More~
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (c) Kazuki Takahashi
Later that evening, Rally was stirred by the sound of Yuusei's Runner being revved, and he quickly ran out to catch Yuusei getting ready to leave. He looked over at Rally and smiled hesitantly.
"What are you doing up, Rally?" he asked quietly, so as not to disturb the others.
"You're going to see Jack, aren't you?"
Yuusei nodded, and although Rally couldn't really see his face under the helmet and in the low light, he knew Yuusei was blushing.
"Can… Can I come? I wanna see Jack again, please Yuusei, please!" Rally blurted, twining his hands anxiously.
Yuusei sighed and flicked his visor up to look at the young boy. "It's dangerous, Rally. We're both marked – and while I think Jack might be able to shield me, I don't think he can protect both of us if we're caught. I don't want to be responsible for having you thrown back in the Facility, Rally."
Rally looked down at his feet, expression mulish. "If it's so dangerous, why do you keep going? Surely you're in more danger, as a – as a – his l-lover than me, just a kid!" Rally blushed hard but kept going, voice rising in his indignation. "It's not just you who misses him, Yuusei! You two almost raised me, it's not fair I don't get to see him too!"
"Keep your voice down," Yuusei hissed, looking around nervously as his words echoed off the tunnel walls.
Rally blanched and clapped his hands over his mouth, mouthing 'sorry' at Yuusei, who sighed.
"You promise to do what I tell you, no complaints?"
Rally nodded frantically, eyes shining with hope and mouthing 'please' over and over at Yuusei, who finally relented. "Alright," he sighed. "Hop on, and hang tight. It's a tricky path we're going to take so no one sees us."
"Alright!" Rally said excitedly, fetching a spare helmet and sitting behind Yuusei on the Runner, hanging on around his middle.
Yuusei laughed as they sped away through the tunnels, Rally's whoop echoing with it in their wake. About an hour later they pulled slowly into Jack's garage. Yuusei put a gloved finger to his lips with a sombre expression and Rally nodded seriously. Yuusei knelt down to speak quietly in his ear.
"From now on there are cameras, and we don't want to be seen. So we're going to take the service stairs, where there aren't any. Jack is in the penthouse, at the top. It's a long way – are you sure?"
Rally bit his lip, remembering how tall the building had looked from the outside, then at Yuusei's earnest face. He knew that Yuusei couldn't leave him here alone, and that he wanted to see Jack. So instead of admitting it seemed daunting, he nodded, earning a brief smile from Yuusei.
"That's the spirit. Now, off we go. Tell me if you need a rest; I've more or less gotten used to the climb."
They set off, and with Rally and his much shorter legs they stopped often, meaning that when they finally reached the top Rally was exhausted but Yuusei felt rather fresh, having rested when they stopped. He paused at the threshold of the corridor, motioning Rally to stop as well. He then peeled off his gloves and shoved them in his pocket. He knelt in front of Rally and made a beckoning motion with his head.
Rally understood immediately and settled on Yuusei's back to be carried in a strange sequence on stops and starts; it was obvious Yuusei had memorised the paths of the cameras and knew how to move in their blind spots. Rally crouched on Yuusei's back, fearful that at any moment alarms would sound or something like that. The door opened just wide enough for them to pass through and closed right after them.
Rally jumped off Yuusei's back and grinned up at Jack, who looked a little stunned. "Hey Jack! I missed you!" he then launched himself at Jack, hugging him tightly and laughing.
Jack looked over Rally's head at Yuusei, a question in his gaze. Yuusei just smiled at Rally fondly.
After Rally was satisfied with the hug, he hopped from one foot to another. "Hey Jack, where's your bathroom? I really gotta go…"
Jack and Yuusei wordlessly pointed in the right direction and Rally zoomed off, leaving them alone. Their eyes met and then suddenly they were pressed up against each other, kissing furiously. When they had calmed down enough to simply hold each other, Jack spoke.
"What's Rally doing here?"
Yuusei looked down at the floor, a little flushed. "He overheard our conversation – he was behind some boxes. I had to tell him, Jack… about us. And then he caught me as I was leaving, and he really wanted to see you, Jack. I couldn't be that cruel and deny him."
Jack shook his head in wonder. "You really are a sucker for kids, aren't you?"
"What?" Yuusei asked, smiling as he touched his handiwork in Jack's hair.
Jack put his hand over Yuusei's and squeezed to get his attention. "I mean, that you'd go a million miles to help some snotty-nosed, teary-eyed kid find a tissue."
"Is there something wrong with that?" Yuusei asked levelly, a little offended but knowing it was true.
"No," Jack said gently, surprising Yuusei by kissing him tenderly on the lips. "I think it's great, if a little inconvenient at times."
"Oh," Was all Yuusei could say to that as he pressed their lips together, hands sliding around Jack's neck with one playing with his hair and the other stroking the nape of his neck. Jack melted like butter at his touch and leaned down into him, arms tight around Yuusei's waist as their lips caressed each other. For a minute or two it was bliss, until a tactful cough came from the doorway and they sprang apart, not looking at Rally too much as they blushed furiously, embarrassed to have been caught.
Rally walked up between them, looking at the solemnly, then smiled and took both their hands, and placed them inside each other. "Come on guys, there's no need to be shy about how you feel," he said happily, patting their hands.
Yuusei smiled coyly at Jack and squeezed his fingers, holding his hand tightly and possessively. Jack smiled and blushed a little, bringing their entwined hands up to his lips to gently kiss Yuusei's knuckles.
For the rest of the evening, they talked of small things and people they used to know, and all the while Yuusei kept hold of Jack's hand, stroking it with his thumb tenderly under the table. Eventually though it was time to leave, as Rally had to get back or Nervin would worry in the morning. Rally tactfully stood by the door to give them privacy. They kissed again, holding each other close.
"Next time," Yuusei breathed on Jack's lips between kisses. "Next time, I'll spend the night."
"I look forward to it," Jack murmured back, stroking Yuusei's mark gently before pulling away and smilingly shooing Yuusei towards the door.
The day after that, the obnoxious reporter Angela was buzzing around Goodwin's building, having heard rumours of Jack Atlas telling Mister Lazar to destroy something.
"But what could be this thing?" She enquired of her Dictaphone as she skulked around. "Some secret dulling card? A new type of Synchro-Summoning? A deep dark secret from his past? A tragic – no, scratch that, scandalous affair? Rest assured, dear readers and possible journalist talent-spotters, Angela is on the case!"
She snuck into the building in the guise of one of the cleaning staff and quickly sleuthed her way up to the top floor, where Goodwin's office was located. After about an hour of pretending to work, Goodwin and Lazar both stepped out of the office, talking about inspecting the plans, whatever that meant. Angela noted it down in her notepad to investigate later and slipped inside the door to 'clean'.
She quickly rifled through all the drawers, looking for anything suspicious and making rhetorical comments into her Dictaphone every so often. Even a locked drawer didn't bother her – you didn't get to be a successful journalist without learning how to get creative, after all. There was only one thing – the metal tube of an electronic notepad. And there was red tape at one end, meaning the contents were classified.
Naturally, that piqued her curiosity.
Checking to see whether she would be disturbed, she opened the screen and her eyes widened in shock and then with greed. If a picture was worth a thousand words, she had several dissertations' worth right there in those intimate shots. And this story would be huge, prize-winning huge. Breaking the exclusive on the love affair of the two best known duellists would make her fortune for years!
Using a piece of rather immoral technology known as Copy-And-Paste, she quickly took a copy of the file onto a personal electronic notepad and stashed it carefully in her clothes before making sure everything was back in its proper place in the office.
And not a minute too soon, for just as she had finished she heard footsteps and Goodwin's voice, heading back towards the office. She innocently left, wheeling her cleaning cart like the world's best alibi, and strolled out.
When she was far enough from the building not to arouse suspicion, she stripped off her cleaner's outfit and ditched the cart in a skip – the Satellites would have fun with that.
She ran back towards her station's building, clenching the metal tube like it was worth ten times its weight in gold.
