365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Beginning Reflection

12/28/19

"Only a few days left until New Year's," Judai remarked, blinking down at his phone and all the emails on it - there were plenty of game notifications that he quickly glanced over, having already played DDO with Yusei and getting the items they'd wanted from the holiday event. Carly had come through again, easily finding what quest lines they had to complete to get the next effect ring they wanted, which caused little snowflakes to sparkle and fall around them. It was unfortunate that they'd have to start focusing on getting some other items soon, though, because there were only four effect ring slots and they were already taking up three of them... it would be four, but the hearts effect was from the Valentine's event item, which wasn't a ring.

Had it already been that long? Judai wondered, remembering that time around Valentine's day very easily - it felt like it was just yesterday that they'd dueled in the online tournament, then the next day started a long series of chocolate-centered fun. He hadn't known at the time that it would become such an important aspect to them that they wouldn't be able to think of chocolate the same way without thinking of each other, but that's what it turned out to be, no matter how ridiculous it seemed to be in retrospect.

They had a lot of little things that seemed ridiculous in retrospect, actually, but he wouldn't have it any other way. It was stuff that was unique to them and their relationship, and he loved thinking back to all those little things and remembering just how... happy they were; that's all that mattered, really. That they were happy during those moments, ridiculous nature or not, because that's what made all of this worth it.

He couldn't help but lean further into Yusei, leaning his head back to look up at him from where he was on the couch and sharing a smile with him. Yusei shuffled a little before moving him off his shoulder to rest his head on his lap, re-situating himself to put his arms around him and keep using his tablet.

"Already, huh?" Yusei mused, pausing to look down at him before tilting his head slightly with a teasing grin on his face, "Hard to believe it's been almost exactly a year since you sprained my wrist."

"Hey!" Judai complained, lightly smacking his chest with a pout and a laugh, "You say that like that like it was my intention, which it was not!"

Yusei merely hummed in response, making him pout a little more and hide behind his phone a little. He didn't let that happen for long, though, with Yusei moving the phone gently away as he looked down at him with a far softer smile.

"I know. You came stumbling in like a wildfire," Yusei said, and though the words sounded like they'd be teasing in nature they weren't when he said them with his smile being so fond like that. Still, he paused like he'd realized what they could sound like, before explaining just to make sure, "I don't mean that in a bad way, obviously."

"Yeah, I got that," Judai replied quietly, his own smile growing soft as he felt the warmth in his chest settle in to stay, "Though I'd definitely say it was more like crashing in - they didn't exactly explain what would happen when I came out of the jump, otherwise I'd probably have been more prepared."

"I don't think you ever actually explained to me how you managed the jump," Yusei realized, curiosity spreading on his face, "If you don't want to, though, it's fine."

"Nah, it's fine. It's not like they said I had to keep it a secret, especially since they're so hard to find for even someone like me," Judai shrugged, letting his phone finally fall from his hands onto the couch since he clearly wasn't going to be using it for a while, "There's an archetype out there called the Time Thieves, and all those duel spirits live in this sectioned off, super hard to discover let alone learn about place in one of the newer spirit dimensions. It took a while but I basically just found them and they let me jump after determining my intentions."

"Just like that?"

"Pretty much-"

"He got knocked out and had his mind walked through while he was unconscious," Yubel stated, appearing next to them with a slight smirk on her face that looked torn between reprimanding and amused. Judai sighed, though it ended up more like an annoyed huff as he knew she was just trying to make sure he got properly reprimanded in a way that would actually get through to him - he'd always deflected a little when it came to this topic, passively accepting that they were right without really trying to think about it; if there was one thing Yubel and Haou had learned, though, it was that tattling on him to Yusei was highly effective.

"...Was it painful?"

"No-"

"Yes, they accidentally gave him a concussion."

Judai threw his hands up in exasperation, being careful not to hit Yusei in the face as he did so, "The dude apologized for that! He didn't mean to hit so hard, he'd just panicked from suddenly having a trespasser in their very hidden home. It's understandable, really."

He groaned as he saw the dry look on Yusei's face that matched with Yubel's, felt Haou's amusement as he listened in, and buckled in to get through the next ten minutes of Yusei being a total worrywart whilst somehow keeping up the most calm, deadpan voice and logic that he always had with this sort of stuff.

It was endearing as all hell, though, and Judai could never be truly upset about it, since them being able to do this and have a nice, long hug after was exactly why he did what he did in the first place.