Authoress here.

Okay, so I don't update as quickly as I should. But I was recently threatened by PenPusherM to update or bad things would happen. So I emailed the chapter to myself, opened the email, copied and pasted thewhole chapter onto Word, savedthe document, and updated it - all in the school library during study hall. So be happy.

With that said, here's the last chapter! Enjoy it!

START CHAPTER

The next morning was colder than Machira could imagine a morning could ever be. What caused it to be so cold, she wasn't sure. Maybe it was watching a young woman who had lost her way wave goodbye to a man she would never see again but cared for too deeply for herself to even understand. Maybe it was the guilt of knowing that although she had faced far less trials in her life than a love struck young woman, and yet she was the one who wound up snuggled into Gojyo's shoulder while Goku sat alone. Or maybe it was the overwhelming emotions that threatened to spill over and infect those around Machira that caused her to feel withdrawn and frigid.

Machira sighed deeply into the half-demon's crimson hair and tightened her grip around his hand. He smiled down at her and planted a light kiss upon her forehead, his expression gentle and loving.

She was the only woman he had tried to seduce that had not surrendered her body to his primal urges willingly and fully, yet for some reason, it didn't matter to him. Sure, his reputation as a womanizer would be trashed if his friends back home found that he had actually fallen in love, but what did it matter?

This was real. This was deeper than a fling whose name he wouldn't remember the next morning. This girl could be the one.

Girl. His mental usage of such a word betrayed a fear he had tried to push to the back of his mind. She was still young – younger than any other woman he had been interested in, and far more innocent. He knew from her shy glances and how she shifted away in embarrassment if he moved to quickly that she had never felt a man's touch.

Would he be the one to rob her of that innocence?

He shifted his hand down to her waist, and a moment later, to her thigh. Even half asleep, Machira jumped like a frightened deer at his touch and brushed his hand off.

She's afraid, Gojyo reasoned to himself. And why shouldn't she be?

He tried to remember back to the moment when she actually, truly said that she loved him. Had it ever happened? With a jolt, he realized that she hadn't. When she had told him if she wanted him, a simple "yes" or "no," she had nodded instead of saying the words out loud.

Machira exhaled slowly and surreptitiously glanced at Gojyo's face to read his expression. He was deep in thought, staring at the ground ahead of them but not actually seeing it.

She felt somewhat guilty for not being able to share a bed with him. She trusted him enough to stop if she asked him to, but what were her limits? She was scared, deeply, fully, scared of being in love.

Was she in love? And for that matter, what exactly was love? How could she sum up a word that encompassed such a massive emotion? She had loved her parents growing up, but somehow doubted that the love she showed them was the same sort that a woman should feel for a man.

"Hungry?" Gojyo broke the uneasy silence and held out a chunk of bread to the woman nuzzled against him.

She shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

"I hate that word."

"Fine?"

The kappa nodded. "I've learned that when a woman says that she's fine, or everything is fine, or whatever, that nothing is fine."

Machira laughed lightly. "I really do mean that I'm fine when I say I'm fine, Gojyo."

"What about when you say nothing's wrong? That means that everything is wrong."

Machira crinkled her brow. "For some women, I guess...but not for all."

"Women are too complicated," Gojyo replied dismissively.

"And men are so simple that women don't understand them."

Gojyo gave Machira an odd look that made her suddenly feel as if she didn't know him. "You think that?"

Machira shrugged.

"So you think I'm simple?"

"I didn't say that," she replied, startled. "And I suppose men aren't really at that simple, it's just that..."

"Just that what?" He didn't give her a chance to reply. "You think women are better? That they're smarter? I'll admit that men have their flaws, but so do women. And if you keep ignoring your own flaws– "

She sighed, exasperated. "Do we need to do this?"

"If you keep generalizing guys like that, then maybe," he replied so sharply that she drew back as though she had been scalded.

Machira felt hurt, but more than that, scared at what this conversation could erupt into. "You generalized women in the same way," she pointed out timidly.

Gojyo rolled his eyes. "But I didn't insult them."

"Saying we're complicated isn't insulting us?" Machira replied softly.

He sighed. "I didn't mean it like that, Machira. I meant–"

"I don't want to have a battle of the sexes with you, Gojyo. I love you too much for that." Machira was startled by her own boldness. Somehow, after a full-blown argument, she realized that she loved him far too much to lose him.

Love. Tears sprang to her eyes as she realized what it meant to her.

Love is caring so deeply for a person that you would go out of your way to make them smile. Love is missing someone when they aren't always by your side, and wishing their arms were around you to keep you safe and warm when you need it. Love is smiling when you see someone without knowing any reason other than your own happiness that they're with you.

Gojyo was startled into silence. Momentarily, he recovered and tightened his grip around her. "I...I love you too, Machira," he replied shakily, his voice trembling.

"Let's keep the much to a minimum," Goku commented grumpily. "Listening to that shit makes me hungry."

"You just ate!" Sanzo said through gritted teeth. "How the hell can you be hungry already?"

Goku made a face. "We've been over this. I went without food for five hundred years, and so now my body is making up for it. Ooh! Ooh! I want miso soup, a meat bun, some wantons, a rice ball or five, a – "

"Goku, shut up!" Machira groaned. "You're making me hungry too!"

Hakkai chuckled and glanced back at them in the rearview mirror, but his apparent humor was not reflected in his eyes. A moment later, he said quietly, "I assume you want to know who this Kougaji that those women mentioned is, then?"

The atmosphere in the jeep shifted as Machira's eyes shifted to meet his reflection in the mirror. "Yes."

Through the explanation, Machira could feel shivers running down her spine. Kougaji was a powerful demon who seemed to be dead set on killing the entire Sanzo party. His motive, they assumed, was to get Sanzo's sutra for the purpose of resurrecting a terrifying demon lord named Gyumajoh.

She nodded calmly when he had finished. There was one loose end tied up, at least. "I still don't understand why the never noticed me."

Suddenly, she remembered the necklace she had purchased before Goku had gone missing. The golden pendant with the symbol for 'half demon' on it...

"Wait. I'm human, so I wouldn't show up when they scanned for demonic and holy magic!" Machira realized.

Sanzo took a puff on his cigarette, blowing the smoke into the wind. "Could be. Or maybe they just didn't care since you're a pansy ass little girl."

Machira grinned despite the insult and leaned forward to muss his hair. "I kinda missed the bitchy insults from you."

Hakkai could see the vein pulsing in Sanzo's forehead, and laughed nervously.

As usual, the priest retaliated by whapping her upside the head with his paper fan. "Do that again, and I'll fucking kill you!"

Machira rubbed her head, laughing.

Goku grinned. "So Sanzo hates both of us! I'm not the only one!"

"Sanzo hates a lot of people," Gojyo replied, lighting a cigarette which was promptly confiscated and thrown out of the jeep to die in the desert sands. He turned to stare, aghast, at Machira. "What the hell was that for?" he demanded.

"Smoking kills," came the cool and collected reply.

"Yeah," he replied, getting a devilish look in his eyes. "It does." At that, he jumped at the opportunity to tickle her sides, not really knowing if it would do anything.

Much to his delight, Machira yelped and jumped away, slapping at his hands.

"You're ticklish!" Gojyo cried, and deftly began to tickle her again.

"Stop...tickling...me!" she gasped between laughing fits. She flailed around for a moment before raising her hand upward with a can of beer. Gojyo's movements halted abruptly when he recognized it as his own, the last cold can in the jeep. "Stop tickling me, or I'll dump this."

Gojyo groaned in displeasure and reached for the beer. "Fine."

"I thought you hated that word," Machira replied, her eyes glinting with amusement as she handed him back the can.

"You're rubbing off on me."

Goku erupted into laughter. "Gojyo is becoming a chick!"

"Fuck you, you little monkey bitch!"

Machira gently set her hand onto Gojyo's shoulder, and he fell silent with a frown.

"Domineered!" Goku happily proclaimed, leaning back and grinning widely.

Machira rolled her eyes and settled herself against Gojyo's shoulder. Something told her that the rest of the trip would be very interesting indeed. "So...we're headed West?"

"Yes. It's a dangerous trip, you know. There are going to be demons and such everywhere," Hakkai warned.

Casting a glance at the half-demon beside her, Machira smiled. "I think I can handle it."

END

(dances around) It's done!

No lemon, though.

Oh well. Maybe I'll write one on an email basis or something.

Review! It makes me giggle in delight and frolic around my home like a hyperactive weasel!