#shima naoki

[merryfortune]

Three Months (and he was ready)

Written for @ygorarepairweek

Prompts: Hanahaki | Stargazing | Childhood

Title: Three Months (and he was ready)

Ship: Chatshipping | Naoki/Yusaku

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains

Rating: T

Word Count: 1,317

Tags: Post-Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Childhood Trauma, Meeting the Family, Secret Identities, Swearing, Shovel Talk

   Three months.

   That is how long Yusaku gave himself before he decided if he was ready or not. If he wasn’t, then he figured that he was never going to be ready and if he was never going to be ready, then it was best not to bother anymore. He would break up with Naoki. It would hurt but it would hurt more if they kept hurtling towards an inevitability that Naoki was completely oblivious to.

   But here’s the thing.

   Yusaku was ready. He wanted Naoki to know. Everything. Absolutely everything there was to know about him. That terrified Yusaku but he was ready so it was best for Naoki to know.

   It was such a weird thing.

   Yusaku didn’t think anybody could have picked it. He certainly hadn’t expected it, to not only gain a crush on the most obnoxious geek boy in school but have it requited but that’s just how the school days unfolded. Naoki had been really worried about Yusaku going MIA and was glad that he was back. They were in different years and classes now but they were still friends.

   Yusaku didn’t even realise they had been friends prior but he decided, for Ai’s sake, he wanted to try having this whole friend thing. Turns out, he really liked it. Especially when they had no connection to the Lost Incident and everything surrounding that like Naoki.

   He was just so refreshingly normal. The quirks which once bugged Yusaku about Naoki - like how loud he was and how expressive about his interests he were and how self assured he was - became qualities that Yusaku admired. So, he put in effort and soon enough, effort became effortless and a crush formed.

   It was part of the normal high school experience, wasn’t it? To have a go at dating under the nose of the teachers so Yusaku shot his shot. He wasn’t expecting much of it. Naoki had a very blatant crush on Playmaker, someone whom he did not realise was one and the same with his friend and schoolmate Fujiki Yusaku, and kind of a crush on Aoi as well as her persona as Blue Angel but… Naoki responded.

   “Yeah, sure, sounds cool.” 

   Naoki’s response couldn’t have been more blase but it sent Yusaku over the moon. It was that casualness that he really liked about Naoki. But it couldn’t be casual hang outs forever. Yusaku knew that much.

   So it was time. He had to know.

   “Oh, wow, you look… deathly serious.” Naoki commented as he sat down with Yusaku on the park bench.

   Yusaku’s head hung low, he held his own hands, in the middle of a suitable manspread. He looked miserable.

   “When you said you wanted to talk, I was a li’l worried but now I'm like, way worried.” Naoki rambled.

   “I have something I want to tell you.” Yusaku announced and he began to raise his head a little higher.

   “Dude, you're scaring me. You’re not… breaking up with me, are you?”

   Yusaku laughed cynically as he stared off into the distance, into the cityscape beyond the park, “Surprisingly? No. I thought about it, though.”

   “Oh.” Naoki made a small noise.

   “I want to tell you something really important about who I am.” Yusaku said.

   He fidgeted, moved slightly. Curled in towards Naoki and Naoki was struck by how terrified Yusaku looked. His green eyes were shiny with tears that he was fighting back, his lower lip quivered and his chin pruned.

   “Naoki,” he said, “I was kidnapped as a child.”

   “What the fuck…” Naoki’s jaw dropped.

   “And it doesn’t stop there. I was kidnapped and held in captivity for six months where I was forced to duel for my food. If I won, I ate. If I lost, not only did I not eat, I was electrocuted.” Yusaku confessed.

   “Bro, what the fuck?” That was all Naoki seemed capable of saying right now as his face was a mixture of disbelief and disgust. Not aimed at Yusaku, Yusaku knew, but as his captors. 

   “The reason I was taken was because I… I made friends with the wrong boy. The son of the scientist in charge. It wasn’t his fault and he is still very important to me, even if… even if he is…” Yusaku changed his mind. It wasn’t his place to spill Ryoken’s secrets, only his own. “It doesn’t matter who he is. What matters is that he is still a friend of mine and the reason his Father took me, and five other children, was to make these…”

   Yusaku lifted his wrist up to Naoki and… tada.

   “Hello Brave Max!” 

   Ai’s cheery voice was in total opposition to the mood and the revelations were now dropping left, right, and centre. Naoki’s already dropped jaw was now basically on the ground. He was Playmaker’s biggest fanboy, he was at least a little aware of what this black-and-purple little jellybean was. He knew what this meant.

   Fujiki Yusaku and Playmaker. After all this time and all this mouthing off, they were one and the same, Naoki put together. Yusaku could practically see the connection being made in the lights of his eyes.

   “This is Ai. He is the only family I have. No one ever came forward to claim me after the Incident concluded. Ai is an artificial intelligence with free will.”

   “You better take good care of my Yusaku.” Ai sneered, arms folded in front of him. “Or you will be in big trouble, buster.”

   “It… It would mean a lot to me if you knew this.” Yusaku said, shaky, teary. “I wanted you to know. I realise it's a lot.”

   “Yeah, it is a lot.” Naoki dumbfoundedly agreed.

   “But it's okay, right?” Ai asked, leaning up, his body turning into purple string cheese as he tried to get up into Naoki’s grille.

   “Uh, yeah, it’s okay.” Naoki said. “You can’t change the past and I do not have the fancy-schmancy vocabulary to, like, accurately talk about the magnitude of fucked-upness this whole thing has but dude. You are like. So brave, so strong, and I;ll be brave and strong, too. ‘Cause Playmaker can’t be cool all the time.” he rubbed under his nose.

   Now it was Yusaku’s turn to be dumbfounded. His mouth agape as he processed Naoki’s reply. When it finally computed, he laughed the teeniest-tiniest laugh that impressed both Naoki and Ai. He shouldn’t have expected anything else from his boyfriend, bombastic weirdo extraordinaire! He couldn’t have been luckier to have someone like Naoki to call his.

   Yusaku’s heart swelled, “Thanks, Naoki. I appreciate it.” The tears that he had been holding back began to stream down the side of his face.

   Naoki scooted in closer along the wooden plank of the park bench. He leaned in and he smiled a small smile, he wiped tears from Yusaku’s eyes.

   “Hey, man, thanks for telling me. I know I've got a big mouth but I promise, if this is the sort of thing you want to keep on the DL, I’ll keep it on the DL.” Naoki quietly said.

   “Thanks, Naoki.” Yusaku said again, all choked up this time, however.

   Ai popped up a little bit taller. He leaned into Yusaku and Naoki reached across, to half-hug Yusaku and get Ai in the mix.

   “It’s good to properly meet you now, little dude.” Naoki added as a whisper.

   “Yeah, same.” Ai murmured.

   Yusaku smiled. His heart raced but it didn’t hammer him like his anxiety or panic attacks or any other number of conditions he had leftover from the Incident, it just raced in a comfortable way. He was exhilarated from being vulnerable, from telling Naoki the truth and seeing his two most important people get along. That really, truly did mean the world to him. 

   He was glad that he had worked up the courage to tell Naoki these important things about him.

[kcuf-ad]

Shima has all of the plushies of Soulburner, Playmaker, Blue Maiden, Gore and even Varis.

[luna-the-duel-chronologist]

This just in at YCS LINK VRAINS, Yusaku Fujiki tops with Cyberse Link, in second place is Ryoken Kogami with Rokkets, and in third is Naoki Shima with Beastdown.

When asked what Mr. Kogami had to say about his loss in the finals, he round house kicked a roomba, while screaming something about AI. It was quite impressive.

Mr. Shima, on the other hand, wouldn't stop dabbing, so we couldn't get a deck list from him.

It's a beautiful day here at the Tower of Hanoi. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, on days like these, Duelists like you should be practicing Abyss Actor combos. After all, who really knows what a Pendulum card is?

This has been Luna the Dueltainer signing off.

[tepperzart]

CHATSHIPPING CHATSHIPPING CHATSHIPPING CHATSHIPPING

i love them, thank you for @yuusaris for loving them with me

[overobsessedfanboy23]

Live footage of me during my first VRAINS duels:

I did figure it out guys don't worry. I'm actually grinding duels right now to get to mission 10.

[moonlightgirl-05]

Shima! I thought Playmaker is your soulmate dude xD how are you now his best... Hmm?

Info: gspspssps

Me: oohhhh they changed it in the dub because it sounded gay... And we know how dub doesn't like it to make it such way. Ya know, 4 kids xD

[pigeonsage]

Vrains season 1 episode 3 screenshot redraw

Love these two they have such an underrated dynamic<3

[gayestyugiohcharacter]

TATSUHISA KAMIJO/LUCIDIEN KALLISTER VS NAOKI SHIMA

[marifujiside]

i can't believe he literally said "While You Were Being Heterosexual, I Studied The Blade"

[thewittyphantom]

Here's VRAINS Cup highlights. Brave Battler cracks me up XD

[bokutkimigairubasho]

Nozomu Sasaki (circa 1991)

[2]

Source: MEGA BLAZE (1991)

[eclipse-moon96]

Brave Max trying to impress Playmaker be like

Brave Max :*dabs*

Playmaker:....how uncool

Brave max: 😨

[kcuf-ad]

Shima when he wants to duel the Hanoi.

Shima: I have the heart of a lion!

Yusaku: That really isn't going to help.

Shima: I have the skills.

Yusaku: No, you don't.

Shima: I have the power!

Yusaku: Wrong again.

Shima: They will never catch me, I am like the Eifel Tower!

Yusaku: That doesn't move!

[hellohimawarihana]

This scene from Episode 27 never ceases to make me laugh (especially for Naoki's second imagination), and I felt shoujo manga vibe from this Eyelashes!Playmaker.

Then there's Episode 28 where the real Playmaker lets Brave Max to choose his own future.

I just want to post this comparison because I want to see how Naoki sees Yusaku's alter ego (though he doesn't know Yusaku and Playmaker are the same person) in his fantasy and in reality.

Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS Episodes:

27, "The Fighting Man, Naoki Shima" (闘う男、島直樹 Tatakau Otoko, Shima Naoki)

28, "The Three Knights, Last Commander" (三騎士、最後の将 Sankishi, Saigo no Shō)

[howaboutalittlehelpneos]

Sometimes I forget about Vrains dub making Shima say "It's ya boy", then I remember and smile