Warning: More threats, more violence. and some sex I guess.
Incidentally, today is exactly a year from when I began this series.
Reader - Thank you so much for the dialogue reminder! I've been working on olympic fic and totally forgot to pay attention to dialogue tags. OTL Glad you liked the previous chapter! Kurogane did have to learn about Fai going being all their backs and stuff ;)
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me.
in Piffle, we play Pretend
Chapter 7: Vengeance and Betrayal
They would've been able to slip into the camper without any fuss had Fai not been outside, watering plants in the ridiculously-overcrowded rooftop garden. The sky was a deep blue, purple clouds hanging low above them, and most of Piffle had quieted by twilight.
As it was, the idiot mage perked up when Kurogane ushered Sakura and Mokona out of the rooftop stairwell. Fai waved at the kids. Sakura waved back. Kurogane glanced at the princess, who smiled warmly at him, and made his way over to the blond.
"Kuro-pii didn't buy the headlight covers?" Fai looked up at him, blue eyes searching. "Were there none in stock?"
Kurogane waited for the front door to close behind Sakura, before he said, "Princess was attacked."
The wizard stared. His eyes grew wide, pupils constricting, and then he was cold, chin tipped up, his glare edged with ice. "What?"
"She's fine now," Kurogane said. "No damage, just a bit shaken. She said she's fine."
Fai looked between the camper and Kurogane, and set his watering can down, voice tight. "We'll talk about this later."
Kurogane watched as the idiot sprinted across the expanse of the roof, disappearing into the warm, yellow light of their temporary home. Despite the mental preparation he'd had for this, it still stung, the way Fai had looked at him.
When he pulled the silvery door open, Fai, Sakura and Mokona were seated in the living room, Fai with one arm around the princess's shoulder. "If you ever need to talk to someone, I'm right here, Sakura-chan," he murmured. "Are you sure want to continue with the self-defense lessons? Syaoran-kun and I will definitely make sure we're with you at all times when we go out."
Kurogane glared at the back of his stupid blond head. If he didn't know better, he'd have thought Fai was merely concerned, without a wish to skewer him right there.
Sakura nodded firmly. "Yes. I want to continue learning, Fai-san. I don't want to worry any of you more than I can. I know you've worried about my feathers, and I'm sorry—"
"Don't be sorry," Fai said gently, all soft like he was born to mother someone. "We're all here for you, you know. If there's anything at all you're unsure about, come to us, okay? You too, Moko-chan. You've helped a lot today. Thank you."
"Fai is not angry with Mokona?"
The wizard took Mokona into his cupped hands, cradling her close to his chest. "Moko-chan is an important part of this family," he said. (When had he started calling the white thing nicknames?) "I need you to protect Sakura-chan whenever you can, okay?"
Mokona nodded, her ears twitching.
"I don't want to trouble Moko-chan," Sakura said.
"Sakura definitely does not trouble Mokona!"
Kurogane watched as the three of them shared a hug. Fai closed the discussion with more reassurances and an offer to tell Sakura bedtime stories, and added, "If you need someone to be with you while you sleep, don't hesitate to ask any of us."
The princess nodded. "Thank you, Fai-san. That helped a lot." She turned back to look at Kurogane, and smiled. "You too, Kurogane-san. Thank you for today."
Fai beamed at her, did not turn around to acknowledge Kurogane. Kurogane sighed, stepped over to ruffle the princess's hair. "Get some rest," he said. "We've got things to do tomorrow."
They watched as Sakura and Mokona made their way upstairs, feet pattering across the thin floors.
A beat of silence later, Fai spoke, his voice barely audible. "What really happened?"
Kurogane sighed. He rounded the couch, dropped into it, leaving a short distance between himself and Fai. The princess was in Syaoran's room, now. He assumed they were talking. "I wasn't looking. She disappeared. I found her cornered by a bunch of guys."
Fai's eyes grew hard, cold like before, and Kurogane looked at the coffee table. "You were supposed to protect her," he hissed, low and poisonous. "How could you let that happen?"
"I looked away for one second," Kurogane said. He was unwilling to share this, but Fai deserved to know. He expected the same in return. "Next thing I knew, she was three floors up."
"You're a warrior. How? This isn't supposed to happen on your watch."
"None of your business."
Fai glared at him, straightening so he was taller, and Kurogane would have been pleased at how real he was right now, if this weren't his own fault in the first place. "You had one responsibility, Kuro-rin, and that was to protect Sakura-chan."
"I know that, all right?"
"What were you even distracted by?" Blue eyes grew to slits. "Pretty boys? Parts we can't afford?"
He bristled then, indignant and angry at himself. How did the idiot still not know? "Fuck pretty boys. I was looking at your damn face. Happy?"
Fai blinked at that. "Really."
"Remember how Tomoyo sold some of our pictures? They were on a magazine. I was looking at them." Kurogane glanced away, hating that he had to spell this out. He had been telling Fai the same thing through worlds, now. "Your face was on there."
"Very funny, Kuro-tan. You don't need to use me as an excuse to look at pretty boys, you know—"
Kurogane snarled, reached forward to snag Fai's collar in his fist, bringing their faces so close he could see the flecks of deeper blue in those eyes. "I was looking at you," he growled. "Which part of that don't you understand?"
Fai blinked quickly, caught himself. "Are you blaming me for the attack on Sakura-chan?"
"Damn you." He shoved the wizard away, glared at him. Why did it have to be this absolute nitwit who added to all his problems? "All I'm saying is I was distracted. Stop talking in circles, you idiot."
Fai glanced away, a haughty lift to his chin that Kurogane was sure he wasn't aware of. "The point is that Sakura-chan was in danger. How could you?"
"She got away from those guys. You should be damn proud of her, damn you."
"She shouldn't have fallen into that situation in the first place," Fai snapped. "I don't want to think about what could have happened."
"You think I do? Those guys are still out there."
"You didn't take them out?" A line flickered between Fai's eyebrows.
"The princess said no." Kurogane exhaled, swallowed his anger at both himself and Fai. "If you were there to take her away, I could've beat them up."
"Not kill them?"
"I can't kill them. Damn Tomoyo."
He glanced askance at Fai then, saw the contemplative pull of thin lips.
"Look, it's still not safe for the princess to be wandering around. I won't lose her next time. But there are other girls out there who might be getting into the exact same situation right now."
The wizard stiffened, expression drawn tight.
In a lower tone, in case the princess heard, Kurogane said, "I'm going back to deal with them. You coming?"
"You're still not forgiven." Fai glanced at him.
"Not what I'm asking. Do you want to come with me, or not?" He saw the bob of Fai's throat when he swallowed, undecided. "There's no cameras in the smaller corridors or in the lower level parking lots."
"You don't have Souhi with you."
Kurogane grinned. "I don't need a sword to kill. Got a pipe though."
"Still a barbarian, Kuro-pon." But Fai's mouth was curved in a tiny smile, and interest glimmered in his eyes.
Kurogane thought about kissing him. He pushed to his feet instead, turned to the door. "Race you to the Complex."
Fai was vaulting over the back of the couch in the next instant, and Kurogane grabbed the keys from the loop of his pants, swung the door open, loping across the rooftop to their docked machines.
"It's not fair when you cheat," Fai said lightly, caught the keys when Kurogane tossed them back. His dragonfly purred beneath him.
"I got here first. It's not fair if I don't have the keys."
He took off an instant later, and Fai was behind him, his engine roaring as he pulled forward to catch up. Kurogane smirked. He swung his machine close to Fai in an attempt to knock him off-course. The wizard rolled to the side and under, and Kurogane was hardly surprised when he flipped up onto his other side, hardly fazed.
"So violent," Fai sang.
"You like it when I'm violent." Kurogane swerved hard towards him again, and Fai broke into a grin, steered away so they missed a collision by inches.
"I'm trying to save our dragonflies for the race, Kuro-rinta."
"Like hell you are." Kurogane jammed his foot down on the gas pedal, and his dragonfly shot ahead, vibrating with the strain of the forward thrust.
They zipped between buildings, flying over other dragonflies, sometimes jostling wing-to-wing, and at others, splitting apart to avoid crashing into another machine, loud curses trailing after them. Their dragonflies were still not fast enough to win, but Kurogane was certain that they were getting there with every modification and every race they pitted against one another.
The kids could fly. He and Fai were on an entirely different level, though. They'd raced countless times through the different worlds, now, and Fai had tried possibly every trick there was to unseat him. Kurogane had not fallen. And Fai won, sometimes.
It was no different tonight, when their dragonflies screamed into the parking lot of the Canyon Complex, nose-to-nose, Fai still trying to get the better of him, and Kurogane holding his own.
When they screeched to a halt, engines smoking, blood thrumming through their veins, Kurogane climbed out of his machine, stepping forward to survey the damage. They'd need new filters soon, more oil, and better thrusters.
"I won," Fai said, gloating. Kurogane snorted.
"You won because I let you win."
"That's just your way of saying you couldn't help but let me win." Gold eyebrows waggled; Kurogane rolled his eyes.
"If that floats your boat."
"It floats my dragonfly, definitely."
"Are you trying to be funny? Because you're not."
They locked their machines into the lots, and Fai drifted closer, jostling him when he began walking towards the mall entrance.
The Canyon Complex was still busy this time of day. In fact, business only slowed in the wee hours of the morning, when office workers and schoolkids alike had to retire for the night. That aside, people from the working class filled the mall now, with some kids lingering around, either working part-time or hanging out with their friends. Kurogane had learned their types, the way shopkeepers sold things to different people, and he was confident in his abilities to drive a hard bargain.
Right now, however, they were here for something entirely different, and Kurogane could almost smell Fai's violent streak, when the wizard pasted his smile on and swept those blue eyes across the crowd, murmuring, "What did they look like?"
He wanted to push Fai up against a wall now, too, but held off. There'd be time later.
Kurogane hadn't really expected the predators to still be lingering around so long after the confrontation, but he gave Fai as best a description as he could cobble together. Fai hummed, glanced around, walked with a bounce to his step.
"You're enjoying this," he said.
Fai grinned. "We're defending Sakura-chan's honor. As well as that of whoever else they might target."
It felt as though he'd received a punch through his gut when Fai smiled like that. Kurogane made no mention of it, only filed it into the recesses of his mind.
As it was, they happened across those men again, on a different floor, in another back corridor, grubby hands on another girl. Fai ceased his chatter midway, swept forward, and Kurogane was at his back to pluck the monsters off so he could extricate the girl.
He flung them outwards, away from Fai and the girl both, so they were all surrounded by men who recognized him, their faces twisted with vengeance. Two men flew forward; Kurogane swung his steel pipe at one and dodged the other, caught him by the shirt to pull him away from his charges.
The man bounced harmlessly off a wall. Kurogane aimed for the ones closest to Fai, punched one in the nose, threw another off his back. There was a flash of metal, glinting sharp. He grabbed the wrist attached, twisted that arm, snapped it out of its shoulder joint. The man screamed.
Fai had got the girl to the far end of the corridor, now, pulling her clothes back together and saying quiet words to her. Kurogane allowed himself to shift his focus fully onto the fight, cracking bone and breaking noses, and it wasn't long before Fai approached at a run, taking down one man with a roundhouse kick.
Kurogane grinned. This was violent, and good.
"You're stealing all the fun away," Fai said, pouting. Kurogane barked a laugh. There was one last man standing; the rest were bloodied, broken, still alive, and he left him to Fai.
Fai set upon the monster like a hellcat, swinging punches and cracking bone, and the man was dead in front of Kurogane before he thought to say anything. Mostly, he wanted to get Fai alone, but he was content to watch the predatory gleam in blue eyes, the way Fai set upon the other men, snuffed them out one by one.
"We probably shouldn't have done that," the wizard said after, wiping his bloody hands off on one man's shirt. "Blood is very tiresome to clean off the floors."
Kurogane snorted. "You clean it, then."
"No. We need the news to pick up on this. So no cleaning." The wizard had crouched back in front of the girl, who had frozen to the floor in terror. "I'm sorry. I should have asked you to look away first. Are you feeling better?"
She still couldn't speak, so Kurogane sighed and moved to the other end of the corridor, waiting while Fai talked sense and comfort into her. No one approached this place, strangely enough. Triumph still roared in his chest. When Fai finally joined him, fifteen minutes later, he said, "I didn't lose strength from that."
"You left all the dirty work to me." The wizard sighed. "Such a pity, though. All that youth and vigor, wasted like that."
"You can't use them for magic? Blood spells?"
Fai's eyebrows crawled up his forehead. "I did not expect that of you, Kuro-tan. Yes, blood can be used in magic."
"Tch. Should've brought something to bleed them into."
The wizard huffed in delight. "How very wicked of you. I'm impressed."
"So you gonna, or not?" If his heart was fluttering, it was an anomaly, and Kurogane didn't have time for it right now. "You'll use the blood to make more spells?"
Fai looked away. "The roof could use better spellwork, yes."
"I thought you said it was safe."
Fai shrugged.
They ended up scrounging around the parking lot nearby for empty bottles, and found two. The girl had left when they returned to the mess of bodies, but there was no police, and still no one had stopped to gawp. Kurogane left Fai to pick out his blood sources while he checked the pockets of the dead, retaining anything of value.
When the wizard was done, he had two bottles of deep red blood, and Kurogane held up the cash cards he'd found. "Booze?"
"We should spend it all soon, shouldn't we?" Fai hummed. They strolled back to their parking lot, stashed the bottles. "I'm not sure Sakura-chan would be comfortable knowing her next set of clothes came from the pockets of a pack of monsters."
"We still need the headlight covers."
They dropped by a washroom to rinse their hands, and Fai brushed a fleck of blood off Kurogane's cheek with a fingertip. It was light, gentle, and there was a definite cheer to his disposition when Kurogane followed him out. Kurogane tried not to think about how pink his lips were.
The headlight covers were easily found. They slipped into stores without security cameras, ran the cash cards dry, and emerged from the Canyon Complex with tools and new parts for their machines. Kurogane didn't feel the slightest remorse for it.
He raced Fai back to the camper. Their new purchases made this trickier, and Kurogane won by gunning his engine all the way back, leaving Fai to catch up, and hindering his path when he tried to fly around.
"That's not fair," Fai said, when the machines were docked on the rooftop, engines clicking softly as they cooled. "You were very inconsiderate, Kuro-rin."
"Tell that to the other pilots in the race."
There was a tiny shed next to the camper where they stored their tools and loose parts. It was where Kurogane tucked their new purchases in now, while Fai hung around behind him, cracking a bottle of liquor open. The clouds had only grown thicker; he glanced up at them when a cool breeze blew by, wondering if they should pull tarps over their dragonflies.
"Think it's gonna rain?" He took the bottle from Fai, downed a long swallow, handed it back.
Fai looked up at the sky. "It's not impossible. I could check the weather forecast."
"The weather forecast is crap."
Fai chuckled. Kurogane threw a tarp bundle in his face, and he squawked, dodging.
"Throw that on," Kurogane said. He tucked two other tarp bundles under his arm, locked the shed. Fai whined.
Piffle's weather tended to be predictable. There were sunny days, mostly, days when it poured, and days where it mizzled and got everyone just this shade of damp. It had been cloudy all day today, as though the sky was deciding whether it wanted to rain. Kurogane thought they might as well play it safe—it didn't do to have the seats of the dragonflies soaking for long hours through the night.
Fat raindrops were splattering on the roof by the time he'd crossed over to the clicking machines. He covered the unused one first, then the one Fai had just flown, flapping the tarp to help disperse heat from the engine.
"Surely it can't be good to cover them hot," Fai said, wandering over, tarp bundle in his other arm. He was still drinking.
"You wanna wait out here for it to cool?" Kurogane rolled his eyes. He did pull the tarp back from the hood of the dragonfly, though, so the rain could dissipate the heat gathered in the engine. It wasn't scalding hot like the cars of the other worlds, per se, but it didn't hurt to baby these machines sometimes.
"It's cooler out here than inside."
Fai sat on the warm hood of the last dragonfly, propped one foot up on its flat metal surface. It was the machine that Kurogane had unofficially claimed as his own, with its great, dragon-like wings and its no-nonsense lines, and Kurogane's breath caught, suddenly, when he thought about the blond splayed out on his dragonfly.
He sat down beside the wizard, scowled when Fai hefted the tarp bundle over to him. Heat from the engine radiated through the seat of his pants, hot enough to be slightly uncomfortable. "Cover it yourself, idiot."
"Your hands are not occupied." Fai waved the bottle at him. Kurogane snatched it over, drew a swig from it. "Hey!"
Kurogane shoved the tarp back. "There. Your hands are empty now. Cover the damn thing."
Fai made a grab for the bottle, rolling onto one hip to give himself better leverage, and Kurogane didn't quite care when the tarp rolled off his lap, landing with a soft thud that neither of them paid attention to. Fai pinned him down with one leg on his thighs, leaned over for the bottle he held in his outstretched hand.
"Stop being such a child, Kuro-pii." Fai smelled like dried sweat and warm skin, like a bit of blood and musk and danger.
Kurogane leaned in for a better sniff. The wizard froze, recovered, and rocked closer for the bottle, and Kurogane—damnably—held it behind his back.
Fai frowned at him. Kurogane grinned, smug— A raindrop fell into his eye, and he twitched, blinking it out. The wizard chose that moment to lunge, one hand on his chest, the other reaching over his shoulder.
He pulled the bottle easily out of Kurogane's grip, and Kurogane let him, caught those narrow hips instead, dipped his head close so he could press his nose to Fai's chest.
There was someone more valuable than wine, right now, and that person was Fai.
Fai shivered in his grasp. He shifted his weight to one knee, trying to pull away. Kurogane held on, pressed down on his hips to seat him in his lap, groin to groin, and an exquisite shiver shook all the way up to Fai's shoulders.
Fai looked away. He drank from the bottle, made to get up. Kurogane held him down, ground up into him, and Fai gasped, fingers growing tight around the bottleneck. He still wasn't making eye contact, but he didn't want to leave, either.
Kurogane rolled them over, pinned Fai beneath him, took the bottle.
The wizard did not protest when he drew wine into his mouth, leaned heavily over—their hips pressed together—to set the bottle on the roof floor. Kurogane covered blue eyes with his hand so the idiot could keep pretending none of this happened, and bent forward, brushed their lips together, wine mellow in his mouth.
When Fai gasped, he parted his lips, allowed sweet liquor to trickle into that mouth. Fai's tongue came up to lick at him, demanding more. He let the rest of the wine drip from his mouth then, every last drop, and Fai swallowed beneath him, opened himself further, pushing into Kurogane's mouth.
He let Fai take whatever he wanted, licking at his tongue, rolling his hips, and Fai whimpered beneath him, legs spreading wide, all the better to accommodate him. He was growing firm, pressing into Kurogane's groin, and Kurogane rocked back, pulled a gasp from his throat.
It was raining harder, now, the rooftop gleaming dark and reflecting specks of light, the windshield of the dragonfly streaked with water. He didn't care for it, when he ground their hips together and Fai's hands came up to clutch at him. Raindrops pattered into his hair, sliding off his forehead onto Fai's, and Kurogane was too busy kissing him to mind. Fai's mouth was hot, wet, rich with wine, and his tongue slid heavy along Kurogane's, hungry and eager.
He slipped one hand up Fai's thin shirt, felt the lean muscle of his chest, circled his nipple, and Fai made a little gasping, begging sound when he thumbed it, pushed himself forward so Kurogane knew just what he wanted right now.
Fai planted his feet on the hood, rutted back up at him, his erection a thick line in his pants, and Kurogane groaned.
He pulled off slightly, leaving Fai's mouth parted and moist, reached down to cup between his legs. Fai was still dry beneath him, sheltered from the rain. He whined, thrust into his hand, squirming, and Kurogane didn't wait, pushed his fingers past his waistband to touch bare flesh.
Fai's mouth fell open. His cheeks were dark, he was damp and hard, and Kurogane's mouth watered. He reached up briefly, tugging off the fabric Fai tied around his neck. It'd work well enough as a blindfold.
All he did with the cloth was drape it over Fai's eyes, and Fai made no move to push it off, instead trembling when Kurogane reached down, undid the zipper of his pants.
He eased Fai's cock out, let it stand desperately by itself, and when Fai pushed it at him, he scooted down, taking half of it into his mouth. Fai groaned, hips bucking up, filling Kurogane's mouth entirely. He hollowed his cheeks, pressed the tip of his tongue to sensitive flesh, and Fai writhed beneath him, leaking wet onto his tongue.
It didn't take long for his balls to draw tight, for him to grow thicker, and Kurogane pulled away, so Fai whimpered and lifted his hips, cock wet with spit.
They were both soaked, now, wet cloth a second skin over Fai's eyes, his hair limp and dark. Rain poured down on them, heavy and battering, stinging drops on his skin that tinkled off the dragonfly, sending tiny splashes everywhere, and he couldn't see much further than the edge of the rooftop. There was rain in his clothes, dripping down the back of his neck, down his arms, and Fai hissed when raindrops fell on his straining cock.
Kurogane flipped the wizard over onto the slick surface of the dragonfly. His thin hands splashed in pooled water, and Kurogane tugged his pants halfway down to expose him. Fai shuddered, left himself still and open and vulnerable, his palms flattened against slick metal, hips in the air. Kurogane reached between pale thighs, ran a hand over tight balls and heavy cock, and Fai thrust hungrily into his palm.
He swallowed hard, undid his own pants, and climbed onto the hood behind Fai so they fit, hip to hip, cock pressed into the soft skin of Fai's ass. But this wasn't enough, when Fai trembled wet in front of him and ground insistently back, begging to be touched.
He sat Fai down on the hood then, leaned him forward so calves and thighs and cock pressed firm against slick, warm metal. Fai groaned. Kurogane fit himself back against his ass, pointed down this time, the head of his own cock sliding against the dragonfly hood. Fai rocked against him, then pushed forward, like he couldn't decide which he wanted, and Kurogane pressed him firm against the machine so he jerked, moaning helplessly, cock trapped between his belly and the dragonfly.
With each thrust, Fai's fingers scrabbled against wet metal, his hair soaked clean through, and there wasn't anyone to witness the way Kurogane ground against the pucker of his entrance, his cock sliding warm and heavy, his pace increasing with each groan Fai couldn't contain. Rain pattered down in sheets, on the metal beneath them, diluting the wetness they smeared onto the hood.
Fai's hips snapped forward as he pushed himself against the dragonfly, desperate, and Kurogane imagined his wet cock sliding hot against precum-slick metal, flushed and dark. Fai came with a violent shudder, tensing up, and Kurogane drew him back with an arm across his collarbones, to see the way he slicked the hood with white.
It made him throb, made him thrust harder, and he wrapped a hand around himself, following soon after in a rush of pleasure.
It took them a while to regain their breaths, took Kurogane a while to pry himself off Fai, straightening his clothes. Fai wiped the stains off the dragonfly hood with his neckerchief, his breathing rolling and unsteady. Kurogane grabbed the wine bottle. He didn't think there was a point in sheltering the dragonfly at this point, but Fai threw the tarp open anyway, covered the machine with it.
It was only when they were back in the camper that they talked, dripping puddles of water onto the floor.
"Wine's not ruined much," Kurogane said, appreciative.
Fai snorted. "Should I put it back out in the rain, then?"
"'Course not."
"Syaoran-kun is sleeping with Sakura-chan," the wizard said abruptly, surprised.
Kurogane glanced up. He felt immediately guilty, then, because the kid was sleeping across the room from the princess, upstairs, instead of what he'd initially assumed. "Yeah, well, don't make it sound so bad."
Enough time had passed that Fai's answering grin was sly, his eyes in pleased, narrow slits. "Why? What did you think I was talking about, Kuro-sama?"
His heart thumped, and he looked away. He shouldn't feel so gratified whenever Fai addressed him with some sort of respect—the idiot meant it as a joke, for all he knew. Still.
"You going to work on the blood spells?" he asked.
Fai didn't meet his eyes. Instead, he turned to head for the stairs. "Mind your own business."
"The white thing said there's someone else with magic around." Fai looked back, and Kurogane continued, "Said the person was gonna get to the princess if I didn't get there when I did."
The wizard stilled. He changed directions and headed for the door, but Kurogane had glimpsed his surprise. He waited in the kitchen while Fai headed out and returned with the bottles of blood, dripping yet more water onto the floor. He said nothing about the dirt they'd tracked into the camper.
"Are they different?" he asked. "The blood spells."
Fai glanced at him after a while. "Not your business, Kuro-pon."
"What if I want to make something explode?"
Blond eyebrows crawled up.
"If you can do magic without using your magic, then I can too, right?" Kurogane leaned against the fridge, watched as Fai rinsed the bottles at the sink.
"It's not something you should play with."
"What if I used it to keep my sword sharp? Or make it stronger? It'll help protect the kids." And right there, Kurogane had discovered, was Fai's weakness. "Or, the princess needs to keep her dagger clean. Or she needs some extra protection."
The wizard shut off the water, set the bottles on the kitchen table. Their clothes were still wet and clinging, and Kurogane wasn't particularly pleased about it, but it wasn't something he needed to see to immediately, either.
"Syaoran-kun should be enough," Fai said. He didn't look so sure, though. This mystery person had to be strong, then, someone only he or Fai could face off.
"Blood magic going to help, then?"
"I should be the one to accompany Sakura-chan to places," Fai said after a pause. "She might be safer that way."
Kurogane snorted. "You aren't even telling us who this enemy is. Can we trust you?"
He'd meant it only to provoke, at first. The wizard froze. His next smile reeked of falsity, and Kurogane narrowed his eyes. "Why would you think otherwise? Of course you can."
He crossed the kitchen, backed Fai into a corner so the idiot couldn't slip away and hide. "You're hiding something else. Other than Ashura. You're protecting this enemy. Why?"
Because Fai knew him. Because he was important to Fai. Or because Fai had met him in a previous life, and he held loyalties to that person, if not that same soul. Kurogane wasn't jealous, but it ate at him, how Fai would forsake their trust for someone else's. Who held this much power over him?
"I am not," Fai said, his eyes darting to find an escape. "I merely want to see him fail. And you, Kuro-myu, you aren't allowing that."
"Why do you want to see him fail?"
"Not your business."
Kurogane slammed his fist into the counter, glaring. "At least tell me something so I know you aren't gonna betray us all, damn it!"
He hadn't really meant to say that aloud, hadn't wanted to think it at all. Blue eyes glittered, then, and Fai smiled thinly, his eyes narrowed and so full of derision it stung.
"What sort of person do you think I am? Do you think I will betray the children?" The wizard looked over his shoulder, his lips a flat line. "They'll keep wake up if you keep shouting."
He couldn't think how Fai would betray them at all, Fai who loved the kids like his own. If he loved the kids, and if Kurogane was protecting them, then there was no way Fai would go against him, not at all. Except there was someone else Fai was also protecting, someone bad.
"No," Kurogane said. "I don't think you'll betray them."
Fai smiled again, and it was no less brittle. He pushed at Kurogane. "Then the discussion is closed. I need to get these clothes off. They're awfully uncomfortable, if you haven't realized it yet."
He let Fai go, then, but this had planted a little nagging seedling of doubt in his chest. What else was the idiot hiding?
A/N: OKAY so. If you haven't heard about it from tumblr, you're hearing it now - posting schedule.
21 jul - random ficlet post
1 aug - olympics fic (srsly set some time aside to read this because my estimate is now 50k orz)
11 aug - random ficlet post (voting ends 14 aug or so, it seems!)
18 aug - Piffle may or may not resume... if not this week, then the next.
... sigh I cannot write short fic. anyhow, I hope you liked the car sex scene because.
