Note from Arashi: I haven't been very creative in the past...uh...however long it's been. A few years, probably, haha. So try not to be too harsh on me, since I'm just starting up again. I'll try my best to keep up some creative flow. In the meantime, be patient. This one will just be some mini-stories to get me going... Considering I've never finished a story, that should be good. xD Oh, and as a disclaimer…. I'm not a member of CLAMP. They wrote Tsubasa and made all of the characters in it.
What Are You Fighting For?
New Year
The streets of the group's current location, Nihon, were quite alive and bustling. Children were running around in kimono, winning goldfish yo-yos and playing games. There were lanterns strung along the roofs of every building, and shrines were hosting celebrations.
In the meantime, the group was found at Kurogane's home, Shirasagi Castle. Kurogane never liked all these celebrations on New Year, but Tomoyo always convinced him to at least dress up. The grumpy old ninja found himself sitting on the front steps, adorned in a red and black hakama that had a golden dragon pattern throughout the sleeves and on the bottom of the legs and a golden yellow headband. His eyes blatantly signified annoyance as he sat there, moping like a child that couldn't get his way.
The person he wanted to see least came running down the steps and almost tripped when he tried to stop next to him. The goof was wearing a blue and white hakama that Tomoyo-hime let him borrow. It also had a dragon pattern on it, but they were silver instead of gold.
"Kuro-myuu, why are you being so boring! Let's go to the festival!" Fai. The one person he'd love to kill, but instead risks his life to save. Daily.
"I hate festivals. And my name is Kurogane."
That fake grin of his spread across the magician's face. "Oh, come on, Kuro-pu! It'll be fun!" He pulled on his arm.
Before Kurogane got a chance to retort, Syaoran and Sakura came out of the castle looking absolutely amazing. Sakura was wearing a light pink kimono that had white cherry blossoms around the edges of the sleeves, and spring scenery of cherry blossom trees near the bottom. Her obi was a mixture of sky blue and violet, and had an intricate bow in the back. She also had a cherry blossom comb in her hair, topping off her beauty. Syaoran had on a forest green and beige hakama with light blue feather patterns.
Kurogane and Fai both turned around to stare.
"Fweet! Sakura-chan looks gorgeous! And Syaoran-kun goes so well with her! It's like you guys were meant to be," Fai cooed.
Kurogane sighed. At least Fai stopped paying attention to him, but there he goes with that 'fweet' thing again. "What he said."
Sakura smiled her innocent smile as she walked down the stairs toward the magician. "Aw, thank you so much! Are you two going to the festival? Syaoran-kun and I were just leaving for it." Syaoran stood next to her. "You guys should come with us."
Kurogane frowned. "I'm no-" He was cut off.
"Of course we will come! Kuronchi was just saying how excited he is to go!"
"I WAS NOT!" The ninja jumped up and raised his fists at the magician, who just smiled and started pulling him down the stairs by the wrist.
Sakura and Syaoran followed suite, and Kurogane gave up his struggle once they were at the bottom of the stairs. Fai didn't let go until they were at one of those hammer contests. Sakura and Syaoran kept going, though.
"Kuro-mi, I'm sure you could win us all toys here. Plus you'll get to show off you're manliness," followed by a muscle gesture, which Fai lacked.
Kurogane rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
"Yay! Excuse me sir, my friend wants to play!!"
The guy running the game turned to Fai then to whom he was pointing, and handed the mallet to him. "Judging by your size, you'll probably win. Maybe I should start a rule of one win per person," he muttered.
The ninja stretched his arms, and then swung the mallet with one hand. The bell rang.
"Fweet! Kuro-sama's so strong!" Fai looked overjoyed, and pointed at the toy cat. "You should get that one for Sakura-chan!"
He blinked. "You weren't whining for yourself?"
"What would I do with a stuffed animal?"
"You're girly enough."
Fai fake-pouted. "Kuro-chan, you're so mean!"
Kurogane huffed and got the cat plushy down without asking, continuing to shove it in the mage's face. But the blond hugged it and smiled. "You're such a brute."
This was followed with various insults back and forth, and then they moved on. Once they ran into the kids, Fai handed Sakura the cat and told her that Kuro-myuu got it for her. She smiled so gratefully, and hugged Kurogane, who responded by patting her on the back.
When it was about ten o'clock, Fai had managed to drag Kurogane to a sake bar. You know that saying, 'You can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink?' Yeah, that's not true. Fai managed to force one glass of sake down Kurogane's throat. The magician, on the other hand, ended up so drunk he could barely walk. Or talk, for that matter.
"Kurrrgyyyy, let's play truth-er-dare!"
"No."
"How 'bout spin-de-bottleee?"
"No."
"What time is ittt?"
"...About eleven."
"Let's go watch fireworkkkss!"
Kurogane glowered at the stumbling blond. "Can you even walk?"
"Sure I can!" A stupid grin spread across his lips, and he stumbled out of the door of the bar. Kurogane followed, finding it slightly amusing watching him trip over thin air.
But he didn't particularly want the idiot to die yet, so he walked over to him and threw him over his shoulder to carry him.
"Whhheee! Kuro-chan, giddy up!"
"Shut up until we get to the fireworks field."
Once they got there, Kurogane found where the kids were sitting and dropped Fai down next to them.
"Ouchie! Big Dog's being meannn!" Fai fake-cried.
"God, he's even worse now..."
"Uh, is he drunk?" Syaoran asked, watching Fai roll around on the ground.
"What, you need me to tell you that?" The ninja rolled his eyes.
"I guess not..." Syaoran continued staring.
"It's okay, Fai-san. Kurogane-san is just a bit annoyed right now." Sakura put her hand on the magician's shoulder, and he stopped squirming to smile at her.
He then formed a fist and hit Kurogane's legs out from under him.
"THE HELL'S WRONG WITH YOU, MAGE?!" Kurogane yelled at him as he fell flat on his back.
As the two bickered, the fireworks started to go off, and Syaoran started to hold Sakura's hand.
The fireworks made beautiful shapes, including cherry blossoms and dragons... and all the meanwhile, the ninja and the magician were hitting each other in the background.
When the night was over, Fai had ended up falling asleep on Kurogane's knee, so he carried him back to the castle over his shoulder once again.
Syaoran and Sakura looked exhausted themselves, and went straight to their rooms.
Tomoyo stopped Kurogane, though. "Is your friend okay?"
"Yeah, he passed out from sake."
"Oh, haha." Tomoyo smiled warmly at him. "Did you have fun, Kurogane?"
"As much fun as I could have, with this loaf dragging me around and little kids screaming."
She continued to smile. "I see. Perhaps next year will be better, then?"
"Eh, maybe. Depends on if this guy's still here." He pointed at Fai with his free hand.
Tomoyo looked closely at his expression, just so she could tell what he meant by that. He had the slightest smile, and his eyes weren't full of his usual malice.
Her smile brightened a bit. "Keep him around, Kurogane. He's good to you. Sleep well."
The princess turned her back to him and walked away before he could think of a response. Before she turned into a different hallway, he called out, "You sleep well, too...Tomoyo-hime."
She turned her head to smile at him, and then disappeared into her sleeping quarters.
He took Fai up to the room they were sharing with the kid, and set him down gently on the bed. He almost tossed him down, but for some reason, he didn't. He flicked a lock of that blond hair out of Fai's eye, and then before he could move, the unconscious magician grabbed his arm and hugged it.
Kurogane attempted to pull his arm away without waking him up, but of course, Fai's a bit stronger than he looks.
So Kurogane looked around, trying to think of something to do. Not much came to mind. He could wake him up, but that would be a rather noisy occurrence. He could sleep next to him, but that would be slightly awkward.
...He decided the latter was safest, and sat down on the bed next to Fai, leaning against the wall. He put his knee up and rested his head and arm on it, letting Fai hold on to the other one.
Kurogane fell asleep.
"Happy New Year, Kurogane-chi..."
The klutz was dreaming about him, now?! Tch, whatever... He didn't mind that much, anyway.