A/N: Hi all, sorry for the late update, got kinda stuck so I had to get back on track. After this chapter, everything will be more interesting, I promise! Thanks for all your support!

The Elysian Twilight

04

"Oh, Hakkai-san! Goku-kun is not with you today?"

The Lung Dumpling House was crowded for a weekday, Sanzo noticed. Maybe because Chang'an was first and foremost a tourist town and every day was vacation. But the smells that eventually persuaded even Sanzo were compelling. The girl who had spoken looked to be a waitress in uniform.

"Houmei-san." Hakkai looked a little ashamed of himself, "No, Goku's not with me today. He misbehaved, so I had no choice but to leave him at home. I promised to bring him back some dumplings though, if you're nice enough to give us some leftovers." He winked.

"You're giving Goku-kun leftovers?" She looked properly scandalized.

"It's not as bad as it sounds. He wolfs it all down so fast that he probably wouldn't even notice." Hakkai raised his hands in self-defense. Looking around for something to defend himself with, he settled on Sanzo. "Anyway, this is my friend Sanzo. He's visiting from the city. And Sanzo, this is Lung Houmei, the Dumpling House is her brainchild. But sometimes, I get the feeling that I'm more proud of it than she is."

Sanzo was momentarily taken back by how easily Hakkai used the word 'friend', so easily, that it almost rang true. Except that it wasn't, it couldn't be. Genjyo Sanzo did not have any friends. But he nodded and voiced an obligatory greeting, "Pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure's mine, of course, Sanzo-san." She dimpled at him, and then turned to Hakkai again, "Aunty would like to know where you get all these really good looking friends, Hakkai-san."

Sanzo blanched, and Hakkai laughed easily, "Well, you know, they come around. I meet plenty of strange people too, at the onsen."

Yeah, Sanzo thought as he saw Gojyo and Goku in his mind's eye. Real strange, more like brainless.

"Sanzo?"

Hakkai's voice, Sanzo shook himself and looked around. Hakkai was not standing next to him anymore, rather, he was sitting at a corner table quietly laughing behind his hand. There were actually no indications that his attendant had actually been laughing, but the girl was giggling.

He walked over to them and slumped down in the seat. "Quit laughing at me."

"I wasn't laughing. Wherever did you get that idea?"

And it was true, Hakkai certainly didn't sound like he had been laughing, but still. Sanzo wanted to say something rude and utterly condescending but as Houmei was still there giggling, he refrained. Instead, he hid his face in the menu.

But then the menu was gone, and Houmei was gone. And Hakkai's eyes were still twinkling from across the table. Sanzo glowered at him, "You're enjoying this."

"Of course I am." Hakkai answered readily, "It's not everyday I get to enjoy sane company."

Sanzo bit back, 'then why do you bother?' and took a sip of tea instead. As unflattering as the compliment was, that strange warmth tingled in his stomach.

-

At the end of the meal, Sanzo had to admit his mood had lifted, although in the private recesses of his own mind, he refused to admit that his mood change had to do with Hakkai, or the food. It had to do with the fact that he was one step closer to getting his supplies of cigarettes replenished.

The dumplings were delicious, and they had been eaten in blessed, blessed silence. The quiet allowed him to think...and very inconspicuously study his companion from across the table. Sanzo only stopped when he was about to admit something quite embarrassing to himself.

And Hakkai saw him looking.

"Is there something on my face?"

Sanzo took the opportunity to raise his eyes again, "No."

Hakkai looked surprised, but then he was not. He pushed back his chair, "I thought there was, the way you were looking."

Now Sanzo wondered if he really had been so obvious. He said nothing even though he knew perfectly well that Hakkai was waiting for one.

But Houmei rescued him, coming by their table and dropping off a box. "This is for Goku-san. Tell him I said hi, okay?"

-

"She likes Goku?"

That thought was unthinkable. Thinking it even halfway through made Sanzo's brain malfunction. And Hakkai just laughed at him as he guided the jeep around a bumpy corner. "I thought it was quite obvious."

"I don't...notice these types of things." It was a pain to force the words out of his throat all at once. "Besides...the way she—giggled, I thought she liked you." 'giggled' was such a hard word to say that he forgot to stutter through the rest of his sentence.

Hakkai spared him an odd glance. "...She's fifteen, it's not legal."

That was more embarrassing than Hakkai laughing. Why was Sanzo always getting the short end of the stick in their conversations? It was starting to get irritating. So he kept his mouth shut until the jeep stopped at a little shack – Chang'an's excuse for a convenience store. You'd think that they could afford something more extravagant if they called themselves a tourist town. Sanzo was not impressed.

Until Hakkai said, "Gojyo's brother owns this place. It's cheaper."

Cigarettes were cheap, no matter where you went. But the fact that Hakkai seemed to understand his addiction without berating him was refreshing. Sanzo made a mental note to make it up to his attendant later...or, attempt to, anyway.

Gojyo's older brother turned out to be a man who looked like he bathed in oil on a regular basis, and also smelled pleasantly of smoke. He looked nothing like Gojyo. At all. He was at the dirty counter reading a similar (dirty) magazine when they entered, he had dirty clothes on too.

"Hakkai."

"Hello, Jien-san."

"Gojyo in trouble again?" The man gave Hakkai a stern glance. A glance that, Sanzo was very surprised to see, didn't make him flinch at all. Or perhaps, given what he had seen of Hakkai so much, maybe it wasn't at all unexpected.

"No, no. Of course not." Hakkai approached the counter, "We're actually here to pick up some cigarettes."

"You smoke?"

"They're...not for me." Hakkai said, "You know I don't smoke." And then he gestured to Sanzo, who struggled to understand why he felt so awkward, he knew it wasn't Hakkai, and it wasn't this Jien person, and it certainly was not because he was hungover when he wasn't supposed to be.

"This is Genjyo Sanzo, he's the one who's unfortunate enough to need a vice." Hakkai announced cheerfully.

Sanzo couldn't decide whether or not to be offended as Jien laughed out loud and handed over a pack of cigarettes. As if it was funny.

"Bye Hakkai, be careful out there." Jien said, when they were set to leave.

Be careful? The warning sparked something in Sanzo's mind, it seemed an odd warning for a place so safe.

But his attendant only smiled, "You too."

-

Days became weeks, and everything gradually fell into place by the time Sanzo's stay in Chang'an hit the one month mark. He found that he liked things here in Chang'an, uncomplicated, yet still, with Goku and Gojyo on the scene to be constantly scolded, things were never dull. Uncle Koumyou was always there to offer his wisdom at the most unexpected times on the most random of subjects, but that too, became endearing.

And Hakkai...who was an enigma on the first day, still was.

Sanzo gave up trying to understand him, but what bothered him the most was that Hakkai also made him misunderstand himself. Like the first time they had gone out shooting after dinner when Gojyo and Goku were (unhappily) preoccupied with dishes.

He was rusty, and the first time he had let fly a bullet, the bullet had struck a squirrel, which he hadn't intended to hit. Sanzo's actual target had been a fruit that had wilted on the branches, forgotten and nestled between a couple of leaves several feet away.

"I don't like killing." Hakkai had said, and that statement made Sanzo unusually guilty. He felt like he had really killed the squirrel, instead of shooting it by accident.

And as the days rolled by, Sanzo found himself studying Hakkai in the onsen without blushing so much. For the life of him, he couldn't pinpoint why. Why was a single droplet of hot water that dripped down the side of Hakkai's neck suddenly worth so much of his attention?

Sanzo pulled the trigger.

And Gojyo was not helping. Gojyo quiet was already not helping in the first place. Gojyo, when he ventured to open his mouth, which was, unfortunately, quite often—was downright unproductive. "...Didja notice? I mean, you must've, Hakkai keeps lookin' at you all funny."

He shot again.

It went both ways, Sanzo begrudgingly admitted. Although he had thought he was being inconspicuous enough so that a loudmouth like Gojyo wouldn't pick up on it and spread it around. Well, he had picked up...but he hadn't spread it around yet, so here was to hoping.

And again.

Sanzo put down the gun, it hung loosely at his side, and looked at Hakkai, who always distanced himself when he was shooting. He had a book in his hand, but it was too dark to read.

"Hakkai."

"Hm?"

"I have two shots left. Do you want to shoot?" Sanzo sounded very generous to his own ears. "It's late...so I doubt you'll hit anything. Or, I'd make sure you don't hit anything."

Hakkai hesitated, "I've never shot a gun."

"Try it." Sanzo held out the firearm, "There's a first time for everything."

That made Hakkai laugh, "I try not to be a victim of cliches, Sanzo, but if you insist."

Later, Sanzo would laugh at those words. But now, since he didn't know any better, he handed his gun over and almost shuddered at the way Hakkai's fingers brushed against his just so. He wondered if it would be possible to be drunk without drinking.

"What's my target?"

Sanzo's eyes wandered, something obvious, and easy to hit. Finally, he settled on a tree fifty yards away, "That tree." He pointed.

Hakkai considered, and then nodded, "I guess. You should stand behind me so I don't hit you."

Unless Hakkai's aim was way off...which Sanzo doubted. But he obeyed, and retreated behind Hakkai, as the other man raised the gun. For a man who claimed to have never shot, Hakkai's natural posture was something of a marvel. Slowly, the gun leveled itself with the target and then he stopped.

"Hakkai?"

"I don't think I can do this."

Sanzo was annoyed, "It's not like I'm asking you to shoot a person. You're shooting a goddamn tree."

A light laugh left Hakkai's lips, "Do you know what that means?"

"To shoot someone?"

"Yes."

Sanzo hesitated, yes, he knew. He knew more than other almost eighteen-year-olds because when his father was in a good mood, he put a gun in his already trigger-happy son's hands and took him along for official police stakeouts. Once, when he was sixteen, he got lucky and shot some poor chap in the ankle.

"It's a tree."

Hakkai turned to him, and Sanzo found the gun barrel pressed against his forehead.

"What if...it was a person?"

Sanzo's lungs sucked all of the air out of him in a hurry. "What are you doing?"

"Still want me to shoot?" Teasing, taunting.

"What the hell's wrong with you?"

Hakkai lowered the firearm and handed it back. Sanzo accepted the offering with numb hands. Hakkai laughed, "I guess...I'm a little drunk. Sorry if I scared you."

Cho Hakkai was never drunk. That much he learned, that much Sanzo knew, but when another pair of lips met his own, he tasted alcohol, copious amounts of it. There was something wrong with all this. But somehow he couldn't bear to push the other away.

Then the other man broke away, "Muscle spasm." He announced cheerily.

Something was wrong, Sanzo repeated the thought in his head as firmly as he could, but for some reason, that was all right. If he didn't think about it... "Do you think I could get something to drink?"

The smile that he received in return was unexpectedly dazzling, "You'll owe me."