Title: Yama snippets
Pairing: Kurogane x Fai, pre-pre-slash you could call it.
Words: 321; (13933 total and counting)
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General, in general; for this one, gasp, a combination of pseudo-angst and paranoia~
Spoilers: Fai's backstory, Kurogane's backstory, and the events up to and including Yama
Disclaimer: I own nothing; Clamp does.
You wake up one morning, months and months after the first fight in the sky, and see him sleeping next to you. You realise you know his shape, the look of him, his every tone of voice (you've almost trained yourself to read the changes in his mimic and his voice, to understand them in place of the words he spoke – just like a dog, you think, and isn't that just funny, he was the 'puppy', wasn't he, but what were you to do?)
You are as close to him as anyone could be without being… closer.
You should be worried but you do not care.
In the cold light of morning you can admit that there is little hope left to be harboured – the children will never find you, or at least not in time, the odds are well stacked up against it; you will not pay your debt, and your brother will always be a sleeping corpse frozen under the waters of that pool. Your king will awaken one day, and when that happens you will leave one final time, have one last fight. You think (you almost hope) that you will die, but you cannot be sure.
You wonder whether Kurogane thinks he'll ever see the rest of your little group again; ever go home again. Maybe when Ashura awakens and there is no hope left you will send him to his world, after all. He'd like that. Maybe. You'd like that.
In the damp, hazy light of morning, you also wonder what he sees when he looks at you, really looks, now and then and again, whether he sees right through you (although you know he can't, because you're being careful, but what if he's even more careful, and you just cannot tell, you can't tell anything to anyone – and maybe that's a good thing), and whether you should be grateful for the one or the other.