"Sashed", by Katharyn Boyd

"They ought to find us very soon."

"Tch."

"Although it might be a difficult task. There's a blizzard coming up, there."

Gojyo was flicking his lighter. He quickly realized fire was, indeed, warm - so ons had longer time spans than offs. His whole body was trembling, all wrapped up around his knees.

"They ought to be showing up now.", Hakkai insisted, more to himself than to the one he was sharing the shelter with.

"Maybe I'll just set something on fire."

"Oh, no, Gojyo, it's too risky. We can't afford to lose the cabin, can we?"

"Tch."

Hakkai had assumed the same position as Gojyo as the chill settled. He, too, was sitting and hugging his knees. Shivers ran rhythmically through him and were fought off by vigorously rubbed hands. He was nervous, and Gojyo could tell that. Nervous - not actually pissed off, in fact - which escaped his comprehension. The halfbreed, he had committed to break those guys' necks if he ever survived this.

"I'm fucking freezing here." He threw the lighter, now spent, to the opposite corner of the room. It hit the wall and then the floor. "What the hell are we gonna do?"

"We'll just wait a while longer."

After a couple of silent minutes, as the blizzard got worse, it became pretty obvious no-one was bound to show up. Sanzo certainly wouldn't just take the wheel and drive uphill to check on them - the jeep had a retractable cover, anyway.

All they'd do was wait for the blizzard to pass. Meanwhile, they could sit and watch their own white breath.

"Let's see then", Hakkai finally announced. He got up, disentangled himself from the beige sash around his chest and unfolded it - luckily, it was wider than one would expect. He walked up to Gojyo and sat down, opposite to him, with knees pressed to his chest again. When Hakkai covered them, they immediately knew that it wasn't enough: the sash was cold, thin and too short to serve both. "Ah. A little bit better, now."

"Try to stretch it. We'll stick it under our asses."

"Yes, let's try that. Oh - careful, now. No, no, wait, it's about to rip, stop."

"Shit."

The sash-turned-blanket hung from their knees over their thighs, not touching the floor. It quivered frantically.

"This is ridiculous."

"I have an idea. Take off your boots, Gojyo."

"Hm? What for?"

"Well, I'm betting your feet are a fair lot warmer than all that leather. Go on, I'll do the same."

"Mm, body heat. I see. I like that, a good principle."

"Yes, I'm sure this is a classic beginning for many adult movies."

Rid of shoes, they quickly mashed their socked feet together. The sensation of wool against wool was nice, tickling, whenever each of their little toes curled for more warmness. They both stared at the ongoing process, as if amused by its results. It worked for a while, but eventually, the coldness got ahead of them.

Gojyo clicked his tongue and suggested, "Hey, what if we sit on them?"

"You mean on our feet?"

"Yeah. Like this - ow, forget it, it hurts."

"That's a problem."

"What if I sit on your feet and you sit on mine?"

"I believe our bottoms are equally heavy. It would only hurt you again, and me too."

"Then I'm running out of plans here.", Gojyo shrugged. Instinctively, his hand looked for a cigarette, before he remembered he didn't have a usable lighter anymore. This was getting worse. "When do you think we'll be able to get out?"

"It looks like we'll be staying here for a while.", Hakkai sighed, looking out the threatened window. "I'm just glad Jeep is equipped with climate control and seat heaters. Sanzo and Goku mustn't worry much." he smiled hard.

Hakkai was getting edgy.

Definitely, yes, Gojyo could tell that. He could imagine Hakkai accidentally adding a laxative something to Sanzo's next meal, the following day, and brr, end of thought.

Then Gojyo found himself sketching a smile too. He loved it how Hakkai's subtleties were so obvious, and the way he probably didn't even know they were. Mostly because reading Hakkai's face, always serene and normal, was a challenge he'd learned to take, and now he was trained.

At first it had been difficult to tell an honest laughter from a phony scoff - the man just seemed to have no respect for conventional body language. But then, he'd started studying his patterns; and there it was now, the wrinkle by the corner of his lips, pressed too hard and for too long.

Sometimes it was the slightly higher pitch in his voice, at the end of a sentence. Other times, a tricky word was enough - enough to make Gojyo feel stupid and thus drop the subject in hand, because, really, Hakkai just didn't feel like discussing it.

Oh, he was learning. Hakkai was a teacher, after all. And yes, he did get his point across. Every masked feeling was actually an honest emotion. Just in a different language.

When did the redhead ever get so complex?

"Gojyo? Is something the matter?"

Gojyo had been staring out the window, it seemed.

"You're awfully quiet.", Hakkai continued. "For your standards."

"Nah, just thinking."

"Ah. A yen for your thoughts, then."

He brought back that calm smile, answering "The old days, you know. I don't remember it ever snowing so much after that time, with Goku and Sanzo. When we had sukiyaki?"

"Yes, yes, back at our place. I remember. But it wasn't nearly as rough as months before that, when we had...hm, we had sukiyaki too that day, didn't we?"

"Wait...oh, yeah, I was thinking about that time. Yeah, the one Goku ended up not coming with us."

"Yes, that was the roughest blizzard, absolutely.", Hakkai nodded, reminiscing.

Meanwhile, their teeth continued rattling, although their knees were already still, up against each others. The chill hadn't gone away, no, but their bodies were touching and it worked as if they were each other's radiator. The blizzard had become a background.

"This one's practically breaking the record, though. Fuck." Gojyo continued, "And those bastards. They have fucking seat heaters. We should've just said no when the monk asked us to come up here and look for more gas."

"Ah, except that he didn't really ask."

"Screw him and his snotty little monkey. Always making us do these shitty tasks. Their legs are as good as ours."

"I agree...although, I confess, being on the side of the road, stuck in the Jeep with a hungry Goku for a whole evening might be just what our Sanzo deserves", Hakkai laughed.

"Yeah, I also hope he chokes on a snowflake and dies.", Gojyo followed.

Sweetly, the laughter died.

"It's not the first storm we've endured together", Gojyo continued, letting his legs slide down a bit. His eyes were set on the window again, even though it was practically opaque. "By now, we should've known what to do. How to keep warm."

Gojyo's legs ended up spread, by each side of Hakkai, near his thighs. The healer didn't move right away, but when he did, it was the smallest motion of readjustment - he continued holding on to his own knees.

"Well", Hakkai answered, watching him. "It's not too late to learn, is it?"

Gojyo snapped his toes and finally looked back at the other: "No, I guess not." He wasn't expecting to find Hakkai's eyes on him that time. Shielding himself with a playful expression, the redhead continued: "So...what do we do?"

"We sleep."

"What?"

"Of course. It's natural for animals to hibernate during the winter. Sleeping keeps you warmer."

"Oh. Well, I'm not sure I can take a nap right now, I'd have to eat something first."

"If you lie down, it'll get you, eventually. Go on.", Hakkai insisted, looking around. Then, after he'd scanned his surroundings, he lay down by Gojyo's side.

"Tch. But it's so -"

"Gojyo. Will you just lie with me?"

Gojyo's heart skipped a beat. He wasn't sure why, because Hakkai had asked that in the way he would've asked him if he had spare change to pay for the groceries. So, obviously, no pun intended. Obviously.

Except he couldn't be sure.

"Um. Yes."

Later, they were both lying on their sides. Gojyo couldn't be sure if Hakkai had, indeed, fallen asleep, because the latter had his back turned to him. He was quiet, anyway, and his feet had stopped quivering against Gojyo's.

The sash covered them from chest to knee, now that they were lying stretched out under it. It rose and sunk slowly with Hakkai's breath, Gojyo noticed. The halfbreed was too awake to fall asleep - and he couldn't just ignore the chill.

He stared at the brunette's tempting back - how warm would it be to the touch? If only Hakkai were one of his women, he would spoon up against him. Gojyo would sink his chin on the other's shoulder and he would trap his breath under Hakkai's hair, warming them both.

He didn't know where the healer's limits were, concerning this. He ignored whether he would take this the wrong way, but quite frankly, Gojyo didn't know if there was more than one way it could be taken.

The man was seemingly asleep, though. He could do that. And anyway, Gojyo had an excuse to be caught doing it, because he was Gojyo and they were both freezing.

But then, "How are you feeling now?", Hakkai asked, lowly, just a moment before Gojyo made up his mind. His heart clenched again.

"I told ya I couldn't sleep.", he honestly answered, suddenly glad he hadn't moved at all.

Hakkai didn't answer. Minutes passed. Gojyo was left in doubt: had he fallen asleep again? Had he been asleep in the first place?

The healer answered by looking curiously over his shoulder. Just curiously.

That discrete, almost casual gaze could've been just that.

Then, he remembered. He remembered that, if they'd ended up under a blanket, together, with very little to do except the obvious, it was because Hakkai had wanted them there in the first place; because he was that much of a swindler, making it all seem casual. Because everyone was more or less a prisoner to Hakkai's tragic past and to what might or might not hurt his susceptibility, and so, Hakkai had to let Gojyo understand this was what he wanted, and this was happening because he'd wanted it to happen. Because Gojyo couldn't just try anything out of the blue and risk insulting him or scarring him more. Because, like this, they didn't need to justify themselves - because everyone knew Kanan had been his one true love and there was no room for anyone else.

Because finding that empty warehouse had been too damn much of a coincidence.

Hakkai's ear cuffs shone with the last light from outside as his head lay back down, knowing Gojyo knew.

Tanned fingers ran up his silky sleeve, then back down, then back up. Hakkai's toes curled.

Relief washed over both. Now spooning, it seemed obvious this was the perfect solution to fight much more than the chill.

Gojyo's fingers were taking a longer path, now reaching Hakkai's chin, nape - then down to his wrist. When they went back up to his earlobe, his goosebumps had become pretty obvious. The healer let out a furtive sigh.

Gojyo wasn't new to this game, but he wouldn't be fooled thinking Hakkai was. The halfbreed reached down to his neck and smiled against it, letting his mouth - ghostly, at first - trace patterns that soon became warm and moist and red. His taste was so unexpectedly human he didn't hear their ragged breathing and didn't feel Hakkai's hands holding his down, hard and begging.

Then Gojyo raised his head again, but before he could move, Hakkai shifted and kissed him blindly, missing his mouth by inches, and then again, finally finding its target. Gojyo could feel Hakkai inhaling the skin above their lips, sharply and deeply. His early-night stubble tickled against his chin.

He ripped his hands from Hakkai's grip - and now Hakkai opened his eyes, surprised by such sudden action - and held him by the shoulders, forcing the youkai to turn and lie on his back, under Gojyo.

Unthinking, their hands roamed. They went under each other's clothes, stealing gasps whenever finding a softer spot. One of them threw the sash aside - that shit had been getting in their way for too long. For longer than a second, that is.

"Take it off", Hakkai ordered during an intake of breath. Gojyo obeyed, kneeling up and clumsily undressing his coat and top. Immediately, he was pulled down again - Hakkai attacked his neck, collarbone, left nipple - with such urgency that he just had to take measures himself. They rolled to their sides again. Gojyo's hands searched for Hakkai's zipper, and had special difficulty in undoing it, because of the persistent bulge right behind it.

Red tips of hair clung to the corner of Hakkai's parted lips, now that he'd released Gojyo's nipple, because Gojyo feeling his balls, his cock, tightly up and down, had apparently immobilized him. He threw his head back. Gojyo continued, severely.

Hakkai undid Gojyo's belt, and he just had to look down at what they were doing. It was, as it would be, unbelievably explicit for what they had allowed themselves until then - but shamelessly true. He started stroking him too.

"Fuck", Gojyo hissed through clenched teeth, pressing his forehead to Hakkai's neck, and repeated, "Fuck", hips bucking against Hakkai's fist, harder each time.

And then, suddenly, there was a mad, arrhythmic noise coming from behind them. Hakkai, breathing hard, opened his eyes and took a peek while his hand stopped. Obviously, someone was knocking on the door.

Gojyo froze too, even though stopping at that time was probably the second most painful thing he'd ever lived through. They stood silent until they heard a voice, coming from outside, that clearly was one of Goku's disgruntled roars.

"...Fuck." Gojyo said, yet again, but this time in a completely different tone. The night had already fallen and there was a blizzard going on, why the heck did the kid show up at - oh, no, now that he looked out the window, it wasn't snowing anymore. In fact, it wasn't even windy. Still. "I'm gonna stuff that kid."

"The thing is, he'd probably enjoy it." Hakkai pointed out, already on his feet, collecting his shoes and his sash. His hair was messy and his skin flushed, but his posture was as proper as ever. "I'm sure Sanzo's made him come for us as soon as it stopped snowing. He must've seen us come in this direction."

"Hakkai", Gojyo said, unbelieving. "How do you manage to keep calm now?"

"Do you think I'm calm?"

As if to emphasize his point, Hakkai turned to him, serious, and zipped up his own trousers with obvious difficulty, owing to the still engorged state of his penis.

The redhead stared, from his spot on the floor.

"Gojyo?"

"...Yes?", he mumbled, finally looking up at his eyes.

"You're staying in my room tonight."

"Okay."