365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Alarms Work Well

4/3/19

Sure enough, a few hours later Yusei found himself scrambling for his phone as it blared out loudly at him, doing a fantastic job at ripping him out of his head and laptop within a split second. He cursed slightly as he fumbled and missed the button with his first attempt at pressing it, making him have to listen to the high-pitched beeping for a few extra, annoyingly unnecessary seconds.

Well, at least he'd remembered to set the alarm. It was better to be annoyed with it than to have forgotten and have to face a sad Judai later on in the day.

"Yusei, is everything okay?" He heard Crow yell from downstairs, footsteps ringing out around the house. When had Crow gotten back? Hell, what time was it? Yusei may have set the alarm earlier, but it's not like he really remembered what time he'd put it at... just that it was probably somewhere around lunchtime.

"Yeah, just- just an alarm I set," Yusei replied when Crow came around the corner and poked his head through the door curiously.

Crow raised an eyebrow at him, a skeptical look coming over his face as he asked, "You... set an alarm?"

"...Yes?" Yusei answered, somewhat nervous about how Crow was staring at him like he was an interesting puzzle or something. He grimaced slightly when Crow looked over and saw his laptop, looking between the two before a sudden glint of understanding formed in his eyes.

"Oh, I see," Crow said, a cheeky smirk slowly growing on his face to Yusei's dismay, "I see."

Yusei sent him a glare, practically daring him to continue talking.

"This calls for celebration," Crow sang, eyes lighting up in mischief as he pulled out his phone and started typing out something on it, "Judai's accomplished the impossible task of teaching you to take care of yourself!"

"C-Crow!" Yusei hissed out, standing up quickly and stumbling after Crow when the other started to run away from him, "Don't you dare! It's not that big a deal!"

"Are you kidding me?! 'Not a big deal' my ass! You've never even attempted to stop yourself from diving into your work for ungodly amounts of time before, the only thing that's different now is Judai being here!" Crow retorted, managing to slip back past Yusei once they'd gotten down the stairs and run up to his room, "I have to tell everyone, this is unprecedented!"

Yusei cursed under his breath again, barely too late to stop the door to Crow's room from being shut and locked. He pounded at the door, face burning from embarrassment as Crow continued to cackle loudly from behind it.

"Crow, I swear to the stars above if you tell everyone then I will tell Jack about how you ate all of his-"

Crow suddenly stopped laughing, causing Yusei to grin slightly at turning the situation around. Granted, it was partially through a kind-of blackmail, but really something like this was simply expected between best friends/brothers.

"...Jack's wrath is worth this, I believe," Crow said, voice muffled from behind the door. However, Yusei could hear the uncertainty in it, so he pushed with one more thing to guarantee his success.

"And I'll tell Aki that-"

"Okay, okay! You win!" Crow squeaked, his face slightly pale as he flung the door open whilst shoving his phone back in his pocket, "Anything but that, just no!"

Yusei huffed, and this time he was the one giving Crow a cheeky smirk in victory, "That's what I thought."

"I- I still already texted Judai though, sorry," Crow admitted, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "He's the only one, though."

Yusei merely shrugged at that, not minding much at all - after all, Judai would've realized it anyway when he came back and food had actually been eaten, and he would've gotten teased either way. Judai being told a bit earlier didn't matter much in the long run, and in the end getting a bit more attention from Judai because of how much emphasis Crow had put on his actions made this a win-win situation.

"Come on, let's go get some food," Yusei said, his smirk dying down into a real smile as he gestured for Crow to follow, "I set that alarm for a reason after all, I'm hungry."

Crow grinned, catching up a few steps and giving him a friendly punch to the arm, "Seriously though? Good on you for finally starting to take breaks on your own. Proud of ya'."

"Thanks," Yusei replied, his heart warming slightly as he grinned back. Sometimes it was easy to forget when Crow and Jack argued so much, but they really did care about each other and him. They were family after all - basically brothers.

Speaking of family...

Yusei realized suddenly that he should probably introduce Judai to the rest of it back in Satellite. Maybe in a few days? He still didn't have to go back to work yet, and they'd extended the break time by a week and a half because there was just so much work they were going over that one week hadn't been enough; he hadn't visited since before Judai came, so he really needed to anyway.