louiselux | Fic- Saiyuki/Batman crossover of doom part five, Hakkai/Gojyo

Fandom: Saiyuki
Title: Saiyuki/Batman crossover of doom part five
Rating: worksafe
Pairing: Hakkai/Gojyo
Notes: Many thanks again to

new_kate for beta and also for this gorgeous art of Gojyo and the Catboys.

part one, part two, part three, part four

Part five

Sanzo sat on the granite ledge, looking out over the net of lights that made up the city. It was the same granite ledge where Gojyo had saved his life, but that was pure coincidence. It seemed a lifetime ago, but it could only have been months. The lights twinkled, harmless and pretty, if you were the sort of person who could look at them and not see the seething mass of criminal humanity underneath. Sanzo wasn't. But tonight was a slow night for evil and Sanzo was restless. Criminal activity had quietened down after the Joker left and people-- and creatures-- were keeping their heads down, being careful, not causing trouble. It made for a surprisingly dull life and over the past few weeks his thoughts kept drifting back to a certain irritating problem that he would have preferred to forget about entirely.

Goku sat beside him, swinging his legs.

'We should go back, Sanzo,' Goku said. 'It's gettin' late.'

He didn't mention Hakkai by name, but they both knew what he meant. Neither he nor Goku left him on his own for very long, by a tacit agreement. It didn't seem right somehow, even if all he did was lie there with his eyes shut, unmoving. Goku liked to read to him, usually from one of Hakkai's many volumes of literature, but occasionally from the trashy magazines he polluted the house with, full of botoxed faces and men who harboured unhealthy passions for hairgel. Goku had been excited, that first morning when he'd found a shredded copy of Hello! on Hakkai's bed where he'd left it the night before, but there had been no further movement from him. Sanzo sat with him too, not speaking, apart from sometimes mentioning things that needed seeing to around the house, on the off chance. There was nothing at all wrong with him, as far as Sanzo could tell and at times he wondered if Hakkai had simply decided he wasn't waking up again. There was no reason he could see for Hakkai's continued coma. All they could do was wait.

'I know.'

'We should at least tell Gojyo about Hakkai,' Goku said, quietly after a minute had passed.

'He didn't ask us to do that. He left,' Sanzo said.

'Yeah, but you could tell he didn't really want to. If you'd asked him stay with us… '

'Shut up,' said Sanzo.

He wasn't prepared to open up his house to any stray cat that came along. Goku needed to learn that.

Gojyo had stayed awake all of that first night, and then most of the day after too. He'd only fallen asleep when Sanzo had declared Hakkai out of immediate danger and even then he'd simply slumped forward on his folded arms next to Hakkai. He'd still had bloodstains on his hands and clothes; they had dried to a dark rust red. Goku had been leaning against the wall, not saying anything. He'd been watching Gojyo.

'What happens now?' Gojyo had asked him, later on that day when Sanzo had finally shaken him awake.

Sanzo had noticed that his fingers were linked tightly with Hakkai's loose ones, under the sheets where he thought they couldn't see. Sanzo had picked Hakkai's reading glasses and traced the thin silver edges, listening to Hakkai's monitor beeping in time with his heart, too fast and too weak.

'Nothing. We wait,' he'd said.

'How long for?'

'It could be weeks or months before he wakes, or never.' He took a breath.

'No,' Gojyo said. 'You've got to do something, try something else.'

'There's nothing. None of us can do anything.'

Gojyo had wilted like a plant left too long in the sun. 'You mean it? There must be something-- '

'You can’t help him,' Sanzo had said. 'He doesn’t know you're here. It might be months, even years.'

'Years?'

'There's no reason for him to be like this.' Sanzo sank into an armchair with a sigh. 'It's very possible he's subconsciously chosen this state. He always was unreasonably stubborn.'

'He thinks he better off where he is, yeah? That's what you're saying?' Gojyo had said, and the bitterness had made even Sanzo wince. Gojyo had stood up, looking down at Hakkai's peaceful face. 'Maybe you're right,' he'd said, very quietly.

'Maybe. Maybe not,' Sanzo had said to his departing back, but Gojyo hadn't replied.

They hadn’t seen him since, although Goku had left a phone message to say he could come and visit. Sanzo had gone on trying to wake him, but nothing had worked. Now here they were, reduced to reading to him and waiting for that asshole of a cat to get his head together enough to be useful.

Goku leaned in a little now and Sanzo could see that he had gone red. 'But, from what I saw of them, I think they might... like each other. Ya know.'

Sanzo rolled his eyes and thought about saying that no, he didn't know, just to see him squirm, then he thought better of it. He was supposed to be the mature one in this outfit, he reminded himself. He looked down at the city and wondered what the hell Gojyo thought he was doing. No one had seen him on the streets since that night with the Joker.

'It's just-- ' Goku paused. He frowned. 'Do you think Gojyo is ever gonna show. Like, again?'

Sanzo slumped. His irritating problem, right there.

'Do I look like I care what that idiot does?'

'So, we're not sitting here waiting for him, or anything, then?' Goku looked off into the distance. He was getting to be infuriatingly perceptive, Sanzo thought. 'It's like he's just vanished,' Goku went on. 'I thought he was one of us. Fightin' crime, y'know. Like inna team!'

'We're not a team.'

'Yeah. Anyway. He was fantastic with that chain,' Goku said, his face brightening. His voice got louder. 'D'you remember? I've never seen anything like it. Whoosh! And then he nearly got the Joker's arm off. Wow. D'ya think it's a sort of a mind control thing?'

'He's-- not bad, I suppose. And no, he's probably just lived a violent and depraved life.'

'Oh, yeah. An' the way he moves-- '

'Stop,' Sanzo said, holding up a hand. He had absolutely no desire to listen to Goku's teenage crush in full flow. Goku fell silent, perhaps guessing this. He'd spent the day in his bedroom when he'd heard the Catboys had split up, playing their CDs at full volume so that Gojyo's voice wailed through the house, everywhere, so loud that even Hakkai had twitched.

Wait.

Sanzo almost fell off the ledge as he leapt up.

'What's wrong?'

'We're going home,' he said. 'How many Catboys CDs have you got?'

'All of them. Why?' Goku asked, his eyes wide.

Hakkai needed them.

'So, that's it,' Benny said. 'It's all there, the money you're owed from the gig.'

Gojyo slid open the slim white envelope with a finger and peeked inside. 'Twenty dollars?' he snorted. His heart sank a little. A lot, if he was being honest. He didn’t have anything else coming in. He didn’t have anything else at all.

'Well, the building did burn down,' Jamie said. 'And we did only play for half an hour, they said.'

'Listen,' Gojyo said, plastering on a smile, because it was either this or waiting tables, or something worse, 'maybe we should think about doing more gigs? Just a few more, you know? Maybe I was a little hasty before. When I said I was giving up.'

Benny sucked his lip, then glanced at the other two. Zed shrugged. Jamie stood up and came to stand at Benny's elbow, then folded his arms.

'Well. No,' he said. 'I don’t think so.'

'What? Why?'

'You're not reliable.'

'Huh?' Gojyo said. He tried a grin, but felt like his face was cracking instead. 'Whoever heard of a rock star who had to be reliable?'

'And you're neither of those two things,' Benny muttered.

'I could try?' he said, trying hard not to sound like he was begging.

He wanted to try, he really did, but he just didn’t know at what, or how and any time he looked for answers he just saw Hakkai, all bloodstained and silent and alone. Gojyo hadn't been able to save him from the Joker, hadn’t done him any good at all in the end.

'Look, Gojyo,' Benny said, 'We’re sorry. Just-- go and sort your head out. You said yourself you're better off alone.' Benny touched his arm. 'Take care of yourself. You look terrible,' he added, sounding worried.

Gojyo yanked his arm away. 'Fine. Okay. I'm-- just fine.'

It wasn't a problem, he thought as he ran down the stairs, away from their watching eyes. His boots clattered on the bare boards. No problem. Fuck it. He'd been alone before and this was no big deal. He got to the bottom of the stairway, but didn’t stop, even though there was no reason to run. There was no reason to do anything, was there? He hadn't been out into the city for weeks and his fighting kit sat in a plastic bag in the bottom of his wardrobe, collecting a layer of dust. He couldn't stand to look at it. He'd tried to clean the blood stains off it once, but he'd had to run and vomit in the basin.

His momentum send him flying onto the sidewalk, barrelling past an old man with a little yapping dog and a well-coiffed, white haired couple pushing along a screaming toddler in a buggy. He ran faster, shoving past a guy in an enormous quilted jacket, who yelled at him to fuck off and die. His legs wouldn't stop moving, for some reason. The slabs were hard under his feet and his knees jolted with every stride. His arms pumped and his breath began to burn in his lungs, but he ran, down past the row of boarded up shops, through the park with its cargo of grey people, past the ranks of apartment blocks with peeling paint and stucco, out past the developments to where the houses turned to empty flat grey parking lots and barn-sized warehouses plastered with banner signs.

The road split, taking him down to the old quays. The river glinted gold in the warm summer evening as it rolled through the city. He didn't even think about where he was going until he was there at last, crunching over the broken glass to the battered green door. Upstairs was the white room-- that place where Hakkai had--

They'd only fucked twice. Hakkai was just some guy, someone he shouldn’t feel anything for. It was stupid to get like this over it. He wrapped his arms round his waist and squeezed his eyes shut, seeing dark green eyes, tasting Hakkai's mouth, soft against his own.

He'd been living just fine before Hakkai came along. It suited him, being alone. It seemed to suit Hakkai even more, he thought. Hakkai hadn't even told him what he was going to do, he'd just left, going off to die on his own like some dumb fucking dog without even asking Gojyo for any help. Gojyo shoved his hand into his mouth and bit down, aware that he was making sounds. Salt water stung his eyes.

'You're making a lot of noise,' a voice said.

He leaped up and spun round. Sanzo was watching him, dressed in slacks and a shirt and nice, soft-looking sweater that looked like it cost more than Gojyo's entire life. It didn’t suit him at all. He looked like a yuppie out for a Sunday drive. His sports car was parked some way down the street.

'You,' he stuttered.

He didn’t want to think why Sanzo might have come to find him. Hope bobbed up like a ridiculous pink party balloon, filling him. Moron, he thought, and forced it back down. Carefully though, because it hurt.

'This is good way to get yourself into even more trouble. I'm sick of saving your ass.'

But Sanzo looked tired and his words were flat. Gojyo swallowed, hard. He hoped his eyes didn't look wet. He didn't dare wipe them in case Sanzo noticed. He wondered how much noise he had been making.

'I-- sorry,' he said.

Sanzo just looked at him, then nodded. 'You look terrible,' he said.

Gojyo clenched his fists, then relaxed them and put them on his hips in exactly the way he knew would irritate Sanzo. 'I'm gonna get a complex if anyone else says that. What do you want?'

Sanzo ignored him. 'We should go back.' He looked up at the sightless windows. 'It's not safe here.'

'I don't need looking after,' Gojyo called after him.

Sanzo glanced over his shoulder as he walked towards his car. His keys jangled in one hand.

'I'm not doing it for your sake,' he said.

Sanzo pulled up outside Gojyo's apartment building half an hour later and killed the engine, which Gojyo hadn't expected. His feet ached and he was busy refusing to be grateful for the ride. He'd thought Sanzo would just boot him out and speed off. Instead, Sanzo paused with one hand on the wheel and one on the ignition key, then sat back and stared out of the windscreen. Idly, as if his mind was elsewhere, he flipped the switch that set the door locks. They whirred and then thunked shut.

'What the hell?' Gojyo said. 'If you're gonna start-- Look, I don't need a friggin' lecture from you about the care and feeding of catboys.'

'Just shut up,' Sanzo said, with a sigh. 'You haven't been around much lately,' he went on, sounding as if he was about to have a tooth pulled.

'What's it to you? Missing me?'

'No.' Sanzo fell silent. He seemed to be intent on studying the steady flow of people that wandered past. His car attracted looks, and Sanzo seemed to enjoy driving them off with a glare. 'Much as I hate to say this-- '

'Please don't feel you have to,' Gojyo snapped.

'-- you need to come back with me.'

Quite abruptly his heart began to pitter patter, and it was beating a name, over and over. 'If you think you can just order me around like this you are so wrong,' Gojyo said, but his mouth was dry and his legs felt suddenly weak.

'Stop fooling yourself,' Sanzo said then, loudly, looking anywhere but at Gojyo. 'You can help him.'

'You said yourself I can't. There's nothing anyone can do. You said that. He wants to be gone.'

'I didn't think you were a coward,' Sanzo said, quietly. 'Unintelligent, yes, but not that.' He turned to stare at Gojyo and his eyes flared hot with anger. It was shocking. Gojyo flinched. 'Just what are you afraid of?'

'Let me out,' Gojyo said. He slammed a hand onto the dashboard. It hurt. 'Now.'

'You're acting like a fool,' Sanzo said. No, he wasn't. He wasn't the dumb one around here. 'What happens next is up to you,' Sanzo said. 'Meet me at 2am on top of the Rafferty building. I've got a job for you.'

Gojyo slammed the car door on him and walked away.

What happens next...

He couldn't sleep. He drifted, half dreaming along with the midnight sounds rising up from the street on the warm air. Cars playing bass so deep it made his windows shake, doors slamming, broken glass and the shrill raised voice of a woman. The same thing every night. He turned over and wrapped his pillow around his head and thought about Sanzo, almost certainly out there somewhere, perched on a rooftop prior to kicking some sorry schmuck's teeth down his throat. Going back home afterwards, to where Hakkai was. He wrapped the pillow more tightly over his ears, but it seemed like muffling his own thoughts using cheap foam padding wasn't gonna cut it. They didn’t stop.

Hakkai. He sat up, eyes wide in the dark, a thought hitting him with the force of a bullet. Left to himself, if Hakkai woke up he'd probably run off and do something really dumb again, like try and take out the Joker single-handed. What was he afraid of?

Gojyo couldn't leave important things like this to Sanzo. He'd fuck it up for sure - he had all the tact and sensitivity of a block of cheese. Hakkai needed him. Down below an a burglar alarm suddenly blared into life, followed by shouting. So did his city. He fell out of bed in his rush to get up, feet tangling in the quilt. Damn bat-features for being right.

Cleaning the thing was a bitch. He pushed the couch back against the wall and spread newspaper out over the carpet. Not that the carpet was worth protecting, he decided, after inspecting it for the first time in years. Once that was done he filled a bowl with warm water and detergent, got the towel he used when he dyed his hair, then went into his bedroom to fetch the plastic bag.

Laid out, it didn't look too bad. He washed the blood off, then washed it again, then blotted the water off with the towel. Finally he fetched a small bottle from the cupboard under the kitchen sink and rubbed it into every part of his suit using his fingers. Body heat helped it soak in. After hanging it up carefully on a hanger, he took a shower. He jerked off thinking about Hakkai fucking him and came so hard he had to lean back against the tiles, his knees shaking. After that he washed his hair and cleaned his teeth, then dried himself very carefully. He didn’t bother with underwear. Not that he had any clean ones.

The leather was a little loose around his waist. He ran a hand over his stomach and realised quite suddenly that he was ravenous. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. The rest of his catsuit clung just right, on the ass, tight across his thighs and over his crotch and chest. He smoothed the long gloves on. They gripped tight across his biceps and he flexed a little and they moved with him easily. The belt came next. He hooked it on and examined the whip and chain. He'd had enough sense to clean that at least. The tiny stainless steel blades sparkled and jingled in a merry sort of way that didn't exactly fit with their use, but what the hell. Might go down well at Christmas. He stepped into his high heeled boots and laced them up. He pulled his hair back into a band so that it hung in a glossy, dark tail down his back. After a moment's thought he gave his G tag a little buff so that it shone.

He stared back at his reflection in the mirror. He still looked kinda sad, he thought, so he grinned at himself and struck a pose, hands raised in a fighting crouch. The supple black leather gleamed as it clung to the straight lines and curves of his body. His smile turned into something real. Yeah, he was still fiery hot. If this didn't wake Hakkai up, what the hell would?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

devikun.livejournal.com

Also? Sha Gojyo. Cures what ails ya ;)

[ps LOVED it!]

From:

the Iberio-Swiss divide

Fic- Saiyuki/Batman crossover of doom part five, Hakkai/Gojyo

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