The first thing Hakuryuu thought as he woke was that he wouldn't be surprised to open his eyes and find a handful of pixies beating him with sticks. Everything either throbbed, ached or stung, leaving his body feeling as if it were one giant bruise. It was only an afterthought that the white hot pain in his side was gone, replaced with a needling ache instead.

It took him a moment to work his mental defenses back into place, dulling the pain enough that he could focus on something other than the desire to drop back into blissful darkness. He reached into himself, finding the comforting pulse of magic at his core and following the veins of energy through his body.

Rather obviously, his magic informed him, he was hurt. Badly. His left side was punctured and there was a rib still healing from a tricky fracture. A medley of healing lacerations would split open if he moved too quickly, and where his left arm should be, there was an abrupt halt just beneath his elbow. A majority of his magic flowed to this point, trying to do what it could for the missing limb.

He exhaled slowly, easing his eyes open as breath escaped his lips. It took several blinks to focus his vision, but once he had Hakuryuu found himself staring at a white ceiling he was entirely unfamiliar with. For a moment, he thought he was back in one of the countless rooms of the UnSeelie palace, only to swiftly realize that wasn't possible.

The ceiling was too low, the white expanse apparently cracked in certain places unlike the refined stone he was used to. The air smelled of oranges and the pungent odor of blood, which he was sure was his own. Whatever he was lying on was made of a scratchy material that dug into his back at odd intervals, and the light filtering into the room was bleak, but warm.

Hakuryuu frowned, confused, and turned his head to see if he could find anything familiar in his surroundings by which to get his bearings. The first thing to greet him however was a pair of long, supple legs folded neatly so they crossed at the ankles, knees lying flat against the top of what seemed to be a low table.

He regarded the legs with mild interest for a moment, then cast his eyes upwards over the rest of the seated figure. They were wearing shorts that cut off several inches above the knee and in contrast, a long sleeved shirt that hung low enough to show off sharp collarbones. He noted a plait of dark hair over one shoulder before their eyes finally met.

The figure lowered the mug they'd been holding up to their mouth and a red tongue darted over their lips.

"Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty."

Compliments already? Hakuryuu thought with dry amusement. He brushed his thoughts aside, beginning to make the effort to push himself upright.

"Whoa, easy there! I don't know if that's a super idea." There was underlying worry in the stranger's tone. "I'm not a doctor or anything but maybe you should stay still."

Hakuryuu acquiesced with a pained groan, lying back again. His body protested to the idea of any further attempts to move, and he decided to listen to its complaints.

It took him a few minutes to breathe through the pain, but the boy on the table didn't seem terribly perturbed. He took another drink from the mug in his hands, his scarlet irises still affixed to the injured prince from under dark lashes.

Once he had his body under his own control again, Hakuryuu let out another slow sigh and decided to try to make his voice work.

"Where—" he cleared his throat, swallowing spit to make his dry throat agreeable. "Where am I, exactly?"

"On my couch." the dark haired boy answered plainly. "In my apartment. Not bleeding to death in a planter in the courtyard?"

The not bleeding to death bit was true, and remarkably pleasant as far as facts went at the moment, but the rest left the prince feeling befuddled. Why was he on a couch? And why was he in an apartment? If he were somewhere in one of the palaces, he'd be on a bed five sizes too big for him, and if he were back with the rebellion he'd be on a cot made of leaves.

He squinted at the cracked ceiling, brow furrowed, trying to remember how he'd come to be… wherever he was.

It came back to him all at once in a rush of violent colors and sounds. The rebellion hideaway had been attacked. He had split off from his companions, taking several of their attackers after him in pursuit. There had been a fight in the mountains, a stab of pain—That wretched Ithnan had been there, and then in a moment of desperation—

Hakuryuu's eyes grew wide.

In a moment of desperation he had used the last of his available magic to tear open a rift, sending his injured, unconscious body falling straight out of Sidhe and into the mortal realm.

With a sudden burst of panicked adrenaline Hakuryuu shoved himself upright, startling the mortal sitting by him. His senses reached out around him, clawing at surfaces and scavenging for any information they could garner about his unfamiliar surroundings. The smell of oranges was still abundant, the faint warmth of steam from a recently heated kettle, and— Plants.

Magic surged from him, rippling through the air with enough ferocity that the mortal tensed visibly.

"You!" he hissed from between bared teeth, turning on the boy. "What did you do?!"

"Uh—"

"Tell me exactly!"

It was somehow both insulting and disconcerting to see confusion on the boy's face rather than fear. Hakuryuu knew that he must seem alien to a mortal, especially when angered as he was. His pupils would be nothing more than catlike slivers by now, and he was revealing teeth hooked to animal sharpness. If none of his physical features did it, the aura of vicious power should at least be putting the boy on edge.

It wasn't. At most the boy seemed faintly concerned, but nothing more.

"Well," he began slowly, resting his mug on his ankles. "I was walking home. You fell out of the sky. I went over to see if I was hallucinating; turns out I wasn't, go figure."

Hakuryuu snarled and the boy picked up the pace of his tale.

"I saw you were hurt so I got you inside, got your uh, armor or whatever, off, and tried to do what I could for your injuries."

He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

"Your stuff is over there, by the way, I didn't do anything to it."

Eyes darted in the direction the mortal had indicated, falling on a pile of out of place objects. His armor sat heaped in a disorganized mess of straps and metal, though at first glanced it seemed mostly unharmed. Nestled in the corner beside it was his sword, returned to its sheathe and leaned up against the wall. A small stack of dark cloth seemed to be whatever remained of his clothing.

A brief flicker of relief eased the tension from Hakuryuu's body at the sight of his belongings.

"You've just been sleeping." the mortal informed him. "It's like, a little past noon I think."

Hakuryuu shot him a brief glower, than focused on replaying what he had said in his mind. His words had been short and to the point, erecting a basic image of events in the prince's mind.

The more he thought about it, the more anger bubbled in his chest, rising up to fill his whole body. It wasn't enough that he had been outsmarted, maimed, forced to flee in the most degrading way possible for one of his kind. No, now, he was entangled with a mortal?

"Boy…" he seethed from between his teeth. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Cold fire burned in his contrasting eyes, affixing directly to the mortal beside him. The boy was not looking at him, but rather at the ceiling.

"I'm fairly certain the answer to that is "no"." the boy said. "But I'm also pretty sure that you have some idea about that."

For a moment Hakuryuu almost wanted to grab the boy by his braid and force him to meet his eyes. Few dared to ignore a fae and the insult was only adding to his uncontained anger. But after a moment he forced himself to look up at the ceiling instead.

Overhead, long vines had appeared, curling across the white paint and around the light fixture, following the cracks in the paint into an intricate lacework of greenery. The spindly tresses were beginning to descend towards their injured master, but had halted to sway lightly in the air as if aware they were being watched.

Hakuryuu tracked them backwards to a large section of missing wall, through which he could see what appeared to be a very small kitchen. A faint flicker of consciousness told him that the vines belonged to tomatoes, which his magic had just rendered inedible.

"Not that that's not cool and all," the mortal spoke up, finally sounding appropriately wary. "But could you maybe stop?"

Yes, was the automatic answer but Hakuryuu paused, turning over the mortal's words carefully. Could he stop? Yes. But the mortal had not asked him if he would stop, only if he could. There was enough of a fault in his words that Hakuryuu could—

He stopped himself there and shut his eyes, drawing in a deep breath that tasted faintly of citrus. Several more calming breaths followed the first, easing his heartbeat back down to a slow drumming. Magic tingled against his skin, begging to be used. Rather than obey the urge he repressed it, forcing the vines back to where they had come from.

They went grudgingly, slithering back up to the ceiling and backwards along the cracks. Once they began retreating he turned back to his host and opened his eyes, his pupils rounded once more.

"I… apologize," he said slowly. "That was incredibly ill-mannered of me."

He inclined his head stiffly to the mortal, who he noticed had chosen to lean back from him slightly without leaving the table. The backwards tilt of his body was the only indication of his discomfort though, and he regarded Hakuryuu with careful eyes.

"I am in your debt." Hakuryuu added, feeling an unpleasant weight settle on him as he spoke the words.

"Yeah, no, I usually rescue half-drowned, purple-blooded, plant controlling weirdos from my backyard."

Hakuryuu raised a thin eyebrow.

"That was sarcasm."

"Ah."

An awkward silence fell between them, not at all helped by the prince's sudden realization that beneath the blanket over his hips he was predominantly bare. He'd seen his folded clothes, but it hadn't quite registered that that meant they weren't on his body.

He pulled the blanket slightly higher around his waist as the mortal cleared his throat.

"So, what's your name?"

Immediately, tension crackled in the air. Hakuryuu's pale eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, a surge of rage fueled magic roaring up into his chest again. One did not lightly ask a fae for their name in the best of circumstances, but this mortal had some gall to ask when Hakuryuu could not deny him an answer.

He grit his teeth, fighting the urge to respond with the truth, as was his people's way, but before he could the mortal held up his hands.

"Okay, okay! Look enough with the murder-death eyes!" he said, sounding incredibly exasperated. "God you're touchy."

Hakuryuu's shoulders relaxed as he was freed from the obligation of an answer, but his anger was replaced with mild confusion. The boy sighed.

"Look. Let's try this." he stuck out a hand. "I'm Judal, and you're welcome for letting you crash on my couch."

The prince stared blankly at the mortal, flabbergasted.

Had the boy just… given him his name? Willingly? It wasn't his full name, surely, but even a portion of a name held incredible power. Was he really so incredibly trusting? Or did he think that that much wouldn't be of consequence? It crossed Hakuryuu's mind that perhaps the boy was more than he appeared and he repressed a shudder.

"Y'know, generally," Judal said, disrupting his thoughts. "When someone has their hand out like this, it means you're supposed to shake it."

The exasperated I know what it means didn't make it past Hakuryuu's thoughts. No, he was otherwise occupied by a sudden wave of humbling shame. This mortal, Judal, had done nothing to earn his wrath and look how he had been behaving. Looking for faults in his words and unleashing his magic in childish bouts of rage; humiliating. He had been raised better.

Hakuryuu took the boy's hand and shook, looking him in the eye as he did it.

"My name is Hakuryuu." he said, feeling the name leave his tongue with a spark of magic in it. The spark passed from his lips to the mortal, and whether he noticed it or not, Judal shivered.

Then he smiled.

"Nice to meet you!" he said cheerfully, shaking his hand firmly before suddenly bouncing up from the table.

Hakuryuu was briefly on eye level with pale hipbones before Judal tugged his shirt down over the top of his shorts and collected his mug.

"You want something to drink? There's juice, tea, hot chocolate—Uhh I probably have some instant coffee somewhere? Oh, milk—"

"Ah—" he blinked, startled by the sudden offer. "Juice, please."

He watched Judal disappear into the kitchen, barely visible through the hole in the wall. He turned around, a bottle of something orange in one hand and immediately yelled, jumping back.

"Holy shi-! Dude! What the hell did you do to my tomatoes?!"

Judal leaned out over the counter holding up one of the red fruits accusatorily. It was trailing almost a foot of vine behind it. Hakuryuu blinked. His magic should have set the fruit back to whatever state it had been in prior to his outburst, though that was clearly not the case. Perhaps he was more drained than he'd realized.

He opened his mouth to apologize, but Judal cut him off with a sharp sigh.

"Never mind, the vine thing was cool and they were gonna go bad anyway. Can't even remember why I got the stupid things."

Hakuryuu blinked at the mortal, feeling his surprise and confusion melting together. It seemed to be a common pair of feelings when it came to him.

Judal returned with a glass filled with juice and handed it off to his guest. He plopped himself back down onto the table, hooking his legs together again and watching the fae intently. Tentatively, Hakuryuu took a sip of the offered drink and immediately fought the urge to grimace.

It tasted like oranges, but only in the most superficial sense. The true flavor was layered under chemical sweetness and unnecessary sugar that clung to his taste buds unpleasantly. His body rebelled at the thought of such unnatural drink, but his throat was growing raw and he dreaded to think of the state of mortal water.

Electing to treat the drink like a tonic, he tipped his head back and drank it down as swiftly as he could. It burned going down and he had to clear his throat once he was done. Several swallows cleared the worst of the cloying sweetness from his tongue.

"Thank you." he coughed, holding the glass out to his host. "And I apologize for the tomatoes."

"Don't worry about it. Just watch it with the vines and shit, this place is too small to be a greenhouse."

Hakuryuu accepted the reprimand with a dignified nod of his head.

"I allowed my emotions to get the better of me. It won't happen again."

"Well don't go that far." he set the glass aside. "Getting angry is good for you. Just not when you happen to be leaking like a faucet."

Judal's eyes had dropped to look lower on his torso and Hakuryuu followed his gaze down to loosely wrapped bandages around his middle. Blotches of inky indigo were beginning to make stains on the bleached cotton. He hadn't even noticed the pain as he moved his battered body, though now he spared a moment he could note at least four places he'd reopened wounds.

His host had already risen from the table again by the time Hakuryuu took stock of himself, returning moments later with a large box he dropped loudly onto the surface he'd vacated. He rummaged inside it a moment, drew out a roll of bandages, and turned around with a hand on his hip.

"Pretty sure that means we need to change those." he informed. "And then you should probably lay back down and play dead a while. Or at least until your body gets done with that whole super-healing thing it's doing."

"Super…healing?"

Judal nudged the prince's legs over enough that he could sit on the edge of the couch, unrolling the bandages into a pile in his lap.

"Yeah, you were all banged up last night but by this morning half the cuts were just gone!"

"Is that unusual?"

Apparently his mystified tone amused his host because Judal laughed, shaking his head and grinning without explanation. Hakuryuu frowned, wanting to ask why his question was amusing, but decided it wasn't terribly important.

In his adrenaline fueled rage he had pushed himself more than was advisable and it was choosing now to catch up to him. His side and head were both beginning to throb painfully, and he could feel the hot ooze of blood in several places. What he wanted to do was lay back down and sleep the headache off, but he couldn't do that until new bandages were arranged.

As Judal undid the bandages around his middle, it occurred to Hakuryuu that the boy had probably put them on his unconscious body with absolutely no help. That probably explain why they were such a mess. Or so he thought, until he began rewrapping him and the prince came to the rapid conclusion that his host had never cared for a major injury before in his life.

"Here," he interrupted, halting the mortal's movements. "Let me…help."

He didn't want to say let me show you how, you're doing it all wrong but he got the feeling Judal knew what he meant.

"Sure. I've only ever patched myself up." Judal said with a lazy shrug. "Haven't the damnedest what I'm doing, honestly."

Hakuryuu felt he ought to be concerned, but instead was hit with another wave of humbling thoughts. Judal had had absolutely no concept of how to help him, but he'd done his best to anyway. Something about that struck a chord in him.

Three hands proved only slightly more functional than two, but between the fae's instructions and the mortal's ability to quickly pick up on cues, they managed. The new swath of bandages were fitted more tightly around his middle, which made him wince, but they did their job. When he noted and questioned the bandages around his missing left arm, Judal simply shrugged.

"Didn't know how easily it was gonna get fucked up again, so I figured, why chance it?" he said.

"Thank you." Hakuryuu responded absently. He stared at the stump of his missing limb for a few agonizing moments before tearing his eyes away.

Without speaking, Judal seemed to understand what he meant to ask of him and proceeded to retie the bandages in the same wrapping pattern Hakuryuu had shown him around his middle.

He checked over the rest of his injuries in silence, adjusting things here and there before suddenly resting his hands on the prince's shoulders and shoving. Lost in thought and weaker than usual, Hakuryuu went down easily and with only a slight flash of panic.

Feeling him tense, Judal pushed him more insistently back against the couch.

"Go back to sleep." he said sternly, and before there could be any protests; "You've got a six inch hole in your gut and you've already bled all over my couch. Don't fuck yourself up worse."

"I'm sorry about your c—"

Judal rolled his eyes, irises spinning like the last drops of red wine in an emptied goblet. He had fascinating eyes, Hakuryuu's throbbing mind noted.

"Enough with the apologizing!" he snapped, exasperated. "Make it up to me by not dying because you're too fucking stubborn to rest."

Hakuryuu thought about arguing for a moment, but then decided grudgingly that his host was right. Dying in his quarters would be both incredibly rude and, for Hakuryuu's purposes, incredibly inconvenient. Besides, his head was beginning to pound and the added pressure on his wounded side was making him feel every heartbeat like a physical blow.

He simply nodded his reply, realizing belatedly that his eyes had already slid shut again and wondering when that had happened. Vaguely, he was aware of the blanket around his middle being tugged up over his chest, and the warmth provided a small bit of comfort.

For just a moment fingertips brushed his chest, perhaps on accident as Judal rose from where he'd been settled. They sent sparks of heat dancing across Hakuryuu's skin, and though he was sure it was just a trick of his unconscious mind, for a moment it felt like magic.