Fic: Ever After (7.2)
Title: Ever After
Characters/Pairings: KuroFai, AshFai, SyaoSaku and DoumWataHima(ish?) Basically, anything implied (or outright stated in recent chapters of the manga with some pairings) in CLAMP canon that my mind stumbles across.
Rating: T
Summary: ‘Fairytale’ is a very trying place. Children get abandoned; loves fall under evil spells, and various members of royal families get abducted on an almost regular basis. Even with a witch on-hand all ills can’t simply be wished away - but then, if it’s really the ‘happy ever after’ you’re looking for, it’s quite obligatory to start with ‘once upon a time…’ AU, with heavy reference to canon.
A/N: Longer chapter this time, explaining a little of why it took a little longer to update. That, and being sick is bad for happy-happy writing. >.< Apologies for the lateness of this second part - I got distracted with Wish yesterday.
First part here.
Watanuki was busy staring up at amazingly blue sky, wondering just how it was he’d been whisked out of the tunnel he’d been in and flat onto his back in a field of long grass within half a step. The kudakitsune was still twined around his neck, its little head butting his cheek repeatedly, checking he was alright. (At least, that was what Watanuki thought it was doing.)
“Aieeeeeeeee!” The shriek coming from a little way away made Watanuki bolt into an upright seating position, immediately alert. That had sounded like a child -
Something small, red-purple and vaguely child-sized burst through the long grass on Watanuki’s left side, its eyes widening in horror when it saw someone in front of it but unable to stop, tripping over Watanuki’s still-laid-out form in a tangle of limbs and tail.
Wait - tail?!
Watanuki had barely a few milliseconds to gawk at the little yakuta-wearing fox he had sprawled over him before something else burst out through the long grass, large and dark and looming over them in a sinister miasma. A spirit - and a malicious one at that.
The kudakitsune slid away from Watanuki’s person immediately, the boy himself instinctively rolling away and shielding the child-sized fox in his arms as the pipe-fox suddenly transformed into a much larger creature - ears pointed, eyes slitted, and nine tails lashing the ground, absolutely indignant that something would dare to threaten its human. Fire appeared in its mouth, blasted at the sinister spirit that had been chasing the little fox, the searing heat making the spirit recoil, thrashing in pain, fleeing for its life.
The kudakitsune watched the spirit go, making a very much put-upon ‘huff’ noise before padding back to Watanuki’s side, peering over at the other fox in the boy’s arms, who was looking up at Watanuki wide-eyed, shyly, just a few steps off of ‘adoring’. Rather jealously the kudakitsune transformed back into its smaller form, curling around Watanuki’s neck and glaring at the now-larger fox still being cradled in his human’s arms.
The glare seemed to bring the little fox back to his senses, and he pulled away from Watanuki, all but trembling in gratitude. “T-thank you so much!”
Watanuki shook his head. “I didn’t really do anything -”
“Thank you!” The little fox spirit was having none of Watanuki’s protests, paws clasped and eyes looking suspiciously watery. “You - you saved my life!”
Watanuki rubbed the back of his head with one hand. “Well -”
“Please come with me!” The spirit caught hold of Watanuki’s hand, tugging on it, the fur around his face pinkening slightly in embarrassment. “Please. Come and meet my otou-san.”
Watanuki consented to be pulled to his feet, petting the rather envious kudakitsune coiled around his throat (and still glaring). “…Could you at least tell me where I am first, please?” Standing up Watanuki could see the long expanse of the sloping field he stood in, surrounded on all sides by dense trees. Not that Watanuki didn’t have his - strong - suspicions as to the location, but a little confirmation would be greatly appreciated.
The little fox beamed at him, glad to be able to repay him a little by answering his question. “The spirit mountain, of course!”
Of course.
Watanuki continued to allow himself to be dragged along.
#
Syaoran emerged from the tunnel into light, still without Watanuki. He’d checked the whole tunnel - twice - and even went back to the brambles to look for the boy, to no avail. It was as if the black-haired youth had walked straight off the edge of the earth, swallowed up by a magical hole that had opened up beneath his feet and vanished a few seconds later.
Eventually, accepting the other boy was nowhere to be found; Syaoran emerged onto the side of the tunnel that could only be the spirit mountain, taking in the complete change of scenery. The ground sloped upwards - leading to the mountain’s peak, Syaoran could only assume -, covered in rolling fields of long grass and dense patches of whispering trees. The air was purer than it had been back in the ‘ordinary’ forest, the scent of magic a tingling presence in the air.
Syaoran walked for a long while, having no real idea of where he was going. The Zashiki-warashi could be anywhere in this place, and as for Watanuki… (How much would Yuuko charge for a new assistant?)
“I would not recommend continuing on that way if I were you, child,” a stranger’s voice spoke when Syaoran set foot under a copse of trees. Looking around for its source he spotted a dark, curly-haired woman reclining against a tree, clad in all black. There was the tattoo of a clover just below her collarbone, attentive green eyes fixed on Syaoran’s movements. “Unless you are looking for the Faerie Court?”
…The woman was a faerie? There was definitely a presence around her - Syaoran approached her, on his guard. “Could I find the Zashiki-warashi there?”
“There?” The woman before him laughed, a rich sound. “Anywhere but there, child. The Court intrigue is poisonous to one as innocent as her.”
“Could you tell me where it is I could find her?” Then, remembering his manners, “please?”
“Since you asked so nicely…” the faerie’s head rolled back, her curls tumbling over her pale shoulder as she raised one hand, pointing in the opposite direction to which Syaoran was facing, “if you continue directly that way, you should eventually come to a large lake in the middle of some trees. The virginal sprite likes to play her flute there, away from everyone else. It’s quite a walk though, child…”
“Thank you for your aid.” The distance didn’t matter. Hopefully, the long walk would give him time to bump into Watanuki if Watanuki had somehow ended up elsewhere in this strange place.
Syaoran set off in the direction the faerie had given him, keeping to as straight a path as possible, heading up the slope. It was hard, with the uncertain terrain, but his progress was pretty good - if a little slow. He went through three sets of trees and quite a few fields before he felt a new moisture in the air, hearing the sound of moving water and the lilt of a flute. The melody came to him on the breeze, soothing, and Syaoran smiled slightly -
Only to find himself batted - hard - on the back of the head with a paper fan.
“What do you think you’re doing here?!” An irate little…thing was riding a red board in mid-air, glowering at him over his sunglasses, a paper fan held aggressively in hand.
“Yeah!”
“You human, you!”
“Trying to sneak into seeing the Zashiki-warashi, are you?”
“You’d make her cry!”
There were five of them, all scowling down from various points in the air from their boards, decked out in blue and red. None of them looked happy to see Syaoran, the one nearest to him giving him another hearty thwack with his fan again.
Syaoran attempted to defend himself. “I’m not here to make the Zashiki-warashi cry -”
“He’ll do worse!” The little thing Syaoran had decided had to be the ‘leader’ of the tiny mob overrode the brunet’s words, ignoring them completely.
“Yeah!”
“Yeah, yeah!”
“We can’t allow that!”
“No, we can’t!”
“Get him!”
The five things swooped in at Syaoran from different directions, swallow dives from the air. Syaoran ducked their blows out of instinct, dodging under their boards and taking off at a sprint in the direction the flute-playing was coming from.
The things, realising their prey was heading for their beloved mistress, were immediately up-in-arms.
“AFTER HIM!”
#
“This is delicious~!” Watanuki was all sparkles as he tucked into the oden the father of the little fox he’d helped before had made. The kudakitsune settled beside Watanuki’s bowl nodded its agreement, helping itself to a chunk of tofu.
“Thank you,” the father fox kept cooking, topping up Watanuki’s bowl. His son peered from around the older fox’s yakuta, having resumed his original shyness. “But it’s little in way of repayment - you saved my son from the evil spirit that was attacking him. A human helping a fox…how can I ever repay you?”
“It was nothing!” Watanuki flailed, dropping his chopsticks and blushing at the praise. “The kudakitsune did the real work, not me!”
“But it is your guardian, is it not? It would not have stepped in unless you had.”
“The praise isn’t really necessary.” Watanuki looked to the little fox. “I’m just glad he’s alright - I know what it’s like to be chased by those things.”
“Yes…” The elder fox seemed to take in the aura around the human, “you would, wouldn’t you?”
The rest of the meal was conducted in relative silence, Watanuki and the kudakitsune eating their fill. When they were done Watanuki insisted on washing up, carrying his bowl and chopsticks over to the nearest sink. “…I don’t suppose you know where I could find the Zashiki-warashi?” Finding the faerie would hit two birds with one stone - Syaoran would probably be making his way towards her as well, and they could be united again.
“I do, actually - she usually sits in the middle of a lake not far from here, guarded by the tengu-karasu while she plays her flute.” The older fox brought more plates across, helped by his son.
“Could you point me that way?” Watanuki set about drying the bowls he’d already washed. He tried to start washing some more but the older fox stopped him, placing a paw on his hand.
“Please, let me.”
“But I -”
“This i-is…for you.” The little fox tugged on the end of Watanuki’s shirt, stretching up to offer the human a little bag. “Imagawayaki. With red bean paste.”
Watanuki smiled again, crouching down to accept the gift. “Thank you very much.”
The little fox coloured again, fur darkening as he dropped the bag in Watanuki’s hold and went to hide behind his father again.
Watanuki left the home of the foxes a little while later with the kudakitsune firmly attached to him once more, pointed in the direction of the Zashiki-warashi’s usual haunt. He found himself under some trees in no time at all, hearing flute music on the wind. Making his way towards the source he quickly happened upon the lake the foxes had told him about, easily catching sight of the rather pretty girl he could see floating in a kneeling position above the water, playing on her instrument.
Hesitantly, he called out to her. “…Hello?”
The playing stopped abruptly, the flute yanked away from the Zashiki-warashi’s lips as her blue eyes flared wide and she scrambled to move, only to fall out of mid-air and land in the pool below her with a splash. Watanuki immediately waded in to help her, both of them blushing and stuttering and apologising and absolutely drenched, stumbling a little as their soggy clothes hung heavy around their rather waifish frames.
The Zashiki-warashi kept a cave near the little lake, a rather simple place where she kept a change of clothes for herself, the case for her flute. Watanuki waited outside for her whilst she changed, his own clothes drying so quickly he could scarcely believe he’d just emerged from a large body of water. It had to be an enchantment of some sort -
The Zashiki-warashi came out, dressed in a new kimono, and Watanuki leapt to his feet. “I’m sorry that I startled you.”
“Y-you,” the virgin sprite wrung her hands together, head bowed low, “you’re the witch’s apprentice, aren’t you? Who lives in the forest?”
“Er -” well, ‘apprentice’ sounded a lot better than ‘slave’, “you could call me that, yes. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Watanuki extended a hand to the faerie, only to realise that was the hand he was holding the bag the little fox had given him with. On a whim he opened it, offering it to his companion. “Would you like one?”
Shyly, the girl looked up. “You’re…offering one…to me?” Watanuki nodded and, just as timidly, the Zashiki-warashi reached in to pluck an imagawayaki from the bag, her whole face going pink with her blush. “Th-thank you.”
Watanuki rubbed the back of his head with his hand, a little embarrassed. “It’s nothing big - it’s only some imagawayaki, which I didn’t even make. I’m sorry it’s not more -”
“No!” The Zashiki-warashi only turned a darker colour when Watanuki stared at her for her little outburst, clutching the imagawayaki more closely to her chest. “This - this i-is lovely. Thank you.” She seemed truly sincere, bowing her head again.
Watanuki continued to stew in his own embarrassment, the feeling only increasing when he realised that the Zashiki-warashi’s shoulders were shaking and she was sniffing - “Please don’t cry!” Watanuki flailed in the face of crying girls.
The Zashiki-warashi looked up at him, still sniffling, wiping her eyes with one pale finger -
And then Syaoran burst through the trees at their side in a dead sprint, running between the two with five little goblin-things in hot pursuit.
“He’s after the Zashiki-warashi!”
“He’ll make her cry!”
“The rotten human!”
“Foul thing!”
“Get him!!”
Watanuki stepped back when the five…they had to be the tengu-karasu swooshed past in their fit of righteous fury, waving their paper fans menacingly at the still-sprinting Syaoran.
Surprised, Watanuki stared after the fleeing brunet. “Syaoran-kun!”
“Watanuki-kun?!” Syaoran’s call flew back over his shoulder at Watanuki, brown eyes wide and suddenly grateful that he’d found the other boy again. He turned around to face Watanuki and the Zashiki-warashi, ducking down as the tengu-karasu flew over his head, and then took off at a run for his friend and the faerie again.
The tengu-karasu were quick to wheel around once they realised they’d sailed straight over the prey, making quick u-turns in the air as they put on speed, trying to catch hold of the one that was threatening their beloved mistress.
Syaoran dived past Watanuki.
Watanuki felt the kudakitsune slip from around his neck, and transform into its larger self once more, taking up a defensive position.
The Zashiki-warashi darted in front of the two humans, standing before the approaching spirits with her arms outstretched. “Please stop!”
The tengu-karusu attempted to grind to a halt mid-air to avoid hitting the girl, but momentum sent the ones at the back of the group colliding rather painfully with the ones at the front, the whole lot of them shrieking and falling out of the sky to land in a groaning heap on the ground.
Watanuki stared at them, wondering why someone as sweet as the Zashiki-warashi had such stupid spirits following her. Syaoran panted, bent double as he clutched his knees for support and tried to get his breath back. The Zashiki-warashi turned around to look at the brunet, and looked apologetic. The tengu-karasu continued to groan.
Afterwards, they sat and ate the imagawayaki together, enjoying the good food. The Zashiki-warashi kept blushing at Watanuki, Watanuki kept scolding the kudakitsune for attempting to eat the rest of the treats, Syaoran kept edging away from the still-suspicious tengu-karasu and the tengu-karasu continued to glare - although they did appreciate the food.
“You wanted something from me?” The Zashiki-warashi almost seemed to be attempting to hide behind her food as she looked at Syaoran, the story having slipped out over the imagawayaki.
“Yes…” Syaoran nodded, resuming his earnest expression once more. “It’s an egg, Yuuko-san said. A very special egg.”
“Oh…” the Zashiki-warashi clasped her hands, fireflies suddenly sweeping in from the lake and clustering together in her palms, glowing a beautiful, brilliant blue. When they departed again a smooth egg remained behind, glowing softly. “This is it.” She stretched her hands out, offering the egg to Syaoran with a blush. “You may have it.”
Syaoran looked at her. “…I haven’t paid for it.”
“You…you helped my friend find a song for her present to me, didn’t you?” The Zashiki-warashi continued to hold the egg out, bowing her head and letting her dark hair hide a little of the flush on her face. “Please take it. I’m sorry I’ve been such a trouble to you today.”
“You haven’t -”
“Please take it.” If the Zashiki-warashi got any redder she was going to burst into flames.
Syaoran took the egg, feeling the smooth shell in his hands, warm and fragile. “Thank you very much.”
“Thank you,” Watanuki echoed, smiling brightly at the Zashiki-warashi.
The poor girl flushed all the way down her neck, and buried her head in her hands.
#
Kurogane waited in the late afternoon for Fai to come back to the house, restraining the urge - somehow - to pace impatiently around the garden. The idiot mage had vanished for a few days again to return to his home - six days this time, almost a whole week. Kurogane didn’t know what effect the blond’s absence had on his breaking of the wolf’s curse, brooding over Fai’s stupid ways whilst the idiot was gone.
At least, he supposed, the idiot had told him to his face (or snout) that he was going this time, a little braver than leaving a letter on his pillow. He’d mentioned it over dinner, almost daring Kurogane to try and disagree with him, and Kurogane had brushed it off with his usual eloquence, a dismissive ‘tch’.
“Kuro-chaaaaannnn~!” Kurogane heard the idiot before he saw him, and when he saw him, he wished he hadn’t. Fai was waving madly, beaming his usual idiotic grin, taking up the distance between them at a run. Kurogane tried to get up from where he’d been sitting but Fai had already accosted him, leaping upon the wolf, looping his arms around the wolf's neck and completely ignoring all immediate attempts on Kurogane's behalf to get away. "Did Kuro-wanko miss me whilst I was gone?"
"Like hell I did!"
Fai snuzzled against the wolf's side, digging pale fingers into dark fur and making the shinobi yelp. "Kuro-pii is always so cute when he's shy!"
"I am not shy!" Kurogane finally wriggled free of the blond menace, rounding on the idiot with the full intention of giving him a verbal tongue-lashing with accompanying teeth -
Only to get a brightly - and badly - wrapped present shoved in his face.
" - The hell?" The wolf managed. Where had that come from?
Fai beamed at him. "I brought you a souvenir!"
“I don’t want your souvenir!”
“Kuro-tan should at least open it first!” Fai all but bounced in his seat, clapping his hands together and all but sparkling.
Kurogane growled at him. “My name is Kurogane. Not ‘Kuro-pii’, not ‘Kuro-chan’, not ‘Kuro-tan’ - Kurogane.”
“Yes, yes,” Fai flapped his hands, brushing the comment off. “Is Kuro-chii going to open his present now?”
“It’s Kurogane, damn you!”
“Present, Kuro-wankoro!” Fai put his hand over the other’s snout, holding the wolf’s mouth shut. “After I went to such great lengths to bring it back for you-!!” He assumed an expression of woe. “Kuro-chan is so cruel!”
This close…Fai smelled clean. It wasn’t as if…it didn’t smell like he’d just been washed or anything, but that musk that had hung around him the last time he’d come back from visiting his home wasn’t present, although a slight bitterness still clung to him. Fai had been with someone - but not with them, a passing brush of arms, a brief kiss to that pale forehead.
Kurogane wriggled free of the other’s hold again, reluctantly turning towards the ‘souvenir’ Fai had brought him. It was a long thing, wrapped up in cloth and string which Fai, seeing he finally had the wolf’s attention where he wanted it, unwound, revealing the beautifully-decorated sheath inside.
A sword.
Fai pulled it free from its sheath to show him it - it was a fine piece of work, the metal folded and folded and folded to purity, the colour of moonlight on ice.
“It’s a fey blade,” the blond said a little unnecessarily from the side, after a few moments of silence. “One of the best to have come out of the workshops in years, leagues above their other work.”
“And you’re giving it to me.” Kurogane looked at the mage, suspicious. It was a beautiful, well-crafted sword - many warriors would kill to possess such a weapon.
Fai nodded. “As…an engagement gift.” ‘And an apology,’ hung in the air unsaid. “It’s called Souhi.”
“‘Blue Ice’,” Kurogane translated, and the name seemed a good one to him. “Appropriate…but I can’t accept it.” He raised one paw at the mage rather dispiritedly. “No hands.”
“A warrior must have his blade,” Fai insisted. “And you have your hands at night, don’t you? You could do your training exercises then, in the space beside the house. The area’s already charmed - it would take little to wake up the magic there, and shield you from the sight of others that might attempt to watch.”
“…You don’t do magic.” Kurogane had never seen the mage work any actual magic, anyway.
“I wouldn’t need to do any.” Fai busied himself with sheathing the sword again, not meeting the shinobi’s gaze. “It would just be a case of poking what’s already there.”
Kurogane still didn’t trust him. “And why would you do that?”
Fai laughed at the question, finishing his task and raising his hands to the sky in a lazy stretch. “Kuro-pii is such a grouchy housemate - I thought attacking something cute and fluffy with his shiny new sword might help cheer him up!”
Kurogane studied his companion thoughtfully, for once overlooking the stupid pet name. “What makes you think that?”
Fai’s smile was softer as he lowered his hands to his lap again, not looking at the wolf, gaze distant. “Kuro-chan…just seemed like that sort of guy.” Kurogane snorted, and looked aside once more.
They sat in the quiet together, until evening began to fall.
#
The air felt thick and hazy when Watanuki awoke, sitting up from where he’d been lying on his futon for some reason and looking to his side, seeing the sliding door to the porch open. Smoke drifted in, a different sort to the type Yuuko usually brought with her, a bitter ash - cigarettes? It came to him lazily, musingly, tendrils of grey curling around his limbs as he approached the porch, pushing back the door and seeing another boy sitting outside, broad-shouldered, dark-haired. It was he who was smoking, the fireflies of the night fluttering around him, bright in the sky empty of moon and stars.
Watanuki didn’t know the boy - didn’t know this place either, even though it seemed so familiar. It was Yuuko’s shop, and yet it wasn’t.
A firefly came to him, and Watanuki smiled at the bright glow as it landed on his finger. “…Is this a dream?”
The stranger spoke. “How can you say this is not reality, and all else a dream?”
Watanuki let the firefly on his finger go, and moved to kneel at the other’s boy’s side. “You speak like Yuuko-san.”
“The forest witch…” Smoke continued to drift up into the air, thoughtful. “The butterfly is a sign of change, slipping from dream to dream. What changes has she wrought for you, I wonder?”
“The ability to teeter on the edge of a nervous breakdown indefinitely,” Watanuki promptly replied. When his companion only raised an eyebrow he went on. “She’s lazy. She asks for too much. She drinks excessively, eats even more, and makes fun of me constantly.” The other youth continued to look at him. “…And somehow, even though she’s evil, I’m glad to have met her.”
There was a rather dry laugh, and Watanuki looked up to meet the stranger’s gaze - it was older than the rest of his appearance, wiser. This was a man, not a boy.
The stranger took another drag of his cigarette, holding it for a few seconds before blowing out another stream of smoke. “…I hope my grandson hasn’t been troubling you too much?”
“Your grandson?”
“Shizuka.” Serenity, echoed in the peace of the dream, of the starless night, “Doumeki Shizuka.”
“Doumeki?!” Watanuki flailed, scrambling away from the stranger before him in shock. “You’re that bird’s grandfather?!” Watanuki did not want to know how someone’s grandchild hatched from an egg. Really, he didn’t.
The stranger - Doumeki’s grandfather - smiled at him. “I see you know him well.”
“I - you - but he -” Watanuki was at a loss. “His name’s Shizuka?” Wasn’t that a girl’s name? Just wait until he confronted that feathery idiot with the fact that he, Watanuki Kimihiro, knew his great and terrible secret-!! Ah, that would teach the idiot to stay away from his darling Himawari!
“Doumeki Shizuka,” the stranger confirmed, still smiling rather amusedly.
“Ha-!” was Watanuki’s grand response, punching the air -
Only to find himself lying on his back, very much horizontal, with his pillow under his head and his hand sticking up in the air rather oddly. He was back on his futon and, looking to his side, he could see that the sliding door in his room leading to the porch was completely closed. Pushing back his blankets and going to open it Watanuki could see the stars in the night sky outside, the fireflies - and Doumeki’s grandfather - absent from both the porch and the garden.
It had been a dream then. A really vivid, surprisingly coherent dream.
Did that mean it wasn’t true…?
#
The sound of metal hitting deadwood was a surprisingly dull sound, but one that Fai had heard a few times in his much, much younger youth. The fey forgeries had tested their blades by driving them through deadwood - each blade gave a different response depending on type, on quality.
Kurogane liked his sword, handled it well. Inside the house Fai could hear the deadly swish of Souhi through the air, imagining the arc of the silver blade in the moonlight, beneath the stars, gripped by the mysterious Kurogane, the not-wolf.
He’d lied that afternoon. It wasn’t anything new - he lied quite a lot, always had, especially to Kurogane. The magic around the house was there, true, but it wasn’t the sort of magic that could be ‘tapped into’ to make a shield to hide people from watchful eyes. Fai had created the shield himself, whistled up the barrier low and sweet, under his breath when Kurogane had hopefully been far, far out of hearing -
Magic was magic, but he’d used a different sort of magic creating the barrier, hopefully lowered the damage done. He didn’t quite know why he’d said the place would be safe for Kurogane, words tumbling from his lips before he’d truly thought about them, but - but -
Kurogane was such a problem, in so many, many ways. He was irritatingly perceptive at times; blunt, rude, uncivilised, unappreciative, and he drank Fai’s sake.
Fai wanted to move away from the wall he was pressed against, look out of the nearest window, and see him. See what Kurogane looked like. In general. As he was supposed to be. Practicing with the sword Fai had given him.
Curiosity burned inside of Fai, low in his stomach, high in his heart. Was Kurogane human? A faerie? Handsome? Scary? So many questions caught in his throat, heavy on his tongue every day. Fai wanted to know about the enchanted Kurogane, about the ridiculously perceptive wolf, but he didn’t dare to ask, to open up the can of worms. Kurogane had no obligation to tell him anything, anyway.
When Kurogane came in later - it felt like hours later - Fai had lost count of the bottles of alcohol he’d gotten through. He heard the clink as one of Kurogane’s feet touched one of the discards on the floor, setting the thing rolling, lazy circles of thought and intoxication.
Kurogane’s exasperation was tangible. “Idiot mage -”
“Meow,” Fai cut him off with the sound, the word rolling off his tongue in lazy, languid drips of dark amusement, self-satisfaction, hot spatters against the patience of the big scary Kurogane in the big scary dark.
“…What?” The wonderful pause as Kurogane actually questioned his hearing - or perhaps just Fai’s sanity.
“Me-ow,” his companion enunciated clearly for his benefit, Fai stretching out in his sprawl on the couch, luxuriating in the feeling, “meow.”
Souhi thudded when Kurogane dropped it, sheathed, on the ground. “Idiot mage, how much have you had to drink?”
“Mmm, Kuro-wan-wan, that would be telling…” and it would’ve been counting too, something which Fai hadn’t really been doing.
“Stop it with the ridiculous names, already!” Wolf or otherwise, Kurogane had a rather impressive growl. “My name is Kurogane!” The shinobi moved forwards towards the couch, snatching Fai’s arm and pulling the bottle the blond held out of his hand.
Fai made a faintly distressed noise - Kurogane could see in the dark? That really wasn’t fair. “Kuro-pup doesn’t want to play with Fai-kitty? For shame - after Fai-kitty stayed up, too!” Fai moved in the other’s grasp, pushing himself up to his feet. “Was Kuro-kun-kun too busy howling at the moon? Meow, Kuro-wanko’s so very mean!”
“Stop meowing!” Kurogane’s grip tightened on the mage’s arm. It was as stupid as it was annoying.
“Meow,” Fai said by means of a reply, dark humour still present, “meow, meow, meeeeowwww.”
Kurogane couldn’t tell whether the idiot was actually drunk or not - sadly, Fai was nearly always this hopeless. “If you ‘meow’ one more goddamn time -”
Fai stretched up on tip-toes, hand gripping the shirt the other wore as he pressed himself firmly against Kurogane for balance, mouth at the shinobi’s ear in a breathless murmur. “Meow.”
Kurogane felt the other’s smile on his skin, the press of Fai’s frame against his, soft hair tickling his cheek. He could smell the sake the other had been drinking too, the forest the other roamed in, the sweetness time had taught Kurogane was the scent of vanilla and sugar from when Fai baked (or just exploded) things in the kitchen. Fa - the idiot.
Kurogane bent down low in the same instant he hoisted his burden up, lifting the ridiculously light mage and setting his skinny frame on one shoulder, ignoring the surprised eep he managed to withdraw from the mage at the sudden shift in position and height.
He carried Fai up to their bedroom - not that Fai had ever slept in it -, time and practice letting him move easily through the dark house. He dumped Fai down on the bed there; revelling in the oof the idiot gave out as he hit the mattress.
“Kuro-tan -”
“Sleep.” Kurogane could hear the other shifting, sitting up, and he grabbed hold of one slender shoulder, pushing the mage back down. “Now.”
“…I’m still dressed.” Fai’s voice was a little quieter then, sounding just a shade more sober, unusually still as he lay back under the other’s firm hold.
Kurogane - slowly - let the blond go. Fai didn’t move. “Then get changed.” The shinobi rose from the bed. “And go to sleep.”
The blankets shifted, a soft sound as the other hesitantly sat up again. “Kuro-sama -”
Kurogane slammed the door on his way out, cutting short whatever it was the mage had to say, and went downstairs. He only hoped the idiot had left some sake still in the house - he needed some. Badly.
A/N: Oh, the drama of it all. Did some more shifting about of various scenes, swapping them between this chapter and the next. Some of it was to do with story flow, and some of it was to do with the fact that I’m really too blah-y to do them justice right now - fancy words fly straight out of the window when you get ill, really. *pulls blanket over her head*
So much love to SJ this chapter. She was my fifth limb for this chapter, offering me information on Japanese foods and festivals, and just generally being a friendly face whilst I flailed in my little pit of self-pity and woe. That, and she started me on CLAMP’s Wish - that series is so cute, it nearly killed me. *finished it pretty quickly*
(A giant cookie to anyone who guesses what the third ‘item’ it is Syaoran’s going to have to go retrieve in the near future.)