Fai spun around, his long sleeves flying outwards, and he clapped his hands like a little child. Kurogane groaned. The idiot...if he had to see the wizard in a furisode one more time, he was going to cut it off him and make him dress like a damn man! Then again, considering that Fai's mind filtered everything into perverted form, maybe cutting his clothes off wasn't the best idea...

"Kuro-sama, this is great fun!"

"What is? Being a complete moron? Dressing like a woman? Neither appeals to me."

"No, silly Kuro-sama, it's just fun to have nothing to do and nowhere to go!"

"Nowhere to go yet. Two weeks from now we'll have to go."

"Kuro-puu, you're sulking! Is being an ambassador really such a bad thing?"

He sighed heavily and took a drink from the bottle he held. It was good to be back...he'd missed the wine, among other things. He glanced out through his open door to the garden and pond it led to. He was glad to have his old room back; he'd always enjoyed being able to go into the garden whenever he felt like it; love of nature was one of his guilty, somewhat-less-than-manly pleasures.

"I'm a fighter, not a negotiator. I was hoping for something similar to my old command back."

Fai dropped down to sit beside him and reached for the bottle. He took a curious sip, then closed his eyes in pleasure and made an approving humming sound.

"Good wine. I think I'll like it here."

"Give that back."

"Nuh-uh. The last three worlds we've been to had terrible alcohol. Good wine is one of the two staples of my diet..." He smirked. "...the other, of course, being you."

His eyes flashed golden briefly. Kurogane ignored it and snatched the bottle back. Once Fai had admitted to actually enjoying the taste of Kurogane's blood, Kurogane had gotten used to those brief flickers of gold whenever Fai thought about it, even if the vampire wasn't hungry. When he was actually hungry, his eyes turned gold and didn't turn back unless he fed or magically suppressed it (which was necessary if they were in some crowded area and Fai could not feed without causing mass panic).

"Kuroooogaaaneee! Give it baaaaack!"

The whining grated on his ears. He wondered if Fai had used his real name because it had more syllables to drag out and annoy the ninja with, or if he was trying to prod a nerve and make Kurogane give the bottle back out of desire not to relive painful memories. Both tricks had been employed many times over the years...enough that neither worked anymore. He kept the bottle and ignored the blonde's pout.

"Go get your own, idiot. There's a bunch in the cabinet in the corner. It'll be all the better for having been there six years."

Fai jumped up and skipped across the room, and returned with not one, but three bottles. Kurogane sighed. He hoped Fai was in his serious drinking mood, and not the "pretend to be drunk and run around meowing like the demented cat from hell" mood.

Thankfully, Fai drank quietly, looking out over the garden and letting a companionable silence settle over them.

A thoughtful, somewhat sad look came over Fai's face. Kurogane noticed and spoke quietly. The years had made conversation easier between them, on almost every topic.

"Something wrong?"

"No, not really. I just remembered something..."

There was silence for a long moment. Finally, Kurogane sighed.

"Are you gonna tell me?"

"You won't like it. I don't even like thinking about it."

"Spit it out, mage."

"Today...it's been ten years since I became Ashura-ou's lover."

Kurogane blinked. It was the first time Fai had so directly spoken of his relationship with the mad king. Granted, he'd always assumed it had been something like that...but hearing it so plainly was a little startling. And more than a little awkward...Kurogane had never been comfortable with romantic relationships between males, despite that many of his comrades had had male lovers and despite the fact that even he was not completely unaffected by Fai's charm, especially given the intimacy of vampiric feedings. Also, to add to the awkwardness was the rather uncomfortable fact that it was Kurogane who had killed Ashura...and he'd often wondered if some small, secret part of Fai might resent him for it. He cleared his throat.

"You wanna talk about it?"

Fai stared into nothing, apparently lost in memory, and spoke quietly.

"He raised me...he was always so kind. I never thought of him as a father...I didn't even really understand the concept of a father, given my past. I looked up to him, certainly, but he was always more a friend and an idol of sorts than a father figure. He never acted...inappropriately towards me. But, when I got into my teens, started to grow up, and naturally became rather curious about the nature of physical relationships...well, I asked him to explain it. Again, he made absolutely no advances towards me; he just honestly explained men and women and how they interact.

But...I began to question things I had always thought normal before; like the way I was normally always welcome in Ashura-ou's chambers, but when he and one of his "friends" were "speaking" privately, I was forbidden entry. There were noblemen, guards, even the occasional civilian. But they were always male...and I began to understand what that meant. I asked Ashura-ou about it, and he answered me, honestly. From that moment, I think I understood that a day would come when his eyes would fall on me in a different way than I was accustomed to. I knew I would be given a choice; but I never even considered saying no. After all he'd done for me...after he had given me the only semblance of happiness I had ever known...how could I refuse? It would have been dishonourable, I thought. It was years before it happened, not until I was a man full-grown...but when he turned his attention to me, I was willing. Not eager, but willing. Right up until the killings started...I shared his bed, indifferent physically but always craving to please him in whatever way I could, to repay him in part for all he'd given me, to ensure he was willing to keep giving me security. I never loved him as a lover...but I always loved him, until he changed...until he lost himself...and even then, in a way..."

Kurogane saw the tears in the blonde's eyes and tried to think of something to say. What could he say? In a sense, his relationship with Tomoyo was similar, in that she had saved him and given him a measure of security and happiness...and perhaps, though he could scarce imagine it, he too would have been willing to thank her with his body. But...it was so hard to imagine that he couldn't even decide if he would do such a thing or not. Tomoyo would never ask such a thing. Tomoyo was also not likely going to go mad and start killing her own subjects, ever.

"I'm sorry it all went wrong."

Fai smiled softly.

"In the end, I'm glad. If he hadn't gone mad...if it hadn't all gone to hell...I would have lived my whole life as a king's pet. There are worse things, that I know from experience...but I wouldn't have wanted to live that way forever, in the bed of someone I did not desire, never knowing what the rest of the universe is like. Even though it still makes me sad to think of it...his death freed me...you freed me."

The look in those sapphire eyes was not something Kurogane was sure he wanted to address. He always felt a little bit uncomfortable about the way fate had thrown them together; it reeked a little too much of those old fairytales he'd been told as a child. Two people with broken pasts, trapped together by destiny...sometimes he felt that, whether he liked it or not, Fai was the princess in the tower, and he the knight in shining armour. Sometime he wondered if Hitsuzen was really nothing more than that damn witch pulling strings because she liked seeing men together. He wouldn't put it past her, dead or not.

Fai took a long drink and smiled. Kurogane tensed, awaiting the inevitable meow and false drunkenness. There was no meow, but Fai giggled and curled up against Kurogane's side, not unlike a cat in his movements. Rolling his eyes, Kurogane whacked him very lightly on the head with his fist.

"Meow!"

He sighed. He was going to have to start locking his wine cabinet.