Twenty-Three
- Saiyuuki, Cho Hakkai
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Behind him he could hear Goku whining about something and, a moment later, the flat slap of Sanzo's fan against monkey skull, and a moment after that a short snort of laughter from Gojyo, followed by the ratcheting click of Gojyo's lighter. Gojyo's, not Sanzo's. They were both sounds Hakkai knew in his heart, little sounds he'd heard a thousand times, unimportant but as clearly different as their two owners. Hakkai combed his hair forward over his eyes and groped blindly behind him, picking up the scissors. And there, that was the sound of Sanzo's lighter, and now he could just barely smell the smoke, and right on cue Goku made a loud choking sound and there were four, five irregularly-spaced monkey footfalls on the grass as Goku pretended to stagger.

He paused a moment to look down at the river water pooled and still in the cross of his legs. His wet hair hung lank and straight over his eyes, almost to the tip of his nose, and behind the curtain his left eye was calm and his right eye was half-closed, drooping shut after the long day. He studied his half-hidden face for a moment, then brought up the scissors and trimmed his bangs straight across, so that when wet they were just long enough to touch his cheekbones and hide his eyes. Behind him all was more or less quiet, but he had the sense of Goku sitting off to his right, and Sanzo leaning against Jeep's hood smoking, and Gojyo flopped out in the grass by Jeep's front tire doing the same. It was funny how the smoke smelled different, even though the cigarettes were the same brand. Smoke changed when it had someone's breath in it, apparently.

Carefully, he combed his hair down over his right ear and trimmed it short, then did the left, with even more care. The slender silver blade slid under one of the golden cuffs there and he ceased to breathe until he slid the blade free, and he checked his limiter afterwards with fingers that did not quite tremble. And then he finished trimming his hair up over his left ear and washed the scissors in the river. The air against his left side went heavy and full of smoke, humming with presence, but it was only absently that he noticed it, busy combing his wet fingers through his hair.

"Oi," Gojyo said from behind him, crouching on the bank behind Hakkai.

Hakkai jumped and laughed a small embarrassed laugh. "Aah--" His fingers fluttered down to his bare chest and from there to the small upraised island of his thigh, on which the scissors were balanced. "I thought I asked you not to sneak up on me like that."

"Want me to get the back for you?" Gojyo offered instead of responding, staring off across the river, his cigarette hanging forgotten from his mouth. There was a pause, smoke-scented and oddly comfortable, and then Gojyo brought his hand up and took a deep drag on his cigarette, closing his eyes.

"If you wouldn't mind." Hakkai finally said, turning the scissors and holding the handles out towards Gojyo. "It would certainly make things easier on me!"

Gojyo took the scissors with a grunt and shifted around to crouch behind Hakkai, and the coal of his cigarette was a warm spot on the back of Hakkai's neck against the cold of the scissors.