"No, thank you."
Kenren shrugged and pocketed them, taking a long drag and blowing smoke idly into the air. "Must be a pretty good bastard to have you pick up good habits all of a sudden."
"Mmh."
"Not that it's my business, 'cause we ain't like that anyway, but..." he waved the cigarette for emphasis, yet refused to look back at the other's eyes. Something in it bothered him. Ever since this morning it bothered him, as if Tenpou had finally and completely withdrawn within himself. Either that, or he had resorted to /someone else/. "You care to tell me who this guy is?"
Far be it from Kenren Taishou to be subtle. And far be it from Cho Hakkai to be open.
"No. I don't." he responded tersely.
"Do I know him?" God, now we're playing 20 questions, Kenren thought irritably, like...
/A husband accusing his wife of infidelity.../
"In a sense."
"You sleep with him?" Smoke was blown in the direction of the bedroom.
"No." And with that one syllable word came a nearly inaudible sigh of disappointment. Kenren caught it, and his first impulse was to just grab Tenpou by the shoulders, shake him and shout out, 'what's wrong with you?' But if Tenpou was Tenpou, and undoubtedly he was, then the marshal would simply reply that the one askew in his thinking was Kenren. After all...
(flashback)
****/ "Bedroom. Now."
"I've never gone about this with a man, Taishou. Are you sure?"
"Hell yeah and you had better stuff that book away or else I'll take you now...on the other hand, maybe that wouldn't be so bad..."
"Kenren, wait I- mmph...Why must...must...oh god...why must you be so...insistent?"
"I. Want. You. Now. Care to have me elaborate, or shall we continue, eh?
"Continue."
All either of them remembered was that at that point, they were basically ravaging each other, but clear at the start...Tenpou's condition...was that there were no promises between them. /*****
But still... If only...Those were the only reasons he had. The words 'I want you to be mine and only mine' wouldn't have sufficed for the marshal. Never.
"Then what?"
"Then what *what*?" There was no hiding the growing annoyance, especially when Hakkai was clutching "Brave New World" with a grip strong enough to strangle a statue.
"Is he important?" He braced himself for an answer. Tenpou didn't think in terms of affection- more along the lines of lust if anything. So 'importance' was the determining factor of whether you were under the marshal's wing or not. A utilitarian to the core. You had to be advantageous to him or you were gone. Konzen, due to some unfathomable childhood bonding, had gained a permanent spot. One wing, under which Goku could find shelter as well. Which left one other- and it was the more capricious.
If you were there, it was only because you didn't give a damn about what he did with you (as long as you were on top, of course). You were blind. But you were pampered- as long as you didn't pry into his business. You were safe from the dogs biting at your heels because Tenpou's authority was enough to put them at bay a good three miles behind you. Most of all, you had to be ready to be thrown back to the dogs at any given moment. You shouldn't care- either about the dogs or the loss you would suffer from Tenpou's refusal to commit.
Kenren didn't give a damn about the dogs and so when Tenpou said, "Yes, Kenren, he is." he felt like a door had just been slammed in his face: a betrayal he should have expected one time or another, but enough endless nights with Tenpou had the general convinced that it would never happen. The bastard.
"Ah...then you use him like you do me? Or maybe he's even more useful..." his voice dripped with poison as Hakkai could only look on with dismay, if not with a bit of pity.
/You should have said 'I love you' earlier. Such things fall on deaf ears. He's not here, Kenren. I am./ Though not lost to the healer was the damage he had irrevocably done./ I only mentioned his name. One name/. Then came the endless questions- each one cutting into the other bit by bit because after that there was no choice but to be honest. To be otherwise would be a betrayal towards Gojyo, and he had already promised three years ago that such a thing was unthinkable, even when the half-youkai wasn't present.
The situation would have been infinitely easier to handle had Hakkai known Tenpou's character. Cold. Steel. And so he had not realized the weight of his words when he answered the general's question.
"I don't use him." Simple truth. Hakkai believed it to be an innocent confession, or rather, a statement of the obvious. The safest answer he could return because saying 'yes' seemed too malicious and surely, Tenpou Gensui wasn't like that. Right?
Simple enough, but that four letter phrase was sufficient enough to replace an even simpler three letter verdict. It came like a slap in the face, leaving Kenren more pissed than heartbroken. Never in his life had he felt so humiliated, and thank god no one saw this interaction. Made him feel like a petty whore in the court, subject to the interested eye of a man in power. And Tenpou Gensui was a man with power. A lot of it. Who was on top now?
But he never would have thought...
"You know what?" said Kenren as apathetically as he could manage. "I think I've outworn my welcome with you."
"Kenren-"
"I don't care, really. No promises. I remember."
"Kenren."
Then he produced from his pocket a rumpled square of paper- small enough so to be fit into the message vial of a carrier bird-and tossed it at Hakkai's feet. It read:
/They're ready for Kenren Taishou and his men at the mountain path. Surveillance round. Thirty including the general. Orders understood. They won't return. /
Hakkai scrutinized it. "I don't remember..." Well of course he didn't. "General, what is this?" His answer came in the form of a punch to the jaw and he stumbled back. Before he knew it, Kenren was on top of him, seizing the collar of his shirt.
"Cut the crap." he snarled fiercely, as his eyes lit up with pent up resentment. "You fucking know what I'm talking about. I've played the willful ignorant. Believed you and blamed Litouten all the way. Why the hell I did, I don't know. I just *did*. So shoot me for being so fucking stupid. Found this on your desk this morning."
Suddenly taken with the realization that he was shouting, Kenren lowered his voice to a mere whisper and lowered his head to Hakkai's ear as one hand cupped the side of his face as if he were acting like a lover which, god forbid, he wasn't. Hakkai was almost trembling with shock and the fear that he was going to face some terrible fate in the library of his dreams. His mind conjured up the worst and for once, Tenpou's body agreed. Then the ever-present question: What did Tenpou do? And the ever-present non-consoling thought: I don't deserve this. Nevertheless, he allowed Kenren to continue torturing him. Hakkai could take it- with his confused detachment- he could take it.
"I should have seen it before. You took my men away from me. I know that much, and I won't let you take away anything else. I won't beg for something you won't give, now that I know that you gave to someone else..."
It still didn't explain anything to the healer, only reaffirmed the fact that he had jeopardized Tenpou's fine threads of secrets. The web was collapsing.
The hand at his cheek stayed surprisingly gentle. Hakkai had expected it to come flying down and pound him into the floor, but it didn't. It cradled his face, though in its stiffness he could sense Kenren's reluctance. "Kenren I-" he spoke for Tenpou, not for himself. "There's no one else." but when he had uttered those last words, he realized how empty they sounded. Something not even Goku would believe. Kenren must have thought it a blatant lie.
"I don't care, *marshal*." the man's voice had grown dispassionate though their faces were only mere centimeters apart. Hakkai flinched at the scorn imbued with the mention of Tenpou's title.
Then lips descended on his own in a soft kiss like the one from this morning. Softer even. But bitter. "I'll request that Goujin reassign me in the morning. I'll be out of your hair from now on." Kenren's mouth hovered over his own, their breaths mingling as he received one bitter kiss after another.
"But Tenpou...mess with me or my soldiers again and I'll make you know what hell feels like."
Cho Gonou smiled cruelly up at him, piqued by the mention of absolute misery. "I already do."
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, breaking both of them from their spell of hatred. For an eternity, neither moved. They stared at each other in disbelief- at the words they had exchanged, the threats...
Kenren pushed himself off the floor and quickly snatched up the cigarette he had dropped before it burned the entire place down. Not that he cared, of course. Hakkai took advantage of the disruption and tried not to race to the door. Upon opening it, he was met by an impassive face. /God, doesn't anybody smile in heaven?/
"I was sent by Goujin to convey a message."
