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A/N: At last, the long-awaited sequel to "Intimacy"! If you haven't read both "Intimacy" and "Fooled Me," this story probably won't make a whole heck of a lot of sense. But please, come on in! Pull up a chair! Review!

Disclaimer: Girl, please. Obviously I don't own 'em.

Aftershocks-Chapter 1

His eyes sprung open, only to see that the room around him was still dark. At first he couldn't figure out what had woken him; he was normally a pretty heavy sleeper, and so waking up in the middle of the night was highly unusual. He looked at the nightstand and saw a pair of reading glasses sitting together with a section of the paper.

Ohhh, that's what's different.

Gojyo's memory finally staggered in to work and, mumbling an insincere apology for its tardiness, filled him in on what had happened last night. He had told Sanzo he loved him. And, shocker of all shockers, Sanzo had actually said it back. He couldn't help the foolish grin that took over his face. It quickly turned back into a frown.

If said unattainable monk had become attainable, then where was he?

It was true that the other side of the bed was empty-Gojyo only now realized that he would not have been able to see the nightstand had Sanzo been in bed with him, where he was supposed to be-but when Gojyo put his hands on the sheets experimentally, they still felt warm beneath his palm. Sanzo hadn't left long ago.

The bathroom door opened and flooded the room with light for a short moment before Gojyo saw Sanzo's silhouette flip the light back off. Sanzo hadn't looked to the bed as far as Gojyo could tell, so he lay perfectly still as Sanzo groped his way across the room, unable to see crimson eyes glinting at him in the dark.

Sanzo picked his way over to the bed, praying he didn't trip over the various items of clothing left on the floor. They hadn't exactly been careful about where they'd fallen . . .Sanzo mentally cursed. He would not be embarrassed. He would not! Upon finding his side of the bed-since when did they have sides? This was his bed, so technically both sides were his side and the kappa should get back to his own goddamn room-he sat down gently and began carefully going through the bag he'd left by the bed earlier that evening, planning to get a smoke. Before he could get that far, though, a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind.

"And where," hot breath caressed Sanzo's ear, "do you think you're going?"

"Ch." Sanzo batted the hands away. "Getting a smoke. If you recall, I had been doing just that when you interrupted."

"If you recall, you didn't seem to be complaining."

Sanzo chose not to dignify that with a response and managed to pull a stick out of the pack, but as he tried to get up and go to the window, he found himself held in place with a warm hand on his arm. "Oi. You gonna share, bouzu?"

"No."

"Come on! It's your fault I don't have any-they're in my room!"

"You don't have to be here," Sanzo said, throwing his own words back at him.

Gojyo's eyes widened. He hadn't expected to hear those words again, after all this time. Of course, when Gojyo had proclaimed that "he didn't have to be there", he'd just been trying to convince himself that he didn't need Sanzo. But the answer was crystal clear.

He'd /never /had to be there. Goku went wherever Sanzo went, and they'd all seen what could happen if Sanzo was ever to go permanently missing from Goku's world. Those two didn't have any choice about being stuck together. Hakkai, too, was bound to Sanzo, because of the crimes he had committed three years ago. While Sanzo had apparently told him once that he was free to go if he wanted, Gojyo knew that the healer wouldn't. For one thing, where would he go? For another, Gojyo was fairly certain that Hakkai needed to feel like he was doing some sort of penance in order to feel safe in his own happiness/misery.

But Sha Gojyo had nothing binding him to the priest, other than the order the Three Aspects had given Sanzo, orders that the redhead knew Sanzo would have no qualms about disobeying if they ever contradicted his own aims.

He shifted himself to sit next to Sanzo rather than behind him. Purple eyes tried to look determinedly into crimson, but skittered about uncertainly.

"I am here, whether you like it or not," Gojyo answered. He moved so he could feel Sanzo's breath, quick and soft, against his lips. "That's my choice. And you better get used to it, 'cause I'm not going anywhere."

Their lips met with a tenderness that almost brought tears to Sanzo's eyes, if he were the sort of person to cry over mushy crap like that. As it was, he just tried to ignore the voices screaming in his head.

No, not a person, not like you, shouldn't want me, shouldn't touch me, no one touch me, not a person, nonononononono!

Shut UP.

He scrunched his eyes shut as tightly as he could and tried to concentrate on the man with him. /He// wants me/.

Gojyo must have realized something was wrong with Sanzo, because he lifted his hand from where it rested and brought it up to the monk's face. Sanzo sighed. Figures that the stupid kappa would respond with more tenderness and not less, but he could handle it. He could like this. He could want this. If every other weakling on the planet could handle this, he could. It's okay. It's okay.

For the life of him, Sanzo couldn't figure out how a simple meeting of the lips was wreaking so much havoc on him. But the kappa hadn't even offered to further the kiss; there was no insistent tongue prodding at Sanzo's lips, no wandering across his jaw and down his neck. Just Gojyo's lips on his. It's okay.

They finally parted, just a breath apart. They would have been looking directly into each other's eyes, had they been able to see each other's eyes at the moment.

"Ya got that?" Gojyo murmured, stroking Sanzo's face.

Sanzo nodded curtly, unable, for once, to think of anything to say. So he just leaned away from Gojyo and lit the Marlboro that had been dangling unlit in his fingers since Gojyo had seen fit to interrupt him.

So that's it, Sanzo thought, as he took a drag. Genjyo Sanzo, and before that Kouryuu, had always ignored what everybody told him, except for Master Koumyou. He'd never served Buddha, but he had served his master. And now he'd thrown away the only teaching Koumyou Sanzo had ever left him. It was strange; he expected to feel a lot worse than he did. But instead of a gaping hole, he just had this sort of numbness, and a sort of "Did I leave the gas on?" feeling at the back of his mind. It should have felt wrong, but instead of reciting the words of Muichimotsu, all he could think of was the thoughtful look on his master's face when he had asked, Who do you suppose decided birds were free?

He looked over at Gojyo's dark shape on the bed. So that's it.

"Oi. Kappa."

"Aa."

"Do you want a smoke or not?"

He saw Gojyo's hand hold itself out in the dimness of the room, but Sanzo lit the cigarette himself, and placed it between the kappa's parted lips, brushing his fingers across them as he did so.

"Saankyuuuuuuu," Gojyo sing-songed.

"Ch," Sanzo responded, hoping Gojyo couldn't see his foolish smile in the dark.

A few moments passed in silence. Sanzo was fighting the ever-increasing urge to push the kappa over and cover himself with the sheet-it hadn't seemed like such a big deal to be naked before the kappa had woken up. Now he felt, well, exposed/. Gojyo reached across him to put out his cigarette, but when Sanzo put his own out and lit a second, Gojyo didn't ask for another. He just sat there /looking at him, which was not helping Sanzo's state at all. This was the first time he hadn't kicked Gojyo back to his own room within minutes of finishing . . .finishing. Sanzo felt like smacking himself in the head-he couldn't even complete the thought in his head! He felt ridiculous and embarrassed, and that made him irritated. Almost of their own volition, his fingers started rapidly tapping on his thigh, and found himself taking deeper, faster drags.

"Hey," Gojyo said, taking the fingers in his hand, "What's up?" When Sanzo took the opportunity to take waaaaay too long snuffing out his cigarette in the ashtray, Gojyo felt his heart sink. Maybe . . .maybe even after everything, he'd still made a mistake. Maybe that kind of promise hadn't been what Sanzo was looking for after all. "Do you . . .are you regretting this?"

Sanzo's head abruptly jerked over to Gojyo. "What did you say?"

"Not me! It's just that you were fine a few minutes ago, and now you're all uptight!"

"A few minutes ago, you were asleep, baka."

What did that mean? Had he not meant it in the first place? Gojyo gently rubbed Sanzo's hand, "Do you regret this?"

Gojyo almost didn't even have time to figure out what was happening before he found himself flat on his back, Sanzo's lips glued to his. His tanned hands buried themselves in Sanzo's silken hair-he couldn't get over how soft it was-and his lips parted, inviting Sanzo in.

And there he was, licking hotly across every surface he could find in Gojyo's mouth--was he checking to see if the redhead brushed all his teeth, or was he testing his gag reflex? -before finding Gojyo's tongue and dancing with it. Gojyo heard a moan, and wasn't sure if it was his or Sanzo's or possibly both but Gojyo's hands moved down to his back, holding that perfect body as close to him as possible. Sanzo broke away from his lips, pressing kisses along his jaw. His tongue lashed out and got a spot just behind Gojyo's ear that made the kappa make a most interesting noise before the monk whispered, with his lips so close they brushed the shell of his ear, "Do you think I regret it?"

"Sanzo . . ." Gojyo whispered back, kissing the neck stretched all-too-temptingly in front of him, delighting when he felt the monk shudder under his touch. God, this man electrified him, not only because of what Sanzo did to him, but how responsive Sanzo was to every one of his touches. Like he was wired for Gojyo's hands, and his hands alone. "God, I want to just tell the whole world how much I love you."

"Hn. Baka," Sanzo thrust his velvet tongue inside Gojyo's ear.

"Sanzo!" Gojyo pressed himself against Sanzo desperately, wanting more, wanting less, he didn't know. "Sanzo . . .!"

Sanzo withdrew his tongue, and his hot breath on Gojyo's wet ear made pleasant little shivers go all through his body, "I don't know about the whole world, but if Hakkai and Goku don't stop pouting, I'll have to shoot them both."

Gojyo was so shocked that Sanzo had actually consented to telling the others that he almost didn't pay attention to where Sanzo was moving to until he felt lips close around his nipple. He threw his head back in a silent cry.

Needless to say, they were both a little too busy to entertain rational thought for a while.