full disclosure I'm running out of pre-written chapters...I gotta get back to writing soon or I am not gonna be able to keep up with this weekly update thing XD anyway, I hope you enjoy this one! there's more cute and the beginnings of another magical problem~

also, thank you to everyone who reads and comments! it really brightens my day ;w;


"You're late," Judal says, sounding more surprised than annoyed, and maybe a little gleeful. "I didn't know that was possible."

Hakuryuu sets a box in front of him. "I was making something for you."

"...what?" Judal pokes the box, obviously confused. This wasn't the answer he expected, but Hakuryuu doesn't blame him for it; he's not one for surprises.

"It's just something little," he amends, now a little worried. What if this was a stupid idea? Judal can be so difficult to predict, but he expected him to like gifts at the very least. "I didn't mean to be late."

Judal pulls the lid off and smiles widely. "Did you make me sweets?"

"They're peach hand pies," he explains. "Since you like peaches so much, I-",

"I love them," Judal interrupts before shoving one in his mouth. It's not a very attractive look, but Judal's excitement somehow makes it cute anyway. "Holy shitballs, this is delicious. What the fuck."

Judal gives the most interesting compliments, that's for sure. "Thank you," Hakuryuu says. "I'm glad you like them.

"How do you bring a boring ass salad every day when you can make this?" Judal sounds incredulous.

"I don't bring salad every day."

"You know what I mean," he says, grabbing another pastry. "But seriously, these are amazing. Thank you."

"You're welcome," he says. "I thought they'd be the sort of thing you'd like."

"I do." Judal's practically glowing, he looks so happy. "You spoil me."

"Maybe I shouldn't," Hakuryuu tells him, trying to joke. There's something here, something different than usual, or maybe it's becoming the usual between them, but he can't quite put his finger on it.

Judal laughs, getting crumbs everywhere. "Don't stop now. I want more fruity things!"

"Aren't you fruity enough already?" he asks, and Judal pauses to stare at him. Did he push it too far? There's a second where Hakuryuu begins to feel sick with worry, and then Judal laughs even louder. He has to put his last bite of pie down from how much he's laughing, and Hakuryuu realizes he worried for nothing.

"You are- oh god, I can't stop laughing," Judal tries to say, but has to take a moment to compose himself. "You're right, I am fruity, but I need you to feed me sweets anyway."

Hakuryuu settles on smiling at him. "I'll consider it. But I have some work to do."

"I dunno, maybe I need to reevaluate your position here. I might need a personal dessert chef instead of someone who does all my paperwork." Judal pauses, looking thoughtful. "No, wait. I hate doing paperwork. I guess you can keep your job."

"Then let me go do it," he says, and Judal gestures towards the office door.

"I'm keeping all these, though," Judal declares, clutching his box of peach pastries.

Hakuryuu leaves him to his sweets and gets to work. There's still some backlog that needs to be put into the digital archive, but it's not a pressing issue. He's mostly worried about the day to day paperwork for now, since Judal is insistent that he can and should study magic at work.

Judal leaves him be for a good while, probably because he's busy with customers, but eventually he comes in to interrupt Hakuryuu's magic practice.

"Something's wrong," he says vaguely.

Hakuryuu frowns. "I'm sure I've got this spell right," he disagrees.

"What? No, you're fine. I just can't get a hold of one of my private buyers," Judal clarifies. "They were supposed to come by a few days ago to see some stuff I got in, but they didn't. And now they're unreachable."

"Maybe they're just busy."

"Maybe." Judal sounds unconvinced. "I'm also missing a small order of magical items."

Hakuryuu turns, now somewhat concerned. "Shipments can be delayed, but I have us signed up for notifications from most shipping companies. I take it you've looked into it already?"

Judal nods. "So I'm worried."

"Any ideas?"

"Not yet! But we kicked serious booty with Dunya, so we can figure it out together." Judal shoots him an overly confident grin. "Especially since you've been picking up magic so quickly!"

"I- I mean, I guess I have been? I feel like I've been taking too long," Hakuryuu admits. "But you really don't have any leads?"

"Nope! But I'll see what I can dig up," Judal says, and flits off to do just that.

x・x・x

"This is hard," Judal declares, sighing dramatically. "Why do so many people have complaints about shipments getting lost?"

Hakuryuu raises an eyebrow. "Either the postal service is very inefficient, or people like to be angry about the most minor delays."

"I guess," he says. "I could call up who I ordered from, but it's not like I can get a replacement."

"You could see if anyone else had items go missing," Hakuryuu suggests, and Judal grins at him.

"You're so helpful," he says happily.

"I just take the time to think."

"I think," Judal argues, but he's still smiling. "But whatever, I'll take your advice."

Hakuryuu hands him a stack of papers. "These are for you. I looked up the local missing persons reports for the past few weeks. Maybe you'll recognize someone."

"You really do think of everything," he says, pleased, and takes them from Hakuryuu. Judal sets the stack on the desk and leans over, poring through the sheets. He smells like incense and fruit, and it's become so familiar that Hakuryuu's surprised it still seems...exciting, in its own way. He's almost too close, but that's just how Judal is around him now: touchy and rude and a surprisingly good friend.

Judal stops, pondering a page and tapping the picture. "I think I know this guy. He used to come in looking for magical trinkets, but I haven't seen him recently." He frowns, going through more pages. "This girl, I ran into her once. She was covering up some spell."

As Judal looks through them, Hakuryuu tries to find any sort of similarity between them. Other than recognizing a few of them, there doesn't seem to be a pattern. He makes sure to put the ones Judal recognized aside, and Judal looks more and more upset as the pile grows.

"I don't like people, but I also don't want them all to go missing," he says tightly, and then pauses to catch himself. "I'm losing business here, you know," he amends, forcing everything but annoyance from his voice.

"Everyone you recognized was magical in some way, right?"

He nods. "I don't remember mundane people as well." There's a lull, where they're both thinking this over, and it while it could be coincidence, it also could be the one thing tying them together.

"Fuck," Judal says eloquently.

"Do you think anyone else on the list is magical?" Hakuryuu asks, going back to the rejected pages.

"Well it's not like there's a fuckin' registry somewhere. But yeah. Probs." Judal then eyes Hakuryuu up. "Shit, you're a weenie! If something's going after magical people, you won't stand a chance."

"Thanks for your confidence."

"I'm being realistic," he says, frowning. "Bluh."

"We don't know if that's the issue," Hakuryuu reminds him. "It could just be a coincidence."

"But it also could be the problem," Judal argues. "I'm gonna go look up some shit. Watch the store." And he's gone, flitting off into the depths of the store.

He'd be more upset if this wasn't usual Judal behavior. Hakuryuu takes the papers to the office, making sure to keep them separated, and then heads back out front. It ends up being busy, and he loses track of how long Judal's been gone until he needs his help. He's still not allowed to price magical items on his own, and of course he has a customer trying to buy something.

"Judal," he calls into the back, hoping he's listening.

"Coming, coming," Judal's voice sounds distant, but he pushes through the curtain and emerges from the back almost instantly. He's got an ancient looking tome with him, and he shoves it in Hakuryuu's hands. He's all composed shopkeeper again, pleasant and just a little strange looking, and Hakuryuu is reminded of how different he really is when they're alone.

When it becomes obvious that this customer is going to take awhile, Hakuryuu takes the book into the back office. It's similar to his spellbooks, but it's labeled differently. He sits down to flip through it until Judal is done. It's older Chinese, and he frowns at some of the confusingly archaic language. However, it's full of illustrations to go with the rich descriptions of magical creatures, and Hakuryuu slowly works his way through it.

"Find something interesting?" Judal asks softly, right in his ear, and Hakuryuu still can't figure out how he moves so silently with all the jewelry on.

"The book itself is," Hakuryuu says, and Judal leans in closer to inspect it.

"If you want to read it later, you can. But I need it for now," he says, tapping it.

"Doing some research?" Hakuryuu asks, moving to let Judal sit down.

"Trying to see if anything around here eats magic," he says, turning the chair around to sit in what looks like the most uncomfortable way possible. "Lemme know if you need help out front."

Judal's still in the back office when Hakuryuu closes up for the night, hunched over his book, and barely waves when he says goodbye.

x・x・x

The next morning, Judal greets him with a sleepy looking smile. "You brought me coffee?"

"I had a feeling you wouldn't sleep last night," he explains, pressing a cup into Judal's waiting hands.

"You know me so well," he says, sounding very touched, if a bit tired. "My hero."

There are a few peaches in the office, strewn across the desk with some messy papers. Judal's handwriting is nearly impossible to decipher, so he hopes there's been some progress.

Judal takes a long sip of coffee and sighs. "Oh, it's so perfect, I could kiss you," he says happily, and Hakuryuu feels a fluttering in his stomach. He's not sure if he wants Judal to be kidding or not, and that's the confusing part.

"Anyway, I did find some shit," he says. "Did you bring breakfast?"

Hakuryuu snaps to attention. "Um, wh- yeah, just one donut though. Sorry, I wasn't sure how awake you'd be."

Judal sighs dramatically. "You're forgiven, but only because you're so cute. Gimme gimme!"

He hands it over. "Did you sleep at all?"

"I considered sleeping," he says, dodging the question. "I found a few things that eat magic, but nothing native. So we're gonna have to go investigating!"

"Not today," Hakuryuu says, and Judal deflates. "There's a shipment coming in today, remember?"

"I sure fuckin' didn't," he admits, laughing. "Thanks. You're really looking out for me."

"I am trying."

"I know, I said thank you!" Judal stretches. "I'm gonna take this coffee and go...get dressed...since you're here and all."

"Don't take too long," Hakuryuu requests, and Judal makes a vague noise of agreement as he leaves.

It's a slow morning again leaving Hakuryuu free to do yesterday's paperwork and sign for the order with minimal interruptions. Just as he's worrying that Judal fell asleep, he saunters in, dressed and made up perfectly again. He does look a bit washed out, though.

"Still tired?" Hakuryuu asks.

Judal shakes his head but fails to hide a yawn. "I guess a little."

"Your order is here," he tells Judal, gesturing towards the office door.

"Yaaaaay," he says. "I don't even know what it is."

Hakuryuu somehow avoids sighing. "Some small stuff from an estate sale that you found online. Nothing feels too magical."

"Boo. Well, whatever, I guess it'll work. People buy dumb crap all the time." Judal joins him behind the counter to glance at the packing list, leaning slightly on Hakuryuu as he does. "Fuck, I'm tired."

"You do look pretty rundown."

"Wow, thanks," he says sarcastically. "Why didn't the coffee save me?"

Hakuryuu looks over at him. "When did you last sleep?"

Judal shrugs. "Who knows!"

"There's your answer."

"Sounds fake. Sleep is for other people," he says, yawning again.

"Judal…"

He whines and rests his head on Hakuryuu's shoulder. "I guess I'll try to get some sleep tonight. It's not like I can go to bed now."

"Well, if you'd teach me how to price magical items, I could cover for you," he says, but it feels nice to have Judal resting on him. He's not sure he wants to move.

"You already do all my important business paperwork and shit, if I teach you anything else you'll really be able to run off with my store."

"How would I run away with a physical store?"

"Dunno. But you could. I gotta keep some secrets!"

Hakuryuu reaches over and ruffles his hair, and Judal practically purrs. "You just make it up every time."

"Shh, that's the secret," Judal says, bumping his head into Hakuryuu's hand again.

"Spoiled brat," he says, but he pets Judal's head anyway. It's nice, having a quiet afternoon with Judal by his side, and he doesn't want to shove him away. But Judal eventually yawns and stands up.

"Where's the order?"

"I put it in the office," Hakuryuu says patiently, and Judal shuffles off to go inspect.

He leaves Judal to work and gets back to his own responsibilities. He's done with all the most pressing paperwork, so it's time to move onto magic again. He almost wishes he'd gotten the tome of magical monsters from Judal, but it's probably not the most efficient thing to focus on. For now, Hakuryuu wants to get better at casting stronger spells, though focusing on just life magic has helped him.

After awhile, he realizes that he hasn't heard any sound from the office recently, and he's a little concerned. It isn't like Judal to be so quiet.

"Judal?" he asks, knocking on the office door. When he doesn't answer, Hakuryuu opens the door, only to find Judal asleep at the desk and the order barely touched. He shakes his head, unsurprised.

"Hey," he says, slightly shaking his shoulder. Judal jerks and stares at him, trying to blink sleep out of his eyes. "Do you want to be sleeping?"

"I wasn't sleeping," he argues, voice still scratchy from just waking up.

"Yes, you were."

"Noooo," Judal whines. "Get me more coffee, I'm fine."

"Are you going to watch the store, or am I going to come back to find you sleeping on the register?" Hakuryuu asks.

"You're a bully," Judal tells him, stretching. "I'm not closing early so I can nap," he says, and the last word sounds like poison.

"I'm not going to disagree, but-"

"Besides, you have to sleep here too," Judal interrupts.

Hakuryuu stares at him. Did he hear him wrong? "What?"

"I was thinking. Something's out there eating magical people or something, and you're a magical person with no experience defending yourself."

"I suppose this is true. So you want to protect me?" he asks, still thinking it over.

"Yep! I guess we can close up and go get stuff from your place," Judal says cheerfully.

Hakuryuu frowns. "But I thought you didn't want to close early."

"This is actually important!"

"I guess…"

"It is. I'm trying to help." Judal smiles up at him before forcing himself to stand up. "And I always like seeing your fancy apartment."

"Speaking of that, where am I going to sleep at your place?" Hakuryuu asks, thinking back to the mess of Judal's home.

Judal glances over his shoulder, already on his way out of the office. "Obviously, we're gonna cuddle."

Hakuryuu freezes, and he can feel his face turning red. What does Judal mean by that? He should have some sort of comeback, since this is probably a joke, but he's stuck on the image of curling up with Judal. The silence stretches, and he's sure it's awkward, until Judal laughs.

"Nah, I'm kidding. I've got that spare room, remember?"

"Oh. Right," he says, composing himself and following Judal out. "I remember how messy it was."

Judal waves a hand. "I can clean it up for you, don't worry so much."

One trip to Hakuryuu's apartment later, he's wondering why they shut down for the evening. Judal is full of energy, practically vibrating on the way up the stairs to his home.

"So, we can watch a movie if you want. I've got Netflix," Judal says, like it's a novel invention. "And I've got popcorn and ice cream for movie snacks, and I think some candy…"

"The spare room?" Hakuryuu asks, trying to keep Judal on task.

He sighs dramatically. "Okay, okay, we can be boring and clean that first. But now we have to watch something as a reward."

Somehow, there's even more stuff in the spare room than before. "Are these the boxes from the last time I was over?"

"Uh, maybe?" Judal says guiltily.

"Why?"

"Because I have problems cleaning, okay? And I sleep through my days off sometimes, so then I just never get around to it."

Hakuryuu shakes his head and puts him to work breaking down boxes while he sorts through the rest of the mess. Thankfully, it's mostly old papers and trash, so it goes faster than he expected, and soon they've unearthed the futon. The room even looks brighter, since they found a lamp under a pile of dirty clothes, and Hakuryuu set it up.

"Wow, I can't believe we made this livable," Judal says, looking pleased.

"And you promised I could sleep here," he reminds Judal, who just grins back at him.

"I had faith in your ability to save my messy ass. Come on, what kind of movie do you wanna watch?"

Hakuryuu follows him out into the living room and frowns at the mess. "You know, we could clean up in here, too. It would be a lot nicer."

Judal's expression drops. "What? No, you can't be that cruel."

"Well, you can put on a movie, but I'm going to at least pick up all the trash," Hakuryuu says, and Judal grumpily goes off to the kitchen to get more trash bags.

He plops down on the floor and starts dejectedly putting old take out containers in a bag. "I guess I'll help, then."

"Thank you," Hakuryuu tells him, and between the two of them they get all the trash bagged up. Judal draws the line on taking it all out to the dumpster, though, so Hakuryuu drags a promise out of him that they'll do it in the morning.

Movie decision time is hard with Judal, since their tastes don't match up that much, but they eventually settle on last summer's superhero blockbuster.

"You can't hate fun this much," Judal whines, even after they've agreed on a movie.

"I don't hate fun. I just think we might have different tastes."

"Whatever," he says, plopping down on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn. "Sit with me!"

"I'm coming," Hakuryuu says, carefully avoiding the trash bags by the front door. He'd complain more about what a fire hazard they were if Judal's entire shop wasn't a huge one on its own.

Once on the couch, Judal somehow ends up right against him while he's getting the movie started. He stays cuddled against Hakuryuu, hogging the popcorn and running commentary, until he goes quiet. Hakuryuu glances over and realizes he's sleeping, head rested on his shoulder, and he can feel himself smiling fondly at him. Judal needs the sleep, so he leaves him be until the credits.

"W-what?" Judal says sleepily.

"You fell asleep again."

He looks confused. "I did not."

"The movie is over."

"Oh…" Judal trails off, like he's just now noticing the TV. "I guess you're right."

Hakuryuu waits for Judal to get up, slowly stretching and nearly knocking over the popcorn in the process. "I'm taking this to kitchen," he tells Judal, who just watches him go.

"Thanks," he says when Hakuryuu returns. "I'm pretty much a mess, huh?"

Hakuryuu sighs and smiles a little, not wanting to be too mean and agree. Even if it is sort of true. "For today, you can blame it on lack of sleep."

Judal returns Hakuryuu's smile with a crooked smile of his own. "If you say so."

Hakuryuu nods, not sure what else to say. It's late. Hakuryuu heads down the hall, hearing Judal one last time before he shuts the door.

"Goodnight, Hakuryuu."