Title: Where I Tell You
Characters: Yuuri, Dennis||Ship: N/A
Word Count: 1,120/9,539||Chapters: 1/8
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing: Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V: H10, 6+ chapters; Word Count Set Boot Camp, #31, 9,539; Mini-fic Masterclass, #3, AU Space; Collect the Yuus/Bracelet Girls, Yuuri
Note: This is the AU where people have wings. Among them is Yuuri, who has demonic/dragon wings. This is how he & Dennis met one another in this world. This takes place about a year or so prior to the interdimensional war. Beware headcanons.
Summary: Certain events require help, like it or not. No one does everything alone. And so Yuuri searches for someone to scratch his wings and does something he didn't expect: makes a friend. Meanwhile, Dennis would just rather not be carded by the notorious sadist.

Yuuri hated molting season. Or in his case, shedding season. Whatever one called it when the wings on a Flyer needed extra care, either because of new feathers or new scales. Regardless of the materials one's wings consisted of, one point remained the same: the season meant that his wings itched.

Gritting his teeth, he tried to reach to one particular place on the upper part of his left wing, where an especially intense itch itched. His fingertips skated over that spot without being able to dig in and get to it, but just enough so he could feel the scales there and how loose they were. Old scales and new scales itched in much the same way, the only difference being old scales stopped itching once they were removed and new scales didn't itch once they'd settled in.

He tried again, bending his torso one way and his wings another, stretching his fingers until he brushed by the trouble spot once more. There! Perfect! Finally!

Then his wing twitched and that spot moved just out of reach and Yuuri only restrained himself from some of the more colorful aspects of his vocabulary by sheer force of will.

I need help.

Those three words annoyed him almost more than anything else he could have considered. The only point that would have irked him more was the thought of losing a duel. At least that wasn't going to happen. Dealing with shedding itch happened right now.

In theory, he could have grabbed anyone he wanted in order to relieve the itch on his wings. There wasn't anyone at Academia who would have dared to turn him down. If anyone had any idea that he needed help, then quite a few would volunteer.

They'd probably beg me not to card them if they 'helped'. Yuuri's lip turned up at that. As if simply relieving an itch was good enough for that.

But that did help figure out what he needed in someone. If he were going to get help – hateful as the thought was – then he needed someone who met some very specific qualifications. Whoever this assistant was needed to possess fingers. That was step one. After that, they needed some kind of intelligence, enough to know that being spared a carding if they got on his bad side wasn't an option.

The first one opened up all of Academia to his consideration. The second one eliminated nearly everyone else.

So he needed more criteria. It really wasn't too difficult to come up with some, once he bent his mind to the task. Someone who could amuse him. He refused to not be amused during this. There were a few people who met this criteria, but he couldn't think of anyone in particular off the top of his head.

Flyer or not? Either side had good reasoning behind it. A Flyer would understand the issues of shedding season and wing-itch. But that also meant that they would want their itches relieved. Yuuri had no reasons to scratch someone else's wings, even if he got something out of it himself.

He would if he had to, but he decided a non-Flier would probably work better, at least for now. Which did eliminate a few more people. None of the Fliers at Academia appealed to him. Phoenix might be useful, but Yuuri decided that he would be an absolute last resort.

So now one of the non-Fliers who fit all the other criteria: someone who could amuse him and who wouldn't try to insist that he not be carded. There were only a handful of those and of the ones Yuuri knew, he couldn't pin any of them immediately as suitable to his needs.

If only the dimensional transport were ready. That would open up three new dimensions, at a minimum, for his choices. Standard, Synchro, and XYZ offered options and with that much more to pick from, there would have to be someone. Rumor had it there might even be more dimensions than just the four taught about. No one had yet officially discovered them, to Yuuri's knowledge, but if they were out there and he absolutely needed to, then he would find someone from there to suit his purposes.

But as tempting as such a prospect was, the technology to freely go between dimensions – promised to them by the Professor for longer than Yuuri had known him – wasn't yet workable. Not on the large scale they needed for the invasion and not quite yet on the small scale that Yuuri would need for this. So for all intents and purposes, he had to pick from the offerings here at school.

He threw himself to his feet, arching his back and spreading his wings, hissing as another itch sparked up. This was getting worse, so like it or not, he needed a wingscratcher, and he needed one now.

Footsteps brisk and quick, he headed out of his quarters and down the hall, checking everyone he passed for any signs that they were the sort of person that he wanted. Virtually everyone he saw he dismissed at once for one reason or another. Either they didn't meet his already decided upon criteria or he just didn't like them.

Granted, he didn't think he'd ever met someone that he did like who wasn't the Professor, and that was far more in the realm of respect than anything else. How could he not respect someone who offered him the chance to experience some of the more amazing duels of his life and card any of the losers? To unleash every destructive impulse he'd ever had in his entire life on three different dimensions?

Who'd even promised him that if he ever met someone that he wanted for his own plaything, that he could have them without question?

Other people missed their parents. Yuuri couldn't remember if he'd ever had a parent, though he vaguely presumed that he might have. The Professor offered everything to him, so he would give everything that he had back. Within reason, of course.

In the midst of such pleasant thoughts, a ripple of laughter caught Yuuri's attention, and he turned that way from a flicker of curiosity. Most laughter that wasn't his own annoyed him, but something about this sound made him want to investigate more.

A few quick steps brought him to the end of the hallway. The laugh came from outside, through an archway that led to one of the inner squares of grass – not large enough for a meadow, too large for almost anything else. A few people gathered out there, circling around someone that Yuuri couldn't see at the moment.

"Do it again, Dennis, do it again!"

To Be Continued

Notes: I might have plans for Shun in this world… maybe…