Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and all of its characters, anime or manga, do not belong to me. I'm just responsible for tweaking their DNA a bit. For simplicity (and humor) I kept the spellings of the manga names in accordance with how Viz spelled them.

A Fish Out of Water- Chapter 5

Trowa awoke the next morning at what should have been dawn, in high spirits that soon dropped significantly. In his haste to leave, he'd forgotten to do one very important thing: check the five-day forecast. Instead of just peaking over the horizon, the sun was hidden by a bed of fluffy gray clouds spilling out gallons of water.

"Just our luck, we would have a storm today," Trowa complained. He sighed. "I knew things were going too well." Normally, he wouldn't have been worried; a little water never hurt anyone, especially if that anyone was a merman, of course. But he was more concerned with the seagull, who didn't have the advantage of a tail and gills. The team had split up the night before for bed, Trowa opting to sleep under water. Now he had to find the bird before the rain got even worse.

Any sane creature, of course, would probably take shelter on land, but Trowa never thought his friend was sane. Sure enough, he found him a few moments later, huddled on a rock, shivering cold and soaking wet. Trowa picked him up in his arms, not bothered by his sopping feathers, to warm him up.

"Silly thing," he murmured affectionately, hugging him to his chest. "Let's find someplace to get out of this rain." He swam to a nearby cliff, which was about as much shelter as they were going to get. Trowa hunched over, shielding the bird with as much of his body as possible.

"I guess we're not going anywhere today," he said reasonably. With any other person, he might've been annoyed, but he worried about his little friend. He petted the gull like one would a dog, smoothing out his feathers so that he was kept as warm and dry as possible. The creature was curled up in a ball, shaking so much that he looked like he was having a seizure. If he hadn't been so loyal, he would've left Trowa long ago for land, but instead he stuck it out and endured the weather.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this," the merman said suddenly. His face was drawn and his eyes sad. "I told Cathy that I didn't want to put anyone I love in danger, but that is exactly what I did. It's not just the weather; you could've really gotten hurt yesterday because of me. Why do I keep doing this?" He smashed his fist into the rock wall repeatedly, until his knuckles cracked and bled. It was one of the two longest speeches he had ever said, but unlike the other one, this had no nervous joy in it, only anger and self-hatred. The bird stretched out his neck and pulled at Trowa's hair, trying to make him smile. It only made him even more unhappy.

"Why do people like to do that to me?" he wondered. "It's not just you, or Cathy. She used to do it all the time. The gull looked at him inquisitively; eager to learn what it was that happened to make Trowa so locked up inside. Now it looked as though he would finally tell him.

"No one knows this," Trowa began slowly, still unsure of himself, "or at least this part of it, not even my sister. It would upset her too much if she knew. But you'll keep my secret, won't you?" The bird nodded vigorously, spraying water here and there. "Well, here goes, then."

* * * Flashback (from Trowa's perspective)* * *

It was just before dawn, and I was sitting on a small island at the surface. It was a sunny day, not that I was paying much attention to the weather at the time [I'm starting to think that that's one of my biggest faults. Seriously.]. If I had feet, I would've been tapping them. I wasn't necessarily anxious, just excited. Well, and a little nervous, I guess, too.

"Where the hell could she be?" I wondered. Suddenly I couldn't see anymore.

"Guess who?" a voice whispered in my ear.

"Middie, let go of me," I said, rolling my eyes behind her hand.

She did so, giggling. She was blonde, brown eyed and the most beautiful mermaid I ever saw. No offense to Princess Relena, but she can't hold a candle to her, not in my eyes, anyway. She was my best friend since I was little, but right then I wanted her to become something more, much more.

"SQUAA!" The little bird interrupted Trowa's story with a screech of shock. "What's the matter?" he asked, raising his eyebrow at his friend's odd behavior.

The bird didn't say anything more, having gotten over the initial bout of surprise, but huddled closer to him, almost possessively. His eyes were filled with disbelief, and if Trowa could've seen him, he might have thought he was hurt, too. But he didn't and so continued his story.

"Why do you look so serious?" Middie asked me, when I didn't laugh with her. She pinched my cheeks as if to change my expression. "I mean, you usually do, but more than usual today."

I didn't laugh at that either, though normally I would've. If it were anyone else I might have been offended, but I knew she didn't mean it that way. Middie used to be the only person who could ever make me laugh, even at myself. But right then, I really was serious.

"Middie," I choked out, my nervousness almost overcoming me. I bent my tail into a kneel. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she seemed happy too, very happy, and that encouraged me to go on. "We've known each other since, since we were babies I guess, and you've always been the only person who ever understood me." I paused for breath and grabbed her hand. "I love you more than anything else in this world and I hope you feel the same." She nodded and smiled at me, a tear of happiness trickling down her cheek. [It was a corny speech, I knew it then, and I still know it now, and way out of character for me, but that was how I felt, honest.] "Would you please do me the great honor of becoming my wife?" I took out a small oyster shell from my pocked and opened it for her. She gasped when she saw its contents, a pearl ring set in coral, which is like gold to mortal people; it's very precious to us (especially since we have to cut our houses to get it).

"Oh, Triton, it's lovely," she breathed. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me with all her strength.

"Is that a yes?" I asked, partly joking, partly to confirm her answer, even though that was obviously what it was.

"Yes, yes, yes," she responded, punctuating each "yes" with a kiss. "Put it on for me please." I slipped the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly. "Good job," she complimented me with a giggle. "Oh, I can't wait to tell my parents!"

I nodded in agreement. At that point, our relationship had been kept secret; all they knew about us was that we were best friends. I suppose that was to keep out meddling siblings, a.k.a. Cathy, who, as you know, has been trying to set me up since we got here. She really wasted her time, trying to set the both of us with various people, although she never thought of two of us together for some reason. I guess she thought I considered Middie a sister, just like she did. In any case, since I was three, I couldn't look at another girl beside her. But that day we were finally going to tell them. We planned to have dinner that night, her parents and mine. Cathy had gone to visit her friends in distant kingdom, but she was supposed to come back that night by dessert. Then, I was hoping she would hurry up, but now I'm glad that she wasn't home then.

Trowa paused in his story to catch his breath and let the still shivering seagull let it all sink in being somewhat distracted by the storm. Or so Trowa thought. The animal had heard every single word he said, but was too shocked to believe it. Trowa? Engaged? Maybe even married, although he doubted that. Cathy surely would've known if it came to that, and probably would've been more sensitive to his feelings accordingly. But it didn't do much to ease the hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. Still, he felt, if birds could have feelings, that Trowa needed to tell him this and he would listen, whether he wanted to hear it or not. He looked up curiously, as if to encourage Trowa to go on. He did so, feeling strangely more comfortable telling this story than he would to another of his own kind, including his sister.

Needless to say, we were bouncing off the walls the entire day. We were supposed to be training sea lions to jump through hoops, but we may as well have done it ourselves. In case you thought otherwise, and I have a feeling most of the Sank Kingdom does, I'm no royalty. We lived in the palace yes, but in the servants quarters. We were fools, if you want to call us that, though we prefer the term "entertainers". My ancestors used to travel around, a long time ago, but ever since the Barton Dynasty (that was where I got the name, from their prince) took the throne, my family and the Unes worked for them. [The seagull's eyes bulged when he heard the name Une, but he didn't interrupt.] Not to say we were as low as servants were, the Bartons treated us well enough. In fact, we were some of their most trusted advisors. Only I knew, because Trowa had told me, that the Princess Leia had a child before she died, a daughter. King Dekim had raised her in secret, until she suddenly disappeared about a year ago. We never did find out what happened to Princess Mariemaia, who would probably be the Queen now if she were around [Again, the bird looked awfully surprised.]. But I suppose it was a good thing for her that she disappeared. If she had been there and seen… what we saw. The poor child.

In any case, we really couldn't wait until that night. Finally, we could put an end to all that secrecy, now that we knew it was for sure. Or so we thought.

"Hurry up, mother!" I heard Middie, who was standing outside my house with her father, say impatiently.

"Now dear, I know you're excited, but we have plenty of time. " Mr. Une went to help his wife, who had injured her tail in an accident a few days before. I watched her limp along through the peephole in our cavern door.

"Don't just stand there watching," My mother said from the kitchen where she was making sushi (We eat a lot of that underwater). There was a pleasant smell of spices wafting from the food. Cathy didn't get her cooking skills, that's for sure, though they were alike in every other respect, from appearances to their fiery personalities.

"Listen to your mother, Triton," My father advised me, not looking up from his favorite newspaper, "The Daily Tides." He was a very reserved and quiet merman, like I am, and thus did basically everything she said. He was no worse the wear for it; so I did as he bid me and did what she asked.

"Hi!" the Unes chorused, Mrs. Une kissing me on the cheek and Mr. Une shaking my hand. Middie grinned at me, excited and only slightly nervous. I took her hand surreptitiously and squeezed it as everyone settled at the table to eat. My mother placed the food on it and sat next to my father.

"Well, it's nice to have all of you here," she said curiously, "But what's the big occasion?" The two of us exchanged a look. We'd planned to wait until dessert, when Cathy got there, but Middie was bursting with the news and I had a feeling my mother guessed already what it was. I nodded for her to speak.

"Mom, Dad. Mr. and Mrs. Bloom. Triton and I are-"

CRASH! A fancy china dish fell to the ground, right in the middle of her sentence.

"What the-" My father began, but mother stopped him with a look.

"I must've not put it back correctly after I cleaned it," she reasoned. "Oh well, it was old anyway. Go on, dear."

Middie and I glanced at each other in confusion. The plate was old, yes, an antique in fact, and as children, the three of us were forbidden to play even near it, for fear it would break. But my mother didn't seem bothered by it; a look of worry had crossed her face. I think she's kind of like you, buddy. She has- had- that weird sixth sense that you do. She could always tell how people were feeling, and she could sometimes sense when bad things were going to happen. Unfortunately, she hadn't been warned of it earlier.

"Well, okay," Middie said, ready to start again. But her enthusiasm was gone. Maybe she had a feeling too, or maybe she just got it from my mom, but whatever it was, she looked like her life had just flashed before her eyes. Maybe it had.

To be continued…