happy end of NaNoWriMo to meeee, I finished a few days early! so now I've got quite a few chapters of this written in advance, they just need...a lot of editing... I hope y'all are in for a ride, because we're only about halfway through my outline of this fic~
as always, the text conversations look way better on ao3, and I actually reply to reviews there. so if you wanna see the prettier version of this chapter and chat with me, you can do it there!
Hakuryuu doesn't hear from Alibaba the next day, or the day after, or even the day after that. He's pretty sure their friendship has once again dissolved due to his failure to conform to whatever Alibaba wants from his friends, so Hakuryuu tries not to think about it too hard.
Almost a week later, during a slow afternoon at work, Hakuryuu takes a break from sorting papers while Judal tries to figure out what they should have for lunch. His phone has been blowing up, and he's surprised when he pulls it out to find a text from Alibaba.
Alibaba: Hey, Hakuryuu
Alibaba: I think I have a bit of a problem
Alibaba: Cassim showed up and really needed somewhere to crash
Alibaba: & it wasn't liked I could just throw him out!
Alibaba: He's like a brother to me!
Alibaba: But I don't think Aladdin is gonna appreciate him being here for some reason and I dunno what else to do
He stares at his phone for a bit to make sure he actually read that right. Alibaba is harboring a wanted criminal he wants his advice? How does this make any sense at all? Judal is still in the office making himself some sort of horribly sweet coffee concoction, so it's up to him to come up with an answer on his own.
Hakuryuu: I'm not sure what to tell you. Hiding a criminal is definitely a serious offense, and texting me about it isn't secure either.
Alibaba: Shit your right
Alibaba: But I didn't wanna leave him here to come ask you
Alibaba: What if someone was following him?
Judal comes over in the middle of his text conversation and whistles. "Jeez, what is this mess?"
Hakuryuu scrolls up some so Judal can see. "I don't know what to say. He's ignored me all week and now he wants my help with a dangerous fugitive. I don't want to be an accomplice to his crimes."
"Mmm, that's 'cause you're already tied up being one to mine," Judal teases, reading over the texts again. "This is stupid. Cassim sounds like a fucker of a friend, but I'd probably be selfish enough to risk my friends' safety, too."
Hakuryuu: I'm don't know why you asked me. I try to stay away from criminal activity.
Alibaba: Okay true
Alibaba: But Judal made a dead body disappear
Hakuryuu: Alibaba, texting is not a secure form of communication.
Alibaba: I know! But it's true!
Hakuryuu: I still can't help you.
"Shit, throwing you under the bus just 'cause I know how to clean up messes? That's cold," Judal says, since apparently he's going to run commentary on Hakuryuu's conversations while drinking his coffee. It smells like burnt sugar and bad ideas, and Hakuryuu almost wants some with how his day is going now.
"I'm not sure what to tell him. I'm not going to help him hide a murderer," Hakuryuu says firmly. "Doesn't he have Aladdin and Morgiana to rely on? Though I don't want to see him involving Morgiana, either. It would be entirely inappropriate."
Judal shrugs. "You told him you couldn't help. You can just ignore the rest of his responses now if you wanna."
"He seems desperate."
"Desperation got him into this mess," Judal says, unconcerned.
Hakuryuu nods. "True." He's willing to let Alibaba suffer for his mistakes, but he's still a bit concerned about the criminals on the loose and whatever other repercussions might come from that. Judal may not be worried, but he also likes to pretend most things don't bother him (even when they do).
He'll take a look at the news while it's still slow. Hopefully it'll just be the unfortunate but ever present daily crime. He's not an optimistic man, but in this case he's trying to pretend things will be better.
There's nothing too terribly pressing from first glance, and he gets pulled away to help a customer while Judal goes hunting for things in the back for someone else. He's just going to focus on work today and worry about Alibaba's problems later, or potentially never. Like Judal said, he got himself into this mess. It's not his responsibility to fix it.
x･x･x
A few hours later, Alibaba comes strolling in, apparently intent on making his problems everyone's responsibility. Judal glances up when he walks in and looks at Alibaba like he's the sun: like he can't actually stare at a moron so bright and huge without being in pain.
"Hey again, guys," he says cheerfully, but it doesn't do anything to relieve the tension in the air. Hakuryuu puts down his book and takes a deep breath.
"Hello, Alibaba," Hakuryuu says politely. "Can we help you?"
"Well, you said that we should stop texting, so I decided to just come by, you know?" Alibaba says. "There's no one else here so like, it should be a good time!"
Judal gestures at him aggressively with a pen. "You didn't bring your little prison boyfriend with you, right?"
There's an awkward pause, and Judal swears colorfully in what sounds like a variety of languages. "You're a fucking idiot."
"I mean, he's in the car right now," Alibaba tries to explain. "And he's not a boyfriend or anything weird like that. He's a very important childhood friend. We were basically raised as brothers!"
"Oh, that's so much better. Leaving him out in the open like that is definitely the right idea," Judal say sarcastically, carefully ignoring all of Alibaba's disagreements.
"No, no! He's under a hoodie in the back where the windows are tinted," he says, like that makes everything better. Hakuryuu can see Judal losing his patience even more, which is impressive since he's pretty sure Judal didn't have any for Alibaba to begin with.
Judal rolls his eyes. "You're pretty much the biggest idiot I've ever met," he groans. Hakuryuu expects him to throw Alibaba out and tell him to deal on his own, but instead he turns to Hakuryuu. "Go to the back and take the third door on the left, just past the burnt up painting of ducks, and make sure there's nothing dangerous just sitting around in there."
Hakuryuu almost thinks he heard wrong, but Judal keeps talking. "Get your convict out of the car and try not to do anything else stupid on the way," he snaps, shooing Alibaba out of the store.
"Judal?"
"I should let him suffer, but I'm pretty sure if I don't, it's gonna come bite me in the ass," Judal says, exhaling loudly. "So just...go deal with shit. I'm closing the store for a bit."
He nods. "Of course," he says, heading to the back. He doesn't go into any of the various doors unless given specific instructions, but apparently this is one of those rare times that he has to, and this is a new one. He finds it just where Judal said it would be, the door tucked between the painting and a rather hideous old chair.
Hakuryuu opens the door to find a dusty looking storage room that looks like it was lost in time a century ago, outfitted with some simple furniture but not much else. There's a pair of windows on one wall, but upon inspection they don't appear to actually open to anywhere outside the shop. Instead, they face an empty, plain looking street that looks just as old and forgotten. He'll have to ask Judal about it later, but for now he's got a task to accomplish. Thankfully, Judal hasn't used this room to stash things, so it should be safe for whatever he has planned.
He opens the door and finds himself face to face with a very grumpy looking Judal. "Move, move, I don't want him in here for long," Judal says, pushing Hakuryuu aside to lead Alibaba and Cassim in.
"There's nothing dangerous in here," Hakuryuu says, shutting the door behind all of them, and Judal gives him a thumbs up.
Alibaba looks around, obviously lost and confused, and Cassim plops into one of the chairs and shrugs off his hoodie. Hakuryuu remembers meeting him once in high school, very briefly, but they never got to know each other. He vaguely thinks it may have already been after he was kicked out of the school but before all his run-ins with the police. Alibaba was convinced they'd make good friends, though. He guesses it's time to put that to the test.
"Alright fuckboys," Judal snaps, and Alibaba freezes in place. "Alibaba, you're an idiot, and I'm only helping you because that genie you decided to wake up is gonna cause more problems if I don't. And uh, prison dude, whatever your name is: I don't care, but you look like you're also gonna make a mess if I leave you in Alibooba's hands."
Cassim shrugs, looking entirely unrepentant to the trouble he's caused any of them. "Alibaba doesn't mind having me around though, right?"
"Yeah, of course! I mean, I kind of wanted you to get out through legal means," he begins, but Cassim cuts him off with a laugh.
"Hey, I had the opportunity to make it work, so I did! We can't all breeze through life on daddy's money like you do," he cuts in, and it's just bitter enough that Hakuryuu wonders if he's not joking around. Alibaba seems to think he is though, since he laughs back. "Anyway, what kind of food do you have in this place? I'm starving!"
Judal doesn't even dignify him with a response. "You're gonna stay in here until… I dunno, we're done with the genie thing, and then I guess I can toss your ass back in jail," he says, pausing to consider his options. Alibaba looks crestfallen and Cassim looks pissed enough to actually punch Judal in the face. That's a bad sign.
"I'm not going back," Cassim snaps and Judal shrugs.
"Okay, fine, you can be Alibaba's problem once he's done being cursed by a genie, I don't care. Come on, Hakuryuu," he says, turning on his heel to head out. Hakuryuu gives Alibaba a half-hearted smile and follows Judal out.
"Hey," Cassim starts, getting up from the chair to start towards Judal. "Hey, listen to me assho-"
Judal taps the door with his wand, and it glows with runes before the whole thing vanishes. There's a beat of silence and then he screams in frustration, looking like he'd love to be able to blow something up right now.
"I'm sorry," Hakuryuu says once Judal is done screaming.
"What are you apologizing for? You're not an idiot," he says, eyes wide in confusion.
He gestures to where the door was. "Alibaba is an acquaintance of mine. If he wasn't, you wouldn't be this involved."
"Well, I kinda sold him that because you seemed uncomfortable around him, and I'm a dumbass who thinks that making people you don't like unhappy will solve the problem somehow," Judal admits, fidgeting nervously with a loose thread on his shirt. "So I guess this is like even more my fault, but how was I supposed to know he had some tragic prison bitch backstory?"
Hakuryuu fights to keep from smiling. "That is such a roundabout way to try to do something nice for me."
"Yeah, I'm pretty much an idiot," he says.
"Where did the door go?" Hakuryuu finally asks, curiosity getting the better of him, and Judal's grin scares him.
"They're not hurt or anything. I just didn't want anyone to accidentally wander in there, and I didn't trust prison boy to stay in there quietly," Judal explains. "I can bring the door back, but no one else can."
Hakuryuu glances over the wall once more, memorizing where they are just in case of emergency, and nods. "I see."
"I'm just gonna close down," Judal says. "Don't gimme that look."
"What look?" he asks. He doesn't think he's making any sort of face, but Judal seems to think he is.
"You know, your whole disappointed one, because you want me to be some sort of responsible business person. I'm just shitty at it and wanna take a nap until my problems go away," he whines. "But I gotta deal with this genie shit instead, which means we have to break into Alibaba's apartment to get it back and then, I dunno. I don't have the next step planned out."
Hakuryuu nods and starts heading back to the front of the shop, hoping Judal will just follow him. He hears the telltale jingle of Judal's bracelets knocking against each other behind him, and that's a good sign. "I'll help you out, if you want. We could also just ask Alibaba for his key, or I could ask Aladdin if I could pick something up for Alibaba from the apartment."
Judal laughs happily. "Man, am I glad you're better at the social part of things than me. That's a good idea."
"I don't think anyone has ever told me that I'm good at social situations before." Hakuryuu glances back at him. "In fact, I think you told me just the other day that I was bad at socializing."
"Eh, seems you're pretty shitty at keeping up friendships, but you're good at playing nice." Judal says, grinning. "Even though I know you're just as much as an asshole as me underneath your stuffy button ups and formal speech,"
Hakuryuu shoves his shoulder lightly. "I am not as rude as you are."
"Yeah, but that's not what I said. You're a judgy ass silently, even when you're smiling at someone," he corrects. "I gotta wonder what you think about me sometimes."
He stops to look at Judal. "I like you quite a lot, you know."
Judal's teasing grin freezes in on his face, and Hakuryuu worries that he somehow gave the worst answer, but it softens into a look that's much fonder. "Don't say shit like that or I'll like you too much," he says, before leaning in to kiss Hakuryuu's cheek. "Now come on, we have to figure out how to destroy an ancient evil genie."
x･x･x
Hours later, Judal groans dramatically. Hakuryuu glances up from his own limited research to see him practically crawling out of his chair with a book falling out of his lap. His wand is balanced precariously on one of his knees, and the whole tableau looks ridiculous.
"What's wrong?"
"Genies are fucking stupid," he declares. "I can see why the idiots trapped one in this lamp instead of actually solving the problem, but I don't have to like it."
Hakuryuu nods. "I'd gathered that it was hard through what I'd read so far, but I was hoping you were having better luck than me."
"Nope!"
Hakuryuu feels his phone vibrate before he can answer Judal, and he pulls it out to check. It's not like he has a good solution to the problem yet. Alibaba's name flashes back at him. Apparently he can get service in the strange magic room Judal stuck him in.
Alibaba: Hey uh so we can't get out of here
Alibaba: It's kind of weird
Hakuryuu: It's for your own safety. Cassim is wanted by the police, and we're trying to take care of this genie before it hurts you.
Alibaba: I know!
Alibaba: But it's still weird
Alibaba: And we're both hungry
Hakuryuu pinches the bridge of his nose. He feels like he's going to have to play babysitter to Alibaba and Cassim, and he's not looking forward to it. Judal would probably forget them and leave them to starve, so it's his responsibility. "Do you have any real food in your apartment?" he asks Judal.
"Uh, maybe?" he answers, unsure. "I think I have some leftover lo mein if you're hungry."
"Alibaba texted me. Apparently him and Cassim are hungry," he explains and Judal rolls his eyes.
"Oh fuck that, they can starve," he says, unconcerned. He finally shifts back into a sitting position and picks his book up, ready to read again.
Hakuryuu sighs. "Judal, we can't just pretend they're not here. I'm not too happy about this either, but I don't want them to die just because Alibaba is an idiot."
"I guess."
"Where are they?" Hakuryuu asks, curiosity getting the better of him. He knows he should really be getting some sort of food together, or helping Judal research, but he wants to know.
Judal grins at him. "There's a lotta extra rooms in this place, yeah? It's modeled off a room I rented once, 'cause I thought it was kinda cute and would make a good place to store shit I didn't need to use much. I'll have to take you on a tour of all them someday, now that I think about it."
"So, it's not actually that room, right?" Hakuryuu asks, just to clarify.
"Mm, it's the room of my memories, so yes and no," he says, looking like he's trying to figure out how to explain it properly. "If they crawled out the windows eventually they'd run out of what's there and then hit a wall, probably. I dunno. They probably shouldn't go looking for the edges, though."
He nods, considering it. Judal's shop fits what he's selling: a mix of magic and strange things that will hurt you if you try to hard to pull them apart, and it hasn't stopped being interesting. "I see."
"Yeah, it's pretty cool, huh? I really wanted to make this place mine," he says. "I wanted to actually stick around for more than a couple years. Really settle down in one city. Which is why I don't want some stupid fuckin' genie tearing this place up!"
Hakuryuu laughs, even if he probably shouldn't. The whole thing just sounds like a bad action movie setup the more Judal says it. "I know. I'll need you to help me into the room, though."
Judal whines but gets up anyway, leaving his book on the chair. "I can teach you how to get back into it, since I don't wanna have to deal with this shit any time they get hungry. Come on!"
They head back down the halls, taking different twists and turns until they've ended up at the now empty space on the wall. Judal takes out his wand and looks at Hakuryuu expectantly. "You wanna learn or what?"
"Of course," he says, pulling out his own wand. Judal grins and takes his hand, helping him draw quick sigils in the air. It feels heavy and like Judal, and he's not sure how he's going to recreate something that is so obviously Judal's own creation. But runes flash on the wall when he taps it with his wand, and the door reappears.
"See? No problem!" Judal says casually.
"I'm not sure how well I'll be able to do it without your help, but I'll certainly try-" Hakuryuu tries to say, but Judal cuts him off.
"Don't be such a Negative Nancy, Hakuryuu. This is probably more in line with your skills than mine, so you'll be fine," he says, before turning to lean. "These guys are all your problem, though."
That sounds about right. Judal's completely uninterested in helping with them, but that's understandable. He's got no actual stake in making sure they survive, and he's honestly surprised Judal hasn't tried to force some sort of payment out of Alibaba at the very least. "You're oddly complimentary today."
Judal shrugs, on his way down the hall already. "Don't get too used to it! Or keep being good at shit, either works I guess."
Hakuryuu doesn't answer him. Instead, he heads into the room to see what Alibaba and Cassim what to eat. He can at least play nice host while Judal is getting some actually important work done.
Cassim is lounging in a different chair now, a phone in his hands. He's pretty sure that it's Alibaba's phone, since he's staring out one of the windows sadly. They both look up when he comes in and Hakuryuu is almost stunned by the anger on Cassim's face. He should be grateful that Judal is helping him out instead of turning him out on streets for the police to find him again. The look vanishes quickly though, and Cassim gives him what is probably a fake smile. Great.
"Hey, you came back. You gonna let us out of this stupid closet or what?" he asks.
"No," Hakuryuu answers simply. "Didn't you listen to Judal the first time? I'm just here because Alibaba said you two were hungry."
He groans. "Come on, you can't be serious. Alibaba, you said this guy could help us, not that we'd be trapped in some weird storage room," Cassim says accusingly, and Alibaba's face falls until he just looks like an ashamed puppy. It's not a good look for him.
"I mean, you can't really go wandering the streets right now," Alibaba begins, but backs down under Cassim's glare. "I don't think locking us in a tiny room is gonna help, though."
"Judal runs a business, and your face is on every news station right now," Hakuryuu says. He doesn't have to tell them that Judal actually shut the store down for the rest of the day, especially with their attitude. "Do you want food or not?"
"I want food!" Alibaba says enthusiastically. "We never got to do dinner together, you know."
Hakuryuu raises an eyebrow. "That's because strangers broke into your house and killed someone, and then you and Aladdin seemed offended that Judal actually knew how to fix the problem."
At least Alibaba has the decency to look kind of embarrassed. "Haha, yeah, I guess that did happen," he says sheepishly. "It was super messed up though! How did you take that so well?"
Cassim looks embarrassed for Alibaba and a little bit surprised. "Shit, there was a murder at your place? Maybe I shouldn't have tried to get your help. I just figured you wouldn't want to let me down."
No wonder Judal didn't want to help. Hakuryuu feels like he's being purposefully ignored while Cassim has whatever conversation he feels like, and Alibaba just follows along. He's used to being the third wheel, but they asked him to help them and now they just don't care. It's just plain ungrateful. He didn't come here to listen to them bicker about whether or not it's a good idea to stay here under Judal's roof.
"If you don't actually want anything to eat, I'll go," Hakuryuu finally snaps, interrupting their petty argument. Alibaba and Cassim fall silent, surprisingly. Good.
"Sorry," Alibaba says awkwardly. "We still want food."
At least they're listening now. "Judal doesn't have much food here, so I was going to order something. Do you want anything in specific?"
"Uh, I guess pizza could be could? That sounds easy," Alibaba answers, and Cassim doesn't disagree. That's good enough for Hakuryuu.
"I'll be back when it arrives," he says shortly, leaving before either of them can start complaining again. He'll just text Alibaba for what toppings they'd like.
Hakuryuu stares the door down. He knows he has to put it away because Cassim is not going to stay put otherwise, but he's not sure he can recreate what Judal showed him. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, gripping his wand tightly. He can feel the magic in the air; nothing is ever truly quiet anymore. If he focuses enough he'll be able to pull out this specific spell, but everything just feels so deeply, intimately of Judal here that it's a challenge.
That's alright. He'll get it right. There's life magic in everything but especially in anything made of wood and earth, and the whole building is. Even if the room itself is made from Judal's memories, the wall in front of him and the door he's trying to hide aren't, and every inch of the carved, wooden door gives him a hint of what to do. Hakuryuu pulls at the pieces of life magic, coaxing secrets out of them until he can feel and understand every spell they've withstood, and he can pinpoint Judal's distinct magical signature in some of them.
Perfect. He can definitely work with this. Hakuryuu opens his eyes, confidence and power pulsing in his veins, and every flick of his wrist feels so natural, he's not even surprised when the door vanishes under his wand's touch.
Judal was right. This is the sort of thing that he's good at.
x･x･x
"I have no fucking clue how to fix this problem," Judal admits over late night dinner in a fast food parking lot. He's getting chicken nugget crumbs all over the car, but Hakuryuu has given up at this point. He'll just go get the car washed later.
"At all?"
He shakes his head. "Genies are tricky little bastards, kind of like extra finicky leprechauns, since they actually grant specific wishes. So like. I can't find any advice and I've never actually had to deal with one myself."
Hakuryuu nods, considering this. Alibaba caused this problem but it's gotten out of his control now, so even if they didn't know him personally, they'd still probably have to deal with the consequences. "Perhaps we could ask Zagan."
"Fuck that," Judal snaps, almost flinging a frenchy fry out the window. "He's gonna try to collect on all these favors I keep asking him for, even if he never actually helps me."
"Sorry."
"Nah, he probably doesn't know anyway," Judal says apologetically. "He's antisocial and just deals with whatever falls in his way. Like, he might know someone who knows something, but I'm not getting wrapped up in some sort of matryoshka of fae bullshit just because Alibooba wanted to recreate a Disney movie."
Hakuryuu snorts, almost getting iced tea up his nose. "Judal."
"I'm not wrong," he says petulantly, and Hakuryuu ruffles his hair affectionately.
"I didn't say you were. What do you want to do next? Because I don't think you want to keep Alibaba and Cassim in the shop indefinitely."
Judal groans and digs into his bag for the last remaining fries. "I don't. His friend is annoying, and he's just, I dunno, too fucking cheery. I don't like it!" Hakuryuu offers him some more fries and Judal snatches them up gratefully. "So my current plan is take the lamp, find the genie, and just keep hitting it until it breaks."
"That's not a great plan."
"You got anything better? 'Cause I'm all ears!" Judal says, stealing a few more of Hakuryuu's fries.
Unfortunately, he doesn't have anything else in mind, so he just shakes his head. Judal seems to have gotten through life with this method, so he's hoping it will work again.