Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go does not belong to me, no matter how much I love Sai and Akira and Hikaru. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N: This story was really started on a whim. i don't even know where it is going yet. I'm sorry.

:: First Life :: Fujiwara no Sai ::

The gods did not know what to do. Here, in front of them, was a soul awaiting judgement, and yet it was such an... unusual case.

This has never happened before - at least they cannot remember, because gods lived too long, remembered too much and forgot too much.

Fujiwara no Sai.

The name was whispered about within the white halls of judgement, echoing off the ornate pillars which held up a roof of sky. Yet the man kneeling at the center of this place barely looked up at the mention of his name, head bowed and long hair spilling down his back and over his shoulders to pool onto the crystal floors.

A man who has lived a thousand years, whose soul was just as tainted as it was pure. A man who has walked one life, and at the same time three.

How should he be judged? How can he be judged?

The gods were at a loss, and a great many of them were already bored, and so by general consensus, they finally came to an agreement.

Let him live again, they said, and with this life, let us judge him.

:::

"Ramen is the best!" came Hikaru's loud declaration, much to Waya's annoyance and Isumi's exasperation. "Ne, Fuku, don't you think so?"

"Of course not!" Waya snapped, not even giving the smaller boy a chance to reply. "Sushi is!"

"Who wants to eat sushi?" Hikaru made a face. "Ramen tastes ten times better!"

"Then sushi is a hundred times better!"

"A thousand!"

"A million!"

"What comes after a million?"

"Ha!" Waya laughed, a smug expression decorating his face. "I win."

Next to him, Isumi resisted the urge to bang his head against a nearby lamp post. He had known that inviting both Hikaru and Waya out for lunch at the same time was a bad idea, but then, it has been a long time since they had had lunch together, and at they age of 18, one would have expected them to be less... rowdy.

Apparently not.

"They never change do they?" Isumi sighed, addressing Fuku who was walking next to him.

"Nope," he smiled, "But that's what makes them so adorable isn't it?"

Fuku, like Hikaru and Waya, had barely changed over the years, his countenance still as calm and friendly as it had been when they were young. Even his appearance seemed the same, and although he did grow a little when he had reached puberty, he had eventually resigned himself to the fate that he just wasn't going to get any taller.

Isumi winced. "I might find them considerably more adorable if they did not give me a headache every time I see them."

"But you wouldn't have it any other way would you?" Fuku asked. "At least I won't."

It was true, Isumi realized, despite all his complaining about the noise that accompanied his two friends every time they went out, he knew that he never wanted them to change. A quiet Hikaru and Waya just... didn't feel right (downright weird, actually).

"Ne, Isumi, where are we going?" Hikaru shouted, already a few meters ahead, impatiently shifting from foot to foot. "It's a ramen stall isn't it?"

"You wish," he muttered, before replying, "No. Sorry to disappoint, it's actually a takoyaki stand, just down the road to your right."

The boy with the bleached-bangs made a face upon hearing that he wouldn't be getting to eat his favorite food, before turning to speak to the boy standing next to him, "Hear that Waya? Even Isumi wouldn't want to eat su- Waya?"

The boy was not listening and barely flickered an eyelash to acknowledge Hikaru's jibe. His attention was, instead, trained towards a boutique across the street. A rather high-end one too, the kind that did business off rich men and women with too much money to know what to do with, the kind that Waya himself has barely stepped into more than a few times in his life.

Following the other boy's gaze, Hikaru grinned, a teasing lift of his lips which never boded well.

"I never knew you were into this sort of thing, Waya," he lifted his eyebrows suggestively.

"Look at that, Shindo," the red head muttered, something that sounded partly awe and partly disbelief in his tone.

"What?" came the blunt reply. "That you have a fetish for these kinds of clothes? Geeze, who knew you were secretly just like Touya?"

This seemed to get through to the other boy, who snapped his head around, glaring in mock offense. "Me? Like Touya? In your dreams, Shindo. After all, I'm not the one who has an almost obsessive rivalry with him am I?"

"What were you looking at then, if not at the clothes?" Hikaru challenged, matching Waya's heated gaze with one of his own.

The other boy shook his head. "I wasn't talking about the clothes, Shindo - not the ones in the shop, anyway. I meant the guy inside the shop. You know, the one standing there, next to the mannequin with the blonde ringlet wig and the five-inch heels," Waya gestured with a wave of his hand. "Have you ever seen hair like that? It's even longer than Touya's. And those clothes. He looks like he's just stepped out of a history book or something, because seriously, who dresses like that these days? With the tate-eboshi too."

He tilted his head to the left, looking for affirmation from his friend but was instead met with empty space.

"Shindo-?" He turned, gazing around wildly, trying to find the other boy who had suddenly disappeared. There were quite a few people on the streets at this hour heading to and from lunch. Eyes sweeping swiftly through the crowd, Waya finally located his friend, squeezing his way between a plump lady and a little boy, making his way quickly in the direction of the boutique.

Muttering curses under his breath, Waya took off after him. What had gotten into Shindo? One moment he was standing next to him arguing as always, and the next moment he just disappeared without even a word of warning or explanation.

Long strides quickly catching up with the slightly shorter boy, Waya managed to grab onto one of Hikaru's hands just as he was about to dash across the street.

"What's gotten into you, Shindo?" Waya asked, pulling the boy roughly back. "Where are you going?"

The look on Hikaru's face when he turned to look at him was a mask of such urgency that Waya was momentarily shocked.

"I'm sorry, Waya," the boy said, hurriedly, words stumbling over each other. "But I really have to go. It might be too late if I don't." Here a brief flash of pain flickered in those viridescent eyes, so fast Waya almost thought he was mistaken. "I don't have time to explain," Hikaru continued, already pulling his hand out of the other's grip, "tell Isumi and Fuku for me will you?"

With that parting request, he turned, and before Waya could stop him again, Hikaru had already sped across the road without so much as a backward glance, hair flying out behind him as he ran. Too stunned to speak, Waya could only stare at his friend's retreating back, not even beginning to understand what had just happened.

"Is that Shindo?" Isumi's voice shook him out of his reverie.

He turned, shrugging his shoulders as he did so. "Yeah."

"What happened?"

Another shrug. "No idea. He'll be late though."

With that, he started walking down the street in the direction of the takoyaki stall, leaving behind an equally puzzled Isumi and Fuku.

:::

Surely it couldn't be? But Hikaru could not help it, could not help the wild, almost frantic, beating of his heart when he had caught sight of that face, could not help the instinctive urge to run to the side of the person he thought he had lost forever, and whom he missed with an almost aching hollowness.

How long has it been? He thought as he ran. Three, four years? Three, four years of guilt and regret, and it surprised him somewhat that he was already beginning to forget.

Ducking into the shop, the bell above the door jangled loudly to signify his arrival, and Hikaru made a face. He would have preferred not to attract any attention to himself and conduct his search quietly.

Stepping further into the store, he allowed his eyes to pass swiftly over the interior of the shop, taking in the racks of clothes, all made of sequins and velvet and soft silks; the ornate floor to ceiling mirrors; and the few shoppers lounging on chairs, looking at different samples of intricately decorated cloth.

"Can I help you sir?" a shop girl asked, coming up to him, voice cultured and precise.

He's not here, Hikaru thought, ignoring her. There was a kind of sinking feeling in his chest, the kind that was painful and bitter and made him almost want to cry. Sai's not here.

"Sir?" The girl's voice sounded slightly puzzled now, but thankfully she was patient enough not to have thrown him out yet.

His green eyes swept through the store of last time, briefly resting on each one of the customers, before resigning himself to the fact that none of them was familiar and could not possibly have been the one he was looking for.

He turned to face the shop assistant, a smile already on his face, although a little half-hearted. "It's okay," he said, "I was just-"

He stopped suddenly, causing the girl to take a step backwards, startled and slightly afraid of the intense look on his face.

Sai was there, back facing him. Hikaru had not noticed earlier because he had been partially hidden by a clothes rack, but now that he turned to look, he could clearly see the black tate-eboshi as well as the familiar black hair which swept down past his shoulders.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, before pushing past the girl and moving in the direction of where Sai was standing, the shop assistant already forgotten.

He could only think of one thing as he swiftly approached the customer, walking as quickly as he could without actually running, all the while being painfully aware of his heart hammering loudly in his ears.

Hikaru was almost afraid to call out, because although now he could see the other person clearly, from the white fan in his hand down to the Heian era style of clothes and the black hair tired by a white ribbon near the end, Hikaru still could not shake off his fear that that person was not Sai and that he would have to go through the pain of losing him all over again.

He was so afraid of getting hurt.

He paused, hesitated, before taking a deep breath and finally saying, "Sai?" The name came out tentatively, betraying his uncertainty.

The man standing before him turned around swiftly, and when Hikaru finally saw his face, he didn't know whether he wanted to laugh or to cry or to just hug Sai close and to tell him that he missed him.

"Hikaru?" Bright blue eyes were confused, and Sai tilted his head to one side.

"Sai." There was no doubt in his voice this time. "What are you doing here, Sai?" It was a silly question, Hikaru knew, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. There were too many emotions overwhelming him right now, and he was afraid that if he attempted to say something like 'I missed you,' he might end up crying instead.

The other man blinked, then, "I'm buying clothes, Hikaru. I doubt what I am wearing will fit in very well. What about you?"

Hikaru pursed his lips, before suddenly taking hold of Sai's hand. "Waya and the others invited me to lunch, let's go join them." He smiled.

"But my clothes-"

"Your clothes can wait Sai," Hikaru replied, already dragging the other out the door in his usual manner of disregard once he himself has come to a satisfactory decision.

"But, I-"

Hikaru turned to look back at him, green eyes just as Sai had remembered them - bright and teasing. "You don't want to have lunch with us?"

"Ah, no, that's not it-"

"Then it's okay isn't it?" the boy laughed. "Come, let's hurry up before Waya finishes all the takoyaki."

Sai felt his eyes soften. Yes, it has been such a long time, but Hikaru... Hikaru hasn't changed at all.

"I thought you didn't like takoyaki."

"I never said I didn't like takoyaki," Hikaru pouted. "I just like ramen more."

A/N: And here is chapter one.

This is my first time writing a Hikaru no Go fanfic. I didn't even finish reading the manga. I'm sorry. T.T (Could not bear the thought of Sai disappearing, so I only read 12 volumes.) I would like to apologize for any mistakes in my understanding of the Go game, or any other terms. If it is really bothersome, you could drop me a review and I shall have it changed as soon as possible.

Also, I am starting to worry that Hikaru was a little OOC. One might realize that he acts a bit too childish for 18 years. I'm trying to change that, but like I said, i did not finish the manga so it is a little difficult for me to imagine an adult Hikaru.

Was the reunion between the two of them too unbelievable? It sounded extremely unconvincing to me since both of them acted like nothing happened. o.O I'll be putting in some explanations later on to clarify things.

Hope you liked it, please review. :3

MoonMyst