I quickly stripped, washed my hair, and slipped my wet, but clean clothes on. "Feel better?" Hakkai asked. "Yeah." A warm breeze dried my clothes and hair quickly. I conjured up a little rain cloud and used it to wash and heal Goku's wounds. "Next time you two have a fight, try not to knock each other out of the jeep. Ok?" Sanzo said. I nodded and passed out next to Goku in the back of the jeep. I woke up and looked at Goku asleep next to me. I sat up and gazed the little town which Hakkai was driving through. Goku sat up as well and rubbed his head. "Gods Ryn, did you have to hit me so hard?" I looked at him and lifted my shirt up to show him my bruise. "Gods Goku did you have to hit me so hard?" I mimicked. "You knocked me out!" He said. "You made me cough up blood!" I shot back. "Will you knock it off?!" Sanzo said hitting us with that damn fan. We both sat down hard. I started to cough again, but no blood.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Tonight the fan burns." He laughed and nodded. "I'm not joking." I said with a dead serious face. Goku stopped laughing and grinned evilly. I grinned back and quickly thought of a plan. We found an inn and got five rooms. Sanzo said that it was best if none of us stayed in the same room. "I don't want either of you to stay with Ryn. There's no telling what would happen." "Why? What would happen?" Goku asked. "Shut up Goku!" all three of us said in unison. He kinda shrunk back and stayed quiet. My room was sandwiched in between Sanzo's and Goku's. Just so he could keep an eye on me he said. I waited till everyone was asleep which took a while. I snuck out of my room and into Goku's.

"Goku wake up." I whispered. The monkey continued to snore. I wasn't going to shout, lest Sanzo hear, so I pulled the sheet off the bed and the monkey fell off with it. He hit the floor with a thunk and woke up. "What do you whant?" he yawned and sat up. "We're going to burn the fan remember?" I leaned over, my hair falling all around my face. "Don't do that Ryn, you look creepy." He mumbled. I went to walk to the door, but my foot got caught in the blanket on the floor. I toppled on top of Goku and we just stared at each other, our faces inches apart. "What the hell are you doing?"

We jumped apart and turned to face Gojyo. "I heard a lot of noise coming from in here, but I didn't think I'd find my girlfriend sleeping with the pet!" He hissed. His face was as red as his hair, and I could tell Goku's and mine were red as well. "Gojyo, we weren't doing anything, we were figuring out a plan to play a trick on Sanzo." Goku said. I nodded my head furiously and nearly made myself dizzy. "What kind of trick?" He asked, shutting the door and turning off the lights. I squinted against the harsh light as I continued. "We were going to burn the fan." Gojyo smirked. "Sounds like a plan." I nodded and flicked the lights back off. "And unless you want him to know we're coming, shut up and stay quiet."

The plan was that I would use an air spell to get into his room, grab the fan which was laying on sitting on the table, bring it out and watch it burn. Gojyo and Goku waited in my room while I got the fan. I adjusted to dark in the room, and quickly spotted the fan. Air spells worked great when it came to being quiet and nearly invisible. You see, air spells make you semi-transparent and you can walk through anything. During a battle you use them to avoid getting killed. I quickly grabbed the fan, and replaced it with a mini paper one. I looked at Sanzo, and could only see his upper body. Dressed in that skin tight black thing with the metal end, WOW! The damn monk was about as hot as he was ever going to be. I nearly walked into the wall with out my spell on. I slipped out of his room and held the fan up triumphantly. Gojyo nodded his head and Goku smiled evilly. I opened the window and stuck the fan out of it. A little flame licked and hungrily devoured the paper fan. I smiled and watched the fan disintegrate; the smoke billowed out and went into Hakkai's room. "Crap!" I said. I ran out of my room and burst in Hakkai's. He was stumbling around his room sleepily. Hakaru was throwing a fit and flew around my head squeaking like some over grown rat. I hadn't realized there was so much smoke. I grabbed Hakkai and pulled him out of the room. He sat on the floor coughing.

Hakaru settled down and sat down by Hakkai's leg. "You ok?" I asked. Hakkai took a gulp of air and nodded. "I was going to shut my window when a cloud of smoke hit me. " He said leaning his head back against the wall. Goku came out and snickered at Hakkai's face, coved with soot. "Will you shut up and go away?" I snapped and smacked him. He grumbled and joined Gojyo across the hall. I cleaned Hakkai's face off and he stood up. "Where did the smoke come from?" He asked. I looked down and Goku avoided Hakkai's eyes. "Well?" "We were burning useless things. Like paper and junk." Goku offered. Hakkai looked skeptic. "Uh huh, so how about we all get back to sleep?" Hakkai said bending over and picking Hakaru up. I nodded and went to my room. Terako jumped on my bed and we both fell asleep.

The next morning I apparently woke up before anyone else. I sat up and stretched. Terako sleepily got off my lap and snuggled on my pillow. I wandered downstairs and got a coffee. The coffee tasted really bitter and I decided not to finish it. The girl behind the counter smirked at me. Terako pawed at me knee. Wait! I left her in my room. How did she get out? "You are stupid. They were right, it was easy to kill you." The girl said. I turned my attention back to her and got a quick look at her pointed ears and distinct mark on her arm. Demon. A bullet shattered behind me and I fell to the floor. Something about my hand bothered me. "Ryn!" Sanzo shouted. He knelt next to me and held my head. My hand had a faint black line running up it just a little. Damn it I didn't need this now. I passed out as Sanzo and Hakkai looked down at me.

My hands hurt like hell. I woke up and looked down at the floor. Gojyo was asleep on a little pallet. I stared at his beautiful hair and perfect features. I gently ran my fingers along the scars running down his face. His eyes parted and he smiled up at me. "Feeling better?" he asked. I nodded. "What time is it?" I asked sleepily. "'bout 11:30 p.m. You passed out this morning." He said sitting up. "Wow" I murmured, and leaned my head back against my pillow. "May I?" Gojyo asked indicating the other side of my bed with his head. I looked at him. "You know how I feel about sleeping together." I said turning to look at the lonely pillow. Turning back he gave me the puppy dog pout. Damn! I shook my head and smiled. "Fine, but nothing happens." I said firmly. Gojyo seemed content with that and leaned over and kissed me sweetly on the lips. I rolled over and he climbed in with me. We fell asleep with his arm around my waist. Like I said nothing happened.

I woke up and he was gone. I automatically knew that Sanzo hadn't known he was in here in the first place. I smiled and wandered to Hakkai's room. I had a question for him. I knocked on the door and a muffled 'come in' answered. I walked in and was slightly embarrassed. Hakkai stood there with out a shirt and only had his pants on. "Oh…um...I'll come back later." I stammered. "No, it's ok." Hakkai said and grabbed a shirt. His muscles rippled under his creamy skin and …wait…what was I saying…I am in love with Gojyo not Hakkai. But, Hakkai did look good shirtless. I giggled. Hakkai looked at me questioningly. "What?" "Nothing, I was just laughing at a…joke." I said slowly. "Did you want something? It's really late, or early depending on which way you look at it." I glanced at his watch it was only 2 in the morning. "What happened?" "Answering a question with a question nice. " Something about Hakkai was scaring me. "Hakkai are you feeling ok?" I asked watching his every move. "Yes, why do you ask?" he said. "Just wondering. Where's Hakaru?" I asked keeping him in my full sight. "Playing with Terako I think." That confirmed it. Hakkai always knew where Hakaru was.

Demons seemed to be doing a lot of imposing lately. "Well as long as you're here, we might as well." the fake Hakkai smirked. "Might as well what?" I said backing away. He came toward me and backed me into a wall. "I think you know." He grinned menacingly. Like lighting he flashed and pinned me to the wall. I struggled, but was still weak from my recent poisoning He crushed my body into with wall with his, and crashed his lips on mine. I heard a low moan, coming from somewhere in the room, and I struggled even harder. He leaned back still holding me to the wall and smirked. "You're a great kisser; I'll bet you're ever better in bed." The demon flung me in the bed and looked at me hungrily.

My fire spell was useless, the poison or whatever had reduced it a mere flicker on my hand. Crap. I clambered over the other side of the bed, and fell off. The demon grabbed my arm and slung me on the bed again. A figure loomed behind him. The demon had morphed into his original form and had me pinned to the bed with him kneeling over me. Just as the demon lunged for my neck, a blast of chi killed him. "Are you ok?" Hakkai asked. I was shaking. "Yeah, I think so. What happened?" I rubbed my neck where the demon had pinned me down. Hakkai sat on the edge of the bed. I sat up and looked at him. His eyes glittered in the half light. "Hakkai, what's wrong?" I placed my hand on his shoulder. "Ryn, I almost lost you." He said and pulled me to his chest. Gods, couldn't I go one day without being crushed to death more than once. The way Hakkai was acting was very unusual. When he thought of Kanan, he got quiet, but not like this.

For once I didn't struggle to get away from his grasp. He shuddered and I could tell he was crying. I gently pulled away and looked at him. "Hakkai, its ok, I'm still here, you won't lose me that easily." He looked at me with those beautiful green eyes and smiled. "I guess it would take more than a demon to kill you. Oh, by the way, you're down one life, now you have sixty-eight." I stared at him. "What?" He stood up and looked at me. "Yeah, when you drank the poison you died." I shrugged. "Oh well, that's not important. What was the aura doing in my blood…again?" Hakkai shook his head "I'm not sure, but we'll have to keep an eye on that." He walked over to a little glass bottle sitting in a corner that I missed. "Chloroform, that bastard drugged us with chloroform. Hakkai rubbed his head and smashed the little bottle on the floor. I jumped. Something banged around inside the closet. Hakkai opened it and out fell Hakaru. "How could he do that to him?" Hakkai looked at me with a face mixed with rage and pain.

"What type of person could do that to a defenseless animal?" I shook my head. "A demon?" I answered. He grinned. I got off the bed and walked over to him. "You're doing a pretty good job of protecting me Hakkai. Don't worry." He smiled and put his arm around my waist. Hakkai pulled me over to him and trapped me against his chest. Hakkai gently kissed the top of my head and deeply inhaled in my hair. He seemed to linger over the sent and let go. Those soft dark green eyes stared deep into my bright green ones. They seemed to be telling me something that I couldn't quite get. I knew he was going to tell me something soon, so I waited.

"Ryn, I know that you're claimed by Gojyo, and I know that he loves you very much. Please love him back, and never lose him. But always know this: I love you as well. I want you to like me for who I am, and please let me protect you. If you need it or not, let me feel as thought you need me." He grabbed my shoulders and leaned his head down. I was speechless. Unconditional love from someone who's affection I couldn't return. That was really hard. Hakkai was the sweetest person I knew, and all he wanted was for me to be safe and happy. Hakkai picked his head up and let me go. "Ryn, don't think about it to much." Hakkai said. I slowly nodded and backed out the door.

I ran to Gojyo's room and jumped on his bed. "Wha'?" he sleepily grumbled. Looking at the clock I saw that it was 3:30 in the morning. "What do you want Ryn?" Gojyo asked gently tugging on my hair. I smiled and laid my head on his shoulder. Wrapping his arms around my waist he kissed my head. I sighed. "Nothing, I was cold and I had a really bad dream." I put a whimper in my voice and he held me tighter. "I can't do much about a dream, but I can get you warm." He said with a smile in his voice. "Shut up, I'm warm enough now." I said aggravated. He released me and turned over to where he was above me and looking down.

"Sorry," he said "Old habits die hard." He kissed me deeply and wrapped his arms around my body. I kissed back and tangled my fingers in his hair. He pulled away and trailed his lips to my collarbone. "Gojyo stop." I mumbled. He didn't listen and started to suck gently on my skin. He soon found my soft spot and I suppressed a gasp. Gojyo smiled against my skin and I gently pushed his head away. "Now stop!" I said firmly. Gojyo smiled and lay back down. I fell asleep in his arms and we slept till about 9 o'clock. Gojyo woke up and disentangled himself from me. He got dressed and pulled me out of bed. My feet hit the floor, and it happened to be ice cold. I yelped and dove under the covers. "Come on Ryn we got to go downstairs, everyone's waiting." The door opened and who stalked in but Sanzo.

"Ryn! What the hell are you doing in here?" Sanzo shouted. I shakily got out of the bed, freezing my ass off and stood in front of Sanzo. "Warming up?" I chattered. "What?" He asked nervously. I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Nothing happened." "Oh yeah? Then what happened to your neck?" I rushed to the mirror. A faint outline of a bruise in the shape of a hand wrapped itself around my throat. "Gojyo didn't do that, that's for sure." I said rubbing my neck. "Than what did?" Sanzo asked testily. "A demon." Hakkai's voice broke the silence. "She want to my room to ask a question and an impersonating demon grabbed her and tried to strangle her." He said.

Sanzo grunted and stalked out of the room. "Hey Ryn, you do know that you and Goku owe me a fan right?" He called over his shoulder. "Hehehe yeah, sure." I said nervously. Gojyo shook his head and pulled me out of the room. Hakkai gave me a look, like that of a big brother and I smiled. I lived with the best guys a girl could know. Sure they got on my nerves and well, I wouldn't trade them for anything. I guess I really did know how lucky I was. Soon we would be on our way to fight Kugaiji and stop Jumaoh. After that, we'd all go our separate way's but for now, I would continue to love Gojyo, respect Sanzo…kinda. Argue with Goku and be protected by Hakkai. Well, what more could you ask for? So where ever we go, and what ever we do, just continue to look to the West and who knows. Maybe you'll see four guys, a girl and a little green jeep rolling up and causing trouble. But yeah, would you really want it any other way?

The End!

Authors note: Thanks for all you who waited so patiently for this. Thanks for the support and the comments, you guys are the best. Thanks again, Cleao