Do You?

DISCLAIMER: I'm not that cool, people.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Dude! Everyone NEEDS to see Ironman. It is the most amazingly, awesome thing in recent history!

Now that that's over, I present the fic. (Sorry, I think that movie fried my brain! That Author's note had nothing to do with anything.)

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The two were just standing there, in the yellow puddle created by the street light. The taller figure had short, dark hair, and unnaturally red eyes. The shorter long dark locks that hung down into her face, obscuring it.

"Do you love him?" she finally whispered into the silence.

"I… don't know," he answered, and that was true.

"Do you love me?"

He had to really think about that. They had been together so long he was very attached. He had always assumed that it was love. After all, he cared deeply, and would be dead before anyone hurt her. But… it had never felt the way other people said it should. So he had just resigned himself that this was the closest thing he would ever have to love. Assumed it had to be love, because what else could it be?

But it was nothing compared to the wild excitement, and the onslaught of emotion that was him. Nothing compare to how that person made him feel… feel everything. Not just joy, but anger, and sadness, and longing, and all of them at once. He could not say that that was love, because how could love be that confusing?

Since the first time he saw him, he had noticed how different he felt around the man. When he had run into him literally at the airport, an idiot who wasn't looking where he was going, baggage in hand. They had collided, and he wasn't sure why, but he exploded. He normally wouldn't react quite that badly, even if he did have a temper. Not long after that, he had found himself with this perfect stranger, in the airport bar. The man was teasing him, and perverting his name, and he was not someone to put up with that. But he did.

Then the eerie fact that he kept running into him everywhere, until it was going beyond the acceptable bounds of coincidence, save that he knew neither one was planning it. The other was involved in a relationship too, with a pretty, albeit empty headed girl. Neither one wanted to cheat, neither one was trying to. But somehow it seemed that they were being driven together, by fate maybe? He had not previously believed in anything like that, but what other explanation was there?

So, the first time they had kissed had been completely accidental. He had had car trouble, a flat tire. And of all the people in all the cars of the world, the one who had to stop and offer help was that blonde. And somehow (he could never say how) the act of removing the spare from his trunk had turned into a very heated kiss.

And so it continued. When a new tenant moved into his building, right across the hall, it was that man. It had to have been the most awkward moment of his life, both their lives, when he came out of his door that morning, and found himself face to face with him, lugging boxes up stairs. He had naturally offered to help him carry them; thought how that resulted in sex mystified them both.

Worse, he knew he should feel guilty, but he couldn't. All he felt in relation to the man was exhilaration. There was no guilt for kissing him or for sleeping with him. He had tried, they both tried, to avoid seeing each other after that. Still, in uncanny ways, he would find him. They would find each other. And it was when he slept with him again, and this time could not pass it off as unintentional, that he decided something had to be done.

So he had told her, because, she was worth that much at least. He had spent so much time with her; he had thought he loved her. She said that she loved him. That was when he finally began to feel guilt, not over what he had done, but for hurting her. And she was owed an answer, to anything she asked, even if it wasn't the one she wanted.

"No," he said, "Not the way you want me to."

She went quiet again. She was not one to cry, even if she was so clearly heartbroken.

"You do love him, I think," she said presently. "It was when you said his name, the way you said it. You never said mine like that."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I know you didn't try to do this. It just… happened." then she gave him an odd glance, "I hope you're happy together, Kurogane. I really do."

He wasn't sure what to do next. He knew that Fai had promised to do the same with Chi, that poor idiot he was dating. So he guessed that what he should do was go home, to the person who he wasn't sure if he loved. And hope that they made the right choices.

"Goodbye, Tomoyo." He murmured.

END NOTE: Yeah I played with the pairings in here. I don't support KuroTomo, or FaiChi at all. Somehow, Kurogane and Tomoyo's relationship has always seemed more sibling-like to me. And Fai was always so obviously gay, have you seen his coat? Oh well, we'll pretend, as I really enjoyed writing it. Sorry that it's so short.