Title: Yama snippets
Pairing: Kurogane x Fai, pre-pre-slash you could call it.
Words: 615 (7990 total and counting)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General, in general; for this bit… I have no idea either. *fails*
Spoilers: Fai's backstory, Kurogane's backstory, and the events up to and including Yama
Disclaimer: I own nothing; Clamp does. Isn't that lovely?

Note: Oh yes, I know this is very, very late – my only excuse is that, apart from a general unwillingness to write and/or edit, my entire attention was high-jacked by not one, but two new fandoms. I didn't stand a chance.

Also, the fic is renamed "Yama snippets" instead of "Shura snippets" because it finally dawned on me that when Fai referred to the country in the past as Shura he was only talking about the country Syaoran and Sakura had landed in. He and Kurogane had, of course, landed in a different country, and considering the info in RG Veda, it's obvious that it'd be called Yama. I have no idea why I kept denying this all this time. Oh well ^^;;

On the 43rd day, right in the middle of the village, a girl calls out Fai's name and jumps into his arms in tears.

Between hiccups and gasps she speaks half-broken words into his neck but they make no sense to him. He looks at Kurogane while stroking the girl's back, but the man only shrugs at him. The people round them stop to watch and whisper, and Fai is starting to get worried.

And then a woman rushes over and wraps her arms around them both, and Fai's eyebrows climb to the heavens; with his hands literally full, he is entirely confused. Strangely enough, the people watching them begin to turn away, some smiling, others nodding – Kurogane just smirks at him, amused.

After a while the woman pulls away, taking the young girl in her arms. With her eyes in tears and full of gratitude, she tells Fai 'thank you' (this, he understands), then turns around and leaves.

Fai blinks and stares, and then he turns to Kurogane with a clear question on his face.

The ninja uncrosses his arms and points up to the sky (the fights, Fai understands), moves one hand in a little arc (the past, the fight the night before). He frowns and thinks for half a beat, and then he feigns striking Fai with a sword. At the last moment he grabs his own hand, stopping the 'strike', and then points back at Fai. He does this twice before Fai nods (the night before he had saved someone's life). Then Kurogane points back to the way the girl and woman had come from; he brings his arms together, miming the rocking of a child (he steps on the impulse to sigh and strangle the life out of Fai when the man sniggers shamelessly) then points that way again and says, slowly and clearly, "musume".

Fai blinks and comprehension dawns, and his smile spreads, slow and surprised, before he remembers himself.

Then he turns away in a flurry and points to a girl passing by; he says "musume", and Kurogane pulls a face (Fai grins at that) and nods. Then to another; Kurogane nods again. When Fai points at two boys chasing each other round a tent Kurogane shakes his head and offers "musuko" instead. Fai rolls the word around on his tongue then points toward two other boys, older, almost young men, saying "musuko" himself. Kurogane frowns at that but nods after a beat, almost an afterthought. When he turns back to leave Fai grabs his arm; he points at him asking "musuko" and Kurogane shakes his head, muttering something short and sharp that Fai cannot make out. He leaves without adding a thing, and Fai just trails behind him, careful for once not to step on his toes.

Fai understands that the two words refer only to girls and boys, to children. He understands that the man's daughter and (probably) his wife had come to thank him, and he's a little touched and quite a lot relieved at the show of acceptance. He doesn't understand Kurogane's last frown or the clench of his fist, but he can't ask, wouldn't even if he had the right words.

Fai doesn't know what'd happened to Kurogane that could have been used by that man before the Witch had interfered, but he is sure it had been painful, enough for the ninja to take that offered hand no matter what the price. No matter what, and that is why Fai stands on Fei Wang's side right now, involved, connected, a bound pawn. So he doesn't dare ask, doesn't dare want to know, for fear of what he might learn in the end.

A/N 2: 'Musume' and 'musuko' mean 'daughter' and 'son', respectively. Fai misunderstands, thinking the words mean 'girl' and 'boy', possibly 'young woman', 'young man' (it's why he checks whether Kurogane fits into the 'musuko' category, and he takes Kurogane's reaction at his question as a 'no')

Also, I'm choosing to believe that, while FWR had told Fai everything about his master plan related to the clones, and that Kurogane had been initially selected as a pawn-candidate, he hadn't told him exactly what he'd done to Suwa (it doesn't seem important enough a detail to share, really). In my opinion it's possible Fai finds this out what happened once Yuuko talks about it in Tokyo. On the other hand, there's that look of Fai's in Rekord/Le Court after Syaoran wakes up and asks to speak to Kurogane (here: http:// www. onemanga. Com /Tsubasa_Reservoir_Chronicles /99 /03 /) where it might seem like he knows that something painful'd happen to the man in his past – but I'm choosing to believe that he didn't know exactly what.