The weeks following were awkward to say the least. Yusei would be up late into the night studying and then out all day either working or going to school, so they never really got a chance to talk very seriously. Judai still managed to learn that after the World Riding Duel Grand Prix, all of Yusei's friends had taken different paths and that he and Crow were the only ones left in Neo Domino at the time. Yusei was in college to become an engineer like his father, hoping to restart the Zero reactor, but this time, do it right. Judai also learned that Yusei was insisting on paying for all of this on his own, saving whatever he'd won from the Grand Prix for emergencies.

"Okay, seriously, do you ever sleep?" Judai asked, yawning as he rolled over in his bed to find the other still awake at 3am, on his laptop doing…something. He usually just assumed it was homework.

Yusei glanced over at him briefly before turning his attention back to his computer. "Of course I sleep, Judai."

"When?"

"Is that really important?"

Judai grumbled at the other and got up from his bed, going over to the other and closing his laptop. "Yes. It is. You need to sleep at some point."

If looks could kill, Judai was certain that he would most likely be 6 feet under at this moment. Yusei's eyes narrowed dangerously, and his voice dropped to a low, threatening growl.

"Judai." He warned, only growing more irritated when the other didn't back away from him. "Don't ever touch my laptop again."

"Then get some sleep! You're going to work yourself into the ground, and then what?" Judai demanded, refusing to back down. He was worried about his friend. He hadn't actually seen Yusei sleep longer than an hour nap here or there since he'd started staying with him, and that was nearly a month ago.

"Keep your voice down, you're going to wake Martha." Yusei scolded, reopening his laptop and choosing to ignore Judai instead.

Judai was all too tempted to try closing the laptop again to regain Yusei's attention, but judging from the look he got earlier, that would result in a far more unsavory consequence than a simple warning. "You know what? Fine. But if you won't sleep, neither will I."

"Judai, you can't be serious. I doubt you'd make it more than an hour." Yusei retorted, giving him an annoyed look.

"Is that a challenge Mr. Fudo?" Judai taunted, going over and sitting on his bed. He folded his arms childishly over his chest and glared the other down.

Yusei met his glare with one of his own. "If that's how you wish to see it, Mr. Yuki." He shot back.

Judai only continued to glare at him and wait. About an hour or two in of total silence; however, he was quickly realizing this was going to be harder than he thought. He was already starting to nod off, but Yusei showed no signs of tiring at all.

"Come on, Yusei," he complained, yawning. "You need to rest. Sleep is just as important as whatever you're working on."

Still, he got no response from the other. He didn't even get a sideways glance this time. He had to think of a different way to get Yusei to listen to him. It couldn't be healthy for him to be staying up so much, even if it were for school and work. Judai could see the bags under Yusei's eyes, so the other couldn't tell him he just wasn't tired.

At some point while he was thinking about what to do, whether it was before or after he considered smothering the other with a pillow or forcing him to sleep with chloroform, he wasn't sure, Judai must have nodded off. He woke up with a start to find the bed across from his empty and made. He even had a blanket wrapped around him.

"Dang it!" He cried, looking at the clock to see it was half past 10am. Yusei was in class right now and had been for an hour.

His heart sank a little in defeat, and he got up slowly to stretch out the kinks from sleeping sitting. Judai left the room and walked out to the kitchen to find Martha cooking something to eat for breakfast. By the smell of things, it appeared they were having pancakes that day.

"Good morning, Judai," Martha greeted, setting down a plate in front of him along with a napkin with some white pills on it. "Some Tylenol. Yusei said you might be sore this morning."

"What?" Judai looked down at the medicine in confusion. "Why would he say that? I mean, I am, but still…"

"I don't really know myself. He just said he saw you sleeping funny last night and thought you might kink your neck like that. Supposedly, he'd tried to get you to straighten out, but you weren't listening." She chuckled, amused by how she imagined the situation.

"O-Oh…" He really couldn't remember anything past 6am. Maybe Yusei had tried to get him to lay down. Maybe he just told Martha he tried so she wouldn't question him on why he didn't. "I guess I'll thank him later."

Later never seemed to come though. Yusei didn't come home at his usual time that night, and when Martha called him, all he said was that he got called into work to cover for someone else.

"I really wish that boy would learn to tell them no," Martha sighed as the hour got later and later. It seemed Judai wasn't the only one worried about him.

"Or at least learn how to sleep," Judai added, still upset about last night.

Martha chuckled softly and sat down in the living room with him. "If you can figure out a way to make him sleep, I'll bake you a cake. Yusei's always been like this. He doesn't know how to do things half-heartedly. It's always all or nothing with him." She explained, rocking her chair. "I agree though. He should at least rest a little bit."

"How can we get him to though? I tried getting him to talk to me last night, but he got so upset when I touched his laptop, he wouldn't talk to me for the rest of the night."

"You touched his laptop? I'm amazed you still have your hands." Martha was stunned. She hadn't seen Yusei let anyone touch his laptop without permission. It was almost an unspoken rule he was the only one aloud to lay a finger on it and he never left it anywhere where anyone else would be tempted or need to.

Judai raised an eyebrow at her but shrugged it off. "It's not a big deal. I was just trying to get his attention, so that he would listen to me and get some sleep for a change."

"I think it is. That boy is overprotective of that thing. You're lucky the only thing he did was not talk to you. He may not seem like it, but that boy's got a vengeful streak in him every now and again. Gets it from Jack, I think." She sighed, shaking her head.

"Who gets what from Jack?" Yusei asked, seeming to appear in the room with how quietly he'd entered.

"Good heavens child!" Martha jumped, turning to look back at him in alarm. "Knock before you enter if you're going to be that quiet!" She scolded him. Immediately after though, she was on her feet and pulling him down into a hug.

"I'll go heat up dinner for you," she said warmly, ruffling his hair and vanishing into the kitchen.

Yusei looked a little disoriented, but no worse for ware, seemingly used to this treatment. He watched her go fondly before sitting down on the couch beside Judai. He seemed to melt into it completely, his head back and eyes closed.

Judai thought he looked exhausted, but he really didn't want to argue with him again. All three of them sat and talked until Martha retired for the night, leaving the two boys alone.

"Yusei," Judai started, but he was cut off by the other.

"Don't start this again." Yusei sighed, putting his bowl down on the coffee table. "I'm perfectly fine. You can both stop worrying about me."

"Can we?" Judai asked, folding his arms. "You were up presumably all night last night and you only got an hour of sleep before. You've got bags under your eyes and it took Martha saying your name three times to get you to respond. Besides that, I bet you haven't even realized you've got food on your nose. Don't tell me we can both stop worrying about you when you've given me no reason not to."

Yusei quickly swiped at his nose, looking down in embarrassment. He decided not answering the other was a better tactic than trying to defend himself, but it seemed Judai wasn't as tired as he was last night and Yusei didn't have his laptop to use to avoid him this time either.

"Talk to me Yusei!" Judai demanded. "Come on! Why are you staying up so late? Why won't you sleep?"

Yusei refused to make eye contact with him or speak. If anything, he seemed to be retreating into himself more, which only frustrated the brunette more.

"You know what? Fine. Duel me." Judai snapped.

"What?" Finally. A reaction.

"You heard me." Judai wasn't playing around anymore. He pulled out his deck and sat down so he was on the other end of the coffee table from Yusei. "Duel me. If I win, you sleep. If you win, I'll leave you alone about this."

Judai watched Yusei mull over the proposition and weigh his options, anxiety starting to gnaw at him the longer the other took. Finally, Yusei's shoulders dropped and Judai's hopes soared when the other pulled out his deck as well.

"Alright!" Judai cheered, immediately beginning to shuffle his deck. It had been forever since he dueled, and he really couldn't wait to get his game on even if it was only because he was trying to get Yusei to listen to him.

Judai forgot how much you could learn about your opponent when you dueled them. Each one of Yusei's moves was carefully calculated and executed in such a way that nothing went to waste. Everything had a use for him whether or not it seemed apparent in the beginning. It almost seemed like the sleep deprivation he thought the other was suffering from was nonexistent up until Yusei finally made a critical error.

I've got you now. Judai thought to himself, placing down the final card that would end the duel.

"And that's game," he declared in triumph, watching Yusei do the math to reveal his life points had hit 0. "You really had me on a run for my money there."

"I guess so," Yusei agreed, sighing a little as he cleared his field and put all of his cards back together. Judai noticed he put his Stardust on top, just like he liked to put his Kuriboh and Neos on top of his deck.

He almost hated to break the comfortable feeling in the air post duel, but he couldn't let Yusei think he'd forgotten. "Alright, you know the deal. I won. So from now on, you have to have a semi-normal sleep schedule from now on."

Yusei's eyes snapped up to him immediately. "From now on?"

Judai smirked. Hook, line and sinker. "Yep. From now on. I said before we started that if I won you would sleep. I never specified how long or whether or not it was just for tonight."

"Then you can't specify it now," Yusei all but growled at him. It wasn't the terrifying, deep growl from last night, but there was still a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Ah ah ah, yes I can. If I don't, then how would you know that I didn't mean for you to just sleep forever now that I've won like some Sleeping Beauty." Judai corrected, knowing he had him right where he wanted him. Maybe Haou was rubbing off on him a little.

Yusei glared a moment more, but he had to admit defeat. He should have been smarter than this and demanded to know the other's terms more clearly before agreeing to the duel in the first place.

"Fine." He huffed, standing up and putting his deck away.

"Thank you," Judai chimed, getting up to follow him back to their room.

For the first time since he'd moved in, Judai wasn't the first one asleep. It seemed Yusei was more tired than he was letting on. The raven was practically out cold the moment his head hit the pillow. At least, he hadn't responded when Judai tried talking to him again, trying to explain he'd only done this because he and Martha were worried.

As the other's slow breathing filled the room with a rhythmic, steady sound, Judai found himself lost in space, just staring at him. Yusei seemed so peaceful and at ease, all the worried lines that usually settled between his brow were smoothed away. He couldn't help but note that he finally looked younger, and more his age. Judai wished he could see Yusei like this while he was awake. He'd almost gotten to this point while they were dueling, but even then, he was way more serious than now.

'You know, he's pretty cute when he's asleep,' Yubel commented, forming just above the sleeping mechanic. They smirked at Judai when they noticed he started to blush. 'You think so too, huh?'

What? I mean, yeah, of course he is. Everyone is cute asleep. Judai defended himself, rolling over so his back was facing Yusei and Yubel. A part of him immediately regretted the decision since now all he could look at was the boring wall. He gave it at least a minute or two before turning back over, pouting at Yubel's ever growing smile.

Shut up. He grumbled.

Lunara: Yusei is too stubborn sometimes. Judai's starting to fall already. XD

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