Shouri: Here's the last chapter for this story! The series is far from over, but all that's left for this particular tale is the epilogue! I hope you guys really enjoyed this story! Let me know what you think! Read on!
ROADTRIP!
Chapter 6
Quatre is humming cheerily. After an hour of silence, his grim mood has been much improved, and it shows in his brilliant smile and bright tune. His voice is amazingly soothing. Both occupants of the front seat have closed their eyes to doze in the late afternoon sunlight. It's nearly 7:30, and the sun is very low on the horizon, glowing with the vibrant, fiery orange of a midsummer sunset. The light is angling in through the passenger side of the car, and Quatre is actually quite grateful for the shadow Heero is throwing, as it is keeping the light out of his eyes.
Unfortunately, there is no shadow to shield the rest of the car, and the light is glittering brightly off of the windshield and the red streak of clean hood. Quatre squints as he drives, having only a little trouble with the glare.
Still, he is glad for the reprieve almost twenty minutes later when the sun finally dips behind the horizon, leaving his vision clear of all gleams, and adjusting quickly to the dimmer light of twilight shadows.
Grateful, that is, until he notices what the light had been concealing from him with its mighty glow.
With a shriek that wouldn't have been out of place in a parlor of women who had just seen a mouse, Quatre slams back into his seat once more, feet clumsily toeing at the pedals from too far away to be useful and just close enough to do harm. His white-knuckled hands buck against the steering wheel and the car swerves, jerking as his toes alternately catch the brake and gas.
"Quatre!" Duo yelps. Wufei lets out a high, tenor cry that could be likened to a scream... though no one will tell him that of course... as the car careens off of the road and starts rattling across the ruts of a field, plowing down long stalks of vegetation as it goes.
"Quatre, mon ami! Slow down!" Trowa calls, his voice loud and clear as it always is in a crisis. Quatre, still panicking, tries to reach the brake, but is too distracted.
Sitting at just above eye level on the windshield, is another spider. This one, however, is about three times the size of the last one… which, it might be noted, still isn't very big, considering how teeny-weenie-tiny the last one was… and it is staring at him with glittering black eyes, tiny legs moving thoughtfully as if it is contemplating when to leap at him.
"GET IT AWAY! GET IT AWAY!" Quatre shrills, his flailing toes hitting the gas once more and sending the whole car, plus its contents, into a lurch. A box tumbles over onto Duo as the braided boy leans forward to see what has frightened the Arabian. Duffle bags bounce into the front and across the back. One tumbles over Quatre's head and then deflects into Heero's face, causing Quatre to spin them in a rough turn, nearly capsizing them into a ditch.
Duo, who had seen the tiny speck despite the jostling and the falling luggage… there's something to be said for the eyesight of a sniper, after all… is laughing so hysterically that he hasn't breathed in during the last few moments of chaos, and he is turning quite purple. Wufei is yelping out curses and attempting to restrain the baggage, while yelling at Heero and Trowa.
"DO SOMETHING! WE'RE GOING TO CRASH!"
Trowa, one arm gripping the door handle, his long legs braced into the footboard, and more secure than anyone else in the car, looks at Heero. His other arm, which he would have used to comply with Wufei's order, is wound tightly across Heero's abdomen, anchoring the smaller pilot. Heero grunts, his teeth clattering together roughly as they hit another rut, and a scowl furrows his forehead.
With a purposeful grace, Heero leans forward, one hand extended towards the eight-legged menace. His fingers jerk and tremble, seeming almost to avoid the tiny creature despite the fact that Heero is reaching desperately towards it, face scrunched up with the effort of counteracting the jouncing so that he can reach his target.
After a few seconds of shifting and flailing, accompanied by injured grunts as the car jolts, causing Trowa's arm to press uncomfortably into his stomach, Heero reaches out with the surety of one who knows his mission will be accomplished successfully, and squishes the spider.
Or he would have.
At the last second, Quatre's flailing feet catch the gas pedal, sending them rocketing forward over another high rut and then catch the brake and jolting everything in the car towards the front. Heero's hand slams against the windshield, missing the little arachnid by a mere hairsbreadth, shaking its grip and causing the little creature to fly through the air, landing smack-dab in the middle of Quatre's pale pink shirt.
Instantly, Quatre screams, releasing the wheel and slapping desperately at his chest. The car spins and jerks randomly, slowly losing speed.
The tiny spider runs desperately down Quatre's body and dashes towards the handbrake in the center of the front seat, trying to escape being crushed.
As the car whips around in one final, bruising-rough half-circle, Heero jerks back out of his extended position and lets out a high-pitched scream that surpasses even Quatre's previous exhibition.
Duo stops laughing for a mere second, gaping in shock till a flying duffle slaps him in the face and breaks him out of it. Immediately he starts laughing again, even harder than before.
Trowa stares as Heero flails and kicks, struggling to be let loose as the car comes to a stop. Next to them, Quatre is similarly struggling against his seatbelt.
Wufei stops cursing and his eyes go wide along with his mouth. Then a heavy box that had been sitting up in the back window comes loose and hits him hard on the back of the head, crumpling him over onto Duo's heaving chest.
As soon as the car halts, both front doors fly open, and two figures take off like hell is on their heels, disappearing in opposite directions into the cornfield, and are lost from sight. Only the shrieking that is slowly fading away in either direction hints that they were even there to begin with.
Trowa blinks, head swinging slowly from left to right, glancing after both of his comrades, before he drops his gaze to the little spider sitting as still as possible up under the edge of the handbrake, trying to hide.
In the back, Wufei is sitting up, hand to his head, and a confused expression on his face. Duo has laughed all of his breath away and is shaking convulsively as he tries to continue without it.
"… what hit me?" Wufei asks blearily, probing at the back of his head. Duo, still laughing, waves at the metal box that contains several microchip components to a Gundam booster system… Sandrock's to be exact, pieces that Quatre had been working on in the living room of their old safe house when the word to relocate had arrived.
Blinking at it fuzzily, Wufei turns to glance at Trowa, and the otherwise empty front seat. Trowa is bending over the handbrake with a somewhat odd concentration, fingers edging delicately around the handle.
"I think I may have a concussion." Wufei states clearly.
"Symptoms?" Trowa asks distractedly, ducking his shoulders and tilting his head to better see what he is doing. Duo is slowly calming down, and manages to get a couple of gulping breaths in. He reaches up weakly and angles Wufei's head so he can get a glimpse of his irises through his own tear blurred eyes. Everything looks in working order…
"I seem to remember this accident happening because Winner was scared of a spider… and I think I saw Yuy scream like a little girl and bolt from the car." Wufei says, as if this explains the whole matter. Duo, who had finally stopped his hysterics, bursts out laughing again and quickly expels all the air he has managed to inhale, releasing Wufei's face and falling back again. Wufei blinks at him, and then looks back at Trowa, who is smiling faintly down at his hands.
Wufei watches in shock as Trowa coaxes a tiny spider out from the underside of the handbrake, and onto his long slender fingers. Then the tall pilot turns and gently deposits the traumatized thing into the dirt next to the car, where it scuttles off frantically. Wufei groans.
"Never mind…" Wufei moans, slumping down next to Duo's convulsing form. "Do you have any idea where Yuy and Winner have gone?"
"Not a clue." Trowa states, peering around serenely.
"Great…" Wufei sighs, and then jumps like someone has fired upon him as the car jerks. The rear left tire just exploded with a loud crack, sending the whole vehicle lurching to that side. Duo bursts out in renewed gales of laughter and Wufei half-glares at him, before turning his attention to the third pilot present and watching him crawl around in the front seat, messing with the sun visors and the cloth ceiling.
"We're going to miss our rendezvous." Wufei states as he shoves Duo over and makes himself more comfortable.
"Yes." Trowa answers.
"… not… my… fault…" Duo wheezes giddily between breaths. Wufei barks out a short laugh.
"No, not this time. Shouldn't someone go retrieve Yuy and Winner?" Wufei queries, rubbing his forehead.
"No. I'm sure they will return once they have calmed down." Trowa answers once more, seemingly transferring what resembles a bunch of tiny spiders from the driver's seat visor to the earth outside. Wufei decides not to ask.
"Fine. Wake me when they get back." And with that, he shoves Duo's limp and unresisting body around some more, kicking at bags until he has arranged the back seat to his liking, and can recline his upper body back without hindrance. Trowa smiles faintly as their Chinese pilot drops off into sleep immediately, Duo wheezing beside him with tears of mirth streaming down his heart shaped face.
Then he goes back to his relocation of the nest of tiny baby spiders that had been living behind Quatre's visor.
Shouri: Yuppers! Heero is afraid of spiders in this fic! I just thought it would be too funny if the fearless Heero Yuy had a phobia for tiny, little eight-legged beasties. Oh, and in case you didn't make the connection, the noise Quatre heard from the back seat during the first spider incident was Heero as he reacted to Duo's proclamation. I hope you guys like. Let me know what you think! Review please! Tankiwa! Ja ne!
