365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Long Day

11/2/19

"I'm home," Yusei announced, letting his bag fall off his shoulder and onto the desk chair with a sigh of relief. He was greeted with a yell in response from the kitchen, though it was pretty much unintelligible thanks to the sound of dishes clanking and water running from the sink - clearly Judai'd been busy cooking again, plus it smelled really good in the apartment too.

Is that cinnamon or something? Yusei mused, sniffing the air lightly before shrugging to himself and simply going into the kitchen to ask the man himself. He walked right up behind Judai from where he was washing dishes and wrapped him in a hug, leaning down and burying his head into his neck with another sigh.

"That tickles," Judai chuckled, letting out a louder laugh when Yusei purposefully moved his head in a way that he knew would tickle him more, "Hey!"

"I love you," Yusei said, smothering the laughter with a kiss before settling his head back into his neck.

"Love you too," Judai replied, sounding highly amused with his antics as he set the clean dish off to the side to dry and grabbed another one, "Let me guess, class was both boring and tiring today?"

"Yes."

"I knew it. I'm a genius."

"Clearly," Yusei muttered playfully, soaking in Judai's warmth for a bit more before letting go of him so the other could finish up faster, "Is dinner in the fridge?"

"Yup, I just put it in too so it should still actually be warm," Judai said, sending him a softer smile when he looked over, "Just throw it in the microwave for like, twenty seconds if it's not warm enough, though. I'll be done in a few minutes, there's not that much left."

Yusei hummed, finding pretty quickly the odd container out that hadn't been there when he'd gotten breakfast in the morning and put a hand on it to see how warm it was - it was warm, but not enough for his tastes so into the microwave it went. He perched himself on the kitchen table while he waited the short amount of time, happily stretching and popping various parts of his body.

"So, what's in the oven?" Yusei asked, noting finally that the lights were on above the stove and that the glow from the heat inside was lighting it up. It had to be the source of the smell, which only made him more curious.

"Oh! Well, remember how I said I needed to practice apple recipes? I decided to try my hand at some cinnamon apple pie," Judai answered, sounding pretty excited by it, "Even tried to decorate the top of it, though we'll have to see how it comes out. I seriously need to make pie crust more..."

Ah, that's why he was so excited - he decorated it. If there was one thing Yusei had learned about Judai, it's that he always got more than a little excited about doing food art; he only really noticed when they'd decorated those sugar cookies together last month, but ever since then it'd been fairly obvious to him when it happened.

A quick glance at the oven timer told him that it still had twenty minutes left on it, so it'd probably be done just in time for Yusei to both eat and take a quick shower for the night. With that in mind, he took the food out of the microwave when it beeped and started eating it a little faster than usual, partly to make sure he finished quickly and partly because it was really good.

"...What is this anyway?" Yusei asked in between bites, stabbing another bite with his fork and making sure to get a little bit of everything on it.

"It's kinda an alternate take on chile verde... basically meat, veggies, and some extra spices 'cause I know you like it spicy," Judai replied, setting his last dish on the drying rack and turning to give him a wink, "Figured you'd like it if I did that."

"I'd like it even if you hadn't," Yusei retorted, though he gave him a thankful smile anyway, "It's definitely good like this though."

Judai took a seat next to him, pulling out the chair and stretching out over the table with a yawn, "Man, it's been a long day... sometimes I dunno what to do when you're gone, y'know?"

"I'm sure it's not that hard to come up with something," Yusei said, nudging him lightly with his leg under the table.

"It's not, but it sure feels hard for those first few minutes," Judai sighed. Yusei had to smile though when he saw the way Judai almost subconsciously seemed to touch the ring on his hand, relaxing ever-so-slightly at the feel of it; it was an action he found himself doing often throughout the day as well, fingering the ring hanging around his neck and hidden under his shirt for safekeeping. Making those had to be one of the best decisions he'd made yet.

"At least my schedule's some semblance of normal for once, though - it's nice to know I'm not going to get called into an emergency meeting at one in the morning for a while," Yusei mused, scraping up the last of what was in the bowl for one more bite.

"That's true," Judai agreed, sitting back up and stealing the empty bowl right out from under him along with nabbing the fork right out of his hand, "I'll wash these, you go take a shower, okay? I'm sure you need it if today was as boring as you said it was."

"I could've done that..." Yusei mumbled, though he knew it was no use arguing and simply gave him a kiss instead, "Thanks, though I'm rushing it anyway because I want that pie, it smells too good."

"I mean, I have to let it cool for a little before I cut into it, so you've really got an extra ten minutes or so- h-hey, okay okay I get it! You gotta hurry for my heavenly, divine pie, my bad-"

Yusei still didn't stop giving him eskimo kisses until he was satisfied.