BRAVING
Author's Note: Enjoy the story and R&R.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to or of the Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL series.
Pairings: Yuma/Shobee/Kotori triangle. Referenced one-sided (canon) Cathy x Yuma.
Summary:
Tsukumo Yuma is forced into a one-sided romance by Mizuki Kotori, until a misunderstanding frees him.
Chapter 2
Yuma was mistaken: Shingetsu (or rather Vector) didn't immediately run to Kotori to spill the specifics of what he witnessed. Yuma and Shobee spilled more from the pool running after him, their wet footprints spilling into the hall.
The stares of Heartland Academy students converged on the duo in their school-issued swimsuits. Their peers quickly dispersed, however. There was nothing to see, as Vector hadn't provided any additional context to escalate the chase into a scene beyond a purported prank gone awry.
That said, Vector had fun hanging on to the knowledge of Yuma and Shobee's "connection" for entertainment purposes. Vector and Yuma may have made up despite the former being a proud liar who murdered two countries' worth of people in his past, but he wasn't a completely changed person!
It was all in good fun, after all. Or it was to Vector, the awful ghoul he was deep down.
Yuma failed not to think about it. If anybody discovered he and Shobee were like that…
Actually, unless the truth wound back to Kotori, the idea didn't bother Yuma. He'd experienced more in his few moments of kissing Shobee than the entirety of his fake romance with Kotori, beginning with that sudden confession of hers! Why hide a fire so genuinely…genuine? Who would care?
Not Cathy!
Evidently, Shark and Vector weren't the only ones at the pool to catch the clumsy embrace, and Cathy's jealousy towards Kotori was so petty, she was purrfectly fine with Shobee landing her man as long as it meant her man didn't remain with Kotori.
"The power of BL-loving fan readership," as Todoroki explained. It approached the power of the heavy machinery Shobee loved!
Yes, Class Rep was the second outsider to find out, a closet reader of BL himself, the cat let out of the bag by none other than Cathy (thankfully not during a Numbers Club meeting)!
"Cat-chan! Iinchou! I'm begging you! Don't spread this, okay?"
They swore they wouldn't.
The swear held.
Shark wasn't talking.
Vector kept joking he'd do it, without ever opening his mouth and wrecking shit.
Neither Cathy nor Todoroki compromised the state of the affair any further.
Therefore, if Kotori learned anything, Shark, Vector, Cathy, and Todoroki couldn't be blamed. It'd be purely Yuma and Shobee's (mostly Yuma's) fault.
Kotori's suspicions commenced and concluded over a single day. She went to Yuma's, but paused to find him standing in the middle of the street in front of his house. He was waiting for the deliverer to drop off a package, and instead of a repeat of his gaffe prior to the World Duel Carnival – expecting a Heart Piece to qualify, when he forgot to register – a package seriously arrived.
Yuma rarely took public transport. He usually ran, skateboarded, or tripped around the city. The monorail was Kotori's alternate option, and neither took the bus.
The fact that Yuma was boarding a bus, carrying a fishy package while staying off his normal routes – You bet Kotori probed what was going on!
Yuma alighted at the stop close to the new high-rise under construction. Shobee accepted and unboxed the box from Yuma.
"Shobee-kun?"
Yuma couldn't have covered up his whereabouts just to deliver a box of sandwiches! And yet, there the sandwiches were!
Buying sandwiches for the workmen probably left a better impression than getting caught duelling in a dangerous area with falling girders and no head protection. The question was why Yuma needed to leave an impression.
A six-wheeler honked, causing her to lose track of them. The tail end of it moving out of sight, she wandered the grounds searching for them, utilizing her memory of the last construction site Yuma dragged her to in order to escape the construction workers' notice.
When she finally located Yuma and Shobee again, they had chosen a pocket not actively dominated by gasoline fumes, diesel, and noise. A pocket where they could grab a minute alone.
Shobee locking lips with Yuma in the cab of an excavator? You bet Kotori was furious!
They'd both had plenty of time to acquaint their lips by now. Yuma was clutching Shobee's belt to tow Shobee's significantly shorter frame to him. Kotori naturally confused the pose for Yuma attempting to unbuckle Shobee's pants, which were pulled super high, above his stomach.
"It was Yuma! He bullied me into it!" Shobee pointed the finger at their boyfriend in common, accidentally poking him across the face.
Yuma massaged the mark. He seemed surprised Shobee bolted to that defence. To a greater degree, he seemed terrified what Kotori might do to him for tongue tussling with Shobee. Here was a boy who'd grown the ability to anticipate and flee outbursts from no-nonsense women, Kotori included.
Kotori illustrated to them how hot the sun got. But beyond the initial shock and verbal attacks, upon reviewing the cues, she recognized she was the unreasonable party. In her joy to profess to Yuma how much she loved him and his smile, she fabricated assumptions concerning Yuma and made decisions for him. Decisions that should have been his.
"Yuma, do you love me?"
"Kotori…" His twitch and her twitch matched, but they didn't. "I don't. I love Shobee."
She should have remembered. Yuma destroyed the Door of Destiny, losing Astral. She destroyed her own Door of Destiny in a way, losing Yuma to retie Yuma and Astral's futures. Yuma already wasn't hers before Shobee even became involved.
Beyond that? She applauded Yuma and Shobee's courage. An excavator? What daring!
The power of BL-loving fan readership Todoroki mentioned.
The girls quit competing over Yuma. They chatted dream scenarios.
Yuma nudged his cheek against Shobee's. His pace quickened, and he saw their world's tomorrow.