Disclaimer: I don't own Gensomaden Saiyuki. If I did, it would be full of blatant yaoi. Or something. ^^; And Sanzo would be my bitch. Yes. Ah, sweet dreams…

Thank you, amadea, for your review. ^^; You are very kind, and I'm sorry; I'd messed up when I was uploading, and I thought I'd fixed it, but apparently not.. Chapter 1 should be working again, now. Thank you.

Gallatica, thank you, too, for your review, but define action? ^^; Things get darker and more violent in the next couple chapters, and I'm still debating exactly where to go after that. I have Youkai on my mind, though. >:3

Warning: Things start getting out of hand in this chapter. (As in, there is alcohol-induced violence, darker themes.)^^; The fic goes from being slightly lighthearted, to slightly dark, in a heartbeat. I simply don't think Sanzo has an iron stomach… Even he can get drunk sometimes, and I don't necessarily think he'd be a funny drunk, either. Therefore… yes… I'm not quite sure what rating this fic falls under anymore, weather it be PG-13 or R. I'm sorry if anyone stops reading it because of it's sudden flip in mood and rating. You have my sincerest apologies, and I'm sorry to loose you. ^^; It's my first fanfic on mediaminer, and I'm not used to posting by rating… if you think this all should be rated differently, please let me know, and thank you to those of you who are still reading. ^^;;

Cold Beer, Cold Rain (Chapter 4)

By, AmethystGleam

Son Goku awoke the next morning (though the ominous dark of the room did not make it seem to be such a time of day), only to find himself alone.

"Sanzo?" The call met nothing but darkness, and, slightly unnerved, the monkey shot to his feet, fumbling around wildly for a trigger to the room's lights. His eyes not quite adjusted, the baka saru ended up accidentally stubbing his toe on one of the bedposts, thus causing him to let out a loud curse as he bounced around the room on the foot that did NOT feel like it had just been run over by Hakuyru's Jeep form. The monkey's odd sort of morning exercise was interrupted by a crash of thunder, a sound that quickly drew Goku's attentions to the nearby window.

"It's still raining..," Goku murmured under his breath, letting the sound of the storm finally sink in alongside his uneasiness. "All the more reason..." Voice trailing off in unspoken concern for his master, Goku, ignoring the dulling pain in his foot, made his way with some difficulty to the door, opening it and stepping into the surprisingly empty hallway.

~**~

Genjo Sanzo had been sitting in a dark corner of the inn's downstairs tavern for about two hours now.

After watching the rain for far too long, the monk had made his way down to the tavern, and, 3 packs of smokes, not to mention 13 drinks later, the blonde was still sitting there, forehead in hand, elbow on the bar top. Thanks to his bangs, hand, and lack of robe, the barkeep had not yet identified his blonde patron's identity. Furthermore, to the barkeep, at the sound of an earthquake coming down the stairs, and into the bar; the sight of a messy-haired brunette sporting a golden coronet over where a chakra COULD be, wearing the robes of a Sanzo, seemed to be a more-likely Sanzo-candidate than the slumping, cigarette-smoking, beer-guzzling man before him.

"Master Sanzo!" exclaimed the barkeep, causing both Sanzo and Goku's heads to jerk up at the same time, but for different reasons.

"Where?" both monk and monkey inquired, one in a slightly more gruff tone than the other, as if the unhappy Sanzo were ready start a fight.

"Why there!" the barkeep bounded in cheerful reply, pointing quite bluntly at Goku, of whom blinked several times before bursting into utterly raucous laughter.

"Me? Sanzo?" the monkey was laughing so hard that he nearly choked on his words, especially when the harisen, deftly thrown by the not so friendly drunk across the room, smashed with eerie precision, into his face. At the baka saru's reflexive exclamation of pain, the entire room stopped their merriment (and hangover recoveries, seeing as it WAS the morning...) to glare at Sanzo; of whom was actually drunk enough to pull his gun out at the aggravation this sort of attention caused him.

"Er...Sanzo..," Goku began, slightly concerned at Sanzo's closeness to killing innocent civilians.

"Urusai!" came the blonde's instant reply, as he tilted the gun quickly in the monkey's direction. "You're first!"

"Maa, Maa, Sanzo-houshi-sama.. You wouldn't want to waste any bullets on this, now would you?" A calm and serene voice, though slightly rough around the edges due to illness, rang out in an bit of a nervous tone from near the doorway.

The monkey wearing Sanzo's robe spun on a heel to look at the newcomer, surprised and slightly gleeful," Hakkai!" However, after a second or so worth of thinking, Goku then added, in a slightly lower voice," You should be resting..."

Cho Hakkai had graciously ignored Sanzo's motions as the monk turned his gun towards him, and smiled nevertheless," Well, Goku, I came down to fetch Gojyo and myself a bit of breakfast to take back to our room..." Both Hakkai's emerald orbs vanished as the man shut his eyes, raising one hand to hold the back of his head, and the pointer finger of his other hand raised as he tried to make an explanation," But I'm afraid there will be no breakfast for anyone if Sanzo shoots us all. Therefore, perhaps we should come back later?" A sheepish chuckle escaped the man who had just spoken.

Goku's face fell," No breakfas--" The monkey was cut off as three bullets flew just past his head, sinking into the wood of the open door behind him.

"Baka saru!" came the grunt from across the room, Sanzo's barstool crashing to the ground as the man roughly stood up. Hakkai, slightly concerned over the personality result of Sanzo's drinking binge, took a clear step away from the doorway, placing one hand on Goku's shoulder, thus drawing the monkey away from the entry to the tavern as well.

This proved to be a rather wise move, seeing as how, just moments later, Sanzo had stormed across the room, and towards the front door, a newly lit smoke between his lips, and gun clenched angrily in hand.

"Sanzo!" Goku exclaimed, making a move to follow his master, as the monk kicked open the main doors, storming out into the rain. Hakkai, however, placed both hands on the chimp's shoulders, holding him back from following the monk as well as he could.

"I think," Hakkai began, opening the eye which had his eyepiece in front of it," It would be wise of us to let Sanzo sober up a bit before we try and approach him."

"But!" the monkey cried, flailing a little against Hakkai's grip, sad to know the taller man had a point.

The whole room was now in silence, most eyes fixated upon the monkey and his healer-friend. After several moments in which nothing of further interest to the crowed occurred, the tavern went back to its normal morning hustle and bustle, but the silence between the two traveling companions remained, until Goku finally spoke up, in great disdain.

"Hakkai… Why does Sanzo hate the rain so much?"