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sweetandshortTitle: A Lovely Future Indeed
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Yugi, Grandpa
Rating: G/K
Summary: Yugi knows what they say about his grandpa. He also knows they're wrong.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Sweet and Short 10 out of 20: Grandpa, Strange, Number, Alone, Book, Floor, Friends, Writing, Business, Secret, Theory and 100 Fandom Hell Fandom #61
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
They talked about his grandpa in the village. Yugi had grown up his entire life, hearing the townsfolk's whispers and watching the side-eyed gazes they cast after his beloved grandfather. The old man was strange, weird, eccentric... They had worse words for him too, words Yugi had always wanted to plant his fists over their mouths for for being so disrespectful. They said he had thrown away a good future and dedicated his entire life to cards.
He'd heard all kinds of opinions over his years, growing up in this place. These people did not know how to respect others. They looked at his grandfather, and thought of him only as a feeble, old man, having dedicated far too many years to a pursuit none of them were wise enough to understand. He'd heard them say his grandfather would not have been alone if he had not spent so many years chasing after completing his most prized deck. He'd even heard them have the audacity to claim he could have built a fortune if he'd spent any years in which he'd chased after dueling, on any number of other pursuits. Writing characters in books could have at least built him a fortune, but instead, he was alone, struggling from paycheck to paycheck and still wasting money, they said, after mere scraps of paper and cardboard.
Sitting cross-legged in his grandfather's floor, Yugi knew his grandpa was happy. He was constantly humming as he worked, and this place, this shop around him, was something very special indeed. Yugi took out his own deck and traced the character images. These were more than cards, more than characters... They were far better friends than any of those village grown-ups!
Yugi had a few special friends, but even being around them did not bring him the pleasure of sitting in this shop, that was so much more than a business, handling his or his grandfather's cards. Perhaps there was not actual magic in these strips of paper, but they were nonetheless unique and extraordinary. There was a secret about them that only the best of players could understand, his grandpa had always told him. Many theories said that had something to do with magic, but Yugi knew already in his heart that it went deeper than that.
These characters were real in a sense, perhaps not living or breathing but real nonetheless. They brought comfort when nothing else in the world could bring comfort. Yugi vaguely remembered how his mother had worried over his grandfather when they'd lost his grandmother. It had been one of the few times Yugi had witnessed her actually buying cards to add to Grandpa's deck. Those cards seemed the only thing to be able to reach his Grandpa and bring him joy.
Yugi smiled to himself as he shuffled his deck. The townspeople were wrong. Having one's own card shop, surrounded by loving family and friends, seemed an ideal future to the young boy. Something chimed; his grandfather hummed.
The End
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Yugi, Grandpa
Rating: G/K
Summary: Yugi knows what they say about his grandpa. He also knows they're wrong.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Sweet and Short 10 out of 20: Grandpa, Strange, Number, Alone, Book, Floor, Friends, Writing, Business, Secret, Theory and 100 Fandom Hell Fandom #61
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
They talked about his grandpa in the village. Yugi had grown up his entire life, hearing the townsfolk's whispers and watching the side-eyed gazes they cast after his beloved grandfather. The old man was strange, weird, eccentric... They had worse words for him too, words Yugi had always wanted to plant his fists over their mouths for for being so disrespectful. They said he had thrown away a good future and dedicated his entire life to cards.
He'd heard all kinds of opinions over his years, growing up in this place. These people did not know how to respect others. They looked at his grandfather, and thought of him only as a feeble, old man, having dedicated far too many years to a pursuit none of them were wise enough to understand. He'd heard them say his grandfather would not have been alone if he had not spent so many years chasing after completing his most prized deck. He'd even heard them have the audacity to claim he could have built a fortune if he'd spent any years in which he'd chased after dueling, on any number of other pursuits. Writing characters in books could have at least built him a fortune, but instead, he was alone, struggling from paycheck to paycheck and still wasting money, they said, after mere scraps of paper and cardboard.
Sitting cross-legged in his grandfather's floor, Yugi knew his grandpa was happy. He was constantly humming as he worked, and this place, this shop around him, was something very special indeed. Yugi took out his own deck and traced the character images. These were more than cards, more than characters... They were far better friends than any of those village grown-ups!
Yugi had a few special friends, but even being around them did not bring him the pleasure of sitting in this shop, that was so much more than a business, handling his or his grandfather's cards. Perhaps there was not actual magic in these strips of paper, but they were nonetheless unique and extraordinary. There was a secret about them that only the best of players could understand, his grandpa had always told him. Many theories said that had something to do with magic, but Yugi knew already in his heart that it went deeper than that.
These characters were real in a sense, perhaps not living or breathing but real nonetheless. They brought comfort when nothing else in the world could bring comfort. Yugi vaguely remembered how his mother had worried over his grandfather when they'd lost his grandmother. It had been one of the few times Yugi had witnessed her actually buying cards to add to Grandpa's deck. Those cards seemed the only thing to be able to reach his Grandpa and bring him joy.
Yugi smiled to himself as he shuffled his deck. The townspeople were wrong. Having one's own card shop, surrounded by loving family and friends, seemed an ideal future to the young boy. Something chimed; his grandfather hummed.
The End
