Title: Kizuna Series:

Tsubasa Pairing: Kurogane + Fay

Rating: T

Warnings: AU, OOC, Angst, Spoiler knowledge

Disclaimer: All hail CLAMP for Tsubasa belongs to them; sadly not me.

KIZUNA.

"Why did you do this?" Fay's voice is low and painful as he glares at the dark haired ninja, "Why couldn't you just let me die like I wanted?"

Kurogane looks like he wants to shout, to shake the Wizard against the wall, but he manages to control himself and the urge to let free the words that would strike the final nail into the coffin of their friendship - that he did it out of love, because he couldn't bear a world without Fay in it.

Fay can see the struggle on the man's face but without knowing what the man was going to say, he remains locked in his cold world of self-loathing and bitterness.

Time goes by, and the silence remains - Kurogane replaces Kuro-pon and any familiarity between them has been cruelly severed.
Fay feeds though - the red-eyed man forces at least that much on him.

"I still want to die." the blond vampire tells him one evening as they're sitting in the small sitting room of the house they're currently occupying. It's the first time Fay's really spoken to him since he discovered what Kurogane had done.

"I see," and the ninja can - it's written on the Wizard's face, along with pain and loneliness and the shards of the damn mask he wishes he'd never shattered.

"You said you'd kill me yourself," Fay smirks cruelly, feeling low enough to use the man's feelings against him, "Are you going to stick to your word?"

Kurogane looks away from the one piercing blue eye and sighs. He's tired - so tired of the endless journey, of the coldness and hate in the group he'd come to think of as a family. He's started to forget details of Nihon - what perfume Tomoyo used in the summer, how Souma sounded when she laughed - his past with his Mother's touch - they've all gone and now this family has too.

"Very well," he stands and leaves the room, "I'll grant your wish."

Fay's face puckers into a frown, he sees the maelstrom of pain and suffering in Kurogane's eyes as he passes and for a brief moment, he wonders what he's done. Still, he's pleased - he's being given his wish.

Minutes tick past, and the man does not return to fulfil his promise and the blond is filled with a sense of foreboding. Racing out into the hall his heightened senses are stirred, and his nostrils pick up the rich warm scent of Kurogane's blood.

"What have you done?" he races down the hall and throws the door to their room open, gagging at the sight before him.

Kurogane is stripped down to the waist and sitting cross-legged on the floor - blood pouring from an open slice in his stomach, "Kurogane?" his voice is almost painful to his own ears, "Why?"

"You want to die," the man's voice is weak but he meets his eyes calmly, his hand clenched tightly around Souhei's hilt, "If I die - so do you."

"You're supposed to kill me - not yourself." he falls to the floor, hating how his hunger is stirred by the thick red liquid that's soaking into his knees and hands.

"I can't kill you any other way," there's a gentle smile on the mans face, and one shaking hand reaches for his cheek, caressing it gently, "You're too precious to me - that's why I couldn't let you die back in Acid Tokyo; but if death is what you want and by my hand - this is the only way. I can't physically hurt you Fay."

Hot tears well in the blond's good eye and they tumble down his cheek, Kurogane never calls him by his name - and it hurts to hear it so intimately now, "Let me heal you." he starts to call on his magic.

"No," Kurogane grunts in pain as he shuffles backwards, "If you heal me - you'll keep living. I promised I'd kill you myself if you didn't want to live - this is the only way."

"You have to live..." Fay calls on his remaining power and focuses it across the deep gash, pushing the force with all his might to close the rendered flesh, "... and so do I."

They both collapse as the spell finishes, Kurogane from blood loss and Fay from exhaustion. Somehow their fingers find each other's, and entwine.

Sakura finds them like that in the morning; and after discovering that neither is wounded, smiles a genuine smile in the hope that everything will work out fine.