A Chance Encounter
By mimma
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"Hey!"
That voice? It couldn't be…
"Goku!"
Yes. It could.
Goku turned around, and feasted his eyes on someone he hadn't seen in twenty years.
"Princess."
Lirin raised an eyebrow at the title but didn't dispute it. She smiled, a slow curving of affectionate fondness, like she didn't want to but couldn't help herself, and remarked, "My, you've grown, monkey."
Goku flashed her a hint of fang. He didn't need a limiter anymore, and the resulting attractiveness and growth spurt had done wonders for his maturity. "I can only return the compliment, brat." And he could. She'd aged a couple of years, too, and her late mother's excellent bone structure –although hopefully not her personality- was showing though in the absence of baby fat. He noticed her bells were missing. (1)
She fell into step beside him, walking with an elegant grace and –if you knew her twenty years ago- peculiar subdue ness, and he slowed his pace to match hers. He was still head and shoulders taller than her.
"What've you guys been doing?"
"Sanzo is in ChangAn training his successor –a shrimp monk we met on the way west and picked up on the way back (2) - and Hakkai and Gojyo are traveling north on what I gather was supposed to be a holiday but-" Goku made a face. "-has apparently turned into a an extermination of rogue demons."
Lirin nodded. "Rogues give us all a bad name." she flicked her cropped hair out of her eyes. "And you?"
"Me?" Goku slanted faintly wicked eyes at her. "I'm walking here, talking to you."
She wrinkled her forehead and pouted, but let the subject drop. Goku was impressed. The old (or young) Lirin would have blown up in his face.
"How are your folks?"
"Oh," she giggled. "I'm going to be an aunt."
Goku laughed. "Kougaiji and Yaone finally got busy, huh?"
"Yeah." Lirin laughed back. "They're absolutely disgusting now; the fluff just sticks in my throat and makes me gag."
Goku snorted. The mutual repressed adoration had been thick enough for him to notice back then; he could only imagine what they were like now that they weren't trying to hide it.
"Doku's head of the imperial guard; and I'm on a diplomatic mission to the youkai over there." She gave a vague wave in a southwesterly direction. "I came down here to look for comfort food; there's going to be a ball to celebrate the successful negotiations." An expressive shudder ran up her back.
Goku made a faintly sympathetic noise. Just the welcomes from the townspeople eager to thank their 'saviors' irritated him beyond belief, and that sounded a lot more fake than the formal dinners.
"Tell me about it." Lirin sighed. "Every slime ball courtier in the area will be looking to land Gyumaoh's daughter."
Goku smirked.
Lirin glared. "What?"
"I just realized that if I'd heard that when we first met, I'd still be laughing."
Lirin struck a dramatic pose. "It's not easy being beautiful." She simpered, and fluttered her eyelashes.
They both burst out laughing, easy familiarity relaxing them both.
"Seriously, though, if it's gonna be that bad, maybe I can come along as your escort." Goku suggested. "I could glare and growl menacingly anytime someone came near you."
"That's an idea. Seiten Taisei Son Goku as my escort… they might actually wet their pants." She gave Goku a clinical once-over. "Why?"
"Free food, free entertainment, I don't have anything better to do and Gojyo taught me to never ignore a damsel in distress." He offered her his arm.
She snorted. "Do I look distressed to you?" she wanted to know, but threaded her arm through his anyway.
Goku barely kept a self-satisfied smirk off his face. "I believe you were saying something about 'comfort food'? Your treat, of course."
End-
Notes:
(1) – this is just my little theory… 500 years are a little much for Lirin to have never aged. And correct me if I'm wrong, but Gyokumen is more than enough of a bitch to keep her daughter young to make her easier to control. Same goes for the Kami and Goku.
(2) – The mahjong boy.