Title: Starlight Time
Pair: Asuka x Akane (Osiris Red Girl)
Word Count: 573||Chapters: 1/1
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing Challenge (Arc-V canon), B87, romance genre; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #49, 573 words; YGO Arc-V Rare Pairs Week Day 6
Notes: Amazingly, this is the only fic for Rare Pairs week that's set in remotely a canon universe. I have also named Osiris Red Girl Himura Akane.
Summary: After the war, Asuka and her girlfriend spend some time together under the stars.
Akane's arm slipped around Asuka's waist. Asuka could feel her trembling at the motion, as if she didn't entirely believe her own courage and daring. She accepted it, though.
Part of her still couldn't entirely wrap her mind around the concept of the four dimensions united as one. Or reunited, according to the information being disseminated. This was what had once been and now was again.
If she strained very hard she could almost remember tiny flickers of imagery from when she was a child, long before the Academy, that matched up to what she could see now. But such memories often faded, especially when she and Akane were together.
Every breath she took offered far more enticing memories, ones that involved long days in the sun together, training new people at the new You Show Duel School, and being able to accomplish things the war had prevented them from doing before.
Such as being together in the first place. There'd never been anything banning relationships before, but at the same time, there hadn't been any support. Everyone was supposed to be far more interested in the success of the Professor's plans than personal time.
Starlight glimmered overhead, mute testimony to how much had changed in the last handful of months. Asuka couldn't recall what the night sky looked like in the Fusion dimension and she hadn't ever gone to any of the others.
But here they sat and there the stars shimmered and that was a difference that Asuka could accept.
Akane's arm started to loosen. Asuka reached down to touch their fingers together.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Asuka murmured. She wasn't entirely certain if she meant the stars or Akane herself, once more alive and breathing next to her. They'd spent a little time together before the war swung into full steam, then separated so abruptly...
She'd kept the card, snatching it from where it fell before fleeing with Sakaki Yuusho, and never letting it leave her possession. It had even been with her when she'd been carded.
Then they'd been freed, reborn together, and from that moment to this, Asuka didn't think they'd been apart any more than absolutely necessary. Akane wanted to check on her family, and Asuka on her own. Sometimes other duties called to them, but when they didn't, they stayed together.
Asuka didn't put it into words, but there were times when she wondered if she took her eyes off Akane, she would look again only to see a card there. She wasn't the only one, unfortunately. The scars of war would take time to fade.
Akane made a soft noise that sounded like approval and agreement in reply to her. Then she tilted her head back and smiled into Asuka's eyes.
"I think you're better than they are. A lot better." She tucked her head closer to Asuka again and breathed a happy, relaxed sigh. "But everything is better than it was."
Asuka didn't need to argue that point. Instead, she slid her own arm cautiously about Akane and leaned closer.
Some other time, she would be nervous about it all. Some other time, she would wonder if she was doing this right. She'd never dated before. She didn't know how to do it, something that worried her more than she really wanted to admit. At least Akane didn't seem to have any complaints.
But here and now, she enjoyed being underneath the stars with Akane.
The End
Notes: Only one more to go! Then I get back to finishing a lot of WIPs.