365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Prize Exchange

2/1/19

"That's... we have a lot more prize tickets than I initially thought," Yusei said, staring at the prize list by the prize exchange area. Considering the technological advancement of the time, it was easy enough to keep any prizes safely locked away in a storage area while replacing the outside shelves with holograms so nothing could get stolen. That, and lists of prizes for those who didn't want to miss anything were available to look at.

As it was, the most expensive thing on the list - some sort of board game that utilized holograms and was apparently very interactive - cost about half the tickets they'd- er, Haou had earned. Yusei had mostly looked on with intrigue, after all, looking up different arcade game blueprints and programming details on his phone instead in order to figure out their secrets and relay them to the man.

"So? What are you guys going to get then?" Yubel asked, looking over their shoulders at the list, "You already cleaned out those claw machines of any booster packs they had, so it's not like you guys need to get more of those."

"Considering I don't need anything here, it's up to you," Haou stated before tapping on one section of the list for Yusei to look at, "...There's a section for that game you've been playing with Judai, for instance. Maybe get something from there."

"Really? That game doesn't have any micro-transactions except for aesthetic items and making cards prismatic," Yusei replied, looking over the list, "Yeah, it looks like these are codes for those types of things. Then again, Judai did say something about wanting an entirely prismatic deck, so... I guess I'll get forty of those codes."

Haou nodded, tapping away at the screen and adding forty to their cart. Still, that only used up half their points - the codes were low on the prize tier list after all, so even though they'd gotten forty it still added up to be about the same price as the board game.

"Hey, isn't that a plush toy of the dragon you own?" Yubel noticed, blinking at the page they'd moved to. It was full of different plush toys of different sizes, all of them duel monsters. The entire Kuriboh line was there, the Dark Magician line, Marshmallon, Moki Moki, and sure enough, plush versions of Yusei and Jack's dragons.

"It's Stardust alright," Yusei replied, "But it's huge - what would I do with it? The thing's three and a half feet tall."

"Put it on your bed or the couch or something, they listed the materials for it and it's surprisingly not bad quality," Yubel said, pointing at the screen.

"Works for me," Haou shrugged, putting one in the cart before Yusei could protest. Afterwards, he put in a huge Winged Kuriboh plush, which brought the total up to just under what they had. They were huge plush toys after all, they were much higher on the tier list and therefore more expensive.

Yusei sighed, accepting his fate. Soon enough, they had the codes emailed to Judai's email and huge plush toys in their arms; the prize exchange guy's eyes had widened rather hilariously at their prize ticket total before he realized he was looking at Yusei of all people and gaped speechlessly for a few moments. Luckily he had sped up the process out of embarrassment, not saying anything other than the standard 'Here's your prizes, have a good day.'

"Yusei, if you take a picture of Haou holding that Winged Kuriboh, Judai and I will be forever in your debt," Yubel hissed out lowly from where she was floating next to him, looking at the golden-eyed king who was poking curiously at the plush toy in his arms. Yusei didn't even hesitate at this point to take his phone out, taking a couple pictures to make sure at least one was good.

"I'll send it to Judai later," he muttered, putting his phone away quickly so he didn't accidentally drop it - the toy in his own arms made it difficult to maneuver around, "I'm just glad we went to a close one, so we walked. I have no idea how we'd get these back if we'd taken the bike."

It was a relief when they got back and finally could put the duel monster plushies down on the couch. Of course, Haou didn't seem to be affected by it much, but Yusei was going to assume his arms were a bit tired from how fast he'd been to put down the Winged Kuriboh.

Glancing at the clock, Yusei noted that they'd been there a lot longer than he'd thought - they'd left around noon, and now it was almost time for dinner. Of course, Yusei wasn't really in the mood to make anything at this point, but one of the first things Judai had done was clean the place out of any instant ramen.

Thus, time for Plan B.

"How's dessert for dinner sound? We've got vanilla and mint chocolate chip ice cream."

"Sounds good to me."

"Great, come on, I don't know how much you want."

"Literally all of the mint chocolate chip."

"...Well, guess it's a good thing I prefer vanilla then."

Haou later lazily turned to look at him from where he was leaning on the kitchen doorway, spoon digging methodically into his tub of ice cream. Yusei had actually gotten himself a bowl, considering he didn't think he could actually that much ice cream, and was eating at a much slower pace than the other was.

"...Thanks," Haou eventually said, spoon hanging out of his mouth, "Today has been entertaining."

"No problem. Make sure you think of something else you want to do for next time, too," Yusei replied, giving him a smile.

Haou hummed at that before feeling Judai start to wake up in the back of his mind.

Next time, huh? Haou wouldn't mind that at all, to be honest, as he'd easily formed a friendship with the man; he felt Yubel agree with him through the mental connection.

Judai had gotten a good one.