365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Comparisons

12/9/19

It came to mind one day, while Judai was sitting and had some time to just draw while Yusei was still off and stuck taking the rest of his finals, just how different this Christmas was compared to how he'd spent it last year. Hell, last year's Christmas was a bit of a blur, but at least he'd been able to celebrate a little bit... in his own mind.

Last year at Christmas was when he'd been on the breakthrough point for travelling through time, and even though he was kinda fond of that time period now, he was infinitely happier with being able to spend it with friends and Yusei instead of in a random (not-so-random, actually, since it'd taken literal ages for him to find) plane of the spirit dimension with only himself, Yubel, and Haou. Successfully jumping through time was practically his late Christmas gift to himself, at that point.

"I don't think I could've imagined life right now if I'd tried back then," Judai mused quietly, feeling Yubel and Haou stir in agreement as his pencil lightly stroked the page. He was determined to sketch out the picture he wanted for the presents and the recipes, and he had a feeling that it was going to take a couple of tries before he was fully satisfied with what he'd drawn. It'd probably help if he had a solid idea of exactly what food the kit would be for, considering they were still tentatively deciding between a couple of things that could actually utilize a kit like that, but he had a generic idea of what the design could be at least so he worked with that.

"Last Christmas was when you found the stupid place, remember?" Yubel recalled, sounding slightly amused yet pained due to the nature of that particular memory - Judai knew exactly why once she mentioned it, though, because finally finding the place where he could discover how to time travel also came with him getting knocked out from behind before he could see much more of it. It was a pretty tense couple of days after that, mainly for Yubel and Haou since Judai wasn't actually conscious half the time and the duel spirits who'd knocked him out kept keeping him out with magic, but it'd ultimately been a good thing in the end since he was deemed safe.

"I still can't believe you got knocked out," Haou said, the words almost bitter on his tongue but also laced with a teasing tone, "From behind, no less. And then kept under for three days."

"Well, it ended up being fine in the end, didn't it?" Judai smiled, feeling a little sheepish when the other two audibly sighed in response, "Okay, you two are exaggerating just a little! Besides, we got here in the end, didn't we?"

"You are so lucky that those Time Thief spirits are well-mannered and nice for the most part, disregarding the mind-walking they did," Yubel stated, which... yeah, Judai couldn't counter that with anything because she was right. Hell, half the reason why he wasn't kicked out or anything like that ended up being because one of the higher-ups there was an absolute sucker for 'true-love' stories, and him wanting to travel through time to be with Yusei fit the bill perfectly in that regard.

He wasn't dead and he got approved for time travel, which is all he really cares about in the end. And now, roughly a year later, he's getting to spend his first Christmas in... a really long time, actually, with not just the love of his life but all his old and new friends, too.

As he sketched out some smiling expressions on the page, he smiled as well, knowing that he was finally, truly happy now after what felt like years of turmoil and feeling lost. It was a nice feeling, and he could feel Yubel and Haou's feelings line up with his in contentment.

...He felt like hugging Yusei now, damn it. Thank the gods he'd be home in an hour or so because he'd only had one class that day, or else Judai was sure he'd have started getting fidgety from waiting.