Lights on the River; From the Distance I Hear...!
Thomas looks away from Yuma - his conviction is too strong and his words are too painfully honest for him to reasonably look back with a blank face. His words resonate within him - raw and painful and biting into him like knives or dull teeth. Yuma understands him and itâs mortifying. Heâs a child and yet he speaks as if he were a prophet on the sidewalk, hand extended for ears not change.
Yuma gives and he gives and he gives and he never takes. Thomas hates it - he hates how Yuma can be so much more and so much better than him and that for all his burdens his heart remains open and pure.
Youâre a monster. You donât deserve to stand in his presence.
Dueling was about healing, huh? For him it had never been anything more than a tool used to hurt others and take from them what Tron ordered. Duels were battles of cruelty and humiliation. Duels were agony. How could all that be mistaken for healing?
âI wonât duel you,â he says, a near mutter. âI wonât subject you to that.â His fingers toy with the cigarette box in his pocket and he contemplates yet another one even though heâs had two within the hour. It feels heavy, as if heâd rolled all his burdens up inside the infamous âcancer sticksâ and left them for another time - to be inhaled and pondered over in the rain like this.
âI wonât,â he repeats in a near whisper.
Yuma wants to interrupt him, shouting out how it's not okay to give up or that he's wrong and that dueling was a way to make connections...! But instead he just stands here in the rain looking up at this puzzling person with wide eyes. It's like these words are reaching his eyes - but he fails to understand their meaning. What...?
He flinches at the cold waterdrops touching his skin. It's just like he hasn't realized before-
"Ah...aaahhhhh...chooo!"
He takes a handkerchief out of his pocket to wipe his nose, opens one eye. He rushes inside, casually like they've just met. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you over the sound of the rain!" he laughes. Yuma looks intently up the plastic roof on which big round raindrops still pound down relentlessly.
Yuma shakes the water out of his hair and lets himself plunge onto the balked bench which runs along the bus shelter's plastic walls. "Hey hey, IV..." he suddenly exclaims, patting its surface to see whether it was wet, "We're not getting away for a while, so why don't you tabletop duel me?"
Without looking at IV again -or waiting for approval, that is- he takes his deck out and begins to shuffle, focussing on watching his fingers. Only his fingers. "Y'know, my dad said...no, he says" A small smile graces his face, "that once you really want anything, you must never give up" he continues on, "because even if you're scared or fall or get lost," he puts the cards on the bench, "The only way to continue is forward!"
He tries to catch a glimpse at IV's reaction when he thinks IV isn't looking. After all, he is still somewhat...intimidating.
"Okay, I'm finished! I challenge you!"
