365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Judai's Birthday

8/31/19

To Yusei's luck, he managed to wake up before Judai, which meant he was able to sneak out of bed after a few careful movements as to not wake Judai up to make breakfast. It'd been a while since he'd last done it, and he figured a good way to start off the other's birthday would be to cook something for him - he'd been practicing his pancakes in the morning recently, so he was pretty confident in them. Plus, he'd been playing around with some of the weird fruits they'd brought back from the spirit world and discovered that a couple of them actually tasted good with chocolate chips and other sweets like that, and went surprisingly well on a pancake, so he could give him something new to try.

He got a couple messages from Johan and Manjoume while he cooked, double-checking about what they were supposed to do, and he idly replied in confirmation as he waited for the current side of the pancake to cook through. The e-mail he'd sent them was pretty detailed despite being for something relatively simple, which was to pretty much gather up as many presents from the rest of Judai's friends as they could and bring it over alongside as much freshly-made ebi fry as possible, so he hadn't been worried about whether they'd understood or not.

He'd ended up with just the two of them, mainly because everyone was busy with previous arrangements or work, so he figured they could just pick up everyone's presents and bring them to the apartment alongside lunch. That way it wasn't too big of an affair while also making sure that Judai got as many presents for his birthday as he possibly could from his friends, including those that Yusei hadn't met yet since they either weren't in the country or had very demanding jobs and simply hadn't found the time.

A couple minutes later, the pancakes were all plated and put on a tray alongside a mug of Judai's favorite coffee and a small bowl of homemade whipped cream (Judai had tried making it a single time and it was so much better that they just kept a stock of it in the fridge now); he made his way back up and put it safely to the side, sitting on the side of the bed and softly brushing the messy bed-head out of Judai's face.

"Time to wake up," Yusei stated, shaking him a little and smiling when Judai cracked his eyes open with a little, unintelligible mumble, "Happy Birthday."

That got him awake - Judai's eyes lost most of their tiredness as they snapped open the rest of the way, a happy grin appearing quickly, "Thanks love - and are those pancakes I see? Best birthday morning ever so far."

"Chocolate chip with fruit on top, I still haven't memorized the names yet of all those things," Yusei said, pausing when Judai opened his arms up for a hug that he was quick to give, "I promise it's good, though. I tried it out the other day."

Judai hummed, burying his head into his shoulder for a couple seconds before popping back up, blinking his eyes in a way that told Yusei he was still waking up fully, "Well, I'm never scared to try new food - plus you're vouching for it and it's being paired with chocolate, so it's gotta be good."

After the first bite a very content smile fell over Judai's face as he went straight for a second, and Yusei chuckled as he got a little bit of whipped cream on his nose in the process. He couldn't resist gently kissing it off once Judai was in-between bites again, getting a cute little sheepish look from Judai who clearly tried to be a bit slower in eating so he didn't accidentally make a mess. Judai did get him back though by pulling the 'birthday' card and making him let him feed him his own portion of the food, which ended up with a bit of whipped cream on his own cheek instead. Of course, Judai capitalized on that and got payback for the nose kiss before finally letting Yusei finish his food on his own.

"So, my cute Kuriboh," Yusei started once they both had finished eating, putting the tray of dirty dishes back off to the side and out of the way as he turned to face him, "You have a choice - you can get my present now, or you can get it last. I don't mind either way, but I want to give it to you when it's just us, so..."

"You've been teasing me about it since yesterday, of course I want it now," Judai replied, pouting at first before an little excited grin took over instead.

"Now then," Yusei agreed, leaning back to open his bedside table's drawer and pull out a tiny red box wrapped with a ribbon. He could feel himself getting excited as well, giddy as he finally passed it over to Judai but kept his hands close enough that he could hold the other's hands again after he'd undone the ribbon.

Judai looked at him questioningly, looking up from the box when he took his hands in his and gently slid the box out as he spoke, "First of all, this is the project I've been working on the last two days, in case you're wondering. Second of all..."

He popped the lid of the box off with his thumb, letting it fall forgotten onto the bed as he focused on the way Judai's eyes widened, face flushing after a moment when what he was seeing really sunk in.

"Y-Yusei-"

"It's not an actual one - I think we both can agree that it's too early for that," Yusei explained softly, gently pulling one of Judai's hands forward before taking one ring out of the box and sliding it onto his ring finger, "But I thought it'd be nice to have something... physical for us, especially when I thought about how there's most likely going to be times in the future where we're apart for a bit of time. So, promise rings." When he saw that Judai was starting to tear up a little, a silly little smile on his face that was very similar to the one he'd worn when they'd first confessed to each other, Yusei grinned, pulling out the other ring and holding it out to him, "Here, want to put mine on for me?"

Judai nodded, taking the ring from him and grabbing his hand this time instead, breathing out quietly, "Of course I do, you lovely man. You made these?"

"It took a few tries and a couple lectures from the one monster there that knew how to make jewelry, but yes, I did," Yusei replied, chuckling along with Judai before asking, "You like them? I kept them simple, but they've got a couple engravings on them... on the inside, too."

"I love them," Judai laughed, rubbing one of his eyes with the back of his hand and giving him that signature bright-eyed smile that Yusei loved, "I love you even more, though."

"I love you too," he smiled, pulling him forward and onto his lap so he could wrap him into a bear hug and kiss him. Judai's heart was beating just as fast as his was, and he grinned at the feeling of the rings on their hands when they let their fingers intertwine; the next few minutes were filled with little whispered 'I love you's and sweet kisses and soft laughter, everything else in the world fading away to just them.

They sighed happily in sync after with their foreheads pressed together, which eventually broke them out of the soft moment as they broke out into much louder laughter, pulling apart and grinning at each other.

"I don't think any other birthday present I get is going to hold a candle to this, Yusei."

"Trust me, I know. I'm just wondering what the hell I'm going to do next year because I don't think I can top this... speaking of which, we need to get ready for the day."

"Ah that's right, you said you'd planned something!" Judai remembered - Yusei noted that he'd started to absentmindedly rub the ring on his finger as he talked, trying to figure out what he'd done for the day. It made him happy and a little relieved to know that he liked it so much and had responded so positively, even if he'd already known on the inside that that was exactly how he'd react.

Still, Yusei needed to distract him from the long list of guesses he was spouting out, so he idly nudged Judai up and out of the bed towards the bathroom while he brought up a different topic, "The metal the rings are made out of is incredibly durable, by the way. If you ever need to punch something while you're wearing it, it'll hurt them way more than it'll hurt you."

Judai snorted, easily taking the bait and switching the conversation, "Aw, you made it with self defense in mind! You're so cute, you gearhead."

"I figured if anyone was going to get into a fight, it would probably be you, what with the spirit world protection and all that... it might as well be useful for something other than being a very meaningful keepsake if it can be, y'know?"

He grumbled as Judai reached up and rubbed his cheeks around while teasing him, but Yusei would happily grin and bear it - all he needed was the feeling of the ring on his hand and the continued amazed and slightly-flustered looks Judai kept giving his own ring throughout the rest of the day.