365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Candy Store

9/9/19

Yusei blinked as they came around a corner, getting a strong enough feeling of recognition to pause in his tracks and stare while trying to figure out why he recognized it. Judai was pulled to a stop as well, but he didn't make anything except a little questioning noise when he looked back and saw him looking focused.

"...Ah, that's why I recognize it," Yusei realized, the slight frown he'd been wearing relaxing into a satisfied smile, "If you go down this street here, then the waterway is only a few blocks down and around a few of the buildings, along with our little spot if you follow the trail from there."

"Oh, is it?" Judai wondered, looking around for a few seconds himself before his face lit up in recognition as well, "Hey, yeah, you're right! There's that one candy shop we always pass by whenever we hang out out here - always wanted to go, guess we can now, huh?"

"No reason not to," Yusei agreed, letting Judai take the lead a slight step ahead of him as usual. He was perfectly content with being led around by him since he could space out a little and simply take in all the sights, focusing on his boyfriend instead if he ever got tired of trying to find all the details of the city.

It helped that Judai was really good at using his powers to hide them in plain sight. Essentially, he was able to use just a tiny bit around them so that it made them less noticeable, and no one paid much attention to them as a result - he'd been a little rusty at using it with more than just himself at first when they'd first started going out together in public, often using a bit too much instead of too little, but he'd gotten good enough that he could do it with barely a thought after a lot of practice.

Poor Crow and Jack had been the unfortunate victims during said practice, but it was pretty funny to see them startle a bit whenever they'd pause and realize that yes, there was someone standing in the corner of the room watching them, and no, they had not noticed beyond a single stray thought about how something existed in that general space at first.

The candy shop was a bit cooler than the outside, which was a pretty cold temperature considering the sun was set to go down soon and it had been cooler than the previous months for most of the day already, which led to Yusei pulling his jacket off from his waist to put on - it was a new one they'd found earlier that day at a random labeling and decal shop they'd ran across and entered upon seeing the cool-looking display of shirts and hoodies in the tiny window they had; it had a bit of fur lining but was thin overall, perfect for cool temperatures that weren't too cold, and had a little, minimal red crab design placed just below the hood of it and on each cuff of the sleeves.

Needless to say, Judai had seen it, barked out a laugh, and ordered a custom one on the spot, which was a bit amusing to witness because he'd been able to list Yusei's measurements for it off the top of his head. He'd known that the other had figured them out for when he'd gotten them their original pair of hoodies, but he hadn't thought he'd gone and memorized them. Then, since it was early on in the morning that they'd found it, they'd been able to make their way back after half the day had passed and pick it up.

"Oh man, are these considered old school now?" Judai wondered, picking up a box of chocolate-covered mint candies with a brand name he didn't recognize, "I used to eat these all the time when I was a kid..."

"Grab a few, I wanna try them," Yusei stated, holding up the basket he'd grabbed from the entrance knowing that there was no way they'd be walking out without at least a bagful of candy, "If you see any others you recognize, then grab those too. You can probably guess already that I pretty much haven't tried any of these, so I'm trusting your judgment on this."

"I won't disappoint you!" Judai saluted with a silly grin, immediately taking the basket from his hands and making his way down the aisle while tossing tons of boxes and packages into it.

He's literally being a kid in a candy aisle right now, Yusei thought, highly amused by the sight as he followed behind and watched with one brow raised and a quirked smile. They went through nearly ever aisle like this, which ended up being a little surprising because by the end of it he hadn't needed to go fetch another basket like he'd anticipated he would.

Though, when they got to the counter, something else finally caught Yusei's eye. It was one of those places that combined a candy store with an ice cream shop along the counter, and this particular one had ice cream floats available - they had interesting names with the actual, readable flavor listed below them, but the one that interested him the most was a pretty galaxy float that was a mixed berry flavor.

"Did you want somethin' from here?" Judai asked, clearly noticing where his attention had gone and looking for himself now, "Those do look pretty good... I could go for some ice cream right now."

"The galaxy float."

"Ah, that one? Ooh, that one's cool, I'm totally stealing a little bit from you."

"Only if you give me some of whatever ice cream you get."

"Deal."

They managed to walk to their little spot along the waterway before they'd finished their respective treats, which both ended up being sweet and delicious (Yusei still liked his the best, mainly because it was both weird and fascinating to him that a drink could literally be made with sparkles and galaxy color gradient), and they spent the next hour simply resting their legs from all the walking and snacking away on some of the candy they'd bought.

It was a nice way to end the day, and they both agreed that they definitely needed to start doing this more often from now on.