Crim: Yu-Gi-Oh! Belongs to Kazuki Takahasi. I am a lowly worm who gets her kicks by writing about his creations for no pay.
Russet: *laughs*
Cobalt: You shouldn't laugh at her, not when she's upset like she is.
Russet: Shut up Cobalt!
Sage: I'm actually going to have to go with Coby on this one. *hugs Crim's shoulder*
Crim: Just read it, and review if you like.
---
Amane picked up the pistol off of the coffee table and looked about ready to shoot the TV. Then, she just fell to her knees in tears, the gun dropped heavily at her side. The Christmas commercials had started and she was doing everything in her power to avoid them. They reminded her of her family, whom she hadn't spoken to in years. Her aunt Shizuka Kaiba (nee Kawai), uncle Mokuba Kaiba, father Seto Kaiba and mother-figure Katsuya Kaiba (ne Jounouchi), as well as the nutcase "relatives" that were family friends.
She sobbed her pretty blue eyes raw into her arms, her blonde bangs sticking miserably to her face as another draft managed to hit through the leaky window of her shabby Brooklyn, New York apartment.
She'd been eighteen. She'd gotten in late one night, drunk, and her parents had been waiting up for her. They'd yelled, worried for her. And she'd left. Took her parents' statement of "If you live under our roof, you live under our rules." literally. She'd packed her bags when they were asleep. When they woke up in the morning they tried to call her cell, but it was off. She'd caught a red-eye flight to the United States. Her grandmother had taught her English at the same time her father was teaching her to speak her native tongue of Japanese and she had no trouble passing as a high school student returning home to the States. She'd made sure to fly into Washington DC.
She'd had a dual citizenship anyway, and now she was using it. Along with most of the money in her bank account. She'd driven to New York and met a girl with lots of money and hoop earrings large enough to double as bracelets.
When that one had managed to spend most of Amane's money, she got a job. No way was she going to go back and beg her parents to let her stay. By then it had been a year and Amane had met some even more unsavory characters and slipped from her condo in New York City to an apartment just outside of the city. Still working to get by, she took up some classes and managed to juggle two jobs, three classes, and no sleep better than her father ever would have.
But the third month of the second year showed improvement. She met a girl with green eyes, blue hair, and freckles named Sabrina and a boy with blue eyes, burnt sienna hair, and a comforting smile named Joey. The three shared an apartment in the heart of the city.
The third year was bad boyfriends and finally hitting the legal US drinking age. Sabrina and Joey helped Amane back to her feet, because the poor blonde was falling in a bad way again, falling victim to becoming an alcoholic. And then, six months into year three, she met him.
His name was Jake, he had the softest black hair she'd ever seen and soft, warm brown eyes and a page-boy hat. He was just like her, without the rich parents. They fell in love and he saved for a whole year just to buy her an engagement ring. They moved into their own apartment and everything seemed to be looking up.
Then, it happened. Jake was hit in a drunk driving accident. That was on the last night of year three.
It had been a whole year, Sabrina had finally managed to open her boutique, Joey fell in love with a gorgeous actor and the two got married. The pair never had much time for poor Amane, who had finally had to move to Brooklyn.
And now it was three months into year five, December. Here she lay, sobbing into her arms on the floor of her studio-style apartment, engagement ring on a chain around her neck. She'd spent the last of her money that she'd brought with her from home on a small charm it was a pair of ankhs wrapped around a blue marble on a ball-chain around her wrist. She hated to admit she even owned it.
She'd bought it in November the moment she saw it, then spent four days glaring at the box when she realized she'd subconsciously bought it because it reminded her of Seto and Katsuya (She didn't feel right calling them her parents anymore).
In all her time in New York, she'd never called "home" (no matter how her friends had pressed her to). Not when the first betrayal cost her a literal fortune, not when she'd passed her college classes, not when Sabrina and Joey told her it would help resolve her drinking problem, not when she'd met Jake, not when they started dating, not when Jake proposed, and not even when Jake had died. But this cheesy commercial depicting a loving family brought her to her knees.
She dug around in the bottom of the suitcase she'd brought with her from Domino and pulled out a flip-style cell phone that was the color of a clear sky with stickers from some anime or another on it. She flipped it open and turned it on for the first time since she left, the sight of the name listed in the contacts sending her into uncontrollable sobs again. She scrolled down to it and hit send.
She heard someone on the other line pick up and sobbed harder when she recognized the voice, but she waited until she regained some ability to speak before she got out a single sentence and then collapsed into sobs again.
"Dad, we need to talk."
---
Crim: I feel the need to cry now.
Russet: *sniffles*
Cobalt: *cries and hugs Russet and Sage*
Sage: *cries*
Crim: Are you okay?
Russet: Try not to write like that again.