Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ Hokkyokusei: The North Star ❯ Partners ( Chapter 4 )

Partners

Cala was still gone. She had missed the prep talk completely (again) and the show was beginning in two hours. It would start at noon precisely. Not a minute later. The ringmaster was busy with some minor problems, so he hadn't noticed Cala's prolonged disappearance. Yet. Trowa hadn't actually gotten costumed and make-upped yet, as it was still fairly early. Only starters were getting ready to begin. He wasn't a starter. He and Cathy were never starters, really only because-

Damn. I just remembered. I have to do a dual act with Cala, since Cathy's gone. We should have practiced, before now. She doesn't know what we're supposed to be doing. I should have remembered before this, so we could have rehearsed earlier. I've got to find Cala.

His eyes narrowed infinitesimally and a deep furrow in his brow formed. He sighed and exited the side tent and hurried to the trailer that he, Cathy-and now Cala-shared. Cala intercepted him as he approached, interrupting him before he could even begin to admonish her and himself for their error.

"The ringmaster's just told me that we've got to perform together. I've seen your acts with Catherine, just give me an outline of this act that we'll supposed to perform tonight," she said, moving straight to business. She turned him around and started walking with him in the direction he had just come from. "I'll work with that, I've dealt with a lot worse," she added dryly.

He hadn't been sure what he was going to say to her after he had overheard part of her conversation with the man over the communicator unit. He hadn't been certain at all when he had set out to look for her. But because she was subtly insulting him now, Trowa knew exactly what to do and say. He let his natural reaction take over; forgetting about the thoughts that had nagged at him all morning.

"If you say so," he said dubiously, raising an eyebrow provocatively and waving vaguely toward a couple of folding chairs off to the side, by the outside of the tent. He didn't hear Cala move, but he knew that she had gone and picked up two of the chairs that he had pointed out. Trowa took his from her and carried it to a low-branched tree, setting it under the shade. She followed suit and sighed happily as they escaped the burgeoning heat from sun.

"Since you'll be taking over Cathy's place in the troupe and the spotlight, you'd better get used to working with me. She and I do double acts all the time." Cala lifted a brow, as if thinking something that she wouldn't say. Trowa took note of it, but didn't bother responding. "We'll practice everyday for an hour or so to perfect the moves and our synchronization together. One wrong move on one of our parts at a wrong time could be deadly. We'll usually have more time than this to rehearse our act, though. Catherine will warn us ahead of time, from now on. Is there something you'd like to add, before I give you your suggested outline?"

"Actually, yes, there is. Besides, my pointing out that that was the longest speech that you've ever made in front of me, I need to ask you something." Trowa didn't bother to react to her flippancy and waited for her to continue, not replying. Cala rolled her eyes, before continuing. "I was under the impression that I was doing solo performances during the show, like last night. Why do I need to do a dual act with you now?"

"You'll be taking Catherine's role here. And as you might have noticed last night, she did a dual act with me," he retorted snippily, offended at her dislike in her voice when she mentioned him. His arms crossed instinctively over his chest and he drew closer in confrontation.

"I knew I should've spoken to the manager about this," she muttered irately to herself, provoking Trowa into attack mode.

"If you can't handle working with me, take it up with me."

"Is that an insult or a challenge?" Cala demanded, equally affronted as him. Her hands went to her hips and her lip sneered in hauteur. The electricity between them was thick enough to feel.

"Which would you prefer?" he returned, barely keeping his calm. Her silence stretched on for seemingly an eternity.

Seconds passing onto minutes and still no reply. A breeze picked up and knocked the branches overhead askew. The quiet movement opened the shade to the still bright, but fading sunshine. The soft wind picked up random strands of Cala's dark locks and pranced with them in the air. A shaft of yellow sunlight raced down through the gaps in the branches. It caught Cala's profile and illuminated her face.

The indigo orbs on her face brightened and shone in the sudden light. Trowa could feel himself falling into their depths. And in that moment, Trowa saw Cala in a different light. Smoldering anger, hurt pride, and dignity lit her eyes.

He simply stopped seeing her as the kid replacement for his beloved sister that he could and should despise. He saw her as she was: a grown woman, talented, responsible, annoying, confusing, funny, irritating, and…

Absolutely the most gorgeous thing to walk the planet.

She was enigmatic, for certain, making her all the more suspicious to Trowa's experience, but that was the whole allure of it all. He could sense hidden strength from her and secrets that she wouldn't divulge for the world. And it wasn't just that she was physically beautiful, he realized. It was her passion genuineness that emanated from her that made her so particularly beautiful. When he dared to dive into the depths of those dark blue eyes, as he was doing now, he saw and felt something. He couldn't explain what, but it made him feel as he'd never felt in his life.

The soft breeze continued, blowing a stray strand of ebony hair into Cala's eyes. Her angrily lit eyes did not waver and when she didn't bother to brush it away, his hand involuntarily reached up to do so for her. An electric spark shook through him as his hand touched the soft skin of her temple. Startled, he quickly withdrew his hand. From the look of surprise in her widened eyes, he knew that she had felt it too.

"Uh… What were we talking about?" she asked a little breathlessly and she stepped back. Her gaze with his did not waver from his, though, and she lost her surprised look.

Trowa forced himself to focus on what she was saying, even though the urge to close the distance between them was distracting him. "The act."

"Right. It's in about an hour and a half. What the hell are we supposed to do after that hour and a half are up?" A frown creased her forehead.

His emerald eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Hmm. I've been planning out a new act with Cathy, but we haven't had time to actually test it out yet. My part's pretty much perfected, though. Why don't we try that?"

"Is it on the high rope?"

"Yes."

"Any safeties?"

"No."

Her eyebrow shot up doubtfully. "Daring, aren't you? A completely new and untried act that you haven't even practiced with your own sister and yet you're willing to perform it with a complete stranger."

"If you're afraid-"

"I never said I was afraid. I said that if I were you I would be afraid."

"So, I should be afraid of performing my act with you?" Trowa's face remained expressionless and Cala smirked.

"No, I never said that either. I'll pull off your performance, don't worry, and I'll make it famous."

"Enough talk, let's get moving." He started to head back to the tents, when he realized that his so-called-partner was walking in the opposite direction. "Hey! Where are you going? The tents are back this way." Cala smiled smugly and stopped only to reply.

"I'm not going to the tents. Where are you going?" She whirled around and disappeared behind a thicket of trees. A sigh of exasperation could not be suppressed from him.

"I hate my life. No, that's wrong, I hate her," he muttered grumpily to himself, following her and picking his way through the tangle of large thick tree trunks and smaller shoots that were coming up in the canopy gaps.

"I heard that!" Cala's voice came from somewhere ahead of him.

"You were supposed to." Her laugh's echo bounced off trees, making the forest seem to lighten up.

When he finally caught up to Cala, they had apparently reached their destination. She stood, waiting, in the middle of the clearing that he'd seen her talking before. However, now, instead of the jumble of electrical wires there was cleared ground and a high metal wire hung between two trees. It was approximately fifteen feet in the air.

"Not too high, not too low," came Cala's voice, as if reading his mind.

"I'm just impressed how fast you got it up," Trowa retorted automatically, not bothering to turn to her.

There was a pause before she answered. "I've had it all afternoon and it's pretty simple to put everything up." Her voice sounded odd and he realized the full meaning of what he'd said. For a second, he held his breath, wondering whether or not she would guess what he had done earlier that morning. "You think that I'm the type of girl that needs men to do the hard work of putting up the wire, do you? I'm shocked at your stupidity."

He let the breath go in a disbelieving snort. So Cala wasn't as brilliant and deductive as he'd first thought. Oh well, the better off for him. He turned his concentration back to analyzing the miniature high wire, missing the disdainful glint in Cala's bright eyes.

~*~*~

Children's delighted laughter drifted through the air and the happiness of everyone around was infectious. Cathy couldn't stop the wide grin that popped up on her face as soon as she saw the bright lights of the carnival. She couldn't remember ever being so giddy with laughter in her entire life. Quatre seemed to be infected with the happiness too.

When they had arrived, Cathy had sprung out the driver's side (after hastily parking the vehicle) and dragged her somewhat reluctant fiancé over to the ticket booth. After they had purchased their tickets, she promptly beat Quatre at a game of remote controlled water boat racing. She made it up to him by letting him take her into the Fun House. It still made her shiver at the thought of all those creepy corridors there.

They'd made their way into the House of Mirrors, Ferris Wheel, and most of the game booths. Quatre had bought two huge pink cotton candy sticks and a huge bucket of buttered popcorn and they were walking hand in hand, talking and laughing.

They were having the time of their life. The past forgotten, the future put on hold, merely living in the present. But the suspense of time and thought couldn't last forever.

~*~*~

About forty-five minutes later, they were still rehearsing their parts on the practice wire. Trowa had just made his second timing error, which had then caused Cala to trip over his misplaced foot and tip off the wire. She had landed all right considering that she'd landed flat on her back, but the wind was knocked out of her and her temper was high.

"We've got the moves down pat, we just don't have the coordination!" It was her fifth time saying so, though this was her first time saying it on the ground.

"How do you expect me to have perfect coordination with you when I just met you?!" he demanded, pulling himself back into a sitting position on the wire and glaring down at her.

"You've dedicated your whole life to this and you can't do it?! I've known you long enough to figure out your body rhythm, why can't you figure out mine?!" she yelled back, dusting off her jeans and marching over to one of the trees that supported the wire. "And I haven't lived a big chunk of my life in a circus!"

"Sorry I can't do everything as perfectly as you, but I'm only human! I can't execute everything perfectly and analyze everything perfectly like a machine!" he retorted, his voice rising.

"Get over it! I'm not expecting you to be a perfect machine, nor do I consider myself one. I'm just expecting you to be smart enough to learn from your mistakes and not let them happen again! Just like every other normal person in the world. That timing error is simple enough to correct, but you need to focus and pay attention to it all the way through. This is your act, not mine, so you're going to look pretty stupid if you mess it up!"

Then, he did the most unexpected thing. Trowa swung himself back, hung upside down from the wire and gave her a very sour raspberry. Her burst of laughter scared the birds from the treetops and was heard by the ringmaster back at camp.