you," he added with a dreamy smile. "Yes, marry the man I love and make a new start." Then he kissed him. (o) "THAT is what you want to do, really? No shit?" Duo asked his buddy. He waved to Heero and pointed to the phone. "Take away everything, all those responsibilities, real or imagined, and everybody else's expectations, and THAT is what you would love to do?" "I knew you would laugh, too. I swear, Duo, Trowa thought I had gone off the deep end. You know, that I'd broken under pressure." "Okay, I really needed a good laugh, Trowa, too, I guess, huh? But you're serious. You guys are okay, right?" "Yes, Duo, and he's all for it now! You remember after Wufei's wedding? The party? When we were on the beach talking about that aborted mission where Heero and I were posing as two antique shop owners?" "The fucking screw up?" "Yes, that...one. Well, that had been my idea, that ruse." "No--!" "Not the mission! Damn you, Duo! How could you think that?! No, I'm referring to Heero and me playing the roles of antique store dealers! I think I knew way back then I wanted to run a shop, but I was too inexperienced, I think." "Then ... wow... cool, Quat. Here's 'Ro. You tell'im. He wouldn't believe me." Quatre listened as Duo made the quick handoff to Heero. "Winner? You and Barton okay?" "Yeah. Trowa's a little banged up, but he can walk and talk. We're getting married!" "Actually, it isn't called marriage between too people of the same sex." Quatre's sigh could be heard across the miles of satellite connection static. "Thank you, Heero. We're landing in a few minutes, together, and I'm going to run an antique shop." "An antique... that can't be right. I think I've got a bad connection." "No, you heard me right! No corporate world for me. But, also, I wanted you to know that that man you saw in the parking lot, the one with the little feet, he was arrested, along with a host of accomplices that tried to kidnap Trowa." "Une called, but I will want to hear Trowa's story." "Trowa is...busy. He can't talk. Oh...yes..." "Call when your feet are back Earthside, Winner. Winner? Are you getting enough air?" Duo grabbed back the phone, his voice breathless with excitement. "'Ro and I are makin' it official, too, ya know. So, I got me this crazy idea—" o) "Are you sitting down?" Milliardo asked his longtime associate, Commander Une. "Proceed." He could hear her tension exhaust with a sigh that even the shaky connection couldn't cover. "Treize Khushrenada did not die, or, to put it another way, he's been resurrected." He waited her out a few seconds. "Are you still on the line?" "Yes. That... was an extraordinary shock, Milliardo. Wufei Chang saw him die." "Or was that an act? I had an interesting phone discussion with Trowa Barton, while he was recuperating in the hospital. You know, he worked in the circus." "Yes, of course. I know everything about the ex-Gundam pilots." "He explained how explosions are used by magicians to distract the audience from what's actually going on. Without revealing too many trade secrets, he described a scenario where the man could have blown up his craft and still survived. Yuy did, and he had been in his exploding Gundam, so we know it is possible. Then, there is the resurrection theory." "Go on." "What if someone is continuing the work of the doctors? Take Yuy's miraculous healing abilities, kick it up a few notches and you get the dead returning to life." "You have proof of any of this?" "I have spoken to the man on the phone, and, yes, I have had the voice analyzed and it was Treize Khushrenada's voice. I'll get to what he told me in a moment, but first I wanted to summarize what we have learned." "Then do so." "I know the break-ins, the calls, even the kidnapping attempt on Agent Barton, were all carried out in order to get to me. Mr. Spitze, who was arrested in the attack on Trowa, has been very talkative. He claims that another of Khushrenada's men, a Mr. Sieger, shot some pictures in Marrakech. Now, I knew Sieger as master of the group of boys which included Dierk. One of the photos was of me, and Spitze claims Khushrenada saw and identified Wind as me, by name. Another of Sieger's snapshots captured Agent Maxwell as Scythe being hauled off by one of the Maguanacs, although I don't know yet how Sieger was able to link the Arab man with the Winner Corporation, but they did. He was also able to locate the shuttle pilot who transported Scythe and Gunter off-planet. And, no, no one at Preventers bothered to follow up with the pilot and extract that information. Had we known Sieger was on the trail of Gunter weeks ago, Preventers could have prevented this and captured Sieger. I thought all the masters at the convention had been arrested!" "That one got away," Une said. "What else?" "Gunter's home, which was unsecured, leaving evidence left uncollected by the police or Preventers, led Treize's men to the house we lived in, again unsecured. All the surveillance equipment was still in place, did you know that? Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sensitive equipment left by the local agency! A five year old with a laptop wouldn't have had any trouble locating our private cell numbers, and from there, vacation plans, and whatever else they needed to track us down." "An investigation is still underway, Milliardo." Commander Une was silent for a moment. He could hear the shuffling of papers he guessed to be Une searching for information to disclose. "Spitze was a bodyguard for one of the sellers who had been in the bathroom, sick, but in the uproar, escaped the Preventer's net. The report here says that he figured out how to get to Duo and Heero via the news articles. Winner's name was somehow attached to one of those." "Don't tell me, one from New Germany?" "Yes. There will be follow up." "What disturbs me the most were the conversations Lucrezia had and didn't tell me about. She said the one of the calls was a questionnaire, which explains the lengthier call, but she had several others which have been traced to the same New Germany area." "And you talked to Treize?" "Yes, he called me directly and asked specifically for me. They had gotten to the Barton boy and I didn't want to know who was next so I took the call." "So, what did he want?" For the first time, she sounded unsure of herself. "Well, you'll be glad to know he asked about Mariemaia, and you." "What did he want, Director Peacecraft," Lady Une bit off angrily. She had adopted Khushrenada's illegitimate daughter after his death and was terribly protective of her. "A return to power, I suppose you could say." (o) Heero embraced Duo. "He's not going to spoil our day. The man was caught and in custody." "I know, I mean, I really know. I remember." "Quatre and Trowa ought to be driving up any minute now." Heero had plenty of ready-made reassurances to hand out. "Heero, I'm really happy, just too nervous to look it." When Duo hugged him back, Heero said, "Good, because in a few minutes we're going to get as close to married as we can, eat some horrid food prepared lovingly by our friends, and drink lots of wine. Then after they've gone we're going to make love and sleep together in each other's arms. And if that isn't the most awful sentimentality, I don't know what is." Duo gave Heero a tear-washed grin. "What a sap you've become, 'Ro." Heero smiled and shook his head. "Well—" "Hey, look! Here come Quatre and Trowa now." The two young men sprinted along the boardwalk to the sand and from there strolled hand-in-hand to join their friends. Trowa couldn't keep a smile from reemerging on his face each time he wiped it blank, which Heero thought was a wonder he was glad to have lived to see. Quatre, on the other hand, appeared about to bolt off he was so jumpy-- happy, too, but even more nervous than Duo. "To be honest I was so nervous getting my clothes changed inside that I nearly begged a bottle of anti-anxiety tablets from Sally and lion tranquilizers from Trowa!" Quatre exaggerated. "Duo looks absolutely beautiful, don't you think?" "Yes, so do you," Heero said, causing Quatre to blush furiously. "I didn't have a chance to block the punch," Quatre said explaining his bandaged face. "Just beautiful," Heero repeated, but his eyes were tracking Duo. With his bright violet eyes, long hair which shone in the sunshine, and a bewitching smile, Heero was pleased Duo was to be his partner. Duo had brushed his hair till it gleamed and left it loose, because Heero asked him to. "I quite fancy Duo this afternoon," said Trowa. Heero caught his teasing glance and decided he deserved it after embarrassing Quatre. "So do I," Quatre agreed. "Incest," hissed Wufei. "It's all right between friends," Trowa assured him. "It wasn't then and it isn't in this case," Wufei said firmly. "They are family. Maxwell and Yuy are more like brothers to us than anything else, to you especially." "Aw, you're so sweet," Duo drawled then kissed Wufei on the lips, causing a minor uproar only Heero, Sally, and a lot of laughter could resolve. No accidents occurred on the journey to the end of the sandy walk to the altar. There were no tempests, no ninja attacks, no cars screeching through the parking lot with guns firing, no boats foundering on a hidden rock requiring rescue, and Sally wasn't sick. Only the crash of waves on the shore and bird cries disturbed the solemn occasion. Duo looked into Heero's eyes when he made his vows and Heero could barely stop himself from kissing him before being given permission by Milliardo, who was once again officiating at the proceedings. They signed the form and were legally a pair. "Next up?" Quatre led Trowa for their joining at the altar. They exchanged similar vows and kissed. They took turns signing the form they had picked up on the way from the shuttle, one they had filed for months ago before the 'mission from hell.' And then their bonding was final. (o) Once again, the five ex-Gundam pilots partied on the beach with their other friends and colleagues. Wufei kept an eye on Lucrezia Noin throughout the back-to-back ceremonies. To his relief, she limited herself to heavy sighs and a rolling of eyes. If Noin wasn't particularly pleased with her husband's role uniting the four boys, however, she didn't show it as they joined the party afterwards. "This is getting to be habit forming," Relena remarked. "I haven't been to so many beach parties in...well... ever," Hilde said laughing. "What will we do now? We've run out of marriageable pilots," Dorothy said. "They are rather greedy aren't they?" Hilde asked. "Pairing up that way, not spreading themselves around us girls." Heero riveted his gaze on Hilde, remembering that he'd never pressed Duo to tell him about his possible past dalliances with women. She must still have a crush on him, he decided. "Well, don't blame us. You and Dorothy are in relationships. You ought to marry next. That's two more parties," Quatre pointed out. "Three if Relena ever kisses that poor neglected boyfriend of hers." "I do kiss him! OH! You evil, evil man! Quatre, I was keeping that all hush-hush." Duo sidled closer and whispered conspiratorially, "Your secrets are worth nothing to us. Or are they? How much can we get for them on E-Bay?" "Heee-ro, can't you fix him to make him nicer?" Relena cried. Wufei's brows had drawn into a frown as he watched his pretty wife and Hilde whisper and smile. It was the smile that bothered him. It meant trouble. For him, usually. He decided to curtail their fun. "Woman?" "Rashid has the sound system nearly ready. Then there'll be dancing!" Wufei's jaw dropped. "What?" he croaked. "As I heard it, you can dance. Something about clubbing in new Germany?" Sally smiled. "That was with... that was work!" he sputtered. "Or, you could tell us how that first undercover mission ended," Hilde said with more cunning than he had observed in the girl before. "You fell asleep. You wouldn't understand." "Sally filled me in. Sounded hysterical." "You did leave off rather suddenly," Relena said, "leaving the story hanging that way." Wufei stared off into the distance, possibly hoping an escape route would appear. "Some of us had had succumbed to the alcohol. Really, the mood was all wrong." "I think everyone understands the strained relations driving your friends apart after our wedding, and that you wanted," Sally smiled, "some time alone with me." Wufei straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat. "Yes! Well, if closure is what you want then fine." He sighed and closed his eyes. "I'll just give you the highlights. You see, I wanted some backup. I guess that was my reason to collect the girl, Shirley, ah...Trowa. I told her I was really there to catch the smuggler in a scheme and arrest him." "And I was game. Smuggler, smugglee—didn't matter at that point if my whole scheme was shot to hell. I decided I might as well help out some other poor schmuck cop," Trowa chuckled and rubbed a hand over his face. "You were so goddamned tight. You wouldn't even give me your codename." Wufei frowned. "I was going down with the ship, but I was taking Garrett the pirate down with me. All I could save was my good name." "L5 is a name?" Hilde asked. "When attached to me, yes!" he snorted then quickly shook his head and smiled. "It wasn't far to get from L5 to Chang Wufei, not back then." "Heh, heh," Duo started to laugh. "You shoulda seen their faces when they nearly broke down my door and found Rei and Terry—" "Just barely Terry," Quatre reminded them. "I was loaded out of my skull and sick as a dog, but I did walk in and stand, didn't I Heero?" "You leaned—" "Listed," Trowa corrected as he leaned heavily to one side, resting most of his weight onto Quatre's back and shoulders as an example. "At that moment I was certain your drug deal was coming down and I decided that I'd arrest you for that, too." Wufei glanced at Quatre and then Heero. "Naturally, Terry and Rei were surprised to see me." "Man, I thought you were gonna use Shirley as some kinda shield and start blasting away. 'Course you had no gun so that made you look—" "Ridiculous!" Wufei said. "No need to mince words now, Maxwell. I felt like a fool. I was unprepared, unprofessional." "Covered in vomit..." Trowa added, eyes gleaming. "Barton, I wouldn't have been if you'd have let me take them down as I had outlined to you!" "I thought Heero was pulling a gun on me, so I grabbed the nearest person—" "Me, you dolt," Quatre laughed. "You lined me up to take Wufei's kick. I have never needed to be reminded to stay out of Wufei's roundhouse kicks again, have I?" "No, you learn fast." Trowa rubbed his hands up and down Quatre's arms and squeezed. "As soon as I had you in my arms, I knew who you were." "And how was that? I always wanted to know," Dorothy asked, speaking for the first time in a long while. She'd been quieted by the earlier suggestion that she get married. Her boyfriend, Agent Edwards, who had been given the day's leave from Preventers to attend the event, had smiled provocatively her way. He had heard the remark, and she wondered what that expression had meant. Was he seriously considering marriage? Her contemplations keep her mind occupied though most of the conversation since. "His aftershave." Trowa nuzzled his life-partner. "Real giveaway, that and I'd imagined him in my arms for long enough that I had committed to memory his every protruding bone." "Trowa!" Both Relena and Quatre squawked, disharmoniously. "What dirty minds you have!" Trowa said, laughing. "You were thinner then, less muscular. I was meaning your shoulder blades." Trowa's voice took on a seductive tone and he purred into Quatre's ear, "You've bulked up nicely with all our workouts." "God, don't you two get going now that Duo's quiet," Hilde groaned. "So Wufei, did you arrest anyone?" Duo barked a laugh. "I did! I had recorded them all making me offers. Wufei was in shock after Quatre exploded over him, so I cuffed him to the door." Heero chuckled. "You got away with that because Trowa was ripping off his blouse and Wufei couldn't keep his eyes off him." "You are casting aspersions! Trowa was breaking cover!" Wufei squeaked. "Heero was not paying attention to me either," Duo said. "So I cuffed him to the bed. Little did I know I'd be doing that again, under drastically different conditions." Heero paled, the blood draining from his face, and then returning in a sudden flash-flood flush. Trowa was about to make a joke to cover for his friend's obvious embarrassment, but Duo was talking louder. "Or try, but I don't figure I'll get the chance, right 'Ro?" He ran his arms around Heero's neck and pulled him into a kiss, which Heero returned with growing passion. "I think you'll get what ever you're asking him for, Duo," Quatre said, jokingly. "Lucky guy," Hilde said. Heero's attention shifted to Hilde again. He parted lips and leveled his piercing gaze onto her from over Duo's shoulder. "Yes, I am." "Yeah, well I meant Duo; that is, if you can give him everything he wants, he's one lucky guy." "I can." "Then, great." But Heero didn't think she meant that she felt it was great. She taught Duo to cook; she had once loved Duo. Had she loved him enough to try and produce his child? Did it matter? Duo was his, now. Not Hilde, not Milliardo-- his. He should let the past stay in the past, he knew, but it niggled at the back of his mind. He muttered to Duo, "Be right back," and stepped around him to approach Hilde. "Come with me," he ordered, but not in an unkind way. "Because it's your big day, sure, Heero," Hilde said. (o) While Heero walked Hilde down a stretch of beach, Wufei summarized the ending to the disastrous undercover story. "Maxwell and I attempted to arrest one another, Barton was stripping—" "Out of the costume!" Trowa was quick to add. "The wig, my shirt and jacket to prove I was the guy said I was." "And Winner, lost his wig. Mine, Yuy's fell by the wayside." "Duo's too?" Relena asked. "Not right away," Wufei answered. "Hey, I looked damned cool in dreds. I was getting' all kinds of looks, couple promising offers." "No you weren't," Dorothy said. "The girls were terrified by you and I know you weren't looking for male attention back then." "Okay, okay," Duo grinned. "I liked the look, that's all. I'll bet some dude will make a movie dressed that way and make a mint. Oh, well, not me. Eventually I popped the tooth and lost the wig." "Did you keep the wig?" Quatre asked. "He lost it." "What Barton means is that Maxwell lost it out the airplane before takeoff." Wufei and Duo exchanged knowing looks. "I was proud to have rid the world of the nasty hairball." "Cost you nearly a week's wages, paying Preventers back for all our costumes you destroyed," Duo reminded him. "Well worth it." (o) "What is it, Heero? I know you'd rather be fondling your honey than chatting me up." "Did you and Duo ever sleep together?" "You are direct, aren't you? Not 'how many times?' Why not ask him? Oh, yeah, memory problems, eh? Well, maybe I'm not one talk behind his back. Maybe I got my pride." "Hilde, please. Just...tell me." "You sound desperate to know. Okay, but you're not gonna like the answer—yeah, we did. I wanted him and he wanted—" but Hilde wouldn't tell. "He will have to tell you that. Besides, it's too late. He's made his choice as to how he wants to live. Just, take care of him, Heero. He's really very...fragile beneath that tough street rat persona he takes on." "I know," Heero said then turned them back. "I just wanted to know...more." "He wasn't very... He was hard to get worked up, if you get what I mean. If that helps." "You mean he wasn't aware he was gay, but he wasn't driven to have sex with you?" "Man, you are a cold sonofabitch. Well, yeah, pretty much. I didn't try to read too much into it at the time. You know, some guys are all over-sexed and others not. I just figured he was one of the nice guys that wasn't too demanding." "He's very passionate with me," Heero stated as fact without attaching to the meaning an emotional element, like pride. He was busy thinking about Duo and how he must have been aware of his sexual failure. Duo had lied about his experience, in fact. Heero felt hurt by that, but realized that Duo must have had been fighting with himself a long time, denying his homosexuality. He forgave Duo any transgressions instantly. Heero was glad Duo chose him, and vowed to make sure Duo never had to doubt himself and his choices again. Hilde stopped him with a hand to his arm. "Heero, that's wonderful—for both of you. Really. I mean it. Duo and I weren't right for each other, but you are. I can see it in his eyes. He's so, oh, I don't know... complete around you, and so at ease. Like he doesn't have to act anymore. Does that make sense?" Heero smiled. "Yes, thanks. He satisfies me. Without him, I'd be an empty man." "Ha! Then I'd better get you back to him quick!" Hilde and Heero returned to their group of friends, smiling. When Duo met his eyes, his little worry lines disappeared. It was nice to feel whole again. The music soared over the roar of the ocean and couples sorted themselves out on the boardwalks for dancing. Not the married couples. They had had their share of dancing and now they wanted a private moment. Both couples escaped out of the back way. They hadn't planned on a honeymoon anywhere in particular so they made do in the marital bed, which had seen so many celebrations of their love. It saw an extra special one that night and both couples made good use of it. (A veil draws over the actual proceedings which are private, personal and very, very enjoyable.)
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