This fic happened when my Vector obsession overtook me. I don't know where this will go, but it's definitely not Foilshipping. Any form of feedback is always desired, by the way.

The roof was a wonderful place for Yuuma to be at. Especially when it was night and he needed time for himself.

Time to think.

Time he didn't need to spend putting on a smile that wasn't his.

When did he start to fake smiles again? He'd promised Astral many things. Among them was exactly not exhibiting this kind of bevhavior.

Or so he'd promised.

Yuuma had been out of it for quite a while now.

Of course, nobody had noticed. Who would? His happy self was nothing that one couldn't trust, right?

He'd reassured his friends many times over that he was okay with Astral being gone. That he'd learnt to be alright on his own. That for him, his friends were enough.

Of course, that was a lie - however, even Kotori believed him by now. And Yuuma sometimes thought he could believe himself, too.

Or so he'd thought.

They'd saved Astral World for the second time by now. Yuuma had desperately tried to drag out the duels.

Duels that were connected to his and Astral's lives.

Duels he couldn't have afforded to lose.

He risked the win in exchange for being able to spend more time with Astral.

However, Astral had noticed right away and he'd scolded him. They'd finished dealing with the threat that had come to Astral World.

And Yuuma'd returned home.

Of course, he had protested. He'd asked to stay a bit longer. He'd even begged Kaito.

However, the portal between worlds wasn't easy to create and didn't hold an infinite amount of uses. Apparently, Astral didn't have access to Number 66: Master Key Beetle anymore, either. To be exact, Astral had no access to the airship within the Emperor's Key, anymore.

So Yuuma had to return home once more, to his normal life. It didn't quite feel like home, anymore.

Astral had refused when Yuuma had asked him to come along. He'd said that Yuuma needed to be able to live without him, too. That the people in Astral World needed him more than Yuuma did.

And Yuuma couldn't deny his rage at that fact.

Was it wrong to feel that way?

Yuuma did not know.

Tomorrow would be another day. He'd be dueling, making jokes and laughing.

But it would never be the same without Astral.

There would soon be a way for the door to parallel worlds to be stable, Kaito had said.

At first, Yuuma had been filled with hope when he'd heard that.

Said hope decreased with every day, though.

'Soon' seemed to have no clear definition. They hadn't found a way to rebuild the portal for a third time, yet.

"Astral..." Yuuma muttered his partner's name as he stared at the Emperor's Key, all while trying to ignore how cold it was at this time of the day... night.

By now it had been 65 days since Yuuma had last seen Astral. That was more than two months.

The others had it easier coping with Astral's disappearance.

For example, Kotori.

Kotori had confessed her love to Yuuma. Some days ago, he'd finally given her an answer. He'd said he couldn't return her feelings.

Sure, they were childhood friends and he fully trusted Kotori, but that didn't mean he romantically loved her, although everyone seemed to assume exactly that.

They were so wrong.

Yuuma had no interest in romantic love whatsoever.

Since then, he hadn't spoken a single word with Kotori. She didn't let anyone notice her suffering, either.

However, Yuuma could tell that Kotori blamed Astral for it, even if she didn't want to admit it. Deep down, there were always feelings like these.

Just like the feelings Astral used to have thanks to Vector's manipulations.

Speaking of Vector, he'd probably be able to cheer Yuuma up right now.

In the end, they'd made him attend school with them. And he still had great fun whenever he was showing Yuuma new potentially dangerous shortcuts. Not that Yuuma didn't have fun with it - it was one of the few times where his thoughts didn't circle around Astral. That's why he had went along with anything that Vector had tried in these last 65 days.

Those moments always reminded Yuuma of the old times. Before Vector had betrayed him.

He'd forgiven Vector by now. And Vector... didn't seem all too interested to bring any sensitive topics up.

He was one of the only people who seemed to understand that telling Yuuma that he'll see Astral again will not help.

Suddenly, a touch on his back. "Yuuma-kun, spacing out again?"

Yuuma immediately got onto his feet and jumped backwards, forgetting that he was on the rooftop and thus falling... only to be caught by Vector, who pulled him back to his feet.

"Vector! It's in the middle of the night, what are you doing here?!" Yuuma exclaimed in surprise.

Vector gave him a smirk that held a lot of meaning. A meaning which Yuuma could not grasp. "I thought it's for the best."

He sat down, still having that smirk.

Yuuma simply smiled in return as he sat down again as well, deciding to not bother with the details since the person who was the best at distracting him had appeared out of nowhere - that was one of the most pleasant moments within the last weeks. "It might be. So, what made you come here?"

"Well, to be honest," Vector had that grin that Yuuma knew all too well. The grin Vector always had when he'd managed to piss someone off the way he wanted. "Nasch and Mizael kicked me out of the house."

Yuuma tried to not laugh at that. Vector had been living with the other former Barian Emperors for quite a while now and they had gotten along quite well. Quite well... aside from Shark having things (things that have a varying degree of actual danger) fall on him on a regular basis, and Mizael needing to take care of his hair products a lot - Vector tended to swap Mizael's shampoo bottle with hair dye bottles since he couldn't do more dangerous things. That in return resulted in scoldings from Rio.

A chuckle escaped Yuuma's lips. "What did you do this time?" Any topic that wasn't Astral was like heaven to him.

"Well, I might have went a little overboard this time," Vector said, but immediately started laughing afterwards, making his statement sound like a joke. "Actually, I didn't. I just dropped some jellyfish on Nasch. That was enough for him to hate my guts. Well, he probably hated them from the start." A slightly insane-sounding giggle slipped through while he was talking. "Aaaand yeah, I think he really hates jellyfish. I have no idea why that is~"

Of course. It wasn't like Vector was indirectly responsible for Shark's dislike for jellyfish or anything. Yuuma remembered Shark's encounter with Kurage very vividly.

While Yuuma couldn't share the fun that Vector had in making Shark's life harder, he did have fun seeing Vector have fun.

Fun that didn't involve seriously hurting people.

"And why is Mizael angry? What hair dye was it this time?" Yuuma enjoyed the pranks that Vector pulled on Mizael a little more than the ones he pulled on Shark. Mainly because Mizael had not been killed by Vector at any point in the past.

"Purple. I thought it's for the best if he bonds with Nasch a little~" Vector didn't bother hiding the fun he was having with it. "And well, in the end they had enough of me and kicked me out. For who knows how long. So I figured I'd visit you."

"How did you even know that I am awake?" Yuuma asked, stretching and yawning. He didn't want to sleep, no matter how tired he was. Better awake and about to collapse from the lack of sleep rather than having more of those nightmares. Nightmares that were all about losing Astral.

"Do you recall that one time where we had that talk about the whole Barian Police matter at night? After I gave you that Limited Barian's Force?" Vector asked, not even capable of laughing about it anymore. He would have in the past. But the moment he'd died, things had changed. Thanks to the stubborn idiot he was sitting next to.

Whatever had remained of Yuuma's smile now vanished at once. "Yes. I told you back there that I'm awake at night pretty often lately, right?"

Vector nodded. "That's why I knew you'd be awake."

"So, what did you come here for? Want to talk about the new route for tomorrow?" Yuuma now asked, eager to change the topic to things that were not related to anything that could remind him of Astral.

"Actually, I wanted to ask if it's fine for me to crash at your place," Vector finally said what he'd actually come there for.

"You can stay as long as you want!" Yuuma simply exclaimed with a smile, unable to conceal the happiness that filled his eyes. "I'm sure grandma and Akari-nee-chan won't mind making more duel meals anyway. There was that one time where III crashed here for a while. Or that time where we kept Haruto here. Those were great. Astral really helped Haruto back there, right, Astral?"

Silence.

Vector knew that expressing any form of worry would not be a good idea and cause Yuuma to retreat even more.

Nervous laughing. Rubbing his neck. Yuuma's trademark gestures for this situation. He and Vector were both very aware that there was no way to conceal his suffering over not being with Astral.

In response to that, Vector simply stood up and pulled Yuuma to his feet. "Let's go to sleep then."

And today was the first day in his new life where Vector'd lied to Tsukumo Yuuma.

How did that dense idiot Yuuma even manage to believe that Nasch and Mizael would be able to kick him, Vector, out, anyway? The part with them being angry hadn't been a lie though.

On another note, Vector was lying to help Yuuma, so it might actually not be that bad.

Vector laughed a little while he looked around in Yuuma's room.

"What's so funny?" Yuuma asked, following him slowly while subconsciously gazing at the key again.

"Nothing, really," Vector said, grinning. "So, uh, where do I sleep?"

Yuuma pointed downwards. "In the bed down there."

"So, why aren't you sleeping there? It's not like that thing you're sleeping in right now is comfortable," Vector could not really comprehend Yuuma's behaviour. But then again, who could?

"This place here is filled with memories of my parents... and lately, of Astral, too," Yuuma said, giving a weak smile.

"Then I suggest we both sleep down in your actual bedroom." Vector did not seem to allow any refuses when he pulled Yuuma after him.

"Wait, Vector! Why?" Yuuma asked, getting out some blankets so they'd both have a place to sleep. He didn't have the strength to protest, currently.

"Because I think it's for the best."

About the title. It's named after Vector's catchphrase "Yokare to omotte" ('I thought it's for the best').