Hakuryuu was left to stare at the bedroom door as it snapped shut, still reaching for where Judal had been. A pregnant silence filled the room for the second time that evening, once again broken only by the sound of the rain. The vassals had the courtesy to remain silent. Regardless of their opinions of the situation, this was not the time for snide quips.

The prince's face remained passive, but his taut posture revealed how strong the urge to march after his lover was. He managed to contain himself with a slow inhale, exhaling the tension from his body in one long gust. Judal had more than earned the right to have his wishes respected and if he said he needed space, Hakuryuu would give it to him.

In a show of willpower, Hakuryuu turned on his heel and walked to the couch, depositing himself gracelessly onto the cushions. There was no need for a dignified persona, his vassals had seen him in more compromising positions than splayed on a couch like a petulant child.

"Hakuryuu," Zagan said, using the prince's name only now that they were alone. "Would you like one of us to…?"

"No." Hakuryuu sighed. He rubbed the heels of his palms against his eyes. "No, give him time. I am sure this is a lot for him all at once."

"He had not even an inkling of what he was?"

"Even I did not notice it. So much magic is lost amidst this modern world, it does not surprise me that he overlooked his own. Besides, such occurrences as today didn't happen to Judal until I showed up."

At least, he didn't think they had. As far as Judal had ever told him, his life had been a paragon of mortal normalcy right up until Hakuryuu dropped from the sky. Everything after that was attributed chiefly to the prince himself. So, was it really surprising they had overlooked things?

Looking back, things began to jump out at Hakuryuu, illuminated by the clarity of retrospect. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that his lover wasn't, couldn't be, a mortal. He tallied the signs, and the more the number grew the more foolish he felt for missing it to begin with. And as foolish as he felt, he felt several times guiltier than that.

If only he had noticed things sooner. Judal could have been eased into this, coaxed to the realization on his own. The process of coming to terms with his new identity and addressing what this would mean for his ( Hakuryuu dared not think it then, but; their ) future would have taken place over time. Slowly. Carefully. Instead, Judal had everything unceremoniously announced to him out of the blue.

And, stars, Hakuryuu didn't even want to think about what his vassals were doing here. Few people knew he had ever won their loyalty, and fewer of those knew how to make contact with them without him present. Only a handful of people could have sent them, and if they had gone to that length to find him, things in Sidhe must be growing dire.

A feeling of frustrating helplessness settled into Hakuryuu's chest.

"The boy will come around, my prince." Belial said. It was almost uncharacteristic to hear such comforting words from him, enough so that Hakuryuu lifted his hands to peer at him warily.

"Not a half hour ago you were belittling him, now you just accept him?"

The fae's lip curled.

"I would not go quite that far. I still dislike the boy, and I do not approve of your… union, whatever it may be. But I am your vassal first, and your advisor second. If you say he is yours, then he is mine too, and I will choose to have some measure of faith in him."

Even Zagan looked somewhat startled by this.

"You are not usually so forgiving, Belial!" he exclaimed. "What has changed your mind?"

"Have you really not noticed? Either of you?"

Blank looks from prince and vassal alike. Belial rolled his countless eyes, utterly exasperated with the pair of them.

"Your heart beats in time with his, my prince." he said. "You and he are connected, perhaps you have been since this all began. Coincidence is a mortal construct, there is no such thing, and even I cannot sever ties made by the universe itself."

Zagan looked at his companion thoughtfully, but said nothing, and Hakuryuu did the same. Belial left his explanation there, though there was little else to be said.

Silence returned, and Hakuryuu's eyes drifted up to focus on the ceiling above him. He had been in this exact position when he first woke in the mortal realm, looking up at this same ceiling. It felt almost a lifetime ago.

The cracks had gone when he had redecorated the living room, but he could still picture them as if he had seen them just the day before. The memory of waking up in this strange place, its unfamiliar smell and the couch springs digging into his back, were all emblazoned in his mind. Each moment that had led him to this exact place, now, traced back to his first look at that ceiling.

No worldly secrets or life altering advice appeared in the white paint above him, and none had been there before. But Hakuryuu still stared, thoughts drifting, until the steady pounding of his own heart filled his ears. He closed his eyes and focused on it, thinking of Judal.

The problem with windowless rooms was that it was very difficult to tell how long you had been inside one if you didn't have a clock. Judal wasn't sure how long he sat there, watching white sparks dance over his burns, before he finally snapped out of his stupor.

Sitting there in a daze was going to accomplish nothing. The injury that had taken longest for Hakuryuu's body to heal had been the one made by iron, so it stood to reason that the same was to be said for his. His magic moved much more slowly than Hakuryuu's too; the burns were going nowhere fast.

With that in mind, Judal shook his head and hauled himself up off the floor. As soon as he stood, all of the exhaustion that adrenaline had been staving off seemed to hit him at once. He stumbled, bracing himself against his dresser as his head spun.

It had been a very long day. He had been out in the heat and the sun, wandering the city, and then gotten chased by two very large, very frightening fae. And at the end of that chase, instead of safety, there had been terror, confusion, and then a worldview shattering realization he couldn't have seen coming if he'd been looking for it.

Judal was tired. Mentally, emotionally, and physically, tired.

He shrugged out of his clothes halfheartedly and crawled into bed. It felt no bigger without Hakuryuu in it beside him, but it did feel colder. Judal gathered the comforter around himself and curled into a ball, burying his nose under the blanket in an attempt to make himself as small as possible.

Sleep did not evade him for long. No sooner had he closed his eyes than he was drifting off, and soon the waking world left him completely.

Judal dreamed.

In his dream, there was an endless plain of white that seemed to stretch for miles in all directions, seemingly unending, unchanging. Judal stood up to his calves in it, and though he recognized the soft crunch of snow beneath his feet, he did not feel the cold. Or, he did, but it did not feel like cold in the sense that he knew it.

The snow glittered, as overhead hung the moon, casting a cool glow down on the world below. There were more stars in the sky than he had ever seen before, so bright they looked as though he could reach up and snatch one from the heavens. He tried, smiling when his hand closed around empty air.

Something about this place was comforting. It was empty, but beautiful in its undisturbed nothingness, the horizon a black line far, far away. The more he looked, the more he began to pick out shapes, little divots and hills hidden in the blankness.

Just as his eyes were adjusting, the sun began to rise. It emerged over the horizon, casting the darkness from the sky, causing the stars and moon to flee. For a moment, Judal was blinded. The sun was bright and hot, it reflected off the snow and everything shone with pure light all at once. He raised an arm to shield his eyes, for even his eyelids did not protect him.

When he opened his eyes again, the white remained, and yet the snow did not. The expanse of ivory had become the product of tens of thousands of flowers, swaying in a gentle wind. They grew so closely together that it was almost impossible to tell they were flowers at all until you stood among them. Petals tickled his legs.

Judal laughed, delighted, but as he made to lower his arm he paused. There was a long line cut into his flesh, looping around to the underside of his wrist, and up over his palm. He turned his arm curiously, trying to get a better look at it, and as he did the cut pulled open wider, exposing something underneath.

It wasn't muscle, and it wasn't bone.

He clenched his fist and reached up with his other arm, but this one too had been split. The movement caused the skin to pull, and Judal watched in horror as it began to peel back. Once the first flap of skin had rolled back, more tears began to form, and more began to peel, and all at once his skin was coming away in grotesque chunks.

Judal tried to hold it in place, scrabbling helplessly at his arms until he was no longer trying to keep the skin on, but tearing it off. Hunks of flesh fell to the flowers, and a senseless horror gripped him as he realized that his nails had become claws.

What lay beneath his skin was ugly and misshapen. Incorrect in ways he couldn't describe with words. More of his skin came away, from his legs, his torso, his face, and beneath it was just—

Judal woke with a start, smothered in darkness. He flailed, struggling until he wrenched himself free of the blankets and gasped for air. Disoriented, he looked around wildly, trying to get his bearings.

His room was silent and undisturbed. Nothing was different from when he had fallen asleep.

It took several minutes for his body to leave its panic, and finally Judal flopped back against the mattress. He rubbed his hands over his face, trying to recount what he had seen in the dream. Whatever had been under his skin escaped him now.

The idea of sleeping more and potentially returning to the dream did not seem appealing, so he laid there, staring at the ceiling in the dark.

A knock came at the bedroom door. Judal wasn't entirely sure how long he had been laying there, but from the telltale creaks of the upstairs neighbor moving around, he gathered that it was morning.

"You can come in…" he called as he sat up, stifling a yawn.

The door opened and his lover stood in the doorway, two plates balanced on one arm and a pair of mugs held precariously in the other. The smell of breakfast made Judal's stomach grumble hungrily, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since the previous afternoon. He gestured vaguely for Hakuryuu to come inside.

They ended up eating on his bed, sitting at either end and facing one another. Judal mumbled his thanks for the food, but said little else besides that, and Hakuryuu watched him more than he ate. It was the closest thing to awkward that had ever come between them, and it was clear neither liked the feeling.

Judal finished his plate in record time, far hungrier than he had realized, and downed most of the tea he had been brought. He relaxed a little now that his stomach was full, and Hakuryuu took the opportunity to speak.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Tired." Judal replied honestly. "I had a fucked up dream. Kind of thought that yesterday was part of the fucked up dream, but the burn's still on my hand, so I guess not."

"May I see it?"

Rather than respond verbally, Judal simply held out his hand. Hakuryuu examined his palm, observing the little sparks still toiling away at erasing the injury. They were moving a little more quickly than the night before, but it was still nothing compared to how the prince's body knit itself back together.

"This is impressive." Hakuryuu said. "For magic that has just awoken to react so fervently to an injury; usually it is much more sluggish."

Usually, Hakuryuu's compliments made Judal glow, but this one made him frown. He didn't think his magic was being very "fervent", and frankly if it was so worried about him being hurt it was a good decade or more too late to action.

His feelings must have been written on his face, because Hakuryuu smiled softly. It made something in Judal's chest uncoil, his shoulders relaxing thoughtlessly as he looked at his lover.

"How are your other injuries?" the prince prompted gently. Judal glanced himself over, but before he had even begun to scan his body, he realized he was in far less pain than he should have been.

He tugged bandages aside curiously and lifted bandaids until he realized that most of his other injuries were just gone. The bite on his forearm was still closing, as was a nasty cut on his shoulder, but other than that he looked as though he'd never been hurt at all.

"Oh."

"Yes."

A flush of embarrassment touched Judal's cheekbones, but for once Hakuryuu did not chide him for jumping to hasty conclusions.

"If you're still hungry, there's more on the stove. I do not want you to overextend yourself now that your magic has awoken."

"Are you always hungry after you use magic?"

"Only when I do so in excess. But I have had centuries to grow into my power, and my body knows how to regulate itself and the energy it creates. You, however, have been wearing a mortal skin for who only knows how long."

Mortal skin.

The thing about being human was that it had never been optional. From the moment a child was old enough to comprehend the difference between themselves and an animal, there was an inherent constant to their lives. They were human beings, and that would never change. You could change your name, your appearance, your gender, your sex, where you lived, who you were, but you were always human.

And it was not a constant that one was conscious of. When they looked in the mirror, they saw a human face looking back at them, and that was just how reality was. It was the one thing people rarely questioned. An intrinsic truth that united all human beings on earth.

Having that suddenly taken away changed everything. A very basic fact of life no longer existed, never had to begin with, and this made everything that had come before look very different than it had.

It wasn't as if he was even particularly attached to being a human, he'd never even thought about it! But now Judal was faced with his life through new eyes, reliving his experiences through a different lens. How many strange things that had happened to him had been magic? How much of his life was the result of forces he hadn't even been aware existed?

Why was he here? On earth, in the mortal realm, not in Sidhe where he apparently belonged? How had he worn the skin of a mortal for so long? Why didn't he ever notice? How-?

Hakuryuu's hands cupped his cheeks. Judal hadn't even realized he had lowered his head until his lover was tilting it back up to press a kiss against his lips. Warmth spread through him from where their mouths connected, brushing aside his clamoring thoughts like cobwebs from an empty room. He leaned into the kiss, shuffling forward until he was practically in his lover's lap.

Hakuryuu rested their foreheads together when they pulled apart, dropping his hands to hold both of Judal's.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked. "We can wait. We don't have to talk about it now. If you need more time, that is okay."

"No, I want to talk about it now. I just—It's a lot."

"It is."

A moment of silence fell between them, though this time it was not as heavy. Judal breathed, and Hakuryuu waited patiently for him to speak.

"So…" he began, swallowing the last of his unease. "What exactly is a half-blood? Or, change-thing, or whatever?"

"A halfling is a child born of both a mortal and a fae." Hakuryuu explained. "Usually, the child is born with an appearance similar to their fae parent, which often makes them unique among mortals. Occasionally there is enough fae blood in them that they are capable of magic, but they do not usually have very good control over it."

"But they're affected by iron, right? So how do you know I'm not one?"

"Like fae, they are born with magic. If you were a halfling, you would have had a much more volatile life, and you never would have been able to pull that iron bolt from inside me."

Judal felt as though the news he wasn't a half-blood should have meant something to him. Belial hadn't seemed to hold them in particularly high regard, though he suspected he didn't hold anyone in particularly high regard besides Hakuryuu. He tried to muster some kind of relief or joy, but it felt forced.

Hakuryuu squeezed his hands.

"As Zagan said, I believe that you are a changeling."

"I remember him saying that, but I have no clue what the fuck that means." Judal rubbed a hand through his hair, mussing the already unruly locks. "I mean, I've seen the term come up here and there when I was reading about faeries but I didn't pay much attention. Kind of looked like a bunch of old wives tales and shit."

"There is a reason for that." Hakuryuu admitted. "Changelings were far more common in the past, before even I was born. It was much easier for fae to coexist with humankind, in that time."

"What changed?"

"Mortals did. They began to build cities and machines from iron and chemicals, kept a closer watch on their own kind and hunted anything that was different. It did not stop all fae from producing changelings, but many saw it as too dangerous."

Hakuryuu paused here and drew in a breath, squeezing Judal's hands a second time. Even though he could see the prince grappling to find the right words, Judal didn't push him. He got the sense he may not like what he was about to hear.

"A changeling," Hakuryuu began again. "Is a fae child that is left in the mortal realm, most often as an infant. They were often left in the place of mortal children, who the fae would take back to Sidhe for one reason or another. The fae child-"

A short, sharp laugh interrupted the prince's explanation. Concerned eyes flicked over Judal's face, taking note of his tilted grin and the way he couldn't make eye contact.

"Oh, brilliant, so my parents just didn't fucking want me. No that's great." Judal laughed, gripping Hakuryuu's hands until his knuckles were white. "Fantastic. All these years I thought I was just unlucky, turns out I'm a reject."

"Judal, that's not—"

"Seriously? Are you about to tell me that's not what that means? Because you basically just said that my parents swung over here, dropped me off, grabbed some other kid and—"

"Judal, please, listen to me."

Judal shut his mouth, jaw clenched tight. He couldn't look Hakuryuu in the eye, he didn't want him to see just how much pain he was in. The thought of his parents was an old wound, one that had festered, healed, and scarred a long time ago. But there it was now, torn right back open.

"As I said," Hakuryuu continued softly. "The practice of leaving changeling children in the mortal realm is an old one, Judal. With modern mortal life as it is, even the most bold fae thinks twice before setting foot here, let alone leaving an infant who cannot fend for themselves."

"So?"

"So, the ones who do are usually desperate. Sidhe is not a safe place, Judal, even when it is peaceful. There are dangers there that even I am not aware of, horrors I have yet to comprehend."

The prince took a deep breath.

"What I'm trying to say is, if it was your parents who left you in the mortal realm, it is more likely that they did so to protect you rather than to abandon you."

The thought was comforting. For a moment Judal imagined that there were a pair of fae out there somewhere in hiding, running from some unknown terror, who still thought of the child they had left behind. His stomach twisted when he remembered something he hadn't thought of in years, and he ducked his head.

"A hospital." Judal muttered. "When I was a kid, my foster mom told me they found me outside a hospital."

Hakuryuu smiled softly and lifted his hands, kissing his knuckles.

"Would someone who did not care for you really bother to leave you where you would most assuredly be looked after?" he asked.

Judal shook his head.

All of this just created more questions than answers. Who were his parents? What had they been running from? Why did they feel they needed to go so far as to leave their baby in an entirely different realm to keep him safe? Or had that been their motivation at all? If it wasn't, then what was? Did he have any family in Sidhe? Siblings?

He squeezed his eyes shut, as if this would stop the torrent of thoughts rushing through his head. There was so much to think about he couldn't even begin to put any of it into words. It was overwhelming, and if he wasn't careful he felt he may be consumed by his own questions.

"In theory," Hakuryuu said, bringing him back to the present. "A changeling could remain hidden in the mortal realm forever, unaware of their heritage. Since they arrive so young, they are able to create something of a second skin for themselves that allows them to exist without any of the ailments that affect fae. It suppresses their magic more and more as they grow older, so by the time they reach adulthood, they are mostly indistinguishable from mortals."

"So, if you're trying to hide someone…"

"What better way than to hide everything that makes them a target?"

Another volley of questions ricocheted around his head, joining the cacophony. Judal snatched one of the new queries at random in an attempt to quiet his thoughts.

"Then I probably wasn't ever supposed to find out I wasn't human. But if I have this second skin, then why did iron burn me?"

"That is most likely my fault."

Judal offered his lover an incredulous look, to which Hakuryuu smiled ruefully.

"Magic draws to it more magic. As one of royal blood, I am among some of the strongest fae in my court. It is my guess that being in my presence began to awaken your dormant self and draw it towards the surface."

His smile became an amused grin, briefly.

"Being intimate with me probably sped the process along, hence this sudden transformation."

"Makes sense."

It didn't, really. But Judal had learned over his time with Hakuryuu that expecting things to make "sense" was the wrong way to go about things. Mortals and fae existed on two different planes not just physically, but mentally as well. The sooner one let go of mortal conventions of thought, the sooner they began to understand what a fae was saying.

In the context of all he knew, Hakuryuu's explanation seemed to fit. When he thought back through his life, the last instance similar to anything that had been happening to him now had been when he was about ten. There was a long gap between then and now when anything that could be construed as magic had disappeared from his life.

This second skin changelings grew seemed more like a shell to him. It had set when he was around eleven, and would have probably stayed intact had Hakuryuu not started putting cracks in it. Now, the cracks were spreading, and pretty soon the whole thing would shatter.

The thought that one day, possibly one day soon, he would cease to be mortal entirely made Judal's thoughts finally quiet. One question was left in the forefront of his mind, while the rest settled somewhere in the background to be addressed at another time.

"What now?" he asked. "What happens now?"

"Now, you have a choice."

He looked up, only to find Hakuryuu looking down instead. His thumbs rubbed gentle circles against the backs of Judal's hands.

"If Belial and Zagan have been sent for me, then things in Sidhe must be taking a turn for the worst. They will expect me to return with them, and in honesty… I think I should." he paused, as if steeling himself. "I do not know much about changelings, no one really does, but it seems to me that you are still more or less able to live a mortal life, if you wanted."

"Or?"

"Or… Or, you could choose to return to Sidhe. If you do, you will lose your second skin and become a fae, as you truly are. The mortal realm will become toxic to you, but you will be a being of Sidhe."

Judal had expected the second option, but it still made his breath catch in his throat.

From the beginning, he had known that things with Hakuryuu couldn't last. He was of another realm, something that should have been untouchable to someone like Judal, but he was here. And this little sanctuary they had built together, it would eventually fall apart.

But which if it didn't have to? If, instead of watching Hakuryuu as he walked away, or waking one morning to find him gone, Judal could leave with him.

"If I choose the second," he said, tightening his hold on his lover's hands. "Do I get to stay with you?"

Hakuryuu's head shot up, eyes wide and shimmering with a flurry of emotions. He clutched at Judal's hands.

"Yes! Yes, a thousand times yes, you would stay at my side Judal, I swear I would keep you beside me as long as you would be there!"

"Then it's not much of question."

Judal smiled. His heart was hammering, and his eyes burned. He was feeling too many things at once, they were clogging his throat and making him flush. The chaos in his mind returned, but there was one thing that was clear.

"I said, didn't I? The only thing I want out of life is you. So take me back to Sidhe with you, Hakuryuu."

Hakuryuu made a noise caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob. He dove forward, knocking them both back against the mattress as he kissed his lover over and over again. Laughter and little gasps of "yes" escaped between kisses. Judal thumbed the tears from the prince's cheeks, his heart fluttering with the knowledge he had made him cry with joy.

Notes:

As promised, here is a list of all the hints and foreshadowing that was given regarding Judal being inhuman:

1. His ability to read into and comprehend fae wordplay. There's a lot of instances of this so I won't put them all here. While it's not only fae who can be good at this, it is unusual for a mortal to pick it up so quickly.

2. His beauty. Shallow, sure, but mortals don't usually have red eyes now do they? Fae also possess an "unearthly" quality to their appearance that Judal shares.

3. [ Chp. 2 ] 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.

4. [ Chp. 4 ] One of his foster fathers tried to cut his hair and the scissors broke, his foster brother stole the shared Gameboy and it suddenly died in his hands, a cassette Judal hated got scrambled beyond redemption.

5. [ Chp. 7 ] Judal stopped walking, trying to process what had just happened in his head. The half-second image of the dilapidated courtyard was unnaturally fuzzy in his mind, and instinct told him to turn his head and look back.

6. [ Chp. 10 ] With his eyes shut, there was only the hum of magic all around him. It began to tingle against his skin, fractious at first and then more insistent, like it was trying to find a crack to slip into so it could worm its way inside him. The static began to even out, the noise becoming less incoherent until it was no longer white noise but fervent whispers he couldn't quite catch.

7. [ Chp. 11 ] It should have been very easy to miss the sword. In fact, Judal's eyes should have glossed over it as if it wasn't there at all.

8. [ Chp. 11 ] A simple no would have been much easier, and much more convincing. Judal spent a moment wondering why he didn't just go with the white lie.

9. [ Chp. 14 ] Yet he was standing there the victor, and it had occurred to Judal that the blood spilled should make him feel something like fear. Only fear, of all things, was nowhere to be found. Where Judal went looking for it he found the unfamiliar face of pride instead, curled catlike in his chest.

10. [ Chp. 16 ] Sidhe wasn't his concern. So why did it feel like it was?

11. [ Chp. 20 ] He examined the bottle as he walked, looking first for some evidence of mold or mildew, and then glancing over the list of contents warily. Apple concentrate, water, and a handful of other common ingredients. There was nothing there to explain why one swig of the stuff made him want to empty his stomach.

12. [ Chp. 20 ] There were a lot of those, these days. Flowers blossoming under his fingertips, silver jewelry that seemed to follow him around the store while window shopping, only to end up in his pocket, freak storms that downed the city's power for almost six full hours.

13. [ Chp. 20 ] For some reason, the map on his phone had been wrong multiple times that day. He had noticed his phone glitch here and there over the past few weeks, but hadn't thought much of it until that day.

14. [ Chp. 20 ] Hakuryuu loved fresh milk, and Judal had been craving it recently too, so he doubled back to buy a jug of it, never mind how heavy it was going to be.

15. [ Chp. 20 ] The train was underground, which made an odd sense of claustrophobia hover in the back of his mind, but the bus… For some reason, getting into either vehicle didn't seem appealing

16. [ Chp. 20 ] It's not. Judal thought softly. It's not empty.

17. [ Chp. 20 ] Something… burned.

If you're curious how any of these relate to Judal being inhuman, please drop me a message and I'll be happy to explain!