Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa or any of the characters involved, they belong to the masterful CLAMP.
"Kuro-sama?" Fai asked, leaning back on his hands staring off across the field, watching the ninja's training.
Kurogane grunted not looking at Fai, making sure that the ninja's didn't accidently kill one another and thinking of new ways to get them to actually be half decent at fighting. Though he didn't expect miracles, most of the ones which had been enrolled while he was away were incompetent fools. Fai had turned up and demanded that he take a break from 'torturing the poor people,' so he had reluctantly sat down on the grass, with his ever watchful eye remaining on the idiots.
"Would you die to protect me?" Fai asked, turning towards Kurogane to see his reaction.
"No," Kurogane said simply, not even taking a second to think about it.
Fai pouted; shifting so he was sat staring at the side of the ninja's body. "Why?"
"Counterproductive," he said simply.
Not understanding the meaning of it Fai decided to ask something else. "Would you die to protect Tomoyo-chan?"
"Tomoyo-hime," Kurogane corrected ideally, knowing that the mage would ignore him anyway, "yes, of course."
"That's not fair! Tomoyo-chan gets an of course and I get a no." The blonde leant forwards towards the man who was not even paying the slightest bit of attention to him. He was close enough to whisper into his ear. "Don't you love me?"
A rough hand quickly pushed the mage away and for the first time during the conversation actually looked at the pouting mage. He sighed in great annoyance, running a hand through his hair. "I would die for Tomoyo-hime because it is my job; after I am gone she has other people to ensure her safety. You," his red eyes narrowed on the other, and making the word sound like one of the greatest insults in the world, "don't have anyone else to look after you. If I die then there would be no one to protect you, most likely you'll waste away within a week. So I have to go on living to make sure that you are alright. I would do everything in my power to protect you, just not die."
By the end of his little speech, Kurogane's eyes had softened. Looking at him with a mixture of emotions, some less loving then others (after all annoyance was common place there) but all equally precious to Fai.
Moving so he was once again in Kurogane's personal space, Fai smiled at him. "So," he said softly, lips nearly touching, "I'm more important because you will live for me."
"No." This made Fai frown. Kurogane reached up and grabbed Fai with his flesh hand, catching the back of the blonde's neck, pulling him forward; he crashed their lips together in a rough kiss. Pulling back after a second Kurogane smirked down, taking in the mage's dazed eyes and honest smile. Without another word he got up and marched back to the training grounds.
Fai smiled, enjoying the sight of his lover barking orders and brandishing his sword threatening. In Kurogane's mind there wasn't a scale of who was more important than someone else, it was just that some people were and some weren't. He knew that he was special and that was all he needed.
Pulling his knees up to his chest Fai wrapped his arms around them, blue eyes watched tenderly as Kurogane stole glances over at him, making sure he was okay.
"Don't worry Kurogane, I won't die for you either," Fai spoke softly. Though he wasn't so sure about his statement, the meaning behind it was the same. Kurogane looked after people all day, he needed someone to protect him too, and Fai was determined to do his best to look after his Kuro-wanwan.
A/N: It has always gotten me how in nearly every form of popular entertainment someone will always die to protect someone, but they have no way of knowing if what they tried to protect actually survived or if they will be okay later. In my mind I would never do that because I would rather go on living to make sure that they stay safe. So I am making Kurogane a bit like that, but you have to admit he has a point, if he dies ten minutes later Fai can't live with himself because everyone he cares for ends up dead, so he decides to commit suicide (not like he hasn't tried to before) so completely wasteful sacrifice (like he said counterproductive). Anywho, I have three other fics I am working on (though one suddenly changed in the middle of it and am thinking of splitting it into two, so it could be four and I have another idea so would maybe be five) and I should get back to messing with those. Hope you liked. ^^