365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Full Ensemble

9/1/19

Judai got a lot of presents, to say the least. He'd laughed at the disgruntled look on Jun's face under a veritable mass of colorfully wrapped boxes the previous day, and although most of them were superfluous (which he still greatly appreciated, because he finally had a place to keep them in the first place - travelling meant that almost no one was able to buy him physical presents and were forced to call him to say happy birthday, after all) a couple of them stood out. Jun and Asuka had combined theirs into a kind of 'notebook' care package, with three brand-new dot page notebooks with thick pages and new pencils and pens, and Daichi sent him a 3d-printed figure of Flame Wingman, which was apparently painted by Rei, who was his wife?

He really wanted to know the story behind that one, even more than the one behind Jun and Asuka. Before he'd left, he was pretty sure they were barely friends, not interacting much at all, which made it even weirder to think about.

The impact twenty years could have was still baffling to him sometimes.

Either way, one particular present took the prize for being the most interesting and hilarious, and it was from one Jim Crocodile Cook. Apparently, Johan and him talked a lot and had grown pretty close over the years, and he was Johan's go-to whenever he had a story to tell or was bored - this meant that when Judai had told Johan about Yusei's poncho and gun duel disk to gush about how cool they were, Johan had told Jim, and then Jim, being the intelligent man he is, came up with the brilliant idea to give him an authentic cowboy hat to match with the outfit.

Maybe I can convert you to the wonders of wearing a cowboy hat like this all the time, the card had read, which made it all the more hilarious to him. It included a picture of him, older now and still rocking the classic cowboy get-up, though this time with an actual, solid eye-patch instead of bandages, alongside a picture of him giving Johan a noogie.

Needless to say, Johan had been a bit embarrassed when he saw that, and immediately pulled out his phone to text Jim while everyone else chuckled at his misfortune.

Now that he'd gotten a nice night of sleep though, he desperately needed to see Yusei wearing the entire ensemble; when they went to finally pull themselves out of bed in the morning, he pulled the outfit together and shoved it wordlessly in a bundle in front of Yusei when he came out of the bathroom, giving him puppy eyes that he knew he wouldn't resist, even if he could in the first place.

"Alright," Yusei sighed with an exasperated smile, taking the bundle from him and grabbing his day clothes from the clothes drawer along with his jacket on the chair, "You don't have to give me that face, y'know. I fully expected this the second you got that hat yesterday."

"Doesn't hurt to add it on, though," Judai replied cheekily, flopping backwards onto the bed with a small cheer, "Go, quick!~ I need to see this so bad."

"'Need' he says," Yusei teased, complying as he shut the door to the bathroom for surprise's sake. It only took a minute or so for him to finish, and he did a little knock on the door that got Judai's attention and told him to sit up to look.

The sight he was met with was amazing, in his opinion. He thought Yusei looked pretty damn cool before, but the hat added an extra little something to the look that really solidified it - Yusei's hair spikes were flattened a little but still prominently stuck out from underneath it, streaks of yellow contrasting well with the black and browns, and his eyes were shadowed in just the right way by the lip of the hat to make his look just ever-so-slightly more intense.

The other tipped his hat a little, giving him an amused little grin at his reaction, "I'm guessing it fits well?"

"It should be illegal to look that good," Judai stated, feeling his face warm a little when Yusei let out a chuckle in response and pulled out the duel disk so he could spin it in his hand, "I still wanna learn how to do that, you make it look so easy."

Yusei hummed, not saying anything for a few seconds before pinning him with a wink and another of those evil grins that did things to his chest and said, "I'll give you... let's go with three pictures. Tell me how you want me, Judai."

He had to have worded it like that on purpose, damn it, he thought to himself, noting the way Yusei's eyes glinted when the words registered and he pulled out his phone after a pause to stumble over his mind deciding to go straight to the gutter.

It was so worth any embarrassment though, because he ended up very satisfied with the set of pictures he took, even if they'd never truly compare to the actual sight in front of him.