I guess, this is where things get confusing. The first part isn't that good, in my opinion. I can't, for the life of me, write a decent dialogue. Sorry if the scene changes are a bit confusing. They're basically just changing from Kenren's life to Gojyo's life. And just to be clear, "You" is Hakkai. Sorry, I am absolutely awful at transitions.

- Paris

Disclaimer: Saiyuki is not mine. The story is fictional and all similarities to people and events in real life are coincidences.

Those Beautiful Green Eyes

Chapter Two

"I'm sorry, sir, but the marshal isn't here," a servant informs me after catching me wandering around the halls. Some people are just not born to lie.

I turn to leave, "So he's in his office?"

"Ah...no..." the servant hesitates, obviously at a loss. "He's...here, but not with us."

I become somewhat impatient. "What are you talking about?"

The servant lowers her voice to an almost whisper. "You see, sir, the marshal has been asleep for quite some time now."

"Asleep?" I find myself feeling skeptical. The servant had changed her story one too many times. "Don't lie to me, where is Tenpou?"

The servant looks unbelievably uncomfortable, "In his chambers."

I raise an eyebrow and head for Tenpou's bedroom. The servant chases after me, "Sir! Please, Kanzeon Bosatsu will punish me if she finds out somebody disturbed the marshal's body!"

Body? I slow down and let the servant catch up to me as I reach Tenpou's bedroom door, "If she punishes you, then what kind of Goddess of Mercy would she be?" I find my own words funny. Yeah, what kind of Goddess of Mercy was she?

I push open Tenpou's door.

You're asleep. How many times have I come home to your sleeping form? If I wanted to, I could count how many times exactly. I've barely left your side since I found you half dead on the path home. You have unbelievably pale skin for a man and your hair is such a rich shade of brown. If I hadn't seen your body for myself, I could easily have mistaken you for a beautiful girl.

I pick up your hand and feel for a pulse. Just making sure you're alive. You breathe so quietly it freaks me out.

I worry that you won't wake up. Do you know why I am so concerned? Do you know why I sit by your side day and night waiting? Let me tell you why...

...It's because I want to see you open those beautiful green eyes.

"He's been lying like that for centuries, now, ever since that incident," the servant explains in hushed tones.

Incident? So what exactly was the story that Li Touten spread after he had us arrested? It began to bother me that I couldn't remember exactly what my version of the story should be. "He's asleep, huh?"

A sad shake of her head, "Not quite, sir. I personally think he's dead, but Kanzeon Bosatsu said 'Wouldn't it be interesting if he woke up?'"

Yeah, wouldn't it be interesting? "So what happened to him?"

"Don't you know, sir? Weren't you here?" the servant is incredulous.

Of course, that "incident" should have been the biggest news here in heaven. "I've been on a mission in the world below for a while. I had no news about heaven. Tenpou Gensui was a close friend." I'm lying through my teeth, but for some reason, the words feel true. And to someone knowledgeable, my lie would have made no sense. The events surrounding the "incident" would have had all missions recalled, regardless of importance or purpose.

But then, a lie like that is enough to convince a servant girl.

"News from the palace of the Emperor said that the marshal became paranoid from reading all of his books and went crazy. They said that during a mission down below, Tenpou Gensui attacked a band of youkai without thinking and was killed," she spoke as if she was just relaying a story she didn't believe. And who are they kidding? The best strategist in heaven wouldn't be so stupid and even if he were, he would still be far too strong and skilled to be killed by a few youkai. And as for going crazy... well, Tenpou has always been crazy, probably has nothing to do with his books.

Maybe his mother dropped him on his head when he was a baby.

Only now do I walk closer to the bed. The servant girl doesn't try to stop me. She knows I am a friend. "And, what do you think happened?"

"I don't know..." I'm sure she believes something else. The palace news is rarely true. It's usually propaganda and on some level, she must know this.

"So you don't believe the palace stories?" I inquire.

She suddenly becomes afraid. "No! I believe them!" she lowers her eyes. "It's just that Kanzeon Bosatsu said something when she dropped off the marshal's body."

"What was it?" I keep my focus on the girl.

"If there was one who tried to free the others to lead them up to the light, if they caught him, they would put him to death..."

"Come again?" I think you gave me a headache just by reading a passage from your book.

"If any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death. It's from a western philosopher," you tell me with a patient smile. "It means that if a person tried to tell people the truth and the truth was different from what people believed to be true, they would silence him." 1

"Then people are stupid," I lie back on the bed that we often share at night. "Why wouldn't they believe the truth?"

You put your book down and I can feel you watching my every move. "It's because truth can hurt or be unnerving sometimes."

Yeah, we, of all people, should know that. I stare up at the ceiling, "But sometimes the truth is wonderful."

"Well then, it's a risk you have to take," you stand up from your chair. "It's getting late. I really should start preparing dinner."

It's my turn to watch you. I devour each move you make as I would the meal you prepare for me. So telling the truth is a risk...

"What would you risk to tell the truth?"

You laugh lightly, "My, my, you've taken an interest in this, haven't you?"

"You didn't answer my question," I press on.

You put down the knife you're using to cut the vegetables for dinner and sit down beside me on the bed. "Well..." you begin, looking really pensive.

I prop myself up on one arm so I can hear and see you better. "What?" I hate it when you keep me in suspense like this.

You scratch the back of your neck and smile at me sheepishly. "I really don't know," you reply with a hint of laughter in your voice.

If I didn't value your company so much, I would kill you.

Your face then becomes serious, "Rather, I don't know what I could risk, because I don't really know what is mine to risk." You meet my eyes. "I think the better question to ask is 'what wouldn't you risk for the truth?'"

I hadn't thought about it that way. Then again, you often think of things that I don't really think about. I resume my study of the ceiling.

"What wouldn't you risk for the truth?" you ask me as you return to the chore of making dinner.

I absent-mindedly reach into my pocket and take out a cigarette and my lighter. I think better when I'm smoking. "I don't know, either."

"That's not fair," you chuckle good-naturedly.

So what wouldn't I give up for the truth? You.

I look down at Tenpou Gensui, my marshal and my best friend in the whole heaven, asleep on the bed. "Kanzeon Bosatsu said that, did she?" I murmur maybe incoherently.

"Uh...sir, would you like me to leave?" the servant asks me softly. I must have been staring too long. But at least she can take a hint.

I smile the same lopsided grin that had gotten me into trouble so many times before, "I don't believe you ever told me your name."

"Reina," she replies, suddenly blushing and shy. I tend to do that to girls.

"Well, Reina," I walk over to her and look down at her cute face. Heaven has no ugly girls, I think to myself before leaning over as if to kiss. "The marshal and I have a few private matters to discuss, but I would really like to see you again."

She trembles slightly, "Yes, sir."

I give a small wave as she slipped out of the room all blushing and stifling giggles. Before she even closed the door completely, I was back at Tenpou's side. "So that so-called Goddess of Mercy helped you out, huh? Maybe she isn't so bad after all."

I sit on the bed space beside Tenpou's sleeping form. "If any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death," I quote from one of Tenpou's books. Rather, I quote Tenpou as he read from one of his many books from down below. "I don't forget everything you tell me, Tenpou."

He doesn't answer. Why should he? Why should my presence make any difference? He's been like this for years, according to Reina. Centuries, actually, so why would my visit suddenly wake him? A hollow ache in my chest I had been hoping that my visit would make a difference. Heaven just wasn't heaven without Tenpou.

"You tried to show them the light, didn't you? And they put you to death," I brush away some of the hair that had fallen over his eyes. "But you aren't really dead, are you?"

No, he isn't. I answer my own question with the answer I wish to be true. I examine Tenpou's sleeping face. He doesn't really need beauty sleep as he is much less centuries of beauty sleep. Centuries... Something about all this is bothering me...

Wait... the last time I saw Tenpou awake was before the incident, and the last thing I remember before I woke up was just that and...

"Has it just occurred to you, Kenren Taisho, what is going on?" Kanzeon Bosatsu whispers in my ear, catching me completely off guard and sending me toppling down onto the floor in surprise. How in the hell can a woman be so vulgar and loud and still be capable of sneaking up on me like that! Then again, she is a goddess... but still!

I finally found my voice, but all I could say was, "What?"

The Goddess of Mercy, naturally, took my place on Tenpou's bed. "And if it took you this long to figure out that, like Tenpou Gensui here, you've been asleep for centuries, then you really don't deserve to be general."

"It's not exactly something that's easy to grasp," I grumble as I pick myself up. "Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Would you have believed me? Konzen wouldn't."

Good point. "So what did happen?"

"Do you really need me to tell you that, Kenren?" Kanzeon Bosatsu looks me squarely in the eye.

I lose myself in the eternity of her gaze and find myself five hundred years back.

I watch in horror as Tenpou is lashed in front of my eyes by some faceless soldier. He does not cry out, but I hear him grunting and see him biting and drawing blood from his lip. There is determination in his eyes, determination that grows with every strike.

The lashing stops for a moment and Li Touten bends over Tenpou and tips up my marshal's face, "You'd be perfectly useful if you didn't think too much for the other side."

Tenpou laughs sardonically, "I just think for myself, sorry if you don't find that useful."

"No," Li Touten slaps Tenpou's face with enough force to send my best friend falling to the cold stone floor. "I don't."

"Tenpou!" I call to him in alarm.

Li Touten grins at me. "Don't worry. Your lover won't suffer much longer. You both will die tomorrow morning."

The one who had been whipping Tenpou and Li Touten leave our cell. I want to crawl over to Tenpou, but I am chained to a wall. The best I can do is call out to him again. Let my voice reach him. "How are you holding up?"

"I've felt better." Tenpou chuckles at some joke I had yet to hear, "But pretty good for someone who's about to die."

"How can you laugh at a time like this?" I growl at him. "Shit, what have they done to you?"

He doesn't answer me, but characteristically asks me his own question: "Do you really care so much, Kenren?"

The hell I don't! I practically feel every single fucking stroke they lay on you. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"You didn't say anything when Li Touten called me 'your lover'," Tenpou informs me matter-of-factly and seemingly amused...despite his condition.

"Why should I?" I ask more myself than him.

He looks at me solemnly with beautiful green eyes.

I sit on the floor like a little kid.

I remember how we had been brought down to the world below on some bogus mission. There they tortured Tenpou so he would 'change his mind'. Change his mind about what? I don't know. I bet the torture was more for Li Touten's pleasure than anything else. Tenpou had been gunned down. I was killed right after.

At some point, I could see that Tenpou knew that it was a trap even before we left for the earth. He had ordered me to stay behind. But it made no sense to me that Tenpou would leave his most trusted ally out of a mission so we had a fight, him not really explaining why he wanted me excluded. He won the fight, but I'm a stubborn ass and I followed them. When I saw them torturing my best friend, I tried to stop them, but it wasn't to be and I was captured.

I remember everything, and despite all the revelations, I felt even more lost.

"So how did we survive?" I fix my eyes at Kanzeon Bosatsu who had been patiently waiting for me to come to my senses.

The Goddess of Mercy uncrossed her legs then crossed them the other way. "You didn't."

This isn't making sense. "So why am I alive right now?"

"Because you'd been reborn."

1 From Plato's "The Republic". It's part of the Allegory of the Cave