Judai never had been that good at keeping track of time - the best he could do was rely on his stomach, which at least reminded him when his next mealtime was close.
It was different with Johan. With Johan, he'd missed lunch and dinner many more times than he cared to count.
Johan duelled on Judai's level - not just their closely matched skills, but their attitudes were so similar that often when they were together, Judai's world shrunk down to nothing but the two of them and their respective decks. Lunch could pass and the sun could set in what felt like the blink of an eye, and Judai easily didn't notice.
Today - now 'tonight' - had been like that. Dinner was long over, and the two were left with little other choice than grabbing sandwiches from Tome-san's shop.
"I'll walk you to your dorm," Johan offered. "I need to stretch my legs a little more after standing still for so long."
They ate as they walked. Neither was in a rush to get to where they were going, and so their pace was a leisurely amble down the hill to the red dorm.
"Sometimes I envy you," Johan sighed around a smile and a mouthful of bread. "The main campus is so beautiful and green all the time. North campus is much colder and barren."
"It is a pretty sweet deal," Judai agreed. "But it comes at the cost of a lot of crazy stuff going on."
"My gem beasts like it here too," Johan continued. "I feel lucky that I got to come, especially on nights like this."
He looked up at the sky, and Judai followed his gaze, to where the stars were scattered in flecks of white across the black canvas.
"I guess that makes me lucky too, then," Judai agreed. "You can't see stars this bright in Domino." He noticed Johan smiling at him, differently than usual. "...what?"
"Sometimes the sky makes me think of you," Johan admitted, without a trace of embarrassment.
Judai could only stare blankly. "Because of the Neospacians?"
Johan's laughter rung out, clear and high like the sound of a bell. "That could be part of it. But I was thinking more about how the sky is infinite, the same as you... you have such infinite potential."
Judai grinned at Johan with his eyebrows quirked in confusion. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about."
Johan returned the grin. "I don't really know either."
"So I'm the sky, huh. What does that make you?" Judai looked out across the horizon, his face thoughtful. "Maybe the ocean."
Johan's smile never left his face. "Why do you think that?"
Because the sometimes-gentle waves of the ocean held such unfathomable strength, much like the power hidden beneath Johan's deceptively gentle exterior. And yet, the sound of the waves that had so often rocked Judai to sleep for the past two years was calming, almost healing. And the ocean, whether it was glittering under the sun, reflecting the moon, or silver beneath the clouds, was always beautiful. And Johan was much the same; the early morning Johan with sleepy eyes and bed hair, the passionate Johan with bright eyes and an even brighter smile in the middle of a duel and the peaceful Johan in those still, quiet moments of downtime… no matter what, he always shone.
"Uh… your hair is kind of sea-coloured," Judai said eventually.
Johan laughed again, and the sound carried away on the salt wind. "Well, I guess I wasn't expecting poetic similes from you or anything."
Judai chuckled along with him and rubbed the back of his head. "I never was any good at writing poetry. It always sounded pretty silly."
Yeah. It sounded pretty silly alright.