Also, enjoy chapter three.
I'll try to get chapter 4 written/posted within the week.
Summary: Is a storm on the horizon?
One week later, as the ravenette sat cross-legged on the deck of his boat, mending his nets, and it hit him just how much things felt off ever since his evenings had gained a blond-haired fixture that was often waiting on the dock for his return.
He wasn't complaining by any means, mind you, as he greatly appreciated the nightly company that Joey brought into his, admittedly, lonely world-while he knew many of the fishermen around the docks, he would not call them 'friends' as most only saw, and treated, him like he was a child...even at the local watering hole and despite the fact that he could hold his drink better than quite a few of them.
'Actually...' He thought as he finished with one section of netting and moved on to the next, dark eyes narrowed in concentration. 'Yugi, Joey, and their friends may be the only friends that I have.'
That thought cast aside-to keep it from taking root in his mind and making him question things in his life that he didn't trust himself questioning-but still he dwelled as his hands worked quickly over the worn nets.
What was amiss this last week, was how he felt like such an outsider whenever the blond was with him. There were so many secrets that Joey kept-often deflecting Mako's curious inquiries with a quiet "I don't wanna talk 'bout it" or an apologetic "I'm not allowed to tell ya that", or simply changing the subject as easily as Mako might change the direction of his boat out on the open sea.
It worried him more and more each day...
The secrets that seemed to weigh down on Joey like an ever-growing anchor, the dark circles from far too many sleepless nights that marred his friend's face, how slight the blond's frame seemed to have become, the haunted look that he always saw in those dark eyes...and how the younger teen's smile, somehow reduced to a small and broken shadow of what it had once been, never reached his eyes.
Even his laugh, once so cheerful and brimming with such warmth and confidence-he remembered it well from the evening in Duelist Kingdom, and their duel in Battle City-had turned hollow and brittle.
All that he could gather is that something must have happened in Battle City after their duel, but he could not figure out, for the life of him, what it could have been that had broken so much in the younger male and left him a shell of his former self.
He could try to find Yugi and ask him...but all that he really knew about Yugi's homelife was that his grandfather owned a game shop in the city and, in a city like Domino, there had to be more than one game shop, and-sad as it was-he wasn't so sure if he could take the time away from fishing now to even go looking for the shop. Mako frowned, looking down at the repaired nets in his hands.
"Nevah seen ya lookin' so pensive 'fore, Mako. Ya...alright?"
The familiar accent caught him off-guard, though it shouldn't have, should it? Mako looked up at the blond standing on the dock almost like a lost dog waiting for someone to take him home-as soon as that thought entered his mind, it immediately chilled the fisherman to the bone despite the balmy night air. The ravenette shook his head and set the netting aside, reaching up the rake his fingers back through his hair.
"I assure you, I am fine, Joey. I was merely lost in thought." Mako walked over to the dock and extended his hand to the blond who merely laughed that quiet, broken-sounding laugh he had developed and took the elder's calloused hand so he could safely board the boat.
"So...uh, what 'appened? Whole dock's lookin' kinda rough."
"Bad storm further out to sea earlier today. Thankfully, everyone made it back to dock safely, so this evening is more a matter of clean-up and such." Mako reassured, moving to walk over to the netting...and only realizing that his and Joey's hands were still linked when they made it to the nets. For a moment, he considered letting go, but something in the blond's exhausted posture was practically screaming for him not to-never one to disobey his instincts, Mako held on. "Thankfully, most of the damages I've had to deal with are to my nets. I was on the outskirts of the storm this time, so I only had the rough waters and such to give me problems."
"...Do ya evah get scared out there?" Came the soft question-barely above a whisper and, if not for how close they were standing to one another, Mako was certain that he would have missed it.
"I do." The ravenette answered-internally surprised when those chestnut eyes looked up at him as if searching desperately for proof that the fisherman was speaking the truth. Mako kept the worried frown off of his face, but only just barely-that lost look in the younger's eyes felt like a gutpunch. "The storms always frighten me and remind me of the past...but I have to tell myself to keep pushing forward. That if I weather the storm, I can get passed it and I will return to dock...that I will be fine."
The blond looked up at him...then back out to the horizon-the sky darkening to deep violet and indigo, speckled with stars and wispy navy and black clouds. The ocean was dark-almost black at it's furthest point-but rolling waters closet to them seemed to shimmer from the amber docklights. The moon overhead was a sliver of a crescent against the darkening sky as evening gave way to night.
"...If...if I weather dis storm I'm goin' through..." A pause and a shaky breath. "...will I...will I be fine at the end?"
Mako gently squeezed Joey's hand in his own, encouraging the blond to look back at him before he wrapped his free arm around the lither male and hugged him tight-feeling, more than hearing, the blond's shaky breathing as one of his hands reached up and clutched tightly to the thin white tank top that the ravenette was wearing. "Yes. You will be, my friend."