365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Handing Out Gifts

12/17/19

It was time for presents. It turned out about half of them had brought presents (mostly everyone who actually lived in the city, which was Judai and Yusei, Thunder and Asuka, and Johan, though Jim and Rei had also brought some), while the other half had simply shipped them out already in the mail. Either way, the presents that were brought were the type that didn't need to be opened on Christmas since they weren't wrapped, so they pretty much just had a fun hour exchanging gifts and talking about them.

"Alright, so this is from both Yusei and I!" Judai announced, deciding to pass out their presents first - those jars weren't exactly wrap-able, so they hadn't bothered and had instead taped the cards they'd gotten on top of them with names. Besides, he was pretty sure everyone was going to want to bake the cookies anyway before Christmas, especially these ones.

"Ooh, we finally get to see what's in that big box," Rei grinned, her own big box of presents sitting nearby.

"I'm not sure I want to know," Jun muttered, getting a snort from half the room while Asuka lightly smacked him on the arm, "Oi, I'm just saying! Who knows what he could've come up with?"

"...I trust Yusei to not let him to anything crazy," Sho replied, and Judai just watched on sheepishly as everyone seemed to agree at once.

"Guys... I'm not that bad."

Yusei pat him on the head, giving him a small little smile, "Sometimes you are."

Judai pouted but eventually started snickering along with everyone else in the room before pulling out one of the jars, "Fine fine, but I promise everyone's gonna like this! I'm just gonna hand it out, you can read for yourself what it is... let's see, first one's to Asuka - in that case, Yus, can you find Thunder's for me?"

It took a minute or two, but eventually he got them all handed out. Seeing as Asuka was the first to get hers, she was the first to know what exactly it was, and from the happy grin on her face it was a good choice. Soon enough everyone else knew as well, and were excitedly chatting about it.

"Judai, this is evil," Rei laughed, holding up the jar and shaking it, "Do you see this? Do you see this? If it turns out even half as good when I make it as the food you brought today it's going to be gone and my stomach's going to be two times fatter."

"I don't think I'd mind if it's for this," Asuka mused, reading over the recipe at this point, "Cute drawings, by the way."

"Thanks, made those myself!" Judai grinned, partly in happiness and partly in relief that everyone really did like it. He'd already known that it would go well, no one could really hate something like that as a present since it was food, especially his friends, but it was still nice to have actual confirmation anyway.

"Wait, since when could you draw?" Edo wondered, his jar already put safely away to the side - hilariously enough, he seemed to be almost possessive of it, which Judai could only attribute to how often he'd eaten his food and enjoyed it.

Various others piped up with the same sentiment though, finally reaching the recipe and reading the tag on the jar after looking at the card.

"Well, it's mostly just a hobby... took a painting class for the hell of it one day and found that I liked it, so I kept with it when I could," Judai blinked, tilting his head slightly in thought, "I haven't really been able to practice until recently, though."

At that Yusei seemed to have a sudden look of realization before giving him a smile, quietly threading their fingers together when everyone got to talking about whether or not they could draw and mumbling so quiet that no one but Judai would ever be able to hear him, "I'm glad you can, now."

"Only 'cause of you," Judai mumbled back, squeezing his hand and shooting him a fond smile before tuning back into the conversation.

"I can't really draw, but I can do 3-D modeling stuff," Bastion said, taking a sip of his drink before continuing, "Mine's a hobby as well, but the figurines are fun to make, even if they're hell to print out and polish up."

"Oh yeah! You gave me that super cool Flame Wingman figure for my birthday!" Judai remembered, snapping his fingers and giving him a thankful smile, "Thanks for that, by the way. He's now sitting on display next to a couple of Kuriboh's and a Junk Synchron plush."

"Aw, that's cute," Jim smirked, leaning on the back of Johan's chair at this point, "You're like Johan here, always wanting collectibles and stuff. I swear every time I go over there's two new ones and I have no idea how they fit."

"J-Jim!" Johan complained, pushing him away with a hand on the bottom of his chin and a pout-y frown, "Not fair, you can't say you don't like those too!"

"Yeah, but regardless you're gonna run out of space eventually."

"And then you try to say 'no' to them if they try to do it while you're around but somehow end up with three more, right?" Yusei stated, catching the other two's attention. Judai knew exactly where this was going, and he nudged Yusei in retaliation though it was easily ignored as the other smirked and said, "That's what Judai does, at least."

"Mate, that's exactly what Johan does too," Jim laughed, ruffling Johan's hair underneath him mercilessly, "And then they see a store or something full of old merch and it's like a kid in a candy shop."

"Exactly," Yusei nodded seriously, though the smirk on his face made it clear just who was getting the short end of the stick here.

Judai shared a look with Johan, both commiserating with each other as their significant others decided to bond over teasing the hell out of them.