A Slice of Home

[madimpossibledreamer]

like the taste of apple pie in my youth
happy 4th, all!
~dreamer~

Main Points:
Yugioh Universe Optional
Chapter Summary: Rebecca's homesick.
Word Count: 595
Rating: teen.  ensemble piece i am not tagging everyone because most barely show up

                “Rebecca?  What’s wrong?”
                She glances up, instantly tries to get rid of all traces of the homesickness on her face, but from his frown it didn’t work.  “Where are the others?”
                Yugi gestures vaguely, somewhere up ahead.  “Rebecca.”  That voice is sterner than the Yugi she knows.  Probably the Pharaoh.  She doesn't care too much for him, but he's not going anywhere anytime soon.
               “I’m…missing the celebrations, I guess.”  It’s odd.  It’s not one of those things she would’ve thought would be high on her list, particularly with how much time she spends with her Grandfather, rather than in America, but she finds herself missing it now.
               Yugi looks confused for a full minute before he asks, hesitantly, “Oh, yeah…isn’t today some big holiday in America?”
               She rolls her eyes, pokes at him.  With the speed he gets out of the way, she wouldn’t be surprised if he’s ticklish.  “Only the Independence Day, jeez.  Is all this stuff I hear about Japanese schools being so much better just lies?”
               Yugi looks flustered, but he doesn’t get to respond, because an idea strikes him.  “Stay there!” he calls, and runs off as fast as his short Muto legs can carry him.  She doesn’t get a question out before he’s gone.
                He returns with a glowstick and proudly hands it to her.  “I know it’s not exactly fireworks, or…whatever else, but…it’s something.”
                “How much did that cost?” she asks, digging around in her bag, but he quickly stops her.
               “You’re my friend.  And my friends deserve to be happy.”  The words themselves may be cliché, but…he means them, with all his heart, and there’s a power behind them that she would’ve missed, before he’d shown her what it meant to have a friend, to put your heart into whatever you did.  If there was one person good at demonstrating that, it’s Yugi Muto.
               “Téa’s lucky,” she states, and giggles a little as he turns bright red.  “But…I think I really needed a friend, so thank you for being such a good friend.”
               “You’ll always have a friend.  You’re not alone, Rebecca,” he says with that same fervor, and the smile he gives lights up the night as beautifully bright as memories of fireworks.
               (Later, Joey learns that it’s a holiday and promptly insists that they go to Burger World, rather than one of the restaurants in Kaibaland, as it’s ‘more American’.  He might’ve just been looking for an excuse not to give Kaiba any more of his money, but the way that he—all of them, really, even Téa when she’s not worrying about a potential rival—worry about her, welcoming her into the group as if she’s one of them, which involves a level of ‘take care of friends’ she hadn’t even guessed existed—well, it’s heartwarming.
               Mai shows up, and is welcomed with the same open arms.  How she always knows exactly where to show up is a bit of a mystery.  Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to Joey that he was flat-out broke, but between Mai, Téa, and Yugi they manage to scrape together enough to pay for the meal, which seems oddly fitting.  Tristan’s caught between admiring a new girl that Rebecca’s never met before, who seems like a little bit of an airhead and likes to speak in third person, and Joey’s sister, Serenity, who’s fairly quiet but definitely interested in all the stories being thrown around.  She’s not sure when the moment exactly hits, but it feels like home, and she’s beaming by the point her Grandpa and Grandpa Muto walk in.)