Fic: Ever After (6)
Title: Ever After
Characters/Pairings: KuroFai, AshFai, SyaoSaku and DoumWataHima(ish?) Basically, anything implied (or outright stated in recent chapters of the manga with some pairings) in CLAMP canon that my mind stumbles across.
Rating: T
Summary: ‘Fairytale’ is a very trying place. Children get abandoned; loves fall under evil spells, and various members of royal families get abducted on an almost regular basis. Even with a witch on-hand all ills can’t simply be wished away - but then, if it’s really the ‘happy ever after’ you’re looking for, it’s quite obligatory to start with ‘once upon a time…’ AU, with heavy reference to canon.
A/N: This chapter leaps about in time a bit, but…hopefully the narration will clear that up as it goes along? Time’s progressing in leaps and bounds now the facts are sorted (- which, I’m warning you now, in my stories, usually means things are starting to go wonderfully wrong).
Chapter I | II | III | IV | V |
Chapter VI
Once upon a time, recently enough, but still a little longer ago than you or I have been around, there lived a man on the edge of Nihon, just inside the enchanted forest. He was of Nihon by birth, but much preferred the cool shade under the trees to the hustle and bustle of that country’s life. His wife agreed with him, and the couple lived together happily in the forest, building their own home, growing their own food. They were at peace with themselves, and the Nature around them.
They had a child together - a boy. He was raised in the forest but did not possess the same love of Nature as his parents - when he was of age he left the sanctuary under the trees and went to Suwa, the nearest province in Nihon. He didn’t keep in touch.
His parents were saddened by his decision, but they tried to understand. They wished their child all the best, wherever he was, that he would find someone he could settle down with, perhaps start a family of his own. Theirs was not a way of life for everyone; as long as their son was happy wherever he was, they were content.
Years went by. One morning the couple of the forest woke to the taste of ash on the tongue, the red dawn showing smoke on the distant horizon, low over Suwa. The couple worried and the husband rose to saddle his horse, riding out into Nihon as quickly as the creature could take him.
He was met with devastation - by the dead, and dying. Little was left of what had once been a flourishing province save for charred remains, a few survivors stumbling around in confusion. The man helped them where he could, asking, always asking, if anyone had heard of his son. No-one seemed to know the man he spoke of, too busy babbling about the oni that had come from ‘the accursed forest’.
The man from the forest was troubled. In all his life he had never seen an oni - he had thought the creatures myth, as nothing had ever harried his wife or he. Where had the mysterious oni come from?
“Doumeki!” A stranger called out to the man after he had been searching for a week in the remains of Suwa - a young woman. She looked half-dead, bloody and scratched, but there was a determined glint in her expression, recognition in her eyes.
He did not know her, but waited as she approached him. Perhaps -
“You are Doumeki, yes?” She was young, in her early twenties perhaps, pretty in a fierce way as she clutched to a bundle on her chest. “Doumeki Haruka?”
Haruka had stared, surprised someone knew his name - and then hope lit up inside of him. “I am that man, yes. You knew my son?”
“I was his wife.” Something hard and raw burned in the words - in the past tense -, hands trembling a little. “He - when the oni attacks came -” She dropped her gaze, looking to the rubble at their feet. “You look like him.”
“…I’m sorry.” Sorrow ached inside Haruka’s own chest, but he slid from his horse to try and embrace the woman before him, his daughter-in-law. He did not doubt her - loss showed too clearly in her form.
“No…” She stepped back before he could touch her, heat in her cheeks. “I’m sorry, but - the baby. You might crush him.”
Baby?
Only then did Haruka look more closely at the bundle the woman held, at how it moved slightly, the rise and fall of tiny breath.
“This is your grandson,” his daughter-in-law reluctantly held out the child for him to see, pulling back the cloth so Haruka could see the small babe within that looked so much like his only son. “His name is Shizuka.”
Haruka took the child, and cradled him close. “He’s beautiful.”
Shizuka was raised in the forest with his mother and his grandparents. The family of four never spoke of Suwa, of Nihon, if they could help it, concentrating on what was good about their lives as they were. It was a simple life, peaceful.
Shizuka was ill quite a lot. He was frail, and his mother insisted upon dressing him in girl’s clothing - a kimono. Haruka’s wife didn’t quite understand the idea, but both Haruka and his daughter-in-law were adamant. It would help Shizuka, they said. The boy would become strong. Haruka’s wife let them have their traditions, knowing to trust her husband when it came to superstition and the supernatural. Haruka was the one had written the ofuda that guarded their home - no fey had ever come anywhere near their house, even though the forest was supposed to be rife with the race.
Shizuka grew up stronger, abandoning his illness of the past. He took up archery, and Haruka oversaw him, letting the boy follow in his footsteps. Shizuka’s spiritual energy was strong, and the exercise worked well for both mind and spirit.
When Shizuka was twelve, Haruka died. An illness crept up on the man, draining his life away, and the day of his death brought mourning to the household. Shizuka left to gain some room to simply breathe, slinging his bow and arrows over his shoulder and going deeper into the forest, deeper than he’d ever been before by himself.
Seeing something glinting in the sun shining through the branches overhead Shizuka entered a clearing in the trees, gaze immediately falling on a case crafter of crystal and silver at the clearing’s heart. It was this that the sun had made glint so - approaching the case Shizuka saw a young man lying fast asleep inside of it. He looked in his late teens at the very least, face and hair strangely pale. Some…some fey magic had to have bleached the man of his colour, put him to sleep and sealed him away from the world.
Shizuka thought about returning home then, to go into his grandfather’s library and research what could have happened to the sleeping stranger, to see if he could help him. But - this was an enchanted forest. The scenery changed for wanderers - you had to know where you were going to get there, Haruka had often said, or you could go around in circles forever. If Shizuka left the clearing, he might not ever find it again.
And so, Doumeki Shizuka opened the cursed case.
When Shizuka didn’t return home that day, his remaining family worried, and searched the forest. They searched the forest for three years, and then Haruka’s widow died. Distraught, alone, and not understanding anything, Shizuka’s mother fled the forest, weeping at the loss of everything she’d ever known. She left for Nihon, for as far away from the hexed forest as she could possibly go.
From the edges of the trees a golden-eyed eagle watched her go, his neck heavy with the golden crest of the Faerie Court.
#
“- and then Fai-san scrambled up the tree again and meowed at him.”
“And…they actually taught you a lesson that day as well?” Watanuki adjusted the basket he had over his arm, glancing down inside of it for a few moments to check he hadn’t crushed the delicate contents. Yuuko had him on delivery service. Again. He huffed quietly, and the kudakitsune curled around his throat hrred, raising its head to nuzzle Watanuki’s cheek for a moment before flopping bonelessly once more. (He’d tried leaving the kudakitsune back at the shop but the little creature was having none of it, wriggling up Watanuki’s sleeve and clinging stubbornly around his upper-arm under his shirt until he’d eventually given in and just left with the kudakitsune still attached to him.)
“Yes,” Syaoran, walking along at Watanuki’s side, nodded. The brunet had been recounting some of the training he’d been doing under Kurogane’s tutelage for the past month or so - or rather, the crystallised insanity that went on in Fai and Kurogane’s home, with the occasional training in-between. The engaged couple had been together all that while - a miracle in and of itself, considering neither of them were sporting any serious injuries -, but they still didn’t seem to really ‘get along’ particularly well. Fai teased; Kurogane snarled. Fai did something that Syaoran could only really describe as flirting - and Syaoran wanted very much to be far, far away when those occasions happened as it brought up bad images and the topic of bestiality and he did not want those sort of thoughts lurking in his poor brain -, and Kurogane…sometimes Kurogane blew his top completely, and other times he spoke lowly, sharply, and Fai went away by himself, sunshine gone from his smile. Syaoran had only seen the blond’s expression once when Fai had been in such a mood, and he didn’t think he could bear ever to see it again. Kurogane and he had had a quiet afternoon, but it had been a melancholy one too.
Watanuki sighed again, feeling the basket press into his arm, the weight of Yuuko’s knowing smirk hanging oppressively over his head, stretching into the unending distance of his life. “I won’t have time to see Himawari-chan today, will I?”
Syaoran looked up overhead, seeing the sun’s placement in the sky, and quickly worked out how long it would take for them to get to the waterfall, and how long it would take for Watanuki to get back to Yuuko’s shop. There wasn’t any time for Watanuki to take a detour - Yuuko had given Watanuki a deadline. “No, sorry.” It was his father who’d taught him how to read the celestial bodies for time and direction; Syaoran’s father had taught him many useful things, almost as if he’d known -
“Himawari-chan!” Watanuki wailed to himself, actually falling to his knees in the middle of the forest and bemoaning his fate to the sky.
Thankfully, exposure to Watanuki usually equipped one with the knowledge of various ways He Who Wailed Constantly could be dealt with. Syaoran inwardly sighed, but followed through with the method he’d discovered worked best with his black-haired companion. “You mention Himawari-shi a lot…do you like her?”
It did the trick, Watanuki leaping to his feet and defending Himawari’s honour, cheeks flushed with pink as he flapped his arms about so much it was a wonder he’d didn’t suddenly take off. “No-one could dislike Himawari-chan!” As if that had been the kind of ‘like’ Syaoran had asked about - Watanuki found safety in generalisation. “She’s so kind, and has such a lovely smile~~” A blissful heart-struck sigh, and Watanuki was lost in his little dreamland again. But…at least he was walking as he dreamed, all but prancing along at Syaoran’s side. “Look!”
Syaoran looked where his companion was suddenly pointing, seeing the very tip of a white tower in the mid-distance. “Is that-?”
“That’s where Himawari-chan lives, after Yuuko-san locked her up.” Watanuki shook his fist at the memory of the witch. “One day I’ll find some way to vanquish Yuuko-san’s evil -” Syaoran looked a little doubtful, “- and I’ll save Himawari-chan!”
Syaoran could see the uppermost window of the tower, just above the trees. He saw a flash of darkness in it - hair? - and instinctively stepped forward, as if to get a better view, but tripped, unusually clumsy. The ground was hard but the thick grass was relatively soft, and Syaoran did little more than bang his knees and palms, getting a little dirt on his clothes.
“Bad luck,” Watanuki automatically extended a hand to the fallen brunet, Syaoran somehow having the largest rock in the surrounding area to completely oversee and trip over. Watanuki knew there was a meaning in such things - there was a meaning in all things (Yuuko had drilled that into his head enough times) -, but the headache-inducing action of deciphering such a meaning was best left to the insane or the perpetually drunk. (Yuuko fitted both categories splendidly.)
Syaoran reached out to take the offered hand, fingers meeting wrists, palm to palm. There was white lightning racing through two minds, a roiling in two guts, and Syaoran rose to his feet and pulled back his hand as if burned. Brown stared at blue for an instant, two heartbeats, two lifetimes parallel and tandem and colliding in an explosive shattering of glass, and it hit Syaoran that it was the first time he’d ever really touched Watanuki, skin-to-skin. The kudakitsune made a quiet noise at the darker-haired youth’s throat - discontent.
The moment passed.
Syaoran started walking again, speaking to Watanuki without looking at him. “You’ll be late getting back to Yuuko-san.”
Dread at the thought of actually being late and being exposed to Yuuko’s wrath kick-started Watanuki into movement, both boys occupied in their thoughts as they hurried on their way.
#
Yet again, they were in the garden. The inside of the house almost felt claustrophobic to Fai, the prince used to roaming as he willed in the forest, unable to stay in rooms that became black - pitch black - as soon as night fell and Kurogane approached. Ever since their first night together Fai had avoided Kurogane at night-time when he could, going for long walks when the moonlight was bright enough and creeping back in hoping against hopes that his housemate would be asleep by that time. Sometimes Kurogane was, sometimes Kurogane wasn’t, and Fai spent most of his nights on the rather comfortable couch in the living-room, the door firmly barred. In the morning he was up with the proverbial lark, humming or whistling his strange attempt at a whistle, serving up breakfast to his dark-eyed fiancé when wolf-Kurogane sloped down the stairs from what should have been their shared room.
They were in the garden, in the sunshine, looking relatively at peace, as far as peace for a duo like them went. Kurogane was reading some mangayan he’d found on the shelves in their house’s library, delicately flipping the pages with the tip of one claw. (Fai had actually been the one to find the mangayan, but hadn’t asked why Ashura had thought this a ‘need’ and simply carried the manga outside for the wolf to read, alongside one of his own magic books that had somehow miraculously appeared from the home he had shared with Ashura-ou and Chii.) Fai, however, was bored; setting aside the book he’d been reading and stretching.
“Kuro-piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,” Fai flopped out on his front, propping his chin up with his hands as he fixed his gaze on his distracted fiancé, “I’m bored.”
Kurogane was unsympathetic. “Go be bored somewhere else then.” He was busy with his reading. Claws were not as dexterous as fingers.
“But Kuro-chan is here!” Fai pointed one finger at the wolf, as if Kurogane had somehow failed to take notice of himself that morning. “Who else can I play with?”
“Go play with some of your faerie friends.”
Fai slid a little nearer to the grass beneath him. “They’re too far away.”
Kurogane frowned at that, and looked up at him. “How do you know that?”
“I know a lot of things,” Fai smiled back. “Does Kuro-sama want to play now?”
“No.” ‘Kuro-sama’ felt like he was entertaining a small child. (Baby-sitting had never been his forte.) “Go away.”
Sighing, Fai partially complied. He rose to his feet and went away a little way, slinking around the garden with a mildly distracted air. Kurogane ignored him. Or at least, Kurogane tried to ignore him, succeeding only up to the point when he suddenly found Fai very much in his face again, brandishing what looked like half a sizeable tree-branch in an almost lethal manner.
“What the -”
“Kuro-chan!” Fai waved the branch/stick at him, before suddenly flinging it far away from him with dramatic aplomb. “Fetch!”
“Like hell,” Kurogane lazily retorted, deliberately looking down again and flipping to another page in his mangayan with the tip of one claw. “If you wanted the damn thing so much you shouldn’t have tossed it away in the first place.”
“Aw, Kuro-tan’s no fun!” Fai pouted, coming over to flop at the wolf’s side. “I was just trying to think of good bonding exercises for master and pet.”
Kurogane bristled, growling in the back of his throat. “What did you just say?”
Fai ignored him, shading his eyes to look up at the clouds overhead. “Hey, Kuro-wanko, do you know how to play dead?”
Kurogane snarled. “I’ll show you ‘play dead’ - only you won’t be playing!!” He leapt for Fai, but the blond had already, in turn, sprang to his own feet and dodged the incoming wolf, sprinting for the nearest tree. Kurogane was determined the idiot wasn’t going to get to one this time - screw the curse, he was ripping the mage’s throat out with his teeth.
Fai only laughed, evading Kurogane’s best attempts to slaughter him. “Hyuu~! Kuro-woof’s so energetic~!!” He reached a tree, scrambling up to the relative safety of a few branches up, and laughed down at the thwarted Kurogane. (The wolf really couldn’t climb trees.) “Does this make me the kitty-cat big doggy likes to chase?”
“If you’re a cat,” Kurogane growled back at him, “why can’t you just get stuck up there and give me some peace?!”
“Aw…” Fai sprawled out on his branch, one long arm dangling lazily down. “Kuro-chan would miss me if I were gone.”
“Like a hole in the head!”
More laughter, Kurogane wanting very dearly to have both his hands and his sword back, simply so he could have the great pleasure of ramming the blade down the idiot’s damn throat. “Look, Kuro-pu!” Fai sat up straighter on his branch, waving madly to two approaching figures. “It’s Syaoran-kun and his friend!”
Kurogane turned as the comment almost bid him to do, seeing his student and Watanuki coming nearer. “…Who’s the other kid?”
“Watanuki-kun, I think.” Fai slipped down the tree, standing on the forest floor to greet their guests. “He works for Yuuko-san.”
“Fai-san, Kurogane-san,” Syaoran stopped before them, bowing in greeting. He really was such a ridiculously polite boy - good children really did exist in the world. He straightened again, motioning to the boy at his side. “This is Watanuki-kun.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” Fai was cordial, smiling at the new boy - and then he saw the kudakitsune coiled around Watanuki’s throat. “Well,” he leaned in a little more, expression much softer as he looked down at the stirring fox, “aren’t you a little beauty?” The kudakitsune raised its head to snuggle against his hand for a few moments, shamelessly loving the attention, before going immediately back to Watanuki and putting a kiss on the boy’s cheek. Fai laughed. “Looks like you’ve got an admirer.”
Kurogane grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, fed-up with Fai cooing over the kudakitsune. Kurogane himself didn’t see the other’s fascination - he thought it looked like a furry white worm.
“Yuuko-san sent me to you with a gift.” Watanuki spoke to Fai, reaching for the basket on his arm with his free hand and pulling out a bunch of beautiful flowers. Kurogane couldn’t name their type - they were like nothing he’d ever seen before, but they smelled pleasant.
Fai took the blooms, smiling. “Yuuko-san sent me a gift?”
“No…” Watanuki shook his head. “There was a girl - she came to the shop the other day and made a wish. I don’t know what she wished for exactly, but Yuuko-san said I was to tell you they were from her. She had really long blonde hair and fluffy ears, like a kitten. She was called -”
“Chii,” Fai held his gift a little closer to his body, voice quiet as he pulled away from the others somewhat. His smile lost some of its brightness. “Her name is Chii.”
Watanuki looked a little awkward. “That’s correct, Fluorite-san.”
Kurogane huffed to himself, weary of the stilted conversation. He couldn’t see the colour of the flowers, but their hue matched the sad shade of Fai’s eyes almost perfectly, cradled as they were in the idiot’s arms.
“…What colour are they?” He asked Syaoran, his tone as uninterested as he could make it.
“You can’t see?” the boy asked, a little startled.
“Colour-blind,” the wolf retorted rather flatly, as he personally thought it was rather obvious.
“Oh,” his charge was immediately apologetic. “Kurogane-san, I’m so sorry -”
Kurogane cut him off - Syaoran struck him as the sort of boy who really could apologise until the cows came home. “What colour are they?”
“Blue,” Syaoran finally replied, rather promptly. “Like the summer sky.”
“…Like fluorite?”
There was a long pause, Syaoran considering the suggestion as he looked at the flowers in Fai’s arms, at Fai himself. “…Exactly like fluorite.”
#
Watanuki kept up a brisk pace as he walked back to Yuuko’s shop from Fai and Kurogane’s home, the kudakitsune curled up fast asleep at the bottom of his basket emitting baby-soft snores. It was almost kind of cute like that, Watanuki close to forgiving the little creature for being such a pain to him at times - the kudakitsune really was only trying to be friendly. He smiled down at it for a few seconds before looking up again at where he was going once more - and stopped dead.
A human girl was in-between the trees before him, leaning back against a tree-trunk to look up at the interlinked branches overhead, black curls tied into bunches spilling down her over her shoulders and back. Her face was fair, her posture relaxed, and Watanuki made a noise similar to that of a choking cat, catching the girl’s attention.
They blinked at one another for a few moments, and then she smiled at him.
“Himawari-chan~!” Watanuki dove forwards, intent only on the pretty girl before him. If some inner sense gave a twinge he ignored it - Himawari-chan came first. “How did you get out of your tower? It’s so wonderful to see Himawari-chan face-to-face at last!” This close he could see the exact shade of Himawari’s beautiful eyes, her smile in all its glory, the way the sun gleamed on her raven hair.
“Watanuki-kun!” Himawari clapped her hands together, positively delighted. “Watanuki-kun, I was hoping I could meet you so much; I waited here for you.”
Watanuki swooned a little. “Himawari-chan waited for me?” He could die a happy man.
“I’ll always wait for Watanuki-kun - he’s very special to me.” Himawari’s eyes practically glowed with her confession - and was it Watanuki’s imagination, or were they larger than before?
“What beautiful big eyes Himawari-chan has!” Watanuki could see his reflection in the black pupils, twin youths looking back out at him with slight concern.
“All the better to see Watanuki-kun with!” Himawari sparkled. “Watanuki-kun is very handsome up-close.”
Watanuki flushed an alarming shade of pink and flailed, willing himself not to keel over in sheer happiness at the compliment from his beloved. “Himawari-chan is too kind~!!” He set down his basket for fear of dropping the sleeping kudakitsune, revelling in his joy.
Himawari only giggled at the happy wiggle-dance the other was doing, playfully extending her hands to be pulled into the merriment by the black-haired boy.
Watanuki took hold of the white hands more than willingly, beaming at the feel of the girl’s soft fingers, the way glossy black curls whirled in the air as Himawari span in a circle, pulling him away from his basket. Nails dug into his palms a little harder than was necessary, Himawari’s fingers quite strong in their hold, but Watanuki tried to pass it all off with his usual light. “What a strong grip Himawari-chan has!”
“All the better to hold onto Watanuki-kun with!” Himawari smiled and Watanuki’s heart started doing somersaults in his chest - and then it thudded when Himawari’s smile extended, lips parting, and Watanuki saw the sharp white teeth hiding in the darkness of the pretty girl’s mouth.
Watanuki swallowed. Hard. “My…” he breathed, unable to tear his eyes away from Himawari’s fangs, the shifting features on the girl’s face that were slowly slipping into something no longer recognisable as anything even remotely human, “what pointed teeth Himawari-chan has.” ‘Himawari’ hissed, nails digging even harder into Watanuki’s palms, cutting in so far red bled down the youth’s wrists. “What have you done with Himawari-chan?”
The monster before him didn’t reply, its mouth elongating and stretching open, two eyes sliding into a bulbous scarlet one. It looked hideous, stench rising from its released form choking Watanuki, making the boy cough as he attempted to drag his hands free from the spirit’s grasp.
“Tell me what you’ve done with Himawari-chan!!” The kudakitsune was still sleeping; Watanuki was suddenly grateful the little fox wasn’t awake to see the horrible spirit, smell the foul stink that was fogging up the forest, making it hard to breathe -
Watanuki coughed, choking, and all he could see was the monster’s dark maw looming over him and endless rows of glittering teeth -
Suddenly, there was a blur of white, tawny brown and gold, something massive swooping down between Watanuki and the thing that had assaulted him, smacking him in the face and sending him reeling backwards. His wrist was torn free from his captor’s, nails digging in and slashing a deep line down his skin, but he was free, panting as he stared wide-eyed at the huge golden eagle that was flapping its wings defiantly at the hissing spirit that had once looked like Himawari.
The eagle shrieked at an ear-splitting pitch and beat its wings in the evil spirit’s face - the monster, in response, hissed again, turned tail and abruptly fled. The smell went with it - Watanuki coughed once more to get the last of the noxious odour out of his lungs, but breathing was a lot easier.
The eagle flew to a nearby tree branch, looking down at him. Why the spirit that had attacked him had fled in the face of the bird Watanuki certainly didn’t know, but he was grateful. If the eagle hadn’t showed up he probably would’ve lost his life, but, as it was, all Watanuki had were some deep scratches on his arms. They hurt like hell and would sting even more when he cleaned them, but he was alive.
He smiled rather weakly at the bird, blue eyes sweeping across the creature’s glittering plumage, the hard glow in golden eyes that matched the metal crest around its neck. Watanuki didn’t know the symbol engraved on the crest - Yuuko probably would, though. He’d ask her about it later so he could send a thank you gift to the eagle’s owner, but first -
“Himawari-chan,” The very thought of his beloved having been tricked in a manner similar to the way he had just been sent Watanuki into a panic, the boy leaping to his feet, snatching up the basket with the still-sleeping kudakitsune inside (the little fox certainly knew how to nap), and racing for Himawari’s tower in the distance to check the girl was alright, Yuuko’s deadlines for returning to the shop completely forgotten.
The eagle watched him go, unmoving, and only took off from its perch when Watanuki was well out of sight.
(Watanuki found Himawari in her tower, unhurt, unbothered. No spirit had come anywhere near her. Watanuki flailed over her for a little while, and then dashed off back to Yuuko. Yuuko made him cook a ridiculously elaborate meal for herself and Mokona as compensation for his tardiness, and proceeded to get very, very drunk. (She, Maru, Moro and Mokona were dancing and singing all night.) Watanuki, bleary-eyed the following morning from lack of sleep, took the hint, and was suitably chastised.)
#
Fai had said ‘three days’. Three days and three nights, a snatch of time for him to run away back to wherever he’d come from and elude any and all of Kurogane’s questions. He’d been a little stranger than usual ever since that Watanuki kid had brought him the flowers from ‘Chii’, the strange blooms Syaoran said were blue and Kurogane saw as grey, unrotting smudges in a vase in the living room, where Fai had seen them every day.
Fai had written ‘three days, see you soon, Kuro-wanko’, his words a looping, almost unintelligible scrawl on a piece of paper on Kurogane’s pillow, the first thing the wolf had seen upon waking one morning, about a week after Chii’s flowers had arrived. Fai had disappeared into the night, unable to even tell Kurogane to his face that he was vanishing for a little while. He was as hard to hold as the far-away moonlight, the untameable wind. He was three times as frustrating.
On the third day Kurogane waited, and denied the fact he was waiting to himself. Fai returned promptly, as he’d written but -
That bitter musk he’d scented when he’d first met Fai was now everywhere on the blond, thick, heavy and irritating. The smell raised Kurogane’s hackles, his lips instinctively pulling back into a snarl, the animal part of him forcing itself out.
“Kuro-pu?” Fai halted, seeing the other’s expression. Kurogane had threatened him before, chased him in anger but - this was different. The wolf’s entire manner was freezing cold, icy, hostility rolling off of him in waves.
“My name is Kurogane.”
Fai’s smile slipped a little at the frosty tone, the expression hastily tacked on again as he tilted his head to the side, eyes shut and fringe sliding along his face. “Kuro-chan is so grumpy today!”
Kurogane looked at him, red-eyed, cold. He wasn’t angry, yet he was, and the thoughts tumbled and jumbled in his head as his teeth remained bared. His…his honour had felt like it had been slapped - his engagement with Fai was a thing of convenience, even though he didn’t know what it was exactly that the mage had entered the agreement for. Still, even in Nihon, there were principals one adhered to - intimacy of any sort between the engaged couple could be ignored (not that Kurogane wanted it anyway), but to involve a third party -
“Kuro-sama…?” Fai looked mildly confused.
Kurogane turned his back on the rude, infuriating blond, and stalked back into the house. He didn’t even want to look at the one calling himself his fiancé.
The bitter musk - the smell Kurogane had spent so long trying to place…
That had been the scent of another man.
#
“Himawari-chan~~~!” Watanuki arrived, ever-prompt, at the base of his beloved’s tower, specially-prepared bentou-box in hand for his favourite girl as he waved up delightedly at Himawari’s smiling face - and then blinked, a little confused as to why there was a large golden eagle sitting on the girl’s ledge beside her. The same golden eagle who had saved Watanuki a week beforehand, if Watanuki’s eyes weren’t deceiving him. (He adjusted his glasses, just to check.) Why…?
“Watanuki-kun!” Himawari beamed down at him, waving back. “We were waiting for you!”
‘We’?
“Hn,” the eagle made a non-committal sort of…grunt.
Watanuki gawked. “It talks?!” The bird had never said a word to him the last time he’d seen it, and now it was talking?! Wolves were one thing; eagles were another, and someone really needed to sort out the sudden infestation of talking animals in the forest. The very thought of them made Watanuki’s head hurt.
“Not ‘it’ - he, Watanuki-kun!” Himawari smiled at the bird beside her, bowing her head slightly to it. “This is, Doumeki-kun. He comes to talk to me now and then.”
‘Doumeki-kun’?!! Watanuki inwardly fumed - when had this strange bird become so close to Himawari-chan to receive such an honorific? Why was the stupid bird coming to talk to her?! Himawari was Watanuki’s precious person - not this - this Doumeki’s!
All previous thoughts of gratefulness to the bird that had saved him fled Watanuki’s mind completely - the eagle was a rival now, a competitor for Himawari’s affections. The stupid bird - he’d probably snuck up and taken advantage of Himawari’s delicate feelings one day, wriggling himself into conversation. Himawari had to have taken pity on him, that was it and Doumeki -
“Oi,” Watanuki was so lost in his internal ire, shaking his fist at the sky, he didn’t realise anyone was speaking at him, only coming to attention when someone dropped a pebble on his head.
“Ow!” He glared up at the window above him, focusing his rage on the impassive Doumeki. “What did you do that for, you jerk?!”
The eagle looked down at him, all haughty composure. (Watanuki suddenly wondered whether Yuuko would eat roasted eagle if he served it up to her on a plate.) “Don’t space out in public, idiot.”
“I wasn’t spacing out!!”
“Hn,” Doumeki looked aside.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you!!” Watanuki flailed, stomping his foot. “You should be grateful the great Watanuki is taking the time out of his day to speak to such an insignificant life-form such as yourself!”
“Hn,” Doumeki said, and covered up his head with his wing to muffle Watanuki’s ranting.
“Say something other than ‘hn’, you idiot!”
Himawari laughed delightedly, and clapped her hands, radiant with the glow of her joy. In Watanuki’s vision, sparkles fluttered off her in waves. “Watanuki-kun and Doumeki-kun get along so well!!”
Watanuki face-faulted, and ended up on his behind on the ground as he began sobbing his woes to the uncaring sky once more. Doumeki kept his wings over his head. Himawari giggled.
At least someone was amused.
A/N: *threw a minor hissy fit with the chapter and chopped it in half* Crys, I know you may like your manly men, but Doumeki’s an ass. T^T (He doesn’t like me. Even Kuro-pu’s more agreeable to work with, and I turned him into a wolf.) As a result…at this moment in time, I’ve no idea whose fairytale is opening the next chapter. Drat it.
Also - and it’s rather shameful I just noticed this now -, why is there no Mokona? Mokonaaaaaa. *mopes*
…Cookies for anyone who can make TRC 224 make sense.