365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Carnival Games

7/17/19

"Ah, there it is!" Judai chirped, pulling Yusei along towards the game booth. It was the only one he'd seen with this particular prize he wanted, which was a Junk Synchron plush to go with the Winged Kuriboh one. If he had his little buddy's plush, then he wanted it to have Yusei's right next to it as well - they were their main low-level duel spirits, after all, and they played together all the time.

Luckily it was just one of the bottle toss games where you had to knock the pile over by aiming correctly - Judai had very good aim and, even if he were to miss the sweet spot somehow, a quick nudge with a shadow on the table would knock over whatever didn't fall.

"Oh, I see," Yusei said, able to determine what he wanted from his first look over the prizes available, "That's... bigger than he actually is. Ironically, I think Synchron would love it."

Judai excitedly nodded in agreement, "Yeah! Plus, it can go right next to the Winged Kuriboh, then we can move Stardust to like... our room or something."

"This is exactly what I was talking about earlier, y'know," Yusei mentioned, giving him an amused look, "We're going to run out of space."

Judai smiled sheepishly but non-apologetically - he thought they made fantastic decorations and pillows, after all, and if worse came to worse they could always put in a few shelves on the walls to put them on. He wasn't too worried about it though considering the only other duel monsters he could think of that he'd want a plush of were a few of his HERO's and Yubel, which he doubted he'd be able to find any time soon.

"Please do not get a plush of me of all things," Yubel stated, sighing in exasperation in his mind, "A little key-chain? Fine. Sticker or something like that? Fine. But a plush toy?"

Hey, if I see one and it's good, can you blame me? Judai retorted, making sure they felt just how unashamed he was about this.

"Yes."

With a happy hum, Judai finished paying for the chance and tossed his ball up in the air a few times, studying the pile of fake milk bottles carefully before glancing over at Yusei and gesturing for him to stand back a little. Once he did so, he pulled back and threw it carefully at just the right point, a little bit below the center-point considering the ball was actually big enough to hit all three at once, and watched with satisfaction as all off the bottles fell down.

"Nice," Yusei complimented, making him grin happily in return.

Now armed with a large Junk Synchron in his arms, they couldn't exactly hold hands anymore, but neither of them minded and merely walked shoulder-to-shoulder to the next game Judai had in mind - the shooting one, where you had to fully shoot out the star on a piece of paper in order to win. This one also had the real prize that Judai was aiming for, which was a fancy new duel disk with all the upgrades that his didn't have.

He really liked his old one and it worked just fine, but after a little bit of studying the inside of it Yusei had determined that he'd have to completely redo the wiring and programming on it to get it up to par with the modern ones, which utilized a little bit of the momentum powering the city when it was available. He didn't want to make the other do that, even though he'd said he'd be happy to spend the time doing so, so this was a good solution to it.

"You want another duel disk?" Yusei asked questioningly, looking over at him with a slight frown, "Are you sure? I know you like how yours looks, and I said I'd be happy to upgrade it."

"I know, but... I kinda want a new one anyway," Judai admitted, burying his face a bit into the stuffed toy in his arms, "That thing's got a lot of old memories and stuff attached to it and... I want one for the new ones, y'know? Does that- Does that make sense?"

Yusei blinked at him, something like wonder crossing through his eyes before he gave Judai a fond smile that made him feel better about his decision, "It does, don't worry. While I'm getting it for you, you decide which one you want - don't worry about the colors or anything since we can repaint it later, just look at the models and figure out which one you like."

"Oka- wait, what?" Judai replied, cutting himself off with a blink as he realized what Yusei had said, "You want to play this one?"

The little, confident smirk he got in return made his heart skip a beat as Yusei said, "I've got a bit of experience with this, I'll be just fine."

Judai watched in amazement as two minutes later, Yusei perfectly managed to cut out the star with well placed shots around it that ended up cutting it out in one piece. He knew the gun was rigged to be a bit inaccurate too, and that it took some serious skill to be able to cut off any part of the paper after the first half of the available shots due to the lack of tension in the paper, which made it even more amazing to see happen.

"So, since when have you been good with guns?" Judai asked after they'd gotten the duel disk he'd picked out - it was a round version like his old one, but the part that extended out was a little more decorated than his old ones with a few patterns cut out above the card slots. He was probably going to re-paint it in red and black since he still wanted red, but not white because that would remind him too much of his old one.

"Since I was forced into learning by a friend that's in the police force - he wanted to make sure that if I ever got dragged into another dangerous situation that I knew how to use all sorts of them well. He's a bit... eccentric when it comes to me, I suppose. I'll tell you about that later, it's a long story," Yusei explained, a self-satisfied smile still on his face, "Anyway, want to go get actual food now? It's almost four and we still haven't had anything but cotton candy."

"Is it really almost four? Damn," Judai mused, feeling how hungry he actually was now that it'd been brought up, "Alright, sounds like a plan."

And then afterwards, the Ferris Wheel, he thought, getting giddy at the thought. Maybe he was a bit too excited for something so cliche, but damn it, he was absolutely sure Yusei would get embarrassed by it and he wanted to see that.