Rhyming Games

To my readers, thank so much for sticking with me. I've been busy, and as I'm sure you've noticed, haven't been updating regularly. I will still be busy, but in apology for the wait, here's an extra long chapter. To all of you who comment, I love you and would be nothing without you. Cheers.


Rhyming Games

Chapter 9: More of the Same, But Who's to Blame?


Hakkai almost wished he were a religious man. Having faith to blindly follow would be terribly convenient right now. As much as he took pride in being an independent thinker, he was beginning to want someone to just tell him what to do.

Visiting Sanzo and Goku was supposed to be relaxing, a change of pace. A nice escape from his daily life. An escape from Gojyo. But Gojyo was here with him now, and acting strangely, Hakkai thought. The look Gojyo had given him before retreating to his assigned bedroom was almost pitiable. It was just a brief flash of some sad emotion in the ruby eyes before Hakkai turned his back, but it was enough to worry Hakkai a little. Was Gojyo really taking his recent odd behavior so seriously? Why would he? That would imply that there were deeper feelings present… which just didn’t make any sense at all. Gojyo couldn’t possibly have formed any real attachment to him in the span of less than a year, could he?

It was late at the temple. Hakkai found he could not sleep. The bed was too hard, and the cold was seeping in through the ill-fitted window. He decided to walk through the halls a bit. Perhaps find a fireplace. Odd. It had been warm earlier.

Just a few minutes of silent walking led him past Sanzo’s door. The light was still on. Hakkai’s thoughts went like this:

Perhaps he would have something to say about this. Some opinion about my experiments with my youkai side. Some knowledge I don’t have. He might be irritable and unsociable, but he can also be mature and helpful in his roundabaout way. And he does come across as rather wordly at times.

It’s probably a bad idea to let him know the risks I’ve been taking. He’d call me an ungrateful fool for tempting fate after all the effort he went through to find me and speak on my behalf.

Then again, I suppose I owe it to him. I should mention it at least.

And while I’m here, if I see a proper opening for it, maybe I’ll ask him what to do about Gojyo. Sanzo certainly has experience dealing with difficult roommates, I should think. Maybe not quite the same, but…

“Are you going to knock or just stand there all night?” a gravelly voice snapped from within. Hakkai should have guessed the priest would sense him there. He raised a hand but only managed the first knock before the voice added, “Just get in here already.”

Hakkai entered quietly and noticed that only the bedside table lamp was on. Goku was absent, so Hakkai figured he must have his own room nearby. Sanzo sat on the windowsill, the moonlight hitting his thin form. His robes had been discarded for the moment. It was the first time Hakkai had ever seen the priest without his holy vestments, and the difference was startling. Wearing only a sleeveless black top with a familiar high collar, black arm bands, and worn black jeans, the man in the window looked much younger, but also a little tougher, than the holy man he was used to seeing. The absence of a cigarette made the image even more odd. All in all, though, Hakkai could not help but admit that the blonde was an extremely attractive person.

“I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you, Sanzo.” Hakkai did feel bad. As much as he disapproved of the habit, the priest looked downright miserable without his cigarettes. He also looked like he was trying not to show it, but his fidgetting hands were a dead giveaway.

“If you were that sorry, you wouldn’t have chosen to disturb me,” Sanzo griped. “Is there something you need?”

“I was wondering if I could speak with you a moment. Do you mind?”

“Go ahead.”

Hakkai seated himself on a nearby chair and immediately decided that direct honesty would be best.

“I’ve been removing one of my limiters. As an experiment. I’ve tried it twice, both times far away from people. I was… curious.”

“Kill anybody?”

Hakkai should have seen that one coming. He merely sighed. “No, of course not. I would have told you sooner if anything had gone wrong.”

“So why are you telling me now?”

“So far it has only been one limiter. The changes have alreay been quite… dramatic. My state of mind was altered. I felt the urge to do things I would never consider doing in my current state. I’ve wanted to practice, also. I wanted to see if I could control myself and the chi abilities I’ve mastered so far in my youkai state. So far I have no confidence that I can do either of those things.” Hakkai had been looking straight into Sanzo’s unique purple eyes as he spoke. Now he looked away. “I want to know if I’ve been doing anything wrong, perhaps something the Sanbutsushin would disapprove of. And I wanted to know if you had any advice or knowledge you could share with me. I don’t even know if what I turned into was my full demon form.” And back to Sanzo’s eyes. “If there is anything you feel I should know, I’d be grateful.”

There was a long pause once he’d finished. Sanzo closed his eyes and grimaced, either pained or regretting letting Hakkai through his door. Possibly both. When at last he spoke, he still had not opened his eyes.

“You’re an ungrateful fool. And if you haven’t figured that out already, then I’ve grossly overestimated you.”

Hakkai gave a little sigh.

“But as far as I know,” Sanzo continued, “there shouldn’t be any reason for you to worry about being in your youkai form. Youkai aren’t bloodthirsty by nature. I can’t say as much for you personally… but I can’t think of any other reason for you to avoid that side of yourself. As far as your limiters go, I have no knowledge of how they work. You once told me you didn’t even know how you got them. I have no idea whether or not the three cuffs give you three different changes. That is something you’ll have to find out on your own.”

“I notice you didn’t jump at the chance to see a demonstration,” Hakkai said with an odd, humorless smile.

“Because frankly I don’t give a damn. Use Gojyo as your guinea pig if you want to test your restraint.”

“Restraint?” Was it just him, Hakkai thought, or could that sentence have meant all kinds of things…?

Sanzo huffed in smug irritation as he replied, “If anyone with five deadly weapons on each hand can go a full thirty seconds without using them on Gojyo, they ought to be sainted.”

Somehow Hakkai didn’t think anyone would be stepping forward to elevate him to sainthood any time soon. But since they were on the subject of Gojyo… Now how to phrase his questions?

“Sanzo… do you think that Gojyo—”

“Hakkai, I don’t care. What you and that pervert do is nothing I wish to be a part of. If you two have some infantile unresolved emotional tension, then you can work it out on your own. He already tried to moan and complain to me, and that was before I ran out of my smokes. So if there’s nothing else…”

“Understood, Sanzo. Thank you anyway.”

Hakkai decided it was the best he would get. He returned to the bare little room the monks had provided, knowing that he would still have to figure out the hard stuff himself.

The last thing on his mind as he tossed and turned and finally drifted off to sleep was how much he missed the bed at home. Gojyo’s bed.

Hakkai and Gojyo returned to their shared apartment the next day. Sanzo and Goku saw them off, with Goku waving and Sanzo smoking lazily.

About a mile into their journey home, Hakkai broke the silence by saying, “I thought Sanzo had run out of cigarettes. Where do you suppose he got the ones he was smoking this morning?”

Gojyo shrugged a little stiffly. “I was up early,” the redhead replied. “I ran down to town ‘cause I was bored. Figured I’d get him some so he wouldn’t strangle Goku. I can’t imagine being cooped up in that place with a nicotine-deprived Sanzo. Don’t know what the brat sees in that guy.”

Hakkai stared at Gojyo, pleasantly surprised. “You bought Sanzo cigarettes?”

Gojyo huffed moodily. “To keep him from killing the monkey! I didn’t do it for him!”

But Hakkai smiled warmly anyway. “You know, you’re really a nice guy when you think no one’s looking.”

“Who said I wasn’t? I’m the nicest guy you’ll ever meet. Ask any girl in town. I even saved a complete stranger’s life once, didn’t I?”

“And so humble, too.”

“Aaah, shut up.”

Hakkai only smiled more, and for a moment, he thought things didn’t seem quite so bad between them. Perhaps the proverbial storm had blown over, and Gojyo might be choosing to forget about everything that had happened last week. Hakkai certainly hoped so. He was beginning to miss his friend.

Is it too soon to test the waters, I wonder?

…

I must truly be a glutton for punishment.

“Gojyo, are you still angry with me?” Goodness, I hope that didn’t sound as pathetically hopeful as I think it did.

Hakkai watched as Gojyo’s cocky expression melted into an altogether more serious frown. He waited for some kind of response, but the taller man kept his eyes on the road ahead and said nothing.

“I’d like to put this behind us, you know,” Hakkai tried again. “And I did apologize.”

Hakkai turned his eyes forward again as well, but he could still tell that Gojyo was clenching his jaw the way he often did when he was needing a cigarette of his own. They walked in silence for another minute, until Gojyo finally spoke.

“You gonna lay off my love life?”

“Are you going to let me have my privacy?”

“You really need that much privacy? You sure there’s nothing I should know about?”

“Do you really need that much sex? Is there something I should know about?”

“You gonna dance around this subject forever?”

“Are you going to let it bother you forever?”

There was a moment of stand-off. Hakkai sneaked a peak at his friend’s face, and was immensely relieved to see a grin slowly spreading across it.

“You ever gonna let me in on your secret?” Gojyo asked.

“Oh, undoubtedly.”

Gojyo looked at him in surprise.

“Someday,” Hakkai added with a smirk of his own.

Gojyo’s lazy grin returned, and he fished about in his pockets for his cigarettes, taking his time to extract and light one. He took the first drag and exhaled long and slow.

“Someday,” he repeated. “Whatever. I can live with that.”

The already freezing temperatures took a turn for the worse over the next few weeks. The snow and ice came thick and fast, and only the bravest and most desperate could be seen outside for days on end. It was the worst winter Gojyo’s village had seen in years, but if one were to pass by a certain small apartment during those bleak days, they would have been surprised by the amount of warmth within.

It was too cold for most of Gojyo’s usual activities, and too cold for Hakkai to tutor any children. With no reliable income, they were surviving off of the money that Hakkai had been saving up on his own. But despite their meager resources, the two had managed to create a rather cosy nest out of their cramped living space, and with the balance restored between them, they were getting along just fine.

“Gojyo, I swear, if you do not clean up this pigsty right now—”

“It is not that bad!”

“The trash has not been taken out in two weeks!”

“The hell I’m going out there! Take it out yourself for o—”

“The ashtrays alone could fill an entire trash bag! If you think I don’t know that you sneak smokes while I’m showering—”

“You’d seriously make me go outside to smoke?! Talk about cold…”

“If smoking were that important to you, you’d deal with the weather.”

“I meant you, ya’ heartless bastard!”

“Gojyo, this place is disgusting! I can hardly set my hand down without knocking something over that’s been growing mold or polluting the air. I’m going to take my shower now, and this time I want you to spend those valuable minutes cleaning this place! When I get out, I want this room cigarette-free, and the trashbags had better at least be outside.”

“Oh yeah? Or what?!”

“Or I will make sure you regret it!” Hakkai turned and stormed off to the bathroom, grabbing his robe along the way.

“What, that’s it? Oh fine! Fine! Just run off and take your stupid shower and hog all the hot water while I do all the work! Boy am I glad we took this time to work out our problems like adults!” But Hakkai had slammed the bathrom door on Gojyo’s words.

Gojyo stood almost trembling in his ashtray-strewn living room, hands clenched at his sides. His jaw clenched and unclenched. He appeared to be fighting the urge to take his rage out on the innocent door, but in truth, he was waiting.

From within, the sound of the shower head hissed to life, and Gojyo sprinted for the couch.

Damn. It’s getting worse, Gojyo thought as he deftly undid his pants and pulled out his straining erection. It was satisfyingly heavy and hot in his grip, but it had been screaming at him for too long, and he pulled at it in near desperation. His dry palms chafed a bit on the sensitive skin, but luckily for him, he’d been leaking pre-cum steadily during his argument with Hakkai, and now there was plenty to use as lubrication. He spared a mournful thought for the expensive stuff he’d bought just for this purpose, the stuff that was stashed deep in the cabinet beneath the bathroom sink, but… desperate times…

It was getting worse. The longer he’d stayed cooped up in the apartment with Hakkai, the more often he’d been plagued by this urgent, demanding arousal. Hakkai might tease him about his lustful habits, but he’d never felt the need this badly before, at least not so frequently. And if Hakkai had noticed, he was being blessedly discrete about it. And speaking of Hakkai… it was probably the cold weather, but the guy had been taking an awful lot of showers lately.

Gojyo was torn. He thought he’d come to a kind of decision about Hakkai already. He’d decided that he liked being just good friends, and that he liked being close to the guy. But nowadays all that happened when he spent too much time with Hakkai was a massive boner that begged for attention. It was so hard – no pun intended – to be the kind of friend he wanted to be when all his body seemed to want was sex. He longed for spring, when he’d be able to see his girls again and take the fucking edge off.

But for now… He leaned back on the couch and let the visions come to him as he stroked himself hurriedly. Hakkai just getting out of the shower… Hakkai asleep in Gojyo’s bed, curled on his side…

He began pumping himself faster, rubbing his thumb over the head, ear’s straining to hear the sound of the shower over his own panting breaths.

Hakkai standing half naked in his bedroom, bathed in moonlight…

His other hand reached down to tug and squeeze his balls, his eyes shut tight.

Hakkai’s real smile…

He came spectacularly, as he always did when he was thinking of Hakkai, and his seed shot out of him three… four times, making a mess all over his hands. His head rolled back onto the couch and his breath left him in large, huffing gasps.

Out of habit, he waited for the shame to catch up with him, the shame of having jerked off while thinking of his male best friend.

Perhaps he’d done it too many times, for the shame failed to find him that evening, and instead he went about cleaning his living room, feeling guilty that he didn’t feel more guilty.

Hakkai braced himself against the shower wall as his free hand stroked his thoughts away. For some reason, it just kept happening. He’d argue with Gojyo and find himself aroused and in need of escape. It made no sense! It had been almost a month since he’d removed his limiter, and he could sense nothing of the beast within him, yet he’d barely made it to the shower in time tonight. Why did this keep happening?

His hand pumped up and down, slippery with soap. In his mind, he could see only Gojyo and his huge flaccid cock as it swung back and forth. His own human member felt so insufficient by comparison, and he was only speculating. It must be because he knew what his could be, now. He’d felt that unfamiliar heft in his own taloned hands. That warm, immensely empowering heft. He wondered what Gojyo’s would feel like in his hand…

Dammit, that was all it took this time. Hakkai’s essence splattered all over the tiled walls and he slumped to the side.

It wasn’t fair. He shouldn’t care this much. But he did. He was undeniably obsessed with it now, and it was surely worse for being cooped up inside for so long like this. Not to mention the whole limiter experiment he’d undertaken. Even now – perhaps especially now – Hakkai could feel the urge to remove that cuff again and feel that wild, blissful freedom. The conflict of interests was beginning to tear him apart.

But one thing was clear. It could all be traced back to one thing, really.

None of this would ever have happened if it weren’t for Gojyo.

Gojyo and his huge penis.


(To Be Continued...)
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Author's Note: I don't have time to thank all of my reviewers by name, as much as I want to. Just know that your comments are ALWAYS appreciated! Also, I wanted to point out that I don't enjoy the stereotype of Hakkai always smiling. I've read several fics where they constantly portray Hakkai with his "fake smile". Well lord knows he's got a fake smile, but he doesn't ALWAYS wear it.