"I almost find this insulting." Hakuryuu said dryly, arms crossed.

Judal peered over his shoulder warily, observing the gathering of fluttering fae outside the courtyard gate. They were small, compared to the other creatures that had come looking for the prince, but their sheer numbers were unsettling. Twenty or more of the bright crimson fae had swarmed the open gateway, chattering loudly between sharp teeth.

"What the fuck are they?" Judal asked.

The little fae's eyes roamed over the pair of them hungrily. Judal swore at least a few of them licked their thin lips, as if they were about to tuck into a great feast. He shifted backwards, unnerved. Hakuryuu however, scowled.

"Virikas." he said, sounding just as unimpressed as before. "They gather outside the homes of those soon to die and cause a fuss, just to be cruel. They have been known to swarm small fae if they are starving, but they don't pose a threat."

Judal must not have looked convinced, because Hakuryuu smiled gently.

"They're vultures." he assured. "We have nothing to worry about."

The virikas' chatter became unhappy screeches and hissing. They stomped their little feet in the air and bore bloodstained teeth at them, clearly displeased with the dismissive tone they were being spoken about in. Judal wrapped his arms around himself, the winter chill needling its way through his sweater.

"We can't just leave them there right? Someone's gonna notice them screaming."

The prince sighed through his nose, casting an irritated glance at the swarm.

"No, we cannot."

"You're not going out there, are you? Cause those teeth look fucking sharp. And I'm running out of bandages."

"I told you we needed more a week ago."

"I told you to quit getting hurt all the time!"

Hakuryuu gave Judal the look he reserved for when he thought he was being unreasonable, to which his lover responded with a stubborn glare. They could have gone back and forth all day, but he chose to let the matter drop in favor of turning back to their unwelcomed guests.

"At any rate," he digressed. "I would not demean myself by actually fighting these annoyances."

The prince uncrossed his arms, lifted a hand, and snapped his fingers.

The courtyard surged to life all at once. Even though he was used to seeing the trees and vines take on lives of their own by now, Judal still looked around in awe at the moving flora. It never got dull to see Hakuryuu's magic at work. Even knowing that his power came from the manipulation of living things, it was an undeniably beautiful magic, even at its most gruesome.

Though many of the plants still flourished despite the weather thanks to their diet of fresh fae corpses, some had fallen dormant for the winter. Among them, the ivy had dried up and become veins of brown against the iron gate and dull brick walls, only to come alive now at the prince's beckoning.

Virikas screamed as the ivy lashed out, tangling around their tiny ankles and slip-thin waists. Several struggled free, or darted out of reach, but whips of ivy followed them. One by one the swarm was caught and dragged back between the iron bars, where their struggling only made them scream in agony as their faerie flesh came in contact with their bane.

Once they were on the other side of the threshold, their struggling weakened visibly. The virikas could only squirm fruitlessly as the garden killed them one by one. Screams turned to gurgles and chokes as vines strangled the life out of them, and several trees extended vicious roots to spear straight through their tiny bodies and draw them back beneath the earth.

It was over in a matter of minutes. The last virika had some spark left in it, likely the leader of her pack, her tiny hands clawing at the vine trying to wrap around her neck. Hakuryuu regarded her thoughtfully for a moment, then inclined his head, almost respectful. Whether this was some sort of sign to the small fae, or so surprising she was stunned, she stopped moving. The nearest tree branch lashed against her head, and there was the distinct sound of her neck snapping.

Hakuryuu exhaled and turned to his host, smiling lightly.

"There, not a scratch." he said. "Happy, sweetling?"

"Yes." Judal replied, before pecking the prince's mouth.

"Shall we finish breakfast?"

"Yeah, I'm starving. You'd think they'd have the courtesy to show up after we were done eating."

"Weaklings are rarely courteous, I've found."

Breakfast was as they had left it on the coffee table, still steaming lightly. They had barely taken their first bites when the virikas had approached, which caused a small flower on the windowsill to blossom. The organic alarm system could sense the presence of faerie magic, which gave them the advantage of knowing when a new challenger was approaching. Hakuryuu had told Judal some long name for the flower, but he couldn't remember it now.

Judal plopped himself down on the coffee table, which was his chosen perch that morning, and snatched a piece of honeyed toast from the pile to nibble on. Hakuryuu went to the windowsill, rotting the flower back into the earth before growing another bud to take its place. They ate breakfast together, as if there had never been an interruption, and the rest of the day progressed as though their morning hadn't started with a slaughter.

This had become their norm. At first, each new opponent had made a raw feeling of unease squirm in Judal's gut, and Hakuryuu's expression was always grim as he carried himself down the stairs to meet his foe. The theatrics and thrill had worn off, though. Now the fae that paced outside the courtyard gate were all regarded as bothersome interruptions of one kind or another. Just troublesome pests that got in the way of their everyday lives.

Judal thought about this sometimes, how vastly different this lifestyle was to what it had been before he met Hakuryuu. The past, his especially, was never thought of with any kind of longing, so Judal never dwelt on these thoughts for very long. But they did occur to him occasionally. A fleeting, bemusing notion that once upon a time he had weighed the heaviness of groceries against carrying Hakuryuu's wounded body up the stairs.

( Hakuryuu did most of the carrying nowadays, hiking Judal into his arms whenever he wanted him moved and his host was being petulant and stubborn. )

Things seemed painfully simplistic in retrospect. Even buying groceries wasn't the same as it had been before Hakuryuu came into his life. Judal hadn't seen the inside of a supermarket in what felt like decades, spending his money at farmer's markets instead, and even then only to buy the few things Hakuryuu couldn't simply grow himself.

And Judal liked his life like this. This complicated mess of magic and mundanity suited him just fine. From the violence to the double entendres, the magic that hummed and buzzed against his ears with increasing frequency and the corpses he helped dispose of on a near daily basis. Judal wouldn't change a thing about his life if he had the chance.

Still, as days wore on the mysterious aspect of Hakuryuu became less of an allure and more of a curiosity. It wasn't that Judal begrudged him his secrets, he wasn't the type to spill his life's story and he didn't think Hakuryuu was either, but he had questions. For example, why someone wanted Hakuryuu dead so badly they were sending assassins in the double digits to try and kill him without any regard for how many of them weren't coming back.

There were a lot of reasons to want a person dead, as far as Judal knew. It wasn't as simple as the movies made it out to be, where the one being targeted was a good guy and the one sending the assassins was a villain. Even if Hakuryuu told him every detail of his life, he'd only get his side of the story. The thing was, Judal had concluded in one of his many moments staring at nothing thinking, that it didn't particularly matter to him what the other side of the story was. If Hakuryuu was on one side, then he was too, regardless of the right or wrong of it.

Judal had thought himself in figure-eights over what might be the cause of Hakuryuu's would-be assassination, but he'd never bothered to ask about it. Hakuryuu had assured him he would tell him, and he trusted him to do so.

However, somewhere around noon, when Judal had been laying with his head hanging off the side of the couch, legs kicked up over the back for some time, he decided he was drawing the line at a swarm of virikas screaming bloody murder at barely nine AM.

"So," Judal piped up without warning. "Why exactly does someone want you dead?"

Without more than a half-second of hesitation, Hakuryuu answered;

"Because I want to kill my mother."

Judal allowed himself a moment to process with statement.

"Okay. So. Is there a reason to go with that, or are you actually just a matricidal maniac?"

"I would like to think that if I were a maniac, you would have noticed by now."

"I mean, you do kill people kind of regularly. And have me help to hide the bodies."

"You mortals, so hung up on morals."

Hakuryuu sighed through his nose. Judal couldn't see him from his overturned position on the couch, but he could imagine the prince running a hand through his inky hair, frowning at whatever was in front of him. His brow would be pinching in that pretty way it did whenever he was mulling over his next few words. Judal wanted to see, but the effort of righting himself didn't appeal to him at the moment.

"The matter is not as simple as I make it sound." Hakuryuu said, sighing a second time. "Barbaric as it sounds, I almost wish I were just a matricidal fiend."

"I mean, killing moms is a pretty common theme in most fairytales. So you're not, like, totally off script for a faerie prince I guess."

Judal's teasing tone earned him a chuckle from the prince. By now, he was used to even the most serious of conversations with Judal being littered with quips and offhanded remarks. It kept things from getting too heavy.

"The main reason that there are currently so many fae attempting to kill me," Hakuryuu went on. "Is predominantly that I should already be dead. And I should already be dead because I started a rebellion, and I started a rebellion to stop the Queen."

"And stopping the Queen means killing her, and she's—"

"My mother, yes."

"Okay, I'm following so far."

The prince fell silent, and Judal waited patiently for him to continue. It took him almost a full two minutes to collect himself this time, and by now Judal's head was starting to ache somewhat from hanging upside down.

"I'm not really sure where to start." he admitted. "Every time I try to begin I realize there's another part of the tale I'd have to mention to make sense of it."

"Well, shit, I'm not going anywhere, right?"

With some effort, Judal hoisted himself upright on the couch. His head immediately disagreed with this sudden shift in equilibrium. He took a moment to sway dizzily before shaking himself and bringing his vision back into focus.

Hakuryuu was standing not far off, regarding him with a look that almost resembled nervousness. Judal crossed his legs and leaned his arms on the back of the couch.

"I meant what I said; you don't need to tell me every little thing about yourself, Hakuryuu. But I do wanna know. So, start at the beginning, wherever that is."

He was silent again, and Judal almost thought he would stay that way this time, before he spoke.

"I suppose the first thing you ought to understand is the hierarchy of our society. It's quite different from yours. To begin with, Sidhe is split into two courts, and then all things in between. Seelie and UnSeelie; of the two, Seelie's always been viewed as somewhat kinder, but that's laughable if you actually know anyone from their ranks."

"Do you?"

"A number of them, yes, but most notably my oldest companion. He's as vicious as I am, just does it with a smile."

Judal wanted to ask more about this person who Hakuryuu spoke of with a fond quirk to his lips, but stopped himself. They'd get sidetracked like that.

"Each court is ruled by a Queen." Hakuryuu went on. "The first Queens of Sidhe, Titania and Mab, passed their mantles down to their daughters, and so on and so forth to our current Queens. Forgive me, I would tell you their names, but one does not speak a Queen's name lightly and I'd rather not chance drawing my mother's attention."

"What about the stuff between the courts?" Judal asked, breezing past the Queens altogether.

"The unclaimed lands are not exactly between Seelie and UnSeelie. It's… difficult to describe. The geography of Sidhe is constantly shifting and rearranging. Finding one's way has much more to do with your sense of self and magic than a sense of direction." Hakuryuu seemed to ponder a way to make this clearer, then gave up. "Any unclaimed territory is either deserted for some reason, unclaimed thanks to some ancient pact of some sort, or belongs to something as old and wily as the Queens."

"Like a king?"

"Well…"

Judal suddenly wondered if he should have grabbed a notebook and pen to be taking notes.

"Do you remember what I told you about fae and words, Judal?"

"Uhh…" Judal shuffled through his thoughts quickly, looking for that piece of information. "Oh! Yeah! To always pay really close attention to how a fae says something, cause a lot of language is wordplay, right?"

"Something like that. By our standards, mortal speech is very straightforward. This may get a little confusing."

Hakuryuu's lips twitched into a smile as his host sat up straighter, the picture of attentiveness.

"The King of a court is always somehow related to the Queen. A sibling, a parent, a child, a lover; sometimes more than one of those things at once. At any one time, there is only one Queen and one King in each court, there can be no more. Each court must have a Queen at its head, however, there need not be the King beside them. At present, neither Queen has her King."

Judal nodded, still following all this.

"Two courts, two Queens, two kings. Gotta be a Queen for each court, but not a king." he recited back.

"No, there does not need to be the King."

Judal paused, played his words back in his mind, and then narrowed his eyes. Hakuryuu crossed his arms, waiting patiently. He didn't need to say a word. Judal was plenty clever to figure it out all on his own, and after a brief moment, he saw his eyes light up.

"So there's the King of the court, who's related to the Queen and junk, but then there are… other kings?"

"Precisely." Hakuryuu allowed approval to slip into his voice, just to watch Judal preen delightedly. "A king of a court is mainly there to preside over expanses of the court in the Queen's stead. The courts are vast places, and while the Queens are in control of all of it at once, they cannot be expected to attend to every intricacy of every region. So there are kings, sometimes lords, and sometimes ladies."

"And princes?"

A sly smile curved Hakuryuu's mouth.

"What about them?"

"There's a difference between a prince and the Prince, right?"

"Yes." Judal preened a little more. "The Prince of a court is generally the child of the Queen. Most often this is by blood, though it's not unheard of for her child to be adopted. As I've said, I am the Prince of UnSeelie court. A prince serves under a king. They are named by their kings, so their relations vary."

"What if the Queen has more than one kid?" Judal asked, curious to a fault.

He almost immediately wished he hadn't.

He had never seen Hakuryuu's face change from content to distant so quickly. The fond smile left his mouth and was replaced by a sad line, and his eyes drifted to the side, avoiding his gaze. Hakuryuu wound his arms tighter around himself for a moment, like he was trying to hold himself together.

"They go by numbers, according to their birth." he said. "There used to be three of us."

Used to be. Judal wanted to reach into the air, snatch his words and make himself choke on them.

Hakuryuu took a deep breath, bringing himself back to the present.

"Does that all make sense?"

"Yeah."

He nodded. After a moment's contemplation, he uprooted himself from where he stood and crossed over to the couch. Judal turned to face him as he settled himself beside his host, one knee drawn up against his chest.

"My mother has been sewing seeds of hatred against the Seelie court for centuries now." the prince began anew, his expression serious. "At first it was subtle, but of late she's grown increasingly bold in rallying our people against theirs. It would be an exaggeration to say that our courts have been entirely friendly in the past, but it has been millennia since the last all-out war. And for good reason. The magic of the courts holds not just Sidhe, but a great deal of realms it is connected to, in balance."

"…Like this realm, right?"

"Precisely." Hakuryuu chuckled mirthlessly. "I admit, the fate of other realms was not the priority in my mind, when all this began. Now though…"

His eyes passed over Judal, and Judal drew himself up straighter in response. It was just as touching as it was terrifying to think that he was all it took to change the prince's perspective. An entire realm was suddenly worth protecting because he was in it.

"I heard rumors that my mother was planning to wage war against the Seelie court, but I had been hearing things like that for years." the prince went on. "This time, though, the rumors spoke of more than just war and conquest. My mother seeks not just to best the Seelie court and take their lands for our own, but to eliminate its existence altogether."

Judal blinked, startled.

"Is that… possible?"

"It shouldn't be, no. Seelie and UnSeelie are just names, but the power at the center of each court is very real. Older than even the first Queens, older than any living thing, maybe."

"So then, how-?"

"I don't know." he shook his head. "I wish I did. All I know is that when it comes to my mother, there are no boundaries she will not cross, and no depths to which she will not sink. If she means to erase Seelie court from existence, then she's most likely already found a way to do so."

"And that would be bad."

"That would be catastrophic."

Judal shifted uncomfortably. This would be the part where he would usually make some snide remark, but he was finding himself lacking the words to do so. For some reason, his mind and body were having an almost visceral reaction to this whole conversation. He felt physically ill, thinking of one court erasing another, but he wasn't sure why.

His discomfort must have been visible. Hakuryuu reached over and gripped his hand gently, thumbing slow circles on his palm. Judal breathed in, then out, slowly, allowing the touch to center him.

"So what about you?" he said, after an extended silence. "How does my dashing prince in shining armor fit into all this?"

Hakuryuu smiled faintly, squeezing his hand once before letting go.

"I couldn't just allow my mother to upset the balance of reality itself." he replied. "Whether her threats are unfounded or not, the fact remains that UnSeelie court has become increasingly volatile towards those of Seelie. I sought an audience with the Queen of Seelie, asking for her aid in stopping my mother's schemes, but her position prevented her from helping me.

Instead, I was approached by one of her kings. The companion I spoke of earlier, he is a prince under this king, and considering I had his prince to vouch for me he offered to back whatever revolt I felt necessary against my mother. So, between his prince and I, we formed a rebellion of sorts. There weren't many of us to begin with, but our numbers grew enough we began to amass a skeletal knowledge of my mother's plans."

Judal listened, leaning forward slightly as the prince spoke, fascinated and paying rapt attention.

"We had just begun to intercept correspondence between my mother and one of her kings when we were attacked. I'm not sure how, but my mother learned of my location and alliance with the rebellion, and sent her knight to dispose of me. He chased me from my fellows and trapped me where I would be weakest. Ambushed me, weakened me with iron, and…"

Judal's eyes flicked down as Hakuryuu's hand moved, gripping his wooden wrist. A surge of white hot anger flushed through Judal so quickly it made his head spin. He reached out and tucked his fingers between the wooden ones, which gripped softly.

"The bastard knew he couldn't win." Hakuryuu spat. "It took an ambush, dead earth and iron for him to feel comfortable fighting me. And now he sends assassins to finish his dirty work because he's too frightened to come do it himself. Coward."

The prince glowered down at his wooden arm for a moment, practically seething. With a slow exhale, his grip loosened and he hung his head. For a moment, he was still, collecting himself. When he raised his head the anger was gone, and he reached out to cup Judal's cheek.

He allowed himself to be drawn into the prince, eyes fluttering shut as Hakuryuu kissed him. The kiss was long and slow, communicating without words. As they parted, Judal chased Hakuryuu's mouth, brushing fleeting kisses against his lips. The prince gave him another, firmer kiss.

"I'm sorry," Hakuryuu murmured. "That was a lot to press on you all at once."

"No, I wanted to know. I asked."

"It doesn't make it less daunting."

Judal shrugged, and though he was still trying to shake off the strange feeling of unease, he climbed into Hakuryuu's lap. The fae wound his arms around him, pulling him even closer and smiling as he settled his full weight on his thighs. Judal regarded the prince thoughtfully for a moment, then leaned down and kissed him again.

"You're here." he said, and then kissed him again. "With me." Another kiss, open mouthed and warm. "Not there with them."

Hakuryuu hummed, pushing his hands under Judal's sweater so he could touch the flat of his stomach and the sharp curve of his sides. The cool fingertips raised goosebumps on Judal's skin.

"That I am." he agreed. "I am here with you, and only you, sweetling. And you needn't concern yourself with those matters anymore."

Judal muttered something incoherent in agreement, silencing them both with a deeper kiss that made Hakuryuu's hands clench on his hips. The movement of their mouths was thoroughly distracting, which is what he had counted on to begin with. Unease still rested heavily in his stomach, and the more Judal tried to ignore it, the more he wondered why it was there at all. Sidhe wasn't his concern. So why did it feel like it was?

Notes:

Virikas - Never more than eighteen inches tall, these unpleasant spectral entities can be recognized by their flaming red color and their horribly pointed, bloodstained teeth. They gather outside the homes of men soon to die and jabber excitedly. To prevent this, people can erect a small shrine in their honor and burn daily gifts of flowers and spices for them.

Phew, I'm glad I got this chapter out of the way. I know it was a lot of plot to dump at once, but I promise we'll get more into the specifics as the story goes on! Next chapter is an Insight, so we'll be going back to Sidhe for a bit to see how things are progressing in their world.

We're heading towards the climax of this arc! Thank you everyone for sticking with me!