365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Rivalry Intensifies

4/29/19

"I'm ba- whoa, what the fuck happened?!" Crow yelled after opening the door.

Yusei just sighed, not able to blame in the slightest for the outburst - in fact, he was glad someone else was here to share his misery. He was safely curled up on the couch and out of the way, using a blanket and the Winged Kuriboh plush as a make-shift shield from the two who'd been going at it the whole day, arguing and doing stupid shit that only made the whole apartment messier.

Like glaring at each other, pulling streamers and stuff out of literally nowhere, and tossing it around like they actually had any sense of decoration. Or spreading the ash around on the ground and getting it all over themselves in order to play a ridiculous game of Pictionary with it.

They'd trailed the ash into the kitchen with that one. Yusei couldn't wait to see Jack, at least, get yelled for dirtying Judai's precious kitchen so much - he wasn't entirely sure if Judai would get mad at Haou, to be honest, but he assumed he'd probably at least get a scathing remark or two. He just hoped Judai didn't turn on him at all for not doing anything to stop them, though he was sure he'd understand that he was pretty powerless to stop those two once they'd set their mind on something.

Adding to the chaos as well were the duel spirits, which Yusei had suddenly been very glad Jack couldn't see since literally all of them were cheering for Haou the whole time, including Jack's spirits as well. He'd asked Junk Synchron about that one since he couldn't understand Jack's monsters, and the answer he got... well, they were certainly Jack's monsters. Apparently they were mischievous little guys and although they loved their owner, they tended to root for his opponents because Jack needed the competition... or something along those lines.

The second Crow entered the room, his spirits joined the crowd floating in the air to figure out what was going on, and soon enough were cheering for Haou as well as they watched them attempt to build mini-castles out of popsicle sticks and hot glue.

Yusei was done at this point trying to figure out where they were getting all this stuff from. He was just glad they'd stopped moving around for a bit so he didn't have to worry about ash getting kicked up into the air.

"Welcome back. Jack tried to upgrade part of his runner and caused a mini-explosion in the living room," Yusei greeted calmly as Crow walked over with wide-eyes, taking in the ruined room.

"Okay... and the streamers? What- what are they even doing?"

"Haou."

"Oh," Crow hummed, sudden understanding on his face, "And you stayed down here?"

"...Just in case," Yusei replied, "Though I have to admit it's entertaining."

"Can't argue with that," Crow conceded, flopping down onto the couch next to him with a huff. They both watched on curiously as the two's castles slowly came together, with Haou's being much more intricate than Jack's despite getting built much faster than his in the long run.

"Done," Haou stated about fifteen minutes later, putting down his hot glue gun to the side and wiping his jacket of invisible dust.

"Me too," Jack grunted, finally looking up and over at Haou's creation. They'd agreed not to look at each other's while they were working on it so that they couldn't copy each other (or give up half-way through, in Jack's case).

"Well, I think the winner is pretty clear here," Crow drawled, looking between the two. Jack's walls were crooked and overall looked more like a church than anything else, but he had to get credit for trying at least.

"Is yours based off something?" Jack asked, one eye twitching in annoyance at the difference between the two.

Haou actually donned a proud smile at the question, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair idly as he answered, "It's based off my castle. You simply cannot compare to someone who's crafted figures and models for war-planning maps for many years."

Was it Yusei's imagination, or did a wistful look enter his eyes for a split second when he looked upon his creation?

"You have a castle."

"Of course I have a castle, I'm a true king unlike you, Atlas."

Once again they devolved into another argument, causing both Yusei and Crow to sigh and give each other an exasperated look.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I want dinner right now," Crow muttered, rolling his eyes when Haou had to use his shadows once again to hold Jack back from doing anything too stupid.

"We have to eat leftovers, the kitchen's a mess too," Yusei said, reluctantly standing up from his warm spot on the couch. Then again, he'd been thinking about getting something to eat a little bit before Crow returned, so he wasn't too sorry about it.

"Seriously? They couldn't have kept it all out here?" Crow groaned.

"Think of it this way, they'll get what's coming for them. Judai's going to be pissed about the kitchen."

"Oh shit, you're right - think he'll make Jack clean the whole kitchen by himself?"

"Definitely."