Senses
By Timberwolf220

-You don't realize what you have until you lose it. And even when you regain it, it's easy to forget what it was ever like-

—Midou Ban "GetBackers"

-XX-

Son Goku was familiar with all five senses of the body. In the cave, his memories were dim and shaded. In the cave, everything was calmly, perfectly neutral. There were the seasons, but he didn't remember much. Everything seemed so…empty, so he found himself empty as well. Devoid of feeling, devoid of caring, devoid of living. He was like an empty glass in dire need of filling, a life that had no substance.

That was where Genjo Sanzo came in.

When Goku touched Sanzo, in those rare moments when contact was allowed, he could never place the smoothness of Sanzo's skin. He felt many things; silk, cotton, rubber, wood. But Sanzo's skin felt different, he wondered if this was how a sun was supposed to feel.

"And how do I feel?" Sanzo asked, not directly looking at Goku.

"You're too soft. It isn't safe to be so soft!" Goku chimed, his eye bright like candle flames or of gold glinting in the dark. Goku took out another coat and put it on Sanzo's shoulders, "You need to wear more clothes to protect yourself!"

THWACK!

"Idiot," Sanzo muttered, shrugging off the coat and looking down at Goku, "I am perfectly aware on how to take care of myself."

Goku looked mournfully, "What if you get hurt?"

"Then I heal."

Goku blinked, "Heal?"

"Heal," And the sun seemed so bright that day.

Touch was one sensation, one of his favourites. Everything seemed different and sometimes it was nice to compare. Of course, Goku compared everything to Sanzo and for some reason; everything fell short in comparison to Sanzo.

Thankfully, Sanzo doesn't know this.

Likes butterfly wings brushing over petals, the hands briefly touch his forehead and stroke it. For a motion so light, it brought peace to his expression as Goku's eyes closed and he smiled. The hands never stopped moving and they felt warm, always so warm like the summer river he had played in earlier or the aromatic warmth of a meatbun in his hands.

It wasn't so bad, falling sick. Sanzo was there and that was all he needed.

Goku could tell what a person is like by the sound of their voice. Hakkai's was like water, smooth, rarely troubled on the surface, but turbulent inside. Gojyo's voice was like an unpolished diamond. Unrefined and rough, but still retains the beauty of sincerity. Sanzo's voice, Goku felt, was like poison. It gripped you and forced you to go through and experience the contents. Like a sweet too sour, Goku thought. Sanzo's poison is good for you, Goku realized later on, but it is still too bitter and loathsome for other people.

And it was that voice he heard in his dreams when he was cold. The dreams seemed so dark. Why wasn't there light? He's had his share of darkness, he's atoned for his crimes. Why does the darkness come in his sleep?

But the voice calls him away like it always does and it is that voice that he awakens to in the light of dawn.

If any sense of Goku's is strong, it would be his sense of smell. Goku understands the loss of all the senses and desperately tries to hold onto them before the chance comes when they vanish again. Hakkai always smells faintly of sake and forests, evergreen leaves pressed onto a dirt path by footsteps. Gojyo smells of his brand of cigarettes and dew; the kind that clings onto plants after rainfall. Sanzo smells of cigarettes too and dusty old tomes beneath ancient libraries. Goku reasoned that it might be the robes and sutra. After all, they're old enough to smell like that.

Goku clings to him and breathes in deeply. The scent was oddly suitable to his tastes and even in the summer when they both cling with their share of sweat, Goku could still breathe in that scent and be content. Sanzo is here…Goku clutches onto Sanzo.

And Sanzo does not complain.

But Goku can never deny that Sanzo is beautiful. Beauty of course, Gojyo had leered once to Goku, lies in the eye of the beholder. Goku had no idea what that meant, but Sanzo was beautiful and Goku revels in that beauty. If the sun came down to earth, like in the legends, would they look like Sanzo? Goku imagined a God with bright yellows clothes and bright eyes and a smile. But in the end, when he looks back, they turn out to look like Sanzo.

"Ne, ne Sanzo! Won't you read this one?"

"The legend of the Sun god? Again?" Sanzo placed a hand on his face in exasperation, "This is the third time. Pick something else."

"But this one works the best!" Goku protested, "Nothing puts me to sleep like this one! And I have good dreams!"

Sanzo cracks an eye at this in contemplation because he knows Goku gets bad dreams.

"All right. Lie down and I'll read the story."

Goku beamed at Sanzo and quickly scurried under his covers and looked at Sanzo with wide bright eyes. Too bright, too innocent, too caring.

Yet Sanzo does nothing except read the story softly in that poisonous voice.

But taste is forbidden, Goku knew without asking. But he had taken the forbidden fruit.

"'Night Sanzo!" Goku smiled and pecked Sanzo's cheek gently. He had seen it done in the market place and wondered what it felt like. Taste…there was a taste…

Sanzo whacked him with the fan afterwards and there had been an odd colour in his cheeks. But Goku had touched his lips and loved the taste that adorned it, even if it was for a short while.

Tasted like a sun should, Goku thought cheerfully, warm and loving.

-XX-

...That was…crap, yet I liked it somewhat. Based loosely on Saiyuki Reload, where I saw Goku cry in happiness because he remembered what it was like to be hungry.