Hiding

They’d been told that the trip to the Erabenimsun village would take four days. Gojyo had startled Hakkai by pulling a hat out of their luggage on the third day, wrapping his hair into a bun and sticking it under the cloth rim. He looked utterly ridiculous; the hat was dull grey and puffy, with a little button in the centre and a wide brim at the front. It was pushed out of shape by the bundle of Gojyo’s hair at the back, a round lump stretching out the hat’s vaguely bouffant floppiness. Gojyo fiddled with the hat while Hakkai stared, tucking stray wisps of red hair under the rim at the back, then tugging the brim forwards to shade his eyes, only to sigh and shift it back as the hair at his nape escaped. After about half a minute of giving Gojyo’s hat manoeuvres a bemused stare, Hakkai finally asked, “What are you doing?” Gojyo didn’t look at him. “I’ve been to Erabenimsun before,” he said, his voice a little too nonchalant. “They weren’t too keen on my hair. Or my eyes. Since the great Sanzo-sama cut our pay last time we pissed off the locals, I figured it’d be better if they waited until I did something to get pissed off about, y’know?” “Sanzo doesn’t pay us,” Hakkai corrected automatically. Sanzo didn’t pay them because this was part of Hakkai’s punishment, and technically Gojyo wasn’t supposed to come along never mind that he did almost every single time. And never mind that Sanzo always handed them a suspiciously thick wad of cash whenever they finished. Gojyo waved his hand dismissively. “Travel expenses, whatever.” Hakkai let it drop, his mind latching onto other things. Gojyo got touchy whenever his hair was complimented, but he never cared if a fight started because of it. Something must have gone badly wrong the last time he was in Erabenimsun for him to actually consider pre-emptive measures. The thought made Hakkai oddly . . . irritated. Things would go quicker tomorrow if he was a bit more forceful than usual, Hakkai decided. People tended to get out of his way very fast when he became just that little bit more stern, which was decidedly useful on occasions. It would also help to get rid of the restless, gnawing feeling that flooded him whenever he looked at Gojyo and saw dull grey cloth instead of shining red silk. The sooner they were done, the sooner Hakkai could get that awful hat off Gojyo and burn it.

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