Their departure from Clow Country was much different than their arrival. Before, they'd landed on the edge of the city; alone, bloodstained and panicking. This time, Kurogane stood next to Fai and the others as small crowd of well wishers and goodbye sayers gathered on the steps of the palace. Fai stood upright and healthy, smiling at the friends they'd gained. Koroko was near to Fai, chatting about everything and nothing probably, with a good smattering of bad mouthing about him, probably. Susumu stood near to Sakura, waving sadly. Fai had brought the kid to Sakura a few days prior, saying he could see spirits and Sakura was quick to take him on as a student. King Touya and his high priest stood back a little, while Sakura and Syaoran said their goodbyes. Everyone was happy and laughing as they prepared to leave.

Mokona, its earring casting them all in a purplish light, leapt up to Kurogane's shoulder, nuzzling it's white body under his ear.

"Mokona is going to miss Sakura and this place." It whined. Kurogane nodded.

"Me too."

He would miss the princess, and it was always sad to say goodbye, not knowing when they'd arrive back in this country. It broke his heart that Syaoran had to leave Sakura behind for now, as the price of his wish. But, as he watched Sakura and Syaoran look at each other, he could only summon a feeling of unaccountable luck. After all, he was taking Fai with him.

As if he heard Kurogane's thoughts, Fai glanced over, beaming at him when he saw Kurogane watching. Fai's smile was real and blinding and it took Kurogane a moment to regain his thought processes before he smirked back, his heart swelling with gratitude.

Honestly, not much had changed between them, at least not to the public eye. The idiot could still press every single one of his buttons, and incite a rage that would terrify the most well trained warriors, but only made Fai run away laughing. He still teased him, and called him silly names and made him grumble. Kurogane still threatened violence and Fai still poked and prodded just as he always had.

But, their gazes held a little longer. There was a new ease between them, and Fai's smile was the slightest bit more real. Kurogane knew that when they were alone, Fai would make an effort to communicate, and Kurogane could reach out to him, touch his hair or face, or kiss those flapping lips shut. Fai set the pace on their physical relationship, which was fine by him, as what Kurogane asked for most was words-truthful ones. They were beginning to arise more and more.

Kurogane moved over to Fai's side, and greeted Koroko, who was standing straighter, like a weight had actually been lifted from her shoulders. She put her hands on her hips, and looked him up and down.

"Well, Kurogane-san, it's your turn to take care of this dope for me."

Kurogane grinned. "It's a tough job, but I think I can manage."

Fai was protesting.

"Why does everyone think I need taking care of?"

"Because you do." Kurogane and Koroko replied in unison. They all three looked at each other in startlement, before bursting out laughing.

Behind them, Syaoran and Sakura were finishing their farewells, holding on to each others hands. They'd never been ones for public displays, but their gazes were deep and seemed almost more intimate than if they'd kissed. They were murmuring to each other, and smiling sadly.

Fai stepped closer to him, and their hands brushed as Sakura pulled away from Syaoran to catch Mokona's sudden flying leap.

"Sakura, we'll miss you so much!" The bun wailed, and Sakura cuddled it close to her cheek, dashing away a few tears.

"I'll miss you all too." She said, lifting her eyes to first Syaoran, and then Fai and Kurogane. She smiled, eyes bright, at the two of them. "I'm so happy for you. Take care of each other, alright?"

Kurogane nodded, but it was Fai's solemn promise that brought Sakura to tears.

"We will, Princess." He said, and Kurogane deliberately brushed his hand again. She smiled tenderly, and hugged them both.

"I love you." She murmured, and Kurogane squeezed her tiny body gently, whispering back.

"Love you too." Huh. Those words had been getting easier. She pulled back, and Kurogane put a hand on her head, falling back into his regular manner. "You take care of yourself too, kid."

Mokona's earring, which had been steadily glowing since that morning, when they'd begun to make preparations to leave, flashed brighter in purple, and they all looked at each other, knowing time was short.

Sakura, with one more touch to Syaoran's face, stepped back beside her brother and waved, tears glittering. Mokona's magic kicked up around them, and the creature rose into the air to spread white wings. Swirling shapes and patterns he didn't understand surrounded them, as their trio gathered closer together. Syaoran was still waving back at Sakura, calling out his goodbyes, while Fai looked up to meet Kurogane's eyes. He gave him another real smile, and Kurogane felt his heart jerk with contentment. He reached out his hand, and Fai took it, sliding his fingers where they fit between his own. Kurogane smiled too, and marvelled at how right this was. How easy it was to move from friends to something more.

Of course, he was afraid. This was completely new to him. Never before had he had any inclination to pick up a relationship, man or woman, no matter how much Tomoyo teased him that he was getting older. Honestly, he hadn't even realised with Fai that this was what he wanted until recently, the feeling was so unfamiliar.

He was afraid to ruin this, to drive them apart for good, like he almost had in Tokyo. It was Fai or no one now, and he truly didn't want to be alone anymore. But, he and Fai had survived much. Hell and back had been traversed and they were both still here. Perhaps, they could make this work.

The travelling magic rolled around them, and Clow disappeared in a rush of whorls and eddies. They were off to somewhere new.

Fai, still holding his hand, leaned in to speak. He looked wild, free and happier now than Kurogane had ever seen. His hair was whipping around his face, and his eyes were alight. He was beautiful.

"Ready, Kuro-rin?"

Kurogane flashed him a grin, and tightened his hold on the thin fingers, trying to convey that he never meant to let go.

"Definitely."

END

Author's Notes

Woohoo, I'm done! Anyone down for DVD extras?

First, I have a few drawings up on my tumblr (arisprite dot tumblr dot com) that come from certain scenes. They will be tagged with 'two motives' or just 'art type stuff'.

I listened to Gabrielle Aplin's "Please Don't Say You Love Me" nonstop while writing this. You should definitely go and listen to it.

Okay, this story came from a lot of urging from my roommate and instigator, Rémy (aka username-goes-here on tumblr, or names are hard guys on fanfic). As I mentioned in the first A/N, she is the one who came up with the kiss scene and others, and she basically plotted this entire thing with me. She's awesome. Like, so much. Anyway, because of that, a lot of discussion went into certain points of this fic, and if any of you are interested, I'll detail some of them here.

How we came up with this, i.e. 'soft, soft, lips':

Like I said, this story came about in conversations with Rémy. I drew a picture, Rémy added dialogue ('soft, soft lips' was her origination), and then in late night ramblings, a plot was formed. "What if the ghost is a lesbian?" was definitely said at one point, and suddenly I have a doubly gay paranormal romance on my hands that threatened to be over 20,000 words long. It was. So basically, we worked around that first kiss scene and came up what you have just finished. The other scene that we sketched out that day was the hand holding conversation in the end chapter, though Kurogane ended up less grumpy about it in the final version.

Both Kurogane's and Fai's background regarding relationships:

I have a firm headcanon on Fai's background. Namely, he grew up in a court. And, like most courts in history, it probably was chock-full of affairs, scandals and sex. Fai, given his personality traits, and flirty habits, was definitely mixed up with it all. Court politics are games, and Fai loves winning. By the time the whole shtick with Ashura happened, he'd been around for at least 90 years, but probably more (given what Yuuko said about his lifespan) and I don't think he spent all that time reading. Not that he was in love or anything, as he said in the fic. It was physical, it was political, and it passed the cold cold winters of Celes.

As far as Kurogane goes, I think the opposite. He's a virgin. He's a blushing virgin. What a cutie. Honestly, Rémy and I have talked about his history, and we believe that sex or relationships really didn't occur to him. He's probably demisexual, and so wouldn't even think about having a physical relationship with someone until there was a strong emotional bond. Hence why he didn't realize with Fai until years down the road.

Making the First Move:

For all that Fai flirts and drapes himself on Kurogane, he's treating that aspect of their relationship as totally farcical. He's teasing him, it's a game, and Kurogane's only emotion about it is annoyance, which keeps life fun. Fai can handle annoyance, he loves making Kurogane annoyed at him. However, reciprocated affection, he really doesn't know what to do with. He's terrified at the thought, as you saw in the fic. Therefore, he'd never make a real move. It was up to Kurogane, and at some point, he had realized that.

Kurogane and 'I love you':

Ooh, we debated whether or not he'd actually get these words out. I mean, he totally feels it. He really really loves Fai, and he knows it. However, saying the words... He's not really a great communicator in the first place, and then he's never said anything like that before- both personality and culturally, it wasn't easy at all. But, then we considered what Fai was hearing. And Fai is rather deaf when it comes to people caring about him. He's almost willfully denying every and all signs that Kurogane is giving him, up to the kiss itself. We thought Kurogane would see that Fai really needed to hear it. Fai is a words guy, and he'll probably have to hear it a bajillion more times to completely believe it. So, Kurogane mustered the courage. Good on him!

Background on the therapist mention:

In chapter 9 I mentioned that Fai hid in a tree from a therapist. This is from yet another conversation I had with Rémy which turned into a full script, that I'll probably turn into a fic at some point, wherein, Fai was ambushed by a very competent therapist, and actually spilled some details to the guy. Unwillingly. Which of course made him panic, dump a pistachio cart on the doctor and run away to hide. The script can be found on my tumblr, if you're interested all that much.

What Syaoran and Sakura have been doing through all this:

Basically, I wish I could have spent some time with Syaoran and Sakura and their precious romance! I had to keep it on Fai, in order to keep the story manageable, but just know that the two love birds reunited in complete adorable awkwardness. I love those two so much.

Name meanings of OCs:

Well, mostly this is a story of my bad spelling. And choices. Firstly, Midori means green. That's it. There's no meaning there, I don't even remember why I chose it. Moving on. Koroko, I thought meant 'heart' or 'spirit' but it turns out I can't spell, and I transposed the letters of the name Kokoro wrong. Whoops. So, I made that one up. Then, Susumu is a real name that means 'advance' simply because I was stuck in the plot, and I added him in order to move things forward. It was a joke, and it stuck. Whoops again.

Fai and Kurogane and a conversation about Hitsuzen:

Something that didn't end up in the fic was a conversation between Fai and Kurogane about the odds of them even landing anywhere with good medical care, let alone Clow Country, where they were known and loved, and would be taken care of. Kurogane was upset, because Fai came so close to dying, and he was being so flippant about it. It was a sheer dumb luck they landed there, in Kurogane's opinion. Fai, meanwhile, cited Hitsuzen, and didn't really want to talk about it. Imagine that.

Well, if you read the rest of this, CONGRATS! Thanks so so much for reading, enjoying, reviewing, favoriting and all that. You guys are all the greatest!