AN: I recently posted this fic on AO3 and figured I would also post here since some people don't use both. It was originally just a guilty pleasure I wrote out, molding it to my favorite antagonistic duo. But, when I reread it, I realized it was better than I thought at first. Hopefully you enjoy it too :D

Chapter 1

Leaving the village that morning had been a bad idea, and Sanzo knew it. He had known it, yet he forced everyone to go anyway. Even after seeing the dark clouds looming west over the mountain pass, and despite Hakkai's valid concerns, he had told them he was going with or without them. Sometimes they tried his hand and did not follow right away, but not this time. This time, they went along with him for the very same reason Sanzo wanted to leave despite better judgment.

They thought he was weak.

He would prove them wrong. He had to. He always had to. Being the only human in the group was not something Sanzo would allow those bastards to see as a weakness.

Even now, when the wind bit through his cloak and the bitter cold leached through to his icy skin, Sanzo fought to keep his weakness from showing and control his shivering. But fuck, there was no stopping the torrents of chills wracking his body.

He pulled out a cigarette as a hopeful distraction. However, as his numb fingers flicked at the lighter, another strong gust of wind stole the flame. "Gods damn it," Sanzo cursed under his breath, and he threw the useless lighter into the oblivion of white.

Of course, this earned him another worried glance from Hakkai. The man needed to give it a rest. Sanzo ground his teeth. "Watch the road, damn it."

"There is no road, Sanzo, only deep snow drifts," Hakkai said slowly with an eerily practiced calm as they plowed into another mound of snow. There was no forced smile on the man's tense face, and Sanzo could see his knuckles were white as he gripped Jeep's steering wheel.

The healer was in a dangerously terse mood, but Sanzo did not care. He was ready to pick a fight with anyone, especially the bastard who rarely rose to the challenge.

But before Sanzo could retort with any snide remarks, a whiny voice piped up from behind, "I'm cold!"

"You said that two minutes ago. Now, shut it before I make the cold the least of your complaints," Sanzo said. He was also in no mood to be trifled with.

The other irritant in the back seat apparently also felt the need to complain. "We are all freezing our asses off here. We should have stayed in the town until this blasted storm passed. But no! His royal highness decided we had to leave today."

"You have a death wish, cockroach?" Sanzo gripped his harisen but was halted by the sudden skidding of Jeep's tires jerking the vehicle sideways. A sharp pain erupted in his side at the abrupt movement, causing the priest to suck in a quick rasp of air he hoped went unnoticed.

Unfortunately, the healer to his right was too astute. As soon as the Jeep was righted, he turned his worried gaze towards Sanzo once again and apologized. "Sorry."

Sanzo growled in irritation; he did not need the man's fucking pity. Over the past few days, he had enough of the man fussing over him. "I'm fine, you moron," he said, still clenching the side of the Jeep with his left hand.

This seemed to get Hakkai back on track with his testy mood. All his false pleasantry dropped, and he stoically concentrated on the path in front of him. But he soon tensed as another thick cumulation of snow caught Jeep's tires.

This time, there was no sudden movement.

There was no movement at all.

The frigid, snowy air billowing around them was nothing compared to the icy glare Hakkai directed towards Sanzo as Jeep's tires spun.

"Hmph, I prefer that look on you," Sanzo said as he hopped out of the Jeep and into the knee‑deep snow.

The others exited the vehicle before Hakuryuu flew to Hakkai and curled up around his neck.

Stomping through the snow, Gojyo approached the monk. "This is just fucking great. As if it wasn't miserable enough putting up with this snowstorm in the car, now we have to walk through it! Thanks a lot, you shitty monk."

Standing as nonchalant as he could with his arms folded, Sanzo glared at the storming redhead as he set off towards the white wall of snow. Gods, he hated that half-breed.

Watching the others as they followed behind Gojyo, Sanzo caught the stern look on Hakkai's face. Hakkai was pissed, but Sanzo knew it had more to do with the man worrying over his goddamn health than his own grueling march ahead.

Walking through the endless blizzard sucked.

Instead of taking the lead as he usually did, Sanzo stayed in the back of the group, trying to walk through what little trail the others left in the thick powder. Unfortunately, it did not help nearly enough. The cold and endless battle of putting one foot in front of the other was sapping his strength, and he felt his legs becoming sluggish. Huffing in frosty gasps of air, the pain in his side grew. However, no one else was slowing, so Sanzo pushed himself to keep pace with his youkai companions.

Once at a narrow pass, a small, insignificant stumble that Sanzo corrected right away had been noticed by the mother hen hovering no more than a couple paces away.

Hakkai called out to the other two. "Hey, I think we should rest here for a minute, you guys. I need to warm my feet."

'Warm my feet,' my ass, Sanzo thought. That was the most terribly transparent excuse he had ever heard, but leaning against the stone cliff, he was grateful enough to catch his breath. The snow had let up some, but the wind still howled, wracking another unbidden shiver through the monk's body.

With the others waiting out of earshot, Hakkai turned towards Sanzo and sighed. "You really should have stayed in town to recover another day." He shook his head in dismay. "This is ridiculous."

"We already wasted too much time. If we had left sooner, the pass would have been clear."

"You were unconscious. How were we supposed to leave?" Hakkai snapped.

"You could have hauled my ass to the back seat of the Jeep to sleep it off. It was just a stab wound."

"It was not just a stab wound, Sanzo; that youkai's spear had pierced straight through you!" Hakkai kept his voice low, but he was letting his emotions show. "Forgive me for knowing that camping out in unpredictable weather would be a terrible idea for one's recovery."

Sanzo glared heatedly in the silence that followed. He had nothing to say. Hakkai would never understand.

But the fool obviously wanted to understand. Softening his green eyes, Hakkai asked, "Why, Sanzo? Why did you decide to leave and push yourself like this? Is it just a matter of pride?"

Avoiding Hakkai's intense gaze, Sanzo looked towards the western path and ground his teeth. Pride could be blamed for part of it, but there was more. He never should have been caught by that low‑life's spear. He should never have been the one to hold up their progress west… not when each day he felt the hands of time wearing down on him. The toll of time wore differently on humans than it did a youkai; and he was reminded of that toll with every constant ache in his body.

Pushing himself away from the support of the cliff, Sanzo said, "We need to keep going; that's all."

There was a heavy sigh heard behind him as Sanzo walked away, but Hakkai followed.

Up ahead, the other two where bickering about something inane and starting to get physical. It never mattered what they argued about, so Sanzo did not bother listening.

Sanzo was about to pass them by and forge his own way through the fresh snow when Gojyo shoved Goku hard enough that he stumbled into the monk, knocking them both over into the snow.

Whether it was on purpose or an accident did not matter. He was going to kill him!

Goku apologized quickly and rose to his feet, ready to pull Sanzo up.

Livid, Sanzo ignored the boy's help and pulled out his gun, ready to shoot the idiot kappa. Gojyo recoiled, but Sanzo stopped himself before pulling the trigger. Even through his anger, he was keenly aware of what a loud noise like a gunshot could cause in a heavily snow-covered pass. Instead, he settled for tackling the bastard and throwing a hard punch to his jaw.

Wrestling in the snowbank, Sanzo guarded against Gojyo's attempts to attack back. The half‑breed was stronger, but the priest was on top and had gravity on his side.

Suddenly though, Sanzo sensed something, distracting him enough he left an opening for Gojyo to get a punch of his own to the monk's face, sending him backwards. If his brain had not scrambled by the hit, he may have been able to warn the idiot kappa of his immediate danger.

A massive blur of white landed where Gojyo had been, sending a cloud of snow out around it. Sanzo sputtered, trying to wipe the snow from his eyes and move towards the rumbling snarl attacking his cohort. The second he took to clear his vision had been too long though, and the monster tackled the priest back down to ground before he could see it coming. His hand grappled for his gun out of instinct and Sanzo cursed; shooting was still not an option. Instead, he raised his arm to guard against an oncoming blow. The heavy strike sent a shockwave through Sanzo, but what startled him more than the painful impact, was the icy chill he felt from it. Staring wide at his attacker, he could hardly believe his eyes. He was being attacked by an abominable snowman!

There was nothing Sanzo could do against the twelve-foot, thousand-pound, monster made of solid ice and snow as it pinned him down. Another punch came barreling towards his head, and Sanzo moved his head to the right, dodging it by a hair. However, he could not evade the crushing force of the snow monster's hands around his neck. Using what little air he had, Sanzo struggled to push the words of his mantra through his strangled throat. The shouts of his other two companions could be heard as black clouds closed in on Sanzo's vision. He was losing the fight. Unable to press enough words out to finish the mantra, he thought again of using his gun and inwardly cursed. He would not risk everyone else's safety. It's just a fucking snowman!

Then, just as Sanzo was sure his neck would break, the snow monster was hurled off of him by a charging monkey. Hakkai had been close behind Goku and stooped down to help the monk while the other fought. Sanzo coughed and took the hand offered to stand. Shaking off Hakkai's attempt to support him further, he stood tall and tried not to grimace at the growing pain and dizziness.

Hakkai drew his lips tight as Sanzo wavered a bit, but he seemed convinced enough that he would live. He then rushed over to help Gojyo, who Sanzo could see struggling to sit from where he had been ambushed.

With Hakkai gone, Sanzo let himself sink down to his knees. It was easier than standing. Huffing in the air he still felt deprived of, Sanzo watched as Goku fought the snow creature. The kid slammed his Nyoi Bo into its chest, blasting a hole through it. The snowman did not even react to what should have been a fatal blow, and it turned around to the dumfounded kid and grabbed him by his neck. Lifting Goku as he kicked and thrashed, the monster's chest started to close as it sucked in snow from around it. Goku sent his staff hurling into the snowman's neck, hitting it with enough force to cause a resounding crack, but it did no more damage than knock the packed snow off the icy center of its head.

There, Sanzo saw the same thing Goku did inside the clear ice. A talisman.

The abominable snowman was a shikigami.

Goku grinned and was about to send his weapon straight through the snowman's head to destroy the talisman, but the shikigami spun around and flung the kid so far down the path, Sanzo could not see where he landed.

Then, the snowman lunged towards Hakkai, who was using his chi to heal Gojyo and unaware of the impending attack. Grabbed from behind, Hakkai was tossed overhead and slammed down into the snow behind the creature. Sanzo could hear the strangled cry from Hakkai as the shikigami held him down by the throat.

Hakkai was in trouble. He was not using his chi to fight back, and Sanzo knew it was because of the risk a large blast could mean to the precarious snow in the steep pass.

"Damn it!" Sanzo cursed. He had to do something, but he was too weak to fight against that thing. The scripture was also useless against a shikigami.

Hakkai struggled under the snowman's grasp until the creature picked him up and slammed him into the rocky cliff. Sanzo watched in horror as Hakkai let out a harrowing cry and went limp while the shikigami still pressed him into the wall with a bone crushing force.

"Fuck it," Sanzo said. There was no other option at this point. He brought out his gun and aimed for the talisman. Bracing himself for the thunderous crack of the firearm's shot, he pulled the trigger.

The shot went straight through the snow monster's head and hit the talisman straight on.

Crumpling into a pile of ice and snow, the shikigami fell.

Unfortunately, Sanzo felt no relief at seeing his companion freed as the resounding echo of the shot rang through the pass and began to dislodge the surrounding snow. The rumble of the oncoming avalanche brought Sanzo's immediate attention towards the safety of the group. Goku was still nowhere to be seen and Hakkai was by the cliff, where the danger from being swept away was lessened. However, Gojyo was close to the edge of the drop off.

Idiot Kappa!

Sanzo cursed through many expletives as he fought against the deep snow and raced over to bring the half-breed away from the edge. But he was too late to help. The wall of tumbling snow plowed into him just as he clasped Gojyo hand.