Saiyuki: Within Reach

Saiyuki fic: Within Reach

***

Despite Goku’s excitement over going to visit Hakkai and Gojyo, and Sanzo’s strong desire to avoid the paperwork piling up on his desk, they’d still managed to be late arriving at their friends’ home.

When the little monkey started banging his fist against the door Sanzo didn’t even have time to hit him and say that there’s no way in hell he was paying for another door before Gojyo opened said door and dragged them both inside.

"Dammit, what took you so long, now we have less time!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sanzo demanded. Fortunately for Gojyo, he had released the monk’s robes, but continued to hold Goku in a headlock and dragged the kid over to the table. "And where’s Hakkai?"

"Oh, he had to go back to town," the kappa answered as he set his prisoner in a chair and walked around to the other side of the table. "Turns out some of the produce he bought today was... less than fresh. He went to speak to the guy about it."

The look on Sanzo’s face mirrored Gojyo’s own feelings, that both were glad to currently be where Hakkai wasn’t.

"Alright, I think it’s high time I taught you a new game. This," Gojyo explained, spreading his arms out in a grand gesture over the tile-covered table, "is Mahjong."

"Mah... jong?" Goku repeated, leaning forward to get a better look at the tiles. They were all lined up in neat rows. There were a lot of them, some looked the same, others didn’t. Goku thought they were pretty as he picked one up to examine it more closely.

"Yeah. Hey, Your Holiness, get your ass over here, I’m only sayin’ this once."

Sanzo folded his arms over his chest, making a point of refusing Gojyo’s order. "I already know how to play, moron."

There was a pause before Gojyo replied, "Man, you really are a poor excuse for a monk." He turned back to his new pupil, making a point of ignoring Sanzo’s glare. "Listen up, monkey."

"I’m not a monkey!"

The half-breed started moving tiles around. "You remember when Hakkai taught you Rummy, right?" With Goku’s nod, he continued. "It’s kinda like that, you’ve gotta make sets with your tiles. Four sets of three, plus a pair. You draw a tile, then discard one, until you’ve got a complete hand."

Goku smiled. "That sounds easy!"

"For starters, yeah. Look at the tiles. You got three suits: Dots, Bamboo, and Characters, from one to nine, and there’s four of each. See?" He pushed three identical tiles forward. "A set of three like this is a pung, and four of ‘em is a kong. And a run like this," Goyjo gathered more tiles in front of Goku, "is called a chow. Got that?"

Goku stared down at the tiles. "Uhh..."

Sanzo smirked, certain the kappa would lose his patience and snap, but instead, Gojyo just repeated his explanation and soon Goku was putting together different sets on his own. Then Gojyo went on to explain the wind and dragon tiles, and how they gave you points.

The monk sat back and watched the lesson. He already knew all this, but there wasn’t anything else to do until Hakkai got back and they could have dinner. While he grudgingly admitted that the kappa was doing a somewhat decent job explaining the basics, Sanzo would obviously have to fill in some of the finer subtleties of the game.

For a few moments, he wondered how the other monks would react to mahjong in the temple and allowed himself a small smile.

"What the hell are you smilin’ about?"

Sanzo snapped out of his daydream to see Gojyo giving him a dirty look, which he promptly returned. "You should stick to poker, it suits you better."

Gojyo stepped towards him. "You wanna say that again?"

"Sure, do you need me to use smaller words?"

The redhead balled up his fist and took another step forward. Then he stopped and turned back around with a chuckle. "Nah, I’ll take your loss as an apology."

"Keep dreaming."

Gojyo smirked, ruffling Goku’s hair. "Okay, so that’s how you play, brat."

"Don’t call me a brat!" Goku shouted, pulling his head away from Gojyo’s hand. "And I got it! Come on, let’s play. And I’ll win!" He stood up, putting one foot on the chair, pointing dramatically at his declared opponent.

Gojyo just laughed as he sat down. "I’m sure you’ll play fine, but winnin’ ’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish."

At the mention of fish, Goku’s stomach rumbled and he flopped back down in the chair. "I’m hungry! When’s Hakkai getting back, can’t we eat without him?"

"No! Idiot!" Sanzo hit Goku over the head with his paper fan. It continued to astound him, not only the extent of the boy’s bottomless pit of a stomach, but the speed at which he lost focus at the mere mention of food.

Gojyo looked at the clock. "Hakkai should be back pretty soon. But I think we have time for a few practice hands." He began to turn the tiles over and shuffle them, urging Goku to do the same. Convincing Sanzo to help was a futile effort.

Gojyo put up his hand of tiles, demonstrating to Goku how to do it without revealing any. "Let’s see how well you paid attention. And don’t worry about figurin’ out the score, I’ll do that."

"But I’m gettin’ a lot better at addin’ an’ stuff!" Goku quickly defended his growing math skills.

Gojyo grinned. "Alright. First, after you win, you take how many points your hand is worth, then you double that based on how many fan multipliers you have in your hand. So, if your hand’s worth, say, forty points, with three fan, how much ’s that worth?" He rested his chin on his palm, looking expectantly at the little monkey sitting across from him.

Goku sat, wide-eyed, then looked down and did some quick work with his fingers before looking back up at Gojyo. "Okay, you do the score."

Sanzo rolled his eyes. "You’d better not try cheating. I know how to calculate the score."

"As any good monk should," Gojyo replied instantly. He turned back to Goku before the blond could retaliate with more than a grunt. "Ready to go, monkey?"

Goku nodded once before snapping, "I’m not a monkey!" He stood up and slammed his hands on the table, causing several of the tiles to jump. "Why do I have to learn this game anyway?"

Gojyo leaned back, including a fuming Sanzo in the conversation. "Well, if you’d rather keep playing cards with Hakkai."

The silence was complete as each person in the room went over those words in their head and came to the conclusion of what they meant.

Goku sat back down. His outburst had knocked over his hand, so Gojyo began reshuffling. Sanzo sat in the chair next to Goku, lighting up a cigarette. As they set up the wall and began to deal out the tiles, the three of them turned renewed energy into teaching and learning the game.

***

Hakkai hurried his pace as he approached home. He’d tried to be quick about his errand (the man who’d sold him the low-quality produce was very happy to replace his groceries after Hakkai explained the situation) and none of it actually needed to be cooked, however, knowing that those three were alone together caused him to worry.

"I’m sorry I’m late," he said as soon as he opened the door. The house was strangely quiet, and for a second Hakkai wondered if Sanzo and Goku had even arrived yet.

No sooner had he thought that then Goku came bounding up to him. "Hakkai! Guess what!"

"What?" Hakkai tilted his head, wondering what had gotten Goku so excited that the first words out of his mouth weren’t ‘When’s dinner?’

"I got those," Gojyo said, taking the grocery bag from Hakkai and putting it in the kitchen. Sanzo was clearing something from the table.

"What’s going on?" Hakkai asked. His three companions seemed unusually peaceful for being in the same room together. His worries from before were replaced by new ones.

"Nothin’" Gojyo told him, leaving the kitchen to let Hakkai finish dinner and moving to set the now-empty table. "By the way, you play Mahjong, right?"

Hakkai looked over his shoulder. He could see traces of Gojyo’s smile behind that curtain of red hair. Goku was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, and Sanzo seemed to be short a few lines between his eyes.

The human-turned-youkai forced a smile. "Yes, I’ve played a few times."

***

After dinner, Hakkai couldn’t help but think of how the meal had gone more smoothly than others the four of them had eaten together. Goku even helped him clear the table, after eating most of the food himself, of course. Although Hakkai still wondered what had brought on this behavior, he didn’t want to jinx anything by asking.

They returned to the table where Gojyo was setting out the Mahjong tiles. Hakkai took his seat and helped shuffle.

As Sanzo looked over his hand, he glanced over at the mastermind behind this whole scheme. Purple eyes met red, and a single silent statement passed between them: You’d better be right about this.

Gojyo hoped he was. He kept a close eye on Hakkai’s discards, but his roommate seemed to be doing well. At least, he wasn’t making a lot of the beginner’s mistakes Goku was. He’d even declared Riichi. Damn, if this was cards all over again, he was gonna...

"Tsumo."

Sanzo tipped over his hand to reveal all character tiles, plus a pair of East wind tiles.

Hakkai looked around the table as he handed over his counters. Everyone seemed to be smiling, even those who’d lost the hand.

Gojyo lit up a cigarette as they shuffled for the next hand. "Not bad, but don’t get cocky." He was slightly irked that it had been Sanzo who’d won, but it was only the first hand. He locked eyes with everyone at the table in turn. "There’s no tellin’ who’ll be the winner of this game."