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+ Burgundy Bruises +
WARNING: I will repeat, this is a yaoi story. That means, for those of you who don't know, the action of two men dating. Some violence along with male/male sexual encounters will happen. Do not read this if you are offended or dislike such a thing occurring.
Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki, Gojyo, or Hakkai. I do however own the few original characters in this fan fiction.
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Chapter 5
The rest was a blur of sounds and motion. Mike's shouts echoed up the hallway as he ran toward the nurse's quarters.
Some of the bigger, more thuggish of the students, stepped forward and roughly took hold of Hakkai's limbs.
This only seemed to cause more reason for panic, and since his arms were still bound, Hakkai frantically started to kick out.
One of the men growled and backhanded him in the face, hard, effectively knocking him unconscious. The sensei was already far ahead of them calling for help, and did not notice the harsh exchange.
Gojyo wanted nothing more than to call out, to run over there and kick their sorry asses for treating Hakkai that way. Yell that he'd carry him where ever he needed to be himself.
He got as far as staring at his suffocating class mate being hauled to the higher levels of the dojo, listening to all the bare feet pat softly against the mats as everyone began returning to their room, and feeling the dull vibrations against his heels as Mono finally got up and squeezed through the door after the rest of them.
For some reason the kappa just couldn't find it in him to make a move. He was too surprised at the unexpected change in the situation.
Gojyo grimaced as he felt guilt over take him, if it was anything else he may have been able to do something, but it was too convincing that he would only make it so much worse. Bad luck haunted him and followed him where ever he went. He couldn't help but think that, since that notion had been drilled into him right after birth.
Those were the shared thoughts of more than handfuls of humans and demons alike.
Gojyo fell backward onto the mat with his legs stretched out in front of him and buried the the scarred half of his face with a trembling hand. The two light scars from the side of his jaw to the center of one angular cheek, were harsh reminders of how useless he actually felt. Despite the cocky attitude he rarely let slip, there was something much different in his personality that he never let anyone see.
His muscles tensed as he gripped his skin so fiercely that one would think he was trying to tear the marked flesh off.
He smirked bitterly as he asked to the empty room, "Why does that need to happen? Will it always be like this?"
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"Put him on the bed, now!" Turning to the harassed looking nurse, Mike proceeded to yell, "What are you just standing there for? Get that breathing machine thing out of the storage room!"
The nurse looked incredulously up at Mike, who was turning blue in the face, "And how do you expect for me to know what that is, or where it is in that-that-heap of junk cramped into a closet? I'm new here!"
Pausing in his antics, the man remembered that his other nurse had retired and he hired this woman the previous summer.
He glanced at her profile and noted the agitated way she was popping her gum, how her clothes where at least three sizes too small and how ridiculously curly her chestnut colored hair was.
He tried his best to keep his voice even as he said, "It's big."
She raised a finely waxed eyebrow.
"With a pump."
Nothing.
"And a tube."
She could at least nod her head.
"It's….long."
She smiled sarcastically and said, "Right away sir," then she made her way to the small closet in the far corner, her heels clicking all the way on the polished white floor.
Grumbling Mike turned to Hakkai, "Is she from the town hospital or a porno flick?"
Hearing no response he looked down at his silent student, then remembered what he was here for.
He reached out a broad hand and gently ruffled Hakkai's hair, "Poor guy, things seem to go wrong at the worst time for you."
Some one nudged his side and he turned around to see the nurse, looking very irritated, as she said, "Please move so that I can get this done."
Mike put up his hands, "I – mean – you – no – harm," and backed away, slowly heading for the door.
The nurse rolled her eyes, "Unbelievable…"
Rolling his own eyes, Mike decided to check on the rest of his students and figure out what they were going to do for the rest of the day if it wasn't matches. Hopefully nothing to do with mischief, but he new better than to think that.
Grumbling he trudged up the stairs.
His thoughts returned to the clearly inexperienced nurse. What had he been doing that day he had hired her? The three hours she spent making those pieces of yarn curl like a pigs tail could have been spent getting to know the equipment and her quarters better, he'd have to quiz her later and make sure she at least knew all the basic medical procedures.
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Carefully, the nurse slipped the plastic tube down the young mans throat, securing a banded strap around his head to keep it in place, then preceded to turn the machine on.
Expecting to be extremely noisy and bug her to no end, surprisingly all it did was softy hum as it moved oxygen through out the body it was supposed to servicing.
Smiling in satisfaction, the nurse took her gaze from the long tube, following it to a round cylinder shape with a rubber pump inside it that was now slowly moving up and down.
Honestly, she would have had no clue what this was unless that large and annoying man hadn't told her what to get.
Shrugging, she turned and her heels clicked one again as she left the patient's room, making a mental note to come in a half an hour later and turn off the machine.
"We wouldn't want him waking up in a panic and choking himself to death."
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I was getting dark, he silently noted. The sun was starting to set. Light crept through the window and fell onto his unmoving body.
Gojyo still wouldn't move.
But now, as he looked at the ceiling, the strands of hair that usually stayed limp and unnoticed on his face lit up, causing it to have a rich, red glow.
Gojyo hated it.
So he laughed and said, "It's not me I should feel pity for, I need to go see Hakkai and make sure he's alright."
Sitting up, he cracked his neck. "Of course it's not me, or some black cloud following me around. Red is just a color after all. Hakkai's just accident prone, it seems like he got hurt a lot before I even got here."
More sure of himself now, he jumped up and finally, headed out the door, only to stop.
Where the hell is that nurse's place again? I should have asked the second I got here…she's probably the only hips in this place.
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Did….I black out? How embarrassing, was Hakkai's first thought as he slowly started to regain consciousness.
I don't remember it being so bright in here…the match, is it over?
He quickly sat up and gasped, "Gomof ith nod youn falphm." Which would have been 'Gojyo it's not your fault,' if only there wasn't something choking him.
His eyes widened in shock and he drew his hands up to his throat.
There seemed to be invisible hands that he couldn't protect himself from.
He tried to suck in air at an alarming rate and only ran out of breath. Gripping the tube he couldn't see, he frantically pulled.
What would have been distracting, if he wasn't choking, was the loud swearing that started to come from outside of the room at that moment.
"-stupid bastard sensei needs to make a map of this damn place." Gojyo finished as he walked into the room. "Final-"
Hakkai.
Choking.
Panicking.
No longer breathing.
"HAKKAI!" He ran to the boys bedside, grasped the breathing tube in a vice like grip, placed his hand firmly on Hakkai's shoulder, and yanked as hard as he could.
The foot and a half oxygen pump roughly came out and Hakkai started to cough.
Gojyo glared at the long piece of plastic, as if it were some living force that wanted to intentionally hurt someone, and threw it aside, causing the cylinder with the pump to fall off of the bedside table with a crash.
Unconcerned for the thing, Gojyo used his free hand to grab his friends other shoulder and pull him closer.
Nothing new but the swelling bruise on Hakkai's left cheek from that backhand he got.
I still need to get that prick back for doing that, Gojyo thought angrily.
The kappa let go and Hakkai looked up at him.
He held his hands up to his cover his mouth, trying to calm the quick gusts of air he was so desperately trying to get in only moments ago, grimacing as he did so. I'm pathetic like this. My lungs were not even this bad when I was a child.
"Are you going to be alright man?"
He paused in his thoughts to look up at the red head only to nod, and continue a slightly less severe coughing fit.
Very unconvinced, Gojyo shifted on the bed so that he sat next to injured figure, unnoticed by the obviously pained boy in front of him.
Which is why Hakkai was startled into silence for a moment as the back of his shirt was lifted and a warm hand slid up his back and between his shoulder blades.
"Relax," the kappa breathed into his ear. "Stop worrying me like this and cut it out."
Hakkai closed his eyes. The harsh coughs slowed, then turned into dull gasps of air, and finally subsided to a slightly breathless breathing pattern.
Gojyo stopped rubbing his back, and smoothed down the rumples he caused in Hakkai's shirt. He smiled at his classmate and turned to walk to the edge of the bed.
As the springs creaked, the taps of high heels echoing on the hard floor grew louder.
The nurse reached the doorway, her hair that used to be in glossy chestnut ringlets sticking out on all opposite ends.
"What's with all the yelling?"
She looked at Hakkai. "So you woke up did you? And did you choke yourself idiot?"
"Excuse me Miss," Gojyo said loudly, effectively getting the angry woman's attention, "but my friend here would like a glass of water."
She stared. A good seven seconds later she noticeably looked the kappa up and down, and asked sweetly, "And what can I get you, Mr…?"
The redhead was unable to believe this, what a rotten time for him to meet the one girl in this place.
In any other situation Gojyo would have fully taken up the opportunity the nurse was clearly giving him.
"Just call me Gojyo," he said with a wink.
Eyeing him in a more defined manner, she returned slyly, "Oh, I will be soon."
As the nurse left the room, with a definite sway in her hips, Gojyo thought he could definitely use the obvious distraction the woman clearly was offering to take his mind away from the fact that he was in a dojo in the middle of nowhere. But there was a certain thing that he felt more obliged to indulge in.
It's important, and that other 'thing' was sitting right next to him.
Leaning back on the sickeningly fluffy white hospital pillows, Hakkai smiled warmly at Gojyo, who returned a slight quirk of his lips that couldn't be defined as a smirk or a smile.
"Did you succeed?"
Gojyo blinked, "Huh?"
Hakkai look down at his hands, "You needed to prove something…" he trailed off, hoping his friend would catch on.
Realizing what he meant, the red head smiled arrogantly and said, "Of course I did. Now everyone knows that you are beatable. And no superhuman freak, psycho, socially retarded or-"
"Ahem." They both froze and looked at the doorway, where the nurse was standing with a tray and on it was a glass of water, a few bottles of medicine, and some needles.
Hakkai visibly paled.
"Your water," she brusquely said as she stepped over to Hakkai, setting down the glass with a clank.
Turning to Gojyo she said with a glint in her eye, "And if you would just…wait for me outside."
He was about to answer when he heard beside him, "Excuse me ma'm, I don't think we are allowed to be given doses of medicine here unless we present a signed form from our…" he gulped, "parent or guardian."
Ignoring his comment, the nurse picked up a few bottles and removed the caps, then set them down and picked up a needle and a vial. "Why don't you just let me do my job?" She sighed, never once taking the time to even look at Hakkai.
Gojyo had an eerie feeling. It probably had to do with the way those emerald eyes watched the nurses every move, never taking them off the vial as it slowly filled with clear liquid.
A sheen of sweat appeared on Hakkai's forehead as he became visibly nervous on a face he usually kept so carefully void of any emotion. "I don't really think that it's necessary."
Then he smiled in a clearly forceful way, "I feel just fine now." But even as he said so, his breathing pick up in speed as he unconsciously slid his hand up his arm to rest where shots are usually administered.
Even though Gojyo didn't understand why, he could tell that this was one thing excruciatingly tough for Hakkai to go through. Everyone has a significant object of fear, even if they don't know it.
Yet, from a rather recent experience, he knew his friend was no weakling. Something like fear of needles is usually a child's terror. Nonetheless, whatever the reason, Gojyo didn't like seeing Hakkai behaving like this.
Hakkai didn't even bat an eye as Gojyo stood up and slid casually over to the nurse just as she was turning around with the sharp point in hand.
He saw some kind of sadistic glee, as she did so. Obviously she liked being in a position of powere where she felt no one could do anything about her decisions. Acting quickly he placed a hand on her hip, clearly invading her personal space.
That look was instantly wiped off her face as she stared up at Gojyo, she smirked, "Yes?"
Barely containing his disgust at her previous actions of sadism, he leaned closer, all the while bringing his hand up to slip the vial of medicine out of her now nimble grip.
He leaned down and kissed her neck softly then whispered, "Where's your room?"
She giggled at a sickening high pitch and said in what she must have thought was a seducing manner, "Eager, huh? Just follow me."
Her heels clicked once again across the polished floor as Gojyo set the vial along with the needle back on the tray.
He turned without a glance at the seemingly forgotten boy on the bed.
Though if he had, he may have seen what greatly resembled a statue that usually sits in a cemetery, silent and sorrowful, unable to twitch if a crow perched on it's cold, lifeless shoulders.
As Gojyo left, Hakkai refused to move.
It was nice, really. Alone again, how it should be.
I'm ok now.
He continued this thought uselessly as he slowly leaned back to rest his emotionless face on the pillows waiting bellow him.
He heard the creak of a bed not far away, and the harsh breathing that might as well have been shouts in his ears.
At that moment, he would have taken anything, even a dose that had to be injected into his blood stream, just to be deaf to the noises of sex.
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The night was what you would call peaceful. Though in some twisted way to anyone who was awake, you could feel the shifting directions of the breeze, causing the feeling that there was something yet to come.
However, there was some one who didn't believe in 'all that superstitious crap'.
Sometimes, Gojyo seriously wondered about his sanity in situations like the one he was in at the moment.
Good going, here I am looking for my jeans when Hakkai is most likely in pain in that crazy nurses patient room. And what really rubs me the wrong way is how he just looks so used to being alone. I know that I never liked it.
He shuddered as he looked back on the bed with tacky purple sheets draped over a now limp and lightly snoring body.
That woman was basically a plastic fuck doll during their romp under the covers. Someone who thought highly of herself and leaned back while her supposedly loyal servants did all the work she commanded of them.
Not that the kappa minded, that was pretty much what he did. He was there to please.
He zipped up his pants and reached for his crumpled white tang top from the floor.
Shrugging it on he headed for the door, he eased it open he grabbed his brown leather jacket off the doorknob and shut it as silently as possible.
"Wouldn't want to wake queeny up for another round," he snickered.
Gojyo spun on his heel and faced the darkness ahead. Pausing to squint through the night, his started off at a slow pace down the hall.
He wondered how Mr. Green Eyes was doing as he felt around his pockets for the desired nicotine.
Pausing in his steps, he smacked his fore head. "That's right, I hid them so Mike wouldn't freak out."
He frowned, "I really need one of those after that…" Unconsciously he started walking again as his thoughts wandered aimlessly.
The soft taps of his feet echoed throughout the empty hallways, and then he felt a sudden rush of cool air.
Gojyo was outside, the damp grass freezing beneath him. Guessing this was a fine enough substitute for smokes, he took his chances strolling around the silent gardens.
Taking his time, he wandered in the direction he figured was the window where everyone else would most likely be sleeping, and where he should be.
Continuing on his way, he ran a few choice tunes through his head to whistle, "It's so damn quiet…" No sooner that those words left his lips that he heard an unnaturally loud rustling of leaves and the breaking of sticks (with a few choice curses) above him.
"The hell!" Gojyo sprinted around the corner and pressed his body close to the building, eyes wide, as Mike fell to the damp ground.
"ARRRGGHHH! Damn tree, there is no way I weigh that much!" Standing up hurriedly he dusted himself of with his right hand and used his other the rub his sore backside.
"And after all that, surprisingly enough that delinquent red head wasn't on the balcony breathing in his own death from those toxic piece of rolled up shit!"
On the other side of the wall, said red head broke out into a sweat, and tightly grit his teeth.
"Ah, well…I'm sure I'll catch that tro-" he abruptly paused.
Mikes eyes seemed to shine, then he thrust his fists into the air and enthusiastically whispered (as if he just remembered people close by are sleeping), "He must be hiding somewhere in the dojo! Must have thought the balcony would be wayyyy to obvious!"
He took a few quick steps and was quickly reminded of his earlier fall, so he crouched down and started to wobble away in the direction of Gojyo's hiding place chucking softly to himself.
"Sneaky little bastard huh? Well…I'll get you soon enough."
Even as he rounded the corner, he failed to notice Gojyo, mentally suffering, freezed up against the wall.
That mans going to kill me one of these days, the kappa thought as he watched the retreating back of his sensei.
He let out the deep breath he hadn't known he was holding until that moment, watching it form in the chilly air and glint of the moonlight rounding the building from the front.
Gojyo strained his ears, making sure he couldn't hear the rustle of wet grass caused by feet, then he all but ran over to the tree Mike previously fell out of.
Reaching up, he took hold of the lowest branch in a tight grip, and hauled the rest of his body up quickly.
He steadily made his way up to the top most branch that…well, used to be sticking out to the small balcony of the sleeping quarters.
It was now broken. Destroyed. Completely snapped in half.
Thanks to a certain crazy ass teach…but I came this far, so I might as well go all the way.
Easing away from the sturdy middle of the tree, he carefully balanced himself on what was left of the branch.
Easily enough he managed to stretch one of his legs over to the railing…one.
The kappa looked back to his leg on the branch, then to the one on the railing, "Shit."
He needed to get back to the room before Mike, he needed to be there.
Gojyo was just about ready to try and jump from the difficult position he was in when he heard something from a few windows over.
Someone was breathing so hard it could almost be considered wheezing.
He smirked, "Sounds like I wasn't the only one that had some action tonight."
The kappa was about to turn away from the sounds when they changed into a loud and violent coughing attack.
His body tensed as he realized the room the window belonged too.
Taking one last glance at the room that contained his awaiting bed, he jerked his body into the air and half landed, half stumbled, onto the cool earth.
Regaining himself quickly, he took off in a sprint to the nurse's room.
Screw getting in trouble, there would be no fun to this place if the only strong and interesting guy here suffocates.
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Hakkai sat up from his bed in a cold sweat gasping for air. His hand flew up to his power limiters on his left ear.
Feeling the pang of metal against his fingertips, he willed his body to relax again.
"Not another one." The dreams of his transformation refused to stop coming to him.
They have been getting more frequent since last summer.
Hakkai keeps telling himself that it hasn't happened for years and it's rather unlikely that it will again anytime soon, but his subconscious simply won't believe it.
He fisted the paper-thin sheets in a white knuckled grip.
The boy tried to force a shaky grin, "Much more of this and I just might go insa-"
Predictable…Hakkai thought as cough was torn from his already sore throat.
This cough was followed by another, and another, and another…
He cupped both hands over his mouth.
After a few moments, when he thought the worst had pasted, then he seemed unable to breathe.
His ribcage hurt, his lungs were burning, Hakkai could feel a headache coming on, and he still couldn't breathe.
Help.
"HAKKAI!"
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Gojyo had stepped into the room for a second time that night, his breath coming out in short gusts of air.
Unable to greet him, Hakkai looked up apologetically.
Ignoring this, Gojyo went instantly to his friend's side and sat close, his long legs dangling of the side of the bed.
He brought his hand up and firmly rubbed Hakkai's clothed back to try and relax him.
"Don't you dare go dying on me Hakkai," he joked with a confident grin.
Doing his best to calm himself, the green-eyed man smiled weakly in return. "What are you doing here so late Go-" he was abruptly cut off by a cool hand pressed to his forehead.
It felt nice on his overheated skin.
"Now you have a fever? Geez, I can't always be your mom."
Hakkai immediately opened his mouth to apologize and tell the kappa he didn't need to be checked upon like a child, but Gojyo beat him with, "I guess just for tonight, I'll wait until you go to sleep. Don't want you to bleed again," he said as he got up.
"Bleed?"
But the red head was already walking over to the cabinets for medical supplies He pulled out a few paper towels and walked back over to the bed.
He reached out and took hold of Hakkai's wrist, he then saw that his hands were covered with blood.
My throat must be torn from when Gojyo took the oxygen pump out. No wonder coughing hurt so much.
Gently, the kappa cleaned off all the blood he could, his bronze hands working quickly around Hakkai's pale fingers, and carelessly tossed the soiled item into a nearby wastebasket.
He then scanned the room and said, "Ah hah," when he spotted the uncomfortable looking plastic chair that the nurse would use to sit in at her desk.
Hakkai frowned.
"Your not really planning on staying in here with me all night, are you?"
Gojyo ignored this as he picked up the chair and brought it over to the bed, he dropped it noisily onto the tiled floor and slumped down into it.
He then stared at Hakkai expectantly, "Well? What are you waiting for, sleep already."
He blinked.
The red head sighed, then something caught his eye, "Hang on a minute."
He pulled a terrible sounding squeak from his chair as he leaned in, has hand darted out to cup the other boys face before he could pull away in surprise as he delicately pressed his tongue on the edge of Hakkai's chin.
Too shocked to move, he sat there frozen as Gojyo lazily dragged the wet appendage from the end of his jaw line to the corner of his mouth.
When the kappa pulled back he flicked his tongue over his own lips, as if tasting him a second time, "You had blood on your face."
TBC…
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A/N: Holy moon pie, another chapter edited as of March 25, 2009. I only have one more chapter to edit until I can post the many YEAR delayed chapters to complete the story! Celebration tiiiiimmmeee! Well…after I edit the sixth chapter I suppose then I will. Ah pooh.