"He hasn't been practising enough." Kurogane had been waiting to explode about this since the end of the battle. It was only now that they were safe in their tent that he could. Even so, he was talking quitely, especially considering the volume that his anger normally reached.

"You were quite unexpected."

"A soldier's life is filled with the unexpected. He needs to be prepared."

"Once he was over the shock he did do well though, didn't he?"

"Yes." It was a grudging sort of yes, but Fai could tell he meant it. It was worth three minutes of praise from most people.

"So, what do you think will happen tomorrow?"

"There will be another battle." There was something in the air. They were finally heading to an end point. Both Fai and Kurogane would put money on the arrival of the others being the deciding factor. And then there was what they had talked about the night before, and all the consequences from that, which they'd both not mentioned since then.

The conversation had reached a distinct pause, not as awkward as it could have been given all of what had gone before, but still, growing more so with each passing moment, like there was something that they both wanted to say, but weren't saying. It was unusual. They had always been, if not honest with each other - Kurogane had no doubts that Fai hadn't told any of them the whole truth, at least not all of the time - then at least straightforward with each other. Kurogane didn't like it. He had no patience for games. He was reasonably sure that Fai felt this way too, at least on this occasion. He was expecting Fai to break the tension with a stunt or a pratfall, but he'd always been less ridiculous in private than in public, much to Kurogane's annoyance, if Fai would only behave in public like he did when it was just the two of them, Kurogane wouldn't be angry half as often as he was. This would probably be the only time Kurogane wanted him to act up. So, of course, Fai didn't.

All Fai did was sit there, smiling. It was the absent smile he sometimes had, when he couldn't convincingly fake one but felt he had to smile anyway. There were few expressions Kurogane hated more. It was such a helpless and hopeless expression, and conveyed not trying to do anything about either situation, and he knew, somehow, that Fai wasn't really like that, not when he was pushed into doing something. So Kurogane felt the pressure was on him to do the pushing. He wasn't sure how to, not because he wasn't capable, but he found that he couldn't bring himself to hurt Fai, not like this. He was sure that the magician was strong, physically, but he was fragile in other ways, and Kurogane didn't want to damage him further.

At the same time, Fai had proved himself more than competent at defending himself, in many different situations, not just fighting, and it wasn't as though he didn't want this too. All Kurogane had to do was reach out. So he did. He took Fai's cheek in his left hand and carefully moved closer. Fai could have pulled away, and they could have laughed it off, but he didn't. Closer still, close enough to see the traces of what was either shame or disgust, and he almost pulled away, right there and then. He wasn't going to make Fai do anything he was ashamed of, and he wasn't going to be looked at with disgust. That was when Fai took the initiative from him. Fai's face cleared, something passed from him, Kurogane didn't know what, but knew that whatever it was probably had a strong bearing on all of Fai's mysteries.

Fai kissed him.

"This changes nothing, you know." Fai spoke softly.

"Of course." Fai was probably right. Whatever the wizard felt exactly was beyond Kurogane, but he knew that what he himself felt wasn't going to change. Once he decided something, once he was certain, he didn't change.
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