100 Fic Challenge: Blood
Prompt Number: 17
Author: selvanic
Series: Saiyuki
Word Count: 511
Characters/Pairings: Hakkai; light Gojyo/Hakkai if you want it there
Rating: PG; for mention of violence ((c'mon guys...look at the prompt...))
Summary: It was such a specific shade of red...and only one other person had had it.
It didn't make sense. Why was her's so much thicker? Why was there so much more of it? He'd killed hundreds on his way in, had slaughtered and torn them apart, and none of them had bled this much. On the walls, on the floor, on his clothes, on his skin...And yet it still couldn't compare to what seeped from her stomach, what crept across the cold, dark, concrete, what stained the knife he'd used to get this far. Her's was brighter. Her's filled the air with the heavy scent of iron. Her's made his stomach turn and his knees go weak. Her's made him want to scream.
Even his own hadn't compared to her's. Even as he watched it pool out in front of him, as he watched the rain ease it into the ground, as he stared at where it stained his hands, it seemed...wrong. It wasn't her's. And didn't they share the same blood? Shouldn't it have been his last chance to be just as she had been?
Instead, he'd seen that red, - that vibrant, brilliant, shade of red, - on the head of a man he didn't recognize. He'd been sure it would be the last thing he'd ever see. Yet when he opened his eyes, it was there again. Complete with a matching set of sunset eyes. It had baffled him, had fascinated him. How could this man, this stranger, this interference, possess that same color? He had to know. He had to stay.
What he'd failed to count on, was just what staying would mean. He hadn't realized what the man would do for him, what the man would give up for him. It seemed that that color was a warning; anyone near him stained by that red was bound to sacrifice their lives for him. And while Gojyo's sacrifice wasn't Kanan's, it was just as baffling to him.
The man gave up everything. The women, the poker, the late nights...and even his home. Admittedly, it had taken years. It had taken their going through a series of bizarre and sometimes painful events and dealing with less than reputable people, but the redhead had let it all go. For him. Together, they'd wound up in this car, traveling with two other men and uprooting what semblance of a life they'd started to build with one another.
But things had changed. He had changed. Looking at Gojyo as the last light of the day began to die on the horizon, as the final beams of light sank out of view, he no longer saw blood in those vibrant strands. He no longer saw her dying moments. He saw something...warmer. He saw the promise of the day to come. He saw...Gojyo.
Perhaps that was why he'd made the promise to stop the bleeding he saw now. Perhaps that was why he wanted to heal others. And perhaps that was why he was so damn scared when it was Gojyo who was bleeding. The man who had saved his life had no right to lose his own.
Author: selvanic
Series: Saiyuki
Word Count: 511
Characters/Pairings: Hakkai; light Gojyo/Hakkai if you want it there
Rating: PG; for mention of violence ((c'mon guys...look at the prompt...))
Summary: It was such a specific shade of red...and only one other person had had it.
It didn't make sense. Why was her's so much thicker? Why was there so much more of it? He'd killed hundreds on his way in, had slaughtered and torn them apart, and none of them had bled this much. On the walls, on the floor, on his clothes, on his skin...And yet it still couldn't compare to what seeped from her stomach, what crept across the cold, dark, concrete, what stained the knife he'd used to get this far. Her's was brighter. Her's filled the air with the heavy scent of iron. Her's made his stomach turn and his knees go weak. Her's made him want to scream.
Even his own hadn't compared to her's. Even as he watched it pool out in front of him, as he watched the rain ease it into the ground, as he stared at where it stained his hands, it seemed...wrong. It wasn't her's. And didn't they share the same blood? Shouldn't it have been his last chance to be just as she had been?
Instead, he'd seen that red, - that vibrant, brilliant, shade of red, - on the head of a man he didn't recognize. He'd been sure it would be the last thing he'd ever see. Yet when he opened his eyes, it was there again. Complete with a matching set of sunset eyes. It had baffled him, had fascinated him. How could this man, this stranger, this interference, possess that same color? He had to know. He had to stay.
What he'd failed to count on, was just what staying would mean. He hadn't realized what the man would do for him, what the man would give up for him. It seemed that that color was a warning; anyone near him stained by that red was bound to sacrifice their lives for him. And while Gojyo's sacrifice wasn't Kanan's, it was just as baffling to him.
The man gave up everything. The women, the poker, the late nights...and even his home. Admittedly, it had taken years. It had taken their going through a series of bizarre and sometimes painful events and dealing with less than reputable people, but the redhead had let it all go. For him. Together, they'd wound up in this car, traveling with two other men and uprooting what semblance of a life they'd started to build with one another.
But things had changed. He had changed. Looking at Gojyo as the last light of the day began to die on the horizon, as the final beams of light sank out of view, he no longer saw blood in those vibrant strands. He no longer saw her dying moments. He saw something...warmer. He saw the promise of the day to come. He saw...Gojyo.
Perhaps that was why he'd made the promise to stop the bleeding he saw now. Perhaps that was why he wanted to heal others. And perhaps that was why he was so damn scared when it was Gojyo who was bleeding. The man who had saved his life had no right to lose his own.