Warning: This story contains boyxboy and naturally some OOC-ness. It also contains the ships SinJu (Sinbad x Judal) which is the main couple of the story, EnJu (Kouen x Judal), JuHaku (Judal x Hakuryuu) and SinJa (Sinbad x Ja'far).
I apologize in advantage for every spelling mistake, this is written with my iPad, also English is not my mother tongue and I have tried to correct every error I could find but of course I cannot promise that all are gone. Please overlook it if you may see one?

The night had fallen over the Empire and the autumn leaves glowed slightly in the dark while the red and brown leaves blended in with the darkness and disappeared into the shadows. Still, even though this night was very chilly and evidence of that the winter nights were soon to come, the dark magi would not move away from the spot he been sitting on since the afternoon that day. The cold did not bother him that much, as he had a lot to think about, about things that had not even once bothered him before but now had been on his mind for the whole day. It was frustrating, he had to admit, to be so occupied with thoughts of things that had not bothered him even once before in his life. This caused his rukh, seem even more blacker than usually, if possible, a very dark and deep shade of black. The clearest sign of weakness in him, which he still loved.
Anybody who had tried to approach him was immediately pushed away by him as he did not feel like socializing with any of them that one day. Of course, they found it strange since Judal usually did the talking for most but this very day he hardly even looked at them, which they found weird and some a bit worrying. However despite the concerns of some, they allowed him to sit alone and sort his own thoughts out without the help of anybody else.
All that had been on his mind, was the words of one king whom he was very familiar with, Sinbad, the high king of the seven seas. Why would he not want to conquer the world together with him? This angered him a lot, as Sinbad was one of the few people he really longed to be with, to be able to stand tall by his side, as his magi and not as the magi of the Kou Empire. Not that it mattered much anyway, this country was strong and fierce, with many dungeon conquerors and he had many king vessels. The Kou Empire had grown very strong and this fact was well known to the other countries and Judal was very happy, no, overwhelmed to be its Magi.
Besides, he did find the people here interesting and fun.
Especially Kouen and Hakuryuu interested him but..

They were not him. They did not look at him the way that he did. He was a tricky person, somebody who was unpredictable, somebody with a huge distaste for this very magi but still would care for him when he could see all of the pain he had suffered through. It was weird whenever he saw compassion in those amber colored eyes, empathy directed towards to him, though even though it was indeed something he found rather weird, it gave him this warm feeling of happiness. However, Sinbad had his eyes on somebody else, with hair as white as snow instead of his black and beautiful long hair. He envied and hated that very man to the bottom of his heart.

What was it that he had, which Judal himself lacked? Probably many different things but he wanted to know what it was that made him so much more special than a depravity fallen magi. Magis are amazing creatures, he had been taught that, while Ja'far was only Sinbad's household member.
He was not nearly as special as he was and the black Magi was almost certain that he would never be.

Jealousy.

He had seen them, doing things he had never heard about, nor had experienced himself even once in his life. Their lips had been tightly pressed against the other's and they would keep going until their lips had gone swollen, then, Sinbad would hold the other male so protectively in his arms and then they would fall asleep together, just like that and there was nothing more to it, simple as it was, it made Judal envy the general. Why was it Ja'far who Sinbad held in his arms? Why was it not him? Sometimes he would close his eyes and imagine that the man who stood by his side was not that man but himself, even though he knew that this was not possible, it gave him comfort, if only a little but enough to face the king in fights and pretend that he did not feel all of these silly things for him, which indeed had developed into a huge problem for the Magi lately, it hurt him worse than any other type of pain that he had experienced and physical pain at least vanished at some point but this sorrow of his engulfed his heart and it was rather persistent.

"Judal, what are you doing out here?" a deep and dark voice asked, it was not hard for the dark haired man to guess who it belonged to, in fact, he recognized it very well.
"Kouen." was all Judal had to say to him as a reply, not really sure about what to tell him since he could obviously not tell this man that he had been thinking about the king of another country, the whole day.
"You'll catch a cold." said the now identified man to the dark magi, watching his back.
"I couldn't sleep.." said the dark magi, which was not a lie since it was partly his reasons for staying outside.
"And why is that?" Kouen sighed and walked up to him, even though he was well aware of that the person those crimson red orbs belonged to, did not wish for any company this one night and would rather have him leave him alone.

Judal looked up at the man who stood next to him, slightly irritated that he would not respect his wishes but he was not in the mood to argue, at least not with Kouen. He was his one favorite king vessel, a rather amazing man to be honest and very strong. Since Kouen was the conquerer of not only one dungeon but three, he was his next choice. It was okay to not be able to have Sinbad, if it was Kouen he'd get instead.

"I asked you a question since I care about your well being. Now answer." said Kouen with a stern look.
"Do you usually know why you're unable to sleep?" Judal sighed and hugged his knees, even though he was very well aware of what, or more like who it was that kept him awake this cold autumn night.

Once again, the thoughts went back to the king, rather annoying if you asked the magi but right now he was not able to control his own mind, it just kept drifting away and told him to think about the king of Sindria, like he already had for an entire day. He was aware of that Kouen went on and on about something which at the moment seemed so very unimportant to him, because he couldn't hear him, he couldn't make himself listen to the words that he spoke, even though he tried to.
Then the magi happened to have a slip of tongue and said the name of the king that has haunted his thoughts as well as dreams, since he really wanted to hear it, even if it was for just one more time.

"Sinbad."

Not only Kouen was surprised about this, Judal was too but only he knew already that the name has been on the tip of his tongue for quite a while now. However, he was indeed shocked to know that he dared to say his name in front of Kouen out of all people, at least in this way.

"What about him?" asked Kouen and raised one of his eyebrows, it was clear to the magi that he would not let him ignore this question. "Is that man the reason why you can't sleep?"
".. I.." Judal sighed and decided to not hide it from him. "Yes."
"Oh? Why?" he said and looked down at the dark magi who sat curled up by his side.
"I don't know! I can't think of anything else but him!" said Judal and it was clear to the first prince of Kou Empire that he was upset about this. "Him and his advisor!"

At first he was surprised to hear this but as he was told this, he started to understand the full picture of what was actually going on and it made him shake his head and sigh but he was not disappointed with the magi,
Of course, everyone falls in love at some point in their lives, it's natural, of course even this childish person who did not even know what it actually was that he was feeling, would too.
He had as well, the only difference was that it had been a girl and her status had not even been near the one of the High King of the Seven Seas.

"Does it hurt when you think about him?" Kouen asked and continued when the young magi nodded. "Where?"
"In here." replied Judal and placed his hand on his chest, over his beating heart. "I want it to disappear."
"Do you want me to help you make it disappear?" asked Kouen.
"Yes."

His head was spinning and his body ached.
This was not what he had meant when he told Kouen to help him make the pain and suffering disappear from his heart. To be honest, he did not even know himself what he had meant but..
It was not this. Whatever this was.
He wanted to be with Sinbad, not with Kouen but right now that was the man he was looking at and nobody else.
Why?

"This was not what I wanted." his whisper was very faint but loud enough for the red haired man to hear what he said.
"I know but it's what I wanted." said he coldly and got dressed in his clothes that lay piled up next to the Magi's bed.

Judal watched the prince get up from the bed and leave the room, a wave of hopelessness seemed to wash over him and wrap around him like a cold, gloomy blanket as he left him there. This didn't help him at all, as it only made his heart hurt more and he sought comfort from the pillows in many different colors that lay on his bed, Judal hugged them tightly in his arms, against his naked chest.
He did not like these type of feelings that had taken a huge place in his heart, he felt so horribly pathetic right now and the anxiety had risen and not disappeared like Kouen promised that he would help him with but instead he took advantage of him.
'Stop' had the Magi told the prince so many times, he felt humiliated and used when he was weak, the shame was nearly unbearable when he thought about what had previously happened. This was the first time for weeks that he didn't think about the king in Sindria.
Because he felt too ashamed when he did.

"How could I allow myself to fall this low?"

At the same time, at a place far away, where a very special king that has already been mentioned many times lived, the glasses were held high and huge amounts of wine was used up that night.
What seemed like an endless amount of food, was served around to the citizens of Sindria that were present at this time, the music was upbeat and the dancers moved their bodies to the beat of the drums.
The night was chilly and colder than it had been during the summer but the king, had of course not canceled the festival for this cause, they would enjoy themselves no matter the temperature and weather, which they had been very lucky with since the night was clear and starry, the slightly colder temperature did not matter to them at all.
Slowly a white haired man walked up to the king that watched over his citizens while they were having a great time.

"Sin." whispered Ja'far into the king's ear as he stood next to him.
"Yes?" replied Sinbad and looked at his general as he took his chin in his hand, studying his face. "What is it, Ja'far?"
"You have not taken a single sip from your wine tonight. Are you feeling well?" asked Ja'far with a stern look on his face, ignoring the king's touch.
"Yes, I'm fine. Don't worry." said the purple haired man and turned back to look at his people.

Ja'far sighed and clearly didn't believe his king's words, since as he looked at him, he could easily tell that something was very wrong with Sinbad but he didn't quite understand why, their current political status should not be a bother to him and there had been no threat from a country.
'Perhaps it might be the Kou Empire.' Ja'far pondered as he watched him in silence. 'If so, this is not the right moment to ask him about it.'
The general sighed once more and nodded at him, then left him with "Alright".

Sinbad noted Ja'far's withdrawal but he didn't pay much attention to it, lately, he had started to feel a distance towards him, a distance that he did not like. Because up until now, he had always been the one closest to him and to know that their relationship faded away to nothing was troubling for him and he started to regret many things because of this.
Perhaps it was because he had confessed his feelings to his general and best friend, causing their relationship to take one step forward and this is what he got for it.
He could not have described the happy feeling in his heart that he got when he found out that Ja'far returned his feelings for him but now he didn't feel just as happy about it anymore. Maybe he just was a man incapable of loving somebody that way for very long and secretly, in the darkest depths of his mind preferred a type where you did not feel anything for the other, no emotions or complicated feelings involved in it all.
Or perhaps it was because a certain person always ran through his mind, every day, every hour and every time that he closed his eyes to fall asleep.
It was an obsession with one person that he did not want to think about even once, he hated his guts and he just knew that this was not love.
This was something dark, that he craved in the back of his mind, to posses something so strong and evil, it had to do with pride, to be able to hold something so incredibly special and it also had to do with power. To have something like him by his side, something so dangerous and dark.
It would turn Sinbad into a very powerful man, he had reached this conclusion a few days back when he experienced another sleepless night thinking about the arrogant Magi.

Judal.
He could turn him into a powerful and feared man but also loved by his country.
Together they could easily conquer the world.

Sinbad shook his head and scolded himself for even considering this idea, power was not what he was after, all he wanted was to create a peaceful country where people could live safely and happily altogether, without having to starve but it was so hard to ignore this offer when Judal kept giving it to him over and over again. He was only a human after all and mankind tend to grasp after more and more power whenever they had the chance, it was completely natural for him to think this since he already was a powerful man.
'I won't be like the other kings.' Sinbad thought to himself. 'I can't be as human as they are.'
And with that thought in mind, Sinbad decided to withdraw for the night, leaving his wine behind, untouched.