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Tweak says, "I'm in Everywhere Meadow!"

Cephy (cephy) wrote in no_true_pair,
@ 2008-06-23 11:57:00

Entry tags:

author: cephy, crossover: ff7/saiyuki, pairing: gojyo/zack, twelve characters

"Riding Out The Storm", Saiyuki & FF7
Title: Riding Out The Storm
Author: Cephy
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII, Saiyuki
Characters: Zack, Gojyo
Rating: R for blood and implications
Warnings: Some knowledge of canon background for both series probably recommended
Prompt/challenge: Zack and Gojyo with the title "Riding Out The Storm"

He found the guy in the middle of the road-- just lying there, looking like a corpse, though from the trail behind him he'd obviously been alive enough to crawl not too long before. Gojyo tried to stop and think about it, he really did, but hell-- he must have had some sort of honour in him after all, because the idea of leaving someone to bleed out in the rain just felt kinda wrong. It really was a damned pathetic way to go.

Besides. Maybe he was a bit curious. Or bored. Or both.

The guy didn't twitch the entire time Gojyo was cleaning him up-- swabbing off the mud, then mopping up the blood that came out from under it, then wrapping bandages around the whole mess before going outside for a smoke. There was a corner of the porch where one could sit on the railing and lean back against the door, and still be sheltered just enough by the roof to not get dripped on. Gojyo settled there, fingers automatically flicking the lighter while his thoughts wandered back inside.

It was bad, no mistaking that. The guy'd been shot, and more than once-- hell, more than a few times-- and though he looked like he was pretty strong it wouldn't be an easy thing to heal from. If he even woke up. And that was a pretty gruesome thought, all of a sudden, because what the hell was Gojyo doing to do with a corpse in his bed?

He ended up drifting there on the front step, not quite asleep, breathing the scent of rain as it mingled with the tang of smoke.

He woke again, some time later, at the sound of a shout.

The man was curled in on himself on the bed, blanket skewed as if he'd tried to flail and only ended up hurting-- the sound of laboured breathing was loud in the room. When Gojyo stepped closer, though, the man's head snapped up, eyes hard and narrow and-- well, he was only imagining that they glowed, surely, but it was a damned neat trick nonetheless.

"Take it easy," he tried, not moving any closer. "You want any of those holes to heal, you might not want to move around so much."

"Where's Cloud?" the man rasped.

Gojyo blinked. "Nobody out there but you, man."

For a moment, the guy didn't move, glaring like he thought Gojyo was lying-- then his eyes blinked shut and the moment was gone. Something flashed across the stranger's face-- pain, of course, and something uncomfortably like guilt mixed in with a healthy dose of teeth-gritting bull-stubborn determination. Moving slowly, the guy shoved the blanket the rest of the way down and made as if to put his feet to the floor-- turned white as a priest's undershorts when he started sitting up, but he kept going anyway until Gojyo took a few quick steps forward to push him back down.

"Stop it, fuck-- I spent too long cleaning you up to have you go and bleed on everything again. Look--" He freed one hand, pointed to the window where the sheeting rain was still visible. "You're not going to be able to go anywhere in that anyway, even if you were in one piece. So just-- wait, all right?"

He really thought the guy was going to just ignore him-- stubborn types, you could always tell the ones that had too much responsibility for their own good. So he pressed down a bit on one shoulder, and only felt a little guilty when the guy's arms buckled out from under him.

The guy actually looked surprised, which was more than a little funny-- did he really expect anything different? He did look like he was maybe convinced to stay still, though, at least for the moment, so Gojyo eased back to standing as he gave in to his curiousity. "How'd you get full of holes, anyway? You remember?"

"I was-- a friend of mine. We were both being held captive, I tried to--" Paused, winced a different kind of wince, lifted a hand to his ear where Gojyo noticed for the first time the three little silver clips hidden amidst his hair. Ah. He'd wondered where the demon stink was coming from, since he'd already tossed the guy's clothes out to be burned. "I have to go back," the guy went on, sounding a little stronger, or maybe just more desperate. "I don't know where-- he might still be out there, and I promised--" He looked towards the door again, though it was obvious that whatever strength he had left was fading fast, and his eyes were drooping shut even as he spoke.

"Take it easy," Gojyo said again, tugging the blanket up off the floor and draping it haphazardly over the bed again. "Wait 'til morning, anyway. Maybe the storm'll be over by then."

He glanced up and saw a slack face and closed eyes, and he snorted and he straightened up. Chewed his lip for a second as he looked down and wondered what the hell he was doing, just a little.

The door's hinges creaked in the damp as he opened them again, fingers moving from pocket to lips to lighter with no thought required. Sparks flared as he lit up, and faded as he stared out into the rain.

(Post a new comment)

	chichirinoda 2008-06-24 01:59 am UTC (link)
	Gah... this is just too cruel! All it does is make me want more - why is Zack a demon? Was he always a demon because it's a crossover, or what? And who had him and Cloud captive? And where is Cloud? T_T And what happens next!? Cruel, I tell you. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-24 02:18 am UTC (link)
	laughing No, see, the moment I finished scrawling down my notes for this one, I was immediately assaulted by the same questions. Which is how I ended up with half an outline for a prequel in which Cloud and Zack are being held by the sadistic youkai scientist Hojo, who wants to see if the legends about turning humans into youkai are true.... (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	chichirinoda 2008-06-24 03:02 am UTC (link)
	ILU~ I can't wait to see that! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	chibirisuchan 2008-06-27 08:13 am UTC (link)
	ears perk up more ficstuff? awesome! (but now I also wonder what's happened to poor Hakkai in the AU he got dumped into when Zack got yoinked for his role here...) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-28 05:17 pm UTC (link)
	Hakkai: stares at Buster Sword Oh dear. snicker Though, y'know, I might just give good money to see him face down Hojo. XD Hojo would be plotting and rambling and making vague threats, and Hakkai would just... give a polite little "hmm?" and smile that smile that means he's thinking how best to murder you in your sleep. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	stopthatgirl7 2008-06-24 02:56 am UTC (link)
	Zack as Hakkai is...very braintrippy, oh man. Braintrippy in the interesting way. And is it bad that I think Zack would be mighty hot with all those vines of youkai!Hakkai? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-24 05:52 am UTC (link)
	NOT AT ALL. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

stopthatgirl7
2008-06-24 06:03 am UTC (link)

And just THINK about what Zack would do with all those vines. Tentacles would have NOTHING on those babies.

And this kinda makes you wonder, if Zack is the Hakkai-type, if Cloud maybe didn't make it. He's sorta in the Kanan position, if you take it far enough, and that's mildly creepy and would give Zack the proper amount of Hakkai-esque angst.

And dammit, now I want to read Saiyuki, and I just got to work. *cry*

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cephy
2008-06-24 06:07 am UTC (link)

... oh, hell, I hadn't thought of it from that angle. *_*

I... well, quite frankly, I don't want to kill Cloud. -_- So, I figure Zack got them out, got shot, Cloud wandered off in a daze to Midgar-- er, Shangri-La on his own. When Zack heals and backtracks to the castle, he finds it burned down, like Hakkai did, and assumes Cloud dead... for now. Mwaha.

Now if I could just figure out where Hakkai now fits into this story....

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stopthatgirl7
2008-06-24 06:26 am UTC (link)

That was the first thing I thought of, truth be told--if Zack fits in as Hakkai, the one he was trying to protect has to kind of...yeah.

But if Cloud wandered off in a daze to Shangri-la, that puts him with Kougaiji, and oh my. THAT would be messy when they met up again. Like Gojyo and his brother.

Also, that would mean Nii. Um. *fears* Can Hojo be Nii? One mad scientist is enough, really.

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	cephy 2008-06-24 05:08 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, yes, the obvious parallel is that Cloud died in the castle. But as previously state, I am a wuss for killing characters, especially ones that would make Zack sad to lose. ... wasn't Shangri-la Sanzo's home? Maybe I'm getting my towns mixed. Either way, oh god no, I wouldn't want to subject Cloud to Nii either. o_0 (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

stopthatgirl7
2008-06-24 06:03 pm UTC (link)

I thought he was from Chang'an, but I might be remembering very, very wrong, since I haven't read Saiyuki in over a year, thanks to my manga being in one place and me in another. *cry* I might be confused as well because with all the Chinese I've been looking up lately, one was the old Chinese name for India, which was basically "Paradise." So yeah, I can see how I got there from here.

The idea of Nii--or Gyuumaou's creepyass wife--getting their hands on not-all-there Cloud makes me want to, like get Sanzo's gun and shoot them first. Because yes, oh god no.

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	cephy 2008-06-24 06:27 pm UTC (link)
	No, I could be very off, too. Obviously, I need to re-read the series. Darn! ;) shudder (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stopthatgirl7 2008-06-24 06:56 pm UTC (link)
	We both need to reread! Alas! The hardship! XD ...and it occurs to me that there might also be the whole "translation" thing happening, too--I read it in Japanese, and the translator might have changed "Chang'an" to "Shangra-La," since most Westerners don't know "Chang'an." Orrrr just my faulty, craptastic memory. Only one way to be sure! pounces on manga Yeah. NO (Reply to this) (Parent)

megpie71
2008-06-25 05:29 pm UTC (link)

Okay, from memory (and my copies of the English translation), Sanzo and Goku were living in the Keiun temple near the Palace of the Setting Sun in the city of Chang'an in the land of Shangri-La. Gojyo and Hakkai were living in a house on the outskirts of Chang'an (this is a guess - the house is shown to be a bit isolated from the rest of the city, and the implications are it isn't in a sub-urban area).

My problem with having Zack run the Hakkai role in Saiyuki is that Zack Fair at this point isn't being run by guilt. He's more driven by responsibility than anything else, and as a result he doesn't have the same sort of self-destructive need to end things that Cho Gounou had. If I were going to slot Zack into a Saiyuki-style team, I'd be putting him down in the Goku role. Sephiroth would be more the Sanzo type, which leaves Angeal as Hakkai and Genesis as Gojyo.

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stopthatgirl7
2008-06-25 06:30 pm UTC (link)

That's why I was thrown--since I'm reading it in Japanese, yeah, it uses different names. In the Japanese, they live in Chang'an in 桃源郷 (Tougenkyou, from 桃花源 Taohuayuan), which is a mythological Chinese utopia. And India is called "天竺国" (Tianlan-guo/Tenjiku-koku) which was the old name for it, and means "Country of the Heavenly Orchid," so yeah, I see how I assumed "Shangri-la," especially since Chang'an was a real place until the Ming Dynasty (it's still around, the name was just changed to Xi'an, "Western Peace").

...um, I'm kind of nerding out now, aren't I. I'll stop. ^^;; At any rate, it was my bad because of lost-in-translation type things. (Good on the Saiyuki translator, though--Shangri-la is really good for Tougenkyou.)

Angeal as Hakkai makes my brain hurt. It works, but oh, god, there's just something kind of wrong somehow, and I can't put my finger on what. Ditto with Genesis as Gojyo. Genesis wishes he was as cool as Gojyo.

Zack as Hakkai works really well here, I think, if you run with the assumption he thinks Cloud is dead--he'd feel like he had failed and I think the guilt would eat him alive. Just look at how he was over Angeal. Knowing he had failed Cloud, and so much worse than he had when they were first captured, would destroy him.

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	dogmatix 2008-06-24 03:35 am UTC (link)
	____ oooooooo, youkai!Zack is made of awesome. And, where is/what happened to Cloud? o.o sits up and begs for more (Reply to this) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-24 05:53 am UTC (link)
	laughs I'm gonna end up writing more of this, aren't I? Gee, darn. My only issue is-- well, I like Hakkai, I don't want to just replace him. But if Zack is essentially in his place, how does he fit in? Hmm... Also, thanks! :D (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stopthatgirl7 2008-06-24 06:05 am UTC (link)
	Well, everyone likes Hakkai, because Hakkai is full of awesome. I just wonder how Sanzo would refrain from killing his group if EVERYONE in the group was a bouncing idiot. His fan-arm would get tired from all the exercise it was getting. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-24 06:10 am UTC (link)
	He is! Also, Jeep would need to be a lot bigger.... Mph, this is the problem with messing around with Saiyiki. All of the characters are so intertwined with each other that it's hard to take anyone out or add anyone in. They just work, y'know? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	stopthatgirl7 2008-06-24 06:34 am UTC (link)
	Jeep would love Zack. He would love him so, so much. I can see it perfectly. Saiyuki really is one of those rare things where everything just works. Minekura rocks like that, especially when you consider how she kind of took the source material and put it through a blender and then danced on what came out. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-24 05:09 pm UTC (link)
	It really is. It works beautifully, for all of the blending. And I loves it, precious. XD (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	If you meet Buddha by the road, kill him. stopthatgirl7 2008-06-24 06:09 pm UTC (link)
	I about DIED laughing when I realized the "fake" Sanzo-ikkou in the series were actually spot-on for the characters in the original "Journey to the West." Minekura has spoiled me so badly. hearts The Sanzo-ikkou are all so beautifully broken, and yet not broken when they're together. (Reply to this) (Parent)

dogmatix
2008-06-24 08:00 pm UTC (link)

Yay! :D (I tried to post this last night, but the compy was being weird or something, so apologies if you get this twice)

Well, you could set this pre-series, where Gojyo hasn't met Hakkai yet, or post-series, and Hakkai's just not there at the moment(probably send on an errand by Sanzo), and when he comes back he asks politely and amusedly if Gojyo has a talent for picking up strays during storms or if he has to work at it, and Gojyo blinks, recovers, and then grins that Zack's guts hadn't been hanging out so he hadn't made the connection to Hakkai.

Hmm, or for a blend, you could have the group on their way west run into Cho Gonou and his wife, maybe spend the night there and have it be really surreal/creepy for no reason anyone can figure out. :D

Or Gojyo could be the only one of the Saiyuki cast who made it whole-cloth, and the other roles are filled by FFVII peeps, which.. y'know, he doesn't fit in any possible characterization way, but Sephiroth is kinda the not-really-known one-of-a-kind type and he does have an improbable weapon that he can materialize on demand which would kinda put him in the 'Goku' category. Only I can't really think of anyone who'd fill the Sanzo requirements... oh. Ohhhhh dear. *coffs and looks over at the beaming flower-girl* Uhhh, I think my brain just broke. XD;;; Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead, yo. (oh, and Cloud could be kinda like Jeep, maybe, able to get them chocobos from the wild at a moment's notice, or turns into a chocobo or. Uh. X3;; Something like that? )

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	cephy 2008-06-24 08:53 pm UTC (link)
	... no, y'know, I think Aeris would have to be Kanzeon. XD XD (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dogmatix 2008-06-25 08:01 am UTC (link)
	...t-this is true. If only because the thought of both Kanzeon and Aeris together in one universe is like to make it implode. Or explode. Or something. From sheer awesome. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-25 09:25 pm UTC (link)
	Can't you just see them sitting there in Heaven/the Lifestream, watching their favourite mortals? :D (Reply to this) (Parent)

	puella_nerdii 2008-06-24 08:05 am UTC (link)
	Poor Zack. Poor poor wibbly determined youkai Zack. And Gojyo -- your voice for him is spot on. I'm particularly fond of "whiter than a priest's undershorts." I, um, want to hug them both a lot now. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	cephy 2008-06-24 05:10 pm UTC (link)
	Hugs are good! I'm sure they'd appreciate it. ^^ Thanks! (Reply to this) (Parent)