Gensomaden Saiyuki Fan Fiction ❯ And Babies Makes Six ❯ Fatherhood ( Chapter 2 )

And Babies Makes Six

DISCLAIMER: Saiyuki and all its characters are not mine. They belong to Kazuya Minekura.

########## = at another place

`…' = thoughts

^^^^^^^^^^ = recall

That's all for now, minna-san. Enjoy!!

Chapter 2-Fatherhood

"Ne, how do we identify them?" Goku asked Hakkai.

"Let's ask for their names first, shall we?" The brunette answered. He bent down to be eye-level with the twins. Both girls are dressed identically, had the same length of hair, same height, same…everything. They flinched away from a surprised Hakkai.

"What are your names?" He asked the question with his usual smile. Sanzo, Gojyo and Goku watched in silence. The attention of the three adults must have been intimidating as one of the girls whimpered and attempted to hide behind her sister. Hakkai surmised that the other child must be the eldest of the two as she bravely allowed her sibling to hide behind her.

A few minutes passed in silence, and Hakkai gave up.

"They are still shy around us; we will have to wait till they tell us willingly."

Sanzo nodded.

"So…" Goku ventured. "What do we call them for the time being?"

"Simple!!" Gojyo crowed. He pointed to one girl. "Sanzo Junior Number One." The redhead pointed to the second child. "Sanzo Junior Number Two. There, done."

Sanzo gritted his teeth and forced himself to count to ten.

`Stay calm, stay calm. There are kids here; I can't kill that stupid cockroach yet. Stay calm…'

Hakkai sweatdropped.

"Anou…Gojyo, that is not very nice…"

"What's not very nice? They look like Sanzo!!" The redhead puffed up in indignation. "And furthermore, you said that it is an honor to be a Sanzo."

Sanzo's lost his control then. He whipped out his tessen.

"To hell with the children. I WILL KILL YOU NOW!! SHI NE!! *whack* You think that *whack* it is so easy to *whack* be a Sanzo?!!*whack* If every Tom, Dick and Harry can *whack* crown a Sanzo, then *whack* I WON'T HAVE TO BE ON THIS *whack* FUCKING JOURNEY WITH YOU *whack* FUCKING IDIOTS!! *whack*"

Goku winced. That looked painful.

Hakkai smiled at the girls.

"Daijoubu, they are just…anou…how do I explain this…"

"Just playing!!" Goku came to the rescue. Hakkai nodded.

"Hai, they are just playing!! There is no need to be scared of them!!"

"Playing?!!" Gojyo glared at the monk. "That bozou almost brained me with his freaking fan!! And what was that remark about me being some `Tom, Dick and Harry'?"

Feeling calmer now, Sanzo leisurely tucked his harisen into the folds of his robes and shrugged at Gojyo's irate question.

"I say what I see. Furthermore, you admitted it yourself; I did not say anything about you."

"Why you corrupt bozou…"

Gojyo was about to say more when they heard the giggles.

As one, the Sanzo-ikkou turned to see the girls. Their earlier wariness around the group gone, they were now giggling. Violet eyes alight with laughter; they looked like a pair of adorable angels.

Gojyo looked at the twins suspiciously.

"I think that they have Sanzo's sadistic sense of humor. Who else finds laughter in the suffering of others?"

"Che. You deserved it."

For a moment, Hakkai thought that Gojyo was going to hyperventilate any moment; the redhead was so red in the face. The brunette decided to interfere in case things got too violent.

"Maa maa," Hakkai smiled. "At least they are not afraid of us now."

"Look!! There is a letter!!" Goku reached into the confines of the box to pull out a piece of folded paper.

"What does it say?" Gojyo recovered from his earlier episode and went to Goku and snatched the letter away from the teenager.

"Hey, I found it first!! Not fair!!" The golden-eyed boy jumped up and down in an attempt to retrieve the piece of paper.

"Che. What do you mean, `not fair'? You don't even know how to read. Just leave this to the expert."

Sanzo rolled his eyes.

`Some expert.'

"Ahem. This is what is written on the paper:

Sanzo-ikkou,

The pair of twins whom you have undoubtedly found by now had been rescued from a group of youkai a few days ago. Before the demons were killed, they were `persuaded' to reveal that they had stolen the children from somewhere up west. As we really do not have the facilities to travel up west, we are relying on you to bring the babies back home safely.

Most sincerely,

Kai and Saki

P.S: Saki apologizes for drugging the food.

That's all there is to the letter." Gojyo folded the piece of paper.

"So, we have to bring them with us, huh?"

Hakkai nodded at Goku's question.

"If what the letter says is true, then we have no choice; we cannot leave them here, they have no relatives whatsoever. We have to take them back to their home."

Sanzo observed the fond looks that Hakkai and Goku sent at the children and groaned silently. Even Gojyo was starting to warm up towards the girls. Did they not know that their journey to the west was not a holiday trip? There would be more and more youkai for kami's sake. How were they going to protect the children while fighting those demons?

Sanzo felt a huge headache coming up. He was about to leave the room for some fresh air when he felt a tug on his robes.

"Nanda, gaki?"

There was no response, and Sanzo looked down. The girl who had approached him was still holding on to his robe, and he was horrified to see tears in her eyes. She looked as if she was going to cry any moment.

As he predicted, a tear drop rolled down her rounded cheek and fell pathetically onto the carpet.

"Shit."

##########

Hakkai, Goku and Gojyo sat on the bed, observing Sanzo and the little girl. Her older sister was still standing beside Hakkai, and was also observing everything gravely.

They watched as Sanzo's look of boredom turned into one of horror when the girl started crying. Gojyo snickered. He never thought that he would see the day when Sanzo looked afraid.

The monk, blessed with the sharp ears that he had, glared at Gojyo, as if everything was his fault. Gojyo masked his laughter behind a hand.

"Why would she go for Sanzo?" Goku asked Hakkai.

The brunette shrugged. He too was mystified. If his deduction was not wrong, the littlest of the twins did not seemed like the type go around approaching strangers. She seemed painfully shy.

##########

`Now what?' Sanzo wracked his mind, desperate for ideas, but all his training and experience as a Sanzo had not prepared him for this. He continued watching helplessly as drops of tears flowed down the girl's cheek in the most abjectly pitiful manner.

Sanzo had enough of that; her tears made him feel like the most wretched person on the face of Togenkyo. Thus he went to his last resort.

He looked at Hakkai for help. Luckily for Sanzo, Hakkai took pity on him and approached the girl. He bent down and eyed the child.

"Daijoubu, Ha-chan will play with you, okay?"

He tried to carry the toddler, but unfortunately for Sanzo, the child evaded his attempts and threw herself at Sanzo's legs. Then she proceeded climbing up Sanzo's body as she would a tree. At last, the blonde man had no choice but to wrap his arms around the kid, and damn if he did not look awkward.

Gojyo sputtered whereas Goku stared. Nobody had ever tried that with Sanzo and survived to tell the tale.

"Oi, bozou," Gojyo said at last when he got his amusement at bay. "What is it about you that attract monkeys like bees to honey?"

If looks could kill, they would be measuring the redhead for a coffin by now.

"Are you talking about me?" Goku asked suspiciously.

Sanzo closed his eyes in silent defeat. Bemoaning his fate in silence, he wondered what it was that he had done in his past life for him to deserve such a sorry fate. Suddenly, he felt fingers poking his face. Wearily opening his eyes again, he looked into innocent eyes the exact shade of his. She had stopped crying, and for that, Sanzo was infinitely relieved.

"What is it now?"

Solemn violet eyes regarded exasperated ones.

"Can I call you my tou-san?" It was the first time she spoke.

Sanzo blanched but otherwise maintained his silence. The child took that for a `yes' and hugged Sanzo enthusiastically around the neck.

Goku's eyes bugged out. He allowed her to hug him!!

Just then, the other girl, not to be outdone by her sibling, ran towards Sanzo too. Like her sister, she tried to shimmy up Tree Sanzo, but before she could do it, the monk sighed in defeat and bent down slightly to scoop up the other girl.

"Me too? Can I call you tou-san?"

Now, twin pairs of violet eyes regarded him, and Sanzo was a little disturbed by the intensity of their seriousness.

He knew that he was in deep trouble. They were using the puppy-eyed look on him!!

Gojyo and Goku were certain that he would not agree to it. Heck, even Hakkai was certain that he would not agree to it. They just could not see Sanzo as a loving, doting father. But Sanzo being Sanzo, he just had to do the unthinkable.

"Shit. It is not like I have a choice. Fine," Sanzo walked to the nearest bed and dropped both kids on the bed. They bounced and giggled madly. "You can call tou-san. That is until your real parents are found. Do you understand me?"

The two girls had apparently forgotten about their beloved `tou-san' as they were now alternating between tickling each other and bouncing up and down on the bed.

Sanzo looked incredulously at the kids. They had not heard what he had said at all!!

Gojyo snorted and Goku laughed outright. It was the first time that anyone disregarded Sanzo that completely. Hakkai sweatdropped.

"Anou Sanzo, they are kids. I don't think that they understand what you are trying to say to them."

"Yeah, that I got to agree with `Ha-chan' here." The redhead smirked. "So you are taking responsibility now, huh, tou-san?"

Sanzo glared at them.

"If one word of this gets out of here, I will kill you. Besides, how hard can it be taking care of a pair of kids?"

##########

Sanzo was seriously beginning to regret his earlier statement.

Despite their angelic appearance, Sanzo swore that Tsuki and Hoshi (they called each other that when they were playing, and it did not take the Sanzo-ikkou long to realize that the older one was Tsuki, whereas Hoshi was the more timid one) were the most demonic children he had ever met.

Once the girls had decided that they were going to be safe with the four men, they started relaxing and lowering their guards around the Sanzo-ikkou. Unfortunately, that had also meant that the girls were now familiar enough to talk and generally comment on EVERYTHING that happened around them. Their incessant chattering drove Sanzo batty within five minutes. Those two gaki could talk a person deaf.

Did they not know the saying, `Children should be seen, not heard'? It was damned obvious to him that their parents had neglected to teach them that. The monk mentally promised himself to berate those parents about that very important gap in education when he delivered Tsuki and Hoshi's troublesome behinds back into the safe and pampering arms of their kaa-san and tou-san.

The babbling of the children in itself was actually not that bad. It was the fact that Tsuki and Hoshi had taken it upon themselves to look to their impromptu `tou-san' for approval every time they made a statement. It was NOT cute at all, no matter what Hakkai and Goku think.

He, being the great Genjo Sanzo and all, was not about to stoop that low as to agree on everything that a couple of kids said. However, ten minutes after he had made that promise to himself, he was equally ready to rescind on it. Granted, he had a will as strong as steel, but the twin gaki were equally as stubborn. They simply refused to give up.

^^^^^^^^^^

"Now, repeat after me, `Goku is a bakasaru'."

Gojyo was gleefully teaching the youngsters on the proper etiquette to address Goku. Normally, Sanzo would have thwacked Gojyo over the head with his fan for being stupid, but because of the fact that the redhead had finally taken the kids' attention off him, he decided to let the kappa live a little longer. He could at least read his newspapers in peace now…

"Who are you calling a bakasaru!! I am not, you ero kappa!! Hey Tsuki, Hoshi, Gojyo is a gokiburi!!"

"Yare yare desune…no swear words please, we have kids here."

Or maybe not…

With a muted growl, Sanzo turned his back towards the conflicting group and concentrated on shutting out all the noise.

There was a tug on his left arm.

"What are you doing, papa?" Sanzo ignored it, hoping that the child would leave if he did not reply. However, to his secret horror, the other twin came too, and she stood on his right side. With a practiced ear, Sanzo realized that the commotion behind him was getting more and more rowdy. He did not have to look to see that Gojyo and Goku were brawling and that Hakkai were frantically trying to make them quit it.

Sanzo sighed inwardly. So much for the thought that the other three would help distract the children. They could not even handle each other. He wondered why kami landed him with all these people. He was a Sanzo, for crying out loud, not a babysitter!!

"What are you doing?" Again Sanzo pretended that he did not hear and continued perusing his beloved newspaper, his only link to sanity.

"Whatareyoudoingwhatareyoudoingwhatareyoudoingwhatareyoudoingwh atareyoudoingwhatareyoudoingwhatareyoudoing?!!"

It did not take Sanzo long to realize what is happening. In the short space of five minutes, he discovered the twins' most dreadful weapon; The Power of Repeated Sentences. They would ask the same question over and over again until a person is either obliged to answer them or go berserk.

In Sanzo's case, he went crazy. Seeing the world through a haze of red, he whipped out his trusty paper fan and was about to test it on a new pair of skulls when pain exploded on the back of his own head.

"NO!! SANZO!! NOT ON THE KIDS!!" was the last thing he heard before he involuntarily faded into blissful oblivion.

^^^^^^^^^^

That memory made him frown. Just because of the fact that he was about to give the pair of brats a few deserving whacks upside their annoying heads did not mean that it gave Goku the right to chuck Nyoibou on HIS head. It was not as if he was going to kill the girls or something, just give them a warning thumps or two to appease his irritation…

"I don't think that fatherhood agrees with you, tou-san."

Sanzo scowled harder. It did not help that Gojyo, Goku and even Hakkai are now going about calling him by that god awful nickname. The blonde was currently lying sprawled on a bed, having just awoken from his reluctant sleep. His internal clock told him that it was night time already.

"Gomen ne, Sanzo." Goku apologized for his rash actions even when he knew that he had a good reason for reacting that way. Sanzo ignored him, and Goku looked abjectly miserable.

Hakkai decided to interfere then, before it gets even more awkward.

"Gojyo is right; fatherhood doesn't agree with you and I don't think sulking looks good on you either, Sanzo."

"Go to hell."

Hakkai smiled. `He is sulking all right, and I bet that his pride hurts more than his head now.'

The twins looked questioningly at the smiling brunette. For once, they had wisely kept their silence. Sanzo's look of rage had frightened them earlier, but that had not deterred them from liking their grumpy tou-san.

In a move that surprised everyone, Hoshi and Tsuki clambered onto either side of the bed that Sanzo was currently occupying and burrowed to his sides.

Innocent violet eyes peered into baleful ones.

"Is that true?" Tsuki demanded.

"Are you angry with Saru-chan?" Hoshi asked. Gojyo sputtered with suppressed laughter; at least his teachings had not been in vain. Goku came out of his depressed state to defend his name, and Hakkai smiled through it all.

"You should forgive Saru-chan," Hoshi continued blithely. "Just as we forgive you, you know?"

That caught Sanzo's attention.

"What did you gaki forgive me for?"

"You were a big meanie just now, trying to make us cry." Tsuki said.

"But we forgive you. Do you know why?" Hoshi continued for her sister.

"Cos you are our papa. We love you no matter what." Tsuki filled in solemnly, hugging her side of Sanzo to her. Hoshi did the same.

Sanzo was at a loss; he did not know what to do; being hugged in a vulnerable position like that was not a common occurrence for him. More like never. At last, to the amazement of Gojyo and Goku, he gave awkward pats to the girls and gruffly told them to go to sleep. The monk did glare at Goku and Gojyo though, no doubt promising death to whoever who leaked this out to the public.

At last, the other three left Sanzo and the twins alone, and retired into their own beds for the night. The lights were off, and darkness invaded the room. That was perfectly fine with Sanzo; darkness was a good partner for serious contemplation, and kami knew that he had a lot to think about.

It amazed Sanzo that the girls were so trusting and readily accepting of him despite the fact that they had just set eyes on each other barely this morning. It also irritated the heck out of him that they were so foolishly gullible; what if there was a switch in circumstances and the twins were delivered to some other people with unsavory characters instead of the Sanzo-ikkou? They would have met a fate worst than death. Sanzo scowled furiously just thinking of it.

`There is no escaping this,' he thought at last. `At least, by being their mentor, I could teach them to be less naïve. And hopefully" - he wrinkled his nose in distaste - "less talkative too."

"Papa?" Sanzo started. He had thought that they were asleep.

"Nanda?"

"What is the meaning of fucking?"

At this note, I end this chapter…lol. I still cannot imagine Sanzo being a papa though. Somehow, the word `Sanzo' and `fatherhood' sounds wrong when put together in a sentence…But then, when I imagine Tsuki and Hoshi together with Sanzo, I can't help but melt…they truly look like a family…heheh. ^^ Gomen ne if the Sanzo-ikkou is kinda OOC. And thanks to all my reviewers. I cannot believe that I got 7 reviews with just chapter one!! Domo, minna-san!!

Thanks to Nuriko no Mikos for beta-editing!!

Until the next chapter, ja!!