Title:
Shatter
Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
Disclaimer: I don't
own Tsubasa. It belongs to the wonderful people of
Clamp.
Pairing: Slight KuroganexFai
Rating: PG
Warnings:
Spoilers for practically everything: Acid Tokyo, Infinity, Celes,
Nihon, Fai's past
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Kurogane stopped outside the door, his senses telling him that something was different in that room since he had left it only a few minutes before. He had left the mage slumped over where he had fallen asleep at the foot of Kurogane's bed.
The ninja had snuck out for a moment to take care of business and clear his thoughts about everything plus the damn mage. He had quietly stepped out, making sure not to disturb the mage's sleep. He liked it when the mage was sleeping.
Fai was actually quiet when he slept. He wasn't constantly finding some new way to irritate the ninja when he was sleeping.
What he liked most was the unguarded face when the blonde was sleeping. The mask was gone and Kurogane enjoyed that the most.
He did not even need to peek into the room to know that Fai was no longer asleep.
He silently slid the door open, ignoring the dull throbbing in his shoulder that was so unimportant next to Fai and Fai's well-being.
When the hell had he begun to think that way? It had started before Kurogane traded his arm for Fai's life in that cold country of truths. It had been before that world with the chess games and Fai, being the devoted pawn he had been, had almost played his part perfectly. The curse had driven him to mindlessly run that blade through Sakura's body. Kurogane had stopped the distraught mage from stealing his own life with a blade that was already stained with blood. Had it started in the world with the acid rain? But no, it had started even before Kurogane had bound the two together with his blood in order to save a life that had not wanted to be saved.
Ah, but Kurogane was not one to dwell on the past and the reasons like Fai did. Kurogane cared for Fai and there was nothing more he needed to know. There was still so much to learn about Fai though. He stepped into the room with that goal in mind. He needed to understand the man beneath the mask, behind the cold exterior the mage had adopted in the past months.
Fai was standing before the mirror, staring into the glass with one thin hand pressed to his cheek, fingers just touching the dark edge of cloth that rested over an empty socket.
The mage was so absorbed in his own reflection that he had yet to notice Kurogane's presence.
There were no clingy hands, no mangled "cute" versions of Kurogane's name. Something was as wrong as ever and the mage was still lost in his own problems.
If Kurogane had ever caught Fai staring at his reflection months and months ago, before he realized the mage was so much more then a flighty idiot, he would have scoffed at the man's vanity.
But Fai was not vain.
And Fai looked so lost staring in to that mirror with that one blue eye.
How could Fai possibly be vain when he had never seen himself on the other side of that mirror?
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Fai stared in to the mirror and a stranger stared back at him. He had spent so many years seeing Fai, the real Fai, alive and well, on the other side of the glass.
But Fai was dead and his corpse finally released, his soul allowed to pass on by his brother.
The mage had spent too many years living Fai's life for him that Yuui had long since vanished.
Who was looking out of the mirror now?
He raised a hand to his cheek and the pale, soft skin was the same at least. But that black patch of cloth was not Fai's. Fai had been whole with two beautiful blue eyes.
Why wasn't Fai staring out of the mirror now?
The mage reached out with a shaky hand, inching his fingers closer and closer to the glass.
Who was he now?
He had loved Fai. He had lived for Fai. He had tried to give Fai some semblance of life, even if only in his own mind. Yuui had vanished somewhere along the way.
He was not Fai. He was not Yuui.
It was only that one remaining eye, so blue and full of magic that remained entirely Fai.
But that eye and that magic was not enough.
Who was this man with the long blonde hair, missing eye, with the taste of blood always in the back of his mouth?
Everything was falling and the stranger who was not Fai and who was not Yuui shattered in to a million pieces.
The mage stared down at the shards, his blonde hair hiding that one remaining blue eye from Kurogane.
The ninja did not care about the broken mirror or the dead brother the mage had wished had lived. Instead he stared at the mage, willing the wispy man to feel the heat of his gaze. He had no soft words. He had no gentle touches, but there was no way in hell he would let this man destroy himself after everything they had been through.
"Idiot."
Fai understood and his lips curled up, tilting his head up to meet Kurogane's eyes. This Fai, the one who was no longer a cursed twin, smiled.
Fai, with his missing eye and vampire's blood, smiled up at Kurogane.
The very next day Fai gave up his magic and the beautiful blue eye. He became somebody who lived. He was somebody who lived both for himself and for another.
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Author's Note: Well, that was my second official Tsubasa one-shot. I adore these characters, and I hope I got them decently in-character. I know there's a discrepancy at the end about when Fai gave up the rest of his magic. If I remember correctly he decided to make that deal before Kurogane woke up, but I'll ignore that little tidbit in favor of the oneshot. :)