A/N: I wish I could take credit for this plot bunny, but I can't. I was looking stuff up on deviant art--kurofai stuff--and I saw this as a title for one of the deviations "I Dare You To Love Me", and it was perfection for KuroganexFai so obviously I had to steal that bunny like the awful, greedy person I am, lol, just kidding. Sort of...? Anyhoo, without further ado--
One of the things that defined Kurogane was his brashness.
Kurogane never refused a challenge.
Never.
He wouldn't refuse a challenge even if it were impossible—whether physically unattainable, scientifically proven to be undoable, or just simply insane. He would accept it, and he wouldn't even think of what would happen if he failed, because of course he wouldn't. That was one thing that wasn't possible: His failure.
There wasn't a person he couldn't kill in Nihon, and there would never be a person he couldn't kill in any world—any country. There was no physical, mental, or spiritual feat impossible to him. Unless it was something ridiculous, like floating on his toes. But perhaps even that, he'd succeed in doing. Somehow.
Kurogane never refused a challenge.
And Kurogane never failed to complete a challenge.
Never.
One of the things that defined Fai was his sensibility.
Fai thought everything thing out.
Everything.
For Fai, there had never been such things as fairytales when he was young. He'd known that happily ever afters shouldn't even exist in children's books, because it just wasn't possible. There were some things that couldn't be achieved now matter how much you wanted it or how much you tried, and Fai understood that. He might wish with all his heart that it wasn't true, but he accepted it nonetheless.
He'd also accepted that he was a person whose life wasn't meant to be filled with fluffy, sparkly memories. His life wasn't his own, and therefore, he existed to return this undeserved life to someone else. In other words, he wasn't here to enjoy life. This was merely business—he wasn't here to learn new things, or meet new people, or fall in love, or have a family or even a home. He was here to meet a goal and then he would die. End of story.
Fai was sensible.
He thought everything out.
Always.
Fai was a challenge.
Kurogane understood that.
This mage—this man—he was just another challenge directed at Kurogane from the gods above. Yes, Kurogane loved him. He knew he did. Yes, he'd also been through a rather….lengthy denial phase, but it was over and done with. He knew he loved the mage, and by acknowledging so, he accepted the challenge.
Fai would love him back. Kurogane would make sure he did. And not only that, Fai would love him back—Kurogane suspected he already did—and Fai would admit it. Fai would be with him when he made it back to Nihon—which would happen SOON, damn it—and Fai wouldn't lie to him. He would find out what made Fai so effing emo and that would be that. Challenge completed.
Fai was a challenge.
And Kurogane had never before failed a challenge.
That status wouldn't change one bit.
Kurogane wasn't part of the plan.
Fai was utterly lost without his plan.
He knew how many companions he'd have and what he could do with them if they got into his way, but he didn't know who they were going to be and he definitely hadn't known that someone like Kurogane would be one of them. Had he known, Fai would've prepared a better plan.
Kurogane couldn't be solved with sense and deduction like Fai possessed. And Kurogane seemed to be doing something to Fai that the mage really didn't like, and really wished he wouldn't do.
Kurogane seemed to be making Fai fall in love with him.
Fai couldn't have that.
He couldn't fall in love with someone and no one was allowed to fall in love with him. He'd push them away with such subtlety that they wouldn't even notice how far they were being shoved until it was too late to fix it. Fai wasn't in this existence to do anything for himself. This life didn't belong to him, and thus, he shouldn't be falling in love or having anyone fall in love with him.
Fai had a plan.
Kurogane wasn't part of it.
And worst of all.
Fai couldn't bring it in himself to care.
When the princess of Kurogane's country sent him away to journey across dimensions, he'd given his sword to the Dimensional Witch because Tomoyo had given him a challenge, and he wasn't going to lose.
When Fai had to kill Ashura—when the people of Celes needed him to kill Ashura—Fai had locked Ashura into a temporary sleep, set Chi up as an alarm, packed his bags, and ran for it, because the challenge was too great, and this was the sensible thing to do.
When Kurogane met Fai, he didn't believe Fai's smiles and laughs because he refused to succumb to happiness that couldn't possibly come from someone who was a renegade from their own world—fleeing across dimensions. He didn't believe, because that would mean giving in to a challenge.
When Fai met Kurogane, he immediately began calling the ninja by pet names that he knew would irritate the man to no end and therefore cause him to hate Fai, because it was the sensible thing to do, as Kurogane seemed like a person who might find out what Fai was like inside.
When Kurogane fell in love with Fai, he persisted harder—with more force—and he didn't believe a single thing that Fai did, because that would mean losing to the challenge of discovering the real Fai, and Kurogane loved him too much to give up on him. He'd fallen in love with his challenge, and as sure as hell, he wasn't going to lose this one.
When Fai fell in love with Kurogane, he put up all barriers and firewalls and guards and locked them shut with an iron bolt. He cast metal gates and sensors and alarms around his heart and made sure that anything that even dared come close to it would be burned before it could reach him because it made sense—Kurogane would only break his heart and hurt himself and Fai was only making sure that didn't happen.
When Kurogane saved Fai's life he knew that he wouldn't regret it, even though he knew that Fai might—and probably would—hate him for it, but it was near impossible for him not to, and not just because he loved the mage. Kurogane couldn't possibly let Fai die, because then he'd lose the challenge, and Kurogane never lost.
When Fai found out that Kurogane had saved him, all he could do was say those words to Kurogane, because even though sense hadn't helped him at all in any of these situations, this was what sensibility told him to do. It made sense to give Kurogane this final shove and hope that it would work, since none of the previous had.
Of course, two worlds, some lost blood, a cut off arm, remaining magic, and a synthetic arm later…in Nihon, as Fai sat beside Kurogane in the dim lighting of the evening in his room, he leaned into the ninja.
"Kuro-sama," Fai said quietly with a smile, "I dare you."
Kurogane looked at him lazily. "Sure." And the ninja easily closed the remaining distance between their lips.
Fai should've known.
Kurogane was such a daredevil.