Hakkai bit his lip and quickly amended, despite the futility of it all. "Kenren."

"You said 'Gojyo'."

"I said 'Kenren'."

"You *meant* 'Kenren' but it sure as *hell* didn't come out that way."

The healer had just to say it, regardless of all compulsion not to...

"Jealous?" He tilted his head to the side inquiringly as Kenren squirmed under his gaze until finally, he gathered up his wits to spit out a flat-

"No."

...just for the sake of seeing how much the general was in love with Tenpou.

The temptation to just let things be was overwhelming. This was (theoretically speaking) Tenpou's problem, not Hakkai's. But Hakkai was right here, right now, being stared down by the previous incarnation of the man he was in love with.

There. He admitted it to himself. He had grown attached to the half-breed- a habit from three years past turned into a hunger gnawing at him whenever they were alone together. Hakkai felt the same hunger now, but his mind kept him from it. The body screamed for it. And the heart...which was not Hakkai's heart, but Tenpou's...seemed to ache ever so slightly from god-knows-how-many-centuries of cold imprisonment by a mind constantly in denial. Who to satisfy? Hakkai didn't know, and all he could do was stare as Kenren broke out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up. He offered one to Hakkai.