the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
AiYusa Month 2024 | May 26th-June 1st | Week Three
Prompts: One Last Word | “If I don’t say this, I’d die.”
Title: the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Ship: Aiballshipping | Ai/Yusaku
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,540
Tags: Truth Serum, Happy Ending
Day 1. Hour 0.
“Whoa, Ai, are you okay?” Playmaker asked, he had barely skirted the danger but Ai had gallantly taken the worst of it, anything to protect his one true love.
Or so he had claimed - and crooned - as the shower of arrows rained down on him.
The effects of the trap that had been triggered faded. The arrows had been made of light: bright white and soft cyan. The cascading weapons had rained down on Ai and he took them valiantly, with muted and occasional grunts.
So long as his partner Playmaker was safe, yeah?
Ai laughed as he turned around, twisting like taffy as he came down closer to
Playmaker.
“Never better.” he cheerfully exclaimed, rubbing the back of his head.
Already the animated effects of the triggered trap had begun to fade. Its not like Ai looked like a bright and shiny pincushion anymore, just his regular old self. Even so, Playmaker’s brow formed a frown as he examined Ai as best as he could. He gave him a poke and a prod.
“You sure?” he asked, to be extremely certain.
“Yes, yes, would I lie to you?” Ai asked.
Playmaker was quiet. The answer to that was yes, Ai, you would.
His icy silence made Ai chuckle sheepishly, shrinking in on himself, “Gee, tough crowd.”
“Alright. I believe you but that’s enough exploring for today. I think we’ve found ourselves in enough trouble today as is.” Playmaker decided.
“Too true!” Ai cooed and that was that.
They logged out with little fanfare and little funny business. Kusanagi couldn’t agree more, putting one foot wrong on even the most minor of missions would have unsettled anyone as a thing of more to go wrong. He dismissed them both from Link VRAINS duty as well from hot dog van duties, they may as well have the rest of the afternoon off.
If only it were so simple.
Day 1. Hour 6.
Nothing really went awry in Yusaku’s eyes until several hours later when he realised he had quite the mundane conundrum on his hands.
“What should I have for dinner tonight?” Yusaku asked as he stared down his truest, most longest-time enemy: the sparse insides of a dingy refrigerator. He sighed, “Am I even that hungry…?”
“What does it matter?” Ai asked, “It’s not like you’ll choose something actually good for your meat bag body or your bank account.”
“Hey.” Yusaku grouched. He closed the refrigerator with a slam.
That was… a little mean. Which is fine. Ai was mean sometimes. Heck, he was mean sometimes. Sometimes they were even mean to each other but in this particular instance, it felt more than a little uncalled for. They’d had a big day but was it really so big as to demand a short fuse?
Yusaku’s brows furrowed and Ai yipped. He put his hands in front of his face and began to panic.
“Sorry. I said that without thinking.” Ai apologised.
“That’s okay, that was gonna be my guess.” Yusaku murmured.
“Like, it’s just.” Ai stammered. “I care about you. You're my partner! I want to see you take better care of your body. You're not immortal. Like please. Eat a vegetable, any vegetable. Maybe drink some milk for your bones or something, please!”
His ramblings came across as sweet even if it didn’t go beyond a fond look on Yusaku’s face.
“Thanks, Ai.” he said. “Let’s go to the convenience store, make some veggie onigiri or something.”
“That’s better than nothing, I guess.” Ai replied.
Yusaku hummed but kept this spat in the back of his head. There was just something ever so subtly off about it. It stuck out to him as he collected his wallet and a reusable bag so the two of them could hit the nearest convenience store real quick so he could buy things to make dinner for tonight and things for the next couple of days. He did have school tomorrow.
And oh boy.
School.
Day 2. Hour 33
Thanks to Yusaku going MIA for three months last year, and not having his head in the game academically at all thanks to his activities as an underground hero in the Link VRAINS, he had a lot to catch up on this year and was being made to repeat. That meant Aoi and Naoki were now in the year above him and the peers who were once in the year below him ostracised him worse than his previous classmates but honestly. That was a bonus to Yusaku. No distractions, no nothing. He didn’t mind being the class pariah.
But even he still had some vain semblance of dignity here and there.
Dignity Ai was, apparently, in no hurry to preserve.
They had come to an agreement. Call it love, call it codependence, call it whatever but where Yusaku went, Ai went too and given he was an Ignis, he could go easily under the radar so long as he kept his trap shut.
If only it were that simple and so far this year, it had actually. Until now.
It was no secret that Yusaku was the odd one out in his new class. He was slightly older, had a weird aura and an even weirder reputation but he was there. He did his best to stick to the status quo despite very much sticking out as the sore thumb of the group. Yusaku didn’t care either way.
Not even when his ears (and, heaven forbid, Ai’s) caught whispers of his classmates spreading rumours or gossip. Their words, under their breath or under their desks, were probably meant to be malicious but it didn’t phase Yusaku that much. He had had several years of practice by now to perfect the art of the aloof teenage boy’s nonchalance.
He didn’t even care if it was the teacher at the front of the classroom who was the one passing on such utterances either.
Since it was still the beginning of the year, Yusaku didn’t feel an intense urge to study or even focus in class. Maybe he should but it was quite whatever with him. He still had recollection from last year so he just wanted to cruise on through to the last term on a bludge. His teacher didn’t appreciate such a lazy approach, however.
Yusaku was, admittedly, staring out the window in the most blatant manner possible. He had his chin propped up on his fit, his elbow dug into his desk and his face was pointed out the left of him. He watched as the world idly existed outside his classroom. Birds flitted about trees, ants and salarymen alike scurried around, it was pleasant.
Until it wasn’t.
His teacher harrumphed, “Interrupting your daydreams, am I?”
“Huh?” Yusaku’s eyelashes fluttered as he focused his eyes again, his reverie broken.
Apparently the answer to the teacher’s question was yes, but the answer to his other question was not silence either.
“I said,” the teacher reiterated testily, “are you paying attention? Can you answer the question on the board?”
Yusaku sheepishly recalibrated. He turned his head and began to frantically scan the board for the answer. This was maths, his strong suit! He should be fine just give him three seconds but his teacher had no interest in mercy. Students who displeased him were not students he showed sympathy to.
“You may as well quit school at this point if you are going to sleep through it.” his teacher sneered.
Yusaku fumed vehemently but bit his tongue.
Ai, having no tongue to bite, didn’t hold back, however.
“And what do you know, mister?!” Ai piped up.
His voice rang through the whole classroom, pausing all the usual clamour. The sound of clicky-clacky keys on tablets, hushed chatter, the sound of pages in books being flicked about. It all ceased eerily as the teacher tried to figure out who had sassed him.
His face went pink with irritation - but Yusaku wasn’t doing much better. He knew whose voice that was, after all. And its a shame that that voice kept going, had much more to say.
“Yusaku is the best! He’s smart and works hard, YOU need to provide actually mentally stimulating classes, I’d grade you as an F-minus teacher!” Ai yelled from hiding underneath Yusaku’s sleeve.
“Are you mocking me, Fujiki-kun?” he snarled.
“N-No, I have no idea who said that.” Yusaku said.
“I will be seeing you for reprimand after school, Fujiki!” his teacher snapped.
Yusaku nodded and clamped his hand over his wrist, as discreetly as he could, too. A reprimand after school, whilst humiliating and scathing, was not the worst thing in the world. He could cop that on the chin but he couldn’t cope with Ai. Not after this, anyway.
What had gotten into Ai? When Yusaku thought about it, he could really only think of one thing…
The blush to Yusaku’s face began to recede as he knuckled down in mathematics after this incident. But in the meantime, as he did his arithmetic, his skin crawled and his mind raced. They had talked about this. He and Ai had talked about this exact thing at length and how it was completely and utterly antithetical to the whole staying on the downlow about the existence of the Ignis.
Okay.
Now it was official.
Things were getting really weird.
Anyone with eyes could see that there was something sketchy going on with Ai. Let alone Yusaku who spent basically every hour of every day with his partner. It had been bubbling under the surface ever since yesterday but there was just something spotty about Ai. Like he had been hooked up to a coffee machine and was now on the fritz from consuming too much caffeine. He was talking faster, twitching constantly.
As soon as the class was dismissed for the first break of the day, Yusaku bolted. Since he had a hall pass of the five finger discount variety, he made his way to the most private place in the school: the rooftop. He bypassed its cybernetic security and closed the door behind him.
All so he and Ai could try and figure things out because that little outburst from earlier crossed the line.
It was getting on Yusaku’s nerves and of course, it was getting genuinely worrisome.
“Are you sure you are okay?” Yusaku asked, much heavier in tone than how he had since what he was willing to believe was the precipitating incident from yesterday.
“N-Never better, beloved.” Ai yapped in reply.
Yusaku’s eyebrows twinged. He still couldn’t put his finger on it but he let it go for now.
He just couldn’t pinpoint exactly what Ai’s problem was beneath the surface of the excessive, frenetic energy he was bubbling with.
Day 3. Hour 72.
And this energy was a problem.
Whether Ai wanted to admit it or not.
It was beginning to drive Yusaku up the wall.
He had been doing his best to simply ignore it but it was becoming extraordinarily obviously clear that this wasn’t going to go away on its own. Ai was fast coming to that conclusion to as they butted heads together. Or ai tried to stop himself from opening his big mouth. Yusaku wanted to focus on the important things - school, his health, the Link VRAINS - and Ai acting on the fritz was incredibly counterintuitive from that and boxing themselves up in his apartment. Not the solution apparently.
“I think you need some fresh air.” Yusaku suggested - and that was saying something since he, famously, did not touch grass and Ai didn’t even have lungs to breathe with but he still really needed something.
It was clear by now - to both Yusaku and Ai - that whatever Ai was going through, it was coming to a head. The afternoon had been so stifling since Ai’s last outburst. It had kept him so embarrassed that they had given each other some space but even then.
The aftermath was still apparent. Yusaku could hear Ai downstairs with Roboppy, they would bicker and make up and bicker again. Just like with him, really but Yusaku was finished with his homework and it was once again time for him to break fast with a homemade dinner. But first.
He had to address the elephant in the room with Ai.
Defeated, deflated, Ai nodded, “Yeah, let’s take a walk.”
Yusaku agreed.
Yusaku picked Ai up, Duel Disc and all, and walked him outside. He locked his apartment behind him and felt the chill of an early winter breeze. It was surprisingly crisp for being the inner city but Yusaku adjusted as he began to take his stroll to the park nearby.
He kept his wrist down but he could all but feel Ai hunkered down in embarrassment until they found a little spot. It was quiet right now. Anyone who was out and about at this hour had likely already made their way home from work or to the nearest restaurant for a night out.
The city was dim, lit by yellow windows and orange streetlights which seemed so distant as they were plotted along the concrete path that criss-crossed through the park. The green space was perfectly calculated from clipped grass to pruned trees evenly spaced along the path.
“You ready?” Yusaku asked, his voice low as he stayed to the side of a tree, sitting down on a park bench.
He heard a grunt and let Ai make his way up. He held his arm like a plank so he could give Ai some semblance of an equal platform. Ai rolled up and began to stretch. The nerves he gave were prickly as he jerked and warmed up to whatever it was he had on his chest until his eyes opened. The yellow of them gleamed with determination which cut through Yusaku’s expectation and was followed by a declaration.
“If I don’t say this, I’d die.” Ai said. “I - I think, anyway.”
Yusaku was… dubious to say the least but he could understand the severity and depth of Ai’s emotions, however. He had been in full view of them in the past seventy-two hours, after all.
Ai placed his hand, now balled up into a fist, in front of his chest. Where his heart would have been if he weren’t an android. Or an Ignis. He licked his lips and his voice box crackled.
“I love you.” Ai confessed. “I mean it. From the very bottom of my soul.”
“I know.” Yusaku replied, a hint of a smile. “I love you, too.”
Ai blinked. He looked like a refrigerator on the fritz. He also looked like he was beginning to wind down from the virus that had kept him infected for the past seventy-two hours.
“Is that… everything you wanted to say?” Yusaku asked.
“I-I think so.” Ai said.
Yusaku chuckled, “I’m glad you're more like yourself now. You had me worried there for a second.”
He lifted his wrist closer to his face and let Ai hug him, nuzzling against him in a relieved kiss. The effects of the virus that Ai had clearly been suffering with already became a distant memory as they soaked up the calm that finally followed it.
