Reviewer's corner : not today.Awakened Soul and Red Alliance are on going. So I'll answer in the next chapters… But I love you all…
Not beta-read. Sorry for the inconvenience…
Disclaimer : Not mine, neither the bishounens nor the frog-asthray…
« Home is Where the Frog is… »
(Or, the return of the frog-ashtray… In case anybody doubted I had a real crush on Tenpou's ashtray after reading Red Alliance…)
oOoOoOo
Sanzo's vein popped up almost as soon as Gojyo leaned over his shoulder to switch on the radio in the car. It was that song again. Always the same, each time. Would he hear the words home sweet home again, he would snap. He wasn't in the mood to think of birds with a place to land and so on of his master, right now. Last time, he had almost shot Hakuryu's radio from sheer frustration. He really would have, if not for Hakkai's soft-spoken protest. How can somebody sound as polite as menacing in the same time was an eternal wonder. But Hakkai was really touchy as soon as it came to the (flying or rolling) white dragon's well-being.
« Do you know what I miss the most from our Home? Hakkai's and mine, I mean, » the kappa suddenly asked of nobody especially, his voice mercifully covering the faint echo of the music.
« Huge home-made meals cooked by Hakkai! » the saru offered brightly, wide awake out of sudden.
« Ma, ma… I still cook for you, Goku, sometimes…, » the driver amended, everlastingly smiling behind his wheel.
Sanzo pondered hitting the boy with the harisen. But he would have to fish it in his priest's tunic which he had rolled on his hips, and he didn't feel like moving at all, too cramped from that endless trip. He even pondered firing with the shoureiju (within easier reach: he had let it on his laps, just in case…). But it would end the chat. And today he was bored enough to be curious of the answer… So in spite of the vein still pulsing on his forehead, he proposed:
« Women « dancing » in your bed each night, kappa no hentai… This one is too easy even for the saru… »
« Haaaa, that too… »
Hakkai arched an eyebrow. He didn't remember Gojyo bringing women home the past few years. Fortunately, the halfbreed was considerate enough to keep his skirt-business out of the place. It ought to be the reason.
« But I was thinking of something else, » the kappa added, patting his cigarette over the edge of the car's door so that the ash fell on the road outside. « The frog. »
A light chuckle escaped Hakkai's lips at the memory.
« Me too, » the driver said, throwing a smile (which was for once reaching his eyes) in the rear-view mirror.
His eyes closed and his head bent backwards, Gojyo didn't caught the sight of Hakkai's smile. But somehow he knew. And smiled too.
oOo flashback :three years ago oOo
« People will talk… » Sanzo pointed sarcastically, while lighting a new cigarette in the shop.
Gojyo glared at the monk. Even if it was true people had begun gossiping since Hakkai was living with him. So imagine what they could think while the said green-eyed man was innocently talking to the innkeeper about buying an ashtray because Gojyo was unable to keep his cigarettes' butts out of the bed sheets. The owner was already displaying some items in front of them. The kappa caught the sight of two idle housewives staring at the three of them standing near the counter.
« Here! This one is the last we received… »
« You sure it's not the first one you received and never succeeded in selling? » Sanzo asked as amiable as usual.
Because the thing was… strange. Two porcelain frogs, one on the back of the other, held their three gazes.
« Frogs? » asked Hakkai in an unsure way… He bent forward, putting his hands on knees to have a closer look.
« Well, I kinda like green… » Gojyo admitted, even surprising himself.
« Another shade of green better, for all I know, » snorted the monk with a pointed look towards Hakkai. That earned him a bewildered look from the kappa. Fortunately, the green-eyed man remained oblivious of the underlying meaning of the sentence, still staring at the strange object.
In fact, this is the story of a slow transformation. A polite smile blossoming into a really genuine one. You could be surprised to learn how easily the two others picked the difference and the strange effect it had on both of them…
« We take it, » the kappa said decisively, reaching already in his pockets for money…
« Here, » contributed the monk, even holding out a strange golden card the kappa had never seen before.
The very minute they came back to Gojyo's home, the saru almost assaulted his monk for he had « abandoned » him all alone in there.
« You were napping because of Hakkai's meal, baka saru. Anything's better than listening to your snoring. Even shopping with them, » Sanzo explained by punctuating his words with the harisen…
Sitting at the table a few minutes later, his chin put on the hard wood, and staring hard at the stuff they had brought back, the child was suddenly frowning.
« I'm pretty sure I've seen it somewhere else already. »
Unfortunately, the moment he thought he was about to remember (along with the scent of dusty books, of perfumed sake he had never had the right to taste and the one of lotus flowers), something broke his train of thought.
« Hey! Don't put your dirty ashes in it, kuso kappa! »
« Urusei, baka saru! It's an ashtray, don't you see? An a-s-h-t-r-a-y… »
And so on, they kept bickering until Sanzo threatened to shoot them all, frogs included.
oOo end of flashback oOo
« Ho! That frog! I almost forgot it! And we let it all alone in your house! » Goku said, looking eastward over his shoulder as if he could spot the place from here.
No need to open his eyes to tease the gaki, Gojyo thought, already half-drowsing:
« That's not a real pet, baka saru. Unlike you…»
« And I don't think it will run away before we come back home, » the driver pointed.
Sanzo couldn't decide whether Hakkai was serious.
« You know, sometimes, you're worse than the saru. »
And this said, the monk closed his eyes and let himself being lulled by Hakuryu's movement and the soft humming of the engine, just like the kappa on the backseat. Somebody had had the good idea to shut up the damn radio.
oOo Owari oOo
Author's notes : Hakuryu really has a radio and it works! I don't know if it's showed in the anime (well, I don't remember), but you can check in the first volume of your manga…
The frog-ashtray really exists in Gaiden (manga). It's Tenpou's. I have the pics to prove it which I can send to you if you want…But the fact it falls in Gojyo's and Hakkai's hand is just for fun…
And last thing, don't tell me you never noticed the guys are used to tease each other by implying one of them is gay. I don't see why Sanzo wouldn't mercilessly take revenge on Gojyo. Now, it's all yours to decide if it's because he thinks there's really something going on between Hakkai and Gojyo or simply because with this nice temper of his, he just does this to piss off the kappa…
Well, now, let's just sit down and wait until August for the new chapters of Gaiden in WARD !