365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Judai The Cook

3/16/19

"Holy shit dude, this is amazing," Kenzan said, swallowing his food and staring down at it in wonder, "You two made this?"

"Ah... yeah-" Judai replied, before getting cut-off by Yusei.

"All I did was chop up stuff, Judai did all the work," Yusei admitted, sending Judai a confused eyebrow when he looked to the side nervously.

"No way," Sho said, a severe look of disbelief crossing his face as he also stared at the food in wonder, "There's no way it was Judai that made this. He nearly burned down the dorms the few times he tried to cook!"

"Oh god, I remember that," Jun added, a look of horror appearing on his face at the memory, "He somehow made a pot of water explode trying to boil it, and because the kitchen is on the bottom floor and shares a wall with my room, when the wall blew up, the fire spread into my room."

"He did what now?" Edo asked confusedly, "Was I ever there when this stuff happened? The main things that come to mind for me from when I was there was Judai hating coffee and somehow flooding the... Obelisk dorm's main hall."

Judai, luckily, had already explained most of what'd happened in his time to Yusei, or else he probably wouldn't have understood the emphasis placed on Obelisk - Judai'd flooded the Society of Light's main hall, not the Obelisk blue's.

"To be fair I still hate coffee unless it's made a certain way, and that flooding incident was on purpose," Judai replied, sticking a forkful of food in his mouth so he didn't have to talk more about it. From the curious look Yusei was giving him though, he'd be spilling his guts about all his misadventures once they were alone once again.

Funny how that worked - Judai could wear a mask for the entire world that was nearly impenetrable, but when it came to Yusei it was like those walls never existed in the first place. He'd tell him anything and everything at this point, especially now that he'd managed to tell him about his past and been accepted despite all of it.

"It was mostly in the first year, we always made sure to keep him occupied after the first few incidents so that he didn't get bored," Asuka admitted, shooting Judai an apologetic look, "After all, he managed to find the weirdest things when he did."

"Johan, you were a literal life-saver when you came to the academy," Sho said with a grin, turning to look at him, "You two got along like a house on fire and were always busy dueling or whatever, but because you were always together and you were a responsible human being we finally were able to stop worrying about Judai doing something utterly insane."

Johan laughed, giving off a grin, "Y'know, now that you mention it I vaguely remember him coming up with some weird ideas that I shot down. I never really thought much about it though considering most of the time we were too busy dueling or hangin' out with our duel spirits."

"Gee, thanks you guys," Judai muttered, pouting around the fork in his mouth while everyone else laughed at his expense.

"Anyway, back to the original question - you, the idiot who blew up my dorm room with a pot of boiling water, really managed to cook?" Jun asked, giving him an incredulous look.

"I did," Judai replied, looking back to the side again sheepishly at being reminded again about that incident, "Turns out there's a lot of people out there that simply won't let you leave their house without knowing the basics of cooking?"

"...You were forced into learning?" Kenzan asked, raising an eyebrow. Now everyone was staring at Judai incredulously, not quite believing what they were hearing.

"There was this one family that I stayed with early on that figured out I knew nothing about cooking, and in their words, 'Would not let such an aspiring, young man waste away by accidentally starving while he traveled.' They made me stay for an entire week, and during that week I learned pretty much all the basics and a lot of recipes that actually helped a lot later on," Judai explained, smiling fondly at the memory of the couple and their two kids who happily ate up all the food that was made, regardless of how terrible it was in the beginning. They'd been really kind, and even now he still couldn't believe his luck at having met them.

"That's... wow, you must've met a lot of really nice people while you were traveling," Sho said, staring at him wide-eyed.

"I'm just wondering how in the world they managed to beat such good cooking skills into him in a week," Asuka muttered, earning a laugh from the rest of the group.

"Hey, I learned a lot from a bunch of people over the years, I was just barely passable when that family let me go," Judai responded before giving everyone a pointed look, "Now, less talking, more eating. Please."

To his relief they did, and quite happily at that. Amusingly, he also noticed that Yusei had already finished his plate while he'd been listening and was scooping up a small pile of seconds to nibble on later.

"I will say though," Edo mused after a few minutes, giving Judai a smile, "This food is really good, and if you're ever up for it I'll pay you to cook for some events of mine. Know any fancy stuff? If you do then you could do some special orders too, those pay more because of the skill required."

Judai blinked at him in surprise, not expecting that of all things, but he felt oddly touched at... well, being wanted for something by a friend. "Depends what you mean by fancy stuff, I've been all over the place and learned a bunch of different things," he replied, tilting his head in interest, "Though to be honest I didn't really expect my cooking to be that good..."

"I told you that you spoiled me with your cooking for a reason, Judai," Yusei pointed out, amusement glinting in his eyes.

"Oh man, that's right, you get to live with this stuff," Johan realized, sending Yusei a smile as he asked, "Has eating this everyday ruined all other foods for you or what?"

"Definitely."

"Man, I can't tell if that's a good thing or not."

"It definitely beats eating instant ramen for every meal of the day."

"No way, really?"

And with that Judai tuned out their conversation, glad that those two were getting along well and that Yusei was being included easily. He turned back to Edo, asking, "Anyway, what kind of fancy stuff did you mean?"

"Things like layered cakes, pastries with fancy decorations, fancy little chocolates and specialty coffees," Edo replied, "I arrange a lot of events, ranging from parties for the rich to huge dueling tournaments. Most of the time they each have something special that's served, whether it's little macaroons for a large party, a tiered cake for a wedding or a special prize for tournament winners; think along those lines for what would be fitting."

"Mostly baking stuff, huh?," Judai mused, looking up in thought, "I can do a lot of fancy stuff with chocolate, and I've had to make specialty coffees so many times it's been burned into my brain. Haven't actually tried my hand at cakes yet, but I can make things like crepes and macaroons, those are easy."

"Easy, he says," Edo laughed, "Well, tell me your email so I can tell you if I ever have something available. If it's not up your alley just let me know, but if you can do it, you've got yourself some extra cash."

"Sounds good to me," Judai replied, giving him a grateful smile. It may have been unexpected, but it was definitely an appreciated gesture - besides, he had been planning on finding some sort of side-job soon anyways, so this worked out well.

Oh man, now he could brag to Jack about how he'd had a job fall right into his lap when the other still couldn't get one. It may be a little mean, but...

Well, Haou was humming rather gleefully at the thought - maybe Judai shouldn't mention it after all.