FicWad

A/N: Here by popular demand (or not), the prequel to "Intimacy".

Disclaimer: Only in my dreams . . .

Chapter 1: Fooled Me Once, Shame On You

Damn, it was hot. The wind hardly even helped, since it was hot, too. Gojyo flicked his hair out of his eyes, grimacing when it glued itself to his sweat-sticky fingers. Normally, he didn't mind a little hot weather, but this was just ridiculous. Even the dust that Jeep kicked up seemed to drift tiredly, as if it just didn't have the energy to stay in the air for long. He glanced over at the other side of the Jeep to see how far he could stretch out before the bakasaru would throw a hissy fit. Waitaminute. His eye twitched. The stupid kid had completely stolen the middle of the Jeep. His leg was stretched over the middle seat and his goddamn foot was on Gojyo's side.

"Hey chimp! Get your foot off my side!"

"It's not on your side!" Goku grumbled crankily.

"Yes it /is/, stupid! Look, you cross the line right here!" Gojyo pointed to just above the stupid monkey's ankle.

"Do not! That's the middle/! Besides, you crowd /me all the time!"

"I have longer legs, baka! I need more room!"

Goku, out of comebacks, stuck his tongue out at the kappa.

Gojyo fumed. Hadn't Chin Yisou broken that leg? 'Cause re-breaking it sure sounded like a good idea right now. "Move your goddamn feet!"

"No!"

"Bakasaru!"

"Erogappa!"

Click!

Both of them froze and turned at the by-now-familiar sound to find a furious Sanzo gazing down the barrel at them. "Shut UP!"

They did. Goku even moved his foot. A little. Gojyo wasn't going to push it right this second. While he was pretty sure the monk wouldn't actually kill him, per se, there was no guarantee that the easily angered blond wouldn't shoot him in an arm or a leg. He shifted over into what little room he had. He wondered if they could just buy the stupid runt a skateboard and tie it to the bumper of the Jeep. Gojyo grinned for a minute or two, imagining finally getting the backseat to himself as the bakasaru bounced around in the dust cloud behind them. But even this could amuse him for only so long. He moved on to his new favorite pastime.

See, by week two, he and Goku had already gone through every road game they knew, and there's only so much you can watch the scenery. Tree. Shrub. Tree. Tree. Tree. Dirt. Oh, look, a squirrel! More Trees. Bush. Clouds that looked like nothing in particular, but you tried to make them look like something anyway, because you were so. Bored. So, Gojyo had moved on to a new game-mirrors. Not much of a game, really, just looking at someone through the mirror until he got caught.

Hakkai wasn't much fun-he'd catch you within seconds. Said he felt chi shift or something. Gojyo was almost positive that Hakkai was making that up, but didn't want to say so in case he wasn't. After all, he always did catch Gojyo's eyes in the mirror, often before Gojyo really had a chance to start counting seconds. Goku wasn't much fun, either, but for the opposite reason. You could stare at that kid forever, and he'd never notice. His record was 22 minutes, 7 seconds. The fun one was Sanzo. Sometimes he'd notice right away, within ten seconds. But once, it took over four minutes for him to figure it out. Besides, he could look through the side mirror when he played the game with Sanzo, so it was easy to pretend to be looking at something else when Sanzo caught him staring.

He happened to be looking in that side-view mirror at that very moment. Sanzo looked pissed, but then he usually did. Purple eyes glared at nothing in particular. He was trying not to grind his teeth. Gojyo could tell, because Sanzo's jaw would always twitch funny when he was trying not to grind his teeth. Sanzo glared over at the side-view mirror a few times, but Gojyo was able to turn his head and "watch the scenery" before he was caught.

Sanzo's anger had faded now. His shoulders, no longer held quite so rigid, sagged tiredly against the front seat. The purple eyes were no longer narrowed in anger, but half-lidded in weariness. The jaw line was relaxed, and the way he leaned his head backward revealed more of his neck then his "anger slouch" had a moment before. But then those purple eyes flicked over to the mirror, and found a certain redheaded kappa staring straight at him. "What are you looking at?"

"Myself," red ones challenged, "That's usually what mirrors are used for. Or is it a crime to look in a mirror now?"

"For Gojyo, it should be. He could break every mirror for ten miles around!" Goku crowed. He got a swift kick in the leg.

"What was that for!?"

"What do you think it was for, idiot?"

"Don't call me an idiot!"

"Urusai!" BLAM! BLAM!

"Yare, yare . . ."

Goku gave him one last dirty look before settling down on the opposite side of the jeep. The drool informed the rest of the ikkou when he'd fallen into another food-centric fantasy.

Sanzo took out cigarette and lit it, eyes still glaring over at the mirror every couple of seconds. He wasn't going to be zoned enough to make the game any fun, now, so Gojyo resigned himself to watching the scenery for the time being. What he didn't realize was that someone else had figured out how to play the mirror game, and was wondering how on earth a guy who'd survived so many battles could not notice someone staring at him for the better part of a half hour.

"There it is," Hakkai sighed in relief as the town finally came into view. They'd come to a fork in the road well over two hours ago, but their map, apparently out-dated, had not had the fork on it. So the ikkou had taken a guess. Murphy must have been watching to make sure that his precious law was upheld, because it turned out to be the wrong path, and they'd had to spend a great deal of time backtracking.

"Finally!" Goku shouted, "I'm so hungry, I could eat a house!"

"A house?"

"Goku, don't you mean a horse?"

"Why would I eat a horse?"

"Why would you eat a /house/!?"

"Shut up, erogappa!"

"Stupid monkey!"

BLAM!

"Sanzo, you know you really shouldn't be firing that all the time. The noise is bound to make us all go deaf."

"Tch. Just get us into town before I kill these idiots."

Thank goodness this town was larger than usual, and so they would each be able to get their own rooms tonight. They'd camped out for the past three days, and this little family had had about as much togetherness as it could stand. Hakkai had found a used bookstore a few doors down from their hotel and had retreated to his room with the prizes he'd found there. The innkeeper's son had a game system, and had agreed to teach Goku how to play. Everyone knew where the kappa went when he had free time. And Sanzo did . . .whatever it was that Sanzo does. Read the paper and brood, supposedly.

Except that Hakkai was so wrapped up with his book, and Goku with his game, that neither of them really checked what the other two members of their party were doing.

Gojyo, for once, was not seeking pleasurable company for the night. He'd flirted scandalously with both the receptionist at the desk and the waitress that night, but it was more out of habit then anything. Because, for whatever reason, he couldn't stop seeing the way Sanzo had looked at him when he'd caught him staring in the mirror. He wasn't sure what it was, but it had made it nearly impossible not to stare during dinner, just because he couldn't figure it out. Granted, Sanzo was about as beautiful as a man could get, but his attitude countered that like a bucket of ice water. It had never stopped him from looking; Gojyo liked to consider himself a connoisseur of beauty, even if his particular specialty was the female form. But dammit! That look had no right to be seductive!

Gojyo ran a hand through his hair, frustrated, and lit up a cigarette. He breathed deep and exhaled a huge cloud of smoke, not having to worry about aiming the smoke away from any whining kids, fastidious healers or (according to his owner) delicate dragons. Sanzo didn't do seduction. He just didn't. Hell, Gojyo wasn't even sure that it was a seductive look Sanzo had given him. But it hadn't been the normal glare, either. There had been a sort of smugness to it, a smokiness. Gojyo was absolutely certain that the look was supposed to be telling him something, but, contrary to popular belief, Gojyo was not a risk-taker. Not on things that really mattered. You could risk a hand of cards, 'cause you were bound to win your money back in the next hand or two, provided you weren't hopelessly stupid. You could hand out pick-up lines to half a dozen girls just to score one, because, really, was he going to care by next town which one he'd managed to get into bed?

But this was different. If he interpreted the situation wrong, this whole trip West could turn into a living hell. He already had to worry about getting shot at on a daily basis-who knew what the priest would do if Gojyo really pissed him off? If it was an invitation, and Gojyo didn't do anything, Sanzo would be pissed. If it wasn't an invitation, and Gojyo went in like it was, Sanzo would be pissed. Gojyo took one more puff on his Hi Lite and snubbed it out in the ashtray, automatically reaching for another, only to find the pack empty.

Gojyo sighed and shrugged his jacket back on. Just as well. Pacing in his room wasn't doing any good. He'd just go downstairs, buy a pack out of his own cash and make Sanzo buy him more on the gold card tomorrow. If Gojyo was running low, he knew the priest would need more cigarettes as well. Gojyo was laughing at himself as he left his room; imagine thinking that Sanzo was trying to come on to him! /Gojyo, my man, you have been hanging out with the stupid monkey far too long. It's rotting your brain, /he thought to himself as he opened the door. He made sure he had the key in his pocket before closing the door all the way and checking the lock. He turned to walk down the hallway and almost jumped out of his skin.

There was Sanzo, leaning nonchalantly against the wall opposite Gojyo's room; smoking as if hanging out in the hallway was the most natural thing in the world. And, somehow, Gojyo almost believed that it was. It almost felt like he'd just barged into Sanzo's room, rather then that they were both standing in the common hallway. Sanzo looked at Gojyo out of the corner of his eye, and, not saying a word, turned around and walked back into his own room, shutting the door behind him. Gojyo stood, uncertain for about half a second, and then followed.

Needless to say, he completely forgot about those cigarettes.