Always With You
By: Shin Sankai
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Hands slightly covered by black gloves and the sleeves of a long golden robe moved over a polished dark mahogany table in search of something. Genjo Sanzo was back in Chang'An, back in his personal study having finished his mission West and leafing through dozens, perhaps even hundreds of papers searching for something extremely important.
The mission of course, set to him by the Sanbutsushin had finally come to a rest. The scriptures were safe and Gyumaoh hadn't been resurrected. Those behind his supposed resurrection were defeated, naturally of course.
Thus brought Sanzo back to Chang'An. The 'band of four' over the years had grown to trust each other to watch each others backs (even though two – Sanzo and Goyjo) would never admit to it, had drifted off to finally live their own lives.
Sanzo had thought his usual nonchalant role at the temple would make him happy, but of course the first three months of being parted from Cho Hakkai and Sha Goyjo (well more Hakkai then Goyjo that's for sure) had affected him more so then he'd ever admit to. There was hardly any smacking action from his harisen since Goyjo had returned to his town, apartment and his usual womanising ways. Hakkai had gone with him, much to Sanzo's annoyance, not that he portrayed this on his face of course.
Just when Sanzo was getting over his "feeling nostalgic ever now and then" it was one spring day that Hakkai had appeared at Chang'An with a bag of belongings and a jeep in toe. A different, almost warmer smile was on his face as he stepped into Sanzo's life again, the both of them not voicing anything and in fact left it at that.
As for the saru, he had of course grown a little taller (wasn't any smarter) and remained with Sanzo at Chang'An, unable to leave his side, but had his own smaller quarters and moved freely about Chang'An still causing havoc and heading into the village by himself.
"Stupid monkeys…" Grumbled Sanzo as he lifted up another pile of papers he'd yet to read or even sign off on. He was behind in his work, but he couldn't care less. What he was missing was much more important then tiresome stamping.
"What's this about monkeys?" Amethyst eyes darted up to see a very familiar figure leaning against his doorway frame, emerald eyes blazing through a pair of thin framed glasses and arms casually folded against a plain white untucked shirt. Sanzo did nothing but grunt. This was his communication of "nothing".
Without even the authority to head into the office, one Cho Hakkai made his way over to the rummaging Sanzo and stood silently by the desk watching the irritated man flick papers here and there. Several landed on the ground and Hakkai bent down to pick them up.
"You're late." Came the snappy remark from the blonde who didn't for one second move his eyes from his shuffling hands.
"And you're grumpy." Hakkai casually remarked, almost being able to see the vein throbbing against Sanzo's temple. Instead he let off a small laugh and plucked the delicate crisp papers from Sanzo's unforgiving hands and restacked them to a corner of the table.
"Really Sanzo, this place would be a complete mess if I wasn't here to tidy it up for you." The emerald-eyed youkai voiced as he slipped his hand under a small stack of papers, hand groping and clasping around a small rectangular leather box and pulling it free.
"I never asked you to tidy up my things." If it had been anyone else that would have been a reply with a pout, but it was Genjo Sanzo and there was no pouting when it came to this man.
"True, but you loose so many important things if they aren't right in front of you." And with that Hakkai handed him the leather box and watched as Sanzo flipped it open and brought out a sterling silver zippo lighter with his initials engraved on the bottom right hand corner. Before Sanzo could even come up with a scathing remark he blinked several times as Hakkai lent over his desk, opened up one of the draws and pulled out his brand of cigarettes.
"Nn…" Came the thanks from Sanzo as he took out a cigarette, placed it between his lips and lit the tip of it. As he sat back down in his matching mahogany chair, emerald watched amethyst scan the desk. Hakkai shook his head lightly and walked to the opened window, plucking what the man had been searching for from the window seal. With a soft clunk, the ashtray was deposited in front of Sanzo.
"How'd you…" Sanzo fumbled for words as Hakkai's body drew closer to his personal space, something no one else invaded, only to observe as his lightly tanned hand brushed a stray lock of his golden hair from his eyes and tuck it behind his ear.
"I've always been with you Sanzo." Those words locked their gazes for several moments, as amethyst understood exactly what they meant.
"Nn…" Sanzo received that same smile from Hakkai when he first saw him return to him after a three-month stint with Goyjo. Sanzo had never asked why Hakkai left in the first place and Hakkai never asked why Sanzo never questioned him.
A light caress was placed against Sanzo's forehead, his eyes widening slightly every time this happened as Hakkai would unsuspectingly brush his lips against his forehead, right on his chakra before breaking away, moving off to the corner of the office to offer him,
"Would you like coffee Sanzo?" The golden haired man was still not used to physical contact and a light flush would rush across his face every time the brunette caught him off guard. Sanzo was sure Hakkai knew of this unusual characteristic that only showed up when he did something like that, but he knew Hakkai wouldn't tease him about it because his banishing gun was always within reaching distance.
"Mm…" Another Sanzo remark that Hakkai had translated to mean 'yes'. The brunette walked back over to the desk, sat down in the vacant chair on the other side of it and handed Sanzo his strong black coffee.
"Would you like a hand going through these?"
"Why would you offer to help with these boring documents?"
"Because I'm my ever nice, kind and wonderful self." Hakkai received Sanzo's deadpan look for his egotistical remark and then he observed the brunette tilt his head to the right and smile once more. "And because I promised you I would come in and help you finish earlier so we could go out to eat. Of course that was after I finished playing with the children in the park today."
"How can you be in your right mind to go play with brats?" Sanzo voiced as he picked up a document and began to read it.
"They are all like cute little monkeys, I couldn't resist them." Hakkai let off a sunny laugh as Sanzo dropped the document from his face to almost give him a frowning pout at the mention of monkeys. "I continued to play until Kaizo-chan finally told me what time it was and that Sanzo-san would be hurt if I didn't go play with him too."
"Is that right?" Sanzo questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I was having fun with them though, so it was hard to leave, but don't worry Sanzo, I prefer your company much more. You're still my favourite after all."
The office fell silent at that. Sanzo hadn't been too sure whether Hakkai was being honest or just teasing him, something he liked to do frequently these days. The man, even though they were living under the same roof (and had been for about 6 months now) was still quite hard to read at times.
"I was being serious Sanzo." And sometimes it really did piss him off that Hakkai could read his mind as well.
"Nn…" He muttered back, paper shoved to his face again, but he blinked several times, his hands free of the document and instead he got an eye full of Hakkai once more as his hands lifted up to slide his thin framed reading glasses into position.
"You left them at home." Hakkai matter-of-factly commented once more before pecking the now extremely surprised Sanzo (and a blushing one at that) on the lips. Hakkai couldn't help but let off a small non-Hakkai like giggle at Sanzo's antics and settled himself back into the chair and picked up one of the documents after allowing Sanzo the pleasure to snatch up the one he'd previously been holding first.
It was official to Sanzo that there was no use trying to hide from Hakkai. One thing he could hide though, was his tongue brushing across his lips to taste the wetness against them. It was different Sanzo decided…and surprisingly enough welcomed too. A cool touch against his hand broke his train of thought but Sanzo did not lower his paper as Hakkai quietly muttered into the medium space of his office.
"Do not dwell on it too much Sanzo. I would not expect you to get used to such a feeling straightaway. You don't need to rush anything for me, just always know I'm right here in front of you." The words made Sanzo's shoulders droop into relaxation and for countless seconds his guard dropped and pale fingers linked with lightly tanned ones.
"Lets get back to work." The bond was broken, but only physically…for the time being.
Xx The End xX
Authors Notes: Hmm, a little weird, but oh well. I love this coupling, I had to do somehting again for them and this was all the randomness I could come up with. Ja ne!
