365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Calls For Intervention

4/9/19

"Judai, you're a duelist, right?" One of the kids asked shortly after lunch finished. Everyone was stuck in the lull that came after a filling meal and had gathered all the chairs into one area so that talking was easier without having to shout across the room.

"Sure am," Judai answered, smiling as he leaned forward and rested his head in his hands, "There's apparently videos online of me dueling in tournaments, if you wanna watch them." He watched with great amusement at how excited all the children suddenly became, turning as one group to Crow and Yusei and practically begging them to set up the videos on the TV in the room.

"Alright, alright, we'll set it up!" Crow reassured them, gesturing for them all to sit back down, "Give us a minute, okay?"

"So you're a duelist as well?" Martha asked, pulling up a chair next to Judai. She must've just finished washing the dishes, considering the washcloth she slung across her shoulder in the process.

"Yeah, that's my... main job I guess? I started doing it just so I could get money to fix their kitchen but uh, now I'm in the pro leagues somehow," Judai replied, giving her a sheepish grin, "The cooking thing is something a friend of mine starting offering me whenever one popped up that I could do so that I had another source of income just in-case."

"Well, at least you're being responsible and finding other jobs in the first place," Martha chuckled, though her eyes narrowed shortly afterwards as she continued, "I heard that a certain brat of mine still hadn't managed to find a job."

"It's actually amazing that he hasn't," Judai said, looking up in thought, "He's failed thirty-two job interviews in a row now. Either he's supremely unlucky, he's applying for all the wrong things, or the world is just out to get him."

"How in the world- what kinds of jobs is he applying for?" she blinked, genuine confusion and worry coming over her face. She may be a 'tough-love' type of person, but she did care after all.

"Beats me, I never asked since he's always a bit too irritable about the subject. I think being rejected so much is really starting to get to him," Judai admitted, frowning before looking over to Crow and Yusei, "You'd probably get more insight from those two, they know him way better than I do after all."

"It might be time to stage an intervention," Martha hummed, and honestly Judai was all for that - Jack had been getting more irritable in general as of late, to be honest, and it wasn't helping anyone.

The TV lit up at that moment, already on the video of Judai's first tournament finals match where he'd won with Winged Kuriboh LV10. The kids all cheered and gathered around the screen to watch before Yusei pressed play, and soon enough they were all totally engrossed with the duel playing before them.

"I heard something about Jack over here?" Crow asked, sitting backwards in a nearby chair as he usually did. Yusei grabbed a chair and dragged it over so he could sit side-by-side with Judai, which brought out a warm smile from him as he leaned over and pecked his cheek quickly in response.

"We were discussing how odd it was for him to fail so many job interviews in a row," Martha replied, glancing over at their interaction and smiling at it for a moment before returning to the subject at hand, "It's actually quite worrying, I was wondering if an... intervention needed to be staged?"

"Well, it'll certainly make him think a bit at least," Yusei said, frowning as he brought a hand up to his chin in thought, "He's been a lot more annoying lately, at least."

"Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that one," Crow nodded, eye twitching slightly, "It got bad enough the other day that I nearly called Carly to ask her to drag him away and out of the house. I mean, it's not like he doesn't have money - he's still got that bank account filled with cash from when he was the champion, but that's all savings and he refuses to take anything out of it. He gets money from tournaments, but then he spends it all on that coffee he loves so much and goes into debt because of it."

"So pretty much, he needs a job so that he's not in debt anymore, and that's all you're asking from him - to get rid of the debt," Judai summed up, getting nods from both Crow and Yusei.

Martha sighed, bringing the three's attention to her, "Well, I suppose this is partially my fault - I never did teach you guys about money management because it'd never been relevant at the time. Clearly you two learned it, but Jack never did - I shall rectify this myself."

Judai shared a look with the other two, all three thinking the same thing.

Rest in peace, Jack.

Also, Thanks the gods it wasn't them.

Accepting that as the end of that conversation, they tuned back in to the TV, noting that the duel had just ended and the announcer was announcing Judai's winnings.

"-winner of the New Year's After Party Tournament is Judai Yuki! He's won the grand prize of three hundred thousand yen and a spot in the esteemed Spring Blossoms Tournament in April!​​​​​​​ Look out for this newcomer, because he's-"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that!" Judai blinked, pulling out his phone so he could check out this tournament he'd gotten into, "It's April already, jeez - alright, tell me just how popular this thing I'm dueling in is."

"It's televised, reported on, all of that - it's held in the Kaiba Dome, too," Yusei explained, giving him a sympathetic smile when Judai grimaced ever-so-slightly at the thought.

He may be fine on stage and interacting with people, but he wasn't a huge crowd type of person; he could deal with it, but still, it wasn't something he liked to have to be in the midst of. Judai would just have to make sure he used as many back-doors and out-of-the-way hallways as he could to avoid the crowd.

"Think you could get me take me there beforehand for a bit?" Judai asked. Damn, that was a huge amount of money in the prize pool- wait, there was a title for winning? That was kind-of cool, though he really didn't need anymore titles at this point. What would people call him if he had too many? Oh gods, he could see it now - everyone in the crowd cheering a different title for him, which was as hilarious an idea as it was mortifying.

"Not a problem at all," Yusei replied, leaning into his side reassuringly, something Judai was always grateful for. Yusei's hand tightened it's grip on his as well, keeping him grounded when his thoughts tried to wander - he hadn't even noticed that he'd grabbed it in the first place.

"He's got special access to a bunch of things there since he's the current champion," Crow added with a grin, giving Judai a thumbs up when he looked over curiously, "You'll be fine, just make sure you win the whole thing!"

"I'll make sure it's playing so that the kids can watch, so know that we'll be cheering you on as well," Martha said, grinning as well and patting him on the shoulder roughly.

And suddenly Judai couldn't worry anymore for the moment, as he was too wrapped up in the warm reassurance and belief coming from everyone around him to even think about worrying.