And so, as Duo explained himself the three of them listened. They weren't surprised, but yet they were amused at what Duo was explaining.
"So…you decided to take a path that you THOUGHT was a shortcut?" Heero asked.
"That's right," Duo answered, "I wanted to beat Wufei down the slope."
"Well…I doubt you did it now. I'm sure he's already down there." Quatre said. He was leaning on his ski poles listening to Duo's tale.
"Well, now that that is over with…" Trowa said. A faint cry was heard in the distance. It was getting louder.
"HEEEEERRRRROOOOOO!!!!" A shout came from the top of the ski slope. The person wailing was coming closer and closer…maybe just a BIT too close. The skier took out Heero who had just been able to get himself upright into the nearest tree. Trowa looked back at the clump of ski poles under the tree. He'd recognize those golden locks of hair anywhere. It was Heero's nightmare and well…her dream.
"RELENA!!! Don't go flying ahead like that; you KNOW I can't follow you well! You KNOW how good I am at skiing…I still don't know how to STOOOOOOPPPP!!!" another person cried out. He came flying down the slope and connected right into Quatre. They rolled down the slope a bit. Quatre who was the lighter one was buried in the snow and had his skis sticking up out of the snow.
"It's Relena and Zechs," Trowa said. Heero was trying to get Relena off of him.
"I can tell that Trowa…get OFF me," Heero groaned. He managed to get their skis untangled, much to Relena's disappointment. He stood up and dusted the snow off of himself.
"Heero! Imagine meeting you here on the slope!" she exclaimed.
"Hmph, right," he answered.
"I missed you! Now where's my lumbering brother?" she asked. She turned around on her skis and noticed Zechs pulling his head out of the snow and shaking himself off.
"I'm over here Relena. I told you not to go barreling ahead, you made me take out some stranger along the way," Zechs grumbled.
"That's no stranger you took out there Zechs. That's Quatre," Trowa said. He popped out of his skis and went to pull Quatre out from the snow. He grabbed his skis and pulled him out. The blonde wonder came flying out.
"What was that? Did someone get the license plate number of that speeding vehicle?" Quatre asked.
"Quatre, its Trowa. Come on, you were taken down by a speeding demon named Zechs Marquise." Trowa explained. Quatre shook his head.
"Oh, I see." He answered.
"HEEERROOOO!!!" Relena cried out again. She stood up to go after him. Heero had taken off down the hill during the conversation.
"Well, now that Heero and my sister are gone, I believe I can finally relax," Zechs sighed.
"Where are you staying? It was interesting meeting you here like this," Quatre asked.
"Yes, I'm sorry for knocking you down Quatre. I was chasing after my sister and then I couldn't stop. I'm not really good at skiing, especially stopping," he added. "We're staying at the ski resort not to far from here."
"Really? So are we! What is your room number?"
"We're staying in 010."
"That's pretty close to where we are. Poor Heero, looks like he won't get much rest from Relena," Trowa said.
"That's right. Well…I don't know about you guys, but I've got a runaway Chinese gangster to catch. Meet you down there at 11:30." Duo said. He took off down the slope.
"Chinese…gangster?" Zechs asked.
"His slang for 'Wufei'," Quatre explained.
"Oh, I see."
"Well then, what are you doing?" Quatre asked.
"I'm not quite sure. Relena wanted to come out here for a week, and naturally she dragged me with her. She wanted to escape from the kingdom business for awhile,"
"I see, what are your plans?" Trowa asked.
"We have equipment for skiing and snowboarding. We weren't planning on anything special. I think Relena secretly knew Heero was going to be up here."
"Why do you say that?" Trowa asked.
"Because she only decided she wanted to come here since…yesterday," Zechs explained. Quatre and Trowa fell backwards (anime style).
"She did? How interesting…" Quatre said. He stood up.
"Well, I'm sure Heero should be having some fun up here. All this time to avoid Relena," Trowa said.
"That's for sure, at least he gets her out of my hair," Zechs added.
"And Duo and Wufei are chasing each other trying to kill each other probably," Quatre said.
"I'll be surprised if we all make it out of here alive," Trowa added.
"Well, since you are not planning to do anything, and we probably won't find Relena or Heero anytime soon…why don't you come with us? We were about to go down this slope and head for another one." Quatre offered.
"I really shouldn't….I'd slow you guys down," Zechs said.
"Nonsense, if worse comes to worse, we'll teach you some tricks to skiing alright? Let's go," Quatre said. Trowa nodded and they started down the slope. Zechs followed. They made it down the slope in good time and when they reached the bottom they saw Relena tip-toeing off to find Heero. It looked like she was stalking someone…and well…she was. By this time, she had gotten the interest of some of the skiing crowd. Zechs shook his head.
"I don't know her…I'm not related to her. I'm in DENIAL," Zechs said.
"I didn't realize she liked Heero enough to stalk him every minute of her life," Trowa added.
"Well…er…let's go on to this ski lift. We'll be able to head down a few more runs if we don't run into the others again," Quatre said. They hopped on the ski lift.
Meanwhile, Duo was off looking for the "Chinese gangster".
"WU-MAN!!! WU-MAN WHERE ARE YOU? I'VE BEEN LOOKING EVERYWHERE FOR YOU!!!" Duo shouted. He was dragging his snowboard behind him and looking along the bottom of the slope. He heard maniacal laughter in the distance. "Wufei?" he walked over and looked behind a group of trees. Leaning on his snowboard was Wufei laughing and talking to himself.
"I have done it!!! I have beaten Maxwell down the slope…I AM ALL POWERFUL!!!" he exclaimed.
"Man…this guy has gone CRAZY…I have to break his train of thought." Duo said. He reached down to the snow and gathered it in a ball. He took careful aim and threw it. Then not caring to see if it hit or not took off down toward the nearest ski lift.
"WHO DID THAT?" he shouted. He stood up and turned around. He saw Duo skiing off as fast as he could. "MAXWELL!!!! BAKA!!!!" he shouted. He threw down his snowboard and popped them back on his feet. He tore down the hill after Duo. Duo made it to the ski lift and hopped on. He turned around and looked back to see Wufei hopping on one a few seats back.
"You'll never get me this time Wufei! I promise! I know everything about these slopes now, oh, and for your information, Relena and Zechs are here too." Duo said. "Ciao!" he sat back and waited until the lift reached the top. Duo attached his snowboard to his feet quickly and took off down the slope. Wufei followed him quickly afterward and some onlookers began to wonder what was going on.
"What do you think they're doing?" one asked.
"I don't know…it looks like they're trying to play a child's game of cat and mouse…" the other answered.
"The people up here get weirder and weirder everyday. It must be the air."
"That's for sure, why rumors say that on the other slope there were many collisions of people, and they all seemed to KNOW each other, now how strange is that?"
"Very strange," answered one. They watched Wufei take off down the slope.
"MAXWELL! I'LL GET YOU YET, JUST YOU WAIT!!!" Wufei shouted. Duo snickered as he took off down the hill. He was doing fine until he saw two people in his path. In fact, it looked like one was chasing another. They looked familiar…very familiar.
"HEEEEROOOO!!!! WATCH OUT!!!!" Duo shouted. He started flailing his arms out and went crashing into Heero. He landed on his skis and they were going backward down the slope.
"DUO! I hate to say this, but I LOVE you for getting me out of that," Heero said. He seemed not to notice that he was going backward down a slope with Duo on his skis.
"You…WHAT?" Duo asked. "You do realize you are going backward down a slope at a pretty decent speed," Duo sighed.
"Yes, but anything's better than being stuck with Relena. You just got me away from her," he explained.
"Oh, I see…is that why you two looked so familiar. Well, you came to my rescue to. With two people, the momentum builds much faster. I'll be away from Wufei in no time. He's really ticked this time," Duo said. He shifted his weight to avoid an innocent skier.
"I see. What'd you do this time?"
"I threw a snowball at him," Duo said.
"That's just like Wufei," Heero said. "So, do you plan on stopping us anytime soon?"
"If you'd like. I was planning on making it down to the bottom of the slope before we make a run for it." Duo said.
"Sounds like a mission. Let's do it," Heero said. They flew down the slope, Duo calling out directions to Heero who followed them with relative ease. They made it down the slope in good time and Duo popped himself off Heero's skis.
"That was a wonderful ride, again sometime?" Duo teased.
"When I'm in trouble with Relena, you're welcome to try," Heero chuckled. They went to another ski lift to escape the clutches of Relena.
"Alright, I'll be glad to." Duo said. They walked their separate paths. Meanwhile back on the slope, Trowa, Quatre and Zechs were making their way back down the slope.
"Hey, you're really not that bad at this Zechs," Trowa teased.
"Don't go there, I've been working on it. Relena always leaves me behind though, so I end up going faster than I should go." Zechs said.
"We're almost down to the bottom. Hopefully disaster isn't down there waiting for us. I wouldn't be surprised if I see them down there though," Quatre said.
"I wouldn't count on it. I hear screaming from the other side of the slope." Trowa said. They stopped and listened. They heard faint cries.
"HEEEERRROOOOO!!! WHERE ARE YOU HEEEERRRROOOOO!!! YOU SHOULDN'T TRY TO ESCAPE FAAATTTEEEE!!!! HEEEERROOOOO!!!"
"Er…" Quatre said.
"I'm not related to her. My parents adopted me, they had her, they adopted me, they had her," he said praying over and over.
"I wonder what she finds so intriguing about Heero. Most of the time he wants to kill somebody," Quatre said smiling.
"I'm not sure. But if she does marry him, she'll get out of my hair," Zechs said.
"That's like the 100th time you said that," Zechs said.
"Nope, only the 57th," Zechs retorted.
"Oh, I wasn't COUNTING," Trowa replied. They laughed heartily.
