Author: BebePanda401
Title: Nostalgia
Pairing: Mild Yusei/Aki
Summary: "Yusei, what you see as a connection, I still only see as a scar. A scar of all the pain I have gone through, and the people I have hurt."
Insparation: The world nostalgia, and the story 'After tonight' by 'Star In Her Corner'.
A/N: I actually thought of this story a while ago. But never really bothered to write it out. This story I have spent ages trying to get right, and I desperatly hope that it is one of my better stories on here. I really would like some constructive critism, I CRAVE it people! Alright, without further ado, please enjoy yourselves whilst reading my story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
~Nostaglia~
She just needed it all to just spill out.
Magenta hair flowing, she sat by the willowed-out creek watching the water glistening vastly in the moonlight. The warm night breeze fluttered by, as if to embrace all of her worries, and all of her pain for just one moment. The nights alone were the only time that she had true solace and comfort in her life. Not with her friends, not with her newly reformed family, it was when she was alone was when she felt like she was being truly reassured.
There actually wasn't many natural places left in Neo Domino City. Hint was in the name, but it was mainly dominated by looming sky-scrapers, bright neon lights and the newly built bridge, and iconic structure that was now attracting tourists of a fair number to it's name. She liked it here, where it was quiet, natural and peaceful. She could be alone, all to herself. Nobody to bother her in plain sight. Oh, how could this solitary, unaccompanied feeling feel so...divine!
Divine...
God, she hadn't thought about her former mentor for a long time. The time was ticking away infront of her with each passing day, hour and minute that went by in her newly reformed life. She was having fun, in her new life. But unknown to her friends, she sometimes felt like too much fun could send this brilliant life spiraling back out of control again, and she could hurt the other people that she loved around her into harm. And that was the one thing that she feared and dreaded the most.
She needed a warm embrace to tell her: 'everything will be alright.' It should be now, everything should now be alright. But it wasn't. Even after the universal victory of the defeat of the Dark Signers, nothing seemed to fit quite right in her new life. It was like placing the wrong piece of a puzzle in a slot where it didn't belong. And that was just what Aki felt like.
Like she didn't belong.
Everyday was like a game of charades for her. Her whole life was now a guessing game, and nobody ever got the right answers. They only seemed to see the outside, happy side of her. Nobody saw the inner pain in her eyes, as the amber-studs pleaded for someone, anyone's help, to ask her what was wrong with her life, and offer her advice on how to fix it.
A pat on the shoulder, an encouraging smile? Was that so hard to ask for once in a while?
Maybe her whole existance was a question needing answered as well. It was like she was flirting with the god that had decided to give her life- she was questioning his motives, awaiting a legimate response from him. She was trying to get his defenses down, and then ask: "Why me, of all people? Why am I chosen as part of this clan of 'heroes'?"
She felt her fingers light trace over the outline of the crimson claw-shaped mark on her forearm. The pain of it's scarlet colour, that mark still engraved all the pain and whisperings about her old life as a witch. It burdened her, every waking moment that she was still alive, of what she used to be, what she used to do. Somebody that hurt others for the mear fun of it. That was what she once was.
A monster. And that wretched mark had caused it all.
So what if it was now a symbol that she was the one that helped saved the world from her polar opposite? In a way, she was like those disgusting creatures- she was just using people's souls as simple tools, just to fight her own raging war inside of her. Only, their screams comforted her. The Earthbound Gods fed on their souls, she fed on their screams.
More or less, it was the same.
"Aki, is that you?" Only one voice could offer so little emotion, yet off so much concern at the same time. And although she recognized the youthful but mature tone, she had opted for not turning around and greeting him. Instead, she offered him a platter of how she was feeling - annoyed and a little angry at him for disturbing her peace.
"Yeah, what do you want?" She was still so cold to him. His reaction was a slight flinch, it was as if the coldness of her voice had manifested into thousands of icicles, and stabbed him at the very core of his beating heart. Still, he couldn't blame her for being so distant toward him. Even though he had saved her (in a sense), she had every right to be angry at the world for the pain she had gone through throughout the years.
"Everyone was worried where you had gotten to, and your parents were worried. So this was the only place they all hadn't looked for you, so I came here...turns out it was in my favour." With that revelation, Aki could only give off a rather posh-inutiated scoff at him. He raised an eyebrow at her behaviour, seemingly confused at her rather rude and childish gesture.
"My parents wer worried? Makes a change, for once." She refused to let his gaze pierce her eyes, as the amber held within them would surely be stolen by him for a single silver penny. It would simply lead to reveal what type of emotional turmoil she was going through, and that would just lead to more awkward tension and questioning.
She didn't want that. Yusei was the only one she partially trusted at the moment.
"Aki, why are you still so distant from your parents? I thought that back then, you had fixed everything with both of them..." Trailing off, Aki laughed mockingly at his statement. Small tears formed in the crevices of her eyes, but the water was not stemmed from sadness.
"Look Yusei. This is my time. My time. Not yours. So just do me a favour and get lost, okay?" He may not have portrayed it on the outside, but on the inside, he was gut-wrenched and hurt at her attitude toward him. It puzzled him though. She was happier earlier that day, what on earth could have beckoned her to change almost back into her Black Rose Witch persona in a matter of hours? It didn't add up in his mind.
And most things did. But not Aki. She was like a clockwork- always ticking, and a mystery on the inside.
"I'm not leaving." Aki began to get annoyed at his resistance, and was about to fill him in on what he was supposed to be doing right at that moment- which was to leave her alone and to herself, so she could think to herself for a while without inturuptions.
"Yusei, for the last time, leave me alone!"
"Not until you answer my question."
And that did it.
A spring, caught in the clockwork, and was ready to set loose.
"Yusei, didn't I just tell you-" Being cut off yet again, he replied the same as he did a moment ago.
"Not until my question is answered." Well, more or less the same. At seventeen years of age, it was not easy for a teenager to hide her emotions- well, maybe in her masked face, but not in her body language. She visibly flinched at his determination, yet she wasn't willing to open the door to her soul just yet. She may have opened her heart, but not her soul.
"You."
The truth. In one simple word, was spoken.
"What do you-" Confused, Yusei began to approach the troubled girl, only to be pelted with a rant of rambling and truth.
"You don't get it do you, Yusei? All the time, I'm trying to be a better person, but it's not working! I still have nightmares, every night! All the people I hurt, they haunt me! And then there's you. Perfect you! You juggle your friends, work, saving the world and you still have time to save some 'damsel in distress?' How the hell do you do it? I try to juggle my life, I break down! Sure, it's all honkey-dorey in the day, but friends, Yusei? They still treat me cold at the Acadamai, and everyone else in out little 'group', still give me the cold shoulder!" She panted for breath, months of pain manifesting into words of dis-comfort.
"Aki, out bonds-" She inwardly laughed at him, and ripped up her glove, showing him the mark.
"Yusei, what you see as a connection, I still see as a scar. An engravement of all the crimes I have committed, and the people that I have hurt. How the hell am I a 'chosen hero', when all I do is destroy? Keh, like you could understand anything at all."
Those words, were the summary of Aki's current life motto.
She still thought herself as a sinner.
Was all of his work...for nothing?
No way.
"I can try to understand, if you'll let me in." Her eyes widened profusley, and her moth formed a shocked expression. Nobody had actually asked her to let them in, they only assumed she was all high and mighty with life after her last duel with Yusei. Sure, she felt happier that she had reunited with her parents at long last...
...But it didn't solve the inner pain she still had for her dead mentor.
"If I tell you, you'll think I'm a freak."
"I promise to listen."
"Okay, okay. I'll tell you. I'm still upset over Divine's death." With a slight smirk playing on his features, Yusei approached his broken-eyed friend. Kneeling down slightly, the raven haired duelist offered a hand out to her, giving her a broad and beaming smile.
"It's okay to be upset. Even after all he has done, it's alright."
And with that, Aki latched onto his hand with her own two hands, tears spilling out of her eyes at a rapid speed. She chanted her old mentor's name over and over again, whimpering out the last bit of sadness that she held for him. The last part of empathy that needed to be released, so that she could truly move on and forward with her life.
Life was like a stepping stone. You need to choose the right one to move forward, but there is always a way out.
And Aki found hers. And when all of her friends greeted her with cheers and tears of worry and fright for her...
She knew, she wasn't alone any longer.
A/N: Well, that's it. This has taken me ages to write, please give me some constructive critism if you can!