Endless Summer Part 6
Wandering and Wondering
Heero walked back to his house, Baka walking at his heels. With Duo, the dog had ran all over the beach; with Heero, he trotted obediently at his master's side, panting. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, and the sun was trying to come out. Heero had known it would be a quick rain, and wondered whether the beach would be dry enough for the bonfire.
As he walked, he thought. Some of the people who passed him on the shore recognized the deep expression on his face, brow furrowed in concentration, completely focused. Completely serious. It was the look he wore when he was surfing. It was just the way he rode. Ice-cold and serious. No mistakes.
// Why... why did he do that? Why is he trying to be my friend? Is he... trying to be more than that? What did he mean by it? He knows we're competing against each other in the competition. Well, I hope he doesn't expect me to cry off... //
Every few minutes, Baka whined softly at his side, stopping and gazing back down the beach. Heero stopped and looked down at the dog. The dog stopped and shook water out of its fur from nose-tip to tail. Then it looked back up at Heero.
"What?"
Baka looked up into his eyes, tail wagging expectantly.
Heero scowled. "I don't like him, you dumb mutt. He's just always around. So don't get your hopes up."
Baka woofed.
"What are you looking at?"
The dog rolled over in the sand, legs sticking up in the air, and wagged his tail, tongue lolling in a charmingly witless doggy grin.
Heero snorted and starting walking down the beach again.
"Smartass."
~*~
When he walked back in through the screen door, Wufei was sitting casually with his feet crossed up on the kitchen table, reading a newspaper with his glasses perched on his nose.
"Welcome back. Nice walk?"
"I haven't decided," Heero muttered, grabbing a glass and a bowl out of the cabinet. He put them on the table, then reached into the refrigerator, grabbing a carton of milk. After picking it up, he scowled and shook it. Instead of the sloshing sound Heero anticipated, there was a plopping sound from the inside of the carton.
Without looking up from his newspaper, Wufei pointed to the can of soda he had out on the table. "Already tried that."
He grimaced. "Wufei, how long has this been in here?"
"Probably since the last time you went to the grocery store," Wufei answered matter-of-factly. "I would check the fridge to make sure the thing has not colonized by now."
"You knew it was bad and you left it in the fridge?"
"Knowing you, you might have been saving it." He looked up from the paper momentarily. "You meet Duo Maxwell? You must have, since you have your jacket. What, you left him out there on his own?"
"None of your business."
"Hmm." Wufei looked back at his paper. "If you say so. I don't know why you're pushing him away, though." Wufei cocked one dark sloe eye at him over the side of the newspaper. "You don't still have feelings for Relena, do you?"
When Heero met his gaze, the Japanese surfer's expression was slightly dangerous.
"I'll take that as a no. Does that mean you don't mind if I ask her out?"
Heero looked at Wufei sharply, and the Chinese boy blushed a little, hiding behind his paper.
Heero dove into his own thoughts. Everyone believed she had been perfect for him, even Quatre and Trowa... They were both surfers, they were both competitive, and they were both popular on North Shore. It seemed predestined that he should meet and fall in love with Relena, queen of the wahines, the pretty rich girl from the other side of Oahu.
When they had been dating, they were the acknowledged Romeo and Juliet of the beach scene. He was the bittersweet hero figure, making just enough money to keep his surf shop open and food in his fridge, haunted by a tragic past. She was the wealthy, pampered daughter of a hotel chain owner, someone who had considered him more of a project than an object of affection.
The idea that if he married Relena he might have to close his surf shop and end out his days managing one of Daddy's hotels-making it out onto the beach only every few weeks like all the other yuppy weekend warriors-terrified him.
But she had been a security blanket for him. She took him to fancy parties and showed him off to her friends like a beautiful exotic pet. The idea that he had went out with her and slept with her simply because she was who he was expected to be with shamed him in retrospect.
Wufei's voice broke him out of his reverie. "You know, you're going to have awful wrinkles in your forehead when you're fifty or so from frowning like that. It isn't healthy."
He felt a tug at his swimtrunks. Baka had his teeth in them, and pulled softly before letting go, tail still wagging a little. He suddenly realized he was just standing in the middle of his kitchen with a carton of soured milk in his hand.
"Hn." Heero tossed the carton across the kitchen and into the trash. He grabbed a cold soda from the back of the fridge and sat down across from Wufei. Baka crawled under the table and laid down with his head on Heero's bare foot.
"I talked with him. You know why they call him the God of Death?" Heero asked suddenly. He didn't know why, maybe it had been all the talking from before, but he was hungry for a little conversation. He didn't know what he was feeling, but he knew that if he could talk about his feelings with anyone, it would be Wufei. The Chinese surfer was practical, understanding, and brutally honest. Or honestly brutal, depending on which way you wanted to look at it.
"Of course. I knew who he was from the moment he showed up on the beach. He couldn't stay away from the reporters too long, he's already in The Atoll." Without looking up at Heero, he tapped his newspaper, making it rustle. "Cursed Surfer The Reaper Shows Up For Billabong Pro. Who Is The Next Boarder Bound For Davy Jones's Locker? Very bad taste, in my opinion."
Heero glared at him, although Wufei couldn't see him from behind the newspaper. "You knew who he was the whole time and you let me make a damned fool of myself? Why didn't you tell me he wasn't an amateur?"
"You didn't ask."
"Sometimes I hate you, Wufei."
"But I do make good coffee."
"Hn."
Neither boy noticed when Baka lifted his head from Heero's foot, stood up, and pushed the screen door open, trotting down the seashore.
~*~
Duo sat at the end of the coral pier, dangling his feet off the end of it, throwing pebbles into the tossing white water, wondering for the millionth time since he stepped off the plane at the airport and they threw those flowers around his neck what in the hell he was doing here.
It wasn't the money. He didn't need it. He had enough money with him to peruse the world's greatest surfing coasts, thanks to the money he had been left in the wills of his parents. He had been to Africa, Australia, all over Cali, and now, finally, he had made it to North Shore. Surfing Mecca. Competing in one of the most prestigious surfing contests in the world. Hell, he was internationally infamous. He should have been ecstatic...but he wasn't. He was competing in a contest he didn't need to win. Purposely putting people in jeopardy.
He fully believed in the curse that the media claimed he had. After losing both his parents and having someone die in every competition he ever entered, he couldn't help but believe the curse was true. But he couldn't stay away from the ocean. He couldn't stay away from surfing. It was the only thing he had left. And every time he entered a contest, he wondered if it was going to be him this time.
Maybe here, on Hawaii, it was time for his luck-or lack thereof-to run out.
Duo sighed.
But this time... he was competing against Heero. Heero was in the contest. Heero's life was up for grabs. So he didn't know if he could compete now. What if it was Heero's broken, bleeding body he had to drag from the surf when the contest was over? Or Wufei's? Or Quatre or Trowa's? He didn't think he could handle that. Scratch that. He knew he couldn't.
He didn't want to get close to them. He didn't want to get close to any of them. But he couldn't help it. He had to talk to someone. It was just the way he was. He was as attention-starved as a puppy. He wasn't made to roam the world all alone.
// So much for the stoic hyperborean wanderer, // he thought, bitterly.
He was somewhat startled that Heero had almost... kind of... maybe... accepted his invitation to go to the bonfire.
He couldn't stop thinking about Heero. Those dark cobalt eyes. The graceful, tanned line of the boy's throat. The soft, throaty sound of his laughter, the curve of his lips when he smiled.
Suddenly, something nudged him in the back, and he let out a yelp.
He turned around to look into the soulful brown eyes of Baka.
"Heya boy. Whatcha doing here?" The dog circled around and slurped his face, making him laugh and bringing him out of his melancholy mood. He patted his leg and the dog laid down next to him, lying against his thigh and putting his head in Duo's lap. Duo gently pulled and stroked the dog's velvet ears, and Baka made a contented snuffling sound.
"There's a great guy in there somewhere, bud," he whispered to the dog, patting Baka's head thoughtfully. "I just know it. You know it too, huh? He must be a great guy if you like him. Dogs are a great judge of character."
Baka's tail wagged, scattering broken pieces of coral on the pier.
"There's just something about him, you know? I mean... I've never felt this way about anybody before. But I guess... I'm just a little scared."
Baka's pink tongue ran out and lapped at his fingertips.
"When I think about what happened to his family, it makes my heart hurt, because somewhere in that shell I know he's a sweet, incredible guy. I mean, because I know how he feels about losing people, you know? But I promised I wouldn't mention it to him to Wufei. And I'm not gonna. I'll wait ‘til he's ready to tell me."
He remembered the way the water from the sea and the rain had glistened on Heero's torso earlier, and the memory made his heart beat faster.
Duo looked down into the dog's eyes, shaking his head. "Dammit, furball, I think I'm fallin' for him. Now if that isn't the stupidest thing in the world to do, I don't know what is. Now what in the hell am I gonna do about that, huh?"
Baka whined and wagged his tail again, almost hopefully.
"Some help you are."
TBC...
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