DISCLAIMER: What's the purpose of this tradition, really? To keep us humble? I admit it freely: I don't own Saiyuki. Consider my tou koued. To remind us not to sell to each other for money? Hey, all I'm looking for is a nice review. Or, you know, however many you nice people feel like... um. Yeah. Please? (hopeful smile)
ANNOUNCEMENT: (braces hands on knees and pants) Gentles, I apologize for neglecting you, and offer as compensation this chapter and the fruit of my labors over the last month or so: my site is up!!!
Please visit me at www. site-bg .com / nightfall/ index.html ! Without the spaces, of course.
WARNINGS: spackle or AU fic, as you like. There will be hormones flying -everywhere,- and even I don't know where they're all going to end up, or what the rating will end up being. Er, and this is also the Fic Where Nightfall Tries To Get Over Her Dislike of Foul Language. If it's too much, I apologize.
----------------------------
In Hir Wicked Style
by Nightfall
Part four: Kanan
-----------------------------
Several interminable minutes later, it having been explained to the younger members of their party that no one had been shopping in several days, due to the pressing kami problem, and that they were going to have to make do with snacks until dinner, Kanan snuck around the outskirts of the icy purple-on-purple death-glare of Who Gets To Wash Up First. She dodged adroitly into the bathhouse, closing the door behind her with a pointed bang and a sweet smile into their scowling faces. With a sigh of relief, she toweled down quickly and finger-combed the bits of rice cake out of her braid, then proceeded into the main chamber.
It was already occupied.
She took a moment just to look at him, his impossibly familiar lines, and the body between them so changed, thin and hard and weary and scarred here and there, still wearing those silly earcuffs. Ragged bites on his arms and wrists and an old, familiar burn in the shape of a hand. A pucker by his shoulder where something had missed the heart, and where his fringe fell away from his eyes with his head tipped back like that, red claws. Lash- marks on his chest to match some that she herself had disdainfully healed away, and something deep disappearing under the water.
Gonou could never have looked like that. Her sweet Gonou, long hair brushing his shoulders. His glasses would have steamed up in this bath, and his soft, schoolteacher's body would never have survived the least of those wounds. He would have wept to see hers.
This one, cold and false and sculpted as she herself, fair as an ice statue, still and silent although she knew he knew she stood there--what tears could melt him?
"Well," she said deliberately, to the shock he should have at least pretended to have, "it isn't as though you have anything I haven't seen, Cho-san, is it?"
"Perhaps not entirely accurate, Cho-san," he murmured at once, keeping his eyes closed, ridiculously, like a gentleman. "But true enough, I suppose. Please, come in."
"My daughter," she said, slipping into the hot water that, with him in it, was a torturous purgatory. "You're sure she's all right?" She'd nearly lost her once, before they'd even had a chance to meet. Sakari, the only important thing left in the world with Gonou gone. If it hadn't been for the miracle of Honshin, she would have bled her daughter out into that dusty road and died there with her gladly.
"I'm sure," he said, opening his eyes in surprise, "that there's nothing any of us can do about it until we know what brought you here, Cho-san."
"Homura, I should think?" she suggested.
"Specifically," he corrected himself. After a moment, gently, "I know that Gojyo's brother has gone to fantastic extremes to protect those in his care. Your Jien would do no less; of that I am sure."
"If he's survived to do it."
"Well, yes," he admitted, sitting up. He was doing, she had to concede, a better job of keeping his eyes on her face than Gonou could have managed. "However, the only way I can think of at the moment to send you back is to bleed Sanzo until Kanzeon Bosatsu descends from heaven to give him a blood transfusion, at which point we could ask her."
She couldn't help it. She started to laugh.
Encouraged, he smiled tentatively. "However, since the last time we tried that Gojyo was walking into walls for the rest of the day..."
"Honshin's face was priceless," she agreed, still laughing. "And Jien looked like he was going to kill someone!"
"Ah," he said delicately. "Does it lie that way?"
She shrugged, met his gaze evenly. "And if it does?"
He lifted a dripping hand on the surface of the water, open-palmed. "It can be a mistake," he said lightly, "to allow a single person to become the world. My friend knows how to guard his heart."
"Hm," she said noncommittally. Someone was fooling himself. She'd seen the look on both their faces when his 'friend' had clung to him.
He flashed a quick, bitter smile at her. "Still, I think we have nothing to say in the matter, you and I."
"No," she said, returning it ache for ache. "I think not." He did let his gaze drop, then. It warmed her, and she expected him to come and hold her. He closed his eyes after only a moment, though, his face tight. "You aren't much like him," she said, matching his light tone.
"Nor you," he returned, eyes still closed. "She was never so angry. Even when that official tried to take her away from me, she said she wasn't worried; she knew I could take care of her."
"I was angry all the time," she said, surprised, but also because he looked like was about to choke. "And when that horse-faced man tried to court me with his cat's breath I threw our dirtiest dishwater out the window on him."
"Ah," he said, opening his eyes with a tiny, almost sly and very un-Gonou- like smile. "The direct approach."
"Oh?" she asked, smiling herself.
"Xia Xiaopeng," he said. "Did you know her? We invited her over when he had said he would come."
"The carpenter's daughter? With no looks and a voice like a jackal?"
"She was very pretty when you--when she--Xia-san was very pretty in a jacket that suited her, and with her hair done. She was a sweet girl, and very bright."
"I hope you told her to hold her tongue."
"Yes--and she--not Xia-san--she spilled hot tea in his lap. Xia-san was most solicitous..."
"Quietly?"
"Oh, yes. Until the wedding."
"Oh, dear," she said, with a vicious little smile. "My idea?"
"Well, no," he confessed, smiling back. "Mine, I'm afraid."
"Gonou would never have thought of something like that," she said soberly. "He was so sweet... he trusted everyone."
"More than I should have. Beyond reason," he said, with a ruthlessness that was all for himself, and then he looked up and smiled at her, painfully. "And yet, you know, Cho-san, she always told me I was too suspicious. Too serious."
"I handled our money to keep them all from cheating him."
"I never wanted to her to know how they tried. She was so happy to have faith, you see."
"She was very lucky," Kanan suggested after a moment, pushing off the wall and going over to sit next to him, "to have someone who could take care of her."
His mouth twisted. "Perhaps not. Perhaps, if I had been strong enough to disillusion her, she would have dared to live, as you did."
She shrugged. "Survival... it's something one does, if it can be managed." Gonou hadn't managed. Sweet Gonou, slipping through the shadows, slipping poppy into youkai tea. Soft Gonou, coming too late with the keys, turning with that surprised look into the efficiant slash of youkai claws, and then nothing but red until the blazing white of her raging despair brought the grey castle tumbling to dust.
"I agree," he nodded quietly, and quietly added, "She didn't."
"Survive?"
"Agree."
"Ah," she said cautiously.
"Speaking of survival, Cho-san," he said lightly after a moment, leaving her to understand that The Subject Was Closed, "I hope you'll forgive me for asking, but I'm very curious about something. On your way to Homura, did you also encounter a room full of zombies?"
"Yes, we did."
"I think," he said judiciously, taking his eyes from her face for the first time to give her a clinical once-over that was more galling than embarrassing, "that our method was not the one you used to get rid of them. Tell me, how did you get past?"
"Oh, we fought our way to the door, and then I blew the walls out. Maybe they made it out from under the ceiling eventually, but we were gone by then."
He blinked, looking impressed, and then smiled ruefully. "It's very creative of you, Cho-san! I should have thought of that."
"Oh? What did you do?"
He looked down at his hands, still with that wry little smile on, and shrugged. "Oh, well, as to that."
"Ah," she said after a moment. "The direct approach."
[end part four]
------
OMAKE!
'The SEME at the End of this Fic'
starring lovable, placid old HAKKAI
and adorably vague but considerably older TENPOU.
Hakkai: Eheheh. It seems you don't understand, Tenpou-san. You see, clinking the links will bring us to the end of the fic, and there is a seme at the end of the fic.
Tenpou: (a huge lech) I understand that very well, Hakkai-kun! 8-3 ...It's your reluctance I find inexplicable.
Hakkai: Clearly. However, this will stop you from clicking the links. See?
(Pulls out Sanzo-action figure and pulls the string in the back. Sutra does its thing.)
Hakkai: There! The pages are immobilized, so you can't--
Tenpou: (klik)
ANNOUNCEMENT: (braces hands on knees and pants) Gentles, I apologize for neglecting you, and offer as compensation this chapter and the fruit of my labors over the last month or so: my site is up!!!
Please visit me at www. site-bg .com / nightfall/ index.html ! Without the spaces, of course.
WARNINGS: spackle or AU fic, as you like. There will be hormones flying -everywhere,- and even I don't know where they're all going to end up, or what the rating will end up being. Er, and this is also the Fic Where Nightfall Tries To Get Over Her Dislike of Foul Language. If it's too much, I apologize.
----------------------------
In Hir Wicked Style
by Nightfall
Part four: Kanan
-----------------------------
Several interminable minutes later, it having been explained to the younger members of their party that no one had been shopping in several days, due to the pressing kami problem, and that they were going to have to make do with snacks until dinner, Kanan snuck around the outskirts of the icy purple-on-purple death-glare of Who Gets To Wash Up First. She dodged adroitly into the bathhouse, closing the door behind her with a pointed bang and a sweet smile into their scowling faces. With a sigh of relief, she toweled down quickly and finger-combed the bits of rice cake out of her braid, then proceeded into the main chamber.
It was already occupied.
She took a moment just to look at him, his impossibly familiar lines, and the body between them so changed, thin and hard and weary and scarred here and there, still wearing those silly earcuffs. Ragged bites on his arms and wrists and an old, familiar burn in the shape of a hand. A pucker by his shoulder where something had missed the heart, and where his fringe fell away from his eyes with his head tipped back like that, red claws. Lash- marks on his chest to match some that she herself had disdainfully healed away, and something deep disappearing under the water.
Gonou could never have looked like that. Her sweet Gonou, long hair brushing his shoulders. His glasses would have steamed up in this bath, and his soft, schoolteacher's body would never have survived the least of those wounds. He would have wept to see hers.
This one, cold and false and sculpted as she herself, fair as an ice statue, still and silent although she knew he knew she stood there--what tears could melt him?
"Well," she said deliberately, to the shock he should have at least pretended to have, "it isn't as though you have anything I haven't seen, Cho-san, is it?"
"Perhaps not entirely accurate, Cho-san," he murmured at once, keeping his eyes closed, ridiculously, like a gentleman. "But true enough, I suppose. Please, come in."
"My daughter," she said, slipping into the hot water that, with him in it, was a torturous purgatory. "You're sure she's all right?" She'd nearly lost her once, before they'd even had a chance to meet. Sakari, the only important thing left in the world with Gonou gone. If it hadn't been for the miracle of Honshin, she would have bled her daughter out into that dusty road and died there with her gladly.
"I'm sure," he said, opening his eyes in surprise, "that there's nothing any of us can do about it until we know what brought you here, Cho-san."
"Homura, I should think?" she suggested.
"Specifically," he corrected himself. After a moment, gently, "I know that Gojyo's brother has gone to fantastic extremes to protect those in his care. Your Jien would do no less; of that I am sure."
"If he's survived to do it."
"Well, yes," he admitted, sitting up. He was doing, she had to concede, a better job of keeping his eyes on her face than Gonou could have managed. "However, the only way I can think of at the moment to send you back is to bleed Sanzo until Kanzeon Bosatsu descends from heaven to give him a blood transfusion, at which point we could ask her."
She couldn't help it. She started to laugh.
Encouraged, he smiled tentatively. "However, since the last time we tried that Gojyo was walking into walls for the rest of the day..."
"Honshin's face was priceless," she agreed, still laughing. "And Jien looked like he was going to kill someone!"
"Ah," he said delicately. "Does it lie that way?"
She shrugged, met his gaze evenly. "And if it does?"
He lifted a dripping hand on the surface of the water, open-palmed. "It can be a mistake," he said lightly, "to allow a single person to become the world. My friend knows how to guard his heart."
"Hm," she said noncommittally. Someone was fooling himself. She'd seen the look on both their faces when his 'friend' had clung to him.
He flashed a quick, bitter smile at her. "Still, I think we have nothing to say in the matter, you and I."
"No," she said, returning it ache for ache. "I think not." He did let his gaze drop, then. It warmed her, and she expected him to come and hold her. He closed his eyes after only a moment, though, his face tight. "You aren't much like him," she said, matching his light tone.
"Nor you," he returned, eyes still closed. "She was never so angry. Even when that official tried to take her away from me, she said she wasn't worried; she knew I could take care of her."
"I was angry all the time," she said, surprised, but also because he looked like was about to choke. "And when that horse-faced man tried to court me with his cat's breath I threw our dirtiest dishwater out the window on him."
"Ah," he said, opening his eyes with a tiny, almost sly and very un-Gonou- like smile. "The direct approach."
"Oh?" she asked, smiling herself.
"Xia Xiaopeng," he said. "Did you know her? We invited her over when he had said he would come."
"The carpenter's daughter? With no looks and a voice like a jackal?"
"She was very pretty when you--when she--Xia-san was very pretty in a jacket that suited her, and with her hair done. She was a sweet girl, and very bright."
"I hope you told her to hold her tongue."
"Yes--and she--not Xia-san--she spilled hot tea in his lap. Xia-san was most solicitous..."
"Quietly?"
"Oh, yes. Until the wedding."
"Oh, dear," she said, with a vicious little smile. "My idea?"
"Well, no," he confessed, smiling back. "Mine, I'm afraid."
"Gonou would never have thought of something like that," she said soberly. "He was so sweet... he trusted everyone."
"More than I should have. Beyond reason," he said, with a ruthlessness that was all for himself, and then he looked up and smiled at her, painfully. "And yet, you know, Cho-san, she always told me I was too suspicious. Too serious."
"I handled our money to keep them all from cheating him."
"I never wanted to her to know how they tried. She was so happy to have faith, you see."
"She was very lucky," Kanan suggested after a moment, pushing off the wall and going over to sit next to him, "to have someone who could take care of her."
His mouth twisted. "Perhaps not. Perhaps, if I had been strong enough to disillusion her, she would have dared to live, as you did."
She shrugged. "Survival... it's something one does, if it can be managed." Gonou hadn't managed. Sweet Gonou, slipping through the shadows, slipping poppy into youkai tea. Soft Gonou, coming too late with the keys, turning with that surprised look into the efficiant slash of youkai claws, and then nothing but red until the blazing white of her raging despair brought the grey castle tumbling to dust.
"I agree," he nodded quietly, and quietly added, "She didn't."
"Survive?"
"Agree."
"Ah," she said cautiously.
"Speaking of survival, Cho-san," he said lightly after a moment, leaving her to understand that The Subject Was Closed, "I hope you'll forgive me for asking, but I'm very curious about something. On your way to Homura, did you also encounter a room full of zombies?"
"Yes, we did."
"I think," he said judiciously, taking his eyes from her face for the first time to give her a clinical once-over that was more galling than embarrassing, "that our method was not the one you used to get rid of them. Tell me, how did you get past?"
"Oh, we fought our way to the door, and then I blew the walls out. Maybe they made it out from under the ceiling eventually, but we were gone by then."
He blinked, looking impressed, and then smiled ruefully. "It's very creative of you, Cho-san! I should have thought of that."
"Oh? What did you do?"
He looked down at his hands, still with that wry little smile on, and shrugged. "Oh, well, as to that."
"Ah," she said after a moment. "The direct approach."
[end part four]
------
OMAKE!
'The SEME at the End of this Fic'
starring lovable, placid old HAKKAI
and adorably vague but considerably older TENPOU.
Hakkai: Eheheh. It seems you don't understand, Tenpou-san. You see, clinking the links will bring us to the end of the fic, and there is a seme at the end of the fic.
Tenpou: (a huge lech) I understand that very well, Hakkai-kun! 8-3 ...It's your reluctance I find inexplicable.
Hakkai: Clearly. However, this will stop you from clicking the links. See?
(Pulls out Sanzo-action figure and pulls the string in the back. Sutra does its thing.)
Hakkai: There! The pages are immobilized, so you can't--
Tenpou: (klik)