365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Winter Attire

11/20/19

Judai came to one very important realization thanks to the continuously dropping temperatures outside, and that was that they didn't have much in terms of winter attire - sure, they had their heavy winter coats, but that was just about it. No scarves, no gloves (Yusei had tried to say his usual leather gloves were viable winter gloves, to which Judai responded with a deadpan look of judgement), they owned none of the usual winter stuff and desperately needed it.

...Well, Judai thought they desperately needed it, at least. Yusei seemed to be significantly more immune to the cold and he was a little jealous of that fact, especially when his neck was freezing, his fingers were freezing, his nose was freezing... literally every part of him was starting to feel frozen and he hated it.

Either way though, he was quick to acquire the proper clothing and accessories for winter weather, happily wearing at least his scarf around his neck everywhere he went so that he could both keep his neck warm and cover his nose with it to warm it up if he needed to. He'd gotten Yusei a navy one to go with his maroon version, which both happened to match with the colors of their respective winter coats, but Yusei wasn't exactly used to having anything around his neck thanks to all the low-cut shirts he wore so he didn't wear his nearly as often; he'd fiddled with it a lot when he first started wearing it, but at least now he seemed to be more used to it.

In addition to the new clothing, Judai also made the executive decision to buy blankets to keep downstairs on the couch, and he was honestly starting to believe that it was one of his best decisions thus far - cuddling on the couch became much more viable an activity to do and was great for warming up quickly thanks to it, much like what they were doing now.

"I love this cold, don't get me wrong, but damn is it cold," Judai sighed, blanket draped over both him and Yusei, his legs thrown over the other's lap while he used the other's shoulders as a head rest. They just gotten back from making a quick run to the grocery store, something that didn't take very long but still required all the usually piling on of gear and layers, and were currently enjoying defrosting after stripping themselves of layers of clothing like an onion after getting home. One major difference, though, was that Judai was still clinging onto his new, fluffy scarf like a lifeline no matter what he was doing, so that wasn't removed along with everything else - his neck and nose were just too prone to freezing for him to want to take off his scarf at all, so far.

In fact, he pulled his scarf up to cover his nose as he curled up under the blanket and leaned more on Yusei, breathing out happily when he felt the heat start to prickle away at the cold appendage. He'd gladly let the tea he'd made turn cold in a mug that was two feet away from him too if it meant that he'd stay fully warm and comfy under a blanket with his boyfriend.

"I still say it's not that weird for you to feel so cold considering your average body temperature," Yusei stated, smiling down at him and raising an eyebrow in curiosity, "You know that the higher one's body temperature is, the colder they'll feel, right? Taking into account the wind blowing outside, plus the continuously dropping, freezing weather, and the fact that you've got an above average body temperature... I'd be more worried if you said you weren't freezing, to be honest."

"I got that Yus, but it doesn't make me dislike it any less," Judai replied, a sheepish smile on his face that had nothing to do with the hand currently finding its way up and under Yusei's shirt and hoodie in order to warm it up faster. He got an amused look from Yusei as he did so, but the other didn't do anything to stop him, so he assumed he was fine with it and that his hands had warmed up enough to not be freezing to the touch considering he didn't flinch at the initial contact with his stomach.

Man, now I'm just stuck thinking of all the winters I got through the last few years and wondering how the hell I made it through... it snowed in the place I was half the time and I'm pretty sure I was even colder then, without the heavy winter gear to deal with it, Judai mused, thinking back to those times and trying to figure out how he wasn't completely miserable.

"It was one of the few times you didn't mind going to the castle, mainly because of the huge fireplace in the main room," Yubel reminded him, much more chipper than she'd been thirty minutes ago thanks to Judai finding a way to warm up - she and Haou may not be able to physically feel the cold, but they'd get the feeling of knowing that they have it, and this feeling in particular was super strong for some reason. Judai, personally, thought it was because their body was half duel spirit once again, but also because that half happened to be from Yubel, who was a dragon and therefore had odd body temperatures.

Judai hummed at the reminder, but more than anything else he latched onto the word 'fireplace' - they didn't have one in the apartment, but like Yubel said, they did have one at the castle. The idea sounded better and better as the seconds ticked by, and soon enough he was sitting up enough to give Yusei a kiss and give him his brilliant suggestion to get warm quick.

"If it'll get you to actually drink the tea we made, then yes," Yusei replied, an amused, knowing glint to his eyes that told Judai he knew exactly what his thought process had been regarding his drink.

Judai laughed sheepishly, but was quick to gather stuff into a backpack for them to do alongside the to-go thermoses of the rest of the tea they'd made - after all, there wasn't exactly internet there, so if they wanted to do anything they either had to bring games with them or pre-download movies onto Yusei's laptop or something. It turned out to be a nice few hours though, enjoying the heat from the crackling fireplace and making a game out of seeing how hard they could make it to play cards due to staying huddled together the entire time and seeing each other's hands.