Disclaimer: I don't own Saiyuki. There's a shocker.

Pairings: Hm. Maybe I won't announce them just yet... it will probably become glaringly obvious soon, though.

Rating: Somewhere between PG and PG-13

Warnings: Shounen-ai. Since this is Saiyuki, I'll get mad if you flame me on that account. Language, but I work around it pretty well... that's all I can think of. It's been forever since I've written one of these, though, so I'm sure I've forgotten something. I apologize for any OOC-ness. Hopefully it shallbe cleared up soon.

And so... On with the fic!

Installment One

In Which Relationships are Established and Boundary Lines are Drawn

OR

Why is it So Much Easier to Develop a Plot When You're Using Preset Characters?

A/N: Before we begin: I'm fickle with story lines and writing styles. If each installment is drastically different from the last, well… eventually I'll come full circle. Also, I came up with this plot in about three minutes. I might scrap it halfway through or do something REALLY WEIRD to get it back on track. Also, I will write obscenities with the vowels omitted. Example: dmn, sht, etc.

"Absolutely not." Hakkai's eyes, normally luke-warm at the least turned steely, hard, and cold.

"What was that?"

"I said absolutely fckng not!" Gojyo said, raising his voice just a tad.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, Gojyo. You know we're only living here at his discretion anyway-"

"Like I care! I'm not letting him through the fckng door!"

"Gojyo," Hakkai said quietly, trying hard to reign in his temper, the letter he held in his left hand getting crumpled in his grip, "My cousin Sanzo is coming to live here. And that is final."

Needless to say it was a very disgruntled Gojyo who was finally persuaded to drive to the airport, grumbling under his breath the entire way, even with numerous shushings from Hakkai. He finally pulled the beat-up jeep up to the gate and glared around discontentedly.

"So, where is the bstrd?" he wondered out loud. "He has the presumption to make us come pick him up he might as well be on time." Hakkai raised an eyebrow.

"Gojyo, you realize it's his house, right?"

"Yeah, well… yeah," Gojyo muttered rebelliously, having thought of no witty comeback.

"Oh, there he is," Hakkai muttered, glancing out the window. Unthinkingly, Gojyo followed his gaze.

Purple eyes. That was the first thing anyone noticed, their depth and their expression as much as the color. The next thing was the face. It bore a stoic expression right now, but one could imagine it slipping easily into a smirk and a sneer, but not much else. Everything else came later. Blonde hair, slender frame, typical girl magnet. There appeared to be several people in the airport eyeing him already.

Gojyo turned away and snorted, apparently in distaste. Hakkai smiled, and murmured quietly,

"Jealous, Gojyo?" earning him a dirty look. Hakkai's grin grew wider. He passed his hand seemingly unthinkingly over Gojyo's shoulder as he hopped out to meat his cousin.

"You're looking well, Sanzo."

"You too." Sanzo noticed Gojyo glaring at him through the passenger-side window.

"Who the hll is he?" he asked.

"Room mate," Hakkai murmured, opening the trunk so Sanzo could dump his luggage in the back. Sanzo simply nodded and swung himself easily into the back seat as Hakkai slid into the front one.

"Do make yourself comfortable," Gojyo muttered sarcastically when he saw Sanzo stretching out languidly, taking up almost the entire back seat. Sanzo didn't even twitch, which, of course, just made Gojyo even more irritated. Meanwhile, Hakkai's foot crashed onto Gojyo's, forcing him to bite back a yelp.

"What the hll was that for?"

"What was what for?" Hakkai said, his entire manner dripping innocence. From the back, Gojyo heard a snort of laughter. Gnashing his teeth and muttering angrily to himself Gojyo expertly guided the jeep through the forest of cars, trucks, and SUV's.

"So, you never did tell me what brings you to this neck of the woods, Sanzo," Hakkai called behind him a few moments later, still trying hard to avoid a major confrontation. At least for another few hours.

"Business," was the monosyllabic response. Hakkai laughed.

"It's hard to imagine you working," he grinned, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Tell me about it," Gojyo whispered. Hakkai's foot mysteriously crashed into Gojyo's again. He let out a strange muffled squeak, but this time had the sense not to call Hakkai on it.

"I found something that appealed to me," Sanzo said, rolling his eyes in Gojyo's general direction, causing him to seethe quietly.

"It's hard to imagine you wanting to do anything besides waving a gun around and swearing," Hakkai said with a laugh. Through the rear-view mirror Gojyo saw Sanzo's mouth twitch. It took him a moment to realize that it was a quickly-suppressed smile.

"That's basically it," Sanzo replied, and when his smile finally came back all the humor had carefully been reorganized out of existence. "I'm with the Rosemont Squad now."

Gojyo nearly choked on the cigarette he had just lighted. "No fckng way!" he choked out between coughs. "You're with Rosemont?"

"I've never heard of it," Hakkai commented. "Gojyo, what is it?" Gojyo laughed.

"That depends what day of the week it is," he said, shaking his head to himself. "First they were a sort of detective group, but they kept on killing the perps before they could get them to court, then they became a kind of SWAT team, but they would 'accidentally' blow up the innocents as well. Then they became drug dealers, but some of their own boys got into the stuff, and then they became smugglers, but the government kept shutting them down. Now the government just gives them the dead-end work that no one else wants and pays them a pretty penny to keep them outta their hair. So, what did they send you here on? Recruitment?" Gojyo asked, showing some non-hostile interest in their house-guest for the first time.

Sanzo lit a cigarette unconcernedly and threw the match out the window. "How the hll should I know?" he growled after taking a long drag. Hakkai looked questioningly at Gojyo for an explanation of the odd answer. Gojyo lowered his voice just a bit before answering,

"I hear the head of the Squad is a bit of a nut-job. He's obsessed with secrecy and completely paranoid. I heard that lots of times the corps don't even know what they were supposed to be doing until after it's over."

"So you're saying they're basically national governmentally funded terrorists," Hakkai said. Sanzo snorted from the back seat.

"Yeah, that just about sums it up," Gojyo grinned as he pulled into the townhouse garage. The townhouse was a large, airy, wooden building with three levels. Every family lived on a different level. On the first floor were the Collins's; Martha, Jody, Stephan, and Casper. They were the traditional 'perfect' household, seeming to live off patriotism. Martha, the mother, was always perfectly done up and if she didn't have a piece of laundry or a sewing needle in her hand she would have an oven mitt. Stephan was the manager of a business, and, being the lowest paid and most dispensable, was far prouder of his position then he should be. Casper was a senior in high-school and played football, Jody was first-chair clarinet of the junior high band. The whole family tended to leave normal people with a bad taste in their mouth. On the third floor lived a young bachelor who tended to go through dates like water. He and Gojyo had gotten along rather well before a small dispute over a card game had elevated their status from 'common acquaintances' to 'enemies for life'.

"So what do you do now?" Sanzo asked Hakkai, surprising Gojyo by making an effort to keep the conversation going. "Baby-sit?" Hakkai laughed.

"Pretty close. I teach over at the school for under-privileged children."

"Aw, Hakkai, that's not fair," Gojyo teased, "You know that there are some rich delinquents too. It's a reform school," he explained to Sanzo, pleased to know something that the other didn't. Hakkai unlocked the second-floor door and pushed it wide.

"Sorry about the mess," Hakkai apologized as he stepped into the front room. Gojyo could practically hear Sanzo's eyes grow wide.

The mess Hakkai seemed to be referring to was the two specks of dust on the spotless coffee table, which were promptly wiped away. The room, and Sanzo expected the entire house, was spotless.

"I thought that you were bad when you lived with Kanaan," was all that Sanzo said upon entering the room. Hakkai laughed.

"No, this is the only room like this. Gojyo makes sure that I don't over-clean any of the other rooms." Sanzo deposited his luggage in the guest-room, then came back to enquire,

"So were you ever actually diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive?"

"I never found time to make an appointment with the psychiatrist," Hakkai said tranquilly. Sanzo shook his head in disbelief and returned to his room to unpack.

Run. Hide. Sleep. Run. Hide. Sleep. Run… the mantra repeated over and over again in Son Goku's mind. Occasionally it occurred to him that he hadn't eaten anything in several years, hadn't had a sip of water in several months. Occasionally it occurred to him that he should've been dead. However, in the years since the incident he had managed to push the guilt, along with almost everything else, to the back of his mind. It was rare now that he thought about anything except the mantra that repeated over and over in his brain. When he did think on something else, it was generally the incident, but even that memory was growing fuzzy and dark with time. He at first had thought that he would never be able to forget it, but now he almost couldn't remember what he thought he wouldn't have been able to forget. His mother, his father, a stranger, everything ran together in his mind. The only thing he could remember clearly anymore was a dark cage built into the face of the mountain, and sometimes that felt the most imaginary of all.

Yup! That's all!

So, yeah... thanks for reading. . Reviews are nummy. Flame if you must.