365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Cat Communication

8/3/19

This time, it was Yusei's turn to have a nice, long chat with Pharaoh. All three of them were on the couch, and Judai was idly scrolling through his phone with an arm wrapped around the other, who had Pharaoh sitting next to him and meowing in response to any and all questions Yusei had for him.

Judai still remembered what the cat had told him before, when he'd been able to actually talk with him himself - he'd been informed about what'd happened while he'd been gone, and was happy to hear that the professor hadn't moved on yet and was instead roaming around the outskirts of different spirit realms trying to fill in even more of his historical records. It'd been partially inspired by Judai's journey to figure out how to jump through time, since in the end he'd sought out an unknown group of duel monsters in a very remote, unexplored area that were able to help him out; learning that whole groups of monsters existed out in the middle of nowhere was reason enough for Daitokuji to pack up his bags, tell Pharaoh to go live a good life, and hit the road.

The professor would probably find some way of informing him that he was back when he returned (provided it was in the next sixty years, of course) so Judai just had to look forward to that day. He was interested to hear about everything the other had discovered, which would hopefully in turn help him with figuring out a more permanent solution of fighting back Darkness and the Light of Destruction.

He'd done a pretty good job of that so far - he'd been forced to actively seek them out right before he jumped through time, if only to make sure nothing happened while he was gone, but it was only temporary. Judai was determined, though, and he wanted to make sure he had a better solution so that he didn't have to worry Yusei so much.

Seeking out the two forces' influence in the spirit world and on Earth was far too time consuming to feasibly do with his situation now, after all. The last thing he ever wanted to do was to have to leave for a solid couple months hunting down corruption, which was something he'd done before and wasn't a pleasant experience in the slightest. Now that he had Yusei to think about, he couldn't just gallivant off into the corners of the world and therefore needed to find a way to prevent that.

"What're you thinkin' about?" Yusei asked, snapping him out of his thoughts and to the other under his arm.

"Ah, not much," Judai replied, shrugging the thoughts out of his head for now - worrying so much about it now wasn't very conducive to actually making anything happen, after all, "Did you guys finish talking? Where'd Pharaoh go?"

"Yeah, he said he was going out to beg for treats," Yusei chuckled, "Apparently there's a popular park around here where lots of kids like to give him snacks."

"I wonder if I need to bring him to the vet again just in case. He could very well get fat in a bad way if this keeps up," Judai noted, opening up a reminder on his phone and setting it to remind him in a few days about Pharaoh.

"At least he exercises," Yusei smiled.

They both shared a look before glancing down at each other and catching each other's eyes again in sheepishness.

"Y'know, we should probably do that, like run together or workout or something," Judai stated, starting to pet Yusei again now that his attention was fully back on him.

Yusei nodded in agreement, letting out a content hum before replying, "We have weights somewhere in the main closet, but I don't know where in it they are."

"That's fine, we can just stick with other things for now then. Not running, though, it's too hot for that right now - when the weather cools down a bit, then we can," he said with a grin,

"I'll think about it later," Yusei concluded, proceeding to give Judai a happy surprise by sitting up straighter and flipping himself onto his lap to curl up into him, "For now though, more pets."

"You really like this, huh?" Judai mused, leaning down to put a quick kiss to the tip of his nose, "I still say I should go get a little bit of catnip right now, to see how it affects you and-"

"No, dammit."

"Was worth another shot."

"That's the fourth shot you've taken today..."

"It's a revolver man, I've got two more shots. I'm feeling pretty lucky, y'know."

Yusei rolled his eyes at the joke, burying his face into his chest so he didn't have to look at him. Judai chuckled and merely hugged him tight, rubbing their cheeks together and grinning at the laugh it pulled out of the other.

Silence fell for a few minutes, and right as Judai was about to check if Yusei had fallen asleep or something, the other spoke up and asked, "Can we have something with fish for dinner?"

Judai snorted at the question, still getting a kick out of how much being a cat was affecting Yusei, "Sure, haven't cooked with fish in a little while."

As they discussed what to make that was seafood for dinner, Judai continued to gently stroke the other's ears, feeling vaguely like he could go back to sleep. Afterwards, Yusei was the first to succumb to taking a cat nap and Judai found himself following soon after, feeling very comfortable sitting there on the couch like that and with Yusei in his arms.