Disclaimer – I do not own or profit from Saiyuki. So if you're looking for money, you're barking up the wrong tree here, buddy.

Rated M for slash, darkness, blah, blah, blah. And no, we still haven't quite earned our 'M' rating yet. Are you honestly surprised? ('wink')

Contains a reference or two to Gaiden that could be considered a SPOILER. Please read at your own risk.

Another hug to everyone, for being so amazingly cool. ('grin')

Also, this is dedicated to Keiran, for leaving me such a glowing review I nearly cried. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Chapter Summary: In which Goku steps up to the plate, and Hakkai realizes that upsetting Goku equals imminent death...

Anyway, enjoy. Peace, all.

--X--

And When The Sun Goes Down

Chapter Seven: Nighttime Confessions

by Ghost Helwig

--X--

Two days later, and it was almost time to leave; Hakkai could feel it in the air, though no one mentioned any travel plans to him. In fact, after that first day Gojyo was the only one to sit with him – Sanzo never returned, and Goku had never visited at all. He only knew how they were when he begged information from a hesitant (increasingly so, distressingly so) Gojyo.

So Hakkai had spent yet another fitful day going in and out of sleep (not much else to do when you couldn't move, and had only sporadic visits of varying length from a strangely morose kappa for company), going from nightmare to nightmare without end. It seemed he dreamed whenever he closed his eyes, and always of blood, of pain and death and crimson-drenched violets...

He couldn't tell, half the time, when he was dreaming or not anymore; the easiest way to figure it out was to judge how 'real' something felt. And he was always grateful, absurdly, pathetically so, when the blood never turned out quite 'real' enough (though it was still almost always enough to wake him up wheezing and gasping for air)...

So he tossed and turned during the day, tossed and turned even more at night. And it was sometime during the night that Hakkai only knew he'd fallen back asleep when he was brutally awoken by a heavy weight settling on his chest. His eyes snapped open, and it was a good thing that unlike all the others he didn't need to be free to fight, because he was still bound but he needn't be unbound to gather his chi-

Which he promptly let evaporate, when he realized it was Goku straddling his chest.

"G-goku," he whispered, wondering briefly if he was dreaming, "what're you..."

Golden eyes gleamed down at him; furious, betrayed, hurting. This is no dream, then.

"D'you know what you did?" Goku admonished; he probably intended to be stern, but it came out rather petulant and surly, like a child, instead. Hakkai, though, was too guilt-ridden and sorry to be amused.

"Yes," he began, "I'm so sorry Go-"

"Shuddup."

He shut up. Goku glared down at him.

"You don't know," he went on, eyes gleaming now from more than just the moonlight filtering in through the windows. "You can't. You haven't seen it..."

Hakkai thought Goku's abrupt silence meant he was done talking, lost in his own little world. While the latter was true, he kept up a running commentary of his thoughts all the same, and Hakkai couldn't help but wonder if, even distracted by whatever pain this was (that he had caused), Goku didn't fully intend for him to hear every strangled word...

"He won't even look at me." No need for clarification on who he was. "He jus' ignores me when I talk to him and Gojyo's there, and if Gojyo's not there he walks outta the room. He won't be alone with me. I think he's afraid of me."

"Not of you," Hakkai couldn't even try to hold the whisper back; wasn't even sure he wanted to. "For you. Goku, you really shouldn't be-"

"Cripes, you shut up too!" Goku leaned down towards him, and even though he'd been bound tight for days only then did Hakkai begin to feel even remotely vulnerable.

"I'm not a kid!" Goku's glare frankly dared him to contradict this; though he half-wanted to, Hakkai didn't have the energy. And besides which, he wanted to hear what Goku had to say...

"Sanzo thinks I am," Goku went on darkly. "He never used to. He got over that, I dunno how... But then you happened, and now Sanzo's flippin' out, and I hate it and it's all your fault and God!" Goku's suddenly wounded eyes cut Hakkai to the quick.

"Since when d'ya hate me, Hakkai?"

"Hate you?" Hakkai asked, incredulity flooding over even his intense, all-consuming guilt. "Goku, I could never hate you. I-"

"Then why ruin this for me?" Goku's cry was wrung right out of his heart, and it showed. Hakkai flinched back from the brutal honesty of Goku's emotions; though he'd never admitted it even to himself, that much honesty frightened him to his very core...

"Why?" Goku was trembling; Hakkai knew, then, without a doubt, that the added glisten in those golden eyes was unquestionably from withheld tears. "What did you say to Sanzo? I know it was something you said, or what you did, 'cause he was fine, he was finally accepting me until that night and now everything's changed-"

"All I said," Hakkai said slowly, because his memory of his own words was hazy at best, "all I did, was tell him what I... what I thought he needed to hear." ('A priest should never be a whore.' My God, I called Sanzo a whore.) "As I've been telling him. I can't imagine he finally started to listen..." ('Priests should not have sex with children.')

"Well, he did," Goku ground out, temper obviously flaring. "And now I've gotta fix it, only I don't know how. And what can I do when he won't let me even talk to him alone?"

"Maybe..." Hakkai paused thoughtfully, but he had to say it; his conscience would not let him do otherwise. "Maybe it's for the best, Goku..."

Those golden eyes glimmered with rage, renewed pain – no, not renewed. Hakkai knew it had never really gone away at all.

"You wanna know what the sad part is?" Goku asked, still staring straight into his eyes (he was never one to flinch away from anything, even a murderer's gaze; besides which, the habit of murder was a habit they shared – nothing to be frightened of).

"If I wanted advice on Sanzo, I was gonna come to you."

Hakkai winced with sudden pain, but Goku just kept talking, the flow of his words a poison he was releasing from his system-

And it was entering Hakkai's. Which Hakkai, at least, knew needed no more poison, as it had more than enough of its own.

"I trusted you. I thought, if anyone'd understand what I was gonna try and have, it'd be you. You're not like the stupid cockroach – you've been happy before. And you like Sanzo. 'Least, I thought ya did. So I thought, 'if anyone'll help me, it'll be Hakkai'. Guess I really am just a stupid monkey, huh?"

"Goku," Hakkai whispered, nearly blinded by the grief, the added guilt, "I really think... I do want you to be happy. But Sanzo... he is not for you. He's a priest. He should not have kissed you, to have confused you as he did. And-"

"S'not like he's a good priest," Goku said bitterly, bottom lip pushed out, and the deliberately childlike expression was strangely comforting in its normalcy – and only strengthened Hakkai's resolve.

But before he could speak, Goku went on, his voice drowning Hakkai in images, feelings...

"And anyway, that ain't how it happened. Sanzo didn't kiss me. I kissed him. 'Bout damn time, too."

--X--

It was a very cold night. Not that Sanzo minded the cold, per se – at this point in time, he was probably used to it. Or so Goku thought.

Goku thought a lot of things, mostly involving food or his 'master' – or some combination thereof. In fact, just last week he'd had a very explicit dream involving Sanzo, a bed (because he loved to sleep, too, especially on an actual bed, which had been denied him repeatedly on this journey, when he first came to live with Sanzo at the temple, and for five hundred years besides), and a bowl of cool whipped cream that had perfectly complimented the flavor, texture, and heat of his dream-Sanzo's skin...

But right then, what he was thinking was that it was freezing outside, with the rain pouring down and the wind practically howling and the occasional crack of thunder to help make things just a tad more creepy, and Sanzo had been just so focused on the weather outside for far, far too long. Goku wanted to make him feel better, would do anything to put an end to this horrible funk Sanzo always sank into when the rain was falling...

Though he'd never say it to Sanzo, who he feared might take it as a personal offense, Goku rather liked the rain. Okay, not this kind of rain, that overwhelmed his senses and forced him to stay (trapped) inside - but he sometimes daydreamed about a time in the future when he'd somehow (finally) gotten Sanzo to relax, to walk with him in the softly falling rain...

It would never happen, but it was a nice dream all the same.

The only bad thing about the rain, of course, was that it blocked out the sun. Both of them.

He'd tried, in these two days they had been waiting for the weather to finally get ahold of itself, to give Sanzo his space, to let him sort through his problems on his own, like he always did. But he found he couldn't do that any longer.

Not if he and Sanzo were going to attempt this drastic change in their relationship (which he'd decided they would; he was still trying to think of the best way to break that news to Sanzo). Not if he wanted to be worthy of his sun's trust.

Because sometimes, you had to do what you knew was right, even if someone else didn't want you to. Even if they resented you for it, or hit you with a paper fan. Or shot at you.

And besides, Sanzo was smart. He'd realize Goku was right, in the end, to not leave him to his moping. He'd see. He'd never admit it, but he'd see.

All the same, Goku stepped forward hesitantly – the last time he had tried to help Sanzo during the rain, it had gone badly. For both of them. Hard to believe that that wasn't so very long ago...

"Sanzo," he whispered, coming ever closer even though Sanzo didn't even have to move to let him know he wasn't wanted – Sanzo's very aura cried out fuck off and leave me alone! louder than his lungs ever could.

But Goku couldn't help the intrusion. He was too involved in this, now, to continue to let Sanzo suffer all on his own.

He stopped beside Sanzo, gently reached out and grasped one slender shoulder, feeling the slim muscle tense beneath his palm, bone jutting into his hand. He wanted to tell Sanzo he was too skinny, only he didn't really think he was – Sanzo was perfect, just as he was, because whatever he was was Sanzo

It made perfect sense to Goku, though he wasn't completely sure anyone else would see it that way.

(Still, it was comforting – the sun was constant, and warm, and Sanzo being Sanzo was constant, and he was always warm, even when he was being cold.)

Sanzo abruptly jerked away from his hand, violet eyes finally meeting his, warning him off and condemning him, too. Then one slender hand was lifting, probably to shove him away because despite Sanzo's foul temper and utter lack of patience at times, he never struck Goku with his open hand (that was abuse, and monkeys needed training, not abuse), and Goku caught the lifted hand and held it to his lips.

Sanzo's eyes were almost comically wide.

And inside himself, Goku beamed – this was right. Just as he'd known it would be.

I can love you, he wanted to say. You've lost before, but that was then, and I can love you.

Sanzo, after a minute of stunned acquiesce, yanked his hand away.

If you'd just let me.

"Get out," Sanzo muttered, but there was no breath in his voice, no force behind the reprimand of his words. Goku stood resolutely still, feeling some weird something inside himself continue to open up, to grow. Now that he'd given it a taste, he knew he'd never be free of that little demon inside him, that wanted Sanzo so badly he felt like whimpering. The hunger was almost overwhelming

He always was a hungry little monkey.

"I can't," he said thickly, feeling heat rise in the room though nothing in the air had changed. And Sanzo was just looking at him, like he'd seen this all before but only in his dreams, and now that it was real he didn't know what to do.

Goku felt the same way.

But deep down, he knew, he could feel, that this had been written for them long, long ago; this drama was theirs from centuries before, and only now was it able to come to life.

(A god smiled down at a child, the only person to ever make him feel, and if things were different, if the child were older and the god more self-aware, they might have grown to lovers – but before the child can grow up and the god grow inward, the god will die, and the child will be cast from Heaven, cursed to wait for the god he has forgotten to finally hear him calling.)

He drew closer, knew Sanzo would have recoiled if he'd had anywhere to go. (And how that would have mortified Sanzo – see, Sanzo, it's good I've got ya trapped, so you're not ashamed.) He reached out, carefully tracing Sanzo's strong jaw beneath his fingertips. When that elicited no response other than a darkening of already (passion-darkened) eyes, he ever-so-gently tilted Sanzo's face up.

Sanzo was staring at him. His eyes were young, younger than Goku's own. (Ageless golden eyes looked back at him from mirrors, heretical eyes; he never looked in mirrors anymore.) There was something about that violet gaze, something innocent and innocently broken, that made Goku want to cry.

"I will love you," he whispered.

And as Sanzo's eyes grew ever wider, Goku leaned forward, and kissed him.

--X--

Goku went quiet, and Hakkai, his mind spinning and recoiling and breaking, thought maybe he was done – this nightmarish incident, with that innocent voice regaling him with a tale of sin, was over.

But Goku looked at him, saw him, and was drawn inexorably into speech once more.

--X--

Then there were only flashes – silk skin occasionally brushing against his cheek, hot hands clenching in his shirt, desperate lips clinging to his mouth and refusing to ever let go.

Whatever else they were together, monkey and master, earth-child and sun-god, paled in comparison to this. Goku needed this. And he knew Sanzo did, too – maybe even more so than he.

Because Sanzo was the one to deepen the kiss, to pull him closer with anxious, desperate fingers and a clinging, desperate body, and if he thought, if anyone thought, Sanzo wouldn't be a pleasing lover Goku knew they must be sadly mistaken. Because no one could kiss like that, greedy and giving and sensitive, without being a sensual person...

And this was sending his brain down so many intense, intensely pleasing roads that he almost couldn't bear it.

Nor could he breathe. And he knew Sanzo probably couldn't, either. But what was breath when compared to the most beautiful thing he'd ever felt?

He was about to pull back, just enough so that he could whisper to Sanzo just how much he was truly loved, when something hit him from behind, knocked him aside. And when he realized what was happening, just before the pain knocked him out cold, all he felt was fear – the all-encompassing, ice-cold fear that what you love most in the world is about to be taken away, and there's nothing you can do.

He had known that fear and utter loss before, and vowed never to forgive anyone who forced him to feel it all over again...

--X--

"So what d'you think, Hakkai?" Goku asked, still staring down at him with eyes so huge and golden it seemed impossible for them to be real. "Should I forgive you?"

His face felt strangely numb. And Goku just kept looking at him. Just looking.

Finally Goku hopped off him, and the loss of his weight really should have made it easier to breathe. It really should have.

Goku left without saying another word. But really...

His silence spoke volumes.

--End Chapter Seven--