Author's Note: This fits with chapters twenty and twenty-one of Witness.
Diary of a Protected Witness Part 15
Road Hazards
Dear Diary:
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate nature?
I mean, face it--I'm a street kid--grew up in the concrete jungle. I just had no idea what was out there in the places no man had ever gone before. (So I like my Star Trek references--sue me.)
Anyway, what was "out there" was a whole lotta stuff you had to pick your way through, over, around, or under. There were rocks, tree roots, brambles, branches, sticks, bushes, stumps...the usual array of obstacles. And under any other circumstances, I might've found them interesting.
Psh--yeah right. Under any other circumstances, I'd have run screaming back to familiar territory.
I could do a fifty-yard dash through a trash can littered alley; but I couldn't seem to avoid a few lumpy tree roots every time I took a step. It was kinda discouraging.
Anyhow, in essence, the second day of hiking was no better than the first, though I started to get used to the way the pack dragged at my shoulders and made my lower back ache. Didn't mean I liked it, but I was used to it. Kind of like the way I was used to the dull pain in my feet each time they hit the ground.
Okay--in my defense, I'd spent a lot of my life on my feet, so it wasn't that I was a wuss or anything. But my boots were steel-toed construction boots; they were not meant for hiking. And the spare pair in my duffel bag was for clubbing, not walking. They were comfy and sexy and looked really hot on the dance floor. But they were not designed for the kind of terrain we had to travel to get to whatever new hellhole my escorts had lined up for me.
'Kay. Whining time's over.
Bitching time begins...
Chang and Yuy nearly let me fuckin' drown! I mean, shit. When we reached the river, I figured they'd turn upstream or down, or turn around all together and look for another way to get where we needed to go.
But no--instead they let me try wading across, fall into a deep, fuckin' ice-cold pool, and thrash around down there for what felt like hours before they condescended to jump in and help me out.
I swear, they did it on purpose. Sadists.
I got my revenge on Chang by stripping down right in front of him to change into dry clothes, and I think I even scared him into trotting off into the underbrush to change. The freakin' prude was afraid I'd ogle his ass!
Frankly, as hot as he was, I'd never felt a sexual attraction. He just exuded homophobia to such an extent that it killed any desire I might've had to get close to that body.
Yuy, on the other hand, was obviously neither a homophobe, nor immune to my charms. But he put up a helluva fight.
"Stop playing games and just let me do my job."
"I'm still just a job to you?" I asked, hoping for--something, I guess.
I dunno what I expected, really. Some admission of feelings? I sure would've liked some reassurance that I wasn't the only one who'd thought our romp on the floor was worth a repeat performance.
Instead I got an icy glare over his shoulder. "Why not? I was just a convenient fuck for you."
Well, that fuckin' stung! Yeah, I'd set out to seduce him. I'd wanted a taste of that gorgeous body.
Trouble was, that single taste just left me hungry for more. And no matter how casual I'd tried to act at the time, I couldn't write him off as just a quick fuck. There was--more to it.
"That's not true--"
"Sure it is. Now shut the fuck up about it."
He walked away before I could argue the point--before I could blurt out that it had started that way, only he'd gotten under my skin so deep I couldn't stop thinking about him--wanting more.
I guess I was a little relieved that he didn't give me the chance to admit so much. I mean, shit. He was a cop. I was a crook. There was certainly nothing to base a relationship on--except really great sex. Right? I mean, it's not like I even had a future I could count on.
And for that matter, why did he seem so incensed about it? Wasn't I just a convenient fuck for him? Or was my first inclination--that Heero Yuy wasn't given to losing control the way he had--right on target? Had he felt more than just lust and the need for a quick release?
Yeah, right. I figured I must've inhaled too much water--or maybe my brain had been oxygen-deprived. What was I thinking anyway? That Heero Yuy had feelings? For me? Not likely.
Before my brain could implode from the effort of trying to read more into our bout of sex than there'd been, I pulled my boots back on and got ready to resume the hike from Hell.
And it really was Hell. I'd had to put wet boots back on, only to be marched at such a pace that I could feel blisters forming on top of my blisters! It was a nightmare. About the only joy I got out of the whole experience was when we took an occasional break and I could lie back and smell the crispness of the air and let the warm sun bake away a few of my aches.
But then we'd be right back on our way again, trudging doggedly along those endless trails.
And if that wasn't bad enough, we not only had to face obstacles; we had to face predators!
I honestly thought Chang and Yuy were just fucking with me when they'd joked about bears--right up until Chang went missing and we had to go rescue him from one.
Actually, it was three--a mom and two cubs. And if you were to ask me how I got up the nerve to step between Yuy's gun and those big, black man eaters--I have no idea.
Temporary insanity. That must've been it! I was so addled from the heat and pain and stress, that I somehow decided keeping Yuy from orphaning two bear cubs was worth risking my life.
There's just no rational explanation for it.
I felt good about it later--but at the time, while we were running for our lives--I'm surprised I didn't shit my pants, I was so scared.
When we got to the lake house--the one with a jacuzzi--I decided I'd actually died and gone to Heaven. Or, well, I would've been willing to, if the two gorgeous cops would've joined me in the hot tub for some wild sex.
Instead, they stayed just as focused on their jobs as ever, talking about setting up perimeters and whether I was going to stay put or not.
I didn't have to fake the somber expression on my face when I told Chang I wouldn't run off again--that I knew how serious Khushrenada was now, and I'd stop being reckless.
But when I threw in a comment about being protected by the only two honest cops in the world, Yuy asked me flat out what my beef was with cops, and he looked at me with such frank interest when I asked if he really wanted to know, that I ended up telling him all about how the Reapers died while I was in lockup.
Jesus fuckin' Christ he just had a way of drawing me out and making me want to explain myself to him. I dunno if I was looking for approval or understanding, but for some reason I wanted him to know that I wasn't as shallow as I'd been acting.
I've gotta wonder where the hell my instinct for self-preservation went--because I told Chang and him things I'd never told a cop before in my life. Things I'd have sworn I'd never tell any cop.
But when he finally believed my story--when I saw the skepticism leave those deep blue eyes and a troubled, almost concerned look enter them, it made me feel like my trust hadn't been misplaced. He actually listened, and believed me, and maybe even felt some righteous indignation over the depths to which some of his colleagues had sunk.
And it struck a chord within me to have just a little understanding from him.
Fuck--I was in deeper with Yuy than I'd been in that stupid river, wasn't I?
OWARI
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