~A pretty short note from the author, Bunny:
If I apologized for going two months without an update last time, what do I do for seven months? Well, first, I'll apologize again to you all, for making you wait so long. I'm dearly sorry for that. Now I think I'll go raid the storyboard writing station for Yugioh Arc-V and demand to know where Yuugo's screentime went. He comes and he goes, in one episode and out the next, like an apparition. This is gonna be a short chapter, folks, but I do hope you enjoy.
This chapter takes place somewhere in the looooong span between Yuugo's reunion with Yuzu, and Episode 112 (I think it's 112? It should be 112. You guys know where you are in the show).
This place was serene in the light. In any light. Strange though it may seem that such a place would exist at all. Yuugo stared up over his feet at the interior of the underground church for the third time that hour. Neither the Tops nor the Commons had anything like this.
Vaulted ceilings craned high overhead in the narrow valley of the room, its sky-reaching walls made of aged wooden slats or raw, earthy stone. The pews were chipped in places, and several were askew, and yet more flaws were visible in the floor and furniture in the light. Though there wasn't much light to begin with; the tall, vent-like slats cut out of the steep main wall let in narrow streams of dim-yet-heavenly light. But that was alright. Its lone inhabitant didn't require much light, and enjoyed the homely gloom.
Though built and decorated with an all-too-familiar sense of destitution, to Yuugo, this place felt softer than the Commons. It was warmer.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his phone screen go dark, and he turned his attention back to it quickly.
"Oi! Wake up, you, I wasn't done with that." He poked at the device a few times until it returned him to the text message he'd been typing. He continued his work on it in quiet, his gloves racing across the keys without a sound.
"You'll take better care of her next time, won't you? I don't need to be the person reminding you of this, but you almost lost her…" he sighed inwardly, "You thought you did lose her… But she's alright now…"
Yuugo's face broke into a shaky grin of relief, even now, and he repeated to himself in a reverent whisper, "She's alright now…"
He gladly replayed in his mind the very moment that he saw Yuzu again, after living for what felt like so long with the belief that she had met a horrific end. The mere thought of her now…knowing she was in just the other room…safe and unscathed…bright and cheerful…brought unshed tears to the Synchro duelist's eyes.
"You've gotta be just as glad as I am to have her back…" he continued typing, "but that hardly means she's back for good… Be careful with her, alright…? Keep her safe for me…"
He slowly leaned back and tapped a foot thoughtfully as he re-read the messages. Something was missing… After several long seconds, he gradually began to tap the keys again…
"It's hard to know what to say to you…with what an idiot you've been…" he cracked a smile, "You've made your fair share of mistakes, to be sure… Even though Yuzu's too nice to say she minds… She never really minds about anything…but if she does, you'll know, 'cuz she'll whack you with that fan of hers," he chuckled out loud, and winced at the same time at the thought of the girl's rare temper, "But you know about that fan already."
He paused, his thoughts gathering together stronger now. He typed a bit quicker, with a bit more confidence.
"I've gotta tell it to you straight… Losing her, or…thinking we lost her…was hard for everyone…some of us took it a lot harder than others… Don't let yourself forget how bad you took it… Actually, think about it whenever you can…how much it hurt…" his gaze softened on the letters he typed, "It's not a load of fun, for sure. I've tried it, too. And it makes me think about everything I've ever done wrong for her… But once you think about it more, it's not so bad…because you can always calm your fears by knowing…she's still here now…"
His mouth set itself into a thin line of determination. The phone clacked quietly as leather gloves tapped it faster.
"But it's still gotta be scary; you've gotta remember how it felt, so that you'll always know what'll happen to you if you let yourself lose her again. That can't happen. No matter what happens, no matter how hopelessly gone you think she is, no matter if she crashes her motorcycle, or gets kidnapped, or anything else…you cannot give up on her, do you hear me…?"
The Enter button was given a forceful smack as Yuugo began a new paragraph.
"You care so much about her…but you care so much you can't get over worrying about her enough to save her! You just can't-" He stopped himself from typing any further, let out a deep breath, and backspaced his sentence, "You want to protect her. So don't worry about whether she'll be alright…don't fear the flames if they try to take her away…don't fear falling if she's beyond the sky in your world…you want to protect her…so just do it. Protect her, before anything else…"
He closed his eyes slowly, sinking further in his seat, and tilting his head to stare into the pale church-light. Without thinking, he tangled the fingers of one hand into his hair, merely feeling the sheepish gesture he used to make so often. The slick silk locks fell lightly from his grasp when both hands moved back to the phone.
"Promise you'll look after her… Not all the time…there'll always be something to separate you two…but always come back to her… In whatever world life takes you to, after everything that needs you is sated, in whatever way you can, come back to her… She needs you…"
Eyes closed, Yuugo let a faint smile grace his features, "Well, not so much anymore… She's got so many people looking after her now…but…it's the memories that make me so close to Rin…please, let it be the memories that keep you two together as well…"
The church echoed his light chuckle, even as quiet he'd intended it to be.
"I guess I'm just rambling by this point, huh? Passing the torch and leaving all the instructions behind? Egh, that's weird. Sounds like I'm old or dying or something." He stared resolutely at his final words as they appeared letter by letter, "I've never spoken to you before, but you can expect to hear from me again, whenever I make a mistake I can't bear for you to repeat."
Yuugo nearly pressed Enter to send the message, then caught himself at the last second with a "oh!"
"Almost forgot," he typed at the end, "About Rin…" his face gradually softened into nothing less than complete warmth and fondness, and he soon combed his electric hair with one tangled hand again. The thoughts of Rin were so many, but the last message was so short:
"Don't ever give up on her, alright?"
Enter.
Yuugo was, for once, greeted with a lack of gray buffers as the giant message actually got through, his screen reading, "New Message Sent."
"Oi!" a sweet voice called in the distance, "Yuugo!"
He looked up, immediately saw Yuzu standing in the small doorway to the back of the church, waving in his direction beckoningly, and immediately, he smiled.
"Be there in a second!" he called back. The Synchro duelist peeled himself out of his comfy seat, and as he walked down the aisle between the pews, he looked down at his phone one last time.
"New Message Received." It read.
Yuugo merely smiled a little wider at who the message was from, murmuring "baka," briefly under his breath before his stride led him to Yuzu. Though he put the phone away, the inbox still said…
"One new message from Yuugo, thirty seconds ago."
~*clacks "scene" bar, then throws it over shoulder* Whelpt, that's a chapter, guys! Time to hunker down, wait for more Yuugo screentime in the very distant future, and leave reviews, if you'd like to! ^_^ I'd greatly appreciate it!
Next chapter ought to be an exciting one! Trying to find a new person for Yuugo to text every time has gotten difficult, but this chapter, it was himself. That was my most recent trick-up-my-sleeve ;) Now, even I don't know what I'll think up next. Or, more like, what the writers of Arc-V will think up next.Thank you again to my rainbow of reviewers, followers, favoriters, non-user visitors, and all other readers, for keeping my motivation for this story going! \^o^/ *throws confetti and candy up in air happily* I hope you all have enjoyed this newest chapter of Tears 'till 2AM, and that you will enjoy the next one just as much ^_^[Also! (This author's note is getting so long...) If anyone has any suggestions for stories to work on, or one shots to write, during Yuugo's increasingly increasing downtime in Yugioh Arc-V, I am open to ideas! ^_^]Peace
~Bunny
