[fic] Simple Things 10
Jun. 8th, 2009 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keire_keTitle: Simple Things 10
Rating: 16
Pairings: 39, 58
Genre: horror
Warnings: cannibalism is discussed, vampirism is in effect
Summary: People want simple things. Sanzo wants his efforts recognised. Goku wants a home. Hakkai wants his friends to clean up after themselves. Gojyo wants beer.
Author notes: This fic is sponsored by Twilight, enabled by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
moshesque and eyesofshinigami, and also sister (gee_nekoi), for keeping Twilight and sparkly vampires in my head by talking about them. XD For the record, this fic is a sparkle-free zone.
Most of the vampire lore in this fic (extra row of fangs, hidden in the tissue above maxillary teeth, beheading, the fact that they are not technically dead) I stole from Supernatural.
XXXVIII.
Sanzo was not so much territorial as he was solitary. He didn’t resent Goku for taking the room that had been his ever since the cabin became their property. Truth be told, it made him excited, imagining Goku’s scent on his sheets, or even better, both of them, tangled in the throes of passion.
Fuck, the damned kid was turning him into a cheap romance novel.
Sanzo snorted and jumped off the branch on which he’d sought his daily dose of brooding. No, he didn’t begrudge Goku his living space, but his daily brooding rituals he would observe, sub-zero temperatures or not. The problem, of course, was that even he had limits. After an hour of sitting on a frozen branch, wearing nothing but jeans and a flannel shirt, he had to make his way home, to banish the chill from his bones. He started towards home, for once taking pleasure in walking. A rabbit flew from his path, mindless with panic. Sanzo let the fuzzy creature live, for now. He’d find it later, when he grew hungry.
He wandered into the cabin eager for a little warmth. The cold, though unlikely to do any damage over periods of time less than a week, was nevertheless uncomfortable. Luckily, thanks to the human guest, Hakkai made sure the fireplace always buzzed with heat. At the moment most of it was bestowed on Goku, who was stretched out on the rug, nose buried in a book. A strange sight, Sanzo wouldn’t have pegged him for the bookworm type; he wasn’t aware they had any pop-ups in their mountain collection. As far as he could remember this was where Hakkai’s penchant for Russian literature was born, and the bookshelf reflected his inclination.
Sanzo moved towards the couch, to catch a few words over Goku’s shoulder. “left room, fixed stars…”
“Is that A Brief History of Time?” Sanzo asked.
Goku rolled onto his back, to stare at Sanzo. “Jesus, warn a guy! Whazzit with you and standing so close?” Sanzo kept silent. “Yeah. Most of the other books are friggin’ huge, and some of them are in Russian!”
“Hakkai brought them here.”
“Hakkai speaks Russian?”
“Not very well, but he can read it with little trouble.”
“That is cool.”
“A Brief History of Time, though?”
“You have nothing else to do here!” Goku stretched on the rug again and Sanzo sat on the couch, propped his feet on the coffee table, and stared at the fiery halo over Goku’s head. “You have no magazines, no videos or a computer.”
“Just be careful with it.”
“Is it yours?” Goku asked, turning to Sanzo with interest. “Really?”
“It’s a first edition, signed by the author.”
Goku blinked and went back a few pages. “No way! You’ve met Stephen Hawking?”
“I attended his lectures for a while. This book is easily digestible, but his lectures weren’t as easy, I have to say.”
“Wow.” Goku returned to his page. “So, you studied physics?”
“Briefly.”
“Ya remember anything?” Goku’s smile was impish, and Sanzo had to smile back.
“A little.”
Goku’s smell mixed with the scent of carbon and smoke – this was good; his blood seemed less potent that way. Sanzo watched the flickering light catch in the strands of Goku’s spiky hair, bloom on the curves of his cheek, pouring into the ridge of his spine, where the t-shirt rode up. “What colour are you?” Sanzo asked suddenly, surprising himself with the need to match visual colours he could still imagine with the synesthetic picture that his senses painted.
Goku raised his head, puzzlement written on his face. “I’m Caucasian, I thought ’s obvious.”
“I know that,” Sanzo said, rolling his eyes. “I’m not blind. I mean your eyes.”
Goku sat up, crossing his legs. “Uh, my passport says they’re brown.”
“My passport says I was born in 1979 in Washington D.C. Passports aren’t to be trusted.”
“You don’t sound American,” Goku said, cocking his head. The firelight shot out, catching the stubble on the edge of his jaw. Sanzo thought it pathetic he could count the individual hairs, even more so that he wouldn’t mind trying.
“I wasn’t born in 1979, either,” he said in reply.
“Oh? How old are ya anyway? I asked Gojyo. You know he said he’s older than Jien? And Jien’s like sixty! It boggles the mind, seriously.”
This had the potential to end in tears, Sanzo thought, recalling the parish in which he was born. His earliest memories were of his mother’s wide skirt, with folds wide enough for a child to hide between, which tapered into a waist so thin, breathing must have been a chore rather than an involuntary reflex. “I’m older,” he said.
“When were ya born?” Goku asked.
“Earlier than Gojyo.”
“Sanzo!”
“Eighteen forty-three.”
“What?”
“I was born in 1843.”
“No way,” Goku said, his eyes going so wide Sanzo worried they might pop out of his head. It would serve the kid right, for jamming a chopstick into Sanzo’s. “You- paedophile!”
“God, the school system suffered when they removed Greek from the curriculum.”
“What the hell?”
“Paedophilia is sexual attraction to prepubescent children, as evidenced by the Greek word ‘paedo’. You are an adult.” Well, close to adult. Past pubescence, anyway.
“’m way, way, way younger than you! Jesus, there are museum artefacts younger than you!”
“All things considered, my sexual attraction to my own age group would involve grave desecration,” Sanzo said.
“Eww. Thank you so much for puttin’ that image in my head. I needed it. Then again…” Goku turned to look at the fire. “It kinda makes sense, what with the coffin business and all.”
“Go to hell.”
“Screw you.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.” Sanzo looked away but still his eyes drifted back to Goku after a couple of minutes. “I was being serious,” he said.
“Huh?”
“About the colours.”
“Oh. Why?”
Sanzo sighed. “Because I’m colour-blind.”
Goku fell silent. “But I’m not green,” he said.
What was going on in schools these days? “I mean, I don’t see colours, at all. We think it has something to do with the allergy to sunlight.”
“Hakkai too? But he drives.”
“We’re colour-blind, not stupid. It’s not like there’s no other distinction to be made. Are you going to answer my question or not?”
“My passport says my hair and eyes are brown,” Goku repeated. He unsheathed the machete, which had been lying on his side all along, Sanzo realised with surprise, and stared into its surface. “Hey, ’s funny, in this light they look honey-like, more gold than brown. Must be the fire.”
Sanzo leaned back, satisfied. He had suspected this was the case, though he knew that the scent, which his brain interpreted as colour, was not always an accurate representation of physical colouring.
“Why?”
Sanzo started. “Why what?”
“You said ‘I thought so,’ I wanna know why.”
“Your smell is golden,” Sanzo said after a moment’s consideration. “I thought it suits you.” Goku blushed, turning his eyes back to the book. “It wasn’t a compliment.”
“It sounded like one.”
“It was a fact.”
“You suck at being a boyfriend.”
“I’m not anyone’s boyfriend.”
“Could have fooled me.”
Sanzo narrowed his eyes. “I am not anyone’s boyfriend,” he repeated.
“So what, you’re just gonna rip my throat out, drink my blood and not call the next day?” Goku sat up straight and glowered. “Screw that!”
“Right back at you.”
“Oh, that’s mature,” Goku said. “How old are you again?”
“Older than you.”
“Don’t remind me. It’s disturbin’.”
“I’m not dead,” Sanzo said. He was most definitely not dead, he thought as he watched Goku snort and stretch out again, his shirt exposing the ridge of his spine, the vertebrae covered with smooth skin. Sanzo longed to put his mouth there, lick the sweat pooling in the valley as Goku moaned and begged for more.
With any luck it wouldn’t be long now.
XXXIX.
The New Year’s Eve was a lovely day, which turned into a gorgeous night. The moon was full, lending its silver light to the snow. Goku stared out the window in wonder, watching the starry skies and the expanse of silvery snow and black trees beneath.
“Can we go out?” he asked, turning to the two vampires and a huge wolf on the couch.
“Why?” Sanzo asked.
“Because it’s pretty, and I wanna.”
“Sounds like a good enough reason,” Hakkai said getting up from the couch. “Make sure you dress warmly.”
“Yay!” Goku scampered to his room, fully aware he was acting like an excitable kid. He felt this was somehow allowed – he’d missed Christmas Day, too anxious about Sanzo to be excited, now he was just making up for it.
The view was well worth the needles jabbing at his throat. There’s been no footprint marring the surface of the slopes, nothing breaking the down as far as he could see. It felt like they were the only people on Earth, up high in the cabin. The Rapture could come and take everyone else away and the four of them would still be there, alone, remote. Safe.
Well, not so much safe in his case, Goku thought grimly. If he was the last human left, there wouldn’t be anything to stop Sanzo from following through with his notion of a tasty dessert. After all, what use were the rules, if there were no humans to hide from?
“It is very beautiful,” Hakkai said, coming to stand next to him.
Goku beamed and then frowned. “Shouldn’t ya put somethin’ on?”
“I’m not cold,” Hakkai said. The moonlight turned him into a marble statue, and the illusion was perfect, so long as the wind didn’t tug at the shirt he was wearing.
“I’m freezing just by looking at you,” Goku muttered. Damned vampires, all cold and unfeeling, he thought, burrowing his nose in the high collar of the jacket. It wasn’t fair! He was freezing his ass off, and they were just standing there, cool as cucumbers.
Well, Gojyo was warm and furry, so he probably didn’t count.
“Another year gone,” Hakkai mused, and Goku felt the coldness creep behind him with an icicle and stab him in the back.
“Crap!” he yelled, loud enough so that his voice echoed from the pristine snowy fields. “Shit, fuck, goddamn!”
“What’s wrong?” Sanzo asked, standing too close for comfort all of sudden.
“I forgot my projects,” Goku said. He took a couple steps away from the vampire and tripped on the werewolf, who’d huddled behind him for that exact purpose. Goku fell into the snow with a surprised oomph. He stayed like that, supine in the mound, looking at the stars, until a polite cough reminded him he was not alone and that he was in a middle of a freak out. “Right, right. I have projects due,” he said. “On Monday.”
“Oh dear,” Hakkai said, exchanging a look with the Gojyo-wolf. “I suppose there’s no way around it; we’ll have to go back.”
“I can go on my own,” Goku protested. “I’m not a kid, it’s not like there’s not a train or whatever.”
“Don’t be silly.” Hakkai smiled and Gojyo pawed a lump of ice into Goku’s face. He got a muzzle full of snow for his trouble. “We’d be bored here without you,” he said, and though Goku knew he was just being polite, it was still nice to hear.
XL.
Gojyo had barely time to yawn upon stepping out of the car, when Goku zoomed past him, backpack on his shoulder, yelling his thankyous and his goodbyes as he went. Hakkai shook his head and smiled. “He’s an adorable boy,” he said.
“Careful, you never know who’s listening,” Gojyo said, lighting a cigarette and waggling has eyebrows at Sanzo. Ha, he was a multitasking werewolf. He ought to get points for that. Combined with his points for hotness and awesome getting-along skills, he should be getting awards every other week.
“I didn’t know it was a secret.”
“I think it’s less adorable and more hot, where Sanzo’s concerned.”
“I know where to find silver bullets,” Sanzo said.
“I know where to find a machete,” Hakkai countered.
“I’m so glad we’re such good friends.” Gojyo threw his arms around the other two, and moved towards the stairs.
“I’m going home,” Sanzo said, twisting from Gojyo’s hold. He picked up his bag from the trunk and, making use of the fact that it was close to midnight, leapt onto the nearest lamppost and, from there, onto a roof.
“I wish he wouldn’t do that,” Hakkai said. “One of these days someone will be watching, and that would be the end of the charade.”
“It isn’t like we won’t be able to outrun the chase.”
“I like the city.”
“Yeah, I’m fond of it too. But it’s not the only city on the planet.”
“Might as well be,” Hakkai said, staring into the mists with a faraway expression on his face. Hell, it had to be one of those nights, Gojyo thought. Stupid London.
“Let’s maybe not mutilate any hookers tonight,” he said, grabbing the rest of the luggage and walking inside. “You coming?”
“Pardon?”
“Look, you want any sex tonight, or would you rather stay here and be gloomy? ‘Cause I’m telling you, it’s either one, or the other.”
“You don’t like me when I’m gloomy?”
“I don’t like gloomy sex. No offence,” Gojyo said quickly, because he was hoping to get laid tonight, “but you’re not fun when you’re all dejected. You’re too much like a puppy that’s been kicked and then had his lollipop stolen.”
“I was under the impression you were the puppy in this relationship.”
“Hell no. I might be a mutt, a mongrel, a cur, but a puppy I ain’t. Too old, see?”
“I’m glad.” Hakkai smiled, to Gojyo’s relief, his feral smile. “I find youngsters entirely disagreeable.”
“Dunno, the kid would be might tasty.”
“Tasty, perhaps. Arousing…” Hakkai pressed the length of his body against Gojyo’s, “not so much.”
To that Gojyo could say very little, save for “bedroom, now.”
XLI.
“I have been thinking,” Hakkai said later during the night. Next to him Gojyo turned onto his side and propped his head on his elbow.
“You’ve been thinking?” he asked, incredulous. “Fuck, I must be out of shape.”
“Not just now,” Hakkai clarified. “While we were in Glenshee.”
“What were you thinking, oh mighty thinker?”
“Goku must be turned.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“No way!”
“There’s only so long Sanzo can hold out,” Hakkai pointed out. Oftentimes he would be accused of being inhuman, people found him so unfeeling and cold. Even Gojyo had called him a “friggin’ Vulcan” at an early stage of their relationship. It was far from truth, of course. Hakkai felt, and he felt deeply. He chose to discard emotion when it came to facing life-changing decisions, because he knew there was much at stake if emotions run unchecked. He would give the heart its due, but it was not the decision-making organ. “He is not immune, and his control is far less than he’d like to imagine. Sooner or later he will try to hurt Goku.”
“No, he won’t,” Gojyo said.
“Forgive me for saying this, but I have known him longer.”
“Yeah, but you have issues with humanity. Forgive me, in turn,” Gojyo leaned forward to kiss him, “but you couldn’t have been sane while you were human, my dear psychopathic bastard, and the perspective of being inhuman hadn’t helped you any.”
“What are you saying?”
“Goku is safe from Sanzo, I’m reasonably sure. Not so sure about the rest of the world.”
“What makes you so sure?” Hakkai asked.
“Sanzo loves him,” Gojyo said and the simple phrase hit Hakkai like a hurricane hitting a vessel on the ocean. His mind lost all sense of direction, the helm, so certain of the course in other kinds of weather, now flapped uselessly on the waves.
“Excuse me?”
“This surprises you?”
“Yes,” Hakkai said, for once not keen on concealing his emotional response.
“Why?”
“He’s human! It shouldn’t be possible, humans are food to us.”
“Yes, you sure you want to pursue that train of thought?” Gojyo raised a brow. “Me, werewolf. You, vampire. Us, mortal enemies. Need I go on?”
“That’s different.”
“Like hell it is. Truth of the matter is, the first thing you ought to have done when you first saw me, was go for the throat. That would have been a proper vampiric response, at least that’s the one I got from all other vamps I’ve ever met, and I am including Sanzo in that figure. You didn’t.”
“You interested me,” Hakkai said. “You were the first werewolf I met!”
“Funny that. Why do you think there’s so few?”
Hakkai fell silent. There was a picture to be painted with the crayons Gojyo pulled out of his box, and it was disturbingly different from the one he thought he saw. “Still, it is not the same.”
“It is exactly the same.”
“I never worried you wouldn’t be able to hold your own against me. Goku has no chance.”
“Because we’ve never had to feed Sanzo blood, to speed up the recovery of any vital body parts? Face it ‘Kai – the kid is capable of feeding Sanzo his own balls, and he would, too. He’s not gonna lie back and let himself be eaten, unless it’s in the good way.” Gojyo waggled his eyebrows and Hakkai had to smile.
“I see your point.”
“I kinda think it’s what holds Sanzo so fascinated. Sorta, because hell, I’m fascinated and I’m spoken for.”
“That is curious,” Hakkai said.
“And, I know you are too.”
“You think so.”
“I’m sure. Hell, the kid smells like the best dinner ever served, in the history of food. I’d be worried if you weren’t drooling every time he was near.”
“I do no such thing.”
“Yeah, and I don’t grow fur and fangs during full moon.”
“You don’t have to.”
“What’s your point?”
“What is yours?”
“I can’t remember.” Gojyo fell silent, and Hakkai took the time to watch him. He was not prone to tender moments of love, even when his werewolf was involved, but some moments had no other setting.
“If you are right,” he said after a while, “then Goku must be turned.”
“Somehow, I don’t think it will be that simple.”
“He does smell wonderful,” Hakkai admitted. “It is almost painful to resist his scent. I’m not sure I will be able to indefinitely.”
“Have faith.”
“I have considerable control over my urges, if I say so myself. There are others, though. We may not be able to protect Goku forever.”
“On the bright side, forever won’t be longer than half a century, or so. And even then, older people aren’t half as tasty as teens. So we’re looking at maybe ten to twenty years of sentinel duty. It don’t sound so bad.”
“I wish you would consider my point of view.”
“Sanzo won’t have it, any more than you’d have my face changed.”
“There is that.” Hakkai fell silent, trying to imagine losing the ability to smell Gojyo, his every mood, every hint of emotion. He shuddered, and moved closer to the wonderful warmth the werewolf exuded. Thank god that was not even a remote possibility.
Master Post :: Next Part
Rating: 16
Pairings: 39, 58
Genre: horror
Warnings: cannibalism is discussed, vampirism is in effect
Summary: People want simple things. Sanzo wants his efforts recognised. Goku wants a home. Hakkai wants his friends to clean up after themselves. Gojyo wants beer.
Author notes: This fic is sponsored by Twilight, enabled by
moshesque and eyesofshinigami, and also sister (gee_nekoi), for keeping Twilight and sparkly vampires in my head by talking about them. XD For the record, this fic is a sparkle-free zone.Most of the vampire lore in this fic (extra row of fangs, hidden in the tissue above maxillary teeth, beheading, the fact that they are not technically dead) I stole from Supernatural.
XXXVIII.
Sanzo was not so much territorial as he was solitary. He didn’t resent Goku for taking the room that had been his ever since the cabin became their property. Truth be told, it made him excited, imagining Goku’s scent on his sheets, or even better, both of them, tangled in the throes of passion.
Fuck, the damned kid was turning him into a cheap romance novel.
Sanzo snorted and jumped off the branch on which he’d sought his daily dose of brooding. No, he didn’t begrudge Goku his living space, but his daily brooding rituals he would observe, sub-zero temperatures or not. The problem, of course, was that even he had limits. After an hour of sitting on a frozen branch, wearing nothing but jeans and a flannel shirt, he had to make his way home, to banish the chill from his bones. He started towards home, for once taking pleasure in walking. A rabbit flew from his path, mindless with panic. Sanzo let the fuzzy creature live, for now. He’d find it later, when he grew hungry.
He wandered into the cabin eager for a little warmth. The cold, though unlikely to do any damage over periods of time less than a week, was nevertheless uncomfortable. Luckily, thanks to the human guest, Hakkai made sure the fireplace always buzzed with heat. At the moment most of it was bestowed on Goku, who was stretched out on the rug, nose buried in a book. A strange sight, Sanzo wouldn’t have pegged him for the bookworm type; he wasn’t aware they had any pop-ups in their mountain collection. As far as he could remember this was where Hakkai’s penchant for Russian literature was born, and the bookshelf reflected his inclination.
Sanzo moved towards the couch, to catch a few words over Goku’s shoulder. “left room, fixed stars…”
“Is that A Brief History of Time?” Sanzo asked.
Goku rolled onto his back, to stare at Sanzo. “Jesus, warn a guy! Whazzit with you and standing so close?” Sanzo kept silent. “Yeah. Most of the other books are friggin’ huge, and some of them are in Russian!”
“Hakkai brought them here.”
“Hakkai speaks Russian?”
“Not very well, but he can read it with little trouble.”
“That is cool.”
“A Brief History of Time, though?”
“You have nothing else to do here!” Goku stretched on the rug again and Sanzo sat on the couch, propped his feet on the coffee table, and stared at the fiery halo over Goku’s head. “You have no magazines, no videos or a computer.”
“Just be careful with it.”
“Is it yours?” Goku asked, turning to Sanzo with interest. “Really?”
“It’s a first edition, signed by the author.”
Goku blinked and went back a few pages. “No way! You’ve met Stephen Hawking?”
“I attended his lectures for a while. This book is easily digestible, but his lectures weren’t as easy, I have to say.”
“Wow.” Goku returned to his page. “So, you studied physics?”
“Briefly.”
“Ya remember anything?” Goku’s smile was impish, and Sanzo had to smile back.
“A little.”
Goku’s smell mixed with the scent of carbon and smoke – this was good; his blood seemed less potent that way. Sanzo watched the flickering light catch in the strands of Goku’s spiky hair, bloom on the curves of his cheek, pouring into the ridge of his spine, where the t-shirt rode up. “What colour are you?” Sanzo asked suddenly, surprising himself with the need to match visual colours he could still imagine with the synesthetic picture that his senses painted.
Goku raised his head, puzzlement written on his face. “I’m Caucasian, I thought ’s obvious.”
“I know that,” Sanzo said, rolling his eyes. “I’m not blind. I mean your eyes.”
Goku sat up, crossing his legs. “Uh, my passport says they’re brown.”
“My passport says I was born in 1979 in Washington D.C. Passports aren’t to be trusted.”
“You don’t sound American,” Goku said, cocking his head. The firelight shot out, catching the stubble on the edge of his jaw. Sanzo thought it pathetic he could count the individual hairs, even more so that he wouldn’t mind trying.
“I wasn’t born in 1979, either,” he said in reply.
“Oh? How old are ya anyway? I asked Gojyo. You know he said he’s older than Jien? And Jien’s like sixty! It boggles the mind, seriously.”
This had the potential to end in tears, Sanzo thought, recalling the parish in which he was born. His earliest memories were of his mother’s wide skirt, with folds wide enough for a child to hide between, which tapered into a waist so thin, breathing must have been a chore rather than an involuntary reflex. “I’m older,” he said.
“When were ya born?” Goku asked.
“Earlier than Gojyo.”
“Sanzo!”
“Eighteen forty-three.”
“What?”
“I was born in 1843.”
“No way,” Goku said, his eyes going so wide Sanzo worried they might pop out of his head. It would serve the kid right, for jamming a chopstick into Sanzo’s. “You- paedophile!”
“God, the school system suffered when they removed Greek from the curriculum.”
“What the hell?”
“Paedophilia is sexual attraction to prepubescent children, as evidenced by the Greek word ‘paedo’. You are an adult.” Well, close to adult. Past pubescence, anyway.
“’m way, way, way younger than you! Jesus, there are museum artefacts younger than you!”
“All things considered, my sexual attraction to my own age group would involve grave desecration,” Sanzo said.
“Eww. Thank you so much for puttin’ that image in my head. I needed it. Then again…” Goku turned to look at the fire. “It kinda makes sense, what with the coffin business and all.”
“Go to hell.”
“Screw you.”
“Glad we’re on the same page.” Sanzo looked away but still his eyes drifted back to Goku after a couple of minutes. “I was being serious,” he said.
“Huh?”
“About the colours.”
“Oh. Why?”
Sanzo sighed. “Because I’m colour-blind.”
Goku fell silent. “But I’m not green,” he said.
What was going on in schools these days? “I mean, I don’t see colours, at all. We think it has something to do with the allergy to sunlight.”
“Hakkai too? But he drives.”
“We’re colour-blind, not stupid. It’s not like there’s no other distinction to be made. Are you going to answer my question or not?”
“My passport says my hair and eyes are brown,” Goku repeated. He unsheathed the machete, which had been lying on his side all along, Sanzo realised with surprise, and stared into its surface. “Hey, ’s funny, in this light they look honey-like, more gold than brown. Must be the fire.”
Sanzo leaned back, satisfied. He had suspected this was the case, though he knew that the scent, which his brain interpreted as colour, was not always an accurate representation of physical colouring.
“Why?”
Sanzo started. “Why what?”
“You said ‘I thought so,’ I wanna know why.”
“Your smell is golden,” Sanzo said after a moment’s consideration. “I thought it suits you.” Goku blushed, turning his eyes back to the book. “It wasn’t a compliment.”
“It sounded like one.”
“It was a fact.”
“You suck at being a boyfriend.”
“I’m not anyone’s boyfriend.”
“Could have fooled me.”
Sanzo narrowed his eyes. “I am not anyone’s boyfriend,” he repeated.
“So what, you’re just gonna rip my throat out, drink my blood and not call the next day?” Goku sat up straight and glowered. “Screw that!”
“Right back at you.”
“Oh, that’s mature,” Goku said. “How old are you again?”
“Older than you.”
“Don’t remind me. It’s disturbin’.”
“I’m not dead,” Sanzo said. He was most definitely not dead, he thought as he watched Goku snort and stretch out again, his shirt exposing the ridge of his spine, the vertebrae covered with smooth skin. Sanzo longed to put his mouth there, lick the sweat pooling in the valley as Goku moaned and begged for more.
With any luck it wouldn’t be long now.
XXXIX.
The New Year’s Eve was a lovely day, which turned into a gorgeous night. The moon was full, lending its silver light to the snow. Goku stared out the window in wonder, watching the starry skies and the expanse of silvery snow and black trees beneath.
“Can we go out?” he asked, turning to the two vampires and a huge wolf on the couch.
“Why?” Sanzo asked.
“Because it’s pretty, and I wanna.”
“Sounds like a good enough reason,” Hakkai said getting up from the couch. “Make sure you dress warmly.”
“Yay!” Goku scampered to his room, fully aware he was acting like an excitable kid. He felt this was somehow allowed – he’d missed Christmas Day, too anxious about Sanzo to be excited, now he was just making up for it.
The view was well worth the needles jabbing at his throat. There’s been no footprint marring the surface of the slopes, nothing breaking the down as far as he could see. It felt like they were the only people on Earth, up high in the cabin. The Rapture could come and take everyone else away and the four of them would still be there, alone, remote. Safe.
Well, not so much safe in his case, Goku thought grimly. If he was the last human left, there wouldn’t be anything to stop Sanzo from following through with his notion of a tasty dessert. After all, what use were the rules, if there were no humans to hide from?
“It is very beautiful,” Hakkai said, coming to stand next to him.
Goku beamed and then frowned. “Shouldn’t ya put somethin’ on?”
“I’m not cold,” Hakkai said. The moonlight turned him into a marble statue, and the illusion was perfect, so long as the wind didn’t tug at the shirt he was wearing.
“I’m freezing just by looking at you,” Goku muttered. Damned vampires, all cold and unfeeling, he thought, burrowing his nose in the high collar of the jacket. It wasn’t fair! He was freezing his ass off, and they were just standing there, cool as cucumbers.
Well, Gojyo was warm and furry, so he probably didn’t count.
“Another year gone,” Hakkai mused, and Goku felt the coldness creep behind him with an icicle and stab him in the back.
“Crap!” he yelled, loud enough so that his voice echoed from the pristine snowy fields. “Shit, fuck, goddamn!”
“What’s wrong?” Sanzo asked, standing too close for comfort all of sudden.
“I forgot my projects,” Goku said. He took a couple steps away from the vampire and tripped on the werewolf, who’d huddled behind him for that exact purpose. Goku fell into the snow with a surprised oomph. He stayed like that, supine in the mound, looking at the stars, until a polite cough reminded him he was not alone and that he was in a middle of a freak out. “Right, right. I have projects due,” he said. “On Monday.”
“Oh dear,” Hakkai said, exchanging a look with the Gojyo-wolf. “I suppose there’s no way around it; we’ll have to go back.”
“I can go on my own,” Goku protested. “I’m not a kid, it’s not like there’s not a train or whatever.”
“Don’t be silly.” Hakkai smiled and Gojyo pawed a lump of ice into Goku’s face. He got a muzzle full of snow for his trouble. “We’d be bored here without you,” he said, and though Goku knew he was just being polite, it was still nice to hear.
XL.
Gojyo had barely time to yawn upon stepping out of the car, when Goku zoomed past him, backpack on his shoulder, yelling his thankyous and his goodbyes as he went. Hakkai shook his head and smiled. “He’s an adorable boy,” he said.
“Careful, you never know who’s listening,” Gojyo said, lighting a cigarette and waggling has eyebrows at Sanzo. Ha, he was a multitasking werewolf. He ought to get points for that. Combined with his points for hotness and awesome getting-along skills, he should be getting awards every other week.
“I didn’t know it was a secret.”
“I think it’s less adorable and more hot, where Sanzo’s concerned.”
“I know where to find silver bullets,” Sanzo said.
“I know where to find a machete,” Hakkai countered.
“I’m so glad we’re such good friends.” Gojyo threw his arms around the other two, and moved towards the stairs.
“I’m going home,” Sanzo said, twisting from Gojyo’s hold. He picked up his bag from the trunk and, making use of the fact that it was close to midnight, leapt onto the nearest lamppost and, from there, onto a roof.
“I wish he wouldn’t do that,” Hakkai said. “One of these days someone will be watching, and that would be the end of the charade.”
“It isn’t like we won’t be able to outrun the chase.”
“I like the city.”
“Yeah, I’m fond of it too. But it’s not the only city on the planet.”
“Might as well be,” Hakkai said, staring into the mists with a faraway expression on his face. Hell, it had to be one of those nights, Gojyo thought. Stupid London.
“Let’s maybe not mutilate any hookers tonight,” he said, grabbing the rest of the luggage and walking inside. “You coming?”
“Pardon?”
“Look, you want any sex tonight, or would you rather stay here and be gloomy? ‘Cause I’m telling you, it’s either one, or the other.”
“You don’t like me when I’m gloomy?”
“I don’t like gloomy sex. No offence,” Gojyo said quickly, because he was hoping to get laid tonight, “but you’re not fun when you’re all dejected. You’re too much like a puppy that’s been kicked and then had his lollipop stolen.”
“I was under the impression you were the puppy in this relationship.”
“Hell no. I might be a mutt, a mongrel, a cur, but a puppy I ain’t. Too old, see?”
“I’m glad.” Hakkai smiled, to Gojyo’s relief, his feral smile. “I find youngsters entirely disagreeable.”
“Dunno, the kid would be might tasty.”
“Tasty, perhaps. Arousing…” Hakkai pressed the length of his body against Gojyo’s, “not so much.”
To that Gojyo could say very little, save for “bedroom, now.”
XLI.
“I have been thinking,” Hakkai said later during the night. Next to him Gojyo turned onto his side and propped his head on his elbow.
“You’ve been thinking?” he asked, incredulous. “Fuck, I must be out of shape.”
“Not just now,” Hakkai clarified. “While we were in Glenshee.”
“What were you thinking, oh mighty thinker?”
“Goku must be turned.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“No way!”
“There’s only so long Sanzo can hold out,” Hakkai pointed out. Oftentimes he would be accused of being inhuman, people found him so unfeeling and cold. Even Gojyo had called him a “friggin’ Vulcan” at an early stage of their relationship. It was far from truth, of course. Hakkai felt, and he felt deeply. He chose to discard emotion when it came to facing life-changing decisions, because he knew there was much at stake if emotions run unchecked. He would give the heart its due, but it was not the decision-making organ. “He is not immune, and his control is far less than he’d like to imagine. Sooner or later he will try to hurt Goku.”
“No, he won’t,” Gojyo said.
“Forgive me for saying this, but I have known him longer.”
“Yeah, but you have issues with humanity. Forgive me, in turn,” Gojyo leaned forward to kiss him, “but you couldn’t have been sane while you were human, my dear psychopathic bastard, and the perspective of being inhuman hadn’t helped you any.”
“What are you saying?”
“Goku is safe from Sanzo, I’m reasonably sure. Not so sure about the rest of the world.”
“What makes you so sure?” Hakkai asked.
“Sanzo loves him,” Gojyo said and the simple phrase hit Hakkai like a hurricane hitting a vessel on the ocean. His mind lost all sense of direction, the helm, so certain of the course in other kinds of weather, now flapped uselessly on the waves.
“Excuse me?”
“This surprises you?”
“Yes,” Hakkai said, for once not keen on concealing his emotional response.
“Why?”
“He’s human! It shouldn’t be possible, humans are food to us.”
“Yes, you sure you want to pursue that train of thought?” Gojyo raised a brow. “Me, werewolf. You, vampire. Us, mortal enemies. Need I go on?”
“That’s different.”
“Like hell it is. Truth of the matter is, the first thing you ought to have done when you first saw me, was go for the throat. That would have been a proper vampiric response, at least that’s the one I got from all other vamps I’ve ever met, and I am including Sanzo in that figure. You didn’t.”
“You interested me,” Hakkai said. “You were the first werewolf I met!”
“Funny that. Why do you think there’s so few?”
Hakkai fell silent. There was a picture to be painted with the crayons Gojyo pulled out of his box, and it was disturbingly different from the one he thought he saw. “Still, it is not the same.”
“It is exactly the same.”
“I never worried you wouldn’t be able to hold your own against me. Goku has no chance.”
“Because we’ve never had to feed Sanzo blood, to speed up the recovery of any vital body parts? Face it ‘Kai – the kid is capable of feeding Sanzo his own balls, and he would, too. He’s not gonna lie back and let himself be eaten, unless it’s in the good way.” Gojyo waggled his eyebrows and Hakkai had to smile.
“I see your point.”
“I kinda think it’s what holds Sanzo so fascinated. Sorta, because hell, I’m fascinated and I’m spoken for.”
“That is curious,” Hakkai said.
“And, I know you are too.”
“You think so.”
“I’m sure. Hell, the kid smells like the best dinner ever served, in the history of food. I’d be worried if you weren’t drooling every time he was near.”
“I do no such thing.”
“Yeah, and I don’t grow fur and fangs during full moon.”
“You don’t have to.”
“What’s your point?”
“What is yours?”
“I can’t remember.” Gojyo fell silent, and Hakkai took the time to watch him. He was not prone to tender moments of love, even when his werewolf was involved, but some moments had no other setting.
“If you are right,” he said after a while, “then Goku must be turned.”
“Somehow, I don’t think it will be that simple.”
“He does smell wonderful,” Hakkai admitted. “It is almost painful to resist his scent. I’m not sure I will be able to indefinitely.”
“Have faith.”
“I have considerable control over my urges, if I say so myself. There are others, though. We may not be able to protect Goku forever.”
“On the bright side, forever won’t be longer than half a century, or so. And even then, older people aren’t half as tasty as teens. So we’re looking at maybe ten to twenty years of sentinel duty. It don’t sound so bad.”
“I wish you would consider my point of view.”
“Sanzo won’t have it, any more than you’d have my face changed.”
“There is that.” Hakkai fell silent, trying to imagine losing the ability to smell Gojyo, his every mood, every hint of emotion. He shuddered, and moved closer to the wonderful warmth the werewolf exuded. Thank god that was not even a remote possibility.
Master Post :: Next Part
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-06-08 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 06:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-08 09:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 06:34 am (UTC)*grins* Hakkai wouldn't be Hakkai without a horrible murderous rampage in his past.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-08 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 06:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 12:41 am (UTC)Somehow the conversation between Hakkai & Gojyo reminded me of Underworld....
Anyway keep up the good job. I cannot wait for the next chapter. Thanks again.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 06:37 am (UTC)Vampires hate werewolves, it's a fact of life. *solemn nod*
He, thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 01:44 am (UTC)what would happen to sanzo...
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Date: 2009-06-09 06:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 02:40 am (UTC)I mean 'turning' is no small decision and you don't just do it off the hook after having known a vampire for a few months; after all it's a permanent decision that you have to *live* with. The fact that Goku shows resistance to it shows that his head is in the right place because a character with out logic and reason is just a catalyst for things to happen and not a character at all.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 06:43 am (UTC)Even though my vampires are not demons and soulless monsters, it's still a very tough thing to turn to vampirism. Neither Sanzo nor Hakkai would advocate for it, no matter what Hakkai proposes now. Good thing Goku has a sound head on his shoulders, and not a hormone-addled brain. Thanks for reading!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 09:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 01:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-09 05:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-11 04:08 am (UTC)I've been so busy lately, I haven't read anything. Today, I tripped over LJ on my way to other official business (I hit the wrong button on the link bar) and lost several hours to your wonderful fic! I swore I wouldn't read another vampire story for a long time (alas, Twilight has soured the genre, for me, a little) but I couldn't ignore the siren call of your writing. I'm glad I gave into the temptation.
I'm a bit worried about how the immortal/mortal conflict will work itself out. But, whichever path your muse chooses, I'm looking forward to another post.
I hope you're having a great summer!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-11 11:38 am (UTC)Twilight has that effect. If Twilight was a cake, it would ruin baked goods forever. XD Sorry to hear I was a block on the way to official business (though, you know, am not that sorry). Hee, thanks so much! I'm immersed in the story myself, it's crazy.
My school year isn't yet over. I have exams and what not. But thank you. I hope your summer is turning out nicely!
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 10:01 am (UTC)Loved this bit:
“So what, you’re just gonna rip my throat out, drink my blood and not call the next day?” Goku sat up straight and glowered. “Screw that!”
And Snarky!Sanzo is a joy.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-22 10:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-26 02:53 am (UTC)You still know how to rock your dialogue, I just love it. Not sure how many chapters are left, but I'm really wondering how things are going to turn out.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-27 12:51 pm (UTC)I love writing dialogue. I struggle with descriptions, but dialogue just flows. :)