Lullaby

By Any Unborn Child

The nighttime hours were a tricky thing for Fai.

Usually, at the end of the day, it took him a little while to fall asleep. There would be so many thoughts whirring in his mind.

The things he said.

The things he didn't.

Recounting Kuro-puu's varied reactions.

Teaching Sakura-chan about cooking lovely desserts.

Discussing existential topics with Syaoran-kun.

Goofing around with Mokona, oftentimes getting chased by Kuro-pon in the meantime.

Interacting with the locals in the worlds that they visited.

…Anything but remembering the past.

One night though, after an eventful day of learning the ways of another world, he was the first to fall asleep, the shutters closing abruptly over his sapphire eyes.

It was then he started to dream…

"Yuui…what is wrong, big brother?"

The atmosphere was dark…fragile, almost.

As if any disruption could tear the peace of the barren land apart.

He was lying on the ground.

His arms and legs out beneath him.

The windows of his soul open to the sky.

Bits of clouds began to fall.

Snow was falling at a rapid pace, specks of dust against the hardness of the ground, encasing him, his body, disabling any movement.

Yet he didn't seem to mind.

He didn't mind at all.

It was…nice….

The beginning of the end…

Everything…slowly…but surely…started to disappear…

Was this…what death was like?

An encasing of nothing?

…Perhaps…

…Perhaps not…

What did he have to live for, anyway?

The sky above grew dark.

The snow was piling on him.

He closed his eyes…

For a while there was nothing.

Just the stillness of the air, the alerting cold of the snowflakes meditating on his face, his eyelashes…

And then…

"Yuui…what is wrong, big brother?"

A voice rang out.

The likeness to his own quieted his own breathing.

"Don't be afraid…it's only me…"

"F-F-Fai? W-W-Where are you?

"Yuui…I'm fine…I'm happy...where I am. I just wanted to let you know…that I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me…anymore."

There was a new stillness in the air.

A pause.

It went on for what seemed like an eternity.

And then…

The whisper spoke again…

For the final time.

"I just wanted to let you know… I love you…"

His own mouth opened…

A small tear ran down his cheek, becoming a frozen droplet almost instantly.

"Fai…I…I love you too."

Flashes of memory seized his subconscious –

Of Syaoran

Of Sakura

Of Mokona

Of Yuuko

Of Kurogane

Of the one he had left behind

Of the one he had hoped to forget -

His eyes burst open.

He sat straight up, a chill present on his skin. He shivered, pulling his blanket close as he looked around the cave he and the group was staying in.

Everyone else was fast asleep.

Syaoran and Sakura were huddled close together, but not too close.

Kurogane was lying on his back, his head leaned slightly towards the entrance of the cave, with Mokona curled up in the palm of his hand.

The moon was still out, its light shining into the abyss, onto the group, providing the only luminosity in the blackness of twilight.

Fai blinked once.

He lay back down, and closed his eyes.

The siren song of his dream was soon quieted by the lullaby of sleep.

The lullaby of tomorrow's promise.