The next morning, Hakuryuu made a list of all the things he'd learned from questioning Ithnan.

1. Judal was insanely, arousingly powerful.

2. Judal was in some way instrumental to the revival of Il Illah.

3. Ithnan didn't know the specifics of how Gyokuen intended to revive Il Illah.

4. There was an Al Tharman stronghold close enough to his apartment that it was a wonder he hadn't been "taken care of" already.

Staring at this list of facts, he came to a few conclusions. First, since Ithnan didn't know the specifics for Il Illah's revival, it was doubtful Gyokuen trusted anyone but herself with the information. Second, since Ithnan had found him, Al Tharman knew Judal was in this city, but they probably didn't know his exact location. Third, since Al Tharman's base was located so close, they probably had the strength to mobilize against anything they felt was a threat or a worthwhile lead. A lead like knowing that someone instrumental to Il Illah's revival was hiding nearby. That lead him to his final conclusion- it was only a matter of time before his apartment became compromised.

Hakuryuu leaned back in his chair at the kitchen table and sighed heavily. Judal glanced up from his cereal, one eyebrow raised. "You're making the bad news face."

"That's because I just realized some bad news."

Judal took another bite of cereal, chewing loudly. "Go on."

Hakuryuu slowly exhaled through his nose, organizing his thoughts so he could tell Judal his worries without saying something dumb, or unclear, or overly emotional. "I was thinking about what we learned from Ithnan, and I realized that it's only a matter of time before they figure out that you're staying here."

Judal stopped chewing his cereal. "Well, I mean, I've done a lot of work to hide my magical signature and stuff. And I never do magic when we're at home. I'm careful!" But Hakuryuu could see that Judal knew he was making shallow excuses. He watched Judal's hand grip his spoon like a desperate lifeline. He watched him work his jaw, clenching and unclenching his teeth.

"Careful doesn't matter against them," Hakuryuu said with a sigh. "It's only a bandaid. Eventually, they'll find us here. Honestly, they might already be on my scent, and at that point, I'm endangering you." Some of the tension left Judal's body as Hakuryuu got up. "You didn't think I wanted you to leave, did you?"

"No," Judal snapped, shovelling more cereal into his mouth. "But I thought maybe you were pissed I fucked up your little hiding place."

Hakuryuu shook his head slowly. "It was inevitable."

Judal watched as Hakuryuu took his own bowl to the sink and washed it off. Chores always helped Hakuryuu chill out, and this was no exception. The realization was still bad news, but, like he'd said to Judal, it was inevitable. Now they had the time to move in pieces so that Al Tharman didn't notice them making a big hullabaloo to get out. The apartment had come furnished, so it was mostly packing his belongings, divorcing his few emotional attachments, and very, very carefully moving his plants.

"You seem pretty calm, all things considered," Judal said.

"Well, it's not like I really care about this apartment all that much. It's just a place." Hakuryuu smiled over his shoulder at Judal, and Judal raised an eyebrow at him.

"Okay, but, where the fuck are we gonna go?" Judal waved a hand at their cramped kitchen. "We're not necessarily drowning in liquid assets that we could use to just go get another place, and, anyway, going somewhere else is gonna have all the same problems as staying here! And I do not want to go back to sleeping in piss-stinking bus stations."

Hakuryuu blinked at Judal, a little stunned. "Well, we're not doing that. We're going to go stay with Zagan."

Judal's frantic, worked up face relaxed into a little "oh" of surprise. "Ah. Well. That makes sense." He considered Hakuryuu's stunned little face, thinking and tapping his spoon on the table. "Well if where we live getting compromised isn't as big of a deal," Judal said, leaning on his palm, "I could try to speed up the like. Moving shit process. Make it so they don't see us from outside."

Hakuryuu laughed.. "What, are you going to make us invisible?"

Judal shook his head. "Nah. We'd still have to carry stuff, and then they'd see floating boxes wandering out of the apartment." He traced shapes on the table with his spoon, making more than just an obnoxious scraping noise. The lines behind where the spoon had been glowed with a bright, strange light that shimmered until Judal lifted his makeshift magical focus and dropped it in. The glowing sigil swallowed the spoon whole, and then Judal closed it with a wave of his hand. "I'll just teleport it to Zagan."

Hakuryuu stared, slack-jawed. He had once or twice seen teleportation magic used, cast as a large spell with multiple supporters, allowing a brief window of travel for one or two people before it had to be closed again. Judal got up from the table, seemingly not bothered or tired at all, and put his bowl in the sink. Then a glowing portal opened a short ways above the sink, and the spoon clattered in to rejoin it. Judal grinned at Hakuryuu, entirely too pleased with himself.

"You are such a show-off," Hakuryuu said, shaking his head. "Just. You didn't even need to do that, at all, yet there you are."

"Is that a problem?" Judal asked, still grinning like a fox in a chicken coop.

"No, it's very convenient." Hakuryuu returned the smile. "You really are powerful. Makes me sad I haven't gotten to see more of it until now."

"I'll just have to pull out all the stops and show you how awesome I am, in the future." Judal sauntered out of the kitchen and then stopped. "I mean my stuff is pretty much all packed up so I don't really know where I'm going."

Hakuryuu laughed. "Oh, Judal. You are..." He shook his head. "You can help me pack my clothes."

Judal did a lot more than just pack, offering critique on not only Hakuryuu's overall fashion sense, but each individual shirt, even when it was just an endless succession of identical white button ups. His abundant opinions made the process go fast, adding color and personality to the tedious task of making all of Hakuryuu's efficiently few belongings disappear into boxes and suitcases. When they were packed, Judal crawled under the bed to retrieve the lock box, finding a few stray socks along the way. One of the socks even had a few hundred dollars in it that Hakuryuu must have stored in a paranoid fit and then forgotten about.

"You really don't have that much more than me," Judal said when they were done with the clothes. "Though there's still books and stuff to do."

Hakuryuu nodded slowly. "The plants will take the longest to transport."

Judal cocked his head to the side, looking thoughtful. "I guess we should swing by Zagan's to let him know I'm gonna be teleporting stuff into his house. Doubt it'll work unless he gives me the go ahead, too, and I'd hate for us to fuck up the stuff we do have by flinging it into a teleportation circle willie nillie."

"I don't know much about teleportation magic, so I'll take your word for it," Hakuryuu agreed. "How about we take my plants down to the car and drive those over. I'm sure Zagan will be happier to see us if we come with plants."

Zagan was not as pleased as Hakuryuu had expected to see the two of them on his doorstep with a large amount of plants. "I'm not going to adopt your children just because you're too busy playing grab-ass to care for them."

Hakuryuu flushed hotly, and Judal laughed. "Naw, we're not doing anything like that." Judal muscled his way in past Zagan. "We're just taking the delicate stuff over first."

"First?" Zagan asked with a dubious raise of his eyebrow.

Hakuryuu's flush reached up to his ears. "Judal, that's not how you go about asking someone for help, especially not if you're..." He looked after Judal and back up to Zagan. "I'm very sorry, Zagan. We just realized some very bad news, and well..."

Zagan waved a hand and sighed heavily. "Come in."

Hakuryuu crossed over the threshold, and as he did the plants in his arms quivered with delighted anticipation, their leaves going greener and unfurling slightly. "Traitor," HAkuryuu whispered to them. The plants did not reply, as they were plants reacting to a change in the magic around them, not sentient conversation partners bearing a personal grudge.

Hakuryuu followed after Judal into the drawing room, where he was making himself quite comfortable on the chaise lounge after setting down the load of plants on the low kitchen table. He raised a teacup when Hakuryuu and Zagan entered the room. "Cheers. Glad to see you were expecting us."

"I wasn't," Zagan said, although he didn't sound as upset as Hakuryuu would have expected him to. "Why are you here?"

Hakuryuu sat down next to Judal awkwardly, plants still balanced in his lap. "As I said we... realized a bit of bad news. Al Tharman has a fully established presence here."

"You say this as though it's news," Zagan said with a bored wave of his hand. A small troupe of his lesser fairies showed up with additional cups for tea, and a plate of small cakes that Zagan declined. "You've been hunting Al Tharman here for far too long for it not to be established."

"Yes, well." Hakuryuu sighed heavily. The frustrating thing about fae was how they always made you feel as though they were three steps ahead of you, bored when you finally came to the conclusions that they'd reached ages ago. He resisted the urge to say that if Zagan was so damn clever than he already knew why they were there. "Staying in my apartment is no longer an option. The location isn't compromised yet, but it's only a matter of time before it is. And if that happens, it's game over. I'm killing Al Tharman members left and right. Judal is somehow instrumental to their plot to revive Il Illah. Between the two of us, we pose a rather uniquely dangerous set of problems that Al Tharman is going to investigate eventually."

"So you have come to darken my door."

"Yeah, pretty much." Judal did not turn down the treats from the lesser fairies, but made a face when he bit into one and discovered that it was not nearly as delightful tasting as it had looked. "Look, don't act all aloof and douchey. I saw the way your eyes lit up when you saw Hakuryuu at the door." He tried another cake, and found it far more to his liking. "You were happy to see him. Now you'll get to see him like all the damn time!"

Zagan put a hand over his eyes, but Hakuryuu could see that Judal was right.

"Well, I suppose I'd left your room put together," he said after a dramatic pause. "You might as well make use of it."

Hakuryuu's heart leapt up into his throat, and he struggled to find the words to thank Zagan. Instead, all that came out was a strangled little grunt and a nod. Having his own place had made him feel independent again, and having Judal in that space had made him feel like he had a home, but Zagan had been the first one to make him feel safe since he was a small child. The thought of returning to that made the pain of saying goodbye to the apartment, the pain he hadn't realized had been growing slowly in his gut, a little less painful.

"Oh man, you have your own room?" Judal cackled. "You're gonna have to show me!"

"I'll have them make you up one as well," Zagan said, lifting his hand from his eyes to gesture at his serving fairies. "No sense in you not having one."

"That won't be necessary," Hakuryuu said without thinking. "He can just share mine."

Zagan raised an eyebrow at Hakuryuu, and Judal grinned ear to ear to hide the genuine emotion that was threatening the edges of his expression.

"Very well," Zagan replied. "Then he can share yours."

"Oh, one other thing," Judal said, flapping a hand to draw Zagan's attention. "I need you to grant me access to this place so I can teleport Hakuryuu's shit here. We brought the plants in hand because like, duh, kinda dangerous for me to go dropping flowerpots through teleportation circles, and also because I'm pretty sure you're not the sort of dude that just lets people drop whatever magic they want into his space."

"You are correct in that." Zagan rose, crossing to Judal and laying a hand upon his shoulder. There was a momentary glow, and Hakuryuu felt the slightest transference of power between the pair. "That should give you access to come and go as you please. Don't abuse it."

Judal made a half salute. "You got it!"

Zagan slowly shook his head, looking disbelieving but not saying anything.

"We'll work on getting things moved over for now, Zagan," Hakuryuu said, rising to his feet. "I don't want to do too much at once because I don't want to be noticed, but since Judal can teleport things to you..."

Zagan waved a hand. "Days or hours, I really don't care. I'll look forward to having you home, honestly."

Hakuryuu nodded, biting back an emotion that he wasn't quite ready to feel.

Judal's magic made it very fast for them to move their possessions to Zagan's, simply passing boxes through the stable portal and into Zagan's drawing room. Yet somehow, when it was all over, Hakuryuu and Judal found themselves sitting on the couch, not quite ready to leave.

"It's weird," Judal said finally, breaking the silence of the two of them staring at the furniture that remained.

"Yes," Hakuryuu agreed. "And a little... sad? I haven't really lived a lot of places, and they're just places but for some reason this-" He stopped abruptly, not sure what to say.

"I kinda feel you," Judal said, picking up the conversational slack. "I lived my whole life in Al Tharman's crummy compound, or in shitty ass hotel rooms while I was out on assignment, or, after I ran away, outside on park benches and shit. So I'm. It kinda sucks to have to leave this behind, even if I know I'm going to be getting a new house."

Hakuryuu nodded numbly. It was slowly sinking in that all his hard work was going to prove to have been fruitless- he was back to living with Zagan, his mother was alive... Judal next to him made an unhappy noise, plucking at a stray hair in the couch.

"We should do something to say goodbye to the place," Judal said. "You know, really just- send it off with a bang."

"Like what, light something on fire?" Hakuryuu asked sarcastically. "I would like to be able to rent another apartment at some point if the opportunity ever arises, thank you very much."

Judal laughed. "All right, well, then what do you want to do?"

Hakuryuu thought about it, and then glanced over at Judal. His braid was spilling over his shoulder, and his eyes showed all their usual armor against being seen for the punched-tired purple they really were. "Well, it seems silly if you just say things like that," Hakuryuu said, feeling a bit silly at the way his cheeks heated up as he looked at Judal.

"Things like what?" Judal asked, not being facetious but just confused.

"Well." Hakuryuu bit his cheek, and stared at Judal. It seemed like a lifetime since he'd met him, like so much had changed, and yet so little time had passed, or real change been affected. He was still Hakuryuu. Al Tharman was still a problem. And the last gasps of summer were still staying unseasonably past their welcome. "Let's go to bed, Judal," he said. "We can leave for Zagan's in the morning."

Judal's brow creased in confusion. "Huh? It's kinda early for that..."

"Just- come with me!" Hakuryuu insisted, getting to his feet and offering Judal a hand.

Judal took it with no further complaints, letting Hakuryuu lead him back into the bedroom. The bedroom was much darker now that they had passed Hakuryuu's personal lamp through to Zagan's, and the room was bathed in the warm light of a single bedside lamp. Hakuryuu sat on the edge of the bed, looking at Judal and waiting for him to catch on.

Judal just looked at him quizzically though. "You really sure this is... I mean."

"Are you really going to make me say I want to have sex?" Hakuryuu asked.

Judal barked out a single laugh. "Apparently, since you just fucking said it!"

Hakuryuu sighed through his nose, giving Judal a look. "I don't really open up for people like this. I'd appreciate if you could maybe take it seri-"

Judal crossed the room to kiss Hakuryuu, turning Hakuryuu's face up to press their lips together. It was surprisingly tender and brief, and when they pulled apart, Judal gave Hakuryuu a crooked little smile. "Isn't this stuff supposed to be more... spontaneous and deep and shit? You don't gotta know all the answers."

"I..." Hakuryuu scowled, grabbing Judal by the front of his shirt and yanking him down into another kiss. Judal, either unbalanced or emboldened by Hakuryuu's actions, fell forward onto him, knocking Hakuryuu onto his back on the bed as they kissed with teeth and passion. They broke when Judal's lips wandered to Hakuryuu's ear, laying experimental nibbles there. Hakuryuu made a low sound in his throat, closing his eyes to fully enjoy the feeling. "I don't do spontaneity well. This is about as spontaneous as I get, Judal."

Judal didn't reply at first, instead taking his time nibbling and kissing Hakuryuu's ear so he could relish the shake in his voice. When he did speak, it was in a low and husky whisper in Hakuryuu's ear. "You saying I should be your spontaneous side?"

Hakuryuu was not sure he was willing to go quite that far. "For now."

He nipped Hakuryuu's ear again, and Hakuryuu gasped. "Even though I bite?"

Hakuryuu reached up slowly, tenderly stroking Judal's face and hair until his guard was dropped and he yanked on a fistful of Judal's dark locks. "I trust you to behave yourself."

Judal winced and laughed. "Okay, okay, I won't try to devour you!" He turned his head to kiss Hakuryuu's wrist. "You're just so enticing," he said softly against Hakuryuu's pulse. Hakuryuu loosened his grip, and Judal raised one hand up to hold Hakuryuu's hand in place, kissing along the soft, delicate flesh there. "Is it wrong for me to want to have more of you?"

Hakuryuu could see in Judal's eyes the promises of that more- more of his flesh, more of his love, more of his power. He could see the hunger that burned, deep and mindless within Judal, and it stirred something in his own gut- an empty, vicious want for all those things Judal desired, but reversed. A knotted hunger that begged to tasted the feel of Judal's magic again, that wanted to tear him open and see the soft, tender affection hidden behind years of Al Tharman's grooming. Judal kissed his way down Hakuryuu's wrist, and Hakuryuu shivered, just letting himself be lost to the sensation. He was mindless of his own soft gasps and sounds; he was too focused on the feeling and his own hunger for Judal.

"You're weird," Judal said, and Hakuryuu laughed. "I mean it! You let me live when killing me could be a death blow for your mom's stupid cult bullshit, you want me to keep sleeping in your bed when you could just as easily pawn me off on some other part of Zagan's bullshit magic house. I'm sure there's-"

"You talk too much, you know that?" Hakuryuu said, lifting his head. "Don't bring up serious things like that when we're about to have sex."

Judal snapped his mouth shut and pouted. "Should you give me something else to do with my mouth then?"

Hakuryuu nobly resisted the urge to groan and roll his eyes. "That is an absolutely terrible, cliched line, and you should be ashamed of yourself." He squirmed back a little ways, trying to right himself on the bed, and Judal shifted with him, letting him up just enough so they could both be properly on the bed. Judal did not, however, make any move to move beside Hakuryuu, or to sit anywhere other than right on top of him. "Enjoying the view?" Hakuryuu asked with a little smirk.

"Now who's giving the cheesy lines?" Judal chuckled, and in one swift motion, he pinned Hakuryuu's hands above his head, kissing him again fiercely. "But yeah, I'll say it. You look good down there."

Hakuryuu drew in a sharp breath and shuddered. "I'm not usually the sort of person who likes to let themselves be vulnerable to..."

"Anyone?" Judal supplied, cocking his head to the side. "Should I move?"

Hakuryuu regarded his position, and Judal's easy smile, and then he smiled, shaking his head. "Go right ahead. It's nice to trust someone else with the reigns for once."

Judal nodded, trading Hakuryuu's wrists to his left hand and letting his right hand do the clumsy work of unbuttoning Hakuryuu's shirt as they kissed again. His fingers danced along the edges of Hakuryuu's scars, playing the boundary until he reached the second barrier of his pants. Those gave him a bit more trouble, fumbling blind for a moment before giving up to gently knead Hakuryuu's bulge through his pants. Hakuryuu groaned into Judal's mouth and then bit his lip.

"I swear to my mother's stupid fake god, if you make me ruin my pants because you're too lazy or too into your power trip to get them off, I will kill you. These pants are very nice, and they're dry-clean only."

"What kind of serial killer wears dry-clean only pants?!" Judal was absolutely aghast.

Hakuryuu scowled, bucking up against Judal's hand to protest that he had stopped his attention. "I do! Now hurry up and get my pants off, you horse's ass."

Judal made a face at him, slowly tracing a single finger over Hakuryuu's fly. "Hmmm... but should I be rushing so much? I mean, you're not a very spontaneous guy..."

Hakuryuu realized that he had made a grave mistake in letting Judal have control of the situation. When he tried to pull his wrists free, he realized that Judal's hand was not what was actually holding them in place. "You-" Hakuryuu glanced up at the almost invisible band of force clenched under Judal's hand. "You're crafty. But come on, Judal..." Hakuryuu lifted his leg up until it gently brushed between Judal's. "I'd like to think I know you pretty well after all this time. And you're not a very patient man." He shifted his leg more, grinding against Judal's crotch before subtly lowering it just enough that Judal would have to move himself to feel the touch again. "You want to see me come apart under your skills. You want to see me at my best, or maybe my worst, whatever it is that you call getting fucked stupid in my apartment before I abandon it forever."

Judal bit his lip with a hiss of pleasure. "I..." Hakuryuu watched as Judal tried to grind down against the faint touch of his leg, taking the bait, taking himself that little step further. "I could just watch you come apart with want," he retorted, but his breath was shaky from the thought of Hakuryuu, half-mad with pleasure below him, writhing and panting and- Judal ground his crotch against Hakuryuu's leg, the slow humping of a man who is trying not to betray how ready he is to fuck.

"You could," Hakuryuu said, a little smile on his face, "but you don't really want that. Why don't you just drop the pretension and we can have some fun?"

Judal laughed, but his hand left from Hakuryuu's wrists. He didn't need to hold them- the magic was doing the real work. He could put it to other tasks, flittering down Hakuryuu's chest to join its fellow, where he then slowly undid Hakuryuu's fly while still grinding against his leg. Hakuryuu watched the deliberation in each movement, and wondered if it was to tease him or because Judal was already getting so distracted that a button fly was really giving him that much trouble. He raised his hips to help Judal slide his pants and underwear off, and then he was sitting before him, completely exposed to the slight chill of the empty room.

"Are you going to take off your own clothes?" Hakuryuu asked, tilting his head to the side a little.

Judal paused, looking like he was thinking it over. Hakuryuu had not intended to start a deliberation.

"Come on, Judal," he said, locking eyes with him. "I'm all tied up here, so I can't tear them off myself. Why don't you give me a show?"

"Oh, it's a show you want? Is me humping your leg not enough?" Judal was grinning now.

"No," Hakuryuu replied with an equally haughty grin.

Judal slid a thumb into the waistband of his pants, teasing it down ever so slightly, teasing the view that Hakuryuu could have for just a moment before instead dragging his hand up his torso, riding his shirt up some to show off his abs. Hakuryuu bit his lip. It was showy, and ridiculous, and utterly Judal, and Hakuryuu saw no use in trying to fight giving Judal a reaction when he was already visibly hard from the display. Judal fed off that reaction, off of Hakuryuu's excitement, stretching like a cat before grabbing the hem of his shirt and ripping it over his head with a flourish and flinging it to the side. Hakuryuu raked Judal's body with his eyes, wishing his hands were free so he could feel Judal all over. Instead he just had to watch as Judal slowly undid the ridiculously tight pants he'd bought the other day, pushing them down off his unfairly grab-able hips. He left his boxers though, one last barrier between Hakuryuu's eyes and his gorgeous body.

"Not taking those off?" Hakuryuu asked.

"Not yet," Judal said, kicking his pants the rest of the way loose and then grinding down on Hakuryuu's raised leg again. "Gotta make you work some for the show."

"How did you get them to go along with your..." Judal raised an eyebrow as Hakuryuu realized his question might have been inappropriate. "Ah, but I said we shouldn't try to bring up serious things right now."

Judal chuckled a little, lowering his head to kiss down from Hakuryuu's navel to his inner thigh, skirting around his cock. "When you have power like I do, they just let you do whatever you want to make sure you stay on their side." He gripped Hakuryuu's leg, and Hakuryuu threw his head back as Judal flooded him with a taste of that limitless power. "See?"

It was a struggle to find words that weren't fuck, Judal, more, please, or ohhhh, but Hakuryuu somehow managed to find them. "But no TV?"

Judal laughed, the feeling of the power in Hakuryuu's veins seeming to change as Judal's tone did, a slowly undulating ocean of strength that pulsed in tune to Judal's smile as he carefully cupped Hakuryuu in his hand. Judal kissed the very tip, his tongue flickering out, cat-like, to tease the head as he pulled away. He was unfairly good at this for someone who apparently didn't have a dick of his own.

Hakuryuu tested the magic binding his hands above his head, but it still held strong. Judal noticed and countered by taking Hakuryuu into his mouth and flooding him with a wave of power that whited out everything else for a moment. When it subsided and Hakuryuu could recognize the moans of pleasure as his own again, he gave himself a moment to be impressed by how well Judal could multi-task before being lost once again to the sensation of Judal's mouth and hands. He bucked a little, testing the waters, and Judal choked a little and pulled off.

"Too much for you?" Hakuryuu teased, breathless.

Judal stuck his tongue out. "For that I'm not gonna suck your stupid dick anymore, you almost strangled me with it!" He straddled Hakuryuu's leg, sitting up some so he could rut against it while he slowly stroked Hakuryuu's dick. Hakuryuu was surprised at how erotic it was to have Judal hump his leg through his clothes, marveling at how he could feel Judal's boxers getting soaked as he grew more and more aroused. Dividing his attention between the feel of Judal's cunt through his boxers and his hand on his dick was maddening, and he wished that Judal would just take his boxers off and-

Oh, hell. There he went.

Hakuryuu watched, enraptured, as Judal ripped his boxers off him, an action somehow erotic in its lack of ceremony and eroticism. Hakuryuu drank in the sight of him and then looked up, and Judal met his gaze with a look of feigned bravado and quiet, nervous arousal.

"I'm gonna fuck myself on your dick now, that cool?"

Hakuryuu could only bite his lower lip and nod.

Judal lowered himself down onto Hakuryuu's cock, feeling the slide of it in, and they both shuddered and went perfectly still for a moment when he finally managed to fit it all the way in. Judal tried to give a cocky line, and the bonds around Hakuryuu's wrists weakened for a moment. He braced himself against Hakuryuu for a moment instead, both of them shifting and working to find the most comfortable spot. When Judal was satisfied, he started to slowly lift his hips up and down, working Hakuryuu's cock with his body, relishing the stretch and the feeling of bliss.

"Nice size," Judal said finally. "Not too big, not too small-"

"Are you really going to compliment me on my perfectly average dick while we are having sex?" Hakuryuu gasped.

"It feels good!" Judal insisted, and he gave a little wiggle on Hakuryuu that made Hakuryuu's cock twitch and tighten, yearning for release.

"Well, you feel good too," Hakuryuu said, trying again to yank at his hands. Still bound, but he could feel them loosening.

At least there was a good show- watching Judal work himself up and down on his dick, putting those nice legs of his to work to get his pleasure. The feeling of Judal's magic had subsided now to just a small, atmospheric hum, not quite shared, just there, and Hakuryuu found himself wondering if this is what it would feel like to be by Judal's side if he wasn't constantly trying to mask his presence.

And then, with a slight burning fizz, the magic binding Hakuryuu's wrists vanished, Judal's focus on the spell utterly spent. Hakuryuu pulled them down slowly and gripped Judal's left hip. Judal gasped in surprise, looking down at the hand and then back at Hakuryuu, and Hakuryuu grinned at him.

"Looked like you could use a little support," Hakuryuu drawled.

"Mmm..." Judal raised and lowered himself a few more times, enjoying the feeling of Hakuryuu's hand as he took his dick. "I guess so. What, would you rather take over?"

Hakuryuu raised an eyebrow. "Is that an invitation?"

Judal bent forward and grabbed Hakuryuu's shoulder, rolling them over so Hakuryuu was on top of him. Hakuryuu didn't need any further instruction, thrusting in and out of Judal with desperate abandon, one hand still gripping his hip while the other threaded clumsily through his sweaty locks. Their lips found each other, soft and tender, and they kissed until Hakuryuu came, spilling half in Judal and half on the bed beneath them. Judal laughed, and Hakuryuu did too, pressing their foreheads together to share the moment even more.

"My legs had been getting tired, and now they're just jelly," Judal said, lifting one and shaking it as explanation.

"Oh, was that it?" Hakuryuu teased. "I thought you were just feeling lazy."

"It can be both," Judal said, smiling at Hakuryuu. "Though almost getting fucking murdered by you taught me that I also love seeing you leaning over me."

Hakuryuu went red and sputtered. "I- What. Judal!"

Judal shrugged, brushing hair from Hakuryuu's face. "What, it's true. You, standing over me, roughing me up, threatening me... It would have been really hot if you hadn't been trying to fucking kill me. Hell it was still pretty hot when you were!" He stuck out his tongue. "I think that's one time that I can be grateful I didn't have a dick!"

Hakuryuu sighed heavily, not wanting to ask any further questions he didn't actually want the answers to. Judal was a maelstrom of bad ideas and unfortunate instincts. And yet, here he was, wrapped up in him, sweaty and cum streaked and staring, with the sinking, startling realization that this was more than just loyalty or camaraderie or anything like that. It seemed stupid to be surprised over the fact that he was in love, but here he was, as always, about ten minutes late to the party when it came to understanding his own emotions.

"You look stressed out. Is it cuz I made a joke about not having a dick, or is it because you're creeped out I had a boner over you threatening to kill me?" Judal looked surprisingly genuine in his concern.

"I... No. No that wasn't it." Hakuryuu shook his head slowly. "I just. I love you, that's all."

Judal gave him one of those crooked smiles, obviously relieved. "Man that sure is lucky, because you're not getting rid of me any time soon."

"You're supposed to say 'I love you too.'"

"Oh, I know," Judal said, kissing the tip of Hakuryuu's nose. "And I do."