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Living with Juudai had its ups and downs Johan had learned after moving in with the cheerful duelist. Johan loved him to no ends and he was happy that after a few years of traveling around the world, Juudai decided to settle down with him. Still, that didn’t mean that sometimes he didn’t want to push Juudai off a cliff.
For starters, he was a slob. He could live in his own filth with no problem at all. Johan was so grateful Juudai at least liked to bath frequently. Then again, that didn’t mean that Juudai had no problem wearing the same clothes for weeks on end. Johan was a neat person by nature, so sometimes this irked him.
“Juudai are you still wearing that shirt? You’ve been wearing that shirt for almost two weeks now.” Johan complained as he saw the attire of his lover. “Will you please change it?”
Juudai stared at the blue haired young man for a few seconds before his eyes slid down to the piece of clothing he was wearing. It was a red shirt with a picture of Winged Kuriboh on the front. It was his favorite. The color was his favorite and it had his aibou on the front. For him this shirt was absolute perfection, not to mention it was super comfortable. He pinched the fabric and brought it to his nose, giving it a few sniffs. “Smells fine to me.” He answered with a shrug.
Johan resisted just pouncing Juudai and taking off that shirt himself. This wouldn’t be a bad thing since he would get to see Juudai’s bare chest but then he would get distracted and forget what his objective was: getting Juudai to change. “Juudai it has stains.” Johan argued.
Juudai groaned and lied down on the couch he was sitting on, turning his back to Johan. “I don’t want to get up to change. The couch is soft.”
“Juudai.”
The brunet rolled over again and looked at his shirt. There were a few dark splotches like Johan had said indeed. He brought one of the stains to his nose and sniffed it. It smelled a little sour, probably soy sauce from the fried shrimp they had yesterday. It vaguely reminded him of Manjoume (san-da!). “Fine.” Juudai said in a sigh. Johan smiled happily as he accomplished his goal. He went back to sitting at the dining table where he was working on his deck. He and Juudai had formed a tag duel duo to participate and also raise awareness in the tag duel pro league that Ryou and Shou had started together. They hoped that the wielder of Rainbow Dragon and one the best duelist Duel Academia has seen would excite people into participating. They feared it could also backfire and people would be too afraid to compete since the duo was unbeatable after successfully summoning Rainbow Neos. They still had some tuning to do so that their decks would work perfectly together.
Juudai returned, donning a fresh plain black shirt. Johan was pleased with the fresh look and kissed Juudai’s cheek as the brunet sat down next to him. The tournament would be held in less than a week and they decided to do their decks now so they wouldn’t have to pull an all-nighter and be tired during the league. “So, what’s new?” He asked as he looked at the cards lying spread out on the table.
Johan gathered them all into a pile and handed them to Juudai. “I removed a few of the general trap and spell cards and added some that would support you. Did you bring yours?”
Juudai shook his head. “No they’re still in my drawer.” He replied as he started looking through Johan’s deck. He had by now pretty much learned the Gem Beast deck by heart but he still needed to see what was new.
“You look through it while I fetch yours.” Johan suggested as he stood up. Juudai’s reply was in the form of a nod as he was concentrated on reading the effects of the cards Johan had put in. The blue haired duelist opened the door to their bedroom and his blood boiled on sight. The doors of the wardrobe were open and the clothes of Juudai’s side were dug out, as if an avalanche had occurred. To make it even worse, Juudai had thrown the dirty shirt in one corner of the room while the hamper was right next to the wardrobe. “Juudai!” He screamed.
“Sorry!” Juudai shouted back from the living room. Johan sighed as he picked up the dirty shirt and threw it into the hamper. It was close to overflowing so he should probably do laundry tonight. While he did laundry Juudai would clean up his side. If he didn’t, he would make him camp out in the back yard. Quickly grabbing Juudai’s Elemental Hero deck so they could finish it, he returned to the dining table where Juudai had laid out a few monsters in attack and defense position, most likely coming up with strategies.
“What did you to the wardrobe Juudai, you drive me crazy and not in a positive way.” Johan said as he placed Juudai’s deck in front of him and took his seat back. Juudai picked up the deck of cards and immediately started pulling out a few unneeded cards.
“Yeah, as I was pulling out this shirt, the rest just followed.” He shuffled the deck after putting in new cards and drew five to see what his hand was and what he could do with it. “I didn’t want to change but you forced me to so that is technically your fault.” He said absently as he played some trap cards and set Elemental Hero Wildman. Johan too shuffled his deck and drew five cards, setting trap and magic cards and summoning Topaz Tiger.
“Don’t try to turn this around and put the blame on me. You could’ve easily lifted the rest and pulled this one out without making a mess.” Johan shot back, drawing a new card and setting it in his trap/spell zone.
“But I am also cooking today.” He whined, drawing a card and playing Elemental Hero Featherman in attack mode.
“I am doing the laundry, probably going to do the dishes too and cleaned up our room in the morning because you were too lazy. Your argument is invalid.”
Since arguing didn’t work, Juudai tried a new tactic. He inched closer to Johan and sat on the other’s lap. He nuzzled his nose into Johan’s chest, in his advantage, Johan liked to show a little bit of chest by wearing V-neck shirts so he gave the exposed skin some butterfly kisses. He moved up a little started placing hot wet kisses on Johan’s neck and under his chin. He felt a shudder run down Johan’s spine and knew that he winning.
Like in a duel, things could be turned around real fast. “Oh no, you are not seducing me out of your chores…. Again.” He lifted Juudai up and placed him back in his own chair. “You’re doing your chores and that’s final.” He said with finality, drawing yet another card. He placed Topaz Tiger into his spell and trap zone, assuming he would be destroyed by their imaginary opponent and summoned Amethyst Cat in attack mode.
“At least let me do laundry?” Juudai asked, drawing a card and removing a few traps he thought he might’ve used. From his hand he used fusion to bring out Flame Wingman.
Johan laughed. “No.” He then said firmly. “Or should I show you my favorite shirt?” He asked. Juudai blushed and looked away with a pout. He had done the laundry once and threw in Johan’s white shirt with his favorite shirt and well… Johan’s shirt had turned pink. The lilac rim and the pink really clashed and wearing it made him feel like some kind of faerie unicorn princess. It was the shirt he had worn underneath the vest of his school uniform. He knew Juudai meant good but he was still so sad to see his shirt ruined. He couldn’t throw it out just yet.
“I said I’m sorry.” Juudai sighed. His expression had fallen from guilt so Johan wrapped his arm around the brunet and pulled him to his shoulder. Juudai laid his head on it and closed his eyes.
“I said I forgave you, didn’t I?” Johan said softly. Juudai nodded and straightened up a little, gathering up his deck. They could practice like this all day but it was still different if they didn’t have an opponent. Sure they could’ve dueled each other but the point was that they were to work together. “Just clean up the wardrobe and I’ll be happy.”
Juudai sighed, giving up and accepting the chore. They gathered up the cards from the table to store their precious decks. A blur appeared out of nothing and suddenly Amethyst Cat was gone. Johan growled and jumped up, following the blur. “I swear Juudai if Pharaoh tries to mate with my Amethyst Cat card again I will kill him!” Johan shouted as he ran.
Pharaoh realized he was being chased and dropped the card, climbing his way unto the wardrobe of them to avoid Johan’s wrath.
Another thing that annoyed him with living with Juudai was that it was not just Juudai who moved in. Besides Juudai, there was Yubel, who had fused with Juudai’s soul but still had her… his… own mind. Yubel could also appear ‘outside’ of Juudai in the form of a duel monster spirit so Johan could often see hir. Yubel didn’t really bother him but sometimes it made intimacy very awkward. They had figured something out. Yubel liked watching the two of them get intimate. They could easily get rid of the other duel monster spirits by just simply putting them in a different room and they would get the message and not bother them. Yubel however, was a different story.
The only way to get rid of Yubel, was to get rid of Juudai. But that kind of defeated the purpose of getting intimate, unless he planned on getting intimate with his hand, which he didn’t really needed anymore after Juudai got into the picture. He just accepted that he was going to be forced to become an exhibitionist.
Okay, so besides Yubel, there was also Pharaoh. Juudai’s fat orange cat and the ex-advisor of the Osiris Red dormitory. Johan loved animals, that wasn’t the problem. He was totally okay with having a cat, even if they were flea invested and had an appetite just like Juudai. But with the cat, came yet another person. Apparently the cat had swallowed the spirit of the true dorm advisor and former alchemy teacher of Juudai. As the spirit went on his way to the afterlife, the cat had swallowed the spirit. The spirit, known as Daitokuji-sensei, had made himself comfortable in the stomach of his precious cat. Daitokuji-sensei also liked to pop up at the wrong times. Since Johan’s ability to see duel monster was just as strong as Juudai’s he could see the spirit of the deceased human too.
Johan picked up the card dropped on the floor and wiped the saliva of the cat off of his precious card. Fortunately the cat knew that the cards were precious and hadn’t done any damage to it when he had had it in his mouth. Johan had considered putting card sleeves on his cards but his monsters said they felt constricted so that wasn’t an option. He was really scared the cards would get damaged beyond repair. There were no other gem beasts other than the ones he had. He could always ask Pegasus to make new ones for him but he had a feeling they wouldn’t be the same, what if the souls of the spirit monsters got destroyed with the card and they would become soulless?
‘Thank you Johan for saving me again Johan.’ Johan looked to his right to see Amethyst Cat at his sight, rubbing her cheek against his leg in an affectionate way.
“You’re welcome Amethyst, I’ll pay more attention next time.” It was at this moment that Juudai came in with the both decks in a neat stack. He saw the spirit of the cat duel monster and smiled apologetically.
“Sorry about that.” He said with a sheepish chuckle. “Pharaoh if you do something like that again I will have it chopped off.” He warned, looking at the top of the wardrobe. Pharaoh hissed and retreated into the corner of the furniture where he wouldn’t be seen. Juudai stored the decks back safely in the nightstand drawers and went to the wardrobe, picking up clothing and folding them neatly before placing them back. Johan was glad Juudai finally accepted his fault. He placed Amethyst Cat also back into the drawer and started sorting the laundry.
They worked in a pleasant silence; just enjoy each other’s company. Ruby Carbuncle and Winged Kuriboh had appeared and seeing as their masters were busy, they wrestled for a little while before cuddling up and napping in the middle of the bed. Juudai was soon done since the mess wasn’t as bad as he expected it to be, so he was done pretty fast. He hugged Johan from behind, effectively grabbing his attention. Johan’s emerald eyes looked up to meet Juudai’s brown ones. “What do you want to eat?” He asked.
Johan leaned into the hug, enjoying the warmth and fluffy feelings he got from being hugged by Juudai. “What did you have in mind?” He asked, smiling up, pretty much knowing the answer.
“Fried shrimp.” Juudai replied with a grin. Another thing that came with living with Juudai. They would eat fried shrimp at least once every week. Not that it was a bad thing because friend shrimps were really good.
Johan laughed. “We had fried shrimp yesterday too.”
“I’m craving it again.”
Johan rolled his eyes. “Fine. Just made some side dishes too.” Yesterday Juudai had made just fried shrimp. Nothing else, no rice or any vegetable tempura.
“Yes sir.” Juudai said with a grin and left for the kitchen. Despite Juudai’s limited intelligence, he was actually a really good cook. That was one of the pros of living with Juudai. Johan had seriously never had such good food. When Juudai first offered to cook he was sort of scared they were going to need to move to a new house or maybe even die, but he trusted Juudai to keep them alive and the house standing, and he was glad he did.
Taking the sorted clothing to the bathroom where the washing machine resided, he threw in the first load and turned it on. Then he went to the kitchen to help Juudai with the cooking and setting the table.
Johan and Juudai sat at the dining table again, enjoying their dinner. They had miso soup, fried shrimp, fluffy white rice and some vegetable tempura. After doing the dishes, they sat on the couch together, cuddled up and watched TV.
This was another pro. Other than being his lover, Juudai was also his best friend. They loved watching the same shows, most of the time. There were times where Johan wanted to watch the new episode of the series he followed while Juudai wanted to watch the pro league match. This often resulted in friendly wrestles.
“Juudai give it back now!” Johan half screamed, half laughed as he tried to snatch the remote back from his boyfriend.
“Never! I want to see the pro league!” Juudai also laughed as he held the remote out of distance from Johan. Being five centimeters taller than Juudai, he took that advantage and shot his body forward, grabbing the remote from the brunet. The force had rolled them off of the couch and to the floor with a thump. The two young men laughed as they hit the floor, rolling around, trying to conquer the remote control. It was still within Johan’s grasp and he hugged it to his chest tightly, not planning on letting it go anytime soon, so Juudai used his last resort. He tickled Johan.
As they got together, Juudai soon found out that Johan had one weakness. He was extremely ticklish. The elemental hero duelist started poking and pinching the sides of the gem beast wielder. Johan was bubbling with laughter as he protected the remote control with his life. He had turned to lie down on his belly with the remote underneath so Juudai knew the fight was lost. Usually they would settle things with a duel but since both shows would be over when they finished dueling, it was pretty much useless.
“You are horrible Skittles.” Juudai groaned with a grin, getting up and holding out a hand to Johan. Johan gladly took it, wincing slightly from the pain in his lungs from too much laughter. “Fine, I’ll watch it on the tablet.” He said as he crawled back to the couch and went to the dresser to get the tablet. Johan sat down as well and opened up his series. He wasn’t quite a fan of television series but this one just drew him in since the first episode. Ironically it was still about dueling, but the dueling was done on motorcycles. Juudai liked it too, but he still preferred to watch real dueling instead of scripted dueling. Still that didn’t mean that sometimes the show had them on the edge of the couch.
“Aaargh!” Juudai screamed as he fished out the tablet with his headphones. “Pharaoh chewed through my headphone cables again!” He growled. “You are this close to becoming genderless!” He screamed, aimed at the cat. An angry meow was heard as a reply as the cat scurried out of the bedroom and fled outside through the cat door.
“Just use mine.” Johan said as he impatiently waited for the commercials in-between shows to be over. They were going to continue on Akiza’s background story and it was getting intense!
“Thanks Skittles.” Juudai said with a grin as he went to fetch the earphones. Skittles was a nickname Johan had earned after they went to Johan’s hometown in Sweden on vacation together. Juudai had fallen in love with the candy instantly and when Johan had told him the slogan of the brand was ‘taste the rainbow’, Juudai loved it even more and said that he already had, kissing Johan for the first time. That’s how the nickname was earned.
Juudai returned to the living room since Johan kept his safely in his night stand drawer. It was one of the few drawers Pharaoh couldn’t open since it was a heavier drawer than the ones of the dresser in the living room.
He returned and flopped down on the couch, resting his head on Johan’s lap, stretching out his legs over the rest of the couch. Johan didn’t mind at all as he started playing with Juudai’s hair absently. Finally the opening played and the couple watched their respective shows peacefully. During either commercial break both would update about what happened and then concentrate on the screen again as it resumed. After the show 5D’s ended, Johan switched to the Dueling Network so they could finish watching the duel on the big screen.
“Oh Kenzan-kun seems like he’s losing.” Johan commented. The dinosaur fanatic had only 250 lifepoints left. He looked a little stressed as well, while his opponent looked smug and proud.
Juudai had sat up as Johan turned on the pro league and was now leaning against Johan’s shoulder. “You should know better than everyone else that if there are still cards in your deck, there is always a chance to turn things around”. And he was right. Kenzan drew Shield & Sword, switching the defense and attack of the all the monsters and attacked the opponents monsters who had real high attack but real low defense. The crowd cheered for Kenzan as he gloated with his victory.
“Go Kenzan!” Johan cheered while Juudai jumped up and down, pumping his fist in the air. The couple immediately called the dinosaur duelist to congratulate him. Especially since his next opponent would be Jim Crocodile Cook. Hanging up after chatting a little Juudai stretched his arm, hearing a few satisfying pops come from his bones.
“What about a bath?” He suggested, looking Johan in the eyes, giving him a soft smile.
“Sure.” Johan replied, returning the smile. Another thing he liked a lot about Juudai. If he ever told anyone in Sweden that he had taken a bath at a hot spring with several other men, he would get weird stares. In Japan, it was like taking a walk in the park. It was just normal. When Juudai had first asked him to join him in the hot springs, he had stared at Juudai in shock. Juudai was equally confused why Johan didn’t want to bath with him.
‘Don’t you want to bond with me?’ Juudai had asked.
Johan blushed and stuttered, already having developed feeling for the passionate duelist. ‘I-I do but it’s too soon!’ He had replied and turned his back to Juudai, hiding his rapidly reddening face.
‘Isn’t Johan-kun coming?’ Asked a new voice. Johan turned around to see Shou, Manjoume (san-da!), Fubuki, Jim and even O’Brien standing behind Juudai with towels and their sleeping attire in their hands.
Juudai turned to look at them with a pout on his lips. ‘No, he says it’s too soon.’ He mumbled, clearly displeased. Jim caught on real fast and burst out into laughter. O’Brien let out a few chuckles himself while the rest was still confused.
‘Japanese take baths together to strengthen their friendship.’ Jim explained. Again the Japanese looked confused. Shouldn’t this be obvious?
‘Oh… OH!’ Johan said in realization and blushed again. ‘Let me just get my stuff.’
And thus, he did get even closer to everyone. Apparently Juudai was already filling the tub as he was reminiscing so he went into their bedroom and took off his clothes, wrapping a towel around his waist and entering the bathroom. Juudai was also wearing a towel and was checking to see if the bath wasn’t too hot or cold. Johan pulled out two stools and sat on one, calling for Juudai to sit in front of him. Juudai did so and Johan started scrubbing his back.
Johan had learned that Japanese wouldn’t get in the tub unless they had cleaned themselves first. The tub was not quite to get clean, but to relax. They switched and Juudai scrubbed Johan’s back. When they were done they slid into the tub and just relaxed. The tub wasn’t quite like the one he had in Sweden. It was small but deep. Juudai leaned against Johan and the two lay there, just basking in each other presence.
Their relationship didn’t have to be sexual all the time, sure it was a nice bonus but more often they liked to just cuddle up and be together and to talk. The warm water just washed away all the tension of the day. Johan felt like he was turning into a puddle of jelly. He had never realized just how tired he was.
He got up early, did some weekly groceries, after putting those away woke Juudai up, made brunch, cleaned the house, adjusted his deck, argued with Juudai over the shirt, laundry, together with Juudai he did the dishes and wrestled Juudai for the remote.
His body felt slightly colder as Juudai got up and leaned against the other side of the tub, he played lightly with the suds as he smiled. “Sorry you have to put up with me.” He apologized. Johan laughed lightly.
“I’m not putting up with you. I knew you were lazy from the start.” Juudai pouted and splashed some water towards Johan, who shielded himself with his hands. “Sometimes I actually feel like I’m nagging you too much.” He admitted.
“Oh shut, up. I deserve it sometimes.” Juudai laughed. “Shou had to put up with me the most. I don’t know how many times I received a book on my head despite him warning me.” He said as he gingerly touched his head. Thank goodness bumps heal otherwise he could be called Lumpy Space Princess. Johan laughed at the story. While he was appointed a different seat in class since he was an Obelisk Blue student, he still had quite a good sight of Juudai since he sat higher up while the Osiris Red students sat quite low.
“Shall we get out?” Johan asked as he got up, wrapping a fresh towel around his waist. The water had gotten a little cold. Juudai nodded and did the same. Hand in hand they walked back to the bedroom where they dressed up into their pajamas. Johan got under the covers while Juudai sat at the foot of the bed, despite it still being a little too early. The sun had already set but they were adults now, they could stay up till whenever they wanted. The two decided not to take a manager and became their own managers, after the incident ‘Ojamanjoume’. So they didn’t have any schedules or something.
The rechargers of their phones were located at the foot of the bed because Juudai would never let go of the smartphone if he had access to it while recharging. Kaiba Corporation had released some dueling applications so Juudai would always duel people from all over the world under a false name. That’s why he always sat at the foot of the bed, on his knees and elbows, butt in the air.
Johan was leaned against the head of the bed while reading a book. But he wasn’t really reading the book. If Juudai had even paid a little attention he would notice that Johan had been reading the same book ever since they moved in together. He had actually started reading Juudai. Every movement meant something.
When he would swing around with his feet it meant he was really enjoying the dueling. If his butt went up higher, he was in a pinch. And there it was. Johan smiled brightly as Juudai started to wiggle his butt lightly. He was winning. And like Johan had predicted, Juudai sat up and shot his arms into the air.
“Gotcha!” He cheered, throwing himself back onto the bed. “That was a fun duel.” He said with a grin.
“I bet it was.” Johan said with a light chuckle. He got into bed and snuggled up against Johan as he was shivering a little. Another plus. Juudai was a blanket hog, in a positive way. When it was real hot out, he would lay sprawled out and take the blanket away as Johan had already fallen asleep. He only needed a blanket to fall asleep, he could do without once he was already sleeping. In the winter, Juudai would hug Johan and roll them up in a blanket burrito, keeping both of them warm.
“Love you.” Juudai sighed as he closed his eyes.
“Love you too.” Johan replied as his own eyelids drooped. The bath had made him quite sleepy and it didn’t take too long for him to fall asleep. Juudai was already gone as he was snoring softly.
The best thing about Juudai was, just being with him. You could never be sad when he was around. His joy and happiness was contagious, making even the saddest of all happy again. Yubel flashed before his eyes as an example and he withheld a chuckle. He was pretty sure (s)he had watched them while they were bathing.
They argued sometimes, but didn’t every couple argue now and then? After every argument they appreciated the other more. Living with Juudai had its pros and cons. But Johan had accepted it, embraced it and was completely okay with it.
The next morning, Juudai jumped up and ran for the door before Johan. They had gotten up much earlier than usual since they had slept quite early. Johan was quite confused as to why Juudai was so excited. As far as he knew they weren’t expecting any guests.
“Who is it?” He asked as he walked to the door. Juudai had already closed the door and was now holding a package in his hands. It was probably the mailman. Juudai had probably ordered some new cards or something. It was none of Johan’s business. The couple had decided that both of them could spend their own share of the earned tournament money on what they wanted after paying the bills and putting some in their savings account.
“What you get?” Johan asked as he sat down on the couch. Juudai grinned at him.
“Close your eyes.” Johan did as he was told, wondering what Juudai had up his sleeve. Rustling was heard as the package was torn open. Soon Johan could feel something very light placed on his lap. “You can open your eyes now.” Juudai said excitedly.
Johan did and he gasped as he saw what Juudai had gotten him. It was his favorite shirt. “Juudai….” He said in a breath as he held up the shirt. This one was brand new. “How?” He finally asked, looking into the chocolate brown eyes of his beloved.
“I called your family and asked them where you got that shirt. They told me your grandmother had made it so I felt even guiltier. I told them about what I had done to your other one and your grandmother immediately agreed to make a new one.” He told.
Johan smiled brightly and hugged Juudai tightly, putting the shirt aside so it wouldn’t crinkle. “Thank you, this is the sweetest anyone has ever done for me.” He said, followed by a press of his lips against those of Juudai.
This was not the same shirt, it was even better. It had both his grandma’s and his Juudai’s feelings within it. Juudai was always full of surprises.