"Defying Gravity"

A Romance in Three Parts

Written By: Kaeru Shisho

Disclaimer: I don't own any part of Gundam Wing or its characters, nor do I make any monetary profit off this story.

Rating: NC 17

Warnings: AU, yaoi, some language

Pairings: 1x2x1, 3x4x3

Summary: A multi part story of romance starting with a turning point vacation, developing throughout a dangerous UC mission, and moving ahead through the unexpected challenges of a summer vacation.

"Part Three: It's Another Vacation"

"This is the place," the man driving told the men in the back seat.

He parked to the side of a plain-fronted house, engine running, and leveled his hard-edged gaze on the shuttered windows. His lower jaw appeared to be excessively outsized, caused by the underbite of his lower jaw, the teeth pushed out in front of the upper jaw, giving him a "bull dog" look. A cigarette drooped from the corner of his mouth. He swept a hand over his brush of white-blond hair and cracked his knuckles.

"It might be, if the pilot told us the truth about the man who kidnapped Scythe," said the hefty man seated in the backseat. He shifted his small feet as if to get out, but made no move to open the door.

"He did. He knows he's a marked man if he doesn't. And we know the man holding Scythe, Herr Gunter, owns this place. What we don't know is if this is where he is hiding the boy," the man with the underbite snapped.

"Or ever did. No telling if the boy he saw was Scythe or not. Too many uncertainties."

"Scythe is distinctive. Not many pretty boys with hair that long."

"Enough bickering, gentlemen," commanded the third occupant of the car. He straightened his back, moving with a stiff military bearing. "There should be signs of the boy inside. If not, I want addresses, numbers, this man, Gunter's, contacts. I want to know where he operates out of—"

"I thought you wanted Scythe," said the man with the small feet.

"Oh, I do," said the distinguished military man. "He took down Herr Sieger's best boy. It took you years to build Dierk, didn't it?"

Sieger raked his fingers through his short-cropped hair and growled, flicking ash over his shirt. "And minutes for that kid with the braid to take it all away."

"Through Scythe, we can get to the man I want." He glanced again at the paper in his hand and then tucked it into his dark wool suit pocket. He adjusted his coat, smoothing out the back, before settling into the seat.

"You mean Merquise. And I keep saying I don't know for sure if he was the seller calling himself Wind. I told you, I can't be certain, General Stark," Sieger said, jutting out his jaw a fraction further to cover for his insecurity. "I only had that old picture of yours to go by. If only we'd gotten our hands on those surveillance tapes before the cops did."

"Preventer forces," the small footed Mr. Spitze corrected, "Not cops. Had it been the Marrakech police, we would've had them."

"His bearing was that of a prince. I should have arrived earlier," Stark said ruefully. He grunted, dismissing the past. "We are wasting time."

"I'll go to the door, but I believe the house is vacant, General." The driver opened the door, snuffed out his cigarette on the asphalt, and bent, looking into the car and waiting for final instructions.

"Check it out. I'll remain in the car. No reason to get anyone excited by showing my face."

(o)

Duo repositioned Heero's head on his lap and sat back on his elbows. "Yep. So there I was, lying in bed, eating room service, and thinking I'd diverted the crisis, when in the dining room downstairs Trowa had just walked into--"

"I looked up from my magazine and my soup when an attractive young woman entered the dining room," Wufei interrupted him.

"And Wufei's first lightening-quick thought process, almost too fast for memory, involved a series of rapid vignettes," Dorothy said. She could tell a story with dramatic flair. "Which went like: 'We're both alone. Why don't we eat together?' 'I don't want to be mysterious, heh, heh, but I really can't talk about what I'm doing here in Ishigaki.' 'Tell me, why is a beautiful woman like you alone in such an out-of-the-way place?' 'Oh, my dear, I am sorry, it must have been dreadful for you.' 'Don't cry; here's my handkerchief.' 'I do have some sake in my room, or vodka, if you prefer.' There then followed an amber-toned scene, which crumbled and liquefied when, as Wufei followed the hostess past Trowa to a table in another corner, recognition came—"

Wufei frowned deeply. "Trowa's disguise was quite good. He was wearing a very realistic blond wig and heels! I thought: My God! Her! The one who screamed at the party: 'Despoliation!' and 'Unscrupulous museum directors!' I didn't remember her name, but I was unlikely to forget her face. Or her voice."

"Husky and sexy's your thing?" Trowa asked in a soft, sexy voice that was Quatre's thing certainly. Even Heero twisted his neck around to look at him.

"Seeing you shocked me," Wufei went on. "I slopped soup onto the table cloth! I had to hide, so I raised my magazine to block my face, showing all the world that I was a reader of Spirit Talk magazine."

"Are you?" Relena asked.

"No! It was handy."

"Then why was it at your table?"

The color rose up Wufei's neck and he coughed. "I must have picked it up on the plane—by mistake, of course. I'm not into New Age propaganda."

"Oh, of course you aren't." Dorothy took up the story telling at that point. "Anyway, unaware that the stir she had caused was anything other than the normal erotic ripple that followed her everywhere and which no longer very much impinged on her conscious attention, Shirley-Trowa-darling took her seat, glanced toward the draped windows with a tiny regret for the lack of a sea view, and answered the hostess's question with, 'Just water, thanks.' And from behind his magazine, Wufei gulped his Tsingtao."

"Dorothy," Sally interrupted. "How do you know this story so well?"

"I was there masquerading as a waitress. And, believe me that was a hard job to get. Me faking a Japanese girl? I was part of Duo's setup."

"Which was why I was relaxing contentedly in my room knowing you were there to see things through smoothly," Duo said, but then he smirked, and so Dorothy pinched his cheek and slapped him lightly.

"Not fair!" she said.

"Whaat is?" Quatre asked in a voice that betrayed his slightly intoxicated state. A glass of champagne was his limit. He'd had one and one half. "This was where we came in, right?"

Heero folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah."

"Just tell the next part, Quatre," Sally urged him.

"Okay. Well, Heero and I arrived about then and obediently waited by the lectern for the hostess to finish with seating Miss Shirley-Trowa. I recall glancing around and remarking at the lack of imagination displayed in the conversion of the large rectangular room from a sorry warehouse to a disappointing restaurant, when Heero gasped."

"I did not. That was you doing the gasping." Heero twisted around, keeping his Duo pillow, but bringing Quatre into view.

Under Heero's brain-crushing gaze, Quatre admitted, "Okay, that was me."

"Yes, it was you. And then you whispered 'Rei!' which was my code name. And I said, 'What now?'

'It's him! Behind the magazine!' you said. 'Oh, shit,' I said. 'You're right. Don't look at him!' Then you snapped back, 'I'm not looking at him. Don't you look at him.'" Heero smiled evilly, satisfied that he had nailed the nuances of the conversation perfectly.

"Heero, I was tired, hungry, and shocked to see Mr. Dreadful Drug Dealer, who was actually Wufei, which would have been a shock had I known that, but a more pleasant one," Quatre explained to everyone.

"Thank you," Wufei mumbled.

"See," Quatre went on with a smile in response to Wufei's words, "it was not Wufei, but the man we thought he was-- a man who this Garrett fellow had told us was a dangerous, notoriously dangerous drug dealer. We had no business tangling with drug dealers, real or supposed, and possibly revealing our UC identities and endangering our mission. It was shocking."

"I was always the first to recover," Heero said smugly. "So, to go on, I said, 'Well, why wouldn't he eat here? He's staying here, the same as us.' Which, of course, Terry ignored and went on raving, 'But who's he hiding from? Surely his type doesn't actually read Spirit Talk?' "'Well, maybe he does,' I said, becoming a little testy at Terry's nervousness. 'He has to read something, doesn't he? And I really doubt there's a Drug Dealer's Digest published anywhere.'" Heero smiled at his joke even if it had been years ago that he'd said it.

"At this point the hostess was approaching with her arms full of menus," Dorothy said. "She led them to a table along the right side wall. Once she had placed Heero, calling himself Rei, and Quatre, who was Terry, the situation was this: Among a scattering of other patrons, Heero and Quatre were a short way into the room, against the right wall. Wufei was midway down the room, one table in from the left wall. Trowa was most of the way down the right side, one table in from the side, one back from the non-view. In this triangle, Trowa and Wufei were seated so as to face one another directly, while Heero and Quatre, opposite one another with the wall beside them, were situated out of Trowa's line of sight but so that Quatre offered Wufei a three-quarter profile and Heero gave him a view of his right ear and the back of his head. Got that? The set up here is very important to get how funny it all was," Dorothy said.

"Here, let me show you with a diagram." She drew a rectangle with a stick in the sand then shuffled about some shells, rocks and other detritus. "Trowa's a stick—"

"Beg your pardon?" he asked eyebrows raised in question.

"Trowa's a stick—" Dorothy said, moving around her beach-flotsam collection.

"Dorothy?" he asked.

"The stick. Wufei... the rock."

"Make him the green glass. He likes green," Quatre said.

"I like green—" Trowa put in.

"Fine. Wufei's the glass and I'm the rock," Dorothy went on arranging her pieces on the sand. "Trowa, you have to be the stick. Heero and Quatre are shells at the clam table."

"Happeeee as little claaams," Duo warbled.

"Shut up," Heero rolled over Duo's full stomach with his heavy head and stopped the flow of music and words. "It was more 'shrimps' at the table, actually."

"I get it! So, Wufei, you were stuck between a rock and a hard place!" Relena started giggling like a school girl.

Wufei pinched the ridge of his nose, his eyes closed, picturing the scene in his mind. "I simply couldn't stand it," he confessed. "Every damn time I peeked over the top of my magazine, there was ... and then the name came to me: Shirley from that party-- that was who I thought Trowa was-- across an uncrowded room, facing me. And I dared not let her see me!

"She would know; she would have to! I kept telling myself. I had identified myself to her at that party as a museum curator and director. We had spoken about the Ishigaki shrine rumors and whether or not one really existed; the subject of antiquity theft had come up, had most certainly and emphatically come up, because Duo the Smuggler was there chatting me up like an old friend and Shirley had him pegged as the worst sort. Yes, indeed, the worst! You didn't see him! Black dreadlocks, gold tooth..."

"Large gold earring?" Sally asked with a chuckle.

"Well, a small one—"

"Sounds like a pirate costume my brother might have worn," Relena said.

Duo was laughing. Wufei knew they were teasing him, so he charged forward disregarding their foolishness. If he told the story well, Sally would understand and laugh with him, which would be nice.

"I was absolutely certain that Shirley would see me, and she would immediately know what I was doing on the island. What could I do?" Wufei let out a sigh. "My main course hadn't even arrived yet! To get up and flee the restaurant would merely call attention to myself, but to sit directly in that woman's line of sight was simply not possible. I couldn't hold Spirit Talk up in front of my face indefinitely, could I?

"I stole a look over the magazine's top, to see that she was holding the large menu up in front of herself much as I was holding Spirit Talk. I knew then that if I were to do anything, improve the situation in any way, it would have to be at that moment.

"I remember thinking: What if I were to face in the opposite direction? But to stand, walk around the table, move everything with me to the opposite side, all of that would also attract too much attention. Besides, there wasn't even a chair over there. The only other chair as the table was to my left.

"Well, a partial move would certainly help, I decided. Quickly but smoothly, while Shirley continued to study the menu, I slid from my chair and, without rising, made it into the chair to my left. I drew the soup, the silverware, the bread plate and the glasses over with me, and laid the magazine on the table to the right of my setting. In reading the magazine now, my head would quite naturally be averted from this terrible Shirley woman. In the dim lighting, and at this distance, I felt that she was most unlikely to recognize me. Feeling much better, I looked up, and found myself staring directly into the eyes of one of Duo's drug dealers!"

Sally laughed and hiccupped.

"Remember, Duo, or Garrett as I knew him, had told me, had pointed them out to me at a distance and told me, that they were dangerous drug dealers. I had already caught a glimpse of them checking me out around the pool, and I thought I'd successfully avoided them. But there they were!" Wufei moaned. "That was a terrible moment. It still hurts to remember... the stupidity."

"At this point I switched off with another waitress so I could ask Trowa-Shirley if she were ready to order, and she said yes," Dorothy said.

Heero started to laugh. "Oh, I remember this part!"

"Oh, shut up, Heero," Quatre said in disgust.

Heero said, "Terry said to me: 'He's staring at me!' There were these little white rings showing under your eyes, and you spoke in a harsh whisper, not moving your lips. 'My God, Ra-ay, he moved around at the table so he could stare at me.'"

"And I," said Wufei, "seeing one of the drug dealers glare at me while muttering to his partner without moving his lips, gazed unseeing at Spirit Talk."

Trowa spoke up. "I think I ordered the shrimp cocktail and the chicken parmigiana."

Heero snorted. "I pretended to be suddenly interested in the non-view, curtained-off windows at the far end of the room, while swiveling my eyes to look at Mr. Su, Wufei, who was reading his magazine and not staring at anybody at all."

"Very descriptive story telling, 'Ro," Duo put in so they knew he was still awake.

"As cool as you think you were, Heero," Quatre said. "Your mouth gave you away when it curled in the expression of contempt you were about to show me."

"And that's when I looked up," Wufei said, "and both you and Heero were glaring at me, grimacing at me!"

"I think I ordered a glass of white wine as well. But no more; I'd had too much to drink, really, at lunch, as I recall, with Duo. He was a perfect gentleman, too. No flirting. Obviously, gay. I knew it then," Trowa said chuckling.

"I was the laaast to know," Duo drawled. "I'm still not suuure. Ouch!"

"That was for that stupid remark," Heero said, releasing his grip on Duo's braid.

Dorothy poked at both of them with a stick of driftwood. "Stop the hanky-panky while I'm telling this story! Now, where were we...? Oh, yes, when I asked Wufei if he were done with his soup, I interposed myself between him and the table containing Heero and Quatre. You barked at me, Wufei. You asked if I could hurry the duckling because you had to leave soon." Dorothy's left eyebrow twitched.

"Your waitressing skills were lacking, as I recall," Wufei said with an eye to the nervous twitch. "Not that I'm one to complain, but you could have just smiled and told me that you'd do what you could, but... no, you told me that the chef was working on it, and that one really couldn't hurry a duckling."

"The foul thing," Duo whispered under his breath and cracking up. "Get it? Fowl thing?"

Dorothy drew her eyebrows together, ending the twitch, and bit back a scathing remark of her own. "I'll keep that in mind for the next time you and I work together, Chang."

"Don't forget, woman, that it was I who hooked you up with your current man," Wufei reminded her.

She smiled wide. "Hmm, that's right."

Chapter 4

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