"Gojyo?"

Hakkai's voice was more soft than loud -- it wasn't his habit to shout, after all -- but anyone within several feet would have to be deaf not to hear it.

Now Gojyo had never been hard of hearing, but his lack of response would seem to prove otherwise. In the chair right next to the window, a lit cigarette between his lips, neither the rigidness of his sitting position nor his straight stare through the window gave any hint at all that Hakkai's voice had reached his ears. The cigarette, though: it made a slight quirk.

Out in the hallway, Hakkai advanced closer to the door that hung slightly ajar. His hand touched the doorjamb as he peered inside the room. He made to say something, but almost as soon as Gojyo's hand showed the first signs of movement, Hakkai shut his mouth.

Gojyo's hand lay curved, shifting, languidly, over his crotch.

Hakkai's good, unhidden eye fixed itself, unblinking, on Gojyo's long crimson hair.

Gojyo ground the base of his palm between his legs, and alternated between shifting his buttocks on the seat of the chair and arching his back away from the back of the chair. His other hand eased the slim white cigarette from his mouth down to the ankle he'd hoisted up on his knee. Fumes issued forth from his thinly grinning lips. And the whole while, he only looked outside the window.

By the door, still, Hakkai drew his gaze away from Gojyo's hair, turned to see what was outside. His unobscured eye dropped to the windowsill.

The weaving motions of Gojyo's hips thickened into a furor of twitching and twisting, his restless fist rolling against his crotch. He swore to himself, voice edgy and low, deep crimson eyes unshaken toward the back courtyard.

Hakkai stepped aside to stand behind the door, unseen, and two seconds later he was calling out again, "Gojyo?" His voice, although nowhere near blaring, was distinctly more loud than soft now.

Gojyo's head made a little snap toward the door, and the hand on his crotch jumped to cling fast to his knee. "Here," was his slow reply. He replaced his filter in the corner of his lips, which seemed to have lost their grin, somehow.

Another second dragged before Hakkai raised his hand to the knob and pushed the door away from him. "There you are," slipping a foot in the room, his lips bent into an amiable smile even as the glare of sunshine from the window whipped him square in the face. He folded his arms behind his back, hands grasping his elbows. "Hakuryu's napping with Goku now. Shall we attend to the shopping, then?"

Gojyo's hoisted leg slid down to the floor. "Uh, yeah." His hands gripped his knees for one second, just after he snatched one final glance out the window. Then he rose from the chair, deliberately, as if his knees could crumble under his weight, and stood to his full height against the window, keeping the glare of the sun out of Hakkai's face. His lips were grinning once more.

The smile on Hakkai's own lips: it never wavered.

Hakkai slipped his foot back out of the room, and in three strides Gojyo was in the hallway with him, pulling the door closed.

"Uh," Gojyo brushed his knuckles against his scarred cheek, "you got the monk's credit card?"

Hakkai was prompt to reply with a firm nod, to boot a firm "Yes." He made a stiff half-pivot, and took the first step down the long, empty hallway. "Sanzo already gave it to me."

"Okay." Gojyo stuck his hands in his pockets and fell in step with Hakkai. He smoked his cigarette, mumbled inaudibly, eyes skipping from doorknob to doorknob they passed on his side.

As for Hakkai, he looked straight ahead, though his gaze was cast down.

When they were finally near the end of the hallway and only a few steps from rounding the corner, Hakkai's footsteps came to a halt.

Likewise Gojyo stopped, and turned a languid raise of his brows as well as an "Eh?" to his companion.

"Gojyo," Hakkai began. His gaze was still pinned ahead. "Would you like to relieve yourself of...that, first?"

Gojyo drew his right hand out of his pocket to tear the cigarette off his mouth. "That...what?" His voice was just slightly above a whisper.

Turning to Gojyo, Hakkai smiled, and this smile was hard enough to pinch his eyes halfway shut. Behind him, his hands grasped once again at his elbows. "I caught sight of Sanzo out your window," and in contrast to Gojyo's, Hakkai's voice wasn't anywhere close to a whisper.

Smoke slipped out of Gojyo's lips in a huffy breath. "Uhn." He looked at Hakkai for a wordless moment, his eyes shifting from the smile on his half-pinched eyes to the smile over his lips. "Nah," his head shook just a bit, "you don't have to, Hakkai. This' just... I can handle it, awright."

Hakkai's smile didn't once waver. He unfolded his arms from his back to fold them this time over his abdomen. "Ah, but I doubt you can carry around at least four grocery bags with something weighing you down like that."

"Che." Gojyo's nose made a harsh little sound. "It's not like it's a hundred-pound load or anything."

"Still," Hakkai's shoulders shrugged just a bit, "it might slow us down."

For another wordless moment Gojyo looked at Hakkai, a sort of frown twisting his face, his eyes seemingly boring into the serious, now-unsmiling set of Hakkai's features. Then he glimpsed at the cigarette caught between his fingers. It was close to the filter now. And after two seconds, "... Bathroom?" he turned back to Hakkai.

Not a second passed before Hakkai nodded. His arms fell to his sides as he took the first step forward, straight toward the door at that end of the hallway.

Gojyo stubbed his smoke out on the dark wooden wall to his right and tossed the crushed filter down against the wall.

Hakkai knocked twice on the door to the bathroom, an ear pressed close to it.

Just behind Hakkai, to his right, Gojyo stood without moving his eyes away from Hakkai's dark brown hair.

After a quiet two seconds, Hakkai turned the rusty knob and pushed the loose door open.

Gojyo stepped into the bathroom with Hakkai, but only after Hakkai had tugged the long chain of the hanging light bulb which brought the unpainted interior of the damp, narrow room in weary yellow brightness.

To the right side was the toilet fixture on the floor, beside it a wooden bucket sparsely filled with water. Hakkai had only to take two steps to reach the left side of the room, which was bare save for the three small towels hanging haphazardly on the little clothesline.

With his left hand, Gojyo pulled the door shut behind him. With his right hand, he began to rub hard at his crotch.

Hakkai stood facing the gray wall. His feet began to slip out of his shoes, at the same time that his hands began to unfasten the clasp of his pants.

Half a foot away, behind Hakkai, Gojyo leaned a shoulder against the opposite wall...

Hakkai nudged his shoes aside with his socked foot.

...worrying a corner of his bottom lip...

He pushed the waist of his pants down and pulled his legs out, left first and then right.

...staring half-lidded at Hakkai's hair...

Then, folding his pants once over an arm, he pushed his white pair of briefs down and stepped out of them.

...unzipping his own jeans...

He folded his briefs as well, and then folded them into his pants.

...spitting on his hand.

Hakkai hung his folded lower clothes over his right shoulder. For the first time since they had occupied the room, he spared a glance in Gojyo's direction. "Ready, Gojyo?" but his smile was stuck to the floor.

"Uhn," grimacing just a bit. Gojyo peeled the waist of his jeans and briefs down to his hips and rubbed his saliva-slick hand over his erection. A small hiss broke through his gritted teeth.

Hakkai flattened his palms up against the wall, to shoulder level, and tilted his rounded eyes down to the moldy tile of the floor. After a second, his legs drew apart.

Done moistening himself, Gojyo hiked up Hakkai's green tunic, high enough to reveal Hakkai's pale, naked backside to him. His slick hand reached down between them, the other holding the bottom hem of Hakkai's tunic up across his back.

Hakkai's eyes shut in a small grimace, his half-naked body rocking just a bit from the movements of Gojyo's fingers inside of him.

It wasn't a full minute before Gojyo withdrew his hand. He passed his wet fingers swiftly over his nose, and inhaled, just before his left hand took a fierce hold of Hakkai's left hip and his right steadied his swollen length into Hakkai's buttocks.

Hakkai widened the distance between his feet. Gojyo thrust in. Hakkai bent his neck forward and pressed the top of his head to the wall. Gojyo took Hakkai's hips in both hands and drew out and thrust again. Hakkai moaned. Gojyo moaned with him.

Their bodies pushed, and then pulled, together, over and again, hard, rocked hard enough for Hakkai's folded pants to start slipping from his shoulder.

Before they could drop to the floor, however, Hakkai pushed his pants back up his shoulder and clamped a pale-knuckled hand down on it.

Gojyo gasped, writhed, and stared at Hakkai's hand. He was bringing his parted lips down to it, but then stopped. Instead he simply stared at it a little while more.

Hakkai's head flipped to the side, the light from the swinging bulb catching the slack drop of his jaw and the sweat gathering over the green bandanna across his forehead. His left hand slid down the wall to chest level, his body pushing itself back just a bit against the constant intensifying pace of Gojyo's thrusts.

Gojyo moaned...

Hakkai moaned with him...

...and reached around Hakkai's waist...

...and flung his cheek back against Gojyo's shoulder...

...and worked his hand between Hakkai's belly and the wall...

...and squeezed his eyes closed, lips shaped to a soundless 'Gojyooo.'

Gojyo sunk his mouth in Hakkai's hair, that his cry didn't come out as loud or as harsh as it could have.

A few moments before they eventually slowed down, Hakkai's come dripped from Gojyo's hand to the floor, as Gojyo's come leaked down along Hakkai's thighs.

Together they breathed hard and loud, sounds of their momentary exhaustion snapping back against the walls of the cramped room.

With a sluggish heave, Gojyo pulled himself out of Hakkai, the wall behind him catching the slumped form of his body. He swiped a hand down his wet, softened cock, and cracked a lazy, close-mouthed grin.

Hakkai reached for one of the three small towels to his left and dried the wetness from his thighs, all the way down to the back of his right knee.

Gojyo reached out and plunged his soiled hands into what water there was in the bucket. Then he straightened up to pull his jeans back up and zip them, though he waited, mopping the sweat over the edge of his bandannaed forehead, until Hakkai had started to pull his own pants back on and slip his socked feet back in his shoes.

Hakkai pressed the back of his hand to his brow and pushed it up against his hair. His face was holding a pleasant smile when he turned, finally, to Gojyo. "Better?"

Gojyo tipped himself forward away from the wall, one of his two 'antenna' strands grazing Hakkai's hair. "Shit yeah," was his response. After two seconds, he added, with a smaller grin, "And lighter, I guess."

A brief chuckle was Hakkai's only return. He was smiling hard once again that his eyes were almost pinched closed. "Now, shall we go shop? Gojyo?"

Gojyo shrugged, nodding, "Sure." His fist gripped the knob by his hip and yanked the door open. The moment he was out in the hallway again, his hand sought out a cigarette from his jacket's pocket.

Just behind Gojyo, Hakkai stepped away from the wall without taking his eyes off Gojyo's hair. By the tips of the long strands, just touching Gojyo's shoulder, was a thin speck of caked dust. Hakkai raised a hand to gently brush it off.

"Huh?" Gojyo tossed a little questioning look over his shoulder.

"Oh," Hakkai flicked the dirt away from his fingers, "there was something caught in your hair." Then he closed the door to the bathroom and took the first step down the corridor to the inn lobby.

Gojyo flipped his lighter shut and, dragging deep on his cigarette, fell in step with Hakkai.

They were only about six steps away from the front door when Sanzo came walking through it, straight in Gojyo and Hakkai's direction.

"I thought you two left already," Sanzo grunted to Hakkai as he marched past them.

Hakkai broke into a smile that hardly curved his lips, which Sanzo didn't appear to notice over Gojyo's smirking "And where have you been, huh?"

Sanzo flung Gojyo a halfhearted scowl, which Gojyo didn't appear to notice as he paused staring quietly at Sanzo's light flaxen hair.

Once they were out the front door, Hakkai's mouth began to open, but it closed just before any sound came out.

Gojyo, grinning at Hakkai's hair, remarked, "Is that monk a dick or what." His voice was unnecessarily loud.

Now Hakkai was far from deaf, but he didn't give the first hint that Gojyo's remark had reached his ears in any way, uttering nothing. He simply looked ahead, and smiled, squinting from the glare of the sun.

END