Warnings: Male/male relationship, spoilers for just about the whole series and a bit of language including one f-bomb.

Author's Notes: The story takes place post-series before the revisit to Piffle mentioned in xXxHolic. My assumption is that Yuuko-san's promise to the group in Tokyo regarding Fai was much like her deal with Watanuki in xXxHolic; subject to modification without the buyer's explicit consent. Caveat emptor.


It was like being inside a giant globe filled with millions of fireflies.

They'd dropped - fallen, tumbled, splashed - into dozens of worlds before leaving the princess behind in Clow and had crossed dimensions four more times since then, but there had never yet been a world quite like this, where there was no sun and no moon to brighten the horizons and illuminate the earth. In the perpetually black sky there were only faint glimmers of distant stars, and yet the ninja did not find himself thinking of how dark it was here.

The planet was warm and rich, breathing and growing and living so very vibrantly despite being alone and ignored in the vastness of its little patch of universe. They landed in the middle of a vast forest and everywhere they wandered the travelers had damp earth and soft moss to cushion their footfalls, sweet air to breathe and clear water to drink, and the sheer lushness of flora and fauna would have become an annoyance had they been at all in a hurry. They were not, however.

The worlds since leaving Clow behind had been busy and bustling, cramped or noisy or just plain dirty, and all this without yielding any clues or hopes that their quest might soon end. There had not been any extended or dire perils - fortuitous, since aches from deep wounds and stiff scar tissue yet lingered, Kurogane was still adjusting to having only one arm and Fai seemed to be struggling to find the new balance between his magic and the vampire nature that yet lingered in his body - but still their travels had worn upon them, body and soul. As if actuated by the same desire for a little break, the three men set an easy pace for themselves and simply enjoyed exploring their latest stop.

And enjoy it they could, with sight as well as their other senses, for while the sky was dark the earth provided illumination in its stead. The soil itself did not glow, but every flower that was nurtured in it shed a soft golden light from its center, as did the skins of the fruits that hung heavy from various trees. Such plants and mosses as did not bloom generally shone in some other way, such as by secreting a luminescent dew. And it was not just the plant life that glowed on this planet but everything that had life.

Curious beetles with heavy bellies full of shining liquid were constantly puffed or waved out of their faces. Tiny deer-like creatures would break cover as they approached; one moment camouflaged against a dewy berry bush by the haphazard pattern of glowing spots on its hide and only giving itself away by blinking its glowing eyes at them, the next bounding away and looking in the dimness like a great mesh of stars being rushed away by a clumsy, flailing constellation-thief. Silvery fish with bright irises and shimmering stripes all down their sides streaked like lightning bolts through streams and rivers that shone softly with millions of particles that seemed made of nothing but pure light, though Syaoran posited that they were actually tiny creatures similar to algae. Fai protested the boy's lack of imagination and romance, and spent some time describing the waterways as magical avenues down which spirits and faeries danced. Kurogane tuned them both out and just enjoyed the sight.

Everything glowed and glimmered, and though it was all backed by velvety darkness, there was enough light to make it seem as if the world was frozen in that soft half-light just before dawn fully broke or dusk finally fell. Colors were muted and details were difficult to make out from a distance, but the ethereal beauty and peacefulness of the place more than made up for any inconvenience or unease of unfamiliarity. The teenager with whom - for whom - the adults were still traveling even managed to keep up with his studies and note-taking by gathering bouquets of large bell-like flowers to provide a stronger light to read and write by. The problem of telling time was also resolved when they observed that many types of flowers were opening and closing at regular intervals that matched up fairly well with the travelers' internal sense of a full day and night passing.

There had been worlds that reminded Kurogane of Nihon, made him yearn to breathe that familiar air and want nothing more than to feel that well-loved soil beneath his feet again. This world, however, was one that he felt he would think of now and then when he had returned home. With the shifting wind and plentiful wildlife it was never quiet, but it was always peaceful. With no sun or moon the world was dark, but everything glowed.

Everything, of course, except for they themselves.

The trio of men were a wraith-like blot moving against the shimmering landscape as they followed the winding course of a large river, hoping to come across civilization eventually. The pale clothing they'd been given to travel in shone like moonlight reflected off of wispy clouds but they still stood out strangely against their surroundings, especially when Mokona was in an energetic fit and wanted to bound alongside them instead of riding atop someone's shoulder. The little bun's progress would stir up insects in glittering swarms or set seed-heavy grasses and tall flowers waving, leaving contrails of light in the dim air and marking the group's location even more starkly against the scenery. As none of this attracted any predators or other unwanted attention, however, they soon relaxed their guard and settled into a comfortable routine of travel and rest.

After walking for as long as they chose on their third "day" on this sunless planet without seeing any signs of civilization, they made camp near the river as they had the past two nights. Now that the princess was no longer traveling with them, setting up a campsite sometimes involved little more than choosing a place to stop and building a small fire. The nights here in particular were so mild and dry that the three men could easily sleep under the stars with no more shelter than their cloaks and suffer no evils beyond a slight crick in their backs from any unevenness in the ground. Technically they still had a female in their group, but the bejeweled bun was perfectly content to slumber the night away in the crook of one of her companion's arms.

Mokona declared that with three such strong, brave men to protect her, she had no worries for her virtue or safety. Kurogane retorted that there was no creature on this or any other world with bad enough taste to want to make any sort of meal of such an annoying, noisy dumpling. This unchivalrous comment naturally kicked off a stream of protests from the little bun, but the ninja took no notice of it. She was much easier to ignore than Fai.

Not that the mage did much teasing these days. At least, not in comparison of when they'd first begun traveling together. The ninja still had to put up with all manner of "Daddy" jokes and endless commentary about his stubbornness, laziness and penchant for overindulging in alcohol. This, from the sometimes thick-headed mage who could - and often cheerfully did - match him cup for cup and bottle for bottle and loved to laze about at every opportunity, generally got some sort of growl or grumble from Kurogane. It was more out of habit than any real irritation, however, and the nicknames no longer got any reaction from him at all except to gain his attention. Indeed, if Fai ever addressed him by his full name, the ninja would very likely startle and experience a stab of worry over what he might have done to merit such chilling treatment.

They'd returned to teasing and growling back and forth in Nihon, sealing the breach that had opened so violently in Tokyo and festered throughout their stay in Infinity, but it had not simply been a return to their old ways. They were no longer the same people; they could not behave in the same way as when they'd first met except by playacting. Fai's words and manner and smiles were no longer used against the ninja as illusions and distractions, and Kurogane had stopped bullying the mage. He didn't corner him, push him around or drag him forward anymore or ball up a fist to try and knock the stupid out of that fair head. He wouldof course, if he ever deemed it necessary, but Fai hadn't tempted him to it recently.

There were other, much more interesting things about the blond that were tempting Kurogane these days.

The first kiss had been in Clow, after he'd woken up from a drug-induced sleep to experience deja vu at the feel of thick bandages swathing his torso and a dull, throbbing ache that he knew would evolve into a searing pain once the pungent numbing agents on his shoulder wore off. Instead of the familiar air of Nihon and his princess seated serenely by his bedding however, there had been the hot dry air of Clow and the wizard - his idiot, his predator, his wizard - perched on the side of the mattress. Kurogane had narrowed his eyes and warned the blond not to punch him this time. Instead of a blow to the head, the ninja had gotten a breathy laugh and a quick kiss that had seemed to startle Fai just as much as it had him.

That first kiss had been over so quickly that he hadn't even been able to register what sort of kiss it had been; loving or laughing or hungry or what. But there'd been enough kisses after the first to get a sense of them. Sweet, soft, and light. Hesitant, especially in the way those pale lips had halted and hovered for a heartbeat just before connecting, as if Fai had been trying to decide at the last moment whether or not to actually do this. Lingering, and not just lips but lightly trembling fingertips that had ghosted over Kurogane's skin, flitting from jaw to collarbones to wrist like a distracted butterfly; never stopping long, never staying away long either, and giving the impression that the mage had needed desperately to touch and hold and feel that the ninja was really there and warm and breathing, and just hadn't had as many hands as he wanted to touch enough.

The wizard had been questioning, too, and that impression had been harder to define and yet impossible to deny, especially when they broke apart for breath and just looked at each other. Those blue eyes had been seeking, but the kisses had been over and the pale form had slipped away with some soft murmur about letting the ninja get his rest before Kurogane had been able to puzzle out what Fai had been asking him. To his credit, he'd also been wildly distracted by the novelty of it all and hadn't had many mental resources to spare.

Kissing was not foreign to his world, but it had been foreign to him. It was something intensely private; he'd never even witnessed his father give his mother more than a light touch of lips to her hair or the edge of her sleeve. Skin-to-skin contact before the eyes of others was either strictly impersonal or a simple necessity, such as when two men were wrestling or when a mother was hauling a recalcitrant child about by the wrist. The intimacies of a kiss pressed to bare skin or fingers tangling together were intimate indeed, to be kept secret and sacred behind closed doors.

For Kurogane personally, beyond all this ingrained need for privacy, there was the fact that during the years in which his blood had first begun to run hot through his veins and his body had grown from boyhood into the sizes and shapes and yearnings of a man, his heart had grown leathery and hard. He'd snuck off with various of his agemates at Shirasagi, eager to discover the differences between his own hand and another's sweaty skin. He'd grappled with fellow warriors-in-training, mingling hot breaths and joining bodies needy with youth and adrenaline. He'd slaked his bloodlust on the battlefield and sated his other lusts in the bodies of fellow shinobi. But he'd never loved, and he'd never kissed.

There had been countless grunts and groans and growls in convenient darknesses but not a single affectionate word murmured into someone's ear. He'd grasped and clutched at others' bodies from greed and lustfulness and a need to dominate and control - something, someone, anything since his own destiny would not submit to his will - but he'd never held anyone just out of the pure and simple desire to have that basic connection of touch. He'd fucked plenty of people but he'd never been intimate with anyone.

And then...Fai. Kurogane's mood upon landing at the dimensional witch's shop had been so foul that not even a moon goddess come down from the heavens on the back of a pure white crane and arrayed in the finest silks and pearls could have escaped his criticism. But Fai's too-bright smiles and too-light manners and even his fluffy hair and clothing and gestures would have irritated the ninja from the very beginning no matter what the circumstances. From there it had been a conflicting progression of instinct and emotion. Kurogane had begun with suspicion and disgust, but it had led to minute observations which gave him both that which to mistrust and that which to admire. As the ninja glared into shadows and felt around in the dark, he discovered secrets and lies but also got a feel for all the depth of character and worthiness hidden within the mage. Hidden from even the mage himself, perhaps.

Kurogane had understood the value of the man long before Fai himself had seemed to be able to grasp it. Blinded by the lie that he'd murdered his own brother in a moment of selfishness, the princeling had always looked down upon himself as if he were ever at the edge of that frozen pit and staring down at two shriveled, bloodstained bodies. Pride was not actually one of Kurogane's failings; he simply had no false modesty, but he liked to think with no little complacency that he had some claim to having helped grab and drag the wizard away from that dark edge and making him face toward the light. And he was proud of the man, too, for the way Fai gamely continued forward, stumbling sometimes, hesitant often but never actually shirking and backsliding into useless guilt and self-recrimination. Now that the mage was headed in the right direction - the future instead of the past - Kurogane was content to simply walk by his side instead of drag him roughly along.

Fai had settled down and Kurogane had been gentled, and it had been at each other's hands.

After they'd changed and changed each other and gotten their revenge together, Fai had taught Kurogane how to kiss. The first kiss had surprised him simply by virtue of being his first kiss, and an unexpected one at that. Unexpected, but not unwelcome. He'd just sat there and blinked at first, and if that had been all he'd done it might have ended there. But as Fai had stared back at him, seemingly just as taken aback and by surprise, red eyes had dropped to the wizard's mouth in contemplation of those softly parted lips. As Kurogane had watched, they'd pressed together in a nervous sort of gesture and after all the months of having to deal with a flamboyant facade, this little shyness had been so endearing that the ninja had impulsively reached out and leaned in to return the kiss he'd been given.

He was not naturally clumsy. He'd neither missed Fai's lips nor had he misjudged distance or force, and yet inexperience was inexperience, and Kurogane had done little more than press his lips to the other man's. It had been more plain contact than affectionate kiss, but then that fair head had tipped to the side a bit, getting their noses a little more out of the way, and the soft lips against his own had pressed back. Kurogane had been taken by surprise and put in an unfamiliar situation, but to counterbalance these things were the facts that he was a quick learner and not at all opposed to being taught. As they'd begun, so they'd continued; Fai acting and Kurogane reacting, Fai seeking and Kurogane allowing.

As they'd begun, so they continued, even after leaving Clow. That sense of shyness and hesitation from the mage who in many other ways was so bold made an impression on the ninja, and together with his own inexperience, it kept Kurogane content with letting Fai be the one to set the pace of this new facet of their relationship.

Before, Fai had teased and Kurogane had given chase, and there had always been a distance between them. Now, the ninja waited and the wizard drew close, and they made contact.