Prompt: The garden was overgrown now.

Author: Lotus

Summary: In which Gojyo comes home to an overgrown garden

Disclaimer: We do not own Saiyuki or DGM

The garden was overgrown now, Gojyo noted as he walked towards his house. It had been five years since he'd set foot on the property, but obviously no one had seen fit to clean it up and sell it. He could tell just by looking that the house was empty. The front door hung open, the top and middle hinges having given way already to rust and the bottom one just barely holding the door up. Wild creeper vines had swallowed most of the house even as brambles choked out the flowers that used to grow out front.

Rotting and rusted, Gojyo could still see the old gardening tools leaned up against the side of the house. Mixed in with the thorny brambles and creeper vines were more delicate vines. The only remnants of the garden now were the old morning glories that used to drive him crazy because they'd climb his shutters and leave behind useless vines when they died. Still, the blue-purple blooms poked out from the wild foliage, dotting the house in gentle sadness. Gojyo had never liked the color, but he found a smile pulling at his lips despite the sting of tears in his eyes. He knew he should have gotten out sooner.

Stepping across the over grown lawn, Gojyo trailed his fingers of the grass seed fronds that brushed his thighs. When he reached the front door he hesitated before stepping inside. The floor was still mostly intact, though it was covered in years of dirt and leaves blown in through the open door and a couple broken windows. The holes in the roof didn't help much either.

Gojyo looked around, his mind removing the dirt and the leaves, patching holes and fixing the windows. The old couch was exactly where it had been when he'd left for that mission. Turned towards the window so Kanda could watch whatever weather was going on outside while he sipped his tea. Gojyo had teased him for it relentlessly, but Kanda had never reacted beyond an irritated huff.

He kept on going, stepping into the kitchen. There were dishes in the sink and a teapot in the table. When Gojyo lifted it, he found it to be full. He sighed and set it down. It was weird, that Kanda had left the tea on the table, and the dishes in the sink, but maybe he just hadn't been bothered to deal with them when he left.

Gojyo walked further, going to the bedroom. The bed was unmade and dirty, leaves scattered over the once-white sheets. Kanda's alarm clock was plugged in, but not working. Gojyo wasn't sure if it was just the lack of electricity, or if nature had taken its toll on the electronic device and it was long dead. Despite himself, Gojyo moved forward, brushing the leaves away and shaking spiders from the sheets before he pulled them up and made the bed. He ignore the holes chewed into the pillows by moths and the stuffing that had been strewn about by mice and birds. Material for their nests he supposed.

Gojyo only stopped by the bathroom for a moment. The mirror was broken, shards lying across the floor. Gojyo wasn't sure if it was time or Kanda's temper that had broken it. Maybe some combination of the two.

When he ventured back out to the living room, he was surprised to find Lavi standing in the door. Gojyo froze, but Lavi just offered a tired smile.

"You're back," Lavi said.

"I'm back," Gojyo agreed. "What're you doing here?"

"Kanda left his golem to alert me if you ever came back," Lavi said.

"Only you?" Gojyo asked.

"Kanda went back to the Order a year after you went missing," Lavi said with a shrug, toying with the morning glory blossom he'd plucked from beside the door.

"And Hakkai?" Gojyo asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"He's at work right now," Lavi said, smiling. Gojyo let out a relieved breath, noting how genuine the smile was.

"Was there something else?" Gojyo asked when Lavi simply stared at him. Gojyo knew he looked terrible. He hadn't shaved in five years and he was practically a walking skeleton still despite the week of overbearing mothering by some random stranger.

"You should know that he's gone now," Lavi said evenly, meeting Gojyo's blood-red gaze with his single emerald eye.

"You said he went back to the Order," Gojyo said, nodding.

"I mean, he died," Lavi said. Gojyo was fairly certain he stopped breathing.

"How?" he gasped, knees threatening to give out on him.

"He got tag-teamed by The Noah of Judgment and the Noah of Pity," Lavi said. "If you ask me, though, he was looking to die."

"Why?" Gojyo choked out, his knees finally giving out and dropping him to the unforgiving floor. He ignored the pain that sparked up his legs, red eyes blank as they stared, remembering the fire Kanda had always held, even when he lost his memories to the Demon Eye Noah. How could Kanda, his rock, his friend, his partner, his lover, look for a way to die?

"He thought you dead," Lavi said. "We all did." Gojyo heard him sigh and looked up at him. "For tha first year he searched for you relentlessly. He got fired from his job at the bar, and looked everywhere. Even before he left, the house was barely lived in."

"So what? Surely he would have moved on… right?" Gojyo asked, hesitantly. He knew that Kanda had liked him well enough, maybe even loved him. It was hard to tell with that guy, but this? This Gojyo couldn't believe.

"He never moved on," Lavi said, shaking his head.

"How long?" Gojyo asked, desperately. "How long has he been dead?"

"Three years," Lavi said.

Three years. Gojyo shook his head sadly. Five years imprisoned by psychotic monks with only one thought to keep him sane, and it had been a lie for three years. He could feel himself breaking apart like the house he knelt in, heard his voice crack as he told Lavi to leave, and felt the floor shake as Lavi forced the door closed behind him. The garden was overgrown now, but he shouldn't be surprised. Four years had passed since Kanda tended to it. Three years had passed since he'd died in battle. A week had passed since Gojyo escaped. An hour had passed since he found his home empty and abandoned. Broken and overgrown.

The last threads of his sanity broke, and Gojyo wasn't even aware of the tears streaming down his face as he laughed, high pitched and so very, horribly wrong. But his mind was off elsewhere. Off three years back, holding Kanda as he died. Off four years back, begging him to stay. Off five years back, telling himself to stay home.

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