Title: Romance: Sanzo Style

Author: Checkerbloom

Pairing: Sanzo/Goku

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Goku loves Sanzo, but does Sanzo love Goku?

Email: onigiri.san (at) hotmail (dot) com

"Sanzo?" the monk looked over the top of his newspaper and eyed the monkey suspiciously.

"What?" he said.

"I love you," Goku beamed.

"Hmm," Sanzo went back to reading the paper. He got halfway through the article he was reading when he realised that he could still feel those golden orbs drilling into him.

"What?" Sanzo spat, it was too early in the morning for this shit.

"How come you never say you love me?" Goku asked. Sanzo could see that the monkey was trying to look like it didn't bother him. Like it was just another inane question. But there was a hesitant hope shining in those wide eyes. Sanzo grunted in irritation.

"Because I don't want to," Sanzo replied before looking back at the paper. He glanced back up at Goku after a moment and saw that the saru was still watching him.

"What, for fuck's sake?" Sanzo crushed the paper into the table and glared at the monkey.

"Um," Goku bit his lip apprehensively, like he was unsure he wanted to say what was resting on his tongue, "do you mean… you don't want to say it because you don't feel it?"

Sanzo rolled his eyes with a frustrated groan and strode briskly out of the room and away from the golden gaze.

Three days later Sanzo rolled off the brunette and lay back on the twisted sheets panting for breath and trying to remember what his own name was.

"Sanzo," Goku whispered breathlessly beside him.

"Uh," was all the monk could manage in reply as the warmth of the wracking orgasm Goku had just given him spread throughout his entire body and tugged his mind towards sleep.

"I love you," Goku whispered.

"Uh," Sanzo grunted before he rolled over onto his side.

"Sanzo?"

The monk didn't reply.

"Can't you just say it once?" Goku said in a voice so small it hardly existed.

Sanzo closed his eyes and allowed sleep to claim him.

Two days after that Sanzo was sat at the window folding paper aeroplanes. The chink of glass on wood made him turn his head to see Goku placing a glass of orange juice on the table for him.

Sanzo lazily tossed the folded aeroplane out into the warm sky and reached for the cool drink. Goku smiled and strolled back out of the room as Sanzo drank down the tangy juice in one go. But as the last drops spilled into his mouth his violet eyes noticed the words at the bottom of the glass. A piece of paper was stuck to the bottom, on the outside looking in, so with the glass tipped up emptying it's contents into Sanzo's parched mouth he could clearly see the words "I love you" staring innocently at him through the clear base.

He placed the glass back on the table and went back to folding paper aeroplanes.

The next day Sanzo opened his paper in the morning only to find a post it note stuck to the inside. "I love you" staring out at him. He tugged the post it free and scrunched it up in his hand. Things were getting out of hand. He wasn't dense, he got it already, the monkey loved him! Did the saru think his memory was so bad that he had to be reminded every day? He tossed the ball into the trash and went back to reading his paper.

That night, or maybe in the stupid hours of the morning, Sanzo awoke at the sensation of Goku snuggling closer to him. The monk remained still, if Goku suspected he was awake then neither of them would get back to sleep until the next night and Sanzo really was tired.

He felt the warm caress of Goku's breath on his face and only just heard the soft words spoken to his seemingly sleeping form.

"Do you love me Sanzo?"

Sanzo could feel those eyes burning into his face so fiercly it almost made him squirm. Almost. But after a few moments of solid silence Sanzo opened his eyes and his mouth to tell the monkey to shut the hell up and go to sleep. But Goku's eyes were already closed.

Sanzo closed his own and fell back to sleep.

Two days later Goku was eerily silent. Sanzo wanted to break his neck. But the monkey wasn't pouting, he wasn't sulking or angry. He answered Sanzo when the monk asked him something, but his usual, boundless, annoying energy had gone. His colourful laughter and chattering voice absent. The silence that the monk thought he craved served only to unnerve him until the sun had set and he could bear it not longer.

"What the fuck is the matter with you?" he barked, "quit moping!"

Goku blinked up at the blonde in surprise, "I'm not moping."

"Don't think you can play me, monkey!" The monk hissed, "I know exactly what you're doing. Don't think giving me the silent treatment is going to get me to confess undying love!"

Goku's mouth flapped in alarm, "I'm not giving you the silent treatment!"

But the monk had already stormed off.

Sanzo returned well after Goku had gone to bed, but he wasn't fooled. The monkey was wide awake and waiting for him. With a scowl he undressed and slid between the sheets beside the saru and screwed his eyes shut.

"I wasn't giving you the silent treatment, Sanzo," Goku said softly.

"Whatever," Sanzo replied gruffly, "just shutup."

"But…"

"SHUT UP!"

When Sanzo awoke Goku was already awake. The monk had to look twice to make sure that he was really seeing the monkey tossing paper aeroplanes out of the window. The youth's lithe figure framed in the window, captured in the vivid blue of the sky.

"Why are you up so early?" Sanzo growled irritably.

Goku jumped at the sound of his voice, but the monkey turned to Sanzo and smiled, "I couldn't sleep."

Sanzo sat up and rubbed his eyes lazily, hoping the melancholy monkey was gone and his usual, lively, vibrant saru had returned.

"Sanzo," Goku said.

"What?"

"I love you," the monkey replied with a sad smile as his golden eyes followed orange aeroplanes, "but you don't have to say it back."

"Good," Sanzo stretched and stood up from the bed, "because I'm not going to."

The monkey merely nodded.

"I know," the youth replied, "it… it would just be nice though. To hear it just once. Just to be sure."

Sanzo rolled his eyes and left the room, "sentimental idiot."

That night Sanzo awoke with a start. He had been having a dream but he couldn't remember what it had been about. The monkey was still snuffling softly in his sleep beside him. Sanzo placed a hand gently on Goku's back and sighed at the warmth the youth's body emanated.

Orange on blue. Sanzo trailed his hand over Goku's back allowed himself to smile.

Sanzo was the paper aeroplane and Goku was his sky. Beautiful. Brilliant. All encompassing. Never ending. Safe. His sky. Sanzo was merely a fragile square of paper, folded to look more solid than it really was, defiantly riding the wind as high into the sky as he could, hoping never to fall.

Sanzo rolled over and pulled the covers to his chin.

Goku slept later than he meant to. When he awoke the sun was already high in the sky and Sanzo was sitting at the table reading his paper and sipping coffee. Goku uncurled himself from his sleep and prowled sleepily into the kitchen to search for breakfast. Sanzo watched the youth move from behind the paper.

Goku poured himself a mug of coffee and plopped into a chair opposite Sanzo at the table. It was only after his first sip of strong coffee that he saw the vase of crimson roses sitting between him and his lover.

"Wha..?" Goku peered around the vase to Sanzo who was hidden behind his paper,

"Sanzo?"

"What?"

"The flowers…" Goku pointed to the dozen blooming roses before him, "who are the flowers for?"

Sanzo slammed the paper flat onto the table and frowned irritably at Goku, "they're for you bakasaru!"

Goku's eyes widened as he took in the delicate vision of the velvety petals. "Me?" his voice was barely a whisper as he reached out to touch the flowers. "Why?"

"Because you're such a sentimental idiot I thought you'd like them," Sanzo spat, "if you don't want them…" the monk reached out towards the flowers but Goku threw his arms around the vase and pulled it across the table towards him possessively.

"No!" he cried as he looked back down the flowers in awe, "I do want them."

"Ch," Sanzo clicked his finger in front of the monkey's face to draw the saru's attention back to him and away from the flowers, "listen carefully Goku, because I am only going to say this once. You will never hear me say anything like this again, do you understand?"

Goku nodded, his mouth almost as wide as his eyes as Sanzo sighed and ran a hand over his face before looking back into the youth's bright eyes.

"Goku," Sanzo said, "I will love you until the last petal withers away."

Goku's eyes quivered behind a haze of tears. Sanzo sighed, if the monkey started crying he'd kick him.

"So you'd better make sure you take care of them," Sanzo said before sitting back down behind his newspaper.

Goku looked back down at the flowers and found he couldn't breath. But as he gazed upon the richness of the roses he wondered what Sanzo had meant. Until the last petal withers away? Did he mean that when all the flowers were dead he wouldn't love him any more?

In nervous confusion Goku carefully lifted the flowers and took them closer to the window where they could catch more of the sun's rays. Those roses would last for as long as possible. He'd make sure of it.

A week later Sanzo was beginning to regret buying the monkey those flowers. He spent more time with the damn roses than with the monk! Fawning over them. Feeding them, watering them, putting them in the sun, taking them out of the sun, talking to them. It was starting to irritate Sanzo, but he let it slip. Surely the monkey would figure it out, he couldn't be that stupid.

"Aren't they dead yet, saru?" Sanzo yelled across the room to where Goku was pondering the flowers.

Goku turned back with a trepid hope in his eyes, "one of them isn't," he said, "look Sanzo!"

The monkey stepped back to reveal the one lone rose standing bravely in the middle of the bunch. The roses all around it had browned and curled and were long dead, but the one in the middle was still as bright and red and plush as it had been when Sanzo had first presented them to Goku.

Sanzo snorted and turned away. "Why don't you take the dead ones out?"

Goku looked back at the last living rose, "maybe the last one likes being with the others," Goku said, "maybe that's why it's still alive."

"Idiot monkey," Sanzo muttered.

Two more days passed. The monkey was still besotted with the last surviving rose that showed no evidence of fading and Sanzo was ready to rip the petals from the bloody thing himself.

"Will you leave that thing alone!" Sanzo bellowed, "maybe it doesn't like being crowded, monkey!"

Goku glanced back at Sanzo before looking back at the last rose. It still looked as beautiful and full as it ever did. Goku realised that it would have to die eventually, but for some reason this one was enduring. He couldn't understand why.

Carefully Goku reached out and ran his finger over the velvety petals of the last rose.

Sanzo saw a confused frown settle on the monkey's face as he touched the flower.

"Finally," the monk muttered under his breath.

"Sanzo," Goku called without looking away from the rose, "there's something…"

"What?" Sanzo said as he tried desperately to stop his lips from curving into a smile.

"It's…" Goku looked up at Sanzo with wide, exuberant eyes, "it's not real! It's plastic! The petals are velvet!"

"Ch," Sanzo rolled his eyes, "took you long enough stupid monkey."

Goku lifted the fake rose from the vase and took a step towards the monk, "but you said… you said you'd love me until the last petal withered away."

Sanzo looked back across the room at Goku, "I know," he said, "so I put a rose that would never wither in with the rest."

For a frozen moment Sanzo feared Goku would burst into tears. That would be the greatest way to ruin Sanzo's one and only romantic gesture ever. But Goku's quivering lips blossomed into a huge smile right before he launched himself into the blondes arms and pressed his lips to Sanzo's.

"Thankyou," Goku whispered into their kiss.

Sanzo didn't reply. He just kissed Goku back, fully, passionately, and with more love than the corrupt monk knew he had in him.

But he'd be damned if he was ever going to do anything so sickening again.

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