A/N: Challenge between DivaGurl277 and myself. We're to choose 1 fandom and write a 200 one-shot collection! 200 chapters! 200 installments! And I have chosen the Tsubasa fandom. :3 Aren't you lucky?

Disclaimer: I do not own. CLAMP owns. Because CLAMP is better than I am in every way, shape, and form.

Warm

There were some days that Kurogane felt like he was never going back to Nihon, but he would never voice the thoughts nor let them fester. He would find something to keep those dark thoughts away; the distractions usually came in the form of the obnoxiously flamboyant wizard with no respect for the personal space of fellow human beings.

Was the wizard really a human being?

The thought amused him somewhat. Perhaps he'd spent too long away from his post at Shirasaki Castle, but his imagination had presented Kurogane with the image of Fai with four arms, six tails, and antennae that blinked blue—the same shade as the wizard's oceanic eyes.

"…I need a drink. Now."

The ninja stood abruptly from his chair in front of the crackling fireplace that kept the house warm in the sitting room (whatever world they'd landed in was always winter, and it was colder than a snowball that was surviving in hell) and made his way to the small kitchen. Pulling open a cupboard and taking a glass that was almost egg-shaped, and would have been if not for the open top and the flat bottom, Kurogane began to wonder again.

Who comes up with these kinds of things? This glass is bizarre.

An image of a factory run by talking, rabbit-like meat buns came to mind and he suddenly felt nauseous. As if one Mokona wasn't enough…oh Kami-sama, please let the Witch keep the black one with her at all times. No one deserved the kind of torture of two.

Kurogane stood stock still. The thought of the blond wizard…combined with the thought of the wretched buns and that witch…finally turned his thoughts elsewhere.

Why is it so quiet? Where did they go?

Immediately on guard, drink forgotten, the dark-haired man stalked out of the kitchen and down the hall to the bedrooms.

He passed Syaoran's bedroom without any real worries—that room was always quiet. The boy was always reading silently or keeping the other members (Sakura, his mind supplied) company in other areas of the household. Just in case, he had turned the knob and peeked in to see it empty.

Brat's not in. He'd have told me if he went anywhere…so he's still here somewhere. …Somewhere. Reassuring. Great.

Next was the princess's room. Maybe Kurogane had been expecting some kind of sound from there, because the silence made him pause in his patrol through the long hall. Maybe he'd been expecting some kind of interaction between Sakura and the boy, or Sakura and the meat bun, or perhaps with the idiot mage. Maybe he'd been expecting some laughter or the muffled indication of conversation. No matter what he'd been expecting, Kurogane heard nothing from the bedroom and he turned the knob. Because he had heard nothing, he was not surprised to find it empty as well.

Princess isn't in, either. She's probably off with the brat. He'll keep her safe. No real problems there.

The ninja continued his trek. He passed by the open and dark bathroom, already knowing he wouldn't find anyone in that room. The hall was coming to an end as he reached the last room, other than a closet so stuffed with brooms, mops, buckets, and other such objects that he doubted even the bun could fit in it and his own bedroom. He knew that if he ever found them in his room, he'd skin them alive. That left the last room...

…And that last room was the mage's room.

Kurogane sighed. He couldn't hear anything from that room either. But, knowing the wizard, he was certain that Fai wasn't in there.

"…Then where the hell did they go!?"

Just as he had the other rooms, Kurogane wrenched open the door and expected to be met with an empty room.

Which is what he did not find. He would never admit it, but the presence of all his traveling companions in one room had thrown him completely off guard.

Piled on top of Fai's bed, right there, was everyone. The blond idiot was smashed in the middle of Syaoran and Sakura holding some kind of book (he didn't know the mage could read this country's language) while the damnable white Mokona was perched on top of those pale-yellow locks.

And they were all sleeping soundly.

…It's almost cute.

Kurogane made a mental note to kill himself later for that thought. His mind was pulling some demented joke on him, he decided, if that was where his thoughts strayed to.

Movement caught his eye. The princess was shivering. Kurogane scanned the room. Just as every other room in this house that they'd been allowed to stay at by somehow saving a woman's husband from certain doom by landing on their neighbor's car (and effectively destroying it) when they arrived, a fireplace was set in the far wall. The remains of a fire, small and slowly dying in small sparks of orange, rested among blackened wood and ash.

"…Idiots, falling asleep without having someone watch the fire…," Kurogane grumbled. He dragged a chair from a small writing desk to the fireplace and sat, taking a poker and tapping at the dying flames. They rose slightly, but died down just as quickly. "Che."

The ninja left the room and stalked back to the sitting room where he'd seen the stack of firewood. Kurogane grabbed a few logs and trudged back down the hall. He reclaimed his seat by the fireplace and arranged the logs above the tiny, flickering flame. They did not catch.

With a scowl, Kurogane looked around him and on the fireplace's mantel was a box of matches. He struck one, and then another, and then one more and watched the fire rise in a new blaze of glorious reds, oranges, yellows, and the occasional sparks of burning blue.

The heat was more intense than Kurogane had expected, so he scoot the chair farther back, but then kept his eyes, red like the flames, on the tongues licking at the smoky fireplace. Nodding to himself for creating a satisfactory fire, he turned back to the group.

Idiot mage with his idiot book, annoying bun, earnest boy, and bashful princess. Check, check, check, check.

Kurogane watched them for a moment longer, mulling another thought, another memory, around in his mind.

"Tomoyo-hime?" Kurogane had asked, trying very hard to keep his concern from showing through his tone. He'd already schooled his expression into staying fierce.

The small princess looked up at her protector from Suwa, amethyst eyes half lidded. "Yes, Kurogane?"

Her innocent acknowledgement kept him silent. Kurogane knew what he'd been asking his princess and his princess knew how she was supposed to answer Kurogane.

With a small sigh of resignation, Tomoyo said, "I'm fine, just a little cold…It's unusually cold this winter, don't you think?"

Kurogane grunted, as was his nature. It made Tomoyo smile, and that was good enough for the ninja at the moment. Her smile was like the moon, bright and beautiful, only that it was within his reach. Even if he'd never take it.

The moment that her smile kept him content, however, did not last long. Kurogane watched Tomoyo's shoulders quivering. He watched her hug herself tight. He watched her curl her body into a ball as she pulled up her sheets.

And Kurogane sighed inside. He'd been standing at her window, just checking up on her, so it was nothing of a challenge to make his way over to her bed. Tomoyo blinked up at him in confusion, eyes round and pure. "Kurogane? What are you doing?"

"…Here," he muttered. Kurogane undid his cloak and rested it gently across his princess's form. "It's warm; I've been wearing it all night. Let it be of some use to you." He turned to hide an embarrassed blush.

A giggle sounded behind him. "Thank you, Kurogane. I'll return it to you tomorrow."

"…Che. Whatever."

Feeling slightly put out by losing his cloak, but not regretting it for a second, Kurogane left as he had come—via the window. He heard the next day that Tomoyo had slept very well that night and didn't feel cold at all.

Kurogane glanced once more at the four on the bed. They were all resting on the sheets and blankets. "Go figure…,"

The ninja stood and walked down to his bedroom. Folded neatly on his bed was his thick, black cloak. His calloused fingers brushed over the fabric; it was ice cold. With a mental groan, Kurogane grabbed it and stalked back to Fai's and let the cloth warm by the fire.

When he was satisfied, Kurogane felt his own cheeks warm with embarrassment. Using his superior ninja skills, he gently lifted Mokona from atop the magician's hair and effortlessly removed the book from the man's grip, resting the white creature in the pale hands. He then shook out the cloak and let it flutter softly across the four.

"You guys had better appreciate this, or I swear…,"

Kurogane woke up the next day in his own bed, glad to be out of that suffocatingly cute room, with or without his cloak. A voice in the back of his mind told him he'd be given hell about leaving it in there, but he squashed it down for the time being.

He stood and stretched, feeling his back pop in several places. Kurogane grunted and left the bedroom. Upon opening the door, the scent of bacon smacked his nostrils. The scent led him to the kitchen, where he found the mage in front of something called a st-ou-vuh with a frying pan.

The magician turned slightly and he saw Kurogane out of the corner of his eye. "Kuro-chu! You're awake! What'd you like for breakfast? I was making bacon and eggs, but was there anything you'd want in particular?"

Kurogane was almost blinded by the mage's sunny smile, and would've made some kind of snarky comment, but then he noticed how genuine the blond's behavior really was. "…No, nothing in particular. I'll have whatever you're making."

"Suit yourself, Kuro-rah,"

Kurogane left the kitchen and entered the sitting room where saw Syaoran and Sakura sitting on the floor—beside the same crackling fireplace he'd sat at before going to find them—with the insolent bun between them, twirling and spewing some babbling song.

Syaoran looked up and smiled at him. "Good morning, Kurogane-san," he greeted.

"Oh!" Sakura clapped, another grin bright enough to challenge Fai's gracing her features, "Kurogane-san! Good morning!" She tuned down the smiling brightness, if only slightly. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah!" Mokona bleated. "How'd Kuro-fuu sleep? Mokona hopes he had good dreams!"

The ninja blinked once. Twice. Three times. "…I slept fine. Why?"

Sakura answered, "I thought I'd ask because I had hoped you would. You deserve to sleep well after being so nice. Thank you!"

Kurogane decided that, even if he wasn't getting hell for offering up his cloak, he wasn't totally against this form of appreciation.

But he'd never let them know that.

"Whatever. It was cold, and I wasn't. You guys shouldn't have fallen asleep like that. Buncha idiots, all of you!" He turned his nose up at them.

"Ah, such a grumpy guts," came the wizard's voice from the kitchen. "Sakura-chan! Syaoran-kun! Could you come and help me for a second?"

"Sure!" Syaoran called back, and both residents of Clow stood and made their way to the kitchen. Kurogane huffed and reclaimed his seat by the fireplace. Mokona leapt onto his lap, grinning like the Cheshire cat. It set Kurogane on edge as he engaged the tiny creature in a staring contest.

Sakura returned balancing two plates deftly, having learned how from experience in Outo. Syaoran came back with only one, which he offered to Kurogane with a soft, "Here,"

The larger man flicked the white creature-bun off his lap and accepted the plate. He watched as Sakura gave her other plate to the brunette. They had begun eating, but the ninja had not touched his plate yet. Kurogane was staring at the entrance of the sitting room.

Where the hell's the idiot wizard?

At long last, the familiar blond man swung into the room, a black cloth folded in his arms. Kurogane recognized his cloak. He scowled as Fai got closer, and continued to do so when the lanky man stopped in front of him. "Really, thanks, Kuro-lum."

And with a flourish, Fai unfolded the cloak and let it rest on Kurogane's shoulders.

"Just for Kuro-sweet, his cloak pre-warmed by the fire,"

A/N: And some Sweet!Kurogane for you! I hope ya enjoyed one-shot 1/200. x333 It was fun to write.