Title: Fair Weather
Pairing: Kurogane/Fai
Spoilers: Post-series, although with an AU ending. Kurogane and Fai are living in Nihon. Yes, the time-space witch is still Yuuko. She's the *time* space witch, all right? They can totally talk to her in the past if they want to.
Warning: Angst.
Summary: Kurogane and Fai are living together in Nihon, but all is not well.
Author's notes: Many thanks to my sister, who looked at the terrible original draft of this and convinced me to scrap it and rewrite it in the correct POV.

Fai stood by the window of the room they shared, overlooking the sloping roofs and crenellations of Shirasagi Castle. A stone's throw beneath their window was the moat, the fixed earthen fortifications; and spread out like a cloak below, the city. The sky above was gray and dull, like the sky itself was crying; the horizon was smudged by dark pillars of smoke. Pyres, Fai supposed; or perhaps more riots.

Normally, Fai loved this view. He'd never imagined himself in a place so different from Ceres; so warm, so full of life, ever changing with the seasons. Waking up every day to look out this window and see how the view had changed had been one of his greatest pleasures in this world.

But in other ways, this place was much like Ceres. Like Ceres, the people here had accepted him, an outsider, made him feel welcome. Like Ceres, he had come to love this place as fiercely as if he were born here - more so, never having to take it for granted.

And like Ceres, he was slowly poisoning it.

Plague. Japan was being afflicted by a terrible disease, the like of which this land had never known, before he came. The sickness started with fever and chills, before progressing to delirium, insanity, a terrible outbreak of lesions on the skin; when death finally, inevitably came, it was almost a mercy.

It was harvest time now, and it ought to have been a time of happy anticipation and busy preparation; bringing in the harvest, girding against the cold season, and preparing for the festivals that would take place once all the harvest was in. Instead, the fields lay fallow, tools broken or abandoned in their ruts; the farmers cowered in their homes, or lay dying there. Summer had been bad. Winter would be worse.

The outbreak had started small, in the outlying provinces, but had spread with a terrifying, geometric progression throughout the summer. No doctor's cures nor miko's prayers could stem it. No one, not priestess nor scholar nor politician nor philosopher, could find the cause; no one knew why this terrible disease should have come upon them.

But I know why. Oh, I know why.

Disaster on a horrific scale; terror, madness, and death. The symptoms were all too familiar. It was he who had brought this on Japan, brought his cursed self to this peaceful land.

Fai turned away from the window, sick at heart. The fur-trimmed hem of his traveling coat, so long packed away in storage, brushed over the rough tatami mats. It was strange to wear this again; it looked strange and out of place, bright and glossy and overly fanciful in the dark, elegant lines of this room. Traditional Japanese aesthetic always reminded him of Kurogane; strong lines, intense contrast, the simple beauty of the design only emphasized by the stark undecorated purity of the background.

Kurogane was not here for this; Fai had made sure that he would not be. Today he was out guarding Tomoyo. The high priestess had gone out from the castle to visit each of the major city shrines in turn, a pilgrimage in humbleness to pray for the gods to relent. But the city had turned strange, ugly, against them. The crowds of people who normally greeted her presence with cheers and flowers instead shouted insults, or cries of anger, or threw vegetables or - sometimes - rocks.

Worse than the angry and frightened crowds were the supplicants - the sick people who tried to creep close to beg for aid, blessing, healing. But none of the afflicted could be allowed to approach the princess, for fear of infecting her in turn. It would be Kurogane's duty to drive them back, sick and well and frightened and angry alike; and while Kurogane was released now from the geas against him killing, Fai knew well how much it would sicken him to turn his blade against innocent people. His own people.

Enough; no more. It was time to go, to end this. He should have left long ago, but he had been seduced into staying, lulled into complacency. Foolishly let himself believe that he had been forgiven, that he could be allowed some happiness at last; a lover, a family, a home.

Fai let out a long breath, and looked around the room one more time, trying to store up the memory of this place to sustain him through the years ahead. Four years of happiness here, since he'd returned with Kurogane to Japan. Three years since they'd stopped even pretending to keep separate chambers for him in the same wing of the palace. Two years since he had more or less mastered the language at last, and no longer required an interpreter in difficult situations, although the members of the court would probably never cease to be amused by his accent. One year since he had dared to snuggle up close to Kurogane in the dark and whisper in Kurogane's own tongue: ai shiteru. Silly, inappropriate thing to say, he knew it; but Kurogane had turned back and muttered in embarrassment "You too, dumbass."

But this happiness came at too high a price, a price others would have to pay for him.

Fai raised his hands and centered himself, finding the still place inside of him from which he could draw magic. His arm moved in easy, flowing strokes through the air, leaving glowing trails of light behind them. He wondered what sort of world he would come to next. Would it be another world of magic, where he could fit in, or would he be forced to hide it? Would he find other versions of the people he knew and loved, somewhere? No, even there he could not dare to stay, not for long. He had to run to as many worlds as he could, never staying long enough for his presence to blight the ground he touched.

Deep in the midst of his spellcasting he failed to hear the shuffling footsteps in the corridor outside, failed to hear the rattle and creak of the wooden doorway until it was too late. The first warning he had was when a harsh voice broke into his concentration - "What the hell are you doing?"

The magic shattered and fell away as Fai whirled around, shocked and chagrined. Kurogane stood in the doorway, his expression dark as murder. "Kuro - Kuro-chan! Didn't you know, it's considered polite to knock when going into someone's bedroom? You should learn some manners! I was just, uh..." His mouth opened and closed like a fish, as he searched around for some suitable lie. "What are you doing back here? I thought you were guarding Tomoyo."

"I cut the pilgrimage short and brought her back. It was too dangerous," Kurogane said as he stalked into the room. Fai backed away, nervously clutching his staff with both hands. "What were you thinking?" Kurogane growled. "You were going to leave? Leave me, without a word? What the hell, mage?"

He could no longer maintain the cheery facade. "I..." He took a deep breath, and said in a voice that was weak to even his own ears, "I have to leave this world. Now. I have to go."

"Why now?" Kurogane asked furiously. "Now is when we need you more than ever! We still don't understand the cause of this sickness; we need everyone who can help, every different perspective we can to try to fight it! We need you!" He couldn't say it, but some of the cry flickered in his red eyes, I need you.

"It's because of the sickness that I have to go," Fai said lowly. He clutched at his staff so hard that his knuckles ached, as if by doing so he could hold on to his fragile composure.

"Why? Are you afraid that it's coming too close, now that it's in the capital; are you afraid that you might be in danger?" Kurogane said contemptuously. "You'll only remain here as long as it's convenient for you, is that it? As soon as it seems like there might be danger, you run away! Are you really that much of a coward?"

Fai shut his eyes and turned his head away. Kurogane's anger and contempt stabbed at him, but if that was what it took, so be it. Maybe this would be easier if Kurogane hated him. After a long moment, he whispered, "If I said I was, would you just let me go?"

"No," Kurogane said, and a hard hand grabbed Fai's arm and yanked him around, his eyes flying open in surprise. "Because I'd know that you were lying. What's going on here, mage? Tell me the truth!"

The truth... he hadn't wanted this, hadn't wanted to tell the truth. If Kurogane knew he was to blame he really would hate him, and no, no, that wouldn't make this any better at all. But Kurogane was glaring at him so fiercely, he couldn't deny him, couldn't lie any longer. In an unsteady voice he said, "It's because of the plague that I must go, before it's too late. You said that nobody knows why this is happening, but I know. Don't you see... I am the cause of this sickness! All those people are dying because of me! I should have left long ago, as soon as people started falling sick... but I was too weak. If I leave now, then maybe... maybe some people will survive..."

"What?" Kurogane stared at him in shock. Then he frowned, shaking his head in fierce denial. "What? No! Are you suggesting that you were somehow a, a carrier for this disease? That's impossible. The first cases broke out in Kanakawa, way to the west. You've never even been to Kanakawa, so how -"

"Not that way. Not directly." Fai shuddered. "It's not the disease itself. But if it hadn't been plague, it would have been something else. War, earthquakes... madness. Don't you understand? I am cursed! Wherever I go, death follows. Not just for people close to me, but for an entire world. First Valeria - then Ceres - now Japan. My only choice is to run, and keep on running, to as many different worlds as I can!"

"That's ridiculous!" Kurogane shouted. "What happened to Valeria - to Ceres - I saw your memories. Both of those worlds were destroyed by other people, you had nothing to do with it. No one could blame you for what happened there."

"But both worlds were destroyed, all the same," Fai said, sad and tired. "Two worlds I called my home, two worlds I loved - and now this one, as well. When we stand alone in the ruins of Shirasagi, Kuro-sama, amidst a wasteland of corpses and madness, you will learn to blame me. Oh, yes, you'll hate me then, and I cannot bear - " His voice broke, and he stopped.

Kurogane took a breath, wet his lips. He looked like a man scrambling for an argument. "Sickness happens," he said at last. "It's just part of life. It may be perfectly natural. There's no reason to think that your curse or - or any supernatural thing is the cause of this. Do you think you could get through an entire lifetime without something bad happening?"

Fai lifted his chin. "Not like this," he said. "Just last night, wasn't Souma-san saying that this is the worst disaster to befall Japan ever, the worst sickness that has ever come on these lands?"

Kurogane snarled in exasperation. "Not everything has to do with you, you know - isn't it a little arrogant to assume that a whole world will get destroyed, just because you're in it?"

"Arrogant or not, it's the truth, Kuro-sama," Fai said, and the smile he put on his face felt ghastly, like a skull's grin. "They say that once is coincidence, twice is happenstance, and three times is - well, it forms a message that's too hard to ignore."

"If this was going to happen because of you, then why now? Why not four years ago, when you first came here?" Kurogane argued.

Fai gave a little shrug. "It took forty years for the curse to work on Ceres. But it did, in the end - there's not even dust left of that world, now. All because of me."

"So you're saying that even you don't know!" Kurogane shouted. "This isn't a curse you're hung up on, just a string of bad luck. Can you even say that it's a real curse? Do you know?"

Fai turned his face away again, refusing to meet Kurogane's eyes. "I know that the people of this world have been good to me," he said softly, "and they deserve better than madness and death in return. Can you really afford to take the chance? Do you have the right to take the chance? Because I think that I do not. If there is any reasonable chance that me leaving will help the people of Japan- then I have to go. "

Kurogane made an inarticulate noise, and his hand tightened on Fai's wrist hard enough to send a flare of pain up his arm. It wasn't often that Kurogane was upset enough to forget to control his strength.

"Come on," he said, and started abruptly towards the door. He'd not relinquished hold of Fai's arm the entire time, and Fai was perforce dragged along with him.

"Come on where?" Fai said in confusion, and began to struggle, pulling away. "Kuro-chan - I don't want to -"

"I don't care that you don't want to. We're going to see Tomoyo," Kurogane said firmly.

Fai continued to protest increasingly frantically as they approached Tomoyo's chambers, enough that servants and samurai passing through the hallways stopped and stared at their progress. But Kurogane was relentless as an anchor, dragging him down, dragging him back no matter how fiercely he struggled in the current. By the time they burst through the doors into Tomoyo's receiving chamber, she was there and waiting for them, staring at the pair they made in bemused astonishment.

"What seems to be the problem, Kurogane? Fai?" Tomoyo asked, looking from one of them to another.

"This idiot," Kurogane announced, pushing Fai in front of him, "insists that the plague that's been happening over the past few months is his fault."

Gasps of shock rose from all over the room. "Kurogane, no!" Fai cried, pulling against his grasp - now they would all know, now they would all revile him. He appealed to the room at large. "I was going to go away. I was just going to leave..."

"Leave?" Tomoyo asked, a tremor in her voice. There were dark circles under her luminous eyes, and Fai was reminded of how hard this had been on her, too, to watch her country crumbling around her while all her powers could do nothing. It was a pain he understood well. "Why is this? Why would you say that, Fai-san?"

"He thinks he's got some sort of curse or bad magic on him," Kurogane went on, "that's causing the plague in spite of himself, and he insists that the only way for him to stop it is to leave this world forever. What do you say, Tsukuyomi? Is he right? Is there a curse on him - and if there is, isn't there any other way to get rid of it?"

Tomoyo's face had gone very grave during Kurogane's announcement, and she turned to Fai with a solemn expression. "Come here, Fai," she said, her voice very gentle despite its gravity. "Let me look at you."

At last, Kurogane relinquished his grip, reluctantly as though he were afraid Fai would vanish as soon as he did. Trembling slightly, Fai moved forward, and knelt before her.

Tomoyo reached out, her wide kimono sleeves sweeping behind her, and placed her hands on Fai's head. He felt a soft warmth spread from the point of contact, and she closed her eyes, her lips moving slightly with incantation. Fai kept his eyes open and on her face, as he felt the magic stir and surge around him in response to Tomoyo's will. After several long minutes, she ceased, and lifted her hands with a sigh. "Well?" Fai said hoarsely.

Tomoyo settled back into her seat, gathering her robes behind her, and shook her head. She raised her gaze to Kurogane's. "Nothing," she said quietly. "Whatever curses may have been upon him once, I can find no traces of them now, no remnants of lingering ill intent or effect. I cannot see any way that your person could be a bane upon our world, or any connection between your presence and the sickness from the West."

"See, you idiot?" Kurogane said, and the insult was almost an endearment. "I told you so."

A low sigh ran around the chamber - partly relief and partly, Fai thought, disappointment - perhaps that no easy answer or solution to the plague had been found.

But there was; they just couldn't see it. His shoulders hunched, and he took a deep breath. "Your Highness," he said in a soft voice, meeting her eyes steadily. "Please do not take offense at what I am about to say. You know that I have only the greatest respect for you, that I am in awe of your wisdom and your command over the magic that you possess. But you have only ever known this world. You have experience only with the magics of this world, and the curses or banes that may be found here. I humbly suggest that there may be some ill work upon me that you cannot even detect."

Tomoyo frowned stormily down at him, but she did not immediately contradict him. "Please, let me go," he said, desperation leaking into his voice. "I can't take the chance. You can't know that I'm safe."

A sick silence stretched through the chamber, embroidered around by whispered, broken at last by Kurogane's voice.

"Call the witch," Kurogane said abruptly. "She'd know."

Fai shot a wild, betrayed look at Kurogane. The ninja was looming in the shadows of the chamber, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, his white teeth biting into his thumbnail. He looked tense, but not as desperate as Fai felt.

Tomoyo considered this, then nodded thoughtfully. "Very well," she said. "Fai is right that this is not a possibility we can treat lightly... and Kurogane is right that the time-space witch has experience with many forms of magic that I do not." She turned to the full-length mirror on the stand beside her, raised her hands again, and began chanting softly.

"What are you thinking?" Fai hissed at Kurogane. "You know that she'll demand a price!"

"I know, and I asked anyway!" Kurogane hissed back. "You know I can't stand the witch. Maybe this should tell you something!"

"Yuuko," Tomoyo's voice interrupted their heated argument.

The portal flickered into sight in the mirror, at once familiar and alien. The shape and the edges of the image were different, constrained to the edges of the mirror rather than a perfect circle like Mokona's had been - but the face of the Time-Space Witch was very familiar.

"Yuuko," Tomoyo greeted her like an old friend. "It's been so long."

"Has it?" Yuuko replied, smiling drily. "Time passes differently between these two worlds. I don't know that I could say for sure if we're even speaking to each other in the same time frame." Her eyes slid across the room, resting on the two of them. "Hello, Kurogane. You know, I never did get my White Day gift from you. Obligations are meant to be repaid, you know."

Kurogane folded his arms and glared, grumbling something uncomplimentary. Yuuko's heavy gaze slid over to Fai. "So what seems to be the problem?" she asked.

Now that he'd come to it, he was scared - of what, exactly, he did not know. Of finding out the truth? Of hearing the Time-Space Witch confirm that yes, he was cursed, he was inimical to all human life? Or of hearing her say that he was not? He didn't even know. Stiffly, he stepped forward, and cleared his throat.

"Since I got here," he began, "this world has experienced worse fortune than it ever has in its history -"

"It's not since you got here. It's four years after you got here," Kurogane put in. Fai glared at him for the interruption.

"The sickness, it's - it's terrible, so many people are suffering, or dying, or frightened..." He faltered, unable to describe in his limited vocabulary the magnitude of the disaster.

"I am aware of the situation in Japan," Yuuko said in a level tone. "But what I need to know is what you want to ask for. A cure for a disaster of this magnitude would carry a price far higher than any one person could afford to pay."

"Or maybe not," Fai said, gulped, and took the plunge. "Yuuko-san, I have always brought bad luck. Always, since my birth. Valeria was afraid I would destroy them - and Valeria was right. Ashura took me in, and Ceres welcomed me - and Ashura went mad, and Ceres was destroyed. This isn't just a superstitious fancy. You know of the curses that were laid on me. I bring pain and death to everything I love. Am I causing the disaster in Japan, Yuuko? I have to know. That's what I wish for. Knowledge."

Yuuko blinked slowly, absorbing this rush of words, and then tilted her head to the side in acknowledgement. "You understand there is a price for this information?" she asked.

"It's too much for you to just answer a simple question, is it?" Kurogane snarled. "Yes or no, does he have a curse on him or doesn't he? It's not hard."

"You aren't really in the position to judge whether it is hard or not," Yuuko said coolly. "Regardless, the answer is worth something to you, and it could change the lives of two people - or more - or thousands. With that in mind, are you willing to pay the price?"

Kurogane glowered at her, but then sighed. "Tell me what the price is, and I'll tell you if I'm willing," he grumbled.

Yuuko studied him for a long moment, her eyes hooded. "One year of your life," she said.

Kurogane flinched, and the same shock seemed to race through Fai. That was too much, that was too heavy a price. Kurogane was a normal man, he had too few years as it was already - and he loved life, he valued it. Kurogane's red eyes dragged around to look Fai, and Fai stared at him in horror, willing him to refuse.

Kurogane turned back to Yuuko. "I agree," he said.

"No!" Fai cried out, lunging forward, interposing himself between Kurogane and Yuuko's image. "No, you can't! Not for me. I don't want this!"

"It was Kurogane who asked, not you," Yuuko said. "Your agreement does not need to come into this."

"Are you saying this doesn't affect me?" Fai challenged her. "This is my answer by right! If anyone will pay a price for it, I will!"

Yuuko tilted her head in acquiescence. "You may claim it, if you wish," she said. "However, the price for you would be different than it is for Kurogane. Your life has many more years in it, nor do you value them as much. One year of your life would not be valuable enough in exchange. I would require a different payment."

"Fine," Fai said defiantly. "I agree. Take as many years as you want. I don't care." He heard Kurogane's angry hiss behind him, knew this was exactly the kind of thing Kurogane hated to hear, but that was just too bad. Pretty damn hypocritical of him, actually, when he'd assented to the same price just minutes before.

"Place your hand on the mirror," Yuuko instructed, and Fai did so. A flash of white light flared in the glass, and Fai felt a sudden jerking shock, like a tooth being ripped from its socket. Despite himself, he gasped in pain.
On the other side of the mirror, Yuuko held up something shining and white, its form shifting even as it moved. She placed it down out of sight beneath the mirror frame, and for a moment she gazed off into the distance to the side, frowning intently.

At last, she blinked as if into focus, and returned her level gaze to the mirror where the three of them waited, breathlessly. "Very well," she said. "The answer is this: Fai, you do not as of this time have any curse on you. The superstitions in Valeria regarding twins were just that: superstitions, borne out by no magical or physical cause. They brought their own ruin upon themselves.

"As for your other curses. The two that were placed upon you in the dead valley were limited, and controlled in their effects, and tied to specific places and actions. One of them broke and was ended in Infinity. The other was carried to its completion with the destruction of Ceres and also ended. Neither of these curses remain on you now, nor, even if they did, would they have any effect on the world of Japan. And no other curses have been placed on you from any source."

"But..." Fai said, and bit his lip. He couldn't accept it so easily. "Are you certain there could not be some other curse? Besides those two..."

"I have known of you since before you were born, Yuui of Valeria," Yuuko said, in a voice that was stern but not unkind. "And I have known you for each of your long years until you came to the place where you are now. There has never been any other curse laid on you that I have ever known. The sickness now afflicting Japan was not caused by you, and your leaving would not have any effect on it now."

"Not caused by him?" Kurogane interrupted, detecting a slight shift of emphasis in Yuuko's words. "Do you mean it's being caused by some other source?"

Yuuko raised one hand in a stemming gesture. "That is another answer, Kurogane; and it will require another price."

"What? You're not serious! You greedy little -"

"Oh? Who's greedy, trying to get two wishes for the price of one?"

"Kurogane-san, this is no time for argument. Let us resolve this question first, before we ask Yuuko-san for assistance on any further matters -"

Fai bowed his head, letting their familiar voices wash around him. No matter how much he wanted to, he just couldn't accept Yuuko's assurances. No matter what they said - Kurogane, Tomoyo, Yuuko, all - no matter how much they believed it, he would always know. If they were right, and he left, then this world would be no worse or better off than if he'd stayed. But if they were wrong... each death, each ragged wail, each smudge of smoke on the horizon would twist in him like a knife.

"Not enough," he breathed. "I still have to go."

"What?" Kurogane shouted, lunging over to Fai and grabbing his sleeve as though to pin him to this world by force. "Why? She just came out and told you -"

"That there were no curses that she knew of on me," Fai said. "There could still be something else. If there's even the smallest possibility I can't risk it. I can't stand to stay here one more day and think that people are dying because of me."

"You can't go," Fai could hear the desperation edging into Kurogane's voice, and it threatened to break his heart, but he could not yield. "You can't leave me!"

"Do you think this is easy for me, either?" Fai said bitterly, suddenly angry at Kurogane for his insistant selfishness. "Do you think I want to give up my life here - with you?"

"You're asking me what I think?" Kurogane demanded. "I think that running away is all you know how to do! I think that you're still so convinced that good things can't happen to you, that you take the first excuse presented to you to run away before someone else can take it away from you! I think - "

"And I think," Yuuko interrupted them, "that you will simply have to find some way to overcome your guilt, Fai-san. You cannot leave Japan now."

"You can't stop me," Fai said, stiffening his spine with all the resolution he could muster. "Either of you. This is my decision."

"If you insist on leaving," Kurogane said abruptly, "Then I'm going too. I'm going with you. I've traveled before, I know how to do it."

"No!" Fai denied. "This is your home - I will not take you away from it."

"If leaving is your decision, then this is mine," Kurogane said. "If you won't take me out of Nihon, then I'll get the witch to help me follow you. I can afford one trip, I think. Once we're both out of Nihon, you won't just leave me stranded, now will you?"

Fai stared at Kurogane in disbelief. This was his world, the home he'd fought for so long and so hard to get back to. The home that Fai had given up all he would ever be to bring him back to. And now he was willing to just up and leave - to be with him? "You wouldn't!"

"Watch me," Kurogane snapped. "Witch! What's the price for traveling one world?"

"As much as I appreciate your sudden forthcomingness," Yuuko said drily, "That won't be necessary. Fai cannot leave Nihon now."

"I -" With difficulty, Fai tore his attention away from Kurogane, doing a double-take to focus back on Yuuko. "What are you talking about?"

"I told you that a payment of years of your life would not be sufficient for the information you wanted. You do not value your life enough for it to be an equivalent payment. Instead, I took as payment that part of your magic which allows you to travel between dimensions." She held up a glass jar; something white and luminescent fluttered inside, like a captured moth.

She couldn't have... With a sudden feeling of impending doom, Fai raised his hands and tried to re-scribe the runes for the transportation spell. The words which had burned so clearly in his mind less than an hour before seemed to twist and fade out of his mind, and the magical glow sputtered uselessly from his fingertips. It was like taking a step onto a stair only to find nothing beneath your feet, like opening your mouth to speak and finding your voice gone. My magic -! But the rest of it remained, he could feel it, there wasn't that terrible emptiness in his veins, in his head, in his stomach as the time it had happened before. Just this part.

He turned to face Yuuko, and could not think of a single suitable word to use; at least, he didn't know any strong enough curses in Japanese, and she probably wouldn't even understand him if he spoke in Celesian. "You -! he sputtered, inarticulate in disbelief and fury. How could she do this to him, take this from him, without his consent?

Yuuko smiled very slowly. "The price of knowledge," she said, "is that you can no longer continue to act in ignorance."

Kurogane began to laugh.

It was a rusty, unused sound; Fai couldn't remember the last time he'd heard Kurogane laugh aloud. Certainly there had been little enough to laugh about in the past few months. But he was laughing now, full-throated roars of laughter at Fai's consternation and Yuuko's smugness. "She got you!" he chortled. "Face it, wizard, she got you good!"

Fai felt his hard-earned command of Japanese slipping away from him, sputtering out the same way his spell had under the lash of his fury. "I didn't agree - I didn't consent to -"

"You agreed to pay the alternate price," Yuuko returned, "or else I would not have been able to take it. So, you had better find some way to deal with staying in Nihon, Fai, because you are stuck there."

With that, she flickered out, and the mirror reflected plain silver once more.

It would probably alarm Tomoyo quite a bit, Fai decided, if he were to smash her mirror into fragments and scream obscenities, even if they were in a language she didn't understand. But he was damn tempted to, anyway.

Kurogane, still laughing, seized Fai by the shoulder and swinging him around. Fai's fury was abruptly diverted when Kurogane kissed him fiercely on the mouth, in full view of God and everything. "Kuro-chan, stop," he tried to say, but it came out as "K-ro-mmph -"

Kurogane broke the kiss but did not release him, leaning back and grinning like a demented pumpkin. "It'll be all right, he said. "You'll see. We'll find out who or what is doing this and we'll put a stop to them, and things will be all right again. And you'll see that it's got nothing to do with you, and you can finally quit carting around this baggage you've been trailing behind you for however many years. You'll see."

"It's not that -" Fai said weakly. He'd wanted to protest, to yell at Kurogane for calling Yuuko, for setting her up to sucker-punch him. But he felt strangely defeated and strangely warm all at once, like the loss of his magic had lifted a long weight from his shoulders. It was like he'd been holding his breath for years, balanced on the edge of flight, only to find that door slammed in his face.

He sighed, and looked around the room. Tomoyo was smiling openly at them. The others looked variously stunned or confused, but in their faces he could find no blame, no censure. He'd done everything he could, he'd offered everything he had - and been sent back. Whatever happened next, it wouldn't be his fault.

"I just hope you're right," he sighed, finally surrendering. His hand closed around Kurogane's, returning his grip for the first time.

"I'm always right," Kurogane said firmly. "Some things just happen because they happen, not because of any curse or bad magic; and there's no magic cure to make them go away, either. You've just got to endure them, get to the other side. Our journey taught me that, if nothing else."

"That's hitsuzen?" Fai murmured thoughtfully.

Kurogane shrugged. "That's life," he said. "But at least we don't have to face it alone."

~end.