"Sea of Stars"
A Gundam Wing Story
by Trekkiexb5
Category: Drama, Romance
Couples: 1xR, 2xH--the normal match-ups
Rating: R for language. Heero has a potty mouth and so does Zechs. It's a bit lime-y in parts, too.
Caution: part of this story is about rape, though it is really never described in detail.
Posting: I'm posting at fanfiction.net, but anyone can post it, as long as my name stays attached. AND you write me and tell me how bad (or good) it was.
Summary: Relena told him to get a life, so he did, of sorts. Now, it's her turn. But the past often shows it's ugly head at the worst of times. Are they ready to handle a past when they are just getting grips with the Present?
Gundam Wing isn't mine. If it was, you would be watching this, not reading it.
Author's notes: Hey!!! Someone read them and lived long enough to give me a feed back!! There's a lesson there.
HEY!! Free virtual Cheesy-doodles if you find quotes and situations from other shows and songs. The story's loaded with them.
Long live the 'Bluejacket's Manual!'
This chapter is especially dedicated to Ranma, my half Cocker Spaniel and half Black Lab and 100% Spanish. Also to Zapenstap, who was sooo correct in "Desires of the Heart" but why TED? WHAT? You haven't read it? Read this then read hers. I order you!! (hee hee!)
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"Sea of Stars"
Chapter 4
"Sea of Stars" and Zero
After clearing customs, he headed towards the Rotunda, the "body" of the "spider." Relena looked around, wide-eyed. The Consortium doesn't advertise itself, and many people on the planet, politicians included, may have never heard of the Seaweed Nations. What I told Relena was more detailed, but I will keep it simple writing it down. After all, my doctor lives here, and doesn't need an explanation. Frankly, I was glad of her interest and her questions.
The Rotunda, actually shaped like an up-side-down tear, is twenty-five stories tall, seven of which is above the waterline. All eight of the Seaweed Nations Consortiums are laid out the same. The only different one is the South Pacific Consortium, which is approximately five times larger. The tip of the tear is cabled to a seamount. There are also several bracing cables attached to various points on the seamount to prevent stress and drifting. The cables are loose enough to handle rough seas and hurricane force storms. In the worst case, the Rotunda came be completely sealed off and submerged, though this has never happened.
The "spider legs" are large docks that at the widest are about fourteen feet. The length varies, from half a mile at the shortest to three miles. Underneath the wooden and plastic structures is conduits for fresh water, sewer, electrical, and fiber optic communication lines that run to the hundreds of ships, yachts, boats, barges, and aircraft docked here. To make it easier to maneuver through the maze of docks, they are all given street names. There are apartments in the Rotunda, of course, however they are very tiny and very expensive.
The Consortiums are virtually self sufficient, renting subs and docking space for scientific explorations on the deep sea and being a unique stop for cruise ships. Also, hosting its own fishing fleet, it sells its exotic catches to the elite of the land. It grows crops, either on the special 'greenhouse' barges or various seaweeds on the open sea. It has its own police, schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, stores, and yes even a swimming pool. But mostly the population is people who are either musicians, artists, writers, and other bohemian types, or drifters who don't really have a place anywhere else. Like me.
Several people greeted me, mostly security personnel in yellow polo shirts and blue shorts/swim trunks. I nodded back. I wanted to get home- and I wanted to talk to Relena in peace. Her questions petered off as we passed the Rotunda to the opposite side from where we landed. She had more questions but she seemed to understand I did not wish to answer them at this moment.
We proceeded down 'Stan Lee Ave.' to reached the eighth intersection of docks. We turned right on 'Gotham Way' until we stopped at the third yacht from the end. I didn't think the names for these streets so don't blame me.
Had to get that out.
Anyways she looked up at the yacht on the port side and gasped. I felt my lips twist in a very sight smirk.
"This is where you have been living, Heero?" She whispered, not taken her eyes of the ship.
"I had her made. She's two years old." I directed Relena to the smaller dock that ran between my 'baby' and the second ship from the end. I gestured grandly towards the gangplank leading up to the ship and made a little bow. "Welcome Aboard the 'Sea of Stars'."
You worked very hard on her, so you can be a little proud of her, the Duo-in-my-head smugly acclaimed.
Her hull was almost black at the bow and gradually faded to the colour of the sea in the stern. Interspaced randomly all over the hull were stars that were painted with silver paint. It looked like she was sailing into space. But the on the bow below the bow spirit was the most remarkable piece of craftsmanship. And to think I found it in a boat "junkyard" on the Carolina Islands, rotting away. What, you ask? It is a wooden figurehead.
The figurehead (a woman) was wearing a short-sleeved shift that flowed past her uncarved toes. Her eyes are carved closed and the expression on her face was an expression of pure unadulterated joy. Her arms were stretched out back against her carved angel wings.
She looked like the way I felt when I flew Gundam Wing Zero. The waves and the wind she eagerly embraces will eventually destroy her-but it also gave her such pleasure.
What, I can appreciate beauty.
And, yes, she IS my baby.
So I bought her, had her protected, and placed the wooden figure on, yes, gundamium alloy hull.
Yes, a piece of Wing Zero.
No, I don't feel like writing that story down right now. It's long and rather boring, really. It's none of your business, so don't ask, doctor.
Otherwise she looks like an average sixty-foot double mast yacht you can buy at any boat dealer.
Well, maybe not the hidden weapons locker design to fool any metal detector. I got a life, but I didn't stop being paranoid.
Shut-up, Duo.
Relena got halfway up the gangplank when a large brown dog appeared in front of her. She stopped, glancing back apprehensively at me.
I looked at the pathetic excuse of watchdog. "That's Zero," I told her. I could hear the Labrador's tail thumping against the deck. "He is an idiot." Like Duo is an idiot; loyal, friendly, and LOUD. "He won't hurt you. He is the opposite of me" I added the last part for a bit of dry humor. Jokes are not my forte, for she didn't even crack a smile.
But she nodded and approached the animal gingerly, holding her hand out for the dog to inspect it. Zero sniffed it, panted and proceeded to attack Relena with its tongue and its tail.
Idiot.
However, produced something from Relena that no one else has. She smiled, and that smile reached her eyes, if only for a moment.
We stood on the deck for a few minutes, Relena scratching Zero and me watching them. "Why Zero?" Relena looked up at me. She had put back her doll's face but her voice held a hint of curiosity.
I was starting to hate that face.
"I didn't name him for my Gundam, if that was what you were thinking. I named him that because that's was the percentile chance that a half-drowned 3-week-old puppy had to live." Zero, instinctively knew I was talking about him came over to me. I scratched his white chin and made sure his life vest wasn't chafing. "He was another rescue. I though I was rescuing someone's 'babies' but it ended up to be puppies. He was the only one out of the litter to survive."
Relena stood up from her kneeling position on the deck. "I never imagined you would have a dog for a pet, or live on a boat. You've changed Heero Yuy."
I looked her in the eyes. I'm glad you finally noticed, Relena. "Thank you. I hope it is for the better. I still understand how to 'live' but I am still trying."
She said nothing. Perhaps that was wise, for I was getting more and more perturbed with her lack of emotion. It was like we traded places. I wondered if I gave her weapon, she would go around killing people and setting her own leg bones. With this sudden insight, I realize how she felt all those years ago, hurt and confused. Why did she put up with me?
I wanted to fight, I wanted to 'kill' that doll that seemed to replaced Relena and stole her soul. I wanted her to have a heated argument with me on a topic of 'getting a life.' The one that should of happened three years ago, if I had a clue what was really going on. I was getting so sick of this flat person with the flat personality, I wanted to shake her. I wanted to show her what life is really like, not that fake one she wears.
Even more, for me, I want to figure out why there is this irresistible force that drives me to her and her to me.
"Yo, Yuy!"
I shook myself from my thoughts and looked over the railing to observe the dark-haired Anton Stransky waving wildly at me. He had obligingly got two porters to help with Relena's luggage and my supplies I bought when I was on land. The teenaged boys struggled with the overloaded dolly on the gently rocking dock to the bottom of my gangplank.
"Yuy, PLEASE tell me this is the steaks," he asked poking at a large Styrofoam box marked 'perishable.'
"Have I ever let you down?" I answered back, watching with amusement at the youth's faces when they realized that the dolly wasn't going to make it up the gangplank. They'll have to hand carry all that stuff. hn. They're getting paid.
And besides, at their age, I was a Gundam Pilot.
Anton ran up the gangplank- only to greeted by Zero. The dog's favorite mode of attack is jumping up on people licking their face.
Damn dog.
Anton pushed the canine down and looked at my visitor. Relena had moved so I was between her and Anton. He noticed her shyness, and gave her is best smile. "Hi, you must be Relena," He said in a deep baritone with hints of his Russian accent. "My name is Anton Stransky. Welcome to the Sargasso Sea."
I couldn't see her reaction, but I can take by the silence, she had closed up again. Anton's award-winning smile dropped a few notches. An uncomfortable silence filled the gaps between us.
Well, to break the silence. "Do you know that Anton, here, worked with your brother?" I turned to face Relena. She blinked owlishly.
"Yes, I was in Antarctica with him, on the Tallgeese project of his."
I could see the gears turning in her head. Then she suddenly gasped, eyes wide. Anton smiled and continued. "Yes," he whispered, so the two struggling boys could not hear. "I know who Heero is."
She looked at me. I shrugged. I know she had worked hard in the government stop people, for good reasons or bad, to uncover our identities. We never asked her but it was welcomed gift she gave us.
Freedom is always a wonderful gift.
Silence again filled the spaces between us. Relena stood, no emotions playing across her face. She then looked up at Anton and hesitantly held her hand out.
Anton smiled and took her hand with both of his. " So glad we are going to be neighbors." He pointed to the red and white ship moored across the 'street' from me. "That's the 'North Star'" She turned to look at the boat. Anton glanced at me and could see he was taking inventory of my condition.
Releasing the remaining hand from Relena's grasp, he announced that both must be exhausted and order for us to make through the party tonight and properly enjoy Dave's cooking (and my steaks) we should both take naps and he would take care of the luggage and the supplies. Actually, the speech was much longer and far more flowerily, but I don't have the time or patience to write the whole speech out.
To be honest, a nap sounded like an excellent idea. My leg was starting to throb and Relena was suffering from some serious jet lag. Even though I would be short some steaks that Anton would 'mysteriously' acquire, I agreed to it and proceeded to show Relena where she would be living for awhile.
I guided her through the main hatchway into the main living space. The "Sea of Stars" has three decks. The top deck (a half deck) consists of the pilothouse. The lowest deck (and the largest space) is mostly storage area. It also has two cabins in the aft, one I have turned into a library. There is also the chain locker, pump room, desalination equipotent, and engine room. She can be run by propeller if necessary but she's a sailing ship. There is also access to bilge.
The middle or main deck is the space we entered. Four steps from the hatchway down brings you to a blue carpeted living room with two twelve foot couches that line the bulkheads on the port and starboard of the space. Straight ahead aft and to the left the blue carpet turns into tan linoleum and into the kitchen with a table attached and five barstools. Across from the kitchen is another hatch and a hallway that leads back behind the kitchen.
She followed me through the hallway, passing the laundry/ pantry room, two ladderways, and the head to the cabins in the aft of the boat. I showed her to the smaller of the two and opened the door for her.
"This is your cabin. It's smaller than your room back home," by quite a lot, "but comfortable."
Like my cabin, it had a closet with bifold doors and a dresser underneath the curving windows with blue curtains. She only had a twin bed (with storage underneath) made up with blue linens, while I had a queen. There was a small cabinet at the head of the bed, made of a dark walnut, like the rest of the furniture. And like the rest of the furniture on the "Sea of Stars", hell any yacht, it was all bolted down with latches on all doors, cabinets, and drawers.
This home rocks.
hn. Sorry.
She silently inspected the room, placing her carry-on on the dresser, finally coming to sit on the bed. We were uncomfortably silent for several minutes, listing to the hustle outside the cabin door and the gentle lapping of the waves coming from the open window.
I wanted to lie down and take my meds. I coughed. "Relena, my cabin is the next door. If you need anything, just knock," and pray it is loud enough to wake me from a drug-induced slumber. hn. She didn't look at me.
I'm really hating this silent treatment. If she acts like that tonight, I'll have break it to her tomorrow. I can't help her if she won't talk to me.
I closed her door and went to my cabin. I kicked off my shoes and collapsed on my bed. I dry swallowed my meds. Halfway to sleep, I felt a large furry face sniffing my crotch. The weight shifted and the head lay on my stomach and then it sighed.
Damn dog. He knows he shouldn't be on the bed. I swear he's taking advantage of my injury. The last thing I remembered before sleep caught me was my hand petting the canine.
END CHAPTER 4
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Naval Dictionary
Fore-forward of the ship; the front. Often used outside shipboard.
aft-behind. See fore.
bulkhead- a wall.
bilge- lowest area on a ship. water from leaks gather here
port- left
starboard- right
cabin- living area
hatch-an opening in a ship
bow- front of the ship. boward is the direction of the bow, not to be confused with fore.
stern-back of the ship. sternward is the direction of the stern, not to be confused with aft.
fenders and camels- cushions to protect the ship when moored. fenders are above waterline and camel are below the waterline.
ladder and ladderways-stairs
moor-what a ship is when it is tied up at dock.
waterline- the line on the hull of the ship where the water reaches. This change when how heavy the ship is in the water.
head-bathroom.
deck- do I really have to explain this?
More words will be added when I use them. Someone pointed out not everyone knows nautical terms.
R&R pleez!!!!