"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 2: Bottom Turn

I padded my way out onto the beach in the darkness, wedged my board in the sand, and donned my headlamp. The swells were about as high as my waist. I was eager to get out there, even though I'd only gotten a couple hours of sleep. It had been well over midnight before I'd caught some shuteye, having gotten back around ten after a long day, and then catching a fish to cook and eat. Now, I was up at four to catch at least a few waves before I needed to leave for the town again.

I turned the headlamp on, grabbed my board and walked into the dark sea. It looks dangerous in the dark, just as it's supposed to. It's fooling everyone during the day, with its blue looks and calming sounds. No, the darkness fits it better. Fits me better, now.

I paddled for my first wave, felt the surge as I caught it, and popped up onto the board.

There are no issues when you surf. There's just you and the water. If you spare your focus on something else for a split second, you lose. You lose the wave, you lose the flow, and you may well lose your life. The focus you have to maintain makes it a world in and of itself, a place to let everything go, and just live for the moment.

The swells tapered off a little after a while and I started to make my way back towards the shore, where the black Labrador was waiting again.

'Hey, boy!' I called, and he wagged his tail hard before he leaped into the water to come meet me.

I laughed as he swam up next to me; it was the first time for him to go so far out that he had to swim. He put his head on my board, glancing up at me. Curious to see what he would do, I made no motion, and the dog put its front paw on the board, paddling furiously with its hind legs to keep itself afloat. I took mercy on him and helped him up on the board where he immediately laid down.

'You wanna surf, boy?' I asked and he barked sharply, once. 'Okay then.'

I turned the board around and paddled out a bit again, waiting for a calm wave, not knowing if the dog had ever done this before.

It came within minutes, and the Lab rolled its tongue out of its mouth, obviously enjoying himself as we rode the wave. When we'd almost lost it and I was about to sit back down, that sharp whistle that I'd heard the previous day made its way to us and the dog immediately jumped off the board.

Shit!

He pushed the board back with enough force to unbalance me, and I took an ungraceful plunge into the water. As soon as I emerged I spat some water out of my mouth and looked towards the noise of the dog jumping out of the water.

'Ungrateful cretin!' I called after him in jest and made my way back up onto my board and paddled my way in to the beach where I took my headlamp off again and stuffed it into my backpack. The sunrise was starting anyways.

I zipped the bag closed again, then heard the dog barking as it came running back towards me again. He stopped a bit away, where he sat down and looked at me with big eyes.

'You want a treat, do you?' I asked, laughing to myself as I unzipped the bag and fished out a treat before I went to him. 'I'm not sure you deserve one, the way you left me in the water earlier.'

The dog barked, tail wagging frantically, and he sat down with his eyes intently fixed on the treat. I grinned.

'All right, fine.' I held out both my hands closed in fists with the treat in one of them. 'Pick one.'

He immediately pushed his nose against the correct hand, and gave a small bark.

'Hey!' someone called just as I opened my hand and the dog snatched the treat. 'Zee! Come here!'

I turned around to see a man walking towards me. The dog joined him at his left, looking up at the man as he trotted along. The man looked to be in nothing more than his underwear and what little I could see of his body in the soft light of the dawn appeared to be in good shape.

'What the hell are you giving to my dog?'

'Chill, buddy. It was just some dog treats,' I said, going into defense at his hostile tone.

'You don't give someone else's dog food,' he said, walking closer, and I could see now, in the dawning light of the sunrise, that he appeared to be Japanese, with a brown mop of hair on his head, but the most amazing blue eyes. Eyes that reminded me of the ocean. Beautiful. Misleading. Dangerous.

'I'm sorry, I won't give him any more,' I said and the guy glared at me and I wondered if blood could freeze, because it felt as though mine did.

'Damn right you won't,' he said and grabbed my backpack, turning it upside down.

'Hey! What the hell?' I called, rushing forwards to stop him, but was met with a Lab before I made it halfway there, making me stop in my tracks. He wasn't threatening, but he seemed uncertain, and I had no doubt in my mind that if I attacked his owner, he would attack me.

'Just taking these,' the guy said, picking up the bag of treats before leaving. I saw him chuck the treats into a trashcan before he whistled sharply for his dog who left me, kicking up sand in his wake.

'Asshole,' I breathed, and began picking up my things, carefully blowing the sand off of the photos and putting them back into their proper places.

I started trekking my way back into down for a long shift at the store. Hopefully the Boss would be back and I could haggle about that piece of bread that was now a day past its expiration day.

I put the key in the door and jiggled it a bit, frowning when it wouldn't turn. I pushed the handle down, just to check, and had a small heart attack when the door swung open. Had I forgotten to lock it the previous night? No, I knew I'd locked it; I'd checked twice, and then turned around to check it once more, not looking to screw up the first job I'd gotten.

'Hello?' I called and went inside, closing the door behind me.

'Oh, you're here.'

I turned my head towards the voice, seeing the old man standing by a TV, looking over the security cameras from the previous day. With Mueller lying over the counter.

Well... crap.

'What you waiting for, kid? Open the store,' the man said and I felt my mouth fall halfway open. I wouldn't ask "what", apparently the old man didn't appreciate that, so I just shrugged.

'Sure. I'm glad you're still alive, old man.'

'Howard,' he said, sounding aloof as he focused on the video. Finally, a name.

'I'm Duo,' I answered, and left him to his own as I went to unlock the front of the shop.

A short, older woman was already waiting outside, and I recognized her from the previous day. She pouted slightly as she saw me.

'You have a shirt today,' she said as she walked passed me and I felt heat rush to my ears.

'Yeah, sorry,' I said when I'd collected myself and chuckled slightly. 'Yesterday was kind of a one day deal.'

'Too bad,' she said, and I stared after her in disbelief.

She reached up for a box of cereal at the top of a shelf and I hurried over to get it down for her.

'Here you go, ma'am.'

'Thank you, dear. Come and help me carry the milk also,' she said and I smiled. 'Cute dimple.'

I finally laughed out right.

'You're not really afraid of saying what you think, are you, ma'am?' I said and she huffed indignantly.

'Oh, life's too short to spend on censuring yourself. The green one, please,' she said and I picked up the green carton of milk for her as I heard the bell ring, indicating a new customer.

'Boss?' whoever had entered called.

'He's in the back,' I said to the air. 'I'll be with you in a moment, though.'

I heard a snort from the entrance, but nothing more so I assumed the customer went to get something else from another part of the shop.

'I'm done now, dearie. Let's go and pay,' the woman said and hooked her arm in mine. I led her towards the register and rang her wares up. Once she had paid I got the bag for her and followed her to her bus stop.

'You're a good kid,' she said and patted my arm with a small oohing noise as she squeezed my bicep a little, and I had a very hard time to keep from laughing.

'Thank you, ma'am,' I said and she nodded.

'Now shoo. Back to work with you,' she said, and I turned around to get back into the shop when I realized I'd left another customer there all alone, so I jogged the distance that was left and opened the door to the shop.

Leaning at the counter was the guy from that morning, and he turned his eyes towards me in a glare, and then a lift of his eyebrow. His eyes truly were catching.

'You treat all things as negligently as this?' he asked and I sighed, not about to start another fight in the store.

'How can I help you?'

'For starters, you owe me money for the vet bill,' he said and straightened. He was taller than I'd given him credit for, but it annoyed me that he was standing slightly taller than I, giving him the chance to look downwards in order to look me in the eyes.

'Vet bill?' I had to ask.

'For the drip he had to have for dehydration thanks to your chicken liver. He's allergic,' he said with a neutral face, but I was sure there was a layer of annoyance there.

'Damn, I'm sorry, I didn't...'

'No, you didn't. Whatever you were about to say, you didn't.' He was obviously angry. Justifiably so, if he was telling the truth, but how had I been supposed to know?

'Look, I was just trying to be friendly with him,' I said and moved over to stand behind the counter instead, placing it between us, just in case.

'Yeah, it's so friendly, making him vomit the entire morning,' he said sarcastically.

'I'm sorry. I didn't know, and I won't give him anything else,' I said, genuinely sorry. I'd never meant to hurt the dog. 'I don't... have that much money, but how much was it, I'll pay it off.'

He looked me over with his ocean-blue eyes for a second.

'Never mind.' He shook his head, as though exasperated before he threw a pack of gum onto the counter and sighed. 'A pack of aspirin as well.'

I bent down to find the drawer that held the aspirin, wondering if this guy had been at the barbecue last night, and that's why he had a headache. Or if it was because he'd had to stay up with his dog for, what I guessed was two mornings in a row, watching it puke. I felt really bad about that.

'Third on your left,' the guy said and I moved to the indicated drawer and fished out the aspirin before I rang it up.

'6.20, please,' I said and he swiped his credit card to pay. 'I'm really sorry about your dog, man.'

'Don't worry about it,' he answered, and it really wasn't what I'd been expecting, considering how angry he'd been previously. He gathered up his painkillers and the gum in his hand, immediately opening the box of aspirin, popping one into his mouth before he left for the door.

'See you around,' I said before he left without any indication that he'd heard me.

He was still an asshole, but maybe not quite as much of one as I'd initially thought. Poor dog.

The door behind the counter was opened and the old man came out on his new crutches, with a bundle of papers in his hand. I got up to help him but he waved me away.

'Got your papers here, kid,' he said and put the papers on the counter and leaned over to grab a pen that he handed for me. 'Sign them, and you work here.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, I'm not gonna let anyone that voluntarily cleans up the mess that was in the back room go,' he said and I laughed as I leafed through the papers. It seemed to be quite a standard contract, with a decent wage.

'You'll work from six-thirty until one-thirty, Monday through Saturday. You'll open the shop, so I expect you to be on time every day.'

'Got it,' I said and signed the papers, handing one of the copies to him and put the other in my backpack along with my other belongings.

'There are a few rules. No fighting in my shop,' he said and fixed me with a hard gaze.

'Of course,' I answered, thinking back to the incident with Mueller, and hoped he only came in during evenings.

'And your shirt stays on,' he said, and grinned widely, making me laugh.

'The old woman from this morning would probably argue with you on that one,' I said with a smirk and he threw his head back as he laughed loudly.

'I believe you're talking about old Brianne,' he said, and proceeded to tell me the backstory of several of the locals he was sure I was going to meet on a daily basis. Then he gave me the tour of the shop and the back room, where he pointed up the stairs.

'I live up there, don't go there,' he said, and hobbled on his crutches to show me the storage room in the basement.

Before long the bell from the shop sounded again and I made my way back there. Trowa was standing by the counter, his eyes... actually, his eye, because I could only see one behind his fringe, was bloodshot and I smirked.

'Rough night?' I asked and he groaned slightly.

'Housemate's dog woke us up way too early, vomiting,' he shared and I frowned, wondering if Trowa and the Japanese asshole were housemate's. I fished out a bottle of aspirin from the drawer that I now had no trouble finding.

'I'm guessing this is what you wanted,' I said and he started to nod, but interrupted himself and closed his eyes.

'Trowa, did Heero need us to get anything for Zero?' a call came from behind a shelf and Trowa leaned his head forward with a groan.

'No. He got everything already,' Trowa answered, as silently as he could while still making himself heard and I saw a blond guy walking towards us with a wide smile on his face, obviously not affected by a hangover like Trowa appeared to be.

'Just this, then,' he said, smiling sweetly as he put two bottles of sunscreen on the counter along with four toothbrushes. 'I still don't get why you didn't just buy this yesterday.'

'Forgot,' Trowa muttered and put his arm around the shorter blond who looked at his friend with an affectionate, but amused, look. 'The aspirin also, please?'

'I don't know why I put up with you,' the blond said but nodded at me to ring up the aspirin on the same tab.

'And condoms,' Trowa said, making the blond blush hotly and jab him in the stomach with his elbow. Trowa didn't loosen his grip around the blond's shoulders however, but was looking at the blushing blond with a gaze that would have had me wrapped around the guy in a second. I revised my previous thought about them being friends to them being lovers, based on the blond's reaction, I searched for the drawer that held the condoms.

'Trowa,' the blond whispered in an accusing tone and the throaty chuckle that came from the brown-haired guy made me want to laugh.

'What, you're always fine when it's the Boss,' Trowa whispered back.

'But he's not...'

'So hot?' Trowa asked and now it was my turn to blush and I read intently on the labels, trying not to listen in on their conversation too much.

'Trowa!' the blond exclaimed, probably louder than he'd intended to; Trowa flinched slightly at his side. Finally I found the drawer and withdrew a pack of condoms that I rang up for them.

'Anything else?'

'No, all good,' Trowa said and grabbed the bag as the blond paid using a Gold card, making me raise an eyebrow. He looked a bit young to have set up a fortune on his own, so I immediately labeled him a trust fond kid. He seemed quite nice, however, so I wouldn't hold it against him.

'I'm Quatre, by the way,' the blond said and held out a hand, amazing me. No one had actually bothered to greet me, I'd simply figured out their names through whatever conversation they had or if they paid with credit cart, I just read their names as they swiped it.

'I'm Duo.'

'Where you from?' he asked and blushed. 'It's just, I've never seen you around before, so if you've moved here, I guess... I mean... do you know anyone?'

I smiled widely. No one had asked before, and I guessed that the locals were very protective of their own and tried to keep away from tourists to some extent. Since I started working it probably indicated that I would stick around for a bit, and maybe it would be ok to befriend me then.

'I'm from Elto, and came here a couple of weeks back. I'm staying until after February at least, possibly longer.'

'Quatre, let's go,' Trowa said, having already gone to the door, holding the handle in a show of impatience.

'Hey, if you want to join us at the Surf when you get off we're usually there until the evening.'

'Thanks man. I'll swing by if I have the time,' I said and he nodded and we said our goodbyes.

I had the time, of course, since I didn't have to scourge for a job anymore. I dug out the contract from my backpack and looked at the signatures in awe. There had been other jobs before this one, but this was the first one where there actually was a contract. And I'd gotten it through simply giving an old man a ride to the hospital.

A hand was slammed down on the counter and I jumped, looking up into the amused face of the owner.

'You're done for the day, kid,' he said and I looked at the watch only to see that it was almost two o'clock.

'Yeah. Hey, you had some bread that expired yesterday, could I buy some?' I asked, not looking at Howard, as I put the contract back in its place in my backpack and swung it over my shoulder.

'Buy some? As if I would sell expired bread,' he said and huffed indignantly. I removed the bread from where I'd put it under the counter so no other customer would accidentally take the expired food. I sighed, and put the bread on the counter, and was about to step away. 'You can have it for free.'

I took a breath of relief and stuffed the loaf into my backpack with everything else I had there. Then Howard pulled out his own wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a few bills.

'Here kid,' he said, holding them out for me.

'A hundred bucks? What for?' I asked, wondering what he was going to ask me to do for them.

'I need a reason? For driving me to the hospital yesterday, and for helping out at the shop. You did a good job, or I wouldn't have hired you,' he said and I was stunned. This normally didn't happen to me. I wasn't this lucky.

'Thanks, Howie, See you Monday.' I said and accepted the money, putting them into my wallet that had been starved since I'd left the sponsors back in Elto and bought the ticket to the Islands.

'Yeah,' he just answered and as the door was closing behind me, I heard him mutter: 'Howie?'.

It was with light steps I walked back to the shed. Things were looking up, and it felt as though I might survive this after all.

Solo would have been proud.

~ * ~

Chapter 3

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