Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Title: Five Times Juudai Watched Yubel Sleep
Romance: Yubel x Juudai
Word Count: 2,193||Status: One-shot
Genre: Romance||Rated: PG-13
Feedback: All forms eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Summary: [one-shot, Yubel x Juudai/Juudai x Yubel, Soulshipping] Yubel has always watched over Juudai. But he returns the care just as much.
Juudai turned over and over, trying with all of his might to get to sleep. Nothing wanted to help tonight. He'd drunk warm milk with honey, counted over a thousand Illusion Sheep and Sleepies, kept himself as still as he could for what felt like forever, and still his eyes stared up in to the darkness.
Finally he sat up and looked around. If he couldn't sleep, maybe he could do something else? He didn't know what, though. Go for a walk in the garden? Would Yubel be up for that?
He started to inch over the side of the bed, ready to poke Yubel awake, when he caught sight of a sliver of moonlight brushing against the other boy. His companion lay curled up on his own bed, sound asleep. Juudai pouted; how could Yubel sleep when he couldn't? Wasn't that just the perfect reason to wake him up?
Juudai began to reach for the other boy, then stopped himself. Yubel had woken him up when he'd been asleep before, and he'd never liked it. So why do the same thing? Even for a walk that might help him sleep.
He shifted around a little more and got to where he could see Yubel clearly. Save for that moonlight, his bedroom was more or less dark. The few guttering candles set in the corners didn't really do a lot to illuminate the room. That hadn't ever bothered Juudai. He saw as clearly in the shadows as he did in the daylight. He'd never asked why.
Yubel turned over, the moonlight now directly centered on his eyes. He didn't wake up, though. Juudai tried not to resent it. He wanted to sleep, but the chance of watching Yubel like this didn't come very often. When they were both awake, there was always so much to do for both of them. When they didn't share lessons with the tutor, Yubel had to work on his knightly training and Juudai usually had to watch his parents in the throne room. No one yet knew if he would be king but King Aodh and Queen Kaien wanted to make certain that he knew how it was done, just in case.
But now Yubel rested there, blanket pulled up to his shoulders, still and quiet as could be. Juudai wiggled around until he was more comfortable but could still watch him. He wondered sometimes about where Yubel's family had come from. They didn't look like anyone else in Kuragari. But that just made it all the better for him, so far as Juudai cared. Yubel was his closest friend, his one companion, the one who understood him the best. He was special, not like anyone else. So it was only right that Yubel not look like anyone else.
Juudai kept on watching Yubel, right up until his eyes drifted shut, and he fell into a deep, restful sleep of his own.
Juudai drew his feet under him, wrapped his arms around his knees, and continued to stare at Yubel where he-she…to where Yubel still slept. He drank in the new appearance, not entirely believing this was his old friend, and yet not able to miss everything that was still the same.
Yubel didn't move much in sleep. He-she…Yubel never had. Silent and deadly, that was what Yubel had always been, able to wake up from a sound sleep and be ready to defend Juudai at a moment's notice.
Why did you do this, Yubel? He understood, a little. His father refused to say much of why it had to be done, only that it was necessary. If Yubel wanted to tell him anything else, that was Yubel's decision. Or so he said.
He didn't know how long Yubel would remain asleep, body still adjusting to the transformation. The mages had said it could be anywhere from hours to days, or longer. What they'd done was completely new, and none of them knew what other effects it could have. They'd babbled about being indestructible and being able to change into more powerful forms but Juudai hadn't bothered listening to most of that. What he wanted was to know when he'd be able to speak with his friend again.
His eyes drifted over the form before him, so like and so unlike at the same time. Where dark sky-blue hair had once covered all of his head, now it was half blue and half white. Soft blue lips replaced the pale pink ones he'd stolen kisses from. Great black wings arched from broad shoulders, wrapped partially around Yubel now. Where once a gem had rested on Yubel's forehead, now a third eye rested, closed in sleep as the other two were.
Juudai hadn't seen Yubel's eyes after the change. He'd been dragged out of the room where they'd done the transformation before he could see it to the end. He'd wanted to stay, to know what they were doing to his friend. He'd had to sit outside and had heard every scream. Each one branded itself into his memory for all time.
What could he do to give back a sacrifice like this? To be worth the pain?
He looked at Yubel again, a small idea slowly forging itself in the back of his mind. Maybe there was something…it wouldn't be a hardship at all. Though some of the other kingdoms might not take it well…
Oh, well. He hadn't really wanted to be king anyway.
Her arms embraced him warmly. Juudai didn't know how he could be so warm with her there, since she was a spirit, but he was, and he didn't question it very much. He couldn't hear her heart beating, but he knew there had to be one in her somewhere. No one as wonderful as Yubel could not have a heart. A great, huge, wonderful dragon's heart, strong and perfect.
Juudai tilted his head up a little to watch her. Yubel didn't often sleep and had told him that she didn't really need to. He didn't believe that. Everyone needed to sleep. His mom and dad had told him that when he'd tried to tell them he didn't want to go to bed. What was good for him was good for her, right?
Well, she was sleeping now, whether she needed it or not. She always watched him sleep, or so she'd told him when he'd woken up one morning to find her gazing at him with those pretty eyes of hers. He'd asked once why she had three eyes and nearly fell off the bed giggling at her answer.
"The better to watch you with, Juudai. And even if I had ten eyes, I couldn't keep up with you."
He leaned his head back, wishing he could really feel her, and more than the heat. He wished that about a lot of the spirits he knew, but her most of all. To hold and be held by Yubel forever…Juudai couldn't imagine anything better than that.
He peered a little more closely at her. Were her eyes opening? Was she just pretending to be asleep for him? He kind of wished she'd snore a little. His dad snored a lot, sometimes so loudly that Juudai himself couldn't help but hear him. But Yubel didn't seem like she was the type to snore.
No, she was still asleep. She probably would be for a while. If she never slept at all, then she had to be really tired now. He'd have to get her to take naps with him.
Well, now wasn't a bad time for a nap anyway. Not that he would want his parents to hear that. And it wasn't that he really wanted to sleep. He just wanted to spend time with Yubel.
So he closed his eyes and curled up in the reach of her arms and wings and let himself spend time with her.
Juudai ran his fingers over and over through Yubel's hair. He liked how the two shades contrasted against his own skin. He could hardly believe everything that had happened in the last few…hours? Days? Weeks? He couldn't remember anymore how long it had been since everything spun out of his ordinary life (such as his life had ever been ordinary) and into what it was now.
Of all the events he'd ever expected to happen his last year at Duel Academia, fusing his soul to Yubel hadn't been one of them. As if it could've been, since he hadn't remembered her at all until that moment he'd seen her fully formed before him once again.
I should've recognized her arm. He wanted to smack himself for that. How much could've been stopped if he'd reached out to her then? If he'd taken a chance and let himself help her the way he should've helped her all along?
Well, matters hadn't especially worked out for the best -too many people had died for that to be true, and Yubel hadn't saved them all – but this was the best that he thought they could hope for.
He looked down at her again, where she lay curled up against him. He knew very well she didn't need to sleep, but just like when he'd been a child, she took a nap because he thought she needed one. He'd slept, or been unconscious, or something, for at least a day after their fusion. He'd woken up here, in Neo-Space, in Yubel's arms.
I'll have to introduce her to everyone else, I guess. The warriors of his deck knew her, of course, but as an enemy and opponent, not someone who would forever be a part of Juudai himself. The sooner everyone learned to get along, or at least tolerate one another, the better.
He always had been something of a wishful thinker.
Juudai kept on playing with Yubel's hair, somewhat amazed at how different the two sides were. The white side was rougher and thicker, at least to his fingers, and he wondered what she'd do if he found a brush somewhere and started to deal with that. The blue side –so much like the hair she'd had before she changed- shimmered soft underneath his touch, despite how wild it looked.
I wonder why she looked like Johan then. They weren't twins or anything, but if he'd seen them together, Juudai was certain he would have thought they were related. Maybe Yubel knew. Though Johan was something of a touchy subject right now…
Maybe one day they could talk about that. Right now he was content just to watch as she slept.
Juudai opened his eyes, aware even before he did that Yubel stretched out just a short distance away on her stomach, eyes closed, wings spread wide, resting. She teased him about how much he liked to sleep, but now and then he caught her taking a brief siesta when she thought he might not notice. That didn't include those times when he convinced her to take a nap anyway, of course. So far as Juudai was concerned, sleep was one of the greatest treasures of any world, and he didn't see why just because she didn't need to sleep, that she shouldn't sleep.
He adjusted himself against the tree he'd dozed off under, more to settle himself than anything else. He did his best not to disturb Yubel as he did, and so far as he could tell, didn't. At least, she didn't move. If he bothered her, she'd be the first to tell him about it, likely with some cutting remark about how he wriggled like a worm in hot ashes or something like that.
He smiled as he watched her. She didn't need to breathe anymore than she needed to sleep or eat, but he could see her chest moving up and down anyway. Seven years of being fused, and he'd rubbed off on her as much as she had on him.
One of her hands rested near him and he reached out to trace a design on the back of it. He knew she'd know; she always knew when he touched her, just as he knew when she was aware and 'watching' him from that place inside where she lived. Being one with her satisfied them both in multiple ways, but there was always a special thrill to physical touch between them. It brought back pleasant memories of long ago days under summer sunlight and during winter snows, when a young prince and his companion dreamed of a future without too-bright light to interfere.
He knew now that there would always be Light in some form or another. That was why he traveled the way he did, to make sure it never grew strong enough to attack this or any other world he could reach. He and Yubel would always stand against it.
Her warm fingers closed around his and he looked to see her looking back at him, a hint of amusement in her eyes. She said nothing, but didn't need to. He squeezed her hand, then shifted until he lay underneath the spread of her wings.
And then, they slept, side by side.
The End