Just another day in Temple Trainwreck

[kokuyoyo]

Who: The Li Tieguai temple
What: Everyone has to deal with the aftermath of sharpie face writing, stolen booze, and boobytrapped teenage rooms.
When: November 23rd
Where: The Li Tieguai Temple


The outside of the temple of Li Tieugai paints a picture- that of serenity in beautiful herb gardens surrounding calm ponds, and of unassuming plainness. Likewise, its owner and exemplar seem to be calm, intelligent individuals who conduct themselves maturely.

These things are all huge lies.

Comments

to Hakkai

[kokuyoyo]

The second they'd come back to the temple, automatically reunited from Chikusa's day at the library and Ken's ventures wherever, his partner had almost immediately whined about something bothering his nose.

It hadn't taken long to realize that someone had broken into their room and set off a trap, not after a quick check in the kitchen and confirmation from Ken that the smell was coming from upstairs. Hell, even a look down the upstairs hall had revealed his flour trap, set outside to the left of their bedroom door. Ken had been reluctant to get too close considering his nose, although he'd been on the lookout in case, and it had been up to Chikusa to do a quick scout of the room. Sure, it was a mess before... but it had been their mess.

And their mess didn't have his hats tossed on the floor or their mattresses shoved right off the bed frame.

If there's any good news, it's that a quick check shows that only his wire trap had been activated, and nothing from Ken's stash, his poisons, or even the bottles had been removed. So, it at least did its job there. Still.... He has a sneaking suspicious for who it could be, and a quick check with Ken (away from the room) confirms the smells leading there.

So. Here he is, hunting down Hakkai, so he can bluntly say, "You and Gojyo went through our room."

[reformedsinner]

"Ah, you're home," Hakkai replies, putting down the dishtowel he'd been drying pans with and turning to smile at Chikusa with a slightly aggressive edge. "I'd been meaning to talk to you about that. It needs cleaning, and I'd appreciate if you didn't set up traps that Bon could trigger if he tries to go looking for a bag of chips."

After all, the best defense is a good offense... and he's confident his offense is on solid ground.

[kokuyoyo]

Oh. So they're getting right into it, then. Slowly, Chikusa reaches up to nudge his glasses further back through the middle.

"Maybe Bon needs to stay out of my room and stop chewing on my hats," he counters, which is something he's had to deal with since what seems like forever. Hibari Kyoya is a piece of shit and Chikusa would poison him in his sleep if he could. "And the only traps of note are ones he'd have to work at getting to." His eyes narrow minutely.

"Like under two mattresses. And a bedframe. And behind half a dozen different bags."

[reformedsinner]

"You mean, where you stashed all of the alcohol that ought to be in the kitchen?" Hakkai inquires pleasantly.

Since it seems they're getting right into it, after all. As for the half a dozen different bags....

"I suspect there are ants in heaven. And there are going to be ants in the temple if those empty bags aren't cleaned up."

[kokuyoyo]

"They're not empty, and they don't have food in them." So that's a moot point, as far as Chikusa is concerned. Besides, ants aren't the big picture, and they both know it.

"Why did you need alcohol anyway?"

[reformedsinner]

"Gojyo needed to wash something off his face," Hakkai replied. Chip bags that no longer contained food, frankly, were just as likely to attract ants; the smears of grease and crumbs were exactly what they'd enjoy. He sighs.

"Why did you hide it all under your bed?"

[kokuyoyo]

Oh. He can imagine exactly what Gojyo needed to get off his face, having been responsible for that, too. Well, he's not apologizing for it. "He'll have more to wash off after what he did to my hats," Chikusa mutters. The mess isn't really that much of a bother, and the traps seem to have taken care of them snooping around under the bed.

Speaking of....

"It seemed like the best place," he answers simply.

Open to anyone in the temple

[junkyarddog]

Ken is clearly in a bad mood about the raid on his and Chikusa's room, and the unpleasant side effect of his nose being too sensitive to go anywhere near where the pepper spray went off. He's hunched up in front of the TV, sulky and upset, face half-buried in Bon's fur; the only person he's not currently resentful towards in the entire temple is Asshole. Even Chikusa's facing some aggravation for what Ken thinks was a really stupid variety of booby trap.

[reformedsinner]

Hakkai isn't about to apologize to Chikusa for tossing their room and setting off the pepper spray trap Chikusa had left around every bottle he'd looted from the kitchen. No, he's a little too annoyed at Chikusa for that.

Ken, on the other hand, may be responsible for the extent of the mess but isn't likely to be responsible for the pepper spray traps at ankle level. Ken can get an apology; Hakkai slips into the front room carrying a tray with a pot of tea (herbal, gingery, and mildly pleasant in scent) and a plate of cookies (chocolate sable, and meant as an overture of peace.) He sets it on the coffee table, and sits opposite Ken in the armchair, picking up the teapot.

"Would you like a cup?" he inquires. "I'm sorry about your room."

[junkyarddog]

"Why'd you go in our room?" Ken demands, brooding eyes regarding him over Bon's fur. He makes no move toward the tea and cookies, which is a clear sign of agitation. Tea, Ken might not care about, but he has to be worked up to be uninterested in cookies. "What'd you do? Kakipi doesn't leave the traps out where we can set 'em off easy; you went through our stuff!"

The pepper spray keeping Ken out of their room means that Ken actually has no idea what Hakkai and Gojyo did in there, or how bad it is. All he has is the context clue that they set off one of Chikusa's traps, a fairly significant one even if it still meant to be non-lethal. Needless to say, the not knowing has him even more on edge.

[reformedsinner]

Hakkai hadn't really expected Ken to say yes to the tea, but he's genuinely startled that he doesn't grab a cookie. He pours both cups full regardless, leaving one on the tray as he sits back with the other cradled between his palms.

"Chikusa hid all the alcohol in the house under your bed," he says bluntly. "I needed some to clean ink off Gojyo's face."

So, yes, he'd gone through Ken and Chikusa's belongings, but only because his belongings were hidden among them.

[junkyarddog]

This explanation is not going to get Hakkai as far as he might have hoped it would. Ken's scowl doesn't abate.

He's heard about what happened to Gojyo's face, of course, given all the time he spends with Chikusa. This does not translate directly into sympathy for Gojyo.

"So Gojyo pissed off Kakipi," he says accusingly, "and you pissed off Kakipi, and when he did stuff to you guys 'cause you made him mad, you raided our room and messed with both our stuff instead of just talking to him? That's just gonna make it worse! Do either of you even care that he's upset with you?! And I didn't do anything, but now I'm mad at both of you too!"

He turns his head and buries his nose more in Bon's fur. Some of the sting from the pepper spray is able to reach his nose even at this distance...though perhaps there are traces of it clinging to Hakkai. "I want him to get along with you and Gojyo," he mumbles. "I've been trying to get him to stop being so mad at you both. And now I feel stupid, 'cause maybe he's right. You both do stupid stuff that hurts people 'cause you won't listen to us when we tell you to stop being jerks. You don't talk to us about important stuff, and Gojyo's been picking fights with all of us since he got here but gets mad that Kakipi messes with him.

"You could've *asked* us for the stupid alcohol. Or bought new stuff." His arms tighten around Bon, who whines a little uneasily.

[reformedsinner]

Hakkai stares evenly over his teacup until Ken finishes the lecture, and then reaches out to set the teacup back down on his side of the tray.

"I'm sorry that you're mad at us about this, Ken, but that doesn't mean that I don't have the right to go into your room when Chikusa has hidden things that belong to me in there. I won't agree to respect your space more -- and this has to apply to both of you, because you share a room -- than you respect mine.

"Chikusa and Gojyo can work things out between themselves," he adds. "But I've talked to Chikusa about this already. It's not your responsibility to try to work things out between him and me; that's our responsibility."

[junkyarddog]

"Don't say you're sorry if you don't think you did anything wrong," Ken grumbles. He's stubbornly not looking at Hakkai. "You're saying you'll do it again, so you don't care that much how I feel about it."

When he does shoot Hakkai a sidelong look, it's a dark, hurt one. "So I'm not supposed to involve myself in stuff that's between you and Kakipi, but you'll raid our room to help Gojyo with stuff that's between him and Kakipi. Even if it's Gojyo's fault Kakipi doesn't like him. Even if it means messing with my stuff when I didn't do anything wrong." He looks away again. "You'll hurt us to help Gojyo. That's why you never asked us if it was okay if you took Gojyo as a shinki, right? You wouldn't have cared if we said no. But you wouldn't have taken me as a shinki if Ayumu said no...so you asked her."

If Hakkai didn't know that Ken's deep loyalty is a double-edged sword, he's learning it now. Perceived betrayals of Ken's loyalty, of that loyalty not being returned, are extremely serious breaches of trust.

[kokuyoyo]

Honestly, Chikusa finds the whole mess to be an extremely temporary one, not worth any fuss... but he knows better (by some miracle) than to say that out loud. All he does is begin to pack up some things, loaded up with them as he passes by the living room. A large bucket of cold water, some dish soap, and a hammer sticking out of his pocket are the load out for today, apparently.

It doesn't really need any addressing, but he says it out loud anyway, so Ken can't ignore him quite as easily. "I'm going to clean it up, Ken."

[junkyarddog]

"Why'd you have to use pepper spray, byon?" Ken mumbles from the depths of Bon's fur. This is probably the fourth or fifth time he's asked this.

[kokuyoyo]

If there's one thing he hates, it's repeating himself over and over... but considering he knows that Ken's just griping out of grumpiness, and that it's Ken, Chikusa lets it slide just a little. Sighing, he slowly lowers the cold water down onto the floor and slumps against the doorframe.

"Would you rather Hakkai get poisoned?" he asks bluntly.

[junkyarddog]

Ken huffs. "It's not like pepper spray and poison were your only choices, don't be dumb."

[kokuyoyo]

"But they're what I know best." After all, in the memories he can recall, they've almost always been on the run, always hiding. In situations like those, a nonlethal trap was a stupid concept.

But, well. Now things have changed.

"There aren't a lot of options... for nonlethal traps... and if they're too complicated, it becomes a problem. Especially in our room, which is too small... and cluttered." He huffs quietly. "Pepper spray isn't hard to clean out.... So I didn't figure it would be a severe problem."

[junkyarddog]

"There's no point keeping people out of our room and out of our stuff if it makes it so I can't use the things either, stupid kappa," Ken mutters, hiding his face in Bon again. "And you can't clean it out of stuff completely."

[erogappa]

He knew the stink -- and the intrusion -- would be a problem for Ken. Chikusa could go slowly fuck himself into a fire ant-filled hole in the ground, but Ken? Ken's really not a bad guy. So Gojyo's actually been waiting for an opportunity to talk to him, without his handler. And when he spots Ken in the TV room trying to breathe through a giant dog filter, he knows it's his chance.

"Hey." He stays well back, just close enough to the couch to be able to toss the packet in his hand towards Ken, aiming for the couch just next to him. It's a king-size packet of beef jerky, Sweet Teriyaki. "For you."

[junkyarddog]

Gojyo's time with Goku has clearly served him well, because he's speaking Ken's language like a native. Ken perks up a little as he looks over, and when he eyes Gojyo it's with significantly less suspicion and hostility than Gojyo probably merits after raiding Ken's room.

"Is this 'cause you guys tore up our room?"

[erogappa]

For tearin' it up? No.

[ There's still ink on his face. Gojyo folds his arms and leans against the door frame, the picture of casual delinquency. The letters aren't legible anymore, not after he scrubbed all the skin off his face and then followed up with an alcohol wash -- instead, he looks like a kid covered in blackheads, or maybe like he sprouted a double handful of very dark freckles overnight. Still, it's better than literally being labeled a coward. ]

No, Chikusa earned that by stealin' Hakkai's liquor. [ He nods at the packet in Ken's hand. ] But it's not your fault your boyfriend's an asshole who put a stink bomb under your bed.

[junkyarddog]

He didn't steal it, he moved it. [Ken huffs.] Hakkai-sama made him mad about something. And I know Kakipi; he could've done way worse than just move some bottles around if he didn't like Hakkai-sama.

[He eyes Gojyo.] And for how much you made him mad, he could've done a lot worse than just drawing on your face, too. Axel-sama was more important to him than anybody, and him being gone still hurts, and you mocked us and our gods. Kakipi's definitely killed people for hurting us less than that. [He looks down at the bag, seemingly considering whether to open it or not, and then - apparently resolved
- he starts trying to tear into it with his teeth. Considering the fangs he's got, this works rather better for him than someone with a normal human mouth, although it's neither graceful nor neat.] He's mad at you, but he's behaving for Hakkai-sama. [These words are slightly indistinct as his teeth tear holes in the package, but soon it's open and his words become less distorted as he merely talks around chewing some jerky.]

If you apologized, he'd probably leave you alone. He's too lazy to bother anybody unless he's really mad. [He eyes Gojyo speculatively.] And you're okay when you're not being dumb. I want him to get along with you if you're gonna stay here.

[erogappa]

[ ”He didn’t steal it,” Ken complains, and Gojyo’s opinion of the kid drops another ten points. Taking somebody’s stuff and hiding it behind a series of booby traps isn’t stealing now? But he really shouldn’t have expected any different – Chikusa apparently can’t do any wrong in Ken’s eyes, and he should have known that going in. Dog boy’s loyal, if nothing else.

But he’s here to make peace, and so he listens more or less politely as Ken goes on and on about how Chikusa is the wronged party here, and manages to not even roll his eyes at the suggestion that he should apologize. Barely. But his whole posture reeks of disdain and annoyance by the time Ken’s done, and his tone, when he replies, is definitely less friendly and a lot more pissed off. ]

Why was he mad at Hakkai? [ All that other shit, Chikusa being the poor put-upon lazy asshole, that’s just Ken’s rose-tinted glasses talking. If Gojyo starts arguing with him about that stuff, they’re just gonna fight… which isn’t off the table, but it’s also not his goal here. ] Was it ‘cause he brought me here?