Bows
Inspiration: Vetiver Tonka by Hermes, Riptide by Vance Joy, photos of NYC dusted by snow. Do not own any of the above or YGO.
Post Twins- verse
For Silver, the best co-Secret Santa host of all!
Merry (Belated) Christmas and happy new year to all, especially Choco, Duelist, and Star! Y'all are the bestest friends a dork like me could ever ask for...and then some!
...
Light filters through the sliver of the open window. The studio is wide, expansive, at least three or four times the size of the practice room at Domino High, maybe even more. Hard to tell exactly how much wider from the sidewalk vantage point, but Yugi tries to make out as many details as possible anyway. The floors are matte yet dull, flattened, no doubt, by the rhythmic repetition of pointe against wood, beat by beat. Mirrors line the walls in alternating currents of silver and white. The barres, usually filled with stretching and chattering dancers during the day, are empty now save the high one on the far right. A lone form moved there; barely a ripple of light that his heart recognized before his brain. There was no mistaking the slight twitch of the ankle, the minuet of arms, all moving to the tune of cheery electro pop emanating from the faded laptop in the corner.
Yugi smiles and the sentiment stretches all the way across his cheeks, just like the way he was smiling in the picture that was on the home screen of Anzu's computer, the kind of smile that pull the muscles side to side until ears and bangs wiggled. She had jokingly made everyone wear bows for their "friendship selfie-" whatever selfies were- blue for Joey, green for Tristan, gold for Mai, red for Serenity, pink for herself, and a rather alarming shade of purple for him.
Typical Anzu. He thought at the time.
The near obsession with bows started when they were young. First it was pieces of twine wrapped awkwardly around homemade macaroni necklaces. Those grew to be silky ribbons wrapped around steamed cakes and buns that she made in Grandpa's makeshift kitchen atop the Game Shop. Those became long, satin-y whorls of laces around heels that fluttered around and around the practice studios near the Game Shop. Now it was a neatly folded pile of fabric that could only be a blush sweater and pleated skirts tied into a bow of white tights and black boots.
Yugi tried to learn how to make bows more than once.
He really did. That was hard, much harder than learning to duel, even though wrapping two pieces of slippery fabric around each other like a pair of best friends or soulmates or other such shouldn't have been too hard for something so seemingly- well, silly wasn't the right word, but words were never his thing- romantic notions he always attributed to Anzu but never voiced. That, too, was harder than it sounded, trying to keep the words from flooding the spaces in between. If he ever started he wouldn't ever be able to stop, and so he never did start, not even after the plane carrying half his heart melted into the horizon.
"You gotta go to her, Yugi."
That was Joey, all big brotherly with an overly stiff countenance about anything and everything emotional.
"Yeah! Duuuuude, you gotta get a ticket on the next flight."
That was Tristan, calming and slightly bruised because big brother very enthusiastically broke up a slightly too long hug with Serenity.
"What are you waiting for, hun? Kaiba to ask her out first?"
That was Mai, ever practical and still not bothering to dress up the truth.
At that, Joey gathered everyone into a friendship huddle (with himself conveniently between Tristan and Serenity and Mai to his right).
"You should tell her how you feel, Yugi. It's not like she doesn't feel the same."
That was Serenity, the most soft-spoken and practical of them all.
They were all right, of course.
Anzu did feel the same. Mere minutes ago she dropped her suitcase (unfortunately on his toe, but honestly Yugi probably would have missed a stampede of shrieking elephants at that point) and kissed him long and hard, so hard that he forgot all about what toes were altogether until someone (probably Mai) had the good sense to rectify the situation. Yugi doesn't remember much after the dropping of the suitcase, just the slightly hazy sensation of floating from cloud to cloud despite limping rather badly to the runway and back.
Later, with a plastic cup of ice that Joey "borrowed" from a concession stand, Yugi contemplated the magic that is Anzu. Feeling the same. About him, Yugi Motou, childhood nerd, best friend, and newly crowned klutz extraordinaire and completely, madly, in love fool who couldn't believe his luck.
How could she? Did she? When?
And, the most important one-
How come I've never noticed before?
The truth was that she always felt that way. He's just never really believed it or believed in himself enough to think it was true. He's always thought he was too...lacking in some way. Too short, too dorky, too shy, too something or the other. She was always too something, too, well, anything. Not in any way that was good news for him. Too tall, too smart, too gregarious, too ambitious, too wonderful and brilliant and hilarious and spunky and passionate-
Oh.
Yugi booked a flight as soon as he got home. Grandpa didn't seem surprised at all to see the frantic tossing of muscle tees, leather pants, and various buckle-themed accessories an hour later. In fact, the old man seemed curiously amused by the rate Yugi filled up the suddenly clean suitcases (that, curiously, before the kids left for the airport this morning with Anzu, used to be in attic, right under eight boxes of holiday decorations and Grandma's trunk of prized vintage doilies). Yugi distinctly thought some chuckles reverberating through the shop, but those must have been adrenaline-induced hallucinations because the only other time Grandpa had been so amused was when Yami accidentally wrapped Kaiba's precious blue-eyes themed Christmas tree in purple instead of silver lights.
And so he journeyed again, through metal detectors at Domino airport, through the double-doors into the chilly New York air, and he landed, at last-
-at home-
Where Anzu was waiting, when he finally worked up enough courage to walk into the dance studio, with another kiss and a pair of dueling gloves wrapped in a shiny purple bow-
His favorite.
...
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