Judal's eyes narrowed at the peach hanging tantalizingly above his head. It was the closest one to him, at the very lowest point on the very lowest branch, and he still couldn't reach it even if he got right up on his toes and stretched his arm out as far as he could. He huffed in frustration. It wasn't fair. He just wanted the one peach, and it wasn't his fault he was still so small.
Fixing his gaze on his delicious target, Judal bent his knees, coiling himself up like a snake ready to strike, and leaped up at the peach. For a second, his fingertips almost brushed the fuzzy skin, but then gravity pulled him back down to the ground at the base of the tree. Undeterred, he got back into position and jumped again. This time he swung both hands at it, but once again he couldn't even touch it before landing in a heap in the grass. Judal glared up at the elusive fruit as he got back to his feet, rubbing his smarting elbow. No, this was not fair at all. Stupid peach! I just want to eat you!
"What seems to be the matter, Shinkan-dono?"
Judal jumped in surprise - he hadn't heard anyone coming - and looked up to see that the warm, friendly voice belonged to a young man he had seen before many times, but had never actually spoken with: Crown Prince Hakuyuu. It took the boy a moment to process what he had been asked before he could reply. "I...I want to try one of those peaches up there, but I can't reach that far. I can't even jump. I'm too small, and I don't know any Gravity Magic yet."
If he'd voiced this dilemma to Gyokuen, or one of the myriad veiled lackeys that looked after him when she couldn't be bothered to, they would probably have laughed and dismissed it as inconsequential. But Hakuyuu smiled at him, and said, "Well, I think I'm tall enough to reach them. I could get one for you if you like."
"No," Judal said, emphatically shaking his head. "I want to get it myself."
He was surprised when Hakuyuu responded by kneeling down. Princes weren't supposed to do that, were they? "If you don't want me to do it for you, then would you mind if I gave you a boost?" he said. When Judal just stared at him, not understanding, he explained: "You can sit on my shoulders, and grab your peach from there. It's okay, I won't let you fall. You want to?"
After a moment of deliberation, Judal decided that he did, and climbed carefully onto the prince's shoulders. "All right, I'm going to stand up now. Don't worry, I'm holding on to you."
Despite the reassurance, when he straightened up, Judal yelped in surprise and quickly wrapped his arms around Hakuyuu's head at the abrupt change in altitude, his eyes squeezing shut. But, he realized a moment later, that was unnecessary. True to his word, Hakuyuu held his legs tightly and securely, and he was perfectly safe, if around three feet higher in the air than he was used to being. Slowly, Judal opened his eyes, and found himself situated perfectly among the tree's middle branches, surrounded by plump, enticing peaches just begging to be plucked and devoured. A sound of excitement escaped him, and Hakuyuu laughed. "Go on, take your pick."
It didn't take Judal very long to glance around, locate the two biggest, juiciest-looking peaches, and grab them off the branch. "Okay, I've got them!"
More slowly than he had stood up, Hakuyuu bent down again and let the boy hop off of his shoulders. "Two peaches?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Didn't you only want one?"
"Yeah. This one's for you!" Judal said brightly, holding out the larger fruit to Hakuyuu.
The prince grinned. "Thank you, Shinkan-dono," he said as he accepted the gift, sitting down with his back against the tree trunk and taking a small bite. "It's good to be appreciated, isn't it?"
Sitting down next to his new companion, Judal was only half-listening, absorbed as he was in happily tearing into the sweet, juicy yellow flesh of his prize, but he nodded vigorously in answer. When he got around to swallowing, he smiled up at Hakuyuu. "These are really good! Thanks for helping me get them, Yuu-nii-san!"
"Nii-san, huh?" Hakuyuu looked at the young Magi contemplatively. "You know who you remind me of a little bit, Shinkan-dono?"
"You can call me Judal."
"Judal-kun," he amended. "You remind me of my youngest brother, Hakuryuu."
Judal cocked his head to the side. That was the one Ren sibling he happened to know personally, but were he and the eldest one thinking of the same person? "The crybaby?"
Hakuyuu almost choked on his bite of peach, and after managing to swallow it, bit his lip trying not to laugh. "Poor Hakuryuu! He tries so hard and that's his reputation?"
"I've seen him trying to train with the wooden starter weapons," Judal recalled. "He starts crying when he gets a move wrong too many times, but he doesn't let people help him do it right, and then he tries again and gets it wrong and cries again."
"He could probably get it right faster if he did let someone help, but he likes to do everything by himself. Like you, Judal-kun?"
He thought a moment. "I guess so. But I think he wants to be more like you and Ren-nii-san. When I see him he talks to me about you guys a lot."
"Does he?" Hakuyuu said, his interest sparked. "Tell me, Judal-kun, what do you think of my little brother? Even if he's stubborn sometimes, do you like him?"
Judal considered the question. He didn't dislike Hakuryuu, he was sure of that. The younger boy was enjoyable enough to watch, and though it didn't happen too often, it was fun when Gyokuen allowed them to play together. Hakuryuu wasn't anything like the stiff, boring, faceless people he usually spent all day with. He was special, somehow. (And the rukh seemed to agree with him, buzzing approvingly when the prince and the Magi got close). Yes, he liked Hakuryuu very much.
"He's my friend!" Judal declared.
Hakuyuu looked pleased by his answer. "That's good to hear. Hakuryuu's told me and Hakuren that he's quite fond of you, too."
Judal's eyes widened. "He does?" Hakuryuu would cheerfully go on and on about how great and how strong and how cool his big brothers were...Did he talk to them about Judal the same way? That did it, the next time they played a game, he was going to let Hakuryuu win. Just for once.
"That's right. You know, you should stay close to friends like Hakuryuu. You can put your trust in him, which is good. In a place like this palace, you have to be very careful who you trust. Not everyone is who they seem to be."
"That's a weird thing to say all of a sudden, Yuu-nii-san," said a fairly puzzled Judal. The prince's words sounded vaguely like a warning. Was he expecting something to happen? "Is there something wrong?"
"No...Not now." The faint apprehension he could see in Hakuyuu's eyes did not match his level, reassuring tone. "But if something ever does, in times like that you need to know who your real friends are, that will care for you and help you, instead of acting like they care just to use you. Hakuryuu's your friend? Then stick with him."
"Okay, I can do that," Judal readily agreed. "I think he needs all the friends he can get anyway, since he sticks to you and Ren-nii-san so much."
"I agree." Hakuyuu looked like he was about to say more, but was distracted by a sudden call of his name. He and Judal looked up to see Hakuren, standing at the edge of the orchard with a distinctly anxious look on his face.
"Aniue!" he shouted, waving his older brother over. "I think I just found something out; Mother's - " he broke off, glanced down at Judal, and then continued - "We have to go talk to Mother."
"Do we, now..." muttered Hakuyuu gravely, his hand brushing the hilt of the broadsword strapped to his hip. He stood up and called back to the younger prince, "All right, I'm coming!" He turned back to the little Magi at his side, who was looking up at him expectantly. "It was nice to talk with you, Judal-kun. You know, I think you're a good kid."
Judal grinned. "You're not so bad yourself, Yuu-nii-san!"
Hakuyuu smiled, and reached down to give Judal's hair an affectionate ruffle. "I hope I'll get the chance to see you again, Judal-kun," he said as he walked off to join his brother.
"I hope so, too!" Judal called after him, waving. He had made friends with Hakuryuu without even realizing it, but he thought he recognized his interaction with Hakuyuu for what it was: he had just made his second friend.
~0~
When he was returned to al-Thamen's domain later that evening, upon Gyokuen casually asking him how his day had gone Judal eagerly told her all about Hakuyuu and and how he'd helped him get his peach, sat down with him to eat, talked to him, and had been really, really nice. (He left out Hakuren's mention of her, out of a gut feeling that it wouldn't be a good thing to bring up). "Having a family seems nice. You're lucky Yuu-nii-san is your son," he informed Gyokuen.
"Mm, I suppose so." At the time, he hadn't understood the odd smile that had been playing at her lips, nor the amusement in her eyes.
Years later, he would be kicking himself for not seeing it coming, when barely a week later Prince Hakuyuu and Prince Hakuren burned to death in the fire, and Prince Hakuryuu lay in an infirmary bed, maimed and scarred and fighting to live with every breath. When a smiling Gyokuen told him what she had done, all Judal could think was that he would never get another chance to talk to Hakuyuu like the kind prince had wanted, that his only living friend was suffering horribly, and that there was not one single thing he himself could do about any of it. In all his life, he had never felt so utterly useless.
~0~
He had heard that it was supposed to be regal and imposing and such, a construction worthy of great royals, but Judal did not like the Ren family tomb at all. It was chilly and dark, lit only by rather weak torches on the walls, and being underground, encased in stone, made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. But still, he couldn't leave just yet. He hadn't been permitted to attend the funerals of Emperor Hakutoku and his eldest sons, so visiting their newly made graves was the least he could do.
It wasn't a long way to go down the halls until he came to a stop in front of the two marking stones he was looking for, one next to the other in front of their father's larger stone, both engraved with the names, dates of birth and death, and epitaphs of the two dead brothers. Judal looked first at the epitaphs, curious. Hakuren had chosen to be remembered by a play on his name: The purity of the white lotus will never be marred, even by the black sun. Hakuyuu, on the other hand, had gone with a traditional proverb: A wise man does not lose his way, a brave man does not fear.
Judal wondered if the young warrior had been afraid anyway, as the flames consumed him and his brother.
"Uh..." He knew he ought to be saying something - that was how people paid their respects to the dead, right? - but he was drawing a blank as to what, exactly. "I...I'm really sorry that you guys are dead. I don't think you deserved that. Not at all."
It felt strange to be speaking to cold, empty air. But he had seen al-Thamen's priests speaking to beings that weren't visibly there many times before, with full conviction that said being could hear them. So it stood to reason that maybe Hakuyuu and Hakuren could hear him too, from wherever dead people were.
"Yuu-nii-san, you would have made a pretty good emperor, even if the organization didn't think so. Much better than that pig emperor, that's for sure." Judal wrinkled his nose in disgust. "I don't get how that guy is related to all of you. I guess his kids are okay, but your mother and everyone else keep trying to make me like them more than I do, especially Prince Kouen. I think they want me to pick one of them as my king candidate. But I don't want any of them," he said with a shake of his head. "I want Hakuryuu the most! But nobody even knows if he's going to live..." He had to fight to keep his voice from breaking. "He's hurt really bad and he hasn't woken up for weeks, not even when I visited him."
If Hakuryuu had, Judal knew, then technically he should become the next emperor, as the only surviving son of Hakutoku. But he also knew that Gyokuen and al-Thamen would never let him take the throne out of their control. They hadn't intended for him or Hakuei to survive the fire, after all. And he seriously doubted that voicing his newly formed opinion that Hakuryuu should be his king candidate would make them very happy.
"But I don't care," Judal said defiantly, clenching his small fists. "Hakuryuu is my friend. I like him better than anyone else. I'm not going to forget what you told me, Yuu-nii-san. I'm going to stick close to Hakuryuu, and make him a great king like you would have been. I bet he really is the only person I can trust."
Full of renewed determination, Judal turned and started out of the tomb. "I'll come visit you again, Yuu-nii-san, Ren-nii-san. I'm going to go and see Hakuryuu now!"
~0~
The six-year-old prince didn't look much better than the last time Judal had come to see him. Hakuryuu looked awfully tiny and vulnerable in a bed that was too big for him, in all those billowy white sheets, his breathing weak and shaky and his soft skin ruined by ugly, angry-looking burn scars. Judal wondered with some trepidation what the boy's reaction would be when he woke up and got a good look at what had been done to him.
"Because you will wake up," Judal murmured, curling up tighter into himself on his usual chair by Hakuryuu's bedside. The prince was as unresponsive as his brothers' gravestones, but talking to him was a little better. He was still alive, at least. "You're going to stay alive and you're going to wake up soon and then you're going to get back to training and become strong enough to kill anyone who tries to hurt you again. You have to. I'm older and I'm a Magi and I say so, so you have to. I won't let anything like this happen ever again."
The nurses had told him that the chances Hakuryuu could hear him were slim to none, in the state he was in, but that meant that there was still a chance. And these were the sort of things that he Judal wanted him to hear, but didn't think he would ever actually say so openly to him if he were fully aware.
"I'm going to make sure you get strong, Hakuryuu," Judal promised, his voice barely a whisper. "And then no matter what anyone tries to tell me, I'll make you my king."
~0~
A/N - I think there should be more fanfic about Hakuyuu and Hakuren. They're very interesting side characters, even for how little they appear, and I like to think about how nice it must have been for little Hakuryuu when they were still alive.
And then the last twenty chapters of the manga happen and Hakuyuu is yelling from the Great Flow of Rukh, "No, no, no, that's not what I meant for you guys to do at all!" while Hakuren cries in the background. Lu Ten from Avatar: The Last Airbender offers them drinks and comfort ("It's okay, guys, you should hear what my little cousins have been doing now that I'm not there to help them get along!"). Truth be told, I needed to write something somewhat lighthearted after chapter 260.