capeandcowllogs | un-break my heart

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un-break my heart

WHO:

Yuusei and

Bruno
WHERE: Yuusei's MAC apartment
WHEN: Evening of Tuesday, February 8th
WARNINGS: Spoilers, inner joke lyrics and inevitably, mechanics geek talk.
SUMMARY: Bruno needs to tell his bff something. Unknowingly to him, said bff knows much more about him than he himself does at the moment. ~~Drama in hindsight.~~
FORMAT: putting letters together. it's hard, man.

Bruno had sounded so... normal earlier that day.

It was still hard for Yuusei to believe they could talk like they had usually done back home. Bruno seemed cheerful and kind, just like the friend the Signer knew. Normally it wouldn't surprise him, because that's the way the fellow mechanic genius was. Back in their world, they had been living together long enough for Yuusei to say knew him, trusted him.

Or so he had thought.

Bruno's reveal of his true identity was still fresh in his mind, Antinomy's words still ringing in his ears. Yuusei was considered by many to have the unique ability to always know how to handle the situation, but this time he felt lost. Here, in the City, Bruno was his friend who knew nothing of what had happened inside the Ark Cradle. That meant they could get along just fine, like they always had. But he couldn't simply ignore or forget what he had learned about him.

"The reason I got close to you and acted as your friend was so I could use your strength."

Yuusei shook his head, refusing to let those words take away the image of the Team 5D's member, their friend who had helped them out countless times, one they could always count on. That was the person Bruno was in this world.

The duelist looked at the clock, wondering if Bruno would come as he'd promised. Even without what he'd heard from Antinomy, they still had a lot to discuss.

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Bruno's knock on the door came only a couple minutes later. He was still staying in his place at the MAC for right now, after all, and that was only a few floors and a hallway or two away.

Whenever Yuusei opened the door, he'd see Bruno standing there with the same gentle, relieved smile that had beamed across the comm at him earlier that day.

"Hey, Yuusei," he greeted.

Hearing the knocking, Yuusei went to open the door -- and he only hesitated for a second before doing so. Not surprisingly, he had mixed feeling when he saw his friend, but he didn't want to make it obvious. Not when Bruno seemed so happy with him being in the City.

"Bruno," he greeted him with a small nod, stepping away to let him inside, "It's good to see you."

Bruno may have known Yuusei pretty well, but he still wasn't in any kind of state to be able to read beneath those already-subtle facial expressions. "It's great to see you too," he said in that heartbreakingly genuine way of his as he stepped inside.

But now that he was face-to-face with him instead of just speaking on the network, and the reality of telling his best friend the truth started to actually sink in, his smile began to turn a little pained and his gaze wandered downward and broke contact with Yuusei's.

"... A lot happened while you were gone," he said quietly.

Perhaps it was for the better Bruno had looked away from him. It would make things slightly easier for both of them for the time being.

Yuusei gestured towards the living room, inviting his friend there. Up until now, he hadn't been able to find out what was the cause of his friends' peculiar behavior. What little both Bakura and Ruka had revealed to him suggested something had indeed happened, but neither of them was willing to share that. He had... suspicions, but he's much rather they didn't turn out to be true.

"... Is that connected to why you haven't been coming home lately?" The duelist asked in a calm voice.

"... Yeah," Bruno murmured, following along in the direction Yuusei was gesturing. He sat down on the living room couch stiffly, like he wasn't really sure if it was right for him to be offered things like 'somewhere comfortable to sit while we talk'...

Bruno shook his head almost imperceptively, then set his jaw and tried to steel himself for the actual telling. No matter who or what Bruno was, Yuusei would stay his friend, he was sure of that.

"I, um..." he began, "a couple of weeks ago, I... You know those weird things that just sort of happen here sometimes, for no reason?" He was speaking all this in the general direction of the armrest; he still couldn't quite meet Yuusei's eyes. "Well, in one of those... I got a couple memories back, sort of."

Yuusei sat down next to him in a similar manner -- it seemed that, despite being happy with the reunion, both of them felt rather uncomfortable with the discussion that was about to follow, albeit for entirely different reasons. He noticed Bruno's uneasiness -- it was rather obvious, to tell the truth -- and he didn't exactly felt reassured by that.

... There it was. The information he didn't want to hear. Not now, not anytime soon, maybe never. Yesterday he would have been happy to see Bruno regain his memories, but now that he actually knew what those were... Well, at least Bruno wouldn't have trouble avoiding Yuusei's gaze right now, as he did that for him.

"I see," he said in his usual collected tone and made a small pause before asking another question. "What exactly did you remember?"

"I-I..." A pause, then a steadying breath.

"... I'm not... human, Yuusei. I don't know if I ever was."

He stared down at his left hand laying in his lap, slowly flexed the fingers. Then, forlornly, he let his eyes drift shut.

"I'm a machine. A robot."

That caught him off guard. He expected... something else. Worse, by his standards. It didn't matter to him who or what his friends were. Which was why the first feeling that came after hearing what Bruno said was... relief, in a way.

"You're..." Yuusei began slowly, only mildly surprised. Not angry, not scared, not anything once could expect of a person who had just been told one of his best friends was a robot. There again, his reactions were hardly ever typical ones.

However, he never ended that sentence, as the realization of the actual meaning of that struck him. Bruno was a robot... just like Aporia. And that could mean he had been created by Z-ONE as well.

Even without him ever finishing the sentence, just from hearing the tone in his voice, Bruno felt himself being washed over by his own wave of relief. Yuusei wasn't afraid, he wasn't angry, he wasn't standing up to get himself away from this thing that he'd thought was his friend, nothing like that. Bruno had guessed right.

Bruno finally turned to look into Yuusei's eyes and... he smiled. It was tiny and awkward and a little apologetic and looked like it could be blown off his face by a stiff breeze, but he was smiling.

"I know, right? It's... I mean, I guess it doesn't really explain much, but..." The thought just sort of tripped over itself and Bruno forgot where he was even going with that. He just petered off and watched for Yuusei's reaction expectantly, and still a little bit uncertainly.

Yuusei looked up, meeting the other's gaze at last. That was when, for the first time in the past several hours, he knew beyond any doubt he was speaking to Bruno, not Antinomy. His friend, not an enemy.

And he really didn't want that to change.

"It's good you got to know a little more about yourself, even if it isn't clear," he said, apparently having accepted the fact the man he had known for about a year suddenly turned out to be a robot just as easily as someone telling him it's cold in winter. He wasn't a type that would judge others, and besides, he knew Bruno was a kind, helpful person -- why would that change just because he wasn't human? Their bond remained the same, if not got stronger by learning more about one of them.

And then the smile just bloomed across his face infectiously, but he reigned it in a little the very next moment. He didn't want Yuusei to think he'd been too anxious over his reaction.

"Y-yeah, it's better knowing that not knowing," he said, although it sounded more like he was still trying to convince himself.

He sobered again as he went on, though. "But... yeah. That's the reason I wasn't coming home for a while. I didn't want anyone to know, and... I was afraid of hurting anyone." I was afraid of myself, is what hung unspoken in the air.

"Have you remembered anything else?" Yuusei asked cautiously, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer already. Had he remembered it, Antinomy would have no reason to continue keeping his identity secret.

Those words didn't need to be said for Yuusei to hear them. He could only imagine how lost and confused Bruno must have felt when he had found out about this. However, he was aware how much distress the entire situation caused Ruka.

"You're our friend, Bruno. No matter what," he assured him firmly, yet gently. "Still, Ruka was pretty upset." A pause. There was no accusation in his voice, he was simply informing him of the way the girl felt. "... You should tell her. She'll understand." Provided she would agree to let him explain himself.

Bruno shook his head. "No, nothing. I mean, even what I did remember was just some stuff that happened in the City that had made he realize what I was earlier, but that I'd..." There was a pause where he seemed to roll the words around in his mouth, like something bitter-tasting, before he went on. "My... programming, had covered those memories up."

Bringing up Ruka seemed to touch a more tender, guilty sort of nerve with him, and he bowed his head a little as he answered. "... I know. I... broke a promise I made her," he said enigmatically and softly. "I am going to go back, though. I talked with Lupin the other day about what I found out about myself, and he said it's okay to come live with them again." He still seemed a little surprised that Lupin had been so willing to have something like him in the same house as a girl he thought of as his daughter.

And, notably, Bruno hadn't said a word in response to Yuusei's suggestion that he tell Ruka the truth.

He'd suspected that could be the case, but didn't voice his thoughts, nodding silently in response instead.

Yuusei didn't intent to force him to tell anyone -- it was far too important for Bruno and he wouldn't dare to make this decision in his place. He appreciated he shared it with him and was willing to keep it a secret from everyone else as long as Bruno wished for it, which of course went without saying.

He was probably best known for his ability to tell the feelings of other people, and this time was no different. He could see his friend still seemed a little anxious and although he was aware Bruno might have already had his share of difficult confessions today, he decided to inquire about one more -- perhaps the most important -- thing.

"Are you alright?"

The question clearly caught Bruno a little off guard, and his head snapped back up as he looked again at Yuusei. "I--" he started, but trailed off almost instantly and shut his mouth again a bit stupidly.

Was he alright?

He... he should be, shouldn't he? Everything had been going pretty well for him so far. None his friends who had found out so far had rejected him, he still had a home to go back to (once he'd worked up the nerve), and not only was his best friend back, but even he didn't care for a second what Bruno was either. Even the thing with Ruka was just a dumb screw-up of his own, something totally unconnected to this; as far this whole... "robot" thing was concerned, things were going fine. So he should feel fine, right?

Bruno's eyes broke away from Yuusei's again, and his gaze drifted down to the floor, almost ashamed.

"I... I don't know," he admitted quietly, "I..."

He bit his lip a little. There was... something else still that he hadn't admitted to Yuusei, and the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to. Maybe Yuusei hadn't made the connection, but the truth was, Bruno had never really forgotten what Yuusei had told him last summer when he'd asked about what was happening at the point in time that Yuusei had come from then. About the riding roids rampaging through the city, and how the man controlling them... was a...

He needed to believe it was just a coincidence. Somehow.

"I just wish I knew what this all meant," he finally murmured enigmatically.

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un-break my heart

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