DISCLAIMER: I own Saiyuki not. Except for the first four volumes. Score!

WARNING: Language. Angst. Verbosity. Connivance. Shonen-ai.

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Hir Wicked Style

part 14: Hakkai (part 2)

by Nightfall

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"Come on, babe," Gojyo said urgently, jogging him harder. "Come on, wake up."

"I would prefer not to," Hakkai said as distinctly as he could with a well-developed deltoid between his teeth, and sighed with the inevitability of it. Gojyo was almost certainly going to make a joke now.

"Guess you've been having a good night," Gojyo teased.

Hakkai rolled off a bit, and fixed him with the most evil 'I -was-' glare he could muster.

"Ooh," Gojyo laughed, lifting his unpinned hand defensively off Hakkai's shoulder, which did not make Hakkai feel more kindly disposed towards him. Now his shoulders were cold and undefended. Gojyo belonged at his back. "Warii. But if you didn't want anyone to know, you should have washed off in the river."

"It's occupied," he said, possibly a little shortly. He'd half intended that Gojyo should misinterpret him, but it was galling to succeed.

"Really?" Gojyo was intrigued. "Who by?"

"You don't want to know," Hakkai assured him, smiling ruefully.

"Sure I do."

"I'm saving you many beatings," he said solemnly. "Be grateful."

"Really?" Gojyo was even more intrigued now. He glanced over at where Sanzo was pretending to be neither awake nor consumed with furious humiliation at having his echo's sex life discussed. "Huh."

"I was trying to save you many beatings," Hakkai amended regretfully. He could have sworn he saw the corner of Sanzo's mouth twitch at that, but of course Sanzo was asleep. Of course, Sanzo.

Gojyo chuckled--oh, that felt good--and then squirmed, which would have felt just as good if it hadn't clearly been the precursor of something unpleasant. "Uh--Hakkai, you wanna, uh, you must be uncomfortable."

"Not at all," Hakkai said serenely. He hoped Sanzo wasn't choking fatally over there. Poor Sanzo. He never wanted to room with anyone anyway, and he must have been relying on Hakkai to keep things decorous in here. Well, it wasn't Hakkai's fault that Sanzo-san had decided to make personal observations. Maybe he would explain it to Sanzo in the morning, depending on how annoyed he had reason to be by then.

"Oh."

"I'm quite comfortable, actually, Gojyo," he said cheerfully. "Please don't be concerned."

"Oh. I, uh, okay."

Sanzo made a noise like a sneeze, probably out of sheer disbelief. Hakkai pretended not to hear it and, for once, actually fought down his grin. "Oh," he exclaimed worriedly after what he judged to be an appropriate interval, opening his eyes wide in absolutely false remorse. "Oh, I should have thought! Gojyo, I'm so inconsiderate--am I making -you- uncomfortable?"

Before Gojyo even had a chance to stammer out some kind of an answer to that piece of wickedness (Hakkai really felt he ought to have been ashamed of himself), Sanzo made a high noise of incredulity and sat bolt upright, glaring bullets at them.

"S-Sanzo!" Gojyo gulped, freezing like a spotted deer.

"Oh, hello, Sanzo," Hakkai said sunnily, comfortably sprawled out all over the halfbreed and enjoying himself immensely. Was this what people meant, when they called youkai vicious? Probably not. Hakkai really couldn't picture Kougaiji, for example, behaving in such an depraved manner, and Kougaiji was, for all his upright likeability, certainly evil. "I'm afraid it isn't morning yet; Gojyo and I were just talking. Did we wake you? My apologies."

Sanzo swung himself out of bed and started yanking at the bedclothes. "Fuck you both," he snarled, "to India and back, in a rotting, rickety, rat-infested haywagon driven by a stinking, mangy jackal. With leprosy. In a thunderstorm." Pausing in the doorway with his arms full of blankets, he slammed his harisen parallel to the floor, aiming it at them like the revolver, and barked, "Especially you!" Hakkai winked at him, and got back a growl of pure exasperation before the door slammed.

"Oh, shit," Gojyo breathed, still frozen.

"Oh, dear," Hakkai commented, unconcerned. "I think we woke him up."

"Ya think?!" Gojyo demanded. To Hakkai's delight, his voice cracked.

"Now, really, Gojyo," Hakkai soothed. "If Sanzo prefers sleeping in the bathhouse to having a pleasant conversation, that's his choice, isn't it? We should respect the choices others make."

Gojyo stared at him, blinked, stared some more. "Did you that on -purpose-?" he demanded incredulously.

"Um... possibly," he admitted, looking up at Gojyo a little sheepishly and letting go of his leg for verisimilitude. Damn. It was comforting that Gojyo knew him so well, though.

"You... unbelievable," Gojyo decided, shaking his head and starting to laugh. "Bastard."

"I wanted to talk to you," he explained, mostly truthfully. After a second's thought he added, a little accusingly, "Since you woke me up."

"Sure, blame it on me," Gojyo sighed, chuckling.

"Oh, well, if you insist," he agreed sweetly.

"Why not," Gojyo laughed. "He's sure as hell going to."

"Mm," Hakkai said noncommittally, doubting it. Sanzo was almost never mistaken.

"Well, he's out. You can get off now."

"This really is very comfortable, though," he said wistfully, and he wasn't faking that. "Don't you think?"

"...I guess," Gojyo said quietly, after a moment, and Hakkai breathed again. He squeezed Gojyo's hand gratefully, and settled his head down on his friend's shoulder. Someday, someday soon, not only would he be allowed to do this without subterfuge, but maybe Gojyo would even run fingers through his hair. It made him forlorn to think of it, but he could wait. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Saa ne," he said, shrugging a little.

"Kanan?"

"That's just it," he sighed. "She isn't."

Gojyo snorted. "You're just figuring this out?"

"Not at all," he said indignantly. "It was clear from the beginning. I -can- count up to four, Gojyo. -'Kenren, '-"he corrected himself pointedly.

"I hear ya, 'Tenpou,'" Gojyo snickered, and grimaced. "You know the scary thing? It wasn't just Homura. One of those dead guys called me that right before you came in. He sounded--I mean, you could tell it wasn't 'cause Homura had told him something; they all choked and started taking me seriously. You think we really were gods? ...Think we were freaky-ass nutjobs like Homura?"

"I see you more as being a Kanzeon Bosatsu-sama type," he said placidly, and grinned when Gojyo sputtered. "You and I were born on this earth," he said more seriously. It was the only real answer he had. "Sanzo, too."

"And Goku?"

"Goku as well. He wouldn't be called the Great Sage -Equaling- Heaven if he were part of it."

"If that saru's a great sage, I'm--"

"A good thyme?" Hakkai finished for him, pleased with the pun.

It took Gojyo a second to get it, and then he groaned really loudly. "Hak-kaaai," he whined.

"A monkey's uncle?"

"Oi, oi..."

"The -original- good thyme," Hakkai decided, smiling.

"Had by all?" Gojyo snickered.

"Very nearly," he agreed. "You'll have to work on that."

"That girl is a terrible influence on you."

"No," Hakkai said thoughtfully. "That's not it." If anything, he felt as though an influence had been lifted, not laid on new. It was why he wanted Gojyo's arm back; the nape of his neck felt oddly exposed.

"You mean this is what you're really like?" Gojyo asked, his eyes wide and his brows up. Was that skepticism or terror fueling the doubt in his voice? "Can we look forward to snarky comments and random cuddly attacks from here on in? Cause I'm selling popcorn when Sanzo shoots you. I should make a fortune off saru."

"You should be used to the way I speak by now, Gojyo," he smiled reproachfully.

"Yeah, but it's scarier an inch from my neck."

"Oh, my," he chuckled, looking up wistfully again. "It seems I'm making you uncomfortable after all."

Gojyo needed a second to come up with an answer to that one. Hakkai had all night. "Nah," he said eventually, his voice tightly controlled. "Nah, not uncomfortable. You kinda took me by surprise, though."

"I've been a little surprised myself," Hakkai admitted. The resentment unfurling from behind his scar at the words was shocking, closing his throat with recriminations and self-pity.

"Yeah?" Some of what Hakkai was feeling must have shown up on his face, because Gojyo's arm came back, wrapping him up in blissful security.

"Mm." His control over his expression was tight, now. The last thing he wanted was for Gojyo to believe he'd done that deliberately, as well; poorly timed sincerity had been the downfall of many a swindler before him. "I can count up to four, and--Gojyo? Am I..."

"What?"

Something in his jaw was tight, and his cheeks ached from the effort of keeping his lips in place. "She really isn't Kanan," he explained. It was miserable, to think what he'd done with someone who wasn't Kanan, to think what he'd let that almost-stranger do with him.

"Kinda makes me wonder," Gojyo mused after a moment's close-lipped consideration, "what those kami would have looked like if they'd recognized you instead of me. Bet they would have wet their pants. I mean, me, I'm a laid back kinda guy. Some smokes, a little loving, a nice cold bottle of foam, I'm happy."

"Then you think I am," he deduced unhappily.

"...She comes on a little strong," Gojyo said cautiously. "I guess Sanzette likes that, huh?"

"I think Sanzo does, as well," Hakkai confided, his lips curling up against a warm collarbone.

That was Gojyo making a face. "You don't mean he--?"

"No, of course not. But she's very honest, in a way. Sanzo likes things straightforward."

"Likes straightforward people, you mean."

"Mm. It's understandable, though, don't you think? Honesty can be refreshing."

"She comes on a little strong," Gojyo said, obediently veiling his dislike less this time. "I get it, 'Kai, I do. I know lots of women like that--least, I used to. But I'm glad I'm not stuck with the you that has to be that way."

Hakkai blinked, pulled up to meet his eyes in confusion. "Gojyo, I don't follow."

With an uncomfortable shrug, Gojyo said, "You're only the first -man- I've brought to bed."

"Well, yes, I know that," he said steadily.

"Nah, I mean--I used to be a bouncer, I ever tell you that? Not back in Jinggan. By the time I got to Jinggan I was good enough with cards to get by with them; this was while I was working my way as far from Xienyang as I could get." Hakkai let out a quiet, sympathetic chuckle, and got a wry one in return before Gojyo decided to inch closer to his point. Gojyo could be astonishingly circuitous for such a forthright man. "And I'll tell you, Hakkai, that me-chick?"

"You mean Sha-san?"

"Yeah, Honshin, her. She must be good. Really good. 'Cause she doesn't have the Look. You know the one. Hakkai, I pulled more painted girls out of alleys... they were my fault, you know?"

"No," Hakkai said skeptically. "And I don't believe you, either."

Gojyo chuckled a little, humorlessly. "No, of course not, not directly. But, I mean... I was a -bouncer.- It's one thing if you toss a guy out 'cause he's broke or the barkeep's cut him off. He'll just crawl home or to the next bar. It's different if you boot a nasty bastard for being a bully. Then he's lost a fight, and he has to win the next one before he goes to sleep, and so he's usually going to pick one he can win. So, the girls."

"I see," Hakkai said contemplatively. He did. "Gojyo, do you ever feel that the Minus wave is, well, somehow a -clean- menace?"

"Uh, no," Gojyo said carefully, as though Hakkai were perhaps six. "They eat people."

"I take your point," he smiled, cheering up. It was somehow good to be reminded that so-called ordinary, decent people were not the world's foulest horror, no matter how hard they tried for the honor. Just as well; he didn't want to be able to muster the righteousness to kill them all. Distastefully, he added, "And with their hands, as well."

Gojyo blinked, stared, made a dumbfounded noise, shook his head, and drawled, "Hakkai, I really wonder about you sometimes."

"It's messy," he said primly. "Entrails are very difficult to clean out from under your fingernails." He let Gojyo look sick for a moment, then offered, "I used to help her make sausages, when we could." Gojyo breathed again, and he laughed. "Well, all right, so you helped them out of alleys."

"Took 'em to the doctor, too, and afterwards I'd visit. Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop looking like you're going to rip my throat out."

"I'm not going to rip your throat out," he protested, offended. How unkind of Gojyo, to suggest that he would become violent just because he wasn't the first stray Gojyo had followed up on!

"Well, stop glaring at me like that."

"I'm not glaring at you at all."

"Hakkai, they were hurt 'cause of something I did. Something I got money for. I felt responsible, that's all. It was different."

"I'm not glaring."

Gojyo blew out a loud breath. "Fine. You're not glaring. Just don't ask me in the morning why there's a steaming hole through my jaw."

"I would assume you had been endangering both our lives by smoking in bed," he said blandly.

"It was -different,- Gojyo insisted, pleading with him a little.

Hakkai sighed. "All right," he relented, but only because Gojyo should only ever have to beg him as a game. "It was different."

"It -was.- And afterwards, they were different. Hell, you know how it is. You stay braced for next time."

"Oh, yes," Hakkai said softly. Someone to whom something outrageous had happened--they would be forever cautious, but more than that they would reform to become the kind of person who would be less devastated by future atrocities. "I know how it is."

"But the thing is, you're braced for -that- thing."

"Well, of course. --Oh. Not for something else, you mean."

"Right. Someone who's been mugged probably isn't going to think about smoking in bed. Someone who's been burned is still gonna like going swimming."

"I know you have a point in there somewhere," Hakkai said lightly, smiling absently as he let his fingers drift a warm centimeter or so over the ripple of Gojyo's rib cage. That was usually Gojyo's line, although Sanzo glared it often enough. It was very pleasant, being able to turn it on him like this.

"You scared yourself," Gojyo said bluntly, "and now you're not afraid of anything else."

Hakkai's hand stilled.

"Matter of fact, you're -so- not afraid of anything else you scare the living shit out of me half the time," Gojyo added in a light voice that was pure fabrication.

"Gojyo," he said in a small voice," that isn't true."

"You're right," Gojyo nodded judiciously in that same terrible, casual voice, his hair washing over Hakkai's arm. "I've seen you be afraid of, oh, maybe two people. It's easy to tell, actually; you can get pretty damn rude. Now, Chin Iisou I understood, but--"

"I don't think I was discourteous." Hakkai said indignantly, rolling to one side and rising to his elbow. "After all, I showed him everything he wanted to see." His throat had hurt for days from all the screaming.

"Ham," Gojyo snickered. "Trust me, you were rude. Snotty, even. Anyway, I understood him, but what's so scary about Dokugakuji?"

"When," he demanded, his indignation rising, "have I ever said one impolite word to your brother?"

"When," Gojyo mocked him right back, "have you ever said one -word- to my brother?"

To Hakkai's chagrin, he had to think about that one. "When I introduced Sha-san to him," he said.

Gojyo poked him in the nose. "Try again, 'Kai," he grinned. "You introduced him, too. That was a general introduction."

"Well... in the desert, then," he said righteously, rubbing his abused feature to make Gojyo smile. "When Sanzo was hurt. After Goku came back."

Gojyo blinked. "I don't remember that."

"You were unconscious."

He was favored with a long eyeballing that eventually decided to take his word for it, but conceded nothing. "Was anyone else conscious?"

"Well... no."

"So you didn't really have much of a choice, huh?"

"I was perfectly polite," he insisted mildly, seriously galled.

"Uh-huh. But I don't get it, Hakkai. He's good, but you're outta his league. Hell, I'm probably out of his league now, if we ever stopped kidding around. Where's the threat?"

"There isn't any, Gojyo," he said exasperated. "You're right, after all, he can't hurt me--"

His pulse pounded in his ears, once, like Sanzo's harisen coming down.

"Hakkai?" Gojyo asked from far away. The shock of square fingers on his cheek made him blink. "Hey, buddy, you okay?"

"You're not out of his league," Hakkai said dully, rolling onto his back and closing his eyes.

"Hey!"

"Oh, certainly you're a better fighter," he assured him, and his voice sounded like dry ash even to himself. "When you bother to fight."

"What do you mean?"

"Ordinarily," he said bleakly, "Kougaiji can give even Goku a run for his money. And yet Goku has only to decide that need outweighs consequence, and Kougaiji will fall. And that will be the end of the 'kidding around.' I've already defeated Yaone-san's desperation, but you and Dokugakuji-san have only occupied one another to keep him away from Sanzo. Gojyo, we don't know what he's capable of."

After a moment, astounded, Gojyo realized. "You're afraid he'll kill me."

Hakkai flinched, just his eyelid twitching. "I'm fond of Yaone-san," he said softly, his tongue heavy as bone. "But the day or so of sorrow her death would call in me wouldn't stay my hand for a Shanghai minute."

Gojyo amended, "You're afraid I'll -let- him kill me. Thanks a lot."

"It's not improbable. If he became serious, if it took you even an instant too long to realize it, or to adjust your attitude to match him..."

"Well, at least you're not assuming I'd just toss shakujou down. Anyway, he'd be a lot more likely to take me down so he could go after Goku than to kill me. And you could take him out in one shot."

"But I wouldn't," Hakkai advised him, cold and pleasant as an ice palace. His lips were so stiff they were probably bleached. "Far from it."

"So I was right after all," Gojyo said after a long, long silence. "You are the only thing you're afraid of."

Hakkai considered this, and forced his tight lips into as much of a curve as they would bend for. "I suppose I am," he admitted. Not quite accurate, but he didn't think Gojyo was ready to know his own power yet.

"Well, it makes sense," Gojyo conceded magnanimously, and Hakkai slitted his good eye open to see him nodding with that infuriating generous-judgement look he usually saved for Goku. "I mean, far as I know you've never lost a fight. Except with the entire Teng GeLi desert," he added thoughtfully, and Hakkai almost smiled. "But that wasn't really a fair fight," he said consolingly.

"No," Hakkai agreed, solemn. "It had the high ground."

"And you were outnumbered. And it must have been pretty ticked off, Hakkai." By now, he was grinning. "I mean, you did kick it in the shin. Talk about rude."

"Excuse me," he pointed out, rolling back onto his side. "As I recall, you and Goku were -extremely- insistent that I knock down that wall."

"It was swarming scorpions!" Gojyo protested, making a face.

Hakkai acknowledged the point with a tilt of the head, and then sighed. Whatever Gojyo was dancing around was clearly explosive, given the intricate steps he was taking to avoid it. "Get it over with, Gojyo," he said resignedly.

"You sure?" Gojyo asked, reaching out to make Hakkai meet his eyes. His thumb, perhaps accidentally, brushed Hakkai's lips.

Gojyo, at his mouth. Putting himself there.

"Tell me quickly," he whispered. Gojyo looked at him as though he were brave and some kind of a wonder, and Gojyo's eyes had gone the dark smolder of banked coals. Hakkai bit the inside of his lip until it bruised copper. "Quickly, Gojyo," he implored.

"Uh-h-hyeah," Gojyo breathed shakily, his fingers clinging reverent on Hakkai's face. There was only one thing to be done, and Hakkai couldn't do it. If Gojyo was going to understand him, was going to -believe- him, nothing could be allowed to come of this night. Absolutely nothing could be permitted that Gojyo would find unambiguous.

He lifted his hand and stroked Gojyo's off of him, bringing it down to the bed and holding it gently there. Terrible, that he couldn't permit himself even one kiss of those rough knuckles. He would have it later, and if the world broke this promise to himself also, it would learn the taste of his despair. "Gojyo."

But Gojyo was staring down at their hands, and clearly nothing short of a slap in the face or a noseful of smelling salts was going to move him.

Hakkai didn't have any ammonia handy.

He said, "Kanan."

Gojyo jerked and blinked, and his hand clenched under Hakkai's. But his face was perfectly normal when he lifted it, and there was nothing wrong with his sheepish grin as he said, "Right--sorry, guess I spaced out on you for a minute there, huh?"

"I understand perfectly," Hakkai assured him--blandly, and his expression bland too when apprehensive crimson eyes speared him. "But please, go on."

"Well, hell, Hakkai, do I have to? She -did- lose a fight. Lost it bad. Lost hard."

"I lost a fight once," Hakkai said into the silence that gripped him after that.

Gojyo blinked again, and smirked. "I don't believe you."

"I was quite young at the time, you understand," he explained. "I lost that fight without taking part in it."

"Well, there you go," Gojyo said, meaning that he would have won if he'd participated and clearly wondering where this was going.

Hakkai wasn't sure himself. "Everything was taken from me," he said, turning the thought over, unfolding it before him. "I lost like Sanzo."

"You're nothing like Sanzo," Gojyo said, sneering a little.

"Not anymore, happily. It's a cold place to live, Gojyo," he said, turning tired eyes up to the warmth he suddenly, desperately wanted to curl into again, to remind himself those days were over. "Bad enough when you're too young to be able to predict every coming moment, or young enough to feel the wonder when you're wrong. Sometimes..."

"What?"

But he hesitated. It was a bleak thought. "Who can change alone, Gojyo?" he asked with a sad little smile. "When I met her again--not this afternoon, of course I don't mean that--but her, when they brought her into the schoolroom, it was color returning to the world. And I could see the same thing in her eyes when she saw me--green, and then life."

"Yeah," Gojyo said softly, but Hakkai barely heard him.

"Everyone has to let someone save them, if they can. It's something you have to learn, to trust that way, and once you've learned to rely on yourself... Sanzo--he has a talent for finding the right place to be, but sometimes I worry that Goku came too late for him."

It was a miracle, really, that he himself hadn't come too late for Gojyo, who'd never spoken any breath of grace or even lasting company between his unexpected guest and uninvited solitude. But Gojyo made an art of keeping himself supple enough to enjoy moments as they came. And yet, even Gojyo had his silences. It was a thousand times worse for Sanzo, whose strength was clean, inflexible steel.

Gojyo was silent--mulling, possibly, over the tragedy of Sanzo, as Hakkai was. Certainly he looked as though he found something absurd, possibly even outrageous. And despite the sorrowful nature of the thoughts, there was something deeply, satisfyingly intimate about lying here, almost in Gojyo's arms, sharing them with him.

Perhaps Gojyo would like, some day, to hold him as they read a book together.

Finally, heavily, Gojyo said, "Hak-kai."

"Mm?" Hakkai asked, caught up in his image. He wouldn't mind holding Gojyo, either. One advantage to becoming youkai; even limited his solid bones could take a halfbreed's heavier build without creaking.

"You know how you chased Sanzo outta here a minute ago?"

"Mm," he said noncommittally, his eyes crinkling up. Sanzo had really been very gracious about it, all things considered.

"My turn," Gojyo glowered at him. "Tomorrow's going to be rough, in case you've forgotten. Now, maybe some people don't need any sleep, but..."

"They should be considerate of those who do?" Hakkai smiled, a little guiltily. He'd almost forgotten that Gojyo had been asleep when he came in. "Well--perhaps I'll just read for a little, to settle my thoughts. Do you mind?"

Gojyo yawned in his face, and flopped back into the mattress. Hakkai took a book out of his pack and pretended to read it . The moonlight was bright enough that Gojyo, with his two strong eyes and exaggerated opinion of Hakkai's minor scholarly obsessions, wouldn't know how obvious a pretense it really was.

Finally, when Gojyo's breathing was nearly even again, happily discarding the feeling that he really, honestly ought to have been ashamed of himself, he twined in all over his friend, heart to his ear and sweet lethargy pooling in his ankles and wrists, and let himself drift away.

After all, they -were- going to have a difficult morning the next day, he reminded himself virtuously, skirting the line between sleep and guilt, and it would be followed by either hard traveling or disappointment, at the very least. It was wisest to get not only the most but the very best sort of rest available.

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OMAKE!

The SEME At The End Of This Fic

-starring lovable, placid old HAKKAI

And adorably vague but considerably older TENPOU-

Tenpou: Well, I have to admit, Hakkai-kun, you are -extremely- good at knots. I can't move at all. And I'm frankly turned on.

Hakkai: ...I'm going over here now.

Tenpou: However, as I was about to say before I was so -masterfully- interrupted--

Hakkai: -Way- over here.

Tenpou: --I'm not entirely out of tricks.

Hakkai: (dubious) Is that so, Tenpou-san?

Tenpou: (eeevil grin) Oh, it is, Hakkai-kun! Here, I'll show you.

Hakkai: Oh, certainly. By all means.

Tenpou: Oh, -Taishou!- (heart)

end part 14

Review Responses!

First off, sorry about the delay in posting this. Just when I thought I had it just about tight enough, I was hit in the head by a cold and my brain shut off. Seriously--I went to the library to pick up some Nero Wolfe, and after they gave me back my card it took me a good fifty seconds to find it again. (Sigh) Being a zombie is no fun. Anyway, thanks for your patience.

Kanzeyori: Why, yes, yes I am, thank you for noticing! nn Actually, the chapter was just too long. I had to split it somewhere.

Solaas: ah, the benefits of writing at 2am: swoonyfic!

Me-Nuriko: (snerks) Yeah--now if I could only make the main plot interesting!

Hegira: well, thanks! It's always great when I hear that people are going back for the second reading, because sometimes there really is stuff put in too early for the context it makes sense in. If that makes sense. As for style--I feel like I have two different styles, and if you find yourself liking one of them, go me! As long as the voices are on, I'm happy. n.n

incandescens: (snickers. A lot) Mm-hm. Yup.

dogmatix: author is pleased, but alarmed. Please, do not die!

DoSet: I love your description of Gojyo! Lost boy--yup. And the indignant expression--spot on! There should be some more Jien next month, with or without Honshin. Try this--sleep the sweet sleep of sleepy sweepers...

devera: You want intelligent Gojyo? -Heeeere- ya go! Enjoy! (snickers) I agree; one gets tired of him being dense in 58 fics. I don't know that Hakkai would be caught by someone as macho as he pretends to be. And yes, I am mean. And evil. And I'm not telling.

WildeLamassue: dooming-rationality-WHEEEE! (laughs insanely) Sorry, sorry. As a long-time Spock fan, I have to adore that phrase. And glomp it. And as for the seme, I'm -still- not telling.