Day 2: Seasons
It was spring when Aki left New Domino city to go to Germany to study medicine. At first, she wasn't sure whether or not she would fit in this new environment, mainly because she was so used to live with her parents right now. It was quite funny to her that all the years that she was on her own weren't really helping her in getting used to live alone once again. It's been maybe a day or two that she has been in Germany and she already missed all of her friends so much. She was sure it would only get worse once the semester started and she'd have to have lunch pause without Sakura and Mei, her dear friends from Duel Academy. Dueling would feel weird as well, without Rua and Ruka. Riding a bike without Yusei, Jack and Crow would be difficult at first. She sighed. Would she find new friends here? After all, she wasn't the best at making friends.
There was a welcome day of her university was in the beginning of April, as the semester would start on April the 20th. There were a lot of people attending it, as you could study quite a lot of different things here. She soon found the program for her own studies and went to the different locations. She accidentally bumped into a tall girl which caused her to bow immediately. "Sor-…eh...Entschuldigung!", she quickly said, changing from using Japanese to German as fast as she could. "Kein Ding," the tall girl said as she looked at Aki. The tall girl noticed Aki holding the same program she had in her hand, so she quickly asked Aki if they wanted to attend the program together. "Sicher," Aki said with a slight smile. They quickly exchanged names, so now Aki knew that the tall girl's name was Yvonne. It sounded French to her, but she might be imagining things. At the end of the day she exchanged phone numbers with Yvonne, so that they could exchange informations and what not. And soon enough – it only took three weeks – Aki found a group of people that she found really nice. She did find friends after all.
Summer came more quickly than she thought. Exams at the end of semester during the brutal heat of 38 degrees at the end of July were horrible, but it's not like it was any different from having exams in June in Japan. Aki aced most of her exams, the only difficult exam for her was the Latin exam she had to take. Apparently, knowing German is not enough in Germany to become a doctor, you have to learn a dead language first. To celebrate their success of their first semester, Joachim – one of Aki's new friends – suggested a trip around western Europe. In his plan, they would first travel to the UK, then to Spain and finally to France where Yvonne should act as a tour guide – she was half French after all. The most important part of the trip was watching the European Riding Duel Championships in the beginning of September.
Of course, everyone agreed to his idea and so they planned their trip. Aki really enjoyed travelling with her new friends, but she made sure to keep her old friends from Japan up to date. They had a Line group where Aki would send a group selfie with a small explanation of what they visited that day every evening. Three weeks passed by very quickly and they would soon return to Germany. But today was the day her new friends looked forward to the most: the European Riding Duel Championships. Joachim insisted into buying the best places on the circuit: right in the middle in the first row. He said you wouldn't see anything from the duel if you sat in the back rows.
Soon the first duel would begin. To Aki's surprise it was between a "newcomer" from France, Sherry LeBlanc, a some guy from England, but Aki couldn't hear his name as the crowd cheered loudly for Sherry. The ERDC was taking place in Paris, so it was clear that the crowd favoured the French Duelist. Aki swore Sherry was noticing her in the crowd, but she could just be imagining things. In the end, Sherry won the ERDC and was now standing there with a golden trophy in her hands. Even the French president watched the tournament and was congratulating the tall blonde woman with a handshake. Aki and her friends stayed a bit in the circuit and watched the celebration for a while. Yvonne shouted something in French and after a while where Sherry was done with all the interviews, she actually came over to Aki and her friends. For some reason, Aki's heart skipped a beat when the tall French came to halt directly in front of them. The blonde signed some poster Yvonne had brought with her and Joachim and Armin – Joachim's brother – got a selfie with Sherry.
"I didn't expect you to be here," Sherry said to Aki, which caused the red-head to blush slightly. "Well, I went on vacation with my friends here," she said and pointed to her friends who were just looking dumbfounded at the red-head. "Ah," was Sherry's reaction to that. "So… I guess you've already seen all the sight-seeing spots in France then?", she questioned and, much to her disappointment, Aki nodded as a response. They were silent for a bit and just as Sherry wanted to leave Aki asked her if they wanted to meet up the next day. Sherry agreed with a slight smile.
The next day arrived and Aki met up with Sherry to have some lunch. Her friends were a bit disappointed that they couldn't come with her to meet their idol, but they eventually found something else to do while Aki and Sherry met. "So you became a Riding Duelist?", Aki questioned as the waiter arrived with a bottle of wine. Sherry just hummed as a response. "Why did they introduce you as a newcomer though?", she wondered. "Well, if all record your existence was erased from history, you can only be a newcomer to the scene," Sherry answered lowly and Aki just now realized that she had almost completely forgotten that Yliaster erased Sherry from history. "Sorry," she murmured, lowering her head. "It's alright," Sherry reassured and decided to talk about something else. "So, how have you been in these past few months?", she asked with a slight smile. For some reason, Aki's heart beat faster every time the tall woman smiled. Sherry never smiled much when Aki first met her, so seeing her smile now must mean that she's better now. "I'm quite fine," she said. And with that, they began to talk about the things that happened in the past few months, how much their respective lives changed, what they like about living in Europe and Aki even shared fun stories about the journey. Sherry's question if Aki ever got scolded for stepping onto grass would have sounded so weird to her if she had been asked this back in Japan. But now that she's been to England, it made a lot more sense. To her surprise, Sherry even shared some of her own experiences in England. She thought the tall blonde woman wouldn't want to talk about her past, but the fact that she does share those stories with her must mean that she's to some extent over the death of her parents and Aki can't help but smile at that.
Meeting for lunch would eventually turn into meeting for ten hours. Both of them were shocked how late it was in the end, so Sherry offered Aki to bring her back to the hotel room, which Aki gladly accepted. Of course, Aki was bombarded with questions once she stepped into her hotel room in which all of her friends waited for her. After answering all of her friend's questions she had to listen to them talking about how cute Aki and Sherry would look next to each other. The thought of having a relationship with Sherry seemed weird to Aki at first, but after they got home and Aki texted Sherry every day, she couldn't help but wonder if her friends were right about their assumption.
She pushed those thoughts aside in autumn though, as her second semester started and courses got more difficult now. It didn't help that Aki decided to take a part-time job as a paramedic either. At one side she would have some experience in the medical field, but on the other side she had less time to learn for her courses. From time to time, she got quite exhausted so she didn't meet up that much in the evening with her friends. But on one late October night, she decided to go out with her friends and to her surprise, she would see Sherry again in the pub that wasn't far away from the university. Of course Sherry was surrounded by her fans, but as soon as the blonde saw Aki there, she somehow squeezed herself through the crowd to get to Aki. She sat together with Aki and her friends on a small table and all of them had a good time talking about various topics, one of them being that Sherry changed into the German Riding Duel League. To Aki's surprise, the blonde could speak German perfectly. Sherry explained to her that she came from a region close to Germany and her parents wanted her to learn at least German and English from a young age to not acquire and accent in those two languages. They thought it would be better for negotiations. After a few hours, they all decided to go home. All of Aki's friends had to take the bus to get to their homes as they all lived a bit farther away from the university. Aki however, just had to walk through the park that was right next to the river to get home. Aki didn't know where Sherry lived, but the blonde offered her to get her home. Aki couldn't possibly reject that offer.
So now they were walking down the park and Aki felt her heart rate fastening. After all, Sherry had placed an arm around her protectively. "There could be dangerous people around in the night," Sherry explained before. Being so close to Sherry only made Aki think about that day in Paris again, where her friends teased her about liking the tall woman. She looked up a bit, to look at the blonde's face. The lanterns in the park and the bright moonlight made her look even more attractive. She shivered a bit and Sherry seemed to realize that. She laughed lightly – such a pleasant sight to Aki. "You're not used to the cold weather yet," Sherry stated and removed her arm from Aki's shoulders. She was now standing in front of Aki, removed the jacket she wore only to place it around Aki's shoulders. And Aki was sure now, her heart that beat so fast was a direct indicator that she had fallen in love with Sherry. Sherry, who was standing in front of her. Sherry, who was smiling brightly at her. Sherry, who suggested to head back home fast so that Aki wouldn't freeze too much. That night, Aki couldn't sleep much, as she could only think about the tall blonde woman that she had fallen for.
Soon it was winter. During winter there was no Riding Duel League, since it would be too dangerous to drive around. Winter was also the time for Christmas markets that were near the castle. Of course, Aki's friends suggested to go there every now and then after their courses. And just like it was back in late October, Aki would see Sherry at the Christmas market again. While she was sure about her feelings for the tall woman, she couldn't help but feel insecure due to the fact that she doesn't know if Sherry feels the same for her. The more time that passes where she can't tell her feelings, the more nervous she gets around the tall woman. Surely, Sherry must have noticed this at some point. The whole evening felt like a huge déjà vu of the evening in late October: her friends would go back home with the bus and Sherry suggested Aki to bring her home.
They were at the park again, walking in slow pace. Sherry had placed her arm around Aki again. But this time, Aki didn't blush. Maybe it was the alcohol, that made her feel so sad. Or maybe it was the fact that she still hasn't told Sherry her feelings yet. Probably the later. A tear escaped one of her eyes and before she could wipe it away, Sherry had brought her into a hug, her head now resting on Aki's. "Are you alright," she asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Aki didn't say anything for a few moments, but she knew she had to confess her feelings sooner or later. "I like you," she whispered. "More than a friend," she added even quieter but since no-one was in the park, Sherry could hear every word. "I like you too," she whispered, placing a kiss on Aki's forehead. "So don't cry, okay?", she said and smiled slightly at the red-head who now had a huge smile on her lips as well. Just then, thick snowdrops fell down and Aki couldn't help but tell Sherry how pretty she looked in the dimmed light, covered in snow. And Sherry couldn't help but kiss Aki on the lips.
A/N: So unlike in my 5D's Month collection of stories, Sherry does not get her company back in this story and instead she joins the pro league. It's actually due to a review from SmallFountainLily that I reconsidered my head-canon for how Sherry and Aki got together. So thanks a lot for your review on my old story!
As for the German that is used in this one-shot: Entschuldigung means "sorry", Kein Ding is non-formal for "no problem" and Sicher is "sure".
