#predadorks

we’re gonna keep trying that again, until you get it right, groaned serena, picking up her things and glancing oddly at yuri. it’s just not right the way you’re doing it.

but you asked me to smile, so i did? what’s wrong with my smile? yuri tipped his head in confusion but kept his slick smile and expression about him without remorse. nothing this girl said made sense to him, in truth, so the hilarity of it all sustained his curiosity all throughout.

i said smile like you mean it, serena scolded again. you just keep faking it. it’s ugly.

yuri’s face snapped back in response. hey, who are you calling ugly?!

you!!, she screamed back without hesitation

you’re ugly!!, he retorted, completely offended. and you know what else? i dont need your help!

serena glared back for a full two seconds at him before she started laughing incessantly, something completely incomprehensible to yuri. what? how was this supposed to be funny? 

and then, she spoke…

you stubbborn ass! no wonder you don’t have any real friends! huh…, serena stared him down til she saw look in his eyes reflecting regret right back at her. hey… i used to be a friendless loser just like you, so… just work with me here, okay? i’m trying to make you better…

the air around them went silent for what felt like an eternity before yuri’s laughter broke the silence this time.

yuri?… she held a giggle at the sight of him to herself as well, though she wondered what had brought upon the humor. what…?

oh, he fought back a choke or two. it’s just, he breathed in, clearing his throat for a few seconds or so, you thinking i can get better…. that’s, he continued to fight back tears. too cute, aha ahahaha….

serena was at a complete loss for words this time, so she just shrugged back and smiled at him.

at the end of his little moment to himself, yuri smiled back. and serena pointed back fervently: THERE! YOU DID IT!! YOU SMILED!! 

yuri giggled slightly one more time and responded, so what?

so, serena continued slowly, that’s… the first time i’ve seen you smile for real…

things you said when we were the happiest we ever were

Serena wasn’t much for surprises. She thought Yuri knew that much about her by now. Frankly, she was rather annoyed with him because of that, a fact she groaned out at him rather than hide.

Despite that, she still held on to his hand tightly, not like she had much of a choice otherwise at this point. 

Yuri had practically dragged her straight out of class the moment the dismissal bell rang at Yuya and Yuzu’s school on a day that was supposed to be, well, Yuya and Yuzu’s. How Yuri got them both to agree to give up their day together and let him “surprise” her is what smelled the most suspicious to her so, like the moon-struck kittens of her deck, curiosity ended up getting the best of her this time.

And so now here she was, blindfolded and guided by Yuri’s cold and stern hand.

“Oh come now, Serena, please quit your moaning,” Yuri snarled. “I went to the trouble of making sure this was gonna be worth your time.”

She pouted and sighed, but responded with nothing more until she felt him grasp her duel disk arm and briskly forced it into position. “Yuri! What the hell are yo—”

“Quiet, quiet! If the others find out, I’ll shave Yuya’s head!”

“Wha—?! How is that a threat for me?!”

“You wanna live a few months with that on your conscious? ‘Cuz I know Yuzu and the others won’t be too happy to wake up to that.”

He’s going to hold their hair hostage just for whatever he’s up to?! “Yuri, you’ve got to be f—!”

Swifter than she could exhale her latest curse at him, Serena heard Yuri activate a card on both of their duel disks, summoning a warm light that enveloped them both— bright enough to burn through her blindfold and blind her itself for a moment— and the next thing she knew she was finishing her sentence with an added haste in her words.

“—ucking kidding mewhat did you just do?!” She began to reach for the blindfold but Yuri wouldn’t allow her to even lay a finger on it.

“Ah ah ah. Not yet. Stay right here for just five minutes and then you’re free.”

Hmph. Free…, huh?

“Let’s see… he said this would be tight… ugh. Hmm… how the hell does he dress like this every day?” She heard Yuri off to the side, fumbling with whatever kinky outfit he wanted to try this time. It felt like they were out in the open still though, so… what gives? “Yuri…”

“Almost. Just. Ugh. There. You can take it off now.”

It really didn’t take Serena more than a second to fling the blindfold off, and instantly her vision came to to an image she wouldn’t soon forget.

Yuri had changed into a riding duel outfit.

Sure, he inhabited Yuya’s body, but the colors were all his. Violets and pinks and purples all adorned him gaudily. She almost laughed.

“What?! Don’t look good or…?”

She realized now she had to hide her smirk out of caution else she’d ruin his efforts. “You… look… uhhh…”

“Right. Your turn.” He pointed to a shed close by where she assumed was where he had procured the garment he wore now, but that’s not what she focused on. The surrounding field is what she saw instead. To her left and right, Serena found a continuous mound of empty bleachers, all coming together to form a long ring. She recognized the place. This was a stadium. She turned behind her. Yup, as she expected: two D-Wheels positioned at the start line, awaiting their dueling riders.

“Yuri, what in the world?” Serena breathed in awe.

“I guess I never told you but I saw you duel here once, you know.” Yuri took his helmet in hand and began to make his way towards the nearest D-Wheel. “You and Yugo looked like you were having fun, so I thought I’d give it a try, too. What do you say?” He smiled at her slyly.

She paused to take in his expression for a moment. It wasn’t cruel or cold this time like she’d known it before in the past. It was mischievous, sure, but… in that way that invited you on an adventure of a lifetime.

Serena smiled back at him. “Sure thing, Yuri.”

A few minutes later, they gathered themselves up onto their D-Wheels and revved their engines with a cool sunset fading down on their position. Even without a crowd, she felt she could still find this quite entertaining. Serena felt ridiculous for feeling so giddy, and yet there was still something she wasn’t understanding.

“Yuri, you really came back here just to duel on D-Wheels, though, or…?”

Yuri stood silent for a moment, revving his engine one more time before answering her tauntingly.

things you said that i wish you hadnt

You came by my room one night

From the other side of the cold door

You told me

“We could leave”

I packed up all my things 

And you came by and took my hand

Led the way

Left our lives behind without regret

.

Atop your winged serpent, we took flight

Where we would go, it didn’t matter if we were rich or poor

“It doesn’t matter, now we’re free”

That’s what you said, or rather what I made believe

And you laughed and sighed and told me I was dreaming

“We’re prisoners, Serena, don’t you understand?

We’ll never get our way...”

Your hopeless words, one door away, rang too real to forget

things you said that i wasn’t meant to hear

“Hmm, what makes you say that?” Serena breathed out gently, pursing her lips and pausing to stare bewilderingly at the ceiling. It was a small moment of silence before she spoke up again, but this time with a sharper tone.

“I know what he did! You don’t have to remind me every time!” Her eyes were rather ablaze now and her brow furrowed in annoyance. She exhaled loudly as if to drown out whatever voices in her head pestered her about that, which she quite clearly had had enough of already. “I get it. I. Get. It. But I thought you were the ones who suggested to give him a chance more than anyone! I told you guys at first that he—” 

More stark silence once again subdued her rebuttal but, after a minute, she eased her expression and listened carefully this time. 

Another two or three inaudible minutes of discussion passed, and then Serena’s voice lifted slowly back into the ardent conversation, seemingly holding back one of those chuckles of hers that she never wants to expose.

“See, Yuzu agrees with me,” she asserted, releasing the tension from her shoulders. “And besides, he’s the same as me, so…”

Serena let her voice ease to a halt, as if she were expecting another interruption, something the short gap in between her responses quickly confirmed. 

“Well,” she exhaled briefly before gathering her voice up again to explain, unwavering. “I didn’t know the world until just a few years ago, and yet I don’t feel I’ve really changed.”

This time, she allowed merely a second of silence to go by uninterrupted.

“No, I haven’t,” she corrected, allowing the intensity to flush back into her eyes and face. “I’ve grown. But I’m still the same me.”

…

Even for him, this last, long, dead moment of silence was almost too uncomfortable to bear. Through the reflection off his sleeping duel disk, Yuri saw Serena’s disgruntled face struggle to find her next words. She breathed in deep one more time, fiddling with her duel disk as she finally exhaled the words she wanted for them to consider before making any judgements.

“I don’t think Yuri can change, but,” Serena finished up with her duel disk, and moved closer to glance out the room window, letting the intruding moonlight illuminate her eyes somewhat magically, but equally blinding to how close Yuri had positioned himself on the other side. “I want to be there to see him grow. For people like us who were forced into our lives, maybe that’s the best we can do…”

…

The light from his duel disk shone too bright, annoying even, it was a good thing he had made a move to head back before the notification showed up. He made a mental note to tell Yuya to stop leaving it on the highest brightness lest they ended up needing glasses sometime soon. Reading these tiny-ass texts would really get bothersome then.

meet up tmrw @ u sho again? i’ll kick ur ass

What an eloquently put text, he thought, but unmistakably meant just for him.

pffft u promise?

It wasn’t until Yuri had gotten back to Yuya’s house and finished settling up in bed for the night that he finally got a reply. 

Talk about a ship you initially disliked.

predatorship.

y’all know i, for the most part, really only go with canon ships (or really-close-to-canon/implied-canon ships) so at first i notp’d predatorship hard since... there’s no real actual canon relationship between them. they exchange maybe, literally, like one or two lines of dialogue at most, and then a *look* with each other at the end. but fanart, theories, and, admittedly, headcanons, got me to consider it towards the end of the show, and ironically enough, looking back at things, considering the world building, relationships, and clear connections they shared together in canon... that’s what really drove me from thinking of them as a notp to a hardcore otp. there’s just... too much context clues and propositional “what if” scenarios that... i can’t resist. i’m. just. such a sucker. for. reincarnation romances. and tragedy. and they provide this for me. because... the support from canon is there to heavily imply... that. they. they. *sniff*

they shoulda met. they shoulda met and been together. they were very much meant to, just like the three other counterpart couples did. but. they didn’t. because someone had to butt in and break my heart once i realized what could have been. thanks. #ThanksArcV

first! sorry for the late response, as always... secondly, holy shit i got you back into yugioh? haha i’m glad (i think)! i hope you’ve been enjoying it!!

and yes i do have headcanons for this (though, keep in mind i stick with canon a lot...):

fallenangel: well i think they pretty much showed us when these two realized they were in love in ep 124...

apple: i don’t think yugo remembers when he fell in love or realized he was in love with her, i think he’s just loved her since he could remember. rin, on the other hand... i hc she realized she might like him when they were building their D Wheel together. i think the moment when he saw him smile proudly after his first successful ride on their new D Wheel is when she realized she wanted to see his dorky smile everyday for the rest of her life.

predator: i think i wrote out my headcanon for this the other day in response to another ask

fruits: dorks not realizing they’re in love whilst acting very much in love is one of my biggest fucking weaknesses... 

yuzu for the most part knows how much she cares for yuya and that he’s important to her, and early on of course she gets jealous for example when mieru or other girls are around him, but she doesn’t realize what exactly that means in terms of her feelings. i mean they’ve been friends since they were kids, but i don’t think she realizes for herself she might like him til chojiro teases her about it at the end of ep 69. her blush, immediate apology for hitting chojiro for making her consider this, and her demeanor since that episode thereafter are kind of telling that she slowly realizes she actually really loves him.

sorry for taking so long to reply! (kinda been like this with asks lately... i guess i’m just getting old ahah;;)

anyway, well

my general headcanons for zarcray... well it mostly kinda varies just because their relationship is almost entirely founded on AUs or just fanon in general... like i think that’s part of the fun in interpreting their relationship cuz the headcanons can vary... i don’t really have any strict headcanons about their relationship, though i do have headcanons for them both individually, such as:

i know fanon loves to interpret zarc as this kind of asshole, little snarky shit kinda person, and that’s all well and fun and i enjoy that version too, but i just... personally still love to interpret him as this soft, dorky boy with a tad bit of sass. like he can still be a little shit when he wants to but he mostly only ever brings the sass on occasion (mostly during his duels).

as for ray, well i see her as a grounded, little nonsense kind of girl. that doesn’t mean she’s a stick in the mud, just that she honestly, sincerely cares about things and doesn’t take light of bringing all of her energy into her efforts. she can be teasing and playful at times, but sometimes certain jokes fly over her head because she likes to think in the literal rather than in anything hypothetical (an interesting contrast to her father who’s a scientist and whose job was building on the hypothetical).

as for headcanons for if the counterparts get jealous... well...

yuzu: well canon showed us that she does get jealous when other girls seem interested in yuya, though i really do headcanon this becomes less frequent post-canon and as she continues maturing further (by then, she realizes 1) he doesn’t care about other girls and 2) it’s not worth expending her energy on). but when it comes to yuya being around one of her counterparts tho? she might feel a tinge of jealousy but she talks herself out of it.

yuya: lmaoo contrary to yuzu though, post-canon yuya definitely gets jealous about other guys being around yuzu. maybe not immediately post-canon, but certainly as they they continue maturing and yuya is obviously not willing to be so separated from her as much anymore. yuzu with his counterparts tho? yes. he trusts yuto the most but sometimes gets really jealous of how smooth he is, he keeps yugo in check around her, and for the most part he trusts yuri tho yuri will of course flirt with her on purpose just to tease him (yuri doesn’t actually have an interest in her though).

yuto & ruri: i just don’t see either of them as the jealous type. besides, ruri scares the shit out of any girl that tries approaching yuto. shun is there to back her up.

rin: she’s never jealous of anyone approaching yugo. because she knows. in fact, if some girl approaches yugo, she’ll tease him sometimes like “oh you want him? you can have him” (of course if anyone tries to actually take her up on her joke offer she’ll beat them into the ground). so of course she’s not jealous of her counterparts with him.

yugo: ofc. i mean for the most part he trusts yuya around rin, but he can’t stand yuto or yuri around her. he knows how smooth yuto is with girls in general so tells him to back off a lot, and with yuri, well... he’s still not over yuri taking rin away from him. any other guys approaching rin will set him off too (or any of her counterparts, actually. he’s protective of all of them).

me a year ago: i guess i kinda can see them together