thenearshore | Closed

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Who: Hakkai and Hibari
What: Hakkai feels the need to confront a certain violent shinki about his actions....
When: Backdated to May 3rd
Where: Gojyo's Temple
Warnings: Hibari

Hibari wasn't happy when he left the sakura party, and he certainly wasn't happy later when he'd stashed himself far from his god in Hakkai's new temple. It of course, had to be run by the same asshole who'd pushed him into a duck pond; but he was allowed to stay as long as he didn't actually punch Gojyo in the face.

Or the creepy shinki who kept wandering around, that Hibari had gotten into a tussle a couple times with before he realized how little fight there was to be had and ignored him.

Still creepy.

The best part about staying over though, was the little dragon. Jeep seemed to be getting along with Kishi just fine, and Hibari was more than content to complain about his situation to the creature while petting him and feeding him fish.

He knew he was going to have to deal with the problem of Ren having another shinki eventually, but for right now, without a school to patrol and focus attention on, he was at a loss right here on Hakkai's couch.

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Hibari just stared back, his lip curling up in a snarl-before Hakkai did the unexpected and pulled back from him. He just pulled back and his hands fell to his sides, leaving the younger shinki thoroughly confused.

Why would Hakkai just stop fighting? He was more than strong enough to put up a fight, and Hibari was attacking him. It just didn't make any sense.

The strange action did give Hibari pause in his movements, most of the spiky balls vanishing from in front of him while he studied the other. "What are you even pulling?"

Hibari struck back out at Hakkai with his tonfas, the metal weapons aiming for his head and arms, but it lacked the aggressive fire from before.

"I told you I don't want to fight."

He didn't want to be bludgeoned unconscious, either, and so one of his arms flashed up to interpose itself between Hibari's tonfa and his head, but he kept his feet planted where they were. Hibari's aggression was fading enough that he doubted the blows would be hard enough to crack bone, and Hakkai didn't care about a bruise or two. His face stayed impassive as the tonfa struck his arms.

"So you are a coward after all," Hibari growled as his blows were blocked, but no further movement was made to attack. Why was he even doing this? Hibari was a real threat, and yet the older shinki didn't want to fight him? What kind of joke was this?

Hibari swung around to aim for Hakkai's rib cage again, but it was quickly losing its spark. If Hakkai didn't defend himself, he didn't know what to do; at this point, he'd been attacking as a defense mechanism.

"You're the one who wants to fight," Hakkai said, the sentence breaking for a soft grunt as he let Hibari's tonfa slam into his ribs. That would leave a mark, too, but there was no helping it. Hibari was losing the will to continue, which, Hakkai thought, he would count as a win.

Jeep launched himself up from the lamp in the corner, winging rapidly towards them with an aggrieved cry.

"You're the one who-" Hibari cut himself off as Jeep flew straight towards them. There was too much risk he'd hurt the little dragon in the attack; that was the only reason he could convince himself he stopped.

"Jeep, are you telling me to stop?"

Scolding in loud chirps, Jeep settled on Hakkai's shoulder and anchored his claws in shirt and a significant amount of skin. Hakkai turned his head, trying to aim a decent disapproving look at the little dragon; Jeep was on the wrong side, and he couldn't see more than a smear of white.

"I think he's telling us both to."

He reached up, finding Jeep's neck by touch and stroking his mane gently.

"Sit down, Hibari," he added, and took a seat of his own on the corner of the now-unoccupied couch. Jeep scolded him again, and drew a little more blood with those talons while shifting pointedly.

If nothing else, the errant shinki seemed bound to listen to the little dragon, who was chirping unhappily at them both. Hibari grudgingly sat down on the nearest couch, not putting his tonfa away almost in protest.

Briefly he wondered where Kishi went; he'd have to apologize to the kitten later with some treats. Same with Jeep, possibly. Hibari was avoiding eye contact with both of them, much like a dog that had been caught doing something it wasn't.

Hakkai let out a breath, as Jeep finally settled a little more onto his shoulder and accepted the petting, and looked over at Hibari again. The boy was perched on the other couch, tonfa in hand, looking awkward and embarrassed and ready to strike out again at a moment's notice.

"Where were we?" he said lightly. "Ah, yes. Don't attack Gojyo or his other shinki if you want to stay here, and, also, I'd like to see you make up with Ren. It's not as if he chose to take on another shinki, you know."

The first part of that Hibari almost expected. Yeah, it was probably a good idea he didn't attack Gojyo, even if he really didn't like the man, but that empty shell of a shinki had kept getting into his space. Hibari didn't like that.

The cloud guardian's fingers twitched, wanting to pet Jeep too. Unfortunately, Kishi had run into another room and Hibari couldn't go after him without any more trouble, making him even more restless. "Tell that shinki to stop crowding my space and I might actually consider it."

And as for Ren...."I refuse. Ren will attempt to make me work with him. Not only is he a filthy, weak mongrel, but I don't work with others."

Hakkai's fingers paused on Jeep's head, and he said bluntly, "Do you want a different god?"

The last time he'd asked, Hibari hadn't. Now, he didn't know if that were still true. Filthy, weak mongrel sounded -- well, like the sort of thing Hibari would say about anyone who he found annoying, honestly. And he was going to have to adjust to the idea that, as a shinki, he had no choice at all but to work with someone else.

"I don't want any god," Is what Hibari blurted out at first, before composing his emotions a little bit more. He'd already had this discusion with Hakkai: it was one of the first he remembered and had come up when he briefly became a Nora.

It was almost impossible to not have a god and survive, and that's what scared Hibari the most; if someone had to have his life in his hand, it had to someone respected and yet someone that Hibari could beat.

Ren had been at least half of that until recently, and Hibari started curling his legs into himself thinking about it. The tonfa still hung from his hands, but he didn't have a death grip on them anymore.

"I haven't been there for days. The idiot keeps texting me but I'm not going back, even if I have to stay in an abandoned temple." Hakkai may know him well enough that it meant pretty much a yes in his book. The shinki rarely looked this serious and for a tiny, fragile moment, he'd lost all of his fighting spirit.

It however, sprung back up almost instantly as his normal cold expression returned and he called Roll to one of his hands in lieu of a tiny dragon to pet.

"Then you're sure," Hakkai said mildly. Poor Ren. He really had tried, Hakkai thought, and folded his hands on his knee, staring absently ahead at the wall. Jeep considered him, made an annoyed little noise, and winged his way over to nestle into Hibari's hair instead.

After a few seconds, Hakkai added, "You're welcome to stay here, but I'm not sure if Gojyo would be a particularly compatible god for you. If you're not going back to Ren, you'll need someone."

He froze up as the unnatural weight settled on his head, only to relax when he realized it was Jeep. "I apologize for disturbing you, little one," Hibari murmured to the dragon, reaching up to stroke at the little dragon's head.

However, Hibari gave Hakkai an absolute offended look. "I don't want THAT filthy drunk as my god."

Even if it meant he'd have an excuse to hang out around Hakkai and Jeep, but it wasn't worth having his feelings shared with that rambling excuse of a god. "I don't know anyone else, but I'd rather choose my poison or die alone than stay there."

"No," Hakkai murmured, "I didn't think you would." It was just as well: he didn't particularly want to share. Asshole hardly counted, and Sanzo was mostly Sanzang's, but Hibari wasn't the type to be either a nora or unobtrusive.

Thoughtfully, he added, "You can wait until you find someone, I suppose. But you need to tell Ren this."

He wasn't planning to carry Hibari's bad news himself, although, if Hibari refused to, Hakkai supposed he would have to be the one to do it. Ren deserved to know. He'd been working to make it up to Hibari, and if that wasn't going anywhere... well.

That just got another scathing glare returned. "You aren't my caretaker."

Hibari shifted slightly, if only to make it so he wasn't sitting on his feet anymore. He was careful not to disturb Jeep anymore than he had already. "I will fight someone I find worthy and choose them. I don't need anyone to interfere."

"If I wanted to interfere, I'd tell him myself," Hakkai said, and attempted to share a this-is-ridiculous look with Jeep. The little dragon looked as unimpressed with Hakkai as anyone else, which rather spoiled the effect, he thought.

He really was going to have to apologize for that scuffle.

"Good luck," he added, dryly.

"That sounds less than sincere coming from your mouth," Hibari crabbed back, but was distracted by a small mew at his feet. Apparently Kishi had come back now that everything had settled down.

Hibari didn't smile, per se, but his face softened as the little cat jumped up onto his legs and mewed again. "Hello Kishi. I'm glad to see you again."

And for the human, he added. "Having someone stronger with power over you will most likely be just as bad as someone weaker. I feel like I made a promise long ago to never let this happen."

Hakkai smiled briefly at the kitten, who was ignoring him in favor of beginning to knead earnestly on Hibari's thigh, and re-folded his hands. The scrapes from Hibari's handcuff spikes were beginning to swell. He'd have to wash them out, he noted, and looked back up at the boy.

"I understand, you know. I don't want anyone to have power over me, stronger, weaker or exactly the same. But..."

His fingers unclasped and re-clasped themselves, absently, and he met Hibari's gaze.

"... When you've made a promise you can't keep, you only have two choices: to break it or die trying to keep it. Shinki can't be free. Is your promise worth dying for?"

"Do you think I would remember something like that? I can't even remember why sakura makes me sick, much less why I refuse to let any of these herbivores see me defeated," Hibari growled, for all good that would do when he was sitting still with Jeep on his head.

He let Kishi keep kneading his knee, secretly glad that the little kitten had decided to come back after all. "Besides, I'm already dead. What could my life even be worth at this point?"

"As much as you want it to be worth," Hakkai replied, and leaned back against the couch cushions, letting his head fall back to look at the ceiling. What were their lives worth? Perhaps Gojyo was right, and the idea that they were dead was an illusion, but Hakkai isn't sure he trusts that. Regardless, they're here now. They have their second chance -- or whichever chance this is, by now. Hibari has already died once. As for Hakkai?

If his, Sanzo and Gojyo's duplicates really are their former incarnations, who knows how many chances he's had by now, he thinks, and smiles to himself, lifting his head from the cushions again.

"As for me, I'll sell this life dearly. Who knows when I'll have another?"

"I forgot you have little regard for your own self despite being such a hypocrite. I'm surprised Jeep even likes you." Hibari couldn't quite understand what the dragon told him or why he always hung out with Hakkai, since small animals had better senses than that.

"Do you really believe that dying isn't something humiliating enough? You won't have your memories back and I'm not gonna guarantee your safety if you do anything like that." If Hakkai died....well, that would be the end of it probably.

"It sounds like I'm taking more care of my life than you are of yours," Hakkai said flatly. He wasn't the one planning to casually throw his life away because he was too proud to accept a master, after all.

He'd been tempted after Elsa left, but the sting of choosing a new god was soothed by the knowledge that refusing one would be the end of him, sooner or later. And the end of him for no good reason whatsoever. He'd never be as casual about it as Sanzo had chosen to be, but he could bow to someone, if he had to.

It helped that neither Gojyo nor Elsa had ever wanted subordination.

Hakkai really was lucky Jeep and Kishi were still on him and that he didn't want to offend them further; otherwise, all the man was getting was a severely dirty look. "My life isn't worth anything anymore. I'm dead. And I highly doubt in life it was worth more than my pride either way."

"That's your choice, of course," Hakkai said. His tone was very mild. "You're not as dead as you might think, though. You're here now, aren't you?"

"I've already died once and apparently come back in the same way. Clearly something wants me to stay here. A life isn't worth something if it belongs to someone else."

Hibari's hands reached up towards Jeep, at least trying to coax the dragon off his head so he could finally move his neck without disturbing the creature.

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