This is my first submission to MediaMiner... ^^; After being turned down by rpgamer several years ago, I thought I'd never write actual Fanfiction again, but lo and behold, I figured I'd give it a shot. Please be gentle. ^^; If by any chance you'd like to see more of this ficcy, I actually DO have some stuff in mind to keep the story going… but I'd need to see a comment or two to know someone'd actually read it. ^^; yup. Happy reading; flames and comments can be left where such things go.

PS~ In this chapter, things in // //s are flashbacks. In future chapters, things in italics are in flashacks, since I can't seem to get italics to work in this bloody chapter. Yes Indeed.

Cold Beer, Cold Rain

Genjo Sanzo had yet again come to find that he strongly disliked the Gods, most blatantly for their disturbing sense of humor. As if putting him on a stupid journey west with three blathering pieces of excess baggage wasn't bad enough, the Gods had to make sure that said baggage caused all the trouble they could muster in the process.

The Sanzo-Ikkou's journey west had yet again been halted. Sanzo, for one, had noticed the extreme lack of concentration that Cho Hakkai had developed while driving Hakuryu, and while Hakkai had denied feeling under the weather, the healer's sudden collapse at the wheel (an incident that would've sent the entire party flying over a nearby cliff had Hakuryu not possessed a brain beneath the hood) clearly showed that the party needed to make a sudden stop at the next inn.

Naturally, it was a concerned Sha Goyjo that ended up delivering the final verdict, declaring with the stomp of his foot that the party could not continue moving until Hakkai overcame his fever. No less than twenty-four hours later, the dried up water sprite had caught the illness as well, and was left sharing the room with Hakkai, recovering alongside his friend.

It wasn't so much that Sanzo exactly minded being stuck in an comfy hotel that had quite a helpful store (helpful as in selling the monks exact brands of cigarettes and beer) right across from it, but rather the fact that the inn happened to be a rather popular one, with only left only two rooms open, so since one room was reserved for the sick and recovering, the other was shared between Sanzo and…

"I call the bed!" exclaimed Son Goku, as he sprang in his monkey-like fashion unto the only bed in the room, trashing about in an amused child-like manner that would've made Sanzo think Goku was having a seizure, if he didn't know the boy well enough.

"URUSAI!" bellowed the blonde-haired monk, brandishing his harisen and delivering a resounding smack to the monkey's head. The blow was hard enough to send the golden-eyed chimp straight to the floor, where he sat, rather plaintively, his expression suddenly downtrodden from the cheerfulness it had been displaying just moments before.

Sanzo raised an eyebrow in consideration, glaring at the monkey with amethyst orbs," I didn't hit you that hard, baka saru." In reflexive agitation, Sanzo gave out a low grunt, while he slipped a cigarette out of his robe and lit it. Goku began to tilt his head backwards in order to look at his master, with a sudden dumbfounded look that could only mean ONE thing.

"Sanzo, I'm hun-" A loud cackle of thunder cut off the brown-haired-boy in less than a second, his golden eyes sliding now towards the window.

The monk turned around a little faster than he might've liked, to glower darkly at the window. His fingers were hanging a few inches away from where he usually kept his gun, but the blonde was quick to remedy this notion, letting his hand fall plainly into a inwardly-tense but casual position, as not to worry the monkey.

"Nee, Sanzo, it's just the thunder," Goku piped up, the comment too obvious for Sanzo's tastes, as Goku soon found himself face-to-face with the harisen, which had been thrown at him with striking precision, thus leaving a bit of pain, and a stinging read mark across the baka saru's face. "ITAAAAAAAAAI! OI, SANZO! WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR!?"

Not hesitating for a moment, and now without his harisen, Sanzo withdrew his gun and pointed it plainly at Goku, readying the weapon with a menacing click. Despite the normalness to his action, the monk's voice seemed to be a bit more angry than it normally would have been, given the monkey's antics," Urusai."

Looking to the gun, and then to the blonde, Goku fell into an uneasy silence. He remembered Goyjo and Hakkai telling him how much Sanzo hated the rain, but he'd never gotten a good explanation as to why. Now, looking straight into the barrels of Sanzo's gun, it seemed to be just as bad a time for asking as ever. Therefore, the baka saru put the inquiry out anyway.

"Ne, Sanzo...," the monkey began, tone slightly lowered to show he was serious. "Why do you hate the rain so much?"

The ill-mannered monk did not lower his gun, nor did he fire. His free hand, however, twitched once as it rose to his lips, removing the cigarette from his mouth, allowing him to breathe out a cloud of smoke as if it were incense. He reminded himself he had no bullets to waste on the monkey, and that he didn't want any unnecessary company to come up, investigating the source of the gunshots. Hanging unto these logical thoughts, Sanzo finally relinquished his gun back to its keeping place.

"Get me a beer," he grated out, in blatant disregard for the question that had been inquired, and henceforth turned to look out the window at the source of his misery, grinding his teeth as another explosion of thunder serenaded across the skies. He hated the rain. He REALLY fucking hated the rain. So much so, that the monk hardly realized he'dbegun to stare off into nothingness, his memories splintering across his mind like the raindrops hitting the windowpane.

//Kouryuu stared at his blood stained hands before looking up with the expression of a broken porcelain doll, "I couldn't save him."//

Amethyst orbs snapped back into focus as something cold was pressed into his hand. Sanzo, slightly startled, looked down at the concerned chimp that was now pressing a freezing cold can of beer into his hand.

"…I tried a warm one from our supplies, but you didn't take it, so I ran across the street and bought you a cold one," Goku explained, quietly, and it was now that Sanzo noticed the boy was drenched to the bone.

"Goku…"