365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Eating Habits

4/7/19

"So uh... did you want help with lunch?" Judai asked an hour later from where he sat, surrounded by kids as they ran around playing with Winged Kuriboh and Junk Synchron.

Martha hummed, giving him an evaluating look before smiling, "Just keep entertaining these rascals, I can handle it just fine. Besides, you said you cook all the time, right? Let someone else make you food for once."

"I mean, Yusei did last night," Judai retorted, though Martha just laughed and waved him off.

"Good! Now let this old woman feed you too, young man," she stated, leaving no room for argument and retreating to the kitchen.

"Well, it would seem Martha's taken a shine to you," Crow said, coming down the stairs and setting his tools down on one of the tables in the room with a huff. Yusei followed after a few seconds, dusting off his jacket as he came down the stairs and smiled at Judai.

It would seem Yusei had finally regained his composure - oh well, Judai would just have to work on embarrassing him again once lunchtime came around. It shouldn't be too hard with both Martha and Crow here, though he kinda wanted to embarrass Crow too with Martha as payback for all those photos he'd been taking of them; too bad Jack wasn't here as well, since he was in on that operation too.

"I suppose so," Judai grinned, walking over to Yusei and pulling him into a side-hug since he couldn't exactly throw an arm around his shoulders, "It helps that we've got a common interest, here."

Crow snickered at that, "Oh man, Yusei's face when you guys walked in the room was hilarious. What'd you two do to him?"

Judai hummed, placing a hand over his heart dramatically, "We just talked about what a wonderful gentleman Yusei's become, we did nothing wrong!"

Yusei glowered at him, though Judai could feel him lean into the hug more so he obviously wasn't mad at all, "You told her about the kitchen... and the ramen."

"You told her what?" Crow balked, giving them both a frantic look, "Please tell me I did not just hear what I thought I just heard. You told her about the ramen?"

"...Yeah?" Judai replied, giving him a confused look. What was so bad about saying that he'd fixed the kitchen?

They clearly were hiding it so that they wouldn't get lectured on their eating habits, Yubel told him, amusement oozing out of her in waves, basically, they were being bad kids and knew it, and didn't want mom to find out.

"Oh, I see," Judai said, now giving both Crow and Yusei a very judgmental stare, "Really you guys? Actually, how did you avoid her finding out for so long?"

"We usually just strayed away from the topic of food whenever it came up," Yusei explained, not looking nearly as put out as Crow was at the moment. Judai couldn't really fault him for that one, though, since he'd already been lectured by Judai about eating properly and witnessed the entirety of their ramen stash being thrown out in front of him.

That'd been an extremely satisfying moment for Judai - never before had he hated a food as much as he hated those cups and bags of noodles. Trashing them was cathartic after being forced to eat them for almost a week straight.

"She's going to bring it up," Crow despaired, crocodile tears forming in his eyes as he caught the attention of the kids and turned to them, "Kids, help your big brother Crow here escape the wrath of Martha!"

"No one can escape that!" One boy laughed, though he and some of the others ran over and dog-piled Crow in hugs.

"Just accept your fate, Crow, you know you deserve it if it's from Martha!" Another exclaimed with a huge grin - this was the one with Winged Kuriboh on their head at the moment, so they hadn't joined in the group hug. They were much more preoccupied with the ball of fluff to do so.

Crow got his breath knocked out of him when one of the girls accidentally kneed him in the gut, and Junk Synchron made all the kids laugh when he claimed Crow's head as his throne.

Judai shared a look with Yusei, their eyes sparkling with mischief as they both grinned, pulled out their phones at the same time and started snapping pictures of the scene.

This kind of revenge was the best kind, and very, very sweet.