"I still can't believe my brother made you duel him just to try to get us to stop seeing each other. I'm sorry you had to go through that, Aster. Atty seems to have a mental block when it comes to you. He doesn't even know anything about you as a person before just deciding that you're just another creep with the worst of intentions when it comes to me." Alexis complained to Aster.
It was a few hours after Aster's duel with Atticus, and Alexis was staying over at the yacht again for the night. After finally finishing their "victory celebration" as Aster had called it, they were both now laying casually together in bed. Alexis was curled up against Aster's side with her head resting against his chest while he gently stroked her hair.
"He's just being the typical overprotective big brother. It's understandable and I don't hate him for it. And besides, it's not like he ever had a chance of defeating me anyway. Although he did surprise me a bit, I'll admit. Your brother is pretty skilled for someone who hasn't had any professional dueling experience. I could tell just from those few turns that he is a duelist who tries to account for as many possible situations as he can. Same with you. So, I guess now I know how you learned the ropes." Aster said with a smile.
"Atticus taught me a lot about dueling when we were kids. He's the more patient of the two of us, so he was able to help me pace myself and learn from my mistakes whenever I got frustrated. And believe me, I know what it's like to face his real deck, too. He was going easy on me during that duel we had earlier this year. If he had used his full red-eyes deck then like the one you faced, I probably would've lost and gotten stuck as a part of his idol team wearing that stupid dress. That's probably why he didn't use it on me then in the first place." Alexis explained.
Aster chuckled softly at his girlfriend's slight irritation. "You will be gaining more than enough popularity with the masses once it's out that you're with me, I'm afraid. But I don't think that the dress sounded like such a bad idea from what you showed me. I'm sure you would look even more beautiful in it." He said, causing Alexis to blush slightly.
"I already told you, Aster. I am not wearing that dress." Alexis insisted.
"Not even just for me? C'mon. No one else would have to see." Aster asked teasingly with an exaggerated pout.
"Nope." Alexis answered firmly, scowling in exasperation with her arms crossed in front of her.
"Okay, okay. I know when I'm beat." Aster conceded lightly.
"I'm just glad you were able to beat Atticus. I mean, I know you're on a different level from him, but I was still impressed when you told me everything that happened in the duel. Besides you, the only one who ever defeated his red-eyes deck was Jaden back when we were dueling the Shadow Riders last year before you came here. Before then, he didn't have that deck." Alexis explained.
Aster had to suppress an irritated groan. He didn't want to hear any more about the heroic tales of Jaden Yuki from last year. He knew it was irrational to feel this way since he knew that Alexis had already made her choice when it came to who she preferred to be with, and that Jaden probably wasn't even interested in Alexis to begin with. But it still bothered him. Any time he heard anything about Alexis' first year at Duel Academy, all Aster could think of was how things could have been different if only he had come a year earlier. How he wouldn't have let anything happen to her if he had been there. How they could have gotten to know each other even sooner…
Despite his personal feelings though, Aster had found that Jaden was a bit more reliable now than he had initially believed back when they had first met. Which brought him to the next topic he could bring up before he had to listen to too much more about last year, hopefully.
"Speak of the devil, I talked to Jaden yesterday. He's been looking into the Society of Light lately and wants to go over things with me a bit to see if we can come up with any new ideas for dealing with them." Aster mentioned casually.
"Really? Well, that's good to hear. I'll admit I'm guilty of putting the whole issue on the back burner ever since the duel with Chazz, so I'm all ears if you guys come up with anything new." Alexis admitted.
"Funny you should bring that up, because Jaden told me that that was part of what made him decide to start looking into it more. He said that he thought I had a point when I blew up at him back then and that maybe he wasn't taking the situation as seriously as he should be. But that's changing now. I was quite impressed, actually. From what he explained so far about what he's been doing, it looks as if we've been thinking along the same lines." Aster said somewhat admiringly.
"Well, if you're going to talk to Jaden tomorrow, then maybe it's a good chance for us to tell him and our other friends that we're together now." Alexis suggested.
"They're not my friends. I just tolerate them because of you and that we're all in the same boat now with the Society of Light." Aster said, his tone a bit harsher than he had intended it to sound.
"But maybe they could be if you let them." Alexis pointed out gently.
"They're tolerable. But overall, they're still too much like children. I'd rather just spend more time with you. And what brought this on anyway?" Aster said, feeling somewhat annoyed.
"Aster, it's not like I don't love being with you. But maybe it wouldn't hurt for you to expand things a little? It might be nice for you to have some new friends, too. Atticus told me that he thought we were spending too much time together. And, well…what if he's right?" Alexis explained somewhat hesitantly.
She didn't want to consider it, but maybe there was some truth to her brother's words. Aster may have given her some time until she was ready to be his girlfriend, but she had given in to him awfully quickly when it came to advancing their physical relationship as well. Alexis realized that maybe she had said yes without much of a fight simply because she had been worried of how Aster would react if she had said no. Would he have not wanted to see her at all if she had refused? Or maybe that was just what Aster had been hoping she would be afraid of happening. With how well everything had been going between them so far, Alexis hadn't really thought much about it. But Atticus had made her consider things more now. As it was, she was practically living with Aster now. As much as she loved it and wasn't going to just end it, Alexis figured that it at least couldn't hurt to try to get Aster interested in spending a little time with a few other people, too.
"Oh, so that's where this is all coming from. I should have known. Alexis, please don't tell me that you're seriously going to believe him over me? This is what he wants. To make you reconsider being with me. I don't mind us telling Jaden and the others about us, and I will try to be a little more open with them around you if that's what you want. But don't let your brother make you believe that we should start revamping our social lives all of a sudden. Don't you trust me!?" Aster argued.
"Of course, I do! And I'm not saying that I wanted to spend any less time together than we do now. It was just an idea, really. I wouldn't have brought it up if I didn't think that you didn't deserve to have more people in your life that can make you happy, Aster. What we have is one thing, but you are also capable of being a good friend. And you deserve to have that much yourself after everything that happened to you. I know you're still hurting over Sartorius and Sarina leaving you…" Alexis explained, somewhat startled by Aster's reaction. She had only suggested that he try to make a couple more friends, so she didn't know where Aster had come up with "revamping their social lives" from.
Aster softened a bit at Alexis' words. "Hey, I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you about this, Alexis. It's true that except for you, I've been distancing myself from others even more since all this happened. I guess I still feel like I need to be careful. You're the best thing that's happened to me in a long time, so I've been focusing on that every chance that I can. But eventually, I think I won't feel as afraid so much. Let's just take things one day at a time, okay? Tomorrow, we'll see the others and tell them about us. Then we'll go from there. After all, I did say this was a gradual process. So, your friends are the safest bet when it comes to telling more people. They can't take it any worse than your brother, at least." He explained apologetically.
"It's okay. I know all of this is hard for you right now with how Atticus took the news. But it's going to be alright, Aster…" Alexis said gently.
"I know that, as long as I have you…" Aster said.
"It's late now. We should get some sleep." Alexis said.
"Alright. Sleep well, my princess…" Aster whispered gently into Alexis' ear. He then planted a soft kiss on her lips after turning off the lamp on the nightstand.
Alexis smiled as she snuggled into Aster's arms under the soft, silk sheets and blankets of his bed. More than anything else with him, she loved this brief time right before they fell asleep at night when she just enjoyed being close to him like this. But at the same time, it made her worry about the future. There was only a little more than a year of school left before they graduated. Just what would happen to their relationship after that? Before Aster, Alexis had been more excited with the idea of getting done with Duel Academy and getting out into the world. But now, it was almost as if she wished they could stay like this forever if it meant always being able to have as much time with Aster as she did now. Eventually, Alexis wanted to go on to college to study to be a teacher, possibly at a good school overseas. And then she would go on to teaching at a dueling school somewhere. But just where did Aster fit into the whole equation? Sure, his schedule was less heavy now with him taking time off due to personal problems with the Society and trying to find his father's murderer. But once all that ended, he would be travelling around the world a good deal of the time with his pro league career. How would they have time to see each other even half as much as they did now? Just what were they supposed to do after school was over? She loved Aster, but she didn't want either of them to give up their whole career for each other. And what if he never even wanted to consider something like that in the first place for her? Just because Aster was seeing her now didn't necessarily mean that he felt as strongly as she did about him. That he cared for her, Alexis was certain of. But what if it didn't go beyond that for him? For all she knew, Aster could just see this as a regular relationship where it was simply enjoyable for them to be together like this and nothing more. Alexis knew that she should at least tell Aster how she really felt about him if she ever wanted her questions answered, but she was too afraid of what he might say. For now, she decided that she would at least wait a little longer and enjoy being with him like this while it was still easy. Because once everyone started finding out, it might be easier to see just how serious Aster really was about them being together as a couple.
Kias- You may be right about Zane. I wish we had more of a sense of what his life in the Pro Leagues as Hell Kaiser was like, but the anime wasn't very helpful in that regard. I've been wondering if maybe it would have been more in-character for him to just blow reporters off entirely, so idk. And it didn't help that I think I started 5Ds around that time, so maybe Jack Atlas stuck in my head a little when I wrote that scene. Lol I looked at this again without the lemons and it does read a little cleaner with staying on the plot focus more easily, so I'm not really upset about the changes.