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.
Author: Higuchimon
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh GX
Story Title: Desert Diversion
Characters: Juudai, Yubel||Pairing: Yubel x Juudai/Juudai x Yubel
Word Count: 868||Chapters: 1/1
Genre: Romance||Rated: G
Challenge: Diversity Writing, B69, post-canon fic; One Ship Boot Camp, #5, feelings
Notes: This was sparked by a prompt on tumblr for an unknown requester, for a prompt of 'God, I adore you'. The phrase itself didn't make it into the story, but I feel the essence did.
Summary: On his way to visit Shou, Juudai ends up taking a bit of a wrong turn. Good for him that Yubel's around, even if the shadows aren't.

Yubel's arms folded around Juudai, wings providing a little shelter from the burning desert sun. He tried not to look at it, but given that it poured down on them both from the center of the sky, it was a little hard to miss.

"I think I made a big mistake," he grumbled, trying to tuck himself more into Yubel's embrace, where it was cool and dark and much more to his liking.

Yubel moved closer to him and while he couldn't see anything but the shadows under those wings, he could feel the smile he knew was there.

"Yes, I think you did too," Yubel murmured, voice only slightly muffled by how close they were. "But you'll learn better."

Juudai grumbled a little but didn't argue with that. He had to learn more. He had a lot of power and not nearly as much practice in it as he wanted to have or needed to have.

Which was why when he'd tried to use the shadows to move from one world to the other, he didn't always end up where he wanted to be. Such as arriving here, in the middle of the desert, without a single shadow to be seen anywhere, when he'd wanted to be somewhere near Shou's apartment. The little guy wanted to show him something, but he hadn't been very clear on what it was, just that Juudai would like it, and it was fascinating.

But instead, he was here. In a desert that might or might not have been the one that held either the Gravekeepers or where they'd been during his third year at school. For all he knew those were the same desert, anyway. He hadn't yet had the chance to find out, though the thought wandered through his mind every now and then when he had nothing better to think about.

Anyway, right now, he did have a lot of better things to think about: like where he could find some water and how long was it going to be until sunset and how in the world had they even ended up here when there weren't any shadows to start with.

"I don't know," Yubel admitted when he asked that last one. "I don't think anyone knows everything about what you can do. Not even you."

Somehow, Juudai thought that made things a little better. He wasn't here because he was an idiot.

He'd done a lot of things because he was an idiot, but this wasn't one of them.

He could still feel Yubel smiling at him, and one arm moved up to ruffle through his hair.

"You are an idiot," Yubel told him, fondness in every word. "But you're my idiot."

Juudai leaned in closer, breathing in the scent that spelled Yubel to his deepest senses. "Yeah, same to you." He wondered if that meant he was calling Yubel an idiot. He also wondered if he cared. Yubel didn't seem to, not with that warm rumble of a laugh that rippled through both of them.

Yubel didn't remove the hand from Juudai's hair, either. Juudai leaned into the touch. As hot as the desert air was, staying close to Yubel made him feel better, no matter how hot Yubel naturally was. Dragon wasn't just a word; Yubel exuded a constant sense of warmth no matter what the temperature around them was.

It should've made being in the desert worse. But it didn't. Juudai would've crawled inside of Yubel's skin to enjoy how it did feel if at all possible. They already shared a soul, but if there could be more, he wanted it, right now anyway.

"Is there any way we can get out of here before it gets dark?"

Yubel's head shook against him in negation. "I don't know what would happen if you tried to use your power like that here. Better to wait until true darkness."

Or at least as dark as it got with moonlight and stars and whatever else would be around there. It would be enough, he guessed. Right now their own shadows were too small to be of any use, and even when the sun started on the western side – or what he guessed was the western side – of the sky, there just wasn't enough shadow for him to work with.

Maybe in ten or fifteen years, when he had a better grip on what he could do, he'd be able to. But now wasn't then. Now he needed a lot more darkness, and Yubel was right, it would be a lot better to wait until full night to try anything.

At least Shou wasn't expecting me soon. He hated the idea of making his friends worry. He spent only a few minutes wondering what it was Shou wanted to show him before his eyes started to slide together and he curled up tighter against Yubel's form, breathing deeply.

"Rest, Juudai," Yubel murmured, hand on him never moving. "I'll let you know when it's time."

If this was the world they'd been in before, then there would be monsters ready to attack at any moment. But he trusted Yubel to guard his back, and he slipped into slumber without fear.

The End

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.