I HAVE TOO MANY ONESHOTS TO FINISH!
Angst+muses= GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUTT AND WRITE
This was inspired by Oddeyesyuya's fanfic "Broken Boys", in which Yuuri is offered the choice to stay with his other counterparts. This will slightly follow that line, except with a different ending and composition.
Review?
"Yuuri."
Rain patters down on the smoking ruins of the former Academia as the last of the evacuated students leave in the ferry, the Lancers having stayed behind to help. No one had expected to find Yuuri kneeling among the ruins of his former home, destroyed by the battle with the Supreme Dragon King Zarc, holding his duel disk in his hands and staring at it blankly.
But he's there.
"Everyone's leaving. You should come with us."
Yuuri knew that was probably the smartest thing to do. Academia was destroyed, the roofs caving in and the students gone home to their parents. There was no such thing as "Arc Area Project" or "Revival Zero" anymore.
After all, Akaba Leo had been killed in the final battle, and now, the school was gone.
But at the same time, Yuuri didn't want to leave Academia. He'd spent his entire life there, and that was where he'd first learned how to duel. He spent years figuring out all the passageways and secret entrance/exits of the enormous castle, and had slept in the same bedroom for all his life.
His three counterparts that shared his face stand in front of him, drenched by the sudden rain. There was the Synchro duelist, Yuugo, that he had mocked and underestimated, staring at him with a forlorn expression. The Xyz remnant whose home he had destroyed, those grey eyes boring into his own. And his Standard duelist, whose beliefs he had once thought were idiotic, holding a hand out to him with a small smile on his face.
The way they cluster together...as if they were missing a final person.
Yuuri wished that he was as close to his other counterparts as they were to each other, but that wasn't the case. His 'comrades' had destroyed Yuuto's homeland, Heartland, and the dimension he'd loved. Yuugo had been defeated and absorbed by him, and the short time the Synchro duelist had spent in Yuuri's head was mainly filled with Zarc's influential darkness.
Yuuya...well, he'd carded Sakaki Yusho, and then Yuuya had absorbed him and they had fused into Zarc. It wasn't exactly the relationship that Yuuri had been looking for, and it also wasn't the type of relationship he'd been looking for with Yuuto or Yuugo.
"I..." Yuuri chokes on the onslaught of tears coming his way. "I...don't know."
He can't think straight.
His brain is swirling in a mess of emotions, the internal conflict only worsening with Yuuya's question.
"But where will you go?" asks Yuugo, curiosity evident in his voice.
Where will you go, Joeri? This is your decision.
That broke the wall holding back his emotions.
He drops to his knees on the concrete of Academia's intact docks, hands pressing against the cold stone. Tears begin to roll down his cheeks in a waterfall, and they splatter onto the grey stone in droplets like the rain.
Showing weakness.
He tries to hide the tears by wiping them away, but a warm hand stops his arm from continuing its way to his cheek. It was Yuuya's, the crimson-eyed boy's soft smile filing up Yuuri's vision.
"It's okay, Yuuri," the boy says quietly. "Everyone needs to cry once in a while."
Yuuri swallows the lump in his throat before whispering in a tone drastically different from his usual sarcastic drawl:
"I thought your philosophy was to smile, wasn't it?"
Yuuya sits back on his haunches, a thoughtful expression on his face, before turning back to face the Fusion counterpart.
"What my father taught...it was right in some ways, but wrong in others. You shouldn't hide your tears with a fake smile-it just makes the misery worse."
Yuuto, having experience in the mentioned field, nods in agreement, before surprisingly, Yuugo pipes up.
"If you have someone there for you, an you're not letting them help...isn't that a waste? Among the Commons...companionship was one of the things we learned to treasure the most. Without it, you were basically doomed to loneliness, and eventually, starvation."
Yuuri's eyes meet Yuugo's, then Yuuto's, and finally, Yuuya's.
He tries to say something, but another wave of tears clogs his throat stubbornly, the remaining pain from the fight with Zarc disappearing as more of the depressingly salty liquid splatters onto the concrete in a makeshift waterfall.
Miraculously, he's able to choke out the words.
"I carded your friends, your comrades! I destroyed your home! Why do you still want me to live with you!?"
Yuuto shares a glance with Yuuya and Yuugo before kneeling down in front of Yuuri, placing a hand on his Fusion counterpart's shoulders.
"Yuuri. Look at me."
Desperate pink eyes meet warm grey ones.
"You can't keep hanging on to the past, Yuuri. This war is done and gone, this rule you've been living under is done and gone. You've taken control of your own life again, and it's too early to throw it away."
Yuuto pauses, a hand reaching for the red scarf around his upper arm, before continuing.
"All those you carded are back now. Asuka is with Edo and Dennis in her home in the Fusion Dimension's City. The students you carded from You Show, they're safe in the school once more. The Heartland residents have already returned home and are rebuilding. Life goes on, Yuuri. Just accept that fact."
Yuuri's never shown so much weakness before, not even when he was cornered by Sakaki Yusho in their duel. Never had Yuuya seen him break down like that, and according to Serena and Asuka, he'd never done it as a child.
Then he takes a good look at Yuuri.
His eyes are no longer hold that malicious look, and his face is twisted into a miserable expression. There's a certain look in his eyes, like what he's done has finally processed in his brain.
Remorse.
The fact that he's never had someone like the three of them to care for him.
He's not used to such kind treatment.
As Academia's top soldier, even as a child, he was feared by everyone. He had no friends, no one who loved him, and the only comfort he'd ever had was taking that feeling of care away from anyone else.
Jealousy.
Yuugo kneels down too, his turquoise eyes sparkling with unshed tears. Rin, Yuzu, Serena, and Ruri, they'd all passed out after overexerting themselves to use the spell cards, and all four were in a coma back in Standard, hooked up to beeping machines. The poor Synchro duelist had barely gotten his own body back before watching Rin pass out right before him.
In a nearly unconscious movement, he reaches out and pulls Yuuri into a small hug.
The Fusion duelist is surprised as Yuugo's cheek brushes his ear, his own tears creating wet grey splatters on Yuugo's torn duel jumpsuit. He can feel the Synchro duelist's own tears on his red cape, but he ignores it.
He's never hugged anyone in his life, and this feels so good.
Then another pair of arms joins the hug, the red scarf wrapped around the wielder's upper arm digging into Yuugo's shoulder, before Yuuto moves his arm so it dangles away from the hug's center.
Yuuya's arms can't wrap around the entire bunch, so he chooses to mainly embrace Yuuri's shoulders, said boy flinching in surprise.
Yuuri's eyes squeeze shut once more as tears refuse to stop their harassment on Yuugo's jumpsuit's shoulder, treasuring the feeling of the other boys there for him. He discards the facade of the cold-hearted bastard everyone makes him out to be and lets his feelings out in the comfort of his counterparts' reassurance.
"It's okay, Yuuri," murmurs Yuuya. "Just let it all out."
Carding all those people.
Destroying Heartland.
Kidnapping Rin and Ruri.
Letting Zarc take over.
Brutally winning Yuugo.
Allowing Yuuya to fuse with him.
So many wrongs and not single right.
Yuuri pulls his face from Yuugo's shoulder and faces his three counterparts. Their eyes are confused, sad, expectant, as they wait for him to say something, do something.
"I'm sorry," he whispers. "I'm so, so sorry."
Even the most psychotic of people don't stay psychotic. Yuuri had gotten some of the worst qualities of Zarc, from his ruthlessness to his love for insane, twisted version of entertainment, but no one could be an exact imitation of the demon himself.
That was a trait of personality Akaba Leo had refused to see. He couldn't see Yuuya's actual love for entertainment, Yuuto's care for those he loved, Yuugo's desperation to save the one thing that tied him down, Yuuri's conflicted emotions beneath his cold exterior.
Yuuri slams his palms down again onto the concrete, ignoring the pain the red marks left on his hands as his tears mix in with the rain.
Then his eyes meet Yuuya's, and he begins.
"I'm sorry for carding your father, Yuuya."
Yuuya closes his crimson eyes, avoiding Yuuri's gaze.
"I'm sorry for taking Rin from you, Yuugo."
Yuugo grits his teeth as his own tears appear.
"I'm sorry for destroying Heartland with Academia, and taking Ruri away, Yuuto."
Yuuto takes a deep breath and stares at the ground, fingers twisting the knot on his red scarf.
"...I'm sorry for everything."
Yuuya blinks back his own tears and holds out his hand once more, that small smile back in place. Yuuri can tell it's genuine.
"Are you coming with us?"
This time, the Fusion counterpart doesn't hesitate.
"Yes."
There's a flash of bright blue light as the Dimensional Mover function on Yuuri's duel disk activates, and the four lookalike boys are gone, leaving the desolate ruins of Academia behind.
Short? Yes. Angsty? I don't know. You decide.
Sayonara!