A/N Well it's my last Friday before school starts so why not celibate by staying up till 4 in the morning, read fanfiction and stalk tumblr. Yeah I'm out of it right now, so enjoy.
Yuma and Astral walked to school slowly, with Yuma still half asleep.
"God, why did you have to get me up so early, Astral?" He grumbled halfheartedly.
"Well, since I don't really need to sleep I got bored really fast, so you can't blame me for wanting to have company." She said.
"Yeah, I get where you're coming from, but did you really need to wake me up at 5:30 a.m.?"
"Well, the sun was rising so I thought it was as good as any time to wake you." Astral said pointing her finger at the sun.
"Yeah, well next time can you wait an hour? And if you're really that bored, maybe you should just leave." He said sarcastically.
"I can't Yuma. You know as well as I do that your key locks our souls together." She said matter-of-factly, not catching Yuma's sarcasm.
"Whatever, I guess I could keep the TV on for you to keep you entertained." He said.
"Okay, that way I can learn more about your world." She said amused.
"Sure, however you want to look at it. Oh hey, it's Kotori." Yuma said excitedly, dragging Astral along behind him as he ran toward her.
"Hey Kotori! How's it going?" Yuma waved as he walked up to her.
"Oh, hey, Yuma. Hi Astral." She said waving back. "Wow, isn't it a little early for you to be here, Yuma?" He groaned, remembering how tired he was.
"Astral woke me up early because she couldn't sleep." He complained.
"Really? Good job!" She said giving a thumbs up to Astral, who laughed at the gesture.
"Yeah, though it wasn't easy waking him up." She commented, making him groan even more. These two should be sympathizing with him, not laughing. Kotori and Astral continued talking until someone walked up, calling for Yuma.
"Hey, Yuma! How's it goin buddy?" A kid wearing the same school uniform, a goofy hat, and large glasses greeted.
"Um, who are you?" Yuma questioned, staring down at the kid.
"Well, allow me to introduce myself. My name's Flip, a name I take great pride in, because I believe everything has a flip side. My right has my left, my back has my front, and my sadness has happiness." Flip introduced with a smile.
"Well, hi." Yuma said simply. Astral curiously watched the small boy.
'What is this dark aura I feel? Is it coming from him?' She thought as she watched him converse with Yuma.
"Yuma, I just wanted to thank you so much for taking down that bully Shark. He was always picking on me, so I'm happy someone finally had enough guts to knock him down a few pages." Flip glorified.
"Oh, it was nothing." Yuma said waving a hand.
"Oh, really?" Yuma tensed at the weird girl's glare, making Flip wonder if he was really as tough as the rumors claimed.
"Well," He said coughing into his fist, gaining the attention of Yuma, "I have something I want to give to you." He said, pulling something out of his pocket.
"Oh really? What is it?" Yuma asked excitedly.
"It's a card, and Xyz's monster in fact, and I want you to have it, Yuma, as a sign of our friendship." He said holding the card out in front of him.
"A card as a sign of our friendship? Like I'd pass that up." Yuma said happily reaching for the card, but before he could grab it, someone started to drag him away.
"Come on! I need you to help me get all the notes I missed while I was gone." Kotori said, pulling Yuma with her.
"You should come, too, Astral." She said, looking back to see her still standing there. Astral nodded her head before quickly catching up with them. She looked back to see Flip glaring in their direction.
"So it seems the rumors are true: the reason behind Yuma's duel with Shark is some strange girl." Flip said to himself. "That Astral girl seemed to unnerve him in a very unusual way, so she's probably behind Yuma's winning." He looked down at his card. "But we'll find out soon now, won't we, Baby Tiragon." He said holding the card up a grinning like a madman.
"Hey! Why'd ya drag me all the way here?!" Yuma complained as the trio arrived in the classroom.
"Yuma, I don't want you to talk to Flip anymore." Kotori said suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"I heard rumors about him and I was also in the same class as him a while back. That guy is always planning something." She explained. Yuma gave her a questioning look. "And if you don't believe me then ask Tetsuo, because he knows what I'm talking about too." He continued to complain but didn't say anything else, allowing Astral to ask some questions.
"Kotori, you said you've heard things about him, right? What exactly is said about him." She said in a low voice so Yuma couldn't hear them.
"Well from what I've heard, he cheats to get respect or anything he wants. I've also heard he makes up lies and rumors about people so he can take what he wants from them while they have no one to help." Kotori said whisper it in Astral ear.
"I don't like it!" Astral declared quickly standing, sending her chair rattling to the floor, making the few people in the room look at her. She quietly sat back down.
"If that boy wants anything to do with Yuma, he'll have to take me on, too!" Astral said confidently. Kotori looked at her in amazement. From what she was told, Astral had only been to this school for two days before she was put in the hospital, yet somehow Yuma had made friends with her, and to make things even more amazing: both of them would stand up for each other one minute and the next be fighting like an old married couple. God, she wished she could remember what happened during her disappearance. That may explain why these two know each other so well.
Astral soon learned that Flip was very insistent on giving Yuma his card. She was constantly dragging Yuma away from his biggest fan, which usually lead to a bitching match soon after.
"Damnit, Astral! Will you stop doing that to me!" Yuma yelled as he broke her grasp on his wrist.
"I just wanted to get home as soon as possible." She said in an innocent tone.
"Is that so? From what I've seen, you love school so why should I believe that." He spat.
"I was doing it for you, but I guess next time I won't care." She crossed her arms trying to look angry but really only doing it to get Yuma's mind off of Flip.
"Wait, don't get upset." He said falling for her little act. "I'm happy you did it for me, you were just pushy that's all. If you want to get home faster, just say something. Besides I always rush home on Fridays so you don't have to drag me, okay?" He said hoping she wasn't too angry. She uncrossed her arms and smiled at him.
"Okay." She said as they continued to walk. Astral was happy this week was finally over. Flip was quite a nuisance and she was glad she didn't have to worry about him for two days. She then remembered something.
"Hey, Yuma, Kotori and I are going shopping tomorrow,"
"Yeah, so?"
"Can you come too?" She asked.
"Well you see, guys don't really do those kinds of things."
"Why not?"
"Well, it's just how things are. You girls shop and us guys do...other things, stuff we like." Yuma said, trying his best to explain how society worked.
"That doesn't seem right." She huffed.
"Well that's life." He said shrugging his shoulders.
"You just don't want to spend time with me." She pouted.
"Wait! No! That's not it."
"So you'll come, then?" She said excitedly. Yuma looked down in defeat.
"Fine, I'll go."
"Good." Astral said, grabbing hold of Yuma's wrist again and running. "Come on, you're so slow." She teased as he tried to keep up with her.
As they arrived at his house, Yuma was greeted, ever so warmly, by his older sister.
"Hey, Yuma! What did I tell you about dueling?!" Kari yelled as he walked in the door.
"What do you mean? I haven't been dueling." He said nervously, trying to sound innocent.
"But what about the num-" Was all Astral managed to say before Yuma put a hand over her mouth. Kari looked at the two, unconvinced and threw a letter at him.
"This came for you today." She said, sitting down and returning to her work. Yuma turned the letter over and read quickly what was written on it. 'To Yuma, My biggest Hero.' He jumped in the air.
"Woo Hoo! I got fan mail!" He shouted causing Kari give him a serious look.
"Um, I'll be upstairs." He said as he hurried up the stairs, Astral following closely behind. Yuma quickly climbed into the attic and sat on the floor, looking at the letter with excitement. Astral floated into the room and sat cross-legged in mid-air, since there was no other place for her to sit.
"My first fan letter." Yuma said again, as he started to open it.
"Yuma, why does Kari not want you dueling?" Astral questioned making him stop everything he was doing.
"It's none of your concern" He said, annoyed.
"I see, even though you have ears and acknowledge something, you still choose not to cooperate. I guess that's what makes humans so hard to work with." She commented, floating closer to him. Yuma's eye twitched at the comment, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth fighting over.
"Whatever." He huffed, opening his letter. A card dropped out, face down and he turned it over.
"Hey, it's a Baby Tiragon card like Flip's been trying to give me." He pointed out. A hologram appeared with the image of what looked like a girl with her back to the camera.
"I'm your biggest fan, Yuma, and I want you to have this card. It's very special to me, so it would be my honor for you to use it." A small, squeaky voice said. The imaged then disappeared.
"Wow, that's really nice of someone to do that." Yuma said, holding the card to the light and looking at it. Astral didn't seem to care about the card but more about the letter itself.
"Yuma, let me see that." She said holding her hand out.
"What, the card?"
"No, what it came in."
"Okay." He shrugged handing it to her. She looked over the letter.
"Isn't it odd that there is nothing that says who it's from... what do you call it? A return address, ah, yes, there is no return address." She asked. He thought about it for a second.
"Maybe she is just shy." He said.
'Or she didn't want you to know who she was.' She thought.
"Don't worry about it, Astral. You make things more complicated they are. You need to learn to relax, not everything is evil." He said, trying to sound reassuring, though she still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
A/N So like I said before I start school on Tuesday. So I really don't know how it will affect my writing but I'll try to keep to schedule. One last thing before I leave, I'll be going on a vacation next Friday after school, so more than likely I'll update on Thursday for the hell of it. Well good night. Yami Gir signing off!