Notes – For the gx_100. Set during their first year, though I'm not certain of when Fubuki's birthday is exactly.
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Fubuki had better appreciate this when he got it back.
He'd stumbled for what felt like the seventh time, really he wasn't keeping track. It was no surprise that hardly anyone climbed down here, even in the day it was tricky but at night it was much worse.
A theme birthday, he'd said.
What sort of person gives you a theme that you have to follow to buy them birthday presents?
Fubuki did it seemed.
This year he wanted gifts that followed the theme 'ancient', but he specifically said that the present wasn't to be tacky or falling apart. Which does seem to defeat the point of an 'ancient' theme…
The others who were going to give him a present went straight off to have something sent across from the junk shops on the main land that would have an antique look to them, but apparently this wasn't good enough for Ryo. He'd wanted to get something nobody else would.
It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but Fubuki had waited until the day before his birthday to announce the theme, and Ryo couldn't go without studying for the test tomorrow, so he'd had to wait until the later hours until he could go get the present.
And now he felt his foot touch on solid ground. It was… damp. The temperature seemed to drop considerably too. He paused to look up at the hole he'd climbed down to reach the bottom of the well.
He had to admit that he'd never been here before, but he'd heard about it enough from other students and completely disproved of how it was used. Cards are suppose to be respected, regardless of how strong they were, so discarding the weak ones so heartlessly like the people who dropped them into the well did showed that they did not honour themselves as duellists.
This was the only place he could hope to find the present he wanted to though. But as he peered into the gloom it was clear that he really couldn't see very much. Perhaps a few steps further into the cave…
No, that hadn't been a good idea.
The damp floor caused him to slip up and land on his knees. Now his trousers were covered in as much mud as his shoes had been. His hand may have been grazed too but that really didn't bother him too much.
What sort of person would you bother doing this for? He wondered as he looked into his pocket for the flashlight that he wasn't sure would have been necessary but had brought anyway just incase.
He wouldn't have done this for any of his other friends but it seemed when Fubuki said 'jump' that Ryo had gone down the hole that very day. As he felt an insect of undeterminable breed crawl over his hand he knew it was all too possible to hate your best friend more than anyone else in the world. At least when your worst enemy told you to go down a well in the middle of the night you could tell them where to go. But when your best friend did it…
The torch was shining over the cave now, it was clear there were a lot of cards here after all.
…It wasn't as if Fubuki had even asked him to do this, it had been Ryo's idea at the end of the day. But something about Fubuki just made him want to prove he'd gone further than anyone else to achieve the requirement. He still wasn't certain what it was.
As the light past over a copy of the Happy Lover card he had to smirk to himself.
One thing he knew he would never need in life was a lover as long as he had a friend like Fubuki. People said that romance could be very demanding, but having someone as demanding as Fubuki was in his life anyway he really didn't think he could be bothered with doubling that pressure.
Were any of these cards the right ones?
Part of him wanted to take them anyway, it didn't seem right for them to be down here. But then he knew that some duellists came here to get the cards they needed to finish their decks. He couldn't hear the spirits of the monsters screaming, it wasn't his place to hear them.
After about three hours of dirt, crawling and turning over cards he was considering going home. Though his pride still forced him to stay. That and he wasn't sure where he could get another present good enough.
Though it was thankful for him that he did stay because… was that…? Yes, it was. Thank goodness for that!
The next morning Fubuki was greeted by a very tired looking Ryo.
"Panda eyes, did you sleep at all last night?" Fubuki laughed, already surrounded in a sea of wrapping paper from various presents. Fubuki had a lot of friends. It also looked like Fubuki had a lot of antique vases and other knick-knacks.
Noticing where Ryo was looking Fubuki commented, "I'm starting to think that 'ancient' was a pretty bad theme for presents after all. You better not have got me a vase by the way."
Ryo shook his head and handed over the small envelope.
This made Fubuki frown a little. It looked like Ryo had chickened out and only got him money…
He opened it anyway, and caught the single card as it slipped out. An ancient card was it?
But as he turned it over his face lit up straight away. This was perfect. Maybe it stretched the theme a little but he could really use this card.
He shined it into the light, so he could better appreciate the image on the card of the Red Eyes Black Chick.