365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Out of the Cold

11/23/19

It was a long war, but in the end... well, in an unexpected twist of events, Crow was the one who ended up losing the most. At the end of the war, he was drenched in snow, but mainly because they'd all gotten smart and made sure to hide along the outside of the clearing near the trees - when they did so, Crow then had a chance of slamming into the trees, which had huge piles of un-stabilized snow just waiting to be dropped. Unluckily for him, he did exactly this, not just once but four times because he never seemed to learn his lesson.

"Okay, I-I'll take the stupid loss, but I call first shower!" Crow stated, stuttering from the cold. Having so much snow dropped on him meant that a lot of it had gone down his coat and such, and not only was he soaked, but his clothes as well thanks to not being able to get rid of the snow fast enough.

They were all just getting back to the apartment, having walked to the park and the clearing in the first place since it wasn't that far away, so once the rest of them nodded in confirmation, Crow was quick to run ahead, into the apartment, and presumably up to his room to start peeling off those wet clothes. Needless to say, all of them that were left were glad they hadn't had such huge piles of snow dumped on them that many times, because they were having a difficult time with the cold as-is - they couldn't imagine how freezing they'd be if their clothes were completely wet and they were stuck outside with the chilly, slightly-blowing wind. Sure, they were a little damp around the edges (it was impossible to play in the snow like that and not have your clothes be a little damp) but they weren't anywhere near the level Crow achieved.

"Damn, there he goes," Judai whistled, holding a hand up to his forehead and over his eyes like he was trying to block the sun out of his vision, "What was his nickname? Crow the Bullet?"

"He's certainly living up to it right now, isn't he?" Jack snorted. He'd had his arms crossed the entire way home, not budging for anyone or anything, so it was pretty obvious he was cold; Judai wouldn't be surprised if, internally, he was tempted to just run into the apartment as well since Crow had gotten him not just a lot, but consistently over the course of the day. Judai had only targeted the poor guy maybe four or five times simply because the opportunity was too good to pass up, and he knew Yusei, despite not having quite the amount of sympathy that Judai had for his plight, had hit him seven or eight times. But Crow?

Crow dumped snow on him twenty-two times, and those are just the ones that Judai saw and counted when he wasn't too busy trying to out-smart Yusei. He wouldn't be surprised if the actual number was higher, especially if one counted failed attempts.

"He's got the right idea, though," Yusei stated, not even trying to unlock the door once they came up to it since all three of them had just witnessed Crow's dash for a shower and hot water, clearly leaving the door unlocked in the process, "Now we have to wait for him to finish if we want hot water and not room temp showers."

"Shit, you're right," Jack groaned, shedding his coat like the rest of them and tossing it on the coat rack before immediately heading upstairs to his room, "Well then, I call second shower!"

"Sounds good, third place!" Judai called back with a smirk, sharing an amused look with Yusei when Jack took the bait and yelled back something unintelligible, though he could barely make out something about being 'the king', which was par-for-the-course with Jack.

"Hot chocolate?" Yusei asked, giving him a softer, content smile once they finished laughing that Judai returned along with a happy peck to his cheek.

"Hot chocolate it is, I was just gonna ask," Judai smiled, though he left his arms wrapped around his neck in a slightly-damp, but warm hug thanks to having already taken off their coats, which took the majority of the snowballs all day and were therefore the most damp article of clothing they'd all been wearing, "I don't know if I should really be giving hot cocoa to someone that tricked me so easily, though."

"All's fair in love and war," Yusei quoted teasingly, smile turning quickly into a smirk down at him, "I think we can agree that I won, right?"

"Only because you kept playing dirty tricks!" Judai pouted, shaking him back and forth lightly as he playfully complained, "My shirt was wet for so long, same with my scarf! I had to keep pulling it away from me because the stupid thing was so cold, 'cause you kept managing to shove snow down my back!"

"And your front," Yusei reminded him, bringing a hand up to scratch through his hair lightly as if in apology.

"And my front, damn it! If I hadn't promised not to use my shadows you'd have been done for," Judai huffed, leaning into him more and relaxing, "...and this is nice, keep doin' that."

"Later. For now, let's go get the water on the stove so it can boil while we change into something warmer," Yusei replied, chuckling when Judai sighed resignedly and pulled away just enough to latch onto his arm instead so they could walk, "Judai..."

"I love you~"

"I love you, too."