East of Eden
a YuGiOh fanfic by Milly
beta: Chicary
[AU, Het, Jou/Mai, UST]
Chapter One
The blonde man stood up, shoving his keys in the pockets of his blue jeans and keeping the cut flowers close to his chest with his free arm. He slammed shut the door of his Audi A4 with moderate force, earning from the lock a low, satisfying click. The vehicle was a recent acquisition, for he usually rode his pick-up truck when he worked (6 days a week) but he'd finally come to know financial stability in the recent years. It was one of his clients, a mechanic, who offered it to him as payment.
Joey took off his shades to get a good view of the now familiar scenery unraveling before him.
The cemetery seemed to be more popular on Sundays, he thought to himself. Mourning families were dressed in their best casual clothes. Girls in pink flowery dresses and too-white sandals. Boys in neat polo shirts and shorts. Two young women and a boy stood still in front of a tombstone draped in stars and stripes.
Further away, a young woman in a light summer dress was walking leisurely in the California sun. She seemed out of place, attired as if she could be heading for a picnic or a sunbath. It was a very bright day after all, bright like Serenity's smile.
Today was her birthday, and although he was told not to think of it that way, Joey liked to keep track of the years. She would be turning 28. He knew it could only do him harm to nourish these thoughts, since they wouldn't bring her back, but he found they gave him some comfort. A kind of comfort his mother wouldn't and his father couldn't bring him.
Joey was the only living - or lucid - relative Serenity could 'rely on'.
He had quickly taken it upon himself to honor her for the three of them, and had, therefore, come to the conclusion that since he was the one carrying that load, he could think whatever he wanted. No matter what the therapists said.
As far as he was concerned, they weren't the ones who were bereft. He was.
So every year, he would drive here, the hometown of their formative years, and solemnly walk up the graveyard aisle with a bouquet of tulips, yellow and orange, the combined colors of his and his sister's hair. He ordered the same arrangement from the same shop, carefully wrapped for him by the same middle-aged florist, year after year.
Joey knew his little sister would have approved of his choice. They both liked simple things.
He would always insist that the flowers were not for her grave, always telling the florist that they were for his sister's birthday. Because the lady found he was such a nice, good looking young man, she would always tip in and add a red tulip. "You can say it's my gift to her," She'd say, "But if you want to keep it, it's fine, too!" And then she would wink playfully at the handsome blonde.
For some reason, even when he was caught hanging out with with the street gangs, shoplifting, or even just yawning in class, Joey had always been 'the good kid' in the eyes of older women. On the other hand, he had won, much to his dismay, 'best friend status' in the eyes of girls his own age, without even trying. It seemed that the least he cared, the more they did.
Now just over thirty, Joey had become a more than eligible bachelor to these same girls, but he was married to his business, working intensely as a landscaper most of the year and taking a few months off in the winter to travel around. These last years, he had visited Yuugi twice in his new home in Tuscany, where he settled down after retiring from the demanding life as a professional Duelist.
In Tuscany, Joseph Wheeler discovered how wine and love were made. He learned how one can appreciate how grape and women both ripen as they age, all the while without falling in excess in one or the other. He would not become, in any way, his father's son.
Soon enough Joey caught up with the woman in the little dress. From the few feet that now separated them, he could see that she looked much younger from afar than she probably was. She did not acknowledge his presence, standing almost too perfectly still. The white and yellow fabric of her dress revealed firm, attractive legs. She wore simple straw sandals and a matching hat which most probably served to preserve her fair complexion. A gray scarf was thrown over her shoulders, bringing out the golden sheen of her curly blonde hair.
His gaze tore away from the stranger. He hadn't come here to flirt! His eyes surveyed names on the stones before him, which had become familiar to him over the years, looking for his mother's maiden name engraved on them. Joey's lower lip relaxed a bit and fell as his eyes widened slightly in surprise.
The female figure stood right in front of Serenity's grave, and he could feel her stare at it intensely.
Joey looked up at her again.
Suddenly he realized that he and that woman had once known each other.
This story has a peculiar short-chapter format. R&R! Any kind of criticism is much appreciated :D