[fic] ; beauty
Title: Beauty
Fandom: YuGiOh 5d's (AU)
Character(s): Aki, Crow, Yusei, Kiryu, Bruno (mentions of others)
Pairing(s): Aki/Crow and implied Yusei/Bruno
Word Count: ~1150
Rating: PG-13/R-ish
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Warnings: mentioned drug use
Author's Note: small AU ficlet for my bro tumblr user @affectionate
Summary: Aki looks for beauty in a town that's like limbo
--
The town is more like limbo. Condos stretch out as far as the eye can see and water boils in the swimming pools. It’s dead here. The people move around slowly in the sleepy heat like zombies. Aki knows she doesn’t belong here. She belongs in a world of roses and beauty. A world that’s not wasteland and abandoned buildings. Boredom and strip malls.
There’s little that she can do about it. Her touch can’t make flowers bloom and sweet scents didn’t replace gasoline and mock orange with jasmine fragrance. So Aki tries to make beauty the best she can. She paints her lips with blood red lipstick and goes out and buys frilly lace and silk lingerie that no one gets to see. She watches old movies in the dark of her room while chewing on licorice candy. She goes to the teen dance club in town because she can walk to it and because it’s something to do. That’s where she first sees them.
Not that she hadn’t seen Team Satisfaction several times. They went to her school (using the term loosely) but she had never really seen them. Never knew that they were the beauty she was looking for. She is sitting at a table with a small gaggle of girls from school. She isn’t really friends with them but they’re nice and she knows them so it’s okay.
“Whoa,” she breathes.
The four boys come swaggering in through the smoke: all hairspray and leather jackets.
“I’m dreaming,” Aki says.
One of the girls with her points her finger down her throat and makes a gagging sound. Another rolls her eyes. But Aki doesn’t care. She gets up from the table and makes her way over to where they’re sitting. Yusei squints at her through the smoke created by the belching fog machine in the corner.
“Hey,” she says.
He nods his head and turns back to his soda. Yusei’s the only one of them to actually go to class. He doesn’t say anything but Aki sees his tests and papers passed back with bold and defiant A’s inked on them. He fascinates her with his two-toned hair and silent, determined expression.
“Can I get a light?” she asks, lifting up a cigarette.
It’s Crow, though, that turns from putting Quaaludes in his own soda and holds out his already lit smoke. He presses the burning tip to hers and they kiss fire and ash. She breathes in the smoke, holds it, and then releases it.
“Thanks,” she says.
Later, in the parking lot full of kids drunk, stoned, and not wanting to go home. Where the smell of hormones and beer is heavy in the air, Aki looks around for Yusei. She sees him checking under the hood of a car with a blue-haired boy she doesn’t recognize. She nearly goes over there but decides against it. She wants him to notice him but not that badly, she realizes. Again, though, it’s Crow that finds her. His smile is wide and infectious.
“Hey! Do you like Archfiend Marmot?”
She nods, feeling low for not being able to match his enthusiasm.
“You going to their show next week?”
“If I could get out of Satellite.” Her family didn’t use to live here. Long ago, they were rich and powerful. Too long ago.
He smiles again and holds out a matchbook with his number written on it. “It’s my duty in life to rescue beautiful ladies from Satellite hell.”
--
He picks her up on a motorcycle and hands her a helmet. She rides pillion with him, holding on tight.
“Your hands are so cold,” he observes and she feels him shiver.
Aki smiles and brazenly brings her hands down to the insides of his thighs. “It’s so the heat stays here.”
She decides she likes him. Not in the way Yusei fascinates her but there’s something about him and his smiles and how he lit her cigarette. At the gig, only Yusei and Kiryu are there.
“Jack’s gotta date,” Kiryu says, laughing. His pupils are pinpricks and he keeps rubbing at his arms as if trying to rid himself of some unseen substance.
Aki sees the same blue-haired boy with them. He’s wearing Yusei’s jacket and his eyes are wide, almost scared.
The music is so loud that she feels it rather than hears it. Feels it vibrating in her feet and through her body before it’s released through the top of her head. Kids are thrashing around, slamming to it down below. Long ago, Aki used to slam with them at gigs. She and Misty would slam together, feeling the music deep in their chests and smiling at each other, knowing that this was their spell they were casting. Once, someone stepped on Aki’s antique petticoat and tore it right in half. Misty pinned it up but it was like their magic was gone: they knew they weren’t untouchable. She stopped slamming after that.
“I’ll hold your jacket,” she offers.
He smiles and dives into the crowd. She sees Yusei and the boy with blue hair holding each other waltz-style as they jam through the crowd and she sees Kiryu off in a dark corner, snorting something off of a folded piece of paper.
Crow comes back from the pit with blood on his shoulder.
“Some asshole had a knife,” he says, spitting on the ground.
Aki notices how strange anger looks on his face. She feels like he should always be laughing or smiling. Carefully, she blots the blood with a cocktail napkin and he smiles at her.
After the show, they ride up to the overlook where kids go to watch the stars and fuck. She takes his jacket and sinks into it.
“This okay?” he asks and she nods.
“I like it up here,” she says. “You can actually see the stars through the pollution and it…smells nice. Kind of like actual flowers.”
Crow’s kissing her, running his hands under her skirt. His lips trail down her throat and to her breasts. She puts her arms around his neck and feels him smile against her skin that’s at once flushed and goose-pimpled.
“I try finding beauty in this place,” she tells him.
Crow looks up and, in the moonlight, he looks like some sort of supernatural elf creature. Fae, almost. Like he doesn’t belong in this city.
“You do?”
“It’s hard.”
A smirk. “So am I.”
Lightly, she hits him and he goes back to kissing her. He reaches into his wallet and she waits for him to unzip his pants and get situated. When he pushes into her, she feels…different. The air sizzles from them and not the heat. Together, the both of them melding in the dark, they can find their own beauty and escape the city with each other. If only for a little while.
Fandom: YuGiOh 5d's (AU)
Character(s): Aki, Crow, Yusei, Kiryu, Bruno (mentions of others)
Pairing(s): Aki/Crow and implied Yusei/Bruno
Word Count: ~1150
Rating: PG-13/R-ish
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Warnings: mentioned drug use
Author's Note: small AU ficlet for my bro tumblr user @affectionate
Summary: Aki looks for beauty in a town that's like limbo
--
The town is more like limbo. Condos stretch out as far as the eye can see and water boils in the swimming pools. It’s dead here. The people move around slowly in the sleepy heat like zombies. Aki knows she doesn’t belong here. She belongs in a world of roses and beauty. A world that’s not wasteland and abandoned buildings. Boredom and strip malls.
There’s little that she can do about it. Her touch can’t make flowers bloom and sweet scents didn’t replace gasoline and mock orange with jasmine fragrance. So Aki tries to make beauty the best she can. She paints her lips with blood red lipstick and goes out and buys frilly lace and silk lingerie that no one gets to see. She watches old movies in the dark of her room while chewing on licorice candy. She goes to the teen dance club in town because she can walk to it and because it’s something to do. That’s where she first sees them.
Not that she hadn’t seen Team Satisfaction several times. They went to her school (using the term loosely) but she had never really seen them. Never knew that they were the beauty she was looking for. She is sitting at a table with a small gaggle of girls from school. She isn’t really friends with them but they’re nice and she knows them so it’s okay.
“Whoa,” she breathes.
The four boys come swaggering in through the smoke: all hairspray and leather jackets.
“I’m dreaming,” Aki says.
One of the girls with her points her finger down her throat and makes a gagging sound. Another rolls her eyes. But Aki doesn’t care. She gets up from the table and makes her way over to where they’re sitting. Yusei squints at her through the smoke created by the belching fog machine in the corner.
“Hey,” she says.
He nods his head and turns back to his soda. Yusei’s the only one of them to actually go to class. He doesn’t say anything but Aki sees his tests and papers passed back with bold and defiant A’s inked on them. He fascinates her with his two-toned hair and silent, determined expression.
“Can I get a light?” she asks, lifting up a cigarette.
It’s Crow, though, that turns from putting Quaaludes in his own soda and holds out his already lit smoke. He presses the burning tip to hers and they kiss fire and ash. She breathes in the smoke, holds it, and then releases it.
“Thanks,” she says.
Later, in the parking lot full of kids drunk, stoned, and not wanting to go home. Where the smell of hormones and beer is heavy in the air, Aki looks around for Yusei. She sees him checking under the hood of a car with a blue-haired boy she doesn’t recognize. She nearly goes over there but decides against it. She wants him to notice him but not that badly, she realizes. Again, though, it’s Crow that finds her. His smile is wide and infectious.
“Hey! Do you like Archfiend Marmot?”
She nods, feeling low for not being able to match his enthusiasm.
“You going to their show next week?”
“If I could get out of Satellite.” Her family didn’t use to live here. Long ago, they were rich and powerful. Too long ago.
He smiles again and holds out a matchbook with his number written on it. “It’s my duty in life to rescue beautiful ladies from Satellite hell.”
--
He picks her up on a motorcycle and hands her a helmet. She rides pillion with him, holding on tight.
“Your hands are so cold,” he observes and she feels him shiver.
Aki smiles and brazenly brings her hands down to the insides of his thighs. “It’s so the heat stays here.”
She decides she likes him. Not in the way Yusei fascinates her but there’s something about him and his smiles and how he lit her cigarette. At the gig, only Yusei and Kiryu are there.
“Jack’s gotta date,” Kiryu says, laughing. His pupils are pinpricks and he keeps rubbing at his arms as if trying to rid himself of some unseen substance.
Aki sees the same blue-haired boy with them. He’s wearing Yusei’s jacket and his eyes are wide, almost scared.
The music is so loud that she feels it rather than hears it. Feels it vibrating in her feet and through her body before it’s released through the top of her head. Kids are thrashing around, slamming to it down below. Long ago, Aki used to slam with them at gigs. She and Misty would slam together, feeling the music deep in their chests and smiling at each other, knowing that this was their spell they were casting. Once, someone stepped on Aki’s antique petticoat and tore it right in half. Misty pinned it up but it was like their magic was gone: they knew they weren’t untouchable. She stopped slamming after that.
“I’ll hold your jacket,” she offers.
He smiles and dives into the crowd. She sees Yusei and the boy with blue hair holding each other waltz-style as they jam through the crowd and she sees Kiryu off in a dark corner, snorting something off of a folded piece of paper.
Crow comes back from the pit with blood on his shoulder.
“Some asshole had a knife,” he says, spitting on the ground.
Aki notices how strange anger looks on his face. She feels like he should always be laughing or smiling. Carefully, she blots the blood with a cocktail napkin and he smiles at her.
After the show, they ride up to the overlook where kids go to watch the stars and fuck. She takes his jacket and sinks into it.
“This okay?” he asks and she nods.
“I like it up here,” she says. “You can actually see the stars through the pollution and it…smells nice. Kind of like actual flowers.”
Crow’s kissing her, running his hands under her skirt. His lips trail down her throat and to her breasts. She puts her arms around his neck and feels him smile against her skin that’s at once flushed and goose-pimpled.
“I try finding beauty in this place,” she tells him.
Crow looks up and, in the moonlight, he looks like some sort of supernatural elf creature. Fae, almost. Like he doesn’t belong in this city.
“You do?”
“It’s hard.”
A smirk. “So am I.”
Lightly, she hits him and he goes back to kissing her. He reaches into his wallet and she waits for him to unzip his pants and get situated. When he pushes into her, she feels…different. The air sizzles from them and not the heat. Together, the both of them melding in the dark, they can find their own beauty and escape the city with each other. If only for a little while.