Regarding the Revisions of "Fateful Encounters":

For those of you who have read this before but saw the change in the chapter titles and wondered what's going on, I'm currently revising some of this story as well as continuing to create more at the same time. The changes in what you are about to read may seem subtle, but this is being done since I felt the story could be improved upon after rereading it recently. You'll be able to identify which chapters have been revised as opposed to those which haven't quite easily in case you wanted to see the changes while skipping those that have remained constant. The revised chapters will lack most of their original intro-notes since they pertained to situations we've successfully gotten past, so don't let some of the things mentioned in the older reviews confuse you too much.

On the other hand, for those of you who are new to this tale of angst, friendship, soul-searching, romance, and eternal dedication, welcome!

Please note that this is my first attempt at creating something for the bishounen of Saiyuki and I hope you will find favor with it. If you enjoy my humble offering, please take a moment and leave a comment or two won't you? The more favorable reviews my muses receive for any given story or fandom the more likely they are to continue to write for those characters and you can easily convince them to work more diligently to entertain you with only a few kind words here and there.

Thanks for reading this new introduction and I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much as I am enjoying creating it for you!

~~~Enigma~~~

(who has never put this much effort into revising an on-going story before, but this one's special for a lot of reasons and he hopes it will be worth it in the long run)

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Title: Fateful Encounters [part 1/?]

Author: Enigma

Series: Saiyuki

Written: June - September, 2002

Rating: R

Pairings: (Gojyo + Hakkai)

Category: Shonen ai/yaoi, Angst, Romance, Action/Adventure, Blood, Language. AU-OOC.

Archive: fanfiction.net [author: "E-sama the Llama"]

Warnings: shonen ai/yaoi, angst, romance, action/adventure, anime-based bloodshed, crude language matching the characterization of the series, original characters to support the main characters from the anime and not detract from them, medical and other squick, additional warnings and pairings possible as fic comes into being over time. AU-OOC.

Spoilers: Since this is based on episodes 15 & 16 of the anime, there are definite spoilers for them, but there are also minor spoilers for other aspects of the series which I will try to keep to a minimum so readers both new and old can enjoy this tale.

Disclaimer: "Saiyuki" is the property of Kazuya Minekura, et al. All original characters featured herein (including but not limited to: Zan, Long, Kiko, etc.) are © Enigma, 2002, and are not to be used without permission. This unauthorized work of unpaid fanfiction is intended for entertainment only; kindly do not sue me.

Notes: What might have actually happened after Gojyo found and rescued a severely injured Gonou (a.k.a. Hakkai) three years prior to their journey to the west? How will these revelations change not only their own lives but also Sanzo's and Goku's as well?

*****

"Damned bitch!" Sha Gojyo cursed as he stalked through the rain after leaving his favorite bar. He'd been enjoying trouncing a good friend at cards when one of the women who usually offered him welcome distraction from his tedious existence through various sexual favors had said the wrong things. [1]

Running a hand through dripping wet crimson locks, he muttered in annoyance, "Who the *fuck* would deliberately *chose* to dye their hair a truly hideous color like this in the first place?! Stupid woman!"

His mental railings might've gone on uninterrupted as he tried to cool off by walking through the rain-drenched woods that lay beyond the village where he lived except a quiet and unexpected noise reached his ears.

A sound somewhere between a wet plop and a heavy thud drew the gambler's attention to the form of a slender young man who suddenly lay sprawled across his path. Curious, he approached the figure and nudged it with the toe of a booted foot and asked, "Hey! Are you dead?" [2]

The answer was nonverbal but crystal clear as the sodden brunette head lifted ever so slightly in response to the inquiry after Gojyo crouched down beside the fallen man. Despite being able to see only one of a pair of jewel-like green eyes, he was surprised to see the stranger gaze at him unknowingly for a moment and then smile tenderly before falling unconscious at his feet once more.

"What the *fuck*?!" The half-youkai exclaimed in shock as an unfamiliar tingle of recognition, fear, and concern shot through him. There was no reason for him to react so strongly to a simple facial expression from someone he didn't even know, yet he trusted his instincts and accepted that whoever this unknown person was, he was important enough to rescue if nothing else.

Kneeling on the muddy ground, Gojyo gently turned over the man who was named Cho Gonou yet would one day be renamed Cho Hakkai and gasped in horror when he saw how terribly wounded he was.

Much of the front of the stranger's shirt was torn to shreds as if he had been in fierce hand-to-hand combat and blood flowed from him all too freely from more than one gaping, hideous hole. The taller of the two felt his stomach clench uncomfortably when he realized that some of what he was seeing definitely belonged on the inside of a person and not the outside. It was with some slight hesitation that Gojyo pushed what appeared to be a portion of the man's small intestines back inside him before tying his pale blue overshirt firmly around the ravaged body, hoping to give the severely injured man a better chance at survival.

Shaking his crimson-haired head in astonishment, Gojyo remarked, "You must be one helluva tough bastard to be sliced up this badly and not die immediately." Carefully lifting the injured man and cradling him against his body hoping to share some of his own warmth with him on the trek back to the village, he added, "Well, we tough guys gotta stick together, I guess. Let's get you taken care of and I'll figure out why the hell you seem so familiar later."

Turning towards home and ignoring the voice in his head that helpfully chimed in to remind him that there was certainly no guarantee that the wounded man would even survive the relatively short journey back, Gojyo stubbornly assumed the body in his arms would stay alive and that was that. As he strode purposefully through the rain, he cursed the fact that the village he lived in was too small to have a hospital or even a small medical center where the stranger could be given a bed and qualified nursing care. However, the local physicians were quite adept at making due with what was available and the half-breed felt confident that the injured man had a fairly good chance at surviving if he was able to deliver the patient to a doctor fast enough.

As that last thought echoed in his head, his feet seemed to make a decision of their own and before Gojyo knew what he was doing, he was running towards the lights of town heedless of the muddy rainwater he splashed through on the way.

Arriving at the door of a doctor he himself had visited after a bar brawl caused by some thugs who had traveled through their village and had made the mistake of insulting his friends, Gojyo freed one blood-drenched hand and hammered it against the entrance, shouting, "Oi! Dr. Zan!! [3] I got a patient for ya!!" Not getting the kind of instantaneous results he wanted, he lifted a powerful booted foot and simply kicked the door in while shouting, "Damn it all, doc, I ain't got time to wait!!"

"What on earth?!" A kindly middle-aged woman exclaimed as she rushed to see who had just performed some unscheduled redecorating of her home and when she saw the crimson-haired man standing there, clutching a bleeding body tightly to him, she added, "Oh my! Gojyo, what has happened to that poor soul?!"

Grunting and shaking his head in anger and growing fear for the life that was ebbing away in his arms, he answered, "I ain't got a clue who or what did this to him, doc, but right now, he needs help." After the woman indicated the recently cleared dining table as the best place for her patient at this point, he placed his barely living burden down as he explained, "But I also have no fucking idea where he's from or even his name."

Nodding and not hesitating as she went to work, the physician removed the gore-slick overshirt Gojyo had tied around the man and carefully tore away what remnants of fabric were left of Gonou's shirt which only barely concealed the terrifying extent of his injuries. With a heavy sigh, she gestured towards a small case that held her surgical instruments and called to a small boy whose face was only barely visible around a corner of the room, "Kiko! Bring me my bag and then go get Dr. Long for me! I'll need help with this patient!"

Scarlet eyes blinked in surprise since Gojyo hadn't noticed the youth and then he found an almost smile despite the situation as a head with hair as brightly colored as his own appeared and a ten year old half-breed boy answered obediently, "Yes, Aunt Zan." Kiko hefted the heavy case easily and placed it on the table before running past the fractured front door and out into the rainy night.

"Oi, doc," Gojyo asked in curiosity even as the woman began probing the former teacher's numerous wounds, making them bleed brightly once more, "since when do *you* have a 'nephew'? I thought you lived alone here and had no family." He winced visibly as Zan encountered a severed artery that spurted crimson fluid in her face, something she ignored as she remained focused on the severely wounded man on her dining table.

"I did until seven months ago," she answered easily as she reached for a clamp to stop the flow of blood from the severed vessel. Then with a slight sigh, she explained, "Nine years ago, his mother, a youkai, was forced to leave her home by parents who couldn't understand that sometimes love had a way of making one unwise. The boy's father was a human soldier and had died without ever knowing that his lover was pregnant, leaving she and the baby to survive as best they could. [4] In the end, though, his mother fell ill and came to me for care. I couldn't cure her, but I *could* give her son a home and all the love my old heart could offer, so I did."

The nineteen year old half-breed raised a pencil-thin eyebrow thoughtfully and as he looked away when the medical procedure became too graphic for even his sadly too-experienced eyes, he commented, "He's lucky then. Most people like me go through life alone for the most part."

"I know," the doctor remarked sadly and gazed at him from the corner of one sloe eye before saying cryptically, "but perhaps it's not too late even for you, Sha Gojyo. Perhaps fate shall intervene and provide you, too, with a companion?"

Snorting derisively, the gambler commented acidly, "Who'd want to waste their time on an incorrigible bad boy like me, doc?" Without thinking about it, he ran a hand tiredly through dripping hair before trailing his fingertips over the twin scars on his left cheek as he added with a weary sigh, "Besides, a bad seed like me doesn't deserve happiness. No, I'm destined to face life alone, I'm sure of it."

Deciding it was a pointless conversation, the doctor shook her gray-haired head slightly and mumbled, "You don't give yourself enough credit, Gojyo." Tugging free a large patch of dying skin that had clung to the stranger's belly by a few final threads of tissue and tossing it negligently aside, she asked more loudly, "What do you plan to do with this man if we're able to save his life?"

Stuffing his bloodied hands into the pockets of equally bloodied jeans, Gojyo shrugged elegantly and remarked, "I guess I'll take him back to my place and figure things out from there later. Most likely, as soon as whoever he lives with figures out he's missing, somebody will come looking for him." He waved a hand in the air as if it was all too terribly obvious, and added, "You know how it goes. He'll be out of my life almost as quickly as he came into it, probably."

"Why do you say that?" Zan asked, deliberately ignoring the disappointment in his tones and the obvious loneliness that ran beneath his words.

Not turning around for fear of seeing more of the stranger's internal organs than he already had, the scarlet-eyed man shrugged again and said simply, "He's too good looking to *not* live with someone. Hell, if *I* had a guy like that in my life and he disappeared, you can be damned sure I'd search for him!" Gojyo's mind added helpfully that he'd gladly fight his way through hell itself to reclaim the emerald-eyed man who'd only smiled ever so briefly at him.

In a village as small as theirs, it wasn't easy to keep some things a secret and despite it being an unsubstantiated rumor, the girls at the bar had often wondered openly if their favorite bedmate wasn't attracted to men almost as much as he was to women. Being physician to half the populace granted the doctor information she often didn't want so Zan had heard it mentioned a time or two.

They were right, of course, but Gojyo wouldn't have readily agreed to it.

It was bad enough in his mind to be a half-breed. To be a bisexual one just put him too close to the edge of what was deemed acceptable even by himself and he did his best to forget a few experimental nights spent in the arms of some male friends when he was younger.

Nodding wisely again, the physician was pleased to note the sound of her "nephew" returning and she commented with finality, "True enough. Now, please prepare yourself for things to get *really* messy in here." She looked up as a man many years her junior jogged into the room behind the little crimson-haired boy and she remarked, "Good of you to come, Long."

Rolling up his shirtsleeves without hesitation or question, the newly arrived medic moved to assist as best he could and only spared Gojyo a nod of acknowledgement and a glance before asking, "What blood type are you, Sha?"

Frowning slightly, Gojyo answered, "Um, B, I think. Why?" [5]

Giving the woman next to him a respectful nod of the head, Long said, "He's going to need blood and a lot of it. As soon as we get him typed, if you match, will you agree to a transfusion?"

Shocked, the gambler shook his head and insisted, "You can't give him any of my blood! He's human! I'm not! It'll *kill* him!!"

Raising an eyebrow thoughtfully and gazing once again at the ravaged body on the table, the physician responded, "No, it won't. See the ear-cuffs? [6] Unless I miss my guess, those are 'kekkai', the so-called 'inhibitors'. I'd say he's at least partially youkai despite his appearance and that means we can use your blood if your type matches for both regular blood factors and overall nature."

"Oh, fuck!" Gojyo responded inelegantly and blinked in astonishment before remarking worriedly, "I hadn't noticed. Well, of *course* ya can have all the blood you want, doc. Just hurry up and do what you can for him! Everything else can take care of itself later, okay?"

"That's what we planned to do, Gojyo," Zan answered gently then smiled at him kindly as she reached for a diagnostic kit from her case and said, "Why don't you let Kiko get you something clean to put on and perhaps make us all some tea. It's going to be quite awhile before we're done here and the blood typing should be done shortly."

With a concerned frown which was followed by a silent wish he could do more than stay out of the way, the elder of the two crimson-haired males glanced at the younger one and asked, "So, kid, got any Darjeeling? I'd rather have whisky right about now, but your 'auntie' might not want my blood if I got any more alcohol mixed in it than I already had at the bar."

The ten year old peered up at him and answered knowingly, "I doubt that would matter at this point, mister. He's bleeding all over the floor and if Aunt Zan says you're a match, most likely she'll suck as much blood out of you as she can." Kiko shrugged and padded off towards the kitchen while commenting only half-interestedly, "'Course, if it turns out he really is at least partially youkai, the same goes for me. Our kind of blood's hard to come by on short notice in this area and I'm type O, universal donor and all that crap."

"Well, *damn*!" Gojyo responded, impressed and more than a little frightened for the boy who so casually dealt with the fact that a man was most likely dying on the same table where he'd eaten dinner that night. Then, as if an afterthought, he asked, "Um, but do you have to do that often? Donate your blood on demand, I mean."

The boy froze where he was before turning slowly to cast an icy glare at the much taller half-breed before growling, "Whatever my guardian asks of me I *freely* give! Aunt Zan didn't *have* to take me in, but she did anyway and if there's ever *anything* I can do for her, I *will*! So watch what you say, understand?!" The flare of anger in his scarlet-eyes seemed familiar and before the nineteen year old could realize it reminded him all too well of his older sibling, the boy turned once more and disappeared into the kitchen.

Snorting softly and running a hand through hair he just now realized had blood in it from his unconscious habit of playing with it when he was nervous, Gojyo muttered, "Must be damned nice to have someone love you so much that they'd do anything for you like that." He shook his head and sighed, wondering where his half-brother was after all the years they'd spent apart and added unhappily, "I'll probably never know what that feels like again, will I?"

Stepping into the kitchen and forcing a smile onto his face that he certainly didn't feel, Gojyo accepted the robe the boy gave him before getting slightly cleaned up as per instructions and then helping make the tea.

Eventually, it was determined that the patient was indeed compatible in all regards with both of the half-breeds since Gonou had AB blood which contained traces of youkai elements that didn't seem to match his appearance. Both Gojyo and Kiko would be pressed into service as blood donors and the serendipitous presence of the two of them proved crucial for the almost fatally wounded man's survival.

Hours passed as the pair of physicians toiled through the night working to repair damaged organs and then faced the daunting task of pulling the remaining skin on their patient's abdomen back together enough to enclose their hard work. There would be a considerable scar left behind that would flaw Hakkai's otherwise exquisite physical appearance, yet there was little to be done about it short of a skin graft that was obviously out of the question at the time. Years later, the disfiguring scar would be a constant reminder of his failure to protect the one he loved like a sister if not more, and it would be a source of pain and sorrow that would require substantial effort to overcome.

The rain petered off during the night and when dawn broke above the small village, doctors Zan and Long carefully placed not only their now recovering patient but also the two unconscious blood donors into beds in the woman's home hoping for the best. Then they quietly set about the task of cleaning up the massive amounts of blood and tissue left after their surgical efforts, discarding soiled rags as negligently as they did the portions of skin and small intestine that were no longer functional.

The sun's rays diffused through lingering clouds and cast flame-like streaks into the sky above the small village somewhere in the middle of the proverbial nowhere of an unnamed version of China.

Whether or not the emerald-eyed brunette would recover completely was beyond anyone's knowledge at the time yet it was a foregone conclusion since the divine power of Kanzeon bosatsu would allow nothing less. The real mystery was something far deeper and utterly unresolved since the goddess hadn't given it any thought and that was what the ultimate nature of the relationship between the injured man and his rescuer was to become. After all, they were destined to make a grand quest together with two other unique individuals who were as emotionally lost as they themselves were. Why should a divine power worry over the interpersonal details among her pawns so early in the game?

Was it too much to hope that any of them might find a bit of happiness as a result of this first of several fateful encounters?

Or did a power greater than Kanzeon bosatsu hold command over their inner struggles and intend to test them to their fullest long before their legendary journey to the west could even be begun three years in the future?

*****

To be continued.

Author's Notes:

[1] Please note that I have tried to stay as close to the anime as possible regarding Gojyo's notorious sex life, something that will play a major role in this story as it unfolds before you. I have no intention of making him sound like a slut here, however, and so I thank the kind readers in advance for keeping in mind that there's overt comments about his sexuality--as well as almost everyone else's!--heavily sprinkled throughout the series. Then again, when Sanzo arrived at the village where Gojyo was taking care of Gonou, he was immediately hit on by some unnamed male character so I think it's safe to say that this community tends towards being hentai, ne?

[2] Direct quotes from the series are as per my fansubs and may or may not be accurate since I couldn't retranslate all of them. Also, in episode 15, Gojyo's comments about the level of medical care that Gonou received seemed way too small and insufficient to the task of keeping him alive considering the level of trauma required to induce a prolonged comatose state. Therefore, I've invented some qualified doctors and set up a situation that's hopefully more realistic as well as simply dripping with angst and yaoi/shonen ai potential.

[3] Regarding the names for the original characters in this story: I fear my knowledge of traditional Chinese names is sadly lacking and I hope these are at least close enough to work. As for the purpose of these characters in the fic in the first place, I prefer to avoid using too many OCs whenever possible, but the scenes I'm covering here were for the most part left as unrevealed back-story in the series and I felt they deserved a closer look.

[4] Have you noticed that in the anime it's almost always a human female and a youkai male who unite to generate half-breed offspring? While that begs the question as to what wonderful thing makes a youkai male a better lover than a human one, it also caused me to want to be different and make it the other way around for Kiko's parents. I know, I get too caught up in the details at times, but I just thought I'd mention it.

[5] Those of you familiar with my work know I find blood type far too much fun to *not* utilize in a story and since Minekura-sensei included it for these bishounen, I might as well use that information to mess up their lives a little more, ne? Um, does anyone know these statistics for Kougaiji and/or Dokugakuji? They might come in handy someday for another story, so thanks in advance.

[6] Please note that this is based on an unexpected observation in episode 15. I didn't believe it at first since I doubted there was time after he killed all those youkai for the man who would become Hakkai to stop somewhere and get the inhibitors while en route to collapse in front of Gojyo. However, since the series creators gave them to him and this isn't a continuity glitch that I'm causing, I'll just go ahead and include them here as a convenient plot device. Oh, and a request: If anyone can correct me on the naming of these items, please do so as gently as possible. My fansubs are from several different groups and the references as well as naming conventions shift from tape to tape.

Please be advised: Part 1 will be posted alone.

Originally posted: 08 June 2002 ~5:00am EDT

Revised version posted: 04 September 2002 ~1:30am EDT