A lesson in Taboo

The strangest things come to mind after having sex. Those moments after the heat

and rush and last final push for every last drop to spurt before falling comatose on

sweaty back of your lover. There, I said it. Lover. Ya stupid red headed moron, you are

my lover. Not that I LOVE you or anything. Lust for your half breed ass maybe, fucks it

till the cows come home, hell yeah every day and twice on Sunday. But I don't love you.

You're there for my convenience to be used when ever I feel like it, nothing more. that and because the Old Hag of the Heavens says you got to be on this farce of a mission. Aye yi yi. What a mishugma! Don't look at me like that. Not with those eyes, not with those bedroom peepers that want more out of me then I could possibly ever give. There, the light's off and I don't have to see them or me reflected in those bloody mirrors. But now in the dark, when I can reach out and roll a silken lock of long red hair betwixt finger and thumb like a rosary, the thoughts of long ago times can filter into my dreams after I've had my fill of your body ..

Kinzin Temple, eleven years before:

"Kouryou," Master Sanzo brushed the pens and paper air planes to one side as he laid a scroll down on the floor of the veranda for the days lecture. Gently, he brushed away the dust and cobwebs from the scroll's cover. "Today's lesson is one I think you are finally old enough to understand."

Kouryou rolled his eyes heavenward. "Oh please," he prayed with more devotion then at any time during meditation hour. "Don't let it be the 'when two people love each other very much they join together' and all that finger wiggling shit "

"Long ago," Master Sanzo unrolled the parchment. "The Gods created the world; Heaven and Earth, night and day, good and evil, land and water, man and woman, human and youki." He lovingly picked up one of the orange paper airplanes and tossed it into the air. "They created each to accent what is special about the other. Why night is so important, that without it, how could we appreciate the day? Even evil has its place."

So far Kouryou had been taking in the lecture, until that point. "How could evil have a place?" His face screwed up in puzzlement. "Isn't it that a contradiction? Why would we want it when it corrupts the good?"

"So we may be grateful for that good, fill our memories." Master Sanzo smile disappeared for but a moment. "And have them sustain us when times are going to be bleak and the fight against the evil long and costly." The lips were forced upward again. "Now where was I...oh yes...human and youki." He unrolled the ancient document further. "Because it is their jobs to accent the other, they must remain apart. The earth can not become sky and humans must not join with youki. But nature being what it is and man and woman sinful creatures, things do happen."

Kouryou looked at the artists' concept of a human and youki coupling. The storm clouds, lighting, dancing devils and gasping on lookers made the whole thing look more festive then forbidden and whole lot more interesting then the finger wiggling thing.

"It is said," Master Sanzo continued. "The children of these unions have red hair and eyes that mark them for all to see as evidence of this forbidden act. As taboo, an abomination these children are the culmination of sin and considered bad luck." Then he suddenly rolled up the scroll with a snap. "Or so this dusty piece of toilet paper would let you think." Komoyo stood up, "Come on, there is someone I want to you meet."

Their destination was the vegetable gardens and orchards far to the rear of temple grounds, lands given by the local towns' people as a gift, or as Komoyo mused, "to keep our begging bowls as flower pots and us away from their pocket books." The radishes and beets just starting to feather in their neat rows, just waiting to be thinned, while other vegetables were at their maturity in need of picking.

They came upon a lone figure squatting on his hams amongst the lettuces, examining the leaves.."God rotted bugs." he mumbled crushing the pests between his dirt encrusted nails.

"Hu-sama" Master Sanzo called out. "Miracle worker of this little patch of barren earth, do you have a moment?"

Kouryou was rather surprised by the address. To even the abbot of the temple, Komoyo Sanzo was polite but with little to no respect in his tone or manner. Who was this personage who could have gained his masters high regard?

"Komoyo, for you, I've got a year and a day." The man slowly got to his feet, with a creak of the knee and a groan about his aching back. "Those other fuckers down at that moron academy you call a temple, can go drown in shit that's ass hole deep to a tall Indian." Okay, that was jaw dropping, both in familiarity and profanity.

"Hu-sama," Master Sanzo gave a half bow. "My student, Kouryou. He is here today for a lesson in gardening."

"Gardening," Hu turned and strode over. "Is equal parts sweat, shit, dirt, water and good luck." He bent over to look Kouryou in the eye. "Lets see Master Student if you have the looks of......" Hu stopped abruptly and looked deeper into the lavender irises. "Not a gardener, nor a priest for that matter." Kouryou's reflection in Hu's red eyes made for an interesting if not bloody mirror. "Traveler, more the likes of it. Born to see many far and disturbing places"

Kouryou unconscienly took a step back at that revelation and realization "You have red eyes..and hair!?"

"Half of which has fallen out, damn male pattern baldness." Hu sighed and looked over to Master Sanzo. "Komoyo, you been letting the other monks give this boy stupid lessons?"

Kouryou could see his Masters smile tighten, but not in anger but in an honest attempt not to start laughing. "Please forgive the child," he said. "You are the first half-youki he's seen. We don't venture out beyond the temple walls often and when we do; your kind is so rare as not to be seen at all."

"True enough there," Hu pulled a bucket over, upended it and motioned Master Sanzo to sit. "So, I'm your first half breed bastard." He settled himself cross legged on an unplanted piece of ground and continued to eye Kouryou with some interest. "Well kiddo," Hu smirked. "Do I look like those boogey men pictures in those God rotted old scrolls? Monster!!! Abomination!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He pantomimed a panicked mob. "Run run! Call out the army, the air force it's the half breed bastard that destroyed Tokyo!!!!!!!"

"Destroyed Tokyo?" Kouryou was puzzled.

"Eh, cultural reference, everything has destroyed Tokyo at one time or another." Hu shrugged. "If Mothra could do it, so could I." With Kouryou's open mouthed stare, Master Komoyo sighed.

"Note to self, must get that kid to the movies someday."

"Ok, let's try for serious," Hu started again. "My Ma was a youki, Da was human. They were farmers, lived outside a small town about 50 kilometers up the coast from Shanghai. I was luckier then most half breeds, as they wanted me."

"You're lucky." Kouryou said with more then a touch of envy.

"You better believe it, considering most of my kind end up dead before their 12th birthday."

"What?!"

"Yup," Hu sucked air through his teeth in a disquieting hiss. "Drown mostly as babies or left on hillsides to die, their Mums too ashamed or pressured into it by family members. Or the little ones are murdered in their sleep or sold to the whore houses or any number of nasty things."

But he brightened, "I had both folks for most of my childhood. Loved me and my little sis right up until the army came through looking for 'volunteers'." The brightness faded and his shoulders slumped. "Being I was the right age, I got 'volunteered'. Da wasn't too happy with the whole thing and tried to put a stop to it..hope Ma and Sis got away after the solders killed Da and burned our house down."

Hu began making patterns in the dirt with a stick. "I had myself an army career for about 2 years before me and them could part ways. We were marching through the town right outside this temple, when I slipped out of ranks and hid behind the vegetable merchants' store. Thought my sergeant was gonna catch me for sure until someone grabbed me by the collar and tossed me on the back of a mule cart. Covered me up with boxes and told me to keep mum."

"Who did that?" Kouryou leaned forward, eyes big as begonias

"Him," Hu pointed a grubby finger at Komoyo, who'd taken out his pipe and had placidly lit up. "Yer Master saved my ass. And him not a Sanzo yet either did some really fast talking to get the Abbot and his Sanzo to let me stay. Let me hide out in the temple when the other monks wanted to toss or rat me out."

"Wow," Kouryou breathed. "What happened next?"

"Well, had to earn my keep somehow and being that I was still a farm boy underneath all that armor, the abbot let me come out here to see what I could do with this little garden spot you're sitting in now." Hu causally turned his head, gauged the wind and hawked a lougie 10 feet into the cabbages. Kouryou whistled with amazement and appreciation of the size and range of the shot. "This was the lousiest hunk of land I ever saw and I'd seen a lot of shitty landscape. The town of course had given the most bled out worthless property around to this joint in hopes these greenhorns wouldn't know the difference. And being they're getting it for nothing, the priests couldn't exactly complain or give it back without loosing face."

"So how did you get it to look like this?" Kouryou asked, gently running his hand across the tops of the lettuces.

Hu smiled, "I worked like a motherfucker of course." Then he dropped his eyes and thought, his face working as if debating within, then looked up. "The thing that makes youki different then humans is all of them are in touch with their chi." Before Kouryou could say a word, Hu held up a grubby finger to silence the child. "Yeah, yeah, I know what yer gonna say, but youki is different. We manifest chi into physical forms. Weapons mostly, right out of thin air, which makes youki and halflings like me so desired by the army. But my power wasn't geared that way, just like my Ma, she couldn't materialize a rake to save herself. Her talent and mine were geared toward the land. Join energies with the land, love it become a partner with it, give your blood and chi to it and it will honor your sacrifice and bloom."

"Wow!"

"Yup," the Halfling settled back and looked about contentedly. "A little chi and some good manure go a long way."

"But if you're so desirable, why is it forbidden? " Kouryou was trying to find the right word. "Humans and youki having kids?"

Hu sighed. 'I think it's because it scares both sides silly, having something that's the best and worst of human and youki kind. Youki has the power of chi, humans have the power of their spirit. Makes for a powerful mix, a deadly one too if used wrong."

Now Kouryou was confused. "I thought spirit and chi was the same thing. "

"Nope, chi is the external energy all things possess, spirit is the energy whats inside you, have both, and be able to access them, you're one powerful motor scooter. Which I suspects would even send the Gods shaken on their porcelain altars. Which would give them the excuse to make sure their existence is justified and a half breeds isn't." Hu gave a bitter smile. "If it scares you make it bad, if it's more powerful then you, make it evil and if it involves SEX! Make damn sure it's dirty, perverted and taboo!"

My eyes flew open. Even though the dream wasn't a nightmare, it left me feeling uneasy. Taboo, perverted and dirty. Fear and power, the usual things one uses to control the masses and then toss in religion for good measure and little wonder Goyjo and his kind are on the endangered species list. Access to spirit and chi, powerful stuff that. Was this the reason why the Gods were that frightened of half breeds? Although remembering Horama, the Gods had every reason to be afraid.
I reach over to the night stand and feel around for the cigarette pack and lighter I'd put there for after fuck snacks. "All that power locked up in that long thin body," I mused lighting up. "And all he wants to do is fight, fuck and play cards. Ch, what a world."

Speak of the devil; Goyjo is not having a peaceful night. Aw crap, can't you for once shut your god dam trap and....

"Mother..." He whispered brokenly.

Oh shit, not her again.

"Please, I'm sorry." Goyjo curled up into a ball of shivering fear. "I'm sorry, I'm." then a child's cry filled the room as he thrashed and wailed.

This nightmare is getting old and I'm sick of it. All that moaning and kicking is keeping me awake. "Wake up, you stupid bastard," and I push him out of bed. He hit the floor with a thump as I turned on the light and waited for him to reappear. When he didn't, I crept across the bed and looked over the side. Goyjo was awake and looking like he was desperately trying figure out he'd ended up on the floor.

Looking up at me owlishly, he blinked and then hauled back his fist and let fly catching me in shoulder and sending me flat on my back on the mattress. "Your sympathy and bedside manner once again under whelms me, ya stinken monk." Climbing back onto the bed, Gojyo suddenly smiled and made himself comfortable on his favorite couch, my hips. "A lot more comfy since you been eating meat," he said wiggling his butt. "A man can get real used to this."

"Get off me Idiot!" I rubbed my sore shoulder in irritation. Funs fun, but not in the middle of the night when we had to be on the road at sun up or at least until after Goku had eaten his sixth breakfast. Gods that kid! Baka Sura, a bottomless pit with legs. Now I've got this idiot making himself to home on my gut. Ok, time to haul out the fan o' discipline..or not considering Goyjo has a fist full of my balls.

"Now," Goyjo's red eyes glittered in the light of the small bedside lamp. "We can have fun, I can kiss all the boo-boos away," he leaned over and ran his lips across my bruised shoulder. "Or I can make a really BIG boo boo." And he gave the family jewels a bit of a squeeze.

"You're dead!" I hiss angrily.

"No, you're fucked," Goyjo leaned over and flicked off the light. "Egyptian darkness time!"*

"I've got a headache."

"Take two Gojyos and screw me in the morning."

"Cretin."

"Asshole"

"Dumbass"

"That's MR. Dumbass to you monk. And may all other dumbasses bow down before me fore I am their king!"

I can feel the corners of my lips curl up. "No shit Sherlock."

"Wanna be my queen?" With that he fell off my hips in a fit of laughter. How could I stay mad at such a moron? Pissed maybe, but not mad.

"Come on," I said turning over on my stomach and burrowing under the covers. "Get to sleep."

I could feel him hesitate, and then a breath of cool air touched my body as the covers lifted then fell. Expecting him to mold himself against my side, it was a small surprise when I only felt his hand rest on my bum.

"Nice ass," he whispered in my ear.

"Goyjo," I warned tiredly.

"I love you, you know."

"What?" I stared into the darkness unmoving.

"Love you."

"No, you lust for me, stupid kappa."

"That too. No, I do believe I have gone to love." He pulled me closer. "You don't have to say anything now or in the morning or ever." Goyjo began using the tip of his tongue to lightly span one shoulder blade to the other. "But I think you have a bit of that emotion for me as well."

"Well you thought wrong." I sniffed. "You're a fuck in the dark."

"As you're my little mercy fuck in the night, pretty little Hakkai."*

Ouch, that hurt.

Goyjo's tongue now discovered vertebrae and began the accent to my neck, "I wanted to tell you in the light of day, but you woulda kinda have shot me, figured waiting for the sun to go down was the only way. In the dark would you have even listened? Only in the dark, where not even you couldn't see, are you mine." His fingers wondered back to knead my ass cheeks and slowly made their way up across my hips to slide themselves into a nest of pubic curls.

"You can't" I whispered, a touch of fear in my heart. "I can't....even say the word. Don't make me." And here only minutes ago I'd kicked him out of bed because he was having a nightmare about his mother. What's with this guy? I reached for the night stand to put the light on and the pistol to put his out.
"No little Pharaoh," iron fingers clasp my wrists, bringing them up behind my head and against the head board. Gojyo has found his seat once more on my hips. "The sun will stay eclipsed and the plagues will continue until I get to part your holy sea."

"I'll kill ya son of a bitch!" I'm struggling for real now. "I hate you! Let me go!"

"Love it when you talk dirty." Goyjo caught my mouth and kissed it roughly. "My little Pharaoh fears the wrath of God too much, or is it too little? Or are you scared you'll start begging for the want of it? "

Fear is an odd thing, at the right time in the right place fright melts to lust and apprehension becomes aphrodisiac. Combined with saliva and nicotine my mind exploded in need and made me pant and quiver, just from the taste of him. I snaked my tongue deep into his mouth and greedily drank him. Tossing my legs skyward, making an open invitation for my half breed to possess me, moments later pain vied with lust in equal measure at Gojyo's first thrust into my body. Then the second, then the third.....

"Dirty, perverted taboo," Hu's words rang in my head.

"No," I whimpered. But what defense against this charge, with my toes pointed to heaven and Goyjo buried deep within my ass?

"If it frightens you, make it bad." Hu's leering eyes saw little Kouryou, the shivering panting bitch.

"If it's more powerful," the old gardener melted away only to take the face of Horuma. "Make it evil, Konzen."

"And if it's SEX....." Shuei joined the fray.

"Help me." I wept and fell into the abyss of my mind. Safe, alone and lost.

"It's just a dusty piece of toilet paper." The voice came out of the shadows. Komoyo Sanzo with that damned old scroll from so long ago. "Not worth the crap it would wipe from your ass." The man's smile grew wide as he tossed the scroll way and put his arms out to take me into their safety. "Don't run from him," Komoyo whispered lovingly. "In the end, it will be your strong will and that foolish red headed creature's heart that shall be the saving grace."

I awoke to find Goyjo still on top of my body, and his tongue sliding up my cheeks, drinking my tears. No longer an implement of domination, but of consolation.

"Goyjo," I breathe.

"No San-chan," Goyjo held me still and close. "Not right now. Tomorrow, in the light of day or after the western sun sets. When you're ready, I can wait. It's not your body I mean to slake but your heart."

*See the story All Cats are Grey in the Dark