Drawn to the Light
By Eline (Kanzeon on ff.net)
Spoilers: A lot of them. At least until the first twenty or so episodes of the anime and most of the manga. And the Gaiden.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the fanfic idea.
Warnings: Serious possibility of shounen ai, bad language and Men Behaving Badly
Surgeon General's Warning: Smoking cigarettes may cause lung cancer.
* * * * * * * * * *
When asked to choose between Sanzo with a migraine and facing the rain with an old hemp sack, Gojyo had opted for the lesser of two evils. It had been easy to rouse the landlord. Using minimum force and almost no cuss words at all, he had pressed the old skinflint for directions and left the inn quickly.
It was still raining. The persistent kind of rain that would get into your boots and through your pants even though you knew you were avoiding the puddles. For once, he was glad that this town was small and had a grand total of perhaps three or four streets.
Goyjo was still rather damp by the time he got to the address on the outskirts of town. The house was small, but looked well-kept. He got under the scant shelter of the awning over the door and knocked.
The door opened a crack. "You're a day early."
Wha . . .?
The occupant of the house pushed the door open wide.
"Hmm . . . you don't *look* like the baker's youngest son." The speaker stepped out into the dim light. She was not old, but not that young either. Matured . . . that was the word for the dark-haired woman in the doorway.
"Eh?" Goyjo enquired brightly.
The woman leaned against the doorframe, one arm arching up melodramatically in a clatter of bracelets.
Goyjo followed the pleasing line of her arm up to the discrete little red lantern that was half hidden by the eaves. It was not lit.
Ah. His sleep-deprived brain finally caught up with the rest of him. While searching for a medicine shop, he had found the town whore during her non-business hours instead. The confusion must have shown on his face.
"Hey, I don't normally get disappointed customers, you know?"
"No offence to you, lady, but there's a time and place for these things and I'm looking for a migraine cure," he said with a casual shrug. He contrived to look inoffensive. "Mind if you point me in the general direction of the nearest herbalist?"
"Oh, then why didn't you say so?" she asked. "I've got willow-bark tea with mint and a few of my special herbs, or the local version of aspirin, if you want."
His nonplussed look set her dark eyes rolling comically. "This really is a two-bit town, if you haven't already noticed. I'm a provider of relief, in more ways than one."
"Multi-purpose, huh?"
"If I had a penny for every time I heard that one . . ." She shook her head and motioned him indoors. "Take off your boots and come in. Don't drip any mud on my floor--I just cleaned it. You don't look like you're the one with the migraine."
The town medicine woman/whore's abode was warm and had that lived-in feel that made visitors automatically comfortable. "Nope--it's for a friend," he replied and sat down on something like a kitchen chair with a home-made cushion tied on the seat. "Got anything for a small sized dragon suffering from overexposure to the rain?"
"Dragon? That's a new one . . . You'll have to wait a few minutes," the medicine woman said as she deftly tipped some dried herb mixture into a pot of boiling water.
"Sure. I got time." Which was not *entirely* a lie. Gojyo hoped that Hakkai and Goku could bear up with Sanzo a little longer. He settled down and took the chance to have a look around the woman's small kitchen cum living room. The furnishings looked mismatched and mended, but were mostly in good shape. Bunches of herbs and things he couldn't identify hung from lines strung across the room. And it was clean. Gojyo had seen the homes of less house-proud women before. It was rather reassuring to find a hygienic herbalist in this dump.
"Normally, I like to see my patients first, but I'll make an exception for a pretty boy like you."
Gojyo repressed a chuckle. Lady, you don't know what you're missing, he thought to himself. But considering the mood he's in now, the minute blondie opens his mouth, you'd be out the door before we could tackle you and offer practically *anything* to get rid of his migraine.
"The name's Gojyo. Under different circumstances, I think we'd be very good friends."
"Kailan. Under different circumstances, that line wouldn't even get you a discount." She sat down opposite him with a pouch that smelt tantalisingly familiar.
He watched, fascinated, as she rolled a cigarette from the contents of the pouch--a clump of shredded tobacco and a thin sheet of paper. Wetting one edge of the paper with her tongue, she sealed her roll-up with speed born of experience.
"Hmmph, that's the first time I ever saw someone drooling at my *cigarettes*."
"I'd kill for one right now though."
"Careful what you promise laddie," she said without mirth. She offered him the roll-up and nudged the lamp over to him. "That and the advice will be free."
At close range, Gojyo could see the markings on the bracelets she wore. Oh joy. She was a witch in addition to the village herbalist.
He lit the roll-up carefully with the lamp flame and drew in a much-needed nicotine fix. Her tobacco was interestingly spicy--he supposed that she made her own blend. "Is there anything you *don't* do?" he asked, wondering how he could have missed the astrology charts on the walls and the slightly more mystic looking marks inscribed over the threshold of every door.
"It pays to be generally indispensable and slightly feared." Kailan smiled slightly. "Now it's my turn. What is a half-youkai doing in this town? With other youkai, no less."
"Just passing through," Gojyo said cautiously. She was not youkai, not as far as he could sense. And she might actually have some gift of that *other* kind of sight if she knew that Hakkai and Goku were not really human. "Got anything against youkai?"
"Never knew many of them. But it doesn't rain here often."
"What?" The change in subject had puzzled him.
"I said it doesn't rain here that often. They use irrigation to fill the fields. This is the first time it has really *poured* in months. Nice coincidence, huh?"
"What's it to you?"
"Well, it's a fine line between being slightly feared and on the receiving end of a lynch mob," Kailan said calmly. "I have some small ability to bring rain."
So that was why they had not driven her out of town with the generic bucket of tar and a sack of feathers. Yet. Not while she still had some worth to the surrounding rice farms.
"But yesterday's rain was not my doing. It's beyond my abilities to produce something like that," she continued.
"So? It's probably some freak storm that'll blow over soon."
"No," she said firmly, "it's not natural. Furthermore, few humans can bring about anything like this."
"Any resident youkai around?" Few youkai had power to influence the weather on any scale . . . unless they were the powerful sort.
"None that I've heard of . . . But there are legends," the apothecary said, lighting a new roll-up. "Folklore about what used to be here . . . It used to be a site of elemental force of some sort. Very old and not for someone like me to fathom. But what I'm most concerned about is, that if this continues, the rice fields on this side of the river will flood. And I'll have to move. Just when I was thinking about settling down in my old age too."
Gojyo did not need to be a student of economics to see how the scales were stacked here. "You think there's a problem . . . So what are you going to do about it?"
"Eh, well . . . Strike a bargain, of course. It's what I do best," Kailan said with a slight smile. "It's along the way for you if you're going west across the river."
Ah, so this was what it had been leading up to. Sanzo would *not* like this. "We're in a little bit of a hurry--"
"It's along the way, I said. The disturbance is near the river crossing. Won't take five minutes to have a look along that zone. And you're not moving from this town until someone gets a migraine cure, right?"
"And a dragon with a cold."
"I don't do reptiles."
"Neither do I, but give it a try." Hakkai would definitely prefer to leave after Hakuryuu was cured.
"*Fine* . . ."
* * * * * * * * * *
It was not easy, keeping an ill-tempered monk like Sanzo down when all he wanted to do was spread a little of the pain around. Sanzo was generous in that way . . .
Goku had gone through the slightly overdone eggs in less than a minute and succeeded in irritating Sanzo within two minutes of clearing his plate. Sanzo still had his fan, which he used with maximum efficiency whenever Goku was in range. There had been a short chase around the kitchen earlier on, but his migraine had put a stop to it before any more havoc could transpire.
There was just the priest's belligerent attitude to deal with now. Just about all three other groups of guests in the inn had visited with kitchen and subsequently fled under a hail of paint-stripping curses that Sanzo had been directing at Goku, an absent Gojyo and even *Hakuryuu*.
Hakkai had seriously considered using the skillet on the priest, but refrained because the it was borrowed property and had a high chance of coming away second best against Sanzo's skull. After all, he was the considerate sort . . .
When Gojyo *finally* appeared with the medicine, they got Sanzo dosed despite his complaints that it tasted like shit, hauled him out of the kitchen and safely back into their room.
"Ah, that was . . . *trying*," Hakkai said carefully as the prescription took effect. It seemed that Gojyo had asked for sedatives in the mix . . . Which was good. Very good indeed. He checked Sanzo's vital signs and discerned that the monk was well on his way into some much-needed rest. Peace at last . . .
"What a grouch," Goku muttered, rubbing his head. "He'd better get well soon. *Hakkai* was ready to hit him just now."
"Why didn't you?" Gojyo asked. "We could've saved on the sedatives if you'd knocked his block off."
"Not in public," Hakkai said dryly. "I have a reputation to maintain. Besides, the kitchen utensils aren't mine. So how much was the medicine?"
Here Gojyo looked a little uncomfortable. "Er, well . . . It's like this . . . the apothecary made a deal. Medication for free if we check out this site near the river when we left."
"Huh? We're doing what?" Goku asked.
"She was some sort of weather witch--thinks there's something at the river that's causing the rain," Gojyo said with a shrug. "She said the medicine's free if we check it out. And I got her to make up something for Hakuryuu--no guarantees, she said, because she doesn't know what to do with sick dragons."
Hakkai adjusted his monocle and took the smaller flask that Gojyo had brought back. "I see . . ." He would rather not deal with self-proclaimed witches, but they were trying to get to the west as soon as possible. "The medicine seems to be working for Sanzo . . . I will go give Hakuryuu his then. Goku, please keep an eye on Sanzo. And don't let him anywhere near his gun if he wakes up."
"Saaaa, what a bother . . ." Gojyo said as he followed Hakkai down to the kitchen again. It was still very quiet as everyone in the inn was lying low in fear of gun-wielding homicidal monks. "Why'd he have to pick this town of all places to get a bloody migraine?"
"It can't be helped," Hakkai said calmly. "Human flesh is still fragile. Sanzo is only human . . . I suppose, sometimes, he doesn't like it because he thinks he's not strong enough."
"He's held up pretty well through all the shit we've seen."
"He won't be happy that a headache got him down though," Hakkai said as he uncapped the flask. "Hakuryuu, come on . . ."
"Piuu!" the dragon complained after he had stuck his head into the flask.
"Medicine doesn't normally taste good . . . What if I mixed it in your breakfast?"
"Ne, Hakkai, what about breakfast?" Goyjo asked as he flopped down at the table.
"Eh?"
"I haven't had *any*," Gojyo whined, watching Hakuryuu rather enviously. "The monkey ate it all, didn't he?"
"Ah, apologies, Gojyo. I'll just warm-up the coffee and cook up some more eggs. Toast?"
"Thanks . . . You know I'm only good at takeout and instant noodles."
"It's okay--I haven't eaten either." Hakkai busied himself with the skillet, kettle and more eggs. "We should be prepared to leave soon. Sanzo hates losing time."
"Yeah--he'd probably kick us out of here when he gets up if the landlord doesn't. You think the little guy can make it?" Gojyo asked and jerked his chin at Hakuryuu.
"Hakuryuu shouldn't change until the rain stops. Sanzo can walk if he wants to hurry."
There was a pause. And a wide grin spread over Gojyo's face. "I think you're not as nice as you make yourself out to be sometimes."
"I'm not trying to make myself out to be anything, Gojyo--though I'm probably not as trusting as I look. Do you automatically trust people who offer you cigarettes?"
"Uh . . ."
"I can smell it," Hakkai clarified. "Making deals with magicians isn't all that straightforward sometimes. For instance, how would she ensure that you kept your side of the agreement? You didn't swear anything . . . *binding* did you?"
"Um, no--not like that . . . We shook on it and . . ." Gojyo mumbled something into his mug of coffee.
"Pardon?"
The kappa looked slightly embarrassed when he looked up again. "She threatened to curse me with impotency if I didn't keep my end of the deal . . ."
Hakkai could not help the sudden snort of laughter that burst from his chest. After the events of that harried morning, this unexpected titbit was unexpectedly . . . well, *hilarious*.
"Oh dear . . . She must have read you very well then . . ." Hakkai said, attempting to stifle a grin.
"Go on--laugh," Gojyo said sourly. "*You* didn't see her collection of semen in little vials and the little wax dolls."
* * * * * * * * * *
Watching Sanzo sleep was not as boring as it sounded. For one thing, he was not frowning, scowling or calling Goku a stupid monkey.
It was sort of a nice change. Not that he would like it to be permanent though. Sanzo without his trademark scowl just would not be *Sanzo* anymore. For as long as Goku could remember, the monk was belligerent to the world in general and specifically *nasty* to anyone who tried to get overly familiar with him. The only times Sanzo had not been like that was when he had been incapacitated or comatose.
*Those* had been times when Goku and the others had worried over the monk, but this time, it was nothing particularly life-threatening. Sanzo looked like he was sleeping peacefully for once—the strained look that he had worn that morning had eased somewhat.
Goku leaned back in the not very comfortable chair to wait it out. He hoped Hakkai would bring lunch up later. Soon.
"Ne, Sanzo . . . I had a dream last night. It was weird," he said to the sleeping figure. The only way to make small talk with the monk was when he was not actually listening. "It was very dark, and I think there were two people there . . . This guy and this girl—sleeping or something . . . But not waking up. *Ever*.
"It was kind of sad . . . Like they want to wake up but can't . . ."
* * * * * * * * * *
There were two sleepers. There always had been. They had been there in the dark for a very long time now.
But only one of them dreamed. The other one had always been closer to waking.
* * * * * * * * * *
End Part 3