My holiday is over! I should be doing my art coursework but I would much rather be writing. I originally planned nine sections for this but I'm thinking of about fourteen now, though that depends on how long I can keep going.
Section seven - Coping with jealousy
Jealousy, though unbecoming, visits even the best of people. To cope with jealousy the best methods are - imagining a calm blue ocean (must be blue, not red), punching someone before hand, living in denial, or taking anger management courses. There were many reasons to be annoyed with any world. So far, Kurogane could say, hands down, that this was the most annoying world he had ever been to.
XX
Maybe it was the open-air sewers that made the air smell so foul or the noise of the crowds, maybe it was the rough landing they had had the day before, or maybe the grey, sombre, labyrinthine streets that sprawled endlessly into the horizon.
Outo country, with all its danger, was preferable to the world he found himself in. Even the inconveniences of Shurano or the overly cheerful people in Piffle were preferable to this world - a strange world full of smoke and stone and tight-lipped people.
It was the people he found the most irritating. The residents in the new world were talkative enough when it came to casual matters but mention something remotely personal and suddenly they were practising mutes. Somehow, they reminded him of a certain travelling companion, and that only caused for further irritation.
Kurogane poured himself a glass of…what was it? Whiskey or something, they did not serve sake, the fool at the bar counter did not even know what it was.
"I was worried that he would be some perverted old man but he's kinda cute," Fai's elbows were propped on the table and his head resting in his hands. He grinned, not taking his eyes off of their target - a rather handsome man in his thirties drinking alone in the farthest corner.
"How's he cute?" Kurogane poured himself another glass after downing the first.
The bar was a crumbling shack squeezed between two abandoned shops. It was dark and dank, with all the makings of a human rat nest. The stench of alcohol, smoke, and vomit combined in the air to form a vile concoction that threatened to overpower even the sturdiest of men.
Candles dribbled wax onto the floor; the walls had never felt a lick of paint or the touch of a cleaning cloth for years. Cracks ran down the walls and across the floorboards, the whole building threatened to crumble at any moment.
Despite the dilapidated condition of the bar, it was filled with all sorts of people and bar maids in skimpy skirts and tops that covered their breasts and nothing else. Hardly anyone who sat drinking was clean, as if the bar was a pox on any unsoiled material.
They needed to get the information out of their target and leave as soon as possible. Sakura, who had looked as if she would pass out from the fumes, had stepped outside for some air, Syaoran following her with Mokona in tow.
That only left Kurogane and Fai. One of them had to get the required information, though, to Kurogane's never-ending disappointment, pummelling it out of someone had officially been prohibited by Sakura.
Across the table Fai sat smiling good-naturedly, just as he always did. His clothes were quite different from the long black cape Kurogane had wrapped around his figure to hide the red and black robe he wore. Fai's clothes, whilst Kurogane's and Syaoran's covered them like duvets, was, well not exactly revealing, but it fired the imagination.
It was made of either lace of stain, Kurogane could not tell just by looking, and the whiteness of it practically shone in the gloomy squalor of the bar. Somehow, it clung to his figure, accentuating Fai's curves whilst still appearing loose and breezy. The white robe was decorated with ice blue patterns that swirled across the fabric, hanging just past the shoulders, subjecting Fai's collarbone and graceful neck to the hungry stares of those close by.
The attire had been bought for the sole purpose of coaxing information out of the uncooperative locals and so had been dubbed by Fai (and Mokona) 'the seducing suit.'
Kurogane followed Fai's path of vision to the man sitting alone in the farthest corner of the bar. The man was drinking like there was no tomorrow. "Confident, aren't you? What makes you think he'll take a liking to you?" he grunted.
"Would you like to try, Kuro-pin?"
"No!" Kurogane slammed his empty glass on the table.
"Well, if I can't do it, at least we have yummy little Syaoran-kun to fall back on," Fai grinned.
Kurogane knew that Fai only wanted to elicit an angry response from him but he was not in the mood to give the blond what he wanted. Something about their current world grated his nerves more than usual and so he settled with a trademark glare and a dark mutter of, "paedophile!"
Fai said nothing, only grinned at Kurogane then left the table to approach the man in the corner. He approached confidently. The man seemed to take an instant liking to the wizard calling over one of the barmaids to provide them both with drinks.
Kurogane watched darkly as Fai flirted with the man. He heard them both laugh. Why was he finding it so annoying? Was it because he would rather beat the daylights out of the man for information than extract it this way?
Even though he could not hear what was being said, he could tell that Fai was giving the man the kind of lip service that inflated a man's ego and loosened their tongues.
Fai let the man touch him too, Kurogane noted with a growl. Each touch was light and never lasted long. Fai taunted the man with his body, just offering enough of himself for the man to want more.
They continued on, during this time, Syaoran slipped in to the seat across from Kurogane and watched silently as the man left and Fai finally made his way back to them.
"Took you long enough," Kurogane grunted as Fai sat opposite him.
"Were you successful, Fai-san?" Syaoran asked.
Fai smiled, flourishing a piece of paper from his sleeve. "Of course," he handed it to Syaoran "It's enough for us to start searching, right?"
"Thank you very much, Fai-san, putting yourself in that awkward position for us," Syaoran bowed his head politely.
Fai waved it away. "Don't thank me yet. If we ever come across a problem or run out of leads we may have to come back here."
"We won't come across problems," Kurogane stated. He would personally do everything in his power to prevent them from coming back and for Fai to flirt with any more men. He bet the damn wizard had been enjoying it.
XX
"He's drinking too much," Kurogane muttered, glaring over the rim of his glass at the wizard and their latest target.
Two days later, and half way upon finding another clue which would certainly lead them to the feather, they were forced back to the tavern. Kurogane mentally cursed just about everything that he could for bringing them back to the same despicable place.
They sat in the same squat bar, in the same seats, looking at the same table but this time their target really was a perverted old man.
Kurogane watched, glowered really, at Fai flirting with the old geezer. The man was old but powerful, the strength in his muscles still showed through the fabric of the man's robe. The man had Fai pinned to the wall, one wandering hand tracing Fai's collarbone, his breath tickling the wizard's ear "I'm sure Fai-san knows what he's doing," Syaoran, who was sensing the rising turbulence inside Kurogane, reassured the ninja.
"He's still drinking too much," Kurogane insisted, "in a minute, he's going to start going 'Nyaa! Nyaa!' like an idiot."
"I'm sure that he's…"
"Nyaa! Nyaa!"
Syaoran laughed nervously whilst Fai meowed for the amusement of the old man. "I -I'm completely confident that Fai-san will…Kurogane-san!"
Kurogane snapped his head back to Fai and the man. Their activities were getting a little rough and Fai was obviously not enjoying it. The man pushed Fai more forcefully against the wall, brining his grinning mouth dangerously close to Fai's face.
He didn't realise it, but all of a sudden Kurogane was moving. He was out of his seat and striding towards Fai and the man, pushing barmaids out of his way as he marched towards them.
"Hey, you! What the hell do you think that you're doing?"
"Who are you?" the man turned, glowering at him for interrupting his fun.
Kurogane did not bother to tell the man his name; he never gave his name to such scum. Stepping forward, he buried his fist in that man's stomach, sending the man reeling into the nearest table. It felt good, perhaps a little too good.
The moment the man stumbled into the table, a brawl sparked that quickly spread throughout the bar as fast as wild fire. People stumbled into other people and were knocked out for it. A bottle of wine was shattered on the hard floor.
In the ensuing chaos, they heard Syaoran call them from the exit. Kurogane caught Fai's wrist and both of them ducked and ran, avoiding pewter cups and plates that were flying across the room. They burst out of the door and began running, not stopping until they were a good distance away from the bar. When they looked back, even the sounds of the brawl carried itself across the wind to them.
"Hyuu! Kuro-chi's made a real mess of things," Fai whistled, or at least tried to whistle.
Kurogane glowered at him. "If I didn't get you out of there in time, he would have really taken advantage of you. I don't think that you'd like waking up in that old geezer's bed the next morning. Besides, you were taking too long," he added stiffly.
"Right, of course I was," Fai smiled knowingly. "Don't worry, I'll try again tomorrow."
"No, you're not!"
Syaoran jumped in surprise. Kurogane's sudden outburst caught even Fai a little off-guard.
"Kuro-chin?"
"That place is bad news! We'll never find the feather if we have to keep going back there."
Fai smiled and confirmed with Syaoran if he was okay with that. Syaoran smiled sheepishly then nodded.
"Then I should get rid of these clothes, right?" Fai said, turning back to Kurogane once more. "I'll buy something warmer, like what you and Syaoran-kun are wearing."
Kurogane unfolded his arms and took a good long look at Fai in the…seducing suit. The slight blush that coloured his cheeks had to be wrong. There was no way that he could find the lithe blond more than just a little good-looking in that white and blue robe, but thinking about made him blush even more and trying not to think about it just forced him to think about it.
"Are you an idiot?" he turned away, refusing to allow his eyes to wander across Fai's graceful figure anymore. He was not like that perverted man they had just left behind. "We don't have money for you to buy another set."
Grabbing Fai by the wrist, he began to drag the wizard along.
"Now, let's go home"
I like describing bars. I think that that was my longest chapter yet. Anyway, I also forgot (I forget a lot of things) to thank Noi for the doujinshi. I did manage to see it, though it took a while to work the links, and it's absolutely adorable! I intended to get this up a little earlier but things kept getting in the way. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Well, it's up now; you all know what to do!