Winter continued to gnaw the fractious energy from the bustling city, and nowadays the radiator never stopped its hissing. The mortal year was drawing to a close, soon the dead of winter would wane into the first shivers of spring, and the season would turn. For now, though, the cold remained pressing against the windowpanes, trying to pry its way into the cozy apartment.

Judal's trips to and from school seemed to last much longer than they had before. Hakuryuu was sure he was imagining it at first, pining like some love struck child, but after a while he began to notice a pattern. In the mornings, Judal left with his usual kiss and lopsided smile, his bag slung over one shoulder, energetic. When he returned, he was far more sluggish, slightly distracted, and his bag always seemed heavier.

Hakuryuu felt vaguely foolish for having to ask what was going on. One part of him insisted he should know the answer, even if it wasn't something that applied to fae, while another part of him was petulantly insisting that he had to know. Judal always gave Hakuryuu his full attention, and lately he wasn't, and this was making a very childish part of the prince very unhappy.

Judal had looked bewildered at first, then hit himself in the forehead with the heel of his hand.

"Right! Fae don't have colleges!"

"No, we do not." Hakuryuu had replied tersely, feeling a flush of embarrassment threatening to climb up his neck. He felt foolish for not knowing something Judal found so incredibly basic.

But Judal had only grinned at him, as if aware of his discomfort and wishing to alleviate it.

"I've got finals coming up. It's all these tests and assignments that are due at a really specific time, to gauge how I'm doing in class and shit. It kinda decides whether I pass or fail."

"Oh." He felt even more foolish now. "Is there something I can do to help?"

"Nah, this is all on me. Don't worry about it, Hakuryuu, I'll be done before you know it."

He was not, unfortunately.

It may have been Hakuryuu's imagination, but it felt like the hours Judal was away at school dragged on exponentially longer now. Being left to his own devices in the middle of the day was not unusual, but it had become habit that once a certain hour was up, Judal's attention was his again. Only, it wasn't now, because Judal seemed to be perpetually buried in his studies.

Hakuryuu hadn't realized just how much he'd come to depend on the time he spent interacting with his host. He felt significantly moodier now than he had just weeks before, and several times more clingy than usual. At one point he spent almost an entire day brooding over how ridiculous the concept of mortal "higher education" was, and how he'd very much like to go raze the damn school to the ground.

The prince's sulking did not go unnoticed. Judal migrated from his room, where his mostly-cleared desk sat waiting to be worked upon, out into the main room where Hakuryuu was. He took to laying on the floor, orbited by a scattered circle of study materials Hakuryuu didn't even try to comprehend. Ordered chaos was how Judal seemed to organize himself, and it was best to just leave him to it.

Judal was the type to lose himself in an activity for hours once he was focused on it, so it wasn't as if the change of location made them interact any more than before. Still, the close proximity did wonders to quell the insistent muttering of the prince's thoughts.

Hakuryuu would busy himself brewing tea and puttering about the apartment, tending to whatever flora he'd taken a liking to that day. He made enough tea for two, often swapping the mugs at Judal's side several times in the same evening so he always had a warm drink. After one near-spill, he learned to put the mugs far enough from Judal he couldn't bump into them, but close enough he could blindly reach out and pick them up.

Even as focused as he was, Judal was never still. His hands were always fumbling and scribbling, his back twisting, or his whole body contorting from sitting to laying to rolling over and back again. He would go squirming off in an entirely new direction without meaning to, and end up almost a foot or more away from where he had started. At times like those, Hakuryuu would gently nudge him back towards his circle of schoolwork as he passed.

When the prince ran out of distractions and his mind was a mess of urges to tear all those stupid papers away from Judal and take their place as the center of his attention, he would sit and watch him. The first time he did it, it was only in an attempt to pacify the thing in his chest that craved his lover near constantly, but it became a habit.

Simply watching Judal toil away at his schoolwork was far from dull. There were always movements, mannerisms, subtle shifts in expression, for Hakuryuu to observe. His mouth would move unconsciously as he read, though his voice was silent, forming words and equations only he seemed to follow. Sometimes he would murmur an answer to himself as if hearing it aloud would solidify it. Hakuryuu had to look away now and again, for Judal worried his lips as well, and when he released them they were flushed red and almost begging to be kissed.

And then, one night, Judal fell asleep on the floor. Hakuryuu had dozed off on the couch some hours prior, and when he came awake he found all the lights still on and his host on the ground, head on his arms. He was snoozing peacefully, a pen still dangling from his hand; clearly, he hadn't meant to fall asleep.

"Judal?"

Hakuryuu uncurled from the couch to kneel beside his lover.

"Judal." he repeated, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Judal, wake up."

His voice seemed to rouse Judal, who grumbled, shook his head, and blinked his eyes blearily. He lifted his head, only to yawn widely.

"H'kuryuu?" he mumbled, easing himself up on his elbows. "Wha' time 's it?"

"Late. You fell asleep studying, sweetling."

Judal groaned audibly and let his head fall back against his arms. He only stayed there a beat before slowly pushing himself up. He muttered something about bed, pressed a lazy kiss to Hakuryuu's mouth, and then shuffled himself off towards his bedroom.

This too became a pattern. Judal spent increasingly late nights awake on the floor, the mess of papers and files and sticky notes growing larger by the day. He would fall asleep without warning, and stay that way for an hour or two before suddenly jerking awake and getting back to work. Hakuryuu decided, after the first night Judal slept a collective three hours and nothing more, that he did not like this habit.

Attempts to subtly force Judal to sleep were for naught, however. When he stopped making him tea past midnight, Judal just kept working without it, which only led to him being drowsier in the morning and cranky at night. Turning most of the lights off just meant Judal squinted more, making noise didn't seem to disturb him, and eventually Hakuryuu gave up.

He didn't like seeing Judal anything other than his usual, energetic self. This weary Judal who seemed to stumble through the day, mumbling and slurring half his words, if he wasn't snapping them, wasn't right. These "finals" sounded important, but they couldn't be that important.

Hakuryuu had never been one to wait for someone else's permission to do what he believed was correct. The next time Judal fell asleep amidst his schoolwork, he patiently counted the minutes until an hour had passed. When his lover still showed no immediate signs of waking, he decided that was quite enough for one night.

Judal hardly stirred when Hakuryuu rolled him gently onto his side and hoisted him into his arms. The comfortable weight of him, far lighter than he expected, even having carried him before, made a small smile curl Hakuryuu's mouth. He allowed himself a brief moment to just relish how well Judal fit cradled against his chest like this, warm and light and perfect.

He continued sleeping, head rested against Hakuryuu's shoulder, as the prince took measured steps towards his room. Cautious steps meant it took almost twice the time to cross the wooden floor, but it was worth it to ensure he did not wake his slumbering host. The responsible thing to do would be to wake him so he could finish whatever work he'd been assigned that evening, but Hakuryuu didn't feel like being responsible.

As he eased his lover's lax body from his arms, Judal's eyelashes fluttered. He shifted, brow creasing before he opened his eyes to look up at Hakuryuu. The fae hovered over him, struggling to resist the urge to descend upon him and draw as many sleepy moans from his mouth as he could. Another night, perhaps.

"Hakuryuu… Where….?" Judal mumbled, brow furrowing in half-awake confusion.

"In your room, Judal, on your bed. You fell asleep again."

"I…? Shit, I gotta—"

"Shh, sweetling," the prince hushed gently.

Hakuryuu rested a hand on Judal's shoulder, pressing him back down against the mattress. Judal didn't even feign a struggle, allowing himself to be laid back down.

"The only thing you have to do is rest. Everything else can wait."

"But…"

"Hush," Hakuryuu crooned, pitching his voice low and sweet. The effect on Judal was immediate, the last of the resistance draining from his body like water from cupped hands. "You must let yourself sleep, Judal. All you'll do is hurt yourself this way, and I can't bear to see that."

One of Judal's hands lifted, feebly pinching the hem of Hakuryuu's sweater between his fingers. There was a pitiful, dissatisfied expression on his face.

"But… dinner, I promised I'd finish and we'd have dinner together…"

Hakuryuu's heart swelled in his chest until it felt as if it were pressing against his ribs. It was impossible to keep the pure affection from his face, and the smile he gave Judal made his cheeks turn pink it was so adoring.

"There will be other dinners." he promised gently, ghosting his fingers across Judal's forehead to brush aside his bangs.

"Are y'mad at me…?"

"Not at all, sweetling."

"I don' wanna sleep…"

"You need to."

"Stay with me, then?"

Judal's eyes were still only half opened, distant and sleepy even as they looked up at Hakuryuu's smiling face. Even walking the thin line between wakefulness and sleep, Judal was coherent enough to ask things of him that Hakuryuu simply couldn't refuse.

"Of course, my Judal."

Hakuryuu settled himself onto Judal's bed, nudging and pulling at his lover until they were in the center of the mattress, tucked under the comforter. Instinctively, Judal seemed to cocoon himself into the warmth of his blankets, burrowing himself against Hakuryuu's chest at the same time. A heartbeat passed where the fae fought for control of his actions with a far more devious side of his mind, and won. He wrapped his arms around his lover, pulling him snugly against his chest.

Judal sighed, almost lost between the blankets and Hakuryuu's embrace. His long hair was still loosely braided, but had begun to come undone against his faded sheets.

"Sleep, Judal." Hakuryuu breathed, magic whispered into his words.

The spell drifted lazily through the air, like a feather tossed up and left to its own devices to fall back down. It wafted and swayed and fluttered until it fell against Judal's ears, then tickled its way inside him. Technically, this was use of magic on his host's person without permission, and perhaps in the morning Judal would punish him for that.

He would take the punishment. It would be worth it to feel Judal go boneless in his arms, succumbing to a deep, all-consuming slumber. Hours would pass as he rested, but by the time he woke in the morning it would feel as if days had passed. All the sleep he had missed would be returned to him, and he would wake refreshed and revitalized once more.

Hakuryuu pressed a gentle kiss to Judal's forehead.

"Sleep well, my Judal." he whispered softly, as his own eyes fluttered shut.