365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Viewing Area

4/11/19

They must have dozed off at some point, because Yusei found himself being gently nudged awake by Judai a couple hours later. He winced slightly when he sat up, his neck complaining when he moved it due to how stretched it was from leaning on Judai's shoulder for so long.

"We probably shouldn't have slept on the ground, but at least the arena's super clean," Judai mused, wincing himself when Yusei stretched his back and a loud 'pop' rang out through the quiet around them, "Man, this is making me nostalgic... though I tended to sleep more in trees than on the ground."

"You didn't worry about falling?" Yusei asked curiously, rubbing at his neck after he finished stretching his arms and back.

"I'm good at picking out stable branches, and I've been sleeping in trees since my middle school days," Judai replied with a prideful smile, "I never worry about falling."

Yusei hummed at that, trying to blink away some of his tiredness. Maybe Judai really was onto something with his cat analogy, because the sun shining down the way it was made him want to grab Judai and go back to napping. It was just so nice and warm-

"You were going to show me the viewing area next, right?" Judai asked, pulling Yusei out of his thoughts and back on-track with what they were doing.

"Right, let's go," he said, threading their hands together once again as he started walking towards the stairs; moving around helped him wake up a lot faster, luckily, so by the time they got back inside the hallways he was awake and alert again.

"Quick question," Judai said, giving him a curious look, "You're coming to watch, right?"

"Of course I am, that's not even a question," Yusei answered, stopping for a moment to pull Judai closer so he could lean down and kiss him.

Judai hummed happily into it, latching onto Yusei quickly to make sure he couldn't pull away before he was satisfied; he made a slight noise of surprise before closing his eyes and going with it.

It's not like Yusei would ever deny longer kisses, after all, and Judai was quite addicting.

"Alright, now we're ready to go," Judai breathed out, pulling away and pecking Yusei on the cheek with a silly grin before he could straighten back up.

Yusei let out a huff in amusement, complying and leading the way again before teasing, "Are you sure you're ready to go?"

"As much as I'd love to make-out with you in the hallways, I am actually interested in seeing the rest of this place," Judai responded, rolling his eyes slightly and laughing happily, "We can do it afterwards, though?"

"Uh huh, we'll see," Yusei replied, merely giving him a smile. To his surprise, Judai looked off to the side as he usually did when he was embarrassed, a light pink dusting his cheeks as he walked.

Well, he'd take his victories when he could, even if he didn't quite know what he did - it was always nice to be the one embarrassing Judai for once instead of it being the other way around.

After a short elevator trip to the top floor, they finally reached the viewing platform. It overlooked the arena with a few extra sections jutting out so that people could get a clear view of the action without having to look at too much of the stands, though these sections also doubled as shade providers for the area below them. It was still walled-in with the rest of the stadium though as the outer wall went past the platform and curled over it, though there were some windows built in on that side so people could look out at the rest of the city if they wanted to.

"How do people see that far?" Judai wondered, looking over the inner fence and down at the arena, "It's so far down that all the people would just look like ants."

"They don't, they look at the huge screens propped up around the walls if they want to see what's happening in the duel," Yusei said, pointing out some of them as he spoke, "High-quality screens, too. Most people come up here for the cooler air and the space since the crowds are... well, you know how crowds can be."

"Yeah, I can understand that one," Judai sighed, leaning against him as he continued to look over the place, "It's weird to think that all those empty seats down there are going to be filled with people. The last tournament location was barely a quarter the size of this place, so I can't really use it as a judge of how loud the stands will be."

"It's just one of those things you're only able to know in the moment," Yusei agreed, nudging his side to bring his attention to him so he could give him a reassuring smile, "Like I said, you'll have time to get used to it without being the main focus - you'll be fine."

"You're right, besides I don't think Yubel or Haou will let me think too much about it," Judai smiled back, squeezing his hand tighter in thanks, "Those two get real talkative when it comes to duels, so they'll probably distract me from it if worse comes to worst."

A peaceful silence fell over them as they continued to look out, enjoying the soft breeze and the warm sun.

...Dammit, Yusei thought - he'd paid attention to the warmth and now he wanted to nap again. So much for waking up, not even the cool wind could help him out of this state it seemed.