"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 24: Trim

 

'I'm sorry,' I said to Heero, for what felt like the umpteenth time as he pressed ignore on another call.

'Stop apologizing,' he said, with a tone of exasperation I wasn't sure whether it was aimed it at the caller or me.

'I have no idea how they all got your phone number,' I said and he turned to me with an amused smile and raised eyebrows.

'They probably found it in the phone book.'

'Oh, yeah,' I said and chuckled softly. 'I guess they couldn't find my number.' Personally, I had never been happier that I didn't own a cell phone.

'At least I know what to get you for your birthday,' he said.

'Another board?' I asked in feign ignorance, with a teasing grin.

'I thought Quatre was taking care of that?' he asked, humoring me.

'Well, your shop is sponsoring me as well, right?'

'You just like having a Legends sticker on your board.'

'I do,' I said with a wide grin, going along with his teasing before I tuned my grin down into a smile. 'But I like that you've made it even more. It's like you're with me.'

'I am with you,' he said and wrapped his arms around me.

I tensed slightly as the pain in my arm made itself known again. I was getting a bit worried about it since I hadn't even used it during the last couple of hours. It had been on its best behavior during the finals, but after everything had cooled off, it was as though it was trying to make up for lost time. I looked at where Heero's arm rested against mine and frowned as I realized he wasn't anywhere near the wound, but it still felt sore.

'You all right?' he asked, loosening his grip, but I caught his hands before he let me go completely, and wrapped them around me again. It was easy to ignore the pain for the feeling of bliss I got in Heero's arms. I leaned back against him and he pressed a kiss against the side of my neck.

'I'm fine.'

'You sure? You feel a bit warm,' he said and moved his hand to rest against the back of my neck.

'It's from being so close to you,' I said, and he laughed.

'You seem to have that effect on me as well,' he said and I turned around in his arms to capture his lips in a kiss.

We broke apart when someone cleared their throat behind Heero, and I peeked over his shoulder to see Trowa standing with am amused smile on his face.

'I'm not giving you any applause this time,' he said and I laughed.

Heero turned to face Trowa as well and I took a hold of his hand.

'Good, I got enough of that hours ago,' I said.

'Heero, there's someone that wants to meet you in the shop,' Trowa said and Heero nodded.

'I'm coming,' he said and gave my hand a small squeeze. I reluctantly go of and he headed off into the shop.

Trowa went up to stand by the railing, and I joined him.

'It's not a reporter, is it?' I asked, and he shook his head.

'I wouldn't come get him for a reporter. It's Kip's father.'

'Kip?'

'The kid that got paralyzed.'

'Shit,' I said, and looked towards the shop, as though I could see through the wall. Unfortunately, I lack x-ray vision, and couldn't see how Heero handled it. I was unsure whether or not to go in there and give him my support.

'I saw him at Gundams earlier, I think he was filming it for the kid,' Trowa said. 'He's always been a huge fan of the competition. He has to be so bummed that he missed your perfect heat.'

'He didn't miss much,' I said, and Trowa turned his head to stare at me.

'You're kidding, right? Everyone was on their feet as you took that last wave.'

'I'd already won when Alex decided not to veer out. Getting to ride that wave to the end was just a bonus,' I said and he laughed.

'I doubt too many thought about the potential interference call as they held their breath to see if either of you were going to escape that monster.'

'Oh, yeah,' I said and shivered. It had been a monster, but I hadn't been afraid. Respectful of its power, but never afraid. Another chill went through me and I wrapped my arms around me. The skin on my arm felt tense. Hard. It was a lot more swollen than it had been just hours before.

'Duo?' Heero asked from the door, and I looked back at him with a smile. 'Wufei and I are heading off to visit Kip.'

'Sure. Do you want me to come along?' I asked and fought off another shiver.

'We'll be fine,' he said, and gave me what he probably thought was a reassuring smile. But it was crooked, and somewhat hesitant, and I knew he was worried about visiting the kid, so it didn't reassure me in the slightest.

'You sure?'

'Yea -'

'Sorry, is that Reaper?' someone asked from behind Heero and I tensed. I hadn't spoken to any reporter except Hilde after the kiss with Heero, and I wasn't ready to talk to anyone else. I knew G was handling most of the drama, but some reporters probably weren't beyond coming to look for me.

'It is,' Heero answered, and I frowned as he stepped through the door to let a man walk through and come onto the deck.

'Sorry, Mr. Maxwell. My son is a huge fan of yours, would you mind giving him a signature?'

I blinked once before I tuned up my grin. This had to be Kip's father.

'Sure. Do you have anything for me to write on?' I asked, and his face fell. 'Don't worry, buddy. I'm sure we've got something.'

'How about a shirt from the shop?' Trowa asked, and Heero nodded before they all headed back in together with Kip's dad.

I leaned back against the railing and winced in pain when I lifted my right arm to lean on it. I rolled my sleeve up a bit to reveal skin that was an angry red. The red showed outside of the edges of the compress that covered the wound. How quickly could an infection spread anyways? Could I still nip it in the bud?

When I thought about it, it probably wasn't new. It had been aching more and more during the entire day, but I'd thought it had simply been the additional strain from the paddling.

We hadn't gotten to clean it out yet after the competition, which in retrospect probably should have been done immediately. I probably should have cleaned it after every heat even.

I rolled the sleeve back down only moments before everyone came back out together with Wufei as well. Heero gave me the shirt, which I accepted with my left hand and laid down on the table. Wufei held out a marker and I grabbed it with my right hand, but dropped it when an unexpected flare of pain shot up through my nerves as I closed my fingers around it.

'Sorry,' I said, and bent down for it, forcing myself to hold it properly despite the ache. It was easier when I was prepared for it.

Heero stretched out the edges of the shirt, and I quickly signed it before I transferred the marker to my left hand and handed it back to Wufei so he could put the cap back on.

'Thank you,' Kip's dad said and I shook my head.

'No worries, buddy. I'll happily visit him if...' if he still wants to see me after watching the news broadcast of today's sideshow. I didn't say it out loud, but Heero looked at me with a worried gaze, and I thought he might understand. Then I felt guilty of even thinking of it as a sideshow. I gave Heero a look and he smiled softly.

'I'm sure he'd love to meet you when he's a bit stronger,' Kip's father said and I nodded.

'Sure. I'll be here or in the ocean,' I said and gave him a grin. 'Give the kid my best.'

'Thanks again,' he said and turned to leave.

Heero grabbed the shirt and leaned in for a kiss that I happily gave him.

'Call if you need anything,' I said, and he chuckled silently.

'To which phone?' he asked and I rolled my eyes.

'I'll be around,' Trowa said, and Heero nodded before he looked at me and frowned.

'Duo, can you clean your wounds on your own for now? I'll help when I get back, but you should do it as soon as possible.'

'Yeah, I'll be fine,' I said, and he walked through the door with Wufei and Kip's father.

'You look pale,' Trowa said once Heero was out of earshot, and I smiled.

'I haven't been drinking much today. It's probably just some heat exhaustion,' I said, wishing it to be true, even though I knew it wasn't. I'd gotten infected by reefs before however, and the tense feeling and the swelling of my arm were quite good indicators that that was the case here.

'You need any help?' he asked, and I shook my head.

'I'll just drink some water and grab a shower. No worries, get back to fixing your board.'

'All right,' he said, and we both headed inside to the kitchen, with him carrying on into the shop and I reached for a glass.

Without thinking, I grabbed it with my right hand, and pulled it back. As soon as I had to lift the weight off the shelf, the pain shot up in my arm and it took everything I had to keep the glass in my hand until I managed to transfer it to my left.

What the hell was this? It's not like it was my first infected wound. But never before had it been quite this debilitating or painful.

I quickly downed my glass of water as well as an aspirin before I went to the shower. Once there, I was able to get a better look at my arm after I removed the compress.

It was a hot mess. Pus seeped out at the edges. Where I had thought it had been healing, it seemed as though it was being ripped open by the swelling. Around the wound, the skin was so stretched it shone in an angry red hue.

I moved my left hand to touch it, and gritted my teeth against the pain of the first touch. It burnt. Not only from the pain, but it was hot to the touch as well.

I sat down on the toilet seat and rummaged around in the cabinets for a bit before I found the saline solution and the antibiotic cream. Then I clenched my jaw again to keep from screaming as I poured the liquid over the wound, and padded it with a cloth. The cloth was white initially, and a single touch to the wound had it come away with spots of yellow and red. It made me feel sick.

I wasn't sure how it could have gotten so bad in a single day, but I had missed taking the medicine, as wrapped up in the competition as I had been.

Something started scratching outside of the door to the bathroom, but not until I heard the whining did I understand that it was Zero.

'I'll be out in a few, boy,' I said, and he whined louder, but at least the scratching stopped.

I wiped the wound a bit more before I got into the shower, turning the heat on high since it was cold, and then down to freezing because my arm was on fire. It didn't numb it in the slightest and I went back out of the shower to rinse the wound again. I carefully applied the antibiotic cream, and had to swallow down bile more than once. It was easy to attribute the need to vomit with the pain and the general vileness of the wound.

As soon as I opened the door, I was accosted by Zero who pressed his nose against my hand. He followed me closely as I went into our room, and I sat down on the bed, feeling incredibly drowsy.

In retrospect, I should have gone to fetch Trowa at that point. I should have told him I was sick, and we should have gone to the doctors. The thought never crossed my mind.

Originally, I had planned on heading back out to surf, but I didn't think I had the strength for it. My eyelids were dropping, and I leaned over to rest my head on the pillow. I shivered, feeling as though I was cold down to the bone, and pulled the blankets over me. Zero jumped onto the bed, and I pressed close to his warm fur, burying my hands under his belly. Not even the warmth made me feel better.

A firm pressure against my hand woke me up, and something wet ran over my hand. I struggled out of sleep, and forced my eyes to open a crack to see Heero stand above me, two of his fingers pressed against my wrist, his brows furrowed tightly together as he looked at the clock on the wall. Zero stopped licking on my hand and sat down next to the bed.

'Hey,' I said and smiled at Heero.

He released the pressure against my wrist and turned his head slightly to look at me instead of the clock.

'Hey,' he said, brows still furrowed, but with a small smile. He looked worried. 'How do you feel?'

'Cold,' I answered and pulled up my hand from beside the bed to hide it under the blanket instead. Zero followed, and he put his head on the bed, making me wonder when he'd gotten off it. He hadn't woken me up.

'You have a fever,' Heero said and sat down on the bed, putting his hand on my hip.

'I'm fine,' I said, and my eyes started to drop close again.

'Your wound's infected, we need to get you to the hospital.'

'You were just there,' I said, frowning, not quite understanding what he was talking about.

'I'll go again. Do you think you can get dressed?'

'Why?'

'Do you want to be naked in the hospital?' he asked, and I shook my head.

'Why hospital? I'll stay here, you go,' I murmured, and he chuckled softly.

'It doesn't work that way, Duo,' he said and rubbed his hand gently over my hip. 'I'll be right back, I'm calling an ambulance.'

'What?' I asked, coming fully awake, and struggled to sit up in the bed, fighting against lethargic limbs. Heero reached to help me, and when I sat safely with my back against the wall, I wrapped the blanket around me again.

'I think you have blood poisoning. It's better if they can take you,' he said, and didn't give me a chance to object further as he left the room.

'I'm fine,' I mumbled to Zero who looked at me intently.

But I wasn't fine. My arm was in constant pain, and when I looked at it, the redness had travelled even further, and seemed to be tracking its way towards my chest.

Heero's words about me going to hospital naked came back to me, and I slowly edged my way off the bed. It felt as though my own body wouldn't obey me anymore and Heero came back just in time to see me fall to the floor when I tried to put some weight on my feet.

Zero was immediately at my side, licking my face, in the time it had taken Heero to get about halfway to me.

'Duo!' he said, and sat down on his knees in front of me, putting his hand behind my neck.

'I'm f-'

'Don't you dare tell me you're fine,' he said, looking directly into my eyes. 'I'll help you dress, but we're going to the hospital. Now.'

'Ambulance?'

'They're off on other calls. We're driving in,' he said and got up to fetch clothes.

Between the two of us, we got me seated on the edge of the bed, and I even got dressed without falling on my face again. The shirt was impossible to get on completely without hurting my arm even more, so we settled for just poking my head and other arm out of it. I cradled my aching arm under the shirt with my hand.

'I can walk,' I told Heero when he looked at me with tight lips and a frown.

'I can get a surfboard, and we can carry you out,' he said, quirking his lips a little to tell me knew how ridiculous it sounded. I smiled for him.

'Just help me and we'll be fine,' I said, let go of my arm, and put my good one around his shoulders when he sat down next to me on the bed.

The arm he wrapped around my back pulled awkwardly at my loose hair. I frowned.

''Ro, wait.' I pulled away from him, not about to go out with my hair untied.

'What's wrong?'

'My hair. I can't...' I tapered off, realizing I was being silly. Realizing I wouldn't be able to braid it anyways.

But Heero leaned over me to grab my brush and sat down behind me.

'I think we can spare five minutes if you think you can stay seated on your own for a bit,' he said and ran the brush gently through my hair.

I managed it for about a minute before I felt myself start to slump down. Shivers ran through me again. Heero pushed my hair to the side and pressed himself closer to me. I leaned back against him, turned my head to the side and closed my eyes as he wrapped his arms around me to continue the braiding from there. However careful he was, he couldn't avoid brushing against my arm, but I didn't care. I was so tired. So cold.

'Done,' he said softly into my ear.

I opened my eyes again and gave a small sigh, but burrowed closer against his chest.

'Let's just call a doctor? Don't wanna move.'

'I know you don't. I doubt many doctors have their clinics open Friday evenings however. Come on, I'll help you.'

I stopped leaning against him, feeling the loss of his warmth against my back. He slipped away from behind me and moved around so he stood in front of me instead. He had a stabilizing hand on my shoulder the entire time. We wrapped our arms around each other again, and got off of the bed. The world started to move without my say so as soon as I stood up. I'm pretty sure Heero had to hold up all of my weight for a moment, until the world stabilized again.

'You ok?'

'Yeah, I'm back,' I murmured.

We took of first slow step to get out of the room. Zero followed close behind, with his nose pressed against the back of my leg as though trying to support me. The thought made me chuckle.

'Where's the rest,' I asked once we'd managed to make our way to the car and I was buckling up in the passenger seat.

'Quatre and Trowa have a date, and I dropped Wufei off at Sally's before I came back here.' Heero sat down in the driver's seat and fired the ignition.

'Sorry.' I leaned back, putting my head on the headrest, and leaned my entire body to the left, trying to keep from touching anything with my right arm.

'What for?'

He drove out onto the street. The movement of the car shot streaks of pain through my arm. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to think about something else as I focused on breathing through it.

'Making you drive back again.'

'It's fine,' he said.

His hand covered mine, and I grabbed onto it like a lifeline. I was starting to feel really nauseous.

'Sorry.'

'Stop it!' he said, squeezing my hand.

'Just... a fever. Shouldn't feel so off,' I muttered. I'd had infected wounds before. I'd had fevers before as well. But I'd never before felt so incredibly weak from any one of them.

'Duo, don't worry about it. We'll find out what's wrong.'

'Feels overdone, is all. Overreacting,' I mumbled as I pushed down the urge to vomit once more. ''Ro, stop.'

He hit the breaks on the car. I opened the door before we were at a complete stop and leaned out, vomiting.

Heero's hand rested on my back, drawing idle circles as I heaved. It was probably lucky I hadn't eaten much that day or I would have stayed hunched over, puking my guts out for the rest of the night.

When I thought I might be done, I put my head between my legs, still hanging out from the door, pushing the seatbelt to its limits. Heero's hand disappeared, and I wasn't surprised when he was in front of me.

'Don't step in that,' I said wryly, peeking up at him between my bangs.

'At least you're not apologizing,' he said, and put a hand on my shoulder.

'Sorry,' I said, just for the hell of it, and grinned as I straightened up in the seat. He didn't look amused.

'I'm pretty certain you've got blood poisoning,' he said. 'We're ten minutes away, do you think you'll be all right?'

'Yeah, I'm f-' I interrupted myself this time, gave him a guilty little smile, and nodded. 'I don't have anything left to puke out.'

'Exactly what I wanted to hear,' he said drily, helped me get back into a comfortable position in the seat and closed the door to come back around.

Heero claims I lost consciousness at that point.

He might be right.

I don't remember.

Chapter 25

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