365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Revelation

8/25/19

A few days later, as it ended up happening, both the twins and Aki announced that they'd be leaving soon - the twins to go live with their parents, and Aki to go to college. She'd ended up making it into the medical school she'd been hoping for, in the special program she'd wanted to get into as well, and classes would be starting in a week or so; the school wanted everyone who'd be living in the dorms to move in early, especially if they were first years so they could go through orientation and get used to campus.

Aki would be leaving first, a day before the twins would, so after a bit of debating they figured they should tell her about the field spell portals earlier rather than later so she could practice with it before she left. Of course, they didn't tell her this when they asked her to come over and hang out - they wanted it to be a surprise, plus it was a chance for everyone to hang out together one more time. Crow and Jack took the day off from work and picked up the twins while Judai dragged Yusei out shopping for food so he could make a huge dinner.

She arrived in the early afternoon with a knock at the door - Yusei was in the middle of helping Judai sort out everything they'd bought in the kitchen and Jack was dealing with an enthusiastic Lua, so Crow was the one to open it.

"Well, if it isn't the brand-new college student!" Crow greeted, getting a laugh from everyone before letting her in, "Come on in, how're you doin'?"

"Pretty good, it's nice to be able to come here for once without a bag of schoolwork..." Aki replied. Yusei could hear the smile in her voice, which put a smile on his own face - it was nice to know that she was finally getting to be happy with how her life was going.

Yusei knew far too well about that, having thought hard about whether he himself was happy months ago. If he were to be truly honest with himself... it wasn't until Judai came crashing in and made him get out of the monotonous routine he'd started to fall into that he realized he'd been content, but not actually happy. He needed the occasional outings every week where they goofed off and did whatever they happened to want to do at the time, which Judai made sure to drag him out for, even when he said he didn't want to; he was good at being able to tell between the times where Yusei actually didn't want to go out and where he was just stressed and thought he didn't want to go out, which was amazing to him because Yusei usually couldn't tell the difference.

Judai stopped to poke his head out of the kitchen doorway, giving a wave at the newcomer with a grin, "Hey! We'll be out in a bit, but you want anything to drink?"

"Hello Judai - and some water would be nice, thank you," Aki said, coming over and peeking around the doorway herself to greet him, "Hello Yusei."

"Hey, long time no see," he replied, waving the bag of noodles he was holding at her before putting them on the right shelf, "Sorry, we just got back from shopping and need to put everything away first."

"No worries, don't want the food going bad after all," she laughed, leaving the doorway to greet the twins, who from the sound of it tackled her into a hug.

Judai returned to go back to helping him, though Yusei noticed that he had a little frown on his face, which usually happened when he was trying to figure something out. He was very familiar with it after enough times looking over from his work and seeing him frown down at his notebook, though half the time that was usually paired with either slightly-pursed lips or puffed cheeks and squinted eyes as he glared at it.

It was really cute when he did that last one, to say the least.

"What's up?" Yusei asked quietly, nudging the other with a small, questioning smile, "You've got that look on your face that tells me you're thinking about something."

"Ah... do I?" Judai blinked, chuckling a little bit, "You're right though. I'm just... trying to figure out if I'm seeing things or not?" He frowned again as he thought about it for another few seconds before continuing in a much lower voice, "I could've sworn I saw Crow looking at Aki with this... glint in his eye? It was the same kind of look I caught Jack looking at Carly with when I first met her but a little more hidden, and he didn't do that before so I don't know if I'm imagining it."

Yusei stared at him in surprise, not having expected him to notice but glad that he had because now he wouldn't feel bad about sharing this secret with him.

"You weren't imagining it," he answered, a wide smirk forming on his face as he leaned in and whispered, "It's the best blackmail I've ever gotten on him, so don't do anything about it. It's my failsafe, he doesn't want anyone to know and will do literally anything to make sure of it."

Judai gaped slightly before chuckling with a smirk of his own, pecking him on the cheek and saying, "Alright, but you have to tell me everything later, got it? If anything, this is perfect for some long-term planning."

Yusei hummed in agreement, and they shared another mischievous look and laughed before getting back to work - they had friends to hang out with, after all, and it was time for a rematch of the board game they'd played before. There was no way he was going to lose his 'Winner' title to Judai... not without a fight, at least.