Fic notes:

1. Written for clampkink. Fic was originally supposed to be a one-off thing. Bad news? It grew and grew. Still without plot (more of a slice-of-life thing? If you can call Kurogane finding an octopus shapeshifter slice-of-life)
2. Written late at night or with husband around, so I'm usually distracted or functioning on little sleep when the parts are written. Feel free to point out any errors/discrepancies!
3. Updates will not be regular. I write a few parts for clampkink, then edit and bundle them up for posting. :P

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me.

moonstones and tentacles

Part 1

It was hot out. Although coastal temperatures were regulated by the sea currents, summer was still summer, and the sun beat down harshly in thousands of little stinging rays, worming into Kurogane's skin like he was beneath a broiler cranked on high. It heated his arms, sent sweat trickling down the back of his neck even though he had barely begun to weave through the handful of visitors on the beach.

If only that damn white thing hadn't got stuck in the wheels of his ill-tempered car. He was going to have to talk to Tomoyo. Sure, he didn't mind going out to the seashore looking for bits of special debris. Sure, he didn't mind whiling away his entire day off for her sake. But spending hours trying to fix his car because her shameless, shapeless pet decided to hijack it, and then heading out when the sun was high overhead (because he couldn't go back on his word, he'd promised he was going to return with something) was utterly beyond his idea of fun.

He clenched his jaw and trudged across gritty, tan sand that had formed into hundreds of little dips and hills, each determined to slow him down. The waves had begun to leave a short slope of dense, dark sand behind as the tide retreated. Still, it would be some hours yet before the water was low enough that he could try searching for Tomoyo's moonstones. He sighed and grumbled beneath his breath.

Kurogane typically started on the ends furthest away from the parking lot, so he could work his way back along the beach through the parts that had been least picked first. On this particular beach, the sand stretched on for a ways out until the low, grass-topped bluff cut it off and extended into the glittering sea, dotted at its foot by a pile of large boulders. They seemed interesting enough. He thought to scale them before low tide was upon him—sometimes, there would be a length of untouched beach that he could explore all by himself, and their rewards were usually all the better for it.

So, Kurogane adjusted the strap of his little backpack on his broad shoulder and made his slow way to the other end of the beach. The tide hadn't gone down by much in that time, so he found footholds on a boulder by the cliff, where he could still reach it by stepping on wet sand. There wasn't anyone around to bother with him; he didn't need anyone breathing down his neck, anyway.

He rounded the blunt, weathered end of the bluff, keeping low to the boulders for stability, and as he looked up, he found the small, unexplored beach he'd expected—no paths leading down from the bluffs, no trash and footprints from previous visitors. There was even a sea cave carved into the headland that framed the other end of the beach, one that was beginning to empty out now that the tide was waning.

He took a sip of water from the bottle in his backpack, put his sandals on, and splashed down into shallow seawater before heading along the damp shore to the sea cave. The rest of the beach, he would comb later.

At first glance, the cave was just another notch in the wall, something he'd seen time and again. The entrance was a half-oval, pointed towards the top, and small rocks lay in a pile at either sides of the opening. Inside, water lapped against numerous stones. He took care to step carefully—there were things hidden in the sand that could leave one with a nasty, bloody gash.

It was a deep cave, dim and cool, and in all, it couldn't have spanned an area larger than his little living room. Kurogane searched for a low, dry rock, set his backpack on it and stretched, allowing himself to relax now that he'd completed half his journey. The faint breeze was salty, wet like seaweed, and the splashing of water on rock echoed through the cave.

His eyes took a while to adjust to the dimness. He walked all the way to the back of the cave, where the water had left piles of rock and flat, soggy sand, sweeping his gaze over the dark crevices and whirling eddies.

It felt like there was something watching him.

He whirled around, scanning the entire cave, floor to ceiling, and saw nothing. All there was was dark, shadowy rock, lichens, and water. There were his things, and—

Something gleamed in a corner of the cave. Something like metal, or glass.

He frowned, picked his way cautiously over slippery rock, wet sand sucking on the soles of his sandals. There, in the corner, was a nest of shiny objects—bottle caps, coins, shells, and even a glass bottle or two. Pieces of broken pottery lay dull and listless, and old, plastic toy soldiers were arranged around the pile, as if they had been commanded to guard this stash.

How...?

The feeling that he wasn't alone was stronger now than before, especially when he found a bed of fresh kelp, glistening and shiny and large enough that he could probably lie comfortably in it. How large must whatever lived here be, to need a nest that size?

Splash.

Kurogane whipped his head around at the sound, looked immediately at his backpack.

And there, frozen on one of the rocks next to his things, was a something.

It was nothing like he'd ever seen—limp golden hair was plastered flat against pale skin, blue eyes (blue like sea-glass crystals held up against sunlight) glittered at him. Thin, pink lips were parted in shock. Bits of white flecks dotted one corner of that mouth. He—it?—had a beautiful face. And there, the humanness stopped. The creature's neck melted into a shapeless form; large, bulbous, rock-like.

As he watched, the creature began to move; there had been a thin, tapered leg (a tentacle, he realized) reaching into his backpack. The limb was grey, the exact color and texture of rock, and as it withdrew, Kurogane saw that it was his onigiri it was holding.

"Hey!" he shouted.

The creature startled. It crammed the rice ball into its mouth, leaving more specks of white on its skin, and just as quickly, it was pulling its head back into its body. Blond hair shifted, darkened and smoothed; the pale face melted into one of flat, featureless skin, and the rock-like body that he'd identified before gave an unnatural ripple, split into several more tapered limbs.

It was an octopus, he realized. Some sort of shape-shifting octopus that could take the form of a human male. And it was running away.

"Wait!" Kurogane said, took a step forward.

The octopus had half its body in the water, some limbs clinging tight to rock, and others submerged beneath the suck and splash of waves.

"You're one of the sotus, aren't you." He only knew the name because Tomoyo had gone on and on about mythical sea creatures once, and she'd insisted on reading himbedtime stories for a solid three months before her attention had wandered.

The octopus paused, looked back at him, dark, large eyes studying his face.

"I'm not here to hunt you," Kurogane said. (One never threatened mythical creatures, even if one never believed they existed until now.) "I was just waiting for the low tide. I'll go now."

He made to stand, careful to keep some rocks between himself and the octopus.

"I need my bag though. You can have the food."

Those watery, deep eyes flashed. Even now, they were still blue, a very deep, sea-crystal blue that swirled and changed, that he would get lost in if he stared into them for too long. The octopus hesitated. Tentacles that had been in saltwater came up to curl solidly around rock; it hauled itself back towards the blunt, low rock it had anchored itself to.

Curious, and not wanting to scare the creature, Kurogane backed away, sat himself gingerly on a flat rock, wincing when he found it was still damp. He held his hands out, palms up, wondering if the octopus people even understood the human language, or human signs of surrender.

The octopus sat back atop its rock, eyed him warily, and laid one wary tentacle onto his backpack.

Kurogane did not react; the octopus added more limbs to his bag, blue eyes fixed shrewdly on him the entire time. When it reached in and pulled another onigiri out, and Kurogane relaxed, leaning his back against the rough, uncomfortable wall of the cave, the bulbous body of the octopus rippled, and it slowly began to take the form of that same human male—blond hair, blue eyes.

He opened his mouth, popped the rice ball in and chewed slowly.

"I can bring more, if you like that." Kurogane hadn't taken his eyes off the creature—it was beyond his understanding how something like that could change its form so easily—was there bone in the blond head, or was it soft and squishy, like all the other octopuses he'd admittedly eaten (and enjoyed)? "My name is Kurogane."

The octopus swallowed, licked his lips with a pink tongue. He was looking Kurogane up and down, still suspicious, as if he might bolt any moment.

"Do you have a name?" Kurogane asked.

The other reached a tentacle into his backpack (the tips of the tentacles had changed into the solid black of his bag, whereas others had stayed grey, the exact shade of the rocks in the cave).

He'd all but given up on the sotus talking, when it opened its mouth and said, in a raspy voice, "Fai."

"Fai," he repeated. "You understand me."

Fai blinked at him, like he was missing something so obvious that he shouldn't even have to ask.

"Speak English?" Kurogane said. "You seem to understand me so far."

At that, the creature smiled slowly, brought its rice-speckled tentacle to its mouth, licked it clean. "You greatly underestimate our kind, Kuro-pipi."

A spark of annoyance flared in his chest. He felt stupid, and he wanted to hit the creature, for that indulgent smile. "My name is Kurogane."

"Kuro-rin."

"Ku-ro-ga-ne." He enunciated the syllables loudly, eyelid twitching.

"Kuro-moo." Fai smiled again.

"Fuck you." He'd been patient with this bastard, even go so far as to offer to bring it food—

"You shouldn't promise what you don't mean to do," Fai said. His voice grew smoother the more he used it, and he was watching Kurogane with equal curiosity. "So, do you?"

"Do I what."

"Want to fuck me."

"The hell?" He spluttered, heat surging into his cheeks.

And as he watched, the rippling, glistening body of the octopus stretched sideways, lightened so it took on a pale, flesh tone that resembled Fai's face. He had a chest, now, and arms, and a belly. Beyond that, a mass of dark, long tentacles coiled and slithered around him.

Fai crept towards him, wrapping tentacles around rocks to haul himself closer, his movements smooth and coordinated, like flowing water. He smiled, white teeth perfect. "You haven't answered my question, Kuro-tan."

This really wasn't happening. He'd had a long day with that stupid white pet, and had to deal with traffic, and the sun, and now he was stuck facing a stupid octopus-man who butchered his name and talked about sex right upon meeting, like he had no shame at all.

"Well?" In the space of his speechlessness, the octopus had crept closer. Amusement flickered in Fai's blue, blue eyes; there was a light smile tugging on his lips. "Have you come into my lair to proposition me, Kuro-pon?"

There were still some rocks and water between them; the sotus was not so stupid that he'd put himself within punching range. Of course Kurogane would have the luck to stumble on the home of the most annoying creature (second to Tomoyo's white pet) he'd ever met. Of course. Tomoyo herself was the sweetest person ever, but the things related to her—her pet, her errands, the people (things) he met on her errands...

"I'm leaving," he snapped. He unfolded his arms, stood in the retreating water. Sand squished between his toes and sandals. "And you can leave me alone."

Between the scorching sun and the blessed cool shade of the cave, and the growing thorn in his side that was Fai, he'd pick the sun any day. Kurogane kept his distance from the creature, skirted around him to grab his backpack, zipped it shut. Fai watched him, curiosity plain in his eyes.

"I haven't seen you before," Fai said.

He shrugged, slung his bag over his shoulder. "I haven't visited this part of this beach."

There was a moment of silence while he scanned the shifting sand beneath the water's surface for telltale swirls of white in brown rock—the moonstones that he collected for his sister on occasion. She did things with them, some superstitious, some crafty, some who-knows-what. He didn't see any, so he strode out of the cave, water splashing against his calves.

Fai followed him.

The octopus moved at his pace, keeping his head, torso and arms as picked his way through the rocks, tentacles rippling beneath the water's surface and kicking up clouds of sand, pushing himself forward.

Kurogane turned to glare at him, the sun shining bright and dazzling in their eyes. "Stop following me."

The idiot made a face. "It's hot out here! Why do you have to run away, Kuro-puu?"

"I have things that need to be done."

Fai seemed not to have heard, instead dipping his entire body into the shallow water. The tide was so low that there wasn't enough water to submerge him fully, so he rolled around in it, his tentacles slithering with sheer grace. He lifted himself upright again, rivulets running off his face and chest. "Mmm. The water's not so bad. You should try swimming sometime."

"No."

Blue eyes (cornflower blue now, sparkling and deep like a cloudless sky) swept over him. Fai pursed his lips contemplatively, reached out to pluck at the hem of Kurogane's shorts. "You humans wear so much. Why do you even need all this?"

Kurogane swatted his hand away. Fai's skin was wet and cold. "Tch. Stop touching me."

"But you all look the same underneath. Two legs, some bits. Not all the same, of course. I've seen your people mate." Fai was staring at his crotch.

"Hey!" Kurogane snapped his fingers to bring the idiot's eyes up to his. "My eyes are here."

A sly smile crept onto the other's face. "Does Kuro-run not like to be stared at?"

He rolled his eyes, kept walking down the beach, shifting his weight on his feet so the moving sand beneath wouldn't throw him off balance. "Go find something else to ogle."

The waves pulled themselves away for a moment, and his sweeping gaze caught on something in the roiling sand. Kurogane darted forward, plunged his hand into the foam, sifting through sand. His fingers closed around a round, heavy pebble. He turned it over as he straightened, examined the alternating ripples of white and brown across its surface. It would do. He fished about in his backpack for a plastic bag to put the stone in.

"You're searching for moonstones?" Fai asked, an odd inflection in his voice.

Kurogane was just glad that the octopus wasn't climbing all over him and attempting to snatch it away. He dropped the stone into his bag with a rustle. "For someone I know. You call them moonstones too?"

Fai shrugged and looked away. He wasn't smiling now. "I believe my kind named them. It translates to 'moonstone' in your language."

It struck Kurogane, suddenly, that there had been a distinct absence of this particular rock in Fai's hoard. There had been all manner of junk—metal, glass, plastic, and even some quartz. "Why don't you collect these rocks?"

"They're everywhere. Why would I want to collect them?" He grinned again, and this time, it was brighter than before. "I like shiny things, Kuro-wan. Or manly things."

He rolled his eyes, kept on looking. Every so often, Fai would leave to swim in deeper water, poking his head out to watch as Kurogane combed the beach. The tide wasn't at its lowest yet.

"Can't you help look for them?" he tried asking. It would help cut his search shorter.

"Of course not." Fai grinned, propelled himself backwards, then circled around him, sandy-brown tentacles gleaming wetly when they lifted out of the water. "You present an amazing sight when bent over, Kuro-sir."

He flushed darkly and decided to stop talking to the idiot for a while.

Sweat had soaked through his shirt by the time they reached the other end of the beach. There were six or so pebbles in his bag, and Kurogane gulped some water down, poured a bit over his head. Cool water slicked along his scalp; he sighed with relief. Dark hair had the very worst tendency to accumulate heat.

"Will you be coming back?" Fai asked, lounging around the knee-deep water a little ways into the sea. He glanced up at the boulders leading back around the headland and beyond, and the look on his face was one of wistfulness.

Not anytime soon, was what Kurogane was about to say (because it would have been his default answer). Instead, he returned with a question of his own. "Don't you talk to anyone else? There's plenty of people just behind the rock."

But he knew even before Fai replied that the creature hadn't spoken to (or even met) anyone in a while. His voice had been unpracticed, and he had been so wary of Kurogane at first.

Fai smiled secretively. "I'm royalty, you know. I shouldn't have to go to people. They come to me if they want to talk."

Kurogane scoffed.

"Will you be coming back?" Fai asked again. He submerged himself in water, then pulled his glistening torso out and shuffled forward, hovering where the waves were at their lowest. This far out of the water, his tentacles were splayed haphazardly around him, some turned so Kurogane glimpsed rows upon rows of round white suckers.

He shrugged. "Maybe. If I can't find the stones elsewhere."

"Fair enough," Fai said, but he drooped a little, began his awkward shuffle back into the sea. "It was nice meeting you."

"Wait up." Kurogane stepped forward, moonstones tucked carefully away in his backpack. He swung the bag so it was in front of him, unzipped it, and pulled the box of onigiri out. "Here, take this."

Blue eyes grew wide; Fai tilted his head in surprise, staring between Kurogane and his lunch box. "Don't you want the rest of that?"

"You got seawater and sand all over it," he said. It was true, but he would have eaten the rice balls anyway if he got hungry enough. As it was, hunger was just beginning to gnaw in his stomach.

Slowly, Fai reached forward, took the clear plastic box into his hands. He cradled it to his chest. "Thank you."

Kurogane shrugged. "I should be going."

"Okay."

Fai was watching when he walked to the edge of the boulders and pulled his sandals off, finding footholds with his hands and feet. It was only when he made it halfway to the rocky, blunt end of the headland that he thought to say, "Don't hold that underwater unless you've finished the rice. It's not airtight. The balls will disintegrate if you soak them in water."

Fai's mouth fell open in surprise. He looked down at the box, then back at Kurogane, and nodded. Kurogane watched as he pried the box open, carefully took a rice ball and fitted it into his mouth, chewing.

He waved when he got to the very end of the cliff—there was nothing else to say. Fai waved back, gave a tiny smile.

The hidden beach was behind his back and out of sight a moment later, and Kurogane missed the way Fai sagged back into the sea, his smile slipping entirely off his face.

Dinner that night was, inexplicably, seasoned baby octopuses. They were red and shiny and Kurogane stared at them in the blue-glazed common dish on the dining table, feeling his stomach twist.

"Aren't you hungry?" Tomoyo asked, kicking his leg while their mother was busy in the kitchen. "You ate the onigiri I made, didn't you?"

"I gave them away," he answered.

She blinked at him, dark eyes solemn on her pale face. "I've never known you to give food away."

Kurogane tore his eyes away from the octopuses, scooped some marinated eel for himself.

"I've never seen you not attack the octopus dish, either," Tomoyo said.

"Tch." He looked away uncomfortably, lifted his bowl of rice to his mouth and shoveled food in so he didn't have to talk.

"Something happened."

Kurogane chewed, swallowed, shrugged. "I gave the onigiri to an octopus, all right?"

Tomoyo stared at him, blinked. "I never knew octopuses ate rice."

"Me neither."

They ate in silence for a while until their mother joined them, brimming with news on their father's business trip, and the topic was dropped. Kurogane hoped they didn't have to revisit it for some time yet.

The second time Kurogane visited that beach, there was no one to be found in the sea cave—just a damp kelp nest and the accompanying treasure hoard. So, he left a fresh box of onigiri on one of the higher, flatter rocks and left. (His previous lunchbox was now filled with little pieces of glass and other junk. He'd had half a mind to take it with him to wash and fill with more food, but decided against it at the last minute.)

The third time he visited, Fai all but threw himself at Kurogane.

"You came back!" the octopus cried, the top of his grey, bulbous body narrowing and paling so his blond hair and human features returned. He wore the hugest smile, and even in the dimness of the sea cave, his deep blue eyes were sparkling. Kurogane watched as Fai's skin took on a solid shade of cream, and his arms split away from the rest of his lean, narrow torso.

"Get off me," he said, shook the cold, wet octopus away. "I just thought I'd drop by to see if you were done with the lunchboxes."

"Oh." Fai sagged a little, but he was still smiling anyway. He eased backwards, wrapping thin tentacles around a neighboring rock and hauling himself onto that. The wet skin on his tentacles turned speckled almost immediately, to match the rock surface. "Are you going to be staying long this time?"

Kurogane shrugged, sat himself on a nearby rock. The creature reached out for the opaque red box he handed over, pried it carefully open to look at its contents. This time, Kurogane had filled it with some food from home—sweet omelette, marinated eel, some slices of raw fish (he'd had to put this lunchbox on ice so the fish wouldn't go bad), and a couple varieties of pickles and dried seaweed.

"Something new!" Fai smiled and prodded the spongy yellow oblong of egg. It squished beneath his finger; he picked it up eagerly, took a bite of it, chewed. A great smile burst across his face. "Mmm!"

Kurogane took the chance to glance around the cave again. Not much had changed. The kelp nest glistened wetly as the waves retreated from it, and Fai's treasure pile had expanded into the second lunch box. He'd apparently gone out and found more rocks and seaweed to fill it with; Kurogane thought he saw a little crab poking around in the new box.

"Eurgh!" The next response had Kurogane looking back. Fai was holding one of the red tuna slices away from his face, gagging. "Fish?"

He frowned in consternation. "Don't you eat fish? That's raw fish, with the bones and skin removed."

"I don't like fish." Fai squirmed on his rock, held the offending slice between thumb and forefinger, away from himself. "Do you want it back?"

"Sure." Kurogane reached over and took the cool, soft delicacy. It had a set of teeth marks in it, but was otherwise not mangled, so he popped it into his mouth. (He hoped thesotus wasn't carrying any sort of spit-borne virus.) The raw tuna was sweet, cool and crisp against his tongue; he chewed and swallowed, and Fai watched him with a shudder and grimace.

"That's nasty," he said. "Fish is... not good."

"What do you eat, then?" Kurogane stared at him, puzzled.

"Crabs, shellfish, you know." Fai waved dismissively, poked at the other slices of fish in his lunchbox. "Are the rest of these fish as well?"

"Yeah."

"I don't want them."

Kurogane leaned over on his rock, wiped his hand on his shirt, and turned his palm up towards Fai. The octopus pinched the slices out of his lunchbox and dropped them into the bowl of Kurogane's hand. "Fish and shellfish don't taste that different, do they?" he asked between bites of fish.

Fai had moved on to the marinated eel. He took a tentative nibble on it, decided that it wasn't too bad, and fit half the slice into his mouth, chewing slowly. "Fish is nasty. They taste fishy."

Kurogane shrugged, finished the last of Fai's unwanted raw fish. "Are you able to turn fully into a human?"

The octopus looked at him quizzically. "I don't know. I think I can't. I've tried, but it doesn't come out right."

"Do you get many legs, or does the transformation just stop at your tentacles?"

Fai flushed a deep purple. "One doesn't talk about one's tentacles just like that, Kuro-pervert."

He blinked at Fai. This wasn't in Tomoyo's book about mythical sea creatures. He'd looked it up right before his visit and read the entire section on the sotus. "Aren't they just your limbs? Why can't you talk about your tentacles?"

The creature whined and covered his face with his hands, turning away. His skin burned dark between his fingers. "Kuro-pon, you don't talk to your friends that way."

He scoffed, folded his arms across his chest. "Fine, we won't talk about that."

It made him wonder, though, how Fai could wave his tentacles around and actually be shy when they were mentioned. The octopus relaxed, peeked at him through gaps in his fingers.

"Eat your food," he said. "I don't have all day."

"Are you leaving soon?"

He shrugged. "I'll have to get home at some point."

Fai pulled a sad face, but obliged by picking up a slice of dried seaweed, flipping it over and examining it before pushing his pink tongue out. The seaweed clung to his tongue; surprise flickered through his face. Fai ended up cramming it into his mouth, chewing on it a long time before he finally swallowed.

"Don't like it?"

"It tastes like kelp. But it's dry. I don't always eat kelp."

"Guess we'll stick to rice balls, huh."

Fai grabbed the other half of his omelette, chewed happily on it. "I like this best." He set the remnants of egg down, popped a pickle into his mouth, and just as suddenly spat it out, his face scrunched up into an expression of disgust. He shuddered. "What's that?"

"Pickle. I'll eat that." Kurogane stretched his hand out; Fai held the lunchbox up while he took the remaining pieces of pickle, both the yellow cucumber pickles and the pink preserved ginger slices. "I won't include that next time."

"There'll be a next time?" Fai brightened, shivered when Kurogane ate a couple slices of cucumber pickles. "You'll visit me again?"

"I visit the beach," Kurogane pointed out. "I collect those stones."

That he'd already combed this particular beach twice wasn't something he'd mention to Fai. He was positive that there weren't many more moonstones to be found here, and he'd have to move on to the next beach if Tomoyo had a sudden craving for large numbers of those things all at once.

Fai drooped again. He chewed dully on what was left of his marinated eel. "I saw you'd left the rice the other day. That was very nice of you."

Kurogane looked away.

"Kuro-sir is shy." Fai cleaned out the last scraps of food from the plastic box, handed it back to Kurogane. "Kuro-rin likes to be stared at, but he won't admit it."

"The hell?" He turned to glower at the idiot, snatched the box back. "I bring you food, and this is how you respond?"

Fai grinned. His tentacles peeled away from the base of his torso; he wrapped them around shorter rocks to lower himself into the ebb and flow of the waves, splashed around in the water. "Kuro-tan is a shy, strong man."

Kurogane shoved the lunchbox back into his backpack, left both on a high rock before he threw himself onto the wet sand, which sucked at his sandals as he chased after Fai. The octopus wailed, wide grin plastered on his face, and his tentacles rippled rapidly beneath his body, bringing him deeper into the water.

"Are you trying to catch me, Kuro-pyuu?" He waved. The next thing Kurogane knew, Fai had ducked underwater. His tentacles billowed up around him, and he was jetting forward suddenly, tentacles trailing behind him as he shot towards Kurogane, his trajectory curving so he circled around Kurogane's calves like an oversized cat.

When Fai broke the surface, his hair was sopping wet, and he rubbed his face against Kurogane's thigh, purring like a domesticated animal.

"Kuro-pyon has the nicest legs." His hands came up to trail lightly just above Kurogane's knees; he smiled slyly, blue eyes glittering in the bright sunlight.

Kurogane fumbled for words, couldn't find anything appropriate except, "Fuck you."

Fai just smiled. "Now, we've talked about that before, Kuro-rin. Don't make empty promises."

He swore and attempted to kick the octopus off, storming away. Fai released him entirely save for one tentacle around his knee; it was this connection that pulled the creature along, despite his valiant attempts to free himself from Fai. Kurogane decided that he should leave before the stupid blond drove him insane.

"Are you leaving already?" Fai released his leg, crawling forward in the knee-deep water. "I'm so lonely here, Kuro-moo."

"So make friends." Kurogane looked at him, challenging.

Fai pouted. "It's not as easy as you think. I don't think you have many friends either, Kuro-grumpy."

Kurogane did not, so he chose to keep quiet instead of proving the octopus right. He made his way back into the sea cave, sighing when he stepped out of the awfully hot sun. "I need to look for more of those stones. You could help me with that."

"Well." The blond lingered at the mouth of his cave, knotted a couple of his tentacles together. "Surely you're doing well enough searching for them all by your lonesome self."

"I'm not. I've cleared this beach of them already, if you haven't noticed."

Fai pouted. "You visited the other day while I was out. That isn't fair."

"I didn't ask you to leave while I was here."

"But— But where are you going to go if there aren't any more stones here for you?" Fai's voice had taken on a pleading note; he curled his tentacles around wave-splashed rocks and pulled himself closer to Kurogane, graceful in his home. "You aren't— You'll still visit, right?"

Kurogane had reached his backpack by this point. He picked it up, stared down at Fai, running over the options he'd come up with. "I visit a number of beaches for the moonstones. Maybe you might know of some that aren't visited by people. We could meet at one of those."

Fai bit his lip. "I... I suppose I do know of some. But I don't know if you'll be able to reach all of them. It's not like they're a short distance from here. Some of them are kind of far."

If he were to obtain a canoe, or some sort of row boat... Kurogane thought of asking Tomoyo to help with the cost of something like that—he was doing this for her sake, after all. "Maybe," he said eventually. "I'll think about it."

A/N: Soo... If you guys want to see anything from this particular universe, feel free to suggest it! I'll write whatever interests me. :) Comments are always appreciated!