Prompt: 5. Betrayal and 30. Goodbye from 30 Deathfics
29. Fire; Water; Earth; Metal; Wood (~one last dinner) from 30 Angsts

Author's Notes: Fuck you, real life, leave me alone. Beta by whymzycal and purpleicicles.

THINGS LEFT UNSAID

"How many?" Kougaiji asked, looking up from his food. He'd heard the sounds of Sanzo shooting the spies that had followed them into the woods but amidst the shouts of, "Die, Sanzo!" it had been difficult to count exactly how many rounds the monk had fired.

"Seven." Sanzo sat down and placed his gun on the ground beside his knee, grabbing his own tin plate and beginning to eat his dinner. Kougaiji tucked back into his own meal. "All of them small fry."

The cave they were in was small but it was hard to find and the cold night wind couldn't reach inside to kill the fire they had going. It wasn't the ideal place to be discussing battle plans regarding the Kougaiji-tachi teaming up with the Sanzo-ikkou but it would have to do.

Kougaiji was just finishing the last bite of his dinner when Sanzo spoke.

"Tell me again how the plan's supposed to go."

Sanzo wasn't looking at Kougaiji and the demon prince had the sudden urge to kick the monk. Just because. Kougaiji placed his plate down on the ground, beside the pans he'd used to cook dinner and collect water, and looked at Sanzo's bent head.

Kougaiji managed to go through the entire plan in detail without making any mistakes. He stumbled a bit at the part where one (or both) of them would probably die; hesitating a moment before he managed to go on talking.

When he was done, he settled back and waited for Sanzo to say something. Kougaiji glanced towards the general direction of the cave entrance. He was working with the Sanzo-ikkou now and he always did his best to protect his comrades. So if it were possible, he'd be making sure that Sanzo was out of danger. Which more or less meant that Kougaiji would be the one dying.

Kougaiji didn't bother to try and analyze when protecting "comrades" climbed up all the way to the top of his list of priorities and settled near the spot where rescuing his mother was.

"It's raining," he said, just to break the silence.

Sanzo stood up and settled back down against the wall of the cave, farther away from the fire. And Kougaiji. "I hate the rain."

Kougaiji watched the fire slowly die, the pile of wood that they had used to keep it alive gone. The demon prince yawned. Maybe it was time to go to sleep. Resigning himself to sleeping on the cold hard ground, he lay on his side and closed his eyes.

"Are you completely sure you want to go through with this?"

The sound of Sanzo's voice made Kougaiji's eyes snap open and he blinked a few times at the cave wall before answering. "I am." He resisted the urge to turn around and look at Sanzo while they talked.

"Don't mind going against your mom?"

"She's not my mother."

The cave was quiet for the rest of the night.

xxx

When Sanzo woke up the next day, Kougaiji was already gone. "Asshole didn't even wake me up," he muttered as he stood up.

Sanzo kicked at the remains of the fire as he passed it and told himself the ache he felt was because he'd slept in an uncomfortable position.