((Collab -- Rethel34 & Joshua Tamashii))

Brent, once outside the stadium, was debating whether to go after Amelia and continue their conversation. Now that he wasn't in front of people, he didn't feel quite as afraid of talking to her. Making up his mind, he decided on finding her and talking to her. He power-walked to see if he could catch up to her, but he hadn't gotten very far when he heard his sister's voice.

"Hey, Brent!"

[i]Crap,[/i] he thought, but he didn't have to stop. He knew what would be coming: a big humiliation about his loss. Nothing he hadn't endured before, but he wasn't going to stop and listen to it this time if he could help it.

Brent didn't get a chance to get away as Joshua stepped out from the opposite direction of Gale

"In a rush to get somewhere?" he asked, a small smirk on his face.

"Josh, you too?" Brent asked. "Fine, I give up, you two. Go on ahead and tease away about how I'm a terrible Duelist, but please make it fast this time."

"Why? In a rush to see a certain pretty little lady?" Joshua asked teasingly. "Mind you, you stood no chance with the way things played out. Even if you had lasted another turn, you were screwed. No, I'm here for what happened after you lost."

Brent mentally hit himself in the face. They had noticed his . . . his . . . he couldin't think of the right word at the moment, but it had to do with his conversation with Amelia, and probably with the very comment she had made to him about his face turning red.

"Yeah, Brent, I haven't seen you turn that red since Mom caught you red-handed breaking her fine china," Gale chuckled.

"So tell us . . . love at first sight, what does it feel like? You going to ask her out or something?" Joshua asked, putting an arm around Brent's shoulders

Love at first sight? Was that how it seemed? Was that what it was? Brent couldn't tell right now. He hadn't talked to many girls in his life, save Gale, who was his sister, and his mom. "I . . . " Brent shut back up quickly. He didn't know what he would say even if he were to say something. Maybe if he could slip away. Except Joshua wasn't by any means slow to react. He'd have to get that arm off of him first, then he'd run like he had this morning. Run until they were out of sight and then find a small room to hide in. Sounded like a plan. Now to wait for the opportunity.

Gale just sat and laughed when Brent started turning red again. "There's the cherry-face!" she cackled, doubled over from laughing so hard.

"Wow there Gale, you gotta relax a bit girl," Joshua said walking over to her. "I need you to breathe to hear your breakdown for his duel and why you think he lost."

Brent bolted the second Josh let go, weaving a maze for his path so that Joshua and Gale should be unable to find him. After about the seventh turn he made, he spotted Amelia sitting on a bench sorting through her cards. Slowing to a stop in front of her, he took a moment to catch his breath after having sprinted with all his strength for the second time today. "H-hi," Brent managed to force out between breaths. Without asking permission, he took a seat at the other end of the bench so that he could breathe a little easier.

"Are you okay?" Amelia asked Brent after he stopped in front of her to catch his breath. She looked even more concerned when he virtually collapsed next to her. "Mr. Brent, are you okay?!"

"Y-yeah," Brent panted. "And puh-please . . . keep your voice down. I'm trying to hide . . . from my friend . . . and my sister. They're great and all . . . until I lose a Duel . . . or worse . . . think I have a crush."

Amelia looked confused again when Brent stopped speaking. "Uuummm . . . What's a friend? Or a sister?" she asked. "What does it mean to have a crush?"

"You aren't from around here, are you?" Brent couldn't help asking. His voice wasn't sarcastic or harsh, but simply curious. "But anyway, a friend is a person you enjoy spending time with. Or in some cases, someone you might enjoy Dueling. A sister is a . . . girl who has the same parents as you. Same mom and dad, if that makes sense. And . . ." He hesitated with the last one because of his potential infatuation with her. Aha! That was the word he was trying to find earlier. "Well, to have a crush is to fall in love with someone, but to not act on it. You know what love is, right?"

Amelia shook her head before thinking about it a bit. "Papa said something about love once. He said it's a pointless emotion that I should ignore because it amounts to nothing," she said. "Is that true?"

"Pointless?" Brent asked, shocked. "Most parents dream of their kids growing up and falling in love with the perfect person someday. And most parents at least try to show love to their children. Is that all he said about it?"

Amelia looked a bit sad now.
"I . . . I don't see Mama or Papa very often. They're always busy and away from home," She said, sounding a little let down.

Brent was stunned. [i]What is wrong with her parents?[/i] he thought to himself. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said, genuine care in his voice. He couldn't imagine being without his parents all the time. Sure, he'd still have Gale around, but a sibling can't replace a parent. "But, so that you understand what love is . . ." Brent thought a moment. "Have you ever cared about something a lot?"

Amelia thought about Brent's question for several minutes before holding up her deck a smiling
"I like Duel Monsters alot." She said" But . . . I just got everything yesterday so I'm not sure that counts. It sounds like something you need time to feel."

Brent smiled when she said she enjoyed Dueling. That was something he could agree with. When she mentioned about needing time to feel love, Brent shrugged. "Really, it could take time to feel love, or you could feel it as soon as you get to know someone. This much I know, though: love can get really strong over time. Did your parents ever read you fairy tales when you were young? You know, stuff about knights in shining armor slaying dragons to rescue princesses?"

Amelia shook her head in response. By now she was starting to feel like a bit of an outsider since she knew nothing of what Brent was talking about

[i]Well, there goes that explanation,[/i] Brent thought. He'd have to figure out some way to explain things to her through the eyes of a normal person. "Well, if I can't explain to you how this stuff works, maybe if you saw it with your own eyes, it'd make sense. How about you come out to my house after school and stay until dinner? We could walk, and that'd save us some of the teasing from my little sister. I think." Realizing he had probably just used a word Amelia probably wouldn't recognize, Brent corrected himself. "If you need to know what teasing is," he explained, "it's the process of attempting to raise a person's blood pressure by making them angry. Sisters can sometimes do that," he laughed.

"Why would your sister try to make you angry?" Amelia asked, completely confused by the notion. She figured brothers and sisters would get along all the time since they had the same parents. Then again, she didn't have a sibling. When she thought about his offer she nodded happily. "If it's not really a bother, then I'll come along."

Brent grinned when Amelia said she'd come over. It would be fun to have someone other than Joshua over all the time. Of course, he'd be tormented by Gale and Joshua for quite some time for it, but that suddenly didn't matter to him. "Great," Brent said. "I'll meet you after school lets out, then?" Thining he heard the voices of Joshua and Gale approaching, Brent got to his feet while he asked the question.

Amelia gave Brent a smile before looking confused. She looked towards the voices, which sounded like a boy trying to stop a girl from looking for something. "Are you leaving now?" she asked Brent.

"Yeah. Unfortunately those voices belong to the two people I'm currently trying to avoid," he explained. "I'll see you after school," Brent smiled.

Amelia nodded, looking a little upset now but she managed a smile at him. "Where am I going to find you after school?" she asked.

Brent thought for a moment and just figured to go simple. "The front stairs to the school?" he suggested.

Before Amelia could reply, Brent was caught "Oh my, you two going on a date?" Joshua asked.

"A what?" Amelia asked

". . . Is she serious?"

Brent sighed. "Well, this was sooner than expected," he said. "Amelia, this is Joshua, my friend, and the girl is Gale, my sister."

Meanwhile, in the background, Gale was chanting, "Amelia and Brent, sitting in a tree . . ."

Brent had to bite his tongue. Yelling at Gale would only result in her chanting louder.

Joshua sighed before going over to Gale and clamping her mouth shut.
"So, you two having a nice talk here alone?" He asked

"Joshua, I didn't ask her out, if that's what you're implying. At least not technically. She's coming over to my place after school today," Brent tried to explain as Gale tried to shout past Joshua's hand, but her voice was no more than a muffled noise.

"I think Gale has more to say on that then I do honestly." Joshua admited, letting Gale speak.

The second Gale's mouth was released, she started yelling at Joshua. "How could you do that to me?! Why would I want your disgusting hands on my mouth?! I thought we were supposed to pick on him, anyway!"

When the two again proved less than adequate at holding Brent captive, he glanced over at Amelia and gave her a quick jerk of his head; a signal for them to get out of there while they had the chance. "Follow me," he mouthed, hoping she'd understand. When he got a somewhat confused look in response, he gently reached down grabbed her hand in one of his own and her cards in the other and urged her to follow him.

This time it was Amelia's turn to turn red as Brent grabbed her hand. She obeyed pretty quickly and following Brent away from Joshua and Gale while Joshua took the verbal berating calmly and with a smile, something he knew would annoy Gale even more. She hated it when he did that.

Brent found a classroom to duck into, not realizing he was still holding Amelia's hand. The second he realized that he still was, he released her and handed her Deck back to her. Then, in a whisper, he tried to explain. "The two of them aren't always like that, really. They just think I'm in love with you, and they're making a big show out of it. Give it some time to pass over them, and they'll be done, I promise. And I'm sorry that you had to be introduced to them like that."

Amelia didn't reply as, despite the rather short run, she was already out of breath. Her face was still incredibly red as well, even after Brent let go of her hand. She only spoke after she caught her breathe again. "Its okay, Im sure they're nice people," she said. "But why is my face so hot?"

Brent hadn't noticed until she had said something, but even in the darker classroom, he could make out a bit of a red tint to her face, but he couldn't tell if she had somehow overheated, or if she was blushing. "It's also red," Brent replied. "I didn't embarrass you by grabbing your hand, did I?"

"I... I dont know." Amelia admited, her face getting a bit redder.

[i]How would she not know,[/i] Brent wondered. "Are you feeling okay? Are you dizzy at all? Do I need to go get the school nurse?"

Amelia shook her head. Her heart was fine she knew that much. "I'll be fine," she said, giving Brent a small, embarrassed smile.

Brent wasn't altogether reassured by her answer, but he knew it'd be best to not pressure her. Though he decided it might be best if he stayed with her and made sure she wasn't ill for a while. "Would you be okay with me staying here with you for a while, just to make sure?" he asked quietly. If Joshua and Gale were searching again, he didn't want them to be tipped off by his voice.

Amelia nodded before sitting down at one of the desks in the room and began separating and sorting her deck. While she sorted, Brent came up behind and placed his left hand on her right shoulder, if only to let her know he was behind her, and watched.

"You know, the way you Dueled earlier was incredible. You said you only got your cards yesterday, but you used them with a level of skill that's beyond what I've seen," he told her, kneeling so he wouldn't have to stay on his feet. He had been up and moving around so much today that every inch from his knees to his toes was sore.

Amelia jumped a bit when she felt Brent place his hand on her shoulder.
"Th-thank you." She said, stuttering a bit. She felt a whirlwind of emotions she had never felt before and it was driving her a bit crazy. Was something wrong with her?

Suddenly, Brent realized that while he and Amelia had been talking without others around, he had actually been speaking clearly, which he hadn't expected to have happened. "So, this might be something that not too many people would ask of you, but would you maybe teach me how Synchro works sometime? Maybe not right now, if you'd rather not, but sometime in the near future?"

Amelia nodded
"It's . . . it's not that hard really. You just have to be good at math is all . I bet I could even do Fusion Summons if i wanted."

Brent chuckled. "Just about anyone should be able to Fusion Summon. All it takes is having the right Fusion Materials for a Fusion Monster in your Extra Deck, and a 'Polymerization'. That's it." He ejected his Extra Deck from his Duel Disk so Amelia could see. "There's really nothing to it."

"You just have to worry about having the right ingredients." Amelia said.

The text on two of Amelia's cards caught Brent's attention. The first was on what looked like an Effect Monster, but in the place of the word "Effect" was the word "Tuner". The second was on one of her Synchro Monsters, which had requirements that were much different from those of any Fusion Monster Brent had ever seen. "So what do Tuner Monsters do?" Brent asked.

Amelia thought about it for several seconds before responding.
"Tuner monster are what you need to Synchro Summon." She said" Imagine that each monster produces a noise but each noise was different and created a different wavelength. A Tuner monster would adjust those wavelengths until they matched, allowing the monsters to Synch together and become more powerful. Hence a Synchro monster."

"So a Tuner works for Synchro Summons the way 'Polymerization' works for Fusions?" Brent asked. Amelia simply nodded in reply before letting Brent continue. "I know all the monsters you always used were on the field, but would a Synchro Summon also work with monsters from the hand, like with Fusion?" This time Amelia shook her head.

Brent thought about it for a little while before speaking again. "I'm not sure I'd be ready to try it right now, but I think I'll have to get some Synchro Monsters sometime."

Amelia smiled before tilting her head, thinking a bit.
"Brent... are we friends now?" She asked

Brent felt his heart jump inside his chest a little bit. Maybe he did have a crush on Amelia, but he wasn't going to say or do anything right now that might scare her away. "I think so," he replied, returning her smile.

"I've... never had a friend before." Amelia admitted" I've always been alone."

"Well," Brent said, returning to his feet and giving a bow, all while speaking in a different accent to try to get Amelia to laugh, "I would be honored to be your first friend." He almost laughed at his own poorly-done fake accent.

"Br-Brent you don't need to..." Amelia startled at Brent bowing to her. Then he began speaking in a very bad accent that reminded her of the servants at her place and she couldn't help but giggle. Before she knew it she was laughing and laughing so hard that she began crying. It had been ages since she had laughed, she couldn't even remember the last time she had.

Seeing Amelia laugh like that brought a smile to Brent's face. He had at least done what he was attempting to do. As he took a seat in the Desk next to hers, Brent couldn't help a bit of laughter of his own escaping.