Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Halcyon/Hell ❯ Dragon/Blood ( Chapter 3 )

Halcyon/Hell

By Eline

Warnings: AU fic--cue violence, bad language, mature topics and the like.

Notes: There were beta-readers and kind people who offered corrections when my eyes were going to drop out of my head. This is for them--wherever they are right now.

* * * * * * * * * * *

An hour after the hatching of our new cellmate, Goku was still working the puppy-eyes for all he was worth. Hakkai was carefully listing out the pros (very few of them) and cons of having an animal living in the same room, not to mention hiding it in here with us. Sanzo was trying to find something to plug his ears with.

Then it was lights-out. The kid was still pleading to anyone who would listen.

I stayed out of it. Sanzo hit Goku with the paper for being annoying and said that he didn't care either way. Hakkai was sort of undecided, because the little bugger was actually cute.

See? It's messing with my head too.

"Please . . . I mean, it's all alone," Goku whined in a whisper.

"Shut. Up. Idiot." Sanzo was muttering on automatic now as he shoved his head under the pillow.

I have to confess that I feel asleep halfway through it all. I had a limited attention span for these things after all.

When I got up to the sound of the morning wake-up siren, Goku was saying good-bye to a potential pet. Hakkai would take it out and set it free as soon as possible. I tagged along, intending to have a morning smoke outside before breakfast.

"So you finally convinced Goku that it was better off this way?"

"Hai. It's a wild animal--it doesn't belong here. Not here with us."

Aa. That was the sort of sentiment I could agree with.

"You're all melancholy this morning," I said as we casually strolled out into a rather greyish and windy morning. Hakkai had the lizard secreted under his jacket.

"Oh . . . I guess I don't know if we should leave it here or bring it up to the roof. It's not very safe," Hakkai said worriedly. It could not fly yet, so it was basically a sitting duck--lizard. Knowing the kind of inmates we had here in NH, laving the poor thing down here was not an option anymore.

We snuck back into our old wing via a particularly loose panel in the fencing. While it was still under renovation and construction, it would afford one small lizard a lot of room to run and hide in.

"All right, I'm afraid you have to go now," Hakkai said when we reached the roof. He brought the pale reptile out and set it down. "It's best if you don't hang around here too long--"

But the lizard had other ideas. It clawed its way up Hakkai's leg, squeaking urgently.

"Ano . . ." He shook it off gently. *Tried* to at any rate. The lizard was having none of that--it just kept going despite Hakkai's efforts to the contrary.

"I think it likes you."

"Gojyo--you're not helping at all," he said, attempting to pry it off.

With a determined squeak, it promptly latched onto Hakkai's shirt and crawled under his jacket.

I grinned and blew out a generous mouthful of smoke. "Hakkai . . . It thinks you're its mother."

"Oh dear, it might have imprinted on the first person it saw . . ." Hakkai tried to detach one clingy and overly affectionate reptile from his clothes with little success.

By that time, other inmates were beginning to show up in the quad--we couldn't stay up here any longer without drawing unwanted attention.

For the first time in months, I heard Hakaki swear inelegantly as the lump under his jacket wormed its way in deeper. I think it had crawled up the back of his shirt by then. And all he could do was grin and bear it as we returned to our current wing and found a quiet corner in which to settle his little problem.

"Gojyo--if you would be so kind as to help . . ." Hakkai said, shedding his jacket and hauling up the back of his shirt to reveal the small winged lizard flattened against his back.

"Okay--I'll try . . ."

But it held on tight and squeaked in distress when I tried to get it off.

"Oi, think it'll take some of your skin with it if I pulled really hard?" But I couldn't do it--it just looked too pitiful clinging there. And we were definitely hanging around here too long. So after a few minutes more of futile shooing-noises, Hakkai wound up carrying it down to breakfast on his back.

It was a Saturday. Saturday breakfasts were slightly better than the other days. Goku was already shovelling away at the pile on his tray while Sanzo, no stranger to the ape's appetite, had his head stuck in today's newspaper when we got there.

Goku actually paused in the middle of his meal to look wistfully at us. "So it's gone now?"

"Actually, no."

"It's extremely *attached* to Hakkai," I could not resist adding as we sat down at the table. It had become a habit these days as the numbers of inmates increased--we could tolerate each other quite well already.

"Huh?"

"It doesn't want to let go," Hakkai said, setting down his tray. "We'll figure out how to get it off my back later."

"What's this 'we' thing? It's your lizard!"

"Can we keep it now?" Goku asked eagerly.

"Not *that* again," Sanzo could be heard to mutter from behind his paper.

"We shall see," Hakkai said levelly before starting on his own meal.

And a minute later, a white, snake-like head darted out from under Hakkai's arm to snatch the bit of slightly overdone bacon off his fork and retreated back in again. It happened so fast, I wasn't sure I saw it. And then it happened again. This time, the other two caught on.

Goku had one hand clapped over his mouth as his shoulders started to shake. Sanzo looked as though he was about to spit out his current mouthful of coffee. I concentrated on chewing and keeping a straight face. Chewing . . . chewing . . . la-di-dah . . . Just not thinking anything and how bloody hilarious the whole situation was . . .

Hakkai went on as though it was absolutely normal to have a flying lizard in his shirt nicking his breakfast.

The ending of that little episode was sort of inevitable. Hakkai took it back to the cell after breakfast and it crawled out voluntarily to perch on his shoulder.

"You like the little guy too," I stated.

"Aa." He reached up to pet the scaly head and it cooed appreciatively. The stuff that Kodak moments were made of. "I guess it couldn't hurt to keep it until it can fly and fend for itself. Then it won't have to steal food. I think it needs a little house-training . . . You're going to behave right?" The last he addressed to the reptile. It was the beginning of a habit that would last for as long as I knew them both.

It merely chirruped smugly before coiling around the neck of its chosen keeper. Who *just* happened to be the best choice for lizard-sitting. In retrospect, that was one of the many signs that it was not, in fact, a dumb animal.

Goku was over the moon. Sanzo couldn't give a fuck as long as it didn't annoy him too much.

Due to the circumstances and a large dose of irony, Hakkai wound up taking care of the lizard twenty-four-seven. *I* couldn't be bothered to and neither could Sanzo, no surprises there. Goku was good for an hour's play before he got bored. Hakkai took to dragon-care like a fish to water. It probably did him a world of good because took his mind off a lot of things.

To everyone else, the only noticeable change in him was the sudden development of a larger appetite. The lizard kept close to Hakkai during the first few weeks. Most of the time, if you wanted to see it, all you had to do was find Hakkai and look under his jacket to see a pair of beady red eyes looking right back at you.

Oh, and it wasn't a lizard. That was too common for our little guest anyway. Hakkai and Goku declared that it was a dragon--probably a male dragon if it didn't start laying any eggs. After Goku bugged him about it, Hakkai named the dragon Hakuryuu from something he read in a book. It meant "white dragon"--very appropriate and simple.

That little re-classification probably came from that time when Hakuryuu got into my latest cache of scotch. It hadn't been easy to win, I'll tell you. But when I shooed the little bugger off, it took a few wobbly steps and hiccuped, producing a miniature fireball that missed singeing my eyebrows by a hair.

"Actually, that was rather cute," Hakkai said after that particular incident.

"That wasn't cute!" I had protested. "That's a fire hazard! Who ever heard of lizards that spout fire?"

So we had a fire-breathing miniature flying dragon of our very own. It had started out as a small lizard no larger than Hakkai's cupped hands, and five months later, it was mostly a pair of wings spanning three feet across, plus one long neck and tail.

When he started using those wings to fly, there were rumours of an albino bat in our block. Hakuryuu learned to make himself scarce when any company was around. I kept waiting for someone spot him and blow the whistle, but the little guy was fantastic at hiding and keeping out of trouble.

"Aww, isn't that cute?" I just *had* to say it when Hakuryuu started hunting rats and bringing them back to Hakkai.

"At least it wouldn't be a problem for him to find food," Hakkai sighed before chucking the rat out discretely.

Yep, you had to envy Hakuryuu--he didn't have to put up with the leftovers around here when there were nice, fat and juicy rats to be had.

* * * * * * * * * * *

About three long months after the reallocation, all that wretched repair work finally got done and we were reshuffled back to the south wing in pairs again. Each standard wing had four blocks--we were still in block D, but two floors up. Which was a good thing because Hakuryuu had just started to fly around that time and we didn't have to worry about him being seen winging his way up to the roof.

The ensuing lull could not last, but we tried to bum around for as long as possible before the plans for the next wing to be built was green-lighted by the Powers-That-Be. NH just keep getting more and more packed.

But that meant more fresh pickings for me, right?

"Gojyo . . . that's the fifth time you've won today!"

"Tonpuu, luck is a fickle lady . . . "

"And you're supposedly good with the ladies--yes, I *know* . . ."

It was wet outside that day, so it was a good time to break out the cards and set up a game or two--or five--in one of the quieter hallways. With the numbers on the rise in NH, there were always new guys to scalp. This was no exception. The other three besides Tonpuu were newbies.

"Oi, another game?" one of them asked. Some people didn't know when to quit even after they had been cleaned out of coffin nails, three credit stubs and one candy bar.

"Nah, got something else scheduled." Hakkai and the other two had just popped up in my field of vision. I waved them over. It was funny how Sanzo and Goku had suddenly became "the other two" after basically squabbling and bitching at each other in the same cell for a while. But they were the only ones whom I played with without any stakes.

"Hey, at least let us win something back!"

"Another day . . . Got a mahjong appointment." No one liked sore losers. "Oi Hakkai! I'm almost done here!"

One of the guys, Shiro or something, seemed to be thinking hard. He had been looking at me in a weird way since the game had begun. "Hey, I know you!"

"Did I know you?" I asked, gathering up the cards.

"Gojyo--Sha Gojyo from Rivertown," the guy continued. "I'd remember that hair and eyes anywhere."

"So?"

"Fancy you winding up here. Not surprising though . . . After you disappeared--"

Oh. I see. I knew the guy. I remember this guy. One of the kids from my old neighbourhood. You could say we used to play together--he was one of those who were always up for a spirited game of stone-the-half-breed-bastard. Ah, the joys of childhood . . .

"--we wondered if your brother killed you after he did your mom. Sorry, wasn't that your psycho-bitch of a step-mom?"

It was suddenly very quiet as I stubbed out my cigarette and stood up. "I said I'm going. Hakkai--you got the board set up right?"

"Aa." Hakkai looked slightly worried. But I could've told him that it was useless to fuss over things like that. There were dickheads in this world, much like the ones who had came after him for revenge, but whatever their reasons for--

"Oi--and I heard your brother fucked your mom."

"Hey! That's going too far! You lookin' for a fight?" Goku demanded.

But I was already there, instinct and something else driving my fist home. "Never mind, saru. Let's go before this idiot's stupidity starts getting contagious," I said, rubbing at my knuckles. It had been a while since I punched someone, after all. And I wanted out of here now--that guy had hit a nerve . . .

"True. A wise man would know when to shut up," Sanzo said, picking his way fastidiously over Shiro's prone body.

"Hakkai--did the sky just fall down or something?"

"Eh?"

"I think I just heard Sanzo-sama agree with me on something."

"Cheh . . ."

But that had not been the last of it. Rubbing at his cheek gingerly, Shiro/Dickhead sat up and sneered at us, determined to have the last word. "So I heard your brother screwed your mom . . . Did you two take turns?"

Things went a little blurry after that.

There was a lot of yelling. But I couldn't care less. The screws came along to check out the commotion. But I couldn't care less. My knuckles were getting bloody. But I couldn't care less.

I think someone was calling my name just before I blacked out.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Fact One: Tasers hurt when you get zapped by one or two of them.

Fact Two: Waking up from getting zapped hurts as well.

The peacekeeping screws carried tasers--it was safer than carting guns around this place. Perimeter guards were the ones packing heat, but as no one is likely to make it out beyond the inner perimeter, that's a moot point.

I woke up in a pretty high-level security lock-up in the infirmary with a headache and rubbery muscles. It was easy to tell when you're strapped down to the bed in a room with padded walls and there's a med officer checking your eyes with a penlight.

No pretty female nurses. Bah--my luck sucks today.

"Relatively sane again?"

"Ggh . . ." *Everything* felt numb. I had to try several times before anything coherent came out. "Yeah . . . Maybe. W-what happened?"

"Well, other than going completely postal on another inmate, you've busted your knuckles and they had to zap you twice . . . We've patched you up and put in the stitches." The med officer leafed through his clipboard. "The other guy, he wasn't so lucky though. Broken nose, skull fracture from when his head hit the floor . . . he's still out of it."

"Shit." This had *not* been in my plan for surviving NH in one piece.

The med officer looked down neutrally. "Oh definitely. Provocation or no provocation, the rules are still the rules. They're not big on second chances in here."

No kidding. I had been keeping a low profile until this mess blew up in my face.

"I fucked up big."

"Probably. You're scheduled for a meeting with the Head once you can walk."

With the Head Corrections Officer. Wonderful--just wonderful.

"So you just sit tight for a few hours and don't move about too much."

I twitched one hand feebly against the straps. "Aa. Infirmary humour, doc?"

"Hardly. Be careful of the stitches, okay?" And he bustled out, leaving me alone in the spartan little room.

The stitches were the least I had to worry about. I was still woozy from the 625, 000 volts (twice), but I knew enough to gather that I was *so* screwed now.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Getting to see the HCO was a rare honour that nobody relished. You got to enter the sanctity of the Warden's Office, which wasn't all grey like the rest of NH and didn't reek slightly of mould. And you had to be a little worried because knew that your judge, jury and executioner was somewhere behind the door with "D. Mara" on the nameplate.

Then you got to meet the Head Corrections Officer after her secretary waves you in. She's the first one everyone sees when they get transferred here and the last one when they got transferred out. Apparently her brother or cousin--Theo or Thaddus ----- something--was some bigwig in the bureaucracy but she hadn't got the job because of nepotism.

Damn--I've been hanging around Hakkai too much. I just used the word "nepotism".

The first time I saw the HCO was when I transferred in. Nothing of note there. A nice smile. Kinda friendly. For a moment there, you were almost convinced that you had a friend on this side.

Lady in a power suit wants to be my friend--I got no problems with that, but this was D. Mara of the Warden's Office. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed herself. I heard that some hard-cases pissed themselves during one of her infamous interviews. It was the second meeting that counted--most people didn't *want* the second meeting. To warrant the attentions of the HCO herself meant that you were in deep shit.

Head Corrections Officer Mara had what was probably my file on her desk when I came in. No BS this time, just business--she came straight to the point. "Shiro Yasunori hasn't come to yet."

"He's . . ."

"Not dead. Comatose."

"Is there a difference?"

"No, not really. The problem is with you losing it like that. The psyche tests and everything else indicates that you're not a hard case and you're relatively sane."

"By *what* standards?"

"Don't get uppity--this is serious. We don't need any more hotheads in the population," Mara said. "A pity. And you were doing so well too . . . You did keep your cellmate in line after he transferred in."

Hakkai didn't need me to keep him in line. I had been waiting for the hammer to drop--and now it all depended on whether or not Shiro lived.

"So now what?"

"One last thing. So it was just you in this brawl? It's hard to get honest eyewitness accounts . . ."

I *so* did not like where this was going. "Yeah. I lost my temper. I wanted to hit him. So I did." And I dared her to make something more out of that.

She went back to the file on her desk instead. "You know what this is going to do to your record, right?"

Yeah. And this place had its own rules concerning crime on the inside. An instant extended stay in NH. It was a place for the hard cases, after all.

"If that guy doesn't wake up . . . that's going to be classified as involuntary manslaughter number two."

And saying "Sorry, it won't happen again" doesn't cut any ice here or anywhere else for that matter.

"I got that."

Mara closed the file. "Right then. For this infraction . . . the East Tower. One week, this time. Sorry--rules are rules."

* * * * * * * * * * *

End Part 3.