Title: Share and Share Alike
Characters: Yubel, Juudai||Ship: Yubel x Juudai/Juudai x Yubel
Word Count: 1,000||Chapters: 1/1
Challenge: Diversity Writing, B27, fluffy piece; One Ship Boot Camp, #30, dinner Notes: This takes place sometime in season four. There should've been more Yubel in season four.
Summary: Food is always important. Sharing food is just as important. So is sharing memories.
Yubel hovered over Juudai's shoulder, peering down at the food in front of him. Then they turned to look Juudai in the face.
"You want to eat this?"
"Of course!" Juudai had already started before Yubel said a word. Yubel didn't need to eat like humans did – but he sort of remembered how they'd shared food in the past, both before and after Yubel took on their current form. So he lifted up a piece of fish in his chopsticks and offered. "Want some?"
Yubel flickered for a moment. Though it wasn't something they felt inclined to do often, they could still take on solid form on Earth. Yubel told him that it had taken a great deal of time before they'd been able to achieve that. Now it wasn't as difficult as it had been, but it did have a drawback: people who weren't Juudai could see them.
But right now, there weren't any people who weren't Juudai in the dining room of Osiris Red, and so Yubel temporarily assumed a full physical form, just long enough to take the fish he offered and nibble it carefully.
"I've had better," they admitted, "but it's not bad."
"I love it!" Juudai plowed back through his food as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. In actuality, he'd had a satisfying dinner the night before. Yubel made certain that he never went too long without eating something. One of the points they quite looked forward to in relation to Juudai growing up was to remember to eat at regular intervals.
Though perhaps it wasn't so much that he remembered to eat or not, but how much he ate when he did sit down at last. The amounts Yubel saw would stuff most people too full to move for days on end. Juudai digested it in a matter of minutes and headed off on whatever plan he had to work on next: which often tended to either be dueling or napping.
"Juudai-chan?"
Yubel and Juudai both looked up and Yubel faded away a moment later, returning to their spirit state as Tome-san entered the room.
She blinked at where Yubel had been, then looked at Juudai. "Juudai-chan, I think I'm seeing things." She rubbed her eyes, shook her head, and smiled brightly. "Are you all right? Do you need anything else to eat?"
"No, I think this should do it for me," Juudai said, making no mention at all of what she 'might' have seen. Yubel smiled, resting one hand on the back of Juudai's neck, knowing that he could feel the weight even if no one else saw them there.
"If you need anything else, be sure to let me know. You're still a growing boy!"
She's right about that, Yubel told him, amused. You need to keep your strength up.
Yubel could feel Juudai rolling mental eyes toward them and chuckled. Some things would never, ever change about Juudai, and those were some of the reasons that they loved him so much.
Once done, Juudai wandered out of the dining area and down to the beach. He didn't pick one of those that were full of people, some of them dueling, which almost surprised Yubel. But he'd not dueled quite as much since their return. He was moving on from the terrors of Dark World, where the thought of losing a duel meant death, but he hadn't fully reached a point where he could or would even want to duel for the sheer joy of it.
Yubel regretted that. Yubel did not regret being fused to him and never would, but responsibility lay heavy and there was more than enough to go around for them all. It would've been thrilling to see Juudai in full form fighting with nothing at all at risk.
Perhaps I should contact Johan. Johan would be able to help him. Yubel didn't doubt that. But there were strange things going on around Academia even now, a power slowly beginning to waken, and none of them knew exactly what it was.
Perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing that Juudai hadn't forgotten the edge that Dark World had given him.
He settled himself down on a rock by the edge of the ocean and started to toss small rocks into it.
"What did I eat back… back then?" Juudai wanted to know. That didn't surprise Yubel. He asked little questions like that all the time, of the first life they'd lived together.
There had been far more than this life and that one, but they were the ones that they each held most important. The first life for where they began and this one for their ultimate joining.
"It depends. What meal are you talking about?" Yubel asked. Because even Juudai should know that they ate different things for different meals.
"Anything. All of it. Just tell me about it."
Yubel glanced around. There wouldn't likely be anyone who'd come this way. So they flickered back into solidity and took Juudai into their arms. He wriggled around, getting comfortable, and Yubel thought back to all those long ago days.
"That world had the same sort of types of food that you have now. The most differences were in how it was made. Kuragari was an island kingdom and it featured a lot of seafood."
Juudai's lips twitched. "That probably explains a lot now."
"I wouldn't be surprised. You love – loved fried shrimp. Though because it was so plentiful, most people considered it a commoner's sort of food. Kuragari had a lot of grazing lands in the inner parts of it, most of which belonged to your family, so you could get meat of many different kinds."
Yubel kept on talking and Juudai listened, until the sound of the ocean lulled him into a deep sleep in Yubel's arms. They didn't stop; his dreams would reflect what they told him. Yubel would always tell him what they could, even if he slept.
He'd probably wake up hungry too.
The End
Notes: Seriously, season four should've had more Yubel. And more Johan and Jim. And more Fubuki and Ryou. Did Fubuki ever tell Ryou about Yuusuke? These are things I will write about one day.