Even after their first outing, Hakuryuu did not venture from within the threshold often, and never by himself. Though he knew that Judal offered no protection on his own, it felt more comfortable to step out from under the shield of his abode with him by his side. A small tick of paranoia had begun in the back of Hakuryuu's mind, and some days when he walked with Judal it was not for his own sake, but to quell the idea that at any moment something was going to come leaping from the shadows at his host.

Their time out of the apartment seemed to ease some of Judal's worries, though, so it was worth the paranoid whispers of his mind. They never ate, or strayed very far from the apartment, but they walked far enough that Hakuryuu could map the neighborhood in his mind.

Sometimes people would wave at Judal, old men from the front steps of buildings and single mothers corralling toddlers with armfuls of groceries. Judal never offered explanations for how he knew them, or if he did at all, but he answered their greetings in kind.

Hakuryuu watched Judal, during these moments, with the same kind of intent he observed enemy generals on the battlefield. He tried to catch every twitch in expression and shift of his eyes, picking apart his body language into letters and words. The old man made his shoulders relax and his eyes grow mischievous, the mother brought a smile to his lips and a lonely fondness into his gaze. Each told a story that Hakuryuu could only grasp the concept of without asking, but that was enough for him.

Things became a routine in the loosest sense of the word. Times and dates were never set, but there was a kind of cycle to how they lived together. A comfortable synchronicity that Hakuryuu couldn't recall experiencing with anyone else. Thoughts of where he should be ( back in Sidhe ) and why he wasn't there ( because of Judal ) trickled from his mind as the days went on.

Hakuryuu finally stopped feeling restless.

Other things began to fill the space in his thoughts where his restlessness had been before. The schedule for the farmer's market over by the park, which vendors were to be avoided and which were so hardworking they deserved a little spark of faerie luck when he could spare it. When Judal's neighbors had taken to spending time in the courtyard, the exact number of steps down to the front door, which of his button down shirts Judal seemed to like best.

( A drawer had been cleared in Judal's dresser, and Hakuryuu's clothes sat neatly folded inside it. )

And of course, more thoughts of Judal. Stars, there was never a time his mind seemed to be devoid of those, even in his most focused moments. Hakuryuu had grown accustomed to the brief flashes of imagined lust, though they were nothing if not unpredictable. He searched longingly for a pattern to their appearance, trying to tamp down on them as best he could, but there simply wasn't one. Judal existed, he lived and breathed in the same space as the faerie prince, and so his mind wanted him, as plain as that.

It was the littlest things, sometimes. How Judal tipped his head back to stare up into the boughs of the mulberry tree, the sunlight dappling his skin. When he stretched and his back would arch, shirt slipping up over his toned stomach, giving Hakuryuu a long few moments to stare at his untouched skin. The soft flush he had after a hot shower, the way he toyed with his hair in the mornings, the way he walked.

Judal, Hakuryuu had come to realize, was beautiful.

Of course it was impossible not to have known this from the beginning. He'd seen his beauty the moment he'd opened his eyes for the first time in the mortal realm. But there was a difference between beauty and being beautiful, at least in Hakuryuu's eyes. Beauty was a passing thing, a fleeting brilliance that could just as easily be attained as dismissed. All fae had beauty to them, and there were plenty he had taken to bed over the long years of his life because of it, but many more he'd simply glossed over. Beauty was easy to grow tired of, when you'd seen enough of it.

To be beautiful was another thing entirely. He had met few truly beautiful people in his life, and the quality was one that was difficult to describe. Some of it was in appearances, of course, but it was deeper and more profound than that. If Hakuryuu had to give it a name, he'd call it more a sense than a tangible thing. Certain people, and you could never be sure who, were just beautiful in a way that could not be articulated in any language one chose to speak.

Hakuryuu had never found another being to be as distractingly lovely as he did Judal.

The mornings when he ambled out of his room, still yawning and drowsy-eyed, were an exercise in self-control. Judal seemed to have no idea the kind of lazy elegance he had in the hours just after waking, when his movements were all slow and drifting. Hakuryuu had to make himself busy, cooking breakfast or tending to his latest project, so he was no longer tempted to sit there and simply watch Judal for hours. He had a yearning to hold his host, his hands on his belly, and feel his steady breathing when he was still too sleepy to be conscious of it.

Hasty mornings were almost worse. Days where Judal forgot the time and had to go bolting out of the apartment without much more than a farewell left Hakuryuu too much time to dwell on details. Judal's slender fingers dragging through his hair to comb it, how his shoulders moved as he shrugged on a shirt on his way to the bathroom. The loose belt around his hips, the crumbs at the corner of his mouth from his quickly eaten breakfast. He moved with erratic efficiency, always out the door with everything he needed, whether he meant it or not.

Judal never ignored him, no matter how quickly he moved. There was always a spare moment to tell Hakuryuu good morning, and another to say I'll be back later, have a good day! Some days Judal would stop moving, stand there and hold a conversation like time wasn't against him, until he finally shook himself back into action. The attention made Hakuryuu's chest swell with something too hot to be simple pride.

At first Hakuryuu found himself lying awake at night, wondering if it was all in his head. Judal, a mortal, could not be nearly as enrapturing as he was making him out to be. He tried to find flaws in his own fantasies, dissecting them down to the minutest detail in an attempt to disillusion himself. But there was no illusion to be found. The things Judal did had come to fascinate him—and he was fascinated, as only a man enamored could be.

Hours spent in the courtyard became painfully precious to him. To see Judal walk among his creations, trailing his fingertips over the petals and leaves as gently as a whisper, made his pulse thrum in his veins. As time in the mortal realm wore on, Judal's workload increased, and Hakuryuu began to notice him wander down to the courtyard in the dead of night. He grew nocturnal flowers, the kind the bloomed by moonlight, and watched from the window as Judal gasped with delight at the sight of them.

Mundane activities had always been his bane, indeed one could safely say any fae loathed to deal in dullness. The mortal realm held none of the distractions or excitements of Sidhe, but it had Judal. This alone redeemed every single one of its failings, in Hakuryuu's opinion. Hours could pass in idleness if only he could watch Judal as he moved about his apartment, unconscious of his own alluring presence.

It had been years, centuries, since such an innocent feeling had consumed Hakuryuu's thoughts. The chastity of it startled him, not because he thought himself incapable of it, but because such things had left him in his youth. His heart had never frozen, he would never give his mother the satisfaction of robbing him of it. But it had grown cold over time, held tightly in his ribs where few were brave enough to seek it.

And yet, Judal had brought warmth to his chest that he had been convinced he knew how to live without. One, simple mortal, unremarkable and yet incredible, had done what no fae could. And he had no idea. Just by living as himself, he had altered the course of Hakuryuu's entire life.

At night, as moon's movements echoed in his mind, he prayed to the stars that it would last.

Notes:

Ah, and here it is, the moment when I confirm what many of you dear readers have been suspecting; Hakuryuu's falling head over heels for Judal. As we move forward into the meat of the story and I begin to unravel the plot that will lead into the second arc, I think these littler, softer chapters are important. Brief respites that just indulge in the romantic.

That being said, this is a very small chapter. But not to worry! For there will be a second update coming this Thursday! Keep an eye out everyone!