[Generic Disclaimer: Saiyuki and all the affiliated characters are copyright
to Kazuya Minekura. No profit has or will be made off
of this fiction.]
===
~ The Trouble With H
~
Summary: Gojyo and Goku are having trouble. And it
usually springs from things that begin with the letter H.
Warnings: PG-13
===
Gojyo woke up with a knot of dread in the pit of his stomach. Usually the
morning brought some eagerness, despite the early hours, but today’s sunrise
brought only a bad feeling. It took him a moment, disoriented by a rude
awakening by a certain monkey, to remember why.
He and Hakkai hadn’t spoken since yesterday morning, and he was wicked
pissed. Gojyo sat up in bed, running a hand through his hair with a curse. In
his own defense, Hakkai was getting all worked up over a stupid picture. But it
–was- his fault for letting Sanzo see it when Hakkai
obviously didn’t want him to.
“Damn monk, probably knew it already...” he leaned back against the
headboard, grabbing his cigarettes from the nightstand and shaking one out.
“Knew what?” Goku asked, coming out of the bathroom, rubbing a towel
vigorously through his hair.
Gojyo glared, lighting his cigarette. “None of your damn
business.”
Goku frowned. “God, cranky much? You guys have been
so moody lately—it’s getting on my nerves!”
The redhead scoffed. “You’re a fine one to talk. Jumping
through windows onto people.”
“It was all your fault!”
He got out of bed without reply, stretching dramatically and walking to the
doorway. He paused. “Hey kid, if threesomes are your thing, more power to ya...but I’ll pass.”
“PERVERT!” Goku yelled, throwing one of his nearby
boots at him. It bounced off the doorframe, landing on the floor outside.
Gojyo was already down the hall, walking casually to the next room.
---
Hakkai had decided, ever since Gojyo had let Sanzo see the picture, not to
talk about it. He was going to pretend nothing had happened. But talking to the
redhead would only lead to anger on one of their parts, so he decided also not
to talk to Gojyo until this had blown over a bit.
Leave it to Goku to come through...a window in this case, but it helped
nonetheless. With everyone’s attention on his little stunt from last night, the
infamous picture was now on the back burner. So went the soap opera that was
the ikkou’s lives.
Hakkai lay on his bed, eyes closed. Getting up early had both its good and
bad sides. Everything was packed and ready, leaving him with nothing to do but
wait for Goku and Gojyo. Sanzo had left already, out somewhere. He didn’t care
to tell, and Hakkai didn’t care to ask.
Upon retrospect, maybe silent treatment hadn’t been the best idea. Gojyo
didn’t get upset much—unless you tried to kill him, and even that was met
casually at times—but when he did he could hold a mean grudge. Hakkai had been
on the receiving end of such a grudge only once, and he was not anxious to do
so again.
He frowned. “Although it –was- his fault...”
Something hit his face hard. He yelped, clamping a hand over his stinging
cheek. He opened his eyes only to find Gojyo leaning over him. “You flicked
me?!”
“What a drama queen,” the redhead crossed his arms, sitting on the bed
beside his shocked friend. “Stop ignoring me.”
“I wasn’t ignoring you. I’d just rather not talk about it.”
“Like I did? If you’d have told me, instead of just pretending I didn’t
exist, we could’ve talked about anything else!” he leaned back, resting his
arms behind his head.
Hakkai poked him in the side. “Hindsight is always 20-20.”
Gojyo wiggled a little. “Whatever –that- means.”
The two sat in silence for a few minutes, and then Gojyo spoke up again.
“Look, I’m sorry I let the picture get out, okay?”
Hakkai sighed. “I suppose I did get a little more upset than was needed.”
“Although I think Goku got more upset than you, and he didn’t even see the
damn thing!”
The brunette raised an eyebrow. “Which leads me to my next
point...”
Gojyo winced. “Yeah yeah, I’m sorry about that
too. But you weren’t talking. I needed –something- to do!”
“I’ll admit...it was kind of funny...after the fact.” He looked at his
friend and smiled.
“So...we’re okay then?” Gojyo leaned on a hand.
“I believe so.” Hakkai stood. “But I think we’d better get moving before
Sanzo gets back and yells at you and Goku for not being ready.”
The kappa grinned. “I –always- ready!”
Hakkai shook his head.
---
With the two again on speaking terms, the day’s journey progressed smoothly.
Or as smoothly as one could get with the Sanzo party. The town was too far, so
it wound up being another fun campout.
After dinner, Hakkai decided to go out for a little nature walk. Gojyo went
with him, eager to make up for their missed day in conversation.
“You’ve still got it, don’t you?” he asked suddenly.
Hakkai stopped dead in his tracks. “Got what?’
“The picture,” Gojyo smirked. “I know you’ve still got it.”
The subject established, Hakkai continued walking, more for something else
to concentrate on that for an actual destination. “I have all the pictures.
I’ve got the first set, remember?”
“Yeah, but I’m not talking about the envelope. I’m talking about –that-
picture.”
Hakkai suddenly developed a fascination with a hangnail. “Yes. Why?”
He shrugged. “No reason. Just wanted to know if it was the kind of thing
you’d throw away.”
“What kind of question is that?”
The redhead dismissed him with a wave. “Never mind.
It’s not important.”
They started to head back, finding something easier to talk about, like
driving conditions, weather, demons they’d seen. They were almost to the camp
when they heard something above them.
Gojyo looked up. “What do you think that was?”
“Probably just some squirrel or something,” Hakkai answered, walking on.
Gojyo stood, looking up into the tree. He could see something moving, but he
couldn’t tell what it was. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to take any interest
in him, so the half-breed shrugged and started walking again.
“DEATH FROM ABOVE!” Goku cried, leaping from his
hiding place in the tree onto the surprised redhead.
Gojyo was thrown to the ground, Goku landing on his legs before jumping up again.
The kappa was after him in a second, chasing him through the campsite. “Damn
monkey! What the hell is your defect? You can’t go around jumping on people
like that! You coulda killed me!”
Hakkai and Sanzo watched the two run around for awhile, before the blond
grew annoyed. “Shut the hell up and stop acting like little kids!”
“You’re no fun,” Goku pouted, slumping down on ground in front of the fire.
“I’ll show you no fun,” the monk replied, yanking the boy up by his shirt. “Bedtime monkey.”
“Aw man!”
Gojyo smirked, sitting down next to Hakkai, watching the monkey get dragged
off. “Be a good monkey and do as mommy says!”
“You wanna go too?”
Gojyo hid behind Hakkai. “No mother...”
Sanzo glared, shoving Goku into the tent and climbing in after him.
Hakkai yawned. “It is getting late. We should probably get some rest as
well.”
“I suppose...” Gojyo ran a hand through his hair, only to have something
scrape his hand. “Ow! What the hell?”
Hakkai, who had gotten up to extinguish the campfire, looked over at him.
“What?”
“I think there’s something in my hair,” the half-breed replied, pulling the
end of his hair into vision. It was covered in tiny burrs, snagged in the locks
of red.
“Oh my.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Gojyo whined,
attempting to pick out one of the barbs.
“They must’ve fallen from the tree when Goku shook it over you,” Hakkai
reasoned, sitting beside him again and examining the mess. “They seem to be
caught hard.”
“Fuck...” he slumped his shoulders, sulking.
“Come here,” Hakkai motioned him to sit on the ground in front of him. Gojyo
obeyed, and the brunette began to pull the sticky burrs out of his hair.
Gojyo winced as another one was pulled. “Jeez, try to be a little more
gentle with it, will ya?”
“I’m trying to be careful,” he answered honestly, “but these things are
really stuck. Goku must’ve tangled them up when he landed on you.”
It took a few minutes to get one section of hair free from the plants.
Hakkai was working methodically through the mess, and Gojyo, despite the small
pains, was trying his hardest not to fall asleep.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Hakkai remarked, tossing another of the burrs to the
side after being freed from the tangles.
Gojyo mumbled a reply. “Sleepy. People messing with my hair makes me go to
sleep.”
“I’ll save that for future reference,” Hakkai smiled.
“Yeah, you do that...” Gojyo yawned, laying his head on one of Hakkai’s
knees. The green-eyed youkai turned pink. Gojyo
mumbled something.
Hakkai leaned down closer. “What?”
“I said thanks...”
Hakkai finished another section of hair. He ran his hand through it,
untangling it. It fell through his fingers and he heard Gojyo sigh.
He smiled again. “No problem.”
The brunette continued to work his way through the barbs and tangles in his friend’s
hair, aware of the lack of consciousness coming from him. It was late, and it
was getting rather hard to keep himself from dozing
off. He yawned for what seemed the thousandth time, his hands seemingly
performing their task of their own accord.
“Sometimes,” he said jokingly, “I think you’re more trouble than you’re
worth.”
About two hours later, Gojyo’s hair was free of the offending burrs, and
Hakkai was ready to sleep sitting upright. He grabbed the redhead’s shoulders,
easing him onto the ground. Hakkai couldn’t pick Gojyo up, so he went into the
tent and got their blankets. He lay down beside his friend, covering them both
with the covers and sighing. He could finally go to sleep.
He opened an eye, looking at the sleeping figure beside him. He wasn’t lying
about people messing with his hair. It was all the kappa could do to stay awake
as long as he did.
Gojyo rolled over in his sleep. Hakkai scooted over, closing the distance.
---
Gojyo woke up uncharacteristically early that morning, finding Hakkai lying
next to him with an arm over his waist. He sat up carefully, trying not to wake
the brunette. He felt bad, falling asleep last night, leaving Hakkai to get all
those things out of his hair. But Hakkai had finished, and even slept out here
with him instead of leaving him in favour of the warm
tent. He leaned over and kissed Hakkai’s forehead.
Green eyes opened and blinked. “Gojyo...?”
Gojyo smiled. “Morning!”
Hakkai sat up. “Is it really?”
“Yep. You can go back to sleep if you want. I’ll
handle packing.”
“No, it’s alright...”
The redhead leaned in close, eye to eye with his friend. “You stayed up way
too late helping me. So now you’re gonna sleep. Got
it?”
“But—“
“No buts,” he interrupted. He blinked, noticing something in Hakkai’s hair.
He started laughing.
Hakkai tilted his head questionably. “What?”
Gojyo reached over, yanking a bit of Hakkai’s hair. He pulled out one of the
barbs, showing it to him. “I think you slept on them.”
“Oh no...” Hakkai sighed.
Gojyo moved to the tree stump Hakkai had sat on last night, pulling the
brunette in front of him. “Don’t worry. Your hair’s a lot shorter than mine. It
shouldn’t take as long.”
Hakkai sat on the ground, letting Gojyo pull the plants out of his hair. It
was a lot easier since Hakkai’s hair was so short, and it was only about half
an hour before the brunette was free of the barbs.
Hakkai hadn’t spoken in some time. Gojyo had guessed that he’d fallen
asleep. He was about to lay the shorter man back down when Hakkai tilted his
head upward to look at Gojyo.
“Though you were asleep,” Gojyo said, looking down.
“A few more minutes and I would’ve been,” he answered.
Gojyo smiled. “Well, you’re all done.”
“Thanks...”
“Sure. But now it’s time for sleep.” He stood, Hakkai lying back down on
their blankets. He fell down next to him, ready to curl up with Hakkai until
Sanzo hit them awake.
“Hey, Gojyo...” Hakkai mumbled, snuggling in close.
“Hm?”” he put an arm around the brunette, closing
his eyes.
“It is the sort of thing I’d keep.”
Gojyo nodded, smiling. “G’night.”
Hakkai was already asleep.
[~:.:~]
[~end of chapter~]