His first thought was that this seemed... familiar. It was dark; he was chained up, shackles on his wrists and ankles. But he wasn't blindfolded – the room was dark – and there was nothing at his back. The shackles which held his wrists hung down from the ceiling, and those around his ankles were attached to the cold stone floor. He was wearing nothing but his fundoshi, and it was chilly – he got the feeling that the room was somewhere below ground. There was something he was supposed to remember, but what was it?

One by one torches flared to life on the walls, casting their dancing flames around the room. He didn't like what he saw; this was a dungeon, a torture chamber, and he was the main attraction.

But how had he–

That was it. That was what he was supposed to remember, to ask how he'd gotten here. He didn't know... which mean that this must be a dream. Yes, the last thing he remembered was going to bed, and then he'd woken up like this except it hadn't felt like waking up – it had just happened.

The door opened with a jarring squeal and he turned his head to look who had arrived – Fai, of course, clad in tight black leather. Kurogane watched him without saying anything as he went over to a rack on the wall on the other side of the room and looked over the selection of rather cruel-looking implements before making his selection: a cat o' nine tails. Kurogane had to remind himself that this was only a dream as Fai turned to him and smiled – not his usual fake-happy smile, but something much more sinister.

He came over to Kurogane and began to walk around him slowly. "Where should I start?"

"What are you doing?" Kurogane demanded of him.

"What am I doing?" Fai repeated. "I'm punishing you, of course," he said with another smile, and put the end of the cat's handle under Kurogane's chin.

"For what? I haven't done anything."

"I haven't done anything!" Fai mimicked back at him. "What do you call this, then?" he asked as he tapped his eye patch. That was what this was about; punishment for saving his life. Kurogane could play along with this dream-Fai.

"I wasn't just going to let you–"

He cried out as Fai lashed out with the cat o' nine against his chest, then gritted his teeth and promised himself he wouldn't get caught off-guard like that again.

"What about my feelings?" Fai asked him icily, and brought the cat down on his chest again. This time, he didn't make a sound. "I didn't ask you to save me. I didn't want you to save me. Any of those times!" He brought it down again. "Why can't you just let me be?" Again.

"I just can't," Kurogane replied. "Besides, Sakura needs you. We all need you."

Fai seemed caught off-guard by his answer, and paused before delivering a flurry of strikes to Kurogane's chest again. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists and reminded himself that as soon as this was over, the pain would be gone. He only had to endure it for a while.

When Fai stopped, he went on. If there was ever a time to unload his feelings, this was it; that it was a dream, that it was just a version of Fai he'd dreamed up, it didn't matter. "You're selfish. You never stop to consider what other people think. Where would we all be without you? Sakura especially. Even if you won't admit it, you care about her. If you didn't, you wouldn't have bothered to use your magic to get us out of that library place."

He paused to take a breath in his rant, and Fai hit him hard across the face with the cat o' nine. Kurogane yelped, then cursed – mostly at himself – as he licked his stinging lips.

"So what if I'm selfish – so are you! Stop and consider what I think, why don't you. I'm not the same. I'm not traveling towards something – I'm going away from it."

"'You can run, but you can't hide'," Kurogane quipped, earning him another lash – this time, across the front of his thigh.

"What do you know?" Fai demanded.

"I know that you need to man up and face whatever it is you're running from. I don't care what it is. I don't care how hard that might be. I don't care if you die doing it – but if you don't, then you'll never be able to move forward. You'll never have a future. And if you think that you can get away from it by dying, you're wrong. It will always haunt you, no matter what, unless you turn around and take care of it yourself."

As Kurogane spoke, Fai's expression turned from anger to fear, and he backed down, away from Kurogane. Kurogane figured he had won – until Fai let the cat o' nine tails drop to the floor and instead picked up a glowing iron brand from the small bellows Kurogane hadn't even noticed was there.

Fai didn't even look back up at him, just watched the end of the brand as he brought it back towards Kurogane, holding it at arm's length.

Kurogane tensed for it as Fai brought the end forwards on to his chest.

He woke up with a scream muffled by his pillow then, after a moment of lying there panting for a few minutes, punched himself lightly on the side of the head for making that noise. Dream or not, the brand had been some of the most sudden, intense pain he'd ever experienced, and he'd experienced a lot. It ached for a long while after he'd woken up, and he almost managed to convince himself he could smell charred flesh, but of course when he finally rolled over and looked down there was no mark, nothing there. He'd been right – it was a dream after all, no matter how real it had seemed.

#

Fai lay on his side in his bed in the darkness and tried to swallow the knot in his throat, but it only settled in the pit of his stomach instead. He hadn't expected Kurogane to turn the tables on him; this was supposed to be Kurogane's bad dream, not his own nightmare. Hurting Kurogane didn't seem to be having the effect he was hoping for... so what if he could get Kurogane to hurt or kill him instead? It might be difficult, but the results would be worth it.