"Rip Current"

Written By: yaruna

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing isn't mine! I'm not pretending they are, I simply love messing around with the lovable characters. Any similarity to existing works is purely coincidental.

Rating: R

Genre: Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Romance…? Alternate Universe

Warning:Probably some OOCness. Kind of bastard Heero in the first chapters. Some swearing. Won't pass the Bechdel test. Somewhat cliché, I think. Hmmz… what more… oh yeah, I'm a bit of a sadist, people will get hurt… sorry about that

Summary: Feelings are running high on the shorelines. Duo has arrived on the shores of Sanc Island and is making new friends, and enemies, among the locals as they surf their way towards the big competition. AU

A/N:I live for feedback

Sit back, and let the waves take you for a ride.

"Rip Current"

Chapter 16: Gnarly Conditions

 

With a little less than a month left before Gundams, I spent every free moment on practicing. Heero had ultimately banned Alex and Mueller from the Surf, and we had free run of the place. The board Heero had shaped for me was proving to be even better for me than Solo's had been. It hadn't been the exact replica that I'd first thought; Heero had managed to build it to fit me perfectly. He had been observing me on Solo's board for so long that he had seen where I'd needed something different, and he'd realized it on his board.

We had heard absolutely nothing about any article being run, so I had thought Surf'd had refused to print it and that it was all done and over with. I should have known better.

I came into Howard's shop early, and was surprised to see the back door open as soon as I stepped inside.

'Lock up again, Duo, and get in here,' Howard said with a nod into the backroom. He sounded sinister and I hesitated for a moment before I locked the door behind me and followed him.

I had never expected to see G on the other side of that door. I hadn't heard a word from him since the batch of letters he'd sent for me. He sat by the desk with his legs crossed. He tapped a pen against the desk. Howard sat down on the bottom of the stairs, leaving me with the only other available chair in the room.

'Duo, nice to see you doing well,' G said with a smug smile and I narrowed my eyes. There was an odd undertone in his words and I wondered what he actually meant by it.

'Why are you here?' I asked and G stopped the tapping of his pen.

'You've been busy, I need to do some damage control,' he answered.

I sighed. 'Trant?'

'The very same,' he said.

'Shit.' I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. 'I'm sorry.'

He laughed, making me raise an eyebrow.

'Why do you have so little trust in me, after everything I've gotten you through?' he asked, and I looked up at him under my bangs, with a small smirk on my lips.

'What you've done to get me through is exactly why I have so little trust in you, old geezer,' I teased and he laughed boisterously.

'I'd forgotten you were rude,' he said and held up a folder in the air. 'Read this.'

I got up from the chair, grabbed the folder from him, and opened it. The first thing that met my gaze was a picture of Heero and me in a heated and undeniable kiss on our surfboards during the sunrise. The first thing that struck me was how beautiful it was, before I realized the implications. I put the picture to the side and found an article below it.

Pro Surfer Closeout

Previous up and coming pro surfer Duo 'Reaper' Maxwell took a hiatus at the end of the year after the death of Solo Maxwell. He broke the deals with all his sponsors as he went underground. Attempts were made to contact his manager regarding his whereabouts, but even he seemed to be oblivious in regards to what his pro was doing.

Yours truly, Trant Clark, can finally reveal what he has been doing all this time.

I first found him on a contest at Sanc Island, where he was growing friendly with the locals. Having looked through all competitions on Sanc since Reaper disappeared, I found that this was his first, and while he took an unlucky fall, he still didn't make it further than the semi-finals, indicating that he had dropped quite a bit in skill during the months he wasn't competing.

Of course, I kept following him, expecting to see more competitions from our talented pro, but instead I found that he was spending more time getting friendly with a local surfer as can be seen on the picture. Obviously, he has dropped all claims to be a pro, and is spending his time with the simpler pleasures of life.

We can only wonder what will happen with this pro now. Will the sponsors still stick around, even after learning that Reaper has spent little to no time on honing his talent?

We can only wait and see.

Trant Clark

'Shit,' I said and G shrugged dismissively.

'Surf'd aren't printing it,' he said and I frowned.

Even though I'd said that Surf'd wasn't exactly a gossiping magazine, the article didn't actually say anything in regards to my being gay, even though it was obvious from the picture he'd wanted to attach to it. The article was entirely open for interpretation, and though I could practically see Trant's pen dripping with sarcasm I was certain that others would take it at its word, assuming there had been no practice and all pleasure. Most would simply look at the picture and think they should have known I was gay from the braid, and go on with hating me for it. The worst part was that Heero was going to get caught up in it all.

'How did you manage that?'

'They're sending another reporter here, to cover you exclusively until and during Gundams. She'll have first interviewing rights after each heat.'

I reacted when he said she. I only knew about one girl that worked at Surf'd, and unless they'd hired someone new, this wouldn't all be as bad as it sounded.

'Hilde?' I asked. G's lips twitched upwards and he nodded. I could live with being shadowed by Hilde.

'You may want to mention you have a boyfriend, and have her work it in subtly. They are sparing four pages for your coverage in the next issue, and will put it in the days before printing the magazine. It will run before any other surf magazine has another issue coming out.'

'No pressure, then?' I said.

My legs were shaking from all the news and I jumped up to sit on the edge of the desk. The only way to justify covering four pages with me in a surfing magazine was through me winning Gundams. I was sure they had a backup plan for the pages if I didn't do well.

G sighed, and leaned forward. He put his elbow on the desk and started to tap his pen again. I had an urge to grab the pen away from him to get the annoying sound to stop. I knew he'd grab a new one and start up ten times worse to annoy me, so I didn't bother.

'It'll be at least two months before it's published in any magazine,' he said, poking at the article with the pen, and looked into my eyes. 'I can't answer for the Internet though.'

'And he can call my sponsors, right?'

'Right.' He nodded. 'I've been getting calls from them since yesterday. Most of them have dropped out.'

'I paid my way to Gundams on my own, I can do without sponsors,' I said and he raised an eyebrow.

'You know you're like a son to me, Duo, but sometimes you're acting stupid.'

'Only sometimes?' Howard cut in with a mutter, and I stared at him, having forgotten he was still around.

'He does seem to have a tendency to stick his ass in the dirt, right?'

'Just like you told me,' Howard said. I thought my jaw would drop to the floor.

'You guys know each other?'

'Since we were Sweepers,' Howard answered with a smirk and I jumped to my feet. I stared between the old men and both sat calmly with similar smug smiles.

'You were in Sweepers? No way, I would have recognized you.'

The Sweepers team had been the best in their days and had, much like their name implied, swept through most of the competitions they had entered, taking the top positions. They revolutionized the world of surfing with their new tricks and daring ways. It had been a large team, of nearly twenty persons, but only five had ever appeared in any magazines as their outward faces.

'You may know us better as Sweeper and Pestilence,' Howard said, pointing at himself and then at G.

I shook my head in disbelief. Howard had even been the captain, the creator of the team, and I'd always admired him. Sweeper and Pestilence had been the greatest.

'Shit! Why didn't you tell me?' I asked, shifting my eyes between the two of them.

'Was it ever important?' G asked.

'I thought you didn't even know how to surf!' I told G and he laughed.

'I don't, not anymore. I'm leaving that to you youths.'

'But, how did you know I was here anyways?'

'We talk on occasion,' G said with a nod at Howard. 'There aren't that many surfers named Duo from Elto. I would go as far as to say there's only one.'

'Man,' I said under my breath and went back to my chair where I sat down and put my head in my hands. 'What now?'

'Hilde is joining you tomorrow. I'm making some calls around for new sponsors. You should focus on training until Gundams.'

'That is to say, you aren't working here until you've finished the contest,' Howard said, and I stared at him as my stomach dropped to the floor.

'Howard, I can't... I've got to make money,' I said, looking at him pleadingly.

I couldn't rely on Heero any more than I already did. He already gave me a roof over my head. After everything, I didn't want to ask him to pay for my food as well.

'It's paid vacation. Didn't you read your contract?' Howard asked and I blinked.

'But -'

'Enforced, paid vacation. I don't want you in here for the next month unless it's to buy groceries,' Howard said.

I was happy I was already sitting down; otherwise I probably would have sat down on the floor.

It felt a bit like cheating. Like I was going to get paid for doing nothing at all, while trying to keep my other job. Trying to keep my first job, actually. I guess working at the shop was the other job.

There wasn't much more to say, so G gave me a ride to the Safe house, and I sat down on the deck, still in a bit of shock at everything that had happened. Trant was doing his best to destroy everything. In the back of my mind I thought that I had managed to destroy everything on my own. I was the one who had left without anything more than a letter, leaving G to handle the sponsors. I had been the one who hadn't been careful enough, allowing Trant to get a glimpse of what should have been a private moment between Heero and me.

'You're back early,' Trowa said, and I flinched, jumping to my feet as I turned around to face him.

'Don't scare me,' I said.

He frowned instead of teasing me about my obvious fright, and I wondered what I had to look like for him to drop such an opportune moment.

'What's wrong?' he asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Trant's been giving out calls to all my sponsors,' I answered and Trowa narrowed his eye and sat down. I followed his example, sitting back down in the chair I'd recently vacated, and looked out over the ocean.

'They're gone?'

'Most of them, yeah,' I said and shrugged. 'I don't even know what I'm so upset about anyways.'

'To have something ripped out under your feet would upset anyone,' he answered, and I turned to observe him. I've never spoken a lot one on one with Trowa; he's kind of a quiet, but passionate guy, with a somewhat strange sense of humor. But he's surprisingly insightful.

'Yeah, I guess I kind of wanted to choose for myself, you know?' I said, and we sat in silence for a while.

'He got a picture of me and Heero,' I said, and Trowa glanced at me, but he didn't say anything. 'I wanted to keep him out of it.'

'He's fine with it. You're the one that's hiding your relationship,' he said sharply, and I couldn't deny it.

'To protect -'

'Bullshit,' he said, before I could finish my sentence. 'You've been trying to protect yourself.'

'Like Quatre?' I asked, and regretted my words when he took a sharp breath of air.

'Yes, like Quatre. But Quatre has been clear from the beginning that he needs to keep it secret. You keep insisting that you don't hide it. Can you imagine how much it hurts Heero when you flinch away from his touches, even when it could be taken as a friendly gesture? And yet you can touch him however you wish.'

I thought about it and he was right. I'd seen the same behavior between him and Quatre. He knew how much Heero was hurting only because he was struggling with the same feelings.

'Tro', Quatre loves you. More than anything. He's pretty high profile right now when he's taking over his father's company, and he can't have any scandals -'

'That's your problem, Duo. You keep thinking of it as a scandal. What's wrong with thinking about it as two people loving each other?'

'It's...' I tapered off.

When had I started thinking of being gay as a scandal? I'd always thought I was pretty open with it, but in reality, Heero was my first real boyfriend. The first one I'd spent any more time with than a date at the evening at a place that couldn't be considered romantic in the slightest.

Heero had been taught to follow his emotions. I'd been taught how to run and hide.

'Damn, I'm the asshole,' I groaned, leaning my head in my hands.

'It'll be difficult to come out among surfers, Duo.' He got up and put a hand on my shoulder 'We can't be the only ones though. You can do some good, if you allow it,' He squeezed gently with his hand and disappeared into the shop.

How could I reply to that?

He was trying to make me see how selfish I'd been acting. Trying to make me see how much I was hurting Heero. How much I was hurting myself.

I sighed deeply and grabbed my board, heading out for the ocean. I needed to clear my head.

The others joined me after their jobs, and while I got some comments that I was looking pruny, they didn't ask me any more questions as to why I had obviously been in the water hours before I was supposed to quit my job for the day.

Or at least there wasn't until we went to bed that night.

'Duo, did something happen today? You seemed... distracted,' Heero asked as he got into the bed next to me.

I lifted my head up and put it down on Heero's shoulder. He nimbly got his arm under me and closed his hand around my shoulder. He tilted his head slightly and put his lips against my forehead. I snuggled close to him.

'Trant got a picture of us,' I said, and I felt him tense up under me.

'I'm sorry,' he said silently, and I felt his warm breath and soft lips touch my forehead as he spoke.

'I was also royally told off by Trowa for being an asshole,' I said with a smirk.

Heero twisted, dropping my head from his shoulder and onto the pillow as he sat up. I had to take a hold of his arm to not have him rush into Trowa's room and try to maim the poor guy.

'It wasn't undeserved. Come back and be my pillow,' I said with a chuckle, and he eyed me dubiously before he lay back down and we arranged ourselves back into the same position. 'He kind of, brought to my attention how I've been acting with you in public.'

'He shouldn't have. You don't want to show off and you don't have to. No matter what Trowa says.'

'I know that, 'Ro. But it's not okay that I will touch you whenever, and you're barely allowed to put your arm around my shoulders.'

'I don't mind, though,' he said, and I thought he was being overly kind, because he sounded a bit choked up, indicating that he might actually have been thinking about it quite a lot.

'Hey, 'Ro,' I said and sat up so I could look him in the eyes. I placed my hand on the side of his face. 'I don't know if I can go completely public -'

'It's okay,' he said, looking at me with wide, shiny eyes, and I hated myself.

I hated myself for not having seen how much I was hurting him. I hated myself for forcing him to hide with me.

'It's not okay. I'm not sure how far I'm comfortable with going in public, but I'm prepared to try.'

'You don't have to -'

''Ro, please!' I said and leaned my forehead against his shoulder as I chuckled darkly at the futility of what I was doing. He wasn't going to let me apologize properly. He was thinking about me to this degree, and how much had I thought about what my actions were doing to him? I had been so incredibly selfish.

'Duo? I'm sorry,' he said and put his hand on my cheek, thumb under my chin, and made me lift my head up to look at him.

'That's what I'm trying to say. I'm sorry, 'Ro. I've really been an ass,' I said and he looked me intently in the eyes, a swirl of emotions rolling by too fast for me to identify them all. But there was sadness, and joy, and pain. But his face finally settled into a serene expression, and all I could see was love.

'I'll try, 'Ro,' I whispered and leaned down to kiss him. His hand flowed gently over my shoulder, down my arm until he grabbed my wrist and turned us over, putting him over me.

'It's all I ever wanted,' he said and captured my lips once again as his hand came to rest on my hip.

The kisses grew hotter and heavier, and our lovemaking that night was of the slow and gentle kind. We teased until both of us were covered in sweat and we went on in a languid pace that had both of us desperate for more. When neither of us could take it any more we finally gave in and increased the pace. Heero put his hand over my mouth as I screamed my completion. Heero followed soon after, burying his head against my shoulder to silence himself, only allowing a moan to escape.

It left me breathless, more than any of our faster sessions ever had. Heero brushed his lips along my collarbone and slipped out of me gently, but it still made me flinch as it burnt unexpectedly.

'Duo?' he asked, lifting his head and looking at me in concern.

'I'm fine,' I said with a small smile and he narrowed his eyes, telling me without words he didn't believe me. 'A bit sore, maybe.'

'You should have told me,' he said and I laughed.

'I kind of didn't feel it until just now. 'Ro, it was amazing.'

'It was,' he said with a satisfied smile and leaned down until our lips met in a passionate kiss. I was exhausted, but I still had butterflies in my stomach, and a new heat moved downwards. I pushed gently against Heero, making him groan huskily.

'Gods, Duo, I can't go again so fast,' he said and I chuckled, agreeing fully.

I pushed against his shoulder with my hand and he lifted himself off of me. He rolled off the bed and I followed and grabbed the sheet of the bed as I got off as well. I hated sleeping on wet spots.

'Shower,' I said and Heero handed me a towel that he'd already grabbed from his closet.

We padded our way through the hall, to the showers.

'Do you think they're awake?' I asked, and I thought I was silent.

'Only the dead could sleep through that, Duo!' was called from Wufei's room. It wasn't Wufei but Sally, and I chortled.

'Get him, Sal'.' I said and Heero snorted in amusement before pulling on my hand to make me follow him into the shower.

Sex was a perfectly viable way to clear your thoughts from any trouble. It was right up there with surfing.

Or actually, it was probably Heero who chased all the trouble away.

With him, I could get through this.

~ * ~

Chapter 17

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