Title: To hold in fond remembrance
Pairing: None... much... I guess you could see it as Kurogane x Fai if you want, but that's not the main focus
Words: 266
Rating: PG
Genre: General? None? Whut?
Spoilers: General knowledge of the manga until at least ch 169, though nothing heavily implied
Disclaimer: I own nothing; CLAMP does. Isn't that lovely?
Notes: Fai's POV. Assumes that Fai settles in Nihon after everything is over, and still misses an eye. Also assumes that there had been at least some survivors after the events in Suwa (so, slight AU?), and possibly takes some liberties with the local ninja-clan hierarchy... what?
Fai asks Tomoyo-hime this one day, because, while the whispers subside, the stares-that-aren't-quite-stares do not, and after three months there it's getting (worrisome) tiring. Is it the haircolour? he asks. The eye-colour? The fact that he's a stranger still? (and… strange?) He's gone through it in Yama, and he can see the signs quite clear, and hear them, also - the sudden silences, the sudden words, the scrabbling for ease (he's gone through it in Celes too. Why is it that in every place he goes the world is filled with dark-haired people, and he alone is gold and pale?)
It's the eye-patch, she says, serene and smiling, and Fai is quite surprised by his own almost-start, and the slight prick of pain – he hadn't thought that it would matter--
You remind them, she then goes on as Fai tries not to care, of someone they have lost. And she tells Fai that some of Kurogane's people had still survived by chance, had come and taken duties in the castle (their once Young Master had gone there; they'd lost everything else), and how, before their land had burned, its borders had been guarded by Kurogane's father, his ninja, and his right hand man – who wore a patch on his left eye, and his long hair pulled back. Tomoyo-hime hadn't known him, but she's been told (had Kurogane reminisced?) that he would laugh and tease.
Fai smiles. And the next day he barely keeps from pelting Kurogane with his questions; he's not sure yet whether the ninja would appreciate them – but he starts making up a list.
