Disclaimer: We do not own DGM or Saiyuki
Key Arc
"Yuu-kun?' Tiedoll called quietly, knocking on Kanda's door. Kanda looked up from the sketch he'd been doing. He hesitated a moment before flipping it over and standing to answer the door.
"What?" he asked.
"Can you give this to Gojyo-kun?" Tiedoll asked, holding out a key. Kanda raised an eyebrow, taking the small metal key. The head of the key had a ridiculously small painting of the building they lived in on it. The other side was a similarly tiny painting of Kanda and Gojyo sleeping on the couch.
"Tch," Kanda said, closing his fist around the key. Of course Tiedoll went through a ridiculous amount of effort to make the key both memorable and embarrassing. "Fine."
"It's the same as your house key," Tiedoll said.
"I gathered," Kanda said. "Mine has the same painting of the teashop."
"Okay, make sure you give it to Gojyo-kun when you see him next," Tiedoll said.
"I'll forget," Kanda said, slipping past the old man. "I'll go drop it off now."
"Suit yourself," Tiedoll said.
Kanda pulled on his shoes and headed out. It wasn't until ten minutes and half way across town later that Kanda realized he didn't actually know where Gojyo lived. He hissed in irritation, heading for the market. Surely someone there would be able to point him in the right direction.
It took nearly an hour more to find out where Gojyo lived. Almost everyone he asked said he didn't want to go there, and then didn't tell him where it was. He was tempted to just call it quits and leave the key somewhere obvious so he couldn't forget, but he'd already put too much time into the search to go home.
And that was how Kanda found himself walking up to Gojyo's house, a hair's breadth from pissed and uncomfortably hot. 'God I hate summer,' he thought as he knocked sharply on the door, praying Gojyo was home.
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Gojyo was in his room trying to escape the heat when he heard the knock on the door. No one ever came here. Except those boy scouts that one time, but they were quickly scared off. He should probably go answer the door before Mom did. He desperately hoped she hadn't heard the knocking. Getting up off the bed he stuck his head outside the bedroom door and seeing that her door was still closed, made his way silently down the hall. With any luck whoever was at the door either was patient and wouldn't knock again or went away. He opened the door a crack and saw Kanda standing there. Gojyo's heart dropped to his stomach.
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"Yo," Kanda said, relieved that Gojyo was there. At least he wouldn't have to go looking for him. "Your house is really hard to find, did you know that?"
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"What the hell are you doing here?" he hissed as he stepped out, shutting the door behind him.
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Kanda paused at the unexpected reaction before digging the key out of his pocket. "Tiedoll told me to give this to you," he said, holding it out.
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"What is it?" he asked, not understanding.
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"A key," Kanda said. "To the apartment. So you can drop by whenever."
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"Oh, thanks?" He said taking the key a little uncertainly. "Not to seem rude or anything but uh, how the hell did you find my house?" he said, a little annoyed that his plan to never tell Kanda where he lived or ever have him here failed.
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"I asked around," Kanda said, shrugging. "It took nearly an hour to find someone who would actually tell me, but some old guy selling squash finally spilled."
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"Not that I don't appreciate the effort but you shouldn't have come here," he said, annoyance tingeing his voice. He knew he had no right to be upset with Kanda, but what was he thinking coming here? Though if Gojyo were honest with himself, he was embarrassed.
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Kanda stared for a moment before frowning. It was honestly mostly to himself, but he didn't care if it was taken otherwise. "Tch, fine," Kanda said. "See you whenever."
With that he turned on his heel and started back. At least it wouldn't take him an hour this time.
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Aww, fuck. "Kanda, wait!"
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Kanda felt a spark of irritation as he stopped, not turning to face Gojyo. He was hot and tired, and he really just wanted to go home and relax. He'd done what he'd meant to, wasn't that supposed to mean he could leave now?
"What?" he bit out, sounding far angrier than he intended to. He winced internally and half turned back, glancing at Gojyo. Great, now he was tired, hot, and feeling guilty. Great combination that one…
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Glancing almost nervously at the house, Gojyo strode forward and grabbed Kanda's wrist pulling him away from the house. "Follow me."
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Kanda let Gojyo pull him along for a short while before tugging his wrist free and simply trailing after him. He didn't know what Gojyo was thinking, so he was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and follow along. He just hoped they were going somewhere shady.
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He didn't say anything and didn't stop until they were a good distance from the house in a shady little grouping of trees. Sitting on a trunk of a long fallen tree, he scrapped his hair back from his face and lit a cigarette. This was so not a conversation he wanted to have but he also didn't want Kanda to think he was a huge ungrateful dick. "Look, I'm sorry about being an ass, it's just… you can't come here. Ever. It's not…" he struggled to find the words "safe," was what he ended up settling on. And it sounded lame even to him.
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Kanda waited for Gojyo to stop speaking before sitting on the fallen tree as well. 'Not safe, he says,' Kanda thought. 'It must have something to do with the rumors I've been ignoring.'
"So I gathered when no one would tell me how to get there," Kanda said, rolling his eyes.
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Gojyo grimaced. "I told you we're not very popular in town. We both were lucky I heard the door before Mom did."
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"I take it she's no Tiedoll," Kanda said, unable to come up with anything else. What did you say to that without being rude and/or sounding like an ass?
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"You couldn't get more opposite." This was not how he wanted this conversation to go. Actually he never wanted to have this conversation ever. "She's…uh…not all there." Understatement of the fucking century.
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"So the rumors are true then?" Kanda asked. He froze when he realized, but it was too late to take it back now, so he'd wait for the fallout before doing anything.
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Gojyo froze too. "Which rumors?"
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"The ones about your family," Kanda said, shrugging and frowning. Surely Gojyo had heard people talking. They weren't exactly discreet about it.
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"Like I said, which ones?" His voice took on a dangerous tone. "The ones where my dad slept around and had me? The one where my parents offed themselves when I was three and stuck me with my stepmother and Jien? Or maybe the one where my stepmother went crazy because her husband cheated on her and tried to kill me? Those rumors?" By now he was standing with fists clenched at his side. A note of hysteria cracking in his voice. "Because yeah, they're all fucking true!"
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Kanda didn't know what to say. To be entirely honest, he hadn't ever listened to the rumors. Hadn't paid them any mind. He knew only that there were rumors, and knew only enough about them to know that they regarded Gojyo and his family. He hadn't known. But now he did, and nothing changed. Gojyo was still Gojyo.
Remaining seated, Kanda reached out and took hold of one of Gojyo's fists. Carefully, he tugged at Gojyo's fingers, unfurling them one by one until he could simply hold his hand. He gave it a quick squeeze, and pretended he didn't feel somewhat awkward about it. He wasn't good at hugs.
"You're still you," Kanda finally muttered a minute or so later. "None of that changes that."
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Gojyo looked away when he finished his little rant, face as red as his hair. He let Kanda unfurl his fist and hold his hand. How could he say it changed nothing? How could Kanda say that when everything, when he was so fucked up? He collapsed back on the log, freeing his hand to light another cigarette.
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Kanda sighed and laced his fingers together, propping his elbows on his knees and staring at the dirt beneath his feet. "I never put much stock in rumors," Kanda started, he shook his head and huffed a laugh that was anything but happy. "It's a habit I learned from Alma I suppose. Judging someone based on rumors is never good. Mostly because they're usually wrong, but also because they don't mean anything about the person themselves." He sighed, fingers tightening around each other before he released them, the fingers of his right hand moving to the bracelet he wore on his left wrist. "When I was a kid, I used to hallucinate a lot. People thought I was making it up for the longest time, and that added to my horrible temper scared most everyone away. There were rumors upon rumors that I was insane. Even more that said I'd killed my parents and kept lying about the permission forms they signed for school. I wasn't exactly popular, let's just say that." He leaned back, looking up at the sky and propping his hands on the tree. "Then Alma came along. I didn't trust him for the longest time. He was pretty crazy himself, but everyone loved that creep. He completely ignored the rumors that I was crazy and that I was a murderer, and he'd bug me every day for months. I still haven't figured out why he bothered. I made him cry so many times, little shit that I was. But he stuck around, and eventually it didn't bug me that he was horrible at standing up for people. It didn't bother me that even with him as my friend, I was always fighting alone. That was just how Alma was." The clouds overhead were tall and fluffy. Maybe they would end up as a thunderstorm. The coolness of a storm would be relieving. "The rumors got worse with Alma around. Brat couldn't keep his mouth shut about anything, so soon everyone knew that I would break things on accident a lot, and that I really did see things. The rumors went from me being a murderer and insane, to me being a murderer, insane, and pathetic. No one could make up their minds about it really, and I never really cared enough to stop them because it kept most everyone from talking to me. Except then people started making creepy dolls or drawings and leaving them places, pretending they couldn't see them if I freaked out. The only good thing about my family's deaths was that I got out of that hell." He sighed, sitting forward again, elbows on his knees. He glanced at Gojyo, knowing that he'd pretty much just rambled pointlessly about nothing definite for way too long.
"I can't judge you based on rumors, and I never will," he said. "I'll only ever judge you for you, as you are before me. That is why nothing has changed about what I think of you. Those things are in the past, and while they may have made you who you are, they don't have much effect on how I see you." He sighed. He was ranting again. The heat must be going to his head. He really did hate summer. "You're Gojyo."
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Gojyo didn't say anything; he really didn't know what to say. Instead he wrapped an arm around Kanda's shoulders and pulled him into a half hug, resting his head on Kanda.
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Kanda huffed, rolling his eyes as a smile tugged at his lips. They were both fucking ridiculous. He managed to wrap his arm around Gojyo's back so his hand was draped over Gojyo's far shoulder, returning the hug for a moment before he let his arm drop.
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"Dude, we're so fucked up." And yet, together they kicked ass. "Thanks for the key."
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"We could be worse," Kanda said. "We could be in an insane asylum, wearing those hugging jacket things."
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Gojyo just looked at him. But then he smiled and laughed, "Yeah, that would be worse."