A Visitor

Hakkai glanced surreptitiously at Sanzo across the table. The other man refused to look him in the eyes, almost as if he were embarrassed by something. Hakkai looked down at the white tablecloth, white candles, and flowers spread out before him and grimaced. “I thought Gojyo had a little more taste than this,” he said.

“How did we get roped into eating here?” Sanzo asked through gritted teeth.

Hakkai blushed. After Max had yelled at Gojyo the redhead had seemed to implode. He had curled up in a little ball and wouldn’t respond to anything Hakkai said for a long time. Eventually he’d said that since he’d already paid for everything, Hakkai and Sanzo should enjoy the free meal. “We couldn’t let all this money go to waste,” Hakkai said.

“Che. Gojyo can eat it all his own fucking self for I care!” Sanzo grouched. Hakkai noticed that despite what he said Sanzo didn’t actually get up and leave.

“Oh, Sanzo,” Hakkai said with a sigh.

“They set us up,” Sanzo announced suddenly.

“What makes you say that?” Hakkai asked.

“It reeks of Max,” the blond man said through gritted teeth.

“What does, Sanzo?”

“They’re setting us up!”

“Why would Max want to set us up?” Hakkai asked. “I think you’re a little paranoid.”

Sanzo’s purple eyes finally met Hakkai’s, and what the brunette saw unnerved him a little. But what came out of Sanzo’s mouth was completely shocking. “What’s your sexual preference?”

“…Excuse me?”

Sanzo looked away as he said, “Max had me pegged just be looking at me.”

Hakkai waited, but Sanzo didn’t say anything else. So Hakkai asked, “What did she have you pegged as?”

“I’m gay,” Sanzo said.

Well, that piece of news wasn’t altogether surprising. What really surprised Hakkai was the fact that Sanzo even noticed other people. He had simply assumed that the monk just never cared enough about anyone to become attracted. “Max noticed right away?” he asked, impressed.

“She knows that you are human-turned-demon. But I want to know… are you attracted to men at all?”

“But Sanzo…”

“Answer the question, Hakkai.”

Hakkai had to think for a minute. He’d never really noticed if he liked men before. “I’m not sure,” he said seriously. “I’d have to say that the idea of sleeping with a man isn’t completely off-putting. Why do you want to know?”

Sanzo’s face flushed a little bit and Hakkai had his answer. “Oh, I see,” he said with surprise.

“Max is trying to set us up,” Sanzo said again. “She says we are compatible.”

Hakkai watched as Sanzo kept avoiding eye contact. “Sanzo, why do you believe what Max said?” Normally the monk was so skeptical of people that he wouldn’t act on anything they said. Something must have happened to convince Sanzo of Max’s veracity.

He was right. “The little bitch can read auras,” Sanzo snapped.

Hakkai felt himself pale. A master of aura-reading could read your whole life situation before you even greeted one another. She could tell when somebody lied, when they were happy, or even if they were standing next to their destined lover. Max was a delightful young woman to spend time with, but she was dangerous beyond belief.
Apparently she was quite manipulative, too.

“So, she and Gojyo spent the afternoon gambling so they could raise enough money to send the two of us out on a date,” Hakkai said calmly. “Apparently she feels you and I belong together.”

“It worked,” Sanzo said simply.

“I don’t know about that,” Hakkai said calmly, taking a sip of water. “Now that we’re both aware of the setup we can probably get them back somehow.”

“I’ll bet that she figured that we’d figure this out sometime during the meal. She’s smart enough to plan it that way,” Sanzo muttered as he took a bite of salmon.

“You think there’s more to the plan than just setting us up on a date?” Hakkai asked, surprised.

“The hell if I know!” Sanzo snapped, startling the waitress who had come by just then to refill their drinks. Sanzo glared at the woman until she left. “I can’t figure the broad out.”

Hakkai smiled. “Oh, Sanzo.” The other man was just plain cute when he was upset.

“Do you understand her at all?” Sanzo demanded.

It really impressed Hakkai that Sanzo’s barriers had dropped. Normally any conversation with the monk turned out to be almost entirely one-sided. “I think she’s like me,” he said honestly.

“That bitch is nothing like you!” Sanzo snapped.

Hakkai shrugged. “Clearly she’s more powerful than she looks. Yesterday she was in a bad mood, but today she’s being quite friendly. She did arrange this date for us, using Gojyo to get us here. If anything, she’s smarter than us.”

Sanzo snorted. “She won Gojyo a lot of money at Poker. She’s just like him on that, and she’d probably win in a fight against that stupid monkey.”

“And as she proved yesterday she’s a tougher hard-ass than you are. I’m not saying that she’s just like me, but I suppose I see myself in her.”

“You think she’s had a dark past?” Sanzo asked skeptically.

Hakkai shrugged. “All four of us have tragic pasts, as well as most of the people we’ve met on this journey. She… oh, I don’t know. I really can’t get a good read on her. I like what she’s shown me, and that is good enough.”

“So you prefer girls,” Sanzo said.

So they were back to that, were they? Hakkai hated this subject. When he had lived at the orphanage he’d caught some of the boys talking about how weird he’d been and laughed at him as they said he must like boys. “What I prefer… Why don’t we talk about something else?” he asked a little desperately.

Sanzo’s face turned very red. “Hey, I…” He was interrupted by something hitting his head.

“Don’t screw up this opportunity, you selfish, prissy princess!” Max said from the doorway. She was wearing one slipper, the other being the thing that had hit Sanzo in the head. “Just tell the dense bastard that you like him and let him think it over!

“Go away you dumb bitch!” Sanzo yelled.

“Look who’s the dumb bitch, you stupid asshole! You have to handle this delicately! I was stupid to think you could do this on your own!” She glanced at Hakkai and winked. The way her head was turned Sanzo couldn’t see the little flick of her eyelid. Was this part of her plan? She was just going to push Sanzo into shooting her!

“Go the…”

“I mean it,” Max said, her voice dropping into a low, cold, hard pitch. Sanzo and Hakkai both froze, looking at the short girl who now reeked of power. Her gaze was directed at Sanzo, pinning the blond with her stare. After a moment she turned to Hakkai and bowed politely. “I’m sorry I interfered with your love life. Please forgive me?”

Hakkai was floored. “Of course,” he eventually stammered out.

“Please, finish your meal and enjoy yourselves. I’ll be staying in the room with Goku and Gojyo, so don’t worry about staying out too late, my darlings!” She winked flirtatiously at the two of them, her eyes sparkling.

“Dinner shouldn’t take that long,” Hakkai observed.

“I opened a tab at the bar for you,” Max said. “Didn’t Gojyo tell you?”

“No…” Hakkai said.

In the flash of an eye Max’s other slipper was off her foot and thrown out the doorway. Gojyo yelped and there was a bang as he knocked into something. “Stupid male,” Max snarled.

“Stupid female!” Gojyo shot back. “I forgot, okay! Pretending to be devastated is hard!”

Max stilled for a moment. Her hand drifted up to her chin and she stared into space thoughtfully. “I suppose it would be hard… I guess. I’ve never really thought about it before. Interesting.” She shrugged, her eyes snapping to attention. “Anyway, you guys have fun. It’s all paid for already, so even though this plan fell apart already you two should enjoy yourselves.”

With that she left.