notes: at last, i've finally finished the judai version for my judai/asuka slow burn fic (the home that we claimed)! it took me a while, but i'm finally content with how it turned out. since this is a judai version of the same story, judai and asuka's dialogue with each other remain the same, however i will be adding some completely brand new sections to the story that are purely in judai's pov to help flesh out his side. neutral narration has been tailored from asuka for judai as well. also, this is the part where i insert my customary i'm-sorry-if-i-wrote-yubel-wrong apology :')
everything is already prewritten and…... longer than asuka's version. oops. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
i hope this will be as good as asuka's version to read; i've poured so much into this story, and i hope it will pay off. i tried to tailor judai's version for first-time readers so that they can still understand the gist of this story even if they didn't get to read the original version, which was quite a struggle tbh. with that said, happy reading (hopefully)! i will put a proper author's note at the very end.
disclaimer: i do not own yugioh gx.
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on the way home
judai & asuka
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i. one; reverse
To him, nothing seems new.
It's peaceful, it's routinely, it's expected, and it's normal: just the way he likes it.
To Judai, this is normal. It's normal to visit Asuka's apartment around twelve in the morning because his ship to America always seems to come around this time anyway. He doesn't particularly mind since this is what's normal to him. This time, he had to wait outside her door for about five minutes because she was apparently about to go to bed and was in the middle of changing clothes. And as their normalcy usually dictates, Judai also never remembers to text her about his visits either, so he accurately predicts that Asuka sighs at him upon opening her door as usual.
After a few trips here and there around the world, Judai was so tired that he napped a lot at Johan's place when he came to visit for recuperation. After that, he had been with Jim somewhere in Australia. Although, it was by chance this time—Judai had been wandering at some of the vacant, abandoned sites to pass through on his way to the train station, but bumped into Jim who was hunting for more fossils.
Two weeks is usually the amount of time he spends at everyone's places, aside from the occasional one week or five days whenever things get hectic for him. Saving the world takes a lot out of him, and he doesn't really rest if there is a huge threat. If he remembers correctly, he hadn't been able to visit Asuka for a while since his last visit. He couldn't even stay with Jim for too long this time either since the run-in with him was purely by chance, only spending about five days with him when Judai found out the train was delayed for a while due to repairs of the train tracks.
However, after all of that, things began calming down again. And when things start calming down, that's when Judai thinks it's safe to go visit his friends again just for friendly drop-ins. Just to relax once in a while. And since he planned to visit Asuka next anyway, America was the next destination.
So, that's why he's currently sitting with Asuka in her kitchen-slash-dining room, drinking her tea, and telling her some stories from his passing encounter with Jim and also his trip past France on the way over to her place in America. (He also gave her Jim's greetings while wondering about her Tomorrow Girl moniker that Jim attached to the message.)
Asuka looks shocked, like she didn't listen to him at all for the past few minutes he's been here. "What did you just say?"
Helpfully, he says from across the table, "I said I finally heard that word again when I was in France. Fiancé." He shrugs off his blazer to hang on the back of his chair. "Overheard some people saying it."
Asuka asks, "And what about it?"
He drops it on her immediately, because he's still not over it himself: "You didn't tell me we were engaged this whole time!" His eyes squint at her, scrutinizing her wide-eyed expression. Glad to know he's not the only one who's shocked by it. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Engaged.
Engaged.
Yeah, he's not particularly intelligent, but he knows what that word means. When he was a small boy, his mother sometimes said it when talking about herself and his father, and that's how he knew his parents were together. It's just that neither his mother or father ever mentioned the word fiancé to him before. And even if they did at some point, they probably didn't explain it to him because he clearly still didn't know what it meant up to this very year, until he finally succumbed to his curiosity and outright asked Jim about it. Jim is pretty savvy in this stuff, so he figured why not?
Jim had raised an eyebrow at the question, but still explained that fiancé and fiancée are two people engaged to be married. Judai remembered that his mind blanked out upon hearing this definition since he does not remember proposing to Asuka at all. He had no ring, no proposal at the tip of his tongue, no nothing for her. He was only fifteen! Oh, and she called him an idiot, but still! He was only fifteen, for crying out loud!
In a way, she's right because he thought fiancé sounded like a foreign word for rival or something, given Tennis-Guy-Whose-Name-He-Forgot's determination to duel him that day at the tennis courts in front of her. To him, it was either some fancy food name or a fancy word for rival, and it was obvious that Tennis-Guy-Whose-Name-He-Forgot wasn't hungry when he challenged Judai that day.
After Jim defined the word for him, Judai had to make sure he wasn't being affected by hallucinations by asking Yubel if they were in the correct dimension or not, and Yubel answered yes with so much bluntness that Judai stopped talking for a while so that everything could sink in.
Engaged to be married.
Engaged to be married.
Engaged to be married to Asuka.
He would need to have feelings for her first for that to happen, right?
Admittedly, she's a really good friend to him and he really enjoys his time with her, but… to have feelings for her? He personally can't. Romance is never his territory, and he'd be awful at it. Yubel's experiences led him to believe this. Judai would like to stay away from this unknown territory for as long as he's able to.
But still, how come Asuka never told him what fiancé meant? She seemed like she already knew what it meant, so telling him would've seriously cleared away his confusion, like, years early! Osiris, the misunderstandings that could've resulted... It was bad enough that Tennis-Guy-Whose-Name-He-Forgot pretty much challenged him for her hand without knowing. He's lucky that it wasn't official legal business, or else he would have to travel as some fugitive.
Judai replies with a finger in the air, "And before you ask how I know French, I don't. I asked Jim to clarify for me when I got to Australia—I asked around."
"Oh," she says, sounding flat and relieved. (Why is she relieved?) In an anticlimactic pause, she resumes, "I thought that wasn't supposed to be taken seriously."
"You're right," he tells her, consolingly. She had looked rather fed up that day after his duel with Tennis-Guy-Whose-Name-He-Forgot. Hopefully, she isn't feeling like that right now, because it's certainly not his fault that things have escalated in the way they did that day. "But geez, no one ever told me what that offer even was! I didn't even know what I agreed to!"
She sips her coffee calmly. "You didn't seem to mind back then either, since you still agreed to it."
"Because it was a challenge!" Judai whines. "You know me, about challenges."
So he rushes into things often? Okay. He has zeal! That's good!
"You always put your foot where your mouth is," says Asuka, pretending not to see his indignant stare.
Geez, what does she take him for? Sometimes, she tells him that he's rushing into things, yeah, but she also knows when to stop him. She hadn't stopped him that day, so it's unfair that he's getting the full blame! But in retrospect… He did openly agree, with enthusiasm, to the challenge once he heard the word 'duel' come out of Tennis-Guy-Whose-Name-He-Forgot's mouth. (Let's call him Tennis Looney, for short.) Judai couldn't resist a good duel back then. He still can't, but it was way more intense back when he was still fifteen.
He grumbles and takes a sip of the lukewarm tea he'd left alone for the past ten minutes. He didn't really want tea at first since he wasn't too thirsty, but he needs something to warm himself up from the chilly evening air on the walk over. How does Asuka handle weather here in America? "You still didn't answer my question, by the way."
"Which was?"
He is unamused. "Why you never told me, through all these years, what fiancé meant."
It's not that he cares so much about being oblivious to the definition of the word. It's more about how she didn't want to tell him what the word meant, like she couldn't trust him enough to let him know about it. That bothered him a bit because aren't they friends? Friends tell each other things all the time. If she thought he would be offended about the definition, then he isn't. He never got mad in the first place. Just mildly dumbfounded. If anything, Judai would classify that as a funny memory or something and laugh about it, because things were always pretty crazy back when they were still fifteen.
Besides, if he never officially proposed, then they aren't really fiancé and fiancée, right? He would think she's smart enough to know that, so her pensive silence right now seems pretty odd to him. It's like he said something wrong, but he doesn't know which part was wrong.
"It just didn't occur to me," she finally answers him.
She sounds awfully exhausted. His eyebrow raises. "Are you tired?"
"You come here at twelve in the morning and ask me if I'm tired?" she deadpans, and this reminds him that he did, indeed, barge in at twelve in the morning. Oops.
With a grin, Judai raises his hands in the air with a placating motion. "But I like coming here, Asuka! It's not my fault that you're always on the other side of the world when I make trips back!" Sometimes, he does go to America for saving-the-world-from-danger reasons, but other times, he just comes here to visit her. Since he's practically everywhere all the time, he got used to different time zones and jet lags long enough that he feels absolutely fine right now.
"So it's my fault for not being able to control when it's night and day?" She stands up to rinse her mug at the sink.
He laughs lightheartedly behind her, still seated. "No. It's your fault for always opening your door to me if you just wanted to sleep."
Her back is to him as she rinses her mug, but he can still see her look thoughtful from his position at the dining table. "Okay, maybe I won't open the door for you next time. Thank you for the idea, Judai." He suddenly widens his eyes, dumbstruck. Nonchalantly, she turns off the sink and grabs a towel to dry the mug. "I heard that raccoons sometimes linger around at night anyway—"
Blanching, he thinks that the raccoons near her apartment would be the city equivalent of lions in their den. Those beasts. "No wait, I was kidding! I came here first thing after I got off the ship! You know that, right?" Wearing a nervous smile, he watches her place her mug on the drying rack and she starts walking down the hallway. He came all this way for her, and she's already going back into her room?
Without even looking at him, she says, "I know. Goodnight. Don't forget to put your cup away when you go to sleep."
He lets out a whine and a pout at her retreating back, sipping the rest of the chilled tea slowly. It's gotten colder the more they talk. It was lukewarm a few minutes ago. Does he talk so much to her that his tea already cooled down in the midst of it?
"You never seem to shut up," says Yubel, in response to his thought, eyeing his tea lazily as they float next to him.
He rolls his eyes, hearing a soft click of Asuka's door down the hallway. "You always tell me that." He takes another sip, cradling his face after propping an elbow on the table.
Pausing, they reply, "More than usual, I meant."
He gives them a questioning look, quietly sipping.
Looking at the clock, Yubel expertly ignores his look and comments, "It's getting late. Weren't you going fishing tomorrow?"
Oh, right. He is—
He pauses.
Asuka's on her summer vacation right now, right? If he's going fishing tomorrow, then what would she be doing all by herself here? He's aware that she likes reading, but maybe it might be fun for her if he invited her along? It's always better doing things with another person. Judai might have been a little more introverted as the years passed, but he still appreciates social interaction with people he's comfortable with and he's comfortable with Asuka.
Considering the idea, he nods to himself.
Alright, it's worth a shot.
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The next day, he makes the offer to her first before he exits her apartment: "You should come with me." He smiles at her, holding a fishing rod over his shoulder. On the couch, she looks up from the newspaper she is reading. "You've never been fishing before, right? Broaden your horizons a bit!"
Johan sometimes went fishing with him whenever he was free. He liked napping while Judai fished, and Winged Kuriboh would play with Ruby Carbuncle nearby. Other times, he caught fish while Johan helped collect his catches in a bucket. Since Johan doesn't live near parks, fishing was done at an isolated lake where there was no one to enforce that it was forbidden to take the fish back. This is good because Judai has a knack for roasting fish since he's always in the middle of nowhere, and he sometimes prepares it for him and Johan, sort of like being on a camping trip.
With Jim, his place is closer to a harbor instead. Like with Johan, Jim sometimes accompanied him and spent time by polishing his new fossils while Judai fished. He'd always wonder how many fossils Jim could dig up since he always seemed to have a new one to polish every time he was accompanied. If he ever asked, Jim liked joking about how no fossil can hide from him, which Judai personally doesn't have a problem with since it makes good conversation. Although, it can be disheartening to know that Karen sometimes steals his fish whenever he's engrossed in those aforementioned conversations. (Jim doesn't even scold her for it! Hmph.)
But fishing with Asuka? It never occurred to him until yesterday on the ship to America, if he's being honest. He was going over his plans of what to do first when he arrived at her apartment, and fishing popped up.
Asuka always likes to read and Judai doesn't, so he doesn't particularly remember ever inviting her along on his fishing trips whenever he stepped out before. She never minded anyway, only continuing to read in peace whenever he told her that he was stepping out for a while. And this… This made him start thinking. If he had let Johan and Jim come along while he went fishing, despite both Johan and Jim having different interests from him, then why can't he do the same with Asuka? If he could spend time with Johan and Jim with no problems at all as he went fishing, then maybe he can do the same with Asuka.
They're all his friends, so he likes hanging out with her as much as he does with everyone else. Sure, Asuka's never fished before, but maybe a change of scenery would liven things up for her. Contrary to popular belief, he doesn't visit people just for the sole purpose of freeloading. He actually offers to help around with chores and such, even if he can be a bit lazy about it at times. (Johan embraces that laziness sometimes!)
"I don't think I'd be a good fishing partner," she says while looking at his fishing rod. Maybe she expected him to have another rod for her?
Judai laughs, a little sheepish. "Well, I only have one rod." It's the same rod he had back when they were still in Duel Academia. His father gave it to him some time ago, before his work schedule grew busier. It's all he ever has that reminds himself of family when he first packed it in with his things for his dorm. It's pretty special. "But it doesn't mean you can't come along. I don't mind company." He beams at her.
She looks contemplative. "We could share the rod." He's about to say someth— "Or I could just watch. I don't think it's my calling anyway. You're right: I've never been fishing before." His eyebrow raises instead.
While she used to tell him to go and enjoy himself before he left, Asuka had never really taken up the offer to come along before. In fact, he didn't even ask her to come along yet. Maybe she's warming up to fishing? In any case, he's not exactly going to overlook a gift horse in the mouth or whatever the saying goes.
Judai blithely nods at her cooperation and says, "Y'know, yeah. Yeah, we could share. You need to know how it feels to catch, at least, one fish in your life." He pauses, wondering how much his fishing rod would cost to replace if something happened to it, because the prices for fishing rods nowadays seemed to have spiked. It would probably be pocket change for Manjoume, but maybe Judai is just that broke? (Besides, fishing with Asuka can't possibly break his rod, right?) "Saves money too. Rods cost so much these days."
To his surprise, she actually folds up her newspaper and stands up from the couch. He has to blink because that was too incredibly easy. He had been prepared for her to say no, and he even had his arsenal of reasons about why fishing is great to help persuade her. Pleasantly, she joins him by the door, slipping on her shoes and humming.
He's about to make some joke about if she's developing an interest in fishing or not, but his eyes land on her book instead. Her book. Book. "Asuka! Reading while we go fishing?" Yes, she likes reading—but bringing it on a fishing trip?! His fishing trips with Johan and Jim were all pretty fun! "Do you think fishing is boring?" Slightly disgruntled, Judai opens her door and steps out while he is eyeing her book, like it's a spawn of Darkness.
Asuka has the audacity to stifle her laughter in front of him, locking her door. "No. I just didn't know how long we'd be there, so I brought a book in case it takes you a while to reel in fish."
Bah. That's why some people have conversations to help pass time! But then again, he shouldn't mess with people who like reading since reading is still a hobby for some. Like her. He doesn't want to offend her. She didn't exactly say anything bad about his own hobby either. At least with Jim, he could call him out on being a fossil nerd, plain as day.
He grunts, resigned. She smiles, pleased.
They start walking together.
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They're at the park, a bit beyond the trees.
He'd found this spot at the lake here upon chance some time ago; he'd been wandering for the heck of it until he got distracted by something and took a wrong turn by reading the wrong sign. Yubel didn't feel like telling him which path he should've backtracked with, and that's basically how he found this lake. During the moment he found it, he was not even bothered—in fact, Judai thought it was a great fishing place with the right prerequisites: hidden behind trees, close enough to civilization, peacefully quiet. Being lost was finally good for something! He couldn't exactly be mad about that. It sorta became his place whenever he fished here during his visits to Asuka.
Seating herself underneath a tree with lots of shade, Asuka looks around. "I've been to this park before, but never this area. It's pretty."
Decidedly, he seats himself at the edge of the lake a few feet away from her, fixing up his hook and lure. "That so?" Judai swings the rod, flinging the line into the water before he starts waiting. "Well, it makes sense. You said fishing—" He rolls his eyes at her wording. "—wasn't your calling." When she says that, she makes it sound like you need to be the 'chosen one' or something to be good at fishing. He's pretty sure that fish can't even tell if you're the chosen one or not anyway.
"Is fishing really that fun?" she dryly asks. He hears the sound of pages flipping. "You cast a line and then you just sit."
"Ah, ah," he wags a finger at her, not even looking away from his hook. "That's what most people say, but clearly they haven't gone fishing before. It's pretty fun."
"Okay, please enlighten me then." Judai hears another page being flipped. Maybe he should tell her the same thing, but with reading: you flip through pages and just sit. She'd probably shove him into the water for that.
So, he ponders for a real answer to give her: "I don't know how to describe it. It's really satisfying, to see yourself waiting and letting your efforts pay off by catching a fish." He always did that, and it worked out pretty well for him. Essentially, she's right about casting a line and waiting. But to Judai, the time it takes to wait is the thrilling, suspenseful part. Gives him something to anticipate and to stay on his toes for, and it helps him be attentive. "I don't really care how big the fish is, as long as I caught one. Sometimes I catch a pretty big one and it gives me a challenge to reel in, but it makes it even more worthwhile!" That's always the fun part, after all!
"Did you always like fishing?"
Her question makes him perk, because it sounds genuine. "Well, not always. I got impatient at first and I mainly fished so that we could have some food for the Osiris dorms." Some of those moments made some great memories for him, like when Sho and Hayato came along with him for the first time. "Then I guess I started doing it as a hobby during our last year because I found it relaxing. Gave me time to think about stuff while waiting for a bite." He gives a one-shoulder shrug.
He supposes that he enjoyed it so much that he sort of found fishing as something comforting when third year began. Given the events of everything that happened at the time, fishing was probably the only thing he could even do that didn't bother anyone and could calm himself. In first and second year, his way of spending free time was to duel. And, well... things were never really the same after second year. Fishing became something like his private thinking time or private distraction time, if he had to describe it in a personal way.
Sounding sympathetic, Asuka says, "I see… No wonder you're so overprotective now, about fishing."
To help lighten the mood, Judai jokes with a laugh, "It's my child." Absently looking at the water ripples, he adds, "Don't make fun of my child, Asuka. I'll never catch anything if you mock it and make the fish sad."
For a bit, he hears nothing from Asuka and it makes him think that maybe his joke failed on her or something. Honestly, one of these days, these fishing jokes will catch on eventually! (He frowns when Yubel says otherwise.) His eyes flicker to the water where his hook is, trying to see if there are any shadows of fish near his lure, but he starts getting distracted by the giggles behind him—
Wait. Giggles?
Judai cautiously looks over his shoulder, puzzled. Asuka looks out of breath for some reason, in the middle of covering her face with her book, which is not working at all because he can still see her and her pink face. It makes him blink, dumbly. Is she laughing at his joke earlier, or at something else? Maybe she read something funny in her book?
"Are you okay...?" he asks slowly, feeling himself starting to smile at her. The more he watches, the more the urge to laugh along emerges, but he somehow miraculously has enough willpower to keep himself… sane? Calm? Usually, she's the sane and calm one. It feels weird to be the sane and calm one for once, honestly. He can practically feel the irony as Yubel snorts in his head right now.
A giggling Asuka. Wow, he never thought he would see the day. She laughs, but never giggles. He supposes it's cute, for a lack of better words. Her laughs are typically more refined. She sounds… free like this, and there's nothing wrong with that.
But goodness… He didn't think she'd giggle this much. He still doesn't know what she's even giggling at! Maybe the world is ending again and he didn't know it? Whatever it is, he supposes a giggling Asuka is a peaceful end for the world if the apocalypse is ever coming.
Feigning tragedy, Judai shakes his head at her. "Oh geez, I think I broke you. What am I supposed to tell Fubuki-san?" Should he even tell her brother?
She starts calming down, appearing energized. "I-I'm fine!" Asuka hugs her book, looking stern. "Not a word to Nii-san," she warns, like she'd hit him if he didn't listen to this threat.
If she hadn't looked like she just ran a mile, he would've taken this pretty seriously. "Yes, ma'am," he indulgently snickers, turning back to his hook in the water. He still doesn't know what she was giggling at, but hey, she giggled! He was starting to think that she's immune to funny things.
Something suddenly tugs at his lure, and Judai quickly yanks his rod back. There is a small fish at the end, and he lets it go when he reels it in over to himself. Looked like a bluegill that he caught, but he sometimes forgets which is what. He normally catches carps with Johan and basses with Jim. Tossing his line again, he wonders what other types of fish are even here in this lake.
Silence.
Asuka is probably back to reading again, which he finds weird since she just giggled a storm earlier—
"I think there may be another lake in a forest nearby. It's not owned by the park, so you could take some fish back with you if you catch them," she speaks up.
While he and Johan do take some fish for Judai to roast for them, he has to remind himself that he's actually pretty bad at actually cooking anything that's not rice in the kitchen. Johan has a little more experience than him since he lives alone, which makes him decent, but Judai would like to think his own roasted fish can qualify as decent food. And if there's anything concerning food that he's learned from his time with her, it's that Asuka is a supreme chef. He's always liked her cooking anyway, so he doesn't really see a point in taking back fish with him while he's here. Not to mention, if he did keep all the fish he caught, how can he even take them with him on the road without them going bad? It doesn't make sense to him.
"It's alright. I don't mind releasing them." He catches another fish, a perch this time, before letting it go. He casts the line again, sitting up and straightening his back. The breeze pushes against him and it feels nice.
Behind him, Asuka hums. He can tell her curiosity is still there, and he can't really blame her since he never told her this stuff before. To be fair, she had never asked him before either. Why is she so interested now?
"Sometimes, it's not about how much fish I can catch," Judai says in the silence, looking at the lake. "It's more about if I can catch a fish at all. I think it's cool to see what kinds of fish I can catch. I don't have to keep them if I can remember them." It shouldn't be that hard to justify why you like doing something. He likes fishing, so he fishes. "Besides, if I kept all of the fish I caught, I'd have to turn your apartment into an aquarium."
"All right, I see your point," she says, in an understanding tone.
It makes him feel like she's analyzing him. Nothing's wrong with that, but Asuka keeps surprising him today. First she decides to go fishing with him, then she has some seemingly-random giggling fit, and now she's curious about his fishing hobby. It doesn't offend him or anything, but he simply wonders why the sudden interest now, like it's suddenly special to her or something. Maybe he's just looking at it too deeply? Anyone can be curious after all, and it's not like he generally talked about fishing that much in front of her either.
"I can feel your stare," he hums, feeling lazy. To stare at him for this long, he wonders how much about him she wants to know. "You sure you don't want to try out fishing?"
"Fine," agrees Asuka. He hears the sound of a book closing, causing him to be stupefied. "What should I do first?"
Piqued, his eyebrow raises. She doesn't look too enthusiastic, but still, she wants to fish! Weird, but it's not like he'll complain. Johan always ended up dozing off a bit if Judai ever let him take a turn at fishing, and Jim always said he prefers land activities instead. (Fossil nerd.) But, Asuka fishing… He'd be lying if he said that he isn't curious. There's a first for everything, after all.
Chipper, Judai reclaims his hook before gesturing her to come, offering his rod to her with a grin. He tries to emulate some fake, wise teacher voice because it's not everyday he'd be teaching a teacher how to fish: "Well first, you take this and sit down." She smiles lightheartedly and follows his instructions, sitting down next to him and folding her legs in a neat manner. "Now take this—" He gently places the rod on her palms. "—and hold it firmly."
She looks skeptical, testing the feel of the rod. He almost laughs. Boy, she wasn't kidding when she said she's never been fishing before.
"Put a hand over the reel," he whispers to her, cupping his mouth because he doesn't want to ruin her concentration. She gives him a look anyway, so he gives up and says, "What? You seem really concentrated," in his normal voice with a harmless shrug. Judai eyes her lax, yet careful hold on his rod. "That grip doesn't look confident at all."
"Are you mocking me or trying to help me?" She makes another face at him, looking exasperated.
Judai grins, lifting up his hands because he knows what she'll do next. "Both."
As expected, she lightly hits his palms with the back of her hand, and he laughs. Asuka gives a huff and stares at the hanging hook and lure, like it's an alien concept. "Am I supposed to throw it out now?"
He nods, greatly amused. She's smart and is a teacher, but here she is, asking if she should be throwing a fishing line out or not into the water. It's like holding a TV remote and asking if you're supposed to use it to turn on the TV, or holding a glass of water and asking if you're supposed to drink it.
Looking like she's ready to head out on a battlefield, Asuka exhales and swings his rod out with a determined swing. Nothing bad happens as the hook lands a decent distance away with a plop. She looks really relieved, fueling his amusement. Gosh, it's like fishing is war to her.
Judai claps approvingly in a supportive manner, because this is a war that she'll win. (Hopefully.)
In response to his encouragement, she hisses embarrassedly at him, "Quit it."
He smiles, cheeky. Judai says nothing afterward, opting to sit next to her and helping out by keeping an eye open for any fish nearing the lure. It's a peaceful silence as they sit there, him scouting for fish while she sits and holds his rod. Probably ten or so minutes passed before he sees a slight shadow nearing the lure, and he sits up interestedly to see it moving closer.
Wow, she only needed ten minutes to catch something? That's not a bad start, honestly.
"Asuka?" he says, not letting his eyes stray off the fish nearing the lure. She doesn't respond to him, so he repeats, "Asuka?"
She says nothing.
This time, he does look at her, confused at her unresponsive pensiveness. What is she thinking about? "Asuka!"
No response again.
The moment he sees the fish latch onto the lure, that's when Judai is forced to take action himself by scooting behind her and placing his hands around hers to help steady the rod. He could've done it when he still sat next to her, but he wouldn't have a good grip if he did. (He also cares about the fate of his fishing rod while he's at it.)
"Asuka, reel it in!" he tries once more, hoping that she snaps out of it. She does, and clumsily tightens her grip on the rod herself. The fish tugs again, so he yells, "Pull really hard when I count to three!"
"O-Okay!"
He starts: "One! Two!" His grip atop her hands tighten. She reels harder. "Three!"
They pull together, gravity pulling both of them back.
Unfortunately for him, he probably got the full force of the pain because Asuka crashed into him with the fish. She's not really heavy on him, but he thinks that Asuka has great potential in the world of self-defense or something related to hand-to-hand combat because Osiris, that tackle. If she had some proper training, maybe he might've ended up with a broken back than an injured back.
Asuka sits up on him, the fish rolling off her stomach. "Are you okay, Judai?" she asks, peering down at him concernedly.
Releasing her hands, he gives a thumbs up with a small smile. "I think so. You're light but the fish isn't, Asuka."
She looks down at the fish on her lap before getting off him in realization. "I'm sorry…" she apologizes, not willing to meet his eyes.
To help ease her guilt, he smiles brightly. "It's okay. I'd say it was worth it. Your first catch and you already caught a big one! That's the biggest trout I've ever seen in a local park." Impressed, he scoots next to her and pokes the trout's tail. This lake has bluegills and perches and trouts. America sure has variety.
"Yeah…" Asuka tiredly studies her clothes, stained by the trout. "I need to clean up."
Idly, he smiles and jokes, "I don't know who got it worse. You with all those stains or me with my back pain."
Grimacing more, she sighs and sinks her shoulders. "Both of us. Now let's put this trout back and go home so I can clean up."
Judai blinks, then murmurs, "Home?"
Home.
The word itself makes him remember lonely days in the house: seeing his parents wave at him goodbye before leaving for work, reading their notes that they'd be back by dinner time, sometimes waking up to guess if his mother or father would stay for breakfast or leave due to urgency, dueling with Osamu until he has to leave, saying bye to his old friends who went back to their own homes and families—
It's not that he's scared of this word or something. He's learned to deal with it as he grew up because, despite their work schedules, his parents still came back for him. They still took care of him. They loved him, but they were gone a lot as well. It was lonely. He's not scared, but this word does make him feel a little lonely sometimes.
And Asuka had used it with him.
She casually used it with him, like it's normal. Nobody used it around him until she did. He's heard their friends use 'apartment,' 'my place,' and 'hotel.' But Asuka… She used 'home.'
For some reason, his mind blanks, rendering him unable to reply back.
It's a couple of seconds later that Asuka gives him a careful look and asks him, "Are you okay?"
From her tone, he knows that she's referring to something else, but he also knows that this isn't something that he's personally ready to talk about yet. "Yeah!" he answers instead, absently. Eyeing the trout in front of them for a distraction, he says lightly, "Just thinking about how unfair it is that your first catch is way bigger than all the other fish I caught."
She teases, "I thought it didn't matter what size you caught?"
"It's the principle of the matter!" Judai exclaims with mock conviction, a finger in the air.
As she dusts her blouse, her eyebrow raises. "Which is?"
He pauses. Honestly, he just said whatever he could think of in the spur of the moment. (Yeah, he deserves to be laughed at by Yubel this time.) "I'll get back to you on that whenever I think of an answer!"
Asuka scoffs in good humor and even nods for him, like she already knows that he had nothing to retort back. On any other occasion, he could've retorted something humorous as a comeback, but his previous thoughts sorta ruined his opportunity to be funny. She starts rolling the trout back to the lake with her palms, and it leaps into the water once she gets it to the edge.
It happens so fast.
Judai blinks at seeing the lake water splash Asuka's entire body, her clothes and hair looking thoroughly soaked. The trout is happily swimming away, like it's victorious. The corner of his mouth twitches involuntarily as he watches her become still like a statue.
Well… Now he isn't exactly wrong when he thinks that fishing is like war to Asuka. He's not even sure who's the winner here. The one who caught it and is a wet mess, or the one swimming away in the lake after splashing the aforementioned wet mess?
Unable to contain himself any longer, he stifles his laughter into his fist, shoulders quaking and stomach burning.
Asuka had her very first catch today, and she ended up getting splashed in the face by her own spoil. Today seems to single-handedly beat all the other fishing trips he took with Johan or Jim!
"Are you done?" she intones boredly.
Her face is dully looking at him, which makes him laugh harder. "Nope!"
As he continues laughing and wheezing, he feels his face being splashed with water. Hey— Did she just throw water in his face? Vigorously shaking his head to dry his hair, Judai splutters.
"Now you are," says Asuka heartlessly, standing up to leave him behind and walking back to pick up her book. Ah, boo. "I'm heading back."
Giving his head one last shake, he pats down his hair before grabbing his fishing rod and standing up to follow her. Unbothered, he smiles. "Wait up!" The moment he catches up to her, he has to force himself to not laugh. "So how was it? Your first fishing experience?"
She looks like she's about to make some grand speech. "I—" she starts off strongly, trying to squeeze her hair dry with one hand. "—will never fish again."
Oh, now she's taking it out of proportions! "You're just mad that it splashed you." Judai rolls his eyes at her melodramatic declaration. "If you had paid attention when it attached to the hook, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. What were you thinking about back there anyway? I called you so many times." It must've been pretty important, whatever it was that she had been pondering about.
Hesitating, she answers stiffly, "Just… things."
Things? Okay… For someone who reads a lot, she's usually pulling out bigger words to use against him than this. "Things?" His eyebrow raises.
Asuka clears her throat. "I was thinking about how fishing is definitely not my calling, after all."
He blinks, wondering where her logic is today. "Says the one who caught a giant trout for her first time?"
"I was just lucky. Beginner's luck, you know."
So lucky that she caught a giant trout while she was thinking deeply about something? If she never noticed the trout at that size approaching the line, then this seriously makes him curious about what she had been thinking about. Is something bothering her? It doesn't seem like she wants to talk about it, so he, instead, dramatically pleads, "Give me your luck then! I think your laughing earlier scared all of my fish away!"
She simpers. "Sorry."
He grumbles incoherently, sulky that she still won't tell him what she was thinking about. But at least she's smiling again right now, so he supposes that matters more. (He's also grateful that the fishing rod is safe and in one piece.)
Rolling her eyes, she tells him, "You can fish again another time, and you'll keep catching more fish. Next time, it'll be a big one."
She seems to have the wrong idea of why he's acting like this, but maybe it's just better this way. Meddling was something he was notorious for, and he's learned his lesson to not meddle too much. Asuka knows how to take care of herself, after all. She's plenty responsible.
So, Judai finds some reassurance from this reasoning, and simply plays along for her sake: "Hm, I better."
"You will," she says, sounding certain.
Hearing it, he's actually looking forward to the next fishing trip a lot. Well, assuming they'll have another one. Today was pretty fun. He likes hanging out with Asuka like this.
She made fishing really fun today.