Epilogue

Sanzo woke slowly, feeling very heavy and lethargic, but the pain he remembered seemed to be gone.  The first thing he was completely aware of was something that felt like a bed and probably was such.  How nice…he remembered wanting one desperately last night…or whenever.  The priest wasn't entirely clear on how long he had been asleep.  The next thing he discovered was the fact that he couldn't open one of his eyes, which was very perplexing.  Out of the other, he could see a roof over his head and the top of a door to the side, but Sanzo was a bit too lazy to get a better look at the room.

Besides him, Gojyo groaned softly, waking blearily with his back turned to the priest.  He didn't have any recollection of how they ended up indoors either, the last thing he remembered being a lot of grass, and this thing beneath him was certainly not grass.  His muscles were aching, proving that the whole ordeal hadn't been a dream, and on one hand the kappa's fingers seemed to be stuck together.  Sanzo became more curious and a little annoyed about his surroundings with the slight noise, but the priest found he couldn't turn his neck very far to the side.  It seemed to be bandaged tightly, as well as being very sore.  The door creaked and two sets of footsteps could be heard entering the room. 

            "Are you two alright?"  The voice floated over from the doorway, decidedly female.  A slender waist and hips appeared in Gojyo's line of vision, followed by a small giggle and a charming face bent to greet him.  

"What in the blazes were you doing out in the elements all banged up?" another voice questioned from the other side of the bed, this time male and much older. 

            Sanzo didn't answer the voices, feeling they weren't directing their questions to him.  After a quick, silent assessment of his injuries, the priest was sure that he had bandages over his neck, arm, leg, eye, back, and part of his mouth, plus every inch of him was sore.  It was most definitely not a pleasant feeling, although he felt slightly better with the knowledge that very likely he was at an inn somewhere instead of lost in the desert.  On the other side of the bed, Gojyo was blinking in a confused manner at the girl's face.  In turn she seemed amused by his confusion. 

"Where am I?" the redhead asked impatiently, forcing himself into a sitting position.  His hand slipped out from beneath the blankets and he could see it had been splinted and wrapped firmly with clean bandages.  Gojyo was sure Sanzo hadn't done that good of a job on it last night.  Speaking of Sanzo, the kappa found a suspiciously warm lump next to him and discovered said priest right there in the same bed.  An older man was bending over the blond with a look of concern. 

            "This is the inn my daughter and I run," the old man said, relieved to see someone had responded.  "One of our patrons found you out cold on the lawn early this morning." 

Sanzo opened his good eye and glanced at the man with a slight frown, not trusting himself to form coherent sentences yet.  He saw Gojyo out of the corner of his vision and his frown darkened into a scowl, but he refrained from letting loose the usual obscenities he reserved for finding an unwelcome guest in his bed. 

"…On the lawn…?"  Gojyo closed his eyes and sighed, imagining what the two of them must have looked like sprawled on the grass together in the middle of the night outside an inn.  No wonder the girl was grinning.  "Ah…thanks…. Did you do all this?" he asked, referring to the bandages.  Fortunately for the whole room, Sanzo had not seen the girl's gleeful smile.  Also lucky for Gojyo, the priest was not up to beating him stupid for being in the same bed without his knowledge, whether the kappa was aware of it or not. 

            The man answered with a smile, "Ah, yes…you both were bleeding pretty badly last night.  My daughter helped."  He indicated the grinning young woman with a finger.

"Thanks, sweetheart," the redhead managed with a wink.  "We owe you guys."  He had no intention of dispelling any conclusions she might have come to about himself and the priest.  Through the conversation, Sanzo began to wonder about the fate of his gun and the sutra, but wasn't worried enough to venture a question yet.  He would rather save his breath to ask for painkillers so he could go back to sleep, but that option was unlikely now that the kappa was awake. 

            "Oh, we don't mind at all.  A lot of travelers come through here, sometimes a little worse for wear.  Lot of demons around this area these days," the innkeeper answered, picking up a few things from the table and heading for the door.  "We'll leave you alone to rest now.  Please, stay here as long as you like and ask if you need something."

The girl waved at Gojyo before closing the door behind her.  Alone again, the kappa made an unintelligent decision—make conversation with a wounded Sanzo—to distract himself from the aches and pains.  Upon pulling back the covers a bit more Gojyo discovered that he was wearing only boxers, and that would mean—"Hey, Sanzo…." Gojyo moved a closer and traced a finger along the priest's shoulder.  "Considering our current state of dress, I'd say we should fool around," he announced, as casually as if he were inviting Sanzo to a dinner party. 

            "Even if I could move properly I'd still be more inclined to stick my head in a bonfire," the priest spat back.  He was defiantly irritated with the current state of affairs, and wanted nothing more than to be left alone at least until the headache subsided.

"Ouch," Gojyo drawled in response, removing his hand from Sanzo's shoulder.  "…We could play doctor?"

            "No."  Though it hurt quite a bit to do so, Sanzo rolled onto his side, facing away from the kappa.  His back was mostly covered by gauze bandages, stained here and there by irregular circles of blood.  The strip wrapped around his head to protect the injured eye made his hair stick up at odd angles in the back, accentuated by the fact that he had slept on it. 

            With something between a leer and a grin, Gojyo cautiously curled an arm around Sanzo's stomach, the only place he was sure the priest hadn't been bitten.  Using his good hand he trailed his fingers around Sanzo's navel.  "It might help you recover," the kappa said with a self-satisfied snicker.  The priest was surprised and relatively annoyed by the hand on his skin, but found that the warm touch was kind of nice on his aching muscles.  Despite his best efforts to growl and make a fuss, Sanzo found it was just not worth the effort. 

"Hn…."

            Happy for the lack of resistance (Gojyo thought he wouldn't have been able to force the issue this time), the redhead continued to run his hand up and down the whole of Sanzo's soft belly and hazarded a small kiss on the blonde's cheek below the bandaged eye.  "Poor mangled monk…" he whispered mockingly. 

"You're not lookin' so hot either," Sanzo shot back, managing to get half a snarl in with it before he gave himself up to the calming feel of the kappa's hand on his stomach.  The priest had a difficult time believing this was the same person that had tied him up and thrown him on the floor just last night, although he was still wary of a similar occurrence happening again today. 

            "Aw, what's a couple of bandages between you and me?" Gojyo replied with a laugh, poking Sanzo in the gut.  The redhead bent forward and nibbled on the priest's ear while moving the uninjured hand over his hip. 

"Ngh…." Sanzo wanted to say more, perhaps something alone the lines of 'get off me you bastard', but he couldn't seem to form the words.  The vagrant hand gave him an unnerving realization of how quickly the kappa was moving, but the priest was temporarily paralyzed by the small amount of comfort he derived from the contact.  Gojyo's condition wasn't exactly a treat to endure either, but he was more than willing to distract from the pain in a pleasurable endeavor.  For the most part, this had always worked for him, except when it came to hangovers.  Teasing Sanzo with light touches along his inner thigh, the kappa leaned down and kissed his bare shoulder. 

            With a faint sigh, Sanzo closed his eyes and combed the fingers of his good arm through Gojyo's hair.  "If I wasn't injured I'd be beating you stupid right now," he said absently, leg muscles twitching a little as the kappa's hand traveled down. 

"Lucky me," Gojyo sniggered in the priest's ear.  Sanzo need not have worried this time—no matter how much the redhead wanted to, there wasn't much more he could do besides tease and pet without being in unbearable pain.  "And if you weren't injured I'd be climbing on top of you right now."

            "I guess those demons were good for something."  Sanzo could be tolerant of a little foreplay, but it was likely that he would have reached for his gun if Gojyo had decided to jump on him.  Speaking of my gun….  "Where's my stuff?"  The priest thought it must be in the room somewhere, as he didn't remember losing the things, but just to be sure he'd let the kappa (who still had two working eyes) take a look. 

"Always looking on the bright side, aren't you Sanzo?" Gojyo replied, trying a gentle hug, but ending up with and awkward squeeze around the blonde's midsection.  He shrugged and continued, "Don't know.  Our clothes are probably in the laundry…." Why does he always have to bring these things up when I'm just about to get busy?  Nipping at Sanzo's neck, Gojyo thought for a moment.  It was a bit puzzling—the sutra and gun could be easily moved, but he very much doubted that the old man or the girl could lift Shaku Jou.  "Er…."

            "Hn…. I guess…I'll look for it later…." Sanzo was fairly sure the old man wouldn't have taken either item and he didn't feel he could move around well just yet.  In addition, Gojyo somehow seemed to be pushing all the right buttons today, and the priest actually gasped just a little when the kappa's teeth hit his neck and when his tongue slipped along a bare part of his collarbone. 

"Mm…I'm glad those little freaks didn't get to eat you…. They'd be depriving me of a first rate meal…" Gojyo said with a chuckle, toothy smile gracing his scarred face. 

            " 'Ch…you think I would have let them eat me?" Sanzo asked, miffed at the kappa for even considering he would submit to a pack of lesser demons.  "I'm surprised you didn't get eaten…" the priest muttered. 

Gojyo brushed a fingertip under the priest's chin.  "Guess they recognized me as a fellow predator, ne?" he snickered.  "Half-breed, lesser demon—no difference."   

            "There is a difference, although you really can't tell," Sanzo replied maliciously, taking a stab at the redhead's over-inflated ego.  He had remembered a few more things about the lesser demons that his panicked mind had not last night.  Comparing them to any intelligent being was far off the mark, but to the priest just about every being was on the same level—beneath himself.  "In fact, you might as well have all been related.  Now get off me."

"What more can I say?" Gojyo began with a feral smile.  "We have good taste."

 The end.

Luna sez:  Apologies to my faithful readers for not updating in so long!  ^^;; I have been at home for winter break, which is really no excuse, except I have been particularly lethargic.  Well, The Cabin is finally finished.  Truth be told, I will miss it—I made a lot of new friends writing this!  Thanks guys!
 
Thanks to:  All my reviews for telling me how wonderful I am when I am really not! XD
Special thanks to: Seikazu Aisenai and Blades of Ice for being rabid GojyoxSanzo fans!
And, as always, my heart and soul to Zimus. ^.^



P.S.—Look, ma! No plot!