... by any other name would—apparently—not smell as sweet.

Because names are important. And that is something Shark and Quattro know all too well.

A/N: Ok so… This is basically how I imagined Shark and Quattro got their nicknames in that first tourney way back when. It takes place a year or so before the start of Zexal I, if I remember correctly.

My rendering of this is probably a tad AU because here, Shark knows it was Quattro who hurt Rio very early on-during the first duel circuit they met.

Each horizontal line is a switch between sections from both Shark and Quattro's perspective, starting with Quattro. I hope everything makes sense haha.

Please enjoy!

"Ughghfhfhakfl"

"... Are you okay?"

"No! I still can't find a name I liiike." He knew he was being annoyingly whiny, but Thomas couldn't bring himself to care at the moment. He had spent the past five days looking online for a cool "four" codename, failing, and moping (and not necessarily in that order.) Thomas numbly accepted Michael's cup of tea as Michael sat on Thomas' bed, trying to cheer Thomas up.

"I thought you liked Delton?"

"Nopeity nopeity nope. It sounds nerdier and nerdier the more you say it."

"Um… some form of tetra?"

"Ew. That just reminds me of fish."

"Weren't you going to go with eye-vee two days ago?"

"Yeah, I was totally gonna with Roman numerals… But maybe in another life. They're kinda last season's thing, and I've got to give my fans what's trending."

As Thomas kept complaining, Michael just sighed and enjoyed his own tea, hoping that Thomas would hurry up and just pick a name.

Enter Vetrix, a cringy stage name, and his slightly demonic child voice that grated on Thomas' nerves.

He... didn't like it.

It was just so… tacky. Ugh.

How the heck was he supposed to introduce himself? Like, "I am Quattro! No, I'm not Spanish, and yes, I know what quattro means… whatever, I'm gonna beat you up now."

Or, "You'll remember me four-ever, for Quattro is fabulously punny like that!"

Thomas moped for a couple more days afterwards.

If there was one good thing about his new name, it was its flamboyance. It was no commoner's name. It stood out, which meant, well, Thomas stood out. He realized that so many more spectators noticed the duelist with a catchy (and obviously fake) stage name than they noticed any other basic white boy's name.

(Also, it had that interesting kwuh sound. It was fun to say when bored. With accents. Also, there were soo many ways to write his name in calligraphy. It was insane.)

And once he was better known in the Asian duel circuits, it eased his awkwardness. With time, Quattro realized he'd become comfortable with it.

Thomas was just glad a lot of the fangirls out there didn't pick up on the simple, four-lettered meaning of "Quattro".

He'd actually signed up early for the circuit this year. He even beat Rio, turning in his application right after school while she was on an outing with friends. Beating Rio at something about paperwork had pretty much never happened before. It felt nice.

Walking home with a nice breeze and the birds chirping, Reginald had a great feeling about this year—even if it was the first year he'd duel in the "big kids bracket". As soon as he got home, he'd start going through his deck again, make sure his deck would be at its best by tournament's start.

Reginald frowned at the clock as he threw away his snack wrapper. Had he been working on his deck for that long? He still had to do his homework (blegh) and practice guitar (which was almost as cool as dueling).

Dueling. Reginald actually smiled to himself as he flopped onto his bed. Dueling tended to do that to him.

Idly flipping through his book, Reginald wondered how mad Rio would be when he casually dropped the fact that she was the "sucky slacker" this time. Strange she hasn't come home yet, though.

Oh well, Reginald thought. She's probably lost in her window shopping again. What's the worst that could happen?

He had agreed. He shouldn't have.

It had sounded strange to him. He'd said it so many times before, but to adoring fangirls or inexperienced opponents. But this girl was neither.

"Hello, my name is Quattro!"

The most generic opening. Like, ever. He wondered for the umpteenth time why Vetrix wanted him to battle her.

Some light trash talk, the girl still wary, but Quattro's charm starting to work its magic. She opened up. Quattro opened up.

Dueling had that effect on people.

Then he drew... well, that card.

A camera from the bank across the street had caught the whole thing, from passive orange haze to roaring inferno, on film. And Rio had been there. She could have died. She could have died, and Reginald would've been truly alone in the world.

But she wasn't gone—almost, but not quite. Because of some guy who had risked his life to save hers. He was hospitalized now, for Rio's sake. Reginald couldn't even thank him properly—the guy had wanted to remain anonymous—and he had to ask a nurse to deliver the message. He had peeked into the guy's hospital room when the nurse went in, but all he saw was a lump of blankets and hair that was maybe a brownish color?

Still, though. If the guy hadn't been there, Rio might not have made it out. She might have burned to death, or died of breathing in too much smoke, or been paralyzed by a falling beam—

He had nightmares after that, nightmares of swirling orange flames and being helpless.

He hated feeling helpless.

Thomas was Quattro now. There was no way mischievous, smiley, but ultimately well-meaning Thomas Arclight was the same as Quattro, who wanted to throw up and just destroyed a couple of warehouses and almost burned an innocent girl to death.

But Thomas hadn't had a problem with Quattro gaining so much fame, hadn't had a problem with Quattro gaining so many fangirls, hadn't had a problem with Quattro gaining so much… happiness, in a sense. Quattro had a place in this world. Thomas had faded away, slowly but surely. Thomas never would've used that card… right? But then, Quattro didn't exactly know that the card would start a fire.

It didn't excuse him. Quattro knew that. Nothing excused him from following Vetrix's orders like a puppet. Ironic.

Thomas has never been the type to go halfway.

Vetrix had been proud. His brothers had been silent yet sympathetic. Thomas had been shocked. Did no one notice he almost killed a girl? Yeah, he'd rescued her best he could, but they wouldn't have been there in the first place if he hadn't followed Vetrix. But Vetrix… Vetrix was proud. Whatever Vetrix had told them, his brothers hadn't looked at him like he was trash. And all this had left Thomas confused and hurt, somehow feeling betrayed by the people he called family. Quattro felt blank. Empty. Quattro belonged with Vetrix and Trey and Quinton. He'd done his duty, placed family above a stranger who shouldn't matter to him in the first place.

Being Quattro felt better than being Thomas.

Rio had assured him she'd be fine, saying it would take more than some jerk named Quattro to stop her. She also said no, she didn't know who saved her, but the doctors said she was at least... stable now, which was definitely an improvement. It was unlikely, but maybe she could apply to join the tournament as a late entry or wild card if her eyes and her lungs and her arms got better. Reginald had felt better, at least she could kinda talk after a few weeks, she might be well enough to participate—

Reginald had his first duel in the tournament, then his second, then his third. And Rio... Rio wasn't there.

Because of Quattro. And the more Reginald thought about it, the angrier he got. It wasn't fair, and he couldn't do anything about it. He was helpless. He hated feeling helpless.

He trained hard after being discharged from the hospital. He had to: he'd already told his fans he'd be in the next big tournament, before the fire. A lifetime ago.

But true to his word, he entered early and posted about it. He kept training. His fan base grew and grew.

And then he was winning. Quattro was winning; everyone was happy for him.

Except for Thomas, who was still on the topic of Rio and Quattro's fakeness. And Vetrix. It was starting to disgust Thomas. But Thomas was starting to depress Quattro. And Quattro had never been the type to go halfway.

Reginald was doing well in the tournament. Well was probably an understatement, because it looked like… people absolutely loved him. A child wonder duelist, relatively new to the big dueling scene. Why haven't we noticed him before? And what to affectionately call him, this duelist without a name he flaunted?

It had been a joke. Near the end of the tournament, at a stadium not even close to full. There'd been some really weird time conflicts, and his duel's time slot had an overlap with someone else's (Quattro's, actually, he found out later). Reginald guessed his duel didn't get that kind of attention because the people didn't know him the way they knew Quattro. He didn't have a big, vibrant, fake personality like Quattro. He wasn't playing the chivalrous card, didn't have messily-styled dual-colored hair, and didn't flaunt a $3,000 wardrobe. All he had was a bit of class, sass, and his trusty sweater vest.

But it was enough to shake his overconfident opponent. A couple of timely spells and traps later, Reginald finally shut up his opponent's annoying taunts by shutting down his stupidly overpowered monsters.

Stunned, his opponent had asked himself, "Who is this punk?"

And Reginald had naturally replied, "I'm a frickin' shark, who are you?"

The guy actually flinched, probably because he hadn't expected Reginald to hear, and Reginald smirked despite himself.

The crowd went wild. Reginald's life was never the same after that.

As the crowd started to chant, Reginald drew his next card and smiled. It was his faithful Big Jaws, packing both stage presence and enough attack points to end the duel.

Shark! Shark! Shark!

It became the crowd's mantra as Reginald summoned Big Jaws in a spiral of sparkling AR water. To Reginald's satisfaction, he had the perfect trap to destroy his opponent's last ditch effort to save himself. With a direct attack, the duel was over and Reginald won. The small crowd completely erupted, chanting Shark, Shark, Shark—

Reginald relived the moment in his memory for the rest of the day. He was happy like never before. He belonged here.

Quattro had a few contracty-people approach him after he absolutely crushed the semifinals. If he won the finals like he did the semis, they said they could make his name big. He'd be a star. Quinton had smiled, Trey had smiled. Quattro blended in, automatically relying on his public persona to autopilot through the "you're too kind''s and "thank you all so much"s.

When Quattro first got back to the manor, Vetrix had giggled, congratulated him, and, simply enough, told Quattro to win the finals too.

But later that night, after they all ate and had "almost-champion cake", as Michael called it, Vetrix called Quattro to him in private.

And then he told Quattro to win the finals through more than merit alone.

He visited Rio the night before the finals. A complication had arisen in her health, doctors told him. Something was terribly wrong with her eyes—some cornea-retinal-itis-blah. But bottom line, she wouldn't be out of the hospital for months, maybe longer. And Reginald felt crushed, even as Rio gave him encouragement in a voice still too raspy from the smoke. She had listened to his duel from TV, and jokingly called him Shark for one of the only times in her life. Reginald had half-heartedly defended himself—I never told them to call me Shark, okay—but also secretly thought to himself, Shark did sound kinda cool. Like he had a secret identity, another persona, like he wasn't snobby-and-spoiled Reginald Kastle or poor-pitiful-orphaned Reginald Kastle.

It almost felt normal—a sister and a brother bonding, having a moment, poking fun at each other.

Before a coughing fit wracked Rio's body.

Before nurses came in and shooed Reginald away from his only family.

Before Reginald awkwardly stood outside the hospital door, feeling vaguely cheated as he fingered Rio's rings in his pocket.

The moment had been ripped away by Quattro. Reginald recognized that. And he was going to do something about it.

It wasn't like Reginald was a bad name. Reginald was a royal name, kinda uptight, even, and had an edge of power to it. It commanded attention and dared others to underestimate it.

But Shark… Shark was much more casual. The result of a joke. But it was associated with the sea and it was misunderstood and it was dangerous. Shark had an edge of aggression. It, too, commanded attention. It promised fury to those who underestimate it. And it fit. Reginald accepted it that night.

Thomas had never cheated during a duel for real (except when it was really obvious and done as a joke to his siblings). Thomas had been hurt, would've thrown a tantrum and snapped at Vetrix. Thomas couldn't take this. Everything sucked. But Quattro was numb again, said alright without meeting Vetrix' eyes. It wouldn't really be cheating if I accidentally dropped my cards. It'd be the other guy's fault entirely. I'd win.

It was the end for Thomas; from the next day onwards, Thomas would only be Thomas to his brothers. Quattro would be the name everyone knew. And Quattro was okay with that.

The night before the finals, Shark dreamed of crushing Quattro tomorrow, exposing him as a fake, doing something about his helplessness. Avenging Rio.

After all, Shark was his name now. And Quattro… well, he was the Shark's prey.

A/N: whoops, kinda dark at the end? I hope this gave some background to thomas' mental mess and everyone had a good time reading. reginald, thomas, and their frenemy relationship are vv precious to me :)

constructive criticism welcome! leave a comment, idk, any feedback helps (besides all-out cussing)