Series: Sky Stories||Title: I Will Be Your Wings
Characters: Yubel, Juudai, OCs||Romance: Yubel x Juudai
Word Count: 2,459/32,011||Chapters: 1/13
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: PG
Challenges: Diversity Writing: YGO GX: Sky Stories: J04, 7-15 chapters; And the dice will again decide our fate…: 13 chapters/2,446 wpc; One Ship Boot Camp; #21, elite; Chapter Set Boot Camp, #44, 13 chapters; Include The Word Boot Camp, #40, hope; Novella Masterclass, #4, AU Space
Notes: This is an AU where the vast majority of the population develop wings at some point in their lives. Juudai is not one of those people. This also takes place in Juudai and Yubel's past life and is how they met in that universe.
Summary: Juudai wants wings. He wants them more than almost anything. But those who are Flightless have no wings and never will. He also would like a friend. That's a little more likely. There's still that little issue of the Light of Ruin and those who serve it, too.
"When do I get my wings?"
King Aodh and Queen Kaien exchanged looks. They'd expected this question. Every parent in their particular situation expected it sooner or later. And yet it always managed to somehow come as a surprise.
"Juudai," Queen Kaien said, reaching down to pick him up. "Why are you asking?" She knew. She already knew. She'd asked the same question when she was his age, only a different answer had come for her.
He stared at her, large brown eyes full of curiosity and hope. "Because I want my wings!"
Aodh held back a sigh. "Juudai, I'm sorry." He didn't want to tell him this. Few parents did. But there wasn't any way around it. "You won't have wings."
Juudai stared at him, then swung his head around to stare up at his mother, his eyes getting larger and more confused by the moment. "Why not?"
"Because you weren't born with the marks." Kaien rested her hand on his shoulders. "Only those who are born with the marks develop wings."
Juudai blinked in raw confusion before he reached behind his back to rub his fingers on his shoulders. "Marks?"
Kaien nodded. "Everyone who is born with those grows wings when they're older. Those who don't, don't."
Juudai's fingers brushed as close to his shoulder-blades as he could get them to go. "Why don't I have them? You both have wings! Everyone around here has wings!"
That wasn't entirely true; there were a few people on the palace staff who didn't have any. Though as a general rule, those who were human-shaped did tend to them. Those who weren't didn't always. But Aodh and Kaien could both see where he was coming from.
"You were just born like that. It happens. It's nothing to be ashamed of," Aodh said, touching his son's chin lightly. "It might help you one day, too."
Juudai didn't even tilt his head at that, still straining for his shoulder-blades, face twisted up into the most unusual configuration Aodh had ever seen.
"Juudai, what are you trying to do?"
"I want wings!" Juudai declared, eyes bright. Aodh hoped those weren't tears he saw. "I'm Haou, aren't I? I should be able to have wings!"
Kaien tried her best to soothe him. "It doesn't work like that, Juudai. Your power will be to create and to protect. Not to sprout wings."
"Then why can't I create wings?" Juudai shot back. Aodh stifled a small chuckle. He could see the logic, such as it was.
"Keep trying," he advised. "Maybe you will be able to one day."
He didn't believe it; nor did Kaien. The look in her eyes as she met his gaze said everything. But it was either offer a slender thread of hope or have to deal with Juudai bawling until he could bawl no more. Neither of them wanted the latter, even though both suspected that they would have to deal with it sooner or later. Especially as time passed and no matter how hard he tried, Juudai would certainly not be able to manifest wings.
Juudai slumped down on the bed, burying his face in his pillows. They were soft. So were the blankets bunched to one side and the sheets underneath him.
He didn't care. He didn't care about the soft bed or the delicious dinner he'd just had or the offer that his parents made to take him flying before the sun drew too far down.
I don't want to fly with them. I want to fly with me!
It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair at all that almost everyone else got to fly and the only way that he could do it would be if someone carried him.
Juudai wanted wings more than he'd ever wanted anything else in his entire life. He could hardly breathe for the thought of being able to spread wings he would never have and take off into the skies that he could only stare at longingly.
Why me? Why not me? He was Haou. He'd been told for as long as he could remember that he would one day be able to control the power that brought life into the universe. So why didn't he have wings? Wasn't he supposed to be able to protect everyone? How could he do that if that one little gift that almost everyone else had was one that he didn't?
Juudai refused to think that the burning in his eyes came from tears. He shouldn't cry about it. He didn't want to. He was only eight; maybe the wings would show up later? What if he were different and the marks didn't appear because he was Haou?
He wanted to believe that. He wanted to convince himself of it so hard that he thought that he had.
Only it was harder and harder with each day, when there wasn't a single sign of feathers or scales or anything else. The few kids he knew around here were already developing stronger shoulders and little bumps where their marks rested. They would have wings one day. Their parents strutted around looking so proud of them.
Why are they so happy? Wings aren't that special.
But he wanted them. That would make his wings special.
Juudai closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around one of his pillows. In the time since he'd asked his parents about his wings, he spent hours a day trying to find the power of life inside of himself and bring it out so he could make wings.
Only it never worked. Nothing at all happened. He didn't even get a wiggle out of his shoulders, much less anything else.
His eyes burned a little more and he wiped at them absently. Not tears. Not at all. His eyes were just leaking because he'd put so much effort into things.
He would have to grow up, he decided. Once he grew up, then he could find a way to create his own wings. That would make it good for everyone, too. He would make wings for people who didn't have wings and for people who lost their wings.
How did wings work in the first place? Juudai knew that he didn't really have a clue. He saw people spread theirs and take off and that was all there was to it but if he made wings, would they work the same? Could he even make wings and if he could, how would he do it? What could he make them from? Did wings have to be light to fly or heavy to carry people?
He wanted his own wings just so he didn't have to think about all of these things.
Juudai slowly let himself relax. He would have wings one day. It didn't matter how he had them, as long as he had them. He would make sure that everyone else who didn't have them would have them too. Everyone should be able to fly.
Creating wings wasn't nearly as easy as he'd hoped it might be. The thought of weight alone still bothered him. Wood? Metal? A bunch of feathers tied together? What would make the best wings?
He'd seen people who had metallic wings and they flew as easily as anyone who had leather wings or fairy wings or feathered wings.
How do they do it? Juudai ached to touch wings and learn what he could.
"Can I touch your wings?" He stared at the maid who came to clean his room, who had a small set of fairy wings folded onto her back. He'd seen her fly; as small as they were they could carry he just like anyone else's did.
She stared back at him, as if no one had ever asked her that in all of her life. He didn't know why. They were pretty wings; surely someone would want to touch them. She was married, wasn't she? Wouldn't her mate touch them?
"Your Highness, you shouldn't ask that," she said at last, a faint heat on her cheeks. "It isn't proper."
Juudai tilted his head. "Why not?"
Her fingers closed harder around the broom in one hand. "That's for your parents to explain to you. Please don't ask me again. Or anyone else."
She started to sweep fiercely and no matter what he said, she refused to so much as look at him. She didn't even turn her back on him the whole time, no matter how she had to twist to do her chores then.
Juudai stared for a few minutes before he hurried out, determine to get his answers. His parents didn't lie to him so they would tell him what was going on.
"Why can't I touch someone else's wings?" Juudai demanded the moment he entered their room. Aodh and Kaien exchanged a look. He'd seen that happen between them many times, usually when he'd asked a question of some sort. He didn't know why they seemed so confused by what he wanted to know.
Juudai knew he didn't understand a lot of things but they were adults. Why didn't they already know the things that he didn't?
"Wings are sensitive," Kaien said as he came closer, holding her arms out for him. Juudai snuggled in there right away. He loved how being enfolded in her arms and in her wings. "Not everyone wants them to be touched, not even by someone they're close to."
"Why not?"
Aodh reached over to ruffle his fingers through Juudai's hair. "There are a lot of reasons. Sometimes being touched can hurt someone's wings, even if the person touching doesn't mean to. Sometimes, it's just not something they like. Not everyone likes to be touched, whether it's on their wings or not."
Juudai frowned, trying to work his way through that. He couldn't quite figure out how that worked, but if his father said so, he was willing to accept it as true. He raised one hand, starting to reach towards his mother's, then stopped himself, staring up at her.
"Can I touch your wings?" She'd always let him before. But was it going to be different now?
Kaien smiled at him. "Go ahead. Just remember."
He nodded at once. She'd told him that ever since he could remember. "Always be careful." Was that what she'd meant? That it could hurt her if he wasn't careful?
He set a hand on the wing closest to him. Her feathers were warm and soft and a rich shade of chestnut red, much like her hair. Her wings closed closer about him and he sighed happily. Being in here, held like this, was one of his earliest memories, and his favorite one.
Juudai tilted his head against her wings and breathed in the scent of her feathers. There was another scent there, one that he recognized as his father's, and then another set of wings folded around outside. He'd never felt so safe or so comfortable in all of his life.
"I want wings," he murmured. "I want everyone to have wings."
"Everyone isn't born with wings," Aodh said softly, his voice only barely audible through two sets of wings and two arms. "That's the way that it is. Everyone does have their own benefit in the world, something that they can do. But not everyone has wings."
"Why not?" Juudai demanded. "It's not fair!"
His parents remained silent for a few moments. Juudai didn't look up, but he felt if he did, they would have been exchanging more of those looks that he didn't fully understand. Then Kaien spoke.
"Why isn't it fair?"
Juudai blinked. Shouldn't that be obvious? "Because everyone should have wings."
"Would you think that if you had wings?" Aodh asked, his voice gentle. Juudai started to nod; of course he would!
"You want them now because you don't have them. But if you did have them, would it have ever occurred to you?" Kaien asked, just as gentle as her husband.
Again Juudai started to nod. Of course he would! Why wouldn't he?
But while he couldn't see their looks, he could still feel the way they held him and the way that they expected an answer. The answer they expected wasn't the one that he wanted to say.
Juudai bit his lip. The more that he stayed quiet, the more he wondered what the right answer would be anyway.
"It's a good idea, trying to help people who can't fly or don't have wings," Aodh said. "You don't have to give it up."
Juudai tightened into them. He wasn't sure of what they meant and he didn't know what he should say about it.
"I think he should meet a few other people who don't have wings," Kaien said after a long span of silence. "See what they can tell him."
Aodh nodded. Juudai could feel the movement ever so faintly. "It shouldn't take long to find a few."
Juudai could feel weariness tugging at him. It wasn't very late but he'd been thinking hard about wings and what to do about them and then everything to do with the servant and now sitting like this with his parents – it all took a toll on him. He breathed quietly and closed his eyes. The idea of meeting other people who had no wings appealed to him, but not now.
Aodh smiled a trifle weakly at his wife. They could feel Juudai going limp in between them. When both moved their wings back, he slumped there, already asleep.
"Do you really think that will help?" Aodh wondered, pitching his voice low in hopes Juudai wouldn't be disturbed.
"I don't think it can hurt." Kaien leaned her head back in thought. "Do you want to put him to bed?"
Aodh gently scooped their son up and tucked him over his shoulder. "He's a handful, isn't he?"
"What did you expect? He's life and justice incarnate." Kaien smiled a touch of a weary smile. "This is only the beginning."
Aodh couldn't argue against that. All that either of them could do was hope that he learned how to use his powers properly, before the Light of Ruin came calling.
We should find a way to deal with that. It will be years before he properly comes into his powers and the Light could strike long before then. It won't be polite and wait for him to mature.
He would consider the matter. A bodyguard of some sort came to mind. A very special one.
He would talk it over with Kaien later. Once they'd settled this matter with Juudai and wings and fairness in general. There would be time. It was their task to protect Juudai for now. Not yet time to pass it to someone else.
To Be Continued
Notes: I said I had other stories in this world. This is only one of them. Because I wrote this for the Yu-Gi-Oh Big Bang, it's not only a complete story, but it's going to be updated every day until it's finished.