Title: No Holding Back
Characters: Asuka, Momoe, Junko
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 500
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: GX alternate/divergent timelines: A79, K rated
Notes: This takes place in GX episode 58, when everyone tries to hold Asuka back from getting her friends from cheering on Edo. More of my thoughts after the drabble.
Summary: Asuka wants to get her friends back on Juudai's side of the arena. Everyone else wants to stop her. Will she sit back down or not?
What are they doing over there? Asuka's lips pressed together. They had been allowed to come watch this. They should have been here, on Juudai's side.
She rose to her feet, stating she'd go and get them. She'd barely taken a step before four arms casually encircled her. Shou, Kenzan, Manjoume, and her idiot brother all blocked her.
"We can't let you do that," Shou said, the other three agreeing with him.
Asuka wavered. She could guess their meaning – Momoe and Junko could be very clingy. It wasn't impossible they would try to keep her over there with them. For that, she thought it was mildly – sweet – that they wanted to ensure she would remain to cheer on Juudai. She almost sat back down.
But another thought crossed her mind then. She made her own decisions. She knew exactly how to get to her friends. She knew Momoe and Junko, while the boys barely seemed to notice they existed most of the time. Even worse, they never seemed to notice she existed.
They weren't going to make this decision for her. She shot Manjoume a look that sent him stumbling back, then turned towards Shou. Her look sent him scrambling back as well, freeing the path to the stairs.
"Little sister?" Fubuki stared and she smacked him upside the head as she headed down. Kenzan wisely said nothing.
She strode her way over to where Junko and Momoe argued over just who Edo winked at – Asuka didn't think he'd done that to either of them – and amped up her glare as she stared at them.
"Asuka-san!" Junko squealed. "Did you see how handsome Edo-san is?"
"He was winking at me, you know," Momoe declared, one hand dropping down to her duel disk.
Asuka didn't let it go any farther. "Both of you, get over there." She nodded towards where all of Juudai's friends sat.
Junko fidgeted, eyes flicking away. "But-"
"Who was it that rescued you from that dueling monkey SAL?" Asuka snapped. Junko winced at her words, head dropping. She'd said more than once she couldn't ever pay Juudai back for that.
Then Asuka turned towards Momoe. "Remember last year? When you were worried about winning that duel against Ogawa Takehiko?"
Momoe winced every bit as much as Junko had. She'd needed to win that duel and Asuka hadn't been able to help, being wrapped up in taking care of Fubuki at the time. So Juudai had taken over, dueling her daily for a week before she felt confident enough to take on Ogawa.
She'd won, of course. After facing Juudai seven times in a row, dueling against someone like Ogawa had been a breeze.
After that, Asuka had seen Momoe's attention flickering off to the side, as if looking at something that wasn't there. Or that might be there, but Asuka couldn't see it.
"Let's go." She nodded towards them, and they got up, heading back to the others. Time to watch Juudai have another of his victories.
The End
Notes: Honestly, them trying to hold her in like that? It infuriates me, because it shows such a lack of respect for her choices that they never showed before or after. Not to mention that it portrayed Asuka in a way that was never shown before. When people try to get her to do what she doesn't want to do, she doesn't just meekly go along. She does what she wants – she always has. So having her just sit down makes me rage. Also, I feel very sure that their actions in canon contributed to her choosing to join the Society of Light – where she wasn't treated like an airheaded bimbo without two brain cells to rub together, capable of being distracted by the nearest pretty face.
So I've had this in mind for months and I finally sat down and wrote it. One day I'm tempted to do a few follow-ups: I know exactly who Momoe's duel spirit is and I have thoughts on Asuka's choice of career and how they chose to show that career. All in due time!
