One of these days, I will write something decent again. ~.~
Title: Hidden From the World
Author: ekas
Fandom: Tsubasa Reservior Chronicle
Pairing: Kurogane/Fai
Rating: K+ [I lie not...]
Word Count: 2,488
Warnings: Kurotan-sensei's naughty language, Kujaku
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Brief summary: The events leading up to Fai's infamous trip in His Place. He has a special treat for Kurogane before he leaves.
I love how I've written the entire mini-series backwards so far. Never fear, there's one more fic in this mini-series that takes place after His Place.
This one is for purinpurin for fairly obvious reasons.
Horitsuba Chronicles found here
He was surprised when he woke up and couldn’t find Fai sleeping beside him because as the time drew nearer for the science teacher to take his annual trip, the more he had been clinging to Kurogane throughout the night and usually didn’t abandon his side until they got to the school. Oddly enough, during his spare time on campus, he had hardly seen the blonde at all. Though they were still having the same amount of sex because Fai had not left his apartment for nearly two weeks. He groaned and rolled over in an attempt to go back to sleep, figuring Fai had just going to the bathroom or something since the blonde had seemed very reluctant to leave Kurogane’s side recently. He hoped to use that to his advantage later in the morning. But first, more sleep as Fai had been utterly insatiable the night before and left Kurogane feeling rather exhausted. Except it was impossible to sleep when there was so much noise in his kitchen, and with a low growl, he rolled out of bed and stumbled into the other room.
“Good morning, Kuro-tan!” the blonde greeted him cheerfully, whisking something in a large bowl, potentially breakfast, and wearing the pink apron he had stolen from that one school festival. He mumbled some reply as he stumbled over to the table. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Fai asked as he collapsed in a chair. “I just thought I should make you food for the week so I know you’re eating right and you won’t feel so lonely without me here since you’ll have my cooking. Come here.” Fai grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to the fridge. The blonde opened the door and started pointing out some of the food he had made. “I made you some lasagna, and stir-fry and some rice, and some sandwiches you’ll have to add topping to yourself, some chicken, some pasta, waffles, and a bunch of other stuff I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out.” Kurogane thought the blonde might have provided him enough food to last him for an entire month. Fai closed the door and Kurogane sat back down at the table. “Now, I just need to finish making you breakfast, and then you’ll have to eat it so I can leave.
Fai had left his airport packet on the table. It would be so easy to open it and see where those tickets were for. “Where are you going again?”
“Same place I go every year.” Pancakes for breakfast again he noticed. “Ne~ew Zealand!”
His fingertips touched the end of the envelope and started inching it slowly towards him. “That’s funny, because two days ago you told the chairlady you were going to Belgium, and last year you told me you were going to South Africa one day and Brazil the next.” Fai didn’t respond to him, but the sizzling of the pancakes seemed to answer for him, that he wasn’t going to get any answers. In the heavy silence that filled the room, the apartment suddenly felt too big and empty even though Fai was standing less than ten feet away from him. He continued to pull the envelope towards him while the blonde was otherwise distracted with making him breakfast. “Why can’t you at least tell me where you’re going?” he asked, giving the man one last chance to tell him before he just slid the ticket out and checked the destination on his own.
Fai had snuck over while he was busy trying to be sneaky about grabbing the man’s ticket and slapped his hand away, placing a plate of pancakes down in front of him. “Eat your breakfast, Kuro-sama.” Kurogane watched as Fai pulled the envelope away from him and slid it into his back pocket, thereby keeping Fai’s destination a mystery for another year. “Eat. I don’t want to worry about you not eating when I’m gone.”
He grabbed the man by the waist and pulled him into his lap. Maybe he could just prevent the man from going to the airport in the first place. “I don’t want you to go,” he murmured, nuzzling Fai’s neck. He kept his arms securely around the blonde’s thin waist, and he felt Fai wrap his arms around his shoulders and rest his head on top of his. “Do you really have to go?” He hated all these secrets between the two of them and this one had to be the worst of them all. Fai’s annual trip to the same place but a different place every year and depending upon who you asked. And there was always the issue of what exactly the man did on this trip every year.
“I’m sorry.” He tightened his grip around the man’s waist. If there was a way he could just convince him to stay. “I know it’s hard, but you’re going to have to trust me on this.” Fai pulled back to give Kurogane a quick kiss and rested his forehead against the other man’s. “You might not realize it for a while, but this trip is very beneficial to you as well.” He didn’t want to think about what the blonde might psychologically be implying with that statement. Perhaps he believed Kurogane actually enjoyed time spent away from him, which sometimes might have been true, but definitely not for any prolonged period. He had gotten so used to the man being there every waking second. “Eat your breakfast, and I’ll give you a nice surprise,” Fai promised with a quick kiss to his nose. Before he could protest, Fai slid gracefully from his embrace and moved to another one of the chairs.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked as he picked up his fork, noting there was nothing in front of the blond. Then again, Fai rarely seemed to eat at all, so he really shouldn’t have been that surprised. Around this time of year he liked to blame Fai’s lack of eating on the anxiety of Fai’s upcoming trip. And once the science teacher was gone he would work very hard on trying to convince himself that Fai went to some sort of bizarre science convention every year, and Kurogane was the only person he disclosed the exact location to because it was really some type of top secret government project.
“I snacked while making the stuff for you this morning,” Fai told him as he watched Kurogane eat. “Besides, they have really good food where I’m going.”
“Italy?” he asked, because he knew the blonde had a certain fondness for Italian food.
“No. Mexico.”
“You don’t like Mexican food,” Kurogane accused. Fai seemed to remain unperturbed by his comment and merely continued watching Kurogane eat with that same small smile. He had to admit that smile disturbed him at times.
“Never mind that. Eat your breakfast, Kuro-rin, so I can give you my special surprise.” Except he really didn’t feel like eating that morning either, and the pancakes tasted like paper. Which was unusual because despite his complete lack of appetite for anything sweet or fluffy, Fai still usually managed to make it taste at least somewhat decent enough for him to eat.
Still, intrigued by the matter of Fai’s special surprise, he did manage to eat everything on his plate. He watched as Fai removed it and took it back over to the sink. “Is my special surprise sex?” he asked, sincerely hoping it was as he would like one last quick round to remember while the blonde was absent from his life.
“It’s better than sex,” Fai responded as he walked over to a bag he had brought back from work the other day. Kurogane had been so afraid it was some sort of chemical weapon that he had wisely decided to maintain his distance from the bag. Fai reached into it and pulled something out which he almost instantaneously placed behind his back.
“What could possibly be better than sex?” Kurogane asked as the man sauntered back over to him. Fai practically lived off of sex.
“Ta~da!” Fai dropped the object he had been holding onto the table in front of Kurogane.
“What the fuck is that?” he yelled, instinctively pulled away from the thing. What had landed in front of him basically looked like a miniature version of Fai. For a brief moment, Kurogane feared the scientist had actually discovered a way to clone himself into a little Fai. But after several seconds had passed and the thing hadn’t moved, Kurogane decided at the very least the thing was not alive. He poked it inquisitively and it felt soft. And squishy. He still had no idea what the hell it was though other than some sort of replication of Fai.
“I made you a plushie of me.” He shouldn’t have been surprised that the man said that as if it was some sort of normal thing. “That way, if you get lonely without me here, you can snuggle the plushie of me instead.” Fai picked up the “plushie” and deposited it into Kurogane’s lap, forcing him to hold the strange object. “I should get some sort of reward for being the best boyfriend ever since I was nice enough to make you a plushie so you wouldn’t have to be lonely without me here.”
Kurogane wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to be doing with the plushie, and after holding it like a hot potato for a few moments, he placed it back on the table. “Did you make one of me for yourself while you’re gone?” he asked as Fai walked over to his suitcase.
“Don’t be silly, Kuro-tan.” He grabbed one of the plushie’s hands and swung it back and forth. “I’m not nearly as sentimental or attached as you are.” He sighed and looked down at the mini-Fai smiling up at him. At the very least, the inanimate object would never be able to hurt him like that. And he would always have it to snuggle with. “Now come give me my goodbye kiss so I won’t be late.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Hello, Fai,” the receptionist greeted him cheerfully as he set down his suitcase and readjusted his shoulder bag. “It’s good to see you again.”
He did his best to smile back at her. “Hello, it’s nice to see you again as well.” He looked around at the familiar waiting room and pulled his shoulder bag possessively closer to him.
“Shall I sign you up for the usual, Fai?” the girl asked him, fingers poised over the keyboard.
“Sure, but there’s the slight possibility I’ll have to stay a little bit longer this time.” His fingers played with the strap of his bag as the girl looked up at him with a questionably worried expression. “There’s someone who… I’m very special to.” His mind drifted back to Japan and Kurogane, probably sitting alone in his apartment, hopefully with the plushie he had made him.
“Oh?” he nodded once, not wanting to share too many intimate details with this girl. “That reminds me,” she said conversationally as she started filling out his information, “Mr. Kujaku said he wanted to have lunch with you as soon as you arrived. It you want to go to the cafeteria, we’ll make sure someone will take your bags to your room. You’ll be in 126 this year,” she said, handing him the key.
“Alright. Thank you.” He kept the other bag with him as he made his way down the hall and to the cafeteria.. “Kujaku-san!” he called when he caught sight of the familiar face.
“Fai-san!” He soon found himself enveloped in a friendly hug, and he laughed as he patted the other man on the back “Let’s grab lunch. I’m betting you haven’t eaten anything since at least yesterday.”
He allowed himself to be dragged over to the lunch line and Kujaku placed a tray down in front of him. As they walked along the line, the other man picked things up and placed them on Fai’s tray as well as his own. “That cute receptionist girl told me you wanted to talk to me as soon as I got here.”
“I wanted to ask about that native you were seeing. Kuro… kuro… Kuro-something or other.” Maybe he should have actually used Kurogane’s real name every once in a while.
“Kuro-rin?” And Kujaku nodded as they paid for their lunches and moved to find a table. “Oh yeah, I’m still fucking him two or three times a day,” he continued as they sat down.
“That’s actually fairly impressive for someone your age.” Fai beamed back at him; of course, it helped that his partner of choice was still quite young and vital. “Beyond the sex, how are things with the two of you?”
“I think he might be getting too attached to me, and,” he clutched the shoulder bag closer to his chest, “and I’m afraid of getting attached to him in return by getting confused by his feelings for me.”
“Fai, everyone is going to tell you the same thing. You cannot be in a healthy relationship until you’ve learned to love yourself.”
“Why do people always say that?”
“Because if you don’t love yourself than you’ll start to doubt the other person loves you. However, I will admit, before this whole attachment thing started, you did seem to be happier when you started fucking him.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kurogane sighed as he finished getting ready for bed that evening. Fai had been there every night about two weeks straight before he left; it just felt so weird not having him there that evening. The little Fai plushie smiled up at him from the pillow Fai normally used when he was there. Not that he had any intentions about snuggling the damn thing in lieu of the blonde. He had just rather awkward about leaving it on the kitchen table in case he should have any unwelcome visitors.
He didn’t know why he was lying to himself, and he pulled the soft toy into his arms as he collapsed to the bed.
Fai sat down on his bed with a sigh when he was finally able to return to his room for the evening, shoulder bag resting in his lap, suitcase left untouched in the corner. It was the first time he had ever been in that room, but it was like all the other he had ever been in. The place was always the same, even though the faces were always changing. Sometimes people stuck around for a few years, but eventually they all disappeared.
He unzipped the bag and pulled out the most precious item, the reason he had kept the bag so close to him all day, and held it close to his chest.
“Kuro-rin…” He sadly kissed the plush replica of Kurogane on top of its head.
Author: ekas
Fandom: Tsubasa Reservior Chronicle
Pairing: Kurogane/Fai
Rating: K+ [I lie not...]
Word Count: 2,488
Warnings: Kurotan-sensei's naughty language, Kujaku
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Brief summary: The events leading up to Fai's infamous trip in His Place. He has a special treat for Kurogane before he leaves.
I love how I've written the entire mini-series backwards so far. Never fear, there's one more fic in this mini-series that takes place after His Place.
This one is for purinpurin for fairly obvious reasons.
Horitsuba Chronicles found here
He was surprised when he woke up and couldn’t find Fai sleeping beside him because as the time drew nearer for the science teacher to take his annual trip, the more he had been clinging to Kurogane throughout the night and usually didn’t abandon his side until they got to the school. Oddly enough, during his spare time on campus, he had hardly seen the blonde at all. Though they were still having the same amount of sex because Fai had not left his apartment for nearly two weeks. He groaned and rolled over in an attempt to go back to sleep, figuring Fai had just going to the bathroom or something since the blonde had seemed very reluctant to leave Kurogane’s side recently. He hoped to use that to his advantage later in the morning. But first, more sleep as Fai had been utterly insatiable the night before and left Kurogane feeling rather exhausted. Except it was impossible to sleep when there was so much noise in his kitchen, and with a low growl, he rolled out of bed and stumbled into the other room.
“Good morning, Kuro-tan!” the blonde greeted him cheerfully, whisking something in a large bowl, potentially breakfast, and wearing the pink apron he had stolen from that one school festival. He mumbled some reply as he stumbled over to the table. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?” Fai asked as he collapsed in a chair. “I just thought I should make you food for the week so I know you’re eating right and you won’t feel so lonely without me here since you’ll have my cooking. Come here.” Fai grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to the fridge. The blonde opened the door and started pointing out some of the food he had made. “I made you some lasagna, and stir-fry and some rice, and some sandwiches you’ll have to add topping to yourself, some chicken, some pasta, waffles, and a bunch of other stuff I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out.” Kurogane thought the blonde might have provided him enough food to last him for an entire month. Fai closed the door and Kurogane sat back down at the table. “Now, I just need to finish making you breakfast, and then you’ll have to eat it so I can leave.
Fai had left his airport packet on the table. It would be so easy to open it and see where those tickets were for. “Where are you going again?”
“Same place I go every year.” Pancakes for breakfast again he noticed. “Ne~ew Zealand!”
His fingertips touched the end of the envelope and started inching it slowly towards him. “That’s funny, because two days ago you told the chairlady you were going to Belgium, and last year you told me you were going to South Africa one day and Brazil the next.” Fai didn’t respond to him, but the sizzling of the pancakes seemed to answer for him, that he wasn’t going to get any answers. In the heavy silence that filled the room, the apartment suddenly felt too big and empty even though Fai was standing less than ten feet away from him. He continued to pull the envelope towards him while the blonde was otherwise distracted with making him breakfast. “Why can’t you at least tell me where you’re going?” he asked, giving the man one last chance to tell him before he just slid the ticket out and checked the destination on his own.
Fai had snuck over while he was busy trying to be sneaky about grabbing the man’s ticket and slapped his hand away, placing a plate of pancakes down in front of him. “Eat your breakfast, Kuro-sama.” Kurogane watched as Fai pulled the envelope away from him and slid it into his back pocket, thereby keeping Fai’s destination a mystery for another year. “Eat. I don’t want to worry about you not eating when I’m gone.”
He grabbed the man by the waist and pulled him into his lap. Maybe he could just prevent the man from going to the airport in the first place. “I don’t want you to go,” he murmured, nuzzling Fai’s neck. He kept his arms securely around the blonde’s thin waist, and he felt Fai wrap his arms around his shoulders and rest his head on top of his. “Do you really have to go?” He hated all these secrets between the two of them and this one had to be the worst of them all. Fai’s annual trip to the same place but a different place every year and depending upon who you asked. And there was always the issue of what exactly the man did on this trip every year.
“I’m sorry.” He tightened his grip around the man’s waist. If there was a way he could just convince him to stay. “I know it’s hard, but you’re going to have to trust me on this.” Fai pulled back to give Kurogane a quick kiss and rested his forehead against the other man’s. “You might not realize it for a while, but this trip is very beneficial to you as well.” He didn’t want to think about what the blonde might psychologically be implying with that statement. Perhaps he believed Kurogane actually enjoyed time spent away from him, which sometimes might have been true, but definitely not for any prolonged period. He had gotten so used to the man being there every waking second. “Eat your breakfast, and I’ll give you a nice surprise,” Fai promised with a quick kiss to his nose. Before he could protest, Fai slid gracefully from his embrace and moved to another one of the chairs.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked as he picked up his fork, noting there was nothing in front of the blond. Then again, Fai rarely seemed to eat at all, so he really shouldn’t have been that surprised. Around this time of year he liked to blame Fai’s lack of eating on the anxiety of Fai’s upcoming trip. And once the science teacher was gone he would work very hard on trying to convince himself that Fai went to some sort of bizarre science convention every year, and Kurogane was the only person he disclosed the exact location to because it was really some type of top secret government project.
“I snacked while making the stuff for you this morning,” Fai told him as he watched Kurogane eat. “Besides, they have really good food where I’m going.”
“Italy?” he asked, because he knew the blonde had a certain fondness for Italian food.
“No. Mexico.”
“You don’t like Mexican food,” Kurogane accused. Fai seemed to remain unperturbed by his comment and merely continued watching Kurogane eat with that same small smile. He had to admit that smile disturbed him at times.
“Never mind that. Eat your breakfast, Kuro-rin, so I can give you my special surprise.” Except he really didn’t feel like eating that morning either, and the pancakes tasted like paper. Which was unusual because despite his complete lack of appetite for anything sweet or fluffy, Fai still usually managed to make it taste at least somewhat decent enough for him to eat.
Still, intrigued by the matter of Fai’s special surprise, he did manage to eat everything on his plate. He watched as Fai removed it and took it back over to the sink. “Is my special surprise sex?” he asked, sincerely hoping it was as he would like one last quick round to remember while the blonde was absent from his life.
“It’s better than sex,” Fai responded as he walked over to a bag he had brought back from work the other day. Kurogane had been so afraid it was some sort of chemical weapon that he had wisely decided to maintain his distance from the bag. Fai reached into it and pulled something out which he almost instantaneously placed behind his back.
“What could possibly be better than sex?” Kurogane asked as the man sauntered back over to him. Fai practically lived off of sex.
“Ta~da!” Fai dropped the object he had been holding onto the table in front of Kurogane.
“What the fuck is that?” he yelled, instinctively pulled away from the thing. What had landed in front of him basically looked like a miniature version of Fai. For a brief moment, Kurogane feared the scientist had actually discovered a way to clone himself into a little Fai. But after several seconds had passed and the thing hadn’t moved, Kurogane decided at the very least the thing was not alive. He poked it inquisitively and it felt soft. And squishy. He still had no idea what the hell it was though other than some sort of replication of Fai.
“I made you a plushie of me.” He shouldn’t have been surprised that the man said that as if it was some sort of normal thing. “That way, if you get lonely without me here, you can snuggle the plushie of me instead.” Fai picked up the “plushie” and deposited it into Kurogane’s lap, forcing him to hold the strange object. “I should get some sort of reward for being the best boyfriend ever since I was nice enough to make you a plushie so you wouldn’t have to be lonely without me here.”
Kurogane wasn’t exactly sure what he was supposed to be doing with the plushie, and after holding it like a hot potato for a few moments, he placed it back on the table. “Did you make one of me for yourself while you’re gone?” he asked as Fai walked over to his suitcase.
“Don’t be silly, Kuro-tan.” He grabbed one of the plushie’s hands and swung it back and forth. “I’m not nearly as sentimental or attached as you are.” He sighed and looked down at the mini-Fai smiling up at him. At the very least, the inanimate object would never be able to hurt him like that. And he would always have it to snuggle with. “Now come give me my goodbye kiss so I won’t be late.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Hello, Fai,” the receptionist greeted him cheerfully as he set down his suitcase and readjusted his shoulder bag. “It’s good to see you again.”
He did his best to smile back at her. “Hello, it’s nice to see you again as well.” He looked around at the familiar waiting room and pulled his shoulder bag possessively closer to him.
“Shall I sign you up for the usual, Fai?” the girl asked him, fingers poised over the keyboard.
“Sure, but there’s the slight possibility I’ll have to stay a little bit longer this time.” His fingers played with the strap of his bag as the girl looked up at him with a questionably worried expression. “There’s someone who… I’m very special to.” His mind drifted back to Japan and Kurogane, probably sitting alone in his apartment, hopefully with the plushie he had made him.
“Oh?” he nodded once, not wanting to share too many intimate details with this girl. “That reminds me,” she said conversationally as she started filling out his information, “Mr. Kujaku said he wanted to have lunch with you as soon as you arrived. It you want to go to the cafeteria, we’ll make sure someone will take your bags to your room. You’ll be in 126 this year,” she said, handing him the key.
“Alright. Thank you.” He kept the other bag with him as he made his way down the hall and to the cafeteria.. “Kujaku-san!” he called when he caught sight of the familiar face.
“Fai-san!” He soon found himself enveloped in a friendly hug, and he laughed as he patted the other man on the back “Let’s grab lunch. I’m betting you haven’t eaten anything since at least yesterday.”
He allowed himself to be dragged over to the lunch line and Kujaku placed a tray down in front of him. As they walked along the line, the other man picked things up and placed them on Fai’s tray as well as his own. “That cute receptionist girl told me you wanted to talk to me as soon as I got here.”
“I wanted to ask about that native you were seeing. Kuro… kuro… Kuro-something or other.” Maybe he should have actually used Kurogane’s real name every once in a while.
“Kuro-rin?” And Kujaku nodded as they paid for their lunches and moved to find a table. “Oh yeah, I’m still fucking him two or three times a day,” he continued as they sat down.
“That’s actually fairly impressive for someone your age.” Fai beamed back at him; of course, it helped that his partner of choice was still quite young and vital. “Beyond the sex, how are things with the two of you?”
“I think he might be getting too attached to me, and,” he clutched the shoulder bag closer to his chest, “and I’m afraid of getting attached to him in return by getting confused by his feelings for me.”
“Fai, everyone is going to tell you the same thing. You cannot be in a healthy relationship until you’ve learned to love yourself.”
“Why do people always say that?”
“Because if you don’t love yourself than you’ll start to doubt the other person loves you. However, I will admit, before this whole attachment thing started, you did seem to be happier when you started fucking him.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kurogane sighed as he finished getting ready for bed that evening. Fai had been there every night about two weeks straight before he left; it just felt so weird not having him there that evening. The little Fai plushie smiled up at him from the pillow Fai normally used when he was there. Not that he had any intentions about snuggling the damn thing in lieu of the blonde. He had just rather awkward about leaving it on the kitchen table in case he should have any unwelcome visitors.
He didn’t know why he was lying to himself, and he pulled the soft toy into his arms as he collapsed to the bed.
Fai sat down on his bed with a sigh when he was finally able to return to his room for the evening, shoulder bag resting in his lap, suitcase left untouched in the corner. It was the first time he had ever been in that room, but it was like all the other he had ever been in. The place was always the same, even though the faces were always changing. Sometimes people stuck around for a few years, but eventually they all disappeared.
He unzipped the bag and pulled out the most precious item, the reason he had kept the bag so close to him all day, and held it close to his chest.
“Kuro-rin…” He sadly kissed the plush replica of Kurogane on top of its head.