Something was wrong with Fai. Kurogane understood this, but everything else was a mystery, and the unknown had a way of pissing him off in the long run, especially when involving that particular bumbling idiot.

The group had been in Nihon for a week. Three days were spent waiting for Kurogane to regain consciousness. The next day Fuuma had arrived with Kurogane's new mechanical arm from the piffle world was paid for with Fai's magic, and Fuuma's unwelcome brother, Seishiro's arrival as well. Which in turn lead to Sakura-hime's clone being kidnapped by that bastard Fei Wong. The three days after that up until now have been spent preparing for their trip, and calming down, however you wanted to put it.

However, through all of this, none of it explained Fai's irrational behavior. At the drop of a hat his mood could pull a one-eighty. One second he's being… Fai and jumping around whilst "Hyuu~!"-ing and "Nya!"-ing, and of course reminding him of why he detested those nicknames he had just recently won the right to be called again. And the next second he's throwing his cup of tea across the room or glaring at a maid. Which to Kurogane was blasphemy in the vocabulary of Fai, he never glared at anyone but… Kurogane after he'd saved his life in Acid Tokyo… The ninja immediately rid himself of such thoughts.

That wasn't even the worst part of it for Kurogane. It was the abrupt non-contact rule Fai seemed to have placed between them. Ever. No appendage had ever slipped up and grazed that of the other person. Fai had quietly been so vehement about not touching him that Kurogane was afraid of what would happen if he reached out himself. Not even their eyes had touched. Nor had the newly befanged blond taken blood.

But that was going to change. Kurogane was on his way to Fai's room to force the ex-mage to drink his blood, for good reason of course. He'd caught him wobbling on his way out of Kurogane's dining hall that evening and he intended to correct it before they left on their journey, because nobody wanted a starving vampire lagging behind when nobody knew what was ahead of them. Luckily, Nihon was a country based on tradition and respect. The older and more prestigious your namesake, the better off you were. And Kurogane was the last Noble of Suwa; Royalty almost. Not only that but he was a part of the Royal Guard; Given to Princess Tomoyo, which made him all the more important in this world within these guarded walls . As such he had his own quarters within the palace to call home, just as his father and mother had before him.

Until now he hadn't much need for such luxurious accommodations but this arrangement made it where there would be nobody to interrupt, hear, or distract him if Fai didn't cooperate. Which was likely.

Kurogane reflected on the blond's behavior, and knew that there were very few probable reasons for what was going on. And Kurogane could only think of one he wanted to hear.

It certainly wasn't: "I didn't want to cause you anymore pain by feeding or being annoying while you healed." If that was the case he'd beat the shit out of the blond. Simply for Darwinian purposes; the stupid don't get to live.

Kurogane thought of the other option, but he was already at Fai's door opening it.

….

Fai held his breath as Kurogane opened the sliding paper door and faked groggily waking up as he rolled to face the ninja, "Nyaaaa, Kuro-puu… I was sleeping!" he covered his eyes with his sleeve as if to block him out to continue sleeping, but in reality Fai smelled blood on the man. Probably from where the synthetic arm was latched onto Kurogane's shoulder, but he said nothing as the large man walked towards his mattress.

So he was finally going to have to answer to him. Damn. Fai kept his arm over his face like a security blanket.

"I want two things." His baritone voice ended the silence.

"Oh? Kuro-puppy is so demanding!" Fai replied with his arm still locked in place muffling his voice.

"I've given you time. First I want to know what's going on with you." Fai felt the corner of his mouth turn down, "What's with the weird mood swings?" The vampire sighed. And like a movie the images flashed through his mind and he was quietly glad his arm was over his face to block the red tinge of his cheeks reaching Kurogane's sight as the memories resurfaced.

Fai rested his head on his folded arms while smiling unthinkingly. Forgiving Kurogane had been one of the best things he'd ever done. Happiness swirled within him as the weight of both of his curses being lifted and the strained relationship with his favorite ninja were lifted off of his shoulders. Things were calmer than ever before… at least for him.

He thought of Syaoran and how hard it must be for him to know that he may never see his Sakura-hime ever again and he almost felt guilty for how giddy he was at the moment. And Kurogane had to both deal with him spitting in his face because he didn't want to live, even though the red eyed man had done so much to keep him alive, and lost an arm to keep everyone together. On top of banishment from his home and his own troubled past… Now that REALLY soured his good mood. How could he be such an intelligent idiot? Heaven forbid he not screw up the first true friendship he's ever had.

Fai stood and turned towards the master suite of the building. He couldn't wrap his head around the brash warrior being a noble either. Kurogane had the visage and intelligence for the position; just not the patience. Fai smiled to himself as he recollected all the rises he'd gotten out of Mr. Black throughout their adventure.

But the smile quickly slipped off of his face as he looked through the small opening leading to Kurogane's bedroom. The number one way, it seemed, to get Fai D. Flowright to drop everything, the mask, the talking, the quirkyness… was to put a naked Kurogane on top of a futon stroking himself within sight.

The shock swiftly turned into coils of heat in his lower stomach as he watched Kurogane's hand stroke his large shaft. And unable to turn his eyes away from the scene before him, Fai was forced to release a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He lost interest in the pumping action Kurogane was giving to himself when he noticed his face. The warrior had relaxed his usually stiff forehead and his mouth was slack, letting in the required amount of oxygen for his task. And in that moment Fai noticed how breathtakingly handsome Kurogane really was. And he stored that expression away in his memory forever as Kurogane's "happy" face.

Then Fai noticed his companion was stroking himself faster than before. When had he sped up? Fai watched his hand closer and couldn't see when the transition occurred. And at that moment Fai made the mistake of wondering if he'd notice Kurogane speeding up his thrusts into him if he were underneath the powerful man.

Fai shuddered and moaned loudly at the image before he could realize what he was doing and stop himself. Hands flying to his mouth the vampire stared horrified at the ninja, waiting for him to turn to Fai and make an expression of disgust before covering himself. Kurogane wouldn't miss that. his senses were too sharp to allow the ex-mage that luxury. And after turning to see his traveling companion moan with a painfully obvious hard-on as he masturbated, Kurogane'd never talk to him again, would he?

But Kurogane didn't even slow down, in fact he made an obvious pick-up of pace. Did he really not hear? Fai thought that too good to be true, but when Kurogane's expression changed again he didn't care. His brows were strict again, but he was panting with a glazed look in his sharp eyes.

Then the unthinkable happened, the dark haired man's eyes slid closed as his lips parted for a breathy moan of a single syllable, "… Fai…"

The said man's heart leapt up into his chest and started acting irrationally. Had he really said that? There was no way… until it happened again, louder and more growled out than moaned, "Fai…"

Fai pivoted on his heels, putting his back to the wall beside the doorway he had previously just been peering through. He couldn't stand it anymore, the desire for Kurogane was so powerful it was painful. As his name was uttered, the sharp arousal was so intense that it was almost painful. But he couldn't go to the man on the other side of the wall and demand he take responsibility for his actions… he was too afraid of change. Things had just gotten better; he couldn't go and mess up what they had. It was far too precious to be wasted on something like lust… although he was terribly tempted.

Most of all however, he was afraid of how much of an influence Kurogane had over him. He didn't want the warrior to have any more possession of him than he already did.

Instead of acting on the desire(or lust) for Kurogane however, Fai quickly returned to his own chamber to repeat what Kurogane had been doing just moments before.

….

"And second you have to feed before we leave tomorrow. I won't deal with you lagging behind." Kurogane's voice broke him out of his trance.

"If I feed will you forget about the other term? It's not important anyways." Fai almost whispered.

"Sure, I already got my answer anyways." The larger man said with a more-than-slightly-cocky-tone to his voice. Fai moved his arm away from his face to look at Kurogane in confusion and slight paranoia, what did he mean he had his answer? Fai saw Kurogane's eyes locked on something, on the bed? Fai followed his vision to his own hips, and drowned in sheer embarrassment. The traitor between his legs was standing at attention for Kurogane.

"Haven't you ever had morning wood Kuro-chan?" he asked with a smile, keeping the blush at bay.

"Only when I'm thinking of you, but you already know that don't you mage?" Kurogane said in the same tone of voice, smirking this time to add to Fai's ire. "And here I was, worried that you were acting weird because you might feel guilty, wasn't I in for a nice surprise?"

Fai's mouth opened and closed. For once unable to come up with any remark, "You knew I was watching?" and you still said my name out loud? Fai thought to himself, unable to ask the second question.

"I'm a shinobi remember?" he said with as much emotion as a rock, "I was going to stop and go through the whole embarrassing tirade of being caught with my hand down my pants, literally, but then you never moved or looked away. So I gave you a show, problem with that?" then he let out a short laugh, "Of course not, because I did something else bad that night." The larger man crouched down next to him, bring his hand to the blond's chin to keep eye contact. "I followed you to your room because I wanted to talk about what had just happened, but you were busy when I arrived."

Fai's arm flung back up to his face. Kurogane had seen him doing that. "So we're fair, a show for a show, now please leave." He said meaning to be icy and menacing, but it came out as a soft whimper.

The hand on his chin, the organic one he noticed, latched onto Fai's arm and pulled it away from his face to force him to look back at Kurogane, "No, we're not fair. I said your name twice as I remember, and you only said mine once as you were coming, so I think you should say it again." Fai's eyes widened in shock. Was he implying…? "But I won't force you." He said seriously, crimson looking straight into gold to get his point across. Then he smirked and pulled Fai's arm out to the side, forcing the thin man's lips to crash into his own. But it wasn't a painful clash of teeth much to Fai's surprise, Kurogane had somehow maneuvered them to where the mage was straddling his lap. A shuddering moan escaped from Fai's mouth as Kurogane's worked on him. His kiss was strong and demanding but his lips were soft and pliable. It made Fai want to melt. Then he realized he already had.

"You know, you aren't that hard to persuade…" Kurogane said against his mouth.

"Shut up and kiss me again." Fai retorted, he could feel the black haired man's mouth spread into a smile… but it was probably a smirk. The mage didn't have time to check; a calloused finger was tugging his bottom lip down so that Kurogane could replace it with his mouth and tongue.

Just as sweet bliss overtook his senses. Where only he and Kurogane existed, a place where moans and caresses were fluency, a knock came to the door.

"Fai-san? May I come in?" it was Tomoyo's tiny voice seeming slightly distraught.

…..

Ummm… like? Hate? Need to work on something? I tried to stay in character… but because sometimes they annoy me I took the liberty of forcing a couple of "things" to show THEIR opinion on the matter