Luck of the Draw
by BridgitKiido
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh GX belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. Not me.
"Asuka! Asuka! Come quickly, come quickly! The semi-finals are coming back on!"
"Coming, Brother!" four-year-old Asuka called from just outside the room, a cheerful smile on her face as she made her way back in – a little too quickly, apparently, as she tripped on the way in, crashing ever-so-elegantly into the table that Fubuki, then six, was sitting at.
"You okay, Asuka?" he asked, making his way over to his little sister, who at this point was clutching at her arm, unable to keep herself from crying. "Let me see."
Asuka removed her hand slowly, hiccupping, "It… doesn't hurt too badly…"
Fubuki took a look for a moment before smiling at Asuka. He'd gotten enough bruises in his short life that he'd learned, at least a little bit, how their parents usually took care of them, and though that one probably did hurt now, he'd gotten ones that he was sure hurt way more.
"You'll be fine, Asuka. When that happens to me, Mama and Papa always tell me to rub it until it feels better, unless it's bleeding or starts turning all purple and blue and stuff."
"Eew!" Asuka, in her four-year-old wisdom, made a bit of a face, the pain already starting to go away and her brother's smile helping to calm her down. "I hope it doesn't do that – that would be icky."
Fubuki laughed. "It is. Do you want me to sit next to you while we watch? This is going to be a great duel!"
"You've said that every time he duels, Brother," Asuka laughed in return, moving so that she was hugging his arm.
"Doesn't make it any less true," Fubuki retorted. "Jounouchi is the awesomest duelist ever! I really hope he wins the tournament."
The program began again, and the shot began with close-ups of the two competitors. "Bandit Keith" Howard, a well-known American almost-champion, was facing off against Fubuki's hero, Jounouchi Katsuya, a golden-haired young man unheard of in the world of Duel Monsters before this tournament who had risen to the top of this one.
"I'll play one card face down and play Red Eyes Black Dragon in attack mode," was Jounouchi's move, and as the dragon materialized itself, Fubuki's face lit up in a giant grin.
"Wow, Red Eyes Black Dragon is so cool!" he exclaimed in happy amazement, and though Asuka didn't have quite the same thought about the card as her brother did – it was slightly scary in her opinion, actually – she smiled too.
The duel continued onward, and eventually Jounouchi won. And when the final blow was dealt, Fubuki cheered loudly. "I knew he could do it!"
The program cut to commercials at that point, advertising the dish soap that was on sale at the new department store, the newest installment in a line of fantasy console video games, a reminder to those fans of certain anime that the next episode would occur next week at this time, and the new packs of cards that were being released the next week.
"Someday," Fubuki mused seemingly at random, "I'd love to have a Red Eyes Black Dragon of my very own."
"Well, I'm sure if you keep looking, you'll find one someday," Asuka replied supportively, even though the both of them knew that the chances of picking a rare card like that out of a booster pack was exceptionally low.
"Thanks, Asuka!" Fubuki smiled, grateful for the confidence she had.
Several years passed, and the Tenjoin siblings entered middle school – a private middle school affiliated with the prestigious Duel Academy, which they had convinced their parents that they should be allowed to attend. Duel Monsters had only become a greater part of their lives since Duelist Kingdom, after all, partly thanks to the promotion it got from Kaiba Corporation.
"Brother," Asuka, now twelve years old, called into Fubuki's room that day while he was studying. There was a big test the next day, and though he himself had never been the bookworm type, he was determined to get good grades so that he could attend Duel Academy. "Are you available?"
Putting down his book – English class was hard, and yet here the teacher expected the class to be able to read The Magician's Nephew as though it was written in their native tongue! – Fubuki replied, "I'm always available for you, Asuka. What's up?" Studying had started to give him a headache, anyway.
She walked into the room carefully, her hands holding something behind her back, out of her brother's view. "Well, I knew that I was going to be away on your birthday for that school trip, so I decided that I'd give you your present early." And with that, she presented the gift – a set of two Duel Monsters booster packs.
Upon seeing them, Fubuki smiled brightly, got up from his chair and went quickly over to his sister to give her a big hug. "You always know exactly how to cheer me up, Asuka! Thank you!"
Asuka merely smiled in reply as Fubuki accepted his gift. Then, after a pause, she finished, "Well, I should let you get back to studying now."
"Nonsense!" Fubuki replied. "I'm sure you want to know what's in them as much as I do, right?"
Well, there was no use denying that, and so the siblings sat down on the ground so that Fubuki could open the packs and see what was inside. They were mostly more common cards – a Red Eyes Black Chick (which would go with the two that Fubuki had already collected), a Scroll of Bewitchment, a Different Dimension Capsule, a Kuriboh – but one particular card stood out among the rest.
Both siblings' eyes widened when they saw it – a single Red Eyes Black Dragon, drawn from the second of the booster packs. But after the amazement and thoughts of is it really true passed, all Fubuki could do was smile and give Asuka another big hug.
In the coming years, Fubuki managed to collect support spells, traps, and monsters for his new prized card, putting together a deck centered around it. It would serve him well, following him to Duel Academy, to the Honors dormitory, eventually to the world of Darkness, sharing in his corruption until the both of them were freed. For a time, he would even be scared to play that deck, afraid that the shadows would return to claim him again.
But deep down in his heart, no matter how buried under amnesia at any given time, he never forgot the day he received the Red Eyes Black Dragon, a lucky draw of a gift from his sister, and what it meant to him.