SanzoxGojyo Fic:
In Sickness and in Health
Disclaimer: All characters and Saiyuki belong to Kazuya Minekura. This original storyline and ideas belong to me, Crim.
Tiny droplets of rain trailed down the windowpane, casting reflections of the twilight outside. The dirt roads lining the town were filled with muddy puddles. The stormy weather was finally starting to clear through. It was a sigh of relief for the Sanzo-ikkou. Their battle had come to a close and they took immediate shelter at a cozy inn. Although not all of them came in exactly one piece. Genjou Sanzo was isolated in his room, completely wrapped in bandages. He remained bedridden in his comatose state for a few days now. Gojyo sat in a chair beside his bed with an unlit cigarette in hand. He started to grow impatient by the monotonous aurora surrounding the room. Sanzo broke the silence with a sudden cough. Gojyo turned his attention towards the monk. Sanzo's violet eyes gazed directly at the young kappa. "What're you do—"Sanzo tried to say, but was interrupted by Gojyo's words. "Oh, finally awake are we?" He slipped the unlit cigarette back in its pack.
Sanzo raised his arm and looked at the bandages wrapped around it. "What happened to me?" He could hardly hold his arm up. The sharp pain caused it to give way and fall back on his bed. Sanzo winced in pain.
"You don't remember, huh?" Well, we took on a demon that was actually loaded with a gun. Now you're covered in holes."
Sanzo lowered his head and looked at his chest. He moved his hand around his torso. He felt a menacing pain below his shoulder and on the right side of his upper chest. His right arm that he had lifted up before must've taken a bullet too. He was lucky that the bullet on his torso didn't pierce him all the way through. The others were just "minor scratches" to Sanzo since he's faced worse before. He opened his mouth to speak, but another wild cough came out. It was loud and raspy. The contractions scraped violently against his throat. "Damn..." Sanzo's voice was so dry and practically inaudible.
"Oh yeah. You also caught pneumonia out in the rain too. You got bronchitis or something along with it. That's why your coughs sound like that." Gojyo explained. He reached over to the table to pour Sanzo a glass of water.
Sanzo looked reluctant to take it. His throat was extremely dry though, so he took the water anyway. He drank it down in one gulp and fell back on his pillow with his hand over his face. "Rain never did do me any good," he muttered. "Why are you here? Where are Hakkai and Goku?" Gojyo was the last person he'd wanna be stuck with in a room.
"Hakkai's in his room feeding Hakuryu his dinner and Goku's asleep. Those two were the ones taking care of you for two days. The saru has been sitting by your bedside the whole time too. Being the generous guy I was, I forced him to get some sleep and promised him that I'd keep an eye on you. Hakkai used his chi to heal most of your wounds; he hardly had any energy himself after the fight so you're on your own in the healing department. Oh, and he got you these." Gojyo grabbed a small orange bottle from the table. It rattled when he handed it to Sanzo. "They're antibiotics for your pneumonia. It should be about time for you to take another dose. Hakkai said you should also drink some cough syrup for that bronchitis of yours."
Sanzo held the bottle of pills in his hand and then glanced over at the bottle of cough syrup on the table. "The pills I can deal with, but I bet that cough syrup tastes like shit."
"Don't be such a baby. Just shut up and drink the damn thing. You should be thankful that we're even helping you, dumb monk."
"I didn't ask for your help," Sanzo said bluntly.
"Of course you didn't 'cause there was no way you could ask for help. You were completely lifeless. Now quit being so damn arrogant and just accept it." Gojyo snapped back. Sanzo didn't appreciate that comment and gave the kappa a menacing glare. "Your cold front isn't fooling anyone, not even me, Sanzo." He took Sanzo's glass and refilled it with more water, signaling for Sanzo to take his pills. The two just stared at each other for what seemed like eternity. Sanzo took the top off the bottle, grabbed the glass from Gojyo, and swallowed two pills at once. He then started to cough again. It began to cease once he took another sip of water.
Sanzo reached in his pants pockets to see if his pack of cigarettes were there. He felt nothing and then looked at the table. It wasn't there either. "Hey, where are my smokes?" Sanzo cleared his throat.
"Sorry, I can't let you smoke. It'll make your bronchitis worse."
"Dammit. I don't give a fuck. Just give them to me."
"I don't feel like having Goku and Hakkai nagging me about it again. Goku's holding it for you in his room."
Sanzo growled and grew even angrier. Gojyo let out a sigh and sat back on his chair. He slid his fingers through his long, crimson locks. He looked uncomfortable about something. He had his legs crossed and then began to fidget his foot. The wooden chair was old and was slowly decaying. Every time he fidgeted, the chair would creak. Sanzo closed his eyes and tried to force himself to sleep in an attempt to suppress his need for nicotine. There was nothing but silence in the room and all Sanzo could hear was the constant creaking. He opened his eyes and was ready to complain to Gojyo about his fidgeting. He came to a conclusion that Gojyo was going through withdrawal. "So, you can't smoke either, huh?"
Gojyo's red eyes glared at the monk. "No... I can't. It'd be 'secondhand smoking,'" he mocked Hakkai's words. Sanzo smirked since the kappa had to share in his suffering as well. "Rub that smile off your face, damn monk."
Sanzo looked at the table again. There were three bronze capsules rested near the pitcher of water. They were a bit bigger than his bullets for Shourei. "Oi. Were those the bullets that the demon shot me with?"
"Huh?" Gojyo turned around and looked at them. "Oh yeah. We were taking a look at what kind of power it could possess since it's pretty odd how a demon would depend on a gun to kill someone, but there's nothing out of the ordinary. It's not like he used his gun the whole way through since he used his own power during the beginning of the fight. He whipped out a gun and took us all by surprise, especially when its bullets wound up in you. I guess he wanted to fight fire with fire, huh?" He teased.
Sanzo grunted and turned his body so that he wasn't facing Gojyo anymore. Gojyo stood up and opened the window. He couldn't resist anymore. The chain smoker whipped out his pack of Hi-Lites and lit up a cigarette. The puffs of smoke traveled out the window and away from the room. Gojyo smiled in relief for he finally got his dose of much needed nicotine.
Sanzo could smell the smoke and instantly turned around. "How dare you smoke behind my back?"
"Don't worry. It's not gonna harm you if all the bad smoke goes outside." Gojyo took a deep drag on his cigarette and savored it. That gave Sanzo the urge to reach for his gun and kill the red kappa on the spot. He lifted himself up, but then began to cough hoarsely again. "It's for your own good, you know. Smoking will make your lungs worse... then you'll never stop that annoying coughing. Hakkai always tells me that smokers are more susceptible to getting sick. I guess he was right."
"You and I both know that smoking helps alleviate pain. So give me some now, dammit!" Sanzo retorted.
"Oh, Sanzo, I love it when you beg," Gojyo teased with a cloud of smoke seeping out of his mouth,
Sanzo growled at him in frustration. "You know you're being completely hypocritical right now?"
Gojyo sighed and gave in, "All right." He took one last drag of tobacco and put his cigarette out on an ashtray. "There. Now both of us can suffer. Does that make you happy, Sanzo-sama?" Sanzo scoffed at that and turned his body the other way. Gojyo smiled at the blonde, feeling a bit sorry for him. "Oi. I can still give you some nicotine if you'd like..."
"Yeah? And how are you gonna do that? My pack is with the monkey and there's no way I'm gonna smoke one of yours."
"You don't have to smoke it. I... still have some nicotine flavor on my lips..." Gojyo said smoothly.
Sanzo turned around and faced him. "I'm not that desperate."
"Heh. But I am." Without caution, the redhead bent down and landed a kiss on the Sanzo's sweet lips. After a few minutes, Gojyo broke his lock on Sanzo's lips and finished his sentence. "... Desperate enough to help you in any way right now." Sanzo grabbed Gojyo by his white shirt and pulled him closer to his mouth. Sanzo probed his tongue inside Gojyo's and ran his fingers through the kappa's long, crimson locks at the same time. Gojyo climbed onto the bed and held himself up over Sanzo's body. They kissed each other so aggressively it's like they were finally letting some steam out from all the tension that had been accumulating between them for so long. Even so, it was peculiar how Sanzo had given in so easily. Without a struggle and without any death threats, he was the one who grabbed Gojyo and continued their makeout session. It all didn't make sense to Gojyo. It seemed as if Sanzo was acting a bit out of character. Gojyo stopped and got off Sanzo. He sat at the edge of the bed, not even looking at him.
"You're giving up now? What the hell is wrong with you?" Sanzo sounded bitter. He didn't appreciate Gojyo's sudden reluctance to go one step further.
"Look, Sanzo, I'm not gonna do this right now. You're injured and hardly have any energy left. I'm not about to take advantage of someone in this condition." His eyes were hidden under his long streams of hair. He sounded so sincere with his words, but he raised his head up with a smirk on his face. "Plus, I wouldn't wanna hurt you in the process." He gave Sanzo a childish smirk. Sanzo leered at him in disgust. He felt a cough about to burst, but tried to prevent it from coming out. He didn't want to show proof that Gojyo was right about his bad condition. He made the first few sound like he was clearing his throat, but soon he couldn't hold it back any longer and the coughs sounded worse. Gojyo didn't say anything to him, he didn't even gloat.
Two knocks came from outside the door. The visitor opened the door slightly and came in. "Still coughing as bad as ever, huh?" Hakkai walked in with a warm smile on his face. He carried a tray of food with him as well. Hakuryu came soaring in the room after his owner. "Did you take the cough medicine, Sanzo?" Sanzo didn't answer him.
"Whoops. I forgot about the cough syrup. I only gave him the pills," Gojyo said. "Oi. Are you gonna take this shift?"
"Why? Would you like to go?" Hakkai asked.
"I'll be in my room." Gojyo stood in front of the door. "Take good care of Sanzo-sama," he joked. He and Hakkai exchanged smiles and then the kappa went on his way.
"He's gonna go smoke. The bastard," Sanzo said with a raspy voice.
"Most likely. You've been comatose for two days now. You think you'll be okay tomorrow?"
"Yeah. We have to get back on the road." Sanzo shifted his body so that his back was facing Hakkai.
"You better take this first," Hakkai waved the bottle of cough syrup in his hand. "I brought you some food too. You must be hungry. You haven't eaten in days."
Sanzo scoffed and didn't answer or looked at Hakkai. He clearly didn't want the foul-tasting medicine. Hakkai grinned and put the bottle down. "How could I... be so careless? How could I let myself get shot like that?" The thought of being defeated by a weapon just like his hurt Sanzo more than the physical pains he endured from it. He clenched a part of the bed sheet in his fist.
"He shot you point blank. We didn't know he was armed until he was close enough to shoot you. We were all taken by surprise, Sanzo. It's not your fault."
"I got shot three frikken times. That's being careless." Sanzo pounded his hand on the wall in aggravation.
Sanzo stared out the window, looking at the remains of raindrops that are still clinging onto the glass. The memory of the battle was coming back to him. It began on a rainy day and Sanzo wasn't feeling well to begin with. The Sanzo-ikkou was in the outskirts of the nearest town and it was getting late. They were in dire need of checking into an inn. Not much to their surprise, a figure stood in the way of their path. There was no doubt that it was a demon going after Sanzo's sutra again. The four reluctant heroes were in no mood to fight. They have been driving for days and the sudden rain wasn't making things any better. Sanzo was excessively bitter. Rain puts him into a very sour mood and the demon in their way was really asking for it if he was to prevent him from getting out of the rain. The demon was fast and was capable of dodging each of the Sanzo-ikkou's attacks. He was tall and moderately built. His head was adorned with long, silver hair. The demon didn't have any weapons; he depended on close combat. The four travelers grew impatient with him. He had to be physically weak if he solely depended on his speed to continually dodge attacks. Sanzo grew even more pissed off. He finally saw an opportunity to shoot and took it. The silver-headed demon was finally shot down. Sanzo managed to shoot him in the ankle in hopes of slowing the demon down a bit.
The demon was down on the floor on all fours, trembling in pain. Sanzo stood high above him, ready to put the damn fiend out of his misery. Before he could pull the trigger, the demon pulled out a gun of his own and shot the blonde priest twice- one bullet near the shoulder and one bullet on Sanzo's right arm. Hakkai and Gojyo were taken by complete surprise and tried to subdue their enemy to get his gun away from him. Goku called out to Sanzo in concern. Sanzo was still standing, but soon started to falter. The pain inflicted upon him was making his body feel heavier. His vision was blurry and his body was burning up. The fever he had been trying to overcome was adding more stress to his body. He still had his gun, Shourei, within his grip. "I'm... fine," the stubborn priest assured Goku. The young brunette looked at Sanzo with doubt, but took his word for it and took his revenge on the demon. The demon already started to waver after he fired his gun, but remained on his feet.
Hakkai blasted an immense amount of his chi directly at the demon, causing his body to dive directly onto the hard ground. His body lay near where Sanzo was standing. Sanzo struggled to hold Shourei in his hand since his arm had been shot. He pointed the muzzle of his gun toward the silver, braided demon and held onto the trigger. "Die," the renegade priest said simply. When Sanzo pulled the trigger, the demon had also whipped out his gun and shot it at the same time Sanzo did with the last of his energy. Both of them were shot. The demon was finally dead, but Sanzo was shot in the torso, very close to his heart. The weary monk was bleeding profusely. The pain from the bullets and the stress from the burning fever caused Sanzo to finally collapse and black out.
Sanzo's violet eyes were filled with frustration and weariness. He needed and wanted a smoke to help calm him down. He was gonna kill Goku for taking them. To get that off his mind, he asked Hakkai, "Where did he get that gun?" Sanzo was curious. It was rare for a demon to use a gun.
"He must've not had any of his own potential power to attack with." Hakkai poured some liquor in a cup for Sanzo.
"Pathetic. They're getting more pitiful by the dozen."
"I suppose you're right. Here. It's some of the tavern's best liquor." Hakkai had the cup in his hand and offered it to Sanzo.
The priest was stimulated to turn around once he heard the word "liquor." He accepted the cup and gulped down the whole thing. The blonde liquor connoisseur winced his face in disgust. "Gah! This is the best this place has?" Sanzo stuck his tongue out and gnarled his face as if he had bit into a lemon.
Hakkai couldn't help but chuckle. "It was the only way I could get you to drink the cough syrup." Sanzo raised his brow. "I added a bit of it to the whiskey. How else could I get you to take it?" The bitter priest leered at him. Hakkai was the only one who was able to trick him like that. These guys were all torturing him. It was unbearable. Not only was he sick and wounded, he was also deprived and toyed with. The stupid monkey was hoarding his pack of cigarettes, the damn water sprite dared to smoke in front of him and not to mention, he also blew him off in the middle of a makeout session, and this smiling bastard just tricked him into drinking shit. He was starting to believe that rain really held a curse upon him.
"Aren't you gonna eat anything?" Hakkai asked. No answer. "Sanzo?"
"Not now. Just... go," Sanzo said out flatly. Hakkai respected Sanzo's need for some personal space and got up to leave. He knows how Sanzo can get during such gloomy weather and didn't want to make things worse.
"I'll pick up the tray tomorrow then. Just get some rest. Come on, Hakuryu." Hakkai left the room with his white dragon following obediently behind. Sanzo was left there lying in his bed. The mattress must have an imprint of his body by now. The static monk lied there looking up at the ceiling. A lot of things just kept running through his mind. Problems kept weighing down on him. The ceiling fan was spinning, propelling gusts of cool air onto Sanzo's sweating face. His blonde locks swayed as the moving air came down on him. It felt refreshing and it began to sedate Sanzo a bit. "Bastards..." he sighed. And with that, he closed his eyes in hopes of falling asleep to escape the curse of the rain in hope of a brighter morning.
Next Chapter Preview: Gojyo and Sanzo head to the inn's bathhouse. Find out about what makes that demon's gun so different and why Sanzo is acting so... unually submissive.
Crim's Note: Chapter 2 is not fully completed. You might have to wait quite a while to find out what happens next. Sorry.