Downfall
Summary: The day Kurogane didn't throw a fit when Fye called him by one of his nicknames was the beginning of the end. Drabble.
Warning: Drabble, 30-minutes-challenge, spoilers. Fye is the way he is spelled in the German translation. I'll go with it because I the sound and sight of it. Any other strange-looking names are due to a Japanese-German-English translation.
Set: during the story, vol4, massive spoilers for Fye's past
Disclaimer: Standards apply.
The day Kurogane didn't throw a fit when Fye called him by one of his nicknames was the beginning of the end.
It came slowly. The magician wasn't even able to say when it had happened, when he had realized there was more to it than the obvious. But the line has been was a difference between a companion, a spy and a friend. There had to be, it was the way the worlds worked. Dr. Kyle was a spy. Yuzuriha-chan and Ryu-kun were temporary companions. And Kurogane had somehow made his way into the category friend which was a miracle in itself and something that should never have happened in the first place.
Because Fye was a spy, too.
Even worse. He was a traitor.
He was with them for a reason. He had bargained with the devil and lost his soul and his price wasn't paid yet. He would accompany the travelers across the worlds, help them find the feathers and watch for the Princess to cross as many dimensions as possible, to imprint her body with the memories and to regain the power of changing destiny. He had no other choice. And at first, that was all he thought of.
Gain their trust. Make yourself indispensable. Get them towards Fei-Wan's goal.
-v-
Kurogane was suspicious.
It was his nature. He just couldn't let himself trust other people. Whatever he had experienced in the past was engraved into his soul and the stubborn, annoying, quick-tempered and hot-headed ninja was the one who was the most difficult to influence. Fye had long learned that his smile would make people trust him, that the mask of the cheerful, helpful magician was what helped him most to hide his own feelings. Mokona was easy to influence. He just needed to play along. Syaoran was suspicious at first. Fye won his trust by supporting him from the background and by taking care of the Princess. (He would never admit that he actually started caring for her, that the young girl with the pain-filled eyes was much more to him than just another companion.) But Kurogane…
Fye opted for annoying him.
And it was simple.
Kurogane was so easily baited, so quickly annoyed. Inventing nick-names was the most fun. Kurorin. Kurokuro. Kurotan. Blacky. And Kurogane fell for it, for his stupid nicknames and his cheerful attitude, and he started trusting him. Suddenly they weren't just a group of travelers, thrown together by fate, anymore, but something... Something closer to friends. Something dangerously comfortable, something…
More.
And Fye started liking them. He started feeling with them. He started caring.
Not just for Kurogane but for Syaoran, too, and for the Princess and for Mokona. They all grew on him like an annoying child grows on you when you have to care for it. Like habit gets something warm and friendly when repeated often enough. They wormed their way into his life, filled the darkness in his heart and the emptiness in his soul. He started caring for them, hoping for them, wishing for them and finally loving them. And one day he called Kurogane by one of his plenty nicknames and the ninja didn't explode.
That was when he realized what had happened.
-v-
Ends come quickly as soon as one realizes there has been a huge mistake. Fye tried to make up for it by registering them in Oto as Big and Little Doggie and Big and Little Kitty. Kurogane threw a fit and almost smashed the furniture (a second time, after the Oni had crashed their café the night before) and Fye laughed and teased and joked and fervently hoped nobody would notice. Of course no one did because he didn't behave differently. But the damage had been done.
Those people had grown on him.
How could he ever stand in their way again? How could he kill Syaoran and Kurogane if they found out what they were so hastily rushing into head-first? How could they ever look at him the same way when they realized he was a traitor?
Traitor.
Traitor.
Traitor.
The word replayed in his head as he tried to fall asleep and failed. Through the glass window, the moon shone into his room. On the other side of the wall Kurogane was sleeping, probably alert for any dangers in a way only ninja are. The rooms on the other side of the corridor were occupied by Syaoran and the Princess. Everything was quiet.
Restless, he turned his face towards the moonlit night outside. Shadows danced past his curtains. No. He wouldn't do it. He couldn't. They believed in him, they trusted him. He couldn't turn on them now. He would have to find a way to protect them from Fei-Wan's clutches, to save them from the catastrophe they were approaching. He couldn't let them die. And Kurogane…
He didn't want to disappoint him.
When had the ninja become so important to him? When had his opinion started to weight so heavily on Fye's mind?
Did it matter?
Changes of heart always came with an earth-shaking revelation.
This would be his personal downfall.