AN: No smooth sailing for this relationship; Sanzo needs to angst. Yaone and Sanzo deal with an infection, Goku deals with some Youkai, and Hakkai gets whumped (a little of Goku and Gojyo whump too) :D

Credit to Qualapec the She-Wolf for starting this story and writing chapters 1-5.

Chapter Content Warning: language, violence

Chapter 18

It was the dead of night and Sanzo Lay awake, unable to sleep despite the exhaustion pulling on him.

What the hell had just happened? He just fucking kissed Yaone! What the hell was he thinking? There was no version of this story that did not end horribly.

How had he not stopped himself the moment he saw it coming? – with her lush, coral lips drawing ever closer. So close, he could feel the warmth of her sweet breath. He could have backed away then, but he had failed to withdrawal while he still had the chance. The smell of her beneath her herbal soaps pulled him in.

Gods, she had tasted amazing.

It must have been some kind of youkai pheromone shit. Yeah. It was not really his fault he had not been able to resist.

But, why should he have wanted to resist when everything had felt so… right? The feel of her hands through his hair, and her touch on his skin. Sanzo felt the beginnings of an arousal at the thought of where he had wanted her hands to continue towards.

Damn her! He huffed in silence. He was not supposed to want that. He was not supposed to want her.

He still wanted her.

Sanzo glanced over to the youkai beside him. Unlike yesterday, she had her back turned to him and was about as far to the edge as she could get.

Damn, he screwed that up. He had tried to reach for her face while they were kissing when a shock of pain raced through his arm. It had been too sudden to hide a reaction from the pain unlike he had several times before during their make out session, and the healer had thought she hurt him. Unfortunately, once he had woken up from what could only be described as a dream, he had realized too late what he had done.

He had formed an attachment he never should have, and he needed to sever it. Everything inside him ached at the thought, but he had pulled away so he could sort out the mess.

Here he was now, trying to sort out this shitstorm of a clusterfuck and failing miserably. Emotions he never let himself feel had tangled themselves up and he had no idea how to deal with it.

The only thing he could think of was that he needed to put an end to things between them. If he was in so deep, he could not let go, then he truly was lost.

The next day there was an uncomfortable tension between Yaone and Sanzo. Yaone had hardly slept, worrying for the better part of the night over how much she had fucked things up with him, and once she had woken up for work, she felt dead on her feet.

When she had come over to check her patient's temperature with the thermometer from her kit, Yaone found the priest had not been sleeping as he peered at her through one open eye. The whole morning whenever Yaone was in his presence, Sanzo had watched her in silence, his features completely unreadable.

Unfortunately, after a long but mostly uneventful day in her labs, Yaone came back to her chambers to find nothing had changed about the priest's cold attitude towards her. She had come in to at least find he had been sleeping, but he woke the moment she entered. Her greeting had been met with indifference, so she went to reheat the food she had brought him the night before.

The monk closed his eyes again when Yaone came back to him. She needed to check his temperature and redress his wounds again. He was probably in need of more pain meds as well.

When she sat on the side of the bed to start her ministrations, Yaone saw the sheen of sweat that covered the monk and quickly read his temperature, praying against the dread she felt.

106.2 Yaone read from the mercury. Shit!

"Sanzo?"

The monk shivered and sluggishly opened his eyes, lifting an eyebrow in questioning response.

"You have a high fever. How long have you felt hot or cold?" Yaone asked, concern threading through her voice more than she liked.

"Hmm… Don't know. Been asleep mostly." Still resting his eyes, he continued to shiver. "It is fucking cold in here though."

"It's not cold. You are really hot." Yaone's worry grew.

He smiled at that. "I'm hot, huh?"

Oh no, he better not be delirious. Quickly, Yaone rushed for her blood pressure cuff and took Sanzo's vitals, concerned about the very real possibility of sepsis. Fortunately, his blood pressure and respiration were only slightly out range which indicated more towards pain and discomfort.

When she peeled off the bandage from the priest's arm, Yaone's stomach turned at the sight. Green puss covered the wounds and the area had swollen. Sanzo had not reacted to her removing the dirty dressing but whimpered at her palpating nearby the wounds. His skin was very hot, and the red streaks had migrated further, clustering together to form a large red outline around the swollen wounds.

Yaone groaned. The infection was really bad, and Sanzo was in true danger of losing his arm if she could not get the infection under control. "Sanzo, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to debride the wounds on your arm. I need to try and remove as much infection as possible, so it does not become gangrenous."

"Fuck, you are always sorry for shit that isn't your fault… knock it off… Don't know when to quit… When to not get involved… mess shit up…"

What Sanzo said hurt, but Yaone tried not to take it to heart. Her patient was mildly delirious.

After Yaone gave Sanzo the maximum safe amount of antibiotic, marigold, and antipyretic herbs to bring down his fever, she began the painstaking process of debriding the infected wounds. She gave him leather to bite to keep him from crying out so loud the guards would hear since he was not coherent enough to hold back his pain ridden exclamations. Halfway through the procedure, the priest mercifully fell unconscious. She would have sedated him but knew well the monk's feelings on the subject. Delirious or not, she did not want to betray his trust.

Having finished the debridement, Yaone sewed the wounds closed and applied more herbs before applying a bandage. Checking the other areas, she was pleased that they were no worse off than the day before.

Once she finished tending to all her patient's needs, Yaone sighed. It would be a long night, watching Sanzo's fever and praying the infection did not lead to sepsis. There were unfortunately no better antibiotics anywhere around youkai territory. Youkai were pretty resilient to infection and rarely even needed penicillium. She wished there was more she could do. If his fever spiked again, the only thing left to her was an ice water bath if it got dangerous. He was certainly at that point earlier, but her first priority was removing as much of the infection as she could, and by then his fever deceased to 104.5 degrees. Not good, but no longer dangerous.

It ended up being as long of a night as Yaone feared. Sanzo's temperature fluctuated up and down, but it eventually reached a point that Yaone decided Sanzo did need that ice water bath. Getting him there was extremely difficult and the healer practically had to carry the monk. Once that was over and she got him back into bed, Sanzo slept fitfully, and had called out several times for Goku.

Surrounded by demons in the pitch-black night of an old forest, Goku swung his Nyoibo, knocking several youkai off their feet. The stupid villains had attacked while he had been on watch duty and the other two were hopefully sleeping. Who knew though, since Gojyo had just finished his shift and looked at Hakkai's tent like Goku would look at a meat bun stand before crawling inside. He had tried to ignore the sounds coming from the tent. It sounded like they were enjoying a midnight snack without him, but he knew he had to be on high alert tonight. He had sensed these Youkai waiting and lurking and knew it was only a matter of time.

Well, whether they had chosen to use their time to sleep or whatever else, it was too bad, Goku needed backup right away. "Hakkai, Gojyo, wake up! We've got company."

The two disheveled men stumbled out of the tent, and in a flourish, they were ready for battle. Hakkai just barely having put his glasses on, but not a shirt, shot out a ball of chi at three approaching demons to their right. Gojyo summoned his Shakujo and swung it towards another two demons on their left.

"Oi, monkey, you let these guys get the drop on you?" Gojyo yelled, also shirtless.

"As if, stupid Kappa! I sensed these guys coming a mile away."

"Then tell me, Goku, why just now alert us?" Hakkai asked diplomatically as he summoned more chi.

"I… got distracted," Goku said forlornly.

Sending a flying kick towards one of their foes, Gojyo shouted, "What have I told you about you about rummaging for food when you're supposed to be keeping watch, stomach-for-brains monkey!"

"It wasn't food, you dumb water sprite," Goku said as he easily punched back an advancing youkai, his cheeks heating in anger at the insult. He felt something wrong with Sanzo and it was worrying him. He had tried not to let his focus wonder from the youkai surrounding them, but he had.

"Sure it was. Your dumb monkey brain can't fit anything else in there."

"Yeah, it can. At least my brain can fit more than just pervy stuff, cockroach!"

Fighting the demons all but forgotten, Gojyo stormed over to Goku. "You want to say that to my face!"

Goku stood on his toes to get as close to eye level as he could with the half breed. "Cock-roach!"

"Oh, that does it." Gojyo wound up his fist like he was about to hit the boy when Hakkai appeared and grabbed it.

Smiling Hakkai said, "Now now, we shouldn't be impolite and forget our guests. I recommend you direct your attention towards them."

The threat Hakkai hid behind his polite smile scared Goku enough he was willing to drop his fight with the kappa, for now. He did not ever want to be on Hakkai's bad side again after that incident with Kougaiji. His head still hurt from it.

Growling, the young youkai landed another blow with his rod onto their attackers. "Eat this!"

It had taken several minutes for the youkai to start thinning out, and by then Goku was really beginning to tire. He could see it in Hakkai and Gojyo too as he would look over at them. For almost the past month, Goku had not been sleeping well. And whenever he did sleep, he felt his connection to Sanzo stronger, resulting in terrible nightmares.

Out of the corner of his eye, Goku saw one of the demons lunge for his side where he kept the sutra rolled and tucked away in his belt. As he swung around to kick the demon, its claws tore the hem of his shirt. Enraged that the scum would even get that close to his guardian's scripture, Goku charged at the youkai. Tackling the attacker to the ground, Goku threw punch after punch until the youkai no longer moved, and then he continued to punch.

"Goku, stop!" Someone called out.

The blood was rushing in his ears and Goku, let the fury wash over him. Suddenly, he caught sight of a youkai sneaking up behind him. Not even missing a beat from the pummeling he was giving the demon beneath him, he lashed out, sending the youkai tumbling into several others.

Goku!

Immediately, the berserk monkey stopped mid punch at the clear cry of his Guardian. The blood in his veins ran cold. Sanzo!

Was he worried? Was something wrong? Both? He could feel a great deal of turmoil and anguish on the other side of the line; however, he could only feel the emotions of the other person, and Sanzo's emotions were never easy to understand.

The interruption had caused too much of an opening and a couple clever demons took advantage, attacking Goku simultaneously.

"Look out!" He could hear Gojyo cry as he swung his Shakujo all too late.

Goku blocked one attack with his Nyoibo, but the other youkai's claws sunk deep into his back.

Goku! The concerned shout echoed in his mind.

Swerving around, he threw the demon off of him and kicked him so hard in the jaw he heard the demon's neck crack.

There were maybe five youkai left, but they had enough sense to retreat after the slaughter of the rest of their comrades. After the others left, the adrenaline faded from his system, and Goku felt the searing pain of the claw marks ripping through his back. He fell to his knees, looking off towards the trees.

"You dumb monkey brain!" Gojyo called from a few yards away. "What the hell was that shit?"

In a daze, Goku slowly turned to find Gojyo. He was so tired, in so much pain, and so hungry. The sight of Gojyo leaning over Hakkai snapped him out of it though, and he stumbled over to his injured friends. From where he had been, Goku could see Gojyo's arm was dripping blood from some claw marks, but Hakkai lay on the ground unmoving.

Once Goku got closer, he saw Hakkai had several deep gashes by claws and even a few bite marks on his limbs that were missing chunks of flesh. Gojyo turned the healer over to lay on his back, exposing several more wounds to his torso.

"What happened?" Goku asked, terrified that Hakkai was so badly injured.

Gojyo shoved him roughly away. "Get back! You happened, that's what."

What? How could that… A flashback to the fight suddenly stole the breath from Goku's chest. "No… I didn't." Tears cascaded down from the monkey's eyes. "I thought he was gonna attack me! I thought he was a… a demon."

"He is a demon, you numbskull. If you hadn't been too busy going apeshit crazy, you would have noticed he was trying to get you to stop your fucking frenzy beating that other youkai to a pulp. You threw him into the gang of demons!"

Oh shit! No, no, no, no. Not Hakkai. How could he? How could he do such a thing to Hakkai?

"Stop standing there like an idiot and get me Hakkai's medical kit!" The hanyou ran a bloody hand through his blood red hair and looked lost as he blew a puff of air through his lips. "Hang in there, buddy." Goku heard him say quietly after he had run off for the kit in the Jeep.

Looking down deep enough towards the dirt that his bangs hid his eyes, Goku handed the black leather bag to Gojyo. "Here."

Gojyo opened the bag but looked utterly confused by most of the equipment he dug out. He knew only enough to keep the antiseptic and gauze along with needle and thread. "Gods, this is going to suck. I hardly know the first thing about first aid. Hakkai's going to have to redo everything himself later."

Goku shuffled his foot into the forest leaves below him and chewed his lip. "Umm, can I…"

"What, you stupid chimp, can't you see I'm busy saving the guy you almost killed's life?"

"Well, I just…" Goku's expression went from helpless to resolute and he knelt down and took some of the gauze and antiseptic from next to Gojyo and started helping dress the lighter of Hakkai's wounds.

Dropping his mouth open, Gojyo was momentarily speechless, but then he collected himself with a clearing of his throat. "Thanks. Sorry about that earlier… But really, what the hell, Goku?" He asked as he threaded the needle.

That was a good question. "…I don't really know. I haven't been sleeping good, so maybe that has something to do with it. My limiter is still on at least…"

"Small consolation there if you are gonna go crazy with it still on."

Goku drew his lips in a tight line. He had never lost control like that with his limiter still fully in place. It was almost like when he wanted to tear Kougaiji to shreds, but he had only gotten close to losing it then. Whatever was going on, he felt like he was falling apart.

He cleaned a couple long cuts on Hakkai's arm and watched to make sure they were not bleeding too much to need stitches.

Their whole group was falling apart.

Full on sobs erupted from Goku as he placed the bandages on his friend. How could they ever hope to rescue Sanzo when they can hardly make it this far without him?

"Oi, monkey, what's gotten into you?"

Goku could not respond and continued on as if Gojyo did not even exist.

"Hey, man, I said I was sorry. I didn't really mean it. You just gotta keep your shit together, alright? Hakkai wouldn't blame you either."

"It's not that, Gojyo. It was my fault anyway. But it's just… I miss him, Gojyo! He's going through hell, and we can't even go a week without almost dying ourselves. I just… I just don't know if I'm ever going to get him back…" It was now useless for him to try and help with Hakkai, and he let all the pent‑up sorrow out with a flood of tears.

"Hey, hey, hey," Gojyo said as he held up a blood-soaked hand, the other holding the needle that was half a stitch into Hakkai's flesh. "Come on now. You know better; we always beat the odds, and so does that bitchy monk. He wouldn't be such a terrible pain in the ass if he were so easily gotten rid of. I won't have it – coming all this way for nothing. I just need you to keep your shit together… Hakkai needs you to keep your shit together. Whatd'ya say?"

Goku sniffled, trying to overcome all the negative feelings in his head. "Yeah, sure." He nodded, realizing the kappa was right. Sanzo needed him to be strong. They could not give up now. They were almost to India after all.

AN: I wanted to show some impact of Goku having the Maten scripture (not the minus wave), I think it is a cool aspect that the scriptures may have an influence.

The temperature danger zones for fevers I looked up from deeper sources. 105 is where danger can occur but it isn't necessarily until 107-109 where your brain starts cooking. You'd be in some deep trouble if you had a fever of 105 and you weren't in the hospital, but in the hospital they may not treat fever drastically (ice packing) until 106. My order of treatment was based on my own limited knowledge, but hopefully is reasonable enough. I could be wrong, and please let me know if you have any medical knowledge that would help.

Antipyretic: anti-fever