[FANFIC] [TRC] The Second (Chapter 3)
Fandom: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Title: The Second
Author: nyanja14 (aka: Miss Fish, the_myrah)
Summary: At the end of a war, hitzusen strikes as the most unlikely of meetings occurs. (kurofai)
Word Count: 1833
Rating: Teen
Warnings: some dark themes
Chapter 3: Washing Away
"Your name... is it Yuui?"
Ni stared up at the stranger who seemed to continuously utter names that he had long left in the past. If it weren't for the fact that the colonel had dropped the name Fai earlier, Ni would've found it incredibly hard to keep his face passive. Yuui. The sound of it made his heart thunder in his throat
Slowly, Ni shook his head again. Fai, Yuui... he'd never been called either of those names.
He'd had always just been the second.
Ni looked the man named Kurogane straight in the eye. With one hand, he pointed to himself. With the other, he raised two fingers high into the air.
Kurogane sighed, palm pressed to his forehead. "You want to just be called Ni?" Ni nodded. "Have it your way, but-" He lowered his hand and met Ni's eyes again, emphatically. "I know you're one of them. There's no point hiding it."
Ni felt a shiver crawl up his spine at the stern red gaze. However, he just beamed up at the man as innocently as possible.
Kurogane huffed, apparently irritated by Ni's constant smiling, but he said nothing of it. Instead, he looked the prisoner up and down and commented, "I suppose you want to bathe."
Ni blinked, remembering how filthy he was. The guards would come to dump water over him in his cell about every other week, usually choosing to do so while he was trying to sleep, but it wasn't a very efficient way of getting clean. Not to mention, the water was freezing.
The warrior jerked his head in the direction of the outdoors. "They'll all be eating dinner right now, so if you want you can bathe in the lake."
Rather than answer, Ni got to his feet eagerly.
Kurogane grunted something that sounded like "Figures," then deftly scooped up a small wicker basket containing some soap and a towel (1) and deposited it into Ni's open hands. "C'mon."
The colonel led him out of the tent and across the camp. The camp was much emptier than it had been when he'd arrived, and Ni appreciated the lack of staring. Some ways off, Ni could hear all the men gathered under an enormous tent, and the smell of food wafted over them. Ni's stomach pinched hungrily, but he ignored it.
The lake seemed smaller than he remembered it being, but it'd been so long since Ni had been up close to it that he couldn't really say. The moon reflected off its surface, making the water seem smooth and silver. Ni undressed quickly with complete disregard for the other man there. He'd long since stopped caring who saw him.
Ni wondered briefly if Kurogane was also going to bathe, but the question was quickly answered for him.
"I'll be right back," the man muttered, almost seeming embarrassed if that was even possible. He strode off back towards the camp, hunched shoulders outlined by the firelight. Ni shrugged to himself and stepped into the water, quickly getting used to the icy feeling.
Ni waded out to the deeper area of the lake to swim in the cool water in order to warm up. He'd missed this. When he was younger-much, much younger-he used to swim almost every morning, except on the coldest of days. There'd been a slow moving river not far from where he lived, and he'd hike out there just after sunrise to swim until breakfast, often accompanied by his brother, though the other boy hated getting up so early. However, it wasn't long before the leisure of spending his mornings however he wished was taken from him, and his swims stopped.
He'd returned to the river once before the war started, but by then it had dried up completely.
Thinking of the past made him feel as though stones were being dropped heavily into his gut, so Ni retrieved the soap from the basket at shore and washed himself thoroughly, paying special attention to his hair. It was getting longer again, just brushing his shoulders. Usually, one of the guards came and hacked it off when it got to his mid-back. Ni supposed this was because he wasn't as nice to look at when it was all matted and tangled.
Footsteps interrupted his musings and Ni spun around. The colonel was back, a change of clothes in hand, and looking away from him determinedly. Ni didn't particularly care if his body was looked upon, but he appreciated the sentiment. It'd been a long time since he'd received any semblance of respect from someone outside of fellow inmates.
As Ni approached, grabbed the towel, and started drying himself, Kurogane still kept his eyes purposely averted. From this, it seemed apparent that the colonel hadn't taken him from the prison to... use him, as the soldier Nayuki had speculated. But Ni couldn't understand any other reason for taking him. Though the warrior seemed to know him, Ni couldn't imagine where from. Not to mention when Kurogane had first noticed him, he'd seemed almost terrified by his presence. Why bring Ni with him if he feared him? Ni couldn't comprehend any other motives.
Done toweling off his hair, Ni accepted the clothes and was surprised to find that they fit perfectly. Kurogane had seemed observant, but most people miscalculated Ni's size-he was taller than he looked.
Fully clothed and pushing the miniscule mystery away for now, Ni stood expectantly with his arms at his side. Kurogane finally looked at him and grunted in what seemed like approval. He bent and retrieved the wicker basket with the soap and towel inside, and Ni noticed that the clothes he'd been wearing previously were gone. "Let's head back then."
Ni trailed behind the man as they walked through the camp again. It seemed the soldiers were still at dinner, though the smell of food had nearly dissipated by now. Somewhere far off, he could hear rowdy laughter.
Kurogane held the tent flap open for him and handed the basket off to him, though he didn't enter himself. "I'm going to go get dinner. Stay here. The less people who see you, the better," he instructed, before letting the flap fall.
Ni wondered at that. Was the colonel possessive or was he worried about him? Or was it that he'd get in trouble with superiors for claiming him?
Ni had stopped mourning the loss of his voice long ago, but suddenly he yearned for it if only so that he could ask questions. What do you intend to do with me? was at the top of the list, closely followed by Where did you hear those two names? and Why do you look at me with such a sad expression?
He turned around to sit down on the ground and blinked. The once nearly empty tent had gained an additional futon as well as a neat stack of clothes, mostly in shades of blue, which seemed intended for him. There was even a pair of shoes; Ni stuck one of his feet in and was startled to see that they fit as well as the clothes. Ni removed his foot and lowered himself hesitantly onto the new futon, wondering how the warrior had got a hold of it so fast. He couldn't have been at the lake that long, could he?
Ni had figured he either be sleeping on the ground or be expected to share a bed with the colonel, neither of which he would have minded too horribly. To have a futon put out just for him, like he was some sort of guest, made Ni feel…
He wasn't sure how he felt about that, but it wasn't a bad feeling at all.
Ni laid back on the futon and contemplated how to say Thank you! with only his hands. It was something he'd never had to do before.
**********
"Oi! Wake up."
Ni rolled over and opened his eyes to look up blurrily. Kurogane loomed over him, a large bowl of something hot in each hand. "C'mon. I know you're probably tired, but you have to eat."
He held out a bowl to him and Ni took it automatically, still somewhat drugged by his sleep. After blinking wearily a few times, he glanced down at the food he held. Everything seemed edible and some of it was even identifiable, so Ni took the proffered chopsticks and started eating. He had no idea what it was, but it was warm and it was good, so Ni didn't particularly care just what he was sticking in his mouth.
After the fourth or fifth bite, it occurred to Ni that he was being watched. He looked up and discovered a red gaze set upon his hands. Kurogane hadn't started eating yet, and it occurred to Ni that maybe it would've been polite to wait till he had started eating first.
But when he laid down his chopsticks apologetically, Kurogane realized that Ni had noticed his scrutiny and immediately looked away and started eating. "No, it's just-never mind." Ni watched the man curiously until Kurogane jabbed a chopstick at him and growled, "Eat."
Ni did as he was told. Ni had never had food from the southern islands, but everything in his bowl seemed delicious enough. He glanced over at the colonel's bowl and realized that the colonel had food different from his. Ni didn't get that, until it came to mind that if the man knew his shoe size, it'd make sense that he knew Ni's food preferences as well.
Bowl emptied, Ni considered that maybe his magic sensing skills had gotten rusty due to lack of use and this Kurogane fellow did have some sort of power, maybe some form of mind reading skill.
Looking at the man though, the idea seemed ludicrous.
Suddenly, Kurogane met his stare. "What?" he asked suspiciously.
Ni remembered what he'd wanted to tell the colonel earlier and he set his bowl down. With one hand, he patted the futon. The other, he held up to his chest, then extended it to Kurogane slowly, being sure to smile as sincerely as possible. (2)
Kurogane blinked at him, then frowned. Standing, he took Ni's bowl from him. "You don't need to thank me," he grunted, exiting the tent with the dirty dishes. "Just go back to sleep."
Ni lowered his hands back down to his lap and grinned at them slightly. Kurogane had sounded embarrassed, like the way he'd refused to look at him while he was changing. It was almost funny, that a man of the rank of colonel with such an angry face could be so easily embarrassed and was so furtive about it.
Ni liked that. And not just because it assured him that the strange warrior didn't have any ill intentions for it.
Ni laid back down on the futon and buried his face in the pillow to go to sleep like he'd been told, thinking to himself that…
It was kind of cute.
NOTES:
1 - Did they have towels back then? I really don't know and I really don't care.
2 - No, this is not American Sign Language, nor is it a Japanese gesture. This is actually what I do when I thank someone, though I also say "Thanks!" while doing it. I tend to talk really fast and often don't form clear words due to some speech issues, so I gesture a lot so that people understand me better. I'll be using a lot of my gestures for Ni, since he wouldn't know ASL, nor would he have any reason to know Japanese gestures.
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