Title: Presentable

Author: Gypsy Dancing Girl

Fandom: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle/xxxHolic

Pairings: None

Characters: Kurogane, Yuui, Black Mokona, White Mokona, mentions of Yuko, Tomoyo-hime, and Fay.

Genres: Angst, Friendship, Humor, Hurt/Comfort

Rating: K

Warnings: Nothing besides sheer not-sense-making. I don't even have much of an excuse. Let's call this a prolonged drabble, 'cause it doesn't have much of a plot or even a semblence of style and form to it.

Author's Note: It felt like turning little Fay into a human being again should have taken more effort. And while gentle, patient, Ashura might have managed it . . . teenage Kurogane definitely wouldn't be able to. So for no good reason, Kurogane has been kidnapped/borrowed/sent to Yuko and she has in turn sent him after Yuui with the warning not to let Yuui lie about his name. So my humor piece developed an angsty beginning to explain how Kurogane and Yuui ended up in Yuko's shop. Like I said, not with the sense-making. But you can read the first half for angst, and then the second half for humor if you're so inclined.

Kurogane crossed the expanse quickly. He was going straight to the base of the tower where he would find the twins. Both twins were such a mess that it took Kurogane a moment to figure out which one was still alive. Crouching, he carefully shook the shoulder of the one with tear tracks down his face. Big blue eyes opened to look up at him in fear. "Oi, you, we're getting out of here."

"You're the witch's pawn," came the startled accusation. In a flurry of filthy robes and hair, the live twin was crouched over his brother, looking truly mad enough to attack with teeth and fingernails if Kurogane so much as moved.

"Yeah, I seem to be going by that a lot these days," Kurogane snorted in annoyance. "However, said-witch sent me here to get you out."

"Liar! I won't go with you!"

Kurogane dodged the wild swipe, and caught the boy's wrists in one hand, a handful of hair with the other one. One swift shake, and the boy stopped struggling. "Look, I'm getting you two out of this hell-hole one way or another. It's up to you whether I pitch you over my shoulder and carry you out before making a return trip for your brother's body, or you come along obediently and I'll carry him."

"B-both of us?" the boy whimpered.

"Both of you," Kurogane asserted with a nod of his head. He lets go of the boy's wrists, thinking that the boy would be more amiable with that assurance. He thought wrong. The little monster charged him, driving his thick skull into Kurogane's solar plexus with a speed that was more talent than skill. Kurogane grabbed the other boy's waist and flipped him backwards over his shoulder. The blonde let out a sharp scream of pain as something in his ankle snapped. Kurogane flinches from the sound.

But the other boy was huddled, curled around himself as he clutched at his injured leg and Kurogane pulled himself together to go check on his new charge. "I'm sorry," he muttered gruffly, pulling the blonde into a sitting position and probing the injury carefully. "You startled me."

Big tears were still leaking down the blonde's face. Kurogane was supposed to fix that, but he had no idea how. Stupid witch had forbidden him from traveling to Nihon, so he couldn't take his new charge to Tomoyo for her calming presence. He settled for ignoring the tears for now, in favor of wrapping the ankle. "I'm Kurogane," he muttered finally, standing in one smooth motion and bringing the kid with him.

"You're not scary." After a long moment, he opened his mouth again. "I'm Fay."

"Don't lie to me," Kurogane ordered, making the smaller boy flinch. "I don't care what you say as long as it's the truth. I won't punish you when I don't like your words, but you must never lie to me."

"But-"

"Do you understand me, Yuui?" Kurogane pretended not to notice the flinch.

"Yes, but . . . but I don't want Fay to be dead!" And the blonde burst into tears again, leaning forward to rest his head against Kurogane's shoulder. "I didn't want Fai to die and it's all my fault and I have to bring him back."

"Nothing can revive the dead," Kurogane repeated the words of wisdom once again. And that's how Kurogane found himself trying to actually comfort someone for the first time in his life.

"Oi, mage, you need a bath!" Kurogane shouted, tearing down the hallway in pursuit of the elusive blonde.

"I don't want one," came the wail as Yuui scaled the tall lamp in the living room. It toppled from the extra weight and Yuui took off down the hall in the opposite direction.

"You need one!" Kurogane tackled the blonde and endured the hitting and kicking. Catching one flailing leg and locking his other arm around the mage's midsection, Kurogane finally had a good enough hold on Yuui to carry him (still struggling and screaming down the hallway and into Yuko's bathroom.

The sight of the water made Yuui scream bloody murder, but Kurogane was already temporarily deaf in that ear anyway, so he resisted the urge to protect his ears and dumped the fully dressed kid into the water, using one arm to keep him there and reaching for the soap with the other. White Mokona was hiding under the pile of towels across the room. Black Mokona danced about excitedly, pitching random bath toys into the tub. Kurogane was not going to ask why Yuko was in possession of a rubber duck.

Unloading half a shampoo bottle into the tangled mess that Yuui called hair, Kurogane tried to scrub with one hand while holding the mage still with the other. "Your hair is disgusting. I'm doing humanity a favor by washing it before cutting it, and I most certainly haven't sinned enough for this penance, so just shut up!"

"But Kuro, it's burning me!" Yuui struggled, twisting and kicking. "It hurts!"

"The water is room temperature," Kurogane managed through gritted teeth. "If it was any colder, you'd get sick. Just hold still long enough for your body to get used to it."

"But it hurts!" Yuui whined, twisting so violently that he unseated the ninja and Kurogane toppled into the tub as well.

Kurogane had the presence of mind to hang onto the mage's arm, but that didn't stop him from sputtering obscenities as he resurfaced.

Yuui's struggles for freedom had been temporarily halted by this production as the other boy stared at him wide-eyed. "I never heard so many bad words all at once," he marveled.

Kurogane glared at him. "You will bathe regularly and you will learn to like it or else." With that, he climbed out of the tub and took Mokona's towel to mop up himself and the mess. Yuui hesitantly reached for the edge of the tub himself, but a growl stopped him. He sat very cowed and patient in the water, shivering as his wet clothes began to chill him. Kurogane returned to washing his hair once the rage had been spent on the bathroom, and he had knowingly added more hot water to the bath.

"Dunk your head," Kurogane ordered for the third and final time, before draining the tub while Yuui waited in miserable anxiety on the edge wrapped in one of the many butterfly-embroidered towels that littered the bathroom. Kurogane refilled the tub again, fixing Yuui with a very stern look. "Strip and finish washing yourself. There's a robe on the hook for you. Leave that stuff here. I'll burn it later."

Yuui nodded, and Kurogane returned to his room to dry off and get dressed in fresh clothing. Yuko was well-prepared for any eventuality and there was plenty of clothing for the boys until they moved onto another world.

Yuui shuffled in ten minutes later, looking appropriately penitent for his behavior and Kurogane was relieved to see it, because it was easier to handle a guilty Yuui. But that was before they hit the snag of hair-combing.

The End.