((Yes, this is related to the song by the same name. It suited the two so well that I had to use it, so I put it on repeat and sat down with my laptop.))
A oneshot that followed me around for weeks, until it finally caught me in an alleyway one dark night, without even a pencil to defend myself. So, why not? I wrote it up.
Gojyo's frustrated angsting about his roommate. 58 blatantly implied, gets cute at the end. He and Hakkai had a fight and he stormed off to the bar. Hours and hours later...
Gojyo slumped further over his drink. Midnight had come and gone, and he could hardly even lift his head.
"Gojyo-san?" the barkeep inquired hesitantly.
Reluctantly, the redhead roused himself from his stupor and lowered a smoldering cigarette to look up. The bar was empty.
"We'se closin' soon… 'S nearly three in th' mornin', buddy. Last call."
Gojyo stared, borderline uncomprehending. The girls had taken one look at him that night and known that he didn't want anything they had to offer. So he sat alone and drank, skipping rowdy and fun and moving straight into quiet and morbid.
Too drunk to fuck. It was a first for Sha Gojyo… But it didn't matter, since the bar was closing, and his only morning plans consisted of passing out in a ditch. The girls had no appeal that night. None of them had green eyes, anyway, and it was green eyes Gojyo missed. He used to get that way sometimes when he broke a heart, because, despite popular belief, certain womanizing redheads did have morals. They didn't lie. They left the girls on good terms and smiling, as friends. They prided themselves on that, and making a girl cry would send them into a state not unlike this one.
Or it used to…. Anymore it hardly mattered.
Because a certain womanizing, hard drinking, chain-smoking redhead wanted something else.
And a certain green-eyed something else didn't seem to care.
Carelessly, tiredly, Gojyo flicked over his empty glass. He had no idea how much he'd drunk, but it obviously wasn't enough if he was still thinking about Hakkai. Why? Why couldn't he just wake up? Gojyo rubbed at his face with his hands. It was becoming clear that Hakkai would never get passed Kannan. Obviously, he wouldn't ever be able to look up and see what was right in front of him—the perfect opportunity to move on. I.e., Gojyo himself. Stupid bastard. You'd think that maybe, after Gojyo saved him, he'd look at the redhead at least a little and give him a chance, but Hakkai only ever seemed to look straight on through. Anyway, at least Gojyo had the bar when he didn't want to go back to that miserable shack he lived in with the aforementioned obstinate and beautiful bastard.
Maybe, for once in his life, it'd be nice to be loved, but… Hell with it. He got by just fine before stupid green eyes threw him off balance. Life had even been fun, at times. Sure. Right.
The bartender's worried gaze was drilling a hole in the back of his head, so he finally stubbed out his cigarette and looked up, trying to focus on the opposite wall where the door should be. Screw all of them… All he had to do was get the hell out the door and the guy wouldn't give a shit where he passed out. That's how it worked… Out of sight, out of mind. He wouldn't have to see those green eyes tonight—or was it morning?— if he didn't go back to that hole. Gorgeous green eyes, with all the color and depth of emeralds, and just as cold.
The door to the bar slammed open, and all he could see for a surprising second was a figure silhouetted against the light of the streetlamp. It was instantly recognizable, of course, and Gojyo could only blink dizzily as Hakkai stepped inside and bent over his table.
"Gojyo?" Clear green eyes tried to fight through the fog of alcohol and depression. "Gojyo, have you been here all night?"
Vaguely, he heard the barkeep's idle, drawling tone. "'Ee's been like that fer hours… Not a peep outta him, and not a single girl. I lost tracka' how much 'e drank…"
"Gojyo…"
Fond concern. What was he even doing there?
"I was worried! You're never out this late. Look, the bar's trying to close… Come home, Gojyo."
Home? Did he really think of it that way? Their "home"? Hakkai looped an arm around Gojyo's shoulders and hauled him to his unsteady feet.
"Don't worry me like that! I couldn't imagine that you'd just left, but—G-Gojyo?!" The redhead leaned heavily against him, burying his face in the crook of the thinner man's neck to hide the darker blush under the flush of alcohol. There was something warm and soft in emerald eyes tonight, something that he hadn't expected. Red had been out late, so Green had come to find him... They were practically an old, married couple, weren't they? Stupid complementary colors.
Gojyo wrapped his arms around Hakkai's waist and clung to him tightly, half as a strong point in a tidal wave of alcohol-induced emotional turmoil, half in the interest of staying upright.
"I'm sorry about what I said, Gojyo. You're right..." Thin, strong arms wrapped around his neck. "You're right. She's dead..."
Gojyo looked up. Their eyes met, and what he couldn't say aloud was said anyway in the silence. "But I'm still here."
Hakkai closed his eyes tightly and held on to his redhead. Taking a deep breath, he opened them again, glittering with something neither of them felt a need to name. "Home," he managed. "Let's go home."
And so they left, one staggering and heavily supported by the other, as they always seemed to be.
The barkeep shook his head, put the drinks on their tab, and set about closing up.
"Closing time. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end..."
He flicked off the radio and turned out the lights.
Aww... See? Wasn't that fun?
If you said yes, you should review. If you said no, you should review anyway, so next time it WILL be!! Right?!?
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