At the End of Things

Eva Yasha

A/N! Tremendous thanks to my reviewers! I love you guys! Pyro-angel, addicted2anime, Katastrophic88, Chou ni Natte, Hegira, Jena, Drac of the Sharp Smiles. I'm sorry for leaving out anyone who's reviewed since I started working on this, I'll try to get you in on the next chapter!

Sanzo and Goku paused uncertainly and the end of the path leading up to Hakkai's little house. It was barely dawn, and down here in the valley, it was still quite dark. Sanzo and Goku had traveled through the night and they were finally home....Goku was practically jumping up and down with impatience.

"Come on Sanzo! What are we waiting for anyway?"

Sanzo's eyebrow twitched in irritation.

"It's not even dawn, baka saru. Do you really want to wake them this early?"

Goku paused, frowning thoughtfully. Closing his eyes, he lifted his face to the cool morning breeze. "No.....They're awake." He said after a few sniffs. "I can smell coffee....and bacon....and eggs...." He opened his eyes and smiled broadly.

Sanzo smirked. His monkey really was useful sometimes.

"Lets go then."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gojyo and Hakkai were sitting in the kitchen in an uncomfortable silence. Hakkai, recovered from his illness, had just asked the question Gojyo had been dreading the most.

"Where have you been?"

The pain in his voice had been obvious, and Gojyo heard the unspoken meaning behind the simple question.

"Why did you leave me behind?"

Gojyo found himself at a loss. He wanted to tell his friend why he left, but that would lead to uncomfortable questions about where he'd been the past two years, and Gojyo just couldn't bring himself to say "Drunk in a gutter." So he just sat there silently, staring into his coffee cup.

"Gojyo?" Hakkai broke the silence heasitantly.

"I'd rather not talk about it." He muttered.

Hakkai turned away from the oven where he was frying the eggs and bacon for their breakfast with that terrible fake smile plastered on his face.

"Fine, if that's how you feel about it." He said with false cheerfulness that made Gojyo's skin crawl.

Something within him snapped.

"I went to find them." He growled. "You were so sad.....I couldn't take it any more. So I went to bring them home."

Hakkai's green eyes widened in shock.

"Gojyo....."

Gojyo squeezed his eyes shut, his grip on the coffee cup tightening until his knuckles showed white under his skin. Slamming down his cup with enough force to crack it, He stood abruptly.

"I couldn't find them. I looked and looked.....but....I couldn't find them."

"Couldn't find who?" The unexpected voice came from behind him.

Gojyo felt his eyes widen as his heart began to pound. Dimly, he registered the crash as Hakkai dropped the metal spatula he'd been holding onto the hard tile floor. Slowly, he turned, only to find.....

Purple eyes, and gold ones.

Laughing purple and gold eyes.

The monk and the monkey stood in the kitchen doorway, watching the scene with obvious amusement.

"Ne, Sanzo, look at there faces.....you'd think they'd seen a ghost."

Sanzo smirked maliciously.

"You'd almost think they weren't glad to see us...."

That was as far as he got, before they both found themselves under attack from a very irate kappa.

"You idiots! Where the hell have you been!?!"

And then he has hugging them both, holding them in his arms, and Hakkai was there beside them, and everyone was laughing, even Sanzo. And in that single blissful moment, all the pain and loneliness of the past four years vanished, never to return.