Disclaimer: Gundam Wing isn't mine. I'm tired of trying to be creative with these things.

A Fish Out of Water-Chapter Eleven

The next thing Trowa heard was a high-pitched giggling alternating with a low chuckle. His face was pressed into sand mixed with melting snow. It was cool on his cheek, and relieved him of some of the sun's heat. Again he wished that some merman had invented sunscreen, for the rays bore into his back. Not to say he didn't enjoy sunbathing, but the winter could be pleasant for someone who lived in cold ocean water. It was fun too. He retreated into his dreams once again for the memory.

* * * Flashback * * *

Splat! A freezing ball of fluff contacted with his back. He turned to see the giggling figure behind him. Her back was to an iceberg, and she didn't seem at all bothered by the cold. The falling snow caught in her hair, making it shine like an angel's, but her grin was demonic. "Catch me if you can," she challenged.

He swam after her, around and around the iceberg, hurling snowballs as she dodged them with expert ease, laughing all the way.

* * * End Flashback* * *

Those were the good old days, he thought to himself. He rolled over on his back, letting the sun shine on his front and leaving his throbbing head to the numbing snow. His palm gently hit a fistful of blond hair as he did so, and he smiled slightly at the realization that Quatre was sleeping peacefully next to him. A thought nagged at the back of his mind that he couldn't place; in this half-awake state, he had nearly forgotten what had occurred before. He didn't seem to hear the growing laughter, nor the footsteps approaching, nor a familiar female voice screaming his name when its owner saw him and his companion. He heard a low voice that he didn't know answer her, and Quatre's higher, more soothing one, assuring that something was fine. There was running across the sand and then a coughing, gagging sound. He rolled to his side, getting somewhat annoyed that they were making so much racket. His tail felt extremely odd and detached from the rest of his body, though he couldn't imagine why. He wanted nothing but to go back to sleep, until a perky blonde appeared in front of his half-opened eyes.

"Rise and shine, Trowa," the girl said cheerfully.

"In a few minutes, Princess," he murmured. Suddenly his eyes flew open. "Princess!" He blinked, but it was indeed Princess Relena before him. But she was different. Instead of her normal clothing, she wore a dress of what looked like awfully scratchy fabric (though any cloth seemed scratchy to him) and straw sandals on her feet. Feet? Trowa pushed himself off the sand to a standing position, only to topple over on what felt like two sticks. He shrieked in alarm, while Relena tried to calm him. He almost didn't notice Quatre and another strange man walk toward him.

"It's okay, it happens when we come on land. Your tail will come back once you get into the water. This is normal, don't worry," the princess reassured him. Her calm tone soothed him some and Trowa took deep breaths, completely through his mouth, nose and lungs, realizing that apparently his gills were gone too. He felt a hand on his shoulder, Quatre. Trowa looked at his friend, whose smile made him feel even better at first, until another thought came back.

"Quatre! You're all right!" He exclaimed.

The blonde nodded. "Yes, thanks to Heero here. He was able to give me the rest of the potion just in time." He indicated the man next to him. He was attractive (Not as much as Quatre, Trowa found himself thinking loyally) with deep blue eyes, messy brown hair and a serious expression. He nodded to Trowa in greeting and then went over to Relena, wrapping his arms around her. She leaned on his shoulder, smiling happily.

Trowa blinked at them. "Excuse me, but what the hell is going on?"

* * * * * *

Trowa was led to a cluster of large grass huts just past the beach. Quatre supported him on one side, Relena on the other, while Heero guided them in front. All through the journey, Relena kept taking secret glances at him and Quatre, a puzzled smile on her face, but Trowa was too busy trying to keep his balance to take notice.

It was an odd sensation, walking, and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not. It made him feel clumsy, but there was something empowering about it. Though they seemed strange, these limbs belonged entirely to him, and he would master them eventually. His body was covered in a gray cloak, at Relena's insistence, to hide some other new body part that he wasn't quite sure at that moment what they were used for. Quatre had whispered to him, with his face bright red, that he would explain later on.

In any case, he certainly was relieved when they got to one of the huts (which just happened to be farther away than most of them) and he had to sit down. Relena, who seemed strangely at home in this place, hurried to a trunk on one side of the room and pulled out a pair of breeches and a loincloth for Trowa to wear. He dressed awkwardly; trying to figure out how to put them on, while the three other people had a conference across the room. Trowa could see Quatre take a small vile from his pocket and give it to Relena, who cheered and kissed him on the cheek excitedly. Heero said a quiet "Thanks", his eyes smiling though his mouth wasn't.

"What's that?" Trowa asked curiously.

"Hm?" Relena turned to him. "Oh, it's a potion to make me into a permanent human. We can only last here for three days," she explained, "before we have to go back into the water. But now I'll have legs forever, and I can go wherever on land that I want." She now kissed Heero, on the lips this time. "Just in time for our wedding tomorrow!"

Trowa was too busy trying to register the first part of what she said to pay much attention to the second. "Human? But that means you can never come home." He sounded more than slightly distressed that his quest may have been for nothing. "Your brother is worried about you, and he sent me to find you."

Relena frowned. "I thought I left him a note. Didn't I? Oops, maybe I forgot. Well, in any case, you can tell him that I'm perfectly fine, and I'm staying right here. Well, maybe not right here, we're probably going to do some traveling, sooner rather than later, but for the most part, right here. Thanks to you, Quatre," she said to the man, who was still blushing because she had kissed him.

"It was nothing," he said humbly.

Heero raised an eyebrow at him. "Nothing? You call what you went through nothing? I would've gone myself if I knew what Dorothy was going to put you through. What did you say to her that set her off?"
"I, er, refused to be her lover," he said sheepishly, blushing even further.

"Again? Quatre, you should know better. Every time she asks you that, you always refuse, and then she finds another way to torture you. Trapping you in your bird form, setting up an obstacle course like she did this time. Why can't you just sleep with her and get on with it?" Relena elbowed him. "I didn't mean that." He sighed. "Well, at least she gave you the potion and no one got seriously hurt."
Now it was Trowa's turn to scold, but Relena, not Quatre. "What? That's from Dorothy? That sea-witch! Are you insane? She could've poisoned it. Weren't you paying attention when they did that play? It could be a trap."

Relena waved a hand at him nonchalantly. "Oh, you worry too much. It's just a story. And since I can't become one of them, a human is the next best thing." She sighed wistfully. "It would've been so nice to fly."
"Huh?" Trowa rummaged through his bag, finally putting two and two together, and getting the feather the prince had found from his bag. "Does this belong to one of you?"

Heero took it from him. "I was wondering where this went," he said.

"You were molting. I figured you didn't need it," Relena answered. "Yes, that is Heero's," she explained, turning to Trowa. "They're of a race called the Avians, human beings who can turn into a specific bird at will. You already know that Quatre's a seagull ["I was wondering why that was," Trowa interrupted.]. Heero is an eagle, a white eagle at that, which is really rare, and it shows that he's one of the strongest member of the clan," she told him proudly, hugging her fiancee like he were a teddy bear instead of a very stern looking human. To Trowa's surprise, he returned her hug with equal ardor.

"There are others of us, who all live here," Quatre continued, letting the couple have their moment. "You'll meet them later. Our friend Duo's a vulture; his wife Hilde's a raven. King Treize, he's a falcon, and his wife Lady Une (That's why I thought it was weird before.) is a sparrow, don't ask me why. An odd couple, that's for sure. And his daughter Mariemaia, who I think you might already know, Trowa, turns into a duck, which is probably why you never saw her in public. She can't swim very well under water, even though she's a water bird."

Trowa was surprised at this revelation, but it did make sense, and it also explained her disappearance. Still, it was almost too much to take. Who knew that Quatre was one of these people all along? Thanks to Dorothy's magic, he didn't, until now.

As if he read his thoughts, Quatre added, "Dorothy is also one of us. She's a crow, which could account for her crafty nature. See, most of our bird forms match with our personalities. Heero and the king are both strong hunters, I love the ocean, etc., etc. Once in awhile, you get a weird one like Lady Une (though she has the coloring of a sparrow) but mostly it works."

Trowa nodded in understanding. "That's interesting. But I still don't know how Relena got here."

"Oh, that's a long story," the former mermaid spoke up, disengaging herself from her lover. "You want to hear the long version, or the short one?"

He rubbed his head, which still ached, and he could feel a large bump forming. "The short version please, my head hurts too much for anything else. Someday you can tell me the long."

"All right," she agreed, and began her tale.