Warning for unpleasant kisses.
The suffixes Fai uses are -tan/-rin/etc for this, to fit in with the earlier works in this series. This takes place before the 'sword to my shield' arc but after Outo, so it's more of a pre-relationship thing.
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me.
kitty kisses
"There's only one last opening for a stall," Syaoran said as he looked up from the yellowed, softly-flopping application form. "It's... a kissing booth."
"What's a kissing booth?" Fai asked, without missing a beat. "Do you kiss... animals? People? Do we provide places for people to kiss each other?"
Around them, the red-white tent was cool and empty, and the guy behind the table grumbled and set his cheek in his palm, chewing on a stick. The fair was already in full swing outside, the low rumble of voices and honks and squawks sweeping in through the tent flaps behind.
"It's... where someone sits and people pay to kiss them," the boy answered uncomfortably.
"What the hell kind of shop is that?" Kurogane muttered. "Selling that? We should just go elsewhere for a job."
"Any sort of kisses?" Fai asked. He tilted his head, pursed his lips. "Do you mean, on the nose, or on the cheek?"
Syaoran winced. He pointed to the sheet, at a line that was stained with yellow ink. "Well, it's typically on the mouth, it says here. But I guess we can offer different sorts of kisses."
"This is ridiculous," Kurogane told them, turning to leave. "Let's go."
"But we don't have other ways to earn money quickly here," Fai pointed out. "We don't have very many things left to sell, you know."
Syaoran slid an uncertain look towards the ninja, and back at Fai. "We can't leave this place, either. The feather's close."
"We'll just take it and go," Kurogane muttered.
"Take it and go," Mokona cheered.
"We're not taking anything," Syaoran yelped. He glanced at the guy behind the table, who seemed more concerned with chewing on his stick than them. "I'll... I'll volunteer to be at the kissing booth. I'm sure we'll make some money that way."
Fai, Kurogane and Sakura stared at him for a few moments, their faces in various states of surprise.
"You're worth more than that, Syaoran-kun," Fai finally said. "Don't go selling your kisses."
"But—"
"I'll do it," Fai continued. He grinned, large and bright, and pointed at his cheek. "Kuro-pon, Syaoran-kun and Mokona can make signs for the booth. Sakura-chan can come with me to see about the clothes. How about that?"
"What," Kurogane said.
"Problem?" Fai's eyes slid to him, his smile sharpening. "Do you want to be at the booth instead?"
"Hell no. This is stupid."
"Then I'll do it. Syaoran-kun, write our names down, please."
The boy did. He went over to the table and talked with the guy, who chewed on his stick, marking off their names and application and never once looking interested in the entire thing.
When Syaoran returned to them, he had five badges, and a schedule and details for their booth. Fai grinned, while Kurogane's eyebrows drew down low. As they exited the tent, Sakura stepped close to Fai, looked up at him.
"Are you sure this is okay?" she whispered.
"Of course it is," he said, smiling extra-wide. "Don't worry about it!"
It wasn't as if Fai hadn't kissed before, so he knew the sorts of things he could expect from a general population of a place. The thought of kissing sweaty, beer-breathed men did not much appeal to him, but this was for money, and it was only kisses.
Syaoran led them to the kissing booth, which, to their surprise, already had a sign for it. There were rickety wooden chairs and tables tied together, which Syaoran unlocked with a tiny key and began pulling apart.
"Where are the clothes?" Fai asked.
Syaoran pointed out the dressing tent where the fair personnel kept their costumes, and handed Sakura and Fai their staff badges.
The tent was musty and crowded with all manner of props, from wigs to dresses to baggy coveralls, to hoops and ropes and masks and giant balls. Fai led the way in, careful not to bring the princess close to any of the weaponry, even if they seemed dull as could be.
Some of the costumes did not fit him at all, and some were too loose, or too garish. He giggled through a few with Sakura, and eventually settled on one that made him look like a princess.
"You look wonderful in the dress," Sakura breathed.
"Do you think so?" He twirled around in it, stepped into the only pair of blue slippers that fit his feet. "It's a little scratchy on the inside, but aren't the skirts pretty?"
The skirts were a cheap, shiny satin that pricked at his skin, and he didn't have enough of a chest to fit the bodice, so Sakura laced the back of the dress up tight.
"To be a princess, you hold your shoulders up straight," Fai said. "And pull them backwards, like that." When she nodded, he continued, "And you never, ever lower your head to people. The people of any country are your subjects, see? So you look straight, like this, and don't hurry to go to them."
"But they're people! If they're in trouble, we should help them, shouldn't we?" she asked.
"That's... Well, if they don't seem a threat, you can," he answered, taking her hand. "Now, shall we go?"
They left the dressing tent a while later, Sakura holding his original clothes out like the very best servant girl, and Fai walking steadily by her side, head held high. It wasn't really the persona he thought fit the kissing booth best, but he was teaching her about princesses, and there wasn't really a better time or place to be doing this.
Kurogane narrowed his eyes when they approached, scrutinizing Fai. Fai grinned at him. "Something on my dress, Kuro-pi?"
The warrior huffed and looked away. "No."
Fai sat in the chair that Syaoran offered him, now draped with ivory fabric that looked clean enough, and studied the newer signs that had just been added to the booth. "What do they say?"
Syaoran gulped. "Well, they list the types of kisses and their prices," he said. "But if you're uncomfortable with any of them, we'll change it!"
"What sort of kisses are there?"
The boy flushed a bright red. "Well, um. There's the 'Puppy Kiss', the 'Kitty Kiss', the 'Dolphin Kiss', the 'Elephant Kiss'..."
Fai stared at him. "That's very fascinating, Syaoran-kun. But what do they mean?"
"Mokona suggested the names," Syaoran stuttered. "Um, I think we have different understandings of what they mean."
Fai looked to Kurogane, who folded his arms and turned away, a deep frown on his face.
"Puppy Kisses are on the cheek," the boy said apologetically. "Kitty Kisses are on the forehead. Dolphin Kisses are on the nose. Elephant Kisses are on the mouth—"
"Why the mouth?"
"Because elephants have pointy mouths," Mokona chirped.
It didn't make any sense, but at least these were all options. "Why don't you draw faces next to them to show where the kisses will be," Fai suggested. "At least you won't have to keep explaining that to everyone."
Syaoran nodded vigorously and set to work.
"What's the last one?" Fai asked.
"Tiger Kisses," Mokona said. "Yuuko said they're the fierce kisses!"
"On the..."
"On the mouth!" Mokona's ears twitched. "But Mokona doesn't know. What does a Tiger Kiss look like?"
Both the children had flushed a crimson shade, and Fai didn't know how to explain it to Mokona. He looked at Kurogane instead. "Have you had a Tiger Kiss, Kuro-tan?"
Kurogane glowered at him. "The hell."
Which ate at Fai's curiosity, because he wanted to know if anyone had kissed this prickly warrior that way. "You haven't, huh?" he asked slyly, leaning in and fluttering his eyelashes. "Would you like to be educated?"
Red swept through Kurogane's cheeks, then, and he spluttered. "I don't need to be fucking educated," he snapped. "Damn you."
It still left the question unanswered, so Fai maintained that smug smile, and winked at the fair-goers around them.
He hadn't expected business to be slow, not really. Fai was aware that he looked decent. People in the Celesian courts had propositioned him, men and women both, and he had accepted them sometimes. It had helped for him to listen on in the nobles' circles. So he sat in the seat, smiling at anyone, and to the mothers with children, he said, "A kiss for blessings and good health?"
They were all bald-faced lies, but the mothers bought them, and Syaoran produced a fairy wand so he could wave it around the children's heads.
Then there were the giggling girls, who pushed at each other and finally lined up for cheek-kisses, and the occasional one who paid for a Tiger Kiss.
"Are you sure?" Fai asked the petite, dark-haired girl, more a woman than a child, and she nodded and smiled, blushing to the roots of her hair. The children and Kurogane had all looked away by this point, so Fai leaned towards her, grasped her chin, and gave her a slow, sensual kiss that drew a few "Oohs" from the crowd.
When he pulled away, her cheeks were still flushed, and she looked as though she'd have crumpled to the ground, had she not been sitting in the chair across from him.
"My apologies," he said. "That wasn't quite as fierce as it sounded."
She smiled and ducked her chin. "That's okay. Thank you."
He had a steady stream of patrons after that, so there was barely time to gulp water down and wipe his mouth. To the side, Syaoran had begun selling small sheets of paper, that he could write messages on and Fai would sign, presenting it to his patrons for a small additional fee.
Most of their customers were decent. As the sun sank toward the surrounding forests, however, more drunken men showed up, and more often than not, they demanded Tiger Kisses. They weren't anything like the giggly girls or wide-eyed children of the morning, and Fai's smile grew strained as yet another scruffy man pawed at his knee, leering and smug.
If there was one thing he'd change about this, it was how Syaoran and Sakura were still here, having to watch him do this.
Before he gave this man his kiss, he turned to Kurogane, drew his smile saccharine sweet. "Won't you take over the money-handling, Kuro-myu? I'm sure the children should have a break, now."
And Kurogane understood, somehow. He wasn't happy about it, from the way his mouth pressed into a thin line, but he dismissed the children, who looked back at them with concerned frowns. "They don't need autographs," the warrior said. "Go get some food."
So the children left, and Fai relaxed slightly, leaned himself in so a bristly, musty mouth pressed on his. He bore with it, like the few others before him, and forced a smile when the man finally pulled away. He wanted to rinse his mouth out.
Three more men like this, and Kurogane announced, suddenly, "We're closing shop."
Fai looked up at him, confused. "What?"
"We're closing," Kurogane told the other men in line. "Go away."
"But—"
Kurogane bared his teeth, stood in front of Fai, and he radiated such violence that the line before them scattered in seconds. Even the other fair-goers kept a wide berth around them.
"You just chased our profits away," Fai said, relieved and begrudging all at once. "Bad dog."
Red eyes narrowed. Kurogane threw a sheet of cloth over him. "Change your clothes. We're leaving."
Fai blinked. When he didn't move, Kurogane sighed, took the bowl of cash they'd accumulated, and stuck it beneath the sheet of cloth, on Fai's lap.
"Take care of that. I'll be back."
It was nice to hide beneath the fabric for a while. Fai pulled it more evenly over his head and the rest of him, and closed his eyes, allowing himself to relax ever so slightly. No amount of water could wash the taste in his mouth away, and the smell of coin so close to his nose was starting to turn the slightest bit nauseating.
He looked back up when someone pulled the cloth off his head.
"Tch," Kurogane said, shoving a bottle at him. "Take this."
Fai stared at the beaded condensation on brown glass, did not question it. The beer wasn't the best. It was a different taste altogether, however, refreshing and cool and burning the unpleasantness out of his mouth.
"That's very nice of you, Big Puppy," he said.
Kurogane rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Get dressed. We're getting the feather and moving on."
"There's still another day of the fair to go."
"No. We're leaving."
He drank his beer in silence, wondering what inspired Kurogane to do all this. The first thought that came to mind was ridiculous. He voiced it anyway: "Are you... jealous? Do you want a Tiger Kiss?"
"No," Kurogane snapped. "You're worth more than that."
Fai couldn't begin to fathom how he was worth more than the money they'd just made, so he tipped more beer down his throat. "If you say so."
The warrior sighed, more an angry exhalation than despair. He took the cloth and bowl both, hooked a hand under Fai's arm. "Where's the place you change your clothes?"
Fai led him to the costume tent, headed in by himself while Kurogane waited outside. When he was done, the warrior returned his bottle.
"The kids aren't too far. We'll get them and go."
"Why the charity, Kuro-pon?" he asked. His grin held up despite his exhaustion, so he went with it. "You aren't being a grumpy dog right now."
"Just watching that made me sick."
Fai stepped a little further away from Kurogane, so hopefully he wouldn't disgust him quite as much. "Well, you should have looked away, then."
"That's not the point."
"There were other things you could have done, you know," Fai said. "You didn't have to stand around."
Kurogane wheeled him around, a sharp jerk to his arm so Fai wobbled and almost tripped. "You're an idiot," he muttered. "Don't you have anything else to say?"
"I'm glad we have that straightened out." His smile thinned, and he looked away. "Let go of me. I can walk by myself."
"Idiot," Kurogane said again. He released Fai, walked ahead, leaving him to follow behind.
The children were relieved to see them. "Fai-san!" Sakura exclaimed, hurrying over with her hands full of food. "You look better."
"I do?"
She handed the food to Syaoran, tiptoed and spread her arms, and he didn't have the heart to tell her that his breath smelled like beer. Fai leaned into the hug, held his breath, blinked in surprise when she tugged him lower.
The princess pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"I think you deserve that," she said sweetly, her eyes warm. "Thank you for doing all of that for us today."
He stared at her, speechless.
Kurogane clicked his tongue, began to walk away. "We don't have all day," he said. "We're taking the feather."
But Fai had felt those eyes on him, and he didn't know why Kurogane was still watching him, even now. He hadn't even done anything suspicious today. "Let's all follow the big doggy," he said cheerfully. "Thank you, Sakura-chan."
She beamed at him and looped her arm through his, and they followed behind Syaoran, who had begun to stammer that they owed the fair owners their fees for working here.
Kurogane stopped to listen to the boy. After the world with the sushi, Syaoran had been nervous, and they knew now that the boy did not take kindly to stealing. So, Kurogane changed their directions, and Fai felt a flicker of admiration in his chest.
Kurogane was full of surprises, it seemed. And, somehow, this only made Fai all the more curious about him.
A/N: I started on this on a whim (for clampkink lol).. but it turned into this 2k word thing. And then I wanted to fit it into this series.
My original idea was to have Kurogane give Fai the forehead kiss instead... didn't work out that way. The later arcs fit into each other seamlessly, which made this pretty much impossible to insert between Yama/Harasa/Piffle, which is pretty much when Kurogane would actually feel comfortable with giving Fai a forehead kiss. SOOOO We get an actual kitty kiss instead, which still worked out. :P
Links to series, since there's no magic in this one: the Fai-Sakura relationship, the family's sushi issues, and Fai in a dress.