Author's Notes: This is a Crow-centric story about how he becomes a cop that happens to have a lot of bunch of slice of life things with the rest of the cast post-WRGP. It always just seemed like there's a story behind him joining the NDP that was never expanded on in canon (understandably). So this is me, expanding. I'm estimating 9 chapters.
Cop related things start properly in Chapter 3.
They manage to put together a small party after saving Neo Domino City from being destroyed by Ark Cradle. Just the Team 5D's in the garage of Poppo Time, having a moment of rest and relaxation under the evening stars.
Yusei wheels out Zora's old barbecue that hadn't seen much use until Yusei fixed the burner and ignition, and keeps himself busy cooking skewered chunks of vegetables and meat brought by the twins. Aki shares the best cake Crow's ever tasted - a disgustingly glorious cream and sponge combo that has him making obscene noises with every mouthful, "Did you make this? You made this!? This is amazing, Aki!" - and he practically strongarms her into promising to bring another one next time she visits.
Jack's contribution is a lot of noise to cover the fact there should be another person there with them.
(What Jack actually brings is far too many bottles of juice and soft drinks, and a platter fried calamari that Crow's certain costs three times more than what he'd be willing to pay. Crow lets it slide for once; it's a good occasion for overspending. And at least this way, Crow'll get to enjoy Jack's money before he fritters the rest of it away within a fortnight.)
Crow's addition is a six-pack of the strongest beer he could buy, brought out of the fridge once the team's settled fully into the night, stuffed with good food. Most of them are underage and most people - including Security - don't care about drinking laws, but Crow doesn't let Rua have any of the beer, as much as he tries to wheedle Crow into letting him have a taste.
"Rua," Ruka says in warning, because she's clearly the twin with sense.
"No." Crow agrees with her. "You're a good, law-abiding citizen of Neo Domino City." Crow holds the six-pack up high, out of Rua's reach. Rua looks like he's going to jump at him anyway. "You should stay that way." He palms off the drinks to Yusei - or Jack, Crow's not exactly looking - who he knows Rua hero worships too much to make an undignified grab for a bottle. "No rule breaking."
"But Crow!" Rua is acting exactly like his own kids, from the whining right down to the accusatory pointing. "You're breaking the rules!"
Crow pretends he doesn't see Jack openly tossing Yusei the bottle opener, and Yusei offering Aki one of their beers. Is it really a good idea to give a Senator's daughter a drink? Then again, it's Yusei, 'saviour of Neo Domino City', so he could probably get away with it.
"No buts." Crow puts his hands on his hips. He might've been a frequent law breaker, but he's not one for letting kids pick up his bad habits. "Do I need to tell you what happened the first time I had a beer?"
Ruka looks up from her cup of juice, showing actual interest in this conversational tangent. "What happened?"
Before Crow can answer the question, Jack cuts in from his spot leaning against the stairs' railings with a bark of amusement. "Crow got his idiot head marked by Security."
Crow throws his hands up in the air, exasperated. "Wow, Jack. Way to spoil the mystery!" Jack blatantly ignores him by tilting his head back and downing his drink.
"Ah, this story," Yusei says helpfully over the lip of his beer bottle, glass obscuring his smile.
"Please, continue." Aki's settled herself on the couch next to Ruka, her open drink cradled in her hands. "I'd like to hear this, too."
Both Rua and Ruka nod vigorously.
Well, with such an attentive audience, who is he to deny them?
Since the couch is fully occupied by Rua, Ruka, and Aki, Crow settles for taking up a standing position next to Jack and Yusei. "Alright, listen closely." He coughs into his hand and clears his throat. "A long, long time ago, when I was young and dumb, I left Martha's to go junkyard diving on my own." Crow jerks a thumb over his shoulder at Jack and Yusei. "Those guys had been living with her for a couple of years, but back then, Martha had only just started looking after me, so I didn't know her too well. I was so used to wandering by myself that I didn't think to let anyone know where I was going."
He doesn't see much need to tell the twins and Aki that he'd actually stormed off after an argument with Jack that escalated into Jack yelling at Crow for being rude and ungrateful to Martha - 'A King always shows respect to a lady!' 'I'm not some stupid king so I don't have to!' - while Yusei tried and failed to calm them down.
"Whoa!" By this time, Rua's leaning forwards against the back of the couch, dangling his arms over the side. "Wasn't that really dangerous?"
"We used to hear all sorts of stories about Satellite," Ruka says by way of explanation, hands carefully folded on her lap. Smiling gently, she continues, "But it didn't seem so bad when we visited Martha-san before the bridge was built."
Crow scratches his head. The twins had visited? When...? They must've come with Yusei while he'd been away. He shrugs. "Martha's is great. It's a real nice place and it's pretty safe, especially for otherwise homeless kids." Crow smiles fondly. He can always count on there being a warm bed and food to fill his belly, no questions asked. "Most of the old Satellite wasn't like that, but it's not nearly as bad as City-folk make it out to be." Crow grins. "Then again, I was small and knew the place like the back of my hand, so I knew all the good hiding spots and gave bad guys the slip all the time. To me, Satellite wasn't a dangerous place at all."
Yusei nods. "People were poor, but we tried our hardest to live our lives as best we could. There were all sorts of people, just like anywhere else."
"Anyway, I came across a couple of guys who were laughing and carrying on. They were adults and they were drinking from these glass bottles, which was clearly something only adults do. I didn't realise it at that age, but I used to see people getting drunk all the time." Crow shakes his head. "But I was tired of being a kid, so I thought, 'today's the day I'm gonna be An Adult.' I walked right up to them and said," Crow pitches his voice higher to imitate his younger self, "'Can I have some?'"
Man, he sure got into a lot of trouble because he'd been curious and 'old enough' in his own kid opinion. Sometimes he wonders how he managed to survive this long.
"They must have been pretty wasted, 'cause they couldn't walk straight and were all," Crow acts out the part of a creepy drunkard, walking to the couch and leering at Rua, who yelps and hides behind the cushions, "'ha ha sure, kid, go nuts. Bet you don't have the stomach to keep it down.'" Laughing lightly, Crow gives Rua his space back, stretching out and putting his hands behind his head. "And you know me. I hate backing down from a challenge. So I snatched their beer and drank the entire bottle even though it tasted gross. Somehow, I managed to run off before they could beat me for it.
"I didn't want to go home just yet, so I wandered around some more. Eventually I came across a Security D-Wheel all by its lonesome. I looked left." Crow raises a hand to above his eyes, peering about the garage in exaggerated movements. "I looked right." Letting his hand drop to his side, he continues, "I waited to see if its owner was coming back. It was totally silent. There was no one around." Crow grins at the realisation dawning on the faces of his audience who don't already know the story. "I thought, 'there's no harm in taking it for a little spin, right?' The alcohol must've kicked in by that time, 'cause it seemed like a great idea. Stealing a Security D-Wheel? Nothing could possibly go wrong."
"You really did that? You really stole a D-Wheel from Security?" Aki asks him, eyes wide, drink still untouched, "How old were you then?"
Crow rubs his chin, thinking. "A bit younger than Rua and Ruka. I think I was ten?" Probably. Yusei's the only one of them with official records populated with accurate information; Jack's is fabricated by Godwin and Crow's own record is based on details he made up about himself. Letting out a short huff of laughter, Crow continues, "My legs were too short to easily reach the footpegs and I could barely reach the handlebars. But," Crow jabs a thumb back at his chest, grinning wildly, "that didn't stop Crow-sama!"
"That was your first time on a D-Wheel, right?" Rua's practically bouncing in his seat in excitement, a huge grin on his face. "Were you any good?"
Thumping a fist on his chest, Crow proudly proclaims, "I was awesome, of course! Ten year old me was flying through the air, breaking all the speed limits, riding the D-Wheel like a pro. I was all," Crow imitates the sound of a D-Wheel revving, vroom vroom, "wheels screeching, blasting past rows and rows of kids cheering from the sidelines, 'you go, Crow!'" Crow closes his eyes and grins, as if recalling a fond memory. "I remember Security yelling, 'stop, in the name of the law!', as I weaved around them, dodging barricade after barricade-"
"He's lying," Jack interrupts, rolling his eyes dreadfully. "Don't let him take you for a fool."
"Hey!" Crow protests, eyes snapping open. Under his audience's dubious stares, he admits, chagrined, "Okay, okay, none of that actually happened... I think." It's a little shameful, but, "Honestly, everything after I got onto that D-Wheel is a big blank. I don't remember a thing about it; an entire bottle of beer was way too much for ten year old me. I barely even remember stealing the D-Wheel." He scratches the back of his neck, cheeks heating. "Security told me I crashed it into the gate of their Sattelite base. Delivered myself and the stolen D-Wheel straight to them like an early Christmas present."
"I remember that time," Yusei murmurs, just loud enough for everyone to hear over the laughter rippling through the garage. "We were all worried when you didn't come back for dinner. Jack and I looked for you for days." The corner of his lip curls into a smile as he looks at the trio gathered on the couch. "When we found Crow, Jack hit him in the face-"
"He deserved it," Jack defends, drawing himself up haughtily and folding his arms.
"-and refused to let Crow out of his sight for a month," Yusei finishes, an amused gleam to his eyes.
"Aw, that's so sweet," Ruka comments with a smile, Aki nodding agreeably, prompting Jack to look away with that wild eyed expression he gets when he can't decide if he should be embarrassed, angry, or both. Crow can't resist grinning and - because he's been too short to comfortably sling an arm over Jack's shoulders for years - bumping elbows with Jack amidst Aki's soft laughter and Rua's raucous guffaws at Jack's expense.
Crow stays silent on the less flattering parts of the story; no one needs to hear about how he'd screamed and wailed when they burned the criminal marker into his forehead, or how he'd cried in the corner of his cell afterwards, both from pain and the imagined disappointment on everyone's faces when they saw the yellow brand. He'd pictured Martha's kind face creasing into a frown before chasing him from the house - "And don't you think about coming back!" - and Jack turning away from him, arms crossed and defiant. And Yusei... Crow had imagined Yusei saying nothing at all, unable to look him in the eye. He'd been so afraid, back then. Afraid that he'd be alone again because of one stupid mistake that marked him for life.
It had been such a relief, getting punched and yelled at because Jack had been worried - not because Jack hated him - that Crow had started crying then and there, which had made Jack stand there, fist raised - "Stop crying. Please. Crow. You're messing up my shirt!" - before he slowly and awkwardly patted Crow on the back. And afterwards, Yusei had been the one to help Crow up off the dirt and wipe away his tears.
"We didn't care that Crow had a criminal marker," Yusei says in that earnest way of his, glancing over at Crow as if he could sense Crow's thoughts. "We were just glad he made it back in one piece."
With words like that, it's hard hold back a stupid smile from spreading across his face.
Jack ruins the moment by trading his earlier discomfort for a smug attitude. "Crow was so pleased Martha wasn't mad at him that he did all the chores for a week."
Crow elbows Jack in the ribs exactly when Jack raises his bottle to take a drink, receiving a noise of disgust as some of his beer spills onto his coat. "And that's why I haven't had a drop of alcohol since," Crow finishes with a grin. Luckily, Yusei only snorts and doesn't actually call him out on his blatant lie.
Jack sniffs disdainfully, scrubbing at the beer stain with a fierce frown. "Weak! You're allowing yourself to be ruled by one bad experience?"
Shrugging, he responds, "Alcohol's expensive, man." He can't afford to be frivolous with his pay checks, and he can't just 'liberate' bottles from Satellite drunks like he used to, so Jack's never seen him knock back a few.
They end up swapping stories of dumb stuff the older members of the team has done as kids. Rua's an eager listener, drinking in their stories and exclaiming at all the right places, while Ruka's quieter, though no less attentive, growing wide eyed at some of their more outrageous stunts. It takes a little cajoling, but Aki also shares some happy memories of duelling with her father when she'd been a child. Rua even manages to convince Jack to tell the story of what started the whole King thing. Probably because Crow's been replacing Jack's empty bottles of beer with full ones on the sly, knowing full well the King's tolerance is crap.
While the kids are preoccupied with Jack, Crow spots Yusei peeling away from the group without a word to anyone. Crow's about to join him - or drag him back to the party, he hasn't decided yet - when Aki beats him to it. Seeing the way they dip their heads, voices low in private conversation, Crow smiles and leaves them alone.
Instead, Crow puts the finishing touches on getting Jack right roaring drunk, which is a sight well worth the thunderous yelling in the morning - and the lack of thanks for carrying his drunk ass up to his room - when Jack finds out what Rua and Ruka drew on his face after he finally passed out on the couch.
"This is why you don't let friends get you drunk," Crow had stage whispered to the giggling twins, handing them the marker he uses to write on Blackbird Delivery parcels.
Author's Notes: Next chapter: Flowers and dark glasses. A moment of quiet for those lost, and for those moving forwards towards a new future.
Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed the ride so far!