Saiyuki Reload Fan Fiction ❯ You Were Meant To Be Mine ❯ Seeking Shelter ( Chapter 3 )

CHAPTER THREE Seeking Shelter

 

Not knowing where else to go, Layla wandered downstairs to the main hall. The stone floor was cold under her bare feet. She hugged herself, shivering. A draft from the front door blew the scent of cigarette smoke to her, a finer brand than Gojyo's. Layla followed it until the shadows around the table in one corner showed her the gleam of golden hair.

 

"You're up late, Sanzo-sama."

 

"I've been waiting."

 

"For what?"

 

"You."

 

"Me? But why--"

 

"Gojyo can't resist temptation any more than Goku can resist food. You'd have been safer in bed with Hakkai. Even if I put my gun to his head, he wouldn't have touched you."

 

"Gojyo was trying to be kind."

 

"He was trying to seduce you because he can't relate to a woman any other way."

 

Layla felt compelled to defend Gojyo in the face of Sanzo's merciless hostility. "He told me about his family."

 

"The stepmother who hated him and the big brother who killed her?"

 

"Yes."

 

"Why did he inflict that on you?"

 

"Sympathy. One day you have a family, then horrible things happen and you're left all alone."

 

"I doubt your family was quite as twisted as Gojyo's."

 

"All families have their secrets."

 

"Not all families have homicidal mothers trying to murder the halfbreed child. It's also rare to find the pureblood child willing to kill to protect the halfbreed." Sanzo took a drag on his cigarette. The glowing ember lit up his stony expression. "Did Gojyo mention the part about how his older brother would distract his mother from trying to kill Gojyo by letting her drag him off to the bedroom?"

 

"Oh." Layla shook her head hard, trying to throw that thought out of her mind. "No. Thank you so much for clarifying that, Sanzo-sama."

 

Her sarcasm had no effect other than making Sanzo look her in the eye.

 

"Every time a woman refuses Gojyo," he said, "it takes him straight back to his stepmother refusing to love him. That makes him crazy and stupid. Until he finally gets over it, it will continue to control him and poison his relationships with women."

 

"So what he really wants is to be loved, but as a child, he got that all mixed up with—the other." She smiled sadly. "Now I understand. He thought he could help me, could do something really good for me, by-- By--"

 

"By what? Making you suffer his misguided and misplaced lust?"

 

"Why are you so unkind to Gojyo?" Layla cried. "He just wanted to help me feel better, to make love to me in a way that would make the first time easier on me. It's his one great talent, or so he believes, and he just wanted to make me happy." By the time she finished speaking, her cheeks were streaked with tears. "Was that so wrong, Sanzo-sama? Was that so deserving of this icy contempt?"

 

Sanzo said nothing. He looked away, up at the rafters above them, then down at his hands where they toyed with his lighter.

 

"It's late," he said. "Let's go get some sleep."

 

Layla nodded. "Perhaps I can sleep in the kitchen, near the hearth."

 

Sanzo stood up. "Don't be stupid." He put his hand on her waist and guided her back toward the stairs. "You'll sleep in my room, on the far side, with Goku between us."

 

"Are you sure, Sanzo-sama? The scandal--"

 

"Look at me. I smoke, I drink, I gamble, and I carry a pistol. Do I look like I give a shit about what the local peasants think?"

 

Up in Sanzo's room, he pulled a pillow and a blanket off Goku's bed and handed them to Layla. "There. He never stays in one place anyway."

 

"I can't help but wonder...."

 

"What?"

 

"There's something about Goku. What is he?"

 

"He's a pain in the ass. Now kindly go to sleep before I change my mind and throw you back to Gojyo."

 

"Yes, Sanzo-sama. Thank you."

 

Layla curled up on the floor on the far side of Goku's bed, huddled beneath her blanket with her hands tucked under her pillow. She'd ended up with Sanzo after all. He knew Gojyo well enough to know what would happen sooner or later, so he'd waited up for her. Such a confusing man. So harsh, and yet so caring....

 

***