I wasn't actually going to put this on eff eff dot net. It's hiding out in my livejournal as well, 'cause I figured it was pointless. As for why it's here now...Permetaform made me do it. Aside from the insane amount of respect I have for said author, (ammguh) I got the buttprint of approval and so had to comply with the order that I post it here.
Warnings: AU, badly-written, 58 fluffiness, there are probably a few tense mistakes (Writing in past tense after doing everything in present after a long time is quite taxing.)
Gojyo swung into the apartment, kicked the door shut behind him, and shrugged out of his coat before the greeting fully registered. Once it did, he very nearly shrugged his coat back on.
"I received the photos from the wedding today, Gojyo," Hakkai called to him from their apartment's sparse kitchen.
Trying not to sound as if his stomach had been tied into an expert knot, Gojyo responded with an eloquent, "Oh?"
"Yes. I hope you don't mind, but I asked Yaone and Kougaiji if we might have copies of the pictures we took." Hakkai's laughter reached him before the brunette even came in sight. "For a fee, of course, but I feel this was worth it."
Gojyo walked slowly toward Hakkai's voice, not at all ready to face his roommate but unable to drop his manner either. He chuckled. "Don't tell me you're gettin' all sentimental on me," he jibed, sauntering into the kitchen.
Hakkai leaned against the counter, his hands entrenched in a cardboard box wrapped in mover's tape, obviously leftovers from Yaone and Kougaiji's recent downsizing from two apartments to one. Around him, bills were scattered in a painful reminder of exactly why Hakkai's tone had been tentative in letting Gojyo know about his indulgence.
Hakkai shrugged, holding up two thick envelopes. "Shall we open mine or yours first, Gojyo?"
Instinctively, the redhead winced against the idea, but weakly murmured, "Yours."
As Hakkai tore into the package, Gojyo came to lean against the counter next to him, resting his weight on his elbows as Hakkai did. Hakkai's photos were perfect.
Kougaiji and Yaone, after years of unrequited love and an eventual storybook romance, so far as outward appearance maintained, had decided to get married one year after Kougaiji graduated from college. As Yaone was preparing to enter med school at the time, the decision was both financially and emotionally well-founded. Hakkai, Gojyo, Goku, and Sanzo had been invited to the wedding simply for their merit in being some of the first people told about it. Certainly the first outside of blood kin.
The wedding had not been idyllic, but for the sake of stretched pocketbooks and pervasive love it was beautiful enough. The reception had been small enough to be really friendly and intimate, and Kougaiji and Yaone had prompted each guest to bring or borrow a disposable camera provided by the happy couple to view the reception with his or her own eyes. They planned to make those photos into an album more personal than one professionally made.
That had been months ago. Gojyo had eaten cake, tossed back a few, and taken careless pictures, supposing that the camera would not be labeled nor would he ever have to see those photos again. But Hakkai had asked for copies.
Outside, the sky was bright with clouds reflecting the light of streetlamps on the ground. The flickering fluorescent beams above their heads cast the pictures into slightly green relief, but this did not matter because the eye of the mind uses broad daylight.
Hakkai's photos were perfect, as Gojyo had expected them to be. Somewhat boring, for their centered nature, but photos as foundations, capturing people posing and piles of presents and the cake both before and after Goku had found it. A beautiful shot of Yaone's bouquet sailing over the expectant heads, painted mouths open and manicured fingers stretched wide toward the prize. Kougaiji and Yaone's first dance. Lirin giving the V for Victory sign. Gojyo and Sanzo's backsides as they commiserated outside for a smoke. This last photo caught Gojyo's eye, the only candid shot in the pile. He and Sanzo had not been posing, nor had they known about Hakkai's presence. If Sanzo had picked up on it, he hadn't let on.
They hadn't talked much out there in the garden, mainly just getting away from the noise and enjoying a smoke in solitude. Sanzo's camera was somewhere off with Goku as he'd finished his roll within the first five minutes. And Gojyo hadn't wanted to kill the mood the entire blasted day had put him in. Being out there with Sanzo was very nearly companionable, at least until the bastard bluntly pointed out the stain on Gojyo's tie.
Hakkai was still rifling through his deck of poses and held smiles until he came around to the first shot again. He straightened the pile, sliding the photo of Sanzo and Gojyo back in when his roommate silently passed it over, and reverentially slid it into its package.
"Now," he said, picking up the other envelope, the one labeled Gojyo. "Allow me to indulge my curiosity every once in a while. I wanted to know what you saw that day, and if I had asked you, you wouldn't have told me much of anything."
Gojyo shrugged, knowing Hakkai was right. "Open it, then," he muttered, but not without some strain. He did not watch as his roommate, his apartment-mate, his best friend of God-knew-how-many-years opened the package. He did not watch as Hakkai's slim, white fingers barely even touched the glossy surface of each photo, skimming and trying not to leave fingerprints. He did not watch as Hakkai finished going through his photos and turned to him.
Hakkai's photos were perfect, but Gojyo's photos were beautiful. They were artworks, with blurred motion lines and gaudy flash and thrumming life. A tilted frame of Hakkai laughing in the sunlight. The way the flash rebounded off of Hakkai's wristwatch. Hakkai's hands curling around his own camera. Hakkai trying to pose people for his own photos. Hakkai watching, wistful, as Yaone and Kougaiji danced. An off-center framing of a bit of cake frosting smeared on the side of Hakkai's lower lip. And again, without the flash on so the photo was grainy everywhere except that line of white. Hakkai dancing with Yaone, with Lirin, with the junior bridesmaid and the flower girls. Hakkai kissing Yaone's cheek and Hakkai shaking Kougaiji's hand and Hakkai stepping out of their car and Hakkai surreptitiously loosening his tie and Hakkai showing Goku how to make origami cranes out of their place napkins. Hakkai cleaning his glasses on his shirt and glancing over to Gojyo with a surprised, exasperated, affectionate expression. Inside of it, one could almost hear Gojyo's ensuing comment and Hakkai's chiding response.
"Gojyo," Hakkai said, bringing the photos to rest between them, "you…really have an eye for photography."
Gojyo snorted. "Can't blame it on the camera doin' the work for me. I just got lucky with a piece of crap. Whenever I wanted to, I hit the button."
"They're great," Hakkai murmured, looking down at the pile. "Although, of course, quite probably not what Kougaiji and Yaone had been expecting."
At that, Gojyo let out a short laugh. "If they had been expecting anything worthwhile, they wouldn't of given a camera to the saru. They prolly have more shots of food than they could ever care for." He paused, considered the irony of this, and sighed a bit.
Hakkai chuckled. "Well, they never did give us a concrete assignment." He shuffled through the photos and stumbled across something else to say. "Oh, dear, my tie remained lopsided even after I straightened it. Why didn't you tell me?"
Gojyo gave himself an indulgent grin. "Lopsided suits."
"Not suits, tie," Hakkai corrected, fully catching Gojyo's intention but deciding instead to be a smart aleck. "I wish you might have warned me before this complete and total documentation."
"Wouldn't have worked as well," Gojyo responded, easing into the conversation a bit more. "I was hopin' you wouldn't hear the clicks and if I'd told ya you'd have noticed me more."
Hakkai smiled down at the pictures in his hands. "I'm sorry to burst your bubble, Gojyo, but for the majority of these I was quite aware of your presence."
"How aware?"
"Very."
The exchanged had slipped out before either had time to think about it. Gojyo's voice had held laughter, and Hakkai's had answered almost immediately after Gojyo's words. Instinctively, unthinkingly, automatically.
Like winding up film for a new frame, Gojyo nervously rubbed his thumb against his wrist. "Very?" he echoed weakly.
"It's hard for me not to know where you are, frankly," replied Hakkai. He busied himself with straightening these photos, shoving them into their package, and placing both that package and the envelope of his own snapshots into the box in which they had been delivered.
"You gonna put 'em away somewhere?" Gojyo asked, watching Hakkai close the box.
Hakkai shook his head. "I paid for them and I will see that I get…good use out of them. For now, the box is safer. But it would be wrong of me to lock a few of these away." He slid the box to the side, shoving bills with it, until the counter in front of him was reasonably clear. "Gojyo, why did you take all those pictures of me?"
Gojyo snorted and turned his face away. "Why didja want copies?"
Hakkai didn't respond to that, and Gojyo let the silence stretch for a while. He stared at the white envelopes on the counter, eyes rebelling against the flickering fluorescents above his head, head aching from stress and tension, tension stretching him taught like a bowstring so that when he felt movement on his back he nearly jumped away.
The touch was gentle at first, then slowly grew more and more insistent. Hakkai was tugging his shirt out of his pants with one hand, just insinuating his fingers into the creases above Gojyo's belt so the fabric came out and free. Once the hole was big enough, Hakkai's hand slipped in, crawling over the skin of Gojyo's back, playing with the divots in his spine.
It made fantastic, unbelievable sense. Wordlessly, Gojyo hummed, turned, and pulled Hakkai's mouth toward his own. And when Hakkai didn't fight to get away but rather turned his head just like that the whole matter of feeling awkward and shameful completely disappeared.
The box rested amidst a smattering of bills, half-open and forgotten only for the moment.