Disclaimer: If I seriously owned Saiyuki die-hard fans would probably not even recognize it. Kazuya Minekura is the only one lucky enough to actually own those boys.

AN: So here is the first of my Saiyuki one-shots. Its AU for the series' end and probably won't ever happen. Whatever other one-shots I add to this will likely all be set in the same "world" as this one.

In which there are Reunions, Rejoicing, and Kanzeon Bosatsu is much Amused

Gold eyes meet gold eyes for the first time in—so very long—half a millennia. There is carnage all around them, youkai are dying all around them, but neither can manage to turn away and face the frenzied horde. No one is quite sure whether the lower class youkai mean to attack or simply want to run now that their boss is fled, but it's best not to take chances in such cases, though it doesn't really matter anyways: the others are more than capable of dealing with these weaklings. They, themselves, have more pressing matters to think about, such as this their reunion after 500 hundred years or the fact that Goku's golden diadem is in his hands—clawed hands—not on his head, yet he's still sane, still thinking, and can almost remember, and he could, too, if his head wasn't reverberating with grief and sorrow and wanting to just bury his face in that white neck and convince himself that the other really was there—

In a blur of motion—he's as fast as I am, he realized—the other boy is suddenly in front of him, pale hands placed gently over his own and sliding the diadem from his lax fingers. Hands carefully place it back around his brow and, another first, he doesn't pass out but only sways slightly forward. Those hands steady him again, and he thinks, Now this feels familiar, just before he thinks, This is…

Soundlessly, his lips form a name:

Na-ta-ku.

Those eyes light up in a way that they hadn't ever until the two of them met so long ago. Thin white lips stretch into a smaller version of the cocky grin Goku remembers. "Hai."

The rest of the memories trickle in slowly: the Sun shining so brightly gold, that first meeting behind the temple urn, lazy afternoons in a room of books learning how to write, fighting off angry kami, that sneering face, carefully bandaging the only brother he ever had to a wooden chair, that final bloody fight and the betrayal and the sharing of a name and all the blood and going blissfully, wonderfully mindless from the rage.

"I've been waiting," Nataku murmurs, stepping even closer.

"Yeah…I think I've been waitin' too…"

Behind them Sanzo, Hakkai, and Gojyo—Konzen, Tenpou, Kenren—have finished with the youkai. They're all bloody and a little roughed up but alive and breathing and—they didn't die because of me this time. Hakuryuu—Gojun—curls a little tighter around Hakkai's neck, looking exhausted, but that's not so hard to believe; his first transformation into his humanoid form after so long must have at least been uncomfortable, if not outright painful. Hakkai absently runs his hands over his scales as he and Yaone converse softly. Dokugaiji is still there too, sporting a new scar almost exactly over his heart and talking to Gojyo, even though his eyes never stray far from Kougaiji, who is kneeling next to a really pretty woman that must be his mother, or Lirin, who is futilely trying to engage Sanzo in conversation. Sanzo, though, Sanzo's looking right at Goku and Nataku, watching this stranger who felt the need to interfere in their fight, but Goku thinks that's just because he doesn't know that Nataku's not a stranger—not really—and that it was the War Prince's fight a long time ago—half a millennia ago.

But right now, everyone's alive and Nataku's here and what Goku really wants is to get everyone together and eat, because nothing says family like sitting down together around dinner. He reaches out and laces his fingers together with Nataku's, tugging slightly at the older boy, large eyes pleading. Nataku shakes his head but allows himself to be pulled along by the other's enthusiasm anyways, an answering laughter in his own eyes.

In the distance, Hontou Castle lies in smoking ruins along with everything that its inhabitants had tried to accomplish: the journey west is over. Goku glances to his right at the former War Prince of Tenkai and then up ahead where his friends and not-quite-friends wait and can't help the broad grin that stretches wide across his face. Nataku, at least, seems to get it because he smiles back with that impish grin that he had when they first met.

Yeah, the journey west might be over…but the journey east is only just beginning!

Looking down on hir favorite ragtag group of misfits, Kanzeon Bosatsu smirks lazily, idly swirling hir glass as se mentally composed the (in)sincere apologies se'd need to give to the bureaucratic bigwigs for letting Nataku slip away. Se really hopes that it won't take long to convince them to drop the matter, because if there is anything Kanzeon Bosatsu knows without question, it's that that particular bunch of punks have a long, long way to go before destiny lets go of them. Things are about to get interesting and se simply can't wait…

AN: I guess this is going to be a collection of one-shots right now as I doubt I'll have the time or inclination anytime soon to start up a multi-chaptered story…though then again, who knows? I may end up surprising myself. Anyways, review and let me know if the characters came through okay.