Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A few days after Judai’s duel with Camula, the group of friends was gathered at Tome-san’s shop for a rather lackluster attempt at drawbread. So far, no one had found the golden eggwich, not that any of them had tried too hard. It was difficult to muster excitement for such a meaningless activity after everything that had happened over the last week.

At the end of a table, near a wall, sat Obelisk powerhouse-turned Osiris reject, Manjoume, with the Obelisk sweetheart, Asuka, across from him. Beside her was two more Osiris students, Hayato and Shou, with Ra student, Misawa, at the end.

Suspiciously absent from the group, however, was their de facto leader. Judai hadn’t joined them for the drawbread, and had yet to show up at all.

"He was still sleeping when I left this morning," Shou said, looking towards the door of the cafeteria. He was obviously concerned about his honorary big brother. Manjoume snorted and crossed his arms.

"He's probably still sleeping now , that slacker," he said, but his attempt at humour(however flawed) was met with deaf ears. Only Shou and Hayato reacted, rolling their eyes, but couldn't help but glance at each other with worry.

"Maybe someone ought to wake him up, then?" Asuka suggested. The group looked between each other, considering who should be given the responsibility. Asuka sighed. "It's past noon!"

“Leave him alone,” Misawa eventually said. “After that duel with Camula the other day, on top of the injuries he already had? He must be exhausted.”

There was a soft murmur of agreement between them. Judai had passed out for a full day after his second shadow duel, and hadn’t seemed very energetic when he finally did wake up. Shou and Hayato knew he was also having nightmares, which probably only worsened his condition. Waking him up when he needed rest so badly wasn’t something any of them really wanted to do.

Their troubled musings were interrupted as the stomping sound of running footsteps rang loudly through the mostly empty room. A group of three students, all blues, ran in with looks varied between excitement and shock. There was moment of silence as they observed the few groups spread out before one of them set eyes on the mixed group in the corner. He nudged his friends and pointed at them, causing the lot to tense.

"You're that Yuki kid's group, right," the blue that had identified them stated more than asked, stalking up to them.

"Nope, not us," Manjoume said before anyone else could speak. There was a mix of sighs and rolled eyes and Misawa stood to block Manjoume, much to his displeasure.

“I think it’s safe to say we’re not anyone’s group, but in this case, I believe we are who you’re looking for,” he said. Majoume mockingly mouthed along until Asuka reached across the table to punch him in the shoulder. Shou and Hayato laughed at his yelp.

“You might wanna go get your boy, then,” the second Obelisk boy said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. Misawa and Asuka both frowned, and she stood up to join him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, her voice tense. Shou and Hayato looked warily at another, and Majoume glared at the table. They were all thinking the same thing.

Dark Riders

“He’s fighting some chick!” the third Obelisk said from behind the first, a look of glee on his face. His two companions rolled their eyes, and the second elbowed him.

“You’d better go see for yourself,” the first told them.

Shou, Hayato, and Manjoume all stood and as a group the five of them ran out of cafeteria. They followed the sound of cheering and yelling, surprisingly past the duel arena, until they came to the north-side courtyard. There was a huge group of people surrounding the area that must house Judai and whoever he was fighting.

“Should he be dueling in his condition?” Asuka asked, voice thick with worry. Manjoume huffed, but even he looked a little worried. The reckless Osiris student had put his own life on the line twice in a week , and was suffering for it. He really wasn’t in any shape for another duel, and just because the students around them were cheering and generally enjoying whatever they were watching didn’t mean this duel wasn’t a dangerous one.

Hayato and Misawa worked together to get through the crowd, trying to be polite while shoving spectators out of the way so the five of them could make it to the center.What they saw when they finally broke through the last line of spectators was a far from what they expected as it could get.

There was no duel, or at least not the kind of duel they’d been expecting. There were not monsters on the field, no plays being called.

Judai was on the ground, physically wrestling with another Osiris student who was at least a foot taller than him. When they came upon him, the girl had his face shoved in the dirt, and he had his arm wrapped around her neck, awkwardly yanking her down to his level. A brown hat was discarded a few feet away. Both were shouting incoherently at each other, and then the girl grabbed his free, flailing arm and yanked it behind his back, between their bodies, and drawing a muffled shout from the boy.

“Say it!” the girl yelled, her face split in a wide grin, as she jerked herself free and shoved her full body weight onto his arm. Judai grunted and struggled for a moment before finally going lax. He rested his chin on the ground and with a flat face spoke.

“Fine, fine, you win. Happy?” He rolled his eyes and looked towards the crowd, ignoring the girl’s cheerful ‘as a clam!’, only to come face-to-face with his friends. They all looked suitably horrified. Judai, however, was wholly unrepentant and beaming at them.

“What the hell is going on here!?” Asuka yelled, stomping up to them as the girl got off Judai’s back and helped him back to his feet. He swayed for a moment and the girl held his arm until he steadied himself. Once he was properly upright, she bent down to scoop up her hat, dusted it off, and jammed it back on her head.

“Hey, Asuka!” Judai greeted cheerfully, skillfully dodging the question. “Guys!”

The four boys joined Asuka, all of them equally baffled, with the exception of Manjoume who just looked amused.

“Hah, got your ass kicked by a girl, Judai?” he said with a laugh. The girl now standing at Judai’s shoulder had to be nearly Ryou’s height and leered down at him. None of them really noticed as the crowd started to disperse.

“Wanna go a round, then?” the girl asked. Manjoume blinked and she snorted.

“Judai, what is going on?” Misawa asked the boy, who seemed far too pleased with himself. Judai grinned widely.

“Just catchin’ up with an old friend,” he told them, knocking shoulders with the girl. She grinned at Misawa now. “I had no idea she was attending Duel Academy too!”

“Yeah, well,” the girl flipped her long braid off her shoulder and huffed. Her accent was American, and almost stereotypically southern. “I read the brochure wrong.”

Manjoume sniffed haughtily and crossed his arms.

“No wonder you’re in Osiris if you can’t even read right.”

“I’ll show you the other reason I’m in Osiris if you keep on like that,” she said pleasantly.

Then entire group eyed the girl warily. They were all a little confused, to say the least. Shou and Hayato most of all, Judai had never mentioned old friends before. In fact, he hadn’t talked much about his life at all since they met. Shou was starting to wonder if Judai was hiding more than just an old, but clearly close, friend.

He watched the two of them, Judai and this mystery girl, start ribbing each other again. Judai shoved his elbow into her side and she shoved him away, but both were grinning like loons.

“Aniki… who is she?” he asked finally.

“Eh? Oh! Duh, you guys don’t know her, do you?” Judai said, oblivious to the tension rising in his friends.

“Obviously not,” Manjoume muttered.

“The name’s Annabelle Hoxlie,” the girl said with a grin. She tipped her hat at them. “Y’all can call me Annie, if you want.”

“She’s probably my oldest friend, yeah?” Judai asked, looking at her. She shrugged.

“Somethin’ like that. We met when we were eight and nine, I reckon that’s a pretty long time.”

“Yeah, whatever. C’mon, we can catch up properly at the dorm,” he said, entwining his arm with hers and marching off in the direction of the Osiris dorm. “How come I haven’t seen you here before?”

“I’m a year above you, we ain’t got the same classes,” she pointed out as the got further away. Their voices faded as they marched down the path, and the five still standing in the courtyard were left with more questions than answers.

“Well… at least it wasn’t another Dark Rider?,” Hayato commented, attempting to lighten the mood. Though, of the rest of them, he seemed the least concerned. Asuka sighed and started walking after them.

“C’mon, we better make sure he’s alright,” she said. If dueling was out of the question for his condition, physical fighting was doubly so. She’d seen the way he faltered after that fight , if it could really be called such now. A spar, maybe? Either way, she was still worried about him.

The rest of them shared glances before following, all of them equally concerned, if for different reasons.

Chapter Text

“Eh, Judai-aniki?” Shou asked, floating along in his inner tube. The boy in question was sitting on the edge of the hotspring, his feet dangling in the water. Unlike the rest of them; Shou, Hayato, and Manjoume, Judai was still mostly covered in a thick white tanktop and light blue swimming trunks. While it wasn’t required for student to undress completely when enjoying the hot springs, it was unusual.

“Hm?” Judai responded, kicking the water listlessly and not looking at the boy. Hayato floated past on his back and shared a concerned look with Shou. After the whole Camula debacle, Judai had become quiet and reserved, and seemed incredibly nervous about something. In fact, if Shou didn’t know any better, he’d say Judai was scared .

“Are.. you okay?”

Judai hummed. He seemed to consider something for a moment and then, much to Shou’s surprise and amusement, fell onto his side and rolled into the water. He popped up behind Shou with a mischievous grin.

“Oh, I’m fine, Shou. But you might have a little problem.” Shou frowned in confusion until Judai lifted his hand out of the water. He waved Shou’s stolen towel over his head and with a laugh, took off swimming.

“J-JUDAI-ANIKI!” Shou screamed in mortification, swimming after his laughing roommate.

The two of them chased each other in the water, much to the irritation of their last classmate, Manjoume, who was desperately trying to relax.

“Will you two cut it out!” he shouted at them, shaking his fist in their direction. Judai and Shou paused, shared a look, and then gave Manjoume identical looks of pure evil. The ex-Obelisk gulped, but couldn’t swim away fast enough to avoid their dual splash attack. He screamed in indignation and sped after them as they retreated in mock fear.

Hayato sighed, but leaned back with an amused grin.

“Yo,” a voice said from behind him. He turned around and yelped when he found Annie’s face only inches away from his own.

“A-Annie-san!” he yelped, slipping on a rock when he jerked back. Her hand shot out to grab his, keeping him from falling under the water.

“Sorry about that, Hayato,” she said with an apologetic grin once he regained his balance. The large boy laughed it off and waved his hand.

“No, it’s fine. No harm done, yea?” Annie grinned at him and sat back on the rock she was perched on. He blinked when he noticed her wearing a shirt over her purple bathing suit and then blushed.

“A-ah! Annie-san!” he yelped, suddenly mortified by his comparative nudity. The dark-skinned girl chuckled and waved him off.

“I’ve seen a lot worse things than a couple of naked boys, Hayato,” she told him with a grin that, disturbingly, matched Judai’s in it’s mischievousness. She stood up to stretch and then, with a short shout, did a cannonball in the water, splashing Hayato with the wave it generated. He sputtered at her, much to her amusement, and stuck his tongue out.

“Aaaaannie!” came a shout from behind, and they turned around just in time to see Judai divebomb the poor gir. She barely managed a strangled yelp as his attack yanked them both underwater with an incredible splash.

Hayato laughed loudly when they burst up, Judai wrapped around the girl like a squid while she flailed around. Shou and Manjoume arrived to see them fall under again. Even Manjoume couldn’t hold back a snort at the sight, while Shou snatched up the towel Judai had released in favor of his sneak attack.

Their fooling around lasted for nearly an hour, with the games only made more fun by the inclusion of the energetic girl. Shou and Hayato were both thankful for her distraction, as Judai didn’t seem half as nervous as he’d been before.

That didn’t last, however, as Annie eventually had to leave. Apparently she was supposed to be meeting up with her roommate and Tome-san about… something. As soon as she disappeared through the changing room door the cheer seemed to vanish from Judai, and he went back to floating by morosely.

It was through the strange duel with Kaibaman that they finally understood what was wrong with Judai, but even that hour or so showed them a side of Judai they’d never really seen before.

“Hey, Judai-aniki,” Shou began as they headed back towards the dorm. Manjoume and Hayato had stayed behind as they wanted to shower off. Judai seemed a little distracted, and didn’t feel the need.

“Yeah, Shou?”

“How did you ever meet Annie?” he asked, peering at Judai curiously. “She’s from America, isn’t she?”

Judai nodded.

“Texas, yeah,” he confirmed. “Her family’s pretty big and they own a lot of land. My family visited one of her family’s ranches when I was a kid. We met there and just… kept in contact, y’know?”

Shou listened attentively as Judai spoke, noting the nostalgic look on his friend’s face. This was a rare thing with Judai, the taller boy never spoke about his childhood! He seemed almost allergic to the topic, though with Annie around he was opening up more and more.

“I see…” Shou muttered, turning his head to look towards the dorm. Annie’s room was at the opposite end of the second floor from theirs. “You guys must be really close, huh?”

“She’s like a big sister to me,” Judai admitted with a shrug and a grin. “I dunno where I’d be if I’d never met her.”

He admitted it so openly and honestly that Shou was thrown for a loop. He paused in his steps and watched Judai continue walking, unaware that Shou had stopped. It was a weird thing, Shou thought, to be hearing all this from his friend. He was almost envious, that Judai could have such a great relationship with Annie when they weren’t even related? It made his self-consciousness about his own relationship with Ryo seem even worse. He had to admit that it had improved since Ryo’s duel with Judai, but in comparison to Judai and Annie, something still seemed missing.

“Shou?” Judai called from ahead, curious about why the smaller boy had stopped. Shou jumped and then smiled nervously.

“Sorry, Judai-aniki, I was lost in thought,” he said, jogging to catch up.

“Oh? Did it hurt?”

“J-Judai-aniki!”

Chapter Text

Annie didn’t know Shou as well as Judai did, though that could be said for most of his little group. Despite the amount of time she’d spent with the campus-famous slacker, she had her own, admittedly much smaller, group of friends that hogged most of her free time. As she gazed down at the morose freshman on the dock, however, she wondered if he couldn’t use more friends.

He’d been sitting on that pier for two days, after all.

With a sigh, she gripped the plate in her hand a little tighter and descended the path towards the moping boy. She walked with heavy footsteps, not wanting to startle him, and he turned his head slightly to acknowledge the noise. Otherwise, he showed no sign of interest.

Annie sat down beside him and set the plate of shrimp between them, keeping quiet. She pulled up a knee to lean against and closed her eyes, letting the sound of the sea and seagulls wash over her. The salty smell of the ocean filled her senses while cool, refreshing wind swept through her loose hair. Annie had never been a huge fan of being on the sea, which is why she’d declined to watch Judai’s duel two days ago, but she had to admit that the atmoshphere on the island was more than a little relaxing.

While she was sitting there, enjoying the evening, Shou was steadily getting more and more tense beside her. The longer she ignored his presence, and the longer she said nothing, the more antsy he seemed to get.

Eventually he could take her silence no longer and he opened his mouth to snap something, only for her to speak up before he could.

“You should eat something,” she said, nudging the plate closer to him. He glanced down at it and then turned his head away with a ‘hmph!’.

“Not hungry,” he told her. His stomach growled loudly in protest and she could tell from the way he tensed up that he was blushing.

“Hm, suit yourself,” she said with a shrug, picking up one of the fresh shrimp and biting into it with a crunch. “More for me, then.”

He tensed again when the scent of the fresh, homemade shrimp wafted over to him, and his stomach growled again.

“Fine!” he snapped, and she grinned with a second shrimp halfway in her mouth. He snatched one of them himself, but paused before he took a bite. He stared at the shrimp like it had personally broken his heart.

“It’s not gonna bite you,” Annie said with a grin, though she was fully aware of why he looked so lost. She had heard the fight between him and Judai three mornings ago. She’d also been informed of their little spat before Judai’s duel.

“It’s not that,” he muttered, leaning forward to cross his arms over his knees, pulling the shrimp away to stare at it. “It’s just that this... is why it happened.”

Annie shrugged, well aware of her friend’s love affair with the fried food and honesly surprised it had taken this long for it to get him in trouble.

“So… you can’t eat any?”

Shou sighed and shook his head, lowering the shrimp until it was just loosely dangling in his grip. He seemed to flounder about for something to say, a way to express exactly what he’s been feeling the whole time.

“I miss him,” he finally settle one, slumping.

Annie blinked at him, scratched her head, and shrugged.

“Well sure, everyone does,” she said. “But you’re the only one sitting here like you just lost the love of your life.”

Shou’s face lit up and he sputtered at the accusation, waving his hands about as he spouted denials.

“It’s no like that!” he shouted, jumping to his feet. Amusingly, he was still barely above eye level with her. Annie didn’t show any outward signs beyond a benign smile.

“What’s it like, then?” she asked, leaning back.

“He-it’s!” Shou stomped his foot in frustration and pressed his clenched fists against his eyes, dislodging his glasses. Annie caught them before they hit the ground and stood up.

“You’re angry?” she asked, gently pulling his hands away. She replaced his glasses and smiled when he nodded stiffly.

“You think he gave up on you,” she continued, smoothing Shou’s mussed hair. She took a step back and he slumped, looking close to tears. “You got mad at him over nothing, and when he found someone richer, more skilled, better than you, he cut his losses.”

Shou began to shake, and he looked down so that his bangs covered his rapidly wetting eyes. She was right, that’s exactly what happened. Judai had found a better friend and taken off with him. Shou hunched over and rubbed at the tears threatening to fall.

He didn’t expect strong arms to wrap around him and pull him in, to hold him tight. He froze, wide-eyed and confused, as Annie hugged him. She leaned down to his level and embraced him and suddenly he couldn’t hold in his cries any longer. With a wheezing whine, he buried his face in her shoulder and sobbed. His arms wrapped around her back and clutched tight to her jacket, looking for any kind of support they could find. He felt like he could fall over at any moment, but she kept him upright and steady, despite the way his sobs shook his whole body.

There was more than a sense of abandonment in his tears, she knew. There was everything he’d been holding back; his self-doubt and inferiority, his fear, his anger, all of it now soaked her Osiris jacket, but she just held him tighter, longer, until he cried his fill.

Eventually his tears dried up and he took a step back, blushing furiously and avoiding her eye. Annie grinned down at him and he coughed, looking away to wipe tear tracks off his face.

“You’ve got it all wrong, though,” she told him, startling him. He blinked when she bent down to pick up the plate of cooling shrimp and pressed it to his hands.

“What?” She didn’t say anything until he took the plate from her.

“Judai hasn’t abandoned you. He doesn’t have it in him,” she told him confidently. “He’ll be back, have a little faith. But he won’t be happy to come back to an emaciated best friend. Eat.”

Shou looked down at the shrimp, slightly more red than he was used to, and then back at her.

“Besides, I made that myself. It’d be rude to let it go to waste.” Annie didn’t wait for Shou to reply. She just waved and walked away. Shou watched her until she disappeared up the path and then looked back at the shrimp.

As Annie rounded the path, she saw Asuka standing at the cliff overlooking the pier. She approached the Obelisk student with a grin. Asuka made to ask something, but was cut off by Annie holding up her hand. There was silence for a long moment, and Annie seemed to be counting something, before a high-pitched yell rang out from below.

“SPICYYYYY!!” Shou yelled, and the girls could see him dancing around, trying to put out the fire in his mouth. He fell to his knees and leaned over the pier to shove his face in the water.

Asuka glared at the sniggering Osiris.

“That was mean,” she said, unimpressed. Annie shrugged.

“At least he’s eating something,” she said, and a glance back down proved that as they watched a soaking Shou carefully eat another shrimp. Annie smiled down at him and then shot a grin at Asuka.

“Later,” she sang, waving. She turned and marched back to her dorm. Asuka watched her leave with a frown. Then she looked back at Shou who, though struggling, had managed to eat two more pieces of shrimp. Sighing, she headed for the Osiris cafeteria. The poor boy would need a gallon of milk by the time he was done.

A day later, when Judai finally made it back, both Shou and Asuka were surprised when Annie bodily hauled Judai off the boat by his lapels and shook him vigorously, loudly berating the boy for making her worry so much, before wrapping herself around him like a limpet. Judai stood still with an amused smile, clearly used to the treatment.

“Only you could wind up getting kidnap by Captain fucking Ahab,” she grumbled into his hair. Judai just laughed.

He wrapped his free arm, for the other was pinned to his side by the barnacle Annie had become, around Shou and the three of the, somewhat clumsily, made their way back up to the Osiris dorm. She could hear Hayato cheering a moment later and, with a silly smile, she headed back to her own dorm to spread the good news.

Chapter Text

“So am I gonna be the Maid of Honor or the Best Man?” Annie asked from Judai’s bunk, twirling Abidos’ crown on her finger. Judai paused in his card sorting, he had been sitting on the floor beside the bed, and looked at her with a frown.

“I need to know for outfit coordination purposes,” she continued, grinning down at him. He gave her a flat look, and she laughed, falling back on the bed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. She leaned up on her elbows to look at him, only to fall over in laughter again at the pout he was wearing.

“Shut up!” he snapped, slapping her in the shin. She stopped laughing immediately and Judai felt a chill run down his spine.

She pulled her legs up onto his bed and slowly shifted around until she was on her hands and knees, staring down at the suddenly petrified boy with an evil grin.

“Aw, no need to be embarrassed,” she said, leaning into his personal space. “You’re gonna be marrying a king , after all.”

“I’m not marrying anyone!” Judai shouted, his face flooding with red. Annie’s grin widened and she shot her hand forward, shoving Judai back by the face. He flailed for a moment before falling backwards. Before he could get back up, Annie had pounced on him and pinned him down.

“ Wait for me, Abidos!” she crowed, making mocking kissy faces at Judai, who was yelling and shoving her face away with his one free hand. “ Only 100 years, my love!”

“Cut it out!” Judai shouted, though his outrage was ruined by the how hard he was trying to stifle his laughter. Annie howled with laughter and rolled off of him, landing on her back beside him. The two of them layed there for a few minutes, laughing uproariously at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation.

“Well, at least he’s cute, right?” Annie asked once they calmed down. The way Judai’s face lit up, though, almost sent her back into peals of laughter. She bit her lips and snorted, drawing a half-amused glare from her best friend.

“I’m not marrying Abidos,” he said firmly, face still bright red. Annie grinned and then shrugged.

“I don’t see what’s so bad about it. He’s cute, he’s rich,” Judai scoffed and rolled his eyes. “There’s no commitment until you die, and then you get to be a king, so it’s all fine.”

“He just wants to duel . That’s it,” Judai insisted. Annie hummed and sat up. Reaching for the bed, she picked up the discarded crown and stared at it thoughtfully.

“He wouldn’t give you something like this if all he wanted was a duel,” she said. Then she looked back at Judai, who was still lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. He sighed, sat up, and started gathering his scattered cards.

“You’re reading into it too much,” he told her, climbing to his feet and turning to set his deck on the desk. There was a moment of silence and then he felt something drop onto his head. He reached up to feel cold metal - the crown - and when he turned around, Annie was standing behind him with a fond smile.

“Whatever you say, I still think you’d make a great king,” she said, smiling when his blush came back. “You’re one to me, already.”

Judai gave her a nervous laugh and turned away again, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

“I hate it when you say stuff like that…” he said, and she laughed. Patting him on the head, and adjusting the crown so it sat straight, she smiled.

“No you don’t,” she said. He rolled his eyes, but smiled. Until she whipped out her Duel Academy PDA and snapped a picture of him. He blinked, confused, until he finally realized what she did.

“H-hey!” he sputtered in protest, snapping his hand out to snatch the PDA. He wasn’t fast enough, however, and she danced away with a laugh, holding the PDA up out of his reach.

“Give it!” he yelled, practically climbing the laughing girl to get the phone. She easily dislodged him and ducked away from his flailing arms. He tripped and fell onto his bed with an undignified shout.

“Sorry, Judai! This one’s definitely a keeper!” she cheered, running to the door. She bowed mockingly at the scowling boy.

“By your leave, your majesty!” she said, dodging away from the pillow he lobbed at her and dancing down the balcony to her own dorm.

Judai watched her leave and then fell back onto his bed with a groan. Throwing his arm over his eyes, he felt the crown shift. He took the object off his head and stared at it, deep in thought. After a moment his face flushed and he buried it in his pillow, tossing the crown aside.

“Damn her,” he muttered with no real heat into the fluff. She had been right, though, Abidos was cute.

“ Damn her.”