365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Going On-Stage

6/17/19

"Judai, stop biting your lip," Yusei said quietly, nudging him lightly with his side.

Yubel started cackling at the irony in his head; Judai grumbled at her internally, but he did stop biting his lip while making extra sure not to start biting his tongue so that she didn't have anymore fodder for her amusement.

"Thanks," Judai mumbled, using all of his willpower to not bite his tongue, his fingers twitching at his side instead, "Told you, these things get me nervous even though it's nowhere near as bad as I make myself believe."

"You do that with a lot of things, not just this," Yusei pointed out, smiling calmly and threading their fingers together, "Usually you pace when you do it though."

Judai gripped his hand back tightly, focusing on the feel of the warm leather and taking a deep breath - Yusei's calm aura helped him as usual to keep his thoughts in order as he latched onto it.

"Can we just hold hands through the whole thing?" Judai asked, feeling slightly embarrassed at the thought of walking out there like that in the middle of a large crowd before remembering that they'd gone out in public plenty of times before and held hands. It was hardly any different from that - pictures would be taken (something that'd already been done numerous times) and they would clearly be a couple (which was something that everyone already knew).

"Of course," Yusei replied, bringing their hands up so he could press a quick kiss to the back of Judai's hand.

Judai couldn't help the silly grin that popped up at this, feeling some of the nervousness dissipate in favor of affection for the other, "What a gentleman you are."

"I would hope so after all the lessons Martha put me through growing up," Yusei muttered back, sharing a look with him before they both started laughing.

"I remember her mentioning something about that when we visited," Judai snickered, "Also that you were the only one to retain them in the end. I'm a very lucky man, I see."

Yusei raised an eyebrow at him in response, pausing in thought for a moment before teasing, "Pretty sure I'm the lucky one here... mister housewife."

"Oi," Judai huffed indignantly, giving him a slight glare but laughing all the same. It was pretty funny in hindsight, plus Judai had already gotten his revenge on him for that in the first place - still, he wished that it wasn't so stupidly fitting for him, even if he was a lot more than just that.

"Sorry, couldn't help that one," Yusei grinned, going to say something else before being cut off by the sound of them being called up to the stage, "Time to go. Ready?"

"Ready as I can be," Judai sighed, though his smile came back quickly once he felt Yusei grip his hand tightly in reassurance, "Well, guess we can smile and wave with our free hands. Think we should ask Crow after for feedback? He's the one that actually has social media stuff."

Yusei rolled his eyes at him, opting to just tug him through the door and out onto the stage - it wasn't quite as big as the Kaiba Dome's, but it was still pretty big and the seats were packed, partly due to the great publicity the tournament got for having Yusei participating in it. He didn't wave to the loudly cheering crowd, instead smiling a small smile, so Judai made up for it by smiling brightly and waving peace signs at the stands.

It was just like last time, in that Judai's worries were unfounded once again because it wasn't nearly as nerve-wracking now that it was actually happening. In fact, he felt even better, maybe even excited because he had Yusei by his side and holding his hand, which gave him a good feeling about the rest of the day.