Title: When We Remembered - The Tunnel
Author: Lok
Pairing: Gojyo/Sanzo (Kenren/Konzen)
Rating: R for excessive f-word-riddled banter in and out of sexually awkward situations

Summary or description: After a night at a cursed hot spring, Sanzo starts dreaming about certain previous incarnations engaging in some risky business.

Disclaimer: Saiyuki doesn't belong to me; I just play here.
Website: http://chained-lok.livejournal.com/

When We Remembered

Chapter 3: The Tunnel

"This is a stupid."

"Yeah well, you got a better idea? It's your bullet in his skull."

"They're going to find him in here."

"Of course they're gonna find him. I'm trying to buy us some time so we can get our asses outa here without having to cut our way through a fucking army. Are you gonna help or not? Grab his legs."

Sanzo snorted, but bent down and grabbed Han's feet by his boots. Together, he and Gojyo flung the body onto the guest room bed where Gojyo proceeded to arrange it under the sheets as though it was just some drunk mate of his who had passed out. He half-buried the head between the pillows so that the hole in the guy's forehead wasn't visible, then wiped his hands on his jeans and shrugged.

"Well he kinda looks like he's sleeping. Kinda."

Sanzo looked down at the body with one eyebrow raised, considering. He wasn't sorry he had shot the guy, not really, but it meant that now he couldn't ask the asshole what he'd meant by that dirty insinuation. He'd talked like somehow he'd seen… Sanzo felt a blush rising in his cheeks and quickly concealed it by coughing into his hand. "If you want it to look like he crawled into bed with us, shouldn't he be naked or something?"

Gojyo held up his hands. "Hey if you wanna strip him, go ahead. Personally, that's not my kind of kink. I'm gonna see what I can do about the blood in the other room."

As soon as Gojyo stepped out the door, Sanzo swept his eyes around the bedroom. If that pervert had somehow managed to spy on them last night, there had to be some trick to it; it couldn't be something as lame as peering through the keyhole. He examined the window, but that held no clues either – the room sat three stories up and didn't even a thin ledge for a voyeur to make use of on the outer wall. Besides, Han hadn't seemed like the type to skulk around his own mansion like a burglar. This room was so conveniently located, more likely it housed some secret passage behind the wall.

Sanzo rapped his knuckles experimentally along the walls and felt ridiculous when he could distinguish nothing abnormal. Maybe he was just being paranoid. Han might have just been talking out of his ass.

He glared at the body on the bed, trying to will it to reveal its secrets. Although the idea of touching it made him sneer with distaste, allowing the body to be found in a more humiliating state seemed quite appropriate. Mind made up, Sanzo peeled back the sheets and set to work divesting the dead man of his clothes.

He searched each garment as he removed it. In an inner vest pocket he found a pack of smokes – not Sanzo's brand but he took them anyway. Getting the man's rather tight pants off took some struggling but in those pockets he found something even more intriguing: an iron key. Sanzo tucked it into his robes and pulled the sheets back up over the corpse. He cursed when he noticed the blood that had begun to soak into the pillow. He wrenched up the head and turned the pillow over, trying for a better angle. Really though, anyone who got close enough to notice a little blood would be close enough to notice that the stupid asshole wasn't breathing. Sanzo pulled back, then frowned. Something was shoved in the guy's ear. He plucked it out and turned it over in his fingers. It looked to be piece of hard, flesh-coloured plastic, somewhat conical, with what looked like a tiny antennae poking out the fat end. Puzzled, Sanzo wiped it on the end of his sleeve and then experimentally stuck it in his own ear.

He was so focused on the odd feel of the thing that he barely registered the footsteps behind him.

"Man, Sanzo, you sure drained that guy's head out good. I ended up just dragging a rug over it. There's no way I'm gonna spend an hour mopping up that shit."

Sanzo slapped a hand to his ear and stumbled back a step, bumping right into Gojyo. Hands caught his shoulders, steadying him. Gojyo chuckled. "Did I scare ya, monk?"

"Shut up!" Sanzo yelled, and immediately winced. The device in his ear fed his words back to him in a startling echo. He clawed the thing out and stared at it. Some kind of… hearing device?

Gojyo leaned over his shoulder to peer at the object. "Hey, since when did ya get an ear piece Sanzo? You baldy monks prone to going deaf or something?"

Sanzo stamped down hard on Gojyo's foot then jerked away. "The dead guy had it, idiot."

"Ow!" Gojyo hopped back, glaring daggers. "Dammit, whaddya trying to do, cripple me?

Cautiously, Sanzo put the device back up to his ear again and walked the breadth of the room, trying to pinpoint the range. "This thing is picking up everything we say in here."

Gojyo's jaw dropped. "That freak wired this place? Fuck, he better not have cameras. Pervy son of a bitch! Where'd he get technology like that? I mean the villages out here, we're lucky if we see a fucking motor vehicle."

Sanzo spun around. "What did you say?"

"I said these towns are dirt-shit poor—"

"Not that! Cameras?!"

"Well y'know, I used to know this guy who'd whore himself out sometimes when he got really low on cash. He'd bang rich old guys cause they paid well. He'd get drunk and tell me all the shit they'd make him do. Fuck, like I wanted to hear that. But he told me about one guy who put cameras in every room in his house so he could tape all the dirty shit that went on there and watch it back and wack off to it, I guess. Hey you okay, Sanzo? You look kinda pale."

Sanzo felt the blood drain from his face and swallowed. He couldn't help casting a paranoid glance around the room. Just the thought of some hidden lens recording everything that had happened last night… he shuddered and the skin on his neck prickled. Where would a pervert hide something like that? Hit by a sudden hunch, he looked up.

A tiny red light blinked at him from a small hole in the ceiling right above the bed.

"Motherfucker!" Sanzo shouted. His hand cocked back the hammer of his gun before he could remember drawing it and the red light disappeared into an explosion of fine particles. Shoving the warm gun back into his sleeve, he ran from the room.

He heard Gojyo behind him, trying to tell him to calm down. Calm down? He'd fucking calm down once he shot every fucking piece of electronic crap in this house.

***

Shit. He shouldn't have mentioned the camera thing. Sanzo had completely lost it. The monk tore through the halls of the mansion, throwing open doors looking for who knows what. Gojyo didn't really get what the big deal was. So Han might have been spying on them. Creepy, yeah, but hardly rampage-worthy. Even perverted voyeurs have better things to do than watch people sleeping. Since Han was now stone cold dead there was no use getting all uppity about it.

Grumbling under his breath, he tailed Sanzo down the hallway but hung back a little so he could keep a wary eye on the monk's gun. He really wasn't in the mood to dodge potshots. If they ran into a servant or soldier, Sanzo would do whatever he felt like doing and there'd be no stopping him. Besides, it was fun to watch Sanzo when he got all riled up. Most guys when they crossed that line got ugly-crazy, but Sanzo wasn't one of those. He was… beautiful-crazy. Shit, that sounds stupid, but what else do you call it? The guy shouldn't have any charisma at all, with that nasty personality, but he radiates something all right, something bright and dangerous. Maybe Goku has it right. All I know is when he's like this I can't stop watching him… I've gotta follow just to keep him in sight.

Suddenly, he heard voices echoing down the corridor somewhere ahead of them. Sanzo must have heard them too because he froze in his tracks. His gun arm twitched and for a moment Gojyo was sure they'd have a bunch of fresh bodies on their hands. Then the monk turned, gave a little jerk of his head that said hide, and dashed through the door on his left. Gojyo hesitated a moment, wondering if he had enough time to make it to the room the monk had gone in. Up ahead, the voices got louder, accompanied by heavy, booted footsteps. Shit, no good. He grabbed for the door handle on his right and dove in.

He found himself in a sitting room filled with more of that godawful décor. Off to the side, an open door looked into a bedroom. Gojyo stepped closer and smirked when he saw the large, oversized bed with black silk sheets and a dresser covered in an array of unlit candles. He'd bet all the gambling money in his pocket that this was Han's room.

Out in the corridor, the footsteps stopped right outside the door Gojyo had so hastily jumped through. Fuck. Gojyo backed quickly into the bedroom and held his breath, listening.

"Maybe he's in his room?"

"If he is then trust me, you do not want to go in there. Last time I made that mistake I wanted to gouge my eyes out."

"But—"

"It's best to give him privacy when he has guests. Come on, we'll go wait in the front hall."

The footsteps moved away and Gojyo let out his breath in a gush. He hated this duck and cover stuff; he always felt a lot better facing an enemy head-on. He wondered what room Sanzo had ended up in. The way the monk had been tearing around, he deserved to stumble into the women's bath or something. On second thought, no way. A happy mistake like that would be totally wasted on that uptight monk. I should have ended up in the women's bath. He can have… a room of horny old hags too senile to respect the boundaries of his robes.

Well like it or not, Gojyo was stuck in a bedroom that smelled of Vaseline and bad cologne and no beautiful naked ladies in sight. Still, if it did belong to their life-challenged host, maybe there was something here that could help them get through that damn wall? Back in his up-to-no-good days with Banri they'd once stolen a seal and some stationary from some bigwig in order to crash an exclusive party in a walled mansion. He'd hooked up with a really hot chick there, so it had been totally worth it.

Hands on his hips, Gojyo surveyed his surroundings. His eyes immediately locked on the wall opposite the bed where a set of built-in shelves housed a large television. Oh yeah, Sanzo would want to put a bullet through that. He ambled over to it. Might as well see what the guy was watching. For all Gojyo knew, it could be boring security footage that could actually be useful. Yeah right, more like the women's bath.

His finger hesitated on the power button. Then again, considering the taste the guy had displayed… could be the men's bath. Aw heck, what the hell. He pushed the button.

A frozen image slowly brightened into existence on the screen. Gojyo tilted his head and squinted. What was that? It kinda looked like…

With a trembling hand, he reached up to the player sitting atop the TV and pressed the play button.

His jaw dropped.

Holy Fuck.

***

Where did that stupid kappa go?

Sanzo's hand clenched around his gun. He half-wished he'd been discovered just so the homicidal urges darkening his thoughts could have some release. What he really wanted to do was put a few more slugs in Han's head.

He gritted his teeth. Take a deep breath. Find the red-haired idiot so you can get out of here and forget that this ever happened.

The hallway looked clear, so he backtracked and peeked into the doors a little more carefully this time. By the time he reached the third one his pulse had regained its erratic pace. What if those soldiers had found Gojyo and dragged him off some place? He bit his lip, using the pain to steel his nerves. Much as he hated to give the kappa any sort of credit, Gojyo could take care of himself.

The room behind the third door looked as unremarkable as the others. Sanzo had just turned back toward the hall when a hissed whisper nearly scared the skin off his bones.

"Sanzo – hey! Over here!"

He recognized the voice instantly and spun around to aim a suitable death glare. The kappa leaned against the doorframe of the adjoining room. His red eyes blinked away Sanzo's stare and he smiled one of those sensual, unnerving smiles. He had stuck a new cigarette between his lips that hung there, unlit. Sanzo found himself envying it.

"Oi, Sanzo, check this out." Gojyo crooked a finger, beckoning him closer.

Sanzo followed him, grumbling, into the bedroom. His eyes widened a bit when he saw the television – or what had been a television. The screen had been caved in and the case, along with most of the shelves that surrounded it, had been torn by large, sweeping gashes.

Gojyo rubbed the back of his head and managed to look suitably sheepish.

"Yeah, uh… sorry, kinda got a little carried away. You get to tear the shit outa the next one, 'kay?"

"Whatever." Sanzo sighed and thrust his gun back in his sleeve. Trust the kappa to steal the fun parts.

"That's not what I wanted to show ya though. Take a look at this. You can kinda see it where I ripped up this shelf. I think there's a door back here."

Sanzo leaned forward and prodded at the spot Gojyo indicated. Something did seem off about the colouring of the wall there. He could feel a seam when he ran his fingers along it and it was cold to the touch. His skin tingled, but not so much from the discovery as from the sudden sense of someone watching him. He twisted his head to get a look over his shoulder.

He nearly bushed noses with Gojyo, who had snuck up close behind him. Instinctively, Sanzo shrunk back, but was caught by eyes burning like twin glowing coals. The kappa was a master of sultry looks, but there was no teasing in those eyes this time, despite the rather smug set of his lips. That gaze spoke one word, want, and it spoke it so bluntly that it slipped right past Sanzo's defenses and unfurled inside him like a morning flower drinking sunrise for the first time.

Gojyo coughed and pulled back. The moment passed. Sanzo dug his nails into his palms. He forced himself to return his thoughts to their situation.

"If it is a door, there must be some kind of trigger." Sanzo scrutinized the wrecked remains of the shelves. "If you haven't destroyed it, that is."

Gojyo suddenly chuckled and stepped around him. He reached up to one of the higher shelves that was relatively intact. His fingers wrapped around a glass obelisk.

"Hey Sanzo, what do ya wanna bet this is it?" His fingers slid suggestively up and down the glass form.

Sanzo snorted. "You even think alike."

"Hey, don't compare me to that toady bastard. I'm way smoother than he coulda ever hoped to be. You really wanna open this thing? We could just be walking into his porn stash."

"Or a way out."

"There is that." Gojyo sighed, "Alrighty, here goes." With a snap of his wrist, the obelisk turned horizontal. Sanzo heard the muffled squeak of gears and one whole half of the wall suddenly shuddered and began to move. A dark crack began to open up.

"See?" said Gojyo. "What did I tell ya? These rich dudes have got way too much time on their hands."

The crack widened until it spanned about two feet. Then the gears creaked to a halt and the wall stopped moving.

"Pretty monks first," said Gojyo, and pushed Sanzo forward.

Sanzo braced his arms against the sides of the opening, refusing to go in just because the kappa said so.

Gojyo's hand slid up to his shoulder. "Afraid of the dark?" the kappa whispered in his ear.

Sanzo whipped out his fan and swatted the redhead right across the nose. Then he readjusted his sutra and stepped into the darkness.

He felt Gojyo move in right behind him. "You could at least not hit me in the face," the kappa grumbled.

"I can't see shit in here," said Sanzo. "This is stupid. Turn around."

Hands settled on his hips and breath tickled his ear.

"Don't be scared, Sanzo. I'm right behind you. Just feel your way around."

"I'm not scared, idiot. I just want a fucking flashlight." Gritting his teeth, Sanzo strode forward, using the narrow walls of the passage as his guide. He'd never considered himself claustrophobic, but he didn't like this one bit. He sped up his pace, forcing Gojyo to drop his hands and clutch at the back of his robes instead.

"Hey, not so fast, Sanzo! I can't—"

Pain exploded across Sanzo's nose as he crashed face-first into solid wall, Gojyo ramming up behind him. He fought to get free, twisting around and pushing Gojyo as hard as he could.

"Fucking hell! I am not doing this! Go back!"

"We just hit a turn, monk. I told you not to go so fast."

The faint light from the room behind them backlit Gojyo and hid his face in silhouette, but he just knew the kappa had one of those asinine smirks on his face. He was not going to fumble around in the dark with this idiot. "I said go back!" He locked his elbows drove himself at the body blocking his way.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

He could hear Gojyo's fingers scraping on the walls and suddenly the kappa tripped and fell right back on his ass. An odd click accompanied the thud as he hit the floor. Sanzo tried to get a leg over him when a horrific sound assailed his ears.

Gears scraping. A groaning creek. The crack of light ahead narrowed into a slim line and then perfect darkness closed in on him once again.

For a long moment Sanzo held still just listening to their breathing. Then he stepped back and aimed a good hard kick at the spot where he guessed the kappa's ribs were. His foot collided with flesh with a satisfying thwack.

"Ow! Fuck! It wasn't my fault, you pushed me."

"Ch. Are you going to stay there on the floor all day?"

"Are you offering to help me up?"

"Were you born a moron or did your mother drop you on your head one too many times?" But Sanzo reached down anyway, caught the kappa's shirt in his fist and pulled.

Gojyo gripped his forearm to steady himself and after much yanking and shoving they both managed to stand again in the narrow space. Sanzo stepped back but Gojyo gripped him tighter and didn't let go. Sanzo's skin came alive with anticipation and his joints locked, unable to move, wanting, not wanting. Hot breath parted his bangs and lips stole in to touch the skin there. Gojyo's hand on his forearm crept a little higher and the pad of a finger circled his elbow. Sanzo shuddered.

"You know, Sanzo… if y'wanted more of Sha Gojyo y'coulda just said something."

"Who says I want anything from a perverted kappa?"

Gojyo chuckled, sending gusts of air tickling across Sanzo's skin. "You put on a good act, monk, I'll give ya that." The lips left his forehead and ghosted across Sanzo's eyelid before settling on his ear. "But you've been very naughty and I don't like being left out of things."

Sanzo bit his lip to quell a surge of anxiety. He couldn't know, could he? No, he was asleep the entire time, I'm sure of it. Even after that messy bit at the end, he just flopped right back down like a log. He's just trying to get under my skin like he always does.

"I'm not having this conversation here, Gojyo."

"Who said anything about a conversation?"

The lips left his ear and suddenly a hot mouth slammed against his. In the dark, the aim was a little off but quickly rectified. Sanzo reeled back, hating that he couldn't see, couldn't anticipate. Gojyo moved with him, hands sliding up his body, guiding him, pressing him against the wall.

Fuck, not now, not now. But his traitorous body didn't agree. His lips parted under the pressure of that assaulting mouth, that vulgar tongue that prodded and probed and stole and all the harsh words he wanted to spit out. It hadn't been like this before. Before they had fumbled about in quick, unsure bursts. This kiss knew what it wanted and wasn't taking no for an answer. Gojyo pressed in on him until he forgot to breathe and wrestled his head away to the side to gasp long and hard.

Gojyo leaned against him, panting. "Fuck, why are you doing this to me? It's never been like this with a guy, never."

"Idiot. You… started… it."

Gojyo buried his face against Sanzo's neck. "You smell good."

"What?!"

"You know, Han thought you were hot stuff. Just the idea of him touching you, I… I wanted to punch his fucking mouth in. How weird is that? Hell, I'm not even the jealous type. This is so messed up."

Gojyo hooked a finger into Sanzo's turtleneck and tugged it down enough to attach his wet lips to the base of Sanzo's neck. His other hand roamed Sanzo's back, kneading the muscles there with reassuring circles.

Sanzo couldn't speak. If he could just pull himself together he could stop this before it went too far. That wasn't what he wanted though. He wanted to pin the kappa against the wall and fuck him hard the way he'd been imagining since the first time he'd laid eyes on him. It wasn't fair. The touching, the kisses made him feel too much already. They ate him up with flames that charred inside and out.

He barely registered Gojyo moving down his body, leaving his skin and nuzzling into the folds of his robes. He came back to himself only when he felt the bottom of his robe pushed back and cold hands dip under the waist of his jeans.

"Gojyo?" He gasped out and reached for the other man. His hand found the other's hair and twisted his fingers into it.

Gojyo buried his face in Sanzo's thigh and let out a deep, throaty laugh. "God, I can't believe I'm gonna do this."

"What do you think you're—" his voice choked off into a moan as Gojyo popped the button on his jeans and reached in to touch him.

His hips jerked of their own accord and he almost came undone right there. Sanzo pressed his head back against the hard wall and fought to control his breathing, to concentrate on anything but the caress of Gojyo's tongue on his sensitive flesh. He's knees felt weak and the muscles of his thighs shook with the effort of keeping upright.

Gojyo's hands snuck around to squeeze his ass and his hips jerked again, harder. He heard Gojyo gag a little and back off. In the concealing darkness, Sanzo allowed himself a smug grin. Whatever the kappa's self-proclaimed skill in the bedroom, in this at least they seemed to be on more even ground. Had Gojyo had told the truth when he'd said he'd never been with another guy before? He'd always wondered… oh fuck that felt good.

Sanzo loosened his hold on Gojyo's hair and brushed his fingers through it instead. A string of embarrassing sounds worked their way up his throat. Shit, too good, too good. He wanted Gojyo to say something, to break the moment, but of course the kappa was otherwise occupied. Sanzo swallowed and gathered his voice.

"Guess I finally found a way to shut you up."

Gojyo made a sound that might have been a laugh had his mouth not been full and the vibration transmitted to Sanzo's nerve endings cut short his attempt at cerebral control. Gojyo followed up with a hard suck. Reason leapt out the window to a screaming death and Sanzo surrendered to euphoria. He clutched at Gojyo's head and dug his heels into the floor, letting the wall support him as he twitched and shuddered.

"Fuck! Gojyo!"

When he regained his senses he found himself sitting on the floor, wedged up against the wall with Gojyo still kneeling between his legs. He heard the kappa panting softly, his fingers digging into Sanzo's legs a little too tightly. Still drunk on the buzz that seemed to be singing in his nerves, Sanzo slipped a hand behind the redhead's neck and forced their lips together.

Oh god, I can taste myself on him. A little thrill shot up his spine and he almost confessed his nocturnal activities right there. He pulled back just enough to part their lips. "You…"

Gojyo's voice grated out hoarsely. "It's a matter of pride, you bitchy monk. Can't have you showing me up. Gonna have to get you eatin' more sweet stuff though. You're way too bitter."

Sanzo ducked in again and bit down on the kappa's bottom lip to quiet him. "I like you're mouth a lot better," he murmured , "when it's too busy to talk."

"Oh?" Gojyo locked his arms around him pressed his chest flush against Sanzo. "You gonna keep me busy then?"

"Don't push it, k—"

A loud rumble made them both jerk apart. Sanzo felt the tremor in the floor beneath him and a moment later it came again, louder, shaking the walls so that the whole building rattled around them.

"Shit!" yelled Gojyo, and he scrambled to his feet, pulling Sanzo with him. "What the hell was that?"

Sanzo's more immediate concern was getting his fly to zip up, and he had finally succeeded when the next quake hit. He had to clutch Gojyo's jacket to keep his balance and coughed when his lungs sucked up the fine dust that began to fill the air.

He pushed Gojyo down the passage. "Get going, we can't stay in here."

"No shit!"

They ran and Gojyo led the way this time to feel out the turns. With no time to plan a route, they ignored side passages and navigated forks at random. The air became cooler and Sanzo touched a wall and found, to his surprise, cold, moist stone. Gojyo slowed, breathing heavily. Sanzo leaned against the wall and spit to clear his mouth of dust. Fuck, he hated running.

"Fuck this," he growled. "I want out of this fucking tunnel."

"Hey," said Gojyo, "you're not gonna flip out on me and start shooting up the place, are ya? Cause bullets will ricochet like mad in here and I kinda like my skin the way it is."

"It won't ricochet if it's buried in your fucking brain, cocksucker."

"Hey! Don't f—"

Another tremor shuddered the ground and a massive crash erupted in the distance like a wave of thunder. For a moment they just froze, listening, as the sounds grew closer and louder, a cascade of splintering wood and crumbling foundation and the air around them suddenly thick and dust-riddled. Sanzo felt something heavy and soft being thrown over his head and then Gojyo's weight pressed down on him, forcing him to the ground. Air roared passed his ears and dirt scoured his skin. He couldn't get a proper breath. The angry sounds pounded his eardrums and he squeezed his eyes shut.

_____________
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