The sun was just starting to sink towards the horizon when the three Preventers gave up the water war and collapsed in the shallowest waves of the swash zone. All three were panting, even as they grinned at each other in contented exhaustion.
Zechs had fallen half on top of Duo, pinning the American to the damp sand; it was taking all of his willpower to resist the urge to kiss the younger man. Wet hair, now crusted with sand, had escaped the braid and was clinging in long strands to Duo's face and neck; as well as twining with strands of Dorothy's loose hair where she lay with her head on Maxwell's shoulder. Zechs levered himself up on one elbow, and just admired the decadent sight below him for a few moments.
Duo cracked open dark eyes and met his gaze. For a split second, Zechs could see an answering desire in his eyes before they shuttered again.
"Okay, would one of you two like to explain why you wanted me to roll my pant legs up? It obviously wasn't so that my clothes would stay dry..." Maxwell muttered finally.
"Well, oh Fearless Leader?" Dorothy threw him an accusing look. "As I believe the water fight was your doing, I'll let you answer this one."
"Um..." Zechs tried to look innocent. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?"
Duo just sighed. Dorothy patted his shoulder as she levered herself up.
"Ugh. Wet jeans." She grimaced. "Fun as that was... next time you better wait until I'm wearing a swimming suit, Zechs." She glanced at the sunset, then back up the beach towards the town. "Especially since we still have a long walk back to the hotel, in very wet clothes. And it will be dark soon."
"True." Zechs sobered a little. "And I'm getting hungry now."
"So am I..." Duo leaned up on his elbows and surveyed his partners as they stood above him. "You know, it's probably a good thing Une can't see us right now."
"What, you think soaking wet, slightly sunburned, and covered in sand isn't the image the Preventer's should cultivate?"
"Um... actually. No." Duo grinned.
"I don't know. I kind of like it...." Zechs smirked, eyeing his partners with a leer. "Maybe I should try this more often."
"Try it in Sanck, and I'll kill you." Dorothy reached down a hand to Duo. "Hypothermia is not my idea of a good time."
"Not to mention that if we do this anywhere near the same continent as Lady Une, she'll kill us before hypothermia has a chance to set in." Duo shrugged. "Hm. Think they're going to let us back in the hotel looking like this? I really don't want to sleep on the beach tonight..."
"This is a beach resort." Zechs grinned. "I'm sure this will not be the first time they have had guests return to the hotel looking like they've been rolling around in the surf."
"I think I am beginning to understand why Howard has a hanger facing the beach." Duo rolled his eyes as they began throwing on jackets and shoes. Dorothy just sighed and picked up Epyon.
They made it back to the hotel before full dark, despite the exhaustion that all three were feeling. I think next time we decide to let off steam and shirk responsibility to play around... we ought to pick a spot much closer to where we intend to sleep, Dorothy mused silently as she stepped out of the shower.
Quickly toweling off, she shoved damp hair out of her way and threw on spare clothes. They had packed lightly, not expecting to spend any time not working on repairing Epyon; but long habit of travelling with Relena had prompted her to pack at least one dress. She pulled it on, saving the last pair of jeans and tee-shirt for the long day in store tomorrow. Epyon's case was sitting on the single bed in her room, a silent reminder of why they had come to this island paradise. She touched the case silently, then knocked softly on the door adjoining her room to the one Zechs and Duo were sharing.
Duo opened the door, a half-finished braid in one fist. He was dressed much more casually than she was; though this pair of jeans was at least whole and not ripped.
"Hey, Doro. Zechs should be out of the shower in a sec." He waved her in before settling down on one of the two beds that had been shoved together in the middle of the room to finish braiding his hair.
"Good. I'm starving." She settled down on the other bed, lying back with a tired sigh.
"Don't fall asleep." He raised one eyebrow. "I'm not carrying you to dinner."
"Of course not," She smirked. "Zechs is the one that exhausted us... he can carry me to dinner."
"I seem to remember you as an active participant in the wave war." Zechs stepped out of the bathroom, his silver-blond hair hanging in a damp tail down his back. "God, I'm starving."
"Yes, well... both of us are ready to go and waiting... so that sounds like a personal problem to me," Dorothy grinned to take the sting out of the words.
Duo glanced up as he tied off the end of the braid, then groaned softly. "Why is it every time we go out to dinner, you guys dress up and I feel like a refugee from a homeless shelter?"
"Because you have a larger collection of comfortable clothing than we do?" Dorothy rolled her eyes. "I'll trade clothes with you, if it would make you feel better."
"Somehow I don't see that helping," Duo muttered sarcastically. "Then I would just look like the homeless person in drag that you found in the street."
"Just remember that I offered." She accepted the hand Zechs offered her and stood up stiffly.
Dinner proved to be an extravagant buffet on an open porch overlooking the ocean. Tables were set around the multi-leveled, torch-lined patios; except for the one closest to the beach where a live band was setting up and a few couples were already dancing to canned Reggae. Duo looked dazed at the sheer amount of food laid out, even though most of the diners had already gone through the line by the time they reached the buffet.
"They do this every night?"
"Only on Fridays and Saturdays," a waitress said as she passed by them with trays of drinks. "The party will last probably well past midnight."
"So much for getting to sleep early," Dorothy groaned.
"Oh, yeah, like we ever go to bed early." Duo rolled his eyes, then just headed straight for the buffet. "Though I am tired enough, I could probably sleep though a Gundam attack right now."
"Oh, now there's a comforting thought." Zechs shook his head as he gestured gallantly for her to follow Duo towards the food. Though it's about damned time for one of you to sleep the night through.
Once armed with full plates, they retreated to a lower patio where there were fewer torches and diners. The three sat in the shadows, eating and simply relaxing. No one seemed to pay much attention to them, or to have recognized either Zechs as a former Prince of Sanck or Duo as a former Gundam pilot. I don't think any of us have relaxed this much in years... if ever. Maybe Dr. Po is right to insist that we take time away from work to recharge.
'Do you think?' Treize sighed. 'I believe I argued that point just as frequently with you, and you certainly never listened to my advice.'
'I listened to your advice. I just didn't follow it.'
'Just as you aren't following it right now,' Treize shook his head in disgust. 'Here you are, on a tropical resort with two very attractive people that you are very close to, and you haven't allowed a shred of romance into your soul. Ask one of them to dance... or at the very least kiss one of them.'
'Doing either of those things would interfere with our being able to inhale food,' Zechs glared at his friend as he answered. 'Three of us here still need to eat, and we missed lunch trying to decipher your mess. And I seriously doubt that any of us have the energy to dance, even to Reggae.'
'Since I have no idea what Epyon is trying to tell us, I refuse to consider what ever is going on with it to be my mess.' Treize sighed. 'I just don't want you to regret it... in case the worst happens.'
'You mean if one of them dies.' Zechs stared soberly at his friend, his appetite suddenly gone.
'You are just as much at risk of that as either of them are,' Treize smiled sadly. 'I would much rather have spent the last ten months in your arms, rather than looking over your shoulder. I... don't want you to make the same mistake I did.'
'Which was?'
'Letting pride and duty drive us apart. Not holding onto the best thing in my life with both hands, even when I could still touch it...'
'It took both of us to screw up our relationship.' Zechs picked up his glass of wine, and looked blindly into the blood red depths. 'I let go too. You aren't the only one that has regrets. And I am holding onto them with both hands...too tightly to want to risk driving one of them away.'
Treize sighed. 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't push you... It is your life, after all. And you are the one who gets to live it.'
'I'm sorry too...' Zechs looked away from his friend, to see Duo and Dorothy both watching him uncomfortably. "What?"
"Is... everything okay?" Duo finally managed. "You look a little...."
"Upset." Dorothy answered for him. "Is... something up with Treize or Solo?"
"Treize and I were... having an old argument." Zechs didn't elaborate, and neither of his partners pushed.
The rest of the meal passed in a slightly more subdued silence. Treize had left to join Solo, who was walking on the beach alone; and the rest of them were quickly losing what little energy they had gotten from their second wind.
The morning light woke Zechs, and he lay still as it flooded into the room through pale curtains. Duo made a sleepy sound of protest and curled even farther into his shoulder and the sheets. Dorothy was simply completely oblivious on the other shoulder. We made it through a night with no nightmares... Of course, considering how exhausted we all were, that should not be that much of a surprise. Glancing at the clock, he saw that they still had several hours before they were due back at Howard's workshop.
Careful not to wake his two bed partners, he snuggled a little deeper into the pillows and simply savored the chance to relax. Okay, that does it, we're going to start having regular days off if it kills us. Duo sighed and curled up a little more, so that his head was now resting on Zechs' chest rather than his shoulder. Flexing his numb arm slightly, he curved it along the younger man's back and stroked lightly down the long braid. I could get used to waking up like this... what am I saying? I am used to waking up like this now. Treize... I am so damn sorry I never gave you this. Not that Leia and I ever would have been as comfortable with this sort of arrangement as Dorothy and Duo seem to be. Of course, this isn't technically a romantic relationship either. That might change everything. For some reason, that thought saddened him a little. But that's the way I want it...isn't it? Do I want something more? But what about what they want? Do they even want more than this?
"Hmm." Duo shifted again, then cracked one eye open slightly; startling him out of his thoughts. "What'imzit?"
"Early." Zechs smothered a grin at the annoyed look on his partner's face. "Go back to sleep."
"Too bright," Duo muttered softly, yawning. Blinking sleep out of his eyes, he tilted his head up to meet Zechs gaze. "What're you doing awake, anyway?"
"Enjoying myself."
Duo looked startled, then suddenly blushed. "Pervert..."
"Me? I was just lying here innocently, enjoying the fact that we could sleep in and that I wasn't going to be spending the next ten hours talking to murder victims." His grin widened a little more. "You are the one whose thoughts apparently went in that direction."
"Everybody's thoughts went in that direction..." Dorothy muttered from his other shoulder. "Somebody needs to put a dimmer switch on the sun."
"Sorry. Next time I'll ask for a room with no windows."
"You...do that..." Dorothy sighed, tugging the sheet over her head and squirming against him into a more comfortable position. "Ow... stop working out, man..."
Duo just started snickering helplessly. Zechs groaned softly, suddenly realizing that being cuddled up against two people while sleeping might be comforting, but doing it while awake was only reminding his body how long it had been since he'd last had sex. Oh God...not now.
Howard glanced up at as the three Preventers finally straggled into the hangar. Well, they look better than they did yesterday... less like something from all of those zombie movies Duo watched as a kid. All three were showing faint signs of sunburn, and they all still looked half asleep, but it was no longer painfully obvious that they were suffering from acute sleep deprivation.
"Good morning," He greeted them from where he was bent over the partially disemboweled laptop. Melvin just waved from the other side of the table, where he was sorting through capacitors and motherboards.
"Heya, Howard..." Duo smothered a yawn, and moved over to look at what he was working on. "Hi Melvin."
"Mornin' kid."
Zechs and Dorothy both nodded greetings to the two Sweepers as they took seats at the table.
"Did you all eat?"
"Yes, dad," Duo rolled his eyes. "We showered, ate, slept, ate again...."
"You left out the bit about cavorting in the surf..." Melvin added helpfully, snickering at the embarrassed looks that comment garnered.
"You were spying on us?" Duo frowned at the man as soon as his blush died down.
"No... I was looking for you to make sure you had a place to stay for the night," Melvin sighed. "But you looked a little busy at the time, so I decided to just go ask the hotel instead."
"Gee. Thanks."
"You're welcome."
"Okay..." Howard interrupted them to gesture to the other worktable, which had been cleared of everything but a few large charts. "Since you three are still planning to fly out this evening, we're going to have to work fast. Take a look at that and see what you think. Ms. Catalonia, if you would go with Melvin..."
"Dorothy..." She shook her head. "Just Dorothy, please."
"Dorothy, then. If you would go with Melvin, he needs to get some more info from you."
"He knows...?"
"I told you we weren't going to be able to finish this today." Howard shook his head. "I'm an engineer, not a miracle worker. Someone's going to have to give me a hand once you three traipse back to Purgatory..."
"Preventers, not Purgatory."
"For normal, average humans it's Preventers." Howard lifted his sunglasses to fix Zechs with a scowl. "For you six... I personally think Purgatory is a little more fitting."
"Purgatory...?" Dorothy blinked, looking rather confused.
"Isn't that where dead people go to wait for judgement... and suffer in atonement for sins?" Duo shook his head. "We aren't dead. Okay, well, most of us aren't dead."
"Looks like half and half to me, assuming the rest of you don't work yourself into an early grave." Howard shoved his sunglasses down again and shook his head. "And you all seem to be suffering one way or another on your way to atoning for sins."
"Huh," Duo laughed. "Purgatory, hm? Think Une'd go for the name change?"
"Somehow... I don't think she has that much of a sense of humor about us," Zechs sighed. "But I suppose the name is fitting, now that you mention it."
"Of course it is, or I wouldn't have mentioned it," Howard grumbled sarcastically. "If we could get started...? You are the same three that were in such an all-fired hurry yesterday...? Or did the pods get you when you went to sleep last night?"
"Maybe the pods got them on the beach yesterday," Melvin snorted as he led Dorothy towards Howard's office.
"Naw..." Duo shook his head. "Couldn't have. None of us went to sleep on the beach. Must be something in the air here. Pollen or something..."
"Pods...?" Zechs shook his head. "Never mind. Forget I asked...."
"I see Duo hasn't subjected you to his movie collection yet," Howard shook his head.
"Um...not yet." Zechs glanced at Duo curiously. "We haven't had much time to watch movies."
"Feel lucky while you can, then," Howard grinned. "All right now. What does ...uh... Treize think about this...?"
Zechs glanced up from the diagrams in front of him as someone placed a plate of sandwiches on the table, followed by a large selection of candy bars, chip bags and more beer. To his surprise, it was well after noon. His stomach, sensing food was near, began complaining vigorously about deprivation.
"Bella... you are the love of my life..." Duo threw the woman who had brought in the food a grateful smile as he sank into a seat next to Zechs. "When are you going to leave Alonzo and marry me?"
"I'm the love of your life now?" The woman threw him a mock glare. "I thought I was the scourge of Peacemillion and the bane of your existence."
"Well, yeah. But this is Jamaica... that whole incident with the black dye, the scissors and the lemming was a long time ago... and you brought food."
'Lemming...?' Treize raised one eyebrow as he and Zechs both turned to look at Duo. 'Do I even want to know...?'
'Probably not,' Zechs answered uncertainly. 'I'm pretty sure I don't want to know.'
"That I did. Make sure you share. Your new partners are apparently just as underfed as you..." She glared at Zechs as well as Duo as she said that, then turned and stalked out of the hanger.
'I think it's a good thing she can't see Solo, or we'd be in big trouble,' Zechs frowned a little. 'Where is Solo, anyway...?'
'Keeping an eye on Dorothy,' Treize smiled. 'Apparently Melvin is scanning the implant with every available diagnostic tool in existence, and possibly even a few invented last night for just this purpose.'
"What the hell do you need so many scans of Epyon's implant for?" Zechs wondered as he turned to look at Howard in confusion.
The older man blinked, then swore softly. "Now that's just damned freaky... guess you guys were telling the truth after all..."
"You doubted us? Howard, I'm mortally wounded..." Duo put down the sandwich he'd been about to take a bite of. "What scans?"
"You'll live," Howard said drily. "And I didn't doubt you. It's just one thing to know something and another thing entirely to see proof of it."
"Uh huh." Duo rolled his eyes. "What did you think, Zechs was just making up this crap out of thin air?"
"You might have been remembering stuff he told you before he died..."
"If you thought we were delusional, why the hell haven't the men in white coats come to take us to a nice safe padded cell?"
"I didn't think you were delusional... exactly," Howard huffed. "And I wouldn't do that to my boy anyway.... As for the scans, I'm still trying to figure out how Epyon talks to Dorothy, and how she can do that computer thing without using the keyboard. I figured if I'm going to figure out how to fix this thing... I'd better know all there is to know about it."
"But I thought you didn't care anything about bioengineering."
"I've never needed to before. Besides, that's what Melvin's for." Howard shook his head. "Eat, Duo."
Duo frowned thoughtfully at the engineer, and even Zechs could tell the old man was hiding something from them; it was equally clear, however, that he had no intention of telling them what that something was.
Less than a half an hour later, Dorothy and Melvin returned, and Zechs forgot the odd conversation as they threw themselves back into the work of rebuilding Epyon.
A/N
The reference to pods is from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The aliens get you when you go to sleep, and replace you with pod-grown clones.