(A/N: Hey all! Shinigami-chan, working hard to working in a pairing I think will work next chappie! With that in mind, ONWARD AND UPWARD PEEPS!)
"Wow!" Hinode cried, "This place is GREAT!"
"Go Q-chan! GO!" Sora cheered.
"Would you two STUFF IT?" Akane snapped.
If you haven't guessed by now, yes, they've landed safely in Auckland, New Zealand.
And by safely? I mean Akane didn't manage to shoot a hole in the fuselage.
Quatre was currently attempting wind surfing for the first time and was fairing rather well…
…until Duo crossed his path and the two hurtled into the air and splashed into the water head first, almost taking out a small group of swimmers as they did so.
"DUO!" Sora shrieked, leaping off her beach towel.
"Q-CHAN!" Hinode screamed, sloshing over to the pseudo-conscious Arab.
"ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" They cried simultaneously, hugging the barely cognizant pilots close to their bathing suit clad forms.
"They're fakin' it." Akane thought to herself, without looking up from the book she was reading (Stephen King's Rose Red)
She was currently clad, unlike her friends, in a flowered sarong over hot shorts and a white button up tied in a knot over a string bikini top.
She was wearing flip-flops.
She was beneath a beach umbrella.
Wearing sunglasses.
'I have no intention of swimming today' is what her demeanor screamed.
Which left her in the lurch as the rest of the G-Boys had dashed into the water the instant they had finished setting up.
Except for Trowa, who insisted on being a pain in her ass and staying behind.
He was calmly reading over her shoulder, twanging on her last nerve.
Akane being Akane, could only put up with this for so long.
So long turned out to be one minute and twelve seconds.
Akane threw down "Rose Red" in the sand beside her beach towel and whirled around to face the stoic pilot of Heavy Arms.
"What?" she snarled, "What is so life-threateningly important that you insist on hovering over me?"
Trowa shrugged.
"I merely wished to know what you were reading." He said.
"Then ASK, RETARD!" Akane snapped.
"Given your attitude towards me and my comrades, I had no guarantee you would answer." Trowa said calmly.
Akane snorted and lit a cigarette.
"Don't be a smartass!" she growled.
"Hey!" Sora cried, glomming onto her, nearly causing the gang leader to singe her hand, "How come you're not swimmin'?"
"I don't want people staring." Akane said, taking a drag.
"Staring at what?" Duo asked, striding up, "Your rack?"
-FWOK-
"SHITSHITSHIT!" Duo hissed, gripping his head in his hands.
Akane had just lobbed a nearby rock at his skull.
"No, you PERV." Akane snarled, "My back! I don't like people staring at my back!"
"What about your back would cause them to stare?" Quatre asked, naturally curious.
"That's right!" Hinode said, wrapping her arms around the blonde teen, "You guys haven't seen Aka-chan's back yet, have you?"
"And they never will if I have my way about it." Akane growled, gripping her shirt sleeves defensively.
"Come on Aka!" Sora smiled, "It's not that ba…okay so it is that bad. But it's just like pulling offa Bandaid!"
"You only say that becuz it aintcher back." she growled, "What am I, a sideshow freak? If that's the case, where's my money?"
"What's going on?" Heero asked, joining the rapidly growing group, Wufei hot on his heels.
"Oh nothin'!" Hinode grinned.
"We're just tryna get Akane to show you guys her back!" Sora smiled cheekily.
Akane looked around at the intent stares that were all too easy to read.
They all said the same thing.
What about this girl's back could be so horrendous?
Akane sighed deeply; defeated.
"If I take off my shirt, just long enough to sicken you guys, will you leave me the fuck alone?" she asked, already untying the knot she had made in the front of the shirt.
They all nodded vigorously.
"Fine then." Akane growled, ripping off the white fabric.
She could practically hear the jaws drop as their eyes met the horrific scars that tore their way across her back in a sadistic spiderweb.
They were as thick, ropey, long and repulsive as always.
They wove in no discernable pattern, crossing over one another, often more than once, up to her shoulders, around her hips, disappearing below her sarong and bikini hem.
Their eyes burned her as they made their way across her skin, tracing them.
Her face burned as they continued to stare.
"Godammit, do they HAFTA be s' DAMN entranced by it?" she growled internally.
She decided they had seen enough.
She pulled her shirt back on.
"There." Akane snapped, retying the knot, "You've had your fun. Now leave me the hell alone, assholes."
She stormed across the beach, the scars still visible through a bare strip of skin between shirt and sarong.
"Well…no wonder she didn't wanna swim." Duo said brightly.
"Well obviously." Wufei growled.
"What?" Duo said, "I'm just tryna put a happy face on things!"
"This coming from The God of Death?" Quatre chuckled, ending his sentence in english.
Duo stuck his tongue out at the blonde.
"Aw, shove it!" he snickered good naturedly.
"Well, what should we do?" Trowa murmured.
"Should we follow her?" Heero muttered.
"Nah." Sora said, shaking her head, "Let her cool off for awhile."
"Unless you're willing to risk death." Hinode added.
Akane muttered under her breath, hissing profanities so venomous it made the local mother's cover their children's ears.
She ran into someone.
Whoever that someone was was gonna die.
Akane glared up…Up…UP! at a African American man two feet taller than herself (she's 5' 2"; do the math) that she was all too familiar with.
"…Domino…whaddre you doin' here?" she asked listlessly in easy English, anger dissipating in favor of mild irritation at the sight of her bodyguard.
"Doing my job, Miss Kakyoin." Domino (his real name is ((BLEEP!)) D:HEY! You trynaget me killed, woman?)replied, adjusting his mirrored sunglasses.
"Kuh!" Akane snorted, taking a hit off her cancer stick, "Suo's sucha mother hen! I swear ta god!"
"Mr. Miyazaki has instructed me to see to it that you are in-" Domino was cut off by Akane holding up her hand.
"-in the company of those Freaks at all times." she growled back, massaging her temples, "I know…I know."
"Well whaddya guys wanna do now?" Sora asked.
"Parasailing."
"Akane!" Hinode grinned, "That was quick!"
"And you brought a friend!" Sora smiled, "Hi Domino-san!"
Duo was speechless, jaw agape as he craned his neck upward to stare into the giant man's face.
"Close your mouth, Frogger." Akane snorted.
Heero swiftly palmed the braided pilot's mouth shut, causing his teeth to clack together.
"OWUCH!" he cried.
"…anyway, Freaks? This is Domino, my bodyguard. Domino? These're the Freaks." Akane sighed, finishing the sentence in English.
"Good to know you, I'm sure." He nodded, speaking in fluent Japanese.
"Likewise!" Quatre said smiling, he turned his gaze on Akane, "Now, you said you wanted to go parasailing?"
"No. I said I'm gonna take YOU guys parasailing." Akane smirked, "For the next two hours, each of you freaks are gonna take turns bein' my personal kite!"
The G-Boys exchanged nervous looks.
"Her?" Duo mumbled, "Behind the wheel of a speedboat?"
"And us attached to the back by nothing more than a few measly cables?" Heero murmured.
"I'm worried." Quatre muttered, "Definitely worried."
-Fifteen Minutes Later…-
"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOA!" Wufei cried, gripping the straps of the parachute so tightly his knuckles were turning white, "TAKE ME DOWN! TAKE ME DOWN! LOWER! LOWER!"
"What was that?" Akane laughed, "Higher you say? But of COURSE! Who am I to deny YOU?"
The Leader of the Hellcats Assassination Squad (yeah, she rejoined) cackled malevolently as she stomped on the gas and twisted the steering wheel violently to port (left).
"Look at him go." Trowa said, mild amusement lacing his voice.
"ME NEXT!" Duo cried, "I'M NEXT, DYA HEAR?"
"After me, Maxwell." Heero said coolly.
"What?" Duo cried in disbelief.
"WUFEI!" Quatre yelled, "JUST HANG IN THERE, OKAY?"
"Akane, stop!" Sora cried.
"Yeah, he's had enough!" Hinode said, watching nervously as the Gundam pilot's face began to turn a pasty shade of greenish gray.
Domino placed a rather large hand on her thin shoulder and gave a nod.
Pouting a little, Akane brought the boat back around to the dock.
"Ah-Alright." Wufei burped, looking very queasy, "I don't care…what any of you say. She goes next."
Akane smirked maliciously.
"Whaddever you say…freak." She sang tauntingly, strapping herself into the parachute.
Diablo got behind the wheel of the boat and tore away from the dock.
He turned wildly, making the boat leap over it's own breakwater.
Akane, seeing her chance to get away, undid the leg restraints that held her to the boat with a sharp yank, sending her flying skyward.
"SMELL YA LATER LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSERRS!" She laughed, disappearing behind a cloud bank.
"Well I'll be damned." HInode whistled.
"Somebody's in trouble." Sora chuckled, taking in the panicked expression she recalled from childhood filling the African American ma's face.
(A/N: The search is on for Akane! Where in New Zealand will sheturn up? WHO will find her? And...what's this? And unexpected plot twist? R&R!)
