12/31/19
They'd told Carly about the bet almost immediately after her arrival, and after her agreement it didn't take long for them all to start up the first game. It went back and forth for a while, Judai and Yusei mostly staying in the lead and Crow being the first one out instead of Jack for once, but it ended with Carly nearly coming back from behind, taking second place behind Judai.
"Aw, I was so close!" Carly grinned, showing her hand off - if Judai hadn't won the game when he did, she would've on her turn, "Nice game, though."
"You too!" Judai chirped, noting the way Yusei was staring in confusion at the board still and wondering how he'd gotten third. He'd gotten supremely unlucky thanks to an event Jack had triggered on one of his turns and gotten dragged down to the point where he wouldn't be able to catch-up in time, though it didn't help that Carly had, on the other hand, gotten a very lucky card pull later on that put the final nail in his coffin so to speak.
"Again," Jack stated, gesturing for Judai to pass him the stack of cards he'd regathered so he could shuffle them. They all agreed to it though, starting up another round after a quick reset of the playing field and getting passed fresh hands to play with.
The rounds passed quickly, a lot more events happening this game than the last one, but Judai was quickly noticing a pattern in that Carly was really lucky with her pulls... almost to the point that it was unnatural. By all means, she shouldn't have this kind of consistent luck that was generally a trait reserved for kings like him and Yusei, and it wasn't surprising when she ended up winning the second game.
"Those were... the most lucky pulls ever," Crow complained, sending her a playful pout, "Are we sure she ain't cheating?"
"You wish, I'm just lucky!" She replied, smiling with a bit of a sharp edge of glee to it, "Guess my Fortune Fairies are coming through for me today. I did pull Hikari this morning!"
"Fortune Fairies? Are those your duel monsters?" Judai asked, blinking at the name and the thoughts he'd been having about her weird luck. It'd make a lot more sense if she had an archetype that dealt with luck that was helping her out, and would actually explain a lot of other little things about the things she did as well. He imagined her duel spirits must play some part in her day-to-day life, even if it was just a little bit every day.
"Yeah, that's right. Did I never tell you about them?" Carly answered, pulling out her deck to let him look through them, "They're effect monsters, but they have versions where they're normal monsters with a flavor text description instead. Those descriptions are all fortunes though, so I like to shuffle my deck and pull until I get one every morning just to see what my fortune is, more for fun than anything else. I pull them out for duels, though, it's just easier to keep them with my other cards."
Judai read over the descriptions once he discovered the said normal monster variants were all sorted out already and put on top of the deck, quickly finding the Fortune Fairy Hikari that Carly had mentioned and discovering it meant she'd be super lucky today. He had to wince when he read the other ones afterwards, knowing that if her duel spirits were actually managing to affect her luck then all the bad luck ones had to have an effect too, and that the warnings on them were probably to be heeded.
At least now it made sense why she was winning though, she was quite literally out-magicking him and Yusei. He found it more hilarious than anything else though, and passed her cards back with a smile.
"Interesting deck. We should duel sometime," Judai said, pausing for a moment before adding, "On a day where you pull one of luckier fortunes, though."
Yusei seemed to be the only one to really get what he was saying (which made sense, as the others didn't know about the whole 'King of Games' title and its implications), raising an eyebrow slightly at him and glancing at the deck in Carly's hands before looking back at him. Judai nodded to the silent question, holding back a laugh at the exasperated glint that sparked in the other's eyes for a moment before quiet acceptance replaced it.
"Alright, this time for real! This one's for the bet," Crow declared, everyone resetting one more time even faster than the last in an excited hurry to see who would win and who would lose. They'd actually laid out a couple things the losers would have to do, though the person in second would pick from the list, then third, and then finally fourth... unless Carly won, of course, then it'd go onto fifth place as well.
It was the most hectic game yet, and Judai found it more fun now that he knew that someone else was able to compete fairly with him and Yusei for once. Everyone put in their best effort, but well... it was hard to beat someone with such insane luck granted to them, and Carly won again. For a moment, though, Judai could've sworn he saw one of the Fortune Fairies hovering around Carly with a happy smile, but they were gone too soon for him to really register it and have the time to mention something. He ended up in third while Yusei got second, and Crow came in last instead of Jack this time as well.
"We'll go over the list later, for now though I'm gonna go start on the food," Judai stated, standing up and stretching for a bit before gathering up the empty drink cups that were scattered about at the moment, "Anyone want a refill or somethin'?"
"I'll take another water," Carly replied, Crow chiming in in agreement. Jack still hadn't finished his current cup of coffee so he was good, and from the looks of it Yusei was getting ready to go with him to the kitchen to help out, so he'd just take what he wanted then if he did want anything. He had half the cups taken from him by Yusei, who set Crow's and Carly's down on the counter near the refrigerator while he started to brew himself another coffee.
"Ooh, could you make me one too please? Coffee sounds good right now," Judai asked, smiling up at him and giving him a quick peck on the lips in thanks for the help. He was caught in a hug before he could fully pull away, Yusei kissing his forehead with a grin and a quiet chuckle.
"One coffee coming right up, though I'm not sure if a Kuriboh drinking caffeine is really a good idea," Yusei teased, dodging the light swat Judai made at his arm just in time, "Cute."
"Who's the one who put extra espresso in my coffee just the other day though, huh?" Judai retorted, finishing filling up the first cup with water and starting on the next one, "Obviously it's not that bad an idea."
"Only if they're already tired, which you were."
"Yeah yeah... you make a good point though, an actual Kuriboh wired on caffeine is a nightmare. You should feel lucky that most of your duel spirits are machines and can't drink coffee, 'cause one time Winged Kuriboh got a hold of some espresso somehow and it did not end well," Judai explained, picking up both of the now-full cups and walking out to give them to the two who wanted them.
When he came back in, the kitchen was slowly starting to fill with the smell of freshly-brewed coffee, and he couldn't help but smile at the sight of Yusei staring intensely at the coffee machine as he focused on making sure he put the correct proportion of creamer and syrup into what he could only assume would be Judai's drink. It was cute how focused he was, but he also took the time to appreciate just how handsome he was as well - it was no different than every other time he'd stopped to do so, but he'd never get tired of doing it.
Before he could get caught, though, he started pulling out all the ingredients he'd need, turning on the oven to the right temperature so he could bake the bread dough he'd pre-made last night so he wouldn't have to worry about it today. Everything else would be relatively easy and quick to prepare, considering he was making soba and a couple other things to accompany it, so he hadn't had to worry about those. Soba was a traditional New Year's Eve food and luckily one of the fastest and easiest traditional foods to make.
"Here you go," Yusei eventually said, placing his coffee down in front of him once he'd finished putting a bunch of dry ingredients into a bowl, "One coffee without any extra caffeine, as promised." He felt arms wrap around him from behind and smiled, laughing a bit when he felt Yusei press a kiss to his cheek.
"Thanks, dear," Judai grinned, turning his head so he could return the favor with a kiss of his own before taking a sip of the coffee and letting out a satisfied hum, "Perfect, as usual."
"Did you need any help?" Yusei asked, still not letting go of the hug - not that Judai wanted him to, of course. Hell, he'd probably be perfectly happy if he had to walk around the kitchen the whole time with Yusei wrapped around him, even if it'd be difficult to do everything he needed to.
"No, I'm good - this stuff is simple, don't worry," Judai replied, sighing a little when the other did let go at this point but knowing that there'd be time for that later, "If you want to, though, you could go get everyone and play that new card game in here at the kitchen table?"
"Was already planning on it," Yusei chuckled, going to drag everyone into the kitchen after leaving him with another quick peck on the lips.
Fully satisfied now and armed with coffee, Judai went about making everything with ease, adding in quips here and there once the others started their game in the kitchen and got very competitive about it (as usual, he'd be more worried if there wasn't a ton of competitive banter being tossed around). At some point he got a couple messages in the group chat he was in of all his friends wishing everyone a happy New Year, and he replied back with a picture of the five of them, messy kitchen, disorganized card game and all.
Dinner was served after a while, clearing the table of cards and replacing it with all the food he'd made in a sort of family-style set-up. It was just as good as he hoped it would be, and he got a round of compliments from everyone about how delicious it was.
"I think this the best soba I've ever had," Carly stated, having perked up even more now thanks to the food, "Honestly, not even kidding. Did you make that one pasta dish at that party we were both at too?"
"I can't guarantee I made it, but I did put together the recipe, so I guess that's close enough," Judai answered, taking another bite of the soba and humming happily at the texture of it - not too soft, but not too hard either. Just right.
"Didn't you make the whole menu for that one?" Yusei pointed out, clearly remembering that day easily. Judai wouldn't be surprised if it was due to the sheer amount of stress he'd given off that day - it'd been worth it in the end, and he'd gotten a huge bonus for doing it so fast and well, but it was still annoying to have to rush it like that.
"Yeah... so technically I guess I made all of it if we're going by that logic."
"This is still the best food ever, thanks for the meal," Crow stated in between bites, quickly taking another right after. Jack merely nodded along next to him, though Judai had to hold back a snicker when he saw him steal some of Carly's food off her plate when she wasn't looking. It was even more amusing when Yusei seemed to copy his example and stole a piece of bread when he wasn't looking as well.
Afterwards they passed the time with a few more games and filling the gaps in-between with happy conversation, talking about anything that seemed interesting. Carly shared a few new embarrassing stories about Jack that ended with them laughing while Jack did his best to get her to stop talking by wrapping her in a hug and lifting her up only to start spinning her around lightly; it worked, but only for so long before she was telling another, and soon enough all of them were trying to one-up each other with stories about each other and even themselves.
About thirty minutes before midnight, though, they pulled out chairs and made their way to the roof of the apartment buildings - they'd already gotten permission by the apartment owner to go up to watch the various fireworks displays that would be happening around the city, so they set-up with blankets and warm mugs of whatever hot drink they wanted before settling in to look out over the city. There were colorful lights all over, seeing as lots of the Christmas decorations hadn't been removed yet, and the central park of the city was lit up with spotlights in the air since that was where the huge celebration for it would be taking place.
Obviously, none of them really wanted to deal with the huge crowds there, so they were going stay nice and comfy and most importantly away from the huge gathering of people there. They could just as easily enjoy the fireworks show from here, after all.
"Man, I just realized I'm going to have to watch you guys be all couple-y in a few minutes," Crow pouted a few minutes before midnight, though it was pretty obvious from his tone that he was merely teasing them and didn't actually have a problem with it. Still, it was too perfect an opportunity to pass up to tease him back for once, and Judai shared a look with Yusei who eventually nodded with a sigh of acceptance seeing as Jack and Carly were currently preoccupied with their own conversation.
"Why don't you call Aki or something, you both can complain to each other about being single when midnight hits," Judai suggested as innocently as possible, though he clearly didn't do a good enough job at masking his smirk behind it - Crow's initially startled gape turned into one of suspicion, then embarrassed realization that he definitely knew.
He sent a little glare towards Yusei, who merely held up his hands and said, "Don't look at me, he figured it out on his own."
"Damn it, was it that obvious?" Crow sighed, turning back towards Judai in defeat.
"Not really, I'm just very observant," Judai grinned, patting him on the back, "Don't worry, your secret is safe with us. Rootin' for ya, though!"
"...Y'know what, fuck it- I'll call her," he decided, tapping all the right buttons on his phone to make it happen before he could psyche himself out of it, "I'm going to be blatantly ignoring the four of you in the meantime."
"Have fun!" Judai snickered, scooting his chair closer to Yusei's after as Crow turned his to face slightly away from the rest of them, "When do you think they'll finally get together?"
"Honestly? No idea, it all really depends on Aki," Yusei shrugged, smiling a little before continuing, "I believe there's a mutual interest there though, at least. She did seem oddly interested in what Crow was up to when we met with her the other day."
Judai hummed, hugging Yusei's arm and resting his head on his shoulder as he kept an eye on the time on his phone, smiling when Yusei leaned back into him and brought up his free hand to lightly thread through his hair. The last few minutes passed quickly, and soon enough they found themselves with only thirty seconds to go.
"Hey, Yusei?" Judai said quietly, making sure he had the other's attention, though he was sure it'd never left in the first place just like his hadn't left Yusei. He got a soft hum in response, and he tightened the grip he had on the other's hand (they'd threaded their fingers together as usual, but at this point it was so natural that he wasn't sure when it'd happened), continuing, "...I love you."
"I love you too, Judai," Yusei replied just as quietly, their foreheads pressing together as it felt like everything else melted into the background. In the distance he could vaguely hear the cheers all around, counting down the seconds left to the new year.
Ten, nine, eight, seven, six...
"To the new year?" Judai breathed, fully captivated by the man in front of him as they stared into each other's eyes. He brushed a stray lock of hair behind the other's ear almost absentmindedly, wanting to see as much as he could of his lover's face.
Five, four, three two...
"To the new year," Yusei mumbled back almost inaudibly, returning the favor with a light brush of his fingers across his cheek, taking him in with just as much fervor as he was.
One.
Cheers broke out below and fireworks started to explode in the sky, but neither of them heard it as they finally leaned together into the kiss, losing themselves entirely in each other's warmth as the clock hit midnight.
The next year would be even better than the last, and they'd get through it all together.