FicWad

This story was written on a challenge from kkcatsnip. Obviously none of the involved characters are mine. I wish I could draw that well, but I can't.

Look Over Here

Sanzo's not a happy drunk, but then he's not a happy anything. There's a rainstorm coming in with the evening. He can feel it under his skin, like a wide, dank wall of heat, present, but not yet. Close enough that Goku and Gojyo have vanished into town somewhere, avoiding the wet. Dark beer and cigarettes help calm the ache of it, just enough that he can spend the night staring into the dark instead of doing something about it.

Sanzo is drunk enough that the ceiling does a little dance like Goku hyped on sugar, but not drunk enough at all, because he leans toward Hakkai as he speaks to him.

"Hey, look over here," his voice is sharp but not the way he wanted it to sound. He draws in a long, deep breath of smoke, letting the nicotine mix with the damp of the air.

Hakkai turns his head, slowly, as if his neck might wobble, his one concession to drink. The fact that Hakkai never actually manages to get drunk no matter how hard he tries hasn't escaped Sanzo's notice. Poor stupid, bastard. At the moment Sanzo can't think of a more terrible fate.

"Yes?" Hakkai says, his head at a tilt and his glasses sliding forward on his nose. Little drops of sweat smooth that slide, of metal on flesh.

"Don't you think it's excessive?"

Hakkai blinks and pushes the glasses back up with a fingertip. "Mmm?" A soft, mild sort of sound that manages to question Sanzo's state of inebriation and related mental capacity all at once. "What is?"

"You. You've downed half of a barrel of the cheap ass beer they're overcharging us for and you don't even move funny. What's the point?"

Hakkai smiles and makes another mildish "Mmm hmm" sound. "Are you worried about my expenditures, then? If I've given cause for concern you should let me know."

Sanzo snorts and tips back the remains of his own beer, draining the dregs before putting it down. "Don't say idiotic things. There aren't enough hours in the day for all the stupid shit I have to hear as it is."

"Ah. I do apologize."

"See. There's another one. Don't you think it's excessive?" Sanzo lets the beer slide out of his fingers and roll onto the floor as he speaks. It makes a sort of whirring noise until hits the doorstop with a thud.

Sanzo gets another pointy Hakkai smile. "I'm afraid I'm still not following you."

Sanzo shakes his head and pushes himself to unsteady feet. It's not far, just about three feet over and onto another chair, so he makes it without stumbling and props himself up next to Hakkai.

"You're the one I rely on not to be a complete fuck wit. So stop being a fuck wit." The point he's making is completely, blaringly obvious to him.

Outside the first fat drops of rain strike leaves and window panes. Sanzo doesn't wince because he's looking at Hakkai.

Hakkai shakes his head and looks as close as he can to annoyed for a moment. Then he seems to hear the rain too, because his eyes turn toward the window, like he's suddenly stuck in someone else's dream.

"Once again, I apologize," Hakkai says, but not as if he really hears himself speak.

Sanzo's hands curl up at his side. "Why, what did you do?"

"Mmmm..." Hakkai doesn't even turn around. Sanzo wonders what he sees, if there's anything at all but a green-eyed girl with a soft, dead face.

"Hey! You can look at me, you know," Sanzo doesn't mean to be loud, but he is. Hakkai actually winces, but turns around, sharp green eyes on Sanzo.

"Yes? I can?" Hakkai says, in a bitingly sober way. His mouth is curled into a tight little curve that doesn't even try to be a smile.

Sanzo's drunk and it's raining, so maybe he's lost his mind. He leans forward, not far, not far at all. Close enough that it might have been an accident, a slip of toe on wet floorboards that made him do it. His lips tap against Hakkai's tightly closed mouth.

It's nothing, a moment. To hold a moment too close is to lose it. To hold a warm mouth pressed against Sanzo's, not even trying to pull away, and then loosening, just a little. Just enough. Sanzo tastes tongue before he pulls back, tongue, spit and shitty beer.

"Yes?" Hakkai murmurs in a voice softened by surprise. Sanzo stares at him for a moment and watches the way his head spins. Like Hakkai's dissolving into two and three and four, warmly smiling faces, spinning around. Dissolving into rainwater.

"Nothing. It's generally nothing," Sanzo mutters, drawing back into his own chair, arms crossed over his stomach.

Hakkai smiles at him, just another curve of lip. His eyes are just another shade of green and his mouth is just a little warmer than the wooden chair arm under Sanzo's hands. "I'll try not to do whatever it is I did again, if you like."

Sanzo shrugs and turns his gaze out the window. He can see gray and mist, and something echoing through it, redder than the apples or Gojyo's hair. "What I like? You do what you like. It's not like it matters anyway."

"It's raining," Hakkai says, as if that is all that needs to be said. Wordlessly, he leans forward and pulls a cigarette from Sanzo's pack, lights it, and slides it between Sanzo's empty fingers.

Sanzo brings it to his lip. Smoke and water.

"Yeah. Whatever. It's nothing," he says. And so it is.