"No, thank you."

Kenren shrugged and pocketed them, taking a long drag and blowing smoke idly into the air. "Must be a pretty good bastard to have you pick up good habits all of a sudden."

"Mmh."

"Not that it's my business, 'cause we ain't like that anyway, but..." he waved the cigarette for emphasis, yet refused to look back at the other's eyes. Something in it bothered him. Ever since this morning it bothered him, as if Tenpou had finally and completely withdrawn within himself. Either that, or he had resorted to /someone else/. "You care to tell me who this guy is?"

Far be it from Kenren Taishou to be subtle. And far be it from Cho Hakkai to be open.

"No. I don't." he responded tersely.

"Do I know him?" God, now we're playing 20 questions, Kenren thought irritably, like...

/A husband accusing his wife of infidelity.../

"In a sense."

"You sleep with him?" Smoke was blown in the direction of the bedroom.

"No." And with that one syllable word came a nearly inaudible sigh of disappointment. Kenren caught it, and his first impulse was to just grab Tenpou by the shoulders, shake him and shout out, 'what's wrong with you?' But if Tenpou was Tenpou, and undoubtedly he was, then the marshal would simply reply that the one askew in his thinking was Kenren. After all...