A/N: I forgot to put this the first time. Oy, I'm so stupid at times, but thaaa's alright. Anyway, Read and Review please. Also, for those who like my longer, multi-chaptered stories, don't worry. School starts soon, so it's become important to fix my computer. REVIEW!

運命のより合わせること暗闇の表面であるかだれhitsuzen なるずっとであるかだれ黒くなるそしてであるかだれ無くなるようになるか赤い融合あなたの目の星の

The twining of fate

The face in the dark

Who you are becomes hitsuzen

Who you were becomes black

And who you will be becomes

In the red melding

Of the stars in your eyes

Be careful what you wish for. It may just come true.

Fai snickered and threw away the slim piece of paper, biting into half of the lemon flavored cookie.

"Why'd you do that, Fai?" Mokona asked, holding his own fortune cookie.

"I don't believe in that sort of thing. Even if, by some weird chance, it matches with you… that's all it is, a freak chance," Fai said with a soft smile.

"Yuuko says there's no such thing as coincidences."

Fai shrugged. "Maybe there's not, but I don't want to put my fate into a piece of paper in a cookie!" he chuckled, reaching out for another.

Sakura, who had a fondness for fortune cookies, smiled. "But they're still so much fun to read!"

Fai smiled at her. "If you say so, Princess."

There are people anxious to know more about you.

Fai was an expert in removing the fortune without breaking the cookie. He gently threaded the paper out, then read the small slip.

Fai discretely rolled his eyes and threw the fortune on the floor. He waited for a pause in the conversations about home dimensions, and broke the cookie, then blinked. "How odd! I don't have a fortune!" he cried, grinning amiably.

Sakura peered over to look, then spotted something small and white on the floor. "Is that it?" she asked innocently. She leaned down and picked it up. "It was on the floor, Fai-san!"

Kurogane scowled as he saw Fai's smile drop off his face for a short moment. But as he always did, the wizard grinned and played it off.

"Oh, wow! It must have fallen, and I didn't even notice. Thanks, Princess," Fai laughed, taking the piece of paper into his hand.

Only Kurogane noticed the distaste in Fai's eyes as he was asked to read it off.

Fai cracked open the fortune cookie, sighing. "Nothing. For real this time, too."

Sakura looked over Fai's shoulder. "How awful!"

Fai looked at her and chuckled bemusedly. "I can do without the fortune. It's the cookie I'm after," he admitted.

"No, it's not that Fai-san! But I remember that in Clow, there was this myth about empty fortune cookies!"

Syaoran blinked. "Oh, that one… Don't worry, Princess Sakura, it's only a myth," he assured.

"Just to be curious, what is the myth?"

"That if you get an empty fortune cookie, you'll die within a year!" Sakura cried.

"O-ho!" Fai laughed, shaking his head. "I'm not going anywhere, trust me on that, Princess. Fortune or no."

After a long moment, Fai added, "Besides, it's a production error when you end up without a fortune in the cookie, not some sign of death."

You often fail to realize the effects you have on others.

Fai bit back a sarcastic remark, and sighed instead. He silently crumpled up the paper, and left the table for his perch next to the rainy window.

Sakura frowned. "I wish Fai-san would tell us what's wrong," she mumbled wistfully. "He's been different…"

Kurogane growled, standing from his chair. "That damn wizard," he hissed.

Listening to the talk of him in the kitchen, Fai sighed for maybe the hundredth time that night. He lifted his hand, his fingers finding the cloth of his eye patch.

That thought drew up a memory of ten months before. 'If you receive a fortune cookie without a fortune, you'll die within the year!'

"But I didn't die…"

"Yes you did," Kurogane snapped, folding his arms as he stepped up behind the mage.

Fai twitched slightly in surprised, but turned around. "I'm still here, though," he said softly. "I still move around, and I still talk, and my heart still hurts."

Kurogane sighed, rolling his eyes. "That's because you don't talk to anyone. No one knows anything about you, and you don't help it at all."

Fai shrugged. "That's just how I operate, Kurogane."

The swordsman inwardly flinched at his name; he had grown used to the cute nicknames that the magician had once given him. "Fine, don't change at all, and don't help yourself," he spat, walking out of the room.

Later that night, Fai, despite himself padded into the kitchen to get another fortune cookie; he was desperate to prove that they were random, if to prove to no one but himself.

Darkness is coming.

Fai rolled his eyes and threw the paper into the trash.

A lie told often enough becomes the truth. (Lenin)

Truth is beautiful, without doubt; but so are lies. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Two slips of paper fell into Fai's lap. There they sat long after being read, and they were soon spotted from tears falling from a solitary eye.

Maybe there was something to these fortune cookies after all.

Kurogane entered into the room, shards of the crystal spell crunching under his boots. "They've disappeared all together."

He stopped a few feet short of the blonde magician. Wrappers from numerous fortune cookies lay scattered across the marble as well as the cookies themselves. Fai was sitting on the floor, crying over two slips of paper, his fingers clenched desperately into his hair.

"Oh, god… what have I done?" The mage whispered, shaking horribly. He seemed to have broken free of the shock that had taken him once the king and the little boy had disappeared. "I… I can't stand it… I'm a murder and a liar…"

Kurogane sighed, and sat next to Fai, taking an untouched fortune cookie from the other man's lap.

"I'll say it again. The past doesn't matter. Yesterday was gone this morning, and today will be gone tomorrow. It's right now that matters most of all… Which raises the question: What will you do?"

Fai leaned against the solid reassurance that was Kurogane. "I want to go back; I want to fix it… But I can't… I can't…I can't fix it."

The ninja grunted, pulling the shaking wizard close. "You never struck me as someone who gave up easily."

Fai didn't reply, causing Kurogane to sigh. "Look. It's not my business what you choose, but," he said gruffly, "You can fix it in the present. You can start over."

"But what if…?"

"There are lots of ifs. Quoting that witch, everything happens for a reason. But if it ever comes down to those ifs, I'll protect you the way the kid protects the princess."

Fai sighed, and a soft, sincere smile graced his lips. "Oh… Kuro-tan, you're so sweet," he whispered, hugging Kurogane tightly.

The swordsman gave a sigh that sounded more like a relieved chuckle. He broke open the fortune cookie in his hand, reading the message inside.

When two hearts race, they both win

"What's this all about? What bogus," Kurogane grunted.

Fai shook his head, reading it over the other man's shoulder. "I don't know," he said, "I'm starting to think that there are some truths to these cookies." Fai leaned over and gently looped his arms around Kurogane's neck and pressed his lips to the ninja's.

In that moment, both won a small victory for themselves.