capeandcowllogs | it's too early to look up something cute

it's too early to look up something cute

WHO:

donttasemebro
WHERE: Yuusei's MAC apartment
WHEN: Aug. 16th noonish?
WARNINGS: aha...ahahaha...we'll see
SUMMARY: Kiryu is fed up with people leaving/dying and not being able to do anything and Yuusei and thus goes to antagonize Yuusei because that's one thing he does to feel better. Then Bruno appears! Shenanigans ensue~
FORMAT: idk para to start, then whatever

Starscream, Soundwave, Saitou...

None of them were back yet. Even though Soundwave had promised, even though he couldn't remember a time when Starscream hadn't been here, even though Saitou just wouldn't stop getting taken away...and he couldn't do a damn thing about it. Threatening the 'Porter with explosives had worked so well last time, after all. And Shockwave said he was working on a plan to get revenge, but that could take weeks or months.

Kiryu was frustrated now.

He couldn't stay in the apartment. He couldn't even sleep in his room--in Saitou's room, it had never been his--so he'd been sleeping in Alastair's or on the couch. But he couldn't keep doing that. And he couldn't hide in Dancitron; that had been Soundwave and Starscream's...

So now he was here. Staring at Yuusei's door. Debating whether he should knock or just leave. Nothing was going to come out of this. He was going to yell, again, maybe light something on fire, maybe duel, and nothing would come out of it.

But he'd texted Yuusei and told him he was coming. And Kiryu Kyosuke didn't back out of his promises.

He banged on the door. He didn't have to be nice about it, at least.

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Two weeks.

Exactly two weeks had passed since Bruno left Yuusei's apartment. It seemed like Bakura was the only person to have seen him in that time, but what he'd heard from him only made him more worried. By now, he'd searched for his friend in every place he could think of, with no results. He wasn't sure what to think about it - Bruno wouldn't act like that, he would certainly let him know where he was, unless he was--

Yuusei shook his head, setting his communicator aside. No news from Bruno today, either.

As if to make things worse (thought he really didn't want to think of it as 'worse'), Kiryuu wanted to meet him. He couldn't tell what his friend's ('enemy's' right now?) intentions were. Perhaps he wanted to just talk... Or perhaps he wanted to kill him.

Upon hearing the banging on the door of his apartment (he'd had more than enough time to fix it), he stood up and went to open it. He only hesitated for a second before pulling the handle and stepping aside to let Kiryuu in.

Kiryu hesitated a moment before walking in. He didn't know what he'd been expecting--for Yuusei to ignore him, maybe--but it wasn't to just open the door. He was as much of an idiot as Kiryu remembered.

But the familiar feelings of rage and pain were still there, ignited again by seeing his face, by being this close...at least he'd left his sword at home today. It wouldn't be fitting to settle this in any way but a duel.

"The last time I saw you in person, it was to apologize," Kiryu murmured. Then he laughed, flicking his hair out of his face. "Of course, I wasn't myself that week. It's good you don't remember that."

It was hard to believe it wasn't the same Kiryuu he'd met in Crash Town. He looked nearly the same, though admittedly, something about him felt different. It wasn't the same as the Dark Signer either.

"Kiryuu..." Yuusei said, not sure how to welcome him. "... No, I don't." He continued in response to the other's remark, slightly surprised by that. Apologize? Right now, he saw no reason why Kiryuu would have to apologize to him. After all, he'd long since forgiven him-- no, better said, they'd forgiven each other.

"You say weren't yourself... So something like that has happened before." The incident from two weeks before hadn't been the first? That certainly didn't make him feel any better.

"Something like...oh." Kiryu had had to laugh again. There wasn't much Yuusei could have experienced already--he hadn't been here that long--so he could guess at what his old friend meant.

"Something happens every month. Or close to it. This place is so much more fun than back home...I wish I'd been here for the robots. But who knows what that would've done to my powers...."

He shook his head and crossed his arms, scowling at the floor. "It wasn't anything like that. I couldn't feel anger for a few days. That...that's really weird, losing an emotion. And one that's so easy to feel..."

Having closed the door, Yuusei gestured for them to move to the living room. He pondered on what Kiryuu had said. Every month? That was... alarming. To think the same thing that had happened to Bruno not so long ago could cause suffering to his friends again...

"... This place is dangerous." Yuusei stated firmly. If he didn't know what he was up against, then how was he supposed to protect everyone?

He looked down, wondering what losing an emotion felt like. Yuusei himself had never been prone to getting angry, but for Kiryuu-- this Kiryuu-- it was probably natural to feel it. "Yes, it... must be." He admitted after a moment of silence.

"That's why it's so fun," Kiryu said with a bigger smirk. Granted, that wasn't always the case, but most of the time, it was amusing.

He was reluctant to follow Yuusei into the living room, somewhere so friendly, almost intimate. He wasn't here as a friend, and he didn't want Yuusei thinking he might be. It was too much like old times, like what he desperately wanted again and didn't want just as much.

"I'm not here to be your friend," he found himself saying. As if he had to convince himself of that.

Yuusei frowned at that remark, but didn't comment on it. There was no use arguing - not now, anyway.

He figured it wouldn't be easy to make Kiryuu trust him, and frankly, he wasn't surprised. But Yuusei knew his friend, knew the real him, one that wasn't holding a grudge against his former teammate. Therefore, Yuusei wouldn't give up on him.

"I know," he replied calmly, "You came here to talk, didn't you?"

Kiryu wasn't sure what to say for a moment. He hadn't been expecting Yuusei to concede that point so easily. He'd been expecting another impassioned speech that would show Yuusei still didn't understand anything at all.

Maybe he was here to talk. Maybe he just needed to be around someone who didn't remind him of everyone he'd lost in the last month.

Maybe Yuusei didn't need to know about that. He chuckled and gave a lopsided grin. "What if I came here to kill you~?"

Yuusei had no proof that wasn't Kiryuu's goal. No proof, but a belief? Yes. Maybe it was because of what he had told him told after their second Duel of Darkness. Maybe it was because it just-- didn't add up. If he was to kill the Signer, he could've said so outwardly in the message; it wasn't like he would've run away. And on top of that, he just wanted to believe that the old Kiryuu, his friend and leader, was still there.

"... I trust you," came Yuusei's short answer, "You're my friend."

"You're such an idiot," Kiryu muttered, shaking his head. "What was the point of even dueling you? I could have just walked up to you and wrung your neck."

Though, truth be told, he couldn't imagine any way other than dueling to be satisfying. And Ccapac Apu probably would have thrown a fit and forced him to duel anyway if he'd tried anything else.

Yuusei had seen through him anyway. He wasn't too surprised about that. Kiryu wasn't the type to hide behind pretty words or vague actions; he made his intentions clear and went through with them. As long as it was something he was comfortable with admitting. That he'd come here to be in Yuusei's company? Not something he was too comfortable with.

"I'm not your friend," he snapped, crossing his arms. "But...you're right." He hesitated before adding quietly, "I don't really want you dead anymore."

"You wouldn't do that," Yuusei said, confident he knew his friend well enough to be able to determine that. "It wouldn't satisfy you, would it?"

He was genuinely surprised to hear that from Kiryuu-- mostly because, even though he'd already known about that, he hadn't expected Kiryuu to admit it right now. But perhaps it was a sign of a change, giving him hope that this time, bringing his true leader back wouldn't require fighting him in a life-and-death battle...

"Then, after all, you really..." Yuusei made a small pause, wondering if Kiryuu believed what he had told him about that night. "... Thank you."

Kiryu sneered at him, determined to keep Yuusei second-guessing as much as possible. He might not want him dead anymore, but he was still angry and hurt and he still didn't quite trust that Yuusei had told him the truth yet.

Although he couldn't deny it was pleasing that Yuusei knew him well enough to know he wouldn't be satisfied with something so simple.

"Don't thank me. There's nothing to thank me for. I still hate you." He paused, raking his fingers through his hair. "How have you been settling in?"

"... I've been doing fine." Yuusei answered slowly, trying not to let the comment about Kiryuu hating him get to him, even though it did hurt to hear him say that again. "You've been here much longer, haven't you...?"

Before he could ask him anything else, he was interrupted by the light sound of knocking on the door. He turned in that direction, looking slightly confused. He hadn't expected any other guests today. And yet, there appeared to be another person who'd decided to pay him a visit.

With a short 'excuse me' directed at Kiryuu, Yuusei headed towards the door and opened it.

And guess who was standing right there, wringing his hands a little.

"... H-hi, Yuusei."

The last person he'd expected to see at the moment, presumably. Proved by the stunned look on his face, which was, however, quickly replaced with worry.

"Bruno! Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?" Yuusei asked the newcomer, his other guest instantly forgotten.

Kiryu scowled a little as Yuusei walked away but he could do anything about random people showing up at the door, so at least he didn't feel annoyed for long. Yuusei would be back in no time, and in the mean time, he could figure out exactly what else he wanted to say. he hadn't exactly shown up with a plan in mind, after all.

Except that Yuusei didn't come right back. Kiryu wandered after him, frowning at the man in the doorway and the clear concern in Yuusei's voice. Who was this supposed to be?

Bruno was sans his signature jacket and wearing a clearly borrowed t-shirt and pair of jeans. There weren't any discernible physical injuries on him, but his hair was a mess and he had a very faintly haunted look about him. When he spoke his voice was a bit hoarse from disuse.

"I'm alright. I..."

The words got stuck in his throat. He stared at Yuusei and realized he just couldn't think of anything to say that seemed like... enough. So he suddenly found himself just leaning down and hugging Yuusei around the shoulders, tightly but delicately, being very careful not to hurt him. He'd hurt him enough already.

"... Sorry."

In Yuusei's opinion, Bruno didn't look entirely 'alright'. But he was alive and well and that was what mattered the most. He was safe. Slowly, the duelist returned the gentle hug, sighing with relief and shaking his head at the apology.

"It's not your fault. I'm glad you're okay," Yuusei assured him with a soft smile. "Welcome back, Bruno."

Kiryu scowled more and more the longer he watched, shoving down feelings of...jealousy? It couldn't be jealousy; he didn't like Yuusei enough for it to be jealousy. And he'd never felt jealous of Jack or Crow. But then, he couldn't remember the last time Yuusei had hugged anyone.

Bruno...that sounded familiar...Alastair had mentioned him. The D-Wheel guy.

He smirked, completely unwelcoming and annoyed, and moved to put his hair up. "I guess I shouldn't have even worried, huh, Yuusei-ou? Looks like you're doing more than 'fine'."

Bruno glanced up at Kiryu with a bit of a start when he heard him speak. It hadn't even occurred to him that Yuusei would have someone else over. Suddenly he felt a little bit embarrassed.

"Uh... hi," Bruno said, staring at the new guy he didn't recognize. His arms were still flopped vaguely around Yuusei's shoulders. "Who are you?"

It wasn't any kind of accusatory or leading question, he was just genuinely clueless.

Kiryuu's voice brought Yuusei back to reality, which welcomed him with something he wasn't prepared for. He turned around (though not bothering to have Bruno take his hands off his shoulders), feeling kind of guilty for forgetting his friend was even in the room. Well, that was already done, so no point dwelling on that. What was left was to explain the situation to both of them.

... He hadn't planned for that.

"Bruno," he spoke, somehow maintaining his calm tone, "this is Kiryuu." He wasn't sure if explaining who that person was to Bruno right now would be a good idea, so he left that out for the time being. "Kiryuu, this is Bruno. He lives with me, Jack and Crow back in our world."

Kiryu paused for a brief moment, giving Yuusei a very brief look. "I didn't know you were living with them again..."

But he didn't let himself dwell on that for long, lest he end up feeling hurt or something else unsavory and confusing. He crossed his arms and looked back at Bruno, smirking again. "I used to live with Yuusei and them a few years ago, while we were all still in Satellite. Before everything went to hell."

"You're from our world? You know the guys?"

Bruno took his arms off Yuusei and stood there wondering if he should smile and introduce himself properly or something. All he managed was a weak half-grin. "Well, um, any friend of Yuusei is a friend of mine, I... guess." The name Kiryu sounded familiar, but he had the feeling he was missing something very important about this conversation. But, well, it wasn't like that was a particularly unfamiliar feeling to him. He noticed that Kiryu's eyes were odd, but for all he knew that was just a side-effect of his Porter powers or something.

What little cheer he'd managed to scrounge up just kind of fizzed away when Kiryu elaborated, though. "... Went to hell?" He tried to sift back through the things Yuusei and his friends had gone through before he met them, the stuff he only ~~thinks he~~ knows secondhand. "Do you... mean the whole Earthbound Gods battle?"

There were many things about the future Yuusei should have told Kiryuu and hadn't, he was aware of that. Though it was mostly because his former teammate just wouldn't listen to anything he would try to explain to him. That was one thing about Kiryuu that never changed.

He had an uneasy feeling this conversation was heading in a direction he would later regret. After all, having Bruno dragged into all that mess was the last thing Yuusei would want to happen.

"No," he answered Bruno's question, looking down. If it hadn't been crystal clear he wasn't willing to talk about it before, it was now. "It was... before that."

"It was before Jack was even King." Kiryu's expression turned slightly more fond as he added, "The Earthbound Gods were a part of it. But I'm sure Yuusei remembers all that better than I do."

He pointedly didn't say anything about Bruno's assumption that he was a friend. Let him think that; Yuusei knew he felt otherwise, and that was enough for him. He wasn't going to elaborate anymore on this particular subject either; this was his battle with Yuusei, and this Bruno could hardly understand any of it, since he hadn't been there.

He shrugged and looked back at Bruno. "I heard you're into D-Wheels?"

"Oh." Bruno wasn't sure what to say to that. It had never really occurred to him before, but he really didn't know much about Yuusei and Jack and Crow's lives from before he'd met them, except that they had all lived in old Satellite together. On the one hand he wanted to hear more, but... Yuusei was definitely worked up about all this somehow, and if Yuusei was upset...

Bruno had never felt so much like a third wheel as he did right now.

So when Kiryu gave him an opening to change the subject, Bruno practically jumped on it. "Yeah! Yeah, I, er, back home I'm a mechanic. That's how I ended up living with everybody, sort of."

Kiryuu's remarks aside, Yuusei felt somewhat thankful for the subject change. D-Wheels were a neutral topic, after all, easy to talk about despite how awkward that discourse appeared to be at some points.

"That's true," he nodded, confirming what the other said. "Bruno has helped us a lot."

He nodded, not really at all surprised by that. It would make sense Yuusei was close to someone with the same interests. He'd always been the mechanically minded one.

"It's really a shame we don't have them here," Kiryu muttered. He tried not to think about the lack of Momentum to power them as well; he was perfectly happy with that not being in this world. "A regular motorbike just isn't the same. And Kaiba's from too early...heh, I can't even find half the cards I had in my old deck."

Bruno fidgetted momentarily, extremely tempted to let Kiryu know about the work he was doing with Yuusei to create exactly that. But not having touched base with Kaiba about it for more than two weeks, we still wasn't sure if he was allowed to talk about it yet. If Yuusei knew otherwise or if he figured Kiryu could keep a secret, then maybe he'd bring it up.

"Have you talked to Ruka and Rua? They work at Kaibacorp making cards from our time, they might remember enough about yours to bring them here too."

It wasn't the question of whether Kiryuu could be trusted - Yuusei didn't particularly care about Kaiba Corporation's business secrets, anyway - but rather how he would react to that information. If he was to challenge the Signer to another life-and-death riding duel, then he would rather wait with announcing that.

"... By 'your old deck', you mean..."

He probably didn't have to add 'the one that was taken by Security' to make Kiryuu realize what he wanted to ask about.

Had he talked to the twins? The idea was so ridiculous he had to laugh. Rua would hardly let him say three words if he tried. And Ruka would never mention his cards to Kaiba, if she even listened, out of fear that he might be up to something.

"We're not on speaking terms," he said finally. And if he looked a little mean saying it, that was too bad. "They wouldn't help me anyway."

He glanced at Yuusei and smirked. He'd mentioned that deck without thinking, and of course Yuusei knew exactly which one he'd meant. He usually did. "It doesn't matter. I wouldn't use it much anymore even if I had it." Which wasn't entirely true, even if he did prefer his current deck, but he wasn't about to mention his powers so soon.

Edited 2010-09-13 03:29 (UTC)

"O-oh." Well if Bruno was ever wondering if he could possibly feel more out of the loop in this conversation, he certainly just got that confirmed.

Bruno quickly fished around a little for another neutral-ish subject and, for better or for worse, ended up grasping at one of the things he'd originally come to talk with Yuusei about in the first place: what happened two weeks ago.

"Oh, uh, Yuusei... I guess you already fixed the door, but... if you still need your kitchen stuff replaced, I can pay for it."

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it's too early to look up something cute

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my first phone tag 8D

congrats! \o/

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OTL OTL feel like resurecting this? 8D;;;

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