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In which Sanzo wonders whether Goku's clumsy.
Chapter 3
Sanzo's patience was wearing thin after two days of watching Goku. Two days of watching the boy eat, fight, sleep, argue, eat, and sleep. Didn't Goku find his routine monotonous at times?
Gojyo had caught him staring at Goku at one point, and made some snarky comments.
Sanzo sneered at the memory. He'd completely bitten Gojyo's head off, and silenced him with a gunshot or two.
"You don't look cute when you scowl, you know?" Gojyo remarked idly, interrupting his train of thought.
Sanzo glared at him. "I don't want to look cute, bastard."
"Of course not," Gojyo agreed. "You want to look sexy. Trying to be so cool with that gun and the tight leather--Ouch!" Gojyo rubbed his head. "The fan is not cool."
"Ch'. As if I care."
He turned away and watched as Hakkai built up a small fire for their evening meal. It was another of seemingly millions of nights spent in the wilderness. He longed for the inn they'd left that morning, but then berated himself for wishing for such comforts. Still, a nice, hot bath....
"I got some water, Hakkai!" Goku ran up to them, a broad smile on his face. "There's a small stream not too far off from here."
Goku handed the water over to Hakkai, and then came bounding towards Sanzo.
"Hey, Sanzo, do--" Whatever Goku was going to say was cut off as he stumbled over a rock and fell flat on his face. He winced slightly.
How stupid, Sanzo thought to himself. How clumsy.
He couldn't help but noticing the way Goku clutched his side as he got up. Then Goku seemed to realize what he was doing and he dropped his hand guiltily.
"What do you want?" Sanzo asked, determined to find out what was wrong.
Goku looked at him blankly. "What do I want?" he repeated, confused.
"What a dork you are!" Gojyo burst out laughing. "Stumbling over a rock made you forget what you were going to say to Sanzo! You must have fallen harder than I thought!"
"Shut up! I'm not a dork!" Goku yelled. "I just forgot what I was going to say!"
"Which proves my point exactly."
Goku puzzled over this for a second, and then tackled Gojyo. The two of them rolled around for a bit, punching wildly. That's when Sanzo noticed.
Goku's shirt had ridden up a little bit as he fought Gojyo, and there were fresh bruises on his sides.
"Ouch! You nasty cheat! Biting is not allowed!" Gojyo growled, pulling away from Goku.
"Says who?" Goku sneered, and for a second Sanzo felt he was looking at a reflection of himself.
Gojyo had evidently thought the same thing, for he pulled up his hands to admit his defeat and said, "Whoa, Goku, don't pull a Sanzo on me."
"Idiots," Sanzo muttered to himself, but he wasn't really concentrating on them anymore.
Hakkai had healed Goku's bruises, so why were there more on him now? They'd only fought against a couple of demons that hadn't even managed to scratch them, let alone punch.
Briefly, Sanzo thought back to Goku falling flat on his face. That could be an explanation. Goku had the tendency to be, at times, a little clumsy. If he fell and smacked into enough things, he'd definitely get bruises.
Sanzo almost smacked himself. What stupid reasoning. Goku was strong; he wouldn't bruise just by banging into a couple of things. And anyway he wasn't that clumsy. And it didn't explain why he had bruises in the same place as before.
Sanzo glanced around the clearing, trying to wrap his mind around the mystery. If things hadn't caused Goku's bruises, the only other option was people.
A sudden thought struck Sanzo and he glanced at Goku quickly, trying to assess the youngster. Were the bruises self-inflicted?
He tried to imagine Goku punishing himself, but couldn't. Goku was too exuberant, too happy to be so morbid. Unless... Sanzo tried to ignore the uneasiness that washed over him. Lately he hadn't been able to sense Goku's emotions.
Was something wrong with Goku? Was he only pretending to be happy, like Hakkai did? No, his mind insisted stubbornly. I would've noticed it.
Sanzo knew he had a great influence over Goku's life. Could he have somehow driven Goku to beating himself up?
"Goku really cares about you," Hakkai had told him once. "I think the reason he never feels pain when you're in danger is because he cares about you so much it just overrides everything else." Hakkai had smiled sadly and added, "I think you're the only one that can hurt him."
He thought back to the events of the passed couple of weeks to see if had he said anything particularly mean or spiteful. It had rained once and he'd bitten Goku's head off, but it hadn't been much worse than usual. Right?
He'd been staring out a window when Goku had come into his room.
"Sanzo, I know you don't want to talk, but I need--"
"Then leave."
Goku had paused. "What?"
"If you know I don't want to talk, leave."
"I just want to say one thing, you don't need to talk. Just listen for one--"
"Get out."
"But--"
"I said get out."
"Please--"
"Get the fuck out!"
"But Sanzo, I--"
"I don't care."
Goku had walked out after that, sniffling quietly to himself. He'd closed the door, and Sanzo had heard him slump down right outside of it. Both of them hadn't moved for the rest of the night.
Sanzo wondered what Goku had wanted to say to him. Had it been that important? Couldn't it have waited one more day, 'til the sun came out?
He stood up quickly and headed over to Goku, pulling him away from Hakkai and over to a secluded area of the forest.
"Sanzo, what are you doing?"
He turned and examined Goku, and then reached out and placed a hand on Goku's waist. Goku glanced at the hand, then at him, startled.
The startled look quickly changed to a grimace as Sanzo squeezed.
He pulled his hand away and crossed his arms while Goku stared at the ground.
"Just one thing, monkey."
Goku bristled at the name. "What?"
"Tell me you didn't do those yourself."
Goku looked up at him, surprised. "No!"
"Sure?"
Goku nodded, his cheeks flushing. "Promise."
Then who? Sanzo wanted to ask. And why are your cheeks red? But he'd said he'd ask one thing, and Sanzo always kept his word.
To Be Continued...
