Title: Pinky Swear?

Series: Saiyuki

Rating: M

AN: Prequel to 'A Thousand Miles'

Hakkai was late. He was never late, which made this all the more vexing, or weird, he wasn't sure, but he was pissed. Pacing their small house, Gojyo about wore a hole in the floor waiting. He checked the clock again, 10:43pm, he was off work at 6:30pm, so where the hell was he?!

An hour he could understand, emergency patients or old ladies or something, two hours, he's still a bit flaky and is probably reading a book or something, three hours, maybe a game of Mahjong with Mr. Sato the grocer ran over, but four hours?! Four fucking hours had better mean someone was dying or the clinic caught on fire or something equally dramatic, because he did not just get stood up, that just didn't work in his mind.

He growled low in his throat, absently kicking the table's leg as he stalked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator. He'd just pulled the tab and sank heavily into the couch when the door burst open and Lee, the only other doctor at the clinic, burst through the door.

Shit. He was not happy. One, he really didn't like this girl, yeah, the irony of the fact wasn't lost on him, but she had a nasty habit of draping herself across whatever work surface Hakkai was using and it pissed him off. Two, her sudden intrusion into their home made him crush his beer. His full beer. While he was still drinking it. Yep, he really hated this girl.

"Gojyo-san, come quick! There's an emergency outside of town! Hakkai-san! Hakkai-san's gone alone and I can't find him!" she breathlessly tugged on his arm, dragging him to his feet and out the door before her words sunk in, and then he was gone. Shot into the night, not waiting for her or directions, just, gone.

Racing into the darkness, mind reeling. All he could think was that he was cursed, he'd opened his big mouth and now somebody, who obviously hated him, was laughing at them. Shit. He just kept running onwards, nothing he could do now but try and drag that masochistic bastard home and enjoy their stupid, fucking, totally lame anniversary at home like he'd planned. Not that he remembered those things in the least bit. Even if it had been two years since they came back.

"Ah, hell." He skidded to a stop at the edge of the crowd, pushing through to get as close to the raging inferno as he could.

"Hakkai! Anyone seen Hakkai?!" he yelled over the small group gather huddling at the edge of the woods.

"Gojyo-san!"

"Meriel, have you seen Hakkai? Lee said he was here."

The middle-aged baker shook her head sadly and pointed into the fire, "He said he heard crying and ran in before we could stop him, that was ten minutes ago, we haven't seen or heard anything since!"

"Shit! Water, someone bring me water." He pulled his shirt over his head and glanced around the crowd, "NOW!!!" he bellowed, sending several of the younger men running with buckets to the nearest house.

Water procured he dunked his shirt and called for towels and sheets to be similarly treated. He pulled his shirt back over his head and wrapped a small sheet around his head before grabbing two more and taking a deep breath and plunging into the flames.

There was a house here, he remembered a young youkai family moving in last spring, they weren't turned away, but they weren't exactly accepted either. Hakkai had treated the kids once or twice for the minor childhood bumps and bruises and had been quite enamored with them; it made Gojyo fear for his virtue on more than one occasion.

"'Kai! Hakkai, where are you?! Answer me dammit!! 'Kai!" a rumbling to his left made him push on farther in. He angled towards the hottest spot, obviously the house had gone up, but damn, this wasn't a kitchen accident or anything, the fire was too hot, and he could still smell the gas in the air.

Shit. "Hakkai! You better fucking answer me right now! Hakkai!?"

*cough cough*

"Hakkai?! That you? Answer me!!"

"Go..jyo…here, we're over here…"

"Jesus 'Kai, I swear you do some of the stupidest…'Kai? 'Kai!" Gojyo pushed the fallen beam off of the smoldering back of his partner.

*sniffle**sob**hiccup*

Soft mewling under Hakkai's bruised and bloody body alerted him that they weren't alone in the inferno.

"Shit!" taking the sheets he wrapped one around each small body, the skin flaking into crisp ash as he pulled them out from under Hakkai.

*sob**sob*

"It's ok, we're gonna get you outta here, just hang on. Hakkai, dammit, don't you die on me, not like this!"

Gojyo leaned in and pulled Hakkai's limp body from the burning rubble.

"Hakkai, can you here me? I'm gonna take your limiters off, ok? You gotta help me with the kids; I can't get you all out of here by myself. 'Kai? You hear me?!" Gojyo shook his shoulder's lightly, relief flooding him as Hakkai coughed spastically and nodded weakly, clinging to him as he turned.

The kids were crying and Hakkai was choking on the gas fumes, half conscious but making a good attempt at walking, so hell, maybe they'd make it after all. Gojyo pulled both kids into his arms and somehow managed to wrap his towel around both his and Hakkai's heads, pulling him in against his rapidly drying shirt and started back towards where he estimated he come in from.

The crowd gasped as they stumbled out into the blazing night, immediately having water poured over them, the kids hurriedly taken off to the clinic for treatment on the worse of their burns and suddenly he had Hakkai's head on his shoulder and he was leaning in and kissing him with wanton abashment.

"You scared the shit out of me, 'Kai. What the hell where you thinking?"

Hakkai coughed weakly and he pulled him in closer against him, running dirty fingers through singed hair, pausing over light burns and cuts, reassuring himself that he was here and alive.

"I saw the fire from the clinic as I was closing up." He coughed again, harder this time and Gojyo reached for the water bucket, lightly cupping some in his hands and helping Hakkai take a sip to clear his throat.

"We couldn't get close, it was too hot, and then I thought I heard screaming. They were still in there, we could see them as they burned." He shuddered and Gojyo tightened his grip around his waist.

"I…I couldn't just sit back and watch. The kids, you could still hear their cries, high and terrified, I couldn't…Gojyo, I couldn't."

"Shh…it's ok, I know, I know…." He wasn't really sure what it was he 'knew' but he did know if there was even the slightest chance, there's no way Hakkai could just sit back and let innocent children die such a horribly painful death, even if it put his life in jeopardy.

"That fire, it wasn't natural, it was deliberately set, who…who could do such a thing to children?" Hakkai choked back sobs and Gojyo remembered his own past, a mother that tried to kill him, and a brother that killed to save him. Glancing at Hakkai he thought it must be worse for him, first growing up in the orphanage, then Kanan's capture and torture, the knowledge that she took hers' and the child she'd been impregnated with lives', then everything that happened on their journey.

Yes, it must be worse, because after everything that had happened, he'd seen his brother again, and he had Hakkai. So all he could do was offer soothing, meaningless words and soft touches; weave him through the crowd who gave them a wide birth, and he filed away the knowledge that this was the first time the townspeople had ever seen his youkai form. He needed to get him to the clinic, that's all he could manage right now; he'd worry about the rest tomorrow.

***

The clinic was packed, he'd never seen so many people in it, or been so grateful that when it came down to it, Lee was still a doctor and managed herself like one. She set them down in a corner, handing Gojyo antiseptic, clean water and bandages and a wink, saying how he knew Hakkai's body better than anyone else and then she was gone, fading back into the crowd.

A soft laugh from Hakkai reminded him of where they were and he quickly dropped his hair to hide the blush creeping across his face.

"Feisty, ain't she?"

"heh, Yes, she can be quite the problem child when she wants to be."

"Speaking of kids, I don't see them anywhere." He glanced up and looked around the room.

"Lee probably put them in a private room; they had some pretty bad burns."

Gojyo looked down to see Hakkai's eyes cloud over, "Now don't start that Hakkai! They'd be dead without your help, that's better than a few scars. Hell, we all have scars to bear, right?" he ran a finger down Hakkai's face and the green eyed demon leaned into it, hungry for the comfort it offered him.

"Hakkai-san, Gojyo-san, can you two come with me please?" Lee was at their elbows without Gojyo noticing, which reminded him why the woman ticked him off so much, damn woman had no sense of place or time.

Hakkai sighed wearily and managed a shaky nod of his head before Gojyo slipped his arm around his shoulders and pulled him to his feet, taking most of his weight on himself.

"I don't want to say this out here, please follow me."

Gojyo noticed the stiffening of backs as they moved through the room, the hard glances and shuffling of feet, what the hell?

Lee led them to a small room with an adjoining door and pushed them through it, locking the door securely behind them. Relief flooded her small frame as she turned back to them. Low sobbing came across the flimsy curtain separating the room in half. Gojyo gently lowed Hakkai to the only chair in the sparse room and quickly crossed the few feet to throw back the curtain.

Two pairs of dark red eyes gleamed up at him, brimming with tears and covered in puffy bandages, small shackles joining their ankles together.

"What the hell?" he turned on Lee then, "What the hell's going on here?"

She raised her he hands in defense, "I didn't do it, please Gojyo-san, Hakkai-san, you have to take them and leave, now, tonight, you can't stay here any longer, it's not safe!" her voice had taken on a fevered pitch that set Gojyo's blood pressure racing.

"Lee." His voice was dangerously soft and calm. Gojyo looked at Hakkai in dread; he knew that voice that was a 'bad' voice in his book. Meant people were gonna die soon and painfully. "Lee, please explain in detail why there are injured children chained up like animals in my clinic."

Lee hastily backed up and stammered, "They did it. I thought they were just going to ask them to leave the town, but someone took it a step farther. I swear, I didn't know! And then you ran in there, and everyone was really concerned, but they didn't know! I never told them that you weren't human! I don't care if they're youkai or human, but the town! The town was ravaged two years ago, whole families were slaughtered! They're afraid, please, they're just afraid!"

"And they aren't?!" Gojyo whipped a hand back towards the kids.

"They just had their parents and home torched so those ignorant bastards could feel better! And now, what, they're gonna do the same thing to us? I can't believe this! I've lived here for years; Hakkai's been with me most of the time! And now that they know they're gonna do what? Chain us to a fucking stake and bar-be-que us? Give me a fucking break! I'd like to see them try!"

"Gojyo."

"You can't seriously think this is okay, Hakkai!" he rounded on the ex-human, stopping dead in his tracks as he saw, no, felt the vines shaking in controlled fury.

"Lee, unlock the children and make us a bag of medical supplies please."

"Ye..yes, Hakkai-san."

"'Kai?"

"You might have to find something else to call me, Gojyo."

"What do you mean?"

Hakkai picked up the little boy who was sobbing on the table and held him close, "Because, this ones name is 'Kai' and this is 'Mao'." He reached out and lightly petted this little girls red hair. Turning back to Gojyo his eyes took on a hard glint, "And they're coming with us."

***

TBC