Arc V 30 Days 2015, Day 26: Flying
Apr. 26th, 2015 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
not_krysIt was the start of a new school year. Everyone was laughing and hugging each other, saying how much they missed each other over the summer, how bummed they were that school was starting again. Rin ignored her classmates, standing over a trash can while she sharpened her pencils with her x-acto knife. People always thought she was weird, always avoiding people as much as she could. She didn’t talk much, she tended to keep to herself, her expression often blank.
When she went back to her seat, just as quietly as she had left it, she opened up her note book, getting ready for class like usual.
She hadn’t had a good day the day before. It had started off fine, her spending the day sketching in the park, just enjoying the quiet atmosphere, watching parents with their children, watching squirrels jumping tree to tree, watching birds flying.
And then… he spoke to her.
“Ah, excuse me,” he started off politely enough, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly.
“There’s supposed to be a library around here somewhere I’m supposed to go to, but I’m hopelessly lost. By any chance, can you point me in the right direction? I feel like I’ve been circling this park for hours looking for it…”
Her heart started racing. It was Yuugo, the local punk of their school. She had heard many a bad rumor about him, despite being in the same grade as he was. Like hell she was going to talk to someone as dangerous as him!
Instead, she did the next best thing she could do. Without even thinking about it, she flipped to the next page in her sketchbook, quickly drawing him a map of the area, tearing the page out of the book and holding it out to him, not even looking him in the eye. Yuugo was surprised at the sudden gesture, only to be more surprised when she started running away once he took hold of the piece of paper.
“H-hey! Hold a second! I just wanted-!” He tried to stop her, but she was already gone before he had a chance to say anything more. She ran all the way home, out of breath as she stepped inside and took her shoes off. Did he even recognize her? They went to the same school together, but he never seemed to notice her before.
She sighed quietly, setting her sharpened pencils back inside her pencil bag, about ready to pull out her regular school pens when a cry rang out through the room, startling her into almost dropping her pencil bag.
“It’s Yuugo! I can’t believe he’s in this class!” The familiar blue and blond hair entered the room, a bag over his shoulder as a childish grin on his face.
People seemed to flock to him, glad to see him. He was quite popular, despite being a deliquent. Rin only kept her head down, praying that he wouldn’t see her.
“Yo, anyone know where my seat is? Teach said we’re having assigned seats until the end of time or whatever.”
“Right in front of me, Yuugo.” Another student said, pointing to the empty chair in front of him, the one right next to Rin, making her heart stop. Why had she not bothered to look at the seat assignments to see where Yuugo would be…
He was walking towards her, sliding easily into the desk. Rin kept her eyes down, praying that he wouldn’t notice her, praying that he wouldn’t remember her.
“…Hey, I know you. You’re the girl from yesterday, right?” Unfortunately, Rin wasn’t that lucky.
“The one that drew me that map, remember?” Yuugo continued on, “Kinda wish you had told me how close it was, but the map was super helpful too! I can’t believe we go to the same school!”
The teacher called the class to attention, Rin almost relieved that Yuugo had to stop talking to her now. She still had yet to respond to him, but the class starting and her blatantly trying to ignore him didn’t seem to deter him in the least.
“What’s your name?” He asked quietly when the teacher had his back to the class, “I looked on the back of the map you gave me and saw one of your drawings on it. How long have you been going to this school? How long have you been drawing? You’re really good at it!”
Still, even after all his persistance to get her to talk to him, Rin still refused to acknowledge him, or even give him a ‘shut up and leave me alone.’ Well, Yuugo wasn’t about to stand for that. If there was one thing he hated, other than people getting his name wrong, it was being ignored.
Without even thinking about it, his hand reached out and took a good handful of her braided hair and pulled on it, a loud squeak erupting from her.
“Hey, why are you ignoring me?!” he said quite loudly, barely noting the scared look on her face.
Yuugo never did recieve an answer, as he was then hit in the head with a chalkboard eraser, covering his part of his face and his hair in white dust.
“I could be asking you the same thing, Mr. Yuugo. Now, if you’re done flirting with the girls, perhaps you’d like to participate with the rest of the class, Casanova?”
Everyone burst out laughing, Yuugo having long since let go of her hair and was now coughing and spitting to get rid of the chalk dust out of his own.
Yuugo wasn’t going to be defeated that easily, however.
Instead, when it was lunch time, he took the chair that was in front of her and sat on it backwards with his legs spread and his own lunch accompanying hers on her desk with a slam. Rin jumped when he suddenly joined her, her mood dropping down further when she saw it was him again, with a determined scowl on his face no less. His next question surprised her, though.
“…Do you like fried shrimp?”
It was a simple yes or no question, sure. And, indeed, she did have fried shrimp in her lunch today. Her mom had made it for her. It wasn’t her favorite food, but she liked it okay.
“…Y-yes?” That seemed to satisfy Yuugo, as his scowl immediately dropped to be replaced by a friendly, bright smile.
“So, you can talk after all. Cool!” He grinned. She gave him a look that showed she had clearly heard that one too many times and it never got any funnier each time she heard it.
“And you can make faces too,” he laughed, “so you’re not just a drawing emotionless robot.”
Rin frowned. Of course she wasn’t a drawing emotionless robot. First time she’d heard that one though. Yuugo’s smiled more gently this time.
“I wanted to thank you for the map the other day. I really was hopelessly lost, and probably would have stayed lost if it wasn’t for your map. Oh!” He reached over for his backpack at his desk, pulling out a clear folder with one of her drawings in it.
“Sorry it got all crinkled and stuff. I didn’t know there was a drawing on the back of it, so I kinda stuck it my pocket afterwards. My Ma found it before she washed my pants, thankfully, and made me buy a folder for it. It’s your drawing, so I wanted to give it back to you.”
Rin was surprised. He had… held onto it? And, now he wants to return it to her?
Was this really happening?
Rin looked down, almost ashamed.
“I don’t… really keep my drawings.” She explained quietly, “O-once I put it on paper or on a canvas, I don’t really need it anymore. I’ll usually throw them out once I’m done.”
Yuugo blinked, almost looking sorry hearing this. It was just too cool of a drawing to just throw away!
“…Then, if you’re going to throw this away… can I have it instead?” Rin looked shocked at the question. Did… he really like her drawing that much?
“It’s just… it seems too cool to just be thrown away…” He really did look like he wanted to keep it.
Really, how could Rin say no to a face like that? And, if he really did like it…
“…I-if you really want it, you can have it.”
“Really!?” He looked excited, his eyes brightening up in delight, “you’ll let me have this? Thanks!”
Rin couldn’t help but blush at that. She had never seen someone so happy about receiving a free drawing like that before. It even made her smile a little, something she hadn’t done in such a long time.
—-
He was following her, she was sure of it.
Wherever she went, Yuugo was inevitably there. When she arrived at school in the morning, Yuugo was there to wave to her and greet her. It definitely shocked the rest of the class that Yuugo was talking to the quiet, weird girl in their class. It was especially shocking when she started responding back to him, not as enthusiastic as him, of course, but the fact that she was responding back at all made a lot of them stare in disbelief. At lunch, he always sat backwards in the chair in front of her, smiling at her and talking all sorts of nonsense, whether Rin talked back or not. Whenever she had to carry something heavy to the teacher’s lounge, or to the art room, Yuugo was inevitably there to help her carry it, always taking the heavier half from her. Whenever there was a group project going on in class, Yuugo always volunteered to work with her. He even stayed after sometimes whenever she had after school chores, even when he wasn’t scheduled to do them. Someone was always willing to trade with him, always, so he was happy to work alongside Rin.
And, even though Yuugo did sometimes get on her nerves with how much attention he was slobbering on her, she was starting to find she minded it less and less each day. Yuugo had a good heart despite his abrasive and sometimes intrusive behavior. He’d immediately shut up if she had something to say, and he did listen to her. He liked to sit beside her and watch her draw, even if there were times he would fall asleep on her accidentally. He was also quick to defend her if he felt even the slightest of threats coming towards her. And when she was inevitably bullied by some girls that were jealous of her relationship with him, he was beyond pissed.
He had thought it was odd when Rin showed up late for class after the free period. Rin was never late, no matter what. But what concerned him more was the fact that she wasn’t wearing her shoes, just her socks that were filthy with mud and water by that point. His anger had been stirring since then, not being able to ask her about it in class.
So, once class was over, Rin had tried to slip out of class quietly, hoping no one would notice she was limping in her socks, but she never was that lucky.
“Who got to you, Rin?” He asked, trying to stop her from walking in the halls. Rin just looked down, trying not to cry.
“N-no one, Yuugo…”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
She tried to walk around him, but he blocked her, not satisfied with her answer.
“Don’t tell me you’re going home like this…”
“…It’s not like I can’t walk.” Rin finally got past him, heading towards the door. Her limping told him otherwise. So, instead, he grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the locker area, picking up his own shoes and his D-Wheel helmet.
“If you’re going to be stubborn about this, then so am I. I’m taking you home, Rin.”
“…W-what?”
“I said I’m taking you home.” he said again, a sense of finality in his voice, and handed over his helmet, similar to the gesture she had done to him the first time they met. Rin didn’t know what to do. Should she take his helmet or should she just walk home, like she had previously planned?
Yuugo didn’t give her a chance to make that decision, however. After it felt like a minute had passed, he just shoved the helmet into her arms and picked her up bridal style, earning quite a squeak out of her.
“Y-Yuugo! W-what are you doing!? Put me down! Put me down now!” Yuugo wouldn’t listen to her, however, just continued to silently carry her over to where he kept his Duel Runner.
“This is ridiculous, Yuugo!” She yelled at him, probably the first time she had ever yelled at anyone in her life. “You of all people should know that you can’t ride a D-Wheel with two people on it! What if Security catches us? Do you want to be marked for doing something so stupid!? Listen to me, Yuugo!”
Yet no matter how much she protested, nor how much Yuugo was enjoying hearing her voice despite the fact she was yelling at him, he wouldn’t let her down, not until they reached his D-Wheel where he finally set her down onto the bike and helped her put his helmet on.
“You’re not even going to wear your helmet!?”
“Like hell I’m going to let you be unsafe on my bike!” Yuugo finally answered her as he was pulling on his gloves. She needed it much more than he did. So long as no one challenged him to a duel while out on the streets, they should be fine.
“Yet you’ll be unsafe on your own bike by not wearing a helmet!”
“Hey, I’m the professional Turbo Duelist here! I’ve only got one helmet and you’re going to be wearing it!”
“I didn’t even ask if I could wear your helmet! Or even for a lift home in the first place!”
“Well, I don’t care, you’re getting one anyway!”
“I don’t want one! I said that I can walk home just fine on my own!”
“Not in your socks, you’re not! Now I’m taking you home, and that’s final!"
Yuugo jumped onto his bike angrily, kicking on the engine and revving it to life. Rin immediately put her arms around him, scared. She had never ridden on a D-Wheel before. Was Yuugo was crazy?!
"Hitomi!” She finally called out, clinging so tightly to him, even though he hadn’t taken off yet. “It was Hitomi that stole my shoes and threw them into the incinerator behind the school! She and her gang took my sneakers from my locker too!”
Yuugo paused, now that the truth had come out.
But, he still didn’t turn off his Duel Runner. He even revved the engine one more time.
“Hitomi, huh.” He said, a grin stretching across his face.
“Hang on tight, Rin!”
And he was off like a shot, Rin holding onto him for dear life as he peeled out towards the front entrance. It was still muddy from the earlier rain, the same one that had muddied Rin’s socks. And Hitomi and her goons were just walking outside. Yuugo grinned again, speeding up towards the entrance.
“Oi!! Hitomi!” Yuugo called out loudly over the engine of his Duel Runner, catching the girls’ attention. They barely even had time to run away as Yuugo rode towards them, only changing direction at the very last possible second, skidding and spraying mud everywhere, especially on Hitomi’s designer clothes and on her face. The screech she let out was inhuman, but Yuugo was laughing as he drove out and onto the streets of Neo Domino City. Rin felt so ashamed for having witnessed that, just continuing to hold onto Yuugo as he flew into the city.
—-
She didn’t know how long she was riding with Yuugo, but it felt like a long time. She was still so scared, clinging so tightly so him. She couldn’t even respond to him when he asked her how she was doing. It felt relieving when Yuugo finally did slow down and came to a complete stop. It wasn’t her house they had stopping front of, but it was near the park where they first met, near the little ice cream shop.
Oh, yeah, she never did tell him where she lived, did she?
He got off his Duel Runner and was extra careful in helping her off, helping her towards a bench, helping her to take off his helmet. Rin was still shaking and crying a little from the experience.
“…Guess I really gave you a pretty bad scare, didn’t I?” He didn’t regret it, though. Getting revenge for Rin on those girls, having her clinging so tightly to him while on his D-Wheel, he still felt pretty good about it.
Rin, however, couldn’t say she felt the same. She felt sick and dizzy and just wanting to cry. What she just went through was incredibly stupid and dangerous. They were lucky they weren’t seen by Security or worse! She wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him while she was shaking. Yuugo was taken aback by the sudden hug and the sound of her sniffling.
“…R-Rin?”
“…Please, don’t ever do that to me again! You scared me half to death! You could have killed both of us with that stunt you pulled on Hitomi!”
“Hmph!” Yuugo huffed, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, “she stole both pairs of your shoes and burned them. I ruined her clothes with mud and dirt. Seems like a fair trade to me.”
“Yuugo… please…”
“What, you think I’m going to let them walk all over you like that? No way, Rin! And if I see something like that happening again…”
“Yuugo…”
“You have to show them whose boss, or else they will continue to do things like that! What if they do something worse, like hit you or break your fingers with dumbbells?” Yuugo didn’t even want to think about it. He knew that not every punk was as nice as him in Neo Domino City.
“You have to fight back, or else they’ll continue to take advantage of you. If you want me to, I’ll fight for you. You’re my friend, Rin. It kills me to even think of someone hurting you.”
“…We haven’t even known each other all that long.” Rin had been wondering that for the longest time. Why had he grown so attached to her so quickly. “Why do you care so much about me?”
“Do I even need a reason? Even if you were just some other kid in class and I saw that you were being bullied, I would still do the same thing. But, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had, Rin. How much more of a reason do I need to want to protect you?”
“…The best friend you’ve…?”
“Yeah, the best friend I’ve ever had. Even if we haven’t known each other for very long, and even though you usually don’t talk much in class, what you do say when you do talk… it feels real. You don’t bullshit me, Rin. Your drawings are amazing too. I don’t care what anyone else in class says, I think you’re great!”
Rin, having long since stopped crying, started to blush a bit. Outside of her parents, no one had praised her like that before. He started to gently rub her shoulder, trying his best to try and make her feel better. He sighed.
“…Sorry, for scaring you like that. I can’t promise that I won’t give you any more free rides home because, riding with you, it felt pretty awesome,” Rin frowned, not liking that idea one bit, "but I can promise that I won’t do anything stupid again with you as my passenger. No more kicking up mud into girls’ faces, and no more changing direction at the last second.“ He looked over at the small ice cream stand, getting an idea.
"Can I buy you ice cream, to at least make up for today?”
Rin wasn’t completely ready to forgive him just yet, as he was very, very reckless and very, very stupid today.
But… he did look like he was sorry, and wanting to apologize. For all his rashness and bullheadedness, he was still sincere.
“…Chocolate.”
“Chocolate?”
“I like chocolate. No sprinkles or anything fancy. Just a plain old scoop of chocolate. That’s all.”
Yuugo grinned brightly at that, getting up quickly.
“One plain old scoop of chocolate with nothing on it, coming up!”
It was like he flew towards the ice cream stand, looking like a little kid with that grin on his face. Rin couldn’t help but smile too. If it lead to little moments like this, maybe she wouldn’t mind riding with him again, the wind blowing through her hair, holding on so tightly to Yuugo, the feeling as if she was flying through the city with him…
Yeah, it didn’t sound so bad when put like that.
When she went back to her seat, just as quietly as she had left it, she opened up her note book, getting ready for class like usual.
She hadn’t had a good day the day before. It had started off fine, her spending the day sketching in the park, just enjoying the quiet atmosphere, watching parents with their children, watching squirrels jumping tree to tree, watching birds flying.
And then… he spoke to her.
“Ah, excuse me,” he started off politely enough, rubbing the back of his neck embarrassedly.
“There’s supposed to be a library around here somewhere I’m supposed to go to, but I’m hopelessly lost. By any chance, can you point me in the right direction? I feel like I’ve been circling this park for hours looking for it…”
Her heart started racing. It was Yuugo, the local punk of their school. She had heard many a bad rumor about him, despite being in the same grade as he was. Like hell she was going to talk to someone as dangerous as him!
Instead, she did the next best thing she could do. Without even thinking about it, she flipped to the next page in her sketchbook, quickly drawing him a map of the area, tearing the page out of the book and holding it out to him, not even looking him in the eye. Yuugo was surprised at the sudden gesture, only to be more surprised when she started running away once he took hold of the piece of paper.
“H-hey! Hold a second! I just wanted-!” He tried to stop her, but she was already gone before he had a chance to say anything more. She ran all the way home, out of breath as she stepped inside and took her shoes off. Did he even recognize her? They went to the same school together, but he never seemed to notice her before.
She sighed quietly, setting her sharpened pencils back inside her pencil bag, about ready to pull out her regular school pens when a cry rang out through the room, startling her into almost dropping her pencil bag.
“It’s Yuugo! I can’t believe he’s in this class!” The familiar blue and blond hair entered the room, a bag over his shoulder as a childish grin on his face.
People seemed to flock to him, glad to see him. He was quite popular, despite being a deliquent. Rin only kept her head down, praying that he wouldn’t see her.
“Yo, anyone know where my seat is? Teach said we’re having assigned seats until the end of time or whatever.”
“Right in front of me, Yuugo.” Another student said, pointing to the empty chair in front of him, the one right next to Rin, making her heart stop. Why had she not bothered to look at the seat assignments to see where Yuugo would be…
He was walking towards her, sliding easily into the desk. Rin kept her eyes down, praying that he wouldn’t notice her, praying that he wouldn’t remember her.
“…Hey, I know you. You’re the girl from yesterday, right?” Unfortunately, Rin wasn’t that lucky.
“The one that drew me that map, remember?” Yuugo continued on, “Kinda wish you had told me how close it was, but the map was super helpful too! I can’t believe we go to the same school!”
The teacher called the class to attention, Rin almost relieved that Yuugo had to stop talking to her now. She still had yet to respond to him, but the class starting and her blatantly trying to ignore him didn’t seem to deter him in the least.
“What’s your name?” He asked quietly when the teacher had his back to the class, “I looked on the back of the map you gave me and saw one of your drawings on it. How long have you been going to this school? How long have you been drawing? You’re really good at it!”
Still, even after all his persistance to get her to talk to him, Rin still refused to acknowledge him, or even give him a ‘shut up and leave me alone.’ Well, Yuugo wasn’t about to stand for that. If there was one thing he hated, other than people getting his name wrong, it was being ignored.
Without even thinking about it, his hand reached out and took a good handful of her braided hair and pulled on it, a loud squeak erupting from her.
“Hey, why are you ignoring me?!” he said quite loudly, barely noting the scared look on her face.
Yuugo never did recieve an answer, as he was then hit in the head with a chalkboard eraser, covering his part of his face and his hair in white dust.
“I could be asking you the same thing, Mr. Yuugo. Now, if you’re done flirting with the girls, perhaps you’d like to participate with the rest of the class, Casanova?”
Everyone burst out laughing, Yuugo having long since let go of her hair and was now coughing and spitting to get rid of the chalk dust out of his own.
Yuugo wasn’t going to be defeated that easily, however.
Instead, when it was lunch time, he took the chair that was in front of her and sat on it backwards with his legs spread and his own lunch accompanying hers on her desk with a slam. Rin jumped when he suddenly joined her, her mood dropping down further when she saw it was him again, with a determined scowl on his face no less. His next question surprised her, though.
“…Do you like fried shrimp?”
It was a simple yes or no question, sure. And, indeed, she did have fried shrimp in her lunch today. Her mom had made it for her. It wasn’t her favorite food, but she liked it okay.
“…Y-yes?” That seemed to satisfy Yuugo, as his scowl immediately dropped to be replaced by a friendly, bright smile.
“So, you can talk after all. Cool!” He grinned. She gave him a look that showed she had clearly heard that one too many times and it never got any funnier each time she heard it.
“And you can make faces too,” he laughed, “so you’re not just a drawing emotionless robot.”
Rin frowned. Of course she wasn’t a drawing emotionless robot. First time she’d heard that one though. Yuugo’s smiled more gently this time.
“I wanted to thank you for the map the other day. I really was hopelessly lost, and probably would have stayed lost if it wasn’t for your map. Oh!” He reached over for his backpack at his desk, pulling out a clear folder with one of her drawings in it.
“Sorry it got all crinkled and stuff. I didn’t know there was a drawing on the back of it, so I kinda stuck it my pocket afterwards. My Ma found it before she washed my pants, thankfully, and made me buy a folder for it. It’s your drawing, so I wanted to give it back to you.”
Rin was surprised. He had… held onto it? And, now he wants to return it to her?
Was this really happening?
Rin looked down, almost ashamed.
“I don’t… really keep my drawings.” She explained quietly, “O-once I put it on paper or on a canvas, I don’t really need it anymore. I’ll usually throw them out once I’m done.”
Yuugo blinked, almost looking sorry hearing this. It was just too cool of a drawing to just throw away!
“…Then, if you’re going to throw this away… can I have it instead?” Rin looked shocked at the question. Did… he really like her drawing that much?
“It’s just… it seems too cool to just be thrown away…” He really did look like he wanted to keep it.
Really, how could Rin say no to a face like that? And, if he really did like it…
“…I-if you really want it, you can have it.”
“Really!?” He looked excited, his eyes brightening up in delight, “you’ll let me have this? Thanks!”
Rin couldn’t help but blush at that. She had never seen someone so happy about receiving a free drawing like that before. It even made her smile a little, something she hadn’t done in such a long time.
—-
He was following her, she was sure of it.
Wherever she went, Yuugo was inevitably there. When she arrived at school in the morning, Yuugo was there to wave to her and greet her. It definitely shocked the rest of the class that Yuugo was talking to the quiet, weird girl in their class. It was especially shocking when she started responding back to him, not as enthusiastic as him, of course, but the fact that she was responding back at all made a lot of them stare in disbelief. At lunch, he always sat backwards in the chair in front of her, smiling at her and talking all sorts of nonsense, whether Rin talked back or not. Whenever she had to carry something heavy to the teacher’s lounge, or to the art room, Yuugo was inevitably there to help her carry it, always taking the heavier half from her. Whenever there was a group project going on in class, Yuugo always volunteered to work with her. He even stayed after sometimes whenever she had after school chores, even when he wasn’t scheduled to do them. Someone was always willing to trade with him, always, so he was happy to work alongside Rin.
And, even though Yuugo did sometimes get on her nerves with how much attention he was slobbering on her, she was starting to find she minded it less and less each day. Yuugo had a good heart despite his abrasive and sometimes intrusive behavior. He’d immediately shut up if she had something to say, and he did listen to her. He liked to sit beside her and watch her draw, even if there were times he would fall asleep on her accidentally. He was also quick to defend her if he felt even the slightest of threats coming towards her. And when she was inevitably bullied by some girls that were jealous of her relationship with him, he was beyond pissed.
He had thought it was odd when Rin showed up late for class after the free period. Rin was never late, no matter what. But what concerned him more was the fact that she wasn’t wearing her shoes, just her socks that were filthy with mud and water by that point. His anger had been stirring since then, not being able to ask her about it in class.
So, once class was over, Rin had tried to slip out of class quietly, hoping no one would notice she was limping in her socks, but she never was that lucky.
“Who got to you, Rin?” He asked, trying to stop her from walking in the halls. Rin just looked down, trying not to cry.
“N-no one, Yuugo…”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
She tried to walk around him, but he blocked her, not satisfied with her answer.
“Don’t tell me you’re going home like this…”
“…It’s not like I can’t walk.” Rin finally got past him, heading towards the door. Her limping told him otherwise. So, instead, he grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the locker area, picking up his own shoes and his D-Wheel helmet.
“If you’re going to be stubborn about this, then so am I. I’m taking you home, Rin.”
“…W-what?”
“I said I’m taking you home.” he said again, a sense of finality in his voice, and handed over his helmet, similar to the gesture she had done to him the first time they met. Rin didn’t know what to do. Should she take his helmet or should she just walk home, like she had previously planned?
Yuugo didn’t give her a chance to make that decision, however. After it felt like a minute had passed, he just shoved the helmet into her arms and picked her up bridal style, earning quite a squeak out of her.
“Y-Yuugo! W-what are you doing!? Put me down! Put me down now!” Yuugo wouldn’t listen to her, however, just continued to silently carry her over to where he kept his Duel Runner.
“This is ridiculous, Yuugo!” She yelled at him, probably the first time she had ever yelled at anyone in her life. “You of all people should know that you can’t ride a D-Wheel with two people on it! What if Security catches us? Do you want to be marked for doing something so stupid!? Listen to me, Yuugo!”
Yet no matter how much she protested, nor how much Yuugo was enjoying hearing her voice despite the fact she was yelling at him, he wouldn’t let her down, not until they reached his D-Wheel where he finally set her down onto the bike and helped her put his helmet on.
“You’re not even going to wear your helmet!?”
“Like hell I’m going to let you be unsafe on my bike!” Yuugo finally answered her as he was pulling on his gloves. She needed it much more than he did. So long as no one challenged him to a duel while out on the streets, they should be fine.
“Yet you’ll be unsafe on your own bike by not wearing a helmet!”
“Hey, I’m the professional Turbo Duelist here! I’ve only got one helmet and you’re going to be wearing it!”
“I didn’t even ask if I could wear your helmet! Or even for a lift home in the first place!”
“Well, I don’t care, you’re getting one anyway!”
“I don’t want one! I said that I can walk home just fine on my own!”
“Not in your socks, you’re not! Now I’m taking you home, and that’s final!"
Yuugo jumped onto his bike angrily, kicking on the engine and revving it to life. Rin immediately put her arms around him, scared. She had never ridden on a D-Wheel before. Was Yuugo was crazy?!
"Hitomi!” She finally called out, clinging so tightly to him, even though he hadn’t taken off yet. “It was Hitomi that stole my shoes and threw them into the incinerator behind the school! She and her gang took my sneakers from my locker too!”
Yuugo paused, now that the truth had come out.
But, he still didn’t turn off his Duel Runner. He even revved the engine one more time.
“Hitomi, huh.” He said, a grin stretching across his face.
“Hang on tight, Rin!”
And he was off like a shot, Rin holding onto him for dear life as he peeled out towards the front entrance. It was still muddy from the earlier rain, the same one that had muddied Rin’s socks. And Hitomi and her goons were just walking outside. Yuugo grinned again, speeding up towards the entrance.
“Oi!! Hitomi!” Yuugo called out loudly over the engine of his Duel Runner, catching the girls’ attention. They barely even had time to run away as Yuugo rode towards them, only changing direction at the very last possible second, skidding and spraying mud everywhere, especially on Hitomi’s designer clothes and on her face. The screech she let out was inhuman, but Yuugo was laughing as he drove out and onto the streets of Neo Domino City. Rin felt so ashamed for having witnessed that, just continuing to hold onto Yuugo as he flew into the city.
—-
She didn’t know how long she was riding with Yuugo, but it felt like a long time. She was still so scared, clinging so tightly so him. She couldn’t even respond to him when he asked her how she was doing. It felt relieving when Yuugo finally did slow down and came to a complete stop. It wasn’t her house they had stopping front of, but it was near the park where they first met, near the little ice cream shop.
Oh, yeah, she never did tell him where she lived, did she?
He got off his Duel Runner and was extra careful in helping her off, helping her towards a bench, helping her to take off his helmet. Rin was still shaking and crying a little from the experience.
“…Guess I really gave you a pretty bad scare, didn’t I?” He didn’t regret it, though. Getting revenge for Rin on those girls, having her clinging so tightly to him while on his D-Wheel, he still felt pretty good about it.
Rin, however, couldn’t say she felt the same. She felt sick and dizzy and just wanting to cry. What she just went through was incredibly stupid and dangerous. They were lucky they weren’t seen by Security or worse! She wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him while she was shaking. Yuugo was taken aback by the sudden hug and the sound of her sniffling.
“…R-Rin?”
“…Please, don’t ever do that to me again! You scared me half to death! You could have killed both of us with that stunt you pulled on Hitomi!”
“Hmph!” Yuugo huffed, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, “she stole both pairs of your shoes and burned them. I ruined her clothes with mud and dirt. Seems like a fair trade to me.”
“Yuugo… please…”
“What, you think I’m going to let them walk all over you like that? No way, Rin! And if I see something like that happening again…”
“Yuugo…”
“You have to show them whose boss, or else they will continue to do things like that! What if they do something worse, like hit you or break your fingers with dumbbells?” Yuugo didn’t even want to think about it. He knew that not every punk was as nice as him in Neo Domino City.
“You have to fight back, or else they’ll continue to take advantage of you. If you want me to, I’ll fight for you. You’re my friend, Rin. It kills me to even think of someone hurting you.”
“…We haven’t even known each other all that long.” Rin had been wondering that for the longest time. Why had he grown so attached to her so quickly. “Why do you care so much about me?”
“Do I even need a reason? Even if you were just some other kid in class and I saw that you were being bullied, I would still do the same thing. But, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had, Rin. How much more of a reason do I need to want to protect you?”
“…The best friend you’ve…?”
“Yeah, the best friend I’ve ever had. Even if we haven’t known each other for very long, and even though you usually don’t talk much in class, what you do say when you do talk… it feels real. You don’t bullshit me, Rin. Your drawings are amazing too. I don’t care what anyone else in class says, I think you’re great!”
Rin, having long since stopped crying, started to blush a bit. Outside of her parents, no one had praised her like that before. He started to gently rub her shoulder, trying his best to try and make her feel better. He sighed.
“…Sorry, for scaring you like that. I can’t promise that I won’t give you any more free rides home because, riding with you, it felt pretty awesome,” Rin frowned, not liking that idea one bit, "but I can promise that I won’t do anything stupid again with you as my passenger. No more kicking up mud into girls’ faces, and no more changing direction at the last second.“ He looked over at the small ice cream stand, getting an idea.
"Can I buy you ice cream, to at least make up for today?”
Rin wasn’t completely ready to forgive him just yet, as he was very, very reckless and very, very stupid today.
But… he did look like he was sorry, and wanting to apologize. For all his rashness and bullheadedness, he was still sincere.
“…Chocolate.”
“Chocolate?”
“I like chocolate. No sprinkles or anything fancy. Just a plain old scoop of chocolate. That’s all.”
Yuugo grinned brightly at that, getting up quickly.
“One plain old scoop of chocolate with nothing on it, coming up!”
It was like he flew towards the ice cream stand, looking like a little kid with that grin on his face. Rin couldn’t help but smile too. If it lead to little moments like this, maybe she wouldn’t mind riding with him again, the wind blowing through her hair, holding on so tightly to Yuugo, the feeling as if she was flying through the city with him…
Yeah, it didn’t sound so bad when put like that.
