Ooooh, child, things are gonna get easier

[erogappa]

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.

Comments

[reformedsinner]

[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.

[erogappa]

[ 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?

[reformedsinner]

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.

[erogappa]

[ 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.

[reformedsinner]

[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.]

[erogappa]

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. ]

[reformedsinner]

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.]