thenearshore | won't you take me

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won't you take me

Who: The Li Tieguai clusterfuck
What: Well, we're out of a shitty haunted forest, who wants dinner?
When: November 16, evening
Where: Li Tieguai's Temple

Usually, when there's some big nonsense in Heaven, Chikusa can be found out cold or "away" in his own head for most of the following couple of days afterwards... but that apparently only counts for event which involve people. Spending an entire day trekking through a possessed forest filled with violent plant-life and cultists is manageable.... somehow.

No matter how exhausted or injured anyone in the temple is, food still has to be made, and Hakka is in no condition to make it. Thus, dinner is being arranged by the other cook in the house, and invitations have been sent out to the relevant people Chikusa thinks care- namely Nanako and Ayumu, along with anyone they seek to bring. That doesn't mean people checking in on the Li Tieguai temple can't just waltz right into the dinner as well....

There's a lot to do in the time leading up to dinner, after all, depending on when people show up (or, you know, realize there's smells coming from the kitchen). Bon, the resident enormous Tibetan Mastiff, demands attention in the form of bodily flinging himself at people. There's a goat in the garden, tied away from all the important medical herbs. At least four different nekomata wander in and out of the temple ground whenever they please, including Pookie, the most permanent resident, and never shut up.... Not to mention that a Kung-Fu movie has been put on the television for people to watch.

There's also a sign on all entrances to the kitchen that says: CHO HAKKAI IS NOT ALLOWED TO COOK. Presumably Chikusa put it up while making direct eye contact with him.

Either way, mess around until dinner, have dinner, crash in the living room where another kung-fu movie has been put on again... Have fun.

Oh, and before it can be forgotten.... The dinner menu for the night is fritto misto, meaty Amatriciana sauce with bucatini noodles, and all the garlic bread in the world apparently. For dessert? Cannoli again. That... might be all he knows how to make on the dessert front.

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Dinner should be ready soon.

[Zero pity.

Sorry, Goku, not even at the worst of times is Hakkai going to be soft enough to fall for that. He slides the other clothespin into place.]

Ah, but keeping busy will help you forget you're hungry in the meantime! Can you get me another sheet from the laundry basket?

[Sanzo would have fallen for it. Maybe. Goku would have stood a better chance than he does against Hakkai at least. Goku sighs, the most put upon monkey in the world. His life is truly suffering.]

Yeah, okay... [Trudges over to the basket and struggles to tug a sheet out without dropping half of it on the ground. Life's hard when you're a monkey trying to be a civilised member of society.]

I don't think I could forget any of it when it all smells so good though! I dunno how you do it, Hakkai. Aren't ya hungry?

[Sanzo would not only not have fallen for it, but he would have hit Goku with a fan for whining about it. Goku should consider himself lucky to have merely experienced a "no."

That is, assuming Chikusa hadn't used his rolling pin on Goku's fingers already.]

I suppose I'm a little hungry.

[He'd been drained as if he'd overused his chi, coming out of the forest, and that's left more of a mark than the effects of being tied up without food or water for a day. He's still rebuilding his energy.

At least he's not flat on his back, though. He can be fairly useful.]

But it's all about keeping your mind on other things!

[He doesn't care who feeds him as long as someone does.

Goku finally gets the sheet out of the basket and safely in his arms, wrapped up in one big ball. Hopefully he won't be holding it long enough to make wrinkles in the fabric. He pauses, looking down quietly for a moment.]

... Yeah, I know.

[When you can't do anything, you have to keep yourself busy some other way.]

[That, if anything, is the kind of expression that might convince even Hakkai to sneak the boy a spare pork bun. All he has in hand right now, though, are clothespins, and so he reaches out to pick up the edge of the sheet instead.]

Here, toss your edge over the line.

[When you can't do anything, you do have to keep yourself busy some other way.

When you can do something... well, Hakkai's still working on what they can do. He'll have to keep trying.]

Got it.

[Goku throws his edge of the sheet over the line and then ducks under it to catch it on the other side. Ah, it kind of looks like a mess... From behind the sheet, Goku tries to straighten it out along the line and look a little more like the others Hakkai has already hung up. He can do this. He can at least help Hakkai, even if it's only with little things like this.

If he falls a little quiet while he does so, that's probably fine.]

[It is fine. It's very understandable, to be honest. Hakkai fiddles a bit with the other end of the sheet while Goku straightens it out, letting the fabric between them give Goku a little bit of privacy with his emotions.

It's maybe not the best strategy, but it's the best strategy Hakkai feels capable of, in any case.

As the sheet begins to look more neatly spread out, he continues in a deliberately bright tone.]

But it won't be too long before dinner in any case! Have you had Italian food before? Chikusa is quite a good cook.

[Goku holds onto the sheet tightly for a moment. Then he forces himself to let go. Right, no moping. Especially just out of nowhere like that. He doesn't want to start doing that. If he's not careful, Hakkai will start to worry about him.

He ducks his head around the sheet, grinning brightly.] I can't wait to try it! It smells so good!

[They're happy, they're both smiling, they're great. This is great.]

[This is fine. Neither of them needs to talk about the things that are really weighing them down; Goku doesn't need to hear about Hakkai's, and he doesn't need to be forced to face his own. Not when there's nothing they can do about the worst parts of it.

Talking about Italian food is much better.]

Doesn't it? It's very rich, and there's plenty of garlic. I think what Chikusa's cooking tonight has a sauce with a sort of preserved pork?

[Talking about the things worrying you is an entirely unproductive use of their time. Better to wait until whatever the problem is can't be ignored and is possibly blowing up in front of their faces to start figuring out what's actually going on.

To be fair, talking about food is an excellent way of legitimately distracting Goku. His mouth might be watering.]

Aah, I want some pork... I smelled lots of bread too... and tomatoes...

[And Goku has already tried to steal all three of those things. It's a miracle only Hakkai's name is on the signs, honestly.]

[It's possible that their problems won't blow up! Vaguely possible!

Hakkai finishes pinning the sheet in place and heads for the basket to pull out some of the smaller towels in turn.]

Yes, the sauce has tomatoes in it, and he toasts bread with oil and garlic to go with it.

[--and, with a slightly put-upon sigh:]

Although I think he could stand to accept some help.

[Goku sighs too, with a slightly more dreamy tone. All that food sounds so good.]

I think Gojyo was helpin' him earlier. It's not fair, I dunno why he's allowed and I'm not.

[Because you weren't helping, Goku, you were stealing. Goku pauses for a second and then tentatively speaks.]

Um, Chikusa mentioned something about him, actually. Something kinda weird.

[It's possible he might be breaking the sacred nature of Laundry Club by mentioning A Problem now.]

Did you try to sneak any of the food he was making?

[Hakkai has tried to cook around Goku. Hakkai knows.

He blinks, raising his head to look over a freshly pinned towel at Goku's comment. With everything else Goku's been told about Gojyo recently, what is there that Chikusa could have told him that's "weird"?]

-- and did he? What?

Only a little!

[There's no point arguing about this with Hakkai. Hakkai knows Goku. Goku knows Hakkai knows Goku. Still, it's not such a big deal, is it? Trying to sneak off with a tomato or two, or a load of bread.]

Well, I mean, it was about you too. [Ugh, this is weird. He doesn't wanna talk about this. Why did he bring this up. Chikusa is just making stuff up, obviously.] He kept... sayin' the word "intimate" but I think he meant you guys were... doin' some stuff and I just...

[Save him.]

[Save Hakkai, too. He stares, taken off guard, with the tips of his ears actually turning very slightly red as he absorbs that statement.

So Chikusa told Goku that.]

I see.

Nothing really happened.

[There's just the faintest defensive hint of emphasis on really, enough to say as clear as the words Hakkai is definitely not going to use that Chikusa wasn't making anything up.]

[Just save them both from themselves. Wow, Goku isn't sure he's ever seen Hakkai blush even that much. That's weird.]

Nothin' really?

[Goku is confused. "Nothing really" isn't at all the same as "nothing". This is all kind of beyond him and he doesn't quite get it but something must have happened. Otherwise Hakkai would just laugh or say that Chikusa was being dumb. As it is, Goku is just lost.]

So... Chikusa was lying? [Can Hakkai look Goku in the eye and outright lie to him?]

[He can lie to Goku. But, in this case, he doesn't think it's a good idea. Goku is very straightforward, after all, and what Hakkai tells him -- if he believes it -- is likely to be repeated to others.

Others like Chikusa, for example, who Goku would immediately want to correct, and who isn't likely to have much patience for Hakkai's desire for privacy.]

No, he wasn't lying. I think he may have been exaggerating a little, though.

[That clears up absolutely nothing for Goku. He still has no clue what's going on. Chikusa was exaggerating when he said Gojyo and Hakkai had sex, but he wasn't lying? Nothing really happened but something happened? Why can't anyone just tell him clearly exactly what's going on?]

... Did you guys kiss or something?

[Is that something Gojyo and Hakkai are doing now?? Goku isn't sure how he feels about that. It's definitely not bad but... This is so weird.]

[Talking to Goku about the disaster that is his relationship with Gojyo is not exactly how he wanted to spend this afternoon, but, it seems, here he is. Chikusa owes him an apology for this.]

Yes, we did, but it was a mistake.

[And not one Hakkai's planning to repeat anytime soon: not with how thoroughly it had destroyed their barely-resurrected agreement to try to be friends, and not with how fragile Gojyo is now. He neatens the edges of one of the towels on the line, unnecessarily.]

So it's nothing to worry about.

I didn't say I was worried.

[There's something in the way Hakkai says "it's nothing to worry about" that makes Goku think it is something to worry about. However, there's also something about how tense Hakkai is that makes Goku worry for himself. He's missing information and it's strange. He's used to not understanding things Hakkai says, but they usually involve math in some way.]

... Are you worried?

I'm worried about him, but not for reasons that have anything to do with who he's kissing. It's Gojyo, after all....

[So, terrible kissing-related decisions are only to be expected, aren't they?

Ha ha.]

He's been running off and doing dangerous things a little too often.

Well, yeah, it's Gojyo but...

[But it's also Hakkai. He expects bad kissing-related decisions from Gojyo and maybe from random women he meets that don't know any better. Of all the bad decisions Hakkai makes, Goku never expected kissing to be involved in any of them.

Maybe he should just stay out of this one. When Sanzo gets back- which is bound to be any day now- he can ask him and maybe he'll know if they should get involved. Hakkai's already trying to change the subject, after all.]

He really freaked out when you were missing. He wanted to start setting everything on fire.

[Hakkai's made a lot of bad decisions lately. He'd rather Goku not find out about too many of them.

It's embarrassing, for one thing.]

Did he?

[Is he really that desperate for whatever stability Hakkai's presence seems to offer him? Hakkai winces.]

Well, I'm glad he didn't set everything on fire before we were out of the forest....

[Running off and doing dangerous things is way less embarrassing, all things considered. They're all so well practiced at it, after all.]

I stopped him! [Be proud of him, Hakkai, Goku was a responsible adult and voice of reason while you were gone.] And I told him you'd be fine, but he still kept freaking out.

[Gojyo's so dumb, not having blind faith in his friends abilities to survive all kinds of danger.]

[Running off and doing dangerous things is a normal kind of bad decisionmaking. Making out at parties is a very abnormal one. Hakkai'd rather not find himself having to explain the reasoning behind it.

It's all embarrassing.]

Well, you have to remember, he hasn't known me very long. [He doesn't have a good benchmark for Hakkai's resilience. And, besides, it hasn't been all that long since Hakkai was garrotted while trying to complete an ill-timed assassination attempt, anyway.]

But I'm glad you stopped him.

won't you take me

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