[open] we're closed to the earth until further notice

[reformedsinner]

Who: Cho Hakkai and you
When: Oct 15-17
Where: Around the Near and Far Shores
What: The best way to deal with stress is to stay so busy that there's no time to think about it, right? No flaws in this plan.
Warnings: Ayakashi-fighting violence in the Oct. 16 PM prompt, probable mention of illness/death in the Oct. 16 AM prompt, mention of suicide in Gojyo thread

Oct. 15 - Gardening, Temple of Li Tieguai

[Mid-morning finds Hakkai in old clothes and rubber gardening clogs at the front of his temple, where bright yellow chrysanthemums have bloomed all around the outside wall. He has a stack of cheap plastic pots, a trowel, and a wheelbarrow half full of pots filled with freshly uprooted flowers, and he's leaving a long series of sad little pits in the turf behind him.

It's not that he minds flowers, of course. Flowers are fine.

It's just that he's noticed the way these particular flowers seem to be influencing his mood, and he doesn't like it at all.

He sits back on his heels as someone approaches, and wipes sweat off his forehead with the back of one hand, leaving a long streak of mud there instead.]

Good morning! Would you like a potted plant?

Oct. 16 (AM) - Prayers, around Tokyo

[Tokyo's crowded on Sunday mornings, even on a gray and rainy day like this one, where the first gold and orange leaves of fall have been beaten down from the trees and are fading to soggy brown in the gutters and the canals. Hakkai slips through the crowds like a shadow, messenger bag over one shoulder as he scrolls through his phone calendar and snuggles his transparent umbrella closer down over his head. It's not doing much to keep the water off; he keeps having to dry his phone screen on his sleeve, to the annoyance of the small white dragon snuggled down on his scarf.

Chirps of complaint trail in his wake, and he looks up from his phone to murmur to the dragon quietly.

Unfortunately, that means he's not looking where he's going anymore, and in a crowd like this, if anyone's standing still--

-- well, they've just been run into by a man, a dragon, an umbrella, and a very heavy bag.]

Oct. 16 (PM) - Leech Treatment, Ikebukuro

[Hakkai hadn't really planned to wind up doing any fighting today. He has a long list of followers he needs to visit. He's busy, damn it, but a bloated purple leech-thing had detached itself from the neck of a glazed-over pachinko player as he brushed past and lunged for his face.

He hadn't had a choice, which he plans to point out to Chikusa if this gets him in trouble, considering that he also hadn't brought any of his shinki.

The leech is determinedly crawling towards him across the concrete. He aims a kick at it, and it dodges with surprising speed and bites at his toe, leaving an ugly, deep scar across the leather of his shoe. Jeep, reluctantly, lifts off his shoulder and circles up above the umbrella as Hakkai considers the stubborn ayakashi.

This is not the afternoon he'd planned on.]

Oct. 17 - Morning Classes, Abandoned Temple School - Mingle

[Hakkai doesn't always show up for the morning shinki spell practice sessions, but he's here today, sitting towards the side of the courtyard and taking notes in a battered memo book in between circulating to help with borderline or Bind spells. He'll occasionally stop, too, to listen in if anyone's talking about other spells. He'd only bothered to learn Bind himself, after all. It might help to learn a few extra....]

Comments

[smilingbullet]

[ Such a fluffy dog. ]

As long as there are no new temples in their old locations he wouldn't be bothering anyone. And then he'd probably pick up on it being empty, too.

[reformedsinner]

Mm, yes. I don't think he's really the Hachiko sort of dog.

[Pining away waiting patiently for his missing master for years... no. Thankfully.

Too many of them go missing here to accommodate a dog like that.]

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 taps the umbrella's handle with a finger with a slightly thoughtful expression on his face. ]

That type is probably a bit rarer than people like to think, or there'd be more statues and less dogs accepting new families.

[reformedsinner]

Mhm. [His eyebrows flick up, and he adds, dryly:]

I think lifelong loyalty is a little overrated. Moving on is a better skill.

[smilingbullet]

Yeah, it seems a bit, tiresome to be loyal forever like that to someone.

[ Well, he's loyal to his country.. Though death has technically broken that oath. And he's already talked a bit about things that are top secret and classified, here in the Far Shore. Still, a country is different from a person. ]

Being able to move on might make life a bit more worthwhile.

[reformedsinner]

Certainly more worthwhile than pining forever.

[Things happen, after all. Dogs' masters sometimes die... and so, sometimes, do lovers. Here, at almost any moment, anyone might disappear.

It's not something Hakkai finds easy to deal with.]

[smilingbullet]

[ ....D2 feels the need to pinch Hakkai or something.

So he goes with "something".

He shifts the bag on his shoulder, and turns without his footsteps faltering, and he flicks Hakkai on the forehead.

Then he grasps the bag again to once more adjust it, though it didn't really slipped. ]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai blinks at him.

Well. He'll just interpret that as "Get over yourself," he thinks, and laughs lightly.]

Ah, excuse me.

I think this next building is the apartment, actually....

[smilingbullet]

Huh?

[ Hakkai misinterpreted that. ]

Aye aye sirrr~

[ He rolls his r extra much, just for Hakkai. ]

By the way, I'd like to ask you a favor once we're done with this.

sure!

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai nods. It's a quick stop at the apartment; a few packages to drop off, with their clearly written labels. He wonders sometimes how many people really see and use the medicines; there's nothing about them that looks otherworldly, but he's also never sure how well mortals can interact with items that have passed through the hands of those of the Far Shore.

Well, it at least seems to work for some of them.

Once they're heading back out of the building, he glances over at D2.]

You said you were going to ask me a favor...?

[smilingbullet]

Can I hug you for a few minutes?

[ He has been wanting to ask him for a while now, so he goes straight to the point without hesitation. ]

[reformedsinner]

Ah....

[What does he say to that? Why would D2 want to hug him, exactly? Minutes is an awkwardly long time.

He does appreciate that D2 asked first, at least.

And it's not that he minds, as such.

But--]

Why?

[smilingbullet]

[ He would ask first. Unless it was a short spur-of-the-moment thing but he's managed to keep himself from doing that.

But minutes is not an awkwardly long time at all. That would be hours, unless they were dating, which they are not. ]

Because I've been worried after what happened with Loki and it's just, it'd be a, sort of, properly putting me at ease. Not that you have to say yes if you don't want to [ he doesn't want to guilt him into agreeing ] but I'd be grateful for it.

[reformedsinner]

Well, in that case.

[That might be a flash of remorse on Hakkai's expression; it's hard to say. He's a god now, after all. No one else can see his guilt if he doesn't want them to.

After a moment, he nods, and smiles, faintly.]

Certainly.

[He sets his folded umbrella down against the vestibule wall.]

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 is getting the hang of Hakkai's expressions. It helps that he's trained his eyesight to pay attention to every little detail to make things easier with his job as a sniper. Maybe that's an inconvenience sometimes. D2 wonders if he shouldn't have asked, but he also would have wanted to ask until he managed to regardless. ]

Thanks, Hakkai.

[ He puts down the bag on the floor, mindful not to put it in any puddles dragged in by wet feet and not hard enough to break anything. ]

[reformedsinner]

You're welcome. [It's automatic; Hakkai pauses, still, for a long moment as D2 arranges the bag into its safely puddle-free spot on the floor, and then steps forward to cautiously attempt a hug.

It's awkward. He doesn't seem to know what to do with his elbows.]

[smilingbullet]

[ Hakkai may be awkward about hugs, but D2 is not. D2 likes hugs, he just minds people's boundaries and thus stays away from them for the most part. But there is no hesitation or awkwardness in his hug, though he's a bit tense.

A little while into it though, all that tension evaporates and is replaced with relief. It's clearly not because of discomfort that he was tense. ]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai doesn't get any less awkward with time; he's a few inches shorter than D2, and he turns his head just a little, to make sure that the other man can't see his expression. He can feel the tension ebbing from D2's posture.

He'd hurt far too many people with his carelessness. Still... he can't change it now.

Eventually, he murmurs:]

It's difficult getting used to the idea that death can be temporary.

[smilingbullet]

[ D2 presses his face into Hakkai's shoulder and presses his palms flat against his back. The warmth of a living being, this living being that he holds dear, that he feels is a comfort.

Losing people... He's used to that. He doesn't remember it, specifically, but he knows about it. He knows so many people who have died. He knows how to deal with that, or at least he's accustomed to it. But the sometimes-temporary deaths in the Far Shore.... ]

Yeah, it's strange. It's not normal but, I'm thankful this time.

[reformedsinner]

[After a moment, Hakkai lifts one hand to D2's shoulder, and rests it there, against the shoulderblade he can feel through skin and shirt. His touch is light, and still awkward, but he's trying to offer comfort.

Of course, he reflects, he's always been bad at that. The hug seems to be helping D2 more than anything else.]

I am, too.

[Thankful that a reckless decision hadn't cost more than... perhaps it's easiest, he reflects, to think of it as a very bad injury; he has certainly had enough of those. And thankful that D2 survived it, and Ross, too. It could have been much worse.

Thankful, for that matter, that his memory is back.]

[smilingbullet]

[ No, Hakkai is doing good. He's doing really good. It's definitely way better than any comfort D2 got when he grew up (though that's not exactly a high bar to beat). He's grateful for this comfort. It's great comfort in this time, and only Hakkai could give it. ]

Mmmh.

[ He nods a little, his face moving against the fabric between his and Hakkai's skin.

He's always hated losing people - and yet he would never have quit his job willingly - and it's strange to get someone he's lost back but it's one of the good things about the Heavens. That sometimes, miracles does happen.

It takes a while longer, but eventually he peels himself away from Hakkai, for the most part. His hands stays at his waist for a few moments as he looks straight into Hakkai's eyes and gives him a smile that reveals both his gratefulness and his relief. It's not like his body shows obvious signs of distress when he is upset, but when it's slipped away, it's not too difficult to spot the difference. ]

Thanks.

[reformedsinner]

[A hug is awkwardly intimate; D2 looking down into his face at close range with his hands still at Hakkai's waist is very awkwardly intimate, and Hakkai blinks, clears his throat with a tiny cough, and is the first one to step back.

It's not so much stepping back out of D2's personal space as it is stepping back to make sure that D2 is no longer in his, and his wry smile seems to add a silent, Nothing personal.

(Nothing personal, after all, is meant. He'd have done the same with anyone, or anyone who he'd have allowed to hug him in the first place, a category that includes very few people old enough to have a concept of personal space.) ]

Feeling better?

[From his smile, Hakkai can already guess the answer.]

[smilingbullet]

[ Although D2 does not find it awkwardly intimate in the least, he does understand that Hakkai is stepping back because it's awkward to him. He understands that it's nothing personal, and returns the smile, though his has no single wry traces. It's only genuine and appreciative. ]

Yeah, lots better. I needed that, so really, thank you. This was the best medicine I could ask for.

[reformedsinner]

I'm glad it helped.

[He hesitates for a moment, and then adds:]

You, ah, don't have to wait so long to ask. Although I hope there won't be a next time.

[smilingbullet]

[ Rather than just say anything to the first, he just gives Hakkai a bright smile.

Then he looks a little more awkward. ]

Well, I, wanted to see if it'd pass on its own.. Y'know, since it's not exactly a common occurrence. And then I thought you might prefer if I didn't ask around other shinki and gods so there was a bit about timing.

[ Of course he can't be sure if that's what Hakkai would prefer but it's better to be safe than sorry and Hakkai is more private a person than D2 is. ]