The days melded into one another, and they settled once more into a comfortable routine. Judai was more than happy to act as a space heater for Yusei while he studied and worked on projects at home. In return, Yusei would duel Judai and would drive him to work or at least the bus stop. The brunette had initially tried to insist he could walk himself, but Yusei was hearing none of it. Not with the snow on the ground and how cold it was. The last thing he wanted was for Judai to get sick. Selfishly, because then he'd stand a higher risk of getting sick himself, but he'd also really hate to see someone so bright and happy so miserable.
Yusei walked into the coffee shop and tapped the snow from his shoes on the welcome mat, more than welcoming of the rush of hot air that swept by him and carried the soul warming scents of coffee and peppermint with it. It didn't take him long to spot his bubbly brunette behind the counter, calling out someone's name and quickly making his way to the register at the sound the front bell.
"Yusei, what can I get started for you?" Judai greeted happily, his face lighting up almost immediately upon seeing Yusei rather than another customer.
"Mmm, how about a medium peppermint hot chocolate with one of those outrageously large bell-shaped marshmallows you won't stop begging me to get?" Yusei almost burst out laughing at the surprised look on his face, watching Judai's eyes dart from him to the clock on the wall.
"Wait, you're actually ordering?" The brunette stared a moment longer just to be sure this wasn't a joke before entering in the code and telling him his total. "Alright, but you owe me for making me stay later."
Yusei rolled his eyes and paid, smiling all the while as he walked over to the pickup area. "Your coworker was right there though. You could have let them make my drink."
"Not a chance, Fudo. I'm the only one allowed to make you a drink while I'm here. I'm afraid it's the law." Judai remarked, handing Yusei his cup. "Go find a seat. I'm going to go clock out."
Yusei accepted the warm drink and nodded, walking over to a tall table for two by the windows and getting up into his seat. He went to take a sip when he noticed something scrawled on the side of the cup in black marker. ~My Stardust~ was written in rather sloppy cursive on the side with a little four-point star for added decoration. Somehow, that made him feel warmer than his first sip of his drink ever could have.
The cozy, warm feeling only grew when Judai stepped out from the employee area and skipped over to him, scarf and jacket already on and zipped up.
"I am beyond ready to get out of here." The brunette announced, flopping down into the seat across from him and dramatically laying himself across the table. "Or never mind…I think I'll just sit here for a while."
Yusei felt a small smile pull at his lips in amusement at the other's dramatic antics. "Was today busy for you?"
"Well, no, it wasn't so much that so much as everyone had to be super mean and difficult about their orders. This one person was even upset I didn't put their medium drink in a large cup because they wanted that much extra whipped cream, but they didn't say that when they ordered. Apparently, they're a regular and I just haven't met them yet." Judai complained. He lifted his hand as well without lifting his head. "Look. I even burnt myself on accident."
"You burnt yourself?" Yusei didn't even think twice as he set his drink aside and took the other's hand in his own to examine it. The burns were mostly covered with a bandage, but the skin that peeked out from behind it looked red. "I'm sorry. Does it hurt still? I've got some aloe at home. I use it when I burn my hands."
Judai lifted his head to shake it 'no' and twisted his hand to hold Yusei's instead, much to the raven's embarrassment. It was endearing how just handholding made him flush up like that. "Well, not really, but the aloe does sound nice. It only hurts if you press on it. I think it'll be okay."
Yusei frowned a little but left his hand in Judai's as he took another drink of his hot chocolate. "You should be more careful next time. It's hard to duel or do much of anything with burnt hands."
"I know, I know. I already reported it too, so don't worry about that." The brunette sat up and leaned his head on his palm, looking to him in interest and brushing his thumb over the back of his hand. "Enough about my boring day though, what about you?"
"It was the same as always, really. Lectures and homework all day followed by a couple odd jobs for work and now I get to pick you up to go home, study, work, sleep and repeat." Yusei answered, rambling off the list with a disinterested shrug. He loved what he did and what he was studying, but he knew he lost Judai whenever he started to honestly go off on tangents about and he didn't want to bore him with all the details. "Why don't we work on the going home part though? I have an assignment to try and finish before I have to go try and fix this runner engine that's been acting up."
Judai's eyebrows shot up, "An engine? That must be a pretty nice paycheck. What's wrong with it?"
"Mhmm. I'm hoping it'll cover one of my books next semester…or at least the class fees." He muttered, shaking his head a little as he stood up. He had a decent scholarship going for him, but it definitely didn't cover everything. Just thinking about his finances though made his stomach twist and turn uncomfortably. "I'm not entirely sure. They just said it won't turn on and they wanted me to try and take a look."
"Well, be careful, okay?" Judai prompted, standing up as well and squeezing his hand. "Can we watch something together when you get back? Provided you finish your assignment and it's not too late."
Hearing the hope fill his voice made it impossible to turn down the request, even if Yusei had originally planned to simply do more studying when he got back. "Yeah, of course. If I finish my homework and get back before your imposed curfew, then I don't see why not."
"I'd say I was mad at myself for that curfew, but that would be a lie. You don't look anywhere near as exhausted." He pointed out rather proudly of himself.
"Sure, sure," Yusei halfheartedly agreed. He didn't feel less tired, but that could largely be due to the fact that though he went to bed earlier, that didn't mean he slept the entire time. Besides, finals for this term were approaching rather quickly. If he couldn't sleep, he might as well be productive with his time.
He drove them home and set to work immediately on his assignment, settling down on the couch while Judai went to take a shower. Math was kind to him. It was symbols and equations that made sense and had a direct, reliable purpose. It didn't rely on him needing to understand complex grammatical structures or formatting that was never necessary to his life before college. He was admittedly glad he'd already passed those classes before Judai had come. He didn't know what he'd have done if he had a curfew at the same time he was furiously attempting to make the words in his head appear on the pages as eloquently as they were expecting of him. Jack and Aki got so many rough drafts from him to edit and help make sense of.
Yusei diligently wrote out the solutions to each equation, textbook and calculator balanced on one lap and his notebook in the other while his hot chocolate sat mostly ignored on the coffee table. Assignments like these left him free to think idly about other things which was dangerous today. He felt rushed and short on time, mentally trying to work out his time schedule for the rest of the night and tomorrow. He wanted to spend time with Judai. He hadn't really devoted any time to just him since their outing last Saturday. Today was Thursday. Was he upset with him for that? Jack had mentioned that Carly got upset with him if he didn't set aside time for her without prompting or having it scheduled in. Something about not being a work meeting. Besides that, he'd often heard his classmates who were in relationships complaining they weren't spending enough time with their significant others.
Maybe he would be able to figure out how to manage his time better if he could just solve this cursed problem. He didn't know when he got stuck, but he was on his third rewrite of this one and still getting the same answer. The same answer that definitely was not in the back of the book. He checked. Three times.
"Hey, you alright there, Stardust?" Judai asked from beside him, sitting down on the couch and carefully leaning over to put and arm around him. It was always hit or miss on whether this was acceptable, but when Yusei was engrossed in a problem like this, he usually got away with it. So long as the golden rule of not touching his laptop was upheld that is.
"I'm fine. I just don't know where I went wrong on this one. My answer doesn't match the textbook, but I'm sure I did it right. I can't think of anything else I could have done differently." Yusei admitted, sighing heavily as he carefully combed through his notes for that section. They'd done an example like this during lecture. Maybe that would show him an alternate path. "It should be right, but it's not."
"I don't know, man, math hates me unless it's duel equations." Judai rested his head on Yusei's shoulder, hoping that maybe helping warm him up a little might somehow make the right answer come to him.
The extra weight was far from appreciated; however, and Yusei shrugged his shoulder to dislodge the other, looking to him with a cross frown. "Not now, Judai. Please. I'm trying to figure this out."
Judai, thankfully, immediately backed off and put his hands up in submission. "Okay, okay. Sorry… Just thought you might be cold is all… Do you want me to leave you alone?"
His immediate instinct was to say yes so he could focus, but guilt was eating away at him. He was just worried about not spending enough time with him because of school and work and now he was pushing him away because of school.
"I don't know…" he muttered, letting his shoulders drop. "I want you stay, but I also want you to give me a minute to figure this out."
"Why can't you just leave the answer you have and move on? That's what I'd do whenever I did my homework." Judai asked, folding his arms. "That way, I don't have to go and you get to finish your work. It's the best of both worlds."
"I can't do that. The answer is wrong. I need to know why so I can fix it and make it match the back of the book." Yusei insisted, eyebrows furrowing further. He couldn't even fathom leaving an incorrect answer on his assignment when he was actively aware it was wrong. It didn't matter if he had to stare at it all night. He was going to find out what happened and why.
Judai looked surprised. "Wait, the answers are in the back of your book? Well then, just copy those down and be done with it. Why are you worrying about it?"
"Because that defeats the entire purpose of doing the assignment, Judai." He couldn't believe his ears. How in the world did Judai get into Duel Academy if this was his approach to learning? How did he make the top of his class and join Yugi as a legend amongst duelists? "I need to be able to understand this so I can pass the class and move on. I want to graduate next semester Judai. I can't do that if I fail this class."
"One failed exam isn't going to make you fail the class, and it's one problem, Yusei. I don't think it makes that big of a difference. Does it? Besides, everyone has access to that answer. It's in all your textbooks. It's not like you're cheating or anything, so it doesn't matter." Judai shrugged and leaned back into the couch, seeming blissfully unaware of the threads he was snapping in Yusei's mind.
"Doesn't matter?"
Yusei took a deep breath and closed his book with his notebook, pencil and calculator all still inside. He stood up without another word and grabbed his hot chocolate, heading towards the garage door. He didn't want to argue with Judai. He didn't have the time for that. He had to finish this before going to fix some stupid engine that probably just needed some rust brushed off or oiled, maybe something minor replaced all so he could come home and watch some movie the brunette had found somewhere.
"Yusei! Hey, where are you going? Wait!" He heard Judai scramble off the couch to chase after him, but he didn't want to listen to him anymore either. "What did I say?"
Such a simple little question. Such a thin thread. "What did you say?" Yusei almost couldn't believe Judai was asking that. It should have been obvious, shouldn't it? "What did you say? Judai, I told you exactly why this matters to me. You're asking me to just…copy an answer and bet on the chance a question like this doesn't show up on the exam? We only get two exams in this class and I already almost failed the first one. If I don't get at least a high B on this next test, I'm going to fail this course and will have to wait till the next winter trimester to take it again. I'm sorry, but I can't just…duel my way out of school like you did."
He knew he shouldn't have said it. The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, and in the moment he really didn't care. There was a twinge of guilt in his chest when he saw the shock and hurt cross Judai's normally bright and happy face, but he didn't stay long enough to let it sink in nor to see the way his boyfriend's eyes had turned a furious gold. Instead, he turned and stormed out the door to his desk in the garage, harshly tossing his book onto it and throwing it open to the problem that started this mess.
Math was supposed to be kind to him. Supposed to have a reliable answer and though there were many ways to it, one reliable solution. Yet now, even as he stared at the page in front of him and tried to will the path to the solution to materialize in front of him, he couldn't think about anything other than what he'd just said and how stupid it was that they'd just argued over something so trivial.
He looked at his answer and once more turned to the back of the book. Maybe he could try to work backwards again. Maybe that would make more sense this time and get his mind off of Judai for just a moment. He nearly choked on his drink; however, when he read the answer for what felt like both the hundredth time and first time all at once.
It matched.
Kitana: Aw, baby's first argument. Sorry I haven't updated in forever. School finals were these last couple weeks and I've been trying to recover and make up for my massive sleep debt. (I kid you not, I was averaging 3 hours of sleep per night if not less for finals week. OOF. Not healthy. Do not do that to yourself.)
As always, thank you for reading, favoriting/following and reviewing!
Questions about Until the End of Time? You can reach me here or on my tumblr: kitana-lunara