Disclaimer : I own nothing of Saiyuki.
Title : The Chains.
Goku follows Sanzo head towards the temple in Chang'an. But before they can arrive there, they have to have a long journey across the country.
They arrive at an inn, Sanzo books two rooms; one for him and another for Goku.
The saru says that he doesn't want to be in separate room without Sanzo but the monk insists and threatens him that he'll leave the saru alone if he doesn't follow what he says.
So, Goku shuts his mouth and silently follows Sanzo's demand. In his room, Goku tries to be brave from sobbing because of the scary-looking room.
The room is just too small that the space is almost smaller than the cave he was trapped in. He suddenly remembers the golden bird that played with him before it died.
His face turns solemn, he raises his hand to wipe the tears that almost spilled from his big golden eyes but he stops midway.
The chains on his hands clank against each other making Goku puts his attention to them instead.
They are annoying with the sounds and the heavy weight, so he decides to unchain his hands with any means.
He tries to use his nails but they only make his fingers bleed.
It stings but he doesn't really know about pain so he just lets his fingers continue to bleed, bloods dripping onto the sheet.
Then, he tries to snap the chains open by throwing them against the floor, making quite a loud sound but that method only makes his wrists hurt more.
He tries and tries and tries using all kind of ways until the part where he tries to chew off those hurting chains.
That's when Sanzo comes into the room since he has been hearing the aggravating sounds from the saru's room.
He gapes as he looks at Goku. The saru's mouth is full with the chains, fingers tainted with bloods, wrists bruised and hair tousled in a wild way.
Despite the condition that people will consider turning into panic state, Goku just gazes at the monk adoringly and grins gleefully because of the mere presence of Sanzo.
Sanzo sighs, he knows that he's in deep shit the moment he met the saru in the cave.
But, with this beyond innocent and stupid saru, he wonders if he should change his thought into 'in deep damn hell'.
Either way, he walks towards the saru and frowns at the grinning face, happiness sure is displayed clearly on that small face.
"What the hell are you doing? Didn't I tell you not to make mess or in fact, any sound?" asks Sanzo while pinching his nose bridge, showing his displeasure.
Goku looks down at his feet, "Sorry, Sanzo. I just want to get these things off," pointing at the chains, "since they are kind of heavy and they hurt me a little."
Sanzo huffs but looks at the saru's hands nonetheless. The saru's wrists are bruised quite badly, meaning that the chains don't give just a plain little pain.
And the weigh, Sanzo moves closer and tries to rise up the chain but he can't do it even an inch. They aren't heavy, they're a hell of weights.
He wonders how strong exactly the saru is since he never sees the saru being limited by the chains, instead the saru always runs, jumps, climbs and does all things.
But then again, even if the saru has monstrous strength, he's still an innocent brat after all. Sanzo sighs again, this time out of fatigue of thinking too much.
Whatever. "Come, we need to get your fingers treated or else you'll get infected and spread it to me," says Sanzo as he walks out of the room.
After Goku's hands are bandaged, Sanzo takes him to a shop where the chains are being unclasped from the saru's hands.
The moment he's being freed, Goku shouts overjoyed. He feels so unrestrained and lighter like a feather though he doesn't even know what that thing is.
It just comes to his mind. Anyway, from the reaction of pure bliss shown by Goku, Sanzo seems to have taken a care of the bakasaru into his icy heart.
He has yet to realize and accept it, but one day, surely he'll come to do just that voluntarily.
As evening comes, Sanzo takes the saru back into the inn. He suspects that the saru will plead at him to stay in the same room, but surprise, surprise.
Goku is too happy with the fact that he's now freed from the chains that he's forgotten about the fact that he'll be staying in a small closed room alone.
In fact, the second his head touches the pillow, he falls asleep almost immediately. He has run across the village celebrating his freedom earlier.
That's why his body is worn out for the day. Sanzo is sitting on the windowsill as he gazes at the moon. He swears that he'll never care for anyone again.
Never again!