Summary: Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE; Kurogane, in his POV, has a meeting with a certain someone, but it may not be all that it seems.

Warnings: I've said before that I don't really believe Kurogane is all about the swearing in his thoughts, but in this story, that side of him definitely comes out. Warning One: Swearing. Nothing major, but they surely do pop up a bit. Warning Two: No big spoilers. A mention of the sword Kuro-chii gets in chapitre 40 and the mention of a name in chapitre 55. Nothing to actually spoil anything. But enough to spoil the surprise of the information. And this also takes place kinda sorta after chapitre 65. But you can't actually tell; just a couple of things at the very end that really don't give away anything (since I'm making it entirely up). Now that I've exhausted Warning Two... Warning Three: Where would we be without a little KuroxFai hint? Though I think, if you don't really pay attention, it's practically non-existent.

Disclaimers: All belongs to CLAMP, et al.

Lucidity

I had no clue where I was. It looked almost familiar, yet there was something…wrong with it. I could not put my finger on what it was, but I knew that there was definitely something wrong with the place. It felt angry, vengeful, and sad. I had no idea why I thought it was familiar. It looked like a place from where that damn wizard would have come. The room that I was in expanded hugely in all directions; the walls swept in arcs to the vaulted ceilings, chandeliers of glass falling in cascades above me. My surroundings looked as if they had been carved from precious stone and polished into creating their own light.

A ridiculously small table was set in the middle of the room not too far from me. A graceful ice blue tablecloth draped over it, spread, it appeared, for a kind of tea. Certainly not the tea with which I was familiar. This was definitely a foreign version of tea. Tea always meant conversation. And conversation is not exactly what I would call one of my abilities. I could always know when I was about to be reprimanded for behavior when Tomoyo invited me for tea. She usually sufficed with Souma, but sometimes she would wish to partake with me when I had done something she did not like. I always felt like such a cad in her presence. She, sitting so elegantly in her robes, sipping from her cup with gentle hands, was the epitome of a princess. I, on the other hand, was not very graceful, save, I suppose, in a fight. And to my utter mortification, I found that, in her presence, I was quite clumsy.

It usually gave her the advantage in our 'conversations.' She completely took advantage of my less than stellar conduct and talked about nonsense on into the night, often weaving in morals she believed that I should learn. She liked talking to me for some reason. But…I did not mind too much. Listening to her voice was one of the few things I would allow myself to enjoy. But again, she usually did all the talking while I sat there like a fool. So this tea setting did nothing to ease the discomfort of not knowing where I was.

Speaking of which, I was completely alone. No kid, no princess, no wizard, and no manjuu. Now that I had thoroughly convinced myself that this was not a place in which I should be, I scanned the room for some kind of exit. In one of the far ends, I spotted a graceful arched doorway; just before it opened. I swore under my breath. I could not hide anywhere since the tea table was all that the room held, and I was not an expert in disappearing. That was Souma's department. Whenever sneaking somewhere was required, she was the one who excelled. I tended to go in, sword flashing. Subtlety and I did not mix.

By now, it was a useless thought, however, as a man entered. His long, straight black hair framed his face and shoulders in an ethereal fall. His deep blue and white robes swept around him, brushing the floor, and in his hand he held a long golden staff that had an uncanny resemblance to the one Fai had carried around until he traded it in Koriyo Country. On his forehead was a strange marking, almost like a crown. He soon stood on the opposite side of the table and offered me a small, polite smile.

"Please do sit," he said, gesturing to the chair in front of me.

What the damn? A complete stranger just offered me a seat at what I presumed to be his tea table. I cocked an eyebrow at him. "I don't even know who you are and you're expecting me to just sit down?"

His smile grew fractionally amused. "Of course you would not know who I am. I do not suppose that he told you."

"So who the hell are you? And who are you talking about?" I asked.

"He really has not told you anything, has he?" He marveled. He shrugged lightly and sat at his place. He looked up at me again. "Please sit."

"I'll stand," I replied.

"I wonder what it is about you?" He said.

I was starting to get angry. What the hell was this guy after? "Speak plainly, or I'm leaving," I growled.

"Leaving?" He looked surprised. "You cannot leave."

"Why the hell not?"

He regarded me carefully for a moment before offering me a seat again. Which I declined. Again. "So are you going to tell me who the hell you are? Cause you sure seem to know something about me," I said.

He nodded. "I suppose I should. It will make this easier." He nodded his head at me, as if greeting me for the first time. "My name is Ashura. I am the king of the country Celes."

Ashura…Celes…Fai was from a country called Celes. And he sure acted as if he knew the name Ashura from when we were at that shrine. And it seemed that he knew the name in not a good way. Was this the bastard from whom he was running? He looked like a freaking pansy! I stopped that line of thought quickly. Even after all the wisdom Tomoyo had imparted on me over the years and then through the different dimensions as of late, I still jumped to conclusions. Maybe I should sit.

He smiled at me as I sat heavily in the chair opposite him. It was that same damn fake smile that Fai had. This had to be the one. He took the teapot from the center of the table and proceeded to fill both of the cups that rested beside it. He set one before me and inquired if I took anything in my tea. I had never heard of putting something in tea, so I declined. He nodded and sipped from his own cup. I stared at mine. It looked far too fragile for me to pick up. Tomoyo had learned from experience that I was not so careful with the thinner, more formal cups she was used to using. Not that I am a total oaf, I just happen to mistakenly think they are sturdier than they really are. That always led to chips and breaks. This cup had a strange crook on the side that looked ready to fall off on its own. It was not going to need any help from me. Ashura was using it to hold his cup, so I was able to realize that it was a handle. Something I also had never heard of on a teacup.

"You are not the greatest conversationalist, I see," Ashura remarked amusedly.

I knew it! Damn tea and its conversational connotations. I should have walked out when I had the chance. I glowered at him darkly, which only earned me a quiet laugh.

"I suppose you would not be," he said, sipping his tea again. "Fai can speak enough for two, so of course you would be more of the listening type."

"I don't choose to listen to that guy," I said. "He just talks."

"Yet you do not do much to stop it," he said. "You do see it for what it is, do you not?"

I did. Fai filled silence as another way to escape. I could tell at his current state, silence was a most grievous enemy for him. I nodded at Ashura. "Yeah. I do."

Ashura set his cup down and refilled it. "I am sure that by now you have realized that I am the one from whom he is running."

"Yeah," I grunted.

"Do you know why he is running?"

"Not a damn clue," I admitted, rolling my eyes in exasperation. Where the hell was this guy going with this? I did not like the way he spoke.

"Well, I will leave it up to him to tell you," he said. "Far be it for me to expose his secrets."

"He's sure good at keeping them," I frowned. "But he's lousy at hiding them."

"Only to you though," Ashura noted. "Young Syaoran does not seem to notice too much of what he is hiding. The princess does not either."

How did he know the princess and the kid? But then again…how did he know who I was?

He chuckled as if I had asked that aloud. "There are certain things of which I can keep track."

"You some kind of a mind reader of something?" I demanded.

"I can see the surprise on your face," he replied. "I can imagine you are not very good at keeping secrets from anyone."

I was not. Absolutely horrible at it. There was only one secret that I have been able to keep. Even then, Tomoyo had been able to guess it; I suppose I was lucky that no one from our sordid traveling group had seen it yet. Tomoyo had always laughed at me when I tried to hide something from her.

"Silly Kurogane," she would smile. "When will you realize that you absolutely cannot keep a secret?"

I frowned deeply, which only fueled his quiet laughter. The bastard. "So are you going to tell me what the hell I'm doing here, or what?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.

"Of course," he nodded. "I only wished to have a dialogue with you."

I hated formal speaking. It was only meant to circle the topic and not to achieve anything. Even Tomoyo had dropped her more formal speech patterns around me, much to Souma's chagrin. "I thought I told you to speak plainly."

His smile completely morphed then,and I felt my defenses rise. This was the dangerous smile of an enemy. I had seen them often enough to know. To an average person, I am sure that they would not see any difference in his demeanor. But I could see that he was clearly on the mental offensive. I would not allow him to earn any power over me, though.

"You are quite perceptive." Even the tone of his voice had changed; menace laced through his polite words.

"What the hell are you getting at?" I felt the hair on the back of my neck raise and I suddenly realized that Souhi was nowhere. How had I not noticed before? I did not really need a weapon to fight, but it was definitely helpful to have one.

"I feel that you are getting too close," he said. "If this continues, I will no longer have any power."

"What are you talking about?" I growled.

"You know," he said.

Damn it. My gaze flicked to the one door behind Ashura. I would have liked to strangle whoever had built this room. What kind of an idiot built a room with only one door? I have always firmly believed that one should never go where there is only one way in and out. Ashura caught the movement, though, and laughed lightly again.

"Oh, Kurogane," he said. "You cannot help but wish to protect him, can you?"

"Yes I can!" I roared before realizing, all too late, that I had fallen completely into his trap. He had me. I had underestimated my opponent again.

"But it will not help him defeat me," Ashura continued. His eyes were filled with mirth at my outburst. "And that is what you want him to do on his own so he can be strong and heal."

My first reaction was to fly into an outrage that would most likely lead to exposing more of my emotions than I wanted; being that I did not want any of them exposed. I truncated the first phrase that came to mind and wrestled to find something that would be an appropriate, yet vague, answer.

"I don't know what he's been through," I started, barely able to suppress the anger behind my words. "But I do know, that the only thing that will allow him to move on, is to deal with it face to face." There. No emotion, only truth. But damn it if he did not smile even more.

"Did I not mention that you are not one that is able to lie?" He said.

I did not bother swallowing a growl. I hardened my glare. "All right, you damn bastard," I said. "What the hell are you playing at?"

He sighed gracefully. "Now I see what it is about you."

This threw me off-balance. He was talking in circles again. "What?"

He looked me in the eye, the menace no longer staining his own. "I do not think I have lost to you, yet. I have still done much more than you have. I still have a chance."

"All right," I nodded and shoved my chair back, standing up. "That was your last damn chance. I'm leaving."

"Of course," he shrugged. "I am sure that we will meet again."

I did not manage to think about how odd that statement was before the room fell away into nothing. And when I opened my eyes, I was lying on a hard dirt floor, surrounded by almost complete darkness. Where…? I turned my head, feeling a dull pain at my temple. Fai lay sleeping an arms-length from me, a distraught look on his face. The pain had grown from that movement and I could do nothing more than lie there, watching him, until I could no longer keep my eyes open, and sleep claimed me again.

A/N: So does anybody get the title now? Maybe? Well, it indicates a state of dreaming that absolutely convinces the dreamer that what they are experienceing is real. And at the end, it's not! Were you surprised? Well, I tried. Anyway, on with the real note. This story was unofficially commissioned by Duchessa. She dropped me a review on my last story and it sounded like a great idea. So I wove a way to make it so. This one's for you, Miss Duchessa! I tried to keep Ashura-ou as in character as I could, but I must admit that Fai's Ashura and Shurano's Ashura kind of seem completely different. But I tried to keep them the same on that 'basic level.' Though I have no clue if I really pulled it off. (Maybe let me know?) The only regret that I have is not being able to write the second chapter for this. Can anyone guess what that one's going to be about? I really do hate to only put up one part of a story, since I am all about immediate gratification when reading fics. I like to give people a complete story right away. But, this took some real thinking to write, and I wanted to get something up. So unfortunately you'll have to wait for the next chapter. Hopefully the wait won't be long though. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Okay, after reading reviews (I've got three already!) I decided to go ahead and give a couple more a/n. Q. 1: Kurogane's secret. A. 1: Weeeeeeellll…..kay. Nothing officially from the story, bu I have this theory. While reading the Outo arc, it struck me as quite curious that Kuro always seemed to be wondering about demons eating people. He was all about seeing in the dark. Aaaaaand…he always quickly changed the subject if asked about the demons eating people. This brought me to believe that there may be…something about Kuro. I'm thinking he's got quite a traumatic past when dealing with demons. And there might even be a smidgeon more too. But that's my theory, and I like writing about it. Because he seems to be the only one that really doesn't have a hang-up (Syaoran has his eye and Sakura, Fai has his magic and Ashura, Sakura has…well, no memories, and Mokona is Mokona) so I figured that he must be hiding it very well. But he has to have one (because Mokona said that he too looked lonely now and again) and my theory, to me, fits that bill. Q 2: Did Ashura indicate Fai when remarking that he could not afford to lose to Kurogane. A 2: Yes. Whenever I have Ashura talk about losing to Kuro and no longer having power (over Fai), he is indeed talking about Fai. It's like a battle for Fai between Ashura and Kurogane. Ashura's got the history, but Kuro's empowering. I think that Ashura thinks of Fai as a kind of weapon (because I think Fai's magic is uber strong), along with whatever else.Q 3:To whatabout Kurogane is Ashura referring.A 3: I'm being vague on purpose here to confuse Kuro. That's why I don't explain it in the text(since it's in Kuro's POV and he doesn't understand what Ashura means). What I'm referring to is what about Kuro that Fai is attracted to (not necessarily any romantic connotations, since Fai keeps hanging around Kuro and bugging him and we don't actually see anything romantic going on between them except the subtlety that is CLAMP couples. Or potential couples. Or hopefully potential couples…). So if this warrants edits in the actual story, let me know. Thanks for the reviews! It's also good to know that I am not a complete incompetent when it came to Ashura. I was seriously worried. So thanks for letting me know! Oh, and the second chapter will indeed be Fai meets Tomoyo. Ohoho….