Title: Yama snippets that weren't
Pairing: Kurogane x Fai
A/N: I was straightening out my folders and found this in my drafts - at one point I'd considered adding these scenes to "Yama Snippets" - somewhere towards the end of Fai and Kurogane's time in Yama - before I chickened out and left the story decidedly PG. Welp, now you get to the scenes anyways :P The two scenes aren't meant to happen on the same day, by the way, I just figured it worked better if I posted them together.


He comes back from the feast alone one night and Fai is already asleep, stretched out on his belly, his face buried in the blankets like it always is. He doesn't shift when Kurogane lights the fire, nor when he starts to take his armour and the padding off.

Kurogane pours himself a drink of water then sets the pitcher out to cool. When he goes back inside the tent, the flame flickers and shadows move over the makeshift bed. With the dark clothes and blankets piled around him, the few flashes of Fai's pale skin stand out, and Kurogane crosses over to the bed and kneels, leans over Fai's upturned wrist and neck and tastes sweetness and salt.

Fai breathes beneath him, back shifting slightly as he wakes, and with his dark shirt gone, Kurogane kisses and licks along Fai's spine, dragging his fingers down his pale, warm skin.

The firelight is red and moves behind them, shivering; Fai turns under his touch, wrapping his arms around him, long legs twining, body arching, willing and languid

His lips trace the line of Fai's jaw, and Fai's fingers start pulling at his clothes, and when he presses down to grind against him, Kurogane moans low into Fai's mouth-

-and wakes up with a gasp.

Fuck.

Fuck, no.

He almost groans but stops himself. The mage is still asleep, hopefully not pretending, and Kurogane slowly crawls out of the blankets and rushes to the river to cool off. He curses when he hits the water, keeps cursing as his thoughts rush away in the half-light. It's only a little after dawn, some hours before they should have woken up by rights.

This shouldn't have happened; it'd better not happen again.

As he stands up against the current, cold water rising to his chest, Kurogane thinks about more useful things, like what to do with himself until the mage wakes up, and how exactly to explain his absence - if he'll even explain it at all.


It's been raining for many hours and they've been waiting it out in their tent, readying weapons for the moonrise. The air is damp outside, and inside it's warm from the fire, and Fai's lips burn but there's no drink to cool them. They'd forgotten to get some, and now they couldn't do that, with the rain. So he sets down his arrows and crawls over to Kurogane, kissing him wet and deep. His fingers frame the ninja's face as his mouth works with growing need, and Kurogane kisses back with matching thirst, making Fai grin as he changes the angle.

But his lips are still burning, and now his skin is warm, and Fai keeps wanting more. Somebody shifts and now he's straddling Kurogane, moving against him, pressing down into his lap and up into his mouth. He gasps when Kurogane reaches skin, hands splayed over his lower back and side-

-and Fai opens his eyes, whole body charged.

It must be the long hours of the night from the lack of all sound outside, and Fai can hear Kurogane's breathing beside him, slow and even in his sleep. He doesn't dare to move, taking in shallow breaths for fear of panting, and he curses himself for teasing Kurogane about his many fans, for surely that had brought all of this on.

He buries his head in the blankets and makes himself calm down, thinking of everything and anything at all to wipe away the dream. Because it's nothing that he can afford, and no good can come of it. So Fai remembers all the things he knows, and everything he's hidden, and lets the bitter taste wash over everything to slowly bring uneasy calm.