apparently "I'll try to update more" means "sorry it's gonna be 7 months for another chapter because of who I am as a person" but here we are! I had a very successful November writing (thx as always nanowrimo), though it was mostly original fiction. BUT! I did teach myself some better writing habits, so I feel a lot more confident in saying that yes, I am going to be making a concerted effort to update this more regularly! I miss these boys! :D
anyway, onto the important part: the very autumnal inspired chapter, posted in early December XD enjoy~~~
Hakuryuu isn't naive enough to think that problems solve themselves overnight, but something about being around Judal has made him want to believe. Unfortunately, the black-eyed children are still standing in front of the store when Hakuryuu arrives in the morning. They glance at him as he walks up, unblinking and uncomfortably still.
"I don't suppose I can convince you to leave," he says as he pulls out his store key.
"Can we come in?"
He frowns. "No," Hakuryuu tells them firmly. Hopefully they'll at least leave customers alone today.
Judal is going to be upset again, he knows that much.
Hakuryuu doesn't give himself time to stress too much over it. Counting the register, checking the shelves for anything broken or misplaced (as though anything could be misplaced in Judal's chaotic shop), and giving the place a quick sweep keep him busy until it's time to turn on the lights and open the store. The morning is fairly slow, and he's able to plod along with his paperwork until Judal comes in.
True to his expectations, Judal comes in grumpy and it only goes downhill from there as customers finally start to arrive. He snaps at anyone that makes the mistake of mentioning the children outside, to the point that he's starting to scare away far more business than usual.
Hakuryuu frowns, setting aside his current stack of papers to focus on something else. It's not technically work related, but it is Judal related, and that's close enough. Their movie date last night seemed to put Judal in a better mood, so maybe he just needs something else to get his mind off the children haunting the door. He'll have to brainstorm some ideas.
He just took Judal to the movies, so he'll have to do something different. He taps his pen on the desk, thinking. What do other people do for dates? Go out for dinner? They already order take out together all the time, and Hakuryuu even cooks for him on occasion. It's sweet, he thinks, but it's not a date. At that moment, Hakuryuu has the somewhat awkward realization that he, like Judal, is not a naturally romantic person. He used up his one 'date night' idea on going to the movies last night and now he's completely tapped out.
Maybe if he'd been better at romance or tried harder to make friends and romantic partners in the first place, he'd have more experience to pull from.
He groans. How hard can it be to think of a date idea? People go on dates all the time, presumably without stressing this much about what to do, but it's just not in his nature to be impulsive. He has to plan this out.
Lucky for Hakuryuu, there's always somewhere to turn if he needs to learn something new: the internet. Someone out there has probably made a list of date ideas already, and if he can find it, he can try to use it for inspiration.
Searching for "date ideas" gives him so many lists that it's actually kind of overwhelming to try to pick just one. This is a little more than he bargained for, so Hakuryuu takes a deep breath to calm down before continuing. '50 Creative Date Ideas' sounds like a good starting point, at least. Judal is a fairly creative person. Hakuryuu looks at the first couple of suggestions and frowns. He can't imagine taking Judal on a brewery tour; he doesn't think he's ever even seen him drink anything besides water, coffee, and juice.
Birdwatching? He doubts Judal would consider sitting quiet and still for an entire afternoon a fun activity. Hakuryuu keeps reading, only to discover that most of these are just "get drunk, but somewhere different than where you usually get drunk." There's nothing creative about that.
The next few lists are fairly similar, with mundane suggestions like "recreate your first date" - did they ever have a proper first date? - and "work on a DIY project" - Judal's entire shop is one big, neverending DIY project on its own. He'll have to come back to this after lunch.
Once he's eaten, Hakuryuu restarts his date idea search with a fresh mind. He's determined to find something this time. After scrolling through a couple more lists, something finally catches his eye: "head out to a farm and go berry picking." It's a bit out of season for most berries, but it's the perfect time of year for apples and pumpkins. He remembers Judal mentioning decorating for Halloween, so Hakuryuu has a feeling that autumn inspired activities might be to his tastes.
This is a good starting point. Hakuryuu closes the list and looks for a local farm that's open to the public. He finds one that's about an hour out from the city, but it's hosting all sorts of fall themed events for next month. Judal would probably like a corn maze, and definitely fresh, locally made sweets.
Hakuryuu makes a list of potential activities they could partake of at the farm and tucks it away fro now. He'll get back to it after work.
x･x･x
Judal knocks on the office door loudly, jarring Hakuryuu out of his work, before barging right in. "Hey, I'm closing up," he says.
Hakuryuu glances at the time but chooses not to comment on how early it is, even for Judal. "Let me just clean up what I'm doing in here."
"Yeah, that's fine. I just wanted to let you know before you accidentally worked the whole night away," Judal explains, leaning against the door frame while he watches Hakuryuu pack up.
"I would not."
"You might!"
Hakuryuu shakes his head, but he's glad that Judal is joking around with him instead of moping. "I take it we'll be closed tomorrow?"
Judal nods. "Mmmhmm, and I don't have any appointments. So yeah, I guess you're off the hook for the day."
Hakuryuu slides the last of the receipts into a folder and puts it away. The office could use a good dusting, but he can tell that Judal is more than ready to get out of here. "I was actually going to go out of town a bit, just for the day. There's a farm that allegedly has the best pumpkins around, and I want to start stocking up for now for fall. If you don't have any other plans, I thought you might enjoy coming along."
"To go...food shopping?" Judal cocks his head to the side and stares at him expectantly.
"Well, there are other things to do there," Hakuryuu tries desperately to explain.
"At a farm?"
He seems a lot less enthused than Hakuryuu expected and he's not sure what to do now. He supposes he can try to spell it out for Judal more clearly, but he's fairly sure that he just doesn't want to go. Having Judal tell him it sounds like a stupid date idea is just going to make him feel worse. "You don't have to come along. There's just some pumpkin patches and apple picking, and I always feel that everything tastes better if you pick it fresh," Hakuryuu says lamely. "Enjoy your day off."
"Do they have peaches?" Judal asks. He doesn't look completely disinterested, but it's close.
"I'm not sure. It's not exactly peach season, but they might. I'd have to look it up," he says, and this seems to satisfy him.
"Kay."
Is this a yes or no? He thinks he should know by now, but Judal delights in making himself difficult to predict and understand. "Alright. Well, I'm going to go home, then," he manages, shrugging his jacket on as he goes. So much for doing anything with Judal tomorrow, or trying to plan dates anymore. He supposes he did get on Judal's case for trying to be something he isn't, but Hakuryuu feels like he could be the type of person that plans date and experiences.
At least he can have a relaxing day off. He shouldn't be so disappointed to be spending it alone, especially since he sees Judal nearly every day at work, but he is.
x･x･x
Hakuryuu loads the last of the clothes for this load into the laundry machine and goes to track down a fresh bottle of detergent. If he isn't going on a date, he might as well make himself useful around his own house. He's no good at relaxing for relaxing's sake- it's much more soothing to accomplish a goal, to-
"Hey, are you ready?" Hakuryuu hears from his living room. Is that Judal? There's some rustling, probably from him moving things around, and Hakuryuu rushes to investigate. He finds Judal dressed like some sort of modern witch with a fashionable scarf covered in occult symbols and heavy jewelry accented with raw crystals, poking around his living room.
"Judal?"
He looks over and grins. "There you are! Aren't you ready yet?"
Hakuryuu raises an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
Judal rolls his eyes and sighs, like Hakuryuu is the weird one here. "Usually you're telling me off for not being ready time for anything, but look at you! I thought we were doing your fair thing today."
"Fair?"
"The farm fair!"
"You said it was stupid," Hakuryuu points out, confused.
"So?"
He sighs. "So, I figured you didn't want to go," he says carefully, trying to piece together what exactly is going on here.
"Of course we're going! I love having you drive me around places, especially when they're stupid! Do I really look like a man with discerning taste?" Judal asks, grinning and flopping on the couch before bossing him around some more. "So go get ready! I wanna go!"
"Oh. Well, okay then." Every time he thinks he's begun to figure Judal out, he surprises him. He can only hope today will go well despite the rough start. "Just give me a moment to get dressed."
"Kay."
Hakuryuu is now glad that he hadn't started any of his laundry yet. He'll have to worry about it later, but for now, he has to get ready to take Judal on a date that he thought he wasn't happening. This is fine. He at least has the plans he had begun yesterday and Judal's enthusiasm.
"So where is this place?" Judal asks once they're on the road and the city is miles behind them. He seems comfortable and more excited now with the first colorful leaves of fall littering the sides of the highway.
"About an hour north of the city, so probably another 45 minutes or so," he explains, glancing at his phone for confirmation. "If you want to put on some music, go ahead."
Judal reaches for the phone with glee, scrolling through to find what he's in the mood for today. "Cool, I'm gonna make you confront your secret shameful teen music again."
"You like it too."
"Yeah, but I have no shame. You like to pretend that you're cooler than all that, but I know better now!"
Hakuryuu doesn't bother to answer that, turning his attention fully to the road ahead. The highway winds on for miles, past fields and forests, and music fills the companionable silence between him and Judal.
x･x･x
Judal practically flies out of the car after they've parked and stretches out with a groan. "Next time, I'm just gonna sleep on the way," he whines, shaking his legs out.
"I told you how long it would take," Hakuryuu points out as he locks his car. He's glad he looked at a map online before arriving, because the sprawling farm doesn't have a clearly defined entrance from where they're parked. He recognizes a the hay and vine archway as an entrance and gestures for Judal to follow his lead. "Come on, the entrance is this way."
He follows Hakuryuu excitedly, bouncing on his heels. "Oh, fancy! Is it some kind of festival, or what?"
"Yes, actually. I was trying to explain that to you yesterday, before you called it lame and seemed disinterested," he points out and Judal laughs.
"You really took that so seriously!"
He groans. "You're an asshole."
Judal grins at him. "I prefer charmingly cheeky."
"Oh, I'm sure you do."
Judal opens his mouth to respond again, probably with another snarky comeback, but he stays quiet as he looks around the farm stretching in front of them. "Holy shit, I didn't think- is that a corn maze? Fucking sweet!"
Hakuryuu relaxes and a smile tugs at the corners of his lips. "I told you, I thought you might enjoy coming along," he says smugly. He was right about taking Judal here. He shouldn't have doubted himself.
"Well maybe you shoulda opened with the corn maze, instead of glorified grocery shopping," Judal says, before he bounds off. He wastes no time finding a stall that sells sweets, and Hakuryuu finds him with a candy apple covered in chocolate and sprinkles. It suits him, even though to Hakuryuu, it looks like an overwhelming amount of sugar. That's just the sort of thing that Judal is drawn to. "I wanna do the maze with you," he says around bites of candy apple.
"Sure," he agrees. His only worry is that Judal is going to get tired of his sticky, messy candy halfway through the maze and try to get Hakuryuu to take it from him. "I'm not carrying that for you when you get tired of it."
"I'm not gonna!" Judal says, clutching his candy apple possessively as Hakuryuu buys tickets for the maze. Everything is going so much better now that they're actually here. Hakuryuu is happy it's working out, even if he is still getting over the residual stress from from this morning's sudden change of plans.
Hakuryuu turns a corner after him only to find himself alone in a dead end. "Judal?"
Somewhere to his left, there's a muffled "Yeah?"
"Where are you?" Hakuryuu asks, looking around again. He hears rustling, and then a teleportation circle opens in the wall of corn beside him. Oh. So that's what it is. He's cheating. It shouldn't come as a surprise, and yet...
Judal grins at him. "Right here!"
"Judal!"
"What?"
"What do you think you're doing?" he asks incredulously. If anyone else comes by, he has no idea how to explain this. Hakuryuu knows that he's new to the world of magic, but Judal isn't. He should know better than to be so brazen.
His grin just widens. "Winning!" he declares, vanishing before he can be stopped.
Hakuryuu turns and goes back the way he came, trying to track both where Judal is and the route out. If he can stay one step ahead of him, he should hopefully be able to stop Judal from making any magic related messes. Anything else is fair game; it's much easier to explain away than someone literally teleporting away from dead ends in a corn maze.
It's hard at first, because he has to differentiate the sounds Judal is making from the general noisiness around him - it's not like they're the only ones in the corn maze, or this wouldn't be as big of an issue. But he can feel Judal's magic, prickling in his own veins from how deeply he knows and recognizes it, and Hakuryuu uses that to his advantage. He uses it to avoid dead ends and slowly but surely catch up to Judal, until he finally manages to corner him in a narrow dead end passage.
He thinks faster than Judal, reaching out with magic to will some of the corn to grab onto Judal before he can teleport away again.
Judal screeches when he realizes that he's stuck. "Hey!"
"Are you done running away yet?" Hakuryuu asks, making his way over to Judal. It's nice to see the tables turned finally, and he can't help but smirk.
"Mmm, maybe? I'm considering it," he answers, looking far from honest. Hakuryuu trusts him enough to know that he'll bolt the second he's released, and he tightens the plants' grip on Judal. Pumpkin vines snake up his legs, holding Judal more firmly in place until he's agreed to stop teleporting around the maze.
Hakuryuu shakes his head. "You could at least try to sound honest."
Judal shrugs. "Come on, we're having fun!" he says, twisting himself forward just enough to kiss Hakuryuu quickly, before pulling back with a grin.
He leans back in, grabbing the front of Judal's shirt to yank him closer, and kisses him more properly. He tastes sickly sweet from his candy apple - which, belatedly, Hakuryuu realizes has gone missing, probably ditched in a corner of the maze - and the air around them thrums with magic. Judal always feels somewhat like he's more magic than person but it's stronger now, with all the showing off he's done to cheat his way through the maze, and Hakuryuu finds it intoxicating. His usual qualms with public displays of affection melt away because it's just nice to be here, together, shedding the worries of work and responsibilities until they're just wrapped up in each other's company.
His thoughts are cut short by a loud cough from behind them, and Hakuryuu pulls back quickly. A family is staring at them, and the parents do notlook happy. The plants holding Judal in place go limp and pull back, letting him loose, and Hakuryuu can feel his cheeks burning. Judal doesn't look as shamed, but he can see it in the tight set of his shoulders.
"Sorry," Hakuryuu says as he and Judal slink past; he can't bring himself to say anything else or look back. He feels a bit like a teenager again, though he was never reprimanded for this sort of thing when he was one.
Judal takes his hand once they're away from the family and drags him to the right of the next fork. "I'm pretty sure this is the way out."
"Oh, good."
He grins. "I mapped this place out pretty well."
"Yes, from cheating," he points out, and Judal laughs. The last bit of awkwardness melts away with that, and they're both smiling by the time they make it through the exit.