(Disclaimer) Unwanted theory: if Maria were a canon character, I bet the english dub version of 5Ds would make her have a southern accent.

SO as a present to you all in celebration of me finishing the ACT, here's another chapter!

I jolt awake, my eyes wide and stunned. Then searching.

In morning's bare light, I can hardly make out the twins' living room. I don't, really; the memories of today just sweep into my brain. They sit there, crusting like a scab over my nightmares.

The ceiling stares down at me. I blink the tears away, wipe the residuals away with a swipe of my sleeve. I don't move other than that, not even when Crow adjusts himself from back to stomach and flails out an arm across my waist. He's just about as spastic of a sleeper as Rua.

After what happened with Lucciano and the twins' duel, there was no way the rest of us could leave them be. It wasn't said aloud, but it was as obvious as if the clouds had spelled it out above and the sea had shouted it from below: we shouldn't part ways, at least for the night. I think we all just wanted to be alone together, not to formulate a plan of action for the near future but to bask in the frail serenity of right now.

So we agreed to lie low at the twins' flat once everyone did whatever they needed to at that moment. Yusei and Jack would take the twins to the Tops, Akiza would drive home to pack a bag, and Crow would bring me to Martha's to do the same.

He offered to wait, but I told him I'd be a while and that if he wanted to escape the kids' taunting unscathed then he should get a move on. Crow came in anyway (the kids ooohed suggestively) and left after sitting with them and Martha awhile.

I stuffed clothes in my tote and afterward the couple of prized possessions I refused to part with for yet another night—Mom's picture tucked inside the moleskine with ease. And, though I didn't think I'd need it for anything, I bookmarked Horseytail in between a random page as well.

I also called the cafe to tell them I wouldn't be back for today. I gave Zora the brittle explanation of the twins being injured and, for an instant, her usual irritability relented to concern.

Annie wouldn't let me leave without tripping me up at the door. So I appeased her by smuggling her into the tote, which would probably be the last time I'd go through that trouble. She still fully resembled a cat, but with her current weight and height, it was more like smuggling a small fox into my bag.

Which was what I mentioned to Martha on our way out. She shrugged and blamed it on the kids for constantly feeding her.

So I believed it, and tried to retreat into my thoughts while catching the bus to downtown New Domino. It was easier than you'd think to feel alone on a city bus carrying no less than twenty people at any given time.

Once the gang came together, no one really seemed sure what to do, despite the comfort encompassing us. We wanted a rebound from the earlier events, but everything seemed off the table.

Someone, I'm not sure who, decided the television was a safe zone and flicked it on. The channels scrolled until it landed on some action-comedy that was already halfway done. When it finished, we turned on another one—an adventure-fantasy. Then another after. Before we realized it, we were all fighting over the remote for our shot at the next pick.

Although the boys had never really watched movies, it didn't come as a surprise when Jack and Crow began to verbally duke it out. I was pretty sure both simply didn't want the other to have control because after we switched to democracy voting, they agreed on almost all the same films.

Akiza had said she hadn't watched many movies, either, which crowned the siblings and I the movie gurus of the group. Really, it was Ruka and I, since her brother wouldn't stand for anything without someone getting a sword put through their intestines.

We watched some good ones—Inception (which baffled everyone), The Princess Bride (which had everyone cracking up), The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (which we paused a dozen or so times in order for me to answer questions because I actually remembered some of what I'd read in the series).

Then we called it halftime for dinner, where we finally had something to mold our troubles over with.

"So is the main guy dreaming or not at the end?"

"I don't really remember. It's something with the ring spinning."

...

"No one would be an Orc, that's for sure. Everyone hates the Orcs."

"Why does everyone hate the Orcs?"

""Cause they're the Orcs."

"Hold on. What d'you guys think I'd be if I were in the movie?"

"A Hobbit, for sure."

"Or a Gremlin."

"I don't think they have those... do they?"

"No, but they have Dwarves."

"Is that really a step up from Gremlin?"

"I don't know. Do Gremlins carry battle axes?"

...

The twins had the perfect idea of sleeping out front where we could all be together, so the boys moved the furniture out of the way and we covered the floor in blankets and pillows. With everyone's stomachs full and minds settled came the period where no one seemed to care what was on. I saw my chance, and went for it.

"What's this again?"

"Only the best movie ever made."

"It's a bunch of animated, singing animals in the desert."

"Your point is? Just watch. The baboon's about to do the thing on the cliff."

No one (but Rua) cried when Mufasa died. Halfway through humming along to Hakuna Matata I discovered the twins were fast asleep. We dubbed Crow our human Timòn (of course spurring the joke that Jack was his Pumba) and that every time the blond gets into a duel, playing I Just Can't Wait To Be King was mandatory.

Fast forward to now. Press play.

I don't really remember falling asleep, or even what movie was chosen after that. I turn toward the television. Whatever had been running before had stopped so Netflix could ask us if we were still watching. I raise up on my elbows, push Crow's arm back his way, and stand slowly. I take a moment to observe my friends all splayed out in tranquility.

I don't know how many blankets we had thrown down, but Jack managed to nab at least half of them and wrap himself in a cotton cocoon. Akiza's turned on her side, curled into herself for warmth. Crow looks like he's making himself big for an improbable bear attack.

I shake off the chuckle and tip toe over the three. I turn off the television and glance back at the snoozing bodies. Three there, three gone. The twins couldn't be far at all. It was all the more unlikely than that bear attack that they would get kidnapped right under our noses... by a bear.

I push the outlandish thoughts away and refocus.

My initial idea is that wherever the twins are, Yusei would only be a step behind. Yet, when my vision skims over the bikes parked at the door, there's two instead of three.

I wouldn't be going back to sleep, that much is obvious. I may as well have something to help pass the time.

I scrutinize the camp site from a distance. My tote should be here somewhere, I think. It isn't. I head toward the dining room. The wide bag droops slightly out of one of the chairs. I yank it up by the strap.

I make way for the floor-to-ceiling terrace doors, but stop when a displeased feline meows for me. Annie stands between Akiza and Crow in the space I previously vacated.

"Alright, c'mon girl." I clap my hands lightly. She trots to me and waits in the middle of my legs for the door to open. "Go go go!"

Shutting the glass, I race after her to the row of lounge chairs enveloping the pool. We land on one. Annie balls up between my legs and I sift through the tote, uncovering the moleskine. But I can't write anything. Pen in hand, mind whizzing with plentiful ammo, but nothing wills my hand to move.

I breathe deeply, slowly. The morning air hangs salty around us.

Which gives me an idea.

I swing my leg over Annie and rise from the chair, then backtrack up to the door to check inside. No movement whatsoever. So I tug off my socks. Peel my crew-neck sweater over my head. Leave them on the chair for Annie to guard and walk to the poolside. I dip a foot in and instantly recoil it. Another glance is sent over my shoulder.

Somehow it appeared more thrilling than idiotic, so even though I ask myself repeatedly Why are you doing this why are you doing this why are you doing this, it must be why I dip my entire body in. I walk the shallow end for a bit, minute shrieks through chattering teeth.

"Well, it's now or never." I plug my nose and suck up a breath. Bob up, then down down down. I resurface laughing. "That was probably the worst choice I have ever made."

Annie's near the edge, staring at the bubbles pumping through the jet. She's so transfixed that I'm able to sneak up and whisk her in to the air. She howls, hating me in this moment more than she ever has, and claws at the sky.

I release her back onto the ledge; she scampers back into safe territory.

"Okay. I deserved that," I mumble while inspecting my hands for damage. Some of the cuts are shallow, some deeper. "Scaredy cat."

I still don't get out, just lean onto my back and float away. I know, you're probably thinking, Wow you're common sense has really been shot to hell, hasn't it? I would agree with my whole heart.

It seems so contradicting that I would like swimming (or floating, rather) as much as I do. An asthmatic dropped in an arena, bare-knuckled and a wrist sprained. Like giving your worst enemy one freebee at killing you, and waiting for them to take it.

Who's to say it isn't that, actually? My death would be ironic, if anything.

I thought I'd never learn to do something as simple as this when I was younger. Even after the decade of asthma fiascoes finally let up. I could never do any of the other strokes; whenever I put my face in the water I closed my eyes and found it impossible to concentrate on getting from one end to another.

So I can only manage a sad attempt at backstroke, or a sort of solid doggie paddle. Nothing enough to save my life, yet enough to dilute the possibilities of unintentional suicide.

I'd asked Mom why it was—why I could only swim when I didn't look at the water. It wasn't a surprise when she gave me one of her casual, philosophic replies. "It makes sense if you think about it. It's an automatic response to a fear of the unknown."

She was right, it did make sense. But in the same instant it didn't. Wasn't showing my back to the very thing that instilled fright in me just leaving me vulnerable? How was it possible to find comfort in that?

I guess that makes me Mizaru of the three wise monkeys.

I'm unsure how long I stay staring at the sky, seeking all the stars and all that's been lost since I stepped foot into this illuminated city.

I serenade the hiding lights in a whisper:

~Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase,

Hakuna Matata, ain't no passing craze,

It means no worries for the rest of your days,

It's our problem free philosophy, Hakuna Matata~

The lift rises to the twin's door and opens. Yusei wheels his D-Wheel in and sets it next to his brothers'. His helmet is left on the seat as usual, boots at the door. The leather jacket and gloves are shrugged off and folded over a dining room chair.

A quick glance is shot to the living room. Nothing seems awry, so he ventures to the fridge. When Yusei stayed with the twins during the Fortune Cup, the siblings would buy these mini glass bottles of milk just for him. He thought they'd stopped the habit once he moved out, but he finds four or five of them sitting ready in the fridge door.

He snatches a bottle up and unscrews the cap. They were the only gift he'd allow the twins to give him.

Yusei downs the bottle's contents in four gulps, then drops it in the trashcan. He goes to the living room for a double check. When he exited for a drive, everyone was sound asleep. Only Crow, Akiza, and Jack remain snoozing in the haystack of blankets now. Maybe he hadn't left as silently as he'd thought and woken both Maria and the twins?

They were most likely together. He intends to leave the matter alone at first, but a speck of irrationality spills over his brain and prompts him to do otherwise. Making a round wouldn't hurt anyone.

Both Rua and Ruka's rooms come first since they're on the bottom level. By the flat, immaculate folds of sheets Yusei can tell that they are elsewhere. So, stealthily, he climbs the stairs to the second level. No one occupies the spare bedroom to the right—his old bedroom—so he retraces his step. The door to the the twins' parents' room is cracked open.

Only for a moment does he peek his head in. Found them.

There was only one thing he truly disliked about the twins, and it is the one thing no one ever has a chance of changing. Not with time or money. He never had the opportunity to meet the parents who'd brought such good kids into the world, but he'd already decided he never wanted it.

He leaves them to lie undisturbed until morning. Someone would have to check their wounds again.

But that still left Maria to be found. With her, he wasn't as positive that she would still be around. It wasn't that she didn't care. No, if anything, she was always trying to make it seem like she cared less than what was true. She wasn't the best at hiding her feelings; they were her worst kept secret, but she rather would run herself into an asthma attack than allow them to slip out.

Maria is like one of those pop-up books Martha used to read to him and his brothers. Turn a page and she'd appear, abrupt and substantial to the moment. And once the moment was lost, so was she. You could flip the page back over and see her again, but only until you needed to turn it again to finish the story.

That makes the duelist wonder, much to his dismay, if Maria would be there when their story finished.

By the time he makes it out to the terrace, Yusei decides he'd rather not know. That was the point of pop-ups anyway, right? To surprise you?

The turbo duelist looks out to the sky and loses himself in it. Yliaster and the possibility of them being united with the Meklords. Antimony and Accel Synchros, which he was having about as much luck with as the engine. And the murders...oh god, the murders.

Why? Why all of this at once? Why at all? Just fucking why?

Something presses against his foot and Yusei's surprised he doesn't get whiplash from how swift he is to turn his head. Little ol' Annie sits at his heel, a paw on his boot and tail swishing. Yusei bends down with a hand held out. She juts her head into his palm without hesitation.

"What, can you smell the milk on me?" he chuckles. He stops petting, just to see what would happen. Annie rises on her hind legs to place her front ones on his knee. Yusei laughs again, "Okay, okay."

It dawns on him then: how did the cat even get out here to begin with? The terrace door was closed before he left, he knew because he had chosen not to open it since the AC was up and running. Yusei glances over his shoulder and spots the bag Maria sometimes carried with her.

But it was only he and Annie out here, so...

Splashing perks both his and the cat's ears.

"Hello?"

Yusei stands, squinting into what the building's lamps refused to shine on. The Riding-duelist still sees nothing and, on top of that, the splashing curbed itself. It was a waiting game.

Well, he wasn't going to play. "Maria?"

The wind breezes by, the only noise in the delay of her answer. Actually, she doesn't even do that; the splashing just continues.

The very first thing Yusei sees are her saffron irises staring out across the waters, two stones glistening like a dead man's treasure.

I had honestly fallen asleep in the pool. Granted it couldn't have been longer than the time it takes to count your fingers and toes, but I fell asleep mid-float nonetheless. So, I shocked myself awake and began flapping my arms as if I was about to take flight.

"Hello?"

I spit out any water that I accidentally consumed while in tantrum, and level myself on the back ledge. Of course it's him. I'm beginning to think he has some kind of tracker on me that tattles whenever I do funny stuff, which was starting to seem like an everyday occurrence.

If I just wait, maybe... I even hold my breath (today's dumb thing number three and counting). Just maybe...

"Maria?"

If I could currently reach the floor I would stomp on it. Damn you, Yusei Fudo. Damn you.

I doggie-paddle back until my toes graze the pool's bottom, then stop when the water's beneath my chin. Yusei looks down at me with those mystical eyes of his slightly wide and mouth barely parted.

"Hi," I say, tucking into myself like a shameful sea clam.

"Hey." He seems just as disgraced as I do, for whatever reason. He does something next that I wouldn't have expected in a thousand years: Yusei stutters. "I...I, uh..."

He spins around and hightails it for the flat.

"Wait!" I stretch out an arm; maybe if I try hard enough, the Force would stop him cold in his tracks. And Yusei does stop, though I'm not certain the Force plays any part in it. "Don't... Uh... You don't have to go...if you don't want to."

He doesn't seem nearly as compelled as I hope, so another scoop of sugar goes on for good measure. "Stay. Please, stay."

Having Yusei near seemed unexpectedly refreshing. I'd probably have taken anyone, but I'd be lying to say I'm not pleased it's him.

He agrees without a word and keeps his back toward me, rubbing the back of his neck. I close the distance between us and ascend from the water. Yusei had only moved a few steps from the pool, so I wait in his tracks for him to turn back around. He doesn't.

A shiver of concern rides up my spine. "What's wrong?"

Yusei continues running a hand up and down the back of his neck, saying, "You should get dressed."

"I...am dressed?" The realization slams down on me like a cartoon anvil. I go around him and, for the first time, actually try to catch his eye. "Did you think I was naked?"

He glances off to the side.

"You did, didn't you? You totally thought I was skinny dipping!"

I'm blushing like mad but laughing makes it forgettable. It's all the more sweet when I realize this is the very first time I've caught Yusei in an embarrassing scenario. I walk away, rubbing my hands together. Justice has been served, even if it is his one mistake to the growing garden of mine.

"Why else would you be out here then?"

"Uh, swimming with clothes on like a normal person." Pajama shorts and a racerback tank top count as clothes, right? I dab my face with my sweater, then tug it over my head. "Duh."

"At night. Alone. In the dark." Yusei arches a brow. "Whose argument makes more sense?"

"Mine. Still mine." I bundle my hair together and wring it out over the edge. "Wait wait wait. If you thought I was naked, then why did you stay?"

"You asked me to," he responds, as if it weren't as clear as the moon in the sky.

"Right. Okay." I turn to him with arms folded across my chest. "But who would've thought, New Domino's very own Turbo Duel King was a closeted pervert."

"..."

"I mean I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. It's always the quiet ones."

He takes it with a grain of salt.

"I think the fangirls are going to have a few things to say about that, and what would we do then? I think the city would be in complete mayhem."

Yusei cocks his head to the side and I watch his lips lift into a smirk, still waiting.

"Seriously? I'm trying my hardest to milk this and you don't give me a thing?"

A velvety reply, "You were trying?"

My mouth dangles open. "If I wasn't so impressed I'd be offended. Touche."

"Like you said," he shrugs a shoulder, "it's always the quiet ones."

"Fine, fine. You win—this round." I chuckle and roll my eyes along until I'm staring at the tile.

We rarely ever talked like this—hell, we rarely talk at all aside from the stray warnings and annoyed replies. And then there would come moments like this, like the cupcakes. Little remarkable outliers that flee from our usual routine of awkward tension. These would be the moments I remember in the morning. These would be the moments that would make me regret the constant, untamed spite toward him. Moments that would pump my heart full with feelings I'd chosen to discard.

Perhaps that was where the problem dwelled. If I didn't want to like him like that, then moments like these couldn't exist. Yusei isn't easily deterred and how he manages to talk to me after the way I've treated him proves it well. Crow and I chat like this all the time, but that never equated to when Yusei took his place.

This can't become a rarity I'd put in the back of my mind for safekeeping. This has to be our routine. Cold shoulders and brash words did nothing to plug the hole, so what will?

Pull him in, Maria. Shatter the lock, reel back the gate, and let him in.

"You should go back inside."

"Why? It's nice out."

"Not that nice, and you're soaking wet," he states.

"I'm drying off as we speak." I wring my hair again, hoping t doesn't appear too self-conscious. "Anyway, I think the least of my problems is catching a cold right now."

"It certainly won't solve any of those problems."

"See, that's where you're wrong. I'd get to sleep in, stay in my pajamas all day, drown myself in chicken noodle soup. Three upsides to one down."

"Maria, I'm being serious."

When are you not? "Look, Yusei, it's fine. I'm not going to get sick. But if you are so hung up on me going back inside—" I plop down beside Annie on the floor, "—then make me."

I stare up at him and he stares down at me. Yusei's the one to back off, and for the second time catches me off guard with his reaction. He's laughing, unlike his usual airy chuckle—actual laughing. His eyes close into smiles, the bridge of his nose slightly wrinkled. His head is angled just enough for him to balance the world on his chin.

I hate him through the entirety of it for being as captivating as he was.

God. I'm never going to win this game, am I?

"I'm not going back inside," I say feebly.

"You've made that pretty clear."

"It's just...um...it's just the sun, that's why I want to stay out here. It's going to rise soon so... I don't know. I just feel compelled to watch it."

He hums in understanding. After a stint of quiet, Yusei sits, too. "You've got a couple hours till then. Wouldn't want you to get bored."

My mouth opens on it's own accord. I would usually say something paralleled to, "You don't really have to. I'll be fine on my own," but what use would that be? It would only set me two steps back. Sitting out here with him would do no harm; in this moment we are safe.

It's not like he'd leave, anyway. So I simply settle for: "Oh, yes. Boredom would be the total end to my world as I know it."

Yusei glances out his peripheral at me, smirk barely touching his lips. I pull my knees up and hold my head above them. Silence flows between us and Annie takes it upon her kind little soul to assuage it. She seeps into Yusei's lap like syrup, luring in his attention with a rumbling purr.

And I swear on the stars above that, as his hand runs down her spine, she looks back at me. She looks at me and smiles.

"Traitor," I hiss under my breath. Yusei turns to me and I lash my head in the opposite direction.

"Say something?"

"Aha...no. I was just noticing," I point to Annie, "she likes you a lot. Probably more than she likes me."

"Now she does. She did bite me, remember?"

"Please, that was baby stuff compared to what she did to me a little while ago." I hold up my battle-wounded hands to show. A flash sails over his eyes; it's the one emotion I can almost always identify. "No worries. They aren't bad, no bleeding."

"You should still clean them."

"I will, in the morning."

Yusei's expression is dubious. "It is the morning."

"Oh, yeah. After the sun rises, then."

"The sunrise is more important than your injuries?"

"The sun makes the world go round, don't ya know?" I nod toward the horizon. "Imagine how dark the sky would be without it... How lost it would be. Us too, actually. We would all be stir-crazy, and vitamin D deficient. We'd be like zombies, only instead of brains we'd crave sunlight.

"And sometimes all people need is the sun. It would always be night without it. But because the sun rises every morning, you look out your window and think: if you can do it, so can I."

The poolside lamps must sense the the sun's upcoming appearance and shut off. I cast my eyes down at the pool, my reflection barely trembling in the low light. Yusei's reflection does the same and if not for it, I wouldn't have felt his stare on me.

"Oh my god. I'm totally rambling, aren't I?" My face burns. "Why didn't you stop me?"

"Because it was nice, and I didn't mind it."

It was rhetorical. You weren't supposed to answer that. But since he does, my blood ignites to another level and I have to hide my head against my knees as a hazardous precaution. Who's to say I wouldn't explode?

After a while—after I've safely detained my frazzled nerves from combustion, I turn the topic on him.

"Aren't you tired?"

He shakes his head no. I glance his way, which turns into a stare. Headed straight for his face, below his eyes. The bags aren't so discernible, probably due to his tan skin, but you can see them if you knew what you were looking for. I turn away before he notices.

"When I woke up you and the twins weren't there," I say as a distraction.

"The twins are sleeping upstairs."

"Upstairs? Aren't their rooms downstairs?"

"They're in their parents' room."

"Oh." I loop a finger around a springy curl. "Where did you go?"

"For a drive."

"Because you couldn't sleep?"

"Because I needed to think."

"Driving helps with that? I would think it'd be even more difficult with your thoughts everywhere except on the road."

"I suppose that, in theory, it doesn't make much sense, but it never fails me. Not once."

I sink back to the tile, arms wrapped over my eyes like blindfolds. There's a sudden pressure over my stomach. I know it's Annie using me as her personal beanbag, so I don't bother to look.

It could be mere minutes that pass as I lie like this, Yusei sitting noiseless. I almost forget he's there, that's how quiet he is. Yet he is, and that's why I say it. Because he's here and it is something I need to express to the world. To someone. Anyone.

"Yusei," I whisper, "what are we going to do? How can we face this? We don't even know what's going on. With Yliaster. The spirits. Me... It's like—like we're walking through fog. We've got all this stuff around us, but we don't know what's there until we're knee-deep in it."

Yusei doesn't answer. Not now. Not when the sun greets us with the gift of a new day.

There just wasn't anything to say.

—

I sneeze. Again. Another.

"Six," Rua clarifies. "Your highest so far is nine."

I blink at the boy and try hard not to glare, which is a triumph considering how I feel like I've been run through a trash compacter. Someone must have injected a five pound weight into my head overnight.

"Rua. I don't know why you've taken it upon yourself to keep track of my sneezes. I think it's endearing, really I do," I sniff, "but you're not making me feel any better."

He mumbles an apology and walks to the opposite couch, squeezing between his sister and Akiza. I sip the herbal tea Akiza had so graciously fixed me, then lay it on the coffee table before reclining onto the couch, snuggling my blanket closer. Annie tickles my legs with her wild fur.

"I should really go home," I sigh, making no effort whatsoever to move.

"What? No!" Rua shoots me down. "You have to stay here. Akiza, Ruka and I already called off for school. You're going to miss all the fun stuff we do if you go home!"

"I'm starting to think I'm being held hostage here." I sneeze and continue, "By the two cutest kidnappers ever seen."

The twins flash me their pearly white grins. Akiza asks the guys, "Are you all staying, too?"

Crow glances at the digital clock up above. "Eh, I don't know about these guys, but I gotta head to work soon."

Yusei comes in from the hall. "We'll stick around a while, but we've got to get back to work on the engine later."

I'm in the midst of hand-combing my hair when he hovers over me, a box of band-aids, cotton pads and a bottle of peroxide in hand. Begrudgingly, I hold my hands out.

"Did you think I would forget?" he asks, resting on the couch arm beside me.

"I was hoping so."

"What happened to your hands?" Ruka asks.

"Her." I glare at Annie, who's so cozy in her little ball she doesn't notice. Then I unscrew the cap to the antiseptic. "Although, I will take part of the blame. I did sort of instigate it."

"And by 'sort of' you mean 'completely', right?"

"Watch it, Timòn. I punched you out once and I'll do it again." Jack nearly spits out his coffee laughing so hard and, if they were drinking something, I'm sure Akiza and the twins would too.

"Ouch. Shots fired." Crow gives Jack the stank eye, then marks his aim on me. "I see how it is."

"Anything to win the war." I put my frustratingly difficult battle with the cotton pads on hold and stand up. "Well, if I'm not going home I should give Martha a call to make sure she doesn't worry."

I phone her up and she instantly knows that something's up.

"Are you sick?"

"Whoa, how did you know? Can you see me?" I wave a hand at the miniature screen on the home's telephone holder. "I thought our phone didn't have a screen. Did you get a new one?"

"No, Maria," I hear her laugh. "You just sound nasally. And highly medicated. Just get some rest and call me if you need anything, alright?"

"Okie dokie, artichokie."

I hang up and it isn't until I'm back on the couch does what I ended our conversation with register in my brain. Okie dokie, artichokie? Where the frick did that come from? Due to both sheer curiosity and procrastination for cleaning my scratches, I reach for the bottle of cold medicine left on the tablecorner.

"Rua." I hold the bottle up for him to observe. "Did you give me this?"

"Yeah...? It's cold medicine, isn't it?"

His sister leans over to take the bottle from me. "Rua! This is Nyquil!"

"Nyquil!" I repeat for absolutely no reason.

"It's cold medicine, right?!"

"Nyquil is for nighttime. You were supposed to give me Dayquil—for the daytime!"

"Ohhhh... I still don't get the problem."

"Listen to me—listen close. There is normal sleeping, then there is sleeping on Nyquil, and then there is death."

Rua looks rather terrified.

"No no no, that came out wrong. I'm not going to be anywhere near death!" I backtrack over my previous statement. "It's just a figure of speech, I swear! If anything, I'm gonna be livelier than ever afterward."

"I'm guessing it's already taking affect since you can barely hold your head still," Crow chuckles.

"What are you talking about, you crazy bird? You're the one who's wiggling back and forth."

"I like her better like this," Jack chimes in from the dining room table. "She should be like this more often."

"One," I point at him, "I'm not in my minor coma yet, so I can still hear you. And two, did you just low key recommend that I become a drug addict?"

Jack stops the sip he's about to take middair. The question visibly passes through his features, and it's obvious he realizes he did. But if I expect an apology from the Jack Atlas, well, I'd just be shit outta luck.

"I have no clue what you mean. I've been here silently drinking coffee this entire time."

I roll my eyes, and lose the fight of holding in my laughter. Speaking of fights, how about a second go at cleaning my hands up?

"This is even harder than the first time," I mumble, my eyes flickering open and close.

I feel the objects pulled from my grasp and I blink at Yusei. "Let me," he says.

"No. No, you don't have to." I shake my head sluggishly. My bones seem closer to jello than what keeps me solid.

"If it doesn't get done now, you'll never do it."

"I would tell you you're wrong..."

"But you know I'm right."

"Oh, please. Don't humble yourself on my account." I wince when he goes over a particularly deep cut. He apologizes but I choose to ignore it. My head lays against the couch's crest and I watch him work. That is, until he looks up, then I just watch him watching me. "Don't say it."

"Say what?"

I roll my eyes. "You know what. It's the four worded phrase everyone wants to say when they're proven right."

"Ah," he says, catching on. "But the thing is, Maria, I haven't said it."

"Yes, you have. You're saying it with your eyes every time you look at me."

"Well, I can't do much about that..."

I don't really hear what Yusei says after that. I just know that the last thought to pass my mind before I fall asleep is that I was falling asleep with my hands in his.

"Well, I can't do much about that. Shame on me for having eyes."

Maria's eyes flutter shut, the treasure chest closed and the golden fortune gone. But Yusei's friend isn't quite asleep yet.

"Do you not know how simple of a solution it is?" she whispers.

Yusei dabs on another band-aid before answering. "I guess I don't. Are you going to tell me?"

"All you have to do...is stop looking at me."

But that was the one thing he couldn't, wouldn't do.

The moment Yusei looked away from her would be the moment she was gone, and he didn't want to wonder if she'd be back.

So after noticing we've gone three (relatively lengthy) chapters without any real romance, I made the executive decision that this would be Yusei-centric! Yipee! Now that Maria isn't so dead set on keeping him away, he'll be in more chapters to come and I can actually start making their conversations better than *deepens voice to sound like Yusei* "Be careful, Maria." Which I was tired of writing and you guys were most likely tired of reading.

That said, I hope this chapter doesn't feel rushed; I did right it rather quickly but that's just because it was a bunch of fun to write the gang doing cute family things and making movie references and having my babies bond. If this was actually one of their filler episodes I'd watch this ten times over because they need happy times like these all the time.

Lol but that's not gonna happen.

Anywho. Thanks for reading. Any kind of feedback is good feedback as long as it's helpful!

TTFN