OoC:// An AW fanfic, done after Nihon country. I haven't gotten around to reading farther than the beginning of Syaoran's battle with the vampire hunter dude, so yeahs. But I'm sure this isn't at all what happens. :B
Anyway... chapter one! ^^ All done in Kurogane's PoV, and sorry that most of it is rambling... P: I had to get through all that crap so I can move forward with the plot, which will hopefully be fast. I hate slow plots. ^^;;
Kuro-pii curses a lot. x3 //
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The sky rumbled and rain began to patter against the concrete. A dark silhouette shifted impatiently under the gentle caress of droplets on his head and shoulders. "Where is he?" Kurogane muttered in annoyance, glancing around. The damn mage had left in search of who knows what hours ago, telling Kurogane not to move an inch before running off. Or rather, skipping. "I cannot unsee that, I cannot unsee that, I cannot unsee that," He hissed against the rain, the image of Fai skipping off now stuck in his mind. "What the HELL is is problem..." His mumbled words were nearly drowned by the pounding rain; fingers quickly tightened the hood framing his face. His eyes drifted upward as the moon grew brighter. For a long moment, the full glowing moon leered down at him, then the clouds moved back over it and he looked around again for Fai. Dammit, if he knew the way to the apartment, he'd be long gone bu now. Just because Syaoran had gone to the dream world where Sakura was and Mokona was back in Japan watching over the two bodies... He shook his head and contemplated the world they were in now. Apparently, this country was called Sahratelis, and it was peaceful with surrounding countries but very busy. Fai had spent the entire day dragging Kurogane around buying random trinkets and searching for a quiet spot. He'd dumped Kurogane behind a park and told him he'd be right back with a surprise. He would've followed him, but... Shit. The skipping was back. He groaned and wished for the millionth time that day he'd stayed at the two-room apartment. Yuuko had informed them that they'd be staying in Sahratelis country for a long while, and getting a half-off apartment was cheaper than staying in a hotel. Damn witch. There wasn't even a proper fucking bed in the place. Damn mage. He was probably enjoying the couch right now. And it was Fai's turn to sleep on the floor.
The ninja shifted around again uncomfortably – it was probably around midnight and he was still standing in the rain. More worried about hypothermia and that sort of shit than anything else, he started to pace back and forth. He decided to try calling Fai again, the damn mage hadn't answered before, but you never know. He pulled out the little device they'd gotten dirt cheap from a street vendor earlier that day and punched in the now-familiar seven digits quickly. He pressed it to his ear and waited. The little phone rang out as he turned and continued his pacing and then again. It rang a few more times and then went to the answering machine. Kurogane had been expecting the cool woman's voice again, so he listened incredulously to the new message.
"You've reached Fai D. Flouright, please leave a message after the beep!" A pause. "Kuro-rin, stay where you are!" Kurogane stayed silent for a moment after the small beep, in pure shock. Then he sucked in an angry breath and fairly screamed.
"DAMN MAGE, COME PICK ME UP! QUIT FUCKING AROUND!" He clicked off the little object he'd just been yelling at and shoved it into his pocket. He glowered into the rain, suddenly realizing that he was shaking with the cold. He hissed and stuck his hands into his pockets, hunched his shoulders over, started pacing again. A warm breeze swept gently through and pushed back Kurogane's wet hair, then left him colder than ever. He snarled his frustration up at the clouded sky, and it answered back with a grumble and flash of lightening. His skin was getting used to the cold by now, and his shivering went down. He turned and kicked the metal bench next to the side walk he was on. It let out a mournful ringing wound and the sky answered again. A deafening roar rumbled and grew, then let out a loud clap and gave way to claw-like lightening. Thunder growled again and on the louder explosion at the end the rain – which had eased a bit at this point – started hammering down harder than ever. The now frigid wind bit at Kurogane, sending him shuddering again as blue-white streaks ripped open the skies once more.
He was suddenly reminded of a strip comic they'd seen earlier. He couldn't remember what it was called – comics were a popular career here, as the easy going people loved to laugh – where a little yellow kicks a snowman and a snowstorm starts up. He grinned ruefully, apparently kicking a metal bench started a rainstorm. He amused himself for a while with the thought of gods and goddesses overprotective of snowmen and metal benches. He himself didn't usually give much thought to creation or higher forces, but idiot gods might be fun just to laugh at. Strange enough, considering idiot people pissed him off to no end.
"Damn mage," He growled, the sky emphasizing each word with a small roar of its own. As the sky lit up his glaring face, he mused that he was a bit partial to the stormy heavens, as it seemed to match his anger perfectly. Here I am waiting for Fai, and all I have to do is bond with the sky. He shook his head sadly. I'd better start looking for my missing marbles now. The sky gave and annoyed bark of thunder and lit up briefly. Annoyed...? Now he really needed to get on his hands and knees and look for those elusive marbles of sanity. He decided that he must have found one of the metaphorical orbs or something, because the storm gave several last spurts of thunder and lightening and started to quiet down. As the rain slowed, the air warmed. He realized that he'd be lucky as hell to get out of this with a simple cold, and blamed Fai for ditching him in the first place. At least now he had an idea for a way to get money here. They'd spent most of what they had already, which he again blamed on Fai. They were lucky that the people of Sahratelis were so crazy about black and white comic strips; that he'd probably be able to draw without too much trouble. Of course, he'd force Fai to help- he wasn't about to do all of the freaking work.
He sniffed – now his nose was running, too – and glanced up at a rustling sound. Before him was a large sidewalk, with two dark alleys on either side and a short space to the lit up city. Cars were rushing back and forth, and bits of neon signs flashed at him through the space, but the sound was much closer. He turned around, sharp ears straining to hear the noise again. A knee-high fence wrapped up the edge of a wide park neatly, keeping in the long grass and bushes at the edge.
His eyes zoned in on a moving leaf, then the sound and movement stopped. He waited; nothing.
"Hey," He called to the bush. Still nothing. He warily turned and kept half an eye on the spot, it was probably now two in the morning. "Damn mage," He muttered, then cursed himself as well for being enough of an idiot to not find out where the apartment was.
The rustling began again, and he was completely turned around and had his sword in his hand when it came at him. A large object slammed into his chest, knocking the breath out of him. Two heavy paws shoved down his shoulders as he let out the rest of his air and gasped in more. Claws gripped his shirt and tore holes in it. One back paw dug into his stomach, the other pinned down his sword arm at the elbow. He reached up and grabbed the thing's neck. It was growling madly, spit flicked out onto his face. It was a huge wolf, keeping him down by sheer weight. He could see its wild yellow eyes, thrashing around as it fought his hand. Sweat mixed with the earlier rain dripped down his face, and his elbow finally gave in. The huge head came down fast, one of its paws slipped off his shoulder, fangs sank down into his shoulder. His jaws came open to cry out, no sound was made. The razor-like fangs stung as they clamped on his shoulder hard, and the stinging slowly started to spread.
The fangs ripped out of his shoulder, causing just as much pain, and the wolf jumped back. It leaned back and howled wildly, mad eyes rolling. His own crimson eyes locked onto its size, and he drunkenly realized it was four times the height of the fence. Not to mention it had the hugest set of shoulders, wider and bulkier than even his own, and completely covered with glistening black fur. It bared its yellow teeth at him before leaping away into the park, licking Kurogane's blood off of its muzzle. It was swallowed by the bush and the sound disappeared, leaving an eerie silence.
It vaguely clicked that he needed to cover his shoulder or he'd bleed to death. He could feel his entire arm practically fizzing, and half of his chest covered with the weird pain. He sat up slowly, panting with the effort, and grabbed his shirt. He ripped it open, wincing as parts of it detached from the holes in his body. He tore a large chunk off and balled it up, pressing it to the spot. He clenched his teeth and hissed at the stinging, which flared up with the pressure, but he felt less blood dripping down his stomach. He pulled away the cloth and stared in shock at his skin- seconds ago, it had been a gross mix of black and purple dripping with blood. Now there were simply little scabs arranged in a jaw format. He started to twist to glance at the back of his shoulder, but the fire started again when he moved. He had to sit for a few moments before it drew back, and he blinked away the red glazing over his vision. He glanced back at his chest, the scabs were gone now and all that remained was a series of scars and a lot of still-dripping blood. He wiped off the blood from his chin that had spurted out of his mouth without him knowing as the beast's paw dug into his stomach.
Then he dropped back to the pavement. The fire was clutching his neck, pushing up to his jaw. Both of his arms were enveloped, and his waist was being taken with it as well. He could feel the fire prickling his heart, then his head whipped back. The excruciating flames were all over him, tearing at his body from the inside. His heart felt like it might explode, and his head was throbbing so hard he couldn't register anything other than pain. His body convulsed, his head, waist, and elbows dug into the cement and his chest heaved upward. He didn't know how much longer he could take it before he'd pass out, the fire was so hot and his body was spasming from the pain.
Then, there was a gradual cool. His fingers and toes calmed down, then his elbows, knees, waist. The cool sped up and then the flames were gone. He panted heavily, turning to curl up. His cheeks were caked with dried tears, and his blood was smeared over the pavement from his thrashing. It hadn't lasted long, and already his mind was blocking out the memory. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the concrete under him. The scratchy cold felt good, even covered in his blood. He sighed deeply.
"I wish Fai was here..." He muttered reluctantly. It was still all the magician's fault for ditching him, but if nothing else he needed someone to drag him to the apartment. And he'd just love to punch that freaking smiling face.
It had nothing to do with the fact that he knew the hyper-active blond would probably act mom-ish and hug him, and then most likely kiss the silvery scars on his chest.
Not at all.
He sighed and closed his eyes, thoughts floating around randomly.