365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Dreading Interviews

6/16/19

"Why can no one ever tell us these things beforehand?" Judai complained, burying his head into Yusei's shoulder in an empty waiting room after latching onto him for comfort, "Would it be so hard to just say a few days in advance, 'Oh yeah! Please come up with something to say before the tournament starts! You'll be interviewed too!'"

"That would make life too easy, I guess," Yusei mused, gently patting his head and wrapping an arm around him to guide him to sit on the couch, "I'll try to do most of the talking if you want."

"I'm not gonna leave you to fend for yourself," Judai muttered, hitting him lightly on the back for emphasis, "Besides, we can just look out for each other and butt in if one of us hesitates on something."

Yusei hummed in agreement, pulling him away slightly and brushing away the hair from his face with a smile before kissing him softly. Judai couldn't help but smile back into the kiss, feeling the amount of care and sweetness in it and giving back as much as he could in return.

"We'll be fine," Yusei said quietly, keeping his hand on Judai's face afterwards and gently rubbing a thumb over his cheek, "Now that I think about it though, we've never had to do one of these together before, have we?"

"Always been by ourselves before for these, yeah," Judai confirmed, closing his eyes and leaning into the other's hand - it felt nice and soothing, which was exactly what he needed at the moment. He was reminded too much of the last tournament, where he'd not only not known he'd be interviewed at the beginning (which, to be fair, was legitimately something he should've realized from the start in that case), but had the info about Jun and Edo sponsoring him thrown at him, completely out of the blue.

He found himself slowly starting to dread interviews more with every single one that he had to go through; it made him appreciate the fact that Carly was a friend even more, because reporters were a scary bunch that were almost all out to tear information out of you and sometimes for less-than-glamorous reasons. At least, that's what it felt like - he was sure that quite a few were actually fine and just doing what their job required of them, but the idea was slightly terrifying anyway.

"Well then, that just means it'll be easier to get through," Yusei stated, giving him another peck on the lips, "Being together makes this sound infinitely less dreadful."

"You're right," Judai smiled, opening his eyes and bringing his own hands up to play with Yusei's face now that he was feeling better. He got an exasperated look in return, but the other didn't do anything to stop him, so he figured he could move on from the subject and onto something far more interesting to him.

"I still think you should've switched to your glasses."

"And have to put in the contacts again in order to drive back?"

"Well, that's why you have me here, right? Besides, you were the one going on yesterday about what a 'dare-devil' you were, you could just drive without them on."

Judai watched with intent interest as some switch seemed to flip in Yusei's head, a slow, small smirk forming on his face after a few moments as he leaned down close and tugged Judai's hands away from his face to hold them tight in his own, effectively preventing him from moving away at all.

"Is that a challenge?" Yusei asked lowly, pressing their foreheads together lightly and staring straight into his eyes, "Throwing my own words back at me like that, it's like you want me to prove it to you. Do you?"

Judai swallowed thickly at the proximity, licking his lips as his mouth suddenly felt dry and his cheeks started to warm up - the idea was far more appealing than it had any right to be, in his opinion.

"Maybe," he breathed quietly, flushing more at the chuckle Yusei gave in return.

"Later then, don't worry," Yusei grinned, letting go of his hands and pulling him back into a hug, returning to threading his fingers through his hair as if he hadn't just been practically seducing him, "Can't have you too distracted right now, after all. We have a tournament to win and interviews to bear through together."

It was a little late for that, Judai thought to himself, feeling vaguely like he'd gotten whiplash - at least it was the good kind, though. If anything, it made him more excited to get through the day and duel well because he had something interesting to look forward to in the near future.