"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 17: Locals

 

I'll be the first to admit that I was a bit unsteady on my board the next day. A night with little sleep and a lot of action has a tendency to make you a bit shaky. There was still some soreness that decided to sting at the most inopportune moments, like when popping up on my board.

Heero looked guilty every time I winced, so I tried very hard not to show anything. It wasn't too easy in the salty water and I decided the hell with it and got up, walking to the Safe house.

I frowned when I saw someone leaning over the railing, and narrowed my eyes to try and see who it was.

'Hilde!' I called, and started to jog, but it kind of burnt, so I settled for a faster walk.

She went down from the deck and ran to meet me. I barely had time to set my board down before she jumped into my embrace and I spun us around once before I set her back down on her feet.

'Damn, Hil', I didn't think you were going to arrive this early.'

'I took the red-eye,' she said. 'You've really gotten yourself in a pickle.'

'I know,' I said and chortled. 'But my new friends have made me realize it might be a blessing in disguise.'

'How so?' she asked, and I half expected her to bring out her voice recorder right there.

'We've got days, let's catch up first,' I said, picking up my board again before I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and led her back to the deck. 'Damn, I'm really glad to see you again, Hil'.'

'Of course you are, I'm here to save your sorry ass. Again,' she said arrogantly and I had to hug her again. I'd missed her.

'Duo, company,' she said into my ear and I turned around to see Heero hanging back with a set face and a weary gaze towards us. I nearly swore. I'd never gotten around to telling him about the deal with Surf'd, or about Hilde's impending arrival. I'd thought I'd have more time.

'Hil', this is Heero, my boyfriend.' Heero's features softened and he walked towards us. ''Ro, this is Hilde, my archenemy, best friend and...' I paused and looked at Hilde and she smiled sadly.

'Solo's girlfriend,' she said, finishing the introduction. I didn't miss the flash of relief in Heero's face and the sagging of his shoulders. But then he registered what she'd said, and his face fell in guilt and sadness.

I held out my hand for him, which he took a hold of, and we went to sit down in the chairs. Heero and I sat down in chairs next to each other and Hilde sat opposite from me. I didn't let go of Heero's hand.

'Archenemy?' Heero asked and I laughed.

'We competed for Solo's attention before we realized we could join forces,' I said.

'He never stood a chance,' Hilde said, grinning widely in remembrance.

'No one would with the two of us attacking from both sides.'

Heero looked a bit confused, but he had a smile on his face. I squeezed his hand as thanks for taking all the news so well.

'So, you're here to visit Duo?' Heero asked and Hilde looked at me in surprise and leaned forwards in her chair.

'You didn't tell him?' she asked me. Heero frowned deeply and I felt him tense under my hand.

'I was planning to, last night,' I said and he relaxed and smirked in memory. I turned to Hilde. 'I got a bit preoccupied,'

'Details, Duo,' she said, and I squeezed Heero's hand when I felt him tense again.

'No way, you'll just print it in your article.'

'Strictly PG-13, I promise,' she said with a wide smile and held up her hands.

'PG-13 was not what was going on last night,' Wufei grumbled from the door and came out with breakfast and with Sally in tow. He looked tired and I guessed that Sally hadn't let him get back to sleep even after Heero and I had finished our shower and gotten back to bed.

'Sorry, 'Fei,' I said, even thought I wasn't feeling very apologetic.

'What about us?' Quatre asked as he and Trowa came out behind Sally.

'Sorry, you guys,' I said nonchalantly and smiled when Heero sniggered.

I noticed Trowa give a glance to our joined hands and he gave me a small nod, almost as if he was thanking me. Quatre and Trowa sat down next to each other close enough to touch their legs with the others, but that's all they did and I felt for them. I'd talk to them later, and tell them that Hilde was perfectly safe because I didn't want them to feel the need to be overly discreet at home. She was going to be around for a while after all.

Wufei sat down in the last remaining chair and Sally looked at him with a raised eyebrow. He grabbed her hips and pulled her down onto his lap, making her yelp in surprise. He blushed slightly but put his arm around her waist to help keep her in place, and I thought they looked indescribably cute together. I was sure neither of them would thank me for thinking that.

'Guys, this is Hilde. She's my best friend from Elto, and is here on a mission for Surf'd magazine.'

'Mission, Duo? Really?' she asked before she stood up and shook hands with everyone.

'Trant got a picture of Heero and me in a somewhat... revealing position. Basically, she's here to cover the Gundams and me if I win. The mag' should run at about the same time as Trant manages to release his story to another paper.'

'And if you don't win?' Sally asked, and I looked at Hilde, who was shaking her hands in front of her face.

'There's no such constraint, where did you get such an idea from, Duo?' she asked, but continued without waiting for my answer. 'I'm covering Duo because we've had a lot of requests to do a larger story on him. We got the opportunity, so we jumped at the chance in relations to Gundams. But Duo, I'm starting to believe what Trant wrote about your decline in skills. What were you doing out there?' she asked with a nod towards the ocean, and a trickle of heat travelled to my face in embarrassment, and Heero squeezed his hand in mine.

'Don't worry, Hil'. It's a temporary slump,' I said and she laughed in understanding.

'Fine, I won't make you tell. But you do know you have to give me a bunch of interviews, right?'

'We've got plenty of time,' I answered. 'Can we stop talking and start eating, please?'

'Still always hungry, Duo?' Hilde asked and sat back in her chair.

'You're welcome to eat as well, Hilde,' Quatre said and motioned her forwards to the table.

She grinned and leaned forwards again to pick up some breakfast.

It was nice to have her around, even though it was due to work. She followed my for my practice every day and I wasn't the slightest bit disturbed by it. Whenever her job had allowed it she had joined Solo and me so it felt like old times. Only one person was missing. She watched me surf, and joined me on the days when the waves weren't too big. We had lunch together and she always had her recorder out, in case she would come up with some awesome question. I'd noticed her press the record button in some of our more regular conversations as well but I trusted her not to put in anything that shouldn't be known by the public.

She had dinner with us during the evenings before she left for her hotel, and had managed to get Heero to tell her all about the board he'd shaped for me. I had been a bit worried about anything else she might weasel out of him as well, but Heero wasn't one to let anything go easily.

The first day of the waiting periods came around quicker than I would have liked. I wasn't sure if I was ready for everything that would come from all my sponsors dropping off.

It was announced that the trials for the locals would be held that first day, with some sweet waves coming in at around 8 feet at Choker. Howard hadn't been kidding when he'd said that all of Sanc went into a stand still when Gundams started. The entire population had made their way down to the beach and we had to push through a lot of people in order to get to the check-in tents. The guys had been prepared for the mess, and we had left the car back at the Safe house, opting to go by foot.

Trowa, Wufei and Mueller were the only ones I knew that were going through the trials to go on to the real Gundams competition. Heero was going out on the jet-ski. Even though I'd known he'd do it, I was a bit bummed about it. It meant I wasn't going to be able to talk to him until the day was over. At least I had Zero with me, and Hilde sat next to me with her notebook and pen in her lap. Quatre had promised he was going to sit with us during Wufei and Trowa's heats, but as soon as they were finished, he would go back to the Winner Enterprises tent. They were sponsoring the entire competition after all, and he was one of the few that still had to work. In my opinion, he'd been dong too much of that since the death of his father. He had a lot to prove though, as the new president of a huge company while still in his twenties. I hoped he'd be able to relax a little during the competition.

'Who will win?' Hilde asked me before the trials had even started, and I chuckled softly. I turned my head to watch her instead of the ocean where I expected Heero to be at any moment.

'I haven't seen everyone surf yet, it's impossible to say. Trowa and Wufei are great, but they have a tendency to make mistakes. Wufei has been having trouble with the rights, but I think he's starting to get the hang of them. Trowa, he'll do a lot of aerials, and the ones he nails, he'll get a high score on. On the rest, he'll fall.' I shrugged and she looked at me in shock.

Wufei had gone to Choker to surf on some of the days after the last qualifier. Quatre hadn't had any time to coach him anymore, but he still seemed to start grasping them. I had only seen him grab a few at the Surf however, and he was still struggling.

Zero stood up on his feet and barked loudly.

'Sit, boy,' I said, put my hand on his back and pressed gently to get him to sit back down as I looked out over the ocean again to see what he'd reacted at.

Heero was driving his jet ski over the waves to get out to their zone, and both Zero and I let our gazes follow him. He's good on the jet-ski. He knows exactly how to handle it when he takes the waves, and it doesn't look anything like the big-weight hundreds-of-pounds machinery that it is. His turns were swift and he controlled the movements of the jet-ski meticulously. Just like he did a surfboard. I'd never asked him why he rather goes out on the jet-ski than competing, but I guessed it had something to do with his lifeguard job. I didn't even know if he was volunteering, or if it was actually a part of his job, so I resolved to ask him later.

When the first round started we were all fully engrossed as we watched the locals surf. I had seen many of them at the Surf and had surfed with a few of them without knowing their names.

'Do you know them?' Hilde asked, and I shook my head.

'I've surfed with a few, but I never knew their names.'

'Yeah?'

'Names don't matter out there. All that really should matter is your love of surfing.'

'It isn't?' she asked and I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her from the side. She had her recorder out and I snorted softly, making Zero flinch and look back at me as the puff of air hit his back.

'Skill matters, obviously. The more skilled you are, the less likely someone else is to drop in on you. They trust you'll be able to catch the wave. There's a huge amount of arrogance out there, and confidence, which you need in order to be able to commit to the waves. I'm guilty of it as well.' I smirked. 'Usually it's only used to get the wave, but sometimes it takes a bad turn, and arguments turn into outright brawls.'

'And there's a lot of arguments?'

'Mainly if someone snakes or drops in on someone else,' I said and gave a sigh, turning to Hilde. 'Hil', this isn't news to you or the readers.'

'Indulge me,' she said with a small snicker, but I rolled my eyes and continued.

'Basically, someone grabbing someone else's wave it going to be the main reason. Or if some arrogant surfer is threatened by someone better than them.'

'You get that a lot?'

I laughed, not having expected the question, though I probably should have.

'I tend to go surfing when there isn't a lot of people out, often during sunrise and sunset. Here, I've had the fortune to meet up with a few awesome locals that have a great beach, so I've been able to go out a bit more during the day. But back in the day, yeah, I got a lot of that. My braid doesn't exactly give me any bonus points either.'

'How so?' she asked, and I narrowed my eyes, frowning.

'It brings a few comments. Once I became pro, it got better, since more people recognize me.'

'What kind of comments?'

'Hil', what are you getting at?' I asked, a bit annoyed. I'd figured out that she wanted to get me to tell everyone that I was gay and that I had a boyfriend, but I wasn't sure this was the best way of doing it. She raised an eyebrow at me, and I sighed. It wouldn't help arguing with her; it never did. 'Mainly they said things pertaining to my sexuality, but I never paid it much mind. Sometimes they told me I'd get my braid caught in my leash,' I said and both she and I chuckled. Hilde had been the one to say it after she'd seen me surf the first time.

'I remember that. I was so surprised to see you with that tail of hair, whipping out behind you,' she said once she'd stopped laughing. 'Which competition was it I was covering back then anyways?'

'Just a local thing in Elto. But you wrote an entire spread on Solo and me, even though neither of us won.'

'I knew the two of you would be great. And I was right,' she said with a grin and I smiled, thinking Solo would have been even greater if he'd still been alive. 'Oh, Duo,' she said and I saw her turn off her recorder before she wrapped her arms around me. I put my hand on her arm, patting it gratefully.

'I'm sorry for just leaving like that, Hil',' I said and she drew back.

'You should be. You have no idea how worried I was. To first lose Solo, and then...' she looked down in the sand, and bit her lip.

'I'm so sorry, Hil',' I said again, not knowing what else to say. I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to me, until she was leaning her head on my shoulder. 'I didn't know what else to do.'

'I know. And now, when I see you here, I'm happy that you left. It looks like you've found yourself here,' she said and my heart skipped a beat.

'Yeah,' I said, looking out over the ocean, skipping over the surfers that were out and let my eyes settle on Heero. 'I found myself, and so much more. I found love.'

'He treats you right?'

'Too good,' I said, thinking that he probably should have kicked me out already, considering how I'd been treating him.

'It's not possible to treat my little brother too good,' she said, and I chuckled, pleased at being called her brother once more.

'Thanks, Hil', I said, and we sat in comfortable silence again. My arm was still wrapped around her shoulders as we went back to watching the competition.

Trowa and Wufei easily worked their way through the first round and the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, there were two heats, with four persons in each, and the two best from both would move on to the finals.

Quatre joined us for the semis where Trowa and Wufei both were competing in the second heat. From the first heat, Mueller and a surfer I didn't know, by the name Walt, had already qualified to the finals. The heat Trowa and Wufei were in was going to be the last of the day, pushing the finals of the trials to take place on the same day as the start of Gundams.

Trowa and Wufei had been getting great scores the entire day but the waves were becoming rougher. There were fewer waves that they even attempted paddling on, with many of them being closeouts. The best scores they had so far was around six, which was good when compared against the other two. However, the others had caught more waves while Trowa and Wufei had only caught one each. With the points from the best two waves added together, the other two were leading when there was ten minutes left of the heat.

With seven minutes left, Trowa paddled for a wave and caught it easily, following it to his right. He stayed a bit ahead of the barrel, before he compressed, rotated his shoulders and executed a frontside snap. The wave barreled around him, hiding him from our sight.

'He lost too much speed,' Quatre said and grabbed a tight hold of my arm.

I agreed. It was a fast closing wave, and the snap had brought Trowa's speed down by quite much. I was worried he'd already fallen. It made me try to keep one eye on the whitewash for a board, and one eye at the still breaking part of the wave to see if he would exit.

The wave started to close out from the other side, and my breath caught in my throat. Where was he?

'Where is he?' Quatre asked, mirroring my thoughts. I shook my head, still not seeing anything.

When the wave was about to close, and I was close to giving up all hope on Trowa still standing on his board, he escaped through the dog door. Quatre gave a shout of joy. The wave slammed down behind Trowa and washed him forwards with the whitewater. With Trowa being Trowa, he bent at the waist, giving everyone a deep bow, and there were applause all over the beach.

'I'll kill him for scaring me like that,' Quatre muttered, making me laugh.

'You won't get much use of him then' I answered and Quatre elbowed me in the side, making me groan. His elbows are much too sharp.

Wufei paddled for the next wave, and we shut up.

He almost fell into the trough, waiting too long to push down, which made him lose the water. It made me hold my breath. He grabbed the rail, and leaned slightly, managing to land the board and stay on top of it. I released my breath slowly and heard Quatre and Hilde do the same next to me. Wufei surfed high on the wave, where he did a partial cutback, almost getting into the barrel. The wave was already closing out from the other side as well, so he couldn't get the pipe. He bailed over the break with a nice air, landing neatly in the whitewater.

'He's got it, right?' Quatre asked, still holding on to my arm, which I was certain was going to bruise.

'I'm not sure,' I answered, and peeked towards the scoreboards. He was three points behind the person currently in second, and while his air had been good there had been so many barrel rides that an aerial wasn't a guarantee for a high score.

'It has to be,' Hilde said, sounding as though she was holding her breath, and I grinned as I realized how much she'd come to like my friends as well.

'He got it!' I said as I watched the score appear on the board, putting Wufei below Trowa who'd gotten a high score for his pipe.

'I hope the two others won't get new waves,' Quatre mumbled, and I pushed at him slightly.

'Don't say that,' I said, grinning widely.

'Oh, right. It'll jinx them,' he said teasingly and I laughed, but I was hoping the same.

A wave came up when there was thirty seconds to go on the clock, and the surfer with priority caught it. The wave went into a nice pipe, and closed quickly around the surfer. Too quickly.

A board flew up, broken in half, and a head poked up after it. Heero was already moving, and when he was next to the surfer he reached out to grab the surfer's hand, helping him onto the pad. There were some unmistakable red scratches on the guy's arm, and I felt a bit guilty about having wished that they didn't get any waves.

The siren had already hooted to signal the end of the heat, but with everyone focusing on what was going on in the water, no one had really noticed. When we figured out the fallen surfer was going to be okay we finally realized both Trowa and Wufei had gone on to the finals and we hugged each other. Zero skipped about around us with his tail wagging happily.

Wufei, Trowa, and Heero came towards us with very uncharacteristic beams on their faces and soon joined our hugging feast. I took a hold of Heero's hand and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I smiled, and squeezed a little, making him wrap his hand around mine as well. This much public display was fine.

'Love you,' I said to him softly, not loud enough for anyone else to hear, but he smiled affectionately and I knew that he'd heard.

He pressed his side closer to me, dropped my hand and put his arm around my waist instead.

'I love you too,' he said. My heart still skipped every time I heard it.

'Let's go home,' I said, and he stared at me for a moment before a smile lit up his face all the way to his eyes.

'Yeah. Let's go home,' he said, emphasizing the word home enough to make me realize I'd never called the Safe house home before. It had always been Safe house, or Heero's place, or simply the house.

It had somehow become my home.

It was an entirely unexpected but very nice feeling.

I had a home.

~ * ~

Chapter 18

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