Trouble

Part Three

Nighttime Follies: Morning Discoveries

By Liewe

Standard disclaimers apply…

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Her knees hurt. And her mouth felt like someone had stuffed cotton wool in it, not to mention the pounding of her head. Never again, she thought, never again will I drink like a fish. She hung her head, and wiped at her mouth with the back of a sweat-stained sleeve. Her eyes drifting closed as exhaustion set in.

Abruptly she was forced awake by soft insistent shaking and a childlike voice softly calling her name. She opened clouded amethyst eyes to find her cousin sitting beside her, a look of worry on her small face.

"Yes," she croaked, her voice rusty.

"The picnic?" For a moment Midii was confused, her confusion showing plainly on her wan face, and Mariemaia's hands began to shake. Midii shook herself at that. She remembered now, and she wouldn't let her cousin down.

"What time is it?" She asked, shifting her knees and wincing at the sharp stabbing pain. Next time, if there was a next time, she'd sit on a towel or a cushion, she told herself.

"It's eleven. Mommy already left for work... she said she'd send Trowa to pick us up at noon... but... if you don't want to..." Mariemaia trailed off, her eyes focused on her feet, stubbornly refusing to look up at her cousin for fear of rejection.

"Of course I want to, just give me half an hour to get showered and all... I'll braid your hair for you if you want," she said pulling the younger girl into a hug.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry, I've gotten your clothes dirty," she said in dismay, berating herself.

"It's ok, I was going to change anyway," Mariemaia said with a smile, moving back from her cousin. The wariness gone from her pale eyes. Midii grinned in spite of her headache. And waved Mariemaia away as she hoisted herself onto her feet.

"Time to face the music," she murmured as she leaned down to turn the taps on the shower. The soft hiss of water falling soothing her frazzled nerves.

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Bright lights flashed, illuminating the lithe gyrating body on the tabletop. Her skin contrasting against the dark cloth of her shirt and pants, her long platinum hair a waterfall of moonlight against her shoulders. The constantly changing lights tinting her skin and hair the myriad colors of the rainbow. The men watched her body hungrily, and the women glared.

A flush of color, almost a blush tinted her cheeks. Sweat beading on her upper lip. She was lost to the music as she danced, hips gyrating, eyes closed, mouth slightly open in a pant.

Duo watched with wide-eyed wonder, as she performed, his mind providing him with an array of images depicting the blonde siren in various stages of undress. He shook himself, starting forward as he watched her hands move to her shirt. She wouldn't, he thought, but then she's drunk.

Trowa glanced up from his drink at the sound of catcalls, and his eyes lit on the young woman he was meant to be escorting. Cursing, he tossed some money on the counter and darted forward shoving patrons aside in his hurry. With the same reflexes he had used to catch her purse from the purse-snatcher, he caught her shirt as she threw it to the crowd. Stopping in his surprise, his grip tightening on the soft silken material of the shirt. A part of him cursed Duo as the other man darted forward, covering Midii's bare form with the shirt off his own back.

The disappointed groans of the crowd brought him back to himself, and he shot the gawkers a disgusted gaze before following his comrade to the exit.

Hopefully she wouldn't remember the spectacle she'd made of herself.

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"You're awake I see," he said, and she glanced at him before hanging her head. Dark glasses hiding bloodshot eyes.

He watched her out of the corner of his eye, silently taking stock of her current state of mind. No embarrasment, she probably didn't recall most of the night before, he thought as he waited patiently for the last member of this impromptu picnic.

"Lady Une suggested that we visit Treize's grave after the picnic," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. Still a damn babysitter, he thought, though she is far from being a baby. He closed his eyes, memories of silken skin covered with a fine film of perspiration flitting through his mind. "Oh and you might want this back," he chucked the shirt from the night before at her feet. His face turned away from her piercing gaze.

"How come you have that," she asked, her voice catching. Fear, shame, and anger fighting for the forefront of her mind.

"Come now, Midii, surely you remember tossing it to me," he whispered, moving closer to her. Staring down at her from his greater height with a look of disdain. "Surely you remember last night..." his voice trailed off suggestively, and a smile lurked in his eyes.

He turned at the sound of Mariemaia running down the stairs, a childish yell of glee on her lips.

"Ready to go?" He turned to look at Midii, taking note of her ashen pallor. You really are a bastard; he chided himself as he held the door for the cousins.

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He watched with hooded eyes as she ground her hips against Duo's, her face pressed into the flesh of the other man's neck. A hand fisted in the mesh-like material of Duo's shirt. He glared at the hands resting on her hips, kneading the skin through the leather. How he wished it were him touching her like that. That it was his neck her face was pressed into. His hips. He snarled as he tore his gaze away from the two he had come with.

He slammed the glass back onto the counter. The dark amber liquid sloshing onto his hand.

He felt a warm body against his back, and the stench of alcohol. A glance over his shoulder provided him with the image of clouded eyes, and flushed cheeks. He could here her ordering another shot of something or another. And he turned further, searching for Duo. Flinching when he felt a hand land on his shoulder.

"Dance with her man," Duo said with a grin as he dropped on to the suddenly vacant barstool next to his. He watched the girl in question be pulled into Duo's arms, a drunken giggle issuing forth from her lips as she snuggled into the other pilot her drink held in unsteady hands.

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She huddled into the well-worn material of her jacket, the last remnant of her soldier days. A worried smile gracing her features as she watched Trowa play with Mariemaia. Her head ached, but the pain was negligible in the face of this latest discovery. Had she slept with him? She shook her head, she didn't think she had... but still... Maybe...

"Ugh," she hissed, running a manicured hand through her long locks. She turned away from the happy scene of her cousin frolicking with that damnable man, and the food that had been spread out on the drab army green blanket. She smirked as her fingers caressed the coarse material. Military issue blankets never changed, the military's motto, if something works why change? She snorted. Resting her head on raised knees.

"Midii, are you ok?" Marie asked and she glanced up, and forced a smile and a yawn.

"Yes, just tired. I was out a little too late last night," Midii said with a chagrined grin. She reached up to pull the younger girl into her arms and give her a reassuring hug.

"You sure," the worry was back in Marie's voice. And fear. Midii mentally slapped herself.

"Of course. I wouldn't lie to you," she said... it's true, she thought. I never lie, but I do embroider the truth from time to time, and of course omission is a very good thing, in some instances.

"Promise?"

"With all my heart." And she did. With this little girl she had a chance to help someone overcome the wrongs of her past. She had a chance for redemption.

Trowa watched the scene and kicked himself. She was the girl he had known when he was a child, and she was not. The years had not been kind to her; he had seen the faint web of scars criss-crossing her shoulders when Duo's shirt slipped. And he had scene the pain in her eyes when Mariemaia's confidence faltered and the scars that Dekim had left were painfully evident. But there was still the idealism. And the love of life. She was the same, yet different.

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- to be continued…