Waves
by D.C. Logan (maxwells_salvage@oocities.com)

WARNINGS: 1x2; fluff; attempted lime. NOTES: This was written for the Moments of Rapture 2002 Fiction Contest.

"Hey, Heero... Hey man, stop the car!"

Heero maintained his attention on the road in front of him with an 'I know where we're going' sort of expression, "But the park entrance is another 2 kilometers south of here."

"So? We're looking for a private stretch of beach--that's a private stretch of beach. So stop the car already."

Heero grumbled, but obediently pulled over. This was Duo's day after all.

+

Hmm, it wasn't supposed to be this windy... Or this cold. This might not work out as well as he'd hoped.

Duo slipped off his shoes and flexed his toes experimentally in the sand. It was crisply warm on the top, but disturbingly cool when he dug his feet in a little deeper. Still, he'd managed to get Heero to cooperate up to this point. What were the odds that he could convince him to do anything this crazy more than once in their lifetime? Slim to nearly none he bet. Heero was looking over the sandy beach with reservation, no doubt wondering exactly what it was he'd agreed to.

"Okay, this is your fantasy--so how do you want to handle this?" He was patiently holding onto an old wool blanket and waiting for Duo's go/no-go call on this lunacy.

Hell, how had he gotten so lucky? How many guys could say that they had someone willing to voluntarily freeze their privates off to fulfill one of their lover's private fantasies? Precious damned few he bet. Okay, it was a go then, and it was time to stake out their territory. "Uh, over here I think." Duo bent to retrieve his shoes and waved off to an outcropping of rocks farther down the line of low waves.

Heero obediently followed his insane partner down the beach. The surf looked rough today, not good for their plans, but this seemed to mean a lot to Duo, so he was willing to give this a try. Once. Just because Duo had seen it done in an old movie didn't mean that it was achievable though.

+

"I don't think this is going to work."

The water wasn't nearly as cold as Heero feared it would be, but the wind and waves on his exposed skin was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. And even though Duo was helping as much as he was able, the temperature was having its predictable impact on Heero's, um, performance.

"Duo?"

"Yes Heero?"

"If my nuts get any colder, they're going to be fighting for space with that pitiful excuse for pizza you fed me on the way here."

Yeah, given his expression, Duo had apparently noticed the effect.

"And Duo?"

"Yeah?"

"There's a very good reason why this material was used as a general abrasive for millenia. This is," he shifted minutely, "very uncomfortable you realize."

"Umm."

Heero looked carefully for any sign of retreat or surrender in Duo's face. None was evident. A receding wave fanned Duo's hair out attractively around his head--well, the hair that wasn't slowly burying itself into the shoreline with the ebb and flow of the waves. And then there were the occasional high ones that threatened to drown them both. This was not turning out to be one of Duo's better ideas. "I don't know how you've been able to tolerate this for as many minutes as we've been trying."

Duo blinked back up at him and his eyes widened in warning, "Wave!"

Heero sucked in a deep breath and crouched protectively over Duo as the wave crested over both of them. The tide was coming in... and apparently that was the only thing coming this afternoon. He wasn't having much luck. He shook his head to clear his hair from his face and looked down at Duo, patiently waiting for the response nature had interrupted.

"I didn't think I'd be able to convince you to try this a second time. It's a bit far to travel for public sex."

Heero's mind scrambled for a politic way out of this situation, one where they could both save face (and preserve the remaining undamaged portions of his anatomy for another day). "How about we give up for today and come back when it's warmer, drier, and we're a bit more prepared," hell, anything to convince Duo to let him out of the water. Oh come on Heero, you can do better than that... "We can consider this our reconnaissance run," he mentioned hopefully.

Duo looked relieved, both that Heero had been the one to suggest that they get out of this supposed-to-be-romantic situation gone terribly wrong, and that he had an excuse to put some warm clothes on. "Sold. Let's get the hell out of here."

They extricated themselves from the surf, and made a hasty stumbling retreat up above the water line to wrap a blanket around their shoulders and pull swim gear back on over wet sandy skin. Duo remembered Heero's remark on abrasive substances--he was pretty sure he'd taken off a couple layers of skin trying to get his trunks back on again. Heero made it look easy, but then again, that was his special talent.

The building that housed the park-operated showers was closed for the season, but not for long (Duo had special talents of his own). There didn't seem to be any other people, official or otherwise, in the area, so perhaps their caution had been unwarranted.

The shower was ice cold, and rushed because of it. Heero skimmed through with a rinse and a smack on Duo's anatomy in passing. Duo did his level best to freeze his parts beyond all redemption. It took forever to rinse all the salt and sand from his hair. Since he'd been on the bottom, he'd picked up rather a lot of it, plus two small seashells and a bit of seaweed, ick.

Heero was waiting for him outside. He'd pulled on his jeans and that shirt Duo'd bought him while on vacation last year. He was also holding an encouraging looking bag and another blanket, hopefully a dry and sand-free variety of blanket, when Duo stepped out from the building. Where had they come from? Cool, yeah, score two points for Heero Yuy, Mister Terrific--he'd thought to bring post coital (or in this case, post non-coital) munchies. What a guy.

Heero lifted his offerings encouragingly. "Sunset is in about an hour, and we've come all this way without coming..."

Had Heero made a joke? After all that? Hell, Duo didn't think he'd have been as forgiving given current circumstances. He followed Heero's lead down to the last reaches of dry sand, where they sat on the beach side by side with legs folded and the blanket wrapped over their shoulders, watching the waves. They passed the thermos of coffee back and forth between them in companionable silence, listening to the rhythm of the waves and occasional screech of sea birds.

After coffee, Heero left Duo folded tightly into the blanket and knelt behind him to repair some of the damage to his tangled hair. He gently finger combed it into submission, losing himself in the task, enjoying the feeling of Duo quietly relaxing under his hands. Until Duo stilled, suddenly alert. "Heero...it's happening."

Heero shifted his view to catch the radiating display of orange, purple, and fluorescent streaks across the horizon. Nature's fireworks, he thought appreciatively. He rested his hand possessively on Duo's shoulder, and stated his opinion for Duo's benefit:

"Now that was worth the trouble of coming."