Judal, that was the hobo's name.

He'd finally given it to Hakuryuu after they'd driven the forty-five minutes it took to get back into town and stopped both for McDonald's and to retrieve Judal's bags from the public park where he'd stashed them.

The man was a disgrace. Wandering the woods and leaving valuables in a park? He deserved the fate that Hakuryuu had planned for him. Worst of all, or perhaps best of all, he seemed blissfully unaware, and instead just chattered on and on about some inane subject Hakuryuu didn't care to listen to. How he could have ever been intimidated by this buffoon was a mystery to Hakuryuu. The drive back to his apartment couldn't be over quick enough.

"Hmm, nice digs," Judal said as he entered, glancing around at the furnishings. He stalked around the apartment like a new dog, experimentally peeking down the hall towards the bathroom and poking his head into the kitchen before jumping into the couch without even taking his shoes off. He grinned across the room at Hakuryuu, and it was all teeth. "I guess this'll do. What's for dinner?"

Dinner? Did this freeloader also expect him to prepare a meal for him? Every minute with this man made Hakuryuu more frustrated, ready to grind his teeth in annoyance. "This isn't a bed and breakfast."

"Yeah, I know that." Judal slung his feet up on the arm of the couch, finally kicking off his sneakers. They might have been nice once, but now they looked as ratty as the rest of his clothes. "If it were a bed and breakfast I'd be paying you." He fished in the pouch of his hoodie and pulled out a cellphone, wiggling it from side to side. "But you don't want me to go calling the cops or whatever, right? So I'd love some dinner. I can draw my own bath while you're doing that." Hakuryuu opened his mouth to protest, but Judal was already on his feet and vanishing down the hall, his thick braid swinging behind him.

The idea of that mongrel using his shower and dirtying his pristine bathroom made Hakuryuu see red, but for now it was best to play along, at least until he could separate Judal from his cellphone. Couldn't have him calling for any help. He could always clean the bathroom later, and besides, night wasn't that far off now.

Hakuryuu sighed and turned to busy himself in the kitchen. If he had to feed and house this Judal for a night to silence him then so be it. But what to feed him? Chicken, he decided. That was cheap. And no sense wasting effort or spices on that guy. A little salt, a little butter, cook it in a pan, serve it over vegetables and a bed of pasta with a simple cream sauce. It was the sort of meal that Hakuryuu could make in his sleep, and an enjoyable enough one for one night. He'd been making a conscious effort not to cop out on his meals because putting the effort into making good, enjoyable food always made him feel better, but he'd be fine with simple for one night.

Even though it was simple, cooking eased some of his stress. It was meditative almost, and as he watched the chicken sizzle in the pan he sorted out his plan for the evening. He'd feed Judal, make some small talk over dinner, and then hopefully Judal would go to sleep quickly. Then, once he was sure he was completely asleep, he'd stab him through the heart and-

No, no. Bad plan. That would make a mess. He'd strangle him to death in his sleep; that would be much easier to clean up. Hakuryuu flipped over the chicken and checked the timer on his pasta. It looked like he'd timed everything just about perfectly to be done all at once. Now here was just hoping that his rude house guest was as well timed.

"Mmm, nothing like a good shower."

Hakuryuu looked up from his cooking. "You're just in time. It's almost…." He felt his breath catch against his intentions. "It's almost ready."

Judal cleaned up distressingly well, and it pissed Hakuryuu off. He hadn't been unattractive before the shower, just shabby and a little dirty, but now his black hair shined and his braid was in perfect order, to say nothing of how his eye shadow made his red eyes pop. It was almost a shame to have to kill someone so attractive. Almost.

Hakuryuu pointed at the table. "Take a seat. I don't need you hovering over me while I cook."

Judal seemed to make a point of not doing as he was told and came up behind Hakuryuu to peer over his shoulder. He sniffed loudly in Hakuryuu's ear. "Mmm… looks good…" Judal reached over Hakuryuu to try and take a fingerful of sauce.

"Ah! Don't do that!" Hakuryuu batted his hand away with the rubber spatula. "Do you want to burn your finger off? Go sit at the table!" What an obnoxious man.

Judal laughed but did as he was told. "Very well, Mr. Murderer, I'll go sit and be a good boy."

Hakuryuu rolled his eyes and gripped the spatula tighter. Earlier statement retracted- it wouldn't be a shame to kill this man at all. He shut the timer off seconds before it was set to screech, removed the pasta from heat, and drained it over the sink. Finally, he tossed the whole affair together, threw some onto a pair of plates, and set it down on the table in front of Judal. Judal stared in wonder down at the plate and then back up at Hakuryuu. Ah. Right. Silverware. Hakuryuu got back up and retrieved knives and forks for the both of them.

"Here." Judal took the silverware offered, but the awed staring didn't stop. "What?" Hakuryuu said, a little rudely.

Judal slowly looked up at him with an astonished grin. "Damn, I lucked out! A free place to stay and my roommate can cook too? Almost like I died and went to heaven."

I wish, Hakuryuu nearly said. "I'm glad," he said instead, taking a bite of the food. "So tell me, Judal, why exactly are you homeless?"

Judal laughed again, digging into his food. "You're blunt, aren't you?" Hakuryuu opened his mouth to protest, but Judal cut him off with a wave of a fork. "It's fine. I like blunt. I don't have any need for pretty words or shit like that." Judal shoved his face full and kept talking. "But what were we saying? "

"Why did you need to stay here?"

"Right! It's cuz I'm new to the area. Just moved here from the east coast."

"Oh?" Hakuryuu could not believe his luck. If he really was new to the area, then it would be all the harder for him to be noticed as a missing person. No one will care when ends up dead.

"Oh yeah," Judal drawled. "This is delicious, by the way. Everyone always puts too much crap in their food, all those spices and stuff, but this is just like. Simple and perfect. Nothing nasty or weird and the veggies are easy to shove out of the way." As if to illustrate, Judal shoved a piece of broccoli aside. What a child.

"So why did you move out here?" Hakuryuu pushed further, trying to keep his chosen conversation going. He didn't really care, outside of whether or not someone would be looking for this guy, but showing interest would help Judal be less suspicious of his ill intentions.

"Oh, you know." Judal noisily slurped his pasta. "Escaping evil cults, running away from my dark past, the usual."

Hakuryuu felt the pit of his stomach drop out. Funny how often Judal seemed to be capable of making that happen. Still, the general setting was right. Was this man tied to his mother's cult? He racked his brain for everything he could remember from his research into Al Tharman and its members, but there was simply too much to recall. If he was tied to Al Tharman… He swallowed thickly. No. No, calm down. He couldn't let himself pan-

Judal broke into another bout of loud, raucous laughter. "Oh my god! You should see your face! Ah, and now you look so- pffff, hahaha!" Hakuryuu furrowed his brow. "Did you really believe that? Jeez, I was yanking your chain! Telling a joke! I'd think anyone could have seen that."

"I'm not good at jokes," Hakuryuu growled. That was the last straw, on top of all the other straws Hakuryuu had been collecting. This man died tonight.

Judal wiped a tear from his eyes, choking in his laughter. "Geez, you don't say! But that's fine! Pff- I like it. You're kind of a funny guy, Hakuryuu. It's endearing." He leaned back in his chair, letting the last of his laughter die down with a big, contented sigh that left a stupid smile on his face. "I think we're going to get along just fine."

x - x - x - x - x - x

Judal took forever to go to sleep, insisting first on more pasta and conversation, then on properly exploring every inch of the apartment, and finally forcing Hakuryuu into more mind numbing conversation that Hakuryuu faked his way through with appropriately timed grunts and mm-hms. It felt less like waiting for a victim to fall into his trap and more like babysitting a hyperactive child. Hakuryuu lay in bed, staring sleeplessly up at the ceiling and praying to whatever was out there that the silence in the living room meant that his unwelcome house guest had finally fallen asleep. Hakuryuu sat up. The apartment wasn't that large. He'd probably hear if Judal was still moving around.

Okay. Planning time.

Strangulation was the cleanest plan and, if he was lucky, the quietest too. Judal being asleep would give him enough of an edge that he could probably choke the life out of him before he woke up. And even if he did wake up, he'd probably be halfway to death by the time he was conscious enough to fight back. Hakuryuu quietly got up and walked over to his closet to remove the scarf his sister had knitted him two winters ago. He could just use his hands, yeah, but something about the idea of killing this guy himself seemed wrong. More dangerous.

Frightening.

Hakuryuu looped the ends around his hands a few times and snapped it taught as though to test it. Yes, the scarf would work.

Still, he'd feel safer with a knife anyway. Hakuryuu walked back over to his nightstand and pulled the drawer open to retrieve his knife. It was a simple hunting knife, and its weight was reassuring in his hands. He'd purchased it shortly after moving out here, before he'd even gotten his own place, and its presence in his nightstand had been a comfort on nights like this. Okay. He could do this. He'd done it a thousand times before.

Well, maybe not a thousand. But at least twenty or so.

Hakuryuu eased his door open and padded down the short bit of hallway to the living room. Judal lay curled on the couch, sleeping like a baby, his back to the rest of the room. Hakuryuu drew a deep breath. Time to do this. He crept close to the couch and gazed down at Judal. The knife at his belt was a reassurance and he reached to touch it for comfort.

"You know," Judal purred, his back still to Hakuryuu, "I might be a heavy sleeper, but you don't need to bust out the butcher knife to wake me up." Hakuryuu nearly jumped out of his skin. Dammit. Had he heard him coming?

"You..." Hakuryuu's hand closed on the hilt.

"Or is it that I'm that much of a bore as a house guest?" Judal made no move to get up from the couch as he lay there in the gloom, but as Hakuryuu looked closer he could see that his body was ready to spring into action at any second. "You don't want to do that, Hakuryuu."

Hakuryuu sucked in a breath and gripped his knife tighter. Fine. Strangulation was out, along with logic. He'd just stab the bastard to death and be done with it, get out all that pent up anger and frustration that being around Judal summoned up.

"You didn't kill me in the woods," Judal said. Perhaps now, and only now, the slightest waver went into his voice. "You didn't kill me out in the middle of nowhere with no witnesses. Why wait till now? Was it because you didn't want a struggle?" He finally sat up and looked back over at Hakuryuu, his eyes bright and wild. Hakuryuu resisted the urge to take a step backwards. "If you kill me here, I'll scream so loud I'll blow the whole fucking lid off your operation." As if he could smell Hakuryuu's fear, Judal's grin widened. "To say nothing of what I'll do to you if I get my hands on that knife."

Hakuryuu and Judal stared at each other in the lean light that filtered in from the kitchen window. The seconds ticked by like years, and finally, Hakuryuu released his grip on the knife and made an aggravated noise.

"I'm keeping you alive because I don't want trouble," he said, jabbing a finger at Judal. "But don't think for a second that I won't do away with you if you get in my way or try to breathe a word to the police."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Judal said, rolling his eyes as he laid back down. "I'll just sleep with one eye open and be a good little boy."

"Good."

It seemed anti-climactic to simply wish him goodnight, but it was just as awkward to stand there in the gloom and stare at Judal. Hakuryuu turned and started back down the hall to his bedroom.

"Good night, Hakuryuu," Judal called softly from the couch.