Series: Sky Stories||Title: Issues With Molting
Characters: Yubel, Juudai, Johan||Ship: Yubel x Juudai x Johan
Chapter: 1-5||Words: 1,109||Total: 1,109
Genre: Romance||Rated: R
Challenges: Diversity Writing, YGO Yubel x Juudai, H9, 5 chapters
Notes: This takes place in the same world as I Will Be Your Wings, but post-canon.
Summary: Fusing souls with Yubel didn't just give Juudai their powers - it also gave him their wings. But he's never had wings before and now, half a year after graduation, he's learning one thing. Molting season is not fun.

The weight of his new wings hung from his shoulders, dragging them down. Juudai twitched and fidgeted, his lips pressed hard together as he tried to focus on people talking and not the way that he wanted to wriggle his wings around and dig his fingers into them until they stopped itching.

Yubel's voice murmured in the back of his head. Don't do that. It won't do any good and it could hurt the scales.

Juudai winced just a bit. He'd gotten better at hiding his reactions when it came to Yubel talking to him like this, but it was a wince all the same. So what do I do?

Before Yubel could answer, the Dracohuman at the top of the table slammed down one fist, eyes flashing and the tips of his wings twitching. "There is no further discussion to be had! Our great treasure was stolen by these thieves and we want it back. We want it back now!" His eyes flashed and a puff of smoke blew from his nostrils.

Juudai tried to ignore the itching. It really wasn't that bad. He could deal with this. He turned his attention from the Dracohuman – Ejder was his name – to the accused – Cahaya, also known as the spirit of the card Eldeen – who leaned back in her chair with a slightly smug tilt to her lips, her fingers running over the staff in her hands.

"That treasure belongs to us. It always has. Your people stole it from us a thousand years ago." She leaned forward, the glow in her eyes matched by the glow in the sphere of her staff. "We are not going to give it back. Yes, our servant entered and took the treasure back without asking permission – because we have asked for it a dozen times a year, at each turning of the moon, and always you have turned us down. But no longer. It is ours and it will remain so."

Ejder's tail lashed, his wings spreading in a display intended to make him seem far more threatening. "We won that from your people in combat a thousand years ago! Why would we ever give our battle trophy back to those who lost it?"

Juudai coughed. It was a very deliberate sound, meant to remind them that they'd asked him to mediate here. He still wasn't good at this kind of thing, but apparently it came under the heading of helping others, and he thought he was getting better at it. The soft presence of Yubel in the back of his mind reassured him that he was.

The two stared at him. He hadn't done much to remind them of his existence since they'd settled down at the table, and he wondered if they'd even forgotten he was there. But now he smiled.

"Whatever you decide to do, there's not going to be another war," he told them, his voice as firm as he could make it. "I don't like war." Just the thought of fighting, of people using dueling to hurt one another, sickened him. He'd had enough of that for the next dozen lifetimes.

Ejder and Cahaya both swallowed, fidgeting, then glanced at one another. When Ejder spoke again, it was in a tone of sweet reasonableness.

"Of course your people may keep what's yours. But we require something to be freely given to us as compensation. Something of equal value, but something that is not important to your people. Might there be such a thing in your possession?"

Cahaya trailed one finger on the stone table between them, the fainest of frowns between her eyebrows. "I think there might be. I would have to ask the Queen, of course, but I'm certain she'll be able to provide something suitable."

"I look forward to whatever this gift might be," Ejder agreed, absolute honey dripping off of each word.

Juudai nodded; that was what he'd hoped for them to figure out. Ejder's people hadn't really wanted the treasure – a gigantic pearl – all that much, but did object to it being stolen. Cahaya's people wanted their old possession back and weren't going to return it. So by trading something of equal value that would never be returned, everything would be equal. More or less. Enough for him, anyway.

Almost as soon as he took his attention off of the settlement, the itch in his wings redoubled. Juudai bid them farewell and hurried out of the chamber and down to the room he'd been assigned two days earlier. Closing the door behind himself, he threw himself on the bed ad wrenched one arm up to claw at his wings.

"What's the problem?" He growled, trying to find where one of those especially itchy places were and not being able to get his fingers in there.

Yubel rested one hand on the highest arching part of the wing. He shuddered all over. One thing he had learned very quickly was how good being touched on the wings felt. He vaguely remembered from his first life that Yubel let him touch their wings on occasion, and how that wasn't a very common thing. He'd always known why. Now he knew.

"I think I know," Yubel mused, hand moving from the top of the wing down to the bottom, avoiding touching the itchy spots, and Juudai quickly learned that drove him absolutely bonkers. "It's molting season."

Juudai blinked and tilted his head. "Molting season?"

"You're going to shed scales and grow new ones," Yubel told him. "I wasn't sure if you would or I would have told you sooner."

"Why wouldn't I?" Juudai tried to get at the itchy spot again and hated how it was just out of his reach. Who had invented arms that weren't long enough?

Well, technically he had, but he didn't remember all the details there so he didn't think about it a lot.

"Because I'm a spirit now. I haven't molted since the end of our first life together. But since you're of flesh and blood still, you're going to molt." Yubel touched again and Juudai winced, though not at all from pain. "I think we're going to need help."

"We are?" It wasn't like Yubel to admit that the two of them couldn't do anything together. If they were now, then this had to be serious. That set his stomach churning, almost as irritating as the way the wings itched.

"Molting requires a lot of care, especially when it's the first time. This has never happened before, to my knowledge." Yubel's lip curled a little. "Let's go to Earth. I believe that we're going to need to speak to Johan."

To Be Continued

Notes: This is to answer a request I was given for "Shag me" for Yubel x Juudai x Johan. We'll get to that part. Trust me.