diff --git a/.generator/cli.py b/.generator/cli.py
index c4c2fe4c5bed..0bb844fd1772 100644
--- a/.generator/cli.py
+++ b/.generator/cli.py
@@ -694,9 +694,12 @@ def _get_staging_child_directory(api_path: str, is_proto_only_library: bool) ->
     version_candidate = api_path.split("/")[-1]
     if version_candidate.startswith("v") and not is_proto_only_library:
         return version_candidate
-    else:
-        # Fallback for non-'v' version segment
+    elif is_proto_only_library:
+        # Fallback for non-'v' version segment for proto-only library
         return f"{os.path.basename(api_path)}-py/{api_path}"
+    else:
+        # Fallback for non-'v' version segment for GAPIC
+        return f"{os.path.basename(api_path)}-py"
 
 
 def _stage_proto_only_library(
diff --git a/.generator/test_cli.py b/.generator/test_cli.py
index 1a9b8e934759..cd5d11bb7e21 100644
--- a/.generator/test_cli.py
+++ b/.generator/test_cli.py
@@ -1357,7 +1357,7 @@ def test_verify_library_namespace_error_no_gapic_file(mocker, mock_path_class):
     mock_path_class.assert_called_once_with("repo/packages/my-lib")
 
 
-def test_get_staging_child_directory_gapic():
+def test_get_staging_child_directory_gapic_versioned():
     """
     Tests the behavior for GAPIC clients with standard 'v' prefix versioning.
     Should return only the version segment (e.g., 'v1').
@@ -1367,6 +1367,15 @@ def test_get_staging_child_directory_gapic():
     expected = "v1"
     assert _get_staging_child_directory(api_path, False) == expected
 
+def test_get_staging_child_directory_gapic_non_versioned():
+    """
+    Tests the behavior for GAPIC clients with no standard 'v' prefix versioning.
+    Should return library-py
+    """
+    api_path = "google/cloud/language"
+    expected = "language-py"
+    assert _get_staging_child_directory(api_path, False) == expected
+
 
 def test_get_staging_child_directory_proto_only():
     """
diff --git a/.librarian/state.yaml b/.librarian/state.yaml
index 256b364b7607..8b67bca9500c 100644
--- a/.librarian/state.yaml
+++ b/.librarian/state.yaml
@@ -1569,6 +1569,7 @@ libraries:
       - scripts/client-post-processing
       - samples/snippets/README.rst
       - tests/system
+      - tests/unit/gapic/common/test_common.py
     remove_regex:
       - packages/google-cloud-common
     tag_format: '{id}-v{version}'