Tagging Up 12

Back up against the headboard as she rested atop an infirmary bed, Alexis' eyes were narrowed into a glare at the wall opposite of her.

Tonight could have ended a lot worse. She should just be happy she got off with some minor injuries and didn't lose her deck.

But she wasn't happy. Not at all.

Alexis was pissed off.

At herself.

Doctor Crowler had popped in not long ago. He had informed her that because of her frequent visits to the Abandoned Dorm, what she got up to was called into question. The Chairman of the security forces was calling for her expulsion.

But, Doctor Crowler had himself had managed to wear her down and give her the chance to duel for her spot here. If she won, she would be allowed to stay. The problem was, who she was set up to duel. The legendary Paradox brothers, duelists active since Duelist Kingdom itself and a duo that had won multiple pro tag team leagues. And she would have had to duel them two on one if she couldn't find a partner. And very few people would be willing to do so, considering if they aided her, the Chairman was considering them as aiding and abetting her.

How they could just call on the Paradox brothers at the drop of a hat was beyond Alexis, but it wasn't worth focusing on.

She would have had real trouble finding a partner, if Yarden hadn't apparently volunteered right there on the spot to be her tag team partner.

The sense of relief she'd felt at those words when Crowler revealed it to her, made her even angrier.

'How pathetic!' the blonde mentally derided herself. Not only had she ended up a damsel in distress and in her panic call Yarden to come save her, now her foolishness was possibly going to end up getting Yarden expelled as well!

Her mind drifted back to last week, when Yarden had compared her to her monsters. Beautiful, graceful, strong and proud.

She was nothing like that tonight. 'I have to do better.' she ground her teeth.

Well, if she even got the chance to stay. She didn't doubt Yarden could hold his own against a pro, he managed to defeat Zane after all and since then he'd created an entirely new and powerful deck using the abandoned cards he'd piked up on the first day and a bunch of others he'd spent a ludicrous amount of DP on.

No way she could though. She was good, Alexis knew she was. She was definitely within the top five of her year, the only ones she could safely say that were her superior in the first years was Yarden and Jaden, and there wasn't even really any second years that stood out either.

Alexis would even go as far to say, that she was within the top ten best duelists on the island currently.

But she was still only a first year at Duel Academy. She wasn't ready yet to take on tag team pro's that were known to have once almost brought down the tag team of the King of Games himself Yugi Moto and the number three ranked duelist in the entire world, Joey Wheeler.

sliding open. She looked over and found the one entering the room was Yarden, a wide smile on his face.

It looked like the fact they would be dueling the Paradox Brothers didn't worry him at all. But then again, he hadn't been worked up at all at even dueling Zane.

She wished she had the kin of strength that could inspire that much confidence in yourself.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized, making his way over to collapse into the seat beside her infirmary bed, "Something popped up that held me up for a bit."

"Must have been something good, considering the smile on your face." Alexis pointed out.

"Oh, it was. Something that I've been waiting for, for a while to add to my deck finally came," Yarden replied, before leaning forward to look her closely in the face, "Kinda the opposite of you sunshine, what's up with you? Your face is tripping you."

Blunt as ever, huh?

"I'm annoyed, angry even," Alexis admitted with a sigh, "At myself for being so useless tonight and getting you caught up in all this."

"Well, I can't help much here and now about what you can and can't do," Yarden mused, before shooting a smile at her, "But as far as dragging me in to this. I don't mind. Actually, I'm flattered that I'm the first one you called when you were in trouble."

"..Really?" Alexis asked, taken aback. The choice was between two people that she could have called then and there. Zane, or Yarden. Her thoughts had locked onto Yarden though, because, as far as physical confrontations went, she thought Yarden was the toughest guy she knew, "I basically just called you out to fight a huge guy off for me though, and did you see the size of that guy? He was monstrously big, you could have gotten really hurt."

"Nah, all that bulk is a big help for most, but when you can't fight for shit like that guy, there was no way it was helping him against me," Yarden just snorted, and then grinned, "We're friends right? It means a lot that you trust me enough to rely on me when things end up like that."

Huh. So he had a side to him like this as well? She was learning a whole lot of interesting things about Yarden lately.

"We are friends," Alexis found his grin infectious. She'd thought them decent friends for a little while now, but she hadn't realized he thought that way about her beyond the flirting and joking. "Is that why you volunteered on the spot to be my tag partner even though there's a good chance we'll lose?"

"Pfft!" Yarden actually snorted, then gave her a disbelieving look, "You're kidding right? I'm pretty sure I could take the Paradox brothers on my own. With you and me together? They'll be lucky to last two turns against us."

"Where do you get that confidence from I wonder?" Alexis asked, yet she couldn't wipe the grin from her own face, or the light heat she felt in her cheeks at his praise, "The Paradox brothers have won multiple regional tag team pro leagues. They're the two times Japanese champions and one time American champions."

There was a saying about that the Paradox brothers were a tag team right from the womb. Because of their nature as twins that did everything together, there was none that could match up to them in team compatibility

"Cuz' individually, we're just that good," Yarden replied without missing a beat, "Together, I bet even Yugi and Kaiba would be hard pressed to win."

"And what about compatibility? Tag dueling is more than just two people teaming up, it's about synergy between the two players to make them both better, instead of dragging the other down." Alexis shook her head, trying to be realistic, even though she felt her heart thud in her chest at his impression of her skills.

"We're plenty compatible I think," Yaden replied, leaning back in his chair with a shrug, "I wouldn't be aiming to date you if I didn't think we were."

His blunt honesty on that matter was much appreciated.

"I thought that was just because you find me that attractive." she mused.

Yarden scoffed, "While that's a big part of it, don't go getting things mixed up," he replied, "If it was just about how absurdly gorgeous you are, I'd just want to bed you, not date you."

A line drawn quite firmly between the two huh? And he seemed to think quite highly of her, beyond her looks. It was flattering.

"Are you saying you're in love with me?" Alexis inquired, curious. Were his feelings that deep?

"Nope," he shrugged, "It's way too soon for this to be love or anything like that, love really isn't something that can properly develop. But I am really fond of you, and the more time we spend together, the more fond of you I become."

Is that so? He was surprisingly mature about this kind of thing. But, she couldn't say that she didn't feel the same to a degree. It wasn't like she was asexual or anything, she was just totally focused on the dueling she loved, her passion in life. Yarden was good looking, easy on the eyes. And she was fond of him to. She liked his blunt, honest nature, she liked that he rarely took true offense to things said out of turn and how easy going he was. She admired his skill and strength as a duelist and his amazing breadth of knowledge when it came to card and dueling techniques. And of course, she wouldn't have called him tonight in her panic ridden state, if she didn't find him reliable.

"Yet you've still not taken me on that date that's still on the table." Alexis teased him.

Yarden chuckled, "I haven't really felt the need to use it," he replied, "We've been spending pretty much every day together lately, and it wouldn't really change up much what we're doing. You're not the type of girl that would want me to take her to a restaurant and spout flowery flattering crap."

"Definitely not." she agreed. That was the kind of thing that made her pretty much swear off of romance. She hated it when guys constantly approached her and tried to win her favor by spouting stuff like that.

That was so not her thing. Especially when they clearly didn't mean what they said and could barely pull their eyes from her chest

"Exactly," Yarden let out a huff of amusement, "Here, we can have a little date you'll actually enjoy. A little deck tuning date." he reached over to the table on wheels at the edge of her infirmary bed and swung it around between them, propping open the gauntlet duel disk he'd taken from that huge oaf that attacked her and taking out his deck to place on it.

He grinned at her and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "Right, I've shown you mine, so you show me yours," Yarden mock flirted, "Let's see what kind of 'positions' we can do together."

Alexis couldn't help the giggle that erupted from her lips. Yarden really did know her well. "Alright, but don't be upset if I'm too much woman for you to handle." the honey blonde replied, reaching down to grab her deck.

It was as she did that, Alexis noticed. The anger, shame and tension that had filled her up, had drained out of her without her even noticing.