And everyone is singing
I hear those sleigh bells ringing
Santa, won't you bring me the one I really need?
Won't you please bring my baby to me?
All I want for Christmas is you (Mariah Carey)
The great isolation
Those who dealt with Yuki Judai believed that, despite his excellent cunning during duels, he was, actually, an idiot.
His boyfriend, Muto Yugi used to think that those were exaggerations, he was a bit clumsy for some things, nothing more. He used to affirm that to those who made the observation and until the day before he was convinced of it, but when he did something like that Yugi really couldn't convince himself of anything else.
"Could you repeat that last for me?".
"I thought during the last inspection at the airport they were going to open the drums, as if we could hide something into it, it would sound different".
The king of games was silent, Judai was not such an idiot to not understand what he meant by his question.
"There will be no flights to Japan until further notice" he repeated distressed.
In response he sighed heavily. He understood how important that contract was to the Kuriboh's head and his label, he really understood, he was sponsored by a fairly small one and the union with another small European label could mean good news for the artists affiliated with it the next year when they could. give live presentations. Being Judai his most recognized singer, it was good that he went to Europe to give a couple of presentations and close the deal.
In any other year since he gave him the news, Yugi would have congratulated him, asked for some memories of his trip and perhaps kissed with happiness if they were alone, because even for the good news he had to keep the discretion typical of a homosexual Japanese. The problem is that 2020 was not like any other year.
With so many technological advances he did not understand why they could not do everything online, even a hologram of Judai capable of imitating his body heat and scent in the presentations was possible; they do not have to expose a person whose work depended on his voice to the greatest pandemic of the century. As much as he insisted on refusing, Judai accepted and there was the result: being stuck in a hotel in Spain with no possibility of returning due to the suspension of international flights.
In December.
"Fubuki told me that if the holidays are approaching and commercial flights are still banned, we could request help from the Japanese embassy" Judai explained quickly.
"That's not what worries me, if they have closed airports, it's because things got complicated again there, right?"
Yuki was silent, he wanted to lie to him to reassure him, but he was not capable.
"We don't have any more meetings or anything scheduled, Fubuki and Manjoume are in different rooms, we're going to be locked up here for a couple of days, if they don't give us a reason about the airports by monday, we'll do the embassy thing" he explained with a conciliatory smile.
His boyfriend returned the gesture, he did not want to worry about more or give him that bad feeling, for the good of both.
"Keep in contact with me, I want to know you're okay".
"I will do it. And I promise I'll be back in time to spend Christmas together".
He smiled fondly at him, putting those puppy eyes that Yugi couldn't get angry at for long and he had to admit, his discomfort was due to worry. They were used to separating for long periods of time, between Judai's tours and Yugi's business trips, they went up to six months without seeing each other. However, in a situation like that where everything was a great uncertaint, he was impatient for the date when he could finally be by his side.
"Looks like we'll have a lot more video calls" Judai intencious were obvious, vocalizing his most seductive voice. "It's already night there and I'm going to be alone for a long time, we could talk about other things".
"No".
And the video call was over.
"Nice try" Yubel's mocking voice rang out in his head.
Judai knew that his boyfriend was upset with him for the right reasons. The label that sponsored them was so small that it could almost be said it depended on them as its main artists, if they refused to travel they would simply have no other choice and would do their best to handle everything remotely, they were in the 21st century, the distance was not a problem if no physical contact was necessary.
Being in another country where they had clear language limitations among other things, they had to approach a lot of people, he thought about it while Manjoume next to him was shivering with cold and both saw Fubuki use his perfect English to chat happily with a young woman at the airport .
"I have good news and bad news" Fubuki announced with his distinctive lightness.
"Five thousand yen which is both bad news" Manjoume growled, shoving his frozen hands into his jacket pockets.
"Not at all! You see, the good news is that we finally have a flight".
"What a surprise! It was good news!"
"You just lost money, Manjoume!" Judai declared cheerfully.
"The bad news is that the flight is to Korea because the Japanese airport does not allow flights from Spain".
"¿Eh?".
"¿Eh?".
"That's all bad news!" Manjoume replied. We are Japanese citizens! Why so much paperwork?
"At least we'll be closer to home, from there it will be easier to request a return home, and the Korean filters are quite reliable".
Judai sighed, truth be told, he wasn't sure if he or Manjoume had come up with a better deal than Fubuki's. Above all, taking into account that they used exactly the same route at the beginning of the year.
At the end of February they had a couple of presentations in Italy, Yubel sneeringly hinted that Venice, as beautiful as it was, gave him bad luck, as the country was immediately hit by the epidemic; consequently, they were stuck there for two months.
He perfectly remembered Yugi's sweet words through the screen of his cell phone, with his crystalline eyes he said:
«Please take good care of yourself and go home safely».
Maybe it did fail him, maybe he was selfish in clinging to going to Europe, he must have understood that this was not the right time to make that kind of trip, no matter how secluded he felt, because it did not compare to the worry of being separated from his beloved, knowing how anxious he must have felt for do not know if he was going to return safely.
"We"ll take that route" Yuki declared with his head held high. "Let's go home as soon as we can".
Fubuki smiled and looked at his other partner who was still with his arms crossed.
"What do you say Manjoume?".
"Fine. But Fubuki, was it really necessary to speak so closely to the airport girl?".
"If it weren't for my charms, we'd be here for another three weeks" the gallant smiled, in that way that even Manjoume conquered.
"Fine, but I'm not sitting with you on the plane".
Judai sighed as he pressed his forehead to the large window of his hotel room, Seoul was as beautiful as ever, especially at night. He wanted to go out there, go for a meal, have some duels with the competitive local players, make sure the Spheriums were clearly visible in the stores and incite some people to buy them. A typical visit to a country that did not look like the land of the calm morning.
Luckily they did not put too many restrictions on them while the clinical test was being carried out to make sure they were not infected, in fact, they did not even ask if they could go out. He would kill Fubuki and Manjoume if they left the hotel to do anything, they were already close to Japan, their priority was to finally find their way back to the country.
The sound of an incoming video call from his laptop always open on the bed, made him go immediately. How punctual Yugi was, he knew exactly what time he would settle in Korea. Despite still being angry, he couldn't help but worry and be aware of him. Those were the things he loved so much about him and gave him hope about making amends.
"Hello! What's up Yugi?".
"Judai" he greeted with a small smile that couldn't help himself. "How was your flight?".
"Quite calm, I have never had such an empty flight, we were able to take three seats each of us, that's good because none of them wanted to be close to Fubuki".
"Why? Have he show any symptoms?".
"Not really, just his personality doesn't allow him to understand the concept of 'social distancing' well".
"With women".
"Especially".
"I had never noticed how much he likes to be recognized by other people, I saw the video of your presentation in Spain, if the TV presenter had thrown herself to hug him because of how excited she was to meet him, he would surely not take her away. You usually don't see those things here in Japan".
"And more than that! He would have hugged her tighter! I'm sure he plays guitar because it's the most popular instrument with girls".
He gave a couple of clean laughs shared with his boyfriend not so far from him in the world. Judai immediately stopped when noticing a detail.
"Did you see my presentations in Spain?"
The king of games refrained from answering and turned his eyes elsewhere.
"Yugi?" He insisted, wanting to hear an answer.
"You know… I like to see you sing".
A pleasant warmth took hold of Judai's chest up to his hands, Yugi always supported him in his artistic career, he went to his concerts, they talked about songs in progress and during a night of drinks he confessed in front of all his friends that he enjoyed listening to him go out of tune in the shower. He started singing because all his friends told him that he had a good voice and he didn't really believe it until the night when he heard it from Yugi's lips.
«You have a very beautiful voice, it is manly and full of energy. I like to hear you sing».
His softly spoken words were so embarrassed, at the same time full of affection. They rejoiced his heart in the moments that he felt lost and reminded him how much they both loved each other.
However, he truly believed that this time Yugi would punish him by stepping away from his content for not agreeing with his trip. When they talked about their respective jobs, Judai tried not to go into too much detail about the trip so as not to feel rejected.
"You did well in Madrid, the video had many views".
"Yugi!" He raised his voice, the warmth in his chest rising to his face.
When was he going to stop acting like a schoolboy?
He wanted to tell his boyfriend how much he loved him and that he was very sorry to be doing that to him, at least he had the maturity to think in what order it was correct to do both.
"I'm so sorry! The cause of the situation we are in and your concern has been me, it has been my selfishness" he spoke clearly and loudly, both hands on his knees and bowing his head a little.
"I know".
After knowing each other for so long and being together for a couple of years, it was difficult for Judai to hide things from him. He could sense his need to go out when he offered to deliver merchandise to other parts of Domino City himself and to the parcel, with his insistence on picking up the food himself despite the home delivery services and requests to go to places like the cinema not caring if they should be separated from each other by the norms of social distancing in the places still operating. Yugi himself had to refused with great difficulty to go with Seto Kaiba to America on a business trip where they would present some expansion packages of the Spherium. If he, a much more reserved person compared to his boyfriend, was having a hard time isolation, it must have been harder for Judai, who could not stay six months in the same country.
"I can't be angry for this long either" Yugi continued maturely. "My only wish is that you come home for Christmas".
They both smiled in amusement when they remembered that was a very popular song in those time of the year.
"I will be there! I promise!".
"Enjoy your free time, Shoma and I can't do so much work we have, as soon as you come back will have many packages to pack".
Judai smiled, it was so cute that Yugi, a responsible adult, was ashamed to say how much love they would give each other once they were together.
"I'm bored! I have weeks without doing anything other than eating, playing online and sleeping".
"Later we could play something online or watch something together, I just have to finish some pending job and find something to eat, okay?".
"Yeah! I too should eat what they brought us a while ago, but I haven't had much appetite, the fruit here is not very sweet".
"Fruit?" Yugi asked with wide eyes.
"Yeah, the oranges were juicy, it's weird they were so tasteless".
"Judai, when are you going to get your test results?".
"It shouldn't take a couple of hours".
"Good" Yugi gave him a smile, sincere, not so wide. "I'll call you in a bit, think about what we can do together".
As soon as Judai opened his mouth, Yugi interrupted him.
"Everything but that. It is your punishment".
"Until when?!".
He got no answer, the call ended.
The game store was the ideal place for Christmas, despite having little physical clientele due to the contingency, Yugi and his thirteen-year-old assistant took great care with the decoration. Anzu did not seem very convinced with the artificial red tree, Jounochi called it a big mountain of Cheetos Flaming Hot and something in his head told him that maybe it was very overloaded with so many white decorations, however, all the customers were taking a photo with him in the background and no publicity was bad.
"Mr. Yugi, I'm going to order more poly bubble wrap, biodegradable peanuts, and boxes, the ones we have aren't going to be enough for this week".
"Yeah".
…
"Mr. Yugi, the structure decks of the ice barrier has been finished".
"Yeah".
…
"Mr. Yugi! The Christmas tree is stolen!"
"Eh?"
He awkwardly focused on the Christmas tree in front of him, it hadn't moved an inch.
"Are you ok? You're acting strange for days".
Yugi looked at his tablet on the counter, he had open the annotations of the Spherium Christmas event that would be online, with all the considerations to take, but he had not added absolutely anything despite receiving them four days before.
Just when Judai confirmed he was infected.
"I'm fine, sorry, I think I've left all the work to you".
"Don't worry, we hardly have any physical clients, so that's fine with me" he commented, arranging things inside a cardboard box.
"We need to replenish inventory for so many shipments soon, right?" He asked looking at the screen on the counter, in front of which the boy was.
"Yes, we will soon run out of the lightsworn archetype structure decks".
"I'll write it down" Yugi looked outside, it was still early and already dark, maybe it would snow soon. "Why don't you go home? I'll finish the orders left".
Although the least he wanted to do at that time was work.
"Really?"
Any other boy would already have a foot at the exit, Shouma on the other hand, seemed indecisive.
"Yes, soon the online purchases will go down customers who come to the store will increase, everyone knows that if they ask for parcel delivery on these dates it will arrive after Christmas".
"Uh-oh".
"We'll be fine, I'll take care of the people to come here. In the meantime, go rest".
"Yup".
Diligently, the boy finished the open packages in front of him and labeled them before going to the cellar for his coat. The way to his door was not very convinced, returning just when he was in front of it to go with his employer ar the counter. He plucked up the courage to ask him:
"Is Yuki Judai okay?".
"He is!" said hastily, a little sorry to see his feelings uncovered in front of a child. "He is".
Of course he was, Yuki was young, in good physical condition and up to that point he did justice to the popular belief that fools did not get the flu because he did not remember seeing him suffer from a serious one before. During the night conversations by video call, he did not look bad, they talked more or less with the same normality without apparent problems with breathing, the cough and headaches were progressive, quite mild.
The symptoms reached their worst point with the fever of the night before during which they maintained a slow video call, more at the insistence of Judai who fell asleep at times, breathing with difficulty and panting strange things. He was about to call Manjoume, because he was lucky enough to only suffer from anosmia was left in charge of looking after the health of his friends who were not sick enough to need hospitalization.
«I am not…! The supreme king…! Night veil!» He screamed amid hallucinations caused by the fever.
Just at that moment Manjoume entered the room to put him to bed and try to lower his fever with cold compresses. He apologized to Yugi before hanging up the call, leaving him with a bitter taste in his mouth and a dead heart with concern.
That morning Judai texted him saying his temperature was already lower, apologizing for worrying him and trying to be funny by joking with the kind of favor he owed Manjoume for taking care of Fubuki and himself.
He would be fine even if the illness was tough, they knew, but that didn't make it any easier.
"I just wish I could be with him" Yugi confessed.
"And why don't you do it? I can ask my older sister and some friends for help, we don't even have to pay them with money, they would accept payment with cards. Maybe my sister wants something from the store. I can take care of everything in your place".
At thirteen one could still be so innocent. Feeling melancholy, with the image of Judai's sly and cheerful smile in mind, Yugi smiled at him tenderly, ruffling the younger's hair lovingly.
"Thanks, but we'll be fine".
Then he remembered something, they weren't supposed to touch.
"Ah, I swear my hands are clean".
"Okay, Mister Yugi!" Shoma smiled a little flushed. "Take my proposal seriously, see you tomorrow!".
Shouma left the place and Yugi started turning everything off before going up to his room to call Judai. If he were a couple of years younger, he would surely not think twice, he would ask any of his friends in the city for help with the store and take the first transport to Seoul, no matter if it was a plane, ship or submarine, he would be right there the next day in order to take care of his loved one.
Being a responsible adult took a lot of romance out of those things.
The rational side of him did not allow to do something like that, assuming that he managed to reach Korea, he still had to go through the same filters that Judai went through and it was very difficult to live with a patient without getting infected. Things could get worse and nothing more.
The best he could do was wait. With his heart in his throat and his soul on a thread, pretending to be fine with Judai to give him hope of healing soon and being able to meet at last.
"You seem to be falling asleep, do you want me to let you sleep?".
"I'm not falling asleep".
"Then you have no excuse for that bad move. You attacked a monster with more attack points than yours has".
Judai's hoarse giggle brought a smile to Yugi. It was just a video frame next to the virtual board where they played Duel Monsters, but it was the only frame he needed to be at peace.
"It's my dueling strategy, to make you believe I'm playing badly and when you least realize it, you'll fall into my trap".
"I've already fallen into your trap, long ago".
"How mean!"
It was Yugi's turn to laugh a little.
"I love you".
"I love you".
They said in unison, then laughed louder, until the cough interrupted Judai.
"It doesn't sound as bad as it did a few days ago" Yugi commented as he watched him drinking water.
"I tried to sing a little and today I got checked, apparently my voice will be fine in a few months. I'll be a slave to the game store until then".
"Enjoy your vacation, we haven't had a chance to take inventory and since you outnumber me and Shouma in strength, you will take care of that".
"I hope be done before my voice heals, I've thought of some good song lyrics while I'm in bed".
"You have a beautiful view; it must be easy to be inspired".
"It is, I really like the lights of Seoul".
Yugi widened the video view of Judai, behind him, the view of the city at night was beautiful, he would like to go and spend a couple of days on vacation there with him once everything is over.
As if he could read his mind, Judai told him:
"I wish you were here".
"If I were there, we wouldn't be playing DM".
A single thing clicked on the little brown head.
"Does that mean I'm no longer punished?!"
"You've had enough penalty this week. But we're not going to do something that can agitate you too much" Yugi declared blushing.
"It doesn't make me so agitated because I'm on my own. If you care a lot, just seeing you is enough".
"You're not going to do anything in front of me!".
"Was that Manjoume?" Yugi asked, turning pale.
"Yeah, we've all been in the same room since the three of us tested positive, didn't I tell you?".
It made sense, Yugi was the only naive one who believed Manjoume had some kind of round to see if his friends were okay during the nights. Entering and leaving the rooms.
"You did not tell me. Has he heard all of our conversations?"
"I don't know, he slept a lot".
"Because I looked after you both at night!" Manjoume demanded again.
"We have heard you" Fubuki's cheerful voice made itself heard.
Before Judai could say anything, the video call was over. Why was Yugi so coy?
"Don't expect to have sex when you return to Japan" Yubel seemed quite happy saying that.
"You won't have sex in a long time!" Fubuki scoffed despite not being able to see him.
He couldn't be at all upset with the eldest Tenjoin brother, after all, he spent almost three days asleep. Seeing him more or less lucid was reassuring.
In Japan, Christmas was a relatively new holiday, not so important and almost exclusively for lovers, so he did not expect to see any of his friends that night.
Jounochi was the only one in Domino City and that morning he went to show him the reservation that with great effort managed to make at one of Domino's most luxurious restaurants, where would take Kujaku Mai. Anzu would spend it at her fiancé's family party in upstate New York. Honda asked him in advance for gifts for his first child, as he did not understand exactly what he wanted, luckily Yugi had the best quality of each item on the small list.
Shouma shot out of the shop before dark, babbling something about his sister, cake, and a gift. Not without first wishing him a Merry Christmas and telling him that he left him a present under the tree along with other things sent by the friends and family of the king of games.
Remembering the family, he should go to light incense on the altar to his grandfather.
He still hadn't made up his mind on what would be the least depressing Christmas dinner he could have for himself, having ruled out fried chicken because of how saturated those restaurants must be. Luckily Yugi would not have a video call with Judai because at that time his flight would be leaving Seoul, then he still had to go through the Japanese filters. Better, so he won't see him eating kabayaki straight from the can in the dark so as not to waste electric light.
His greatest happiness at the time was knowing that Judai finally tested negative for him.
He hadn't made up his mind to check to see if he did have any edible cans when he heard a knock on the downstairs door, followed by the knob being unlocked with the key. He went downstairs as soon as he could to meet Yuki washing his hands in the kitchen.
"Judai? How?".
"I promised, didn't I?"
Without saying another word, Yugi threw himself into his arms, Judai squeezed him so tightly that it was hard to breathe but didn't complain. He needed so much to feel the warmth of Yuki again, to breathe the smell of his body and to know that everything was fine because they were together.
"Yugi, I wanted so much to see you again" Judai muttered, his voice almost recovered.
"Me too" sighed, hitting his foreheads, the relief of seeing him again was close to provoking some tears, barely suppressed for not wanting to make his boyfriend feel bad.
Still, with a choked voice he murmured to Judai full of love:
"You're an Idiot".
"I thought idiots didn't get sick".
The older man's frown brought a guilty laugh out of him.
"I'm sorry" whispered against his lips, so close to joining them with a kiss.
Yugi ended that distance, kissing him with real eagerness, letting out everything that he had been saving during those weeks, his love, his need and concern in a gesture that soon became passionate, tightening in a hug from which they never wanted to leave.
How much they missed the kisses! Judai loved how, despite being shorter height, Yugi always guided him, kissed him passionately, moving his lips slowly, turning his head back to incite him to follow him, desperate to continue drinking that lustful nectar from his lips. Yugi instead adored the eagerness with which he always responded to his provocations, Judai was impatient, his youthful love needed to encompass all of him and would usually give him all of him slowly until could no more, however, after everything that happened he could not to wait longer, with mischievous hands he removed his jacket and thin sweater, throwing them somewhere on the floor.
"Let's go to bed?"
"Yes!" He answered immediately and before intertwining their hands with to go up to the room Judai remembered the box on the kitchen counter. "Wait, I have to store in the refrigerator the cake I brought for dinner tonight".
"Actually… I didn't buy anything for dinner, I just have instant ramen in the pantry".
He said not without some embarrassment, if he had known Judai would return that night Yugi would have taken the time to prepare something beyond his depressing ramen dinner for one and how many sweets were close to expiration date in the store he could found.
On the contrary, Judai was grateful to be home and not spend another night locked in a hotel room, he leaned over Yugi again, joining his lips in a long kiss, caressing his face with devotion.
"Ramen and cake sound perfect".
Yugi couldn't refuse despite the obvious bad combination, clinging to Yuki Judai once more in the night.
The end.