Who I Thought You Were - Yusei Fudo/OC [COMPLETE]

Part Two - Chapter 1 - Nova

I smile and drop the bags I'm carrying, running to Crow and Jack and launching myself into them. "I missed you two ding dongs," I tease.

"You look good, Nova," Crow says, eyeing me. "New hairstyle?"

"Yep. I'd love to give you one too, Crow," I reply. "With a chain saw."

"Oof!" Ally shouts from behind me as she loads my stuff into the truck. "Go off, girl!"

"You haven't changed at all," Jack says, his stoic attitude unchanged.

"Wanna bet?" I ask. "Sweet wheels. Or, I guess, wheel." I gesture to his white duel runner.

"Phoenix Whirlwind's new engine's better than it ever was!" Jack boasts. Of all the things that he could've changed, he picked his huge ego. Specifically, the size of it. Shit's already got stretch marks.

"Yeah, well, call me when you land, because that ego of yours is soaring too high," I retort. He opens and closes his mouth a couple times, but shrinks back, fuming. I won this one.

My eyes travel to the red haired girl on one of the two red duel runners. She's tapping away at her cell phone. "Who's she?" I ask.

"That's Akiza," Crow says. "She was part of Team 5D's too."

"Right! The bench warmer! I remember now," I say.

"Careful, Nova. She's scary when she's angry," Jack warns me.

"Eh. I'll take my chances."

The girl looks up, and when she sees me, she pockets her phone and approaches me, smiling. "I'm Akiza," she says. "Nova, right?" She holds out her hand for me to shake, and I do.

"Mmm-hmm. I hear you rode with these guys during the WRGP. They give you any trouble?" I joke.

She laughs at my joke with me. "Not really. Just the boys being themselves."

"Which, ninety five percent of the time means being stupid." That gets a collective "Hey!" from all of the boys.

There was one more person I had yet to greet. The one I hadn't heard a word from since I left. I can't bring myself to even look him in the eyes.

"Nova," Yusei breathes. I feel his eyes on me. "You...you're...you look good."

"Thanks," I reply, barely able to hear myself. He's probably pissed at me for ditching him. Totally forgivable. I'd be pissed at me too. You don't just get ditched by someone you love and forgive them immediately. I can't bring myself to say anything else, not with everyone around.

"Everything okay, Nova?" Crow asks, his hand on my shoulder.

"Fine," I tell him. "I should go with my sister. I'm feeling pretty jet lagged." Not exactly a lie, but not exactly the truth either. I did feel jet lagged, but I also wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a bit. I hug Crow and Jack goodbye, wave to Akiza and Yusei, and climb onto Blackwing. It feels so good to be riding her again.

I follow Ally and Duncan in silence to Ally's apartment. She has a relatively nice place in the City, with an amazing view of the ocean. She shows me which bedroom is mine, and I collapse onto the bed, hugging one of the throw pillows to my chest.

What am I going to do about Yusei? I obviously crushed him. He's also a dueling champion, meaning he's probably got someone else now, someone better than me. Honestly, what do I have to offer? I'm just his childhood crush. We've kissed twice, and he said he loved me, but that was so long ago. God, I'm so stupid. Even though I was being controlled, I still tried to hurt him. Then, I intentionally left him, and I didn't give him any idea where I'd gone or what had happened to me. I didn't even have the balls to try to reach out to him while I was in America. Before I left, I was just another criminal, stealing what I needed to survive and barely keeping myself on my feet.

I'm just a broken girl with too many inner demons to face. I'm not the heroic queen Yusei deserves.

A/N: WHOOO, WE BACK FOR PART TWO!!!!!! Can I get a what what?

Anyways, so, clearly, I'm back, and also seeming clear, we have some new additions to the story! Since I didn't introduce very many characters in the first part of the book (prologue thru chapter 14) I do want to take a moment to run through the new characters that we're adding to the party.

Jonah Walker — One of Nova's best friends while she was in America. Tall, with an athletic build, sandy blond hair, and blue eyes.

Duncan McLean — Allison's boyfriend who becomes one of Nova's most trusted confidantes. Medium height with a lean build, light skin, black hair, and brown eyes.

Evan Bates — One of Nova's best friends while she was in America. Gay and proud. Tall and skinny, with brown hair and brown eyes.

Two of our three new characters are based off of real people who are my actual friends, and they know who they are. I'm super excited to develop them as the story continues, and I hope you grow to love their characters as well!

Yep, that's it. Happy to be back on the grid after camp. Love you all. Thanks for continuing through this piece of crap.

Oh, but until I get back to school, I will have some sort of upload schedule. Expect them to be up on a Friday or Saturday, somewhere in that range.

Now we're done with this note. Shoulda made it its own part. But I didn't. What the heck. Love you all!

BFN!

— Kal 💙

And PS, the song up there is "This Feeling" by The Chainsmokers feat. Kelsea Ballerini