got milk? : Starting to get incurably attached to Judai...
got milk?
Despite the constant drone that is his protests, the soda ban doesn't hit Judai right away. In fact, it doesn't really hit him until the day when he's sitting with the Playstation, playing Duelists of the Roses, and he reaches for a drink that isn't there. He feels his stomach cry out in despair and grumpily pulls himself up like a zombie, goes into the kitchen, and opens the fridge in pointless hopes that there'll be something mildly useful inside.
Milk, eggs, apple juice, milk, ramen, ramen, age old ramen, yesterday's shrimp, some cold pizza, more milk, some carrots (how'd they get in there?)…
Judai groans and slams the fridge shut, lets out a loud, melodramatic sigh, and checks the freezer. Ice cream, ice cream, pecan flavored ice cream (what the hell, Atem), frozen mozzarella sticks, frozen shrimp, corn, some more frozen shrimp, meat, meat, Go-Gurt, frozen TV dinner, French fries—wait, what. "Who the hell put the Go-Gurt in the freezer?" cries out Judai, and he whips around to glare angrily at the empty hallway for an answer.
A moment, and then Atem's voice from two doors down: "It says on the box that it's fine! It tastes better that way anyway!"
Judai pulls out the box and squints at the tiny text: it mentions a lot of things that Judai doesn't care about, like the calories and the ingredients, so Judai's eyes skim and scan for the information he needs, find it, and he scowls. "It's just a suggestion!" He shouts back, and he slams the freezer shut, pulls open the refrigerator with unnecessary force, puts the box inside. Slam! Judai growls, stalks out of the kitchen with his stomach unfulfilled, and sits back down on the sofa in a huff.
"Whoa, Judai, that time of the month again?" asks Yugi, whose just come in with a stick of chocolate Pocky in his teeth and a bag of Atem's new favorite candy hanging from his arm. "I thought we changed you back."
Judai stares at Yugi with a mix between a glare and a pout; he looks about six years old, like someone's just forced him to share his Duel Monsters cards with the schoolhouse bully and then spilled his juice to boot. Yugi flushes, backs up a bit. "Sorry," he quickly apologizes. "You okay, though?"
"Thirsty," Judai mutters, and Yugi can't do much about that, since Judai lost a duel. They have a few scattered rules around their home, but there's one that reigns absolutely supreme above all: when something's been decided by duel, there's no going against it. Judai lost the match for the soda ban – it's official, written on the dry-erase board on their fridge and everything, right next to the next time Yusei asks Kaiba for help on something he's getting kicked out. So there's no going back now unless Atem changes his mind, which is fairly unlikely, since three thousand years tends to make a person just a little stubborn (Judai'll open the freezer in about two hours, and the Go-Gurt will have mysteriously reappeared under some of the fried shrimp).
"Sorry," Yugi says again, and there's not much else to say. He doesn't even have a smile to offer; just a shrug, and then Atem calls out, "Aibou, is that you?" and Judai groans extremely loudly, and Yugi awkwardly walks away. Judai's seriously acting grumpy today, something that can probably be attributed to withdrawal.
"Dammit," says Judai, and he picks up the controller, attempts to get into the game again, but by now he's so out of it there's really no point. His eyes catch his cell phone, lying innocently on the table, and out of boredom, Judai picks it up, checks his messages. Judai's a popular kid; he's got several texts from Sho and Johan, even one from Manjoume, but Judai gets an idea, ignores all of them.
Lounging around on the sofa, crashed and lazy, Judai dials a number he's sure will pick up, and that is—
"Hello?"
"Yusei!"
"Judai. What's up?"
"Nothing, really. Hey, um, Yusei, you wanna do me a favor?"
Yusei doesn't say "yes" or "no"; rather, he listens to Judai's request and probably shakes his head a little, thinks Judai's a little kid, but Judai doesn't care, because he's going through withdrawal, dammit, and it's not even his fault that the carpet got destroyed, because he still stands by the idea that it shouldn't have been out and in use in the first place.
There's a sigh, an "I'll see, Judai," and then the phone goes dead. Judai goes back to Duelists of the Roses rejuvenated and excited, and waits for Yusei, his potential hero, to come home.
Yusei comes back late into the night with a plastic bag in his hand that makes Judai's face light up. Judai follows him around the house from the moment Yusei takes off his shoes to the second he walks into his room, but then Yusei says, "Sorry, Judai, rules are rules," and locks the door to before Judai can invade.
"Yousay," Judai whines, his face falling, and he slams his fists on the door, but there's no response. Feeling betrayed despite the fact that Yusei'd promised nothing, Judai sighs exasperatedly and finally, just gives up and goes to bed.
SAILING MY SEA, YEEEEEEEEEAH! NEVER SAAAAAY DIE—
Judai wakes up halfway between his dream about being a pirate and his dream about being a ninja, and he rubs his eyes and yells at the world that he was just about to save the princess and it was going to be absolutely awesome. He realizes the source of his newest pain is his cell phone and wonders who in the world is calling him at the ungodly hour of—he checks the screen—2AM in the morning.
Then he sees it's Yusei.
"Hello?" Judai says groggily.
"Come outside," says Yusei.
Judai's doesn't ask any questions. He pulls off the covers and in his Winged Kuriboh pajamas, Judai climbs out of bed and scratches his head, slips out of his room as quietly as he can without waking Atem or Yugi. He sees Yusei leaning against the wall near the kitchen, and he has a smirk on his face and a bag in his hands. He gestures for Judai to go in the kitchen, to look at the table.
It's set with two bottles of milk, one chocolate and one plain. Judai, nonplussed, stares at Yusei, waiting for some sort of explanation to being woken up at 2AM for chocolate milk, when what he asked for was soda. Yusei slides into one of the chairs and takes his drink.
"I couldn't get you soda," Yusei explains, nodding at the other chair so Judai takes a seat, "it's banned."
Judai opens his mouth to say something, but he's not really sure what'll come out, so he closes it, opts to take the seat. He slowly grins, takes a swig of the chocolate milk, and hey, he supposes, late nights with Yusei and addictions won't be so bad.
