Legacy

Summary: Plans for an experiment with Gojyo as the ideal test subject have surfaced, and the group is pulled into a world of deceit and emotion as Gojyo uncovers his roots and finds out who his family truly is. [eventual slash – you have been warned]

Disclaimer: Not mine. Only the random townsfolk and villains. Don't rub it in.

Prologue [in which much isn't revealed and in which there is unnecessary dialogue]

It was nice, really, not to have that monkey underfoot. Not that he was really all that annoying, but having food to oneself and some peace was quite pleasant.

Sanzo was reading a newspaper the innkeeper had provided, smoking his lungs out. A pile of empty cigarette boxes and a mountain of cigarette stubs were strewn over the worn table, and the tension was palpable. Two people sat at the other end of the table from the priest, and they each held something very important… something that determined the very ending of each other.

"I've got a full house! Beat that!"

"Straight flush," said Hakkai apologetically. Gojyo flicked his long hair out of his face and shook his head.

"I wonder, not for the first time, why I even bother. Everyone and their pet monkey knows I'll lose."

"Someone has to put you in your place," the blonde behind the newspaper muttered.

"But you do that just fine, don't you, Sanzo-sama?" Gojyo grinned, and yelled when a paper fan came hurtling his way.

"Shut up." Sanzo turned away from them.

Hakkai gathered the cards and stood. "I think I'm going out for a walk. Do any of you want anything?"

Sanzo slid the gold card across the table. "Beer, cigarettes, and don't spend too much on food. Those annoying gods are complaining about the bill. Again."

Somewhere in the East, three heads sneezed as one.

"We're not Goku," Gojyo told Sanzo. "We don't eat everything in sight." Draping an arm around Hakkai, he winked at Sanzo. "Missing your little monkey already, eh?"

Gojyo found himself squinting down the business end of a small, shiny Smith and Wesson. "Die."

Laughing and shaking his head, Hakkai led his friend out into the spring morning.

~ meanwhile, elsewhere in the inn ~

"Gosh, Mr Oura, you cook really well!" Goku swallowed the last of the carrot cake and grinned at the innkeeper. The dark, bearded man grinned back.

"Thank my wife. She's the one who cooked."

"Yeah," Yukimi Oura piped up. "Dad doesn't cook, all he does is sit around, read his papers…"

"…and keep you and your brother in line." Mrs Oura stepped out of the kitchen, steam billowing out in her wake. "Glad you like the food, Goku. Yuki and Eitaro hardly eat. Like birds, they are."

Goku grinned at the lady of the house. "Thank you for letting us stay here, and for cooking for me. Not everyone is as willing as you are."

"Doesn't your family let you eat?"

"Ah, sure they do, but not hardly enough. I eat a lot," Goku confessed sheepishly. "They're not my family, anyway."

"Your travelling companions, then. What are they like?"

Goku thought about that. "Sanzo, the one with the really nice hair? He's always grumpy and he hits Gojyo and me with his fan whenever we fight over food. He and Gojyo smoke a lot. Gojyo… he fights with me a lot, but we help each other when fighting, and all he does is go looking for girls whenever we stop over somewhere. Hakkai is the nicest, he stops Sanzo from shooting us, and he cooks really well, too. He does the driving, because Hakuryu doesn't like the way Gojyo drives, and the way Sanzo speeds. I don't like it either. Hakkai is very scary when he gets angry, though."

Yukimi laughed. "Sounds like a family to me. Dad's grumpy in the mornings, Ma cooks well and prevents Dad from throwing his coffee at us and Eitaro and I fight all the time."

Goku blinked at the girl. "Oh." He fell silent, a totally new perspective presented to him in a way he'd never even thought about. But Mrs Oura put a dish of fruit in front of them and Goku forgot about the conversation.

~

That night, halfway through dinner, Goku suddenly asked Hakkai if the latter would prevent Sanzo from throwing coffee at Gojyo and Goku. Sanzo swiftly smacked Goku on the head. Hakkai just smiled.

"Perhaps… but Sanzo won't throw his coffee at you. He has his fan." As if to prove the point, Sanzo hit Goku again.

"Stupid monkey…"

"Why the question?"

Goku gave Sanzo a reproachful look. "That hurt. I realised something during lunch… breakfast… ah, while eating with the Ouras."

Hakkai just smiled some more, encouraging Goku.

"You see, Sanzo is like our father," Sanzo's eyebrows flew into his hair, "Hakkai's like our mother," Hakkai took a sip of tea to prevent himself from grinning too widely, "and Gojyo's the brother," Goku finished triumphantly.

"What are you, the pet monkey?" Gojyo snorted. "Look, if you're not going to eat that roll, I am."

As the two squabbled over the rightful ownership of the roll, Hakkai glanced at Sanzo, who was staring at his relatively clean plate. "What's wrong?"

"Huh. Nothing. Shut up, you two!" He hit them both, hit Goku once more for good measure – "Oy, what was that for?" – and picked up his chopsticks.

Silence and the gentle tinkling of wood against porcelain reigned for a while before the 'brothers' started fighting over chicken, before the 'father' threatened to blow their brains out and before their 'mother' tried to calm them all down and assure the rest of the diners that Sanzo wouldn't really carry out his threat… yet.

…to be continued