northwind_gale | [FIC] Five Reasons why Jack Didn't like Crow

Well, I've been out of writing for a while-both my laptop and computer are down and my dad's laptop is new-consequently it doesn't have Word on it. And I really didn't want to use WordPad. It never occured to me that LJ posts had autosave and spellcheck until recently. (Well, aren't I a genius. Pfffft.) Anyways, this fic has been festering in my mind ever since we were deprived of Jack/Crow interaction during the period when Crow went to fetch Jack in 62. It was even further encouraged seeing Jack and Crow interact in 65. So I wrote it. :D

Title: Five Reasons Why Jack Didn't Like Crow
Author: Northwind Gale, a.k.a Artemis Ignitan
Rating: PG (K+) (possibly PG-13 for potty mouths-damn their Satellite upbringings!)
Summary: Five reasons why Jack didn't like Crow...or thought he didn't like him. Drabble fic, "5 Things" structure, chibi!Jack x chibi!Crow x chibi!Yuu friendship.
Disclaimer: I don't own the glorious clusterfuck that is 5D's.

Note: Also on FF.net.

Five Reasons Why Jack Didn't Like Crow

1) Crow made three, and three was always a crowd.

Jack didn't understand why Martha and Yuusei had to pick up Crow, out of all orphans in the Satellite. He was always pressing himself between himself and Yuusei when they were doing just about anything. It was particularly annoying when he and Yuusei were dueling each other. Crow would always hang on around them and chitter on and on about every single damn play that they made, talking about how awesome it was (that part wasn't too bad), and how he, "Crow-sama" could and would have done it better (that part was completely unbearable). He would pester them endlessly on what card that was, what that word meant (because not only was Crow loud, he was also apparently uneducated), and what the "proper" way to use the said card's effect (you only learned half the words printed on it just a minute before, moron!).

"Crow, why do you keep bothering us every time we do something?"

"Bothering you, actually. You're the only one who complains, Jack."

Jack and Crow were at it yet again. Yuusei ignored them, continuing with what he had originally been doing.

"Fine," Jack gritted out. "Why do you keep bothering me every time that we do something?"

"Cuz," Crow pointed out with a wide, toothy grin. "You guys are the only cool ones here. You know lots more stuff than the other kids. And the stuff you do is cool."

"Well," spluttered Jack, obviously trying not to be flattered by the praise (and failing). "How do you know you're cool enough to hang with us?"

"I'm Crow-sama! That should be enough!"

"That means nothing!!!"

"Well sure it does! We're friends, aren't we?"

"..."

Now when did Crow jump to that conclusion? Sure, he had been around them for the past few weeks, but did that really make him his friend? Jack didn't think so. Crow was simply latching onto them. Nothing more.

"And anyways, you and Yuusei are like, completely silent or something. It's too quiet. You need some noise!"

...Well, yes, it was a bit quiet. Yuusei was never much for talking and Jack had too much pride to just babble on about just anything that came to mind. But he liked the quiet. He really did like the quiet. Honest.

Crow grinned, a wide cheeky teasing smirk, as if he knew Jack's thought process. (He probably did. One of the things that Jack didn't like to admit to himself was that he was as transparent as glass.)

"You know you'd miss me if I left, Jaaaaaaaaack." (And with that, Crow was triumphant, even if Jack didn't want to admit it. The seed of doubt had been planted.)

No he wouldn't. He really wouldn't. Honest to goodness no. Really. He didn't need the extra attention.

Really.

2) Crow was too damn loud.

Jack had no clue how loud that kid's vocals would be when he first met him. Back when they first found him, he was a shy little thing, opening up only when he heard that they too, were interested in Duel Monsters. It only took minimal egging from Martha before that shy little thing was suddenly running rampant all over the orphanage, causing all sorts of mischief that would put Tom Sawyer to shame.

Jack wondered if Martha ever suspected the possibility of the monster she had unleashed. By her amused looks whenever Crow suddenly brought others into the mischief (mostly himself and Yuusei), Jack supposed she did.

"CROOOOOWWWWWWW!" was often heard from his lips every time one of those incidents happened, to the amusement of many. It was after hundredth or so of those outbursts that something extra came along with it.

"WHY ARE YOU SO DAMN LOUD?!?!?"

"I COULD ASK THE SAME THING, JAAAAAAAAACK!!!!" yelled Crow back.

The yelling was completely unnecessary seeing as the two were only a foot apart from each other.

"TH-THAT'S YOUR FAULT, STUPID!" Jack sputtered, face turning red-or it would have turned red, had it already not been painted a nice shade of royal blue from Crow's most recent mischief. "But seriously, why?"

To Jack's (thinly veiled) surprise, Crow actually looked rather serious and shy at that question. For the briefest moment, Jack could have sworn that he had seen a flicker of the shy little thing flash across his face.

"Well, when I was alone, I didn't really get a chance to be loud. If you were loud, you were caught."

"Caught by what? Can't be that scary."

"Bullies. Bad men. Being loud got you hurt. And plus..."

"And plus what?" No, Jack wasn't accepting that excuse. Not at all.

"I didn't really have any one to be loud with."

Jack had nothing to say to that. The (badly wanted, but now awkward) silence was only broken by the sloshing of water as Yuusei silently held out a bucket of water for Jack to wash himself.

3) Crow's name was stupid.

Jack had no idea who in their right mind would name their kid "Crow".

Martha was a nice name. Yuusei was an okay name. Jack was an awesome name.

Crow...now that was just stupid. It sounded more like a nickname than an actual name. You didn't just go and name your kid something like that any more than you called them "Tree" or "Sunshine" or "Firefly". It sounded dumb.

Not to mention that their names had actual meaning behind them. They were picked out with care. And they suited them. Yuusei had looked names for him in a book once. Martha's name meant "Lady of the House" in some language called Aramic, whatever that was. And Martha did lead the house. She ran the scenes. Yuusei could mean a whole good number of things, but the one that people most liked to attach to him was "wandering star"-probably because of that Stardust Dragon card of his. Jack's name was a medieval slang word for "man"-and was he a man, or what? He, at the very least, acted like (he thought he was) one.

Crows were...stupid black birds, annoying pests with the most ridiculous, loud sqawk.

Jack saw Crow running along, being stupid and loud, and pestering (he thought it was pestering, at least) Yuusei.

...Alright, so maybe it fit a little.

But it was still a stupid name.

Later, Jack asked him.

"Crow, who named you?"

"Well, I didn't really have anybody to name me. I named myself!"

Well, that certainly explained the stupid choice.

"Why'd you name yourself that? It sounds dumb!"

"Crows aren't dumb! They're awesome! They can find whatever they want and take it, just like that! And they're black and dirty, just like us, but they can fly...they can fly over the ocean and into the city..."

Jack looked at Crow with (ill-disguised) wonder. Did he actually put thought into something?

"And I want to do that! I'm gonna fly someday, all the way to Neo Domino! Just like the man who built the Daedalus Bridge! You watch and see, Jack!"

4) Crow was a goddamned idiot.

Screw the fact that he taught himself to read and count from Duel Monster's cards. That boy had no common sense. At all. He was always making the dumbest, most rash decisions ever. And somehow, he got other people involved in his troubles.

Like that one time he persuaded Jack and Yuusei to come swimming with him in the dirty, murky waters just beyond the docks.

The docks were dangerous enough in normal weather. The waters were ice cold and were littered with some dangerous garbage. They had heard stories of people getting smothered by plastic tarps or slashed by glass pieces or concussed by getting slammed against the docks and dying painful, gruesome deaths. Of course, Crow, with his boisterous attitude and cocky demanor, shrugged it off as nonsense and dragged his two companions off.

Jack had to admit, even with the coldness of the water and the greasy oils that polluted it, swimming there was kinda fun. It sort of reminded him about the stories about beaches that Martha read sometimes.

Then the storm came.

The waters churned roughly. Rain beat down harshly on their already wet bodies. To their horror, large waves studded with the fabled deadly trash were bearing down on them, threatening to push their battered bodies to the bottom of the ocean and carry them away.

It was Yuusei who had the idea of hiding under the docks, holding onto the large wooden poles that rooted the platforms to the ground. There, they hid, getting hit with the garbage-laden waters, the water trying its very best to pry their fingers off the slippery wood. It felt like forever until the storm was finally gone.

When they climbed back onto the docks, shivering, cold, and wet, clad only in underwear, it was lucky for them to find that their clothes had simply been drenched through and not blown away by the storm. Tired from their ordeal, they pulled on their clothes, looking bedraggled, before collapsing onto their backs, looking up at the dreary cloudy sky.

Yuusei made a simple statement. "Martha is going to kill us." And that would be his only contribution to the conversation.

That contribution was enough to start a small war between the other two.

"We were lucky that the dumb storm didn't kill us first, Crow! What gave you the stupid idea to go swimming here? You've heard all the stories!"

"Well, I guess that means you guys are stupid too, since you came along!" Crow gleefuly said. Jack opened his mouth to counter, only to be cut off by another cheeky statement.

"Anyways, it was fun, wasn't it? Admit it, you had fun, didn'tcha?" His grin was wide and toothy.

Jack grumbled.

"You're still an idiot, Crow."

Crow only laughed.

5) Crow reminded Jack of himself.

Jack didn't really like thinking of those days. The days when he was alone and had nobody around. When he wanted attention and couldn't get it, was dismissed as nobody important. He hated those days. He had Martha and Yuusei now.

When Crow first came in, Jack didn't even want to acknowledge him. He was small, and tiny, and shy and just...when Jack looked at him, he saw the way he once was: starved of attention, affection, and whatever else he was lacking at the time. He didn't want to see that. Seeing that made him scared that it could happen all over again.

When Crow started showing more of his mischievous side, Jack saw himself in that too. Not the stupidly running around playing pranks bit. He wasn't like that at all.

It was seeing him being able to move around freely, to express himself the way he wanted in the company of friends that would never desert him. Jack remembered that exhilaration quite well. It was an intoxicating feeling. It was something that even now, he hadn't quite gotten used to.

He saw the way Yuusei silently stood by him as Crow chattered on, and remembered when Yuusei and he had first met-the encounter was as silent as he was now, and yet it was comforting to have him there-a solid wall of support.

Suddenly Jack felt rather lonely. It felt that Crow, as the new one, seemed to be re-enacting what Jack had gone through, bittersweet moments of suddenly discovering a whole other world-a world of friends.

He was startled out of his reverie when Crow slung an arm over his shoulder, laughing at something he had said to Yuusei, who had Crow's other arm slung across his shoulder and a vaguely amused expression on his face.

Yeah, finding new friends sure was something.

-Fin-

[FIC] Five Reasons why Jack Didn't like Crow

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