Journey to the West

by fogdragon23

Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki, I just adore it.

Warning: shonen-ai...maybe yaoi in later chapters...violence, cursing, guns, drinking, regular Saiyuki warnings apply.

Chapter 2: Together

Towards midnight the Monkey King soon became bored with his graciously given cave. He wandered out amongst the hills, looking for a chance to start a new game. 'The moon is very big,' he thought absently as he stared at the large disk. His tail twitched curiously as his gaze slowly landed on a tall, decrepit tree a couple yards from him. A grin spread across his face at his new idea.

XXX

Sanzo couldn't sleep. Try as he might, all he could manage was to toss and turn and make himself more stressed. Images of the kid from earlier clouded his mind. 'What the hell was he?' He grunted before rolling back over, nearly smacking his face against the wall. "Fuck it," he grumbled before setting up and standing. He was going for a smoke. He stalked through the inn hallway and lobby to get to the outside. The receptionist gave him a half-hearted wave as he exited.

A small breeze ruffled his bangs as he took his first step outside. He reached into a coat pocket and pulled out a thin cigarette that he clamped between his lips. He pulled a lighter from the same pocket and desperately tried to flick the item to life. Nothing happened. "Piss!" he said sharply, shaking the small vial of fluid. There wasn't enough in it to make a spark. He chucked the useless object over the inn roof with all his might and ferocity.

XXX

The Monkey King happily swung back and forth, upside down under the old tree. In his mind, if it didn't help him get to sleep it would at least be entertaining. He reached up with one hand to get a better grip on the branch when something slammed into the back of his head. He hissed in pain as he fell from the stable branch, onto the hard ground below. He rolled onto all fours and began searching for what had hit him. "What was that?" he wondered aloud, looking around for the presence of another person. Confused at the lack of anyone else, he scanned around where he had fallen until his foot contacted with something cool and rectangular.

The Great Sage picked up the small object and cradled it in one hand. He sniffed it once. It was metal. "Doesn't look deadly," he said to no one in particular. He grasped the thing and pushed on the tiny red trigger. It was very stubborn, even when he pushed on it with two thumbs. "Eh, junk..." he declared, chucking the object back into the direction it came.

XXX

The priest resigned himself to just leaning against the building, glaring at any passerby that came near as he bit on the end of his unlit cigarette. A silky, black cat crossed the moon-kissed road in front of him and leaped onto one of the inn's many window sills. It primly sat down to catch him in its amber glare. "What?" Sanzo asked in annoyance. He flinched when something clattered against the roof over him. "What the hell?!"

"The moon is in its prime tonight," the cat remarked coolly from its perch.

Sanzo grumbled grimly, "I thought I felt a demonic presence...Fuck off."

The she-cat twitched an ear, however, its tone didn't change. "A demon, am I? You have a weak perspective of how the world works, my lad. Not everything can be categorized into humans and demons."

"Then what do you call yourself?"

The cat paused to groom her smooth chest. It was evident that she was going to explain things on her own time. She finished then licked her dainty opaque nose, "I am a cat, isn't it obvious?"

He barked a laugh in response. "Cat's don't talk."

She glared at him then, as if witnessing something detestable. Her gaze switched to piercing and sadistic. "Have a care not to tell a lady what she is, if you get my drift." The last word was as sharp as the deadliest knife. A heavy sigh escaped her and she settled down, her long tail curling before her paws. "Not all take the form of man as their being, some relate more to animals in this world. Try to keep that in mind, young priest, for nothing is as it appears." She pounced onto the ground skillfully. After taking a few steps, she turned her head in his direction. "As a mate looks after a mate, a fool will look after another fool. Among animals, black is the color of majesty. Keep these in mind, and you just might save a life."

Sanzo opened his mouth to retaliate, but she was already gone from sight. "Damn animals," he bitterly commented before strolling further out of town. His mentor warned him about cats in his early years. Some were lucky, some could see the future, and on rare occasions some were adept necromancers. This night he couldn't muster the energy to ponder the relevance of this particular feline.

Instead his mind relayed that there was a lake nearby. 'If there's a place to go in the middle of the night, it's there,' he mentally decided.

XXX

"Booooored!" Goku complained loudly. He was sitting next to the tree with his knees to his chest. His arms were crossed over them. "So bored!" His sharp ears caught the distinct sound of splashing in the distance. "Eh?" His tail hooked as he began to approach the sound. The dirt under his feet turned soft and squishy as he neared the water's edge. He was startled when his foot began to sink into the mud. Goku was not the sort to stand in one place for very long, so he frantically pulled until his foot eventually popped out. He promptly fell back on his bottom, smashing his tail. "Ow!" Wetness sprang to the rims of his eyes.

This was a new feeling. He brushed a hand over one warm eye to get rid of the odd water. "What's this?" he questioned himself as the wetness began to freely flow down his cheeks. The splash happened again, perking his curiosity. He sniffled once then dried his eyes on a ripped sleeve.

Goku followed the sound down the bank until he glimpsed a figure squatting next to the lake. The person was vaguely familiar...he sniffed the air suspiciously. Smoke, it was faint, but definitely present. Was this creature a demon? An immortal like himself? He came closer, remaining silent. One could never be too cautious around strangers.

The smelly person was doing something odd. It was throwing rocks across the lake's face, making it bubble in small protests. He tilted his head to one side in further puzzlement. What gain was this stranger getting from torturing pebbles? His tail swayed with his thoughts causing a sharp pain that made him whimper. He clenched his teeth, trying to muffle the sound.

The smelly person was instantly alerted by his cry. It drew the small cheating weapon from earlier. "Who's there? What do you want?" It was a command, not a question.

'That voice,' Goku thought. He remembered it from earlier. It was that guy. "I...why were you drowning rocks?"

"What?"

"The rocks..." Goku said with slow persistence. "You were throwing them at the lake." He moved a little closer, his head tilted slightly. He tried looking at it a different way. "Did the lake hurt you?"

The look the man shot him was a mix of annoyance and astonishment. After a tense moment, he withdrew his weapon and turned back toward the lake. It seemed like this was his favordite way of dismissing people. "Just get out of here, kid."

"Kid?" inquired Goku. His name wasn't Kid. "My name's, Goku and I am...-" A pang of hunger clutched his stomach in an iron grip. He doubled over with a tiny grunt. "I'm hungry..."

The stranger was close now, within arm's length. A sigh escaped his lips, one of relief and disgust. "I'm not the one you should beg food from."

XXX

Hakkai was past worrying, he was downright anxious. Sanzo had left a couple of hours ago, he should have been back from a smoke by now. And the sorry excuse for a kappa wasn't helping him sleep with his erratic snoring. He made a silent plan that next time they ordered two rooms, he'd opt for the single bed.

It was then that he heard their room door creak open. His hand navigated to a scroll hidden under his pillow, feeling the small edges of the parchment.

"Hakkai."

He hesitated, looking over at the prone kappa. He sat up, then picked up his glasses from the nightstand, and placed them on his nose. He put on a pleasant smile for the priest, "Come back for a beer? I grabbed a few for the trip."

Sanzo humphed a response. "I don't need anything, but I found this." He pulled something by its clothes from the hallway and threw it at Hakkai.

"Ugh!" Hakkai choked. He instantly knew this was a person, and a small one at that, but he was far from being light. He blinked up at the new person. "A boy?" Something fuzzy brushed his wrist, tickling the skin, "With a tail...hello."

Goku looked down pathetically at him. "Huuuuungry."

"Oh," Hakkai answered as the bedside lamp flicked on under Sanzo's coarse fingers.

"That's all he's said all the way here," Sanzo mumbled. "Its very annoying." The priest went to Gojyo's bedside and stole his lighter. He burned one of his own cigs to life then blew a cloud of thick smoke at the kappa's face. Gojyo snapped awake, sputtering.

"What the fuck, man?!" His sheets strained against his legs as he flailed underneath them.

"You're lucky I didn't use your eyes as ashtrays."

"Hungry!"

"Who the hell is the boy with the furry ass?!"

Goku stuck his tongue out at the water sprite and blew a sloppy raspberry.

Gojyo scowled, his eyes still stinging from after effects of smoke. "Oh that's real clever. Anyone want to fill me in on this?! He pointed at young looking boy. "Since when do we kidnap annoying little kids?!"

"Get off me, please," Hakkai asked Goku. After the child removed himself, he began rummaging through their new food stocks.

"Hey. Hey! Oi!" Gojyo protested upon seeing their food being riffled through. "I think I deserve an explanation here!"

Hakkai easily ignored him as he debated between an apple or a pear. "So," he said conversationally at Sanzo, "this is the same boy you met earlier?"

Goku's eyes widened, he put a hand to the back of his head disarmingly. "Oh...I'm kinda sorry about that...heat of the moment...?"

"Same," Sanzo drawled.

"What? This little kid brought The Great Sanzo down?" Gojyo mocked with a mocking grin. "Lemme guess, it was your own bullet?"

Sanzo gripped Gojyo's undershirt in his hand and pulled him roughly to his face "What of it, you sake sucking kappa?"

Hakkai offered a loaf of bread and an apple to Goku, then rounded on the other two. "Both of you stop this right now or I'll flush your cigarettes and booze."

Silence followed and Sanzo released his victim. He puffed at his current cig while devising all the things he could do the kappa out of Hakkai's sight.

Gojyo mumbled something about lack of sleep then burrowed his head in his pillow. His red hair streamed over the surface of the fabric.

"He says his name is Goku," Sanzo commented to fill the silence.

"Nice to meet you, Goku. I am Hakkai," the dark haired man nodded. He motioned to Sanzo vaguely, "and he is Genjyo Sanzo..."

"No he isn't," Goku said innocently, "Sanzo is a human title. He isn't human."

Sanzo's breath caught in his throat, nearly choking him on his own smoke. "You're an idiot. I was born human."

Goku took a big bite out of his loaf. "That might be true, but your soul isn't human. I know because I can't touch you or it hurts. You are a different class of immortal than me."

"This kid is nuts," Gojyo remarked from his pillow. "There is absolutely no way Sanzo and you are anything besides mortal. I've known this guy for what? Three years now? If he had a magical bone in his body, I think we'd notice. He's all guns, and spit, and no fucks."

Sanzo flicked his still lit cigarette in Gojyo's direction. "Don't speak unless spoken to."

Hakkai pressed the topic forward. "So why does it hurt you to touch him?"

Goku idly considered the apple as he munched on the last half of his loaf. "Immortals work in classes; I am a high class and he is a high class. So our powers conflict on contact, it's simple."

"Maybe not as simple as you think," Hakkai said with a shake of his head. Perhaps it would make more sense in the morning, "Um, not to be pushy but I'm very tired..."

Sanzo sighed and stood, heading for the door. "Come on, kid."

Goku gulped down the last of his bread and ran after him, apple in hand. "Does that mean I sleep with you?"

"You're sleeping on the floor," Sanzo answered shortly.

Hakkai chuckled as the door closed behind them. "Is it possible he found someone to match his own bitterness?"

"I think you're out of your mind, Hakkai," Gojyo grunted, reaching for the lamp switch.

"Maybe," Hakkai replied, putting his glasses back on their perch before lights-out.