Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ Never Let Go ❯ Friggin' Cold ( Chapter 6 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: kispexi2 
Ni playing matchmaker? That can't be good, surely?
Anime/Manga: Saiyuki Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.26.2007 | Pages: 12 | Words: 9.8K | Visits: 556 | Status: Work In Progress
Ni playing matchmaker? That can't be good, surely?
Anime/Manga: Saiyuki Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Drama | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 02.26.2007 | Pages: 12 | Words: 9.8K | Visits: 556 | Status: Work In Progress
FRIGGIN' COLD
Goku had always healed quickly, especially from little tears and abrasions. And he kinda wished he didn't. It had been a whole week, and Sanzo was doing such a good job of acting like nothing had happened between them that Goku was beginning to doubt his own memory. If only sitting down still made him wince a bit - like it had for about half a day afterwards - he'd have proof that Sanzo really had been inside him and that he hadn't just dreamt it.
Goku wanted Sanzo inside him again. Soon. It was all he could think about. Well, that and food, but if he'd had to choose between the two, he would absolutely, one-hundred-percent opt for Sanzo Inside Him Again. It had been the best thing ever. Just thinking about it made the soles of Goku's feet tingle and his toes curl.
Heck, he was hard again. It seemed like he was hard all the frickin' time now. He'd had to touch himself a helluva lot in the past week. That trick Sanzo had taught him in the woods did help a bit, but it was nowhere near as good as having Sanzo on top of him, his lips hot on Goku's skin and his eyes squeezing shut like he was enjoying it too and not just being kind to Goku.
But ... well, if Sanzo had enjoyed it, why wasn't he as eager as Goku to do it again? Because he wasn't; Goku knew that. Sanzo had scarcely even looked at him in the past week and he'd stopped touching him altogether. He didn't even hit Goku with the fan any more. It was stupid, but Goku missed that. Stupider still, he felt envious whenever Sanzo whacked Gojyo. Maybe Goku ought to provoke Sanzo more? No - because he had this feeling deep in his gut that the way he acted now - now that they had finally Done It - would probably be the deciding factor in whether they ever Did It Again.
Goku flicked a glance at Sanzo but the priest was asleep - or pretending to be. His head was drooping so far forward that, from his position on the back seat, Goku would have been able to see a little patch of skin at the base of his neck had Sanzo not been wearing his black leather vest. Goku wished he weren't - because he really wanted to see Sanzo's skin again, the secret bits of skin he hid from everyone else but which Goku had kissed, sucked on ..
Oh! Goku suddenly remembered he'd done a lot more than kiss and suck; he'd bitten, he'd left marks, bruises dotted all over Sanzo's neck and chest. Had they faded yet? Maybe not. Goku often forgot that Sanzo was the least strong of the four of them, that he was human.
Goku chewed his lip. Maybe that was why Sanzo was in no burning rush to have sex again? Maybe human men needed a long time to recover from it? If so, exactly how long was 'a long time' likely to be? Goku gave a little squeak of horror when he realized that in all the seven years he'd known him, Sanzo had never shared a bed with anyone other than himself.
“ 's'up, monkey?” Gojyo asked.
“Nothin',” Goku mumbled.
“Sure,” Gojyo disagreed. “Cuz nothin' always gives you a face like a wet weekend.”
Crap. Gojyo was on to him.
“It's better than havin' a face like stupid pervy kappa!” Goku retorted by way of a diversion.
“Which is better than ugly little chimp chops!” Gojyo flung back.
“Yucky cockroach head!”
“Miserable monkey mush!”
“SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP!”
Sanzo's fan sliced through the air, left and right, each time landing with a loud crack against Gojyo's skull.
Gojyo cringed, raising an arm to fend off more blows and protesting “Hey, dickwad! It takes two to tango. What about your goddamn pet? He started it!”
Sanzo turned and for the first time in days, his eyes met Goku's. A jolt of desire went straight to Goku's balls and he waited hopefully. It was weird, but he definitely wanted Sanzo to hit him.
For a second or two, Sanzo seemed to consider it but then he slipped the fan back into a sleeve and sat down again.
“Huh. So Sanzo-sama's playing favourites, is he?” Gojyo grumbled under his breath.
Goku glared at the kappa, thinking the exact same thing.
* * * * *
“You wanted to see me?”
Professor Hwan pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose and gave a loud sniff which she hoped conveyed some small fraction of the contempt she felt for the man who imagined himself her superior.
He swivelled round in his chair, thin lips winding into a slow smile.
“Ah, good morning. How nice to see you. Come in. And close the door.”
Professor Hwan did as instructed, her grip on the clipboard she held clutched against her chest tightening a little.
“What did you want me for?”
He looked at her over the rim of his spectacles, pupils cut through by the narrow metal frame.
“I thought it was time for us to get physical.”
Hwan jumped back and a little noise of disgust escaped her.
“You're a pig,” she spat.
Ni waited a second too long before feigning indignation, clearly wanting her to know that the innuendo had been intentional and that he would be on her in seconds if she gave him the slightest bit of encouragement.
Maybe even if she didn't.
Hwan suppressed a shudder and raised her chin.
“Then what?”
Ni turned back to gaze as the images on his computer screen.
“I think we're beyond the chemical at this stage,” he murmured softly. “It's time to move on to physics. The bonds need tightening.”
Hwan was almost sure she could hear him licking his lips.
“What-what did you have in mind?”
“Fusion, sweetheart. Cold fusion.”
* * * * *
“Another mountain.” Gojyo groused under his breath. “Just what I need - another goddamn mountain.”
Hakkai was hardly listening; Gojyo had been muttering complaints almost non-stop since Sanzo had decided he, and he alone, had been responsible for the latest bout of bickering with Goku. Hakkai had to admit that it had been unfair of Sanzo, but at the same time ... well, Gojyo was older than Goku and he really ought to be wiser. Besides, if Hakkai's suspicions were correct, Goku already had more than enough to be dealing with.
Not that it seemed to be weighing Goku down at all. He was striding on ahead, as ever full of energy and enthusiasm. Of all of them, Goku was probably the only one who relished the idea of actually getting to India and taking on whoever was responsible for the Minus Wave. In fact, Goku would probably be disappointed to arrive and find Gyumaoh hadn't been revived.
Hakkai smiled. Goku might be stronger than any of them, but at heart he was still a child. Young. Innocent.
Hakkai's smile faded a little and he darted a look back at Sanzo. Hakkai owed him so much and in many ways he admired the priest but ...
But nothing, Hakkai told himself firmly. Goku was Sanzo's; he always had been. The gods themselves had ordained it. The fact that Sanzo appeared to have decided to exchange his paternal role for something more intimate was none of Hakkai's concern. And yet, Hakkai couldn't help but feel responsible for the boy. He'd been his teacher after all - and Sanzo wasn't the easiest person in the world. There was a very real possibility that Goku could end up getting badly hurt. Sanzo probably wouldn't even mean to-
“Bet this one's frickin' snow-capped too. Crap, I hate mountains.”
This time Gojyo's pained tone penetrated Hakkai's thoughts and he pushed them resolutely away. Thinking about Sanzo and Goku together at all, let alone in Gojyo's company, felt wrong - impolite and intrusive.
Hakkai looked up at the soaring peaks ahead of them.
“But they're magnificent, Gojyo. How can you hate something so beautiful?”
Gojyo shrugged and gave a sulky grunt. Hakkai couldn't help but tease.
“It's because climbing mountains takes effort, isn't it? And you're the sort that likes everything to be easy.”
Gojyo recoiled a touch. He looked puzzled, hurt.
“I, uh-” Hakkai floundered. In his head, the words had sounded light, funny even, but in the thin mountain air they'd acquired a sharp edge.
“Nah, Hakkai, you're wrong,” Gojyo declared, flashing Hakkai a full-wattage grin that anyone else might have found convincing, “I might like my women easy, but there are some things I prefer hard.”
Hakkai smiled. Trust Gojyo to let him off the hook - he was generous to a fault.
“You know-” Hakkai began, but Gojyo had already lengthened his stride and was fast catching up with Goku.
Hakkai sighed. Without meaning too, he could be every bit as cruel as Sanzo.
He didn't deserve Gojyo.
He really didn't.
* * * * *
Gojyo fell into step beside Goku and slung an arm over his shoulders. All of a sudden, he was feeling a lot of empathy for the kid.
Goku jerked away.
Damn. Gojyo sighed and dug in his pockets for his Hi-Lites. He was in the process of lighting one - shielding it from a god awful blast of cold air that was only going to get colder - when Goku spoke.
“You shouldn't smoke so much. It's bad for you.”
“Yeah, well it's my choice, isn't it?” Gojyo answered, defiantly sucking in a deep, soothing lungful of warmth and holding it.
“Hakkai says we have to be strong for the people who believe in us,” Goku continued with typical monkey logic.
“Huh?”
Goku's eyes flicked back down the hill.
“Cigarettes cause cancer. Hakkai says. You could die.”
“I'm not gonna die from some old man's disease, monkey!” Gojyo scoffed, exhaling another milky lungful of smoke. “I already told you - I'm going out between the thighs of a gorgeous chick.”
He dug Goku in the ribs and leered.
But Goku didn't laugh; he narrowed his eyes.
“Hakkai's already lost one person! An' he's still sad about it! If you-”
Gojyo went cold. That noise. That soft little sound Hakkai always made at the back of his throat when he came ...
Kuh ... Kanan.
“ ... I'll never forgive either of you!” Goku finished, planting his hands on his hips with a dramatic flourish and glaring up at Gojyo.
Who had no idea what the monkey had been ranting about.
“Pah - quit whining!” he bluffed, as if he'd been heard every word. “I'm fine. Better than fine. In fact, I'm great. I'll race you to the top. Where there'd better be a friggin' inn, cuz I need a beer!”
* * * * *
The inn that huddled in the shadow of the final snow-capped peak offered the ikkou the rare luxury of a room each. In fact, apart from one very elderly gentleman, they were its only guests.
Sanzo slung his belongings onto a reassuringly narrow bed and walked over to the window. Outside, everything was still. The odd snow-flake fluttered past his eyeline, but apart from that, there was no movement at all.
Sanzo didn't like it.
He lit a cigarette.
Behind him, a tentative rap sounded against the door. Then a second, louder and more insistent. He strode quickly across the room and flung the door open, catching Goku, his fist raised for another knock, off-balance.
“What?” Sanzo demanded, a little off-balance himself and desperately wishing that he'd had to share a room with Hakkai. Or even Gojyo.
“Can I come in?” Goku asked, eyes enormous in his uptilted face.
“Why?”
Goku bit his lip and he lowered his gaze.
“I, um, wanna ... talk.”
Sanzo could think of lots of things he'd rather do. Things that would make Goku chant his name again. Things that might even blot out some of his own doubt and fear.
“Fuck off.”
Goku's bottom lip quivered.
“But-”
“But nothing. We have nothing to talk about. Go away.”
Goku was as still as the scene outside the window.
“When are we gonna do it again?”
Sanzo had to admire his boldness, even if there was no way in hell was he going to reward it.
“We're not.”
Goku looked baffled.
“But why? D'I do somethin' wrong? Cuz I can learn! I'll do it better next time.”
An unwanted image of Goku, head thrown back and wailing with pleasure, flooded Sanzo's memory.
Shit. Now he was thinking about how Goku's breath had hitched, how his body had arched and trembled ... and it was making him hard.
Then he remembered the flash of a blade and a feeling of utter powerlessness.
He had to pull himself together and push Goku away.
“No, Goku. You didn't do anything wrong,” he replied, wincing at the hope dawning in Goku's eyes. “But once was enough. You're too ... young.”
The light in Goku's eyes dimmed a touch and he bit his lip before quickly gathering himself enough to nod sagely as if he understood.
“Okay. Wanna come get somethin' to eat?”
He was so brave, so strong - so goddamn good - that, for a second, Sanzo almost gave in to the urge to grab him.
Instead, he did the only thing he knew how.
He slammed the door in his face.
* * * * *
Ordinarily Gojyo would never have allowed the chance for some alone time with Hakkai to slip by, but the thing was, Gojyo wanted to be wanted. He didn't really expect Hakkai to love him, not like he loved Hakkai, but now he was tormented by the fear that every time they'd been together, Hakkai had thinking of someone else: Kanan.
So, instead of turning up at Hakkai's door with the usual bottle of booze and suggestive grin, Gojyo headed down to the bar. A bit of blurring round the edges was just what he needed right now.
He slapped his room key down on the counter, ordered a beer and sank it in one. A second followed in short order, before Gojyo decided that beer wasn't really hitting the spot and he moved onto scotch.
“Don't get many travellers here these days,” the barman commented as Gojyo savoured the serious burn of real alcohol
“No? What about the old fella in the corner?”
Gojyo jerked his head to indicate an old man sitting across the room beside the open fire.
The barman made an odd sound, half laugh, half nervous grunt.
“Says he's too afraid to leave. Reckons he's seen the koorima with his own eyes. Told his story to a couple of journalists who were staying here last winter - and now most people are too scared to venture this far up anymore.”
Gojyo glanced back at the old man. With his straggly grey beard and wild eyes, he certainly looked mad enough to have had an encounter with an ice demon.
Gojyo shivered.
“You ever seen it?”
“No. But I stay indoors most of the time. Koorima don't like the heat,” the barman explained, hastily adding an “Or so they say” like he didn't want to appear to lend any credence to the old fella's tale.
Which, naturally, had the opposite effect. Gojyo sighed. As if climbing the mountain hadn't been enough! Now it looked like they were going to have to battle a frickin' demon on the way down. Staring gloomily into his drink, Gojyo tried to work out which was worse: the goddamn journey itself or the fact that he'd only come on it because of Hakkai.
“Give me a beer!” a familiar voice demanded.
Gojyo turned his head to see Goku standing next to him, affecting a casual lean against the bar as if places like this were his second home.
The barman wasn't fooled. He looked Goku up and down.
“I'll need to see some I.D.”
Gojyo saw a muscle in Goku's cheek twitch.
“I'm nineteen!” the monkey exploded. “Nearly twenty! Tell him, Gojyo.”
“It's true,” Gojyo confirmed in response to the barman's questioning look. “Looks younger cuz he's a midget. But he doesn't drink.”
“I do now!” Goku declared, folding his arms across his chest and daring anyone to argue. “An' I want a beer.”
The barman shrugged and Goku got his drink, which he swilled down with his usual monkey greed. His second pint took him a little longer - but not much.
“Wannanuther,” Goku slurred, banging the empty glass down on the counter. "I wan' more beer!"
Then he belched loudly and burst into a fit of giggles.
Gojyo rolled his eyes. It didn't seem like the kid's capacity to hold his drink had improved any since they got challenged to that drinking contest. Even so, Gojyo did nothing to stop Goku ordering a third beer. He might be many things, but he was not a hypocrite.
They drank in silence for a few minutes, Goku almost sliding off his bar-stool a couple of times.
Eventually Gojyo had to ask.
“What's with the sudden desire for alcohol?”
Goku's head wobbled, as if trying to come up with an answer to the question was making it too heavy to balance.
Goku peered at Gojyo blearily.
“Wanna s'grette.”
Another fine non sequitur.
Gojyo snorted.
“Can this be the same monkey who, only this afternoon, was lecturing me about the dangers of smoking?”
Goku shrugged.
“Not gonna kill me, are they?”
Goku had Gojyo there. According to Hakkai, the monkey was pretty much indestructible. He'd be around long after the rest of them were pushing up daisies. Which suddenly struck Gojyo as horribly, unbearably sad and he slid his pack of cigarette and his lighter toward Goku without another word.
Although Goku had gotten the hang of drinking easily enough, lighting a smoke proved more of a challenge. He fumbled, nearly set fire to his fringe and dropped Gojyo's favourite lighter several times. In the end, Gojyo took over and did it for him.
Just in time for Sanzo to come storming into the bar.
“What in the name of fuck do you think you're doing?” he growled, bringing his fan down on the side of the Goku's head with such force that the kid spat the newly lit cigarette out onto the floor.
A second blow caught the top of Gojyo's left ear.
“And you ... you're a total waste of skin! You couldn't have stopped him?”
“Hey,” Gojyo protested. “I'm not his keeper. If you can't be bothered keeping an eye on him-”
“Stop it!” Goku suddenly yelled. “Whad I do s'none o' your businesses! I'm nodda kid!”
Sanzo grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him up onto tiptoe and getting right in his face.
“Then stop acting like one!”
What happened next was a blur. Gojyo vaguely registered a pair of hands slam into Sanzo's breastplate and the sound of a hissed curse. Then Sanzo was stumbling backwards, trying hard not to fall. Beside Gojyo, Goku was breathing heavily, chin tucked in towards his chest, eyes blazing and fingers flexing dangerously.
Shit.
“Please yourself then!” Sanzo snarled, straightening his clothing and shooting Goku a look of pure fury. “Just don't come whining to me when you feel like shit in the morning.”
Goku said nothing, just stood and watched as Sanzo turned and stalked out of the room. Gojyo had never thought he'd ever be sorry to see the back of the priest, but if Goku was about to youkai out, Sanzo was the only one who could contain him. Gojyo risked a glance at Goku out of the corner of his eye. The monkey was still panting lightly, his whole attention focused on the door Sanzo had just left through. Heat was coming off him in waves.
“Goku?”
“Gojyo ... c'n'I ask ya somethin'?”
Oh, thank fuck for that! He still knew who Gojyo was.
“Sure.”
“How'd you do sex properly? With a guy?”
* * * * *
“Well, Hakuryu,” Hakkai said at last, “It looks like Gojyo won't be visiting this evening.”
A little smoke escaped the dragon's nostrils and he growled softly.
“No, no,” Hakkai insisted. “It's all right. I wasn't really expecting him to.”
And it wasn't exactly a lie - even if Hakkai had hoped. He'd waited and waited, his heart thumping at every footfall out in the hallway. But there'd been no knock at the door, no smiling Gojyo, no kissing and making up.
With a sigh, Hakkai took the small white tube which lay on the bedside table and slipped it back into his bag. They would be starting the descent into Zhemen in the morning and, according to the map, they would most likely be camping out for the next few nights.
Which made Gojyo's failure to show even more upsetting.
Even so, Hakkai couldn't go to him. He never did. He'd imposed on Gojyo enough for one lifetime. If Hakkai owed Sanzo his freedom, he owed Gojyo everything and so he would wait.
Wait and hope.
And try not to despair.
* * * * *
It took Gojyo a minute or two to regain his composure after Goku's unexpected question. Sure, he knew the kid must at least be thinking about the pleasures of the flesh these days, he just hadn't expected to be the one Goku would turn to for advice. Gojyo grinned. Maybe the monkey wasn't as dumb as he looked after all.
“Let's take this somewhere quieter,” he suggested, nodding towards one of the bar's dozen or so tables. Not that the place was exactly crowded, but the barman was doing too good a job of appearing to be not eavesdropping.
Goku followed Gojyo to the table, took a seat and leant forward, elbows on the table and hands propping up his chin, his face a study in rapt attention.
Gojyo coughed.
“Look, Goku, I've gotta say ... if this is about Sanzo, well, the guy's already got a stick a mile wide up his ass. There's no room for you in there.”
Goku blinked.
“A stick?”
Okay, Gojyo amended, maybe he was as dumb as he looked. He tried again.
“Sanzo's a monk. Which means he's celibate. Not into sex. Not now, not never.”
Gojyo wasn't entirely sure he believed that himself but figured it was best if the monkey did. Better that than waste his time pining after an unfeeling bastard like Sanzo.
Goku frowned.
“But-”
“No buts about it,” Gojyo insisted, then, unable to resist the cheap joke, added with a grin. “No butts either.”
Goku's frown deepened.
“Okay,” he said slowly, still looking a tad confused, “Forget Sanzo. Jus' tell me how to do it right. So a person would wanna do it with me again.”
“Oh, monkey, monkey,” Gojyo tsked. “There is no 'right'. It's about finding out what your lover likes.”
“Huh? I don't get it.”
“Look - you know how to get yourself off, right?”
Goku nodded emphatically.
“Sanzo showed me.”
The mouthful of whisky Gojyo had just taken ended up sprayed all over the table top and the monkey's eager face.
“He did?”
Goku's golden eyes took on a dreamy look.
“Yeah ...”
Well, well. Gojyo had always known Sanzo was a wanker, but he had to admit that discovering the priest had been teaching his pet how to jack off was a bit of a surprise. It was also very interesting. Next time Sanzo was acting all high and mighty, Gojyo might just have to mention it. Meanwhile ...
“Well, start off doing that to ... whoever.”
Goku shook his head impatiently.
“No, tha's no good. I wanna know how to do the real sex bit.”
Figuring Goku couldn't shock him any more than he already had, Gojyo decided his next mouthful of whisky had a fair chance of hitting his stomach. He swallowed it down and took a deep breath.
“Well, basically one of the guys put his dick into-”
“I know wha' goes where,” Goku interrupted. “What I wanna know is if there's any, uh, fancy stuff I oughta do?”
Gojyo dropped his head into his hands. It looked like it was gonna be a long night.
Where to start? How to encapsulate all his knowledge, all his goddamn expertise, into a few simple tips even a monkey could absorb?
“You know how you eat a lollipop?” Gojyo began
“I crunch 'em,” Goku enthused.
Gojyo grimaced and shifted in his seat.
“Okay, bad example. Forget lollipops. Think about drinking soda through a straw.”
Goku made a little 'o' shape with his lips.
“Good. Now open up a bit wider and imagine, instead of a straw, you've got a-”
The rest of Gojyo's sentence was cut abruptly short by a squeal of pain from Goku, who was slowly levitating from his seat.
Gojyo looked up to see Sanzo had the boy by the hair.
“You,” the priest thundered into his ear, without so much as a glance at Gojyo, “Bed. Now.”
“Ow! Ow! Okay, I'm goin', I'm goin'.”
For all that he was squirming and twisting, Gojyo could tell Goku was delighted that Sanzo had come for him. That Sanzo was touching him. His eyes shone and, at the corners of his mouth, there were the beginnings of a smile.
Nursing his lonely drink, Gojyo watched them go.
“Huh,” he grunted. “Maybe someone might get laid tonight after all.”
* * * * *
But the next morning, neither Sanzo nor Goku was exactly radiating a warm afterglow of satiation. The priest was in a particularly pissy mood and Goku wouldn't even react to Gojyo's goading. He just trudged along silently, head bowed, the collar of his cape turned up against the biting wind. Hakkai was acting weird too, smiling almost constantly and making bright comments about the glorious landscape.
It had snowed during the night. The ground was covered in a blanket of soft white that crunched and squeaked underfoot. Further up the mountain, the fall had been deeper still and the skyline was decorated with a thick cornice that had been sculpted into a series of elaborate curves and curls.
Goku stopped suddenly in his tracks and sniffed the air.
“What is it?” Gojyo asked, almost certain he didn't want to know.
“Dunno. Somethin' ...”
All four of the ikkou scanned the panorama.
“There!” Hakkai exclaimed, pointing to a ridge.
It might have been a shadow had it not been moving with purpose. And its purpose appeared to be following them.
“Sanzo-?” Hakkai began but never got to finish because first there was sickening creak, then a low, menacing rumble. The rumble gathered pace, became a roar, a howl, thunder. The ground trembled, slid and slipped away. Chunks of snow began buffeting Gojyo, too many to defend himself against. And then whiteness enveloped him and he was inside the storm, being swept, tumbled, dragged. His limbs felt numb. Heavy. Heavier by the moment. He was being pulled down.
He was drowning.
* * * * *
Sanzo came to with a start. He was cold, colder than he'd ever been, and he couldn't move. What had happened? Where the fuck was he? There was nothing familiar, nothing but white.
Snow.
Of course. There'd been an avalanche. Probably started by that cretin up on the ridge. Well, at least that explained the cold and the immobility; he was pinned under several inches of snow. Practically entombed. If ever there'd been a time for the Makai Tenjyo, this was it.
Pushing any thought of the others firmly aside, Sanzo gathered himself and closed his eyes. In the scant inch of space around his right hand, he extended his first and second fingers together, clasping the third and fourth against his palm with his thumb.
“On ma ni katsu mei uni MAKAI TENJYO!”
The explosion was instantaneous. The Maten Sutra burst through the snow like vigourous young shoots through soil, breaking off large slabs and hurling them aside. A fine mist of white powder rose into the air before falling back down onto Sanzo's already soaked clothing and hair.
He hauled himself to his feet and automatically pulled out his cigarettes. The pack was crumpled and soggy.
“Pfft!”
Sanzo tossed it away. It looked like finding the others - and soon - had better be his priority; he needed a cigarette.
Yelling for them was out of the question. One avalanche was more than enough for one day. He looked around. Now he was upright, he could see that the snowfield extended maybe another mile down the hillside. After that, the slope was covered with boulders and scree. Being youkai, the others were faster than him; they might have made it that far. But he couldn't see them, couldn't even hear that irritating voice ...
Cursing colourfully under his breath, Sanzo set off down the hill, sodden robes clinging to him heavily. Goddamn monkey. Why was he never there when he was needed - and always there when he wasn't?
The shortest route down took Sanzo through a cluster of trees. Tall evergreens, their long, flaring branches weighed down with snow. Now he was over his terror of the white stuff, Goku would probably think them pretty. Idiot! It felt good to be shot of him - and the others. Sanzo liked solitude. It suited him and he was used to it.
Except, he suddenly realized, he wasn't alone. He could sense a presence. If the damp hadn't plastered it to his skin, the hair at the back of his neck would have stood up on end.
“Well, well - alone at last.”
He couldn't see her yet, but it was a woman's voice.
“Show yourself!” he commanded.
One of the trees shivered and from behind it, a tall, shapely woman with long silvery white hair stepped out. Her eyes were ice-blue and her lips almost as pale as her smooth, unlined cheeks. She wore a long, flowing gown comprised of layers of translucent material that shifted in the breeze allowing Sanzo to discern the curve of her hips and the swell of her breasts.
With a glance at what was left of the cornice, he felt for his gun.
“I am Kyoko,” the woman announced. “And I've gone to a lot of trouble to meet you.”
With a languid sweep of a pallid hand, she indicated the aftermath of the avalanche.
Despite the cold, Sanzo felt his blood boil.
“That was your doing?”
Kyoko smiled.
“You're just what I need. Do I please you?”
“ 'Just what you need' for what?” Sanzo demanded.
In the blink of an eye, she closed the gap between them, leaning in so close her lips brushed ice against his cheek.
“To father my daughter.”
“In your dreams!” Sanzo snorted, taking a few steps backwards.
Kyoko's polite smile vanished.
“Enough talking. Let's get started.”
Sanzo whipped out his pistol.
“Let's not.”
For a moment, she stood, eyeing the weapon warily. Then, with a tinkling laugh, flicked her index finger towards it sending a stream of ice to coil around the gun and Sanzo's wrist like rope. He tried squeezing the trigger, but his finger wouldn't move. Never mind - he was ambidextrous when it came to firearms. Only when he tried to change hands, he found the weapon was frozen in his grip. Which meant his only option was -
“Shh.” Kyoko pressed two fingers to his lips. “No talking. I've seen what your words can do.”
Sanzo tried to open his mouth, but his lips were stuck together. Something like panic knocking against his chest, he began to run, only to be halted by another stream of ice snaking around his ankles. Attempts at lashing out with his fists resulted in a second set of icy manacles.
“There,” Kyoko crooned. “That's better. Now we can get down to business.”
Sanzo grunted a protest and Kyoko laughed.
“Oh, don't worry. Apart from the obvious, you won't have to do a thing,” she promised, kissing his sealed mouth lightly, fingers deftly untying his sash. “As soon as your seed is in me, you'll be dead.”
Sanzo's wet robes were pulled up over his head and flung to the ground, his jeans unzipped and pushed half-way down his thighs. Cupping his balls and limp dick in a chilly hand, Kyoko set about stroking him, trying to work him into hardness. But it was cold. And even if it hadn't been, Sanzo would have had no trouble in resisting her. She had nothing to offer him. She wasn't-
Goku. Damn. Sanzo had let the thought in. The thought of Goku tight around him. Clenching. Squeezing.
Kyoko chuckled.
“That's more like it.”
She rubbed and pulled harder, faster and Sanzo's treacherous body went with her, telling his mind this could be anything he wanted, all he had to do was imagine.
GOKU! Sanzo bellowed inwardly. Good-for-nothing saru, where was he? GOKU!
Kyoko pushed him down onto the ground, lifted her gown to expose moon-pale thighs and straddled him.
No. No. Sanzo didn't want this. Didn't want that smell, that slimy wetness, that hideous cloying softness. He couldn't bear it. His gorge rose and for a moment he feared he'd be sick into his sealed-up mouth and would choke to death on his own vomit. And then it occurred to him that even that would be a better fate than getting ridden by this bitch.
She was groping for his dick, trying to slide it inside her when all of a sudden she let out a howl and toppled off him sideways. At which point Sanzo realized that, a fraction of a second earlier, nyoi-bo had cracked her on the temple.
He looked up to see Goku standing over him.
“Pleased to see me?” the monkey asked with a grin.
It seemed that Kyoko needed to be conscious to maintain her ice restraints because Sanzo found he was able to move his hands and feet again. He pulled his jeans back up and glared at Goku.
“If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you. Help me up. I'm fucking freezing.”
Goku held out his hand and Sanzo took it. Warmth flooded into him, dissipating the aching chill that had seeped into his bones. He was on the point of offering a grudging word of thanks when, to his horror, Goku went flying through the air, carried on a wave of ice emanating from Kyoko's extended hands. It poured from them in torrents and continued flowing, wrapping sheet after glassy sheet around the suspended Goku so thickly that in seconds his features were barely visible.
Sanzo didn't hesitate. He shot Kyoko through the head, then again through the heart. Her body crumpled to the ground, wounds leaking blue-red blood into the snow.
Hakkai and Gojyo appeared through the trees.
“Told you it would take more than that to kill the jerkwad,” Gojyo smirked.
“You're safe!” Hakkai beamed. “Goku said ... Where is he? Didn't he get here?”
“Yes, he got here,” Sanzo replied. “Although he took his goddamn monkey time.”
He walked over to where Goku's ice-clad body had fallen and gave it a little kick.
“Get up!”
Somewhat surprisingly, although it had thinned, the ice hadn't completely thawed. Goku was still trapped within what looked like an enormous misshapen ice cube. Sanzo couldn't understand it. Kyoko was dead. Goku ought to be free.
“Hakkai!”
The demon slayer came running and dropped to his knees beside Goku.
“His chi - I can hardly feel it!”
“Do something!” Sanzo ordered.
Hakkai nodded. Bowing his head, he placed his palms flat on the ice above Goku's heart. Sanzo heard him inhale deeply, then grunt softly as he began projecting his own chi onto the monkey. At first nothing happened. Deep lines of concentration appeared between Hakkai's eyebrows. His jaw clenched and his hands trembled. Another inhalation. A longer, louder grunt and suddenly there was steam, a trickle of water and Goku's carapace of ice began to melt.
It took five long minutes to dissolve completely.
Not that Sanzo was counting.
But even when it was gone, Goku remained motionless, his normally glowing cheeks grey, his lips and the tip of his nose alarmingly blue.
“He doesn't look right,” Gojyo commented, displaying his considerable skill in stating the obvious. “Why's he that colour?”
“Hypothermia,” Hakkai diagnosed, peeling back one of Goku's eyelids. “His pupils are dilated and his breathing's terribly slow. Sanzo, we need to get him somewhere warm and quickly.”
“Guess that means we're going back to the inn,” Gojyo observed. “Out of the way, Sanzo-sama. You're not the only one who knows how to handle the kid.”
There was something about his emphasis that Sanzo didn't like but the situation was too grave to bother with it now so, as the kappa bent down to lift Goku's insert form from the ground, Sanzo bit his tongue.
* * * * *
As Hakkai moved Goku into the recovery position, he heard the click of a cigarette lighter.
“Sanzo - please,” he sighed. “This is a sick room.”
“No, it's a hotel room,” Sanzo snapped. “It's only a sick room because you still haven't fixed him.”
Nevertheless he ground his cigarette out in the ashtray on the table beside him.
Hakkai turned his attention back to Goku. He was worried. Really worried. Goku didn't seem to be responding to his healing efforts at all. Perhaps Hakkai's powers weren't as great as he'd imagined? He tried again, laying his hands directly on Goku's body, exerting every ounce of energy he had. The burn in his palms was there and the dull ache like bruising in his muscles that always accompanied the transfer of chi. Behind his eyes, there was the same slight throb ...
“Hey, man! You okay?”
Hakkai started, disoriented for a second, before realizing it was Gojyo's arm around his shoulders, Gojyo's worried face was peering into his. Hakkai mustered a weak smile.
“I'm fine.”
Gojyo seemed unconvinced and clamped a hand to Hakkai's forehead.
“You're overdoing it,” he declared. “You just passed out and you're all clammy. You need to rest or you'll be as bad as Goku.”
Behind him, Hakkai heard Sanzo make a small sound of irritation.
“I'm all right, really.”
“You need a rest,” Gojyo insisted. “And something to eat.”
“Why not book him into a health spa whilst you're at it?” Sanzo sneered.
He was hiding his concern behind sarcasm, Hakkai knew. He hated letting the priest down.
“I'll take some tea and try again,” he promised. “I think his condition may require repeated treatments.”
“Unless,” Sanzo mused, “You've drained your chi by frittering your energy away elsewhere?”
Anger sparked in Hakkai's belly, somewhere just under his scar. Sanzo had no right ... no, he had every right. Were it not for Sanzo, Hakkai would be languishing in a jail somewhere.
“As soon as Goku knocked that harpy out,” Sanzo continued, “the ice on me vanished. There may have been a lot more of it on Goku, but you should have been able to get rid of it easily. Even with your limiters on, it shouldn't have taken five whole goddamn minutes. Or however long it was.”
Sanzo knew to the second how long it had taken, Hakkai was certain.
“When I started - it's almost as if he had no chi of his own left,” he tried to explain, words woefully inadequate to convey the physical sensations of chi transfer to someone who'd never done it himself. Hakkai shrugged and shook his head. “But that makes no sense; we all know how much power Goku has.”
Sanzo cleared his throat and glanced at his charge.
“Keep trying. I'm going to bed.”
“What?!!” Gojyo exploded, moving to block the doorway. “You're ordering Hakkai to knock himself out for your pet and you're going to bed.”
Sanzo rolled his eyes.
“It understands human speech.”
Gojyo was spluttering with indignation.
“Why, you fucking asshole-”
If Hakkai didn't intervene, there was going to be a fight. Or worse. Sanzo's right hand was already reaching for his Smith and Wesson.
“Ha, ha! Let's not argue. Of course I will keep trying, Sanzo. Please, go to bed. And Gojyo - I'll be fine. Please don't worry.”
From the way he huffed and curled his lip at Sanzo, Hakkai knew his words had done nothing to make Gojyo any less worried about the situation, but at least they had diffused the tension. Sanzo grunted and left the room without pulling his gun, anyway.
“Goku might have been born from a rock, but that bastard is made of stone,” Gojyo declared as soon as the door closed.
No, Hakkai thought, looking down at the motionless Goku, that's not it at all. He's furious that he isn't.
* * * * *
Sanzo couldn't sleep. Not that he'd really expected to; he'd just wanted out of that room. The sight of Goku lying so still and cold made his stomach twist and filled him with an urgent need to lash out and break things. He couldn't have stayed. It was better to leave Goku to Hakkai, to someone who could actually help him.
But knowing that did nothing for his insomnia. Sanzo got out of bed, pulled his clothes back on and went out into the hallway, with the vague intention of seeking out a vending machine.
And bumped right into Gojyo. Great!
Rather unexpectedly, the kappa acknowledged him with what looked like a sympathetic nod.
“Going to see the monkey?”
Not that it was any of his business but Sanzo decided to disabuse him of the notion.
“No. To find some smokes.”
“You're unbelievable!” Gojyo exclaimed. “If you had any idea what that kid ... oh, forget it!”
“Gladly.”
Sanzo continued on down the corridor, only for a hand to land on his shoulder. He was spun around and pinned to a wall.
“What about Hakkai? What about the fact that he's practically dead on his feet and doing your job. Goku's had all the chi Hakkai can spare. All Hakkai's doing now is nurse-maiding him. Something even you could do.”
Sanzo's first instinct was to hit Gojyo with his fan; his second to shoot him. Instead, he punched the moron's hand away.
“If you're so concerned, why don't you go and give Hakkai a break?”
“Shit, Sanzo - are you stupid? Hakkai does what you tell him. And you told him to stay there.”
Sanzo closed his eyes.
But when Gojyo's grip on his shoulder softened into a gentle squeeze, he snapped them back open again.
“What-?”
“Go see Goku.”
The words were soft, kind even. Goddamn kappa. But by the time Sanzo had summoned a suitably bitter riposte, Gojyo had ambled away.
Sanzo looked back down the hallway. Goku's room was three doors away. A short distance for most people, maybe, but an enormous one for Sanzo to cover - and full of the kind of danger he'd avoided all his life. Hell. He supposed he would have to. He turned and walked back to Goku's door, gave it a quick tap to warn Hakkai of his presence and entered.
Hakkai looked up. He was exhausted. It was written all over his face. Sanzo ignored a twinge of conscience; he was here now, dammit.
“Get some rest,” he said stiffly.
Hakkai rose from his chair.
“Thank you.”
“Hmmph.”
* * * * *
“Watching over your cohort again?”
“Hmm? Oh - yes.”
“Is something wrong?”
“I think I may have made a mistake.”
“You? A mistake? That is surely not possible!”
“Don't flatter me, Jiroshin.”
“No, of course not. But really - have they run into difficulties? With Gyumaoh's resurrection?”
“No. Not that. They right on track with that. A little ahead of schedule even. It's the other thing-”
“Ah.”
“They were supposed to get it right this time round, Jiroshin, not make the same mistakes. I wonder if it was an error to grant Nataku's request.”
“No, merciful goddess! It was an act of kindness. The imprisonment of one so young was harsh enough in itself, but to have condemned him to live all that time, in the full knowledge of ... No, oh great one, it would have been an unbearable torture for him.”
“Hmm. Perhaps you're right. But I can't help worrying about Konzen. He's so unlike himself these days.”
“Are you surprised?”
“No, not really. But they've changed. All three of them. It was inevitable but ... I just wish Konzen had become more like Tenpou. At least his only self-destructive quality was his addiction to tobacco.”
* * * * *
It had been a shitty day, Gojyo reflected as he got into bed. Another shitty day. Not that he really minded fighting or even the odd close brush with an icy death. No, what he hated was not having anyone to curl up with when it was over. Oh, who was he trying to kid? These days he didn't want to curl up with just anyone; he wanted it to be Hakkai. Perhaps he should swallow his goddamn pride and just let Hakkai keep on fantasizing that he was Kanan? What difference did it really make, after all? Hell, Gojyo should probably don a dress and put on some make-up and do the job properly.
A knock at the door interrupted the strange series of images that thought conjured up.
The door opened and Hakkai was standing there, a raised eyebrow asking permission to enter.
“Oh. It's you,” Gojyo said, trying to sound nonchalant and not at all like he was fighting an urge to throw himself at his lover.
Hakkai's other eyebrow arched as well.
“Would you have expected Sanzo to knock?”
“S'pose not. How come you're not with Goku?”
“Sanzo relieved me. Which I suspect was your doing ...”
“Mine? Hell, he never listens to me.”
“ ... he said I should get some rest.”
Gojyo scrutinized his face, saw the tiredness deep in every line.
“So you should. Go to bed.”
Hakkai shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.
“I'm cold-”
“Put some extra blankets on,” Gojyo advised, making another stab at nonchalant. “You can have one of these if you-”
“I can't help it, Gojyo,” Hakkai continued, as if Gojyo hadn't spoken. “I've never been fiery or passionate like you.”
“Huh?”
“And after Kanan ... well, I froze up. In here.”
Hakkai tapped his chest. Gojyo felt an anxious thud in his own.
“Understandable,” he murmured. Where the hell was Hakkai going with this? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
“It's why I can't be the person you want me to be. Why I say things that sound harsh ... I'm sorry.”
There were tears in Hakkai's eyes, Gojyo could swear it, or at least the beginnings of tears. If Gojyo had been some kind of pansy-assed, well-bred type he'd probably have felt like crying too. Hakkai had picked one helluva a night to call it quits.
“Forget it,” Gojyo shrugged. “Good night.”
Hakkai smiled sadly, the corners of his mouth struggling to achieve any kind of upward curve. Certainly not the kind of smile he could sustain for long. In seconds it was slipping and Hakkai with it. His eyes went wide and he crumpled, sliding down the door frame to land with a bump on the floor.
Gojyo leapt out of bed. Kneeling, he pulled Hakkai's upper body up into his arms.
“Fuck, Hakkai! You're freezing!”
The observation earned him another weak smile.
“Goku was very cold ...”
Never mind Goku. Never mind Kanan or his own jealousy either, Gojyo decided. Hakkai was going to catch his death if he didn't get under the covers soon.
“You,” Gojyo told him, “are getting into bed right now. Here. And I'm going to stay awake and make sure you don't get hyperwotsit.”
“Hypothermia,” Hakkai supplied, drifting into sleep.
Gojyo lifted him from the floor and carried him over to the bed. Hakkai was heavier than he looked, but Gojyo got him under the bedclothes and climbed in next to him.
Hakkai might not love him, but Gojyo loved Hakkai. With all his heart.
Maybe that would be enough.
* * * * * *
Sanzo couldn't get comfortable. The chair was lumpy and Goku's room unbearably hot. He got up to adjust the thermostat but realized Hakkai had turned up the heating intentionally. What had he said? Goku needs all the warmth he can get.
Sanzo figured that meant opening a window was out of the question too.
He sighed and walked over to the bed.
“You are a complete nuisance,” he told the unconscious Goku. “I don't know why I bother with you.”
Goku didn't so much as twitch. He lay deathly still, lips still tinged with blue.
Sanzo reached out a tentative hand and felt his brow. Even in the overheated room, it felt cool and Sanzo jerked his hand away, unsettled and uneasy. He retreated to the window and pressed his cheek to the glass, wishing he could smoke, read, do anything rather than just having to wait. Waiting left too much time for thinking. And, tired and sweltering as he was, the thoughts that came were chaotic and depressing. This was his fault. If Goku hadn't come to his rescue. If Sanzo had never touched him.
If, if, if ...
Goddammit, even after having removed his robes, Sanzo was still intolerably hot. He could taste salt on his lips and sweat was running down the back of his neck. Goku was still out of it. Sanzo told himself he didn't know why he'd just confirmed that before peeling off his vest and gauntlets.
For a brief moment, he felt less hot and sticky. Almost comfortable. He decided he might as well remove his socks and boots too; he wasn't going anywhere.
As he stuffed his socks into his boots, a strange noise from the bed made him jump up in alarm.
“Goku?!”
clack-clack-clack-clack-clack
Sanzo almost laughed. The monkey's teeth were chattering, that was all. Except they shouldn't be chattering - not with the room at seventy-five degrees and Goku wearing a pair of Hakkai's thick flannelette pyjamas.
What the hell was wrong with him?
Goku needs all the warmth as he can get.
Sanzo looked round for another blanket; there wasn't one.
Damn. And shit. Shit on a goddamn stick.
Sanzo drew the bedclothes back and, as there wasn't even any change in Goku's breathing, spooned in carefully behind him - close enough to share his body heat but far enough away to avoid actual contact. He lay there awkwardly for a minute or two, fearful that Goku might wake. Which was ridiculous, because Goku waking was exactly what they were all waiting for. Sanzo snorted softly at his own stupidity.
Goku sighed. And wriggled closer.
Sanzo went rigid. Goku's butt was tucked in against his groin and the monkey's pyjama top had ridden up a little, uncovering part of the back that now pressed into Sanzo's bare chest. They were skin on skin again. Sanzo's blood began rushing to his dick and he caught his breath, waiting, waiting for Goku to turn, to kiss him, to try to break down the defences he'd been working so hard to rebuild.
But Goku did nothing other than let out another long sigh.
Sanzo glared at the back of his head.
Goddamn irritating monkey.
* * * * * *
To her immense relief, Ni Jianyi's latest chess partner suffered Professor Hwan's examination in silence. He'd never liked her and yet he seemed to have developed a slavish devotion to her boss. Well, she told herself, making a final adjustment to his cerebral activity monitors, at least his fangs had retracted. If he ever bit her arm again, the wounds would be less deep.
She handed him his usual post-examination reward: a large, ripe banana. For the first time since the experiment had begun, he knocked it aside.
“Professor Ni!”
“Huh?”
Hwan pointed first to the subject and then the rejected fruit.
Ni waved his hand impatiently.
“Never mind that,” he told her, turning back to the computer screen he'd been glued to for the past fifteen minutes. “That's just the result of the right mix of hormones and sutra, after all. Take a look at this. Though I say it myself, I am a genius!”
Hwan went to stand behind him and studied the monitor. There were two images, both dark and indistinct. But she knew what she was looking for.
“How do you do that?” she asked, knowing there was no way Professor Ni could predict where the Sanzo party would choose to lodge on any given night. How could he spy on them if he couldn't plant surveillance equipment?
“Do?” he laughed. “It's not a question of doing but of being. I understand them. I am them. This one's emptiness, this one's loss. The desire in this one to eat, the kid's need to be eaten-”
Hwan shuddered. Ni was the crudest, most repellent, lascivious man she'd ever met.
“Not everything is about sex,” she heard herself snap.
Ni did a double-take, then gave her the kind of smile that always made her want to scrub her skin for hours.
“That was not what I meant, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “There are other ways of being swallowed, you know ... although if you ever-”
“Did your experiment work?” Hwan interrupted hastily.
“Like a dream,” Ni replied. He smiled up at her over his shoulder. “Only now it's time for the nightmare.”
Hwan blinked.
“The nightmare?”
“Cold fusion can only take us so far.. It's time to move onto the next stage.”
“The next stage?” Hwan asked, hating herself for it.
Ni leant back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head.
“Yes indeed, Professor Hwan. It's time to try fission.”
Goku had always healed quickly, especially from little tears and abrasions. And he kinda wished he didn't. It had been a whole week, and Sanzo was doing such a good job of acting like nothing had happened between them that Goku was beginning to doubt his own memory. If only sitting down still made him wince a bit - like it had for about half a day afterwards - he'd have proof that Sanzo really had been inside him and that he hadn't just dreamt it.
Goku wanted Sanzo inside him again. Soon. It was all he could think about. Well, that and food, but if he'd had to choose between the two, he would absolutely, one-hundred-percent opt for Sanzo Inside Him Again. It had been the best thing ever. Just thinking about it made the soles of Goku's feet tingle and his toes curl.
Heck, he was hard again. It seemed like he was hard all the frickin' time now. He'd had to touch himself a helluva lot in the past week. That trick Sanzo had taught him in the woods did help a bit, but it was nowhere near as good as having Sanzo on top of him, his lips hot on Goku's skin and his eyes squeezing shut like he was enjoying it too and not just being kind to Goku.
But ... well, if Sanzo had enjoyed it, why wasn't he as eager as Goku to do it again? Because he wasn't; Goku knew that. Sanzo had scarcely even looked at him in the past week and he'd stopped touching him altogether. He didn't even hit Goku with the fan any more. It was stupid, but Goku missed that. Stupider still, he felt envious whenever Sanzo whacked Gojyo. Maybe Goku ought to provoke Sanzo more? No - because he had this feeling deep in his gut that the way he acted now - now that they had finally Done It - would probably be the deciding factor in whether they ever Did It Again.
Goku flicked a glance at Sanzo but the priest was asleep - or pretending to be. His head was drooping so far forward that, from his position on the back seat, Goku would have been able to see a little patch of skin at the base of his neck had Sanzo not been wearing his black leather vest. Goku wished he weren't - because he really wanted to see Sanzo's skin again, the secret bits of skin he hid from everyone else but which Goku had kissed, sucked on ..
Oh! Goku suddenly remembered he'd done a lot more than kiss and suck; he'd bitten, he'd left marks, bruises dotted all over Sanzo's neck and chest. Had they faded yet? Maybe not. Goku often forgot that Sanzo was the least strong of the four of them, that he was human.
Goku chewed his lip. Maybe that was why Sanzo was in no burning rush to have sex again? Maybe human men needed a long time to recover from it? If so, exactly how long was 'a long time' likely to be? Goku gave a little squeak of horror when he realized that in all the seven years he'd known him, Sanzo had never shared a bed with anyone other than himself.
“ 's'up, monkey?” Gojyo asked.
“Nothin',” Goku mumbled.
“Sure,” Gojyo disagreed. “Cuz nothin' always gives you a face like a wet weekend.”
Crap. Gojyo was on to him.
“It's better than havin' a face like stupid pervy kappa!” Goku retorted by way of a diversion.
“Which is better than ugly little chimp chops!” Gojyo flung back.
“Yucky cockroach head!”
“Miserable monkey mush!”
“SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP!”
Sanzo's fan sliced through the air, left and right, each time landing with a loud crack against Gojyo's skull.
Gojyo cringed, raising an arm to fend off more blows and protesting “Hey, dickwad! It takes two to tango. What about your goddamn pet? He started it!”
Sanzo turned and for the first time in days, his eyes met Goku's. A jolt of desire went straight to Goku's balls and he waited hopefully. It was weird, but he definitely wanted Sanzo to hit him.
For a second or two, Sanzo seemed to consider it but then he slipped the fan back into a sleeve and sat down again.
“Huh. So Sanzo-sama's playing favourites, is he?” Gojyo grumbled under his breath.
Goku glared at the kappa, thinking the exact same thing.
* * * * *
“You wanted to see me?”
Professor Hwan pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose and gave a loud sniff which she hoped conveyed some small fraction of the contempt she felt for the man who imagined himself her superior.
He swivelled round in his chair, thin lips winding into a slow smile.
“Ah, good morning. How nice to see you. Come in. And close the door.”
Professor Hwan did as instructed, her grip on the clipboard she held clutched against her chest tightening a little.
“What did you want me for?”
He looked at her over the rim of his spectacles, pupils cut through by the narrow metal frame.
“I thought it was time for us to get physical.”
Hwan jumped back and a little noise of disgust escaped her.
“You're a pig,” she spat.
Ni waited a second too long before feigning indignation, clearly wanting her to know that the innuendo had been intentional and that he would be on her in seconds if she gave him the slightest bit of encouragement.
Maybe even if she didn't.
Hwan suppressed a shudder and raised her chin.
“Then what?”
Ni turned back to gaze as the images on his computer screen.
“I think we're beyond the chemical at this stage,” he murmured softly. “It's time to move on to physics. The bonds need tightening.”
Hwan was almost sure she could hear him licking his lips.
“What-what did you have in mind?”
“Fusion, sweetheart. Cold fusion.”
* * * * *
“Another mountain.” Gojyo groused under his breath. “Just what I need - another goddamn mountain.”
Hakkai was hardly listening; Gojyo had been muttering complaints almost non-stop since Sanzo had decided he, and he alone, had been responsible for the latest bout of bickering with Goku. Hakkai had to admit that it had been unfair of Sanzo, but at the same time ... well, Gojyo was older than Goku and he really ought to be wiser. Besides, if Hakkai's suspicions were correct, Goku already had more than enough to be dealing with.
Not that it seemed to be weighing Goku down at all. He was striding on ahead, as ever full of energy and enthusiasm. Of all of them, Goku was probably the only one who relished the idea of actually getting to India and taking on whoever was responsible for the Minus Wave. In fact, Goku would probably be disappointed to arrive and find Gyumaoh hadn't been revived.
Hakkai smiled. Goku might be stronger than any of them, but at heart he was still a child. Young. Innocent.
Hakkai's smile faded a little and he darted a look back at Sanzo. Hakkai owed him so much and in many ways he admired the priest but ...
But nothing, Hakkai told himself firmly. Goku was Sanzo's; he always had been. The gods themselves had ordained it. The fact that Sanzo appeared to have decided to exchange his paternal role for something more intimate was none of Hakkai's concern. And yet, Hakkai couldn't help but feel responsible for the boy. He'd been his teacher after all - and Sanzo wasn't the easiest person in the world. There was a very real possibility that Goku could end up getting badly hurt. Sanzo probably wouldn't even mean to-
“Bet this one's frickin' snow-capped too. Crap, I hate mountains.”
This time Gojyo's pained tone penetrated Hakkai's thoughts and he pushed them resolutely away. Thinking about Sanzo and Goku together at all, let alone in Gojyo's company, felt wrong - impolite and intrusive.
Hakkai looked up at the soaring peaks ahead of them.
“But they're magnificent, Gojyo. How can you hate something so beautiful?”
Gojyo shrugged and gave a sulky grunt. Hakkai couldn't help but tease.
“It's because climbing mountains takes effort, isn't it? And you're the sort that likes everything to be easy.”
Gojyo recoiled a touch. He looked puzzled, hurt.
“I, uh-” Hakkai floundered. In his head, the words had sounded light, funny even, but in the thin mountain air they'd acquired a sharp edge.
“Nah, Hakkai, you're wrong,” Gojyo declared, flashing Hakkai a full-wattage grin that anyone else might have found convincing, “I might like my women easy, but there are some things I prefer hard.”
Hakkai smiled. Trust Gojyo to let him off the hook - he was generous to a fault.
“You know-” Hakkai began, but Gojyo had already lengthened his stride and was fast catching up with Goku.
Hakkai sighed. Without meaning too, he could be every bit as cruel as Sanzo.
He didn't deserve Gojyo.
He really didn't.
* * * * *
Gojyo fell into step beside Goku and slung an arm over his shoulders. All of a sudden, he was feeling a lot of empathy for the kid.
Goku jerked away.
Damn. Gojyo sighed and dug in his pockets for his Hi-Lites. He was in the process of lighting one - shielding it from a god awful blast of cold air that was only going to get colder - when Goku spoke.
“You shouldn't smoke so much. It's bad for you.”
“Yeah, well it's my choice, isn't it?” Gojyo answered, defiantly sucking in a deep, soothing lungful of warmth and holding it.
“Hakkai says we have to be strong for the people who believe in us,” Goku continued with typical monkey logic.
“Huh?”
Goku's eyes flicked back down the hill.
“Cigarettes cause cancer. Hakkai says. You could die.”
“I'm not gonna die from some old man's disease, monkey!” Gojyo scoffed, exhaling another milky lungful of smoke. “I already told you - I'm going out between the thighs of a gorgeous chick.”
He dug Goku in the ribs and leered.
But Goku didn't laugh; he narrowed his eyes.
“Hakkai's already lost one person! An' he's still sad about it! If you-”
Gojyo went cold. That noise. That soft little sound Hakkai always made at the back of his throat when he came ...
Kuh ... Kanan.
“ ... I'll never forgive either of you!” Goku finished, planting his hands on his hips with a dramatic flourish and glaring up at Gojyo.
Who had no idea what the monkey had been ranting about.
“Pah - quit whining!” he bluffed, as if he'd been heard every word. “I'm fine. Better than fine. In fact, I'm great. I'll race you to the top. Where there'd better be a friggin' inn, cuz I need a beer!”
* * * * *
The inn that huddled in the shadow of the final snow-capped peak offered the ikkou the rare luxury of a room each. In fact, apart from one very elderly gentleman, they were its only guests.
Sanzo slung his belongings onto a reassuringly narrow bed and walked over to the window. Outside, everything was still. The odd snow-flake fluttered past his eyeline, but apart from that, there was no movement at all.
Sanzo didn't like it.
He lit a cigarette.
Behind him, a tentative rap sounded against the door. Then a second, louder and more insistent. He strode quickly across the room and flung the door open, catching Goku, his fist raised for another knock, off-balance.
“What?” Sanzo demanded, a little off-balance himself and desperately wishing that he'd had to share a room with Hakkai. Or even Gojyo.
“Can I come in?” Goku asked, eyes enormous in his uptilted face.
“Why?”
Goku bit his lip and he lowered his gaze.
“I, um, wanna ... talk.”
Sanzo could think of lots of things he'd rather do. Things that would make Goku chant his name again. Things that might even blot out some of his own doubt and fear.
“Fuck off.”
Goku's bottom lip quivered.
“But-”
“But nothing. We have nothing to talk about. Go away.”
Goku was as still as the scene outside the window.
“When are we gonna do it again?”
Sanzo had to admire his boldness, even if there was no way in hell was he going to reward it.
“We're not.”
Goku looked baffled.
“But why? D'I do somethin' wrong? Cuz I can learn! I'll do it better next time.”
An unwanted image of Goku, head thrown back and wailing with pleasure, flooded Sanzo's memory.
Shit. Now he was thinking about how Goku's breath had hitched, how his body had arched and trembled ... and it was making him hard.
Then he remembered the flash of a blade and a feeling of utter powerlessness.
He had to pull himself together and push Goku away.
“No, Goku. You didn't do anything wrong,” he replied, wincing at the hope dawning in Goku's eyes. “But once was enough. You're too ... young.”
The light in Goku's eyes dimmed a touch and he bit his lip before quickly gathering himself enough to nod sagely as if he understood.
“Okay. Wanna come get somethin' to eat?”
He was so brave, so strong - so goddamn good - that, for a second, Sanzo almost gave in to the urge to grab him.
Instead, he did the only thing he knew how.
He slammed the door in his face.
* * * * *
Ordinarily Gojyo would never have allowed the chance for some alone time with Hakkai to slip by, but the thing was, Gojyo wanted to be wanted. He didn't really expect Hakkai to love him, not like he loved Hakkai, but now he was tormented by the fear that every time they'd been together, Hakkai had thinking of someone else: Kanan.
So, instead of turning up at Hakkai's door with the usual bottle of booze and suggestive grin, Gojyo headed down to the bar. A bit of blurring round the edges was just what he needed right now.
He slapped his room key down on the counter, ordered a beer and sank it in one. A second followed in short order, before Gojyo decided that beer wasn't really hitting the spot and he moved onto scotch.
“Don't get many travellers here these days,” the barman commented as Gojyo savoured the serious burn of real alcohol
“No? What about the old fella in the corner?”
Gojyo jerked his head to indicate an old man sitting across the room beside the open fire.
The barman made an odd sound, half laugh, half nervous grunt.
“Says he's too afraid to leave. Reckons he's seen the koorima with his own eyes. Told his story to a couple of journalists who were staying here last winter - and now most people are too scared to venture this far up anymore.”
Gojyo glanced back at the old man. With his straggly grey beard and wild eyes, he certainly looked mad enough to have had an encounter with an ice demon.
Gojyo shivered.
“You ever seen it?”
“No. But I stay indoors most of the time. Koorima don't like the heat,” the barman explained, hastily adding an “Or so they say” like he didn't want to appear to lend any credence to the old fella's tale.
Which, naturally, had the opposite effect. Gojyo sighed. As if climbing the mountain hadn't been enough! Now it looked like they were going to have to battle a frickin' demon on the way down. Staring gloomily into his drink, Gojyo tried to work out which was worse: the goddamn journey itself or the fact that he'd only come on it because of Hakkai.
“Give me a beer!” a familiar voice demanded.
Gojyo turned his head to see Goku standing next to him, affecting a casual lean against the bar as if places like this were his second home.
The barman wasn't fooled. He looked Goku up and down.
“I'll need to see some I.D.”
Gojyo saw a muscle in Goku's cheek twitch.
“I'm nineteen!” the monkey exploded. “Nearly twenty! Tell him, Gojyo.”
“It's true,” Gojyo confirmed in response to the barman's questioning look. “Looks younger cuz he's a midget. But he doesn't drink.”
“I do now!” Goku declared, folding his arms across his chest and daring anyone to argue. “An' I want a beer.”
The barman shrugged and Goku got his drink, which he swilled down with his usual monkey greed. His second pint took him a little longer - but not much.
“Wannanuther,” Goku slurred, banging the empty glass down on the counter. "I wan' more beer!"
Then he belched loudly and burst into a fit of giggles.
Gojyo rolled his eyes. It didn't seem like the kid's capacity to hold his drink had improved any since they got challenged to that drinking contest. Even so, Gojyo did nothing to stop Goku ordering a third beer. He might be many things, but he was not a hypocrite.
They drank in silence for a few minutes, Goku almost sliding off his bar-stool a couple of times.
Eventually Gojyo had to ask.
“What's with the sudden desire for alcohol?”
Goku's head wobbled, as if trying to come up with an answer to the question was making it too heavy to balance.
Goku peered at Gojyo blearily.
“Wanna s'grette.”
Another fine non sequitur.
Gojyo snorted.
“Can this be the same monkey who, only this afternoon, was lecturing me about the dangers of smoking?”
Goku shrugged.
“Not gonna kill me, are they?”
Goku had Gojyo there. According to Hakkai, the monkey was pretty much indestructible. He'd be around long after the rest of them were pushing up daisies. Which suddenly struck Gojyo as horribly, unbearably sad and he slid his pack of cigarette and his lighter toward Goku without another word.
Although Goku had gotten the hang of drinking easily enough, lighting a smoke proved more of a challenge. He fumbled, nearly set fire to his fringe and dropped Gojyo's favourite lighter several times. In the end, Gojyo took over and did it for him.
Just in time for Sanzo to come storming into the bar.
“What in the name of fuck do you think you're doing?” he growled, bringing his fan down on the side of the Goku's head with such force that the kid spat the newly lit cigarette out onto the floor.
A second blow caught the top of Gojyo's left ear.
“And you ... you're a total waste of skin! You couldn't have stopped him?”
“Hey,” Gojyo protested. “I'm not his keeper. If you can't be bothered keeping an eye on him-”
“Stop it!” Goku suddenly yelled. “Whad I do s'none o' your businesses! I'm nodda kid!”
Sanzo grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him up onto tiptoe and getting right in his face.
“Then stop acting like one!”
What happened next was a blur. Gojyo vaguely registered a pair of hands slam into Sanzo's breastplate and the sound of a hissed curse. Then Sanzo was stumbling backwards, trying hard not to fall. Beside Gojyo, Goku was breathing heavily, chin tucked in towards his chest, eyes blazing and fingers flexing dangerously.
Shit.
“Please yourself then!” Sanzo snarled, straightening his clothing and shooting Goku a look of pure fury. “Just don't come whining to me when you feel like shit in the morning.”
Goku said nothing, just stood and watched as Sanzo turned and stalked out of the room. Gojyo had never thought he'd ever be sorry to see the back of the priest, but if Goku was about to youkai out, Sanzo was the only one who could contain him. Gojyo risked a glance at Goku out of the corner of his eye. The monkey was still panting lightly, his whole attention focused on the door Sanzo had just left through. Heat was coming off him in waves.
“Goku?”
“Gojyo ... c'n'I ask ya somethin'?”
Oh, thank fuck for that! He still knew who Gojyo was.
“Sure.”
“How'd you do sex properly? With a guy?”
* * * * *
“Well, Hakuryu,” Hakkai said at last, “It looks like Gojyo won't be visiting this evening.”
A little smoke escaped the dragon's nostrils and he growled softly.
“No, no,” Hakkai insisted. “It's all right. I wasn't really expecting him to.”
And it wasn't exactly a lie - even if Hakkai had hoped. He'd waited and waited, his heart thumping at every footfall out in the hallway. But there'd been no knock at the door, no smiling Gojyo, no kissing and making up.
With a sigh, Hakkai took the small white tube which lay on the bedside table and slipped it back into his bag. They would be starting the descent into Zhemen in the morning and, according to the map, they would most likely be camping out for the next few nights.
Which made Gojyo's failure to show even more upsetting.
Even so, Hakkai couldn't go to him. He never did. He'd imposed on Gojyo enough for one lifetime. If Hakkai owed Sanzo his freedom, he owed Gojyo everything and so he would wait.
Wait and hope.
And try not to despair.
* * * * *
It took Gojyo a minute or two to regain his composure after Goku's unexpected question. Sure, he knew the kid must at least be thinking about the pleasures of the flesh these days, he just hadn't expected to be the one Goku would turn to for advice. Gojyo grinned. Maybe the monkey wasn't as dumb as he looked after all.
“Let's take this somewhere quieter,” he suggested, nodding towards one of the bar's dozen or so tables. Not that the place was exactly crowded, but the barman was doing too good a job of appearing to be not eavesdropping.
Goku followed Gojyo to the table, took a seat and leant forward, elbows on the table and hands propping up his chin, his face a study in rapt attention.
Gojyo coughed.
“Look, Goku, I've gotta say ... if this is about Sanzo, well, the guy's already got a stick a mile wide up his ass. There's no room for you in there.”
Goku blinked.
“A stick?”
Okay, Gojyo amended, maybe he was as dumb as he looked. He tried again.
“Sanzo's a monk. Which means he's celibate. Not into sex. Not now, not never.”
Gojyo wasn't entirely sure he believed that himself but figured it was best if the monkey did. Better that than waste his time pining after an unfeeling bastard like Sanzo.
Goku frowned.
“But-”
“No buts about it,” Gojyo insisted, then, unable to resist the cheap joke, added with a grin. “No butts either.”
Goku's frown deepened.
“Okay,” he said slowly, still looking a tad confused, “Forget Sanzo. Jus' tell me how to do it right. So a person would wanna do it with me again.”
“Oh, monkey, monkey,” Gojyo tsked. “There is no 'right'. It's about finding out what your lover likes.”
“Huh? I don't get it.”
“Look - you know how to get yourself off, right?”
Goku nodded emphatically.
“Sanzo showed me.”
The mouthful of whisky Gojyo had just taken ended up sprayed all over the table top and the monkey's eager face.
“He did?”
Goku's golden eyes took on a dreamy look.
“Yeah ...”
Well, well. Gojyo had always known Sanzo was a wanker, but he had to admit that discovering the priest had been teaching his pet how to jack off was a bit of a surprise. It was also very interesting. Next time Sanzo was acting all high and mighty, Gojyo might just have to mention it. Meanwhile ...
“Well, start off doing that to ... whoever.”
Goku shook his head impatiently.
“No, tha's no good. I wanna know how to do the real sex bit.”
Figuring Goku couldn't shock him any more than he already had, Gojyo decided his next mouthful of whisky had a fair chance of hitting his stomach. He swallowed it down and took a deep breath.
“Well, basically one of the guys put his dick into-”
“I know wha' goes where,” Goku interrupted. “What I wanna know is if there's any, uh, fancy stuff I oughta do?”
Gojyo dropped his head into his hands. It looked like it was gonna be a long night.
Where to start? How to encapsulate all his knowledge, all his goddamn expertise, into a few simple tips even a monkey could absorb?
“You know how you eat a lollipop?” Gojyo began
“I crunch 'em,” Goku enthused.
Gojyo grimaced and shifted in his seat.
“Okay, bad example. Forget lollipops. Think about drinking soda through a straw.”
Goku made a little 'o' shape with his lips.
“Good. Now open up a bit wider and imagine, instead of a straw, you've got a-”
The rest of Gojyo's sentence was cut abruptly short by a squeal of pain from Goku, who was slowly levitating from his seat.
Gojyo looked up to see Sanzo had the boy by the hair.
“You,” the priest thundered into his ear, without so much as a glance at Gojyo, “Bed. Now.”
“Ow! Ow! Okay, I'm goin', I'm goin'.”
For all that he was squirming and twisting, Gojyo could tell Goku was delighted that Sanzo had come for him. That Sanzo was touching him. His eyes shone and, at the corners of his mouth, there were the beginnings of a smile.
Nursing his lonely drink, Gojyo watched them go.
“Huh,” he grunted. “Maybe someone might get laid tonight after all.”
* * * * *
But the next morning, neither Sanzo nor Goku was exactly radiating a warm afterglow of satiation. The priest was in a particularly pissy mood and Goku wouldn't even react to Gojyo's goading. He just trudged along silently, head bowed, the collar of his cape turned up against the biting wind. Hakkai was acting weird too, smiling almost constantly and making bright comments about the glorious landscape.
It had snowed during the night. The ground was covered in a blanket of soft white that crunched and squeaked underfoot. Further up the mountain, the fall had been deeper still and the skyline was decorated with a thick cornice that had been sculpted into a series of elaborate curves and curls.
Goku stopped suddenly in his tracks and sniffed the air.
“What is it?” Gojyo asked, almost certain he didn't want to know.
“Dunno. Somethin' ...”
All four of the ikkou scanned the panorama.
“There!” Hakkai exclaimed, pointing to a ridge.
It might have been a shadow had it not been moving with purpose. And its purpose appeared to be following them.
“Sanzo-?” Hakkai began but never got to finish because first there was sickening creak, then a low, menacing rumble. The rumble gathered pace, became a roar, a howl, thunder. The ground trembled, slid and slipped away. Chunks of snow began buffeting Gojyo, too many to defend himself against. And then whiteness enveloped him and he was inside the storm, being swept, tumbled, dragged. His limbs felt numb. Heavy. Heavier by the moment. He was being pulled down.
He was drowning.
* * * * *
Sanzo came to with a start. He was cold, colder than he'd ever been, and he couldn't move. What had happened? Where the fuck was he? There was nothing familiar, nothing but white.
Snow.
Of course. There'd been an avalanche. Probably started by that cretin up on the ridge. Well, at least that explained the cold and the immobility; he was pinned under several inches of snow. Practically entombed. If ever there'd been a time for the Makai Tenjyo, this was it.
Pushing any thought of the others firmly aside, Sanzo gathered himself and closed his eyes. In the scant inch of space around his right hand, he extended his first and second fingers together, clasping the third and fourth against his palm with his thumb.
“On ma ni katsu mei uni MAKAI TENJYO!”
The explosion was instantaneous. The Maten Sutra burst through the snow like vigourous young shoots through soil, breaking off large slabs and hurling them aside. A fine mist of white powder rose into the air before falling back down onto Sanzo's already soaked clothing and hair.
He hauled himself to his feet and automatically pulled out his cigarettes. The pack was crumpled and soggy.
“Pfft!”
Sanzo tossed it away. It looked like finding the others - and soon - had better be his priority; he needed a cigarette.
Yelling for them was out of the question. One avalanche was more than enough for one day. He looked around. Now he was upright, he could see that the snowfield extended maybe another mile down the hillside. After that, the slope was covered with boulders and scree. Being youkai, the others were faster than him; they might have made it that far. But he couldn't see them, couldn't even hear that irritating voice ...
Cursing colourfully under his breath, Sanzo set off down the hill, sodden robes clinging to him heavily. Goddamn monkey. Why was he never there when he was needed - and always there when he wasn't?
The shortest route down took Sanzo through a cluster of trees. Tall evergreens, their long, flaring branches weighed down with snow. Now he was over his terror of the white stuff, Goku would probably think them pretty. Idiot! It felt good to be shot of him - and the others. Sanzo liked solitude. It suited him and he was used to it.
Except, he suddenly realized, he wasn't alone. He could sense a presence. If the damp hadn't plastered it to his skin, the hair at the back of his neck would have stood up on end.
“Well, well - alone at last.”
He couldn't see her yet, but it was a woman's voice.
“Show yourself!” he commanded.
One of the trees shivered and from behind it, a tall, shapely woman with long silvery white hair stepped out. Her eyes were ice-blue and her lips almost as pale as her smooth, unlined cheeks. She wore a long, flowing gown comprised of layers of translucent material that shifted in the breeze allowing Sanzo to discern the curve of her hips and the swell of her breasts.
With a glance at what was left of the cornice, he felt for his gun.
“I am Kyoko,” the woman announced. “And I've gone to a lot of trouble to meet you.”
With a languid sweep of a pallid hand, she indicated the aftermath of the avalanche.
Despite the cold, Sanzo felt his blood boil.
“That was your doing?”
Kyoko smiled.
“You're just what I need. Do I please you?”
“ 'Just what you need' for what?” Sanzo demanded.
In the blink of an eye, she closed the gap between them, leaning in so close her lips brushed ice against his cheek.
“To father my daughter.”
“In your dreams!” Sanzo snorted, taking a few steps backwards.
Kyoko's polite smile vanished.
“Enough talking. Let's get started.”
Sanzo whipped out his pistol.
“Let's not.”
For a moment, she stood, eyeing the weapon warily. Then, with a tinkling laugh, flicked her index finger towards it sending a stream of ice to coil around the gun and Sanzo's wrist like rope. He tried squeezing the trigger, but his finger wouldn't move. Never mind - he was ambidextrous when it came to firearms. Only when he tried to change hands, he found the weapon was frozen in his grip. Which meant his only option was -
“Shh.” Kyoko pressed two fingers to his lips. “No talking. I've seen what your words can do.”
Sanzo tried to open his mouth, but his lips were stuck together. Something like panic knocking against his chest, he began to run, only to be halted by another stream of ice snaking around his ankles. Attempts at lashing out with his fists resulted in a second set of icy manacles.
“There,” Kyoko crooned. “That's better. Now we can get down to business.”
Sanzo grunted a protest and Kyoko laughed.
“Oh, don't worry. Apart from the obvious, you won't have to do a thing,” she promised, kissing his sealed mouth lightly, fingers deftly untying his sash. “As soon as your seed is in me, you'll be dead.”
Sanzo's wet robes were pulled up over his head and flung to the ground, his jeans unzipped and pushed half-way down his thighs. Cupping his balls and limp dick in a chilly hand, Kyoko set about stroking him, trying to work him into hardness. But it was cold. And even if it hadn't been, Sanzo would have had no trouble in resisting her. She had nothing to offer him. She wasn't-
Goku. Damn. Sanzo had let the thought in. The thought of Goku tight around him. Clenching. Squeezing.
Kyoko chuckled.
“That's more like it.”
She rubbed and pulled harder, faster and Sanzo's treacherous body went with her, telling his mind this could be anything he wanted, all he had to do was imagine.
GOKU! Sanzo bellowed inwardly. Good-for-nothing saru, where was he? GOKU!
Kyoko pushed him down onto the ground, lifted her gown to expose moon-pale thighs and straddled him.
No. No. Sanzo didn't want this. Didn't want that smell, that slimy wetness, that hideous cloying softness. He couldn't bear it. His gorge rose and for a moment he feared he'd be sick into his sealed-up mouth and would choke to death on his own vomit. And then it occurred to him that even that would be a better fate than getting ridden by this bitch.
She was groping for his dick, trying to slide it inside her when all of a sudden she let out a howl and toppled off him sideways. At which point Sanzo realized that, a fraction of a second earlier, nyoi-bo had cracked her on the temple.
He looked up to see Goku standing over him.
“Pleased to see me?” the monkey asked with a grin.
It seemed that Kyoko needed to be conscious to maintain her ice restraints because Sanzo found he was able to move his hands and feet again. He pulled his jeans back up and glared at Goku.
“If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you. Help me up. I'm fucking freezing.”
Goku held out his hand and Sanzo took it. Warmth flooded into him, dissipating the aching chill that had seeped into his bones. He was on the point of offering a grudging word of thanks when, to his horror, Goku went flying through the air, carried on a wave of ice emanating from Kyoko's extended hands. It poured from them in torrents and continued flowing, wrapping sheet after glassy sheet around the suspended Goku so thickly that in seconds his features were barely visible.
Sanzo didn't hesitate. He shot Kyoko through the head, then again through the heart. Her body crumpled to the ground, wounds leaking blue-red blood into the snow.
Hakkai and Gojyo appeared through the trees.
“Told you it would take more than that to kill the jerkwad,” Gojyo smirked.
“You're safe!” Hakkai beamed. “Goku said ... Where is he? Didn't he get here?”
“Yes, he got here,” Sanzo replied. “Although he took his goddamn monkey time.”
He walked over to where Goku's ice-clad body had fallen and gave it a little kick.
“Get up!”
Somewhat surprisingly, although it had thinned, the ice hadn't completely thawed. Goku was still trapped within what looked like an enormous misshapen ice cube. Sanzo couldn't understand it. Kyoko was dead. Goku ought to be free.
“Hakkai!”
The demon slayer came running and dropped to his knees beside Goku.
“His chi - I can hardly feel it!”
“Do something!” Sanzo ordered.
Hakkai nodded. Bowing his head, he placed his palms flat on the ice above Goku's heart. Sanzo heard him inhale deeply, then grunt softly as he began projecting his own chi onto the monkey. At first nothing happened. Deep lines of concentration appeared between Hakkai's eyebrows. His jaw clenched and his hands trembled. Another inhalation. A longer, louder grunt and suddenly there was steam, a trickle of water and Goku's carapace of ice began to melt.
It took five long minutes to dissolve completely.
Not that Sanzo was counting.
But even when it was gone, Goku remained motionless, his normally glowing cheeks grey, his lips and the tip of his nose alarmingly blue.
“He doesn't look right,” Gojyo commented, displaying his considerable skill in stating the obvious. “Why's he that colour?”
“Hypothermia,” Hakkai diagnosed, peeling back one of Goku's eyelids. “His pupils are dilated and his breathing's terribly slow. Sanzo, we need to get him somewhere warm and quickly.”
“Guess that means we're going back to the inn,” Gojyo observed. “Out of the way, Sanzo-sama. You're not the only one who knows how to handle the kid.”
There was something about his emphasis that Sanzo didn't like but the situation was too grave to bother with it now so, as the kappa bent down to lift Goku's insert form from the ground, Sanzo bit his tongue.
* * * * *
As Hakkai moved Goku into the recovery position, he heard the click of a cigarette lighter.
“Sanzo - please,” he sighed. “This is a sick room.”
“No, it's a hotel room,” Sanzo snapped. “It's only a sick room because you still haven't fixed him.”
Nevertheless he ground his cigarette out in the ashtray on the table beside him.
Hakkai turned his attention back to Goku. He was worried. Really worried. Goku didn't seem to be responding to his healing efforts at all. Perhaps Hakkai's powers weren't as great as he'd imagined? He tried again, laying his hands directly on Goku's body, exerting every ounce of energy he had. The burn in his palms was there and the dull ache like bruising in his muscles that always accompanied the transfer of chi. Behind his eyes, there was the same slight throb ...
“Hey, man! You okay?”
Hakkai started, disoriented for a second, before realizing it was Gojyo's arm around his shoulders, Gojyo's worried face was peering into his. Hakkai mustered a weak smile.
“I'm fine.”
Gojyo seemed unconvinced and clamped a hand to Hakkai's forehead.
“You're overdoing it,” he declared. “You just passed out and you're all clammy. You need to rest or you'll be as bad as Goku.”
Behind him, Hakkai heard Sanzo make a small sound of irritation.
“I'm all right, really.”
“You need a rest,” Gojyo insisted. “And something to eat.”
“Why not book him into a health spa whilst you're at it?” Sanzo sneered.
He was hiding his concern behind sarcasm, Hakkai knew. He hated letting the priest down.
“I'll take some tea and try again,” he promised. “I think his condition may require repeated treatments.”
“Unless,” Sanzo mused, “You've drained your chi by frittering your energy away elsewhere?”
Anger sparked in Hakkai's belly, somewhere just under his scar. Sanzo had no right ... no, he had every right. Were it not for Sanzo, Hakkai would be languishing in a jail somewhere.
“As soon as Goku knocked that harpy out,” Sanzo continued, “the ice on me vanished. There may have been a lot more of it on Goku, but you should have been able to get rid of it easily. Even with your limiters on, it shouldn't have taken five whole goddamn minutes. Or however long it was.”
Sanzo knew to the second how long it had taken, Hakkai was certain.
“When I started - it's almost as if he had no chi of his own left,” he tried to explain, words woefully inadequate to convey the physical sensations of chi transfer to someone who'd never done it himself. Hakkai shrugged and shook his head. “But that makes no sense; we all know how much power Goku has.”
Sanzo cleared his throat and glanced at his charge.
“Keep trying. I'm going to bed.”
“What?!!” Gojyo exploded, moving to block the doorway. “You're ordering Hakkai to knock himself out for your pet and you're going to bed.”
Sanzo rolled his eyes.
“It understands human speech.”
Gojyo was spluttering with indignation.
“Why, you fucking asshole-”
If Hakkai didn't intervene, there was going to be a fight. Or worse. Sanzo's right hand was already reaching for his Smith and Wesson.
“Ha, ha! Let's not argue. Of course I will keep trying, Sanzo. Please, go to bed. And Gojyo - I'll be fine. Please don't worry.”
From the way he huffed and curled his lip at Sanzo, Hakkai knew his words had done nothing to make Gojyo any less worried about the situation, but at least they had diffused the tension. Sanzo grunted and left the room without pulling his gun, anyway.
“Goku might have been born from a rock, but that bastard is made of stone,” Gojyo declared as soon as the door closed.
No, Hakkai thought, looking down at the motionless Goku, that's not it at all. He's furious that he isn't.
* * * * *
Sanzo couldn't sleep. Not that he'd really expected to; he'd just wanted out of that room. The sight of Goku lying so still and cold made his stomach twist and filled him with an urgent need to lash out and break things. He couldn't have stayed. It was better to leave Goku to Hakkai, to someone who could actually help him.
But knowing that did nothing for his insomnia. Sanzo got out of bed, pulled his clothes back on and went out into the hallway, with the vague intention of seeking out a vending machine.
And bumped right into Gojyo. Great!
Rather unexpectedly, the kappa acknowledged him with what looked like a sympathetic nod.
“Going to see the monkey?”
Not that it was any of his business but Sanzo decided to disabuse him of the notion.
“No. To find some smokes.”
“You're unbelievable!” Gojyo exclaimed. “If you had any idea what that kid ... oh, forget it!”
“Gladly.”
Sanzo continued on down the corridor, only for a hand to land on his shoulder. He was spun around and pinned to a wall.
“What about Hakkai? What about the fact that he's practically dead on his feet and doing your job. Goku's had all the chi Hakkai can spare. All Hakkai's doing now is nurse-maiding him. Something even you could do.”
Sanzo's first instinct was to hit Gojyo with his fan; his second to shoot him. Instead, he punched the moron's hand away.
“If you're so concerned, why don't you go and give Hakkai a break?”
“Shit, Sanzo - are you stupid? Hakkai does what you tell him. And you told him to stay there.”
Sanzo closed his eyes.
But when Gojyo's grip on his shoulder softened into a gentle squeeze, he snapped them back open again.
“What-?”
“Go see Goku.”
The words were soft, kind even. Goddamn kappa. But by the time Sanzo had summoned a suitably bitter riposte, Gojyo had ambled away.
Sanzo looked back down the hallway. Goku's room was three doors away. A short distance for most people, maybe, but an enormous one for Sanzo to cover - and full of the kind of danger he'd avoided all his life. Hell. He supposed he would have to. He turned and walked back to Goku's door, gave it a quick tap to warn Hakkai of his presence and entered.
Hakkai looked up. He was exhausted. It was written all over his face. Sanzo ignored a twinge of conscience; he was here now, dammit.
“Get some rest,” he said stiffly.
Hakkai rose from his chair.
“Thank you.”
“Hmmph.”
* * * * *
“Watching over your cohort again?”
“Hmm? Oh - yes.”
“Is something wrong?”
“I think I may have made a mistake.”
“You? A mistake? That is surely not possible!”
“Don't flatter me, Jiroshin.”
“No, of course not. But really - have they run into difficulties? With Gyumaoh's resurrection?”
“No. Not that. They right on track with that. A little ahead of schedule even. It's the other thing-”
“Ah.”
“They were supposed to get it right this time round, Jiroshin, not make the same mistakes. I wonder if it was an error to grant Nataku's request.”
“No, merciful goddess! It was an act of kindness. The imprisonment of one so young was harsh enough in itself, but to have condemned him to live all that time, in the full knowledge of ... No, oh great one, it would have been an unbearable torture for him.”
“Hmm. Perhaps you're right. But I can't help worrying about Konzen. He's so unlike himself these days.”
“Are you surprised?”
“No, not really. But they've changed. All three of them. It was inevitable but ... I just wish Konzen had become more like Tenpou. At least his only self-destructive quality was his addiction to tobacco.”
* * * * *
It had been a shitty day, Gojyo reflected as he got into bed. Another shitty day. Not that he really minded fighting or even the odd close brush with an icy death. No, what he hated was not having anyone to curl up with when it was over. Oh, who was he trying to kid? These days he didn't want to curl up with just anyone; he wanted it to be Hakkai. Perhaps he should swallow his goddamn pride and just let Hakkai keep on fantasizing that he was Kanan? What difference did it really make, after all? Hell, Gojyo should probably don a dress and put on some make-up and do the job properly.
A knock at the door interrupted the strange series of images that thought conjured up.
The door opened and Hakkai was standing there, a raised eyebrow asking permission to enter.
“Oh. It's you,” Gojyo said, trying to sound nonchalant and not at all like he was fighting an urge to throw himself at his lover.
Hakkai's other eyebrow arched as well.
“Would you have expected Sanzo to knock?”
“S'pose not. How come you're not with Goku?”
“Sanzo relieved me. Which I suspect was your doing ...”
“Mine? Hell, he never listens to me.”
“ ... he said I should get some rest.”
Gojyo scrutinized his face, saw the tiredness deep in every line.
“So you should. Go to bed.”
Hakkai shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.
“I'm cold-”
“Put some extra blankets on,” Gojyo advised, making another stab at nonchalant. “You can have one of these if you-”
“I can't help it, Gojyo,” Hakkai continued, as if Gojyo hadn't spoken. “I've never been fiery or passionate like you.”
“Huh?”
“And after Kanan ... well, I froze up. In here.”
Hakkai tapped his chest. Gojyo felt an anxious thud in his own.
“Understandable,” he murmured. Where the hell was Hakkai going with this? He wasn't sure he wanted to know.
“It's why I can't be the person you want me to be. Why I say things that sound harsh ... I'm sorry.”
There were tears in Hakkai's eyes, Gojyo could swear it, or at least the beginnings of tears. If Gojyo had been some kind of pansy-assed, well-bred type he'd probably have felt like crying too. Hakkai had picked one helluva a night to call it quits.
“Forget it,” Gojyo shrugged. “Good night.”
Hakkai smiled sadly, the corners of his mouth struggling to achieve any kind of upward curve. Certainly not the kind of smile he could sustain for long. In seconds it was slipping and Hakkai with it. His eyes went wide and he crumpled, sliding down the door frame to land with a bump on the floor.
Gojyo leapt out of bed. Kneeling, he pulled Hakkai's upper body up into his arms.
“Fuck, Hakkai! You're freezing!”
The observation earned him another weak smile.
“Goku was very cold ...”
Never mind Goku. Never mind Kanan or his own jealousy either, Gojyo decided. Hakkai was going to catch his death if he didn't get under the covers soon.
“You,” Gojyo told him, “are getting into bed right now. Here. And I'm going to stay awake and make sure you don't get hyperwotsit.”
“Hypothermia,” Hakkai supplied, drifting into sleep.
Gojyo lifted him from the floor and carried him over to the bed. Hakkai was heavier than he looked, but Gojyo got him under the bedclothes and climbed in next to him.
Hakkai might not love him, but Gojyo loved Hakkai. With all his heart.
Maybe that would be enough.
* * * * * *
Sanzo couldn't get comfortable. The chair was lumpy and Goku's room unbearably hot. He got up to adjust the thermostat but realized Hakkai had turned up the heating intentionally. What had he said? Goku needs all the warmth he can get.
Sanzo figured that meant opening a window was out of the question too.
He sighed and walked over to the bed.
“You are a complete nuisance,” he told the unconscious Goku. “I don't know why I bother with you.”
Goku didn't so much as twitch. He lay deathly still, lips still tinged with blue.
Sanzo reached out a tentative hand and felt his brow. Even in the overheated room, it felt cool and Sanzo jerked his hand away, unsettled and uneasy. He retreated to the window and pressed his cheek to the glass, wishing he could smoke, read, do anything rather than just having to wait. Waiting left too much time for thinking. And, tired and sweltering as he was, the thoughts that came were chaotic and depressing. This was his fault. If Goku hadn't come to his rescue. If Sanzo had never touched him.
If, if, if ...
Goddammit, even after having removed his robes, Sanzo was still intolerably hot. He could taste salt on his lips and sweat was running down the back of his neck. Goku was still out of it. Sanzo told himself he didn't know why he'd just confirmed that before peeling off his vest and gauntlets.
For a brief moment, he felt less hot and sticky. Almost comfortable. He decided he might as well remove his socks and boots too; he wasn't going anywhere.
As he stuffed his socks into his boots, a strange noise from the bed made him jump up in alarm.
“Goku?!”
clack-clack-clack-clack-clack
Sanzo almost laughed. The monkey's teeth were chattering, that was all. Except they shouldn't be chattering - not with the room at seventy-five degrees and Goku wearing a pair of Hakkai's thick flannelette pyjamas.
What the hell was wrong with him?
Goku needs all the warmth as he can get.
Sanzo looked round for another blanket; there wasn't one.
Damn. And shit. Shit on a goddamn stick.
Sanzo drew the bedclothes back and, as there wasn't even any change in Goku's breathing, spooned in carefully behind him - close enough to share his body heat but far enough away to avoid actual contact. He lay there awkwardly for a minute or two, fearful that Goku might wake. Which was ridiculous, because Goku waking was exactly what they were all waiting for. Sanzo snorted softly at his own stupidity.
Goku sighed. And wriggled closer.
Sanzo went rigid. Goku's butt was tucked in against his groin and the monkey's pyjama top had ridden up a little, uncovering part of the back that now pressed into Sanzo's bare chest. They were skin on skin again. Sanzo's blood began rushing to his dick and he caught his breath, waiting, waiting for Goku to turn, to kiss him, to try to break down the defences he'd been working so hard to rebuild.
But Goku did nothing other than let out another long sigh.
Sanzo glared at the back of his head.
Goddamn irritating monkey.
* * * * * *
To her immense relief, Ni Jianyi's latest chess partner suffered Professor Hwan's examination in silence. He'd never liked her and yet he seemed to have developed a slavish devotion to her boss. Well, she told herself, making a final adjustment to his cerebral activity monitors, at least his fangs had retracted. If he ever bit her arm again, the wounds would be less deep.
She handed him his usual post-examination reward: a large, ripe banana. For the first time since the experiment had begun, he knocked it aside.
“Professor Ni!”
“Huh?”
Hwan pointed first to the subject and then the rejected fruit.
Ni waved his hand impatiently.
“Never mind that,” he told her, turning back to the computer screen he'd been glued to for the past fifteen minutes. “That's just the result of the right mix of hormones and sutra, after all. Take a look at this. Though I say it myself, I am a genius!”
Hwan went to stand behind him and studied the monitor. There were two images, both dark and indistinct. But she knew what she was looking for.
“How do you do that?” she asked, knowing there was no way Professor Ni could predict where the Sanzo party would choose to lodge on any given night. How could he spy on them if he couldn't plant surveillance equipment?
“Do?” he laughed. “It's not a question of doing but of being. I understand them. I am them. This one's emptiness, this one's loss. The desire in this one to eat, the kid's need to be eaten-”
Hwan shuddered. Ni was the crudest, most repellent, lascivious man she'd ever met.
“Not everything is about sex,” she heard herself snap.
Ni did a double-take, then gave her the kind of smile that always made her want to scrub her skin for hours.
“That was not what I meant, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “There are other ways of being swallowed, you know ... although if you ever-”
“Did your experiment work?” Hwan interrupted hastily.
“Like a dream,” Ni replied. He smiled up at her over his shoulder. “Only now it's time for the nightmare.”
Hwan blinked.
“The nightmare?”
“Cold fusion can only take us so far.. It's time to move onto the next stage.”
“The next stage?” Hwan asked, hating herself for it.
Ni leant back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head.
“Yes indeed, Professor Hwan. It's time to try fission.”