Disclaimer: I don't own Storm Hawks, just this fic.

A/N: Written for Beautybedamned (mlina on LJ, blackpearleyes on dA). I dragged her into the insanity that is Storm Hawks, and into the wonder that is Stork x Piper. I needed help with an idea I had stewing, and she brought it to life with her prompts and enthusiasm. It only seemed natural to turn the finished product into a giftfic for her.

Trouble in Paradise

"You see, Stork? It's not so bad," Piper chuckled as she lounged back in her recliner, sliding down a little more than necessary to dig her toes into the sand.

Stork wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth to speak, but his throat ran dry when Piper arched her back and groaned as the kinks in her spine were worked out. The way the sunlight played upon the dark skin selectively bared was to die for – or maybe that was heatstroke making him feel so lightheaded, Stork couldn't be too sure.

He cleared his throat, realizing she had begun to stare back, expecting some sort of response. "Eh, sure. Aside from the scorching heat, bacteria-ridden water and more-than-likely-diseased sand, it's... a real blast."

Piper rolled her eyes and chuckled, turning her attention to the body of water splayed out before them, to the other boys and Radarr making their own kind of fun. Junko, on Finn's surfboard, had Finn on his shoulders as he rode a small wave toward the shoreline. However, the two never did quite make it. In an attempt to keep his balance, Finn teetered off to the side just a little too much, causing Junko to lose his footing and both to fall into the roll of the wave. Finn's surfboard made its way lazily back to the shore, leaving the mechanic and sharpshooter to their laughter as they started the slow swim after it, passed a surfacing Aerrow and Radarr.

"You gotta try that, man," Finn laughed, nodding ahead to the board Junko had reclaimed from the shallow water.

Aerrow grinned back. "I think we will. Whattaya say, Radarr?"

The self-proclaimed co-pilot made small, chittering sounds of protest and shook his head, already waterlogged and fed up with playing along with their games. Though, when Aerrow started to swim after Finn, Radarr sighed and rolled his eyes, then held on tight to his human companion.

Piper chuckled as she watched Aerrow vault out of the water and lay flat against the board on his stomach to paddle back out, intent on catching the next big wave that was beginning to swell in the distance. Junko and Finn sat back on the shoreline to watch, cheering their leader on enthusiastically. Radarr kept a firm grip on Aerrow's shoulders.

"While they're eager to see Aerrow break every single bone in his body, then follow suit, I'm not," Stork muttered as he stood. "I'm going back to the Condor."

Piper was on her feet in the blink of an eye and her small hand was around his slim wrist, her grip loose but the gesture enough to keep the Merb in place.

"Stork, you can't go back to the Condor," she said, frowning slightly.

Stork looked from her hand on his wrist then back to her face. "Watch me," he muttered, and tugged himself free of her grasp gently as he started the walk back to the Condor, pace quick to avoid the formation of any blisters caused by the hot sand.

Piper followed him. "We're on vacation," she insisted, walking at his side, neck craned at an odd angle to peer up at the pilot. "We're supposed to be having fun."

"And we'll do just that," he said, voice rising in tone sardonically. "You," he said, motioning to Piper, and then behind to the others, wincing as he caught sight of Aerrow jumping from the surfboard and into the water, "have your fun out here in the heat and water. And I," he pointed to himself, "will have my fun in the safety of the ship, working on my new – "

Her hand was at his wrist again, this time her grip a little firmer, her stare a little more intense. She made him stop dead in his tracks.

"What?" He inquired, narrowing his eyes, fingers of his captive hand fidgeting before curling inward.

"We're here to enjoy ourselves. Take the day and make it ours, you know? No fighting, no Cyclonians... I'm sure there's something out here you'd rather be doing instead of being cooped up in the Condor," Piper said, letting go of his wrist and crossing her arms over her chest, huffing in that girlish manner that no female ever seemed to really outgrow.

"There's nothing I'd rather do than..." He stopped halfway through is statement to really look at the young navigator. Did the sweat beginning to form just above her breasts have to glisten in such an eye-catching way? And did she really have to breathe so heavily? His eye twitched just a little before he hung his head and sighed.

"Doom takes many a form," he muttered, allowing a giddy Piper to get behind him and push him back to the recliners. Except, she didn't stop to sit, she continued to push until he was standing ankle-deep in the cool water.

"And this is perhaps the cruelest of Her guises," Stork continued on in a low mutter.

"What are you talking about?" Piper chuckled, using one of his shoulders for leverage, hoisting herself up to look him in the eye as he peered back at her.

The proximity of her face to his made his thin fur stand on end and the skin beneath to rise in goosebumps. He gasped and jerked away from her, stumbling through the shallows until he fell backwards and wound up sitting beside Finn, whom was more interested in watching Aerrow reclaim the board and take on the wave for a second time.

Piper knelt beside Stork and failed to hide her amusement, her laughter ringing out loud and true through a forced cough. "A-are you alright?"

Stork sighed and shook his head, but gave Piper a smile she automatically labeled as enigmatic.

"Stork?"

Glancing up through wet bangs at her, he replied in a lilt that made her blood run a little faster, a little hotter, "you'll be the death of me, one day."

-End