Nihon: Twofold (2)

[shadow_of_egypt]

Title: Twofold
Characters/Pairings: KuroFai, others mentioned
Rating: M - warnings (and I do so hate giving warnings) for violence, possible (probable) OC death, bad language, and definite citrus content. Possibly (probably) other dark stuff too. *absently tacks that last bit on, just in case*
Summary: To the neighbouring nation of Chugoku Kurogane and Fai go, there to finalise and sign an important peace treaty between that empire and Nihon. It should’ve been a relatively simple enterprise, had the Emperor been willing to keep his word, but that no longer seems to be the case. Despite the talk of peace Chugoku looks set for war, and if that’s what the empire wants Fai and Kurogane will willingly give them it.
A/N: Oh, this chapter’s a bit belated. I’m writing it pretty slowly…I seem to find myself thinking about this one a lot more than I do with my other stories, I’m not quite sure why. This chapter’s much milder in content than the last one was, in terms of...pretty much everything. ^^;
I hope you all have a happy New Year!

Part I

*****

Shizkomoto Akemi had horrible timing. After the long dinner Kurogane had excused himself and Fai as politely as he could manage whilst Fai was still emotionally thunderstruck and a horrific headache was beating itself into a frenzy inside his skull, taking them both back to the mage’s rooms and trying to get the man out of the strange daze he’d sunk into.

“Kuro-sama,” Fai said eventually, the ninja’s real hand cupping his cheek, red gaze frowning unrelentingly into his vision. Fai raised his own hand, laying it over Kurogane’s tan one and smiling, softly, small. “I’m alright.”

“You -”

“I’m alright,” Fai said again, and Kurogane let the matter drop, because he could see truth in the other’s eyes. “It just…surprised me. There’s nothing as strange as meeting one’s self, ne?” Fai dropped his hand and Kurogane followed suit, Fai going to undo his sash and pull off his over-robe. “Kuro-chan, would you help me with this?”

Kurogane did so, pulling it off and dumping the blue material down on the nearby bed. “We’ve met other-world versions of you before.” He paused, Fai going to sit on the bed beside his discarded clothes. “If I remember right, you ended up having a glaring match with the last one when he tried to leap on me.”

Fai snorted, leaning forward and putting his chin on his hands, his elbows resting on his knees. “The last version of ‘me’ wasn’t so…” He searched for a word, “little.”

“He also didn’t have his brother with him.”

Fai drew in a breath, and then slowly, resignedly, expelled it again. “No.”

“Then -”

Then Shizkomoto Akemi burst in, quite without introduction, a flurry of robes and scrolls and windmilling arms - not that either of the two already in the room knew who he was at first.

“Fluorite-san! I just heard - I’ve been to organise and fetch up some of my information and I’ve sent one of the slaves to fetch Kurogane-san and -” The man suddenly paused as Fai stared at him, Kurogane glaring and laying his hand on his sword. “Oh, he’s already here.”

“Who the hell are you?” It was a testament to Kurogane’s training that he hadn’t lunged straight away for the stranger who had so suddenly arrived - but the man had spoken Nihongo, and didn’t exactly look like an assassin, so Kurogane settled for a dark, bloody glare, voice barely above a growl.

“Fluorite-sama!!” The doors to the room banged open once more and Taro tripped in at a run, stumbling over the hem of his formal robes. “Fluorite-sama, I’ve -” he spotted Kurogane’s rather vicious expression, and stopped short. “Um -”

“Taro,” Fai spoke up rather helpfully from the bed, “what are you-?”

The doors to the room were pushed open for a third time and suddenly the chambers were full of people, all bearing scrolls and prattling loudly about something or other and quite oblivious to the dark cloud of doom growing over by the bed, the way Fai put his hand to his temples showing both the visible signs of a headache and personal knowledge of just what was about to come -

“THAT’S IT!!” Kurogane’s roar drowned out everything else, coming from the throat of a man who’d had to command the respect of a yard full of squabbling soldiers, a ninja on the battlefield yelling out his most powerful attack. As Kurogane paused to take a slight breath the room (save Fai) regarded him with slack jaws, utterly stunned, a few of the gaggle actually dropping some of their scrolls. Kurogane looked homicidal. “ALL OF YOU - OUT! NOW!!”

There was a sudden mass exodus for the door, the crowd shoving at one another to be the first to get away from the scary, scary man radiating lethal vibes of death and doom and destruction, a squabble to get out and away as fast as was physically possible. Eventually, the room was empty, save for a few abandoned scrolls and the odd slipper lying about, but Kurogane continued to glare at the door.

A timid head - no doubt elected by straw, or some other hastily-devised plan - poked itself around the barrier. “Kurogane-sama -”

“AND DON’T COME BACK UNTIL YOU’VE ALL LEARNED TO KNOCK!”

There was an ‘eep’ and the head abruptly vanished, the door clicking shut.

Fai dissolved into laughter that was bordering on being hysterical, falling backwards on the bed with his arms spread wide on either side of him, gazing up at the ceiling. He sounded more than a little deranged, but out poured his resentment at the worlds, the pain of irony, the surprise of having his room suddenly invaded by dozens of clucking unknowns. He laughed until his ribs ached and he was breathless, lolling to the side to see Kurogane looking at him like he’d lost his mind.

Fai smiled, stretching out an arm to him and pulling Kurogane to sit beside his sprawled form on the bed. “I’m alright, Kuro-chan - really.”

Kurogane still looked a little doubtful, but he raised his free hand to lift some of Fai’s golden fringe from where it fell across the mage’s face, brushing it back with his fingers. “Both your eyes are gold.”

The slightly distant way the other said the words informed Fai just what shade of gold his eyes had gone - vampire. His fangs felt sharper than usual inside his mouth, pointed canines on the soft pad of his tongue. “Saa?” He rolled over onto his stomach, propping his chin up with one hand. “Does Kuro-chu think it makes me look pretty?”

Kurogane growled at him. “Stop fishing for compliments.”

“But Kuro-pii-!” Fai pushed himself up onto his knees, leaning in close to his lover’s face. “An artful kitty must know how to fish~.”

Kurogane placed a steadying hand on the mage’s arm, the slightest of smiles touching his mouth. “This is from the idiot who still shudders every time he so much as looks at sushi?”

“The heavens gave us fire for a reason, Kuro-tan. Food should be cooked before being eaten, not served up raw with vinegar and rice.” Fai wrinkled his nose, the action impossible to miss since he was so close to Kurogane, words breathed out against the ninja’s lips -

There was a tiny knock at the door.

Kurogane scowled. “I’m going to kill them.”

Fai kissed him quickly, chastely, before falling back onto the sheets more comfortably, sitting cross-legged and letting his eyes lose their glow, returning to their usual mismatched gold and blue. “You might get blood on the pretty carpet.” When Kurogane looked as though he were about to retort Fai laid a slender finger on his lips, and called out to the one(s) knocking. “Come in.”

Taro came in first, with the stranger who had first burst in before right behind him, and three members of the gabbling throng that had come after. The rest had probably - thankfully - been dismissed. “Fai-sama, Kurogane-sama,” the scholar looked somewhat repentant, “we wish to apologise for our untimely and ungraceful entrance before.”

“In my haste to assist I seem to have lost my manners.” The officious stranger beside Taro spoke up, the scholar fading into the background beside him. “I am Shizkomoto Akemi, the permanent Nihon ambassador here in the Chugokian Court.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Shizkomoto-san.” Fai nodded his head at the man. It was a relief to slip back into Nihongo.

Kurogane was less polite. “What do you want?”

“…My spies have informed me that His Imperial Majesty has just tonight ordered a good deal of his clerks to re-investigate the history of the Chief Mage’s slave apprentices,” Shizkomoto drew himself up to his full height, the three people accompanying him and Taro shifting a little nervously. “They’re trying to prove that they have a familial connection with you, Fluorite-san.” After all, anyone just looking at the twins and Fai together would think the three were related - and they were, in a strange, interdimensional sort-of way that was impossible to explain to someone who was unaware of the existence of other worlds. “While in Chugoku we are subject to the Emperor’s law, and if it were proven there was a relation -”

“If it was proven there was a relation,” Fai said quietly, “then I would be subject to Imperial rule in the same way my ‘relatives’ were subject.”

“What?” Kurogane’s growl made everyone (save the seated Fai) take an automatic step back.

Fai looked up at Shizkomoto. “That is correct, isn’t it?” The man only nodded. “They won’t find any link between us, don’t worry. All my blood kin are dead.”

“Even your extended-?”

Fai’s tone sharpened slightly, but he was smiling pleasantly. “I said all, Shizkomoto-san.”

The permanent ambassador looked vaguely apologetic. “There are a lot of rumours flying around this Court about you, Fluorite-san; it’s hard to tell what the truth is, and what has been fabricated.”

“Good,” said Kurogane shortly. The less Chugoku knew about Fai, the better.

Shizkomoto glanced at him, before returning his attention to Fai. “Is it true that you defended the Tsukoyomi from the mercenary army that attacked about midsummer? There are whispers that not a man walked away from the enemy’s side; they were all turned to ashes when you raised a strange kekkai that slaughtered those outside of it.”

Slowly, Fai shook his head, disliking being reminded of that time and those events. He looked like little more than a wraith in his strange, flowing robes of white. “I don’t really remember what I did at midsummer, Shizkomoto-san. I was sick at the time, feverish.”

“…It’s true,” Kurogane said tersely, nodding, answering for his lover. “Partially, anyway. I was with the princess when the kekkai came down; everyone within about twenty metres on the outside perimeter was incinerated. Some of the dogs did survive though - they either took their injured or slit the throats of their dying, and then fled.”

Taro stared. “…So powerful, even though you were taken with fever…?” There was little wonder the Chugokian Empire would want to lay claim to such a weapon - it would be one less barrier in the acquisition of Nihon as a tributary nation, a subservient state.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

“…What are the scrolls for, Shizkomoto-san?” Fai raised a hand to gesture at the three men behind the ambassador, all bearing said scrolls with an air of extreme nervousness.

“Ah-!” Shizkomoto leapt back to himself, motioning the men forwards to hurriedly dump their precious loads on the bed before Kurogane and Fai. “I compiled these for you… This is everything that is known about Liu Bao-san’s students, those twins. Since they’re trying to prove that you are related to them in some way, Fai-san, I thought this might be relevant to you.”

The twins had no true recorded names as, as slaves, the Empire technically neglected to grant them any, but it was known that they called each other by the names they claimed they’d be born with, and that the Chief Mage, their primary overseer and teacher, called them by those names as well.

(“The Emperor was most put-out about that at first,” Shizkomoto elaborated, “but Liu Bao-san explained that it was necessary, and so a concession was made.”

Kurogane glanced at Fai, and Fai smiled slowly, sadly, back. “Names have power. The simplest way to control anyone or anything is to weave a spell using its name.”)

They’d been discovered two years ago washed up on a beach in the south-west, assumed survivors of a shipwreck. They’d refused to say where they’d been born, but their colouring and the wreckage that had washed up with them had suggested Suomi, a nation that paid tithe to the Empire. With no-one to claim them they’d fallen into bondage, bought by a noble in the area, pretty slaves to be trained to wait in his household. They’d lasted there up until seven months ago, their magic discovered then when a guest of their master had laid hands on one of them in a way the other had deemed inappropriate. One twin had cried out, distressed, and the other had lashed out, witnesses said, on sheer instinct, a magical blast slamming into the assaulter and sending him straight over the edge of the nearest balcony. The man had survived the fall, but he’d broken his leg upon impact with the ground, and ended up with a decent concussion as well.

Against all advice, scoffing at the very thought of slave children possessing magic, their master had had them flogged, insisting the twins must have pushed his guest over the balcony by hand. He had administered the punishment himself, but before he’d even laid the third lash on the first child he’d been slammed back into the nearest wall by a blast from both children, the force of which broke his spine, and killed him. His younger brother had inherited his estate, and willingly passed the twins into the care of the nearest local magician. Overawed by the strength he had discovered in the two boys the magician had then alerted someone higher up in the chain, the message eventually travelling up to the Imperial Household, and the Chief Mage, Liu Bao. He had come to the area himself and, finding the twins as strong as - perhaps stronger than - he had been told, bought them off of their new master, and taken them back with him to Court. They’d been there ever since.

“They say that, together, they’re actually stronger than Liu Bao-san is,” Shizkomoto explained, “so they’re watched rather carefully, and kept under wards most of the time.”

“Liu Bao-san is the most powerful acknowledged mage in the Empire,” Taro added quietly, “so there’s a cause for worry if the slaves can exceed him at such a young age. The old Crown Prince, Manchu, might have been able to overcome them, but he died before I returned to Nihon. Rumours say that his elder sister is pretty powerful too, but it is forbidden for women to practice magic here, and Yelan-hime generally keeps herself quiet, so no-one can say for sure.”

“Manchu…” Fai mused aloud, “wasn’t he heading the anti-war faction here at Court? I can recall Tomoyo-hime mentioning him a few times.”

Kurogane was more to the point. “How did he die?”

“He drowned.” Shizkomoto was succinct. “They say he got too drunk at one of the feasts held on one of the Imperial barges and fell overboard when no-one was looking. They only found out he was dead when the body washed up amongst the reeds a few days later. Zhuang-ouji became the new heir.” There was a slight pause. “The strange thing is, prior to that feast, everyone would have swore blind Manchu-ouji didn’t drink.”

They talked a little more among themselves, before Shizkomoto informed them that they’d all been invited on a general tour of the palace after breakfast the following day and left, taking his three assistants with him. Taro lingered only a little longer, waiting to be dismissed, and then there was only Kurogane and Fai, and a pile of scrolls.

“…It’ll be interesting,” Fai said vaguely, toying with one of the rolls of paper, not reading it, “to see some more of the palace. It seems like a beautiful place.”

Kurogane let him have his evasion - it had been a long day. “I’d prefer it if we could skip the tour and get on with the negotiations. The sooner we get out of this hellhole the better.”

“Mm…” Fai was distracted and a slight silence fell - and then suddenly, the man jerked, and shoved all the scrolls impetuously off the bed and onto the floor. A few bounced and rolled away, some unrolled and got tangled with one another, the majority landed in a messy heap.

Kurogane looked at him.

Fai drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, his gaze meeting red eyes over the top almost defiantly. “I don’t want to read them tonight.”

“Then don’t.” Nobody would force the idiot. Even after this long knowing each other, Fai didn’t understand that? “But you can’t leave them on the floor.” There was probably some classified information in there; they couldn’t just leave it out for anyone to read.

“Then pick them up.” Fai was being strange again, stranger than usual, but -

“You’re the one who just dumped the damned things on the floor.” Kurogane grumbled but rose from his seat on the bed, trying to be understanding as he stomped around picking up the fallen scrolls, crumpling them horribly in his grip and stalking over to one of Fai’s cases to dump the lot inside. He slammed the lid down and turned around to look at Fai, knowing the mage had watched him all the while. “Happy now?”

Fai smiled at him, pained, and Kurogane was expecting another dumb comment, but what came out was nothing like what he’d been expecting. “I have a present for you.”

“…Huh?” Fai had an innate talent to blindside his lover.

“In that trunk,” Fai nodded to the one Kurogane had just dumped the scrolls in. “There’s a black wood box in there - it should be near the top on the left. Bring it here, please?”

Kurogane opened the trunk again, pushing aside the scrolls and a few neatly-packed layers of robes. The box was where Fai had said it would be, made of black wood with an enamelled lid, a lighter pattern of a dragon and a crescent moon set in the surface, about the size of a plate and locked with a small, delicate clasp. It was smooth in Kurogane’s hands and a decent weight; something thumped against the side inside the box when he picked it up, carrying it back to the bed.

Fai took it from him, easing his legs down and laying it in his own lap, black against white, and doing some quick trick with his fingers that opened the clasp. He was quick to hand the box back to Kurogane, motioning for the ninja to raise the lid.

Kurogane did so, and blinked a little at what was inside. “…A mirror?” It was round and thin, snugly fitting into the box’s red lining with only a little space to spare. It was backed with the same type of wood as its decorative home, the rim fairly plain, save for a set of tiny notched kanji at one side, Kurogane’s own name.

“You can use it to contact Tomoyo-chan,” Fai explained quietly, “if you ever need to talk to her whilst we’re here and I’m not there. I’ve charmed it; just think of her as you say her name into the glass and put it down somewhere, a portal will appear to her just as if I’d written one into the air like I usually do. Only you can use it; it will react to your voice alone.”

Sometimes - quite a lot of the time - Kurogane forgot Fai was actually a magician. It had been so terribly easy when they’d first met, those years ago, when Fai had been running and refusing to use his gifts. Even after that Fai had kept his magic to a minimum, doing things by hand, preferring to be seen for the man he was than the mage they might fear. Fai was more than just magic, and liked to be known for things that weren’t his magic, but still -

The mirror had had a lot of thought put into it - the colours and design, the naming, and even the magic itself… The clear surface reflected Kurogane’s expression back up at him, something perplexed, thoughtful, too deep to really be given a name -

Kurogane closed the box, and kept it in his grasp. “If Tomoyo ever catches wind of the fact you gave me a mirror I’m never going to hear the end of it.”

“It’s a very practical gift.” Fai defended the present, smiling slightly. Kurogane had kept it - he liked it. “Even ninjas have to look their best every now and then. Kuro-chan could use it to do his hair.”

Kurogane growled at that and Fai laughed, normally this time. Kurogane wouldn’t admit it, but it was good to hear, especially after that evening’s shock. “Shut up and get changed for bed already - you need to sleep if we’re going on that stupid tour in the morning.”

Fai smirked at that, a languid uplift of his lips. “Kuro-sama just wants me to strip for him, doesn’t he?”

Kurogane coloured, his ears going red. “Don’t say stupid things!”

Fai laughed at him again, shifting forwards on the bed so he could curl his fingers in the front of the other’s robes, his head nudging under the other’s chin. “It’s not stupid if it’s true.”

Kurogane let him rest there for a long while, feeling the mage’s warmth against his chest, soft breathing across his collarbone. He raised a hand - his real one - to the back of his idiot’s head, laying it across the nape of Fai’s neck. His artificial hand remained on the mirror’s box, Fai’s gift to him. “Go to sleep.” His voice was quiet.

With a sigh, Fai pulled away, “Very well.” He accepted the brief kiss to the brow Kurogane gave him, watching as the other man got up from the bed again, taking the mirror with him and heading for the door. “Aren’t you going to wish me pleasant dreams?”

Kurogane paused, and glanced back over his shoulder. “Would that work?” Fai smiled, wry, somewhat pained again. It was Kurogane’s turn to sigh and he returned to the bed, leaning down to press another kiss against Fai’s mouth, solid reassurance that he was there. It wasn’t quite Sakura’s sweet ‘everything will be alright’; it wasn’t even a promise to chase away the nightmares; it was Kurogane, firm and awkward and sincere saying the thousand and one things that they always left unsaid, because once you reached a certain point voicing certain things was pointless. “Sleep well.”

“Sleep well,” Fai returned, a murmur, and Kurogane left him for the night.

#

Breakfast the following morning was almost as stupidly elaborate as the night before, but there were thankfully less speeches to suffer through. The Chugokian courtiers were naturally all either staring or watching their foreign guests like hawks, but Fai was in better colour, and feeling well enough to be picky about just what it was that ended up on his plate.

“I ate this?” He seemed almost genuinely horrified as one of the slaves explained that, yes, Fluorite-jiéxià, the thing he’d been eating at dinner that night before had been balls of rice wrapped in stewed, flavoured seaweed -

Kurogane glanced at the mage out of the corner of his eye, noting the delicate shade of green Fai was turning, a colour matched only by his strange choice of breakfast. “Don’t poke it; just eat it.”

“What wonderful advice, Kurogane.” Fai moved the seaweed-and-rice from his plate as discreetly as he could with chopsticks - namely, by foisting them off on Kurogane sitting next to him.

Aside from Kurogane twitching slightly at the use of his actual name, the two made it through breakfast, the rest of the Nihon party equally as agreeable. Taro politely took up the space behind Kurogane and Fai in preparation for the tour, a few steps behind them but well within discreet whispering distance - the man was their assistant and advisor, after all. Shizkomoto had apparently been detained elsewhere, (“He’s often kept very busy,” Taro said lowly, “he has a network to maintain to gather information, after all,”) but his loss was not too keenly felt.

The two were led by an official lowlier than the ones that had been introduced the night before, and his name slipped by most peoples’ minds quite easily. There was little call for remembering it anyway; the man was quite happy to as good as talk to himself as he took them around the palace, occasionally answering questions from parties who rose out of their stupor every now and then to raise a point of interest - otherwise, he was quite content to give a quite polished monologue.

The tour avoided anywhere and everywhere in the palace that could’ve been considered even mildly controversial. They didn’t go to the training yard, or to any of the rumoured great libraries, or even close to the royal harem, where the protected royal women were kept. Instead, they saw the gardens, the fountains, the art, the halls, a museum -

The last one held a couple tucked away in a corner. They were hidden well from sight - it was sheer chance Fai saw them at all, something shifting slightly at the corner of his eye, the edge of a patterned sleeve. He glanced over to see two people perhaps Kurogane’s age - a man and a woman, the man tall, with lightly-coloured hair, dressed all in green, and the pale woman with black hair, just as tall, but stately, almost severe. Fai paused in his steps for a moment to look at her, suddenly curious, and she must have felt his gaze on her because she looked up, and just looked at him, perfectly impassive.

Taro, preoccupied with something that Kurogane had asked him, walked straight into Fai’s back. The shock jolted Fai out of his staring match and he was forced to listen to Taro apologising for a good few minutes, Kurogane growing exasperated and eventually just dragging them both along, forcing Fai to forget all about the austere woman and her companion in the museum.

When the tour ended it was time for lunch, the Nihon group segregated into smaller parties. Fai and Kurogane found themselves taken to a medium-sized terraced balcony, stepping first out into sunshine and then it a carefully-erected shade, a long table set out beneath with pitchers of flavoured water and wine. Shizkomoto awaited them there near the head of the table beside a few of the Chugokian dignitaries; polite greetings were exchanged again (Kurogane muttered under his breath to Fai that he was sick of only saying ‘hello’ to the same damn people, and Fai grinned) and then the two ambassadors from Nihon took their seats, slaves ushering Kurogane to sit beside Shizkomoto, on the left of the table’s head, with Fai opposite him. The chair between them - the actual head - was empty, and Fai glanced at it, then Shizkomoto, curiously.

“Who-?”

“My apologies - it seems I am the last one to arrive.” It was Zhuang, still smiling, resplendent in canary yellow and green. He’d cut back on his jewellery since the last time they’d seen them, and his face seemed relatively free of make-up. It was an improvement; he was actually handsome underneath it all. He took his seat, affecting pleasantries for the whole table, but turned and spoke to Fai. “I hope you weren’t waiting long?”

“My companion and I have barely been here a few minutes, Your Highness.” Fai gestured to Kurogane on the other side of the table, the ninja giving a short nod of agreement.

“And how did you find the tour?”

“It was very enlightening, Your Highness.”

“Really?” Zhuang beckoned one of the slaves over to pour him something into his cup. “That’s quite a surprise - the one in charge of giving them is a boring old coot.”

“Nevertheless,” Fai replied evenly, unsure of whether the Crown Prince was sincere or not, though he was smiling slightly, “the tour was an enlightening one.”

Zhuang called for the food to be brought through and it was: rice and meat of what seemed like all types - chicken, pork, fish, snake, beef, duck… It came in sauces that were almost as brightly-coloured as the garments the dignitaries at the table wore, vivid colours splashed across the plates.

“The opening of our end of the treaty discussion is this afternoon, isn’t it?” Zhuang waited until everyone had started to eat before speaking again, picking at the food on his own plate thoughtfully. “If you feel capable of missing it I’d be happy to take you to see the school of magic we have just outside of the main palace, Fluorite-jiéxià - the general tour never goes there, as access is restricted.”

Fai hesitated - the Chugokians defended their knowledge fiercely, reserving it for the very uppermost of society. For a foreigner to be invited to an area of learning was an honour that couldn’t be turned down easily. Fai looked up at Kurogane and Shizkomoto opposite him, both of whom had overheard the invitation. The former looked wary, disliking the fact the invitation had been for one, while the latter looked delighted, and was attempting to nod approval discreetly.

Fai looked back to Zhuang, who was waiting on his answer. “…It would be an honour and a delight, Your Highness - thank you.”

#

The school of magic was separate from the main palace but still part of the palace complex in the capital, hidden away behind tall walls with high gates, and elaborate gardens. Fai left Kurogane to gripe about never-ending speeches and headed out onto the beautiful walkways outside the palace with Zhuang leading the way, three slaves walking discreetly behind them, one holding up a silk parasol to protect the two most important people of the group from the sun’s burning rays.

“The gardens are both a defence and a decoration,” Zhuang explained, as they passed a large fountain, cool droplets of spray touching Fai on the cheek. “The scholars sometimes draw inspiration from their growth and design, while the vast expanse the gardens take up works as a barrier for any misplaced magic that could damage the main palace. The outer gardens are cared for by the palace gardeners but the inner ones are maintained by the school itself - the mages can be most particular about just how the plants they use in their various concoctions are grown.”

“Some plants only have magical properties when grown under certain conditions,” Fai clarified as they approached the great white walls that shone in the sun at the end of the walkway they were on, a vast set of doors the only way past. As they came nearer still a smaller door for more regular use opened up in the base of one of the larger doors and a man came out, vaguely preoccupied with some scroll he held in his hands. His figure and the green of his robes were familiar to Fai - Zhuang recognised him too, and called out to him.

“What are you doing here?” The Crown Prince sounded displeased.

The stranger paused mid-step, and glanced up. “…Cousin.” He bowed to Zhuang, rolling up his scroll and tucking it under his arm when he resumed his upright position, before glancing at Fai, with a courteous nod. “Fluorite-jiéxià.”

Zhuang’s eyes were narrowed. “I asked you what you were doing here.”

The stranger remained polite. “I study here, cousin - did you forget?” There really was something horribly familiar about him. After a few seconds of studying him it registered to Fai - the stranger was the man he’d seen in the museum in the morning, although there was something else - “Not that I can profess to being anywhere near the level of our esteemed guest, though.” This was a man who’d lived a long time in Court. “Cousin, won’t you introduce me?”

Zhuang gritted his teeth - but obliged. “Fluorite-jiéxià, this is Shaoqiang- gōng, the son of my father’s late sister - my cousin.”

Fai inclined his head. “Your Grace.”

“You will, of course,” Zhuang continued, looking at his cousin and motioning to Fai, “already know who my companion is.” He’d greeted Fai by name, after all.

Shaoqiang smiled slightly. “Word travels fast, especially when it is so noteworthy.” The noble looked back to Fai. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, especially under such peaceful circumstances.” He actually seemed sincere. “Perhaps we could talk at dinner tonight?”

Fai smiled in return. “I should like that, Your Grace.”

“Then it’s settled.” Shaoqiang seemed pleased and Zhuang irritated - especially when Shaoqiang laid a hand on his shoulder. “I know for a fact my cousin here is the one organising the seating arrangement tonight; now he knows we wish to be seated together I’m sure it will be so.”

Zhuang spoke through gritted teeth. “I shall do my best to accommodate everyone.”

Shaoqiang took his leave after a few more minutes with another half-bow to his cousin, leaving Fai and Zhuang and their small retinue to continue on their way into the school of magic, entering using the same small door they’d first seen Shaoqiang come out of.

Inside were the inner gardens Zhuang had spoke of earlier: smaller than the outer gardens but no less beautiful they were a cacophony of colour, some patches neatly-pruned, others left to grow in a sprawl of brilliance with little heed to season. Heavy, large flowers jostled for place beside herbs, the air thick with scent, the noise of a hidden stream Fai could only assume was used for irrigation. Some of the gardens were bordered with fences, others hedges, and Zhuang led Fai through an orchard of tall trees that were apparently cultivated solely for their bark. Garden after garden after garden, the clearly magical clashing wonderfully with the seemingly mundane.

Here and there a few men worked at the ground - some were gathering herbs and flowers in baskets, some pulling bark from the trees, some watering, some pruning, some planting strange seeds in the soil. If they were all mages, as Zhuang had implied, Nihon was far outstripped by Chugoku in terms of numbers - but then, Nihon had mages with a higher concentration of magic in their blood.

“The gardens are magnificent.” Fai could find no fault with his surroundings - in fact, he was slightly jealous of them. The work that could be done with only a tiny portion of this estate…

“The actual school is not far beyond these hedges.” Zhuang pointed ahead of them and slightly to the right, one of the slaves with them edging out of the way, to where another path vanished between two sides of towering green. “It’s just as magnificent as the gardens, but due to the nature of what’s kept in it, it’s even more out of sight.”

Again, Fai thought of Nihon, and the lessons he’d taught Umi in plain sight, in the fields and the courtyards, with a warding around them for safety, but nothing to cloak them. Chugoku really did take the entirely opposite view. “Of course.”

They approached the hedges, and made to turn the corner. “If we just go right here -”

Zhuang was cut off mid-sentence, something small barrelling around the corner at full-pelt and ramming straight into Fai’s legs, sending the mage stumbling back a step into the slaves behind, knocking one off balance, and causing another to drop the parasol he’d been holding, catching Fai instead before the man could hit the ground, Fai himself grasping hold of whatever it was that had collided with him - a child -, something else hitting the ground close to his foot.

“I’m sorry - I’m so sorry -” the child - boy - began babbling at once even as everyone began to straighten themselves out, pulling free of Fai to pick up what it was he’d dropped in the collision - a basket full of red flowers, some of the petals now strewn across the path. The action bared his neck to scrutiny, the golden slave’s collar there gleaming as brightly as his hair. “I’m sorry, I -” he looked up, and stopped talking immediately, mouth working soundlessly for a few seconds as he stared at Fai. “It’s you.”

“…It’s me.” Fai parroted, suddenly so very unsure of what to say as he looked at the child before him - Fai, Fai, Fai. His…little brother on this world, only - “Hello.”

A/N: …You’re all kidnappers. Seriously, the amount of you that in the first part that voted ‘kidnap’ (when I wasn’t even aware there was a poll) is ridiculous. If a set of cute little blonde-haired, blue-eyed twins ever fall into my possession I’m hiding them somewhere safe, far, far away from you all, you fiends.

…On a note of interest, Terminal Velocity is playing on the tv in the background as I type this:

*a conversation held whilst planning to climb from plane to plane in mid-air some hundred (thousand?) feet off the ground…*

“Are you out of your mind?!”

“Yes, yes I am!!”

I thought it was appropriate. X3

Notes:

1) In defence of their general behaviour in this fic - well, really this whole Nihon series of mine, pretty much -: by this point in my fanon, they’ve been in Nihon for a year and a half, in an established relationship. Even before they reached the country they’d been together for god-only-knows-how-long, travelling between the worlds also - post-series - in a relationship. I like to hope they might’ve gotten a little more used to each others’ quirks and foibles by this point in time. X3 (I mean. They’re still a pain in the ass to each other, but they’re loveable pains in each others’ understanding asses (be as literal as you like with that), and you can totally see why I should never write about relationships at quarter past two in the morning, can’t you. *laughs*)

2) Generally, there’s some reasoning behind what I name my OCs, if any of you ever feel bored enough to go and look their names up. I sneak actual CLAMP characters in there too - Yelan, and if any of you can tell me who she is without research you get a whole packet of cookies and some love. (She’s also sometimes called Lelang - translation difficulties, don’t you just love them?)

3) ‘-gōng’ is a Chinese suffix again - I believe it literally translates to ‘duke’?