365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Breakthrough

8/9/19

"I just can't figure this out," Yusei groaned, finally tearing his eyes away from the plethora of numbers and diagrams in front of him, scattered between papers on the desk and two monitors. He was half sure that if he stared over them for another minute or two he'd start developing a migraine - it was just bugging him so much that he couldn't find even a small lead.

He just needed one indicator. One, but the world was not working with him when it came to the old duel energy that was absolutely plaguing him at this point.

"We've only been at it for a few days," Judai tried to reassure him, shifting next to him for a second before Yusei felt a warm pair of arms wrap around him in a hug, "This is the kind of thing that takes a long time."

"It hasn't just been a few days though," Yusei retorted, letting his head flop forwards into the other's shoulder tiredly, "I've been trying to figure this out for months at this point. You'd think I'd have found something out - hell, you'd think someone on the whole team that's working on this would find something out, but nothing's working." He didn't even care that his glasses were getting prints all over them from getting skewed and pressed against his face as he buried his head as far as he could; he really needed the comfort Judai was giving him right now.

"Let's take a break, okay? You're gonna burn out at this rate," Judai sighed, pulling back a bit and gently taking his glasses from him to put safely to the side.

"Okay," Yusei mumbled, not even trying to protest. Even if he wanted to get back to work, the rational part of his brain knew that it was for the best right now.

"How about we go upstairs for a bit?" Judai suggested, though he wasn't given much of a choice in the end because Yusei found himself being tugged up and away up the stairs.

He didn't mind, really. In fact, lying in bed and thinking about literally anything except work sounded fantastic at the moment.

After they both got settled in, with Judai managing to somehow wrap himself comfortably around Yusei, he asked, "Can you just... talk about something for a bit?"

Judai hummed, resting his head on top of his and starting to slowly run fingers through his hair as he replied, "M'kay... I was going to keep it a surprise, but I don't mind it not being one. Remember when we were talking about date ideas and stuff?" Yusei simply nodded in confirmation, which prompted him to continue, "Well, remember how I said I had somewhere I wanted to take you and how it'd be an all day thing? That place is my little part of the spirit dimension."

That caught Yusei's attention, especially since he vividly remembered that day where Judai spilled everything that'd happened to him in that realm. It wasn't something he thought he'd want to show him, not with the tears and guilt he'd revealed to him while telling his story.

He looked up curiously, very confused by the tiny, happy grin that Judai was sporting as he looked down at him in return.

"I know, right? Sounds weird and feels weird to say, but imagine my surprise when I stopped by there the other day and the whole place was green," Judai explained, a slight sparkle to his eyes that made Yusei smile as well at the other's clear excitement, "The whole place was thriving, Yusei! There were trees, colorful flowers, pathways carved out for people to travel on... I could hardly believe what I was seeing. That barren wasteland I told you about was practically gone. It's amazing, and I wanted to explore it with you."

"I'd love to," Yusei laughed, infected by the other's giddiness at this point, "And the castle? Did it change?"

"The interior's a bit cleaner and more well-lit, and the garden is completely fixed up - that's where I got all those fruits and vegetables and stuff the other day while you were at Starlight Junktion," Judai answered, "There's a little section of the garden that's perfect for hanging out, so I wanted to have lunch or somethin' there, too. I actually picked up a special duel monster recipe book while I was at the Aromages' store and most of the stuff the recipes call for are in that garden, so I wanted to try my hand at a few."

"Anything you cook ends up being good," Yusei stated, cuddling back into him as he thought about what the castle must look like. Hell, he was just curious to see what a spirit world specific to Judai would be like-

...Spirit world?

Yusei cut his thought off as another popped up, focusing on the sudden idea and trying to figure out why it was important.

"I'd hope so, I've practiced quite a-"

"Wait. Hold on."

Judai let out a questioning noise, looking down at him a bit in confusion, but luckily took the hint and stayed quiet so he could think.

When we went to the twins' and helped Jasmine, Judai said something about duel energy, Yusei thought, mind reeling as he could practically feel some of the dots connecting, It was denser... in the spirit dimension. That's what he said, right?

He'd said something about it dispersing when it was returned back to an atmosphere with similar denseness as well - if he could somehow apply that to old duel energy at the reactor, like say, figure out a way to get it into a similarly dense area in the spirit dimension...

That could be it. Judai had also said it felt like an area of war, in the spirit dimension, so theoretically, if he could somehow make it all go to a war-torn area of one of the spirit worlds, then his problem would be solved without having a negative impact on anything else.

It was a win-win situation if he could figure out a way of transporting it, which was way easier to figure out compared to figuring out how to break it apart using man-made technology. After all, he had Judai to help him with this, and the other was intimately familiar with different parts of the spirit worlds and how to get there.

He'd been thinking about this all wrong, he'd needed to think outside the box the entire time.

"Judai, I've got it," he breathed, pulling back to give the other a frantic, wide-eyed grin, "I think I've got it. We've been going about this the wrong way the whole time, I've got it."

Judai blinked at him, but soon had a proud smile on his face that made all the stress leading up to this point worth it, "No time to lose then, let's get to work! Tell me what you figured out."