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[cigsandbeer]

"Too bad; I'm busy with some shit. I'm only calling you back if you're a pretty woman ♥"

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[deuceoftears]

Hello, Gojyo.

I want to chat with you about something. Only good things, I promise.

You want to grab drinks and cards in the lounge or go exploring in the enclosure?

[cigsandbeer]

[...Uuurgh. He at least manages to not sound grumpy:]

It gonna take longer than fifteen minutes? If so: Enclosure.

[There's only so long he can go without smoking.]

[deuceoftears]

I guess that depends on how long it takes to talk you into it.

I'll meet you at the door, you pick the place?

[cigsandbeer]

If you're putting it that way, it sounds like the opposite of "only good things", you know?

Fine. See ya.

[deuceoftears]

I have great confidence in your ability to be suspicious of my pristine intentions.

[Very primly. But he's also laughing softly. And he turns up at the Enclosure door looking positively chipper.]

[cigsandbeer]

[Gojyo arrives a minute or two later, already smoking as he walks up to the Enclosure door.]

Yo. [WHY so fucking chipper, though. ...Gojyo's never actually used to Enclosure before, and he takes a minute to puzzle over the controls. While doing so:]

You smoke?

[deuceoftears]

I don't, but I don't mind it. Smells like friends.

[cigsandbeer]

[Fine, miss out on Gojyo gregariously offering you one, in the spirit of... tolerating each other.

Gojyo shrugs, and turns his attention back to the controls. He mutters a few curses before finally--]

Okay, think that should be right.

[The simulation they enter isn't anything fancy: a riverbank on the outskirts of Chang'an. The weed and reeds grow high; it's clearly not a well-maintained area, but it's summer, birds are singing, the river babbles.

Stepping inside, Gojyo takes another drag of his cigarette as he shoots Jedao a questioning look. What's this about, then?]

[deuceoftears]

Jedao loves anything with a sky; he loves moving water, and the strange profusion of little moving things he can feel in a real ecosystem; he breathes in deep, tasting the air of a place that hasn't been filtered a million times. For a few moments, his expression is all soft delight and awe.

"I'm organizing a party in a few weeks. Kind of a family party? I want you to come."

[cigsandbeer]

In an awful moment of sameness, Gojyo also takes a moment to take in the view. It's been a while since he's visited this place, years even. Moving water... has always been soothing. The sound and the sight of it helps to block out thoughts you don't want to think.

"Yeah?"

Why?

[deuceoftears]

"Well, you're family."

Obviously.

"Have you met Edwin, yet?"

Jedao starts exploring in the rushes. He wants to pick up a frog, maybe.

[cigsandbeer]

Obviously, he says. Gojyo, meanwhile, squats by the riverside.

"The kid asking about kissing? Nah, not really?"

[deuceoftears]

"Well, I adopted him. So he's my son, and that makes him Hakkai's too, more or less. And you've met Xie Lian, I hope?"

There's a little splash as the first amphibian evades him.

[cigsandbeer]

Gojyo glances over, and once he realises what Jedao was trying to do:

"They have damn good hearing." Despite having no visible ears. He doesn't know how that works. "Shut up and move slowly and it'll be easier to catch one."

...It's not like Gojyo had a lot of actual toys as a kid, or friends to play with.

"Look, I don't really care who's gonna be there. What's the occasion?"

[deuceoftears]

"We're writing Edwin's name and mine in Xie Lian's family book, now that I've married in."

To Hakkai, who is Xie Lian's.

"Me and Edwin...we both never expected to have any kind of family at all. So it'd be nice if his uncle was there. Plus, good food."

[cigsandbeer]

"What the-- I'm expected to--

"You're expecteding me to accept to be someone's uncle just like that??

[deuceoftears]

"I don't know you well enough to guess how quick you'd accept it," Jedao admits mildly. "But I think you'd be a good one."

[cigsandbeer]

"Fuck off."

Gojyo would make for a shit any family member.

"Does the kid want some random guy he's never met at this thing?"

[deuceoftears]

"He has been shyly delighted almost to the point of overwhelmed happy tears at the idea of anyone wanting to be family with him, every single time," Jedao tells him, dryly and yet warmly, too. "Even Yunlan, whom he did have...not dislike, but some wariness of, before."

He idly trails his fingers through the water, scares away some of the minnows, watches them flicker and dart away.

"I think it would mean almost as much to him as it would to Hakkai. But you can meet him first, if you'd rather, and make sure."

1/2

[cigsandbeer]

...Oh. It's... that kind of situation, for that kid, is it. Gojyo's eyes widen, and you can practically see how that immediately makes him fold.

"I--"

[cigsandbeer]

He runs a hand through his hair, awkward.

"Fucking troublesome... Sure, fine. It'd be weird not to meet at least once beforehand.

Hakkai knows you're inviting me?"

He's not showing up if doing so will be a surprise to Hakkai, sad lonely kid or no.

[deuceoftears]

"I promise he'll be informed," Jedao swears, beaming at him a little.

He suspects he's going to get very well-laid about it when he brings home the good news, in fact.

[cigsandbeer]

"This his idea or yours?

The invitation."

Not the party itself. He kind of hates the idea that this was all Jedao's initiative.

[deuceoftears]

"It was a joint discussion. He wants you there real bad. But he was scared of shoving his foot in his mouth again, I think, plus this one is more my thing to organize, so."

Jedao's the one who asked.

[cigsandbeer]

Gojyo groans like the most put-upon person in the world. It's not like he's thrilled to be counting Jedao as family, but then it's not like he can just pretend like he doesn't exist if he wants to stay friends with Hakkai. It's just fucking annoying how Jedao's turning into the sane mediator between Hakkai and Gojyo.

"Fine, fine, I'll be there as long as the kid okays it."