Confession

"Hey, Yusei!"

Jack yelled across to where Yusei was working on his runner – the same spot the black-haired boy had been in since 7:00 that morning.

Upon hearing his name, Yusei turned around.

"Duel me." Jack demanded. It was the first time him and Yusei had been alone properly without the Fortune Cup hanging over their heads. They were staying at Goodwin's house temporarily, despite Yusei's distrust of the Director. A perfect time to duel.
"Can't it wait? I'm a bit busy." Came the reply, with Yusei turning back to his runner.

"You can finish that later." Jack insisted.

He strode over to Yusei. Jack had something on his mind and he wasn't going to take no for an answer. He continued until his shadow fell over Yusei.

"Come on."

Yusei fixed him with his eyes and Jack had to stifle his discomfort. He felt as though Yusei was staring right through him, trying to work out some cause to his request. Steeling his gaze, Jack furrowed his brows.

"Let's duel." Without asking Jack unclipped Yusei's duel disk and tossed it at him. He then backed away a few metres before activating his duel disk.

"There's no stopping you today." Yusei commented.

Jack tensed at the hint of curiosity in Yusei's statement. "We haven't duelled for a while." He retorted, sounding more defensive than he would have liked. Yusei seemed to notice this with a raised brow though he said nothing, activating own duel disk.

The duel quickly escalated with both duellists bringing out their ace monsters.

"Red dragon archfiend attack his stardust dragon." Jack roared.

"Not so fast," Yusei countered with a smile creeping onto his face. "I activate my trap: Mirror force. Shall I tell you what it does?" He teased.

"No thanks." Jack retorted bitterly, though he couldn't stop a smile tugging at his lips when he met Yusei's smirking satisfaction of stopping his attack.

"I guess I'll end my turn with a face down. But be prepared Yusei, you're only on 200 life points." Jack warned. Jack still had his Power Breaker on the field to protect him from Stardust attacking directly, though he suspected it would be destroyed. Yusei had worn him down during the duel and both were barely clinging to life points with Jack on 400 and Yusei on 200. Jack took a moment to muse on how much Yusei came alive in a duel whilst most of the time keeping up a cold exterior – not too different to me, I suppose.

"My turn then." Yusei drew a card. "I activate card rotator from my hand and switch the battle position of Power Breaker from defence mode to attack mode."

Shit.

"And now. Stardust dragon attack his Power Breaker with Cosmic flare." Yusei ordered.

A beam of glittery blue energy burst out of Yusei's dragon upon its master's order. There was nothing Jack could do to stop his attack. He fell to the ground the instant Power Breaker was destroyed and Stardust's attack reduced his life points to zero.

Even with the defeat Jack couldn't summon the will power to wipe the smile off his face. He had missed duelling with Yusei so much more than he would dare admit out loud.

Rising to his feet, he saw Yusei had already walked over to meet him. They stared at each other wordlessly for several long moments. Jack kept trying to think of things to say, but everything melted away as he gazed into Yusei's eyes.

"OK, this was fun." Yusei eventually broke the silence. "But now I need to get back to my runner." He already turned to walk away.

Jack bit back a growl of frustration. This hadn't gone as he had planned. He had the intention to use the duel as a method for building up to what he really wanted to talk to Yusei about – now it seems he had missed his chance. Again.

Jack reached out to grab Yusei's arm. "One thing first."

The two stare at each other, Yusei waiting for Jack to say something and Jack hoping he could string a sentence together.

"Lately I've – Well for a while now I've had." Jack Atlas, you coward. He felt his fists clench with frustration and embarrassment.

"Jack – what's the matter?" Yusei asked turning fully to face him now fixing Jack with a look of concern.

Once again the look in Yusei's eyes made Jack forget everything. "Nothing don't worry about it." He spoke levelly, straightening himself. "Go and sort out your runner."

Yusei looked like he was about to say more but he didn't ask. And for once Jack wished he did. He wished Yusei would show him more attention. Like he used to before you messed it all up. If he had never left satellite this wouldn't have been a problem. Or if he had never seen Yusei again.

Jack watched as Yusei turned his back on him. Walking away. But Jack was sick of all of his pent up feelings. He had to tell Yusei. He couldn't go on like this.

"I love you, Yusei."

Yusei must have heard, for he stopped.

Shit.

Yusei then resumed walking.