Another normal day for the Sanzo-Ikkou unfolded as the weary travelers set out from the previous anonymous town. It was only just dawn, and the two more juvenile of the company had fallen asleep as soon as Jeep had started moving. It was wonderfully quiet now, and the snappish blonde revelled in the peaceful moment, knowing that it wouldn't last.

Especially because of Hakkai's frequent interjections of useless and provoking information.

"Ah, Sanzo," the brunette remarked cheerfully, "For breakfast, the cook from that inn supplied us with pancakes and maple syrup!"

With an annoyingly loud whoop of joy, Goku fully awoke, arousing his neighbor in the process.

"PANCAKES!" the monkey shrieked in delight as Gojyo covered his ears until the other quieted down.

"Yeah, pancakes," Gojyo said, enthusiasm three eighths that of Goku's.

"Hakkai! Hakkai! Let's stop to eat them now! They're gonna taste yucky if they're too cold!" The boy was simply bouncing up and down in glee at the prospect of pancakes and maple syrup.

"No."

"What didjya say, Sanzo? We're gonna stop soon, right?"

"No." Sanzo repeated flatly.

"But Sanzo-sama," Gojyo drawled before Goku could start on a tirade of wailing, "Don't you want some pancakes too?"

"No. We're not stopping until we reach the next inn, so you all better shut up!" Sanzo snarled, feeling a headache coming.

As if on cue, Goku started his wail-fest. (All that drawling for nothing, eh, Gojyo?)

"Haaaaaakkai!! Sanzo won't let us stop to eat the paaaaaancaaaaaakes!!! I'm gonna starve to death and the pancakes will get cold and rubbery and it'll be all Sanzo's fault!!!"

Grimacing, Sanzo turned around and immediately hit the wailing boy with the fan...but alas, it was to no avail. Goku simply wouldn't shut up.

"Sanzo, we could stop there by the grove of trees. The sun is just coming up, so it should be cool enough, yes?" Hakkai intervened, prompting a happy response from both of the backseat passengers.

Sanzo merely scowled.

= = = =

It was quiet again, because the happy travelers [A/N: except for Sanzo, of course. He would never admit to being happy. Never! It was against his nonexistant religion--but who care, right? We all love our angsty monk as he is, so who care-- bullet whizzes by Eheh. Oh, right, we've got a story to finish...alrighty, back to the story...] were eating the happy-tasting pancakes. Rich maple syrup had been drizzled all over the golden-brown, fluffy delights, sweetening the already sweet pancakes. Each of them had retreated to their respective areas, meaning that the erokappa and saru had gone to sit on the grass, and Hakkai and Sanzo had sat down under the shade of the tree.

About half-way through their happy meal, however, the tranquil quiet had been disrupted with an enraged shriek and what looked like the starting of a fight.

"ERO-KAPPA! THAT WAS MY PANCAKE! HOW DARE YOU EAT IT!?" Goku screamed, face turning red with anger.

"Wha--? Was your name on the pancake? I didn't see your name, bakasaru, so it couldn't have been your pancake," Gojyo slyly replied.

Sanzo knew what was coming. More howls and scratches, hits and kicks. Of course, Gojyo had already used this comeback before, many times, but Goku never seemed to learn. Bracing himself, he stood up with his fan ready, and stalked over to the two.

Whereupon he was greeted with a hit on the face. Specifically, a hit by a stray piece of pancake.

He glared darkly at the two, eyes promising death, as the brown, syrup drenched substance slid down his cheek.

Gojyo and Goku both laughed--but their amusement was halted by a retaliation of pancakes thrown at them. Hitting their faces as well. And so started the ever dreaded Battle of Pancakes (a.k.a. food fight).

= = = =

Two plates of pancakes and a half a bottle of maple syrup later (in addition to several hard whack to the head by the infamous paper fan) [A/N: I can't believe they wasted all those pancakes TT How dare they!! Saiyuki Boys: You're the author. You made us do that. Kari: Er...LIAR! >>], the weary travelers plopped down onto the lush grass under the cool shade of the tree.

They were all (with the exception of Hakkai--Hakkai had managed to stay clean even though he had joined in) messy and dripping syrup, much to Sanzo's disgust. Directing the other two to a nearby stream ("How fortunate," Hakkai had said, smiling, "That there is a stream nearby!") to clean up, he walked over to Sanzo and sat down next to him.

"That was amusing, was it not, Sanzo?" he asked, smiling his usual smile.

Sarcastically, Sanzo responded. "Extremely fun. I hope to do it again tomorrow if we have the supplies."

"Ahahaha," Hakkai replied, noting the bits of pancake in Sanzo's golden hair, the thick brown syrup tangling the fine strands, and dripping--more like oozing, really--down his beautiful face...

He reached out towards Sanzo, and with a finger, wiped a little of the syrup off of his face.

"?" Sanzo looked at him questioningly, eyebrow raised.

He stuck the finger in his mouth, sucking off the syrup. "It tastes good Sanzo," he explained, thinking, 'But you must taste even sweeter.'

Reaching over again, he wiped a little more of the syrup off. But before he could taste it, Sanzo took hold of his hand and licked the smeared syrup off.

"You're right," Sanzo [A/N: sounding like he was saying it reluctantly] said, "It does taste good."

The bold movement made by the priest had almost startled Hakkai, but his smile never slipped...

[A/N: on the subject of his smile...] Hakkai's smile took on a smirking edge--just faint enough so that even the most observant being wouldn't notice it.

"It wouldn't do to waste any of this good syrup, now would it?" Hakkai asked. Smirk a little more apparent, he leaned forward and slowly licked the syrup off of Sanzo's other cheek, making the monk blush a pink. [A/N: A pink almost as magenta as Gojyo's hair-- shakujo whips by, slicing off a few hairs...O.O;; Fine! I meant...a light pink, delicate like sakura blossom--nother bullet whizzes by ...erm...just pink. Light pink. That's all.]

"But I guess it can't be helped," Hakkai finished as he leaned backwards and sat down. "Go and wash up, Gojyo and Goku seem to be done washing up."

And it was true--Gojyo and Goku were bickering their way over to the secluded two. A little dazed, Sanzo stood up and walked over to the stream, and went to wash up.

"What's up with him?" Gojyo asked Hakkai when he and Goku finally stopped their quarrel.

"Yeah," mimicked Goku, "What's up with Sanzo? He was acting all weird--is he mad?"

"Nothing, nothing. Nothing's wrong, don't worry. He's most likely been upset by the waste of all this food," Hakkai replied with a knowing smile.

[Sanzo: ACHOO. glares in general direction of the rest of the group]