Their Eyes Were Watching God
By: Neko-chan
A/N: Beeeecky~ I don't care what you say otherwise, but this IS blamed on you. P …but I hope you enjoy it, anyway. (In case I don't talk to you tonight: Oh, and Gackt vids 'n' songs will be mailed out tomorrow for you! I hope you like them~) XD
WARNING: Shounen-ai; Homura/Sanzo (Heee~ the warning is also for the cursing/swearing. Give you one guess who's the one with the dirty mouth. -_-;;)
DISCLAIMER: …I wonder how much it'd cost to buy off Saiyuki…? XD (Um, and yes~ Story title isn't mine, either. ^^;;)
* * *
"I don't believe in god."
Homura smiled slightly and leaned forward in his high-backed chair. He rested his chin in the palm of his hand, the chains that were attached to the manacles at his wrists clanking softly with each small movement that he made. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "Oh, is that so?"
Sanzo glared up at the figure on the dais, dark thoughts running through his mind as Homura's smile deepened, mocking the captured monk. His face felt tender where he had been hit earlier that day. (Or was it yesterday? The day before? He just couldn't tell anyone—the passage of time seemed to have shifted slightly; he couldn't even tell when it was night or when it was day.) Without looking in a mirror, the monk knew that bruises were slowly forming, discoloring his skin an ugly greenish black.
With that mocking smirk still playing about his lips, Homura continued: "If you do not believe in god, Sanzo, then why do you follow one?"
"I don't," was the snarled reply. His glare darkened and he clenched his fists in anger. Homura watched Sanzo's reactions, his face blank and expressionless. Still glaring up at the war god, Sanzo continued: "I don't follow god. I don't believe in god. I follow myself; I believe in myself because there is no one worthy believing in. I trust only myself because people are known to betray others. And I have faith only in myself because I know what I am capable of—and I will never back away from a challenge."
The war god laughed quietly to himself and stood, making his way slowly down the steps until he was standing in front of the kneeling monk. Eyes hooded, he squatted down so that he and Sanzo were eye to eye. "You believe in yourself because there is no one else worth believing in?" he asked, the smile returning to his lips.
"Gods are known to be fickle," Sanzo retorted, baring his teeth threateningly. "When things aren't going your way, you often back out. You betray your word and you lie to your followers. Why should I follow someone who's nothing more than a hypocrite? I know who I am. Do you know who you are?"
Humming softly to himself, Homura leaned forward, his chains jangling discordantly. He leaned so closely to Sanzo that their lips nearly brushed while he spoke to the chained monk. His eyes glittered wickedly as he spoke, voice laced with dark amusement. "Sanzo… Do you know what golden eyes mean?"
An image of Goku flashed in Sanzo's mind and his expression blanked, closing off abruptly. "No," he lied. "And I don't particularly care, either. Why should the color of a person's eyes matter to me?"
The god smiled at Sanzo's reaction, leaning all the more closer to the blonde monk. "I think that you'd be interested in knowing what golden eyes mean, monk. They're the mark of a hypocrite, someone who has betrayed heaven and gathered together followers of his own. They're the mark of a blasphemer; a blasphemer who doesn't care that they've betrayed all heavenly expectations of themselves. Golden eyes are a sign of someone who has stopped caring about things around them: People, places, things. Golden eyes are a sign of apathy."
Sanzo sneered at that. "If you actually think that I would ever buy that bullshit, then you're dumber than the stupid monkey, war god. Golden eyes may be the mark of someone who's betrayed heaven, who's become a blasphemer, but golden eyes will never be a sign of apathy."
Homura's eyebrow raised and his hand darted forward, grabbing the chains that bound Sanzo's hands together. He jerked on the metal and the monk fell forward, landing on the palm of his hands hard enough to scrape them. Sanzo hissed in surprise and pain and his head shot up, mouth opening to curse at Homura. However, Homura never gave Sanzo the chance because, right when the first curse was about to leave his lips, the war god's knee came forward and slammed into the blonde's stomach.
"Tell me, monk, did you learn that particular conception from being around the monkey? And, if so, then how do you know that it is right? What would you say and do if you ever found out that you've been lied to all this time—that you've been used?"
*
The prison was stark—a bare, lonely cell. Its inhabitant stared up at him with dull, lifeless eyes. He returned the stare, gaze for gaze, and waited quietly until life finally came to the prisoner's expression. After having his dreams haunted for such a very long time, he was finally able to meet the person that continued to call out to him, night after night.
"You can shut up now. I'm here."
"…who are you?"
"My name is Genjo Sanzo. I came here to take you with me. I've been hearing you all of this time—you kept on calling out to me. I finally decided to come and get you because I figured that I'd never get any peace and quiet otherwise."
"You… you came here to come and rescue me?"
"…yeah. I did. Now let's go—we're wasting time."
…
"Okay."
*
"If you honestly think that I'm going to believe you, you stupid war god, then you have another thing coming," Sanzo bit out. He was huddled on the ground, his body curled up around his stomach. He knew that he was showing a weaker aspect of himself to Homura, but he couldn't stop his body's reaction to the strike to his gut.
Homura once again returned to his position, weight lightly balanced on the balls of his feet while he crouched down in front of Sanzo. His gaze narrowed slightly, and he waited for Sanzo to continue on.
"I've known Goku for a long while now—I've heard him calling out to me even before I ever met him. I've saved the stupid monkey more times that I could ever possibly count. And he's helped me more times than he could ever possibly count. True, that's not a very hard thing to accomplish and a five year old has a better grasp at numbers than he does, but… It's Goku. And you're nothing more than a hypocritical liar, Homura. I'll never believe anything that you say."
Both of Homura's eyebrows shot up and he rocked forward on the balls of his feet. His chains clattered noisily and knocked into Sanzo's pair, tangling the two together. "And why is it that you'll never believe anything that I tell you, monk?" Homura asked, eyes still hooded.
Groaning to himself, Sanzo pushed himself up into a semi-sitting position, leaning heavily on his right arm, while his left clutched his stomach protectively. "Why should I believe anything that you tell me?" he finally asked when he was eye to eye with Homura. "You're a self-admitted hypocrite—a blasphemer and a liar. You broke the promises that you made to the heavens and now you intend to destroy everything you had sworn to protect. Believe you? Never. You're not worth believing."
"Am I?" Homura mused aloud, expression thoughtful as he gazed at Sanzo in contemplation. Purple eyes returned his gaze impassively. "I'm a blasphemer and a liar. A traitor, you say. And yet… am I really all that much different from you, Sanzo? You threaten, you lie, you betray, you blasphemy. You call yourself a monk and yet you don't believe in any god. Tell me, Genjo Sanzo, tell me how very much different you are from me."
Sanzo couldn't answer that.
Homura smiled, a strangely gentle smile that softened his eyes and made him seem almost… human. "Poor, foolish mortal," he murmured as his index and middle fingers traced Sanzo's lower lip. The chains, still interlinked, jangled softly, a soft reminder of both of their imprisonments. "You've forgotten so much in this turn of the cycle—you've seemed to have forgotten everything from when you were something like me. Don't you remember anything of your time in heaven, Sanzo?"
The monk shivered and leaned away from Homura's touch; the war god watched all of his movements with anticipatory eyes. "I was never like you," Sanzo retorted, still trying—unsuccessfully—to try and get away from Homura's reach.
Still smiling that strange, sweet smile, Homura reached forward and jerked Sanzo's hands out from underneath him for the second time. Knocked off balance, Sanzo fell to the cold stone floor, his curse bit off midway by a muffled 'oof!' as his stomach slammed into the ground.
The god with the dual-colored eyes reached down and grasped the monk's chin, pulled Sanzo's head upward. The blonde man's gaze narrowed in fury at his helplessness, and Homura continued to smile that bittersweet, kind smile. "You were once like me," he commented idly. "You were once a god: A hypocrite, a blasphemer. You were bored with your time in heaven, so you broke all of your sworn promises and… well, it doesn't really matter, anyway, since you can't remember what you did. And yet… haven't you ever wondered why it was that you were kicked out of heaven, Sanzo? Why you were born a mortal man?"
Sanzo sneered derisively in response, fury rising even more quickly within him.
The war god laughed at this and leaned forward, quickly flicking his tongue over the monk's lips. Sanzo started in surprise, but couldn't move very far because of Homura's grasp upon his chin. Still grinning in dark amusement, he continued on: "You were everything that you despise in this life, monk. You don't believe in god because you were once one. You have faith in no one but yourself because, in your previous life, you betrayed everyone's faith in you. You rely on no one but yourself because… well, people relied on you and you disappointed them. You were once everything that you hate the most, Sanzo. Don't you think that that's rather ironic?"
"I don't believe anything that you say," Sanzo shot back, twisting his head to one side so that he would finally be free of Homura's grasp. The war god briefly tightened his hold on Sanzo's chin, then released his hold with a small smile.
"Believe what you want, Sanzo—you'll just be fulfilling the accusations that you flung at me earlier. Tell me, how does it feel knowing that you'll always be doomed to reenact the mistakes and the prophecies of the past?" Homura chuckled and then leaned forward once again, crouching predatorily over the fallen monk. "I wonder if, given enough time, your eyes will turn as golden as the monkey's?"
"Bastard…." the blonde man snarled in reply.
Homura paused, musing upon this. "Yes, I suppose I am." The smirk that had been playing about his lips when Sanzo had first been brought into his audience chamber once again returned. He grabbed the chains that linked Sanzo's hands together and snapped them above the blonde's head, flipping the monk onto his back as he did so. Sanzo's leg shot out in a kick that was aimed for Homura's knee, but the war god avoided the attack easily.
"I think…" the god continued, still musing aloud. "I think that I will enjoy watching you turn into the one thing that you despise above all else. It will be amusing watching you turn into the very person that you were in your last life. I've always wondered what you would look like with golden eyes, Sanzo."
Homura flung a leg over Sanzo's body and sat astride of the monk's hips, resting his weight comfortably. Sanzo glared up at the war god, but didn't say anything in reply. There was nothing he had to prove to Homura—there was no point in arguing, especially about so moot a point.
Besides… time would be the one thing that would show who was truly correct: Sanzo… or Homura. And both had all the time in the world.
…
"You fucking asshole."
After all, Sanzo often prided himself on having the last word in anything.
~Owari~
::End::
A/N: Just… the whole entire idea for this story came about while I was watching the eighth DVD. I don't know if I'm the only one who sees the correlation between Homura and Sanzo, but… there were just too many similarities (to me, anyway…) for me to not write this. Some of the descriptions that Homura uses to apply to himself could, in a way, also be applied to Sanzo. *shrugs* I'm probably the only one who thinks this, so… Meh, whatever~ My 'Kaasan calls me a freak, anyhow. XD
…many apologies if the characters are also OOC. x_x;;