A/n: GOMEN NASAI for updating ever SO late!!! I've been busy with school work. The stuff comes every single day… I can't take it. *sigh* I really dunno how many chapters this fic will have…

Believe me, almost everything will be revealed in the last chapter. Eh…no, I haven't really planned it out smoothly yet, but I have a good outline of what will happen. I shouldn't say much at this point. Been thinking a lot on this chapter… there's this little scene with Sanzo and Kougaiji which spoils a part in the original plot, but that's okay. I've patched it up… o~kay…I think I shouldn't have told you that…

Once Forgotten by real-circus

Chapter 8: Passion

"Relax! Both of you! Just be still for a few seconds and let me continue…"

Gojyo looked away from the fiery glare, arms crossed over his chest. Sanzo, with a faint 'hmph!', turned away too, tucking the newly-bought revolver into his jacket.

Hakkai scratched his chin. "Eh…I seemed to have forgotten what I was about to say…"

"Hakkai…" Gojyo moaned.

"While you think about that, let me tell you a little something I found out," Sanzo said softly, strumming his fingers against the polished wood of Hakkai's study table. "I'm not an assassin for nothing, Misters Sha Gojyo and Cho Hakkai. And being an assassin means that I have almost every drop of information about my victims… and I have enough shit about you, professor Hakkai, that you aren't really professor Hakkai…"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gojyo shut his mouth again when Hakkai clamped a hand down on his right arm.

"Go on," he said throatily.

"It seems to me that you've got a very – how should I put it? – interesting past… eh, Cho Gonou?"

And Sanzo couldn't help but grin grimly as the professor's eyes widened at the sound of his former name. The name he pushed away into non-existence for the sake of saving his own life. Cho Gonou. And he'd thought after three eventless years, the name would be forgotten – just a reminder of his previous self and the sins he committed in his rage. Hakkai was a new person, a new life, for him to make up with.

When Sanzo uttered the words 'Cho Gonou', Hakkai knew he was going to go down. All defense and barriers that were put up now crumbled into oblivion. He was practically helpless to his own inescapable past.

"Cho Gonou," he muttered shakily, "no longer resides in me… Cho Gonou," a deep breath here, "does not exist anymore." Hakkai allowed himself a small chuckle that made him seem like a lunatic.

"Hakkai?" Gojyo asked cautiously. "You okay?"

"You have no right to bring up my past," Hakkai mumbled, squeezing the hem of his coat. "That was forgotten. How you managed to know this, I don't want to hear. It has nothing to do with the situation now, Genjo Sanzo. So, I'll appreciate it very much if you'd shut the fuck UP about this."

Oh dear. The horror of non-Hakkai-ness.

"Heh… running away from your past now, aren't you?" Sanzo's grin dropped to a frown. "Maybe you should tell your lover here what you did to end you up in such a--"

Sanzo fell back, slamming against the hard of a desk. Hakkai winced slightly, rubbing his raw knuckles where he'd just punched the man. That could have been, like, the first time he boxed someone. The need to apologize came to him automatically, but he shut his mouth in time.

"Hakkai…"

Gojyo hesitated, reaching out a hand to his friend. He immediately withdrew it when Hakkai whirled around, striding to where the sutra lay, unrolled.

"Please," he began, his back towards the other two men. "I don't want… any violence anymore…" Sanzo snorted. "Maybe we should forget about deciphering the scroll for tonight. Whatever that my correspondent found in Chou An should be able to shed some light… perhaps… perhaps you both should start packing something. Do be ready by morning. We meet here, at nine. I booked three tickets for the ship sailing to Chou An at ten."

~*~*~*~*~

Kougaiji angrily stuffed a pile of private documents back into the shelf, labeled 'C'. Locking it again, he tossed the key to an expressionless Dokugaiji. "That bloody asshole!" he spluttered furiously, pushing past Doku with his file of papers and down the passage between towering shelves. "Not only did he not complete the assassination, but he got himself landed in jail and now he's fucking working for this professor Cho Hakkai! Oh. And did I mention he's got that brat Son Goku as his little fuck toy!?"

"Calm down, Kou. He's not working for the guy – not yet, at least. And that kid… wasn't he the kid Nataku was supposed to assassinate?"

"Exactly my point! And Sanzo's there to protect his sorry ass now, so we've got little chances of gaining what we want…"

The two halted in front of the shelf labeled 'S'. After ten minutes of flipping through senseless papers and photos, they found what they were looking for. "Got it," Kougaiji said, tucking the file under an arm. "Now then, we've just got to target the professor and his friend… and that kid. But we won't kill the kid just yet. He's got something fishy about him… if Nataku couldn't take him down, something just has to be very wrong."

"What do you propose we do then?"

Kougaiji slammed the filed information onto his desk, sending a paper or two floating away from its place. "…We lay low for a while. The police will be breathing down our necks… we wait… wait till they return from Chou An, then we strike."

"Chou An? How did you know they were going to Chou An?"

Kougaiji seemed to be doing some hard thinking while his eyes bored into his companion's calmly. "A spy told me so," he replied, and that was perfectly true.

~*~*~*~*~

He was gone an hour before, and now he was back. Goku trusted him to come back… and that imagine of a few nights back just refused to go away, although it only appeared for a fleeting second then. Now, it seemed like it was stretched over a movie screen in his mind, playing over and over, just like a film, and it usually came at the most inappropriate of times… like when they were in bed, very preoccupied. The sun, the strange billowing robes, the concealed face, the extended hand… he had tried to reach out to touch the stranger too, and had failed. And that often caused him to jolt back to reality with a start.

When Sanzo felt the sudden heavy tugging on his hair, he looked up, eyes sleepy and panting wildly. He shot Goku a baleful stare which made the boy turn away. Sanzo cupped a sweat and tear-stained cheek, roughly bringing the head up to meet his lips – hard. The pure rapture of it almost made Goku choke to death. They parted for a short breath of air before crushing their lips ruthlessly against each other's.

Sanzo flopped down next to Goku, pulling the slight figure on top of him. "Will we pretend this never happened… again?" Goku asked, thoughtful for once.

"You are stupid," Sanzo remarked. But there was no straight, definite answer from him. "But don't get all mad and teary when I have to leave…"

"You have to leave?"

"…Business… you know what I do." Sanzo had contemplated on this for a really long time, and decided that it would be… fun to visit his should-be-furious-with-him-by-now boss. After all, it was the big guy's birthday. "And maybe you can come with me…" Now that certainly would make it more fun.

~*~*~*~*~

Alright, so maybe getting roaring drunk and ending up picking up a fight with a group of rowdy gangsters wasn't his idea of a happy birthday… but hey, it was a good experience for all. Chin Isou had a laugh, he seemed to be the only one having fun. Dokugaiji and Yaone were too busy dragging Kou all around town… a happy birthday indeed. Well, until…

"Kou, stay here," Doku said, as though addressing a child – a very drunk and a-little-too-happy child. "Yaone will get Chin back and I'll go get the car, alright? Just – just hold onto that lamppost and don't let go until I get back here with the car."

"Oh – hic – fine…"

Ten minutes passed, and all Kougaiji felt like doing was to slump down on the pavement and take a snooze, which wasn't a very good idea as he'd probably get robbed while asleep… but he wasn't very ready for who he met that night…

"You look sleepy, birthday boy," Sanzo said softly. Kou could have given the guy a punch right there and then but the beer was getting to him. His arms felt heavier than before. "Surprised? You shouldn't be. After all, I'm only here to give you your birthday present." In a swift, fluent movement, Kougaiji was hauled into an alley, where a black car was parked.

"Is this it? The present?" Kou asked, slightly dizzy.

"No, dumb ass." With his back resting on the car door, Sanzo pulled Kougaiji closer… and fucking kissed him. Kou's head exploded and his groin sent hungry flames down to his arousal almost immediately. Sanzo's foot trailed a teasing line up and down Kougaiji's thigh, and Kou didn't know what to do, for the first time in his independent life – to pull out his gun and shoot the bastard in the head, or fuck him to the ground, which seemed fairly easier.

Sanzo broke the lip-lock, gasping as hard as Kou. "Nope… I am the present. Happy Birthday, big guy."

Grinning, Kou entered the car with Sanzo tugging at his collar. He was too distracted with the tangle of his body around one of his assassin's that he didn't notice the car was moving to the other end of town.

"Wha –?"

"Shh…" Sanzo tied the two wrists together with the prepared nylon rope. "Doesn't it make it more fun, Kougaiji-sama?"

Kou settled into a more comfortable position and licked Sanzo's cheek like a hungry kitten. Sanzo was sure he'd made a sound – but he wasn't even sure if it was a sound, a choke, or even a yelp. He didn't care now. Kougaiji was in the moving car, so nothing else bothered him.

"Hmm… Sanzo… you're looking beautiful tonight." And Kou swore he managed to catch that dangerous glint in the sultry, violet gaze before Sanzo's foot collided with his chest, painfully shoving him to the far end of the seat.

"Wrong word," Sanzo replied shortly, adjusting his clothes and sitting away from him.

"Aw, fuck it, Sanzo!"

"Goku! Drive faster!" Sanzo gave the driver's seat a good rap.

"Goku?" Kougaiji echoed stupidly. "GOKU!? FUCK you, Sanzo!" He struggled desperately for his gun but it proved rather useless with both his hands bound together. As though knowing Kou's intentions, Sanzo lifted a familiar golden gun and twirled it around his forefinger playfully. "Fuck. You." Kou repeated, obviously losing his cool.

~*~*~*~*~

"Hakkai…" In Gojyo's mind, words were frantically finding a way to sort themselves out, but as usual, to no avail. "Well… uh, you know, I was… thinking… that – that something Blondie mentioned just now… something… about a Cho Gonou or something like that…uh, heh – the name doesn't suit you one bit though…"

"That's why I got rid of it," Hakkai replied stiffly, putting on a very fake attempt of one of his best smiles. "I-it was… was… oh whatever, let's just drop it for tonight, alright Gojyo? I'm not in the mood for…"

And he was off, just like that.

Hakkai's hand phone went off, and he rushed back to his room to answer it. He'd been waiting for ever so long… "It's you!" he exclaimed, shutting the door. "I've been wanting answers for a long time now…"

 A/n: Sorry for the chapter being SO short……..I just had to stop somewhere and I'm rather busy with school work and tests…… and sorry for Sanzo being really sluttish here….I gotta stop watching all these vile, crime stuff……I kinda got stuck in this chapter, explaining the delay……GOMEN!!! I know it's short, please put up with it for now ^^;; Should have a lot of errors here cos I did not check it at all…forgive me.

 What to be expected in next chapter: Hakkai, Gojyo and Sanzo reach Chou An by ship… there are no airports in Chou An, so there. The stolen weapons will be coming later…… and the three find something at the ruins of the Temple which could lead to more questions… Oh yeah, and that someone Hakkai was talking to on his mobile – he/she will be revealed much later.

Thanks for reviewing (in no particular order):

sanzo-chan, Namassuki, aspara, Ami, gallatica, Windy Hurrice & bleit  ^__^