Everything had been so different after the Barian war.
Astral was exploring the rest of the universe, Kaito continued to visit Astral world from his portal in order to research and Yuma had been slacking off and hanging out with his father whenever he had the chance. However, Nasch had been trying to fit in for quite a while now...
He tended to hang around the rest of the Barians and lived with them despite the antics that ensued. Cooking food, enduring Vector's snark and hanging out with Durbe was his usual day within the household. No matter what happened though, he felt a burden on his shoulder to repay the one who truly made it all possible.
Yuma Tsukumo. The clumsy, idiot who made speeches that were a little too long to be cool was who he owed for a while now. The two boys had not been able to hang out after dozens and dozens of kids had bombarded Yuma for anything from autographs to giving Bento boxes. Although he could barely get a word in with him, he wrote about the guy as if he had started the universe itself in his diary. Even though Shark wasn't much of a blusher, Rio could see a very gentle hint of pink tint his cheeks when she embarrassed him in front of the rest of the Barians by reading it out loud.
"He kept chasing after me when I was no longer Ryouga Kamishiro anymore, even when he was my enemy. My friend is an angel. I feel so bad for the sadness in his eyes, I honestly wanted to give him a little hug and kiss, looking back on it now," Rio said , mimicking a lovestruck teenage girl.
The Barians were not surprised in the slightest as the boy always stared towards Yuma at every possible moment he could see him. "Get on with it Nasch!" Girag screamed, waiting for the ads on his magical girl anime to finish.
"Sh..Shark?" Yuma said quietly. Simply dozing off in the green fields, the afternoon was bright with gold and comforting. Nash kept his arm underneath his head and allowed the wind to tussle his hair. As the sun went down, Yuma had chosen to curl up into a ball underneath Nasch's bicep. Nasch knew he had a book to read, cards to reorganise and meals to make but something told him they needed each other in that moment. As he felt his head stick to the floor like glue, he relaxed in the sunlight. He didn't want to leave Yuma anymore, they had gone through far too much effort to disguising him so they could finally hangout alone. Although he had finally got the time he wanted to spend with him, the colours of Heartland felt too warm for him because he knew a secret that Yuma had not told anyone. He didn't even write it in his diary because no one other than them two should ever have had the chance to know this about the other.
He could see his dreams and he knew Yuma could see his too. Nasch suspected that the sharing of their memories had caused the condition but he was not entirely sure. He could see the furrows of Yuma's eyebrows and silver tears drop into an endless and inevitable cycle of deaths and the fear that his reality was simply a delusion to comfort himself. This had to stop and Nasch would break the glass barrier between them.
Today, Yuma sat in a field playing with Haruto. The boys looked quite serene in the green fields which fluttered in the sunlight and butterflies. They twirled about, ran into each other and Yuma hugged Haruto, he was so vigorous that it would've looked like he was trying to strangle him. The pair sat down under the lapis sky etched with gentle smiles from above looking down on them both. The ornate butterflies landed on Yuma's hair and they giggled for a bit before trying to get back up. Slowly, the blue sky coalesced into a portal of dark blues and reds. Vetrix's silhouette in the centre. The silhouette became bigger with a malicious grinning eye of red poking out of the dark figure. The flora decayed and began to look like bony fingers and the clouds were heavy and angry.
"Oh..Yumaaa,"Byron said with a sneer. Two smaller figures appeared in Vetrix's hand. These were Yuma' parents.
"Vetrix!No, no, pls no! I'm tired of dueling with big stakes, let me go," he screamed. Yuma was crying now. So was Haruto.
"Yuma, you twerp, this is not real!" Nasch replied, cutting through the laughs of Vetrix.
Yuma turned towards Nasch and pulled Haruto along towards him and asked the question.
"Why did you visit me Shark.. I mean Nasch? I can deal with this!" He sputtered out.
As soon as the words left his mouth, the world around him began to fade into white with Haruto's body becoming ash flying in the air.
"Yuma.. stop being for once and let someone see you for what you are going through. It's my turn, Yuma. I'll stop being an idiot this time." Shark wasn't used to hugging Yuma, he only did so when forced to but he felt compelled.
Yuma continued to cry into Nasch's chest until the world around them returned to a moment they both remembered vividly. A sunset in the background shines on the contours of their faces as Yuma angrily challenged a smirking Nasch to a duel. Bronk stared on dumbfounded at the scene.
"This is where it all started, huh? Nasch said. He cringed at how Nasch pulled the pendant from Yuma's neck and stomped it onto the ground.
"Sorry..." he whispered to Yuma as the scene continued to play out.
"You don't need to be, Nasch because now," Yuma plopped a little kiss on Nasch's lips.
"Nothing will stop us from being together, not for war, not for antagonism but for ourselves,"Nasch bent down to Yuma and kissed him again.
"You're so sappy, but I like you that way" Nasch replied before waking up to the loud shrieks of a chaotic Vector above them both.
"Vector!" Nasch screamed. Yuma decided that this was the best time to cuddle so as Vector ran off, they continued to hug until the stars dotted the sky. It was all so surprising in all the right ways , the knowledge that Yuma liked his messy and angry self, the knowledge that he could feel Yuma's heartbeat through his skin and the knowledge that there was nothing that could separate the two now.