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"Sunny Day Outside Marseilles"Written By: Waterliliylf Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. All rights
remain with Bandai, Sotsu and associated parties. No profit being
made here. Rating: R Warnings: Duo POV, Pure, unmitigated sap and undoubtedly
a certain amount of OOC. You have been warned... Pairings: 1x2x5 Summary: Um, three hot guys driving around the
French Riviera in a sports car..who needs a plot? Sequel to the 'Rainy
Day' stories "Sunny Day Outside Marseilles"
Chapter Two: OK, I'd known all along that Quatre's house in France wasn't going to be some wooden shack on the water. The place blew my mind all the same. Heero got used to staying in fancy places when he was acting as Relena's bodyguard and 'Fei grew up as the only son of a rich family and they seemed to take it all for granted; from the marble columns and the fountain in the hallway - sorry, the atrium - to the master bedroom, which had two walls composed of floor-to-ceiling windows, and looked out over the sea. You could lie on the bed and see nothing but blue, where sea merged dreamily into sky. And the bathroom? Wow. We have a pretty nice bathroom at home; the guys had had one of the spare rooms converted when they'd first bought the house and it has a walk-in shower as well as a bath, but it certainly doesn't have palm trees or an entertainment system or a tub you could swim that would probably be plenty big enough for my first swimming lesson. I wonder sometimes how Trowa lives with all this luxury on a daily basis. I was fifteen years old when I first saw a real bathtub; at one of our safe houses. At the Maxwell Home, there'd been an old tin bath that only the little kids fit into properly, and on Howard's ships there'd been showers. Otherwise, I hadn't paid a whole lot of attention to the whole personal hygiene idea. 'Duo! Aren't you ready yet?' Wufei called, pushing the bathroom door open. 'What are still you doing in there?' 'Getting ready to go swimming,' I turned away from the window and he burst out laughing. 'What one earth are you wearing?' 'Swimming trunks. You guys said you'd give me a swimming lesson, remember?' 'Let me guess, a present from Howard?' 'Yeah.' Howard had gone on a cruise to Hawaii a few months before; he hadn't' enjoyed it all that much - as the only single straight guy on the boat, he'd spent most of his time hiding from all the widows and divorcees who were looking for a new man in their lives. Still, he'd come home with a whole new wardrobe of polychrome shirts and I'd got a pair of swimming trunks that I was wearing for the first time; bright yellow bananas swirling around a dark blue background. 'You do realise we're the only three people here, don't you? And that Heero and I have no problem with you going without clothes for a few days?' 'I guess.' It was - weird, still; the way those two were so unselfconscious about nudity; it wasn't exactly taboo or anything on L2 but generally showing off too much flesh meant it was for sale. Solo had drummed it into me as a kid that it was safer to keep covered up, just in case. It had taken a while for me to get comfortable with stripping off in front of them, and they could still make me blush, sometimes, just by looking at me in a certain way. The way 'Fei was looking at me, in fact. 'The thing is, ' I tried a joke to cover it up, 'I don't know how much you'd concentrate on teaching me to swim if I weren't wearing anything.' 'Good point. Although we could probably teach you something,' his voice dropped slightly, becoming just that little bit huskier. 'And those shorts could look very enticing clinging to your wet ass…' He reached out and reeled me in by the waistband with one hand. It was actually easier to press against him than have him looking at me like that, and be kissed 'til we were both breathless. 'We should go down to the pool,' he said finally, 'Or Heero's going to come up looking for us both, and then you'll never get your lesson.' 'Can't we swim in the sea?' I asked a bit plaintively. 'Not just yet, love. It'll be easier to teach you the basics in the pool; tomorrow we'll go in the sea.' 'Cool.' OK, slightly awkward moment passed. 'I just need to take the last of my meds.' I showed him the little black-and-purple pill before tossing it back with a swig of water and extravagantly flinging the empty box into the trash. 'Now you guys can stop fussing over me like a couple of old grannies, agreed? All pills gone, Duo restored to perfect health.' 'Good,' Wufei smirked. 'Now we can kiss you without tasting those things every day.' 'What about me? I'm the one who had to swallow the vile things.' 'They worked though,' he pulled my braid gently. 'You haven't had a coughing fit since we left home, and the heat here should be good for you as well. You look so much better, Duo. You're even finally starting to put on some weight.' 'You're saying I'm fat?' 'Of course not! But you were nothing but skin and bone for weeks after you came out of the hospital,' he slipped an arm around my waist, pulling me against him. 'You don't feel fragile any more.' 'I feel better,' I confessed, letting myself lean back against him. 'Mmm, you feel absolutely perfect from here,' he murmured, the hand that had been resting at my hip sliding just a little lower. 'You feel pretty good too,' I rubbed gently against his hip, making him catch his breath. 'And I'm fine, really. Perfectly healed and ready to get back to work as soon as we get home.' 'Duo, before you make any decisions, can we just talk about this?' 'Don't, 'Fei. Not now, OK? I'm an agent, you know that; it's what I do. I don't intend to give just because I caught a cold.' 'Double pneumonia, which developed into pleurisy and an infection of the lungs,' he pointed out relentlessly. 'A long hospital stay and five courses of antibiotics, because the first four didn't clear it up. And Sally said your immune system is still way below par.' Pedantic asshole. 'Whatever.' I muttered, managing to bite out my irritation that they'd been talking about me to the Preventers Chief Medical Officer. We'd had that one out before, several times, and it hadn't done me any good. 'No one's asking you to give you up your job, Duo. Just to consider that you're not on your own anymore; that anything you do affects Heero and me as well.' I nodded, a bit jerkily. 'I know. But it's my job, 'Fei. It's important to me.' 'Can I tell you something?' He pulled me over to the couch - oh, yeah, there was a couch all covered with prettily fluffed-up cushions by the window - and settled me against him. 'When Heero and I first got together, we were so determined that nothing was going to change at work; that we could keep our personal and professional lives totally separate.' He laughed softly, tickling my ear. 'We didn't tell anyone at first; we didn't see that it was anyone's business but ours. We had to tell Une a few weeks later when I messed up an undercover mission by calling his cellphone to see if he needed back-up. He'd been five minutes late checking in and I just panicked; turned out he'd been in the middle of negotiations and my call spooked the guy we were trying to nail.' 'Une went ballistic that we'd screwed up a sting that had been in planning for months. We were both officially reprimanded and told that we couldn't continue working as partners, and that was the worst thing of all, because we didn't trust anyone else to watch each other. It was a nightmare, watching him take missions and knowing I wouldn't be there to protect him if something went wrong. Does that make sense?' I nodded against his chest, imaging it. Seeing either - both - of them go out the door, and not knowing when or if I'd see them again. I'd - never thought of it like that before. They'd both resigned as field agents long before I'd come back to Earth; that had been nearly as big as a shock as finding out they were a couple. I'd thought Quat was playing some sort of practical joke when he first told me. 'It took us about three months to realise it couldn't go on like that; of course, neither of us wanted to be the one to admit defeat. In the end, we both recognised that we just couldn't do it anymore. Of course, it didn't help that the new partners we were assigned kept asking for transfers because we were hell to work with.' 'I can imagine,' I muttered. 'I'm not saying you should resign from your job, lover. Just be a little bit more careful, OK? It was bad enough seeing you take missions, when we were just friends.. I don't know how we'd cope if anything happened to you, now.' 'I'll try,' I squirmed slightly in his lap. I'm not much good at this emotional stuff, at having to reassure someone. Heero's always understood that more easily than 'Fei; Heero was another kid who'd grown up pretty much alone, without a family to depend on. Without anyone to worry. 'Good enough. I'm not trying to pressure you into anything you don't want, but just don't forget about us, hmm? ' 'I won't,' I promised. 'I couldn't. Now, are you going
to take me down to the pool and get me all wet or do we just stay
here and practise in the giant bathtub?' ~ * ~ |
