I want to thank everyone who has waited so long for this story to return, and reassure all of you that as of now Serendipity and the Things Between will be returning to its promised Monday publishing schedule!
All of the comments from the past few months have meant so much to meet, and really kept me going in the times when I wondered if it was worth it to continue this story. I'm so touched to have everyone here with me, cheering me on.
I'm looking forward to talking to all of you in the new year, now please, enjoy the chapter!
Judal's first impression of the rebellion's temporary base of operations was that he was surprised it hadn't already been discovered and eliminated. It was positioned atop the gentle slope of a grassy knoll, with little cover from the surrounding landscape. Tents had been scattered in orderly groupings at the knoll's peak, and smoke billowed brazenly into the open air from fires within the encampment. After the attack on their forces, which for them had been little more than a month prior, Judal had been expecting something more… subtle.
Unimpressed by the lackadaisical camouflage, he followed Hakuryuu as they began their climb up the knoll's slope, and remained completely unaware of the glamour that swathed the camp until he walked straight through it. It pulled at him faintly, as though he were walking through a layer of cellophane, or sliding his whole body through a particularly large soap bubble. His skin prickled as magic brushed coyishly over him, like the wandering fingers of a lover, before it dispersed back into the dome around them.
He couldn't help throwing a glance back over his shoulder, and found the knoll's base much farther than he remembered. When he squinted, he could just make out the mesmeric shifting of the glamour in the air, no doubt hiding the camp from the world outside.
"A strong glamour." Hakuryuu noted.
"I didn't see it." Judal admitted.
Hakuryuu cast him a sideways look which the dire wolves seemed to match, but said nothing more.
As they approached the edge of the camp, the pack fell behind until only Hakuryuu's mount remained with them. He fell into a lazy gait at their heels, yet close enough that at times both fae's fingers brushed his muzzle. Judal found the wolf's presence reassuring, especially in the absence of Zagan and Belial. The two ancients had disappeared as soon as the knoll rose up from the surrounding plain, their duty done, and left the prince and his lover to find the rest of the way on their own.
When they crested the knoll's peak, Judal was greeted with his first clear sight of a faerie camp. The tents were all made of leaves or grass woven together in neat rows, and fae of all shapes and sizes bustled between them in armor of leather and metal. The first fae to notice them tripped over air, thoroughly breaking the atmosphere of mystery.
"M-my prince-!" he gasped, drawing the attention of the fae closest to him.
He stooped into an awkward half-bow, apparently so taken aback that he'd forgotten the supply crate he was carrying, which nearly spilled across the grass as he bent.
"It is good to see you all well." Hakuryuu greeted, addressing every fae in eyesight.
Loud murmurs erupted from just within the camp, accompanied by a flurry of movement as several figures began to dart about. A handful of fae dropped what they were carrying and disappeared farther into the camp, while others came in closer, craning to get a look at the returned royal. Judal felt several sets of eyes flit past him, only to glance sharply back and stare.
His skin itched under the unfamiliar gazes, but he refused to give them the satisfaction of squirming. Beside him, the dire wolf curled his lip to show vicious teeth and took a step closer to Judal, knocking his shoulder against his hip. Judal dropped his hand to rest in the wolf's thick fur, using the touch to ground himself. This was just like the first day of school, only with fae instead of teenagers.
"Stars, man, quit gawking!"
From the edge of the gathering crowd came an exasperated voice which made the tips of Hakuryuu's ears twitch. A young man stepped forward and Judal had to stare at his hair, which was the same color as fresh raspberries, of all things. He turned to look at them with eyes not unnaturally large, but just a shade too big for his face, just enough to be somewhat unsettling, which boasted cerise irises.
The newcomer clicked his tongue, startling the stunned fae from his staring.
"Go alert the others, and be quick about it!"
"Yes! Of course, sir!"
After a moment of deliberation over what to do with his crate, the rebel scurried off with it still in his arms, contents bouncing.
The magenta fae strode forward, stopping only once he was nearly within arm's distance of Hakuryuu. He was shorter than the prince by a head, but held his back with the same regal posture and jutted his chin with a similar confidence. Judal could see a resemblance in their jaws, the straight tips of their pointed ears, and a tension between them that screamed familiarity.
Hakuryuu nodded stiffly.
"Cousin."
His brief greeting was met with an owlish blink.
"Cousin." the other parroted in reply.
There was a pregnant pause, wherein Judal glanced between the two with confusion. Then, without warning, the shorter fae threw his arms out.
"Oh for the love of the moon, Hakuryuu, get over here!" he demanded with an exasperated fondness.
Immediately, Hakuryuu's shoulders relaxed. A smile split the stern line of his mouth, and he stepped forward into his cousin's embrace all too willingly.
"I am glad to see you, Kouha." he said. "It has been far too long."
"Far too long indeed!" Kouha laughed as he clapped Hakuryuu on the back. "And then, you go off and get yourself killed! Or so we're all meant to think."
"I assure you, that was not intentional."
They separated, Kouha grinning and looking his cousin over with the same genial exasperation from before.
"And look at you, fit as ever! Worried for nothing, did I?"
A single breathy laugh escaped the prince.
"Not for nothing, I promise you." he assured. "There was real peril between now and the last time we met, cousin."
"Maybe so, and I would love to hear all about it over a bottle of wine-"
Here he paused, tilting his head just a fraction, his wide eyes rolling until they fixed on Judal.
"However, I cannot help but notice that you have not come back alone, and I admit that makes me far more curious."
Hakuryuu stepped back and took his place at Judal's side again, resting a hand between his shoulder blades. The changeling was already standing straight, but he rolled his shoulders back in response, giving him an air of easy confidence.
"Kouha," Hakuryuu began. "This is-"
"Hakuryuu!"
Two more figures burst from the crowd, the first being a golden streak that slowed down to reveal a blond fae, and trailing behind him a crimson haired girl with a quiet expression. Upon laying eyes on the prince, the blond immediately teared up.
"Hakuryuu!" he repeated, choked. "It really is you!"
"If you cry, Alibaba, I will refuse to let you live it down."
Alibaba laughed, and in his laughter one could hear the snap of burning twigs and the crackle of a warm hearth. He rushed forward again, this time almost bowling Hakuryuu over in his eagerness to throw his arms around him. The pair of princes shared a laugh and several thumps on the back, though Alibaba seemed more inclined to cling than Kouha.
"Good to see you well, Morgiana." Hakuryuu greeted over Alibaba's shoulder.
Morgiana inclined her head, mouth twitching up into a wan smile the longer her companion refused to let Hakuryuu free.
"Good to see you as well, Prince Hakuryuu. Would you like some assistance?"
"It's alright, I am sure he will let me go in a moment."
"Absolutely not! You'll run off and do something insane again!"
"That seems hardly fair as far as assumptions go."
At this, Alibaba whipped back, though he kept a firm hold on Hakuryuu's shoulders.
"Up a mountain!" he exclaimed. "You ran yourself up a damned mountain and decided the best possible way to handle an ambush was to just toss yourself into the mortal realm! And then I had to climb that same damn mountain, Hakuryuu! Potentially to find your corpse!"
"Which, clearly, you did not find."
"I had to go with your cousin! The frightening one!"
"Kougyoku?"
Alibaba hit his shoulder, but Hakuryuu only rocked back on his heels with a smirk.
"Kouen! Who by the way, looked about ready to just lay siege to the whole summit by the time we found you! ...Your arm, anyway."
Surprise flickered briefly over Hakuryuu's expression. Kouen, his eldest cousin, had been the one to come searching for him? It was true that the time when they had been at odds had passed in his youth, but he wasn't sure he would consider them particularly close either. Certainly not close enough for Kouen to involve himself in this rebellion.
Or so he had thought. Perhaps, among the many other things Judal had taught him, he ought to learn to stop presuming things.
"I apologize, old friend." he said, offering Alibaba a sincere smile. "I know this past moon must have been difficult for you, after what I did. Forgive me?"
Alibaba punched his other shoulder.
"Of course I forgive you, don't be an idiot!"
Hakuryuu chuckled, but seemed relieved nonetheless.
"I was about to introduce Kouha when you two arrived."
This time, Hakuryuu's hand fell possessively to the small of Judal's back, rather than between his shoulders. His palm pressed flat against the curve of his spine in a way that Judal had learned to associate with his lover feeling territorial. In response, he shifted his weight towards him and away from the dire wolf he had been absently petting throughout the reunion.
"This is Judal. He saved my life after I found myself in the world of men and took me in thereafter." he paused, then added; "He is also my lover."
To their credit, the three fae managed to only look mildly surprised rather than outright stunned, which is what Judal had expected. That, or horrified. In fact, Alibaba mostly looked indignant.
"You lose a limb, nearly die, get trapped in a poisonous land populated by mortals and, somehow, you come back to us with a lover?!" he gestured to Judal. "And a gorgeous one! What kind of luck is that?!"
"He also got his arm back." Judal piped up.
Alibaba looked downright scandalized.
Kouha tipped his head back and laughed, hands resting on his slim hims.
"Moon and stars, Hakuryuu! When fate decides to smile on you, she certainly smiles brightly!"
"If that's what you wanna call it." Judal smirked. "He literally fell out of the sky in front of me."
Now Kouha and Alibaba were both laughing, while the tips of Hakuryuu's ears colored pink. He cleared his throat.
"Yes, well," he said dismissively. "No one mentioned that tearing open the veil on a mountain might drop one from… the sky. An honest mistake was made."
"This before or after you lost an arm and decided hopping dimensions was a good plan?"
Hakuryuu pinched Judal's hip in retaliation, but received only a cheeky smile and more laughter for his trouble.
Morgiana, who had been staring intently at Judal since he was introduced, stepped forward now and drew in a pointed breath. Her nose wrinkled and her brow creased thoughtfully.
"You smell of fae." she said. "But you look… mortal."
"I'm a changeling." Judal proclaimed.
He said it with pride, shoulders squared and chin tipped up in a small show of defiance that dared her to say something about it. Truthfully, he wasn't sure what kind of reception that announcement was meant to get him. Aside from being rare, Hakuryuu hadn't told him much about the opinions surrounding changelings.
( And he probably should have asked, but that would have required him remembering that it might be an issue in the first place, which he hadn't. )
Kouha whistled lowly.
"A changeling, in this day and age."
"Forget just smiling," Alibaba shook his head. "Fate is definitely making up for lost time with you, Hakuryuu."
"What kind of fae are you?" Kouha interjected, before Hakuryuu could reply. "Do you know where your kind hail from?"
A familiar pang of discomfort spiked in Judal's chest. It may have been phrased differently, but he had gotten the same question many times before. Who are you and where do you come from are the same, no matter what words were used to say them; as was the answer.
"No idea."
"I cannot tell either." Morgiana admitted, breathing in through her mouth this time. "You do not smell like any fae I have met before."
"Whatever he may be, we will know soon enough." Hakuryuu said. "Now that he has returned to Sidhe, he will come into his heritage, given time."
"As long as I don't end up looking like a yaksha or something." Judal muttered.
"Mm, but speaking of appearances..."
Kouha seemed to materialize before Judal, his slender arms crossed over his chest as he eyed the changeling up and down. Instinctively, Judal leaned back, not entirely comfortable with the fae suddenly in his space or with his eyes roaming all over him. It wasn't the size of Kouha's eyes that bothered him, he decided, it was the fact he couldn't read them. Despite their size, Kouha's eyes were not particularly expressive, which became unnerving if you looked at him for too long.
Judal frowned, almost certain he was going to dislike whatever came next.
"We can't possibly have you wandering around looking like that!"
Judal was right.
He tried not to react defensively, minding Hakuryuu's warnings about respecting fae authority and how some would try to get a rise out of him.
"What's wrong with how I look?" he demanded.
Kouha laughed.
"Trust me, that face of yours is more than enough to attract some attention, but if you go around looking like a mortal on top of that, someone's going to be tempted to try and snatch you!"
Judal really didn't like that.
"Kouha," Hakuryuu said sternly. "Judal is not going to be taken. Nor, might I add, is he a doll for you to dress up-"
"Yes, yes, I know!" Kouha interrupted. "But even you must know he has to blend in! Or at least try to. Mind, I have no idea how you mean to keep eyes off him with looks like his, especially once word gets around he's a changeling and all."
The prince scowled and Judal's brow furrowed in confusion, which only made Kouha titter.
Morgiana took it upon herself to address Judal as the cousins continued their back-and forth, drawing his attention with her measured voice.
"He is not insulting you." she said.
"Oh." Judal wondered if she could read his mind.
"You are unusually good looking for a being from the mortal realm." she continued. "It will draw the attention of a great many fae."
That sounded like a compliment, but Judal wasn't convinced he should take it as one. Morgiana seemed satisfied to have conveyed it to him, though, and he couldn't think of a good way to ask if being "unusually good looking for a mortal" should concern him or not.
He decided probably, just to be safe.
"Oh, let me have my fun, Hakuryuu!"
Kouha's whining seemed less sincere when it was wrapped around a cunning smirk, something Hakuryuu appeared to be all too aware of. He eyed his cousin scrupulously, lips drawn in a thin line.
All fae had their eccentricities, and Kouha's had the delightful misfortune of looking harmless to anyone who didn't know him. If Judal had been introduced as a mere guest rather than his lover, Hakuryuu would have had every right to be very concerned for his well being around his dainty looking cousin. But Kouha wasn't one to betray the trust of family, and he seemed relatively fond of Judal.
( This, admittedly, only raised more concerns on Hakuryuu's part. )
Torn, the prince glanced at his lover. Judal blinked back at him, clearly more inclined to let him make this decision than make it for himself.
In fairness, Kouha was right; Judal was only going to attract unwanted attention if he dressed like a mortal. And, he was pretty sure his lover hadn't bothered packing any extra clothes when they left. He didn't mind Judal garnering the attention of people around them either ( except that he did, hissed the possessive chill of his inner voice ) but he hadn't brought him to Sidhe to be a centerpiece.
The lack of secondary garments made Hakuryuu's choice for him. While he no doubt had a trunk of spare clothing waiting for him in the tent he was sure was being erected for him as they spoke, Kouha was Judal's best bet for something new to wear. His cousin did have a tendency to travel with seamstresses and enough garments to clothe a kingdom.
Hakuryuu sighed and Kouha grinned, seeming to sense his victory.
"None of your entourage, cousin." Hakuryuu instructed firmly. "Not a hand on my Judal, understand?"
"Entourage?" Judal questioned warily.
Kouha laid a hand over his chest with mock solemnity.
"I will look after him myself."
"That's no more assuring, you know." Alibaba chuckled. Hakuryuu shot him a glare.
With a sigh, Hakuryuu turned to lay a kiss on Judal's worried mouth. He kneaded the tips of his fingers against his hip as he kissed him, working faint marks against easily-bruised skin. It was a reassurance, in its own way.
"I will see you soon." he murmured between the first kiss and a second.
"Mm-hm."
Judal's hummed response must have conveyed some amount of trepidation, because his lover laid a third kiss against his cheek before leaning to whisper against his ear.
"Be sure of yourself, sweetling." he hushed. "These are your people as much as they are mine."
"Right." I belong here.
Judal stepped away from Hakuryuu, though not before scratching his dire wolf behind the ears one last time. Kouha led him away into the camp, chirping away like a pleasantly excited lark, his large eyes fixed intently on the changeling. Hakuryuu watched them go and was unsurprised to find himself fighting the strong urge to race after them and take his lover back.
This was the first time Judal would be around fae without him, and family or not, it put him on edge.
From his left, Alibaba chuckled.
"My, how possessive you've become, old friend."
"You truly have no idea." Hakuryuu sighed. "Care to show me to our lodgings?"
"But of course!" Alibaba said, mocking a grand bow. Hakuryuu rolled his eyes.
The last of the onlookers took their leave as the royals turned to enter the encampment. Alibaba led them on a weaving path Morgiana trailing behind them, deeper into the carefully laid labyrinth of tents. Even temporary, ramshackle abodes like these ones were built to confuse and befuddle the unaware. Hakuryuu had missed the impossible architecture of Sidhe.
Custom stated that Hakuryuu's belongings would be waiting for him along with sleeping accommodations befitting his status, as if he had never left. If pattern held, he was probably settled near to Alibaba close to the center of the camp. It would be good to be sleeping among friends again, though for a moment Hakuryuu felt himself miss the creaky bed and windowless room he'd shared with Judal.
"So I take it that even if I ask nicely, you won't consider letting my borrow your Judal for an evening?" Alibaba teased, as if sensing his old friend's mind wandering to his lover.
The harsh glare he received in response was met with a cheeky grin, which led Hakuryuu to shove him rather than try to continue looking mad. He knew Alibaba was joking, of course, but managed to maintain a faint scowl anyway.
"You should not tease him like that..." Morgiana commented, though Alibaba only laughed.
"Relax, the both of you! You made yourself as clear as the sun in the sky, Hakuryuu. The changeling is yours."
The golden prince made a show of tossing his hair over his shoulder and sticking his nose in the air, pretending at haughtiness both his companions knew he didn't possess.
"Besides, that one looks like far too much mischief for me."
"Says the one who has never followed a rule in his life, even when his life depended on it." Morgiana muttered.
"He may be too much for you," Hakuryuu agreed. "But I doubt it has anything to do with mischief."
"He reminds me of Cait Sith." Alibaba continued, pretending not to have hear either of them. "Good to look at and perhaps to think about at length, but far too unpredictable to comfortably tame."
Hakuryuu chuckled through his nose. The comparison was oddly fitting.
It comforted him to know that his friend had even bothered to look past Judal's exterior appearance. He and Judal had only exchanged a few words, but Alibaba seemed already able to tell that the changeling was more than just a pretty face.
"We do not tame felines," Hakuryuu hummed. "Rather, they seem to tame us."
"How bold." Morgiana said.
"Are you tamed, old friend?"
"If I am, then it is only by him."
Alibaba smiled and squeezed Hakuryuu's shoulder.
"Then I'll congratulate you, Hakuryuu. On finding happiness in the oddest of circumstance!"
"Well that's subtle." Judal muttered.
Kouha's accommodations brashly contrasted with the tents surrounding them. Not only was it taller than the woven shelters, which reached just above the top of Judal's head, it was also a different material and color. Finely patterned canvas and silk draped over a decadent frame large enough to house at least ten of the regular tents. If not for the glamour around the camp, Judal was pretty sure that it could have been used as a homing beacon.
It appeared that its size wasn't just for grandeur, however. Fae dressed in UnSeelie colors dipped in and out of the tent as they pleased, while three women lounged outside the entrance. One had her eyes wrapped in what, upon longer inspection, appeared to be spider's web still being woven by a collection of tiny blue arachnids. Another had her hands dressed in the same way, and the third was unnervingly normal, sans a set of unblinking eyes.
"Lord Kouha, welcome back!" they cried almost in unison, rising at once to come meet the UnSeelie royal.
They fussed over him, grabbing and petting in a way that was beginning to make Judal feel incredibly awkward when Kouha finally waved them off.
"I will be with you lovelies in a bit, I promise!" he laughed. "I have something I have to help my dear cousin's lover with before I can entertain all of you."
They whined and simpered, but Judal didn't miss the fact that their eyes never strayed far from him. He didn't like being stared at, he decided. He had never liked it, but in Sidhe it carried an added weight that made him feel far more uncomfortable than he felt like putting up with.
Judal narrowed his eyes at the unblinking girl and she flinched back, falling silent.
The inside of Kouha's tent was as grand as the outside. There was actual furniture set up, though no bed to speak of, including a row of trunks and wardrobes along one side. That was an impressive amount of clothes, even for Judal.
"Let me see now, you clearly look good in dark colors; I wonder if white would make you look too pale. Or would red be worse? That's never been Hakuryuu's color, anyway."
Kouha marched over to the nearest wardrobe, threw it open, and began to sift through the neatly hung articles inside. He would pause occasionally to pull something out and glance at it, grabbing some off their hooks while others would fall back into place, dismissed.
Judal stood and watched, not sure what to do with himself. Wasn't meeting your significant other's family supposed to be a lot more awkward than this? Then again, maybe this was its own brand of awkwardness.
"We will begin with these!" Kouha announced, spinning and shoving a heap of cloth into Judal's arms. He stood expectantly as the changeling glanced between him and the clothing.
"...So do you have somewhere I should change, or-?"
"Fae see little difference between skin and cloth."
"Yeah, okay, try that one again in front of Hakuryuu and we'll see how it works out."
Kouha clicked his tongue, but relented.
He pointed Judal to a corner of the tent and showed him how to pull one of the many layers of cloth to drape like a curtain, obscuring him from view. Once the curtain was secured, Judal picked something at random to try on and shed his clothes. It was a gown-like garment that, while lovely and incredibly soft, was going to be wildly impractical to wear. So that was a no.
"Just toss what you dislike back over to me!" Kouha called. The gown promptly flew over the curtain.
This went on, with Judal trying different garments with only the briefest realization that for some reason, they all felt tailored to fit, then dismissing them for one reason or another. Kouha only complained occasionally about his selections, seeming all too eager to continue going through his vast closet instead. There were some demands to actually see Judal in some of the clothing, but those became a mutual agreement of dissent.
Judal had never had a conversation with someone without actually having a conversation. It took him a while to realize, but the words he spoke to Kouha flew from his head as soon as they left his tongue. By the time an hour had passed, he could no more tell someone what they'd talked about than recall how the conversation had begun. All the words were empty, devoid of meaning or feeling, to the point they may as well have been speaking in tongues.
It was a farce. A play at sincere politeness that Judal had foolishly allowed himself to become wrapped up in. He scowled around his next sentence, though it came out in a tone that suggested amusement, and bit his tongue. His teeth shivered in his mouth as some charm seemed to snap from his lips.
He shrugged off the tunic he'd tried and reached for a long strip of cloth he was pretty sure was supposed to be a top.
"...you know," he said, relieved to hear his voice clearly ringing in his own mind again. "You're kind of weirdly accepting of some random guy your cousin brought back from another world. After being presumed dead."
The cloth was not a top, but somehow supposed to be for his lower half. Judal wasn't incredibly sure how he knew this, but had decided to stop wondering after the second shirt he put on made his hands button and adjust the collar without permission.
"Like, maybe this is just a human stereotype, but I was kind of expecting more. I don't know. Disdain? Distrust?"
"Threats to your well being if you ever hurt Hakuryuu?"
"Yeah, that!"
Kouha was silent for a long moment, the rustling of cloth the only sound in the vast tent.
"Tell me," he asked suddenly. "Did the dire wolves like you?"
Completely caught off guard, Judal fumbled with the pair of pants he was trying to get out of and somehow got stuck in them. He hopped on one leg, swearing under his breath about too many fucking straps before actually pausing to consider his answer.
"Yeah. I think they did, anyway? I mean, I rode one here."
Unseen by Judal, Kouha smiled.
"To us fae, mortals are considered far apart even from the lowest of us." he said, as he parsed through the next open chest. "So yes; I was prepared to disavow you as soon as I laid eyes on you, long before my cousin had introduced us. But then, I saw the wolves. Dire wolves are the beast of the UnSeelie royals- that wolf, which stayed by your side without question, was raised with Hakuryuu from the time he was born."
He stood and flicked his wrist, observing how the fabric in his hands caught the sparse light peeking in from outside.
"His pack are an extension of his own self. Their leader might as well be his twin. In all my seasons, I have never seen that wolf so easily accept another living being besides its master."
Judal looked over his shoulder at the spot beyond the curtain he assumed Kouha was standing.
"So, what," he frowned. "The wolves like me, so you like me?"
"I'm not that shallow!" Kouha retorted, indignant. "It told me that you meant no harm to Hakuryuu. And if he is to be believed, you saved his life when none of us were near enough to do so. You seem willing to trust him with your own."
Kouha tossed more clothes over the curtain, which Judal caught. As he turned back to the wardrobe he added;
"And so, I'll open my arms to you! Even if you were raised as a human."
Judal tugged on the sleeve of his shirt before rounding on his heel and shoving the curtain aside. Kouha turned back to glance him over, appearing mildly surprised by the glower he was met with.
"Y'know, it's a good thing I was raised as a human," Judal said coldly. "Or I would take offense to that."
The changeling cocked his head, face morphing into a pleasant smile matched by a cheery tone.
"And it would be awkward for everyone if I held a grudge over that, wouldn't it?"
Kouha blinked, then grinned.
"Spoken like a fae." he said, and it was evident he meant it to be a compliment.
It took a third wardrobe and a second chest of clothes for Judal to find something that he decided suited him. The shirt had long, flowing sleeves and split below the collar to hang draped about his torso, ending just above his waist and leaving his stomach exposed. A simple fixture held the two sides of the shirt closed at his throat, and he matched the top with a pair of simple, dark pants which fell comfortably on his hips.
Kouha clearly didn't think the outfit fancy enough, but Judal had always dressed with simple elegance rather than extravagance. He tutted over the materials, even though the shirt felt like something expensive and slinky, and demanded to switch the fixture out for a brooch. Since he'd already rejected the offer of shoes, Judal felt somewhat obligated to give in to that request.
The brooch that was selected looked like something Kouha might have stolen from Hakuryuu at some point, made of silver and sapphire. Judal found he liked the weight of it at his neck, and the feeling of his feet on solid ground.
( "I've had the weirdest urge to just ditch my shoes since I got here."
"Well, do, then! No one's making you wear them." )
"Are you absolutely sure that's all you want to take?" Kouha asked for what might have been the seventh time.
Judal looked at him in exasperation, purposefully making a show of adjusting the bundle of clothing in his arms.
"I'm sure, Kouha."
"If you need something new-"
"-I know where to find it."
Kouha sighed dramatically, like he couldn't quite believe that Judal was settling for only a handful of new clothes.
"Well, fine then. Let me show you to your tent-" he paused at the tent's entrance, where the pair were greeted by Hakuryuu's dire wolf sitting patiently outside.
The wolf blinked at Kouha without interest, but immediately cocked his head when Judal came into view. He huffed, stood and shook himself, then pawed towards the changeling and bumped him with his nose.
"Here to show me where Hakuryuu is?" Judal asked the wolf, who snapped his jaws in response. "Well, lead the way!"
Kouha waved the wolf and changeling off as they took their leave, disappearing among the stunted tents in search of their prince. He watched them go with his arms crossed, too-large irises as unreadable as ever.
"What a truly odd creature you've brought home, cousin."