Author: Aja-Golde

For summary, disclaimers and mild warnings see chapters one and two

Author's Notes: Thanks to TanithNight who left an insightful review! TanithNight has actually worked at Disney and was kind enough to give me some advice. We traded a few messages back and forth; thanks for all your time, TanithNight! I admit it, I do make use of artistic license during this story (especially to get the plot moving, hehehe), but I do strive to stay as close to reality as possible.

Chapter 8

Day 3 9:00 AM

Quatre groaned and hit the alarm clock, missing the snooze button and knocking the clock off the nightstand. He rubbed his eyes, wakening for the second day in his hotel room. Beside him Duo was grumbling obscenities. Quatre yawned and flipped off his covers; already there were sounds of screaming, excited children, rushing to and fro, scrambling to the pool and buses. He threw an arm over his eyes. He, for one, was not going to join them. He was going to stay in bed, snuggled up with his pillow and sleep for the entire-

"Aw shit," Duo sat up in bed, "come on Quatre get up."

"No."

"Wrong answer!"

He felt himself being pulled out of bed, and he sleepily grasped for his mattress. But nothing slowed his descent and he ended up with his bottom on the floor, staring at his friend's knees.

"But I don't want to get up," he whined.

Duo hefted him up by his arm pits, "You have to. We're meeting Heero today, remember?"

"Not really."

Duo smacked him upside the head, "I told you right when we got back to the hotel, dumb-dumb. Heero invited us to spend the day with him because it's his day off. I must have rambled on for an hour about it."

"Oh yeah," Quatre said as he sat down at the table, "you were really excited. You must have worked the charm on him pretty good."

Duo snorted as he made Quatre a bowl of cereal, "Of course. I told you, no one can resist the Maxwell Charm. Charm is practically my middle name! Now eat while I pick out your clothes."

"You can't pick out my clothes!"

"I can and will. Besides, with the way I'll dress you up, Trowa will be drooling all over you."

Quatre clenched the spoon in his hand tightly, "He won't, because we aren't going to see him today."

Duo frowned, "Why not?"

Quatre paused, licking his lips, before he said, "Well, um, it's Heero's day off. You think he wants to go to a park he works at?"

"Well I thought he could show us some of the sights…give us a private tour kind of thing."

Quatre shook his head quickly, "I think we should go to a different park. Two days in Animal Kingdom has been enough."

Duo nibbled his lip, "Well, Heero did suggest visiting one of the Disney water parks."

"But those are really crowded in the summer."

"Yeah, but I'll get to see Heero half naked. And since he recommended it, he wants to see me half naked too. Duh."

"Only half naked?"

"For now."

Quatre choked on his cereal, "I thought you didn't need a pool for the excuse to go walking around wearing next to nothing?"

"That only happened once!" Duo came over and laid Quatre's clothes out on the bed, "And Father Maxwell decked me pretty good for that one."

Then Duo gave him a critical once over, "How are your ribs? You think you're up for the water park?"

"Of course!" Quatre said, "I'll just ditch the wrappings for today."

Duo sighed, "We'll put them in your backpack so you can put them back on after you're done swimming. Just take it easy, okay? You can quit anytime you want to."

"I'll be fine, stop worrying so much," Quatre said, grabbing his clothes and swimsuit.

Quatre and Duo were dressed and ready by the time it was 9:30.

"Come on," Duo said, "Heero said he'll meet us down at the reception office."

Duo opened the door, and immediately halted. Quatre looked around his shoulder. Heero Yuy was standing in their doorway, hand raised about to knock.

"Um, hey Heero, I thought we were going to meet you at the reception office?"

"I wanted to see if you were telling me the truth when you gave me your room number. Since the stuffed animal hasn't been delivered, I thought you might have lied about where you were staying."

"I never lie," Duo said.

Heero regarded him for a moment, "Apparently not."

Just then the hotel phone rang and Duo went quickly to answer it. Quatre and Heero were left standing by the door, listening to Duo as he chatted into the phone. After a short conversation he slammed the phone down on the receiver and jumped into the air.

"Yes!" He crowed, and then slapped Heero on the back, "Your present arrived."

"I told you it would," Heero said with a smug smile.

"I'm going to get it from the front desk; be right back!" Duo chirped and then dashed off down the nearest stairwell.

Quatre and Heero stood awkwardly in the hallway, Heero leaning against the wall and Quatre watching as Duo sprinted across the pool area to enter the Stadium where guest services was located.

"It really was nice of you to get something for him," Quatre said.

Heero said nothing.

Quatre huffed but didn't say anything more. In less than no time, Duo was already running back to them, but with a huge stuffed Yeti over his shoulder. It was fluffy white with a purple nose.

"Look!" Duo shoved the Yeti in Quatre's face as soon as he reached them.

Quatre held the Yeti in his hands, and thought it was rather cute even though the stitching near its left eye was a little funky.

"Thanks!" Duo drew Heero into a brief hug, "You're the best, man."

Duo went back into their room and Quatre and Heero watched him as he arranged his Yeti on the table. He took out the Yeti Quatre had gotten him and placed the two Yeti's together.

"Look, I'm starting a Yeti family," he gestured to his tiny collection.

"I bet you can another wrangle one out of Sally before your vacation is over," Heero said.

Duo grinned at the challenge.

"We know where we want to go today," Duo said.

"Where's that?"

"Blizzard Beach."

"Do you have swimwear?" Quatre asked.

Heero shrugged, "I'm wearing spandex. It'll do."

Duo grinned rapaciously, looking down at Heero's tight shorts. They then left the hotel room and went to the buses. Heero had driven to the hotel but Quatre and Duo didn't want him to drive them around and pay for gas, so they opted for the bus. They sat three in a row, with Duo in-between Quatre and Heero.

"So, how late did you and Trowa get home last night?" Duo asked.

"I dropped Trowa off at his house then got home around eleven-thirty."

"Not so bad; Watson and I stayed up to watch a movie after we got back."

"We did?" Quatre asked.

"You fell asleep right when it started; I don't think you even heard me when I asked what you wanted to watch. You didn't say much after we left the party last night."

"Mmm," Quatre agreed, "I was a little tired; my thoughts were miles away."

"Try galaxies away."

Heero glared at Quatre, "Trowa was less talkative than usual last night, too."

"Mmm," Quatre said again. Heero sat back in his seat, still glaring.

Either Duo didn't notice, or didn't care to notice, the death glares Heero was sneaking Quatre because he wrapped an arm around both their shoulders and began a blow-by-blow description of the movie that lasted until they reached Blizzard Beach.

Blizzard Beach was modeled after a ski resort. The fictional story behind the park was that Florida had been on the receiving end of an unexpected blizzard, and so a ski resort had opened; but the snow had began to melt, so the ski resort turned into a water park, with ski themed water rides. There were slalom courses such as Snow Stormers, toboggan slides such as Toboggan Racers and several large slides, including Summit Plummet, one of the tallest and fastest water slides in the U.S.

It was crowded even though the park had just opened for the day, but the three boys found a beach chair by the wave pool to put their stuff. Quatre and Duo were wearing their bathing suits underneath their clothes and Heero merely removed his tank top. Duo, of course, made no effort to hide his appreciation of Heero's half-naked body. Heero, for his part, didn't react to the scrutiny.

Duo held out a sunscreen bottle, "I burn pretty easily. Will you get my back?"

Heero paused for a second, but he took the bottle as Duo turned around. Then, in a very methodical manner, he began to apply sunscreen to Duo's back. He started at the shoulders and moved his way down, rubbing in the sunscreen with short, fast strokes.

"This is like a back massage," Duo crooned, "keep doing that and I'll ask you to do my entire body."

Heero stopped short, jolting as if he had been shocked by electricity, before gradually picking up his pace again. Duo winked at Quatre.

"Done," Heero said, shoving the bottle back into Duo's hand. He looked a little red in the cheeks, but he hadn't been in the sun long enough to get burned. Duo smirked.

Duo then helped Quatre, speaking while he rubbed in the sunscreen, "So, you know Wufei? You guys were pretty buddy-buddy during the party last night."

Heero shrugged, "For the past couple years I ate at the Restaurantosaurus every day for lunch whenever I was working. Wufei did too, and since we always sat at the table across from each other, eventually we got talking. So we're on pretty good terms."

"Ah, creatures of habit," Duo said.

Heero didn't reply, instead he was studying Quatre's side, "You got those bruises from the accident?"

Quatre looked down, where a bruise the size of three of his fists lined his side. It was an ugly dark purple, "Yeah. It looks worse than it feels."

"It's fresh," Heero said, "I don't think you should go in the water."

Quatre huffed, "I'll be fine."

Duo looked between Heero and Quatre and eventually asked, "Which slide should we go on first?"

"Not that slide," Quatre warily eyed the tallest ride in the park, situated on the mountain in the middle of the park, overlooking all the other rides.

"The Summit Plummet?" Heero smirked, "That's my favorite. You can go up to 50 miles per hour on that thing."

"Oh God," Quatre said, feeling a little sick.

"Let's start with the Cross Country Creek," Duo quickly suggested, "then we can progress to the thrill rides, okay?"

So they gathered inner tubes and made their way to the slow-moving creek that circled around the entire park. Duo dashed into the river, holding his tube beneath him as he slid into the water.

"Catch me if you can!" He called back to them.

Heero, Quatre discovered, had a rather deep competitive streak. He got in his inner tube, positioned himself against a wall, and pushed off, shooting down the river. Quatre was content to watch them, cackling to himself as Heero caught up to Duo, snatching his arm and causing him to fall off his tube.

"Not fair!" Duo sputtered, before getting back into his tube.

"Is there a prize for winning?" Heero asked.

Duo squinted at Heero, trying to read his mood, "It depends on what you want…."

Heero grinned and leaned in close to Duo, who squawked at the unexpected advancement.

"I want," Heero breathed as he watched Duo carefully, "you to go down The Summit Plummet with me."

Heero then quickly leaned back and with his feet, pushed Duo and his tube down the river so that he went under a small waterfall. Duo's cry of indignation was muffled as he swallowed a copious amount of water.

"You better watch your back Heero!" Duo angrily shook his fist in the air. The image only caused Heero to snort.

When Quatre and Heero caught up to Duo, he sullenly agreed that he'd go down the Summit Plummet. Heero grinned victoriously.

The three of them sat back in their tubes, bumping against each other and various guests, content to watch the clouds pass. Duo folded his arms behind his head, "Last night was fun."

"The band was good," Heero said.

"Yeah, but the fireworks were better," Duo grinned, "And so was running through the park."

"Whatever possessed you to do that anyway?"

"A way to work off sexual frustration."

Heero blinked, shook his head as if to rid it of some thought, and then said, "That's not usually how I deal with sexual frustration."

"Oh yeah? Well what'd you want me to do, whip it out right there and say 'excuse me, but do you guys mind turning around so I can take care of some business?'"

"You could have found a bathroom."

Duo scowled, "I don't fancy doing it in the bathroom and having a creepy old guy in the stall next to me listening."

Heero snorted but said nothing.

"That's what I thought," Duo grumbled.

There was an awkward pause before Duo said, "How about you Watson? You haven't said much today. What'd you think of the party?"

"It was nice."

"It was nice of Trowa to tell you about it," Duo gave him a grin.

"Yeah," Quatre replied, staring at his knees, his jaw tight.

"You and Trowa seem to get along well," said Heero, "he doesn't usually take to people so quickly."

Quatre shrugged one shoulder.

"You okay?" Duo leaned over and pinched his arm, "Earth to Watson. Come in Watson."

"Stop it," Quatre brushed away Duo's hand.

"Well aren't you in a bad mood."

"Trowa was unhappy last night too," Heero growled, "he started to mope right after the fireworks."

Quatre firmly watched a leaf float by his tube.

"Did you and Trowa have a fight or something?" Duo asked.

"No. We didn't really talk," Quatre gulped.

Duo scratched his chin, "Now that I think about it, you guys didn't even say goodbye to each other last night. What happened?"

"Nothing," Quatre said. And that's precisely the problem.

Heero kicked Quatre's tube as he floated by, "Well you were the only one he was with last night. So what happened?"

"Listen," Quatre finally looked at the other two boys, "Trowa and I barely know each other; forgive me if I don't know every thought that's going through his head!"

"But you seem to like him well enough," Duo said, "And he's done quite a bit for us at Disney, getting us those front seats, letting you pet the goats up close, saving you from that snake-"

"A snake attacked you?" Heero abruptly pulled closer to them.

"Yeah, a King snake got loose," Duo waved his hand in the air flippantly, "but Trowa was there so it was all cool."

Quatre sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Look, there's the end of the creek."

They climbed out of the river and deposited their tubes in a pile.

"Time to make good on my win," Heero said to Duo, letting the Trowa subject drop for the moment.

"Are you coming up to the Slide of Death?" Duo asked Quatre.

Quatre shook his head, "You go ahead, you know how I hate those thrill rides. I'll be in the wave pool. Find me when you're done."

"If I survive," Duo said dryly, looking the Summit Plummet over.

"It's a thirteen story drop," Heero smirked.

"You didn't have to tell me that!" Duo said, "I think I would rather not know!"

Heero rolled his eyes, "I'll catch you at the bottom."

"Promise?"

"Pinky swear."

Duo and Heero made their way to the scariest ride in the park while Quatre went to Melt-Away Bay, a one-acre wave pool. It was crowded, with toddlers and mothers sitting in the shallow end, making it so he had to step over their forms to even get to water that went up to his knees. He went in deeper, until the water went up to his hips, and started to feel that this wasn't one of his brightest ideas. Preteens and young adults surrounded him, screaming and laughing and swimming, knocking against his arms and back. A woman on a tube bumped into him and while her fingernail scratched his temple the tube pushed him over. He coughed when his head met the water, and swam away quickly. It was difficult to swim, because there were so many slippery bodies around him and because the waves knocked into his chest, sending him stumbling backwards. It was not like being in the ocean at all. He tried to glance up at Summit Plummet, to see if he could recognize Duo and Heero, but was immediately swept off his feet.

"Sorry, sorry," said a burly man behind him, who had run into him, "just trying to get to my son, he's out in the deep end."

Quatre just grunted, and spat out a stream of water. In an effort to find breathing space he went a little deeper, only to realize that his feet no longer touched the bottom of the pool. Around him, kids and adults alike were swimming with the large waves that came from the deep end; he dogpaddled to keep afloat, trying to keep his head above the water, but the waves were increasing in violence. Around him he heard screaming, shouts of thrill, as his and other's bodies were hit with a wall of water. It dragged them under and closer to the cliffs situated at the end of the pool, where the waves were generated. Water entered his ears and flooded his nose; he grasped around him and pulled his head out of the water.

Then, someone knocked into his bruise, and he gasped, his body immediately slackening as the pain overcame him. In less than a second he was back under the water, his side aching so much that it burned even though the water was chilly; he felt someone knee him in the back and he flailed, arms reaching out behind him to grab the person. But he couldn't get a hold; instead, the person had a hold on him. A fiery jolt of realization and panic shot through his mind, and he began to kick and scratch; his fingernails dug into skin behind him. A blow was delivered to the back of his head and he went further down to the bottom of the pool. Above him, several feet of water and wave still thrashed. It was quiet, though, at the bottom of the pool. There were no bodies blocking his view, the screaming and laughter was far away, muffled as if it was contained to a different world; the bottom of the pool was unblemished, and everything was washed gently in a hue of blue. So it was a shock to him when he saw something dark burst in front of him. He watched it as it bloomed around him, first as a small trickle and then as a larger cloud. He looked closer. It was dark red. He reached out to touch it as it began to float above his head. He couldn't see the sun from where he was at, the water was too thick, and the dark red liquid was beginning to block his view of the surface.

Hands were grasping him; he felt a tug from underneath his armpits, causing pain to rip through his side. Someone was disrupting the peaceful water at the bottom of the pool; and he felt arms wrap around his torso, and all of a sudden he was being propelled through water and wave, unconscious when his head finally broke to the surface, his mind numb and buzzing when the sun struck his eyelids. Everything around him was dark, and a ringing noise filled his ears. He couldn't feel his mouth, or feet, or hands, or chest. The pain in his side was dull. And, Quatre Winner thought as he drifted into nothingness, it was really too bad he had never had his first kiss.