365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Kaiba Dome Arena

4/10/19

It was decided that a few days later, when they were absolutely sure that Jack would be at home all day, Martha would come over for a surprise visit to teach, in other words lecture, the poor soul about money and anything else she'd managed to think of that was important for him to know. When the time came, the three escaped the house bright and early, having given a spare key to Martha when they'd been at the orphanage; they definitely weren't going to be there when shit inevitably hit the fan.

"I've got an early job to get to, so I gotta split," Crow said, smiling apologetically, "You guys were going to the Kaiba Dome, right?"

"Yeah, there shouldn't be anyone there all day and I've got keys for the place, so this works out well," Yusei replied. He double-checked to make sure he'd grabbed said keys- yep, there they were, on his key-chain right next to his runner's key.

They waved goodbye to Crow, driving off to the Kaiba Dome after parting ways. It didn't take very long, which was lucky for Yusei considering Judai was now back to poking him while he drove; thank the stars Yusei was extremely good at piloting his motorcycle. Pokes didn't hold a candle to the stress caused by duels, let alone shadow duels with all that debris flying everywhere the entire time, but the twitches he made could still cause problems regardless.

"It's even bigger now," Judai grumbled slightly, gazing up at the stadium from where Yusei'd stopped in the parking lot.

"Right, you'd have seen it before," Yusei remembered, giving him a curious look as he put their helmets away safely and locked everything up, "You've really never been here, though?"

"I have actually, but it's been more than twenty years so everything's bound to have changed," Judai admitted, sighing a bit at the memory, "They held the entrance exams for Duel Academy here, but this entire place has changed so much it's unrecognizable to me. Besides, I was only here for like, two hours - hell, I was late for my entrance exams! I didn't exactly get to explore."

Yusei chuckled at that, ruffling his hair and earning a pout from Judai, "Of course you were, you wouldn't be Judai if you hadn't."

"Hey, I'm not that bad anymore!" Judai complained, though he was soon laughing as well as they walked over to the back entrance they'd parked by, "Okay well, maybe I still don't like school, but I've since come to learn that I'm a hands-on learner so that's the main reason why I don't. I like learning stuff a lot more now than I did before."

"You were pretty patient when I was explaining Momentum theory to you that one time," Yusei teased slightly, unlocking the door and holding it open for Judai, who grinned at him in response.

"Thanks- and that time was a bit of an exception because I needed to know it to understand what that stupid reactor fragment was doing," Judai replied, frowning slightly at the thought, "Otherwise I think it all would've gone over my head more."

"Well, either way you learned it, so good job," Yusei said, wanting to get off the topic for both their sake. After re-locking the door he grabbed Judai's hand and threaded their fingers together, effectively bringing a smile back onto the other's face as he tugged him along, "Come on, do want to go out onto the arena first or to the top-most viewing area?"

"The arena," Judai answered, "I need to get a feel for just how big this place is going to be when I'm dueling."

"If it makes you feel better, you won't be the main focus until you get to the finals," Yusei explained while they wound through the hallways, making sure to point out certain paths to avoid as they got closer to the exit doors to the middle, "The platform splits into six different dueling arenas, so you won't be singled out until you get to the finals. There's a lot of people dueling in this tournament so you'll have a lot of time to get used to the crowd before then."

"No doubts about me getting there, huh?" Judai noted, and Yusei was happy to see a soft smile grace his face while his eyes glittered with mirth.

"No doubt at all," Yusei reiterated, nudging his side in reassurance before leaning over and pecking his cheek quickly, earning a quiet chuckle in return. Soon enough they reached this side of the stadium's contestant entry corridor, a pair of doors opening up to stairs that lead up and out onto the field.

Judai's grip on his hand tightened slightly as they wandered out towards the middle of the platform, and they both took a moment to just take in the size of the place - it was absolutely huge, and the platform, which was easily a couple blocks long, was surrounded by a race track for riding duels. The crowd seating area was tiered into three sections with fifteen separate levels, which Yusei noted was a new addition since when he'd dueled in this place last, there were significantly less seats than there were now.

They'd probably taken advantage of all the destruction that had happened in this place due to shadow duels to push through as many pending upgrades as they possibly could; it's not like they didn't have the money to do it either, since this was Kaiba Corp. - they had so much money it was almost impossible to fathom. Yusei wouldn't be surprised if remodeling this place hadn't even put a dent in their wallet.

"Well," Judai eventually started, taking a deep breath as he stared up and out over the empty seats, "This'll be a new experience at the very least. Now that I know this much, I should be able to adjust quicker when the day finally comes."

"You'll be just fine," Yusei said, pulling him closer before dragging him down to the ground and into his lap so he could hug him. Judai yelped slightly at the sudden change, though he laughed and leaned into the hug once he got his bearings back.

"We'll stay here for a bit, enjoy the weather - it's a nice day after all," he continued, earning more laughs from Judai.

"First the bridge view, now this... we're just building up a whole list of places to go and enjoy the weather, huh? What's next after this place?" Judai grinned, relaxing finally in his arms with a content sigh.

"The top-most viewing platform for the stadium, obviously."

"Of course, how could I forget?"