reikah
in
inmyvortex
Ficbits: timestamps.
Fics written for the timestamp meme on my personal LJ. I was trying to keep fics under 1000 words. I mostly succeeded!
Warning: one of these timestamps contains NSFW elements.
Title: Unmistakable
Prompt: mikkeneko, who requested Vicious and Romantic, a few hours after the second scene in Yama.
Pairing: Kuro/Fai
Word count:
Fai sat stiffly on the chair in the healer's tent as the man examined his eye, looming up close but making no effort to touch. Kurogane kept an eye on things from his spot by the door, arms folded on his chest and hoping he looked sufficiently grim.
"Just a common bruise," the healer said, absently. Kurogane had to pay close attention to understand him; the dialect he used was ancient, related to his own but old enough Kurogane had to pay attention to the syntax. "A pot of salve should set him right. And perhaps you will be more careful next time, hmmm? Death awaits us on the battlefield sure enough, no need to go about beating him senseless here."
Fai made a quizzical noise at this, tilting his head back to look at Kurogane over one shoulder. His bruised eye was already swelling shut, and Kurogane felt a flash of remorse.
"How long will the salve take?"
"For the swelling? A few hours. The bruise itself will last perhaps a week." The healer, a young man with sandy brown hair and those damnable black eyes, turned to a shelf of earthenware jars and selected one before bringing it to his table of bubbling concoctions, and Fai tracked his movements with the slightest hint of worry. Kurogane unfolded himself from his spot at the tent entrance and came over to him.
He wanted to touch the wizard again, for some reason; his hand jerked abortively to lay itself on Fai's shoulder and he stuck it under his armpit, dredging up the most fierce scowl he had as if that could fix things. Fai grinned at him and said something in his lilting musical language before raising his hands to his temples, sticking his fingers up to form triangular points and letting his tongue loll out. His words were unmistakable.
"I'm not a fucking dog, dumbass," Kurogane growled at him, and Fai smiled his sly false smile. His eyes seemed darker than they had been yesterday; Kurogane figured they had perhaps a month before they fit in with the natives. He hoped the kids turned up before then.
"Here," the healer said, turning around. "Tell him to put it on twice a day, morning and night." Kurogane took the salve he offered, sealed in its little clay pot, and then handed it over to Fai, who simply looked at it in Kurogane's palm and then looked up quizzically.
"It's a salve," Kurogane told him, undoing the lid. "For your eye." He touched his own to hint, and Fai just looked at him like he was speaking nonsense, which he supposed he must be. With a small noise of displease Kurogane dabbed the tip of his forefinger into the pale green substance and reached out slowly, giving Fai time to react, and touched it to the skin under Fai's eye. Fai didn't so much as blink.
Kurogane drew his hand away almost immediately, feeling foolish, and proffered the pot to Fai again. "Put it on, dumbass," he said.
Fai said a long stream of words as alien to Kurogane's own language as his hair colour was to Nihon, but took the pot. Kurogane thought he had recognised his name in there; Kuro-koira, whatever that might mean. "Don't nickname me in your weird-ass language," he said warningly, as Fai bent and began to apply the salve to the purpling flesh around his eye. Fai just laughed.
Kurogane folded his arms again, studying the mage. The tip of his forefinger tingled where it had touched Fai's skin. He didn't think it was down to the salve.
Not that it mattered. He didn't like liars.
Title: in each other's shadow we grew less and less tall
Prompt: konnichipuu, who requested 10 years before recording our history
Pairing: Fai/Yuui
Word count: 851
"Yuui," Fai said from outside their bedroom door.
"Go away," Yuui said, his voice clogged with tears despite his best efforts.
"Yuui, please," Fai said, unhappily, and rapped lightly on the door with his knuckles; Yuui sniffed, pawing his tears out of his eyes, and then slid out from between his blankets and flipped the lock to open. Fai eeled his way in immediately. "There," he said, closing the door behind him, and his whole expression changed when he saw Yuui's. "What's wrong?" he asked, anxious.
"You," Yuui said, choked. "I saw you kissing him outside school."
"Yuui," Fai said, his eyes softening.
"You promised you wouldn't," Yuui said, hating his voice, wheedling and weak. "You said you wouldn't kiss anyone. Until we were both ready. Until we were at college and out of here. I-"
"I'm sorry," Fai said gently, and came forward two steps, taking Yuui's shoulders and turning him so they were face to face. Yuui's eyes tracked over the features they shared, the features he saw both here and in mirrors, and wondered when Fai had become this stranger. "I'm sorry," Fai said again, and he was telling the truth, Yuui could always tell when he wasn't.
"Why did you do it?" Yuui asked softly, unable to hold onto his anger with Fai looking at him like that. He was still hurt, but he never could be mad at Fai for long.
"I... I wanted practise," Fai said helplessly, his fingers tightening on Yuui's shoulder, and some of Yuui's confusion must have shown, because Fai shook his head. "I wanted to know what to do. So I wouldn't suck at it."
"I don't understand," Yuui said, and Fai kissed him, slow and sweet. It would probably have been more sweet if Yuui hadn't been too shocked to kiss back. Fai's lips were cracked and dry, but his mouth was warm; after Yuui failed to respond he drew back, and there was bittersweet disappointment on his face. Yuui touched his fingers to his lips, stunned.
"I'm going to Japan," he said. "For college, I mean."
"No," Yuui replied immediately. "You promised to come to Italy. You said. We were going to Florence."
"Tokyo had a better chemistry program," Fai said, and kissed Yuui gently on the forehead. "It's alright, Yuui. You don't need me."
Yes I do, Yuui thought, but his lips still burned where Fai's touched his. "When are you going?" he asked, numb. "What are you going to do about - ? Fai, your Japanese is average, how are you going to -?"
"I'll live," Fai said, and touched his thumb to Yuui's lips. His smile was sad. "I leave this Saturday. Will you see me off?"
"How long have you been plotting this?" Yuui whispered, and Fai turned away, and Yuui wondered. Wondered how long Fai had wanted to kiss him. Wondered how he had taken Yuui's rejection. Impatiently he grabbed Fai's arm and hauled him around, seizing his twin's face and yanking him forward; their mouths collided brutally, Fai's tooth splitting his lip, and Fai pulled away with a muttered exclamation. Yuui dabbed at the stinging wound and was unsurprised to see blood on the pad of his thumb.
"Yuui, no," Fai said, sounding shaken.
"Don't go to Japan," Yuui said, his voice cracked and hoarse even to his own ears. "I kissed you back. It's all okay now."
Fai said nothing, just looked at him, and his eyes were filled with sympathy. "We were fourteen when I first wanted to kiss you," he said conversationally, as though remarking on the weather. "It was the summer you stopped playing piano and started cooking, remember?"
Yuui remembered. He had cooked every day, filling the house with the scent of Italian cuisine while the piano gathered dust in the corner. Fai had followed him around like a shadow, silently accepting culinary chores Yuui delegated to him without complaint. When Yuui asked Fai just smiled and said, I like it when Yuui is happy.
"I won't stay just because you kissed me, kissing doesn't mean anything without feelings. Go to Italy, Yuui. You've been working for it for years."
"Without you?"
"Yes. If you still want to kiss me when you graduate..." Fai shrugged, and Yuui swallowed, his chest aching as though he'd been stabbed.
"I don't want to," he said, and his voice broke painfully on the last word. "I don't want to be without you, Fai."
"Me too, Yuui," Fai replied and took his hand, and Yuui saw his own pain mirrored in his twin's face. Fai tugged him into a brotherly embrace, warm and familiar, and Yuui tucked his face into the curve of Fai's neck, inhaling his twin's scent, their scent as though stockpiling for a long winter. Fai stroked his hair, filtering the strands through his fingers.
"I love you, Yuui" he said. "That's always been my problem. You don't know how you feel."
"Then I'll find out. I'll come back to you," Yuui promised. "I will. I'll teach myself Japanese in Italy."
Fai's smile was warm and clearly humoring him, and it broke Yuui's heart. He would find the answer to Fai's question in Florence, and maybe next time...
Maybe it would be he who kissed Fai.
Title: Four times Kurogane asked Fai to come home.
Prompt: youkohiei_fan, who requested 2 years after Here Be Dragons
Pairing: Fai/Kurogane
Word count: 432
In hindsight, Kurogane picked the worst times to ask the question.
"Hey, I've been thinking," he said. "Come back to Nihon with me."
"Oh fuck, fuck me," Fai moaned, his hips working shallowly. Kurogane pulled the vibrator out a little bit, turned it up a notch, and slid it back into his lover to watch the way Fai's limbs flailed.
"The thing is -"
"Kuro-chan - I don't - uuh - I don't care - fuck - I want your cock," Fai panted, and well, the question could wait.
+++
"So we've been travelling for a while," Kurogane said. "Maybe it's time to think about stopping."
"What?" Fai yelled at him, over the sound of heavy machine gun fire.
"I SAID," Kurogane bellowed, "MAYBE IT'S TIME TO THINK ABOUT -"
And then the wall exploded inward and the tanks rolled in and there was fighting, and once again, Kurogane never got around to asking.
+++
"It's just, we've been doing this for a while," Kurogane called upward. "And I think you'd like it -"
"What?" Fai hollered back over the whipping of the wind. Serina snorted and banked sharply, her mate following her, and Kurogane yelped at the air pressure against his face. Over on the other dragon Fai actually had his arms up in the air, the idiot. "Kuro-chan, this is so much FUN~!"
"Hold on!" Serina called back, and then they were zooming toward the cave system and Kurogane screwed his eyes closed.
+++
"I mean, you're kind of powerful, I guess. And you're an idiot, but you'd be useful," Kurogane said, and then grunted, tightening his fingers on the edges of the bathtub.
Fai surfaced, wheezing, and took a gulp of air. He gave Kurogane a sly grin, and then he dived back under the water and his lips were again a tight ring around Kurogane's cock, blessed suction made all the better by the warm water.
"Oh, gods," said Kurogane, coming, and by the time he was less stupidly post-coital Fai had gotten them back to their bed and was curled asleep against his side. It wasn't Kurogane's fault the blond gave such great blowjobs.
+++
"Father," Syaoran said, embracing his clone. His cheeks were wet with unshed tears, and his father held him back.
Kurogane glanced sideward at the blond and the expression on Fai's face and took a deep breath, reaching out hesitently to lace their fingers together. "So I've been thinking -"
"I'm coming back to Nihon with you," Fai said. "Just so you know."
"Oh," Kurogane replied, poleaxed.
"Do you mind, Kuro-traveler?" Fai's eyes were on him, warm and sure,
Kurogane paused, letting it sink in. "I suppose you can," he said. "I think it'll be alright."
Title: Kurogane's horrible no-good very bad life
Prompt: fieldofclover, who requested the first world-hop after The greatest breach of etiquette imaginable.
Pairing: Fai/Kurogane
Word count: 1329
It was a relief when Mokana's earring lit up. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the world itself, but the wolf was fucking irritating and Kurogane would be glad to be away from it.
"You are the only person I know who can have a feud with his own soul," Fai said, amused.
"It's annoying," Kurogane replied. He was packing his belongings, neatly to keep them from being damaged, unlike the idiot peacock he slept with who just threw them into their bags and used his magic to keep them from looking like a pile of creases afterward. It seemed a waste of time to Kurogane.
"So are you," his wolf snapped back. It was sitting by the door, watching them. Fai's ferret was wrapped still around his throat.
"Shut up," Kurogane told it. "I can't wait to get rid of you."
"Maybe I'll be getting rid of you," said the wolf grumpily.
"Kuro-chan and Kuro-wolf are so similar," said Fai's daemon with some glee as her other half hummed agreement. Fai was pushing their beds apart, back to the way they had been when they were given the room.
"My name is not Kuro-wolf!" the wolf snapped. "Keep that up, tidbit, and maybe I'll -"
"Faiiiii," wailed the ferret. "He's being mean to us."
"He's a mean daemon," Fai agreed.
"He's rude," Kurogane snarled. "Rude and scruffy and too damn nosey."
"I'm your soul, idiot," said the wolf. "There's no point trying to shut me out of your bedroom."
"You could take a hint," Kurogane said, throwing his socks at his daemon, who simply caught them out of the air and trotted past him to leap onto Fai's bed and dropped them into Fai's bag. Fai made a pleased noise and scratched the wolf behind the ears, a deliciously intimate sensation that made Kurogane shiver all over.
A soft call came from the hallway and Syaoran's daemon flew through the open door, alighting on the back of the chair with mighty beats of her wings. She cocked her head, angling a thoughtful look at them through her wide golden eyes. Her talons were wrapped tightly around her perch.
"Hello there," Fai said lightly. "Is Syaoran-kun ready to go?"
"Yes, he is," she said politely. She could go much further from her human than theirs could, although when they'd asked Lyra why this was so she had gotten this sad look on her face and looked at Syaoran with haunted eyes before changing the topic. "He's waiting for you in the main hall."
"Well, I think we're both about ready," Fai said, leaning on his bag so he could shut it. Kurogane's wolf jumped off his bed and seized Ginryuu in its jaws.
"Yeah, me too," Kurogane said, hefting his bag and narrowing his eyes at his daemon. Fai sigh and stroked his ferret, who made a small noise and nipped at his fingers. "C'mon, let's go."
Fai opened the window to let Syaoran's falcon out; although she could fly in the hallways it was harder for her than the glide down to the main hall's room was. He closed it once she had gone and threw his bag over his shoulder. Kurogane held the door for him and shut it after him. "Is Kuro-wolf such a bother to you, Kuro-grumpy?" he asked as they made their way through the university's corridors. The daemon pricked its ears up but didn't say anything, couldn't with the sword in its mouth.
"Yes," Kurogane said, glaring at it.
"We didn't even get a chance to name them," Fai said sadly. The scholar had told them most daemons knew their names when they were made, but theirs, having only been 'discovered' recently, were an exception. She had known one other like them, she said, and a witch had named his daemon for him. Fai seemed hung up on being the one to bestow a name upon the wolf, although Kurogane had put his foot down, knowing both that the daemon would be gone when they left this world like the kudans had when they left Hanshin and that Fai would choose a stupid fucking nickname for it.
"You'll live," he replied, and Fai looked at him with knowing eyes.
"It seems fairly obvious to me that Kuro-puppy is so grumpy with Kuro-wolfy because Kuro-wolfy is too like him," he said. "What will you do if they don't go away when we change worlds?"
Kurogane stopped in the middle of the corridor, forcing Fai to turn around and look back at him. "Could that happen?" he asked, urgently. It wasn't so much the constant snarking of the damn wolf that made the idea sit uncomfortably with him, it was the thought of an enemy being able to see his soul and act accordingly.
Fai smiled and shrugged, and Kurogane narrowed his eyes. The wolf came to his side then, its ears pricked up; it nuzzled against Fai's legs, causing Kurogane to grit his teeth and swear at it in a low voice. It ignored him haughtily.
"Kuro-wolfy is so sweet," Fai crooned, and Kurogane rolled his eyes and seized Ginryuu from its mouth, stomping his way down the corridor. Fai's laughter rang out behind him loud and clear.
Lyra and Syaoran were talking when they arrived, sitting opposite each other at a long table still littered with breakfast debris. Their heads were bowed, brown hair and dark gold mixed, as they peered over a bronze clock-like object in Lyra's hands. Syaoran's falcon was sitting on the chair next to him; Mokana was examining the clock thing with Lyra's daemon.
"Fai," the falcon called when she caught sight of them. "Kurogane."
"There you are," Syaoran said, smiling. He turned his attention back to Lyra, bowing to her even as he stood up. His falcon flew to his shoulder. "I wish I could stay and see more of it, Miss. I'll keep in mind what you said about the underworld."
"Good luck," she replied, smiling.
"Goodbye," echoed her daemon.
"You ready to go, kid?" Kurogane said, and Syaoran nodded. He came to stand with them as Mokana lit up. Kurogane's daemon leaned against him heavily; he looked and saw Fai had his ferret in his hands, held up to his mouth, his lips moving as he murmered something into her ears. He looked down at his wolf, which looked up at him, its ears going back.
"What," it said.
"I guess you could be worse," Kurogane told him.
"You too," he said, and then the world was fading away from them in a blur as they were pulled backward, lights and colours speeding away.
The journey ended in water and Kurogane reacted instinctively; it wasn't the first time Mokana had landed them in an ocean. He looked around for the light source, scooped up the nearest body - light, small: Mokana - and forced his way to the surface with powerful kicks of his legs. His wet hair had plastered itself to his eyes and he shook his head to clear them as he gasped in air. Fai surfaced inches away from him, sucking in deep breaths; he looked ridiculous, like a drowned rat. "You okay, pest?" Kurogane asked, looking down to check on the creampuff.
Fai's ferret looked even more ridiculous wet than its master did.
"Oh no," Kurogane said.
"I like pest," said the ferret. "That can be my name!"
"Kuro-fluffy does a good doggy paddle," Fai said, grinning, and Kurogane looked over to see his wolf doing just that. Syaoran's falcon was resting on his head, looking miserable. Her feathers were soaked through.
"Why does this always happen to me," Kurogane groaned as Syaoran splashed over and took his bird gingerly from the wolf, careful not to touch him in the process.
"Because it's funny," Fai said sweetly, paddling over to Kurogane. "Can I have Pest back, please? It's not that I object to you having your hands all over her, it's just inconvenient when we're in the middle of the ocean and I can't tear your clothes off and fuck you."
"Oh, god," Syaoran said in a small appalled voice.
"I hate you all," Kurogane said.
Title: Silver for luck
Prompt: uakari120, who requested a prequel to Catch a Dragon by the Tail explaining why Fai was in that village to start with.
Pairing: Fai/Kurogane
Word count: 1489
Fai came to the throne room in his true shape, his tread muffled by the thick red carpet. He had to walk with careful steps to avoid catching it with his claws; the King alone knew how difficult it had been to find the thing. It certainly lent an opulent air to the great marble chamber, its roped off spectator areas situated on either side of the carpet today filled with dragons in a mix of shapes. They were interested in the human ambassadors, of course. It was a long trip from Koryo to the storm mountains, and the King was receiving them with great dignity from his seat atop the marble stars at the end of the carpet, in human form in order to keep from intimidating them.
As he padded down the great red rug he was aware of the eyes on him, the muttering and the way his dragons turned their head to watch him go. He could see their reflections in the underside of his wings, half-spread and shining silver, catching the light and bouncing scattered sunbeams against the walls. He knew he was dazzling and he lifted his head high, even as he knew the colour of his hide had nothing to do with their stares.
The King's human shape was by now just as familiar to him as his own. He had known it for so long it no longer surprised him the way some of his kind's humanoid guises did; it looked natural, natural as catching sight of his own human face in a puddle of water, or a mirror. The Koryo ambassadors, dressed in warm silks, were just placing something that glinted and shone back in its lacquered wooden box. Fai had evidently missed the display, but if it were worth keeping he could probably wheedle the Storm King into granting it to him as a gift.
The King had dressed for high court in the same silver as Fai's scales, for luck and royalty; his low-cut white silk tunic was decorated with bright silver threads, sapphires sewn in marching lines along the chest. His shoulders and collarbones were bare, but a black ribbon studded with diamonds to resemble the night sky was wound around his throat, and he wore the mark of his office, the large sapphire held in the centre of his forehead with silver chains plaited into his hair. His gaze was as aloof and cool as the gemstone, and he sat straight-backed upon his dais, one hand resting on a crooked knee and the other leg stretched out in front of him. His feet were bare, in the manner of their kind. He greeted Fai's arrival with a barely perceptible nod before turning his attention back to the ambassadors.
Several of their retinue were eyeing Fai in fear, and he couldn't resist showing off a little, stretching out his wings in order to showcase their length before settling on his haunches like a cat, his tail wrapped around his paws and his claws gleaming. One of them, a little girl half-hidden behind a confident woman who seemed to be some kind of mage, grinned at him and he winked back at her. The King discussed treaty terms over both of their heads in a low, soothing voice.
Court had never been his thing, to the scandal of many of his tutors. Fai made an effort to listen; Koryo wanted trade rights and dragon magics, and its rulers wanted the smith-skills. This would never happen, but the King listened politely to their full list of requests before offering his compromise. What he said seemed fair to Fai, but the ambassadors bickered for a long time, as the day drew on and the sun began to slip from the sky. Eventually the King adjourned the meeting for another day and stood, the bells braided into his hair chiming, before clapping his hands and dismissing the court.
"You wanted to speak with me, my King," Fai said formally, snaking his head down as the visiting diplomats filed out. He set his front feet on the lowest step of the dais, and the King stretched, some of the tension in his form ebbing out of his shoulders. He had kohl smeared around his eyes, and it made him look exotic and distant.
"Yes, I did," said the King eqully formal in front of the dragons still waiting their turn to leave the courtroom, and touched one small human hand to the underside of Fai's jaw. The size difference between them was marked. The King could wrap both arms around Fai's muzzle in these shapes and his hands wouldn't be close to meeting. "Do you remember Xing Huo?"
"She was his assisstant," Fai said, and couldn't keep the hate from his voice.
He didn't have to clarify who he was, there was only one person he had ever hated that much. His King made a small noise, a soothing noise, as he ran his hand along the edges of Fai's jaw. All the silver jewellry he wore made him gleam in the weakening light, although not as brightly in this shape as he usually did.
"One of the broadwings working as a courier in Nihon got in contact with us. She said she had heard of a dragon matching Xing Huo's description nesting at a lake at the mouth of a river over there. Apparently she has been stealing cows from a local human settlement, and they have posted a reward for her demise." The King was watching him closely. "Of all of us, you are the one with the greatest knowledge of Nihon."
"Yes," Fai replied quietly. He didn't go into more detail. What could he say? That his knowledge of Nihon came from visiting it time again for a human dead before he was even full-grown?
"The river in question is capped with a lake, upon which there is a shrine. Do you know it?"
"Yes," Fai said, again. He had stopped at that shrine many a time over the centuries, for food and water, before Fei Wang had started his mad war and driven the Nihonjin to cleanse the dragons from their midst. "Do you wish for me to kill her, your Majesty?"
"Of course," said the King, matter-of-factly, and that made Fai sad; there had been a time the Storm King would have resisted such measures, or tried diplomacy first. The throne had hardened him already, in such a short time. "I ask merely whether or not you will. There are memories for you in Nihon."
And such memories, all of black haired, red-eyed men with curving grins and piercing gazes, who cropped up again and again in his life before Fei Wang had had Suwa destroyed to wound him. Fai had been to the ruins once, perhaps a year after the fires had burnt out and the land had grown cold and still, but there had been nothing, no sign of repairs or occupancy. Ginryuu hadn't been there. He hoped she had been buried with the remains of his humans.
"I'll go," he said. Xing Huo had lit the fires and oversaw the burning. He forgot now how many years had passed since she and her master had stolen that which mattered, destroying a bloodline just to spite Fai. Ten or fifteen? Nothing, in draconic terms. "I owe her that."
"You will have to travel there as a human," said the King, softly. The last dragon filed out of the courtroom and he let go of his mantle of monarchy with a sigh, leaning to rest his forehead against Fai's muzzle. "They kill dragons in Nihon, Fai, and they have never quite forgiven our kind in particular."
"That's fine~! Don't worry about me," Fai said, echoing the King's relaxed air, and it was. Not being able to fly would slow him down, but he knew the land. He could get a boat to the fishing community further upriver; that would put him a day, day and a half away from the lake on foot. He pulled his head away from the Storm King's hand, and the other dragon sighed, letting Fai go.
"I won't be here when you get back," he said. "I have a diplomatic mission of my own to busy myself with. Return as quickly as you can, you know how the court frets without a member of royalty there to take control."
"Yes," Fai said. "Last time we were both gone they tracked us down - do you remember? I don't think the King of Clow was all that pleased to have fifty of us descend upon his castle."
"He had something to say about it, yes," said the King delicately.
"He turned bright red," Fai said, grinning.
"Be careful, Fai. You're the Prince and my heir. We can't lose you," said the King, love and sympathy in his voice, and Fai reached down and nudged him sharply with his nose.
"I'll be fine! I'll kill her and I'll be back. Besides," Fai added. "What else could happen?"
Title: Platitudes
Prompt: yuuo, who requested a sequel set an undetermined amount of time after Slow Burn.
Pairing: Edward/Alfons
Word count: 679
It is almost closing time before Helena has the nerve to approach the customer. He had been sat by the window all day, staring out at the street and ordering nothing but coffee, but he had tipped well and kept himself to himself and she wishes more of her customers were like him. He's handsome, too, in a refined, middle-aged manner, wiry with dark gold hair. "Excuse me, sir," she says delicately. "We're almost ready to close up."
The eyes he turns on her, hidden behind half-moon spectacles that frame his face, are the same shade as his hair. "Of course," he replies, and smiles, smoothing out the paper he has had on his table all that time. "I'm sorry. I was thinking."
"About what?" Helena asks, taking his empty cup. She's in no hurry to go home.
"Change," he says. "I knew this area, a long time ago. How long has this cafe been here?"
"Fifteen years, maybe," she replies, and his mouth moves, curving downward. His expression is melancholy. "My mother bought it from the previous owner. It used to be a flower shop."
"I know," he says. "What happened to the woman who used to own it?"
This surprises her; he looks to be perhaps in his thirties at most, too young to remember such things. He has a slight accent, although she can't pinpoint it. American, maybe. "She retired, maybe ten years after the war," she says. "Had kids."
"Heh." His mouth is a slash of amusement. "Of course she did. I wonder what she named them."
Helena shrugs. She is twenty one; too young for this. "You can't have been that old," she says.
"I'm probably older than I look," he says, grinning. His grin is wicked, inviting one to conspiracies.
"Where are you from?" Helena asks, curious. "Your German is very good."
He doesn't answer, looking down. His hands work seemingly on automatic, folding the newspaper; his right hand is covered still with a glove, which is odd for high summer. His throat moves, adam's apple bobbing, before he speaks. "A very long way away," he says, eventually. "Then Germany, then other places. I haven't been back to Munich for some time."
"Oh," Helena says. She's not sure what would be appropriate. "What are you doing back here?"
"Came to see a friend," he replies. He turns the newspaper over, the date catching her eye for a second - July 21st, 1969 - before dipping into a pocket of his black trench coat, pulling out money. "Thank you, miss," he says quietly, and Helena looks into his eyes and thinks, older than he looks.
"It's no problem," she says. "I hope your friend is okay."
"He's gone. He, uh. He died a long time ago. He taught me a lot, though. I just wanted to visit his grave."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Helena replies, her words empty in her ears. Platitudes, meaningless and empty. The blond man sighs deeply and turns away, looking out the window; there is old pain on his face, and his left hand settles atop his right forearm, fingers rubbing back and forth as though it pains him.
"If he had survived he'd be having different headlines," he murmurs distantly, lost to his memories, and he unfolds the paper: Americans manage first manned moon landing. "He was ahead of his time."
He turns to look her then, and his eyes are piercing and golden and alien. In them Helena sees grief and loss and love; a life lived for living's sake, and it renders her speechless. "He was my first," he says, and his smile is sad and lost. He holds a bill out to her, to cover the coffee, and she takes it numbly, still lost in those ancient eyes. "No others compared," he says, and then he is pushing his chair away from the table and standing. Helena watches him push open the door and pause, taking in the blue sky, and then he is gone, lost to the foot traffic.
Her fingers curl around the crumpled bill and she bows her head. There are tears stinging her eyes and she doesn't know why.
Now for a new meme! Taking Tsubasa prompts here~!
Warning: one of these timestamps contains NSFW elements.
Title: Unmistakable
Prompt: mikkeneko, who requested Vicious and Romantic, a few hours after the second scene in Yama.
Pairing: Kuro/Fai
Word count:
Fai sat stiffly on the chair in the healer's tent as the man examined his eye, looming up close but making no effort to touch. Kurogane kept an eye on things from his spot by the door, arms folded on his chest and hoping he looked sufficiently grim.
"Just a common bruise," the healer said, absently. Kurogane had to pay close attention to understand him; the dialect he used was ancient, related to his own but old enough Kurogane had to pay attention to the syntax. "A pot of salve should set him right. And perhaps you will be more careful next time, hmmm? Death awaits us on the battlefield sure enough, no need to go about beating him senseless here."
Fai made a quizzical noise at this, tilting his head back to look at Kurogane over one shoulder. His bruised eye was already swelling shut, and Kurogane felt a flash of remorse.
"How long will the salve take?"
"For the swelling? A few hours. The bruise itself will last perhaps a week." The healer, a young man with sandy brown hair and those damnable black eyes, turned to a shelf of earthenware jars and selected one before bringing it to his table of bubbling concoctions, and Fai tracked his movements with the slightest hint of worry. Kurogane unfolded himself from his spot at the tent entrance and came over to him.
He wanted to touch the wizard again, for some reason; his hand jerked abortively to lay itself on Fai's shoulder and he stuck it under his armpit, dredging up the most fierce scowl he had as if that could fix things. Fai grinned at him and said something in his lilting musical language before raising his hands to his temples, sticking his fingers up to form triangular points and letting his tongue loll out. His words were unmistakable.
"I'm not a fucking dog, dumbass," Kurogane growled at him, and Fai smiled his sly false smile. His eyes seemed darker than they had been yesterday; Kurogane figured they had perhaps a month before they fit in with the natives. He hoped the kids turned up before then.
"Here," the healer said, turning around. "Tell him to put it on twice a day, morning and night." Kurogane took the salve he offered, sealed in its little clay pot, and then handed it over to Fai, who simply looked at it in Kurogane's palm and then looked up quizzically.
"It's a salve," Kurogane told him, undoing the lid. "For your eye." He touched his own to hint, and Fai just looked at him like he was speaking nonsense, which he supposed he must be. With a small noise of displease Kurogane dabbed the tip of his forefinger into the pale green substance and reached out slowly, giving Fai time to react, and touched it to the skin under Fai's eye. Fai didn't so much as blink.
Kurogane drew his hand away almost immediately, feeling foolish, and proffered the pot to Fai again. "Put it on, dumbass," he said.
Fai said a long stream of words as alien to Kurogane's own language as his hair colour was to Nihon, but took the pot. Kurogane thought he had recognised his name in there; Kuro-koira, whatever that might mean. "Don't nickname me in your weird-ass language," he said warningly, as Fai bent and began to apply the salve to the purpling flesh around his eye. Fai just laughed.
Kurogane folded his arms again, studying the mage. The tip of his forefinger tingled where it had touched Fai's skin. He didn't think it was down to the salve.
Not that it mattered. He didn't like liars.
Title: in each other's shadow we grew less and less tall
Prompt: konnichipuu, who requested 10 years before recording our history
Pairing: Fai/Yuui
Word count: 851
"Yuui," Fai said from outside their bedroom door.
"Go away," Yuui said, his voice clogged with tears despite his best efforts.
"Yuui, please," Fai said, unhappily, and rapped lightly on the door with his knuckles; Yuui sniffed, pawing his tears out of his eyes, and then slid out from between his blankets and flipped the lock to open. Fai eeled his way in immediately. "There," he said, closing the door behind him, and his whole expression changed when he saw Yuui's. "What's wrong?" he asked, anxious.
"You," Yuui said, choked. "I saw you kissing him outside school."
"Yuui," Fai said, his eyes softening.
"You promised you wouldn't," Yuui said, hating his voice, wheedling and weak. "You said you wouldn't kiss anyone. Until we were both ready. Until we were at college and out of here. I-"
"I'm sorry," Fai said gently, and came forward two steps, taking Yuui's shoulders and turning him so they were face to face. Yuui's eyes tracked over the features they shared, the features he saw both here and in mirrors, and wondered when Fai had become this stranger. "I'm sorry," Fai said again, and he was telling the truth, Yuui could always tell when he wasn't.
"Why did you do it?" Yuui asked softly, unable to hold onto his anger with Fai looking at him like that. He was still hurt, but he never could be mad at Fai for long.
"I... I wanted practise," Fai said helplessly, his fingers tightening on Yuui's shoulder, and some of Yuui's confusion must have shown, because Fai shook his head. "I wanted to know what to do. So I wouldn't suck at it."
"I don't understand," Yuui said, and Fai kissed him, slow and sweet. It would probably have been more sweet if Yuui hadn't been too shocked to kiss back. Fai's lips were cracked and dry, but his mouth was warm; after Yuui failed to respond he drew back, and there was bittersweet disappointment on his face. Yuui touched his fingers to his lips, stunned.
"I'm going to Japan," he said. "For college, I mean."
"No," Yuui replied immediately. "You promised to come to Italy. You said. We were going to Florence."
"Tokyo had a better chemistry program," Fai said, and kissed Yuui gently on the forehead. "It's alright, Yuui. You don't need me."
Yes I do, Yuui thought, but his lips still burned where Fai's touched his. "When are you going?" he asked, numb. "What are you going to do about - ? Fai, your Japanese is average, how are you going to -?"
"I'll live," Fai said, and touched his thumb to Yuui's lips. His smile was sad. "I leave this Saturday. Will you see me off?"
"How long have you been plotting this?" Yuui whispered, and Fai turned away, and Yuui wondered. Wondered how long Fai had wanted to kiss him. Wondered how he had taken Yuui's rejection. Impatiently he grabbed Fai's arm and hauled him around, seizing his twin's face and yanking him forward; their mouths collided brutally, Fai's tooth splitting his lip, and Fai pulled away with a muttered exclamation. Yuui dabbed at the stinging wound and was unsurprised to see blood on the pad of his thumb.
"Yuui, no," Fai said, sounding shaken.
"Don't go to Japan," Yuui said, his voice cracked and hoarse even to his own ears. "I kissed you back. It's all okay now."
Fai said nothing, just looked at him, and his eyes were filled with sympathy. "We were fourteen when I first wanted to kiss you," he said conversationally, as though remarking on the weather. "It was the summer you stopped playing piano and started cooking, remember?"
Yuui remembered. He had cooked every day, filling the house with the scent of Italian cuisine while the piano gathered dust in the corner. Fai had followed him around like a shadow, silently accepting culinary chores Yuui delegated to him without complaint. When Yuui asked Fai just smiled and said, I like it when Yuui is happy.
"I won't stay just because you kissed me, kissing doesn't mean anything without feelings. Go to Italy, Yuui. You've been working for it for years."
"Without you?"
"Yes. If you still want to kiss me when you graduate..." Fai shrugged, and Yuui swallowed, his chest aching as though he'd been stabbed.
"I don't want to," he said, and his voice broke painfully on the last word. "I don't want to be without you, Fai."
"Me too, Yuui," Fai replied and took his hand, and Yuui saw his own pain mirrored in his twin's face. Fai tugged him into a brotherly embrace, warm and familiar, and Yuui tucked his face into the curve of Fai's neck, inhaling his twin's scent, their scent as though stockpiling for a long winter. Fai stroked his hair, filtering the strands through his fingers.
"I love you, Yuui" he said. "That's always been my problem. You don't know how you feel."
"Then I'll find out. I'll come back to you," Yuui promised. "I will. I'll teach myself Japanese in Italy."
Fai's smile was warm and clearly humoring him, and it broke Yuui's heart. He would find the answer to Fai's question in Florence, and maybe next time...
Maybe it would be he who kissed Fai.
Title: Four times Kurogane asked Fai to come home.
Prompt: youkohiei_fan, who requested 2 years after Here Be Dragons
Pairing: Fai/Kurogane
Word count: 432
In hindsight, Kurogane picked the worst times to ask the question.
"Hey, I've been thinking," he said. "Come back to Nihon with me."
"Oh fuck, fuck me," Fai moaned, his hips working shallowly. Kurogane pulled the vibrator out a little bit, turned it up a notch, and slid it back into his lover to watch the way Fai's limbs flailed.
"The thing is -"
"Kuro-chan - I don't - uuh - I don't care - fuck - I want your cock," Fai panted, and well, the question could wait.
+++
"So we've been travelling for a while," Kurogane said. "Maybe it's time to think about stopping."
"What?" Fai yelled at him, over the sound of heavy machine gun fire.
"I SAID," Kurogane bellowed, "MAYBE IT'S TIME TO THINK ABOUT -"
And then the wall exploded inward and the tanks rolled in and there was fighting, and once again, Kurogane never got around to asking.
+++
"It's just, we've been doing this for a while," Kurogane called upward. "And I think you'd like it -"
"What?" Fai hollered back over the whipping of the wind. Serina snorted and banked sharply, her mate following her, and Kurogane yelped at the air pressure against his face. Over on the other dragon Fai actually had his arms up in the air, the idiot. "Kuro-chan, this is so much FUN~!"
"Hold on!" Serina called back, and then they were zooming toward the cave system and Kurogane screwed his eyes closed.
+++
"I mean, you're kind of powerful, I guess. And you're an idiot, but you'd be useful," Kurogane said, and then grunted, tightening his fingers on the edges of the bathtub.
Fai surfaced, wheezing, and took a gulp of air. He gave Kurogane a sly grin, and then he dived back under the water and his lips were again a tight ring around Kurogane's cock, blessed suction made all the better by the warm water.
"Oh, gods," said Kurogane, coming, and by the time he was less stupidly post-coital Fai had gotten them back to their bed and was curled asleep against his side. It wasn't Kurogane's fault the blond gave such great blowjobs.
+++
"Father," Syaoran said, embracing his clone. His cheeks were wet with unshed tears, and his father held him back.
Kurogane glanced sideward at the blond and the expression on Fai's face and took a deep breath, reaching out hesitently to lace their fingers together. "So I've been thinking -"
"I'm coming back to Nihon with you," Fai said. "Just so you know."
"Oh," Kurogane replied, poleaxed.
"Do you mind, Kuro-traveler?" Fai's eyes were on him, warm and sure,
Kurogane paused, letting it sink in. "I suppose you can," he said. "I think it'll be alright."
Title: Kurogane's horrible no-good very bad life
Prompt: fieldofclover, who requested the first world-hop after The greatest breach of etiquette imaginable.
Pairing: Fai/Kurogane
Word count: 1329
It was a relief when Mokana's earring lit up. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the world itself, but the wolf was fucking irritating and Kurogane would be glad to be away from it.
"You are the only person I know who can have a feud with his own soul," Fai said, amused.
"It's annoying," Kurogane replied. He was packing his belongings, neatly to keep them from being damaged, unlike the idiot peacock he slept with who just threw them into their bags and used his magic to keep them from looking like a pile of creases afterward. It seemed a waste of time to Kurogane.
"So are you," his wolf snapped back. It was sitting by the door, watching them. Fai's ferret was wrapped still around his throat.
"Shut up," Kurogane told it. "I can't wait to get rid of you."
"Maybe I'll be getting rid of you," said the wolf grumpily.
"Kuro-chan and Kuro-wolf are so similar," said Fai's daemon with some glee as her other half hummed agreement. Fai was pushing their beds apart, back to the way they had been when they were given the room.
"My name is not Kuro-wolf!" the wolf snapped. "Keep that up, tidbit, and maybe I'll -"
"Faiiiii," wailed the ferret. "He's being mean to us."
"He's a mean daemon," Fai agreed.
"He's rude," Kurogane snarled. "Rude and scruffy and too damn nosey."
"I'm your soul, idiot," said the wolf. "There's no point trying to shut me out of your bedroom."
"You could take a hint," Kurogane said, throwing his socks at his daemon, who simply caught them out of the air and trotted past him to leap onto Fai's bed and dropped them into Fai's bag. Fai made a pleased noise and scratched the wolf behind the ears, a deliciously intimate sensation that made Kurogane shiver all over.
A soft call came from the hallway and Syaoran's daemon flew through the open door, alighting on the back of the chair with mighty beats of her wings. She cocked her head, angling a thoughtful look at them through her wide golden eyes. Her talons were wrapped tightly around her perch.
"Hello there," Fai said lightly. "Is Syaoran-kun ready to go?"
"Yes, he is," she said politely. She could go much further from her human than theirs could, although when they'd asked Lyra why this was so she had gotten this sad look on her face and looked at Syaoran with haunted eyes before changing the topic. "He's waiting for you in the main hall."
"Well, I think we're both about ready," Fai said, leaning on his bag so he could shut it. Kurogane's wolf jumped off his bed and seized Ginryuu in its jaws.
"Yeah, me too," Kurogane said, hefting his bag and narrowing his eyes at his daemon. Fai sigh and stroked his ferret, who made a small noise and nipped at his fingers. "C'mon, let's go."
Fai opened the window to let Syaoran's falcon out; although she could fly in the hallways it was harder for her than the glide down to the main hall's room was. He closed it once she had gone and threw his bag over his shoulder. Kurogane held the door for him and shut it after him. "Is Kuro-wolf such a bother to you, Kuro-grumpy?" he asked as they made their way through the university's corridors. The daemon pricked its ears up but didn't say anything, couldn't with the sword in its mouth.
"Yes," Kurogane said, glaring at it.
"We didn't even get a chance to name them," Fai said sadly. The scholar had told them most daemons knew their names when they were made, but theirs, having only been 'discovered' recently, were an exception. She had known one other like them, she said, and a witch had named his daemon for him. Fai seemed hung up on being the one to bestow a name upon the wolf, although Kurogane had put his foot down, knowing both that the daemon would be gone when they left this world like the kudans had when they left Hanshin and that Fai would choose a stupid fucking nickname for it.
"You'll live," he replied, and Fai looked at him with knowing eyes.
"It seems fairly obvious to me that Kuro-puppy is so grumpy with Kuro-wolfy because Kuro-wolfy is too like him," he said. "What will you do if they don't go away when we change worlds?"
Kurogane stopped in the middle of the corridor, forcing Fai to turn around and look back at him. "Could that happen?" he asked, urgently. It wasn't so much the constant snarking of the damn wolf that made the idea sit uncomfortably with him, it was the thought of an enemy being able to see his soul and act accordingly.
Fai smiled and shrugged, and Kurogane narrowed his eyes. The wolf came to his side then, its ears pricked up; it nuzzled against Fai's legs, causing Kurogane to grit his teeth and swear at it in a low voice. It ignored him haughtily.
"Kuro-wolfy is so sweet," Fai crooned, and Kurogane rolled his eyes and seized Ginryuu from its mouth, stomping his way down the corridor. Fai's laughter rang out behind him loud and clear.
Lyra and Syaoran were talking when they arrived, sitting opposite each other at a long table still littered with breakfast debris. Their heads were bowed, brown hair and dark gold mixed, as they peered over a bronze clock-like object in Lyra's hands. Syaoran's falcon was sitting on the chair next to him; Mokana was examining the clock thing with Lyra's daemon.
"Fai," the falcon called when she caught sight of them. "Kurogane."
"There you are," Syaoran said, smiling. He turned his attention back to Lyra, bowing to her even as he stood up. His falcon flew to his shoulder. "I wish I could stay and see more of it, Miss. I'll keep in mind what you said about the underworld."
"Good luck," she replied, smiling.
"Goodbye," echoed her daemon.
"You ready to go, kid?" Kurogane said, and Syaoran nodded. He came to stand with them as Mokana lit up. Kurogane's daemon leaned against him heavily; he looked and saw Fai had his ferret in his hands, held up to his mouth, his lips moving as he murmered something into her ears. He looked down at his wolf, which looked up at him, its ears going back.
"What," it said.
"I guess you could be worse," Kurogane told him.
"You too," he said, and then the world was fading away from them in a blur as they were pulled backward, lights and colours speeding away.
The journey ended in water and Kurogane reacted instinctively; it wasn't the first time Mokana had landed them in an ocean. He looked around for the light source, scooped up the nearest body - light, small: Mokana - and forced his way to the surface with powerful kicks of his legs. His wet hair had plastered itself to his eyes and he shook his head to clear them as he gasped in air. Fai surfaced inches away from him, sucking in deep breaths; he looked ridiculous, like a drowned rat. "You okay, pest?" Kurogane asked, looking down to check on the creampuff.
Fai's ferret looked even more ridiculous wet than its master did.
"Oh no," Kurogane said.
"I like pest," said the ferret. "That can be my name!"
"Kuro-fluffy does a good doggy paddle," Fai said, grinning, and Kurogane looked over to see his wolf doing just that. Syaoran's falcon was resting on his head, looking miserable. Her feathers were soaked through.
"Why does this always happen to me," Kurogane groaned as Syaoran splashed over and took his bird gingerly from the wolf, careful not to touch him in the process.
"Because it's funny," Fai said sweetly, paddling over to Kurogane. "Can I have Pest back, please? It's not that I object to you having your hands all over her, it's just inconvenient when we're in the middle of the ocean and I can't tear your clothes off and fuck you."
"Oh, god," Syaoran said in a small appalled voice.
"I hate you all," Kurogane said.
Title: Silver for luck
Prompt: uakari120, who requested a prequel to Catch a Dragon by the Tail explaining why Fai was in that village to start with.
Pairing: Fai/Kurogane
Word count: 1489
Fai came to the throne room in his true shape, his tread muffled by the thick red carpet. He had to walk with careful steps to avoid catching it with his claws; the King alone knew how difficult it had been to find the thing. It certainly lent an opulent air to the great marble chamber, its roped off spectator areas situated on either side of the carpet today filled with dragons in a mix of shapes. They were interested in the human ambassadors, of course. It was a long trip from Koryo to the storm mountains, and the King was receiving them with great dignity from his seat atop the marble stars at the end of the carpet, in human form in order to keep from intimidating them.
As he padded down the great red rug he was aware of the eyes on him, the muttering and the way his dragons turned their head to watch him go. He could see their reflections in the underside of his wings, half-spread and shining silver, catching the light and bouncing scattered sunbeams against the walls. He knew he was dazzling and he lifted his head high, even as he knew the colour of his hide had nothing to do with their stares.
The King's human shape was by now just as familiar to him as his own. He had known it for so long it no longer surprised him the way some of his kind's humanoid guises did; it looked natural, natural as catching sight of his own human face in a puddle of water, or a mirror. The Koryo ambassadors, dressed in warm silks, were just placing something that glinted and shone back in its lacquered wooden box. Fai had evidently missed the display, but if it were worth keeping he could probably wheedle the Storm King into granting it to him as a gift.
The King had dressed for high court in the same silver as Fai's scales, for luck and royalty; his low-cut white silk tunic was decorated with bright silver threads, sapphires sewn in marching lines along the chest. His shoulders and collarbones were bare, but a black ribbon studded with diamonds to resemble the night sky was wound around his throat, and he wore the mark of his office, the large sapphire held in the centre of his forehead with silver chains plaited into his hair. His gaze was as aloof and cool as the gemstone, and he sat straight-backed upon his dais, one hand resting on a crooked knee and the other leg stretched out in front of him. His feet were bare, in the manner of their kind. He greeted Fai's arrival with a barely perceptible nod before turning his attention back to the ambassadors.
Several of their retinue were eyeing Fai in fear, and he couldn't resist showing off a little, stretching out his wings in order to showcase their length before settling on his haunches like a cat, his tail wrapped around his paws and his claws gleaming. One of them, a little girl half-hidden behind a confident woman who seemed to be some kind of mage, grinned at him and he winked back at her. The King discussed treaty terms over both of their heads in a low, soothing voice.
Court had never been his thing, to the scandal of many of his tutors. Fai made an effort to listen; Koryo wanted trade rights and dragon magics, and its rulers wanted the smith-skills. This would never happen, but the King listened politely to their full list of requests before offering his compromise. What he said seemed fair to Fai, but the ambassadors bickered for a long time, as the day drew on and the sun began to slip from the sky. Eventually the King adjourned the meeting for another day and stood, the bells braided into his hair chiming, before clapping his hands and dismissing the court.
"You wanted to speak with me, my King," Fai said formally, snaking his head down as the visiting diplomats filed out. He set his front feet on the lowest step of the dais, and the King stretched, some of the tension in his form ebbing out of his shoulders. He had kohl smeared around his eyes, and it made him look exotic and distant.
"Yes, I did," said the King eqully formal in front of the dragons still waiting their turn to leave the courtroom, and touched one small human hand to the underside of Fai's jaw. The size difference between them was marked. The King could wrap both arms around Fai's muzzle in these shapes and his hands wouldn't be close to meeting. "Do you remember Xing Huo?"
"She was his assisstant," Fai said, and couldn't keep the hate from his voice.
He didn't have to clarify who he was, there was only one person he had ever hated that much. His King made a small noise, a soothing noise, as he ran his hand along the edges of Fai's jaw. All the silver jewellry he wore made him gleam in the weakening light, although not as brightly in this shape as he usually did.
"One of the broadwings working as a courier in Nihon got in contact with us. She said she had heard of a dragon matching Xing Huo's description nesting at a lake at the mouth of a river over there. Apparently she has been stealing cows from a local human settlement, and they have posted a reward for her demise." The King was watching him closely. "Of all of us, you are the one with the greatest knowledge of Nihon."
"Yes," Fai replied quietly. He didn't go into more detail. What could he say? That his knowledge of Nihon came from visiting it time again for a human dead before he was even full-grown?
"The river in question is capped with a lake, upon which there is a shrine. Do you know it?"
"Yes," Fai said, again. He had stopped at that shrine many a time over the centuries, for food and water, before Fei Wang had started his mad war and driven the Nihonjin to cleanse the dragons from their midst. "Do you wish for me to kill her, your Majesty?"
"Of course," said the King, matter-of-factly, and that made Fai sad; there had been a time the Storm King would have resisted such measures, or tried diplomacy first. The throne had hardened him already, in such a short time. "I ask merely whether or not you will. There are memories for you in Nihon."
And such memories, all of black haired, red-eyed men with curving grins and piercing gazes, who cropped up again and again in his life before Fei Wang had had Suwa destroyed to wound him. Fai had been to the ruins once, perhaps a year after the fires had burnt out and the land had grown cold and still, but there had been nothing, no sign of repairs or occupancy. Ginryuu hadn't been there. He hoped she had been buried with the remains of his humans.
"I'll go," he said. Xing Huo had lit the fires and oversaw the burning. He forgot now how many years had passed since she and her master had stolen that which mattered, destroying a bloodline just to spite Fai. Ten or fifteen? Nothing, in draconic terms. "I owe her that."
"You will have to travel there as a human," said the King, softly. The last dragon filed out of the courtroom and he let go of his mantle of monarchy with a sigh, leaning to rest his forehead against Fai's muzzle. "They kill dragons in Nihon, Fai, and they have never quite forgiven our kind in particular."
"That's fine~! Don't worry about me," Fai said, echoing the King's relaxed air, and it was. Not being able to fly would slow him down, but he knew the land. He could get a boat to the fishing community further upriver; that would put him a day, day and a half away from the lake on foot. He pulled his head away from the Storm King's hand, and the other dragon sighed, letting Fai go.
"I won't be here when you get back," he said. "I have a diplomatic mission of my own to busy myself with. Return as quickly as you can, you know how the court frets without a member of royalty there to take control."
"Yes," Fai said. "Last time we were both gone they tracked us down - do you remember? I don't think the King of Clow was all that pleased to have fifty of us descend upon his castle."
"He had something to say about it, yes," said the King delicately.
"He turned bright red," Fai said, grinning.
"Be careful, Fai. You're the Prince and my heir. We can't lose you," said the King, love and sympathy in his voice, and Fai reached down and nudged him sharply with his nose.
"I'll be fine! I'll kill her and I'll be back. Besides," Fai added. "What else could happen?"
Title: Platitudes
Prompt: yuuo, who requested a sequel set an undetermined amount of time after Slow Burn.
Pairing: Edward/Alfons
Word count: 679
It is almost closing time before Helena has the nerve to approach the customer. He had been sat by the window all day, staring out at the street and ordering nothing but coffee, but he had tipped well and kept himself to himself and she wishes more of her customers were like him. He's handsome, too, in a refined, middle-aged manner, wiry with dark gold hair. "Excuse me, sir," she says delicately. "We're almost ready to close up."
The eyes he turns on her, hidden behind half-moon spectacles that frame his face, are the same shade as his hair. "Of course," he replies, and smiles, smoothing out the paper he has had on his table all that time. "I'm sorry. I was thinking."
"About what?" Helena asks, taking his empty cup. She's in no hurry to go home.
"Change," he says. "I knew this area, a long time ago. How long has this cafe been here?"
"Fifteen years, maybe," she replies, and his mouth moves, curving downward. His expression is melancholy. "My mother bought it from the previous owner. It used to be a flower shop."
"I know," he says. "What happened to the woman who used to own it?"
This surprises her; he looks to be perhaps in his thirties at most, too young to remember such things. He has a slight accent, although she can't pinpoint it. American, maybe. "She retired, maybe ten years after the war," she says. "Had kids."
"Heh." His mouth is a slash of amusement. "Of course she did. I wonder what she named them."
Helena shrugs. She is twenty one; too young for this. "You can't have been that old," she says.
"I'm probably older than I look," he says, grinning. His grin is wicked, inviting one to conspiracies.
"Where are you from?" Helena asks, curious. "Your German is very good."
He doesn't answer, looking down. His hands work seemingly on automatic, folding the newspaper; his right hand is covered still with a glove, which is odd for high summer. His throat moves, adam's apple bobbing, before he speaks. "A very long way away," he says, eventually. "Then Germany, then other places. I haven't been back to Munich for some time."
"Oh," Helena says. She's not sure what would be appropriate. "What are you doing back here?"
"Came to see a friend," he replies. He turns the newspaper over, the date catching her eye for a second - July 21st, 1969 - before dipping into a pocket of his black trench coat, pulling out money. "Thank you, miss," he says quietly, and Helena looks into his eyes and thinks, older than he looks.
"It's no problem," she says. "I hope your friend is okay."
"He's gone. He, uh. He died a long time ago. He taught me a lot, though. I just wanted to visit his grave."
"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that," Helena replies, her words empty in her ears. Platitudes, meaningless and empty. The blond man sighs deeply and turns away, looking out the window; there is old pain on his face, and his left hand settles atop his right forearm, fingers rubbing back and forth as though it pains him.
"If he had survived he'd be having different headlines," he murmurs distantly, lost to his memories, and he unfolds the paper: Americans manage first manned moon landing. "He was ahead of his time."
He turns to look her then, and his eyes are piercing and golden and alien. In them Helena sees grief and loss and love; a life lived for living's sake, and it renders her speechless. "He was my first," he says, and his smile is sad and lost. He holds a bill out to her, to cover the coffee, and she takes it numbly, still lost in those ancient eyes. "No others compared," he says, and then he is pushing his chair away from the table and standing. Helena watches him push open the door and pause, taking in the blue sky, and then he is gone, lost to the foot traffic.
Her fingers curl around the crumpled bill and she bows her head. There are tears stinging her eyes and she doesn't know why.
Now for a new meme! Taking Tsubasa prompts here~!