The Thing At The Door

Chapter Eleven: Dating A Mystery Man


A/N: It's a good thing Carly has Aki to confide her feelings in or with...


"What?!" Aki exploded into Carly's ear. Carly moved the phone away from her ear to let her friend finish yelling. "You're dating Jack Atlas?"

"Yes, Aki, I am. Is there a problem with that?" Carly asked, fiddling with her duvet covers. She currently sat on her bed, and had been talking to her friend Aki since she had woken up.

"No! I actually think you guys make a really cute couple, but..." Aki trailed off, unsure of how to phrase her words. "I was only thinking that you guys got together pretty quickly."

Now, Carly was a very apprehensive person, so she could fully understand where Aki was coming from. It had taken her and Yusei over a year to finally announce they were dating, so she probably didn't understand why Carly had gotten together with Jack after only about two months.

"Well, I guess we did, but that doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things," said Carly.

"The whole point of dating is to find out if the dated person is the one for you. The sooner I found out, the better, right?"

Aki giggled at her friend. "You're so intellectual, Carly! But, yeah. I guess I agree." Carly nodded silently, and the two women were quiet for some time.

"Man, Carly, I can't believe you're dating the former King! You aim high, huh?"

"You bet I do," Carly joked, before they both fell into a fit of laughter. Carly's stomach suddenly grumbled, and she made her way to the kitchen to get breakfast.

"So, how many dates have you two lovebirds been on?"

"Five so far," Carly answered, counting the three other ones they had taken after that 'duel runner date incident' all those weeks ago.

"They've all been lots of fun, but nothing too serious. Nothing like a candlelight dinner, you know?"

"Hmm, interesting," Aki mumbled into her phone. "Five dates over a two month period. Sorry, Carly, but that isn't really a lot."

"Well, every day has kinda been a date for us since we live together," said Carly as she pulled out cereal. She was feeling lazy, so decided on eating it straight from the box.

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense." Aki was quiet for a little bit. "When are you going to have him meet your parents?"

Carly stopped halfway to the kitchen table. When was she going to introduce him to her parents? After about a minute of consideration, she came to a conclusion.

"I'll have him meet my parents once I found out more about him. If there's one thing I've learned about Jack, it's that he doesn't like talking about his personal life. But, if we're gonna get serious, I'll make him open up."

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I'm not about to date a mystery man."

Carly could faintly hear the sound of applause coming from her phone, and she smiled as she chewed a handful of cereal. "Well said, girl! Well said! Okay, but while we're on the subject of you two dating, have you guys kissed yet?!"

Carly choked on her dry cereal, amazed at Aki's personal question. "Uh, no, Aki Izinski. I have not kissed him yet."

Carly glanced up and jumped when she saw pajama-clad Jack Atlas leaning against the hallway door frame, watching her. Had he heard what she had just said?

"I gotta go, Aki, bye!" Carly quickly swiped her phone off, and eyed Jack. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to know what you were talking about," Jack replied, easily evading her question. He made his way over to the kitchen counter, and began pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Jack," Carly started slowly. "I really wanna know more about you."

"I know you do." Jack turned to face her, and sipped his coffee nonchalantly. "You say it all the time."

Carly frowned - she really did say it all the time. The only thing different about her saying it this time, though, was that she wouldn't let Jack refuse to talk ago himself.

Jack went to sit on Carly's sofa, and turned it on. Thankfully, it was working faster today. Carly followed him, taking her box of cereal with her.

"Jack, don't ignore me. If you and I are going to date, I should know know who you are. And I don't."

Jack turned to look at Carly. She looked back, bravely, as she chomped on her cereal. "That cereal makes you way less intimidating, you know that right?" Jack joked.

"Jack!" scolded Carly. "Tell me about yourself!"

Jack ran a hand through his wispy blonde hair, and sighed. "I suppose I can tell you since we're dating and all, but you have to understand why I kept my past a secret."

"First of all, I'm a very private person. Carly, I really hate talking about myself, but if it's that important to you, I'll do it. And second of all, I never wanted my personal life to get out into the media as Fortune Cup King."

Carly watched Jack speak. She had never seen Jack so nervous, and now that she was seeing him this way, she hated he fact that she was making him do this.

She definitely would stop him from continuing, but only if they weren't dating. "So, are you going to tell me now?"

"Carly...I was born in the Satellite."

The room was silent for a long while. Carly stared at Jack's lowered head. She quickly remembered something Jack had said about him growing up in a rough neighborhood.

"B-but how? You were the Fortune Cup King..." Carly then remembered Jack telling her the story of how he became King. He had stolen a card from his friend, and escaped his 'bad neighborhood'.

"Oh, Jack..."

Carly reached her hand out to place it on Jack's arm, but he slapped it away. "Stop looking at me like I'm an abused puppy, because I'm not!"

"You must be reading my expression wrong," Carly said, placing her hand firmly on Jack's arm. "I find it amazing. - admirable, even - that you started out at that place and are now a former King."

Jack's tsundere demeanor had vanished completely. While talking about his past, he looked like a little boy explaining his bad day. Jack looked up at her slowly, and scoffed before continuing.

"I was an orphan. I never knew my parents, neither did my foster mum." Jack stopped talking, and Carly realized that he had just quickly given her a summary of his childhood.

"Jack, I can't believe it." Jack furrowed his brow at Carly, quickly turning on his usual personality.

"I just can't believe how strong you are to have grown up there and to live as great as you do now. I'm actually really proud of you."

Jack sputtered a little when Carly unexpectedly leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Jack. After a while of just enjoying the moment, Jack had a thought.

"Just don't tell anyone, okay? My past isn't ready to publicly come out yet."

Carly nodded into Jack's chest. "Of course."


A/N: It's always a red flag if the datee isn't willing to give up information about themselves. Right?

Anyhoo, thanks for reading! Thanks again to previous reviewers, too!

Please update again if you haven't already, and thanks :) See you next chapter.