AN: I do not own Gundam wing nor do I make a profit off these stories now enjoy the reading (and yes this beach is real and it's fabulous!)

A Day at the Beach

No one knew where they were going when they got up that morning, but five young boys were overjoyed at the idea of a road trip. As the five young boys got into the back of Aunty Helen's van and saw their swim toys they knew where they would go and they couldn't wait.

They were all headed to the beach.

No one remembered the drive to the beach (they had all fallen asleep ten minutes from town). But they would always remember the sand dune.

"Come on Duo." Quatre tried to encourage Duo to go faster, mainly because he was the last one going up.

"I can't! It's too deep and I keep slippen'!" Duo pouted. He was breathing hard but not to the point that it could be called panting.

"Duo, stop being a baby," Heero called from the very top of the sand dune. Trowa would be the second to make it, followed closely by Wufei, but Quatre and Duo were still only about halfway up.

"I'm not a baby!" Duo yelled back. Only Quatre could see that comment had made Duo tear up.

"Ignore him Duo, Heero just likes to think he's 8 years old not 6." Quatre tried to comfort his 'brother' but Duo only scowled and pushed forward. When Duo and Quatre stood even, they both started to climb together.

"But I'm only five and a half. He likes to make fun of me more than everyone else," Duo whispered in a pout.

"Yeah, but I just turned 6. If he calls you a baby then we can be the babies together!" They both giggled, clasped hands and climbed the rest of the way. When they finally reached the top, Heero, Trowa and Wufei were all sitting down watching as the last two slowly made their way up to the final flat, where it was shaded.

"Finally!" Wufei grumbled. Quatre and Duo ignored him and just flopped down in the shade to catch their breath.

When everyone had their breath back they stood up and crept to the 'edge' of the platform they were standing on and looked down to see Aunt Helen looking like an ant. Uncle Maxwell stood beside her holding the camera up.

"Boys run down! We'll catch you. But be careful, try to slow yourselves down at the end alright?" Aunt Helen yelled, waving her hands up and down like she was trying to land a plane.

Heero and Trowa looked at each other before they jogged down. Uncle Maxwell passed the camera over to Aunt Helen but didn't have to catch either of the boys as they had only jogged and easily came to a stop by themselves.

Wufei crept to the edge where a chain link fence ran the length of the dune and slowly crept down, only walking the length. Quatre and Duo had both yelled for him to run but he just kept walking until he met up with Trowa and Heero, looking up at the other boys still standing at the top.

"Boys, come down it's starting to rain," Aunt Helen tried again. But under the canopy of the trees, neither Duo nor Quatre felt it. Duo looked over at Quatre who looked right back at him. They each took a breath before taking a few steps forward.

"Don't fall," Duo whispered to Quatre.

"Yeah." With that said they both started to run down the dune. It felt like flying to Duo (who had the biggest feet beside Trowa) but poor Quatre had to keep his mantra of 'lift feet, lift feet!' as he ran down the dune.

For Duo, each step felt like he should have been taking twelve, instead he barely touched the sand as he flew down the hill. Duo couldn't stop himself—he was going so fast his shirt was flying up his chest, his braid flew straight behind him, and he loved every minute of it! That is until his Daddy had to grab him to keep him from flying into the road. It felt like he had smashed into a wall. Father Maxwell had circled his arms around Duo's chest while standing off to the side so Duo wouldn't knock them both over, and just as Duo passed his legs Father Maxwell had scooped him up in a whirl and placed him right back down in front of him before he moved to catch Quatre.

Quatre didn't feel the flying effect that Duo had. His legs were too short and his feet too small so instead of the snow-shoe effect Duo had, Quatre had the stiletto effect and sunk in each step. He tried lifting his feet higher but that didn't work and within seconds of starting Quatre had fallen, his stomach twisting in brief fear as the sand rushed at his face. Sky and sand swirled together before he finally controlled his rolling and flung himself to his unsteady feet, but he couldn't stop himself from half flying, half running all the way to the bottom where Father Maxwell immediately scooped him up and held him to his chest. Aunt Helen fussed over him, asking if he was alright or if he had hurt himself. Quatre pushed at her hands trying to be tough like the others, but a bright blush gave away his embarrassment.

"Aunty stop! I'm ok! Stop." When Uncle Maxwell finally put him down Quatre ran behind Trowa ducking away from the others boys.

"Again, again, again!" Duo shouted, bouncing up and down while holding onto his Daddy's leg.

"No Duo, it's starting to rain and I want to get to the beach and get us all something to eat." At the mention of food, Duo ran to the van door, jumping to reach the handle.

"Let's gooooo, I wants food!" The other boys hurried behind him and Trowa opened the door allowing the five boys to crawl into the van. Duo sat in the back with Wufei and Heero on either side of him. "I want food!" Duo called out starting to bounce in his seat. Both Wufei and Heero grabbed his arms and pulled him deeper into his seat so he couldn't bounce.

"No bouncing! I'll throw up all over you!" Wufei told Duo, mimicking the motion. Duo stopped bouncing but not once did he stop talking about ice cream.

When they finally got to the beach, Father Maxwell parked and Aunt Helen opened the door so the boys could all slip out of the van onto the side walk. When Duo fell out and landed on the side walk with an 'ohf' Aunt Helen helped the last two out (much to Wufei's dismay, but Quatre liked the help). After making sure that everyone was okay and accounted for, she stood up looking down at the five boys.

"What do you all want to eat? Trowa?" she asked sweetly.

"Peanut butter and jelly." Everyone in the group giggled, it was Trowa's 'it' food for the week.

"Alright we'll look. Wufei?"

"Chicken." Wufei demanded. Aunt Helen giggled again; she loved how each of them had their own little quirks and always had a new favourite food.

"How about a chicken wrap?" Wufei thought for a moment, his face scrunched up in the typical little kid's confused face.

"Ok."

"Ok. Heero?"

"Lettuce."

"How about a salad?" She really needed to talk to Odin about this boy. He needed to be a boy not a mini Odin.

"Deal."

"Alright, Duo, sweety, what would you like to eat?" Helen held her breath, wondering what her sweet tooth son would come up with (she was expecting ice cream).

"Cotton Candy! I want Cotton Candy!"

Father Maxwell laughed. That was his son, he had more energy than anyone he had ever met and yet the boy wanted more and more candy. "Duo, how about French fries?" It was better than the sugar Duo wanted.

"No, I want cotton candy!" Duo pouted.

"Cotton Candy please!" Quatre chimed in. Both the adults looked at the determined faces of the children and had to look away before they started laughing again.

"How about after you eat something that I choose you can have cotton candy, does that sound like a good deal?" Aunt Helen asked.

"Ok." The boys sounded so heartbroken, but she knew they would be over it in moments.

"Alright, let's go find everyone their food. Everyone grab someone's hand." Trowa and Heero held Uncle Maxwell's hands while Wufei held Heero's and Quatre and Duo were both held tightly in Aunt Helen's hands as they had a tendency to wonder off.

After everyone had found food (Trowa's being the hardest to find), they sat down under an umbrella close to one of the venders. As they ate, it was silent between them. Duo and Quatre shared a regular French Fries and dripped the ketchup all over themselves. Wufei could only eat half of the wrap they had found and Heero finished off his garden salad with extra vinegar only dripping on himself once. Trowa had finished his PB&J off but was covered in the grape jam. Aunt Helen just shook her head before trying to clean the boys up enough that they could get down to the beach without anyone complaining. When that was done, as promised they bought the boys each a bag of cotton candy before heading down to the beach.

Once there, Uncle Maxwell took the boys to change into their swimming trunks, while Aunt Helen stood outside blowing up all their flotation devices (if a pool ducky can be called that), while looking for a nice spot to sit down for the day.

When everyone was ready, they all headed down to the beach to sit at the edge of the water, just beyond the rock that had washed up. Before anyone could set anything up Aunt Helen pulled out sunscreen and lathered it on all the boys, even while each of them squirmed, complained and attempted to run away before she got to them (Duo). Once that was complete she grabbed their water floaties and started to put them on each one.

"Heero you must wear them!" Helen complained as Heero once again ripped his water wings off.

"I can swim. I don't need them!" Heero protested.

"If you're not going to wear anything else you must wear the water wings." Aunt Helen gave him her best glare. When he finally grabbed the water wings and handed them back to her she smiled, thanking the boy before helping him put them back on once again. But as soon as she got the first one on, Heero bolted to the water.

"No worries I've got him." Father Maxwell ran after Heero, catching him just in the water.

"If you want to do that you can't leave my side." Uncle Maxwell held onto Heero's arm while he attempted to swim farther in.

"Fine."

Trowa was next to go in the water with just a life jacket. Wufei was third to enter with just a set of water wings slipping down his arms. Aunt Helen gave him a floating board to lie on while he swam around. Duo finally came in the water with a duck floaty circling his waist. Quatre was the last one to enter as he had demanded that he needed more 'sun goo' along with his giraffe floaty, his water wings and his life jacket. Aunt Helen rolled her eyes but placed the boy in all three water devices, and tried to stifle her laughter as the boy waddled to the water edge where Uncle Maxwell had to hold the boy upright. He may have floated but no one said which way he was going to float, and upside down looked to be a real possibility with Quatre.

Duo and Quatre ended up in a splash war while Trowa Wufei and Heero tried to plot ways to get around Uncle Maxwell so they could race. Each attempt failed miserably with Uncle Maxwell catching them before they could start. After several attempts they all settled for jumping the waves. Most of the time the wave just engulfed Wufei and Quatre while the other three could easily keep themselves above the waves and just skimmed over the tops of the waves.

It was five o'clock before they started to tire and went back to shore. Once on shore they all started to make a sand castle.

"Look it's Bob!" Duo motioned to his own single tower of crumpling sand. It had two stones that where oval and similar shades of grey for its eyes and an odd peanut shaped stone for its mouth.

"Look Bob's dead." Heero said before squishing 'Bob' with his foot.

"HEY!" Duo shouted before digging into his whole of muddy water Quatre had made to help give them perfect sand for the castles, and pulling out a glob of mud.

Without a second thought Duo slapped Heero in the belly, splattering the mud all over his body. Heero growled slightly before scooping up a glob of mud for himself and slapping it on Duo's leg.

"Boys stop that!" Aunt Helen tried but only got splattered with mud herself as Heero chased Duo around the group with mud missiles in each hand. Before long Trowa and Wufei had joined the chase splattering everyone with mud, except Quatre who had gripped the umbrella tightly between his legs and small fists while using it as a shield to hide from his friends. Aunt Helen and Uncle Maxwell had both just gone on like nothing was happening around them, as they were used to the rowdy boys. Once they ran out of mud in the small hole they stopped.

Aunt Helen looked up and couldn't help but laugh. Wufei had mud dripping down his face from a mud pie stuck on his head. Mud was also dripping down his back. Trowa wasn't much better off as he had it plastered to his mouth and eye, his small chest was covered and his shorts now looked half brown instead of the pale blue they were.

Duo and Heero on the other hand were covered from head to little toes. Duo even had it in his belly button – which he complained loudly about. When Aunt Helen pulled the umbrella up to tell Quatre it was over she found him lying on his stomach fast asleep, curled around the umbrella pole. That's when it was decided that it was time to leave.

Uncle Maxwell took the four remaining boys back into the lake to wash off the majority of the mud while Aunt Helen started to pack up, trying not to disturb Quatre. When the majority was washed off they all came back to the spot to see everything cleaned up and Aunt Helen waiting with Quatre wrapped in her arms, their clothes all out lying on top of the bag that had all their water toys. Uncle Maxwell hurried them all into the change rooms, quickly changing them into their normal clothes.

On the way home the boys got ice cream for being such good boys. And soon after the sugar wasn't even enough to keep them awake as all five boys fell into a deep sleep that wasn't even disturbed by their parents picking them up, or changing them into their pj's or tucking them in.

Next year the same trip happened, as it would for years to come. It was their special tradition that had started on a whim, but was held like a rock. It would be there for years to come. Grand Bend would be the summer tradition.

End!

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