4. Lost

(King of the Road)

Word count: 416

Notes: This earns the M rating more than the other chapters. Nothing graphic, but a few not-quite-suitable words/references, just for your information.

For all intents and purposes, Gojyo cheated on Hakkai.

He went out all hours of the night. He didn't push away the girls hanging over him like puppets with their strings pulled, and he spent more time with the local barflies than he did with his quasi-spouse. Sometimes, if he was drunk enough and had won enough hands to make him feel less grounded than usual, he would let one of the girls kiss him or take him upstairs for a few minutes (just enough time for something quick and nothing complicated).

When he came home, he fell into bed and didn't wake up until Hakkai was already gone. There would be food on the counter and maybe a note, but Gojyo didn't really need a note anymore; he got Hakkai's message loud and clear. Although they couldn't compare professions, they did have to accept their own along with each other's.

One of the other teachers spoke to Hakkai one day during their lunch break.

"You live with someone?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "You couldn't tell if you didn't know, though."

"What do you mean?"

"I just don't see him all that often."

"That's not a boyfriend," she chided.

"That's not quite right either," he remarked quietly. She gave him a questioning look, and he explained, "There's no one else in the world better suited for the two of us than each other. By default he's my...boyfriend." Hakkai smiled slightly at the word.

She didn't agree, but she didn't have to -- not for Hakkai. He knew that through all of the late hours, all of the drunken blowjobs, all of the times Gojyo came home ready to throw up at three in the morning, there would always be the man he fell in love with somewhere inside of him. It was hard to remember occasionally, but on the weekends when there was no school and no card games and Hakkai cooked while the other drank and smoked and made lewd comments, it was obvious. It was even more obvious when Gojyo fucked him up against the back door or on the kitchen table or in the shower, because you can tell it's true passion when your lover is willing to risk a backache to make you happy.

For all intents and purposes, the redhead cheated on the brunette, but it didn't matter; no matter how many times Gojyo got lost, he would inevitably find his way back to Hakkai in the end.