365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Workarounds

6/2/19

Yusei, upon talking a bit more with Haou about what he'd had to deal with when Yubel had gotten sick, had the foresight to prepare in advance; with his sudden realization that Judai would have both insane clingy-ness and be able to actually satisfy that clingy-ness thanks to his shadows, he was forced to prepare for the possibility of being unable to escape the room during the times Judai was awake. He didn't mind it at all to be honest, it just meant he had to plan around it.

And thank the stars he had, because it meant he had access to his laptop and therefore was able to work. He'd been able to slip out the next morning and get some coffee and breakfast along with a bowl of soup for Judai that he'd made the day before, but that was only because Judai was still sleeping - once he got back and just started setting things down, Judai woke up with a sleepy groan, which marked the start of a very long day.

"...Yusei?" Judai asked, his voice just ever so slightly too high-pitched and... Yusei supposed the word for it would be something akin to cutesy, compared to how he normally sounded in the morning while half-asleep.

"Good morning," Yusei smiled, bringing over the bowl of food and gesturing for Judai to sit up, "Here, I got you some soup."

If Yusei hadn't already known that Judai was sick, he probably wouldn't have been able to tell because Judai's entire face lit up the same way it always did whenever Yusei gave him food in bed. It wasn't something he did very often, but every once in a while since White Day had passed he'd do so if he happened to wake up absurdly early (which in itself was the reason it didn't happen often, because he generally slept as much as he possibly could), mainly because he very much enjoyed making Judai happy like that.

He took his place back on the bed before digging into his own plate of food, trying to finish it quickly just in case Judai finished his soup and tried to do something ridiculous. He may not know exactly what qualified as such, but he'd rather not even have to find out. Once he finished and put the plate back to the side, he glanced over and noted that Judai was just finishing as well, letting out a happy sigh and putting the bowl off to the side as well.

"How's your throat?" Yusei asked lightly, trying to figure out if Judai had already been hit with the 'happy high' symptom, as Yubel had dubbed it.

Judai gave him a look of confusion, replying, "My throat's fine? I feel great actually."

So in other words, he'd been hit hard, because his voice had sounded sore as he talked and even made Yusei want to wince in pain just from hearing it.

"Judai, you're sick."

"What? I don't get sick though, silly."

"Then explain to me why you just wrapped all those blankets and sheets around you the second you finished your food."

"It's just cold, I'm not sick! You're funny, dear."

Yusei sighed at the dopey smile Judai was now wearing, seeing that he definitely wouldn't be able to reason with him any time soon. Luckily he'd also prepared for this, and pulled out a mug of tea that'd been mixed with honey alongside a little plastic cup filled with cough medicine - according to Yubel, it'd work just fine for the sore throat since the main goal in this case was to simply do damage control. Judai wouldn't have that natural pain filter for talking, so the point was to limit the damage he could do to himself in the meantime.

"Judai? Can you do me a favor and drink this?" Yusei asked, holding out the little cup of medicine.

Judai stared at it before glancing back up to Yusei, sounding painfully confused as he tilted his head and questioned with a small smile, "But I don't need medicine?"

"...It's not medicine. Just try it, for me?" Yusei lied, though he didn't feel bad in the slightest in this case for doing so; just to sell his point, he even threw in as innocent of a smile as he possibly could.

"Okay, just for you then!" Judai grinned, taking the cup and downing the entire thing in one go. To Yusei's relief, he didn't proceed to immediately pout at having been tricked, and instead turned to look at him happily, "Oh, you're right! It's not medicine, it's not that icky medicine flavor. Y'know, the grape one."

...So that was why Judai didn't notice. Either he simply didn't have enough experience with having to take medicine, or Judai really liked the artificial cherry flavor; Yusei so badly wanted to lean towards the former, but he was sure it was really the latter that was the reason.

On that note, Yusei immediately grabbed out one of the cherry cough drops and tossed it to Judai, stating, "Here, I got you some candy. It's hard candy, so make sure not to bite it."

Judai positively beamed at him as he opened one and popped it in his mouth, "You're the best, love."

Judai was using an awful lot of pet names compared to usual, too, which made this even more of a novel experience than it already was. Usually Judai either said his name or didn't say any kind of name at all, with pet names only tending to come up when he teased him. Things like 'gearhead' and 'dear' were the most common, and he could remember maybe one other time before this that Judai had called him 'love' like this.

It was at this point that Yusei tried to get up from the bed to bring the dishes downstairs, then had to stop because Judai was set on following him out the door, attempting to stand up while bringing all the sheets and blankets with him.

"Stay in bed," Yusei said, pausing for a moment in debate before continuing, "Please? For me? I'll give you something if you do, and I'll be back in a couple minutes." Said something was the mug of tea he had yet to give him, but Judai didn't need to know that so long as he brought it downstairs with him so he couldn't find it on his own.

"Aw, fine," Judai pouted, though Yusei saw the glint of curiosity in his eyes and knew that he'd stay put for the moment. He quickly went about dumping the dishes into the sink, not bothering to even try to clean them for now since he didn't have the time to - he didn't know if Judai would stay put for more than five minutes, after all, so he had to make the most of the time. He got himself a refill on his coffee before bringing both that and the tea back upstairs, shutting the door behind him as he entered the room.

"Got you tea," Yusei smiled, handing it over to Judai before once again getting back on the bed and starting to settle in again. He wasn't even going to try going downstairs to work at this point, and preferred to simply get straight to work here so he could make sure Judai rested.

"You working in here today?" Judai asked, the excited tone telling Yusei that he'd made the right choice to just stay.

"Yup. It's a slow day, feel free to cuddle if you want - just make sure I can still type, please."

It was the fastest Yusei had ever had Judai latch onto him, and he couldn't help but wonder if he should start working on the couch instead on normal days; Judai would probably appreciate the ability to be able to just hug him, if anything, because he'd complained before about not being able to when he worked at his desk. Just because he was sick right now, it didn't mean his happiness was fake.