Story Title: Two Before Three
Characters: Yubel, Johan||Pairing: Johan x Yubel/Yubel x Johan (if you squint and kinda hateshippish) Also Yubel x Juudai and Juudai x Johan. Potential hints of future Yubel/Juudai/Johan.
Word Count: 1,500||Chapters: 1/1
Genre: Romance, Drama||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing, C15, T-rated fic; Easter Egg Basket Advent day #19, start/end with the letter 'e'.
Notes: This was sparked by a prompt on tumblr for an unknown requester, for a prompt of 'we're a lot more similar than you think', for Yubel/Johan. It's taken me a while to get to it, but here we go.
Summary: It's just two. Juudai. Yubel. No room for a third. No desire for a third. But Johan has a few words to say that might bend Yubel's heart a little, if he can say them before Yubel decides to tear his out for even looking at Juudai.
"Excuse me? What did you say?" Yubel bent their dual-colored eyes on the prisoner, who looked back with eyes that put them in mind of days long ago, when eyes much like that reflected from any convenient mirror.
It made them hate Johan all the more for it. How dare he?
"I said, we're more alike than you think." Johan Andersen, fierce despite everything, raised his head up even higher. "Everything you've said just makes it stronger."
Yubel's head shook without a single word of thought. "What nonsense you're spouting."
"It's true," Johan said. He didn't seem to want to back down from such blasphemy. Yubel considered teaching him a lesson about it. "Look, we both care about Juudai."
That got him a rake of their claws down the side of his face. Even speaking Juudai's name was an offense to Yubel's senses, when it was a thief like this who did it. But he didn't back down yet.
"We do. You told me that you two have known each other for ages."
"Of course we have. Since the first time he incarnated as a human, in the kingdom of Kuragari."
Yubel didn't care if that meant anything to Johan or not. Truth was truth, even if this twisted mockery of their sacrifice didn't understand it.
"So maybe I haven't known him that long, but I kind of feel like I have. The first time I met him it was like it wasn't the first time."
That got another hit on the other side of his face. Yubel wondered how much Juudai would gaze at Johan longingly if he could see the blood coming down his cheeks now.
Yubel's plan meant that Juudai would have to see Johan sooner or later. What would matter would be keeping him alive until then, not refraining from scarring him. If he wanted to copy all of their sacrifice, then giving up such vain beauty would only be right, wouldn't it?
"You were never there," Yubel reminded him, digging claws into his shirt now. "You weren't in our past. Only me and only Juudai."
"Right, right." Johan coughed, but he still hadn't accepted the truth. His next words made it abundantly clear. "But we know him. We care about him."
Yubel dug claws even further in. If it would be possible to tear his heart out and keep him alive, then it would've been done.
"I care about Juudai. I love Juudai. I always have. There's no one else in any world or place or time I would rather love. Whatever weak little 'friendship' you think you have, whatever nonsense his mind has conjured up to replace me, it cannot stand against true love."
Johan wriggled and squirmed in Yubel's grip. They weren't inclined to let him go at all. Once Juudai came to his senses and remembered their vows to one another, Johan would have to be disposed of. Yubel quite looked forward to that.
Once Juudai remembered again, he might even be inclined to do the deed himself. He'd never taken well to people who insisted that the prince of Kuragari couldn't wed where he pleased and would 'have' to claim someone of higher birth.
The longer that Yubel stared down at Johan, the more memories of those days grew stronger and stronger. Regardless of all else, Yubel knew that then, they'd been considered quite fair and lovely. The King even pointed out that one of the sacrifices for becoming what Yubel was now would be their physical beauty.
Now, as then, Yubel didn't care. They wouldn't trade it for anything at all. The power mattered far more, because it was the power that bound them and Juudai together and enabled Yubel to protest Juudai, until he gained enough wisdom and experience to protect himself.
In truth, Yubel didn't really see that happening, but it didn't matter. It just meant that they would be together with Juudai even longer.
Johan tried to talk again. "You love him." The liar didn't even stutter when he said it. Yubel wasn't fooled; if he accepted their bond, then there would be grief in his voice. If he cared for Juudai the way that Yubel did, then for Juudai to love another would be intolerable, unbearable, impossible.
Another thought slid into Yubel's mind and lips curved into a smile.
"Of courser I do," Yubel murmured, tilting up Johan's head now so their eyes met. "And you … care about him." Yubel chose those words with care. "What else would you say that we share?"
He stared up, uneasiness there, but swallowed, and began to answer.
"We care about a lot of the same things. We know that he's going to come running after me. I bet he would have for you too, if he'd known. I mean, he had to have not known. Juudai's just the kind of person who would go after someone who needs him."
Yubel's grip tightened. They didn't want to hear any of that. Juudai hadn't cared, though Yubel didn't know why. It had to be the loss of memories that did it. But they gestured for Johan to keep on.
"We know him. We know he's going to make all kinds of mistakes and flounder around until he gets things sorted out." He swallowed yet again and what came out of his mouth next could've floored Yubel. "I want to help you. I want you and him to work this out. I want him to be able to make his own choice on this and he can't do that if he doesn't know what you've told me."
Yubel said nothing at all now. They knew that Johan hated them and it was mutual. So to offer this, against all reason and sense?
No. They didn't trust him.
There was, however, a way to know the truth. Yubel could find no shadows in Johan's heart; they'd searched for days after the horrible debacle in the world of sand. Any sort of shadow would've been found if there'd been one.
"Is that so?" Yubel murmured, as if actually considering his words. "There's only one thing I truly need from you." Yubel's fingers moved over Johan's features, ending up resting on his shoulders. They hated being even this kind to a thief, but it would further the plan, and nothing else mattered.
"What?"
Yubel let out a long trill of soft laughter. "I need your body. Juudai won't come for me, since he doesn't remember me." Again those fingers brushed over Johan's skin.
His very warm skin, much as Juudai's had been, once upon a time.
If Johan truly was as much like Yubel as he claimed, then there would be only one answer to this. Yubel gave up their mortal human flesh for the sake of Juudai. Would Johan be able to do the same?
"But you think he'll come for me?"
"That I do. And then he will be mine again." Yubel refused to back down on that point.
They would be together forever. Juudai had so promised; he would love no one who wasn't Yubel. Yubel had never even considered loving anyone who wasn't Juudai.
Except, maybe, just a tiny bit of hidden affection for this one who looked so much like they once had. Yubel had never truly considered it before and didn't think they were properly doing so now. Johan was nothing more than a tool to them, one that needed honing and polishing before it could be put into proper use. They would do that with the Gem Beast later.
Well, not the ordinary Gem Beasts.
Johan opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, then closed it again. Yubel waited. A trickle of blood rolled down Johan's cheek and they flicked it away with one finger. Johan stared up into their eyes again.
And for one moment, Yubel thought that somehow, they understood all of Johan's thoughts and why he would do this.
Because it was what they would do: sacrifice anything at all for Juudai, to help him learn who he needed to be. It might hurt. It would hurt. But pain was love and love was pain, in every sense of the words.
"All right," Johan said and Yubel blinked, focusing now on what mattered. "If that's the only way that you can do it."
"It is. He won't understand otherwise. And you'll help me make him understand, won't you?"
This was just between the two of them. Yubel sealed the Gem Beasts to avoid them attacking when they arrived in Yubel's tower. Only Johan and Yubel would ever know what passed here.
"Yes." Johan agreed and Yubel leaned in closer. Perhaps he somewhat did understand.
But that didn't stop Yubel from tearing his soul from his body and throwing it into the sealed Rainbow Dragon.
It could all be sorted out later. When Juudai remembered their vows and a night of pledged passion in the temple.
Two ever came before three.
The End
Notes: Well, that was a fun piece to finally get around to writing. I enjoy writing Yubel, most especially when Yubel is in the "I will tear out the guts of anyone who breathes near Juudai" stage. I do hope this is pleasing to you, mysterious requester. Some day I will write something with them interacting post-fusion, because they really, really should. But I could think of so many other things that should happen post-fusion as well.