Title: Take My Breath Away
Author: Nina/TechnicolorNina
Pairing/Characters: Yuusei and Aki. Arguably Yuusei/Aki (faithshipping), depending entirely on what you believe about Yuusei's social beliefs.
Word Count: 1 330
Rating: PG/T
Genre: Romance/Angst/Friendship
Summary: Post-episode 44 and 45-teaser. Somebody needs to remind Yuusei he's still alive.
Disclaimer: Believe me, if it were mine, 44 would never have happened and 45 would feature Yuusei telling Aki it's not gonna work out because Jack and Crow would kill him for cheating.
Spoilers: Spoilers for episode 44 and the 45-teaser.
Warnings: If mild Yuusei/Aki squicks you, turn around.
Notes: I got bored on LiveJournal and asked for prompts to write, any pairing, any situation (which is how I ended up writing this when I don't ship it). So, see below for notes on who to credit. Also, blame any OOCness on its being written in two hours at 3am when I'd been up since 9am the previous day.
Special Thanks/Dedications: Written for himenoichigo. Cheers, dear.

Would you dance if I asked you to dance?
Would you run and never look back?
Would you cry if you saw me cryin'?
And would you save my soul tonight?

Would you tremble if I touched your lips?
Would you laugh? Oh, please tell me this.
Now would you die for the one you love?
Oh, hold me in your arms tonight.

~ "Hero," Enrique Iglesias

"I haven't seen him since Saiga-san found Black Bird."

Aki sighed. The house was large; before the tectonic shift that destroyed everything, it had been part of one of Domino's wealthier neighborhoods. She had no desire to search it on her own, but the facts were simple: Yuusei had disappeared almost as soon as his friend's D-wheel had been wheeled into the yard, and it was Jack's opinion that none of them should just wander off alone. Which really made what she was going to do incredibly stupid, but she could scream quite loudly if it became necessary.

And so she quartered off the house in her head and headed upstairs.

She found him in a room bare save for a bunk bed, a chair, and a plain wooden chest. He was sitting on the floor in front of a chessboard, the pieces set to the start position. If he intended to play ghost, he hadn't started yet. Aki knocked on the doorframe.

"Yuusei?"

Yuusei looked up at her, then back at the chessboard. Aki slipped into the room.

"We were worried about you."

"I'm fine." He didn't look fine. Except for that momentary flicker of the eyes, he hadn't moved since she first caught sight of him. That was extreme, even for Yuusei. Aki paused, then sat down at the other side of the chessboard. The pieces were all different sizes, the white ones at least four different shades of cream. Yuusei moved a pawn silently into the middle of the board. Aki followed suit.

"I didn't know you played chess."

"It's Crow's board."

Aki looked down at the pieces. There was a long pause – each of them managed two moves in the space of it.

"Jack said – "

Yuusei put down his piece with more force than strictly necessary. "I'm sure he did."

Aki looked back up at him, startled. Yuusei would not meet her eyes. At last she looked down and took his pawn. Yuusei took her capturing pawn. Aki decided to pretend he hadn't just completely botched the move and given her the chance to capture three of his pieces at once.

"This isn't a game," Yuusei said at last, and she could hear anger running beneath the defeat in his voice. "They're treating it like one, but it's never really a game when you're playing for keeps."

There was another long pause. Aki leaned forward to move her knight onto Yuusei's side of the board, captured his rook, and set it off to the side. She bumped the deck sitting next to the board. The top card shifted. Yuusei pushed it back, then got up and moved the deck. Aki watched him set it on the single shelf attached to the wall. Sitting there, it looked as though its owner had not vanished into thin air – might come by any moment to grab it and put it in his pocket.

" . . . is this your room?" It looked very different from her room in the city – only about half the size, for starters, and uncomfortably bare-bones.

"Mmm." Yuusei moved his bishop. "Martha wants us to stay here for the night." Aki wondered if he had any idea how badly he was playing; she was only an average player at best, and she suspected the game was going to end in his checkmate if she didn't resign. She couldn't even let him win at the rate he was going. "You can have the top."

"Mm?" Aki paused, hand on the king that was in the process of taking out one of Yuusei's knights. Yuusei nodded curtly backward at the bunk.

"I'm usually on the bottom."

Aki wondered if she should point out that Martha was almost definitely going to put her in with the twins and decided, once again, not to. Yuusei finally captured a piece that wasn't a pawn. She was starting to get the feeling he was either trying to let her win – something she found distinctly unlikely – or else his attention was completely elsewhere and the game was nothing more than a nervous habit, a way to keep his hands occupied. She looked down at the board and sighed.

"Check."

Yuusei moved his king away from the black queen marching across the board. "I never understood why the king is the piece you have to pin down," he said. "Take away the queen and the king is helpless."

At any other time, Aki might have interpreted the statement as flirting. Yuusei sighed and watched as Aki took one of his rooks.

"I hate this game."

The next three moves went in silence. Aki examined the board for any other move she could make without being blatantly insulting. There was nothing for it.

"Checkmate."

Yuusei turned the king on its side. He stared at it fixedly for several seconds. Aki got on her knees on the other side of the board and held her arms out to him. Yuusei turned his head away. She touched his shoulder.

"Yuusei . . . "

He still refused to meet her eyes. Aki walked a step closer on her knees, then pulled him into her arms. Yuusei rested his face against her hair. Aki decided not to comment on the almost-unnoticeable change in Yuusei's breathing, or the way his arms tightened around her waist as though he was afraid she would disappear next. She pushed the chessboard out of the way carefully with her free hand; she had to get off her knees sometime, and she had no intention of breaking something that wasn't hers.

The tears she felt sliding into her hair did not last long. She suspected Yuusei wouldn't know a full-out crying fit if it slapped him across the face. Suddenly she wondered how on earth he'd managed to deal with her before they left the city, when the world that had been constructed around her came crashing down and she sat helplessly in the middle waiting for someone else to pick up the pieces. She tried to imagine Yuusei sitting in her place and couldn't do it.

"Okay?"

She expected him to mumble some kind of affirmative and then go disappear again, maybe into the attic or basement, or perhaps to fix her with that sharp stare and make some kind of half-sarcastic comment intended to make her change the subject. The last thing she expected was a wordless shake of the head. Aki looked over his head and up into the top bunk. Sitting on the pillow was a well-worn stuffed dog. Someone had tied a scrap of fabric around its ears like a bandanna. She had the feeling she knew who it belonged to.

"Yuusei . . . "

The eyes that looked up at her were tired, and old in a way that made her ache. Aki turned his face and pressed her lips to his. She had no idea what kind of reaction she was looking for – anger, maybe, or confusion. She'd be happy with anything that was a reaction. Let him get angry at her – at least it would take that horrible half-absent look out of his eyes. He looked like the last man standing on the muddy red earth of a forsaken battlefield. And in a way, she realized, he was.

Which was probably why she was taken completely by surprise when he kissed back. It was both brief and chaste, and what she felt in it was not a need for her but a need for a focus – but it was enough.

Yuusei swept the wayward chess pieces into a plastic baggie, then pushed the entire thing neatly under the bed before getting up. He held one hand out to Aki and pulled her off the floor.

"We should go downstairs."

Aki nodded. She could still feel his mouth on hers.

It might have been worth noting, had anyone else been paying attention, that she never even noticed the corresponding burning against her arm.