Written: 6/6/05
Word Count: 100, 100, 300, 100, 100, 100, 300
Rating: K / K+
Notes: Seven random drabbles that popped into my head.
---
It hadn't called out to him like Goku, but Sanzo just couldn't leave it.
A foundling always has a special spot for fellow abandoned children.
Some parent, most likely a scared young girl, had left her son on the side of the road. Bright red hair and crimson eyes told Sanzo why.
The monks were scared of it. But he wasn't, and neither was Goku.
The boy quickly grew, like he and Goku had before him. He excelled at martial arts, having a very handy sparring partner in his 'Goku-niichan'.
The monks hated him.
Sanzo couldn't have been prouder.
---
Sanzo was his universe.
And, as if by magic, his universe was turned upside down.
The introduction of a baby into the two-person group had been trouble at first, Goku being jealous and trying to vie for Sanzo's attention while the foundling just cried and cried. The blonde was unusually patient with both of them, however, waiting for them to get used to one another.
Eventually, Goku's universe had opened up to two: his sun and his twin planet. The boys roughhoused like siblings, sticking together, both outcasts.
They didn't care. Life was good.
They finally were a family.
---
Goku was jealous, sulking around Sanzo's chambers like someone
had just taken away his favorite toy... Or, more like someone had told
him not to raid the pantry.
"Come here, Goku."
The brunette shuffled over to Sanzo, who was sitting on the bed. "Yes sir?"
Silently, Sanzo transfered his new charge over to the older one, instructing him on how to hold the child without speaking.
Goku looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms, awe in his eyes. A tan hand came up to stroke a chubby cheek. "He's so tiny," Goku said in a low voice.
Sanzo let out a rare smile.
"And soft," Goku continued, stroking the small face with his fingertips. Small pink lips opened and sucked on his forefinger as the digit neared his mouth. "Hey, give that back!"
Sanzo chuckled and ran pale fingers through Goku's chocolate strands. He hoped he had done the right thing, by taking another child under his wing. He felt that Koumyou would be proud.
"Sanzo?"
"Yeah monkey."
"Do you love him more than me?"
The question was soft, wavering, and it broke Sanzo's heart. Outwardly, though, he showed no such emotion.
"Tch. Don't ask stupid questions."
Goku smiled and looked back down at the baby. "Then I guess he can call me his big brother."
"Don't say stupid things, either," the monk continued, lying back on his bed.
Goku carefully crawled into bed, the half-breed baby still in his arms and snuggled close to Sanzo. The monkey curled up next to him and was asleep within minutes, cradling the child protectively.
Sanzo smiled again, watching his two charges sleep. He carefully rolled off the bed and pulled the covers over them. He bestowed a kiss onto each forehead before turning out the lights.
"Sleep well, boys"
---
"Why do we have to watch this brat?" Gojyo complained yet again.
"Because Sanzo and Goku are out on a mission and he's way too young to go along with them," Hakkai replied patiently.
Gojyo stared at the one-year-old crawling around. "Still don't see why we have to do it," the redhead muttered, pulling out a cigarette.
The roll of tobacco was snatched from his lips. "Not around the baby," Hakkai chastized, stealing a kiss and Gojyo's cigarettes.
"Gods, you soooooooo suck," Gojyo whined, sitting on the couch, staring at the fellow half-demon.
Smiling crimson eyes met his.
"You too, kid."
The baby sat up, smiling up at Gojyo.
Gojyo rolled his eyes.
---
It wasn't that he was a half-breed, really.
The kid really did have the sweetest temperment.
As Hakkai called it, "Goku sans ADHD".
For some reason, though, he was infuriatingly drawn to Gojyo's long hair. Whenever Gojyo fell asleep on the low couch, the little toddler would pull himself to his feet by grabbing the crimson strands as if it was a rope.
Hakkai found them one day, both curled up on the couch, the baby snoozing away on the older half-breed's couch.
Gojyo opened one crimson eye. "Y'know, this isn't what it looks like."
"I'm sure"
---
Hakkai ran his fingers through dark brown strands of hair. "Now listen."
Crimson eyes, so like his lover's, met his and Hakkai had to fight down the urge to strangle him. "Yes, Hakkai-niichan?"
"Recite back the lesson you just read."
The half-breed foundling did so--in perfect Sandskrit.
The now almost-teen had Gojyo's striking looks, Sanzo's attitude, Goku's mischevious streak and Hakkai's extensive knowledge. It was enough to drive the four of them crazy, let alone others.
They all loved the boy, of course. He had filled the void that wanted children.
"Sanzo! I'm borrowing your fan"
---
"Gojyo-niichan? Why are we shunned?"
The boy was nine, and his face was still round with boyish youth. Gojyo ground his cigarette out in the glass ashtray and pulled him into his lap. He thought about it for a moment before answering.
"You know how most people around here have slanted eyes, but some closer to the West don't?"
A nod.
"Have you seen any children between the two?"
Another nod. "They have fair skin, like Sanzo-niichan, and slightly more rounded eyes."
"And what about the children of pale skinned and dark skinned people?"
A pause. "Well, sometimes their children are coffee colored, sometimes they're as black as ink." He looked up. "I don't get it, what's the point?"
"The point, little one, is that they are shunned like we are."
"Really?"
"Well, to a lesser degree. But in some places they are just as bad off as us. Of course, there's another reason why we're shunned."
"Why?"
"Has Hakkai-niichan taught you what a hybrid is?"
Another nod. "The result of two different species mating and reproducing."
The answer was textbook, characteristic of 'Kai, Gojyo reflected. "Well, we're hybrids too."
Yet another nod. "The result of a demon and a human reproducing."
"And we cannot reproduce."
Young crimson eyes widened. "Really?"
This time Gojyo nodded. "Yup. I'm afraid you'll never be able to have children."
The young foundling chewed this information over for a bit, before shrugging. "Well, I'll just take in children like us."
That made Gojyo blink. "Why?"
Shrug. "People all need a place they won't be shunned. Like I you and Hakkai- and Sanzo- and Goku-niichan.( And even Doku-niichan, when he comes and visits."
Gojyo watched the boy pad off to talk to Hakkai, and grinned.
Jien's long-ago teachings had stuck.
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