Introduction
Out of the whole group, Fai is the one who smiles the most. But just because he smiles, that doesn't mean he's happy.
As he travels through the various dimensions, Fai hides behind a false smile, carefully concealing how he really feels under layers of pretence. But when Ashura returns, those layers are torn away, leaving him exposed to the world.
As he tries desperately to cope with the new pain and fear in his life, Fai finds himself thinking back to a time long ago…when smiles were real.
When the mask cracks, what will lie beneath?
Chapter Six; Memories Sleeping II
"Oh wow…you look great, Fai!" Ashura crowed, clapping his hands. Fai flushed a deep red, fidgeting and pulling at his new clothes.
"Ashura…I can't accept this. It's too much…" He protested. Ashura frowned, putting his hands on his hips.
"Of course you can accept it! It's only new clothes!" He said hotly.
"But Ashura…these are what the nobility wear!" Fai pleaded. Ashura laughed, embraced his friend.
"Well, you're nobility in my opinion, so these clothes are perfect for you!" He stated.
Fai blushed even more, and glanced at his reflection warily. When Ashura had first appeared this morning, carrying a bag over his shoulder, Fai hadn't questioned it. But when Ashura had dragged him to the mayor's house, and handed him over to the servants, he'd been more than a little confused.
His unspoken questions had been answered soon enough though, as before he could even react, he had been undressed, and given a thorough scrubbing. By the time they had finished, his skin had been free of grime once more, and his original hair colour had surfaced from underneath the dirt, prompting several comments about its nice blonde colour.
But Ashura hadn't been finished. The moment Fai had dried himself off, he'd been swarmed by excited maids chattering about how nice his new outfit would make him look. And when they'd pulled away…he'd been unable to recognise himself.
The outfit that Ashura had given him had been breathtaking. Dark blue robes covered in delicate silver designs had brought out the sapphire of his eyes, and made his blonde hair appear even more golden than it already was. Coupled with the white silk belt, the outfit had made Fai speechless.
"But…" He tried again. His protest was cut off as Ashura clapped his hand over the blonde's mouth.
"Enough! Come on, Fai…I just couldn't stand the thought of you scavenging!" He begged. Fai sighed, and relaxed himself, showing Ashura that the fight was over.
When the other boy removed his hand, Fai smiled softly, and looked at his friend perkily.
"Wheet whoo! Ashura sure is nice!" He laughed. Ashura blinked.
"Wheet…whoo?"
"Wheet whoo! I can't whistle, so I make the sound instead!" Fai explained. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but the fact that Ashura had cared enough about him to give him these clothes had certainly put him in a good mood.
"Oh! What about…"
"Ashura!" Ashura's father poked his head round the door, smiling as he interrupted his son.
"I thought you said you were going to get Fai to show you more of the town, hmm?" He gently reminded him. Ashura rubbed the back of his neck, smiling apologetically at the obvious request for the two boys to leave the adults in peace.
"Sorry, Dad. We'll get out of your way. Come on Fai!"
A group of rough looking men stood in the shadows, watching silently as Ashura ran out of the mayor's house, dragging Fai after him.
"So we all agree then. We put the plan into action now."
"What about the other boy? The noble?" One of the men said worriedly. The man who had spoken first rolled his eyes.
"Fool. That's just Fai – the little prince has taken a shine to him. He won't cause us any trouble." He sniggered.
"But won't he tell everyone?"
"Of course he will, but no one will believe him. After all, who's going to believe that a street urchin is innocent if he has a dead prince at his feet? Fai will be the perfect scapegoat."
"Ashura! Where are you taking me? You don't even know your way around here very well yet!" Fai protested as Ashura continued to drag him through the streets. Almost immediately, Ashura screeched to a halt, causing Fai to bump into him.
"Oof! Sorry, Ashura…" He murmured. Ashura turned round, shaking his head and smiling at Fai's apology.
"Silly, I told you to stop saying sorry for things that weren't your fault! It was mine, because I sto-mmmmphh!"
Ashura was cut off as a dirty hand suddenly clapped itself over his mouth, dragging him back into the shadows of an alley he was standing at the entrance of.
"Ashura!" Fai squeaked.
Scurrying into the alley after his friend, Fai gasped as he took in the scene before him. Ashura was trapped against a wall, looking terrified as 6 men advanced on him.
"St…stop it! I'm the king's son, and I'll have you clapped in irons!" Ashura threatened weakly, eyes darting around in search of an escape. Seeing Fai standing there, his eyes widened, and he shook his head frantically.
"No! Fai, don't do anything! Just get out of here, and fetch Father! F…ahhh!"
Ashura's head snapped back from the force of the blow given to him by one of the men, and Fai cried out in shock, beginning to retreat in order to do what Ashura had asked.
To his horror, he bumped into a muscular body, and he yelped as the man who had snuck round behind him grabbed him, tightening his grip until it was painful.
"Oh no you don't, Fai. You're not going anywhere. You're just going to stay here, and watch like a good little boy." The man hissed in his ear.
Fai stiffened at the familiar voice, and tilted his head to the side, whimpering as he saw who it was.
"Otooji?"Ashura stared as Fai called the man 'uncle'. He'd thought Fai had no family…that that had been why he'd been forced to fend for himself on the street…
"Yes, my little nephew…Uncle Senichi's here now. So just be a good boy and stay quiet, ok? You don't want to mess up Uncle's plan, do you?" The man smiled.
Fai gulped, beginning to gnaw on his lip as he realised just what his uncle was asking of him. What should he do? Yell for help and save Ashura? Or listen to his uncle, the only surviving member of his family left?
"Fai!" Ashura gasped, only to groan as he was hit again. Glaring at the offender, he twisted his face into a sneering expression of contempt.
"Do you really think that you can just kill me, and do away with the heir to the throne like this! Don't you know that all the members of my family are skilled at magic?"
Senichi smirked back, his grip relaxing round Fai as he felt the young boy stop struggling.
"Yes, but you're not fully trained yet, are you? And you're no match for 6 people…let alone 7, if I decide to join in." He said lazily.
Ashura's eyes widened as the 6 men surrounding him summoned balls of power into their hands, and he began to struggle, the air crackling round him as he tried to summon up magic strong enough to defeat all of them at once.
"With you gone, the king will have no heir…he will be forced to adopt…and any commoner he chooses will easily be controlled by us! Goodbye Ashura-ouji!" Senichi laughed.
At his uncle's words, Fai turned pale, and he began to shake with rage. Blonde hair rising as if stirred by an invisible wind, and blue eyes shining with raw power, he let out an angry cry, his uncle letting go of him with a curse as a shock of magic shot up his arms.
The men advancing on Ashura turned at their leader's outburst, and Ashura stared in disbelief as he was finally able to see what had caused by the disturbance.
"Fai! You have magic...?"
Fai simply stretched out a hand, tendrils of blue electricity flying forth to strike at Ashura's attackers, sending them crashing into the end of the alley. Turning almost serenely, he pointed towards his uncle, a faint smile appearing on his lips.
"I cannot allow you to kill Ashura, Otooji. He's my friend, and has treated me far better than you ever have. You just threw me out on the streets after my parents' death to fend for myself, making the excuse that you were too poor to feed me. But I knew…I knew all along that you were the richest man in town apart from the mayor! You just couldn't be bothered with me…but I knew!"
As a bolt of power shot from his finger and knocked his uncle to his feet, Fai's voice cracked, and tears began to stream down his face. Sinking to his knees, he began to sob violently, hugging himself as tried to stop crying. But just as he began to get a grip on himself, he felt a strange stirring in the pit of his stomach, and cried out as a sharp pain shot through him.
"Fai…?" Ashura whispered, reaching for him, only to jerk back as Fai suddenly yelled at him.
"No! Don't touch me! Don't come any closer!"
"Fai? What's wrong? Are you sick? Tell m…."
Ashura's dark eyes widened as a red light suddenly seemed to explode out of Fai, cutting through the air like a knife. Everything it touched became black, as if burnt, and Ashura was forced to duck as a tendril of light struck just above his head.
"Fai? Fai! What's going on!" Ashura shouted. But Fai didn't answer, and only lay there knelt there with his arms wrapped round his stomach, shrieking in agony as the light continued to shoot out of him, firing round the alleyway.
Suddenly, 6 beams jerked and changed direction, hitting the 6 men who had attacked Ashura. Jerked out of unconsciousness, they screamed at the contact, their wails dying away into silence as they stopped thrashing and lay still, their eyes open and unseeing. Ashura gasped, and scrabbled further away, heart beating rapidly as he stared at the dead bodies.
Meanwhile, Fai continued to screech, another bolt of red light shooting out of him and into his uncle, leaving yet another lifeless body lying on the ground.
The pain intensifying, Fai scratched at the ground madly, ignorant of the fact that the light was stretching towards Ashura now, not hearing his friend's panicked cries.
Then he felt a cool touch on the back of his neck, and he fell forward onto the floor, darkness overcoming him.
"Hurrgh…" Fai groaned slightly, blue eyes flickering open to focus on a beautifully domed white ceiling above him. >Huh?> Quickly glancing around, Fai saw that he was in a huge, richly decorated room, and instantly began to panic as he realised that he had no clue where he was.
Pulling back the blue silk sheets, Fai had slid out of bed and was swaying dizzily when the door suddenly opened and there was a familiar gasp.
"Fai! You shouldn't get out of bed just yet! You're still weak!"
Gentle arms pushed him back onto the bed, and Fai blinked until the concerned face of Ashura came into focus.
"Ash...Ashura? What am I doing here?" He whispered, allowing his friend to ease the covers back over him.
"After you saved me, you just started screaming, and shooting red light everywhere…it hit your uncle and his friends, and they just seemed to have the life sucked out of them…it was going to hit me too, but then Mahouda and Father arrived, and Mahouda cast a sleeping spell on you."
As the memories came flooding back, Fai gave a stifled sob, burying deeper into the blankets and pulling them over his head.
"I killed them…I killed Otooji and his friends…I nearly killed you…" He wept, his tears falling thick and fast.
The next thing Fai knew, Ashura had crawled onto the bed with him, and had put his arms around him soothingly.
"It wasn't your fault…Mahouda said that your magic's too powerful for you to control naturally. You needed an escape outlet to save yourself, and you instinctively used those around you to do so…it wasn't your fault, Fai, and Mahouda's going to make sure that you never do it again."
Fai blinked away his tears, staring into Ashura's dark eyes.
"How?" He croaked.
"He's going to give you a magical tattoo…one of the Suzaku…" Ashura smiled.
"…Suzaku?" Fai murmured.
"It's a huge bird like a phoenix, and represents knowledge. It's power will allow you to control your gifts, so that you will be able to use magic without accidentally killing either yourself or other people." Ashura explained.
"Will it hurt?" Fai asked, causing Ashura to bite his lip and nod slowly.
"It has to be done with needles…and it will take 3 days to complete. That's 3 days of agony, Fai…" Ashura choked out.
To his surprise, Fai simply nodded, and hugged him back.
"Then I'll do it…anything's better than hurting people like this. Than hurting you…"
"Fai! How are your studies going? We hardly get to see each other anymore!" Ashura pouted, wrapping Fai in a strong grip and making the blonde wizard laugh happily.
"I'm sorry, Ashura-ouji, but my lessons are taking up most of my time! It's not easy learning how to be a High Wizard!" Fai giggled.
Four years had passed since the events in the alleyway, but for Fai every single moment still stood out clearly in his mind. Mahouda had come to him 5 days after the incident, and he had begun to tattoo Fai's back with the intricate phoenix design, carefully protecting Fai from the magic that he held deep within himself.
It had felt like his back was on fire, and he had screamed into the pillow for almost the whole 3 days…but Ashura had never left his side, holding his hand and whispering comforting words into his ear. Without Ashura, Fai was sure that he would have gone mad from the pain, despite Mahouda's caution.
After he had recovered, he had been told to his shock that he was to be the next High Wizard. Apparently, his magic was the strongest in all of Seresu…it was him who Mahouda had had visions of.
From then on, he had been Fai the street urchin no more. He had been Fai the High-Wizard-In-Waiting, living in the lap of luxury inside the palace. Of course, there had been one or two sacrifices…namely his close friendship with Ashura.
Not that they weren't friends anymore…far from it. They simply didn't get much time together, what with all of Fai's studies and Ashura's lessons on being a good monarch. The only other thing that had changed was that Fai now had to call Ashura 'Ashura-ouji', since it would be seen as unseemly for him to address Ashura so casually around the palace.
But this was one of the few precious moments he had managed to get with the prince lately, and it was enough to make Fai grin widely, acting like he had years ago, when he'd first played with Ashura.
"Well, that's no reason to be avoiding me!" Ashura playfully chided, his dark hair swishing elegantly around him as he shook his head at Fai. Although both boys were 14 now, neither had seemed to mature at all…at least, not when it came to how they acted around the other.
"But Ashura-ouji, Mahouda-sensei's really strict! He keeps me busy!" Fai whined comically. Although, he couldn't help the blush that was staining his cheeks – it seemed that every time he saw Ashura lately, he got side tracked by the other boy's handsome features, and would end up blushing like a school girl. He just couldn't understand it.
"But, Fai-koi, I get jealous when you're with other people!" Ashura whined back. Fai snickered.
"You get jealous! Of what, my…." His voice trailed away suddenly, and he gasped as what Ashura had said suddenly clicked in his mind. >Fai-koi?>
"I was fed up with giving you hints, Fai, so I just had to say it outright. You're so naïve sometimes…you were completely missing all those clues I left you!" Ashura laughed, gently tucking a strand of blonde hair behind Fai's ear.
"Ash…Ashura-ouji?" Fai breathed.
"I love you Fai…I want you to be mine forever." Ashura whispered softly, before leaning in to capture Fai's rosebud lips in a gentle kiss. Fai gladly relaxed into it, before pulling away, his heart beating wildly.
"Yes. Forever yours." He promised, before kissing Ashura again.
End Flashback
Dozing by Fai's side, Kurogane jerked awake as he felt Fai's hand twitch, the pale fingers grasping Kurogane's own. Crimson eyes wide, Kurogane stared down at the body of his lover, praying that the twitch had meant what he hoped it did.
As if in answer to his prayers, Fai gave a small moan, head rolling to the side as his face contorted into a grimace of pain. Watching with bated breath, Kurogane tightened his own grip on Fai's hand as those beautiful blue eyes fluttered open, and he smiled reassuringly as Fai opened his mouth to say something. But the name that Fai said so lovingly fell on frozen ears, and Kurogane felt his heart shatter as Fai whispered;
"Ashura?"
Oh oh! What's Kurogane going to do now? Anyway, sorry for the late review...I wasn't quite sure how to write the fight in the alley, so I got a little stuck for a while there!
Please do the usual and read and review!