[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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~Konzen’s Little Boy~

Summary:

(Konzen x Goku) Children usually inspire tender moments, especially when it comes to Konzen.

Warnings:
PG-13; slight AU, massive amounts of fluff and sap, language

Notes:

In the language of flowers, daisies represent innocence, and chrysanthemums show "cheerfulness in adversity." This little note should make sense by the end of the fic.

===

It was the perfect day to play outside, like every other day here was. Only the gods knew why a kid would want to stay inside and draw-- actually, not even the gods knew why. If they did maybe Konzen Douji would have found a way to get rid of the squirming boy on his lap so he could focus properly on the massive amount of paperwork at his desk.

The idea hadn't seemed so bad at the time... or at least, Konzen had heard much worse from the boy. With a promise to keep quiet, the kid was allowed to sit on his lap and draw. The compromise made it a bit difficult for Konzen to do his work, especially since he had to lean to the side to even see over the boy's messy brown hair, but it was working out fine.

Or rather, it would be working out fine if Goku would quit squirming and shifting on his legs.

After a few short minutes Konzen felt his patience wearing thin. "Hey, monkey," he growled. The boy glanced over his shoulder so that the blonde god could get a glimpse of golden eyes. "Quit fidgeting. I can't concentrate." With a slight sigh Goku opened his mouth to protest, but Konzen cut him off. "No talking, remember?" Pouting, the boy turned back to his drawing.

Shaking his head, Konzen leaned back to try to read the paper. The damn print was so fine he was considering getting glasses for it. It was like they kept making the words smaller and smaller on purpose--

Goku squirmed again.

Twitching, Konzen returned his attention to the paper. The moment his eyes managed to grab a word, though, Goku wriggled again. Growing in frustration, Konzen only endured it a few moments longer before snapping, "Cut it out!"

"Can't help it," the boy said simply.

With another scowl Konzen nudged at the boy. "Either learn to or get the hell off," he demanded. "I can't concentrate at all with you wiggling around like that!" Thank the gods for Kenren's absence at the moment, or he would have found something awful to say about that...

"But Konzen's so comfy," Goku said happily, still drawing. "His lap is squishy."

Thank the gods and every celestial being in existence that Kenren wasn't here! "Just quit moving. It's not like you're lightweight anyway. Brat."

Goku made a small noise that hinted at a pout. Konzen could tell even without looking; that was strange in itself, since the boy had been placed under his care barely a few days ago.

Suddenly the boy turned, giving his keeper a happy grin. "I drew you, Konzen!" He shoved the paper under the man's nose, making Konzen go cross-eyed on reflex before he could shove Goku's arm down. "Look, look!"

For all his childishness, Goku certainly drew like any other kid. The figure on the paper was a back stick figure with clothes added at the last moment. Yellow crayon had been scribbled for the hair and large violet dots for the eyes with a smaller red dot in the general area of the forehead.

At least his characters are distinguishable, Konzen thought dryly. "That's nice."

Seeming pleased with that simple comment, Goku turned back around and picked up the black crayon again, humming happily as he continued to draw on the same sheet of paper. Konzen glanced over his shoulder, catching sight of his stick figure counterpart. It wasn't exactly the first time he'd seen Goku draw him. In fact, if he didn't know any better, Konzen would have said he was Goku's favorite subject... and not just when it came to crayon scribbling.

Some time passed with a surprising lack of talking and wriggling. Goku would fidget, of course, but then seemed to catch himself and stop before Konzen could reprimand him. In a way it made the god uneasy, and he didn't like that at all. Wasn't this what he'd wanted? If so, why was he so disquieted over it?

At one point Goku suddenly sighed, leaning back against his guardian. Konzen blinked, successfully distracted as he glanced down at the boy, frowning. Goku just nestled against him, shifting until he was comfortable; by then Konzen's legs were beginning to go numb.

"Hey," he started gruffly, but Goku cut him off with the most random thing ever.

"Konzen..." He tilted his head back, smiling sincerely at the man. "I love you."

It took a few moments for the full meaning to register. When it finally did Konzen found he couldn't do much more than just widen his eyes a bit and stare.

He... what? Where the hell did that come from?

"You're my sun and everything in my world," the boy went on, the expression of genuine honesty still on his childish features. "So that means I love you very much."

If he was expecting an answer, Goku didn't get one.

The boy finally seemed satisfied with his colorings. He squirmed out of Konzen's lap, giving the man a bright smile. "I'm gonna go pick flowers, okay Konzen?"

"Okay," Konzen said, still a bit taken aback by the random confession. He blinked, staring at his paperwork without registering any of the words. What Goku had said was so startling, almost unsettling...

And something he could worry about later. Shaking his head, Konzen determinedly pushed the past few minutes from his mind and concentrating on his work.

[~:.:~]

He'd never seen a rose before. Tilting his head, Goku stared in awe at the huge flower. In fact, there was a whole vine of them twisting up the walls of the Jade Emperor's gardens. He knew he shouldn't be here, but Goku was always looking for new flowers. Nataku seemed to be really sick, so he wanted to get him a special flower.

And of course, he'd give Konzen special flowers, too. But the ones for Konzen were very different, even though sometimes they looked the same. Goku couldn't quite place how they were different; he just knew he gave them both flowers for different reasons.

The boy grinned, reaching out to pluck the rose. Nataku would like a white one, and Konzen might like a yellow one! Goku would rather have gotten Konzen a violet one, like his eyes, but there didn't seem to be any roses of that color.

That wasn't fair. Violet was his second favorite color, right after yellow. It was probably because of Konzen's eyes; Goku was always delighted to see them slightly shift colors when Konzen showed expression. They would darken when he was mad, but Goku could tell when Konzen was content -- he never seemed to be completely happy for some reason, which made Goku a little sad -- and that was when his eyes brightened to an almost lavender color.

But a yellow rose would do. It was, after all, like the sun, like Konzen's hair. But maybe too much yellow would make the room too bright. Would it blind Konzen?

Not paying too much attention to what he was doing, Goku didn't notice the thorns until they had pricked his finger. Then again, pricked was too light a word: Goku grabbed the stem of the rose, stabbed by several thorns at once. He gave a sharp cry of both pain and irritation, withdrawing his hand and looking at it. Blood welled up in a few places, but one of the thorns had torn his finger open. Pouting, he stick the injured appendage into his mouth, sucking the blood. It tasted coppery on his tongue, which was weird, but it lessened the stick.

"Stupid flower bit me," he mumbled around his finger, glaring at the offending plant. He kicked at it, deciding that Konzen had enough thorns on himself and didn't need a rose. Ken-niichan would say a lot of things about Konzen, one of them being that the man was full of thorns. If that was true, Goku sure wasn't going to give him more of them!

I can look for other flowers, he decided reluctantly, scampering off to another section of the garden. Very few guards were around, and Goku did his best to hide when he saw one-- and if one saw him, he ran like the monkey he was.

For some reason it was hard to find the flowers he wanted. Goku wasn't really looking for a particular species, just certain colors. Most of them were red, white, pink, and orange. For some reason the red made him blanch, and the others just weren't pretty enough.

Surprisingly enough, he soon stumbled upon a path of flowers that were, to him, just perfect. They were arranged in a boring, perfect square, but the flowers within were a scattered variety of yellows and violets. Delighted, Goku immediately hurried to the patch and began to pick a few. I can give these to Konzen, he thought, soon holding a small bunch of flowers in his hand.

As though luck was with him, he also soon found some white flowers that were somehow appealing. He couldn't explain why, since all the other white flowers (sans the roses) were so plain and boring, but this one was nice. He only picked one of those for Konzen, and the rest he made into a wreath for Nataku.

Again, he wasn't able to see his friend, but he happily gave them to the lady he spoke to. "Please give this to him," he said, as he always did. "And tell him to get better soon so we can play!"

"Yes; I will," she said lightly, sounding so sincere. Grinning, Goku shouted his thanks while running off with the rest of his flowers in hand. He had to get these to Konzen before they died.

I bet Konzen'll like them!

[~:.:~]

It was when dinner had already arrived that Konzen realized Goku still hadn't come back. He growled softly, pushing his chair back before standing, his eyebrow twitching a bit. He gave the maid short thanks, fairly stalking out.

That damn monkey, he thought in annoyance. What the hell is he getting himself into this time? He wasn't too worried that it was something serious, but the thought did cross his mind. He knew Goku was involved with Nataku, the Killing Puppet of the heavens, but he also knew that Tenpou and Kenren also did their part to keep something serious from arising. Oh, something serious was already starting, but amongst the three of them no one wanted Goku involved. At all.

"Yo, Blondie."

The voice made Konzen twitch; it was so familiar that it grated on his nerves. He turned, saying flatly, "What do you want?"

Kenren arched an eyebrow. "Well, isn't that a nice way to greet a friend."

"Sorry; I wasn't aware we were friends," Konzen muttered, obvious sarcasm lacing his words.

Kenren seemed to decide it was either wisest not to start something, or that he was in a hurry. It was most likely the latter. He pointed behind him with his thumb. "If you're looking for the monkey, he's in Ten's library. Kid got in a bit of a mess--"

"Mess how?" Konzen interrupted sharply.

The general smirked. "If it was serious, I wouldn't have bothered telling you."

"That's only because half the time it's your fault."

Kenren twitched a bit, looking somewhere between amused and pained. "... Anyway, that's where he is. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a nighttime conquest to embark upon." He quickly slipped past the man, seeming in such a hurry that it only piqued Konzen's suspicions. Shaking his head in disgust, he turned the other way and started toward Tenpou's library.

The door was slightly open; Konzen could catch a glimpse inside without pushing the door open any wider. He raised a hand to knock, just to warn Tenpou of his presence before entering, but for some reason he paused in midair when he heard a familiar voice speak.

"Now, don't grab it like that. You'll only infect it more." The voice, gentle and lightly chastising, was obviously Tenpou's. Konzen could only see Goku sitting on the man's desk from this angle, pouting and clutching an obviously hurt knee.

"But it hurts, Ten-chan," the boy whined, his hands gently pried off his knee. "There shouldn't be so many big rocks in the field. I can't see 'em with all the flowers around..."

There was a soft chuckle from Tenpou. "Perhaps you shouldn't be running so fast, then."

"But I wanted to get the flowers back to Konzen-- ow!"

"Sorry; this might sting a little. Think you can be a big boy? I'll need to use more than that."

There was a strangely long pause, and then Goku's soft reply. "I don't wanna be a big boy. I wanna be Konzen's little boy forever."

Konzen blinked, unsure if he'd heard that right. However, Tenpou didn't seem to have anything to say to that; the only sound Konzen heard after that was Goku's soft hiss of pain. Tenpou must have been dabbing disinfectant on the boy's injury.

My little boy forever... Konzen quickly shook that thought from his head, knocking firmly before pushing the door open. "Hey, monkey. You're late for dinner," he growled, inwardly relieved that he didn't sound any different than usual.

"Konzen!" Goku waited until Tenpou had put a Band-Aid on his knee -- one with a monkey pattern, of all things -- before jumping off the desk. "Thanks, Ten-chan! It's dinner already, Konzen? Oh! I got you flowers! Can I put them on your desk?" he asked eagerly, fairly bouncing in excitement.

Konzen rolled his eyes, giving the boy a push on the back of his head. "Whatever. Just hurry up and do it."

"Okay! Bye Ten-chan," Goku quickly scurried out, his usual cheerful expression lighting his face. Konzen sighed, turning to leave, but Tenpou spoke.

"He's a cute child, isn't he?"

Konzen glanced back, frowning a bit. Tenpou's smile was a bit more amused than it should have been. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"If you say so," the man said calmly, screwing the cap to the bottle of disinfectant back on. Konzen turned to leave, but Tenpou's words made him pause. "Chrysanthemums and a daisy."

"... Excuse me?"

Tenpou shook his head, simply smiling. "It's nothing. See you later, Konzen."

Giving the man a skeptical look, Konzen merely shook his head before finally going after his charge. Somehow he had the feeling he'd be looking into those particular flowers and their meanings that night.

[~:.:~]

"Konzen?"

"What, monkey?" Konzen sounded irritated, though Goku couldn't fathom why. It wasn't like he often asked to share a bed with the man, and all Goku wanted was to be close to his sun. Besides, the sun was warm, so Konzen should be warm too, right? Despite how he heard otherwise, Goku thought that Konzen was the warmest, most interesting and vibrant person alive.

Goku squirmed a bit, his small hands grasping the silky strands of Konzen's hair. He loved it when Konzen let his hair down; it was so pretty, so shiny, so bright and yellow. It only seemed to add to his warmth. It made him seem warmer when he let his hair down, because Goku could play with all of it easier. "Can I stay with you forever?"

He felt rather than saw Konzen roll his eyes. "Moron. What sort of question is that?"

"A good one," he said defensively. "I just wanna stay with Konzen! No one else! No one else can ever be my sun!" He tugged on the man's hair until Konzen looked down at him. Ignoring the irritation clear in the violet eyes, he said quietly, "I want to be with Konzen forever. I'll be a good boy if you keep me forever and ever..."

For some reason Konzen's expression changed. Goku blinked, wondering what that strange darkness on the man's cheekbones was. It was hard to tell; it was nighttime and too dark to see much of anything.

"That's a stupid question," Konzen finally said, his tone oddly rough.

"Is not," Goku said sullenly, pouting a bit.

"Yes, it is, especially because you couldn't be a 'good boy' if your life depended on it," Konzen said flatly.

Smiling sheepishly, Goku continued stroking the locks of hair in his grasp. "I would try for you..."

There was another odd silence, then Konzen's voice sounding strangely serious. "Don't say things you don't understand, Goku."

"I won't," he said sincerely, not grasping that Konzen meant he didn't understand what he was saying right then. He knew what he was talking about; he'd do anything to be near Konzen. The man was his sun! He had to be near him. "So? Can we?"

"... hmph. Do what you want; it's not like I could stop you if I tried," Konzen grumbled.

Goku grinned widely; that was as good as a yes in his book. "You're the bestest, Konzen!" Doing what he'd seen Ken-niichan do to Ten-chan on occasion, he squirmed up so he was at level with Konzen's face and wrapped his arms around the man's neck, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Hee. G'night, Konzen!"

Konzen seemed to have gone rigid a moment, staring at the boy as though completely stunned. Goku grinned, snuggling closer to the man and closing his eyes, feeling content. After a few moments Konzen finally seemed to relax, muttering unintelligibly under his breath and moving arm over the boy. To keep Goku from falling off, he'd explain tersely the last time it had happened.

Happy that he'd gotten his promise, Goku wriggled once more, murmured sleepily, and was soon lost in his dreams. There the flowers were always blooming, always violet; he was always playing in the sunlight, always laughing and enjoying the simplicities of making wreaths and chasing butterflies.

There Konzen was always with him, and he knew he would always be Konzen's little boy.

[~:.:~]

[~owari~]

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