"Kuro-pon is such a meanie to not let me out of bed!"
Fai was pouting with flair, arms crossed and everything, but it was to no avail in the face of his captors. Kurogane was still and silent, leaning on the wall of the hospital room, his typical frown on his face. Syaoran looked uncomfortable, but unyielding, and Sakura, sitting by his bed looked like iron and ice in her resolve that he heal. Even Mokona only cuddled closer to his side, in the -admittedly comfortable- hospital bed. Only the best for the guests of the Princess, even if one of them had just come close to dying. Apparently.
It was the same facility that they'd all recovered in the last time they were there, just after they broke Fei Wang Reed's magic, and returned most things back to normal. The same draped stone walls, and silken laid beds. The hospital in the city may as well have been the palace, with all the lovely rooms and gardens. Fai was certainly well taken care of, but Clow was no Piffle with its instant entertainment, and Fai was (to channel Mokona) bored, bored, bored!
"You're not supposed to be up yet, Fai-san," Sakura said, not looking up from her needlework. Ah, sweet Sakura had been the leader of this imprisonment (even though it was easier and safer to moan at Kurogane, Fai knew where the orders were really coming from!) Glad as she was to see them all again, she was incredibly upset that Fai had been hurt, and was merciless about enforcing every single one of the doctors' rules and recommendations. Fai was convinced she was using the nurse to spy on him as well.
She and Syaoran had been visiting for about an hour, but they refused to do anything exciting with him. Only light chatter was allowed, and though that had been fine for twenty minutes, the silence as they simply sat there was killing him. Literally, he was sure.
Fai had only wanted to sit out on the balcony, but Sakura had protested, so of course the others went along with it, and Fai was stuck in bed. As he had been. For days.
"Are you gonna whine during their whole visit?" Kurogane grumbled, after Fai's pouting had lost some intensity due to boredom. The ninja hadn't been far during his recovery, demonstrating far more patience about the whole thing than Fai had. In fact, he'd been abnormally calm all the while, barely reacting to Fai's childish behavior; rather he'd endure and then look off into the distance. It was all rather annoying, as even one of their normal arguments would have brightened the day considerably. Instead, he spent most of his time leaning on the wall and being boring.
"Perhaps we could play a game, or something?" Syaoran suggested, and Fai slumped dramatically, ignoring the sharp twinge in his side.
"I've played every word game, card game and board game I can conjure!" He exclaimed, waving an arm. "And in all of those, I've beaten Kuro-tan at, so they're no fun anymore! Games are boring…"
Mokona at his side, echoed. "Boring…" Though why Mokona thought it had to be as bored as he, Fai had no idea. It could easily leave the room, and run free outside, but the creature had barely left his side since he'd come here.
Kurogane 'tched'. "God, you're childish." He muttered, and Fai pout-glared from the corner of his eye.
"At least I'm not a sore loser." He retorted. Kurogane huffed.
"And I'm not a cheater, unlike someone I could mention."
Fai knew very well that he'd cheated in most of the games he'd roped Kurogane into playing with him, but he still straightened in outrage.
"I am not a cheat, Kuro-liar!" He snapped, finally having some fun. Unfortunately, Kurogane seemed to sense it, and pulled back. He sighed, and looked towards the children.
"Well kids, I think the baby needs a nap. How 'bout you two come back later?"
Kurogane moved to shoo the children out of the room, with Syaoran looking alarmed, and Sakura (how could his Sakura betray her mommy like this?) looking amused. Amused!
Fai had no choice but to react in the way that Kurogane had surely known he would. Faced with the prospect of losing his only source of entertainment (since Kuro-pu was being so onerous) Fai slumped in his bed, looking as contrite as he could manage.
"I'm sure that's not necessary, Kuro-sama. Terribly sorry!" He blinked at the other man, trying for innocent. Kurogane, of course, could see straight through him, but the apology was there to see as well. It's not like Fai was trying to be difficult. Well, he was trying to be difficult, but not unbearably difficult. He didn't want to drive them away, that would be no fun!
Kurogane grumbled, and stopped moving towards the door, but he didn't return to his place either. Fai imbued a little more pleading in his gaze.
"Do I at least get a bedtime story first?" He whimpered. Sakura brightened, and Fai thought she might be his salvation after all. Dear Sakura, of course!
"Actually, you all came at the perfect time of the year. All Hallow's Eve is coming up, so it's the perfect time for telling ghost stories." She said, smiling sweetly. Even Kurogane couldn't resist in the face of that smile.
"...and the call was coming from inside the house!"
Syaoran finished with a flair, hands extended dramatically. Four pairs of eyes blinked at him.
"So, the killer was just waiting for her to come up? Why wouldn't he just come down to kill her?" Kurogane asked, frowning from his place against the wall. Syaoran looked sheepish.
"It was just a movie from Japan. First thing I remembered."
"Good job!" Sakura was smiling.
"It was very good, Syaoran-kun," Fai congratulated, clapping his hands together. Mokona was leaping up and down.
"Next! Next! Next!"
"Who's next?" Fai asked, sitting cross legged on the bed.
"Kuro-daddy has to go next!" Mokona crowed, leaping straight into the air. Fai caught it, and grinned.
"How about it, Kuro-pipi? Do you have a story ready?" He asked, eyes twinkling. Kurogane had been thinking as he listened to Syaoran's, flipping through his memories of legends and ghost tales. Honestly, his childhood land had spawned ready made scary tales with the demons that had infested the lands...but they were a little too vivid in his memories. This wasn't the time for such stories. He'd settled on one from his time in Tomoyo's home; it was one that she'd told him in their childhood.
He nodded.
"A priest was walking along a road to the temple. It was a dark night, and he was alone." Kurogane started, not moving from his spot.
"Ooh, good start, Kuro-ni!" Fai put his chin in his hands, looking up at him attentively. The kids were listening too. Kurogane wasn't quite used to be the center of attention like this, so he glared at Fai for interrupting.
"Quiet, you. I'm telling it. Anyway, he started to hear footsteps behind him." Here Tomoyo would always act out the tapping noise of the footsteps, but Kurogane wasn't about to put on that much of a show. "He walked faster. So did the footsteps. He walked faster still, thinking it must be a highwayman. The footsteps matched his speed."
The group was listening hard, looking nervous, save Fai who was smiling like he was having the time of his life. Well, at least he was being less annoying than his childish tantrums.
"He reached the temple, hearing the footsteps loud behind him. Then, on the wall of the temple, he saw it."
"What did he see?! What did he see?!" Mokona chirped. Kurogane paused for a long moment; he remembered this effect when Tomoyo had told it. The group held their breath.
"It was a pale hand, translucent and thin like a skeleton, sticking out of the wall. It beckoned to him. The priest was young, but through his fear and startlement, he realized that this must be a spirit asking to move on.
'That poor, lost soul,' he said, 'it must be someone who died in that plague last winter.'" Kurogane didn't do any voices, definitely disappointing Fai, but the mage didn't interrupt.
"He went back inside the temple, and prepared a prayer for the spirit. When he returned, the hand reached for the prayer. When the priest laid the paper in the ghostly hand, it gripped it tightly, and seemed to listen while he chanted a death rite. When the priest finished, the hand disappeared. The priest never saw it again."
The story finished with much less dramatic effect than it usually did when Tomoyo told it. Fai blinked and sat back a little, and Syaoran and Sakura were slightly puzzled looking.
"That wasn't very scary, Kuro-rin." Fai said after a moment, and it was clear that Kurogane wasn't going to go on. Folding his arms tighter, Kurogane humphed, and glared at the wizard.
"It's a moral story. All ghosts and spirits usually want is acknowledgement, and maybe some more death rites. It's to teach children!" He didn't say that he'd picked that one, because the image of the hand emerging from the wall had haunted his thoughts and dreams for days after Tomoyo had told it when he was a child. In retrospect, it really wasn't very scary, but he wasn't about to admit that.
"It was a little frightening." Sakura put in, reaching out to pat his arm. Kurogane couldn't quite bring himself to shrug off the Princess, but it was a close thing. Fai had his hands around his knees, though it couldn't be comfortable to be curled up like that with the wound on his side, and he was smiling.
"We're telling ghost stories, Kuro-silly. Shall I show you how it's done?"
Kurogane shrugged. "By all means," He grumbled. Before Fai could start, however, Sakura raised her fingers.
"Do you mind...can I go first, Fai-san? I've just thought of mine, and I don't want to forget it!" She looked so determined that Kurogane could see Fai holding back a true laugh -pity.
"Of course, my dear." Fai said, spreading his hand to allow Sakura to take the floor. She smiled wide, and clasped her hands together.
"Thank you," She bowed her head a little, before sitting up straighter in her chair. "This story was told to me just the other night, by a nurse in this very hospital! Late one night, this nurse had stayed to catch up on some patient work. It was fully dark, and very quiet when she finally finished and got ready to leave. The hospital was silent and still."
Fai laughed, a trifle nervously. "Are you trying to scare me, Sakura-chan? I still have to sleep in this hospital, you know."
Sakura giggled, covering her mouth. "I'm not trying to do anything, Fai-san."
"Mage, let her finish her story." Kurogane put in, as Sakura blushed. Maybe she was trying to scare Fai specifically. In that case, he was all for it. If she wasn't, and this truly was the only story she could remember at the moment, then Kurogane didn't want Fai to make her too nervous.
"I apologize, Little Kitty, please continue." Fai said, putting a hand on his heart. Sakura smiled at him, and kept going.
"The nurse was walking through the halls on her way home, when she got a chill. Thinking she'd just caught a draft from somewhere, since the desert nights are cold, she kept moving, focusing on happy thoughts. Then, she got another shiver, more intense than the first. It made her shudder hard. A moment later, she heard a sound."
Sakura's voice dropped low.
"It was a noise, like a footstep, behind her in the hallway. She turned, but no one was there. She knew that there were people in the building. Patients were sleeping, and there were one or two night nurses in case of emergencies, but still, the footstep alarmed her. She went back the way she came."
Fai and Syaoran were listening intently, with Mokona buried in Fai's blankets (only the tips of two white ears poked out). Kurogane was listening too, admiring her telling style, and the chill he'd gotten down his own spine. Sakura had skill at this, nearing Tomoyo's talent, and Kurogane even fancied that Fai had gone somewhat pale. Well, pale-er.
"In the previous hallways, there was no one around. But, the nurse could feel something, like someone was standing next to her, watching her. Beginning to be afraid, she turned around a final time to leave and go home. That's when she noticed the door that was ajar. There are tags on the doors, listing the patients names, but this one had no name. If anyone was in there, it wasn't a patient.
"Her heart in her throat, the nurse pushed open the door with shaking hands. There was no one there. It was an empty patient room, nothing more. Until…"
Mokona squeaked under the covers, and Fai had his hands pulled up to his face- and Kurogane didn't think he was doing it for show. Sakura half smiled, enjoying the audience.
"The curtains over the windows began to shift, ever so slightly." She gestured to the floating silk curtains over Fai's window, white and billowy. They were shifting now, they were always shifting, but he guessed that was Sakura's game. "They moved faster, but the nurse could feel no wind. Then, in the back of her hearing, she heard a long high pitch, like the echo of a scream."
Was it in Kurogane's head, or did he hear that noise she described?
"Then the curtains moved again, violently, like something was coming through them. They blew back to reveal a figure of a woman, dressed in hospital clothes, face covered by tangled hair. Blood was dripping from the woman's face, hiding any identity, if she ever had one, and her twisted legs seemed to be floating in midair rather than standing on the floor.
"She reached out her hand, it too was covered in blood, and then opened her mouth with a terrible sucking noise. The nurse could only make out one sound.
'..I..I..iiiiiii…...'" Sakura imitated the noise, contorting her face into what looked like a death mask.
"Terrified, the nurse turned and ran. When she made it outside, she turned to look up at the window she'd seen the figure. Nothing was there. She wasn't even sure if it was real or a dream."
She finished softly, and Kurogane again had to admire her style. The room was silent with chills, and even Fai was still and wide eyed. Syaoran looked amazed, and broke the silence with a manic little burst of clapping. That broke Fai and Mokona out of their stupor, and a cheer went up.
"Wow, that was really scary, Sakura!" Mokona shouted, jumping upwards.
"Good job!" Fai cheered, his face losing some pallor. Hah, the guy really had been scared.
Kurogane sent Sakura a soft smile, while Syaoran clapped a few more times.
"That was really good," He murmured to her, and she blushed brightly.
Fai laughed, and clapped his own hands together.
"Well, I suppose it's my turn now, isn't it?" He said, placing a finger on his chin. "What shall I tell you all? What tale of blood and horror, of tragedy and gore?"
Kurogane rolled his eyes at Fai's dramatics. Fai didn't notice, smiling, eyes a light.
"Shall I tell of the wizard who gets stabbed, and ends up in a haunted hospital?" He teased Sakura. She laughed at his play, but Kurogane felt a jolt of anger.
"Don't joke about that." He growled, glancing at the man. Fai blinked, and immediately fell into his teasing act. Kurogane should have known, but for some reason it made his blood boil this time.
"Why? Did Kuro-nya wo~rry about me?" He fluttered, and simpered from his hospital bed, but all Kurogane could remember was him laying pale upon it. It had been so close. "After all, it was only a little stab wound, it wasn't like I got completely impaled-"
"You almost died, you idiot!" Something broke in Kurogane's control, and he yelled it louder than the teasing should have warranted. He could see Fai's startled jerk, and he knew that he was thinking that this wasn't the way their game worked. Yeah, well, he didn't want to play. Another image of Fai's face, grey with pain, as the surgeons here worked on him flashed through his mind, and Kurogane knew, knew, that enough was enough. The image made him sick with worry, even as the real Fai blinked at him, alive and if not well, he soon would be. But, this was pointless. Pointless to keep on the way they had, not when Kurogane's feelings were so strong. He had to tell him. Enough was enough.
The stories Syaoran and Kurogane are telling are real ones. You'll recognize the final line from Syaoran's as referencing When A Stranger Calls, and other of those simliar movies, but to keep it simple, I was taking the story from the urban legend the movies were based on. Poor Syaoran, that story's only scary if you are babysitting. Fai and Kurogane would have no reference to that!
Kurogane's story is a legend from Japan's Edo period about a ghostly hand that only wants further death rites. It isn't very scary, but it will serve a purpose.
Sakura's story, I wrote. It also will be relevant in chapters to come.
Also, Fai is completely awful when he's bored. And he's most definitely a cheat at games.
