Title: Roommates
Characters: Asuka, Fubuki
Chapter: 1-1||Words: 1,000
Genre: Family||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing, GX, B27, fluffy; GXMonth, #4, "Sometimes I Can't Believe We're Related"
Notes: This is set just after Asuka is freed from the SOL and includes headcanons.
Summary: Now that Asuka's free of the Society, she can't stay in Obelisk White. So it's back to Osiris Red – and a surprise roommate.

Asuka stepped inside and looked around. She'd been gone from here for months; things would have changed. Her reasoning on why she'd left were still unclear, but Momoe and Junko lost no time explaining it all to her – how she'd lost a duel to Manjoume and become like him, part of that strange Society of Light. Her memory of that duel remained strong but everything in between that and when she recalled Juudai's voice telling her that she wasn't cool – that was more or less a blank.

Now she was herself again and she'd immediately packed up every bit of her possessions and moved back out of Obelisk – whatever it was these days. She vividly remembered Fubuki and Chronos-sensei trying to get her to be a duel idol and she was having none of that. At least whatever had happened that she couldn't remember, that hadn't been part of it.

Here she was again, in the room Manjoume built for himself and he'd insisted that she could have for as long as she chose to stay in Osiris Red. He'd renewed the invitation shortly after she and Juudai finished their duel and her friends had been catching her up on what she no longer properly remembered.

Hadn't he said something else, though? She'd not heard everything. She'd been a little too busy trying to grasp that the bulk of the school was now in some kind of light-worshiping cult led by Edo Phoenix's manager.

"Little sister!" Fubuki burst up next to her, wrapping his arms around her without a second thought. She yelped and tried to jump back, but getting out of Fubuki's grip when he was intent on holding one wasn't that easy. Finally she sighed and pushed him away as best she could.

"Big brother. What are you doing here?" Had he just turned up to make sure she made it back here safely?

Her eyes flicked over the room again. This time she spied something else – Fubuki's ukulele leaning up in a corner, a few stray bits of clothing here and there that she recognized as his. She turned back to him before he could answer.

"Are you living here?"

Fubuki blinked, then shrugged. "Yeah. I've had to go somewhere since they won't let me into Obelisk anymore." His brown eyes glimmered for a few moments, then a clear, bright smile broke over his features. "But that's not so bad! I kinda like it here. Manjoume-kun built a really good place." His grin widened to the point Asuka couldn't help but being a little worried. "And now we get to share it!"

"What? No!" Asuka shook her head at once. That was exactly what she didn't want. She'd moved here to get away from him!

Fubuki's grin didn't fade for a second. "Of course we do! You don't want to live in Obelisk the way it is now and I can't." He waved one hand quickly. "So, we're going to stay here together."

"Big brother…" Asuka hated it whenever Fubuki said anything that resembled good sense. He wasn't supposed to make sense. Yet sometimes – he did. Asuka suspected at least most of the time he did by sheer accident.

Yet for all that, she couldn't let herself forget that the cheerful, pleasant facade remained exactly that – a facade that covered the times when he truly could be dangerous. Sometimes she wished he would dispose of it altogether. But he would never do that. He kept it up so strongly that there were moments she wondered if she had it backwards – the serious person she knew he could be was nothing more than a veil over the far too cheerful, bubbly reality.

Fubuki patted her on the shoulder. "There are plenty of beds, and two entire bathrooms. It's like a little dorm all on its own. You can have all the privacy that you want and we can still hang out together!"

Asuka didn't exactly wince. But she did puff out a bit of a sigh. As much as it might annoy her, he was right. Neither of them could go to Obelisk until this whole ridiculous cult thing was cleared up. She had no idea of how to do it, either.

She settled her luggage down in a corner and regarded the room in front of her before she turned her gaze back to Fubuki. "If we're both going to live here, then could you please clean up a little?"

He started to open his mouth. Her eyes narrowed, staring right at him, and his mouth closed again. She pointed to the clothes, saying nothing more. Nothing else needed to be said, as he slumped off to pick up his things.

Asuka picked up her bag again and made her way to the bedroom. There were four beds in here; she didn't know why Manjoume had installed four beds instead of four separate rooms. But there they were and she at once moved over to the bed she'd used before her unfortunate experience.

It looked as clean and tidy as it had the last morning she properly remembered. She could tell Fubuki used a different bed, the one right above hers, in fact. A tiny smile teased at her lips. When they'd been children, they'd shared a room, and had a bunk bed, with her on the bottom and him on the top. Was that why he'd chosen that?

She didn't want to ask. If she did, he'd probably tell her, and a little gentle fantasy certainly didn't hurt.

It would be interesting to be back here. The food wasn't the best, but the company was a great deal better than what she remembered, and maybe they could figure out what to do about that cult. Perhaps they could ask Principal Samejima for his assistance.

But there was that tiny bit of satisfaction that came just from being here with her brother. Putting up with his air-headed nature would be annoying, but absolutely worth it.

She hoped.

The End

Notes: I can't even count all my headcanons about GX. I should probably make a list one day.