cigsandbeer | IC INBOX

--Yeah, that sounds more doable. [It's not like he never used to come home at 4 A.M. or later back in the day.]

Fine. You bringing anything? [Beer, home-cooked food...? They'll clearly need a hearty breakfast.]

Meat buns would pack well for a boat trip...

Beer or coffee?

Oh, coffee. Otherwise I'm gonna fall asleep in the boat.

[The once-in-a-blue-moon good life decision makes an appearance!]

Coffee it is. I'll see you tonight?

[For him, it'll be tomorrow morning: he's catching at least a few hours' sleep before planning to row to the ends of this little world. But he's likely to appreciate the coffee, too.

And, as promised, he's showing up at Gojyo's cabin door to knock a few hours before dawn the next day, a picnic basket over one arm emitting the smells of fresh-steamed meat buns and -- precariously -- also holding a large Thermos with a cap that doubles as a cup. He'd considered also bringing a flask, depending on what it is that the light shows about both of them, but... in the end, he'd decided that there's nothing about himself he wants to hide from Gojyo. He's willing to risk it.

Anyway, one flask wouldn't be enough to get him properly drunk if he sees something he doesn't want to.]

Gojyo opens the door, still in the clothes he's been wearing the previous day and looking moderately awake.

"Hey."

It's possible he did take a quick cat nap at some point (apparently being forced to adapt to the same sleep schedule as three other guys for two years does something to your ability to pull all-nighters) but no one will ever know. He's still cool.

"That smells good."

Gojyo's not... He knows the cups of light show you something about yourself, and that doesn't sound like a good time, but... it's more okay if it's with Hakkai, and Hakkai asked him to join him, and well. That 'trying not to start another fight' thing.

"Good morning," Hakkai says cheerfully. Gojyo looks rather rumpled -- possibly a giveaway about his napping after all -- but if he did manage to nap, all the better. "Do you know, I've found that meat buns don't quite taste the same when you don't have to defend them from Goku?

"But they're still tasty."

He misses their other friends, too.

"Yeah, morning, I guess."

Shush, Gojyo looks perfectly put-together. He does consciously choose to interpret Hakkai's comment as 'I too miss our guys' rather than anything uncharitable.

"...I'll bet you burn far less calories not having to fight him over them. I'll have to watch my figure."

"And it's much easier to overeat when extra food doesn't mysteriously disappear," Hakkai agrees with a quick flash of a smile. "Luckily, we'll have plenty of rowing to burn off calories today...

"Shall we?" he adds, stepping back to gesture for Gojyo to join him. If he's ready, of course.

"Sure."

Gojyo's ready - he grabs his jacket on the way out, since it's likely to be chilly until they get the blood pumping with rowing.

"You been on any of these trips already?"

Are they going to have to fight off giant sharks to get the stupid water, or anything like that? No biggie if they'll have to; it's just nice to have a heads-up.

"Just one," Hakkai admits, and clears his throat a little nervously. "You haven't?" Does Gojyo know about the light?

"Nah, I figured others had it mostly covered."

Gojyo, ever the helpful member of any community. But he does understand what Hakkai's really concerned about, and so adds, as he lights a cigarette:

"This place is into freaky voyeur stuff and shows some embarrassing shit about you as you get the water, right? Joke's on this place: I'm completely shameless."

Which is not true, but... Hakkai knows practically everything about him already.

"'True things,' I think is how I'd put it. It doesn't have to be embarrassing, but..."

He flicks a glance Gojyo's way, and adds lightly, "Ah, you know me, I'm picky."

And Gojyo knows practically everything about him already, too. What he doesn't know, Hakkai wouldn't mind him seeing.

It's not far to the boats; the one Hakkai had marked out the previous evening hasn't been taken yet, and is bobbing up and down gently on the swell, gold-washed tin cups clinking melodically against each other on their hooks under the seat. He tugs it a bit closer to the sand, gesturing for Gojyo to get in and make himself comfortable.

...Stupidly, Gojyo is a little happy to hear that. Picky. Even if it's true he knows most things about Hakkai already, Hakkai wanting to go with him specifically...

He bumps his shoulder against Hakkai's as they walk. "If I find out anything embarrassing I didn't already know, I'm telling Sanzo about it."

He won't, but it's nice to be able to tease again.

He gets in the boat as instructed -- and does reach for the oars voluntarily. 'Not wanting to fight' meets 'having somewhat accepted his role as Dumb Muscle', probably.

"If I find out anything embarrassing I don't know, I'm telling Goku about it," Hakkai tosses back with a wicked glint in his eye, and bumps Gojyo's shoulder back before taking a seat primly on the other side of the boat. Since Gojyo's taking the oars, Hakkai settles in by the tiller, putting the picnic basket down between the two of them.

It's so early in the morning that it's almost late at night, even for Hakkai, who usually rises early; he lets the conversation lapse into merciful silence as Gojyo rows, keeping an eye on the water as it grows sweet, then dotted with wide lily pads, then -- slowly -- golden.

Goku with fresh teasing material! A terrifying thought.

Gojyo doesn't mind rowing in silence: the exercise helps waking him up, and once they reach the part where the water grows golden, he lets the oars rest.

"This is the spot, right?"

It's... kind of beautiful, really. In a weird way.

"This is the spot." It is beautiful, in its otherworldly way. Like a watercolor of the Heavens, if it were only lotus instead of waterlilies.

Hakkai reaches down to trail a hand in the golden waves beneath their boat's hull, their glow shining through flesh and bone as though he were an empty glass to fill with light. As the light shines through him, he glances up at Gojyo. In the light of dawn, the shadow of another man can be seen beside him, hair a tumble of wild curls casually tied back into a ponytail, a wide easy grin on his face and a pair of orange coveralls belted around his waist over a gray T-shirt. Hakkai's leaning back against him, all trust and easy comfort, although the image is -- transparent, fading.

Gojyo stares - for the first moments more because of the weirdness of the magic water than what it's actually showing - and has to think for an additional second or two before the dots connect. What they were talking about on the Narrenschiff while high out of their minds is... a little hazy.

"That Eiffel?"

Hakkai startles: he's not easy to fluster, but on certain very specific subjects he does get flustered, and the tips of his ears are turning a betraying scarlet.

"...I --" He turns to look at the image; seeing Eiffel's face, grinning the way he used to, strikes him with a pang that goes too deep for him to maintain his embarrassment, and he takes a breath. "Ah. Yes, that's Eiffel."

He glances back towards Gojyo. "You never met him while he was here, did you?"

Gojyo runs his hand through his hair, also a little flustered in response to Hakkai's fluster.

"Eh, he responded to my first Network post, I think? Some stupid shit about how I was trying too hard to sound like I'm not into guys or-- or whatever."

He immediately regrets saying that: it's not like it's awkward enough that Hakkai has apparently gone and acquired several male lovers (especially when Gojyo never imagined him ever getting over Kanan). Um...

"--I mean, it's whatever if you guys were... like that. He left, huh?"

"Well, he would know," Hakkai murmured. It had taken half a year of flirting and running away for Eiffel to work up the courage to get anywhere with Jedao, and Hakkai had taken months after that--

And it's easier to comment on that than it is to say anything about He left, huh. That wound still bleeds if it's touched. But he'd brought Gojyo all the way out here: he'd been prepared for honesty, and he can't help feeling he owes honesty, even if he bleeds a little for it.

He exhales, straightening his back and avoiding looking at Eiffel's ghostly presence at his side. "He left," he agrees. "When his inmate graduated. It wasn't really a surprise, just-- sudden. I think you would have liked him."

He's trying to sound light and easy about it, with middling success; he very much doesn't want to say any of the things he could say. Like I wish he'd wanted to keep me, or even worse, he reminded me so much of you.

Gojyo, on his ends, bites back a what's THAT supposed to mean? because that sure seemed to imply something about Gojyo's own straightness-- But, well, not the time for that. That Eiffel guy was obviously just projecting.

Gojyo knows Hakkai too well to buy the 'light and easy', but there's not really a point in calling Hakkai out on it. Hakkai's love life on the stupid ship isn't... it isn't something Gojyo is all that eager to make a deep-dive into. Not that it's particularly necessary, anyway: of course it hurts to have an important person leave; that doesn't need spelling out. Hakkai's stupid husband probably provides plenty emotional support already, and has been well before Gojyo got here. His input is hardly needed.

"...Well. Your taste in people is what it is, I guess."

An attempt at brevity was made?

When it comes to Eiffel, Hakkai's been the one providing Jedao with emotional support, more than vice versa. Jedao... had liked him a lot, after all. It had hit him harder.

He huffs out a tiny breath, eyeing Gojyo for a long moment before he gives in to the perfect opening Gojyo's left for him.

"...He reminded me a lot of you," he says at last. "But he-- couldn't fight and didn't want to. So he never really understood that part of me."

[ooc: ...so obviously that was supposed to be "levity".]

Gojyo repressed the urge to protest being compared to Hakkai's male lovers, what the fuck--

"That cliché about 'nobody's perfect' is still around for a reason, I guess."

Gojyo thought he and Hakkai understood each other through-and-through, but the Barge has... definitely proven that to be not entirely accurate.

Hakkai shakes his head after a moment, briskly, and doesn't look at the ghost still glowing beside him. It's not really Eiffel, just the memory of what he'd meant.

"You're uncomfortable. You don't have to--"

A small movement of the hand that isn't cradling the precious cupful of light: Hakkai's not sure what he means by the gesture, but if he'd known how to put it into words, he wouldn't have needed to use a gesture. So perhaps Gojyo will understand, anyway.

As much as he does feel the ways in which they're out of step at times, he does still believe they can understand each other.

"You should get some of the light before the sun's up," he adds, taking refuge in practicality.

"...Yeah, well. That's my issue to deal with, ain't it?"

Gojyo is slowly coming to terms with the fact that every single person on this weirdo ship is totally fine with guys being into guys, and that thinking that is even the slight bit weird is... what's weird. Whatever. He grunts in agreement in Hakkai's suggestion, though, and reaches to scoop a cupful of water.

The light shows Gojyo. Gojyo, alone, in the back of the picture. And then there's Hakkai, alongside his husband, and his lover, and his inmate, and his friends... you get the picture.

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