"Aww, come on, Astral! Don't be such a spoilsport!"
"I fail to see the point in this, Yuma."
"Just try it!"
Astral sighed, squinting up at the sky and trying his hardest to focus.
"...I see clouds."
"Gah!"
Yuma stood up, whacking him lightly on the shoulder with a pout.
"Come on, you 'gotta use your imagination. Like…" He looked up again for a few seconds, before pointing victoriously at a small, wispy cloud by the horizon. "...That one! It looks a bit like Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon. Except upside-down... And with an extra wing."
"That is an aeroplane trail."
"Oi! Stop that!"
Sound that was undeniably laughter erupted from the alien and after a brief pause, he found himself laughing along too, sitting back down. Even if Astral could be a little too literal and boring at times, moments like these were still fun and to be treasured.
"If you insist..." A teasing grin formed on Astral's face. "...If you ask me, that one over there looks rather like..."
"Like what?" Yuma leaned in, curious.
"A raincloud."
Yuma's face dropped.
"A-again?!"
Astral was back to laughing, and it was hard to be annoyed at him. He didn't say much more for a while as Yuma continued to stare at the clouds, idly wondering what he was going to do later that day, and what was for lunch. Maybe tomorrow, he'd see who was free to duel him, then beg Akari to help him finish his already late homework. Damn, maybe he could avoid that last one a little longer… Wait, what was for lunch again?
"I do not quite see what is so fascinating about clouds," Astral said after a while, breaking the silence and snapping Yuma out of his thoughts of procrastination. "They are nothing more than condensed water vapour, and while I admit that the water cycle is fascinating, the shapes that they form are not."
"You sure know a lot about clouds for someone who doesn't like them..." Yuma mused, before a thought struck him. "Hey, does Astral World have clouds? I don't think I noticed any when I was there."
"I don't think so... At least, not in the same way that your world does."
"Huh..." Yuma hummed to himself, shaking his head. Astral's knowledge never ceased to confuse him, sometimes. "Well how'd you know that, then?"
He shrugged. "I'm sure that I already told you. The majority of my knowledge of Earth was collected from Number Thirty-Three."
"The one we got after we duelled III?"
"Yes."
"...Oh." Yuma looked rather sheepish, suddenly realising why Astral's observations had seemed to grind to a halt after that. "I guess that explains why you shut up asking about everything."
"That annoyed you anyway, did it not?"
"I guess?" He leaned back, trying to get a better view of some of the higher clouds. "It was still nice to be the one to explain things to you, though."
He pointed at another cloud.
"That one reminds me of Akari. Man, I hope you weren't right about that raincloud, she'd freak if she caught me on the roof in the rain!"
His eyes moved to where Yuma was looking, and he heard a slightly frustrated sigh. He clearly wasn't getting it.
"Why don't you explain this to me, then?"
He was beginning to question if Astral was actually listening to him properly.
"I already did." He gestured wildly. "I said, you have to use your imagination! Then you'll start seein-"
"Not that," He dismissed quickly. "Explain to me why this means so much to you. I can tell that it does, Yuma."
He faltered. Maybe Astral was right about that. He hadn't really noticed, if he was honest.
"...I guess it's just a change of pace." He said, mulling it over. "We come up here a lot at night... And yeah, it's really pretty! Space is cool, the stars are cool..." He shuffled over a little bit. "But sometimes it's nice to think about the world a little closer to home."
He wasn't sure how much of that Astral had really understood the reasoning behind, but he soon nodded.
"You would like to appreciate the world close to you, because that is where you are right now. You associate that with your friends and family, while space is infinite and filled with many unknowns.
"Looking at the clouds gives you a sense of security that the stars cannot, especially after the loss and conflict you have faced away from Earth."
His response admittedly left Yuma feeling slightly uncomfortable. That was not what he had been trying to get across at all - well - not all of it was. He just really liked the idea of seeing something in a new perspective, this wasn't supposed to be some kind of therapy session! Astral, however, was probably at least a little bit right - bright blue sky and fluffy clouds gave him a much stronger feeling of being home.
"...It's not that deep," He murmured, after a pause. "I mean yeah, we've had some tough times recently. But..."
He found himself focusing on the sky again, glancing at a cloud closer to the horizon. In a way, it almost looked like it resembled Astral - to him, at least.
"I just really wanted to come up here with you during the day, y'know? We normally do this when it's dark out, and I wanted to mix it up a little. New things are good."
"I suppose so." Astral gave him an understanding nod. "So, you just wanted to do this as a change of pace?"
"Yup!"
"And how would you review this experience?"
Of course he would word it so ridiculously. Yuma couldn't help the smile that split right across his face as he burst out laughing.
"'Review this experience'?! Aww man, Astral! You sound like a feedback form or somethin'!"
"A feedback form?" Astral blinked in confusion.
"Never mind..."
Now that the conversation had once again drifted into a lighter area, Yuma found himself relaxing, lying back on the roof, arms above his head. He barely even felt the slightest drop of water land on his arm.
"I would like it better if you took it a bit more seriously, though..." He said, finally giving Astral a real response. "I wanna enjoy this with you, and you're being a bit of a spoilsport."
Yuma could tell he'd finally gotten his point across, as Astral seemed to mull this over before he said anything else.
"That's understandable. Could you perhaps enlighten me as to what I am supposed to be looking for? I do not understand how a cloud can resemble a person, monster or any other form of object."
He huffed.
"Yeesh, I already told ya, you gotta use your imagination!" He tapped his head impatiently, gesturing for him to think. "It's not about them looking exactly like someone or anything. It's just looking for shapes and letting yourself think about stuff you like. It's fun!"
"I see... So it is an association game?"
"I guess..." Yuma shrugged. "That kinda covers it."
"Hmm..." Astral leaned back with him, watching the sky, eyes darting between clouds, as if searching for the meaning of life amongst them. Yuma tried to force back a smile - it was kinda sweet.
"That one," He said after what felt like an eternity, lifting his arm and pointing at one of the wisps with a sharp jabbing motion. "It reminds me of Shark."
"Shark?" Yuma stared at the cloud in utter confusion. It could barely even be considered a cloud, really. Where were the sharp curls that made up his hair? Or even the shape of a person? It looked more like smoke, barely there, and slightly grey. A rain cloud, maybe?
Either way, Astral's declaration confused him greatly.
The other shrugged.
"It is hard to figure out what that cloud is. With many others, I would simply define them as clouds. This one, however... It could be smoke, it could be a trick of the light. It is most likely a cloud, but a cloud that does not want itself to look like a cloud."
"Uhh..." Yuma blinked in confusion, not understanding what he was doing. "I don't really-"
Astral cut him off, continuing his explanation.
"The grey tint of this cloud leaves me with a question - is this a rain cloud? Will this cloud, given time, absorb enough water to burst and soak the ground, along with all those standing outside? And since this will water plants, where would this cloud's morality lie if it had sentience? It is hard to tell.
"Shark, too, likes to hide his traits, and has both allied himself with us and attempted to fight us to the death after learning of his Barian past. This is why."
Yuma was no less baffled.
"Uhh... Okay... So..." He tried to gather his thoughts. Astral had just said a lot, and he was struggling to process it. "So you think this cloud looks like Shark because it's hiding and might get us all soaked?"
"In essence, yes."
Yuma rolled his eyes.
"Of course you'd say something that weird..."
"It is also close to the sun."
Yuma squinted at it, noticing he was right.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Shark likes to be close to the sun."
"Really? I never noticed."
A mental image of Shark rushing outside whenever he saw the sun was shining, desperately wanting to tan popped into his head, and he had to stop himself from laughing.
"You represent the sun." Astral rolled his eyes. "I have heard him say it, once or twice."
"W-what?!" He could feel his cheeks turning pink at those words. "Shark thinks that?!"
"Frankly, I agree," Astral said, a faint smile on his face. "It suits you well."
"Astral!"
He was definitely blushing now.
"You're embarrassing me!"
Astral's smile broadened, and he said no more.
Another drop of water landed on Yuma, this time, on his face.
And another.
And another.
"...Gah!" He scrambled to his feet quickly, narrowly avoiding slipping on the roof shingles as he backed away quickly towards his room. "Why'd it have to start raining?!"
"I told you there were rain clouds," Astral pointed out, following him with a light shrug.
They spent the rest of the afternoon pointing out more shapes and ideas hidden within the clouds from the comfort of Yuma's room, looking out of the window, and pointing out patterns in the ways the raindrops trickled down the window. It was nice to spend some time together - just the two of them, as if there was nobody else in the world.
Yuma looked back up at the cloud by the horizon again.
No, he'd been wrong about it looking like Astral... Right now, to him it looked far more like ZeXal.
Damn, it's been years since I've used this site, but since I've started writing more again I thought it could be nice to share stuff on here again. Please drop a review to let me know what you think, and I hope it was enjoyable!