Adult-FanFiction.org : Yu-Gi-OH

Lady Luck	By : Amarin Category: Yu-Gi-Oh > Het - Male/Female Views: 2207 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own YuGiOh!, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 3
- 4
- 5
32 Flavors And Then Some
***
Squint your eyes and look closer;

I�m not between you and your ambition.

I am a poster girl with no poster.

I am thirty-two flavors and then some.

And I�m beyond your peripheral vision

so you might want to turn your head.

�Cause someday you�re going to get hungry

and eat most of the words you just said.

God help you if you are an ugly girl;

�course, too pretty is also your doom.

�Cause everyone harbors a secret hatred

for the prettiest girl in the room.

And God help you if you are a phoenix

and you dare to rise up from the ash.

A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy

while you are just flying back.

***
Ani DiFranco � 32 Flavors
***
Dara, for her part, pushed everything involved the past twenty-four hours down into the recesses of her mind, determined to think about it later. Later being after her meeting, though she would�ve preferred the thirteenth of Never.
The meeting didn�t take as long as she thought it would; twenty-eight minutes after she arrived, she was leaving. 7:30 in the morning, and it was less than two hours back to Domino, even with rush hour traffic. She�d have probably an hour to sit and twiddle her thumbs.
Sighing, she went to get her car from the garage she�d parked it in. No use putting off the inevitable.
***

There�d been an accident halfway back, so she didn�t have as much time to brood as she�d thought she would. Still, twenty minutes � or more, if Tristan was late � was enough time to work herself up into a Grade A panic attack.
Questions ran over and over through her mind, bombarding her with worries and uncertainties.
Would Tristan really keep her secret?
Even if he would keep her secret, would they ever be friends again?
Did he think she was a freak or was he just being nice last night?
And, most importantly of all, what the hell did that kiss mean?
***

A knock at the door startled Dara out of her morass of melancholy gloom, and she sighed. When she reached the entryway, she braced herself before opening the door.
To find Tristan, bearing pastries, on her doorstep. He appeared surprised at her appearance, and she couldn�t blame him. She was back in her �normal� clothes � her normal guy clothes, that was.
Hair up in a ponytail and held back by a checked headband, breasts concealed by the drape of a loose black T-shirt and red vest, she looked every inch a guy. A rather feminine guy, but still male.
�Disconcerting seeing me like this again once you�ve seen me in a dress, huh?� she asked wryly.
Tristan nodded, a smile lurking on his lips. �Yeah, I guess so.�
�Come in,� Dara invited. When Tristan was inside, she closed the door behind him and turned to face him hesitantly. Sensing something needed to be said to break the ice, Dara said, �I see you brought brunch.�
�Ah, yeah,� Tristan replied.
�I could make some coffee,� Dara offered.
�Sounds good,� Tristan agreed. �You wanna eat first, and then talk?�
�Sounds good,� she repeated, relieved at the opportunity to delay the inevitable.
***

Though they had both dawdled over their meal, it was still only half an hour later when the last crumb of pastry had been eaten and the last drop of coffee had been drunk.
�So�� Tristan started.
�So�� Dara repeated.
They both looked at each other and broke out laughing.
�We�re being stupid, aren�t we?� Dara asked between giggles.
�Well, I don�t know about you, but I�m just nervous,� Tristan defended himself.
�Why are you nervous? I�m the one whose deep dark secret has just been blown,� Dara demanded, looking somewhere between pissed off and mirthful.
�Yeah, well�� Tristan trailed off, looking sheepish. �Deep dark secret?� he questioned, a smile lurking at the corners of his lips.
Dara shrugged, the pissed off half of the look leaving her face, and the laughing one overtaking it. �What else would you call it?� she joked.
�More Weird Shit Courtesy of Living in Domino City�,� Tristan shot back.
Dara just raised one eyebrow.
�Well, think about it,� Tristan said, ticking the points off on his fingers. �We�ve got two ancient Egyptian spirits, and the lighter halves of their souls which were reincarnated into two Japanese teenagers, an ancient Egyptian High Priest who was reincarnated into a computer genius � also a Japanese teenager � his stepbrother who�s consciousness was trapped into a computer, a modern Egyptian tomb-keeper who went crazy and spawned a darker half that wants to take over the world��
�Okay, okay,� Dara broke in, cutting him off. Laughingly, she said, �I get what you mean. Compared to the rest of the crazy stuff that happens in this town, me being a cross-dresser is pretty tame.�
�Well, now, I wouldn�t say �tame�� Tristan teased, obviously referring to her attire of the previous evening.
Dara tried hard, but she couldn�t manage to keep herself from blushing. She coughed. �Ano�so what did you want to know?� she asked, getting back to the reason for his presence.
�Whatever you want to tell me,� Tristan replied sincerely.
�I�d prefer to tell you as little as possible,� Dara said truthfully. She sighed and slumped back in her chair, fiddling with the handle of her coffee cup. �But I suppose I need to talk about this.�
Tristan just gave her an encouraging look, sensing that any words on his part would be out of place.
�I�ve never talked to anyone about this,� she said softly. �Not even my father. Not that I wanted to talk to him about my innermost thoughts or anything�� She trailed off, staring moodily into her coffee cup as if the black brew held the secrets of the universe.
Or at least the answers to her current predicament.
Seeing that Dara was apparently having a hard time figuring out where to start, Tristan decided to bring up something that had been bugging him since the morning after he�d found out. �It�s amazing to me how I never noticed,� the brunet said.
Dara shrugged, finally looking up from her contemplation of her caffeinated beverage. �You weren�t looking for it. And admittedly, it wasn�t that hard to make myself not look like a girl.� She frowned slightly. �I suppose I should be upset by that,� she added under her breath, but shook it off.
�It wasn�t that hard?� Tristan asked, pretending not to hear her almost � but not quite � inaudible mumbles.
She shrugged again. �I have no hips�and well, almost no chest,� she said, gesturing at herself. �Once that was out of the way it was only a matter of cultivating �The Look.��
��The Look?�� Tristan asked, trying in vain to keep his eyes off Dara�s chest, which, for once when she was dressed as a guy, wasn�t bound up.
��The Look,�� Dara confirmed, smiling inwardly as she noticed where Tristan�s eyes were focused. She purposely took a deep breath just to watch his eyes bug out. He finds me attractive, at least. That�s something, she thought wryly. �A look which would draw the eye away from anything that might reveal I wasn�t really a guy.�
Comprehension dawned on Tristan�s face. �Thus, the intricate hairstyle and the makeup.� He gestured to her headband and earring.
�Exactly.�
�But if you�ve been trying to keep a low profile, why go to that club?� Tristan asked. Though he thought he knew. Even if Dara could never talk to anyone about her secret, at least she could occasionally �let her hair down� and be herself.
Even if no one knew it was her.
She started vacantly off to the side as she answered. �Sometimes�I start to forget that Duke Devlin is just a role I play,� she murmured. �And when the masquerade starts to feel real�I have to remind myself who I really am.� She let out a shuddering breath and her eyes lowered back to her coffee cup. �So I get dressed up, and go out to that club, and pretend I�m just like every other girl in that place�and not a complete and utter freak.�
Her words had started out soft and sad, but they ended up harsh and almost vibrating with furious intensity.
�You�re not a freak, Dara,� Tristan said reassuringly one tanned hand coming across the table to rest on top of hers for a fleeting moment. �Or if you are, we all are.�
She half-grinned at him, squeezing his hands in return before releasing it. �Oh, really? And what about you sets you apart from the mainstream, Taylor, ne?�
�Ano�I was once voted �Most Likely To Fade Into The Crowd�?� Tristan offered jokingly.
Dara snorted. �You seemed to stand out pretty well in Phoenix last night,� she said, thinking, I definitely couldn�t keep my eyes off of you � and not just because you recognized me.
Tristan just shrugged.
Taking a deep breath for courage, Dara brought up the topic she�d been thinking about ever since she woke up that morning. Was it only five hours ago? It seemed longer� �Speaking of last night�� she started, and then trailed off, her nerve failing her at the last crucial moment. Firming her resolve, she went on, �You kissed me, and I�d like to know why.�
Tristan had known this was coming; thankfully he�d had a three-hour-long motorcycle ride to help clear his head so he could think. And think he had, for all three hours, about Dara.
�The reason I was in that bar the other night was because I�d just come to a rather�unsettling realization about myself that I needed some time to process,� Tristan said, seemingly out of the blue.
Dara glared at him, most likely thinking he�d just done a very obvious change of subject.
�I�d been wrestling over whether or not I was gay,� Tristan said frankly, and this caused the glare to melt from her face into something resembling a severely disappointed frown. �I finally came to the conclusion that yes, I was attracted to guys � or at least, one particular guy � so I was bi. And then it turns out that the guy I was attracted to�was really a girl,� he finished. He smiled and picked up Dara�s limp hand in his own strong one.
Dara looked dumbstruck. I knew he found me attractive, but� �W-what?� she stuttered.
�I�ve been attracted to you for a while,� Tristan said softly. �And at first I had trouble dealing with it, but after a while I was okay with it.� He snorted. �And then, just as I�m okay with not being straight, it turns out that the only reason my sexual orientation changed was because of a misunderstanding.�

�I, uh�� Dara chuckled. �I don�t know what to say.� He changed his sexual orientation because of me? she thought disbelievingly, a small well of happiness bubbling up inside her heart. �But I thought you said you came to the bar in order to quote-unquote �drown your sorrows?� she asked leadingly.
Tristan shrugged. �Well, I thought you were straight.�
�I am,� Dara said wryly.
�Yes, but I also thought you were a guy,� Tristan said, smiling. �I didn�t think you�d go for me.�
�And now you think I would?� Dara asked archly, noting his use of the past tense.
�I don�t know,� Tristan said with quiet aplomb. �Would you? Even if I wasn�t the only one who knew your secret,� he added as a qualifier.
She smiled a crooked smile. Hell, guys like this � this understanding, this smart, this funny, this kind, this�hot � don�t come along every millennia. �Yeah�I would, Tristan.�
- 3
- 4
- 5
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Lady Luck