Chapter 36 : Staying Alive
As Stephanie's eyes locked with Yuko's kind gaze, Yuko slowly raised himself up from his bed and took a deep breath, before attempting to declare his true feelings towards Stephanie.
"Stephanie...there something I must confess...I..." began Yuko, but before he could finish his declaration, in a slow motion event, Stephanie leaned forward, her eyes gracefully closing and pressed her lips gentle against Yuko's soft and tender lips.
As Yuko's cheeks began to shade with blush, taken completely by surprise, he accepted the kiss and felt his worrying thoughts drain away. His mind now concentrating on the affectionate sensation, Yuko slowly slipped his moist tongue into the interior of Stephanie's unexplored mouth while closing his eyes, and the two friends felt their tongues pleasantly intertwine.
Trying to control her breathing, Stephanie raised her arms round Yuko's warm neck, causing Yuko to wrap his muscular arms around Stephanie's slim body, pulling her closer to his bandaged torso.
Both Stephanie and Yuko savored the delicate moment, before Stephanie was the first to release Yuko from her grasp.
The two stood still for a few seconds, panting loudly as they exchanged surprised, yet friendly glances.
"Yuko...I...I'm sorry...I..." stuttered Stephanie, only to find Yuko reconnect his lips with her's, embracing her tightly and passionately kissing her. Tears of joy began to develop in Stephanie's eyes, and streamed down her blushing cheeks while her tongue swirled around with Yuko's. Never had the two friends experienced a sensation so remarkably comforting and perfect, if only Jack wasn't there to spoil the moment.
"Yuko! Stephanie! It's been 10 minutes! What's taking so long!?", yelled Jack in an outburst from downstairs.
Yuko slowly broke away from Stephanie, his heart rate slowly decreasing and smiled lightly. "We best make your way downstairs, or the others might get suspicious", he whispered, causing Stephanie to nodded, and hug Yuko tightly, tears now free-falling from her fragile maroon eyes.
"I love you, Yuko...but all this time I was afraid to say it...until now!", blubbered Stephanie, while Yuko reassuringly hugged her back before gently whispering, "I love you too".
It was now 4:00pm, the sunwas beginning to set and both Yusei and Crow were upstairs sleeping in their small beds, while Stephanie, Jack and Yuko had all just finished their late lunch. Stephanie had prepared for Jack a large bowl of ramen, while Yuko and Stephanie both had homemade noodles for themselves (Yuko cooked his noodles with too much salt...no surprise).
"Now that was a good meal!" stated Jack before yawning.
Yuko nodded. "I agree! Much better than the garbage you prepare".
Jack turned to glare at Yuko, while Stephanie giggled lightly at the comment. "Yuko...don't you think that's a bit harsh", hinted Stephanie softly.
Yuko rolled his eyes, and got up to collect the empty bowls. "Alright...I admit that Jacks cooking is at least...edible", he teased, and walked over to place the empty bowls in the kitchen sink, while Jack grunted as he then crossed his arms.
"Well then, I'll admit that your dueling skills are acceptable...for a novice", mocked Jack vengefully.
Yuko shrugged, but tried to brush away the comment "Anyway, I gotta go pay a visit to the twins! Does anyone want to come along?" asked Yuko enthusiastically.
Jack huffed. "No thanks. I'm going to go train up for the Grand Prix, which is taking place at the dueling stadium in 5 days", he stated proudly, and got up so to make his way towards the garage door.
Stephanie looked up at Yuko uneasily and slowly shook her head. "I would...but...Jack has given me a list of chores to do for the day", she admitted shyly, causing Yuko to sigh and kiss Stephanie lightly on the forehead.
"Ok, but don't work too much. I'll try and be back before 7:00pm", said Yuko reassuringly, and left the house via the front door, cheerfully waving back at Stephanie (who could help, but blush from the kiss) on his way out.
Yusei had asked Yuko to take care of Leo and Luna from 4:00pm to 6:30pm, considering that him and Akiza weren't able to today. It didn't really bother Yuko, he hadn't spent much time with the twin yet and wanted to get to know both Leo and Luna a little better.
As Yuko made his way towards his duel runner, he pulled out a small piece of paper from his back pocket, with a rough sketch indicating the location of the apartment, which the twins lived in. He then climbed on to his duel runner, put on his helmet, started up the engine and sped out out of the garage doors, through the New Domino City streets, towards his new destination. It was difficult to grasp the handle bars of his duel runner, considering that his left arm had a cast over it, but it didn't stop him, nor did it slow him down.
On route, Yuko began to think hard about how he and Stephanie had just confessed to each other, kissed and are now practically living under the same roof. Yuko like Stephanie a lot and constantly enlightened every time he saw her, but this sensation was all new to him. He had never had a girlfriend before and didn't know how to act...romantic.
Eventually Yuko reached the heart of New Domino City and was about start begin his search for the location of the twin's apartment, when his thoughts was interrupted by a hissing sound, closing in from behind his duel runner.
Without stopping, Yuko turned his head round curiously only to find a large explosion erupt from behind his D-Wheel, the impact causing him and his runner to fly forwards just above the ground.
Completely take by surprised, Yuko and his runner drifted off the main road and crashed into a side alley, his D-Wheel smashing violently into a building wall, while Yuko tried his best to protect his previous injuries, but ended up colliding into the wall with his runner.
Grey and black smoke began to emerge from his runner as it then fell flat on to the ground, a few shards of his once majestic duel runner breaking off.
"What the hell...", groaned Yuko, coughing from the smoke and tried to lift his right armed, but could instantly feel that the bones had become disjointed from his shoulder. He also notice the side of his right leg had be completely scrapped, and was bleeding heavily through his torn jeans.
"Yuko Tatsumi!" yelled a deep voice from within the dark alley. Yuko painfully dragged himself off his duel runner and looked up, trying his best to stabilize his vision and shaking body. After having fully adjusted his eyes sight, he noticed a dark and tall figure standing a few meters away from him.
"Who a-are you", croaked Yuko weakly, and attempted to lift himself up, only to fall back down against the concrete floor.
The dark figure began laughing dramatically and revealed what seemed to be a duel disk attached to his arm, illuminating brightly in the dark only to reveal a part of the shaded figures face. "Who I am is none of your concern, now tell me...where's the Crimson duel disk!" asked the dark figure intimidatingly.
Yuko looked at figure confused. "Crimson duel disk?"
"Yes, the one which Zane gave to you. If you give it to me now, I'll promise to end you painlessly", said the figure in a mocking tone.
Yuko fearfully looked up at the dark figure. Terrified as he was, he discretely tried to reach for his phone from his back pocket, trying not to make sudden movement to worsen the pain that he was experiencing from his leg and dislocated arm.
"I wouldn't do that's were you", suggested the figure, but Yuko didn't hesitate. He knew that he was dead either way, and wanted to contact his friends one last time.
The evil figure then raised his duel disk and held out a card on front of him. "Very well. You leave me now choice...I'll summon Dark Bomb once again to finish the job!" yelled the dark figure, causing a large black ball with hate-filled eyes to appear before him. Yuko eyed the round creature and realized that it had been the one that causes the previous explosion, causing Yuko to lose control of his duel runner.
"Go Dark Bomb! Destroy Yuko Tatsumi!" ordered evil dark figure, and the round creature rolled over a full speed toward Yuko, expected to explode at any minute.
Yuko observed as the moving object rolled closer and closer in his direction. He was completely exposed and defenseless. With no psychic duel disk to protect him, no Akiza to save him, Yuko yanked out his phone, hoping to leave one final message to his friends before getting consumed by the next sudden explosion.
Suddenly, another person from the rooftops landed hard in front of Yuko, his body cover with a cloak and armor, holding a large fire-coated sword in his hands. The person then slashed at the "Dark Bomb", cutting the spherical creature into two, before it had time to explode, and the creature turned into a small ball of light which hovered back into its card.
"Stop right there Greiger! If you wanna get to Yuko, your gonna need to get past me", stated an unfamiliar Brooklyn accent.
Yuko was speechless. He was only moments away from getting blown up into smithereens, and now there was a unknown cloaked figure, clenching on to a giant, sword standing protectively in front of him.
The dark figure (who Yuko now understood was in fact called Greiger) stepped forwards so that the light was able to shine on half his body. "Well well well, this is a surprise! What is a punk like you doing here, I wonder?" he asked rather disappointed tone.
"I'm here to stop you from killing Yuko! What does it look like I'm doin!" the new cloaked figure shouted back.
Greiger huffed with frustration. "I have no quartile with you, Joey Wheeler! However, if you don't step aside, I will consider you me enemy and I won't hesitate to kill you!" he stated threateningly, and approached both Yuko and the cloaked figure which Yuko now understood to be called "Joey Wheeler".
"And I won't hesitate to chop you if you don't back off now!" yelled Joey as he took a few intimidating steps forward, causing Greiger to stop in his tracks.
After a short silence, Greiger turned around and paced away slowly. "You two best watch out the next time we meet, for I won't hold back in exterminating you both", were the last words Grieger spoke before disappearing into the shaded distance.
Joey sighed and deactivated his duel disk, causing his cloak and armor to disappear, revealing jeans, a plain white t-shirt and a pair of trainers over his feet. He then turned round, reached down to pick up Yuko's blood-covered body from the ground and began to carry Yuko out of the alleyway, where some security police officers had just arrived to investigate the accident.
Jeoy briefly spoke to them, explained the situation and afterwards paced his way down the pavement, away from the accident. "Yuko, stay with me, will ya! You gotta give me some directions! Your injuries need to be treated as soon as possible, and you've lost a lot of blood! Do you know a safe place where you could stay?", he asked nervously, and watched as Yuko grimly reached into his jean pocket so to pull out a small piece of paper with directions, which Yusei had scribbled on to it.
Joey looked at it quickly and nodded. "Ok, I'll take you there...just don't die!"
Yuko: Oh no! I might die!
Carly: Sure you will...
Yuko: You never know...I could die of blood loss!
Carly: You talking to me right now! Oh course, you didn't die!
Yuko: Oh...good point :P
Carly: (sighs) Anyway, to all you readers, Yuko is now writing some serious fan fic, so please Review and encourage him! :D