Hakkai…

Whilst he was waiting for the note to arrive, Hakkai had been thinking about what he could be made to give up, or take up. He thought about it and realised that probably the worst thing they could do was make him give up Jeep, or stop cooking and cleaning. But then again, if they took the latter away, then everyone would live in squalor and go hungry, so there wasn't too much to worry about.

"Hn?" Hakkai looked up as an envelope slid under his door; he extricated himself from his armchair and picked it up. His name was written on the front in block capitals, in an attempt to disguise the handwriting, so it wasn't Goku then…

He went back and sat in the chair, carefully slitting open the envelope as he sat down. Jeep kyuued and looked at the note with some interest. Hakkai read what it said:

'SHARE YOUR PROBLEMS WITH THE REST OF US'

And was quite surprised.

Goku…

On the way back from the kitchens, after begging for half a dozen meat buns, a thought suddenly struck Goku. What if they took away his food? He hadn't thought about that. He could die! Then Goku realised that if they did take away his food, Hakkai, at least, would slip him something to eat as NYR weren't supposed to be life threatening. With that reassurance in his head, he continued walking down the corridor.

Goku was back in his room, staring at the picture on the wall when the envelope was pushed under the door. He didn't notice it at first, as he was busy deciding that the painting looked more like a banana, but when he did see it, he yelped and ran to pick it up.

"I hope Hakkai wrote it, he'll be kind on me. Not like that kappa, or Sanzo." Goku said out loud whilst ripping open the envelope. He turned the paper over to read the message:

'You must learn the art of silence.'

And was confused.

Sanzo…

The only conscious one of the group who didn't think about what his resolution was going to be was Sanzo. He already had an feeling that it was going to involve any one of these: stopping smoking, swearing, drinking, threatening the others with his gun or hitting people with the fan. It was so damn obvious.

Sanzo, after delivering his envelope, was sitting with his back to the door again; hoping to decipher who sent him the note by listening to their footsteps. He tensed up ever time someone walked past; listening to their shoes making varied sounds on the carpet and seeing if they sounded familiar. However, when the envelope fell onto Sanzo's head, after being pushed through the top of the door, he was surprised that he hadn't actually heard any footsteps approaching.

He resisted the temptation to look in the corridor, but listened very carefully for retreating footsteps and was very puzzled. He, by this time, had opened the note and read its contents:

'You must stop using violence as a punishment'

And was not surprised.

Gojyo…

Gojyo's hangover prevented him from actually receiving the note on time and from thinking about its contents beforehand. He was taking a 'quick nap' to sleep off the headache and woke up way past Lunchtime with an envelope on his doormat and the feeling that everyone else would be mad at him. He dragged himself up off the bed, rubbing his eyes and groaning. He stumbled over to the door and picked up the letter and decided to read it on the way down to the dining room, to save time.

He lit a cigarette on the way down, at least grateful that the hotel permitted smoking and opened the note whilst walking as quickly as he could down towards lunch. He took one glance at the note and let out an infuriated howl

"YOU DAMN MONKEY!" and dropped the note (and his cigarette) on the floor, where anyone could read that it said:

'Ha ha kappa, you HAVE to give up smoking.'

At the lunch table, the rest of the Sanzo-ikkou were waiting calmly for Gojyo. Well, calmly on the outside. They were all thinking about what their notes said and were debating inside their heads the best way to get out of them. Now anyone who knows about New Years Resolutions, should know that the point of them is to keep the resolution for as long as you can, not to try and figure out how to get out of them. So, Sanzo, Hakkai and Goku had already latched onto most people's tactic when it came to NYR.

Gojyo burst into the dining room and headed straight over to Goku, threatening him with a whole range of tortures and curses.

"So nice of you to join us," Sanzo said through gritted teeth. Normally, he would have whacked Gojyo round the head, punched him, or taken a shot at him with his Smith and Wesson, but now, apparently, he couldn't do that. So he took to imagining what it could be like and smiled…inside.

"Yeah, whatever Sanzo. Do you mind if I kill your monkey?"

"Not at all, since I can't do it myself, you may as well do the honours."

"Now, now." Hakkai said, "Weren't we supposed to be here to discuss what our NYR are?"

Gojyo grunted a yes and flopped down into a chair, "Wait a minute, you said you couldn't kill the monkey. Does that mean…?"

"Yes. I'm not to use violence as a punishment." Sanzo showed them all the note. Gojyo burst out laughing and Goku would have whooped with glee, if he were allowed to talk. Hakkai calmly looked at the note and smiled (usual response then).

"I'm to share my problems with everyone else." Hakkai said tentatively after Gojyo had stopped laughing at Sanzo and relishing the fact that Sanzo couldn't hit him for it. Goku, Sanzo and Gojyo looked at him. Hakkai had a great many problems and maybe, just maybe if he shared them then it would all be better…or not.

"So, Gojyo. What do you have to do?" Hakkai asked pleasantly

Before Gojyo could answer, Sanzo opened his mouth; "It doesn't take an idiot to guess. He's missing his cigarette and he's mad at the monkey. Put two and two together."

"Oh, Gojyo, that's wonderful!" Hakkai exclaimed, sounding just like a delighted mother, "You really should have given up ages ago."

"…Shut up." he grumbled and then turned to Goku "Hey, ape, why aren't you saying anything?" During the earlier proceedings, Goku had been gesturing wildly and trying to join in the conversation without talking, but failed at it miserably.

Goku glared at Gojyo, as if to say 'don't call me an ape', but couldn't actually say it, so he just showed him the note.

Gojyo, for the second time in 5 minutes burst into loud raucous laughter. Hakkai leant over to Sanzo and whispered

"Does Goku realise that 'learning the art of silence' doesn't mean that he has to be silent all the time?"

"No." Sanzo replied shortly

"Don't you think we should tell him?"

"No."

Lunch then continued without the usual argument, as Goku couldn't talk, he couldn't argue with Gojyo when he stole his meat bun, which meant that Sanzo couldn't hit Gojyo for stealing the monkey's food. So, all in all, Hakkai was really the only one who benefited so far…