Nellshipping (Noa x Amane)


Apply the method of power substitution...okay, so substitute into the original equation...use polynomial division...and...

A ball bounced over the hedge and rolled across the grass. The rubbery sound of the ball hitting the ground startled Noa Kaiba out of his work. He stared at the bright red ball for a second, forgetting for a moment what he was doing – the calculations in his head were making it difficult for him to process what that meant.

There was a rustle in the hedge, and he glanced over. A face appeared among the branches, small, round, and pale, with huge brown eyes. There were branches tangled in her long white hair, and her red ribbon was coming undone. Dirt and tiny thorn scratches dirtied her cheeks and arms, and there were a few small tears in her blue jumper. She wriggled through the hedge and ran over to her ball. Noa could only stare for a moment, still trying to come out of the math daze. Then he finally snapped to awareness.

"H-Hey!" he said, standing up. "What do you think you're doing in my yard?"

The jumped, and dropped the ball again. She looked at him and stared, her mouth hanging open. She was shorter than him, and probably younger too. Both of them stared at each other for a minute.

"S-sorry," the girl whispered. "I...I lost my ball."

She pointed at the big red ball.

"You shouldn't have thrown it over my hedge," Noa said, folding his arms and trying to look imposing.

The girl frowned.

"It was an accident," she said.

"Well, uh..."

Noa really couldn't think of anything to say about that.

"I didn't know anyone was out here," the girl said. She dipped her head in a sloppy bow. "Sorry. I'll go."

She picked up her ball and headed back for the hedge. There was a girl sized hole in it now, and Noa just stood there and stared for a moment as she started to kneel down to crawl back through.

"Uh, w-wait," Noa said.

The girl paused, and glanced back. Noa blushed.

"Uh...what's your name?"

She blinked. Then she smiled shyly.

"I'm Amane. Amane Bakura."

"I'm Noa Kaiba."

Amane smiled. Noa half smiled back.

Her ball rolled through the hole again the next morning. Noa was at his table doing work again, his books sprawled all over. He jumped up when he saw the ball roll across the grass. Sure enough, Amane crawled through the hedge.

"Sorry," she said. "It got away again. I think it likes your yard."

Despite her apology, there was a smile on her face, and Noa could tell that she had rolled it through on purpose. He wasn't sure he minded – when was the last time he had seen anyone else around his age?

Amane picked up her ball. She didn't go back through the hole again.

"Did you want to play with me?" she asked.

Noa blushed.

"I-I'm busy," he said, and then mentally hit himself.

"Oh."

Amane's face fell.

"I-I mean, don't you have someone to play with?" he asked.

"My brother's at school," Amane said. "Daddy's working. Mommy's working, too. Everyone's working."

Noa rocked back and forth on his heels, clasping his hands behind his back. He glanced at his books, then at Amane.

"My father will be mad if I don't finish this," Noa said.

Amane wandered over and looked at the books.

"What does it say?" she said, pointing at his math homework.

"Huh?"

"This isn't Japanese. What does it say?"

"Of course it's not Japanese," Noa said. "It's math. They're numbers."

"Numbers don't have funny symbols! They just have pluses and minuses," Amane said.

"Kid math does," Noa said, puffing out his chest. "This is calculus."

Amane made a face.

"That sounds yucky," she said.

"It's not yucky! Calculus is fun."

Amane looked at the books again. Then she looked at the ball in her arms.

"Five minutes, then," she said.

"Huh?"

"Play with me for five minutes, kay? Then you can do cakyurust."

"Calculus."

"That."

Noa looked at her. Amane looked at him. He blushed.

"Okay," he said. "Just five minutes."

Amane's smile was so bright that Noa thought he was going to go blind.

Of course, five minutes became fifteen, which became thirty, which became an hour, two. Amane heard her mother calling, and had to crawl back through the hedge. Noa's father came home. He threw Noa's books across the yard when he found out he hadn't finished his homework, and assigned him another three pages of math.

Noa worked late into the night, finishing the day's work – and tomorrow's work, too.

He was waiting by the hole the next morning when the ball rolled into view. His heart jumped with anticipation as Amane's smiling face appeared.

"Want to play tag today?" she asked.

"Uh-huh," Noa said.

One day, Amane convinced him to sneak out through the hedge with her. Noa was surprised – he had never known there was a playground right next to his yard.

"I might get my clothes dirty," he said. "Father will be mad."

Amane didn't listen. She dragged him to the slide.

"Wanna play Lava?" she asked.

"What's Lava?" Noa asked.

Amane leapt up onto the playground, whipped around, and pointed at Noa.

"You got burnted! The ground is lava!"

She laughed and ran along the play pieces.

"Burned, not burnted," Noa said. "And why is the ground lava?"

"That's the game, silly! Don't touch the ground, and get to the end first!"

"N-no fair, you have a head start!"

Noa clambered up the big steps and raced after her. He fell off on the monkey bars. Amane won easily – he had never seen someone navigate so athletically. Amane took him down the street to her house, next. It was the smallest house he had ever seen. He probably could have fit it inside his own house with room to spare.

But it was bright and cheerful, with lots of family pictures littering the walls, and shoes tossed haphazardly in a corner. There were things scattered across the tables, newspapers, toys, crayons; the fridge was wallpapered with shaky crayon drawings signed with Amane's name in huge, sloppy letters.

"Mommy! This is my friend Noa-kun!"

Amane's mother was a kind woman with short white hair and a big smile. She looked up from the vegetables she was cutting on the counter.

"Well, hello there," she said. "My Amane's told me all about you. How are you?"

"I'm fine, ma'am," Noa said.

"Oh, you're so polite! You don't have to call me that," her mother said with a laugh. "Would you two like a snack?"

"Yes please!" Amane said.

They sat on Amane's porch and ate popsicles.

"This is fun!" Amane said, the blue staining her face and hands.

"Uh-huh," Noa said, and he meant it. He had never felt so sticky before. It was pretty fun. "Thanks, Amane-chan."

"Why?" Amane said.

"For being my friend."

Amane broke out in a huge smile. She hugged him with her sticky blue hands, and Noa laughed.

"How many are you, Noa-kun?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"I'm five," Amane said, holding up her fingers. "I'll be six soon."

"I'm nine," Noa said. "I'll be ten soon."

Amane pouted.

"What's wrong?" Noa said.

"You beat me," she said, frowning. "I won at Lava, but you won at Age."

Noa stared at her. Then he burst out laughing.

"W-What?" Amane said. "What's so funny?"

Noa couldn't stop laughing long enough to say.

Amane walked back with him to the hedge. Noa hesitated before crawling through.

"I'll be ten in a few months," he said. "My father's gonna have a party. Will you come?"

"If you come to my party when I'm six," Amane said.

"Deal."

They made a pinkie promise. She waved and bounced as he crawled back through.

His suit was dirty and sticky, and there was a small rip under his armpit. He tried to have it washed before his father came home, but he found out anyway. Noa was locked in his room for a few days. He watched out the window and saw Amane crawl through. She looked around with her big red ball, checking around the table three times. Then she went back through. She did it every day that Noa was grounded.

He couldn't remember feeling so happy to be back out and see Amane's face.

"Where have you been?" she squealed, and hugged him.

Days turned to weeks. Weeks to months. Noa's father was planning a get together for his son's birthday. Noa knew that it would just be so that he could meet business leaders and other children of business leaders. He knew it would be stuffy. But because he was going to be ten, his father was going to let him invite anyone. Noa invited Amane.

He got a letter in the mail back. Amane had written in her big, wobbly letters that she could come, and that she wanted him to come to her party a few days after his. He grinned and wrote back that he would make it. He wasn't sure his father would approve...but he could sneak out. He was sure of it.

What would she want?

When he went to the city with his father, he paused in front of a toy shop. His father dragged him along, scolding him for being distracted by kid's things. But Noa remembered the blue ribbon in the window.

She should have another one, he thought.

Two days until his stuffy party. Four days until Amane's, which he was sure would be much better.

He was waiting at the intersection with a small, blue box tied with a silver ribbon. Amane's present was inside. He smiled as he looked at the box. O-oh, the light was green, he could go.

He started jogging across the street.

HOOOOOONNNNNKKK!

The box went flying. It crunched across the ground. Pain, pain, pain – and then nothing.

Amane crawled through the hedge, clutching Noa's birthday present to her chest. She couldn't wait to see his birthday party!

He wasn't sitting at the table. Amane hesitated. Was he gone today? He couldn't be – it was his birthday today!

A woman appeared in the yard. She looked surprised to see Amane.

"Hello," she said. "Are you lost?"

"Uh-uh," Amane said.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see Noa-kun," she said, holding out the folded up paper in her hand. "To say happy birthday!"

The woman's hand went to her mouth. Her eyes looked shiny.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "Noa isn't here anymore."

Amane blinked.

"Did he move? Why? It's his birthday today."

The woman shook her head.

"Noa-san is gone," she whispered. "He's not coming back anymore."

Amane blinked, still not understanding.

"Uh..." she said. "Well...okay. I guess the birthday was canceled?"

The woman nodded.

"Then could you give this to him when you see him?" Amane asked. "And tell him that he still has to come to my party!"

She held out the folded paper. The woman didn't seem like she was going to take it, so Amane pushed it at her. The woman took it with a shaky hand. Amane ran back through the hedge.

The woman's hand shook so hard that she dropped the paper. It unfolded.

There was a stick figure drawing of a girl with white hair and a boy with green hair, holding a big red ball between them.

Wobbly letters read beneath, Happy Birthday.


A/N: TAKE THE FEELS! TAKE ALL OF THEM! I almost cried while writing this. I think it may be the longest oneshot I've written for this series; at least, it covers the most time. I ship this pretty hard now...even though it makes me cry. Next is Negateshipping (Yami no Marik x Rishid). ALSO! To all my Vaseshippers out there, I still need votes on the poll on my profile. Currently there is a three way tie for what kind of ending my upcoming Vaseshipping fanfiction should have. I'll leave the poll up there for another week and a half or so, and after that if there's no clear winner I'm just going to have to decide on an ending type myself. So if you have a strong feeling about the ending, vote on the poll, or send me a message if you really want to make yourself heard. :) Peace out and duel on, my friends!