Fic: Vow (1)

[shadow_of_egypt]

Title: Vow
Characters/Pairings: KuroFai
Rating: M - warnings for (not really explicit) violence/blood, a little bad language, and sex (in the second half).
Summary: Semi-Mediaeval AU. Kurogane, a warrior from the East, is honour-bound in Fai’s Western Court after the king and his brother saved his life. He’ll serve the twins but refuses to swear to them, and, though he wants him, he’ll avoid the king’s bed as long as Fai continues lying to himself. It’s an awkward decision.    
A/N: Can you tell I struggled writing a summary? ;;; This ‘shot’s actually part of a (teeny, mini) ‘verse in my head that’s been plaguing me for a while; I’m a history-holic, and wilfully admit it. Tell me you can resist the lure of knight!Kurogane, and I’ll say you’re a liar. >.<
This is set in our world (or in a world so close to ours in many ways it might as well be ours, save for specific people), at about the very early Medieval period, on what would probably be the North-western part of the European continent. I refrain from specifics because I don’t particularly want to give anything a specific place or time, and I can pick and choose with my facts and research to my heart’s content. ;;;
This is posted in two parts due to LJ cutting attempts at longer posts - the second part will (hopefully) be up in a few days, with the rest of my notes at the end, as usual.   
*****

The weather was foul, caught somewhere between a rainstorm and a snowstorm, a flurry of slush flung in the faces of the medium-sized caravan as they trekked wearily along one of the better roads of the kingdom, returning home to the castle from a peace campaign with some of the more far-flung nobility of the land. It was a good while after Midwinter - six sevendays, at least - and yet the days were still painfully bleak, a grey dankness to this Western world that did absolutely nothing to enamour itself to the warrior from the East who travelled as part of the weather-beaten group.

Kurogane had been assigned to ride in the caravan’s main carriage by the king - when Kurogane had tried to argue, not wishing to be coddled or shut away from the wind’s air (however frost-laced it was), Fai had rebuked him before all the nobles of his Court, a certain glint of ice in his blue eyes that promised whatever passed for Hell in this gloomy country should he argue back. Kurogane was riding in the carriage and that was that - and someone else would ride Suwa, Kurogane’s horse, so silly Kuro-chan should stop worrying about unnecessary things and go and follow orders. Wasn’t that what a good soldier did, after all? Kurogane had bit his tongue then to avoid the retort that he had sworn no oath of fealty to the man - the subject was an object of dissent among some of the unrulier members of the Court, Kurogane disliked by some ever since he’d arrived in the kingdom near the winter’s beginning for his prowess with a sword and the favour he held with the king and his brother despite being both a suspicious foreigner and unsworn to their sovereign lord. There was nothing binding Kurogane to Fai’s service and it was felt Kurogane could all too easily take advantage of that and slit the monarch’s unsuspecting throat at the drop of a hat, Fai unwise to place his trust in this stranger to Western lands. Many would be glad to see Kurogane taken to task before a crowd, and the warrior refused to give the wretches that pleasure. It was useful for him to stick around in a land whose king was amenable towards him - and besides, he was honour-bound to repay the royal family after what they had done for him.

Kurogane sat at the front of the carriage he was stuck in, and glared out at the figure of the king in the caravan before him. Fai was in furs of white and grey to ward off the cold, resplendent upon his snow-white mare, Celes. Kurogane had yet to work out how the man managed to somehow coax the mud that pervaded the blasted kingdom not stick to him and his horse - everyone else seemed coated in the stuff, slimy with brown and black.

Still, Kurogane took heart in the fact Fai looked soggy, the idiot’s blow-away blond hair plastered to his thick skull by the mana the Western god decided to cheerfully throw down from his heavens, revelling even more that Fai looked so thoroughly put-out by it all. Kurogane knew for a fact he’d have to stomach endless whining when they finally reached the inn they were heading for, but it was worth it to see the royal pain-in-the-neck looking so disgruntled, carrying Kurogane through the irritation of feeling every single bump and dip in the uneven surface of the road, quite unlike the smoother flow of Suwa’s gait. He hated riding in carriages.

“Sadist,” a soft, weary voice spoke from the pile of furs a little further back in the carriage behind Kurogane, back where the wind didn’t blow in as strongly and out of the cold.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Kurogane didn’t turn around to face the speaker - it was bad manners, but his sole companion was well-used to his ways already. Kurogane had been in the kingdom a few months, long enough for the pale strangers to get accustomed.

“You are smirking.” The voice announced - it would’ve been a challenge, but fatigue clung to every word, and the words were too exhausted to really stand for long. “Is my brother making a strange face again?”

Kurogane refused to validate whether he was actually smirking or not - the point was relatively moot, considering he could feel the corners of his lips tugging upwards as he sat there. He felt inexplicably smug. “Apparently a fat clump of slush just went down the back of his neck.” Fai was wriggling in his perch on Celes, plucking at his clothes and collar to try and ease the cold trickling down his spine.

There was laughter at that - still soft and weak -, and the rustling of furs, someone shifting about. Kurogane turned around at that, frowning when he saw his companion pushing himself up into a sitting position.

“You should stay lying down.”

“I am weary of lying down.” His Royal Highness, Prince Yuui, the entire reason Kurogane had been dumped in the carriage instead of out on Suwa in the rotten weather, recently elevated into a comfortable seat that offered him a more fascinating view than the carriage’s ceiling, did not look impressed with Kurogane’s advice.

“Then you shouldn’t have come on this expedition.” Kurogane was unsympathetic, and perfectly willing to take the prince to task for his stupidity. “You’re sick - and you knew you were sick before we left the castle.”

“If I had said I was ill and stayed behind,” Yuui defended, “Fai would have called this whole expedition off and mothered me out of worry, and he never would have achieved fealty from those nobles.” It had been vital for Fai to do so - there was news of a potential invasion from the kingdom to the south, and the king needed the support of his nobility, whether it was granted, bought or bribed from them. A divided kingdom could not stand for long without being eaten into by its enemies, eventually collapsing and dispersing into nothing but tales of the past.

“If you’d said you were ill and stayed behind,” Kurogane retorted, “you wouldn’t have passed out on your horse from fever as soon as we left that last guy’s home and almost drowned in the mud before anyone could yank you up again. And no,” he said firmly, when it looked like Yuui was going to try and move forward and join him at the carriage’s edge, “you can stay put there. You’re still ill, and I’ll never hear the end of it from that idiot if you die on me from a chill.”

“We will be reaching the inn soon, anyway -”

“No.” Kurogane held his ground (even if it did jolt under him as the carriage went through a particularly nasty dip), unwilling to be pushed around by either one of the twins. They had saved his life and they gave him almost free reign of their kingdom to do the job his princess had assigned him, but he had not sworn them fealty. Their decisions were questionable, and their authority over him was slight. Yuui opened his mouth, as if to argue, and Kurogane scowled. “Do you want to lie down again?”

Yuui shook his head, closing his mouth again and mutely pulling up his furs around him. They were wolf’s pelts, a soft black-streaked grey, stitched together into blankets that cocooned the prince and made Kurogane unconsciously draw his own cloak tighter around himself. His Highness would behave. Wonderful - that was one out of two.

Kurogane sighed, a raised a hand to his temples. He could feel a headache coming on. “You’re just as annoying as your idiot brother.”

Yuui smiled at him, quiet, letting his head lean back and touch the wall of the carriage behind him. The pose bared a little of his throat - Yuui had forsworn tight collars in his sickness, hating the feeling of cloth sticking to sweat-damp skin, and the necklaces given to him by his twin were plain to see: a silver cross, in looping fashion, for this new god the people talked about, bowing their heads in draughty chapels while black-clad men droned in the Roman tongue, and an amber pendant, a cry to the superstitions of the fey folk and the older gods, a ward against ill health. “Thank you.”

Kurogane shook his head at the sight and held his tongue once more - the Western World was two worlds, caught between the old and the new, the many and the one, but neither was of great concern to him. He was a warrior who lived to serve his princess; as long as they let him be he held no quarrel with the changing gods or any of their confused followers. People could believe what they wanted to; they lived and bled and died all the same, in the end. The Court priest and royal confessor despaired of him, but Kurogane would not cower in fear of anyone, be they mortal or divine. Kurogane settled for just looking at Yuui, pushing religion aside and glaring again. “That wasn’t a compliment.”

“And so it was sincere.” There was amusement in the prince’s expression, thin as it was, beside a tired gratefulness. Yuui was clearly glad of the company in the uncomfortable carriage, unwilling and grouchy as it was and might have been granted. There were many, many worse companions to travel with than Kurogane.

Kurogane stared at him, before colouring slightly, and going back to glaring outside their slow-moving carriage. Fai had apparently gotten the slush out from where it was bothering him, but was still wriggling around uncomfortably on his horse, and making faces about what the rainy snow was doing to his hair. “…Idiots.”

“Identical,” Yuui’s sage voice informed him.

“Oh, shut up.” Kurogane sulked. The carriage trundled on.

#

Evening fell in depressing hues of olive and grey, the sun sinking below the horizon hidden under a blanket of stubborn clouds. The weather had finally settled into a thin, pervading rain, long wet fingers that snuck in through gaps in clothing to send shudders down the spines of those out in it. A heavy layer of gloom was thick over the caravan, everyone looking forward to eventually reaching the inn that night, to fires, beds, and hot food. They would continue on to the castle the following day.

Yuui had fallen into an exhausted sleep against the carriage wall a while ago, still sitting upright. Gently - far more gently than he’d ever like to admit to being to someone other than his princess -, Kurogane had coaxed the unconscious prince back down into a horizontal position, cushioning Yuui’s head on furs again and pulling the pelts up around the blond to keep him warm. The kingdom would never hear the end of it should Yuui’s sickness worsen; Fai’s devotion to his twin was admirable, but often single-minded. The king…was a complicated man.

Kurogane looked out of the carriage again into the fading light, seeing Fai’s pale form, still atop his horse. The man looked like a wraith due to his fair colouring, but he’d be saddle-sore like any other mortal after such a long day when they finally settled down for the night. Kurogane wondered if the idiot would leave his door ajar when he finally went to bed again - an open invitation that frustrated both of them. Each time Fai had done the same back in the castle Kurogane had studiously ignored the unspoken offer, dismissing the faintly-coloured guards on watch outside His Majesty’s chambers and taking the post himself. The men weren’t stupid and always hastily went, and Kurogane had turned his back on the open door each and every time - Fai had said nothing, would say nothing, refusing to give away one inch of his secrets.

Four sevendays before Fai had stripped himself knowing his door was open and Kurogane could see him, bare save for a thin sheet and shadows, the firelight in his golden hair. Kurogane had loudly shut the door on him - the warrior would not debase himself and go to Fai, and Kurogane would not take on the responsibility Fai seemed so keen to avoid. They would approach each other as equals, or not at all.

Two sevendays ago, Fai had kissed him. The king had drunk too much wine - he’d drunk the rest of his Court under the table, and all of them had had blinding headaches in the morning and sworn their god had smote them down for their folly - and had required an escort to reach his chambers in one piece. The job had fallen to Kurogane, the only one relatively sober enough that could be trusted near the king’s person, and Fai had clutched at him every step of the way, lithe and long-lashed and horribly tempting. His body had been so wonderfully warm against the winter’s chill and his lips stained dark with the flavourful wine - it had been hard, so achingly, terribly hard to pull away when Fai had curled his arms around Kurogane’s neck and pulled the Eastern man atop him on the bed, gasping breath away from a deep kiss that had seared his lips. He could still recall Fai’s moan, the feel of white, smooth skin under his searching hands, the pliant press of the king’s body so firmly against his own.

“…No,” he’d said somehow, his voice hoarse, and disentangled himself from Fai and Fai’s bed, their clothes wrinkled, hair mussed, and both of them painfully wanting.

“Kuro-sama,” Fai had protested, just as husky, pushing himself up onto his elbows, and Kurogane had damned once more the king’s insistence for stupid nicknames, the way Fai mangled the his name and honorifics into a foreign blur, slipping from that silver tongue to curl around the low heat rising in the warrior’s belly.

“No,” Kurogane had breathed again, unable to look at Fai in that moment, and stubbornly headed for the door. The king was a coward and a fool, and Kurogane would not let him blame alcohol for his actions. Fai had to be responsible to himself. “Try me when you’re sober.”

Kurogane hadn’t looked back, hadn’t seen the dark look that flitted across Fai’s face at that, but had heard the bitterness colouring the royal’s next words, sweet grapes gone sour. “You will run yourself through with your own morals one day, Kurogane.”

“Perhaps,” Kurogane had ceded, “but that’ll be my own decision. People who want to do something should just go ahead and do it, not sit around forever waiting for someone to do it for them and then drag them along.” He’d gone out and shut the door firmly behind him that night, and left the sentries already there to keep watch. They’d talked - of course they’d talked - and the rumours had flared the fires going around the Court. Kurogane had been pestered for three days straight by the priest to go to mass and confess his sins until Kurogane had snapped at him - at which point the man had called him a godless heathen and stormed off to Fai to, once more, request that Kurogane be removed from Court. Yuui had countered the priest - Kurogane did not know what had been said, exactly, for the prince had argued in Latin and Kurogane, although versed in the tongue, was not so quick with it or knowledgeable of the Scripture that Yuui used in the debate. It had ended with the priest bowing to Yuui’s whims, although he still looked at Kurogane with a hostile eye.

Kurogane sat in the carriage and watched the back of Fai’s head, thoughtful. The light outside had almost completely gone, and riders around the carriage were debating whether their torches could withstand the rain. The idiot hadn’t made any direct moves since that night in his bedroom - Fai seemed very keen on pretending it had never happened at all. Though it irritated him Kurogane let Fai lie to himself as best as he could; Kurogane was still always there, waiting, wondering just what it was that would finally bring the idiot down.

The carriage hit another furrow in the road and jolted - and then didn’t move again. One of the wheels had gotten stuck. Yuui murmured something in his sleep and shifted as people outside complained and the caravan drew to a grudging halt, trying to push the carriage out of the dip, coaxing the horses to pull a little harder at their harnesses even as their hooves slid in the slurping mud. Kurogane felt Yuui’s forehead - the prince was still quite warm -, glancing up again to see Fai had ridden back during the commotion, looking inside the carriage in concern.

“How is he?” The king looked somewhat bedraggled, but his eyes were still alert, and his posture good. The setback with the carriage was unneeded in the long ride, but Fai still carried himself with an admirable air that spoke he could go on for many more hours yet.

“Tired, still.” Fai only looked more concerned at the comment, so Kurogane quietly spoke again, trying to alleviate the tense way the man sat upon his mount. “A proper rest overnight in the inn will do him a lot of good - he was well enough to hold a decent-length conversation with me before, so I’ll wager he’ll be feeling a lot better by morning.”

“Good,” Fai said simply and smiled - and even with his fringe stuck to his face and his skin white with cold, he looked wonderful, honest in his relief. Kurogane looked at him, taking in Fai’s sincere expression, memorising it - and then Fai looked away from Yuui, up at Kurogane, and something faltered in blue eyes, the king drawing in a quick, startled breath. “What-?”

Fai never got to finish his question. Someone near the tail-end of the caravan yelled - and suddenly there was a loud cry from the surrounding countryside, dark shapes sweeping in upon the temporarily halted convoy in a thunder of hooves and ringing metal.

“Majesty!” Cried a messenger, short of breath and flustered. A new soldier, then.

Kurogane didn’t need to hear his message. “Bandits.”

Fai nodded once, sharp, before fixing his gaze on Kurogane. “Guard Yuui,” he ordered shortly, and then was gone, lost in the needling rain as he rode to the back-end of the caravan to lend his aid to his men.

Kurogane heard him go, yelling commands to get the main carriage out of the dip and get it moving already, the warrior growling under his breath as he tightened his grip on the sword at his side. He didn’t appreciate being so brusquely given guard duty - but then, His Majesty hadn’t specified just how exactly Kurogane was supposed to guard the prince. A good way to end an attack was to make sure there was no-one left attacking…

Kurogane jumped out of the back of the still carriage, surprising the soldiers who were gathered around trying to get the wheel out of the furrow it was stuck in. His boots squelched horribly when they hit the mud, but he was up and running for the main of the fight as soon as he landed, dangerous smirk back on his face, his sword, Ginryuu, out and ready, wet with rain. Some fool came at him from the left waving a club and Kurogane had run him through before the bastard even realised he was dead, dropping the twitching corpse in the muck and moving on.

One, two, five, fifteen - Kurogane lost count of the bandits he dispatched, firmly planting himself between the attackers and the front of the envoy, where Yuui slept on, feverish. The bandits had attacked in a swarm - there had to have been a lot of them to have even thought of trying to take such a well-guarded caravan. Still, their numbers were being whittled down, a few fleeing, most dropping dead to the ground.

Kurogane saw a flash of dark blond and realised six of the fools had boxed Fai in, the idiot royal off of his horse and without his furs, his sword in his right hand. Kurogane wondered why that was the case - Fai was left-handed, and used a bow -, but then the idiot shifted as he was fighting, and Kurogane saw the long streak of red down the man’s left arm. He was injured. Wonderful.

Kurogane dove in before he had time to rationalise his actions, dispatching half of the bandits and letting Fai finish the rest. The king was a good fighter, even injured, although his swordsmanship wasn’t at Kurogane’s standards. Fai was a much better fighter at long-range.

Fai was also, as the last bandit dropped dead at his feet, rather irritated with Kurogane. “You were supposed to be guarding Yuui!”

Kurogane raised one eyebrow, before gesturing a hand at the piles of dead bandits about the caravan. The fight was over. “Can you see anyone attacking him?”

Fai frowned at him, but dropped his (borrowed) sword and started stalking back to the front of the caravan, and Yuui’s carriage. Kurogane kept pace with him, much to the king’s frustration.

“Are we almost at the inn?”

“If we can get moving quickly again, we will be there well before the moon is fully risen.” Fai held his injured arm stiff - Kurogane couldn’t see how bad the wound was due to blood and mud, but the idiot would have to get it looked at anyway.

“Good,” Kurogane hoisted Fai up into the carriage the moment they reached it, following him in a little way.

Yuui was awake, woken by the commotion, watching them a little blearily, but still relatively coherent. “The soldiers said there were bandits -”

“There were; now there aren’t.” Kurogane’s explanation was succinct, and he took Fai’s shoulder and shoved the king down into a seat, ignoring Fai’s surprised squawk. “Your brother’s hurt his arm. Wash it out with clean water and bandage it if it’s needed.”

Fai tried to get up again. “I have to get Celes-!”

Kurogane kept him down, so that Yuui could start washing down his twin’s arm. His fingers pressed through the other’s shirt - Fai was soaked through to his skin. “A soldier’ll check she’s alright, and get her to the inn.” Someone would have to pick up the idiot’s furs as well from wherever they’d fallen in the fighting, and get them properly dried.

Fai frowned again. “Kuro-”

“For the rest of the journey you,” Kurogane told the royal with some relish, “are riding in the carriage.” And he jumped down and left Fai to his brother’s tender mercies before Fai could argue with him, going to fetch his own horse. If he wasn’t there, he didn’t have to listen. He could hear Fai complaining every step he moved away. (Revenge was a wonderful thing.)

#

They reached the inn eventually, settling in for the night and attempting to get dry as they settled before the roaring fire in the main room, all of them drenched through due to the abysmal rain. The room was cramped with so many people inside, noisy, smoky and a little smelly due to some many bodies packed close, the distinct odour of ‘wet dog’ hanging around due to the drying cloaks and furs. No-one truly minded though, glad to be indoors, tearing into hot chicken and gulping the beer the serving maids brought out like starving men. Yuui had fallen asleep again sometime on the final stretch of the journey so Kurogane had carried him inside; taking him to the largest private room the inn had to offer. It had been put aside for the king but Kurogane didn’t even need to ask to know Fai would share it with his brother, keeping his twin close. Fai had wanted to be the one to bring Yuui in but Kurogane had stopped him - the wound on the royal’s arm was shallow, but it still stung, so it was better for the prince in the long run for someone else to bear him in, quickly and efficiently.

Fai trailed after Kurogane all the same, sending Kurogane to go change into dry clothes as he woke his brother, checking that Yuui was dry himself and comfortable before allowing him to slip back into slumber. He towelled himself down and quickly changed his own clothes, unsurprised to find Kurogane waiting for him outside his door. They went down to eat together, the men parting to let their king and his favoured companion closer to the fire, providing a cheerful background hum as the two ate. The bread was somewhat coarse and the chicken a little burnt, but it was filling and far better than the dried meat and biscuit that was a rider’s fare. Fai smiled and joked with his men but Kurogane carefully noted how the blond’s attention was constantly elsewhere - no doubt upstairs, with Yuui. The fact was only proven when Fai slipped away from them all early, taking up some broth from the kitchens - something simple, that his brother could keep down. Kurogane gave them a little while before going into the kitchen himself, making some tea with some willowbark he kept in a pouch always on his person, which contained other useful herbs and barks. This he took up to the two brothers, offering a cup to both and then departing. It was their choice if they wished to drink it or not.

He went back out into the rain, giving a cursory glance at the soldiers who’d drawn the unlucky straw and ended up on sentry duty, all of them trying to stand a little under shelter and keep as warm as possible. It didn’t do them much good - a few minutes out and already Kurogane was sodden again, stomping through puddles to get to the stables. He hadn’t had as much time as he would’ve liked to settle Suwa in, caught up in attending to the royals and helping sort out the caravan’s carriages.

“Hey,” Kurogane entered the stables and shed his cloak, hanging the damp cloth on a post supporting the roof and going to lean on the door where his mount was bedded, reaching out to pet the stallion’s nose. “You feeling any warmer in here, boy?”

Suwa snorted at him, a puff of warm air, and Kurogane snorted back, letting himself into the stall to stand beside his horse, smoothing one hand over the creature’s hide. It was a lot warmer inside the stables, rich with the scent of sweet hay - thankfully, the place seemed to have been given a thorough cleaning out just recently.

“You still need a good brushing…” Suwa flicked his tail. “Oi, mind it. I was busy with the prince - yes, the prince,” Suwa had eyed Kurogane with something closely akin to horsey disbelief, black gaze intelligent in a way few animals’ were. “Didn’t the idiot come in here and look after his and his brother’s mares?” Another snort from Suwa and Kurogane glanced over at the other side of the stables as he fetched the horse brush, to where the pale forms of Celes and Valeria were stabled - Fai and Yuui’s white mounts, grey in the stable’s dim. “You’re jealous they got a proper brushing-down before you did?” Another tail-flick. “It’s not my fault you won’t let anyone else near you.”

Suwa snickered and Kurogane sighed at him, brushing down the horse’s hide until it was smooth, absorbed in his task. It was peaceful in the stables, warm and woodsy, the horses shifting quietly in their stalls and settling, the falling rain a muted backdrop outside.

“Kuro-chan?” There was a quiet call from the stable’s entrance, Kurogane stilling and letting the speaker move further inside the building, boots light on the stone floor. “Kuro-chan, are you in here?”

“Oi.” Fai almost died when Kurogane suddenly stepped out from Suwa’s stall, the king leaping back defensively before catching sight of Kurogane’s familiar form. Though he was cloaked and hooded the nicknames gave the blond away - that, and he pulled the hood down immediately when he saw who was there.

“Kuro-pon-!”

“What are you doing here?” Fai had pulled the stable door nearly completely to when he had entered, only a little light leaking in from the main inn, catching the bead of rain that rolled down the blond’s cheek, a fleck of firelight in his blue eyes. Kurogane looked at him briefly, and then returned to Suwa’s side, heat radiating off of his horse’s flanks.

“The guards were changing watch, and I wondered where you were.” Fai’s hair was wet, but he was smiling at Kurogane, leaning on the stall door. He wouldn’t come any closer - most animals liked him, but Suwa had tried to take a bite out his hand, once. “I overheard some of the men saying they had seen you heading this way.”

“Why bother coming out to see me?” Kurogane was finished with his task, going to put away the brush he was holding and check on the packs he’d left in the stall when he’d first stabled his horse. They were still watertight, although he’d have to refill his waterskin, and the few bits of food he kept - flat bread, dried meat and a little oil for cooking and medicine - restocked, as his supplies were running a little low. “In case you missed it, idiot, the weather’s awful. Are you planning on getting sick as well? Go back to your brother.”

“Yuui is asleep.” Fai continued to hover near the stall entrance, watching Suwa and his master carefully, even as Kurogane began to bind up his packs tightly once more. “That…drink you made for him-”

“Tea.”

“That tea…what was in it?”

“Willowbark.” Kurogane put the packs away and tidied up. “It’s good for fevers and pain-relief.”

“It helped my arm.”

“It was supposed to.”

“Thank you.”

“…Hn.” Kurogane was done, but there was no way he was letting Fai know that. Hopefully the idiot would get bored, and just go away.

Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Fai leaned a little further into the stall. “…Are you blushing?”

“No.”

Fai grinned, voice slipping to a croon. “You are~.” He laughed when Kurogane’s head snapped up, red eyes glaring at him. “Kuro-chin looks very handsome when his face is all pink.”

Kurogane growled but made to stomp out of the stall. His arm brushed against Fai’s cloak as he did so, immediately chilled by the soggy coldness of the cloth. “Where are your furs, anyway?” That wasn’t what Fai had been wearing on the ride - it was too thin for outdoor-wear in bad weather.

“I left them in my room.” Fai stepped out of the way as Kurogane closed the stall’s door, a disembodied voice in the darkness for a few seconds before Kurogane could turn around and see his face again. “I knew the men would gossip so if I were seen traipsing out to the stables after you like some of the serving wenches do for the common soldiers, so I changed and covered myself so that they would not recognise me. Kuro-tan has his precious reputation to maintain, after all.”

Kurogane whirled around, feeling his temper rising again. “What are you talking about?”

Fai smiled at him - but this one was a twisted parody of happiness, edged with self-mockery. “Kuro-rin would not want it to be said that the king had had his wicked way with him, now would he? Never that, because we all know I am the sort of person Kuro-bo hates the most -”

Kurogane slammed his hand down on the post beside Fai’s head. Fai jumped and went rigid, suddenly backed up against another stall, and somewhere in the stable a horse quietly whinnied.

“Don’t you dare,” Kurogane hissed, leaning in over the shorter male, “presume to put words in my mouth.”

Fai’s smile had gone, and he raised his chin to meet the other’s gaze. “Tell me then, what should I do? You have made it very clear you want little to do with me after sundown; it can only be assumed I repulse you - you, pure moralistic, you, because I exemplify every vice you abhor.” Fai tried to leave then, to go around Kurogane on the other side, but Kurogane slammed down his other hand as well, boxing Fai in between the post and his body. Fai glared at him. “Let me go, Kurogane. You have made your point.”

“And yet you still haven’t got it.” Kurogane leaned in again - looming - but not too close, not touching. He could feel Fai’s breath, the heat of Fai’s body seeping through the cold of his clothes, but no more. The last step was Fai’s to make. “I am not your subject, Your Majesty; I will not follow your every abject command. I do not measure the worth of a man by the crown he wears atop his head - it’s nothing. I measure a man by his strength, by his will, by the way he holds himself in truth and certainty. You wonder what it is about you that’s made me reject you time and time again?” Fai gritted his jaw and looked aside, his fists clenching uselessly at his sides. The darkness shadowed his eyes. Kurogane lowered his voice, breathing out against the shell of the other’s ear. “You’re a coward, and you’re a liar.”

Fai planted both of his hands in the centre of Kurogane’s chest, and shoved. Kurogane, off-balance, went back a step or two, liking the flash of anger in the other’s expression, the determination there. It was a welcome change - Fai often let things slide, stepping out of difficult situations, preferring the non-confrontational route. He backed down too often, and he smiled and laughed and didn’t do or say what he meant. The months Kurogane had spent in the kingdom had shown him that Fai was a good king, but the man stopped himself short of ever becoming great.

Fai followed Kurogane across, pushed Kurogane up against a post instead and continued to glare heatedly up into Kurogane’s smirk, chest to chest, the chill spreading between them, bodies flush. In the stable’s dark Kurogane could feel more than he could see, the light on Fai’s lips, the fingers fisted in the front of his shirt, the leg pushed between his two. This was Fai, at last taking some responsibility.

“Don’t run away,” Kurogane told him. They were equals, and they both wanted this. Fai swore something at him for the remark, but Kurogane lost its sound when Fai yanked at his collar and smashed their mouths together.

The second part is here.