"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 3: Aggro

When I got back to the shed after the morning's work, I took a bite of the bread. It tasted like heaven after weeks of fruit and fish. I had to restrain myself to not finish the whole thing at once. When I'd put it away, I caught up on some well-needed sleep.

It was less than an hour before I wake up, and even though I tried to go back to sleep, it was a pointless endeavor. Since there isn't much to do in a shed about the size of a thimble, except for sleeping, I climbed outside. Remembering what Quatre had said previously about joining them at the Surf, I headed for the beach. I had no idea where their surfing spot was, so I chose to go to the same spot I used during the nights.

So for the first time since I'd come to the Island, I went up to the beach in broad daylight to look at the surfers. I was only going to look; my board got to stay at the shed, leaning against the side of it.

It was Saturday, with a good wind and a nice surf, so the shores were crowded. There's a long stretch of straight beach before arriving at my spot, which is a reef break, making the waves a little higher, more hollow, and a lot more dangerous than the long shore. There wasn't as many people there. Some were in the water on their boards, waiting to catch a wave, and some were sitting on the beach, looking.

I walked a bit closer and deposited my bag on the beach, and sat down cross-legged next to it when a dog rushed up to me. I immediately recognized it as the black Lab from earlier. The same dog that I'd apparently made sick earlier.

'Oh shit,' I muttered and absently scratched the dog behind his ear as I looked out over the beach to see if I could find the owner. I couldn't, so I turned towards the dog and suddenly had a face full of drool after he licked me. I leaned away, laughing, and pushed softly against his nose. I used the hem of my shirt to wide the drool away. It was my last clean shirt and I frowned as I realized I'd have to clean the next day. It wasn't only my last clean shirt; it was my last shirt. The blood on the other had made it a lost cause.

The dog put his front paws on my legs and lifted his back paw as though he was trying to crawl into my lap, and I laughed.

'Hey, boy, you're a bit big for that, you know,' I said, but allowed the dog to make himself somewhat comfortable in my lap and lie down, his head resting on my knee. I petted him over his side and belly. 'I'm so sorry for giving you those treats boy. But I'm happy to see you're fine.'

He just panted in satisfaction and leaned his head back, opening up his neck for me to scratch at.

'You've already met Zero, I see,' someone said from the side and I looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun. Quatre was standing above me with a surfboard under his arm. He was dripping water, apparently just having gotten out of the sea. He wedged the board into the sand and sat down in its shadow.

'Yeah, we've met a few times,' I said, not sure if I should tell him I'd obviously been responsible for the dog waking his boyfriend up at sunrise.

'Heero usually lets him run around on his own.'

'His name's Zero?' I asked, petting the dog idly and Quatre chuckled.

'Heero calls him Zee, though. But it doesn't matter what we call him, he only listens to Heero.'

'He really is an ungrateful cretin then,' I said, remembering what I'd called him that same morning. 'You surfing alone?'

'Not at all. Trowa's still out with Wufei and Heero,' he answered and shielded his eyes as he looked out over the water. 'There!' he said, pointing towards three surfers in a group, one of them about to catch a wave. I squinted, trying to see if I recognized the one that was committed, but it was too far away to make out faces, and I hadn't observed them enough to recognize them by body type.

He leaned down as he travelled down the wave, and it started to break above him. He was quite far down already, and was soon covered completely by the tube. I didn't think he'd get out standing on his board, but just before the wave closed off, he emerged from inside, pumped, and rode over the peak to the other side where he sat down on the board.

'He's good,' was all I said, and Quatre made an agreeing noise.

'That's Heero, he's the best I know,' he said in such a sad tone that I had to turn and look at him. His eyes were gazing out over the ocean, no longer looking at the surfers, before he shook it off and turned towards me. 'Don't tell Trowa I said that.'

'No worries,' I said with a chuckle.

'Do you surf?' What could I answer to that?

'Yeah, kind of,' I answered, and looked down at the panting dog, avoiding looking at Quatre whose eyes I felt in my neck, but he didn't push it.

'I heard Trowa has qualified for the Gundams though,' I said, to lighten the atmosphere and Quatre lit up.

'Yeah! It's awesome, he's never managed it before. Wufei is also close.'

'What about you?'

'Oh, I don't want to compete in the Gundams. I like surfing, but the Gundams just seems so far off. It's not really my thing,' he said, and I could see by the tension in his face that there was something else behind it, but I didn't really know him well enough to ask.

'Fair enough. You'll just have to cheer your boyfriend along,' I said, smirking.

'Yeah,' he said before he tensed and looked at me with widened eyes. 'He's not... I... I mean...'

'Chill,' I said, sorry I'd used the word boyfriend when it appeared to cause Quatre so much grief. At the store, they had seemed to be open about it, and I'd just thought it was fine. 'If I read you wrong, I'm sorry.'

'No,' he said and sighed deeply. His eyes travelled over the ocean and its waves before they locked on the three surfers and he looked back at me again. I knew that feeling of wanting to make sure your friends were all right. 'You're right, he is my boyfriend. We were out of line earlier today, I'm sorry.'

'I have no problems with it,' I said with a smirk. Considering it would be very hypocritical of me to have any problems with it, of course.

'We try to keep it discreet. Boss is the only one that knows outside my closest friends, and now you of course.' He smiled at me and I couldn't help but returning it. He really was a sweet guy.

'I'll keep the secret, I swear,' I promised, and oofed as a paw was set on my groin and the dog pushed off, tail slapping me in my face as he ran off. 'Ouch,' I whined, curling in on myself, as I distantly heard Quatre laugh at my side and he put a hand on my shoulder.

'Are you all right, Duo?' he said when he got enough breath between laughs.

'I'm fine. That dog just loves trying to maim me.'

'Wha-' Quatre began, but was interrupted.

'You deserve it,' a voice said and I recognized it immediately as the owner of Zero. The laughter from Quatre died and I heard his say 'Heero!' in a shocked voice.

I straightened up, seeing his feet in front of me, and turned my head up as well, so I could look into his eyes. I let my gaze fly quickly over his chest, refusing to be caught staring at his tanned, well-defined body. Refusing to be riveted by the six-pack and his lean waist, and the way his skin sank between his abdomen and his hipbone, drawing a tantalizing line towards his groin.

Oh, shit.

I drew one leg up towards my chest, leaning it slightly against the other and focused on his face, upon which I could see a small smirk, making me wonder what the asshole was going to do or say now.

'How much was the vet bill?' I asked harshly, going for intimidating, but probably diminishing my imposing abilities by staying seated. He was obviously surprised however, because he raised an eyebrow before he frowned.

'Ninety-eight,' he said and I searched in my backpack to find my wallet from which I grabbed the hundred dollars I'd gotten from Howard earlier, and held them out to him.

'Take them,' I said, and was finally able to stand up, my annoyance having made any attraction disappear completely.

'I don't want it,' he said off-handedly and I felt my anger grow even more.

'Then what the hell do you want?' I asked, getting into his face. His face was annoyingly neutral; he almost looked bored. 'Look, your dog is fine. If you wanna keep hounding me about it, you're welcome to it. I didn't mean to hurt him, and I wouldn't want to inconvenience you by making you pay for something I caused. So take the money!' I said, and held the money out for him. When he just stared at me with narrowed eyes I tired of it. I pressed the money in between the waistband of his trunks and his body and turned around, grabbing my backpack and took long strides to get out of there.

It gave me an odd sense of satisfaction when I heard the dog following me. He caught up and trotted next to me when the Asshole whistled. I smirked when the dog hesitated a moment before he ran back to his owner.

'Duo!' Quatre called and ran up behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder and making me stop.

'Look, I'm sorry,' I said, frustrated with myself. 'I'm still not gonna tell anyone about you and Trowa.' I shrugged his hand off and kept walking away. I knew I shouldn't have tried to make friends. It was a mistake. It always was.

My life went into a kind of routine for the next week. Surf before sunrise, work for seven hours after that, get back to the shed and eat something before I went out to the Surf to watch everyone. Then it was time to get back to the shed for some sleep, and then repeating it all over again.

I had taken to watching the guys at the Surf, but from atop of the wave breaker where they wouldn't see me unless they were looking. All of them were really skilled. Quatre had said that Heero was the best one he knew, and he really was good. Scratch that, he was incredible. Every single move that he did was as though it was picked right out of the textbook. I had yet to see him fall. But that was also his greatest weakness. He played it safe, and didn't go outside of the box. He looked relaxed on the board, but his moves were rigid, not in flow but in expression.

Trowa was the exact opposite. He was everywhere, in the water, and on the board. He was doing handstands, rolls and aerials like nobody else. He had perfect control of the center of gravity on the board during his moves, but still he fell a lot when he was taking it down, making the maneuver lose its weight. The ones he did land however, were pretty close to perfect.

Wufei, the Chinese whom I'd figured out the name of by process of elimination, had aggressive, but surprisingly controlled moves. He took some waves he probably shouldn't have and had to bail on most of them. On some it paid off but on most it didn't. When he did catch the wave properly he took chances on his maneuvers, but at least those he had a really good handle off, and during the week I'd been watching them, he'd only botched one maneuver completely, and I knew he'd have no problems qualifying for the Gundams if only he'd be able to catch the waves within the allotted time.

Quatre, his style is more... I don't know quite how to explain it. Mellow? It's softer somehow, all smooth lines, each maneuver fluently sliding into the next. Out of the four, I would say that he was the most pleasing to the eye. Well, Heero was more pleasing to look at for other reasons, but for plain surfer abilities, I held Quatre at the top, and he took another step away from the spoiled trust fund kid I'd initially labeled him as.

It was fun watching them. Their moves, especially Trowa's, gave me a lot of ideas for my own surfing. I couldn't really try the more risky moves since I was surfing alone at night. Even though I'm usually a bit reckless, I really have no wish to die.

Heero and I had stayed at a mutual distance from each other since our... incident. Our actually, he was probably the one mainly responsible in keeping the distance. He had made sure to stay away from the store, and he'd taken to only whistling for Zero at sunrise again, not coming down to the beach to fetch him.

I had met Quatre and Trowa once more in the shop when they had shopped enough to feed a small army for a week. I didn't begrudge them, however, and we had actually had quite a nice conversation about absolutely nothing at all. Quatre had been visibly uncomfortable the entire time, which is why I was so surprised when I heard the rocks moving behind me and turned to see Quatre coming my way.

'Hey, Quat',' I said to him and he smiled, sitting down next to me, legs tucked under him rather than letting them hang freely off the edge like me.

'Hi, Duo,' he said and threw a worried glance towards the high wave that was coming our way.

'It won't reach us with more than a few drops,' I said, and he tried to calm down, but he still flinched as the water flew up towards us. It sprayed us with drops, but nothing more, and Quatre relaxed a bit.

'I'm sorry about today, and about last week,' he said and I turned to look at him in surprise. He looked like he was genuinely sorry and I smiled.

'You haven't done anything, Quat'.'

'I know. But I should have,' he said with conviction. 'I've never seen Heero like that before. He's usually very controlled...'

'Last week wasn't controlled?' I asked, amused and astonished. 'I thought he was about as controlled as they make them.'

'Yeah, before I knew him better I would have thought the same,' he answered. 'He loves that dog, you know.'

'I've noticed,' I said wryly.

Quatre recoiled as yet another wave broke against the rocks.

'He was just worried about him, he really never wanted your money.'

'I got that, but I didn't want to feel like I owed him anything.' I didn't bother telling him that giving Heero that money had effectively made sure I would have to live on expired bread, picked fruits and caught fish for another week. I wasn't going to ask Howie for advance pay after he'd already given me a hundred.

'I thought that might have been it. Heero was sure you were simply mocking him,' he said and I blew out a hard breath from my nose in disbelief.

'I don't know him well enough to mock him,' I said with a grin and Quatre laughed.

'What are you doing out here, anyways?' he asked after a while and I pointed towards where Heero, Trowa and Wufei were still surfing.

'Watching,' I told him. 'Learning.'

After I had started coming to the Surf during the days, it had been easier to surf it during the nights. I was learning how the waves behaved, how the sea moved based on how the ground beneath it looked.

'If you want... I'll surf with you tomorrow. We can go to Coral Beach if you think the waves here are too rough.'

'I'm not exactly a beginner, Q',' I said, feeling a bit smug.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' he said, blushing. He yelped as the next broken wave reached my feet. I could feel the pull of the water and realized it was time to get off the breaker.

'Let's go back to the beach, Quat',' I said and Quatre flew up as though he'd been waiting for me to ask. I got up at a slower pace and we walked back together.

'I'm sorry, I just assumed you hadn't done much surfing. Since I know you're working during the mornings and I've seen you here pretty much the entire afternoon.'

'It's all right, buddy,' I said with a grin and threw my arm around his shoulders. It was something Solo and I had done a lot, and I didn't realize it might not be an entirely common thing until I felt Quatre tense beneath my hand and I pulled back.

'Sorry,' I murmured, but he shook his head.

'No, it's fine,' he said and when we got off the breaker Quatre took a deep breath, relaxing some of the tension in his shoulders.

'I hate those things,' he said in distaste and I had to grin.

'Why?'

'They are created to break the best surfing waves. And I don't want to get caught between a wave and the breaker.'

'You've got a point. I love being able to get closer to the seas on them. The power of the water as it rushes up towards my feet and tries to pull me down. It's huge.' I heard my own voice go higher with passion and Quatre looked at me with narrowed eyes.

'Don't tell me...' he started warily. 'You're here to surf the Rift?'

'I won't tell you then,' I said with a smirk, and he sighed, closing his eyes in despair.

'It's dangerous.'

'So is this,' I countered and saw as the last three surfers were making their way in, giving me my cue that it was time to leave.

'Duo, you don't have to go,' Quatre said, putting his hand on my arm, and I felt a warmth spread inside of me. This guy was something else, reaching out to me even though his friend of what I assumed was several years hated me. The kindness he showed touched me, but I simply shrugged.

'I do,' I said and wrapped my arm around his shoulders again, giving a small squeeze.

'How about that surf tomorrow, though?' he asked and I chuckled.

'I'm not a huge fan of crowds, Q',' I said and felt an odd pang in my chest as he sighed softly and looked down on the sand in a dejected look. 'But yeah, I'll surf with you tomorrow.'

'Meet here at noon?'

I threw off a hesitant glance towards the trio that was walking towards us. I didn't miss the glare on Heero's face and I thought it might not be the best idea for me to surf at the same place as him.

'They are all working on Sundays,' Quatre was quick to explain as he took note of my discomfort and I snorted in amusement at how easily he had figured me out.

'Here at noon,' I said and moved off, jogging a little to get away before Asshole joined us.

I hoped this wasn't going to be yet another mistake.

~ * ~

Chapter 4

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