Just the Once

Fighting on Main street...


(or the one time blunt-force trauma actually prevented a barfight)

Goku’s shift had started at sunset and he did his job even though his unease had been rebuilding since he woke up. He’d been waiting all day, unable to hear more than stony silence where there had been incoherent rage before. He spent the evening glancing at the door and wanting the monk to just come find him and get it over with. When Sanzo finally arrived it was the middle of happy hour.
In Goku’s mind the crowd parted around him.
In reality everyone was either walking toward the bar or as far away from the grumpy, gun-wielding priest as they could get. All of Goku’s previous angst dissipated and he was left fearless and warm and numb because he realised nothing in the world had been worse than being without his sun. If Sanzo decided to shoot him, he would not care because before he had not thought it was possible, conceivable to care for someone so much. Even if he still wasn’t quite sure of the capacity. He just knew it was important, big, like thinking there was a grain of sand on your finger only to realise you were standing on a beach full of it and your feet were slowly sinking. Sanzo could take it out of his hide, just so long as he didn’t get rid of him. It would be worth it.
Their eyes met and it felt as though they had been apart for an age. Goku needed to tell him, needed him to know that he would always be there and that wouldn’t change even if he had other people in his life. Needed Sanzo to know how painful it was to wait and feel and not know...
Then someone smacked him on the back of his head with a beer bottle and he fell over, unconscious.
Sanzo was there in an instant, jabbing the guy in the throat with the tips of his fingers. Then he kicked him in the stomach when he fell. The crowd bristled for a moment until Sanzo snarled at them and then the herd thought better of it.
Gojyo put down the guy he’d been playfully threatening and walked over to Goku. He prodded Goku gently with his boot. Sanzo strode back through the crowd, sneering at him.
“Well, I for one didn’t see this coming.” Said Gojyo.


Sanzo glared at Gojyo. Gojyo glared at Sanzo. The bar fell silent, sensing the need for self-preservation, while their Mexican standoff continued.
“Well isn’t this lovely,” Said Hakkai dryly, smile banished from his handsome face, “You’re fighting over his honour on Main Street and the winner gets to keep his flesh as a trophy.”
Gojyo and Sanzo stared at him, shocked pale. Hakkai allowed himself the decadent luxury of a snort. He bent down and quickly checked that Goku’s spine was in working order and that his skull, thick though it was, hadn’t managed a fracture.
“Gojyo, give me your room key, he’s going to need some quiet.” Hakkai ordered, palm already outstretched.
Gojyo handed it over and Hakkai took it then he bent down to pick Goku up. Gojyo pointed at the stairs. Hakkai decided it was best to leave them to themselves for a while. Goku certainly didn’t need to be in the middle of their cockfight over his virtue. Hopefully he’d never find out about it at all.


The thunder was gone.
Sanzo and Gojyo looked anywhere but at each-other. So, that was what they’d been doing. Fighting over Goku, of all people. Romantic battles were not usually waged over the nice one and certainly not over someone so dangerous.
It was morbidly embarrassing.
They coughed at the same time.
“Where’s the bar,” Sanzo asked, deceptively mild.
“Over there.” Gojyo motioned.
“Good, I need a drink.”
They both took a seat at the bar. After ten minutes it was clear that they were competing over who could drink the most shots.



Goku stirred after about half an hour. He shakily lifted a hand to his head and moaned pitifully, “Ow.” He tried to sit up and then he noticed Hakkai in the room with him.
He startled like a cat thrown into a bucket of water.
“Hi, Hakkai.” He said, voice high and tremulous.
“It has been a while, Goku.” Hakkai replied.
“I bet you’re really disappointed.” Goku said after a short pause, because Hakkai would be straight with him. Hakkai would help.
Hopefully.
Hakkai looked at the floor for a moment.
“I don’t know if disappointed is the right word.” He said, “Although after a while I was little worried about not being as shocked as I thought I should be.”
“I’m very sorry to say this because I’m really glad that you’re not yelling at me for being so stupid but... I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m not entirely sure either.” Hakkai replied.
“That makes me feel better.”
“It’s improper of me to say this but I always thought you didn’t like secrets.” Hakkai ventured, hurt slightly colouring his voice.
Goku’s cheeks went a little pink.
“I... Um... I tried to talk to you about it. Once.” Goku went even more red, “You kinda told me not to fight with Gojyo and then I got too embarrassed to try again. I sorta figured, after that, that if nobody cared then maybe it didn’t count. I mean, I don’t know what you Sanzo do when you hole yourselves up some nights. I just figure that it helps so it doesn’t count as a secret at all.”
Hakkai’s heart clenched.
“I’m sorry for not listening to your concerns,” Hakkai said, voice firmer and softer now.
“Well, that’s the thing, you’re busy and there’s a lot going on. You’re not always going to have time. It’s just that... It’s always the four of us. It’s just now Gojyo ‘n me have done different than we had before and that seems to have changed things. Sanzo was really angry.”
Goku was beet red now and looking as though he wanted the ground to open up and swallow him.
“I don’t think less of you, Goku. You’ve just taken a step that changed you a little and none of us are good with change except you.” Hakkai hoped that he could make him understand that.
“Sanzo...” Goku tried to find the words but they clearly wouldn’t come.
“Sanzo has had you to himself for years and he’s never had to share in the way that you have.” Hakkai said, remembering all the time they’d spent together with Goku waiting patiently outside, all the meetings Sanzo had with high priests and dignitaries, “He was jealous, although he doesn’t know it and he was afraid for you.”
Goku’s face flushed with something like hope.
“I trust you’ll keep it to yourself.”
Goku nodded, slowly but with conviction.
“You know Sanzo hasn’t had the easiest life, there are some things he’s kept away from you because he cares in his own way. He may well be a bastard about this and Gojyo is certainly in for it but he’s not going anywhere and he does understand, even if he’d rather not.”
Goku sighed with relief, which clearly said something about what he had to deal with on a daily basis if this knowledge inspired relief. Goku’s eyes started to droop.
“Now that we’ve had a chat, I think you should sleep a little. You’ve just sustained a head injury and you’ll need some sleep after the little repair that I did.” Hakkai put a hand behind Goku’s head, “Don’t sleep on the pillow, we’ll just keep your spine straight for a while.”
“Ok, Hakkai.” Goku said, “And... Thank you.”
Hakkai smiled a little and it was genuine, “You’re Welcome.”

---

I now have time off from uni, so I had time to get this next part done. It's short, even compared to other parts but I usually post as soon as I get a point across, especially given how this whole story turned into something much bigger than originally intended. I wanted to write porn, damnit and it turns out I couldn't do it on its own. I didn't want to write anything down here until the end because it breaks up the story but I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who reviewed. Special thanks to eternity, FallAce and Darkeness for their thoughts, criticism and praise. It's meant a lot to me and it makes me so glad that people approve of my interpretations of character and sense of humour.
I hope you like where this goes.
-Waterworks