kinkfest | Saiyuki (Hakkai/Gojyo)

louiselux.livejournal.com posting in

Title: Over the moon
Author:

louiselux
Rating: R for m/m
Word count: 5673
Summary: Jeep finds something strange in the woods.
A/N: huge thanks to

emungere for beta

Gojyo/Hakkai: Bad first time - "I don't know"

Gojyo woke up face down on the sofa. As a bed, the sofa wasn't bad; his feet only stuck out a little. He turned over and then winced. The place behind his eyes ached and he tried to catch the fragments of a bad dream. They slipped away like melting ice.

Sunlight painted a brilliant stripe across his face, hot and bright, and that was entirely due to Hakkai's habit of opening the curtains when he got up, the same way he liked to make a pot of tea and sit and drink it by himself. Before Hakkai, Gojyo's curtains sometimes stayed closed for weeks and he'd never even owned a teapot. Gojyo rolled out of his bed and shuffled to the kitchen.

"Smells good," he said.

"It's just toast," said Hakkai, not looking round.

Coffee was waiting, as usual, like Hakkai knew exactly when he'd be getting up. He sipped it, smoothing out the newspaper. There was a picture of Sanzo on page 7, looking really fucking pissy about something. Gojyo gazed down at the words, not really taking it in. It was too early, and he had distractions. Hakkai's feet were bare and they made soft pattering sounds on the floor as he moved. His t-shirt was old and baggy, so the neck had slipped to one side, showing off a long pale curve of neck and some shoulder. His skin was dotted with several small freckles, the same dark brown as his hair.

They had a routine, but not that much of a routine. Hakkai stayed quiet and fiddled with the toaster. Gojyo gave him a few minutes. He carried on pretending to read the newspaper and, as he did, fragments of last night's dream did come back, someone crying out and fingers tapping on the night-blackened window. The nice smell of toast changed into the smell of charring bread.

"What's wrong?" he said, quietly.

There was the metallic chink of the toaster and then the rough scrape of a knife across toast. Hakkai stared down at his hands, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. It made his t-shirt slip a little more. He looked like he was eyeballing the toast pretty seriously.

"I slept badly, that's all."

Gojyo had no idea what that translated to; full on screaming horror nightmares or merely staring at the ceiling for seven hours. Could be either. Both sucked. He drank more coffee and tried not to think of Hakkai sitting up in bed in the middle of the night, cold with sweat, waking from whatever it was Hakkai dreamt about.

"Me too," Gojyo said.

Hakkai gave him a quick glance and slid a plate of toast over to him. The edges were black. He was wondering whether to ask more about the sleeping badly when he heard Jeep at the front door, squeaking like a rusty wheel.

"He can't be hungry already," Hakkai muttered.

A thump came from behind the door, followed by rapid soft pattering, as if Jeep was knocking with his snout.

"I'll let the little bastard in," Gojyo said, shoving his chair back.

"Don't call him that," Hakkai said, in a mild voice that was fooling no one.

The squeaking and battering only got louder. Gojyo yanked the door open and Jeep bundled in, whipping past Gojyo and heading straight for Hakkai. A trail of bright red drops scattered in his wake. One landed on Gojyo's bare foot. It felt cold.

"What the hell?"

Jeep's snout looked like he'd dipped it in red paint. His pink mouth was wide open and, as Gojyo watched, Jeep clamped his jaws around a fold in Hakkai's t-shirt and tugged hard.

Hakkai stared down at him like he'd just opened his mouth and invited Hakkai to brunch with the mayor. Jeep's cries were muffled by the wad of cotton in his jaws, but his eyes held a beady determination that Gojyo recognized. Jeep tugged harder, his body curving in an arc as he strained.

"What's wrong, little one?" Hakkai said, using the sort of mushy cooing voice that Gojyo refused to admit was at all cute. Besides, Jeep never got the silent grumpy treatment.

"He wants you to follow him," Gojyo said.

Hakkai stared at him, and Gojyo stared right back.

"But where to?"

"You'll have to find out, won't you?"

Gojyo stuck his feet into his boots before he stomped out the door but Hakkai didn't bother, or maybe he just didn't realise. He walked barefoot down the dusty path and along the lane into the woods. Gojyo wondered just how bad those dreams had been last night.

Gojyo walked behind him and played a little game with himself, where he pretended he wasn't ogling Hakkai's body. As entertainment, it was getting kind of old. Hakkai didn't speak but his shoulders looked tight and hunched, and Gojyo wondered if Hakkai could sense him looking.

"What do you think the blood is about?"

"Possibly he's caught something large. He does get excited."

"Oh yeah. Like Mrs Zhang's cat."

Honestly, it gave Gojyo the creeps, seeing Jeep's snout all red and crusted like that.

"Let’s not bring that up again."

Sunlight pierced the canopy of leaves, leaving pools of gold on the moss and rotting leaves and spindly green plants that stretched their faces up towards the sun.

"It's pretty," Gojyo said, mostly to himself.

"Is it?" said Hakkai.

They went deeper into the woods and Gojyo began to notice a faint smell, metallic and thick like dried blood. It smelled like something dead, but he didn't say anything and neither did Hakkai. Finally, Jeep stopped at the foot of a thick and gnarled tree. He let go of Hakkai's shirt and fluttered at eye level, stretching his neck out and letting out a series of sharp, high squeaks.

"There's nothing here, Jeep."

But Jeep just carried on making impatient noises. If dragons could talk, he'd be calling them morons, it sounded like. Gojyo watched Hakkai turn in a slow circle, looking about. That dried blood smell was gut-churningly powerful, and they shared a worried glance: this wasn’t going to be good. Gojyo peered at the tree trunk. The bark was streaked with something sticky and dark. Gojyo looked up, following the drips, and then Jeep let out a triumphant cry.

"Yeah," Gojyo said, staring at the branches above their heads. "There is."

"What? I don't understand. Oh."

On that last word, his voice came out as a gasp. Gojyo guessed that Hakkai must've spotted it. Jeep spiraled up, darting through the branches to land on the side of the cow that was jammed in a fork of the tree. It was large and brown, and its hooves dangled down through the branches. Jeep rubbed his snout on it and bounced a little on his feet as if he'd just conquered a mountain. There was a hole torn in its side and its head was bloody.

"Is it dead?" Hakkai asked.

"Apparently Jeep's been eating it, so I hope so. Jesus. How the holy crap did it get there? Don't tell me the little jerkoff caught that."

"Oh," he heard Hakkai say, after a moment.

He turned to see Hakkai looking down at his feet. The mouldy brown leaves were dark and glossy with blood. It had stained the tips of his toes and the skin in between them.

"Next time, wear some shoes," Gojyo said. "You could get splinters and shit."

"Like you care," said Hakkai.

His voice was low but very clear. He was staring at his toes like they were about to give him the answer to something. Gojyo opened his mouth, then closed it. There's a cow up a tree, he wanted to say. Jeep's going insane. I do care. Now wasn't the time for this, whatever this was.

He was saved from having to think of something to say by the tree deciding that it had had enough of being a cow-rack. There was a crack and a wooden shriek. Leaves rained down around them.

"Move," Gojyo yelled.

He stumbled back, twisting his fingers into Hakkai's shirt to pull him away. Even through the shock of falling cow, Gojyo found time to notice how Hakkai leaned into the circle of his arm, pressing back against his chest.

There was a bone shaking judder and a wet pulpy sound as the cow hit the deck. Jeep came diving after it, keening. He settled on it again, pushed his nose into the small hole he'd made, and began to gnaw. Hakkai pushed himself away and crossed his arms, holding himself.

"That solves one problem," Gojyo said.

"What?"

"Like, how to get it out of the tree."

Hakkai lifted his shoulders in a minute shrug. "We could have just left it there."

They stared at the cow and Gojyo wondered what he was supposed to say next. His heart was beating too quick and he was painfully aware of how good Hakkai had felt, pressed up against him. This morning was going really badly.

The cow's black eyes were glassy, like the shiny stone on the floor of Sanzo's temple. It had white hairs around its muzzle and its tongue poked out from between its lips. Jeep's teeth flashed sharp and white as he yanked at strips of flesh, and he made small happy snuffling noises as he ate.

"He's gonna puke if he eats all that."

Okay, it wasn't the best thing he could've thought of, but he didn't think he deserved the glare he got for it. They stood a few feet apart and stared hard at the cow. It stared back, as dumb as Gojyo felt.

"Gojyo," Hakkai said. "I've noticed that you don't associate with your lady friends any longer."

Gojyo fixed his eyes on the cow, feeling his mind quietly reeling. Hakkai picked his moments. They didn't talk about stuff like this; Hakkai was breaking the rules, whatever they were. Gonou had talked about sex and shit like that, all open and smiling, but then Gonou was dead and gone and it was hard to think that Hakkai was even the same person. It made you wonder sometimes just what they did to him up at that temple.

The smell of the cow was getting worse, thick and heavy in the morning air and he became aware that Hakkai was waiting for an answer. The last time he'd had a girl back, it hadn't gone so well, putting it mildly, mostly because Hakkai had turned up right in the middle of the sex, home early from whatever the fuck he'd been doing. Gojyo had had her all spread out over Hakkai's bed, and he could still remember the jolt of shock when their eyes had met. Hakkai's smile had dropped off his face like it was made of lead.

Gojyo had taken her home and when he'd come back, much later that night, there were clean sheets on Hakkai's bed and Hakkai had been lying in it, reading in a small pool of lamplight.

"Sorry 'bout that," was all Gojyo'd managed to say.

"It's your house," Hakkai had replied, wearing a smile that looked more like steel plating.

Yeah, Hakkai was good at telling half truths, just like Gojyo.

"I’m not interested," he said, now. "You know."

He heard Hakkai clear his throat slightly, like someone about to spill something important.

"I don't know," Hakkai said.

He sounded calm, just like he did when he was teaching Goku how to compose sentences that were not about meatbuns. Jeep had half his head stuffed in the cow's side and his movements were making it move very slightly, as if it were shaking. He raised his head and shot Gojyo a red beady glance. Gojyo stared back, unable to shake the feeling that they were ganging up on him somehow. If he had a clue what Hakkai wanted, it might help. Resentment prickled down his spine.

"Tough, because I can't explain it," he said.

He wanted this conversation to stop, right now. How about another falling cow? That'd be just dandy. Things were fine yesterday, he was sure of it. As okay as they could be, with the two of them living together, mismatched like a pair of Hakkai's darned unwashed, secondhand socks. He saw the path of days since Gonou had died, strung together in one long chain of Hakkai's endless fake smiles and all the things they weren't talking about.

"Why not?" Hakkai said, calmly.

"Because you don't want to hear it," he said, way too loud, enough to raise the birds from the trees.

"What don't I want to hear?" Hakkai said, maddeningly, his eyes still fixed on the damn cow and on his disgusting pet. Gojyo wanted to laugh, or scream.

"Doesn't matter."

"You never stay out late anymore," Hakkai said, as if Gojyo hadn't spoken. His voice was soft and wondering, as if he were intent on solving some mystery. "Yet you used to. Often."

"We get on better now, that's all."

"We do. I'm glad. Gojyo… "

This was like torture, Gojyo decided. Maybe Hakkai would get to the point one day, or maybe not and they could all go home and relax. Jeep had worked a bigger hole now. There were red smears on his wings. Gojyo's shoulders sagged. It was all pretty fucking obvious, if Hakkai thought about it for a second, which Hakkai clearly had done. Gojyo didn't sleep around anymore, not since Hakkai came back. It didn’t take much to join the dots.

"Look. Just drop it, okay?"

"I can't," Hakkai said, in a small voice that sounded nothing like him. "Gojyo."

Gojyo's chest tightened at pretty much the same time as his heart started to pound. He’d known this was coming, somehow. "You know I do guys too, right?" he managed to get out, when Hakkai was an arm's length away and still moving closer.

"Oh?" Hakkai said. He didn't exactly sound surprised. "Good."

His mouth was near Gojyo's, his hot breath on Gojyo's lips like a kiss. Hakkai put his hands on Gojyo's bare shoulders and then stopped, as if he'd gone too far. Maybe he had. They stared at each other. Sunlight fell on Hakkai's hair, and even up close you could hardly tell the left eye was a fake. It was large and brilliant, just like the good one.

"What are we doing?" Gojyo blurted, when the silence had gone on for too long.

"I don't know," Hakkai said, then he slid his hands up each side of Gojyo's face, fingers pushing into Gojyo's hair. He leaned in, so slow that Gojyo guessed he was being given time to back off.

"Oh fuck," Gojyo said, except it was little more than a whisper, right before Hakkai's lips met his.

Hakkai made a soft noise, almost like agreement, and he tightened his hands around Gojyo's face. His lips were dry and were soft like silk and then Gojyo felt the tip of his tongue, hot and wet, flicking over Gojyo's lips, pushing between them. It felt like a request. When Gojyo opened them, Hakkai's fingers tightened and his breath hitched. With his eyes shut, it sounded to Gojyo exactly like Hakkai was in pain.

He opened his eyes and, over Hakkai's shoulder, he saw the dead cow. He pulled back. Hakkai had his eyes closed; he looked beautiful.

"What's wrong?" Hakkai said, opening his eyes slowly, as if he didn’t want to.

"What about the cow?" Gojyo said, feeling as stupid as he ever had. "It was in a tree."

Hakkai actually scowled. "It doesn't matter," he said, then pulled Gojyo closer and kissed him, harder this time.

They stumbled backwards together until Gojyo's shoulders scraped up against bark, cold and rough against his skin. He put his hands on Hakkai's shoulders, steadying both of them. Under Hakkai's shirt he could feel the flex of his muscles and the tight hard movements of his body. His mouth was hot and wet, moving softly against his.

"Hey," Gojyo said, with difficulty. It came out half-strangled. "Hakkai."

Hakkai kissed along his jaw, then dipped lower to suck at his neck, grazing Gojyo's skin with his teeth. Three dots of cool metal brushed Gojyo's face.

"Please forget about the cow," Hakkai said.

His voice was hoarse, overloaded with something. He sounded horny as fuck and it was completely shocking. Gojyo closed his eyes, his heart racing. He put his arms around Hakkai's waist and held on. Hakkai felt good. He smelled good too, better than that fucking cow. He closed his eyes and tried not to think about it, or about Hakkai's bare, bloodstained toes.

The smell of the carcass got thicker, filling the air, till Gojyo could almost taste it, laid over the taste of Hakkai's mouth. He groaned and pulled away. Jeep's face was red now, and he was still perched on his prize. Flies were buzzing around them, a low drone that was getting louder. They could fuck right here, could fall down naked on the leaves and rut like animals. Hakkai might, if Gojyo let him. He could almost smell it.

"I can’t," he said, knowing his voice was coming out in a half-panicked gasp. He couldn't stop it though. "Not in front of that thing."

Hakkai stared at him, gaze fixed on his mouth for several long moments, then he moved back, out of Gojyo's reach. He folded his arms tightly across his chest. The line of his cock was clear, pushing against the fabric of his jeans.

"I see," he said, eyes slewing round to the cow and to Jeep. "I'm sorry." He backed away, taking oddly deliberate steps as if he wasn't willing to turn his back on Gojyo. "Jeep! Come here at once."

Jeep cried out, but he came easily enough. His stomach was distended and as he flew past Gojyo he flicked the back of his head with his tail, hard enough to sting. Hakkai took him on his shoulder and all the way back to the house, he watched Gojyo over Hakkai's shoulder, his reddened face bobbing as Hakkai walked. Sorry, Hakkai had said, like he'd done something wrong.

"Nothin' to be sorry for," Gojyo muttered.

Hakkai didn't reply.

***

They walked back in a silence that got thicker and heavier with every step. Hakkai walked on ahead and Gojyo let him go, watching the sunlight flicker across his back as he moved though the trees, just like the journey here, but in reverse and far weirder, because, he thought, Hakkai might want sex, and with him. He wanted something, at least, like Gojyo wanted something. Just, not around corpses. He rubbed at his forehead and found himself wondering what Jien would say, if he found him wandering in the woods like this, trailing after strange youkai guys. He pictured Jien coming through the trees, back from wherever it was he’d been.

Pretty, they all called Hakkai. Not that it was just that. Hakkai was cool. He dealt with shit and got on with life. He was kind and generous, mostly. He even coped okay with being a freaky scary ass youkai. Most days. Maybe not today. Gojyo wanted to call him back and say something, but he couldn't think of a single thing. What the fuck had they just done?

Hakkai was holding Jeep's head under the cold water tap when he walked in, rubbing at his snout with a sponge that Gojyo recognized as the one from the bathroom. He made a mental note to take it outside and burn it. Jeep was spluttering and making pathetic mewing noises.

"You shouldn’t be so greedy," Hakkai was saying. "You shouldn’t make such a mess. It's your own fault."

Jeep struggled, but Hakkai hung on, his mouth a grim line. He didn’t acknowledge Gojyo.

"So, d'you think he really will puke?" Gojyo said, eventually.

"It'll be his own fault if he does," Hakkai said, without looking round.

"Right."

Gojyo sat on the sofa, in the middle of his rumpled bedding that Hakkai hadn’t folded yet, listening to the sounds coming from the kitchen. He thought about eating something, but his stomach clenched in on itself. He thought about sex and what Hakkai might want, or what he might not want, now. He should've got hard when Hakkai touched him. He'd wanted to be, but it hadn't happened.

The cow was still out there, all alone. It bothered him.

"Don't you care about it?" he said, raising his voice so that Hakkai would hear him over the thrashing.

There was the sound of water gurgling down the plughole and the rattle of claws on the steel sink. Jeep was still quietly crying.

"Care about what?" Hakkai's voice floated through from the kitchen.

You sticking your tongue down my throat fifteen minutes ago. Us. Whatever.

"Why that cow was in a tree."

"It probably got lost," Hakkai said.

"Up a tree?"

"I'm sure I don't know how it got there, Gojyo."

"And what was a cow doing in the woods anyway? They live in fields and shit."

"They wander."

Jeep flew into the sitting room, shaking water from his mane as he skimmed over Gojyo's head, doing a good impression of a drowned rat.

"You little bastard," he muttered, grabbing at Jeep's tail. "C'mere."

He was surprisingly strong for a puny little dragon. He squeaked and yanked against Gojyo's hand. Strong, but not that strong. Gojyo grinned as he reeled him in. "You're gonna help me out, okay?" Jeep hissed in his face. His breath made Gojyo's guts churn all over again. Gojyo lowered his voice. "There'll be nice juicy dead cow meat in it for you," he said.

Jeep stilled, then looked over his shoulder towards the kitchen. Gojyo tightened his grip. Jeep turned back at him, then leaned forward and quite deliberately licked Gojyo's cheek.

"Little tart," Gojyo muttered.

Dragon's probably weren't supposed to smile, but then Jeep had never been exactly normal.

Hakkai didn't ask where he was going, which sucked far more than Gojyo wanted to admit. Jeep went out through the back way and waited for Gojyo at the end of the path. The cow wasn't too hard to find. Gojyo followed the smell, and Jeep. All the way there he tried not to think about Hakkai and what the hell they were going to talk about over dinner tonight. Or what they might do after.

"Here's the deal, fleaball," Gojyo said, when they finally got to the cow. An army of flies crawled over its flank. Jeep flapped them away. It was still staring at nothing, except now its eyes were dull and hazed, not glassy anymore. Heat was building and the woods were thick with the abbatoir scent.

"Kyu?"

"You turn into your namesake, drag it away and hide it."

Good thing dragons didn’t demand logic, because there was exactly none in Gojyo's plan. It was just right, somehow. The cow had to go.

"Kyu?"

"I don't know where. Wherever. Somewhere a long way away. D'you know a good place?"

It turned out that Jeep did. He rattled slowly through the trees, flattening saplings here and there. The cow dragged along in their wake, leaving a long black trail behind it where it scraped the forest floor clean. Its feet juddered a little, like it was trying to walk. It looked kind of pathetic.

Jeep helped him nudge it down the ravine, when they got there. It rolled, slow and lazy, until it slid to a stop against the soft brown trunk of a pine. Gojyo picked his way down. There were birch saplings there, growing too thin and tall. He tore braches off and threw them over the corpse until it was covered. Jeep landed on his shoulder, his stomach a fat warm weight. He keened softly in Gojyo's ear.

"Just wash the blood off before you come back next time, okay?" Gojyo said. "Don’t make him mad."

Jeep nodded and huffed warm air out through his nose. Gojyo turned his head to peer at him.

"D'you know how the cow got there?"

Jeep opened his mouth, then closed it and shook his head.

"You sure about that?"

Jeep lifted off his shoulder, circled above his head and then darted off in the direction of home. Gojyo sighed and set off after him.

***

By the time he made it back, a thin nail-paring moon was floating above the trees. The door was locked, and he had to scrabble for the key. Hakkai had hidden it in one of Gojyo's old boots, which lived in a bush next to the house. His theory, delivered with a smile, was that no sane person would want to put their hand anywhere near one of Gojyo's shoes.

Jeep was sleeping on Hakkai's bed, curled into a tight ball.

"Where is he?"

Jeep lifted his head and blinked sleepily. There was no note. Gojyo got a beer and fell back onto the sofa. Jeep got to his feet and waddled to the edge of the bed, flinging himself to land with a thud on the sofa arm. He extended his neck and peered right into Gojyo's face. Gojyo drank his beer in slow sips and tried not to listen for footsteps on the path. Jeep sat on the sofa arm next to him, watching.

"Guess he woulda taken you along if he'd gone and left me, yeah?" Gojyo said.

"Kyuu."

"So, what we gonna do, then?"

***

"My, it’s amazing what you can teach a dragon."

"You came back," Gojyo said, from the floor.

He might have had one too many beers, he thought, looking up at Hakkai, who was leaning over him.

"Of course," he said. "Why wouldn't I?"

He smiled, and Gojyo's heart unclenched.

"Wanna play with us?"

"Hmm. It's been a long time since I played tiddlywinks. My game might be a little off."

Jeep clawed at a bronze penny and it flipped into one of Hakkai’s nice china cups that served as the goal. He let out a piercing victorious shriek.

"You can't let yourself get beaten by Jeep."

"Indeed," Hakkai said. "Although I doubt a dragon is going to be any good at it."

"Hey, you don't know that. He can turn into a car. He might be able do anything."

"Well… "

He sat down next to Gojyo, curling his legs under him. They played for a little while, and silence settled over them, broken by Jeep's excited snuffles and the clatter of coins on china.

"So where did you go?" Gojyo asked.

"Just for a walk," Hakkai said.

That could mean anything, but Gojyo wasn’t about to ask.

"About the cow," Gojyo began. He didn't really want to talk about the cow but it seemed an unavoidable place to start.

"Ah. I had a theory about that," said Hakkai.

"That you thought of on your walk?"

"Amongst other things, yes."

Jeep nudged the cup over, spilling its contents across the carpet. Hakkai set it upright again and gathered up the coins, his hands moving absently as he talked.

"I think it was carried there by a violent wind," Hakkai said, very seriously. His eyes were wide, just like when he used to tell Goku stories about the magical meatbun that lived in the sky.

"What?" Gojyo said. "No way."

"Or perhaps a giant bird. Yes."

That sounded more likely. Gojyo stretched out on his side, his head propped in one hand.

"Tell," he said.

When Hakkai smiled like that his whole face softened.

"I imagine that our cow was standing in its paddock one day, quite content with its simple life of repetitively chewing cud and being milked. It stood in its accustomed spot every day, enjoying the slight pleasures of its existence. Sweet grass, fresh cooling rain, water to drink and a shed full of warm straw to sleep in at night."

"Sounds nice," Gojyo said, imagining it.

"This particular morning, the sky is bright clear blue from east to west, except for one tiny dot on the horizon. Our cow doesn't spot it until it is far too late. A vast shadow comes swooping down, darkening the grass all around. It is bigger than any bird the cow has ever seen, even bigger than the eagles that sometimes sail overhead. In bird terms, it is a giant."

Jeep chirped derisively.

"Or maybe it's a dragon," Hakkai said, and Jeep fell silent. "It comes from the mountains, where it makes its home in the dark caves there."

"Why caves?"

"It's too big for a nest. The tree would snap."

"Oh."

"The cow ran, of course, as fast as it could, its heart pounding and its eyes starting in horror. But I-- it-- could never outrun that wicked beak, curved like a vast claw. The bird was too cunning; it ran the poor animal until it was exhausted and then punctured the cow's skull with its talons, killing the beast instantly." Hakkai looked just a bit too excited. "And then it attempted to carry the cow back it its cave. Possibly to feed its young."

"So why did the cow end up in a tree?"

Hakkai shrugged. "The bird dropped it."

"Damn."

Hakkai flipped a coin neatly into the cup, where it chimed dully against the sides.

"It lives on mountain goats usually, plucking them from the rocks. Although," and Hakkai leaned towards Gojyo, propping himself on one arm, and dropping his voice, "I've heard it said that sometimes it takes off small children. Or even unwary kappas."

"Fuck off," Gojyo said, grinning. "No it doesn't."

"Oh, it does. So you’d better be careful when you go out wandering. In fact," he said, more softly now, "perhaps you'd better stay home, just to be safe."

Jeep upset the cup again, but Gojyo barely noticed. Hakkai was leaning over him and Gojyo remembered the feel and taste of his mouth, and the way he'd pressed Gojyo up against the tree.

"So you think I need protecting, right?" he said.

"I-- No, of course not," Hakkai said. He'd gone slightly red. Gojyo put his beer down so he didn’t spill it, then sat up so they were face to face. Hakkai met his eyes. In front of them, Jeep was nosing through the coins, biting them. Hakkai reached out and nudged Jeep's face away with his fingers. "You don't have to explain anything," he said, finally.

"You mean, like about my lack of girlfriends?"

Hakkai nodded. His gaze moved from Gojyo’s eyes to his mouth.

"I've got no right to ask you things like that."

"Yeah. Shut up now."

"But-- "

He made a soft sound when Gojyo slid a hand around the back of his neck. He guided Hakkai's mouth to his own and let Hakkai kiss him. It was slow and gentle, with Hakkai pressing his lips to Gojyo's over and over, soft clinging kisses that made Gojyo dizzy. Hakkai was making hot little noises every time Gojyo licked between his lips, and then their kisses got deeper and harder, so that he hardly noticed their gradual slide to horizontal, until he had Hakkai underneath him and Hakkai's hands sliding from the base of his spine up to his shoulders, under his shirt. Hakkai gazed up at him; the angles of his face softened like this and his eyes were glazed and heavy. He pulled his knees up, until they were wide apart and his feet were flat on the floor.

"Fuck, yes," Gojyo whispered, and kissed him again, hot and fierce.

"I think we need to go to bed," Hakkai mumbled.

His arms were tight around Gojyo's neck as they moved against each other, as if he was clinging on in a storm. He tangled his fingers in Gojyo's hair and pressed his face to Gojyo's neck, sucking at his skin.

When Gojyo began to yank at his belt and his zipper, Hakkai made a low shaky noise. The bed was too far away, Gojyo thought. He found Hakkai's mouth at the same time as his hand found Hakkai's cock, hot and already slick against his palm. Too far. Gojyo wasn't going to make it to anywhere near the bed.

"Gojyo, wait," Hakkai whispered, his voice getting higher, "Oh, please."

Gojyo trod on the cup as he struggled to his feet, shattering it into about a thousand tiny parts that jabbed into his skin. Hakkai almost fell headlong, hobbled by the trousers tangled around his ankles. They made it to the bed, though, where Gojyo was forced to admit that he'd come in his pants just about the time he'd put his hand on Hakkai's dick, whispering it in his ear. It wasn't so bad, because Hakkai came all over Gojyo's stomach about three seconds after that.

"What did you do with it?" Hakkai said, much later.

His voice was soft and full of impending sleep. He was warm and heavy against Gojyo's side. They lay shoulder to shoulder in the bed, looking out of the window at the cool silver wash of dawn that showed above the trees. The window stood open: Jeep must've gone out that way, because he wasn't anywhere around.

"Do with what?" Gojyo said, although he knew exactly what Hakkai meant.

"The cow," he murmured.

"The one dropped by the giant bird, you mean?"

"Yes, that one," Hakkai said.

"How d'you know I did anything with it?"

"Because," Hakkai said, his voice slurring with sleep, "something had dragged it away. Something with wheels. I saw. "

"On your walk?"

He felt the shift of Hakkai's head on the pillow, nodding.

"Yes."

"I gave it a decent burial," Gojyo said.

It was true enough. Under the bedclothes, Hakkai's fingers slid between his, curling gently.

"I'm glad," he said, his voice fading out into a sigh. "Thank you."

Hakkai didn't need to thank him for anything, Gojyo thought. He'd make sure and tell him that, tomorrow. He closed his eyes, and slept.