A/N: Time for another little break from the fluff, because I can't write a story without a little angst. That's just how I roll! Anyways, this one is from a reader request to write about a situation where Fai has something he's hiding from Kurogane and gets found out. Please enjoy!

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Twenty-One: Together

Kurogane groaned as soon as he opened the door to his office. Yuuko was sitting on his desk sipping a cup of tea and flipping through Kurogane's grade book with a look of disinterest on her face. At least she didn't look smug like she usually did when she had some plot or another on her mind, but Kurogane still wasn't thrilled to see her. Anything involving Yuuko involved a tiresome amount of unnecessary work, and, of course, the additional stress of putting up with someone as maddening as her.

"I'll get to the point," she said, tossing the grade book away. "We have an issue."

"An issue?"

"Have you been in touch with Fai or Yui-kun since yesterday? I assume as the lover of the former, you would have at least received some sort of sweet little goodnight message, hmm?"

Kurogane shot her a dirty look. "I haven't heard from them, no." He paused. Maybe it was odd that he hadn't. He'd texted Fai last night about borrowing a flashlight, and although it hadn't been that important of a request, it was very much unlike Fai not to text back right away with about fifty different emoticons and hearts attached.

"You live next door, so you can usually hear when they're in." Yuuko pressed. "They did come back home at some point, right?"

Kurogane blinked. "I didn't know they'd gone out to begin with."

"I see... In that case, it seems you don't know any more than I do. But the fact remains that the two of them didn't show up this morning, and with homeroom almost ready to start, it's a bit late to start calling in substitutes. I have Ueda-sensei on stand-by, but I'm a bit concerned. It's not like Fai or Yui not to call in if they're sick." To his surprise, Yuuko did look genuinely bothered, which was in itself a rare sight.

Without saying anything, Kurogane pulled out his cell phone and called both Fai and Yui. Neither picked up.

Yuuko placed a hand on Kurogane's shoulder. "I'll put in a call to campus security to make sure nothing happened last night. I can't afford to lose my PE instructor today, too, but you can stop by the dorms during lunch break to check in. I'll leave the master key to their room on your desk."

Kurogane nodded, his throat feeling suddenly heavy. What if the two of them were sick and in need of medical attention? What if something had happened when they'd gone out, and now they were...? He couldn't allow himself to finish the thought. Horitsuba was a safe campus. Crimes happened from time to time, but they were dealt with thoroughly, and there were rarely instances of repeat offenders. But what if...?

The first half of the day went by in a daze. Kurogane could barely remember what happened in any of his classes, and maybe the students had noticed, too, since they'd given him a wide berth. Most of them were probably under the assumption Fai and Yui were sick, and that there was a chance Kurogane could also be contagious with whatever they had.

When lunch break finally arrived, Kurogane wasted no time in skipping out on his meal and jogging to the dorms. Fai and Yui's room was completely silent from the hallway, and no one answered when he knocked. After a few more failed attempts, he put Yuuko's master key in the lock and opened the door.

Everything looked as it usually did, for the most part. Fai's shoes were strewn messily in the entry way, and one of the cabinets in the kitchen had been emptied out onto the counter, but other than that, nothing was out of order. Fai and Yui were nowhere to be seen, but it was easy enough to see that Yui's shoes were missing, and Fai's were not.

The bedroom door was closed, and once again, no one answered when he knocked. He tried the master key, but it seemed to be designed only to work for the front door's lock. If it was locked, it meant someone, most likely Fai, had to be inside, so he rapped his knuckles against the door with greater insistence, hoping that Fai was all right enough to be able to hear him.

Finally, a weak sounding voice came from behind the door. "Yui?"

"Oi! Open up."

"Kuro...sama?" Fai fell silent. "I'm sorry... I can't. I'm-" He coughed, but it sounded forced. "I'm really sick. You can't come in here."

"Fine, then. I'll call a doctor."

"No!" Fai barked, his voice much less feeble than it was before. "It's just a fever. I shouldn't waste money... Yui's gone to get a prescription from Seishirou-sensei... I'll just have some of his."

"He's sick, too?"

"Not as bad. But yeah."

"Why didn't you call in?"

"Call in?"

"Tell the mistress you weren't able to come to class today? The procedure not ringing any bells?"

"Oh. Um..."

"You're telling me the truth, right? Nothing else is wrong?"

"Nothing else at all. I just need to rest, nee?"

"Then let me in to see you. Just for a second. I need to report to the mistress that you're okay and still alive."

"You... you don't really need to see me to do that, Kuro-pon. Isn't talking to me enough?"

"No. Because I can tell when you're lying to me. And I want to know why you are."

"I'm not! I..."

Kurogane cut him off, taking out his mobile phone and punching in the high school's medical center. Seishirou answered with a silky "Hello" that still managed to creep Kurogane out in spite of how tense the situation was.

"Is that guy's brother in the clinic right now?"

"That guy? Let's see, I've got a first year with a nosebleed, a third year with a migraine, and the Cooking instructor with a cut on his forehead which I'm not supposed to mention. Any of these guys the one you're looking for?"

"A cut on the forehead?"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that the pretty boy got in the middle of a fight. It's not too bad, though. You need to talk to him?"

"No. Just... take good care of it."

"And you'll owe me one. Great!" Before Kurogane could respond, Seishirou hung up with a harsh laugh.

It didn't matter, really. What mattered was that if Yui had gotten hurt, there was a pretty good chance Fai had been, too. Kurogane slammed his fist against the door, trying to reign in his temper before he lashed out and hurt Fai further.

"You have about ten seconds to let me in before I break something," Kurogane said, his voice tight. "And by something, I mean the door. I'm not even going to waste my time getting a screwdriver this time, you understand?"

By time he'd counted to five, he heard the door unlocking. All the lights in the room were turned off, but the light from the kitchen that Kurogane had left on illuminated Fai's face dimly. He had an ice pack pressed up against his face, but Kurogane could see a bruise swelling underneath his eye. His lip was also split, and there was still dried blood on his face from where he'd failed to wipe it up.

Kurogane sucked in his breath. "Shit," he said. Because that's all there was to say.

"I'm not sorry," Fai said defiantly. "I didn't want you to see."

"Right. And you were planning on hiding this for how long?"

"I was going to sneak into the clinic after Yui. It will take awhile to heal, but the same can be said for fevers." His hands trembled against the ice pack. "You're going to scold me, aren't you?"

Kurogane sighed. "Just sit down. I've got a bigger concern at the moment."

Fai retreated back in the room, and Kurogane stopped in the kitchen to grab a washcloth and fill a bowl full of water. Fai already had a first-aid kit emptied out on the bed, presumably the same thing he'd dug through the cabinet to find earlier.

Kurogane knelt in front of Fai and gently began mopping up blood with the washcloth. Fai winced a little, but remained still under Kurogane's ministrations.

"Are you going to explain this?" Kurogane asked quietly.

"Biking accident," Fai said stiffly. "Yui and were riding tandem and lost control."

"Like hell you did. I'm sure that's how you wound up with a battered face with the rest of your body looking perfectly fine. And why would anyone bother to hide the fact that they got into a biking accident?"

Fai pursed his lips, then winced again as it irritated his cut. More blood began to pool, and Kurogane quickly lifted his hand to staunch it with the cloth.

"Look, I already said I know when you're lying to me. Don't play games. Who did this to you?"

"I don't know. It was just some guy. Some drunk looking for a fight. It was my fault for taking Yui off campus late at night. I know better than that."

"I know my fair share of drunks, and they don't usually just attack people at random."

"Well, guys like that usually think they have a pretty good reason for singling out guys like me," Fai said flatly. "Why else? Not everywhere on the planet is open-minded like Horitsuba."

Kurogane stared into his eyes, his heart first numbing over in ice, then burning with fire at Fai's words. Some stranger did this to Fai- his beautiful, kind-heared Fai- for a reason like that? The urge to punch something overwhelmed him, but the state of Fai's face reminded him that staying where he was, and most importantly being gentle, was the best thing he could do.

Fai must have seen the look in his eyes, because he began talking again right away. "What he said was about Yui, not me. He was calling him names and shouting things after us, and I... I should have let it go. He was drunk, and it was a bad situation to put Yui in. But I just couldn't stop. People like him think we're weak and we'll just lie back and take it, and I hated being thought of like that, nee? I lost control."

Kurogane sucked in his breath, trying to calm himself. "Did you land any good ones?"

"He'll have at least one black eye and a cut cheek from me," Fai said weakly. "And possibly a swollen jaw from Yui. We got him better than he got us, at least."

"And all of this... you thought it would be best to hide it from me?"

"I didn't want you tracking him down and killing him! But more than that... it was my decision to confront him and fight back. It's my problem. When people look at you, they'd never have a reason to question you. You're strong and manly, and no one would ever think that you're at all like me. It's enough that you're dating me in the first place, really. You don't need to sign up for all the ugly stuff, too."

The anger building up inside of Kurogane's heart flared at the sound of the passiveness in Fai's voice. "Enough!" he barked, clenching his fists. "If you think I'm the kind of person to just let you take everything on your own, why did you even want this in the first place? I didn't fucking sign up for anything, did I? All I did was get together with you, and since we're together, that means if you have a problem, I have a problem, and if you get hit in the face by an asshole, I feel pissed off the exact amount of pain you're in right now. I don't care if I don't act or look like you, that doesn't mean you deserve to have shit dumped on you while I just sit back and watch."

"I didn't mean-"

"Maybe you didn't, but if you still feel the need to go around pushing yourself down because of me, that sure as hell is what it feels like. You don't get to hide your wounds and cry by yourself anymore, all right? If you want me in your life as much as you say you do, you let me in your life, and even if I can't fix it, at least give me a chance to try instead of shutting me out the minute something goes wrong." He sucked in his breath. "And don't you ever say again that it's enough for you that I'm dating you, as if you're something I should be ashamed of. There are a lot of things I feel about you, but shame is not and never will be one of them, you hear?"

Fai's face collapsed, and when he tried to hide it with his ice pack, Kurogane pulled it from his hands. "Show me," he said in a gentler voice. "I don't want you to cry, but if you're going to, don't hold back for me. I'm only mad at you because I don't want you to let this happen again, okay?"

Fai couldn't say anything, but shook his head and wrapped his arms tightly around Kurogane. "I'm sorry," he choked out through his tears. "It's just that I was always ready for something like this to happen. I always realized I was too lucky to have everyone okay with it... even your family... and I thought it was okay if it was me who was hated for it, since I was like this from the beginning. I didn't want you to have to suffer... just because... I love you so much."

"If you know that, how do you think this makes me feel? Do you really think it only goes one way, that all the suffering and loving is felt by only you?"

Fai winced, then shook his head again. "No. I know that you can get hurt, too. I just n-never wanted it to be because of me. I love seeing you happy and mad and annoyed and everything else, but this..." he brushed his fingers against Kurogane's frown. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"I know," Kurogane said, stroking his uninjured cheek. "Fai."

The sound of his name, the first occasion of Kurogane ever saying it, was too much. His tears fell harder, but Kurogane could see in his eyes that there was a piece of happiness behind it as well. He'd always suspected that Fai would try to take on all the difficult aspects of their relationship by himself, but he was also sure he wouldn't do it again after today. He couldn't see his own expression, but he knew if Fai had any powers of observation at all, he would be able to see how hard it was for Kurogane to look at his damaged face and know that he had not been able to protect him and spare him pain.

That was why he had to say it. Fai's name, the one piece he'd been withholding. If Fai thought Kurogane was suffering too much from their relationship, he'd let it go in spite of his own pain. If he didn't understand Kurogane's love was as real and big as his own now, next time it would be too late to prove it to him.

When his tears were dry, Kurogane extended his hand to help Fai to his feet. "Let's go get you patched up, okay?"

"I can go. You're missing class Kuro-tan-sensei."

"No. I go with you." He squeezed Fai's hand. "Is that good with you?"

"Okay," Fai said quietly, returning Kurogane's pressure. "Together."

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