His nerves gather and twisted his gut into tight knots and he couldn't help biting his lip. Judai couldn't believe he was about to do this. The last time he'd tried, he'd ended up coming too early, but this time, just maybe, he'd finally gotten it right. For him, it'd been years, but for the other how long would it have been? A couple days? Hours? Maybe even a month?

The brunette swallowed hard before raising his hand to knock. His hand shook terribly, and he hesitated. What if it had been too long? This was a mistake. He couldn't follow through with this. Paradox was one thing, but he couldn't mess up the other's timeline any more than that had.

'Will you just knock already?' Haou bit at him, as usual rather short and irritated about every little detail.

'He said he hoped to see you one day. Why not make it today?' Yubell continued, much gentler than the other inhabitant on his soul.

Before Judai could either reply to them or make up his mind, the door opened itself, revealing a homely older woman who didn't hesitate to smile widely at him.

"Goodness, I wasn't expecting any company today. Who are you, young man?" She asked.

"I'm J-" Judai barely got a word out before someone else cut in.

"Martha, I'm heading- J-Judai?" The familiar voice and sound of things dropping made Judai snap to attention, looking behind the woman to see a familiar man standing at the base of the stairs with dropped tools at his feet.

Martha jumped at the sudden crash and looked back at the raven inside, "You know him, Yusei?"

Yusei only nodded, seeming about as lost for words as Judai for a moment. He collected himself quickly and bent down to pick up what he'd dropped. "Yeah, I know him. He's a friend. I just wasn't expecting to see him again. I thought he moved across the ocean." He explained smoothly, not even stumbling over the cover story of how they actually met.

"I see, well, come on in then, sweetheart. Any friend of Yusei's is family." Martha invited happily, stepping aside and ushering the other in.

Judai could hardly believe it as he walked in. He'd done it. Finally, he came at the right time. Yusei recognized him! He eagerly followed Martha inside and let himself be lead into a small living room. She made him sit down while Yusei vanished to presumably go put his things away and she went to make them some tea.

It didn't take long at all until Yusei was back. The other sat down on the couch beside him and they both just stared for awhile, unsure of how to begin. Thankfully, curtesy of Martha, they both soon had tea to distract them and mull over the awkward silence.

"I can't believe you actually came," Yusei finally said, looking up at Judai from his cup. "I was beginning to think you forgot."

"F-Forgot? No way! Hey, man. When I make a promise, I keep it. I'd never forget." Judai shook his head, relieved one of them finally spoke up. "Time's just a really weird thing. It took me a couple years to even get here and even then, it was too early the first time and-"

"The first time?" Yusei normally hated interrupting others, but he was sure he hadn't met Judai until the events with Paradox almost a year ago.

Judai shook his head and waved him off, "Paradox for me happened when I was 17. I was in Italy just trying to help those like me when he attacked…That was…well, I think it was over 20 years ago."

"20 years? You're 37?!" Yusei couldn't believe him. Sure, Judai looked older, but not that much older.

Judai laughed brightly at the face the other was giving him. He remembered Yusei being stoic, so the shocked look he had was unexpected. "No, no, I'm actually 21."

"But how?" The other tilted his head, surprise quickly turning to interest and confusion. He started mentally trying to take apart every possible way the other could be only 21 when supposedly 20 years had passed since he was 17.

"I found a way into the spirit world and found a Time Wizard. They helped send me into the future, so I could find you."

Yusei listened intently as Judai explained how long it had taken to even find an entrance into the duel spirit world, and then track down one of the apparently illusive wizards. Something was bothering him the entire time, though. He really couldn't keep it to himself.

"Judai, believe me, I'm glad to see you, but…What about your friends from your time?" He asked, frowning a little. "You left them…"

Judai's smile saddened but didn't vanish. He shrugged and took a long drink of his tea. "Really, we were already separated. Alexis went off to college and we lost touch, and I hadn't heard from Sirus since I'd left Duel Academy. I guess I could have gone to find them again, but too much time passed. I kinda just figured they had moved on already, you know."

Yusei still didn't look all too comforted by his answer at all, and Judai really couldn't blame him. It must honestly sound like he didn't value or care about his friends all that much since he'd seemed so willing to leave them behind like that just to reunite with Yusei.

"I doubt they did…They probably missed you." Yusei said with a sigh, knowing his friends would be furious with him were he to vanish for 20 years and then turn up not a day older than when he'd left.

"You're probably right," Judai chuckled a little, rubbing the back of his neck. "But, they're fine. I mean, I kinda already cut all ties with them when I went off on my own anyway."

Yusei shook his head, but dropped the subject, finishing off his drink. "If you've been in the time warp for 20 years, I'm assuming you don't have a place to stay?"

"A-A place to stay?" Judai sounded like he hadn't even thought of that, and in truth he hadn't. He just figured he'd meet up with Yusei again and go from there, not that that had worked out so well the first time.

Yusei smiled a bit in amusement and stood up, collecting their cups once Judai finished his. "I didn't think so. Why don't you stay here with Martha and I until you get that figured out? She won't mind and there's space in my room for another bed."

"What? No, I can't, Yusei. Technically, you both just met me. I couldn't." Judai protested, getting up as well.

"It's fine, Judai. You can stay with us until you find somewhere to stay for yourself if you want, but neither Martha or I am going to let you be homeless until then." Yusei insisted, walking out of the room to the kitchen to wash their cups. He returned shortly, glad the other hadn't tried to sneak off while he was busy. "Follow me. You can put your bag in my room and then we can go get the other bed."

Judai wasn't given another chance to protest as the other just turned and walked out of the room, leaving him to scramble to grab his bag and follow after him like a lost puppy.

Lunara: I've noticed a lack of Starshipping fics, so I decided to help change that! I hope you enjoy this as much as I'm already enjoying writing it.

Thank you for reading! Reviews and Favorites greatly appreciated!