365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Christmas Eve

12/24/19

"Three more minutes," Judai reminded cheerfully, leaning on Yusei as they sat on the couch waiting for midnight to come. Crow and Jack sat across from them, Crow straddling his chair as usual while Jack had his phone out while he sipped at some tea for once (so he could actually get some sleep once they were done, probably) - he assumed he was texting Carly, judging from how quickly he was tapping at the device.

He and Yusei had some mugs of hot chocolate instead of tea, as Judai wanted to get more in the holiday spirit; he made enough for all four of them just in case, which ended up being a good thing because the second Crow walked in the kitchen and saw that it was being made from scratch instead of from a packet, he looked and sounded two seconds away from begging for some. He made sure it was extra peppermint-y, adding some crushed candy cane on top of a bunch of mini marshmallows once he'd poured out three cups. The extra was stored away in the fridge for whoever wanted it in the morning, which Judai was almost one-hundred percent sure would be Yusei.

"You don't have to remind us every minute," Jack said, giving him a dry look as he glanced up from his phone, "In fact, please don't."

"Aw come on, where's the fun in that? Crow and Yusei will even do it with me, I bet," Judai replied, glancing at both of them with as innocent a smile as he could muster right now whilst half-asleep and comfortable - being on the couch and cuddling Yusei's arm was a double-edged sword in that he was warm and comfy, but in return had to result to doing something to keep him from falling asleep. Thus, he was counting the minutes as they went by, keeping his focus on-point and his eyes open.

"Yeah, I bet they will," Jack muttered, already looking defeated before he turned back to his phone, tapping away once again after taking a longer sip from his tea this time.

Eventually the next minute finished, and all three of them at the same time stated so with a round of 'Two minutes' filling the air. Jack just gave all three of them a half-heart-ed glare, no heat behind it despite the smirk all of them had on their faces at his reaction.

"Alright, we'll spare ya until it finally hits midnight then," Crow snickered, knowing how ridiculous it was since that was literally less than two minutes away.

"Should we pick out what present each person will get in the meantime?" Judai suggested, glancing over all the presents, "One each, and we all know what we got each other so..."

"Nothing too big, right?" Yusei double-checked, pointing at a small box once Judai nodded in confirmation, "Alright, then you open that one."

Judai hummed, grabbing the little box with a smile before pointing at another, "Crow, get that one for Jack."

"Jack, did you have a small one for me or Yusei?" Crow asked, grabbing the present and tossing it lightly to Jack, who caught it easily with a much calmer look now.

"For you, the smallest one to the right... yeah, that one," Jack replied, watching as Crow picked up a package after a few moments.

"Okay, guess I get to give Yusei this one then," Crow grinned, grabbing another one close-by and tossing this one as well to Yusei, "Also, five seconds!"

Jack twitched slightly, stating, "Liar! You didn't wait until-"

"Merry Christmas!" They all cheered, interrupting him as he sighed and accepted his fate, cheering alongside them as well much to their joy - it seemed even Jack wasn't immune to the holiday cheer.

With that they all turned to their presents, curious to see what they'd gotten. The first one to get their present all the way open was Crow, and he laughed happily as he held up a black scarf that had an embroidered picture of Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North on one end and Blackwing - Ghibli the Searing Wind on the other. Jack was next, smiling in satisfaction upon seeing the set of pins Judai had found of his duel spirits, including all of the resonators; Yusei opened his to find some stickers of his duel spirits, along with a larger one of Stardust Dragon - most likely he'd put them on his laptop case or something like that in order to personalize it a bit, since he hadn't done that yet.

Finally, Judai opened his, a bit curious to find out what Yusei'd gotten him - to his utter delight, it turned out to be a new set of hair clips, Christmas themed and with varying designs of snowflakes or poinsettias, though some were plain red and green as well.

He had actually been thinking about getting new ones after November had passed, mainly because it wasn't actually autumn anymore and it was a bit odd to wear those colors with winter outfits (odd for him, at least - he knew it wasn't a big problem, or even really a problem at all, but he liked to match at least if he could), but he hadn't done it; he was very happy to have some that fit now, plus the red ones he wouldn't feel weird about re-using once the holidays were over since it matched his usual outfits anyway.

He put them on to test them, holding up his phone so he could see how it looked, turning to shoot Yusei a smile and blinking when he was met with another phone camera instead - Yusei looked entirely unapologetic, merely laughing and calling him cute whilst holding the phone out of reach when he complained about catching him unaware.