The door of the bar "Clover" swung open and shut, disturbing the smoky air inside. The green-eyed man who entered seemed unconcerned by the choking atmosphere or the deafening noise of conversation, laughter, and bad music. In fact, he smiled as he recognized a few friends and former comrades. He headed straight toward a small table in the back corner of the large barroom, until an unexpected figure caught his eye. He stopped suddenly, nearly causing a waiter behind him to drop his heavy tray, and double checked. As far as he knew, there was only one person in Nihon who could glare so passionately at his drink – not to mention those distinctive red eyes. It was definitely him. The swordsman changed course.

"Kurogane-san!" he cried out, slapping the tall mercenary on the back. "I haven't seen you in a while. What have you been up to?"

Kurogane turned just enough to identify the person who had extended a warm greeting to him. "Oi. It's you, Ryu."

"Yeah!" he smiled broadly, his enthusiasm not damped by the other man's cold reply. "Here, let me buy you a drink."

The dark man stopped himself from rolling his eyes with heroic effort. "Don't bother."

"Come on, Kurogane-san! It's the least I can do for the man who saved my life. I'm grateful, that's all."

"Fine." Kurogane turned his attention back to his drink. "Be grateful somewhere else."

Ryu just laughed. "Still the same old Kurogane, I see. Bartender!" he yelled to attract the attention of the beautiful woman serving customers at the other end of the bar. When she came over, he ordered a drink for himself, and one for "my gloomy friend here." Said gloomy friend's scoff made Ryu look sideways at the man after he sat down, and for the first time he noticed who was sitting on Kurogane's other side.

"Syaoran-kun! This is turning into quite a day. How have you been?"

The teen looked at his friend through slightly unfocused brown eyes. "Ryu-kun, is that really you?" When Ryu nodded, Syaoran laughed. "I haven't see you in ages. What have you been up to?"

"Oh, found some work as a bodyguard out in Celes. You know how those merchants are; always convinced someone's coming after them. Cushy job, really; the only enemy I had to deal with the whole time was the crazy man's paranoia." The two young men shared a laugh. "He was convinced that he was cursed. Thought that these two brothers who worked for him were trying to kill him. Kept saying 'those twins, they're evil.'"

Syaoran shook his head. "I don't understand rich people. They just don't act like normal people."

"Well of course," Ryu replied, taking his drink from the lovely bartender. "That's how they get rich."

"Anything else I can get you, Ryu?" the bartender asked.

Ryu smiled broadly. "I've been in town five minutes, Caldina-san, and you are already tempting me to rack up my bill here?"

Caldina winked. "You've caught me. Does that mean your not buying anything else?"

"Nope, just means I won't leave a big tip."

"You never leave a big tip." The bartender waved a hand to indicate the room around her. "None of you mercenaries do. I should have opened up a classy restaurant uptown, near the palace."

"You'd be bored in a classy restaurant, and I'd have no one to get a drink for my friend Syaoran over here."

Syaoran tried to protest, "Really, Ryu-kun, that isn't necessary – " but his friend waved him off.

"Don't worry about it Syaoran-kun. That Celes gig paid well, and I'm feeling generous."

Syaoran surrendered. "If the job paid so well, what are you doing back in Nihon?"

Ryu sighed. "I got bored, for one thing. It sounds nice, an easy job, little danger, but it's dull."

Syaoran leaned forward a bit more, trying to see better around Kurogane, and nearly fell off his stool. He rested his head on his arms.

Kurogane, tired of being talked around, asked, "So it had nothing to do with how cold those Celes winters are?"

Ryu ran a hand through his long hair. "That too. I never would have lasted until the spring. If there's one thing you can say for Nihon, you're never in danger of freezing to death when you wake up in the night to use the bathroom."

"You should tell the king that; it could be a slogan for tourism," Kurogane said. Syaoran giggled, and the tall man looked at him carefully.

"Ha! You must be in a good mood, Kurogane-san, if you're joking around. I didn't even think you knew what a joke was," Ryu teased. "You got a good job lined up or something?"

"Something like that," Kurogane growled.

Ryu didn't take the hint. "So what have you been up to lately? I haven't seen you since, gosh, the assassination fiasco. You've been keeping busy?"

Caldina, eavesdropping while pretending to clean the counter, jumped into the conversation. "You could say that," she said in the fast and excited tone of an accomplished gossiper. "In fact, Ku-"

Kurogane slammed his drink on the counter. "You mind your own business, woman. He didn't ask you for your opinions."

Caldina shrugged, looking innocent. "Everything that goes on in here is my business. The health, wealth, and happiness of my customers are very important to me. And anyway, if he didn't hear it from me, someone else would tell him."

Ryu perked up. This sounded promising. "Tell me what?"

"Don't listen to shameless women," Kurogane replied bitterly.

Caldina ignored him and looked into the excited green eyes that bore into her. "That Kurogane-san isn't a mercenary anymore."

"What?" Ryu shouted. It drew questioning glances from a few of the closest people but generally went unnoticed under the din.

"That isn't exactly true," Kurogane started, but wasn't able to finish.

"Kurogane-san is now a servant to the Duchess of Edo. Tomoyo-sama tamed the Black Wolf and keeps him as a pet."

Kurogane glared daggers at the bartender. She wasn't scared – no one would attack her, not when half the mercenaries and soldiers in Nihon owed her favors – but she did start to regret what she'd said. It was what everyone in town was saying, but the difference between her and everyone else was that she had been foolish enough to say it in front of the Black Wolf himself. She bit her tongue and smiled and the men before moving off to help some other customers.

"Is that true?" Ryu asked urgently.

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm no one's PET," Kurogane snarled venomously.

To his surprise, Ryu burst out laughing. "Of course you aren't," he said when he had caught his breath. "How could you ever be someone's – someone's – pet? I can't even imagine such a thing. No, I wanted to know if it was true about you taking on a single employer, leaving the whole 'mercenary' scene behind."

Kurogane studied him carefully. The man to his left was loud, obnoxious, and spoke without thinking, but he was a good man. Kurogane never would have bothered to save his life if he weren't. He decided that Ryu did not mean to offend him, so he answered civilly, "Yes."

The green-eyed man nodded, as though he knew what Kurogane had been thinking. "Well then, let's have another drink to celebrate."

The ex-mercenary raised an eyebrow in inquiry.

"If you're not in the business anymore, that's a lot less competition for me!" Ryu said happily, raising his hand to call Caldina over and winking at her to show her things were alright.

Kurogane smiled. It was only a small smile, and it lasted for no time at all, but it was more than Ryu had ever seen from the tall man. "Another time," he promised. "I need to see the kid home. One more drink and he'll be telling his story about the beautiful mystery woman he fell in love with at first sight."

Ryu mockingly protested, "I love that story! Let's get Syaoran-kun even drunker."

Kurogane shook his head. "The boy's gonna have a killer hangover tomorrow as it is, and I have to deal with him."

"Alright, you wet blanket." Ryu's tone became serious. "Is he working for the Duchess, too?"

Kurogane shook his head. "No, he's just staying with me for awhile." He said this as though it were the end of the conversation, and so Ryu did not say anything more.

"Good night, Kurogane-san," he said cheerfully. "See you around!"

"See you," the dark man replied with a nod, before leaving the bar with Syaoran leaning on him for support.

"Chasing out my customers, Ryu-kun?" Caldina teased.

"I was trying to get them to stay," he replied absently. "It was probably your horrible music that drove them away."

Caldina took his comment seriously. "I know. I really need to find some decent musicians."

Ryu listened for a few seconds and shuddered. "I'd get to work on that right now, if I were you." He paused for a second to try to phrase his question properly. "Caldina-san, Kurogane-san said that Syaoran-kun was staying with him for a while, but they aren't working together. Do you know what that's about?"

Caldina looked sad as she picked up a glass. Wiping it slowly with a rag, she spoke with none of the joy she usually reserved for gossip. "Syaoran-kun's parents died last year."

Ryu's mouth dropped. "That's horrible!"

"Yeah," she agreed so softly that the mercenary had to lean far forward to hear her. "They had tuberculosis. You know how poor that family was. They couldn't afford any medicine, not even any painkillers. And after...after...Syaoran-kun was all alone. He wasn't making enough money to pay the rent. It's hard for a minor to get work in this business, and things have been so slow lately. So Kurogane-san took him in."

Ryu's already rampant hero worship reached a new high. "That was nice of him."

Caldina nodded. "Some of the others pitched in – especially the ones who remembered Syaoran-kun from the whole assassination mess. They bought food and things for him and his parents. When they got too sick to work, Chun'yan helped take care of them." The bartender sighed. "It was nice of them, but it didn't really help much in the long run."

"But that's outrageous," Ryu protested. "That's all the help he got, just some mercenary friends of his pitching in?"

"Who else is there?" Caldina asked. "They were his only family."

"What about the government? Damnit, isn't this the sort of thing the relief services are for?" Ryu clenched his hands into fists. "They're supposed to help the poor with medicine and housing, at least, but there just a bunch of selfish, corrupt – "

"Shut up," the bartender hissed quietly. The mercenary looked up from the counter and met her eyes. It was like being electrocuted, and he mentally cursed his loose tongue. "That," Caldina continued in calm, measured tones, "is the sort of thing that some people might mistake for treason. You need to be careful what you say around here. There's always the chance someone will misinterpret what you're saying."

"Yes, I think you're right," he said just as carefully. "It's so noisy in here, people might hear anything at all."

Caldina smiled again, but this time it was rather strained. "And as one friend to another, Ryu, I'd suggest you find some way of expressing your loyalty to the state. Wouldn't want anyone to get funny ideas about you."

"You know me, Caldina-san, I love our government," Ryu said with a grin that was just as phony.

Caldina raised the empty glass in a mock toast and tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "God bless King Ryanban."

-

Author's Note: Not really sure what I'm playing at here. I really SHOULD finish Into the Woods before I mess around with any other stories – I've already put a few ideas on hold for that very reason – but this idea seems so fun in my head and I just wanted to see how it looks on paper. I think I'll try writing shorter chapters and see if that helps me update faster. I also need to see if I can keep two stories going at the same time – I know it's possible, other people do it all the time, but then again, Shine isn't other people.

If Ryu and Caldina were OOC, it's because I don't know much about them, even what CLAMP series they are originally from (assuming they weren't created for Tsubasa) so I've had to go with the impression I have of them from their smallish roles in the series.

Please, Review/comments/constructive criticism are all welcome. I'm very excited about this story and I want to know if you are, too. Or if you can think of some way of improving it. Or if you think anything about it at all D