Title: No more
Pairing: Well, nothing obvious, but KuroxFai, or eventual KuroxFai implied
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Fai's POV. In Nihon, before Kurogane wakes up, there's nothing left to do except to wait and watch.


He feels sick. The silk against his back is cool and falls softly along his every move. In stillness, it hangs in folds and barely clings, pooling around his feet and knees. The sleeves are far too long. There is grace in every seam, and the weight of the cloth brings calm, and he wonders (wandering away) what it would be like to wear something like this each day, if the without would center the within, and if even the people's clothes are meant for balance he understands how K-

He feels sick. There is a cloying emptiness somewhere near to his middle (though he has eaten nothing sweet and there is only bile against his tongue); crisscrossing threads hang from his lower ribs around it. The muscles of his arms are taut and his fingers are limp. He strains for calm with every thought but the feel of his clothes is chafing and there lies Kurogane in his bed-

He feels sick. His eye is sore from crying; it seems he has done nothing else for ages clambering on ages. He feels his insides trembling from lack of sleep, and his head swimming, and there is weakness in him from too much hurt and too much magic and too long a hunger-

He feels sick. He watches over Kurogane's sleep – unmoving between white sheets – and the sight of the empty sleeve hurts and tears and he watches and aches and dares not hope and cannot dare not to. It all seems like a dream, for nothing moves and nothing calls, and he so wants to touch but that would make it real and that would make it horrible, but it is real and so he remains still.

He feels sick with fear and guilt and weariness and hunger, and he feels sick with the release he cannot push away, and he feels sick without his bearings and all his careful lines perfectly shattered, and there is nothing left to run from and nothing left to hope for, nothing to hide and nothing to return, and he feels lost and drowned in debt and if only, if only-

He watches and he waits, for there is nothing left. And when the evening comes the sickness goes away.


For the record, I loved Fai's Nihon outfit; I figured, though, that it would feel a bit strange to him, considering the style of his "native" clothes. And I'd love to read your comments on this :)