A/N: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, c25 - write a pre-canon fic, and for the Advent Calender 2014 (yup, remi not done with that one yet), day 1 - Day 1 - Write a first something. First duel. First date. First word. First anything. :D.
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A Sneak Peak at the Friendship Cup
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They manage to sneak under the tape this year. Not as contestants. They're not quite ready with the duel runner to compete. But they make it to the stands, without forking out every drop of their savings like many others in the Commons. Because no way in hell are they drying their pockets out to fill the Tops. They do enough of that, and this Cup is for the Commons.
They can't sit. They haven't paid for seats and if someone who has makes a scene, they'll be booted out and stamped. Maybe even arrested because Security arrested the Commons for the tiniest things. Even putting a single grimy but hard-working toe onto their pristine lawns. Stupid, Yuugo thinks, but that is the law and until he is strong enough to change, he can complain all he likes but he has to abide by it.
Sort of. What they're doing now is against the law too but they're less likely to get caught. The seats are off limits, but standing up isn't and there are many, mostly Commons, who pay and still don't get a seat. The Tops do, of course. They get the seats and the drinks and all the luxories. But this is one time the Commons get something too. Because it's the Friendship Cup.
"Isn't he cool?" Rin asked suddenly. She's already gazing at the tracks and Yuugo looks and sees why. Jack Atlas is making his introduction lap.
"Of course he is." Yuugo generally agrees with everything Rin says - unless it's something he feels strongly about, and Rin's usually it - but Jack Atlas is seriously cool and even if Rin disagreed, he won't change his mind. Jack Atlas is the Common's hero, after all. The winner of the Friendship Cup, the king of duels - he sits on the throne at Tops despite being from the Commons and he gives hope to everyone else that it's possible to get up there and out of this slump too.
Last year though, they had to hear it all second hand.
This year they're going to watch. And they do. They watch the lap. They watch the king's sacrificial pawn be picked out of the crowd of challengers. They watch the king declare a three turn match - his famous three turn victory. They watch the opponent throw everything he possibly can in the second round and Rin laughs and says it's a trap, that the opponent's fallen flat on his face and Yuugo doesn't quite see it yet - and then they watch Jack turn all that power coming his way against him and win in a single fell swoop and then Yuugo sees the neat little trap for what it is.
If he's duelling, he's probably going to fall for it too. Because how can someone turn down the invitation do throw out their best. So he'll just have to make sure his best is better. He decides that and makes up his mind to become even stronger. It's not hard to do. But Rin has a calculating, crafty look. Rin is thinking about how to work around that trap, instead of how to blast the net open.
Their duels in the future promise to be interesting, anyhow.
That's it for the first day, so they listen to Melissa Clarke's ending prattle and then wander off, pretending they're paying customers like the rest (and maybe some of the other Common folk they see are the same as them), and they're there bright and early the next day, sneaking in again.
They go to where they were standing before and no-one's there, so they've got a good view of the duelling field - or as good a view as one can get without actually paying for it.
And the tournament officially begins. Jack Atlas sits on his throne and watches them all. Watches the duels. And they watch too.
Some of them end in a flash. Others drag on, maybe longer than they need to drag. Some duellists make poor plays. Some duellists play with nothing more than the cards everybody has. But that's all what the Commons have. Barely any rare cards at all. They share. They recycle. They're lucky if they have a synchro monster apiece and he has Clear Wing Synchro Dragon so that's his luck all used up. Rin has a synchro too. She'd lose every time against him if she didn't. But they're the only orphans in that house that have them. No-one else does.
Not all the duellists in the Friendship Cup have synchros. A few of them do, though. The guy called Divine has. He's got Thought Ruler Archfiend and it's strong. A higher level than Clear Wing Synchro Dragon too, and he manages to win the whole thing. He's a mean duellist, though. Rin's glaring at him once he's making his victory lap, once he's getting ready to duel the king.
Yuugo's not worried. The guy's good, but not that good. Jack will win.
And Jack wins, in his famous three move win. Divine falls and thus the Friendship Cup comes to an end, and they sneak off one final time and talk about nothing else for weeks because the younger kids didn't see the Cup and want to know all the details and the pair of them are more than happy to give them up. And they're excited for themselves as well. Some of the duellists sucked. Others were good. It's enough to let them know they stand a chance in a competition like that, and with a bit more strength, a bit more training, they might even win it all - or one of them.
'Because we can't both win.' Rin rolls her eyes.
And another thing Yuugo will have to disagree with Rin on is which one of them is going to wind up winning it all. Because Yuugo is sure it'll be him. Rin is sure it'll be her. Either way, they plan on doing better than Divine did. They plan on beating Jack too. And they plan on winning another one for the Commons while they're at it, because it's their ticket out of the slums when, for the Tops, it's only money and fame. Neither of them are too disappointed that Divine lost. He's a Tops guy. He doesn't deserve the glory of dethrowing the Common's king. And it'll be a political upheaval if it happens - if someone from the Tops beats Jack Atlas, because then the Commons will be nothing again, because then the Commons will have nothing but the shirts on their backs and sometimes not even that.
In that respect, it didn't even matter which one of them it was. It was just the internal rivalry that kept them squabbling into the weeks after the conclusion of the Friendship Cup.