"no, thank you"

kenren shrugged and pocketed the, takg a long drag and blog soke idly to the air "t be a pretty good bastard to have you pick up good habits all of a sudden"

"h"

"not that it's y bess, 'cae we a't like that anyway, but" he waved the cigarette for ephasis, yet refed to look back at the other's eyes sothg it bothered hi ever sce this orng it bothered hi, as if tenpou had fally and pletely withdraith hiself either that, or he had resorted to /soone else/ "you care to tell who this guy is?"

far be it fro kenren taishou to be subtle and far be it fro cho hakkai to be open

"no i don't" he responded tersely

"do i know hi?" god, noe're pyg 20 estions, kenren thought irritably, like

/a hband ag his wife of fidelity/

" a sense"

"you sleep with hi?" soke was blown the direction of the bedroo

"no" and with that one sylble word ca a nearly audible sigh of disappotnt kenren caught it, and his first ipulse was to jt grab tenpou by the shoulders, shake hi and shout out, 'what's wrong with you?' but if tenpou was tenpou, and undoubtedly he was, then the arshal would siply reply that the one askew his thkg was kenren after all

(fshback)

/ "bedroo now"

"i've never gone about this with a an, taishou are you sure?"

"hell yeah and you had better stuff that book away or else i'll take you nowon the other hand, aybe that wouldn't be so bad"

"kenren, wait i- phwhy ttoh godwhy t you be sosistent?"

"i want you now care to have eborate, or shall we ntue, eh?

"ntue"

all either of the rebered was that at that pot, they were basically ravagg each other, but clear at the starttenpou's nditionwas that there were no proises beeen the /

but still if onlythose were the only reasons he had the words 'i want you to be e and only e' wouldn't have sufficed for the arshal never

"then what?"

"then what what?" there was no hidg the grog annoyance, especially when hakkai was ctchg "brave neorld" with a grip strong enough to strangle a statue

"is he iportant?" he braced hiself for an answer tenpou didn't thk ters of affection- ore along the les of st if anythg so 'iportance' was the deterg factor of whether you were under the arshal's g or not a utilitarian to the re you had to be advantageo to hi or you were gone konzen, due to so unfathoable childhood bondg, had gaed a peranent spot one g, under which goku uld fd shelter as well which left one other- and it was the ore capricio

if you were there, it was only becae you didn't give a dan about what he did with you (as long as you were on , of urse) you were bld but you were papered- as long as you didn't pry to his bess you were safe fro the dogs bitg at your heels becae tenpou's authority was enough to put the at bay a good three iles behd you ost of all, you had to be ready to be thrown back to the dogs at any given ont you shouldn't care- either about the dogs or the loss you would suffer fro tenpou's refal to it

kenren didn't give a dan about the dogs and so when tenpou said, "yes, kenren, he is" he felt like a door had jt been sd his face: a betrayal he should have expected one ti or another, but enough endless nights with tenpou had the general nvced that it would never happen the bastard

"ahthen you e hi like you do ? or aybe he's even ore eful" his voice dripped with poison as hakkai uld only look on with disay, if not with a bit of pity

/you should have said 'i love you' earlier such thgs fall on deaf ears he's not here, kenren i a/ though not lost to the healer was the daage he had irrevocably done/ i only ntioned his na one na/ then ca the endless estions- each one cuttg to the other bit by bit becae after that there was no choice but to be honest to be otherould be a betrayal towards gojyo, and he had already proised three years ago that such a thg was unthkable, even when the half-youkai wasn't present

the situation would have been fitely easier to handle had hakkai known tenpou's character ld steel and so he had not realized the weight of his words when he answered the general's estion

"i don't e hi" siple truth hakkai believed it to be an nocent nfession, or rather, a statent of the obvio the safest answer he uld return becae sayg 'yes' seed too alicio and surely, tenpou gensui wasn't like that right?

siple enough, but that four letter phrase was sufficient enough to repce an even sipler three letter verdict it ca like a sp the face, leavg kenren ore pissed than heartbroken never his life had he felt so huiliated, and thank god no one saw this teraction ade hi feel like a petty whore the urt, subject to the terested eye of a an power and tenpou gensui was a an with power a lot of it as on now?