Someone tell me why the muse strikes when I have projects due and should be working on those instead. Anyway, bit of a lapse since the last update and I apologize for that. This chapter comes from me being a closet Sanzo x Lirin fan, and from reading a certain Sanzo x Yaone fic far too much especially now that Hazel and Gat have made their debut.

In any case, enjoy the next chapter and sorry it's a bit short!

Edit- Fixed a few typos. Heh.

Chapter 14: Just a Little Down Time

"Hey, gramps." Kouryuu dropped himself down in the chair next to the older demon. It had been a week since his last encounter with the group carrying that scripture thing, but he was still feeling odd about the whole thing. Like there was something pulling at his chest and then digging in tight. The whole ordeal just made his head hurt thinking about it. He kicked his legs out in front of him and leaned back to look at the rafters in the ceiling. If he looked close enough he could see Gyumaoh's head over the wall. "You ever feel unsure about something, to the point where you second guess yourself?"

Wang laughed a little. It seemed Nii's new toy was going to surprise him. It only made the elder demon appreciate the capacities of mind and will even more than he already did. It was another one of those something or others that came with age. Wang looked forward to seeing Nii's face when this boy's new self awareness was more obvious. "Everyday, youngster."

"How do you deal with it?" Kouryuu fiddled with a pencil that was hanging near the edge of the desk and watched it roll a bit. "I know Dad's gotta' be going somewhere with all of this, but I'm not quite sure if I should be doing it. Is this whole revival thing really so important?"

"You going through a rebel stage, I take it?"

"Don't laugh over there," Kouryuu crooked a smile himself at the old geezer. There was something about the elderly that made him more comfortable. "You'll choke or something."

"Glad to know my little adopted grandkid is concerned."

"Oh shove it." Kouryuu pushed off from his seat and turned to face him again. "But your sarcasm is noted, and no, I plan to follow through loyally. I trust Dad, it's bugging me, but I trust him."

"Of course." Wang looked up to see the young man that was worth all the trouble. Even in this pathetic brainwashed state, there was something powerful radiating off of him. And it had nothing to do with Nii's little genetic tweaking. "Stop making that pout of a face, you look like an old man."

"And you would know, wouldn't you?" Kouryuu shook his head slowly and took a breath. He needed a walk. "See you later old man. And um, could you not tell Dad about this?"

"Of course, not a peep to Daddy from me." Wang chuckled and then mumbled more quietly as Kouryuu started to walk away. "I'm pretty scared of him, too."

Kouryuu left the old man to his work and amused chuckles as he wandered across the laboratory to the door. It was stuffy in this little room, and Dad wouldn't mind if he took a peak around the castle. It's not like he hadn't done it a before, anyway. Making sure the lab door was shut tightly behind him, Kouryuu shook his hair out a bit before strolling down the hallway. He received strange stares from the guards, but that was to be expected. There weren't many humans in Houtou Castle, so he probably did stand out. More so because he wasn't wearing a lab coat.

The blonde stretched his arms out a bit as he walked and could feel his face settle into a bored expression. There really wasn't much to do around this place when Dad wasn't barking orders or Mom was making excuses to get away from Dad. He turned down an empty hallway when he remembered the look on Mom's face when Dad said he had learned a new trick. Kouryuu almost felt a smile creep onto his face at the thought of Dad chasing Mom around the lab again, but his thoughts were cut short by a bobbing pony tail behind a bench against the wall.

The bright orange flash of hair swayed a bit before it got the best of Kouryuu's curiosity. Taking a few quiet steps up behind, he found himself staring at none other than Lady Koushuu's little girl on her hands and knees looking all the world like she had lost a contact. Kouryuu leaned over her shoulder and quietly said 'boo' in her ear for the heck of it.

Lirin could hear laughing as she jumped and fell back. The ground squeaked a little when she shoved herself off of it. Lirin turned an angry glare to whoever had been able to sneak up behind her, but it stopped short when she saw baldy face snickering at her. "Baldy Sanzo? What're you doing here?"

"Again with this Sanzo thing. Do I really look that much like him?" Kouryuu rubbed his hair with the flat of his hand as the girl stared at him. "But I was going to ask you the same thing almost, what's the princess doing on the floor?"

Lirin looked at the blonde man in front of her carefully. He sure looked like Sanzo, and he even had Sanzo's eyes. Plus, she wouldn't put it past Sanzo to wear khaki's or skin tight black shirts, but there was no way this was the same guy. He was smiling, not smirking, but really smiling. "Yeah, you look just like him. It's freaky that you sound like him, too."

Kouryuu shoved his hands into his pockets. Well, now Kouryuu had four confirmations that he looked like the Sanzo of the Sanzo Party. Kouryuu wondered if Dad had done that on purpose when he was making him in the lab. It would explain why he randomly chose to make Kouryuu look nothing like his parents at any rate. "Really now?"

"Yeah."

"So, what were you doing?"

"I was looking for a button."

"A button?" Kouryuu shifted his weight as he stood in the hallway and set his eyes towards the ground. The blonde assassin browsed around the tiles for a bit before settling his eyes on a tiny shining object. He smiled a little. "Is it blue?"

"Yeah!" Lirin jumped a little. "Do you see it?"

"It's right there, under your feet."

"Oh! How come I didn't see it!" Lirin grinned as she held it between two claws. This was just what she needed to finish a little gift she was making for Yaone. Yaone had been feeling really lousy since some jerk raided her lab and Lirin wanted to make her feel better. Lirin had even been good enough to stay inside the castle this week! "Thanks so much, mister?"

"Kouryuu." The man smiled a little at the girl. She was kinda cute for something that came from that bitch and her ox of a husband. "And you're, Lirin, right?"

"Yup!" The princess nodded and then got a puzzled look on her face. "How come I've never seen you around before? I think I'd notice a human running around who looked so much like Baldy Sanzo."

"You didn't notice that button."

Lirin narrowed her eyes. "Stop laughing at me!"

Kouryuu couldn't help himself and leaned down and pat her on the head. He may not have been sure why, but there was no question that he liked kids. There was just something raw about them that was more honest. "But you're so cute when you're mad."

"Hey!" Lirin swatted at his hand when he went to ruffle her hair. "It took me forever to get it up in that pony tail! Stop messing with it."

"But I bet it looks better when your hair is down." Kouryuu loved pushing buttons when he could. He must have gotten that form Dad's side of the family. He laughed when he successfully dislodged the band from the girl's hair and the hair spread out around her face. It was all frizzy, but laid flat enough considering how long it had been stuck up on her head. "See, much better, isn't it?"

"Give that back!" Lirin made a jump for the band but the guy just held it up higher. Lirin hated being short.

"Jump for it."

"Meanie!"

"If I'm so mean, than why are you laughing?"

"I said give it!"

Kouryuu let out a huge exhale of air when the girl tackled him in the chest and brought him down to the floor. The older man hadn't been expected that and could feel a tiny ache in his head where it had smacked the floor. He tried to take in a deep gulp of air, but it was hindered as she was sitting on his gut holding up the band triumphantly. She was a strong little bugger for such a light thing. "No fair."

"Hee hee, when you pout you really look like Baldy Sanzo."

Kouryuu leaned up a little on his elbows and watched Lirin slide back a little until her back was flush with his knees. "You must like this Sanzo guy if you keep talking about him."

Lirin blushed a little. "Don't be silly, he's my big brother's enemy even if he is fun to play with."

"So you must love your big brother more than this Sanzo guy, then?" Kouryuu felt weird talking about families. He loved his own more than anything in the world, but there was something about talking about them that created a little ache. Though, the ache in his chest when Lirin pounded a fist into it worked wonders on his instant melancholy mood.

"You better believe it!"

Kouryuu laughed a little before holding himself up a little higher to a better sitting position. He made sure to grab Lirin's hips so she wouldn't fall off and hit her head as he did so. She giggled a little and shoved at his hands as she exclaimed "Your hands are cold!"

Kouryuu smirked and her eyes got really wide in a reaction the blonde was satisfied with. "Then how about I do this!"

Lirin shrieked in laughter as his hands shifted up to clamp around the exposed area of her stomach. He wiggled a few fingers lightly looking for sensitive areas. Now she knew why Yaone was always fussing about her stomach showing! It was a vital weakness! "Stop it! That tickles!"

"Get your hands off of my sister!"

"So, now what do we do?" Gojyo mumbled around the head of his beer bottle. After they somehow managed to drag Goku back to Jeep they had headed for town. Gojyo's plan was to get as smashed as humanly possible and let Hakkai handle it. He was better with the brat anyway, both of them. "Now that Master Sanzo's gone crazy and shit?"

"Gojyo." Hakkai admonished and cradled his own beer bottle. Normally he would have preferred something more refined, but he didn't expect much better could be found in this dump of a bar. Hell, he was glad they had found a place to stay at all. "Please don't talk that way, this is serious and I'd like to get something productive done today since we just been sitting here doing nothing for two now."

Goku huffed into his arms and chewed on an orange rind absently. He had already eaten about ten plates worth of food trying to calm down, but now that he'd run out of food he had to think about Sanzo again. And that just hurt right now. He listened as Gojyo started throwing drunken slurs towards Hakkai and wondered what would become of them all now. Sanzo wasn't acting like himself, Gojyo was depressed and Hakkai was looking desperate. As for Goku, he couldn't decide if seeing Sanzo again soon was a good thing or a bad thing. As much as he wanted to see the monk, he wasn't looking forward to another fight with the man.

"As I was saying," Hakkai cuffed Gojyo behind the ear and waited until the other man turned back to nurse his drink. He then rubbed Goku's shoulder slightly to make sure he was listening. When those little golden eyes peaked up he continued. "At least now we know that Sanzo will be coming after us again. So instead of looking for him, we can now concentrate on what to do when he pays us a visit again."

"Beat the shit out of the bastard?" Gojyo snickered. "Not like we've never wanted to before."

"Shut up, Gojyo." Goku mumbled. "As true as that was, just please shut up."

Hakkai figured speaking before a fight could break out would be in everyone's best interest. "We'll have to at least do half of that. If we don't knock him out, he'll run away again. Restraining him is our only option if we want to find some way to get him better."

Gojyo looked up again. "How are we supposed to do that? Hit him on the head really hard?"

"Something like that, we're not even completely sure how this happened in the first place." Which was also bothering Hakkai. He prayed that whatever this was, it was reversible. The alternative scared Hakkai and made him sick to his gut. He was sure Gojyo and Goku felt the same.

"Hey, Hakkai."

"Yes, Goku?"

"What if we," there was a pause in Goku's voice that hung in the air. "What if we can't turn him back to normal? What if he's like all the demons with the minus wave?"

Hakkai smiled slightly realizing they were all on the same wavelength of thought. "I'm not sure, but if he is unreachable, than well."

"We kill him." Gojyo mumbled with the rim of slightly dust covered bottle kissing his lips.

Their fun was cut short by the furious shout that had carried down the hallway. Kouryuu looked over to see Kougaiji snarling in their direction. Yaone and Dokugakuji were flanking him. Kouryuu looked down to see his hands on Lirin's hips as she sat in his lap and it suddenly clicked why Big Brother resembled a snarling tiger. He slowly put his hand on the ground as Lirin waved timidly. Dad was going to kill him if he found out he had gotten into a fight with Gyumaoh's brat.

"Now get away from her." Kougaiji was confused about why Sanzo was in the hallway, but he really didn't care right now. He just wanted him to get the hell away from his sister. "Lirin, get the hell away from that pervert."

"Pervert?" Lirin echoed and looked back to Kouryuu. He was sitting kinda rigid and was looking at her brother funny. She didn't really get why he was scared, Kougaiji didn't attack someone unless they were evil or did something. She turned back to her brother with her cutest pout. "What are you talking about? Me and Kouryuu were just playing."

"I don't care what he called it, just get out of his lap." Kougaiji could practically feel his teeth breaking, considering how hard they were grinding together. And why did she call him Kouryuu? Why was the priest here? Kougaiji slammed his foot down. "Now."

Lirin sighed and jumped out of Kouryuu's lap, allowing him to stand up behind her. "I guess that means we can't play anymore."

"Something like that." The human took in the glares of the three demons who had stalked closer since Lirin had started moving off of his lap. This was not going to be a fun confrontation. "Hey, chill out and stop giving me that look. I didn't do shit to her."

"Lady Lirin, I think it would be best if you came over here." Yaone started quietly motioning the princess to come over. She noticed Dokugaku was tense beside her as well.

"What are you doing here?" Dokugaku finally spoke up and pointed a finger towards the blonde. "And what were you doing with Lirin?"

Kouryuu had to raise an eyebrow. Sure he knew it had looked suspicious a few minutes ago, but it should have been clear by now he hadn't done anything. Kouryuu tilted his head sideways and turned his eyes to Kougaiji. "What's with the third degree? Seriously, you'd think we weren't on the same side."

"Same side?" Kougaiji couldn't have heard that right.

"Yeah, you know, reviving Gyumaoh." Kouryuu didn't like where this was going. He was sure Dad had at least told Kougaiji's step mom about his little missions. Why wouldn't she tell the prince about them? Kouryuu's hands found their way to his waist as he continued on. This had to do something with Kougaiji not getting along with Dad then. "I know you and my old man don't get along to well, but really, I'm not stupid enough to molest Gyumaoh's daughter."

"Your old man?" Dokugakuji was the first to speak up in response to that statement. He was getting more confused by the second. What did Sanzo's dad have to do with anything? For what they knew, Sanzo's parents were dead.

"Dr. Nii." Kouryuu stared straight at the group in front of him. It wasn't like it was a big secret that he was a kid of the laboratory. "I've been working the Sanzo party mission on the side for you guys for like two weeks. Didn't Lady Koushuu tell you?"

"No." Kougaiji grit his teeth together and could feel the pricks of his claws from where they were digging into his palms. "She neglected to mention that little fact."

"Oh," Kouryuu made a note to bring that up with his folks later. It wouldn't have been good if Kougaiji and crew and showed up when he was fighting with the Sanzo party. They might mistake him for one of the bad guys. That demon summon of his was a nasty customer to deal with. Kouryuu scratched behind his head and chuckled a little. "Well, now you know."

Yaone nodded quietly as Lirin shuffled her way over. It was most unusual for something this big to have been going on without notice. She took this moment to look Sanzo over and pondered about what have happened to him. It was clear he still thought he was Kouryuu, but he was all grown up now. Her eyes followed his body from the head down until she saw his belt. Specifically, she saw the little bombs hanging off the back of his belt. "You!"

"Me?" Kouryuu pointed to himself as the woman started stalking towards him. He twitched when she grabbed a hold of his belt and yanked his hips up. "Listen, sweetie, if you wanna' do something like that then there's better places we could go."

"These are my bombs!" There was no mistaking the craftsmanship. These came out of her lab and this man was the culprit. Yaone was positive by the end of today 'Kouryuu' wouldn't be able to do 'something like that' ever again as long as he lived. "You were the one who raided my lab!"

"Yeah, sorry about that." Kouryuu looked up trying to remember the event. That had been a few days ago if he remembered correctly. "Dad said I could borrow some stuff from it. I wouldn't have made such a mess, but I was in a rush and it was all so disorganized. Took me forever just to find these."

"Disorganized? Disorganized? Why I 'outta! Dokugaku! Put me down!"

"Calm down, Yaone." Dokugakuji winced when she kicked him in the shin. It hurt, but it would be better than her starting a fight with Sanzo at the moment. Who knew what the psycho doctor had did to him in the time he'd been missing. Dokugakuji also didn't like the bad feeling he was getting about all this. Anything with Nii and Lady Koushuu behind it could not end well for anyone involved. "You can get him back some other way later when we know more about what's going on."

Kouryuu took a couple steps back from the raging woman as the swordsman tried to calm her down on the other side of the hallway. Kouryuu couldn't for the life of him figure out what she was so mad about. "What got her going?"

"Her lab is important to her." Kougaiji started as he walked up to Sanzo, Lirin trailing behind. He held a hand to keep her from getting too close. "Never go in there again."

"No promises." Kouryuu smirked. Red may have been a prince, but he didn't give the orders around here. Besides, she was kinda cute, and there was more than one reason to sneak into a private lab. Just so Kougaiji was on the same wavelength, Kouryuu sent him a wink.

"You'll regret it if you do." Kougaiji turned swiftly and grabbed Lirin's shoulder firmly. Nii had clearly rubbed off on Sanzo and that mean he didn't deserve more of a response to such lewd behavior. "Let's go, we're leaving."

"Bye Kouryuu! We'll play later, okay?" Lirin waved happily as she was dragged down the hall by her big brother. She giggled when he waved back and jumped out of the way when Yaone made a dive to get her bombs back. Dokugakuji of course grabbed her and she followed them down the hallway with Yaone complaining every step of the way. Things were going to be fun with Kouryuu around, Lirin just knew it.

"I'm not seeing the results that I want, Nii." Lady Koushuu snarled as she felt the man's hands creep up around her waist from the back. They were cold and she sometimes wondered if Nii had any blood running in his veins at all. "We don't have another scripture like you said that we would. So don't think you're getting lucky."

"Everything takes a little patience, my lady." Nii chuckled into her neck. She was wearing her white kimono again, the one that just begged to be stained again and again. "My darling little boy will come through, so no worries now."

"Besides," Koushuu smirked as she stroked his thumb absently and pulled his hands farther to her sides to set on her hips. "Aren't you cheating on your little wife right now?"

"If you mean our dear Dr. Hwang, I do believe she's filing for a divorce, anyway."

"Like you'd ever sign it." Koushuu cold feel her hair falling out of its bun after the weights had lifted from her thighs and she knew she was going to lose again tonight. That was alright, it wasn't every man who could care less if the name you were calling wasn't his. "You're not the type to let things that belong to you go easily."

"I keep track of what's mine."

"And you have a nasty little habit of making sure things go your way."

"Which is why my little Kouryuu is going to come through for us. He's going to be my perfect son."

"And if he fails?"

"I'll erase him and start him over again."

"Just like that? No parental guilt?"

"Coming from you who would sacrifice her own daughter?"

"Touché."