Title: As He Sleeps
Ship: Yubel x Juudai
Chapters: 1-1||Words: 500
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: Yubel x Juudai: A55, 300-500 words; One Ship Boot Camp, Yubel x Juudai, #8, blissfully; GX Month 2021, #22, Cupid's Kiss
Notes: This takes place some years post-canon
Summary: Juudai sleeps and Yubel guards him, as they always do and always will.
Yubel tucked Juudai under their wings. He smiled up at them, raising one hand to rest on the area next to one of the spikes, utterly fearlessly. But he'd never been afraid of them, no matter what they looked like. Even when he hadn't remembered them, he'd shown more anger than fear. Though Yubel would gladly admit that they found his anger as magnetic as anything else about him.
He closed his eyes; he was far more tired than he'd wanted to admit. All the work he did traveling everywhere took a great deal of energy from him. Here he didn't quite trust to rest, not without someone to watch over him, and so that was what Yubel did. They didn't sleep the way that humans did, and so they could and did guard him endlessly.
Not quite how I imagined we would be together. They had considered watching over Juudai's sleep forever - there was little they enjoyed more than being with him, after all. But to watch him like this, knowing he would awaken and regard them with that same love as he had for multiple lifetimes? Far more than they'd ever dared to dream would be possible. There were on occasion moments when Yubel thought this might be a mere fantasy that would dissipate.
And yet it never did. Day after day they found themselves fused to Juudai's soul, and the awareness of how much Juudai loved them existed in every moment. They'd felt it from the first moment the process had begun and it didn't change at all, save to get stronger, as time passed. If this were a dream, a fantasy, then it was one that Yubel never wished to wake up from. A world where Juudai didn't love them wasn't a world they wished to live in.
That was one thing that came from their own heart, not from the Light. The Light only made what they would do to attain that world far, far worse. If it hadn't been for the Light - well, Yubel wasn't certain what would have happened. Perhaps they might have encountered the part of the Gentle Darkness that existed up there in space, and what Juudai originally wanted would have happened that much sooner.
I think I prefer it like this. They'd done horrible things; Yubel wouldn't forget that for a moment. Juudai still wanted them to talk matters out with Johan and some of his other friends. Perhaps they would get to that one day. But Yubel wasn't fond of appearing to people who weren't Juudai. They would consider it for the future, however.
But since everything that had happened all those years before ended with their fusion to Juudai and the eternal keeping of their vows, then it ended well enough in Yubel's opinion. Perhaps if they had the chance they would do things differently, but that wasn't an option. So Yubel lived with what they had now, and enjoyed every moment they spent with Juudai.
The End
Notes: Yubel x Juudai is indeed my OTP for GX. It's painful and glorious and there should have been so much more of Yubel in season 4. Also, Soulshipping Week is going to be a thing in December again.