'Lo!  'Tis me again!  By the way, if I didn't mention this before, this fic happens at about the same time as my fic Katie.  On different sides of the planet, both Trowa and Duo are having terrible luck with the ladies.

Don't ask me why this story turned into a LEMON... the others aren't going to be, this one just went that way and I followed.  I lost control of my story somewhere and the direction it turned was naughty.  >__<

WARNINGS:  As I said before, this fic does have one main made up character (Nola), Trowa and Catherine are from Gundam Wing.

Part 4 will be a LEMON.

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Nola

Part Two:  Flowers

“I have butterflies,” Nola whispered.

“It’s okay, just keep breathing,” Catherine said, checking her hair in a mirror and giving it one last fluff.

Nola peeked out into the main tent, watching people find their seats, “Oh my…”

“Good crowd,” Catherine said, looking over her shoulder.

 “Where’s Trowa?  I haven’t seen him all morning…  I can’t tie him to your target board unless he’s here,” Nola’s voice was rising in pitch with her nerves.

“Try looking behind you,” Trowa said.

She whirled around to snap at him for being late but all higher brain functions stopped and she could do nothing but imitate a goldfish.

Trowa wore green pants held up by red suspenders and nothing else, half a clown mask clutched in his hand.

“Aye… about time you showed up.”

Catherine grinned, “Yeah, she’s been waiting to tie you up.”

Nola coughed, “Yes, well…” she smiled, “Yes, yes I have.”

She gripped a hand around his bicep and smiled invitingly.

Catherine turned away, shoulders shaking with suppressed mirth.

Trowa caught Nola’s hand and squeezed ever so slightly, causing her to gasp.

The lights went out all around the main tent and the little area where the performers stood.

Trowa released Nola immediately and vanished into the darkness of the main tent.

“Ow,” she whispered, flexing her fingers.

“One of the lionesses had her cubs this morning, they both died…” Catherine whispered as they ran to their places.

Nola glanced over at Trowa as she climbed the rope ladder.  It had been so quiet all morning… no one had said a word.

A spotlight hit the center ring where the Ringmaster stood with his microphone, “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages!  Tonight you will be entertained and amazed by death defying feats—” a spotlight hit Nola on the tightrope and she did a few cartwheels across it before the light went off.

“Your eyes will be tricked again and again—” Catherine was illuminated alone on a raised stage flipping a knife between her fingers.  She twirled around and was twiddling two knives.  Another twirl revealed three knives.  Again and she had four.  She bowed and a puff of smoke enveloped her, clearing instantly to reveal Trowa instead, bowing in the same position.

“You will be astounded by the dangerous acts of our performers!”

The spotlight was on the lions’ ring, their trainers were cracking whips and the head trainer had his head in the dominant male’s mouth.

“Enjoy the show!”

Nola had worn her green and black outfit, having found a small tear in the blue and yellow one.  At one point in her performance, she bounced up and did the splits in mid air and the audience held it’s breathe as she grabbed the rope at the last moment and swung her leg up to hook over it.  She dangled there, waving at the crowd and they applauded, whistling and shouting.

When Trowa joined her act it got a little more exciting.  He walked along the rope with Nola balancing on his shoulders.  It was much easier than it looked, but Nola enjoyed the squeals of fear from the crowd.  It was obvious that Trowa did too, pretending to slip and only just caught Nola in his arms before she fell.

“That was close,” she whispered.

They bowed side by side on the ropes and the lights hit the trapeze and the Amazing Laurell Brothers (and sister) were soon flying through the air.

A little while later, in a dark side ring, Nola was tying Trowa spread-eagle to Catherine’s target board while the audience watched the trick horses run around the other two rings.

“I’m sorry about the cubs.”

Trowa wore his mask and the uncovered half of his face frowned, “About earlier—”

“No,” she whispered, “I was being a pain.”

Trowa’s eyebrow rose, “I’m used to it.”

Nola’s jaw dropped, “Hey!”

“Shh, Catherine’s coming.”

Nola ducked out of sight just before the ring was lit up.  Catherine pretended to toy with Trowa, tossing her knives from hand to hand, acting as if to throw it but not.  He didn’t move a muscle.

A couple clowns stole her knives and began juggling them around her, much to the crowd’s delight.

She finally got them back and smiled evilly as she threw a dagger and it landed very near the bare skin of his chest.

Another one hit the other side of the board, and then two near his head.

Catherine turned to the audience and yawned, flicking her last dagger over her shoulder.

Most of the crowd gasped, a few girls screamed, and one guy actually fainted as the knife hit very high up near Trowa’s inner thigh.

Nola jerked out that knife and cut his bonds.  He lifted her onto his shoulders and they bowed, and then pointed to Catherine.  She smiled and waved and the lights went out until the only one was on the Ringmaster, “Coming up next…”

Catherine led the way out of the tent and into the night air.  Nola slid off Trowa’s shoulders and kissed his cheek, “That was so great, it’s like I never left at all!”  She hugged Catherine tightly before running off singing a circus theme.

Catherine shook her head, “Affectionate little thing, isn’t she?”

Trowa shrugged, “She’s happy, let her hug and kiss all she wants.”

She grinned, “I noticed that you don’t mind at all.”

Trowa glanced at her as he slipped his mask off, “At least she doesn’t try to maim me the way you do,” he slipped two fingers into a fresh hole in his costume near a very sensitive area, “Do you realize how close that is?”

Catherine looped an arm through his and began walking toward a celebratory campfire, “So sorry, I was slightly careless.  It’s not the first time… at least I didn’t draw blood.”

“It’s always a good day when I don’t end up bleeding.”

Early the next morning before sunrise, someone gripped Nola’s shoulder and clamped a hand over her mouth at the same time.

She struggled until she saw Trowa, “Hmm?”

He put a finger to his lips and gestured to Catherine’s still sleeping form.

“What are you doing in here?” Nola whispered, “Don’t you ever knock?”

“It’s the costume trailer, why should I knock?”

She frowned at him, “Try again.”

“I didn’t want to wake Catherine, come on.”

He left without another word and Nola was left guessing.

She slipped on some jean shorts and pulled her long hair back in a ponytail, mumbling, “Up before sunrise, again!”

Once outside, she realized she didn’t even know why she was up.  What was going on?

“This way,” Trowa jerked his head away from the caravans.

“Why all the secrecy?” she asked, jogging to catch up to him.

“Catherine would start in on my kidnapping you.”

“You’re kidnapping me?”

“You asked me to.”

Nola looked farther ahead and saw a cherry red motorcycle parked near the trucks.

“You weren’t joking when you said you’d take me?”

She ran ahead of him, looking over the bike, and began jumping up and down, “This is so cool.”

Trowa got on, started it up and held his hand out to her, “Let’s go.”

She straddled it and had just enough time to slip her arms around his waist before he sped off away from the circus, farther into the country.

The sun rose as they winded down back roads through the woods.  He slowed the bike and finally stopped before an old dirt path and parked it.

Nola followed him silently along the path until he suddenly stepped off into the dense undergrowth.

“Where are you going?”

Silence answered her.

She looked around and finally followed.  She spent much of her time watching her feet, trying not to stumble and fall.  When she emerged into a patch of sunlight, she gasped.

Trowa stood in a large field overgrown with flowers that reached up to his thighs.  A lone budding apple tree emerged from the middle of the field as if someone had planted it on purpose… perhaps someone had.

Nola walked around, amazed.  No matter where she stepped, the flowers seemed to move out of her way, not breaking a single bunch, her path closing behind her as she moved.

She was walking around the apple tree when something caught her ankle and she pitched forward, landing hard on her hands, “Ahh!”

Her eyes teared up as she rolled over and sat up, completely surrounded by flowers higher than her head.

Trowa knelt next to her, “Are you hurt?”

“What was that?”

“Tree root, are you hurt?”

She nodded, rubbing her hand that had landed on a rock, “That’ll teach me not to pick fights with trees.”

He rubbed his thumb over her palm, “Yes…nothing broken…”  His fingers massaged over hers and she felt the pain ease away.  Trowa raised her hand to his lips and kissed it gently, “Better?”

She laughed, brushing away tears, “Yes, thank you.”

Trowa smiled honestly and she gaped, “You do smile!”

It vanished and he looked away, “Of course I smile.”

“Hey, I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” she reached out a hand and took his.

He turned back to her, “I’m not embarrassed.”

“Oh, well, fine then,” she got to her knees in front of him and grinned, “Thank you for taking me for my first motorcycle ride… I hope it won’t be the last.”

She leaned in to kiss his cheek as always.

However…

Trowa turned into her kiss and met her lips with his.

Nola gasped into his mouth and froze.  Her hands went timidly up to his shoulders and his hands encircled her waist, pressing her close.

She pulled away first, voice breathy, “Trowa?”

He raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to continue.

“I…I…” Nola blushed, “I can’t think of a thing to say.”

“That’s a first,” Trowa said, letting her go and lying down on his back beneath the flowers.

Nola sat down and hugged her knees to her chest, “I’m confused.”

“About?”

“You...  Me...  Everything.”

He remained silent, leaving her to think.

“I… I like you Trowa.  Catherine told me you never open up to people, so you have to understand what a surprise this is to me.”

“Yes,” he said, completely neutral.

“We haven’t known each other long.  I’m just now getting comfortable with being back with the circus; my life is one big confused mess.  I don’t know if Darius is ever going to come find me, his mom might come around…”

Trowa pillowed his head on his arms, “Yes?”

She covered her face, “(mumble) (mumble mumble).”

“What?”

Her hands dropped, “I said, ‘and now this’… I feel like I should be apologizing for all of it.”

“Don’t.”

“Why?”

“I knew.”

“You knew?”

“I knew all of that before kissing you,” Trowa said, sitting up and crawling toward her.

She laughed nervously, “What, you kiss me once and you know everything about me?”

“Imagine what I’d know if I kissed you twice,” he said, and sealed his lip over hers again.  She made a small noise of protest, but it was lost.

He pulled away abruptly.

“What?”

“We have to go back,” he said, standing and pulling her to her feet.

His hands shook slightly as he let her go and he started back toward where they’d left the bike.

Nola followed, watching his back as he walked, ‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he didn’t trust himself with me.’

Later that day, Catherine and Nola were repainting the target board bright green in a side ring.  They were being rather messy about it, getting in a paint flinging war at one point, but the Ringmaster had put a stop to it.

Nola dipped her brush in the pail and started on the red trim, “How long have you known Trowa?”

Catherine sat back on her heels, brushing her hair back from her face, leaving a green smudge, “A few years… he was young when he joined up, mid-teens.  He was… different, hardly talked, when he did, he was so serious, like he didn’t want to talk to you … or just didn’t care about anything.”

“And he got sick?”

“Yeah, he used to leave for periods of time; no one knew where he went… one time he didn’t come back.  I found him and he was so ill…”

Nola watched her face; there was something she wasn’t saying.

“He’s a little nicer now, ever since he got better.  He has a sense of humor… one some people get, and he cares for things, like the lions, and me.”

Nola looked away, positive her face was burning.

“He’s less hostile, a little more accommodating, and he hasn’t killed anyone in a while.”

She smiled mischievously at Nola, a smile that didn’t tell whether or not she was joking.

“Nola, I need to talk to you,” Trowa said, appearing at the tent opening.

“Stealing her again?” Catherine asked tartly, “Twice in one day, my, my, my.”

Trowa gave her a level stare and Nola brushed her hands on her shorts, “Sure.”

She followed him out past the trailers toward the animal storage area.  They were completely alone; the circus being closed that day, most of the other performers had gone into the nearest town.  He turned to her outside the lions’ cages and studied her.

“What?”

His fingers brushed her cheek and his thumb rubbed her nose and came away green.

“Oh, yeah, we got a little messy,” she laughed, rubbing at her face.

He raised an eyebrow and turned to unlock the cage housing the dominant male.

“What are you doing?!”

“Shh…”

He stepped inside and Nola backed away from his inviting hand, “Hell no!”

“Close your eyes.”

“But…I…”  She looked from him to the lion and back, “I… I trust you.”

She closed her eyes and took his hand.

He guided her into the cage and told her where to kneel, placing her hands on the lion’s shoulder.

He kept his hand over hers as he rubbed her fingers through the feline’s mane.

“Your hands are sweating, Trowa, why are you nervous?”

He didn’t answer, but gently took his hands away until she was combing her fingers through the soft, slightly tangled fur on her own.

She opened her eyes and smiled, “He’s so warm.”

The lion didn’t seem to mind the stranger in his cage at all, eyes closed like a contented house cat.

She stood slowly, “How do you do it?  They’re so tame around you.”

“They’re tame around you too.”  He placed his hands on her shoulders and backed her out before locking the cage.

She turned in his arms and hugged him tightly, “Thank you, this means so much to me!”

Trowa returned the hug, wondering if she understood what it meant to him to show her the lions as he saw them.  ‘No, she can’t understand, it would be too much, scare her probably.’

“I have to get back to Catherine… the board needs two coats and… thank you.”

She squeezed his arm gently and turned away, ‘What is all this?  I don’t understand anything anymore… Trowa and Darius?  Darius.  I’ll give him a week; I have a life to live.  I can’t wait forever.’

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Onward to Part 3!

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