Gentleshipping (Kawai Shizuka/Valon)
. . .
Somehow, Valon was almost one thousand percent certain that Jonouchi was giving him a stink eye from twenty miles away, because he felt an unnatural shudder run down his back and found his eyes darting over his shoulder.
"Valon-san? Is something wrong?"
The girl tilted her head to the side to look up at Valon, her red hair falling around her face in a certainly pleasing manner. Valon blushed and tried to resist thinking the first thought he had had when seeing her for the first time that had made him feel like Jonouchi was glaring at him, which had been, of course "goddamn she's cute."
It was a cool, brisk autumn morning. The leaves hadn't begun to change color yet, but he could smell it coming on the air. People bustled past them on the sidewalk as they stood off to the side, out of the way of the lunchtime traffic. Valon had arrived to Mai's apartment early—he was staying with her and Jonouchi while he was in Japan for the big group gathering that Yugi had planned. He just hadn't expected to find Jonouchi's cute little sister hanging out with Mai while Jonouchi was out picking up others from the Tokyo airport, and certainly hadn't expected to get sent out grocery shopping with her.
"Those aren't too heavy, are they? I can take one," Shizuka said, frowning at the bags that Valon was carrying.
"Nah, 'course not!" he said quickly, jerking them away from her questing fingers. "That's why I came along, 'sn'it?"
She didn't look quite convinced, frowning for a moment. Valon blushed again—god, he was so weak. Jonouchi was going to kill him when he came by later and saw the faces that Valon was making at his sister, if Valon couldn't get his face under control. Honestly, though, it wasn't like it was his fault. What right did Jonouchi have to have such a cute sister, anyway?
Shizuka flipped open her phone to check the grocery list again.
"Okay, we have one more stop," she said, closing the phone and tucking it inside her vest. "Thanks again for helping me get the shopping done; there's just so much to do before everyone gets here."
"Not a problem, not a problem," he said. "I can't do much cookin' so I should do what I can, yeah?"
Shizuka smiled and Valon felt the heat grow even deeper around his cheeks and ears. Fuck, this was getting bad already.
"Thank you so much, Valon-san, you're really nice," she said. "Oh, I know! Let me get you lunch; we have time and I'm sure you're as hungry as I am after all this food shopping! I can show you my favorite cafe!"
"Oh, nah, you don't have to—"
"No, no, I insist! You're supposed to be our guest and I'm making you help me carry things. Come on, my treat!"
And with that, she grabbed his hand between both of hers, and pulled him along down the sidewalk with a surprising amount of strength for her small frame. Valon thought maybe he should be trying to stop her from holding her hand—he could kind of feel Jonouchi's seething glare on his back—but on the other hand...her hand felt really nice and warm...
So he just smiled, and tightened his grip around her hand. This was probably all right. At the very least, it was nice...
. . .
A/N: I guess that was cute, although I feel like I kinda failed to make it cute enough. ^^; Next is Gemshipping (Thief King Bakura x Ryo).
