Title: Holding on
Pairing: Nothing obvious, but KuroxFai, or eventual KuroxFai implied
Rating: PG
Summary: Kurogane grabs hold of Fai because he cannot trust the mage to not do something stupid. Can be seen as a sort of companion to "Colourblind"
Celes is frozen around him, and colder than the harshest winter he's ever known back home. Beside him, the mage is wearing two heavy coats over his clothes and trembling, and Kurogane wonders if he even feels the chill.
Fai's brother's body (the real one, not the illusion made of glass; and smashing that image to shards under the poor fool's terribly frightened, betrayed gaze feels like one of the cruelest, hardest things he's ever had to do) dissolves to light, and Fai's hands reach before him, shaking.
Kurogane grabs on and Fai is crying and confused, and his hold tightens and locks shut because he cannot trust the mage to not do something stupid. Then the earth shakes, the world begins to tear with hollow, heaving sounds, and Fai falls to the ground; Kurogane holds on and remembers Infinity – the world had torn then too, and the mage and his secrets had crawled painfully out of it, a frayed and jumbled mess.
There is coughing and there is blood, and one more twist added to all the lies (Kurogane is barely phased, he doesn't even care, in fact, as long as they get out of here, all of them, in one piece; his hold doesn't waver) and then the way is open and he starts walking, dragging, pulling Fai's weight behind him, goddamn it, there, there it is, yes and then the way is shut and Fai tells him to go.
He isn't angry this time around, because right now it can't be helped, right now it isn't really the mage's choice; he's not throwing his life away, because he could never have kept it in the first place. But it is sick and cynical that he should die like this, when he finally gives a damn, and it is wrong that he should die with everything that's happened, and now that dream makes sense, that voice makes sense, and everything is clear when Kurogane finally lets go.
He knows he's done the right thing when he sees Fai's expression crumble, and through the haze of Pain! and sudden weakness, and the sheer disbelief and shock at what he's done! he grabs hold once again and pulls.
He feels himself starting to fade, fights it with everything he's got, everything left, but, strangely, at the time, he doesn't really care; as long as they're all safe. All of them.