A/N: My first shot at Saiyuki. I know it's not very good, but I promise that I'm improving, and the later drabbles feel more in character to me, at least…The bit at the end is a metaphor I'm rather fond of, referring to the concept of putting on a false personality for so long that it becomes a real piece of who you are.
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Saiyuki. I wish I owned a yacht. I wish I owned expensive Japanese designer clothing and piles of anime and a dollfie and a million dollar estate overlooking a pleasant body of water in which I could practice jetskiing. I do not own any of these things. I am poor, and profit nothing from this story.
Hakkai smiled pleasantly.
He smiled pleasantly when he bought groceries and apologized for Goku and Gojyo's rudeness. He smiled pleasantly when he reminded everyone to pick up their trash, or check to make sure they weren't sitting on a small dragon before they sat on his bed, or when he tore a youkai limb from limb.
He smiled so pleasantly that Gojyo had decided it was false.
Now and again, Gojyo feels the need to remind Hakkai that he doesn't always have to smile, and he can even frown when it rains. But Hakkai cannot discard his smile so easily, because while Cho Gonou may have only smiled when he was happy, Cho Hakkai must smile all the time to remind everyone (himself most of all) that he is happy to have been reborn. And it's true – he's not always smiling because he's always pleasant, but that doesn't make all his smiles false, and he truly is happy to have had another chance at life. So he almost feels resentment when people assume his smile is fake – why can't he smile when he wants to?
When you wear a mask too long, the mask becomes a part of you. Cho Hakkai could no more remove his smile than he could his skin.