Sf : It's late, my eyes are burning, and I don't have the energy to proofread. Excuse any typographical errors.
Muse : Sf, you need coffee.
Sf : It's not easy, being a fanfic author.. ;_;

Warnings : Less humor than previous chapters. Angst, in select quantities.. Character injury, but nothing life threatening. Blue cheese.

The canteen was empty, fairly so. Not many people had lunch at half-past two..

Except Goku. Goku had lunch at 11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:00pm, and 2:00pm, if he could help it. On good days, he had lunch at 3:00pm as well. Everything after that was tea.

Hakkai was listening with half an ear to his companion's cheerful babble about some lesson earlier that day. Half of his mind was working out what he wanted to eat, and a little microprocessor in the back of his head was computing his budget for the day to the nearest cent.

"Hey! Sanzo!" Goku called abruptly.

Hakkai's head shot up. Silence descended on the canteen like a 50-ton weight dropped from orbital height.

The subject of Goku's cry hissed in frustration and ducked his head, as Goku went bounding up. "Hey! I didn't know you had a break.."

Sanzo just stared at him for a long moment. Then his eyes shifted to Hakkai.

Goku must have noticed. "Have you two met? Sanzo, this is--"

"Cho Hakkai."

Hakkai blinked in surprise. "Have we met?"

Something akin to a smirk seemed to twitch at the corners of Sanzo's mouth. "With all those pictures around, it's easy to recognize the youngest gold medallist of the International Chemistry Olympiad."

"Ah. I must say the same of a gold medallist of the Physics one," Hakkai said blandly.

"You know each other?" Goku asked.

"Yes.. you could say that," Hakkai replied.

Sanzo glanced at Goku. "You seem to know a lot of people."

"Well, sort of.." he dropped into the seat opposite Sanzo. "But not very well.."

"Well, that makes three of us," Hakkai said with a smile.

Sanzo shot him a Look, but didn't correct him.

"But we know each other, ne?" Goku beamed. "I'm going to get something to eat!" He bounded off.

Hakkai took the seat next to Goku's. "Sometimes, I wonder how old Goku is."

"Eighteen."

"Mentally, I meant."

"Ah."

There was a short silence.

"How did you meet him?" Hakkai asked after a while.

"Me?" Sanzo snorted. "The kid just barged his way into my life, usurped a few hours of my time this morning, and now I can't get rid of him."

"That sounds like Goku, alright. He did the same thing to me."

"Crashed into you and stole your papers?"

"No, not really. Just bullied me into borrowing an umbrella and never left me alone after that. But he's a really nice chap.."

Sanzo nodded slowly and fiddled with his glass. "So. I thought you were here for lunch."

"I'm here for Goku to get lunch. I'm not hungry."

"Thought so." Sanzo inclined his head. "Regarding that research paper you published.."

"The one about 3d and 4s orbitals?"

"Yes, that's the one."

When Goku arrived back at the table, his tray boasting a small mountain of food, he found Sanzo and Hakkai deep in a heated discussion on atomic structure. Taking a seat, he pricked up his ears and tried to follow the conversation as he eroded Mount Foodius.

Goku wondered at the random thought that popped into his mind, but paid it no further heed.

***

The jeep dream recurred to Sanzo that night. Except..

He turned. Hakkai was standing beside the jeep, one hand on the door. Except that it wasn't quite Hakkai. Hakkai didn't wear a monocle. Hakkai didn't smile that way. Wait, what was that he was wearing?

***

"GOJYO!"

"Eh?" Gojyo turned at the sound.. no, at the scream of his name. A brown bullet zipped through the crowd in the concourse to plant itself indignantly in front of him.

"Blue cheese tastes AWFUL!" Goku yelled. "I threw up my entire lunch after tasting it! What do you mean it's the best tasting thing in the world?!"

"Ah." Incomprehension turned to a smirk on Gojyo's face. "See, it's a delicacy. That means that lots of people pay a lot of money to eat it."

"It's just milk gone bad!"

"It's an acquired taste," Gojyo said, grinning. "Obviously, you don't have any taste, Goku."

"I'm never going to believe again! Yuck! First beer, then cheese. You're sick, Gojyo!"

"Well, you're the one who insisted on trying it. And I thought you'd eat anything."

"Yeah, anything that doesn't taste as bad as that!" Goku glanced up, his furious scowl turning into something a shade happier. He bounced off with another shout. "HAKKAI!"

Gojyo smirked and took one step in the other direction, when his ears caught up with his brain.

Gojyo turned. Goku was jumping up and down, probably giving a detailed account of his blue-cheese exploits to a very bemused looking Hakkai. With animated gestures. Gojyo sauntered over. "Don't ruin my reputation, Goku."

"What reputation?!" Goku said. "You didn't have one to begin with?"

*boink*

Gojyo landed a fist on Goku's hand and grinned at Hakkai. "Yo. Cute, isn't he?"

"I'M NOT CUTE!" Goku threw a fit. "Want a fist in the face, sucker?"

"You can't reach my face," Gojyo replied patiently.

"Yeah, then a knee to the--"

"Now, Goku.. this isn't the time and place for things like that.." Hakkai said frantically. People glanced over briefly, developed the usual 'Oh-It's-Goku-Again' look on their faces, and walked on.

"Hmph," Goku sighed, and folded his arms.

"I hear that you've been corrupting minors," Hakkai said to Gojyo, with a slight smile.

"What's that? This kid's 18. He's old enough to drink. Besides, it's high time someone taught him. I mean, I wish someone had taught me to drink. Yeah, I'm just accelerating his education a little, that's all."

"Goku's not quite 18.. I'd venture to say that he isn't even 16 yet," Hakkai replied, with the same glimmer of a smile. "Possibly 10, but that's stretching it."

"OYYY!! Are both of you against me or something?!" Goku growled.

"Who, me?" Hakkai replied with mock surprise. "Perish the thought.."

The bell rang.

Hakkai glanced at his watch. "Oh dear, I do believe we have a class now.." he looked at Gojyo, who looked away uncomfortably.

"Say.. when was the last time I saw you? Not since the first time you came in after your flu bug.."

"Well, yeah.. secondary infection, you know. Been flat out on my back since."

"And teaching Goku to eat blue cheese," Hakkai said blandly.

"Right. That's been a little past time of mine."

"I'm sure that it's a very good reason."

"Let me guess. The teacher's getting pissed."

"Oh no. Not yet. But he will be."

Gojyo flung up his hands. "Alright. I surrender. I was planning on going to class soon, anyway.."

"The only question being 'How Soon is Soon'?" Hakkai asked.

"Exactly. See you later, Goku! And really, blue cheese is good for you.."

"IS NOT!"

***

"You don't have a car, do you?"

Hakkai glanced up from the book he was reading. Sanzo was standing by the table.

"No, I don't."

"How about a jeep?"

"No... why would I?" Hakkai gave him a questioning look. Sanzo frowned slightly and shook his head. "Is something wrong?" Hakkai asked, when he showed no sign of explaining or moving off.

Sanzo jumped, dropping his books. Heads turned. Sanzo glared. Heads turned guiltily back to whatever they'd been doing. "No.. no, nothing. Just wondering, that's all." He gathered up his books and left as suddenly as he'd appeared.

"Strange.." Hakkai muttered.

For some reason, Hakkai was thinking of jeeps on the way home. Something about jeeps... something about jeeps and Sanzo and small white dragons was tugging at the back of his mind, like some long lost memory.

What about small white dragons?
Oh, they transform into jeeps or something?
Wait..

What had started out as a little mental joke to himself suddenly didn't sound as funny as he thought it would. Worse, it sounded right. As if small white dragons (with wings), turned themselves into jeeps all the time.

WAIT. Just why would I have a small white dragon, complete with wings and tail.. oh dear.. there're no such things as dragons, are there?

He honestly didn't notice that the grating had rusted.

He honestly didn't realize that he was treading on it.

He absolutely did not expect the rusty drain grating to give way when his foot landed on it.

It was sudden. One moment, his foot was on the grating, the next, there was a metallic clang as something gave way and hit the bottom of the drain, followed by the louder crash as the rest of the grating went in.

Hakkai didn't notice. Hakkai was preoccupied with the fact that his right leg had hit the pavement -- hard -- as the left leg, slamming across the neighbouring grating all the way down, vanished into the drain. His foot hit the bottom, and his ankle screamed.

He stayed in that position, half in and half out of the drain, as stars danced across his vision, teeth clenched in pain.

First things first, get out of the drain.

He tried to push himself up, and realized that he couldn't do it with his hands alone. Taking a deep breadth, he shifted his weight to the left leg to give himself more leverage..

The world whited out for a moment under a flash of pain.

"HAKKAI! Oy, Hakkai! What happened--"

He blinked, through eyes suddenly gone teary.

Another stab of pain that seemed to race all the way to his eyeballs.

Suddenly, he was somewhere else, someplace else, some time else, with Gojyo hanging over him.

"Oy! Idiot! Stop gaping!"

Snap, and he was back in the present, with Gojyo kneeling in front of him and shaking his head. "You sure know how to get yourself into scrapes."

"Could you give me a hand.." his voice shook.

Gojyo grasped his outstretched hand and yanked him out. He got onto his right leg, placed his weight on the left..

And collapsed, biting his lip against the pain.

"You are a mess," Gojyo gasped.

"It.. it can't be .. that bad.. the drain.. wasn't .. that.. deep.."

"It's going to need stitches. Let's get you to a doctor."

"Stitches..?" he glanced down. Some sharp edge had caught the side of his leg and sliced a massive gash all the way down. It had to be at least 6.. maybe 8 inches long.

"Sheesh.. can you stand?" Gojyo asked.

"Not... very well. I can't put my weight on it.."

"Damnit. I'll give you a hand..we'll have to get a cab or something."

It was painful enough to make him want to giggle. Instead, he staggered to his feet, leaning heavily against Gojyo, and limped to the roadside where Gojyo frantically hailed a taxi. His foot hung heavily and numbly by his side.. a serious sprain. Sweating and shivering at the same time. He couldn't recall when he'd last received such a serious injury.

"You okay?" Gojyo's voice drifted to him.

"Yes.. yes.."

"Next time, watch where you place your damn feet! Or better still, walk on the pavement!"

He mustered a shaky smile. "I was distracted.."

Gojyo jabbed a finger at his leg. "And that's the result of being distracted. Smart, aren't you?"

Things went a little blur after that. He vaguely recalled reaching the hospital, Gojyo frantically talking to the staff..

Tetanus jabs.

People pouring over his leg. An operating threatre. Something about fragments stuck in the wound. It sounded.. bad.

Local anaesthetic.

A lot of fuss.

Through it all, he seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. Suddenly, without any obvious transition, he was back in that some time, almost where it'd left off the last time..

***

TBC.

***

Muse : The drain scene was inspired by real life events. Sf has undergone the same thing, not once, but twice, albeit without such serious injuries.

Sf : The first time, sf stepped on a sidewalk, and the sidewalk gave way. Sf had very pretty parallel scratches on the left leg after that.. The second time, it was a grating, almost exactly as above. However, sf was luckier than Hakkai. Sf only had Very Serious Bruises, but narrowly escaped receiving a sprained ankle, and there were no Sharp Pointy Edges. Still, sf couldn't walk for a few days after that, so you can imagine that Hakkai would be somewhat worse..

...

sf : YES! I *know* how ridiculous it is to be injured by falling into a drain! ;_; But these things happen..

Muse : And someone threatened to kick me in the ass! That's evil, that is!

Sf : *kicks Muse in the ass*

Muse : HEY!