365 Days of Starshipping (Part 2)

New Year's Plans

12/29/19

With only a few days left until the end of the year, they really needed to figure out what their plans were. Judai remembered that Jack and Crow had gone to a tournament last time, hence why he was able to get about a week alone with Yusei when he initially arrived, but he wasn't entirely sure if that was their plan again this year. Plus, he was pretty sure he needed to start looking at tournaments again as well just to keep his rank up in the pro leagues, and he wouldn't be able to duel in that first tournament he'd participated in this year because he was too high of a rank now.

It was easiest just to ask, though, so Judai simply asked them the next time all four of them were together. He talked with Yusei about it beforehand, but... well, considering what Yusei was doing when he arrived on New Year's this year, he really didn't do much to celebrate it. Judai just needed to know how many people were going to be around before he made any plans for the night so he make the right amount of food and drinks.

"What're we all doing on New Year's? Are you guys doing that tournament again?" Judai asked, sipping at a hot cup of coffee that Yusei had made for him - he was tired since he'd woken up a bit too early, and it was currently far too early in the afternoon for him to fall asleep without ruining his sleep schedule. He wasn't entirely sure if he added some extra caffeine or something though since he was wide awake soon after his first few sips, and we was pretty sure that if this kept up he'd be shaky from a caffeine rush when he finished drinking it all.

"I'm not," Jack replied, his own laptop out in front of him for once as he tapped away sending out emails - it wasn't often that Jack did stuff in the living room, but Judai figured it had something to do with the holiday atmosphere and spirit right now, "What about you, Crow?"

"I'm not doing it either this year," Crow shrugged, currently utilizing the tablet holder that they'd made for the movie night during the summer and watching a show. That little holder had turned out to be one of the best spur of the moment ideas they'd had yet, and it'd gotten tons of use by all of them since then, even leading to a couple more movie nights... including one in particular where Crow'd had the great idea to watch a horror movie, with Judai hopping on board enthusiastically, only for both of them to be the most terrified in the end.

Something about well-done horror movies was just extremely unsettling, no matter how many real-life shit shows he'd witnessed that would be considered much, much worse to have happen.

"So we're all going to be here on New Year's Eve and New Year's?" Judai double-checked, getting nods from everyone in response, "Cool, I'm gonna cook somethin' good and I needed to know how much to make."

"I'm inviting Carly over again, then," Jack stated, clearly knowing that none of them had a problem with that. If anything, they really wanted her to come in case they accidentally annoyed him too much - with her around, they could tease him a lot more without him getting too upset. Of course, they would never abuse this fact, but it was still an important one to make note of.

"We can finally play that board game we got from the twins with her," Yusei smiled, looking up from his tablet to glance towards the closet where said board game was currently being stored, "We never got around to it on Christmas."

"Oh yeah, we didn't do that, huh?" Crow realized, pausing his show once it was clear they'd be talking for a bit, "And didn't we get a card game from one of Judai's friends?"

"Yeah, that was Asuka and Thunder," Judai said, sipping at his coffee again and feeling that caffeine rush slowly start to kick in. Daichi and Rei had also given them all little painted, printed pieces of their monsters to use as custom game pieces, which he'd actually known about since they came to him to ask who everyone's spirit partners were. It was probably the only present he'd known about beforehand, purely because of the nature of it, but it was definitely worth the looks of pleasant surprise on the others' faces when they opened them.

"We should bet again based on who wins and who loses," Crow suggested with a grin, getting all three of them to look at him with varying looks of confusion.

"Wow, I thought you would've not wanted to do that after losing so hard in the snowball war," Judai pointed out, the other two unable to stop their snorts of amusement at the reminder of a soaked-to-the-bone Crow.

"Yeah, well, this isn't a snowball war, plus Jack's the one with the highest board game loss rate here-"

"I do not have the highest loss rate," Jack interrupted, a twitch forming in one of his eyebrows as he leaned back in his seat with his arms crossed and glared at him, "I'm pretty sure that's you."

"Actually... that would be you, Jack," Yusei stated factually, having Jack's stare of death turn to him instead. He seemed completely unaffected though, merely blinking and raising an amused eyebrow in response, continuing, "What? It's true, the last six games of board games we've played with you, you've been the first one out in four of them. You are getting better at them, though."

What went unspoken was that these were strategy board games with resource management as a main component of the game, something that Jack wasn't the best at. However, he was definitely improving the more they played it, so that was a good thing - it was clear that strategy didn't come easy to him, so the fact that he hadn't been the first one out the last two times they'd played was a good indicator of his improvement.

"Alright, y'know what? Bet. I won't be the loser of it," Jack huffed, challenging all of them at the same time.

"How do we factor Carly into this?" Judai wondered, frowning at the realization that it wasn't just the four of them that would be playing, "We can't exactly include her in the bet unless we significantly limit the options..."

"We'll just say that the placement is purely based on us four, no matter where she ends up placing," Yusei decided, pausing for a moment before adding, "Though if she wins, I say we all are the losers and she gets to decide what we have to do."

"Ooh, raising the stakes, I like that," Crow said, all of them grinning in agreement with the proposal, "I say we play right now, no bets and just for extra practice then. I'm in the mood now."

"Same," Jack replied, shutting his laptop firmly and standing up to put it back safely in his room, "Do any of them, I don't care which."

At the same time, Judai kicked back the last bit of his coffee, feeling the full, shaky caffeine rush by now and grinning in excitement - he couldn't wait to beat them all again (hopefully, considering he was actually practically even in wins with Yusei). He did ask for another coffee, though, but this time without the extra caffeine in it; turns out Yusei had indeed added an extra shot of espresso to it just to make sure he crashed when the time finally came to sleep, something he sheepishly admitted before getting pounced and tickled for punishment while Crow watched and cackled before helping Judai out by holding down his arms. Jack just gave a short snicker when he finally returned, ignoring his brother's dying laughter in favor of going and choosing the game himself seeing as they were all clearly busy.

Yusei ended up destroying all of them in every round of the game they played, though, so he got his revenge in the end.