cigsandbeer | IC INBOX

"No, it's--" Hakkai pauses, looking at Gojyo seriously for a moment: he can see the tension curling through his friend's shoulders, the readiness to assume Jedao was running away from him. And Jedao's almost certainly the one who'd invited him to come today, too, considering.

"-- He has," Hakkai says at last, turning to get the tray and deliberately bumping his shoulder against Gojyo's in a way that's not quite as obvious as leaning on him, "a whole campaign planned. In which his first steps are letting you be comfortable in our room without him here, and then maybe he'll be in the other room doing something else, and then the same room, but still doing something else so you don't have to interact directly. I think he might be over-planning a little. But he's very fond of plans."

And this is Hakkai, himself a compulsive over-planner, saying that. Still: it's not about Jedao being too upset to trust being in the same room. It's just his opening move.

Gojyo bumps his shoulder back.

"What the--"

That makes no sense as a tactic!

"Am I feral dog he's trying not to spook now??"

"Well, it's a better strategy than insulting you on purpose so he knows why you're mad at him," Hakkai points out. He loves Jedao very much, but he has never yet let love stop him from being judgmental.

"But that's why he left. You can tell him he can skip stages, if you want."

"Still moronic.

Why'd he even tell me to come over if that's all he's gonna do?"

Okay, so Gojyo hadn't spontaneously decide to drop by for a week, but still.

"How long would you have waited if he didn't?"

It has been a week. Hakkai isn't giving Gojyo a pass from judgment, either.

"Um, I was about to--"

Urgh.

"--Okay: fair, I guess."

Hakkai flashes him a quick smile, covers the saucepan, and turns towards the living room.

"Well," he says briskly. "I'm glad you came. Would you like to try a video game? There's quite a variety pre-installed...."

"Betcha I can beat you on the first try."

"Maybe," Hakkai says brightly, pulling out two of the odd ergonomic white controllers and handing one to Gojyo. "What are you betting?"

After a moment's consideration, he's picking a fighting game.

"Loser cooks dinner", Gojyo determines just to be obnoxious. He can cook food that's edible, but he knows Hakkai would much prefer his own cooking.

As it turns out, video games (or maybe it's fighting games specifically) come easily to Gojyo: Hakkai is better initially, of course, but Gojyo catches up with impressive speed, and like every member of Team Sanzo, he plays to win. Like Hakkai predicted, he seems to be enjoying it quite a bit, quickly forgetting the tension with Jedao.

Some time passes and they play several rounds, and eventually...

Throwing up his hands!

"WHOO!! In your face!!"

Gojyo won!!

He doesn't plan it, but he paints with Justine for a few hours, and serendipitously returns to the celebration. He smiles at both of them as he strolls in, just a little bit of blue paint on one cheek where he accidentally touched it before cleaning his hands.

"Sounds like you two are having fun," he says warmly.

Edited 2025-07-17 20:56 (UTC)

"... well," Hakkai mutters, visibly still a little ruffled by his loss, "he did say the loser had to cook dinner."

No, he didn't lose on purpose: he'd been caught off guard by a special attack with a knockback effect. This is pure face-saving.

"I humbly request tenzaru soba", Gojyo says, grinning at Hakkai, obnoxiously pleased with being better than him at something. He knows perfectly well Hakkai would never lose on purpose.

Jedao coming back is Gojyo's cue to leave (well, so he assumes). He gets up and gives Jedao one of those macho upwards-nods.

"I have come to the conclusion I like video games", he tells Jedao.

Edited 2025-07-18 16:39 (UTC)

"A man of fine taste and good sense," Jedao declares, then raises an eyebrow. "Unless you mean to skip the dinner you just requested?"

Which would obviously be very silly.

Edited 2025-07-18 21:30 (UTC)

Terribly silly, indeed; Hakkai leaves that to Gojyo to answer, getting up from the couch and tucking his controller back in its place. On his way to the kitchen, he pauses to catch Jedao's hand and brush a welcome-home kiss against his cheek.

"I think I have some noodles in the pantry," he says instead, beginning to set out the ingredients. "How is Justine?"

Jedao and Gojyo both like her; it's a safe topic.

--Uh. But!! They've established that Jedao doesn't plan on being in the same room as Gojyo for the time being. Right?? Why do the rules keep changing??

...Gojyo isn't allergic to changes, though, and while he'd planned to confront Jedao about his ridiculously planned-steps plan... it seems like he won't need to. At least, not right now.

He pauses his escape: leans against a nearby wall instead.

"She on one of her painting sprees?"

"A bit, yes. She's teaching me about oil paints." Jedao feels very naughty about it, for unhinged cultural reasons.

"Has she done a portrait of you?"

Hakkai, smiling, leaves them to the conversation while he slices vegetables and mixes tempura batter.

"Actually, yeah. Although she wouldn't show it."

Probably because she made it Monstrous, and Justine realised that Gojyo wouldn't respond well to that. The fact that it was a naked portrait doesn't occur as a factor for Gojyo.

Jedao loves his own monstrous portrait, but has absolutely no idea where to put the damn thing.

"She's very fond of you. I never said, but...I'm glad you forgave her."

"Eh, we're just--" It's just no-strings-attached sex.

But it's not like Gojyo hasn't taken care of Justine when she was vulnerable, and it's not like Justine didn't comfort Gojyo after Poker Night a week ago. And it's not like Gojyo isn't friends with several of his girls back home.

"...Everyone does dumb shit sometimes. I mean, I'd know." Gojyo does dumb shit all the time. "People here are just prone to extra-dumb shit."

Does that mean Justine was upset enough that Gojyo was angry with her that she told Jedao specifically? He's quite sure their conversation was private, but.

Jedao snoops her private messages, of course; but even if he hadn't, he would certainly consider the way Justine had abused Gojyo's trust to be worthy of some anger.

He laughs a little, ruefully.

"...that's one way to put it, I suppose." Refreshingly egalitarian, even.

"It's a direct quote from the Admiral: that's precisely how he justifies bringing in all these inmates," Gojyo deadpans.

More seriously, though... He looks up at the ceiling.

"If nobody ever forgave anybody for the stupid shit they did, we'd all be sitting isolated in our rooms staring at the walls all day."

Jedao giggles at the sarcasm, before the laughter strangles a bit abruptly at the second part; he did spend the better part of two years alone in a room, in this room, staring at the walls whenever he failed to sufficiently distract himself.

"Nonetheless, nobody is ever required to forgive...specific betrayals. So I'm grateful for your understanding."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Keep in mind she's got a really nice pair of boobs."

They're just about reaching the upper limit of how much Gojyo can stomach compliments about his good character, and he doesn't miss how something in what he said landed wrong for Jedao, so...

"Hakkai said you guys have lots of video games. Which one's the best?"

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