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[personal profile] louiselux
Yay, Friday! Time for fic. Here's a longish Sanzo/Hakkai snippet for [livejournal.com profile] tgreywords.



It was a pleasant evening. No one had tried to kill anyone else for hours. The moon was round and bright and the air was warm. Somewhere frogs were croaking at each other, a hypnotic, countrified sound that lent the scruffy inn some badly needed pastoral charm.

Hakkai pottered around the room he was sharing with Sanzo, putting his toothbrush on the side table, settling Jeep on a blanket, putting dirty clothes in a cotton bag he kept for such things. Sanzo lay on his bed reading, his front scattered with a fine layer of ash from half a pack of cigarettes.

Finally, Hakkai locked the door, then sat down on his own bed and said, 'Sanzo. We could-- you know, if you like.'

'Huh. Right.' Sanzo's eyes flickered his way so briefly Hakkai might have missed it if he hadn't been looking closely. 'Let me finish this article.'

'Of course.'

It was new, this thing between them, but already there were little rituals in place. Sanzo pretended not to care and, after the first time, Hakkai was always the one who brought it up. The first time had been accidental; Sanzo had obviously been drunker than he looked and Hakkai had gone along with it from sheer surprise. At first. But it had gone well. In fact it had gone very well indeed.

Hakkai took his clothes off and got under the covers to wait. For a room where no one was speaking, it was very noisy. Besides the frogs there were Sanzo's sharp breaths as he exhaled cigarette smoke, the rustle of his newspaper and, every few minutes, a muffled yell or a thump from the room next door. Hakkai pulled the covers up a little more.

'Sanzo,' said Hakkai, 'have you finished yet?'

'Humph,' was followed by an irritable sigh and the rustle of a newspaper as it was discarded. Sanzo's light tread on the floorboards, then the mattress dipped as Sanzo sat on the edge of the bed. Hakkai turned and propped his head on one hand, the better to watch him.

'Take these off,' he said softly and drew his fingers over Sanzo's arm, where the cloth was, then across his back. They lingered there, then crept up into his hair and stroked lightly.

Sanzo didn't say anything, but the gloves landed on the floor, the metal rings thumping on the boards. A sudden crash from next door made the walls shake and Sanzo paused in pulling his shirt over his head and his shoulders sagged. Then there was more laughter: it was clearly not a youkai attack. Sanzo threw his shirt on the floor.

'The children are noisy tonight,' Hakkai said.

The best one could hope for, Hakkai thought, stroking the expanse of pale skin and the delicate curve of Sanzo's spine, was a lack of hostility, or that Sanzo wouldn't say anything too scathing to him about what they were doing. He had a tendency to try and make them both miserable afterwards and Hakkai suspected he did it to make up for enjoying himself.

Sanzo snorted and shook his head. 'Shut up. I don't want to think about them.'

'It's probably for the best,' Hakkai said, as Sanzo wriggled out of his jeans and underwear and turned to Hakkai, not smiling, because Sanzo almost never smiled these days, not even for something like this. Perhaps especially not for something like this.

He sat up and reached out to draw him closer but Sanzo caught his wrist in one hand, stopping him, his fingers digging in.

'Hakkai. Why do this? I mean with me and not-- ?' Sanzo stopped and his scowl deepened. He was plainly unable to bring himself to speak Gojyo's name, not in bed.

It would really be much better if Sanzo hadn't brought this up, thought Hakkai, fighting down a slight surge of panic, but he had wondered when Sanzo would get round to asking about Gojyo.

'Perhaps I could ask you the same thing, Sanzo?'

'Fuck off.'

'All right, I'm sorry. Well, let's see. Why do this? I've always found bad-tempered monks exciting.'

'Fuck off again,' but this time he didn't sound like he meant it.

'It can be boring sharing a room for so long, don't you think? We have to think of ways to entertain ourselves.'

That almost got a smile, a quick twist of Sanzo's lips. Hakkai had actually never found Sanzo boring; a host of other things, certainly: rude, miserable, violent and withdrawn, but never dull.

'I want you,' he admitted, very softly.

Sanzo glared at him, but it was belied by the way he swayed towards Hakkai a little, his lips parting. He doesn't know what he looks like, Hakkai thought. A perfect mix of stay away and please touch me. Hakkai was finding that he was hopelessly susceptible to it and perhaps always had been.

'Can I kiss you?' he asked, because there were still certain rules to this and it was safer to keep to them, after all.

Sanzo shrugged like it didn't matter to him if he did or not but a faint tinge of pink spread across his cheeks.

The softness of his lips was always shocking; they were warm and parted willingly under his. Sanzo made a low noise in his throat at the touch of Hakkai's tongue and rested his hands on his shoulders, lightly at first, almost hovering, but as their kisses became deeper Sanzo wound his arms round Hakkai's neck to pull him closer.

Sanzo was warm and solid and his body, freed of clothing, was lithe and strong. He looked like he should feel cold and hard like something made of porcelain, but instead he pulsed with life under Hakkai's touch, shivering and trembling as their kisses got fiercer and more needy. Slowly, they fell back to the pillows, shifting until they were side by side and their hands could move where they wanted, their lips still joined.

Sanzo didn't speak much after that, mostly because Hakkai kept his mouth busy, but he was never talkative during sex. Every so often Sanzo pulled back to look at him and to follow with his eyes the path his hands took as they roamed over Hakkai's body, but they always came back to his face. It made Hakkai's heart race to have that invasive, possessive gaze turned on him, just as if Sanzo could see clear into him and could see exactly what he was. Sanzo was staring down at him, stroking him furiously, and then he was coming all over Sanzo's hand and then Sanzo was too, curling over to kiss him and to gasp into his mouth.

'We should get cleaned up,' Hakkai said, after a while.

'Mmmnh.'

They lay on the bed, not quite touching but near enough so Hakkai could feel Sanzo's warmth. Sanzo's eyes were closed but when Hakkai turned his head so did he and their eyes met again. It was absolutely impossible to look away.

'You were-- it was... good,' Sanzo said in a tight voice, then dipped his head so he wasn't looking at Hakkai any longer.

'Yes, it was.'

The bed springs squeaked as Sanzo got up and padded back to his own bed. He looked drowsy and flushed and his hair was tumbled. Hakkai saw that something else was different too: his mouth had lost its familiar downward turn, at least for now. It was only a temporary change, but it was enough.

Date: 2005-04-15 12:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tgreywords.livejournal.com
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Sexy and smart and _so_ Hakkai. Just... right and realistic and -- wow.

Did I say... wow?

Favourite lines:
-- A perfect mix of stay away and please touch me.
-- I've always found bad-tempered monks exciting.

And the whole last paragraph, just marvelous. Well done, and I would like to recc this in my journal.

*hugs*

Date: 2005-04-15 12:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
*beams*

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!

Date: 2005-04-15 12:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tgreywords.livejournal.com
I wish I could leave a more insightful comment, but it just had me flabbergasted. I want to be able to capture them as well as you do. :D Thanks for making a bad week so much better.

Date: 2005-04-15 12:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] finferwen.livejournal.com
Gods, that was brilliant.

"He had a tendency to try and make them both miserable afterwards and Hakkai suspected he did it to make up for enjoying himself."

That's so incredibly both of them.

"Hakkai had actually never found Sanzo boring; a host of other things, certainly: rude, miserable, violent and withdrawn, but never dull."

Mind if I just melt into a happy giggly pile of brain-dead *gyaa* on your comments page? ^_______^

Date: 2005-04-15 01:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Hee! Thanks:-)

Date: 2005-04-15 01:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tochira.livejournal.com
Yanno, I never ever thought I'd say this about Sanzo-and-Hakkai... but that was wonderful to read. I love your Sanzo. :D

Date: 2005-04-16 03:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Oh, cool! I'm glad you liked this then. Thanks:-) Sanzo really is Mr Inexpressive, pretending he doesn't care but actually trembling like a leaf.

Date: 2005-04-15 03:04 pm (UTC)
scribblemoose: image of moose with pen and paper (hakkai)
From: [personal profile] scribblemoose
Absolutely superb. Such an under-written pairing, and you handle them so well.

Others have quoted some of my favourite lines already, but this:

it had gone well. In fact it had gone very well indeed.

was just so Hakkai.

Thanks for a great start to the weekend!

Date: 2005-04-16 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Hee! Hakkai does have rather a nice way of understating things, even if that thing is sex with Sanzo. XD

Thanks so much - I'm really glad you liked this.

Date: 2005-04-15 08:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cicer.livejournal.com
Oh.

Oh my.

I have no words. This was exquisite. The whole thing...and seeing Sanzo from Hakkai's point of view...oh. *quivers* You are unquestionably one of my favorite Saiyuki writers. This was just perfect.

Oh, I wish I could say more about this. I'm truly speechless.

Date: 2005-04-16 03:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
*deep blush* Thanks so much, and for the rec too. XD

Date: 2005-04-15 11:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chainedinbeads.livejournal.com
The characters are spot on. Very well done.

Date: 2005-04-16 03:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Thank you so much! :D

Date: 2005-04-16 03:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com
Oh, yum. They work very well together here.

Date: 2005-04-16 03:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Thanks! Sanzo and Hakkai defintely have some chemistry going on, even if it is of the mute and stifled variety. I do like them very much as a pairing.

This whole story is really a bit of a homage to Not Quite Comfort, because I kept thinking about it all the way through and hoping to god this wouldn't come across as a washed out copy. I hope it didn't.

Date: 2005-04-16 04:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com
::blushes::

No, not at all-- I think they're stronger here, if that makes any sense. And they are a lovely pairing, though I mostly think of them as transitional.

Date: 2005-04-16 05:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Absolutely-- I can't imagine how they'd manage to have a long term relationship, mostly because Hakkai/Gojyo=OTP! and also there's the uncomfortable aspect of Sanzo in some sense being responsible for Hakkai and having authority over him. I don't think Sanzo would like that.

Date: 2005-04-16 06:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com
Yeah-- the almost-guardianship Sanzo has of Goku always feels like the biggest stumbling block for 393, and I can't imagine it'd be different with Hakkai, really.

Date: 2005-04-16 04:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] toscas-kiss.livejournal.com
Mmm. So wonderfully vivid! Loved it.

Date: 2005-04-16 03:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Yay! I'm glad you did:-)

Date: 2005-04-16 05:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lebateleur.livejournal.com
That was lovely! 38 was my original OTP before 58 destroyed my brain. I think it's the hardest to write, but you pull it off beautifully here, and not in the least because you've written a believably sexual Sanzou who doesn't melt into butter.



But anyway, good show!

Date: 2005-04-16 03:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Thanks for spotting that! It must've been left over from my dithering over commas. I'm so glad you thought this worked and that Sanzo is believable. I do like him and Hakkai together.

While I rather like reading stories where Sanzo melts into butter, I think that really he's not a very sensual person, for whatever reason, and would have trouble expressing himself physically or just letting go.

Date: 2005-04-16 05:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lebateleur.livejournal.com
Believe me, as someone who commits more than her fair share of parsing boo-boos while editing, I know the feeling;)

I think Sanzou is an extremely sensual person, to the point that it terrifies him. He really does not want to let go, but if someone can convince him to do it, he'll give Gojyou a run for his money. Kicker is, you've got to do the convincing believably, which you have above. So yay! 38ness!

Date: 2005-04-16 05:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Thanks:-) As for Sanzo's sensuality, two views of him sit side by side in my head: one is that he's truly not sensual at all-- someone who lives in his head, not his body, hence his obsession with his own inner emotional angst. The other view is of someone who, like you say, is terrified of his own needs and doesn't know how to express them. I actually think he'd be a really terrible lover to begin with.

Date: 2005-04-17 06:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lebateleur.livejournal.com
Well, I personally have a hard time believing that humans can exist without a libido. Whether or not an individual acts on it with other people is a different issue, but I think everyone (even Sanzou!) has got sexual desires. And if I'm going to rationalise it textually, a lot of Sanzou's vices are displacement behaviors.

I think he'd be an absolutely horrid lover as well, which is what really endeared your fic to me - Hakkai's about the only person I can imagine with the patience to wait Sanzou out until he gets it.

Date: 2005-04-17 08:22 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Haha! Yes, Hakkai would wait it out for later the benefits. I like all those fics that have Sanzo as a selfish, lazy lover who makes his partners do all the work - it seems very him, somehow.

My point about Sanzo not being sensual was probably not made very clearly - I didn't mean that he didn't have a libido, but he just didn't take very much notice of it. But anyway, I woke up just now and realised that my two different views of Sanzo aren't actually different views at all, just different gradients of the same idea.

Date: 2005-04-18 01:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lebateleur.livejournal.com
My take on lover Sanzou is that he wouldn't even have a clue what he was supposed to want out of sex, let alone how to go about getting it. I imagine that he looks at Hakkai and Gojou other people and knows that something big is involved, but not what it is.

My take is that Sanzou wouldn't know how to gratify his libido, as opposed to not really paying it much attention, which I suppose is just a little farther down the spectrum than your own thoughts.

Date: 2005-04-16 04:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com
38 was my original OTP before 58 destroyed my brain.
Mmm, yes, exactly. I still love reading it but the plot bunnies...have disappeared.

Date: 2005-04-16 05:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lebateleur.livejournal.com
Yeah, it was the oddest thing. I got into Saiyuki after book 5? 6? came out, and all I could see was 38. I did not get the 58ness.

And then on one of my myriad rereads, something clicked and now I'm having a damned hard time writing [livejournal.com profile] metal_dog5's 35, because it's like cheating on Hakkai.

Date: 2005-04-16 06:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com
"Burial" did it for me. XD Just remember Gojyo and Hakkai have an arrangement. Yeah. That's it.

Date: 2005-04-17 06:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lebateleur.livejournal.com
I know. But a shameful part of me has to admit that my 58 love has probably reached OTP status anyway.

Date: 2005-04-17 02:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com
Yeah. I started re-reading 1 and 2 yesterday and was like, "DAMN they stand close together, don't they?"

Date: 2005-04-17 06:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
I think it was vol 4 that did it for me-- that bit where Hakkai is angsting about never being able to touch anyone ever again, then Gojyo sneaks up behind him and utterly invades his personal space.

Date: 2005-04-17 07:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistressrenet.livejournal.com
I love the way they both flip out when they realize how Gojyo's been able to sneak up on him.

Date: 2005-04-16 06:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sexpress.livejournal.com
Very nice! I've seen different styles used to keep Sanzo and Hakkai in character, and your interpretation of them was unique and original. Lovely work.
~mocha

Date: 2005-04-16 03:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Thanks very much - that's really nice to hear:-)

Date: 2005-04-17 10:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wildelamassu.livejournal.com
Hakkai had actually never found Sanzo boring; a host of other things, certainly: rude, miserable, violent and withdrawn, but never dull.

Though 58 has been steadily growing on me (I blame Burial and all the -amazing- writing for the pairing), I do adore a good 383, from any interpretative angle. While your Hakkai is clearly Gojyo's ^___^, I love the way you characterize him here, remembering the patience and the lovely conniving-brat mischeviousness under it all. Your external descriptions of Sanzo were especially lovely--the alluring mixture of stay-away and come-hither really captures the oxymoronic contradictions he implies, from gun-toting monk to icy sexpot. *grins*

I tend to see more humor in the two, myself, but still, it's lovely to see your excellent writing in any context. /fangirling

Date: 2005-04-30 08:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] louiselux.livejournal.com
Thank you so much! I reread this just now, hence realising I'd never replied to your comment. I love your point about conniving brat Hakkai - that's a side of him tht too often easy to miss off in favour of angst, I think. Because he *is* conniving and he does tend to set things up for his own convenience. And it sits in total contrast to the other parts of his character that you mention, like his patience and care for the others.

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