7Hi, everyone! As is suggested in the summary, this story is going to have 4 chapters. Here's the first one.
Blanket disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh or Rise of the Guardians.
Fun and Games
A Yu-Gi-Oh & Rise of the Guardians Crossover by The Half-Blood Guardian
Part 1
The first time Jack met the quirky, game-loving kid, it was completely by accident. Truth be told, he really didn't visit such warm places very often, but unlike some others, this place had at least a semi-decent change in temperature to go along with the change of seasons. The air was cool this time of year. Not quite freezing, but it was about as good as it was gonna get in Domino, Japan, as the city was apparently called.
Which was why he'd decided to come and switch things up a bit with a little wintry fun.
He'd quickly located one of the public schools in the area. He didn't pay much attention to schools very often, not liking them any more than many of the students that attended them did, so he wasn't sure on a lot of the specifics, like why they separated the age groups so much or if the schools having different age groups were called by different names. And really, he had no need to know those kinds of things when all he had to do was fly around and see which ones had the younger kids and which ones didn't. The one he'd just found did.
A bunch of them were out having fun on a playground outside the building, and he swooped in lower, landing on the fence surrounding the area and settling in to observe for a moment.
Around that time was when he noticed the one kid who was by himself, sitting alone under a tree at the edge of a school playground and absently shuffling a deck of standard playing cards.
The thing that had immediately caught the winter spirit's attention was the boy's hair. Which wasn't surprising, given that it was a mixture of black, gold and maroon, and stuck up so much that it almost seemed to make up a quarter of his total height.
The second thing to catch his attention was the eyes. They were a startling shade of violet, a color Jack had never seen before in the eyes of any human. That, combined with the wacky hairdo, made Jack wonder for a second if the little guy was actually a spirit like himself. After an experimental "hello?" and wave of his hand in front of an unresponsive face, Jack was finally convinced that the kid was just a normal human, crazy hair and unusual eye color aside.
The third thing to catch his attention was actually the eyes, again. But this time, rather than the color, he was struck by the deep longing he saw in them as they watched the other kids running around on the grass and climbing the playground equipment, laughing and having fun with each other. Jack knew that look. He'd seen it enough on windows and ice and other reflective surfaces to know he'd looked like that on many, many occasions.
A bigger and most likely older boy started in their direction, obviously heading for the younger one. Huh. Looks like he had a friend after all. Jack was glad. But when the child beside him saw the other boy approaching, a look of fear entered his amethyst eyes, and he hunched in on himself a bit. At first, Jack was confused by the reaction, but then he saw the mean sneer on the bigger kid's face and understood.
Now, Jack was the kind of guy who knew a little bit about a lot, and among the "a lot" was language.
Snow, ice, and winter in general were great, but no matter how great they were, three hundred years was a long time to do nothing but fly around spreading the stuff. People-watching was a hobby he'd picked up not long after he'd first awoken on the ice of his frozen pond, and was an effective way to pass the time. Half the fun of people-watching was knowing what those people were saying, though, and when you had access to the entire globe and all the people on it, there were bound to be a lot of languages you didn't know.
But Jack was stubborn, and determined, and there was such a variety of people in the world that sticking only to places where people spoke English would be boring when he knew there was so much he was missing.
And so, over three centuries, Jack had amassed quite the army of words in his mental library, though you probably wouldn't be able to tell, considering those words were spread across more than two hundred fifty* languages, and most of the knowledge he'd collected was so he could understand people who spoke a language, not so he could speak it himself.
But even if he hadn't known a single word of Japanese, Jack still would've been able to tell that the bigger kid was insulting the crazy-haired one. The sneer on his face and the condescending tone he used, as well as the obvious hurt the words were causing the other, was evidence enough. And Jack hadn't really been paying attention to what the bigger kid was saying, but he was sure he'd heard the word 'loser' somewhere in there.
"Hey!" The winter spirit said, indignant on the violet-eyed boy's behalf. "That's totally rude. Why don't you pick on someone your own size, huh?"
Neither of them could hear him, of course, and even if they could, he doubted they knew much English, but that didn't mean they couldn't feel him. Or at least, feel his presence.
He stepped between the two and let loose a short burst of sharp, bitter cold, directed at the bigger one, though he saw the wild-haired kid shiver in his peripheral vision. A little patch of ice sprang up beneath his bare feet, drawing the attention of both children. Two pairs of eyes widened, and the bully squeaked out a parting "Freak!" before scampering off.
"That's right! Get lost, you little brat!" Jack called after the retreating kid. He knew it was petty of him to do what he's just done to a child, but this one was a snot-nosed brat and a bully, so he felt he was justified. Besides, it wasn't like he'd hurt him or anything. Just spooked him a little. Honestly, he deserved it for picking on another kid who was just minding his own business.
"Thank you…" The violet-eyed boy whispered. Jack whirled around, but the child wasn't looking at him. Rather, he was staring intently at the small patch of ice left on the ground. The winter spirit tried not to feel too put-down. At least he was sort of being acknowledged.
"I don't know who you are, but you saved me, right?" Without thinking about it, Jack nodded his head. The boy continued after a moment.
"My name is Yuugi, and Jii-chan told me about his adventures in Egypt. He says there's magic and spirits and stuff there. And I thought, if they have those things in Egypt, why not here, too?" He smiled. "I'm glad I was right."
Smart kid, Jack thought.
Then the smart kid was suddenly a very shy-looking kid, and he scuffed his shoe against the ground as he quietly said, "I get lonely a lot, and right now I don't feel alone. Do you ever feel lonely? I mean, I can't see you, and I'm guessing other people can't see you either. So you must feel lonely sometimes, right? And I know you're probably busy, doing magic and spirit stuff, but-" he paused for a beat, taking a deep breath, and finished, "-could you visit again sometime?" He listened for a reply, and Jack knew he couldn't let the moment pass.
The winter spirit created the biggest, most intricate snowflake he could manage on such short notice and asked Wind to blow it towards the boy. Wind did just that, ruffling both pure white and multicolored hair fondly as it did so. There was a spark of wonder in the child's eyes when the beautiful, fist-sized snowflake fluttered over to land on the palm of his outstretched hand. He murmured another quiet thank you, beaming. As Jack took off, he found himself smiling as well.
You're welcome, he thought. His mind wandered to the boy's other words as he flew around town.
Jii-chan, huh? That meant grandfather, didn't it? Well, Jack was pretty sure he'd never met this boy's grandpa (anyone related to the kid had to look at least semi-odd, right?), and he probably never would, considering the increasingly enormous number of people in the world. But if he ever did, he'd be sure to thank him for instilling a belief of magic in his grandson, even if the man couldn't see him or hear his thanks.
And he'd definitely have to stop by and see little Yuugi again.
* there are approximately 7,000 languages currently spoken
