takes place the first night in Tokyo, after Kurogane confronts Fye about "hiding his affections for those around him with smiles and aloofness, but that it's a coverup" (hope I got that quote semi-right) and Fye admits that Kurogane is smarter than the average ninja :) MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, BE WARNED. hope you enjoy, thx xo
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Fye rises from where he'd been curled up on the floor and walks toward the sleeping clones. Yes, they're clones. He knows. He's absolutely sure about Syaoran, and he's guessing very well that Sakura is one too. That's just what Fei Wang Reed would do, make another copy of the vessel he needs for his ultimate plan.
Gently, he picks up the sleeping Syaoran, tsking at how hot the boy's skin in, and hoping that the fever breaks by morning. Syaoran groans but lets himself be pulled onto the bed where the princess rests with Mokona. Fye pulls the cover over both of them and sighs very deeply.
"Fei Wang Reed, the depths of your evil are unfathomable..." Fye thinks of his own brother smashing against the concrete floor and Fei Wang Reed's finger pointing at his own self.
Does this Syaoran love this Sakura? he thinks. Truly? Enough? He runs a hand through his golden curls in consternation. Everything can change, he knows that. He knows he loves this Syaoran enough, and what if Syaoran's power becomes so strong that Fye must kill him as well as the original? What if Ashura awakens? That overwhelming guilt, a wave of colors, blossoms up from within his magician's heart and if he hadn't made his decision to save his brother he'd run down to that water reservoir below City Hall and magic up that feather himself, just to escape the wretched cycle he's placed on himself, return it to Sakura and move on, because this city, this Tokyo, is too dangerous, too dark and he knows something terrible will happen.
The guilt and the panic turn into a strange kind of laughter, where tears form.
"Kuro-tan" he whispers unthinkingly. "Kuro-tan, you see what I want so badly to hide." Kurogane's fingerprints will form bruises upon Fye's snow-white arm, he can feel them.
Eventually, as he walks along his heart's dark thorny path, he finds himself in the room he's to share with the ninja warrior. Kurogane's cranky for many reasons, Fye guesses one of them being lack of alcohol. If water is as precious as it is in this acid-rain city there's certainly no sake anywhere.
"Is the fur-ball watching over the kid and the princess?" Kurogane grunts by way of greeting.
Fye nods. "Yes."
"Goodnight, then." Kurogane turns on the bed. He doesn't even cover the blanket over himself, just holds on to his sword.
Fye and Kurogane have had to share beds before but they've never been this emotionally tense. Fye remembers that Kurogane, though having gone through much pain, madness, and, consequently, self-mastering, is still only a child next to himself, who's already lived lifetime-worths. He wants to believe in this child and protect it, but he's probably more honorable than Fye. Now, to tell the child... Oh, but what's the use? What would telling Kurogane the truth about the past really accomplish if this whole mess is plodding along all according to Reed's plan? He can't get closer to these children, he can't afford to put their lives in danger, he can only smile and encourage them, and if Kurogane weren't so strong and smart, that could be easier. But Kurogane is the very best at what Fye is worst at, which is facing obstacles head-on. He reclines next to the ninja and listens and waits for his even sleep-breathing but it doesn't come. It doesn't come and for hours they lie awake, haunted by their pasts and their duties and, mostly, by the strangeness of their circumstances.
Fye weeps silently, feeling more alone than he'd been trapped down in that sinners' ditch in Valeria. Kurogane grips his wrist, quicker than lightning, and mutters, "if you're not going to say anything, don't blubber."
The magician recoils.
"Why force me into vulnerability?" Kurogane demands in a deadly tone.
"Because you care, too? About Syaoran and the princess and Mokona. And, perhaps," Fye chuckles sadly, "even me."
Kurogane grips him by the collar.
"Let's finish what we began earlier, and cut the bullshit," he says. His face is inches away from Fye's, who can't seem to look at him. "You want to tell me things, but you also want to 'protect,' and that kind of cowardly phoniness isn't worthy of someone as magical as you."
"You're very right, and I swear I'm not patronizing you. I'm frightened."
"Good, then, you're one step closer to not being a dishonest piece of crap." Kurogane's eyes won't leave Fye's face. But he pulls back when he realizes how close they are.
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to be continued