Greetings! I've been a lurker for a while and a major fan of the GX fandom, and finally decided to contribute here.

I always thought Judai/Jaden was smarter than he acted, and sometimes, I wondered if he ignored things on purpose. That's where this idea came from.

On that Friday night, the hustle and bustle in the city was a scene built out of chaos: one part irritation, another of bad manners, and two of bad timing. Cars lined the wide main streets and squeezed through the narrow side ones, idling away their tanks of fuel as their drivers tapped and shouted and groaned and cussed. Horns flared and so did tempers. Foot traffic squeezed through whatever space fit as tourists from all over the world tried to get from one place to another. It was a good thing he took the subway, instead of his car. Otherwise he'd be trapped like them: powerless and with nowhere to go.

Then again, that wasn't much different from what was happening now. He'd fudged the times again, mistook the "2" for a "5" and would now have to wait for her to return, whenever that would be. He'd already spent the better part of his afternoon aimlessly wandering the nearby streets for whatever would catch his fancy, or Pharaoh's. Now that night had fallen, anything he could find to occupy himself was welcome. Even the crappy cup of Starbucks something he'd bought.

At least he got the date right… maybe… probably… It felt like he was on track and they hadn't called yet. So that was good. Still, it was a good idea to double check and -at some point down the line- buy some sort of planner. One good decision wouldn't make up for all the bad ones, but it was a good place to start.

He produced the invitation and gave it another quick read. The once neat card stock was now crumpled and creased from its months' long stay in his pocket. The frilly writing it contained irked him, but he couldn't say that outright, and the subtle threat included in the footnote only added to that. It had come out of nowhere too, so suddenly that he hadn't known how to handle it. So he went with it. He did admire their tenacity, though, and treated it as a testament to the great lengths that they had taken to ensure its delivery, but that was about as much as he'd give them.

At first, he'd done the right thing and paid for the international call to congratulate them. That was his first mistake. Next, he tried to make excuses. That brought with it its own set of problems. He should have known better. He, of all people, had been swept up in their whirlwind. All eyes were now on the wild one, who attempted to use a fake significant other to skirt his way out of the event. He hadn't actually counted on them calling his bluff. Still, that wasn't so dire. He had his own short list of solutions in case something like that happened –about two phone numbers' worth.

So Judai went through the process of elimination. He couldn't go to Rei. Rather, he crossed out that option almost immediately for both their sakes. That would've been a bad idea on many, many different levels. That left her. She was the only one suited for the job. If his underclassmen thought they were a good fit, then that was enough for him. He'd often overhear them say that her cool, calculated logic was a perfect complement to his fired up and usually brash impulses. They were made for each other, others would say. Then she'd go red and he'd pretend not to understand. That was how the game went. It had to look natural, after all.

That was before everything happened, when it was a harmless crush. But what now?

Her one-sided messages had stopped a long time ago. Before, he used the excuse that he couldn't make her worry, or that he missed his window to reply so he wouldn't have to. Eventually, he made that pathetic excuse his fact. They were different people now, weren't they? She didn't need to waste her worry on him. He was a grown up now.

And yet, he was just going to show up at her doorstep when he needed her?

Even more pathetic.

What was he supposed to say? Was he supposed to go, "Oh, hey! I might have gone radio silent for a while, but here I am! How've you been?" Was he supposed to act like they'd seen each other just the other day, like they were still in school? A million and one things were rushing through his head. She probably had her own life now and her own relationships to cherish. His sudden appearance was only going to cause problems.

Maybe this was a bad idea. His sins against her were beyond absolution. The years of suppressed emotion and cowardice had been built up between them like the Great Wall of China. She deserved better than this… a better friend than him.

'You're here, Judai. The worst she can say is no,' he told himself. For some reason, the thought of her in another man's embrace popped into his head. He finished the rest of his coffee to clear that thought, some of the grainy, bitter dregs coating his tongue. His face twisted with disgust for both the coffee and what he'd become. He was making excuses again. 'Even if your mind is going five centimeters per second, you're here. Be a man for once in your life.' It wasn't as if he was asking for her hand in marriage. He was just asking her to help him out with some sort of façade. Speaking of which…

'Marriage, huh?' he laughed to himself. A car by the Ayanokouji group passed along on the street. 'God, that takes me back.'

Come to think of it, even if it was a childish wager, one he played off as stupidly and poorly as he did, she never opposed the idea. Maybe she had so much confidence and trust in him that she was willing to stay silent to test someone's skills. He laughed at that. What sane person would gamble something like that on a children's card game? She was probably just too dumbstruck to put them into place. But what if he'd gone further? Would she have said yes?

Well, there wasn't any use dwelling on the past.

"I got the address right, didn't I?" he grumbled as he tried to find her address in his contact list. He'd been camped in front of the same apartment building for hours now and he'd feel like a complete moron if he'd gotten yet another thing wrong.

His answer came soon enough, flanked by two women he didn't recognise. Lady Luck was finally smiling on him. Her appearance hadn't changed in all those years, except for the clothes. Yep. That outfit looked a damn near mile better than the uniform.

"Judai?"

Her voice was a mix of disbelief and relief, but it was still calm. She went stiff for a second, but only so. Her pride wouldn't allow her any weakness. Yet somehow, he could still see years of worry and frustration play through her eyes like a movie, even if her poker face had gotten better. She was the same, yet different. It was amazing what a few years apart could produce.

That's when it struck him. As his hands trembled and his throat went dry, he realized that he was afraid. It wasn't the same visceral dread he'd experienced before. This was something different, built on years of an unspoken game of cat and mouse. Things like inconvenience and ignorance had been excuses. They were the cards he played, the ones that allowed him to ignore the truth. Now, they were in the open, where a world's worth of experience told him he'd lost. He'd be the one playing the penalty game.

'No, that was wrong,' he thought to himself as he took a deep breath. The world around them faded to black and a small smile spread across his face. This wasn't a penalty game and the winner no longer mattered. This game of theirs needed to end and it needed to end now. Even if he had to beg for forgiveness, he'd do it. If the world needed him, he'd cross that bridge when it came. For now, it was time for him to take the final leap of growing up, even if he fell on his face.

His smile turned into a toothy, goofy grin. The storm in his heart went as quickly as it came and the world came back into view. It was now or never, and he wasn't going to miss this chance ever again.

"Yo! Asuka! It's been a while, hasn't it?"