The Secret
The rattle of wheels. They were running across the bumpy concrete to the waiting helicopter and all he could think was that he should call and tell her he would not be meeting her after all in the back garden all strewn with wildflowers and climbing roses. He wanted to tell Roland to get him his cell or at least give him the DuelNano, but the man was behind the sliding doors, he was the source of the shouting and the slamming. God. He couldn't believe it. There was a hole in his shoulder where the blood was welling up. And Tea thought he would be coming for her this evening.
No one would believe it so he never bothered to explain. When he first saw her, he labeled her as stupid and sentimental, but he never could understand why the things she said stung him. He remembered that duel that brought Yugi to tears, on the rooftop of Pegasus's castle. She stopped Yugi from killing him; she won the game for him—she plagued him with guilt. When she had raged at him, he pretended he didn't care, but he did. It always stuck with him.
Which was why when they ran into each other at the doorstep of Grandpa Mouto's duel shop, he grabbed her arm. "Tea…" he began. He waited for her to pull away, to stop him.
Instead she looked up curiously, almost fearfully. "Yes?"
"Look I…I'm sorry." The words stopped. They tasted strange in his mouth. He waited for her to walk away, to laugh, to not understand.
Instead she smiled. "It's okay," she said. The city sounds all died away; the cars rushing by, the people swishing around them, the pigeons fluttering and pecking and vying—they all vanished. He asked her to meet him again, she said she would, and she reached out to touch his hand. Her fingers sent a jolt through him.
They had been dating for six months. They sat next to each other by the koi pond and fed the fish breadcrumbs. They held hands and murmured to each other about what they would do if they could and what they would change if they only knew how. They had never kissed, though he wanted to.
And now he was dying.