Chapter 4 : Here and Now

Just a little note before the actual story. This was inspired by TheRoseShadow21's quote (read below!) and it is my interpretation of how Yusei and Aki's relationship would have been if they had actually confessed before the WRGP. Thank you and lots of cookehs to those who reviewed, put alerts and favourited! I do not own 5D's.

"But now, we are here, we are now, and those other times are running elsewhere."

This calculation was difficult even by Yusei standards. Not that he generally considered his obvious intellectual superiority and used it to lord over other people, but even for him - this problem was just hard to solve.

He erases the numbers and formulae on the chart sheet for what feels like the thousandth time that morning and sighs, palms pressed against the table on either side of the paper. A complicated diagram of his D-Wheel engine is drawn in fine, neat pencil lines and beautifully shaded but Yusei is in no mood to appreciate art.

Temporarily he decides to rest his frazzled brain and instead, his eyes wander around the Poppo Time garage randomly. Or at least that is what he tells himself it is, as his eyes come to rest on the now familiar figure on the sofa.

She is lying down, knees drawn up and one arm hanging slightly over the edge of the sofa, staring through the open window. The sunlight falls on her face and hair and the open, vulnerably thoughtful look on her face. Yusei smiles gently, a quirking of his normally flatlined lips.

He hasn't had much time to spend with her recently. Shopping for parts, Crow and Jack's constant bickering, playing with the twins and co. - it hardly leaves him with any time alone with her. Surprisingly, he has found that she will wait, she will wait and wait until those precious few moments where they can ignore the world and focus on their late consummated relationship.

Moments that are too few.

He brings a hand up to cup his face and stares in silent amusement and a strange awe. Yusei has never seen a woman so blind to herself. Sure he's had women throwing themselves at him, but they were confident in their bodies, in themselves.

Using it, flaunting it.

But as Yusei stares at her, as he watches the way the light seems to soak into the creamy lustre of her skin, as he watches the hazel eyes shift from brown to amber to liquid gold, as he observes in silent appreciation, the rich burgundy and tinted vermilion in her falling locks of hair, he sees that she is beautiful beyond anyone and anything he has seen. And he doesn't know why she is blind to it.

But in her innocent beauty, in her absolutely unintentional flaunting, she is more sensuous and sultry than anyone Jack could pick up at a party.

Perhaps it is the stigma of being the Black Rose Witch. After all, being screamed at in hatred by thousands of people didn't do self-confidence any good. But she still believes that people hate her. And though she never says it, he knows that her patience, her slight clinginess and her attempts to stay close to him stem in part from the fear that he too will one day hate and despise her. To fear her as the Witch. To leave and find solace in the arms of other women.

When will she realise that he doesn't care?

When will she realise that he has seen the woman behind the façade of fear and hatred and loved her?

When would she realise that he would sooner tear his heart out, give up his life than to lose her forever?

Yusei stands, gently, so as not to startle her and puts down the pencil. Corrections and schematics be damned. They could wait.

Slowly, he settles himself down on the floor beside the sofa and next to hasn't noticed, she doesn't move. Yusei chuckles softly at her, noting the dreamy expression in those amber orbs.

Slowly, he inches his hand into the one hanging off the edge and savours the smooth creamy skin slipping into his own rough brown fingers like silk-

He takes it slow. Even something as simple as holding her hand. He wants to love every moment he spend with this woman. He wants to remember, to dream about it later. Before something happens to reluctantly tear him away.

So as her hand timidly tightens in his own larger one, as the sunlight burnishes both their skins and her eyes turn towards him, as her face is lightly tinted red, he smiles. There is no need for words.

Because here and now...is the time to feel.

FLUFFY. Well fluffier than usual for me anyway. To be honest I am not entirely happy with this chapter. So if you agree then please leave constructive criticism and NO FLAMING. Please. Reviews are appreciated...(^_^)