Hakkai's being kind, and it warms Gojyo's heart. "I should still dye it," he says at last, running a hair through his grown-out stubble. "I'm too visible like this." A nice solid black should work just fine -- too bad he can't do the same for his arm. What the hell was he thinking, getting such a distinctive one?

(He was thinking that the guy was his build, more or less, and he was in a hurry. It had been a choice made of necessity, although in retrospect he really wishes he'd waited another day or two and found somebody more suitable.)

"What about these?" His hand moves down to his cheek, tracing the two deep scars set there. "They're probably too old to heal, huh?"