Work Text:
He practiced day in and day out. After all, vengance is a meek goal without the skills of a killer. Killing, Hakuryuu believed, was to be treated as a routine. Eventually, he would be faced with the toughest opponents out there. Gyokuen, his mother, and Judal, that tool of Al-Thamen.
This morning was the same, or at least it was before the bastard himself decided to show up. Judal, of all people.
“Yo.” Judal shouted as he landed on the ground in front of Hakuryuu, a snarky smile painted on his face. Hakuryuu growled under his breath and stood up from the warrior pose.
“What are you doing here?” Hakuryuu’s back was completely straight, and he looked directly into Judal’s eyes.
“Mad already, huh?”
“I will ask you once more. Judal, what are you doing here?”
“I’m here to ask you to hang out with me, crybaby prince.”
“Eh...?” Hakuryuu stuttered out of sheer surprise. “Excuse me?” He wouldn’t comment on the crybaby prince remark, however, Hakuryuu was sure that Judal was teasing him now.
“All of your crying made you deaf?” Judal said, placing his hand on his hip. Then he took a deep sigh. “No one else is available to go to the bazaar with me. Today is the only day I can get peaches, and do you know how hard it is to grow peach trees? There’s a reason it’s called the queen of fruits. I need someone to help me carry them. We’re buying at least four crates. Also, I need you to pay.”
While Judal had been rambling on about the glory of peaches, Hakuryuu was quickly forming a plan.
“Fine. I’ll go, and I’ll pay.” Hakuryuu made sure to keep a straight face, but was latching onto boiled feelings. He would pay. He would pay the price of vengeance.
Judal flew while Hakuryuu walked, well more like sprinted, in order to keep up. By the time they made it to the bazaar, it was close to noon. Hakuryuu was drenched in sweat, he struggled to keep his breathing under control while Judal landed, looking bored. Hatred stung in the back of Hakuryuu’s throat, mixed with a twinge of jealousy. Judal was strong, all the magi were. He was one of the most elite magicians in their world, but yet, Hakuryuu thought bitterly, his soul was beyond tainted. Someone so strong yet so twisted deserved to be buried into the underworld.
If Judal had said anything important (or rather, rude), Hakuryuu’s angry thoughts cut it off. Judal was already walking through the aisles, his eyebrows creased in concentration. Hakuryuu remained a respectful distance behind Judal, reading his movements, and constantly surveying their surroundings. The bazaar had all sorts of goods from all around the world: jewelry, weapons, clothing, and the fruit selection was enormous. Some of the fruits Hakuryuu had never seen before. One vendor that Judal had briefly stopped at was advertising something called a rambutan, but to Hakuryuu it looked like a giant, spiky berry. Not something that someone would want to touch, let alone even eat.
Hakuryuu wondered when the right time to enact his plan would arrive. Many vendors that Judal had passed were selling peaches, but Judal was turning out to be extremely picky about the quality of the small orange and yellow fruit. On several occasions, when he didn’t just turn his nose up at the peaches and keep walking, he would ask about the growing conditions of the trees and of the fruit. How often was the soil fertilized? When was the tree planted? Where is the farm located? Hakuryuu thought it weird that Judal seemed so concerned about the fruit, after all, wouldn’t the taste be the same regardless? For over an hour the two of them scoured each corner of the bazaar, looking for the best peaches.
“Agh! Why do none of these farmers care about quality?” Judal complained under his breath.
“Erm, Judal, if you don’t, ugh, mind me asking...what’s up with you and constantly harassing the vendors about the peaches?” Hakuryuu knew that he was in danger if Judal thought his question was dumb, but after following the magi around just for peaches, he was growing curious.
“Well of course you wouldn’t know anything about peaches, idiot. The better the tree and the farm is cared for, the better the fruit will taste! You can’t treat peach trees like slaves that produce fruit year after year, no, it’s much more complex than that.”
Hakuryuu nodded, feeling lucky that Judal hadn’t flung him into a vat of mud for asking.
Finally, after what felt like an entire decade, Judal finally found peaches that he deemed of good quality. Of course, to Hakuryuu, they just looked like the exact same peaches that other vendors had been selling, but apparently the trick to good quality peaches was the way the peaches were picked off the tree. Perfectly ripe peaches, according to Judal, come off the tree with a slight twist- no peach should be forced off the tree by pulling. Judal hand selected (Hakuryuu was surprised that the magi was actually doing work with his own hands for once) four crates, or rather in farmer terms, four bushels, of peaches, and then Hakuryuu paid a grand total of $176 for them. In total, it was about 200 pounds of peaches.
“Don’t forget,” Judal started, “you get to carry these peaches too. Make sure not a single one falls! These are more important than your life!”
No, thought Hakuryuu. His life was worth a lot more than that, and he was about to finally get his vengeance. He reached his arm behind him, feeling for his guandao that he always carries, to realize it wasn’t there. When had it gone missing? Suddenly, he spotted Judal, in the air of course, with his weapon.
“I thought I could help out, after all, you don’t need this accidentally harming any of the peaches!” Judal said, a smirk on his face, as if he had known about Hakuryuu’s plans of assassinating him.
Hakuryuu sighed, feeling defeated. He lifted the peaches and began to follow Judal all the way back home. Judal, however, seemed to be in high spirits as he flew and twirled Hakuryuu’s guandao playfully. After about an hour of walking, Judal suddenly landed on the grass in front of Hakuryuu.
“Isn’t this such a nice meadow?” Judal commented.
“Eh, wh, what?” Hakuryuu was taken by surprise at Juda’s comment. It had almost sounded genuine.
“We should sit here for a moment, otherwise you’re going to get so much sweat on those peaches that they’ll just taste like sweat.”
Hakuryuu had no choice but to follow the magi and sit in the meadow, making sure to place the peaches on his coat so that none of them would get dirty. He wondered if there would be time to get his guandao from Judal. He was sick of being treated some sort of peach carrying slave. Yet Judal wasn’t going to let the weapon go it seemed. After a few minutes of sitting, the magi stood, looking into the crates of peaches. He picked two of them out of the crates, and then turned to Hakuryuu.
“I hope you’re good at catching.” Judal said nonchalantly as he tossed one of the peaches into Hakuryuu’s lap.
“Agh!”
“Ah, of course the crybaby prince isn’t any good at catching anything.” Judal sighed, and then, oddly enough, sat next to Hakuryuu and took a large bite out of the peach. “Well, what are you waiting for? Eat it. It’s going to be too ripe to use within a day, so it’s better to enjoy it while you can and not just stare at it.”
“Oh, yeah. Thanks.” Hakuryuu said, confused as to why Judal was acting this way. It seemed...almost friendly. He bit into the peach, expecting it to taste normal. It tasted far from any normal peach Hakuryuu had ever eaten before. It was so. damn. delicious. It was so delicious that he almost didn’t realize that Judal had set the guandao in front of himself, within arm’s reach from Hakuryuu...
“Do you like peach jam?” Judal asked, tilting his head to the side as he always did when he asked a question.
“What?” Hakuryuu stammered.
“Peach. Jam. Do you like it?”
“Y-yeah. I do.” Hakuryuu admitted. Not that he ever got to eat peach jam, as most of the peaches and peach-affiliated products were always Judal’s.
“You can have the first jar then, as a thank you gift for accompanying me.”
“The first jar?”
“Yes,” he sighed, “I make peach jam. Don’t tell anyone, or I will make sure you lose the rest of your limbs- and your life.”
Hakuryuu nodded, confused by Judal’s sudden friendliness. He sighed internally, his desire for vengeance beginning to vanish within him. Judal, a jam maker. It just seemed so silly, as if Judal was a secret grandma. And well, Judal was quite old anyway, as most magi besides Aladdin were.
Soon both of the men finished their peaches, and were just left with the pits.
“Here,” Judal began, “you’re pretty good with plants- so take the pits and grow them. Peaches don’t take kindly to abuse though, so see to it that they’re cared for. After about a year, the trees will begin growing fruit.” Judal pushed his leftover pit into Hakuryuu’s hand. Hakuryuu accepted it, and put both pits into his pockets. Then, he picked up the peaches, and let Judal lead the both of them back home. The magi didn’t seem so bad, thought Hakuryuu, as he flew through the air, still smiling a little bit and twirling Hakuryuu’s weapon. He would never say it, but Hakuryuu was glad for this day. His back was breaking from carrying the peaches, but it was nice to know that murdering Judal could wait for another day.