All the stars have fallen asleep

Jude

I was born and bred in flowers
Sun-kissed in my darkest hours

Hadama’s certainty takes the stirred up, emotive air out of Jude’s sails, but it’s not a negative feeling. He hasn’t talked about Safrin with another person since Ronin, but it had been so brief compared to everything else they’d done that it scarcely counts in his memory. He’s not sure he’s even told anyone aside from Hadama about visiting her except Zavien, who had similarly helped with his quest. It makes his chest ache with a strange mixture of gratitude for the King, and painful loneliness over having nobody but his cat to tell these momentous stories to. The balm of it all is Hadama’s certainty - that Safrin will return that faith, and reward it similarly. Coming from her demigod, it feels like a promise echoed down from Safrin herself, and Jude’s riveted and heartbreakingly open expression in that moment - even when turned upon Hadama and not the herald herself - is appropriately worshipful. 

“Thank you,” he murmurs faintly, clearly affected. And maybe a bit enchanted, Hadama’s objective handsomeness and the thematic light of the moon rather unfairly powerful against a young bisexual boy’s minimal defenses. 

Lying to him, therefore, seems rather hilariously off-color. The offer stands for a few empty moments, and Jude quite visibly continues to consider even after Hadama makes his offer for company. It’s another moment of backwards gratitude - because Jude doesn’t want company, or to even return to Haulani yet. Danger aside he’d been planning to wander more or perhaps even sleep on the isle they stand on. But Hadama has been working and patrolling for however long. Maybe this is where the helping part of the lie comes in? If Jude can help pull him from his path of rather literal pacing, maybe the Tidebreaker will rest sooner tonight, or at least remain closer to the heart of Torchline where people with better morals than Jude can reach Hadama with their words and gestures more readily than these open waters. 

Lying and swallowing down his discomfort with socializing for Hadama’s benefit - more than just the benefit to his quest - makes that same moment of realization wash over him that he’d experienced with Zavien. Safrin has been steering him this entire time and Jude is overwhelmed with gratitude for both her and her demigod in this moment. It makes it easy to smile when he replies, content with this kind of lie. “Yeah, I would. Let’s go.” Jude pulls his hands from his pockets to better sell his willingness, but his smile is genuine and the most relaxed it’s been all night as it brightens up his face. It lingers the whole way back to Haulani with Hadama at his side. 

- Fin!

Lavender forever, hummingbird weather
Dewey like grass in the night