won't you take me

[kokuyoyo]

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.

Comments

[kokuyoyo]

The way Ken makes me feels is more than anything you could do.

[Which is really rather impressive, honestly, and Chikusa doesn't regret saying it.]

....But we'll talk, from now on. Right?

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai laughs, dryly, under his breath.]

In other words, I couldn't ruin your day even if I tried? I see.

[He shakes his head.]

But yes. That doesn't mean I won't talk to anyone else, but I'll talk to you, too, from now on.

[kokuyoyo]

....Good.

[Which isn't the best way to express gratitude for this step, but, well. Chikusa doesn't really know many other ways to go about this.]

[He only knows the one way, which he reveals as he pushes away from the fridge so that he can properly turn around. There's a jar on top that only his horrifically lankly limbs can reach, which he pulls down. Removing the top, he shuffles over to Hakkai to reveal the bounty: some more cannoli that has been wrapped up in plastic and hidden away.]

....Also, is Goku staying, because I'm going to start booby trapping the kitchen if he is....

[He had to tell him about your sex life to make him cook in peace, Hakkai.]

[reformedsinner]

Goku doesn't do well living on his own.

[He can cope without Sanzo, which is a good thing, since Hakkai has no idea where Sanzo is or how to get him back. He can't cope in his temple with no one but a soulless shinki there with him.]

And all he has right now is a soulless shinki, so it might be better if he stays with us.

Oh, you can booby-trap the kitchen if you have to. You might catch Ken, though.

[kokuyoyo]

[Chikusa loves Ken. They've been with one another for their entire lives, going up against the entire world that discarded them, and there's nothing that could happen that Ken's presence alone couldn't drag Chikusa's misery away...]

[But.]

Good.

[He will have no remorse nor pity if his dumb dog boyfriend gets caught in a booby trap because he was trying to raid the kitchen.]

[Chikusa nudges the jar against Hakkai's arm a little.]

[reformedsinner]

[Is that an offer? Hakkai dries his hands on the now-damp dishtowel, and reaches to pick one of the cannoli out of the jar.

He figures that anyone who can't handle Chikusa's booby traps deserves whatever they get, and he doubts Chikusa'd make anything anywhere near fatal if there's the possibility that Ken would be caught in them. So, in other words, it'll be educational.]

Incidentally... did you have to tell Goku about me and Gojyo?

[kokuyoyo]

[It's definitely an offering, because how else are you supposed to show appreciation besides food offerings? Using your words? Ha ha, he doesn't think so.]

Ah... I didn't think it would be that big a deal... if he knew you both... If it makes you feel better, I only said you'd been intimate...

[Not that him and Gojyou couldn't apparently keep their hands off of each other in a public place... or that Hakkai got a hand shoved down his pants... Chikusa will spare others that knowledge.]

[reformedsinner]

That isn't something that he knew about us.

[Which is, if Chikusa gets a better idea of Goku's observational skills, tantamount to saying, We weren't intimate before. At the moment, though, it's not only safe to say, but Hakkai suspects Goku's probably told him the same thing.

He takes a bite of the cannoli, chews, swallows, and wipes a speck of cream off his bottom lip.]

I, ah... did mention that I don't talk about personal things.

[kokuyoyo]

[Whether or not that was something in the past, well, things have obviously changed now... but that doesn't really matter. Chikusa just gives a single nod.]

...I don't plan on saying anything else to him. It just came up since he said Gojyo would be better at getting you into bed.

[reformedsinner]

[In other words, it was innuendo. Hakkai stares wearily into the middle distance. He shouldn't, he supposes, be surprised.]

I've already had to talk about it with Goku, so I suppose it's not a problem anymore....

[kokuyoyo]

He had a pretty high opinion of you not being a "pervert" like Gojyo.

[Meanwhile, Chikusa's standards have always been low.]

[reformedsinner]

At least I'll say for myself that I'm more discriminating.

[Whereas Gojyo will hit on anyone... or would.

That, too, seems to be a habit that's fallen by the wayside with his memories, and Hakkai finds himself wondering, again, how much of the Gojyo he'd thought he'd known was a facade. Or is it that this Gojyo is acting against his impulses because he thinks it's the best way to make himself someone else?

Even now that Hakkai can get a sense of his emotions, he can't begin to answer those questions.]

[kokuyoyo]

You're most discriminating for... bothered me in the kitchen with his meat puppet theory... after saying he'd help with the cooking.

[The last part, honestly, is the most annoying thing about it. If Gojyo is just an annoying pain in the ass, well, fine. Chikusa has low hopes for most people, so it's fine. Yet just when it had seemed like he might have gotten over... whatever, and was being useful, he slid back into annoying again.]

[With his dumb held-back giggling as an additional bonus. Chikusa reaches in for a cannoli himself.]

[reformedsinner]

[Hakkai gives Chikusa another blank look as he finishes off the cannoli in a last bite.]

Meat puppet theory?

[That's not the same thing as Gojyo's insistence that he's definitely not the same as the Sha Gojyo he used to be, is it? Has this bizarre theory evolved?]

[kokuyoyo]

He apparently thinks... we're just corpses.... who got other people's memories put into us.

[Chikusa shoves as much of the cannoli into his mouth as possible, chewing as he lets Hakkai just process that.]

I told him he was stupid and it didn't matter.

[reformedsinner]

Well, that's certainly a refinement of the last theory he had.

[But there's a very obvious similarity, which is that Gojyo still refuses to entertain the idea that he could be the person who belongs with any of his memories. No, he has to be someone else, somehow. A monster, a corpse.

Anything is better, it seems, than being Sha Gojyo.]

If we are puppets, I think it's the other way around, isn't it? We're dead people in animate bodies.

But I doubt he's put too much thought into this, except that he doesn't want to be himself.

[kokuyoyo]

Before he started that... He said if he was an asshole about things that mattered... I'd call him out on it.

[There's hardly anymore cannoli in his hand due to the enormous bite he'd taken before, so Chikusa falls back into nibbles.]

I told him I would, by pushing him down the stairs. Do you think that conspiracy theory counts...?

[reformedsinner]

Perhaps a small flight. There's a difference between being a fool and being an asshole, after all.

[So Gojyo really only deserves to be pushed down four or five steps for this particular theory. Unless, of course, it incites him into behavior that can be described as "asshole."

Hakkai can think of plenty of possibilities along those lines. His imagination is too good sometimes. It's a curse.]

[kokuyoyo]

Noted.

[Time to find a small flight of stairs... and time it just right.]

...Tomorrow. I learned some things in that forest. I'll talk to you about them tomorrow.

[reformedsinner]

I'll look forward to it... and see if there's anything I need to talk to you about, in the meantime.

[He sighs, and leans a bit more heavily on the counter. To his embarrassment, his legs are feeling weak; it's been a long day, and he hasn't been sitting down for more of it than he's absolutely had to.]

I'm worried about Ayumu, for one thing. I think she's blaming herself for Sanzang.

[kokuyoyo]

[This is exactly why he told you to rest, Hakkai. Exactly why. Chikusa doesn't say anything, however. He just slowly shifts his gaze back to the kitchen.]

....Yeah. That... sounds right... [Her, Hakkai, and himself all seem to be similar in that regard.] So.... What do you want to do?

[reformedsinner]

Keep an eye on her, for now. If she winds up with a god who will take good care of her, then we might not need to intervene, but otherwise...

[Even if she winds up with a god who would take care of her, but who's too young or innocent to properly grapple with Ayumu's self-blame.

Hakkai knows that he and Chikusa understand that kind of self-destructive impulse. Not everyone does... which is probably for the best, but a source of worry, too.]

[kokuyoyo]

...And if we do?

[Chikusa isn't so optimistic about finding Ayumu a god that will help her. After all...]

[Him and Hakkai have both had to go through ablutions before they could be free of their own guilt.]

[reformedsinner]

Being there for her is the first step. As for the second... well, if she can't let go of the guilt without an ablution, I know shinki who can help.

[The corner of his mouth tilts, not quite amused.] Even if I can't anymore, myself.

[kokuyoyo]

...I can... try to talk to her.

[He's not very good with this kind of thing but, for Ayumu, he'd make the attempt.]