For eraserhead and Moody1656, who requested "Mugan coming to terms with having feelings for Fuu (and meeting up with her) a couple of years after episode 26" and "something about Shino and Jin after her sentence ends," respectively. This two-shot will blend these two components of your multifaceted requests.

In addition, since I'm already addressing you both directly: I plan to use two other components of your requests jointly as well - there will be a (separate) one-shot dealing with Mugen's piratical adventures after he left Ryuukyuu. And I've had a concept for Fuu that didn't involve teahouses for some time, so I'll get around to that one separately as well. :)

Obsessive Compulsive, Pt. I

Mugen reclines on the Nagasaki docks, glaring at Ikitsuki Island out on the horizon. It's been three-ish years, not that he's counted or anything, and somehow he's managed to wander back here to reopen old wounds. So to speak.

Scratching his stubble lazily, he gazes out over the pristine water. That damn island stares back at him, its foliage glowing supernaturally green in the sunlight. With a sneer, Mugen hocks a little spit in Ikitsuki's general direction and hauls himself to his feet. But he stills, swaying, on his feet with nowhere to go. Frowning into the sun, he scuffs his geta on the dock. He combs his fingers through his hair and sighs, deflating. "Damn it all."

He has to go back to Kamakura. If he doesn't, shit will go down, and it will not be pretty for him.

Three years. That was the timeline. After three years, that broad Jin was so twisted up about would be a free woman. And he hasto hand it to the fish-faced bastard - dude knows how to plan ahead. Three years is plenty of time for a guy like four-eyes to flush out and eliminate old "friends." Then, when all is said and done, Jin can just waltz up to the enkiri-dera and whisk his woman off to some temporary little shack on the edges of Kamakura until he figures out a better place to settle down.

And it's just over a month past the three year mark.

Not that he's counted.

At any rate, that means Mr. Tall, Four-Eyed and Honorable must have returned to Kamakura to make good on his promise. That means Fuu must be traveling there to meet him, and that means they'll both be expecting Mugen to join them. And that's where the trouble starts.

Mugen expels another sigh and narrows his eyes at his reflection in the water. He toes a pebble off the dock and plunks it directly in the center of his face. He watches his features stretch and distort with the ripples.

After all, the three of them had only parted on the understanding that fate would someday bring them together once again. And now, fate is in their hands: they have a timeframe, a destination, and no place else they need to be. It would be weird if Mugen didn't show up. In fact, it'd probably be cause for alarm.

Mugen snorts at that, imagining the scene. The two worrywarts would sit patiently in their hypothetical Kamakura-outskirts shack for a month, maximum. After that, they'd start to get impatient, maybe a little concerned. Fuu would blah-blah-blah an endless string of nervous, angry chatter ("He probably ran off with an entire brothel or something, that jerk!"), and Jin would "hnn" in a "yes, that's quite possible" sort of way and excuse himself to go slice up some logs outside to calm his nerves. The broad – Mugen promptly nicknames her Mrs. Silence - would just look on at all this, quietly perturbed.

Then, at the two month mark, if Mugen still hadn't shown up, they'd probably become genuinely worried and righteously angry all at once, and then they'd do something stupid like look for him. Leave it to Fuu to start an epic journey to punch him in the face this time.

Mugen's amusement fades. He scuffs his geta again, his hands in his pockets.

There's only two weeks and five days until the two month mark.

Mugen's face in the water is sad, pensive. Scowling, he plunks another rock into his reflection and spits in the water for good measure. "Bitch," he mutters to nobody.

It's not his fault. He didn't plan to skip out, damn it. It's not like he wants to ditch them – he's over that. That's not what it is. He's just not ready. He's not prepared for all the feelings he'll have to deal with.

With a growl, he thunks his ass down at the end of the dock and kicks the water up in a vicious splash.

Damn it, he's not supposed to have feelings.

The truth is, they've been slowly killing him, these past three-ish years. It pisses him off, but he's sort of forgotten how to fend for himself. Sure, he remembers how to make money (and steal it, too). He remembers how to sail and how to read the weather and how to do all the other myriad skills he's picked up in his twenty-one years of life. He remembers how to kick ass and take names. But he's sort of forgotten how to be alone, and the compulsion to seek them out fucking kills him.

Mugen kicks the water again, less viciously. In every fucking town, he feels it. He has to look for Fuu in every teahouse waitress, Jin in every half-wit carrying a sword. He can't not do it. It pisses him off, but he can deal with being pissed off. It embarrasses him a little, but he can mostly deal with being embarrassed. It's the fear that gets him. Those fucking nightmares – maybe he could've dealt with all this if it weren't for the nightmares.

Groaning, he flops back on the dock and squints at the sky. God, the nightmares. He would never worry about Jin; the man's immortal as far as Mugen's concerned. So the nightmares fixate on Fuu instead.

It's all the goddamn island's fault. If it weren't for Ikitsuki, there would be no nightmares, because even though Fuu managed to get serially kidnapped on the entire journey, he'd always managed to get there in time. He'd always managed to keep her from getting hurt. Always.

Except for that one last time.

No, Mr. Silence can handle himself; it's Fuu he has to worry about. And he has worried – after all those fucking rescues, he has a right to worry. He can't imagine how she's managed to stay safe; rather, he tends to imagine that she hasn't, and that's when the compulsion starts to ruin him. In every town, he has to look for her. Brothels, graveyards, dark alleys – he can't stop himself. In his dreams, he sees her dead-eyed and bleeding in a field of sunflowers, and he wakes up paranoid that this time, this time...

Scowling, Mugen drapes his arm over his eyes and ignores the fear that washes through him, because he's being stupid. He knows this. He knows that if he just goes back to Kamakura, all this ought to stop. He could see Jin and Fuu for himself. He wouldn't have to look for her – hey, there she fucking is. Hallelujah.

But that's where the real problem starts, because he's used to the compulsion. It's been in him in some form or another since that stupid journey, since day fucking one. And after three years without her around, it's only grown more powerful – the need to see that flash in her eyes, that laughter in her smile. Protecting her is all he's ever lived for – he realized this when he was dying on that goddamned beach, when her voice called him back from the dead. She's so full of life to him, and he has to keep that light from going out; always had to. If he goes back to Kamakura, the compulsion won't fade – it'll triple. He won't have to look, to search, to find – he'll need to protect; he'll need to keep. He'll smother her outright.

What the hell is a man like him supposed to do with that sentiment?

Heaving himself into a sitting position, Mugen kicks the water one last time before wearily getting on his feet. Ikitsuki Island stares at him from across the bay.

He has to go back. They'll just come after him if he doesn't.

He flips the bird at the stupid island and marches back into town to get directions.

TBC

And so ends Part I of this two-shot! I know I specifically asked for one-shot requests, but since I was blending two separate requests, I decided to go ahead and make this a two-shot. It only seemed fair (and it was getting long).

Thank you all so much for your wonderful requests! I will get to all of them at some point or another. I'm not going to promise a particular order because I've got like four going right now, and it's simply a matter of which one I manage to finish first. I can promise that Obsessive Compulsive, Pt. II will get published before anything else, though.

On a side note, the title Roads and the summary quote do come from The Phantom Tollbooth. In the context of a collection of disconnected requests, I felt that the title and quote implied a myriad of equally possible universes/equally "true" stories (see the Fiction Identity Postulate for elaboration on this concept).

Let me know what you think and, as always, thanks for reading.

P.S. I'm glad you enjoyed the one-shot, Mattie!