Disclaimer: Don't own Yu-Gi-Oh GX
AN: Time to check in on Jason and Asami so we can move back on track to the main story and get to the good parts. I can't tell you how excited I am for The Shadow Riders to come.
And when Jason's 'talking' in this chapter, he's speaking in sign language. Wanted to make that clear here so people aren't going, "Jason can talk now!"
I'm also glad that people loved Alexis' little badass moment that she got in the last chapter. I just threw it in there on a whim and I'm glad I did.
This is also the first chapter where there's no dueling! Shocking right?! But we get that mistletoe action in the end of the chapter, so one or both of the couplings is gonna make kissy kissy ;)
Enjoy
Chapter 11-
"Don't lose your shoes!" Jaden called out to his now fuming brother as he quickly led Alexis away to get out of Jason's line of fire.
Jason waved a fist at him, hating how he kept reminding him of the shoe incident every year around this time. It was not funny. He almost lost a foot from the ammonia he suffered from having to walk barefoot in the snow for hours.
He felt his fist get pulled down, quickly glancing away from the retreating Jaden to see that Asami was holding onto his balled up fist. His anger to his brother died down as his crush held onto his hand, opening his fist back up and clasping her hand into his own. He blushed.
She smiled at him. "Don't mind him. He's just teasing you." Jason gave one last annoyed look in the direction Jaden fled and turned back to her. "Until tonight, its just you and me and a day of fun!"
She started pulling him off in a direction away from the Slifer Dorm and towards a giant cluster of snow that was by the rocky area near the water. She unclasped his hand, Jason a little sad at not being able to hold her hand anymore. "We're gonna start by building a snowman!" She seemed enthusiastic about it, so he smiled at her. He loved her smile and seeing her happy.
He really liked her... but knew he had no chance. He thought at first that he might've, but was coldly reminded that he didn't every time he had to look at himself in the mirror. Behind his bandages was his true face, and it was not a pleasant sight to behold. He got a little nauseous every time and he's been staring at it for three years. Once Asami looked at it, he was positive their friendship was over.
He was jerked back to reality when she rolled some snow over to him. "You okay?" She asked concerned.
Jason smiled. 'I'm fine...'
She looked at him skeptically. "You sure?" Jason gave another small smile before she shrugged. "Okay... let's get to it in making the ultimate snowman!" She grinned ear-to-ear, causing Jason to observe the scene with happiness.
She's like a little kid, he thought. He helped her roll the ball of snow until it got to be as big as they were willing to make it. They started rolling another one when Jason smiled sadly at her when she smiled at him.
He wanted to cry. He wanted to cry so much right now. He was gonna miss her so much when he finally punched it and died. It was like he had cancer. He didn't give himself that long, maybe two to three years until he was finally gone. Her, Jaden, Syrus, Chumley, Alexis, Bastion... he was gonna miss them all.
He felt his eye tear up, grateful that she was too busy putting the second ball of snow on top of the other to notice him wipe his eye. He was also happy he didn't have a voice to let her hear him sniff his tears away.
Maybe that was another reason why he was scared and sure he had no chance. He didn't see a reason to try since he'll be dead soon anyway. He hated thinking these thoughts when he was supposed to be enjoying his time with her, but he couldn't help it. Any person in his predicament would be thinking about this nonstop.
"Jason," he heard her call him. Asami stopped working on the snowman as she stared at him. "Are you sure you're okay?" The concerned look on her face made Jason feel a little warm inside that she cared about him enough to feel that way. She walked up to him, caressing his cheek with her finger. "You seem a little out of it today."
Jason knew he had to give some kind of explanation or she was gonna worry and worry about him all day. He didn't want to make her feel that way. Smiling and blushing at the feeling of her finger on his undamaged cheek, he quickly thought of a cover story.
'It just surprises me that you, a very pretty girl, is spending the day with someone like me.' He did his usual hand gestures to communicate with her. 'I guess I'm just waiting to wake up from this dream.' He felt like giving himself a pat on the back for his lying. Since he couldn't talk, he didn't have to worry about stuttering or saying the wrong thing to arouse suspicion from her. All he had to do was keep a good poker face, which he was good at from lying to Jaden about his secret of slowly shutting down.
Asami gave him a slightly disappointed look, not even blushing at the comment of her being very pretty in his eye. "Why do you look down on yourself?" He turned surprised and just shrugged a response. "You're a very awesome guy. One of the best I know." Jason shrugged, not feeling awesome with only have a face and no voice.
Asami smirked. "You think this is a dream?" She asked. Jason slowly gave a nod as he felt apprehension about the smirk she had on her face. "Well its not. I'm really here with you and I don't want to be anywhere else." She answered honestly, giving him a tight hug that he hesitantly returned to her for a few seconds before they pulled back.
Jason gave a baffled expression before he looked down to his shoes. 'Sorry... its just ever since I got shot, I haven't had any friends but Jaden and my cards. No one bothered with me and I guess I just got used to being with Jaden only.'
Asami stared sad at her friend, getting a understanding on why he felt like that. She could speak for herself and say that she didn't care about Jason having to cover his face from his accident. But the majority of people treated him bad and damaged him greatly, to the point where he felt like he wasn't worth much.
She smiled as she put their foreheads together, illuminating blushes from the both of them. "You gotta get more confident, Jason." He gazed into one of her emerald colored eyes as he nodded. He wanted to be more confident, but he just couldn't do it. She grinned at him. "I'll help you if you want me to." She offered.
Jason thought about it and eventually came to the conclusion that he could use a little help with his confidence issue. Jaden was always on his case and it was easy for Jason to say no to him after all the crap Jaden's gotten them into over the years. He scowled mentally at the reminder of Domino Barrens. But he couldn't say no to Asami. He just couldn't shake his head and make her sad. He wanted to see her happy and him agreeing to her offer would do that.
He nodded, Asami beaming at his response; hugging and kissing him on his forehead in a quick motion. "Okay! Let's start after we build our ultimate snowman!"
Jason laughed and helped her resume the build of their ultimate snowman. After a few hours of stacking snowball after snowball, whether it was for the snowman or to occasionally throw at each other and taking breaks to make snow angels, the two completed their snowman. It was bigger than both of them with arms, a nose, a face, and even a hat made out of snow. Jason kinda developed good crafting skills after making many things of snow to throw at Jaden. He shook his head as he thought that everything he did could be traced back to that day in the woods.
He shook off those thoughts of the woods and focused on Asami, sharing a smile with her again as they marveled at their snowman. He really couldn't get over how much his heartbeat sped up when he was around her. He couldn't see anything wrong with her, unless she was hiding stuff from him like he was from her. He didn't want to think about that.
He placed his finger on the snowman and carefully traced a 'J' into the snowman. Asami noticed this and followed his lead, tracing an 'A' next to his before she put a '+' in between them and drew a small heart around them.
Jason blushed before he felt Asami hug him from behind. "One of my best friends." She whispered into his ear. Jason smiled as he placed a hand on top of her folded ones that were placed around his chest, finding it to feel just right.
"Jason..." he squeezed to let her know that he was listening. "I ever tell you that I used to not be self confident myself?" Jason shook his head no, surprised at what he was hearing. "I was always a little slower in learning than other kids and I always felt bad about it. When I was younger, I was always alone. No one wanted to be friends with the dumb girl in class."
Jason didn't know why she was telling him this, but he knew that it was taking her a lot of courage to do so. He was here for her.
"I never thought I was gonna make a friend... but then one day that changed when a new girl joined my third grade class..." she smiled into his neck. "Wanna guess who it was?"
Jason smiled. 'Alexis?'
"Yep. It was Alexis. She came and talked to me when others wouldn't and finally gave me friendship. She's been my best friend ever since. She helped me with tutoring, she taught me how to play Duel Monsters, and she even helped me make other friends." She let go so Jason can turn back around and look at her. "I thank her every day for being there for me and helping me find who I really am and I wanna help you like she did me."
She smiled at him. "The point of the story is that you can change into what you want, despite what kind of problems you might have. If I can get over my learning disability, then you can learn to gain some self-confidence."
Jason surprised both of them when he tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled at her. 'I don't care that you have a learning disability.' He confessed, feeling he owed her for accepting him. Her disability made him appreciate her more. She understood him and his pain. It made her more special in his eye.
Asami smiled back. "And I don't care that you're mute and have to wear bandages." She said in return. They stared at each other, both feeling an urge to close the distance between them and hold on tight. Asami was already leaning halfway with her eyes shut, but Jason was too scared to move. He's never kissed a girl before. This was all new territory to him. Almost every day he discovered new territory of friendship whether it was with his roommates or the girl in front of him, but this took the cake.
Asami opened her eyes back up to look at his scared one. "Its okay." She spoke softly. "You can kiss me." She confessed, much to Jason's surprise. "I want you to be my first kiss. I don't want it to be with anyone else."
After hearing that, coupled with her saying she would help him get more confidence, Jason broke all restraints and closed the distance, capturing Asami's lips with his own in a light kiss.
Jason could hear his duel spirits cheer, holler, and whistle at the action. He even heard bragging from Sly and Tennessee about winning a bet, but effectively shut them out and concentrated on his first kiss. Even if Asami's lips were cold from the snow, he felt nothing but warmth on the inside. He didn't even register how sad he was before about his upcoming death. If anything, he was happy that he got his first kiss before he went with the girl that was stealing his heart more and more with every second he spent with her.
Asami felt like she was flying. Jason was making her feel like she was on Cloud Nine right now. She never imagined her first kiss to be this good. Even if they were just having a small and light kiss, it was the greatest thing she's ever felt in her life. Nothing came close to this, except for maybe when she realized that she fell for Jason after he saved her from Anarchy; but this would always be one of the greatest moments in her life. Kissing the boy that she was falling for every day she saw him.
They pulled back five seconds later, staring at the other in a warm and happy exchange of glances.
Asami smiled at him. "Thank you for being my first kiss." She thanked.
Jason smiled back. 'Thank you for being mine.' Now begged the question of what did they do with their friendship now that they kissed. Did they just keep going like before, or did they take the next step.
None of them asked the question, just sharing another three second kiss before they looked to the snowman they built. Jason was fine with that. He was sure he would screw something up and push her away if he asked the question. He always somehow ruined everything good for himself in someway, or at least he convinced himself that. Plus, she could do way better than him. He didn't want to limit her when she can be so much more.
Maybe when he got a little more confident, he'll ask her. But until then, they would be friends.
But now he learned something other than things can get better for you someday if you kept at it. After sharing a kiss with the girl he liked, he now knew that he didn't just have a crush on her anymore.
He was falling in love with her... and that kind of scared him.
"Jason..." Asami leaned into him as they stared at the ultimate snowman. "I hope you're not weirded out now that we kissed." She asked. She wanted to ask him to be her boyfriend, but knew that Jason might say no. His confidence in himself was so low that Asami was sure that he didn't feel worthy of her or something. She knew because she felt that way with Alexis almost all the time about their friendship. Once she got his confidence up, she was gonna snatch him up right then and there.
Jason shook his head. 'No. I really liked it.'
"I did too..." Asami held his hand. "Any time you need or want one, you can come to me. I'll never say no."
Jason smiled. 'Same here.' He felt pride at his personal victory of already getting more confident. He knew that yesterday, he would've never been able to work up the courage to kiss her. Maybe that day of him getting the confidence to ask her out was closer than he thought.
Asami checked her PDA. "The dance is gonna start soon... You still wanna go?" Jason almost jumped in shock at being reminded of the monstrosity of dancing, but knew that it was fine. He knew Asami wouldn't laugh at his dancing skills. He trusted her, which was a first from him in years. Besides Jaden, his roommates, Alexis, Bastion, and Asami were the only people he knew he could depend on.
He nodded, making her grin and start leading him to the gym where everything was being held; both replaying the magic of their kiss in their heads and thinking:
'I hope he gets/I get more confidence soon. I wanna feel like that everyday.'
...
Back at the gym, Jaden and Alexis were currently sitting at a corner of the gym, both laughing as they enjoyed one another's company and talked about Alexis' brother Atticus getting his shorts ripped off at a family party.
Jaden noticed how she held onto that stuffed bear that he won her in a firm grip, like if she was afraid of losing it. He smiled at that, happy that she respected a gift from a friend so much to treat it with a lot of care.
Before Jaden could give his input on Alexis' story, his sixth sense that he had when it came to Jason turned on and he found himself looking around and seeing his little brother and Asami standing by the entrance.
Jaden couldn't help the smirk that came on his face when he got a good look at his brother and his date as they finally came into the gymnasium. Jason was honest to God smiling and holding Asami's hand. Jaden's never seen him smile like how he was right now. Instead of the usual small one he put on to act as his front, he actually looked genuinely happy right now.
He was so interrogating him later.
"Hey guys," Alexis greeted the two as Asami led Jason over to them. "Have fun today?" Immediately, both Jason and Asami's faces brightened and they both smiled at one another, catching the interest of both Jaden and Alexis.
Jaden couldn't resist the question that popped up. "Anything interesting happen today?" He gave that teasing smirk over to his brother, who blushed upon what happened between him and Asami. "Something did, didn't it?" He grinned.
"Stop messing with them, Jaden," Alexis told the bouncing Slifer before she looked pointedly to her best friend. "Something happened, right?" She took notice of their hands being intertwined together.
Asami smiled. "Something... interesting did happen, yes, but we're not sure if we wanna tell you."
"Why?"
She shrugged. "You might scream and lose your mind." She explained. "It wasn't anything bad," she quickly added at the start of a concerned look on their faces. "But Jaden especially is gonna go a little crazy."
Jaden turned to Jason. "What happened?" He asked, curious now more than ever as to what happened between his brother and his date for the day.
Jason shared a smile with Asami before she answered, her face turning red as she confessed. "We kissed..."
"You guys kissed!?" If weren't for the music, the proud screams of Jaden would've been heard by everyone in the room and possibly the island. Alexis looked shocked, but it quickly wore off and smiled like she knew it was gonna happen all along.
Jaden smiled large in Jason's direction. "My baby brother is finally a man!" He congratulated, Jason burying his head in his free hand to hide his face, embarrassed from Jaden's stupid comment.
After calming down, Jaden turned to them with a cheeky grin. "Are you guys dating now?" He asked with a knowing wink.
Jason and Asami both blushed before they shook their heads, surprising Jaden and Alexis.
"We're not ready to be dating yet," Asami confessed, Jason nodding in agreement. "We wanna wait a little bit longer before we take that step." She explained. Alexis nodded and accepted her friend's choice while Jaden sighed before shrugging, not willing to pressure Jason into doing something he wasn't ready to yet.
Turning the attention off of them, Asami grinned over at Jaden and Alexis. "What've you guys been up to all day?" She asked as she and Jason took their jackets off and set them on one of the chairs Jaden and Alexis were sitting on.
It was Jaden and Alexis' turn to smile and blush. "Alexis kicked the crap out of a snobby Obelisk named Victor in one move!" Jaden said in a mix of pride and excitement.
"And Jaden won me this stuffed bear." Alexis held up the brown bear for both Jason and Asami to see.
"That's so cute!" Asami gushed between them, getting a blush out of Alexis. "Now if you don't mind me asking, did you two kiss?" She grinned.
"No," Alexis answered while she and Jaden grew wide eyed looks. "I kinda like to take things slow, you know that." Alexis didn't realize that her words meant that she wanted to have something with Jaden, but just wanted to go a little slower than Jason and Asami were apparently going.
"Okay Ms. Prissy," Asami held her hand that wasn't circled with Jason's up in defense. "No need to get snappy with me."
Jaden and Jason laughed at the display between the girls, which turned into fear and surprise for Jason and Jaden separately when slow dancing music came on and people started making their way to the space for the dancing.
'Shit.' They both thought in unison. Now came the dreaded part to their otherwise perfect days. Slow Dancing. The bane to almost every guy's existence, especially theirs after the wedding of some friends of their parents.
Let's just say Jaden and Jason mastered the art of tap dancing on two poor girl's feet that night.
And now they were gonna embarrass themselves in front of Alexis and Asami. Life sure did like to kick them in the ass. First Domino Barrens, Jason's accident, and now this.
Hearing the lyrics to 'All I Want for Christmas' start up, Asami practically dragged Jason down to the dance floor, leaving Jaden to give his sibling a salute farewell. Alexis stepped next to him as they watched the two of them start to dance.
Asami placed her arms around Jason's neck. Then the song started playing and Jason hesitantly started leading them. They went around in a circle, Jason keeping his head down and watching his feet the entire time. Jaden almost snickered when he could have sworn he saw his lips moving like he was counting and making sure his feet didn't go anywhere near hers.
Asami noticed what he was doing and tilted his head up with her fingers, forcing him to look at her. She then moved closer, wrapping her arms tighter around him and giving him a small comforting smile. Jason then slowly moved his arms to tighten around her waist in response, watching his arms to make sure he didn't screw something up. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, enjoying the swaying that they were now doing and looking like she didn't want to be anywhere else. Jason rested his head on hers and closed his own eye and enjoyed the feeling of her against him.
It was so cute that people were going "Awwww" and taking pictures of them. Even Alexis snapped a picture with her PDA, saving it and then showing it to Jaden.
"Its like those two were made for each other." She mused while watching them rock back and forth.
Jaden nodded in agreement and pride for his brother for a second before turning and facing Alexis, feeling his cheeks go red as he struggled to get the question he wanted to ask her.
"Alexis," he stammered slightly there as she turned to face him. He nervously gulped with a nervous smile intact. "You, maybe wanna, I don't know... dance?" He finally got it out, feeling his cheeks go red at the question and turned back to look at his brother dance with his crush.
Alexis blushed too before she finally smiled and reached down to grab his hand, turning his head back away from Jason and Asami to look at Alexis.
She nodded. "Sure..." she said as she led them both to the dance floor near where Jason and Asami were still swaying peacefully to the song, lost in their own little world.
Jaden grew nervous again, not sure on what to do next. Alexis helped him with the next step, leading his arms as they wrapped securely around her waist. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and they began to sway to the music. They didn't talk, getting into the swing of things as Alexis enjoyed the music while Jaden fought every urge to look down at his feet and instead focused on her.
Only a few seconds into their dance did Jaden get the confidence to fight off his strong urge to look down and move one of his arms up, keeping his other hand on her hip. Alexis stared at him confused before he pulled her against him, making her lay her head against his shoulder in a similar position to Jason and Asami.
Alexis smiled and started to enjoy the close proximity of her and Jaden. Closing her eyes as well, she thought to herself that this was the best she felt in a long time. The warmth that radiated off of Jaden's body was enough to make her feel hot under the collar. She felt her cheeks heat up as she felt a finger of his ring through her hair and play with her hair.
She really didn't know how she could feel this calm around him. There was just this thing about him that calmed her and made her feel like nothing can hurt her when he was around. Maybe it tied into the fact that he saved her from a very freaky dueling mercenary at the Abandoned Dorm. He was her Guardian Angel that night.
Jaden smiled as he looked to his finger that was intertwined into Alexis' hair, loving the color and softness to it. He had accepted earlier in the day that he was falling for her, but he didn't think he could like her this much in so little time. She was just breathtaking to him in every aspect. Her appearance, her personality, her dueling skills, everything. He couldn't see one thing wrong with her.
A light shined on them, breaking them out of the little trances that they were in. They pulled back slightly to look and see that a mistletoe was being lowered down over them. They both turned red as they looked to one another and drowned out the noise of the crowd yelling at them to kiss.
They just stared at one another, not able to form a eligible word or start a single motion. Alexis was blushing madly and looking away while Jaden was rubbing his head like he always did every time he got nervous.
The chanting wasn't helping either.
"Kiss! Kiss!" Even Asami stopped her little slow dance with Jason to get in on the chanting. Not being able to speak, Jason settled for a grin and nod of his head towards the crowd.
'Quiet Jerk,' Jaden thought to himself before turning his attention back to the flustered girl in front of him. "We don't have to do this if you don't want..." he offered her a way out that he felt she might've been looking for.
She surprised him when she shook her head with a small shy smile, which looked really weird on someone like her. "It is holiday tradition." She said. Jaden's eyes widened for a second before he nodded and started to blush again.
Saying to hell with it, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, capturing her off guard for a second before she kissed him back.
They stayed like that for seven seconds, the people around them either in shock or whistling at the show of affection between them. Jason and Asami watched them for a good two seconds before they got the urge to follow their lead and ended up sharing a third kiss with each other that ended a second before Jaden's and Alexis' did.
Jaden and Alexis stared into each other's eyes after pulling away, both bright red and short on words as the light faded and mistletoe was pulled away from them.
"Ummm... wow?" Jaden asked with a laugh to lighten up the tension.
Alexis laughed too. "Yeah, wow..." she said as they kept staring at one another.
"What was that about?" Jaden asked after seeing everything go back to normal like if nothing happened at all.
"Zane said that every year someone shines the light on the 'cutest' pair and lowers the mistletoe so they can..."
"Do what we just did?" Jaden finished.
Alexis smiled. "Yeah... what we did..." she said as they quickly fell back in line with dancing like Jason and Asami were doing ten feet from them.
They were both thinking about being chosen as the cutest pair out of everyone here, which they felt was Jason and Asami after the dance they shared with each other. So there was obviously something about them that drew people's attention and made them see each other in a romantic light.
They weren't sure what to do. Jaden wasn't sure if he could handle a girlfriend right now with his training for a upcoming danger and Alexis was too busy focusing on finding her brother. As big of a cop out as this was, they were stealing Jason and Asami's reasoning and saying they would wait a while longer before taking that step.
At least until this feeling of want threatened to eat them alive and overpowered them.
End of Chapter 11 of Supreme King Jaden.
Now we can get back on track to the main plot, which is the fiancé duel with a twist.
Both couplings had their first kiss in this chapter. Which was cuter? By a slight margin, I like Jason's and Asami's a little more. Just a kiss in the snow says something to me.
Jason's bandages are coming off next chapter! Yep you read right! You'll finally see, uh I mean read, what's behind them. The next chapter is already more than halfway done.
Review to boost my will and energy to write and I hope you enjoyed.
Next Time: Chapter 12