18. One Shot (Hakuryuu/fem!OC): Hakuryuu visits Judar's home village and takes a nap at a nearby lake until his wife interrupts him. In the end they have a strange conversation about the sun, the moon and the stars.

.

Whenever they paid Judar's home village a visit, Hakuryuu took the chance to enjoy the nice weather and the beautiful sight. Near a big lake he laid down and closed his eyes. A soft wind cooled down the hot air and the shadow created by the giant, old tree next to him was also quite helpful. The weather was wonderful, but without the wind it would be too hot to go outside. Judar had stayed back in the village – probably not voluntarily – to help out there. Normally Hakuryuu also offered a helping hand and with Zagan's power he could do a lot for the people. However, he hadn't come here to work, he was here to relax from all the work at home. An advantage of Judar been kept busy by the villager was that Hakuryuu could also take a break from his friend. He liked Judar, but that guy could be very exhausting. So a few hours without the other one were always welcomed and needed. The two of them had discovered this place, but until then it had always only been Hakuryuu, who came back and enjoyed the place. Because he was a nice person, he had offered Judar to come with him, but got rejected every time. There was almost nothing he hated more than rejections, therefore he stopped asking. Sometimes it seemed like Judar wanted to be asked, wanted to go with him, but Hakuryuu ignored it. If the other one wanted something, he had to say it or stay silent forever!
The only person who kept him company from time to time was his wife. Due to her own duties she did not go to Judar's village every time the other two did, also she was of the opinion that her husband and his friend should spent some of their free time together without her. The life in the palace was hectic and it was so easy to overlook each other. This time she had gone with them, because she was tired of all the work and needed a break, also she wanted to eat the great meat buns made by one of Judar's relatives. Seeing her happy made Hakuryuu happy as well. Because of their marriage she also lived in Kou, thus she had to leave her own home. For him she had left her home, her family and her friends – of course, she could visit them or write them, but it was still a huge difference whether someone was near or far, far away. So when she came with them to Judar's home village, Hakuryuu was even happier. Somehow it felt more complete with her. Also the lake was a perfect dating place! Quite a few times they had picnicked here and it had been wonderful. Theoretically one could also go bathing in the lake, but none of them really liked swimming or the water. Hakuryuu disliked it because of his scars, his wife disliked it because of no particular reason – maybe because she did not trust the fishes and other creatures inside the water, also water was cold. She disliked the cold. Judar liked it. Those two were so different and alike at the same time that Hakuryuu could only be amazed. Both of them liked his food and him, and he liked the two. So everything was fine.
Ever since his family died, he felt like his life was covered in darkness. The whole world had turned dark and he had only seen the light again, when Judar and he had joined hands. However his world had still been dark not bright. Judar was not a bright person. He loved chaos and causing trouble for others. However Judar had turned the black world into a gray world. Finally he had seen an end to his struggling and pain, one could say he had seen the light at the end of the dark tunnel. The one who had given his gray world all of the colors back was his wife. They had met when he had gone to pick Judar up from his home village. Back then Hakuryuu hadn't known where exactly Judar had been or that the village was the other one's home, but when Judar told him he had felt happy. Hearing that his friend had found his home and a few relatives, was a great thing – he had feared Judar may not come back to the Kou Empire back then, but his fear was unfounded. As if the so called black Magi would let go of his king, who he had missed so much. And his king had missed him a lot as well.
Hakuryuu had stay some days, during that period he also had met his wife. She and Judar had already know each other and it actually had been Judar, who had introduced her to him. Who would have thought that Judar was good as a matchmaker? Well, Hakuryuu had not. His wife was a cheerful person, who also could be very negative, when she was in a bad mood or sad. However, she always tried to see the bright sight of everything, as long as it was not about her. Whenever something bad happened to her she immediately saw it as the end of her life and nothing good would ever happen to her. Yes, she could be very dramatic at times, which was amusing in some situations. But most of the time she was a happy little ray of sunshine – well, maybe not that little, since she was only a bit smaller than Hakuryuu. Judar still mocked her with it and she let him get her. As counter she always used his weak physics against him. In the end those two would bicker – a friendly bickering.
"There you are", someone called out to the almost sleeping Hakuryuu.
As tired as he was, he barely opened his eyes to see, who had called him, although he could already tell just by the voice. His wife had gone to search for him.
"Here I am and here you are", Hakuryuu said in response with a smile on his lips.
Simply seeing her made him smile and feel good.
"You should have said where you were going. It took me so long to find this place. As punishment you have to cook me my favorite dinner later."
Hakuryuu hadn't said anything, because he had assumed that everyone knew where he was going. On the other hand, most barely visit the lake and therefore probably barely anyone knew where it was located. His wife also did not come here very often, so she was even more unfamiliar with the landscape than the people of the village.
"Sorry, I thought it was obvious. Next time I'll tell you and show you where you have to go to get here", Hakuryuu apologized, "C'mon sit down. The weather is pretty nice today, so let us enjoy it."
"Nice? The weather it horrible! It's way too hot", his wife complained, while she sat down next to him under the tree.
Hakuryuu was confused and one could see it on his face. He had thought she liked it warm. Wasn't she constantly complaining, during the winter, about how cold it was and how she wanted it to be summer again? Had he misunderstood something important?
"I thought you liked it warm."
"I do. However, there is a huge difference between "hot" and "warm". When it's warm you do not sweat like made by just being alive. But when it is hot, you do! And the worst, you cannot get away from the heat!"
She really wanted to take off all of her clothes, although it would not do much. It still would be too warm and she would still sweat like crazy.
"Maybe when you asked very nicely then Judar may use his ice magic too cool you down", Hakuryuu suggested.
"Um, not a bad idea. Unfortunately, I think Judar would overdo it or refuse, just so he can annoy me. He can be such a dick."
Yes, Judar could and he would use every opportunity he could get to prank someone or to be an asshole. But until now he also had always helped, when asked by Hakuryuu or his wife. Even when the latter one often got into arguments with Judar, they got a long pretty well. Those small disputes were never serious and existed only because both of them could be very stubborn and didn't want to lose to the other one. Unfortunately for Judar, Hakuryuu's wife won most of the arguments.
"Or he is so kind and does help you. And then you have to thank him."
"Yes."
While they had talked, she had taken off her shoes. Feeling the grass on her skin was nice – she was a bit ticklish. For a while none of them said anything. She was playing with the grass and Hakuryuu was watching her. Although he was sleepy he did not want to fall asleep, because for him it was rude to sleep, while someone else was there. What if his wife wanted to talk to him? Or felt lonely? Yes, he had a lot of self-made problems, but this was just how he was.

"If it is too hot, you can also go into the water. I am sure it will help you to cool down", Hakuryuu said.
One could hear that he was tired and a yawn confirmed it further. Usually Hakuryuu was not someone, who needed a nap, but he had gone to bed quite late the other day and therefore hadn't rest as much as he needed. The weather also wasn't helpful with staying awake. His wife was right, one did not even have to move to sweat and feel exhausted. The cold breeze made it more bearable and he had found a good place to stay – the trees covered most of the sun.
"I know, but I don't want to go into the water. Who knows what kind of creatures live in this lake."
"Then, do you want to sleep a little bit? As long as we stay under the tree, it won't be too warm and we can relax. It's a nice place for a nap, I can assure you."
Hakuryuu knew that his wife loved sleeping, that's why she took a nap whenever she had time for one, which wasn't too often, because of all the work back at home. Happily his wife followed his suggested and took his hand, which he had offered her. Another thing she greatly liked: holding hands. They did not hold hands in public much and they also barely did it in private, because his wife often got annoyed by it – she started to sweat, because it was too warm, it was a hindrance at work, because she only had one hand left, and it made her feel trapped –, but she seemed to love it, to take his hand into her very firmly and hold it close to her body, just like now. She rested her head on his chest, facing him, and holding his hand close to her chest. It looked like she was protecting something important from being stolen. Probably because she didn't want to lose Hakuryuu and was afraid someone might steel him away from her – someone like Judar. For her this way of holding hands was very important and had a meaning to her, although Hakuryuu did not know the meaning, but also had never asked. Somehow he was of the opinion that this was something he did not need to know and it was better not to know. A bit stupid, but one did not need to understand everything. Important was only that she enjoyed herself and was happy.
"Your skin is so soft", she said, while drawing little circles on his arm.
"Yours too."
Besides being soft, her skin also was very pale and Hakuryuu had worried about her health a lot, when they first met. Since she avoided going outside under the sun, the chances that her skin tone got a bit darker where extremely small. Well, it was her body and she could do whatever she wanted with it, but Hakuryuu's worries would not get less until she would look a bit healthier. Tenderly he stroke a few strands of hair out of her face.

It was a bit ironic that he always wanted to life under the sun, as they say, and now he was hiding from it, because he could not bear the heat. This thought cause him to laugh at bit, which caused his wife to look at him in confusion.
"What's so funny? Are you laughing about me?", she asked not very pleased by the thought he might laugh about her.
"I was thinking how ironic it was that I chased after the sun, after the light for so long, and now I am hiding from it", Hakuryuu answered honestly.
"What a stupid thought. You know, you shouldn't have chased after the sun anyway. The sun is stupid!"
Hakuryuu wasn't sure how the sun could be stupid, but he kept this to himself. He wasn't in a mood to start a pointless dispute with his wife. She, on the other hand, switched her position, so that she now looked at the cloudless sky. For a moment no one said anything until she suddenly pointed at the sky: "Look, there you can see the moon! The moon is better than the sun. He doesn't make you sweat like hell, he does not burn your skin or hurt your eyes, when you accidently look up to him and he is always there."
Hakuryuu looked where she was pointing at, but could not see much besides the blue of the sky.
"There is nothing", he stated hoping that this would not cause an argument.
Maybe his eyes got bad or he was too tired or he simply didn't want to see the moon. One of the most annoying aspects of his wife, was her stubbornness paired with desire to always be right – which often was also due to her wanting other to agree with her and she wanted to convince those who had other opinions to change theirs. For whatever reason it was a huge disaster when she and Hakuryuu had different opinions about things, especially things she considered important. She could accept it, but she did not like it and it made her uncomfortable. It had gotten better over the time, but it was still obvious that she wanted Hakuryuu to have the same opinions as she had – his opinions were very important to her.
"But he is there! Look!", she waved her hands around as if this would make Hakuryuu magically see the moon out of nowhere, "You are probably blinded by the sun, just like everyone else. You have to take a closer look. The moon is not very visible during the day, but he is there."
Out of good will and because he wanted to confirm whether the moon could be seen during daytime – he hadn't paid any attention to it until now – he took a closer look. Indeed, he could see something! It was very easy to overlook, because it was so inconspicuous and blurred in with its surrounding, but it was there and it was the moon.
Hakuryuu told his wife that he now saw the moon, which made her happy.
"You cannot see the sun at night. So he moon is better! He will be there in the dark and help you see, where you're walking. And at daytime he is also there and looks after you, but he is more subtle about it. When you compare with human relationships than this means that the sun is the person that will only be at your side, when the times are good, but leave you as soon as trouble is nearing. The moon, on the other hand, is the person that will stay with you when times are good and support you, in times of need. He will not leave you, during the dark times of your life. Moreover, the moon accepts others beside him – the stars. As you know, the sun is always alone at the sky. So this means she does not like other people being near you, she wants to be the only person in your life – she wants you to depend on her. However, the moon accepts all of your friends. When you look at the night sky you see so many stars. Those stars are you friends and family, people that helped you and are there for you, just like the moon. And they will work together to make your life better, to support you and bring happiness to you. The sun is bitch!"
Hakuryuu was surprised by his wife's interpretation of the sun and the moon. He never had thought about them in any way. They existed, but they had no special meaning to him or anyone else. But like anyone else, he liked the sun more, because she meant it was daytime and humans feared the dark, the night, because it hold the unknown. At daytime everything could be seen and there was nothing unknown, nothing frightening. Still he hadn't put much thought into it. For him it was just that way and end of the story.
"This is a very interesting interpretation on things. So, you dislike the sun, simply because you think she represents a bad human relationship?"
"Yes."
She had shifted her gaze back to him and wasn't pointing at the sky anymore. Her voice was frim, so he knew this subject was important to her and she believed in what she had said. Honestly, she was a bad liar, so even when she tried to fake the importance of a matter, she failed – one only had to look her into the eyes and everything was clear, at least for Hakuryuu.
"Say, who would be your sun, moon and star?", she asked.
She was curious.
Since the question was a bit strange for Hakuryuu, and because it was the first time he had heard such a unique interpretation, he needed some time to think it through. When the stars where his friends and family, then maybe he had a starless sky. He had no friends and his family was horrible. Not a good start. What about his moon and sun? When the moon was a person, who would stay with one no matter what and helped one through their darkest hours, then his moon was Judar. Hakuryuu was sure his wife would do almost everything for him and also would stay at his side no matter what, but Judar was the one, who actually had been at his side at his worst times. And Judar also had been there for Hakuryuu before that, although he had pushed the other one away from him. Judar had always been at his side and it seemed like this would never change. Also they were friends, so was Judar his moon and a star? Was this possible? Well, going by his wife's definition it should be. Now to his sun. According to his wife the sun was a person that was only there for someone, when times are good and would let one down as soon as it meant trouble for them. This would fit Alibaba and Aladdin the most. The two had acted as his friends and said they would help him, when he needed them, because they were friends, but in the end when he had needed them the most, they had betrayed him. It had been Judar, who had offered him help, when it should have been his friends to be at his side. So those two would be his sun and Judar would be his moon. Now back to the stars, he could still not think of many people for them. His wife would be a star and his sister Kougyoku as well.
"Well, after thinking about it thoroughly, I came to the conclusion that Judar is my moon, Alibaba and Aladdin are the sun and you and Kougyoku are the stars."
"Interesting. But why are their only two stars in your life. That's sad. I mean, have you ever looked at the night sky? There are so many stars and you only have two?"
"I know, but I do not have many friends. And you know that my family is… a bit special. I would love to have more stars too, but I cannot change it. Anyway, why does it matter? I have you, Judar and Kougyoku. I don't need hundreds of friends to be happy, the three of you are enough for me."
A short moment of silence followed. Somehow his wife did not seem to be satisfied with his answer. However, he failed to see what bothered her so much. Compared to him she had many friends, on the contrary her family was pretty small. Maybe because of that she could not understand, how someone could be fine with only three friends. Or she could not understand, how someone like Hakuryuu, who was perfect in her eyes, could not have more friends. He should have more!
"Well, you know, you could have counted my family as yours or at least as friends. They really like you! If I tell them that you do not consider them as stars, it will break their hearts."
This was true, her family was very fond of Hakuryuu and he liked them as well. Yet he was unsure how they viewed him. He hadn't counted them, because he wasn't sure, if they felt the same way, if he was allowed to see them as stars. Due to the distance between the Kou Empire and his wife's homeland, he barely had a chance to interact with her family and so he could not say what they truly thought and felt about him.
"You don't have to tell them. They are my stars, I just was not sure, whether I am allowed to see them as such", Hakuryuu told her and stroke through her hair again, "When we count your family as stars, I have a lot of stars now."
When his wife talked about her family, she also meant her friends, since for her they also counted as family. Because of that she always told other that she had a big family, although she only had her two brothers – her parents weren't alive anymore and besides her two older brothers, she had no other relatives. His own family had become quite small as well, but there were chances that this could change in the future.

"So, what about you? Who are your sun, moon and stars?", Hakuryuu asked.
He was honestly curious. No he did not expect her to see him as her moon, since he already knew she also had been through tough times and it hadn't been him, who had been at her side back then. Actually he was fine with that, she loved him so it did not matter as long as she did not consider him the sun – just like she did not care about his assignment, as long as she wasn't the sun.
"I wonder", she simply answered and closed her eyes.
She had absolutely no intention of giving him a concrete answer. It was more fun to let him guess. Maybe she would tell him some time in the future. For now she preferred to make herself comfortable on him, while playing with his hand. It was indeed pretty nice under the big tree, hidden from the sun and the heat. The next time her husband and Judar would pay a visit to this little village, she would go with them. Work could wait, but this place may be gone one day or she might not be able to go there anymore.
Smiling ignoring her husband's constant question, who was who to her, she enjoyed the weather and the landscape, until she felt asleep. Hakuryuu followed her into the land of dreams soon after.