The Name on his Wrist
YGO Rare Pair Week Day 1
Prompt: Soulmates
Pair: Judai Yuki/Ryo Marufuji
Word Count: 1174
Summary: Ryo has had the name “Judai Yuki” on his wrist his entire life and is very interested when Judai arrives at Duel Academy.
“Examinee number one hundred ten: Judai Yuki.”
Those words over the intercom instantly piqued Ryo’s interest. His eyes went wide and his chin lifted slightly, a reaction he hoped was subtle enough for Asuka right beside him not to catch. Thankfully, she didn’t. Her eyes were on the duelling arena where the soon to be new Academia students were having their practical entrance exams far below.
However, none of that interested Ryo now. Making sure no one was looking, Ryo pulled the sleeve of his uniform down enough to see the name written on his wrist: ‘Judai Yuki’. Ryo looked back at the arena.
There he was: Judai Yuki, a scrappy looking young-man with spiked brown hair and a face of joyous and determined ferocity, clearly a duelist who duelled purely for the fun and thrill and for no other greater purpose. So… if the writing Ryo had on his wrist since birth was to be believed… this ‘Judai Yuki’ was his soulmate?
Ryo gave the idea some thought as he watched him duel. Judai Yuki, just as Ryo had presumed, was a joyful and determined duelist, having fun even when he was on the brink of losing and rarely losing his infectious smile. He was so unlike Ryo, though, he supposed, opposites did attract…
Still, Ryo didn’t want to force anything. If the two of them truly were meant to be soulmates, they would come together naturally, when fate decided they would. That was… if Ryo was Judai’s soulmate too… Surely that would be the case but Ryo didn’t want to be too… presumptuous. Or perhaps that was him trying to protect himself from potential heartbreak.
Thankfully, it didn't take long for this to come to pass. Perhaps a few weeks or so into his first school year, Judai approached Ryo for a duel, which Ryo won. Even despite that however, Judai kept his positive attitude. Ryo couldn't help but smile. It was a refreshing change of pace from the classmates, sometimes even in his own dorm, who were… very ungracious when they lost. Not to mention, Judai was a duelist with an infinite amount of potential. Ryo in his mind had already reached his peak. Judai however could keep climbing beyond the peaks and into the stars so long as he kept his positive attitude.
There was no other real contender for Ryo's graduation duel. He chose Judai the moment the question was posed to him and, once Judai started duelling in his usual fun-loving risky way, he was in fact Ryo's perfect opponent. Perfect in an… beautifully imperfect way. He was like Ryo's exact opposite, excelling in all the ways Ryo felt he himself was lacking.
Ryo finally believed it: Judai Yuki was his soulmate.
He knew it, Judai likely knew it, and yet it remained completely unspoken between the two of them for years. Ryo kept waiting for Judai to say something, anything. Yet he never did. Was this Judai not his soulmate after all? Did Judai, Ryo's heart ached at the very idea of such a thing: have a different soulmate? Was he… waiting for Ryo to make the first move? That didn't really seem like Judai's style…
Finally, the day before Judai's graduation ceremony, Ryo decided to swallow his pride and request Judai meet him in the nurse's room he was staying in so they could talk. A poor possibly rejected confession had to be better than none at all… right?
The door opened, revealing Judai.
“Hi, Kaiser… You wanted to talk to me?” His tone was calm and almost reserved, nothing like how he was back in his first year.
Ryo knew, not exactly the finer details, but the fact that Judai's last two years had been incredibly hard for him, and that he could never be who he was in his first year again. Duelling for fun, something that came so naturally to Judai back then, was something he was now learning to do again.
Ryo, for his part, wasn't unchanged either. He'd, for lack of a better term, gone off the deep end, completely abandoning his honourable duels in favour of a blind fruitless pursuit of power. Duelling had brought immense pain to both Judai and Ryo. Yet despite that, both of them had decided that they wanted to keep duelling anyways. They were still soulmates. Ryo was certain of that.
“Judai…” Ryo dipped his head to him. “Yes. There is something I'd like to discuss with you.”
“Oh? What is it?” Judai sat in one of the chairs across from Ryo's bed.
Ryo heaved himself into his wheelchair. As he tugged the wheelchair closer to Judai, he wondered how exactly he should go about doing this.
“Kaiser?” Judai tilted his head to the side.
Ryo took a deep breath. After a few more moments, he decided to just rip the bandaid off and pulled the sleeve of his jacket up far enough so his wrist was visible. Judai stared at him, confused, before his gaze shifted to Ryo's wrist. He blinked, his eyes widening ever so slightly.
“Judai… Yuki…?” Judai read each syllable slowly, as though he couldn't believe the sight of his own name on Ryo's wrist.
Ryo nodded. “I wasn’t sure how to tell you… but even the day my heart stopped, it never wavered from you.”
Judai’s breath caught in his throat in a small gasp. “O-oh… K-Kaiser… Ryo… I… I’m… touched…” He looked away, biting his lip.
The beginnings of the smile that had formed on Ryo’s face faded instantly as anxiety moved in place of his momentary joy.
“But…?” Ryo prompted, bracing for heartbreak.
“Well… I just…” Judai pulled up his own sleeve. “I never told you because… I wasn’t sure… how you would react…”
He held his arm up in a way that Ryo could see it and… he was immediately dumbfounded. On Judai’s arm was not one name, as Ryo had seen on not just his wrist but every wrist with a name he’d seen, but three: Yubel, Johan Andersen, and Ryo Marufuji. Ryo had no clue what such a sight could even mean.
“Three… soulmates?” Was all he could manage at first. “I… I didn’t know such a thing was… possible…”
“I didn’t really get it either…” Judai admitted, his gaze shifting to the window. There was a distant look in his eyes as he explained. “Yubel was really confused too. But… upon meeting all three of you, I felt a sort of… spiritual connection to each of you, for different but… similar reasons. I think… you must all be my soulmates somehow. I’m… not sure what that will mean for me but… I hope it’s okay with you…”
Ryo chuckled softly. “It is, Judai. It’s unexpected and quite unorthodox but so are you. I could never be disappointed about you being you.”
“Heh… thank you… Ryo.”
Judai broke into a small toothy smile, so reminiscent of the ones from when he was a first year. Ryo couldn’t help but smile as well at the sight.