Legal Disclaimer: All of the characters and situation presented here are property of Toei Entertainment and not me. They'll all be given back sooner or later.
Title: What Are Brothers For
Main Focus: Marufuji Ryou
Secondary Focus: Ryou and Shou sibling ness
Timeline Placement: This is set about three years before the events of canon. Shou is twelve and Ryou is fourteen. It is based off of episode seven of season one.
Notes: This was written for the gx 100 Livejournal claim of Marufuji Ryou. It has been slightly edited from the original posting of it. I've also decided to post each of these separately, in the interests of accurate summaries and character listings.

"And as soon as I saw them, I knew that I wanted them to be in my deck! They're so great! See!" Shou fanned the deck out between his fingers, then blinked as the cards fell through and scattered all over the ground. "Oh. Um. Just a second."

As he started to gather them up again, he shot a quick glance up at his older brother. Ryou watched, the faintest of smiles on his lips, but made no move to help. Ryou never helped Shou do anything. Shou tried hard not to need help, not wanting his brother to look down on him for being a wimp. He wished he could be like Ryou himself one day, so strong and so wonderful. Ryou was perfect.

"So. This is my Roid deck." Shou said as he got all of the cards back again. He didn't try to fan them out again. He knew that Ryou would be able to do it if he'd wanted to. He'd seen him do it hundreds of times already.

Ryou reached over and took it from his brother's hand, shuffling through it quietly. He was only fourteen, but he was already a skilled and serious duelist. He'd even won a couple of junior league tournaments. Ever since he'd returned from that place he'd went a couple of years earlier, he'd been so strong. He'd never mentioned to Shou where he'd went, only that it was a place for dueling. Shou wished that he could go there someday, if it meant he'd be as good as Ryou when he came back.

"Not bad," Ryou said at last, and Shou's heart soared at the praise. He liked it! His beloved big brother liked his deck! He couldn't help but bounce up and down in joy. Then he noticed the thoughtful look in Ryou's eyes. What else was going through his mind? Shou waited, not sure quite how to react. Sure, Ryou liked the deck. But he'd probably have something else to say about it. How could he not? What else could he want to say?

Ryou patted the cards back into a neat and even deck and handed it back to Shou, then reached inside of his jacket. He pulled out his own deck and began to sort through it carefully. Shou kept on staring and waiting, an odd sort of tension flowing all through him. He'd seen his big brother's deck in action before, and frankly, it scared him. All of those powerful machine dragons, and that new one, the Cyber End Dragon. They had a presence that went beyond what the solid vision holograms could provide. He almost thought now and then that they were really, truly alive.

Then Ryou pulled out a card from his deck and examined it briefly. Shou couldn't see what it was, until Ryou turned it towards him and held it down. "Here. I think this would work with your deck like it does with mine."

Shou's jaw dropped, especially once he actually got a good look at the card in question. It would have never crossed his mind that his big brother would hand him something like this! It was the ultimate fusion card for a Machine deck: Power Bond. "You…you mean it?!" Shou didn't even bother reading the text. He just knew that every time Ryou played this card with his Cyber Dragons and Cyber End Dragon, he won!

"Yes." Ryou nodded slightly. "I have two others in my deck already. You should be able to use it properly."

Shou skimmed through his deck quickly and found a card that he didn't quite need in there anymore. Not like he needed Power Bond! He shuffled it in and tried a practice draw. Power Bond didn't show up, but that didn't matter. He knew when he really needed it to, it would. That was the way of the true duelist! Ryou had shown him that more than once, and so had some of the really famous duelists that he'd seen on television. Why, just a couple of weeks earlier, he'd watched D.D. winning the World Championship again!

"Thanks, big brother!" Shou darted forward and hugged Ryou for a moment, then backed off. His brother wasn't a very hugging person even at the best of times, like now. "I'm going to go find someone to duel with this right now!" In fact, he knew exactly who he wanted to duel. That jerk Gorisuke had beaten him just the other day, and Shou was burning for a rematch. He'd show him! He'd just show him!

He raced off to find his opponent, imagining that he could hear the strength of the Power Bond card pulsating in his deck already. The card that his big brother had given him. The card that would make him the most powerful duelist that had ever lived! There wasn't anyone who could beat him as long as he had that card!

Well, except maybe Ryou. But that was different!

As Shou ran off, Ryou followed him at a distance. He suspected something of what was going on in his little brother's mind. He'd heard about the duel with Gorisuke, and it didn't surprised him at all to find that was who Shou was going to be challenging.

He didn't let Shou know that he was there as the duel progressed. He did watch both of them play, analyzing the duelists in his head. He knew Shou's style quite well, and it was easy to pick up on Gorisuke's, which was a fairly basic style with some good combinations. More than once, one of his spell or trap cards involved stopping the opponent from attacking somehow or other. He didn't think Shou had figured that out yet, though, especially with how his brother kept on attacking and attacking. Shou did manage to get in a few strikes, enough to work Gorisuke's life points down to a thousand and nine hundred. His own had taken a decent beating, and were just a thousand six hundred as well.

Ryou frowned slightly as he worked out what he thought was most likely to happen. Gorisuke had something face down on the field, and if his previous turns were any example, it was something that would be able to stop Shou from attacking, probably for an entire turn.

He's going to want to use it if he draws it. Ryou hoped that Shou had had the sense to read the card and learn about the benefits and drawbacks of it.

"Did you get a good card?" Ryou heard Gorisuke ask. Shou laughed, and there was something of a mean, nasty edge to it. The elder Marufuji did not like the sound of it. That wasn't how a duelist should sound at all.

"I got the best card! When I play this, you're going to be absolutely crushed! No doubt about it!"

Listening still, Ryou shook his head a little. He doesn't understand. He was going to have to do something about this. He was responsible for Shou having the card, and if Shou couldn't use it properly, if Shou couldn't respect his opponents, then it was his fault. All the other duelists that Shou might duel with it, and Shou himself, would suffer if he didn't set things right.

He listened just long enough for Shou and Gorisuke to decide that if Shou lost, he would do nude handstands all around the school. That was the end of it for him. He stepped up behind Shou just as his brother was about to play Power Bond.

"Wait. Gorisuke." Ryou interrupted Shou, who fell down in shock at the sound of his big brother's voice. He held out a card, one of the spares he kept on himself. It was a fairly rare card, but one that didn't work in his deck. He thought Gorisuke would like it, though. If not, he would probably have to find a way to finish the duel himself. "Would you accept this instead of finishing the duel?"

The other duelist looked at it, his eyes going wide, and then took the card quickly. "Yes! Thank you!" He grinned over at Shou. "You're so lucky your big brother showed up."

"Why'd you do that?" Shou all but whined, staring at his brother as Gorisuke began to gather up his cards again. "I could've won! I had it! I had Power Bond!"

"That was why I stopped you." Ryou told him. "You aren't worthy to use it yet." Ryou knew how to cut deep into Shou with his words, and he did that now, looking down at him from his greater height and with frost edging every syllable. "Until you are ready, you cannot use Power Bond. You can keep it in your deck, but you cannot use it. Do you understand me?"

Shou shook his head quickly, tears welling up in his gray eyes. He obviously didn't understand a thing. "Why? What did I do wrong? Tell me!"

"You don't know?" Ryou wanted to sigh. How could Shou have missed it? It was so simple. Anyone else would have see it. "Gorisuke, would you show him that face down card you had?"

Gorisuke, who had been just about to put that card back in his deck, shrugged, and flipped it over. Shou stared at it, then groaned as the implications sank in: for that card had been Spellbinding Circle.

"That would have prevented you from attacking at all, once you'd used Power Bond to fuse your monsters," Ryou pointed out. "But that's not all. Power Bond does double your monster's attack points, but in the end phase, it deals the original attack points as damage to your life points."

Shou didn't think he could move an inch. How could that have happened? He would've lost…he would have had to do naked handstands all around the school! And Gorisuke would have held him to that! He sank down, staring at the card in his hand. He…his brother was right. He shouldn't use this…until he knew…knew what?

"Big brother…what do I need to learn? To be worthy to use it?" He wanted to get some kind of an answer. He wanted to know what he had to do. His brother had given him this card, and he had screwed the gift up. Until he could make his brother happy again, he didn't think he would truly be happy.

"When you can look into your opponent's heart and see yourself there, then you will be ready to use it," Ryou said after a few moments. His gaze looked slightly distant, as if he were somewhere else in his mind.

Shou was baffled. What Ryou said sounded right on some level, but it was still confusing. "How will I know when I can do that?" He wanted to know. He wanted to understand.

"When you can do it, you'll know," Ryou replied as he gestured for Shou to get his own cards together. Gorisuke had already left, and Shou decided even as he packed his deck up that he wasn't going to challenge him again. Not for a long, long time. Maybe not ever again.

Shou stared down at Power Bond before he put it back into the deck. Maybe he should add that other card back. It would probably be of more use now that he couldn't use Power Bond anymore, since it was Polymerization. Having forty cards was only a minimum; one's deck could be more, as long as it wasn't too big. Having one extra wouldn't hurt.

Ryou didn't look at him as they started back home. He couldn't have imagined how disappointed that he would be in Shou now. But if there was no respect between duelists, then there was no need to duel in the first place. Shou would have to learn that, and if it took him the next ten years of his life to learn it, then so be it.

If Shou ever wanted to attend Duel Academia or enter the Pro Leagues, respect was going to have to be the path he walked. It was the way that Ryou lived his life, and he couldn't imagine being any other way.

He was silent all the way back, though he kept an eye on his little brother. Shou kept his attention mostly on the road. His deck had been put back into his jacket, and there was something of a trudge to his step, quite unlike what he'd been when Ryou had given him the card. Ryou didn't care. Shou had made his own mistakes, and he was helping him the only way that would really make a difference: by having him learn the hard way. It wouldn't bring Shou any harm, and would help him in the long run. Ryou would never show that having to seal that card hurt, nor that seeing how dishonorable Shou had been had truly dug into his soul. But there was nothing else that he could have done once Shou had made that wager.

That was what brothers were for, after all: to help, even when it hurt to do so. Shou would learn that too. At least, Ryou hoped that he would.

He just hoped that Shou could learn it without hurting himself too much.

The End