So...this is what happens when a bored college student discovers Saiyuki over winter break, falls irrevocably in love, and then watches the ChardeeMacDennis episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Hope you enjoy!
"Sangokaijo?" Sharrak repeated as she leaned against the doorway, the word clumsy on her tongue. She peered into the room at the four men sitting around the small dining table to make sure she hadn't heard wrong.
Hakkai nodded. "Yes. It's a game we play when we have a sizable chunk of free time on our hands. "
"Sanzo usually has to be pretty drunk before we start, though" Goku pouted. "Otherwise he won't play."
It certainly looked to be that way now. Bottles of sake lined the edges of the table, with a few more rolling around on the floor. But even more telling was the absence of the deep furrows that usually lined the blond man's brow. "Sharrak," he called out to her, raising his cup to his lips. His words weren't slurred exactly, but the delivery was definitely more relaxed than she was used to. She had to admit, it was rather amusing. "Play with us. The monkey and kappa need you."
Gojyo nudged Goku and whispered, "Our Sanzo the wallflower, instigating social interaction? He must be drunker than I thought."
"I'm not drunk, I just need a better challenge than you two idiots," Sanzo pointed, sloshing around the drink in his cup. Goku tried to hide a giggle behind his hand. "They haven't won in three years!"
"Three years," she repeated, raising an eyebrow. "How is that even possible?"
Hakkai shrugged. "It is indeed a statistical anomaly."
Goku sprang up from the table and grabbed her hand. "Sit next to me, Sharak!" he urged, dragging her towards his side of the table. She stumbled forward to keep her balance. "I'm tired of being on a team with just stupid Gojyo."
A quick headcount meant that Gojyo needed to move over to make room for her, and yet the redhead refused to budge. "Hold on there, monkey. Who even said she could play anyways? I mean, the game gets pretty intense, and I don't like seeing women get hurt."
"Weren't you the one who cried after round three last time, Gojyo?" Hakkai asked innocently.
Gojyo shoved the table forward, sending an empty bottle tumbling over the edge. "I didn't cry! I just…had something in my eye, that's all."
Sanzo grunted and mopped up his spilled drunk with his robes. Sharak (not for the first time) silently praised the gods for making them stain repellent. "That's the oldest excuse in the book," he drawled.
"Older than telling someone they can't play because they're a woman?" Sharrak asked pointedly. She sat down and elbowed Gojyo in the stomach.
Gojyo grudgingly made room for her. "Hey, I'm just trying to protect you. They're the ones you need to worry about," he argued, nodding towards the two men on the other side of the table. "Sanzo and Hakkai get weirdly intense about these games, and they both hate to lose."
Sharak reached over and plucked Sanzo's drink from his fingers. She downed it quickly in one gulp, relishing both the burn and the look of shock on his face. "Well I guess this time they're gonna have to suck it up."
Goku threw his hands in the air and whooped. "Alright, we'll win this time for sure!"
"Anyone besides you has to be an improvement," Gojyo teased. "All you know about is food."
Hakkai ruffled through his pack until all the supplies had been laid out on the table: various bottles of alcohol, a few grocery bags, a wooden board, homemade playing cards, darts, and … a hammer and nails?
"Make sure you bolt it down tightly this time," Sanzo grunted.
"Oh, Hakkai, I'll do it!" Goku volunteered cheerfully. His tongue stuck out of the corner of his lip as he began to nail down the board to what Sharak knew to be a 150 year old table from the Qin dynasty.
"Wait… What?" Her voice was an octave above normal.
"It's so Gojyo doesn't try to flip the board over later," Goku said in a way that Sharrak thought was supposed to be informative.
Hakkai pulled out a few wedges of cheese from the grocery bags and began to arrange them artfully on to a small platter. "I was so hoping Gojyo had gotten over that bad habit of his," he sighed dramatically.
"Hey, quit making me sound like a brat!" Gojyo grumbled.
"Hey Sharrak, if you have anything that can break, you might want to put it away, ok? " Goku interjected, continuing to wail away with the hammer as if the board had somehow personally offended him. She was starting to feel a little dizzy.
"Well if the shoe fits, kappa…" Sanzo smirked. He uncorked four large bottles of wine and one of grape juice. It was the first time she had ever seen him do anything remotely close to physical labor. And somehow that was the scariest thing of all.
Hakkai placed the cheese plate in the center of the table. "If everything's settled, shall we start?" he asked, smiling in a way that looked distinctly predatory.
Actually, nevermind. That was the scariest.