Disclaimer: I do not own Saiyuki and do not wish to.

Summary: Goku finds a job. Calls a Christmas celebration.

The Beginning of a Tradition

By Lena Claire

It's been quite some time since the journey ended. About four years to be exact. Goku could still remember the very day the journey ended. There was a sort of blankness they all felt, a kind of loss. The mission had just suddenly ended after so long that they almost didn't know what to do without it.

In the end, they decided to go back to how things were. Hakkai would live with Gojyo again and Goku with the monk back to the temple.

At first Goku liked the feeling of peace the temple gave him, the effect of knowing that demons will not pounce on you unexpectedly amplified this of course. After awhile though, he began to feel bored. Empty. Suddenly living without a purpose was hard. He already saved the world, there was nothing left to do.

Sanzo wasn't around much. He had a lot of paper work to do. This left Goku alone, and sometimes miserable. The monks there didn't like him much so Sanzo was his only companion. He went for a lot of walks to pass time. He didn't bug Sanzo as much as he used to anymore. Goku had learnt patience as Sanzo had learnt tolerance over the years.

One day though, as he was on a customary walk through town, he spotted a sign outside a flower shop. Its words were big and bold and inexplicably drew Goku's attention to it.

"HELP WANTED"

Goku stood there for a moment with his head tilted in thought, before he went in.

"Um- Sanzo…?"

"Hm."

"I got a job."

At this, Sanzo paused, before looking at Goku over the barrier of the newspaper he had been reading. Sanzo studied Goku for a while.

"Why." Sanzo stated this more than he asked.

"Well… there's nothing much to do around here…" Goku trailed off, not wanting Sanzo to feel like he had another extra responsibility, he quickly changed his tactic and continued brightly,

"It's in a flower shop! She's a really nice lady, that owner. Really old though, so I guess that's why she needs some help now."

Noticing Sanzo's leveled gaze at him, he quickly cut the tirade off before it got discovered.

"I'm starting tomorrow."

Goku endured Sanzo's probing gaze for a moment, he knew Sanzo found suspicion in his sudden cheer. A rustle of the newspaper, and Sanzo went back to reading.

Goku understood the silent consent. He got up to go back to his room.

"Goodnight Sanzo!" Goku said as he closed the door.

"Goodnight." Sanzo muttered as the door closed shut.

Goku barely managed to suppress a yawn as he entered the shop. The working hours were long, they started early and they ended late. He wasn't going to be paid much, he knew, but the old lady really did need help to run the shop, besides, he could take this as a new challenge.

On foot almost the whole day, Goku had to scurry around following the gentle orders given by the lady. He had to learn so much! He never knew which flower was which, he had to learn to arrange and wrap them nicely, he had to constantly make sure the flowers never run out of water and at what temperature the refrigerator was which kept the more fragile and delicate flowers.

"Granny!" Goku wailed. "I forgot where I put the "forget-me-not"s!" The old lady laughed, and Goku would have smacked himself for the unintentional pun if he already weren't already so flustered.

"This is even more difficult than fighting demons…" Goku muttered under his breath.

At least he didn't have to man the cashier.

Goku arrived back at the monastery a little past nine, exhausted. He went to his room first, to grab a vase. He then stopped at the toilet to half fill it with water before proceeding to Sanzo's room.

He opened the door to Sanzo's room. Sanzo was, as usual, behind various stacks of papers.

"You're back."

"Yea." Goku softly replied as he gently pushed a stack of papers to clear a space.

"What are you doing?" Sanzo asked, annoyed that his personal belongings were being shifted.

Goku wordlessly placed the vase on the table and unwrapped a packet of flowers. He placed them in the vase and arranged them in a neater pattern. After it reached his satisfaction, he looked up and found Sanzo staring at him.

Slightly taken aback, he jolted a bit.

"Ah-, well." Goku scratched his head, embarrassed. "The table doesn't look so dull anymore. Anyway, have you eaten yet?"

"Its past nine." Sanzo stated as he put his pen down and straightened the pile of papers he was working on.

"Oh, okay." Goku said as he made his way to the table at the side of Sanzo's room where they usually shared their meals together. "So this is all mine?"

"Ch, don't be so greedy." Sanzo said as he moved to the table and took away the cloth covering the food.

It was laid out for two.

Goku stared at it for a while before moving to sit down. There were the sounds of the clinking of utensils as they began eating.

"Hey, Sanzo?" Goku said as he laid his chopsticks down after he was done with his meal.

Sanzo looked at Goku, signaling that he was paying attention.

"You… don't have to wait for me for dinner…"

"Who said I was waiting for you?" This was uttered with no malice.

Goku knew, and he gave a small smile. It was the closest thing Goku will ever get as admission from Sanzo.

And this continued henceforth.

"Wow!" Goku said as he looked at an envelope in his hands. "My first pay check!"

"Too bad I can't spend it on meat buns." Goku said as he stared at it for a moment longer, and he sighed, a little wistfully.

"What's with you?" Sanzo said a mite irritated.

"What?" Goku asked through a mouthful of food.

"Don't talk with food in your mouth. Why have you been hungrier than usual these few days?"

"Oh. Uh. Metabolism?" Goku tried to hide the question in his answer, but failed miserably. He was never a good liar.

Sanzo looked at him for a moment to make Goku feel guilty about trying to tell a lie, but he let it slide, this time.

"How's work?" Sanzo said a little nonchalantly, almost as if trying to mask the question.

"Hmm, its tough, but I'm getting the hang of it." Goku said, trying not to show surprise at Sanzo's initiation of conversation. Occasionally he did that, but it still surprised Goku nonetheless.

Silence prevailed for a moment.

"How's your work?" Goku asked in attempt to keep the conversation going.

"Ch. What the hell do you expect." Sanzo muttered in annoyance.

Knowing the conversation could not be brought any further, Goku stood up to go.

"I think I better get to bed now. Another long day tomorrow."

"Hm."

"Night' Sanzo."

Sanzo gave a nod of affirmation, Goku smiled before he closed the door behind him.

Sanzo stared at the door for a moment. He looked away. Sighing, he got up and went to his desk to do work again.

He looked at the flowers. Goku did not know how much memories of Goku's "childhood" before they left the temple it reminded him of.

Sanzo smiled.

"Hey Sanzo!" Goku spoke as he flung open the door with gusto.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the afternoon?" Sanzo said, annoyed, as he was jolted from his concentration on work.

"I got half-day off today." Goku replied.

"Why?" Sanzo asked, almost incredulously.

Goku raised an eyebrow and replied almost a matter-of-factly, "Because its Christmas Eve."

Sanzo managed to refrain from objecting to the date as he double-checked it from a calendar.

"Yea, its Christmas Eve today Sanzo." Goku gave verbal affirmative as he noted Sanzo's silent disbelief. "I invited Hakkai and Gojyo over, they should be coming over soon." Goku continued as he started to unload some sake from a plastic bag.

"How did you get that?" Sanzo asked, almost accusingly.

"Sanzo. I'm twenty two." Goku stated as he continued to unload various other snacks from the bag.

Sanzo almost smacked himself on the forehead. He could never remember that Goku was a full-fledged adult now. It only seemed like yesterday when a smaller monkey was filling the vase with white wild flowers. Goku's new habit of filling the vase with flowers from the shop daily did not help either.

There was a strong knock on the door as Gojyo opened the door unabashedly, admitting himself and Hakkai.

"Miss me?" Gojyo said as he presented himself, arms wide open.

"No." Sanzo caustically replied to the laughter of Hakkai and Goku, and belatedly, Gojyo.

"We brought some sake. Here Goku, meat buns." Hakkai said as he handed them out.

"Oh, I bought some alcohol too. Oh, here-" Goku paused as he threw two packs of cigarettes, one at Gojyo and one at Sanzo. "Your favorite brand."

"Damn straight!" Gojyo exclaimed as he looked at it and gave a lopsided grin at Goku.

Sanzo's lips were twitched.

And they drank and talked. They had plenty to say, they haven't seen each other in six months, though they do correspond by mail monthly, but it doesn't make up for what they had before on a daily basis.

Goku glanced at the clock.

"Hey! Its Christmas!"

Everyone stopped talking for a moment as they looked at the clock as well.

Gojyo broke the silence, "Yes you stupid monkey, we can tell."

"Not stupid monkey, hold on a sec-" Goku said as he rushed out of the room.

"Where is he going?" Hakkai enquired.

Sanzo shrugged his shoulders and puffed out another breath of smoke, "His room, maybe."

Sanzo was right. Goku came dashing in, arms filled with four brightly wrapped packages.

"Merry Christmas!" Goku half yelled out as he gave a red, green and yellow package to their respective people.

"Ch, Idiot." Sanzo said as he putting the present aside after receiving it, opting for another breath of smoke.

Hakkai and Gojyo had started to pry open their packages upon an affirmative nod from Goku.

"Why, thank you Goku. I don't believe I have read this one before." Hakkai said as he looked, admiringly at the leather-covered book he received.

"Now we need more shelf space," Gojyo said in mock irritation, "Good choice Monkey!" Gojyo said, referring to his own present, as he reached over and gave a playful ruffle to Goku's hair. Gojyo received a black sweater with a skull emblem stuck onto its back. Goku stood for that for all of three seconds before he ducked out of the way

"Dunno, the skull thing just reminded me of you somehow." As Goku said this, he turned to Sanzo.

"Go on Sanzo! Open it!" He urged, excitedly.

"Why should I." Sanzo defied stubbornly.

"Because…Because… Its special?" This came out more of a question from Goku's mouth as he tried to grapple any random reason to say.

"And why is it special?" Sanzo challenged the seemingly lame reason.

"Because I skipped my lunch hour for three days to buy this for you using MY OWN HARD EARNED MONEY." Goku finally yelled the last part out in frustration.

Sanzo was looking at Goku, whom had his eyes adverted to the ground.

A crinkle.

Goku glanced up.

Sanzo had started opening his present.

Once discarding the shiny yellow wrapper, it revealed a smooth black box.

Sanzo pried open the cover, and in it sat a silver container, no thicker than the width of a cigarette.

He looked up at Goku with an eyebrow raised.

Goku got the hint as he scrambled over to Sanzo and gently picked the present up.

"You see," Goku said as he opened the container, it swung open on a hinge. It was half covered inside, and was slotted with cigarettes.

"And that's not all!" Goku proclaimed, almost sounding like a game show host as he took one of the cigarettes out, closed the cover, flipped it to the side and flicked a button. Out of the corner, a flame burst out and Goku lighted the cigarette with it and took the currently dwindling one out of Sanzo's mouth and slotted the new one in its place.

"Like it…?" Goku tentatively asked.

"Hmp." Sanzo muttered around the cigarette as he took the silver container from Goku's hand and slotted it somewhere in the folds of his sleeve.

Goku smiled.

"Okay, that's all. Lets continue drinking!" Goku said as he picked up the sake bottle and refilled the cups.

"I beg your pardon Goku…" Hakkai said with a smile on his face.

"After all this time, you think we're a bunch of ingrates?" Gojyo said as he wrapped an arm around Goku's neck and pretended to strangle him.

"Ch," Sanzo said as he reached under his sleeves and took out three parcels.

Gojyo and Hakkai did the same except from more normal, paper bags.

"Merry Christmas Goku!" Hakkai said as he pushed his present to Goku.

"Ditto!" Gojyo said as he threw his over, which was expertly caught.

"Hey! You aimed for my face!" Goku replied, half indignant and half in happiness.

Sanzo pushed his over.

And so the present exchange began.

And continued yearly henceforth.

.The End.

Well, I started writing this Christmas fic quite late and I realize I would not be able to get it out on the first Christmas Day. So since I couldn't get it out first, might as well get it out last! Merry Christmas all!