"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 20: Lay Day

 

I had no trouble whatsoever when it came to falling asleep that night. It hadn't even been night when I'd gone to sleep. It was even a stretch to call it evening. I had lay down on my stomach and fallen asleep within seconds. Going to sleep that early had the consequence that I woke up at an ungodly hour. The clock next to the bed revealed that it was shortly after two. Sometime while sleeping I had rolled onto my side and my arm was throbbing. Vaguely, I wondered if my heart had decided to temporarily dislocate itself from my chest and take up position in my arm. My back was burning and I shifted from lying on my side to lie on my stomach instead. The move made me feel the pull of the tape on my gashes and I buried my mouth in the crook of my arm to avoid making any noise that would wake Heero up.

'Duo?' he asked, and I groaned. I hated disturbing his sleep.

'Sorry for waking you,' I said against my arm.

He put his hand on my uninjured shoulder, and bushed his lips against it. 'You didn't.'

I lifted my head to look at him, and he averted his eyes.

'You've been awake the entire time?'

'I thought you might wake up,' he said, eyes still averted from me, and I wasn't sure what he was embarrassed about.

'Thank you,' I said with a small smile, because even if it was kind of stupid, it ranked as the most caring thing anyone had ever done for me.

His eyes finally locked onto mine, and he seemed to search my face for something. I don't know if he found it or not, but he placed another kiss on my shoulder before he sat up in the bed.

'Do you need another painkiller?' he asked, and I was about to refuse when my arm reminded me of where my heart currently was, and I nodded.

'Yeah, I probably should.'

He was prepared, because he only had to lean over the edge of the bed to pick up a bottle of water and two pills. He turned back to me, and I reached up with my good arm, but he smiled in amusement and held them away from me.

'I think it'll be easier if you sit up,' he said.

'Do I have to?' I asked, but pushed my good arm under me, and lifted myself up slowly, wincing at the pull on my back as I bent it. This was really going to be a pain. I needed to be able to move properly.

When I was finally seated, I lifted my head and saw Heero look at me in concern. He held out the pills and the bottle without saying anything. I accepted them, popped the pills into my mouth and took a drink of the water before I handed the bottle back.

He took it, but didn't put the cap back on. Instead, he looked at me with a steady gaze.

'What?' I asked, and he sighed.

'You'll still surf, won't you?' he asked, sounding dejected, and I shrugged with my good shoulder, which still made my back ache more. Even when I tried to take it easy, it had to go and remind me it was there. Which was actually better than the alternative when I thought about it.

I hesitated in giving him an answer. I could just say what I'd initially been thinking; that some scratches weren't going to stop me, but it wasn't quite so easy, and I figured Heero wouldn't be entirely happy with me. My back complained with every move I made, and though I was sure I could grit my way through that my arm was throbbing painfully and I wasn't sure I'd be able to lift it properly. It may be possible to surf without it, but I would have a hard time learning how to find my balance without it. Especially since I had to learn it in only a few hours in a worst-case scenario.

'If my arm stops throbbing, then yeah, I'll still surf,' I answered and he gave a small nod.

'I expect I'll have to be happy with that. Lie down on your stomach again,' he said and I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, suspicious of what he wanted to do. Not that I was adverse to the idea, but I did think I might be in for a bit more pain than I necessarily wanted.

'What are you going to do?'

'Quatre went into town to fulfill your prescription,' he said and picked up a tube from the floor. 'You'd already fallen asleep, but I want to get some of this cream on your scratches.'

I felt myself blush when I realized his intentions were completely honorable, and obediently laid back down on my stomach. I put the pillow aside and leaned my head on my good arm.

The coolness of the cream made me flinch at first contact. Heero gently spread it over the wounds, and the chill made the burning feeling slightly less noticeable. He finished applying the cream, but continued to rub gently over the uninjured areas.

'That feels so good,' I said to him, feeling the aches diminish under his gentle hands, and my eyes were starting to fall closed. How I hadn't had enough sleep already was beyond me, but apparently it's tiring to go through a near-death experience.

'You're stiff as a board. It was a good tumble you took,' he said, moving his hands expertly over my legs.

'Yeah,' I mumbled, and I think I fell asleep pretty quickly after that.

When I woke up again, it was almost six, and I pushed myself up slowly. Heero still slept, though he started to stir when I moved, and he blearily blinked his eyes open. He turned his head slightly, noticed me sitting, and he smiled softly as his eyes focused on me.

'Morning,' he said, and I placed my hand on the side of his face and leaned down to kiss him. He answered readily.

'Morning, Ro,' I said when I pushed myself back up. He put his hand on my shoulder to help me before he also sat up.

'How are you today?' he asked and I rolled my arm that was still throbbing.

'Kind of painful still,' I said. There had been no improvement over the last few hours. I shouldn't have expected there to be either.

'Here,' he said and handed me three pills, making me raise an eyebrow.

'Antibiotics and pain killers,' he explained and seated himself behind me on the bed, his legs on either side of me, and then he started rubbing the cream onto my back again.

I swallowed the pills and leaned forwards, putting my elbows on my knees to ease Heero's access to my back.

'Your arm is a bit red, but your back looks relatively good,' he said and put his hands on my hips, placing a gentle kiss on my back. 'Though most of your back is shredded and bruised beyond recognition.'

I chuckled at him. 'How romantic.'

I took one of his hands and brought it to my lips. When I let it go, he continued his gentle massage until someone knocked on the door, making me groan in annoyance, and Heero chuckled.

'Duo, they want to talk to you for the morning announcement,' Quatre said through the door and I raised an eyebrow in surprise. That couldn't be good.

'Coming,' I called and listened as Quatre walked away.

'Wonder what they want to talk to me about,' I said, getting off the bed, and Heero gave a small snort.

'Probably your near drowning, don't you think?' he said, also getting off the bed.

'Yeah, probably,' I answered, distracted as I was going through what I had done with Heero when I was rescued the previous day, wondering if I'd revealed myself again. The thought made me want to hit myself, and I looked over at Heero guiltily, wondering if he could hear what I was thinking.

'They don't know,' he said, his eyes narrowed and I sighed.

'I'm sorry,' I said. 'I don't mean to be like this.'

'It's all right, Duo,' he said, took a hold of my good arm and pulled me in for a kiss.

'Thanks, 'Ro, for being patient,' I said and he smiled softly before he turned around and picked up one of my shirts from the closet.

'You'll want to wear this, I think,' he said and I grabbed it, putting it on to cover up the scratches from any curious eyes. I'd taken a good look at it in the mirror the previous day, and it didn't look pretty. It was probably worse now, since the bruises had had time to form.

Heero, Trowa and Wufei stayed in the house while Quatre and I, together with Hilde who'd been the one to come over and tell us they wanted to interview me, took the car to Choker.

It was raining furiously, and the wind was harsh. The waves were pushing on fifteen feet and closing out at the Surf. I assumed it would be about the same at Choker, giving me hope that there would be a lay day before the contest would get started again. I needed more time to recover from my wipeout. I even went so far as to skip bringing my board, deciding that if we would surf in these conditions, I'd drop out.

G was on the beach, talking about something with the commentator. He waved when he saw me, and we walked over to them. We exchanged greetings and a bit of polite small talk before they put me in a chair in front of the camera. The commentator sat down on a chair next to me.

'You good?' he asked and I gave a nod. As good as I was going to get in the next few minutes anyhow.

The commentator looked straight into the camera. 'Welcome to the dawn watch, we're here with Reaper, who had a bit of a nasty wipeout yesterday. Tell us about it,' he said and I launched into an explanation of what had gone down. Without any of the details regarding how I'd been feeling when I was certain I'd die. And without telling them how much I'd wanted to kiss the lifeguard that had brought me back to life.

Once that part was over, we went on to talking about the general surf at Sanc, and how stoked I was to be here, and I was relieved. There was only one mention of Heero, giving his name when saying who'd rescued me, and Solo was completely left out of it. They didn't even mention my sudden lack of sponsors.

We spoke for ten minutes, and then the decision arrived.

Lay day.

I think I may have given a sigh of relief, because the guy interviewing me chuckled slightly.

'That must be good for your injuries. Do you have any plans of dropping out?'

'I'll decide with the dawn, day by day,' I answered with a wry smile and he nodded.

'Fair enough. You've given us some awesome shows so far, I'm definitely hoping you'll stick around.'

'Thanks, man,' I answered, and just like that, the interview was over. It left me with an intense feeling of relief. My wounds were aching, and I'd been on edge the entire time.

G had been standing behind the cameraman, and waved me over.

'Good job, come with me,' he said, and I frowned at his curtness. Usually he couldn't stop talking. But I followed him until he stopped at the Winner Enterprises tent.

Quatre stood inside with a look of anticipation on his face. Hilde stood next to him, her recorder out, and I frowned.

'What are you guys up to?' I asked as I stepped into the tent and out of the rain.

'Winner Enterprises would like to sponsor you,' Quatre said excitedly and I felt my jaw drop, and a smile grew on my face before reality came crashing down.

'Quat', you know there's going to be a lot of commotion around me once the articles come out.' Quatre tuned down his own smile a bit.

'I know. It's taken some convincing with the board, but we'll be proud to sponsor you,' he said and I took the two steps required to get to him and embraced him tightly.

He started to wrap his arms tightly around me as well and I braced myself for the pain. He caught himself before I felt any pain, and put his hands awkwardly at my waist.

'You're not just doing this because you're my friend, are you?' I asked into his ear and he snickered as we parted.

'No, of course not,' he said, pretending to sound affronted. 'You were on the list since before my father died.'

'He wouldn't approve, though,' I said, and in retrospect, it might have been a cruel thing to say, but he took it well.

'I know. He'd be turning in his grave, but you know what?' He paused. 'I don't care. I spent my entire life trying to make him proud of me. I've decided it's better to become proud of myself instead.'

'You're the best, Q'. I swear, if I was your father, I'd be the proudest.'

He laughed loudly, and Hilde giggled softly in the background.

'I've got to go in for work, I'll drop you off on the way,' Quatre said once he'd stopped laughing and we crammed ourselves into the cab of the car again. No one was very keep on riding in the back in the pouring rain.

Five minutes later, Quatre let me off, and I turned around in the rain.

'Hil', you going back?

'Yeah. Because you're not going surfing in this, are you?' she asked, fixating on me with a steady gaze.

'Nah, no waves.'

'Rest!' she said sternly before I closed the door and watched them drive off.

It took me a moment after having gotten inside of the house to realize that the rest had gone to their jobs as well once the announcement of a lay day had been made, and I walked around for a bit, completely bored, before deciding to go visit Heero at Coral Beach.

'Wanna go to Coral, Zee?' I called, and the dog came running from the room Heero and I shared and skidded to a stop in front of me, making me laugh.

I gave a small shout into the shop to notify Trowa we were heading out, and then Zero and I went into the rain

There wasn't a lot of people at the beach, but it wasn't as empty as I'd expected. I'd known there'd be people out surfing, trying to go for the few waves that weren't closeouts, because the ones that did break nicely were spectacular. What I hadn't expected was the people that were jumping into the water for a swim. It was mainly teenagers that were fooling around in the big waves.

A red flag flew on the beach, and I figured the lifeguards had all holed up in the tower, so I went there and knocked. The door was opened within seconds, and Wufei looked out.

'Hey, 'Fei,' I said, grinning, and he raised an eyebrow.

'Duo,' he said and his eyes traced me from head to toe. 'What do you need?'

'Just thought I'd come by and say hi,' I said, shrugging. 'But if you're busy...' I looked out over the relatively empty beach before I turned back to Wufei, and he opened the door for me to slink in.

Zero squeezed his way in in front of me, and immediately shook himself, making the four lifeguards on duty cover. Once he'd gotten everyone suitably wet, he went straight to Heero, wagging his tail.

It was nice to notice I already knew the other lifeguards on duty. Zechs and Treize sat in their seats, looking out through the window and I joined them and sat down in one of the chairs with a pair of binoculars, looking out over the water.

Heero put a towel over my head, making me chuckle.

'You don't want your shirt to stick to those wounds. Dry off,' he said, and sat down next to me.

'I should just shake it off, like Zee,' I said, but struggled out of the shirt and began to drag the towel against my skin to get dry, when it was forcibly yanked out of my hand.

'Hey!' I said, reaching to get it back, but Heero held it out of my way.

'You're going to reopen your wounds doing it like that,' he said and balled up the towel in his hand, span my chair around, and padded it gently against my back.

'Thanks, 'Ro,' I said when he stopped and I spun back around to give him a kiss.

The teasing 'oooh' that came from Zechs didn't bother me, and I blew him a raspberry. Everyone except Heero laughed loudly. Instead, he looked at me thoughtfully.

'You okay?' he asked, and I wasn't sure if he meant my wounds, or if he meant the teasing. It didn't matter, because the answer was the same. Among friends, I could take it.

'I'm fine,' I said, and covered his hand with mine, making him smile softly.

I love that smile, and I'd give anything to get to see it all the time.

The sudden flash of light and nearly immediate loud crack of thunder made us both flinch and turn to look over the water. The sky was almost completely black, and another flash of lightning lit everything up. The few that had still been in the water were quickly clearing out.

'Lucky we're not out there,' I said and Heero frowned, looking at something far away in the water. He grabbed his binoculars and let out a small breath. The others had gone on high alert as soon as Heero had grabbed his binoculars, but when he let out his breath, they all went back to scanning other parts of the ocean.

It was amazing to see how finely tuned they were to each other. How the slightest breath out of place had the others look to see what the issue was. How a simple turn of the head could alert the rest. And how they managed to crack jokes in the middle of it.

I noticed I hadn't let go of Heero's hand during the entire time, and I smiled. Heero had made no move to let go either, showing I wasn't really disrupting his work and basically telling me how much I meant to him.

We watched the lightning rage for almost three hours before the skies started to clear up, and the heavy rain retreated into a soft drizzle, and then the sun was shining. People started to trickle back onto the beach within minutes, and the guys in the tower started to move.

Feeling that I'd overstayed my welcome, I got up and gave Heero a soft kiss.

'I'll walk with you until the last rip,' he said, grabbed a radio, and we walked out of the tower.

'Quat's going to sponsor me,' I said as we walked, and he turned his head slightly towards me.

'You sound unhappy.'

'I'm not! I just don't want to risk dragging his company down. He's just in the starts.'

'Duo,' he said with a breath, and stopped walking. He kept his eyes on the water, glancing at me on occasion. 'You're thinking about it the wrong way. He'll have the first company openly sponsoring a gay surfer. It will hit both ways. Some will leave, sure. But others yet will go there to show support. If I know Quatre, he doesn't care for the ones that will leave anyways.'

I sighed.

'You're right, I know that. I still can't avoid feeling a bit guilty about whatever effect it will have on his company.'

Heero put his arm over my shoulders and I was amazed at how good it felt, even though we were out in complete public.

'It's all speculation, Duo. If it happens, it does, but I personally think you overestimate the meaning of one surfer.'

'Maybe,' I said, understanding what he was saying, but not entirely convinced.

He turned his head towards me, and I was sure he was going to kiss me, but he turned back to look out over the water, his jaw set. Not making me the bastard through turning away. I was grateful.

'Go home and get some antibiotics. I'll help you with some of that cream when I get off,' he said, taking his arm away from my neck, and I grabbed his hand, giving it a small squeeze before I headed off with Zero trailing me closely.

I looked back once, and he was looking intently at the water, his jaw still set as though in stone. I knew he didn't want to make me feel guilty about the way I acted with him in public, but I couldn't help it. Actually, it felt as though I felt guilty about everything lately, and I hated it.

Heero was right though.

I really needed to get over myself.

How much mess could one single surfer make anyways?

~ * ~

Chapter 21

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