(Crack) Whoops, Tenpou

[moonshadows]

            Afterwards, no one was quite sure how it happened.

            Homura had shown up out of nowhere, as usual, mouthing cryptic phrases about “waking up” Goku’s “true self” from 500 years ago. Goku had been all for having a fight, but the other three were acutely aware that they had been on the road for five days and - to greater or lesser extents - just wanted to reach the town on the other side of the hill and luxuriate in its amenities.

            Baths. Beds. Women. Food.

            But no, their well-deserved rest and relaxation was going to be interrupted by the Emo Prince and his two lackeys, and it was with (mostly) internal sighs that they climbed out of the Jeep because it didn’t matter that the fight was ostensibly between Homura and Goku: somehow, some way, they would all be involved in short order.

            Sure enough, within moments it was a scene of mass confusion with bullets, rapid-fire bullets, chi blasts, whips, and a silver crescent blade on a chain all adding to the chaos of the two martial maniacs going at it, trying to turn each other into red paste with everything they had.

            Then Homura shouted, “Now!” and several things happened simultaneously - or at least in rapid succession.

            Shien pulled out some kind of lantern and opened the shutter, causing a beam of light to streak towards Goku. The blade of Gojyo’s polearm intercepted, sending the beam shooting off with the rest of the bullets from Zenon’s Ma-Shin Gun to splatter harmlessly on the chi barrier Hakkai had erected. The beam, however, was reflected instead of splattering like the bullets, heading now for the War Prince who swiped at with his sword, sending it back just as Hakkai dropped the barrier in favor of readying a chi blast.

            When the light enveloped Hakkai, causing him to cry out in some nameless but very intense emotion, the entire fight stood still. 

            It was a very long moment before the light faded from around Hakkai’s crumpled form, and someone else stood up. He had Hakkai’s slender build and shaggy brown hair, but the hair came halfway down his back, standing out against the loose, white overcoat he was wearing over a nondescript dark shirt and equally nondescript dark pants. He stretched, hands over his head with one wrist holding the other and a dark brown cigarette nearly falling from between his lips. Then he removed the square glasses perched on his nose, held them up, squinted at the lenses, and cleaned them on a corner of his white overcoat before putting then back on and, finally, taking stock of his surroundings.

            “Oh,” he said in a voice very like Hakkai’s but distinctly not. “Well. This is rather unexpected.”

            Zenon recovered first. “Who’s this slob?”

            “Shien?” Homura asked, but it was more of a demand than a question.

            The quiet man looked at the lantern in his hands. “I must assume that it performed its function and caused our adversary to revert to an identity from five hundred years ago.”

            Goku looked at the stranger. “So this is still Hakkai? He doesn’t smell like Hakkai.”

            Sanzo shrugged with a snort meant to indicate that he had no fucks to give regarding the issue. Gojyo simply watched, uncharacteristically quiet.

            “So if we kill him,” Zenon said, hefting the Ma-Shin Gun again, “we take out Hakkai. I don’t see a problem.”

            With no further warning, he fired a burst at the stranger, but the stranger was no longer there. Almost too fast for the eye to follow, he had ducked and pulled a katana from nowhere, deflecting the bullets and lunging forward to knock the barrel of the gun upwards while leaving the tip of the sword a finger’s breadth away from the kami’s throat. 

            “Eastern Army,” the stranger said in a voice that was both mild and dismissive. “I see they have continued their tradition of favoring brute force over any amount of skill or competence. Disappointing, but not surprising.”

            Angrily, Zenon knocked the blade away from his throat, but did not lower his gun again. “Who the fuck are you to judge?”

            “War Prince,” Shiel said, a note of wild urgency in his otherwise-controlled voice, “we have made a miscalculation. I advise we withdraw until the lantern’s effects have faded.”

            That earned him looks from six pairs of eyes, including the ones behind square glasses.

            “War Prince?” the stranger echoed, the faintest hint of threat in his voice. 

            Homura scowled. “What miscalculation?”

            Before Shien could answer, the stranger was sauntering over to examine Homura. “I see they haven’t lost their taste for shackles,” he murmured. “Hm. One gold eye. What manner of heretical being are you, then? And what,” he continued in a tone like the hiss of a sword being drawn, turning to Shien, “has happened to your master, that the Jade Emperor has chosen a new puppet to do his killing for him?”

            “We should withdraw,” Shien said tightly, not meeting the stranger’s intense gaze.

            Homura’s scowl deepened. “For what reason?”

            “If we continue this course of action, we will not be victorious.”

            Zenon scoffed. “Are you saying that Homura can’t defeat whoever this is? Even if he were Tenpou’s hound-”

            The rest of the sentence ended abruptly with the tip of the stranger’s katana drawing the slightest bit of blood from Zenon’s throat.

            “If you dare speak such slander against my General again,” the stranger said in a low growl, “then the Eastern Army will no doubt thank me once again for disposing of their garbage.”

            “Zenon,” Shien said in a pained voice, “that is Field Marshal Tenpou.”

            “Well, shit.” Zenon swallowed nervously, hands slowly raising into a gesture of surrender. “I had no idea he would look so...uh...informal.”

            “I enjoy being underestimated,” Tenpou said dryly. 

            “Yeah, I get that.” Zenon swallowed again. “Uh. I take back my improper comment about your General.”

            The sword withdrew as Tenpou stepped back, once again taking Homura’s measure, but this time with a posture that was much more attentive and alert. “I don’t know who you are, War Prince,” he said with heavy skepticism on the title, “but apparently you don’t know who I am, either, and that tells me that you are either young or sheltered. Or both. Listen to your subordinate. I was an officer in the Western Army before the title of War Prince was created, and I will not hesitate to kill. In the Lower Worlds, even a War Prince can die and there is no further punishment Heaven can lay upon me, so if you persist in picking a fight with Goku, you’re going to be picking one with me, as well.”

            Almost forgotten in the background, Gojyo could be faintly heard saying fuck, that’s hot.

            Homura met Goku’s eyes. “Another time,” he promised. Then, to Shien’s relief, the three gods disappeared.

            Tenpou relaxed, the katana vanishing the same way it had appeared, and turned to the other three. “Goku,” he said warmly, to their collective confusion, “I’m so happy to see you. You’ve grown, but that’s to be expected. Who are your companions?”

            The younger man gave him a warily unhappy look. “How do you know me?”

            That made Tenpou rock back in surprise. “You don’t remember me?”

            “I don’t remember anything from before I was locked up on that mountain,” he answered slowly.

            “They sealed your memories,” murmured Tenpou. “I suppose that would have been a mercy.”

            “Why?” Goku asked. “What happened?”

            Sanzo snorted. “You’re probably better off not knowing, from the sounds of it.” He gave Tenpou a measuring look. “So you’re a god.”

            “That is correct.”

            “And you are...who Hakkai was in his former life, five hundred years ago.”

            “So it would seem.” 

            The two of them looked at each other for a long minute.

            “I don’t suppose you know how long you’re going to stay like that,” Sanzo said dubiously. 

            Tenpou shrugged. “Whatever that lantern was, I’m not familiar with it, so I know as much as you do about its effects.”

            The monk glared at Goku and Gojyo. “We’re not waiting around until it fades. Hakkai turned into him, so he’ll turn back into Hakkai. Eventually. We’ll keep going west.”

            Gojyo shrugged. “Fine by me. Maybe he’ll be better company than that stinky little monkey.”

            “Hey!”

            A single gunshot fired into the air stopped the argument before it could get started, and in the momentary silence, Hakuryuu flitted up to land on Gojyo’s shoulder with an inquisitive chirp.

            Tenpou squinted at the little dragon before beaming. “So it did work,” he announced in a pleased voice.

            Hakuryuu squinted at him in return before pulling her head back and chirping in surprise. Gojyo reached one finger up to scratch under her chin, and she made a little muttery sound before launching herself off his shoulder to turn into the Jeep.

            “I think I should drive this time,” Gojyo announced, climbing into the seat that was normally Hakkai’s.

            With casual shrugs all around, the other three followed his lead with Sanzo in the passenger’s seat and Tenpou in the back across from Goku. It was almost an hour to the town they’d been headed for, but the time passed in remarkably pleasant peace with Tenpou telling Goku about various things he’d seen and done in Heaven, before whatever happened that had resulted in the boy being locked up in a mountain prison for five hundred years. Gojyo made the room arrangements when they reached the inn, and Sanzo paid for two singles and a double before stalking off to find the baths. Goku took the handful of coins Gojyo offered him and dashed off in search of food, and then it was the hanyou and the kami.

            “Hope you don’t mind that you’ll be sharing a room with me,” Gojyo said as he led Tenpou down the hall to their room. “It’s not that we don’t trust you...”

            Tenpou put one hand up. “No, no, it’s quite understandable for you to want to keep an eye on me. Reasonable precaution. You know next to nothing about me, and I’m sure you have questions. I know absolutely nothing about you, and also have questions. We can get to know each other, since we may be traveling together for some time.”

            Gojyo gave him a long look before nodding once and opening the door to their room.

            “I won’t tell the little runt,” he said as he sat cross-legged on one of the beds, “but what did happen five hundred years ago? You know, the stuff that would be a mercy to not remember.”

            Tenpou sat almost gingerly on the other bed. “In a nutshell? We interrupted a potential coup, and it was...messy.”

            Gojyo nodded. “Who’s we?”

            “Goku and myself, obviously, but also his keeper and my General. Konzen Douji, the nephew of Kanzeon Bosatsu, was given the responsibility of caring for Goku when he was discovered and brought to Heaven.”

            “Hold up.” Gojyo grabbed an ashtray from the bedside table and lit a cigarette. “Konzen. That’s what she called him that one time.”

            Tenpou frowned. “Who called who what when?”

            “Kanzeon. The Merciful Goddess, right?” At Tenpou’s nod, Gojyo nodded back. “Sanzo - uh, the guy in the robes, the pissy blond - he kinda got stabbed pretty bad one time by some monk who I guess used to be a friend of his, and Goku went berserk and Kanzeon had to put his inhibitor back on him and I heard her call Sanzo ‘Konzen’. So I guess if you’re Hakkai’s past life from back then, Konzen’s Sanzo’s.”

            Still frowning thoughtfully, Tenpou pulled out another dark brown cigarette and a lighter. “So that’s three of the four,” he said once he’d lit it. “Seems like it would stretch credulity for it to have been a coincidence that we would have met back up, especially with two of us being reincarnations.”

            Gojyo shifted to a reclining position, propped up on one elbow, and blew a stream of smoke at the ceiling. “I guess I should mention that the asshole with the eyepatch has made disparaging remarks about me not being as badass as my past life.” He looked over at the other bed, smirking around his cigarette at the suddenly intense alertness Tenpou was displaying. “He called me Kenren.”

            Relief wasn’t the reaction he was expecting out of the kami, but the tension left Tenpou in what was, undeniably, relief.

            “So,” Gojyo said, trying to sound casual. “That your general? Kenren?”

            Tenpou took a long drag on his cigarette before answering. “My General, yes. I’m glad for whatever circumstances brought all of us - all of you? - together.” He blinked. “I’ve just realized I don’t know your name.”

            Gojyo shrugged. “Does it really matter?”

            “I need to know what name to scream later,” the kami said teasingly.

            On the other bed, Gojyo choked on his cigarette and sat up. “What?”

            “Do you not have that kind of relationship with my reincarnation?” Tenpou sounded surprised. 

            Gojyo lay back down with a groan, arms behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. “I fuckin’ wish.”

            Tenpou blinked again. “Is he...not interested?”

            “He’s been through a lot of shit,” Gojyo sighed. “A lot of shit. Was married. Went through hell trying to get her back. Killed enough youkai to turn into one himself. Watched her die anyway. Almost died a couple of times. I found him dying in the woods and stuffed his guts back into him. The temple sent Sanzo to drag him in for punishment, he came back with even more issues and a new name. He lived with me for three years before we got sent on this fuckin’ field trip and he still doesn’t really relax.”

            “So in other words, regardless of your interest or his...”

            Gojyo turned to look at him somberly. “If I made any move on him whatsoever, he’d roll over and let me do whatever I wanted, and it would be rape. I ain’t about that. I’ll take these stupid fucking feelings to my goddamned grave before I cause that man any more pain.”

            “Fuck,” breathed Tenpou. “You are Kenren. My heavenly blossom, still taking care of my dumb ass five hundred years later.”

            “I’m guessing he was more than just your general,” Gojyo said archly.

            Just as archly, Tenpou replied, “You could say that.”

            “The name’s Gojyo,” he said, rolling onto his back again. “I don’t know what Kenren was like, and I don’t know how long you’re gonna be sticking around, but shit could get real  uncomfortable if there’s misunderstandings.”

            “Agreed.” Tenpou stood and crossed the little room to tap ash into the ashtray next to Gojyo. “I don’t mind talking about him, if you want to listen.”

            Without taking his eyes off the ceiling, Gojyo snorted. “He was apparently one hell of a badass, and he’s my past life, so yeah, tell me how awesome I was.” He tilted his head to direct a self-depreciating sort of smile up at the kami, who gestured at the bed with his cigarette.

            “Mind if I use your ashtray?” 

            Gojyo looked over at the wall for a long moment before shifting closer to it. “Knock yourself out.”

            Almost gingerly, Tenpou sat on the edge of the bed, one leg tucked up beneath him, knee almost touching Gojyo’s hip.

            “Fearless,” he said after a long drag. “Kenren had the lack of fear that comes from having nothing to lose. He came under my command as a last chance - he was brilliant on the battlefield but greatly insubordinate and disrespectful anywhere else.” Tenpou paused to smile softly. “He hit on me immediately, before he knew who I was, and made it clear that his intentions weren’t just carnal.”

            Gojyo made a soft, scoffing sound. “And after he found out?”

            “I let him know that his advances weren’t unwelcome, and that I was very open to them.”

            “And what’d he do?”

            Tenpou took a drag on his cigarette before saying smugly, “Fucked me on my own desk.”

            For the second time, Gojyo choked on his cigarette and sat up. “What?”

            “It was incredible. He was a very considerate lover.” The smug satisfaction radiating from him made Gojyo feel almost wistful. “I know he had issues. Something happened to drive him away from his family and make him determined to be himself or die trying, but I never asked. I just did my best to make my command a safe haven for him, supported him personally and professionally, and lavished my affection on him every way I could.”

            Gojyo sat, smoking silently, for a handful of minutes. When his cigarette had burned down to the filter, he ground it out in the ashtray and ran his hands down the legs of his pants. “You loved him,” he said quietly.

            Tenpou looked away until his cigarette, too, needed to be ground out. “Very much.”

            “Yeah. I can tell. That’s how I feel about Hakkai. I ain’t gonna pry into his wounds, but I’m damn well gonna support him every way I can and try to give him everything I think he deserves.”

            “Thank you,” Tenpou said softly, not looking at him. 

            After a moment, he took out a crumpled cigarette pack and removed one, then held the pack out to Gojyo in a silent offer. After a moment, Gojyo took one and leaned in so Tenpou could light it for him, and without looking at each other they smoked in somehow-vulnerable silence.

            “So,” Gojyo said when they were halfway through their cigarettes, “How do you know Hakuryuu?”

            That startled Tenpou out of his thoughts. “Who?”

            “The dragon. She knows you. Somehow. Which is weird, y’know? Because Hakkai brought her egg home and hatched her himself, so it’s not like she can just have remembered you from five hundred years ago.”

            Tenpou chuckled quietly. “Before everything hit the fan, we knew - well, Kenren and Konzen and I knew - that there was no way it was going to end well for any of us. No one, not even the Jade Emperor, would dare try to reprimand Kanzeon, but Gojun...Western Dragon King Gojun, who led the Western Army of Heaven and was my direct commander...”

            Gojyo made a noncommittal sound, encouraging him to continue.

            “He was kind of like Konzen in that neither of them had actually wanted their position, but pressure from their families put and kept them there. And, in a way, I was the loud distraction keeping him from being the center attention the same way Kenren was for me.” He took a thoughtful drag. “Different centers, obviously.”

            “Obviously,” Gojyo echoed in a dry tone that said not only was it not obvious, but he was still waiting for how this related to Hakkai’s little dragon.

            Tenpou reached over and tapped his cigarette into the ashtray. “Kenren and I had made some....unusual connections among the other worlds and realms. We called in a few favors to get Gojun taken out of Heaven’s reach. I don’t claim to understand how it works, because it’s not reincarnation, but at the same time it is? But it’s also a rewinding somehow, sending him back to the beginning of his life without moving him back in time and...”

            Gojyo held up one hand. “You’re saying she does remember you from five hundred years ago.”

            “No,” Tenpou said with a teasing smile. “You’re saying she remembers me. All I’m saying is that Gojun was sent to the Lower Worlds to become an egg again, and that egg apparently was found and hatched by my reincarnation.”

            “You little shit,” Gojyo retorted, but he was smiling and his voice was warm.

            “How did you know she remembers me?” Tenpou asked. The words were casual, but there was a brightness in his eyes that suggested he was a lot more interested in the answer than he seemed.

            Gojyo examined the dark brown cigarette he was smoking. “We can communicate a little bit. Nothin’ fancy. Emotions, some concepts. No words. This is good shit, by the way,” he said, gesturing with the cigarette.”I guess cigarettes down here really don’t compare to the ones in Heaven.”

            Tenpou coughed mid-inhale and laughed for a long minute, head back against the wall, his body relaxed and comfortable in a way that made Gojyo’s heart ache.

            “These aren’t from Heaven,” he said when the laughter passed. “They’re from the Lower World.”

            “This world?”

            “Or one similar. It’s a little hard to tell. It has been five hundred years, after all, and I have only a vague idea as to where in this one we are.”

            “Damn,” Gojyo said jokingly, “time-travel cigarette. Did Kenren smoke?”

            Tenpou huffed softly. “It was a way to piss off the nobility and the upper brass, of course Kenren smoked.”

            It was Gojyo’s turn to cough mid-inhalation and laugh. “Sounds like me, yeah. Did he drink, too?”

            The amusement faded from Tenpou’s expression and he regarded the ceiling somberly. “A concerning amount, at first. Less, as he settled in and got comfortable. For pleasure, eventually.”

            Fuck, Gojyo thought, but he didn’t say it. “How about...uh...” When he trailed off, Tenpou looked curiously at him, and he made a very suggestive and somewhat lewd gesture that got the kami laughing again.

            “The unruly General, unrestrained in liquor and lust,” Tenpou said fondly, as if reciting something. 

            Gojyo’s eyebrows arched. “Even though you two were...?”

            “Just as the bee visits more than one flower,” Tenpou retorted primly, “so too does the flower entertain more than one bee.”

            To save himself from having to find a way to respond to that, Gojyo took a long drag on his time-travel cigarette.

            “So the asshole with the eyepatch,” he said when it was clear Tenpou wasn’t going to break the silence. “I touched him once, and it kinda fucked me up. Like seeing into forever, but if forever was laughing at you, y’know?” He exhaled smoke and shook his head. “Anyway, I was kinda wondering if it was something he did, or just that he was a kami.”

            Tenpou frowned thoughtfully. “I have no idea.”

            Gojyo coughed laughing again. “I wasn’t asking if you knew,” he said, reaching out to poke the other man’s forehead teasingly but pulling back at the last second. “I was going to ask if I could touch you. Not anything pervy or weird. Just, like, hold your hand for a hot second.”

            “Ah, of course.” Tenpou held out one hand with a smile that was both fond and just a little self-depreciating. “But just so you know, I wouldn’t object if it were something pervy. Even though you were Kenren, you are not him presently, and independently of my past with your past, you are attractive both physically and socially.”

            The hand reaching for Tenpou’s froze just shy of touching it. “What?”

            “Oh dear. Was I not clear enough?” Tenpou asked, mildly concerned. “I am attracted to you, and very aware of the awkwardness of the situation at large, and the disparity in our ages and relative life experiences. I have been trying very hard to not come on to you too strongly, lest I inadvertently pressure you into something you are not entirely comfortable with or consenting to.”

            Gojyo’s mouth dropped open in shock so complete that it made Tenpou smile.

            “That’s just what he looked like when he found out who he’d been flirting with,” the kami said fondly. “It was so hard to not kiss him, but I had to let him make the first move. I had to be sure he wanted it, that I wasn’t pressuring him with my position as his commander. Seeing you, talking to you, is almost like meeting him for the first time - and I was telling myself then to not kiss him no matter how cute he was.”

            “You little shit,” Gojyo breathed, but it sounded more like he’d been given an unexpected gift. Then he smirked, all his cocky self-assurance back in full force. “Well, I don’t have a desk, but we happen to be on a very servicable bed.”

            “So we are,” purred Tenpou. “Did you have something in mind?”

            Gojyo leaned forward until he was practically on hands and knees, walking himself up the bed to loom suggestively into the kami’s space. “That depends,” he said in a low voice that promised any amount of wicked things, “on what you’ve got in your pants. I have no idea what to do with another guy’s junk,” he continued in a a suddenly-casual tone. “I mean, I know what to do with mine, but handjobs aren’t really sex.”

            Tenpou chuckled warmly, a thrill of his own wickedness infusing it. “As much as the Jade Emperor wishes it were otherwise, gender among kami isn’t nearly as binary as it is with mortals.” He leaned forward, putting his mouth near Gojyo’s ear, and murmured, “Seduce away. Indulge every fantasy you’ve had about Hakkai. Whatever you want to do, I’m open to it.”

            That had Gojyo sitting back on his heels so he could look Tenpou straight in the eyes. “I’m not going to do the substitution thing,” he said firmly. “I ain’t gonna fuck you because I wanna bone Hakkai. He may have been you, but you’re not him.”

            “The flower entertains more than one bee,” Tenpou agreed. 

            “I think you’ll find my sting quite enjoyable,” Gojyo murmured, leaning forward slowly, telegraphing his intentions to kiss as clearly as if he’d been shouting, but he leaned back again when Tenpou laughed. “What? It wasn’t that corny.”

            “It’s not that.” Apologetically, Tenpou leaned forward to lay a light kiss on Gojyo’s cheek. “Bumblebee was my nickname when I was out of uniform. Kenren-”

            “-was the flower,” Gojyo finished dryly. “And that makes me the flower, then, hmm?”

            Softly, Tenpou smiled. “Between the two of us, you’re the one pretty enough to be one.”

            Gojyo groaned and rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. “But then you should be the one kissing me, right?”

            “A very good point. Is that what you want?” he asked, dropping the flirtatiousness to hold Gojyo’s eyes somberly. 

            The hanyou bit back a groan. “Fuck yes.”

            Slowly, Tenpou pulled his legs up and shifted to sit on his heels, mirroring Gojyo’s pose. Telegraphing just as clearly as Gojyo had, he leaned forward and took a moment to appreciate the long, beautiful eyelashes that fluttered against Gojyo’s skin as he closed his eyes. Then he let his slip shut as his lips brushed the hanyou’s, gentle as a bee alighting on a flower. A small sound escaped Gojyo’s lips as Tenpou’s retreated, yearning and denial, and the kami leaned back in. The instant their lips touched, Gojyo snaked one hand around to cup the back of Tenpou’s head, urging him to stay close as he captured the kami’s lips in a kiss as groaningly hungry as Tenpou felt. All pretense of restraint evaporated and they kissed frantically, nipping and sucking, panting and moaning, and when they broke for breath Gojyo was almost surprised to discover that he was practically pressing Tenpou down onto the bed, excitingly firm thighs on either side of his, caressing as the hips they were attached to drove hopefully up to grind against Gojyo’s hardness. 

            “I know you said...” Gojyo forced his lips away from Tenpou’s skin, trying to focus past the insistent throbbing in his pants. “...gender’s not...”

            Tenpou’s eyes fluttered shut and he swallowed a groan. “Don’t worry, there’s an orifice waiting for you. Waiting eagerly for you,” he added with another upward thrust.

            Gojyo’s eyes rolled back as an answering groan escaped his lips, hips moving reflexively to grind against Tenpou’s. Then, in a flurry of movement, he wrenched himself away and writhed out of his pants, shirt and jacket tossed haphazardly away from the bed, before lunging for the kami’s still-clothed lower half while Tenpou shrugged out of his shirt and jacket as well. In short order Gojyo was braced on both arms above him, looking down from within the curtain of his hair at the face that was so like and yet unlike Hakkai’s, cock twitching in anticipation. Then Tenpou’s hand was caressing him, taking him in a gentle grasp and guiding him into the divine orifice it was too weird for Gojyo to think of as a vagina. 

            But it sure felt like one.

            Tenpou’s lips were soft and eager under his, and despite his declaration that this wasn’t fucking Hakkai by proxy, a corner of his brain wondered insistently if this was what Hakkai’s lips would feel like. But his body had already begun to move, familiar motions with a body that was - yet was not - familiar, that he had held so many times but not like this, and any coherent thought was lost in the glory of fucking a god. 

            A god who was very enthusiastic about being fucked, whose body was just as lithe and toned as his, who made his pleasure known in sounds that thrilled along Gojyo’s nerves and only partially because he could easily imagine them coming from Hakkai’s mouth. 

            A god who trembled beneath him, quivered and cried out, clenched and thrust in a way that very nearly sent him over the edge. He eased up immediately, thrusting slow and deliberate, kissing Tenpou softly, letting the god recover from his climax while letting his own need fade in urgency. 

            When he felt Tenpou start to respond again, Gojyo prepared to shift back into the rhythm that had worked so well before, only to discover strong arms holding his torso tight against the kami’s. While he froze in surprise, Tenpou flung them both to one side and wound up straddling him, the force of his landing driving Gojyo deeper into that divine orifice, ripping sounds of pleasure out of them both.

            “What-“

            Tenpou’s lips silenced him, kissing teasingly, little nips that withdrew when Gojyo tried to deepen the kiss. “My turn,” he murmured, the words sending a thrill down the hanyou’s spine as divine hips ground against his, promising an experience entirely different from anything he’d experienced with a willing lady.

            “Sure,” he responded, dazed. Being ridden was something he’d never permitted from his other partners, and he had no idea what to expect, but his hands found their way to Tenpou’s hips as the god started moving, as if he needed to hold on lest the sensations wash him away. 

            “I wanted to give as good as I got,” Tenpou said through soft, fleeting kisses, his hair now forming the curtain before he reared back to settle himself firmly on Gojyo’s cock. 

            Like a dancer he began to move, thighs clamped firmly around the hanyou’s hips. It was a long and very dazed minute before Gojyo could even think about trying to move in time with that grinding, pounding rhythm, but his hips knew what they were doing and it wasn’t long before he was thrusting up to meet Tenpou as he slammed down, fingers tightening on the kami’s hips as the incredible impacts drove him to the edge and hurtling over, pleasure causing his sight to white out as he tensed and released, barely aware that the warmth surrounding him was milking him for every drop of pleasure that could be wrung out of him.

            When the aftermath of that intense orgasm faded, Gojyo discovered Tenpou cuddled sweetly up to him, head on his shoulder, one arm draped over his chest. It seemed only right that he turn his head and kiss the god’s temple, so he did.

            “You’re very good at that,” Tenpou said, his voice low and lazy, thick with contentment and warmth.

            “So you are you,” returned Gojyo, arm curling to hold the kami close. 

            “I don’t feel like moving. You okay sleeping like this?”

            Gojyo bit back a groan. “Very.”

            “Good. Let’s bathe in the morning.” Tenpou paused, and Gojyo could hear the smirk in his voice when he said, “Since we’re likely to do that again when we wake up anyway.”

            “Fuck.” The word was soft but emphatic. “Gonna make me want to go for round two talking like that.”

            “Mmmm. And would that be so bad?”

            Dryly, Gojyo said, “I’d like to maintain at least some pretense of not having banged a god all night. Goku probably wouldn’t be able to tell what I’d been doing, but Sanzo sure as fuck would and I don’t need him judging every time he looks at me.”

            Tenpou chuckled. “Alright, no more seducing my chaperone. At least, until dawn. Then all bets are off. You arevery good at that. My reincarnation is going to be a very lucky man when he gets past his trauma.”

            The words were like a punch to the gut. “You think he will?” he asked, almost afraid of the answer.

            “You are very like Kenren, and Hakkai apparently retains enough of me to be a force to be reckoned with in a fight. I’d say it’s inevitable.” Tenpou yawned and shifted, half-draping himself on the stunned hanyou. “Good night, Gojyo.”

            “Good night,” Gojyo murmured reflexively, staring at the ceiling that could be vaguely seen through the darkness of the room.

            It was a long time before he fell asleep.

            ===

            ===

            Hakkai woke up in the darkness of an unfamiliar room, the familiar warm weight of Gojyo’s sleeping body pressed against his, and a cache of memories that weren’t his seething in his brain like an anthill that’s been stirred with a stick. It was somewhat unsettling to realize that the memories of having been Tenpou weren’t unsettling. He had a name, now, to the cold and calculating corner of his mind. An explanation for how an orphan-turned-schoolteacher had been able to best not one, not ten, but a thousand youkai armed with just whatever bladed weapons he could put his hands on. The fact that he was pressed against Gojyo’s back, arms around his torso in a reassuring hold, was unsettling only in what it implied the hanyou had been hiding all this time.

            As he lay there, trying not to think about how fast Tenpou had gotten attached, the memories of what the kami had done with Gojyo began to surface, and he tried desperately not to react.  But he also had crystal-clear insight into not only Gojyo’s feelings, but his own, and he lay awake for hours until the sky turned soft and grey, turning things over and over in his head and dissecting them, flaying himself with knowledge and wrestling with realization, until he felt able to put them to words - or at least, to try.

            “Gojyo?”

            “Mmmm?” 

            The lazy, half-awake sound was warm and content, and Hakkai stifled a stab of guilt urging him to just keep quiet and not shatter Gojyo’s peaceful slumber. Before he could talk himself out of anything, however, the lanky body in his arms went from relaxed and pliable to tense and alert - or alarmed. Gojyo twitched as if he was about to lunge out of the bed, but Hakkai’s arms tightened and he subsided, still tense. 

            “You don’t have to say anything,” Hakkai murmured into blood-red hair as fine as silk. “I remember being Tenpou.”

            Gojyo swallowed. “So...”

            “Thank you,” Hakkai said softly. “For caring. For realizing that I’m not...able to make a decision for myself yet. For holding back so you don’t make one for me.”

            Quietly, but with every iota of his being, Gojyo muttered, “Fuck.”

            Throat tight with the terror of what he was about to say, what he was about to admit, Hakkai whispered, “Tenpou was right. One day...I will be a very lucky man.”

            Gojyo jerked as if he’d been shot and froze for a long moment. Then, slowly, he relaxed and moved one hand up to cover Hakkai’s. 

            “Take as long as you need,” he murmured. “I’ll wait however long it takes for you to be ready. When that day comes, lemme know and we’ll talk about it, but until then? I’m not gonna do anything different. Do whatever you want to do, or don’t do shit, it’s okay. I won’t make a move of any kind until you want me to.”

            For a handful of minutes they lay there in silence, Hakkai burying his face in crimson hair and weathering the storm of emotions sparked by Gojyo’s words while the hanyou pretended he wasn’t feeling every single bit through his hand on Hakkai’s. When the storm began to die down, he heard Hakkai’s desire as clearly as if the man had shouted it, but he didn’t do anything until Hakkai whispered, the words hesitant as the first wobbly steps of a newborn fawn.

            “Hold me?”

            Carefully, Gojyo twisted and writhed until he had turned over to face his badly-shaken friend. He snaked one arm under his body and draped the other one over it, pulling Hakkai to his chest and holding him tight. Neither of them said anything, but the way Hakkai relaxed in his arms and Gojyo relaxed in response spoke volumes. It wasn’t really a surprise when Hakkai fell asleep, although it made Gojyo’s heart ache at what it implied for how long he’d been awake dealing with the aftermath of his sexploits with Tenpou.

            “You’ve ruined me,” he teased softly, laying a soft kiss on the other man’s hair. “I swear, I take you home, put you in my bed, stuff your guts back in, and you fuckin climb into my heart like you own the place.” In his arms, Hakkai shifted and sighed, falling into a deeper sleep, and Gojyo smiled fondly. “Ahhh, it’s fine. Make yourself at home. Place is better with you in it anyway.”

            More content than he thought he could be and filled with warm affection, he lay his head on the pillow where he could nuzzle Hakkai’s hair and for the first time in his life, let himself contemplate the concept of a future where he wasn’t alone.