Yosh! Kaze-kun is back again with another Saiyuki fic. The original plot I had in mind for this fic got lost somewhere along the line while I was writing this so if I ever figure out how to properly incorporate that idea into a story you may see a third Saiyuki fic out of me yet. My muse finally resurfaced and now I have Wolf's Rain, Ben 10 and Naruto fics all in the works (none of which will be posted until I actually finish them, but if you're a fan of any of those series look out for them).

Disclaimer: If I ever found a genie in a bottle I could wish to own it.

Hakkai was worried. Gojyo thought it was hilarious and if anything he only aided in making the situation worse. Sanzo was worried as well or at least Hakkai was sure the priest was worried even though he would never admit it. The youngest member of their party was depressed and had been for close to two weeks now. For any other teenager behaving like he was riddled with angst would have been normal, but on Goku it was just plain weird. The Gods knew the boy had more problems to angst about than any teen on the planet, but with the exception of injuries to his friends, especially Sanzo, he'd never let anything get him down before.

"Aa, Goku." He'd knocked, but the young boy hadn't answered the door. It wasn't all that surprising really. Every night when they set up camp, or booked rooms if a town happened to be nearby, Goku would go off by his self and sulk. Hakkai knew he'd find the monkey king sitting in his room with the lights off and staring out the window, but tonight he'd hoped that he'd be proven wrong. "Since you weren't there as competition Gojyo overindulged during supper. He's got quite the stomach ache right now, but I managed to save a beef bowl for you." Goku gave the steaming bowl in his hands a sparing glance before he sighed and seemed to wilt even more.

Now Hakkai had been worried for the past two weeks and tonight when the boy had skipped dinner he'd become a little scared. Now here he was standing in Goku's room with a large bowl of meat and the boy still didn't want to eat. Hakkai went passed worried and jumped straight into terrified. Goku never refused a meal. Never. 'Come to think of it….' He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen the boy eat. Never mind the fact that it was impossible for Goku to starve to death. This was a serious problem if he'd been refusing food for as long as Hakkai suspected he had.

"Well," he said as he hesitantly placed the bowl on the bedside table. "I'll just leave this here in case you get hungry." He watched Goku just barely nod his head in acknowledgement and then quickly left to consult with Sanzo on this odd behavior because something had to be done.

When Goku heard the latch on his door click into place he turned away from the window and grabbed the bowl Hakkai had left behind. Contrary to what the older youkai thought he hadn't been skipping meals, but since he never ate when any of the others were around it was an understandable conclusion to come to. Food and chopsticks in hand he sat back down in front of the window and idly stirred the contents. "…Lirin."

-/-

This was getting ridiculous. Yaone trusted and loved Lord Kougaiji, but if he didn't stop acting like some thick headed Neanderthal and do something about his little sister she was going to lock him in a room with a pissy Lirin and see how he liked it. This was the fifth room the little redhead had leveled while throwing a tantrum and Yaone was tired of dodging broken support beams and falling chunks of ceiling.

"Yaone?" The youkai woman just about jumped a foot into the air and Dokugakuji didn't even try to hide his amusement at startling her. "What are you doing out here? I thought you were bringing Lirin her dinner?" She was in fact standing outside the young girl's room with a tray of food still in hand. The small smirk on his face grew when Yaone's face rapidly paled.

"Oh no! I'm not going back in there. I almost caught that soup bowl she threw at lunch with my eye." Yaone shoved the tray into Doku's hands and steered him towards the door. "You feed her." The smirk dropped right off his face and he dug his heels in.

"I don't want to go in there either! You think that little soup bowl was bad? At least she wasn't intentionally throwing it at you. She pitched the whole fucking bed at me, not a pillow, the bed!" He tried to push the tray back into her hands, but she shoved it right back. A wrestling match soon ensued.

Kougaiji came upon the scene with a twitching brow as he watched his subordinates snapping at each other and engaged in a reverse game of tug of war. "What are you two doing?"

"Kou!"

"Lord Kougaiji!" Yaone immediately released the tray leaving Doku with no choice but to grab it less he let Lirin's meal spill all over the floor. "I know I should have given Lirin her dinner by now, but Doku just insisted on doing it his self." She didn't even give the sputtering youkai a chance to defend his self. She just opened the door to Lirin's room and shoved him inside. Both she and Kougaiji cringed when they heard the tell tale sounds of screaming, thuds, and shattering glass that usually accompanied the start of Lirin's tantrums. "Kou-"

"I know what you're going to say, Yaone. Save your breath. I'm not changing my mind on this." The door flew open and Doku darted out covered in food. He barely managed to close the door in time to avoid getting hit with a large purple vase. "Our relationship with them is complicated enough. Gojyo is Doku's brother; I don't know what is going on with you and Hakkai…. I don't need my little sister dating one of them on top of this."

That was the crux of the problem. They all knew that the second Lirin was able to escape from under her brother's watchful eyes she'd run straight into the arms of Son Goku and Kougaiji would be damned before he let that happen. It had been three weeks since her last encounter with him.

Why was he so stubborn? Wait, stubborn was too nice of a word for him. Yaone felt pigheaded described him more accurately. "First off there is nothing going on between me and Hakkai. We just understand each other. Second, it is not Doku's fault that his father was unfaithful-"

"Hey! Leave my family out of this."

She continued as if she hadn't heard him, "and lastly, you can't keep her locked up forever. She's going to resent you for this, Kou. I really think Lirin might be in love with him." For a moment it appeared as if he was seriously considering her words, but then Lirin screamed and called him a particularly nasty name through the wall and the look of contemplation disappeared.

"She's young. She'll get over him and bounce back."

-/-

Destroying every room she was put in was a token gesture. It did little to make her feel better…Well okay throwing things at Dokugakuji did put a little smile on her face although she really would have felt bad if she'd actually managed to peg Yaone with that soup bowl. She really hadn't been aiming for her. Her brother just made her so mad! How dare he try to micromanage her life! Who died and made him the reigning king over her romance? If he was going to be such an ass about this the least he could do was face her himself so she could throw something at him too.

"Get over him?" Lirin grumbled as she stalked around her room kicking any and everything that was unfortunate enough to cross her path. She would have sat down except she'd already broken all the chairs, decimated her bed and tossed the vanity out the window. She could have made a break for it after doing that except there were youkai guards stationed right outside. There were only two of them and while she could easily overpower them they weren't there to subdue her. They were there to sound the alarm.

Kougaiji knew good and well that no youkai under his employ had the strength to stop her. The moment she stuck so much as a hair out her room though, the guards raised the alarm and her brother showed up to lock her back in.

Lirin huffed irritably and kicked a hole in the wall. It almost time for her to get switched to a new, not destroyed yet, gilded cage. She didn't really appreciate how her brother went about doing that either. He always had Yaone drug her so she'd be out cold when they moved her to a new room and it was always done a different way so she never knew what to expect or suspect as was the case. The first time the drug had been hidden in her pork bun. The second time it was in her tea. She really should have anticipated them drugging her food first. The third time, after she'd refused to eat for four days; Yaone had cleverly hidden it in her pillow. Instead of ingesting it she'd inhaled it when she went to bed that night. When she'd woken up in a new room she'd thrown the whole bed at Doku. Today was the first time he'd come into her room since then.

"I have to get out of here." She just didn't know how. Lirin plopped down on one of the few clean areas in her room, crossed her feet at the ankles and propped her elbows on her raised knees so she could rest her head in her hands. Thinking really wasn't her strong suite and she was more than aware of that. Lirin was a youkai of action, but her brother was so damn smart there wasn't a single action she could do that he wouldn't know how to counter.

"Lirin? I brought another tray of food since Doku decided to wear the first one." Yaone entered indeed holding another tray and wearing a smile that looked like it pained her.

"Doku, too afraid to come back in?"

"You did try to club him to death with a part of your headboard." The floor was littered with the remains of the furniture and Lirin noticed that the other youkai was walking towards her as carefully as if she were crossing a mine field. Yaone set the tray down in front of her and nervously rubbed her arm. Lirin removed the lid off the main dish and sniffed it suspiciously. "I drugged it." The younger youkai's head snapped up. "No sense in lying to you." She sighed when Lirin shoved the tray away. "And there's no sense in you fighting this. You know you're going to be drugged either way." The younger girl hissed and turned her nose up at the food. "Lirin, please, I'm on your side. " A disbelieving snort was her answer to that. "Just trust me. I've been trying to get your brother to listen to reason, but he's just so…so pigheaded that he refuses to see how much this is hurting you." While she had been making the second meal Yaone had realized that the time for talk was passed over. "Eat, Lirin. You'll thank me for it."

She left after that with Lirin still glaring suspiciously at the tray of food. The one-sided staring contest went on for two hours, before she finally accepted the inevitable. The food had long gone cold by the time she started to eat it so Lirin wasn't sure if the less than marvelous taste was due to whatever drug Yaone had slipped in or lack of freshness. She consumed it all though, even the frozen, bitter tea.

As the drugs started to kick in and her eyelids became heavy Lirin swore that if she woke with no reason to thank Yaone the next time the woman came into her room there was going to be a soup bowl with her name on it.

-/-

"Goku, get me another beer." Hakkai stared at the backseat occupants out of the corner of his eye. A command like that from Gojyo usually started one of their infamous fights. He was hoping Goku would react his normal way.

"Here." The young boy shoved an opened can of cold beer into the hanyou's hands. He did it so roughly that liquid actually spilled out and landed on Gojyo's clothes. It was yet another incident for Hakkai to file away in the large folder of Things the Normal Goku Would or Wouldn't Do. Goku never just gave Gojyo beer with no argument and if he did and ended up spilling it on him he usually would have had some smart ass comment to accompany that.

"Ah, damn it! That shit's cold!" At least one of them was still normal. Hakkai moved his gaze to Sanzo as Gojyo became yelling insult after insult at Goku. Every jab, from his intelligence to his species, was ignored.

"I get it, Hakkai. Something's wrong with him." Not that he had ever needed any proof. Sanzo could feel Goku's turmoil as strongly as he was able to hear the boy calling out to him for help all those years ago. It was still annoying. "What exactly do you want me to do about it?" Because Sanzo did not do comforting and consoling. Whatever Goku's problem was he'd better get over it and soon. Sanzo was getting tired of hearing about it.

"Talk to him. I suspect you'll get more out of him than I've gotten all month."

"Tch. Why would you think that?" Hakkai smiled brightly in a way that ticked him off for some reason.

"Because you're Daddy-Sanzo." Oh right, that was the reason. That smile was usually followed by some crack that only Hakkai could deliver with a straight face. Sanzo didn't even look at him when he pulled his gun out and pressed the barrel to Hakkai's temple. "It's not exactly beneficial to your health to shoot the driver while the car's still in motion."

"You can-"

"STOP!" The driver slammed on the brakes so hard that even with his seatbelt on he still got a shot in the gut from the steering wheel. Gojyo wasn't so fortunate and went flying over the windshield.

Hakkai reached over and grabbed Sanzo's wrist. The priest already had his paper fan ready to smack the brunette with. "Goku, what's wrong?" Instead of answering he just bolted from the jeep and took off running. "Goku!"

"Damn it! You little-!" Gojyo made the mistake of trying to stop him and was sent flying again.

"Let me guess. You want to follow him." It wasn't a question so the blond priest didn't bother to phrase it as one.

"Well, at least he was considerate enough to take off running towards a town." He waited for their extremely pissed off scarlet haired companion to hop back into the jeep before making a u-turn and following after Goku.

-/-

'She's here. I know she is. I can feel her.' Goku couldn't explain it, but he just knew Lirin was close by. He hadn't felt her presence in so long that it was bombarding his senses right now. He was a man on a mission, darting down streets and through back alleys in his search of the elusive youkai. He turned around a corner and something slammed into him with the force of a freight train. He hit the ground. Hard. "Owww." Goku groaned and rubbed at the back of his head. Whatever had just knocked him off his feet was still on top of him and it was…breathing? "What the…" His eyes had clenched shut on a reflex, but when they opened they were greeted with a nice surprise. "Lirin?" He'd been bowled over by the very girl he was looking for.

For the past several minutes she'd just been laying against his chest, breathing heavily and trying to get her heartbeat back to a normal pace. Then she heard his voice and her head shot up so quickly she whacked her forehead on his chin.

There were two yells of, "Ouch!"

"Lirin, stop moving!" She was beating him up more now than she ever had in the past. Goku placed his hands on her shoulders and gently eased her back so he could sit up without the danger of them knocking heads again. "How…?"

"Yaone. She…My brother had her drug me so they could move me to a new room, but last night I think she intentionally made it weaker than normal. I woke up in the middle of the night while they were moving me and knocked out the guards. I don't think my brother ever thought I'd wake up. The youkai who were moving me didn't even know they were supposed to ring the alarm instead of trying to fight me. I've been running to you since then." He remained silent throughout her entire narrative with two large brown eyes staring into her green ones and blinking slowly. She really couldn't be held responsible for her next action of grabbing Goku by his shirt collar and gluing their lips together. It was his own fault for looking so cute. "Sorry. I've wanted to do that for weeks."

"No…No need to apologize." To be honest Goku could say the same for his self. "I missed you." He cupped her cheek with one large palm, thumb stroking her lower lip, before he pulled her close for a much longer kiss. "You hungry?" He asked after they'd separated again.

Lirin's eyes lit up. "Yeah!" Then dulled just as quickly. "I don't have any money."

"I do." He wiggled around to dig in his pockets and pulled out a fist full of notes and coins. "Sanzo always gets annoyed when I ask him to buy me stuff from the vendors so Hakkai talked him into giving me an allowance. I don't have much, but we can still get something."

"What are waiting for then? Let's go! I haven't eaten since last night."

-/-

Hakkai was amazed they could lose Goku so easily. Sure he'd had a head start on them, but he'd been on foot while they had use of Hakuryuu. Somehow he'd still managed to give them the slip. They'd already checked the restaurants. He'd been positive that they would have been Goku's first stop. No such luck there. Now they were at a lost. Besides food what else could Goku have possibly been running to?

"It appears we aren't the only ones missing a monkey." In answer to Hakkai's questioning look Sanzo inclined his head to the side directing his attention to the party of three rapidly approaching them. "Ten guesses on whom they're looking for and the first nine don't count."

"Well," the monocled youkai chuckled weakly and waved at the purple haired woman smiling nervously behind the enraged over protective brother stalking to them. "At least we know what Goku wants more than food."

"Where. Is. My. Sister!"

Gojyo snorted a, "Nice to see you too," before a well placed elbow from his best friend silenced him.

"The most likely guess is that she is with Goku." In Hakkai's defense he was only trying to be helpful. Kougaiji just didn't appreciate it. He knotted his fingers in the other man's green shirt and lifted him clear off his feet. For his part Hakkai was amazingly calm about the whole ordeal.

"And where is, Goku?"

-/-

"C'mon say, ah." Lirin coaxed as she waved her chopsticks in Goku's face. He stubbornly kept his mouth closed. "What's the matter? Are you afraid?" His still closed mouth twisted into a frown at her questioning of his bravery.

"No, I'm no-Gack!" Opportunity presented itself when he opened his mouth to speak and she took it. She shoved the small piece of food passed his lips and practically down his throat. "Lirin!" He yelped once he'd successfully chewed and swallowed.

She just laughed it off. "See, that wasn't so bad. Admit it," she jabbed her chopsticks, which were loaded with another tasty morsel, in his direction. "You liked it." Oh like he would willingly give her the satisfaction of being right. Lirin grinned devilishly and leaned over to nip his ear. The only thing that stopped him from jumping clear to the ceiling was the table. The whole thing rocked with the force of his knees slamming into it. "Say, ah." She ordered again and this time he obediently obeyed. He still didn't think vegetables were as good as meat, but deep fryers really could make anything taste good.

-/-

"Miss Yaone, are you alright?" After they'd somewhat calmed Kougaiji down and he'd finally released the strangle hold he had on Hakkai's collar they'd split up to continue the search.

"No," she sighed with slumped shoulders. "This is all my fault. Lord Kougaiji is so upset with me. He likes to put on a brave front about it, but Doku and I both know that he cares for Lirin as much as he cares about his mother; if not more. He trusts me to look after her and when he found out how she escaped he was so furious." A small smirk grew on her face despite her earlier dejected feelings. "I don't think I helped matters by calling him a moronic jackass though."

Hakkai barely managed to hold his laughter in and it came out as more of an amused snort. "Why a jackass?" He asked simply.

"I felt calling him a mule was too polite and I'd already used the word pigheaded."

-/-

Gojyo was pissed. That was all there was to it. There were some twenty other things (read: women) he could be doing right now, but instead he was hunting for two stupid monkey brats. He'd originally been happy for Goku when the boy had discovered his hormones. In his opinion Sanzo was a grouchy old man who probably needed Viagra to get it up and Hakkai… Well Hakkai just had some understandable issues. He was going to leave it at that. With Goku there was finally someone in their group who understood the pleasures to be had when one sought out the company of the fairer sex. Although when it came to Kougaiji's little sister he used the term 'fair' very loosely. All of this considered, however, did nothing to distract Gojyo from the fact that this little goose chase was cutting into his sex time.

"Oi." Doku jabbed his little brother's temple with a large finger. "Stop scowling like that. I'm not enjoying this search and retrieve mission anymore than you are. Do you know how many things that girl could have found out here to throw at me?" Not to mention they both knew that pound for pound Goku was immensely more powerful than them. Neither one of them was eager to be on the receiving end of one of his blows and Doku had a feeling that the kid would fight to stay with Lirin.

"Then why the hell are we doing this crap!" He wanted his liquor and women and he wanted them now. "Look, if they ask we'll just say we couldn't find them. It's not like anyone will know how hard we looked for them."

"But-"

Gojyo was having none of his protests. He grabbed a hold of his brother's arm and hauled him in the direction of the nearest tavern. "No, buts! You owe me a night on the town anyway."

-/-

There was a part of Kougaiji's mind that was raging over the fact that he was alone with Sanzo and not taking advantage of that by trying to steal his sutra. Really what were the odds on him getting the priest alone again and without his guard dog anywhere around to distract him from the real prize? Unfortunately such a thought pattern was easily derailed when his brain took a second out to identify who the guard dog was. Thinking about the sutra led to thinking about Son Goku and thinking about Son Goku made him so furious that he didn't give a damn about that stupid sutra. He just wanted to find his sister and castrate that monkey.

Sanzo was strolling along besides him looking for all the world as if he'd took walks through random towns with Kougaiji all the time. He was going through that box of cigarettes like they were candy sticks though. "As much as I think he deserves it for causing all this trouble you can't kill Goku." The red head youkai's whole body twitched.

"Kill him? I'm not going to kill him." Death was too good for the little brat.

"I'm not going to let you neuter him either." Sanzo could just imagine how much more annoying he'd be if Kougaiji removed his manhood. "I do, however, recommend that you get that alchemist woman to start putting salt peter in your sister's food."

"Was that your subtle way of calling my little sister a temptress?" The youkai asked through grinding fangs.

Sanzo shrugged his shoulders in a non-caring way. "Before he turned into a moody bag of hormones Goku talked our ears off. From what I understand your sister jumped him so if we find them in bed together it's because of her libido, not his. Perhaps she's more like her mother than you thought. "

Kougaiji wasn't sure what irked him more. Right now it was a tie between the conversation and the fact that the priest didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by said conversation. "Lirin is an innocent, naïve child! Don't you ever compare her to that evil bitch! We're in this mess because you can't control your horny little dog!"

Sanzo dug his pinky into his ear as he half-listened to the youkai prince go off on a rant about Goku's horiness being a threat to Lirin's virginity. Truthfully he didn't even know why he was still looking for the two of them. He hadn't really wanted to look for Goku in the first place. The little brat could take care of his self and Sanzo was positive that once he got dumped, laid, or whatever he was trying to get from the girl he'd come sulking back. He was certain that Gojyo had already stopped looking though Hakkai might keep at it until some semi-reasonable hour of the night. He was more than ready to call it quits as well. In fact, "Would you look at that? The sun's almost completely set." He turned on his heel and started backtracking to an inn they'd passed several buildings back.

"What the-? Where the hell are you going?"

"It's my scheduled me time. You'll never find them with me around. Goku knows to stay away from me during this time." It was a bit of a lie. This was his personal time and Goku did know that, but it certainly wouldn't hinder the search in any way.

-/-

On the roof of the very inn that Sanzo was planning on renting a room from two young youkai laid on their backs staring up at the sky. "You think they're looking for us?" Lirin asked. She turned her head slightly away from her view of the rapidly approaching night sky to glance at her companion. Green met brown. "Busted." She snickered as his face turned cherry red. "That makes four times I've caught you staring at me." He whipped his head back towards the sky and grumbled something under his breath. "What was that?"

"….I said, 'It's a nice view,' okay?" The flush on his cheeks didn't recede in the slightest as he prepared for whatever teasing he was about to receive.

"I think my view's pretty nice too." She stated as she rolled over to her side just long enough to quickly peck his cheek. "Now answer my question."

"Kougaiji, the lady and the old man probably are. Hakkai might be too. I'm sure Gojyo's between some woman's legs by now and I think Sanzo couldn't care less." A sudden thought caused him to pale. "Your brother's going to try to murder me again." Lirin laughed as she rolled over again to snuggle against his side. Goku stiffened in surprise as she wrapped her arms around his narrow waist and nuzzled her face into his neck. "I think you want him to kill me." His stomach muscles quivered as a pair of clawed fingers walked up his abdomen. "He probably wouldn't have chased me for so long the first time if you hadn't taken my shirt off." He flinched when the fingers that had previously been content to walk around his chest dug in with a sharp poke.

"Right. He was that murderous cause I took your shirt off and not because you had your hand up mine."

"Don't-! Don't say it like that. You make it sound so dirty. I was only touching your back." Again she made him jump as two cool hands slipped under his shirt and roamed around the warm expanse of his back. "Lirin!"

"Like this?" She raked her claws down his back and he trembled in her arms. "Goku, you're so easy to tease." His brow furrowed as a pout formed on his lips. With one glance at the look on his face the little redhead dissolved into giggles her entire body shaking uncontrollably against him.

She wanted to tease him like that? Fine, but two could play this game. So busy laughing at his expense she didn't even notice when he began to shift around until it was too late to stop him from effortlessly flipping them over. She stared up at him with eyes as wide as Mother Nature would allow. Balancing his weight on one raised elbow Goku placed his other hand on her bare midriff and slowly began to inch it upwards.

"Goku...What are you doing?" Her laughter had stopped abruptly. The humor in the situation had evaporated to be replaced by a nervous vibe that was not terrifying in the good way that things normally were with him. Silence answered her and his hand continued its crawl up her stomach. His fingers slid under her top and the tips of his thin digits had less than an inch of distance left to cross to feel the underside of her breasts. "Pervert!" With a vicious right hook Lirin socked Goku on the cheek, off of her and nearly off the roof.

"Damn it!" He'd slid a good distance across the ground before coming to a stop just centimeters from the edge. "What the hell was that for?"

"For trying to steal third base! What kind of girl do you think I am?" She was not her mother.

"What? So it's okay for you to touch my chest, but I can't touch yours?"

"Exactly!"

"…." Now how was that fair? Women and their double standards. "What kind of arrangement is that?"

"The only kind beggars get." Lirin had time to let out a single startled squeak before she found herself laying flat on her back with Goku over her. His knees were planted on either side of her hips, large hands were gripping her thin wrists to pin them to the ground and he'd leaned forward slightly to bring his face close to her own.

"I am not a beggar."

Lirin rolled her wrist slightly just to test the strength of his hold on them. She could barely move them at all and he immediately tightened his grip when she tried. As he wasn't resting his weight on her if she really wanted to be free it was just a simple matter of twisting her lower half just enough to get the leverage needed to knee him in either his back or his stomach. She supposed if she was feeling really vicious she had enough freedom below to make a go for his crotch too, but escape wasn't that important to her at the moment. "Then what are you?"

"I'm your boyfriend." He'd managed to keep a serious face thus far with a frown of righteous fury, but then she smiled that devilish grin that always put him on edge and his frown turned into one of more confusion than fury.

"Good." Lirin kicked her leg up and planted her knee firmly in his lower back. Predictably Goku lurched forward from the sudden attack. He released her wrists to catch his self and barely had a moment to breathe a sigh of relief before her now free hands snagged the back of his neck and tugged his head down to meet her own.

-/-

So much for his 'me' time. Sanzo's eye had developed a noticeable tic and he was currently working on his fourth pack of cigarettes. He'd come to this inn to get away from all of them, but for some unexplainable reason everyone had decided to stop looking for Goku and Lirin at the same time. Well, perhaps it wasn't at exactly the same time.

Gojyo, as he'd predicted earlier, had given up the chase hours ago and after hitting a bar or two he and Doku had shown up here a whole hour before Sanzo with his two ladies of the evening. He claimed that one of them was for his brother, who he'd forcibly dragged along everywhere he went, but the dark haired youkai vehemently denied it. Given the younger brother's track record they were more inclined to believe Doku.

Hakkai and Yaone arrived only twenty minutes after Sanzo. Apparently they hadn't given up yet, but had simply thought it best stop at the inn before it got busy and rent a couple of rooms in advance. "Just in case we have to stay the night," Hakkai had said. Of course after renting the rooms they just had to stay for dinner. It had been getting close to that time after all.

Kougaiji had wandered in not long after them having realized that he was the only one still out looking for them. The only difference between the prince's reason and theirs was that he'd come to the inn to bitch at them to get back to work as opposed to just quitting as most of them had done.

All of this made for one very irritated Sanzo.

"Come on, Goku, you have to at least try it."

What the….? Sanzo nearly dropped his cigarette in surprise. As it was lit and would have landed in his lap if he had he was grateful that he'd managed to keep a hold of it. "Kougaiji, shut up for a minute." Had he heard what he thought he'd heard?

"What-?" The tall red head was promptly shushed.

"Stop trying to get me to eat weird things." Sanzo was sure of it now. He'd recognize Goku's voice from anywhere which meant that the person who'd spoken earlier was Lirin. The others seemed to have picked up on this fact and had quieted down to listen as well.

"What is so weird about a salad?"

"There's no meat in it."

"If I put ham and chicken on it will you eat it?"

"I want cheese and ranch dressing too."

There was a sigh and then, "Fine." After that there was brief noise of things being moved and scuffled about. "Now open up and say, Ah." Simultaneously they all turned around to face the direction of the voices and found the two young youkai they'd been looking for sitting at a small table in the back corner of the room and enjoying a quiet dinner together.

"Goku!"

"Lirin!"

So much for quiet.

-/-

Fortunately they managed to settle things that night without demolishing the inn. Of course in this case saying they settled things is synonymous with saying nobody got killed or fixed, which was a miracle in itself. Kougaiji's temper could have been described as nothing short of nuclear, but Lirin played her part of the girlfriend well and defended Goku against her brother's wrath. Goku's portrayal of the role of boyfriend was more than decent as he'd done a superb job of cowering behind the much smaller girl. Hakkai and Yaone were once again thrust into the roles of the placating peacemakers between both parties. Not relishing the thought of having something thrown at him again Dokugakuji just found what he deemed a safe place to hide. Gojyo and Sanzo on the other hand just couldn't be bothered either way. They simply went back to flirting and reading the newspaper, respectfully, as opposed to getting involved in any way.

Eventually through the strenuous efforts of the two most soft spoken members of either group the siblings were calmed down enough for their semi peaceful meal to be continued. It was only semi peaceful because Lirin kept trying to stab her brother with a fork when he adamantly refused to take the hint that he was not wanted at hers and Goku's table and should just go back to his own.

They hit square one again, however, after dinner was over and the topic of room arrangements came up. Apparently not anticipating that they'd run into anybody Goku and Lirin had rented a double with every intention on sharing it. Needless to say Kougaiji wasn't very fond of that idea. His temper erupted again with an explosion that put the volcano that buried Pompeii to shame. The cycle started all over again with everyone arguing over where Goku would sleep because they were most certainly not kicking Lirin out the room.

"He can't stay with me." Was Gojyo immediate reply for obvious reasons.

"I don't mind, but my single's pretty small. I really rather he didn't." Had been Doku's defense.

"He can just take my room." Yaone was ever the voice of reason. Pity no one seemed to have heard her.

"For all the trouble he caused he can sleep outside or on my floor." Sanzo was just so mean and he had the space to offer Goku more. He'd put out the money to rent a much bigger and better single than the ones the brothers had booked.

"Goku sleeps with me!" Everyone, with the exception of said boy, tried to pretend they hadn't heard Lirin say that.

"He sets one toe in either mine or my sister's room and I turn him into a eunuch." Kougaiji hadn't let go of the hope for an excuse to remove Goku's reason for living.

In the end it was decided that Lirin and Yaone would take the double room and as Kougaiji and Sanzo both still wanted to punish Goku for various reasons the monkey king had to camp out in Hakkai's room on the couch that was much too small for his lanky frame. Sleeping on the street would have been more comfortable and less of a torture on his back.

As for the room that had originally been intended for Yaone a certain scarlet haired kappa found his self using that one. After he'd tried to entice the two women he'd brought to the inn into having a threesome he discovered that they were more interested in having a twosome…with each other…and he wasn't allowed to watch. Apparently he picked up two lesbian lovers who excelled at tricking men into thinking they were interested and getting them to pay for their meals and room. The night usually ended with them turning their beau for the night on by heavily making out before kicking him out to suffer with a raging hard on.

Gojyo spent the night alone in Yaone's room with the only woman he knew he could always trust, Miss Left Hand.

-/-

Come morning more arrangements had been made and all members of both parties were finally ready to part with each other's company. "Kou is going to be so pissed when he comes out of this." Doku adjusted his grip on the lethargic prince he had slung over his shoulder like a sack of drugged potatoes. That's right, drugged. Yaone had gotten to him. She'd slipped Kougaiji the mickey shortly after he'd invited his self over to Goku and Lirin's table.

"Are you questioning me?"

"No. I'm just saying. Though next time could you spike his drink earlier or with a heavier dosage? If it hadn't taken so long to take effect he'd probably be lucid right now."

"You can't expect perfection from one who's forced to wing it. I did the best I could on such short notice." Yaone turned from Doku to address Hakkai. "I'm sorry for all the trouble this has caused." She said with a bow.

"Not at all," Hakkai assured her as he bowed as well. "I'm just glad we came to an agreement on what to do with those two." They both looked over to the young youkai to watch them happily playing with Hakuryuu. The small white dragon was lying on his back between them short legs kicking in abandon as Lirin rubbed his little belly and Goku tried to keep a hold of his frantically swinging tail.

They all thought it best to just keep things simple. Kougaiji's group would continue to try and steal Sanzo's sutra whenever opportunity presented itself and Sanzo's group would continue their journey to reclaim the sutras they already had and stop the resurrection of Kougaiji's father. They would conduct business as usual. In the midst of all of that every other week, provided distance allowed, Goku and Lirin would be allowed to get together for a date.

And if Kougaiji had a problem with this deal Yaone was just going to drug him again.