#and atticus is much the same as a person like he's summer incarnate that's what I always say and he loves so much and cares for everyone

[aberooski]

so that surprise song mashup, huh

I AIN'T GOTTA TELL HIM I THINK HE KNOWS HE'S GORGEOUS !!!!! 😭😭😭

They are everything to me she has no idea but she did that for me I stg ✋😭

[the-evil-authoress]

GX Month Day 11: “Cyber Legacy”

No Yu-Gi-Oh! show is complete without a pair of brothers. Today’s stars are Sho Marufuji/Syrus Truesdale and Ryo Marufuji/Zane Truesdale!

Eep! I angsted. Guess that's what I get for deciding to explore their backstory.

Headcanon(?): Syrus was subjected to the "why can't you be more like your brother?" treatment, and that plays a large roll in his anxiety and insecurities.

Headcanon: Zane lost most of his sense of self trying to live up to everyone's expectations (and eventually snaps in s2). Atticus makes him feel like a person.

Syrus thinks they had a good relationship once. He still remembers when he used to follow his big brother around with stars in his eyes. He idolized Zane and, back then, Zane still smiled.

He still doesn’t know what went wrong between them. Was it really that stupid misplay of Power Bond? No, Zane started growing distant even before that. Everything started going downhill after they both started school. Syrus remembers people calling Zane a ‘prodigy’ long before he knew what the word meant. Then those same people looked at Syrus with expectant eyes, and Syrus just wanted to run away and hide.

Zane was the perfect poster boy, good at everything he did, and Syrus was ‘Marufuji’s little brother’, scared and weak and bad at everything. Everyone expected him to be just like Zane, but he wasn’t; he was never good enough.

“You’re not your brother, silly boy,” their mother told him once. “You’re you. So stop worrying about who you’re not and focus on who you are.”

Syrus tries. But the fact remains that he is scared and weak and school tuition is expensive. Their father walked out before Syrus was old enough to remember him. He doesn’t know how well Zane remembers, but he knows Zane holds a grudge against the man; he found out the hard way. Their mother works constant overtime to put them both through school, and sometimes Syrus wonders if he shouldn’t just drop out already. He never tells his mother this.

Syrus loves dueling, but he knows he’s not good at it. He only signs up for Duel Academy because Zane scores a full ride scholarship and their mother convinces him she can cover the tuition for one of her children.

“Don’t let other people tell you what you can and can’t do. Follow your heart,” she tells.

Syrus tries.

But like everything else, he’s bad at this too.

When Jaden barrels into his life like the sun incarnate, Syrus finally finds something to believe in if not himself.

*

“How do you do it?”

Atticus looks up from his half finished assignment, sprawled out on his bed like usual. Zane doesn’t understand how he can work like that. Don’t his arms get cramped? “Gonna need you to be more specific.”

“Alexis. How do you...be her older brother?” Gods, it sounds stupid out loud but Zane doesn’t actually want to take it back. Atticus is the only person who can get past his defenses like this.

Atticus frowns. “I just am?” Because that answer is so helpful. Zane’s irritation must show on his face because Atticus pushes himself up and crosses his legs. “If you mean how we get along, well, sometimes we fight like cats and dogs but others we’re just kinda there for each other. Normal siblings stuff.”

None of that sounds normal to Zane.

This too much show on his face - really it’s sometimes terrifying how vulnerable he lets himself be around Atticus - because Atticus hums thoughtfully. “I guess it just boils down to compassion?”

Ah yes, that lovely word. Zane’s beginning to think he was born without that fundamental human quality. (Realistically, it was probably conditioned out of him by circumstance.)

“She’s my sister, so I wanna protect her and make sure she’s happy,” Atticus continues.

Zane thinks about that day he stopped Syrus from botching a duel by misplaying Power Bond. He did do that because he wanted to protect Syrus, but the results had been less than favorable. Hell, he gave Syrus Power Bond to begin with for basically the same reason. Zane hasn’t seen the boy try to play the card since.

“Compassion is a choice you know.” Zane startles at this new piece of insight. Atticus continues undeterred. “And sometimes it’s a hard choice to make.”

A long moment passes while Zane stares at his friend. “How...?”

Rocking back, Atticus stares at the ceiling with pensive hum. “It’s like...you look at someone and think ‘what would I want someone to do for me?’ and then you do that for them. It doesn’t always work, but the more you do that, the more you’ll learn how your needs and wants differ from those around you and be able to make adjustments.”

It sounds remarkably simple laid out like that, and Zane can finally see where the difficulty between him and Syrus lies. Ever since starting school and being labelled a prodigy and having expectation after expectation piled upon him, Zane only wanted to be left alone. So of course he distanced himself from Syrus. But what did Syrus want?

Zane doesn’t know.

“You look like you’ve figured it out.” Atticus grins, stretching his limbs before flopping back down into his previous position. “So I’ll let you ruminate on what to do about it while I tackle this English assignment from hell.”

“Atticus, you’re better at English than I am.”

“The rules are a nightmare! Nothing is sacred!”

Rolling his eyes, Zane decides maybe he can try his hand at this compassion thing, find out what Syrus wants and needs from him. It may be too late but... Ah, hell, this optimist fool is rubbing off on him.

*

Atticus disappears before the school year ends. When Zane returns home for summer break, he’s in no frame of mind to try mending a long burned bridge.

By the time Syrus shows up at Duel Academy, Zane is too jaded to believe their relationship anything more than a lost cause. He doesn’t want the kid there because he cares, because he doesn’t want his little brother to suffer the pain of disappointment and failure. He’ll be damned if he knows how to convey any of this, and Alexis can’t read him nearly as well as Atticus could. She tries, and Zane appreciates that.

A better brother might try to help Syrus improve, but that ship has long sailed. At least he has Jaden to be the brother Zane never could.

Yeah. Syrus is better off without him.