365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Almost Better

6/4/19

Yusei managed to make it through most of Day Three without Judai being too much of a hassle - rewording things and bargaining with him seemed to do the trick most of the time and he found himself able to move about the house for short periods of time to do the things he needed to both days. Getting food, taking care of Pharaoh (though Crow had taken up that job for the most part and at this point was just leaving the window open for the cat so he wouldn't get bored), and just overall stretching his legs for a bit was all he really needed to do, and it was just for two days until the 'happy high' passed.

Only twice had Judai pulled out his shadows on him, and that was the first time he got up to go to the restroom and the time he accidentally woke him up while trying to leave the room. The first time had been simple to get him to let go, since the restroom was in the same room and Judai was easily appeased by that; the second time, however, involved a lot of coaxing on his part to get Judai to let go of the shadows binding his wrists and let him leave to go get food for them.

Now though, something different was happening, and Yusei wasn't too sure if he needed to worry much about it.

"...Judai?" Yusei questioned, noticing that Judai had been staring intently at him with a frown for a while without a single sound other than his breathing, which was louder than usual due to being sick.

The most important thing to note in this case was that Judai was frowning. He'd been nothing but smiles since the previous day, even when he was confused or didn't want to do something, so it stood out like a red flag to him.

Judai shut his laptop and put it off to the side safely in one smooth motion, barely looking away from him to do it, before Yusei felt arms wrap around his waist and pull him into his lap. His confusion was answered shortly after by Judai proceeding to drag him into the blanket cocoon and settle him in, then attempt to stand up with a hop.

"Wait, Judai-" Yusei attempted to say, before having to cut himself off and latch onto Judai's shoulders at the jerky movements he made when he successfully managed to stand up with him. The sight of shadows holding them up told him that Judai was definitely not good to be moving around right now like this.

"I haven't made anything for you, I gotta make something for you," Judai mumbled, nearly too quiet for Yusei to hear. He went to go walk out the door, a shadow easily grabbing the handle so he could actually get out the door, before being interrupted by Haou and Yubel.

"Judai no, you can do that later," Yusei stated, relieved that the two others were there and could actually help him with keeping Judai from leaving the room, "Can we go back to the bed for now? It's colder outside, I'd rather stay in the room in the bed, okay?"

"This is the transition period, he'll probably be back to normal in an hour or two," Haou concluded, pushing Judai back towards the bed alongside Yubel. Yusei assumed that had anyone else been doing it, Judai would've been pushing them away with his shadows, but he was sure that Haou was keeping him from doing so right now; it was one of the things they tested, in which whoever's not in charge of the body at the moment can use the shadows independent of the other, though with far less strength.

"It's a little like waking up from a dream," Yubel explained, tsk-ing at Judai when he halfheartedly whined about being forced to sit back down on the bed, "Okay, let go of Yusei now."

"Don't wanna."

"Let go of him, he needs to work more."

"Nu," Judai pouted, causing all three of them to sigh in response.

"Looks like it's up to you, he shouldn't try to leave again so at least you've got that goin' for you," Yubel shrugged, she and Haou disappearing a second later and leaving Yusei to find a way out of his predicament himself.

He was strongly reminded of how Judai acted after visiting the reactor a second time, mainly because of the position he was in, with Judai digging his face into his hair and hugging him close in his lap. There was a pretty distinct difference that was quickly made, though, when Yusei jolted and felt his face burn at the feeling of a hand slowly starting to rub its way up his leg.

Yusei determined right then and there that he wasn't going to let that happen while Judai was still sick. Kisses were fine, making out was fine, but this wasn't... only because Judai was sick, of course - any other time he'd be happily drowning in the feeling of his burning face while Judai teased him.

At least his decision of how to get out this was made slightly easier now, since he wasn't going to be able to focus on his work after this anyway.

"Let's take a nap," Yusei said, catching Judai's eye and doing his absolute best to look completely exhausted - something that was actually harder to pull off right now due to how much rest he'd gotten the past few days. Luckily it seemed to work though, because Judai's hand immediately stopped in favor of cupping Yusei's face to study it, a look crossing Judai's face that was mostly happy but laced with little bits of concern.

It was nice to know that even like this, Judai cared about his well-being so much.

"...My throat- fuck it hurts-"

It was also nice that Judai was finally back and not ridiculously happy and loopy anymore when they woke back up.