Story: End of the First
Main Characters: Shou, Juudai||Romance: N/A
Word Count: 1,084||Chapter Count: 1/1
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing: GX C47, write in near-past tense; One Friendship Boot Camp: Juudai & Shou, #46, object
Notes: This takes place at the end of season one, before they actually leave the school itself.
Summary: It's time to go home for the summer holidays. Shou can't wait to see everyone he left behind. Juudai just doesn't want to go.

"Man, I wish we didn't have to leave," Juudai groaned, throwing himself down on his bunk and wrapping his arms around his pillow. "I love this place! I could stay here forever!"

Shou rubbed the back of his head. "Aniki, are you sure about that?" He'd heard Juudai say a lot of strange things over the last year, but this had to qualify as one of the strangest. Who'd want to stay in school all the time?

Shou couldn't fully hear his response, given that Juudai now had his head pressed up against his pillow to the point nothing he said made any sense at all.

"Aniki, I can't hear you. And you should get up, we've got to go. The boat's going to leave in thirty minutes."

"I'm not going!" Juudai declared, lifting his head enough so that he could be heard. "They can't make me go."

Shou dropped himself down onto the chair and stared at him. He had no idea of how to deal with any of this. Why wasn't that a class? "Aniki, why don't you want to go home? Don't you want to see your mom and dad?" Did Juudai have any siblings? He'd never mentioned if he had. "And tell them what you've done this year?"

Juudai saved the world! Any set of parents would be proud of him! Shou fully intended to tell his own all about his aniki and how wonderful he was.

He did also intend to avoid mentioning how he'd been bitten by a vampire and almost died in a volcano and almost died because of some spirit tombkkeepers and almost died thanks to a few other things. Sure, Juudai managed to save him each and every time but if they knew that, they might not be quite so eager to let him come back for the next year.

Juudai grumbled something else into the pillow. Shou leaned forward. "What was that?"

"I said, my parents are almost never there in the first place." Juudai stared into his pillow, shoulders a trifle tense. Shou bit his lip, even more uncertain of what he should say. "They work a lot. I've sent them some e-mails. They know when I'm supposed to be there."

Shou opened his mouth but before he could say anything else, Juudai kept on talking.

"They're great, though! They were kind of iffy about me coming here, but that's about it." He wrapped himself harder about his pillow, eyes going up to a point beyond Shou.

Shou had seen him doing that a lot over the last months. If he thought hard enough, he thought he remembered it really starting to be a regular thing about they'd first run into Titan at the Abandoned Dorm. Sometimes he could write it off to just Juudai being Juudai. But sometimes… sometimes he wondered.

"Why wouldn't they want you to come?" Shou clung to something that he could understand. "You're one of the best duelists here!" He couldn't help but look forward to the day when Juudai entered the Pro Leagues and faced up to the best of the best. He'd probably even beat DD one of these days!

Shou could only hope to be there to see it. Maybe after graduation, he could persuade Juudai to hire him as his cabin-boy or whatever it would be called. Someone who would take care of all the things that Juudai didn't want to do or couldn't do.

It wasn't as if Shou would be a pro duelist himself. He wanted to so very much, but with his brother shining like a star above him, he didn't think he'd ever be able to.

"I don't know," Juudai finally said where Shou could hear him. "They've always been kind of weird about my dueling. I found my cards in the attic once."

Shou blinked a few times at that. "You did?" His parents weren't duelists either, but they'd never done that to him.

Juudai wriggled around and sat up at last. "Yeah. I was about six or seven. I'd just gotten out of the hospital and I still wasn't feeling really great. So I started wandering around and looking for things." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Funny thing is, I didn't remember being a duelist then. I didn't remember a lot of things. I'd been really sick and the doctors told me it could take a while for things to settle down for me."

Shou could not even imagine Juudai not remembering dueling. It rang against everything he'd imagined for his honorary big brother. It would've made more sense if he'd forgotten dueling!

"I found a box and when I opened it up, there were all my cards. It took a while for me to get them sorted out. I don't even use most of those anymore, not since I found the Elemental Heroes." He rested one hand on his deck box before he finally looked back at Shou. "They never said anything to me about it, though. Can't say I asked, either."

He shrugged, that usual bright smile appearing. "So, what are you going to do when you get home? Got any plans?"

"Well, not too much." Shou welcomed the chance to talk about something that wasn't as confusing as what Juudai'd been saying. "I want to e-mail my best friend and let her know that I'm going to be back."

Juudai tilted his head. "Best friend?"

"Yeah! Satomi Kai. She lives a few streets over from me. She wanted me to keep her updated on what's been going on here." Though he'd kind of glossed over a few things. But she'd never know, would she?

"Does she duel?"

Trust Juudai to ask that.

"Yup! She plays a deck of Normal female monsters. Mostly warriors. She's good, too. Always used to beat me." He wondered if that would be true now. Maybe he wasn't as good as his brother or Juudai, but… he'd find out.

Juudai bounced off the bed. "You send her an e-mail, then! Maybe she can be there when the boat arrives, and I can duel her!"

Juudai versus Kai? Shou could hardly wait to see that.

And he wasn't surprised at all that the thought of a duel was what got Juudai ready to leave. Some things would never change.

Though he did wonder what might happen in their next year. Hopefully something less dangerous and less likely to end up with universal disaster.

He wanted the future to be bright.

The End

Notes: Oh, Shou… be careful what you wish for.