A/N: I noticed Gojyo was narrating almost all of these, so I decided to deliberately try for Hakkai on the next one I did.
P.S.: Hakkai is wordy.
Prompt #24--Blotting Paper
Press the paper against ink and it carries away an afterimage of what was written there, thick at points and thin at others, a half-drawn picture from which the whole can only be deciphered with patience and a bit of luck.
First image: the bar, the smoke, the laughter that is too loud and harsh, eyes keeping watch on the corners and exits and a smile that's a little sour, but you blame that on intoxication.
Another image: the same slightly dented smile, the shakujo out, the tough-guy act still on, boasting with our friends and making stupid mistakes in your rush to save them; your anger when you see someone weaker than you being hurt, your same loud and harsh laughter when you yourself are hurt, and the way you know the exact moment I'm going to collapse and arrive the exact moment before.
Another, that only Jien and I have seen: too quiet, unconsciously touching your scars, confessing without words the secret fear that you are useless, that nothing you can give me will ever be enough to make me stay with someone as pathetic as you, and I can never manage to snap you out of it or make you stop believing it; all I can do is feed you and put you to bed, and hope it's gone in the morning.
And one more: that first image of your face in the rain, eyes wide as you tried to save me, the halfway remembered feeling of your arms lifting me off the ground; this memory all tied up with the way your arms feel around me now, touching me much too often, and you never bother to hide it because you think I don't know--you've never noticed that I, too, touch you more than is strictly necessary.