Title: "Sensitive to the Scent"
Author: LegolasLover2003 aka Ashley
Category: Anime - "Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE"
Genre: Angst/General
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to "Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE". A longer disclaimer can be found at the bottom under the NOTES.
Author's Note: This story contains SPOILERS for "Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE". If you have NOT seen "Tokyo Revelations" OR read the manga up through chapter 185, then this story WILL be a SPOILER!
SENSITIVE TO THE SCENT
A
Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
Fanfiction…
"So, what's the reason behind putting the kid in a separate room, unlike yesterday?"
With a soft sigh, Fai turned. Tilting his head down slightly, the former magician smirked, his golden eye glinting in the room's low lighting.
"I thought you'd notice." He spoke softly, carefully removing his gloves.
When Kurogane said nothing, Fai moved to set his coat down on the back of a nearby chair. He paused for a moment, his left hand resting on the soft feathery fabric, before laying his gloves atop the coat.
Whirling around, Fai reached out, grabbing Kurogane's cloak just above the shinobi's left arm, and pushing it aside.
"And that, if you noticed, you'd know why." Fai whispered, his exposed fingers working to free Kurogane's left shoulder from the heavy fabric. "Am I right?" the magician asked, his golden eye turning its gaze upward, searching for a sign from the taller man.
When no sign was forthcoming, and when Fai was certain that Kurogane was simply being silent out of the sake of stubbornness, the former magician turned his eye back to the artificial arm which clung to Kurogane's body.
Blood, some smeared and dried, some fresh and slowly oozing, was visible at the seam, where the arm met the body.
Gently, Fai touched the bleeding skin. He could feel the muscle beneath his fingers twitch, but other than that, Kurogane gave no sign that he was uncomfortable.
With a sigh, the older man brought his blood covered fingers up to his mouth, carefully licking them clean.
"After my body became like this," he spoke, and there was no anger or hidden malice in the words.
Fai had forgiven Kurogane… in his own way…
"I seem to be sensitive to the scent of blood." The former magician continued.
For a moment, Kurogane seemed about to object, but Fai smirked. He shook his head, not allowing for the shinobi to get a word in yet.
"Besides, whatever you say your reasons are, for you to be in a room and not take off your cloak or headdress… it's strange… isn't it?"
Kurogane watched Fai, saying nothing as the man carefully ran his fingers over the artificial arm. For a moment, Fai didn't look up, his focus and attention locked on the arm itself. The intricacies… the way it fit together… how it moved… but when Fai did speak again, there was a slight teasing aspect to his voice.
"Would your reason… be in order to conceal your facial expression?"
Stepping back, Fai put his hands on his hips, staring up at Kurogane openly.
"You're in pain." The former magician stated, concern lacing his words.
Kurogane's eyes narrowed, but still he said nothing. Fai didn't fault him for this, after all… the price for the arm had been great indeed.
For a moment, Fai closed his eye. In the man's mind, he remembered the blood that fell on his face as Kurogane severed his own arm for the magician's sake. How Fai had cried and, weak and unable to do anything except hold onto the unconscious man's body, how he had tried to protect him, pleading for help. How soft words from Tomoyo-hime had halted Fai's panicked and grief stricken tears.
To give up his remaining magic, as a sacrifice to replace the arm lost…
Fai didn't think the price that steep.
But Kurogane had, and the older man knew this.
Opening his eye once more, Fai looked into Kurogane's guarded expression. "So… the artificial arm doesn't fit, does it?" he asked softly, his words careful to keep from wounding the man.
Kurogane's gaze remained down, and Fai had to lean forward and bend slightly, to even catch a glimpse of the other man's eyes.
"If it works, there's no problem." Kurogane finally spoke, his voice a bit harsher than he had intended.
Sighing, Fai locked his eye with Kurogane's gaze, "Does it hurt now, more than yesterday?"
When the shinobi wasn't forthcoming with an answer, the former magician continued.
"Answer me." Fai spoke, his voice lowering in pitch, his expression turning stern.
He demanded an answer.
"Answer me, Kurogane. With this we'll find out whether our own time is going forward in this repeating time of Clow Country."
With a 'tsk, Kurogane broke his gaze from Fai, looking off to the side. "Yes…" he spoke, grounding the admission out between clenched teeth.
Suddenly, Fai's fist was flying, and the former magician was smacking Kurogane on the head. "Idiot…" the older man nearly laughed, "If it hurts, then say so from the start."
"Bastard!" Kurogane shouted, grabbing his head and glaring at the wiry man. "Why the hell did…"
"When you're with others," Fai spoke, interrupting the other man's words as his expression suddenly serious once more, "There are more things that you can't hide. If they find out later, it'll be more painful for Syaoran-kun and Mokona."
Still visibly angry about the small lump now forming on the top of his head, Kurogane smirked slightly, "You're one to talk."
Fai smiled, a reaction that, obvious from the look of surprise on the shinobi's face, Kurogane hadn't anticipated. "Yes. I'm one to talk." The former magician replied. "I'm the one to talk… because my pain hurt others. I don't want you to make that same mistake."
Sighing, Kurogane reached up to remove his headdress. But instead of his fingers touching the protective garment, Fai's lithe fingers stilled his hand's movement.
Red eyes locked on the glint of gold, and Kurogane let his hands fall away. Carefully, Fai removed the headdress, setting it on a side table.
The elder man smiled softly, "It's nice to see what you're really thinking, Kuro-pon." Fai spoke, before moving his fingers to the large cloak, finishing removing the garment. "There." He said, stepping back for a moment and admiring his handiwork. "Doesn't that feel better?"
"I guess." Kurogane replied, his body seeming to relax a little, now free from the weight of his traveling clothes.
The shinobi looked down, but he frowned slightly when he saw the glint in Fai's golden eye. The elder man's pupil was elongated, and his gaze was fixed on Kurogane's artificial arm.
After a moment of silence between the two, Kurogane closed his eyes, "Go ahead." He spoke calmly. "Better than letting it go to waste."
"Kuro-sama…" Fai whispered, moving forward, almost as if in a trance.
He reached out, exposed fingers tracing the metallic arm once more. They tickled along the seam where living skin met artificial craftsmanship, probing the skin gently, causing muscles and nerves to twitch.
Blood pooled around that seam, welling up before the former magician's golden gaze.
Kurogane winced as pain flared through his body, but he willed himself to stay still.
Fai needed it, after all…
"Gomen…" the older man whispered, before pressing his lips against the seam gently.
It was a feather soft touch that sent shivers of pain and tinglings of a tickling sensation through Kurogane's shoulder. Lips covered in blood, Fai closed his eye, beginning to carefully and gently clean the area of the dark red substance. The taste invigorated the wiry man, the blood's power filling his body and satisfying the hunger that had been building up within him since before they had left Nihon Country.
Sitting on the bed, Kurogane forced his body to remain motionless, letting Fai drink his fill of blood. The former magician was practically in his lap, after all, pressing against the shinobi in a hunger-induced haze.
"Why did you wait so long?" the younger man asked, his gaze fixed on the wall across from them.
Fai stopped for a moment, his lips mere centimeters from the blood smeared skin, his breath drying the life giving liquid as he spoke.
"Because I hate it." Fai whispered, his golden gaze locked on the blood before him. "Because I have to steal life from you… to survive…"
Kurogane's body stiffened, a change that Fai felt immediately.
"Don't take this the wrong way, Kuro-tan…" Fai whispered. "I've forgiven you. You saved me… not for yourself or for me… but for Sakura-chan… for Syaoran-kun and Mokona too… You knew that they needed me… and you sacrificed yourself for me." He closed his eye, sighing softly as the fingers of his left hand, resting against Kurogane's chest, clutched at the fabric of his clothing. "But I haven't forgiven myself. I used my magic, and I lost. I couldn't save anyone… Ashura-Ou… Fai… I couldn't save them… and…" Fai's words caught in his throat. The man lowered his head, resting his forehead against Kurogane's shoulder as a sob tore its way free. "Everything I'd done… everything I was… I gave it all up and I couldn't save anyone…"
Tears slipped from Fai's eye, the former magician crying openly against Kurogane's shoulder. Carefully, with is free right arm, the shinobi placed his hand over Fai's own left hand, gently offering some comfort.
"You saved me." Kurogane whispered, all harshness gone from his tone. "You helped me realize that life isn't just about who's strongest."
Fai's tears stopped and he pulled back, looking into Kurogane's red eyes.
"Though, strength's still a big part of it." The shinobi joked, cracking a smirk-like smile.
For a moment, Fai did nothing. Then he began to laugh softly, closing his golden eye in mirth as he shook his head.
"I guess we just get to keep saving one another then, ne?" he asked with a soft smile.
The shinobi nodded. "Guess so. But I'm not cutting off an arm again. That hurt like hell."
Fai's smile remained as his gaze returned to the artificial construct that was Kurogane's left arm. "I would think so. Eye gouging isn't very fun either…" he whispered, fingers tracing the mechanical arm once more. "But you know, Kuro-sama…" the man's whispered voice carried softly in the still room. "I…"
Blinking, Fai felt tears fall from his eye again. He yawned, leaning against Kurogane's chest once more. The former magician suddenly felt quite exhausted.
Was it because of the tears, of him crying?
"I…" Fai tried to continue, but his words were lost as he soon collapsed against the shinobi, deeply asleep.
Thinking it odd, Kurogane looked down at the sleeping man. "Fai?" he asked softly, before yawning himself.
Without realizing it, Kurogane fell backwards onto the bed, taking Fai with him.
It was there that the magical spell over Clow Country, a spell forcing the world to repeat time over and over again, took hold over the two travelers.
Nestled against Kurogane, the man's chest making a wonderful pillow, Fai slept peacefully for the first time in a very very long time.
THE END
NOTES:
-There are MAJOR spoilers for "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle" in this story. If you haven't seen "Tokyo Revelations" AND read the manga up through Chapter 185, then you WILL be spoiled.
-I have seen the entire series of "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle", both seasons 1 and 2, as well as the "Tokyo Revelations" OVA and the "Princess from the Land of the Birdcage" Movie. I have also read the manga up until chapter 219. I have not seen "xxxholic" or read its manga however, though I plan on starting to watch "xxxholic" this week. I have also seen various series of CLAMP's, including almost all of "Cardcaptor Sakura" (I'm still working on it), all of "Magic Knight Rayearth" (including both series and the OVA), all of "Chobits", a lot of "X/1999" (including the movie), and portions of "Angelic Layer". I have read the CLAMP manga for some of "X/1999" and all of "Legal Drug". I also have the manga for a few of their other words, including "Miyuki-chan in Wonderland" and "R.G. Veda", though I haven't read these yet. I've even seen CLAMP designed works like "Code Geass" (I've seen both seasons). So, if I get something wrong within the "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle" universe, don't hesitate to point it out. I want to know where I'm lacking or at fault.
-Some of the dialogue and actions come from chapter 185 of the "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle" manga. These actions and dialogue end after Fai says "I'm the one to talk". After that, they become my own ramblings and works.
-The translation I used for chapter 185 of the manga, comes from scans by Franky House.
-There were a couple of spots in the translation that I felt the words were too stiff or off somehow, so I changed them slightly. I don't have a Japanese version of scans (or of the manga) so I can't actually check to find out if my changes work with the original or not. They were just changed to sound better or make more sense to the reader.
-Don't scold me on the spelling of "Fai" please. I know there are various ways it's been spelled; Fai, Fay, Faye, Fye, etc. I prefer Fai because it's a direct katakana romanji translation. Also, when you hear Mokona say "Fai" all the time, it sounds like it's saying "Fai" not "Fay", so I prefer to spell it as Fai. And yes, I even know that the commercial cut segments with Fai in the 2nd season say "Fay", but I still prefer Fai.
-Also, don't flame me over the Fai/Kurogane relationship. I mean come on, these two are a lot closer than just friends. Fai has to drink Kurogane's blood for crying out loud. Plus, he calls Kurogane the "daddy" randomly (reminds me of "Ouran High School Host Club" with that). I'm not saying they're "together", but their relationship is a very very close one. It's obvious from the sacrifices they've made for one another.
-I do appreciate constructive criticism as well as heartfelt reviews. Just not flames. If there's something you didn't like, let me know WHY you didn't like it, just don't flame for no reason, onegai. So please, by all means, leave me a review, or just tell me if you liked the piece.
-Disclaimer: I don't own nor am I affiliated with anything relating to the story or characters of "Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle", all rights to that go to the wonder that is CLAMP. I just like to play in their world… and I just love Fai. A lot. And Daisuke Namikawa… PASTA!!!