sf : I understand that there was some weirdness in the last chapter, and some abruptness. All will be made clear in due time. *grins* And.. if anything looks out of place in *this* chapter, it's because my shower head fell off and left a bump on my cranium yesterday.
Muse : Ahahaha. Ahem. *coughs discretely*
sf : I will attempt to do multiple PoVs. *glares at fic* Hurry up and mutate so that changes occur!
Muse : I think that the mould culture in your coffee cup is mutating more quickly than this fic...
Sf : And... I'm sorry about the delay. First, I was busy finishing Border, then I was so intrigued by its sequel (Shadows) that I couldn't stop writing it (11,000 words and counting!). Rar. Then I had a guilt trip about neglecting Time. (You'll notice that I have a thing about codenaming my fics. It's impossible for an author to refer to fics by their full name all the time. *nod**nod*) Then I started on Psych. Then I had writer's block.
Muse : Stop getting sidetracked! To business!

"I have to go." He grabbed his papers and his bag and stood. I dallied too long. I'm not.. damnit, I'm not here to give free tuition..!

Goku looked up, his eyes widening.

"Class in ten minutes," he clarified unwillingly, and turned to leave.

"..Sanzo.." Goku said softly.

Sanzo spun. Spun so fast that he knocked over the coffee cup and scattered the mountain of sandwiches, creating a mini-avalanche that left tuna sandwiches all over Goku's lap and the bench.

"What... did you call me?"

"Sanzo." Goku cocked his head. "That's your name, isn't it?"

He narrowed his eyes. "And how did you know it?"

"You told me."

"I didn't."

It was Goku's turned to look puzzled. He popped another sandwich into his mouth. "I.. but it fits, doesn't it?"

Great. The kid knows who I am. The kid knew who I was all along and probably.. ah shit. Probably has the mental stereotypes that all the rest of them do. In other words, time to get out of here. Scram. He sighed impatiently. "Well, whatever."

"Have a sandwich."

"I'm not a fish person."

"Of course not. You're a human person."

"Ahaha. Not funny." He stormed off.

***

Goku stared at the sandwich.

The sandwich stared back.

"Why..."

Naturally, the sandwich didn't answer.

"I don't normally do that.." Goku continued, as if talking to a tuna-mayo sandwich that hadn't been alive in a long time, let alone sentient (bacteria doesn't count), was something he did everyday. Of course, sandwiches, like books and coffee, do not make good conversationalists. But if you try hard enough, you can convince yourself that they're excellent listeners.

Absently, Goku took a bite out of the sandwich. Sure, he was the spontaneous sort, who said hi to classmates and people he met at checkout counters.. but this was different. This was.. well, he should just have given the paper back and been on his way.

I listen to my instincts too much, he thought ruefully. He hadn't been thinking when he did that. He hadn't even considered asking for help with that stupid physics assignment until the words just popped out of his mouth.

And the telephone number thing... he was mortally embarrassed. He absolutely, totally, profoundly embarrassed.

But if you wanted to talk about weirdness, then you had to talk about that .. that flash of I-know-you that he'd felt when he'd seen Sanzo.

Gold hair. Purple eyes. He'd seen them before. He was certain of that. He must have met Sanzo before. That's why he knew his name. He must have..

The sandwich was gone. He reached for another.

I'm not myself today, Goku sighed. Well sure, it had been fun, and he'd finished an assignment that he'd despaired of ever completing in time. Of course, I didn't even realize it existed until this morning.

Mournfully, he consumed another sandwich.

Come to think of it, he'd been acting really weirdly these days. He kept running into people who were disturbingly familiar. He kept having strange dreams. And his food consumption was rocketing.

'It's because you're a growing boy', everyone told him.

Growing. Hah. I'm lucky if I'll ever grow another inch. Or half an inch. I'll be stuck at 5'4" for the rest of my life!

He made a face.

Vertically challenged. Argh.

Another sandwich disappeared from the pile. And at the rate I'm eating, I'm going to have a waistline equal in numerical value to my height.. He had mournful mental images of a perfect sphere with a head and various limbs protruding from it. Terrible.

Yep, he definitely wasn't himself, Goku reflected, and continued demolishing the pile of sandwiches.

***

People didn't sit next to him. Not if they could help it.

Hakkai wasn't sure exactly why that was so, but he didn't exactly mind. He vastly preferred a books to people.

So it was a great surprise when, this fine morning, someone came along and dropped into the vacant seat next to him.

"Yo."

Hakkai glanced up..

..and words died on his lips.

"Who.. have I seen you before?"

"Probably. I get around a lot. Bars. Parties. Chicks." The redhead arched an eyebrow. "But you don't look like the sort who gets out a lot."

"..."

"You don't look like the talkative sort either. But that's fine by me, 'cos I'm used to listening to my own voice." He stuck a foot onto the table.

"Is it the hair?" the familiar stranger asked after a while. "I know, I just got it cut. Used to leave it long, but short hair's in, you know.."

"No.. it's not the hair... I just can't help but feel that we've met before.."

"Name's Gojyo. You?"

"Hakkai. Cho Hakkai."

"Nope. Never heard of you before. But then again--"

They were cut off as the teacher walked into class. Gojyo's feet vanished from the table top so fast that they nearly left scorch marks.

"Morning, everyone. Today, we'll be going through the assignment that I gave out at the beginning of the week. I trust they've been completed."

"Eh... what assignment?" Gojyo hissed to Hakkai.

"The one... wait, you weren't here, were you? I haven't seen you since the start of the semester."

"Aw hell, it's only the first week."

"Where were you?"

"...Getting around, ya know.. catching up since last term.."

Abruptly, he became aware of a presence nearing them. The teacher smiled. "Well, since you're interested in talking, why don't you give us the first answer?"

"Um.. right." With perfect composure, Gojyo snitched Hakkai's paper. "Annnnnddd, the answer is : 42!" A smug look wormed itself onto Gojyo's face.

"That's right. By the way, I haven't seen you before.."

"I've been sick. Flu. Fever so high you could fry eggs on my head." He gave a convincing sniff. Hakkai carefully extracted the paper from his fingers.

"So you would be..."

"Sha Gojyo."

"Well, I hope you've recovered from that.. nasty flu. Strange time in the year to get a flu, though... dry season.."

"Well, you know what they say.. flu bugs bite any time of the year."

"Yes, yes, of course."

Footsteps. The teacher moved off.

"Why do I get the feeling he was laughing at us?" Gojyo hissed.

"Laughing at you, you mean," Hakkai replied under his breath.

"Yeah. Man, is he always like that?"

"Not really. Mostly when you don't do your work."

"Dang."

"The answer, by the way, wasn't 42. It was 4.2."

"Oh bll-ast."

*

"You really don't talk much, you know," Gojyo said to Hakkai as they filed out of the classroom.

"Not as if we're supposed to talk during lessons."

"Oh, comeon. That's an excuse, and you know it."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Oh, you're one of those. Nothing to smile about either, right? Life is about electromagnetic induction and benzene rings?"

Hakkai gave him a level stare. "Better than wasting it in trivial pursuits."

"Ah, mister touchy. Well, I'll be off, then. And thanks for the -- wrong -- answers!" Gojyo sauntered off.

Hakkai turned and walked the other way. There really wasn't anything worth smiling about. There wasn't much point to life, in the first place. Gojyo was right. His life revolved around particle mechanics and organic chemistry. There simply wasn't any point in expending the energy to smile, when all that came out was a quiet, empty smile.

He didn't know why his life was such a wreck. He didn't know why he was so depressed. He could have explained it away as teenage hormones, except that he wasn't a teenager any more, and, thinking about it, he'd been happier as a teenager. It just seemed that he'd reached a point in his life where nothing mattered any more.

He sighed quietly.

"Hi!" a chirpy voice bubbled up.

Hakkai looked up. "Hi, Goku." Well, maybe there might be something to smile about. The antics of the kid were always amusing. Funny, how he always thought of Goku as the kid, nevermind that he was eighteen.

"What's up? You look down. Er.. pun not intended."

"Don't I always?"

"Um.. more down than usual?" Goku cocked his head. "I think I have a sandwich. Want it?"

Hakkai couldn't help but crack a smile. Goku seemed to think that food was the universal cure for all woes. Possibly for him, it was. Goku was the type who had to wolf down a sandwich -- or several -- between every class. And his stomach rumbled loudly enough to drown out lecturers.

"Hey.. do you know someone called Sanzo?" Goku asked.

"I've heard of him, why?"

"I dunno. I ran into him today. And he's so familiar that I thought I'd seen him before, but he says he's never met me..."

"Sanzo's in my year. You've probably heard someone mention his name, especially if you're doing physics."

"Why? He's that well known?"

"Well, yes and no. Everyone knows of him, certainly, since he's a bright spark with an attitude and a chip on the shoulder, but no one really knows him. You said you ran into him?"

"Yup. He's nice."

Goku did seem to bring out the nicer side in people. Like the time they'd first met...

*

It'd been a rainy afternoon. Correction : It'd been a thunder-stormy afternoon. He'd been caught in it halfway home to his apartment. As life would have it, his umbrella was sitting at home, warm and dry. So here he was, hunching in his jacket and desperately trying to shield his notes from the damp, with the ink running and making pretty patterns across the paper.

He couldn't help but notice that the rough paper caused the ink to separate into its components. Blue ink had yellow and green in it. Surprise surprise.

"Hey!"

He looked up. A kid, wearing a bright red jacket, was standing beside him.

"Yes?"

"You want to share my umbrella?"

"My apartment's not far.."

"Where are you staying?"

Hakkai gestured at the distant silhouette of the apartment block. "Just a few streets down..."

"Hey, I'm headed in the same direction. It's not that close, you know."

"Well, thanks, then."

They'd walked in silence for a bit, partially because the sound of the rain pelting down, but mostly because the lightning-and-thunder orchestra playing at full blast made it hard to hear anything. Hakkai didn't mind. Hakkai didn't like talking.

They'd met several times, heading home the same way, and he had a chance to reciprocate the favor when Goku's own umbrella went missing. Funny how life has this habit of flinging rain at you when your umbrella's miles away...

He would have to invent an umbrella that teleported to your side at the flick of a switch. Indeedy.

It was easy to like Goku. He didn't care if you weren't a particularly good conversationalist, because he could carry on a conversation with your silences and not mind at all. It was easy to like Goku when, everytime they met, he always tried to shove food on you to cheer you up. He was invariably happy and chirpy and overall, one of those people who made life seem like a better place. Even if it was just for a moment.

*

"Are you heading home yet?" Goku asked.

Startled out of the memory, Hakkai shook his head. "I have a lab session this afternoon. Have you had lunch?"

"Yep! But I'm hungry, so I need another lunch... who was that red haired guy you were talking to, anyway?"

"Gojyo? Classmate of mine."

"Mm. I've seen him around."

"You have?"

"Yup. He's nice. Gave me my first taste of beer, but I hate the stuff. It's bitter. Port's good, though. Sweet."

Hakkai had a horrifying mental image of Goku gulping priceless 50 year old Port like coke. "Um.. I guess.."

"Can't stand wine either. People say that you acquire the taste for it, but I don't think I ever will. Urg. What a taste. I wouldn't want to drink it again, nevermind all the times it'll take before I get used to that stuff."

Hakkai's smile widened a little. The kid was just so funny. He also seemed to know everyone on campus, nevermind that he'd only been here for one semester..

"Sure you don't want a tuna sandwich? I brought extra. Sanzo didn't want any."

Gosh. Goku offered Sanzo a sandwich? But then again, that's exactly what he'd do..

"You do know who Sanzo is, don't you?"

"Of course! I just met him this morning."

"As in.. you've heard of his reputation?"

"Ummm.. he's smart?"

"Well, as they say, he has so many chips on his shoulders that it's a miracle he can still stand."

"Er... he's nice. He helped me with my physics."

"He what?"

"Helped me." Goku waved the assignment happily.

News indeed. Someone had finally cracked that shell of ice open. People were going to lose a lot of money on hearing that... what with all the bets being stacked on Sanzo's supposedly unassailable aloftness.

A sudden thought occured to him. Fitting that it's Goku.

"Hey, Hakkai.. what were you saying about lunch?"

"Lunch. Right."

Goku.. and Sanzo? What was it about the two that they seemed to go together?

Try as he might, Hakkai simply couldn't puzzle that one out.

***

"Remind me to sneak a fan into Sanzo's possession."
"But, Kanzeon Bosatsu-sama.. it would look out of place!"
"No more out of place than those four are, Jiroshin. It's good to see them finding each other again, after all this time.."
"And the trouble that's bound to occur..."
"Exactly. It promises to be interesting. Life's been too dull of late."

***
TBC. If my Muse gets back to work on this one.
***

Notes on Hakkai :
A little OOC, but I'm taking the younger Hakkai - ie : the one who was really into books as a kid, and who didn't wear a smile all the time. Things might happen. I haven't really decided exactly what they are yet, though.

Notes on the fic :
I have the vaguest of vague ideas where they're headed. o_O. Gotta sleep on it for a while. Urgh, my inspiration is hopping from fic to fic to fic..

Sorry about the wait -_-. Not having an idea of where your fic is headed to is a bad thing and makes for slow writing. On the otherhand, thanks for the encouragement. I might have been tempted to abandon this fic otherwise.. eek.

***