sorry for the late posting! D: adult life shit got in the way, you know...all that boring stuff. one of my other favorite characters shows up this chapter though, and that's exciting~
Breakfast is a challenge, but Hakuryuu manages to make pancakes from an old mix and serves them with sliced peaches. Judal is, as always, far too amazed by this.
"You're so good at food. How did you even make pancakes?" he asks.
"There was a mix in the back of the cupboard," he explains, cutting his pancakes neatly. Somehow, being around Judal makes him want to be even less messy than usual.
Judal looks confused, before nodding. "I'd forgotten I even had that!"
"I'm not surprised. It wasn't even open."
"Yeah, well this is really fucking delicious. Seriously, why weren't you a chef somewhere fancy?"
"It's just a hobby. I'm not that good," Hakuryuu tries to explain.
"Bull fucking shit," he says around a mouthful of pancakes. "This is amazing."
Hakuryuu shrugs. "I'm not passionate enough about it to make it a career."
Judal eyes him up, far more serious than Hakuryuu would expect for breakfast conversation. "So what are you passionate about?"
He's not sure how to answer this, but Judal goes back to his food without pressing the issue. They manage to settle into a comfortable silence for a bit, and Hakuryuu is left to mull over his question.
"I think we should go out investigating today," Judal says as he's finishing his veritable mountain of pancakes. "It's a 'by appointment only' day for the store and I don't have any, so you can't even yell at me for closing."
"It's your business," Hakuryuu says.
"Somehow, I still feel like you're judging me," Judal replies, frowning. "But whatever, I don't have appointments because people have gone missing, so I need to sort that shit out. Let's go!"
"I'm cleaning up the kitchen first, and you promised you'd take out the trash," Hakuryuu reminds him, and Judal groans.
As he finishes wiping down the counters, Judal comes back in to watch. "I did your stupid chores," he says, pouting.
"It's your home."
"I guess. Let's get out of here," he says, heading out without waiting for Hakuryuu's answer. He grabs his wallet and keys before following Judal, finally catching up to him in the alleyway.
"I just gotta grab my list from the shop," Judal says, shouldering his messenger bag. He's got his wand tucked into his belt, red gem glinting in the bright summer sun, and Hakuryuu realizes he doesn't have his.
"Should I bring my wand?" Hakuryuu asks, and Judal pauses midway down the alley to consider it.
"You know what? Why the fuck not! Maybe you can learn something," he answers, grinning. "Where'd you leave it?"
"Upstairs, on the dresser in the spare room. I can go up and get it."
"One sec," Judal says, and he pulls out his wand to draw a sigil in the air quickly. He jumps through it and vanishes, before reappearing with Hakuryuu's wand. "Got it!"
"You're such a show off," Hakuryuu tells him, and Judal just grins. "But thank you."
"Thank you. I like an excuse to teleport."
"If you can do that, why have I been driving you around?" he asks, carefully slipping his wand in a pocket.
Judal sighs like he's the most long-suffering man around. "It's too obvious. People tend to notice me just appearing out of nowhere."
"That's a surprising amount of foresight from you," Hakuryuu tells him without thinking, but Judal just chuckles in response before heading into the shop.
He comes back out holding a piece of paper. "Here are some missing people I think I recognize, so I wanna go check out where they live."
"Why do you have their addresses?"
"Why not? Come on! We should have gotten your car yesterday, but I suck at planning," Judal says, heading down the street before Hakuryuu can complain.
He sighs and follows Judal. "Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"Cause I fuckin forgot," he answers, shrugging. "I thought you knew me well enough by now to figure that one out!"
At least they're not far from his car. Judal clambers into the passenger seat and holds his hands out for Hakuryuu's phone, typing in the address of their first destination before giving it back.
"Someday I'm gonna find all your dirty secrets," Judal says, and it seems almost ominous until he keeps talking. "You gotta have music on there somewhere."
Hakuryuu glances at the GPS to make sure they're heading in the right direction. "On my phone?"
"Yeah! We never listen to anything," he whines.
"That's because you're always talking, and I wouldn't want to drown out the sound of your beautiful voice," Hakuryuu answers, and he can't help but smile at Judal's groan.
"You're so rude!"
He shrugs. "There's a radio."
"Yeah, but that's not the same. I hate commercials! And they never play the music I wanna hear anyway…" Judal trails off. "Whatever, at least we're close. Next time we're going somewhere far away I'm finding us some better music."
Hakuryuu just nods and turns onto a quiet residential street. Judal turns his attention to the window, looking for their stop. It's not long until he points at a house up the block. Hakuryuu parks out front, and Judal hops out before the car even stops moving.
"There's some sort of residue here," Judal says, squinting at the house in front of them. "But I can't place it. Whatever was here didn't wanna get caught."
Hakuryuu locks the car and follows Judal up to the house. It doesn't look like an abandoned building at least. The front door opens easily, too, and Judal leads them in without fear. It's dim and a bit dusty, but it doesn't look like it's been sitting empty for that long. The oven still displays the correct time, and Judal starts poking around the fridge.
"There's still so much food. Shit, I don't think I have this much in my fridge," he says, opening drawers.
"That's because you eat nothing but takeout and fruit every day," Hakuryuu reminds him.
"True!" Judal agrees, laughing. "Well, this guy wasn't planning on leaving, I guess. But I still can't figure out what kind of magic this is...there just isn't enough of it in the air."
Hakuryuu smacks his hand away from the popsicles in the freezer and Judal whines. "Are you seriously going to steal food from a missing person?"
"It's not like he's using it anymore," he grumbles, reluctantly closing the freezer door. They head upstairs and it's more of the same: everything looks normal and undisturbed, other than some normal looking mess.
Except...something isn't quite right.
"Judal, wasn't this one of your customers?" Hakuryuu asks, trying to make sure he's putting all the right pieces together.
"Uh, duh. That's why we're here," Judal answers.
"Then why isn't there anything magical here?"
Judal pauses, considering this as he snoops around the bedroom some more. "Shit, you're right! That's fuckin weird."
Hakuryuu feels accomplished, though he does wish that Judal could be more observant at times.
"I mean, that doesn't help me figure out what I'm looking for. But that's definitely strange," Judal says. "Let's get out of here before anyone notices us trespassing, I guess."
Hakuryuu rushes them out, shaking his head. "You can be so irresponsible."
Judal shrugs as he gets into the car, unconcerned. "Okay, this next guy lives - or is it lived? - a bit out of town, and he's the kind of guy to booby trap his house," he says, once they're settled.
"So we can get attacked?" Hakuryuu asks.
"No, so if it came for him, it might be trapped there!" Judal explains, and this does sound like a good idea. "Gimme your phone, I wanna set up the maps. And then find some music. Your fancy car TV plays music too, right?"
"It's not a TV," Hakuryuu explains. "It's a touch screen GPS and radio that is built into the car. You've used the radio part before."
Judal shrugs. "I guess I have. But ohhh, you do have music on here! Let's see what Mr. Serious Fancy Pants Rich Boy likes to listen to," he says gleefully, cackling as he scrolls through the music library. Hakuryuu doesn't bother trying to stop him, knowing that Judal loves nothing more than to pry into everyone's personal business.
"I can't believe you have boring classical music on here," Judal finally says. "I wanted to expect better from you than stereotypical bland- oh wait, there's more. I think I got lost in a playlist or something… Oh shit, I love this song!"
Hakuryuu has only a moment to worry about what taste of his Judal shares before the radio barks to life with Mindless Self Indulgence. Then the worry turns to embarrassment. "Well that's been on there for a really long time-"
"Shhh, shhh, it's okay, Hakuryuu. I knew your soul was emo."
"No, you see- Like I was trying to say, my phone has any music I've ever purchased, so-" Hakuryuu tries to explain, hoping that Judal drops the subject before he makes it seem like he cares too much.
Instead, Judal laughs at him. "I'm not judging you! I just said I liked the song too, you know? I can see it, your deeply tortured soul hidden underneath plain button ups and slacks. I could paint your nails black later if you wanna try expressing yourself-"
"I'm going to take you back home," Hakuryuu threatens, trying to hide a smile. Somehow Judal manages to make him feel like part of the joke instead of the fool.
"Nooooooo!" Judal whines. "I'll be good. We're being good! Remember, we're trying to help innocent magical citizens. We're good!"
Hakuryuu can't resist laughing at this. "I know. You're not very good at jokes sometimes."
"Maybe you're just bad at them," he tries to say, but there's still humor in his voice. "I hope you've still got the rest of your emo music, since we're gonna be stuck in the car for awhile."
They eventually reach a house on the outskirts of the city, further away than Hakuryuu expected. This one does look abandoned, covered in creeping vines and colorful flowers, and he glances over at Judal. He seems more concerned with getting out of the car than he does with the state of the house, so Hakuryuu parks in front of it.
Judal scrambles out, stretching and whining. "I didn't realize this was so far away. Jeez!"
"Well, you've never been here before."
"I never said that. I just usually teleport in, since it's so remote," he explains. "Did you know the bus doesn't run out here? It's stupid."
"Then why did we-"
"Just in case!" Judal knocks on the front door, careless as always, and Hakuryuu watches from the sidewalk. He's not quite so fearless, especially since he can feel the magic in the air. This is not the kind of place you just run into.
"Yo, anyone home?" Judal yells, pounding on the door some more. A vine crawls along the porch, and before Hakuryuu can warn him, it grabs Judal by the ankles. It pulls him up and then flips him over while he screeches and screams profanities. "Let go!"
The door opens slowly, revealing a short blond man in cat-eye glasses, and he frowns at Judal. "Oh, it's you."
"Hey! Hey, plant freak, call off your stupid vines!" Judal yells, still struggling.
He merely raises an eyebrow. "Why are you here, Judal?"
Judal spits at him. "Lemme down!"
"I see you're still a brat."
"Don't be a dick, Zagan!" Judal whines, and the vines finally release him. He lands on the porch with a thud, groaning on impact.
Zagan glances around Judal and eyes Hakuryuu up. "I see you brought a little...friend."
"Fuck, was that really necessary?" Judal asks petulantly, picking himself up. When Zagan doesn't answer, he sighs. "And yeah, I did. I know you hate people, but I thought you might be dead so like, no big deal."
He looks back at Judal. "Why on earth would you think I was dead?"
"You're not even gonna invite us in?" Judal asks, ignoring the question.
Zagan sighs and opens the door wider. "I suppose you may come in. But not you," he says, gesturing at Hakuryuu.
Judal crosses his arms like an angry child. "You can't keep Hakuryuu out! I'll just go home and let you get eaten by monsters."
He makes a disgusted face. "Fine. But I expect some sort of favor from you later," Zagan demands, and Judal just shakes his head.
"I'm not stupid enough to agree to owing you an unspecified favor. Come on, Hakuryuu," Judal says, leading the way in. The inside is covered in even more plants than the outside, like some sort of tropical greenhouse. Hakuryuu can barely believe it's the same place with the size of it, though he supposes it's not too different than the shop. Judal, unsurprisingly, seems nonplussed. Hakuryuu stays close to Judal as Zagan leads them in. He wants to look around to see more of the strange plants, but something about that seems unwise. Zagan's house pulses with at least as much magic as Judal's shop, and Hakuryuu has a suspicious feeling that he wouldn't be able to find his way back if he gets separated.
Zagan guides them into a small sitting room, and Judal makes himself comfortable right away, sprawling on a plush couch under an overhang of large, flat leaves. Hakuryuu joins him, unsure what else to do.
Zagan sits across from them on a chair that seems to grow from the floorboards, still visibly annoyed. "Are you ready to explain yourself?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting there," Judal says. "Anyway, this is Hakuryuu, my new assistant," he proclaims, flinging an arm around Hakuryuu's shoulders.
"I see," Zagan says, sounding very much like he's talking about a piece of dirt.
"Don't mind Zagan, he's just rude," Judal explains.
"You're rude," Hakuryuu tells him, unable to resist calling out Judal, and Zagan almost smiles.
"I see you've finally found someone willing to tell you the truth," Zagan says. "Even if he is another human."
Judal sticks his tongue out. "I'm never worrying about you again."
Zagan sighs and starts to get up, already weary of company. "Yes, I'm sure. If that's all you have to say-"
"Something's eating up other magic users and items," Hakuryuu interrupts, tired of listening to them bickering. "And Judal hadn't heard from you in awhile, so he wanted to check up on you."
Judal whines in his ear and Zagan looks mildly pleased. "You thought some minor creature could take me out?" he asks, and Judal shrugs.
"Or you caught it in some nasty trap of yours, and then the problem would be solved," he says, before Hakuryuu can say anything else.
Zagan taps a finger to his lips, looking thoughtful. "Unfortunately for you, I haven't run across anything like that recently. Do you have any other specifics?"
"No," Judal admits, frowning deeply. "I ruled a few things out because they're not local-"
"But couldn't they be imported?" Zagan interrupts, just as a strange, colorful creature comes in. It's carrying a tray with a teapot and cups precariously balanced on it, and holding a basket laden with fruits and sweets.
"Oh, lovely," Zagan says, pouring himself some tea. "Serve our guests too, please."
It walks over, offering the tray to Judal first. Following their examples, Hakuryuu pours a cup of tea and takes a few sweets.
"I guess," Judal says, once he's snacked some. "But some of them can't survive in the climate here, and it's been nearly impossible to get any sort of read on the magic to narrow it down."
Zagan sips his tea. "It's been magical humans, right?"
"And items."
"I still think I'll be staying out of this. You know my opinion on...you people," Zagan says, pulling a face.
"Whatever, I don't want your help," Judal snaps back, but it still sounds friendly.
Hakuryuu stays out of the conversation for the most part, though he's still paying attention and thinking it over. Zagan speaks of humans with such disdain, but also like he isn't one himself, which is interesting. He supposes he shouldn't be too surprised. He also thinks he has at least part of the answer to what Judal is: human, or at least enough for Zagan to group him in with other humans. That's the more surprising part, somehow.
"If you can't figure out what you're up against, it might just be coincidence."
"It's never just coincidence," Judal argues, and Zagan nods. "We've only been a few places, though."
"I see."
"It's an actual problem!" he says defensively. "Don't look at me like that."
"I never said it wasn't," Zagan says, overly polite.
"Ugh, you just don't care because it's not your problem. Hey, where's your stupid boyfriend or whatever?" Judal asks, glancing around. "Usually he'd try to throw me out by now!"
"Belial? Hmm, I prefer to think of him as eye candy," Zagan answers. "He's not here. He doesn't actually live here, you know. You just have a way of showing up at inconvenient times."
Judal grins broadly. "Aww, I'm glad I can cockblock you so much! Tell him I say hi."
"I will not," Zagan replies, glowering. "You are impossible."
"It's part of my charm!" he declares. "Right, Hakuryuu?"
He glances up from his tea to look at Judal. "Here I thought your charm was disorganized paperwork and a messy house."
"Why do you hate me?" he whines, nearly spilling their tea as he tries to flop in Hakuryuu's lap. "Both of you, abusing me so much!"
"Are you quite done?" Zagan asks eventually, once Judal has whined himself out.
"Bluh, fine. We do have other places to be, and you live too damn far away," Judal grouses, getting out of Hakuryuu's personal space and off the couch.
Zagan leads them out, back through the lush forest of his house, looking entirely different than it did on the way in and yet still similar enough that it's obviously the same sort of space. It reminds him of a more organic version of the back of Judal's shop. "I thought you didn't drive."
"Hakuryuu does!" Judal says cheerfully.
"Ah, he is very unlucky then."
"I'm a delight," Judal informs him, before heading out the front door.
"Thank you for the tea," Hakuryuu tells Zagan, who he thinks looks slightly less disgusted by his presence, and then follows Judal to the car.