"Why have we not an immortal soul?" asked the little mermaid mournfully. "I would give gladly all the hundreds of years that I have to live, to be a human being only for one day, and to have the hope of knowing the happiness of that glorious world above the stars."
"Let us be happy," said the old lady, "and dart and spring about during the three hundred years that we have to live, which is really quite long enough. After that we can rest ourselves all the better."
"You can never return to this kingdom again, once you have left."
"Yes."
"You will lose your voice."
"Yes."
"Every time you take a step, you will feel as though you were treading upon sharp knives."
"Yes."
"If you fail to win his heart and he chooses another over you, your heart will break, and you will become nothing more than foam on the crest of the waves."
"… yes."
"…princess." The magician went down on his knees before her and clasped her hands in his. "You are certain you wish to do this?"
"Yes."
"Then I will do my best to help you, in any way I can."
Late that night, there was a knock at the door. It scraped open a crack, and a sleepy magician peered out from within, scrutinizing the hooded visitor. His blue eyes shrank slightly with a flash of recognition, but then he pulled back, into the shadows of the woven seaweed framework. Moments later, when the door swung open, he was wearing a smile of pleasant surprise.
"Why, hello, Sea King. I hadn't expected a visit from you." He extended his hand in an offering of peace.
The Sea King ignored his greetings completely.
"What have you done with my daughter?" he growled.
"Has something happened to one of your daughters?" asked the magician, eyes widening. "I had no idea! Perhaps I could…"
"Don't lie to me, wizard," snapped the Sea King. "I know she came to visit you before she vanished. What did you do to her?"
Fye's outstretched hand faltered, and he let it fall to his side. For a moment neither said anything, and a chilly silence descended upon the scene. Above them water flowed sluggishly along the edges of the bubble, casting translucent shadows over them in oddly warped refractions of light. It caught the Sea King at an angle, illuminating one eye and part of his nose with a shifting, murky glow. Across from him, the magician still wore the same smile on his face, but it was beginning to grow slightly rigid-- a little frosty and somewhat stale. His voice was carefully correct as he replied:
"Only what she asked of me."
The Sea King nearly rolled his eyes, undignified as it was.
"And that would be?"
A breath of wind stirred, deep down below the ocean where no wind had any right to exist. Fye's robe fluttered slightly open, and he shivered, pulling the ruff of fur closer around his neck. Ribbon-like designs along his sleeves shone a faint ice-blue, and the clasp around his throat glinted silver in the shifting light.
"…only what she wished for," he answered, after a long pause.
The Sea King slammed his fists against the wall. His cloak, jet-black, flapped behind him.
"Stop speaking to me in riddles!"
The magician's pupils were shrinking again. Faster and faster, they vanished in a cloud of blue. He smiled apologetically.
"I have told you what you wanted to know."
With a swish of his robe, he turned his back on the Sea King and stepped back into the comfortable familiarity of spells and trinkets, boiling cauldrons, winged patterns traced shimmering on the ground. He would have no more to do with this. What was done was done. Before he could shut the door, however, a rough hand caught hold of his arm.
"…let go of me, Kurogane," he said without looking back.
"No," growled the Sea King, throwing back his hood to reveal a mess of spiky black hair behind a roughly spun, blood red piece of cloth. The sigil of the royal family was printed upon it. Aside from that, he had forsaken all his usual accoutrements save a modest black pearl on each ear. They sparkled brilliantly as he stepped into the light. "No. I will not."
The magician had nothing to say. He couldn't move, either, so he stayed where he was, uncomfortably aware of Kurogane's grip tightening on his wrist. He could hear him drawing closer, behind him, but he didn't want to turn around. He didn't think he wanted to see the expression on his face at the moment.
Stark silence. He could feel the heat behind him, the other man was so close. Then,
"Why can't you just be honest, for once?" breathed the Sea King in his ear, his words at once poisonous and demanding.
Fye felt the world falling away beneath him. Memories assailed him from all sides, dancing, laughing, conspiring with each other in sly voices as they jostled him mercilessly. Ashura-ou on horseback, extending a helping hand to the shivering child, promising him a new life. Chii, blinking awake for the first time ever, training her eyes on him with a look of purest adoration. A trembling child, eyes wide and ragged as he stared at the bloody corpse splayed out upon the frozen ground. Ashura-ou, hair drifting aimlessly in the water, waves of black silk next to a somber, silent face. Chii, smiling up at him with the purest trust as he cupped her face and breathed into her lips the spell that would dissolve her, wipe her from existence forever. Blood, blood everywhere, in the water, on the snow, on the corpse lying on the frozen tower ground, on his hands. His hands. Running. Running from the blood, crying, trying to escape the curse, a young child staggering through the snow to get away from the tower, away, away, away… Honest? He can't be honest, not if this is what it means to be honest. His breathing faltered, went raggedy and uneven. The memories swirled around him, in him, through him, a spiraling vortex in his mind pulling him down, down, down…
Strong hands caught at him, held him. Steadied him. He clung to the warmth like a lost child, shaking uncontrollably. He could feel the hands lifting him, scooping him up like a rag doll, and experienced a moment of bizarre insanity wondering, Am I really that light? then his blankets were underneath him, and the hands were setting him down, going away.
"No, no, no, no, no," he babbled, panicky. His hands flailed, catching at anything he could reach, willing the warmth not to go away, not to leave him alone, again. Alone. Was he really alone again? His hands floundered through empty air, found nothing but blankets. Gradually his movements slowed. A wave of desolation swept through him, and he curled up into a ball, hugging his knees.
There was a faint whumph as someone sat down on the edge of the bed, beside him. His heart started beating again. A hand ruffled his hair, then stroked his back soothingly. Little by little he began to relax, joints uncurling painfully. Rolling around, he found a fold of black, and followed it until he found the body, which he tackled and almost playfully forced down onto the bed. Kurogane made a muffled noise of surprise, but Fye had already snuggled in catlike beside him, one arm around his neck. He sighed, and tentatively reached out to put his arm around the magician, who made an unintelligible noise of happiness and nuzzled in closer. For a long while the both of them just lay like that, unmoving.
"You never visit me anymore, Kuro-puu," Fye murmured into his chest. He wasn't cold anymore. He felt warm, and comfortable, and safe. It was making him kind of drowsy, in a happy sort of way.
Kurogane sighed again. Fye felt the warm breath on his hair, and nestled in a bit closer, eyes half-closed.
"I'm not a prince anymore, Fye. I'm a king. I have duties to attend to. It's much harder for me to get out, now."
"Mmmmmnnnn," mumbled Fye. I know you're a king, he thought. The Sea King. But he didn't say anything, and so Kurogane didn't say anything either.
After a couple minutes, he reached up lazily and twirled the end of Kurogane's headband around his fingers. Kurogane twitched and turned his head away, but refrained from saying anything. Fye allowed himself a small smile, and moved on to his hair, working through the tangles. After another minute, Kurogane said somewhat gruffly:
"You know I can't stay very long. They'll miss me, back at the palace."
"…yeah, I know," said Fye, but neither moved. Fye's focus had shifted back to the headband. It was tied with a strange sort of backwards double-knot, and he was trying to figure out how to undo it. One-handed, though, it proved more difficult than he could manage. Feeling him struggle, Kurogane reached up a hand to help, only to have an exasperated Fye pull his arm back down around him, tucking it in place. With a sigh, he tightened his arm around the magician protectively, drawing him closer. Let him fiddle with the headband. It was, in the end, just that-- a headband.
Absently, he stroked the magician's hair with his other hand. He could feel his heartbeat through their clothes. Idly he debated telling the magician that, then decided against it. It was nice, he reflected, to be able to lie close to a warm body like this again. It was one thing he had sorely missed after Tomoyo's death. Of course, he had met Fye even before that, when they were both still teenagers, but… Tomoyo had been a good wife. She left him six children. All daughters, admittedly, but...
…daughters.
Fye was still playing with the knot. His eyes weren't even open anymore, and the corners of his lips twitched up in an almost-smile, which, Kurogane reflected, probably hasn't occurred in ages. He was loathe to destroy it, but he had to know.
"So," he asked, as casually as he could manage. "What did happen between you and Sakura?"
Fye stiffened. Kurogane felt his hand stop moving, and reached up to clasp his own hand over his.
"If you don't want me to interfere, I won't," he said, more gently. "But at least tell me what happened."
Fye told him everything. He hadn't meant to, not really, but the words just came spilling out. He tried to muffle it, by burying his head in Kurogane's chest - not that it really did anything - but, well, it was okay. Kuro-tan had said he wouldn't interfere, and Fye trusted him to his word. He couldn't help but feel a little guilty as he told the tale, though; Sakura had always been Kurogane's favorite daughter. Still, he was sure Kuro-rin would forgive him. He hoped.
In the end, there was only one question.
"…did you tell her her actual chances with Prince Syaoran before she left?"
"No."
"So you just sent her off to her death without any warning."
"…she knew the stakes. She knew what she was up against, and she wanted to do it anyway."
"You didn't tell her that it was impossible."
"I don't believe anything is impossible."
Kurogane just looked at him.
"I'm serious, Kuro-chan. I believe she has the power to change the future, if she only tried hard enough."
The Sea King didn't say anything more, but Fye could sense his displeasure. It radiated off him like heat off a red-hot ingot. Not knowing what to do, he attempted to atone for it the only way he knew how: he kissed him, on the lips, for as long as he could go without taking a breath. Kurogane was reluctant at first, but softened gradually-- Fye could feel it. He kept it up until both their lips were red and swollen, until they forgot about everything else, and content radiated off them in palpable waves. Afterwards, because the door was open and it was getting a bit chilly, he pulled the blankets over them both and snuggled in deeper, sincerely happy for at least this one night.