Only the heart matters

A.N.: I wanted to give Duke & Yuri a little love since they don't seem to receive any lol!

It's a short fic about Duke and Yuri while they found themselves alone after the end of the game. *SPOILERS AHEAD*

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

It had been two years since the end of the Adephagos, Brave Vesperia was up and running, so was the Empire with Flynn as a commandant and Ioder as the Emperor. The alliance between Estellis the Vice-emperor and Brave Vesperia one of the master guilds made negotiations between the guilds and the Empire relatively easy. Most of them had found their own purposes and obligations: Karol as a busy guild's boss, Rita as an inventor, Raven helping both knights and guilds without really keeping attaches anywhere and Judith was going from doing guild's jobs, training newbie's, and exploring the world.

Yuri himself had found his own style of living. One that would rudely be called by a certain captain Leblanc as vagabonding… Well, it was really going from one barely civilized place to another. However, without really intending to share his aimless wandering with anyone, he had found the company of one whose journey was alike his: Duke.

It was a wonder for both men how they had ended up tagging along with one another. It had begun with crossing paths a little too often, had ended with an aimless line, like: "If we're just going to end up at the same place. How about we get there through the same path?". And so they had, the mysterious reasons that had pushed the white haired swordsman to agree with the proposal might forever remain unknown to the long haired warrior.

Yuri mused over these facts; a full year had passed since that decision had been made. A full year since he last saw any of his other friends. He wondered how they would react if they knew he had been living with their once enemy for a year. There was also the fact that the two of them were so very far apart, in almost every possible sense of the word. The swordsman tried to picture the face of his childhood friend if he were to casually tell him about that year's events.

"May I ask: why does my presence here seems to amuse you?" The white haired man asked as the raven one realized he had allowed a very out-of-place smirk to appear while he had been staring at his companion.

"Heh, just thinking about something veeeeeery funny!" he tried to explain as the mental simulation of Flynn's reaction started to make him want to laugh uncontrollably.

Duke gave him a look, clearly meaning to ask about the other's sanity; fortunately the black haired swordsman managed to repress his need to roll on the ground while laughing and got his normal composure back.

Well… that was before he noticed just how silly his companion looked; as the Great War hero had decided to cook with an apron of sorts on him: now he absolutely had to find a way to show this to his friends the next time he crossed paths with them.

"S-sorry! But I just can't!" he cried as he couldn't hold the laugh anymore when Duke sent him his trademark 'angry glare' while in the frilly thing.

It's not like he had expected that, when he had complained that the white haired man had denied touching the 'cooking department' since the beginning of their journey together. It wasn't like he truly reprimanded the other male either. The other just didn't seem to realize that any normally constituted human being needed to eat, sleep and take breaks. Yuri was pretty sure that at the beginning of their little adventure (and maybe even now), the ex-knight might have never noticed it if he had stopped cooking, even if it meant not feeding him for days… A strange phenomenon since the white haired male had much more apatite than the raven haired warrior might have given him credit for.

"I really never expected you to have something so fancy in your baggage…" he added while pointing at the hilarious apron.

"It was… a gift…" he trailed off, hoping that this explanation would shut his companion up.

"A- No Way? Just what king of person was that friend of yours anyway?" Yuri asked disbelief apparent.

"Elucifur… was very intrigued by human's customs and… interests… He also appreciated associating with the oddest kind of people…" he admitted as he recalled suffering his friend's sparkling eyes each time that woman knight had the bright idea of telling the Entelexeia about some stupid and highly arranged fact of the human's life…

"Yeah, I can see that." The dark haired man acknowledged as he looked intently at the other while totally missing his point.

Duke sighed as he decided to end the conversation by filling the bowls with the curry he had just made.

"Heh! Doesn't look so bad!" Yuri said as he eagerly took a bite of the mixture, only to freeze once the spoon was in his mouth.

"Is something the matter?" Duke asked as his traveling companion didn't seem to make any sort of move even after a minute or so, he himself hadn't touched his food, too taken by the strange reaction.

Carefully nearing the other's prone form, the white haired Dein Nomos' wielder poked at the other's shoulder with his index finger while crouching to be about the same height as the other. He watched with mild interest as Yuri regained consciousness again, only to throw the bowl he was still holding as far as he could into the dense vegetation surrounding them.

"W-what the heck did you put into that thing?" he accusingly pointed the older man who had not moved from his crouched position next to him.

"Hmmm… Maybe such a reaction should have been expected since it was my first time at food making…" he pondered as he took the wise decision to not touch his own bowl of "food".

"WHAT? How the hell did you survive for 11 years without food?" Yuri disbelievingly asked the other. He could hardly picture the man wearing an apron and making food in the middle of a forest, sure. But he couldn't just think that the man had lived without eating at all. And he certainly didn't seem like the type who would take 'take-outs' at someplace or another… Maybe he let his monster friends do the cooking for him, or Khroma…

"I did not live 'without eating'; I merely suggested that I did not 'make food'. My main nourishment came from the raw ingredients my surroundings provided me…" he explained.

"…I see… I guess that makes sense… But even so… Didn't you,… like,… taste this?" Yuri asked for yet another unexplainable fact.

"What point is there in tasting the food to make it to your liking? All beings have different likes and dislikes; I made the food for you as well: how could I know what balance and spices would best suit you? Wouldn't it be more equal to do this objectively?" he asked back, making Yuri believe that the man was totally ignorant of the little thing called 'common sense' and/or that he was way too deep in everything he was doing.

"…forget it, I'll just stick to the cooking from now on…" apparently satisfied with his answer, the white haired male went back to his own side of the camp. Though Yuri seemed to have remained oblivious to the fact that the taller man had just implied that it was useless to make food to respond to his own liking if it didn't respond to Yuri's…

"Yuri Lowell." The white haired male called out to his travelling companion.

That tone was one that the swordsman had labeled as the 'I'm going to make your life miserable by asking you something in a language that you don't seem to comprehend' tone. The man seemed to like doing so in the oddest times, like he had no conscience of the times and places. He could randomly ask if the man realized how odd his decision to save humanity looked like as they travelled away from civilization, right after or before asking if Yuri hadn't forgotten to retrieve his towel from whichever branch it had been drying on… Such questions could also randomly appear whenever they were in battle against a powerful monster that had stupidly thought he could use them as a snack, or just really at anytime of the day… or night. At the beginning, Yuri had freaked out at the guy's randomness, but now he was mostly used to it; even now, when he was obviously trying to enjoy a shower under a natural waterfall.

At least, he knew that he had no need to push the other to get going, since he long learned that he would ask his question even if Yuri tried throwing something at him to get him to stop.

"You are always so confident… Has there been any time when words seemed to weight you down? Did you ever feel fear at speaking your own mind out?" he asked as he intently watched his companions back.

"It depends… but sure. Like now: I really don't feel like having a deep conversation and I would really like to tell you to fuck off in the rudest possible way… but I know that it would be useless so I'm just going to drop it…" he answered, knowing that the other would remain unsatisfied and probably go on bugging him until he had a straight answer; but he had learned to appreciate the other's deep, soothing voice; so he didn't really mind being bothered some more. He contemplated on his own uncharacteristic comportment as he waited for an answer while massaging his scalp with a sweet smelling shampoo.

"I see…" the white haired man sighed, surprising Yuri as this outcome was relatively out of character to him.

"Really now? Care to 'enlighten' me?" he asked as the silence finally got the better of him.

"Sometimes… I see you, and words seem like they are too heavy for me to let them out. How odd: it's like, for the first time in a long while, I apprehended the outcome that meaningless words might cause." He finally said as he admired the soap run along the curves of the other's body as he rinsed his hair.

"You? Too scared for words? My… Maybe the world did get destroyed while we weren't looking." He answered as he tried to get rid of all the bubbles in his hair through the waterfall. "But you know. When words don't come out, you can still act!" the raven haired swordsman said as he turned to the other: he liked to think that actions were better than words and that sometimes all you needed was to let it all out with your fists.

"Maybe…" Duke pondered on those words as Yuri interpreted his thoughts.

"Yeah, so… Don't sweat it: it's not like I couldn't handle you! But if you plan on taking me on, you'll still need to be prepared for pay back time!" he confidently told the other. He himself wouldn't mind a little heated battle against the hero of the Great War every now and then.

"Hmmm… Maybe I should indeed have to consider this a possibility…" the other answered before making his way back to their camp, leaving a confused and very naked Yuri behind.

"What… possibility?"

A.N.: Here, that was short. But I suddenly got the urge to write about Duke: the man's way of speaking is simply fascinating! There should definitely be more love for Duke!

Duke: Love? Such triviality is not needed by my person.

Yuri: Translation: I'm too cool and sexy for you people!

Duke: There is no need to translate my speech.

Yuri: Whatever you say…

A.N.: Right… Anyway, I wonder if I should make another chapter or something, but I lack a clue or something so if anyone got ideas like a word or light plot for those two please tell me ^^

Duke: Why need more of these useless ramblings? Do you not usually plan on making longer tales?

Yuri: She does. But now she decided to get a little bit of advance with the chapters before trying to post anything. Besides there are still exams going!

A.N.: It all your fault if I can't concentrate on them fully though!

Yuri: Yeah, right… You go and accuse us, it's not gonna change the facts.

A.N.: Argh! I'm going to write something where you suffer so much that you'll regret ever speaking back at me!

Duke: Now seems like a good opportunity for me to remain calm and unconcerned by human's trivial matters…

Yuri: Yeah… You do that…

Duke: I will pray for the peace of your soul then.

Yuri: I'm not dead yet!

Duke: …yet.

Yuri: Keyword being here I suppose…

Duke: And although this is remotely pointless to I, the comments seems to be highly appreciated.