Yay! I'm incredibly happy to be posting here again! It has been such a long time. This is not my first keyshipping fic (I've got two other shorter ones on tumblr), but this is my fic that officially restarts my career! I'm so happy!
This was initially for a post on tumblr under Imagine Your OTP. It was about them sharing a bed for the first time and fighting for covers, about snoring and all that good stuff. Though, this morphed into something more emotional. My obsession to explore Astral's inexperience with touching kicked in and well... I just went from there.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and I am in no way profiting off of this work.
Update: I have decided to make this into an unrelated series of oneshots (thus the name "KeyShots") that will be indefinitely complete. I know this has been done already by Breaking-Benjamin-rules, but my decision for this was solely based upon the fact that I'd rather keep all my short, keyshipping fics in one pile rather than make separate stories for them. Kudos to "Keyshipping Oneshots", though. It's definitely worth a read for any keyshipper!
Summary: Laying in his hammock in the attic gave Yuuma a sense of closeness to his parents, a sense of peace in his chaotic life. Of course Astral would be the one to make him want to make a change, no matter how small.
Yuuma's candid desire to be able to touch Astral more had become as palpable as Astral himself after their battle at Sargasso. He had expected the ethereal entity to be the one to initiate further contact because of his innate inquisitiveness. Every time he did not ask or act or simply kept his arms crossed whenever he was close to the boy, Yuuma felt his heart sink to the depths of his being. He didn't push Astral despite this, as he understood that he would need time to heal after Yuuma's betrayal. The boy accepted the guilt as his curse, let it drench him in an agony unknown to anyone but himself.
They'd had their fair share of misadventures during the search for the Legendary Numbers(the most recent being Yuuma getting possessed by a talking tanuki named Ponta during his duel with Girag), but now they were home. Their arrival was not quite pleasant. Akari had smacked him and harshly reprimanded him for disappearing so suddenly and scaring both her and his grandmother, but enveloped him in a warm embrace in the end, thankful that no tragedy had befallen her precious baby brother.
Sometimes he wished that Astral would attempt to hug him like this. A breathy laugh escaped his lips at that thought. That would be about expected as Kaito baking him cookies or Shark asking to slow dance with him.
After a delicious dinner and a warm shower, Yuuma was ready for bed. Just as he was about to ascend the ladder to his attic – where he would lay peacefully in his hammock and stare out into the dark, endless sky, engulfed by the memories of his beloved parents that were collected there – he was stopped by Astral. It wasn't a touch or a call that caught his attention, but the fact that Astral was kneeling on his bed, sporadically bouncing.
"It's very soft," he observed, clutching the sheets and rubbing it between his transparent, blue fingers. "Why don't you sleep here tonight?"
"Do you want to sleep there?"
"My place of rest is in the key."
"Can you try?" Yuuma hopped off the ladder and sat beside Astral. "I will if you do."
"I do not wish to obstruct your 'normal' habits." Not a definite "yes", but certainly not a "no".
"It won't be so bad!" Yuuma announced, plopping down on the bed and making Astral bounce a little more. Then he held Astral's wrist and pulled him down too. Astral made a whine of protest, stunned by Yuuma's abruptness, and the boy simply laughed it off and asked his partner if he was comfy.
The celestial creature laid flat on his back, arms fluttering uncertainly at his sides for the first few minutes. He was very comfortable. It was not at all the same as when he would rejuvenate within the Emperor's Key, but being here with Yuuma, not dueling nor arguing nor even conversing, just simply existing side-by-side, felt surreal.
The tranquility of that moment shattered when Yuuma unceremoniously dumped the cover unto Astral, who became entangled and fought to be free of his confines. When he finally succeeded, the room had darkened to the point where he was the sole source of light.
"Yuuma," he called, glancing around for the boy. "Yuuma, where are you?"
"Under here!" came his muffled reply. Astral lifted the sheet and looked below and found playful red eyes staring back into his own heterochromatic ones. "I knew it! You do make a good nightlight!"
Honestly, that was the only thing he could think of to tell Astral that wouldn't make him sound like a creep. Sure, he had to explain to the entity what the purpose of nightlights were since he never used one once with Astral around, but it was preferable to a conversation explaining why he thought Astral looked like divinity incarnate, or why he thought the holy blue flames that encompassed his entirety were so beautiful.
Then he finally crawled up beside Astral, and pulled the cover over both their heads. He told the spirit tales of his childhood. Of how he would crawl into his parents' bed when he was younger and snuggle with them; of how his father would both scare and excite him with fables and fantasies; of how his mother would sing him lullabies in a tender, God-given voice; of how his sister used to sneak him out at night and take him on joyrides on her motorcycle; and of how his grandmother would prepare a fresh bento every morning for him to go to school (and how much he appreciates that she still does in her old age).
"Dad told me that there were two other worlds once. That next to our world was a world filled with hope, and then another that needed it." He had no trouble seeing the look of intense concentration on Astral's face as he absorbed every detail of this intimate moment, regardless of whether he was amused by or enjoyed Yuuma's ceaseless talking. "Do you think that... he was talking about the Astral and Varian worlds?"
"Perhaps," replied Astral after pondering his question. "His involvement with my world is of a great extent."
There was the strongest possibility that Kazuma was alive in the Astral world. Both he and Tron were used as sacrifices – living XYZ material – by Dr. Faker to open the multidimensional door, and Tron survived. Became a shell of his former self that was hellbent on a sadistic revenge, but alive nonetheless. So there was still hope.
"Yeah... You're right." A yawn escaped the boy's tanned lips after he uttered that statement. "I'm tired."
"I've noticed. You should rest."
"I suppose... Astral?"
"Yes, Yuuma."
"Stay here tonight."
"Am I not always here?"
"No... I mean 'here'. On this bed. With me." Upon hearing the hesitance in his words, and seeing his cheeks bloom a rosy red, Astral smiled and assented.
The night was anything but relaxing. He had to cover his ears and curl up, even going as far as hiding his head beneath a pillow to shut out Yuuma's obnoxious snoring, which resulted in his earrings getting hooked on the fabric. After freeing himself, he attempted to suffocate the infernal noise with said pillow, which resulted in an angry, incoherent Yuuma swearing at him and pinning him down and demanding to know what he was doing before he promptly fell back asleep while draped across Astral.
"Yuuma! Wake up!" he groaned, struggling to push the offending weight off of his body. Said boy – completely incognizant of Astral's plight – only muttered unintelligibly before rolling over and swaddling himself with the sheet. This situation was utterly ridiculous. There would be no way Astral could perform his rejuvenation ritual with a restless sleeper like Yuuma. The only thing that prevented him from vanishing into the key, though, was Yuuma's bewildering behavior.
The nights he'd stayed awake watching television for hours on end, Yuuma had always slept calmly in his hammock. Sure, he snored, but he was never this violent. Perhaps the alteration to his regular sleeping accommodations had a much larger affect on his subconscious than Astral had accounted for.
Before he could dwell too much on this possibility, he felt those warm, tanned arms wrap themselves gently around his frame, and felt Yuuma snuggle up to him as closely as humanly possible.
"Astral..." he breathed, tickling the creature's neck with a sensation that he'd never felt before. He didn't dare respond, a bit wary of Yuuma's instinctual, hostile responses, but waited in bated breath for the boy to retreat instead. Astral gasped when his ear was bit, trying desperately to pull away now.
"Yuuma... Wake up!" The ethereal being arched lightly, whimpering when the boy suckled on the sensitive appendage. "Ah... Please..." He pushed against his chest, head spinning when that sinful mouth whispered wordlessly into his ear before it nipped the pointy tip.
Then he rolled atop Astral, his face buried into the crook of his neck as he nuzzled and sometimes licked the royal blue gem closest to his lips; those hands interlaced with Astral's, and his body conformed against the entity's in a way neither ever expected to. It was driving Astral insane, assaulting him in ways that were entirely new to him. It made him want... Want... Want to form Zexal. He needed to be closer to Yuuma, as if feeling his partner's body burn against his own wasn't more than intoxicating; as if the heart that beat inside Yuuma didn't resonate from within his own incorporeal being through their clasped hands; as if the sensual way that Yuuma unconsciously played with his gems and body in his state of slumber didn't make his mind reel and his core ache for more.
Overwhelming yet not nearly enough. Astral needed more. It wasn't enough for Yuuma to touch him on the outside. He needed him on the inside as well. He needed for their essences to become one; to become so tightly interwoven that no Man, Astral, or Varian could ever tear them asunder.
Even within the realm of dreams, was Yuuma relaying his consensual desires?
'I'm sorry...' That... was the voice of Yuuma's heart. 'I always want to be with you, Astral. To touch' – Yuuma's hands instinctively tightened their hold on Astral's, but not to a painful degree – 'to protect... To be with always... To love...' Astral's eyes rolled back at those sincere thoughts, the intensity of his luminosity obscuring any distinguishable feature on Astral, and a pleasurable, powerful pulse emitted from his being as he reveled in the vitality and rapture they brought him.
Their bond was still so strong, stronger than it ever was, after overcoming so many trials and tribulations together. Something that Astral couldn't see, but knew was there, that he would be crazy not to acknowledge the existence of.
Why did Yuuma not speak these words to him when he was awake? Was it too chagrining? He knew Yuuma to be expressive, to show his care both through stubbornly denying that he did care and outright crying if a friend was in pain. He had never shown Astral that he was capable of articulating himself in matters of the heart, adopting a tough persona instead.
On this night, Astral was glad that he stayed with Yuuma. Those were words that he would probably have never heard if he didn't, and – as it was – words that he would probably never hear again. Just once was satisfactory, though.
He kept Yuuma in his embrace for the rest of that night, surprised that he did not fight nor snore while locked in this position. Astral did not dread the arrival of morning, feeling that a simple explanation would pacify his young partner. Even if Yuuma would wear the facade of being annoyed and embarrassed, he knew that the boy would appreciate the fact that Astral had stayed as he asked, and returned the emotions that his heart begged for.
©Kitty Seeboo