This is the fill for the prompt: Yuma reunites with Astral in the Astral world and gives him a Duel Lunch that he brought especially for him.
You can tell the exact moment i just gave up on this and once again, I didn't stick to the prompt. Whoops.
Kaito's annoyed. They had a time limit for which they could open this door to the Astral world that Chris and himself had perfected to the very second, and it's almost time and Yuma's nowhere to be seen.
Yuma's the one that has to go; it was a unanimous decision that didn't even need to be questioned. As much as it would probably be better for someone with better knowledge of what's going on to go, even then – yeah, it's still Yuma, and no matter what way Kaito tries to bend it in his mind because Yuma's only thirteen and who knows if he'll come back?
[Not that Kaito cares about Yuma or anything.]
He's also the only one that has people there he needs to find – after all, isn't the whole point of this to find a way to bring back Astral? Not to mention, isn't Yuma's father there? He's discussed it with Chris, and now he's got to somehow tell Yuma that there's no way they can bring his father back as well as him, not now at least.
Well, that's at least what he was supposed to be doing, but Yuma's gone missing and Kaito's forced Orbital 7 to look on the schematics but he's not there. Kaito grits his teeth, if he's not back in five minutes Kaito will just go to Astral world himself.
He's glad that he doesn't have to wait long before he hears a crash in the next room and Yuma pops through the door, the first real, genuine smile on his face he's seen in such a long time that it almost makes Kaito smile himself. He catches himself, but the corners creep up despite his willingness to stop them.
"Where have you been?" he questions and he's awfully curious; he was told to wait in the building and where on earth could he have gone anyway?
"I was in your kitchens, Haruto showed me the way." He gives a shy smile and eyes something in his arms that he tries to hide from Kaito's line of sight, but he's unwillingly brought it to attention. "I-it's for Astral." He stutters in response to Kaito's raised eyebrow. "When we were in the finals of the World Duel Carnival, Astral tasted food for the first time and loved it. I-I was hoping that when we meet again in the Astral world, we could go zexal and I'd let him eat with me again."
Kaito closes his eyes as a rush of an unfamiliar emotion runs over him. Sympathy? That's unlike him. But yet it's there, and he gives a small, very small, affectionate smile to Yuma because as nervous as he sounds, as stupid as the idea is because he hasn't even considered if he even can eat in the Astral world, he doesn't even know if he can breathe yet –though if he can't, Chris and himself have devised a backup plan – it's just like Yuma to think of his friends before himself.
"I'm sure he'll love it." Kaito's not sure why he's being so kind about it because it's totally not like him but it just kills him to see the people he considers friends like this; it's bad enough with Ryouga and whatever he's been brooding about since his sister was reinstated at the hospital but it's almost natural to see him scowling and don't touch me; but it's not with Yuma so he finds it overwhelmingly jarring when Yuma's quiet and distant the way he has been, so what's the harm in actually giving him some encouragement?
Heck, he hopes himself that Yuma does find Astral, because it's just not the same and he thought he'd enjoy the peace of silence but it's not silence and its definitely not peaceful – little sniffles and chokes can be heard from Yuma when he thinks no one can hear him and it drives Kaito absolutely crazy; even more so than the loud and lets go out Kaito; let's have a duel come on! Yuma.
"Yeah." Yuma trails off, looking at the tightly wrapped lunch in his hands. "I hope he likes it, it's not as good as the one Kotori made us, but I tried my hardest!" he grins to himself as he remembers slaving away at the kitchen as Haruto helped him ball rice and measure how much was needed. "Kattobingu, right?"
Kaito sighs, but this time it's as if all of his worries have just washed out with the sound as relief washes over him; it's the first time Yuma's uttered those words since Astral – whatever happened to him, they're still not sure – disappeared and it's as if maybe, just maybe, the real Yuma's back.
"Get in there; we need to get this going soon." Kaito has to remind himself not to get distracted by Yuma, he needs to be places and do things like cross dimensions. He guesses by now it's just another ordinary day for Yuma these days.
"Alrighty!" Yuma cries, giving a grin as he ran past Kaito, only to stop at the door. "Hey Kaito?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you not tell the others about the lunch thing? I want it to be a surprise for Astral."
Kaito closes his eyes, shaking his head in annoyance. "Whatever."
Yuma beams with joy. "Thanks Kaito, you're the best!"
Kaito feels a well of what can only be regret wash over him as Yuma bounds into the laboratory in front of him. He's not the best, not by far, and to hear him say that... Kaito's not used to it. But it's not about Kaito, it's about Yuma, and he gives Chris the thumbs up to start the machine.
It makes the whirring noise that he expects, and Yuma gives him one last smile before entering the portal. He yells "Kattobingu!" in that obnoxious tone of his before disappearing from everyone, everything that was the human world.
"Good luck Yuma." Kaito mutters to himself, turning his head from everyone else in the room. He goes to leave and no one stops him, least of all Chris, because it doesn't matter, everyone's hurting at the moment; all for different reasons.
At least now, this way, Yuma was going to come back and he was going to come back with Astral and that's one problem out of the way for now. At least someone's got some hope running through their veins still.