#brashshipping

The train whistle jolted Sawatari Shingo out of what was definitely a casual slouch against the station wall and not an impromptu nap. He had about ten seconds to adjust his clothes and flip his bangs in their most flattering direction before his guest got off the train and saw him slouching at the prospect of seeing her again.

He still wasn’t quite ready when she hopped off and found him.

“Hey, Sawatari.” Serena greeted him calmly, with a brief wave, though he was sure he wasn’t imagining the shine in her eyes.

“H-Hey, Serena. Right on time! How’s, uh, how are--uh--”

They started off by going for a brief walk around the station and the area, which didn’t help his nerves one bit--he just couldn’t get the simplest questions out.

She shook her head to cut off his stammering. “We’re doing fine. I see Dennis and Sora every day doing something--whether it’s nuts or genius depends on what day. Edo is starting a duel school similar to Sakaki Yuushou’s and the Tyler sisters have offered to teach classes for it.”

“T-That’s really good!” he said, and meant it--things sounded so much better with every update. “I’m glad everyone’s adjusting okay. Or--” he counted on his fingers, frowning. Weren’t some people missing? “--almost everyone...?”

“Worried about Yuuri? Don’t be. He comes back around to the school sometimes, but he never stays long, and the Professor says he hasn’t caused trouble anywhere else either.”

Sawatari was less worried about Yuuri terrorizing others behind all their backs and more concerned about Serena’s uncanny knowledge of his activities--but he held his tongue, putting it to better use.

“So... I booked us a table at my father’s favorite restaurant--did you still want to try Standard desserts while you were in town this time?”

Serena uncrossed her arms (a rare feat) and grinned (an even rarer one). “Lead the way. Don’t stop until we’re sitting down with sweets.”

“Yes ma’am!”

As they crossed three crosswalks and strode seven blocks to their destination, Serena asked him about the well-being of their other comrades--and although he didn’t know everyone’s whereabouts or activities as thoroughly as she had known her people’s, Sawatari did his best to regale her with exciting-sounding updates about tournaments, pool parties and diplomatic dimension field trips that weren’t theirs. She seemed well entertained by his storytelling, which made him feel as warm as anything could no matter how many times he pulled it off.

Ever since the war ended, Sawatari and Serena had been visiting one another when time allowed--first diplomatically, to ease tensions between Standard/Pendulum and Fusion, and then just as friendly once-comrades--and then a bit more than that. The official reasons had morphed from “to aid in reconstruction and recovery” to “to share time and space” very quickly, but what the others didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.

And even if they were hurt, a punch from Serena would hurt them more.

They arrived and found a bustling bakery, and Sawatari was quick to remind the host of his reservation, ensuring that they got to their seats and were served as soon as possible. He was determined not to disappoint his lady, so ten minutes later they were served very sweet apple pie a la mode.

“Not bad,” Serena decided. She licked a bit of ice cream off her lips and called for a slice of chocolate pie next as Sawatari sat gaping at her. My dad is going to kill me, he thought, but he pushed his reservations down and caught the arm of their waiter, gallantly saying “Make that two.”

The next slices of pie arrived as they were each finishing their first slices, and by then he had let go of any future worries about his father’s credit card bill, since he was now busy worrying about where he would take Serena next, and on her next visits after that.

His mind ping-ponged from we’ve already done duel stadiums and too many food joints for Dad’s election budget to I REALLY need to know if Yuuri is a threat to me and back to I haven’t even asked her where she’s taking me when I visit her next week!

Serena interrupted his crash course-thoughts with a finger snap and a fancy handkerchief that she wiped across his face. “Back to the present, pretty boy. You left chocolate on your cheek.”

“It’s the new style,” he bragged, taking her hand before it could move away.

Artfully she lifted one deep blue eyebrow; the pose was too good for even the finest painter’s eye. “Not just anyone is allowed to grab me--at least not without getting punched.”

Sawatari instantly let go, mockingly shielding his face. “Ah, no, wait! Please don’t get the face, it’s my best side. The whole thing. Ladies go gaga for Neo New Sawatari’s mug.”

“‘Ladies’?” Serena snorted, leaning back into her chair. “You’re overexaggerating again. No one but me finds this goofy thing you call a face attractive.”

He blushed deeply at the backhanded compliment, and tried to heed her earlier order without distracting her or himself.

“I’m back, I promise. Just wondering.... You’re still having fun going back and forth, right? Traveling with me? You haven’t gotten bored, or--”

“No,” she responded immediately. “Seeing Standard, really seeing it, has been rewarding. It’s given me something to look at that isn’t wholly tainted by fighting and training and war. Showing the parts of Fusion that weren’t that to you is even more rewarding. My concern is...”

She broke off. Sawatari prompted her wordlessly, afraid to touch her. But eventually words did find their way back to her.

“I’m running out of things to show you. And I have been for some time. I can give you my quarters, my old comrades, few that I had, my training regimen, even the city that Academian students come from and some of its attractions--but no more.

“I don’t remember my parents, Sawatari, those people I was taken from to be trained in the first place. I don’t even remember if I ever had parents at all, or if that was just another one of Ray’s holes in my life.”

He bit his lip; it tasted like chocolate and ice cream and an unsteady but determined resolve to make her feel a little better. He wasn’t one for putting feelings on display unless he was going over the top with a crowd; but that was the last thing she needed.

He’d have to come from somewhere more authentic instead--something she had indirectly managed to teach him with her stiff, no-nonsense pursuance of all things honest and just.

“Serena, I’m not counting off how many places or things you show me. I’m not comparing them to what I shared with you, either. If--if you took me to a rusty old tire hubcap and said it was your favorite place to stargaze, I’d sit there with you all night. It’s not the stuff--it’s you. Who you were before or what you have to give doesn’t matter--who I met on the way to Synchro, who I bonded with, is who I care about now.”

Serena looked down at her plate full of apple and chocolate crumbs, but it was obviously meant to hide the tiny sincere smiles she still didn’t feel comfortable showing--so maybe he’d said some okay things after all.

“So then...” she ventured, “if we take a D-Wheel and my transporter back to Fusion later this week, and I show you some actual mundane hubcaps and bottle tops and other shiny objects...”