Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Wake Up ❯ Chapter 3

When Tim returned to the Fifty-eight, he winced at the caterwauling of the current contestant. The audience actually booed him and finally applauded loudly once he finished and left the stage. “I think I need a medicinal round of alcohol myself,” Ravi said to Tim as he came up to the bar.

“Has all of it been like that?” Tim asked.

“Nah, he was the worst. ‘Scuse me, Timmeh.”

Ravi sidled over to a waving customer. Tim noticed that people might give orders to Goku when Goku worked the bar but they far preferred Ravi. Then again, Ravi moved and poured with a liquid, sinuous flair, completely different from Goku’s simply efficient style. Tim couldn’t help noticing that people more often ordered drinks that needed the top-shelf liquors from Ravi, forcing him to stretch up a little and sometimes reveal a bit of skin between his waistband and the bottom of his shirt. Tonight Ravi wore a red silk shirt, black leather pants and knee-high boots, and a belt with hanging chain links, the links swaying and shining hypnotically. Customers often jockeyed and jostled each other in competition for a smile or compliment from him. Of course everyone wanted him.

Tim didn’t know how a simple and staid college professor like himself had enticed an exotic beauty like Ravi. Moths didn’t attract butterflies. And Ravi’s appeal went beyond looks. During slow times lovelorn drinkers latched onto him as if he were a life raft, grateful for his kind heart and ability to listen. How could Tim have thought to endanger this by asking for a kiss from Sam?

But he remembered Sam on stage too. Surely it had been the stage lights above and around him that had made him seem to blaze golden like a sun, but it had still created a provocative effect. His voice had been so clear, so powerful, and pierced to the heart. Although Tim had spoken to him of Buddhism, if Sam had been reincarnated it had to be in service to a far fiercer pantheon. He’d also seemed different walking off the stage, more... there. Tim lacked the words for it.

But none of that had intimidated him against asking for a kiss as if he had every right to expect one. How odd.

“Chris didn’t do himself any favors having Sam go on first and blow everyone out of the water,” Ravi said. They often had interrupted conversations of starts and stops while Ravi worked.

“No, he didn’t. That woman you dislike put him up to it.”

“Really? Why the hell did he listen to her?”

“I don’t know. Sam finds her disturbing as well.”

“Yeah? Shit. It’s too bad we can’t have her thrown out just for ‘disturbing’ people.” Ravi served another customer, then came back and said, “She has to do something more threatening or illegal to get punted.”

“I think she’s gone now anyway.”

“You think she knew what would happen?”

“Ravi, what did happen?”

“Blondie didn’t just sing. I don’t know what the hell it was, but it wasn’t just singing. It just reached right into your soul and-- You ever hear Chris’ band sound like that either?”

“No.”

“There you go. Something happened. Damned if I know what it is. Goku looks thrilled though, almost high.”

“How odd.”

“Be back in a minute.” When Ravi returned he asked, “All right, what happened with Sam on the way home?”

“Did something have to happen?”

“That look on your face said it did.”

“Do I have a reasonable look?”

“Say what?”

“A mild, reasonable expression I put on before I try to guilt or talk someone into doing something crazy.”

Ravi laughed. “You sure do. C’mon, give.”

For a moment Tim thought of lying, but that idea made him feel even more sick, so he said, “I asked him if I could kiss him.”

A spasm of hurt went through Ravi’s face before the light, shallow mask came back down. “Dammit, I thought I asked you not to do that unless I was around to watch.”

Tim felt low. “I saw an opportunity.... I don’t know what came over me. He said no. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“I know what came over you.” Ravi shrugged, but didn’t quite look casual. “Yeah. Are we even now? Please?”

“Yes. Truly.” But it didn’t feel like enough. He didn’t usually believe in public displays but the situation warranted it, so he grabbed Ravi by his shirt and kissed him over the bar, stopping only when he heard the people around him start to hoot and cheer. Tim felt himself blushing a little as he let Ravi go. “We’re even. If you forgive me.”

Ravi licked his lips and smiled, to Tim’s relief and pleasure. “Yeah. All right.”

Tim stayed for another four hours, until the end of Ravi’s shift, although he didn’t spend much time near the bar distracting his boyfriend or being nudged or smiled at by other patrons. Kiss a bartender, and look what happens. None of the other contestants came close to what Sam had done, although the band finally picked a young woman Tim thought sounded very good.

As they walked out together, Ravi said, “Your car is so dull.”

It was a common complaint of his, almost a ritual. “It works.” Feeling light, Tim supplemented that usual answer with “I’m not going to pimp my ride for you.”

“Professor, some phrases should never cross your lips. That’s one of them.”

As Tim drove them home, he enjoyed the early morning quiet and the nearly deserted streets. The sun would be rising in two hours or so. Ravi said, “I’m gonna miss this.”

When Tim resumed his full course load he could hardly stay out all night at a lounge to drive his boyfriend home, at least not and retain the respect of his students’ parents. “I’ll miss it too.”

When they stopped at a red light, Ravi smirked and said, “C’mon, live a little. There’s no one around.”

“Laws are laws. Get behind me, Satan.”

“I don’t mind that. Nice view there. Shit, who are these guys?”

A group of about four big men rushed out and surrounded the car, stopping one at the back, one at the front, one on the front passenger side door, and the remaining one at the front driver’s side door. They all pulled out guns, and the two men on the sides tapped the windows with theirs. Tim didn’t know what they wanted and didn’t care to find out, so he slammed his foot down hard on the gas pedal. The man in front dodged a little out of the way but still got clipped by the side of the car, to Tim’s great satisfaction.

As they sped away, Ravi said, “Damn, but I love you!”

“That wasn’t too sociopathic?” Tim answered, relieved by his reaction.

“Hell, no. Especially since they’re on something. Trust me, I don’t wanna mess with junkies.” Ravi shook his head. “It’s too bad we can’t back over them.”

Tim heard a gunshot and then a small explosion from the back as a tire blew out. Riding the metal rim, the car slowed and became harder to steer no matter how hard Tim tried. One of the next two shots took out the other back tire. Ravi talked on his cell phone to what might be 911 from the sound of his side of the conversation. He sounded surprisingly calm considering the situation.

An SUV flew at them from seemingly out of nowhere, coming at them at an angle from the front. Tim reacted but couldn’t swerve enough, and the world exploded in sound and force.

He came to hurting all over, dazed, and pinned to his seat. The steering wheel airbag had deflated somewhat now. One of his glasses’ lenses had cracked. Streetlights glinted off shattered windows. “Ravi?” he asked. “Ravi?” Turning his head hurt, but he had to see him.

Ravi was motionless in his seat, head turned toward the side window, showing nothing of his face except the edge of the left side. Glass shards littered his shirt, lap, and hair. Dyed by the streetlights, that wetness on his face could be--

No. No! “Ravi!”

“Nnnn,” Ravi moaned softly.

Such a welcome sound, but Tim didn’t have time to be relieved. His seatbelt had locked down during impact, so he needed to find the release to get to Ravi, try to bring him back to consciousness, and drag them both away somehow. He might not know if that driver had been connected to their attackers, but they’d certainly take advantage of the crash either way.

One of them shot through Ravi’s window, fortunately aiming high just to break the window and not to hit Ravi, then shoved his gun through the empty space, putting the barrel near Ravi’s head. “Will you behave?” the man asked.

Tim wanted to kill them all, but he said, “I’ll behave.” His own window had already broken so one man only had to thrust the gun through to pistol-whip him out.

Goku hummed to himself when he entered his apartment as the sun started to rise. High as he felt, he could have kept on working for hours yet but he knew that kind of thing made bosses and coworkers look at you funny. After basking in Sam’s voice and power, he had enough energy inside him to run a whole city. All of his senses felt sharper, and he was awake. He’d spent centuries without this, so long that he hadn’t realized how much duller, smaller, and washed out his life had become, especially in the two centuries or so. It had been so hard to let Sam go home alone.

He could feel it starting to fade again already.

Even at night with the curtains closed the apartment never became completely dark, and with that and Goku’s enhanced eyesight he could see Sam sleeping on his side on the fold-out couch, body relaxed and sprawled, hair covering most of his face. Although Goku wanted nothing more than to lie down next to him and touch him, he just crouched beside and watched him.

“Stop looking at me,” Sam murmured sleepily into his pillow.

“Or you’ll smack me?” Goku asked, far from displeased with the idea.

“Yeah, though it never works. Think you like it too much.”

“Are you awake?”

“No,” Sam mumbled with a small smile. “Are you gonna lie down here or what?”

Goku’s heart sped up. “You want me in bed?”

“You can sleep. No perverted stuff or funny monkey business.”

Goku would take whatever he could get. “Okay.”

Lying next to Sam, Goku thought his heart would burst. Yeah, they’d shared a bed before, recently, but that had been a grudging thing. This time Sam had invited him. Of course, Sam might be sleeptalking as a past self and might whip the crap out of Goku when he woke up but the whipping would be worth it. He set his nose to the back of Sam’s neck and breathed in, wanting to be closer to that wonderful scent. Did Sam really smell a bit different tonight or had Goku’s senses just temporarily improved so much? He didn’t know.

“Baka,” Sam murmured as he fidgeted. Goku let him move away a little but kept his hand on the bared skin on Sam’s hip where his T-shirt had pulled up, feeling Sam’s body warmth as a contrast to the air-conditioned cool of the dim room.

Everything he wanted was in reach; he could feel it. He just had to be patient.

Sam awoke to the phone ringing and mumbled curses to himself. People couldn’t let a guy sleep? Better get that, though.

He had a hand on his hip, branding a sliver of his bared skin with heat and radiating right through the cloth of his boxers. Goku. Sam vaguely remembered saying they could share a bed.

Phone rang some more. Think about it later.

Sam rolled out from under the hand, got out of bed, and answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hi, Sam.” It was Carolyn, from the temp agency. “I have a job for you today. Can you take it?”

“Think so.”

“They called us and offered $16 an hour for you particularly. What are you doing for these people?”

That was higher than a standard administrative temp got offered. Had to be one of those jobs. It must be somehow affiliated with the last company he’d done it for, or maybe someone had spoken too carelessly. He’d have to see how things went when he got there.

The urge to say that he pole-danced for them came and went. Not many people appreciated his sense of humor. “I have a gift for finding lost paperwork. I guess word gets around.”

“All right. Can you be there by 9:30?”

“Probably. Where is it?”

He took the address and directions from her, then dressed in a hurry. While he had a bun clenched between his teeth, he wrote out a note explaining where he’d gone and brought it to the fold-out couch. In his absence, Goku had rolled into the space he’d vacated and put his face into Sam’s pillow, snuffling happily. The sight made Sam’s stomach twist for reasons he didn’t understand. He pressed the sticky note to a nearby lampshade, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and walked out. The summer heat hit him like a hammer.

Once he reached his supervisor at the job he had immediate confirmation on the type of job just from how the guy alternated between staring at him and not being able to look at him. “You were recommended. They said you do amazing work. Unique.”

“That’s what I’m here to do. Work.” Bright-eyed and eager so wasn’t him. He hated the games.

As the guy led Sam around, he said softly, “We recently had a departure from the company and need you to find some paperwork for us in his office.”

Euphemistic propaganda that probably meant they had to fire that employee’s ass for incompetence and the guy left his badly-done paperwork every which way as a “fuck you.” “Okay.”

“We’ll give you four hours and see what you come up with. If you haven’t gotten anywhere by then we’ll let you go.”

The guy opened the door to a small office, and Sam gaped. Holy shit. This was where paperwork went to die. Stacks everywhere. Mountains. Some had fallen into each other of their own weight. Sam had to be pushed inside because his legs didn’t want to move him close to it. In his shock and horror he didn’t think of reprimanding the guy for touching him until half a minute after it happened, when it wouldn’t wash to say he’d snapped. He hated the worker drone lifestyle.

“This lists what we’re looking for. I’ll leave you alone.” His supervisor handed him a piece of paper and closed the door, leaving him alone with that.

For a panicked moment Sam wanted to tear the door open and flee. Actually, that feeling didn’t go away, but he steeled himself to get to work. He refused to be intimidated by paper. Faster begun, faster done. Even if he did hate the nervous, furtive, sneaky feel of the last occupant that clung to the small office like a greasy film.

When Goku woke up alone, he sighed at the realization that Sam had snuck out on him again. He slept too well and deeply. Still, he felt great, even if he didn’t feel as powerful as he had last night. Yawning and stretching, he read Sam’s note and hoped Sam hadn’t gone out to do something stupid. He felt out into their link and got an impression of Sam in the middle of a ton of paper cursing up a storm. Administrative drudgework seemed to be his destiny.

Goku jumped up when the phone rang because he loved answering it. Why did people hate telemarketers so much? Goku loved talking to them, though they didn’t seem to enjoy it as much.

Caller ID showed the Dragon’s cell phone number. “Hi, boss, what’s up?” Goku asked. “If you need me to come in, I can.”

“Goku, I don’t want you to get overexcited by what I’m about to say,” the Dragon answered in a very serious voice.

“What happened?” He’d just checked on Sam a moment ago, so it couldn’t be that.

“The police found Tim’s car, and there’s no indication that he or Ravi made it home last night.”

“They were kidnapped?” But why?

“That’s what it looks like.”

The Dragon was a retired cop a lot of people owed favors to, which might be why he’d gotten notification on this already. He liked Ravi, despite all the evidence to the contrary, and adored Tim so he’d be pulling strings and calling in favors to get this kidnapping attention and, considering his talent for finding people, he might go out looking himself.

Goku couldn’t do anything to help. He didn’t know where they’d found the car, and the Dragon obviously wanted him to stay out of it. His sense of smell wasn’t as powerful as it used to be. None of his senses were. Still... “There has to be some way I can help!”

“No. Just... be cautious. We don’t know why they were taken. Someone might be aiming at the Fifty-eight’s staff for some crackheaded reason we don’t know yet.”

“I can’t stay home! I’ll go nuts!”

The Dragon sighed. “All right. I figured as much. I know you’re tough, but be as careful as you can, okay?”

It must have been a splashy crime scene if the Dragon had called to tell him, even knowing he’d want to do something “stupid,” instead of letting him find out somehow on his own. Maybe splashy enough to be on the TV news. “Sure. Look, I can’t stay inside so I gotta go out for a walk, but I’ll take my cell phone, okay?”

“Sure. Remember--”

“Yeah, yeah.” He’d had hundreds of years of people telling him not to do something rash or stupid, so he’d gotten a bit better about thinking first by now. “Bye.”

Goku went outside to walk and think but mostly to walk because thinking wasn’t getting him anywhere. He had no idea who would take Tim and Ravi or why. He’d worried about something happening to Sanzo, because something had always happened to Sanzo. Yeah, Tim had saved that girl from a thug a few weeks ago but the Dragon hadn’t heard much chatter on that. The girl had paid up after seeing a favorite teacher getting hurt over her, and the powers that be there seemed to be happy with that. Still, the Dragon would probably be looking into that too.

Goku really had nothing he could do, and he hated that. Only feeling Sam annoyed but safe in an office somewhere gave him any calm. At least the world hadn’t gone completely off the track.

Through the noise of the crowd and cars passing by he heard something familiar: gunshots and cries of pain. From behind him. As he spun around, two hot points of painful force hit his chest. Shit, it hurt. He looked down to see growing pools of red on his shirt and felt a growing feeling of weakness. He’d been so much more than this once....

People in front of his him screamed and got shoved aside as big men rushed toward him. One hit him with a tazer, which hurt in a way Goku had never felt before. Did people always use them at such high voltage? The other men hit him with baseball bats with a force and brutality that would have killed a human by now.

This was overkill. These guys somehow knew he wasn’t human and had come after him accordingly.

“Don’t knock the headband off!” one of them yelled.

He fought back and felt some of his attackers’ bones break under his blows, but they kept hitting him, mostly from a bit of distance, and he felt the world going black. “Nyoi-bo,” he coughed, but even though he could almost feel it in his hand it didn’t come. It hadn’t come when called for ages.

As he faded out, he felt himself being picked up and thrown into something, then movement. Then nothing.

Sam had found everything on the list within an hour and a half, although he’d suffered numerous papercuts and gotten hit with shifting piles of paper a few times. Actually, he’d pinpointed the locations faster than that but actually getting the right papers out of the mess had taken longer. He figured he’d hang out for about two hours and a half to get his money’s worth, but the small, overstuffed office set him on edge and he became so bored that he ended up sorting papers and labeling the piles with sticky notes to kill time. If the supervisor bitched he could say he did it as he looked for their targets. He still had an hour to kill.

Pain, disbelief, and shame hit Sam like a hammer, blinding. He came to bent in half sitting on the floor, his pounding head resting against rough industrial carpeting, and the taste of blood in his mouth from biting his tongue. Reaching out through the abraded link, Sam vaguely felt Goku still alive but deeply unconscious. Someone had attacked him and taken him....

Sam grabbed his backpack and the small stack of papers his employer wanted and left the room at a fast walk toward his supervisor’s office. “You’re done?” the guy asked, surprised. Probably expected him to stretch out to the end of the four hours.

“Yes.” Sam put the papers down on his desk. “Everything you asked for, plus some credit card receipts I found that you might be interested in. I did some organizing as I went. Please sign my timesheet.”

The guy flipped through them, looking more and more surprised. “Yeah, sure.” He accepted the timesheet, signed, and gave it back. “Good work.”

“Thanks.” Sam faxed the sheet to his agency, then left as quickly as possible, not wanting to look too suspicious.

Once he hit the street he realized he didn’t even know what he could do. Even if he found the scene where it had happened, it felt like Goku had been taken away from there. If he tracked Goku to his current location, what would he do then? He knew nothing about the assailants. Why had they even attacked and kidnapped Goku?

He should get his gun first.

Sam got on the bus to go home, and his fingers drummed on his leg or the seat for the whole ride. He dashed off the bus at his stop and felt the buzz of something wrong throughout his walk home, even in the building’s foyer and on the staircase. Slowing down, he listened and felt, trying to find the wrongness or people setting him off like this.

He felt a few people waiting for him at the door to his apartment. They bled off anticipation and pent-up aggression in jagged lines of force. So much for getting his gun. The odds of getting through them, unlocking the apartment door, and getting back out of the apartment with his gun were too slim. Annoyed, he started walking back down the stairs, but he felt people waiting for him on the ground floor too now. Damn it. He walked quietly, trying to make as little noise in his damned work shoes as possible, and kept himself on the alert. At the last turn of stairs before the bottom, he listened hard and heard a bit of rustling and fidgeting. He jumped around the curve and slid down the last flight at high speed on the railing, then walloped them with his backpack as soon as he hit the floor running. Good thing he hadn’t packed his CD player or CDs today. He shrugged it back onto his shoulders and kept on running, deciding that all that practice on the railing at his uncle’s house had been worth the beatings afterward.

Someone tackled him once he got outside the front door, but he spun and wiggled free. Why were they so brazen, doing this out in the open by day? Some guys jumped him from behind, and although he felt one guy’s nose break under his punch someone else put a funny smelling cloth to his mouth. What a pathetic showing he’d made. Damn--

Groggy, Tim came to with his head pounding, arms and particularly wrists hurting, and the sound of Ravi yelling at somebody followed by a grunt of pain. What the hell was going on? He wore actual metal manacles with chains attaching him at his wrists and ankles, standing, against a bare concrete block wall. He didn’t see any windows, and the air had an acrid basement smell. A grinning armed man backed away from Ravi, who hung doubled over from his own manacles.

“Ravi!” Tim yelled.

“You want some too?” the man asked. “She said to keep you alive. Doesn’t mean we can’t knock you around.”

“I don’t want any,” Tim answered, trying to swallow down his rage.

He smelled a great deal of blood nearby, but from what he saw it didn’t seem to be on Ravi, to his relief. Ravi just--just!--had some dried blood on his face. Then Tim turned his head and saw Goku, whose shirt was brown and dark red with drying and fresh blood. His face looked misshapen with bruises and swelling, and he appeared to be unconscious but at least he was still breathing.

“Don’t get so upset. He’s tougher than he looks,” the gunman said, and something about the look in his eyes made Tim recall Ravi saying that the attackers were on drugs. “The boss was right about that.”

“Your boss is a loony!” Ravi said.

“She pays really well. Relax. It’ll all be over soon. Here we go.”

More men came in. One of them carried Sam over his shoulder. Behind them walked the woman Ravi had warned Tim about, the same one who’d talked Chris into putting Sam on stage. It made Tim feel a bit sick over the way he’d scoffed at Ravi back then.

Grinning, the woman ran her hand down Sam’s side, which made Tim and Ravi shudder in horrified reaction, then said, “Wake him. Make sure his friends are one of the first things he sees.”

Sam woke up with his head pounding and his mouth dry and tasting like something had died in it. What the hell had he done last night? Then he realized that strong grips on his arms and shoulders kept him upright. He opened his eyes. Ravi’s face and shirt had dried blood caked on in places, and the shifting sparkle on him came from little bits of broken glass. He was chained up to a fucking concrete wall. So was Tim, who was hanging next to him in somewhat better shape but his glasses had broken and he too was bloody and glass-studded. They both looked dazed and horrified. Goku--

Sam strained forward hard and fast but couldn’t get out of the grip on him. Struggling to slow down his breathing and heart rate, to look cool and controlled, Sam reminded himself that he still felt Goku. The monkey had gotten the shit kicked out of him and shot but they hadn’t killed him. Goku was tough. Tougher than these bastards.

“They were pathetic,” a woman said from behind Sam, then came to stand in front of him. “Really diminished in this modern age. But none of us are who we used to be.”

He recognized the woman from last night but this close he recognized her, and it hit him like a kick in the gut. This person had raped, tortured, and killed him over and over through lifetimes, always looking for something he/she didn’t deserve. “I hate boys who are too persistent,” Sam said angrily.

She adjusted her glasses and grinned. “This is the first time you remembered me this well. Maybe it’s the universe attempting to balance itself. Do you remember what I want, Kouryuu?”

“Something I’m never going to give you. And you don’t get to call me ‘Kouryuu.’”

“‘The Thirty-first of China, Genjo Sanzo’ is so long and formal. Besides, I knew you before you became a Sanzo. You’re Koumyou’s gift to me.”

Sam remembered bits of his master through the ages, right up to him being the weirdest but also coolest grandpa a kid could ask for. “Like hell.”

“Maybe you don’t know him as well as you think you do.”

“Maybe, but not where that’s concerned. He never owned or gave away people. But there’s no sense in arguing with you. You enjoy it too much.”

“Ah, you do remember.”

“How the hell have you stayed under Goku’s radar at the bar?”

“I was very cautious and just ordered drinks from the slut, who only has enough intuition to get jittery around me, which was amusing as hell.”

“Hey!” Ravi shouted, reminding Sam that they could hear all of this.

All of this. He had to get all of them out of all of this. He might not remember all of his tortures, rapes, and deaths in minute detail but knew more than enough to want anyone he cared about far away from here.

“How do you remember?” Sam asked, trying to keep Nii talking to give him more time to analyze the situation and plan.

“The gods have several reasons why they forbid mixing magic and science. I know too much and remember everything.”

“Then earn your own damned sutra!”

“For some reason they don’t trust me with one. Looks like I’ll just have to force you to give me your two.”

“I don’t have anything, you stupid bitch! No one does anymore.”

“You can call them. You have a special bond to them that not even Koumyou can match. I tried with him too.”

Trying to yank away from the thugs holding him, Sam growled as he felt himself held securely. And why the hell were these guys listening to this shit so serenely? She sounded batshit. Then he realized that they didn’t feel right to him, dead inside and crazed, hungry. She’d addicted them to something, and they wouldn’t mess with the source of the most important thing in their lives.

“But I figured out he wasn’t the one.” She took a deep drag in on her cigarette. “I’ve hunted, isolated, experimented on, tortured, raped, and killed you so many times. In the end you had no friends or family or supporters, just you yourself, small and broken. I made sure of that.”

“But you still couldn’t get what you wanted.” Sam felt a vicious satisfaction in that.

“True. So it’s past time to change tactics. You don’t care what I do to you? That’s all right. I’ll start working out my aggressions on your...” she grinned, “servants first. How kind of you to give me three of them. You’re a hard-shelled little sociopath, always have been, but you have a soft marshmallow center for a few, select people. I can make you watch me string them out for days. You know I would.”

Sam knew. From personal experience. One of the thugs wheeled in a cart displaying a wide array of blades, needles, bamboo slivers, pokers, and some metal things Sam couldn’t even guess the purpose of.

“Let’s start with the delicate humans first. If Goku starts coming to, we can always prod one of his bullet holes hard until he passes out again,” she said. “But which human? Decisions, decisions.” She picked up a knife and pointed it alternately at Tim and Ravi as if deciding. “The really fun thing is that no matter which of the two I start with, the other suffers too.”

If hatred and rage could kill, Tim would have already slain her on the spot. He looked frightening with that hard, dark chill in his face and cold fire in his eyes. Ravi looked unhappy and defiant but almost serene in his obvious readiness to withstand whatever came at him. Hard to break. Underneath the softer modern layers they still had steel in their souls, and even through his horror at the whole situation Sam felt almost proud of them.

“I’m sure that anything you want is something you shouldn’t be allowed to have.” Tim said coldly.

“You’re so macho right now. In my experience, it doesn’t take long to change that.”

“Sam,” Ravi said, “don’t give this bitch anything she asks for.”

“I’ll start with you. You’ll break faster anyway,” she said. “Your face is too conventionally pretty.” She picked up and strapped onto her hand a metal piece that had three sharp, hooked “cat’s claws” coming off it. “Let’s give it some character. I already know that some scars will look good under your left eye and along your cheek. Remember that?”

“No.” But he did a bit, including the emotional baggage that went with it; Sam could see it in his eyes. Still, his voice stayed completely steady as he said, “Bring it on, bitch.”

“Leave him alone,” Tim growled.

“Or what?” She smirked. “You’ll glare me to death? You know, with Kouryuu in his life he’s already remembering things he wouldn’t have otherwise. I wonder if having another woman deal him the same set of wounds would bring all of that old history up again.”

“Don’t do it!” Sam said.

“You know what you have to do to make me stop.” One-handed, she grabbed Ravi by his hair. “Don’t thrash and struggle so much. It’ll just make the wounds more ragged, and I might take out your eye by accident. Wouldn’t that be a shame, especially if Sam decides to be a decent human being later and saves you from me. If it’ll help you hold still, think of me as your mother and tell yourself you deserve it for all the suffering you put me through.”

“Sam’s not making you do anything. I’m not making you do anything. It’s all you,” Ravi said as he still struggled.

“Easy to say. Not so easy to think while people you care for get ripped up in front of your face when you know that a few words from you can stop it. Not so easy to think when all your life something in the back of your head knows you don’t actually belong to your family and they resent you for it.”

Sam remembered inquisitions, torture sessions, therapy with this... creature pulling out everything he was and felt and had ever experienced even when he couldn’t quite remember it himself because he’d been someone else, then twisting it all around until everything left jagged wounds. For the really bad, slow deaths, broken down, he’d always started to remember all the ones before it.

He couldn’t call up the sutras. Screw giving them to Nii, which would never happen, because just calling the sutras would change everything. He’d resisted for centuries. Block out Goku, so horribly wounded against mundane junkie assailants. Block out Tim, who appeared to be trying to pull his manacles out of the wall trying to get to Ravi but couldn’t do squat because he only had regular human strength. Block out Ravi, pinned in the grip of a half-remembered nightmare that would flay him alive if given half the chance. Block out how badly Nii deserved to die.

Ravi closed his eyes as the bitch set the tips of her shiny metal claws along his face, and something in Sam’s chest clenched. Never again.

Ravi would act the bad-ass and do the right thing by telling Sam to hold out, but no way in hell could he watch her start to cut him open. Bad enough he’d have to feel it. Bad enough Tim and Sam would have to watch and listen. He liked his face as it was.

And this bitch was not his mother.

But she hadn’t actually been his mother either, had she, and he’d been willing to lay down his life to fix hers....

What the hell was he thinking?

This bitch had been slicing up Sam and playing these kinds of mind games on him for centuries? Poor kid. Poor Goku, who had known who he was missing but probably not enough to make a difference. Hell, poor all of them, him and Tim too, going through lives not even knowing what part of them was missing.

Suddenly Ravi heard words like thunder rolling and the beating of what sounded like hundreds of wings. Or paper? And screams and laughter. He opened his eyes to see waves of undulating paper and the crazy bitch laughing like she’d won even as her minions disintegrated and she disintegrated with them at the touch of the streamers, her claws just lightly scratching Ravi’s skin before falling to the floor. If this was the kind of firepower they had on tap in the old days, no wonder the bitch had found their current selves to be pretty damned pathetic.

But while the storm of whatever-the-fuck seemed to be lethal to their attackers, the thunder words felt warm and soothing to Ravi, touching his soul or something. Something inside him stretched and healed and felt complete for the first time in forever. From the look on Tim’s face, he felt the same and happily drank it in.

Then the rivers of paper reeled backward like in some bizarre rewind and rolled into two scrolls, one in each of Sam’s hands. Weirdly, something about the whole scene reminded Ravi of that part in Raiders of the Lost Ark after the Ark of the Covenant had melted the Nazis. Sam stood alone for a moment, both of his thug captors dead from crazy paper, then his eyes rolled up and he dropped to the floor on his side, out cold, the scrolls still clenched in his hands.

“Sam!” Ravi shouted, but Goku shouted, “Sanzo!” Goku didn’t look like Goku anymore. His hair had grown long and wild, his eyes had turned gold, and he had pointed ears and sharp nails. His bruises and swelling gone like he’d never had them, he yanked his manacles out of the wall like they meant nothing and rushed over to crouch by Sam’s side.

Ravi’s brain broke for a moment, then he rebuilt himself and yelled, “Hey, chimp, get us off the fucking wall too!”

“Sanzo,” Goku murmured as he cradled his beloved.

“You see how we rate,” Tim said with a small smile.

Tim was okay. They were all okay. If they could get Super Goku to set them free things would be even better. “Yo! Goku! Are you sure you wanna be moving him around like that when you don’t know if he’s injured? Maybe you should set him down carefully and get us loose so we can look at him for you?”

“Smooth,” Tim murmured with a laugh.

“That I am.”

“I’m glad you’re all right.”

“Ditto.”

“You were very brave.”

“Well.”

“I’m glad you’re all alive,” Sam said. “Now shut up. I hit my head on the floor. And, monkey, stop calling me ‘Sanzo.’”

Goku grinned, showing what looked like sharp teeth. “But you are! It’s officially your title now that you have the chakra again.”

“What? Oh shit. I don’t need this!”

“I don’t know what number of China you’d be now, but you’re definitely the first Sam Sanzo.”

“Ravi, is that a bindi on Sam’s forehead?” Tim asked.

“You’re asking me? I’m happily Americanized, and thus happily ignorant,” Ravi answered, although he knew Sam hadn’t had a chance to stick or mark anything on his skin before collapsing.

“Goku, are you all right?” Sam asked. “Can you dial it down a bit?”

“Sure!” Goku squeezed his eyes shut. Absolutely nothing else happened. “Or maybe not. I haven’t been this powerful for a long time! I’m not used to it anymore. Though it’s great!”

Ravi could swear the scrolls fluttered a bit, seeming almost annoyed, when Sam put them in his backpack. Sam brushed Goku’s long bangs aside to show some kind of... tiara or something, thin and gold-toned--had that always been there?--then he set his finger to it and it thickened a bit. Goku looked more like normal Goku again, although he still seemed to be on a sugar rush.

“You’re not gonna develop magic powers too, are ya, Tim?” Ravi had to ask.

“I don’t think so.”

“Good.”

“Stop being so fucking happy,” Sam said, sounding truly disgusted. “She got what she wanted.”

“We’re alive, and she’s atomized. Seems like a victory for the home team to me.”

“You don’t-- Those scrolls you saw shouldn’t be here anymore. They’re not part of what the world’s becoming. But to save all of your asses I ripped things open and yanked them back. Things are gonna wake up. I’ll have a neon sign on my back to anyone looking for power. And the bitch queen remembers her lives. Yeah, I nailed her today, but she’ll be reborn and come looking for me again because now she knows I brought them back. I better start watching my back even more in about 15 years. What?” Sam suddenly asked Goku.

“15 years,” Goku said happily as he grabbed and hugged Sam tightly.

After flailing and growling for a little bit, Sam let him. Aw!

But Ravi flailed a bit and said, “Get us down from here!”

“I just reset the world’s balance to save your lives,” Sam answered with a smirk. “You should show more gratitude.”

Sam had let her kill him for centuries without giving up the whatsits, but for Ravi’s sake he’d caved in.... But still! “We’re so thankful, o great lord. Yes, your beneficence. Now free us already!”

The door blew in as if kicked. Ready to kick ass, Goku suddenly had some kind of long staff in his hand. Ravi didn’t know what to expect anymore.

Gun in hand, Bob stood at the door. “I got concerned over you for this?” Then he took a look at Goku and Sam. “You two get out of here. The non-retired cops will be here soon, and you don’t need the complications.”

“Boss!” Ravi said. “How the hell-- Oh, I give up.”

“I have a talent for finding things. Where’s the designer?”

“No one will ever see her or her thugs again,” Sam said.

“Shame about that, but it can’t be avoided, I guess. Now git.”

“What about us?” Ravi asked.

“You’ll have to stay there until the rest of the cops arrive to preserve as much of the scene as possible.”

“That sucks!”

“How do you put up with him?” Bob asked Tim.

“There are benefits,” Tim answered.

“Oh, funny,” Ravi muttered.

“The police found the remains of your car, Tim. I want the two of you looked at by doctors for injuries. Are you okay, Goku?”

“I’m great!” Goku answered, and the staff disappeared. “Me and Sam are leaving now.” And they did, damn them.

“Boss, this doesn’t faze you at all?” Ravi asked.

“I’m a city cop who became a bar owner. Nothing fazes me. Besides, I knew Goku wasn’t normal when I hired him. It‘s part of why I hired him.”

It was just too much. If any other magical and amazing things happened, Ravi would just yawn, too numb. “I wanna sleep.”

“After you see the doctors. Don’t worry, rescue will be here soon.”

What came next?

Goku felt great. Strong! Connected to everything again. Yeah, the bullet wounds still hurt a bit, but they didn’t feel like holes anymore. The Dragon would take care of Tim and Ravi, so Goku could have Sam all to himself.

Goku found a sink on the way out, which was cool since he figured they’d grab attention if he walked outside this bloody. “Hurry,” Sam said. “We have to get out before the police arrive, because stealth is so not our strong point.”

“Gotcha.” When Goku touched his new and improved limiter he felt a kind of pattern on it that he’d have to get a good look at later. Sanzo had made it for him.... He pulled his messy shirt off and soaked that too. Maybe it’d look less like blood if some of the dried stuff came out.

Or maybe not. Damn.

“Goku.” Sam just about vibrated with tension. His office clothes were messed up, the white shirt streaked with dirt and dust and untucked from his dirt-streaked pants. His long messy blond bangs parted a bit to show some of his red chakra mark. Chosen by the gods again. It had never given Sanzo any real benefits. The color of his eyes and structure of his face were different, but the feeling of weight and weariness and temper ready to snap was pure Sanzo.

Goku put his wet shirt on, hoping the summer heat would dry it, and raced out of the building with Sam. But once they got outside, Sam asked, “Where the hell are we?”

“Don’t know. I don’t think I’ve ever been in this part of the city before.”

“Damn it. I’m not in the mood to start walking.”

But they did it and eventually found a city bus with a driver they could ask directions from. At least Goku’s shirt looked more like an ugly fashion statement instead of the aftermath of a bloody asswhipping by then. That bus took them eventually to another bus and finally home.

Sam didn’t say much during the walk or ride, and he felt deep and full of dark thoughts, many more than before. How much had he remembered? While on the bus he’d mostly rested his head against the window, looking worn out. Goku understood not wanting to talk in public, but he worried. What had happened to force Sam to bring the sutras back? Goku hadn’t regained consciousness until Sam had bridged the gap and brought old-fashioned power back into the world. Just because Goku felt such joy at being more himself again didn’t mean Sam appreciated having the weight of the sutras on his shoulders again.

What if Sam didn’t want to have anything to do with him after this?

Overheated, Goku turned on the air conditioner for his comfort and Sam’s as soon as they entered the apartment. He appreciated some of the modern amenities.

“You should take a shower,” Sam said softly. “You still look like a mess.”

“You’ll be okay.”

“I should damn well hope so.”

Sanzo had never liked to feel crowded or coddled in any of his lives.

“All right.” Goku grabbed a pair of pants from his bedroom and walked into the bathroom. He hadn’t always cared about cleanliness but knew Sanzo preferred it.

Goku lifted his bangs off his forehead to get a look at his limiter, which he could still hide under his hair. It looked slim and delicate and now had a kind of wavy pattern on it. Pretty. When he took off his shirt he could see scabs and deep bruises where he’d been shot, and they actually hurt more again now that he’d seen them. He could heal them further if he took his limiter off for a little while, but did he dare? He might have gotten used to controlling his recent power levels, but he’d gotten stronger again, maybe too strong to hold back himself. His inability to go back to human looking on his own without the thicker limiter suggested--

“Try it and see,” Sam said through the door, scaring the crap out of Goku. Forgot how eerie Sanzo could be about things when he really listened to the world.

Goku pulled the limiter off.

Pain of change. Scent of blood, strong and close. Too many odd smells, acrid stink. Odd brightness, wrong. Smell of so much meat walking around outside babbling in various meat tongues. Urge to smash and rend, kill and kill and kill.

But so much meat! Could beat any one meat, could beat lots of anyones, but too much meat now and the meat had gotten tricky. The other self had seen the meat’s new claws. The other self had seen ages of no change and ages of too much change and through them all too much time alone.

On the other side of the wood could smell him, him who was meat but more than meat, him who was light. Him who had no claws, dull teeth, and less strength yet caged and weakened, although he could also set free. Him they wanted anyway and got separated from too often.

“I missed you,” the light said, easily heard through wood, in words only they and none of the other meat spoke anymore, then took the wood away, open to a claw strike if he could be reached.

Grab and hold him, who had no fear. Smelled like him and not like him, as always.

Didn’t like this world, only liked him out of all of it. Let the other self have it, who moved through it easier. Better to ride and watch. Put the metal cage back on.

Goku came to with his arms around Sam. “Uhm.”

Sam smacked the back of his head. Lightly. It felt like a kiss. “Monkey.”

“I was good?” Proably, since Sam didn’t smell of blood or show a mark on him.

“You were fine. You also stink.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Cool! Goku took a quick shower, then when he came out in just jeans Sam went in. This might take a while longer.

He was so hungry! Sam would probably be hungry too. Too famished to wait, Goku devoured carrot sticks as he made... dinner? What time was it? Damn. Late. He hoped the Dragon made sure Tim and Ravi didn’t starve. Goku couldn’t help wondering if some of his old appetite would come back now.

Sam walked in wearing jeans and his slippers and with his backpack slung over one shoulder. Would he start carrying the sutras everywhere again?

To Goku’s continuing relief, Sam ate and wasn’t as skinny as Sanzo had been in most of his lives. The bony physique Sam had shown after his long walk west appeared to be abnormal for him and was filling out. Sam was slim but healthy, and if Goku had his way Sam would stay like that. Care and feeding were his duty and privilege.

After a good dinner--though not too good, so maybe Goku didn’t have to worry about being a bottomless pit again--Goku finally asked, “What the hell happened back there? I was out cold for most of it.”

Sam lit up a Marlboro and said flatly, “That bitch was Nii reborn and wanted the sutras. Through a lot of our lives Nii kept cutting me off from the rest of you, the better to break me, but I never broke enough to give in. This time she threatened you guys, and I snapped. She’ll be back.”

Nii.... Oh shit, Nii, the crazy scientist and former Sanzo. Kougaiji and Gyumaoh had been big trouble, but Nii Jiyani had been the most dangerous one of all. Afterwards, that name had been the one that put the deepest shadow over Sanzo’s expression, and Goku always got the feeling that it hadn’t just been from Nii nearly killing them.

“I didn’t know she was-- Sam--”

“I know. Bitch was careful around you and me. I don’t blame you.”

“Break you. What kind of things did Nii do to you?”

“You know some of it. He threw the Inquisition, soldiers, stupid civilians, and psychiatric patients at me, or kept me to himself. But it doesn’t matter because it’s over. Done. I don’t even remember the small details. My past lives are like things that happened in the far, far past, like how you don’t remember things so well from when you were a really young kid.”

“If it’s nothing much, why won’t you tell me much?”

“You’d just get upset for nothing. Stupid monkey. It’s not like anyone can do anything about any of that old business now. Now that I know, I’m staying on my guard for the next people who want to take a shot a me.” Sam blew out a stream of smoke. “Hey, call Bob to ask how Tim and Ravi are doing.”

“You’re just trying to distract me!”

“Yeah, but I also broke my record of holding out on Nii just to keep them safe so I wanna make sure they’re still safe, got it? Besides, it looked like they were wearing half of Tim’s front windows.”

“Grrr. I hate it when you have a good point.”

“You must hate it most of the time then.”

Goku called. “Hey, boss, it’s Goku. How are they doing?”

“Went through the questioning and they’re getting checked out at the hospital. I’ll get a call when they’re done. Do you want to come along to pick them up?”

“Of course I do! Sam too. Oh hey, Sam had a good point about them not having any clothes with them that aren’t full of glass.”

“I’ll be taking care of that. Don’t worry. I’ll call you, all right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Talk to you later. Bye!” To Sam, Goku said, “He thought of that.”

Sam nodded and stubbed out his cigarette. “You have any idea what we can do until we get the call?”

“I’m drawing a blank. Can’t really get anything started while we’re waiting for something that could come at any time. Guess we could watch a movie.”

“Something mindless.”

“Yeah, no real plot! I got some action movies. Paying attention to the plot on those is against the point anyway.”

Couldn’t really get into it, though. They sat on the couch together and let the random violence wash over them without actually watching. Besides, Sam smelled really, really good, like Goku’s soap and familiar cigarettes and a home-cooked meal and Sanzo--light, power, and heaven made flesh--under all that. Goku couldn’t help nuzzling Sam’s neck to get more of that scent along with the taste of his skin and feel of his pulse. Alive. So alive and right here. Goku expected to get hit at any time, yet Sam just let his hand settle atop the small of Goku’s back and breathed in deeper.

“Sam,” Goku said fervently to make sure Sam realized he knew who he was with and who he wanted, then kissed him. They kissed each other, with Goku climbing onto his lap and feeling there too just how willing Sam was. So excited. “Sam, want you so much. I’m so hungry....”

“So eat me,” Sam murmured after a kiss, looking at him with wicked eyes the color of new spring leaves. “Just... no biting.”

“I just didn’t want this to go so fast--”

“Then go slower next time.”

Goku’s heart might burst. “Yeah.” He slid down off Sam’s lap to kneel on the carpeting and open Sam’s fly... and didn’t find underwear. Raising an eyebrow, he looked up at Sam.

“Shut up. You’re a predictable little monkey and I’m a fucking teenage boy.”

“Not yet,” Goku answered, then licked a slow stripe down Sam’s hard cock, smiling at the way Sam’s hips pushed up and he gasped. Tasted so good.

Sam’s hands gripped Goku’s hair tightly. Teenage boy. Right. Goku went down on him happily, his mouth filled, cock heavy on his tongue, and sucked, putting his hands on Sam’s hips to protect himself from Sam’s enthusiasm. Goku might appreciate the enthusiasm, but a strong thrust could still hurt if it surprised him. Looking up, he savored the look of unabashed pleasure on Sam’s face, fervent grip, and feel of love through their link. This was the way it should be.

Satisfied, happy, Goku came right after him.

Feeling wonderful and wrung out, Sam petted Goku’s head in his lap. Nonattachment, “hold nothing,” was such bullshit. Nii had torn everything he’d ever loved or tried to hold onto away from him for centuries. Sam fully intended to be greedy from now on and live in happiness with his greedy little monkey. Anyone who tried to deny him that could choke and die.

“That’s so wrong,” Ravi said as he snacked on the potato chips Bob had brought them.

“It was very kind of Bob to lend me a shirt when my own was such a mess and full of glass.” Tim knew the man would have lent him pants as well if he’d had any that would fit.

“On a practical standpoint, I get that. But seeing my lover in clothing I know belongs to my much older boss is messing with me on every other level.”

“I understand. I can always take it off when we get home. That’s something to look forward to.”

“Now that’s a nice thought.” Grinning, Ravi let his legs swing as he sat on the edge of the gurney. Tim tried not to stare hungrily at the white wear marks on the crotch of Ravi’s jeans.

Bob had provided for Ravi as well, so Ravi currently wore some knock-around clothing--faded old blue jeans and a faded black T-shirt with holes at the frayed collar--he kept at the lounge to wear during messier tasks. Tim found it very appealing and had difficulties keeping his hands to himself, although he persevered, not wanting to make them any more of a public spectacle than they’d already been coming in with the cops. Still, they’d been separated throughout the police interviews and doctor examinations, this was their first time alone here, and he’d come so close to losing Ravi today. The memory of that evil bitch setting her blades against Ravi’s face near his eye and gloating about the damage she would do....

Whatever Sam had done to her, she hadn’t suffered enough. The blades had left no physical marks, but what emotional or mental scarring might the experience cause?

In total, Tim didn’t know what to think about the day’s events. More things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, yes. Hell, what was Goku? Tim and Ravi had agreed that they’d been more injured before the explosion of Sam’s power than afterward, healed somewhat. He should be thoroughly unsettled, yet he felt exhilarated as well. And somehow not entirely surprised.

“I am saving these pants if I have to pick every bit of glass out by hand with tweezers,” Ravi muttered to himself as he held onto the bag the doctors had given them for their clothing.

“I love those pants too.”

Ravi grinned. Although the doctors had cleaned him up some to examine him, dried blood lingered in places on his face. “It’s good to be appreciated.”

“Everybody said it’s okay for you to check out, though the cops will probably contact you again in the near future,” Bob said as he walked up with Sam and Goku, both of whom looked well. You’d never know Goku had been shot and beaten half to death only hours ago. In fact, he looked energized and happy, nearly glowing with it. You’d also never know that he’d had hair down to his waist, gold eyes with pupils slit like a cat’s, and sharp teeth and claws earlier either. Now that Tim really looked, he could see glints of gold through Goku’s long brown bangs.

Ravi laughed. “Sam finally put out, didn’t he?”

Sam glowered, blushed a little, and looked somewhat defensive, while Goku beamed, then turned more serious and said, “You pervert! Polite people don’t go around announcing things like that.”

“Yeah, yeah. If you keep doing it maybe he’ll be less of a bitch. So, was he a virgin? Ow! You didn’t have anything in your hands a moment ago so where the hell did that newspaper come from?” Ravi rubbed the side of his head.

“Hammer space.” Sam smiled evilly as he tapped his rolled-up newspaper against the palm of his other hand. “I suggest you put your pet in obedience school, Tim.”

“But I enjoy his puppyish enthusiasm so much,” Tim answered. “Although I may keep the rolled-up newspaper idea in mind for serious misbehavior.” It relieved Tim to see Sam in such good spirits after the disgusting things that woman had told him. Did he still carry those scrolls in his backpack?

It was kind of Sam and Goku to come see them.

“You may be too kinky for me, Timmeh,” Ravi said. “All right. Let’s sign out and get the hell out of here.”

As they drove away in Bob’s SUV, Bob said, “I don’t want to see either of you at work until the day after tomorrow. I’ll get Karen to come in and sub in myself.”

“But I feel great!” Goku said.

“Take some time off.”

Goku finally noticed the expression on Bob’s face and burrowed in against Sam’s side, something Sam accepted with an overly long-suffering look that no one believed. “Gotcha. Thanks, boss!”

“Hey, boss, drop us off at Tim’s place,” Ravi said.

It left Tim with such a warm feeling that Ravi had put him first, and he said, “Thank you. That would be nice, if it’s no trouble. I’ll wash and return your shirt, Bob.”

“I can wait on the shirt. Take care of yourselves first.”

“Thank you. Hmm. I really have to stop ending up in the news like this.”

“Classes don’t start for another two months. It’ll blow over.”

“Administrators and parents have long memories.”

“If you get heat over this, I’ll see what I can do. This attack on you led to the discovery of a major drug lab after all. You almost did the public a service.”

Tim couldn’t help smiling at that. Maybe things would work out after all, with such powerful and determined allies. Sam was shaking his head somewhat ruefully, which made sense given his own recent propensity for being in the middle of flashy events. Tim found his quiet over the ride worrying, but Sam seemed simply thoughtful so maybe there was no cause for concern.

At Tim’s apartment building, Tim said, “You can all come up and stay for a bit,” just out of politeness.

“Nah, we’ll give you some time to yourselves,” Goku answered with a smile.

“Thank God,” Ravi said, which was exactly how Tim felt about it. They waved merrily as their friends drove away. Tim suspected that they both needed sleep badly, but he had other, more pressing needs at the moment.

Once inside the apartment, Ravi said, “I need to get the blood and hospital smell off. Wanna join me?”

“Yes,” Tim answered fervently.

Watching Ravi walk around the bathroom getting things, knowing where everything was, gave Tim an odd feeling. Why should it surprise him when Ravi already spent so much time here? He almost lived here already....

“Move in with me,” Tim said.

Surprised, Ravi dropped the shampoo and turned back to look at Tim. “You really mean that? We haven’t known each other for that long.”

“Yes. I want to have you here.” Besides, once school started again it would be so much easier to see Ravi if he lived here.

“Your administrators might care.”

“As long as I don’t flaunt you, if they fired me for my lifestyle I could make so much publicity and legal trouble for them that they would pray they’d never messed with me. And they know I would.” They had more of a case against him if he kept getting attacked by drug dealers, but the school was too famously liberal and tolerant to recover from the damage he could do them if they moved against him for being gay, and if they tried to make his liaison with Ravi into a thing of shame he would damn well make them pay.

Perhaps he might be ready to introduce Ravi to his family soon. After putting him through some hell they’d finally accepted that he might bring a man home instead of a woman but had told him very firmly that any man he took up with had to be a decorous, sober-minded individual. They’d love Ravi. But Tim, who’d never felt such passion for another human being, couldn’t care.

Well, he’d harbored some strange feelings for his aunt but hadn’t pursued that.

“Yeah, baby. But you know my tastes are a bit different than yours. I own chili pepper lights.”

“You wouldn’t be allowed to put those up because they’re an offense against humanity, but otherwise that’s okay.”

“You’re disrespecting my chili peppers?”

“Ravi, please. I’m serious.” Did Ravi expect him to withdraw his offer if he thought on it more? “Yes or no?”

Finally reassured it seemed, Ravi smiled. “Yes. Definitely yes, though it’ll be a while because I have to give my landlord a month’s notice before I can get out. I would offer to let you move in with me if my neighborhood and apartment weren’t so bad, you know that, right?”

The drug dealers, the vermin, the broken elevator, the nearly 30-year-old avocado-colored refrigerator.... “I know.”

“Right then. Now will you take off Bob’s shirt before I’m traumatized for life?”

“I’ll take everything off.” Tim did, stripping with far less grace than Ravi did, since Ravi had a gift for speed and display at once.

Once in the shower together they washed a bit but mostly kissed and stroked one another to madness. Ravi felt so right, rocking against him.... Tim moaned out his satisfaction against Ravi’s wet, slick neck, and smiled as Ravi came soon after him.

As they rested together under the warm spray of water, idly and sleepily washing each other in truth, Ravi smiled, but almost nervously. “I knew we’d get out of there okay, because I know how I’m gonna die.”

“Liar.”

“Work with me here.”

“All right. Oh. Do you really, Ravi?”

“Yeah really. In bed at 96 after having great sex with a hottie. I have to tell you, you’ll be damned hot for a man of 101.”

Tim was touched and amused all at once. “Thank you. But that would be a traumatic experience for me, your partner.”

“Yeah, but it can’t be avoided. Everybody has to go sometime.”

“I suppose I’ll only be living to 101, then.”

Ravi looked surprised. “No need for you to go just ‘cause I’m gone.”

“I think I’d want to.”

“Oh.”

“Still, a long life.” A long life, decades on decades, spent together. Recent events suggested that they’d already spent hundreds of years together, so why stop now?

Watching martial arts films in between sex, eating pizza while lounging on the couch in his boxers (Sam would not wander around naked, unlike some people), Goku similarly barely dressed at his side, Sam decided that he could get used to this kind of life. But Goku had to be more careful with the cheese on his slices. “Hey! Be more careful. This is my bed we’re sitting on even if it’s not folded out,” Sam said.

“Sam, you could share my bed,” Goku answered, bright-eyed. “It has advantages since it’s big and it’s not the couch.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“That you could share my bed?”

“That your bed isn’t the couch.”

Goku growled and pouted, which was not cute. At all.

It seemed like a big step to Sam, but he had been here before, a long time ago, even if then it had been his own bed he had to consider sharing. He just remembered being Sam, with Sam’s issues, better than being any of the others, which had to be better for his sanity. “I don’t know,” Sam said. “I remember that you tend to either sprawl all over or hold me in a deathgrip. I have to breathe.”

Rolling his eyes, Goku answered, “I know. After all the trouble I went to, I’m not going to kill you in my sleep.” Goku wasn’t quite the same either, which made reacting to him as Sam a better bet anyway.

“I’ll try your bed. But if it doesn’t work out....”

“It’ll work out!”

“We’ll see.”

“You’re so mean,” Goku said but nuzzled Sam’s neck. “Oh, hey. You seem, I dunno, more centered than you were. I thought you’d be, uhm....”

“More of a wreck after facing down my ultimate nemesis, remembering centuries of trauma, and ripping the sutras back from where they’d gone?”

“Hell yeah.”

Sam shrugged. “Things make more sense now, I repress the memories I don’t need, and if these are two of the five scriptures that created heaven and earth do you really think they couldn’t fix one teenager?”

It took a moment, but then Goku brightened. “You don’t have to worry about going crazy anymore?”

“I don’t think so. At least not unless you or the other two drive me there yourselves.”

“But you still know stuff and crap. Your abilities.”

“Yeah, I still have all the crap. I just have better control over it.”

“That’s so cool!” Being Goku, a celebration of coolness meant that he had to hold Sam tightly. It wasn’t so bad.

A familiar feeling woke Sam sometime in the middle of the night, making him untangle himself from Goku, throw on some clothes, and go outside. “Now you show up,” Sam said as he saw hir.

Se wore flip-flops, a bikini top, and black leather shorts with the top button of the fly undone. The shorts really showed off hir package. “You just made it easier. Besides, you never liked having my help.”

“And, besides, you like to watch.” Sam knew se hadn’t helped Nii. Wasn’t hir style. But enjoying the chaos? He wouldn’t put it past hir.

Se looked annoyed. “Not like that. You’ll always be my favorite nephew.”

“What will the damages be?” Sam could almost feel the sutras fluttering in loneliness in the apartment with him gone. “Of bringing them back.”

“Hard to say what seeped through the rift you opened and closed.”

“Youkai?”

“No. They’re extinct. Your main trouble will be disembodied things looking for bodies.”

“That should be fun.”

“You turned down a return ticket to heaven because you hated to be bored. You all did.”

“You’re going to throw that in our faces for the rest of eternity, aren’t you?”

“Or until it stops being entertaining, yes. Don’t glower at me like that, because it won’t do you any good. I’ll give you a consolation prize, though. It’ll start showing up in a few days.”

Sam refused to be curious. “Sure.”

“Kids these days have no sense of appreciation,” se said with a smirk before disappearing in a flash of golden light and the scent of lilies.

World was really going to regret him bringing magic back into it, wasn’t it? Nothing he could do now except clean up the messes, the story of his lives.

With the Fifty-eight having a slow night, Ravi had time to reflect on how his life hadn’t changed as much as you’d expect it would after being attacked by hyped-up thugs and threatened with the torture and death of you and your closest friends. Once he finished his very nice vacation with Tim, Ravi just went back to work, same old, without even any PTSD flashes, as if he faced that kind of shit all the time. C’mon, magic had returned to the world, and nothing looked different but Goku. Actually, Ravi thought that most of the “magic” lighting Goku up lately might be more happiness and getting some on a regular basis than anything supernatural.

Still, Ravi couldn’t help noticing the tiara peeking through spaces in Goku’s bangs now and then now that he looked for it. Goku reacted violently to it being called a “tiara,” which was why Ravi now referred to it exclusively as such, though he only ever mentioned it in private, and even called Goku a “debutante” now and then in private and in public. Good times. Little fights kept the blood pumping and reminded you that you were alive.

Sam walked into the lounge and sighed at having the neon plastic strip attached to his wrist. Ravi couldn’t help noticing his red chakra mark either. The kid probably still carried the scriptures in the backpack he took with him everywhere. Sam was still a bitch but less of one now that got some on a regular basis. Ravi approved.

Ravi didn’t approve so much of how dirty Sam looked. What the hell had he gotten into?

Goku’s nostrils flared, then he asked, “What the hell happened? I thought the cops weren’t going to put you in danger!”

“You can smell danger?” Ravi asked.

“I can smell blood, gunpowder, and corpses.”

“Say what?”

Tim looked angry, having accepted the job for Sam. “I have to have a talk with them.”

“Yeah, they’ll be really intimidated by a college professor,” Sam said as he sat at the bar. “Besides, they didn’t expect the corpse to be there or for it to get up and start moving.”

“Please rewind that. I misheard you,” Ravi answered as he got Sam a cup of water.

Sam gave it a disdainful look like he wanted something stronger. “Yeah. It was dead but it got up and moved. I think it was after me in particular. The cops were just drop-jawed, especially since the thing was rotting and thus obviously a corpse, so I grabbed one of their guns and started shooting. Damn, I miss my banishing gun. It would have been easier. Using the scriptures would have been easier too, but there was no way I could do that in front of that audience. Anyway, the shooting broke the cops out of their trances, so they started shooting too but it kept on coming. I had to hit the crown chakra to take it out.” Sam shook his head, then grinned. “But the cops were impressed by my marksmanship, and I gave them a story about hunting back home. They’re working on getting me legal to carry a gun. So, chill, Tim. I like it.”

“You’re a freak,” Ravi said.

“Yeah. And?” Sam took a deep gulp of water. “You tell your landlord that you’re moving out yet?”

“I gave him my month’s notice today but he didn’t care, which took a lot of the fun out of it. He probably figures he’ll charge more rent to the next sucker.”

“Probably, even though your apartment is a pit.”

“You never saw it!”

“Tim described it.”

“Thanks, Timmeh.”

“I’m devoted to the truth,” Tim answered. Ravi’s honey, the one he’d be moving in with. They’d be going to see Tim’s parents in a week, and even if they hated him the fact that Tim had brought him over meant so much. He had to smile at him, and Tim smiled back.

“Get a room. Now,” Sam said. “I didn’t lose my stomach over the corpse but I’m tempted now.”

“You’ll help me move in, right?” Ravi asked.

“Why would I?”

“I’d help you.”

“I have so little I could move myself in ten minutes.”

“You’ll do it because otherwise I will guilt trip you until the end of time,” Tim said sweetly.

“Tch. You would too. Fine. I’ll help.”

“It’s all part of being a better person.”

“Whatever. Tim, you might be happy about some stuff I got in the mail today.” Sam handed the envelopes over to Tim to look at. “The scholarship fairy started visiting me.”

“I looked into some for you, but nothing has panned out yet. Were you looking on your own?”

“Nope. However, I’ve gotten some substantial scholarships from a few Buddhist organizations and one big one from Philip Morris.”

“How did they hear about you, Marlboro man?” Ravi asked, weirded out.

“Probably from my trannie aunt.”

It made no sense to Ravi, but Goku looked abruptly more alert and annoyed. At least somebody knew what was going on.

“So I might as well see if I can get admitted to Tim’s school,” Sam said.

“More enthusiasm would be appreciated,” Tim answered stiffly. Aw! School pride, geek love! “In any case, it would have to be for the spring semester. You’re too late for fall for most schools.”

“I get that. It gives me time to research the schools and figure out what to major in. I want a degree in something useful.”

“What are you looking at me for?” Ravi asked. “I use my degree everyday. It’s helpful for the customers.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You are such a little bitch.” But Sam seemed happier and healthier lately, so Ravi couldn’t be too offended. “Ted, what the hell are you doing here?” The whole band had come in.

“We had to pay our respects,” Ted answered. “Tim’s car on the news....”

“We’re glad all of that is stating to blow over,” Tim said.

“Bob said he’d break my kneecaps if I bothered you guys at home, so we had to wait for Ravi to come back to work and Tim to sit around admiring him.”

“It’s hardly like that.”

“Looks like it,” Chris said, the bitch. “And this is our new lead singer, Laura.”

She was a pretty, large-eyed girl. Very nice. But for some reason she only had room in those large eyes for Sam. “Hi. I only tried out because you were such an inspiration!”

Goku looked pissed, and Sam looked uncomfortable, especially with Laura right at his side. “Thanks,” he murmured.

Ted grabbed her arm and pulled her away a bit, looking a little embarrassed by her gushing, and said, “Yeah. So we just came by to see how you were. You look great!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ravi answered. “You’re not getting free drinks.”

“You wound us,” Chris said dryly. “Come along everybody.”

Laura’s “goodbye” was more fervent than the rest’s and obviously directed only to Sam. Once they left, Sam said to Goku, “That was Dougan.”

“What? I haven’t seen him in--” Goku just about sputtered. “Okay, any time they play, you’re not gonna be here.”

“Might not be so crazy this time. Besides, I’m not letting anyone stop me from going anywhere.”

“Can the rest of us have cheat sheets?” Ravi asked. “Is this Dougan person on the killer psycho bitch level?”

“Just about,” Goku muttered. “He had a psycho obsession with Sanzo and tried to kill all of us.”

“Okay, we officially don’t like this person.”

“If those are grounds enough to avoid people, I see my social circle diminishing big time,” Sam said.

“Everybody wants to kill you? I’m glad I’m not the only one.” Same old. But it made Ravi smile.

  **********************THE END***********************     More Viridian5 stories can be found in The Green Room version 3.0 at http://viridian.shriftweb.org/   No-frames but no-frills access available at http://viridian.shriftweb.org/index2.htm   Fandoms represented: Saiyuki, Weiß Kreuz, GetBackers, Andromeda, due South, Hard Core Logo, Twitch City, X-Files, Once a Thief, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, Angel, Two Guys and a Girl (was Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place), X-Men, Smallville, Doctor Who, Fight Club, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine