Title: Zang
Fu Theory, Part 5: Runge (The Lung) Home of the Po (Corporeal Soul)
Author: Lotus
Email: ladylotusmoon
(a) hotmail (o) com
Pairing(s): Sanzo/Hakkai/Gojyo
Rating: R
Summary: P1 - Sanzo and Hakkai are called away in the middle of the night to
help a severely injured farmer and Gojyo is left babysitting a dragon. P2 -
Hakkai is possessed by a fire oni, & the oni's attempt to draw heat results
in a sexual situation. P3 - Upon Hakkai & Sanzo's return to the inn, Gojyo
& Goku realized what happened & Gojyo attacks Sanzo. P4 - Hakkai
attempts to be peacemaker. P5 - Sanzo & Goku have a chat in the bath.
Warning: Language, Sexual Situations
Notes: The function of the Runge is to descend and disperse chi throughout the
body. The Runge is weakened by dryness and the emotion of grief or sadness.
---
Patches of light fell through the ragged lattice of dead vines over the breezeway,
broken patterns sliding over Sanzo's robe as he walked and smoked. His pace was
practically a stroll compared to his usual brisk stride, but he needed a little
extra time. Time to get control of himself and for his hard-on to subside.
When Hakkai had finally submitted and opened his mouth to him, the thrill was
beyond anything Sanzo had experienced sexually. The healer's tongue might as
well have licked his dick instead of his thumb for as hard as it made him. It
had taken all of Sanzo's self-discipline to release the green-eyed man. What he
had truly wanted to do was flip him over and fuck him into the floor. In the
middle of the common room of a public inn.
"Che."
Cigarette finished, Sanzo dropped it onto the gravel path and ground it out. The
noren over the ryokan entrance fluttered slightly in the same
breeze that ruffled his hair. He could sense the saru on the other side
of the bathhouse wall, waiting for him. Sanzo knew Goku didn't "hear"
him the same way, but he would definitely have recognized the smoke from his
cigarette brand.
Damn supernatural sense of smell.
Sanzo didn't even want to contemplate what today's little incident implied
about past events on the journey. How many times had the other three smelled
sex on him when he relieved the tension with a little discreet alleyway fuck?
His own ignorance of this part of their situation annoyed the hell out of him.
Frowning, he gave the flattened butt one more brutal twist of his boot.
Striding forward, Sanzo slapped open the noren and stepped inside.
Goku was sitting on a bench in the deserted datsuijyo, one arm wrapped
around his bent knees while he played with his bare toes. The ikkou's
toiletries bag was on the bench next to him, along with a short stack of neatly
folded towels. Huge gold eyes rose to meet his. The look was reminiscent of a
kicked dog.
Simultaneously guilty and irritated, Sanzo sat on the bench across from Goku
and removed his vestment.
"Make yourself useful," Sanzo said, sticking a foot out.
Eerily quiet, Goku immediately knelt down and began tugging off the boot. Sanzo
untied his robe and slipped his arms out, letting it pool at his waist. With
the economic movements born of years of practice, he slipped off the arm gloves
and snug sha tunic. When he stood to step out of the robe, he kicked the
still-kneeling young man in the back.
Startled eyes darted upwards.
"You stink," Sanzo announced before Goku could open his mouth.
"You're bathing too."
Sanzo shimmied out of his encrusted jeans and wrapped a towel around his waist.
When he turned around, he was unsurprised to find Goku clad in a towel as well,
bouncing on the balls of his feet and swinging the bag.
"Sanzo-" Goku started.
"Come on." Sanzo walked past Goku to the araiba to scrub off.
Holding the knot on the waist of the towel, Sanzo sat on the low slotted stool
next to the bucket of water. He waited a moment before glancing back over his
shoulder and raising an eyebrow at Goku.
"Oh! Yeah." Goku darted forward with the bag and squatted down.
As Goku rummaged for the soap and shampoo, Sanzo looked down at the top of the
brown head, sections of the diadem glinting gold through the wild bushy mop.
Before he realized he was going to do it, Sanzo dropped his hand on top of
Goku's head. Even unwashed, the hair was silky, more the texture of a rabbit
pelt than human hair. Then again, Goku wasn't exactly human.
"Sanzo?" Goku's tone was cautious, his movements stilled.
"Whatever happens between me and Hakkai has nothing to do with you,"
Sanzo said quietly.
It was the closest he was capable of coming to telling the saru their
relationship was separate, untouchable by others. Goku had Called him, Sanzo
had answered, and the choice, for better or worse, had been made. As
irrevocable for Sanzo as it had been for his master when he had chosen to pull
a drowning child from the river. He waited a moment, willing Goku to understand
him, because he wasn't going to be able to give him more reassurance than that.
The brown head nodded, hair shifting between his fingers, and Sanzo removed his
hand. He plucked the soap from Goku, dunked the washcloth in the bucket and
began lathering up. With brisk efficiency, he'd managed to wash his limbs and
begin the torso before Goku broke the merciful silence.
"I'm not a kid, you know," Goku said, the sulky tone belying the
validity of the statement.
"Who said you were?" Sanzo tossed the soapy cloth over his shoulder.
"Back."
A soft, wet smack as Goku deftly caught the washcloth, droplets spattering
Sanzo's shoulders. He felt the soapy cloth touch above his right shoulder
blade, and Goku began earnestly scrubbing his back, up and down, working from
right side to the left. When Goku hit a sore spot just to the left of his
spine, Sanzo bit his lower lip. Sleeping on a hard dirt floor, riding in the
back of a wagon on a bumpy road, then being tackled by Gojyo hadn't been kind
to his back.
Fucking Kappa. He should have shot him.
Oblivious to Sanzo's discomfort, Goku kept scrubbing. With uncanny accuracy,
the saru kept digging into the sore spot. Leaning over, Sanzo grabbed
the bucket. Goku stopped scrubbing as he dumped half the water over his body,
sluicing away soapy grime.
Setting the bucket down, Sanzo rose and gestured with his chin for Goku to take
a seat. The young man dropped down hard on the stool with a disconcerting
disregard for his nether regions. Shaking his head, Sanzo squatted behind Goku
and soaped up a fresh washcloth. Between the constant battling and eating, the
saru had filled out during the journey. Sanzo remembered the first time he had
scrubbed this back, the shoulder blades had protruded beneath the sun-starved
skin. Now solid muscle stretched beneath a healthy tan.
"If you'd come to me, Sanzo," Goku said, "I woulda let ya do...
it."
Sanzo sighed, annoyed the conversation wasn't over yet. He started scrubbing
Goku's back.
"By 'it', I take it you mean you'd let me fuck you," Sanzo said
bluntly.
A sound that was a cross between a frog and a choking chicken escaped Goku. The
brown head nodded, once, and the back beneath Sanzo's hands was suddenly stiff
enough for Hakkai to iron their laundry on. Sanzo wished he had his harisen so
he could beat the idiot in front of him.
"There were-" Goku's voice cracked and he cleared his throat.
"There were places at the monastery where guys did... stuff."
Sanzo watched the back of Goku's neck and ears turn red. He wished he had his
harisen and a cigarette.
"First, there's a difference between jerking off with other boys and
fucking men." Sanzo finished scrubbing Goku's back. "Second, it will
never happen." Sanzo stood up.
"Because I'm not as good as Hakkai," Goku's tone bordered on angry,
but he still looked down at his feet.
"I thought you said you weren't a child." Sanzo dropped the
washcloth, and Goku caught it midair without looking. "I already said
Hakkai has nothing to do with you. Don't make me repeat myself or I'll shoot
you."
Sanzo turned away and started walking toward the bath.
"It will never happen because that is not what we are." Sanzo paused
at the noren and glanced back over his shoulder at the sullen monkey.
"Hurry up and finish washing. I'm not staying in the bathhouse the rest of
the day."
He waited impatiently as Goku quickly scrubbed himself down, then dropped the
cloth with a plop on the floor. Standing, he dumped the rest of the bucket over
his head and shook himself like a dog. Goku turned to look at Sanzo for the
first time since they entered the washroom together. His wet hair spiked out
around his head like a startled porcupine. Despite himself, Sanzo felt the
corner of his mouth twitch, and he snorted.
The uncertainty on Goku's face vanished and a grin broke through like the sun
bursting free from the clouds. The bucket dropped with a hollow thunk that made
Sanzo wince.
"Bath time!" With a whoop, Goku leapt over the stool and whipped off
his towel, tossing it behind him.
"Cannonballll!" He ran past Sanzo into the bath.
"Wait, you idiot-" Sanzo parted the noren and stepped inside the
humid room. He barely had time to note that the pool was empty before Goku
landed in the middle of it, hugging his knees to his chest. The huge splash
sloshed water out over of the black stones onto the wood floor.
"Cheep!"
Hakuryu stoop up from where he had apparently been laying on one of the flat
rocks. A shiver ran from his head to the tip of his tail as the drenched dragon
shook off droplets of water. Goku's brown head popped up in the middle of the
pool, and he shook his head, laughing and unwittingly giving Hakuryu a second
sprinkling.
"Cheeeep!" Hakuryu fussed and flapped his wings in Goku's direction.
"Hey, Sanzo! Hakuryu's here!" Goku announced. He frog-kicked toward
the dragon, head bobbing in the water.
Ignoring the saru's statement of the obvious, Sanzo removed his sodden towel
and dropped it on a bench. He walked carefully on the wet floor to the edge of
the steaming pool.
"He'll probably bite you for being such an idiot," Sanzo said.
He stepped onto the first tier of the bath and paused. An image flashed through
his mind of Gojyo's face hovering above him, red hair flaring, a fresh wound on
his neck.
"Hmph." Sanzo went down another step, hot water rising to his knees.
He briefly wondered what the moronic Kappa had done to make the dragon bite
him, then dismissed it.
"Ow!"
Sanzo glanced up in time to see Goku shake his index finger, then stick it in
his mouth.
"He nipped me," Goku sulked, back-peddling in the water.
"Che." Sanzo moved to the last step and gingerly seated himself.
The water was a little too warm for his taste, but it was just what his sore
back muscles needed. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back against the
rocks and let Goku's splashing blend into the lapping sound of the water. Sanzo
was irritated about having to have this particular talk with Goku at all, but
he had to grudgingly admit the bath had been a good location.
When Goku had raced across the room, Sanzo had been able to observe that the saru
was completely flaccid. Even after talking about fucking and having his back
scrubbed by Sanzo, the boy hadn't demonstrated any arousal at all. He had
actually seemed relieved when Sanzo had refused the offer and explained why.
Goku wasn't sexually attracted to Sanzo; he just didn't want to lose him.
The familiar routine of the bath helped shift the situation back to normal afterwards.
Sanzo couldn't help but wonder if that had been Hakkai's intention in sending
Goku to arrange the bath. The healer could have as easily sent Goku for
breakfast for Sanzo while he and Gojyo had the bath first.
Sanzo remembered the Kappa's desperately casual posture as he undoubtedly
waited by the window for Hakkai to return. He frowned. If Goku was willing to
offer up his ass to keep him, what would the perverted water sprite be willing
to do to "keep" Hakkai?
He felt uneasiness stir in him, like a hibernating animal groggily waking up in
the dark. He knew Gojyo was bisexual. Although Gojyo was always alone the
morning after a tryst, sometimes the moans heard through the inn walls were
both male.
Something tugged on Sanzo's ankle under the water, nearly pulling him off the
ledge. He kicked at it without opening his eyes.
"Don't make me shoot you," Sanzo threatened, even though his gun was
with his robe in the changing room.
"What'd I do?" Goku's plaintive voice carried clearly from the other
side of the pool.
Sanzo's eyes flew open just as his other ankle was grabbed and he was jerked
under the water.
---
Hakuryu was resisting all of Goku's attempts to get him in the bathing pool. He
had always been curious as to whether or not the little dragon could swim. When
the group stayed at an onsen ryokan, Hakuryu loved laying near the
steamy water, wings spread out, but never got in.
Goku chewed his lower lip. Hakuryu only went through shallow streams as Jeepu.
He did hate rain, but so did Hakkai, so it might be because of their empathy
link thingie Hakkai had told him about.
Thinking about the green-eyed healer made Goku glance in Sanzo's direction. The
monk was chest-deep in the water, head tilted back on a rock and eyes closed.
Goku had meant it when he said he wasn't a child. Although Sanzo hadn't been
able to tell him exactly how old he was because he'd been in the cave for such
a long time. Sometimes it was frustrating because he couldn't remember anything
from before, so he had a lot of catching up to do with everyone else. It was
like being hungry all the time, only in his head instead of his stomach.
He wasn't stupid, either. Hakkai had always been the best source for
question-answering because he had endless patience and had read a lot of books.
If Goku didn't understand the way Hakkai answered the first time, he'd answer
it a different way until he did. Hakkai had answered Goku's first sex question.
The healer was tutoring Goku at the monastery when Goku happened to see two
dogs "fighting funny".
Even though he had blushed a little, Hakkai had explained the dogs were mating,
and given Goku a short lecture on sexual intercourse and reproduction. Hakkai
had even given him a book, with illustrations.
Goku hadn't been that interested.
That is, until the following Spring, when he saw a couple of boys together
behind the garden shed.
It didn't take him long to figure out that jerking off felt good, but being
jerked off by someone else felt even better. Hakkai had already told him all
men masturbated, and it was nothing to be ashamed of. The ex-teacher did add,
with that tilted head look that meant, "pay attention now", that it
was polite to be discrete about it.
Once Goku had started masturbating, he knew what the musky odor was he picked
up sometimes from others. What Hakkai had said was true; it seemed pretty much
everyone did it.
Except Hakkai himself. The whole time at the monastery, then on the visits to
him and Gojyo's house, Goku never caught the scent on him.
Since the journey began, he had caught both the jerking off and sex smells on
Gojyo and Sanzo. A lot on the pervy water sprite, very occasionally on the
monk. Goku had only ever caught the sex smell on Hakkai once, on Gojyo's last
birthday, after the two had been out together all night.
This morning, smelling sex on Sanzo hadn't been a big deal, but when Goku
realized it was Hakkai, he'd been shocked. He couldn't even react when Gojyo
flipped out and tackled Sanzo through the shoji screen.
As far as Goku knew, Sanzo had only had sex with strangers and Hakkai was
practically celibate. For the two of them to be together that way was a big
deal. And it scared Goku. When he had been waiting in the changing room for
Sanzo, looking about it made his stomach hurt like that time he ate all those
iyokan without peeling them first.
The ikkou was his family, and any change was hard, but Sanzo was the
sun, the air. He was everything. And Goku was painfully aware that he couldn't
give Sanzo very much in return. Hakkai could do a ton of things he couldn't do.
All he really knew how to do besides fight was to stay with Sanzo. He thought
he had given his savior everything he had already, but there was one thing he
hadn't thought of. He could give Sanzo his body; not in battle, but in bed.
When Goku decided to tell Sanzo, it didn't make the stomach ache go away.
Although Hakkai's book had only shown drawings of men and ladies together, it
wasn't that hard to figure out what happened with guys. There were only so many
holes you could stick a dick in. He'd only had stuff going out of that
particular hole and not in. He'd seen Sanzo naked lots of times, so he figured
it'd be like taking a good-sized dump. In reverse. It would hurt, but he knew
he could do it. He would die for Sanzo.
The monk's rejection in the washing room upset him at first, but at least it
meant things could stay the same for now. And that thought did make the stomach
ache go away.
Goku gave up on Hakuryu and practiced squirting water up through pressed palms
like Gojyo had shown him. The water sprite held the current record on squirt
height. He had actually arced one over Hakkai's head and hit Goku in the face
at the last onsen. Goku was determined to nail the cockroach with a surprise
attack the next time the ikkou bathed together.
"Don't make me shoot you," Sanzo called out.
Goku looked up from his laced hands at Sanzo, who was still reclining with his
eyes closed.
"What'd I do?" Goku called out.
Geez. Was Sanzo dreaming about him screwing up or something?
As Goku watched, Sanzo's eyes shot open, and he vanished under the water.
"Sanzo!"
"Cheeep!"
Ignoring the dragon's distressed cries, Goku threw himself forward in the
water, paddling and kicking as hard as he could, but it seemed like he was
barely moving. He was an awkward swimmer at best.
"Sanzo!"
Reaching the side at last, he grabbed Sanzo's arm, which had floated to the
top. Then he smelled it. The faint, coppery tinge of blood. There was a
glistening red splotch on the rock where Sanzo had been resting his head. Panic
cramped his stomach and guts and Goku jerked hard on the limp arm. Instead of
bringing Sanzo's unconscious body to the surface, there was an answering tug,
and Goku was pulled under.
Surprised, Goku choked for a moment before he held his breath and opened his
eyes. The salt and minerals burned his eyeballs and made the water murky. Sanzo
floated face-up in the middle of the water, pale body stretched taut, blonde
hair drifting around his face. The blood trail hung suspended like a crimson
wreath around his head. He looked like a falling angel.
The image frightened Goku more, and he grabbed under Sanzo's arms with both
hands, pulling upward. The response was more violent, and Goku let himself be
pulled with Sanzo, afraid the monk's human body would be damaged. Through
squinting, stinging eyes, he saw something in the water by Sanzo's feet. A
shadowy distortion in the water, and what almost looked like a flame. Even at
the thought, the flame blossomed, obliterating everything in a turmoil of
bubbles. Sanzo writhed in his arms, and Goku pushed with his feet on the bottom
of the pool as hard as he could.
Gasping air into his burning lungs, Goku broke the surface of the water.
Heedless of the rocks scraping their water-softened skin, Goku hauled the
unconscious man out of the pool. He pressed a wide hand against Sanzo's chest,
which wasn't moving.
"Breathe!" Goku cried out. "Please, Sanzo!"
Behind him, the pool erupted into a geyser of burning steam and fury.