[Generic Disclaimer: Saiyuki and all the affiliated characters are copyright to Kazuya Minekura. No profit has or will be made off of this fiction.]

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~I'll Not Ask For Wine~

Summary: Out of hundreds of birthdays come and gone, a single one is worth remembering if you don't have to spend it alone.

PG

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So, here he was.

So.

Goku yawned, staring down at the table where a spread of food lay at his disposal. Vegetables, mostly. Years he'd been in this temple, and they still wouldn't serve him meat. Thank God for Sanzo's credit card and eager shopkeepers.

Picking at it idly at some cabbage, Goku let his mind wander. Another year gone by, the same as always. A day almost done as well; the sunlight was waning, and shadows stretched out to meet it. It was like any day Goku had ever been able to remember, with a small exception. Today was his birthday. His twenty-fifth, Hakkai had proclaimed a week ago when Goku last seen him. Twenty-five, give or take a few hundred years. It almost seemed silly, even by his own, sometimes-skewed logic. Most of those years he didn't even remember; least of all, the birthdays between them. So what good was it to count them now?

It was all too confusing for Goku to understand, so he quit trying and turned his attention back to the food. He was working on some rice when the door to his room opened. Chopsticks halfway to his mouth, he looked up in surprise to find Sanzo standing in the entrance.

Of course, it would be him; no else one in the temple would bother talking to Goku willingly. He smiled a little at the monk, waving a chopstick at the table.

"Hungry?"

"Not while you're eating," Sanzo answered, prickly as always. He strode into the room, however, and took a seat across from Goku. "You don't seem to be hungry, yourself."

"Hmm… not really," was Goku's response. "Not so much any more. And it's all vegetables anyway. The cooks KNOW I hate that."

"Of course they do. Why do you think I get all the meat?"

"That's not fair," Goku whined. "You aren't supposed to be eating it, anyway. I can eat what I want." He folded his arms and put on his best pout. "They'd serve it to me if you made them."

"You'll live," Sanzo answered. But he set a cloth package on the table as he spoke. Even though it was concealed, Goku could smell instantly what was inside.

"Is it... Yes!" Goku laughed as he opened it to reveal some choice meatbuns and dried jerky. "I've missed meatbuns so much!" He stuffed a few into his mouth, grinning.

"I thought you weren't hungry."

"I am now!" Goku laughed again around his food. "Thanks a lot!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Sanzo admonished. But there was no real force behind it, and Goku ignored the command to focus on eating.

"Mmm, it's so good! Want some?"

"No. And don't come crying to me if you get fat," Sanzo felt the need to say. He leaned back and lit a cigarette, watching the display before him.

"Ha. You only wish I would. Anyway, these still fit." Goku pointed to his Chinese clothing and nodded.

"They do not," Sanzo countered. He exhaled a cloud of smoke and tried his best to look annoyed. "You had to buy a whole new set because the legs were too short. I had to buy it, I should say. Grow out of another pair and you buy your own."

Goku said nothing, but grinned cutely around the meatbun he was clenching with his sharp teeth. Sanzo raised an eyebrow.

"You haven't done that for a long time," he mused, taking a final hit of nicotine.

"What?"

"The--the meatbun thing." Sanzo waved his cigarette stub in Goku's direction. "You haven't done that since you were a kid. And don't talk with your mouth full."

"I still am a kid," Goku mumbled around the meatbun, making his voice hard to understand. Finally he shoved it into his mouth and swallowed.

"You aren't." Sanzo tossed his cigarette onto the floor and crushed it. "You're well past that."

It was mostly true. In the years following his release from imprisonment, Goku had remained trapped in the body of a child. As time passed, however, he'd changed form. He'd indeed grown taller; where once Goku was waist high to nearly any adult, he now reached to Sanzo's shoulders. Muscles that had once been sinewy had been shaped by years of daily use. And with his cape and armor abandoned in favor of form-fitting silk garments, it could hardly be said that he looked like a young boy. He'd grown up, at least in form. His childlike demeanor had remained; but it, too, had morphed into something different; a slice of wit here and there, a sly smile. Laughter that was more subdued, but that made his odd golden eyes light up instead.

The changes had happened so slowly that Sanzo had never really noticed them. When he had, he'd looked the other way instead of acknowledging them.

Now, though....

"Here." Sanzo reached down to the floor, then sat back up and placed something on the table. Goku's eyes widened when he saw what it was.

"It's--"

"Sake. Yes. And we're going to drink it." Sanzo produced two glasses and set one in front of Goku, pushing aside some dishes as he did.

"But.... I don't understand," Goku stammered. He stared at the sake jug, his eyes the size of dinner plates. "I never got to drink before."

"You do now." Sanzo picked up the sake jug; still confused at it all, Goku reflexively held out his glass and watched the liquid tumble into it. He was about to take a drink when Sanzo made a strange noise in his throat. He looked at Goku expectantly.

"Huh?"

"One should never pour one's own wine," said the monk. He held out his glass and waited. Still unsure of what was going on, Goku hurriedly lifted the sake jug and aimed it at Sanzo's cup, allowing a bit to fall in before he returned the jug to its place on the table.

They looked at each other.

"Kanpai." Two glasses clinked.

"At least you know one thing about drinking," Sanzo proclaimed, taking a sip from his wine.

"How could I not?" Goku's face contorted. "I spent years with three drunks."

"I am NOT a drunk." Sanzo huffed, clearly offended. Goku shrugged, and then took a drink from his own glass.

It was good. A little bitter from the alcohol, but good. It brought odd warmth with it that spread through his body, settling in comfortably like an old friend.
They drank in silence, pausing to refill the other’s glass when the liquid ran low.

A few rounds later, and Goku was beginning to feel and look tipsy. "I'm dizzy," he announced, his words slurring a bit. "What's in this stuff?"

"You would be." Sanzo smirked. "You've got no tolerance for alcohol at all."

"Not my fault," Goku accused, taking another gulp. "No one ever let me drink." He laughed suddenly, for no reason at all. "I feel funny."

"I'll bet you do. You've had enough." Sanzo reached for his companion's glass and was awarded a loud whine.

"But I want more...."

"You aren't getting any more," Sanzo said brusquely. "There's one more thing about drinking you haven't learned, and it's when to stop." With that, he capped the sake jug and stood up.

"Oh, all right." Goku pouted cutely, accentuating his flushed cheeks. "S'okay, I guess..." He got to his own feet, wobbling a bit. "So what--now?"

"You," Sanzo answered, "are going to bed." He pointed in the bed's general direction.

"But I'm not sleepy," Goku protested, pitching forward to prove his point. Sanzo caught him and, touching him as little as possible, led him over to the bed and nudged him onto it. Goku slumped onto the sheets without further resistance, settling onto his back and sprawling all over the place, eyes closed as if to sleep. Satisfied, Sanzo turned to go.

"Sanzo?"

Sanzo hesitated before facing him again. "Yeah?"

"Why?" Goku's voice seemed to have steadied a bit, and it was soft and quiet. A voice he only used on those rare occasions when he wanted to be serious.

"Why what?" Sanzo eyed him, knowing what the voice meant. "I'm tired. Stop talking." Goku ignored the command; his golden eyes opened and looked at the blonde man intently.

"Why did you let me drink with you? All of a sudden... like that."

"Because."

"Sanzooo...."

"It's your birthday, Monkey." The monk moved closer, allowing Goku to better see his frown-marred face. "Or can't you remember something like that?"

"I didn't forget." Goku fought a yawn.. "I just didn't think you remembered."

Sanzo rolled his eyes. "Of course I remembered."

"But why..." Goku, barely holding on to consciousness now, had to sit up a bit to continue. "I still don't understand."

"Because responsibility is the most important lesson a child must learn before becoming an adult."

"Huh?" A set of eyes blinked sleepily.

"It means there's no way in hell I'm ever going to let anyone say I turned you into a drunk."

"But I wanted more sake," Goku murmured, forcing his eyes to stay open.

"You always will." In Sanzo's mind, an image appeared of a tall, stately man extending a jug of wine.

Kouryuu!

"Sanzo?"

"What."

"Thanks.” Goku smiled sleepily. “I wasn’t even going to count birthdays anymore….”

Sanzo looked down at his face, flushed from the sake and slack with exhaustion. Hair grown long again framed it gently, and for a moment Goku looked like a boy again.

“Don’t mention it,” he mumbled, and got no argument from the occupant of the bed, who had already drifted off. Sanzo took one last look at Goku's sleeping form before he turned and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

[~:.:~]

[owari]