Sal(i)vation
The card was something of a mystery. That's why Yuri had grown so fond of it. Because he was something of a mystery too. He could relate to it in ways that he couldn't relate to his peers around him. They feared him just as much as they feared his card.
Yuri, however, did not have any qualms regarding the dragon contained with his card. The card that only he could wield and was therefore, sole master of. He thought it beautiful. He salivated over how it was able to bring such havoc to a battlefield. It was different to other monsters, Yuri thought.
It was as though this one had as much as soul as he did. Though, admittedly, Yuri was something of a blank. He had a beating heart and coursing blood, but he didn't have the "soul" that other humans seem to have. A soul which encapsulates that beyond hatred and wrath; emotions he was well acquainted with. They were two of the same, so to speak.
Thus, Yuri was able to stave off his loneliness. Not that he would confess to such things to begin with. He was fine by himself. He had to be as others wouldn't dare approach him because they feared him, and he did relish such fear and cowering. He was the prince of the school, after all.
Professor Leo saw something in him. Saw potential in him that the other children lacked. That was something Yuri took pride in. He was different to his peers. He didn't have to bow to their mediocrity in order to make himself feel good.
But still, Yuri can't help but wonder what that look in Professor Leo's slate grey eyes is. It's not pride nor mirth. It was cold and cynical; like he's remembering something from a past life which was still affecting him now. There was a glassy, unreal quality to the ways his eyes would sometimes observe Yuri as he duelled as viciously as he could; enjoying his opponent's pitiful movements with sadism befitting of a carnival or carnivore. It was as though he doesn't see Yuri as Yuri but as part of a different whole. Perhaps the sum of his achievements; perhaps not. It was difficult to discern, and it did attract Yuri's attention sometimes.
Yuri tries not to dwell on that even though it's a concern he has frequently because he was so, so starved of attention and affection. It was a concern that he had which writhed beneath his skin and tormented him. He wanted to remain being the apple of Professor Leo's eye, that's why he domineered over the school's population with an iron fist, and yet such endeavours of power seemed to go ignored. It hurt. It hurt a lot.
Because remaining such an asset to the professor was one of the few ways Yuri could acquire the nurturing, paternal or otherwise, that he craved as a child without known familial ties. After all, he was something of a mystery. Appearing out of nowhere, just like that feral dragon he prized.
Starve Venom Fusion Dragon was the thing that Yuri valued most in his life. His earliest memory is that of awaking, suddenly, from a reverie so deep that it felt like he had just taken a breath after being underwater for so long. And the thing that had brought him from such depths of thought was his fingers clinging so tightly to the card, so that the wind couldn't take it. So that no one could take it. It was the only thing which tied him to the outside world. After all, he seemed to have manifested from thin air; no parents to claim him at the end of the school year, though there was little of that nowadays ever since the Professor's curricular reforms.
His beautiful dragon, scrawny and drooling, was the only thing which tied him to something greater than the island he was forced to call home. He didn't willingly call it home. He couldn't imagine home. He could only imagine the opposite. Destruction, loss, a wasteland which was completely and utterly inhospitable.
He doesn't wonder why. He doesn't have to. Its because it's all he knows. Undrinkable water in the sea; a land which has claimed more lives than what's known. Enemies all around him.
The only comfort, the only salvation, he has when even those somewhat kind to him unequivocally have an ulterior motive and those who outright spurn him, is of course his dragon. He needs no others; though, he does have Dennis, but he can tell that Dennis is afraid of him, keeling because like a dog he knows not when to test those stronger than him.
His Starve Venom Fusion Dragon is the only one who knows him how he knows himself. His strengths, his weaknesses; someone to share himself with. Be it in moments of championing light and victory or moments of darkness such as these. Wherein temptations beneath the mask of night get the better of Yuri. He may be powerful, but he was still an adolescent. He had needs and wants; even though he had done his best to purge himself of such things, so he could become human ascendant, like the demon he gets called by those beneath him.
Starve Venom Fusion Dragon is beautiful. Its roar resonates within the very core of the faded soul that Yuri possesses: so evil and twisted. It makes him smile even when he wants to cry out. He could want for nothing and yet had so much want for everything. Only Starve Venom Fusion Dragon could bring him the soothing that he needs because no one else was privy to the inner most sanctum of Yuri's mind.
Yuri gets up. He had been tucked up, knees beneath his chin, dwelling on all the whirling and swirling things in his life that he didn't understand. Tears did not glisten on his cheeks, but the starlight did.
In the low light, streaming in from outside, of Yuri's penthouse accommodation – so separate and distinct from the other dormitories, Starve Venom Fusion Dragon was gorgeous. A touch washed out, but the faded colouration of its usually noxiously bright scales made it seem glamourous. Mysterious.
The mysterious dragon without origin. Just like its master.
Yuri stroked its nose. He harrumphed. The tactile sensations were simulated but he enjoyed them. It was hard to describe how his beast, born from Real Solid Vision, felt. Its scales did not scratch but nor were they decidedly smooth. The sensations betrayed the mind and the visual input it received.
Yuri would have preferred it if Starve Venom Fusion Dragon could be as dangerous feeling as it should be. He wouldn't mind pricking his hands on its snout. It growled. The reverberations numbed his digits slightly. He liked it.
Starve Venom Fusion Dragon was tall. Yuri was of notoriously small stature, but he never felt insecure for it. Especially not now as his dragon bowed to him. It nudged against his face. Its jaws gaped. Drool, thick and silvery, pooled along its fangs and jowls. It dripped unto Yuri and the floor. Yuri didn't mind. It felt like water, but it did not stain or wet him like water. Yuri wished it would though.
He was oddly aroused by the idea of being bathed in the saliva of his dragon. It would be a baptism, of sorts. Twisted and carnal.
Yuri kissed along his dragon's mouth. He licked at the saliva. It left no taste in his mouth, but he imagined how it ought to. Sweet, like nectar, but with the twang associated with vile poisons. Perhaps with a nutty after taste, like cyanide. He could imagine all sorts of delicious possibilities and his kiss deepened. Wettened.
Starve Venom Fusion Dragon growled. Such a low and bestial voice which resonated so deeply within Yuri. His heart throbbed and moved Yuri. He couldn't identify the warm emotion welling up inside of him as he kissed back, as Starve Venom Fusion Dragon kissed him back.
His dragon was truly the only salvation that he had in this world which did not want him, even though he desired it dearly. Be it as conqueror or destroyer.