365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Passing Time

3/2/19

Yusei watched in slight amusement as Haou quickly helped himself to a third plate of food while he was barely finishing his first (and only). Yubel looked on from the side as well, sharing his sentiment with a smile.

"What'd you want to do this time?" Yusei asked, taking one of his last few bites of food; at this point, he was pretty sure Judai was a stress-cooker, but it's not like he was going to complain - he got free, home-cooked meals out of it while Judai got to distract himself, so it was really a win-win situation.

"Well, there was something but it will have to wait for next month considering the circumstances," Haou replied in between bites, still mostly focused on the food in front of him.

What circumstances? Had something happened?

Thankfully Yubel noticed his clear confusion, explaining, "The reason Judai got so distracted earlier was because he felt one of his friends enter the city. He's been spreading his senses out over the perimeter for a couple weeks now, and this friend happens to have a very strong presence that's easily noticeable if you're looking for signatures."

"He has nearly all light in his soul, we would've noticed him the second he got within ten miles anyway," Haou muttered, "That boy's basically a walking beacon to us."

"Ah, so that's why," Yusei hummed, "You can't go out in case they decide to confront you despite it being the afternoon already."

"The last thing we need is for them to see Haou," Yubel said, a displeased grimace coming to her face, "That wouldn't end well at all. All they'd have to see are the gold eyes and they'd start making wild accusations."

Yusei frowned at this, though he understood why it absolutely couldn't happen - from what Judai had told him, he assumed that he'd never told anyone else that Haou was even still around, let alone talking with him and still able to take over control when they agreed to. After he'd tried to kill them, it's no wonder that they figured Judai's friends wouldn't take too kindly to the news.

They hadn't taken very well to the news that he'd fused with Yubel, after all, so it wasn't too far-fetched to think that they'd have an even worse reaction to Haou. Yusei may not like keeping secrets from people, but even he agreed that this was one that needed to be kept.

"Well, in the meantime, you have any ideas on what to do?" Yusei asked, steering them away from that depressing topic. It wouldn't do to think about what-ifs, especially ones that they planned on never letting happen in the first place.

Haou pushed his now-empty plate to the side, crossing his arms and closing his eyes in thought before answering, "...We could duel? I must admit, I'm interested in seeing what your deck is."

"Sounds good to me," Yusei shrugged, standing up from the table, "Let me go get my deck then, we can just do a table-top duel on the coffee table."

Haou nodded, standing up as well and stretching, "I'll do the same then. My deck is a bit... special, after all. I have to summon it here, as I haven't used it in a long time."

Yusei was going to ask, but he ultimately decided against it, just going up and grabbing his deck holder before coming back down. He ended up getting his answer anyways, though, when he witnessed Haou pull a deck out of a random shadow in the middle of the room, dark wisps floating off it for a few moments before dispersing.

At this point, it was such a normal thing to have things like this happen that he didn't even question them anymore. Such is the life of a... well, a King of Games, he supposed, based off everything that Judai'd told him so far about not just his world-saving adventures, but Yugi's as well. Magic, duel spirits, shadow duels, kings, the list went on and really, who was keeping track of it anymore?

Yusei definitely wasn't, and mostly for his own sanity.

Yubel cackled at his reaction, telling him that he'd probably made some sort of face from his thoughts.

"This ought to be an interesting duel," Yubel hummed, looking on in interest from where she was floating next to the table. She'd purposefully placed herself in such a way that she couldn't see either person's hand, making it more suspenseful to watch.

"Let's have a good match, alright?" Yusei smiled, starting to get more excited for the duel as he shuffled his deck and held it out to be cut.

"Same to you, I already know you're a worthy opponent," Haou replied, and though he wasn't smiling Yusei could see the eager glint in his eyes.

"...Duel!"