Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Only You
Romance: Yubel x Juudai
Word Count: 1,120||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance, Hurt/Comfort||Rated: PG
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section C, #50, write your OTP; Written for the Valentine's to White Day Advent, day 4, write about a true and unyielding love.
Summary: Yubel is being changed to protect him. There's only one thing Juudai feels is right to do in return. No matter what anyone says.

Outside of the medical room there rested a couch, comfortable and worthy of being in the castle of a king. Well-cushioned, it would've made a glorious resting place for anyone waiting to find out news about a loved one being tended to by the healers and medical specialists.

Prince Juudai refused to even look at it. Instead, he stood a few feet away from the door, where anyone coming out cloud see him right away, and stared at it unflinchingly.

They threw me out. He didn't often try to play on the fact of his royal blood, but that was Yubel in there! His closest friend! The person dearest to his heart! And they wouldn't let him see what they were doing!

His blood chilled at another howl from behind the closed and locked door. He clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms, ignoring the cold sweat that sprang up yet again. Every time he heard one of those – and he'd lost count of how many he'd heard – it was the same.

He'd had time enough to see that they had Yubel's eyes bandaged, but nothing more. What were they doing in there? Why were they doing it? No one would tell him anything.

He didn't pace. He wanted to pace. He wanted to do something to get rid of all the nervous energy boiling up inside of him and yet he remained convinced that if he so much as lifted a foot, then Yubel would vanish without a trace and he'd never know what was going on.

So the prince stayed where he was and listened to the howls of agony, when what he wanted to do was burst back into the room and take Yubel away from this. It didn't matter what was going on. They'd told him Yubel agreed to it, whatever 'it' was, but he didn't care. Yubel hurt! Yubel was screaming! And they thought he'd just sit there and let it happen?

Whatever was going on, it was for him. Yubel managed those few words before he'd been taken out again. They replayed in his mind.

I don't care, my prince. I'm doing this for you. For you, I can bear anything.

Tears stung his eyes. Yubel was always like that, doing anything for him and never asking for anything in return, not even a thank you.

He needed to do something for Yubel. Something that would show how much Yubel meant to him. How much I...

It wasn't a word he'd thought of before. Perhaps it should have been, but he'd never given it any consideration, focusing more on enjoying his life. He wouldn't be able to do that forever, knowing what he did about the power that he had. He'd have to start taking care of people, sooner or later.

But the thought of Yubel never left his mind, not completely, and the word that now ghosted along in tandem with Yubel's image was one that coursed and burned through his veins.

He swallowed and the word seemed to fill him as he did, taking up every little nook and cranny within his soul. He would have to tell Yubel about this. He would have to let his parents know. To let everyone know, because this wasn't the kind of thing that could be kept to himself, or even to himself and Yubel.

I don't care, he told himself, and meant it. Yubel did this for him, giving up so much, and he knew he didn't even know the half of what was going on in there. He could give up something in return for Yubel. It wasn't even close to the kind of sacrifice Yubel was making. He would only give up marrying someone he'd probably never love anywhere nearly as much as he did Yubel anyway.

Love. Yes, he loved Yubel. He couldn't imagine loving anyone who wasn't Yubel. Maybe he could; maybe he just hadn't met someone who wasn't Yubel that he could love. But right now, he didn't want to meet this person who may or may not even exist. He only wanted to know that Yubel was all right and to give all of his love to Yubel, so that Yubel and everyone else would know how much he treasured his long-time friend.

The door opened. Juudai's head snapped up at once and he drew himself to full attention. The chief healer stepped out, shoulders slumped and gray with exhaustion. Juudai wondered how long they'd been in there working and stole a quick glance to the nearest window.

The … sun was coming up? Hadn't it already been afternoon when he'd found out what was going on? Had he really been out there the whole night?

"Your Highness," the healer spoke up, drawing Juudai's attention back to her. "We've completed our work on Yubel. You may go in, but be warned: the project caused massive changes, inside and out."

"Yubel is Yubel." Juudai stated flatly, already pushing past the healer. What mattered was knowing everything was all right and nothing more.

Juudai's eyes skipped past all the evidence of surgery and magic combined into one. He saw scales and he saw blood, he saw bits of flesh and tiny strands of hair, but he refused to actually look at any of them, searching instead for Yubel.

What he found was a form underneath a blanket, one that shifted nervously as he drew closer. Whatever lay under that blanket wasn't Yubel as Yubel had gone into this room. Larger, taller, Juudai could tell that already. Also, whichever side Yubel now lay on, the other side, the side he'd see if he took the blanket off, was extremely different. He could tell just by the way the blanket itself fell.

"Juudai..." Yubel's voice. A little different, but Juudai recognized it nevertheless. One hand pulled itself out from under the blanket, reaching for him. Juudai blinked only for a moment; he hadn't known anything they were doing aside from changing Yubel into a form that could 'protect him'. He hadn't expected to see an arm that looked something like a demon's mated with a dragon's.

But he reached for the arm and wrapped his fingers around Yubel's. "Yubel." He wanted to say so much, but at the same time, he knew now wasn't the right time. Yubel's eyes – all three of them now – blinked in sleepy confusion. He would have time later to talk to Yubel, and to his parents, about what he wanted to say and do.

But he'd made up his mind and nothing could change it, not even the passage of years or decades or eons.

No matter what anyone says, I will love only you, Yubel.

The End