Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Signs In The Sand
Characters: Shou, Kenzan, O'Brien, Jim, Fubuki, Asuka, Edo, Johan, & Chronos
Word Count: ||Status: One-shot
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Challenge: section A, #97: write a fic with no dialogue
Summary: [one-shot, Diversity Challenge, group] On the night they return from Dark World, there is a silent gathering to remember.
No one was surprised when Fubuki turned up at the beach on their first night home. Manjoume wasted no time being the second one there, curled up next to his friend, ignoring how the sand dusted over his jacket. O'Brien and Jim arrived together, settling down without a single word. Asuka arrived not long after, with Momoe and Junko lurking nervously in the back, as if uncertain if they were welcome here.
No one noticed when Shou arrived, his eyes downcast and still full of grief that no one expected to lift without Juudai there. Even Johan seemed more cheerful, at least if one didn't notice his hand resting on the empty deck holder in his lap.
Kenzan was the only one who said anything when he arrived, and that was little more than a grunt as he settled next to Shou. Edo stood a short distance away, a slim wand of white against the darkening sky. Professor Chronos was not that far away, the wind tugging at his ponytail, silent and watchful.
No one spoke of those who were not there. Who could not be there, for whatever reason.
No one spoke of anything at all. They simply rested together, enjoying the sensation of being back where they belonged, of being alive again, completely so, and not in the strange half-life, confusing world that most of them had ended up locked in for months.
Shou moved first, but not to get up. He picked a stray stick up and drew in the sand in front of him. In short order, the characters that formed Juudai's name lay before them all.
He started to sketch out another, but a pale hand touched his shoulder and he looked up to see Edo there. No words were exchanged or needed, as Edo took the stick and in elegant calligraphy wrote out Hell Kaiser Marufuji Ryou.
A third hand took the stick, and another name joined the first two, written by Professor Chronos: Misawa Daichi.
There were other names to be remembered, and they wrote them all. Freed, the Brave Wanderer. Echo. Nero and his grandfather. Yubel. Each name held a tale to it, and those who hadn't heard them wanted to know them all.
It was a long story, woven of pain and friendship and deaths that could not all be undone, and no one knew all the parts of it. But those who knew told what they could.
No matter how much they wanted to sleep, no one left until dawn's light began to ghost along the edges of the sky. No one dared to close their eyes, for the unspoken fear that doing so would take them back to a world none of them wished to see again.
This would not be the last time they gathered together, and they all knew it. Until those who wanted to come home did so, they would find themselves together, in varying combinations. Some bonds could never be broken, not even by death.
The End