I've been obsessed with this show lately, but I'm still trying to decipher everything about the characters. So please excuse any OOCness in this series of three. The stories don't really have anything to do with each other; I just got inspired to write three. That and I felt like playing around with Aki.

One-shot one of three.

Implied Aki x Yusei

There is a little bit of Aki/ Crow friendship, since I don't know why but they seem like they would make great friends to me.

Takes place between the Dark Signer ark and the World Grand Prix ark.

Wet Ink

The beaches of the Satellite ended up being a large tourist attraction to the newly rediscovered island and Neo Domino City. With the heat of the Dark Signers defeat finally leaving the bodies of the unknown saviours of the city; other things were left to fill the space. Yusei, Jack and Crow were working toward better mechanics for their riders; the World Grand Prix was after all only a year away, Rua and Ruka were starting at Duel Academy, Aki too but for the second time. Martha and her children were still living on that property in the Satellite. Carly was busy as ever attempting to find stories while still raking her brain over the gap in her memory from her time as a Dark Signer. And of course Mikage and Ushio were now partner's ageist crime.

Life was as it was supposed to be.

She had family, she had friends. She was top of her class at Duel Academy. Everything was perfect. Well almost everything – many things were still very unclear to her. How things could be so good now, was just one. She couldn't stay on the topics for long though, as pathetic as she thought it was, she drove herself into a blinding headache doing so.

The first time Martha persuaded everyone to come down to the beach with her and her kids, however, it became perfectly apparent. She was scared. That's what was missing, the courage to show the marks of the witch – before she found her true friends.

It had been an impulse. Something she just had to do. She couldn't understand it or even if it could be understood. Aki knew perfectly well that she wasn't ashamed of it, but scared. What would everyone else think?

True, she wasn't exactly one of those delicate little creatures you saw in the mall, ones that took offenses to everything, but she had feelings. The look of complete shock when she told her parents was enough to drive her to cover it up until she was 80.

But – it wasn't like she didn't like it. In fact, she still loved it as much as the day she got it. It brought back memories, painful ones, but one's she had learn to deal with and soon she separated it from all of them. After all, it had nothing to do with anything at all, but it still scared her, what someone else might think. And unfortunately, people were starting to notice.

She had been on the dock, her legs dangling over the sides, and a book in her hands. Everyone else was in the water. Even Jack, though he was more standing doing nothing as he refused to do anything. One of the twins came over every so often to ask if she would come in, and each time she would give them the same no.

"You're pretty boring whenever we come to the beach," a voice droned from beside her.

She watched from the corner of her eye as Crow pushed himself onto the dock. She moved away from him a little to keep from getting wet. She could loosely call him her friend, they were close enough now to have a civil conversation, but it didn't take a genius to know that she was much more comfortable talking to Yusei and the twins.

"Do you not know how to swim or something," he asked her, shaking out his hair a little.

She used her t-shirt to wipe off the stray water that had made its way onto her face and book, "I can swim."

"Then, do you not like swimming?"

"I like swimming."

"Then do you have your period or is there another reason why you've never come into the water?"

She hit his arm, hard. He winced in pain, fully noticing the glares her book was receiving on his behalf.

She closed it suddenly, a louder sound than expected emitting from the pages, and placed it down beside her, "Why do you care that I'm not swimming?"

Aki didn't apologize or regret the harsh tone that came from her mouth, she had a temper, and she knew that. But Crow was overly curious, and annoying. He had it coming.

"Hey," he started putting up his hands as a blockade between them, "I don't, but the twins want you in there, the kids want you in there, and Yusei's a little puzzled on why you won't come in."

"Yusei?"

Her voice was almost inaudible. She felt the tips of her mouth curl up cautiously, but Crow took no notice.

"Yeah, I guess he thinks something's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong."

"Well I know that," Crow scoffed with pride, "do you have a bathing suit underneath your clothes."

She looked down, automatically, at her t-shirt and shorts, "yes."

"Then don't kill me for this."

In a quick motion he had her up in his arms and then into air. She hit the water within milliseconds and came up with a slight cough and a glare at the red head. Crow stood by the edge snickering a little at her.

Aki, still glaring, cursed at him, and grabbed for him. She missed as he stumbled about, trying his best not to let her grab hold of his ankles. Unable to regain his balance, he accidentally flung himself into the water beside her. She hit him as he resurfaced.

Angrily, she slipped out of her now soaking clothes and threw them onto the deck to dry. She made sure to keep her torso, more specifically her left side, underwater as she made her way away from the eyes of anyone around her. Her parent's reactions suddenly slipped into her mind - their shock, their surprise, their slight disappointment.

A pair of arms threw themselves around her neck and pulled her backwards. She turned, expecting to find Crow but thrown into a happy relief when it was only Rua.

"You came in," he rejoiced grabbing her hand under the water and pulling her along to where his sister and Yusei stood in the water.

"Had a change of heart, Aki," Yusei asked her as they watched the twins run amuck in the water. His voice calmed her down, whether she knew it or not, from those simple words she was no longer angry at the red head for throwing her in.

"Not really, more like a forced change of scenery," she spat, the last of her anger leaving through her mouth.

He let out a light chuckle, something rare and cherished from his serious atmosphere, "He's like that. You'll get used to him.

"Yeah," she was lost in his voice, the words barley scratching the surface of her mind. She couldn't care less, what he'd just said, or what had just happened. Who cares that Crow threw her so suddenly into the water. Who cares that she was now letting her clothing shields dry as she now walked with it in full view. What was she even hiding anymore?

"Aki?"

"Hm?"

"Is that a tattoo on your side?"

She looked to him, wide-eyed. Then she realized in her dream-bound state, not only had she stood up from the water, exposing her torso, but he had been on her left. Before, she could answer him or at least explain herself, he talked and she was forced into silence again.

"It's nice. It suits you."

Nice? It suited her? His tone was nothing near insulting as the few who had seen it had been. She smiled looking down at the picture up her side, a mass of thorny vines with dark roses thrown in a repetitive pattern up the many twists. Her fingers idly traced it's length, from the tallest vine at the underside of her breast, to it's end just below her hip. She crossed her arms ageist her chest with a sudden spurt of confidence, taking a quick glance at Yusei before looking back out at the twins.

'Who cares what people think,' she told herself, 'I like it, and Yusei likes it. I think the beach is officially one of my favourite places."

0x0x0x0x0x

Look out for number two in the series: Scars

Constructive criticism is highly appreciated, flames however are not. I hope you enjoyed this little ditty.