Work Text:
Slowly recovering from his restless dreams, Judai lost any excitement to go to classes when he noticed it already was midday. Tainted by laziness, he already had a hard time to get his ass off his bed, so it's without hurry that he put his pants on and grabbed his shirt that layed in his bed since last night. As he put his head through his shirt, something fell on the ground, echoing in the quiet room. He gave it a closer look and realized it was one of Asuka's earring. It was so tiny and shaped like a star, reflecting a beautiful golden colour. They were her favourites, how did one of them ended up there ? Thinking back, she must have lost it last night when they... Shaking off his head to hunt any wild thoughts of what happened, the boy picked it up and put it on his pocket. When he finished dressing up, he stepped outside, took a bowl of fresh air in the face and headed for the cafeteria, his stomach growling like never. Thinking about it, he didn't had a good meal in a while, being hurt during his last duel was the principal reason of it. He opened the door and saw that the room was half empty. Perfect. These days, he disliked being disturbed by people. As he reached the back of the room, he saw a few glances at him, talking in a low voices about an Obelisk girl leaving the red dorm late during the night. Without paying attention, he picked up his favorite food and put it on his plate before heading to an empty table and slammed it down on it, dispersing any whisper about that Obelisk girl in the flow of air. Judai sat down on his chair, finally enjoying the silence.
"What's with that face ? Is there a girl on your mind right now ?" said a voice in a tone similar to the Osiris boy.
Rolling his eyes when he recognized who was talking to him, Judai didn't gave him an answer. Johan resided in the Obelisk dorm but since he was a transfert student, he was pretty much welcome around here, not to Judai's help. Taking one of his many fried shrimps with his chopsticks, he put it in his mouth and chewed on it, leaving his friend with no answer.
"I see. What's her name ? What do she look like ? Do you like her ? Does she like you ?"
How could he know how she felt if he didn't knew how he felt himself. That little discussion with the blonde really messed up his head. Hell, even without talking, he was still lost just by looking at her and that incredible body of her.
"I... don't know how to feel about her." said Judai, hoping he would leave him alone.
"If she show signs, ask her how she feels about you. Trust me, it works."
Judai looked at Johan with mistrust. After all, how he ended up with his girlfriend was still a mystery to the eyes of everyone. Besides, both of them were from the Obelisk dorm, so his advice may not be useful since the girl he was after was two rank higher. She was at the top and he was at the bottom. Still, Judai thanked his friend and stood up to throw the rest of his meal to the trash. His last thoughts about his place in the academy's social rank cut off his appetite. He left the dorm and headed for the main building, intending to at least not miss the next class, which was still boring as hell. Dragging his feet all the way long, he followed the path of dirt until he encountered Asuka by a crossroads. She was speaking with some Obelisk boys, her back facing him, so she didn't saw him arriving. He just stood here, not joining in to not embarrass her in front of 'the top elite of the school', but also because he could watch her beautiful golden hair swinging along with her body as she made huge movements with her hands. He would never get tired of watching her and thinking back about their private moment from yesterday, it means even more to him. Once Asuka finished, she gave a flyer to each of the boys before breaking up the group and finally turned back to look directly at him. When she finally noticed him, she first froze, then offered him the most gorgeous smile he ever saw from her and within a second, reached his position. Her shinning face enlightened him, she seemed so happy to see him.
"Hey, Judai ! You're just in time ! I needed to talk to you !"
Perfect. Just the two of them so they could discuss about what happened last night, he couldn't have asked for more.
"We're organizing a tournament at the Obelisk dorm ! There will be dance, food and duels ! I was hoping you could join us to show those great skills of yours !"
Judai internally face-palmed. Just when he stopped thinking about duels to care about something more important to his heart, she replaced his infinite stupidity. Not only that, she was also acting like nothing happened last night, and since he had to talk to her about it:
"I couldn't stop thinking about you since then."
"Uh ?" was all Asuka could say at the moment, blushing heavily by the suddenness of his words.
She wondered at first what he meant until she remembered their little discussion on the Osiris boy's bed, which leads her to blush madly. Before she could say anything else, he took her hand and held it close to his heart. Under his soft skin and tough muscles, she could feel every beat his heart made, and knowing she was the reason for making it beat so fast made her feel so awkward.
"After you left, i didn't slept. I kept thinking about what you said-"
"Okay, look, i'm sorry if i precipitated things between us last night. It wasn't really-"
She pulled back until her butt touched the tree behind her, surprising her so much that she dropped her flyers. He took advantage of it and embraced her second hand with his own, before stepping closer to her. Asuka slightly turned her head to the right to avoid his deep gaze. He then let go of her cute skinny hands, letting them rest on his chest and this freed him the way to firmly grab her hips, which made her gasp. Judai noticed it and squeezed them lightly, causing the woman to moan sensually. Normally, such an inappropriate gesture would have cost him to lose his life, as she would have gone full crazy, killing every witnesses of this scene. So he waited for her reaction, but nothing happened. She just stood there, blushing heavily, her mouth half open, not knowing if she wanted him to do more or if she wanted him to stop. They were so close, she was sure anyone a bit far away would think they were kissing. What if this is what she wanted ? A kiss from the man she liked the most on this planet... and throw everything they said that night to the trash ? No. This time, Judai was the one off-tracks and she had everything to do about it.
"Judai, it's too early... What if someone come by and see us in this position ? I... don't want to share intimate moments like these with anyone else."
With her hands resting on his chest, she pushed with all her strength to separate them. Breathing heavily, she fixed her hair, straightened her skirt, then checked both side of the path to be sure no one were watching them this whole time. Then she turned to directly face Judai, meeting his deep chocolate gaze who was asking her what was the matter.
"We can't continue like this if everytime we see each other, we jump on it. I don't wanna break our friendship. It's something special to me."
Judai stepped back, his right fist clenched. How could he have been so blind ? After all, Manjoume, an Obelisk, had been trying to win her affection for over three years and she always put a stop to him. Even Ryo didn't get to date the beautiful blonde, and they knew each other since long time ago, way before entering Duel Academia. This girl could be able to put perfection to shame just by looking at it and get anyone she want, how could he expect to date someone this out of reach ? How could he have imagined the two of them becoming a perfect couple ? Beside, dating someone from a different dorm was not well seen, and people who were in this situation had to hide their relationship to the eyes of the school, in particular to the Obelisk- Wait. She asked him to come to that Duel Tournament. Dance, food and duels ? How stupid was he to not understand what she meant. For now, he had to figure out how she felt about him.
"Do you even want me ?"
Here was the difficulty, she had to push him away while holding him back. Of course, she wanted all of him, she wanted to share more intimate moments with him, she wanted to officially appear as his lover by his sides but- Something inside her kept saying it wasn't the moment to do so, that they were going too fast. But they knew each other for three years, they lived a lot of adventures together, so what prevented her to even try to date him ? Was it really to preserve their friendship ? Was she afraid of the students reaction ? She had no idea, she didn't knew what to do, but Judai was waiting her answer, she had to let her heart speak for her.
"I do want you ! Now, if you really want me, we will have to go step by step."
Judai slowly smiled, happy from her words, more reassured than ever. he reached for his pocket to grab the earring with his right hand and grabbed Asuka's chin with the other, turning her head softly to the left to attach it on her ear. Realizing that she got back her lost jewelry, she couldn't help but smile gorgeously at him.
"Thanks. Judai, i-"
"Yeah ?"
"I- i think we are late for class. We should hurry."
Thinking it back, they wondered why nobody came across them. After all, this was the easiest way for the Osiris and Râ to reach classes. But they weren't complaining, it would've been too awkward to be caught while cuddling. Slowly coming back to their senses, they both knelt to gather the flyers scattered on the ground and pick them up. When Judai grabbed one of them, he stopped to examine it; the main photo was actually Asuka dressed in some sort of pop idol dress, which fitted her perfectly, but since it was not her style at all to dress like that, it must have been one of Fubuki's photo edit. Still, the look on her face looked fake. She seemed too happy. Not that she never was smiling or anything like that, but her expression was not natural. Looking back at her, a serious tone on her face, concentrated on her work, he couldn't help but smile. As she finished, Judai gave her the one he retrieved and she smiled at him as she took it from his hands. Now that Judai knew she had at least little interest in him, they walked back to class. As they reached the empty hallway and approached Doctor Chronos's classes, Judai put his arm around Asuka's shoulders, making her blush a shade deeper.
"Judai, stop it. You're embarassing me."
"What ? I'm that shameful ?"
"No. What i mean is if someone sees you that close to me, they might get angry at you."
"I don't care. As long as i'm with you."