*cough* This one-shot was originally
part of my series ‘Tales from the Jeep’, which I decided
I wouldn’t have time to continue. But I saw no reason to why
I couldn’t post this part as a one-shot instead.
Disclaimers: I don’t own Saiyuki or any of its characters.
The title is taken from a song by Green Day. By a CD with them, you
won’t be disappointed. Anyway, I chose the song because I thought
it’d fit Goku in this story. Basically, it goes something like
“Wherever you go, you know I’ll be there, if you go far,
you know I’ll be there...” and “I don’t care
if you don’t mind, I’ll be there not far behind, I’ll
be there for you...”
My word program asked me if I wanted to change ‘Gojyo’
to ‘goodie’. Hmm...I wonder.... ^_^
Poprocks
and Coke by Maaya
Somewhere
in the distance, one could hear a wolf howling, searching for companionship.
Goku idly listened to the sad sound and felt a shiver creeping down
his spine, despite the warmth of the blankets he was cuddled into.
He’d sometimes heard lonely wolves’ howls during his time
in the mountain (it was one of the few sounds he ever heard) and when
he did, he had usually answered with lonely cries of his own. It had
been nice to hear his voice join the wolf’s and feel how the
knot of loneliness in his chest momentarily loosened.
Tonight,
the boy fought his urge to answer though, because it would have been
more out of habit than anything else if he did. Because he wasn’t
really lonely anymore, was he? Letting his gaze focus upon his caretaker,
Goku didn’t break it as he rolled over onto his stomach and
pulled his arms free from the cocoon of blankets to fold them under
his head. He yawned, rubbed his eyes, and set to observe the blonde
man he shared a room with.
Sanzo
sat in the only chair the room provided, robes folded down and reading
glasses perched on his nose, reading a newspaper. For Sanzo, that
was as sloppy as it would ever get. And it looked as if he thought
the paper would attack him, that concentrated was the reading-expression
he worse on his face. It was an expression similar to when he killed
youkai during one of the many attacks they endured. The monkey boy
thought a bit before hesitatingly venturing. “Hey Sanzo...I
don’t think that the paper will bite you, no matter how much
you provoke it.”
It was
maybe a little out of character, but he was tired. It had been a long
day. The fact that the wolf’s howl had caused him to remember
his many long years in the mountain prison didn’t help much
to ease his mood.
“Shut
up.” Sanzo didn’t even look up from his newspaper. Great.
Apparently, Goku wasn’t even worth a single glance anymore.
Or maybe Sanzo didn’t respond to him because Goku had said something
rather dumb in the first place.
Gojyo
had once asked Goku why he stayed together with the undoubtedly rude
monk, when Sanzo didn’t treat him any better than dirt. At the
time, Goku had been surprised by the question, and never really answered
it, just shrugged mutely. Hakkai had interrupted Gojyo when the red-haired
man had looked like he wanted to continue his questioning.
Goku
followed Sanzo. He would never leave him. Did he need a reason to
why? Maybe, maybe not. But it still bugged him.
“Sorry.”
The boy mumbled into his pillow of arms that somewhat covered his
mouth. “Sanzo, I’m tired.”
“Then
go to sleep.”
Another,
weaker howl came from the outside, probably carried by the wind from
somewhere far, far away.
“I
don’t want to.”
The blonde
man sighed quietly and lowered the newspaper. Over it, he stared at
Goku for a long moment. Goku looked back mutely, keeping himself from
asking ‘what?’ and wondering what the monk saw at that
moment. What did Sanzo see when he looked at Goku?
When
the boy looked at Sanzo, he saw someone he knew, someone familiar
and someone...he felt happy to see. Was it selfish to follow Sanzo
around because he himself was happy around the blonde monk? Was it
even more selfish to wish that Sanzo would feel happy when he saw
Goku too? But the latter felt so unreachable it almost wasn’t
worth to mention.
He was
just beginning to feel squirmy under Sanzo’s studying eyes,
when the man silently stood up and moved over to his bag in the corner.
“Sa...”
Goku started, but snapped his mouth shut again when the monk began
to dig in his bag, and then pull out a paper. An orange sheet that
had probably been kept between the pages in a book because of the
lack of wrinkles. Without a word, Sanzo moved back to his chair and
sat down again. Goku watched as he, still silently, began to fold
the paper strangely, first once in the middle, then he edges outwards
several times until it was shaped like...an arrow maybe? Or....
“Sanzo...what
is that?” Goku sat up, interested, and completely ignoring that
his blankets carefully wrapped around him now fell down, exposing
him to the chilly night air the thin walls of the motel couldn’t
keep out. “Hey, what is it?”
Sanzo
held it up discreetly. It was as if he was trying to appear like he
was merely observing the folded piece of paper himself, but he held
it just a little too high and Goku guessed he did it just to let him
see. “It is an airplane.”
The younger
boy leaned forward. “What is it used for?”
A snort.
“It flies.”
“Show
me?”
But the
monk shook his head, disappointing Goku. ”Not now. It has to
be outside.”
“Why?”
Goku wondered. He loved it when Sanzo told him things, explained them
to him. It didn’t happen very often anymore, but he still remembered
when he had been younger, and Sanzo had showed him how to write. And
explained the rules of life. What was allowed and what wasn’t.
“The
orange makes the blue sky at day look good. And the blue makes the
orange look good.” Sanzo replied, fingering on the airplane
thoughtfully. “They bring out each other’s best. It’s
beautiful.”
“Really...”
Goku breathed, eyeing the plane in the creators long fingers, with
innocently wide-eyes awe. He wasn’t really sure why, but he
got the feeling that this. Whatever ‘this’ was, meant
a lot to Sanzo. And whatever Sanzo cared about, Goku cared about.
“Then can we do it tomorrow? Sanzo, can we?”
The blonde
monk nodded, just the slightest hind of a smile tugging the corners
of his lips upwards. “Aaa. Let’s.” And with that,
he returned to his newspaper again, the plane placed carefully onto
the table.
Goku
lay down again, pulling the blankets up to his chin. Something inside
his chest felt easier now, after having talked to Sanzo. His caretaker
was the only one who could make him depressed, but also the only one
who could make him truly happy. But it wasn’t just happiness.
It was a feeling of…belonging in his stomach that felt good.
More than good actually, but he couldn’t find words to describe
it.
When
Gojyo asked why he followed Sanzo around, the water sprite showed
exactly how little he really knew. Sanzo wasn’t cold-hearted.
It was just that he only showed his softer side to certain, specifically
chosen people, and not around other people. Not even Goku got to see
that side very often, but it was there, and he had found that it appeared
more and more often during the night when they spent time alone.
It was
in order to see more of it he followed Sanzo. As long as he knew the
man had emotions inside that enclosed heart of his, Goku would follow
him.
- The
End -
-
Omake - (I couldn’t help it)
“Ehh?” Gojyo muttered tiredly. They always left too damn
early in the morning, thanks to a certain blonde monk. But today,
when he arrived to the jeep, he only found Hakkai there waiting for
him in the driver’s seat. “Where are the monk and the
monkey?”
“They said they had something to do.” Hakkai smiled. Like
always. Gojyo wondered if Hakkai always found a reason to smile, or
maybe he just found Gojyo’s face laughable, since he always
smiled around him.
“Something to do?”
“Aaa. Throw an airplane.” The monocle-wearing man gestured
towards a scene on the motel garden where Sanzo and Goku watched an
orange airplane fly, carried my small winds.
Gojyo raised an eyebrow. “Right.”
Hakkai shrugged.
-
End Omake -
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