Title: Scents
Author: Lauand
Beta: Macavitykitsune
Pairing: None really, only some 58-39 implications.
Rating: PG
A/N: Written for the Saiyuki_time LJ Community.
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Goku usually slept like the dead and dreamt vividly. According to Gojyo, he snored, too, but Goku never admitted it. Even confronted with the "How could you know if you're asleep when it happens!" argument he would still keep his ground and his belief that he didn't snore. Not that he really cared, it was just that the negative would irk the kappa and annoying Gojyo was fun. It felt like family. Or so he supposed.
The problem with deep slumber was that it took a while to gather your wits when you woke up. Especially after dreams that involved dark caves and heavy shackles. Goku always woke disoriented and anxious, nerves frayed and eyes searching for something in the dark, for a hint that told him that he hadn't been left alone. He would strain all of his senses to scan his whereabouts, but the first reassurance he always got was the familiar scents in the air. There were more blonde people, more tall, gangly figures and more smiling men in green tunics, but no one in the whole world smelled like his teammates.
He had commented on it once. Sanzo smelled like the sun. Gojyo had smacked him and laughed, loudly assuring him that the sun had no smell. Then the kappa had looked warily at Hakkai as if waiting for a correction or some scolding, but Hakkai had just smiled at Goku, the kind of warm and condescendent gesture he reserved for not too bright but terribly endearing students. Sanzo had narrowed his eyes and 'tch-ed', then ignored him.
It was true, though. Sanzo smelled like daylight, summer days and paper planes crossing clear skies. Beyond the tobacco and the sweat, Sanzo's scent was like a bright morning. It was more than pleasant, it was good.
Gojyo smelled like a river. Not entirely clean, but full of life. Like water. The reek of beer and cigarettes and sex couldn't completely nullify the scent. Of all of them, Gojyo had the sharpest smell, strangely undefined, half-way between human subtlety and youkai musk, but that peculiar lack of definition made it curiously all the more recognizable. Gojyo smelled like Gojyo. In a not totally unpleasant way, since the kappa liked to keep himself mostly clean. Not as much as Hakkai, though.
Because Hakkai's scent was nearly overpowered by the smell of soap. The man was obsessive in his cleaning habits, he washed his hands at least ten times a day. Gojyo and Goku had more than once agreed that this couldn't be good for a body, but Sanzo always smacked them with the fan and ordered them to leave Hakkai and his ablutions in peace. Goku had wanted to ask what 'ablutions' meant, because it sounded like a disease and he was starting to worry about Hakkai's health, but Gojyo's survival instincts kicked in and he dragged Goku away from the pissy monk before they could anger him any further.
Yes, Hakkai always smelled of soap and jasmine tea. But underneath it all was the scent of the earth, the trees, the animals, the grass. Hakkai smelled like a forest. It was a youkai scent, but one which was terribly nice in Goku's senses. It was a pity that Hakkai was so determined to hide it.
Goku couldn't put into words how he smelled himself. He recognized his own scent, of course, but couldn't relate it to anything. Gojyo used to complain he stank like a monkey, but Gojyo not always said what he really thought if what he thought was a compliment and the recipient of the words wasn't a pretty girl.
Hakkai had once told him that he smelled like rich soil, and Gojyo had burst out laughing, babbling nonsense about dung. Then, Sanzo had intervened shooting and told him that he smelled like he smelled and that was that. Sanzo's input hadn't been very enlightening, but it was Sanzo's and that was enough for him.
That about their individual smells. Sometimes, however, Gojyo and Hakkai's scents would intertwine so that the both of them smelled like rain in the woods. The soap's perfume would be strong, threatening to mask the mingled scent, but Gojyo's musk was persistent and it would cling to Hakkai's skin just like Hakkai's would stick to Gojyo's.
It was on those occasions that Goku would really wish to know how would the sun smell if he mixed a little with rich soils, monkeys or Gokus in general. Or how it would change his own scent if it was touched by the smell of daylight. He never wondered aloud, though. He just waited. Waited in silence, because the sun always rose in the mornings and sometimes, that was enough.
So, when he woke up from his deep sleep, before opening his eyes, he would sniff silently the air and breathe the familiar smells that would put his disoriented mind at ease. He would catch whiffs of sunlight, forests and rivers and would think 'it's alright, I'm home'; and really, that was all a little monkey could ever have asked for.
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