Dedication: For scribblemoose. Because I love her and she's having a really, really bad day.

Sha Gojyo stood in the dusty, ill-lit common room of the latest rustic country inn out of a wearyingly long string of them that they had visited during this journey West and glared steadily back into malevolently narrowed purple eyes. Sanzo Hoshi-sama was pissed, it appeared. And he'd done less than nothing to provoke it. Well, nothing he hadn't done a dozen or so times before, anyway.

C'h. All he'd done was lean over to whisper in the serving girl's ear as she delivered their beer. So maybe his hand had drifted to her waist for a moment, but that was all. She'd just smiled at him shyly in return, hadn't she? And he hadn't even been seriously flirting with her, given she was most likely barely even seventeen and small-town innocent to boot, but the girl had run shrieking from the table in terror and he had lost every last vestige of his considerable sense of humor no less than ten seconds ago.

Yep. This time, the monk had gone too damn far.

The barrel of the gun clenched firmly in Gojyo's right fist was still hot. He held it steady so that the business end of the snub-nosed pistol stayed frozen barely half an inch away from his own forehead. Definitely not his preferred place for it to be, he fumed inwardly, his gaze narrowing on Sanzo's.

In reply, Sanzo's lip lifted in a silent snarl and, with an ominous ratcheting sound, the monk coolly pulled the hammer back again, readying for another shot.

It would be very hard for him to miss this time.

"Enough already, you psychotic bastard," Gojyo muttered, tired to the depths of his soul by what had become a seemingly endless daily routine since they'd started back on the road after winning free of Homura's tower and getting the Infernal Land sutra back. Sulk. Threaten. Murder attempt. The whipcord-lean man before him glared back; even white teeth clenched in fury, a poisonous aura that almost seemed to be hatred shadowing the violet glare.

"I'll kill you." The low words echoed through a common room gone absolutely silent.

Even the brainless ape-boy had gone quiet, golden eyes huge in an almost comically shocked face as his gaze bounced rapidly between the two of them. Apparently even Goku could sense the inexplicably deadly snap to the tension this time. Could maybe even sense the brittle crumbling of the narrow edge by which Genjo Sanzo's always precarious sanity hung. The little white dragon hovered in the air behind the boy's shoulder, wings beating urgently to keep it aloft as it too watched them with undisguised concern.

The dragon's master and all-around calming influence, unfortunately, had already gone out shopping for supplies.

"Not tonight, boezu." Gojyo's lip curved in a mocking smirk. Sanzo's left eyelid twitched and his jaw clenched. His finger tensed on the trigger.

Sanzo had nearly the fastest reflexes he'd ever seen - for a human - but Gojyo was faster still without even putting his mind to it. Press a gun to his forehead and his full attention was guaranteed.

Gojyo gave no sign, revealed nothing of his intent in his eyes, or he would have been shot dead that instant, he knew. Instead, he simply let his half-youkai body react with instinctive speed under the prompting of survival reflexes honed through months of endless battle. In a flash, he had lifted the barrel of the gun up, hopefully directing it well clear of any bystanders, while the other hand darted out to close around the leather-covered wrist beneath, strong fingers pressing mercilessly into the tendons at pressure points in an attempt to force the hand open before...

The gun fired again.

This second shot actually stirred the hair on top of his head while heat from the barrel seared his palm. The echoing report from so close a discharge had his ears ringing and his head pounding, but he had Sanzo's wrist still, his grip like iron, and, after a brief struggle, the gun fell to the floor behind him with a heavy thud - by some miracle not discharging on impact.

Gojyo cursed, voice harsh with disgust. Then, with a hard yank, abruptly had his arms full of snarling, spitting monk: all flashing violet eyes below tumbled golden hair, grim mouth, and tense, angular body swathed in silk robes. He drew him close - for self-preservation - noting, in passing, that there was no bulk to Genjo Sanzo, no imposing substance. The monk seemed so much larger, more daunting, somehow, when one was confronted with his simmering fury and arrogant pride from a distance - or was scourged by the sharp edge of his tongue wielded with a full measure of disdain - but once in physical contact it was always a full-on shock to discover how lean, how compact, how simply human-frail he was. A contradiction, it seemed, given the man's indomitable strength of will, his stubborn endurance. Yet all of it very Sanzo. The man just didn't know when to quit...

He'd be lucky if it was only the harisen that found his head at this rate. Sanzo was quick with his fists too, and the lean arms trapped between them were already straining hard to work free of his hold.

As the simplest way to avoid the brawl that he knew was about to begin, Gojyo wrapped both arms completely around Sanzo, pinning the other man's arms firmly to his sides with his full strength. Faces pressed close by the hold, Sanzo froze for a fraction of a heartbeat, shock and something else widening his violet eyes. Then outrage drowned everything and Sanzo thrashed against him, cursing foully. The curses grew even more blood-curdling when the monk realized he couldn't break free and that his captor clearly had no intention of releasing him; Sanzo was wiry-strong, but only human, after all. Giving an annoyed snort, Gojyo looked down into the seething violet eyes again. They narrowed viciously. And then the blond head came toward his face with lightning speed. He barely jerked his head back out of the way - and was never more grateful for the extra inches of height that let him avoid a split lip or a broken nose now - and Sanzo's forehead bounced off his chin instead. The flare of pain was enough to make him hiss in anger himself, however.

"Hey, Sanzo! Gojyo! What's goin' on?" Goku was bouncing beside them anxiously as they struggled, suddenly released from his astonished paralysis.

"Get the gun, saru," Gojyo said between gritted teeth, most of his concentration focused on simply containing the furious monk. It was kind of like catching a tiger by the tail... what the hell did you do with it once you had it? "Take the damn thing outta here and go find Hakkai!"

"Why's he so mad, eh, Gojyo? Na, Sanzo, it's not even raining today... What's the matter?"

"Yes, go get Hakkai," Sanzo hissed, eyes rolling menacingly up to glare at Gojyo, body still twisting against him in a futile effort to get free. "You'll need him to help put this perverted kappa's guts back inside him after I rip them out." Gojyo tightened his arms around the smaller man's ribs mercilessly in response, catching him on the exhale and sending the rest of Sanzo's breath out of him in a grunting whoosh, silencing him briefly as he struggled for air.

Goku blinked. "Sanzo! Sanzo? What'd he do, huh? What'd I miss?"

"Go find Hakkai, Goku!" Gojyo snapped again, head whipping around briefly so he could pin the boy with a harassed frown. "Tell him to hurry."

The boy stared at him in open-mouthed disbelief for an instant, but then the little white dragon swooped between them, kyuu'ing madly, clearly anxious. Goku blinked in surprise and - after a last quick look-over of the nearly mindless rage filling Genjo Sanzo's face - the kid finally scooped up the gun and took off.

The other patrons of the bar had scurried away from their table, creating a wide empty space in the middle of the room. Voices muttered in astonishment and fear; the little barmaid was sobbing somewhere in the background. Clearly the villagers were not used to witnessing violence of this magnitude, even given the recent threat of youkai attack. Or, more likely, it was just that they weren't used to witnessing violence like this from a Buddhist monk... go figure. Must be nice to have such peaceful delusions, Gojyo thought ruefully. Hakuryuu fluttered in the air nearby, making him frown briefly. Why hadn't the dragon followed the boy out?

In his hold, Sanzo gasped, face flushed red from lack of air, but the narrow, lethal gaze fixed on him was promising dire retribution at the first opportunity. He grinned back at Sanzo in reply, perversely satisfied to see the rage flare higher. He had been disarmed, after all. The tiger's claws drawn. But he still had teeth. And now, what to do with him until he calmed down?

"Hey, innkeeper!" Gojyo yelled without breaking the deadlocked stare with Sanzo.

"Y-yes, sir?!"

"Where's our rooms?"

"E-end of the hall at the t-top of the stairs?"

"No good. Got any rooms on the first floor?"

"N-no, well, yes... a suite..."

"Open it up for us... unless you wanna be mopping blood off the floors out here all night." Gojyo flashed a sharp grin at the man, more a baring of teeth, and the innkeeper scampered away from the bar behind him toward the hallway at the back of the room that led to the stairs and a short corridor leading to the working areas of the sprawling inn.

"Don't. Even. Think it," Sanzo snapped at him, still struggling to draw a decent breath through Gojyo's crushing grasp. He could feel the tension, the raw outrage filling the lean body. So much determination. So much fury. Too bad he was only human and didn't stand a chance against Gojyo's native strength. One definite advantage to being half-youkai that he'd not bargain away given the chance. Not like the tell-tale hair and eyes... or the scars...

"Easy there, Sanzo-sama," he said around a lifted lip. Not quite a snarl, more of a grimace. "Try to pretend you're an upstanding, pious, and peaceful Buddhist for once, eh?"

"Dead. You are dead meat."

Gojyo grinned back again recklessly, knowing he was playing with fire, and caught sight of the innkeeper beckoning anxiously to him over the blond's partially bared shoulder. Ready, apparently.

"C'h, some day for certain, but not tonight. Let's go, boezu." He lifted Sanzo bodily off the ground, walking along awkwardly with the other man's legs kicking at him the while. Good thing Sanzo only wore sandals; he was probably doing more damage to his own toes than to Gojyo's canvas-covered shins with those kicks. Still, a few of the attempts to trip him were nearly successful. And growing decidedly annoying... until he stumbled sideways into a doorframe and the impact drove the air out of Sanzo's lungs, stunning him.

"Oops, sorry," Gojyo said with patently false sympathy as he straightened up, a wicked grin on his face for Sanzo's truly outraged expression as well as the stranded-fish look on his face as he tried to suck in air through cramping lungs. The innkeeper stood aside, plastered against the hallway wall well out of range as Gojyo carried his now weakly thrashing burden past the cowering human and on into the open room beyond. Two other already-opened doors inside the suite showed him a private bath and a separate bedroom beyond. There were two beds on the far side of the main room of the suite alone. As well as couch, fireplace and a large table with six chairs around it. High class for a dinky town like this. Hakuryuu flew in and circled around the room once before settling on the mantle. Red eyes peered at them anxiously as the little dragon kyuu'd questioningly at him.

"Hey, why didn't you offer us this one right off? It's big."

"So sorry. I didn't think... It wasn't ready..." Gojyo shook his head at the stammered excuses as he strode across the floor toward the inner bedroom. The man could probably charge more for two full rooms than the suite alone. Or, most likely, they'd just ousted some jumped-up self-important merchant bastard from his suite for the night... too bad.

"Never mind. Just tell my friends where we are now when they get back... and lock the door behind you!"

"Yes, sir!" The outer door slammed closed even as he passed into the inner room. Sanzo thrashed against him, breath returning, eyes still savage.

"You are such a fucking pain in the ass, you stinking monk," Gojyo snarled as a sandaled heel clipped the bone of his shin just right making it sting like crazy.

"Let. Me. Go."

"No way."

With that, he fell down on the bed, Sanzo beneath him, making certain to grab important things like the monk's fists as he did so, and to protect other important things - like his own crotch - with a lifted knee. They landed with Sanzo flat on his back, gasping, wrists pinned to the bed beside his head, Gojyo's thigh thrust protectively between his.

Black leather, golden blond hair, ivory silk, violet eyes, face like an image of divine beauty - when it wasn't twisted in a snarl of rage like now; Sanzo was a creature of exotic contrasts. Frequently dressed in little more than tight black leather that bared sharp shoulders but hugged lean arms and chest like a second skin above a jumble of ivory silk robes gathered casually around a narrow waist; he exuded seething anger, scorching resentment and a shockingly blatant sensuality all wrapped up in a distant, superior attitude only complicated by possession of both a holy sutra and an exalted title. Not exactly the ideal poster boy for Buddhism was Genjo Sanzo, despite the small red chakra of heaven's favor that marked his forehead. Gojyo had sometimes wondered what kind of crack-brained god had placed it there in the first place. Had often pondered, especially after several beers, what conscienceless deity could actually believe the bitchy, foul-mouthed blond worthy of elevation...

But he had more immediate concerns now. Like preserving his own skin.

"What the hell is your fucking problem, huh?" Gojyo snapped, glaring at the man beneath him. "This is three times you've shot at me already - today! Enough! Calm the fuck down, wouldja?"

"Get off!" Sanzo glared up at him, teeth clenched, lips pulled back in a grimace of disgust. Black-clad arms strained futilely against both his weight and his hold; lean hands curled tight into fists as the slim body writhed beneath him.

"Stop it already," Gojyo sighed. "You're not going anywhere until I say so... oi!"

Even as he spoke, hard thighs surged around his own in a attempt to get leverage to throw him off, but only succeeded in rubbing against him, hard and sleek. Despite himself, his body reacted and his cock hardened in his pants. Something that Sanzo noticed immediately, of course, bucking beneath him again as a touch of wildness - or maybe even desperation - entered the narrowed violet eyes. "You perverted cockroach bastard! I'll kill you."

He plastered a sneer on his own face, determined to hide his dismay. Talk about poor timing, but then, they'd been nearly a week wandering these gods-forsaken and frequently rain-drenched hills - it'd been weeks more since he'd last had the privacy or even a chance for sex - so what the hell did Sanzo expect to happen when body rubbed against body that way? The reaction wasn't just because of Sanzo himself. Really. At least he hoped he wasn't that much of a masochist...

"Dead... you are dead."

"Shit, you're repetitive," Gojyo grunted, still sneering down at him. "And I don't fuck hypocritical pricks like you - no matter how much they deserve it!"

Gojyo stifled a small sound of annoyed disgust as Sanzo continued to buck and thrash beneath him. Couldn't the stinking monk see that it was only making things worse? He outweighed Sanzo by a good bit and was obviously stronger to boot. Not to mention he had leverage and self-preservation on his side. Sanzo was just going to wear them both out with this stupidly futile struggle. And so to cut it short, he simply dropped his full weight on the other man's belly and ribs and made the breath shoot out of him again, leaving Sanzo gasping for air once more.

Yet even sucking desperately for air, the stubborn monk was still somehow able to spit venom at him.

"N-no, you just go fuck Hakkai!"

Gojyo went still. Absolutely still. His captive froze too as narrowed eyes glared down into the suddenly wary, watchful face below.

"Don't," was all Gojyo said, his gaze hard.

Sanzo's chin lifted. The sloping eyes flared. "Did you think I didn't know, fool?"

"I don't give a shit what you know," Gojyo snapped, heart thudding painfully in his chest. He didn't, really, but that didn't mean there weren't parts of him he didn't want Sanzo to lash with his bitter scorn. Tender places he still dared to call his own. Tentative dreams. Fragile hopes. "We're on this gods-cursed mission of yours aren't we? So what we do with each other along the way is just none of your damn business!"

The glare intensified again and the wide mouth in that incongruously beautiful face went tight, but something in his answer had apparently silenced the furious monk. Gojyo searched the violet eyes during the blessed silence; annoyed, curious, confused. Sanzo lay still and tense beneath him, expression closed, taut legs trembling around his thigh. Pissed as hell for no apparent reason was Sanzo. Pissed for days and days now, raging at him, threatening him, shooting at him alone whenever he and Goku played their bitching game... and he was sick to death of it. Why was Sanzo so determined to single him out? Why vent his fury, his bile only on him?

And then the obvious answer hit him. Hard. He blinked. And for a moment he felt almost as stupid-blind as Goku.

"Aw, fuck. Don't tell me that's it..."

Goku caught up to him in the market, Sanzo's gun clenched in his hand, anxious worry like rain clouds darkening the wide golden eyes. Babbling about Sanzo trying to kill Gojyo. Again. That was three times today alone! And how the look in Sanzo's eyes had been beyond strange, but Gojyo had been oddly calm. And how he, Goku, was actually worried about the perverted, cockroach-head kappa. Strange, ne, for once, eh, Hakkai?

But Hakuryuu wasn't with him.

"Gojyo picked him up, you say?" Hakkai said softly, lips pursed as he stared out into space, Goku practically dancing beside him in his anxious eagerness. The Exorcism Gun Goku had thrust urgently at him lay heavy in his hands.

"Yeah, right in front of everyone in the bar. I thought Sanzo was gonna explode! But the bullet missed Gojyo's head... then he told me to come get you!" Coherent reports were, unfortunately, not one of Goku's strong points.

"Maa, maa..." he said soothingly, expression thoughtful. Situations were seldom as they first appeared, no matter how coherent the report - particularly where Sanzo was concerned. And Hakkai had already sensed that Sanzo had used up the last of his always-thin patience days ago. Gojyo could be a trifle dense at times, he thought fondly.

But there was always the chance this incident had been sparked by something other than what he supposed. So, ignoring the anxious boy for a moment, Hakkai looked inward for clarity; seeking that place deep inside of him that had opened up to him at one look into blood-red eyes as they had peered down at him curiously on a rain-dark night. Eyes illuminated in that first instant by a piercing flash of lightning and etched on his memory - and his soul - forever. Recognition, fundamental and pure, had been contained in that simple glance. Heralding the revival of something so precious and solid and true that he hadn't even realized this necessity his life had craved until it was there at last. A connection so stunning and essential that he hadn't quite been able to accept it at the time, broken as he had been by grief and hopelessness and the bitter scope of his own shockingly elemental fury...

This place inside him held the essence of Gojyo entwined with his own - in a place where two so seemingly disparate hearts had connected without further action or word on that fateful night, binding them together once more for this life and beyond. It was a part of himself he was only slowly coming to understand. A place of warmth and unconditional acceptance and wordless understanding - as unshakeable and true as it was frightening and daunting in it's implications.

That connection within him was doubtless the only reason he was still alive today, he acknowledged. For the sake of a bond he could not bear to sever again, once restored.

He was certain Gojyo himself still didn't quite understand the full nature of their connection, nor had the inner focus to touch it consciously as Hakkai could. But then, from the beginning, their link had been something that Gojyo simply accepted, a part of his life like the inevitability of his heartbeat and as often examined. Why question the sun in the sky? Or the turning of the seasons? It was an acceptance that Hakkai himself had finally come to, but only once he had shed his old name and his old life and a measure of his self-hatred and was at last able to dimly see that they were indeed two pieces of a larger unity, long parted and now rejoined.

Sex between them had been inevitable and even surprisingly guiltless, a reflection of paired souls. The act serving only to bind them closer together each time until the flame of Gojyo's spirit was a bright spark of warmth illuminating the shriveled organ that he called a heart, opening him slowly to life again in the wash of bluff emotion.

And now, from this place close to his heart, Hakkai could feel the echoes of amused disgust, lingering anger and irritation mixed with a rising curiosity as well as a guilty eagerness. To his relief, Gojyo was unharmed - though he hadn't truly expected him to be otherwise, not with Sanzo's gun here and Sanzo himself held in the other man's rough embrace. And Hakkai hadn't felt the resonance of power that would signal the summoning of the maten kyoumon, something Sanzo could do even on the edge of death.

Maa, maa, koi, he closed his eyes and thought with gentle concern. Take care with him. He's fragile in more ways than one.

He knew the words themselves would not reach Gojyo, but the feelings that went with them would. And the reply was, as always, unschooled and honest; little more than image-flashes that were pure Gojyo. An impression of a scarred cheek turned up by a tenderly wicked and yet boyish smile. A knowing gleam in a crimson eye. The body-sense of a rough hand stroking through his own hair, smoothing it back and away from his bad eye in the way only Gojyo dared expose him, and then only in the security of his embrace. Warmth filled him. Along with all the gentle love and desperate tenderness that lived deep in Gojyo's heart and was seldom bared to the world. Hakkai shuddered, pleased, and sent the warmth back again in a wordless wave of acceptance and understanding and gentle amusement.

What they had between them couldn't be disrupted by the needs of others or even by the transitory urges of flesh. He felt little jealousy for what most likely was going to happen. Because right now Sanzo needed something from Gojyo, he believed. Hakkai had seen it building slowly for weeks, once Sanzo became aware of the true depth of the connection that bound his two companions. Aware of, and, at first puzzled by, then slowly becoming alarmed by it before the alarm finally turned to a reluctant envy, tempered by the deep, burning hostility that was so frequently Sanzo's response to anything that violated his sense of the way of things; that Gojyo was little more than a womanizing fool and Hakkai a self-abasing transgressor, both as trapped and isolated by their old guilt, their old pain as he was.

Not that they'd somehow found something together despite the blood and anguish of their pasts.

Certainly not that they'd found this something and Sanzo hadn't even noticed for a while.

Sanzo's first response had been anger, of course. Jealousy, even, touched with need and longing. All of this felt by Genjo Sanzo, a man who scorned and denied all such attachments, while simultaneously craving them with an intensity of hunger felt only by the deprived. Sanzo's shockingly clear vision often fell woefully short when applied to his own actions, his own emotions. But he was trying to grasp something now, it seemed, after Homura, that he'd long been craving but had been reluctant to seek. An equal connection, perhaps. Or simple contact. And for that he was drawn to Gojyo because he too could sense the solid fire within beneath the rough exterior, and wanted to touch it, share in it.

And then, maybe, it was that Sanzo also needed to take something from Hakkai himself at the same time, even if it would only be by his own standards. He wouldn't begrudge the monk that, but could only pity him his stubborn delusion. Because there would be no diminishment of the bond between he and Gojyo, not when so much more was there for Hakkai alone. Not when Hakkai would know at the very instant Sanzo knew himself what it meant to share Gojyo's bed...

Gojyo had been oblivious to the small signs of Sanzo's growing interest - for which Hakkai felt a tiny flare of unworthy smugness that he immediately strove to smother - and even to the larger ones. Until now.

"Oi, Hakkai, what is it? You went all spacey there for a minute..."

"It's okay, Goku. Everything is fine." He tucked the heavy pistol securely inside his sash. "I think we should leave Gojyo and Sanzo alone to work it out between themselves this time."

"Whaaa... but Hakkai! Gojyo said to bring you!"

"I know, but Hakuryuu is with them," Hakkai said, letting a small smile curve his lips. "He'll watch out for them."

"Hakuryuu?" Goku repeated, stunned incomprehension writ large on his trusting, open face.

"Would you like some meat buns before we start, Goku? Ah, I'm afraid the shopping is only half complete. Will you help me now, Goku? I think we should stock more dried provisions. We seem to be spending a great many nights camping recently."

"Meat buns?" Goku's eyes glazed for a moment at the mention of food, and it was a true measure of his devotion to Sanzo that the young man managed to question him one more time. "Are you sure they'll be okay, Hakkai?"

Smiling gently, Hakkai let his hand rest on Goku's shoulder. He could feel the familiar urgency, the heated drive from Gojyo now. Could even witness first-hand, if he desired, but he gave Sanzo the courtesy of privacy. For now...

"Ah, yes I am, Goku. And perhaps tomorrow will be peaceful again, ne?"

"Yay! Meat buns!"

Gojyo watched carefully after his announcement and saw the violet eyes flicker faintly. With alarm? With fear? No way. "What the hell are you on about, you stupid kappa?" The monk's reply was positively acid, spat out furiously and Gojyo's lip curled in a triumphant, knowing smile as he finally identified that flicker; guilty embarrassment. Sanzo froze at first glimpse of the smile, still glaring up at him.

"Oi, that is it! Can our exalted Sanzo-sama actually be pining for a perverted river-boy like me?"

The pale face flushed with anger, the violet eyes narrowing further. "Shut up."

"I'd heard stories about monks and their boys... 'temple training'... but I never woulda guessed our prissy and so very pissy little Sanzo-sama went that way too. Shoulda known better, ne?" He snickered slightly, leering down at the man beneath him. Intent on taking full advantage of having the upper hand, for once, and damn the consequences. Sanzo wanted him. Why now, when they'd been traveling all this time together without a move, he didn't know, but the opportunity to get a little of his own back for all the scorn he'd endured was too choice to let slip by.

But straddling Sanzo like this meant Sanzo had a leg between his as well. He felt the clenching of the thigh muscle and barely avoided the sharp twist that would have sent a hard hip-bone straight into his groin. He grunted as he deflected the maneuver, flexing his own hips hard against Sanzo's, grinding his erection defensively into the thickly bunched silk that covered the other man's groin.

Where he discovered an undeniable truth in the form of Sanzo's answering hard-on. He grinned down in triumphant satisfaction. Oh, he didn't often catch Sanzo out like this... no indeed. And fury was a dim description of what blazed in those violet eyes now; Sanzo was effectively incoherent with rage. Low, harsh sounds came from his throat but no words.

"Been this way long, have you?" Gojyo taunted, grinning, even as his always erotically inclined mind sang with the possibilities. He leaned down ruthlessly hard on the writhing form beneath him, hands clamped tightly around Sanzo's wrists, forearms braced over Sanzo's upper arms. Pinning him securely in place despite a surge of frantic effort on the monk's part to dislodge his captor that left him panting and flushed... and just as trapped.

"Fuck you!" Sanzo managed to snarl after finally subsiding, body stilling as he sucked sharp breaths through clenched teeth. Violet eyes flared then narrowed back down to deadly slits.

Gojyo pretended to ponder his words seriously. "Nope. I think it'll have to be me fucking you." Then he shook his head, and let a slow, meaningful smile cross his lips. "You know, it never really occurred to me before today, but seems now I can't get the notion out of my head... your pale, narrow ass spitted on my cock... you all panting and begging me for more. The leather stays - it makes you look so hot..."

"Begging...?! Dead. You're dead. Bastard..."

"And you're hard, Sanzo-sama." He rolled his hips slowly against Sanzo's own again, lips still curled in a mocking smile. "Like a rock. I think someone's lying to themselves here."

Sanzo shuddered once, then went suddenly still as ice descended behind his eyes. Sanzo would do many unpleasant or morally ambiguous things but he seldom resorted to outright lies. And the indisputable evidence was there. "This is just body," he snapped.

"Yeah, very hard 'body'..." Gojyo rocked his hips against Sanzo's deliberately again, watching the violet eyes close in response, the thin lips press tightly together. Oh yes, the most holy king of denial was lying right here beneath him... trying to deny the heady friction... trying to deny the desire that was obviously ripping him apart from the inside out. Desire for him... the big, stupid, good-for-nothing kappa. Embarrassed much, ne?

Gloating too much would get one killed for certain, later. Sanzo had a long memory for slights. But oh... the temptation...

"Feel good?"

"You're pissing me off..."

"Oh, so you don't want me to fuck you then, eh?"

The blond head thrashed against the bed for a moment and he could hear the sound of grinding teeth. Sanzo's jaw looked tight enough to crack bullets. No asking for a blow-job from the monk, that was for certain, he thought with rueful regret. But he wasn't quite that reckless anyway - or that stupid. Yet the idea of it... he rolled his eyes and tried to stifle a groan of disappointment.

But wishful thinking was swiftly forgotten as the hard violet gaze met his again. Furious and yet curiously longing before it flickered away again. After another long moment, strangled words emerged from a no-doubt tight throat. "What about Hakkai?"

Surprise rocked him; for the implied surrender in that simple question, as well as for the fact that Sanzo would even bother to worry about Hakkai, much less now. Unless it was just a last-ditch attempt to throw him off the track...

"Oh, nice try, Sanzo, but this has nothing to do with what I got with Hakkai." Gojyo let his eyes glitter with promise, but despite his flip words he looked briefly inward for support. He looked into that special place that had unfurled within him at the first glance from green eyes all those years ago... a profound connection. A link that would never fade so long as they both lived, but that had grown so much stronger recently during the near-fatal trials they had endured inside the mad god Homura's tower. Shien. Xenon. Homura. Killing gods changed a man - had changed all of them in ways they were still trying to figure out. But before his unease could grow further, a sudden warm certainty filled him; the faint brush of Hakkai's ki from far away. The touch brought patient understanding, loving amusement and... tacit permission.

Hakkai was his; fucking the monk wouldn't change that - couldn't change it - because Gojyo was Hakkai's too. And as such, unable to deny the other anything, even a look into this so-perilous an instant. Hakkai's awareness flowed deeper into him, the cool surge like the hidden strength of a great river - placid and calm on the surface, yet powerful and perhaps fatal beneath if not respected - but it filled him gently, subtly reassuring him about the choice he'd already made.

Trust Hakkai to understand already, he thought ruefully. His confidence restored by the contact with his quiet lover, he fought to keep any of it from showing in his face, however, turning his relief instead into a knowing laugh, lips twisting as he smiled knowingly down at Sanzo.

"'Sides, I betcha he's already figured out that you trying so hard to kill me all week was just your twisted idea of foreplay... So he sure as hell won't mind if I fuck you stupid if it gets us all a little peace for a while."

Sanzo glared at him for a long, speechless moment, body arching in outrage again. His lips curled in a deepening sneer until the fury seemed to peak and the taut body went slowly slack against the bed. Then violet eyes slid closed and all remaining resistance seemed to drain out of the lean form. But not the desire. Gojyo could still feel Sanzo's erection, hard under his own, and the deep, slow shudders that wracked lean muscle. After a moment, Sanzo turned his head to the side, lip still faintly curled in disgust. Soft golden hair fell across hooded eyes, shadowing them further.

"Do what you like. It doesn't matter."

"What bull!" Gojyo bent close, lips hovering over Sanzo's cheek, long hair falling around both their faces. He could smell the lingering cigarette smoke scenting Sanzo's breath, feel his inner heat in the little panting puffs of air that splashed against his jaw. Violet eyes rolled in their sockets to watch him from under drooping lids but the golden head didn't turn. To turn would put his mouth under Gojyo's. An admission... or submission. Gojyo laughed softly at Sanzo's predicament. Glare or snub? "But that's okay, play the martyr if you like."

"Martyr...? Like hell..." The golden head snapped around automatically to snarl at him. Their lips brushed, and something leaped between them like an electric spark. Sanzo went silent and still and Gojyo took instant advantage, kissing him gently. Mouth moving over mouth in a careful, sensual exploration until - nostrils flaring, eyes rolling - Sanzo twisted his face sharply away.

"What the hell is this? I'm not some brainless barmaid you're seducing, you pervert! Fuck me or get off!"

Gojyo laughed again, took a risk and shifted one hand away from Sanzo's wrists after gathering both firmly together in the other hand. Sanzo gave a token tug, but failed to free himself. Goyjo grinned and summoned his shaku-jou, feeling the familiar heft of it fill his hand and drag at his arm almost instantly in response. It was an awkward position to hold it, but then, he wasn't interested in the whole thing. He grinned in anticipation as Sanzo's eyes went narrow and wary. Letting the haft slide back through his fingers until most of it rested on the floor on the far side of the bed, he caught the crescent blade at the top of the shaft and shook it free. Chain rattled; the blade rang against the floor when he let it fall, links sliding smoothly through his fingers.

Sanzo's eyes widened and he tried to twist his arms free again, to surge up, but Gojyo already had the slim chain that connected the blade looped about both leather-covered wrists before the monk could do much more than snarl. Four wraps should do - and a twist. Smiling smugly, he then let the solid weight of the rest of the weapon drag Sanzo's bound arms down over the edge of the bed toward where it lay on the floor below.

The chain was little more than wrapped around Sanzo's wrists. Some not-so-serious effort would likely work his hands free, but Gojyo found himself staring deep into startled violet eyes as Sanzo seemed to freeze in place, a kind of shocked recognition lighting there.

Oh-ho? What was this...? Had his impulse actually been right for once? A pleased smile tugged at his mouth for an instant before fading slowly away.

Because Sanzo wasn't fighting any longer. Was just lying there, still but poised. Waiting. Tension high. Breath caught. Gojyo rose up enough then to run his hands down the sleek, warm leather over those wiry arms to the surprisingly soft skin of Sanzo's bared shoulders. He curled his hands around them for a moment, letting his fingers and palms absorb the sensation of Sanzo's skin and the lean muscle beneath. Enticing. Dangerous. Sexy as hell.

Strange, but until Hakkai had entered his life he'd seldom looked twice at any other man this way. Had seldom really looked twice at any man other than Hakkai since, save one... and it was the feel of Sanzo motionless under him that reminded him of what he'd been trying for years to blot from his memory.

White flesh framed by black leather. Skin sleek and hard. The image was erotic and tempting. The great and revered Hoshi-sama always looked to him like a holy whore whenever he lowered the heavy silk of his robe down around his narrow hips. A high-priced whore with a deadly gaze and a frown that could flash-freeze you for even daring to look. And Gojyo had to admit - if only to himself - that he'd looked plenty, and liked what he'd seen, from the very first meeting with Genjo Sanzo Hoshi-sama outside his own front door. He still recalled the feel of Sanzo beneath him from that day. His body straddling the narrow ass, pinning it to the ground. A straining wrist caught firmly in his grasp after he knocked the gun away. The silken feel of Sanzo's incredible golden-blond hair under his hand as he ground the struggling monk's face into the dirt to keep him from trying to take away the total stranger he'd worked so inexplicably hard to save from death...

Rattled by the strength of the memory, he gave a small snort and shook his head once, trying to restore his poise by letting his mouth curl faintly in a knowing grin as he finally answered the monk in words that almost purred through his lips. "Fuck and get off? Is that all they teach in that temple of yours?"

"What else is there besides rutting?" Sanzo snarled back, a faintly wary and yet dangerous glitter to his sloping eyes. "It's carnal and base. Just another aspect of the body to be mastered."

Gojyo gave a little moue of exaggerated distaste, followed by another dismissive snort for the tenets of a lifestyle he'd never really been able to understand. Willingly celibate monks and other pious religious types had once made him nervous; but after years of watching Sanzo flout or outright break most known ecclesiastical laws the mention of such strict self-discipline now just amused him. He really should have seen this little melt-down coming sooner. Sanzo was a smoking, drinking, killing, meat-eating fallen monk... so why not fuck too? If it wasn't for that murderous 'don't touch me' façade of his he would have seen it sooner... but hopefully Hakkai wouldn't ride him over being so damned oblivious later. Too much, anyway.

"Mastered, eh? I thought your type ignored the body... but, hey, if it's just a fuck you want, I can do that." He gave a soft laugh, letting his own gaze glitter with amused consideration from beneath lowering lids. "But it's a damn shame... you're pretty sexy for a priest, you know."

Sanzo's eyes widened briefly in what might have been shocked surprise as Gojyo leaned down again, mouth seeking and finding the shadowed hollow under one rounded ear. Lips and tongue caressed smooth flesh eagerly; there was the gentle scrape of teeth on vulnerable skin as he dragged down the high leather collar to reach more of that pale skin. A shudder raced through the monk's body in response.

He pressed his own body closer to Sanzo's, absorbing the flex and play of the lean, hard form beneath him. His mouth moved slowly down the elegant arch of neck, and he could feel the hitching breath, the racing heart, the heat that pulsed through sheet-pale skin. He slid one hand under Sanzo's shoulders, drawing the other man up tighter against him, rocking his hips slowly against the other man's groin. His free hand splayed out across the far side of Sanzo's neck, keeping the monk from turning away as he ravaged the exposed throat with his mouth.

A strangled gasp came from the man below him and he grinned against pale skin in triumph.

He wasn't going to let Sanzo play the martyr - not that he'd really believed the monk would just lie passive and let Gojyo have his way with him - but he was sure Sanzo had intended to make Gojyo work at it more before he gave up any signs of pleasure. Score one for the kappa.

Sanzo moaned sharply again, the sound making Gojyo pull away from his fascinated exploration of the ridge of Sanzo's throat. Gods, but the bastard tasted good! Who would have thought such a bitter, sour monk would have sweet, succulent flesh. Flesh that practically begged to be licked and suckled into pink, flushed spots that slowly faded as the blood subsided into it's rightful place beneath that pale, silken surface. He was staring. Damn. Was he drooling too? Violet eyes blazed at him when his glance shifted to them briefly.

He ignored the familiar glare as his gaze was drawn almost hypnotically back down to the small love-bite he'd just left below Sanzo's ear. Shit, Gojyo thought in wry disgust. What was he doing getting all maudlin over Sanzo's skin for? Sure it was softer than quite a few women's he'd known. But most of the women he knew worked hard for a living. That drained a body. Sanzo Hoshi-sama didn't bloody well have to work unless he wanted to. Which work usually consisted of feeding his noisy monkey and killing people who annoyed him with his gun.

"...you mark me where anyone can see and I'll kill you..." The words were uttered in a breathless voice, yet still managed to be biting and sharp.

"Oh, shut up." Gojyo dropped his mouth over Sanzo's, tasting again the intoxicatingly bitter-smoke flavor of him, drinking down any further outraged words, ignoring the sharp rattle of chain in favor of savoring the soft moans now coming from the other man's throat.

Sanzo may have said earlier that kissing was for seducing barmaids but he was doing a damn fine job of trying to swallow Gojyo's tongue this time. Gojyo moaned deep, his hips rolling slowly against Sanzo's again. Hard flesh rode against hard flesh even though restricted by layers of cloth; both of them aching and tormented by the friction, the swiftly building heat. He cradled Sanzo's jaw in his free hand, sliding a thumb under the firm chin and tilting Sanzo's head back slightly, the better to delve deep into a hot, wet mouth that so often spewed venom and fire at him, but was silenced now, violet eyes screwed tightly closed above. That same mouth strained to take all of his tongue deep, to duel with it, to stroke and suck at him with heady fervor.

Gojyo broke away finally, pushing himself up on his hands, but only to breathe, he assured himself. Not because Sanzo had shocked him with the passion of his response. He stared down at thin lips now swollen and reddened from his assault. Stared down at a pink tongue that darted out to sweep once across those same lips. Moaned unheeded, absorbed in watching Sanzo's mouth relax subtly, in watching those treacherous lips part again to let panting breaths out.

He sat back on Sanzo's thighs, hands riding up to stroke across leather-covered flesh. He skimmed them slowly down, tracing the hard contours of Sanzo's body until he reached the bunched up silk at his waist. Sought and found the sash and tugged it free, spreading the robe open wide with impatient hands. And it was like opening a gift to reveal the practical blue jeans, worn pale from repeated washings, that hung low on Sanzo's hips, baring a narrow gap at the waist between black leather and denim. Lovely. He skimmed his fingertips over that gap, feeling Sanzo's stomach clench at the touch, hearing his breath catch in his throat.

"Feel good?"

"You talk too much."

He grinned in amusement at the snapped comment, not taking his gaze away from that strip of pale flesh as he stroked it with both hands now, tracing along the top edge of denim, fingers slipping beneath from time to time.

"So deal..." He shrugged, eyes glittering. "I'm not gonna change my ways for you, Sanzo Hoshi-sama, and I like to talk when I fuck. So. Does this feel good?" He slipped his thumbs beneath denim, stroking across hidden flesh. The thighs beneath his were tense; chain chimed musically as Sanzo arched up again, arms flexing, golden head tilting back.

"Yes." The word came reluctantly and only after a short, strained silence.

"Good."

As reward for his cooperation, Gojyo used one hand to flick open the buttons of Sanzo's jeans, the other to spread the fly wide. Beneath, Sanzo's cock strained at the ivory silk of his boxer shorts, a damp spot already staining the thin fabric. Gojyo hummed in pleasure, slipping his hand over that hard length and just holding it there, pressing down slightly. Sanzo bucked beneath him and his arms jerked up as if he would try to push Gojyo away, but the weight of the shaku-jou on the floor stopped him amid another clatter of chain. He glanced up to find Sanzo's eyes hidden beneath one leather-clad arm, teeth clamped tightly on his lower lip.

Oh yes. Incredibly sensitive. He swallowed hard, fighting back an eager surge of his own at the sight. "Don't do this much, eh?"

"Just... get on with it..." Sanzo hissed. He was panting, flat stomach heaving with each short breath, and that was why the teeth held so hard to his lip. To contain his reaction. To try to hold on to his so-precious control. Gojyo smiled wickedly as he curled his fingers around Sanzo's cock, squeezing gently, the skin beneath blood-hot through the thin silk. Sanzo gasped, but the sound was abruptly bitten off.

"Just get on with it?" Gojyo repeated, leaning over so that his long blood-red hair brushed across white skin and black leather. An amazing contrast. "C'h, I'm insulted. Sex needs doing right."

He stroked hard down the length of Sanzo's cock. Sanzo twisted his face further under his arm, his body bowing up into the stroke, his breath sucking in sharply.

"See? That's the way..." he whispered encouragingly while watching from hooded eyes as he slowly, steadily stroked Sanzo to the very edge. His hand firm and sure on Sanzo's length. Increasing the speed, changing his grip through fluid-slicked silk, until the other man was twisting and panting and gasping. The sounds were purest music to Gojyo's ears, with the flex of black-clad arms in time with each stroke creating a chiming counterpoint through the tangled chain that held them down.

Then he stopped. And Sanzo shuddered, frozen and poised. Waiting for a stroke that didn't come... wouldn't come. Gojyo watched, entranced, as Sanzo's mouth opened helplessly, his head thrashed in frustration beneath his upraised arms, his eyes screwed tightly closed as if he were in pain. Sweet pain... to be so close to release only to be denied... so fucking beautiful... Gojyo bared his teeth too, watching, waiting.

"You... b-bastard..." Sanzo groaned at last.

Gojyo let go of Sanzo's cock completely then, hands moving urgently on the waistband of the worn jeans, his mind lost in a haze of lust and need, vision throbbing redly in time with his pulse. He wanted him. Sanzo. Gods. He had to have him. Now. He drew back and tugged the pants off over slim hips, catching the silk boxers too and stripping them past tabi and sandals; pulling everything off in one great, impatient sweep. Leaving Sanzo bare from the waist down. White flesh gleamed in opposition to black leather... wrists glittered with silver chain... wide mouth open and gasping... legs lying folded to the side, closed in what might be belated denial... yet with an angry red cock bobbing stiffly between. His own cock strained to be free of the confines of his pants, and it was sweet torment for him too to watch as the slender body laid out before him arched up in frustration, futilely seeking contact, narrow hips rolling sinuously.

He tossed the bunched pants aside and crawled back on the bed, his tanned hands dark and urgent against those pale thighs. He spread them open with firm determination when Sanzo resisted for a moment, then settled his knees between them to keep them that way. Hands skimmed down to the core of Sanzo's body, thumbs down, fingers spread. Feeling the shift of tendon, the tension of muscle, the rapid pulse of blood beneath the skin. Simply staring at Sanzo's rigid cock amid its small patch of golden-brown hair. Gaze drifting down to the soft sacs beneath, and further to the tight globes of his ass just hinted at beneath. He stifled a groan.

"Pull your knees up."

"W-what?"

Gojyo leaned forward, balancing on one hand fisted beside Sanzo's shoulder, the other skimming slowly up a shuddering thigh. "Do it," he breathed, his heart pounding thick and urgent in his chest. "Do it so I can fuck you now..."

Sanzo sucked in a short breath, body tensing, a frown on his mouth. And it was as if he wanted to protest something, but couldn't make the words come. A flicker of uncertainty, of vulnerability crossed his shadowed face, and for a moment Gojyo wondered just exactly what experience Sanzo had in this, the desires of the flesh. Who had had him before... and how.

After several tense heartbeats, the lean thighs slowly spread wider and flexed, rising to frame his own hips, pressing against him tightly through the canvas of his pants. He lowered himself enough so his groin just brushed against Sanzo's cock. Making the blond groan and surge up against him, seeking more pressure. Obliging, Gojyo bent further still, hair falling around their faces, and closed his mouth over Sanzo's again, drinking in the panting breaths, the soft moans.

Almost lost in the kiss, he still managed to reach down and fumble the snaps of his pants open, tugging the zipper down impatiently until his cock tumbled free, weeping at the tip. No underwear. He'd run out two days ago. But that was fine, he thought wildly, 'cause it meant less barrier now. Tearing his mouth away reluctantly, he shifted his hips and pushed the pants down slightly to give swollen cock and aching balls more room, but had no intention of moving away from Sanzo's lean body long enough to get the things all the way off. Ah, and he still had his damned boots on too. No matter.

He wrapped a hand around Sanzo's thigh, sliding it down and back until he cupped one tightly rounded buttock in his palm, the flesh hard and sleek and firm. Seeking fingertips stroked the dip between the two mounds, sliding with ease over sweat-dampened flesh. Sanzo shuddered, head falling back into the cradle of his bound arms. With a surge, Gojyo lifted the narrow hips up onto his thighs, pulsing against them, sucking in a sharp breath at the rub of cock against cock. Without further thought, he grabbed both their cocks in one hand and squeezed them together, spreading his own and Sanzo's fluid over rigid flesh in a few quick jerks. Sanzo gave a hoarse cry, his bound hands coming up part way in another clashing of chain, violet eyes wide.

Gojyo stopped before either of them reached the pinnacle - wicked grin on his mouth, a feral gleam in his eye - but only because he had another goal in mind. Sitting back on his heels, he worked a hand deep into one pocket. Seeking and finding the small tube he kept there always now, he shifted his hips impatiently to get the thing out at this awkward angle.

The motion threw Sanzo further back across the double bed. His arms hung almost completely off the side, bound hands dragging on the floor amid chain, his neck arched sharply over the edge of the bed. His throat worked as he sucked in deep breaths, the skin of his cheeks flushed, sweat beading on his brow above closed eyes.

"Bastard," Sanzo hissed again. As if cursing him was the only thing left for the monk to do.

Gojyo finally managed to fish the small tube out of the voluminous front pocket of his pants. He twisted the lid off impatiently with his teeth, spat it aside and squeezed most of the ointment within out onto his fingers. Then he paused, staring, at the image before him. Sanzo was panting, bare legs up, his cock quivering against his belly, golden hair tumbled, eyes stubbornly closed. His lean chest, encased in thin black leather, heaved with each hasty breath, wide mouth fallen wantonly open. Shit. He looked good. Good enough to eat... no wonder their enemies were always going on about that...

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Sanzo snarled after several silent, heart-thundering moments passed while Gojyo stared. Sanzo's back arched, hips rolling slightly and bobbing his cock gently against his belly.

"Gettin' ready is all," Gojyo finally replied, breaking from his daze to reach between the pale, rounded cheeks of Sanzo's butt and rub the slippery stuff over his clenching hole. Tightly puckered flesh quivered and jumped at his touch as he eagerly spread the glistening stuff around. He sucked in a steadying breath, already anticipating the bliss to come.

Then violet eyes snapped open. "What is that?"

"Lube - what else?" Gojyo said, faintly astonished. Sanzo glared at him as if he really were a kappa from the river come to devour him, silent and suspicious.

Gojyo blinked at him in shock, abruptly appalled. "Don't tell me you've never used lube... damn, Sanzo, that musta hurt!"

"It's supposed to hurt."

"Not that much!" he snapped, feeling an odd sinking in his gut. A sense of anguish and outrage now tainting his eagerness. "And you still wanted me to do this? Shit. You monks are one fucked-up bunch." Sanzo just glared, mouth held in a tight line, and, shaking his head slowly, Gojyo decided that proof was better than risking a full-on argument. He hastily slicked the rest of the lube on his own aching cock, then lunged forward, drawing the lean hips up onto his thighs with both hands, dragging the monk's body across the bed again. Chain rattled and Sanzo was still watching him suspiciously, anger or uncertainty like dark clouds at the back of his gaze.

"You got cheated, Sanzo-sama," Gojyo said, his voice a low purr as he guided the head of his cock to Sanzo's hole, the other hand steadying Sanzo's hips where they lay over his thighs. Now that he was to the point, he wanted nothing more than to slam deep inside of Sanzo. Fill him in one brutal surge. Violet eyes caught and held his in a defiant, angry glare and he felt the lean body under him struggle to relax in anticipation of just such a brutal invasion.

Oh, no. He wasn't going to be that predictable.

Despite his own raging need, he rocked his hips forward gently, pressing slowly against the tight ring of muscle until it eased fractionally, allowing him grudging entry. At least Sanzo knew that much about protecting himself, he thought amid the red haze of harshly-reined urgency. Gojyo's hips surged forward again in small waves and his cock disappeared slowly inside the monk's ass. He watched with smug satisfaction as Sanzo's eyes grew ever wider at the lack of overt pain even as he fully seated himself.

Only then did he let his chin fall down against his own chest, hissing. Tight. So damn tight. His back hunched and his thighs clenched as he struggled to contain his reaction. Gods. Hot and slick and deep. Inside Sanzo where he'd never thought to be. It was bliss. He raised his head slowly, wanting to see what he had wrought. Sanzo was groaning faintly, his eyes heavy-lidded, his mouth fallen open, his face slack with passion. Annoyance and suspicion apparently forgotten. He met the darkened gaze with fire, and there was a desperation there in the violet eyes, beneath the astonishment and the lust and the pleasure. As if pain had been expected... wanted even.

He had to speak to that desperation. Had to break it down. "I'll take you on any time, Sanzo, fists, weapons, whatever... but I'm not gonna hurt you here... like this... no, there's better ways to win here..."

Sanzo opened his mouth as if to speak, to retaliate, but Gojyo moved then, sliding inside him. Silencing him. The motion sleek and smooth and easy within tight flesh, aided by the lube. Painless. Incredible. He fell into the rhythm that his body craved. Firm. Deep. Watched his cock disappear into that tender ring of flesh over and over again - into Sanzo's flesh. His fingers dug into lean hips, holding the other man in place as he took him. Bliss indeed. He could tell that Sanzo's pleasure flared higher too with each panting moan, each grunt of effort, yet the monk's eyes were clenched tightly closed again, denying him access to Sanzo himself. Oh, he had his body. It sang to his with each thrust, tight and loud. But of the man inside... he had to touch that as well... had to... reach...

Gojyo lunged forward suddenly, catching the bound arms and dragging them up, drawing Sanzo's shuddering body up against his in one swift yank. Chain rattled wildly, the shaku-jou dragging loudly across the wooden floor. Violet eyes flew open in vague shock. He looped Sanzo's bound wrists behind his own neck, then buried one hand in the man's silky golden hair to hold his head firmly in place as he stared deep into his eyes.

"Don't fight it," he muttered before covering quivering lips. He stabbed his tongue hard inside Sanzo's mouth, tasting him, drawing on him, savaging him there as he wouldn't below. The bound arms flexed, pressing him closer and Sanzo moaned, the sound disappearing into Gojyo's mouth even as the lust-darkened eyes squeezed closed again. Denying him. He twisted his mouth away, glaring.

"You wanted this... you wanted me... damn hypocritical monk..."

With his free hand he grabbed Sanzo's cock in his hand, stroking it hard between their straining bodies, his thumb riding mercilessly across the head at the end of each stroke. Sanzo cried out, almost pained. He could feel the throb beginning in Sanzo's body, the pulses that heralded orgasm rippling through trembling thighs. Abruptly he stopped stroking; stopped the rocking of his hips. Watched the flushed face in front of him shudder through a range of expressions, most of them angry.

"...bastard... prick... move, you tease... fuck you..." Sanzo gasped, head lolling back against his hold. Gojyo shook the golden head lightly by the grasp he still had on silky hair, a twisted smile on his lips.

"Wrong way 'round... it's my cock in your ass... look at me, boezu!"

After a breathless second, eyes opened to mere slits, gleaming under the dark-blond lashes. He took his hand off Sanzo's cock, somehow ignoring the screaming demand of his own buried inside Sanzo that was telling him to move move move again. A rough thumb marked with glistening pre-come skimmed across a swollen lower lip. Violet eyes fluttered open wider, gleaming with disdain despite the lust.

"...get on with it," Sanzo gasped, hot breath fanning across damp skin.

"I'm not your whore, Sanzo," he said evenly. Then, with the fire he'd found through Hakkai, he reached into the other man with his deepest self, piercing the wall of restraint through the breaches he'd already made in the monk's defenses; mouth and ass and eyes. There was no distance between them now. No walls. Fire spilled unchecked through him, hot and wild, pouring into the man in his arms, even as deep inside himself he felt Hakkai's sudden shock flash into him along with the cool surge of his strength as well as it responded without hesitation to the urgent draw of his own fire.

"Oh yes, you too, lover," Gojyo cried even as he reached for the hard glitter, like ice, that surrounded the core of Sanzo. But not reaching alone, entwined with Hakkai now too, as always, in heart and mind... energy surged. Sanzo cried out - screamed, really - body arching up in denial, even as he tried to retreat from this invasion into his mind, wrists twisting within their casing of chain. But Gojyo held him tight. Not letting him escape. Pouring his searing fire and Hakkai's relentless flow into him as - mouth working, hips rocking, cock filling him - he strove to touch Sanzo every way he could.

The arms around his neck, laden with chain, tangled in his hair tugging on it painfully. Golden hair fell over his shoulder as Sanzo buried his face in his neck trying to escape. He drove into him harder, rising up on the bed now, thighs straining as he plunged deep and Sanzo was arching away, body taut, lean muscles shuddering, breath rasping, making grunts of effort with each thrust that sounded nearly like cries of pain. Ice cracked, splintering along the edges, blasted by fire, worn by water... He wrenched Sanzo's face up again, kissing him savagely before pulling away enough to glare into barely opened eyes.

"Don't hide from me... damn you, Sanzo! You asked for this... wanted me..."

The violet eyes, darkened nearly to black, opened fully at last; Sanzo's gaze met his own, aching and raw and terrified as ice shattered behind it, falling free, crumbling at last in the face of the combined onslaught of fire and water. Hakkai reached through him, trying to soothe Sanzo's fears, wrapping the monk in the protection of his enveloping power even as Gojyo's fire heated both of them up. His cock felt like new-forged iron, hot, driving deep, filling Sanzo completely with each bed-shaking thrust, the monk's body taking him in, accepting him even as his soul whimpered a denial and fled.

"Catch him, Hakkai..." he gasped, reaching for the green-steady-deep presence of his lover, winding him tight in the impatient-soaring-red fire of his own spirit as they chased Sanzo's glittering, splintering presence through his mind. Cornering it, finally, against a wall of darkness that even he would not flee through. Sanzo turned, clearly expecting destruction, dissolution, but found only the warm wash of passion, the fire of love, the connection of two souls spiraling out to include him as he gave a last hoarse scream, his body arching, hands tangled in crimson hair, cock spurting in Gojyo's hold even as Gojyo drove into him a final time, his own shout nearly drowning out Sanzo's own as they came... together... falling... forever... again...

Shaken, Gojyo climbed off the limp form beneath him after gingerly unwinding Sanzo's hands from his hair, his body trembling as he fell back against the flimsy headboard. Sanzo had apparently passed out - from pleasure or just sheer overload, he didn't know. He didn't really care at the moment, truthfully, as his attention focused eagerly elsewhere. Because there was a new glow inside him now. A distinct and constant presence entwined with his own spirit. He touched it with his mind, wordlessly wondering, and felt Hakkai's instant response.

Ah, well, I didn't quite expect this to be the result when I decided not to come to your 'aid', koi. But I can hardly say that I find it entirely unwelcome. The words just appeared in his own mind, almost like his own thoughts, but were flavored with the cool sense that was distinctly Hakkai. He could almost see the other man sitting beside him, a quiet smile on his face, green eyes gleaming brightly.

Will this last? he asked, still lost in the amazing sensation, in the feel of his beloved entwined deeply in his mind, his heart, his soul - it was better even than the staggeringly intense release that he'd just pumped into Sanzo's body. Hakkai was just there where he'd always belonged, in his soul. It was almost indescribable.

I don't know, but I rather I suspect not, Hakkai replied with a touch of rueful sadness. There was a great deal of... energy just released that should slowly fade... It will likely strengthen our bond... but you are never far from me in my heart...

He felt the brush of Hakkai's emotions, tender and strong. His own emotions surged in response. Despite it, he had to ask, now when there were no barriers, no walls, no manners to hide behind.

You're really not pissed I fucked Sanzo?

Hakkai smiled and the sensation washed through him like the warmth of a spring day, filled with promise and simple joy. How could I begrudge something that gave us this? No, I knew what you were getting into. Sanzo's been watching you for weeks now, wanting you. I knew what he wanted from you wouldn't matter to us... and it doesn’t. In fact, I believe we may owe him thanks.

I wouldn't go quite that far, Gojyo said, grinning himself. In his mind he ran his fingers across Hakkai's cheek, cupping the elegant face carefully in his rough hand. So deceptively fragile; so terrifyingly strong. How had he lived the nineteen years of his life before Hakkai without this? The truth was he hadn't really. He'd existed. He'd suffered. He'd played around seeking love. But actually he'd been... waiting. Waiting for this: the other half of his soul.

Hakkai smiled gently again, the thoughts as clear to him as if Gojyo had spoken the words. Love, indulgence and understanding came to him in gentle waves but the bright surface and easy emotions failed to completely conceal the darker currents that ran through Hakkai's soul. Jealousy. Possessiveness. Need. But he wasn't afraid of the depths.

No matter what. Neither of them were shining examples of ultimate enlightenment and purity of soul; just look how they'd reached this place. Through him screwing someone else. No, nothing inside Hakkai frightened or repulsed him. But what spiked fear in Gojyo's heart was the idea of losing this connection, of losing Hakkai to those depths someday.

Hakkai was right... the link was already fading, the intensity slipping away. But he knew it was still there, just beneath the surface. Gojyo smiled to himself, letting his eyes close as his sated body relaxed. Always there.

Forever.

Much later, Sanzo lay in darkness. Alone, he lay on the bed, one arm thrown above his head, his face turned toward the uncovered window. Stars glittered coldly outside. The raw, hollow ache inside him had still not faded.

He had long ago sensed the presence that waited patiently in the doorway.

"You knew?"

"Of course," Hakkai said with quiet calm.

"Damn you."

"Ah, now, Sanzo, would you have listened to me if I warned you?"

He lay in silence, eyes sliding closed against the truth. Not wanting to see the stars. Aching from the aftermath of a glory that could never be his, a connection that was forever beyond his reach.

- - fin - -