Fic: Ever After (9)

[shadow_of_egypt]

Title: Ever After
Characters/Pairingsp: Characters abound from the multiverse, and if you think you spot a pairing, it’s probably there.  
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: I have a love-hate thing going on with this chapter. Parts of it are too long, parts of it are too short, parts of it make me want to yank my hair out and cry over the OOC. Still, I think this is as happy as I’m ever going to be with it. Due to the length of the fairytale section, pieces in the ‘present’ got cut from this chapter - you’ll see them turn up in the next one instead.

Warnings for…slightly disturbing relationships this time around, some (magical) violence, and a little bad language.
Chapter I | II | III | IV | V |  VI | VII | VIII |


Chapter IX

Once upon a time, a terribly long time ago, a perfect king rode a white horse through the Enchanted Forest, at the head of a hunting party. They were tracking a white doe, a pet of His Majesty, a creature hand-reared at Court for such games - the point of the exercise was to trap the deer without hurting her, the winner of the hunt the one who could first place their golden rope about the doe’s fine neck.

The party had separated somewhat, fanned out combing the trees for the doe. When the creature was spotted a call went up, the hunters diving for the spot. Foremost of all of these was the king, his horse the fleetest, the mount bursting through branches onto the river that flowed through the woods -

The doe watched him from the other bank, and the two children she stood protectively before warily peered around her side. When the doe saw it was the king, the one who had raised her, she nudged the children out from behind her, revealing two young human boys - twins - blond-haired, blue-eyed, with suspicion clearly painted across their faces.

Magic, powerful and potent, rolled off both of them in waves.

The king dismounted from his horse, throwing up a kekkai of sorts around the area with his magic to keep his fellow courtiers out, to stop them frightening both the children and the doe away. He heard their frustration from the other side of the barrier, their confusion at the interruption to the hunt, but he forced their complaints aside, concentrating solely on the twins.

He held out his hand, ignoring the river between them. “How do you do?”

The twins remained silent, looking at him.

The king didn’t drop his hand. “How do you do?” He repeated again, voice casual, light.

One of the boys finally spoke. “Please go away.”

“And leave you so deep in this forest alone?” The king shook his head, black hair down to his shoulders shifting with the motion. “Strange things happen in this place to those who are not where they are supposed to be. Come, I would feel responsible if you were hurt here when I could have aided you both.”

The exclamation came from the same child as before, his brother slinking against his side, taking the speaker’s hand. “We do not want your aid!” The stomach of the twin who had not spoken rumbled audibly, and the boy blushed. His brother looked at him, vaguely exasperated.

“Come,” the king extended a hand once more, still gentle, “I can at least give you both something safe to eat. Some of the plants around here are poisonous.”

They came, slowly and unsurely, nudged along by the doe at their backs. Hand-in-hand they wrote themselves a bridge across the river using their magic, walking over the flowing water with their new animal companion. Waiting for them with the lunch he’d withdrawn from his horse’s pack the king smiled, coaxing them to sit down and join him in his meal, to offer up their names. It was courtesy to know the identities of the people one was dining with, after all.

“Fai,” offered the vocal child eventually, clearly just as hungry as his brother as he tore through some chicken he’d been given.

“Yuui,” his twin added, curiously biting into some silver fruit included in the generous meal.

“And I am Ashura-ou,” their host finished off the introductions, smiling when he saw their attention flicker from the food to him again, interested, “the Faerie King.”

The revelation drew the twins out of their shells somewhat, both boys fascinated by meeting a faerie for the first time - and the king, too. The meal after the introductions was lighter in tone and feeling, Fai and Yuui eating as only the hungry could. They never mentioned how it was they had come to be wandering alone in the forest, and Ashura-ou didn’t press them.

When the meal was done and the twins were helping their host clean up Ashura let his kekkai fall, his courtiers, kept waiting, immediately surging forwards to attend their sovereign, curious as to why His Majesty had left them for so long. They saw the human children at once, felt their magic, and stared as they saw the two boys reach out to instinctively clutch at Ashura-ou’s robes, the white deer still unfettered behind.

“Your Majesty,” one of the faeries reined in his shying horse, calming the creature that was made nervous by the strange human magic coming off of the twins. “Your Majesty, you are quite alright?”

“Perfectly, Kamui.” Ashura-ou laid a hand on each of the human’s shoulders, both boys looking up at him as the Faerie King spoke to the courtiers that had assembled around them. “This is Yuui and Fai. They will both be accompanying me back to Court.”

The courtiers jolted a little, eyeing their king warily, but a grey-eyed one stepped forward, smiling as he dismounted from his horse and reached a hand out to the closest child - Yuui. “Your Majesty, please allow me to assist you by riding with one of the boys, so as to not labour your mount too much.”

Yuui looked at the hand warily, Fai looking at the new faerie’s smile with distrust, and the faerie called Kamui interrupted, pushing past the unnamed one and shoving his hand down. “Ashura-ou, let my brother and I bear the children, one for each of us. It would not do for us to inconvenience Lord Seishirou in any way.”

‘Seishirou’ seemed amused by his own request being overridden. “And yet you, Lord Kamui, would take that inconvenience upon yourself? Come, we all know you have little time for those outside of close family - Lord Subaru and I shall bear a child each, and then we shall match.”

Kamui snarled at him. “Inconvenience or not, I would not leave a child near you.”

Yuui quietly interrupted the debate, pulling at Ashura’s robes and unwittingly drawing the attention of all. “May I please ride with him, Ashura-ou?” He pointed to a green-eyed faerie on the edge of the group, who had been watching Kamui and Seishirou argue. “He looks kind.”

Fai ended the discussion, swiftly following up his brother’s plea. “And I should like to go with Lord Kamui, Ashura-ou.” He trusted his brother’s judgement of character still. Ashura wavered, so he looked up and met the king’s eyes, wide-eyed and pleading. “Please.”

Ashura caved, and so it was Fai rode with Lord Kamui and Yuui with his brother and twin, the Lord Subaru, back to the Faerie Court. Young as the human children were they could not help to note the tension between the twin Lords and the Lord Seishirou, especially when Lord Kamui made a point of riding between his brother and the elder Lord, physically preventing Seishirou from being near Subaru. Seishirou talked over the angry Kamui’s head but Subaru coloured and looked away, so Seishirou focused on Fai instead, the boy clutching at Kamui’s back to keep his balance on the horse and trying to ignore the faerie with the strange, intent grey eyes.

The hunting party entered the Faerie Court to the sound of trumpets, the captured doe led in and drawing courtiers around to admire her as they always did. Far more attention-worthy, however, were the two human children, all eyes looking at the pretty twins with such powerful, tangible magic.

Kamui lifted Fai down from his horse when they finally drew to a halt, escorting the boy and Yuui to the king’s chambers with Subaru. The faerie with the violet gaze was brusque but well-meaning, bowing to the king and pulling Subaru away, leaving the blond twins with Ashura.

Somehow, it came to pass that Fai and Yuui became permanent fixtures of the Court, the human children that Ashura-ou doted on, a stand-in father to them. Often, the attention bestowed on them was to the neglect of his own biological child - but the king had his reasons for staying away, and made sure to keep Fai, Yuui and the child Ashura away from one another, the twins not even informed of the existence of the Faerie heir.

The twins lived a happy life, for the few months they remained at the Court. Whatever they asked for - and quite a few things that they didn’t - were granted to them - clothes, toys, games, books. They were taught faerie lore and faerie magic, music, tricks and etiquette, sports and lessons to train their young minds - they excelled in most. It became quickly obvious Ashura-ou delighted in seeing them happy, having gifts brought for them from the land of Valeria, words in their original tongue, and they were guarded fiercely from the rogue fey outside the Court, the somewhat darker fey who flitted within. To the Court, Fai and Yuui were the king’s darlings, faerie princes without faerie blood or crown. They held no official rank but were treated as if they did, and few were allowed to remain close to them, to keep care over them when His Majesty was detained elsewhere.

Lord Subaru was one of the (un)lucky few, Yuui having taken a strong liking to him since that very first meeting, pleased with the noble’s soft tone, his friendly smiles. Fai approved of him as well, and so it came to be, one day, that the twins and Subaru were in the boys’ room, the faerie having plaited Yuui’s hair - long, like his brother’s, after failing to be cut for a while - and just started on Fai’s.

“Subaru-san,” Yuui was going through a book as the faerie Lord was occupied with Fai, “why is it that most of the people in this Court are kept away from us?”

“Because you are precious to His Majesty,” Subaru easily replied, “and he fears you might be taken advantage of should everyone be allowed near you.”

Fai looked a little perplexed. “What about us would they take advantage of?”

Their carer hesitated a little. “…Your magic.”

“What about it?” Both twins, in chorus, listening attentively to the Lord.

“…It is because you’re so magically strong,” Subaru told them slowly, distracted, still braiding Fai’s hair as he spoke. “It feels good to us, as we are a magical race - like food, in a way. That could be taken advantage of.”

Yuui frowned slightly. “You would eat us?”

Subaru smiled back, and shook his head. “It would be too much like stealing, to feed on your magic. There are other sources - less strong, but other sources.”

“What of the other faeries?” Fai questioned. “The ones that wouldn’t mind a little theft?”

“The king’s protection is upon you,” Subaru assured him. “No sane faerie would dare touch either of you, Ashura-ou would be beyond furious.”

Another day, another time, and Fai was with the Lord Kamui, Yuui asleep in their chambers. Kamui was not kind in the way Subaru was. Kamui was blunt and often disinterested, and very cold quite a lot of the time to everyone they encountered. Fai had only seen Kamui smile when Subaru was with them, and the rest of the time his mind seemed somewhere else. Fai liked Kamui - the faerie was straightforward and relatively easy to understand, and didn’t twist his words like some of the other fey did. Although fey couldn’t lie they could still interpret the truth in creatively misleading ways - Kamui didn’t do that, and so Fai liked to walk with him, listening when the noble occasionally spoke.

They walked in on Subaru and Seishirou, and Kamui instantly dove for the latter faerie’s throat.

Seishirou moved away before Kamui could swipe him, the grey-eyed faerie smiling out a genteel greeting that jarred horribly with the situation. Kamui hissed at him, the sound of an angry cat, but Subaru laid a hand on his brother’s arm, drawing Kamui’s attention.

His twin looked incredulous. “You want this?” Subaru remained silent. “With that thing?” He pointed one hand at Seishirou accusingly, the taller creature brushing himself down with absolutely no regards to the other two faeries. “Subaru!”

“Come, Lord Kamui - don’t be a hypocrite.” Seishirou’s smooth words only earned him a violet glare. “Your own dalliances with my little brother -”

Kamui all but stamped his foot, pulling at Subaru’s hand to get his brother away. “There is nothing between Lord Fuuma and I, save that idiot’s persistence! You and he are two sides of the same twisted coin - both of you are poison.”

“You always did think so highly of us…” Seishirou only seemed amused at the insults, watching to the side as Kamui all but dragged his twin from the room. “But, Kamui…aren’t you forgetting something?” Despite himself, Kamui stopped, turned, and was met with the sight of Seishirou laying a hand on the forgotten Fai’s head, the human child very much confused by the situation he’d just witnessed. Seishirou crouched down so he was at the boy’s eye-level, petting blond hair before glancing back to a fuming faerie. “Shouldn’t you be watching your charge?”

Kamui froze, jarred by the reminder of the child he was supposed to be watching over, his duty. “…Ashura-ou will have your head if you harm that boy.”

“Do I look as if I’m hurting him?” Kamui gritted his teeth, Seishirou turning his attentions back to a stricken Fai, raising one of the child’s pale hands and kissing its back. “We should be friends, I think, little bocchan.” He smiled, eyes closed, head tilted in a manner that on many would be considered charming. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“I…” Fai tried to pull his hand back, but Seishirou’s grip was too strong, still trapping his small palm in place with his fingers. “I already have friends.”

“That’s right…you’re friends with Subaru-kun, aren’t you? He’s my friend too - that’s why we’re so very close.” With his free hand, Seishirou tucked a loose strand of gold hair behind Fai’s ear, expression pleasant as his human companion slowly grew more flustered, unsure of what exactly to do. “I’d like to be your friend, Fai-bocchan.” There was more than a thread of magic in his words.

“Seishirou -” Subaru called out uncertainly, not sure what the older faerie was trying to do.

Fai faltered, feeling the magic first-hand, a slow, creeping in his senses that quietly began to hush his complaints, muffling his insecurities in a blue haze - his own magic, his own logic, slowly being twisted against him. “…Alright…”

“Good boy.” The spell broke when Seishirou suddenly stood upright, ushering the slightly dazed Fai along and into Kamui’s hold, leaning over to lay a quick kiss to a worried Subaru’s temple before Kamui could shove him away again. Seishirou only smiled again - always smiling -, and breezed off back to where he’d come from. Still bewildered, unsure of just what he’d agreed to, Fai was quickly escorted back to the rooms he shared with Yuui.

The twins went everywhere with Ashura-ou, when they could. The Faerie Court was a fascinating place, as was the spirit mountain the Court resided in. The air there was pure, so pure, the wind distracting both children from the memories of the past, Ashura encouraging them both to smile, to laugh and enjoy themselves. It usually worked, only some days, when Yuui felt a little ill, or coughed one time too many, did the smiles slip, Fai morose and repentant, Yuui trying to comfort him, and nothing Ashura-ou or anyone else tried to do could coax a smile from either boy. Those were the sad days, the weary days, Yuui tired and Fai miserable, hiding away from everyone, refusing to talk.

The days where it was perfectly possible for Seishirou to come with his magic around him, and coax Fai - a human easily susceptible to the spells of the fey - into going with him to a place ‘no-one would surely ever think to look’.

The Faerie Court was a concentric construction of a place - although not a perfect circle it was undoubtedly built around an epicentre, a sheltered courtyard protected by high walls and a kekkai overhead. It had once been the original Throne Room, but a century or so back a human magician friendly with the king had worked his magic there, a large enchanted sakura tree taking root and growing up towards the sky. The tree bloomed all year round in all weather and, at night, under the glow of the moonlight, each delicate blossom was gilded with fine frost, the branches heavy - but never groaning - with icicles. The Throne Room had, since then, been relocated, and the courtyard had become a sacred place, protected, a place where few ever went - save for nightfall, when the frost came and left the tree magically undamaged.

Seishirou took Fai to the courtyard and Fai willingly went, halfway enchanted and a little slow both in speed of body and mind, a blue haze fogging his thoughts again, twisted by Seishirou’s smile. Ashura-ou was busy, Subaru and Kamui were elsewhere, and Yuui was ill and resting, worn-out from trying to cheer his brother up earlier.

The sakura blossoms were in the air, a pale pink carpet over the grass around the enchanted tree, petals fluttering onto outstretched hands. It was the first time Fai had seen a tree like it, wonder creeping through the spell growing on him, his feet shifting a little faster so he could reach out to touch the ancient bark, small fingertips trailing twisting grooves in the old wood. A larger hand covered his and Fai glanced up, felt breath ruffle the wisp of his hair at his ear, warm and dark despite its lightness.

“I like sakura blossoms too.”

Fai consented to be ushered to a seat on a thick, upturned root, leaning back against the tree-trunk as Seishirou sat on the grass beside him just…talking. Telling stories, speaking of the older times for faeries, faraway human kingdoms made of sand and heat, the prophecy for which the sakura tree had been originally grown. His words were magic, enrapturing as stories alone but laced with deliberate enchantment, Fai lulled into perfect calm, mind loose and wandering below the falling petals, floating away to the distant times Seishirou spoke of.

Fai dreamed whilst awake, the hazy blue of his magic rising to the surface of his skin, setting him strangely aglow. His half-closed eyes were bright - gem bright -, his skin snow-white, his hair thin threads of curling silver. His magic hung around him, an aura, a childish sweetness thickly edged with grief and guilt and sorrow. He was a twin, true, but his magic signature was truly unique, a tangible presence that was solely Fai, raw and bleeding into the air quite unconsciously.

Seishirou watched the boy breathe, Fai’s chest rising and falling, such a fragile thing that could be stopped easily when the human was in such a state. It wouldn’t take magic - a hand over the child’s mouth and nose would choke the boy, survival instincts dimmed and lost to dreams and stories. He reached out a hand to cup the abandoned prince’s cheek, dragging a thumb across the boy’s lips and feeling Fai’s breath as they parted instinctively, slow, soft, so small and insignificant. The conundrum of a contradiction, such powerful magic locked inside a delicate, breakable frame. If allowed, this child would grow up to have fire in him, a furnace searing with cold.

Seishirou kissed the boy whilst Fai was still bewitched, taking the child’s face into his hands and stealing another shred of the boy’s innocence without a qualm. Fai’s magic was strong and sharp and bittersweet, stolen with lips and tongue as Seishirou almost drowned himself in the blue, heavy and heady, feeling his own magic spark and flare with the onslaught of sustenance.

“…FAI!”

It was Yuui’s voice that finally snapped Fai out of his mental wanderings, his brother’s shriek slicing through layer upon layer of enchantment in one trembling heartbeat, echoing in the blossom-laced air across the courtyard, blue eyes wide and confused and upset at the door, held back by a shaking hand - Subaru, the Lord Yuui always went to. Subaru, who Yuui had pleaded with to help find his errant twin upon finding Fai still missing. Subaru, whose face was white, whiter than usual, splashed with betrayal and anger and -

Fai’s temper, when he was in control of himself, was enough to blast Seishirou into one of the distant walls of the protected courtyard, destroying that section of the wall and breaking a few of the faerie’s bones in the process. The faerie's right eye was ruined, the point that Fai had slammed his hand against when pushing Seishirou off of him, the boy’s breathing ragged, harsh, as Yuui stumbled across the grass to his brother, holding him, too shocked by the display by actually say anything.

Fai wouldn’t - he didn’t - only Yuui -

It wasn’t fair.

The commotion drew the crowds, babbling, chattering, whispering, Kamui drawn from the unknowable distance to support his own shaking twin, protectively glaring down those gossiping and holding Subaru. When he spotted Seishirou, the cause of the mayhem, Subaru’s current woe, he hissed, his nails extending into razor claws as he stalked away from his brother and towards the injured faerie. He’d slit the monster’s throat before he could stand -

“Kamui~!” Something unpleasant ingrained itself between the incensed faerie and the fallen Seishirou, smiling brightly in the face of the former’s wrath. “How wonderful to see you here.”

“Get out of my way.” Kamui glared through Fuuma, the bastard’s brother, his temper only increasing when the idiot smiled wider in response to the command. “I’m going to kill him this time, and nothing you do is going to stop me.”

“Ah, but you see,” Fuuma side-stepped when Kamui tried to go past him, effortlessly blocking the other’s path, “my mother might just get a little upset if I let you slaughter my onii-san. She’s dreadfully attached to her first baby, you know.”

“Get out of my way, Fuuma!”

The taller faerie only sighed, pushing up the glasses on his nose as he looked down at the simmering creature before him. “Have I ever told you how lovely you look when you’re angry?”

“Fuuma-!”

“That. Is. Enough.”

Conversation stuttered and died, all eyes swivelling to the form of the Faerie King, Ashura-ou stalking imperiously into the courtyard, the temperature dropping significantly with each sharp staccato step.

“Your Majesty.”

“Your Majesty.”

Faeries bowed across the courtyard, Kamui losing his claws as he dipped his head, feeling the cold gold gaze rake his and Fuuma’s forms disapprovingly, the fallen Seishirou, the damaged walls, the state of the adopted children by the sakura tree. Undoubtedly, the rumours had already reached him about what exactly had happened.

Fuuma raised his head slightly. “Ashura-ou, please forgive my impertinence, but my onii-sama -” Seishirou would need medical attention.

Kamui bit out at that, glaring at the other faerie. “Lord Seishirou -”

“Let him bleed there;” the king snapped, his courtiers rendered mute again in deference, something hissing and malicious taking the royal’s guise for that moment, rearing under the lovely crown. “He is not my first priority.”

“Majesty…” Kamui could only trail off a little helplessly as Ashura swept past them, heading for the tree and the two boys still crouched there.

Fai shied away from Ashura, skittish, both he and his brother close to tears as the past plucked at them, mirror shards and shatterglass. “I didn’t - I didn’t mean -”

Yuui pulled at the faerie’s arm, worried. “Please don’t be mad.” Both of them could’ve been half their age, softly pleading. “Please don’t be mad.” No more curses, no more anger, no more manipulation -

“Why ever,” Ashura asked, brushing away the tears he could see budding in the youngest boy’s eyes, smiling gently when Fai looked up as well, “would I be mad?” The children had done nothing wrong.

Xing Huo had gotten mad. She’d gotten so horribly mad, and cursed them because they’d killed her. Fai could still remember the soft weight of her body, dark curls matted with blood.

Fai wavered, disbelieving, distrustful - only Yuui had never lied to him, only Yuui had loved unconditionally, only Yuui had stayed. Only Yuui -

Ashura met his gaze simply, honestly, and his words carried the weight of his promise. “I’m not mad.” Faeries couldn’t lie.

Fai flung himself at the king, wrapping his arms tightly around the faerie’s neck and clinging, letting Ashura hold him, stroke his hair. Yuui edged in on the other side, pressing close to his brother and receiving a soft kiss to his brow, wrapped in the king’s hold like his twin.

“My precious children…” the words escaped Ashura as a weary sigh, the faerie looking to Yuui after a few seconds. “Can you walk?”

Slowly, the boy nodded, understanding as their self-declared guardian picked up Fai and carried him - Fai was the one trembling the most, refusing to let go of his death-grip on the king. Yuui stuck close to Ashura as they left the courtyard, hanging back a few steps when His Majesty ordered everyone out of the enclosure save Fuuma and the still-injured Seishirou, ordering the former not to let the latter leave the courtyard before Ashura dealt with him, on pain of both their lives.

Ashura took them to their rooms, and gave Fai a draught of something to make him sleep. Yuui was offered it as well but refused, crawling onto his brother’s bed when the king left the room and curling himself around his brother’s sleeping form, petting golden hair that matched his own. A little comfort, but a comfort all the same.

The next few days were a blur. Seishirou was punished - he wasn’t killed, but even Lord Fuuma’s smile faltered when he heard the toll for his sibling’s actions, and Yuui and Fai were forbidden from hearing the details. Kamui and Subaru came to visit the children, crouching down and whispering goodbyes; they were leaving the Faerie Court - for good it seemed.

Ashura-ou granted the title of ‘D’ to Fai - the highest rank of mage for the fey. When some protested - and some did protest - their king only pointed out the still-healing Seishirou, a faerie many had been unable to defeat. Fai had overcome him in a single blast; Seishirou would never regain sight in his right eye.

To both twins the king gave a new last name, a symbol of his guardianship over them, their final abandonment of their old lives. ‘Fluorite’, they were named, for the gems that adorned the Court and the person of the king, stones of protection and loyalty.

Ashura-ou left his Court one night after making a secret deal with a Witch, and he took both Yuui and Fai with him. The children had only known the Court for a few months, but that had been more than enough. They were schooled; they knew the dangers of such a place well, and were perfectly content to abandon that life for a new home outside the spirit mountain, in the depths of the woods. They found a sort of happiness there together, a small family of three, and for eight years life was peace.

And then the twins turned nineteen - one year off twenty, and their curse took lethal effect.

Yuui became terminally ill.

#

The rattle of beads gave the portal’s existence away, a thousand delicate little clinks as the faerie on the other side shifted slightly, peering through the obscuring layers of opium smoke that cloaked the room, curling in patterns almost as fathomless as the smoker’s mind.

“Yuuko-san.”

The door to the room was fumbled open, Watanuki loudly elbowing his way in with his usual complaints (slightly quieter due to the late hour and his own weariness) and a tray in his hands, bringing in a gust of fresher air, stirring up the smoke haze to the point where the portal could be seen.

“Agh!” The youth yelped, tired and seeing a face looming in mid-air, his movements jolting the tray and sending some of his bowls up into the air. He leapt for them, managing somehow to not break anything, getting everything re-arranged neatly and presenting the whole lot to Yuuko, bright red, just as the witch put down her smoking pipe and burst into rapturous applause for the acrobatic display. (It was a wonder she didn’t wake up the black Mokona, dozing on the seat beside her and burbling something about sake and cake.)

“Yuuko-san.” The faerie - and floating face - who had summoned up the portal sounded just a shade more impatient than before, clipped words sounding over the clapping.

“Ashura,” Yuuko eyed the Faerie Regent from her couch, pouring herself something to drink from the selection Watanuki had brought her. “Don’t you owe me some wine?”

“I came to offer my apologies.” The child of Ashura-ou was a beautiful creature - one who would look all the lovelier if they ever smiled. It was such a pity then, that time and events rarely seemed to lend Ashura any good occasion to do so. “It appears I shall have to delay the delivery until tomorrow - I have a problem with my messenger.”

“Doumeki-kun?” Yuuko paused, and glanced up.

Watanuki muttered something under his breath - apparently the boy was placing bets that ‘that stupid bird will have knocked himself out by flying into a wall’.

Ashura raised a hand on the other side of the portal, gesturing to something to his right, and the image shifted, revealing a familiar golden eagle upon his perch, worrying at his own feathers with his beak. That would’ve been fine; that would’ve been normal, if only, when Doumeki turned his head towards those watching, his right eye hadn’t apparently been sealed shut by a spider-web, sticky strands embedded deep under golden feathers and skin, rendering the eye useless.

“What…” Watanuki faltered, rubbed his own eyes as if to clear any drowsiness he had from them, thinking he’d somehow fallen asleep standing up and was dreaming. Nothing changed, so he looked rather helplessly to Yuuko. “What is that?”

The woman was thin-lipped, serious. It was never a good thing when Yuuko was serious. “A grudge.” That blinded people? “You took something from the spiders today, and they’ve taken something back.”

“…It was a flower!” That had belonged to spiders, apparently. So those sticky ropes had been… Watanuki slipped down on the seat beside Yuuko, his knees suspiciously wobbly all of a sudden. “How can they exchange a flower for an eye?”

“It’s a grudge, Watanuki-kun, not equal exchange.” Yuuko picked up her pipe again, drawing in some of her smoke before releasing it in a long breath, wisps framing her face, the scarlet of her eyes. “Grudges are irrational things.”

“But…” Watanuki searched for an answer, “grudges fade, don’t they? In time?”

“Eventually.” More smoke, and Watanuki coughed, feeling it catch in the back of his throat. “When the memory of the injustice done fades. Spiders, however, have long memories.”

“And so my messenger is rendered useless,” Ashura seemed angry - and probably rightfully so -, something feral sneaking out from under the fine clothes and manners, “and the trade we agreed upon is void.”

Yuuko studied the faerie. “Doumeki-kun is quite incapable of his duties?”

“His depth-perception is gone, and he has injured himself twice in this past hour alone by flying into objects.” Each observation was another strike to Watanuki, the youth trying to tell himself that it didn’t matter, that it was only Doumeki, but the guilt gnawed at him the same. “He misses things thrown at him from his right side, and is unfit to traverse the dangers of either the mortal forest or the spirit mountain. Useless to us, at least half the Court has demanded he be eaten, and Yuuko-san, I cannot have a revolt upon my hands. Not now.”

Watanuki jolted up at the comments, wide-eyed and aghast. “You can’t kill him for that!” Simply because - it was only an eye and -

Ashura glared at him for his outburst, and, for an instant, there was barely any sentience in the faerie’s gold eyes. That had looked like - “What use is a messenger bird that cannot fly?” The Faerie Regent’s gaze burned a slitted, angry gold, a flash of potent danger that had Yuuko lay a hand upon Watanuki’s shoulder, silencing the youth before he could cry out again. Some things - terrible things - were hereditary, and Watanuki had a life that was complicated enough without calling down more supernatural wrath upon his head.

The witch spoke instead, her voice quiet. “Everything has its use in this world, Ashura. Everything and everyone.”

Some of the faerie’s fierce glow faded, rage dying down to be replaced with a weary sadness. “Even if it is to only cause heartbreak?”

Yuuko dropped her hand. “Fate is kind to few.” Mokona mumbled sleepily beside her and the witch put down her pipe, petting the little creature until he went back to his happily oblivious snoozing.

Ashura looked pensive. “…I’ll wait three days, Yuuko-san.” One hand pushed back some of the faerie’s dark hair, brushing it away from the aquiline face. “To see if the grudge will fade. I can’t promise anything after that.”

“I never asked you to,” Yuuko murmured.

“Of course not.” Ashura’s laughter was a sharp bark, tinged with bitterness. “That would count as a wish, wouldn’t it? And then you’d owe me something.” The faerie shook their head, as if amused by the thought. “I’ll see to it that you get your wine tomorrow.”

“My thanks,” Yuuko nodded, and Ashura cut the connection between them, the portal crumbling and vanishing into nothing like a bad dream.

Watanuki looked immediately to the woman beside him, the witch already reaching for her waylaid drink. “Yuuko-san,” she didn’t look at him, but the slight tilt of her head let Watanuki knew he had Yuuko’s attention. (He’d never really lost it - she already knew what he was going to say.) “Yuuko-san, I have a wish.”

#

The house was dark and cold, empty as the house Fai had left behind him in such haste, yanking on clothes and grabbing Souhi before heading immediately out of the door into the garden beside the waterfall, hurrying into the forest at night-time to get to the one whose magic had sent Kurogane away. Souhi whacked into his hip as he ran - he’d never been terribly fond of swords -, his cloak streaking behind him, a whirl of cloth almost as chaotic as his guilty mind. Kurogane had warned him-!

“Faiii…” Chii sounded piteous when the blond slammed open the front door to the home she shared with Ashura-ou, springing from the chair she’d been shivering in and running to Fai, clinging to him.

“Chii,” Fai hugged the girl, letting some of his warmth bleed into her - she was freezing. “Chii, where is Ashura-ou?” It had been Ashura’s magic around Kurogane; Ashura, therefore, who would know where Kurogane was -

“Ashura-ou is gone.” Chii looked miserable, her brown eyes far too bright, brimming with tears. She probably felt he’d left because of her, or something -

“Where?”

“Chii doesn’t know.” The girl buried her face in Fai’s chest, and the mage felt wetness touch his shirt. “Chii was making Ashura-ou some tea in the kitchen and when Chii came back to the library where Ashura-ou had been all the lights were off and Ashura-ou wasn’t there. Chii doesn’t understand - did Chii do something wrong to make Ashura-ou go away?”

“No,” Fai assured her gently, hugging her a little more tightly, smiling when he heard the girl let out her quiet trademark ‘chi’. “You haven’t done anything wrong, Chii - this isn’t your fault.” His pet snuggled into him a little more. “Chii, how long ago did Ashura-ou leave?”

“Hours,” she replied - long before Kurogane had vanished. Had…Ashura known…?

Impossible.

Fai was still for a little while, resting his chin on Chii’s head as he thought. Ashura had gone; Kurogane had gone, but it had been Ashura’s magic that had removed him. Fai knew where neither of the two were, and could only feel a lingering trace in the forest of the spell that had been worked near the waterfall, a dying scent that was quickly being overrun by his own magical workings on or near those grounds. He tried stretching out with his mind to follow the trail, and drew to a blank. His own presence, his own magical strength, eroded the path even as he tried to go along it. Only a simpler creature might -

“Chii…” Fai’s whisper broke through the quiet, his pet raising her head at his low call. “Chii, would you do a favour for me?” The girl only blinked, gaze liquid as she slowly took in what her Fai was asking of her. “Would you go after Kuro-sama for me, wait with him and keep him company until I can reach you both?”

The child smiled, brilliant. “Chii will do anything for Fai.”

“I’ll give you wings,” her creator spoke, already drawing the symbols into the air, a circle of glowing blue and write, “so that you can fly to him. You’ll change back into your original form when you meet him, so that you know you’ll have definitely found the right man.”

“Chii will be a bird?” Chii seemed delighted by the news, still smiling as Fai’s magic wrapped around her, enveloping her form.

She shrank to the floor until she was about the same size as a starling, her features blurring in a glow as she grew a beak, wings and claws. Her feathers were white, the colour of her clothes that night, flecked with the gold of her hair. Her eyes were still the same honey-brown, sentient as she gave a quick flap to reach Fai’s outstretched hand, landing on the mage’s clothed wrist and chirping up at him.

Fai smiled at her, summoning up the dregs of his warmth to assure Chii that everything was alright, brushing one finger down his pet’s back in a gentle stroke. “You make a beautiful bird, Chii.”

Chii only chirped again, pleased at the attention. She could understand him perfectly, he could tell that by the cock of her head, but her vocal cords weren’t suited for speech.

“Can you feel the magic out by the waterfall?” Fai asked her. “It feels like Ashura-ou.” There was a pause, Chii still as Fai carried her to the nearest window, pushing open the glass so that he night breeze blew in over them both.

Chii chirped again - yes, she could sense the magic.

“Kuro-sama will be at the end of the trail,” wherever that was. “Go to him;” Fai raised Chii closer to his face, and kissed the top of the little bird’s head. “Tell him I said sorry.”

Chii took off from her perch then, diving out of the open window and into the night. The moon caught her wings and made her glow, and then she swept into the shadow of the trees, into the darkness, and was lost from sight. The forest and house were quiet again without her, empty and bereft of any reason to stay.

Fai left the house, and headed for Yuuko’s.