#poyo writing ficstuff

[poyomon2]

12 for Angelmaker

12. “Don’t you trust me?”

This is the last one from this batch.

Yusaku stumbled as Aoi held his hand to guide him. He grumbled, then reached up for the blindfold, only for her to grab his arm and forestall him.

"Not yet, we're almost there."

"This doesn't feel safe, Aoi."

"Don't you trust me?" She asked.

He was silent for a few seconds and her heart skipped. She held her breath, waiting for his answer, and was eventually satisfied.

"Yeah, sorry. I'm still getting used to that."

She let out a sigh of relief. "It's fine."

They stepped through some doors, and the floor moved. Yusaku frowned as the elevator began to rise.

"Where are we going?"

Aoi smiled, even though he couldn't see. "That's a surprise."

He could hear her typing something on her phone, then the elevator began to slow.

As it reached a stop, she stepped behind him and began taking the blindfold off as the doors opened.

He was greeted by a host of familiar faces, all smiling at him.

"Welcome back!" They shouted in unison.

He blinked. "What…?" He looked around. "We're at your apartment."

"You've been gone for three months. Everyone has been worried about you!" She poked him hard in the back, causing him to jerk forward.

"You organised this?"

She looked away from him, blushing slightly. "Not… on my own." She pushed him again, harder this time, and he finally left the elevator.

A laugh was heard from one of the other guests, and Yusaku saw Shoichi walking over to them. "She might as well have, for all the work she put in. Most of us didn't even know until yesterday."

Yusaku turned back to Aoi, but she wasn't there anymore. Scanning the room, he could see her making herself scarce behind Akira, face red.

"Yeah, I wish I'd had more warning! It was kind of stressful getting here from my hometown with only a day's notice." Takeru walked over, rubbing the back of his head with a hand, but smiling nonetheless.

---

The party lasted until late at night. Yusaku caught sight of one of the adults - Ema, he was pretty sure that was her name - sleeping on a couch after having drunk something far too alcoholic for his tastes. Not that there was meant to be any alcohol at the party.

Most of the others had left, with the last few almost finished winding down, and preparing to leave.

The entire event passed almost in a daze for him. He sat down on another couch, staring blankly at the floor.

After a minute, Aoi sat down next to him.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, smiling at him.

"Good." He said, "It's still a bit unnerving."

A questioning frown appeared on her face. It was- quite cute, actually. "What do you mean?"

"I didn't realise just how many people I'd left behind. Sorry." He shook his head and sighed.

Sbe giggled quietly. "It's fine. We understand why you left." She pushed him lightly. "I think you should have kept in contact, at least. But you're back, now."

She leaned on his shoulder with a yawn, startling him. "I'm going to sleep."

"Wait-"

But she was out like a light. Yusaku couldn't do anything but stare. She must have put a lot of effort in if she was so tired she could do that.

Yusaku found himself smiling at the gesture. Then he sighed. It didn't seem like he would be moving any time soon, so he laid his head back and closed his eyes.

Maybe he could get some sleep, too.

He was too tired to hear the click of a camera a minute later.

#vrains #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #asks #anon #vrains ficstuff #poyo writing ficstuff #thank you for the prompt!

[chibicrow]

authoratmidnight replied to your post “anyway, if anyone’s got any fluffy Aoi fic recs, send them my way pls...”

wait wrong link, fic stuffs to look through are here (but that's a cute fic too) https://poyomon2.tumblr.com/tagged/poyo-writing-ficstuff

Thank u!!!!! \ ;D; /

#authoratmidnight #natsumi talks vrains

[poyomon2]

#46 with Angelmaker please! 😁

46: “Dance with me.”

Thank you for the ask! This one came really easily and I’m happy with it :D

Prompts still open Here

He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as he stepped out onto the rooftop, looking over the edge to watch the courtyard where so many students were dancing. It was far too loud down there, but he was far enough away now that the music was no longer uncomfortable, and was instead soothing him, allowing him to relax slightly.

He didn't know why he came. Shoichi said it would be a good idea. 'To help him get out of his shell' he'd said. Yusaku thought that was a pointless idea. He was fine how he was.

But Shoichi had bought him a nice outfit, so he at least attended the event. At first it had been alright, but the loud music soon got to him, and so he ran here.

A sound from the door caught his attention, and he turned slightly to see Aoi tumble through, only to stop, take her heels off and cross the roof to him with bare feet.

She was wearing a soft blue dress that flowed down to her ankles. It looked quite nice, if he was being honest. It suited her.

The scowl on her face was a different story, but it lightened up as she saw him, giving him a smile.

"You're here. I was beginning to think you hadn't come, but I saw you out of the corner of my eye as you left the yard." The scowl came back. "Not that it was easy to get away myself."

He raised an eyebrow, questioning. "Trouble with the other students?"

"Trouble is putting it lightly. It was bad enough when my brother was just the security manager, but he's the CEO of SOL now. Everyone was trying to get a dance with me. Not all of them were single, either."

He chuckled lightly, which earned him a brief glare from her. "Sounds like trouble."

She sighed. "At least I got away for a while."

They both leaned on the railing, staring at the sky.

"There's no clouds tonight. They chose the right day to hold this. There's so many stars." She said.

He nodded.

"Hey." She said abruptly. "Dance with me."

"What?" He was taken aback. "I thought you didn't want to dance with anyone."

He could just barely see the red dusting her face before she turned to look the other way.

"You're the only one I want to dance with." She said quietly.

He fell silent. After a minute, he pushed off the railing, turning to face her and hold a hand out.

"Okay. Let's dance."

She set the heels down at the edge, then took his hand.

Yusaku enjoyed the dance. A small smile was adorning his face, but he felt even more enjoyment inside when he saw how elated Aoi was. 

They danced for a while, then stopped to catch their breaths.

"You're surprisingly good at dancing, Yusaku." She noted.

"Blame Shoichi. He made me learn whether I wanted to or not.'

She giggled, then leaned down to pick up her heels, moving to put them back on. Afterwards, she stood up straight, turning to face him.

"I should get back. The people-" She said with disgust. "Will be disappointed if I'm gone for too long."

Yusaku grimaced, and was about to speak when she stepped right up into his face.

She kissed him on the cheek, then drew back with a smile.

"Thank you for the dance. You made the entire night worth it."

#vrains #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #vrains ficstuff #the-yugioh-theorist #asks #poyo writing ficstuff

[poyomon2]

Lol someone beat me to it :") How about them with 25? Thanks!

25. “What the hell were you thinking?!”(Aoi/Yusaku)

This was a concept. Set post-series.

Aoi breathed a sigh of relief as she spotted Playmaker - Yusaku - off in the distance, out in the expanse of junk data.

Then she summoned the whip attached to her account, sending it out to wrap around him and pull him in even faster. As he was brought closer, she put a scowl on her face as he avoided eye contact.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” She berated. He continued to avoid eye contact, shrugging at her question, so she continued. “You could have been severely hurt, or even died out there! I know you want to find the trace of Ai that you can feel, but you need to put your own safety first. You’re worrying all of us, me included.”

Yusaku nodded lightly, but then responded. “You’re right. Sorry. But you’re mistaken. I didn’t go out to look for Ai this time. There was another reason I went out there.”

“Why?” She asked, confused. “The only reason you’ve been going out there is to look for Ai, why else would you go out there?”

He gave a small smile, then quickly wiped it from his face. “I saw something else out there last time I went out, so I went to check it out instead.”

Aoi nodded, accepting the explanation but not calming down. “What was it?”

Yusaku hesitated, then shook his head. “I can’t tell you yet. Maybe in a few days. It’s a surprise.”

“Will you be going back out there again?” She asked, a hint of concern creeping through her anger. It was enough to destabilise her entire facade, and her shoulders dropped. “I don’t want to lose you to a stupid mistake.”

He laid a hand on hers. “Don’t worry, I won’t be going back out there for a while. I just can’t tell you what I found yet.”

“Good.” She snorted, turning away from him. “If you were planning to go out there again I was going to go with you. You’re too stubborn. Stop worrying us by going on your own.”

He smiled at her. “Sorry. And, thanks. For putting up with this. I promise you can come along whenever you want after this. I haven’t been fair to you.”

Aoi nodded quietly.

Yusaku glanced at his duel disk, and then logged out before she could turn back to see the small light glowing within it.

—

Aoi’s phone vibrated in the middle of class, and she discreetly checked it. A rare message from Yusaku, asking her to meet up online as soon as she was free.

She resisted an urge to send a snarky text back saying that he should be at school. He would ignore it anyway.

The message set her brain into motion, thinking about why he could possibly want to meet up.

It caused her to completely crash when asked a question by the teacher, but she was well ahead of the rest of the class anyway. She only attended because she had to.

The end of class couldn’t come fast enough, and when the bell rang she was gone, heading straight home while sending Yusaku a message saying she would be on soon.

Her phone vibrated, and she checked it before ignoring the new message. It was nothing important. Just the club president questioning where she was. She’d forgotten there was a club tournament today.

She currently had better things to do. She always won, anyway.

It didn’t take her long to arrive home, racing past the maid robot as it greeted her and heading straight for her room, locking the door behind her.

Finally ready, she fished her duel disk from her bag, putting it on and sitting down on a chair.

“Into the VRAINS!”

—

Before she could even spend a second to get her bearings, a message came from Yusaku, surprising her. He was never this fast.

It didn’t even have any words, just a set of coordinates for her to locate him with. A spot close to the edge of the world.

Summoning her D-Board, she set off in that direction in a hurry. He seemed to be in a rush to meet with her, so she might as well get over there quickly.

After over half an hour, she finally began to approach the place, grumbling. If he wanted to meet so badly, did he have to choose somewhere so far away?

She could see him waiting, and as she came in for a landing, he turned his head to face her, giving a small smile and an uncharacteristic wave.

She landed a few metres away, then walked up next to him.

“You’re acting weirdly.”

Yusaku smiled at her again, though this time there was a wisp of sadness in his expression. He looked out at the expanse of junk data, and she followed his gaze.

“I’m not going to spend as much time looking for Ai anymore.”

Her eyes widened, but before she could say anything, he continued.

“He doesn’t want to be found. Every time I think I’m getting close, he just goes further away. Usually into more dangerous areas. He knows I’m looking for him, and doesn’t want me to find him. So I won’t.”

She glanced at him, and blinked when she saw the traces of tears forming at his eyes before he raised a hand to wipe them away.

She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just nodded her head. But there was still a question burning at her. “Did you call me out here just to tell me that?”

“No,” he said. “I could have told you when I tell everyone else, but..” He lifted his arm, showing her his duel disk. “I found something else out there.”

She stared at the disk, confused.

An eye blinked. Then a small head popped out of it and she froze.

“Aqua?” She whispered, stretching out a hand.

The Water Ignis nodded at her. “Aoi.” Aqua climbed out of Yusaku’s duel disk, and flew off to land on her hand.

“I’ve missed you.” Aoi said to her, then looked up at Yusaku. “How did you…”

“I found her the other day… she wasn’t in good shape, so I didn’t want to tell you when you confronted me. She’s still recovering, but,” He gave her a sad smile again. “Even though you didn’t know her for long, I know how much she meant to you.”

“You brought her back… for me?” Her voice was quiet. “Thank you.”

He flinched. “Don't… say that. I-” He sighed. “I said it the other day. I haven’t been fair to you. Not just recently, though. Ever since-” He looked down at the ground. “Since I met Ai. You were always there.”

Aoi was silent.

“Blue Maiden.” He paused. “No… Aoi. You were always there. Even when we weren’t on the same side, you weren’t malicious. You had the least reason of all of us to do anything, and yet, you always came along, for your own reasons. Even when you had no idea who anyone was, save that we were all connected.”

“I should have told you who I was a long time ago. But I was stubborn. Even still… you tried to be friends with me. Without even knowing I was Playmaker.”

He finally turned to face her fully, and her eyes widened as he hugged her.

“Thank you.”

#vrains #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #sienasiesta #asks #thank you for the prompt! #sorry it took so long ;;;; #vrains ficstuff #poyo writing ficstuff

[poyomon2]

16. “I’ve got you." & angel or zinnia please !

16. “I’ve got you."

(Aoi/Yusaku)

Hi I bring angst, also it’s not super shippy.

When is this set? Who knows.

His body quivered as Naoki dealt the final blow to his life points.

No. He couldn't lose. Especially not to Shima.

But it almost happened in slow motion, and he blinked, leaving his deck and stepping away from the table as Naoki began to cheer.

He looked away, screwing his eyes shut and trying not to listen to the cheers.

He drew a dead hand. He was using a fake deck. He was far better at the game than Naoki. It was ridiculous that he would lose to someone who struggled at basic strategies. Naoki just got lucky.

All excuses to try and trick himself. His eyes cracked open, and he was left staring at the floor. The walls. Anything to take his mind off the loss.

His gaze swept across the room, looking for distractions. It passed Aoi, who was staring at him with a frown.

Then it landed on Naoki, cheering his heart away at finally having beaten someone.

His eyes glazed over and his vision went dark.

---

When he woke again, he was staring at a clean ceiling, and he shot up.

A hospital… Bad memories flowed back to him, putting him on edge.

"Fujiki? Are you okay?"

Blank eyes turned to stare at the voice, and everything came back into focus. Aoi was sitting by the side of the bed.

"Zaizen?" He asked. "Why am I here?"

She frowned. "Don't you remember? You collapsed out of nowhere."

And then he did. Naoki had beaten him. He'd thought it impossible, but somehow, it happened.

"You gave everyone a scare when you just fell like that. I only just managed to catch you."

He shook his head. "Oh… thank you." He frowned at the room. "But… why the hospital?"

Aoi looked away for a moment, conflicted. 

Then she turned back and opened her mouth.

"Your heart stopped. Only for a few seconds, but it did. So we called an ambulance."

Yusaku felt his chest. Obviously, his heart was beating, but he heaved a sigh of relief anyway at the confirmation.

"Oh." Aoi said, and he turned to face her as she rummaged through her pockets. "I picked up your deck on the way out. Your bag is over by the wall, too."

He looked over to it, and sure enough, it was there. Alongside Aoi's bag.

She finally pulled a deck out of her pocket, and held it out to him. "Here. There shouldn't be any cards missing."

He grabbed the deck, and she let go.

The cards fell messily down to the bed.

They both stared at the pile of cards, baffled.

Yusaku reached out to gather them up, taking one between his fingers.

The moment he lifted it, his fingers loosened and the card fell again.

His eyes widened, and suddenly he could hear his heartbeat in his ears.

He snatched at another one, but the same result occurred again, and again, no matter how many times he tried.

His breaths became heavier, shakier, as he tried to calm down. He left the cards, focusing on composing himself, then looked at Aoi. She was just as shocked and confused.

He swept the cards off the bed, pulling the blanket off and trying to stand up. He immediately stumbled, and Aoi caught him before he fell again.

"I've got you." She said. "Get back into bed, I'll help you. What do you need?"

He reluctantly listened to her, making himself comfortable in the bed once more. "Zaizen. Can you get something out of my bag for me?"

She nodded, standing up and moving over to pick up his bag. "What is it?"

"There should be a second deck holder in there." The one that contained his real deck.

There was no time to try and keep secrets. He had to know as soon as possible.

He could see the mounting confusion on her face as she found it and removed it from the bag, walking back over to set it down in front of him.

He stared at it. Slowly, apprehensively, he removed the lid. He reached for a card, pulling it off the top.

Decode Talker fell face up onto the bed. He saw Aoi's eyes widen in the corner of his vision. He reached for another card.

Encode Talker.

Firewall Dragon.

Cyberse Magician.

One by one, he pulled cards from the deck and could only watch as, one by one, they fell from his hands.

His heart raced as he panicked. What was going on? He couldn't-

Drops fell onto the bed, and he raised his hands to his face. He was crying. He could feel the tears flowing, dampening his hands and face wherever they touched.

Aoi shook her head and rose from her seat again, kneeling next to the bed and reaching for him.

He let her pull him into an embrace, too shocked to refuse anything.

"Fujiki, what's happening? Talk to me."

He turned his head, and only succeeded in getting her shirt wet, before he spoke in broken, choking words.

"I- I can't duel anymore."

#vrains #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #lily-liegh #asks #vrains ficstuff #poyo writing ficstuff #thank you for the prompt lily~~

[poyomon2]

fifty one with zinniashipping please

51.  “You make me feel alive.”

Aoi's dead eyes lit up slightly as she heard the doorbell to her apartment ring. She dragged herself out of bed, light gradually returning to her eyes as she made her way to the door.

She opened it, and was immediately assaulted with a hug from her girlfriend.

"Aoi!" Miyu called. "I'm here!" Miyu drew back with a smile, then looked around. "Your new apartment is so clean!"

Aoi let out a small giggle. "I only moved in yesterday, Miyu. Of course it's clean." She gave Miyu a light kiss on the cheek, then spread her arms slightly. "Come on, I'll show you around!"

She gave Miyu a quick tour of the small apartment, which she was renting out of her own pocket (she didn't want to rely on Akira forever) with money earned from her time as Blue Angel. She'd saved up quite a lot, but she was still looking for a part time job so she wouldn't eventually fall into the red.

The bedroom was the final room she showed Miyu, and Miyu wasted no time in diving onto the bed.

"It's so soft! I wish I had a bed as soft as this." Then she sat up, reaching to grab Aoi's arms, and pulled Aoi onto the bed.

They huddled there for a few minutes, but then Aoi couldn't stop some tears from dripping out of her eyes. They rolled down her cheeks, falling onto the bed, and Miyu noticed.

She leaned into Aoi, whispering with a frown. "Aoi, what's wrong?"

Aoi shook her head. "Nothing is wrong." She denied. The tears didn't stop, and she pulled back and choked on air as she tried to steady her breathing and failed.

"Aoi?" Miyu said. "Please talk to me."

Aoi pulled her chin in, and after a few more shuddering breaths, said something that Miyu couldn't hear.

Miyu leaned in closer still. "What did you say?"

And then she heard it, almost inaudible as Aoi whispered as quietly as she could.

“You make me feel alive.”

Miyu jerked back in surprise and confusion, but leaned in once more. "What do you mean?"

This time, Aoi spoke a bit louder. "I always feel so isolated from everything. So alone. Even when my brother tried to bring me into things and make me feel included, it never felt genuine. I still felt alone."

Aoi swallowed, then continued. "But whenever I'm with you, it's different. You're so energetic, friendly, loving… there's so much more I could say. But you make me feel like I'm not alone anymore."

Miyu hugged her. She was still crying, but slowly, the tears began to subside and Aoi was just dryly sobbing into her chest.

"It's okay, Aoi. I'm here. You won't be alone."

Finally, Aoi drew back slightly so she could look at Miyu's face, and she smiled.

"I love you."

#vrains #aoi zaizen #miyu sugisaki #zinniashipping #merryfortune #asks #vrains ficstuff #poyo writing ficstuff

[poyomon2]

Specter + Miyu / 66. "Why me?"

66. “Why me?”

Catch me continuously forgetting to upload prompts.

Miyu slammed the phone down with an angry yell.

She was fine. She didn’t need to stay in the hospital anymore. It was just making her feel worse. Her mother frustrated her so much. She was just so controlling.

She just wanted to leave. Get on with her life. The doctors agreed she was fine, too, but her mother somehow had the connections to keep her in there anyway.

Miyu suspected she only did it to make it easier to keep an eye on her. Her mother always put up a face of worry, but she saw through it every time.

She was still fuming when a knock came at her door.

“Come in.” She called, frowning.

The door slid slowly open, and a white haired teenager stepped through, into her room. He had his hands behind his back.

“Spectre!” She pushed down her anger to put a smile on her face.

“Good afternoon, Sugisaki.” He said, hesitantly. He frowned at her, causing her to stiffen slightly.

“Is something the matter?” She asked.

“You’re angry at something.” He said. “Is there an issue?”

She waved a hand to dismiss the comment. “Just my mother being ridiculous again.” She leaned forward expectantly. “More importantly, did you bring another today?”

Spectre nodded, drawing one hand forward to offer her a flower.

She plucked it from his hand, adding it to the vase next to her bed. “Thank you!”

A small collection of flowers sat in the vase, each of them different. All of them were gifts from Spectre. She rearranged them slightly to better accommodate the new addition, then turned back to Spectre with a smile.

“At this rate I might need a new vase before I get out of hospital.” She said with a laugh. “Who knows when I’ll be leaving.”

Spectre’s face moved slightly, and her eyes narrowed.

“I saw that! You almost smiled that time!”

Spectre turned his face away from her, so she couldn’t see it anymore.

“Now that’s just not fair. How am I supposed to tell if you finally smiled if you look away?” She complained.

Spectre snorted with the slightest trace of amusement. “Unlikely at best.”

Miyu pouted. It had no effect on him, seeing as he wasn’t looking her way.

“Hey, Spectre, I was wondering…”

Spectre tilted his head back her way, watching her out of the corner of his eye.

“Why me?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“It’s just-” She wavered slightly. “From what I’ve heard from the others, you’re not exactly on the best terms with them. Aoi sometimes seems to be hostile to the mere thought of you, too.” She smiled sadly. “I don’t mention you when she visits anymore.”

She took a breath, then kept speaking. “I was wondering why you tried to be my friend. I don’t understand. It doesn’t sound like what they told me about you.”

Spectre was silent for a few minutes, and Miyu wondered if she’d angered him with the question. His face was twisted in what seemed to her to be some kind of confusion.

Was he not sure himself?

Eventually, though, his face cleared and he turned back to face her fully.

“You know of the Ignis, correct?”

Miyu shrugged. “Not really. The others don’t like to talk about them very much. All they told me was that the Ignis were based off of those of us involved in that incident.”

Spectre frowned, then nodded. “The Ignis that were based off of you, Aqua, and I, Earth, knew each other much better than they did any of the others. They were close friends.”

He looked away again, and Miyu could see his face changing as he tried to figure out what to say.

“I thought maybe we could try and be friends, somehow, since our Ignis got along.”

Miyu stared at him. “That’s all?”

Spectre nodded.

“I won’t say I can really understand your reasoning, but-” She smiled. “I’d be happy to be friends with you.”

This time, she knew she caught a hint of a smile on his face before he straightened his face again.

#vrains #miyu sugisaki #spectre (vrains) #vrains ficstuff #asks #anon #thanks for the prompt! #poyo writing ficstuff

[poyomon2]

let’s play “angst / fluff prompts”: #70 + Angelmaker, please :>

70: “After everything we’ve been through, you still don’t think that I love you?”

Thank you for the ask! I messed around a bit with how the piece was written. Also Tumblr hates formatting so fingers crossed I can get it to co-operate.

Prompts still open Here

Yusaku was tucked away into a dark corner of Link VRAINS, tapping away at his duel disk. He’d long since shelved the Playmaker avatar. It was too well known, now, and he got recognised less when he was just being himself.

It wasn’t like many people at his school logged into the dueling network, anyway. Naoki, Aoi, maybe a couple of others that he didn’t know. But everyone online knew what Playmaker’s appearances represented.

A new threat. It was basically branded in everyone’s minds by now. He only showed up when there was a fight to be had, and people, being people, started following him everywhere in anticipation, rather than trying to stay safe.

Aoi and Takeru didn’t have nearly the same problems. More often than not, they logged on for leisure, instead of out of necessity. 

So he’d started just logging on as himself, and keeping out of view when there were fights to be had. Any threat large enough to catch his attention knew he was Playmaker, anyway.

After minutes of tapping at his duel disk, trying to get the program to activate, a crack finally appeared in the air in front of him, tearing itself open to reveal another location. He took a deep breath. After days of work, he’d managed to track down where the current threat was hiding, at the expense of spending time with anyone.

Not that he spent much time with anyone in the first place, but in the past few days, Naoki kept chasing him down after school, prompting him to make himself scarce anyway. Nothing good ever came from interacting with that guy.

Before he entered the crack, he typed out a message to Shoichi, finally letting his older friend acquaintance know about the situation. Shoichi had been spending a lot of time with Jin after he’d finally recovered to a state where he wasn’t bound to a single place, but Yusaku still felt the need to let him know when something was happening, even if he planned to have it all tied up before Shoichi could do anything.

He nodded to himself, then stepped forward-

“Pla- Yusaku!”

His head snapped around, eyes widening. Someone found him? He recognised the voice, and his eyes weren’t far behind.

Aoi. His… crush, friend, classmate? He settled on that, squashing the unbidden thoughts. He didn’t need to worry about them. Nothing would come from feeling thinking that way. They had different lives to worry about.

She jumped down from the D-Board, landing in front of him with a frown on her face. “What’s going on?” She stared at the crack for a moment, but returned to looking at him, waiting for his response.

“Zaizen.” He blinked, still gathering his thoughts. She twitched as he said her name. “Nothing.” He lied. “Just testing a program. Why are you here?”

“So you’re free, then? Let’s go do something fun.” She said.

He jerked back. He knew she would see through the obvious lie, but why didn’t she call him on it? “Maybe another time.” He murmured. “I’m busy.”

“Not a chance. You’re either not doing anything important, or-” She glared at him, but it quickly changed into a look of worry. “You’re doing something dangerous again. We both know which one it is. You don’t log in unless something is wrong. Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

He was confused. “There’s no need for anyone else to get involved. It’s fine.” Why was she acting this way?

“Stop it.” She gave him a sad smile. “You keep doing this. Cutting us out, only letting us know about things when you’re about to deal with them, or you’ve already dealt with them.” She stepped around him, blocking his way. “It’s like you’re worried we won’t be able to help. That we’ll get hurt. But you don’t consider how we feel.”

“How… you feel?” He tried.

“We worry about you, as well. We’re not strangers, Yusaku. We’re your friends. I’m your- friend.” There was an odd catch in her words as she referred to herself, but he didn’t pay it any mind.

The rest of her words caught him, though, and brought a bubble of guilt into his thoughts. He knew he was the one in the wrong here, but he couldn’t admit it.

He weakly tried to push past her, but she caught his arm with a frown.

He frowned at her. “Why are you worried about me? It’s not necessary.” He put some more effort in, but she wouldn’t budge.

“What are you talking about?” She spoke softly. “After everything we’ve been through, you still don’t think that I love you?”

“You-”

“Of course I’m worried. We’ve been through so much together.” She released his arm, letting it fall back to his side. “I’m not telling you not to fight, but you don’t have to fight alone.”

He was completely lost for words as she gave him a quick hug before drawing back and stepping out of the way, frowning at the portal, then him.

“So let’s get this out of the way, already. I’ve been trying to catch up with you for a week now. I want to spend time with you. Do you know how hard it was to not have Shima ask pointed questions when I asked him to chase you down?”

His classmate friend crush smiled at him, and he made the effort to smile back.

“Sure.”

#vrains #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #breakdawn-avenue #asks #poyo writing ficstuff #vrains ficstuff #thank you!! #this was an interesting prompt to write

[poyomon2]

let's play "Sentence prompts": #26 for Angelmaker, pretty, pretty please :> (and may I request big fluff with it? only if it's okay... !)

I should probably post this one shouldn’t I. It’s been forever. Probably not as fluffy as I’d like but I tried!

26. “Did I just say that?”

The crack of thunder shook the two of them out of their focus on their schoolwork, making them both look up in surprise.

Rain was coming down in sheets, causing muddy rivers to flow down the various paths of the park. 

Aoi stood up from her side of the table set, walking to the edge of the gazebo. “When did it start raining?” She asked, looking back in Yusaku’s direction.

He shrugged. He wasn’t sure either. He began to pack up the various books and materials they had, stacking them into a pile, before joining her at the edge.

He peered at the sky, frowning. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon.”

Aoi groaned. “Of course not. Just our luck. My place is too far from here to make it in any reasonable amount of time.”

Yusaku pondered the distances for a moment, then nodded. “My apartment isn’t too far from here, and if I’m remembering correctly, there’s a store along the way we can buy an umbrella at.”

Aoi hummed. “Are you sure? You’ve never wanted me to visit in the past.”

“That was-” before it stopped mattering whether or not she knew he was Playmaker. He still hadn’t told her.

He recognised the reason for what it was, though. A flimsy excuse. There wasn’t really anything in his apartment that could tip someone off to the fact that he was Playmaker. Especially now that Ai wasn’t around.

He knew, inside himself, that he just didn’t want to ruin her opinion of him. He didn’t know what she would think when she saw he lived in such a run-down place. He could tell he had budding feelings for her, but he didn’t want to mess anything up between them.

So he kept putting it off, telling himself that she could visit another day.

‘Another day’ had come, he supposed.

“Fujiki?”

He gave a start, realising she was still looking at him. Waiting for him to finish his sentence. He waved a hand. “Nevermind. It’s fine.”

He stared out into the rain, then turned and picked up the stack of books. “We should go before it gets worse.”

Aoi blinked, looking back and forth between him and the rain. “I don’t think it can.”

“It will, just for us.”

Then he ran out, moving between what little cover he could while sheltering the books from the rain, ignoring her call to wait for her.

She hurried after him, laughing slightly. “You could have let me carry some of the books!”

—

The two burst through the door, out of the rain, panting with exhaustion. The store hadn’t ended up having any umbrellas, so they were both soaking wet despite their best efforts.

They’d managed to keep the books from suffering any permanent damage, though, so that was good. 

“It’s better than outside, but it’s still cold.” Aoi commented.

“I’ve got a heater in my room. We’ll be going through to there.”

They passed several rooms, before coming upon a door which Yusaku opened, waving her in. Descending some stairs, she noticed that there wasn’t much in the room, aside from some basic furniture.

“Welcome home, master!” A cheerful voice greeted them, and Yusaku gave a tired, sad smile at the small robot at the bottom of the stairs.

“I’m back, Roboppy. We’ve got a guest today.”

“A guest!” The small robot cheered, waving its arms in the air. Aoi giggled slightly, but stopped at its next words. “According to data from my previous iteration, it has been five hundred and twenty four days since anyone else stepped foot in your home! Congratulations!”

“Five hundred-” She began, but hesitated.

Yusaku gave a short, dull laugh. “Thanks, Roboppy. Please be silent while she’s here.”

“Understood!” The small robot moved to the corner, powering down with a happy tune.

Aoi paused on the stairs, looking at Yusaku’s back as he continued down them. He suddenly looked extremely tired.

“I can come back another time if you want.”

“It’s fine.” Yusaku set the books down on the table, leaning down to turn on a heater. Before long, the room had started to become warm enough for them to be comfortable.

Aoi put her books down, too, then they both sat down on the floor.

“Your parents aren’t home?” The moment the words left her mouth, she realised the apartment wasn’t big enough to comfortably support more than a single person, and winced.

As she expected, Yusaku’s eyes slid sideways and looked down at the floor. Her heart reached out to him as she instinctively knew what that reaction meant.

“Sorry.” She leaned forward and grabbed a hold of his hands. “You don’t have to say anything.”

“It’s fine. I never really knew them anyway.”

He stared at her hands holding his, giving a small smile, before shaking them off and reaching to remove his jacket. He placed it on the floor in front of the heater, then beckoned for her to do the same, so she did.

He pinched at his shirt, then looked at her. “I’m going to get another shirt to wear. Uh-” He hesitated. “Would you like to borrow one for the time being?”

“Ah, if you don’t mind.” She looked away to hide the slight red on her cheeks.

“Alright.” He walked back up the stairs, exiting the room and leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She regret agreeing to visit. She was a mess, her thoughts were a mess, and she didn’t really know how to interact with him. She didn’t think she could focus on the schoolwork anymore, either.

She sat down against the bed, contemplating what to do when he returned.

A few minutes passed, and she heard the door to the room open. Turning her head towards the sound, she got a face full of shirt as she heard the door close again.

She laughed under her breath at the action. He could have at least said something.

Nonetheless, she changed her shirt before calling that it was okay.

Yusaku tentatively stepped back into the room, descending the stairs once more. He threw his wet shirt down next to hers by the heater before sitting down near her.

“Should we do some of the work now?” He asked.

She looked down at the floor. “I don’t know. I can’t really focus now.”

“Oh.”

They fell silent.

Yusaku wasn’t sure what to make of the situation anymore. He’d invited her over for once in order to get the work done, but now they weren’t going to do it.

He felt comfortable, though. Having her around made him feel happier, and he realised how lonely it could be without someone else around. It was silent, but it was a nice kind of silent.

Now that he thought about it, compared to Takeru, or, if he had to, Naoki, he much preferred Aoi’s company instead.

He smiled quietly to himself, then glanced at Aoi.

He froze. She was staring at him with a blush on her face.

He blinked at her, confused for just a moment, then it hit him.

“Did I just say that?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Is there… a reason for that?”

He looked down at the floor as his face flushed red. “It’s just that- Shima is kind of obnoxious to be around most of the time, and Takeru doesn’t really stop talking for large stretches of time. You’re much quieter in comparison, which makes me feel a lot better instead. I don’t have to feel like I need to keep up with everything going on at once.”

She smiled at him, then shuffled over to sit closer. “Thanks.”

“And- I just feel comfortable around you. You don’t prod too much. Even now- you didn’t ask about what Roboppy said, nor about my parents.”

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to talk about it.”

He nodded, then leaned back to lie on the floor, turning onto his side. “Maybe I will another time. Sorry I keep so many secrets.”

“It’s fine! It was obvious you were, but it’s not my business.” She laid down facing him with a smile. “I can come around more often if you’d like.”

“That would be… nice…” He smiled back at her.

She extended her hand out to sit between them. He stared at it for a moment, then hesitantly reached his hand out to touch it, before grabbing hold of it lightly.

The sound of the rain began to lull them to sleep, both content with the other’s presence.

Aoi later had to stop herself from screaming her brother’s head off when she was woken up by his call.

#vrains #vrains ficstuff #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #asks #breakdawn-avenue #thank you for the prompt! sorry it took forever #honestly this was an experience to write and I kinda wasn't sure entirely where I was going with it #poyo writing ficstuff

[poyomon2]

15 (angst) with angelmaker please

15. "Maybe in another world."

Prompts still open!

---

"Yusaku!"

Yusaku turned to see Aoi, out of breath, at the entrance of the station.

"Aoi…" He took some slow steps in her direction, then abandoned his luggage to run over to her. "You came."

"I couldn't just let you leave without saying goodbye."

The pair hugged briefly, then withdrew to simply hold hands.

"I'm sorry I can't come with you." Aoi gave a sad smile.

"It's alright." He said. "I understand. You still have too much to attend to, unlike me."

"You'll be back, right?"

"Once I'm done. It could be as little as one or two years, but I don't know."

"Make sure you keep in touch. I'll try to wait for you." She smiled, then released his hands, letting hers drop to her side.

"I will." He promised. "I love you."

Tears sprung from her eyes. "I love you too."

His eyes lingered on hers for a moment longer, having brief second thoughts, before he blinked away tears and wrenched his gaze away, returning to his luggage as the train pulled into the station.

He looked back in her direction before boarding, but she was gone.

---

Three years. That was how long he'd been gone. As promised, they stayed in touch all of that time.

But now he was back. He grinned. He could finally see her again. It had been too long.

He stood outside the entrance of the cafe they agreed to meet at, staring up at the sign.

It was a place they'd visited together, many times in the past.

"Yusaku!" A familiar voice rang in his ears, and he span excitedly to see Aoi running over to him.

"Aoi!" He stepped forward, reaching out to catch her in a hug.

"It's so great to see you again! It's been way too long!" She smiled at him as they separated, but his heart stung briefly as he searched for and failed to find the same spark from all those years ago.

Maybe he had just been apart from her for too long.

"Yeah! Should we go in? It's been a while since we've been here together, is it still the same?"

Aoi nodded. "For the most part. The menu is slightly different but the quality is otherwise unchanged. Come on!"

She entered before him, and he noticed another detail about her that had changed.

He brought it up once they'd taken seats and ordered.

"You grew your hair out! It looks nice."

"Thanks! I've been growing it out more since you left."

He wasn't sure if she meant for the words to sting, but they did.

They made small talk as they waited for their orders, and even after receiving their food they kept talking between bites.

There was too much to catch up on. But slowly, he finally felt the need to ask about it after they had both finished. The topic they had both completely avoided over their communications while he was gone.

The topic they kept avoiding all through their conversation.

"Aoi?" He tentatively asked.

"What is it?" He could see her eyes widen slightly as she noticed his demeanour change.

"Do you still…?" Love me? He couldn't say the words.

She went silent. She knew what he was getting at.

After a long, harsh minute, she gave a sad smile and looked down at the table, whispering just loud enough for him to hear.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't wait."

The words drove a stake into his heart. He slumped backwards, staring at the ceiling.

"I see."

"Maybe in another world. One where I could have waited longer. Or one where I could have gone with you instead. Maybe we could have been together."

She leaned forward, tears forming at the edge of  her eyes. 

"But not this one. Not anymore."

Yusaku gave no response. He closed his eyes, but it didn't stop the tears from coming out.

"Yusaku?"

"I understand. I had my hopes, but that was all they were. I just didn't expect it to hurt this much."

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be sorry. It's not something you can help."

Aoi stood up. "Let's go for a walk."

Yusaku's eyes slowly opened again and he nodded.

"We're still friends, right?"

"Yeah, of course! I just can't see myself dating you anymore."

Yusaku's smile slowly recovered, but she could still see the sadness behind it as he stood up to leave with her.

"Let's go?"

"Let's go."

#vrains #vrains ficstuff #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #poyo writing ficstuff #asks #merryfortune #thank you! #this was fun to write but now i'm sad

[poyomon2]

49 with Aoi/Miyu

49. “Who hurt you?”

This is. Angst.

Miyu was like a sun to her. Every time they spent time together, Aoi was able to find it in herself to be more cheerful than ever, with a warm feeling inside of her.

It only made her want to spend even more time together with Miyu. Her friend from so many years ago, temporarily forgotten but finally found again.

The other girl was never sad. At least, that's what Aoi thought. She'd never seen Miyu sad in recent times. She was always smiling, and sometimes when they were together she would blush.

Aoi still wasn't sure what was up with that. It always seemed so out of nowhere. They would be doing some kind of activity and Miyu would just start blushing and fidgeting.

She'd asked the others why Miyu might be acting like that, but Yusaku just gave her a blank, unknowing look before shaking his head and shrugging, and Takeru just looked away and refused to answer, even though he admitted (after some pushing) that he probably knew what was going on.

That was why it came as such a shock when she saw Miyu looking downcast as she walked through the main gate of the school.

"Miyu!" She called happily, trying to get her attention and cheer her up.

But Miyu froze slightly, looking at her, then turned her head away and briskly walked past her, heading directly into the school building.

Aoi couldn't move to follow her. She was too shocked at the cold reception. Why would Miyu do that?

After a few minutes, she was torn from her thoughts by the bell ringing, and raced off to class. She lamented the fact that her first classes weren't with Miyu. Otherwise she might have been able to ask about it.

---

As soon as recess broke, she went off to search for Miyu. She checked their usual spot on the roof, where they ate together every day, but she was ultimately disappointed. She didn't know where else she could possibly be hiding, so she ended up wandering the halls in confusion.

Recess came and went, without a single trace of Miyu. Sighing, she went to class. She shared the next class with Miyu, at least. She might not be able to get much out of her during class, but at least she wouldn't lose her.

She opened the door, looking up expectantly at where they usually sat.

Miyu wasn't there. Aoi blinked in surprise, but took her seat anyway. Maybe she'd just arrived first.

That small flame of hope was snuffed as the teacher arrived and the class started. Miyu never showed.

---

Lunch was her last chance. She didn't share any more classes with Miyu today, so she could only search with increased fervor.

Just to be sure, she checked the roof again, but as expected, Miyu wasn't there. She wandered down to the courtyard, and began to search the more out of the way locations.

She caught the tail end of a whispered argument from around a corner, with the voice of someone familiar.

"I'm not going to say it again, I'm not telling her for you!"

Was that Takeru's voice? She rounded the corner, and her eyes widened.

"Miyu!" She called, a smile finally growing on her face again.

Takeru and Miyu froze and their heads snapped to look at her.

Then, without any explanation, they ran in the other direction.

Aoi's eyes teared up as she realised that they were avoiding her.

Her legs wouldn't move. She wanted to chase them, but she couldn't.

Was something wrong with Miyu that she wasn't being told?

---

She eventually wandered her way in a daze back to the roof. She needed to eat at some point, and the roof was the only place she was comfortable.

As soon as she stepped out through the doors, she could hear crying. The source wasn't in plain view, so she checked around where it was easier to hide.

Miyu was there. Aoi's throat ran dry and she rushed forward to kneel in front of the crying girl.

"Miyu, what's wrong?" She asked worriedly.

The crying stopped for a moment, and Miyu looked at her. "Go away!" She said, raising her arms to weakly push at Aoi. Then she returned to burying her head in her legs, curled up into a ball against the wall.

"Wh- Why? What's going on?"

Miyu didn't respond this time. Aoi could only think. Why could she be crying? What happened? Did someone hurt her?

That last thought made her heart jump, scared for Miyu.

"Who hurt you?"

Miyu stopped making any noise, and Aoi couldn't stop herself from feeling victorious at making some progress. She was right?

Miyu slowly moved to stand up, and Aoi followed, putting her hands out. "It's okay. You can talk to me."

Then she saw Miyu's face again. It was screwed up in anger, staring straight into Aoi's eyes.

"You did!"

The air on the roof suddenly felt like it was freezing her, despite the warm day.

"Miyu, I don't understand. How did I hurt you?"

Miyu pushed her again, sending her back a step, then moved forward.

"We've been back together for months now, how long is it going to take you to realise I love you!"

Without even waiting for a response, Miyu fled, tears falling again.

Aoi's bag slipped from her fingers, hitting the ground and spilling its contents.

She suddenly felt as if her legs couldn't support her anymore, and slowly fell to the ground, lying on her back to stare at the sky.

"You… love me…?"

Everything made sense now, at least. From the feelings she got, to the reactions Miyu had.

Was it too late?

#vrains #aoi zaizen #miyu sugisaki #zinniashipping #asks #anon #vrains ficstuff #poyo writing ficstuff #I couldn't think of how to do this with anything other than angst so #here you go

[poyomon2]

Severance

They'd done it. Bowman was finally defeated, and Lightning's ambitions had finally been stopped.

Yusaku looked around him, at his allies' avatars reforming as they were released from Bowman's program. He gave a sad smile. While they may have come back, it didn't seem like the Ignis were going to return.

They all grouped up quickly, but there was one missing.

Blue Maiden.

---

Aoi opened her eyes from her nap. Not that she needed to sleep anymore. The familiar dark void that she'd been shunted into after the defeat of Bowman greeted her as usual.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been here anymore. Days? Weeks? Years? Time was no longer relevant to her current existence.

She was alone.

Out of habit, she tried to log out again. A futile effort, to be sure, but she didn't feel like trying to break it. It was something to hang on to.

She was fairly sure she knew why it was failing. She couldn't feel any connection to her real body anymore. Somehow, she wasn't able to return to it.

She sighed, then watched her hand flicker and change again. It happened regularly, but she hadn't bothered to find out how much time passed between each one.

A clover formed around her wrist. So, it was the Blue Angel avatar this time. She pushed off against nothing, floating around the dark void again.

However long it had been, it was too long. Clearly none of her so called "allies" had spent too long looking for her. She'd originally had faith that they would find her quickly. They were all fairly good at hacking - save Soulburner - after all.

But as the hours turned into days and the days turned into weeks, her faith had turned into hatred. It seemed they didn't care enough.

She wished Aqua had come back with her. But the Water Ignis hadn't, leaving her duel disk empty.

Her heart ached. If only she'd been stronger. Aqua wouldn't have had to die.

She blinked, snapping out of her brooding at an unfamiliar sight and sound. A hole was ripping open in the void, and something came through.

Some kind of ship? She floated closer, and slowly she could make out details.

...Linkuriboh? No, it was the wrong colour. Linkuriboh was blue, but this was a shade of black.

She let the lookalike draw closer, and eventually its face opened and she could see two unfamiliar people inside it. The taller one of the pair had a grin on his face as he looked at her, and waved. She returned the wave in confusion.

"Yo, Zaizen! It's been a while, we've been looking for you everywhere!"

The way he spoke with a note of familiarity put her on guard. Whoever this was, he knew exactly who she was.

"Who are you?"

The figure frowned, then made a sound of realization. "Oh, right! I should introduce myself." He gave a dramatic bow. "I'm Ai."

"Ai? Why do you look like that now?"

He extended a hand out to her as she continued to float. "How would you like to come with us? We'll explain everything."

She hesitated for a moment, but then nodded and took Ai's hand. "Thank you for coming to find me."

---

Companion art piece

#vrains #vrains ficstuff #aoi zaizen #ai (vrains) #poyo writing ficstuff #@ everyone who saw the snippets of the funeral... this is the same fic.

[poyomon2]

For the sentence prompts. 23 with Aoi and Yusaku just because it strikes me as funny.

You’re right! It’s a very good prompt with lots of potential. My brain still went straight for angst. Oops. It’s kinda long too.

I wasn’t sure if you meant for the ship or not but it ended up not being shippy anyway.

23. “You have a picture of me? On your fridge?”

—

Yusaku was… more than uncomfortable.

This was just supposed to be a school project. Emphasis on school. But here he was, standing with Aoi in the elevator going to the top of the highrise she lived in.

He was not prepared for this.

Despite everything, he found himself wishing he could have grouped up with Naoki, instead, but the annoying boy wasn’t in this class, and nobody else wanted to group with him.

Nobody except Aoi, at least. She’d specifically asked him, almost immediately after the project was announced.

“You could have grouped up with someone else, you know.” He broke the silence in the elevator, startling her.

Her head dipped forward slightly, in what he thought he recognised as disappointment, but then she raised it again and shook it.

“It’s fine.”

She said nothing else on the subject, and soon the elevator stopped, giving a light ping before the door slid open.

They were greeted immediately with a living room, which made Yusaku’s eyebrows raise. When she’d said she lived at the top of the building, he’d expected her to mean just an apartment, not the entire floor.

Thinking about it, her brother had money, so he shouldn’t have been surprised in the slightest. Especially when Akira had been reinstated as the security manager following the Tower of Hanoi incident.

Aoi had stepped out of the elevator while he mused, turning to give him a light smile. “Are you coming in?”

Tentatively, he nodded, stepping slowly out of the elevator and taking his shoes off. The place gave him an alien feeling, but he had to deal with it. They didn’t have enough time to do the project at school, and his own apartment was out of the question, run down as it was, so Aoi had suggested her own place, which he’d reluctantly accepted.

“Welcome home, Aoi. I see we have a guest.” A robotic voice interrupted him from his thoughts, and he saw a maid robot, one that was quite advanced.

“I’m home. Please don’t disturb us.”

“Understood.”

She nodded, turning back to him. “Sorry about that.” She moved further into the abode, letting him follow her. “Would you like a drink? We have a larger collection than I’d ever drink, so there’s no worry about taking too much.”

They stepped into the kitchen as he responded. “I’m fine, don’t-” A flurry of movement made him stop, eyes following Aoi as she dashed to the fridge, snatching something off of it with wide eyes.

Not before he saw it. A picture of him? Judging from the state of the fridge, she’d taken it off a now empty spot that was surrounded by drawn flowers.

He heard her talk to herself, voice shaking. “I forgot it was there.”

Yusaku stared at the empty spot, then back to her hands, which she’d clasped together around something which she now held to her chest.

“You have a picture of me? On your fridge?”

Silence. Perhaps he shouldn’t have said anything. He took a few steps towards her, slowly, and then he was close enough to hear her half-whisper to him.

“You can leave now, if you want. It’s alright. I can do the project myself.” As he crouched down beside her, he could see tears forming in her eyes as she continued. “I know it’s creepy. My brother knows it’s creepy, too, but he didn’t say anything so I left it there.”

“Zaizen.”

As he said her name, she began to emit a keening noise, in clear distress.

He reached forward, prying her hands open to take the picture out of them. The noise stopped as she made a strangled noise of confusion.

He flattened the photo back out, then attached it back to the fridge.

As he turned back to Aoi, she stared back with confusion in her eyes.

“Why?” She whispered.

“I won’t say it’s not creepy, but it’s clearly important to you for it to be there, right?”

She nodded silently.

“Do you.. want to tell me why?”

“Really?” Tears began to run down her face, and he nodded in return.

She took a deep breath, then stood, turning and leaving the kitchen as he followed.

She sat down on one of the couches in the living room waiting for him to sit down across from her before she began to speak.

“Ten years ago,” He almost flinched at the time frame. “I had a friend, but I made a horrible mistake that caused me to lose her forever. I’ve been so self conscious about it that, along with my brother’s position at SOL, I was never able to make any more friends after that.”

Yusaku nodded along, only listening and not making any comments in case she stopped talking because of them.

“I put your picture up because- because you’re the first person in that time who I’ve been able to feel like I’m friends with, and not just being used for benefits.”

The words struck his heart as he remembered that he had, in fact, approached her for selfish reasons, even if he’d abandoned them almost immediately.

He couldn’t tell her that. Barring the fact that he would need to fully explain himself, it would probably break her.

He was completely lost for words. Silence filled the room as she quietly cried, and he sat watching her with no idea how to respond.

Every moment that passed made him feel worse. She’d thought of him as a friend, yet he’d never made any effort to really make room within himself to have such a thing.

He’d stubbornly clung to his old habits, even though they’d taken down the Knights of Hanoi and ended his revenge.

He needed to change. He’d always planned to, but never had the courage to go through with it.

“Zaizen.”

She blinked away tears, and wiped at her face with her hands, though her face was still wet when she looked up at him.

Knowing he had her attention, he continued. “I think we should put the project on hold for today.” Seeing her grimace and shrink back, he raised a hand to reassure her. “You’re not in any state to work on it.”

He stood up, grabbing his bag. “How about I come around tomorrow? It’ll be the weekend, so we can spend most of the day working on it and then-”

He bit back on his words, cutting himself off, but forced himself to finish. “Then maybe we can hang out for a bit.” He scratched the back of his neck, looking away slightly. “As friends.”

It wasn’t much, but he saw her give a small smile at his words before nodding.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Yeah.”

#vrains #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #poyo writing ficstuff #immicolia #vrains ficstuff

[poyomon2]

Things I shouldn't do at 4am:

:D

#poyo writing ficstuff #wips #HEY REMEMBER HOW I MENTIONED I HAD A FIC IDEA WHERE AOI DIDN'T COME BACK AFTER BOWMAN WAS BEATEN

[poyomon2]

Aoi finally knows Yusaku is Playmaker. Before, she was fine with waiting. But now, with this revelation, and a new battle on the horizon, she can no longer let her feelings rest forever.

Characters: Aoi, Yusaku

Relationships: Yusaku/Aoi (Mostly One-Sided)

It’s finally up! Set during episode 105, so if you haven’t seen it yet there are some spoilers.

#vrains #vrains spoilers #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #vrains ficstuff #poyo writing ficstuff #apparently line breaks aren't a thing anymore??

[poyomon2]

12 for angelmaker please :)

This took a lot longer than I expected, and I didn’t quite do the prompt as it was probably intended. I hope you like it! It didn’t end up being too shippy, though.

---

Yusaku wasn't sure what drove him to visit Aoi in the hospital. Alone, of course. Ai would've never shut up if he'd brought him along.

Perhaps it was guilt. He'd constantly had that feeling hanging over his head ever since the duel with her, and the… unfortunate result.

There were ways he could have avoided it. If he hadn't been so adamant about not dueling her in the first place, maybe Hanoi wouldn't have been able to infect her with the virus. 

He had no proof that she had been infected after she challenged him, but Ai hadn't noticed anything out of place before then, so it was logical that it had happened after.

He could have avoided dueling altogether. Asked her why she had a Hanoi card in her deck. She obviously wasn't one of them.

But, no. Because he was too hasty at striking at any possible connections to Hanoi, she'd ended up in a coma.

He finally reached the room she was in. Swiping the entry pass that the staff had given him, he entered the room as he pondered on what he could possibly do here aside from feel guilt.

He moved a chair from the corner, bringing it up to the side of the bed, and sat down. He gave a glance at where he knew the camera was, but dismissed it. Shoichi wasn't watching, and it didn’t record sound, either.

"Good morning, Zaizen."

Her hand twitched at the words, and for a moment he could pretend she was merely asleep, not in a coma.

"Wondering why I'm here?" He gave a short, cut laugh. "So am I."

Then he went silent for a minute, staring at her face. She looked peaceful most of the time, but occasionally she would screw her face up as if she was in pain, and it only made him feel more guilt.

"I'm sorry. This is my fault." The words tumbled out before he could think about it. He nearly clamped up completely, but then relaxed again. Nobody was around to hear him. "I shouldn't have let you get caught up in the fight. Because of that, you're here now."

He clenched his hands. “I’m going to fix this. It shouldn’t take long for me to lure out the Knights of Hanoi. I can’t just leave you in this state, and I’m probably the only person with a chance to save you.”

He fell silent. He didn’t know what else to say. None of it would have mattered anyway. Sitting by her side, he could hear her breathing, and the quiet sounds of pain whenever… whatever she was experiencing… got worse. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes, and then stood up.

“I should go. I’m already late for school.” He walked back to the door, then hesitated, looking back. “I might be back after, though. I’m not sure.”

---

Yusaku fidgeted with the card in his hand, hesitant to open the door again. He said he might visit, but he couldn't help but feel like there was no point.

Sighing, he used the card to open the door again, stepping into Aoi's hospital room once more. He took a seat in the same place as that morning, and slumped over.

"I'm back. For some reason."

His eyes searched for any sign that she might be responding to his words, but there was nothing. He shook his head with a chuckle. "Of course you're not awake."

He closed his eyes, leaning back in the chair. "Naoki asked after you today. Since you weren't there. I wonder what he wanted." He cocked his head to the side, thinking. "Maybe some cards or something."

He gave a short, sad laugh. "Why am I even telling you this? Guilt, maybe."

He frowned, leaning forwards and resting his head in his hands. "Sorry. You were right, the other day. I only joined the duel club to get closer to you for your brother. I was hoping that, maybe he would be able to help me find some clues about my past. But because of what you said, I gave up on that idea."

"It wasn't supposed to be this way. Sorry."

His phone vibrated with a message, and he checked it quickly before getting out of the chair once more. "Something's happening. I need to go."

"I promise I'll wake you up."

---

"Fujiki!"

Aoi's voice broke him out of his thoughts, startling him. She was staring at him, a questioning frown on her face, and then she nodded.

"I need to talk to you. Can you meet me on the roof after school?"

Yusaku frowned, but nodded and kept walking. He went through his classes in a daze, wondering what she could want to talk about, then made his way to the rooftop at the end of the day.

Aoi was already waiting there for him. She turned and beckoned him over.

"Zaizen. What did you need?"

She gripped her skirt, and spoke softly. "Thank you. For visiting me while I was in the hospital. For not telling anyone." She took a breath. "And for saving me."

He blinked in shock. "I didn't-"

"I could hear you. When I was in my coma. I could hear everything." She raised her hands to her face, and he could see tears in the corners of her eyes. "If you hadn't saved me I might have never seen my brother again."

"You know." It wasn't a question. It was quite clear that she knew he was Playmaker now.

She nodded. "I won't tell anyone. Not even my brother. It's the least I can do now."

"Thank you."

They both went silent, mulling on their own thoughts. The conversation over, Yusaku turned to leave, but Aoi stopped him with a tap on his arm.

"Do you want to be friends?"

Yusaku hesitated. "If you heard me, you know I only approached you to get to your brother."

"I don't care about that anymore. After hearing your story in the data bank, I can understand why you would. I want to be friends with you."

Yusaku was silent. He was nervous, what if it didn't turn out well? Maybe he shouldn't.

Shoichi would be happy, though. He'd been urging him to make friends anyway.

"Sure."

She smiled at him, and he felt warm inside. A new, unfamiliar feeling.

#vrains #aoi zaizen #yusaku fujiki #angelmakershipping #sienasiesta #asks #vrains ficstuff #poyo writing ficstuff #thank you for the ask!