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: Touring The Dorm
Characters: Asuka, Rei
Word Count: 1,725||Status: One-shot
Genre: Friendship||Rated: G
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section E26: fic that is K rated; Written for GX Non-Flash Bingo, #102, Osiris Red dorms
Note: This takes place after the Genex Tournament, before the official end of the school year.
Summary: Rei will be a first year when the new year begins. That makes Asuka her sempai. And it's a sempai's duty to help the younger students. Especially when that younger student is the first female in Osiris Red

"Are you certain, Asuka-sempai?" Rei tasted the honorific on her tongue and found that she liked it. She didn't know the older student all that well, and her clearest memories of her were of that night she'd dueled Juudai and tried to win Ryou-sama's heart for her own.

Asuka only smiled at her, a warm sort of smile that Rei liked as well. There wasn't a single trace of mockery in her, not like she would've expected from a nearly third year Blue student. And regardless of where she laid her head, Tenjoin Asuka was a Blue student.

"Of course I'm certain. Manjoume-san built a very large annex and there's room for both of us here. Let me show you." Asuka gestured for Rei to follow along and Rei could only do that, curious down to the tips of her toes as to what she would see.

She'd heard about Manjoume-san and his riches and how he'd built an annex instead of sharing a room like everyone else had. But when she'd made her decision to enter the Genex tournament and ask to be allowed in as a Red student if she won, she'd never thought far enough ahead to dream of where she might sleep. She'd presumed she'd get some kind of a room to herself, since no respectable school would allow male and female students to room together.

Even if she kind of had when she'd snuck in here the year before. She hadn't thought that through either, since it hadn't dawned on her at the time that she'd be sharing a room with boys. So unladylike!

But all of that was over now and if Asuka-sempai really was serious about this, then she would have a room where no boy would set foot without being asked in first.

Asuka opened the door to the annex and gestured her in. "Manjoume-san lets his friends use the main sitting room here," she said, indicating the wide television and a small kitchen nook. "Be careful when you come in here, because they don't always knock and you might not know when someone is in here." Her lips quirked upward. "Juudai never knocks."

Well, that was good to know. She liked Juudai, but she didn't want to come on him without knowing he was there.

Asuka's lips twitched further. "For that matter, neither does my brother." She reached to a corner, seized a broom, and slammed it upward. Tenjoin Fubuki squawked, flailing as he fell from one of the overhead beams.

"Little sister!" He bounced to his feet and grinned at them both. "And who is this lovely young flower? A little fresh for our school, isn't she?"

Asuka smacked him casually, even as Rei drew in breath to yell at him. That ended up not happening as Asuka spoke. "Rei-san, this is my older brother, Fubuki. He will start knocking before he comes in here from now on." She turned a steel-hard gaze on him. "Won't he?"

Fubuki blinked, rubbed the side of his face where she'd smacked him, and pouted. "But I was just taking a nap!"

"You're still going to knock before you come in here from now on." Asuka didn't look in the slightest impressed by his desperate need to nap in the rafters.

Fubuki sighed a long-suffering sigh that said far clearer than words that he was being so put upon by her and really, shouldn't the whole world just feel sorry for him?

Rei didn't feel sorry for him. If she'd met him before Ryou-sama or Juudai-sama, she might have, but now? Now she wanted to finish the tour and see what this place she'd be staying in was like.

"All right, all right," Fubuki grumbled, rubbing the back of his head now. "Nice to meet you, Rei-chan!" He waved before ambling off, yawning yet again, heading out the door.

Asuka let out a sigh of her own once he was gone. "You get used to him," she assured the younger girl. "But he's not really that bad. He started staying here a few months ago and just never got out of the habit, even when he could have."

For a moment it seemed as if she were looking at something far away, far out of Rei's sight. Then she shook her head and started down a hallway. "The bedroom is this way." She tapped one door along the way. "This is the bathroom and you can get to the soaking pool he had installed from there."

Oh, that sounded delightful! Rei hadn't had a good long soak in far too long. She made a note to fix that as soon as she possibly could. Showers were wonderful but nothing beat a soak in the hottest water she could stand.

Asuka opened the door to the bedroom and Rei peeked in, looking around. She could tell at once that someone had lived here for a while, even though the place was spotless. Books on a table, along with a laptop humming softly; one of the blankets on the bed was turned down, not unmade, but ready to welcome someone back into its embrace.

Then she recounted. Not 'the' bed but one of the beds. She rubbed her eyes.

"Four beds?"

Asuka nodded, the corner of her mouth rising up. "I honestly don't know why since I don't think he ever planned to share it with anyone. But there are four beds here." She gestured to the one that had the blanket turned down. "That's mine. Fubuki uses the one over there." She motioned toward the one above it. "But I'll make certain that he moves out before you move in."

Rei nodded, stepping in to get a better look at the place. "Why are you still staying in here, Asuka-sempai? Can't you go back to Blue?" She bit her lip a second after asking it; the two of them didn't know each other nearly well enough for such a personal question.

Asuka didn't seem to mind, however. Instead, she gave the question due thought, even as that same distant expression appeared. "I think I'll move back there eventually, but not yet. I don't think I'm ready to go back yet."

Rei wanted to ask so many questions on that. She'd heard about strange things going on at Duel Academia this last year, but no one she'd found wanted to talk to her about any of them. She suspected it had something to do with those people in white uniforms she'd seen during the Genex tournament, but all of them were gone now. At least the uniforms were. She'd seen some of the people around, but they were back to wearing red or yellow or blue and said nothing at all about what had happened.

Asuka shook off her strange mood and smiled. "Living here's a lot different from the Blue dorm, I can tell you that much. I always made certain I was dressed before I moved on past that door." She indicated the one back at the end of the corridor. "I could never know when someone was going to turn up in here. The food isn't like Yellow or Blue, either. It's pretty plain." She paused for a moment. "To be honest, it's not always like the Yellow dorm. Sometimes Professor Kabayama comes over and makes dinner. He tries to do that at least once a week or so. But most of the time, people either make their own food here or Tome-san makes it. Which isn't to say she's not good, because she is. It's just easier for one person to make large amounts of food. The other dorms have at least three or four people cooking for them, so they can take their time and have a larger variety."

Rei nodded, the fires of challenge lighting her eyes. "Maybe I can make some of my special favorites for Juudai-sama!"

She wasn't surprised to see a small flicker of something in Asuka's eyes. It might be challenge, it might be annoyance, it could be any number of things. But she liked seeing it there anyway: because it meant that Asuka-sempai took her seriously, no matter what.

"You could do that," Asuka said after a few quiet moments. "I should warn you, though, that Juudai eats just about anything. I don't even know if he bothers tasting what he's eaten or if he just pours it down his throat and lets it go from there."

Rei threw her head and shoulders back and held her head as high as it would go. "We'll just see what he thinks of my special lunch, then!" She had so many plans already seething in the back of her mind. It would be a good way to tell Juudai-sama that she was here and would make anything that he wanted. She didn't know if he'd even heard the results of the Genex tournament yet. Exactly what he'd been doing, she didn't know, but if he didn't find out from somewhere else, he most certainly would from her.

"All right. Do your best, Rei-chan. And that means in class, too."

Rei recognized the look in Asuka-sempai's eyes that time: she was worried the work would be too hard for the younger student. That didn't surprise Rei, either. She'd made an unprecedented jump coming here, and she still didn't know why Principal Samejima allowed it when she'd lost to Manjoume-san. She'd asked him when she had the chance. But she also wasn't going to let this opportunity slide out of her hands. She not only had the chance to be close to Juudai-sama, but she could make her mark on the dueling world in a way no one else before her ever had. Rei had her eyes on the Pro Leagues, and nothing was going to hold her back.

Asuka moved back toward the door. "I think that should be just about everything you need to know about this place. But if you have any questions, you can ask me."

"Of course!" They might disagree on some things but Rei thought they just might end up friends after all.

And maybe she could ask Asuka-sempai for a few hints on what kind of things Juudai-sama might like in his lunches. Life in the Osiris Red dorms looked to be very, very interesting next year.

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.