Chapter 4 : A Refreshing Start
"Yusei! Helloooo!" Crow boomed and knocked a few times on the front door of a rather large building, much bigger than Yuko's small garage apartment. Yuko heard a "clunking" sound and the door swung opened to Jack, who was still not dressed into his "white knight in shining armor costume" and looked like he had just woken up from a nightmare.
"God damn it Crow, I was sleeping! If the door is locked, use the spare key which is underneath the door mat! How many times do me and Yusei have to tell you!" shouted Jack, his face covered in sweat, which was also seeping through his grey top.
"Sheesh, calm down man! I went to collect Yuko from the hospital! You didn't have to lock the front door you know. It's not like anyone is gonna steal from us after what we did for the city", replied Crow defensively.
Jack wiped his face with a damp cloth and snorted."You mean, after what I did for the city".
Crow huffed. "Boastful as always", he turned to Yuko and invited him inside.
Inside, the air was cool. The were a few fans for air conditioning, a duel runner engine in the center of the room with an opened tool box beside it, two computers on the right side of the room and an upstaires area where Yuko assumed the beds were. The was also a green couch (which someone was still sleeping on) with a small Tv opposite it and a bathroom close to the bottom of the stairs. Overall, it seemed cosy and Yuko made his way down the entrance slope towards the couch.
Jack went over to bathroom sink near the stairs and strayed water over his face. "Hey Yusei, wake up! We have a guest", he yelled as he dried his face with a fresh, white towel.
A moaning sound came from the couch, but not much movement.
Jack rolled his eyes and sniffed. "It's Akiza!"
Suddenly, the person who had been sleeping, got up as if shot out of a cannon and faced Yuko with sleepy eyes.
Jack chuckled under his breath."Well, that did the trick" he said mockingly, and went upstairs to put on his costume.
Yusei coughed in embarrassment and smiled. "Sorry about that. I thought you were somebody else", he admitted.
Yuko nodded, trying to hid that fact that he was aware Yusei had expected his girlfriend, Akiza.
Yusei got up, his hair still perfectly coiffed from yesterday and made his way towards the fridge. He pulled out two sodas and offered one to Yuko, while Crow on the other hand (after having parked his duel runner outside) went over to a cabinet next to the fridge and pulled out a doughnut. He gobbled it up quickly, then ran upstairs, where Jack was shouting, sounding like he was having trouble with dressing up.
Yusei took a sip of his soda and sat back down cosily on the sofa. "So Yuko, what made you wanna stand up to such that criminal yesterday that you even put your life on the line", he asked curiously as he gulped down his soda.
Yuko stood there thinking, while taking a few sips from the cooling tasteful soda he was drinking."It was because of Itzuki. He was in trouble and it was the only way to protect him", he stated thoughtfully.
Yusei nodded at the response and got up, taking another gulp of his drink as he walked over to Yuko and held out his hand. "It was a brave thing to do and it was the right thing to do", he said grinningly, causing Yuko to smile back awkwardly. "Me, Crow and Jack have decided that we would like you to be part of our team. Any friend of Crow's is considered a friend to us. You may even bunk in here if you want, we have plenty of space".
Yuko's eyes widened. Was this for real? Yusei was actually asking him to join their team and offered a place to stay?
Why? Yuko knew that he wasn't special compared to those three heros. What could he possible offer them in return?
He looked down as the kind hand held out in front of him and shook it firmly. "This is all too good to be true", thought Yuko to himself, and continued to smile happily.
Yusei grinned and just as he finished his soda, the front door opened and a girl came in wearing a red and white top and skirt with scarlet red, silky hair that was held back in the middle, leaving two long strips of hair that fell down the sides of her very beautiful face. It was Akiza. She smiled as she saw Yusei, her ruby colored eyes sparkling with admiration, causing Yusei to blush and cheerfully smile back at her.
Behind Akiza was a much smaller boy and girl. They both seemed about 12 years old and both had long lime green hair that was tied up differently.
The two of them ran down the slope towards Yusei, Akiza still accompanying them closely.
"Hey Yusei, guess what! I finally beat Luna! Which means that because she is a Signer, I can now beat you since you are also a Signer!" said the boy with his hair tied up at the back, jumping up and down excitedly.
"I let him win, otherwise he would have started crying", whispered the girl with her hair tied up at the front, but on both sides of her head. She had a softer voice then Yuko had imagined and thought that the two looked almost identical if it wasn't for the difference in how there hair was tied up.
"Luna!" moaned the small boy. Yuko began to chuckle and caught the twins attention. Yusei (who seemed to have been as amused as Yuko) introduced Luna and Leo to him.
Yuko (who was still smiling uncontrollably) nodded and introduced himself to the twins."I'm Yuko Tatsumi. I'm from the Satellite".
Leo sniggered. "Yes! Just like Yusei! Say, can we duel please, please, please!"
Luna sighed."Not again", she moaned.
Yuko shrugged. Turns out he didn't actually have deck. He had given all his cards to the kids which he had been looking after, since he had lost a lot of duels during the past few weeks and considered his deck to be rubbish.
Yuko scratch the back of his head, a little ashamed. "Umm, well, you see...". His began to feel rather stupid as his face turned red from embarrassment. "I don't actually have a deck".
Everyone, even Akiza (who now listened attentively after having looked around the room) stared a Yuko wide-eyed and surprised.
Leo was the first to break the silence."Why not. You are a duelist, aren't you?".
"He's gotta be, after what me and Akiza saw him pull off. Yuko clearly isn't a novice", Yusei said comfortingly, though Yuko thought that he just said that out of kindness.
"Yeah, but that was luck. I just had a lucky draw and won. Plus, it wasn't even a proper duel and I ended up...", Yuko stopped, and thought about something else to say since the twins were listening in "...getting beat up!"
Akiza moved in closer. "It wasn't luck. Those cards spoke to you. There's no doubt about it, but then who's deck were you using when dueling against that criminal", she asked, eyeing him closely with her curious ruby red eyes.
Yuko sighed. "It was Itzuki's. He was dueling and I had to take over and finish of the duel quickly. Otherwise, he could have been seriously injured from the psychic blasts that the criminal tried to direct at him", he replied, still worried by the fact that he still hadn't got the chance to see how Itzuki was doing.
Akiza's expression quickly changed after Yuko had mentioned "psychic" and she looked away guiltily.
"Wait, what are you guys taking about?" asked Leo, confused about where the conversation was going.
"Yuko! You dueled the criminal!?" said Luna, sounding very worried. "What happened? Did you get hurt?"
Yusei patted Yuko on the shoulder and stopped Yuko from saying anything that would make him feel uncomfortable."It's Ok, Luna. I'm sure that Yuko is fine. You don't need to worry", Yusei reassured her kindly. "As for Yuko's deck, I can give you a few spare cards that you could use to help start off you deck", he continued, causing Leo's expression to enlighten.
"Yeah, so do I! I have tones of spares that you can use which I don't use anymore! You can have them if you want!" he claimed and opened up his rucksack to pull out a bunch of cards that were put all together in a small box. Yuko's eyes widened with surprise. "Thank you. I really appreciate it", he replied, and the twins ran off upstairs where Yuko could hear Crow laughing at Jack. Yuko decided to put the box over at a table, close to the Tv and couldn't help, but notice Yusei kiss Akiza via the reflection of the turned off Tv screen.
Yuko chuffed to himself. "Well, ain't he lucky", he thought and took a seat on the couch while looking through a pile of cards which he pulled out from the box.
He heard Akiza whisper into Yusei's ear, "I've gotta go, but I'll be back soon after 4:00pm".
Yusei nodded and peck her on the forehead. "Ok, I'll set to work on cleaning things up, since my place does seem to be kind of a mess these days".
"Kind of a mess?" thought Yuko, and grinned as he noticed that Yusei's home was covered with screws, screw drivers, old duel runner parts, and there were even a few clothes piled up at the bottom of the stairs. Yusei's home wasn't "kind of a mess", it was a big mess (and strangely cosy at the same time)!
Akiza grinned and kissed Yusei one last time before leaving. Yusei waved at her until she left and turned to face Yuko, who was pretending to be hard at work in his deck construction.
Yuko looked up and found that Yusei was blushing, but was trying hard to hide it, knowing that Yuko was watching and went over to the duel runner engine to work on the repairs.
Yuko smiled. It was amusing for him to see how red Yusei's face had become, even more amusing to see him attempt to hide his feelings.
Yuko looked back at the deck of cards he was holding and started to look through it again, properly this time, when a thought popped into his head. Now he knew why Akiza expression seemed guilty when he mentioned the word "psychic". It was because she was the one that had saved him that day. She also had psychic powers.
Yuko: I hope that you all liked this chapter and please don't forget to Review, Follow or add to Favourites below! :D
Yusei: Hey Yuko! You wanna duel?
Yuko: Naa, you'll just beat me again.
Yusei: You never know, maybe todays your lucky day! :3
Yuko: (sigh) Fine...but your not allowed to use Shooting Star Dragon this time, ok?
Yusei: (Smiles) Ok, I won't.
Yuko: (mwahahaha! Now I'll finally be able to beat him! XD)