Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Don't Call Me Onii-chan... Call Me Your Koibito ❯ Sweet Memories ( Prologue )

He leaned on the pole of the streetlight across from the restaurant, hidden in the dim shadows with his hands jammed into his pockets as usual. She was out again for the third time this week. Dammit, he'd told her about these guys time and time again. They'd rough her up someday. He just knew it. She was too petite and cute to keep hands off of.

He watched as her date playfully slapped her on her behind, causing her to jump slightly and narrow her eyes. Jou shook his head. He'd broken off a date with Mai tonight, for about the third time in two months, just to make sure Nakomi would be okay. He cringed as he recalled Mai's screeching voice over the phone. "Jou, this is the THIRD time you've done this to me. In TWO months?! You're not committing! I'm running out of patience with you! AND we were supposed to go to the jewelry expo tonight! I was hoping that MAYBE my caring, loving boyfriend would buy me something nice and sparkling, but NO, he has to run off and do LAUNDRY. That's the lamest excuse you've given me yet. " And she had slammed the phone down.

Jou looked absentmindedly up at the sky. Deep down, he knew, he didn't really care about Mai. She was pretty, yes. She had the nicest rack out of any girl he'd ever seen. But she was demanding, petty, spoiled, and everything else he couldn't stand in a girl. Not like the person he REALLY cared for…

"Jou…nounchi? What a funny name."

She'd given him a sideways smile to show him she was just kidding. It was art hour, kindergarten, and seeing him all alone in the corner, she'd walked over and promptly asked him what he was drawing. He remembered how he'd flipped the paper over and spread his small hands over it, embarrassed to show her his drawing of a very lopsided Red Eyes Black Dragon. How her small chubby hand gently pulled at his fingers until he relented, miserably scrunching up his eyes, until she exclaimed, "It's a Red Eyes Black Dragon! You draw good," accompanied by what became her signature look, a sideways smile with her head slightly tilted to the side.

She was his friend after that. Every time she was bullied by the boys in class, Jou had been there to threaten them off. Whenever he'd gotten an elbow or knee scraped, she'd been there with a package of band-aids and a smile. As they grew older, she'd gone to all of his sports events, listened to him complain about home, and helped him out with homework. In turn, he'd gone to all her piano recitals, listened to her talk about her dreams, and threatened her boyfriends behind her back ("Listen, if you hurt her I'll beat your…"). In fact, by fourth grade she had started calling him "onii-chan" (big brother).

But Jou didn't feel like a big brother. He acted the role, but slowly, with every year he knew her, he was starting to feel more than that. He wanted to protect her from anything that could hurt her, because he couldn't bear to see her without her smile. He wanted to wrap him arms around her, and hold her, and feel like she was all his. Sometimes he had to fight down the urge to bash the boys that had crushes on her, knowing that he and Nakomi had a special connection that no one else could ever have. But even that wasn't enough. Not when she still seemed to think of him as the overprotective older sibling…

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stay tuned for the next chapter. ^^ - Nako