Work Text:
The hustle and bustle of Den City was usually loud.
Yuusaku was used to it of course. Public duels and celebrity showdowns had pretty much become the norm as more and more people studied up on duelling in order to pursue a career as charisma duelists. The success of people like Blue Angel and Go Onizuka had really launched the popularity of the job, so the hype around it was nothing strange.
Unfortunately for Yuusaku, the noisy streets had nothing to do with duels this time.
As December rolled around, so did Christmas. The overhyped, overexpensive, overtly childish, and disgustingly lovey-dovey holiday that everyone was annoyingly obsessed with for an entire month every single year.
Personally, Yuusaku didn’t really see the point of running around the city buying overpriced presents for people that would accept it with a smile to your face, only to throw them away when you weren’t looking. But to each their own, he supposed.
Honestly, he wasn’t usually this bitter towards it. The noise was nothing the headphones Roboppi had upgraded for him couldn’t block out. But, so would his bad luck have it, his friends had insisted—read: forced him—into attending the Christmas/housewarming party the Zaizens were throwing. Needless to say, the biting cold and the black ice had been very large deterrents to his mood as soon as he left his apartment.
Last time he’d checked, the temperature read -26°C with a feeling of -30°C because of windchill. In other words, ‘die if you walk too slowly’ kind of weather. No one could blame him for being bitter in his situation, right?
Less even after he spent the first few minutes of his trek to the bus stop trying to get rid of the paparazzi stalking his apartment building. In all honesty, his already depressing life had gotten even worse since that one tape of Aoi referring to him as Playmaker at school had leaked.
Not only did it ‘out’ both of them, but it also made Yuusaku's life the closest he could describe to a living hell.
No more privacy. No more logging peacefully onto Link Vrains. No more personal space if he was unfortunate enough to get recognized outside.
Logically, he knew it wasn't her fault, but also, irrationally, he did kind of blame her.
*Sigh*
Anyways...
Not everything was horrible, though. Thankfully.
After he managed to lose the paparazzi, getting to the bus stop was relatively easy, and Yuusaku got lucky enough that the bus he needed arrived soon after he did. Tucking himself onto an empty seat in the last row—the conductor was giving him that suspicious side-eye of vague recognition—Yuusaku yanked up his scarf high on his face and turned to look outside.
All in all, with some peace and quiet (finally !!), the ride wasn't that bad. There weren't many people around to begin with, and the 4 or so other passengers were generally minding their own business, so it was nice.
Until he looked outside, that is.
The gentle snowfall that had covered him in white during his walk had people using their umbrellas to cover themselves from it. A perfectly normal occurrence. So ridiculously mundane and ordinary that it broke Yuusaku's heart.
(...) ‘Yuuuuusaku-chaaan~’ (...)
(...) ‘Did you know that a couple sharing an umbrella is called an Aiaigasa?’ (...)
(...) ‘We should totally do that!’ (...)
(...) ‘It has my name in it twice! So it has to be awesome!’ (...)
(...) ‘Booooo~~ Playmaker-sama, you're sooo boring and unromantic! Like a stone!’ (...)
Yuusaku shut his eyes tightly. Fighting the urge to bawl right then and there.
If only he had listened to Ai.
It was such a simple request from his partner. How hard could it have possibly been?
If they had gone together just once.
Maybe then, seeing couples so happily sharing an umbrella wouldn't hurt as much.
Pressing his eyes tighter, he buried his face in the scarf.
The silent tears flowing steadily into the fabric were the only evidence of his pain. Just thinking about seeing all of his friends merrily coupled and drunk on Christmas cheer was enough to make him want to get off the stupid bus and go back home to Roboppi. But he tried his best to shake those thoughts away.
He'd made a promise.
After isolating himself for months while he was looking for traces of Ai on the network, he'd missed so many of his friends' lives' milestones.
Emma had her own bounty hunter guild now. Yuusaku heard that their going rates for missions had astronomical prices, but it still was the most popular guild in Link Vrains.
Shoichi and Akira had gotten married and officially adopted their siblings. It was still weird to call Shoichi and Jin ‘Zaizens,’ but Yuusaku supposed he would get used to it sooner or later.
Miyuu and Jin had become practically attached at the hip once they met (Yuusaku was pretty sure they were a couple but neither of them would confirm nor deny it).
Kougami disbanded the Knights of Hanoi after Yuusaku almost died in his quest. Apparently he'd decided that if Yuusaku, of all people, couldn't find any trace of Ai, then the Ignis must really be dead. Last Yuusaku heard of him, Kougami was now attending college like a regular civilian.
Onizuka… Well, Yuusaku wasn't too sure about him, but he was probably doing okay too...
Probably..
Most likely.
. . .
Honestly, who cares about Onizuka?
The point was, Yuusaku almost drove himself to an early grave because of his grief and missed out on his friends growing up. Something he should've been doing too.
So Shoichi had made him promise, swear even, that he would never, ever, self-isolate again. As a mark of their promise, Shoichi and Akira worked for weeks to try and restore Roboppi for him and gifted Yuusaku the little robot to remind him he wasn’t alone.
The only downside was that the little guy's data had been so corrupted when the Zaizens found him that the only memories somewhat intact in Roboppi's hard drive were up to the fall of the Tower of Hanoi. So the little one remembered Ai still and wouldn’t stop asking about his aniki.
It broke Yuusaku's heart to tell Roboppi what'd happened and they both consoled each other over losing Ai for days after that.
Fortunately, Shoichi had been right. Having Roboppi around the house did lift Yuusaku's mood generally.
At least it was nice to talk about Ai to someone who wouldn't treat his name as a taboo of sorts. (Yuusaku loved his friends, truly. But them jumping around the subject of Ai whenever the topic was brought up was infuriating some days)
The detached tone of voice of the text-to-speech announcing the street numbers at the front of the bus snapped Yuusaku back into reality then.
Gingerly rising to his feet when the bus finally stopped moving, Yuusaku slightly bowed in the direction of the driver and got off—mentally cursing the loss of the bus’ heating—, setting his course towards the bougie suburbs the address on his invitation listed.
Immediately after getting off though, he remembered why he was annoyed at being outside in the first place.
Not even two steps away from his starting point, Yuusaku slipped on black ice. He struggled to maintain his balance for a good 5 seconds before unceremoniously falling forwards on hands and knees.
Huffing with embarrassment, anger and resentment towards the stupid weather, Yuusaku lifted his right hand as if to grasp something. Freezing mid-movement when he realized what he was doing.
Had he… Had he just tried to take…
Setting both his palms firmly on the floor, Yuusaku tried to get up, but kept failing. His arms were shaking. Heck, his entire body was. Frozen to the spot as he was, Yuusaku suspected that maybe his pant legs had frozen onto the ground, so he looked down to confirm.
But his vision was blurry.
On the snow under him small dents kept appearing. Minuscule ‘thud’ sounds reached his ears every few seconds.
He tried getting up again, but tumbled onto the floor instead as his strength faded out.
Struggling to breathe, Yuusaku sobbed with his face half buried in snow. Writhing in pain, physical and mental, he just let himself lay there; crying his heart out.
His skin was so cold and it hurt so much. But the reality of the situation was hitting him like a thousand icicle spears.
He'd reached out so naturally.
But why wouldn't he?
Every time he'd fallen, Ai had been there to pick him up, had he not?
In the past. In his dreams. In his musings. In his memories.
(...) I can't believe the great Playmaker knows how to fall down! No one who's seen you on a Duel Board would ever imagine that even you could have such silly accidents, Yuusaku-chan! (...)
Vaguely, Yuusaku could make out someone's voice calling his name, but he couldn't be sure he wasn’t just imagining it.
“Yuusaku! Snap out of it! Yuusaku!”
Thrashing to be let go, Yuusaku would only repeat ‘I miss him’ over and over again. At that moment he forgot about everything else. The fact that he was in the middle of the street, where he was going, and what he was doing.
And in an ephemeral moment of clarity, all he could make out was the purple umbrella that whoever was trying to help him had tossed aside.
.
.
.
The next time he opened his eyes, the sight that greeted him was sterile white and blue hospital walls.
Looking to his right, Yuusaku almost cried again when he spotted a very exhausted-looking Aoi asleep on the visitor chair.
Again Yuusaku was reminded that he wasn’t alone. He had people who cared. Even if… even if he didn't have Ai anymore, he still had other people who loved him. And that—even if it wasn't in the same way—he loved back.