Disclaimer: TRC and its characters, etc, belong to CLAMP. Good thing too, because I could never have created its awesomeness.
Recommended listening for this story: Meh, I got nothin'. Given time I'll probably find something.
Words in Story: 339
Rating: T, I suppose, for blood.
In Celes, he was reborn; his new life heralded in with appropriate morbidity; his future beginning with a baptism in blood.
The blood of his past, Ashura's blood, washing over him as kind fingers brushed away his tears.
The blood of his present, his own blood, staining his fingers and mouth.
And finally, the blood of his future, pouring over him with the redemptive knowledge that he was needed, wanted, worthwhile, even after all that had happened: Kurogane's blood.
In that horrible, wonderful moment, he finally understood. His sins, his secrets, his lies...everything that had made him wish that his next breath would not come...none of it kept those he travelled with from caring.
Through the disbelief, the shock, and the terror, in those moments when he was drenched in his closest companion's draining life, he was distantly reminded of the various fables and legends on different worlds, the constant underlying theme of salvation through pure blood.
When he knelt in the settling dust on the surface of a foreign world and faced the terrible possibility that Kurogane's life would slip away, something in his heart twisted agonisingly and then straightened, still hurting but now facing the right direction.
He would no longer live in his past.
If this man – who had always seen that Fai was not what he seemed; who had seemed to hate his kind most; who was so intelligent and watchful and strong – if this man would sacrifice so much, risk his very life, for Fai's continued existence...then...then to continue believing himself worthless would be almost blasphemous.
How could he possibly refuse to accept what this man so obviously believed: that Fai was worth something, important, valuable? He could not. He must either come to believe it himself, or spit on the sacrifice made for him, and that was something he could no longer do.
In Tokyo, for a moment, when Kurogane insisted he live, he'd come close to understanding.
Now, there was no possible way he could not understand.
Finally, finally...
He was loved.
A/N: Just a little thing I wrote in a few minutes on impulse. See the love between Kuro and Fai as you will: but whether they love each other as friends, brothers, soulmates, or whatever; there's definitely love. The audience may interpret its form as they like. :)