Saiyuki Reload Fan Fiction ❯ You Were Meant To Be Mine ❯ Monkeying Around ( Chapter 7 )

CHAPTER SEVEN Monkeying Around

 

Down on the riverbank, Goku sat on a flat boulder while Layla stood in the shallows, working her way through the piles of dirty laundry she'd ordered everyone to bring to her. She'd gathered the skirt of her green dress up just above her knees and tied a knot in it to hold it in place. Goku watched her work, trying to figure out why something didn't look right to him. Layla was so pretty and so smart. She could talk just like Sanzo, with all those big words. But she told Hakkai she'd do the laundry, as long as somebody could help her carry it all, then hang it all up to dry. At least she wasn't some snotty little princess, afraid of getting dirty, like some of the girls who liked to hang around Gojyo while he was playing cards. Goku couldn't stand them. Layla was pretty enough to be one of them, but she didn't mind helping out and working hard. Goku decided he liked her.

 

"Um, Layla? I was wondering...."

 

"Yes?"

 

"Well, see, I never get to talk to any girls, so I was wondering if maybe you could help me understand some things."

 

"I'll try. What would you like to know about?"

 

"Hakkai said most men fall into certain types, just like most women do too. What I don't get is how you figure out what type you are, and which type the other person needs to be so you get the best type for your type." He looked up at her through his shaggy bangs. "See?"

 

"You want to know what type of-- of male person you are, so you can figure out what type of woman would be best for you?"

 

"To start off, yeah."

 

"That's a very big question, Goku. People have been trying to figure that out since men and women first started feeling attracted to each other."

 

"That's another thing. How does it start? How do you know where or even when to start?"

 

Layla looked past him to the tall oak farther up the riverbank. Sanzo sat in the shade, leaning up against its trunk. He was close enough to hear, but far enough away to have his usual large area of personal space.

 

"Maybe," Layla said, "this is the kind of talk you should have with Hakkai or Gojyo."

 

"Them? They won't tell me anything! Gojyo just laughs and talks about doing all this stuff with girls that sounds totally gross. He goes on and on about it until Hakkai or Sanzo tells him to shut up."

 

"I see." Layla slapped another shirt against the rock, making water fly up everywhere. "Gojyo likes to brag, does he?"

 

Goku heard the tone in her voice, a tone a lot like the one Sanzo used just before he pulled out his fan and started swinging. Goku figured he'd better talk about something else.

 

"Hakkai doesn't like to talk about women at all. One night I got Gojyo drunk enough to tell me Hakkai was in love once with some girl who died. It was messy, and Hakkai thinks it's all his fault."

 

"Was it?"

 

"I don't know. Like I said, they never tell me anything."

 

"How sad for Hakkai. He must be very lonely."

 

Goku nodded. "Hakkai is such a nice guy. He tries to take care of me and help me learn important stuff. He was a teacher, back before all the bad stuff that happened to him." Goku stopped, wondering if he'd said too much as usual, but Layla just went on scrubbing another shirt. "I bet he'd get more girls than Gojyo if he'd just lighten up."

 

"It's very difficult, Goku. The first time you give your heart to someone can be the only time you ever do it, at least for some people. Hakkai sounds like he's that way."

 

Goku nodded. "Gojyo should keep his on a string like a yo-yo. Give it, take it back!" He mimicked the motions of throwing and retrieving a yo-yo. "Give it, take it back!"

 

"I think," Layla said, "Gojyo might give his body easily and often, but not his heart."

 

Goku heard a sudden snort from up the riverbank and glanced back. Only Sanzo sat there, nodding a bit as he dozed off under the oak. Goku scooted closer to Layla.

 

"Then there's Sanzo." He sighed. "I can't tell if he just doesn't know anything since he grew up in the temple, or if he has something against women and doesn't want me getting tangled up with them."

 

"Have you asked him?"

 

"Are you kidding? If I said it like that, he'd probably shoot me!"

 

"I wonder," Layla said. "Is Sanzo your guardian? You make it sound like you're not related, and yet he watches over you like your father or older brother. You even stay with him in his room at inns."

 

"Oh, that's just because--"

 

Sudden survival instinct made Goku clamp his mouth shut. He couldn't tell Layla, who was a woman and a stranger, how more and more often lately Gojyo and Hakkai roomed together, staying in there all night. No drinking, no gambling, just those weird noises like fighting that Sanzo absolutely refused to explain to him.

 

"Because?" Layla prompted him.

 

"Sanzo knows Hakkai can't keep Gojyo out of trouble all the time, so if I was with them I'd learn things Sanzo doesn't want me knowing."

 

"Ah. Well then. Sanzo is a very wise guardian." Layla frowned. "But I still don't understand how the two of you got together. Did Sanzo adopt you? Monks aren't allowed to have their children at the monastery with them, unless they're also monks."

 

Goku shrugged. This was more dangerous territory. He didn't mind telling the story, but Sanzo would find some reason to whack him with the fan. "Sanzo found me one day where I was chained up in this big cage. He got me out of there and let me travel with him."

 

Layla dropped the pair of Gojyo's jeans she held. "A cage? Chains? What kind of monsters were your parents?"

 

"No no no!" Goku held up both hands. "It's not like that! I can't remember why I got put in that cage. I'd been there a really long time. There was nobody else around except me."

 

Layla flung the clothes aside and stormed through the water toward Goku. He was about to rush back to Sanzo when he looked into Layla's eyes and realized she wasn't angry, she was crying. Her arms closed around him and she hugged him against her wet skirt.

 

"Poor child. I hate this world! I hate the monsters who live in it!"

 

"It's OK! It's OK!" Goku pulled back, shaking the water from his hair. "Meeting Sanzo was the best thing that's ever happened to me. I know that's true!"

 

"Sweet boy." Layla took Goku's chin in her hand and made him look up at her. "You love him a lot, don't you?"

 

"More than anything." Goku suddenly sprang back with a yelp and smacked himself on the back of the head. "Here I am wanting answers, but I'm the one doing all the talking!" He took his seat on the boulder. "OK. Now you tell me what you think about Gojyo, Hakkai, and Sanzo, what types they are and what type of women would be best for them."

 

"All that, on just two days' acquaintance?" Layla laughed. "And just what are you going to do with all this wisdom?"

 

"'Do' with it? Right now I just want to know what you think."

 

"I'll try, Goku. But I really don't know all that much about men, and even less about these three in particular."

 

"Gojyo seems to me to be just what he appears to be. Big, strong, ready to chase whoever or whatever captures his attention. Here today, gone tomorrow. Life's just one big party."

 

Goku nodded.

 

"As for his type of woman, I think there's probably one special woman Gojyo has in mind, and he keeps trying to find her in all these women he chases. He'll catch a glimpse of her here and there, but he hasn't found most or even enough of her in any one woman yet."

 

"Too bad he can't just keep the pieces he likes and build her as he goes."

 

Layla laughed. "Now there's a good idea. The trouble is, some of the pieces might not fit with the rest. What would he do then?"

 

Goku shrugged. "Leave them out?"

 

"That's the trouble with real people. You have to take them as they are, with whatever pieces they have or don't have."

 

"What about Hakkai?"

 

"He seems to be very quiet and shy, so polite and kind and easy to get along with. That surprises me, since the rest of you are such strong, loud, colorful people."

 

"Really? You think so?"

 

"Oh yes. That tells me there must be a lot more to Hakkai than what he allows people to see."

 

Goku nodded, thinking about the terrible scar across Hakkai's belly, and about the night he and Sanzo had gone to Gojyo's apartment looking for Cho Gonou, the man Hakkai had been. The man who had murdered a thousand youkai, cutting down men, women, and children in cold blood.

 

"And that means," Layla went on, "that I can't tell what kind of woman would suit him because all I can see of his true nature is the glimpse I catch now and then when he thinks no one is looking."

 

"Makes sense, I guess." Goku looked back at the spot where Sanzo sat under the tree. He was still there, arms folded, head down, but something made Goku feel like Sanzo was closer than he had been. Goku wanted to know what Layla thought about Sanzo most of all, but if Sanzo overheard them talking about him, that paper fan would be the least of Goku's worries.

 

"That brings us to Sanzo." Layla paused in her work to rub at her forearms.

 

"Are you OK?"

 

"My arms hurt. I haven't done this kind of work in some time." She shook out her hands and arms, stretched them high overhead to get the kinks out of her back, then bent to beat another one of Hakkai's shirts against the rock.

 

"Sanzo...." she mused. "It's difficult to get to know him as a person. He has so much responsibility, being a Sanzo, that the individual person that he is almost ceases to exist."

 

"What? You mean like—he dies?"

 

"No, no. Nothing that drastic. The person that he was before he was elevated to the rank of Sanzo exists, but only inside him, in the back of his mind, so to speak. He has to be Sanzo and only Sanzo, all the time."

 

"Why?"

 

"Can you picture Sanzo being anyone else? Anything else?"

 

Goku thought about it. "No. Sanzo's just Sanzo."

 

"Right. But that wasn't always true. There was a time in his life when he wasn't Sanzo. Do you know when that was?"

 

"Before he became Sanzo?"

 

"Right. When was that?"

 

"When - when his teacher was still alive!"

 

"Very good. Back then, Sanzo could be whoever he was born into being."

 

Goku frowned and shook his head. "No, that's not right. Sanzo's teacher pulled him out of a river when he was still a baby."

 

"What?"

 

"It's true! Sanzo was a baby. There he was, floating along in the river, and his teacher scooped him up and took him back to the temple. Raised him like his own son."

 

"How do you know all this?"

 

"I heard the monks talking about it. Really freaked them out when that Sanzo came home carrying this little baby boy. Our Sanzo was the best apprentice he had. Best at Buddhist studies, best at martial arts, best at everything."

 

"Yes," Layla said, glancing toward the oak. "He wouldn't settle for being second best."

 

"Not Sanzo!"

 

"Poor little baby," Layla said softly. "So Sanzo has never known who his true parents are?"

 

Goku shook his head. Layla worked at Hakkai's shirt in silence. Goku could see by the intense look on her face that she was thinking hard about something.

 

"Layla?"

 

"Hm?"

 

"Are you upset? Did I say something bad?"

 

"No, Goku. You didn't say anything. I was just thinking about how much the four of you have in common...."

 

"Like what?"

 

"Like the way your parents haven't treated you very well. What about Hakkai's parents?"

 

"He's an orphan. He says he doesn't know what happened to his parents."

 

"One tragedy after another." She shook her head. "And you?"

 

"What about me?"

 

"Your parents, Goku. Who were they?"

 

"I don't know." He picked at a bit of lichen growing on the boulder where he sat. "I can't remember anything about them." He looked over at Sanzo. "All I have is Sanzo. He freed me. He's my family now."

 

Goku turned back toward Layla and let out a startled yelp. She was right beside him, catching his head in her hands and planting a kiss on his cheek.

 

"You're a good boy, Goku."

 

Goku blushed bright red, one hand to his cheek. For several minutes he said nothing, watching Layla work her way through the pile of dirty clothes.

 

"So...." he said. "I guess you can't really tell what kind of woman is right for Sanzo, huh?"

 

"Monks don't have girlfriends, Goku."

 

"Right. Only--"

 

"What?"

 

"Sometimes, I wish...."

 

Layla stopped working and looked at him. The more she waited, the more embarrassed he got. But if he couldn't tell Layla, who could he tell? Not Hakkai or that jerk Gojyo. They'd pick on Sanzo until he shot them all just to shut them up. Goku glanced around, then beckoned Layla over to him. With one last look at Sanzo, Goku leaned over to whisper in Layla's ear.

 

"I wish Sanzo could have a girlfriend. If that's what makes Gojyo so happy all the time, maybe a little of that would be good for Sanzo. He's so gloomy. I just wish he could be happy sometimes too."

 

Layla smiled and patted his shoulder. "Do you ever think about finding a girlfriend for yourself, Goku?"

 

He made a face, part disgust, part uncertainty. "I don't know what I'd do with her even if I had one. Right now I'm on the road all the time with Sanzo."

 

"True." Layla went back to work on the laundry.

 

Goku thought about his next question. This one was really important too. Maybe now he'd finally find out how much of Gojyo's talk was just that, all talk.

 

"Hey Layla, have you ever been somebody's girlfriend?"

 

"No, Goku. I haven't."

 

"What, never?"

 

"No. Never."

 

"Why not?"

 

Layla sighed and let her head hang down for a moment. "Maybe I'm just not lucky that way."

 

"But - you're so pretty, and so nice! Gojyo's going to hurt himself soon if he doesn't--" Goku turned bright red and started coughing.

 

"Doesn't what?"

 

"If he doesn't grow up and stop bothering you. Sanzo keeps watching Gojyo when he does that. To you, I mean."

 

"Oh? And how does Sanzo look when he's watching Gojyo?"

 

"Like he wants to shoot him."

 

"Doesn't Sanzo usually want to shoot Gojyo?"

 

"Well, yeah, but this is worse."

 

Layla shook her head. "All this violence. I suppose I shouldn't expect much else when your leader is a Buddhist monk who handles that pistol more than his prayer beads."

 

Goku shrugged. "We're warriors. It's what we do."

 

"If you say so."

 

"But anyway, nevermind about all that. You do know what guys and their girlfriends do together, right?"

 

"Go on picnics? Dance? Count the stars on clear nights?"

 

Goku sat back, puzzled. "Are you making fun of me?"

 

"I'm not trying to. What are you really asking me, Goku?"

 

"You know. The stuff Gojyo is always trying to do. You know."

 

"Oh. That."

 

"Right. So you know about it, then? Can you tell me?"

 

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm afraid I don't actually know much of anything."

 

"You've got to be kidding me! You've spent a whole night inside Gojyo's room and nothing happened? Come on!"

 

Layla dropped the jeans she held. She spun around and floundered through the water faster than Goku would have thought she could move. She caught him by his collar and jerked him up onto his knees.

 

"Listen to me, little boy," she snapped. "I never asked to be bought and sold like so much livestock. I never asked Gojyo to win me in that stupid card game. The one thing I have asked Gojyo to do is to keep his hands to himself!"

 

"OK! OK! Sorry!" Goku held up both hands.

 

Layla let go of him.

 

"So you've never done that with any man?"

 

"No."

 

"And you don't want Gojyo?"

 

"No, I don't."

 

Layla stormed back to the laundry. Soon she had so much water flying around that it looked to Goku like she might be a water sprite herself. An angry one. He looked back at Sanzo, who was sitting up watching the two of them while he smoked. Goku wondered where Gojyo and Hakkai had disappeared to. He could bet on why, even if he didn't know where. An idea came to him.

 

"Layla?"

 

"What?"

 

"Is it because you don't like men?"

 

"What?"

 

Layla turned toward him again. Goku held up both hands, shooting a quick look at Sanzo, who was leaning back on his elbows now.

 

"All I mean is, I know that some people are like that. Some men like men, so I thought maybe some women would like women."

 

"You know a lot for somebody who acts like he doesn't know much." Layla slammed more laundry down on the rock. "I haven't done that with any man because I haven't met a man I liked well enough to do that with." She glared at him. "Now have we got that straight?"

 

Goku nodded so hard he almost fell off the boulder.

Behind him, he heard noises like coughing and choking. If he didn't know Sanzo well enough to know Sanzo never laughed, he might think Sanzo was laughing at him now.

 

"Huh," he said. "To hear Gojyo talk, you'd think sex is the only thing that makes life worth living."

 

"For some people that's probably true."

 

"But not you?"

 

"No. Not me."

 

Now that he knew Sanzo was definitely listening, Goku tried even harder to think of the right way to say things. As usual, when his next idea hit, it popped right out of his mouth. "Oh! I get it! You're like Sanzo!"

 

Layla froze. She threw aside the latest pair of pants, put one hand on her hip and the other over her face.

"I just know I'm going to regret this," she said. "Go ahead. Tell me what you mean by that."

 

"He can't do anything with anybody that way either. It's one of his vows or something."

 

"Yes, it would be."

 

"So? Are you a monk too? No, wait a minute, women can't be monks, right? They sure don't let any into the temples!"

 

"Right. Not a monk. Although there are Buddhist nuns."

 

"What's a nun?"

 

"A woman who shaves her head, takes her vows, puts on the robes of a monk, and lives a monastic life."

 

"So there are lady monks!"

 

"It's not the same, Goku. And don't ever let Sanzo hear you talk like that."

 

"OK, OK." He bounced happily in his seat. "So that's why you and Sanzo get along like you do."

 

"Were you worried it was something else?"

 

"Oh no!" His hands came up to ward her off, again so fast he almost fell backward off the boulder. "Like I said, Sanzo doesn't even notice most women, so this morning, when we saw him being nice to you, well...."

 

"Well what?"

 

"Sanzo's never nice to anybody, that's all." He gave her his bright, dazzling grin. "So you must be somebody really special!"

 

Layla hurried back to the laundry. "I think Sanzo-sama was just glad to meet somebody who remembered his master. When you really miss somebody, it helps to talk about them with people who knew them."

 

"Huh." Goku thought about everything they'd been saying about Sanzo. "So Layla, maybe you really do know what type Sanzo is?"

 

"Single-minded little creature, aren't you?"

 

"When was the last time I said I was hungry?"

 

"Oh. Sorry. Are you?"

 

"All the time! But this is more important."

 

"More important to you than food?" Layla shook her head, laughing.

 

"So?"

 

"I read a story once about a man who was a knight. He took religious vows then rode around on his horse looking for injustice to right and downtrodden people to uplift."

 

"Sounds like Gojyo."

 

"It does, but he hasn't taken vows, has he?"

 

"Not those vows! No way! One night he did say something about swearing to drink every bottle dry, then start working his way through all the women he could--"

 

Layla clapped her hands over her ears. "Not the same thing!"

 

"OK. Sorry. Go on."

 

"Sanzo-sama is the keeper and guardian of the Maten Sutra. By protecting that, he's helping to defend this world against all the chaos and evil that want to destroy it."

 

"Just by wearing it? Wow."

 

"If Sanzo-sama seems very remote or upset or even depressed, it could be due to the burden he carries. He's very young to be a Sanzo."

 

"How old are you, Layla?"

 

Layla shot him a frown, then laughed. "You're lucky you're so cute, or I might get offended." She paused, then lowered her voice. "I'm twenty."

 

"Huh. I thought you were older than that. The way you talk, you sound like you're even older than Sanzo."

 

Layla peered down into the water. "What was that?"

 

"What?"

 

"That." She pointed to the water between them, then started walking toward Goku.

 

"I don't see anything."

 

"That." She jumped, then hurried over to the boulder. "Lean over. You'll see it."

 

Goku leaned over. As the water became still, all he could see was his own reflection. "All I see is me."

 

Layla reached back, grabbed him by the belt, and pulled. Caught off balance, Goku flew forward, hands outstretched as he hit the water. He came up splashing and howling.

 

"Saaaaaaaaaanzo!" Help me! Layla's trying to drown me! Help!"

 

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