Hi guys! It's snowing sooo hard lol, I hope my power doesn't go out o.0 Thanks to Cloverfield for adding this to her Story Alert! Go read her story Sure Of Nothing, it's f*cking amazing. For real. You need to.
Moving on...
Review responses:
wolf1380:
Thank you^^ It's always nice to hear~
Xynostaph:
Awww I knooooow, Fai's such a bitch sometimes! But he can get any with saying anything he wants to Kuro cause Kurogane knows he needs an outlet sometimes! He knows Kuro wouldn't hurt him ever, he just has a weird sense of humor... and he's a bitch. Yes, the ghost chat is next chapter and remember, I wrote ya'll a bonus chapter that'll be posted ON halloween day which is sad and fluffy and citrusy lol. I gave you a bit of a happier ending on this chapter lol.
Alright everyone, please review and ENJOY~
}{
"Stop! If you break the circle it could kill him!"
The ninja was breathing heavily, clenching and unclenching his fists. Fai didn't twitch.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know."
When the ninja opened his mouth to yell at her, she cut him off with a shout of her own.
"I do know what's happening, I just don't know how!"
She was clearly agitated which was less than comforting. She shook her head, calming herself.
"It might be possible simply because they have the same soul…"
"What might be possible?"
"Well… I'm positive he took precautions against complete possession, but he's currently… sharing his mind…"
"You mean possessed."
"No, not exactly; possession would mean he was still conscious or at least appeared to be. At the moment it looks like he's just having a vision. It shouldn't hurt him."
"Shouldn't?"
Sylvia sighed.
"I would be very surprised if it did."
Fai was impossibly still, his hair hiding his face. Without warning, something gut-wrenching occurred to the ninja and he couldn't stop his outburst.
"He's not breathing."
"Of course he's not breathing," Sylvia snapped, "He's inhabited by the dead, the dead don't breath."
She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Kurogane was getting ready to come back at her when Fai, ever the mediator, jerked to life with a gasp of breath. He sat there panting, hands on the ground in front of him, his hair in his eyes. It took several minutes of gasping for him to catch his breath. When he did he looked up, turning his head to track down Kurogane before offering a small, real, smile.
"I know… I know where the feather is…"
}{
They wasted no time, finding the kids and Mokona and following Fai, who seemed to be slipping in and out of a trance.
Sylvia carried Mokona at first, seeming fascinated by it. Then it started talking and she quickly foisted it off on Sakura, moving forward to join Kurogane and Fai.
Every few minutes Fai would stop completely and just stand, staring into space. Or worse, he'd pitch forward and Kurogane would have to scramble to make sure he didn't slam into the stairs ahead of him. After that happened a few times the ninja began walking close to him, keeping a hand at his back to prevent any accidents. Fai was in his own world and Kurogane was worried. He caught Sylvia's eye and she shrugged.
"The spirit is still trying to contact him but because he isn't trying to contact the spirit, it's only able to affect him at all because they share a soul."
Kurogane nodded. They were climbing the maintenance stairs at the center of the building. He had suggested the elevator, but Fai had snapped to just long enough to refuse, saying in his vision he had gone up the stairs. He so rarely insisted upon anything, no one felt the need to argue.
So they climbed the tan coated metal staircase for almost twenty minutes before Fai burst onto the roof ahead of them all. He broke into a jog and the ninja followed suit, not willing to let him get too far ahead.
Half way there Fai yanked his shirt up over his head and tossed it to the side. Kurogane grabbed it out of the air though, transfixed by the light pink outlines on his back, showing where his ornate marking had once been.
"Are you insane? It's not that warm!"
Then he realized where Fai was going.
"The water-"
"The feather is at the bottom."
Fai picked up his pace and Kurogane did the same.
"Idiot, you're not quite… normal yet, what if you black out? Let me go get it, I'll-"
"No," Fai shook his head without looking over. "You think you can make it up that ladder?"
Kurogane was going to ask what he was talking about until he noticed that yes, the ladder to the hatch at the top of the water tower was thin, rusted and falling apart. Other than Fai, Sakura was the only one it would hold and that wasn't even considerable. Even the kid weighed more, just because of the way he was built.
Down to just a pair of tight jeans, the blonde tested the bottom rung and when it didn't crumble to dust he continued upwards.
Kurogane and the rest were left to watch. Sylvia tilted her face towards the tower and spoke, eyes closed.
"There certainly is a strange power coming from that tower. It's not steady though…"
"Yeah!" Mokona shouted from Sakura's arms, "That's why Mokona couldn't find it even though it was right here! The water makes the power come out all wavy so even when we're right here it feels far away!"
Kurogane watched Fai reach the top of the ladder and pull himself onto the ledge that rimmed tower, right next to a small entrance, the hatch that had once been attached to rusted hinges long gone.
Fai whirled around and gave them all a mock salute, catching Kurogane's eye as he did so before turning back and sliding into the opening. After a few seconds there was a faint, dull splash.
It was ridiculous, the anxiety he felt. It was a water tower, not lake of monsters. There was no reason the blonde wouldn't come back.
But he couldn't look away, kept trying to lock onto the mage's aura. Ladder be damned, if something happened to him he'd be up there after him one way or another.
But then a mop of blonde hair appeared over the ledge and he could breath again-when had he started holding his breath?- and Fai pulled himself the rest of the way out, holding the feather aloft.
Mokona cheered and he laughed, swinging his legs over the edge and jumping, not catching the ladder until the last second and and climbing the rest of the way down. When he reached them he offered the princess the feather with a wink.
"Look, and only after a week of living under it!"
Sakura gigged and accepted it, or would have had Sylvia not stepped between her and Fai, not touching but stooping to examine the feather like a scientist.
"This makes sense; the thing keeping your spirit here was the same thing keeping you here."
Everyone looked at her and she explained with a pained sigh.
"This feather was keeping it here. When you die, your instinct is to go to the closest, strongest source of power which, at the time of death, should be the next plain. But if this feather was here than it's power would be closer and about as strong, so any spirits trying to cross over would be draw to it. Every time it tried to cross over, the spirit simply traveled to the roof."
Sakura looked miserable.
"That's so sad! Will he be able to cross over now?"
Sylvia attempted a smile, but she looked more like she was bearing her teeth.
"Yes, it shouldn't have any more problems."
"Fai what's that?"
Mokona jumped down from Syaoran's head. Sylvia winced and turned to watch Syaoran help Sakura absorb the feather, asking questions.
"Wha- oh!"
Mokona was pointing to something glinting in the sunlight, hanging from Fai's pocket.
"It was dark in there but I saw this reflected in the light from the feather. I just shoved it in my pocket."
He pulled it out, revealing a long, thin gold chain with a charm hanging off of it. Closer inspection revealed the charm to be a chunk of crystal with flat rays of gold shooting out behind it. It was exactly identical to the top of the staff that Fai had started their journey with.
"Looks familiar, doesn't it?"
He grinned at Kurogane and Sylvia looked up from where she was watching Sakura sleep after absorbing her feather, asking Syaoran if that was normal. Her eyes widened and she yelled.
"Drop it!"
The necklace dropped and Fai went with it.
}{
After Fai passed out, Kurogane had taken the necklace from his cold hands and scooped him up, carrying him back down to their apartment flanked by Syaoran carrying Sakura and Sylvia who was reluctantly carrying Mokona.
They'd set Sakura down on a bed and Fai had gone to the couch. Kurogane sat watching him with Sylvia, once again alarmed by his lack of movement.
"It's the dead-don't–breath thing again, right?"
She nodded.
"The spirit wasn't able to contact him but when he started touching that charm, it became a link; something they had both touched. He's having another vision."
This time though it was four hours before Fai began to stir. It wasn't a gasping fit that started his breathing once more, but a slow calm intake of breath. His eyes darted quickly around the room before settling on Kurogane himself. It was an instant before the tears started rolling down his face and the ninja rushed forward. Sylvia pushed herself between the two though, studying Fai carefully.
"What did you see?"
The blonde shook his head, kept his eyes locked on Kurogane's. He wiped his own tears away.
"My other self... My other life..."
He was obviously shaking and not focused on the questions Sylvia was firing at him; eventually the ninja pulled the woman away, told her to go home. He took her spot beside Fai and didn't ask a single question when the blonde put his head down in his lap and cried, not sobbing but quiet and controlled. He didn't hesitate when it was obvious the mage wanted to be held. He didn't feel guilty when he reached down and stroked his hair. He didn't stop even when Fai drifted off to sleep; he sat vigil over him well into the night, working out tangles and then creating more.
}{
The first thing he noticed when he woke was warmth. Not just the warmth of Fai, curled like a cat in his arms as they lay together on the couch, but the warmth of the apartment surrounding them. He'd fallen asleep without thinking to get a blanket but he wasn't cold in the least. In fact, he was a bit warm; he remembered that the thermostat was set somewhere in the nineties and smiled.
Fai squirmed in his hold when he woke, but didn't pull away. Instead he turned so that he was facing the ninja and touched their noses together.
"Good morning, Kuro-sama..."
"Good morning..."
Kurogane sat up and brought the smaller with him so that Fai ended up straddling his lap.
"So what ex-"
And then Fai leaned up and kissed him.
It was out of the blue, but a long time coming to be sure, and it was filled with all the longing of sleepless nights and fearless dreams.
}{
ありがとう,
ハッピーハロウィン
ShingetsuXMangetsu
