A.N~ This will be quick I promise dear reader. When I label this as a "Take It as You Want It" fluff/yaoi, I mean that if you wish to take this story as a light fluff between Yusei and Judai, then it can be done. However I have also written it so there is nothing overly explicit and the story can be seen with Yusei and Judai as friends. So feel free to "take it as you want it" because this story is borderline on both yaoi and non-yaoi, despite being classified as Starshipping.

Also, the characters that begin the story do not reappear, they are just filler and only appear in this chapter to present the problem of the story.

With that said, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy Clockwork.

Chapter 1

The Clockwork Boy

The garage was cold as I cautiously opened my eyes, expecting to be greeted by bright light. Instead the garage was dark. Stretching I gazed around the room, trying to figure out what exactly had woken me up.

Stiffly, I rose from the chair I had fallen asleep in and glared at the clock, wondering if it was just time to get up. I squinted, reading 10:00. Wait 10? I drew closer to the clock, staring intently at the tiny two letters after the ten: PM.

So it wasn't the sun that had woken me up, so what was it? Perhaps there was someone at the door, but at this hour, it seemed unlikely. Still there was a possibility, so slipping into my jacket hanging off the back of my chair, I trudged up the stairs to the door and cautiously opened it a crack. A blast of cold air burst through the small crack, snowflakes twirling wildly in its grasp. Peaking outside, a world of white and gray greeted me. Snow blew around the courtyard in a blizzard like fashion, making it near impossible to see past five feet in front of you. I looked left and right, only finding piles of snow lying in soft white mounds against the garage's walls. Shutting the door, I headed back to my chair. As I was about to sit though, a vibration with a musical tone echoed through the garage. With a sigh, I grabbed my phone off the table, "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Yusei?" a woman's voice asked in a rushed, but sweet voice.

"Yes," I replied, waiting for her to continue.

"Oh, excellent! Listen would you mind coming to fix my heater? I wouldn't bother you with this bad weather, but no other repair company will come out and my kids are freezing. I'd pay you double what you normally charge for coming," the woman pleaded.

"Yea, I can come over. Just give me your address and I'll be there in a few."

"Thank you so much for coming," the frail woman said, shaking my hand furiously. Her brown hair sprang in all directions from her loose bun and her thin glasses perched crookedly on her nose. She was short and sturdy, a pleasant but disheveled looking woman.

I chuckled, "It really isn't a problem, Mrs. Sully. Mind showing me where your heater is?"

"Oh, of course! This way," Mrs. Sully said as she turned on her heel and walked further into the house. Following her, I glanced around at the simple hallway, seeing neatly framed pictures and a small mirror. Mrs. Sully turned right, entering a small living room. Two kids, one boy and one girl, sat on the floor, bundled beneath coats so they resembled a marshmallow, and were playing a game of Duel Monsters. While they played, an old woman sat in a posh chair facing a tall antique grandfather clock, snoring lightly. Walking past them to the back of the room, I followed Mrs. Sully to a door leading to the basement. We walked down the stairs, dank air greeting my nostrils once we reached the bottom. Turning on a light, Mrs. Sully gestured to several tall iron boxes. "The furnace is over there."

I headed towards the direction she pointed, sliding out of my jacket and shivering as bare skin meet cool air. Setting down my tools and jacket, I set to work analyzing the internal working of the furnace, tampering with certain parts in hopes of sparking it back to life.

"So," I began, feeling obliged to make conversation. "How old are your kids?"

Mrs. Sully looked up at me, a soft smile etched on her kind face. "Well, Darrel just turned 11 this month and Alice is 7. Alice just got her first Duel Monsters deck and Darrel's been teaching her how to play nonstop for the last few days." She chuckled, "Darrel's dreaming of becoming a pro duelist like you. He's always going on about how amazing you are and how good you are at dueling. I'm surprised he didn't pounce on you when we walked past. He must have really been into his duel."

I smiled, "I'm honored he thinks that. They sound like sweet kids." That was all I needed to say for the conversation to continue, mainly with Mrs. Sully doing the conversing. My hands worked quickly but effortlessly, as I listened to her go on about her kids. I didn't say a word and was only half listening when I heard her ask, "How is your family? All in good health I hope?"

I froze while reaching for a screwdriver, eyes wide as I stared at my toolbox. My parents? I dropped my hand and face, shadows overarching my face, attempting to hide the sadness in my eyes.

Realizing something was wrong, Mrs. Sully apologized, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked about things that aren't my business."

"It's okay Mrs. Sully. My parents died when I was young, but I hope wherever they are that they're happy," a smile stretched over my face, attempting to outshine the gloom of the subject.

Shock written on her face, Mrs. Sully stammered, "I'm so sorry, Yusei! I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"It's really okay. You didn't know and I never really knew them, so it's fine. Don't beat yourself up about it," I counseled, as I gathered up my tools. Standing up, I put the panel back on the furnace then flipped a switch, a warm roar responding to the action.

"There we go, good as new." I stood, rubbing my hands on my jeans.

"Oh thank you Yusei! You're a life saver!" Mrs. Sully said, clapping her hands together. "Come on upstairs and I'll get your pay." Following her up the stairs, I thought about the awkward conversation we had, wondering how my parents were.

Upon reaching the living room, Mrs. Sully turned around, interrupting my thoughts. "Wait here and I'll get your pay." I nodded, standing in the living room as she walked back into the hall. As I was putting on my jacket though, I felt a tug on my shirt. Looking down with only one arm through my jacket, I saw two bright blue eyes enclosed in a round face framed by brown curls staring at me. "Are you Yusei?" the little girl asked.

"Yes," I said with a smile. "And who are you?"

"I'm Alice," she said grinning, flashing a smile with missing teeth. Turning from me, she shouted across the room, "See I told you I saw him Darrel!"

Peeking around a sofa, a curly brown-haired boy frowned, "Alice, you're embarrassing me!"

"Oh come on Darrel," Alice whined, skipping over to her brother. Pulling his arms, "He's not going to bite. Stop being a chicken."

"I'm not a chicken," Darrel protested. Standing up straight, he marched to where I was standing. Thrusting out a shaking hand, he announced, "I'm Darrel. I'm your biggest fan and I wanna be just like you when I get older."

Chuckling, I shook Darrel's hand, "It's nice to meet you Darrel." I crouched to his level. "It's always great to meet someone with a passion for dueling like you. I heard you were teaching your sister to play, and that you have a pretty awesome deck."

Darrel perked up a huge grin on his face. "Yea I was! You wanna see it?"

Nodding, Darrel ran back to the couch, grabbing his deck and came back, thrusting the cards into my hands. Silence filled the room as I filed through the deck. Reaching the last card, I handed the deck back to Darrel, "You've got a good, strong deck Darrel. I bet if you work hard and believe in your deck enough, I may see you in the arena."

His mouth dropped open as I stood up, seeing Mrs. Sully enter the room again. Seeing his mom, Darrel began to rush towards her, but tripped, knocking into his sleeping grandma. This caused the grandma to wake up shrieking, "Where's the clock boy? I know I saw him. Clock spinning backwards, bright light, and BOOM a boy clothed in red coming out of the clock! It's the end of the world, attack of the clocks! Everyone run away!"

The granny started flailing her arms as she ran around the room shrieking. Mrs. Sully glared at Darrel, scolding him, "Darrel, you woke her up! Do you know how long it took me to get her to sleep? Oh Olivia, please don't run!" Mrs. Sully chased after the flailing grandma, Darrel following them, trying to stop her as well. Alice stood wide-eyed next to me as I choked back a laugh. They looked like a flock of chickens running without their heads, arms flailing and screeching at each other.

After this scene went on for ten minutes, the grandma calmed down again, tired from the frantic exercise. Settling back into her posh chair, the grandma continued to mumble to herself about the clock boy as she stared at the tall grandfather clock.

Sighing deeply, Mrs. Sully fixed her glasses, which stood at a 45 degree angle to her face. "Sorry about that Yusei. Our family isn't normally this chaotic."

I laughed, "Chaos is normal with me, so you can stop apologizing." Following her back to the door, I passed Darrel, stopping momentarily to say, "Good luck Darrel," and ruffled his curly head. He beamed as I closed the living door behind me.

As I put on my boots after being paid, I turned to Mrs. Sully curiosity peaked. "Do you mind if I ask what she was screaming about?"

This caught Mrs. Sully off guard, but she recovered with a nervous laugh, "Olivia? Oh yes, she's been going on this entire day about seeing a boy come out of the clock last night. She claims the clock started going backwards then there was a light and from that light came a boy wearing red. Really she's just a few plums short of a fruit pie, but with her old age I suppose it's normal for them to start seeing things that aren't there."

I thought for a moment before responding. "Yea, maybe she just needs more sleep. It seems ridiculous to think a person could come from a clock."

"Exactly my point," she sighed. "Although Olivia doesn't see it that way. Well, thank you so much again for coming out so late Yusei."

"Not a problem at all, Mrs. Sully. Give me a call if you have any more trouble with that furnace," I shouted over my shoulder as I left the quaint home.

I had spent a longer amount of time then I thought at the Sully household. It was pitch black as I walked home. The streetlights providing the only visibility in the night. Clouds hung heavily in the sky, letting large clumps of snow fall from the heavens. My breath came in a silvery mist as I wrapped my jacket tightly around myself, thankful for bringing my heavy jacket, for it was a long trek home.

I wasn't complaining about having to walk instead of ride. It was a nice change to see Neo Domino without a visor on and not speeding by. I walked slowly, taking in the city's silence of the late night and as Aki would say, "Stopping to smell the roses." Then again with her, everything was about roses.

The city echoed quietly around me, my footsteps crunched with snow from each step I took, being the loudest sound in the silence. It was strange, Neo Domino was rarely this quiet, but I suppose with sub-zero temperatures and raging blizzard earlier that night, most of its residence were probably enjoying the warmth of their homes. I watched with intrigue as the snow blew around me as I walked block after block. The wind began to pick up, throwing snow into my eyes and freezing my cheeks red.

I began thinking once again of Grandma Olivia and her bizarre proclamations to keep my mind off the cold. A clock spinning, a white light, a loud noise and a boy in red. Sounded like something from the start of a book, I mused. Coming from a clock, perhaps a time traveler? But that was ridiculous, there was only one way to time travel that I knew of and that was through the Crimson Dragon. She could be making this entire thing up though. But she was so serious when she was rambling, not to mention frightened with all that shrieking and flailing. Plus she went straight back to watching that old grandfather clock.

I walked without much direction, thinking only about the strange grandma. The snow began to fall harder than before as the temperatures dropped further. The snow crunched beneath my feet as I rounded the corner, the familiar courtyard greeting me. About 200 meters across both ways, a tall clock tower stared at me from across the snow-covered courtyard. In the gray distance, the skyline of Neo Domino was barely visible, the low clouds hanging on the horizon as a distant hum of traffic carried itself on the back of those heavy clouds. A fountain stood in the center of the yard and was frozen stiff, creating an array of strange geometric ice sculptures.

I worked my way through the clean snow, heading for the blue door beneath the clock tower. As I approached the blue beacon though, a snow-covered shape caught my eye. A snow pile only about a meter tall, sat next to the door. But this snow pile was different from the others. It was very oddly shaped.

Upon reaching the snow heap, I squatted down to its level, staring in wonder at what the heap was. Perhaps the postman had left the D-wheel parts I ordered earlier today. But this shape wasn't shaped like a box; it was too round and skinny. Cautiously, I reached out with a gloved hand and brushed the top layer of snow off the shape. As the snow fell from the top, more snow shifted causing a mini-avalanche to fall.

Exposed beneath the white blanket, was a young man with a bright red jacket and fuzzy brown hair. That hair looked familiar, so I brushed more snow off, revealing a youthful, pale face and shut eyes.

"Judai?" I exclaimed, stumbling backwards. How is that possible? He should be in his own era, so why was he here? And how did he find out where I lived?

Sitting in the snow, I stared at the sleeping Judai. He breathed heavily, his pale face contorted into a pained expression. His cheeks glowed a brilliant red, rivaling that of his Osiris jacket. Sitting back on my feet, I proceeded to brush the rest of the snow from him. He shivered when the blanket of snow was off but he didn't wake up. Why wasn't he waking up?

My heart beat faster as worry built-in my system. Taking off a glove, I reached out gently, caressing Judai's forehead, my warm fingers freezing when they touched his forehead. I felt my eyebrows furrow, realizing that Judai had probably been out in this weather for most of the day with just his duel academy uniform on to keep him warm.

Without thinking, I slid out of my thick jacket and draped it around Judai. The moment the jacket touched him, Judai grabbed it, snuggling beneath it till only his brown, furry head showed. If I weren't worried about his well-being, I would have laughed at the childish act. Thinking about it though, Judai was the definition of childish.

Standing back up, I wedged one of my arms between Judai and the wall and the other under his knee then lifted him into the air, the snow I had not brushed off, cascading through the air. He was surprisingly light for being only a few inches shorter than me. Despite being lifted, Judai didn't wake but instead nuzzled into my chest, his face hiding itself in the jacket. Heat rushed to my face, unsure of how to respond to this act. I brushed off my blush and carefully carried Judai through the door. The garage was as cold if not colder than outside, and up till then it had never bothered me. But Judai needed to get warm, not freeze into a Judai Popsicle.

Quickly I climbed the stairs to the three bedrooms, turning into the last one. Heat blasted out of the door, and for once I was thankful we paid the extra rent for heat. Still nuzzled against my chest, I heard Judai sigh and a small smile peeked beneath his lips, the pained expression replaced with one of contentment. Gingerly I laid him on my bed, and tried to move away, but every time I tried to squirm away from him he snuggled closer, his grip tightening and locking me in a bear hug around my chest. I chuckled, giving up on my feeble attempts to escape, I grabbed a quilt and threw it over the little snuggling sloth, and settled against the wall at the end of the bed.

Although I shut my eyes, I soon discovered that I would not be gifted with sleep. My mind whirled, hurling questions that had no answers. Why was Judai here? Did the Crimson Dragon take him from his timeline because dangers approaching? What else is there to worry about? After all, the Dark Signers are history and New Domino and Satellite have been united. Or was this even the Crimson Dragon's doing? Was Judai the boy who the old woman hallucinated about? That still doesn't answer why he's here.

I rubbed my eyes, hoping that would cease the questions. Peeking through my fingers, I glanced down. Judai was no longer hugging me to death, instead he laid in my lap. The color was returning to his face and upon touching his forehead I was relieved to feel it becoming warm once more. I let my hand slid down, running my fingers softly over the caramel hair. He was like a giant puppy. Always acting hyperactive and getting on one's nerves. Always yapping in your ear. Always needing to do something. Always batting big brown eyes at you to get what he wanted. But when the day came to an end and sleep called, he crashed hard, wearing innocence as his sleeping mask.

I sat there for who knows how long, stroking Judai's kuriboh hair and listening to his rhythmic breathing. I didn't care how strange this probably looked, and if Jack or Crow were to walk in, I'd never live it down. But an instinct had kicked in–not sure if it was brotherly, fatherly, or something else–to stay awake and protect Judai until he felt warm and I saw those large brown puppy eyes stare into my own.