He shuddered.
The bed was nice and warm, but his limbs were confined. Yet, he felt sort of safe.
Safe.
Were they playing with his mind again?
...
Fai leant his chin on the fingers woven together in front of him. He was sitting on the couch. He had made Kurogane reclaim his own room – if not a little forcedly – and was thus now to sleep in the living room in the ninja's place.
But he couldn't sleep. Not at all.
So he just sat there, elbows on his knees, fingers woven together and his chin on top. Staring into space. The room was completely dark, but he could still see every detail of the rough stone wall and the heavy wooden beams. He could perfectly make out the darkened spot smelling sourly on the floor.
The sky outside the window was slowly turning an ugly brown colour of dried blood, soon to regain it's strange green hue when the sun rose. Morning had found them sooner than Fai had found sleep.
Kurogane would be up soon. Even with the blood loss, he was an early riser. And by now he should have started recovering. Fai knew he'd have to be careful next time around anyway.
Sakura would be asleep for a while longer, due to the medication he gave her.
Syaoran. Who knew how long he'd stay asleep?
Fai slowly rose to his feet, gliding towards the kitchen with feather light steps. He'd make them some breakfast.
Would Sakura be able to feed Syaoran now?
...
Kurogane grunted when light fell on his eyes. He wasn't used to this kind of orientation towards a window while sleeping.
He shot up when he realized why he was in a different position from the window. The kid!
He flung his legs over the side of the bed, making sure not to stand up too abruptly. He was pleased to find he only got a little dizzy as he got up. He shuffled over to the door, not even bothering to put something on over his undershirt.
He could faintly hear Fai in the kitchen, making breakfast. Although his stomach was rumbling unpleasantly, he still passed by the kitchen without going in. He needed to see the kid first.
He softly opened the door to the new room of the kid, slipping inside quietly. A soft snoring sound came from the bed, reassuring Kurogane the kid was really asleep.
He tiptoed to the bed, peering over the pulled up blankets. It was the first time he saw the kid sleeping on his side since he got here. He had curled up, fingers of his good hand clamping down on the edge of the blanket next to his face.
He didn't look afraid though. He almost looked comfortable.
"So you're just going to go on recovering after that, leaving us in the muck behind you, huh?"
The kids fingers twitched a little, and a soft sleepy moan rumbled from beneath the cover.
"I don't know how you do it. Not that I want you back in that state, but wouldn't you expect you to have a draw-back after what the clone did yesterday?"
The boy whimpered slightly at the mention of the clone, pulling the blanket a little closer to his face.
"How?" Kurogane muttered, sinking down on a chair.
If that didn't shock the kid back, what would? He had drawn back from all contact in the beginning, and now he slept peacefully after being assaulted by his clone the other day. Like it hadn't been bad enough to keep worrying about.
Kurogane froze when realization hit him.
It hadn't been bad enough to keep worrying about. He was used to worse.
He rose to his feet and staggered out of the room, leaving Syaoran to emit another unhappy sleepy moan by himself.
...
Sakura's head felt unnaturally heavy when she woke up. She had the idea she had slept deeper and longer than usual.
She didn't have to think why. Fai had given her something to sleep, and she had happily accepted it. Anything to forget about what she had seen.
But now the night was over. Long over in fact, as the sky was bright green outside her window, sharp sunbeams painting yellow on her floor. She couldn't deny what she had seen anymore.
She stood up with renewed resolve. She'd do what she decided yesterday in her hysteric haze. She'd clean up those two. She only had to find out how. First, she needed Fai and Kurogane to tell her everything they knew.
She felt like the two had been aware of the way Syaoran had been abused. They had just kept it from her. No surprise there, and once again she felt a strange mix of anger and relief for being left out and being cared about. It was too late now, she had found out.
The hard way.
And she would do something about it.
She slowly dressed herself, and then made her way to the kitchen. As soon as she appeared in the door Fai filled a bowl with porridge and put it in front on the table for her.
"How are you feeling?" He seemed surprisingly steady.
"Not too great," she admitted, "but there are more important matters than how I'm feeling."
"You mustn't overdo it," he gave her a sad smile.
"Syaoran needs me."
"Do you think you'd be up to feeding him?" She nodded at Kurogane's question.
"Yes. I have to take care of him. Both of them."
"Both?" She was sure she saw Fai's eye flash gold for a moment.
"I need to snap the other one out of it," she said firmly, starting to eat her breakfast, "it's my job to pull both of them out."
"You sound awfully determined for someone who was screaming hysterically just yesterday," Kurogane grunted skeptically, "if you're going to push yourself too hard, you'll be hurting more the next time things go wrong."
Sakura made sure neither could see the tears running down her face, struggling to swallow with the big lump in her throat.
It was difficult to keep in her sobs in the silence that followed.
When Fai rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder, she broke down in tears.