After everything, it had proved an easy task to get Gojyo back to the room, where the man had quickly fallen into the slumber of the very drunk and utterly exhausted. After a few minutes, mostly of watching Gojyo, Hakkai had followed suit, staring at the ceiling and trying to quiet all the voices in his mind that were making up stories of what exactly had happened to Gojyo. Most of them quite implausible, he thought. Eventually, he fell asleep as well, keeping one ear tuned to the room so he could wake up instantly if Gojyo did.
Luckily, thought, the night passed uneventfully, and when morning came they paid the remainder of their bill to the innkeeper, and drove off, towards home. Three days left, they figured, and then they would be home. Another day, and they would be in familiar towns, where they would know exactly where to watch their backs, and where they could relax as much as they ever did. For now, it was just another long and tedious trip down a long path through a very boring forest.
Which meant they had to talk. About anything other than yesterday, of course. Although Hakkai did let Gojyo take the initiative, figuring it would take a couple of hours for him to get rid of the hangover. The man had a pretty impressive recovery rate, but it wasn't exactly mystical.
"Are you looking forward to being back?" Gojyo asked, almost exactly three hours into the trip. He was actually riding in the passenger seat today, which was good. It meant he was feeling slightly less submissive.
"Uh hum" Hakkai replied softly, glancing over at the man beside him.
"What exactly is the point of dragging us out into the middle of nowhere, anyway?" Gojyo burst out, sounding slightly more angry than he usually did in these outbursts, which occurred at the beginning and end of each and every one of these god-appointed excursions. "Can't the temples talk to one another? Why do we have to tell the damn story over and over again?"
Hakkai completely agreed, but forced himself to smile cheerfully. To avoid as much pain as possible. "Because everyone likes a good story, and what better story is there than the one about the four wayward heroes who overcame hardship and went on an epic journey to defeat the evil that would raise a plague upon the land?
Gojyo looked at him. "Is that what we did?"
"In not so many words." Hakkai paused, thinking over what he'd just said. "Approximately."
"Oh. I thought we just beat up some assholes who wanted to rule the world." Gojyo's tone was petulant, daring Hakkai to contradict him.
"That as well."
"Good. With all those big words, I wasn't even sure what you said. Glad to know we were on the same trip."
"I believe that we were. A long and dirty one, punctuated by hours of bickering and gunshots fired futilely into the air?"
Gojyo hesitated only for a second. "They were perfectly valid arguments!"
"I'm sure they were," Hakkai placated the man, "After all, I was driving. I couldn't hear everything that was going on."
Gojyo looked at him suspiciously. "It was the monkey's fault?"
"I completely agree." Calm and only tinged with the slightest bit of sarcasm, which made Gojyo look at him even harder.
"You're an ass."
Hakkai smiled, and said nothing.
"You could at least deny it!" Gojyo said, crossing his arms across his chest and flipping his feet up on the dashboard. Frustrated. He hated not getting the rise out of Hakkai that he wanted. Not that he ever did, and he actually would probably have a heart attack if he succeeded, but the man was so infuriately good at patronizing and simply being around and making things right.
"Unlike the monkey, I will not be responsible for any arguments that take place in this vehicle. It gets on Jeep's nerves."
"Oh really?"
With perfect timing, the little dragon-car chirped, speeding up a bit. Gojyo rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. I'll behave."
Hakkai snorted. "Not likely."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. You have something of a knack for getting yourself, and other people, into trouble, my friend."
Gojyo fell silent. No quick reply, and Hakkai looked over at him, concerned, to see that an almost imperceptible shift had occurred in the position the redhead was in, arms now wrapped around himself instead of simply being placed where they wouldn't be in the way. Mentally, Hakkai kicked himself hard enough to leave a large bruise. He wasn't completely sure what had happened, and the dialogue was simply a variation on one they'd had a thousand times before. But it was a random thing that had set Gojyo off, and Hakkai should have known better. Should have thought harder before speaking. For good measure, he kicked himself again.
"Why don't we stop for a while, and stretch out our legs?" Hakkai said, mostly just to break the silence, although they had just reached a fairly nice clearing, with serendipitous timing. For once. Gojyo grunted in reply, and Hakkai kicked himself a third time as he pulled the car over, climbing out. Gojyo followed suit, and they both pulled their stuff out of the back, to let Hakuryu have a rest as well. The jeep immediately morphed into his dragon form and took up his usual spot on Hakkai's shoulder. Gojyo walked away, exploring in a fashion that didn't seem too out of the ordinary, and Hakkai leaned against a tree, closing his eyes and wondering if he should breach the subject of yesterday. He was still deciding, and contemplating how to best address the topic, when Hakuryu twittered, the tone one he usually reserved for when Hakkai was in trouble. Swiftly, Hakkai opened his eyes, scanning to locate the source of the problem. It was easy enough to find.
A few yards away, Gojyo was standing, staring at the ground. His hands were drawn tightly into fists, and he was trembling lightly while staring at a small pool at the edge of the clearing. Taking a deep breath, Hakkai walked up to stand beside him.
Gojyo was not staring at the pool, Hakkai amended to himself as he observed the situation, he was staring at his reflection.
There was no wind, so there was little warping the image. Or at least there wouldn't be, if it wasn't for a dead, bloated frog floating in the center of the mirrored image of Gojyo's face, where his mouth would have been. Despite his worry, Hakkai thought that the overall effect was somehow comical, in a horribly morbid way. The twisted grin on Gojyo's face seemed to indicate his thought the same.
They stood, staring at the frog, for several moments. Hakkai desperately trying to figure out the mystery behind it, and Gojyo seemingly unable to drag his eyes away. Suddenly, the creature twitched slightly, and Hakkai blinked, wondering how it could possibly be alive. That mystery, at least, was solved when a large insect appeared, pushing the frog's leg out of the way as it headed on its way to wherever it was that bugs go in their spare time. Gojyo started, and a strangled laugh was ripped from his throat in a way that seemed almost unwillingly.
Hakkai winced as he stood next to the redhead. Hoping he would speak. Tell him what was wrong. Finally, Gojyo glanced at him, briefly, before going back to staring at the frog. "Someone hates me," he murmured.
"Lots of people hate you. Lots of people hate me. Lots of people hate Sanzo and Goku, too. We screwed up a lot of grand plans, and some lesser plans too," Hakkai replied, looking over Gojyo's shoulder at the sight that had Gojyo so transfixed. Another reflection, of course, and a warped one at that. Either what had happened to Gojyo had turned him into the vainest man alive, or he was riding on the cusp of self-hatred, closer than ever before. Hakkai wished it was the first, but he wasn't an idiot.
There was little that could be done about it, though, unless Gojyo decided to talk, and Hakkai had the feeling that he wasn't going to be talking anytime soon. His best friend was bearing bloodstains that wouldn't fade, and Hakkai was completely unable to help wash them off.
All he could do was try and protect Gojyo from the specific circumstances as they appeared. Hakkai sighed, and looked at Gojyo long and hard, and then back at the frog, trying to think of something to help. Then, slowly, he walked over to the woods, hoping that the movement might distract Gojyo. The redhead blessed him with at least a half-interested look, but it only lasted for a second before he went back to frog watching.
His concern growing, Hakkai dug in the woods, searching for anything. After a few seconds, his eyes landed on a sharp looking branch, jutting from the wood of a dead tree. Hakkai blinked at it, and then reached up to break it off. If he couldn't distract Gojyo from the frog, maybe he could increase the man's interaction with it, and speed the process of his unhealthy fascination. Armed with the stick and a determination to protect Gojyo, Hakkai walked back over to do war with the dead frog and, hopefully, the ghosts that haunted Gojyo.
As he reached Gojyo again, Hakkai paused, looking around Gojyo's shoulder once more, trying to decipher if there really was some mystery in a dead frog that he just wasn't seeing, and then decided that no, it really was just a dead frog that was causing Gojyo so much pain. Bracing himself, Hakkai laid his hand on Gojyo's shoulder, holding out the stick.
"Here," he said quietly. Gojyo started - but at least it wasn't a flinch this time, just a moment of not expecting Hakkai to talk - and turned to look at him.
"What?"
"Here," Hakkai said. "Use this."
"Hakkai?" The tone was incredulous. Absolutely and utterly baffled.
"Yes?" Hakkai asked, still holding out the stick with absolute surety.
"You're giving me a stick," Not a question. A statement. Of disbelief.
"I am. You are entirely too fascinated by that thing down there. So I figured you should just poke it a few times, and be done with it."
Gojyo's eyes widened, and he actually looked at Hakkai for the first time since they'd left the village behind. Not distracted by anything, just gazing at Hakkai. His expression was one between disbelief and profound gratefulness. A few seconds, and his mouth began to work, a sound not unlike that of a cow stuck in a beer bottle escaping his throat before he began to laugh. Perhaps slightly hysterical laughter, but he refused to do something so cliché as break down into cathartic tears. He simply started laughing. Several moments later he stopped to look at Hakkai and the stick the man was brandishing with such vehemence, and started laughing again, a few more chuckles escaping his throat before he became serious again.
When he was done, Gojyo simply folded his limbs in, landing on the ground in a manner that was his alone. Not quite a thud, perhaps a plop, but completely controlled. It was as close as anything in Gojyo's personality came to enigmatic.
"You are a very strange man, Cho Hakkai.," he said.
"I am both strange and an ass, yes," Hakkai replied with a decisive nod, looking down at Gojyo carefully. He was still holding the stick, and didn't quite know what to do with it now that it was no longer a means to an acceptable end other than Gojyo mentally beating himself up over a dead frog. So he held it out.
"Do you want this thing or not?"
"Actually?" Gojyo replied, thoughtfully. "I want to get back on the road."
Hakkai only allowed himself to think for a moment. A thousand possibilities crossed his mind in that moment, but in real time it was only a second at the most.
"We just stopped," he replied carefully, "and Hakuryu just changed. Why don't we eat lunch first?"
"If I agree, can I use the stick to poke you?"
Hakkai was tempted to agree. He'd let Gojyo impale him with the stick if it was going to fix whatever was wrong with the redhead. However, telling Gojyo so was as likely to break Gojyo more, and so was out of the question. "No."
Gojyo pouted. "Fine. We'll stay."
He paused, and looked at the puddle again for a brief moment. "The ground is kind of wet here, though."
Hakkai rolled his eyes, using the time to decide his words. Gojyo, he decided, was non-verbally begging for a specific response. "Picky, aren't you?" he said with a smirk. "Alright, we'll move over to the other side of the clearing."
Gojyo nodded, standing up in much the same manner as he had just sat down, although the audible sound didn't accompany him this time, of course.
"What are we having, anyway?"
"Probably the same thing we had yesterday, unless you managed to steal something from the nice lady at the inn?"
Slight pause. "I stole her heart."
"Well, unless you want to eat some poor maiden's heart, we'll have to settle for hard bread"
Gojyo scrambled to his feet and gave him a look. "It's not the maiden's hearts that I eat."
Hakkai gave him a Look. "There is a line, Gojyo. That statement crosses it."
Gojyo grinned at him, mischievous, and tossed his head, deliberately flipping a few strands of hair that had escaped his ponytail back behind his shoulders. "I was talking about their cooking."
Hakkai didn't reply, and turned to dig through the packs they'd removed from the car, searching for the aforementioned food. Everything appeared so completely normal.
Deceitful things, appearances.