Title: The Angel In The Marble (Part 8 of the Barely Breathing thread) Chapter 4

Author: Befanini
Website: http://www.fanfiction.net/~befanini

Disclaimer: I have absolutely no rights whatsoever. For deviant daydreaming purposes only. XD

Rating: M for language and adult situations.

Summary: Sanzo/Gojyo: an Angel from the Underworld and a Devil from Paradise… (Hmm… Which is which?) Shounen-ai, yaoi, WAFF

Warning! Rated SxGxS. (At last! At last! My muses are back… XD… Grazie, Darkness… LOL)

Rated "#$&! fangirl Japanese!" for – yep – "#$&! fangirl Japanese". Heh.

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IV.

Back to the present, in the dining room of the luxury inn.

Gojyo joins the ikkou for supper, clutching his head and moaning. He pulls out a chair and collapses into it dramatically.

Goku quickly hunches over his food, prepared to defend his Peking Duck, Beef Teriyaki and Prawn Tempura to the death. "You just try it, cockroach…" the monkey warns darkly.

Gojyo ignores him. "Oi Hakkai. You got any aspirin with you?"

Hakkai looks up quickly from feeding Hakuryu morsels off his plate. "Nande, Gojyo? You have a hangover already?"

Sanzo snorts, and shakes out the evening newspaper in front of him. The bespectacled eyes secretly shoot the kappa an amused look above the pages.

Gojyo winces, waving a dismissive hand. "Just gimme."

Hakkai raises his eyebrows, but excuses himself from the table and goes to his room to get the aspirin. He returns shortly, in time to catch Goku asking innocently –

"So what did you do today, Gojyo? Was I dreaming, or did I see you go into the town's library?"

Sanzo chokes on his tea.

Gojyo glares at Goku. Goku waits curiously. Hakkai offers Gojyo the aspirin with an inquiring look of his own.

Gojyo frowns and swallows down the aspirin casually. "I wandered in by mistake, okay?"

"By mistake? You mean you can't tell the difference between the local bar and the local library?"

"You cheeky little runt—"

"So you spent the whole afternoon in the library, Gojyo?" Hakkai cuts in incredulously. "Well that's new… I've never known you to be interested in literature before…"

Gojyo sweatdrops. "I was, uh… looking something up, alright? Jeez, I'm not an idiot, you know…"

"That's news to me!" Goku grins.

"You looking for some serious pain, bakazaru?" Gojyo lunges at the gleeful monkey.

"What were you looking up, Gojyo?" Hakkai cuts in again, genuinely curious.

"Er…"

"Heh. Maybe he was lookin' for some girlie magazines…"

"BAKAZARU! They don't have that shit in a library, you moron!"

"Urusei." Sanzo finally speaks up, taking pity on the flushed, embarrassed kappa. "Leave him alone," he orders.

Hakkai blinks in surprise.

Goku protests.

"I said, leave it," Sanzo drawls. "I'm tired of your noise. I can't fucking concentrate on my paper." He turns a leaf over with a sharp snap. "Besides," he informs Goku disdainfully, "any time spent in the library is better that wasting your whole afternoon frying your brains and shattering your eardrums in a god-awful arcade."

"Really?" Goku blinks at Sanzo. "So how come you're always draining the batteries on my Gameboy Advance, then?" the monkey asks innocently.

THWAK!

"Don't be cheeky! I use it to drown out your pointless annoying whining and your goddamn brainless squabbles with that equally maddening idiot over there!"

"Itte…"

"Seriously, Gojyo," Hakkai asks his best friend. "What burning question performed the miracle of dragging you into a library?"

Gojyo sighs. "Can't we just drop it, pleazzze?"

"Oh c'mon. Tell me. I'm dying to know."

Gojyo pinches the bridge of his nose. "If you must know…"

"Hai?" Hakkai leans forward eagerly.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Sanzo observes as Gojyo leans back with his trademark smirk. "I was reading up on…" the kappa drawls slowly. He lazily plucks up a spring roll, pops it into his mouth, and chews maddeningly.

"I'm gonna kill you, Gojyo," Hakkai threatens.

"… the Kama Sutra…" Gojyo reveals silkily, with a naughty wink.

Hakkai wrinkles his nose in disgust at the letdown. "I should have known…"

Gojyo eyes Sanzo mockingly. Sanzo snorts.

"What's that?" the monkey pipes up.

"Never mind…" Hakkai sighs disappointedly.

"No, I think I should know if there's another sutra out there that belongs to Sanzo!" Goku declares heatedly. "What does THIS sutra do, then? Huh? Does it purify too? Does it bless? Is it painful or good for youkai?"

Sanzo hides behind his newspaper, biting his lips hard. Gojyo guffaws, banging his fists on the table as he howls. Hakkai stammers.

"It can be very, very, good, saru, depending on the skill of the, uh—"

THWAK! THWAK! THWAK!

Gojyo glares at Sanzo, rubbing his head, even while he still chortles. Hakkai wipes off a tear or two, and sighs.

"Nani!" Goku blinks. "TELL ME!"

"URUSEI! That's enough!" Sanzo growls sternly. "I mean it!"

"You never tell me anything!" Goku sulks disgustedly. He finds comfort in his tiramisu soon enough, though. Sanzo shakes his head amusedly at the monkey, who is so easily comforted with food.

"Nani?" Goku scowls between mouthfuls.

"Nothing," Sanzo snorts. "Eat up."

"So why the aspirin, Gojyo? Surely you found your reading material – er … pleasurable? It couldn't have given you a headache?" Hakkai queries with one of his cryptic smiles.

Gojyo shrugs. "I never spent so long reading my entire life," he winces. "Six hours on my butt bent over a book is painful, dude, mind-boggling –er—topic, or not."

"True, true," Hakkai nods in mock sympathy.

Gojyo grins, while Sanzo rolls his eyes.

"Whoo! That hits the spot!" Goku sighs contentedly, as he leans back in his chair with a satisfied smile. "I think I'll just go to the lounge and watch my Simpsons," he says happily.

"As for me, I promised a couple of gentlemen a good game of mahjong…" Hakkai the swindler announces gleefully. "Would you mind taking care of Hakuryu, Goku?"

"No problem!" Goku beams. "You ready, my beast friend?" The mini-dragon perches on his shoulder as they walk off, leaving a huge pile of empty dishes behind them.

"Sanzo? Care to join us?" Hakkai invites, as he stands up.

"Iie. I'm having a nightcap at the bar and then heading for the bath house for a nice long soak."

"Gojyo?" Hakkai turns to the kappa, who is lazily dragging on his cigarette.

"Hmm…" Gojyo drawls. "I'll pass, thanks. I, er… I think I'll 'test-drive' all the 'research' that cost me so much agony…" he declares coyly, waggling his eyebrows meaningfully.

"You're hopeless…" Hakkai sighs, and turns to go.

Gojyo arches a crimson eyebrow at the monk.

"'Ch. Baka…"

Gojyo cackles.

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