Four Quarters

South

Through the thin trees he could see a tall figure walking, torso bare and a guard on his one shoulder. It looked careless and unaware, but Gojou knew better. He tracked it with his eyes. Long legs, long body, slow loping stride. Short hair, all spiky sticking up, and the sideways pointing ears of a youkai. A bodiless happiness began to run through him. Kind of like a slug of brandy, sending waves of heat all round his gut and up into his chest. For the life of him he couldn't keep his mouth from grinning all over his face like a complete idiot.

"How about coming out where I can see you?" the man said, not looking at him. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's him.

Gojou stepped out of the shadows and into the clearing.

"You again," the man said, sounding disgusted.

Gojou grinned. "Me again."

The other didn't smile back, but there was a look in his eyes that meant the same thing as a smile, and the brandy feel just went on getting stronger.

"Patrolling?" the man said.

"Same like you."

"Anything?"

"Not a sausage."

"Cigarettes?"

"Don't mind if I do."

"I meant, you got any on you?"

Gojou pulled a crushed pack from one pocket and his lighter from the other. He shook a cigarette into his mouth and lit it, then handed them both to the youkai who'd come over to get them. They sat down side by side, facing in opposite directions so they could keep an eye on the forest around them.

"Snazzy lighter," the man said, snapping the silver lid up and down.

"Present from a friend."

"Female?"

"Unh. Hakkai. Hates matches messing the place up."

"Ahh." He handed it back, nodding. "Tidy, him. I've seen him fight. No fuss, no waste. No blood, either."

"Aannh. That's him."

"Mh. He really killed a thousand youkai?"

"He really did."

"Heei," impressed.

"You mind?"

"Nope. I heard this story about who it was. No loss, if so."

"Mnh." Good to know that. Wouldn't have made a difference if it'd been otherwise. Hakkai was his friend. This man was-- on the other side. The enemy. But still-- good to know.

They smoked in silence for a bit, watching the big moon come up all wet and watery and turn the forest misty.

"You landed on your feet," the man said, as if continuing a silent conversation aloud.

"Yeah, eventually," Gojou said. "Drifted for a bit. Gambling, women- I always was lucky. Mighta wound up dead from someone's knife in some piss-poor town but-- I was lucky."

"The monk?"

"Hakkai. Sanzou was kinda incidental to start."

"Incidental, huh? But now it's him you serve."

"Serve? Who said anything about serving? I'm travelling with him, is all."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Silence.

"What made you hook up with him?"

"He was looking for someone I wanted to find too."

"Enemy?"

"Friend. Hakkai."

"Mnh. So what makes you stay with him?"

Gojou blew smoke. "Saa, ne. He's fun to hang around, maybe."

"Fun." His tone spoke volumes.

"Fun, yeah."

"Like how?"

"Like f'rinstance he's such a liar. I just can't get enough of it- watching him lying himself blue in the face and believing every word of it. 'No attachments, no chains.' Doesn't need anyone, won't stand for anyone needing him. *Has* to put up with that monkey of his cause he can't get rid of him. He says. I piss myself laughing, sometimes."

"And that's all, of course." The guy just wouldn't leave it alone.

"What else could it be?"

"He's got a pretty face on him," the man said neutrally. "Like a woman's."

"Yeah, doesn't he just. Almost as pretty as a certain youkai I can think of. Guy with this loooong red hair and these biiig sad eyes--" The man spun round, fury and violence coming off him in a wave.

"--me," Gojou finished. The other checked. His face was rigid, but that, Gojou knew, was from trying to keep the smile that had popped into his eyes from getting down to his mouth. And the other guy knew Gojou knew and grinned after all, long mouth lengthening and curling up at the corners. That was when the brandy feeling hit Gojou's brain and he began to feel really swimmy.

"Screw you," the man said, without heat, and turned back around.

"Any time," Gojou said. He turned his head to get a better view of those muscled shoulders, and those nice tight pecs, and the little tuck of the corner of the mouth, good-humoured and firm.

"You landed on your feet," Gojou said.

"Eventually," the other agreed. "I found someone to hook up with too." He looked over, met Gojou's eyes, and looked abruptly away. Like the women did when Gojou began feeling like this, all warm and melty and swimming inside. Gojou stopped looking at him, looked over at the shimmery silver foliage of the trees, the better to feel his presence. Like when he was a kid in that dark sad house, that wasn't dark and sad as long as he could feel his brother asleep in the next room, safe and comforting and steadying. Gojou smiled like the sun, watching the swimmy moon-haze forest. Even not-looking like this, he could see him still- the steady dark eyes, the rangy torso, the flat abdomen, the long legs. The man shifted, feeling Gojou's mind all over him even if he didn't know what it was he was feeling.

"Getting cold," he said, crouching on the balls of his feet and rising. "Better be moving on."

"Heeey," Gojou said, slow and easy. "You wanna get warm, I can do it for you." He rolled himself up onto his knees, sitting back on his heels, and looked smiling up at the other. "Take it out. I got a really talented mouth, people say."

"You're fucking joking." The guy was shocked. Naturally.

"Unh-unh." Gojou went on smiling into his eyes, because he knew when he felt like this no-one could say no to him. They melted, just like he melted, and never knew why. 'Course, neither did he know why, which was maybe why it always worked. "Serious."

The man was looking down at him, face shadowed in darkness.

"Go on, say it," Gojou said, unperturbed.

"Say what?"

"What you're thinking."

"What makes you think you know what I'm thinking?"

"'Cause you got a glass head."

"You got a mouth on you, kid." The man's fist clenched.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. How come you don't wanna listen?"

"Not funny. I didn't--" He stopped.

"You didn't save my life so's I'd turn into a cocksucker," Gojou said for him. Smugly. "Tole'ja."

"I didn't save your life so's you'd turn into a cocksucker," the man repeated, expressionless. "Are you?"

"When I feel like it."

"How often you feel like it?"

"Once or twice. Enough to know what not to do with my teeth. Don't worry."

"And these people who say what a talented mouth you got?"

"Women."

"So what's this for, then?" He sounded angry. "I don't need a payback, for shit's sake. You don't owe me."

"No payback. I don't owe you. That's understood."

"So--?" The other guy was still frowning.

"You wanna know what you saved my life for? So's I'd turn into a guy who does what he wants when he wants it and doesn't give shit what anybody says. And right now I'm horny as hell and I feel like having my mouth on you. Hey, you never go down on someone?"

There was a pause. "That was-- different," the man said. Yeah, sure, Gojou thought.

"Bet it wasn't. Bet it was exactly the same." Now was the time. Gojou reached a hand out to the guy's belt buckle. "Bet it was someone you thought you'd die if you couldn't get your hands on. Someone you just wanted to get close to cause they were them, right?"

"Oh shit," the guy said. And that was him giving in. He let Gojou undo his pants and get his cock out, half-stiff already, like how couldn't it be when Gojou wanted it so much? And the hot nubby feel of it and the sour pissy smell did it, shoved Gojou over the edge into that great place where everything went funny and swimmy and his brain stopped working and his cock took over to tell him what to do.

He got his mouth around the guy's cock, got all that nice meat inside filling him up to his throat, got his arms around the guy's butt and held it tight and felt like he'd die of happiness. Everything he'd ever wanted was his now, here inside his arms and here inside his mouth. And that was more than cock-love talking. It wasn't just that anyone who'd open their legs to him looked like heaven when he was hard and horny like this. This was something connected to the very him of him, and the proof of that was that a part of him was still around to know it was true, even now. But how could he tell the other guy what he felt except like this, with his mouth and his tongue and his arms and his hands? There weren't any words to say it with cause he'd used them all up long ago on other things, never thinking he might need them for this some day. Oh baby I love you I'm dying for you oh little girl I love you I need you so much hey you *know* I love you baby yeah so c'mon just relax... So now there was only him, Gojou, and Gojou's mouth and Gojou's tongue working away at this guy's cock, to let the guy know how it was, how good it felt to be near him again and how happy Gojou was that he was alive still and still fighting and had found someone to hook up with. And naturally there was no guarantee that everything was 100% OK, that this guy didn't sometimes look the way Hakkai did with the lost emptiness in his face and the little droop to his mouth; but he wasn't broken inside, he still stood tall and came out swinging. And if he came out swinging at Gojou and his pals, and if he was doing his level best to stop them doing what had to be done-- well, that was just the way it was. Life.

'Cause what really mattered was the two of them now, the guy's hands twisted in Gojou's hair so hard it hurt, the guy jerking unthinkingly against the back of Gojou's mouth so he almost wanted to gag, and Gojou's own cock yelling at him to grab it except he didn't want to let go of the guy's hips, he wanted to hold that strong lean butt forever, he wanted three hands was what he wanted and he didn't have them. Life. He pressed against the guy's leg instead and that had to be enough, rubbing his hardness against the hardness of muscle and bone, and anyway too much was happening in his mouth, his tongue was working hard hard hard and he knew very abstractly in some small corner of his brain that there were ways to make this last longer but that would mean--- stopping or something-- thinking--- and the guy was so hard and quivering in Gojou's mouth any minute any minute now and hot/salty/acidic crossed his tongue and went down his throat. And then it was over and he knew he should have waited but it was over, the guy was out of him and had both arms round Gojou's head, bending above him panting and shaking, and Gojou had his face pressed to the guy's stomach, lean and tight and only his for a minute more. And in that last minute while Gojou still had him he put his mouth against the dark skin and soundlessly said the one word left to him that he hadn't wasted on anybody else, the one that really meant 'I love you' only he couldn't say it out loud any more than he could say 'I love you' out loud. 'Aniki,' his lips said, moving against the muscle and flesh, into the guy's stomach, and maybe he heard it there and maybe he didn't.

The guy let him go and threw himself panting down on the ground, eyes closed, chest rising hard and fast. 'Heeeii,' Gojou sighed to himself, and got his hand in his crotch at last and around the aching hardness there. He worked at himself long and slow, watching the other guy's face with its triangular marking between the brows and the wavy pattern like the shadow of a bird's wing across his nose and the long slender pointed ears geometrically perfect on each side of his head. I might have had those, with a different mother. I might have been that. He'd never thought that before. Like looking at himself- the face you had before your mother was born, he remembered muzzily from somewhere, something, Sanzou wasn't it had said, wondering why he felt so sad suddenly like this was one of those times when it was going to leave him all cold and shrivelled when it was over and maybe he should stop except that it still felt good...

Eyes opened, watched him. "C'mere," the guy said, still flat on his back.

"S'ok," Gojou grunted. "Just give me a minute..."

"It's too lonesome." He heaved himself up sitting. "A man shouldn't have to love his own hands if there's someone else's hands to do it for him. C'mon." He reached out an arm. "Over here."

Gojou shifted the half metre over, got himself comfortable, back against the guy's chest. "You sure order me around," he complained.

"Habit." He had his hands around Gojou's cock. "How you like it?"

"Hard. Fast." Hard and fast was how he got it. Hot dry hands skinned him and he arched and groaned and thought desperately of the most off-putting thing he could, that dork Gokuu snoring in the bed next to him farting in his sleep stupid flatass monkey-- He was moaning aloud, man if any youkai were in the woods they'd come running only maybe they wouldn't, not with this guy here-

"You sure you like it this way?"

"Anhh- yeah-- jeez, yeah--" He was arching back, head falling back over the guy's shoulder, shit it felt good to be doing that- a big guy with long arms, bigger than him, it felt good to be a bit smaller than someone for once, it might even be fun to get the guy to do what he did to Sanzou ohh shit Gojou felt like he'd fallen into deep water and was floundering wildly what was he thinking-- He tried to sit up but the guy's arms were both about him and holding his cock he was a prisoner he couldn't move- A swipe of the guy's hand and Gojou arched again, biting his lower lip hard, writhing against the solid chest and he gave in, he leaned back and reached his hands back above his head, behind the guy's head, held onto him with his arms back there and useless and his body arching backward and helpless and his head thrashing left right left again. Scary he was so powerless and god it was hot, leaning against the guy's chest and letting him do exactly what he wanted. Exactly what he wanted-- That pushed him off the cliff, his butt clenched and everything exploded amazingly so that he bucked wildly in the guy's grip and only just remembered to close his throat so he didn't wake the forest with his yells. The guy let him go. Gojou slumped forward, propped on his hands, waiting for the dizzy feeling and the ringing in his ears to stop. And when it did he let his head hang and took deep panting breaths like a dog.

"Wow," the guy observed.

"Aunh," Gojou agreed. "You said a mouthful." He panted still, eyes closed.

"That good?" He sounded sceptical.

"You don't know." I hope you don't know. "Good thing you're on the other side. Man, I'd be useless, I had you around all the time--"

"Hmmm."

"Auhhh." Gojou got himself upright again. Pushed sweaty hair off his face. Got his cock back in his pants. Zipped up. And collapsed, head resting on his bent knees. The guy moved around to sit with his back against Gojou's. And that felt great, that warmth behind him like a wall. Gojou smiled into his arms. He sat up, fished his cigarettes out of his jacket pocket and passed them over his shoulder. The guy took one, lit it, and passed them back. They smoked in silence looking at the shimmery trees and the ground mist rising in the shadows. And there, damn, was that little tension still in the guy's back where it pressed against his own.

"What's eating you?" Gojou asked eventually.

"What makes you think anything's eating me?"

"Cause you got a glass head."

"And you got a mouth. Yeah, ok, it's a very talented mouth. But it's a big mouth and it'll get you into trouble some day."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard it before. What's eating you?"

Silence a moment. "You go for men after all?"

"Me? You're fucking kidding. Women any time. And I'm pretty persnickety about what women too. A con-noy-sir."

"Yeah? I'm beginning to wonder. After tonight. Wouldn't blame you, after Mom I mean, but-"

"Keep Mom out of this. And stop wondering. I like women, when I can. And these days, on the road all the time, I can't always. So I make do with what I can get."

"That monk of yours," the guy said darkly. "You screw him?"

"What's this thing you got about Sanzou?" Gojou wanted to know. "It was Hakkai I hooked up with three years back. It's Hakkai I lived with before we hit the road. It's Hakkai gives me presents. It's Hakkai talks all femmy and soft like a woman or a priest. But it's Sanzou you think I screw. Now why's that, I ask me?"

"Cause I've seen him."

"And he reminds you of the guy you screw, right?"

The guy turned blindingly and grabbed the front of Gojou's shirt. "Boy--"

"Got it in one, huh?" Gojou said, ignoring the claws just inches from his throat. "So you know how it is. You know whose idea it was to start with. Cause it wasn't mine and I bet it wasn't yours either."

The guy let him go and turned away again. "That's different."

"How?"

Silence. Then he said, "He's my prince. It's part of my service to him, doing what he wants. 'Cause I do serve him. All official-like. Got down on both knees and put my hands on the ground and swore that everything I had belonged to him."

"Shit. What the hell'd you do that for?" Gojou demanded, obscurely outraged.

"'Cause I wanted to."

"You wanted a master? When did that happen? The guy who goes his own way and leads his own life- you want someone giving you orders?"

The other guy was silent a minute. Amazingly, he seemed amused. "I'm a guy who does what he wants when he wants it and doesn't give shit what people say," he said, a laugh in his voice. "And when I found someone worth giving my life to, that's exactly what I did."

"Great," Gojou said. "Got yourself another sad-eyed little red-head to look after, once you'd dumped the first."

"Shit," the guy said. "It wasn't like that. You know it wasn't."

"It felt like that to me," Gojou said. His shoulders came up, tense with anger. "It felt like the world ending when you walked out that door. What was the fucking use of being alive even, if you weren't--" In horror, he felt his eyes filling. He stopped abruptly.

"Couldn't stay, after what I'd done," the guy said. "Couldn't take you with me. As much as your life was worth, being found with me if I'd got caught. I had to go and hope you'd make out ok. Thought you had. You look pretty pleased with yourself, usually."

"Took a while to get there," Gojou said, breathing deeply. "Wouldn't have managed it without Hakkai." He smoked in silence. "I looked for you for years," he said, not loud.

"Missed me?"

"Felt I owed you. Choosing between me and Mom like that."

"Wasn't a choice. You had your life all before you. Mom- hers ended when Dad left."

"Maybe. Me, I'd of chosen different."

"Then you'd of chosen wrong. Don't talk like you know all about it. You don't know shit. It wasn't you. She could've lived with /you/. But when Dad left she went all to pieces. The drink and all-- she wasn't her anymore. What you knew, growing up- that wasn't her. So- I mean, hell- what else could I do? I'd already lost her. I couldn't stand to lose you too."

"That's nice. And then you walked out not knowing if you'd ever see me again."

"Yeah. The way it goes."

"And of course it wasn't because you were mad at me for making you choose between us in the first place."

"I wasn't what--? What the hell are you saying? No, I wasn't mad 'cause you made me choose. You didn't make me do anything, for shit's sake! Jeez, where do you get these ideas?"

"If I hadn't been there, you wouldn't have had to do it," Gojou said. "I was there and you did. I'd blame me for that."

"Are you crazy? You think it was all because of you? You think if you hadn't been there it'd all have been hunky-dorey, happy families no problems? It was Dad going that did it and you oughta know that perfectly well now, even if you didn't back then. What were you, blind and deaf all those years?"

Gojou went red.

"No, ok, I didn't mean that," the guy said. "But god-- You weren't responsible for any of it, ok? You were just a kid."

"Just an innocent victim?" Gojou could hear the high note of anger in his own voice. What am I so pissed off about? he wondered, and didn't know the answer.

"Yeah. Naturally you're mad about it-"

"I'm not," Gojou said flatly.

"Then what's the problem? I don't understand what's eating you."

"You don't know," Gojou said, feeling the anger churning his stomach. "You don't know what it was like. Having Mom look at me like that- every time she saw me. It hurt her to look at me..."

"Her problem."

"My problem too. How you think it feels, knowing the fact you're alive hurts someone so much they want to kill you?"

"Lousy. But it was still her problem. It wasn't anything you did." The guy just kept saying that, like he didn't know how much it hurt to hear it.

"Fuck you."

"God. I know it's no fun, knowing there was a time when people could crap on you and you couldn't st--"

"Don't talk about Mom like that!" Gojou yelled.

The other guy was silent a minute. Then he said, "I loved her too, you know. In spite of everything. But she shouldn't have done what she did. You didn't deserve it." Gojou felt himself shaking, and shoved his cold hands under his armpits, hugging himself. "You didn't deserve it then and you don't deserve it now. You had to take it then but you don't have to now. You don't have to keep selling yourself short cause you don't think you deserve any better."

"I don't."

"You do."

"Like how?"

"Like that monk you hang out with."

"Merciful fucking Buddha," Gojou said, at the end of his patience, "what's this thing you got about Sanzou??"

"The thing is that you could do better than him," the guy said doggedly. "A lot better."

"Oh yeah. Better. Like that youkai you hang out with, huh?"

"Someone like that, yeah," the guy said, clearly refusing to be angry even if the anger was there, clenching his jaw. "Someone who's honest. Someone who'll call a spade a spade. No, listen to me for once. Me and Kou- what's between us is official- public, out in the open. He's my prince, I'm his man, everyone knows it. Like a marriage. I give him my loyalty and service, he gives me his trust and confidence. You see what I'm saying? It's something for something with us."

"What makes you think it's any different with me and Sanzou?"

"Aw c'mon. You just told me. 'Doesn't need anyone, doesn't want anyone to need him- he says.' He needs you as much as Kou needs me, but he pretends he doesn't. You give him what I give Kou and what does he give you back? 'On me you shouldn't depend.' What kind of trade-off is that? Your monk--" He stopped.

"Yeah?" Gojou said evenly, rage just under wraps. "Go on. What about my monk?"

"Forget it. If anyone said about Kou what I was going to say about Sanzou, I'd pound them. So I won't say it."

"Naah, go ahead. I hate having people thinking behind my back."

"OK then," the guy said deliberately. "Your monk is a cock-teaser. Promises you everything. Keeps you sniffing after him. When the chips are down, closes his pretty little legs and says 'I'm not that kind of guy.' Is what."

"Heiii. You think?" Gojou said evenly, though his breath was tight enough to stifle him. "Well, he ain't the only one. Lotsa guys hold out hoops and say 'Jump'. Lotsa guys try to make you do it their way. Like for instance, what'd you say your name is? Something weird like Dokugakuji, was it? Cause me, I think Sa Jien's a lot easier to say, and aniki's even easier than that. But hey, what happens if I say that, huh?"

There was silence. "If you say that," the other guy said eventually, "I'll tell you what happens. Word starts to spread that Sa Jien is still alive, and Sa Jien's mother's kin come hunting him down again. And maybe Sa Jien kills a few of his clansmen, and maybe he gets away until they find him again; and maybe in the end there's too many and they take him back and give him the kind of treatment a guy like that deserves. They take a saw- the kind with the three inch teeth- and they start sawing him in half, right in the middle, and they stop every so often so it's not over too soon, and maybe two or three hours later they've got him in two pieces, but you know, he's still alive even after that, cause if you do it right he'll lie there screaming a couple hours longer until all the blood's out of him. That's what happens. So, sorry, kid, but your brother's dead. He died an awful long time ago and I wouldn't try pulling him out of his grave if I were you."

Gojou drew on his cigarette. After a minute he said, "Warii."

"Don't mention it." The guy drew on his own. "I'm sorry too."

"Life," Gojou said, the sadness pooling inside him. "It sucks."

"Does it?"

"Times."

"You need a drink. Too bad you don't have one."

"In my kit," Gojou said. He leaned over, got hold of the strap, and dragged it to him. Good thing the night was chill like this. The beer was still cold. He handed a can to the other guy, ripped the tab off his own and held it up. "To you."

"To you."

"Prosit."

"Kanpai."

"L'chaim. It still sucks."

"Drink your beer and stop talking and it'll look better." The other guy was trying not to laugh. Gojou took a swig- a half the can swig. It hit his empty belly and after a minute, yeah, the world looked better. He looked at the silvery stripy shadows of the trees while he sipped on his beer, and thought about life and thought about what the guy had said.

"Naah, you know," he said at last, "Sanzou and me-- Our way suits us. No promises, no ties. Long as everything's understood and nothing's said, we can both breathe. He's responsible for him and I'm responsible for me, and that's the way we like it. I don't say this to blame you, but I spent ten years feeling guilty every time I thought of you. I felt I had to make it up to you somehow for what you'd done--"

"Shit, I didn--"

"Yeah, yeah. I got over it, don't worry. But you see how it is. I don't want anyone feeling that way about me. That's why we keep it casual."

"So you never know if you can count on him," the guy said, sounding dissatisfied. "Or him on you, come to that."

"We don't need anyone to count on. We look after ourselves."

"Jeez, you're young."

"Sit on it."

"Some day you will need somebody, trust me. And in a crunch, who'll you have at your back?"

"Hakkai." He finished his beer and reached for another can.

The other guy groaned. "Good thing you know Hakkai. So how come- you know- how come you don't? With him?" He paused. "Or do you?"

"With Hakkai? Shit, no. He's my friend."

"So what's Sanzou?"

"My friend."

"I give up."

"Might as well. You'd have to be me to understand."

"I'm glad I'm not you. At least I know what's owed me."

"Look, what's it to you, anyway?" Gojou said reasonably. "You've been ragging on me about Sanzou all evening. It's not like-- Oh--" as the answer finally dawned on him. "Oh," he said again, and started to giggle. "Oh, I see." He was shaking with laughter.

"What's so goddamned funny?"

"Oh- ohh-- 'Oi vey, my brother, taking up with that little tramp Sanzou,"- he had to stop to snicker- "when he could have had that nice Cho Hakkai- such a good boy, so steady and reliable- hii hii- so good to his moth-" He was snorting, beer going the wrong way up his nose.

"You're fucking insane," the guy said, getting angry.

Gojou lay down on the ground, hiccupping with laughter. "Nope. Drunk. Hey listen, aniki-"

"Don't call me that!"

"But aniki, it's me, your koubun Gojou from the old Yamaguchi-gumi, don't say you've forgotten l'il Gojou, aniki, hideeeiii...."

"Merciful Buddha," the guy said, "why me?"

"Bad karma." Gojou sat up. "Lissen Gokuudaku or whatever your name is--"

"I'm gonna beat your butt, boy." The other turned on him with dire purpose.

"Sorry, not my kink. Listen. No, listen, I'm serious." He looked straight into the guy's dark eyes. "Your baby brother's grown up now. That little kid you had to look out for and protect- he's as gone as Sa Jien. Say good-bye to him and let him go. Sayooo-nara. It was nice, it was a slice, but he's a man now and he doesn't need you to look after him. He makes his own choices and he lives with the consequences and you know you wouldn't have him any other way. Right?"

The other guy's face was dark as he looked down at Gojou. His brother's face had always been dark because he'd always had to look down at him, but now he didn't have that far to look.

"Yeah," the man said. "Sorry. Habit."

"I know." He put his arms around the guy's shoulders, and the guy let him. Put his face against the guy's cheek. "Sayonara, aniki. 'If it's gotta be like that', and it does." Kissed him.

After a long moment the other guy put his arms around Gojou's neck. "Goddamned fucking brat." He hugged him, burying his face in Gojou's hair. "Ciao." And let him go.

"So, Dokugaku, what about another beer?"

"Still on my first. Grass?"

"Huh?" Gojou patted the ground. "What about it?"

"God." Dokugaku pulled a pouch from a hole in the air, same place as he kept his sword evidently. "Still wet behind the ears. You've never toked?"

"Uhh- no. That stuff's illegal."

"Not for youkai."

"Do I count as youkai?"

"Half. So you get half a joint." Dokugaku was rolling it as he spoke.

"Al-RIGHT!!" Advantages, after all, to being a half-n-half. Looked like this was going to be a great night after all.