Three-Hour Tour
[One]
by Truth
"'No problem' you said. 'This will be easy', you said." Omi leaned
on the railing of the ship, uncomfortable in the unfamiliar
clothing. "Remind me to make you pay for this."
"Quit complaining, chibi." Yohji took a drag on his cigarette and
flicked the ashes over the side. "It will be easy. There's no way
he could resist someone like you."
Omi made a disgruntled noise and gestured at a passing
waiter. "Another daiquiri," he told the man.
"Virgin, please," Yohji corrected, blithely ignoring the fact that it
had been his idea to have Omi order alcohol to help with his cover in
the first place. "You don't want to get drunk, chibi."
The waiter moved away and Omi turned to his companion. "I hate you,"
he told the older assassin cheerfully.
"And I'm oh-so-hurt by that." Yohji discarded his cigarette butt
over the side, ignoring Omi's muttered comments about polluting the
water. "Just hang in there, this shouldn't take too much longer."
"It had better not. This part of the cruise is only three hours
long."
"Have I ever been wrong before?"
"There was the time that you tried to pick up that transvestite in
the shop," Omi pointed out. "Or the time you tried to convince Aya
that...."
"I hate you, too."
Tonight's target ran a series of casinos across the world. That was
not what had made him a target, however. He also had a decided
fondness for rich, attractive young men. Young men who invariably
disappeared while gambling in one of his casinos.
The heat being on in several countries, although nothing could be
proven, he had retreated to one of his more luxurious casinos; a
floating palace called 'Poseidon's Favor'. There had since been
several more disappearances, all young men who were quite fond of
gambling. All had disappeared during the ship's furthest sweep from
the mainland; a sweep which took approximately three hours.
Which explained why Balinese and Bombay were leaning over the railing
of a gigantic cruise ship clad in a pair of very expensive tuxedos.
Omi, representing himself as a very young looking 18, had been
gambling off and on all evening. He placed a single bet here, a
series over there and drifted from table to table looking
decorative. He had been winning steadily all evening. His charm and
grace had made him welcome at almost all of the tables, but the ever
present cigarette smoke was beginning to get to him.
He had not seen the target, but five minutes ago, Yohji had sought
him out and told him that their target had definitely seen Omi.
"I thought his eyes were going to bug out. You are definitely the
flavor of the evening, kid."
"I don't like 'kid' any more than I liked 'chibi'."
"Whatever." Yohji pushed away from the rail and gave him a mock
salute. "I'll be off now. Try not to get yourself killed, hmmm?"
And he was gone. Omi checked his watch. Only another hour and a
half and their chance to capture the man's attention would be gone.
They would still kill him, but they might not reach him before he
found his own target. Omi shivered.
"Careful kitten, don't want to catch cold."
Omi whirled around, almost knocking his head against that of the
taller man who had glided up behind him. "Schuldich!"
"Why yes, I do believe that it is." The German feigned
surprise. "Fancy meeting me here."
"What are you doing here?" Omi snarled, his hand sliding inside his
jacket, feeling for his darts.
Schuldich was faster. He caught Omi's hand and smiled nastily down
at the boy. "I don't think so."
Omi found himself twisted around, staring back out across the rail at
the sea. Schuldich stood directly behind him, one arm draped
companionably around his shoulders, his other hand maintaining an
iron grip on Omi's wrist. "What a beautiful moon there is tonight,"
Schuldich mused.
"What the hell do you want?" Omi snapped, trying to break the other
man's hold.
"Keep struggling and I'll drop you over the side," the telepath told
him cheerfully. "At the moment, I want to keep you out of sight of
the icky pervert who wants to add you to his collection of tastefully
dead little boys."
Omi stopped struggling, sheer surprise freezing him in place. "What?"
/Now, now. Let us not draw attention to ourselves./ Schuldich
maneuvered the boy into the shadows of a nearby lifeboat. /It's
simple, really. The scary man has something that we want. You
almost ruined our plan you know, showing up and looking so
scrumptiously edible./
Omi gagged. 'That's a disgusting thought. You thinking that I'm
edible....'
/Actually, I borrowed that one from the perv. And before you decide
to ask me where I get off calling him that, let's just say that he
was thinking edible in a slightly different way than you just were.
Or rather, he went a little further with it than you did./ Schuldich
grinned as Omi stiffened. /You didn't know you were being sized up
for cannibalistic munchies? After he'd had his other fun, naturally./
'That's.... I may be sick.'
/Over the rail, please. This is a new suit./ Schuldich easily
evaded Omi's elbow as it drove toward his stomach and applied a
little more pressure to the captive wrist.
"Bastard," Omi gasped, knees buckling slightly.
Schuldich let up on the pressure fractionally and smiled. /Probably.
We're going to let him have Nagi, or at least he thinks so. Just
relax for an hour or so. Nagi will take care of your little mission
and retrieve our trinket all at once./
'What happens to me then?' Omi thought miserably.
Schuldich laughed softly pulling his prisoner in even more closely
and resting his cheek on the top of Omi's head. /Hmmmm. Good
question. Can you swim, kitten?/
Yohji swore. He had taken his eyes off Omi for just a moment while
he slid into his mission gear, and when he got back to a good vantage
point, the boy was already gone.
There were three places that the target might have taken Bombay, and
hopefully he would reach the nearest before anything bad happened.
Of course, Omi could take care of himself in most situations, but....
It didn't take Yohji long to reach the room he had in mind. Fairly
large and situated right beneath the ballroom, it was soundproofed;
one of the reasons that he had suspected it. His guess proved to be
well-founded, as there were three men loitering in the hallway.
'Bodyguards,' he thought, stretching his wire between gloved
hands. 'But not for much longer.'
It took Balinese only moments to dispose of his adversaries. After
all, who would be foolish enough to cause trouble on board a ship
where there was nowhere to run. He didn't bother to be neat or quiet
about it. Not only was the room soundproofed, there was a dance
going on in the ballroom above.
Yohji didn't bother to check the lock on the door of the room he had
chosen. He simply kicked it in.
He was not at all prepared for what he found.
**
/So Abyssinian actually enjoys flower arranging?/
The last twenty minutes had been absolute hell for Omi. Not only was
he having to spend it nestled closely in the arms of one of his more
alarming enemies, said enemy had happily occupied himself rummaging
through his captive's mind.
/He's got a sister, you know./
"Would you stop that," Omi gritted out. "I don't want to know."
/You don't want me reminding you that I'm learning all sorts of
fascinating things and that you can't hope to stop me,/ Schuldich
corrected him. /Well, well. What interesting hobbies you have,
kitten./
'Where is Yohji?' The frantic thought must have been a bit too
obvious.
/He's almost directly below us, convinced that he's charging to your
rescue,/ the telepath told him. /Hmmm, charging heroically to your
rescue, according to Nagi. I'm impressed./
'Impressed?'
/I never knew he had it in him. Heroics, I mean. Your Balinese is
quite the obsessive, it seems./ Schuldich shifted his grip on his
captive and moved the boy closer to the rail. /Come along, this
should be eminently worth watching./
Omi watched helplessly as the large window two decks below was
shattered, the heavy glass shooting outward along with the object
that had been tossed through it. Only half-conscious, Yohji looked
upward as he hurtled toward the water, barely registering the couple
far above him as he crashed into the waves.
/Well, that's torn it./ Schuldich abruptly released Omi and stepped
away. "It was fun while it lasted, kitten. We must do this again
sometime."
'He's not going to drop me over the side. Thank the gods.'
"Why bother? You're not going to be able to get underfoot now, not
if you want to rescue your poor, confused partner." Schuldich
laughed and turned away, melting into the crowd.
'Confused?'
/Just ask him what he was thinking when he hit the water. It ought
to be good for a laugh. Hurry now. I don't think he's going to last
very long down there./
Omi cursed and hurried toward the nearest lifeboat. Luckily, most of
the people on deck were watching the water dancing going on in the
pool, and over the ambient noise of both the casino and the music by
the pool, no one seemed to have heard the window shatter.
Yohji had, by some miracle, not lost consciousness when he hit the
water. By a further miracle, he had not been dragged under by either
the propellers or the wake. The fact that he had retained his small,
waterproof flashlight put him into straight into the 'luckier than he
has any right to be' category.
It still took Omi almost an hour to find him. Despite the tropical
surroundings and warm summer night, the older assassin was shivering
when Omi hauled him aboard.
"What happened?" Omi asked him, handing him a blanket.
"B-bloody Nagi happened." Yohji shivered. He had lost his sunglasses
in the fall and had been forced to abandon his coat almost instantly;
not wanting to have its sodden weight drag him to the bottom of the
sea. His boots had followed as fast as he could kick them off.
Underneath he had been wearing tight, low riding black pants and a
sleeveless, midriff baring t-shirt. As a result, he was showing
quite a bit of flesh, most of it blue.
"Are you going to be all right?"
"As s-soon as I find those S-schwartz bastards and feed them their
own intestines," Yohji muttered.
Omi turned slightly green.
"Ah. I take it that S-schuldich told you about our t-target's choice
of b-bedtime snacks?" Yohji huddled further into the blanket as Omi
started the tiny boat's motor.
"Yes."
"Where are we going?"
Omi indicated the little device set into the side of the
lifeboat. "According to the latest marine aid for distressed
sailors, we're about two hours from the nearest land, and it's
nothing but a very small island. We're going to have to hole up
there and wait for the others to come looking for us."
"I-it's gonna be a long damn wait, then," Yohji snapped. "The guys
are s-still in Japan!"
"We can hold out a day or two," Omi assured him. "There's some food
and stuff in here."
"I didn't t-think that was standard for lifeboats anymore," Yohji
said.
"I don't think that it is. I think that I lucked onto our target's
private lifeboat." Omi shrugged. "The damn thing was directly above
his suite, and the room you came out of was directly below that, with
only the ballroom in between."
"M-makes sense." Yohji continued to shiver. "Can't we g-go any
faster?"
The island may have been tiny by nautical standards, but it loomed
impressively large from the point of view of the two young men as
they dragged their life boat as far up onto the sand as they could.
"G-good thing there's a full moon," Yohji shivered. "We'd n-never
have found it, otherwise."
"Shut up and strip," Omi told him.
"W-what?"
"You are going to freeze to death, otherwise. C'mon, take off your
clothes for the nice man, Yohji. I've got a dry blanket right here
with your name on it."
Yohji looked mildly scandalized. "You w-want me to take off my
clothing, r-right here in front of God and everybody?"
"God's not here right now, Yohji. It's just me and I've seen you
naked before. Now take off your damn clothes before I have to do
it." Omi gave his comrade the patented Fujimiya Aya look o'death.
"G-give it up, chibi. You're not nearly threatening enough."
Yohji's shivering was increasing, giving the lie to his flippancy.
He pulled off his shirt and tossed it into the lifeboat.
"We're going to have to find some place to dry those," Omi told him,
handing him the dry blanket and retreiving the shirt. He looked
around the deserted beach and up toward the tangle of greenery that
marked the beginning of the tropical growth that covered most of the
rest of the small island.
"...Omi?" Yohji's voice was resigned.
"What?" Omi turned to find Yohji leaning against the side of the
lifeboat.
"I hate to ask you, but could you possibly help me with my pants?"
The older assassin held out his hands in silent explanation.
Omi looked at Yohji's rueful expression and then took stock of the
other man's hands. "I should have realized," he said apologetically.
The joints of Yohji's long fingered hands were swollen from his long,
cold swim in the sea. Even if they hadn't been, the tight pants
would have been terribly difficult to remove; soaked as they were.
It finally took their combined efforts to get the pants off.
"I could make some sort of comment about this," Omi told his comrade
as he folded the pants, trying unsuccessfully to keep from
snickering. "I'll restrain myself, however."
"Let's just find some place to sleep," Yohji told him, rolling his
eyes.
"When we see Ken, remind me to tell him that he owes me dinner for a
week."
"You had a BET on my UNDERWEAR?!"
Omi nodded. "I told him that those pants would never stay up if you
were actually wearing anything underneath."
Yohji clutched his blanket to himself a little more tightly. "You're
shattering some of my more precious illusions here, Omi. There are
some things that I could have lived without knowing."
Omi frowned. "That reminds me...."
When he showed no inclination to continue, Yohji peered at him and
flapped one hand. "Oh, don't try to spare my feelings at this point,
chibi. It's far too late for that."
"Schuldich said something strange," Omi paused again.
"And this is new in what way?" Yohji huddled further into the
blanket. "What did that carrot-topped psycho have to say?"
"He called you confused and said to ask you what you were thinking
when you hit the water," Omi turned away to haul the box of supplies
out of the lifeboat and thus missed the startled look that crossed
his companion's face.
"... I was thinking that it was a really stupid way to die," Yohji
told him slowly.
"Most ways to die are fairly stupid," Omi told him. "C'mon, get a
better grip on that blanket and let's find somewhere to hole up. I
don't think that we want to sleep out here on the beach."
"I'm entertaining visions of Schwartz in a speedboat," Yohji
shuddered. "I'm with you."
"When people mention tropical islands in popular literature, why
don't they ever mention the bugs?" Omi slapped irritably at the
swarm of mosquitos that had surrounded them when they had finally
found a sheltered place to rest.
"Or the humidity." Yohji poked mournfully at his still-sodden
clothes. "At this rate, I'm going to be naked until we're rescued."
"Beats having to wear a tux in this heat," Omi told him. He had shed
the tie, jacket and vest of his once pristine evening wear. He kept
the pants, naturally, but had rolled up his sleeves and unbuttoned
the shirt almost all the way. "What I wouldn't give for a pair of
shorts and some air conditioning."
The two young men were huddled among the trees under an awning rigged
by using the wet blanket and Omi's suspenders. Between the humidity
and the bugs they were feeling exceedingly miserable and ill-used.
"This," Omi decided, turning on Yohji, "is all your fault. And you
are going to make it up to me."
"My fault? How is this my fault?"
"If you hadn't let Nagi drop you into the water, we could still be on
that ship right now." Omi knew that he was being unfair, but
starting an argument would distract them both.
"Me? What about you? If you'd been where you were supposed to, I
wouldn't have met up with the Schwartz brat at all!" Yohji knew Omi
wasn't being serious, but the accusation still stung.
"Ah." Omi fiddled with the buttons on his shirt. "Sorry."
Yohji gaped at him. "I thought you wanted to pick a fight?"
"Well, it really wasn't fair of me." Omi leaned against one of the
trees that supported their make-shift shelter. "If only I'd been
paying more attention."
"What's done is done." Yohji lay back on the ground, long legs
sticking out of the blanket. "Did psycho-boy happen to tell you
anything at all useful?"
"Just that he and Nagi were looking for something that our target
had. He wasn't very specific."
Silence fell. Yohji wanted to ask Omi more about his encounter with
Schuldich, but found himself drowsing off. The heat was having an
effect on him, more so than usual because of the beating that he'd
taken from Nagi before being thrown through that window. The cold
water had probably kept the bruising from showing up yet, but he
would probably be black and blue from head to foot by nightfall. He
hoped not. Despite the whining of the various insects, he fell
asleep.
Omi, on the other hand, was wide awake. After sitting still for
almost an hour, he gave up on his attempted nap. Rising stealthily
to his feet, he tiptoed away from their hiding place. He wanted to
have another look at the little electronic GSO device in the
lifeboat.
It hadn't been possible for the two of them to hide the lifeboat, and
they hadn't really wanted to. The rest of Weiss would need some
indication of where to look, and the lifeboat would have to be that
indication. The two assassins had settled for finding a hiding place
up the shoreline a bit and inside the actual jungle growth.
`Maybe I can figure out....' Omi was pondering his options as he
wandered back down the beach toward the lifeboat.
/Figure what out?/
Omi jerked his head up, staring down the beach. Almost hidden by a
natural jetty of land was a boat. "Oh no...."
A familiar grip settled on his shoulder from behind and he twisted
away, falling into a crouch.
Schuldich's familiar smirk greeted his astonished gaze. "Hello,
kitten. Did you miss me?"
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The author's Gundam Wing fics can be found at GW Addiction, and she also has an account at Fanfiction.net.
[On to part 2]