A/N: This is the longest chapter yet! I'm rather disappointed to see the response the last one received and it makes me wonder if you guys are getting bored with this story for some reason? I only have one more month left till graduation and I am spending my time trying to figure out where to go from here. *sighs* I honestly can't decide on what to do. But I suppose it will come to me in time. Btw, I hope you enjoy the fluffy bits, another glimpse at the past and everything else in here. ^_^;

Enjoy~

"What the heck was that all about?" Kurogane questioned as he turned to look at Masooma for an explanation. The witch frowned in response, wracking her brain and trying to recall when she had witnessed an expression of terror as great as that before.

"He just… He must have had another vision." She finally answered, remembering how she had seen him go white as a sheet in Celes a few months before Fai and Nixon had conspired to work together and make her leave with the Oracle for her own safety. That time, the blind man had seen the monster plaguing the icy kingdom claim Masooma as one of its victims. What could he have seen now? "I'll go see what-"

"No," the ninja cut in before she could even finish the sentence, "I will go see what happened. You stick around with the mage." Did the man just smirk at her as he said that? "I can see you have been dying to get him alone from the way you've been looking at him." His smirk took on a teasing edge and all thoughts of Nixon and his vision fled from her mind as she started sputtering indignantly. But the ninja was gone before her protests could be heard properly.

"Umm…" Syaoran piped up only a couple of seconds later, "I think I will go check on Tsubasa."

"I just remembered there was something I had to talk to Syaoran-san about." Sakura, too, offered a flimsy excuse as she hurried out the door with a small smile directed towards Masooma and Fai.

"Now that's called subtlety." Fai laughed a little shakily as he walked over to the bed and sat down.

"Don't be mean," Masooma admonished with a laugh as she too turned around and walked over to the blond, though she took care not to sit right beside him. Even if he claimed that he was perfectly fine, Masooma could still recall how she had shied from touch and people stepping inside her personal bubble the first few days after her rescue from the Complex. Given she had been brought to a completely alien world after having been tortured and abused constantly for almost a fortnight, but still… She perched delicately on the edge of the bed, almost a couple of feet away.

"So…" Fai started awkwardly, "How have you been?"

"Honestly speaking?" she quirked a brow, looking over at him, "I have no idea… I think I have felt every negative emotion there is to feel in these past few months. I have been everything from devastated to scared shitless to depressed to almost suicidal…"

"Suicidal?" Fai repeated sharply.

"Um… yeah… well not exactly like I-want-to-kill-myself suicidal…" she replied with a sheepish grin, scratching the back of her head. If Fai had enough energy to grow angry at her, he was going to be okay. "It was more like… well it's hard to explain…"

"You did something stupid." The blond heaved a sigh.

"If you count heading to the surface alone and then confronting Bauld and kicking his ass to the next century as stupid," she replied a tone of forced casualness, "then yes, I did something stupid."

"You… what?" Masooma couldn't quite describe the feeling she got as he nearly yelled at her but the faint fluttering inside her stomach could only be something akin to relief and maybe happiness, too. "You have any idea how stupid that was? You went to the surface alone! And on top of that you… you…" he sputtered and Masooma was somehow transported back to the time when she was bedridden in Celes after having recklessly tried out a spell that was far above her skill level simply because she had wanted to prove a point.

"Do you have any idea how stupid that stunt you pulled was?"Fai was pacing around on the rug in her room, a frown marring his handsome features as he paused in his tracks to turn around and face her. "How many times do I have to tell you? You don't have enough magic to sustain a spell of that level. But the minute I turn my back on you, you go on ahead and do it anyways."

"Reika said I did not deserve my apprenticeship," she pointed out, stubbornly crossing her arms across her chest, refusing to be intimidated by the glare her master was sending her way, "or my title of a B-level mage."

"So you picked a spell that was far above your current level and decided that magically exhausting yourself to near-death would be enough to convince her of your worthiness?" Fai was livid as he towered over her and suddenly Masooma felt very small in comparison. "I can't believe Ashura-ou forced me to take on such an immature apprentice."

"I am not immature." She struggled to keep her tears at bay. What if her stupidity caused her to lose her apprenticeship? What would she do then?

"Not immature?" Fai scoffed, "You nearly killed yourself! As if I didn't have enough on my plate worrying about the upcoming tasks for Oraclehood," he said, throwing up his hands in the air in exasperation as he resumed his pacing, "I have to look after a child who doesn't understand the consequences of trying out dangerous magic without supervision, too."

"I'm not a child… I'm eighteen years old." Her vision was turning blurry with unshed tears as she looked at the livid mage. Fai was usually very laidback and easy going, so his anger was something she was witnessing for the first time. She had pulled stupid stunts before in the two years she had been studying under him, but it was just a testament to how far she had pushed him this time for him to explode at her like that.

"Still a child, by our standards," Fai pointed out viciously and it took everything she had not to start blubbering like a little girl right there. Still a sob escaped her lips as she felt tears of shame stream down her face, "even Nixon-kun is more mature than you and that is saying something. He at least has the sense to acknowledge when something is beyond him. I don't know why I still keep you around…"

"I'm sorry…" she uselessly tried to wipe at her wet cheeks with the back of her hands though the tears kept on coming. This was it. He was going to kick her out. "I'll leave as soon as I am well enough to travel."

"What?" Fai paused in his pacing to look at her but Masooma was too busy trying to staunch her tears to notice the look of surprise on his face.

"I have disgraced you, so you are going to th-throw me out."She replied with a small hiccup, "Just let me stay until I can regain a bit of my strength a-and I will be out of your hair, I pr-promise. I-I'm sorry to have disappointed yo-you, Master Fai." She sniffled, angrily pushing her hair out of her face as she looked at him for a brief moment before lowering her gaze.

"I'm not going to kick you out, Masooma-chan." Fai heaved a sigh and Masooma's head snapped back up so fast, her jaws snapped together rather painfully.

"You're n-not?" she repeated in disbelief.

"No. I'm not." The blond shook his head as he approached her bed and gracefully sat down on the edge of it.

"B-But I… I broke the rules you ha-had laid in place and I nearly k-killed myself." She tried wiping her eyes again and the skin around her eyes began to burn from the constant rubbing. She knew it must have turned puffy and red by then.

"You did." Her master agreed, "However, it does not warrant a termination of your apprenticeship. But," he continued sternly, "the next time I find you doing something this reckless, I will not be so lenient with you."

"Oh, thank you, Master Fai." She cried happily, throwing her arms around the man in a crushing hug before realizing her mistake as she hastily let go and scooted away from him with an embarrassed blush on her face. "So-sorry…I promise you won't have any more reasons to complain about me. I'll be sure not to do anything stupid like that ever again."

"See to it that you don't." Fai nodded as he climbed back to his feet, and moved towards the exit of her room. "It would be a pity to have a promising mage thrown out just because they couldn't follow the rules."

"You could have been killed!" Fai's angry words made her smile as she shook her head to tear herself away from that memory.

"But I didn't get killed, Fai." She grinned, causing the blond to pause in the midst of his rant to look at her inquiringly.

"What are you grinning at?" he asked cautiously, no doubt worrying for her sanity.

"Nothing." She shook her head, unable to wipe the grin completely, "I just remembered how you had yelled at me in Celes when I performed that transportation spell at Reika's taunting."

"Nearly killed yourself even then." He sighed, shaking his head.

"And you had yelled at me back then, too." She smiled widely and just a little toothily, "You even used the same wording."

"I did?" he looked at her in surprise.

"Uh huh. 'Do you have any idea how stupid that was?'"She nodded, doing a poor imitation of his voice as she quoted his words. "I had been so scared you were going to kick me out."

"I was actually more worried about what I would have told your family in case you had died."

"You could have had a little more faith in your apprentice." Masooma looked away with a small pout. "I did, after all, beat your unbeatable test at the age of sixteen."

"Only because you cheated." Fai countered.

"I did not. You never specified anything about acquiring help from another magician."

"Because it was obvious you had to complete the tasks on your own."

"I can't believe you're still sore about me finding a loophole in your rules."

"I am not sore." Fai huffed as he turned away, his dirty hair falling right into his face at the motion.

-0-

Fai felt a little lighter since the voice had not spoken to him even once since Kurogane and the others had left. It had been difficult to keep the others from noticing his panic at the voice being discovered but lucky for him, no one seemed to have caught on so far. He was glad it had vanished completely by now, though. Maybe the voice had just been just a figment of his imagination and nothing else.

"I could really use a bath." Fai half-laughed as he pushed his rusty brown bangs out of his face and realized for the first time that he had not had a chance to clean himself up in what had to have been months now.

"I'll draw you up one." Masooma offered in a heartbeat as she almost jumped off the bed in her haste and vanished through one of the doors adjoined to the room. The mood shifted from lighthearted and cheerful to something else in less than a heartbeat.

Fai felt her familiar aura flare up in the next room before the sound of gurgling water reached his ears. Gingerly he climbed to his feet and made his way over to the bathroom

"It's almost done," Masooma said as she turned around, avoiding eye contact with him as she walked towards the doorway just as he stepped inside the bathroom. "I'll just go for now." As soon as she said that, panic welled up inside his chest. What if being left to his own devices meant the voice came back? A part of him, it appeared, did not believe the voice to be just his imagination.

"No, please," his hand automatically snagged her sleeve as she walked by him, causing her to turn around, "stay for a while. I… just don't want to be alone right now."

Some of his desperation must have leaked into his tone because she actually looked shocked at hearing his request, though she nodded only a second later. "Okay."

"Okay." He nodded back, her sleeve slipping through his fingers as he turned away feeling somewhat irritated at himself. If he kept this up, she would soon realize something was amiss and then they would find the voice…Fai watched as Masooma moved to sit down by the bathtub, her back turned towards him in an attempt to give him some semblance of privacy.

Without another word, fearing that he might say something to doom himself and clue her in to the voice, Fai carefully stripped off his clothes before slipping into the tub. The warm water sloshed around his body as he sank into it, the heat comforting him enough to cause him to relax a little more. He dunked his head under the water before pulling out again, feeling rather conscious of the witch sitting only a couple of feet away from him. The old Fai would have teased her mercilessly about being shy because of the way she had firmly kept her back directed towards him. He wondered if she was thinking that too.

Would she realize he was trying to keep something from them all if he refused to say anything at all? He looked down at the water that was slowly turning murky as the grime and blood washed off his body and dissolved into the soapy liquid. He reached over the rim of the tub and picked up a bathing sponge, dipping it into the water a couple of times before using it to scrub his arms. Once done, he used it to wash his chest and his neck, pushing his dirty blond hair out of the way from where it clung to his skin in wet, rope-like strands. The hair left dirty streaks across his otherwise pale flesh and he used the sponge to clean them up again. All this time, he was very much aware of the witch sitting only a couple of feet away from him.

She would definitely think something was out of place if he did not say anything regarding the current situation.

"I didn't think you would be so shy after everything we have been through, Masooma-chan," he blurted out in a teasing manner before he could tell his brain to shut up.

"I was merely giving you a bit of privacy, Fai-san." Her bristling tones only made him grin in response.

"Why, Masooma-chan, that's so sweet of you." He said lightly, dipping the sponge into the water before bringing it to his arms again. "But I can tell you're only keeping your back to me because you're feeling rather shy."

"Shy my ass." The witch snorted, though she stubbornly kept her back to him, causing Fai to grin even wider.

"And what a nice ass it is." He added an appreciative whistle at the end.

"If you know what's good for your health, Fai-san," she replied a little stiffly and Fai had to stifle a laugh, "you will keep my nice ass out of this conversation."

"Are you threatening me with bodily harm, Masooma-chan?" He said innocently, "why, one would think you would be waiting on me hand and foot because of the way I have been injured recently, and yet here you are, doing the exact opposite."

"Why Fai-san," Masooma finally turned around to look at him with a challenging glint in her eyes, a small smile threatening to break out on her own lips as she met his gaze, "would you like for me to wash your back for you instead?"

Fai froze at her words, images flashing through his head in quick succession as his breathing hitched. Voices, pictures and sensations coursed through him at such a rate that he completely blanked out.

"…ai, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. It was just a joke. Please, Fai, I'm…"Masooma's panicked voice cut through the noise briefly, "… come on, Fai. Snap out of it!"

"Masooma?" he croaked weakly.

"Oh, thank heavens…" the witch sighed in relief as she slumped back onto the ground. The stinging sensation on his cheeks told him that she must have hit him a couple of times to get him to respond to her.

"What happened?" he questioned shakily.

"I said something stupid and it caused you to…" She shook her head regretfully, "I'm sorry. I should just leave you alone for now." She made to stand up.

"No!" Fai nearly leapt out of the tub in a blind panic as he latched onto her hand once more. "Stay."

"Are you sure?"she asked hesitantly.

"Yes, please, I'm…" he took in a deep breath, letting go of her fingers, "I can't really be alone right now."

"Okay, I'll stay."

"Thank you." He said gratefully as he sank back into the water, the murky liquid sloshing around inside the tub with his movements as he started searching for the sponge he had dropped. His fingers closed around it a couple of seconds later and he looked back up to see Masooma watching him silently, though she did not hold his gaze for more than half a minute before she turned her head and began staring at the etching on the wall rather intently.

Dipping the sponge into the water once more even though it was sufficiently wet and soapy, Fai tried to reach over his shoulder to clean his back, only to drop it back in the water with a pained 'ah' as jolts of burning electricity shot through his chest. It almost felt like something had ripped apart his insides and now, moving his body at certain angles pulled at the wounded flesh even though the external damage was no longer visible.

"What's wrong?"Masooma's head whipped back in his direction as her eyes hurriedly examined him for some sort of damage.

"It seems like you might have to wash my back for me after all." He replied with a lopsided smile, although there was no humor behind the action.

"Huh?"

"My chest hurts when I try to reach my back." He explained.

"Oh…Um… Are you sure?" she asked, patiently waiting for his response.

"Please." was all he said in response as he drew his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

Masooma nodded, wordlessly picking up a spare sponge from the nearby table that held a bottle of soapy liquid, a pair of scissors, a comb and a few other washing fluids before coming over to stand behind his back. Reaching out with soft hands, she carefully gathered his waist-length hair and pushed it over his shoulder before gingerly touching his back with the sponge as though waiting for him to draw away from her touch or tell her to stop.

Fai did no such thing, and though neither of them said another word, once she was done washing his back, she pulled his hair back and began washing it for him as well.

"You should just wash your legs and um…I'll go get you some fresh clothes, alright?" she told him, wiping the soapy water from her hands after she handed him the sponge she had been using as she stood up. "We can trim your hair once you have changed, if you want. The towel is on the table, alright?" and then she was gone through the door. He could hear her rummaging through stuff right outside the door and Fai forced himself to relax. He wasn't alone yet. She was just a yell away. Letting this piece of information relax him a little, Fai hurriedly finished washing up before snagging the towel from the table and wrapping it around his waist as he climbed out of the tub.

Water dripped down his legs and formed a small puddle at his feet just as Masooma stepped back inside with his clothes. Fai froze, held in place by her smoldering gaze as she too paused over the threshold.

"Fai…" it was all the warning he got before her eyes teared up and she closed the distance between them. They stared at each other for what felt like ages. Fai wasn't sure who it was that had instigated the kiss, but he knew he was returning it with vigor. She had dropped his clothes near the doorway, a small part of his brain realized as she wrapped her arms around his neck. The sensation of her fingers tangled in the hair at the base of his neck made him go cold all over as distant whispers echoed inside his head.

'You know you like it.' He stiffened in her embrace, trying to push her away, but not having much success in the matter as she refused to let him go. He tasted salt on his lips and it was then that he realized that she was openly crying even though she was kissing him like the world might end the very next second. Her fingers moved from the spot on his neck to somewhere at the junction of his shoulders and his neck and a spark travelled through his entire body causing him to shudder in a pleasant manner. The whispers vanished completely.

Unlike the cold fingers scratching at every bit of his skin, her touch felt feather-light and impossibly warm, nothing like the phantom strokes he could feel all over his body ever since he woke up, whenever she spoke. Without even willing it, his body began to relax in her arms as she stepped closer to him. He could vaguely recall having done something similar for her once upon a lifetime, after she had spilled her darkest secret atop the pyramid roof.

She drew away from him for a brief moment to catch her breath, resting her head against his lowered forehead as they both stared at each other, panting and trying to regain some semblance of control over themselves, but it did not seem enough to either of them as their mouths crashed together only half a second later. Fai nibbled at her lower lip, Masooma parting them compliantly as their kiss grew heated. Unlike her ghostly touch, Masooma's touch sent fire coursing through his veins as her fingers fluttered over his skin before tangling in his hair once more. His own hands traced the ridges of her spine through the thin material of her shirt, until he reached the hem of the cloth and pushed it out of the way to touch her bare flesh. She gasped softly, her breath fluttering across his lips before she dove in for another kiss.

Fai pulled her closer to him, wanting her touch to erase the feeling of those phantom strokes from his mind completely. As though sensing his unvoiced request, she untangled her fingers from his hair once more, fluttering across his back and slowly moving to his torso. Almost desperate and on the brink of completely breaking down, Fai took half a step backwards. Having completely forgotten about the puddle of water under his feet, he slipped. Because he had been holding on to her, he ended up pulling her along as he fell back into the tub of water.

They broke the surface of the water, sputtering and gasping for breath, both drenched completely or, in Fai's case, drenched completely once more.

"You have no idea how worried I was for you these past few months." She murmured softly, resting her head against his shoulder, her breath tickling the flesh of his neck as she nuzzled him. "But I would be lying if I said I had not been worried about you even before that… When you forced me to leave Celes, I was so afraid the beast would come after you instead. Nixon kept telling me to have more faith in you, but something told me you would not be able to kill the beast."

Fai remained silent, hearing her confession as he felt the weight of her legs in his lap. His very naked lap… his towel must have become undone sometime during their fall, but she did not seem to have realized that little piece of information yet. She continued talking, "I should have had more faith in you than that, though, shouldn't I? You're still alive and…"

"I didn't." he admitted, missing the warmth of her embrace she pulled away to look at him, the water sloshing around with her movements. Her wet hair clung to her face and her arms, spreading out around her in the water like strands of charcoal seaweed. Some of the strands brushed against his chest as he spoke, "I didn't kill him. There… there was no beast. It was Ashura-ou all along."

"What?" she laughed in disbelief.

"Remember that story about Ashura-ou having been fed the blood of a vampire?" he replied, not quite meeting her gaze, "it was true. He became insane for some reason, and then… he started killing people… but I couldn't kill him because I owed him my life. I couldn't…couldn't do it. In the end it was Kurogane who did it."

"Oh…" she said in a small voice as she tried to reposition herself a little. Her hand brushed his bare thigh and they both froze, her eyes growing wide in comprehension as his grew wide with a hint of fear, even if for the life of him he could not understand why he felt so afraid of her touch. He had been just fine with her sitting there. It was only when her hand swept against his thigh that he… "I should probably go and get changed into fresh clothes." She said hastily as she pushed herself away from him and climbed out of the tub. She bent down and picked up the fluffy white towel from the floor and placed it on the table with a furious blush across her face as she refused to look at him. "I'll come back and trim your hair in a few minutes, okay? You get dressed too." Placing a clean pair of pants and a button up shirt on the table from the place she had retrieved them on the floor, she hurried out the door, dripping hair and all.

Shaking his head and fighting off a small smile, Fai climbed out of the tub once again, reaching for the towel, but froze halfway there as cold fingers trailed down his back. 'You didn't forget about me just because that little witch kissed you, did you, Fai?'

"Y-You're not real." He said shakily as he hurriedly tied the towel around his waist and snagged the shirt off the table, slipping his arms through the sleeves before grabbing the pants almost desperately. The towel slipped off in his haste to put them on, but he didn't really care much for anyone walking in on him as he changed. If he hurried, maybe he might be able to catch Masooma before she left.

'Are you sure about that?' the woman purred slowly as something tugged on his hair while a pair of cold, wet lips nibbled at the shell of his ear. 'I wonder what dear Masooma will have to say about me being here.'

"Shut up. You're not real." He said with more conviction as he felt another tug at his hair, this one a bit more forceful than the last.

'How can you be sure, Fai? I can touch you, can't I? You can feel this,' her cold fingers scraped across his scalp, 'and this,' they combed through his partially knotted hair, 'and this!' she tugged again at his hair, hard enough to make him stumble and fall. He hit his forehead across the pointed end of the table and the world spun around him for a moment as he felt blood blossom out from the cut and fall into his right eye, even as the wound itself healed almost instantaneously. 'I'm real if you can feel me, Fai.'

"Then I will just have to make sure I can't." He grunted, snatching the pair of scissors off the table as he jumped to his feet.

-0-

Masooma ignored the looks she received from some of the people she met on her way to her room. She hurriedly pulled out a dry shirt and skirt. Changing into them, Masooma wrung out the water from her still dripping hair before pulling it back in a braid. She would comb and dry it properly later. Dumping her wet clothes in the hamper in the bathroom attached to her room, she almost raced back through the corridors to reach Fai's room. She called out his name as she knocked on the door once, wondering if he might still be changing on the other side. When she received no answer, she knocked a little louder. Frowning when she still did not get a response, she pushed the wooden door open and stepped inside.

"Fai?" Looking around the room, she saw that he wasn't there. A sense of dread settled in the pit of her stomach, but she tried to ignore it as she hurried across the room and stopped right outside the bathroom. She could hear him whispering on the other side and her heart clenched with unease. Pushing the feeling away, she cautiously stepped over the threshold and froze, the vice tightening almost painfully at the sight that met her eyes.

Shoulder trembling and slightly hunched, he stood with his back towards her, the material of shirt clinging to his body, almost see through from the wetness of his still dripping hair that hung like limp noodles at the back of his head.

"Fai?"She hesitantly called out the blond's name, hoping for some reason that the whispers and the trembling was nothing more than a figment of her imagination. "What are you doing?" she asked, hating the way her voice trembled as she took a step towards him but he ignored her. It was almost like he wasn't even aware of her presence as he reached up with a shaking hand and caught hold of a random lock of hair and brought it to the front of his face as she stepped around him to look at him. This close to him, she could see a streak of pinkish diluted blood smear halfway down his cheek though she could not see the injury that might have cause the bleeding in the first place.

Moving in a trance-like state, he brought up his other hand and snipped of the hair in his hand, the bundle of hair falling to the ground with a wet splat. Ignoring the burning sensation in her throat as her heart threatened to explode from the painful realization, she slowly reached for his shoulder. He jerked away with a start, the sharp edge of the scissors cutting a jagged gash across her hand as he drew back. Eyes wild and panicked, it almost took half a minute for realization to spark in his gaze as he looked at her. Tears clung to his face like glistening diamonds as he stared at her with trembling lips.

"Ma-Masooma?" he questioned in a broken whisper.

Eyes burning with nascent tears, she approached him slowly, taking great care not to startle him with any sudden motions as he stared at her. She ignored the burning sensation in her palm as she gently took his hand in her own, biting her lip to stop herself from crying openly when he flinched and pulled away. Ignoring the fear that danced across his face, she wordlessly pried the scissors from his fingers, forcing a smile in his direction.

"I'll give you a trim, okay?" she said thickly, struggling to hold back her tears. The pain in her injured hand was nothing compared to the painful clenching of her heart. "Come on." She said, holding out her uninjured hand for him to take, having to wait for almost two minutes as he decided on whether to trust her or not before taking her hand. She could feel it tremble within her grasp as she gently lead him to the bed and made him sit down. Hastily, pulling out a spare roll of bandages from the basket left there by Sakura the previous day, she wrapped the gauze around her hand, ignoring the fact that the wound would probably need stitching had she not known how to use magical heeling. For now though, she left it unhealed. She had heard his whispered mantra of 'I'll make sure I can't feel you anymore.' long before she had touched him but as he obeyed her commands like an obedient four year old and it only made the burning in her eyes strengthen. Whatever had happened in the short span of five minutes, it had caused him to change from the man he had been into this… it was like he was a completely different person now.

Fai had cut off parts of his hair to be so short it barely even reached his ears. She had never seen his hair this short. Even back in Celes when she had apprenticed with him, it had been longer than this. He had always liked his hair to be a little long but now… she raised the scissors and began trimming the rest of his hair, trying to retain some of its feathery, layered quality as she cut it. The silence stretched out between them, broken only by the sound of their breathing or the snip-snip of the scissors as she cut his hair or the dull splats of the wet strands falling to the floor. It was when she was just about finished that Fai finally spoke up, his voice somewhat calmer than it had been earlier.

"I cut if off because I could still feel her," he murmured, "But she's not real… so I cut it. Because if there is no hair to hold…" Masooma almost cried right then and there as he turned his head to look at her with a lost expression. He was no longer crying, but the spark of mischief that she had been so used to seeing in his gaze was no longer there. His eyes were almost empty, lifeless. "She can't be real… can she?"

"No," she replied instead, a few stubborn tears trailing down her cheeks anyways, "she can't."

Fai only nodded once before turning back to stare straight ahead, his fingers absently plucking a few golden hairs from his lap that he began playing with. "I knew she would go away if I cut it off." He told her and Masooma felt her heart shatter. In their desperation to find see that he was okay, they had all missed out on the indicators that pointed otherwise. They had all been wrong.

Fai was not okay… and he wasn't going to be okay anytime soon…

A/N: I tried to keep it as believable as possible and I ended up rewriting the ending for this chapter at least two times before I was satisfied with what I had. It didn't really make sense for Fai to be completely okay after he woke up but I didn't want to just go ahead and jump into him not trusting anyone and shying away and freaking out the minute he woke up either. I find this to be a suitable enough compromise even though I'm sure half the readers would want to kill me for doing something like this and I would seriously be bashing my head against a wall a few chapters down the road when I can't figure out what to do with a Schizophrenic Fai… But anyhow, good news for people rooting for Tsubasa's recovery by the way. He'll soon be finding out the truth! Keep your fingers crossed since if the bunnies don't run wild, it's probably only one more chapter to go till we get there.

Okay, random questions.

Has anyone ever wondered what would happen if Fai D. Flourite were to meet Damon Salvatore and Katherine Pierce? Oh and the rest of the people too I suppose… How many readers of you watch 'The Vampire Diaries'? Or have read the books though I've only seen the show so I'm more interested in that. Would you like to read a crossover between TRC and TVD? ;) ;) (Yes, I'm asking because I'm already working on one even as I update this chapter.)

Answer these questions or yell at me for having Fai go crazy or for writing really long rants in my author's notes or for making you people wait for update or ask me to explain about anything you find confusing. Just click on the little blue button and drop by for a review~