Title: Screwing Up
Author: amai_kaminari
Fandom: Saiyuki
Character(s): Sha Gojyo, Cho Hakkai
Pairing(s): 58
Rating: T

Community: all_unwritten
Prompt: #723 - "I knew I couldn't hide anymore."
Challenge: None
Warnings: Shounen ai, Language, Work-safe.
Spoilers: None
Timeline: Sometime during the journey

Summary: Sometimes screwing up isn't so bad.

Disclaimer: Saiyuki and all Saiyuki characters belong to the great Kazuya Minekura-sensei.

A/N: Totally unbeta'd. Just a drabble that came to me in the spur of the moment. Written in about 1/2 hour, which is a record for me. Oh, and I suck at titles.

Flick. Light. Inhale. Exhale.

He'd screwed up again. That was the only plausible explanation, Gojyo decided.

Truth be told, the screwing up part didn't really bother him. He'd screwed up plenty of times. Hell, when His Holiness Cherry-chan was involved, screw up was actually kind of fun. That is, as long as he managed to dodge the bullet that followed. Besides, Hakkai always made things right soon enough.

But this time, he hadn't been trying to screw up. In fact, he had been about as careful as he knew how to be. But maybe that was it? Maybe he had been trying so hard to not screw up, that his efforts went all the way around the other side, so he ended up screwing up anyway?

Gojyo took another drag off his Hi-Lite. His head hurt, damn it.

It took finishing the cigarette and lighting up another before Gojyo's headache subsided enough for him to even attempt to piece together what had happened. By then, though, Hakkai had come back into their shared room and was sitting on the bed beside him. Gojyo looked up when the bed creaked from the added weight.

Steeling himself to grov-- make things right, Gojyo ground out the cigarette in the ash tray on the nightstand. He was just about to open his mouth when he suddenly found his lips occupied. By Hakkai's mouth.

The hell?

Talk about deja vu.

Not that he was complaining.

Reflexively, Gojyo clamped his arms tightly around Hakkai's waist, hoping to gods that the brunet wouldn't run away again.

And just like before, Gojyo forced himself to keep the kiss gentle. It took everything in him not to press the brunet into the mattress and ravish him. His body shook from the effort. He wondered vaguely if Hakkai could feel it, too.

When Hakkai finally pulled away, breathless and flushed, Gojyo slumped back against the headboard, panting and dazed.

Hakkai was looking at him now, in that unreadable way that the brunet always did when he was about to relay bad news. It was the same look that Hakkai always used whenever Gojyo was about to receive a lecture or a reprimand.

Swallowing hard, the redhead did his best to sit up straight and not fidget under the intensity of Hakkai's gaze. The problem was: Gojyo wasn't Hakkai. And since he'd never spent the time to beat his smile into submission, Gojyo couldn't banish the dumbfounded, guilty expression from his face. And he knew it was there.

In truth, Gojyo didn't know what he had done wrong before, but whatever it was, he should apologize, shouldn't he? Yeah, okay. With Hakkai, it was always better to fire off a preemptive apology. The redhead tried to open his mouth, but found himself silenced again. This time, by two of Hakkai's fingers.

Okay, he got the hint. Shut the hell up, moron, and let the man yell at you already.

Gojyo winced, waiting for the onslaught of words. Nice, polite Hakkai words that would slice right through him, leaving him to lick his wounds like a kicked puppy. Finally resigned to his fate, Gojyo met Hakkai's gaze.

Instead of yelling or lecturing, though, Hakkai simply shook his head and leaned forward, lips hovering a hair's breath away from Gojyo's mouth.

"I knew I couldn't hide anymore."

Then, he kissed Gojyo again.

Damn. Maybe he needed to screw up like this more often?