Monday mornings were always substantially more lax than any other morning of the week in Judal's apartment. Nothing special happened on Monday mornings, in fact that was sort of the point; nothing much happened on Monday at all. Because as Judal put it; who the hell would force themselves to do anything on a Monday?

In the past this meant that Judal started his day at least an hour or two late, sometimes longer if he was really tired. He would roll out of bed and shuffle around his apartment until he felt functional enough to make himself a meal, flop down in front of the television for a few hours, and then do whatever else he wanted until it was time to go to sleep. If he wanted to stay up late, he could, or he could fall into bed early and get a blissful ten hours of sleep before his first class on Tuesday.

Lately, Mondays had been all about big breakfasts and an excess of time in Hakuryuu's company. They had a routine; they would both wake up whenever they wanted, though usually Hakuryuu was up before Judal, and wait for the other to be awake to start doing anything besides lazing about. Once Judal was up, he would pad his way out into the living room and settle himself down next to Hakuryuu for a half hour or so after brewing himself a cup of tea.

Hakuryuu kept him company, sometimes in silence or with light conversation until Judal was awake enough to operate a stove. ( Sometimes Judal dozed off again, head on Hakuryuu's shoulder, and the prince would let him snooze a little while. ) Usually, breakfast was the prince's choice, since it was the day Judal had the most time to cook. Breakfast foods were standard, but one week it had been takeout at ten AM from a mildly confused looking delivery boy. This had been the week Judal had introduced his guest to the concept of pizza.

On this Monday, Hakuryuu had requested pancakes. Judal made an excessively large batch as an excuse to use as many of the mixed berries sitting in his fridge as possible. There were raspberries and blackberries, blueberries and mulberries, all of them plucked fresh just two days before from the courtyard below. Hakuryuu kept sneaking into the kitchen to snatch the berries before they made it to the batter, and Judal had to threaten him with his spatula more than once.

The morning was cheerful and easy, and outside the apartment walls the day was appropriately beautiful. Once the pancakes were done they loaded up several plates and migrated from the kitchen and out the front door. Hakuryuu almost went for the window, as he was want to do these days, but Judal made a fuss about jumping out of windows with a plate of pancakes, so he followed him down the stairs instead.

The courtyard was blissfully empty when they got there, and they settled onto the warm concrete in between two planters to eat. Butter and honey were passed back and forth between them as they stuffed themselves with berry pancakes, and their tongues were purple by the time they were done.

Satisfied and full of that lazy post-meal contentment, they each settled themselves into their preferred spots in the courtyard. Judal wound up cross legged on the bench by the door, nursing his mug of tea, while Hakuryuu wandered between the planters examining his garden.

"So I was thinking," Judal said. "About those flowers you gave me. Those weren't part of the whole debt repayment thing, right?"

Hakuryuu glanced over his shoulder at his host, hand still feeling along a twisted branch on a young sapling.

"No, those were just an apology." he replied, frowning and looking back at the plant.

"That's what I figured."

There was a brief pause during which Hakuryuu seemed to find something amiss with the sapling. He muttered to himself before pinching the branch between two fingers and feeding magic into it. Judal watched as it slowly began to straighten out and regain some of its color before speaking again.

"I've got an idea to run by you."

"Oh? Concerning what?"

"About you repaying me and stuff. You made an oath, so you have to do it, right?"

"I do." Satisfied, he moved on to the next plant. "Is something troubling you?"

Judal shook his head, even though Hakuryuu's back was to him. He rested his half-full mug on his crossed ankles, watching the prince as he tangled his fingers fearlessly into a collection of thorn covered vines.

"Not really troubling me, no." he said. "But we've never really talked about what any of that even means, you know? The debt and oath and stuff. And, like, you've already done a ton of stuff for me but you said none of that counts."

"You're referring to…?"

"Like, you totally redid my living room, totally revamped the courtyard, and you gave me a bunch of really pretty flowers and a literal rose bath! Plus, you tolerate living with me."

Hakuryuu shot Judal a half-smile over his shoulder that didn't match the stern crease in his brow.

"I do not tolerate you, Judal."

"Yeah, well, my point is that it's kind of hard to tell when you're doing things for the sake of repaying me and when you're just doing them because."

"Who says I'm not doing both?"

"How the hell does that work?!" Judal laughed.

"Take the flowers for example," the prince said, raising his voice as he circled around to the other side of the planter. "I grew them as repayment not for my debt, but for upsetting you as much as I did. The furniture was the same; payment for my spilled blood."

"But not for the main debt you swore an oath over."

"No."

"Well then we could go on like this forever!"

Hakuryuu tilted his body so he could look at Judal from between the leaves, quirking an eyebrow at him. His host was smiling and looking somewhat bemused, gesturing with one hand as he spoke.

"As long as we're around each other, we're gonna keep ending up in these situations where we feel like we owe each other! And then we'll do something to pay the other back for it, but never get around to the main thing."

"I suppose that's true."

Hakuryuu paused, deliberating. Since their disagreement, Hakuryuu had been trying to catch himself before he said anything that may come off as insensitive. Things he took for granted, by being a prince or a fae, had to be examined before they were just brushed aside. Once he had organized his thoughts in a satisfactory manner, he turned to Judal.

"In my eyes," he began. "Those things don't even begin to come close to the magnitude of the debt I owe you. They just don't count, as they are not even on a similar scale. And technically, by our laws that is correct; though many of the specifics of debt and repayment are left up to the perspective of the fae involved."

"So what does count as repaying your debt?" Judal queried. "In fact, what are you even in debt for, really?"

Hakuryuu smiled to himself. Judal was, once again, asking questions that most mortals would completely overlook. He still wasn't sure if his host was just clever, or if he'd read through so much faerie lore since his arrival that he had a checklist in his head. Either way, it made him proud to hear Judal ducking around the usual loopholes with ease.

A little bit of that pride laced its way into his magic and shimmered from his fingertips, leaving a new sheet of moss in the wake of his retreating hand.

Since the conversation was growing more involved, he pulled himself away from the planter and settled on the concrete in front of the bench, mirroring Judal's cross-legged position. Judal leaned over so his elbows rested on his calves, closer to the fae.

"A debt is more of a concept than it is a tangible thing," Hakuryuu began. "To my kind at least, it is the idea that you carry a burden of responsibility for someone else's actions on your behalf. The more excessive the action, the more burdensome the debt."

"So me dragging you up four flights of stairs and onto a shitty couch is a pretty big debt?"

The prince rolled his eyes as his host sniggered, tossing him an expression of mixed exasperation and amusement.

"You did more than just drag me up some stairs, Judal."

"Alright, so I picked you up out of a planter too. You're a lot heavier than you look, you know that?"

"It's more complex than that." Hakuryuu said, brushing aside the teasing quip. "You collected my possessions for me and made sure they weren't damaged, ensured my safety while I recovered, and most importantly you saved my life. I would have died without your help, Judal."

A somber silence fell between them as Hakuryuu finished. The events of the day they met were something they had neglected to talk about at any length for a whole host of reasons. It was easier, in a way, to try and forget that there was more to their relationship than two people who lived together.

Sooner or later the unspoken questions would need to be addressed. They couldn't go on pretending that everything was going to continue as it was forever, as much as they wanted to. Reality would catch up to them eventually.

"That being said," Hakuryuu continued once the silence had grown too heavy to bear. "What I owe you far surpasses any amount of furniture or flowers I could produce."

"Well, we've got to find some way to quantify it, or you're going to be in my debt forever."

Judal took a long drink from his mug of tea, frowning over its rim at nothing in particular. His eyes were distant, mind clearly elsewhere as he mulled things over. Hakuryuu rested his chin on his knuckles, allowing his own mind to wander as the silence carried on.

Their second bout of silence lasted longer than the first, and this time it was Judal who broke it.

"How about we do things in threes?"

Hakuryuu straightened his back, cocking an eyebrow at his host.

"The fae like threes, right?"

"We do. It's something of a sacred number, for a great many reasons."

"Alright, well," Judal went on, resting his mug on his ankle again. "You said that your debt comes from me saving your life, keeping your possessions safe, and making sure you had somewhere to be while you got better, right? That's three things. So instead of one big debt, how about you owe me three littler ones?"

Hakuryuu considered this, rubbing his fingers over his mouth.

"Taking a debt in pieces isn't unheard of." he agreed thoughtfully. "Though it remains that myperception of the debt's magnitude and yours seems to vastly differ."

"So we find a way to give it like, an approximation? Like one third is worth a living room remodel?"

"Nice try, but no."

"Hey, I'm trying to help you out here!" Judal's indignant expression lasted all of a few moments before he relaxed into a smile again. "But I get it. Debt has more to do with the person in debt than the person who they're in debt to for fae. What do you think'll work, Hakuryuu?"

He didn't need to puzzle over the answer long. It was staring him in the face the second he stopped to consider it, as old and clichéd as it was. Nothing became old and clichéd by being ineffective, though.

"Wishes."

"Seriously?" his host blinked. "Wishes? Isn't that kind of…?"

"It's been done before, yes, but it makes sense. This way, the extent of things is up to you, not me. So long as what you wish falls within my power, I can fulfill it."

"Alright but can we not call them wishes? I feel like Cinderella or some shit."

"Cinderella? How—Never mind, I feel as though we've heard two very different versions of that story. How does requests sound?"

"Requests is better." Judal turned his mug in his hands. "So… Three requests. I get to ask for anything I want, and you'll give it to me if you can."

"That is correct."

"Well anything is kind of broad don't you think? If I can ask for anything and it'll absolve the debt then I could ask you to pass the salt three times and that would be that."

Hakuryuu chuckled through his nose. There he went again, catching a loophole that any fae would be happy to leap through.

"It's not quite that simple." he reassured, which was not entirely the truth, nor entirely a lie. It could be that simple, if he wanted it to be; he just didn't. "Come here, Judal."

Judal obliged him without complaint, sliding down from the bench without standing and plopping himself onto the concrete. He set his mug aside, scooting himself forward so his knees were barely an inch from the prince's and settled there curiously.

"I am going to make an addendum to my oath," Hakuryuu said. "It will feel as though I am using my magic on you. I just want you to be aware of that."

"Got it."

"Ready?"

Judal nodded.

Hakuryuu drew in a breath, quieting his thoughts and drawing his concentration inward to find the specific magic that made up his oath to Judal. He filtered through the vortex of pure energy within himself, seeking blindly for something he would know only when he found it. His senses brushed something almost tangible, a coil of magic braided into a thick rope around his very being that tethered him to his host.

With another breath, he took hold of the magic and collected his thoughts, carefully selecting the words he would use to alter his bond. It squirmed angrily within him, displeased by his attempt to change its current state.

"As I am bound to you by oath, Judal," the prince began. "I offer you this resolution to my debt; three requests, freely given, through which I will neither hinder nor harm you in any way. Would you accept this recompense, or has my offer displeased you o host of mine?"

The magic in the courtyard always tingled along the back of Judal's neck, but now it was thick enough in the air to send shivers cascading down his spine. He could feel it again, Hakuryuu's voice sinking into his skin and sliding into his veins, his own name surrendering to the prince's lull. When he met his eyes, Hakuryuu's gaze was a storm of blue sparks and frozen winds Judal could almost feel pressing frostbite kisses to his cheeks.

It wasn't frightening like the first time, though. He lost none of the control he had over himself. In fact it was almost as though his senses sharpened at specific points, noticing the pulsing heat of the sun and the way grass smelled on the breeze. He exhaled slowly before he answered.

"I am not displeased, Hakuryuu." Magic flitted off his tongue, sparkling in the air bright enough he almost thought he saw it. "I will make three requests of you, as compensation for the debt you owe me."

Hakuryuu smiled at him, which was comforting and unnerving in the same breath. There was an unusual tilt to his lips, an unnatural curve at the edges that almost made Judal want to squirm.

"For each request, you will need to call on me." Hakuryuu went on. "And ask for repayment for the debt I owe."

"How should I call for you?"

"With my name, of course."

Losing himself in Hakuryuu's eyes was the easiest thing Judal had ever done. He was far away, in a plane of cool white and snowflakes that covered him in a thin frost. He was so far away he almost missed his own thoughts as they knocked against his skull, and barely caught the tail end of the one that made him start.

Judal blinked out of his haze, suddenly realizing the air around him was charged thick with magic so dense he could taste it.

"Wait—Your name?"

"Yes."

"But, isn't your name…?"

"Yes."

Judal stared at Hakuryuu, whose expression bore the same almost unnatural smile as before. He wanted to ask if he was sure, if that was absolutely a good idea. Weren't faerie names powerful? A way through which one could control them? Sacred? Was Hakuryuu really trusting him with something as important as that?

He was. Judal's heart was beating somewhere around his throat, but he nodded anyway.

"When you call for me, call upon Hakuryuu Ren, Prince of the UnSeelie Court, Son of the Great King Hakutoku, heir to his throne."

Describing the effect of Hakuryuu's full name when spoken aloud would be like attempting to describe a dream after you've just woken up. No matter how vividly you can see the colors in your mind, recall the sensations of walking in that dreamscape, there's no words to verbalize it. You have to experience it, and you feel lucky if you do.

He neither raised nor lowered his voice, but around them the whole world seemed to fall completely silent so only his words rang out. Judal felt cold down to his bones, but in a way so intense that cold became hot and his bones were almost melting beneath his skin. When he breathed, the air frosted before his eyes, vapor coiling into snakelike bodies that he could just make out…

Judal sucked the breath back in, serpentine vapor and all, and swallowed it down. He could feel the magic writhing in this throat as he forced it down, squirming along his insides until it disappeared within him. When he next exhaled, the sounds of the city around them came with his breath.

They blinked, the intensity of their locked gazes snapping like a thin sheet of ice. Judal breathed in and out a few times and Hakuryuu exhaled one long, slow breath. Around them the magic in the air began to settle, from electric to a familiar gentle buzz.

"…Hey Hakuryuu?"

He raised his head.

"Yes?"

"You want some tea?" Judal tilted his mug. "I'm all out."

The prince smiled.

"I'd like that. Do you want company while it steeps?"

"Yeah, I'd like that a lot."