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"Cross Country"Written By: t-shirt Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are
copyright to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties.
I make no money with this fic. Rating: R Warnings: Fluff, mild angst, silliness, gross
abuse of amusement park rides *grin* Beta’ed by the marvelous Mechante! *hugs
sweets* ^-^ Pairings: 1x2, 3x4, R+all Summary: A mission to protect the Queen of the
Universe leads the five Gundam pilots on the cross country adventure
of a lifetime. " Cross Country"
Ch 3
"They advertised electric and sewer," Trowa replied cautiously. I was sure Hiiro was going to insist we find somewhere else but Relena had that look again. "We're already here," she reasoned, gazing thoughtfully at a woman in a shower cap that was staring openly at us. That, as usual, settled it. Wufei took care of securing a site, which turned out to be buried as far back in the park as possible, but still didn't get us far enough away from the locals for my taste. It wasn't that they were threatening or anything but there was always the possibility of someone recognizing Relena and the last thing we wanted to do was defend her against overzealous fans, or not so friendly antagonists. Either way it seemed like a good idea to keep a low profile when on the locals’ home turf, so it was with a less than calm heart I dashed off after our wayward Princess when she decided to wander off. "Relena!" "Yes?" she smiled innocently and kept right on walking. "We should return to the camper," I told her and was grateful when Hiiro appeared at her other side. "Surely there's no harm in stretching my legs," she reasoned, all but ignoring him. I felt a pang seeing the concern in his eyes but what was I supposed to do? The Queen of the Universe wanted to take a walk, who was I to deny her? "Couldn't we walk the other way?" I asked, glancing back to find several of the locals had come out of their domiciles to check us out. Hiiro moved in closer and I figured I'd better defuse the situation when I saw him check his gun. "Hey, check it out," I grinned, pulling her toward the pool. Hiiro was right on our heels but my sudden change of course had thrown him off balance enough to let me take control. "I think there are fish in here," I chuckled, squatting down to have a better look. "That's Mr. Fishlips," one of the kids called, jumping down from the immobile teeter-totter to come running over. "He's a cohee fish." "Koi," Hiiro corrected automatically. "He's a big one," I praised, trailing my fingers along the surface so that the eighteen inch long fish came over to investigate. "Huck!" an overweight man in a wife beater t-shirt shouted, looking like he'd just swallowed his favorite pit bull. "Leave those people alone and get home!" "Is this your fish?" I smiled. "Ain't nobody’s fish," he replied. "Just swims there." "Someone had to have put it there," Hiiro commented quietly. "Relax," I mumbled. "I'm fairly certain the fish is harmless." "He sucks on my fingers," the kid piped up sticking his hand in the water to demonstrate. "See?" he smiled when the fish did just as he said. "It don't hurt." Relena's giggle was fuel enough to set Hiiro's ears aflame, so he was too busy to freak out when the man decided to come join us. "You kids staying long?" he asked in a much more friendly tone. "Just the night." "Traveling are ya?" Ummm... "Yeah." "Where ya headed?" another of our silent spectators asked. "West," Hiiro replied curtly. "There are mountains out west!" the second child, a girl younger than the boy piped up, jumping from the teeter-totter before she ran over and grinned. "We been there once! Before the tire went flat." We all looked to see the tire in question but my gaze was pulled away by the intensity of Relena's gaze. "Can't you get it fixed?" she asked evenly. "Work's been kind'a scarce `round here since the scrap yard closed down," he shrugged. "You fella's wanna sit a while? The Missus just made a fresh pitcher of tea." "We wouldn't want to..." "Don't be mad," the little girl soothed, taking his hand. "Daddy's already gots a wife so he won't take yours." I was unable to stifle the snorting laugh before it sealed my doom. The look Hiiro gave me promised great pain when he got the opportunity to administer it, but for the moment he was forced to seethe quietly while the kids led us toward their little, ramshackle home. I was aware of him informing the others of our situation through the wire he had slipped on before joining us and kicked myself for having nothing but my knives on me. As unlikely as it was, if anything did happen I was ill prepared. Whitey, as we came to know our host, introduced us to Millie, his wife, who apparently perpetually wore curlers in her hair and made a glass of tea that could put ten pounds on you. Huck’s little sister, Kami, was two years younger than the eight-year-old boy and had somehow become permanently attached to Hiiro's arm, which highly amused Her Highness so there was no escape. Before we quite knew what was happening we were invited to dinner, for which we were required to supply most of the food, and Trowa was showing off his skills at horseshoes. Quatre is a natural with kids but his effect on them in a little scary. Huck was sitting beside him quietly asking questions for which the blond seemed to have an endless supply of answers. It is just strange to watch a child become so utterly docile but when in the company of my gentle friend, they just sort of zone out. Kami was hardly immune but she refused to move far enough from Hiiro to ask any questions herself. Relena spent the evening in quiet observation. Her inquires were sometimes light and curiously amusing but many of the questions held a deeper meaning I could only half understand. One thing was certain however, she had never seen people living under those conditions and wanted to understand their state of being. There was a moment when she glanced up and smiled at me and I realized I had been watching her reverently. I couldn't deny it; she was a beautiful person with a bright spirit and a heart as big as outer space. I felt a great deal of respect and admiration for her but the thought that my feelings might have been misunderstood stole my smile away. My eyes fell directly to Hiiro to find him watching me quietly but his expression was too indistinct to ascertain anything about what he was feeling. "What's that?" Kami asked, pointing to Wufei's laptop as he typed diligently and did his best to ignore the lot of us. "It's a computer," I explained. "We read about those in Mrs. Carpenter’s class," she informed me. I could not fathom a child having not seen a computer in this day and age so I ran back to the camper and got mine. My willingness to share the new experience called Huck, Whitey and half the neighbors over to watch as Kami learned how to surf the net. Huck got a turn playing online games and I educated Whitey and his friends on a wonderful place called the Public Library where they could take the kids and use similar resources. Trowa had talked Hiiro into playing a game with him when Coon and Bobby Lee stalked off in defeat but since neither of them ever missed it was a draw. The sun had set before we packed it in for the night and I wondered about the look on the local librarian’s face when this lot moseyed in to check their new email accounts. Trowa got the short straw and gave Wufei a warning glance before we all headed to our own posts, but there was one more thing I had to do before I turned in. "Hey, Hilde." "Duo!" she beamed. "I thought you were on assignment?" "I am," I confirmed. "So I need to be brief." "Is everything ok?" "I sent you the address of a scrap yard here on Earth. It's a small hub that went out of business when the post war supplies ran out." "What do you want me to do with it?" she asked warily. "Just take a look. The people here depended on it for an income. See if there's some way to revitalize it." "All right," she smiled. "I'm sure we can do something with it even if it's empty it and put up something else." "Thanks," I told her. "I owe ya one." "You owe me more than one," she laughed then added a heartfelt, "But who's counting?" "Stay sweet." "Be safe." "That was a very noble thing to do." I about jumped out of my skin at the sound of Relena's voice. "Geez! Don't do that!" "I thought soldiers were impossible to sneak up on," she laughed, coming to sit next to me at the picnic table in front of our camper. "I was... distracted," I grumbled, trying to hide the snicker. "Do you think she can help?" "If she can't nobody can," I smiled. "She'll find a way. Hilde's a smart cookie." "Yes," she agreed, gazing skyward at the twinkling stars. "Sometimes a brave heart isn't so hard to find." I thought back on the first time they had met aboard Libra and wondered what Relena's impression of her was but she changed my pattern of thought when she asked... "Was L2 anything like this?" Back to that again. Was it some sort of misplaced sympathy I was sensing? Did she think I was special because of my past? "No," I replied, unable to withhold the information in the face of her sincerity. "These people have homes... families. We lived in holes or burned out buildings." "How did you feed yourselves?" she wondered out loud, gazing in the direction of Huck and Kami's trailer. "Stole what we could," I explained. "Hunted when there was nothing to steal." Her gaze drifted back to me and I was aware of the crease on her brow but my eyes had sought the sky. I knew what she would ask before the question passed her lips. "What did you hunt?" She, of all the people in the universe, deserved an honest answer to the questions she dared to ask. "Rats." "Oh, Duo," she breathed and suddenly threw her arms around me in a tight embrace. I had no idea what to do so I just froze. This was not helping the situation. I hadn't wanted to bring her closer to me but I couldn't not answer her questions, not when it meant a better understanding of the world beyond her sight. On the other hand, I couldn't allow her to continue on the path she was on. "Relena..." "Duo?" I jumped clear up off the bench, leaving her sitting there blinking up at me at the sound of Hiiro's voice. He was half in half out of our tent, his eyes shifting between us and I suddenly wanted to be anywhere else in the world when I saw the pain wash through his eyes before he disappeared back inside. "You should get some rest," I told her. She nodded and I waited for her to go back inside before girding my loins and braving the lion’s den. Hiiro was curled in a tight ball as far away from my sleeping bag as he could get, his back turned and no inkling that he intended to so much as glance my way. It hurt... a lot. "Your Princess has a very curious nature," I told him, trying to keep my tone light. "She's not my Princess," he replied curtly and it stung in more ways than one. "Don't let her hear you say that," I chuckled but he remained silent. "I think this trip might be good for her," I went on as I situated myself. "She keeps asking questions about L2 and how bad life was during the war." "She is an exceptional person," he commented. "Yeah, she is," I agreed but it only seemed to make him tense up more. I didn't know how to fix it. Everything I tried just seemed to be making it worse so I just lay down and waited for sleep to claim me. It took a good while in which I figured out that he hadn't slept much the night before because he fell asleep in spite of his anger. I didn't manage to doze off until right before dawn, which turned out to be a big mistake because I tend to have strange dreams when I don't get enough sleep. I don't remember what they were about other than I was young and looking for a hidey hole for me and the other kids to burrow in but I woke up wrapped around Hiiro's neck and didn't realize it wasn't Solo until it was too late. "Don't," he moaned when I tried to move. I knew he was still asleep when his arm snaked around my waist but that didn't make it any easier to breathe. "Hiiro?" I whispered dazedly. "Hey, man... wake up." "Not yet," he mumbled while his other arm joined the first and he rolled over and pinned me as he groaned, "Too warm." It was way past fucking warm. "Hiiro." "Why can't you just be still for five minutes?" he grumbled, sort of fluffing me up like I was his pillow or something. Well, what the hell was I supposed to say to that? I was at a total loss and on the brink of suffocation from the sheer power of my pulse in my throat. He was so warm, so strong and solid and really I just couldn't get my head around the fact that he was holding me like that. He had to have been dreaming, maybe dreaming of Relena? I had no way of knowing and not enough thought capacity to do much about it but lay there and try to remember to breathe. It took several long minutes before he finally seemed to begin to surface and opened his eyes to gaze at me curiously. I could see the calculations in his eyes as he assessed the situation, then they clouded over with guilt and embarrassment. "Sorry," he rasped through a dry throat as he rolled away and I had just enough mind to realize he thought he'd been the one cuddling me in my sleep. "S'all right." "What time is it?" "Five?"He was quiet for a moment before repeating, "Sorry." "No big deal," I yawned casually but he caught me off guard when he told me... "You're very... warm." Quite flatfooted if I do say so. "Were you cold?" was all I could think of. "No," he replied. "But I've never experienced that sort of... companionship before." "Nobody ever cuddled you when you were young?" I chuckled but it didn't seem funny anymore when he shook his head. "It's all right," I reassured. "I didn't mind it all that much." I left him to whatever thoughts he had on that and went to start my morning. We'd been on the road for almost two days and the only shower was the one in the camper that Bella and Relena were using and we sure as hell weren't going to make her share it with five guys so I gathered my things and headed for the shower house. There was only a fifty-fifty chance it would actually work but I needed to step back from the group for a minute. Happily, it seemed the residents kept this part of the park in good condition, probably because many of them used it themselves but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. There was even hot water so I decided to take my hair down and wash it properly. My thoughts revolved around Hiiro and Relena. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was happening, something that was going to change things between the three of us forever. I just had to find some way to make sure Hiiro didn't get the short end of the stick. How could someone grow up without having ever been held? Hell, even I had had someone to curl up with even if it had been just a bunch of other kids. That thought lead me to thinking about the morning and how it had felt to have his arms around me but before the weird feeling in my chest could fully take form I heard a sound outside that made me stop to peer out the little slit of a vent window. Hiiro had gotten up as well but his morning ritual appeared to include playground repairs that day. He was over by the rusted teeter-totter with a can of oil in his hand. I got this warm feeling inside as I watched him oil the pivot point and walk around to the high side of the equipment but that warm feeling burned hot when he reached up and took hold of it and pulled. The guy is just freakishly strong, I knew the teeter-totter didn't stand a chance but he took it easy, trying not to splinter the thing and I felt my pulse thumping in my temples as I watched his arms tense, the raw determination in his eyes burning as brightly as the heat inside me as the metal began to groan then all of a sudden it popped loose and I ducked back from the window utterly flabbergasted over why I couldn't catch my breath. That only lasted until I realized I was well on my way to having a raging hard on and everything inside my head shifted. "Shit," I recall breathing as I stepped back under the spray and cranked down the heat. The water went icy, solving half my problem when my balls tried to crawl up my ass but at least the evidence of my arousal was gone. This...complicated things. I had always thought Hiiro was a handsome guy, he's every girls dream boy actually, strong, stoic and lean. As dependable as the day is long and gorgeous as well but I'd never realized he could affect me that way. I thought about our tent with trepidation, then remembered we shared an apartment back home and groaned. "Duo?" "On my way!" I answered Quatre's inquiry. "We're packing everything up to leave on your schedule," he told me. "Great! Be right there!" ~ * ~ |
