As thoughts conquered Chou Hakkai's mind, he barely noticed the sound of feverent knocking that echoed into the room. That was until the door opened.
"Hakkai, we're gonna need more booze and cigarettes soon--" came the familiar voice of the Buddhist priest.Sanzo, however, stopped mid-sentence when his pale eyes fell on that of his commrade.
Laying down on his bed, head reclined slightly over the base, Hakkai's fierce emerald eyes focused on Sanzo. A small pillow of grey smoke wafted towards the ceiling above Hakkai. It's source: the freshly lit cigarette sitting between his thin lips.
Sanzo glared. His hands turning to fists at the sight of Hakkai's fed nicotine appetite (and his lack thereof), the Buddhist priest stormed straight across the room. Knowing what danger was likely to befall him, Hakkai took action at avoiding such measures. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth and held it out to his friend in hopes that Sanzo would reach it sooner than he would him.
The cigarette appeared to meet with Sanzo as a superb consolation prize. Stealing it, the priest inhaled a deep breath before sitting on the adjacent mattress. He let the nicotine and tobacco swim through his body like wildfire. As Hakkai sat up on his own bed, he pulled another cigarette from one of Gojyo's packs that "had gotten misplaced". Nodding his head in the direction of the cig, Sanzo asked,
"Why are you smoking?" After taking a long drawn out gulp of the sweet tobacco, he steadied his gaze on his half-youkai friend.
Hakkai kept his eyes focused on the lit end of his new fix. Shrugging before lifting the filter to his lips, he replied; "It just seemed like the thing to do; get things off my mind and cool my head."
Sanzo frowned slightly as he considered this. Shrugging, the light haired priest nodded his head in understandment. "Makes sense." He muttered.
Silence soon fell over the two men. The arouma of melting cigarette smoke rose throughout the room, almost seeming to communicate for the two commrades who had little to discuss.
Sanzo's cigarette cherry began to dim as it reached it's finale. Sighing heavily, he resigned to the inevitable. Tossing the butt into the ashtray, he let whatever little smoke it contained filter out. Rising to his feet, Sanzo muttered, "Ya know, I don't know what took you so fucking long."
Hakkai's black eyebrows narrowed over his emerald eyes in confusion. Fixing Sanzo with an inquiring stare, he repeated: "What took me so long?"
"You smoking," Sanzo replied. "You were always so creepily wound up." As he made his way to the door, the half-demon let out a low chuckle.
"You're one to talk."
Hand on the doorknob, Genjo Sanzo glanced back over his shoulder. Without saying anything, a small smile minutely presented itself on his lips; yet it was gone even more quickly than it had come.
"Just buy me more cigs. Gojyo's gonna start getting really suspicious if you don't start replacing his Lucky's." Without a further word, Sanzo left the room; leaving Hakkai with one less cigarette and a smile to dance across his face.
Owari.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights or characters to the wonderful Saiyuki(et. all) series by Minekura Kazuya.