Note: THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OF THIS PAIRING ON THE INTERNET. Why is it that the canon pairings always get ignored? Especially the adorable ones?

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or any Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. I don't own any of the characters you see in this fanfiction, as this fanfiction is created purely for entertainment purposes and not for profit whatsoever. Besides, if I wanted to make a profit, I can do better than Yu-Gi-Oh!. Just kidding. But seriously, don't sue me. Also, I got my "I owe somebody mass amounts of prayer and thanks" line from Least I Can Do, the GREATEST WEBCOMIC TO EVER EXIST. Go. Do it now. Go look at it. I'll wait. I don't own that either, but it's amazing.

Down to Earth

What cruel twist of fate brought me here?

Currently, I, Jack Atlas, former King, the Master of Faster, the greatest turbo duelist the world had ever seen...

Was lounging on the couch of an 19-year-old girl, my arm in a sling, barely able to dress myself without assistance. How did I end up like this? God, it seems that one day I was the King, and the next day I was lounging around the house in a tank-top and a pair of jeans, while a hyperactive teenage girl attempted for the tenth time to make dinner without burning something. Sometimes I wonder about her. She's certainly an odd one, with her thick glasses, her tendency to chatter on, her clumsiness, her bashfulness, and her inability to touch anything without it blowing up, breaking, or catching on fire. (Seriously, she was boiling water once and the pot caught on fire somehow. The fireman who let us back in afterwards was laughing his arse off!)

However, I do owe my life to her. She saved me from the hospital, brought me here, and kept me safe from the massive crowds of paparazzi that swarmed the streets looking for a story. She took me where I needed to go, cleaned, cooked, and tended to my broken arm, all with a smile on her face and a kind word. Which God smiled on me in order to bring me to such a wonderful girl? As soon as I'm able to drive myself anywhere, I'm going to a church, a temple, and a synagogue, or whatever religious buildings happen to be around. I figure I owe somebody mass amounts of prayer and thanks.

Any other woman, any other human, would have gotten fed up with me by now, I'm sure. I happen to know, and admit, that my personality is not exactly what most would call "pleasant". I happen to understand that I can be rather abrasive and, dare I say, kind of cold at times. Any other person having to take care of someone like me would have gotten fed up with me and dumped me out ages ago. But not Carly. She took all my cutting words with a grain of salt and kept right back coming for more. I can't quite tell if she's extremely patient or merely mad. Even when I snapped at her, yelled at her, told her I wished I could be anywhere else, she simply smiled at me and replied with, "Come on, Jack, just eat some dinner. You'll feel better in the morning, I promise."

She is simply wonderful, and God only knows if she knows I feel that way.

Listen to me! I sound like a romantic sap from a foreign romance film. But every word of it is true. I'm not sure how or when I began feeling this way, but the fact of the matter is, I love her.

I love her to bits, to death, and I'm simply terrified to tell her. I, the self-proclaimed King of Duels, the man who's callously brushed off the anguish and pain of a thousand men, is terrified to tell a girl I love her. What's wrong with me? Is this broken arm of mine infecting my brain somehow? Can broken arms do that? I don't even know! See? Look at me, I'm freaking out!

Ok, Jack, ok, just calm yourself down. You've got to calm down. After all, you're 19 years old, you should have the mental capacity necessary to calm yourself in this situation. Relax, Jack, you're not some sweaty, squeaking, bumbling lanky idiot asking a girl on a date.

You're a sweaty, squeaking, bumbling lanky duelist asking a girl on a date.

Oh, who's talking about dates? She probably doesn't even like you, with all the verbal abuse you've lashed on her! All the mean, hateful things you've said to her, all the cold brush-offs, the noncommittal answers to important questions, the tense, cold tone your voice gets when you're upset....

Ok, that's it. I need to stop arguing with myself. I must look like I'm insane, over here, mumbling to myself. Having inane arguments with the voices in my head isn't going to get me any closer to talking to Carly without sounding like a stuck-up douchebag.

Because truly, all she's trying to do is help. She's helped me in countless ways, from small trivial things like grabbing a soda from the fridge while she's up to much larger things, such as getting my spirits back up when I felt like I was the lowest of the low.

Carly gets me, that girl, and I'm not sure how she does it. She's sort of the simple type. She doesn't want a lot of elaborate things in life, and she doesn't really want any more than what she has. She's not greedy, but instead is a very generous girl. I'm not sure how she's able to understand me, but she does, and I thank God for it. Somehow she's able to get inside my head, inside my heart, in ways no one else ever could, not even Yusei, and I've known him for as long as my memory spans.

And I've only known her for a little over a month.

But none of that matters anymore. I love her, love what she's done for me, love that I now have somebody to fight for, and love that she's dragged me back up when I couldn't get any lower.

I love Carly Carmine completely and fully, forever.