Ok,,,this is my first fanfic. It's just an idea that's been in my head for ages...

I've used the English names for the characters included as I'm not entirely sure of what their other names are. Old characters will be making appearances.

As far as the week had gone so far it was safe to say that the day hadn't been brilliant. The freak storm from the day before had brought down several large trees and part of the pier had flooded. Security, as a result, had issued a temporary ban on driving or turbo duelling while the trees were removed and the pier dried off. It was frustrating to say the least; the guys had been hoping to test out a new engine design on the roads, given that it hadn't blown up the test runner. With the ban in place, they had to settle for staying in and replacing worn parts on their bikes, something that no one was happy about; especially Jack, who had been complaining solidly for the last two hours or so. Crow had been sent, on foot, to the garage on the other side of town to search for parts. In truth, Yusei was going to go himself but quickly realising that, left on their own, Jack and Crow were going to end up killing each other, he had reluctantly suggested that Crow go instead. He would have asked Jack but Crow was less likely to complain about getting his hair wet. Speaking of Crow...Jack, thankfully, had stopped complaining for two seconds,

"Hey Yusei, where the deuce is Crow, he went ages ago."

Out of frustration, Yusei retorted angrily "what are you asking me for? How should I know?"

Bruno, who had been sitting quietly staring at the computer, decided to weigh in, "he has been gone for quite some time, do you think he's ok, maybe we should go and.."

"...Of course he's ok, he's just trying to make us worry." Jack cut in.

"Actually I think he's just trying to stay away from you as long as possible." That did it. Jack's ego fired up and they both went off on what would have been the start of World War III if Crow hadn't walked in at that exact moment, a box loaded with spare parts clutched in his arms.

"Hey guys, sorry I took so uuhhhhhhh what's going on?"

"You've just stopped the fight, shortened the war by five years and saved millions of lives." Yusei didn't bother asking what had taken so long, Jack had already beaten him to it. He had been worried for a while though. It wasn't like Crow to disappear like that. And he seemed..distracted...somehow

When Jack had finally finished yelling at Crow, they all settled into the familiar lull of working on their duel runners. Yusei pushed worries about Crow to the back of his mind where he could mull over them later, and busied himself in his runner.

A week later Crow went AWOL again. Although Bruno had seen him as he left, he had left no explanation to where he was going or why. Now Yusei was worried, sitting on the couch in the room above the garage, he wondered whether or not he should voice his concerns out loud, Leo burst in, closely followed by Luna.

"Hey guys...wait where's Crow?" Leo looked around, as if he thought Crow was hiding somewhere behind the furniture and was going to jump out at any moment.

"You tell us. This is his latest trick. Disappearing without telling anyone where he's going or how long he's gonna be." Jack's fist landed heavily on the table, causing a miniature tidal wave in his coffee cup. Akiza looked confused.

"But I saw him on my way over. Looked like he was going downtown..." She trailed off as Leo reached into his bag and brought out a pair of binoculars. "Ummm, Leo? Why do you have a pair of binoculars in your bag?"

"Well, we were going through a load of old stuff, looking for things to throw out and I found my old binoculars..."

"...which aren't really that old, he got them last Christmas and stuck them in his closet and forgot about them. Anyway he found them two days and found out that if he's was high enough up off the ground then he can see some of the turbo duel lanes directly. And since they're the latest in "spyware" technology he can kinda hear what the duellists are saying too so now he's saying that it's like the perfect way for him to learn about duelling and stuff so he wanted to show you." Luna cut in as Leo put the gadget to his eyes and stared out of the window.

"Right that's the bridge, the library, the coffee shop..."

"WithOUT the running commentary Leo."

"Ok ok get off my back. Let's see...huh?" He pulled the binoculars from his eyes, blinked and stared at them for a moment before putting them back to his face. "OHMYGOD!"

"What?!" Everyone chorused at the same time.

"I can see Crow. He's in the restaurant at the bottom of town, ya know the one where we went to for your fourth birthday, it kinda sucked but still...and...I think he's got a girl with him."

"WHAT!? Give me those." Jack shoved Leo out of the way and put the binoculars to his eyes, following the street until his eyes rested on the restaurant were Crow supposedly was. Like Leo, he did a double take. "He's actually right. But there's absolutely no way he's on a date, no way, this must be something else, maybe there were no other tables and she was forced to sit with him."

"Jack, the place is nearly empty, and she looked pretty happy talking to him." Leo chimed in, interrupting Jack's ranting denial.

"So...who is she then?"

"Only one way to find out" Yusei said, reaching for the phone.