365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Garden Variety

7/29/19

Judai was relieved to finally be able to finish up his rounds and return to Starlight Junktion to see what they'd gotten up to while he was gone - he'd found a couple traces of corruption on some spirits, but it was easy enough to get rid of and they were all very cooperative. Still, despite how easy it was, he was tired since he'd been spreading out his senses for so long over a huge radius. To put it into perspective, Neo Domino was a small circle compared to the area he'd been covering all day.

He made a pit stop back to the castle though, deciding that he wanted to see how the gardens were doing. To all three's delight, they were well-kept and a plethora of different plants were thriving in it, including a variety of fruits and vegetables. Most of them were kinds that couldn't be found anywhere but in the spirit dimension, so Judai found a bag and filled it with a couple of each through Haou and Yubel's guidance; they knew which ones were ripe and told him accordingly, along with a couple descriptions of how each one tasted and was typically eaten or prepared.

"Oh, there's a section for tea leaves," Yubel pointed out, bringing their attention over to a small corner of the garden that was relatively close to where Judai was picking some oddly-shaped fruit off a tree, "There's a few kinds, from the looks of it."

"Isn't there a section of the garden made for tea parties or something like that?" Judai asked, dropping the fruit in the bag with a smile - he was itching to experiment with the new types of food, so he'd ended up grabbing more than he'd originally planned to. Whenever he came back, he planned on grabbing a few of those tea leaves too so he could prep them and try out a few blends.

"Not exactly," Haou mused - he was in a particularly good mood, and Judai could feel through the connection how his restored home was making him feel better, "It's just a small, cleared out area and there's only a single table there with two chairs."

"Sounds like a nice place for afternoon tea to me," Judai shrugged with a grin, "In other words, tea party."

"That'd involve more than two people."

"A party's as big as you want it to be, two people is perfectly acceptable for one."

Judai laughed at the very exasperated, judgmental stare he got from Haou, noting that Yubel had nodded along with his answer in agreement.

"It's getting late" Yubel reminded after a few more fruits and vegetables were collected. While Haou had gotten more talkative from the happy nostalgia the place gave him, Yubel had actually become calmer, not being as teasing as she usually was.

"You're right, I should probably go now," Judai agreed, brushing dirt off his knees as he got up from the planter he'd pulled the last few plants from, "Gods know Yusei probably hasn't even noticed it's nighttime yet, let alone past noon."

He was right, of course. When he got there, parts had been assembled and scattered in the empty area outside the warehouse and Yusei and his duel spirits were gathered around the main machine in the middle. Judai had no idea what it could be for, but judging from the size of it and the amount of sensors and cords leading to the computer Yusei was using, they'd been at it for a while now so it had to be complicated.

There was no way he could fault any of them for not taking breaks, not after seeing just how excited all of them had been before he'd left, so he just smiled and sighed fondly as he made his presence known; Yusei turned to him with an eager smile, a happy glint in his eyes as he waved him over to look at what they'd created, and Judai rested his head on his shoulder contently as he listened.