A/N: Written for
GX bingo, the non-flash version, #069 - Professor Cobra
Prompts in Steps Challenge, level 3, prompt #009 - yearning
Diversity Writing Challenge, b17 - write about a major character
The Advent Calender Challenge (2014), day 22 - write a fic under 1k
Juudai and Rick
'But duelling is about having fun!'
He jerked at the words. Then straightened himself and kept on walking. The speaker didn't even notice. Nor did the gaggle of friends who surrounded him, hanging on to his every word. To them, he was a snake slithering in the grass, invisible but with deadly poison in his fangs when he finally chose to rear his head and strike. And he would, eventually. But not now. It was far too early now. She didn't have enough energy now.
He, on the other hand, had far too much. Yuuki Juudai, who'd spent a night and half a day in the infirmary and wasn't bothered at all by it. Who didn't understand the gravity of things. Of duels. Of battles. Of his words.
('We'll have fun, won't we, Dad?')
Not anymore... Because his son wasn't there anymore, and here was Yuuki Juudai instead, sucking up all the life.
Rick wouldn't have turned out like that. Rick would have been softer, more tender. Rick would have walked beside him. Maybe a little behind if there were too many others around, so he'd be comforted by the shadow cloaking him. He wouldn't be so glaringly obvious like that.
And he wouldn't have been talking about fun so lightly, either. Because Rick knew. Rick knew what sort of life he'd been rescued from, and at what cost. Rick knew where his father went, for days and sometimes weeks at a time. He knew fun, and appreciated it, and respected it.
This boy didn't even know its value.
(But you'll learn, Juudai. You'll learn.)
His eyes were shining. Superficial, reflecting the sun. Like the moon, someone might say, though thinking of Yuuki Juudai in relation to something dark was...odd, and interesting. And not originally his idea.
But he didn't really care why she hated Yuuki Juudai that much, or what she knew about him. He'd seen enough. Heard enough before their eyes had even met. Yuuki Juudai didn't understand the value of life, something even a baby lost in a war could grasp. Someone like him could only have made it so far in life because he'd been coddled.
(And even coddling was prone to failing, because hadn't he tried to coddle Rick and lost him instead?)
Lucky. That was all he was. Lucky, whimsical and in no way deserving of the life he had. Impossible to mould into shape. One could only work with what was already there and if there was no self-preservation, no seed of understanding then how could one grow a tree? They couldn't.
(You, Yuuki Juudai, are a spark that'll be blown out by the wind.)
And, for the moment, he was bright, glaringly bright. A star in the night sky, one of many who shone obnoxiously bright until it blinked out and was forgotten. Maybe the darkness was an appropriate backdrop for him after all: it would swallow him unforgivingly, while those who fought and valued life would be ashes under the sun waiting for their rebirth.
But then Yuuki Juudai prattled on about fun again and he was just a target waiting to be struck down and replaced.
(Because Rick should be here, not someone like you).