[fic] Simple Things 18
Title: Simple Things 18
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.
That's all, folks!
LXVIII.
Gojyo had spent the flight from Colombia watching Sanzo. The vampire had been twitchy. Oh, he’d have killed him for suggesting the word (he was not a fucking rabbit’s nose, he’d say), but it was the cold hard truth. His fingers drummed on every surface his hand found itself on, his eyes wandered, his foot tapped. Twitchy.
“Relax,” Gojyo’d told him at last, leaning over the space between their seats. “You’re scaring the flight attendants.”
“Fuck them.”
“So eager to join the mile high club?”
“Fuck you.”
“I would congratulate you on your use of pronouns, if I didn’t know you were already past the pre-verbal stage.”
“Har fucking har, Fluffy. Shut the fuck up and fasten your seatbelt.”
“Who died and made you a flight attendant?”
“Would you listen if an actual flight attendant requested you do as your friend said?” said a buxom young lady leaning over the backrest.
Gojyo grinned. Ah, the joys of flying first class.
“I wouldn’t dare to refuse.” The girl blushed and smiled and Gojyo finished the flight in high spirits. He might have been in a committed homosexual (but heterospecies, which satisfied his inner homophobe) relationship, but he still liked to win prizes for flirting. Other than that, the landing was uneventful. Sanzo didn’t blow up from the tension, a minor miracle in the grand scheme of things.
Heathrow welcomed them with rain. “Stupid March, ran out of sun,” Gojyo muttered, shouldering his bag. “What now?”
“We check the apartment.”
“I think it’s a safe bet they’re no there anymore.”
“Then what do we do?”
“We might as well check, okay, don’t have a cow. Or do, some food would do you good.”
“I’m this close to having a werewolf pâté.”
“Lucky me, I’m poisonous.”
“Shut up.”
“Whatever you say, oh Prince of Darkness.”
“What? Where the hell did you get such a title?”
“Because ‘duke’ is not fruity enough and Hakkai trumps you with his eyes closed and hands tied behind his back, ergo, he’s the King of Darkness.”
“Does that make you a queen then?”
“Shut up.”
Sanzo closed his mouth, but the self-satisfied smile annoyed Gojyo all the way home. Which was empty. “God fucking damn it,” Gojyo said, dropping his bag onto the floor. “Where the fuck is he hiding?”
“Goku’s not here either.” Sanzo walked in through the window. The twitching got more pronounced. “He hasn’t been home for a few days.”
“This is not good.” Gojyo moved to the phone. Thank heavens for the redial feature. It was worth every penny.
“Clarice Russell, how may I help you?” said a woman on the other side.
Fuck, Gojyo thought. “Hey Clarice. Did Hakkai call you recently?”
“Yes, a couple of days ago. Why do you ask?”
“Ah, we had a minor spat, you could say. He wouldn’t have happened to purchase a plane ticket?”
“He did, two even.”
“You don’t say.”
“Yes, for himself and a Goku Son.”
“Where did they go?”
“Dundee, Mr Sha.”
Double fuck. Gojyo thrust out his arm, to stop Sanzo from hijacking the conversation.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a couple spares, leaving ASAP? Aberdeen works too, Glasgow if you must, the sooner the plane leaves the better.”
“Consider it done.”
“Thanks, Clarice, you’re a gem.”
“Anytime, Mr Sha.”
“They’re in the cabin,” Sanzo stated, glaring at the innocent phone.
“Yeah. Let’s move. Clarice will have tickets waiting for us at the airport.”
LXIX.
Clarice found tickets for Dundee, and when they arrived Gojyo found didn’t want to wait any more than Sanzo did. They considered and then disregarded a car. “It’s thirty fucking miles,” Sanzo had said. “We’re going to get there faster by running than if we hire a car.” Their only luggage was a small bag in which they stored passports and wallets, hardly any trouble when running.
Gojyo agreed with minimal fuss. He was in favour of whatever got Sanzo to burn off some excess steam before they met Hakkai, because he couldn’t help but fear Sanzo was going to kill Hakkai when he caught up. He would have stalled, but Sanzo had murder on the brain, and if Gojyo wasn’t careful, it might be him who’d end up dead. With Hakkai there’d be two against one.
As Sanzo predicted, it took them less than an hour to make their way from Dundee to Glenshee and climb the distance to the cabin. They didn’t knock.
“Gentlemen, what a surprise.”
“Should we’ve called ahead?”
“This is your home, as much as it is mine.” Hakkai shrugged and returned to his book. He was tired, Gojyo could tell. It raised his hackles. What in the world would make a vampire so tired in just over a week?
“Where is he?” Sanzo growled, hauling Hakkai out of his chair and up against the wall. “What have you done?”
“What I needed to,” Hakkai replied coolly. “You are a fool to think everything would just fall into place.”
“You had no right!”
“I had every right.” The words were coming out muffled by the hand on Hakkai’s throat. Gojyo dropped the shoulder bag and prepared to spring into action, should Sanzo cross a line. Not now, of course, because he too wanted answers and Hakkai was tired but not yet exhausted. “Goku came to me and asked, Sanzo. Demanded to be turned, in fact.”
“You should have said no!”
“Why? Because you wouldn’t like it?” Hakkai’s eyes narrowed and his lips smiled, a combination that, Gojyo felt, belonged on a depiction of the devil himself. “Grow up Sanzo. The world does not revolve around you.”
“He had no idea what he was asking for!”
“On the contrary. He was asking for a way to not live in fear of having his throat ripped open every day. I doubt the condition would spring surprises on him that would be worse than what he’d already imagined.”
“You have no idea what he will turn into!”
“I believe we don’t change, Sanzo. I believe we are not demons, nor that we lose our souls. I believe that is the reason we are so fucked up, that we despise ourselves for the hunger and death we cause, because our bodies demand it. We can spare Goku that.”
“You inhuman son of a whore.”
“I would ask that you stay away from the subject of my mother. She was a lady of class and propriety, despite her social standing.”
Sanzo let go and Gojyo went to Hakkai’s side. His vampire had already been tired, he’d need help if Sanzo decided to start a fight. “Did he really ask?” he asked Hakkai under his breath.
“I understand your opinion of my morality is low, but even I wouldn’t foist vampirism on a person who was unwilling.”
Yeah, Gojyo suspected as much. However a bastard Hakkai seemed, he had his ethics, which may not always coincide with what humans liked to think of as the law, but they were there.
“You agree with him?” Sanzo hissed, glaring at Gojyo, who looked him in the eye.
“What else was there to do? Sanzo, he had one vampire come after him already, there’s no telling if someone else knew.”
“I’d have kept him safe!”
“From Colombia?” Hakkai returned to his chair. “Your misguided attempts to keep Goku safe resulted in you breaking the rules. Make no mistake, Sanzo, I did not let you live because I believe in second chances.”
“Then why did you?”
“You had saved me. Giving you a similar chance is the only way I could repay that debt.”
“You can take your fucking religion and shove it up your arse. I don’t need saving.”
“Don’t you? Then by all means, go back to London, and continue in a manner you see fit. However, be prepared to fight me, if your feeding becomes noticeable to the general public. And it will.” Hakkai gripped the armrests of the chair so hard his knuckled whitened. “You are out of control even now. You have no recognition of right and wrong. You think your mind is sound, oh yes, I know how that feels. Your vision is so sharp, good and evil seems like another layer of smell, they seem so obvious. But the problem is, they shift. They are no more solid than the waves on the ocean and soon you won’t be able to make the distinction, and then, I promise you, you will die.
“Hate me all you will,” Hakkai added after a pause. “Do whatever you want to do. However I’m telling you, and this is not a threat, but a prediction: either you go in that room and patch up your relationship with Goku, or within a year you will find yourself headless in the Thames.”
Gojyo watched Sanzo’s eyes narrow. “Fuck you,” he said. He walked out of the cabin, slamming the door hard enough to break the lock.
Hakkai bit his lip. “I confess I was counting on Sanzo’s reason.”
“I’d have bet you had more brain cells before. Seriously though, he’ll come around. He’s not a complete butthead. How’s Goku?”
“Crazy.”
Gojyo looked at Hakkai, alarmed. “That bad?”
“I can’t speak for Sanzo, but I was quite the unsettling fellow when I was human, dark and twisted some would say. Goku was a loving child. The hunger hit him hard, even though I had blood in bags prepared.”
“Fuck.”
“He should be dozing now.”
Gojyo left Hakkai’s side and knocked on the door to Sanzo’s room. There was no answer. He pushed the handle and poked his head in, only to bounce inside within the same second.
“He’s not here.” He bent over the sheets, and closed his eyes. The vestiges of the human Goku had now ceased to be still clung to the cotton, veiled with a transparent aura of a vampire he had become. “No one had been here for the past hour, how the fuck did you miss him leaving?”
“I am not a machine, Gojyo.” Hakkai leaned against the doorframe, and Gojyo was struck with how pale he was. “I gave him plenty of blood,” he admitted. “I hoped it would speed up the process and I had neglected to eat. Newborn vampires are ravenous.”
“Shit, sit down.”
“I’m fine. I am not a puny mortal, after all.”
“I’ll go catch something, you sit tight. If Sanzo comes back and tries anything, tell him I will hunt his ass down, rules or no rules.”
“Thank you, Gojyo. Keep an eye out for Goku, too.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
LXX.
Sanzo stormed out of the cabin livid. There was no word in any fucking language of the godforsaken world to describe the depth of his anger. How dare he, the interfering son of a bitch, to dictate what he was allowed to do. It was none of his business!
He ran through the forest on the verge of screaming. He would have hunted, except his eyes wouldn’t focus and all prey took the safer option and leapt off whatever cliffs they could find in an effort to avoid death by vampire fangs. All, except one. Sanzo paused in his step. There was a trail, hidden in the leaves and among the rocks, a scent so achingly familiar and unbearably soft.
Goku.
Against Sanzo’s will his legs started following the trail. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to see Goku again, ever, not when he was no longer human. Sanzo had no desire to know who this vampire was, and yet he followed, faster and faster, until he was running up the hill through the dense forest. Goku was going higher, towards the summit.
About halfway up Sanzo found a carcass of a rabbit. “Sloppy,” he muttered to himself with derision. One third of the blood had been needlessly spilled. Someone needed to find the moron and teach him how to hunt, else he’d die of thirst with the feast laid out in front of his eyes.
Sanzo found Goku near the summit. The boy sat on the naked rock, barefoot, wearing nothing but his pants. There were speckles of blood on his face and arms, but not his torso. Fuck, Sanzo thought looking down. The idiot had flung his t-shirt over the precipice, and the idiocy had not stopped there. He had a knife in his hand, carving lines into the skin of his forearm.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Sanzo asked, gripping Goku’s wrist and liberating him of the butterfly blade.
“’s okay,” Goku said, turning his wide eyes on Sanzo. “’s healin’ already.”
“The fuck’s that have to do with anything?” Sure the skin was mending, but the look of utmost suffering on Goku’s face wasn’t so quick to disappear.
If Sanzo was hoping it wouldn’t be a shock to see Goku so changed, he was dead wrong. The way he was now, under the pale moonlight, he looked to Sanzo exactly like he would to any human. Robbed of colour by the light of the moon, without the golden threads of his scent, alighting the air around him. Fuck Hakkai, Sanzo thought hotly, I hope he burns in hell for this.
“I think I killed somebody,” Goku said, holding up his hands. “I went out for a walk and I killed somebody. He was funny, sorta maroon and twitchy.”
“It was a rabbit. You haven’t been around a human being for days.” Except, Sanzo realised, that wasn’t true. There’d been a trace of human sweat where he’d found the rabbit, an unmistakeable sign of a human being nearby. Goku must have smelled him, the timing was exact and yet… There was not even a molecule to suggest Goku touched the man.
“Were there more?” Sanzo asked urgently, grasping Goku’s arm. “Were there more people when you killed it?”
“I think so. Someone else was walkin’ and he was hummin’. He was blue and the other he was maroon. I liked the maroon. ’s weird, I like blue too. Sky is blue. Sky is pretty. With clouds and sun- sun is nice and warm. I wanna sun.”
“Focus! The two people.”
“The blue one sounded funny and I liked how he sounded. The maroon one twitched and he was so fast and I caught him. He tried to run, he was so silly. I didn’t know people bled that much.” Goku’s head lolled back and Sanzo bit back a groan. Obviously, someone needed a new brain. “I’m going to be arrested now.” He was crying now, tears streaming down his cheeks and into his open mouth, and Sanzo bit back a groan.
“It was a rabbit. Stop beating yourself up over this.” Goku shouldn’t, but Sanzo sure as hell would beat somebody up for this. Goku’d been out, a hungry newborn, out on his own. It didn’t matter that he had been within a smelling distance of a human and killed a bloody bunny instead, someone was still going to pay, and that someone was green-eyed.
“A rabbit?” Goku stopped sobbing and turned to look at him. He blinked as if he’d only just noticed the person in front of his very eyes. “Sanzo?”
“Who the fuck you thought I was, the tooth fairy?”
“I have shiny new teeth,” Goku said, his mouth falling open to reveal a row of gleaming white fangs. “You could be a tooth fairy. You should sparkle. Fairies have little sparklies followin’ them.”
“Did you stuff any teeth under a pillow nearby?”
“I have no pillow.” Goku held out his empty hands. “I like the pillow back at home. It’s so fluffy. It’s not white, did you know? There’s eight hundred threads in the shorter side of the pillow. I can tell. I don’t even look, each feels a little different.”
“Goku.”
“Sanzo.” Goku moved so close Sanzo found his eyes obscuring the rest of the universe. “You’re here? For real?” He laid his palm against Sanzo’s chest.
“We’ve been talking for ten minutes and only now you notice.”
“Oh.” Goku’s hands moved up, to grasp Sanzo’s face and stare into his yes. “I missed you. Hakkai wouldn’t tell me when you were comin’ and I was so scared and it hurt, it hurt like I was on fire, and you screamed at me, and the light hurt my eyes and--”
“Shut up,” Sanzo said. Goku shut up. He rested his forehead against Sanzo’s collarbone and stayed in that position, until his breathing evened out and his eyes fluttered closed. Sanzo felt the eyelashes move against his skin. He stroked the knobbles of Goku’s vertebrae, his face burrowed in the unruly mop Goku considered hair.
He was still going to kill Hakkai, just for considering this, Sanzo thought as he carried Goku down the mountain.
LXXI.
Sanzo returned after Gojyo, for which Hakkai was thankful. He would have had trouble defending himself, even if he was sure Sanzo would stop short of killing him. What filled him with most hope, however, was the fact that Sanzo returned with Goku in his arms, the newborn cradled to his chest.
“I’m still going to kill you,” Sanzo said before he disappeared in the bedroom. Hakkai smiled. So his gamble had paid off.
“Wow,” Gojyo said. “You are a magnificent dick, but you get the job done. More rabbit smoothie?”
“Yes please.” Hakkai sat back and allowed the warm and bloody feelings of satisfaction bring him back from the terror of having Sanzo furious with him.
“He’s completely nuts.” Sanzo’s voice broke through the haze of Hakkai’s feelings of accomplishment.
“Pardon?”
“He thought I was a tooth fairy. He was sitting on the edge of a fucking cliff, carving hearts into his arm with a fucking knife.”
“Hearts?”
“Whatever! He’s been whining about killing a rabbit!”
“Ah.”
“Ah? You need to do better than that, Hakkai.” Still angry. Sanzo never learned. At least this time he was angry for the right reason.
“What do you want me to tell you? He’s only been a vampire for a few days, and you may not remember, but our perception is radically different. A lot more information flutters through the consciousness, which can be overwhelming.”
“He killed a rabbit when there was a human around.”
Hakkai’s eyes opened wide. “Really?”
“What the fuck were you thinking, letting him out on his own?”
“I didn’t let him out. He must have snuck out through the window.”
“Great fucking job, moron. He could have killed someone! You want to deal with his breakdown when he wakes up to mangled corpse at his feet?”
“Then why don’t you stand guard?” Hakkai said, a tiny smile on his face. Sanzo growled and stalked back into the bedroom.
“Did I miss something?” Gojyo appeared with a glass in hand.
“Sanzo registered a complaint.”
“For?”
“Goku is crazy.”
“I heard.” Gojyo’s worry was of epic proportions, judging by the notes his voice hit.
“He is fine,” Hakkai said. “Better than fine. According to Sanzo he’d refrained from feeding on a human when given a choice.”
“That’s good, I guess.”
“It’s downright magnificent. The insanity will pass, in time.” Hakkai took the glass and sipped at the cooled blood. “He’s very young. I remember my first days, sensory overload, so much food walking around and no gentle heart to keep me from digging in.”
“Sometimes, Hakkai, sometimes you scare me.”
“Only sometimes? I need to try harder.” Gojyo snorted and Hakkai smiled at the ceiling.
LXXII.
When Sanzo woke it was noon. He knew because Goku’s ankle was smoking where it lay on the pillow and the sun only hit the pillow around noon this time of year. He moved away from Goku and got up to close the blinds, then watched with no small amount of fascination as the skin on Goku’s leg healed. Within minutes it went from blistering to colourless.
Except…
Sanzo furrowed his brows and buried his nose in the warmth of Goku’s neck. He slowed his breathing, to match the pace of Goku’s and inhaled.
It wasn’t colourless. Not entirely. There was a tinge of gold to it, like the light of the afternoon sun hitting a sheet, drying on the grass. Not enough to lend colour to the whiteness, but enough to bring out the essence of its lack. Sanzo devoted a moment to wondering whether he wasn’t mad, if such heights of poetic effort not only originated in his brain, but made perfect sense.
Sanzo sat up and considered Goku, snuggled into the cotton. The smell was still there. Not so much the divine fragrance headier than any whiskey, but strong enough to affect the senses, and still unmistakably Goku, rich and golden.
He was still watching when Goku stirred and opened his eyes. “Sanzo,” he said with a sad smile, reaching out to tangle their hands together. His hand shook, but his gaze was clear. “I’m hungry.”
THE END
Master Post
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.
That's all, folks!
LXVIII.
Gojyo had spent the flight from Colombia watching Sanzo. The vampire had been twitchy. Oh, he’d have killed him for suggesting the word (he was not a fucking rabbit’s nose, he’d say), but it was the cold hard truth. His fingers drummed on every surface his hand found itself on, his eyes wandered, his foot tapped. Twitchy.
“Relax,” Gojyo’d told him at last, leaning over the space between their seats. “You’re scaring the flight attendants.”
“Fuck them.”
“So eager to join the mile high club?”
“Fuck you.”
“I would congratulate you on your use of pronouns, if I didn’t know you were already past the pre-verbal stage.”
“Har fucking har, Fluffy. Shut the fuck up and fasten your seatbelt.”
“Who died and made you a flight attendant?”
“Would you listen if an actual flight attendant requested you do as your friend said?” said a buxom young lady leaning over the backrest.
Gojyo grinned. Ah, the joys of flying first class.
“I wouldn’t dare to refuse.” The girl blushed and smiled and Gojyo finished the flight in high spirits. He might have been in a committed homosexual (but heterospecies, which satisfied his inner homophobe) relationship, but he still liked to win prizes for flirting. Other than that, the landing was uneventful. Sanzo didn’t blow up from the tension, a minor miracle in the grand scheme of things.
Heathrow welcomed them with rain. “Stupid March, ran out of sun,” Gojyo muttered, shouldering his bag. “What now?”
“We check the apartment.”
“I think it’s a safe bet they’re no there anymore.”
“Then what do we do?”
“We might as well check, okay, don’t have a cow. Or do, some food would do you good.”
“I’m this close to having a werewolf pâté.”
“Lucky me, I’m poisonous.”
“Shut up.”
“Whatever you say, oh Prince of Darkness.”
“What? Where the hell did you get such a title?”
“Because ‘duke’ is not fruity enough and Hakkai trumps you with his eyes closed and hands tied behind his back, ergo, he’s the King of Darkness.”
“Does that make you a queen then?”
“Shut up.”
Sanzo closed his mouth, but the self-satisfied smile annoyed Gojyo all the way home. Which was empty. “God fucking damn it,” Gojyo said, dropping his bag onto the floor. “Where the fuck is he hiding?”
“Goku’s not here either.” Sanzo walked in through the window. The twitching got more pronounced. “He hasn’t been home for a few days.”
“This is not good.” Gojyo moved to the phone. Thank heavens for the redial feature. It was worth every penny.
“Clarice Russell, how may I help you?” said a woman on the other side.
Fuck, Gojyo thought. “Hey Clarice. Did Hakkai call you recently?”
“Yes, a couple of days ago. Why do you ask?”
“Ah, we had a minor spat, you could say. He wouldn’t have happened to purchase a plane ticket?”
“He did, two even.”
“You don’t say.”
“Yes, for himself and a Goku Son.”
“Where did they go?”
“Dundee, Mr Sha.”
Double fuck. Gojyo thrust out his arm, to stop Sanzo from hijacking the conversation.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a couple spares, leaving ASAP? Aberdeen works too, Glasgow if you must, the sooner the plane leaves the better.”
“Consider it done.”
“Thanks, Clarice, you’re a gem.”
“Anytime, Mr Sha.”
“They’re in the cabin,” Sanzo stated, glaring at the innocent phone.
“Yeah. Let’s move. Clarice will have tickets waiting for us at the airport.”
LXIX.
Clarice found tickets for Dundee, and when they arrived Gojyo found didn’t want to wait any more than Sanzo did. They considered and then disregarded a car. “It’s thirty fucking miles,” Sanzo had said. “We’re going to get there faster by running than if we hire a car.” Their only luggage was a small bag in which they stored passports and wallets, hardly any trouble when running.
Gojyo agreed with minimal fuss. He was in favour of whatever got Sanzo to burn off some excess steam before they met Hakkai, because he couldn’t help but fear Sanzo was going to kill Hakkai when he caught up. He would have stalled, but Sanzo had murder on the brain, and if Gojyo wasn’t careful, it might be him who’d end up dead. With Hakkai there’d be two against one.
As Sanzo predicted, it took them less than an hour to make their way from Dundee to Glenshee and climb the distance to the cabin. They didn’t knock.
“Gentlemen, what a surprise.”
“Should we’ve called ahead?”
“This is your home, as much as it is mine.” Hakkai shrugged and returned to his book. He was tired, Gojyo could tell. It raised his hackles. What in the world would make a vampire so tired in just over a week?
“Where is he?” Sanzo growled, hauling Hakkai out of his chair and up against the wall. “What have you done?”
“What I needed to,” Hakkai replied coolly. “You are a fool to think everything would just fall into place.”
“You had no right!”
“I had every right.” The words were coming out muffled by the hand on Hakkai’s throat. Gojyo dropped the shoulder bag and prepared to spring into action, should Sanzo cross a line. Not now, of course, because he too wanted answers and Hakkai was tired but not yet exhausted. “Goku came to me and asked, Sanzo. Demanded to be turned, in fact.”
“You should have said no!”
“Why? Because you wouldn’t like it?” Hakkai’s eyes narrowed and his lips smiled, a combination that, Gojyo felt, belonged on a depiction of the devil himself. “Grow up Sanzo. The world does not revolve around you.”
“He had no idea what he was asking for!”
“On the contrary. He was asking for a way to not live in fear of having his throat ripped open every day. I doubt the condition would spring surprises on him that would be worse than what he’d already imagined.”
“You have no idea what he will turn into!”
“I believe we don’t change, Sanzo. I believe we are not demons, nor that we lose our souls. I believe that is the reason we are so fucked up, that we despise ourselves for the hunger and death we cause, because our bodies demand it. We can spare Goku that.”
“You inhuman son of a whore.”
“I would ask that you stay away from the subject of my mother. She was a lady of class and propriety, despite her social standing.”
Sanzo let go and Gojyo went to Hakkai’s side. His vampire had already been tired, he’d need help if Sanzo decided to start a fight. “Did he really ask?” he asked Hakkai under his breath.
“I understand your opinion of my morality is low, but even I wouldn’t foist vampirism on a person who was unwilling.”
Yeah, Gojyo suspected as much. However a bastard Hakkai seemed, he had his ethics, which may not always coincide with what humans liked to think of as the law, but they were there.
“You agree with him?” Sanzo hissed, glaring at Gojyo, who looked him in the eye.
“What else was there to do? Sanzo, he had one vampire come after him already, there’s no telling if someone else knew.”
“I’d have kept him safe!”
“From Colombia?” Hakkai returned to his chair. “Your misguided attempts to keep Goku safe resulted in you breaking the rules. Make no mistake, Sanzo, I did not let you live because I believe in second chances.”
“Then why did you?”
“You had saved me. Giving you a similar chance is the only way I could repay that debt.”
“You can take your fucking religion and shove it up your arse. I don’t need saving.”
“Don’t you? Then by all means, go back to London, and continue in a manner you see fit. However, be prepared to fight me, if your feeding becomes noticeable to the general public. And it will.” Hakkai gripped the armrests of the chair so hard his knuckled whitened. “You are out of control even now. You have no recognition of right and wrong. You think your mind is sound, oh yes, I know how that feels. Your vision is so sharp, good and evil seems like another layer of smell, they seem so obvious. But the problem is, they shift. They are no more solid than the waves on the ocean and soon you won’t be able to make the distinction, and then, I promise you, you will die.
“Hate me all you will,” Hakkai added after a pause. “Do whatever you want to do. However I’m telling you, and this is not a threat, but a prediction: either you go in that room and patch up your relationship with Goku, or within a year you will find yourself headless in the Thames.”
Gojyo watched Sanzo’s eyes narrow. “Fuck you,” he said. He walked out of the cabin, slamming the door hard enough to break the lock.
Hakkai bit his lip. “I confess I was counting on Sanzo’s reason.”
“I’d have bet you had more brain cells before. Seriously though, he’ll come around. He’s not a complete butthead. How’s Goku?”
“Crazy.”
Gojyo looked at Hakkai, alarmed. “That bad?”
“I can’t speak for Sanzo, but I was quite the unsettling fellow when I was human, dark and twisted some would say. Goku was a loving child. The hunger hit him hard, even though I had blood in bags prepared.”
“Fuck.”
“He should be dozing now.”
Gojyo left Hakkai’s side and knocked on the door to Sanzo’s room. There was no answer. He pushed the handle and poked his head in, only to bounce inside within the same second.
“He’s not here.” He bent over the sheets, and closed his eyes. The vestiges of the human Goku had now ceased to be still clung to the cotton, veiled with a transparent aura of a vampire he had become. “No one had been here for the past hour, how the fuck did you miss him leaving?”
“I am not a machine, Gojyo.” Hakkai leaned against the doorframe, and Gojyo was struck with how pale he was. “I gave him plenty of blood,” he admitted. “I hoped it would speed up the process and I had neglected to eat. Newborn vampires are ravenous.”
“Shit, sit down.”
“I’m fine. I am not a puny mortal, after all.”
“I’ll go catch something, you sit tight. If Sanzo comes back and tries anything, tell him I will hunt his ass down, rules or no rules.”
“Thank you, Gojyo. Keep an eye out for Goku, too.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
LXX.
Sanzo stormed out of the cabin livid. There was no word in any fucking language of the godforsaken world to describe the depth of his anger. How dare he, the interfering son of a bitch, to dictate what he was allowed to do. It was none of his business!
He ran through the forest on the verge of screaming. He would have hunted, except his eyes wouldn’t focus and all prey took the safer option and leapt off whatever cliffs they could find in an effort to avoid death by vampire fangs. All, except one. Sanzo paused in his step. There was a trail, hidden in the leaves and among the rocks, a scent so achingly familiar and unbearably soft.
Goku.
Against Sanzo’s will his legs started following the trail. He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to see Goku again, ever, not when he was no longer human. Sanzo had no desire to know who this vampire was, and yet he followed, faster and faster, until he was running up the hill through the dense forest. Goku was going higher, towards the summit.
About halfway up Sanzo found a carcass of a rabbit. “Sloppy,” he muttered to himself with derision. One third of the blood had been needlessly spilled. Someone needed to find the moron and teach him how to hunt, else he’d die of thirst with the feast laid out in front of his eyes.
Sanzo found Goku near the summit. The boy sat on the naked rock, barefoot, wearing nothing but his pants. There were speckles of blood on his face and arms, but not his torso. Fuck, Sanzo thought looking down. The idiot had flung his t-shirt over the precipice, and the idiocy had not stopped there. He had a knife in his hand, carving lines into the skin of his forearm.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Sanzo asked, gripping Goku’s wrist and liberating him of the butterfly blade.
“’s okay,” Goku said, turning his wide eyes on Sanzo. “’s healin’ already.”
“The fuck’s that have to do with anything?” Sure the skin was mending, but the look of utmost suffering on Goku’s face wasn’t so quick to disappear.
If Sanzo was hoping it wouldn’t be a shock to see Goku so changed, he was dead wrong. The way he was now, under the pale moonlight, he looked to Sanzo exactly like he would to any human. Robbed of colour by the light of the moon, without the golden threads of his scent, alighting the air around him. Fuck Hakkai, Sanzo thought hotly, I hope he burns in hell for this.
“I think I killed somebody,” Goku said, holding up his hands. “I went out for a walk and I killed somebody. He was funny, sorta maroon and twitchy.”
“It was a rabbit. You haven’t been around a human being for days.” Except, Sanzo realised, that wasn’t true. There’d been a trace of human sweat where he’d found the rabbit, an unmistakeable sign of a human being nearby. Goku must have smelled him, the timing was exact and yet… There was not even a molecule to suggest Goku touched the man.
“Were there more?” Sanzo asked urgently, grasping Goku’s arm. “Were there more people when you killed it?”
“I think so. Someone else was walkin’ and he was hummin’. He was blue and the other he was maroon. I liked the maroon. ’s weird, I like blue too. Sky is blue. Sky is pretty. With clouds and sun- sun is nice and warm. I wanna sun.”
“Focus! The two people.”
“The blue one sounded funny and I liked how he sounded. The maroon one twitched and he was so fast and I caught him. He tried to run, he was so silly. I didn’t know people bled that much.” Goku’s head lolled back and Sanzo bit back a groan. Obviously, someone needed a new brain. “I’m going to be arrested now.” He was crying now, tears streaming down his cheeks and into his open mouth, and Sanzo bit back a groan.
“It was a rabbit. Stop beating yourself up over this.” Goku shouldn’t, but Sanzo sure as hell would beat somebody up for this. Goku’d been out, a hungry newborn, out on his own. It didn’t matter that he had been within a smelling distance of a human and killed a bloody bunny instead, someone was still going to pay, and that someone was green-eyed.
“A rabbit?” Goku stopped sobbing and turned to look at him. He blinked as if he’d only just noticed the person in front of his very eyes. “Sanzo?”
“Who the fuck you thought I was, the tooth fairy?”
“I have shiny new teeth,” Goku said, his mouth falling open to reveal a row of gleaming white fangs. “You could be a tooth fairy. You should sparkle. Fairies have little sparklies followin’ them.”
“Did you stuff any teeth under a pillow nearby?”
“I have no pillow.” Goku held out his empty hands. “I like the pillow back at home. It’s so fluffy. It’s not white, did you know? There’s eight hundred threads in the shorter side of the pillow. I can tell. I don’t even look, each feels a little different.”
“Goku.”
“Sanzo.” Goku moved so close Sanzo found his eyes obscuring the rest of the universe. “You’re here? For real?” He laid his palm against Sanzo’s chest.
“We’ve been talking for ten minutes and only now you notice.”
“Oh.” Goku’s hands moved up, to grasp Sanzo’s face and stare into his yes. “I missed you. Hakkai wouldn’t tell me when you were comin’ and I was so scared and it hurt, it hurt like I was on fire, and you screamed at me, and the light hurt my eyes and--”
“Shut up,” Sanzo said. Goku shut up. He rested his forehead against Sanzo’s collarbone and stayed in that position, until his breathing evened out and his eyes fluttered closed. Sanzo felt the eyelashes move against his skin. He stroked the knobbles of Goku’s vertebrae, his face burrowed in the unruly mop Goku considered hair.
He was still going to kill Hakkai, just for considering this, Sanzo thought as he carried Goku down the mountain.
LXXI.
Sanzo returned after Gojyo, for which Hakkai was thankful. He would have had trouble defending himself, even if he was sure Sanzo would stop short of killing him. What filled him with most hope, however, was the fact that Sanzo returned with Goku in his arms, the newborn cradled to his chest.
“I’m still going to kill you,” Sanzo said before he disappeared in the bedroom. Hakkai smiled. So his gamble had paid off.
“Wow,” Gojyo said. “You are a magnificent dick, but you get the job done. More rabbit smoothie?”
“Yes please.” Hakkai sat back and allowed the warm and bloody feelings of satisfaction bring him back from the terror of having Sanzo furious with him.
“He’s completely nuts.” Sanzo’s voice broke through the haze of Hakkai’s feelings of accomplishment.
“Pardon?”
“He thought I was a tooth fairy. He was sitting on the edge of a fucking cliff, carving hearts into his arm with a fucking knife.”
“Hearts?”
“Whatever! He’s been whining about killing a rabbit!”
“Ah.”
“Ah? You need to do better than that, Hakkai.” Still angry. Sanzo never learned. At least this time he was angry for the right reason.
“What do you want me to tell you? He’s only been a vampire for a few days, and you may not remember, but our perception is radically different. A lot more information flutters through the consciousness, which can be overwhelming.”
“He killed a rabbit when there was a human around.”
Hakkai’s eyes opened wide. “Really?”
“What the fuck were you thinking, letting him out on his own?”
“I didn’t let him out. He must have snuck out through the window.”
“Great fucking job, moron. He could have killed someone! You want to deal with his breakdown when he wakes up to mangled corpse at his feet?”
“Then why don’t you stand guard?” Hakkai said, a tiny smile on his face. Sanzo growled and stalked back into the bedroom.
“Did I miss something?” Gojyo appeared with a glass in hand.
“Sanzo registered a complaint.”
“For?”
“Goku is crazy.”
“I heard.” Gojyo’s worry was of epic proportions, judging by the notes his voice hit.
“He is fine,” Hakkai said. “Better than fine. According to Sanzo he’d refrained from feeding on a human when given a choice.”
“That’s good, I guess.”
“It’s downright magnificent. The insanity will pass, in time.” Hakkai took the glass and sipped at the cooled blood. “He’s very young. I remember my first days, sensory overload, so much food walking around and no gentle heart to keep me from digging in.”
“Sometimes, Hakkai, sometimes you scare me.”
“Only sometimes? I need to try harder.” Gojyo snorted and Hakkai smiled at the ceiling.
LXXII.
When Sanzo woke it was noon. He knew because Goku’s ankle was smoking where it lay on the pillow and the sun only hit the pillow around noon this time of year. He moved away from Goku and got up to close the blinds, then watched with no small amount of fascination as the skin on Goku’s leg healed. Within minutes it went from blistering to colourless.
Except…
Sanzo furrowed his brows and buried his nose in the warmth of Goku’s neck. He slowed his breathing, to match the pace of Goku’s and inhaled.
It wasn’t colourless. Not entirely. There was a tinge of gold to it, like the light of the afternoon sun hitting a sheet, drying on the grass. Not enough to lend colour to the whiteness, but enough to bring out the essence of its lack. Sanzo devoted a moment to wondering whether he wasn’t mad, if such heights of poetic effort not only originated in his brain, but made perfect sense.
Sanzo sat up and considered Goku, snuggled into the cotton. The smell was still there. Not so much the divine fragrance headier than any whiskey, but strong enough to affect the senses, and still unmistakably Goku, rich and golden.
He was still watching when Goku stirred and opened his eyes. “Sanzo,” he said with a sad smile, reaching out to tangle their hands together. His hand shook, but his gaze was clear. “I’m hungry.”
THE END
Master Post