A/N: lookit, 125-word sentence, and it's actually grammatical! Is that a record or what?

#1 Walking:

'Walking away is not an option,' Hakkai commented almost casually, 'we're bound too tight; at this point, we'll have to work things out or kill each other trying.'

#2 Waltz:

'Let's dance,' Gojyo whispered with a sly grin, which grew larger as Hakkai stood up with a smile, and then turned crooked with shock when Hakkai placed a firm hand on his waist and replied straight-faced, 'Why, Gojyo, who ever told you you could lead?'

#3 Wishes:

Fairytales lied; even if they succeeded in their quest, there would be no return to a happy childhood, no resurrection of lost lives, no granting of the heart's wishes, no undoing of all the scars that wound over body and soul; all they could do was hold on to what was, what was real, and fight tooth and nail for it – and perhaps those wishes would be unnecessary after all.

#4 Wonder:

Gojyo would brag incessantly about all the women he'd had, given the slightest chance, and he reacted like a scalded cat to the slightest speculation on his orientation; but occasionally, when Gojyo thought he wasn't paying attention, Hakkai could feel those crimson eyes fixed on him – and he wondered.

#5 Worry:

Hakkai worried about them all like the faithful mother-figure he was; and Gojyo fought harder than he ever had before so he could cover the overprotective little idiot's back when Hakkai was too busy looking after everyone else.

#6 Whimsy:

To those who didn't know him Gojyo was a creature of whimsy, changing with the wind and as about as unpredictable; to those he allowed closer it was easy to see the fixed, iron-hard principles that determined everything he did.

#7 Waste:

Hakkai fought the way he did everything else, calmly, rationally, without a single wasted movement; his was the elegance of understatement where Gojyo's was the sensuality of absolute confidence.

#8 Whiskey and rum:

'Sorry, but aren't you already taken?' the cute waitress said, her eyes darting to where Hakkai had been seated next to Gojyo at the counter; whereupon he realised that while he might enjoy drinking whiskey and rum, the same drink up his nose was no fun at all, really.

#9 War:

After a while, he could always tell when the constant ebb and flow of Hakkai's internal conflicts accelerated into a war; the shade and shape of his eyes flickered briefly and erratically, and only someone who had a sharp eye and knew exactly what to look for would find it.

#10 Weddings:

They witnessed a Christian wedding ceremony once, dragged to the festivities by an enthusiastic Goku; Gojyo could hear Hakkai whispering the vows under his breath, and in the emptiness and bone-deep loss in those pretty green eyes he realised exactly why and when and for whose sake Hakkai had memorised them – and the pain in his own heart grew that much sharper.

#11 Birthday:

By common consent, they ignored both their birthdays; neither of them were particularly proud of being born.

#12 Blessing:

'Ch…I don't care,' was the entirety of Sanzo's response, and Hakkai knew him well enough to be satisfied with it.

#13 Bias:

He had struggled against the crushing burden of bias for so long that to meet people who didn't care was like water to a dying man.

#14 Burning:

He couldn't stand to meet those deep crimson eyes, because the raw, open heat in them made him feel as if he were burning merely from that glance; but Gojyo gripped his chin, forced him to look into that flame again – and blissfully, deliriously, he burned.

#15 Breathing:

Several times a night, he woke up just to see if the guy he'd picked up off the street was still breathing, he lay so still and pale and breathed so quiet and shallow; and every time, he laid a careful ear to his nose and until he was reassured, he couldn't breathe either; he had risked too much of his self in rescuing him to not care whether he made it.

#16 Breaking:

Hakkai had become something of a habit to him; to find meals made, thoughts anticipated, weak points covered, memories shared, affection given – by the time he realised how deeply they had drawn each other into their lives, he was too far gone to even think of breaking it.

#17 Belief:

He realised very quickly that he had done Hakkai no great favour by saving him that night; and when his quick mind began to draw the inescapable conclusions, he clung to the belief that Hakkai didn't hate him for it, because that would have destroyed even his twice-shattered heart.

#18 Balloon:

Gojyo spent an entire evening teaching Hakkai and Goku to make balloon animals; they had a whole rack of animals when they finished, which delighted the town's children, who received the majority (although Goku wasn't terribly pleased with the monkey he found in the back seat the next morning).

#19 Balcony:

'Out on the balcony, please,' Hakkai murmured without even looking up from his book, just before Gojyo removed a cigarette from the pack; but even though Gojyo never extended that courtesy to anyone else, the redhead had already begun to amble in that direction – leaving Goku to laugh and resist the urge to make yet another comment about their marital status.

#20 Bane:

Order was the bane of Gojyo's existence, just as it was the centre of Hakkai's; it turned their daily lives into a series of small battles that both were good-natured enough to ignore immediately after they were finished.

#21 Quiet:

There were times when Hakkai shrank into himself, quiet and unremarkable, trying his best to disappear, to not be seen; and once he realised that those were the times that Hakkai needed most to be reminded of his existence, he made it a point to spend those times with him, joke and laugh or offer silent companionship until the healer broke out of his shell again.

#22 Quirks:

What amazed others about the two of them was not how radically different they were, but how neatly they manoeuvred around each other's quirks.

#23 Question:

There were things they did not speak of; sisters and mothers and brothers and scars – asking questions invited them, and such things were to be spoken of when the one who had experienced them wanted to; and while they were living in close quarters, there were some kinds of privacies that everyone was entitled to.

#24 Quarrel:

Listening in on their quarrels was infinitely fascinating for Goku; Gojyo would become steadily louder and ruder and Hakkai quieter and more polite; at some point the sounds would stop altogether, after which one of them would storm out of the room, only to return later; and in the morning they would be back to normal, as if nothing at all had happened.

#25 Quitting:

Hakkai never asked him to, for which he was more than grateful.

#26 Jump:

He stared down at the river far below as they drove over a bridge, wondering in a dispassionate sort of way exactly how badly it would hurt if he simply……and then he saw furious crimson in the rear-view mirror, realised that he had neglected to conceal himself as thoroughly as he was accustomed, and rectified the error.

#27 Jester:

Gojyo had appointed himself the jester of their little group, and he probably deserved the title for his witty, cutting sarcasm; but even his practiced eloquence fell before Hakkai's insidiously indirect brand of banter.

#28 Jousting:

'What the hell kinda word is that, anyway?' Gojyo said, disgruntled; 'Don't quote the damn encyclopaedia at me!' And Hakkai laughed and laughed, and did it again just to annoy him.

#29 Jewel:

He slipped off the monocle, gently and with as much significance as if it were a more essential covering – and in some ways, it was his most effective shield – and laid it aside carefully, as if it were a priceless jewel, before reaching for him again.

#30 Just:

The difference between them, Hakkai realised, was that Gojyo was fair and he was just; Hakkai would never have tried to save a murderer, set aside his pride and preconceptions to attempt the redemption of a child-killer.

#31 Smirk:

The first time he lost spectacularly at cards to Hakkai, he passed it off as a fluke; the second time was an accident, and after that it was only Gojyo's bad luck, really; but the longer they played together and the more amicable and polite Hakkai became (and the more his eye sparkled with glee) he realised that there were many different ways to smirk.

#32 Sorrow:

Sorrow was an old friend, and one who visited often……they dealt with it in their own ways, often separately, because that was their nature, and occasionally together, because that was their weakness.

#33 Stupidity:

'Listen, kappa, and listen well,' Sanzo growled, gun pointed squarely at Gojyo's forehead, 'I don't give a damn what goes on between you and Hakkai, but if your innate stupidity asserts itself and succeeds in disturbing him or distracting him……' the gun inched just that much closer, 'I…will…not…miss, do you hear me?'

Which, Gojyo reflected, was probably Sanzo's version of telling him not to hurt Hakkai; and the very idea of the monk being protective was enough to keep him in smirks for the rest of the week.

#34 Serenade:

Gojyo couldn't sing, they both knew it, but his sensual whisper in Hakkai's ears was a sweeter song than the most accomplished serenade.

#35 Sarcasm:

It was absolutely delightful to sit back and watch Gojyo being Gojyo, sarcastic and quick-witted, with absolutely no mercy for anyone's feelings, including his own; he treated conversation as a battle, exactly like Hakkai did, and knowing that Hakkai himself was more or less exempt from Gojyo's ire when the redhead got going was a warm fuzzy feeling all to itself.

#36 Sordid:

Really, it was a bad cliché; the knight in shining armour rescues the fair, well, knight from certain death and heals him; except that Gojyo always thought that, considering the sordid, shallow excuse for a life he had allowed himself until then, that dreamy fog of purposelessness, that lonely, numb existence, he could as well say that he had been the one rescued that night.

#37 Soliloquy:

Quietly, he said 'I love you', again and again, when he was sure nobody could hear him, trying to find the tone and inflection he could use that would best convey everything he wanted to put into those few syllables.

#38 Sojourn:

'I trust your sojourn went well?' Hakkai asked with a freezingly polite smile on his face, which warned Gojyo enough that he went and looked the word up; at which point he realised exactly how stupid he was.

#39 Share:

He came down late for dinner to find that Goku had eaten all the food; later, Hakkai handed him his share after the monkey went to bed with a smile and without an explanation.

#40 Solitary:

Gojyo thrived on people, on society, conversation, night life and careless banter; and Hakkai knew better than to take it personally when he referred to the jeep as solitary confinement.

#41 Nowhere:

Half-breeds, sinners, outcast; they belonged nowhere; except, perhaps, with each other.

#42 Neutral:

The jeep was neutral territory – no flirting, no suggestive comments, and certainly no……fooling around……of any kind whatsoever, Gojyo, are you listening to me? – Hakkai had put his foot down as firmly on that matter as he usually put it on the accelerator, at least until Gojyo decided that he was going to be creative at interpreting the phrase neutral territory (Goku ewwed and Sanzo hit him on the head – not that that stopped him for long); and by the time Gojyo succeeded in annoying, wheedling and threatening Sanzo into switching places with him so he could get better access to the driver, Hakkai was even beginning to enjoy it, which probably proved that Gojyo had indeed rubbed off on him in more ways than one.

#43 Nuance:

It wasn't until he saw Gojyo toying distractedly with the fall of crimson across his face and absently thought oh, he's nervous that he realised that he knew every nuance of Gojyo's expressions and habits – and began to wonder why he'd catalogued them with such care.

#44 Near:

He pushed everyone away, stubborn and reacting to deep, old wounds; perhaps it was not surprising that when someone was finally allowed near, he clung to them like a drowning man.

#45 Natural:

It was years later that he realised the depth of Gojyo's sneakiness; he had conditioned Hakkai subtly, as if he were a frightened animal, patiently convincing him that such touches signified warmth, comfort, affection, until Gojyo's touch was natural – even expected – in a way no one else's was.

#46 Horizon:

Looking into the ever-retreating horizon while he was driving was a favourite, if slightly melancholic pastime of Hakkai's – and meeting sly red eyes in the back seat was another.

#47 Valiant:

He had a willingness to fight for people that amazed Hakkai, who for all his accommodating behaviour was ruthlessly selfish when it came to giving of himself; he could summon up fanciful adjectives like noble, valiant, defiant, but the truth of the matter was that Gojyo loved, easily, deeply and truly, and he would do anything when it came to those he loved; and in that, they were not so different.

#48 Virtuous:

The very idea would have sent both of them into gales of hysterical laughter.

#49 Victory:

He had been planning and waiting and wanting for so long that the whole thing turned into some sort of game, an involved, complex, layered play that would, if played correctly, mean everything; victory was essential, because if he lost, he lost Hakkai.

#50 Defeat:

Not, Hakkai thought, that this kind of defeat was one he minded.