-
-
Cross Game
01: where the light shines (this is a heavenly sanctuary)
-
-
At first, Johan wasn't sure what had startled him out of his uneasy sleep and, lying half awake in bed, he wondered whether he should just ignore it. The frantic pitter-patter of a pair of familiar footsteps convinced him otherwise and he managed to roll out of bed as Rua and Ruka dashed into his room, the former immediately launching into a confused, jumbled explanation.
"Alright, alright," Johan said, chuckling a little, "calm down. Now, what happened?"
"Someone crashed into the yard!" Rua exclaimed.
"Maybe they're hurt?" Ruka chimed in, hiding a little behind her brother.
Johan blinked at them, sighed and nodded. "I see. Well, let's go look."
Pulling on his shoes and a coat, he led the twins, still in their adorable matching pajamas, into the elevator and to the ground floor of the Tops building they lived in. As they entered the lobby, Johan gestured the two children back. They scurried to hide behind a potted plant near the entrance, and Johan exited the building alone.
It didn't take him long to find the source of all the commotion. A bright red D-Wheel had indeed crashed through the gate around the building and into the inner courtyard. Its rider lay sprawled beside it, and Johan hurried over to check his pulse. He needn't have worried because even as Johan turned him over, the mysterious young man stirred and groaned lowly.
Pausing for a moment, Johan sighed again and hefted the unresponsive form across his back. He couldn't just leave the poor boy here after all…
As he walked back into the lobby, Rua and Ruka crowded around to him, obviously bubbling with curiosity. Johan waved them back, almost losing his hold on the stranger in the process. "This guy crashed on his D-Wheel," he explained. "I'm going to call a doctor."
"Is he hurt?" Ruka asked sensibly.
"No, just knocked out, I think. But better be sure…"
"I don't think you should," the girl insisted suddenly. "Let's just take him up to our rooms and let him sleep a bit."
Johan paused to look at her in surprise. Ruka had a keen intuition, even if she was young, but this was more than a little odd. But before Johan could question her, Rua broke in, adding his ten cents.
"Yeah! He's a D-Wheeler, right? That's so cool! …But he probably isn't supposed to be out right now, huh?"
Well, no, certain not with the curfew and not on a custom D-Wheel…
Seizing the chance, Ruka agreed with her brother. "That's right. We shouldn't get him in trouble. And his deck is well-cared for! Right, Johan-nii?"
Johan paused, mentally reaching out to the spirits of the cards in the stranger's holster. Hm, yeah, they were very well-cared for. In fact, they adored their duelist, which was really all the recommendation someone needed in Johan's book.
"Alright," he conceded. "But only for now. We're going to find out what's going on once he wakes up."
Taking the stranger up stairs, Johan left him with Ruka and Rua as he went to retrieve the red D-Wheel. The twins took the chance to relieve him of his jacket, boots and deck. As Ruka carefully laid a hand on the cards, Rua studied the young man more carefully.
"D'ya think he's older or younger than Johan?" he asked his sister, who looked up in surprise and carefully laid down the deck before answering.
"Younger. We've known Johan forever, remember? He's older than he looks… I think." As she looked at the stranger's face critically, Ruka started in surprise. "He's got a marker," she murmured.
"Eh, really? Wonder why…"
Before they could go any further, Johan returned, dusting his hands in a satisfied manner. "Well, that's that. His D-Wheel's here too. It seems fine." He eyed the twins for a moment and shook his head. "Now, it's off to bed, you two. There's still time before morning, so get some more sleep. He'll still be here, I think."
Rua seemed ready to protest, but Ruka smiled sweetly at Johan and dragged her brother away. Waving them goodnight, Johan settled beside the stranger and picked up his deck and jacket. The later yielded no new information, no id, and the former only hummed in faint concern. Reassuring the cards as best he could, Johan turned back to their owner.
"Marker, huh?" he murmured to himself. "Hm. There's something strange about him. Is that why Ruka…?"
Shaking his head, Johan settled in to wait until morning.
-
-
When Yusei drifted into consciousness, he was surprised to hear someone greet him kindly.
"You're awake? That's good. I thought you weren't seriously hurt, but I wasn't really sure…"
Opening his eyes, Yusei stared at the speaker, a young man with vivid blue hair, silvery green eyes and a pleasant smile. The young man leaned forward to look Yusei straight in the eye.
"Do you know who you are?" he asked, perfectly seriously.
"Yes," Yusei replied automatically, blinking at the closeness.
The stranger nodded. "Do you remember what happened?"
Thinking back for a moment, Yusei remembered Satellite, the tunnel, Jack, the prison, being released and taking back his deck and D-Wheel. Then, the Riding Duel with the Security duelist, the wall of men with tasers and… crashing. Yeah, he remembered crashing.
Focusing back on the stranger, he nodded decisively. The other smiled and leaned back, seemingly satisfied with Yusei's well-being.
"You're in Tops. You crashed nearby and the residents of this flat and I took you in. I'm Johan Andersen," he explained cheerfully.
Yusei paused, then nodded again. "Fudo Yusei," he introduced himself in return.
Johan beamed and held out his hand. As they shook hands, he said, "Nice to meet you. You must be hungry. It's almost time for lunch and the twins are probably dying to meet you."
After Yusei reclaimed his clothes and his deck, the two made their way deeper into the flat, coming to a bright, airy room that led to a large patio. Waving for him to wait, Johan disappeared. Only a moment later, two young children burst into the room. One, a boy in blue, ran straight up to Yusei and peered at him curiously. The other, a girl in red, came more slowly and hid behind her brother.
Johan followed them a little more sedately. "Lua, Luca, this is Yusei. Yusei, these are the residents of this flat, Lua and Luca," he gestured first to the boy, then the girl. Yusei nodded in greeting.
Rua burst into questions at once. "Hi, Yusei! You're a duelist, right? A D-Wheeler? What kind of deck do you use? Will you duel with me?"
Thinking for a moment, Yusei simply said, "Yes."
"Really! That's great! Do you have a Duel Disk? Mine's kinda heavy, but I still wish I got to use it more often!"
Yusei nodded again. "Yes," he replied.
Seemingly undeterred, Rua continued, "I love dueling, but I don't really have anyone to duel with me… I mean, Ruka's always saying she doesn't want to, and I know all of Tenpei's cards since we made our decks together, and Johan-nii… uh…"
Rua suddenly trailed off, and Yusei realized that Johan had just returned with a plate of sandwiches, having disappeared during Rua's interrogation. The other young man chuckled at Rua's sudden silence, making Yusei wonder what Rua would have said otherwise. Tugging on his sleeve, Ruka smiled sweetly at him.
"You'll have lunch with us, right? Let's eat outside," she suggested, pulling him toward the patio.
As they settled around a plastic table, Rua quickly changed the subject, though maybe not for the better. "I'm glad you're eating with us, Yusei!" he exclaimed. "Johan's being really conservative today, with just sandwiches and all. Usually he tries to feed us all this weird stuff-"
Rua cut off and winced as Ruka kicked him under the table. Glancing at Johan, Yusei was a little surprised to see him simply laugh. "You need to be more international," he said, shrugging.
"Are you related?" Yusei asked bluntly, looking between the three. They looked enough alike to maybe be cousins, or even siblings, but Johan was definitely a foreigner.
All three laughed and shook their heads. "No, but Johan-nii's like family anyway!" Rua exclaimed cheerfully. "He's been with us since we were really, really little!"
"Lua and Luca's parents are letting me live here with them for a really small rent as long as I look after these two," Johan clarified.
'Is bringing an unconscious stranger into the house considered part of "taking care of"?' Yusei wondered. Sure, he wasn't a thief or a murderer of something, but they didn't really have any way of knowing that. Though, as Johan gave him another cheery grin and Ruka smile shyly, Yusei couldn't quite work up any negative feelings about that.
Gobbling down the last of his sandwich, Rua jumped off his chair and shifted restlessly. "Let's duel now!" he exclaimed. "I'll get my Duel Disk!"
As he dashed off, Ruka finished her lunch as well and got up, gathering up the plates. "I'll take care of this," she told Johan, sighing a little.
Johan stood as well, gesturing Yusei to follow him. "Your D-Wheel's inside," he explained. "I'll take you there. I'm looking forward to seeing you duel too. I want to see your deck in action."
Johan's cheery grin made Yusei frown a little. "Why?" he asked.
"Well, it's obvious you have a close bond. It's always incredible to see a duelist and their deck work together," Johan explained as if it was the most obvious thing. His certainty made Yusei stare for a moment. He could only shrug as Johan gestured to his D-Wheel.
-
-
That night, as Yusei prepared to leave, he was surprised to find Johan waiting for him. The other young man only grinned at Yusei's mildly confused expression. Standing, he said softly, "Hey, let me walk you to the door."
Pushing his D-Wheel along as they started toward the elevator, Yusei glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "You're not angry," he noted.
"Hm? Why would I be?" Johan asked, honestly confused. "Thank you for adjusting the Duel Disks, by the way. Your cards are right; you really are a very kind person."
"My cards?" Yusei repeated in surprise.
"Mm-hm," Johan hummed. "It's obvious."
'To whom?' Yusei wondered, but once again he couldn't seem to make his disbelief known. There was something odd about Johan, without a doubt, but he was also genuinely kind, and that was rare, in Yusei's experience. 'It's good that there are people like them in Tops,' Yusei thought.
Outside the building, Johan stopped and held out the small pack he'd brought with him. Chuckling at Yusei's confusion, again, he said, "It's for you. A few things can go a long way when you're on your own. And…" he trailed off for a moment, seemingly not sure how to phrase it, "you know, you can always come back here. Lua and Luca will be happy to see you again."
Caught off guard, Yusei could only nod, taking the pack. He really meant that, he thought. Johan seemed to know that Yusei was involved in something, but he was offering him help anyway. "What about you?" he asked suddenly.
Johan blinked in surprise, then laughed. "Well, I'll be happy to see you too, but it's their home, so that's not as important…"
Though he privately disagreed, Yusei only nodded again, mounted his D-Wheel and drove away. He'd remember this meeting, he thought. Maybe, this was a new bond.
-
-
A/N: Ahaha… this is just a crack AU merge between 5Ds and GX. Srsly. Too many of those have rotted my brain. GX can be considered to have never happened, though certain elements and lots of characters will appear. The setting is 5Ds, pretty much played straight until the GX characters appear.
(Sigh, I wanted yaoi and Spiritshipping and stuff, but that's just not panning out. Well, weird friendships abound instead.)
And, srsly, how did Rua and Ruka originally get Yusei to their flat? Drag him? Call the doorman?
-
-