A/N: Written for a prompt on lj. The request was for a Princess Bride inspired fic, which I rather failed to deliver, lol, as you will see. The prompter wanted Pirate!Hakkai and CabinBoy!Gojyo, and that utterly failed to happen. But if you're familiar with the film 'The Princess Bride', you'll understand how it all fit together.

Gojyo let the sponge slip through his fingers, hitting the tiled floor with a soft 'plop', and he let out a sigh. He was wet to the elbows with soapy water, and wet everywhere else with sweat from a long day's work. But Hakkai had asked him to clean the house, and he liked to make Hakkai happy.

Gojyo glanced up at the clock. Eleven. It was almost eleven o'clock at night. Damn. No wonder he was so exhausted.

"Are you finished, Gojyo?"

The sound of Hakkai's voice behind him startled Gojyo out of his thoughts, and on instinct he grabbed the sponge, not wanting Hakkai to see that he had put it on the floor instead of rinsing it out and returning it to where it belonged. "Um, yea. Yea. All done."

The smile that Hakkai gave him made the day's efforts all worth it. Hakkai's smiles….the real smiles (and thanks to Gojyo's efforts, the fake ones were beginning to vanish altogether)….were absolutely beautiful. "Thank you, Gojyo."

Gojyo smiled, cheeks red from the heat and also with happiness, pleased with himself for having made Hakkai smile like that, to have made Hakkai happy.

Hakkai was watching Gojyo with amusement now. "…are you going to come to bed, Gojyo?"

"Wha?" Then the redhead realized he was still kneeling on the floor, sponge in hand. "Oh. Right." He rose, bucket of soapy water in one hand, sponge in the other, and carefully dumped the water down the drain, very much aware of Hakkai's eyes on him as he washed out the bucket and rinsed the sponge, setting them aside to dry. He turned, and Hakkai was still there, waiting, appreciation written all over his face, and Gojyo didn't care about the fact that his back was aching and he was red and sweaty and his hair was sticking to the back of his neck. It was all worth it to see Hakkai this happy. And then Hakkai reached out a hand.

"Come to bed, Gojyo."

Surprised, Gojyo accepted. "Gotta get cleaned up."

"Don't worry about that." Hakkai lead Gojyo into the bedroom and guided him to sit on the bed, carefully tugging Gojyo's shirt off and (Gojyo noted with amusement) depositing it neatly in the laundry basket. "Be right back." Hakkai left the room and returned moments later with a wet washcloth, and Gojyo smiled.

"'kai, did I ever tell you how wonderful you are?"

Hakkai smiled, kneeling in front of Gojyo. "Often." And he began slowly, carefully wiping Gojyo clean. Gojyo sighed happily, eyes slipping shut. The washcloth was nice and cool, and he could feel the heat leaving his body. He barely even noticed as his pants were removed and Hakkai continued to wash him down, and he was half asleep when, finished, Hakkai gently guided Gojyo to lay back in bed.

Gojyo felt Hakkai's hand, cool from the cloth, softly brush a stray lock of hair back from his face, lips brushing his forehead. "Goodnight, Gojyo," he whispered. "Good work, sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning."

That last sentence jarred with the rest, and Gojyo opened his eyes. He could only half see Hakkai in the dark, but the man was sitting on the floor beside the bed, gently stroking Gojyo's hair, his gaze and touch so loving and in such complete contrast to the words he'd just spoken.

"…Hakkai, sometimes, you really scare me."

"Really?" Hakkai gently tucked a strand of hair behind Gojyo's ear, and smiled. "I've no idea why."

-fin-