(fic) Thaw
Oct. 17th, 2006 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cicerSome months ago, I was assaulted by a plotbunny insisting I write something involving Sanzo unwillingly overhearing Gojyo and Hakkai have sex. I resisted for a while, but eventually this tumbled out. It promptly got shoved into a corner of my harddrive, and was only recently rediscovered and given a quick spit-and-polish edit. I think I was inspired to write about cold weather during the summer, but fortunately now it's much nicer outside, so I don't have to resort to that anymore. *laughs*
As is frequently the case with my writing, this was intended to be shorter, funnier, and less sappy than it actually turned out. Ack.
It was cold.
No, Sanzo mentally corrected, it was fucking freezing, a kind of bitter chill that seeped into everything. It crept through coats and blankets and made even the fire seem weak and barely warm. He hated it. Trekking through the snow on foot after Jeep had given up several days back had soured his mood further than he’d known was possible. Normally, he would have demonstrated his annoyance with extra yelling and repeated and prolonged appearances from the fan, but at the moment it was just too cold to do anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.
Even the stupid kappa had stopped cracking jokes and fighting with the monkey, and Goku himself was also slightly subdued. The cold sapped their energy until they could do nothing more than attempt to keep warm. Sanzo hunched slightly under the blankets, dragging them closer around his body. They’d been lucky enough to find an empty cave to stay for the night. The snow had gotten worse, and Sanzo was not entirely sure that the four of them would have managed if they had to sleep out in the cold.
They’d stumbled upon the small crevice in the rocks just when they were all truly exhausted, having reached the end of their ropes several miles back but forging onward because there was nothing else to do. Finding a tiny but deep cave that kept them safe from the wind and snow and gave them a dry place to sleep and build a fire had seemed like a godsend, and Sanzo was almost tired and desperate enough to believe that perhaps someone really was looking out for them on their journey.
Still, if by some miracle there was a godly being keeping watch, they could at least have left a little more firewood or some more blankets, Sanzo thought savagely. It was becoming obvious that attempting to keep warm was a futile gesture. They’d placed their bedrolls as far from the mouth of the cave as possible, but the cold wind still snuck in. The walls of the cave themselves seemed to be made as much from ice as from snow.
Sanzo was frustrated and tired, but found it nearly impossible to sleep when all he could focus on was how damn cold he was. The monkey had dropped off almost before he’d spread out his bedding, collapsing on top of a pile of blankets and bags and passing out instantly. Sanzo spared a vaguely resentful thought towards him and his body, which never seemed to suffer too badly from the weather. He didn’t seem to suffer much from anything, come to think about it. Sanzo found that occasionally irritating, especially when he was particularly uncomfortable himself and rather envious of the monkey’s ease in relaxing.
Gojyo and Hakkai had settled down on the other side of the cave, putting their blankets close together. Neither Sanzo nor Goku bothered to comment on that anymore. It had been novel enough when it started, something for Goku to tease Gojyo about and fodder for Sanzo’s muttered comments about Gojyo’s lechery (neither of them quite dared to tease Hakkai, somehow), but it had grown to be something they were all used to.
Traveling together fostered an unpleasant sense of intimacy sometimes, and so when Hakkai or Gojyo crept over to each other’s bedrolls in the middle of the night when they were camping out, or when they disappeared into wilderness for a short time before dinner, Sanzo didn’t comment on it. He didn’t much care what they did, so long as he didn’t have to see it, and to give credit where it was due, they were fairly discreet about it and generally made sure to return to their own beds by morning or smooth and straighten their clothing before they returned from ‘gathering firewood’. So Sanzo really couldn’t complain about that too much.
Currently, he could hear the two of them occasionally turning over in their makeshift beds and whispering to each other every now and then. Sanzo couldn’t make out what they were saying, and for that he was grateful. He had grown accustomed to the unspoken arrangements the four of them had been forced to make, out of necessity, while they were on this trip. Sometimes they had to sleep closer to each other than they would have liked, or bathe together when there wasn’t enough water or when safety was an issue. They’d all seen each other’s bare bodies frequently when they had to tend to each other’s injuries, too. Still, it was a sort of intimacy that he was highly uncomfortable with much of the time, and Sanzo had no desire to breach the few boundaries that remained..
Sanzo tugged the blanket around himself more tightly, still struggling uselessly to maintain some of the warmth he’d managed to trap, when he heard a small sound from the direction where Hakkai and Gojyo were huddling. There was a whisper and a rustle, then a soft gasp. Silence followed for a few seconds before there was a small sound like a moan.
Oh, Gods, they weren’t. He heard Gojyo make a little sound that seemed to come from the back of his throat. They were. Bastards. Sanzo held still, trying to decide what to do. The idea of digging out his gun and firing a few shots off at their perverted heads sounded terribly appealing, but decidedly awkward. For one thing, the sound would probably startle them right out of what they were doing, and there was no telling what state they’d be in then. Furthermore, it would undoubtedly wake Goku up, which would lead to questions Sanzo really did not want to answer. He sighed and shut his eyes briefly before opening them to glare into the dark.
They were being quiet, he had to give them that, and he probably wouldn’t have heard them if not for the oppressive silence of the cave. Still, Sanzo was decidedly pissed off. They couldn’t restrain their libidos until a time when he and Goku weren’t lying five feet away?
Contrary to what the two of them seemed to think, he was sympathetic to their plight. He understood that it was difficult for them to be denied the opportunity to ‘spend time together’ as much as they would like. He could appreciate that, in spite of the fact that he couldn’t relate to the problem at all. Still, he politely looked the other way when they snuck away from the dinner table or disappeared suspiciously when they were taking a break from driving. He even tried to distract Goku some of the time in order to give them a chance to slip off with a minimum of awkward questioning.
And yet, despite his very generous actions, they did not seem to appreciate his sacrifices at all. Sanzo was quite sure of this, because there was a quiet sigh from Hakkai, some more shuffling around and little gasping whispers, and there could be no doubt but that the two of them were fucking right there. They weren’t being terribly quiet anymore, either.
He supposed he should be grateful; they could probably be louder, after all. He quickly steered his mind away from that topic as soon as it occurred to him. He did not want to question how loud they usually were or might otherwise have been, if they’d had a little more privacy. He was quite proud of the fact that he didn’t know the answer to that question, and he didn’t want that to change any time soon.
The fact remained, though, that they did not have privacy at the moment. Not at all. The temptation remained to yell at them to stop what they were doing immediately and go sleep on opposite sides of the cave. He most certainly could not fall asleep knowing what they were doing only a few feet away. Sanzo shifted uncomfortably under the blankets. Still, the prospect of a lot of noise and commotion wasn’t very appealing. Maybe they’d manage to get it over with quickly, anyway. In the meantime, well, he’d just try not to listen.
Unfortunately, it was rather hard not to listen, and even harder not to think about. The last thing he wanted was to be an unwilling voyeur in their perversity, but the harder he tried to distract himself, the more difficult it was to block out the quiet sounds coming from the other pile of blankets.
It was an unfortunate paradox, and one Sanzo found himself unable to do anything about. There had, of course, been lessons about this sort of thing in Buddhism. One wasn’t supposed to force ones mind to accept or reject any particular situation, one was simply supposed to let reality flow through and release all emotion.
Sanzo tried that for a total of seven seconds before Gojyo groaned again and Hakkai gave a little breathless laugh. Sanzo gritted his teeth and tugged the blanket over his head. Clearly, attempting to use the lessons on Buddhism he’d learned long ago worked as well as it had back then. Which is to say, not at all. He wasn’t terribly surprised. Quite a few of the tenants of the religion had proved totally useless to him, and most of the rest were only useful in rare instances. The only lessons he’d really cared about were the ones his master had taught him.
He wondered briefly what sort of advice Koumyou would have had in this situation, and immediately regretted it. Imagining Koumyou with him, listening to the two idiots screw, made the whole thing exponentially worse, something Sanzo hadn’t even thought possible. With a wince, he mentally banished Koumyou’s ghost back to its usual spot in his mind, but somehow he could still feel that Koumyou was laughing at him. He was not amused.
There was yet another rustle of blankets and a flurry of whispering, followed by more muffled sounds of pleasure, and Sanzo mentally groaned. How long was this going to take, for fuck’s sake? Granted, they probably hadn’t been at it for more than a couple of minutes. It probably just seemed longer since he was forced to listen to it. He quietly drummed his fingers on the blankets and waited them to be done with it.
While he was at it, he made a mental note to hassle both of them particularly badly the next day. He would avoid explaining why, since that would only lead to unpleasant and uncomfortable confrontations and explicit acknowledgements that he knew what they were doing, and in fact knew it much more intimately than he ever wanted to. But no explanations were necessary. He’d just be particularly difficult with both of them anyway.
Sanzo was entertaining himself with pleasant fantasies of shoving both of them off the nearest snow-covered peak and leaving them there when Gojyo made a particularly loud noise. Sanzo heaved an irritated sigh. He was forced to wonder whether they were doing this on purpose, if they somehow knew he was awake and would have to listen to them. He really couldn’t be sure. He wouldn’t put it past either of them, really. Gojyo was probably perverse enough to do it, and Hakkai…well, he was manipulative enough that he might enjoy it. Sanzo paused to try and remember if he’d done anything to incur Hakkai’s wrath recently, but couldn’t come up with anything.
They were still talking to each other though, in low, hushed whispers, something Sanzo couldn’t help to find a bit odd nonetheless. Obviously, neither of them were very quiet when they were doing this sort of thing; it was probably a miracle that neither he nor Goku had inadvertently overheard them before. It did seem a bit strange, though, Sanzo thought.
He had next to no personal experience with sex, by his own choice, but this was not the first time he’d been so unlucky as to observe other people’s habit. There had been a few extremely awkward occurrences at the temple when he was young, where he’d stumbled upon a couple of the monks defiantly breaking their vow of chastity. Additionally, one did not travel for over a year, staying in a variety of thin-walled inns, without having to listen to inconsiderate neighbors at least once or twice. Still, Sanzo could not remember overhearing two people who were as fond of talking at each other during the act as Hakkai and Gojyo apparently were.
It was not surprising really, Sanzo was forced to concede. The two of them didn’t appear to be together solely for the sex. He was loathe to speculate on their relationship too much; as long as they weren’t causing trouble he didn’t care what they were doing and didn’t really want to have to think about it too much. But they had been in close quarters for quite some time now, and it seemed like the further they went, the less privacy the four of them had. That hardly excused what they were doing now, Sanzo reminded himself, but it had given him the opportunity, whether he wanted it or not, to observe the two of them together.
They’d always been…unusually close. It was clear that they had an intimate relationship for some time. Exactly how intimate it was, Sanzo didn’t know. There had never been any defining moment where he and Goku had realized that their other two companions had ulterior motives for occasionally insisting that they be allowed to share a room at the inn. Neither Hakkai nor Gojyo had ever come right out and said anything, and there had never been any horrible situation where they had stumbled upon the two, in flagrante delicto. Thank the Gods. Sanzo was reasonably sure that would have been more than even he could take. And the idea of Goku witnessing such a thing too…it was enough to make him deeply grateful that Goku was, at the moment, proving to be such a sound sleeper.
There had been no moment of revelation when it came to Hakkai and Gojyo’s relationship, though. Sanzo couldn’t even remember a particular point when he’d realized what was going on between them. He’d never looked at them and suddenly understood, and overall they’d given remarkably little away. At some point, though, he’d caught on and, as with all other things that did not particularly concern him and had the potential to be troublesome, he’d ignored it. Goku had done the same. And that, quite simply, had been that.
In retrospect, though, certain events made more sense. When Sanzo reflected on the past, it was now with the knowledge that if Hakkai and Gojyo hadn’t been screwing at the time, the potential, at least, had been there. And that did clear up a few things he’d found odd, like why Gojyo was willing to get into a physical confrontation for the sake of someone he barely knew, as he had when Sanzo had first met him, intending to collect Hakkai. And for his part, Hakkai had most certainly attached himself to Gojyo more strongly than he had to anyone else, which Sanzo had always found a little suspect.
They’d been…good for each other, Sanzo couldn’t deny that. He’d been extremely skeptical about the wisdom of the two of them living together all those years ago. He hadn’t seen how it could possible work. They were both too different, too damaged on their own. Oddly, though, that had seemed to work for them. They filled in where the other was lacking, and if they were both already broken, they didn’t need to worry so much about what they would do to the other. It was a concept not beyond Sanzo’s understanding. He could appreciate the reassurance that came from knowing that you didn’t need to take care of someone, that they would stand on their own two feet without you.
But when it came right down to it, they made each other better. Gojyo had, quite literally, given Hakkai something to live for, and Hakkai was a source of stability for him. Sanzo had realized this fairly early on, and hadn’t bothered getting too worked up about their blossoming relationship. He had promised himself, however, that if things soured between them and the caused difficulties to the journey or, more importantly, to him, he’d make their lives a living hell. Unfortunately, he had failed to foresee the fact that things could get so good between them that it would also an inconvenience to him.
He would remedy that fact soon, though, Sanzo told himself. From now on, even if they were stranded in the middle of a frozen wasteland surrounded by enemy youkai, Gojyo and Hakkai would have to sleep at least a mile away from him. Perhaps two, just to be on the safe side. He’d accepted that there was no way out of his current situation, but he was already planning ahead to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Things on the other side of the cave seemed to be winding down though, or more accurately speeding up, which was presumably a good sign. Sanzo kept the blanket over his head in attempt to block out the noise as well as the cold, but sadly it seemed to do neither. Sanzo mentally added ‘buy thicker blankets’ to his list of things to do once he was no longer held captive by the snow and Hakkai and Gojyo having sex a few feet away.
There was more strangled groaning and panting, and Sanzo shut his eyes tightly and attempted to remind himself that what didn’t kill him would make him stronger, damn it, and he probably shouldn’t kill the two of them, because they might come in handy later on in the journey, and all sort of other things, until the noises died down and Hakkai and Gojyo seemed to have…finished.
There was silence for a few seconds, broken only by the faint howl of the icy wind outside the cave and Goku’s snores from several feet away. Sanzo dared to lower the blanket a little, checking to see if it was safe to listen. Also, it was becoming a little difficult to breathe while trapped under there.
The quiet stretched on, and Sanzo finally relaxed a little. Now that the situation had passed, he was decided that he wouldn’t kill the two of them, though he was leaving the option of torturing open. He sighed into the cold air and adjusted the blankets a little, hoping he’s be able to get some sleep and perhaps even forget what he’d just been forced to listen to.
There was a rustling from Hakkai and Gojyo’s blankets, and Sanzo immediately tensed as he decided that if the two of them were going to start again, then to hell with discretion, he was going to shoot them right then and there. But it was only the sound of blankets shifting and being fluffed. After a moment, Hakkai’s voice whispered something, presumably to Gojyo. Sanzo could hear most of it, the inflections and pitch of the voice making it obvious that it was Hakkai speaking, but he couldn’t tell what was being said and was grateful. Overhearing the two of the whispering intimacies to each other would have been nearly as embarrassing as listening to them have sex, somehow.
Gojyo’s voice, sleep-rough and a little slurred, responded to whatever Hakkai had said, and there was more quiet rustling, and then silence. Sanzo pulled the blankets around himself again and stared into the darkness. Hopefully, one of them would wake up before the others the next morning and shift their bedding apart a little. If not, Sanzo and Goku would politely look away and pretend they didn’t see Hakkai and Gojyo undressed and entwined with each other under the blankets. They were becoming remarkably good at that.
Their relationship had somehow become a thing that all four of the acknowledged was off-limits in terms of commenting upon it. It was a very intimate thing, and intimacy really wasn’t something that any of them had too much experience with. None of them had what one could really consider proper families, and as far as lovers went, the less that was said, the better. Perhaps someday they would have more knowledge in those matters, but for now their relationship was strange, new, and different. And aside from ignoring it, Sanzo didn’t really know what else to do. There would be some point where he’d have to deal with it on a more visceral level, and he knew that somehow. But that time would come later.
In the meantime, Sanzo shut his eyes, tried to ignore the two who he knew were cuddling on the other side of the cave, and attempted to sleep.
As is frequently the case with my writing, this was intended to be shorter, funnier, and less sappy than it actually turned out. Ack.
It was cold.
No, Sanzo mentally corrected, it was fucking freezing, a kind of bitter chill that seeped into everything. It crept through coats and blankets and made even the fire seem weak and barely warm. He hated it. Trekking through the snow on foot after Jeep had given up several days back had soured his mood further than he’d known was possible. Normally, he would have demonstrated his annoyance with extra yelling and repeated and prolonged appearances from the fan, but at the moment it was just too cold to do anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary.
Even the stupid kappa had stopped cracking jokes and fighting with the monkey, and Goku himself was also slightly subdued. The cold sapped their energy until they could do nothing more than attempt to keep warm. Sanzo hunched slightly under the blankets, dragging them closer around his body. They’d been lucky enough to find an empty cave to stay for the night. The snow had gotten worse, and Sanzo was not entirely sure that the four of them would have managed if they had to sleep out in the cold.
They’d stumbled upon the small crevice in the rocks just when they were all truly exhausted, having reached the end of their ropes several miles back but forging onward because there was nothing else to do. Finding a tiny but deep cave that kept them safe from the wind and snow and gave them a dry place to sleep and build a fire had seemed like a godsend, and Sanzo was almost tired and desperate enough to believe that perhaps someone really was looking out for them on their journey.
Still, if by some miracle there was a godly being keeping watch, they could at least have left a little more firewood or some more blankets, Sanzo thought savagely. It was becoming obvious that attempting to keep warm was a futile gesture. They’d placed their bedrolls as far from the mouth of the cave as possible, but the cold wind still snuck in. The walls of the cave themselves seemed to be made as much from ice as from snow.
Sanzo was frustrated and tired, but found it nearly impossible to sleep when all he could focus on was how damn cold he was. The monkey had dropped off almost before he’d spread out his bedding, collapsing on top of a pile of blankets and bags and passing out instantly. Sanzo spared a vaguely resentful thought towards him and his body, which never seemed to suffer too badly from the weather. He didn’t seem to suffer much from anything, come to think about it. Sanzo found that occasionally irritating, especially when he was particularly uncomfortable himself and rather envious of the monkey’s ease in relaxing.
Gojyo and Hakkai had settled down on the other side of the cave, putting their blankets close together. Neither Sanzo nor Goku bothered to comment on that anymore. It had been novel enough when it started, something for Goku to tease Gojyo about and fodder for Sanzo’s muttered comments about Gojyo’s lechery (neither of them quite dared to tease Hakkai, somehow), but it had grown to be something they were all used to.
Traveling together fostered an unpleasant sense of intimacy sometimes, and so when Hakkai or Gojyo crept over to each other’s bedrolls in the middle of the night when they were camping out, or when they disappeared into wilderness for a short time before dinner, Sanzo didn’t comment on it. He didn’t much care what they did, so long as he didn’t have to see it, and to give credit where it was due, they were fairly discreet about it and generally made sure to return to their own beds by morning or smooth and straighten their clothing before they returned from ‘gathering firewood’. So Sanzo really couldn’t complain about that too much.
Currently, he could hear the two of them occasionally turning over in their makeshift beds and whispering to each other every now and then. Sanzo couldn’t make out what they were saying, and for that he was grateful. He had grown accustomed to the unspoken arrangements the four of them had been forced to make, out of necessity, while they were on this trip. Sometimes they had to sleep closer to each other than they would have liked, or bathe together when there wasn’t enough water or when safety was an issue. They’d all seen each other’s bare bodies frequently when they had to tend to each other’s injuries, too. Still, it was a sort of intimacy that he was highly uncomfortable with much of the time, and Sanzo had no desire to breach the few boundaries that remained..
Sanzo tugged the blanket around himself more tightly, still struggling uselessly to maintain some of the warmth he’d managed to trap, when he heard a small sound from the direction where Hakkai and Gojyo were huddling. There was a whisper and a rustle, then a soft gasp. Silence followed for a few seconds before there was a small sound like a moan.
Oh, Gods, they weren’t. He heard Gojyo make a little sound that seemed to come from the back of his throat. They were. Bastards. Sanzo held still, trying to decide what to do. The idea of digging out his gun and firing a few shots off at their perverted heads sounded terribly appealing, but decidedly awkward. For one thing, the sound would probably startle them right out of what they were doing, and there was no telling what state they’d be in then. Furthermore, it would undoubtedly wake Goku up, which would lead to questions Sanzo really did not want to answer. He sighed and shut his eyes briefly before opening them to glare into the dark.
They were being quiet, he had to give them that, and he probably wouldn’t have heard them if not for the oppressive silence of the cave. Still, Sanzo was decidedly pissed off. They couldn’t restrain their libidos until a time when he and Goku weren’t lying five feet away?
Contrary to what the two of them seemed to think, he was sympathetic to their plight. He understood that it was difficult for them to be denied the opportunity to ‘spend time together’ as much as they would like. He could appreciate that, in spite of the fact that he couldn’t relate to the problem at all. Still, he politely looked the other way when they snuck away from the dinner table or disappeared suspiciously when they were taking a break from driving. He even tried to distract Goku some of the time in order to give them a chance to slip off with a minimum of awkward questioning.
And yet, despite his very generous actions, they did not seem to appreciate his sacrifices at all. Sanzo was quite sure of this, because there was a quiet sigh from Hakkai, some more shuffling around and little gasping whispers, and there could be no doubt but that the two of them were fucking right there. They weren’t being terribly quiet anymore, either.
He supposed he should be grateful; they could probably be louder, after all. He quickly steered his mind away from that topic as soon as it occurred to him. He did not want to question how loud they usually were or might otherwise have been, if they’d had a little more privacy. He was quite proud of the fact that he didn’t know the answer to that question, and he didn’t want that to change any time soon.
The fact remained, though, that they did not have privacy at the moment. Not at all. The temptation remained to yell at them to stop what they were doing immediately and go sleep on opposite sides of the cave. He most certainly could not fall asleep knowing what they were doing only a few feet away. Sanzo shifted uncomfortably under the blankets. Still, the prospect of a lot of noise and commotion wasn’t very appealing. Maybe they’d manage to get it over with quickly, anyway. In the meantime, well, he’d just try not to listen.
Unfortunately, it was rather hard not to listen, and even harder not to think about. The last thing he wanted was to be an unwilling voyeur in their perversity, but the harder he tried to distract himself, the more difficult it was to block out the quiet sounds coming from the other pile of blankets.
It was an unfortunate paradox, and one Sanzo found himself unable to do anything about. There had, of course, been lessons about this sort of thing in Buddhism. One wasn’t supposed to force ones mind to accept or reject any particular situation, one was simply supposed to let reality flow through and release all emotion.
Sanzo tried that for a total of seven seconds before Gojyo groaned again and Hakkai gave a little breathless laugh. Sanzo gritted his teeth and tugged the blanket over his head. Clearly, attempting to use the lessons on Buddhism he’d learned long ago worked as well as it had back then. Which is to say, not at all. He wasn’t terribly surprised. Quite a few of the tenants of the religion had proved totally useless to him, and most of the rest were only useful in rare instances. The only lessons he’d really cared about were the ones his master had taught him.
He wondered briefly what sort of advice Koumyou would have had in this situation, and immediately regretted it. Imagining Koumyou with him, listening to the two idiots screw, made the whole thing exponentially worse, something Sanzo hadn’t even thought possible. With a wince, he mentally banished Koumyou’s ghost back to its usual spot in his mind, but somehow he could still feel that Koumyou was laughing at him. He was not amused.
There was yet another rustle of blankets and a flurry of whispering, followed by more muffled sounds of pleasure, and Sanzo mentally groaned. How long was this going to take, for fuck’s sake? Granted, they probably hadn’t been at it for more than a couple of minutes. It probably just seemed longer since he was forced to listen to it. He quietly drummed his fingers on the blankets and waited them to be done with it.
While he was at it, he made a mental note to hassle both of them particularly badly the next day. He would avoid explaining why, since that would only lead to unpleasant and uncomfortable confrontations and explicit acknowledgements that he knew what they were doing, and in fact knew it much more intimately than he ever wanted to. But no explanations were necessary. He’d just be particularly difficult with both of them anyway.
Sanzo was entertaining himself with pleasant fantasies of shoving both of them off the nearest snow-covered peak and leaving them there when Gojyo made a particularly loud noise. Sanzo heaved an irritated sigh. He was forced to wonder whether they were doing this on purpose, if they somehow knew he was awake and would have to listen to them. He really couldn’t be sure. He wouldn’t put it past either of them, really. Gojyo was probably perverse enough to do it, and Hakkai…well, he was manipulative enough that he might enjoy it. Sanzo paused to try and remember if he’d done anything to incur Hakkai’s wrath recently, but couldn’t come up with anything.
They were still talking to each other though, in low, hushed whispers, something Sanzo couldn’t help to find a bit odd nonetheless. Obviously, neither of them were very quiet when they were doing this sort of thing; it was probably a miracle that neither he nor Goku had inadvertently overheard them before. It did seem a bit strange, though, Sanzo thought.
He had next to no personal experience with sex, by his own choice, but this was not the first time he’d been so unlucky as to observe other people’s habit. There had been a few extremely awkward occurrences at the temple when he was young, where he’d stumbled upon a couple of the monks defiantly breaking their vow of chastity. Additionally, one did not travel for over a year, staying in a variety of thin-walled inns, without having to listen to inconsiderate neighbors at least once or twice. Still, Sanzo could not remember overhearing two people who were as fond of talking at each other during the act as Hakkai and Gojyo apparently were.
It was not surprising really, Sanzo was forced to concede. The two of them didn’t appear to be together solely for the sex. He was loathe to speculate on their relationship too much; as long as they weren’t causing trouble he didn’t care what they were doing and didn’t really want to have to think about it too much. But they had been in close quarters for quite some time now, and it seemed like the further they went, the less privacy the four of them had. That hardly excused what they were doing now, Sanzo reminded himself, but it had given him the opportunity, whether he wanted it or not, to observe the two of them together.
They’d always been…unusually close. It was clear that they had an intimate relationship for some time. Exactly how intimate it was, Sanzo didn’t know. There had never been any defining moment where he and Goku had realized that their other two companions had ulterior motives for occasionally insisting that they be allowed to share a room at the inn. Neither Hakkai nor Gojyo had ever come right out and said anything, and there had never been any horrible situation where they had stumbled upon the two, in flagrante delicto. Thank the Gods. Sanzo was reasonably sure that would have been more than even he could take. And the idea of Goku witnessing such a thing too…it was enough to make him deeply grateful that Goku was, at the moment, proving to be such a sound sleeper.
There had been no moment of revelation when it came to Hakkai and Gojyo’s relationship, though. Sanzo couldn’t even remember a particular point when he’d realized what was going on between them. He’d never looked at them and suddenly understood, and overall they’d given remarkably little away. At some point, though, he’d caught on and, as with all other things that did not particularly concern him and had the potential to be troublesome, he’d ignored it. Goku had done the same. And that, quite simply, had been that.
In retrospect, though, certain events made more sense. When Sanzo reflected on the past, it was now with the knowledge that if Hakkai and Gojyo hadn’t been screwing at the time, the potential, at least, had been there. And that did clear up a few things he’d found odd, like why Gojyo was willing to get into a physical confrontation for the sake of someone he barely knew, as he had when Sanzo had first met him, intending to collect Hakkai. And for his part, Hakkai had most certainly attached himself to Gojyo more strongly than he had to anyone else, which Sanzo had always found a little suspect.
They’d been…good for each other, Sanzo couldn’t deny that. He’d been extremely skeptical about the wisdom of the two of them living together all those years ago. He hadn’t seen how it could possible work. They were both too different, too damaged on their own. Oddly, though, that had seemed to work for them. They filled in where the other was lacking, and if they were both already broken, they didn’t need to worry so much about what they would do to the other. It was a concept not beyond Sanzo’s understanding. He could appreciate the reassurance that came from knowing that you didn’t need to take care of someone, that they would stand on their own two feet without you.
But when it came right down to it, they made each other better. Gojyo had, quite literally, given Hakkai something to live for, and Hakkai was a source of stability for him. Sanzo had realized this fairly early on, and hadn’t bothered getting too worked up about their blossoming relationship. He had promised himself, however, that if things soured between them and the caused difficulties to the journey or, more importantly, to him, he’d make their lives a living hell. Unfortunately, he had failed to foresee the fact that things could get so good between them that it would also an inconvenience to him.
He would remedy that fact soon, though, Sanzo told himself. From now on, even if they were stranded in the middle of a frozen wasteland surrounded by enemy youkai, Gojyo and Hakkai would have to sleep at least a mile away from him. Perhaps two, just to be on the safe side. He’d accepted that there was no way out of his current situation, but he was already planning ahead to make sure it didn’t happen again.
Things on the other side of the cave seemed to be winding down though, or more accurately speeding up, which was presumably a good sign. Sanzo kept the blanket over his head in attempt to block out the noise as well as the cold, but sadly it seemed to do neither. Sanzo mentally added ‘buy thicker blankets’ to his list of things to do once he was no longer held captive by the snow and Hakkai and Gojyo having sex a few feet away.
There was more strangled groaning and panting, and Sanzo shut his eyes tightly and attempted to remind himself that what didn’t kill him would make him stronger, damn it, and he probably shouldn’t kill the two of them, because they might come in handy later on in the journey, and all sort of other things, until the noises died down and Hakkai and Gojyo seemed to have…finished.
There was silence for a few seconds, broken only by the faint howl of the icy wind outside the cave and Goku’s snores from several feet away. Sanzo dared to lower the blanket a little, checking to see if it was safe to listen. Also, it was becoming a little difficult to breathe while trapped under there.
The quiet stretched on, and Sanzo finally relaxed a little. Now that the situation had passed, he was decided that he wouldn’t kill the two of them, though he was leaving the option of torturing open. He sighed into the cold air and adjusted the blankets a little, hoping he’s be able to get some sleep and perhaps even forget what he’d just been forced to listen to.
There was a rustling from Hakkai and Gojyo’s blankets, and Sanzo immediately tensed as he decided that if the two of them were going to start again, then to hell with discretion, he was going to shoot them right then and there. But it was only the sound of blankets shifting and being fluffed. After a moment, Hakkai’s voice whispered something, presumably to Gojyo. Sanzo could hear most of it, the inflections and pitch of the voice making it obvious that it was Hakkai speaking, but he couldn’t tell what was being said and was grateful. Overhearing the two of the whispering intimacies to each other would have been nearly as embarrassing as listening to them have sex, somehow.
Gojyo’s voice, sleep-rough and a little slurred, responded to whatever Hakkai had said, and there was more quiet rustling, and then silence. Sanzo pulled the blankets around himself again and stared into the darkness. Hopefully, one of them would wake up before the others the next morning and shift their bedding apart a little. If not, Sanzo and Goku would politely look away and pretend they didn’t see Hakkai and Gojyo undressed and entwined with each other under the blankets. They were becoming remarkably good at that.
Their relationship had somehow become a thing that all four of the acknowledged was off-limits in terms of commenting upon it. It was a very intimate thing, and intimacy really wasn’t something that any of them had too much experience with. None of them had what one could really consider proper families, and as far as lovers went, the less that was said, the better. Perhaps someday they would have more knowledge in those matters, but for now their relationship was strange, new, and different. And aside from ignoring it, Sanzo didn’t really know what else to do. There would be some point where he’d have to deal with it on a more visceral level, and he knew that somehow. But that time would come later.
In the meantime, Sanzo shut his eyes, tried to ignore the two who he knew were cuddling on the other side of the cave, and attempted to sleep.
