AND TIME AGAIN
Chapter 7 : Arrivals

"It's almost a pity..."

That soft murmur wasn't, probably, intended for her ears, but Kanzeon Bosatsu responded anyway. "What's a pity?"

There was the tread of quiet footsteps across a marbled floor, and an even quieter sigh. "It defies logic, certainly. But I almost miss them."

Out of the corner of her vision, Kanzeon glimpsed a flash of white silk, and above that, with just the hint of scales on one cheek, even whiter skin. Pupiless eyes, two gleaming rubies in a face that other lacked all color, turned to regard her with their patient gaze.

"Why?"

A gentle breeze whispered across the surface of the lotus pond and leapt up to tangle white tresses. "I do not know, myself."

They gazed into the rippling surface. If one concentrated hard enough, it seemed that there were images in that pool -- a blond-haired 20 year old chasing after a younger boy with a mysterious white paper fan... another two yearmates, one brown haired and one who's hair was a curious shade of bright red, engaged in a game of poker...

"Actually, I hoped that you would be able to explain it to me, Bosatsu-sama."

"Goujun... Hakuryuu... there is more to life than merely logic. I thought you learnt that."

"Certainly, I became more familiar with the concept of.. emotion. However.. I confess that I do not understand it."

Kanzeon turned to regard him then. Those patient, imperturbable ruby eyes were shadowed as they stared off into the images in the pond. "No one really understands emotion," she told him.

"Perhaps... I wish to join them again," Hakuryuu said hesistantly.

"You have played your part," Kanzeon replied gently. "There is no reason for you to travel with them again."

"They will need help," came the reply, low and steady. "There is much yet for them to do."

"They won't need a jeep, that's for sure."

That slow, steady gaze turned back to her, with a flicker of what might have been anger. "There are other ways of being of assistance."

"If you descend to the world, you will not be able to return until all is complete," Kanzeon warned. "And you will not remember all that has passed up here."

"I am a dragon. We do not forget."

"Consider it well. If that is what you truly desire, I cannot stop you. But you were never one to act rashly. Don't start now."

Hakuryuu inclined his head. "I will think on it, Bosatsu-sama."

***

"Call," Gojyo said, laying down his hand. And swore as he saw the slight upraised eyebrow and the crinkle of a smile at the corners of his partner's eyes. "Damn."

"It's only peanuts," Hakkai replied, as he claimed another pile.

"Yeah, but it's the spirit of the thing," Gojyo muttered, cracking open a shell and crunching the contents. "Give me a moment. Going to get another beer."

They were in Gojyo's hostel room, Hakkai seated on the bed and Gojyo on the one chair that he owned. Well, until Gojyo stood and sauntered over to the small fridge in one corner of the room.

"You don't spend much time in here, do you?" Hakkai commented.

"Huh? What? No, I don't," Gojyo said, his voice partially muffled by the fridge door. "Where is the damn thing..."

Hakkai nodded. The room looked, for all its mess, pretty much unlived in. It was the kind of room that suggested that its owner came back to it only to crash and maybe dump books and files after lessons.

Not that Gojyo had many books and files, at any rate. Studying to him was something he did in his spare time - of which he didn't have very much, between the all important occupation of taking out his latest girl and his usual circuits around the pubs. Funnily enough, he managed to earn his credits any way, even if he didn't pass flying colors.

I, on the other hand, study too hard.

"Hey, wakey wakey," Gojyo called him. Hakkai blinked and dropped off whichever cloud his mind had been inhabiting. "Yes?"

"I said, do you want a drink?"

"Water, please."

"Water? When there's perfectly good beer?"

"Beer is 90% water," Hakkai said calmly.

"And tastes 90% better."

Hakkai smiled. "I'm afraid that I was never very fond of beer. Too bitter."

"Oh well, have it your way." Gojyo dumped a glass of water and a beer can on the table and dropped into his chair. "Another hand?"

"Certainly."

It's a good feeling, Gojyo grinned mentally. Getting this guy out of the library for a change. I mean, I thought that blondie didn't have a life, but this dude is worse.. well, almost.

Hakkai glanced around for a clock, failed to find one, and checked his watch instead. "Weren't you supposed to join Lucy for dinner?"

"Not any more," Gojyo scowled momentarily as he shuffled cards. "Not after she went totally postal when she saw me talking to someone else."

Privately, Hakkai thought that Gojyo had been doing more than just talking to said someone, but he kept the thought to himself. "I'm afraid that this will have to be the last round... I have to be somewhere at 7."

"What, studying again? Appointment with fellow geek in the library?"

"No, not at all. I'm going to the airport. My sister's flying down to visit for the long weekend."

"Hm," Gojyo replied, dealing the cards. "Raise you five."

Hakkai obligingly added more peanuts to the pile and drew another card.

"Say, mind if I come along? Kinda bored, you know. And it's been a while since I went to the airport."

Hakkai glanced up in surprise. "I..."

"Okay, okay, I promise not to hit on your sister, k? Sheesh, man, don't you trust me?"

"It's not that. It's just sudden, that's all."

Gojyo drew another card. "Rule of the house : I never spend Friday evenings at home. And there's a nice place where we can get dinner and a few good drinks just beside the airport... Call. Two pairs."

"That would be fun, yes," Hakkai replied with a smile. "Full house."

"Argh, that's the seventh hand you've won in a row!"

***

"So... you close to your sis?" Gojyo asked, glancing at the screen which read : Flight 107 : Arrived.

"Oh yes, very. Our parents passed away when we were young."

"And you brought her up?"

"Well, not really. We're twins."

"Ah, that's a surprise. I always thought you were older."

The baggage chain was starting to move, and Hakkai squinted through the glass. "We never did find out who was older..."

"So what's she doing now?"

"Working." There was a sudden tension in Hakkai's tone that suggested that he didn't want to talk about it.

Ah, yes. One sibling goes to college on a scholarship, the other .. doesn't quite make it.. at least they're still on speaking terms. I lost contact with my brother after... well, let's not think about that, shall we?

Gojyo glanced around. Damn, but it was crowded. There were a huge number of flights arriving tonight.. which meant lots of people waiting around and lots of people just hanging around for the heck of it.

Hey, guys, get a life. On the airport on a Friday night? Don't you have any better place to hang out? Ah, wait, I'm hanging out at the airport on a Friday night. Dum-di-dum. Any one have a life for sale?

The crowds shifted, and abruptly, Hakkai broke out in a real grin and began waving.

Whoa, that's another first. Hakkai grinning and waving... wish I'd brought a camera.

"This way," Hakkai told him, making a beeline for the glass doors.

"You haven't told me : Is she pretty?"

"Gojyo!"

"Okay, alright. No need to club me over the head."

"I mean, of course she's pretty. She's my sister, after all."

"There's something really, really wrong with you tonight, Hakkai."

She was pretty, well, sort of. Certainly not the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, certainly not someone who'd make heads turn and have a thousand supertankers launched after her... But looked like the type who was really sweet and really caring and probably owned a bunny at some point in her life...

And, awwww, it was so heart warming to see Hakkai hugging her like that...

"This is Gojyo, the classmate I've been telling you about," Hakkai told her, with a quick wink.

Instantly, Gojyo started worrying just what Hakkai had been saying about him. Hakkai, buddy, you and I are going to have a loooong talk about this..

"And Gojyo, this is my sister, Kanan."

Bam.

That was the only way to describe it. Bam bam BAM and a huge knock on the head by a Spiritual Hammer cast by a Level 15 Cleric...

He didn't know how he managed to choke out a greeting and a smile around the darkness that suddenly fall over all of them. It was a massive, stifling, sinking sense of foreboding, as if the whole world was just seconds away from going to Hell in a hand basket. Express delivery with priority labels plastered all over it...

Kanan.

There was something about that name that conjured up a nameless sense of horror which he absolutely couldn't place. A sudden surge of fear, not just for the girl's sake, but, more importantly, for the sake of the brother who loved so much...

"Gojyo? Are you okay?"

The shadows cleared, giving way to real light and real conversation and real people.

"I..."

Dude, what's wrong with you... you've only just met the girl. Come on, pull yourself together..

"I'm fine," he smiled.

"You're pale.." Hakkai said accusingly.

"Ah, gastric. I didn't have lunch today," he said, with an apologetic grin. It was true, his stomach was starting to cramp and gurgle in a way that told him, all too clearly : Peanuts and beer do not make a good meal.

"I have an antacid," Kanan said hurriedly, rummaging in her bag. "Do you have water? Hakkai?"

"I'll get some from the dispenser. Gojyo, sit down." Hakkai touched him briefly on the arm and disappeared into the crowd.

"I'm so sorry..." Kanan said apologetically.

"It's not even remotely your fault, so don't you dare to feel guilty about it," Gojyo told her. "And I've always had this problem, since I was a kid. Then I thought I outgrew it, but I guess beer on an empty stomach's a bad combination."

"A very bad combination," Kanan agreed with a slight smile that was so similar to Hakkai's. In fact, she did look quite a bit like his classmate.. the same, dark brown hair, grown past the shoulders and tied neatly into a braid, the same, startlingly green eyes.. but her face was a little warmer, a little happier, a little less serious than her brother.

"Water," Hakkai announced, shoving a paper cup in his left hand and a little charcoal tablet into the other.

"Thanks. I really should carry my own.." he crunched the tablet with two quick chews and swallowed the bitter mixture as quickly as possible. "Much better. Now... shall we have dinner?"

And that stupid panic session can go and stuff it. Like, really stuff it...

***

His hair flapped against the back of his neck, still too short to tie up. Absently, Gojyo flicked a stray wisp behind his ear, only to have the wind tug it loose again. "Will you be staying with Hakkai?" he asked of Kanan.

"No, he doesn't have enough room," she replied with a twinkle in her eye. "I'll be staying at a small hotel in town."

"You know, Hakkai, if you just cleared up all those books..."

"Well, that's what Kanan's here for. I can't do it myself," Hakkai replied. "Plan for the first day - clear up all the paper. Plan for the 2nd day, clear up all the books..."

They were standing by the road, watching the cars zip past and waiting for a cab. The street lights glowed steadily, chasing away the darkness.

"You know, it suddenly strikes me what a bad idea this is, trying to catch a cab on a Friday night," Gojyo said, slapping his forehead with a groan. "We're all idiots."

"Well, it would be a little hard to catch a bus with all the luggage," Hakkai said, gesturing.

"Eureka. Let's call Mister I-own-a-car Genjo Sanzo and ask him for a lift," Gojyo said. "He lives around here, after all."

"Would you like to call him, Gojyo?"

"You're on better terms with him than I am."

"Perhaps he's not home on a Friday evening?"

"Him? The only person besides you who doesn't have a social life?"

"I really don't think we should be troubling him..."

"He owes us a favor."

"He does?"

"Well, er... not really... hey, is that a cab? Hey, stop! STOOOOOOOPPPPPPP!!! OYYYYY!!! ARGHHH!!!"

A little dint of effort and a little while later, they were all safely in a cab and heading back. "We'll drop Kanan off first, then you, then me," Hakkai told Gojyo.

Gojyo, seated in the passenger seat, twisted around. "You need to pass me those notes. I'll drop by your place then walk back to the hostel."

"Oh, right, I'd forgotten."

"I think the sky just fell..."

"Did it?"

"The great and mighty Hakkai, He-Who-Has-The-Photographic-Memory, just forgot something!"

"I should leave you by the roadside," Hakkai said evenly.

"Aww... who's acting like Sanzo now?"

"Speaking of Sanzo, are you joining us for dinner tomorrow night?" Hakkai queried.

"What dinner? You and him getting all cosy together?"

"No, no. Goku arranged dinner. He wanted to meet Kanan."

"Oh. Sure. What time is it?"

"Seven. Drop by my place at about six-thirty.. Sanzo will be fetching us from there."

"Ah. Right. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Well, Goku was supposed to spread the word..."

"Goku was supposed to spread the word."

"Er... okay, I see the problem..."

Gojyo leaned back and glanced out of the window. "I hope Sanzo doesn't traumatize Kanan."

"I'm sure he won't," Kanan replied with perfect seriousness. Awww... such a sweet girl..

"I wouldn't count on it. Look, if he pisses you off, you have every right to slap him, got that?"

"Oh dear, will that really be necessary?"

"It might. In fact, it probably will be. I'm looking forward to it myself..."

***

The sky was clouding over in a way that threatened rain by the time they dropped Kanan off at the hotel. Not that, it being night time and all, this weather phenomena was terribly obvious or anything.

Which is why both Hakkai and Gojyo were taken by surprise when rain came slating down as they reached Hakkai's apartment.

"Bah. This sucks," Gojyo muttered, as massive drops splashed off his shoulders. No light drizzle, this. "Hurry..."

Hakkai fumbled for his keys and hurried up the stairs. And stopped abruptly.

"Yo, what is it?" Gojyo called from behind.

"Take a look." Hakkai knelt to examine something on the step. Rather annoyed at the delay, Gojyo followed.

"Oh.. my..."

They exchanged a look.

"Dragons aren't real," they said simultaneously.

But if the bedraggled little bundle on the top step was any judge, it seemed that they'd just been proved oh, so wrong.

A pair of sad ruby eyes regarded them, as the creature flapped what was obviously a wing. It looked like a white lizard, except that no lizard had little horns and wings... and what looked like a thin mane of white hair running down the back of its neck.

"Kyuu..."

***
TBC
***