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"I could just draw up a borderline every time it looks like he's going to speak," Chikusa muses, addressing that last point first. It's a troublesome thing that would require constant work, so he'd really rather not do it, of course. He wants to learn magic, but he also doesn't want to go along with something that's so clearly a pain. Still, it's doable for however much he doesn't like the idea of doing it. All it really requires is constant paranoia and a distrust of a figure technically above him. That's easy enough. He already does it every day. "Or lie to him about my name again..." That one is of course not a serious suggestion, but it's an amusing one to visualize. At least, Hakkai apparently found it hilarious, considering his reaction when Chikusa came home that day and told him about how his initial meeting with Sabimei had gone.

Before he can continue explaining anything else, such as his theories on the security Amaterasu's temple would probably be like or how much he could get away with being a shit.... There's Gojyo's voice, and Chikusa pauses, turning his head just enough to look at the man from past his hair. Oh. So he's finally joining a conversation of his own will, instead of ignoring him as he apparently had meant to start out with. Well. That's a surprise. Now if only he'd stop sticking his nose into business he knows nothing about.... Or perhaps Chikusa is feeling particularly unforgiving today.

For a second, he only observes him before saying anything. "So.... I should leave a young child on her own, then, is what you're saying..." Well. This is hiding a few things, like how Nanako has another shinki to rely on, but, still.

"You could," Hakkai agrees, "but you only need to miss once, and didn't he catch you out the last time you lied about your name?"

In other words, Chikusa wouldn't be able to lie about it again without claiming he'd found a god other than Hakkai, and Heaven's asked them about their shinki quite recently.

He shakes his head. "The Heavens have... strong feelings about nora. I'd rather you didn't let him find out you were."

Strong feelings, meaning that even Yukine, one of the most reasonable and least dogmatic shinki he'd met, acted as though becoming a nora was the social equivalent of disemboweling a household pet at a party. Hakkai had found, as a shinki, that it was remarkable how many doors could be opened by saying he'd never let another god name him.

Ah, Kazuma and Yukine had both seemed to feel, you may be new but you're like us....

He glances to Gojyo, thoughtfully. It's a good suggestion, despite Chikusa using it as an attack.

"You know she wouldn't be alone if you did, Chikusa. And if you plan to keep learning from that man, it might be the simplest way around the problem."

"We don't just ditch our gods when it's convenient, byon," Ken says sourly, the effect slightly marred by his having a mouthful of meat. He's still a little salty about Gojyo using Chikusa's nickname - that's his - but the subject was changed before he could object. If it comes up again, though...Gojyo's going to hear about it. Emphatically. "Wouldn't that be even worse than being a nora...? Swapping out our gods like my cartridges?"

"Why not?" Gojyo pushes his (empty -- that was really good, Hakkai!) plate away from him to clear a space so he can plant his elbows on the table and lean forward. "They don't own you. Bein' somebody's shinki is a job, that's all."

Look, he might have really strong opinions about whether he qualifies as a person anymore, but that doesn't mean he thinks shinki owe gods anything. "If your god would get pissed off at you for wanting to get unnamed so one of the big muckety-mucks doesn't flip out? Then that's your god's problem."

"I wasn't expecting it," is all Chikusa gets to say in response to Hakkai before Ken enters the fray, and he falls silent to allow his partner to speak. Speak grossly, with his mouth full of meat and barely understandable, but still. Even if Ken might not get some of the stuff, like spell talk, that means it's just all the more important for when he does get something. It's kind of amazing how he never really got that before, just letting Ken speak when he really didn't want to. (Which was most times.)

And he makes sense, honestly, enough that Chikusa is nodding his head a bit in agreement. It's not the kind of loyalty he subscribes to, honestly... but he understands why Ken would think that way. Yet he only gets a couple of nods in before Gojyo opens his mouth-

Chikusa doesn't make the active decision to get up, his chopsticks twirling around inbetween his fingers until he can properly grip them in a fist, but it happens regardless with his attention suddenly and fully on Gojyo. It's the kind of clear focus that only comes when someone wants to drive their chopsticks into a waiting eye socket. But even as he's halfway into getting up, his shoulder bumps into Ken's, and he jolts to a stop. Blinking his way out of the reaction, he glances at Hakkai.

"Ah," he says under his breath. "No violence. Right." Or else both Hakkai and Ken would haul him away, no matter how much of a worse insult that is in Chikusa's book.... perhaps made more combustible with his recent arguments with Davesprite.

And just like that, it's not a friendly family dinner anymore. Chikusa's got his chopsticks in his hand, his intent clear. Before he can get to his feet, though, Gojyo's moving on instinct, shoving back from the table, hands raised, ready to defend himself.

"What the fuck?" he demands, not dropping his guard for a second. Hakkai probably won't let his shinki jump across the table and stab Gojyo, but after Gojyo just got done saying how little gods and shinki owe each other, he's taking nothing to chance. "What the fuck?!" he clarifies a second later, as Chikusa sits back down. "What the fuck is your problem?!"

Hakkai's standing, too, his own chopsticks clattering onto his plate with the one bite of pork they'd still been holding, by the time Chikusa brushes against Ken, thinks better of his movement, and collapses back down into his chair. The jolt of sudden homicidal intent left him little choice.

He takes a deep breath, makes eye contact with Chikusa, and sits back down.

"No," he says, in the same mild tone as he'd say We don't have any lemon, "no violence, please."

His gaze flicks back to Gojyo, and he adds, still very mild, "I don't think it's just a job. Sometimes, it might be for convenience, or to handle a difficult situation, but ideally, it should be more than that.

"My gods all meant more than that to me."

Ken knows his partner, and he's tugging at Chikusa's sleeve almost before Chikusa is fully upright, in urgent warning - though it seems Chikusa kind of snaps himself out of it as much as Ken pulls him back, which is a relief. Ken doesn't spare any focus from Chikusa until the other boy sits back down, at which point he looks back over at Gojyo.

"It's not just a job, byon," he says, with a scowl. "Hakkai-sama's right. Our gods are important to us. They take care of us. It's not about them owning us, it's like - " He pauses, trying to think of something better, but...there really is only one comparison to make. "It's like family, byon. Only our families sucked, so it's like having a good family. The kind of family people are s'posed to have. So we're not just gonna take it off like a coat to make some asshole like us better, byon."

Even as he's still settling down, Chikuksa's hand drifts past the boundaries of his chair to lightly squeeze Ken's hand. As much as he'd wanted to, even maiming Gojyo wouldn't have done anything but make the situation worse. He's not intentionally trying to do that... so he appreciates his partner being there for that extra barrier.

Ken and the food are really the only good things about this whole dinner.

There's nothing else to really say, with Hakkai being more eloquent in his explanations and Ken taking the helm, but Chikusa still mutters his own addition as he remembers how to hold his chopsticks properly. "Axel-sama wasn't a job." He was a reason for existing.

Through all this soppy-sweet talk of family, Gojyo stays stone faced and standing, his attention mostly but not entirely focused on Chikusa. Only Hakkai is privy to the jolts of longing and grief that he feels: the first, when Hakkai talks about his previous gods, and the second, at Ken's comment about the kind of family people are supposed to have.

Family is where you go when nobody else will take you in. That's what TV has taught him, and he hasn't seen anything yet to prove that idea wrong. But the way Ken and Chikusa talk about their gods doesn't sound like any family he's seen, not on TV, not out on the streets of Tokyo, not on any of his trips with Ekko and then Sharak to answer prayers. It's not family these two are looking for, is it? It's a boss, and something about that realization settles all wrong in Gojyo's gut.

"Sama sama sama, he mocks them, slowly pushing the chair out of the way with his foot.They're going to respond to this, and he needs to be able to move. "Do you hear yourselves? Hakkai sama, Axel sama, that's not a family. Do you know who calls the guy at the head of the table sama?" He turns to Hakkai, his face a sneer, his heart breaking. Even as he says it, he knows it's a mistake, knows it's going to cost him. But his mouth has a mind of its own.

"Gangsters and salarymen, that's who."

Ken is on his feet in a moment, teeth bared, though to his credit he doesn't lunge at Gojyo. He's angry, too angry to stay seated, but he's not moving to attack - which is a testament to the restraint he's making an effort to display for Hakkai.

"At least we respect the people who try to help us, byon!" he snaps. "Hakkai-sama cares about you, he's helping you, and all you do is cause trouble for him and everybody around him! We can call him whatever the hell we want, and we want to call him Hakkai-sama! He never asked us to! He's not making us! He'd probably let us treat him like you do, but we're not assholes to people who are good to us like you are!"

Where Ken goes, Chikusa goes, and vice versa, so it's no surprise that Chikusa is on his feet again shortly after Ken is- not even a heartbeat after, in fact. On the bright side, he's put the chopsticks down so that he can lightly press his hand against the back of Ken's arm.

On the dark side, he has a yoyo in his other hand. It's hanging limply at his side instead of ready to lash out, but it's still there.

"You don't know anything about us," he says quietly, but no less intensely than his partner. "You don't know anything about loyalty, either..." Raising his eyes slowly from where his hand rests against Ken's arm, he meets Gojyo's eyes directly. "It's not a job... if, when the person at the head of the table dies... you almost die from what you feel at their absence." There's nothing but cold emphasis in his tone... but Hakkai will get to feel the venom twisting in Chikusa's heart, and the grief that still aches for his missing god.

The pain feels like a punch: grief, longing, fury, and regret, hitting him right over the heart with enough force that it stops his breath. He's the only one still sitting by the time he gets it back, and the hands he'd clasped together a moment ago are white-knuckled with the force of his grip.

He suspects the regret is his own. That Ken would call them a family, and that, a moment later, Chikusa would say If, when the person at the head of the table dies--

-- he's died, after all. Recently. He shouldn't matter that much to anyone, he hadn't worried about it, and yet, he'd certainly taken his share of blows when he returned.

Gojyo's kicked his chair aside. He's looking for a fight. Chikusa has a yo-yo in his other hand and Ken's teeth are bared: he might get one, but they're trying, still. They shouldn't have to try this hard, Hakkai thinks, not for him, and clears his throat.

"Ken. Chikusa. Please stop. Gojyo..." He looks up, at Gojyo's face, waiting for the moment his gaze slips away from Chikusa towards Hakkai. What can he say? He settles, at last, on, "They can call me whatever they want. But Ken's right. My shinki aren't my employees, and I don't want you insulting my family at my table."

The words taste bitter, whispering too close to the edges of other anger he's swallowed. They taste like the fear that keeps biting at him: the one that's not just of Gojyo's death, but of losing Gojyo, of fighting him in a way that's not the play-battle of friends but that is real, and to the death.

He's really very tired.

"Your family? he repeats, with a touch of scorn. He casts a dismissive glance over Chikusa and Ken, where they stand clearly ready to throw down, but inside he's an absolute wreck. He insulted Hakkai's last family too, didn't he? Poor dead Kanan -- he'd said things that no man should say about another man's dead wife.

Why the hell does Hakkai even put up with him? And wouldn't he be happier, really, if he didn't have to? He'd known it was a mistake to come here... and didn't Hakkai just bring him here because he'd gotten himself too drunk and sick, and he'd felt pity for him? Hakkai doesn't want him here, not really. He wants that other Sha Gojyo. The dead one.

He turns back to Hakkai, face and heart resolved.

"This isn't my family." His voice is low, but steady. "Unname me and let me leave."

Ken grits his teeth so hard that he feels like they should crack, but the Estraneo did a good job on his mouth. He's taken a lot of hits and never broken a tooth; this won't be enough by a long shot.

"Why the hell do you hate us so much?!" he demands. "Kakipi and I have been trying to behave for you! We busted you out of jail even though you got Ayumu hurt, and you were a jerk when we were trying to help you then, too! And now you're insulting us here in Hakkai-sama's temple, after Hakkai-sama helped you! Do you just hate us because you hate Hakkai-sama?!

"And why do you hate Hakkai-sama, anyway? He's been trying to help you and worrying about you and it's not good enough for you! I thought maybe you were mad 'cause he wasn't trying hard enough to make you like him again even without your memories, but he's doing plenty and you're still being an asshole! If you just told him why you're mad at him, he'd fix it, but instead you're just trying to make him as miserable as you are instead of fixing anything!"

He stomps over to Gojyo, standing toe to toe and glowering (up) at him. "If you don't want us, fine," he growls. "We'd be your family if Hakkai-sama wanted us to, but nobody's gonna make you stay. But I wanna know why you're such an asshole to people who actually care enough to do stuff for you! Why aren't any of us good enough for you when you're the one who's been treating everyone like crap?!"

Full of vicious care and protective anger, Ken storms away from his fingertips, and Chikusa lets him. After all, while he may have made a promise to Hakkai that he'd stop when Hakkai said "stop", Ken did no such thing. If anyone is free to slip through that loophole, it's his partner. If there's a not insignificant part of him that hopes the blond sucker punches Gojyo in the dick, well, it's there.

Yet it's not so significant a part of him that he hasn't noticed something else, turning his head away from the fiery confrontation going on near to him. Hakkai has been seated, unlike when Chikusa almost vaulted past the table to stab Gojyo with a pair of eating instruments, and the way his fingers dig into his own hands say it might not be by his own will. It feels similar, that kind of broken exhaustion, and Chikusa seems to sway for a second before his feet begin to shuffle. He makes it past the other chairs that are set about, going to the god's side. Comfort has never been a talent of his, so all he does is lay the tips of his fingers on one hand against the table, near to Hakkai's.

He can do judgment great, however. "You named him?" he mutters to Hakkai. "Drunk?" Or perhaps he named him before it got to that point, but, either way, all the alcohol involved from the other day has only become an even worse point. No wonder Hakkai put only water at the table today.

Still, that's something for another day, and he raises his head to look at Gojyo again even as the words are leaving his mouth. "You don't get to run away," he deadpans, "just because you have to deal with things getting difficult while sober."

Ken is shouting in Gojyo's face, so keyed up with righteous fury that he's vibrating. Chikusa's fingers land a handsbreadth from Hakkai's hands on the table, and stay there.

Hakkai looks up at him. He can feel all of this vibrating in the names he's holding. Ken's anger is pure and easy, and Hakkai can feel the seductive pull of that emotion. Gojyo is all despair and resolve. Chikusa's the quietest, a steady presence next to him, despite the sarcasm in his tone.

He's very tired, but that doesn't mean he can give up, yet. He unclasps his hands, white spots going red where his fingertips had pressed against his own skin, and looks up at Chikusa.

"I haven't had enough alcohol to be drunk in a long time," he murmurs. It's not that he minds Chikusa judging his decision to name Gojyo. It's that he wants it to be the right judgment. All of his recent mistakes, unfortunately, can't be blamed on alcohol. His judgment has been impaired by emotion alone.

It still is. Perhaps he should just admit that: he looks up, over Ken's head at Gojyo, and says flatly, "No."

He'd killed a man, not too long ago, for keeping shinki against their will, he reflects. He can admit that he's a hypocrite, too.

"Don't talk about shit you don't understand anything about!" Gojyo shouts back, hands knotting into fists at his sides. "And don't pretend like you smashed my head into those bars because you care about me, Stinky. I don't know what he's told you," and here he waves in Hakkai's direction, "but whatever it was, he's wrong. He thinks I'm somebody I'm not."

Focused as he is on Ken, Gojyo misses the exchange between Hakkai and Chikusa... not that it would have made any difference. Instead, he uses his height to his advantage, stepping up closer to Ken and snarling down at him: "I'm leaving because I'm not even good enough for this fucked up house."

And, just for emphasis (or maybe because he's been subconsciously hoping for a physical fight since he sat down), Gojyo punctuates that last comment with a hard shove to Ken's chest.

Ken blinks at the shove, then scowls. However, fortunately for everyone, Ken is more obedient and determined to be good than he is hungry for a fight; he doesn't attack. He does, however, reach out and grab Gojyo's shirt.

"You weren't cooperating!" he snarls back. "And we were pretending to be cops! If I wanted to beat you up for kicks, I'd wait until you weren't injured and locked in a cell! You already caused enough trouble as it was that another prisoner tried to stop us getting you out! You could've just walked out of the stupid cell, but you had to be a dumbass!"

Ken doesn't seem intimidated by Gojyo's looming at all, since he leans up into it just to yell into his face better. "And what the hell do you mean you're not good enough? Who cares?! Hakkai-sama wants you here! He thinks you're good enough! If you don't think you are, then do what I do and try to get better, instead of just running away like a coward! I wouldn't be here with Kakipi if I just stayed afraid of not being good enough!"

So the bright side is that Hakkai, apparently, hasn't been drunk for his recent life decisions. The dark side, and which leaves Chikusa staring back down at the god blankly, is that Hakkai apparently hasn't been drunk for his recent life decisions. This means that solving his bouts of stupidity is going to be a lot harder than drinking all of the alcohol in the kitchen.

Well, Chikusa is all out of ideas on how to help his god on that front.

All the yelling happening across the table reminds him that it's a problem for later. Hakkai's various issues with his emotions, life choices, and probably everything else will take a lot longer to deal with. In comparison, he reflects as he turns his head to look back at where Ken and Gojyo are squaring off, the local redheaded idiot is really rather simple. That doesn't mean Chikusa has any better idea of how to deal with him, either, but that's fine. As he watches his partner fearlessly press his way into Gojyo's personal space, not shying away at all, he appreciates how bluntly his partner can approach this sort of thing-

Along with the kind of words he says. While none of it shows on his face, as is perfectly typical of Chikusa, Hakkai might be able to feel a flicker of intense gratitude amongst all the more fired up emotions such as Ken's rage and Gojyo's own despairing frustrations. It's probably the one good emotion in the whole mess, and it of course disappears as quickly as it had showed up. Ken really has stayed throughout a lot. Chikusa knows he's had a lot of trouble with keeping up, with feeling valued, and he's glad that he's part of the reason why Ken would want to try so hard. Not the whole reason, he knows, because Ken is as loyal as he is even if that loyalty comes about in different ways, but he likes to think he's a factor.

That he has a crush on Ken has absolutely nothing to do with it, of course.

Still, Ken clearly is better suited for perhaps tackling Gojyo through a wall and out of his own idiocy.... So Chikusa will give just a little bit of advice that he's perhaps neglected to completely tell his partner. With a deceptive amount of laxness, he calls across the table, "Ken. Earlier when I was talking to Hakkai, he said so long as he provoked you and you didn't break any bones or maul him, it'd be fine to fight a little."

This.... is a slight twisting of the truth, and 100% following less the letter of the law, and barely the spirit of it, either. But, technically, Hakkai only told Chikusa not to draw any bloodshed, or break any bones, or cause any serious bruising, or poison Gojyo. Ken never made any kind of agreement like that. Now only to see if Hakkai will call him out on the loophole he's trying to abuse.

After a pause, he at least remembers to add, "And don't do it inside." But he'll leave it to Ken's discretion on if punching Gojyo in the head to knock out the stupidity is called for.

It's Hakkai's shirt, actually. And Gojyo gives no fucks about it. Ken grabs him and he yanks back -- if the shirt gets ripped, so be it -- gleefully relishing the fury that washes through him. Fury is easy, and clean, and so much more pleasant when it's directed at other people.

"Hakkai-sama," he throws back at Ken, voice gone low and cold, "fucking Hakkai-sama thinks I'm his dead boyfriend, okay?" Something in his chest locks up, making it hard to get a full breath. "And I've remembered enough," he continues, bitterly, forcing the words through, "to know that I'm not the guy he's seeing."

He can't stop remembering. Every time he closes his eyes he sees Hakkai's face, smiling up at him. No, not him: at the Sha Gojyo who knew who he was. At the right Gojyo. He's the wrong one, the corpse still moving and feeling. (His anger is burning off, gutted by a rush of grief and self-loathing, and the guilt-blight on the back of his neck seethes up glistening purple.) Hakkai and Chikusa are talking, but Gojyo can't hear anything over the thudding of his own heartbeat and the deafening rush of blood in his ears. He can't be that other Sha Gojyo – even if he wanted to, he wouldn't know where to start – but the shell of a person that he's been reduced to doesn't know how to do anything that doesn't hurt other people.

If he says that out loud, though, Hakkai will feel compelled to fight with him, to try and convince him that he's wrong. And Gojyo will start to hope, and god, he's just so tired of hoping. So instead he'll pick a fight with Ken, and Ken will turn into some animal again, and beat him senseless, and for awhile Gojyo won't have to make any more decisions.

It's the best option, really.

Gojyo shoves Ken away again, hard. "So you and Caca-peepee can keep your helpin' hands to yourself.”

Yeah, that about does it.

Ken takes the opportunity of being shoved away to yank out a cartridge and snap it over his teeth in one smooth, practiced motion - Wolf Channel, which shouldn't surprise anyone, as it tends to be one of his favorites to default to. And then he's launching himself at Gojyo in a full-body tackle, teeth bared.

He's not exactly trying to fight indoors. Ideally, he'll pin Gojyo and that will be the full extent of the fight, because that won't involve trashing Hakkai's temple. But there's no way he's letting someone not just use his nickname for Chikusa, but mock it.

He'll address the other stupid stuff in a second.

"Don't call him that!" It's practically a roar.

Hakkai is not any good at fighting with people until they feel better. For a healer, he reflects, he's not very good at making other people feel better at all; closing their wounds, yes. Listening to their problems, and saying something useful, no.

And he's tried telling Gojyo he's wrong about being someone else; he's tried reasoning it out, and here he is, saying it again.

If Gojyo thinks he's the deluded one, no amount of reason is going to help. Perhaps fighting someone until he feels better is what he needs right now.

Hakkai cuts a glance sideways at Chikusa as Ken hurls himself into the tackle and the two go flying, each struggling for advantage.

"That's not exactly what I told you. But it's close enough."

The plates rattle dangerously on the table; Hakkai casts a thoughtful look over them, and then gets to his feet, starting to collect the water glasses as blight sears through him like acid, spilling very visible purple over the back of his neck.

Chikusa glances right back at Hakkai as the god looks at him, one eyebrow cocked up. "Ken technically didn't agree to anything like I did," he says simply, stepping away so that Hakkai has room to get to his feet. "So it's good enough." As long as there's no blood for them to clean up, it should be fine.

What isn't fine is the warped purple he can see crawling up the back of Hakkai's neck, a warning of something that will only get worse. Chikusa won't feel guilty for threatening to stab Gojyo in the eye with chopsticks; Ken might for getting into a fight but he also might not. No, this is a problem with every single bit of the origin being Gojyo. That means it's not going to be an easy thing to solve, not until they make the redhead himself stop being such a jackass.

So temporary measures will have to be used. While Ken and Gojyo rattle the walls with their struggle, and Hakkai collects the water glasses, Chikusa shuffles to one of the entrances leading out into the hallway. There, waiting like the live audience on a soap opera, are some of the nekomata population.

Pookie, typically, is right there at the front of the pack, and cranes her neck to look at him. They've probably all been enjoying the drama.... but whatever. It's useful in this case. "If you get some of the temple water," he says plainly, "then I'll give you the rest of my pork."

Just like magic, their ears all perk up, and more than a few tails start swishing. "The whole thing?" Pookie negotiaties carefully.

"Yeah."

"The terms of your agreement are accepted!" And just like that, the cats go darting off, claws scrabbling against the floor. Maybe they were actually just waiting for someone to get incapacitated so they could steal some meat anyway... Whatever. Turning away and trusting literal cat demons to stick to the task, Chikusa focuses on the fight once more.

What makes everything just that much harder is that, although he hates to admit it, he doesn't actually want to hurt Ken. He wraps his long arms around Ken's throat -- or tries to, anyway -- trying to use his size to force Ken to the ground. Ken's fast, and strong, and when he puts in any of those teeth, Gojyo's discovered, he's even faster and stronger yet.

But Gojyo's discovered that recently that he can take a lot of damage and keep going. And he's pretty fast and strong himself.

And an asshole, but he already knew that.

"What, are you defending his honor?" He manages to keep a shit-eating rictus grin plastered across his face as he and Ken pummel each other. "I didn't know you two had that kind of relationship." Distantly, he wondered what other magic teeth Ken might have in his pocket. What else can he turn into? An elephant? An ant? How far will Gojyo have to push him to find out? "You know he's not real either, right? None of us are."

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