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crimsonxraptorFandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Ship: Judai/Manjoume
Word Count: 1672
Rating: T
Prompt: YGO Ship Olympics
Year Published: 2015
Tags List: ygoshipolympics, Mild Language, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, mentions of butchering, Getting Together, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Chefs
It’s been a long day, and it started at 8am because Manjoume couldn’t sleep and figured his restless energy would be better put to use getting kitchen inventory done at the restaurant. It’s now early in the afternoon and he’s been dragging his feet and grumbling ever since Asuka came in now that he had someone to complain to.
He’s finally done setting the walk-in back in order and he exits it with a groan. “Fuck, I’m thirsty, who wants to make a coffee run?”
Asuka is the only other person in the kitchen at the moment and she rolls her eyes. “Coffee will only make that worse. Just drink some water unless you’ll go and get me one while you’re there,” she says.
Manjoume grunts and talks as he makes his way to the line, passing by Asuka on the way, “Water won’t wake me up at the same time--behind--and it’s Thursday, no one I like usually works there today.”
Asuka sets a deadpan stare on him, “That’s seriously your reason? I have to break down chickens and skin salmon today, so no. Just go, weren’t you just bragging about how you had some extra time to kill? The fresh air would do you some good, too.”
Manjoume makes a face at her from behind the line. “Yeah, but--”
“Oh, yeah, I think I saw Judai’s motorcycle parked over there,” Asuka interrupts with a musing tone, “I haven’t talked to him in a while, I guess I could go...”
Manjoume stares at her for a moment, then down at the empty cutting board, as if he’s trying to focus on something to keep himself restrained. It doesn’t last long at all and in a quick swoop of curses and tearing off his apron he’s rushing out of the kitchen and pointedly not looking at Asuka’s knowing smile.
Asuka calls out, “Don’t forget my coffee!” before the back door shuts, to which Manjoume responds with some vague, affirmative yelling sound that he meant to be words that he’s not even sure she was able to hear.
The bagel shop is down a few streets down and Manjoume aggressively wishes he was wearing something more flattering and less “I rolled out of bed to go count shit for four hours and I haven’t slept in two days”. His wrinkled t-shirt has a few splotches of stuff on it and his black chef pants aren’t exactly flattering on him, so while he’s infinitely comfortable he’s also infinitely aware of how much of a mess he looks like.
Not that he really expects Judai to care much; he’s gone in looking like literal garbage and nothing really changed there.
He sees Judai’s blaring red motorcycle in the parking lot and his heart starts thumping hard in his chest. Judai doesn’t usually work on Thursdays, so this is a really convenient turn of events. He walks into the shop, mind full of fantasizing about holding tight onto Judai while zooming down the streets on his motorcycle, and it’s not hard to spot Judai amongst the bagel display case considering that he’s the only lifeform in the building right now; Manjoume must be barely avoiding the lunch rush.
“Hey, chef!” Judai calls out once he spots him, waving.
Manjoume’s mouth jumps into a smile out of his control, and he quickly forces is back to as neutral as he can manage. He’s at the register when Judai finally hops over, and his small smile returns when Judai is already pulling out a large coffee cup, sharpie at the ready. Manjoume is almost too smitten to say anything, and he just wants to appreciate how Judai looks right now.
He sighs and plucks his card from the wallet portion of his phone case. “Hey, just the usual for me and Asuka.”
Judai nods and starts scribbling on the cup, “Gotcha! Are you two expecting a long day or what? Not usually in here this early. Well, for you guys anyway, early’s more like...before noon and stuff.” He puts Manjoume’s cup aside and gets out another large for Asuka’s, glancing at Manjoume before writing on it, “But I’m glad! I’m actually clocking out here in a bit, been here since open covering for one of our new guys.”
Manjoume, who’s kept up with the babble of conversation pretty well because it’s Judai talking, mostly, furrows his brow. “Wait, since open? I didn’t see your...” he trails off, slowing realizing he was probably too tired to even thinking about checking the parking lot on his way over. “Fuck, I was just really out of it today.”
Judai whistles and takes the two cups in his hands, “Early day? Wow.”
He’s over at the espresso machine and Manjoume glances between him and the register, again making some incoherent, confused sound since he’s apparently short on words today. Judai notices and laughs, waving his hand and shaking his head. Manjoume, who’s honestly used to having his drinks done for free by Judai at this point, puts his card back into his case and drags himself to the pick-up area. He immediately rests his arms on the connected bar top, his head close to follow.
“Ugh, you have no idea how shitty it’s been lately,” Manjoume grumbles. Judai says something that Manjoume hears as a prompt to continue, and ends up talking over him, “I haven’t slept in two days, inventory sucks, business is slow, and I haven’t seen anyone outside of work in--I don’t know, weeks?”
He finishes with a groan and nuzzling into his arms. “Sorry,” he grumbles, “I’m just tired.”
Judai nudges him and Manjoume looks up to see that Asuka’s drink is done (it’s labeled “Asuka! <3” and Manjoume is simultaneously jealous and charmed by it) and Judai is making that half-smile face of his when he’s trying to handle being vented at. Manjoume feels bad; he knows Judai gets this shit a lot from even regulars, he doesn’t like piling it on when Judai doesn’t always know how to even respond.
“Hey,” Judai ventures, “sounds like you’re just exhausted and, I dunno, your life sounds pretty boring right now.”
He’s blunt, but he’s not wrong. Manjoume groans. “It is. This,” he says as he gestures to Judai making his drink, “is the highlight of my week.”
Judai rocks his head to the side and frowns. “That sucks. Do you wanna hang out sometime when you’re off?”
Manjoume hasn’t processed the sentence when he’s starting to complain about not having another day off for about a week since one of the cooks is on vacation, and when it hits him he stops mid-sentence. He can feel his face flare up. “Uh--hang out?” he asks, just to make sure he heard him right.
Judai chuckles nervously and is finishing up Manjoume’s drink while he responds, “Y-yeah, I mean--you’re my friend and we talk a lot and--I dunno, I figured it’d be fun to just hang out with you one-on-one.” Manjoume is still struck silent when Judai barrels on, “We could, ah, make it a date? Johan says you like me and I like you too and it just makes sense?”
Manjoume buries his face in his arms, trying to hold back some cheer of excitement. He’s going to tell Johan off later, probably, maybe, he doesn’t know. But while he’s trying to contain himself, Judai stays silent until he prods Manjoume’s arm.
“Uh, are you oka--”
Manjoume’s head whips up and he exclaims, “YES.” He swallows, “I’m--yes, fuck yes.”
Judai looks somewhere between confused and happy. “Great! That went a lot better than I thought.”
Manjoume squints at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I was just...gonna leave my number on your cup but, uh, haha, guess this works too!” Judai admits, turning Manjoume’s cup around so Manjoume can see the phone number written on the side with “call me! <3” underneath it. He’s sure he’s a tomato now, his ears even feel hot, and he’s just so fucking endeared he feels like he might explode.
He grabs both of the drinks in his hands, if just to give him something to ground himself on, and he’s just so excited but he really needs to get back to work.
Manjoume swallows, “I’ll call you! And I’ll see you tomorrow! And I’ll--I have to go and--”
Judai’s finally blushing and he rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, I know. See you tomorrow!”
Manjoume doesn’t want to leave at all, and he turns and rushes out of the shop, face flushed, and speed-walks back to the restaurant. He almost feels like this is a dream, and the closer he gets back to work the more his pace slows. He thinks himself almost into a trance, wondering if he’ll have to meet Judai somewhere or if he’ll pick him up on his motorcycle, where they’ll go, what they’ll do, what will he wear?
When he gets back into the kitchen, Asuka is breaking down chickens and she stops to watch him come in. She looks alarmed. “Is it really hot out there or are you overheating...?”
“I have a date,” he says like he still can’t believe it.
Asuka puts down her knife and squints at him. “You went for coffee and came back with a date? How?”
Manjoume calmly (that’s what alerts Asuka the most) puts down her coffee next to her and stares into the distance. “I, uh...I said yes when Judai asked me.”
“Well,” Asuka says as she peels off her disposable gloves, “that sure happened.”
“Uh--yeah, seriously,” Manjoume says and shakes his head just to get himself back on track with work. “Okay, no, I have to go input the inventory count before I start anything, so just--I’ll be in the office!”
Asuka takes a sip of her drink as she watches her hot mess of a head chef bustle down the stairs. “About time,” she mutters to herself before setting back to work.