Prologue
The sun was nearly at the highest point in the sky, barely hidden by the tall branches of the trees that swiftly passed by; the sounds of the forest hidden somewhat by the sounds of their tires rolling over the dirt road and the engine roaring somewhat as they went. It had been almost two days since they had left the previous town, and according to Hakkai, they wouldn't be reaching the next one until at least two days if they kept their current speed and not get deterred by anything.
Hakkai was behind the wheel, a tight smile on his face as he tried his best to remain calm and not give into his growing irritation to the argument happening in the back seat - a constant, everyday occurrence that had been happening for the past few months of their journey so he should have been used to it by now.
Sanzo was sitting in the passenger seat, his arms crossed as his limited patience was waning even more, his fingers itching to pull out his pistol and just shoot the two idiots already for some chance of peace and quiet.
Gojyo was glaring at the smallest member of their group, yelling at him to shut up already and calling him names - almost as if he were a child himself in maturity despite being around the same age as Hakkai (they were the older members, with Sanzo being a year or so younger) - and Goku was arguing just as much with the redhead in between complaining that he was hungry and begging Hakkai and Sanzo for food.
So, it was no surprise to any of them fully when Sanzo finally snapped and pulled out his pistol and shot a round in between Gojyo and Goku, causing both to quiet down to avoid a bullet between their eyes.
"Finally got on your nerves, huh?" Hakkai asks in a good-natured laugh, noting Sanzo sighing heavily as he slumped back slightly in his seat.
"Yeah. I'm surprised that you haven't lost it on them yet." the monk mutters, pulling out his pack of cigarettes to smoke a bit to calm his nerves.
Hakkai let out a small chuckle. "I'm doing my best to ignore them for the most part." he offers in a bright tone.
Sanzo glances over at him, raising an eyebrow at the green-eyed man driving. "And how's that working out for you?" he asks in a tone that said just try telling me that works.
Hakkai remained silent for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. "Not so well…" he admits softly, almost apologetically as he did so.
"Hey now, the dumb monkey started it." Gojyo offered up, waving his hand in the air slightly as he leaned back a bit in his seat, head leaning back to look up at the sky with a sigh. "There's nothing to do right now…" he mutters under his breath, his long red hair flowing freely in the wind.
Goku turned his golden eyes to glare at the older male before leaning forward in his seat a bit. "Sanzo, I'm really hungry!" he whines, a pout forming on his face and causing Sanzo to groan in frustration.
"And what do you want me to do about that, you stupid monkey?"
"Don't worry, Goku. In a little bit, we should reach a river that we can take a small break at to eat some food. Just hold out a little bit longer, okay?" Hakkai offers brightly.
Goku nods his head quickly, beaming at the man brightly. "Okay! Thanks, Hakkai!" he says quickly, leaning back in his seat to try and behave a little bit more.
Gojyo lets out a small chuckle, glancing over at his companion. "Careful, Hakkai. You're spoiling him too much." he offers teasingly, earning a whine from Goku and a light chuckle from Hakkai.
"Well, we could do with some more water, and it's about noon now anyways. There's nothing wrong with us taking a short break for some food and maybe we can also stretch our legs a bit." Hakkai offers softly, glancing at Gojyo in the rear-view mirror.
"Fair enough, I suppose." Gojyo offers softly, leaning his head back once more.
Goku suddenly sat up in his seat, golden eyes staring ahead a bit. "A storm's coming…" he mumbles, loud enough for the others to hear.
Sanzo let out another frustrated groan, shaking his head. "Shit...just our luck. How close do you think it is?" he grumbles, turning in his seat slightly to look at Goku for an answer. From the past three years of being with the kid, he knew fully well to not question Goku's sense of smell.
"At least an hour away? It's coming from the south." Goku offers, sniffing the air again. Gojyo sighs and glances at Hakkai.
"I guess that we're going to be stopping somewhere to wait out the rain? Cause I don't know about you, but I'm not wanting to be caught in the storm once it comes down on us." he mutters.
"Maybe we can find a cave or something to wait it out, as we won't be hitting the next town for a while. But we'll stop somewhere for that, don't worry." Hakkai promises, lightly urging Hakuryuu to go faster. Goku glanced at Sanzo and Gojyo for a moment, recalling how much they hated the rain. He didn't want to end up on their bad side once the rain started; and even though he constantly argued and fought with Gojyo, as well as annoy Sanzo, he did actually care for them both and tended to want to make sure that they were always okay. To Goku, the other three were closest to him; and he always wanted to do whatever he could to protect them and make sure they were okay…
And not only did he worry about the two being a bit too happy to kill whoever pissed them off, there was also the added worry that demons might try to attack them whenever they stopped - and even though each member of the Sanzo group were well adverse to fighting, the rain would make things a little bit difficult, depending on how hard the rain came down.
Goku was pulled out of his thoughts as Hakkai stopped the jeep next to a large flowing river. The riverbank was wide enough to easily walk around on and even park the jeep in any which way; and large trees fenced around it, the sounds of birds high up in the branches and Goku could smell hints of fruit up there as well.
"Alright, peaches!" he says brightly, hopping out of the jeep and quickly making his way up a nearby tree, his stomach growling loudly as he did so.
"Careful you don't fall and break your neck, you dumb monkey!" Gojyo called after him, getting out of the jeep and stretched his arms over his head, crimson eyes following Goku's ascent into the tree.
"I will, and I'm not a monkey, you damn water sprite!" Goku called back, easily reaching the peaches and grabbed as many as his arms could hold before heading back down to the ground, eating a few of the peaches quickly and sighing in content from the juicy ripeness they offered.
Hakkai laughs softly when he sees Goku with an armful of peaches, having been filling up their reservoir of water and Sanzo was walking back and forth a little bit to try and stretch out the stiffness in his legs from sitting in the jeep for so long. "I see you managed to find some food there, Goku." Hakkai offers a bright smile at him, standing up to place the water containers back into the jeep.
Goku nods his head, smiling brightly at him. "Yeah, I found the peaches up in the tree there!" he says happily, offering Hakkai one of the peaches after a moment. "Want one?" he asks.
Hakkai smiles more as he nods, thanking Goku softly as he took a peach. Gojyo hums as he leans his arm on top of Goku's head. "So, do the rest of us get a peach too?" he teases softly, causing the teen to frown up at him.
"Well, I was going to offer you one as well, but you were a jerk to me." Goku grumbles at him, sticking his tongue out when Gojyo scoffed in mock offense.
"Oi, dumb brat, just share the stupid peaches with him already!" Sanzo grumbles, frowning as he stooped next to the river to splash some water into his face.
Goku sighs softly before begrudgingly offering Gojyo a peach; but inwardly he didn't really mind it as he truly intended to share some of the peaches with the other three. It was just a matter of principle at this point for Goku and Gojyo to argue over food. Once he offered Gojyo a peach, Goku headed over to Sanzo and offered him one as well, a small smile on his face as he did so.
Hakkai hums softly as he looks around. "Should we look for a place to avoid the rain? I see the clouds darkening already." he hums, glancing up at the sky for a moment.
"Yeah, let's hurry on that." Gojyo mutters, frowning at the clouds himself before heading off into the trees to find a cave. Hakkai headed in another direction to search as well, while Sanzo and Goku waited at the jeep; Sanzo was looking over the current map of the area that they had and Goku was happily eating the rest of the peaches. All the while, Goku was keeping his nose and ears open in case they got ambushed by demons.
Sanzo sighs softly as he puts the map back in its place, violet eyes watching the river lazily move along its path. Goku glances over to him upon hearing the sigh, swallowing the mouthful he currently had. "What's wrong, Sanzo?"
"If the map is still correct of the area, then at some point we are going to have to cross the river; so I'm debating if we should do that now or later." Sanzo explains, finishing up his cigarette. "But that's assuming that the land hasn't changed too much…" he adds under his breath, tossing the butt of the cigarette away.
Goku nods his head slowly, leaning forward against the back of Sanzo's seat. "We can cross the river after the storm if you want." he offers softly, golden eyes almost shining in the pale sunlight. He turned when he heard the sounds of footsteps, relaxing when he caught the watery scent that was Gojyo as the redheaded water sprite came back to the jeep.
"So, I found a spot that we can shelter down in a little ways over there." Gojyo explains as the rumbling thunder could be heard as the storm began to roll closer toward their area. A few minutes later, Hakkai came back over and took his spot once more behind the wheel as Gojyo directed the way to the cave he found.
It took a little bit, and by the time they made it over there, the rain had begun to fall; starting off thin and slow but working its way to a more heavier rain. So by the time they had made it over there, they were all mostly soaked through by the cold rain. All the while, Gojyo and Sanzo were getting a bit more antsy and bitter; their moods having always gone sour whenever it rained. And the fact that it was cold and a heavy rain did not help matters; and even Goku and Hakkai were getting a little bit bitter themselves as well.
Finally reaching the cave, they quickly hopped out of the jeep and gathered out their water, food, and bedrolls to put them into the cave. The cave wasn't that deep, but it was big enough to shelter them from the rain with a little bit of room for them to be able to lay down and sleep if it came down to it. Once that was done, Hakuryuu was able to transform from the jeep and into his normal small dragon form, letting out small chirps and purrs as he curled up around Hakkai's shoulders while Gojyo worked on setting up a small fire for them to dry off with. Sanzo settled down against one of the cave's walls, his eyes closed as he tried to avoid the darkened thoughts that always came to him whenever it rained. He didn't want to lose his temper on any of them; recalling how he had done that to Goku once before and the guilt that had followed that.
Goku settled himself at the entrance of the cave, eyes watching the rain come down for a little bit; shaking the water droplets from his brown hair quickly before letting out a heavy yawn. "Think this will be going on for a while?" he asks, turning back to look at the other three questioningly.
Hakkai hums as he smiles at him. "I think it will be going for a while. So, I would advise getting some rest while you can and we should set up watches just in case." he hums softly. Goku hums softly, not fully wanting to take the first watch as he just wanted to sleep, his stomach happily filled for the time being.
"I'll take first watch. You guys get some sleep." Gojyo offers up, shifting a bit to better lean against the wall.
"You sure?" Hakkai asks softly, trying to hide the fact of how tired he was. "Because I wouldn't mind taking the first watch."
"Yeah, I'm sure. Get some sleep already before you fall over." Gojyo offers, a light hint of teasing in his tone as he spoke. "And that goes for you too, monk." he adds with a pointed look at Sanzo.
Sanzo let out a scoff as he settled down on his own bedroll. "Shut up already before I shoot you." he bites out, violet eyes closing soon after as he tried to drown out the sounds of the rain.
Goku hums softly as he nods his head to Gojyo. "Wake me up for the second shift?" he asks; to which Gojyo nodded his agreement. Once that was established, Goku moved to lay down on his own bedroll that was near the fire, hoping to warm up a bit and dry his clothes. Hakkai was still awake a bit, working to ensure the fire would keep going for a bit before he laid down as well.
Goku allowed the sound of the rain outside and the crackling of the fire to lull himself to sleep; feeling content in the knowledge that Sanzo, Hakkai, and Gojyo were there and safe. As he always wanted to ensure that those closest to him were safe and sound; and it was as if deep down somewhere in his mind, he knew that there was no one else in the world that he would rather be with.
Gojyo hums softly to himself as he remains on watch, crimson eyes watching the rain for a bit and a cigarette in his mouth. Occasionally, he would glance at his companions; making sure that they were okay and that they were resting. He let out a small chuckle when he saw Hakkai working a blanket over Goku's sleeping form; shaking his head as he watched. "You and Sanzo definitely spoil and coddle him." he offers softly.
Hakkai hums softly as he glanced up at him. "I'm sure that's not really the case." he says brightly, leaning back into his own bedroll somewhat. "Goku's young, after all. I'd feel that he needs someone with a little bit more common sense to look after him. Otherwise, I fear that he would leap headfirst into anything and everything." After a moment, he lets out a small hum himself, smirking at Gojyo. "And besides, you also spoil him sometimes; so I suppose all three of us are guilty of that." he jokes softly.
Gojyo chuckles softly as he glances at the sleeping teen, noting how he had placed his bedroll to be near all three of theirs, his right foot slightly set against Sanzo's side lightly and his left hand laid out toward Hakkai's knee as if ensuring some form of contact to make sure they were there.
"Yeah, I guess. But hey, the damn monkey is a pain sometimes, but he's still a kid." Gojyo admits softly; having a small soft spot for the loud younger male.
Hakkai chuckled softly as he settled down into his bedroll as well. "Well, I suppose that sort of thing happens when you travel together for so long…" he hums softly, laying down as Hakuryuu curled up next to him, letting out small purr-like noises as he did so. Hakkai glanced over at Gojyo with a softened look. "Don't stay up too long; and I'll take over watch whenever you're sick of it." he adds before falling asleep.
Gojyo smiles softly as he shakes his head. "Okay, you mother hen…" he mumbles softly, oddly finding himself relaxing a little bit as he felt content that they were okay, and that they were safe for the moment. Closing his eyes, he began to doze off somewhat; unknowing of the reason for the light feeling that he felt in his heart; or that the other three had a similar feeling going through them as well…
