[4xD] 2/7 "The most noble of weaknesses" Chapter 1

[Darkwing]

Standard disclaimers: See previous chapter.

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The most noble of weaknesses
By Darkwing

Chapter 1

Quatre tried his best to relax on the seat of the shuttle that was carrying him onto Earth, but he failed, even before starting. He was too eager to arrive to be as quiet as his expression showed.
For the umpteenth time he drew out the mail that Duo sent him just a few days before. He had already read that note a thousand times, and it always achieved the same effect on him: a sudden increasing of his pulse. That surely wasn't the best treatment, if he truly wanted to relax, but he couldn't help it.

'P.S. Guess who I met here! C'mon, it's easy...She's an old acquaintance of yours. Okay, to help you, I'll give you a little boost and let's see if you can resolve the problem. Fine...Angel-like face plus devil-like smile is equal to...? Ooookay, don't pretend to play dumb with me! Only your dear old friend Dorothy resolves the equation, duh?
I met her in the last place I could have ever guessed this possible. At Split's airport. I was there to inspect some materials while she had just arrived in Croatia for her holidays. She was headed to the coast, in a place...Jeez, wait! I can't recall the name but I jotted it down...Here it is...M?rter. If she didn't tell me fibs, she'll be there for a month, enjoying the sea...alone.
Yeah, in short, she misses a prince in shining armor to slice and stab and, since you've a reasonable experience in this sector, I immediately thought of you. Of course I won't take any offence if, instead of having a trip onto our lovely platform - nowdays navigating the pleasant Land of the fire's coast - you'll take a detour to the Mediterranean sea.'

Duo ended his mail with the sketch of a winking face with the thumb up. Quatre thought that more likely, if his friend had had a different past, he could have become a talented artist. Into that daub he hid all the mischief and the enthusiasm concealed behind his revelation. Anyways, despite the cheek of his hints, he had to admit that Duo had hit the bull's eye.
It had been really difficult for him to delete all his appointments and convince Mrs. Bates that he had to leave at every cost - and without giving her too many explanations about the nature of that trip.
Nature that was unclear to himself too. What did he hope to gain? Why was he making a trip of about a million of miles to meet a woman that, after all, tried to kill him?
If Rashid had known the truth, he wouldn't have ever been able to get rid of him! It had already been hard to convince him that he wasn't going to risk anything, since he was simply going to see Duo. But the tough warrior thought it different and the fact that the both of them were together for him just meant that the chances that they got themselves into a mess doubled. It had been a real task for Quatre, to remind him that they both had proven themselves able to take care of themselves. However to make him promise that he was going to stay on L4 to mind to his own work, he had to use all his delivery and some half-hidden threats.
In any case he had to admit that, when he'd said he would go onto Howard's platform he said just a half-truth, since he planned to go there just for a couple of days and only before leaving again for space.
But after all he needed a good excuse before leaving everybody in the lurch. So he thought it would be a good idea to say that he'd join pleasure with profit and would talk about a common activity.
However, at last, he could leave for his secret holiday. 'Well...Holiday...I don't know if this is the right word.' Quatre told himself.
Duo was right, of course. Dorothy's angelic beauty could be a deadly trap for those that couldn't read between the lines of her catlike glances. He unfortunately knew it well. By instinct he reached his side with a hand, where the indelible scar of Dorothy's blade had marked their confrontation with the fire of blood.
Perhaps that was the reason why he was curious to meet her again. He needed to know if, after all that time, she still possessed the intimate scar let by the blood that she used to satisfy her inner pain.
He couldn?t hide from himself that the mere thought of facing her made him rather nervous. He didn?t know how to behave because he never fully understood the way in which they left each other: if as friends or as enemies. Quatre thought that to discover the truth was going to be the main goal of this trip. He smiled, thinking about what Heero would say.
'Mission accepted!' He playfully copied into his mind.

* * * * *

After another half a day by shuttle, two intermediate stops and a couple of hours by car, Quatre finally could take a breath of relief.
He got down from his rented off-road car and stretched his muscles, stiff from the long trip. He deeply breathed the spiced and salty wind and, by magic, all the tension given by the previous hours disappeared into the evening sun.
Still a bit dazed, he tried to form a quick idea about the places he would spend - he hoped pleasantly - the next few days.
He had to admit that Dorothy showed a very good taste when she chose this destination for her holidays. Jezera was an enchanting village. It was settled in a bay, in the comfortable embrace of M?rter island and had grown up thanks to the abundance of fish in its sea. In time, the scarcely inhabited inland and the uncontamined beauty of the marine habitat promoted tourism.
The amount and the kind of sport crafts moored along the seashore gave a certain clue about the considerable number of vacationers, staying with the native fishermen. However, with a quick glance to the essential plastered houses and to the simple grocer's shops near the small port, one could understand that the inhabitants still held the sincere simplicity that belonged to those that counted on nature to live. Suddenly enthusiastic, Quatre hurried to take his luggage out of the car and crossed the threshold of the small guesthouse where he booked a room.
A barefoot and tanned child came out from God-knows-where and collided into him, before running out on the street.
"Ivana!" That was the only word that Quatre could understand about the excited recall, shouted by the old man running after her.
Her only answer was a cheeky face as she shook the blond mane that framed her toothless smile. She waved, holding a slice of raw meat and a small bucket, then she flew away, as fast as she came. The elder sighed and shook his head, mumbling something in Croatian that Quatre couldn't understand. Then he turned to him to apologize himself. "She's Ivana, my granddaughter. There's no way to convince her to stay still for the whole dinner. She believes it's a waste of time. She always has something else to do...and of course fishing is always on the top of her list. But it's not her fault, after all. She's so much like her father! It's in her blood."
Quatre smiled and nodded. "Actually it's quite difficult to escape our legacy and perhaps...Well, maybe it's not right to try to do it."
The old man stared at him, vaguely amazed by that statement and observed him as he noticed him just in that moment. Then he nodded. "You know what, lad? You're right! And if Ivana will fish enough, we'll make a good fry!"
Quatre laughed. The domestic atmosphere of that place was revitalizing.
The elder went back to the reception desk and put on his glasses. "But don't stay stock-still on the doorway with all those bags. Have you a reservation, kid?"
"Yes. I called two days ago. My name's Winner."
The old man checked on the register and took Quatre's papers. After a glance, he lifted his stunned gaze. "Winner? That Winner? The Winner Corporation Winner?"
Quatre bit his bottom lip, a bit uneasy even if, all in all, it was better to be recognized as an industrialist rather than as a former Gundam pilot like happened to Duo. "I'm afraid that you might be right." He admitted.
The elder hurried immediately by his side and took a rucksack from Quatre's hands. "It's a great honor to have you here, Mr. Winner. Please, let me help you!"
Quatre took the rucksack back from the hotelkeeper's hands and quietly shook his head. It was surely true that to be Quatre Winner, the famous L4 magnate, could be better than to be Quatre Winner, the rebel pilot, but he was sure that if people could know what he had been, they would stop to treat him like a porcelain doll. "Here there isn't any Mr. Winner." He said. "My name's Quatre, and you were so much nicer when you called me lad, mister...?"
"Dinko." The old man stretched out his hand. "And there isn't any mister here too."
Quatre returned a warm handshake. He was happy. He felt that it was going to be an unforgettable holiday!

* * * * *

After all those hours spent traveling, he theoretically should have been in pieces, but since the first moment he arrived, he hadn't wanted anything else than to rush to the beach and have a swim.
Dinko insisted that he had to have dinner with them, but he politely declined his invite, saying that he already had something on the plane and he wasn't hungry. So he grabbed a towel and headed to where he'd seen little Ivana running earlier.
In less than five minutes he reached the seashore. The sight stole him all his breath.
There had been only a few times when he had seen in person such a wonderful landscape. The sun was low, darting golden oblique rays on the waves, just lightly choppy, under the evening breeze. On the horizon, the multitude of islands belonging to the Kornat archipelago hid sea arms and drew twisted blue routes in a scenery that seemed always slightly changing.
Actually the beach was nonexistent. It rather consisted in rough burnished rocks, gradually sloping into the water. The scented pinewood behind his back was the coast's verdant frame. The mildness and the harshness of that place mixed together in the harmonious evening silence. Nobody was there. It was perfect in its simplicity.
Not far away he noticed Ivana's golden head, bent among the rocks. Now made curious, he joined her.
"Hi!" He greeted, bowing to her level.
The child didn't think him worthy a glance and kept on staring at a mossy cleft near the strand, with the typical concentration of every child. Quatre couldn't see anything interesting in that small gorge, but then he finally discerned something that moved in the darkness.
With a rapid and fluid movement of her small hand, Ivana grasped her prey and pulled it out of its hole, smiling satisfied. With a long speech that would have likely been not understandable even to a native Croatian speaker, she waved a crab so big that could have cut off one of her fingers without any effort.
"I can't believe it...But, how did you do?"
Invana smiled, showing with pride her still growing incisors. Then she thrust the crab into the bucket where a smaller specimen was held captive. She handled it to Quatre and took him by hand. Evidently she wanted to show him her hunting techniques. She didn't mind at all if they couldn't understand each other.
'Maybe we won't need to speak to get along well.' Quatre thought, following her.
They stopped a few steps after, near to a small slit, seemingly identical to thousand others, but that got the little one's attention. Ivana begun with her incomprehensible explanations, as she explored the hole. Quatre noticed that she put a lot of care to avoid to cast her shadow inside. He found amazing the professionalism of a such young child. Her skill in planning her movements was impressive. He was certain that if he tried, or he would beat the air or he would taste the crab's claws.
A sudden splash, coming from a rock not far away, distracted him from his hunting lesson, making him skip the climax when, giving proof of all her ability, Ivana captured another prey.
"I can't believe it..." For the second time in a row, that was all that Quatre could say.
But when Ivana showed him the monstrous creature that she was holding with her small fingers, she was deluded to see that this time she wasn't the reason behind her new friend's stunned expression. She followed his gaze and saw a lady, swimming not far from her hunting area.
Quatre stood on his feet, as he saw the figure that resurfaced from the water. In that moment he knew why the ancient Greeks believed that Aphrodite was born by the foam of the sea. Actually how could he figure it different, when the ancient myth was coming back to life right under his gaze?
A fall of fair locks, shining despite soaked with water, were sticking to a lithe body, soft and elegant, perfect as the limbs of an immaculate statue. Wasn't the most beautiful of all the Olympus goddesses looking like that, when she emerged from the Aegean waters a handful of millennia before?
Ivana stared with a mix of astonishment and disappointment at Quatre's hypnotized gaze, as he literally scanned the lady that was now placing down her diving mask, her flippers and a small net bag. Why was that lady more interesting than her crabs? Then she recalled the fairy tale that her mommy used to tell her before bedtime, the one about that young mermaid in love with a human prince...She smiled. That was her favorite tale. Maybe her new friend thought the same!
Quatre kept on watching the graceful movements of the most beautiful creature that he had ever seen. He didn't miss the loving care of her slender fingers as she put away the long blade, tied to her tapering calf. He couldn't prevent his eyes to slip on the rhythmic up and down of her breasts, still covered with water drops, shining like the crystal of her azure-gray eyes.
"Dorothy Catalonia..." He whispered; his words barely audible to his own ears.
As if he shouted to the wind, the young woman turned her almond-shaped and narrow eyes toward him. Like a cat caught at night by a car's lights, she stared at him stunned, hesitant. Would have she liked to run away? Quatre couldn't tell, but he could see her as she whispered his name on her rosy lips.
So she hadn't forget him...

* * * * *

On his side he was completely forgetful of the crab hunting lesson. He forsook the bucket and its precious contents and, after mumbling something he let Ivana alone as she held her last trophy like a fool. But, after all, the little girl didn't mind it. She got out of the way and hid herself behind a rosemary bush that grew wild close to the pinewood. Now she could observe the scene unseen. Of course she couldn't listen to their speech, but what was the matter? In any case she couldn't understand their language. Anyway if the prince had kissed the princess mermaid...
She crouched and waited, watching as Quatre approached the lady and she studied the situation with the patience typical of an experienced huntress.

"Quatre Raberba Winner." Dorothy begun, with an half-smile that put a cross on the previous astonishment. "Is it a Gundam pilot?s gift to sneak up on one?s back?"
Quatre kindly smiled, trying his best to hide his emotion. He had certainly came there to meet her, but he believed that he should have searched for her. He didn't think for a minute that she could be his first encounter. He was totally unprepared and besides...Which kind of way was to greet him after years of silence? What did that mean? Did she find unpleasant his presence there? He tried to provide her a vague answer. "It can be useful, in some circumstances."
Dorothy gathered her long hair, showing indifference, and used both her hands to pull it in front on her and squeeze the excess of water away. Quatre couldn't help but stare at those thin shiny drops, trickling along her sculptured body.
"Really? And which circumstances are you mentioning...in this case?"
Quatre's treacherous eyes met her gaze once again. That was another question. Was that a warning shot? Which was the right answer? Was it possible that she smelled the rat and understood that Duo sent him there and this meeting hadn't happened by chance? He felt like Oedipus in front of the Sphinx's eyes: a wrong answer and...Bang! Game over!
He needed a quick counterattack. In the few instants at his disposal, he could find just one. "Well...Hunting, for instance. I was hunting crabs with..." Quatre pointed at something behind his back that, judging by the way she arched an eyebrow, Dorothy couldn't see.
Quatre turned his head and, when noticed that Ivana had disappeared, he understood that his limp excuse, had appeared truly ridiculous to Dorothy. 'What a wonderful way to start! This is what you can call a masterstroke!' He told himself. Mentally he slapped himself with a virtual blow that would have easily knocked flat a mammoth.
"Perhaps I should shake your hand, you know?" Dorothy laughed, bringing Quatre's attention back to her eyes. "Of all the answers you could give me, this is certainly the most fantastic."
"As they say...Truth always surpasses imagination." Quatre said, in an effort to hide his embarrassment with a joking tone.
Dorothy looked askance at him, with those eyes of her, so apparently cold and unintelligible. "Isn't perhaps that you're going around Maxwell a bit too assiduously?" She made a pause long enough to let her hint gain a meaning. Then she kept on talking in total calm. "You know? This could have serious repercussions on a 'good guy like you..."
'Oh, no! Other questions!' Quatre felt his brain on the verge of an explosion. And what's more, Dorothy was straightening her aim and he was sure that with the next broadside she'd have shot him squarely. It was requested evading maneuver. He smiled. "I fear that even with all my efforts, I couldn't match Duo. Besides, it?s been a long time since I?ve seen him.
"Really?"
Quatre was well aware that the amazement in that gray gaze was as sincere as his innocence, so he remained silent.
"What a coincidence, then. Think that I met him just a few days ago, when I just landed here."
"Really? What a coincidence!"
"Indeed." Dorothy commented as she dropped the argument. She bent to pick up her things with the obvious purpose to go back to her lodgings. Quatre sighed in relief. He was safe?for now.
"But it's really flattering to know that you made such a long travel just so see me."
Quatre didn't know if he paled or blushed, he was only certain that he changed color. 'Damn! Hit and sank with a single shot!'
Dorothy laughed; a shining spark in her amused eyes. "You didn't change at all in these years, Quatre. You still blush too easily, but it's always fun to confront you. I hope I'll meet you again, one of these days." The young woman wrapped a colored scarf around her hips, before heading toward the village.
Quatre swallowed and rushed an answer. "Glad to hear you talk like this, Dorothy. Even if I must say that I don't understand which kind of confrontation you're talking about."
She turned back to him, letting her long wet locks twirl around her shoulders. "It's kind of strange to hear you ask me this question, Quatre. You know better than me which are the best competitions."
Quatre tried to guess. "The most hard fought?"
She smiled with her typical ill-concealed malice and shook her head. "Those worthy to be won, of course."

TBC...

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[angel222]

*bunces* more , more...I love QxD we need more of that!!! *bounces like an addict*

[Darkwing]

Thank you so much, Angel. You don't know how much you encourage me. you make me feel like bouncing too! LOL

[angel222]

LETS BOUNCE TOGETHER *seems like a nice addict*...ok, now need more, START WRITING AGAIN YOU! don't make me get my pokingstick

[takisha16]

Lovely!!!
You posted again!
I loved Ivana, such a cute and smart little girl!
Quatre is soooo cute! I love it how he gets all nervous when he
thinks about Dorothy.
jajajja...great reaction to seeing her again!
Dorothy is so perfect here, just like she should be.
Duo is soo conniving, yay for him getting them together!
ps: by the way...you're welcome! I love reviewing stories, its more personal
than just reading them, and yours is going very nicely.

[Darkwing]

Lovely!!!
You posted again!
I loved Ivana, such a cute and smart little girl!

LOL! Yes, she was lovely also in real life and she was such a volcano that she even broke my nose with a jump, while we were playing! LOL She's probably a little lady now, but right then, she was such a pretty and lively little girl! ^^

Quatre is soooo cute! I love it how he gets all nervous when he thinks about Dorothy.
jajajja...great reaction to seeing her again!

I'm glad that you don't think him out of character. I was afraid of that, but then I thought that after all, when one falls in love is hardly too rational, so...also our thoughtful and considerate Quatre might loose some of his common sense. ^^;;

Dorothy is so perfect here, just like she should be.

Feels relieved again. I was so worried that my description might contrast with the general opinion about her!

Duo is soo conniving, yay for him getting them together!

YAY for DUO! *takes chance to squeeze him* Eheheheh....I always thought that he might be a little mischievous! ^_~

ps: by the way...you're welcome! I love reviewing stories, its more personal than just reading them, and yours is going very nicely.

I wished that people were all like you. Unfortunately most or them watch/read and hardly leave a comment. I don't ask only for nice reviews. I accept criticism, if it's constructive, but most of those that watch at my pictures or read what I write, just remain a silent presence and so I don't know if I could give them some good emotion or not.
I warmly thank you for your time. It's the most precious gift that you could make me.

[GundamVixen]

r. 'Damn! Hit and sank with a single shot!'


LMAO!!

This is AWESOME! I especially loved the interaction between them! It was perfect! it matches their fiery personality!! Love it!!

like a battle I say! lol!

Good job!