Kurogane woke with a start, automatically gripping the hilt of his sword, which lay beneath his pillow. He forced his breathing to remain steady and calm as though he were still sleeping as he reached out with his senses, trying to detect who or what had awakened him. Then he heard it; a tiny whimper from above him. Fai.

It was their third night in the Piffle world. Fai had somehow managed to steal back the top bunk, but Kurogane didn't mind much; he preferred sleeping on ground level, next to the door. It meant if someone came sneaking in they would immediately be confronted by him.

Releasing the sword, he flexed the fingers of his repaired and adjusted artificial arm and watched it move, still impressed by it. The false skin now covering it had been matched to the shade of his skin so that it was amazingly hard to see the difference between it and the real one. It now fit perfectly and painlessly, and the movement was wonderfully smooth.

Kurogane stood and peeked up onto the top bunk. Fai was stirring restlessly, whimpering quietly. For half a moment Kurogane wondered if perhaps he was having an erotic dream, and he was prepared to go back to bed and try not to think about what kind of retarded thoughts might pass for erotic in Fai's twisted mind, but then he caught the expression on Fai's face, the tone of the sounds he made. There was no pleasure on that face, in those whimpers. Fai looked and sounded anguished.

Kurogane knew from personal experience that even once a person found the strength and will to leave the past behind, even once bad memories had faded from a constant intense pain into an occasional vague ache, the nightmares would still come. Even now, after so long, he occasionally suffered from dreams; images of the sword from another dimension ripping through his mother's soft body; images of his father's mangled arm hanging limply from the mouth of a monster; images of his own self, crazed and bloodstained, clutching his mother's body and killing anything which approached him. How much worse then, for Fai, who had not long ago been forced to relive his past in Celes, who had only recently been able to move past his horrible memories? His nightmares must still be intense and frequent. Kurogane found it strange that he had never before noticed. Surely Fai must have suffered so for most of their journey. Suddenly he recalled the odd habit Fai used to have of sleeping on his stomach, face buried absurdly in his pillow. To hide the whimpers, the cries?

Reaching up, Kurogane poked Fai's shoulder, but got no reaction.

"Mage. Hey, mage! Wake up, idiot!"

Unfortunately he couldn't speak very loudly, not wanting to wake anyone else up, so he wasn't very surprised when he still did not succeed in waking the wizard. He considered just going back to sleep and letting Fai wake up in his own time, but the way Fai was shaking and sweating and making tragic little noises was too pitiful to ignore. Kurogane didn't want to leave him to suffer for who knew how much longer. Suddenly finding an idea, he reached for his sword again and sliced his finger the tiniest bit.

He moved his bleeding finger up near Fai's face and waited. Sure enough, two golden, slitted eyes blinked open. Fai was shaking hard. He looked over the edge of the bed and seemed to sort of slump in relief when he saw who stood there.

"Kurogane."

Unlike the time between Tokyo and Nihon when Fai's dropping of the nicknames had indicated a distance between them, this time it simply seemed to indicate seriousness and even a kind of happiness at Kurogane's presence. Kurogane touched his bleeding finger to Fai's lips, noting that the wizard had chewed them up badly in his distress, his fangs leaving marks on his lips.

"Clean that up. Had to wake you up with the scent of blood."

Fai seemed to take comfort in lapping at the blood on Kurogane's finger, or perhaps simply in having a friend close. Whatever the case, by the time the blood stopped flowing he had stopped shaking. Kurogane brushed sweaty, shaggy blonde bangs from Fai's face and gave him his nicest smile- which he suspected looked something like a wolf about to eat a rabbit, but at least he was trying- and then he lightly bumped the wizard on the head with his fist.

"Idiot, you shouldn't be having nightmares when I'm right under you. Nothing's gonna get you unless it can get through me first, and nothing can do that."

Fai smiled, a little weakly, but sincerely. His voice was a sad whisper.

"It wasn't that kind of dream. I dreamt again that...that I chose to let Fai die..."

"But you know now that that's not true. Fai chose to let you be free...Yuui."

The blonde head jolted up and mismatched golden and blue eyes met red ones.

"I...Thank you."

Kurogane tilted his head.

"For what? I'm just sayin' what's true."

"You...you gave me my name back."

"You don't need to carry his name anymore if you don't want to. He must be at peace now, now that you've come to appreciate your life. Take your own name back, or keep his. Either way, let it be what you want, not what you think you should do. He would want that for you."

There were tears in those strange eyes. The wizard reached down and wrapped his arms awkwardly around Kurogane's shoulders.

"Kuro-chan is wonderful, even if he wishes he was a meany." Kurogane rolled his eyes at the childish words, then listened carefully when the seriousness returned, albeit briefly. "I think I will still be Fai. I always liked that name. Besides, what's in a name? A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet! I'm adorable no matter what my name is!"

Kurogane snorted, and stepped away, but he had the feeling there was a slight amused smirk on his face.

He climbed back into his own bunk and lay still, listening, hoping Fai would now be able to sleep peacefully. Before he knew it he'd dozed off himself.

Kurogane brushed irritably, still asleep for the most part, at whatever was tickling his nose. It vanished, and he rolled over and drew the covers up. He was fuzzily aware that it was near the time he ought to get up anyway, but he was tired and wanted to sleep as long as possible. The tickling thing was back. He slapped at whatever it was again but there was nothing there. Grudgingly, he opened one eye and peered down his nose, but there was nothing there so he grunted in annoyance and closed his eye again, trying to reclaim his last few minutes of sleep. A moment later, there it was again, a distinct tickling sensation at the tip of his nose. This time the motion of his slapping at the air was accompanied by a quiet but revealing giggle from behind him.

Growling, he spun around and swung at his tormenter, but the mage dodged skilfully, laughing, waving around the feather he'd been tickling Kurogane's nose with. Deciding that a chase or display of anger- which was obviously what the mage was aiming for- would only encourage further annoyances, he instead rolled out of bed and stretched, ignoring Fai. Surprised that the wizard hadn't done anything else to annoy him, he glanced at his companion and found Fai quiet, turning the feather in his fingers, studying it.

"What are you doing, mage?"

Fai smiled slightly.

"It's funny...after everything we've been through, everything that's happened...it's strange to look at a feather and have it just be a feather, just something Tomoyo-chan's pet bird left behind. Nothing special about it."

"Hn."

Mokona suddenly bounded into the room and leapt at Kurogane's head.

"Kuro-puu! Kuro-puu! It's morning!"

"I know that, rat!"

He swatted the creature away and rolled his eyes when it leapt into Fai's arms whining about "Kuro-daddy" being mean, and Fai just encouraged the thing by cuddling it.

"Fai-mommy is nice to me at least!"

Kurogane snorted and absorbed Ginryu into his real arm, which Fai had put that spell on again. It was especially convenient in worlds like this where carrying a sword belted at his side would look strange, but he didn't want to be without a weapon. Mokona bounced back out of the room, declaring it was going to wake Syaoran up. Kurogane pulled a change of clothes that Tomoyo had provided out of the drawers in one corner and glared at Fai.

"I'm going to have a shower. Stay out of trouble."

Those eyes were wide and might have fooled someone who didn't know Fai into thinking him innocent. Kurogane had no such delusions. There was mischief brewing there.

"Aww, now Kuro-puppy, what kind of trouble could I possibly get into?"

"It would take hours to list the kinds of trouble you could get into, wizard."

Fai laughed and headed for the door. Kurogane noted that his hair was damp and his clothes were different than yesterday's, so he must have been up for a while and already showered.

"I'll be good, Kurgy."

Kurogane inwardly cringed, knowing how unlikely that was, and wondering what sort of disaster he would find when he got out of the shower.

Grumbling, he got in the shower stall and let the water relax him. There were shelves on one side with various soaps and shampoos. Somehow Kurogane wasn't surprised to find that the one left open from earlier was some girly flowery scented stuff. Leave it to Fai to wash his hair with rose scented shampoo. Sighing, he looked through the bottles until he found the least girly one, something citrus-y, which still didn't feel quite manly but was better than the other options. He lathered his hair up and rinsed, then got out and dried off. He got dressed and finally went to the mirror to comb his hair, muttering grouchily about stupid mages and rose scented shampoo and feathers. When he finally looked into the mirror, he froze as still as death, staring at his reflection.

His hair, every last strand of it, had gone a shockingly bright shade of pink.

"FAI!!!!"