"New clothes?" Kurogane said suspiciously, eying the plastic bag on his bed. He hated it when people bought him things without telling him. Somehow the clothes they picked out always ended up being...not quite to his tastes.
"Yup, Kuro-min! Everyone's going to look great when Sakura-chan accepts the feather."
Scratch that. Anything the magician had bought was doomed to be humiliating and impractical.
Kurogane half expected the shirt to be pink, or red, to bring out his eyes. Tsh. He wondered why it was so hard for people to grasp the fact that he liked wearing black more than any other color. Why try something new when he'd already found something that worked? Some people would never make sense to him.
The clothes weren't as bad as he had been imagining, but still not that great. A pair of dark blue jeans, a navy undershirt, and white dress shirt all tumbled out when he upended the bag, along with a belt that looked like it would be more suited to being used as a holiday garland than holding pants up. Leaving out the belt--the pants were tight enough-- he dressed, and left the shirt tails untucked. Whoever said that you could fight and still manage to look all tucked in and presentable was lying through their teeth.
He hadn't seen Sakura since the incident of the afternoon, and since the awards ceremony was going to take place at dusk, he was a little concerned. But from the sounds of Fai rushing around trying to get everyone ready, she had arrived safely and had avoided being mobbed.
Kurogane sighed. He wasn't looking forward to this big gathering, especially seeing this world's Tomoyo again. He just...it was hard to explain. It was still difficult trying to convince himself that her guards were doing an adequate job and that she wasn't the same as the one he'd left in his world. He didn't like it when things changed, when he had to cope with new things that weren't there before.
Fai burst through the door.
Like, say, that.
"Kuro-min! Kuro-min! Look!" His voice crescendoed as he held out an object for the ninja to examine. Kurogane stared at it, confounded. It appeared to be a milk catron (Syaoran had pointed them out once) and it had been opened. However, instead of containing milk, it held...
"What on earth is this?" Kurogane frowned, fishing out a smaller, milk-carton shaped toy. Fai beamed.
"Isn't it clever? Imagine, toys inside of milk!"
Kurogane shook his head and let the magician gush over this new find. Sometimes, there were things that probably were left better uninvented, if only for their complete uselessness. As well as for the fact that they made that magician more happy than should be legal.
He exited his room and walked down into the kitchen, leaving Fai to his own devices.
"Alright, are we done yet?" He called up the stairs irritably, dressed snazzily and waiting for the rest the dragonfly winner's entourage to present themselves. The sounds of drawers slamming and lights being clicked on (and then the rather disconcerting crash of breaking glass) drifted down the stairs, and eventually, Sakura appeared.
"Ah, sorry for keeping everyone waiting!" She said, as she bounded down the steps, clearly flustered. "I couldn't find my..."
Her voice trailed off as she saw Kurogane's look.
It wasn't like he'd never seen her in formal attire before. They'd been to so many worlds that seeing people change clothes was almost an expected part of their daily routine. Maybe it was the way the gown flowed around her, swishing as she moved, like some sort of unseen breeze was causing the edges to flick-flick just so. (Kurogane wouldn't have put it past the magician.) But, something inside him told him that that wasn't it.
If there was anything making the dress so exquisite, it was Sakura herself. Her smile shone brighter than the small necklace she wore, and her eyes' sparkle outgleamed the glimmer in her shawl. Too have called her pretty would have been an understatement.
Breath-taking, he admitted, was probably a better word for it.
Then, ticked with himself for letting his thoughts wander so far down that direction-- wasn't this afternoon enough? -- his eyes lost their wide look, and his face fell back into his typical expression of subtle disdain.
"Tsh. These guys are late as usual." A mechanical bell rang on some clock in the distance. Weren't they going to be late or something?
Kurogane wasn't a fan of arriving on time, or even early. Being late let you make an impression, showed the other guy that, yeah, you were that important that everyone else would hold up the show for you. But this wasn't his affair, and Sakura's eyes wandered back up the stairs and lingered there, too.
"Jerks." He muttered, half-convinced that this was being done on purpose. And then, he decided that if he was already going to hell in a handbasket for all his lapses, then he might as well make the most of it. He grabbed Sakura's hand gently, (or as gently as a ninja's grab can be) and walked her out the door.
"Kurogane-san?" Sakura's brow was knit with confusion. "Aren't we going to wait for Fai-san and Syaoran-kun?"
He rolled his eyes. "They'll catch up."
The awards ceremony was being held as a gala event at the Piffle Corporation Headquarters, in the magnificent glass-encased ballroom. A flurry of strange machines were hung from the walls, some of them still working and entertaining the guests as they entered.
"Sakura-chan! Oh, the dress looks great on you! I knew it would!" A girl in a dark purple dress cooed as they entered, clasping her hands together and rushing forward to greet them. Kurogane looked away to hide his shock.
No matter how natural it sounded coming from this girl's lips, he would never quite get used to hearing Tomoyo get excited about dressing people up.
He thought he saw her frown slightly as she appraised his own outfit (what? Was it not formal enough?) but the expression was so quickly gone that it might just have been a twitch of her mouth.
Preparations were underway, and Kurogane hovered around in the background, trying not to get in the way of anyone but still close enough to have a clear path to Sakura. Maybe it was just instinct. If he couldn't guard one princess, then he would guard the other one, or something like that.
Sakura laughed in her conversation, a sound of wind rushing through bells, and he began to doubt that.
He found Fai and Syaoran hurrying in and glancing around, and waved for them to come over. The ceremony was mercifully brief, with a small introductory speech from the chairman, and then Tomoyo gave her speech as president about the importance of dragonflies and racing. What surprised him, though, was the acceptance part.
Sakura stood there with her feather in hand, which was encased in some weirdo, magical substance, and then asked that all of her teammates stand as well. Cheers poured through the hall, echoing off the glass walls and ceiling as she bowed and thanked them for all that they had done, both for their teamwork and their aid in catching the saboteurs.
It was over pretty quickly. Kurogane had been half-expecting, half-dreading a dance (wasn't the place just asking for one, with those wide glass walls, sweeping marble floors, and dim lights?), but apparently the event planners had decided differently in light of recent circumstances that a dance would not be as welcome. Good-byes were said, along with wishes and entreaties that they might all compete in the winter races, where the dragonflies were altered slightly to be able to fly on and over snow and through squalls. Promising they'd consider, the group eventually made it back home, exhausted.
Sakura, still dressed in her evening finery, plonked the gem encasing the feather down on the kitchen table with a quizzical expression.
"Does anyone have any idea how to get the feather out?"
Fai was immediately on it. "Of course, Sakura-chan! Magic!" He began to whistle, or at least made valiant attempts at whistling, none of which were terribly successful. "If I can get the pitch right, the jewel should shatter. Hyuu..."
Looking taken aback, Syaoran intervened before the magician got in a good whistle. "Wait! Won't that send the shards all over us?"
Fai stopped and considered. "Saa, you're right. Perhaps we should get safely goggles before I keep trying..."
Syaoran shook his head hastily. "It looks pretty fragile as it is, Fai-san. I bet if I took it outside and kicked it, it'd break. Or at least crack." He nodded, resolved to do his best for his friend. Sakura handed him the stone, which had started to glow slightly ("See, Kuro-bun? Look, it's already working!"), and a moment later they heard the woosh of Syaoran's swing, and then a very stifled "Ow!"
Kurogane sighed, watching as the boy limped back inside, trying not to let the injury show too much. When Sakura had finished fretting about his foot and had seen that it was properly attended to and iced, Fai wanted to try his whistling again. They hadn't found any goggles or other protective eyewear, so they constructed a barricade out of the kitchen table and chairs, and waited behind the barracks as the wizard tried to whistle.
This lasted about fifteen minutes before Fai heaved a great sigh, winded, and his shoulders slumped exhaustedly.
"I'm sorry...Sakura-chan," he wheezed merrily, dizzy with his efforts, "I'm just too tired... and my mouth is starting to ache."
Kurogane tshed as he poured a glass of ice water for the idiot mage, and glared at the feather. Well, that left only one thing more to try.
When Fai and Syaoran had retired for the night, each invalid helping the other up the stairs, Kurogane scooped the feather-stone up and went outside. Mokona bounded after him and Kurogane glimpsed a flash of the creature's white fur through the night. For once, he was actually happy to see it.
"Good. Pork bun, spit up my sword."
Mokona bounced around annoyedly. "Kurogane doesn't understand! Mokona doesn't eat the things Mokona stores, Mokona sucks them up! Like a vacuum!"
Kurogane held out a hand expectantly, wondering what the hell a vak hume was and then deciding that he didn't care. Probably just some fish, anyway.
Sakura made her way curiously out the door just as he'd extracted the sword. Kurogane grinned to himself, feeling justified in his choice of clothes. See? Told you that formal wear needed to be able to fought in. He straightened and flexed his fingers. The girl stood at the edge of the clearing in the backyard, head cocked to one side, wondering both what he was up to and whether he'd seen her yet. Which was a bit of a silly thought, considering that he was a ninja and knew exactly where she was at all times, although one did not imply the other.
"Kurogane-san? What are you doing?"
He gripped the handle and prepared to go into the stance. "It's not gonna break if you just kick it or try straight-up magic, right? So why not try both?"
She nodded slowly, not quite understanding, and then her face lit up. "Oh! So by using one of your sword techniques, you make sure it's hit with a physical attack as well as a ..." She frowned, losing her confidence as the idea escaped. "Are your techniques magic?"
He grinned again, a devil-may-care look spreading across his face. "We'll see. Step back a bit." She did, and he launched into a bright series of maneuvers, culminating in a smashing line straight through the hard jewel. Something cracked and made a strange whinning sound, but nothing more.
Kuorgane glared at the clear gem unkindly. "Guess not."
He was actually kind of disappointed. All those times his father had shown him those maneuvers as a kid, he'd been so sure that they contained some flicker of magic...had it really just been his imagination?
He was about to give up, but Sakura had other ideas. "What about me? Fai-san says that I have magic, but you also taught me how to use a sword, so maybe I can combine them. Or something."
He nodded. Hell, seemed logical enough to him. He thought for a moment and then spoke. "Alright, but you're going to need a technique that will break the stone without it breaking some part of you in the backlash."
"I'll do it." She said, and he could read the fervor and dedication in her voice. Well, nothing left but to get down to it.
Something in him was a little reluctant to pass this technique on. The only way that battle arts stayed alive was with someone still left living to practice them, and if anything happened to him, well, that would be it, the end of the long line of Suwa swordfighting skills. Besides, she was his pupil after all. She'd been taught in the same style, so if there was anyone who ought to learn it, it was undoubtedly Sakura.
"Hey, manjuu, get her sword, too."
"Mokona doesn't appreciate being called names of food!"
"Do it already!"
At that, Mokona recovered the sword and plopped it by Kurogane's feet. It hoped inside, crying about how Kurogane was mean and tried to find Fai for comfort. Kurogane a little frowned as it departured. In his day, they had sacks and horses for that sort of thing, and he certainly couldn't remember a sack getting mad at him when he asked it to do its job. Not that he was in the habit of talking to sacks, but even if he was, he wouldn't expect one to get all huffy and bound off if not treated politely.
Sakura, though she seemed concerned about Mokona and almost seemed to speak to Kurogane about his treatment of the white puff, was preoccupied with the task set before her. Aki no Kaze in hand once more, Sakura listened intently as Kurogane explained, demonstrating the steps.
"This is called Hama Ryu-o-jin. Watch carefully how I hold the blade through the stroke. If you're not doing it exactly like this, then you're gonna lose control of it and risk hitting something you don't want to. Like the house. Trust me," he added, remembering how angry a peasant had gotten after he'd destroyed her barn as a little kid and how his father had had it rebuilt, "you don't want that. However, you've got to keep it comfortable, too. Don't get too tense, or you'll be exhausted after a few tries." He reminded her, as her face filled with concentration.
Half an hour later, when he was reasonably confident that she could at least pull it off without destroying anything that they'd miss or need (like, for instance, their dwelling or himself), he let her try it.
It was weird, seeing someone else hold their sword back towards them, strange seeing the wind wisp around her more easily than it had him-- did she have an affinity with every damn nonliving thing there was? -- and then watching as the stroke cut true and sliced the stone cleanly down the middle. The shards fell away as orderly as peels on a banana slowly coming apart, and there, floating above the ground lightly, was the feather.
Sakura exclaimed happily and sheathed her sword. Kurogane didn't remember what she'd said, but the look on her face spoke volumes. Finally, she was able to do something, prove that she was indeed a contributing member to their odd and varied group. She had won the race and feather fairly, despite others' efforts to the contrary, and now she'd recovered her feather by her own hand.
All in all, her technique wasn't half bad. She had a far way to go still, at least in his swordfighting book, but this was triumph enough.
Kurogane nodded as she looked over for approval. "Good job, kid."
Sakura tentatively approached the feather, almost as though she were trying to get near a stray cat to pet it. Kurogane wondered why at first, but the thought soon dawned on him. It must be strange, to have something that was both new and old before you, something that you didn't know if it would be a good memory or not, something you might want to cherish, or banish to the darkest part of your mind. He admired her for going to it unflinchingly. Given his past, he knew it would have taken him longer if he was in her position.
Her eyes closed, and the sheathed blade slid out of her grasp, slipping to the ground as those creepy winds surrounded her again. The feather glowed above her heart, and then vanished, leaving her to fall, ever slowly, back to earth.
Kurogane cursed, both himself for forgetting that happened, and the magic or whatever the hell it was for being so stupid as to let it. He got there just in time to catch her and cradle her to his chest.
When she opened her eyes, she was a little dazed, but having a tall ninja holding you upright tends to wake you up pretty quickly. She gasped, eyes wide, but didn't move. His shirt was so warm...
"Kurogane-san..." Sakura whispered.
He'd had enough. Fate or whatever it was (he could never say that h-word of the witch's without grimacing) had taunted him too much. He was done with it. Sometimes you just had to take a gamble, and if that gamble happened to be on the luckiest person he'd ever met, then hell, maybe he stood half a chance.
And that was why he bent forward and, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close, brushed his lips against her forehead.
His kiss was as brief and fleeting as the light flutter of a bird's wing across her skin, and when she opened her eyes, he was fast disappearing into the darkness.
"Wait, Kurogane-san!"
Too late. The dark outline of a man she'd thought she'd seen had already slipped away into the night. Sakura swallowed, mind still reeling from what had happened (both the return of her memory--a pleasant one-- as well as the kiss), and rushed through the darkness, keen eyes and training taking over. She found what she was looking for on the outskirts of a meadow, about a hundred yards from the house.
"Kurogane-san!" She gasped, out of breath. He'd gone off at a fast clip, his paces were longer than hers, and it would be a lie to say that her heart had been beating at its normal rate as she ran to catch up, dress impeding her movements slightly. When she did find him, he was sitting on a stone at the edge of the trees, eyes rooted to the ground. She must have made some noise for he jerked his head around, eyes bright with anger and something else, clearly not expecting her to have followed. He rose, red eyes gleaming.
"What?" He asked acridly, the anger dripping in his words. "Look, if it's a sorry you want, I'm not going to give it to you. So what if I have feelings for you? That a problem?"
Sakura blinked, not sure what to say. Eventually, she closed her eyes and said, calmly:
"I don't want that."
Kurogane frowned more pronouncedly. Well, hell. The statement didn't make things any easier. It wasn't like he'd had an easy time of it, making fun of himself for liking her all day and still harboring the same feelings when he fell asleep at night. It wasn't like he already knew that his attachment was useless, that the kid was fated or something to be with her, that he, Kurogane, was meant to be the fierce protector that sank away when danger passed. Didn't she understand that this was his last resort? That, having tried everything else to rid himself of his ridiculous like for the girl, he was reduced to nothing more than this, confessing himself in the hope that that would get rid of the gnawing, creeping feeling in his chest?
"Hell if I did it on purpose." He lashed out at her, voice low and dangerous.
She shook her head as though in agony at what to say, hair whipping side to side dizzingly in the effort. "No, that's not what I meant!"
"Well then tell me already what the hell it is you meant." He could see a flurry of feelings fleeting across her face: surprise, confusion, even wonder. Hell, he could relate to her on that last one. Imagine, a cold-blooded assassain falling for a princess whose only objective in life was to make friends with everything. It was laughable, stupid, and if he was going to be rejected, she'd better make it quick and spare him a shred of dignity.
"I don't want an apology." She said, taking a deep breath. A flush crept up her cheeks, and on seeing it (his eyes were good enough to pick it out of the shadows) his face reddened, too. But instead of looking at him like he were a rather disgusting thing she'd accidentally found under a rock, she smiled. Great, he thought, she was going to let him down the sickly-sweet way and smile him out of her life. Just what he wanted.
"I really, I mean it's just that..." She only appeared to be getting more and more embarrassed as time went on, to Kurogane's great fury.
"Just say it already!" He nearly yelled, at his wit's end.
But what she did next took his breath away, rather literally.
For, just after he'd exhaled all his unease and wrath into that yell, she kissed him.
Kurogane nearly choked, needing to breathe and finding it suddenly impossible. But, through some miracle, he survived, heart-pounding, ruby red eyes fixed on her hazel ones.
He should have said something really snarky then. He'd had all these remarks set aside for the occasion from the very start, when he could finally confront her about her nonsensical crush and tell her how ninja didn't court princesses, didn't fall in love. He knew exactly what he'd tell her when he found out, poke fun at her for thinking about something so impossible, tell her it had been a waste of time, that he'd never fall for anybody, that he was sure she had someone waiting for her, and then walk away, cold and unchanging as the black steel he was. But, instead of doing anything he planned, Kurogane did the one thing he had never imagined doing.
He smiled his manic smile and kissed her right back.
Author's Note:
And that's a wrap! Woot! Sorry for this taking so abominably long-- I'm not sure if it's obvious, but this thing has gone through so many revisions it's like I've basically rewritten it. The first draft is still lurking around the shadier parts of LJ, if anyone's curious, but I wouldn't recommend seeking it out.
Ha! I feel sort of weird now, announcing OOC&aPH's end has left me with a strange feeling of accomplishment and sadness. Though, I'm happy to announce that At the Court of Blackened Ivory, the sequel to Of Origami Cranes and a Paper Heart, is in the works and will be up shortly, provided that the start of school doesn't send me running for the hills at the sight of my courseload. It'll still be KuroSaku, but with a slight angsty twist as it follows the group as they go about their feather-collecting journey.
Thank you as always for reading through this, and thank you especially for making it all the way to the end. This is the first major fanfic I have ever finished and I have to say that I never expected to have as much support for this one. I'm floored by the reviews and, as always, I'll do my best to answer.
Larania Drake :: Yes, I have indeed. I read scanlations of the manga so I'm either about current with everything that's been released in Japan or a few chapters behind. I plan on dealing with everything after the events in OOC&aPH in its sequel. Thanks so much for sticking with me through this and hope you enjoyed the end!
Karuri :: Well, that's the point. ;D Gotta have something to draw people back, right? Thanks for reading!
Tsubasakittypwnage :: Thanks for all your reviews! Yeah, I do tend to throw in some random things when I'm writing Fai, but that's probably why I have so much fun putting him into scenes.
Dynamic Leader :: Thanks for the crit! Looking over the beginning, I'm really a bit ashamed of it, to tell you the truth. I've rewritten the first four chapters, so maybe they'll make their way onto FFN when I figure out how to re-upload without killing everything. It's an evolution of my work currently, but yeah, as a writer looking back over them, I'm not as thrilled as I could be. I tried not to make stuff too boring in this one; the sequel will depart quite a bit from the manga, though. I don't know about killing characters when they're not mine; I don't like doing it, since if you're going to do it right, it's pretty final. I tend to play around with things, but put them back (somewhat) in the state they arrived in.
IceQueen987 :: I'm usually pretty good at evading death, though I sometimes fail. I really do do the phoenix thing: guaranteed, if I don't post for a while, something will creep up from me when you least expect it. Thanks! Glad to hear you liked the humor!
Fullmetal Fantasy :: Yay! I felt so bad about not updating for a while, since I know people want to know how it turns out. This chapter just gave me so many problems, and I wanted to end it on a good note. Thanks so much for reading and re-reading--honestly, the biggest gift anyone can give me is laughing at this and enjoying it. We'll see about the KxT; I have a chapter that needs editing for that, too.
If anyone wants to comment more on this or wants questions answered, I'll attach a brief afterward in which I'll try to clarify things, reveal chapter themes (if people haven't already guessed them yet), and provide a sneak peak into At the Court of Blackened Ivory. As always, thank you for reading my strange, slightly goofy fic, and I hope you liked it.
--cy.