thenearshore | Ooooh, child, things are gonna get easier

Entry tags:

Ooooh, child, things are gonna get easier

Who: Gojyo and Sharak and Hakkai and guns and the rooster
What: Reunion shenanigans
When: /shrug
Where: Temple Aditi
Warnings: Violence, threats, poor life choices, probably graphic descriptions of amputation

Mind made up, Gojyo finds a temple and transports himself back to heaven.

It's been a chaotic couple of days, that's for damn sure. He holds his right arm -- or what's left of it -- carefully against his side. The end of the stump has been professional sutured and heavily bandaged, but he's still cautious about anything or anyone touching it. It hurts. A lot. The doc had tried to give him pain killers -- fat white pills in mismatched bottles, at least one of which had had a horse silhouette on the label -- but he'd refused. He needed to be sober while dealing with the mess in Japan, and he sure as hell wants to be sober when dealing with the mess here.

There's no goddamn way he's going to be loopy when facing Sharak.

Rounding the bend in the road, the temple slowly comes into view, and something in his chest eases. He'd called this place home back a thousand years ago, and it's still true. Home is where you go when you've got nowhere else to turn, home is where they yell at you because they care for you. Home is where your responsibilities lie.

His step gets lighter -- it's the middle of the night, he's exhausted and in pain, but things are about to get better -- and he mentally begins rehearsing what he'll tell Sharak. Assuming she lets him get a word in edgewise, he mentally chuckles. She might just chew him out, and that'll be fine. He deserves it. But once she's done being mad, he can't wait to talk to her about his new plan. About his new path.

They have the ability to make life better for so many people out in the living world, and not just in the way heaven wants them to. Ayakashi are bad, sure, but so are so many humans -- they can really make a difference, if they want to. And he wants to. He'll tell her about the kids he met, and the men who were making their living forcing the kids to steal and fight and worse things. Those men are dead now, but there's thousands of men like them still out there. Together, they can fix that.

Things are going to be okay.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There are no doors in Sharak's temple to wake Hakkai with their opening creak, but he's a light sleeper: a voice in his bedroom, no matter how quiet, is enough.

A familiar voice means that he wakes easily, with no jolt of hair-trigger adrenaline. Ah, it's Gojyo, he thinks, out late as usual, and props himself up on an elbow, blinking as he tries to bring the silhouette in the doorway into focus.

--kickin' your ass out in the morning, had he said?

The present catches up to his expectations a few seconds late. Hakkai stifles a yawn. Sharak had said he was on the Near Shore, and Hakkai hadn't doubted her; it's still good to see him. He's seen so few people he can trust, and so many mysteries, in the last few days, that he'd almost be grateful to see Hazel at this point.

He lets himself smile, honestly, if still sleepily, as his hand falls back to the bedclothes. Gojyo may not remember him; he'll have to pretend not to remember Gojyo-- but still.]

Ah, please excuse me. Is this your room?

[ It's not possible.

Gojyo turns, the soon-to-be-dead first victim in every horror movie ever made, eyes and mouth both hanging wide. It's not possible that he just heard the voice he thought he heard. He's hallucinating. He's dreaming. This is somebody's idea of a sick joke.

Silhouetted in the doorway -- he can't bring himself to approach the potential ghost any closer -- Gojyo fumbles in his pocket for a loose coin, eyes never leaving the dim outline of Hakkai's face.

And then he throws the five-yen coin right at Hakkai's chest, fully expecting it to pass through the illusion. ]

[Hakkai's hand moves automatically to catch as Gojyo, in perfect silence, lobs something at his chest: the metal is warm against his palm, and he blinks at it, and then back up at Gojyo.

That's a seeing-a-ghost expression if ever he's seen one.

Gojyo doesn't know how he died... does he? If there's anyone Hakkai would take with him into a potentially deadly situation, that man is standing on the other side of the room right now, with the whites showing all around his eyes.

He drops the coin on the bedstand and sits the rest of the way up. He's not sleepy anymore.]

I see you must have heard too.

[He keeps his tone light, cautious.]

Are you Sharak's shinki?

[ It's not a ghost. It's not an illusion. It's not a hallucination. Hakkai's alive. ]

Get out.

[ There's no door frame for him to slump against, and that's the only reason he stays standing. He's alive. And here. Why is he here? Why is he in Gojyo's bed?

He glances down the hall, but Sharak is long gone. Why didn't she tell him Hakkai was here?! Did she know? ...Of course she knew, nobody can come through the barrier without her knowing. She knew. She knew, and she let him believe that Hakkai was dead. She told him to go to bed, knowing Hakkai was waiting for him.

Is this what happens when he trusts people?

His voice is a rasp. ]

Get the fuck out.

[That's not just shock. That's real pain stripping Gojyo's voice raw.

What hasn't Sharak told him, Hakkai wonders, absolutely still for a moment as his eye finishes adjusting. What hasn't--

One of Gojyo's sleeves is tied off just under his elbow, the cuff hanging empty below that. Hakkai can't control the way his eyes widen, but he averts his gaze, and slips out of the bed. He's wearing loose drawstring pants and an old T-shirt, not what he'd choose to go out in, but it will do, and there are cots at the school.

Still. First. He steps away from the bed, leaving Gojyo space to step away from the door in turn.]

Your arm...

[Get the fuck out is not the kind of welcoming attitude that suggests Gojyo will respond well to this question. But he's lost a hand since the last time Hakkai had seen him, however long ago, for him, that was. That's a serious injury. He wants to know.]

Is that recent?

[ Was he never dead? Did Sharak just say that to mess with him? Has he been alive all this time?

Has he been here all this time?

His hand comes up to cover the end of his stump, and he shakes his head slowly. ]

You don't get to ask me that, you murdering son of a bitch.

[ Where can he go? He can't stay here. ...The bar? He can go to the bar, there's a futon in the back room, if he leaves now Tsuzuki might even still be there. Contrarily, if he waits a little while longer he can avoid having to face Tsuzuki quite yet. ]

Why aren't you dead?

[He can't answer that question. He's much -- much -- more concerned about the epithet preceding it.

How did Gojyo lose his hand?

How, exactly, did Hakkai die?

He shakes his head, slowly, as his expression drains to blankness.]

Who did I kill?

[ He doesn't need to take a change of clothes, or food, or anything. He doesn't need a damn thing other than the shirt on his back. He'll live in the bar -- and when he sees her again, he'll tell Sharak to revoke his name. ]

Did you forget? [ A nasty thought occurs to him, and he takes a step into the room. ] Did you die and come back as a shinki, you bastard?

[ Any information about his past could turn him into an ayakashi, or so he's heard. That's not true -- he's proof that's not true -- but maybe that's just because nobody's told him enough about himself?

He doesn't even care what a stupid idea it is, as he opens his mouth and blurts out: ]

You killed a thousand people to save your girlfriend. Some of them were kids. [ What else? What else could he tell Hakkai about himself? ] Her name was Kanan.

[It's nothing he doesn't know. It's nothing Gojyo should know, unless Hakkai told him-- told him about Kanan? About the Centipede clan? Now, again: what could have possessed him, he wonders, breathing out, and reaches over to pluck his monocle off the endtable.

It's then, a second later, that he realizes that Gojyo has just tried to kill him.

His hand hesitates on the metal for a long moment before he picks it up and settles it back into its place.]

Cho Kanan. My twin sister. And my lover, yes.

[He looks up at Gojyo again, safe behind glass, and smiles.]

Did I tell you that?

[ He's not transforming -- and, more to the point, he remembers more details. Details that he hadn't shared with Gojyo before. He's not a shinki then. He's a god again -- or still.

His first thought was probably correct -- Hakkai never died at all, did he? The bastard. ]

Yeah, you told me that. [ He takes another half-step toward Hakkai, fingers clenching. ] You don't remember? I kissed you, and you told me you were a murderer. [ He taps his own throat -- it's too dark to see if Hakkai's still got bruises from that night. ] And then you tried to kill yourself.

[Either there are crucial parts of that story missing, Hakkai reflects, watching Gojyo's approach, or he had been having a very, very bad night. The way Gojyo's good hand goes to his throat suggest Hakkai had gone for his own...

... and, frankly, he just doesn't feel that much guilt about the blood on his hands. He supposes he would have wanted to tell Gojyo, if they'd wound up at the kissing stage, and Gojyo didn't remember who he was, but he can't quite imagine a response that would have made him tear his own throat out.

Light catches on his monocle as he tilts his head in a careful replica of innocent curiosity.]

Did I really! Then I should thank you for trying to finish the job for me, shouldn't I?

[Because, if Gojyo does want him dead, Hakkai doesn't see any reason not to talk about it. Here they are, after all.

And he's beginning to have some real doubts about whether they should work together.]

[ Hakkai's mild bullshittery is raising all the hairs on the back of Gojyo's neck. This is going to get very bad very quickly, but he knows for a fact that even on his best day he's not fast or strong enough to take on a full youkai.

But nobody else seems to understand just what a threat this guy is. ]

Somebody has to. [ Casually he shifts his weight, putting his wounded arm behind him, his good hand ready to summon shakujyo at a moment's notice. ] There's something wrong with you. You're dangerous.

I'll kill to protect someone I love.

[That shift of Gojyo's weight isn't casual at all. He knows he can summon his shakujo, doesn't he?

That must have been a real mess the first time it happened. Hakkai'll have to ask Sharak about it, assuming that any of them are in any shape to trade funny stories with each other, later. He keeps his gaze fixed on Gojyo's face, making no threatening moves. It'll be challenging to escape that blade, at this range, if Gojyo summons it. Hakkai thinks he can, but he's not sure he can do it without injuring one of them, and Gojyo's already hurt.]

That doesn't mean I want to.

You killed kids!

[ He didn't mean to be that loud. If anyone else is here -- Celty, or that kid with his flying cloud -- he doesn't want them interrupting. Would Hakkai threaten them, if he knew they were here? Would it be better to wake them up? To try and get Hakkai to leave? To leave himself? Gojyo doesn't know. How can you predict the actions of a crazy person? ]

I've seen you fight. You could have got in and got her out without having to kill everyone.

[He hadn't expected this to be the topic, but if he has to explain his sins at two a.m. in Sharak's spare room, so be it, Hakkai thinks. Gojyo yelling, and accusing, is at least a little less likely to end in a murderous attack than Gojyo speaking quietly and stretching his left hand.

He breathes out.]

I might have been able to. At the time, I thought of them all as guilty. Even the children.

I was wrong, but that won't bring them back to life.

[ He doesn't sound sorry, not in the slightest. He sounds annoyed that Gojyo's quizzing him about this, and maybe tired from being woken up in the middle of the night. But sorry? Really, actually sorry?

He doesn't hear it. Not that he expected to. ]

How can I know you won't do something like that again?

Could I give you any promise that you'd trust?

[Whatever else Gojyo thinks about him, it's painfully clear that Gojyo doesn't trust him, not right now. Hakkai doesn't know why, or what he's done. He does seem to have left everything in ruins behind him, he reflects.

And Gojyo doesn't remember anything Hakkai does. Perhaps there's no way they could talk at anything but cross purposes.

He is tired. He's tired, and he's annoyed, mostly at himself. Still, putting this conversation off until another time is only likely to ensure it won't happen, he knows, and so he doesn't point out that Gojyo had been trying to throw him out of the room a few minutes ago.]

Besides suicide, that is. Dying once has been enough trouble.

[ The worst part of this whole mess, Gojyo thinks, isn't that his arm hurts, or that there's a mass murderer in his bedroom, or that his god betrayed his trust, again.

It's that Hakkai smells good.

He closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. ]

Fine.

[ There's nothing here he wants, or needs. There's people in the living world that he can help -- Amaterasu and her lot can deal with the assholes here. ]

Keep the room. It's yours. I don't care anymore.

[He'll take that as a no. Fine. Hakkai sighs out a breath of his own, and picks up the duffel bag of his clothing that's still sitting next to the wall.

Yes, they're talking about mass murder, love and death, but does Gojyo have to be so dramatic about it? He'd wandered in after midnight to find Hakkai unexpectedly asleep in his bed, that's all.]

I'm not keeping your bedroom.

... Gojyo-- isn't it?

I can stay at the school. Excuse me.

[He inclines his head towards the door. Gojyo's still in the way; not blocking it, but between Hakkai and the exit. Violence doesn't seem imminent. Hakkai still isn't going to move towards him without fair warning.]

You know who I am, asshole.

[ He doesn't move. If he could, he'd fold his arms. Yeah, okay, a minute ago he was telling Hakkai to leave and now he's not letting him go, but it's the lies. He's so damn tired of the lies. ]

We've known each other long enough, you can at least not pretend you don't remember my goddamn name.

[ Besides. He wants to be the one to storm off. As far as witty remarks to exit on, it could really use some work, but fuck it. Hakkai doesn't deserve any more effort.

Clever retort delivered, he turns on his heel and heads out of the room. ]

I've forgotten almost everything about this place.

[Which is to say: how sure is Gojyo that they had known each other before this place? Sharak had told him Gojyo didn't know-- but she also clearly hasn't told him everything.

She might not know everything, for that matter. He wishes he did.

There's no helping it; leaving several paces' distance between them, he follows. The school isn't too far, and while he's tried teleportation, he doesn't trust it yet, especially when he's already tired. He'll walk.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ooooh, child, things are gonna get easier

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject