Chapter 12: All That Glitters

"I don't usually stand for tardiness, but I think today I'll make an exception since you are all such DEAR friends of mine." Dorothy Catalonia calls out from over her balcony. The palatial villa was a fitting backdrop to the every look in or about this young woman.

Everything was decked out, from golden beam front door to the real gold-plated statues spurting sparkling water into the golden fountain front entrance. It all shouted two words--RICH!!! Elegant!!!--to the group of visitors coming to the slaughter today willingly.

And richness and elegance were two words that Zechs' mind entirely associated with another member of this noted bloodline. It was an unpleasant memory and he smirked with a shaking head crossing his dismayed face. He wondered what on earth could have dragged his now-sensible self to this cursed villa he had visited so often in the past as a young man.

He was the adoring little lackey then of the man who so lavished and spoiled affections on his darling cousin. He wasted so much time and money upon one despicable--

"Treize's little cousin brat who always pulled my hair..." Zechs mutters under his breath, his long haired head shaking its displeasure at being dragged her to Catalina island and its undelectable mistress was written on his frustrated features.

"Mr. Milliardo!" Dorothy seems blissfully unaware of his contemptuous nature towards her. She sings out his name from her balcony's edge like a happy tweety bird. "You haven't graced Catalina's shores for a VERY long time. Not since the days when you and Mr. Treize used to come and play with me here when I was just a little girl. You do remember of course? We have missed you here." Dorothy's haughty voice chirps out almost drippingly too too pleasant. It sounded more like nails on a chalkboard to Milliardo's pain-filled ears.

"Good afternoon, Miss Dorothy. What a pleasant day this is." Now this feminine voice had the totally opposite effect on Zechs. He smiles and his eyes open at his baby sister's calming, peaceful strains as they greet the despicable Dorothy.

"Yes, isn't it?" Dorothy murmurs, letting the sunlight dance upon her beaming features. Both she and it radiated golden rays--one complimented the other. She was always certain the weather would be fine just because she willed it to be.

"Welcome to Catalina as well, Miss Relena, Miss Lucrezia." Dorothy was now leaning luxuriously over her bannister. The sight of one Quatre Raberba Winner stepping out the front door to greet the incoming guests seemed to place a spell over her misty eyes.

"Please, just call me 'Noin'. I've gotten used to it. Nobody ever calls me 'Lucrezia' anymore." Noin kindly requests, her surname was the accustomed one that in fact, everyone called her ever since she was a tiny little girl. That is, everyone except for--

"Yes, but I find 'Miss Lucrezia' so much more alluring for a royal baroness and wife of His Royal Highness, Prince of Sanc, such as yourself. Don't you agree, Quatre?" Senator Dorothy was adept at contradicting. She revelled in making men squirm under her penetrating eyes.

"Well, >gulp< I never really thought about it, but yes, it is a very pretty name. But I like 'Miss Noin,' too." Quatre answers the posed question with a kind smile and blushing eyes at the dark haired woman he was speaking of.

Blue and aqua eyes seemed to blend nicely, and both Zechs and Dorothy's jealous "green" ones noticed more than just a little bit of attraction quite suspiciously.

"Do you now?" Dorothy's voice coos as she takes in the scene, snubbing Quatre R. Winner, who was now the object of today's "lesson."

"I suppose sometimes the simple things are sweet." She states haughtily, sticking her royal nose up in the air at the both of them making goo-goo eyes at one another.

"What is THAT person doing back there?!" Dorothy's snake-like attention diverts to one extremely suspicous personage skulking heretofore unseen in the shadows of the tree-lined lane the limousine that had picked them up had driven down.

"He's uh, scanning the perimeter, Senator. Just a routine security check, you know." Sally pipes up from the backgroud, directly behind Relena. (Where I'm supposed to be. And you are as well, Mr. Secret-Agent Spy Chang! We're guarding the Vice-Foreign Minister today--not trying to escape her and her pacifist family.)

Wufei's eyes slit at his partner's little white lie. He shakes his head in disgust at the deceit before and surrounding his just self--the deceit so named "Woman" that he was stuck to be flanked by all day.

What a rotten mission. I'm not sticking around here with all these weaklings. Wufei grunts to himself, catching a glimpse of beachcomber Duo Maxwell peeking around the door from inside.

"Hey there, good-lookin'! The beach party wouldn't be a party without ya! Let's get going! The ocean waves are calling! Come on, gals! Wu-man! Zechs-sy! We'll all hang ten!!" Duo calls out with a waving invitation, looking every bit the "surfer dude" complete with shades his lowers over his winking eyes.

"Come on, Wufei. Duty calls---Huh? Where'd he go?" Sally's bored, yet dutiful voice is surprised--mildly--to find her Preventer partner suddenly vanished from sight at the mere sound of Duo's happy-go-lucky voice. But between that and Dorothy Catalonia's evil eyes, Sally almost couldn't blame him.

Almost...

She had been getting accustomed to his reticent attitude and often his abandonment of her in sticky situations such as this one.

Gee, thanks, Mr. Reliable Partner of mine.

"Yes, ahem, the beach awaits us. Come along, people." Dorothy dismisses the antics below with a wave. She wraps a golden, shimmery filmy wrap around her pristine shoulders, then turns around, taking hold of Cathrine's slim, silent ones, tugging her along to join the rest of this vacationing group.

"Oh no, you don't!" Noin grabs her own husband who was about to make a run for it like Wufei. "You're not getting away that easily, husband dear." Noin looked like she was enjoying his suffering at Miss Dorothy's hands as Relena pleasantly joins Duo, Quatre, Trowa and Hilde inside to meet up with Dorothy and Cathrine.

"Did she really used to pull your hair, Zechs?" Noin asks him with a smiling smirk at the thought of her young lover.

"Yes, don't ask me about it." Milliardo's clipped voice states simply. He turns away from his laughing wife's beautiful eyes in embarrassment.

"Well, didn't you tell her to stop?" Noin presses on nonetheless, enjoying her down-to-earth husband's squirming.

"Please don't ask anymore." Zechs was sighing now as well as hanging his head in disgrace at the memories.

"All right, lover." Noin coos, seeing clearly her husband's frayed nerves and frustrated spirits.

But maybe I can correct that. You need a little fun today. Noin smiles devilishly and after one final caress on his long platinum hair--

She gives it a playful tug.

"Noin!" Zechs, shocked, shouts at her, but the broad smile on her teasing face couldn't help but spread to his furtive one.

"I just couldn't pass up that chance. I have to tell you, I've always wanted to do that, too." And off she sprints like a young doe, straight towards the shoreline, just beyond the villa.

Bits and pieces of her clothing were strewn along the way, mostly aiming at Zechs' taunting face as she reveals a showy bikini swimsuit. With her every move, she seemed to say 'Catch me if you can', giggling to him as she runs off.

"You always know how to calm me, Noin." Zechs' smile broadens as his tall form takes off after his playful wife--the fun of the ocean at summer calling to them both.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh, Trowa? Doesn't Quatre swim?" Cathrine's voice asks out of the clear blue--the clear blue water that is, surrounding her lovely body.

The tall man, wading in the warm ocean water around her was too busy noticing her to take notice of the solitary blonde boy sitting on the white sandy beach. He was shielded by an umbrella from the bright rays of sunlight.

"...He should..." Trowa answers, not quite so certain.

"So, go and talk to him! Ask him why. He looks in a state! Almost like he's waiting for someone to come. Sometimes I worry for that boy." Cathrine says, her sisterly instincts stretching over to yet another lost orphan boy in need.

"Okay." Pleasantly (Trowa was always pleasant when he spoke to his "big sis") and he goes to where Quatre was sitting alone on the beach blanket.

"All right, what's this all about, hmm?" A shadow comes up from behind. The bright sunlight shading his blonde brow caused his lost-in-a-dream mind to awaken with a start.

"Huh? What was that, Trowa?" He recognized the voice right off, even before he glances up.

"Why aren't you coming in the water with everyone else?" Trowa asks with a welcoming glance to where Duo and Hilde were facing off in their water Olympics and Relena and Dorothy were playing volleyball. Zechs and Noin--well they had disappeared from sight...

"It's still impossible..." Quatre's face grows melancholy, a dark shade befalling him.

"Why? Aren't your wounds healed yet?" Trowa wonders aloud, concern for his best friend who not so long ago, had mortal serious wound that had put him in the hospital for quite a long while at the hands of...someone here.

"Oh yeah!" Quatre's downed face smiles absently as he answers. "I'm completely healed." He smiles broadly now, as if remembering something. "But...a little piece of me...still does remain unsolved...." Quatre finally admits, in that quiet meek voice of his. His eyes slowly travel upwards, weakly as if he were scared to dare look as he continues to speak.

"I've been feeling an awful lot better--and healthy." Quatre reassures Trowa's anxieties of his fragile health. "--But it seems my memories aren't prepared to let something from that time just go..."

Trowa follows Quatre's aqua eyes to the sparkling water's edge where the sparkles seemed to glitter especially upon one gleaming, bright face. Dorothy Catalonia's sparkling blonde hair and laughing eyes shone as she was playing ball with Relena in the ocean nearby. He caught that same glimmer in Quatre's soulful glances.

"....It's something...something...I'm seeing over there..." This admission was barely above a whisper. Quatre R. Winner trailed off the thought. His eyes were trained upon the platinum blonde leopard bikinied beauty.

Ahh.

"I understand." Trowa's confident voice showed that everything was perfectly clear now to him concerning Quatre and a certain blonde. A big question mark pops into Quatre's head when something is suddenly plopped into his lap.

"Sunscreen lotion?" Quatre reads the bottle that Trowa had just chucked at him. "Isn't this Miss Cathrine's?"

"Today, it's all yours, Quatre. I'm sure someone can show you how to use it." Trowa, "man-of-the-world" says knowingly.

"Thanks." Quatre says unsure of his unknowing self.

"See you later. I've got to get back." Trowa gives a glance back to where his own love interest as yet was wandering and waiting for him.

"Right." Quatre looks down, considering whether or not he should...

"--and Quatre," Trowa stops midstream, turning back to add, "--don't let anyone accuse you of being weak--because I don't think you are at all. It's just all in how you handle the situation. You really should just go out there and talk to her." Trowa offers with brotherly advice. "But, probably, there's only just a little hope for you there." Trowa teases, just thinking of Dorothy Catalonia.

"...You're probably right." Quatre concedes with a smile as Trowa leaves.

"Surely anything can happen under the bright sunlight...all traces of pain could certainly disappear from sight..."

Quatre lets Trowa's advice and those little words of hope carry him over to where two young ladies were playing volleyball in the water.

"...Is it okay if I join in now? Even though I'm so late?" Though the voice was still a tinge weak, the words were spoken boldly. He actually made eye-to-eye contact with the girl staring back at him with something in her glassy eyes...something...like high expectations...

"Certainly. What were you waiting for? An invitation?" Dorothy's voice was every bit as biting, as per usual, but behind the voice were eyes filled with almost...a pride...

From his distant view Trowa was almost sure he could hear Quatre snivelling out an excuse.

"No, no, not at all! Why would you think I was waiting?" No doubt, in answer to one of Miss Dorothy Catalonia's imposing questions.

Trowa found himself smiling at Quatre's tumultuous love antics--and then the smile becomes serious at the thought of his own...

Cathrine's bright eyes pressed this thought on him as he walked towards her...