Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Window Watching
Characters: Shou & Ryou
Word Count: 1,048||Status: One-shot
Genre: Family||Rated: G
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section C24, write a pre-canon fic; Written for the One Sibling Boot Camp, prompt #40, window
Note: This takes place when Shou is about seven or eight and Ryou is about nine or ten.
Summary: Ryou's supposed to come home from the Cyber Dojo. Shou waits by the window and watches for him.

Shou curled himself in the window seat and buried his nose in the rulebook for Duel Monsters that he'd pulled out of his latest booster pack. He didn't need to read it. He could remember just about everything anyway. But it never hurt to have a refresher, since Industrial Illusions continually updated the rules and he had enough problems winning duels without knowing how timing issues worked.

It also made a very good excuse for sitting here in the first place and peeking out now and then. He wasn't going to let anyone know his real reason for being there. He kind of suspected his parents knew anyway. But if he didn't say anything, then that was all right.

What's taking so long? He peeked out again, then checked his watch. It wasn't yet noon. Time did its best to creep and crawl, dragging along until he could've sworn it should be the end of the day, and yet it wasn't.

Shou didn't turn the television on, despite the nagging conviction that something had gone wrong somewhere and Ryou wasn't ever going to come back. The thought of never, ever seeing his big brother again sent cold chills racing up and down his spine.

No. Ryou had promised that his education at the Cyber Dojo was over with. He would be home before today was over with. He hadn't said much else about what he had learned there and Shou looked forward to seeing him duel again, to see how his style had changed during his stay there.

I want to duel him, too! Ryou had always promised that one day they would duel, but Shou could barely play the game properly before Ryou left. In those few letters exchanged between now and then he'd told how he'd started to get a little better at it, leading to buying his first sets of cards, and the first time he'd lost spectacularly in a duel.

He had yet to be able to tell his brother about the first time he'd won spectacularly, but that was because he hadn't as of yet won. He knew that he would. He loved his 'Roid deck and he wanted to get more of them.

He was going to win a duel. He knew just who he wanted to fight, too. That stupid bully who kept hassling everyone at school…

Shou couldn't at all shake the image of Gorisuke bawling because Shou's magnificent monsters beat the last of the life points out of him, and all the other kids that Gorisuke bullied every day cheered for him and praised him and offered to give him anything that he wanted.

He didn't even want to shake it. Why should he?

Sighing dreamily, he leaned his head against the window and stared out again. That would make the most wonderful story to tell Ryou once it actually happened. Even better, he wished that his big brother could see it happen. He'd be so proud of Shou.

But not unless Ryou got home. And that was taking forever!

Shou fidgeted again, flopping over so he had a better view of the other way that a car could come down the street. He didn't think that Ryou would come that way, but he was bored enough to give anything a try. Besides, if he tilted his head the right way, he could get a sort of reflection there of the way that a car would come, which meant that he might still see Ryou coming.

If he ever got there.

Shou dug out the letter that told of his brother's return, written by the guy who led the dojo. It was kind of a weird place, not one that Shou really wanted to go to himself. He liked dueling, but he didn't think he wanted to commit himself to it the way that Ryou had. He didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but there were a lot of things that weren't dueling in the world. He'd pick one of them sooner or later, he guessed.

One hand drifted back to the stack of cards he'd set down when he'd settled in. Sure, he really liked the 'Roids, but…

I'm not like big brother. I'm not good enough.

Movement caught his attention and he flopped around again, staring at the car that came to a rest just outside. Their car, and out of it came his dad, and from the other side came…

Shou wriggled the window open and squirmed out of it as if he were an eel. He'd done this a few times before, enough to know how to make it safely downward, and soon enough he stumbled down in front of his older brother.

Ryou had grown while he was away, now standing cool and distant and so very, very refined, but now with one side of his mouth quirked up at the sight of Shou.

"Big brother!" Shou exclaimed, bouncing up and down on his heels before grabbing around Ryou's waist. "I've missed you!"

Ryou rested a hand on Shou's shoulder and smiled. Those expressions were rare on his face, which didn't seem to have been constructed with any expression other than cool calm in mind, so Shou bounced even harder. "It's good to see you again, too, Shou."

Their father hauled the few bags Ryou had with him out of the car and started for the door. "You two can reunite inside," he told them, smiling as well. "Your mother'll be home soon and I know she wants to see you too."

"I've got so much I want to tell you!" Shou babbled as they headed inside. "I'm going to duel this guy at my school tomorrow! He's really nasty but I think I can beat him! I got a new Fusion monster for my deck the other day when I bought a pack! Wanna see it?"

"Of course," Ryou replied with one of his usual nods. "And I've got something to share with you, too."

If Shou bounced much harder, he suspected that he would take off and land on the moon. There was only one way he thought he could be any happier and that would be when he won against Gorisuke. Especially with his brother watching him.

The End

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.