[It would be easy to lean forward and hold him, and Hakkai wants to, so desperately that he finds himself resisting on principle. What principle, he couldn't say. Whether it's all his own desire...

... he couldn't say, with Gojyo looking at him and describing a memory of the two of them in bed, and Chikusa and Ken probably making out in the backyard by now. But it's not all someone else's.

His hand curls protectively around Gojyo's.]

Well, Chikusa's planning to push you down the stairs quite a bit, so.

[It's a kind of atonement. Despite the words, his tone isn't a dismissal; it's soft and intimate, with only the slightest twist of humor.]

I haven't been kind to you, either.

I was afraid. I'm sorry. -- We'll probably both do it again.