Author's note: I think I indulged a bit. Anyway, it's been a rough week ^_^ I deserve a bit of indulgence.
Saiyuki: Through The Looking Glass
Chapter 5
Rating: PG13...still...
****
A pointless sunset, Hakkai thought as he paused in his shelving in order to gaze outside Tenpou's library window. But beautiful nonetheless. As beautiful as a porcelain doll. Again, a meaningless image without even a shadow of a soul.
Yes, but beautiful still...eternally so.
Shafts of wine-red light streamed into the study, warming the ever aging yet never rotting wood. It shined on rich mahogany, making it glow like dying embers in the red twilight. His body liked it. Felt at home, though the mind did not- despite the pang of bittersweet amusement that played upon his memory.
//We always wanted a library. Just like this one. Sort of. Less war literature for the sake of the kids. It wasn't really something for them to think about. To keep in the back of their minds, yes. A constant preoccupation, no. //
Flipping through pages, opening books where bookmarks were left, organizing papers. A cup of wine on his desk. Very good. Very sweet. The ashtray put aside never to be used. //As long as I'm here//. Pulling out and skimming texts, re-rolling undone scrolls. A life he was supposed to have lived as Cho Gonou. Teacher. He figured, also, that as long as he kept himself shut in Tenpou's study, he could keep fantasizing about it. Keep some veil of normalcy over his two good eyes. This was safe.
Then a voice drifted through the shutters and he peeked out. Was that-across the courtyard-but it couldn't be-oh yes it could...
"Konzen! Konzen! Look! I went to the field today and got you flowers. Bright gold, like your hair, ne?" Goku was jumping, chains around his neck and wrists clanking about as the unmistakable diadem gleamed in the sunset. "Are we gonna visit Ten-chan?"
"Not now." A deep voice. Controlled and firm. The mark of someone not even attempting to hide obvious boredom. "Go play with Kenren or something and let. me. work." A flicker of light caught Konzen's eye. He turned his head: Tenpou's library. //The idiot's locked himself in again//.
In said room, Hakkai leaned against the wall tiredly and sunk down, grabbing the nearest book, one he had forgotten to shelf for lack of any fitting space. Again, went to the bookmark:
"Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself." Worthless book. Stupid human.
He laughed mirthlessly, shook his head, and in a justified act of frustration, Hakkai slammed the covers shut and violently sent hefty volume careening to the other side of the otherwise uncluttered library.
//His library//; which a few hours ago looked as if a bomb had dropped inside. Clean now, save for one book out of place.
If time had any relevance here, he would have estimated being here for a good eleven hours, give or take a few. Hakkai closed his eyes, basking in the security of darkness which had never failed him ever since that day. Oblivion was a good thing. Yes, a very good thing. Then...the creaking of the door.
"Oi, Tenpouuu!"
Oh god.
Footsteps.
Hakkai furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance and sunk deeper into his bookshelf enclave as if privation of words, privation of breath, privation of thought and privation of sight would make him disappear. Privation of person. If only.
***
Tenpou didn't answer the door. Not like he ever did, so Kenren just waltzed right on it and nearly died of a heart attack. The place was clean. Impeccably clean. Not a single book out of place...save for one. Not one paper out of file. Not a speck of dust. Maybe he took a wrong turn, he thought. This was not Tenpou's room.
But sure enough, he found the marshal in his usual spot- in the nook between the war history of this century and the war history of that. Right on the border separating two different eras, but to Kenren it was all the same. War was war after all.
Hmmm...sleeping. Tenpou's brown hair was slightly disheveled, falling across his eyes and face. "Ten-chan." he said a bit more endearingly, saw the flinch at the corner of his eyes.
Gotcha.
Without further adieu, he was by the other man's side. Whispering in his ear, Kenren said, "You, Tenpou Gensui, are the worst liar I've ever met." So with that, took hold the marshal's chin and leaned forward to claim the waiting mouth...
But soon found himself in a gentle liplock with "Brave New World" by an author he didn't bother to know. Nor did he care, especially now.
"And you, Kenren Taishou, are the most persistent hound I've ever met." retorted Hakkai as he hid his face behind the book, only daring to reveal his twin emerald eyes. "Don't you ever tire of this?"
The raven-haired man backed off and sat cross-legged in front of him. He scratched the back of his head, his smile never faltering. "Not if you keep playing hard to get like that."
"I am not playing hard to get." The book was tentatively lowered, but remained poised in the event of another attack. "I'm playing 'not going to get,' Gojyo, so if you would just-"
"Gojyo?" The general quirked his head to the side.
Hakkai bit his lip and quickly amended, despite the futility of it all. "Kenren."
"You said 'Gojyo'."
"I said 'Kenren'."
"You *meant* 'Kenren' but it sure as *hell* didn't come out that way."
The healer had just to say it, regardless of all compulsion not to...
"Jealous?" He tilted his head to the side inquiringly as Kenren squirmed under his gaze until finally, he gathered up his wits to spit out a flat-
"No."
...just for the sake of seeing how much the general was in love with Tenpou.
The temptation to just let things be was overwhelming. This was (theoretically speaking) Tenpou's problem, not Hakkai's. But Hakkai was right here, right now, being stared down by the previous incarnation of the man he was in love with.
There. He admitted it to himself. He had grown attached to the half-breed- a habit from three years past turned into a hunger gnawing at him whenever they were alone together. Hakkai felt the same hunger now, but his mind kept him from it. The body screamed for it. And the heart...which was not Hakkai's heart, but Tenpou's...seemed to ache ever so slightly from god-knows-how-many-centuries of cold imprisonment by a mind constantly in denial. Who to satisfy? Hakkai didn't know, and all he could do was stare as Kenren broke out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. He offered one to Hakkai.
"No, thank you."
Kenren shrugged and pocketed them, taking a long drag and blowing smoke idly into the air. "Must be a pretty good bastard to have you pick up good habits all of a sudden."
"Mmh."
"Not that it's my business, 'cause we ain't like that anyway, but..." he waved the cigarette for emphasis, yet refused to look back at the other's eyes. Something in it bothered him. Ever since this morning it bothered him, as if Tenpou had finally and completely withdrawn within himself. Either that, or he had resorted to //someone else//. "You care to tell me who this guy is?"
Far be it from Kenren Taishou to be subtle. And far be it from Cho Hakkai to be open.
"No. I don't." he responded tersely.
"Do I know him?" God, now we're playing 20 questions, Kenren thought irritably, like...
//A husband accusing his wife of infidelity...//
"In a sense."
"You sleep with him?" Smoke was blown in the direction of the bedroom.
"No." And with that one syllable word came a nearly inaudible sigh of disappointment. Kenren caught it, and his first impulse was to just grab Tenpou by the shoulders, shake him and shout out, 'what's wrong with you?' But if Tenpou was Tenpou, and undoubtedly he was, then the marshal would simply reply that the one askew in his thinking was Kenren. After all...
(flashback)
****// "Bedroom. Now."
"I've never gone about this with a man, Taishou. Are you sure?"
"Hell yeah and you had better stuff that book away or else I'll take you now...on the other hand, maybe that wouldn't be so bad..."
"Kenren, wait I- mmph...Why must...must...oh god...why must you be so...insistent?"
"I. Want. You. Now. Care to have me elaborate, or shall we continue, eh?
"Continue."
All either of them remembered was that at that point, they were basically ravaging each other, but clear at the start...Tenpou's condition...was that there were no promises between them. //*****
But still... If only...Those were the only reasons he had. The words 'I want you to be mine and only mine' wouldn't have sufficed for the marshal. Never.
"Then what?"
"Then what *what*?" There was no hiding the growing annoyance, especially when Hakkai was clutching "Brave New World" with a grip strong enough to strangle a statue.
"Is he important?" He braced himself for an answer. Tenpou didn't think in terms of affection- more along the lines of lust if anything. So 'importance' was the determining factor of whether you were under the marshal's wing or not. A utilitarian to the core. You had to be advantageous to him or you were gone. Konzen, due to some unfathomable childhood bonding, had gained a permanent spot. One wing, under which Goku could find shelter as well. Which left one other- and it was the more capricious.
If you were there, it was only because you didn't give a damn about what he did with you (as long as you were on top, of course). You were blind. But you were pampered- as long as you didn't pry into his business. You were safe from the dogs biting at your heels because Tenpou's authority was enough to put them at bay a good three miles behind you. Most of all, you had to be ready to be thrown back to the dogs at any given moment. You shouldn't care- either about the dogs or the loss you would suffer from Tenpou's refusal to commit.
Kenren didn't give a damn about the dogs and so when Tenpou said, "Yes, Kenren, he is." he felt like a door had just been slammed in his face: a betrayal he should have expected one time or another, but enough endless nights with Tenpou had the general convinced that it would never happen. The bastard.
"Ah...then you use him like you do me? Or maybe he's even more useful..." his voice dripped with poison as Hakkai could only look on with dismay, if not with a bit of pity.
//You should have said 'I love you' earlier. Such things fall on deaf ears. He's not here, Kenren. I am.// Though not lost to the healer was the damage he had irrevocably done.// I only mentioned his name. One name//. Then came the endless questions- each one cutting into the other bit by bit because after that there was no choice but to be honest. To be otherwise would be a betrayal towards Gojyo, and he had already promised three years ago that such a thing was unthinkable, even when the half-youkai wasn't present.
The situation would have been infinitely easier to handle had Hakkai known Tenpou's character. Cold. Steel. And so he had not realized the weight of his words when he answered the general's question.
"I don't use him." Simple truth. Hakkai believed it to be an innocent confession, or rather, a statement of the obvious. The safest answer he could return because saying 'yes' seemed too malicious and surely, Tenpou Gensui wasn't like that. Right?
Simple enough, but that four letter phrase was sufficient enough to replace an even simpler three letter verdict. It came like a slap in the face, leaving Kenren more pissed than heartbroken. Never in his life had he felt so humiliated, and thank god no one saw this interaction. Made him feel like a petty whore in the court, subject to the interested eye of a man in power. And Tenpou Gensui was a man with power. A lot of it. Who was on top now?
But he never would have thought...
"You know what?" said Kenren as apathetically as he could manage. "I think I've outworn my welcome with you."
"Kenren-"
"I don't care, really. No promises. I remember."
"Kenren."
Then he produced from his pocket a rumpled square of paper- small enough so to be fit into the message vial of a carrier bird-and tossed it at Hakkai's feet. It read:
//They're ready for Kenren Taishou and his men at the mountain path. Surveillance round. Thirty including the general. Orders understood. They won't return. //
Hakkai scrutinized it. "I don't remember..." Well of course he didn't. "General, what is this?" His answer came in the form of a punch to the jaw and he stumbled back. Before he knew it, Kenren was on top of him, seizing the collar of his shirt.
"Cut the crap." he snarled fiercely, as his eyes lit up with pent up resentment. "You fucking know what I'm talking about. I've played the willful ignorant. Believed you and blamed Litouten all the way. Why the hell I did, I don't know. I just *did*. So shoot me for being so fucking stupid. Found this on your desk this morning."
Suddenly taken with the realization that he was shouting, Kenren lowered his voice to a mere whisper and lowered his head to Hakkai's ear as one hand cupped the side of his face as if he were acting like a lover which, god forbid, he wasn't. Hakkai was almost trembling with shock and the fear that he was going to face some terrible fate in the library of his dreams. His mind conjured up the worst and for once, Tenpou's body agreed. Then the ever-present question: What did Tenpou do? And the ever-present non-consoling thought: I don't deserve this. Nevertheless, he allowed Kenren to continue torturing him. Hakkai could take it- with his confused detachment- he could take it.
"I should have seen it before. You took my men away from me. I know that much, and I won't let you take away anything else. I won't beg for something you won't give, now that I know that you gave to someone else..."
It still didn't explain anything to the healer, only reaffirmed the fact that he had jeopardized Tenpou's fine threads of secrets. The web was collapsing.
The hand at his cheek stayed surprisingly gentle. Hakkai had expected it to come flying down and pound him into the floor, but it didn't. It cradled his face, though in its stiffness he could sense Kenren's reluctance. "Kenren I-" he spoke for Tenpou, not for himself. "There's no one else." but when he had uttered those last words, he realized how empty they sounded. Something not even Goku would believe. Kenren must have thought it a blatant lie.
"I don't care, *marshal*." the man's voice had grown dispassionate though their faces were only mere centimeters apart. Hakkai flinched at the scorn imbued with the mention of Tenpou's title.
Then lips descended on his own in a soft kiss like the one from this morning. Softer even. But bitter. "I'll request that Goujin reassign me in the morning. I'll be out of your hair from now on." Kenren's mouth hovered over his own, their breaths mingling as he received one bitter kiss after another.
"But Tenpou...mess with me or my soldiers again and I'll make you know what hell feels like."
Cho Gonou smiled cruelly up at him, piqued by the mention of absolute misery. "I already do."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, breaking both of them from their spell of hatred. For an eternity, neither moved. They stared at each other in disbelief- at the words they had exchanged, the threats...
Kenren pushed himself off the floor and quickly snatched up the cigarette he had dropped before it burned the entire place down. Not that he cared, of course. Hakkai took advantage of the disruption and tried not to race to the door. Upon opening it, he was met by an impassive face. //God, doesn't anybody smile in heaven?//
"I was sent by Goujin to convey a message."
It took Hakkai's muddled brain a good minute to register the sight before him. Heaven knows he'd seen this man enough.
"Marshal?" Shien prompted as he scrutinized Tenpou's astounded expression.
"Ah, yes." Hakkai apologized sheepishly. "Forgive me, Shien. What is it that were you sent to tell me?"
"Kenren Taishou's missing troops have returned. They were caught in a storm and had lost their way on earth. With all the turbulence, they say, access to the gate back to heaven was near impossible. They had to wait it out." the man reported verbatim from the written paper in his hand which he then gave to Hakkai.
"I see. Thank you."
"They will be marching through the streets as soon as they enter the holy city."
At the mention of his troop, Kenren jumped and made his way to the door. "See, Marshal?" he said, brushing roughly against Hakkai's shoulder as he walked out. "This bastard general can sure train his soldiers, even when he had to keep you in check too."
The meaning wasn't lost to Hakkai, nor to the other man who stood by him. They watched as Kenren stalked away, but before he was out of earshot, he heard, "A man's power is only as good as the freedom given to him by his superior."
But it wasn't Hakkai speaking.
The general balked and turned around quickly enough to glare daggers in Shien's direction before shrugging and rounding the corner.
"Oh my, now you've made him angrier." Hakkai commented as he held the door frame in order to regain his composure.
"No reason to pamper unjustified pride. I stand by that, marshal...Are you ill?"
"No. Just..."
"Angry."
"Perhaps."
"Too angry to see the parade?" Shien inquired, his voice level.
"No."
"Then let me accompany you."
"Please."
Saiyuki: Through The Looking Glass
Chapter 5
Rating: PG13...still...
****
A pointless sunset, Hakkai thought as he paused in his shelving in order to gaze outside Tenpou's library window. But beautiful nonetheless. As beautiful as a porcelain doll. Again, a meaningless image without even a shadow of a soul.
Yes, but beautiful still...eternally so.
Shafts of wine-red light streamed into the study, warming the ever aging yet never rotting wood. It shined on rich mahogany, making it glow like dying embers in the red twilight. His body liked it. Felt at home, though the mind did not- despite the pang of bittersweet amusement that played upon his memory.
//We always wanted a library. Just like this one. Sort of. Less war literature for the sake of the kids. It wasn't really something for them to think about. To keep in the back of their minds, yes. A constant preoccupation, no. //
Flipping through pages, opening books where bookmarks were left, organizing papers. A cup of wine on his desk. Very good. Very sweet. The ashtray put aside never to be used. //As long as I'm here//. Pulling out and skimming texts, re-rolling undone scrolls. A life he was supposed to have lived as Cho Gonou. Teacher. He figured, also, that as long as he kept himself shut in Tenpou's study, he could keep fantasizing about it. Keep some veil of normalcy over his two good eyes. This was safe.
Then a voice drifted through the shutters and he peeked out. Was that-across the courtyard-but it couldn't be-oh yes it could...
"Konzen! Konzen! Look! I went to the field today and got you flowers. Bright gold, like your hair, ne?" Goku was jumping, chains around his neck and wrists clanking about as the unmistakable diadem gleamed in the sunset. "Are we gonna visit Ten-chan?"
"Not now." A deep voice. Controlled and firm. The mark of someone not even attempting to hide obvious boredom. "Go play with Kenren or something and let. me. work." A flicker of light caught Konzen's eye. He turned his head: Tenpou's library. //The idiot's locked himself in again//.
In said room, Hakkai leaned against the wall tiredly and sunk down, grabbing the nearest book, one he had forgotten to shelf for lack of any fitting space. Again, went to the bookmark:
"Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself." Worthless book. Stupid human.
He laughed mirthlessly, shook his head, and in a justified act of frustration, Hakkai slammed the covers shut and violently sent hefty volume careening to the other side of the otherwise uncluttered library.
//His library//; which a few hours ago looked as if a bomb had dropped inside. Clean now, save for one book out of place.
If time had any relevance here, he would have estimated being here for a good eleven hours, give or take a few. Hakkai closed his eyes, basking in the security of darkness which had never failed him ever since that day. Oblivion was a good thing. Yes, a very good thing. Then...the creaking of the door.
"Oi, Tenpouuu!"
Oh god.
Footsteps.
Hakkai furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance and sunk deeper into his bookshelf enclave as if privation of words, privation of breath, privation of thought and privation of sight would make him disappear. Privation of person. If only.
***
Tenpou didn't answer the door. Not like he ever did, so Kenren just waltzed right on it and nearly died of a heart attack. The place was clean. Impeccably clean. Not a single book out of place...save for one. Not one paper out of file. Not a speck of dust. Maybe he took a wrong turn, he thought. This was not Tenpou's room.
But sure enough, he found the marshal in his usual spot- in the nook between the war history of this century and the war history of that. Right on the border separating two different eras, but to Kenren it was all the same. War was war after all.
Hmmm...sleeping. Tenpou's brown hair was slightly disheveled, falling across his eyes and face. "Ten-chan." he said a bit more endearingly, saw the flinch at the corner of his eyes.
Gotcha.
Without further adieu, he was by the other man's side. Whispering in his ear, Kenren said, "You, Tenpou Gensui, are the worst liar I've ever met." So with that, took hold the marshal's chin and leaned forward to claim the waiting mouth...
But soon found himself in a gentle liplock with "Brave New World" by an author he didn't bother to know. Nor did he care, especially now.
"And you, Kenren Taishou, are the most persistent hound I've ever met." retorted Hakkai as he hid his face behind the book, only daring to reveal his twin emerald eyes. "Don't you ever tire of this?"
The raven-haired man backed off and sat cross-legged in front of him. He scratched the back of his head, his smile never faltering. "Not if you keep playing hard to get like that."
"I am not playing hard to get." The book was tentatively lowered, but remained poised in the event of another attack. "I'm playing 'not going to get,' Gojyo, so if you would just-"
"Gojyo?" The general quirked his head to the side.
Hakkai bit his lip and quickly amended, despite the futility of it all. "Kenren."
"You said 'Gojyo'."
"I said 'Kenren'."
"You *meant* 'Kenren' but it sure as *hell* didn't come out that way."
The healer had just to say it, regardless of all compulsion not to...
"Jealous?" He tilted his head to the side inquiringly as Kenren squirmed under his gaze until finally, he gathered up his wits to spit out a flat-
"No."
...just for the sake of seeing how much the general was in love with Tenpou.
The temptation to just let things be was overwhelming. This was (theoretically speaking) Tenpou's problem, not Hakkai's. But Hakkai was right here, right now, being stared down by the previous incarnation of the man he was in love with.
There. He admitted it to himself. He had grown attached to the half-breed- a habit from three years past turned into a hunger gnawing at him whenever they were alone together. Hakkai felt the same hunger now, but his mind kept him from it. The body screamed for it. And the heart...which was not Hakkai's heart, but Tenpou's...seemed to ache ever so slightly from god-knows-how-many-centuries of cold imprisonment by a mind constantly in denial. Who to satisfy? Hakkai didn't know, and all he could do was stare as Kenren broke out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. He offered one to Hakkai.
"No, thank you."
Kenren shrugged and pocketed them, taking a long drag and blowing smoke idly into the air. "Must be a pretty good bastard to have you pick up good habits all of a sudden."
"Mmh."
"Not that it's my business, 'cause we ain't like that anyway, but..." he waved the cigarette for emphasis, yet refused to look back at the other's eyes. Something in it bothered him. Ever since this morning it bothered him, as if Tenpou had finally and completely withdrawn within himself. Either that, or he had resorted to //someone else//. "You care to tell me who this guy is?"
Far be it from Kenren Taishou to be subtle. And far be it from Cho Hakkai to be open.
"No. I don't." he responded tersely.
"Do I know him?" God, now we're playing 20 questions, Kenren thought irritably, like...
//A husband accusing his wife of infidelity...//
"In a sense."
"You sleep with him?" Smoke was blown in the direction of the bedroom.
"No." And with that one syllable word came a nearly inaudible sigh of disappointment. Kenren caught it, and his first impulse was to just grab Tenpou by the shoulders, shake him and shout out, 'what's wrong with you?' But if Tenpou was Tenpou, and undoubtedly he was, then the marshal would simply reply that the one askew in his thinking was Kenren. After all...
(flashback)
****// "Bedroom. Now."
"I've never gone about this with a man, Taishou. Are you sure?"
"Hell yeah and you had better stuff that book away or else I'll take you now...on the other hand, maybe that wouldn't be so bad..."
"Kenren, wait I- mmph...Why must...must...oh god...why must you be so...insistent?"
"I. Want. You. Now. Care to have me elaborate, or shall we continue, eh?
"Continue."
All either of them remembered was that at that point, they were basically ravaging each other, but clear at the start...Tenpou's condition...was that there were no promises between them. //*****
But still... If only...Those were the only reasons he had. The words 'I want you to be mine and only mine' wouldn't have sufficed for the marshal. Never.
"Then what?"
"Then what *what*?" There was no hiding the growing annoyance, especially when Hakkai was clutching "Brave New World" with a grip strong enough to strangle a statue.
"Is he important?" He braced himself for an answer. Tenpou didn't think in terms of affection- more along the lines of lust if anything. So 'importance' was the determining factor of whether you were under the marshal's wing or not. A utilitarian to the core. You had to be advantageous to him or you were gone. Konzen, due to some unfathomable childhood bonding, had gained a permanent spot. One wing, under which Goku could find shelter as well. Which left one other- and it was the more capricious.
If you were there, it was only because you didn't give a damn about what he did with you (as long as you were on top, of course). You were blind. But you were pampered- as long as you didn't pry into his business. You were safe from the dogs biting at your heels because Tenpou's authority was enough to put them at bay a good three miles behind you. Most of all, you had to be ready to be thrown back to the dogs at any given moment. You shouldn't care- either about the dogs or the loss you would suffer from Tenpou's refusal to commit.
Kenren didn't give a damn about the dogs and so when Tenpou said, "Yes, Kenren, he is." he felt like a door had just been slammed in his face: a betrayal he should have expected one time or another, but enough endless nights with Tenpou had the general convinced that it would never happen. The bastard.
"Ah...then you use him like you do me? Or maybe he's even more useful..." his voice dripped with poison as Hakkai could only look on with dismay, if not with a bit of pity.
//You should have said 'I love you' earlier. Such things fall on deaf ears. He's not here, Kenren. I am.// Though not lost to the healer was the damage he had irrevocably done.// I only mentioned his name. One name//. Then came the endless questions- each one cutting into the other bit by bit because after that there was no choice but to be honest. To be otherwise would be a betrayal towards Gojyo, and he had already promised three years ago that such a thing was unthinkable, even when the half-youkai wasn't present.
The situation would have been infinitely easier to handle had Hakkai known Tenpou's character. Cold. Steel. And so he had not realized the weight of his words when he answered the general's question.
"I don't use him." Simple truth. Hakkai believed it to be an innocent confession, or rather, a statement of the obvious. The safest answer he could return because saying 'yes' seemed too malicious and surely, Tenpou Gensui wasn't like that. Right?
Simple enough, but that four letter phrase was sufficient enough to replace an even simpler three letter verdict. It came like a slap in the face, leaving Kenren more pissed than heartbroken. Never in his life had he felt so humiliated, and thank god no one saw this interaction. Made him feel like a petty whore in the court, subject to the interested eye of a man in power. And Tenpou Gensui was a man with power. A lot of it. Who was on top now?
But he never would have thought...
"You know what?" said Kenren as apathetically as he could manage. "I think I've outworn my welcome with you."
"Kenren-"
"I don't care, really. No promises. I remember."
"Kenren."
Then he produced from his pocket a rumpled square of paper- small enough so to be fit into the message vial of a carrier bird-and tossed it at Hakkai's feet. It read:
//They're ready for Kenren Taishou and his men at the mountain path. Surveillance round. Thirty including the general. Orders understood. They won't return. //
Hakkai scrutinized it. "I don't remember..." Well of course he didn't. "General, what is this?" His answer came in the form of a punch to the jaw and he stumbled back. Before he knew it, Kenren was on top of him, seizing the collar of his shirt.
"Cut the crap." he snarled fiercely, as his eyes lit up with pent up resentment. "You fucking know what I'm talking about. I've played the willful ignorant. Believed you and blamed Litouten all the way. Why the hell I did, I don't know. I just *did*. So shoot me for being so fucking stupid. Found this on your desk this morning."
Suddenly taken with the realization that he was shouting, Kenren lowered his voice to a mere whisper and lowered his head to Hakkai's ear as one hand cupped the side of his face as if he were acting like a lover which, god forbid, he wasn't. Hakkai was almost trembling with shock and the fear that he was going to face some terrible fate in the library of his dreams. His mind conjured up the worst and for once, Tenpou's body agreed. Then the ever-present question: What did Tenpou do? And the ever-present non-consoling thought: I don't deserve this. Nevertheless, he allowed Kenren to continue torturing him. Hakkai could take it- with his confused detachment- he could take it.
"I should have seen it before. You took my men away from me. I know that much, and I won't let you take away anything else. I won't beg for something you won't give, now that I know that you gave to someone else..."
It still didn't explain anything to the healer, only reaffirmed the fact that he had jeopardized Tenpou's fine threads of secrets. The web was collapsing.
The hand at his cheek stayed surprisingly gentle. Hakkai had expected it to come flying down and pound him into the floor, but it didn't. It cradled his face, though in its stiffness he could sense Kenren's reluctance. "Kenren I-" he spoke for Tenpou, not for himself. "There's no one else." but when he had uttered those last words, he realized how empty they sounded. Something not even Goku would believe. Kenren must have thought it a blatant lie.
"I don't care, *marshal*." the man's voice had grown dispassionate though their faces were only mere centimeters apart. Hakkai flinched at the scorn imbued with the mention of Tenpou's title.
Then lips descended on his own in a soft kiss like the one from this morning. Softer even. But bitter. "I'll request that Goujin reassign me in the morning. I'll be out of your hair from now on." Kenren's mouth hovered over his own, their breaths mingling as he received one bitter kiss after another.
"But Tenpou...mess with me or my soldiers again and I'll make you know what hell feels like."
Cho Gonou smiled cruelly up at him, piqued by the mention of absolute misery. "I already do."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, breaking both of them from their spell of hatred. For an eternity, neither moved. They stared at each other in disbelief- at the words they had exchanged, the threats...
Kenren pushed himself off the floor and quickly snatched up the cigarette he had dropped before it burned the entire place down. Not that he cared, of course. Hakkai took advantage of the disruption and tried not to race to the door. Upon opening it, he was met by an impassive face. //God, doesn't anybody smile in heaven?//
"I was sent by Goujin to convey a message."
It took Hakkai's muddled brain a good minute to register the sight before him. Heaven knows he'd seen this man enough.
"Marshal?" Shien prompted as he scrutinized Tenpou's astounded expression.
"Ah, yes." Hakkai apologized sheepishly. "Forgive me, Shien. What is it that were you sent to tell me?"
"Kenren Taishou's missing troops have returned. They were caught in a storm and had lost their way on earth. With all the turbulence, they say, access to the gate back to heaven was near impossible. They had to wait it out." the man reported verbatim from the written paper in his hand which he then gave to Hakkai.
"I see. Thank you."
"They will be marching through the streets as soon as they enter the holy city."
At the mention of his troop, Kenren jumped and made his way to the door. "See, Marshal?" he said, brushing roughly against Hakkai's shoulder as he walked out. "This bastard general can sure train his soldiers, even when he had to keep you in check too."
The meaning wasn't lost to Hakkai, nor to the other man who stood by him. They watched as Kenren stalked away, but before he was out of earshot, he heard, "A man's power is only as good as the freedom given to him by his superior."
But it wasn't Hakkai speaking.
The general balked and turned around quickly enough to glare daggers in Shien's direction before shrugging and rounding the corner.
"Oh my, now you've made him angrier." Hakkai commented as he held the door frame in order to regain his composure.
"No reason to pamper unjustified pride. I stand by that, marshal...Are you ill?"
"No. Just..."
"Angry."
"Perhaps."
"Too angry to see the parade?" Shien inquired, his voice level.
"No."
"Then let me accompany you."
"Please."