365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

Christmas Plans

12/22/19

"So what's everyone planning to do for Christmas?" Lua asked later once everyone was all settled down. It'd taken a couple hours, though that was mostly because all the kids were excited to see Jack again after so long - usually whenever he came over it was either to do something for Martha or drop something off, so they never got to see him that often or for more than a couple minutes when they did. Crow visited a lot more since a couple of the kids there were ones he'd spent a long time protecting, and Yusei was more reserved than his two brothers which the kids seemed to subconsciously pick-up on since they didn't attempt to ever dog-pile him.

That wasn't what would spare Judai though - instead, he was spared because he was the one that would materialize their duel monsters to play with them. After all, who had time to dog-pile a guy when they had their duel monsters to play with instead? The more quiet kids seemed to like to talk with him too, listening more than talking in actuality but he was more than happy to do it whenever he and Yusei visited.

They tried to visit once a month for the most part, especially since Yusei didn't want to get called out by Martha for not visiting in five months like the first time they'd gone, which ended up not being too hard; they always had weekends to fill out and it wasn't difficult to just take a day and decide to go visit. Even when Yusei had classes, there were always weeks where he had light work so their weekends were basically free to do whatever they wanted.

"I'm not entirely sure beyond presents and stuff in the morning, but Carly's coming over so I'm sure she and I'll come up with something to pass the time," Judai replied, shrugging with a relaxed grin, "Besides, who knows what's in those presents? There'll probably be plenty to play around with after we open them."

"That's true," Luka smiled, watching the other table where Jack was currently regaling a group of children with a highly exaggerated story of a duel he'd had while he was the champion, "Mom said something about going out somewhere, but when we asked about it neither of our parents would say a word..."

"I wanna know where so badly, but it's a secret!" Lua complained, though he didn't look very upset about it considering it was basically a Christmas gift by nature, "I'm excited for presents though, there's a whole bunch under the tree already and I wanna open them already!"

"I understand that way too well," Crow groaned, laying on the table with a childish pout on his face, "I swear, every time I pass our tree I get more and more curious, especially after we got all those packages in the mail. That was a little ridiculous how much there was, now that I think about it."

"It definitely makes it more interesting... I have to admit even I'm more than a little curious about what's in them," Yusei stated, giving Judai a knowing look afterwards, "Plus I'm pretty sure more keep getting added somehow."

"Well, just more to open then!" Judai grinned, letting it turn into a little bit more of a smirk when he turned towards Yusei; he squeezed his hand under the table teasingly and bit back a laugh at the raised eyebrow he got in return.

"Huh... now that I think about it, do you guys do the whole 'open a present at midnight' thing?" Lua wondered, suddenly looking thoughtful, "Our parents told us it was kind-of a tradition of sorts, and it sounds cool. We can stay up 'til midnight easily!"

"Lua, we've done that tradition for years, but you're the one who always falls asleep before hand!" Luka reminded him, her exasperated sigh making it seem like they'd had this conversation multiple times before, "It's not our fault you don't stay up long enough for it, they used to do it... beforehand as well, it's not a new idea!"

"I used to do that too," Judai mused, thinking back to the few years where either one or both of his parents were there for Christmas - it was something they actually tried to be home for, which he could appreciate a little bit at least, even if they sucked in pretty much all other aspects, "It's pretty fun, though usually my parents would pick out what present I got to open so it wasn't too big, otherwise I'd be up all night wanting to use it."

"Sounds smart - I'd imagine you'd be hard to put to bed on a normal night," Yusei teased, nudging him lightly even as Judai rolled his eyes in return.

"Ha ha, yes, very funny," he drawled, moving on from his point, "Either way, sounds fun to do again if you guys are up for it. We'll pick out one for each person beforehand so it's not too big, we all know what we got each other after all."

"Glad I haven't actually wrapped my gifts yet then, 'cause I gotta split one of them up in that case," Crow blinked, going to say more before he was interrupted by a ball hitting him in the side - it sounded like a fairly light hit, but it was a hit regardless, and he immediately turned to see who'd thrown it with a mischievous grin on his face, stating, "Alright, who threw that?! 'Cause big bro Crow is ready to get his revenge!"

The conversation was effectively derailed thanks to the distraction, but it was a simple shift to discussing all the different ways Crow was getting his ass metaphorically handed to him by a bunch of children. It got especially lively once Martha joined the conversation and everyone gathered around to see the pictures Crow had promised, though a few of them were saved just for Martha's eyes (like the mistletoe one, for instance).

At least Judai and Yusei weren't the only ones getting embarrassed here as Jack was quick to join them in their mock sulking in the corner of the room.