A/N: Revised version! And I do hope it's way better than before. Thank you all who have been reviewing all my fics… you guys make me so very happy…sobbies… and I'm finally back in the Saiyuki section! It's been like, what, over a year? Seems like most of the writers I used to know aren't writing anymore, and it kinda makes me sad. But whatever! Let's get on with the fic. And well, if Saiyuki was mine I wouldn't be doing this, no?
In the Days of Koryu by real-circus
Prologue
It must have been pure chance that Komyo Sanzo had been out by the river that day, when he should have been elsewhere, preaching about life and such. Perhaps it must have been a coincidence too, that he decided at the last minute on canceling his preaching. Putting his sheer luck aside, he never expected a floating bundle on the river to change his course of life forever.
He got his robes wet in the process of retrieving the drifting object, but that was the least of his worries when he realized what it was he had just saved. It was a baby – hardly a day or two old, too – and he found it a wonder how it managed to survive the harshness of the restless river.
Hesitantly checking under the soiled cloth the child was wrapped in, Komyo was delighted to find out it was indeed a baby boy. A blond one, with eyes of such a queer color under the autumn sun. Was it dark blue? Or was that a flash of violet he just saw? His thoughts were quickly steered away as the voice of a novice rang behind him, shouting something about catching a cold in wet robes.
As Komyo clambered up towards the temple, dampness in the lower part of his clothes slowing him down, several monks had gathered at the veranda, wondering what their absurd Sanzo was up to this time. However, Komyo Sanzo had other concerns too deep to fret about nosey novices and their pointless alarm at the fact that their sensei was indeed clutching an infant in his arms.
The moment he shut the door to his chamber, the baby started whimpering – a bad, bad sign. Looking around frantically for something to calm the boy down, Komyo noticed a necklace of rosary beads around the fragile neck, wound a little too tightly for comfort. He loosened them carefully, and the baby seemed to relax a bit.
Komyo smiled warmly, taking in the sight of his adorable new ward. "Your mother must have loved you, despite her reasons for letting you go." He gently tapped the button-sized nose playfully to delightful squeals.
When he tried to remove the beads from the blond child though, the tiny but firm grip on the other end prevented this. "Oh, a strong one, aren't you?" Komyo said amusingly, tickling the tender skin of its stomach. "I can't wait to see how you'll turn out to be… Koryu." He grinned lopsidedly at the name, thinking about how fitting it was. "Yes, Koryu will do just fine, don't you think?"
The baby waved his pudgy arms up and down, pouting and spraying spit all over the man's face. "How adorable!" Komyo exclaimed, never once having a child of his own. "You'll get used to it soon enough. Right now, you must be starving… I could get someone to fetch some milk…"
And that was how Koryu came to be. He lay clueless in his master's arms, as a baby should be, but he felt something in his tiny heart that told him this place was safe, it was warm, and this was where he should stay for the time being. For the first time in his life on earth, he felt content, and it definitely felt good to have left his drifting world a while back. For even a baby should have known that this was love.
To be continued…
Aw, it wouldn't hurt to press that itty bitty button over there, right? Please review! Comments and constructive criticism welcomed, and flames will not be entertained.