Disappointment

note: not really a serious piece, just trying to see if I can stay in character.

The first crack takes them all by surprise.

The day had been rather gentle, save the slowly growing grey clouds above them. Still, they'd gotten in a good practice and Team 5Ds was doing better than Yusei could've ever hoped for. Five hours after, they found themselves huddled together in the twin's apartment. It's all six of them, sitting beside one another with warm mugs of hot chocolate in hand. Despite the diet he insists he's on, Jack is in the lead with six drained cups spread before him, followed closely by Leo's four. Crow had been in the middle of one of his infamous scary stories, something about a man with hooks for hands and a knife in place of his teeth when the thunder claps loudly and the rain begins to fall in a heavy downpour.

Luna, who'd been wavering between sleep and consciousness, startled awake at the sound, her small body slamming full force into Yusei's chest, which up until that point she'd been using for a pillow. Overhead, the bulbs gave a frightening flicker. Luna did her best to stiffen the frightened scream that was quickly rising in her throat. The small group grew wearily quiet as the bulbs threateningly flickered low.

"That couldn't have been just thunder?" asked Akiza, her palm pressed firmly to her heart, "It was so, well, so loud. I think I almost had a heart attack." She took a shuddered breath and sighed. "Goodness, excuse me."

"It's really coming down out there," added Crow as he glanced out the darkened window. "Probably best if we stayed indoors, I'd rather not ride in that."

The three of them, excluding Yusei, Luna, and Akiza quickly turned their attention to the weather outside. Large gusts shook the autumn leaves from their branches and the rain-turned-hail, snapped loudly against the ground like gunshots against a broken body. "Y-yeah, Crow's right," nodded Leo, "It's not safe out there. I'll go grab the extra blankets. We can sleep in here."

"Some flashlights and a couple of candles would probably be a good idea, just in case," added Jack, as he followed the younger out of the room. Crow excused himself to the bathroom shortly after, but it wasn't long before the remaining three heard him rifling through the contents of the twin's kitchen.

Luna shuttered slightly in Yusei's arms as another loud crack accompanied with a a quick dance of lightning, sounded outside. Her breathing grew faster despite her best efforts to keep herself calm.

The little blue-haired liked to believe that she'd grown in the time that Yusei had first arrived and that the others saw her as an adult like themselves. She'd always been treated like one back when her parents had been around. And with that treatment came respect. Luna would do anything for her new friends (and especially Yusei) to feel the same way. But there had been cons. To cry was to show weakness and immaturity. She'd grown seeing herself as the mother bird among her friends and her brother, always warning them against bad decisions and picking them up when they were down. Akiza had slowly heaved that burden from her shoulders as she'd grown more comfortable around them, but still, Luna knew her friends saw her as an strong equal and once again she felt that need to stifle her fears. What if they grew to dislike her due to her weakness?

She took a long, steady breath at the thought.

If she could face deadly duelists and dark marks, what was a little thunder?

"Do you mind Luna?" asked Akiza, her voice soft and gentle, "We wouldn't want to intrude." Her question pulled the female twin from her thoughts and she quickly responded with a nod.

"Uh, n-no problem at all!"

Though Akiza seemed to accept her reply with little suspicion, Yusei on the other hand was the opposite. For the remainder of the night, Luna felt his eyes on her, watching her every action and hanging on her every word as if expecting her to fall apart at the seams the moment he looked away. She did her best to keep steady in hopes of the storm decreasing as the night went on.

But of course, she had no such luck. In fact, the storm seemed to intensify ten fold with each passing hour. And to make matters worse, the lights did finally go out. Still the small group, kept their spirits high with lots of candles and jokes and happy stories (with the loss of electricity Akiza had put the kibosh on Crow's horror tales). Around the eleven o'clock mark, Akiza suggested they'd turn in for the night. Both Crow and Leo groaned at the thought and instead attempted to keep the others awake through drawn out games of Sorry and Simon Says. Finally though, as the clock passed one in the morning, the boys lost their ground and settled up for the night. Next was Akiza, and finally about half an hour later, there went Jack. Yusei had been out since the beginning of Simon Says and finally, Luna too was able to sleep.

But, that didn't mean she slept very well. She was restless and her body tossed and turned with every loud thwack from outside. On the inside of her eyelids she pictured creeps with hooks for hands and bloodied fingers. At about half past three, she awoke again in a cold sweat. The thunder cracked and rumbled outside A small stream of tears rolled from her eyes, no matter how hard she tried to fight them back. She whimpered with each tremor that raked through her body, and with that tremor she felt utter disgust with herself and her weakness.

Yusei was the quiet type. Hearing Luna he awoke and yet, he didn't say much save the long yawn he gave. He didn't ask questions, didn't press. He quickly unraveled himself from his own blankets and wrapped his arms around Luna's shaking shoulders. She felt his warm calloused fingers dry the tears from her eyes, and his strong arms pull her into his lap. He didn't ask for a reason and she didn't give him one. The tears flowed freely and Luna hated herself more and more with each shaking sob.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm really, really sorry, Yusei."

She expected teasing or just plain rejection. She waited for the patronizing retorts. But there were none.

Calmly, Yusei pulled her even closer until they were in a tight embrace. Luna hiccuped into his shoulder. Her sobs becoming heavier and thick. Over and over she repeated, "I'm sorry, Yusei. I'm sorry."

At this point, when she couldn't possibly feel more pathetic, she let herself shake freely with each passing clap of thunder. Her words fell away until her cries were just a mismatch of broken syllables, snot and wet congestion.

When she finally grew silent, he spoke, "Are you alright?" His voice was full of it's usual warmth and she felt stupid for expecting anything less of him.

"I-I think so," she nodded. Her face flushed from the mix of raw skin and embarrassment. With Yusei, Luna always felt like she was thrown into some sort of spotlight. She felt the need to impress him, to make him proud of her, to make him, oh what was the word, love, she supposed? She wanted him to be happy with the little girl before him, wanted him to feel good when he saw her. And this, this tantrum and falling apart, he was never going to want to see her again. Who wanted to deal with another troubles when you've already got plenty of your own? Despite her reply, Luna felt herself crumble on the inside.

"It's going to be okay."

"I-I know, Y-Yusei. I'm alright."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine," she retorted as she pulled herself free from his embrace, "I'm just...tired, I guess."

She felt his eyes on her as she crawled back beneath her own blankets. When he was satisfied she wouldn't break down into another mess, she saw him roll over and shortly after heard his heavy sleeping breaths.

Despite her reply, Luna was anything but fine.