DISCLAIMER: If I owned
Saiyuki, Kanzeon would be a bit more, um, modest. Goku would know when not to
bug Sanzo. Sanzo would be a little nicer behind closed doors. There'd be a lot
more Hakkai-centric scenes, and some nice Gojyo-centric scenes too. In short,
Saiyuki would be much more of a fluff-fest. Sigh...
deru-senpai: *mutter* Thank goodness it's not yours...
This fic is dedicated to Firn-chan because she so wanted to see the next chapter. ;) Also, thanks go to L.L. Artemisan for catching the horrendous spelling errors that somehow got in!
LOVE
Aijou
"Slower, Gojyo-kun. Yes, that's the way...slowly, softly...That's the way to play the song..."
"Un!" Gojyo cut his speed and fingered the keys once more.
Mi do' ti mi mi so mi la re' ti…Mi do' ti la so do' ti la so la…
Kouka nodded, closing her eyes and smiling slightly. "Yes, I believe you finally got it through your thick skull," she murmured. Gojyo was used to this sort of backhanded, curse-compliment by now, though, and grinned.
"Arigatou, kaasan! It's all thanks to you!" Kouka shrugged irritably in reply and ran her fingers down the side of the old piano.
"You don't really need to thank me, Gojyo. Consider this a little...apology," she finally got the word out like it had been tortured out of her. She looked deep into those crimson eyes and they looked back calmly, without the fear of just scarce months ago. It was a sight that Kouka had not imagined...and he looked so much like Ren...
"What for?" he asked innocently.
"Let's just say, half-demon, that your I have a lot more to learn about treating you right. Like a son, hmm?" She touched his cheek softly. He almost shrank back in fear, but stood still and blinked back up at her. To say he was surprised would have been an understatement.
_Naa, don't cry, little bro. Even if kaasan leaves you alone, I never, EVER will_
She'd heard Jien that day...
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About half an hour later, the ikkou (in Jeep) were on their way back to Feiyan. Sanzo was unable to be persuaded to stay for dinner by You, and even uber-hungry Goku had been of the same opinion. The four were unusually silent, and Gojyo was chewing an unlit cigarette in an irritable fashion.
"Dou omoimasu?" Hakkai finally asked his companions after a while.
"What do I think?" howled Goku, ripping off the bandanna to reveal his limiter diadem. "That guy's MEAN! I mean, I've never seen anybody get so angry over demons and humans working together! Arrgh, now I really wanna give him a piece of my mind! We did it before, this living-together-in-harmony thing, so why can't we do it now?"
"Just be glad I managed to extricate you out of that mess," snarled Sanzo, swishing his harisen through the air threateningly. "You damn near got us all in trouble with your monkeyshines!"
"Maa, maa, Sanzo," Hakkai smiled, "we never said we weren't thankful, although I daresay I've never heard you use such sharp language on townsfolk before."
"They deserved the comparison to demons themselves. I thought you lot were as stupid as they come, but I take that back."
"That was a very backhanded compliment."
"I wouldn't want to set foot in there again in my life!" Gojyo exclaimed emphatically, abandoning the cigarette still unlit with teeth marks all over it. "That You is on too high a horse for his own good." He then proceeded to curse in a most vitriolic way for 45 seconds, describing in most unpleasant detail his ancestry, sexual orientations and mental stability. "...and you lot only walked in on the tail end of the argument."
"When he was grabbing you by the shirt?" asked Goku.
"Aa. That fool thought I was flirting with Seiko. I know how to keep my hands off other people's things! He lost it completely, slammed her against the wall and started railing on how women should be seen and not heard, and how she was getting too wild..." Gojyo was mad enough to spit, but if he did it in Hakuryuu, Hakkai would never forgive him. "Yeesh! Way too old-fashioned! I just tried to set things right for her! Honestly, I have to pity that lass, getting hitched to such a stick-in-the-mud, hypocritical, oily...Sanzo, why do you look so uncomfortable all of a sudden?"
"We have to go back tomorrow." The monk's voice was even more emotionless and sounded a little hoarse.
"GO BACK TO THAT STINKIN'...GO BACK TO WEISHAN?! WHATEVER THE FOWGIN 'ELL FOR?!" howled Gojyo in Hakkai's ear, sending Hakuryuu swerving off the road and earning him a 'stern' reprimand from Hakkai.
"I have to give it to You," Sanzo said calmly after Hakkai manoeuvred Hakuryuu onto the road again, "he has a way of twisting his words in most unusual ways. I've been somehow coerced into wedding those two tomorrow."
Gojyo's nausea and anger was far overridden by his amusement. "You?! WED THOSE TWO? Aieee, Kannon save us all!" he mock-screamed.
"Don't mention that kuso baba's (shitty hag) name here!" came the hissed reply.
"Now that's what I call 'ignorance is the Buddha'," chuckled Hakkai jovially.
Sanzo did some quick calculations on whether to let Goku and Gojyo hiccup with laughter all the way back or to break another harisen on their idiot heads. Minutes later, a black and white mess of shredded fan flew out the back of the jeep as howls of pain rose into the air.
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Somewhere up in Tenkai, a certain hermaphrodite, scantily clad god/dess of mercy sneezed several times.
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"Yappari ne?" Ying sighed when he heard what had happened. "I expected that." His rice and vegetables lay forgotten on the table as he listened to what Goku had to say.
"Really?" asked Goku, now sans contact lenses and bandanna and eating for all he was worth.
"You Jouji is a man very stuck in his ways. His hate for demons encompasses everything, which is why he implemented the Mark of Black Blood as a warning. He wants no opposition to his beliefs in his town. Eventually people forget that they once lived among youkai with no trouble at all, and they become like him. That's the sad part."
"Yeah, but Seiko doesn't think that way, and neither do some of the townspeople!" Hakkai nodded assent at his young friend's statement, and so did Ying. The young man popped a hunk of rice into his mouth and chewed for a moment.
"Ee, that she doesn't, although those who are like-minded in Weishan are far and few. Er...we both mean Yaku Seiko, don't we?"
"Yeah," Gojyo interrupted, twirling a lock of his still midnight black hair (he would have to wash it out after tomorrow's visit back to Weishan). "You know her? You Jouji's fiancée. She deserves better," he added bluntly. "They're getting married tomorrow."
"Tomo..." Ying's eyes widened, and he stood up abruptly. "I think I'm not hungry any more," he muttered.
"Oniisan!" Zhen Ji exclaimed. "But what about your dinner?"
"Ying, you've hardly touched your food!" Sheng Wei interrupted anxiously.
"It's all right. I'll be back. I need to do something outside," Ying replied shortly and strode off. They heard the door open and close a few minutes later.
"What's with him?" Goku asked, befuddled.
"How should I know?" muttered Sanzo, cleaning up the remains of his dinner.
"I suppose I should be off too. I left something in the jeep," Gojyo remarked casually, and cleaned up his crockery before walking out.
"But Gojyo..." Hakkai began.
The half-demon only paused long enough to scratch Hakuryuu beneath his draconic chin before pointing his nose west and tracking Lang Ying down.
++++++++++
Yaku Seiko stood looking in the mirror forlornly. Her reflection stared back, clad in a flowing affair made entirely out of white silk and decorated with satin flowers. It looked like a cross between a kimono and a wedding gown, but its beauty hardly brought her any joy. Come noon tomorrow, Yaku Seiko would no longer exist, only a Mayoress in the background would. She shuddered to think about it.
She tore off her wedding veil and tossed it onto the bed before pulling her hair loose of its bun. It was a good thing You was out for his (ahem) stag party or he would have taken extreme offence. She then stripped the dress from her shoulders, wincing at the purple-blue-gray patches that spread across her shoulder blades, a few 'reminders' from that afternoon about being 'overly social'. She looked up at her reflection in the mirror again and sighed sadly, blue-green eyes misting over wistfully.
_I don't want to be with You, I just want to live my life as I was meant to live. With the one I truly love._
A bird sounded at the window, a common koel. 'Khoo-woo-woo-woo!' Seiko started at the noise.
No koel called after twilight.
She leant out the window and answered with a fair imitation of her own. "Khoo-woo-woo-woo!" Almost tearing the wedding gown from her body, she hung it up, changed into her normal garments and hurried out of the house. She slipped past the guards patrolling the city gates and looked around. Was he here?
"Sei-chan."
A young man stood some distance away, in a blind spot under a parapet. His eyes were kind and sad as they turned to her.
Seiko's startled eyes filled with tears, and then she ran to him with a sob and flung her arms around him.
"Oh, Lang Ying!"
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Sha Gojyo may have been over 6 feet tall and weighed 75 kilograms, but he moved lightly enough on his feet and in the shadows not to be spotted. It was when he was crouching down behind some bushes he heard muffled snatches of conversation.
Surely, surely that was Seiko's voice he heard? But who was that man with her? He sounded so kind, and so familiar...
Holy crap, that had to be Ah Ying!
Seiko looked up at her love worriedly. "Why'd you come tonight, Ying?"
The redhead tried to smile. "Aren't you happy to see me? You seem troubled."
"I am! On both counts!" She hugged him a little tighter before breaking the embrace. "Ying...Jouji's not waiting any longer. A Sanzo arrived in our town and Jouji has persuaded him to visit again. We're going to get married tomorrow."
"I know. I heard."
"Then why did you come at all?!" She had to harden her heart, or he would be in further danger. "You shouldn't be here, Ying, you know that. If Jouji knows about this...about us...he won't let this go! He won't rest until you're dead!"
"Seiko, he doesn't love you," Ying said flatly, emotionlessly.
"I know that," she hissed softly, turning away from him to hide her tears. "But you can't. You mustn't. Ying, you have to just leave me and forget about what we have...we had." Her voice began to shake. "I don't want to see you get in any trouble because of me, all right? You must forget about me. Please, Ying, I'm begging you, for your sake!"
"Most certainly not! Do you know you are the first, iya, the only human who could see past these crimson eyes, this crimson hair?" he countered, grasping her gently round the shoulders. She winced, refusing to meet his eyes though he spoke softly and gently. "You treat me like I'm normal, Sei-chan, and I am grateful to you for that. More than grateful. I love you, Yaku Seiko. Zutto ano hi kara." (Ever since that day.)
"But Ying..." Seiko began as Lang Ying quelled her protests by capturing her cherry lips in a gentle kiss.
"Hush, speak no further. You can't blame me for trying, Seiko--if he takes your hand in marriage, then I will lose the one person who I have truly learnt to trust." Seiko closed her eyes, shuddered and buried her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and sobbing softly.
"I'm scared, Ying...I'm really scared. I don't want to lose you, either."
"Don't be. As long as I'm here, you need fear nothing. I want to make sure of that," he whispered. Slowly, he put his arms around her and embraced Seiko tight, and she drew close to him, touching her lips to his left cheek against the scar that flawed it...
"Eeeei, lovebirds." A familiar drawl cut through the darkness.
The breath caught in Seiko's throat and Lang Ying stopped dead. "Seiko, get back!" he yelled, and drew from within his jacket two red-tasseled sai. "You Jouji! Come out and fight me if you dare!"
"Why should I? It's clear to whom her heart belongs. Funny how I always hit on the wrong girls."
"Damn straight you do!" bellowed the hanyou. "She has no heart for you at all! Though you gave me this scar, I remained patient. Now I see that there must be no mercy for you or your kind! Stand and defend!"
"Stand and defend I will, but sure as hell I'm not that stupid Jouji."
"B--Gojyo-han?!"
"Gojyo-san?! I thought you returned with Sanzo-sama and your friends!"
"Yes, good evening to you too," came the pleasant, dry reply. "I thought that such a handsome youth would have a girlfriend. Pity about You-sama." Seiko hung her head sadly.
"Please, Gojyo-san, don't tell You-sama about this..."
"Are you NUTS, girl? Of course I wouldn't! I told you before; I don't like to see women cry. And I definitely don't like people who make them cry. So, Ah Ying? What are you going to do?"
Ying turned a little red in the cheeks as he released his grip on Seiko's hands. "Shiranee...da kedo...but what I do know is this: I owe Yaku Seiko my life, and I love her--I have never loved any other. I don't want to see her unhappy, and even if I had to sacrifice everything for her, I would. Gojyo-han, I think you know the feeling, don't you?"
"Pro'lly not. I never had anything this important to me." Gojyo unconsciously rubbed his hand over the two scars on his left cheek. They were beginning to itch again. "There may be, however, someone who can help. Our Sanzo-sama's officiating the marriage tomorrow. He may be a stinky, corrupt old bouzu, but he's sharper than he lets on. Tomorrow, Seiko, tell it like it is. They'll be too much in awe of our Sanzo-sama to do much more than stare. And if all else fails, I tell it like it is." He cracked his knuckles menacingly. "We'll see what we can do, no?"
"...Gojyo-san..." Seiko murmured anxiously.
"...Well? What do you think?"
Seiko bowed deeply. "Arigatou gozaimasu," she murmured.
"Don't mention it. Look, if this works out...just be happy with Ying, all right? 'S all I ask." He turned and walked off, hands dug deep in his pockets. It was a full ten minutes before Ying caught up with him.
"Yappari na. I should've known you had a girlfriend," the older man drawled. "Take good care of her when we're through with this. I don't care how you do it, but take good care of her."
"I will. Expect no less," Ying replied proudly. "I may be poor, but my heart's in the right place on this one." He paused, and then clapped a hand on Gojyo's broad shoulder. "Why did you do that just now?"
"Do what?"
"Stand up and help me out back there."
"Probably 'cause I'm a hopeless romantic."
"You sure you don't mean you're a nosey parker?"
"Please, that sounds so harsh. I prefer to be labelled healthily inquisitive," Gojyo grinned.
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And now, review thanks...
real-circus--Wa~i, sankyuu! ^_^ Glad you like the plot. Oh, and if you think they're in trouble NOW, wait until the next few chapters go up! ;)
Ashura Akuma -- Well, Sanzo sort of stepped in for Hakkai-sama. Yes, yes, all right, she's with Lang Ying. You know that now. Had fun on your holiday? Where'd ya go?
ayie@Hairi -- There, There, Sanzo's there....riiiiiight at the bottom ^_^