A Crush or a Cold

Written By Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: None

A/N: One shot that just came to me before work one day, thought I would share it!

Even when he was a little kid, he hid when he was sick until he was fully sick. A silly belief that if he didn't admit that he was sick, he would get better. Yusei was such a quiet boy by nature, especially when paired up with the self stylized future King Jack and clever little Crow, Yusei was easily lost in the shuffle of children in the orphanage. But he never seemed to mind, while Martha didn't miss anything in the building, which was what made her such a good surrogate mother for the children. Yet catching the slight sound of a Yusei sneeze, scientifically proven to be more quiet then a mouse on thick carpet... wasn't easy all the time. Treating it was harder, because it involved such talents as finding, then dragging, then keeping Yusei in his room, on his bed, and receiving treatment for whatever he got.

At 17 going on 18, it hadn't gotten any easier. Yusei was nearly a full adult himself, so when he moved on to living in Neo Domino with his friends, he was out of Martha's hands. But her friend was still in Neo, and Martha had asked Zola to take in her three kids. Which the woman did so willingly, but it still took time to move the three boys in. Three boys equaled Jack alone, because he still viewed himself as King. With more then enough stuff from his time in Neo to fill up his room. While Crow and Yusei literally could just drop on a claimed bed and be done.

But it had been raining and Yusei had been caught in the downpour. Even after drying off, it seemed that Yusei had caught a cold. Which the guys just shrugged off, after all a cold was nothing to be concerned over. They had all faced a lot worse then just a sniffle and cough combo. For the guys, it was akin to being kids again, they knew each other and how to deal with each other. But there had never been a girl in their group and Aki was as clueless about them as they were about her. The threat that united them together was gone from the world, but the state of the Arcadia Movement was unknown. Some part Jack wondered if Aki would return to them, being her larger family.

Only she didn't.

Oddly enough, this high born girl who could have stayed either with her almost aristocratic supporters in the Movement, or stayed with her reconciled parents, opted to stay with them. Everyday the pattern had stayed the same, she would come to visit them after school with the twins, then awkwardly stay off to the side observing them. Jack took the stance of a new, timid pet, if he ignored it she would relax and move more freely. Crow took the stance of a new kid on the street. Which had it's ups and downs, he just as easily offended her as made her smile.

And then there was Yusei. Now sniffly, coughing and all around miserable when she finally arrived from school. How he hid that from her until today was a mystery, but maybe they underestimated Aki. She 'did' show up with a pot in her hands and a little later then normal.... but the moment she marched up to him as he worked on his D-Wheel and demanded he go to bed. That was the time they wished they had a bowl of popcorn and some drinks for the show. Crow because he knew how Yusei was, being bullied was something Yusei accepted unless someone else was the target. Generally because, as nice as Yusei was he just didn't speak up about anything unless forced. Having someone, a girl he barely knew no less, forcing her will onto him was bound to be interesting. Sides, he wasn't sure if Yusei knew the difference between boys and girls yet, outside of her clearly well defined rack. Jack because, unlike Crow, had seen Aki at both the Fortune Cup and in the hospital. Thus he knew that a new set of broken ribs were always an option if one made Aki mad.

So as the order and refusal to comply 'conversation' carried on, Crow made a quick stop to the kitchen, threw a bag of popcorn into the microwave and rushed back to watch, a conversation that was slowly escalating into a 'Go to bed' 'Make me' tone of argument. Aki activated her duel disk, Yusei tensed up, and from the moment she pulled out a card from her deck he took off like a shot. Amusing Crow to no end as Yusei took off running for the door, since his D-Wheel wasn't prepared for a sudden ride. But already her Rose Tentacles was out in the center of the room, and it's aforementioned tentacles were rushing towards Yusei.

As it lifted Yusei off the ground and began carrying him where Aki walked, Crow couldn't resist calling out, "Be gentle with him! It's his first time!"

...

If looks could kill, and in hindsight Yusei death glares were rather rare to boot, Crow would have been 6ft under, as some would say.

"What? What does that mean?" Aki asked turning around to face Crow, while Yusei looked death glares at him.

"Just that Martha's the only woman who has ever manhandled him. So be gentle, he might not know what to do."

Jack sat in the couch with a hand covering his face. As of this moment he didn't know Crow, never met the guy, and any pictures disputing that simple truth were a lie created by his detractors. But he could hear the small confused sound from Aki's throat before her footsteps began to resume. A glance over at the pair and Yusei looked so pitiful, sick and resigned. Crow returned to the living area with the bag of popcorn and Jack decided that Crow could have the honor of being known by the great Jack Atlas once again. For the price of some of the popcorn.

Meanwhile...

The monster planted itself beside his bed, even as he tried to break the hold on him and free himself. His room wasn't a disaster area, it was moderately neat, everything seemed to be in order though a little out of place. Bed only made enough that the blanket covered it, cards scattered on a table, a tool box next to that. Aki, herself didn't know what to expect out of a guy's bedroom. She knew a little from her time in the Movement, but she never had intruded on a guy's living space so deeply back then.

"I made some soup." With that sentence she began placing another card into a slot. "Black Garden. I'm not the best cook, but I'm passable so I'll go get a bowl..."
Even as she pulled the blanket from the bed, roses began to over take everything. He looked around in amazement as they climbed rapidly up the walls. Even as Rose Tentacles moved to put him into the bed. "I never got the chance to properly thank you for waking me from my coma."

"You don't have to thank me. We're friends, besides your father was the one who brought me. Jack gave him the idea to find me," he answered, while thinking, 'so this is what Aki can do. I was right then, she couldn't control her powers before, but if this is what she is like when she can control them...'

But as he observed the growing number of vines in his room, he missed the pause in her movements. 'Because of Papa? These Marks connect us, but he didn't know I was in trouble?' She resumed directing her roses to bind Yusei to the bed. Watching as the vines wrapped around his gloved wrists and hold them down, as did others went for his ankles. It hurt, more then she wanted to admit, but she would deal with it, pain was an old friend of hers.

"All the same, thank you for supporting me when the Earthbound Gods took Martha away," he added. He sniffled a bit, as his straining against his bonds did nothing. When he played back the memories of those days, he found how he appreciated her words. Her support had been unique and quite welcomed, as she wasn't a naive child like the twins, nor was she one of his old friends.

"Papa told me to, once I had made it clear I was going to face the Earthbound Gods, papa told me to look to you for guidance. That I was to respect you as I respect him," she answered simply, a thorn for a thorn even if she did not know it.

Somehow the words hurt Yusei, something he wasn't exactly clear on how it happened. He had been called many things, especially when he came to Neo Domino, but none of that had affected him. Names didn't define who he was as a person, and he felt that no one really had any right to label him until they got to know him. No matter how hard he made that with his own quiet nature. In a way he and Aki were both a like, labeled by people who didn't know or understood. Her powers had made her life a very lonely one for years, while his guilt over the effects of Zero Reverse hung over his head. In a way they both felt cursed by something that was outside of their control, yet Aki now had control over the very thing that cursed her.

When she supported him during their battles, it was the first time he experienced such a thing. There was a subtle difference between himself working with the guys, and himself with Aki. But perhaps that was the fault of his upbringing, the fact that he couldn't put a name to this nameless feeling. He never learned because there were no teachers for such a lesson. Aki was like Stardust Dragon in his eyes, he could duel without it just fine. But duels felt empty without his Dragon by his side, either on the field or in his deck. She was growing into that place in his life, he'd be fine without her, but he felt better when she was near.

Love was silly, a frilly thing that girls dreamed up in their lives. They were make believe games of house, and strange conversations about responsibility. Obligations before there were to be any in the life of a child. He never had parents, just one harried Matron of the orphanage, and Martha was a strong woman in of herself.

He didn't know love.

He knew computer codes, and software, he knew the wheel and the axis, he knew how to build with just a visual blue print. He understood how to fight, defend what was his, stand up for himself, even if the guys didn't believe it. He knew how to create, taking what others abandon and give it a new meaning, or restore it to glory in a new form.

Was this love?

Martha felt that it was, calling Aki his, future wife. How would she know? Could she tell and he was missing the signs himself? If this odd feeling of completion around her was love, why did it hurt to think only her father could make her stay around him? But perhaps that was the answer to the question. That she didn't feel for him, she only did this on her father's say so, and it hurt to think that this was a... just a crush.

Aki had slipped out of the room, going to the kitchen to get the soup ready when Crow joined her. All casual indifference in posture and playful teasing eyes, but Aki already figured out that for all that, Crow had the more shrewd business sense, at least between himself and Jack. Even as Jack followed the other duelist up into the kitchen area. Going for the pot of tea that had been seeping for a bit.

"You being gentle?" He asked playful in tone, the inquisitive bird.

"Of course I am! What type of question is that?" She asked, defensive and a little stern. But he waved it away with an amicable smile.

"Well be gentle with his left side," Crow instructed which earned a look from Jack.

"What about his side?" the taller duelist asked, looking down at the shorter teen.

"When Yusei first dueled Kiryu, his D-Wheel broke down, he was stabbed in the side and had to be surgically stitched up," Crow explained, looking up at the taller teen. Momentarily forgetting Aki was there as well. "I think you were there in the helicopter."

"Yes, I saw the outcome, but I didn't realize it was that bad."

"That's not possible, the birthmarks reveal themselves during such a duel, if he was dueling Kiryu, then how could he be hurt? That was only two days before Divine seemingly died. He'd still be recovering from the anesthesia right?" Her heart hurt worse when she heard that he had been injured, the only time her Signer mark had flared up was...

"Aki? What is 'anesthesia'?" Crow asked, his cheerful tone gone, as he sensed that something was up. "Aki, I suppose here in Neo, you've never seen the darker side of D-Wheeling, but on littered streets, a D-Wheel crash can sometimes be life threatening. I can tell you as a fact, Yusei had been stabbed deeply by a piece of road trash. Because I'm the one who carried him back to the orphanage for Martha to get help."

"But Papa wouldn't bring an injured man to help me! He's not cruel to do such a thing!" She argued looking up to Jack then back at Crow, feeling very small and helpless in that moment. These two... they thought nothing of being injured and having surgery. But if he had been under anesthesia there should have been physical reactions to it at the very least! Especially after all the stress they had put him through with the battles.

"Your father may not be that type of man. But Yusei is, he'd drag himself out of his own death bed to help another person." Jack could be so intimidating in moments like this, standing erect and proud. But this was something Aki needed to be aware of regarding Yusei. A Neo resident wouldn't think anything of making requests, money was everything here. But Yusei was only one person, and he knew that if Yusei was willing to get out of bed during recovery to face Aki. Then he would be willing to work himself into exhaustion for her as well.

Feeling like a mouse, Aki excused herself as she grabbed a spoon and made her way back to Yusei's room. How many times had she struck Yusei? How many times did she come close or actually hit the area of his injury? Yet despite that, every time he got up and faced her again. She wanted to argue with herself that she would have stopped if he told her. That she would have held back and waited until he was fully better. But she knew the truth, that he beat her when he was at her best. If she had known he had a weakness, she would have gone for it and tore him apart. Maybe they were teasing her? Maybe Yusei hadn't been hurt and the pair were just playing around?

Crow was that type of person, at least that's what she was thinking... But she had to see the proof, she needed evidence that it happened. 'Then' she would proceed to beat herself up for being an uncaring cruel bitch. Even as she stepped back into his bedroom, her vines pulled back from his wrists and allowed him to sit up. Even as they wrapped around his waist foiling his sudden attempt to dash out of bed.

"Take off your shirt." No warning, no signs of this coming, no awareness in her brain that this might be a little over the top in things to say to a guy you still only partly knew. Spoken in a tone that included the subtext phrase of 'Or I will remove it myself.' Leaving Yusei a little helpless. In fact he looked like she just hit him in the back of the head with his D-Wheel.

He was quiet for a bit, eyes closed, hands resting on his lap, but he finally began pulling off his gloves. The gloves were dropped onto the bed, the jacket was the next pulled off, before he looked at her silently asking if he had to fully take the shirt off. Then he took the shirt off, because 'yes, he had to'. Bringing to mind the first thing in Aki's head, that Yusei had an impressive body. Most men she had seen in this state of undress, magazines and posters mainly, worked in gyms to get this type of physique alone. But these three guys had a hard life, and really, Crow's arms looked to be about the same in terms of muscles.

All Aki knew about Satellite came from the stories she heard, until now she had never met people from 'over there'. But in the time she had come to know the three, she found a part of herself warming up to them. They were harden by their upbringing, same as her, but they didn't let it break them. Friends... real friends really could have such an impact on a person it seemed. Because of each other, they never turned as cold, as hard as she did.

Her eyes scanned down his chest, while his hands rested on his lap limp and with nothing to do. They were strong hands, Yusei was a strong person all around actually, the quiet strength of the group. As her eyes when down the chest, she saw a thin vivid red scar that ran down his lower chest marking Crows' words as true.

"Why didn't you tell my papa that you were hurt?" she asked, her fingers reaching out to touch the scar on him. "Why not tell him that you needed time to recover?" His skin was warm, a bit more then she would have liked, so perhaps he had begun to develop a fever? She hadn't checked after all. With her free hand, she tugged his shirt closer to him, a silent cue to let him put it back on.

"I had recovered enough to make the trip, I knew there was a possibility of dueling you. But I felt the risks of injury were justified," he answered, as he slipped the shirt over his head. Quietly he received the bowl of soup she held out to him.

She didn't speak for a while, letting him eat in silence as she sat there thinking to herself. Thinking of how each time they had met she had hurt him, physically attacking him, silently resenting him, just being cruel all around. Yet for all that he had been kind to her, gentle even. She had shown him nothing, but a wrathful angry face and he had shown a calm, accepting face. Divine had promised to give her control, but that control came in a form of a leash. Yusei, through Yusei, she had found control that was all her own.

As he finished up the soup, she stood up and took it from him, deciding on a plan of her own. "Hello, my name is Izayoi, Aki. It is a honor to meet you, please be kind to me."

He looked at her for a moment, wondering why she was introducing herself to him. They already knew each other after all, "may I still call you 'Aki'?" She nodded in answer, smiling as she did so. Apparently she wanted to give a formal introduction? She was walking to the door, when he thought that, and when her fingers touched the knob he spoke up again. "Hello... my name is Fudo, Yusei... It is a pleasure to meet you."

Awkwardly given, slowly recited and edited for his own personal way of communicating to her. It put a smile to her lips, a second chance at making an impression and she didn't want to disappoint him or his friends. "May I still call you 'Yusei'?"

"Always."