365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Holiday Plans

12/2/19

Judai was met with a pleasant surprise on his second day of having three very long work days in a row, in the form of one very excited and chatty Carly, who was invited to the party to report on it.

"You're one of the main chefs for it? I can't wait to eat, then!" Carly realized excitedly, practically jump up and down a bit in place as they talked - she'd seen him walking in since they both had gotten there early, Judai so he could work with the other cooks to get the kitchen ready and Carly so that she could check-in and get a few extra interviews with people who would probably be far too busy to talk later, and they'd both decided to wander around figuring out to go together.

"Yeah, I hope the selection is good. I had to make that stupid menu in a day, and that's only because this whole thing was rushed," Judai sighed, adjusting the straps of his bag around his shoulders and stretching a little, "What is this thing even for? I somehow completely lost that in between all the rushing to make sure everything was good to go."

"It's a charity party for Christmas - all the donations are going towards places that'll make sure people are well-fed on the holidays," Carly explained, clearly simplifying it down a lot so he didn't have to think to hard about any extra details, "That's the gist of it, at least. The rich guy who's paying for it is basically doing it for attention though, based on his track record and the other five parties of his that I was able to look up info about."

"Well, at least it's doing something good, even if the reasons are a little off the mark..." Judai mused, pausing for a moment to listen since he could've sworn he heard Edo just now. It took a few seconds, but he eventually heard him talking again and recognized the voice, even if he couldn't necessarily understand what was being said because of all the walls and hallways in between them; he nodded towards one hallway, gesturing for Carly to follow, saying, "I heard the guy I'm supposed to be meeting down this way, so it's probably where you're supposed to go, too."

"Let's hope so, I've only got an hour and a half to tear into these people and get my answers," Carly replied, mumbling a little extra under her breath, "Stupid dude has avoided me at all other times, I'm gonna finally get my damn questions answered about everything."

Judai laughed quietly before asking, "Anyway, I was curious - how'd that one Halloween article go? Y'know, the one for DDO. I realized I never actually asked."

"Oh! It was really popular, as I predicted it would be. It was basically destined to succeed the second you two agreed to be my guinea pigs for me," Carly grinned, putting her hands on her hips proudly, "I'm in line for a huge bonus now this year, it's great."

"Because of one article?" Judai wondered, feeling like there was more to that story since someone usually didn't just get a bonus for doing a single thing like that.

"Okay, to be fair, our company was starting to develop a poor reputation but I and a couple other people have basically turned that image around over the course of the last year, so it's more about that than anything else. So it's that article plus all the other ones I've put out this year," Carly explained, smiling proudly to herself - it was well-deserved pride if what she said was true, which Judai had zero doubt about after seeing just how good she was when she'd helped them out with the cover story.

"Good for you," Judai smiled, pausing another moment to make sure he was still going the right way before continuing to lead them down the hallways, "We should almost be there... Anyway, what're your holiday plans? Yusei's got finals and I've got work so we're stuck waiting a couple weeks still before we can really get into the swing of things."

"Aw, that sucks. I think Jack and I were planning to go look at some of the shops together, but we were waiting for us to both have a relatively free weekend to do it," Carly said, frowning a little, "I'm not actually entirely sure what I'm doing this year..."

"You're welcome to come over for Christmas if you've got nothing else planned, we'd be happy to have you," Judai suggested, raising his eyebrows at her teasingly, "I'm sure Jack would be quite happy about that, too."

"I'm sure I would be quite happy about it, thanks for the offer," Carly snickered, giving him a grateful smile, "I'll get you guys great presents, just watch. You won't regret having me there, I promise."

"I look forward to it! Speaking of though, I need to start thinking about getting presents ready after all this," Judai mused, finally spotting Phoenix as he turned the next corner but deciding to finish his thought before calling out to him, "There's gonna be a whole bunch, so we gotta start early and start putting them under... the..."

He buried his face in his hands with a muffled groan, realizing exactly what he'd forgotten about in all this and feeling really dumb now because of it. Yubel and Haou were laughing their asses off at him right now, and he didn't even feel the need to call them out for it because he was too busy calling himself out for forgetting what was probably the most important decoration of all.

"Judai?"

"Oh, he's here. Judai- uh... what happened? You okay?"

"I can't believe I forgot to get a Christmas tree!"

There was a long pause of silence before Edo started snickering and Carly broke out into full-on laughter while Judai continued to wallow in disbelief that he'd forgotten the fucking tree of all things. He wasn't going to get to live this one down, he was absolutely sure of it.