On Judai's first day of highschool, he manages to, one, be horrendously late even by his standards, and two, run right into someone, trip over his own legs, and tumble into a nearby bush.
The man who Judai nearly ran over in his rush manages to stay standing, though how he does, Judai has no idea. He tries to ask, but turns out words weren't meant to be made when your mouth was full of leaves. Judai makes a garbled series of sounds to the stranger, which he hopes he understands anyway.
"Uh huh," the dark skinned stranger answers, offering a hand to pull Judai up with.
"Fanks," Judai says, spitting out the leaves. "Sorry about running into you!"
"It's fine," the stranger says. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah!" Judai answers, just as he notices his nose is bleeding and his cheek hurts when he smiles and his elbow does not like it when he flexes his arm and-
"What's your name?" The stranger asks.
"I… dunno!" Judai says, suddenly remembering his parents' lectures on not telling strangers his name, address, and credit card number. "What's your name?"
"I don't know either," the stranger says. His parents must also lecture him on the same things, Judai thinks. "...is this normally how people talk to each other here?"
Judai considers this. This doesn't seem like how conversations are supposed to go. But, Judai might just be really out of practice; after all, ever since he moved away, he hasn't been able to talk to his friends in a while. Most of their numbers seem to be disconnected, or they forward to the coma ward at the general hospital.
That's why he's been so excited for school to start - new year, new friends to be made! One's maybe less likely to fall into spontaneous and mysterious comas. Brand new school, even! One that his parents approved of and looked so cool and-
"I'M LATE." Judai remembers with startling clarity.
"Late to what?"
"School!"
"What's that?"
So maybe this conversation is actually weird, but Judai isn't going to hold it against this strange man with a foreign sounding accent. To the best of his ability, Judai attempts to explain what a high school is, but after a few minutes the man just looks troubled and confused.
"I think I understand," says the man with a face that says otherwise. "It sounds difficult. Here, take this with you."
The man hands Judai a keychain with what can be best described as a misshapen fuzzball with crazy eyes and lumpy wings dangling from it. On the back are the words "Millennium Cafe and R" stitched in tiny and cramped letters.
"Wow!" Judai says. "What is it?"
"I don't know," the man says again. "I'm told it's for advertising the restaurant. I thought its shape and demeanor would appeal to you."
Judai looks back at the fuzzball. It stares back with its haunting crazy eyes.
"I love it," Judai says, sincerely.
"Good," the man says, patting Judai on the head. His eyes are warm, a royal shade of purple, and Judai thinks, wow, I hope I grow up to have purple eyes too. "I hope this winged creature brings you comfort and keeps you safe at this troubled institution you seem to be enrolling in. Goodbye."
And then the coolest person Judai ever met just walks away, down the street and around the corner; gone. Judai stares after him.
"I'm forgetting something…" Judai says, wondering why he was in a rush earlier.
Then he remembers.
And starts running.
Here's a fact: sometimes you can do something so cataclysmically bad that it makes you want to drop out of school altogether and go hide under a rock in a far remote desert on the other side of the world. Forever.
Here's another fact: Judai has never submitted paperwork on time in his life.
The paper is folded neatly into quarters and is haphazardly tucked away in his pocket. He wants to turn it in as soon as possible, and begin his life as a would-be hermit crab in Nevada - Yubel thinks she can convince (read: intimidate) this kid she met a few years ago into getting them discount plane tickets via his family connections, but it's gonna take a few days because apparently this Martin guy is off on vacation with his dad and they're "completely unreachable". With Judai's usual luck, that could mean anything from "enjoying a pleasant cruise with their phones off" to "washed ashore on an unmapped island and have become king of the crabs".
So Judai is. Here. Waiting. And not there. Turning in his paperwork.
Here: sidewalk, outside, raining.
There: the principal's office, inside, dry.
Between Here and There: many miles, public transportation, and trouble.
Trouble that has very clearly spotted him, and Judai, in probably one of his less finer moments, turns away when he hears his name called.
And starts running.
Good thing he's kept up his cardio, he thinks distantly, brushing past people and nearly tripping when his instincts lead him to make a sudden right turn and down a flight of stairs. His keys jingle obnoxiously in his pocket and slip out - he fumbles and catches it, barley; a single worn wing grasped in his fingers. Judai ducks into the first building he sees, and shoves himself into an empty booth, pulling the collar of his jacket up so much that it looks like it is attempting to swallow him whole. Out of the corner of his vision, bright blue hair rushes past the window, and does not turn back. He catches a glimpse of his own reflection, and averts his eye to avoid seeing gold.
"Um?"
Judai buries his head in his hands. This is fine. Everything's fine. He just needs to sit in this booth for approximately the rest of his life, or until Yubel finally lets him know how they're getting to Nevada with only twelve dollars between the two of them. Whichever happens first. Higher education, and also middle education, is superfluous. This is fine.
"Sir."
Yubel really likes the sound of Death Valley and has been pushing for California instead of Nevada. Judai, who's grade in geography can be charitably described as "abysmal", previously thought Nevada and California were the same place, one being a city of another and both simply dreadfully dry places one could bury themselves in sand in. He had thought Death Valley was in Nevada.
Yubel only made fun of him a little for that, and in a tone that was significantly warmer than it had been when they had reunited last year.
His one singular accomplishment: fixing a different mistake he made when they were kids. A significant achievement, to be sure, but when placed next to the list of Terrible Choices he made in the last several months, it really outweighs it through sheer quantity. Judai rubs his hands over his face. Turning eighteen was turning out to be significantly harder than turning seventeen had been.
"Excuse me," says someone, accompanied by a hand touching his shoulder.
Very carefully, Judai does not scream, because being an adult is about looking like you have your act together. And people who scream in public places usually get shooed out of them very quickly. So Judai slowly turns.
And he says, "Yes?"
Looking up at the arm's owner, Judai see's someone who can't be more than a few years older than him. Other notable traits: spiky funny hair, spiky leather bracelets, and an apron, also spiky. Judai's sensing a theme. This waiter's got one of those faces; round edges, shy smile, vaguely familiar - a bit like someone Judai just dodged outside. It makes his skin crawl with guilt.
"Normally you're supposed to wait to be seated," the guy says, pointing to the podium at the entrance - aah, Judai blinks, and realizes he's ducked into a restaurant. The booth really should have given it away. "But since it's slow, it's alright if you stay here this time. Would you like anything to drink?"
"Does water cost anything?" Judai asks.
"Um. No."
"Then water, please."
Judai is given his free water and a menu full of not-so-free things, and is left alone again to look it over. He knows he should not open the menu under any given circumstance. Curiosity beckons though; the menu is painfully colorful and just from what he sees on the cover it seems hand drawn with loving care. Something called Osiris the Winged BBQ is on a special two-for-twenty deal.
Judai shoves the menu away from him and runs his hands through his hair. He has six dollars in his pocket. He shouldn't even be here. He's going to do the adult thing and drink his water as he waits for - for things to cool down outside, and then leave. No childish antics.
Since he's here, he might as well put their free wifi to use. Judai digs out his ancient phone and logs into what he presumes is this restaurant's wifi - BlackMagicianWifi? It's unlocked and doesn't force him to login through a portal, which is great because that's buggy most of the time with his never-updated brick of a phone.
This is, as the kids would call it, a mistake, because as soon as he's getting a signal, a call comes through. And not a normal, regular phone call that he can mute and forward to his voicemail and pretend to have never gotten like he's done with the last seventy-eight calls he's received this summer, but one made on the school's extremely clunky messaging app.
INCOMING VIDEO CALL: JOHAN ?
Judai can actually feel the exact moment where all his blood freezes up and the universe implodes, because that's one hundred percent what is happening right now, in this weird little diner with scuffed up floors. He goes to cancel the call, but, because Judai is running on three cups of coffee and approximately no sleep, he fumbles and misses the Decline button by a wide margin.
So much so that he hits Accept instead.
" Judai! "
Ah.
"He-ey," Judai says, as Johan's blurry 240p face comes into view.
"I'm glad I finally got a hold of you." Johan says, because of course he does - despite everything, Johan doesn't blame Judai. Judai's pretty sure that's because he was knocked out very early into Judai's Worst Mistake Ever - Part One of Fifty-Two, and spent the rest of the month in a coma, so he's not even remotely an authority on this subject, but facts like that have never stopped Johan.
"Great to see you but I've gotta-"
"Where are you right now?" Johan gives an extremely close view of his eyeball as he leans into the screen. "You're not at the academy?"
"No," Judai says, and then reconsiders. "Or - yes? Maybe?"
"You're in a - cafe?"
"There's no way you can tell that."
"If you keep ditching class," Johan says, voice scratchy and compressed because the wifi sucks. "You're not going to graduate on time, Judai."
The papers in Judai's pocket burn, and he shoves them down deeper.
"How's hospital food?" Judai asks. "Is the jello as good as they say?"
"Better, actually," Johan says. "You'd know that if you visited."
"Then I'd eat it all and you'd have none," Judai laughs to cover up the sharp sting of guilt. It's a harsh sound - his voice deepened a bit around the time he hit his final growth spurt, and he feels as unrecognizable as he sounds.
"I'd let you," Johan says, and that's worse, somehow.
"You shouldn't."
"Let's stop pretending we're talking about food, and be honest here." The faint but bright smile is gone, now, and Johan is leveling an even gaze at the camera. Judai can't bring himself to meet his eyes - really, this empty restaurant is actually incredibly fascinating, the bold and dubious stains and terrible paint job cover ups tell a story that Judai would rather listen to over this.
"We all miss you, you know," Johan says. "I'll be well enough to fly home soon, but Asuka, Kenzan, and even Jun have all been asking about you. Sho's been looking for you."
"You can tell them I'm fine."
"Tell them yourself," Johan snaps, and this is where Judai meets his gaze, to take that anger head on.
"They're better off not seeing me."
"And who decided that? You and your stupid martyr complex? You disappear for weeks and then only show up after that whole accident by crashing your bike into a tree! And then you sign out against medical advice! You don't get to-"
"Don't worry about it," Judai says. "Just - just tell them I'm sorry. And bye."
"You're - what? Wait -"
He hits the End Call button and swiftly disconnects himself from the wifi before disaster can strike again. And then, very carefully, he puts his phone down, and runs his hands through his hair. It probably resembles a bird's nest by now, with the amount of times he's been taking his restlessness and frustration out on it. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see the waiter giving him a very weird look, which means he's getting a bad grade in being normal again.
Johan deserved better than a friend like him, Judai thinks. They all did. But Johan especially put a lot of faith in him, and hanging up on him like that is probably a really bad way to gracefully bow out of his life.
There are several things he wants to say, as regret surges up in his throat, and he almost entertains calling Johan back and taking it all back. Haha hi again, actually I regret everything, let's pretend I wasn't just super terrible just now? Can I still eat your hospital food?
Terrible.
His phone buzzes a few times to let him know that Johan has sent many texts in response, and Judai turns notifications off. He pointedly ignores reading them and hides everything sent to him. Guilt sparks in his chest again.
To distract himself, he texts Yubel instead; I think Johan is going to hunt me down for sport.
I'd kill him before he'd get the chance, Yubel responds after a minute, and sends along a disconcerting amount of knife emojis. A single sparkling heart emoji is tacked on at the end.
Maybe Yubel isn't the most unbiased person to complain to when the topic is one of his best friends, but, well, at least she didn't threaten to summon a demon to steal his soul and then puppet his corpse like a macabre doll on strings again. Baby steps.
Judai was probably, like, six , when he promised he would always be there for her, and then promptly forgot when his parents moved for their jobs and he made all new fun friends, but he remembers now . So now he's going to be there for her, every step of the way towards recovery. And ideally mental and emotional stability, but, well, it's not like Judai's winning any prizes for being the picture of mental health. But together they might be enough to pass for, like, 75% of a normal person.
Normal. Normal. Judai has never aced a class or test in his life but he is going to achieve being a normal adult. Normal adults do normal things, like, taxes, tax fraud, or parallel parking. They don't cause a series of events that throws all their friends into the hospital and gets him very nearly in extensive legal trouble. Boat may have already sailed on that front, but surely after he drops out of high school and moves to the other side of the world/country/state, he can manage to stop being a dumb kid.
His phone buzzes in his hands again: is Johan there, do you need me to murder him?
Murder seems like a really bad start to being a normal, mature adult, so he tells her no, I'm good, thanks.
May the police never see Yubel's chat history.
Man, what do adults do to manage stress? Judai thinks he's going to explode, and he's been at it for a few weeks at best. Now he has to manage this for the rest of his life . No pressure.
"So, are you ready to order?" The weird spiky waiter says, almost materializing out of thin air, notepad and pen at the ready.
"Yes," Judai says. "I'd like to leave."
The silence stretching between them is Judai's first clue that's not the right response.
"I mean," Judai says, scrambling for the right words. "I'm sorry? I've never been here before and I didn't mean to be. Since I can't, um, afford to eat right now."
"Uh," Spiky says, dropping his arms, tucking his notepad away despondently. Finally, Judai spies a name tag, somehow placed down by his waist: Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI . "That's, um, okay? You can leave if you want."
"Yes," Judai says. "Great."
As he goes to stand, Judai suddenly thinks, wait, do I leave a tip if I haven't ordered anything? Or, wait, is it rude to leave a tip at all?
Judai consults his memories, and dredges up every single weird stuffy dinner he has attended with his parents. Every place they moved to, every country they visited on vacations, Judai thinks of every time he has eaten at a restaurant.
Conclusion: he doesn't remember, he was far too enthused with the food itself to remember the concept of money, let alone tips.
Judai ends up deciding, well, money is money right? And that seems responsible, to tip even if all he did was down a glass of water and weird out the only other person in the vicinity. And if it's considered rude, then the easy solution is to never return. So he tries to fish out his wallet to slam a couple dollars down on the table before he disappears from this place for, ideally, the rest of his existence.
Then his keys tumble out again, making an obnoxious clatter as they land on the floor. Damn it.
Before he can bang his head on the table while trying to retrieve them, Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI ducks down with a "oh, let me get that for you!" and snatches them off the floor. Judai holds his hand out and says the words "thank you" like he's reading from a script.
The keys do not fall into his hands.
Judai holds his hand out for another awkward moment. Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI is staring at his keychain with wide eyes.
"Thank. You." Judai repeats. He gives his hand an obvious "please deposit here" wave. The waiter does not deposit Judai's keys into Judai's hand.
…Is this a regular adult interaction? Do people do this? Go "haha, I made you think I was helping you but gotcha, I have your keys now"? Is this something Judai needs to research, how to retrieve keys from a waiter (keys are mine) or how to salvage social interaction when another person may be stealing from you?
Judai imagines texting Yubel something like, the waiter of this restaurant I didn't eat at stole my keys, what do I do? And then imagines hearing on the news that some weirdo key stealing restaurant mysteriously went up in flames in the middle of the night.
"Where did you get this?" Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI asks, thankfully interrupting the imaginary late night news anchor in Judai's mind, who was in the middle of talking about how tragic it was, and then imagining how mysteriously all keys in the building went missing and would likely end up in Judai's mailbox, if he's predicting how Yubel would respond right.
"My pocket." Judai says.
"No, this ," Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI says, spinning his approximately three pounds of dingy metal and color plastic masquerading as his keyring. "This!"
Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI has spun it so the little fuzzball with wings is facing Judai.
"Oh, Winged Kuriboh?" Judai says.
"Winged what?"
"That's his name. Winged Kuriboh."
Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI stares at Judai with his big purple eyes.
This is Judai's second clue that this is not the right response.
Right. The question was where his fuzzball was obtained, not what its excellent name was.
Judai racks his memory, and after several agonizing seconds where his brain scrambles to load, he comes up with:
"Some weird guy gave it to me on my first day of highschool."
"What did this guy look like?" Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI immediately responds.
Judai sends that question to his brain, and it tries to clear up the faded edges of a memory long tucked away.
"Spiky." Judai settles on. "Tall-ish? Funny hair. Purple eyes, I think? Definitely spiky…"
Judai looks at Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI. Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI looks at Judai.
Spiky. Funny hair. Purple eyes.
But not tall. Not the same skin color.
"Are you a half-clone?" Judai blurts out, at the same time Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI says, "Did you meet my friend?"
This is Judai's third clue that was not the right response.
"What?" They both say, at the same time.
"My name is Yugi Muto," says Hello-My-Name-Is-YUGI.
"Right," Judai says. After a beat he remembers this is where he says his name too. "I'm Judai. Judai Yuki."
"It's nice to meet you." Yugi says.
Judai resists the urge to run his hands through his hair. Thinks he should say "Nice to meet you too!" or maybe something mature like "It's a pleasure to meet you" and can't decide on either and takes too long that he ends up saying nothing. It's awkward.
This used to be easy. He never had to think about everything so much before. He's not used to self doubt. He's not used to worrying about what people think of him. He's not used to double checking all his actions.
He was never used to consequences, either.
Judai keeps his hands still.
"So, I guess, a little explanation?" Yugi says, from his seat across from Judai. "I founded this restaurant with the person who gave that charm to you a couple years ago. I made that charm as one of the very first attempts to promote this place. I only ended up making two, one with wings and one without, because it ended up being too much work, but I remember giving both to him. He mentioned one day he had given the winged one to a boy who needed it."
"Right," Judai says, mostly because he doesn't know what else to say. "I - think I ran into him on my way to school. He seemed lost? But he was nice and let me talk about kid stuff, and then gave me Winged Kuriboh. Like a good luck charm, I guess."
Judai smoothes out the fur in the back of the fuzzball. He can make out the words Millennium Cafe and R in faded red thread. Something tells Judai that if he looks over at the hand drawn menu, he'll see those words again.
His luck always was odd.
"I'm glad he did," Yugi says, radiating sincerity at blinding levels. "I'm glad I got to meet the person he gave that too. He seemed to think it was important that you had it."
Judai can't help but feel a bit touched by that, the idea that the really cool weird guy thought young Judai was worth helping, was important enough to warrant a touch of handmade kindness. Pity teenage Judai wasn't able to live up to that hope.
"Is he here?" Judai asks. "Your friend?"
Yugi frowns, suddenly.
"No," Yugi says, turning his eyes to the window, and the empty street beyond it. "He's not. He's been… gone, for a while now."
"Oh, I'm -" Sorry to hear that? Sorry for your loss? Sorry to hear about your loss? While Judai's drafting the most normal response, Yugi continues as if Judai hadn't said anything at all.
"He's been searching for his memories," Yugi says. "I'm wondering if he'll even be able to remember how to get back at this rate."
"Oh, um," Judai says. He tosses out the draft and begins anew:
That sounds really cool!
How do you find lost memories? Is there like a brain surgeon that fixes that or…?
Maybe he's in Death Valley? I could check for you in about a week.
"That sounds… difficult," Judai settles on. Yugi turns his frown up another level.
"It is," Yugi says. "Running a whole restaurant just by myself is borderline impossible."
Silence stretches on between them again, long and awkward.
It's probably time to cut his losses and just go. Judai means to stand, with some kind of excuse on the tip of the tongue, when Yugi stands and says, "Let me treat you to a meal."
"I've - wait, what?"
"I was going to close up early today anyway," Yugi says. "Not many customers, as you can see."
Shouldn't that be the reason to stay open longer?
"I can't pay for it," Judai argues instead.
"Sit, please," Yugi says, and places a tentative hand on Judai's shoulder. "Really, it's on the house, so don't worry about it. I'll be making something for myself too."
"You really don't have to," Judai says, as his traitorous stomach rumbles louder than a jet engine. "Ignore that."
Yugi coughs, probably to hide his laughter, but doesn't even bother to hide his wide smile.
"Well, if you want, you can help me make it," Yugi offers mildly. "Earn your meal and help me with the work. Fair enough?"
That sounds… doable. Yeah. Yeah! Judai nods, standing up and following Yugi to the kitchen. This seems fair and responsible.
What could go wrong?
Judai looks at the lumpy, off color soup and says, "What is this called, again?"
"Vichyssoise," Yugi says. He's frowning down at the bowl of dubious liquid, tilting his head like he's just not sure where they went wrong. The soup is thicker than porridge, the color is so opaque there could be a shark in there for all Judai knows, and somehow the potatoes are rock hard.
"Veechy… swah," Judai repeats. "Is this, uh… German food?"
"No."
"Right. Is this… supposed to be inedible?"
"Also no."
"I can probably still eat it."
"Please don't."
Judai feels like wasting food is a rude thing to do, but Yugi is the boss here, not him, so he watches as Yugi grabs their bowls and dumps Edible Cuisine Attempt #5 into the trash. It's a shame, he had high hopes for this batch.
"I'm really sorry," Judai says.
"Don't be," Yugi says, waving his free hand as the other dumps the dirty dishes in the sink. The bowls clatter loudly as they fall; the kitchen isn't all the big, all things considered, but it's so empty the sound almost echoes. "I probably shouldn't have picked a dish I'd never tried making before, so this is really more my fault."
Judai has a really strong suspicion that the main proprietor of a restaurant having five horrendously bad takes on the same recipe is not a very likely story. In addition, Judai, who's cooking experience thus far has been limited to ramen and microwave popcorn, suspects that maybe he's some kind of negative factor in the cooking process, able to turn even the simplest foods foul by looking at them wrong. He feels the burning need to apologize with his actions, somehow, but a sixth attempt at Vishy-Swah is probably going to end up as great as the last five tries.
So, what to do?
Judai the Teenager would definitely have attempted to remedy this by running out to the nearest convenience store and buying them the finest snacks that six dollars could buy.
Judai the Adult stays put in his chair and watches as Yugi opens up the fridge to stare at his ingredients.
"Well, I'm out of potatoes," Yugi says, rummaging through the shelves. "And broth. But I do have some salad and beef leftover from yesterday, and maybe some pork so, we can try something else? What do you want?"
That's an excellent question.
What does Judai want?
He wants shrimp, primarily, but it wasn't mentioned so it's probably not on the table.
He wants to tell Yugi that this was all very nice of him, but honestly they should both cut their losses and head home.
He wants to call Johan back and say I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, and go back to days where they'd sit on the roof and play games and talk all night .
He wants to call Edo and apologize for the way he put his actual career on hold to bail him out of danger, and then just let Edo get injured in that cave in.
He wants to call Asuka and tell her he never meant to get her and her brother hurt, how he'd never meant to get in that screaming match with Fubuki in that hospital, how he regrets all the things he said.
He wants to call Kenzen and apologize for leaving him behind, for making him feel unwanted, for letting all that hatred build between them.
He wants to call O'Brien and Jim and apologize over and over, for Jim's lost eye, for all the injuries O'Brien sustained, for all they gave up saving his life.
He wants to call Jun and just let Jun yell at him because Jun is probably livid and rightfully so, after everything Judai's done.
He wants to call Sho and- and-
He wants to go back in time and make it so it never happened.
But he can't.
Yugi is looking at him, with those big purple eyes, and Judai swipes at his own eyes so he stops seeing anything. He won't cry. He won't. He isn't a stupid kid anymore; he doesn't get to do that.
"Judai," Yugi says, closing the fridge door and turning so his full attention is on him. "I don't mean to pry, but are you okay?"
"No," Judai says. "I got my best friend's brother killed and then didn't go to his funeral."
Yugi inhales sharply - it's quiet, but rings out louder than a gunshot in Judai's ears.
Judai wants the ground to swallow him whole, right here, right now.
"I did - I did something stupid ," Judai says, the words tumbling from his lips, spilling out like blood from an open wound. "And my friend - Johan, he, he got left behind, and got hurt, and so I went back for him, and I brought my friends, but they got hurt because of the choices I made. And t-they're all in the hospital now. Except Ryo, h-he tried to help me, because I'm an idiot, and h-his heart shut down. Because he had a bad heart and I put him in a high stress situation! And now I can't even look his brother in the eyes because I'm a coward who's trying to drop out of high school so I don't hurt my friends anymore!"
The silence is sharp and hangs heavy, even more than before. Judai realizes it's because he had been shouting at Yugi , who's just - some guy! At a random restaurant! Some waiter with big purple eyes who was trying to be nice to him, and he - he can't even do this right.
"Damn it," Judai says, to the floor because he is not going to risk looking at Yugi and the rightful condemnation his face likely shows. "I'm - going to go. Thanks for the food."
Judai skirts around the counter, shoves through the kitchen doors, and flies through the front entrance.
And starts running.
In the mirror, his eyes are gold, and his expression flat.
"That was pathetic," His reflection says, while Judai just stares. "We can do better than this."
He's just trying to wash his hands, what is with this rude commentary?
"Hey Yubel," Judai calls, turning the faucet off. "Is your reflection talking to you like a normal thing?"
"Yeah," Yubel answers, from somewhere in the kitchen. "All the time, why?"
"Just checking," Judai says, digging the heels of his hands into his face. When he looks again, his eyes are brown.
Man, getting old sure sucks, Judai thinks. School could have told me about the talking mirror thing and instead of trying to teach me pre-calculus.
"Mine used to tell me you betrayed me and left me to die, though, so maybe you're not supposed to listen to them."
"Oh."
"Don't worry about it," Yubel says, even though this feels like something Judai should be worrying about. He walks into the kitchen to find her sticking a large orb of dubious looking food on a plate. There's things within the Mysterious Orb that resemble the shape of vegetables and meat, but the closer he looks the less he understands. "Here, eat."
"What am I eating?"
"Not sure."
"Is it… good or…?"
"Shrimp flavored."
"Oh sweet."
Judai sticks a fork in it, but is unable to get the fork back out. It's so thoroughly stuck Judai suspects it's now a fused part of the meal. Extra iron just in case Judai's lacking that in his diet. Yubel goes "hmm" but doesn't actually help? So Judai's down a fork and also probably dinner. Bummer.
"Yubel," Judai says, looking at one part of the orb that looks like a couple of oddly stiff french fries blended with a spoon. "Have you ever made uh, vishy… vichie saw?"
"What?"
Judai attempts to describe the dish.
"Oh, cold potato soup," Yubel says, halfway through his explanation. "Yeah, once. Why?"
"Tried to make it today with someone at a weird restaurant I was in. We failed really badly."
"You probably didn't have enough leeks."
"Why would we have had leeks? It's not leek soup, it's potato soup."
"You need a proper ratio of leeks to potatoes. It's crucial to the soup not tasting like something you scraped off the back of a truck."
Sounds fake, but okay. Judai takes another whack at removing Excalibur The Fork from the stone meal Yubel has made, while Yubel watches with a raised eyebrow. Absolutely no progress is made.
"Why were you making vichyssoise at some random restaurant?"
"I don't know," Judai says. "I somehow had an acquaintance in common with the owner and he offered me free soup if I could help him make it but we kept making weird sludge stew instead."
The stupid thing won't budge. His frustration spikes hard, in a way that's becoming more and more common since Judai's Terrible No Good Awful Adventure. Judai hefts the thing up by the fork and hurls it at the wall. It makes a large thud noise, but doesn't shatter. It leaves a massive hole in the wall - thanks, dorm room cheap plaster - and the meal rolls to the ground, still intact. What the hell.
"Hey," Yubel places a hand on his, and Judai has to force himself to relax his arm. Her orange and green eyes shine like jewels, and Judai has to keep from turning away from them.
"Easy," Yubel murmurs. "It's going to be alright."
"Sure," Judai takes a deep breath, then lets it out. He doesn't feel much better about it, but some of the anger recedes. "When we're in Death Valley maybe."
"You decided on Death Valley then?" Yubel's eyes are practically glowing.
"Yeah. You seem to like it, so why not?"
Yubel's expression practically melts into one of adoration. It's almost funny how expressive she is when Judai says something to her, like I think it's neat how many scary knife tricks you know or its very interesting how you know how to break someone's bones like that but please let this mugger go he was just trying to steal my wallet not murder me it's okay!
"Death Valley then," Yubel says. "But still, don't be too hard on yourself."
"I think I'm being pretty reasonable." Judai responds. "Aside from… throwing dinner at the wall…"
"If that's how you want to interrupt growing up, I won't object," Yubel says. "It's different for everyone. But I want you to at least take better care of yourself. And that starts with less self loathing."
That is going to be a tall ask, given that Yubel makes no secret how high of a pedestal she places him on, but it's not like he can tell her no actually, the self loathing is a leviathan of darkness that has consumed me whole, and the darkness and I are one and the same . Because one, what. And two, Yubel wouldn't let that slide.
"Sure." Judai says, instead.
"Also, that wasn't actually dinner," Yubel kicks the meal - which has molded to the plate it was on - across the room. "Found this in the back of the cafeteria and wondered if it was edible. It's not. So I ordered take out."
"Oh. Why did you bring it back here?"
"You usually like trying to eat inedible food. I thought you'd find it funny."
"How did you order take out when we have like zero dollars?"
"Don't worry about it," Yubel says, striding out of the kitchen.
Judai's a little worried about it.
"I'm heading out to pick some stuff up," Yubel says, shrugging on one of Judai's spare jackets. "I think I've got a lead on Martin and his dad, so I'll probably be out late. Be safe, don't answer the door for anyone, and maybe try self affirmation stuff? I hear that works for some people."
"Why can't I answer the door?" Judai asks.
"Because I haven't managed to kill Amon just yet, and he might show up to start a fight. If you see him at the door, just tell him his degree in philosophy is worthless, his understanding of the stratosphere is inherently flawed, and saying random Latin phrases doesn't make him a king. That should probably get him to leave."
There are many things Judai would like to address in that sentence, but all that comes out is, "Do you want me to fight him for you? Or something?"
"Aw," Yubel says, her face softening at his words. "That's so sweet of you to offer. But it's probably best if you don't get blood on your hands. Leave that to me."
And then Yubel strolls out the door, looking unnervingly happy for someone who just told Judai that someone may show up to pick a murder fight with her, no big deal.
There's not much he can do about Yubel's ominous words, his now sudden concern about Amon (the exchange student he barely remembers) showing up at his door , or even dinner, so he returns to the bathroom, for lack of better options.
Maybe if he says nice things to himself in the mirror, he won't have-
His golden eyed reflection stares back.
Great.
"How long will we keep running?" His reflection asks.
"At least for another two or three weeks, probably?"
"And then what? Obscurity, isolation, misery; is that all you have planned? Living a pathetic life hoping your regrets don't chase you across the distance between yourself and the academy? Hoping the desert can burn away your guilt?"
Wow, Judai thinks distantly, I don't think I usually talk like that.
"It's better than putting my friends in danger," Judai argues, feeling a bit like an idiot for having to convince his own reflection to be on board with Operation Get Out of Domino City. "If the last three years have proven anything, it's that I'm a magnet for trouble. This is the responsible decision!"
"Oh?" His reflection tilts his head. "And yet how does this help them? What reparations do us fleeing their lives bring them?"
"Um, less danger?"
"That's not what reparation means."
Why does my reflection know more words than I do? Judai thinks, feeling like this mirror isn't a very good mirror at all.
"What then, Judai?" His mirror image demands, snarling, face twisting. His golden eyes are flat but piercing, and Judai has the irrational urge to claw his own eyes out. "When will you stop running? Is this what Ryo died for? For you to run and hide like a coward? "
"Shut up," Judai grits out. That fun, new anger is running through his veins again, and in vain Judai tries to hold it back with a deep breath. But because a mirror doesn't need to breathe, apparently, his reflection doesn't have that issue.
"Why? I'm just repeating what you told that waiter. A coward trying to drop out in his senior year because he got someone else killed and can't face his little brother about it-"
The mirror is in pieces before he knows it, a spiderweb of cracks running along every inch, spiraling out from his fist in the center of it. In the back of his mind, Judai acknowledges the sharp sting in his knuckles, and the sound of glass hitting the floor, but all he can think about is the blood in his ears and the empty promises he made to Ryo and the way his anger is turning him into some kind of monster. Something unrecognizable and dark.
Every shard of broken glass reflects golden eyes back at him.
Judai's staring down at the floor, trying to remember if he has a broom or not, when someone knocks at the door.
Immediately, Judai remembers Yubel's scary warnings about the buff academic guy who… tried to murder someone at some point? Probably? Of all the exchange students this year, Amon was probably the one Judai interacted with the least.
Here's the thing about Yubel's advice on human interaction; it's not really good advice. Particularly when you can't back the words up with a terrifying ability to terrorize the spirit. Sure, Judai can tell Amon that he's a hack with no regard for human life, but unlike Yubel, he can't really rub salt in the wound and imply the serial killer vibe will make him such a great CEO after he actually manages to kill his girlfriend this time or something, and what a shame it'd be to reach the pinnacle of his dreams while the woman he loved died painfully for it.
Judai cringes inwardly at the thought of it. He doesn't know how Yubel does it, and frankly doesn't want to. It's one of those things on the list of Things We Should Stop Doing Please, and unfortunately it's not even in the top ten.
The knocking at the door persists.
Right. Would-be murderer at his door. Judai's window is for some reason boarded up right now, either a zombie defense setup or Yubel's attempts to fix the window Judai accidentally broke tossing a frisbee through it last year, so escape is not an option. Okay.
Judai stares at the floor again, and all the reflected golden eyes hone in on one large piece just under the sink.
He can feel every single eye on him as he snags the broken piece of glass, holding it carefully wrapped up the sleeve of his jacket.
Right. Judai swallows back his unease. It's just for self defense.
Try quoting Latin at this, Amon.
Armed and ready to fight a buff philosophy major (and probably lose), Judai yanks open the door, points his piece of broken glass forward, and-
Promptly drops it when the man at the other side shrieks and drops a large take out container on the floor.
It's… Yugi?
Yugi the Waiter?
"Oh, whoops," Judai says, as Yugi looks between him and the dropped glass rapidly.
"Why do you have that?! " Yugi asks, at a volume and tone just below a scream, like he's terrified but being self conscious about bothering the neighbors about it. "You could've hurt someone!"
"Sorry, I was worried you were here to murder me," Judai says, before he realizes that's actually a very weird thing to say.
"Murder?! "
"Yeah it's a long story-"
"Are you bleeding?!" Yugi interrupts, and Judai looks down and sees blood dripping from his hand. Oh. Right.
"Yeah," Judai answers. "But don't worry about it."
Apparently, Judai just isn't as convincing as Yubel when he says it, because if anything Yugi gets more distressed and practically barges in past Judai.
"Where is your first aid kit?" Yugi says, making a beeline for his bathroom and then doing a double take when he sees the floor and all the shiny, dangerous things on it. "How - nevermind, where is your broom?"
"I don't think I have one." Judai says.
"The broom or first aid kit?"
"Both."
The expression on Yugi's face kind of reminds Judai of a deeply displeased baby seal. It's so moving that Judai actually feels bad about it, even though he's the one with a bleeding hand and an interloper in his room.
"Well, we need to do something about your hand and all this glass." Yugi says, turning his baleful baby seal eyes back to the bathroom floor.
We? Last Judai checked, this was his room, his bleeding hand, and his broken mirror. Who does Yugi the Intruding Waiter think he is? And come to think of it-
"Actually, why are you here?" Judai asks.
"...You ordered food from my restaurant," Yugi responds, sounding confused.
"No I didn't?"
"It was your address on the order?"
"But I told you earlier I don't have much- '' The proverbial lightbulb goes off in Judai's brain, remembering Yubel's words before she ominously mentioned the possible threat of death via werido. " Oh . Oh man. I am so sorry. I forgot my roommate ordered food."
"Um, alright. So if you don't have a first aid kit yourself, do you know anyone who does? Anyone who can help you right now?"
Anyone who would normally fit that bill is in the hospital right now. Whoops.
"Not really."
"Do you need a lift to a nearby clinic, or the emergency room then?"
Judai loves white sterile walls, shiny tan floor tiles, and the ubiquitous feeling of being trapped in a human version of a mouse maze but without any cheese as much as the next guy - which is to say, not at all.
He tells Yugi this.
Yugi's severely displeased baby seal expression makes its triumphant return.
"Mouse… maze… I'm not going to unpack that right now. So, that's a no on anyone who can help, and a definite no on any hospitals?"
"Basically, yeah."
"Okay," Yugi says, but he says it like things really aren't okay, so why even bother. "Then, can I get you to come back to the restaurant with me?"
"Back to the - what?"
Yugi takes Judai's hand in his, and it's so gentle. And also painful, because it's the hand with all the cuts in it. Judai tries to take the hand back, but Yugi pulls it back to him immediately.
"Please," Yugi says, those big purple eyes fierce and blinding, like having Judai's dumb blood all over his hand is normal and worth all this effort. "You clearly need help. If you'll allow it, I'd like to help you."
"I'm fine, Yugi," Judai insists, and doesn't know why he has to argue with so many things today. First his reflection, and now a waiter. "I'll just wait until my roommate comes back later tonight and get it sorted out then."
"I mean this in the kindest way possible, but I can see you broke your own mirror, Judai." Yugi says, and well, he's right, but just because he's right doesn't mean he had to say it out loud. "I can see you willing to just stand here and be in literal pain. I don't think it's a good idea to leave you alone for long."
"I'm - it was an accident," Judai argues. "I mean, I didn't plan on it, okay? The mirror. I just."
Judai squeezes his eyes shut.
"I just…got mad."
The excuse feels as pathetic out loud as it did in his head.
"All the more reason to be with someone else right now," Yugi says, and Judai opens his eyes in time to see Yugi grasp his bloody hand with both of his. "I know I'm overstepping my bounds, considering we just met today and I didn't even manage to do something basic like cook you a meal, but please, Judai. I know I don't have many of the details, but it seems like you've lost someone important to you, and living with that grief seems to be doing you immense harm."
There's something knee-jerk reaction in Judai's chest; what's left of his heart feels like it's crumbling to pieces. He clutches his uninjured hand to his chest, like if he could just grab it, he could keep his heart together through sheer grip and force of will.
"And I'm sorry, for everything you've gone through. I can't solve your grief, nor give you real comfort," Yugi continues. "But, if I can help, even in an infinitesimally small way, then I'd like to. I can't turn away from someone suffering like that."
And, well, what's Judai supposed to say to that?
The restaurant after dark is just as neat as it is during the daylight, and the thing they both have in common is a complete lack of people.
"I thought you said you had friends helping you," Judai idly comments, as Yugi leads him past the tables and past a door that says Employee's Only.
"I do, but Anzu has dance practice she needs to get to and Jounouchi has to be home to cook his sister dinner," Yugi states, as they walk into what must be Yugi's idea of an office. It's small, cramped, and has two desks. One of which is covered in a thick layer of dust. The other, non dusty desk, Yugi makes a beeline for, and begins rummaging through the drawers. "So it's just me for the rest of tonight. Here we go…"
Yugi pulls out a bright red box, and opens it. He then gestures for Judai to hand him something.
"Huh?"
"Your hand."
Oh. Yeah that makes sense.
Judai presents his bloody hand, and Yugi tries to clean it with a wet paper towel. They had wrapped it in a clean towel for the trip over, and now it falls to Yugi's desk with little fanfare as the guy Judai's been bothering all day starts trying to salvage another mess Judai's made.
There's a lot of little knickknacks that litter Yugi's apparent desk; little monster statues, models of wizards, fruits, and fruit wizards. A D&D book seems tucked under a pile of papers, a sticky note on top reminding him to "return to Bakura ASAP ''.
"You don't have to do this," Judai says, wincing as the disinfectant goes on next. "I'm pretty sure I've been your worst customer today in every possible way."
"Trust me, I've had worse," Yugi says. "I think you got off lucky with these cuts. None of these look too deep. But you should probably have them checked out by an actual doctor when you can."
"Sure," Judai says, in the tone of someone who's absolutely not going to do that.
Yugi shoots him a glance that says he knows exactly what Judai isn't saying, but wisely chooses to pick his battles. And instead chooses to detonate a landmine over something else Judai doesn't want to talk about.
"Do you want to tell me more about the accident you mentioned earlier?" Yugi says, in a mild tone.
"No ." Judai jerks his hand back with no small amount of prejudice.
"That's fair," Yugi says.
It's starting to seem like Yugi wants to press the issue, regardless of how much of a disaster Judai seems to be about the whole thing. It's mind boggling. Yugi opens his mouth, probably to ask another well meaning but painfully hard hitting question, and Judai decides to shut that down quick.
"Tell me about your friend," Judai says. "The one you founded this restaurant with?"
"Ah," Yugi says, leaning back. "I guess I could, sure. What do you want to know?"
"What's his name?"
"We don't know."
"What have you been calling him, then?"
"Yugi."
"..."
"Yeah, I know, it's confusing, but he refused any other names. Mostly, he just let people think we were the same person if he could get away with it."
"Why?"
"I wish I knew," Yugi sighs, dragging a hand down his face. "It was easier than figuring out how to get him his own license, though, since he doesn't have a birth certificate either. So we've both been going by Yugi."
"Huh."
"Ideally, though, when he returns, he'll have found out his real name," Yugi says. "So by then I can have my name totally back to myself."
Observation: if Yugi is willing to let some weirdo up and borrow his name because he'd rather risk identity theft than figure how to do paperwork declaring someone as legally existing, Judai both, one, sympathizes, and two, starts to see why Yugi's been so insistent on hanging out with the world's worst customer.
Yugi is just unable to not help others.
It's both amazing and ridiculous, but that might be because Judai's looking at it from the help-ee point of view, and not the helper. A year ago doing this kind of thing for some random person he'd just met would have been a no brainer. Judai chases away the regret that threatens to return to focus on the conversation at hand.
Except, Yugi is yawning, so the conversation is evidently at a lull.
"Sorry," Yugi says, blinking hard. "I've been up since pretty early this morning."
"No worries," Judai says. "But I think that probably means you should head home."
"What are you going to do if I do that?"
"See if I can break into my principals office and leave my drop out paperwork there," Judai answers, and Yugi's face scrunches up immediately.
"...Right. Why are you dropping out of high school? You're almost done, shouldn't you just finish your final year?" Yugi presses. "At the minimum, a high school diploma is pretty necessary for a lot of things."
"I'm hoping to move to Nevada with my roommate," Judai shrugs.
"Nevada?"
"Death Valley, specifically."
"...Death Valley isn't in Nevada."
Damn it. Geography strikes again.
"Close enough," Judai waves off.
Yugi looks like he's got some kind of geography based lecture he's dying to drop on him, but is interrupted with another large yawn.
Just then, the land line starts ringing, and both of them jump. Yugi grabs it, and says, "Hi, we're closed right now, I'm so - oh, Honda, hi. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah Jounouchi left already. No. No. Yeah. No. Definitely not. He did what? "
This seems potentially personal, so Judai wanders out of Yugi's office to give him privacy.
He walks out past the Employee's Only door, and gazes out at the dimly lit area. It's got some funny decor that gives charm to the place; it looks like Yugi upended a children's toy box onto the counters and walls. Bright, gear-shaped action figures, marshmallow monsters, funny magnets. It's colorful and Judai can't say he dislikes it, even if it's not fully his style.
A rapid tapping on glass grabs Judai's attention from a portrait of some dark dragon adorned with orbs all around its head and neck (looking wildly out of place but is so cool ) and Judai wanders away to follow the sound.
The sound is an impatient standing boy wearing a bright red beanie at the front door. Hesitantly, Judai approaches it.
The boy is saying something, but Judai can make out what it is through the thick glass.
Judai points to the NOW CLOSED sign.
The boy begins tapping louder.
Judai opens a nearby window, because he's not foolish enough to open the door. The boy follows him to it.
"Hi," Judai says. "So, about that sign on the front door-"
"I'm here to pick up my order." The boy snaps immediately.
"Did you like… Order it five minutes ago?"
"No, I ordered it ages ago!" The boy yells. "I'm Dinosaur Ryuzaki!"
"Uh huh. That can't be your real name," Judai says.
"Doesn't matter, that's me, where's my food?"
"I dunno," Judai says, and then closes the window. Muffled yelling is the response, but Judai walks away from the window and back down the Employee's Only hallway.
"Hey Yugi," Judai says, sticking his head back into Yugi's dusty office. "There's a-... hm."
Yugi is asleep at his desk.
So much for keeping an eye on me, Judai thinks, but isn't able to scrape up any sort of negative emotion against Mr. Purple Eyes. He did look pretty tired. This does present a problem though. How does one get rid of a loud customer pounding at your door? Judai was hoping Yugi would be the go-to resource on that topic.
Dino-boy is still at the window when Judai takes a look at the entrance.
Judai wanders into the kitchen.
Looks like Yugi made another couple of attempts at cold potato soup after Judai left, and they all look markedly more edible, but, as Judai finds when he steals a taste of one, still doesn't taste all that great. Maybe Yubel was onto something with her insistence on having leeks in these things. Bummer.
Past the row of disappointing bowls, Judai finds a large pot simmering on their rather small stove. That sounds like maybe a fire hazard, so Judai takes a look inside and finds not soup, but just water? And a single egg. So he turns the heat off on that.
Most out of curiosity, Judai checks the fridge Yugi was using earlier that day during Judai Worst Conversation Ever, and sadly confirms no shrimp in the freezer. There is what looks like a half eaten sandwich in the back, labeled under "Ryuji Otogi". It looks… very rotten at this point, so Judai takes a gamble in assuming this Otogi isn't going to want it anymore and tosses it in the nearby trash bin.
Next - oh, would you look at that. A brown paper bag is sitting under a lamp labeled "Dinosaur? Ryuzaki" with a receipt stapled on top. Guess Dino-boy really did order food. Well. It probably wouldn't hurt to bring this out to him.
Judai takes the bag and returns to the window.
"Finally." Dino-boy huffs.
"So you owe uhh," Judai reads off the receipt. "That much money."
Judai sticks his uninjured hand out the window, while Dino-boy glares at him.
"Shouldn't it be free?"
"Why would it be free?"
"'Cause it took more than thirty minutes to get my food!"
"Hm, well, I don't know about that," Judai says, wiggling his arm. "But I'm not giving you your food until you give me the money, so. Your choice."
Muttering some pretty distasteful things under his breath, the boy digs out his wallet and dumps a bunch of coins and dollars messily into Judai's hand. Judai has to maneuver his arm very carefully to get it back inside without dropping everything, then dumps it all out on the podium thing so he can count the coins.
"Will you hurry up?" Dino-boy snarls.
"One sec," Judai mutters, squinting in the terrible light. "What's thirty-two plus twenty five?"
"Are you serious?"
"Wait, no, I've got it. It adds up." Judai stuffs all the money into a paper cup, and then sets it aside. Then he slides Dino-boy's food out the window.
"Took you long enough," Dino-boy says, snatching the food up. "I'm never ordering from here again!"
Whoops. The boy stomps away before Judai can try to tell him he doesn't actually work here. Oh well. Judai might need to apologize to Yugi for that incoming zero star review.
Judai closes the window and latches it shut.
That's one problem dealt with. Judai checks back in on sleeping Yugi, but he's still out like a light. Judai even tries calling his name and shaking his shoulder, but no luck.
Bereft of anything to do, Judai goes back to the kitchen because he wants to know if that single egg is just a regular egg or if it actually got hard boiled at some point. He cracks open the shell and the yolk falls out, plopping into the pot. Yeah, that's kind of what he expected. He tosses the shell and the yolk and the water, and dumps the pot in the sink.
How on earth was Yugi managing everything in this place alone?
Judai opens the fridge back up, and as he's looking at some very suspicious stains on the shelves, thinks well, actually, he hasn't been.
"Running a whole restaurant just by myself is borderline impossible." Yugi had said earlier.
But then he still looked at Judai and thought, I have to help . Even with all that he has going on now. Running himself ragged, trying to keep a dying business afloat, doing everything that he could. And still.
"But, if I can help, even in an infinitesimally small way, then I'd like to. I can't turn away from someone suffering like that."
Something twists inside Judai's heart.
He blows a strand of hair out of his face, and then gets to work.
He cleans out the fridge of anything expired or visibly rotting, which isn't as bad as he was expecting. Most of the meats and vegetables are fresh, it's just a lot of peripheral things that have to go; leftovers, liquids, an apple someone took a bite out of. Then he finds a clean looking rag and some soap and wipes down every surface he can reach, both inside and out.
Judai takes one look at the dishwasher, realizes he can't read what language it's in, and just hand washes all the bowls from earlier, as well as all the little utensils and other plates Yugi apparently left. He stacks them to dry in a way that no one but him would consider structurally safe or sound, but they're clean, so that's probably what matters most.
He rinses the rag from the fridge and goes looking for those spray bottle things with that magic cleaning fluid he knows nothing about but suspects it holds the right chemicals for disinfecting all the tables out in the main area. Judai finds them all in a closet in the Employee's Only hallway, after he opens a random door and three brooms fall out and bonk him on the head.
Ow.
Armed with his little towel rag and one of those spray bottles, Judai goes and wipes down every table. Most of them seem clean, but he's already committed to this bit so he doesn't stop until every flat surface is shiny enough to reflect his eyes.
They're still gold.
Next, Judai rounds back to the closest that ambushed him, and takes one of the brooms and starts sweeping up the main area into a dustpan. He sneezes so much during this.
The main area seems nice now, but Judai's worked himself into a restless state, so now he's stalking back to the kitchen to find something else to clean.
This somehow evolves into an ever escalating amount of work that Judai's pretty sure he's not well equipped to handle. The floors are clear of debris, so why not mop it? The stove seems kind of dirty with crusted sauces and stains, so why not clean that? The sink has a lot of water stains, so why not watch a dubious video on his phone on how to remove those?
Every glass hanging over at the bar? Cleaned.
Every salt and pepper shaker at all the tables and booths? Filled.
All the built up grease above the stove vent? This admittedly remains, Judai unable to figure out how to uncake that stuff from the ceiling fan. He finds a tiny brush by the sink and scrubs until it's at least somewhat clean. It all takes way too long, given Judai has to reinvent the wheel every time he encounters a basic cleaning task he's never properly bothered with before, but it's not like he has anything but time on his hands right now.
When Judai finally stops, his shoulders hurt, his hands feel raw, and he still hasn't eaten.
But things feel a tiny bit better.
"Oh my god."
Judai's eyes snap open, and he sits up, regretting it immediately as all his muscles cry out in complaint.
Yugi's standing at the Employee's Only door, hair even spikier and messier than normal, looking at the entire room like it suddenly turned to gold overnight.
It is very shiny, now, and in fact hurts Judai's eyes to look at, so he lays his head back down on the table he found it on, intending to go back to sleep.
"Judai?" Footsteps approach Judai's booth. "Oh good, you're still here. I'm so sorry about falling asleep like that!"
"All good," Judai means to say, but what comes out is: "M'lal ood."
"Did - did you do all of this?" Yugi asks.
"Mmph."
"Judai…" Yugi sounds near tears. Hopefully not the kind of tears because Judai did another astronomically bad job at something.
"You seemed tired, and I wanted to help you in return," Judai tries to say, but what he reality says is closer to: "Mmp eemed ired, an wanna eelp ouh inurns."
"I… don't know what you said. I'm… going to make us both coffee. Does that sound good?"
Judai gives him a thumbs up. Probably.
The sound of footsteps heralds the sign of Yugi leaving, and distantly Judai thinks he can hear Yugi going "Oh my god, the kitchen too!?" but he's drifting in that odd spot between wakefulness and dreams so who knows, really. It's pretty cozy, though, so Judai just floats there for a bit.
When something warm is placed next to his face though, all his senses start kicking in, and that's unfortunately pretty grounding. He can faintly feel the heat, and can smell the fresh coffee. In response, his brain dictates he lift his head and drink the terrible bean juice. Judai complies, and burns his tongue.
"Ack ." Judai coughs, trying not to inhale burning liquid.
If nothing else though, this fully brings him into the realm of awareness. Judai stretches out his arms and winces again; falling asleep at the table did him no favors. Ow.
"Thank you, Judai." Yugi says, taking a seat across from him..
"S'nothing," Judai yawns. "Don't mention it."
"No, I really can't thank you enough," Yugi says, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "I was supposed to be helping you, and then I went and passed out and you cleaned my entire restaurant."
"I didn't clean your office," Judai points out.
"No, just everything else apparently."
"I was just paying you back for accidentally pointing glass at you." Judai shrugs. "Guess I'm kind of a meddler too, it looked like you needed a hand."
"Yeah I guess, I've been letting a lot of things fall by the wayside." Yugi takes a sip of his coffee. "I didn't think my friend would be gone this long, and running and doing everything with the occasional help of friends just isn't working out."
"Why not hire people to help?"
"I've tried," Yugi says. "But everyone who has applied couldn't even pass the bare minimum."
"Seriously?"
"The first applicant was a boy who stole my grandpa's famous recipe book and tossed it into the ocean," Yugi says, resting his head in hands. "The second applicant was a guy who kept flirting with every girl in the building and kept bragging about his high scores in DDR until Anzu literally threw him out. The third applicant didn't even show up on their first day."
"Wow. That's some pretty bad luck."
"Tell me about it," Yugi mutters, rubbing at his temple. "But, let's not talk about my failing business. Are you maybe feeling up to telling me more about-"
"Nope."
"-the incident." Yugi finishes, lamely.
"I told you enough, didn't I?" Judai mutters, looking into the dark brown liquid. Thankfully, he can't clearly make out any clear reflection in it.
"You certainly told me that you have regrets about what happened," Yugi says, carefully. "And that you seem to want to run away to a desert to avoid seeing your hurt loved ones again."
Man. He really is just having the same conversation over and over today. Yesterday. Whatever. Time is sure blending together.
"Is that what they asked of you?" Yugi presses. "To leave and never return?"
"I didn't exactly give them a vote on this, but I'm pretty sure this will prevent them from landing in the hospital again." Judai says.
"Did you intentionally cause the accident that put them there in the first place?"
"Yugi," Judai interrupts. "You can't talk this through. I got someone killed. I have to grow up and face this."
"That's the thing," Yugi says, infuriatingly undeterred. "What do you mean by 'grow up and face this'?"
"I got my friends hurt by rushing in recklessly and thinking I could play the hero," Judai snaps. "Then I spent a week moping about it and that caused Ryo to die of heart failure, because he had to step up to handle something he shouldn't have. He told me I'm not a child anymore, and he's right. I can't… I can't do the kinds of stupid stuff I used to do."
"Okay," Yugi says. "So let's unpack that. Most can agree rushing recklessly is a trait that should be reined in, but I'm not sure that dropping out of high school and leaving those that love you is the appropriate response."
"It is when their safety is on the line."
"How so? What about you is inherently unsafe? The choices you make?"
"I guess."
"So what's stopping you from making better choices while staying where you are?"
"These last few years of high school my friends and I have gotten into so much trouble and I'm pretty sure I can trace it all back to being because of me. I just have uncanny luck to find trouble no matter what I'm doing."
"So what's to say that luck doesn't improve for them if you leave?" Yugi asks, fingers tapping at the table.
"I'm pretty sure things can only improve once I'm gone."
"Why is that?"
"Stop asking why for everything," Judai says, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "It just will. I can't fix their broken bones or bring Ryo back from the dead. I gotta leave before I cause any more harm. This is all I can do."
"Judai," Yugi says. "You know you can't guarantee that. With or without you, life will throw your friends hurdles that may harm them. The only difference with removing yourself from the situation is that you won't be there to help support them anymore."
Unwillingly, his brain trips over memories of the last few years; the time Asuka and Jun got weirdly close to joining a cult, the time Misawa disappeared for a few weeks but no one noticed, the time where the dorm was going to be destroyed because his professor's had a intense vendetta against red colored housing.
Sure, he was maybe somewhat helpful in these instances, but-
"Forgive me for saying so, Judai," Yugi continues. "But I think that your idea of fixing this issue is just running away from it because it's difficult for you to accept. And I think you're going to hurt yourself more in the long run by doing this.
"If that phone call I overheard earlier yesterday is anything to go by - sorry about eavesdropping, also - I imagine that your friends still want you in their lives, Judai. And it won't be easy, and it won't be painless, but I think it'd be worth it, to stay here with them."
We all miss you, you know.
That's funny, Judai thinks, staring down at his cup so he doesn't have to look into Yugi's earnest purple eyes. There's something dripping down into his coffee. Judai knows there weren't any weird ceiling leaks last night when he was trying to clean.
"They should hate me," Judai whispers, watching his own tears betray him. "They should never forgive me."
"If your friends are as half as kind as you are," Yugi says. "Then I don't think they will."
"I don't know what else to do . I don't know how to be grown up or normal or - anything that isn't this." Judai gestures to all of himself, like the vibes of disaster are so apparent you can tell with just one look.
"I think that it's a little different for everyone," Yugi says, reaching out his hand for Judai's uninjured one. "Maturing doesn't mean you have to give up your kindness, your compassion, or the things that make you you , Judai. I think you can work on the things you've expressed regret on, recklessness, the need to be the hero, without losing yourself to self loathing or shutting out those who care for you. You're a good person, Judai Yuki. I'd like to see you continue to be one with the people you love at your side."
His head drops, until Judai can't see past his bangs anymore, so the world just shrinks until it's just him and his cup of tear laced coffee in the world's weirdest, nosiest restaurant. There's a lot Judai thinks he should say, or argue, or just cry about, but can't make the words come out. All he has is his regrets, and he doesn't know how he's going to navigate his future if he has to face his friends to do so.
But he gripes Yugi's hand back tightly, like it's the only lifeline he has.
And Yugi doesn't let go.
Yugi makes him a new cup of coffee and breakfast, despite Judai's reminder that he has next to no money.
"It's a thank you gift," Yugi says, placing both in front of him, and despite the softness in his face his stance clearly brokers no argument.
Judai is both way too tired and way too hungry to argue about it, and the feeling of gratefulness overwhelms him as he digs in, practically inhaling his food at record speeds.
When he gets up to leave, Yugi fusses over him lightly, and it's weird, having someone try and help Judai brush his hair - but in a way that feels like a distinctly Yugi way of showing care, so it warms some small part of him instead of annoying him.
"And - here," Yugi also drops a hastily folded piece of paper into Judai's hands, just as Judai is about to leave. "Just think about it, but no pressure, alright?"
"Think about what?"
"Nothing, until you finally go home and get some rest." Yugi says, gently steering him out the backdoor. "Be safe!"
Judai steps out into the tiny parking lot and has to hold one hand up to ward off the sun just breaking past the horizon. Man, he really spent all night in the world's weirdest restaurant huh?
Belatedly, Judai remembers he forgot to tell Yubel about that, and warily checks his phone for messages, and finds approximately nine billion texts from Yubel. Whoops. He sends her a quick selfie as proof of life, an apology, and resolves to make this up to her later.
He scrolls down until he hits on a name he hasn't dared spoken aloud in weeks.
Hey, Sho. Are you free to meet up today? I think I owe you a lot of things, starting with an apology .
Judai is actually pretty sure he's never been more afraid of anything in his life, once he hits send on that text, but that turns out to be not true. True fear is seeing not even a half minute later that Sho has read it and is immediately typing out a response.
Let's talk, Judai reads, with his heart in his throat. Meet me at the hospital? We should see everyone together.
Yeah. Let's do that.
Judai shoves his phone in his pocket, feeling a bit like he's both just dived off a cliff and like a massive weight has been lifted from his shoulders. Maybe things won't work out, maybe his friends do hate him, despite what all the blue-haired ones have been saying - but Yugi's right, in that running is a solution only for his fears. It's not going to help anyone, not his friends, and certainly not Judai. The only place he can start is with them, and not without.
He picks up his pace, dashing out of the parking lot and down the streets, past the unfortunate people on their morning commute, past the familiar streets on the way back to the Academy. He slows down only enough to dig up his declaration to drop out, crumple it up, and discard it in a public trash bin.
Finally, even though he knows Yugi said to wait, Judai opens Yugi's folded paper in one hand.
It's a job application for Yugi's restaurant.
It looks like Yugi has filled out the job title (support staff) and job description (help me with everything, and I mean everything), and written PLEASE at the very top, leaving everything else blank for Judai to fill in.
Judai's laughing before he knows it, a wellspring of incredulous disbelief mixing with a fount of absolute joy that comes from the idea of this honest to goodness kind soul wanting to mix Judai into both his life and business, and do so earnestly.
In the shop windows he passes, his reflection looks both so incredibly tired and touch hysterical.
But his eyes are brown.
They didn't settle on a time, but Judai knows Sho well enough that if he's anxious enough before they have plans, he'd rather be several hours early than even a minute late. So instead of heading home like he meant to, Judai takes a turn at the main intersection and flies down the road until he finds Domino General, a building he's spent the last few weeks avoiding like the plague.
At the front steps, sitting there with bright blue hair windswept and glasses askew - is Sho Marufuji, Ryo's little brother, and Judai's best friend.
Sho's gaze snaps to his, and bolts upright. And looking like he doesn't know if he wants to laugh or cry, Sho leaps off the steps towards Judai.
He crashes into Judai, and Judai catches him, wrapping his arms around Sho tightly.
And finally, he stops running.