Inspiration: search "darkrebelshipping" on tumblr, first photo result.

Post-Fusion invasion, before Yuto and Shun travel to Standard. Talk of what the Resistance really is alongside some Yuto and Shun interaction, ending with a sweet moment between the two. Please review, and enjoy!

Hearing voices approaching, Yuto and Shun darted to their right into a dark alleyway. They hurried to the back, as far from the road as possible. The space was lit by only one lightbulb on the side of one building. The light was dim, and flickered on and off every few seconds.

Tucked against the side of the opposite building, Shun and Yuto were masked mostly by shadows. They pressed against the brick in shared silence, slowing their breaths to remain quiet. They could now hear the voices near the far entrance to the alleyway.

"No one's out tonight for us to duel," a nasally male voice stated.

"Let's go search the other side of town," a gruff male voice replied.

The group of five punk young men came into sight at the entrance to the alleyway. Shun remained still, Yuto reflecting his actions perfectly. The group didn't look down at them, and they walked past, their conversation growing quieter as they got farther away.

Yuto sighed in relief. Shun glanced down at him. The fear in his wide eyes faded, and they got back their sharp, dangerous glint. Shun knew Yuto—and he knew that Yuto always avoided conflict if he could. As a member of the Resistance, Yuto fiercely protected his homeland, but outside of war he tried not to quarrel with other gangs or cause any trouble within the city, whereas other gangs picked fights with each other and stole supplies from stores.

Shun had been hesitant to form an alliance with Yuto, not trusting that a boy of only fourteen years could have decent combat abilities. But Yuto had proved his skills with a duel against Shun several months ago. They had banded together and made their own group of the Resistance, along with a few others that had been following Shun's unofficial leadership. They called their group the Rebellion Falcons—named so for Yuto's Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon and Shun's Rise Falcon, since the two were the strongest duelists in the gang. Shun and Yuto had respected each other and gained a strong brotherly bond, which only grew as they helped and saved each other several times over the months of combatting Academia.

Shun and Yuto remained hidden in silence to allow distance between themselves and the other band of men. After a few minutes, Shun stepped away from the wall, with Yuto doing the same.

"I think we're good to go now," Shun told him. "Let's head back to base."

With Shun's older age and his experienced leadership over their gang, Yuto typically took his orders well. If he ever felt Shun was acting recklessly or making a bad call, however, Yuto would firmly stand up to him and voice his protests. In those moments, they were equal leaders—while Shun didn't hesitate to act and charged strongly into battle, Yuto was more for thinking before attacking and sneaking up on their enemies to take them by surprise. Shun was headstrong while Yuto was tactical, and while one was not necessarily better than the other, their fighting styles complemented each other's quite well.

Yuto nodded at Shun and gave him a small smile. Seeing it sparked a similar smile from Shun as well. As they headed out of the alley together, Shun glanced sideways at his comrade, his smile still slightly there. He had always wondered how Yuto could summon a smile so easily. Both their smiles had faded as the town around them had been destroyed, but Yuto could still quickly call upon one to encourage his friends, while Shun's was more difficult to surface. Yuto's smile, particularly, reminded him to be hopeful of rebuilding Heartland like Yuto. That was their goal and their dream.

Shun and Yuto walked the sidewalk along what used to be a street and small downtown shopping area. The Fusion invasion had devastated the town. Many of the buildings had been knocked down to rubble by opposing monsters or burned to the ground. Many citizens had died—or rather, been turned to cards—just in the first day of the invasion. And in the days after the initial invasion, Academia had returned to catch citizens off guard and kill more, even as some had gone into hiding for a few days. To protect their home, a city-wide "Resistance" had arisen.

In truth, the Resistance was simply the name of a volunteer army made up Heartland's dueling citizens. But there were many gangs in the Resistance—groups of several duelists each that split up to defend different areas of the city.

Shun and Yuto stopped in front of an abandoned two-story townhouse. Dark curtains covered the front windows facing the road. The flowers in the window baskets had long withered and died. Their gang members were inside, asleep. This was their base, and it was Shun and Yuto's turns to take the night shift. Members on night shifts kept an eye out for a possible return of Fusion users. Academia wasn't the only opposition to look out for, however.

The invasion of Heartland had created two kinds of gangs: those peaceful towards other gangs, and those who bullied other gangs into giving them what they wanted. The gang that Shun and Yuto had hid from was one of the latter. They would encircle duelists and use physical threat to force them into duels, declaring the ante rule and stealing the duelist's best card when the gang won. They even went as far as pitting two or three duelists against one to ensure their win. They would utilize the stolen cards as needed and trade the others for supplies or other cards from other gangs.

Shun had been prepared to go against the gang they nearly crossed paths with tonight in a two-against-five duel. Avoiding opposition as always, Yuto had encouraged and persuaded him to flee instead. It was a risk they didn't need to take, Yuto had said—and there was always the possibility of losing and giving up their best cards. Shun had reluctantly agreed, though he had been itching to strike down the punks with his Raid Raptors and show them who was stronger to maybe teach them a lesson.

"They would never learn their lesson anyway," Yuto said. Shun smiled a little. Yuto always had a way of knowing what was on his mind.

Raindrops began to fall lightly from the sky. The clouds broke open to let down a steady drizzle. Shun buried his hands in his coat pockets and tucked his chin down into the red handkerchief around his neck. The rain felt nice against his exposed skin, but it was cold. The drops slid off his coat, hardly soaking in. The lining inside was warm, keeping him comfortable against the rain.

A minute later, Shun sensed slight movement beside him from Yuto. He hadn't even thought of how Yuto was coping with the rain. Shun glanced toward his comrade.

He and Yuto had steeled themselves against the hard war, and they were now strong against any conditions and capable of hiding their pains or discomfort. But hiding how they felt was exhausting, and they preferred not to attempt it when they didn't have to. Shun saw that the hair on his comrade's arms were lifted, and Shun realized he had shivered. Yuto's was particularly good at not letting emotions show through his eyes, but in the few moments after his shudder, his eyes let down their guard, and were wide and softer than usual.

He was cold.

Yuto had slashed away the front of his cloak long ago to craft a makeshift cape. The cloak had been for warmth in the colder months, but Yuto had remarked a few times how its length in the front got in the way of comfortably extending his arm and brandishing his Duel Disk. Not long after the weather had grown warmer, Yuto had cut away the front for ease.

Shun knew his comrade. Yuto would never complain. Shun knew he was cold, but they could stand guard and talk for the rest of the night with Yuto doing his best to hide his discomfort.

Shun thought of Yuya like a younger brother. Someone to protect. He had found Yuto several months ago and had helped him grow stronger—not only as a duelist, but emotionally as well. Yuto had been hurt, aimless, and emotionally broken when Shun had found him. He had taken him in, helped him recover, and then taken him into his gang when Yuto had proved himself in a duel. Even being so broken from losing so much in the war already, Yuto showed all the strength he possessed in that duel, his passion lit from the hope and beliefs he still clung to even among all the wreckage of Heartland around them. Yuto had brought back Shun's hope and his smile. In return, Shun took Yuto under his wing.

Yuto was the one person Shun would eagerly sacrifice himself for if ever necessary.

Shun looked away from Yuto and unzipped his coat. Yuto looked toward him, confused for a moment as he watched Shun start to pull the sleeves off his arms. Then he understood.

"Shun, no, I'm fine—"

Shun ignored him and moved closer to Yuto with the jacket in his arms.

Yuto stepped away from the wall and faced him. "You need to stay warm too, Shun!"

He ignored his comrade's protests and set his left hand on Yuto's shoulder to hold him there. He met Yuto's eyes, showing him that he was serious. "I'll be fine. You've always been more cold-blooded than me."

Shun reached behind Yuto to drape his trenchcoat around Yuto's shoulders. It hung there, giving Yuto a protective layer between his arms and the cold rain.

Yuto quickly grabbed Shun's wrist to keep him there and exchange a glance with him. "Shun, thank you."

Those two words held so much sincerity in them that it caused Shun to smile gently at Yuto. Yuto was stubborn toward others making sacrifices for his sake, but only because he cared about those he was close to more than himself. He wanted others to be happier and more comfortable than him, which is why he often hid his true emotions or his pain. But if someone reached out to him and were insistent in helping him, Yuto would accept it, and express his gratitude as best as he could.

Shun stepped back, leaning back against the wall as he had been, only closer to where Yuto was this time. As Yuto also leaned back against the wall, Shun glanced down at him. Yuto was smiling softly.

Shun remained wearing a three-quarter length gray shirt, but he wasn't cold. Seeing Yuto smile, and being so close to him, filled his heart with more than enough warmth to withstand the icy rain.

Thought my intent here is a brotherly bond, I suppose it could be interpreted as Trashbag/DarkRebelshipping. Either way, I really want to write more about these two in the future. Thanks for reading!