apologies ... before we get started, my apologies! I truly expected to get this out earlier—and, in fact, it was written, but I have been re-writing (and re-re-re-re-re- ... well, you get the drift -writing) the final chapter, so ...

warnings ... mild profanity, dammit ...

now, without further ado:

5. Churn

The next morning, Jack drifted back out to the café. With difficulty, he restrained himself from speaking with Stephanie longer than required to order his morning coffee. He really wanted to ask her how her date went, but, dammit, it was none of his business—and how would she take the question coming from him, anyway?

Besides, he wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to get out of such a question. When the thought had struck him, that maybe Kaz would be better off dating someone like Jack Atlas, he'd ended up walking for hours over the darkened streets. He did his best thinking on the move, after all. Probably should have taken the Wheel of Fortune, actually.

Jack looked at his waitress, trying to figure out whether she was the same as usual, but the fact was he usually didn't notice her. Well, except that she tended to drop trays. If anything, today she was maybe even a little more nervous than usual. She dropped at least two trays on her way out from the back. Jack was slightly concerned that she might spill his coffee on him, and let out a small sigh of relief when that didn't happen.

She was standing next to him, stammering, "Will there be anything else?" when a D-wheel pulled up.

Jack was a little surprised to see Kaz.

"Excuse me," he said, "but may I borrow Stephanie for a minute?"

Jack nodded, and watched as Kaz walked into the back with a stunned Stephanie.

Jack tried to keep his attention on his cup of coffee, but it kept drifting over to the kitchen door where Kazama had disappeared with Stephanie. After several minutes, the two reappeared, smiling and chatting amiably. Eventually they parted, and Kaz turned toward Jack. Catching his eye, Kaz smiled and walked over to his table.

"Do you have a minute?" asked Jack. "Are you on duty?"

"No, I have all day. They want me to take the rest of the week off because of my injury—even though it's not that bad."

"I'm sorry about that."

"You didn't do it."

"Still, I started the fight, I guess. Hey, if you don't have plans, why don't you sit down and have a cup of coffee?"

Kaz took the chair opposite Jack, who continued, "So Mikage wants to set you up with a girlfriend, huh?"

"Looks like it. I'm not sure why exactly."

Jack suddenly slammed his palm on the table, startling Kaz. "You shouldn't date this Stephanie," he stated emphatically. "She's not good enough for you."

Something about that statement really bothered Kaz. "Uh, Jack," he said uncertainly, "does that matter if two people really hit it off? Besides, we're not dating."

"You're not? But you stopped by just now, and—" Kaz had looked so comfortable and pleasant, talking with Stephanie just now, that he'd just assumed that the date had gone well.

"Yes, but that was because she left her scarf in Andou's car, so I stopped by to drop it off for her."

"Ah," Jack said. He felt slightly consternated. "I thought—"

"Oh, it's that it's not that we don't get along. It seemed like all we had in common was you, actually," Kaz said, a faint shimmer of pink appearing on his cheeks, "so we kind of mutually decided not to meet again."

"Me?"

"She's a big fan of yours, you know." Jack glanced back toward the kitchen door. That's right, he reminded himself, she's one of those girls. The broken crockery when I come. If she did that with every customer— "It felt like she only accepted the date because she knew I was a friend of yours."

"You don't seem too disappointed over it," Jack observed.

He looked at Jack as though he'd only just thought of that. "Well, I guess I'm not," he said. "It was Mikage's idea to set me up in the first place. I wasn't really thinking about dating."

"You're not? Why not? If I'm not getting too personal, that is. I mean, you've got a good job and your life is arranged."

"You'd think it would be when people start looking to settle down, wouldn't you?" Kaz sighed. "I used to date, but recently, I just haven't felt like I wanted to."

"Really? Why's that?"

"I'm not sure really. It's like … I'll never be satisfied?" Kaz said.

"Hunh." Oh, really? Jack wanted to discuss that further, but decided it could wait. He drained his cup. "Oh, since you have the rest of the week off, do you want to hang out or something? I'm going to do something with Yusei this afternoon, but we could do something tomorrow. Yusei has some sort of planning meeting scheduled, so I'm on my own anyway."

"Sure!" said Kaz, brightening. "Is there anything special you have in mind?"

"Actually, no. Let's just meet here in the morning for coffee and we'll decide what to do. Maybe start with a ride or something."

"OK."

"Sure you don't want to duel?" asked Yusei.

"Unless you're challenging me?" said Jack.

"No. If you don't want to, I'll wait. But usually you don't come back without challenging me."

"A guy can't come back just to see his friends?"

Yusei smiled. "'A guy' can; I'm not sure I'd believe you can."

"Pft! Whatever. Anyway, I don't want to duel you again until I'm prepared."

"Prepared? Don't you face the strongest competitors?"

"Them?" Jack shrugged dismissively. "Are you kidding? That's not sufficient. I need something more challenging to hone my mind and body to tip-top fighting form. Don't worry, I'll figure it out."

"So if you don't want to duel today, what do you want to do?" Yusei asked. "Hey, would you like to go visit Satellite?"

"Satellite's changed a lot, Yusei. I don't really look back, anyway."

"That's not …" Yusei gave him a push. "You know that's not what I'm getting at!" he said. "OK, how about this? I know a place we can go where we can do some stunt driving, so strap your helmet on tight and follow me."

Yusei knew Jack wouldn't object to that sort of thing. Even if he had any reservations—which Yusei knew he wouldn't—if Yusei wasn't worried, Jack would take it as a challenge and rise to it.

As soon as Yusei stopped, Jack looked around as asked, "What is this place?"

He was looking into a huge, empty concrete pit, with smooth, curved walls, railings, stairs … any number of features that were perfect for D-wheel tricks. Plus there were long, curving paths to race around on. "This is the old power plant from before Momentum," Yusei said. "These were the cooling pools that were used for it."

Jack flinched. "Don't tell me this place is radioactive!"

"Of course not! I wouldn't bring you here if it were unsafe! … Well, unsafe in that way," he smiled, thinking about how easily other people might be injured trying to do what they were about to do.

"In that case, what are we waiting for?" Jack asked. He immediately dipped down a steeply sloping wall into the empty space. Yusei sat on his D-wheel for a while, watching Jack as he maneuvered his machine, flipping it and spinning it on the edge of the pool.

Finally, Yusei joined him, urging his own red machine to twirl in tandem with Jack's white one. After making themselves dizzy with somersaults, they zoomed over the roadways.

After doing some serious racing under various conditions, they discovered that, depending on the ground rules, Yusei won some heats and Jack won others. Finally, they agreed to take a break.

"That was fun!" Yusei said, laughing and approaching Jack for a high-five under the shade of some trees. Their D-wheels stood nearby at the edge of the path.

Jack slapped Yusei's outstretched palm with his own. "Yeah," he agreed, returning Yusei's smile. "We should do this more often."

"Hey, Jack," Yusei said, his tone changing a little, "you were with Carly the other day—"

"You know that. You really know how to change the subject, Yusei."

"I was just thinking. She's been interested in you for a long time now."

"I guess that's true."

"Are you ever planning to do anything about it? I mean … at first it seemed like you were really interested too, but then, after the Dark Signers were defeated …"

"It's complicated, Yusei, and is really any of your business?"

"I can't care about my best friend?"

"Yes, but this is my dating life."

"Friends tend to discuss that sort of thing."

"They do?" Jack shrugged it off casually. "Whatever. Anyway, Carly doesn't remember anything from back then, which makes things kind of weird between us. I don't think that anything's going to happen with that after all."

"Does she know this?"

Their eyes met. "Hunh," Jack said. "You know, I might not have mentioned it."

"Jack …!" Yusei shook his head in wonder at how oblivious Jack could be at times. "Anyway, I know how focused you've been on becoming King, but you've been on top for a while now. Are you going to consider relaxing and thinking of things other than dueling like dating? You know, like a normal person?"

"Why should I act like a 'normal person,' Yusei? And you know that holding a title is even harder than earning it. Still, I don't think I'm going to wait until I retire to start doing other things. I'm pretty sure I can hold my edge and date at the same time. I suppose if I ever decide I'm losing focus, I can always break up … although I don't know why you're so interested."

Yusei chuckled again. Of course Jack would choose dueling over dating—or at least he believes he always would. "Oh, there might be a reason," he said. Before Jack could react, he reached up and slipped his hands around Jack's neck and pressed his lips against Jack's. The kiss lasted only a few precious seconds, but it felt sweet.

Then Jack's hands gripped Yusei's upper arms and pushed him away gently. Jack looked him square in the eye very seriously and said, "Why in the world would you want to do that?"

Yusei gripped Jack's forearms lightly. "I wanted to do that," he said. "For a long time, actually."

"We're best friends, Yusei!" Jack exclaimed, a frown creasing his brow.

"All the better. We know we get along."

"Yeah, which is why I didn't punch you in the face for doing that. And we didn't always get along, you know. You—"

"But Jack, there's no one that I've worked harder to keep near me than you."

"Which is why we're still friends. Let's not ruin that, OK?"

"Or we could improve on it."

"Yusei, it wouldn't work, and you know it." He shook loose from Yusei as gently as he could and backed off a step.

"Why do you think that is? Because you refuse to put any effort whatsoever when it comes to your friends or other people?" Yusei was beginning to feel irritated.

"Don't get mad, Yusei, that's not it at all. The thing is …" Jack sighed and began to pace a little, moving restlessly, aimlessly. "Damn it, Yusei, you need to feel needed, and you know it."

"You're saying you don't need me?" Now Yusei was angry. "You wouldn't have a single friend if it weren't for me!"

Jack laughed. "You're probably right—but you're still missing my point. Look, I don't like dredging up the past, but when you chose to stay with Kiryu, it said everything. It doesn't matter how you feel about me, if someone really needs you, you'll want to go help—which means I'll be left on my own. I can take care of myself just fine, but if you and I … If you ran off like you always do, I'd feel neglected—no, betrayed. And I'm not going to self-destruct just so I can become one of your pet projects. I handle my own problems. It was bad enough being part of a team."

Yusei stared at Jack. "You really thought this through?" he marveled.

"I didn't have to. If I'm going to be with someone, I come first and that's it. But you …" Jack stopped pacing and stopped, crossing his arms and piercing Yusei with his violet gaze. "Kiryu? Aki? Every sad sack with a sob story who blows through? Hell, you souped up our competition's D-wheel so much that the incompetent fool nearly took me out!"

"And you'll never let me live it down, will you?"

"Not a chance!"

Yusei sighed. "Well, I guess you have a point there. You know, I guess in the back of my mind I always had a thought that somehow we'd end up together. That we can't be separated."

"That's not romance, that's rivalry. Friendship. We're both Signers."

"But it's different from the others somehow."

"Maybe it is. And maybe there was a chance once, but all that's past. I get what you're saying, but you know it wouldn't work out. I'd end up frustrated with you and leave. And—"

"It would take forever for you to forgive me."

"That's for damn sure."

"You won't kiss me goodbye?"

"Why? You're not going anywhere. Anyway, I don't want to give you any false hope."

"You and your damn ego …"

Just as he was thinking about finding his way back onto the highway, a call came in over the comm. "Calling available unit to 101 Progress Way. Speak to trespassers in dangerous industrial area."

Kaz checked his location and, realizing that he was almost on top of the location, took the call. "I'm really going to have to stop taking calls off-duty," he groused to himself as he pulled over to check out the situation.

The facility was really quite large, a huge, abandoned electrical generation plant, abandoned now that Momentum was supplying the power for Neo Domino City. However, Kaz was well aware that the cooling pools and surrounding pathways were a favorite location for skateboarders. He headed around back.

As he rounded the corner, he caught a sight he never expected to see: Yusei Fudo stretched to full length, on tiptoe, kissing Jack Atlas.

Author's notes ...

Gee, I hope that wasn't too awful! Again, I humbly apologize for the wait. It shouldn't have taken this long, but life, as always, has a way of stepping in, and I have been hellaciously busy this last little while. (Heavy sigh.) At least I wasn't sick this time! :D

Again, guys, thanks so much for all the support for this little story! I can't say that it has a huge following ("tiny" might be more descriptive ...), but at least it seems to be appreciative—so far, at least! ... Which makes me feel sad that I made you wait so long for this chapter! But I really didn't want to put it out and then discover that I had to rework it after it was out (blah!). I think I have the direction for the final chapter pretty much in hand now, so hopefully that won't happen. Meanwhile, not much writing has occurred for the past few days (again, hellaciously busy).

Reviews ... yep, for the most part, Jack really does seem to ignore women, which makes his attention to Carly a little atypical. (Must not go into lengthy discussion of Dark Signer arc, etc ...) ... poor Stephanie; she really does seem to be on the tail end of that, too. (Ooh ... I feel a story idea coming on ... must write down ... sorry, moving on.) Looks like you spotted the foreshadowing of impending one-sided kingcrabshipping! In this story, Yusei sensed a little something developing between Jack and Kaz and decided he'd better say something while he had the chance. I hope you don't hate it, but I couldn't resist. Besides, as much as I'm a kingcrabshipper myself, I do have some reservations as to whether that could work out, and this points out one of the main ones. (Yusei's need to help Kiryu was also a stumbling block in Satisfaction.) Well, that was way too much stuff, so on with the note:

you souped up our competition's D-wheel: Jack is referring to Team Taiyou, an arclet that was omitted from the 4Kids version.

Preview of chapter 6 ...

"Kaz?" Jack said, surprised. "What are you doing here?" A slight splash of pink splashed over his pale cheeks for the briefest of moments.

"Someone called in about trespassers in the area and I happened to be driving through the neighborhood."

"But you're—"

"Off duty? Yes; I'm going to have to stop taking drives when I'm not on duty. These calls keep coming in. But at any rate, would you mind taking your activities off this property? It's been frequented by juveniles lately and the owners are concerned about the liability risk."

Kazama attempts to pretend he didn't see a thing ...

Now let's finally get this puppy posted!