AITE
"Hey, Hakkai? You okay?"
It was raining. It was always raining.
Seated on the edge of his bed facing the rain-soaked window, Hakkai turns to address his vigilant friend who has come to stand nearby. They share the small room—a welcome oddity—separated from their comrades by a single wall. There are two beds, the lone window, and an end table. It is simple, but they are used to such accommodations.
"Yes. I am fine, Gojyo," the brunette replies, his voice light within its tenor pitch.
"No," Gojyo states back, sitting down to join Hakkai on the bed, "I mean really."
As if on reflex, Hakkai smiles, something not quite as convincing as the mask he wears so effortlessly. He sighs; he never could keep anything from the stubborn hanyou. "It's been four years," he explains, staring outside at the falling rain, "Four years to the day."
"Aa. Then I guess that makes it our anniversary."
Hakkai laughs, just as softly as he had smiled. "Yes, Gojyo...that it is."
Nudging Hakkai gently in the side, Gojyo captures his friend's attention. He pats his own shoulder with one of his large, tan hands. "See this spot right here? Great for resting a head on. Or so I've been told." he grins, if a little crookedly.
Hakkai laughs again, his voice on the verge of cracking despite his resolve to keep it steady. "I think I might...take you up on that offer..." he breathes, scooting the few inches closer for his head to rest gently on the redhead's shoulder and for his side to relax against Gojyo's own.
In turn, Gojyo slips an around Hakkai's back, holding him in place with just the right amount of pressure and support. Comfort is always best when offered by a friend who gives it without asking anything in return. Few may understand that Sha Gojyo is one of those friends, but his true nature is not something he often broadcasts.
Hakkai has long since known the truth.
"It doesn't hurt any less, does it?" Gojyo asks, after they had sat a few moments in contented silence. The way he has spoken makes it seem much more like a statement than an honest question.
"It does...but not less enough," Hakkai admits, "These past few years have made things easier merely by being with you. And Sanzo and Goku, of course," he adds quickly, "Honestly, it doesn't hurt the way it used to. I...I only...I only wish...I could finally let her rest."
"You can. All you gotta do is say goodbye."
Hakkai huffs a falsely humored breath of air. "Is it really that simple?"
Living for many years with Hakkai's self-loathing and excessive mourning has done very little towards making it easier for Gojyo to handle rainy nights such as this.
Projected pain does not induce wisdom.
"You loved her. I get that. But...did she mean more to you than living out the rest of your life?" Gojyo speaks through clenched teeth; his temper is getting the better of him, but out of sympathy, not anger. Sympathy...for a friend he has never known how to help. "Did she mean more to you than...than the people in your life now?"
Hakkai shifts in his position against Gojyo's side, but does not raise his head. "What you're really asking...is did she mean more to me than you."
"That's not what I said," Gojyo speaks quickly, "It'd be awful of me to make you answer something like that."
This time Hakkai does raise his head, lifting it just enough to stare into Gojyo's crimson eyes. "She didn't," he states simply, and then lays his head back down again, "See, it wasn't hard for me to answer at all. She didn't mean more to me than you do now, it was just...different. She held a place in my heart that is now empty, and always will be, but you...you hold a place all your own, Gojyo."
"Aww, you're making me blush."
Once more, Hakkai's light laughter slips out between his lips, and he finds himself snuggling in closer to Gojyo's warm, firm body. "Thank you," he whispers, his voice sounding faraway within the still silence of the room.
"For what?"
"For being there. For being you." Hakkai smiles, and it is one of his rare, honest smiles, though Gojyo cannot see it with the brunette's head bent as it rests against his shoulder. They remain in silence before Hakkai gently speaks again, his voice even more on the edge of breaking. "Goodbye..." he breathes, so softly Gojyo almost doesn't hear him, "...goodbye...Kanan..."
And the dam breaks, blown open and blown apart, with pieces of debris sent flying in every direction.
Slowly, Gojyo begins to feel the man in his arms shaking, shivering against him, and when a strange, too tender sob breaks the silence, he is certain he is treading territory he does not know how to tread. Hakkai is whimpering, and as the tears fall, Gojyo feels his shirt becoming damp through the downpour.
"Shit, man, don't cry. You're a guy, for Heaven's sake." he orders, though his voice is weak, and honestly, he has given the order only because he doesn't know any other way to handle what is happening. He can play the macho guy with ease, the guy who tells his friends to buck up and look on the brighter side of Hell. But...to hold another man while he cries...?
"I...I'm sorry...I know this is very...unseemly of me..." Hakkai sniffles, his voice a broken pane of glass while all the rain from outside is seeping in through the cracks. "I...I just...I..." But he cannot speak anymore; there is nothing left to say.
Hakkai's attempt to compose himself fails, and as the last of his held back tears burst free, he turns to bury his face in Gojyo's chest, clutching at the kappa's shirt, desperate for something to hold on to as he drowns deeper and deeper inside the rain.
What else can Gojyo do but hold him tighter? So he does.
Pulled in flush against Gojyo's chest, Hakkai is being held with one arm still around his back and the other up in his hair. Soon, he is digging deep into the shoulder he had so recently been leaning on.
Yes, this is the comfort he longed for tonight. No questions, no words, just the feel of another's body and tender hands.
Tears fall for a good many minutes before Hakkai finally pulls away, still clinging to Gojyo's damp shirt with fisted hands. Gojyo keeps one arm slinked around Hakkai's waist with the other holding the brunette's head. His fingers become tangled in the soft strands of hair. Their eyes meet—ruby and emerald in the dim lighting. Gojyo smiles. Hakkai sniffs back the last of his tears. And...somehow...they both begin to lean forward.
Their noses touch and Hakkai laughs, pulling back. But Gojyo isn't about to let the magic end there. The hand that had been nestled in Hakkai's hair slips free and travels down to touch the man's pale face, still glistening with tears. Gojyo runs his thumb beneath each green eye to banish the remaining wetness, and he strokes at that smooth skin, mesmerized by the foreign feel of it. Then, when Hakkai's eyes drift closed, both men are suddenly leaning in again.
Lips meet fleetingly, shocked that they have actually touched, but soon, they get over the strangeness of it all, and meet again. Hakkai is still trembling slightly from releasing so much sorrow through those many tears, but Gojyo's lips are determined to still him. The kiss is light and soft at first, but it desperately wants to become more. So much more.
There is no conscious effort by one man or the other to search for something deeper, suddenly, they have merely surrendered, and their tongues are intertwined, exploring each other's mouths. No rational thought is in either man's head, only adjectives.
Wet. Warm. Sweet. Wonderful.
Should rational thought enter their minds for even a second, they will have to stop. And now, in the moment, that is something neither of them wants.
Hakkai feels himself being pushed back onto the bed. He ignores the alarms going off inside his mind and allows himself to be laid down. When the kiss breaks, the instant contact of emerald and crimson is too much, even as Hakkai quickly looks away to stare instead at Gojyo's heavily rising and falling chest. Eye contact will break the spell, Hakkai reasons, though the heat from Gojyo's eyes still locked on his face proves that the kappa is not thinking along those same lines.
Clinging to what he can, Hakkai grabs at Gojyo's tank top and pulls, surprised at how easily it slips up over the hanyou's head and off to fall to the floor. Almost instantly, he pulls the redhead down again for another kiss, his hands digging deep into that flaming hair. Gojyo moans, forcing Hakkai to kiss him even more fiercely if only to block out the sound of a voice he knows too well.
Within the kiss, it is Hakkai's shirt now that is being tugged up, and the article is discarded quickly when they break again, before having to immediately reconnect, as if their breath is stolen by lack of contact instead of by contact itself.
Both feel dizzy, disoriented, as if dreaming. Their hands stray to each other's bare chests and anywhere else they can reach as their lips and tongues continue to assault.
Hakkai tenses when a certain pair of straying hands begins to pull at his pants, bringing his boxers down with them, but he does not break away. He does not break away at the feel of cool air striking his suddenly naked body. No. He rolls, pinning Gojyo with his weight as he had been pinned, and begins to remove the kappa's pants in return.
Gojyo couldn't be closer to Heaven if he died this very minute. Hakkai is on top of him—naked—the brunette's lips pressed hotly to his with their tongues dancing to a rhythm he can hear as clearly as if music were playing beside the bed. That Hakkai is the person this is happening with does not take away. It adds. It matters. It means everything.
And Gojyo never even saw it coming.
He shivers at the sudden absence of his own pants—he hadn't been wearing anything else—and the realization that both men are now stark naked is almost painfully apparent. Gojyo's mouth opens wide with the onset of another groan, but Hakkai's mouth is right there, eager to silence him with another bruising kiss.
Hands stray to places they could have only dreamed of before, and as they kiss, forever locked together, their bodies move and thrust against each other, working them both into a delirious frenzy. Both men are shivering now, their ribs in tight contact as their heavy breathing synchronizes into a single, giant breath.
Hakkai has forgotten the rain.
Another roll and their positions are once again flipped, with Gojyo on top and Hakkai squirming deliciously beneath. Then, Gojyo is lifting them up, his hands gripping Hakkai's shoulders as he lifts and leans back until both are up on their knees instead of lying down. Slowly, he falls back into a sitting position, his legs spreading, and hoists Hakkai up so that the brunette is straddling his waist, practically sitting in his lap.
Their lips have yet to pull apart for more than a few moments at a time, but as Gojyo shifts Hakkai further, into that perfect, desirable spot, they are forced to separate. Hakkai gasps, cringing in pain as Gojyo finds the entrance he had been searching for. He clutches at Gojyo's back, the kappa's face buried in the crook of his neck. Hakkai shudders deeply—a sheath never before used—but the pain is passing, replaced by something equally blinding that climbs up his spine to the back of his head and explodes.
Gojyo is fully inside soon, holding Hakkai tight, their chests pressed close together. And then Gojyo begins to move. They are only small thrusts at first, a gentle rocking, and even when the movements pick up pace, it is still amazingly gentle as if the two young men are merely slow dancing to the rhythm Gojyo is certain he can still hear.
They are locked in that position, Hakkai holding tight to Gojyo's back, his legs gripping the kappa's hips, while Gojyo kisses Hakkai's chest and neck, and together...they move, they rock, they dance.
The passage of time means very little, until all the glorious friction is suddenly over, the soiled sheets tossed to the floor, with a single, remaining blanket left to pull up around them as they drift off to sleep. They haven't spoken. They haven't looked deeply into each other's eyes, or found any great revelations. They are merely a tangle of limbs suddenly, resting in a contented heap on the bed—exhausted.
-----
Sunlight, warm and inviting, bathes him in its rays. He can feel it caressing the exposed areas of his skin, reminiscent of softer caresses he experienced the night before. It feels wonderful—soothing—but not nearly as welcome as those other touches had been.
Gojyo blinks, annoyed with the sunlight pouring in through the window even as he is praising its glory. His eyes are heavy, his body aching, and when he rolls over to curl in closer to his companion for a few more minutes of blissful sleep he is suddenly reminded of exactly whom he had been sharing the bed with.
His hand falls to rest on a smooth, hard, flat chest. His legs are curled tightly with another's, which are definitely well muscled and definitely NOT clean-shaven. And most noticeably of all, his nose is very clearly picking up on a less familiar scent. The scent of the acts he carried out the night before, lingering still in the somewhat stuffy room, are not at all dulled by the sweet scent of a woman because a woman had not been present.
Gojyo raises his head, looking down at the still sleeping face of the person so close to him, he can feel the other man's even breath striking his skin.
Hakkai.
'Holy shit...' he thinks with a crooked smile.
The brunette's strong frame is deceptively frail looking with the covers just barely coming up to his hips. He is thin with smooth muscles perfectly toned in a way so understated an amateur would consider him a very small threat, if any at all. That, of course, is far from the truth. Gojyo almost kicks himself for never having noticed how enticing his friend really is. The gentle curve of that pale neck, the man's thin waist, so like a woman's, and those features—breathtaking. Hakkai is a beauty, and Gojyo has always been a sucker for a pretty face. He just never expected his first lay on the road would be his best friend.
Fully aware that he is staring, Gojyo becomes lost in the still beauty of Hakkai's face, seeing it in an entirely new light now. Hakkai is no longer just his good friend, companion, and roommate. They breached a boundary Gojyo never imagined crossing with another man, yet alone with the stunning brunette. But Hakkai...is Hakkai. Hakkai isn't just anyone. Hakkai is kind and compassionate. Hakkai is mysterious and unexpected. Hakkai is graceful, and frightening, and wonderful, and haunted, and...and...Gojyo realizes he is so enraptured with Hakkai he has begun trailing his hand along the smooth skin of the man's chest.
Hakkai is so pale—not pale like Sanzo, but pale in comparison to the tan hand running over his skin. Gojyo would never be so cliché and maudlin as to call it 'alabaster' or 'porcelain', but he is sorely tempted.
Taking a naughty morning risk, Gojyo looks about the room as if searching for some sinister fly on the wall. Smirking triumphantly at finding none, he begins to lean down, closing his crimson eyes as he lowers slightly parted lips to meet Hakkai's. His hand never once stops its gentle caresses, trailing from the other man's clavicle to just past his ribcage. In the moment of this stolen and mildly chaste kiss, Gojyo unthinkingly trails that hand lower, discovering the rubbery skin just above Hakkai's navel. The change in texture would have caught him off guard for at least a moment if the contact hadn't just then roused Hakkai from the edge of dreaming.
Emeralds flicker, at first confused with the strange weight leaning into his body and the wet pressure on his lips, but as a shock of red hair focuses in his line of vision, everything about last night jumps suddenly to the front of Hakkai's mind.
Thoughtlessly, his hands spring from his sides and shoot upwards with far more force than he intended, jerking Gojyo roughly up and away from him. "Don't touch me!" he cries, appalled that what his mind is recalling truly and fully did happen last night.
Hakkai throws back the covers and scrambles out of bed before Gojyo even has time to look hurt.
At first, Gojyo doesn't know how he should react. Lying stunned in the bed, he watches Hakkai frantically gather his clothing and begin to dress, pulling on his boxers with swiftness Gojyo never thought possible. Somehow, Hakkai not looking at him while shaking his head with mumbled words hurts more than this hasty retreat.
Gojyo pushes himself up, tosses the sheets aside and sits—exposed—on the edge of the bed. "Hakkai…"
"I'm sorry, Gojyo. I'm so sorry." Hakkai interrupts—too quickly. His pants are caught around his knees due to his frantic pulling. He still will not look at Gojyo. "I feel so…ashamed." He adds quietly.
"Ashamed...?" the hanyou repeats.
"My own sorrow is no excuse. My own needs...should never come before yours, or anyone else's." the brunette continues, his words coming out rushed. Finally, he manages to pull his pants on all the way, hastily securing them and turning to seek out his shirt, "What I allowed last night was..." he pauses, back to Gojyo and eyes on the ground, "…it was…reprehensible...and...I just hope you can forgive me." Spotting his black undershirt, Hakkai reaches for it quickly.
"Forgive you...?"
Hakkai pulls his shirt over his head, almost popping his head through an armhole in his haste. "Please, can we just...forget what passed between us? I would feel better knowing such a mistake was put behind us."
If the hammer had yet to fall, it certainly does with this last phrase. "Mistake...?" Gojyo's eyes narrow on the figure still refusing to meet his gaze. "Right. Of course. I mean, if you wanna forgive and forget like nothing happened, who am I to refuse you?"
Gojyo's tone is anything but understanding, his temper flared, his words sharp and biting. All his beliefs concerning what happened last night are amounting to nothing right before his eyes.
At last finding the courage to raise his head, Hakkai looks up in obvious confusion to return the kappa's stare. Gojyo's rage looks back at him with the force of a physical blow and he almost has to take a step back.
"Gojyo...are you...angry with me?"
"Angry? Why would I be angry?" Gojyo shoots back, standing abruptly and uncaring to his naked form. "What the FUCK do I have to be angry about?" he yells, and in a burst of anger, he turns around and kicks the base of the bed with a bare foot making Hakkai's breath catch in his throat.
Surely Gojyo's foot must sting from such an impact, but the redhead gives no further reaction, turned away from Hakkai with clenched fists and taut, tense muscles running all throughout his body.
Hakkai knows he should say something, wants to say something, but feels he has made things so horribly worse with his words and actions thus far. When he finally gets up the courage to speak, Gojyo is moving. Walking quickly around to the other side of the bed to gather his clothes, the hanyou says nothing more, but the clip to his pace is a sure sign of anger left unspoken.
Hakkai watches Gojyo dress in silence. Gojyo is also silent. The suffocating presence of this unnatural quiet overtakes the room, and the lingering scent of their deed the night before seems to seep up form the very floor, choking them both.
"Forgive me for handling this so inelegantly, Gojyo…" Hakkai speaks at last, "…but I'm afraid I really don't know how it should be handled."
Gojyo has his pants and tank-top pulled on and is sitting on the bed, still facing away. He stiffens at the sound of Hakkai's voice behind him and his own voice is a growl when it leaves him. "Here's a hint: not the way you did," he says.
Approaching cautiously from the other side of the room, Hakkai passes his gaze from his friend's taut back to the still rumpled sheets of the bed they had shared. "You don't want an apology for how I used you?" Hakkai asks boldly.
"Used me? What the hell!" Gojyo cries, at last whipping around and glaring with that same forceful anger in his expression. "I fucked you! If anything, I thought you'd be mad at me for using you last night, but no, you have to act all self-righteous about it."
"But...I'm the one who kept pushing for more. I was the one in the wrong."
"No, Hakkai." Gojyo counters, his eyes aflame through his steadily increasing anger. "We were both pushing for more—equally. We both wanted it. Or so I thought. But I guess for you...it didn't mean shit."
The force of those crimson eyes finally becomes more than the brunette can handle, and he stumbles back. "You...you don't regret sharing your bed with me...?"
"Fuck, no!"
"But...I don't understand. When I first woke up in your home...you said that was the only time you would allow a man into your bed."
"Yeah, and that man was you, Hakkai. You."
Hakkai stares at an utter loss, silent.
"Listen," Gojyo says, his anger dulled but still on the surface, "I didn't sleep with you because you were vulnerable and an easy lay. And I sure as hell didn't do it because you coerced me. I slept with you because I wanted it, and I thought you wanted it, too. I guess...I read your feelings wrong."
"But you didn't." Hakkai jumps in, wanting so desperately suddenly to leap from where he stands, right into the kappa's arms. He is surprised at his own desires, but they do not overwhelm him as they had the night before. He knows what he feels. He always has. "I never imagined my feelings would be reciprocated. I thought--"
"You thought what? That I was some whore who'd sleep with anything in sight?"
Hakkai gapes, forced to take yet another step back. "I never said you were a whore."
"Yeah, well you're sure as hell treating me like one if you think I'd sleep with you just to get laid." Gojyo bites. Finally, he gets up from his seat on the bed and comes around to stand in front of Hakkai. He speaks directly, his eyes determined to remain locked on Hakkai's face. "I haven't been with a woman in a long time, 'Kai, and I've never been with a man...not til last night. That's not something you do on a whim or just coz you need a good fuck. It's something you do because you realize after god knows too long...you're in love with your best friend."
And Hakkai is still gaping, still dreaming, he imagines, because Gojyo, a man he had lived in the same house with for three years, has just admitted the impossible. "In...love...?"
"Never could get it right with a woman. Guess fate was trying to tell me something." The kappa's tone is softer suddenly, and the part of his anger that has faded away is being swallowed by uncertain hope—hope for a better ending than the one he believes he is headed for.
"Gojyo, I...I feel like such a fool." Hakkai expresses, reclaiming the steps that had pulled him so unfairly back. "Last night...I wouldn't have slept with just anyone, no matter how vulnerable I was. Had I been sharing a room with Sanzo or Goku, I would have undoubtedly slept alone. It was you I wanted, not the comfort. Forgive me for being so blind...I couldn't see you felt the same way."
"You…saying what I think you're saying?"
Hakkai smiles, and it is nothing false or forced, but tender in its honestly. "I love you too, Gojyo."
A silence vastly different than the ones that had settled before blankets the room. Any remaining anger on Gojyo's part seems unnecessary now, and any lingering fears in Hakkai are slowly being overridden.
When the full force of what has been said strikes Gojyo, he at last speaks again.
"Shit," the kappa grins, somewhat lopsided as he overcomes his final traces of anger, "I mean...holy fuck, Hakkai. Me and you...in love? And...last night...we...we were...I mean...gods! This is crazy!"
Hakkai laughs, and the space that had been between them is suddenly gone. "And yet..." he breathes, raising one of those too beautiful hands up towards Gojyo's face, "...I don't think I'd want things any other way. Crazy seems to suit us, don't you think?"
"It sure as hell likes our company." Gojyo replies, leaning into the hand on his cheek and forgetting he had ever been angry with the man before him, a man looking up at him adoringly.
"So...last night we made love right in this very bed and we have just confessed our affections." Hakkai recounts, his words sounding almost playful. The small space remaining between Gojyo and Hakkai vanishes. "Shall I make it up to you how I reacted so poorly?"
Gojyo is pretty certain this sounds like a wonderful idea. Rather than answer with words, the kappa sports a wide grin and slips his arms around Hakkai's waist, making a point to position his hands far lower than honorable convention allows. Gojyo leans in for the prize and Hakkai offers it to him willingly, their lips meeting tentatively at first, but without any of the fearful rush they had the night before.
Adjective have given birth to positively wonderful nouns. Like joy. Affection. Passion. Love.
Holding tight to Hakkai's hips, Gojyo starts to slowly peddle back and is thrilled at how his companion willingly follows. It is earlier than they need to be up really, and the pair has so much to make up for.
Gojyo's legs hit the back of the bed and he nearly stumbles. Their lips part. Emerald and crimson shimmer back at one another, twin smiles playing on both young men's faces. Gojyo is on the bed before he can think with Hakkai pinning him to the mattress and peppering kisses down his neck. The healer nips at a spot just under Gojyo's left ear and is rewarded with a pleased hiss.
"This is different…" Gojyo says with a pleased smirk.
Hakkai keeps his hands on Gojyo's shoulders, gently holding the taller man down. His legs adjust themselves to rest on either side of Gojyo's body, keeping the kappa tightly between them. "Is it…?' Hakkai asks teasingly, raising his head just long enough to smile—a slight blush the only sign of his modesty—before hungrily returning to taste the sweet skin of Gojyo's throat.
Gojyo can't help it—he laughs. "Ha! Damn, I love your sensual side, 'Kai. Why the hell did you wait so long to show it to me?"
Another laugh echoes in reply and soft lips move gently over the curves of Gojyo's tan neck. "I suppose...I thought it might scare you away, and I was quite certain you couldn't possibly return my feelings. I dare say I have never been so pleased to be proven wrong."
"Hehe...I'll be sure and prove you wrong as often as you like. Several times this morning if you're up for it."
"I should think that is rather apparent..."
"Ah! Deffffff-finetely...apparent."
"Good."
"I just...have...uhh...one question, 'Kai."
"Mm?"
"Who gets to tell the monk and monkey...?"
Hakkai lifts his head, puzzled by the tone of slight embarrassment in Gojyo's voice, and realizes that Gojyo is no longer looking at him. Hakkai slowly turns his head...and suddenly feels very foolish for having left the door open when he came in. "Eh...? Sanzo? Goku? How...how long have you been standing there?"
Book-ending the entrance to the room, Sanzo and Goku stand stock-still.
Goku's expression is one of frozen disbelief, his mouth hanging open so wide one might imagine he is facing an impressive assortment of food rather than the sight of two male friends in a compromising position.
Sanzo also looks quite shocked, though he masks his response quickly, enabling him to pass this development off as nothing. "How long? Long enough to feel sick to my stomach." the monk grumbles, swallowing back the strange collection of saliva in his throat. "Are you two finished now so we can eat and get on the road?"
"You're not...angry?" Hakkai questions, pulling away from Gojyo to avoid making the others any more uncomfortable.
"What you do in bed together is none of my business. Just be sure your romance doesn't interfere with the mission. If it even seems like you're distracted, I'm neutering the kappa."
"Hey!"
"I'm going down to eat." Sanzo continues, ignoring Gojyo's protest. "When I'm finished, I'm leaving, with or without you." Having given his consent—in his own special way—Sanzo turns on his heels and leaves.
Goku has yet to speak or move, still standing, mouth agape, with his large golden eyes locked on the forms of his friends.
Hakkai smiles, but shifts nervously, not sure what to say.
Gojyo, on the other hand, has a knack for dealing with monkeys. "What are you staring at, huh?" he asks slyly, pulling Hakkai close to his side again. He grins, waggling an eyebrow in Goku's direction.
Goku grimaces. Finally, his mouth closes and his shoulders relax, but he looks anything but okay. His attention shifts to Hakkai. "You...you...you didn't let Gojyo have sex with you, did you? Hakkai, that's just gross."
"What! Why you little--!"
"Goku, it isn't gross, it's just...different." Hakkai breaks in, saving them from the onset of yet another verbal fight. Though he can tell his close proximity to Gojyo is unsettling Goku, he does not attempt to pry himself from Gojyo's hold. "There is nothing wrong with two men finding love in one another."
Goku shakes his head. "I didn't mean it was gross coz he's a guy, just coz he's Gojyo. I mean, who knows where that kappa's been."
And with that said, Gojyo releases Hakkai and is suddenly dashing for the door. "That's it, I'm ringing your neck!"
"Ack! I was just kidding!" Goku cries over his shoulder, sprinting down the hallway in hopes of finding some place of refuge before Gojyo can catch him. "I think you make a cute couple!"
"Tell that to my fist, you little twerp!"
"Hakkai, help!"
But Hakkai knows to leave things be. He follows at a leisurely pace, shaking his head and laughing lightly beneath his breath. "Yare, yare...the things I put up with..."
THE END
A/N:
"A combination of the two would've been the best way to go. They could wake up and Hakkai would jump out of bed, and the conversation, or a variation of the one from the first ending, would take place while he's trying to get dressed. Gojyo gets up all hot and bothered, with the same little angry Gojyo thing for Hakkai to realize his feelings are reciprocated. They have the first ending's love confession, and then they go a bit farther than a little kiss, and then Sanzo and G find them, and from then on, it's all the same (minus a few articles of clothing)."
This was a review I recently received from Your Mom's Face (yes that is really the name the reviewer left) and I decided to honor it. I hope the outcome was successful. Please let me know. Personally, I think the fic finally is its true form, as it really could have gone and as I wanted it all along. See ya next ficcie (and hopefully in my current Saiyuki fic, Even Easy Has Problems).
Crimson