Syrus slid down the wall for the twentieth time, at least.

"Give it up, soldier," Hassleberry sighed. "You're clearly not gonna' get up there!"

"I'm getting out of here if it's the last thing I do!"

Hassleberry shook his head. Syrus sighed, gazing up at the hole above them. Crawling up the wall was obviously getting him nowhere. He gazed at Hassleberry out of the corner of his eye. It was something he was used to doing at this point. He noted all the things he found attractive about him, his strength and determination. But then he realized his height when compared to him. He paused, facing him then looking up at the opening.

"Um… what if you threw me?"

"I'm not throwin' you, private."

"Well do you have any better ideas?"

He rolled his eyes and got down on his knees.

"Listen, pipsqueak. You're pretty small, but I doubt I'd be able to throw you up there. But maybe…" he motioned upwards at a particularly large ledge. "If ya get onto my shoulders, you'll be able to reach there!"

Syrus still seemed skeptical, but quickly hopped onto his shoulders nonetheless. Hassleberry stepped back up, and Syrus struggled to stay in balance. To help him, he grabbed his knees lightly to hold him steady. He slowly walked over to the ledge.

"...any luck?"

"...almost… there…"

Syrus reached up as high as he could to get a decent grasp on the wall. It was to no avail. Hassleberry searched around for something he could possibly stand on to get higher ground. Of course, there was nothing.

Of all the places in this cave, he thought, of course we end up somewhere without any rocks. How does that even happen? Caves are basically made of rocks!

After a few seconds of trying, he finally managed to latch onto a small ledge. "Aha!" He flung himself upwards off of Hassleberry's shoulders, grabbing onto a small hole in the wall with his other and placing his foot on a small ledge. It immediately crumbled under his weight, and his foot slipped down the wall. He clung onto the hole, but not for long, because his fingers slipped in mere seconds.

"Wa-aaaah!"

When he fell, he didn't hit the ground. When he opened his eyes, it turned out Hassleberry had caught him bridal style. He flew back into the opposite wall and his face immediately turned red.

Hassleberry rolled his eyes, sitting down. His main priority now was to accept the situation, and so he didn't even notice Syrus brought his hand up to hide his blushing face. One thing was sure: he couldn't wait for the others to be there.

"Where are they…" he murmered to himself. "When are they coming back?"

As he continued frantically whispering, Hassleberry sat down to take out his deck and flip through his cards. When Syrus noticed this, he couldn't hold back one of his biggest secrets anymore. He had to tell him.

"Hassleberry." He turned his head once his name was called. "I… I have a confession to make..."

"That I'm the superior duelist?"

Syrus groaned.

"It isn't that, you lug-nut!"

"What is it then?"

"Um..." he motioned towards his deck. "That Remove Bomb field spell..."

Hassleberry quickly fished it out and showed it off.

"This…?"

"That was my card. When you were on your losing streak, I didn't like you being... out of it. So I put it in there to help you..."

Hassleberry stopped shuffling the cards to turn his attention to him.

"You did that for me?"

Syrus immediately turned away.

"SH-SHUT UP, OKAY? You were pretty upset, a-and I thought I was the one who started your losing streak! So… I wanted to help you."

"Oh. That was awfully nice of you."

"Don't mention it." That wasn't entirely the mere expression. He literally hoped he wouldn't mention it.

Hassleberry began going through his deck, looking at the cards thoughtfully. He was mostly going through spell and trap cards he had now, completely bypassing the monsters.

"Ya know," he decided to bring up, "if I'd have known you liked Sarge like that, there's no way I'd have fought ya. You could've just said so, I mean, I don't look at im' like that."

"I don't like him!" Hassleberry studied his expression. His immediate instinct was to assume it was a lie, but something about his eyes seemed so… genuine.

"Then who…?" Before he could finish his sentence, Syrus was indirectly saved.

"Hey guys," Jaden yelled down. "You down there?"

"Jaden?"

"Sarge?"

"We found a rope!" Alexis now chimed in. "We're going to get you back up!"

"Oh thank goodness!"

When the rope came down, Syrus could not go up any faster. Hassleberry waited for him to be about halfway up before climbing behind.

After they finally exited the cave, Hassleberry placed a hand on Syrus' shoulder, silently asking him to stay. Syrus' heart skipped a beat in that moment. What was he going to say? Was it positive? Did he somehow figure out he liked him? Could he have felt the same way? Was he going to get rejected?

"What is it?"

"Well, I was thinkin'... since you gave me your remove bomb, I might as well return the favor." He pulled out a card and showed it to him. "After all, your deck must be short a card!"

Syrus took the card, then looked back at him. It was "card of reversal," a card that could only be used when the player using it had no active cards to their name.

"Thanks… this really seems like a last resort card. That'll definitely come in handy!"

"Yee-up! That's basically what you gave me, right? Who needs two of em'?"

Syrus smiled.

"Thank you…"

"Don't mention it!"

Hassleberry winked then went marching on, and Jaden hung behind. He was slightly excited.

"What was that about," he whispered. "How'd it go?

Syrus held up the card.

"While we were in the cave, I told him about the spell card I gave him. So he gave me this one as thanks!"

"Awww!"

Syrus slapped him, bringing a finger to his mouth to motion him to shush.

"Shut up."

"...he still doesn't know, does he?"

"No. But he doesn't think I like you anymore."

"Phew! Well, that's good! Jesse'll be-" He paused. Syrus glared up at him. Jaden looked to the side like nothing even happened. "I mean," he cleared his throat, "It'll be great when I battle Jesse tomorrow!"

"Jaden."

"Um… what?"

He looked up at him and his nostrils flared.

"He knows, doesn't he?"

"...maybe."

"How long?"

"...maybe since you told me."

Syrus was about to yell before Hassleberry butted in.

"Ey, Sarge!" Syrus managed to flare down his anger when Hassleberry came back. "Ya comin'?"

Jaden took this advantage to squeeze by Syrus and merge back into the group. He was lucky that the others were there. Syrus maintained intense eye contact with Jaden the entire walk back. Jaden sighed. This was going to be a long night, and once Syrus got him alone, he would never hear the end of it...