A/N: Holy…freaking…crap… I had an absolute BITCH of a time writing this chapter for some reason. Seriously, I was counting; I started over/rewrote large portions 32 times. 32 times! Who freaking does that!

So I pretty much don't wanna hear any of that "third try's a charm" bullshit. "Third try's a charm", my ass. More like the "3rd time cubed is a charm."

Chapter 2

Find Me if You Can

All invisible things, regardless of their size, shape, nature or occupation, fall into one of three categories. People tend to discredit invisible things. After all, what good is something that can not be experienced with one's own two eyes? But some of the best things in life are things that cannot be seen; love, laughter, hope… They are things that can be sensed, tasted, heard, though undetectable to the eye.

Then there are those things that are slightly more tangible, large and gaudy and extremely obvious. Yet still, it is possible for them to be overlooked if one is careless, even if they are staring you right in the face.

The final category is for things that are perfectly tangible, perfectly real, and often extremely annoying. In this case, the thing in question is tall, thin and blond but completely impossible to see, even if you know it is there. Few people have the pleasure of encountering things that fall into the third category, although there are many who would like to have such an opportunity. But life has a cruel, twisted sense of humor and seems to enjoy giving glorious things to those who have absolutely no desire for them. Such spoils rarely seem to be awarded to those who crave them so desperately. Then again, some people don't even know how badly they want something until it is presented to them.

The idea for how to spend his second wish hit Fai while he was absentmindedly scanning the bookshelves that lined the walls of his bedroom. The books were old and dusty and though some of them are so terribly boring that they could put a politician to sleep, there were a few classic stories peppered throughout to collection. There was one book in particular that caught Fai's attention, however; it was called "The Invisible Man". At first, the mage's eyes had glossed right over it, disinterested. Then he felt his heart skip a beat and immediately did a double-take.

The Invisible Man. Hmm…The Invisible man…yes, no doubt about it: that was just the sort of thing he had been trying to come up with. It was perfect. He could just imagine the effect it might have on the ninja. It would make Kurogane curl up on the floor in the fetal position and cry in frustration for his mommy. It would make him so completely annoyed that he would be wishing that he had just submitted to Fai's will in the first place and thereby spared himself the agony of Fai's antics. Or it would make him extremely horny. Yeah, Fai thought with a grin, I'd take that.

"Sumomo chaaaan," the wizard sang, "I've got iiiiit!"

"Master has thought of a way to have fun with his scary friend?" Sumomo asked eagerly.

"Yeah," he replied dreamily.

But then he paused as a new thought occurred to him. Last time he had made a wish his power had run out at a very inopportune moment. He mustn't let that happen again. The solution was to wait until just the right time to make his wish. Fai glanced at the clock. It was currently eight-thirty AM which meant that if he were to make his wish right now, his power would wear off that night at eight-thirty. He shook his head slightly; experience told him that the best things often happened at night. Heh heh. Yeah, it was definitely worth the wait.

"I'm gonna wait until a little later to make the wish though, I think, Sumomo chan," Fai said.

"Wait?" Sumomo repeated. "Wait for what?"

"I have to wait for just the right time," he answered. "It's all about timing."

Fai bounded down the stairs, and to his utter delight, found his favorite short-tempered ninja sitting in the living room, reading this world's copy of Maganyan. When he heard Fai enter the room, he immediately looked up and, upon recognizing his visitor, made a face that suggested that he had suddenly been overcome by the desire to vomit.

"Oh, it's you," Kurogane muttered bitterly, turning his attention back to the magazine.

"What's wrong Kuropin?" Fai asked cheerfully, causing the couch to bounce slightly as he dropped down on it next to Kurogane. "You were expecting, perhaps, the tooth fairy? If so, I'm sorry to disappoint you."

Kurogane snorted. "Tooth fairy? What the hell are you talking about, magician?"

"Ah, I forgot that Kurorin's world doesn't have a tooth fairy," Fai mused. Then he grabbed Kurogane's arm, hugging and resting his cheek on it. "Poor, deprived Kurochan. She's great. You would have liked her, I think."

Kurogane growled and made to jerk his arm out of Fai's grip of steel. "Don't cling to me!"

"Mm, I nearly forgot to ask you…" the blond began, ignoring his companion's orders as usual, "did you hear anything strange last night."

"Strange? Like what?"

"I don't know…it was kind of a creaking sound…like there was someone in my room," Fai said slowly. Then he looked up at Kurogane, his eyes glittering with excitement. "Did you come to visit me in the middle of the night Kurotan?"

Kurogane's face turned red. "N-no! Why the hell would I do that!"

"You should have said something," he giggled. "There was plenty of room in my bed for you."

"Shut up! Bastard!"

"But then, maybe Kurowanko lost his nerve and decided he just couldn't do it," Fai suggested amusedly. "I forgot that you were Mr. Easily Embarrassed."

Kurogane gritted his teeth and was about to remind Fai that he was also Mr. Tends To Get Very Violent When Pissed Off but Fai cut him off by starting to talk again.

"So it really wasn't you, then? Hmm… maybe this house is haunted after all…"

"What do you mean 'after all'? Did someone tell you it was haunted?"

Fai's expression became one of mild concern. "Mokona said he heard the same noise in Sakura chan's room two nights ago and Syaoran kun told me that he was looking for his shoes but they were missing, like someone had taken them…"

Although he was extraordinarily pissed off at the moment, he couldn't contain a derisive snort of amusement at the comment about Syaoran's shoes being taken.

"You're full of it," Kurogane said. "Even if this house were haunted, who the hell would waste their time moving the brat's shoes?"

Fai shrugged nonchalantly. "A poltergeist with a shoe fetish, perhaps?"

"Excuse me if I don't scream in terror," the ninja said dryly.

"I wouldn't make fun of it if I were you," he suggested seriously as he got up and began to head towards the kitchen to get some food. "After all, just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there."

Then Fai winked, blew Kurogane a kiss and disappeared around the corner.

As much as he hated to admit it, Kurogane was feeling a bit unnerved now. That little wink Fai had just done had been much too sexy to be meaningless. Then he blinked. Had he just thought of something Fai had done as being "sexy"? Kurogane blushed and shook his head furiously. It was a slip. That was all. He had meant to think… "scary". Yeah, that's what he had meant. "Scary". Heh.

Trying to force the memory of his unconscious slip-up out of his mind and the red flush out of his face, he got up and followed Fai into the kitchen.

At about five minutes to one, Fai disappeared off to his room to meet Sumomo. The time for him to make his wish was almost here and he didn't want to wait a single second longer than necessary. He was so excited that he took the stairs two at a time and once he was in his room, bounced restlessly on the balls of his feet.

"Sumomo chaaaan!" he called. "I'm readyyyy!"

"Okey dokey, Master!" Sumomo trilled, dropping down from the light fixture to land on Fai's shoulder. "What is Master's wish?"

Fai took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I wish…"

A shiver of anxiousness shot through Kurogane's body, causing him to jump to his feet and check his surroundings closely to make sure that he wasn't being watched. He found nothing immediately suspicious but something was definitely afoot. A newly formed sensor in his brain was going haywire—it was his "Fai-der senses". This may have been considered a calming revelation for some people; to find that whatever suspicious activity they had been sensing was just another one of Fai's harmless pranks. Kurogane was not one of those people. If Fai was up to something, it was sure to mean hell for the ninja.

Remaining highly alert, Kurogane drew his sword slowly and backed into a corner. His rationale was that if his back was against a wall, at least the blond wouldn't be able to sneak up on him. Boy, was he wrong.

Syaoran and Sakura pushed open the front door with difficulty, carrying arm loads of grocery bags and Sakura transporting Mokona on her head.

"It sure is quiet in here," Sakura commented. "Where do you suppose Kurogane san and Fai san could be?"

Syaoran was just about to say that he didn't know when there was a faint whistling sound and a glimmer of light hitting highly polished metal right in front of him. The next thing he knew, a two-and-a-half-foot-long blade swished through the air about half an inch in front of his face.

"WAAH!" he yelped, stumbling backwards in surprise.

Luckily, Mokona was able to jump down from Sakura's head and apply his secret technique of reverse super suction power to blow Syaoran back on his feet before he dropped the bags he was carrying.

"K-Kurogane san," he stammered. "Wh-what are you doing?"

Kurogane blinked before slowly lowering his sword and straightening up from his attack stance. "Oh, it's just you. I thought….forget it."

Syaoran leaned against the wall, breathing hard, his legs suddenly weak at the thought of the fate that had nearly befallen him. Sakura looked apprehensively between the two of them before putting on a hesitant smile.

"As long as you're here, Kurogane san, would you mind helping us put away these groceries?"

Kurogane heaved a sigh before snatching a few of the bags impatiently from each of them. "Tch! What a pain…" he grumbled as he stalked into the kitchen.

Syaoran and Sakura exchanged nervous glances before quickly following him, setting their armloads down on the table.

Kurogane began taking things out of the first bag with a slightly skeptical look on his face. There were the usual items: rice, flour, sugar, eggs, WD-40 (Syaoran and Sakura had both been hesitant about buying this item but Mokona had insisted that it would be useful though he refused to disclose what his plans for it were). Then, he pulled out…

"What the hell?"

Kurogane squinted at the strange writing that adorned the box in his hand though this made it no less discernible to him. He looked at Sakura, holding up the box, one eyebrow raised quizzically.

Sakura giggled nervously, turning a bit pink under the ninja's scrutiny. "Ah, Mokona told us they were good… I thought Fai san might enjoy them…"

"They're Twinkies!" Mokona chirped.

Kurogane snorted. "'Twinkee'? What the fuck is that? Sounds like something a pansy would eat. I guess they fit that magician perfectly, then…"

Shaking his head in disgust, Kurogane set them down on the table, refusing to hold the sissy cake-things any longer. Imagine what Tomoyo hime's other ninjas would say if they saw those abominations in his possession. The thought made him shudder and he quickly went back to putting away the other items, trying to push the horrible vision out of his head.

Kurogane had hurried through the rest of the grocery sorting, keeping his eyes wide open for signs of anything out of the ordinary. The whole time, he couldn't shake the sneaking suspicion that Fai was up to no good although he didn't seem to be anywhere around. There was no way he was just going to sit back and wait for the mage's torture to befall him. He would have to do something about it.

It is a well-known fact to those who know it well that part of being a good ninja is having the ability to anticipate your enemy's moves before he makes them and to then quickly construct a plan to counter the attack. Kurogane, being Japan's most infamous ninja, was of course well-versed in this skill. Unfortunately, there was one little problem; one that defied all rhyme, reason and laws of physics. The problem in question was tall, thin, and blond and went by the name of Fai.

Part of being Fai was having the ability to anticipate that your moves have been anticipated, to figure out the opponent's retaliation and to revamp your own plan to foil the counterattack, thereby managing to drive the aforementioned ninja completely insane. Basically, the last two paragraphs were simply a more complicated way of saying that although Kurogane thought he was being pretty damn smart by barricading himself in his room in order to avoid the hell that Fai had in store for him, the magician was already two steps ahead of him and had his defense in place.

Fai had guessed that Kurogane might sense that he was up to something and lock himself in his room to avoid becoming the target of his prank. Unfortunately for Kurogane, once Fai saw something he wanted, he would stop at nothing until it was in his possession. In this case, the object of his desire was the warrior himself and no amount of doors, locks, walls, crocodile-filled moats, boiling pits of lava or uncreatively named Laundromats would stand in his way.

To counter Kurogane's defense, Fai had gone through the trouble of blocking the vents in Kurogane's room, thereby preventing it from getting the air conditioning that was received by the rest of the house. No matter how tough the ninja thought he was, there was no way he could withstand the country's intense desert heat for very long, especially since he always insisted on wearing a black t-shirt. Sooner or later, he would have to either come out of his room or open his window to let in some air. Which ever one he chose would make him vulnerable and Fai would be ready and waiting.

Fai had to hand it to him; Kurogane was able to stand the heat for much longer than he has estimated. Already it had been forty-five minutes since Kurogane had taken refuge in his room and he had yet to hear any signs of him cracking and opening a door or window. Both the door and the window were being carefully watched, of course; Fai had assigned Mokona to guard the door and Sumomo to guard the window. They had promised to let him know when a path of entry opened up but so far, they had reported no movement from Kurogane's room.

Fai glanced at the clock and bit his lip. It was almost two o'clock and he still hadn't had lunch yet. He had been able to hold up this long with no problem but now he was really starting to get hungry. The wizard glanced out the window again and Sumomo shook her head. Surely… surely there was time for him to run downstairs and grab something to eat while he was waiting… He shifted from foot to foot, trying to decide whether to give in to his hunger or his determination to torment Kurogane. In the end, his hunger won. After all, he would only be a second.

He dashed downstairs and poked his head into the kitchen to find that it was, thankfully, empty. Normally, Fai wouldn't have minded running into one of his younger traveling companions but they would certainly try to make conversation with him which would essentially slow him down. There was no time for idle chit-chat right now; this was strictly a retrieval mission. He started towards one of the cabinets but stopped when a small, brightly-colored cardboard box that was sitting on the table caught his attention. Fai approached it curiously. The print on the box was foreign to him but the photo depicted something that he would recognize in any country: cake.

Taking one more look around to be sure that the coast was clear, Fai quickly ripped open the box and grabbed two of the sweets before dashing back upstairs.

When Fai got back to his room, it was to find Sumomo's face pressed up against the glass, her eyes franticly scanning the place for Fai. Spotting him, she tapped on the window to get his attention and gestured wildly in the direction of Kurogane's room. Fai nodded to show his comprehension, quickly finished off his first Twinkie and heaved himself out of his own window. He crawled carefully across the roof and stopped outside Kurogane's slightly open window to activate his invisibility and unwrap his second Twinkie.

Sweat dripped down the back of his neck and ran along his spine before being absorbed by his already-saturated black t-shirt. Kurogane gritted his teeth, refusing to give into the heat. He had always prided himself on being able to withstand harsh conditions but even he had to admit that he was reaching the end of his rope. It was just too long to be spending so long in this kind of intense heat. Sooner or later, he would have to take a chance and open his window a bit. The choices were between that and suffocation/heatstroke. No cookies for the one who guesses which one of those options he picked.

If you have a key in your possession and you come across a locked door, the obvious reaction would be to stick the key in the lock. It is a natural response that comes with or without the brain's consent. The same is true with coin slots; when you come across them, usually you are struck by at least some level of desire to dump some change in, no matter how useless the cause. It is simply an involuntary human reflex: you see a hole, you stick something in it. So it was perfectly understandable that when Fai dropped from the windowsill into Kurogane's room and saw the ninja's mouth open slightly in surprise at the noise, he did the first thing he could think of. He took his half-eaten Twinkie and pushed it into Kurogane's mouth.

The reaction he received was both instantaneous and highly satisfying. Kurogane's face paled slightly in surprise as he tasted the sweet thing in his mouth. He choked it down with difficulty and then jumped to his feet, a furious gleam in his eyes and began making blind swipes at the air in front of him for the one who dared to pull such a stunt. Fai jumped backwards out of the way, trying hard not to laugh as he looped around behind Kurogane to avoid his wrath.

"Show yourself, bastard!" Kurogane snarled, whipping out his sword. "I know you're there! Quit hiding like some damn sissy and face me!"

No… thought Fai as he snatched a pillow from the ninja's bed, I don't think I will, actually…

Kurogane was still hunting for the intruder and Fai could tell that he was attempting to feel out his aura by the way he closed his eyes in concentration and held perfectly still. Luckily, Fai had thought of that particular ability of his and had made sure to tell Sumomo to make his aura invisible as well.

While Kurogane's eyes were closed, Fai tiptoed up to him and whacked him over the head with the pillow he had borrowed. The swordsman jumped in surprise, his eyes opening immediately, and his hands balling themselves into fists of fury.

"DAMMIT! THAT WAS A CHEAP SHOT!" he shouted angrily, rubbing his head. "QUIT SCREWING AROUND AND SHOW YOURSELF, YOU DAMN CHEATER!"

Fai had to clap a hand over his own mouth to keep from giggling joyfully at his antics as he ran past the bookshelf, knocking down a few random volumes. Kurogane stared intently in the direction of the noise but was then distracted again when Fai sprinted past the closet door, running his hand along it as he went so that it rattled. The ninja whipped around to look at the closet just as Fai hopped up on his bed and did a few little hops so that the mattress bounced and creaked.

His plan was working; he could see Kurogane getting seriously weirded out and nervous. The blond sat down in the far corner to catch his breath and watched as the other looked wildly around for the place where the imaginary poltergeist would strike next. He smiled joyfully to himself; he had always thought that Kurogane looked extra cute when he was confused. Right now, he was totally perplexed so Fai was having something of a field day.

A sudden breeze coming through the window caused some paper on the bedside table to ruffle and catch the mage's eye. This brought a new idea to his conniving mind. He bounded over to the notepad, snatched up a pen and began scribbling his message. Once he finished it, he folded the paper in half and waved the finished product tantalizingly in front of Kurogane's face. The ninja blinked and looked a bit hesitant to take the note but after a moment he accepted it, unfolding the paper so that he could read it.

You can scream in terror now, sexy.

-much love and kisses and caresses and snuggles and other mushy things,

The Poltergeist with the Shoe Fetish

Such was the level of Kurogane's puzzlement that Fai could almost see the "!" forming above his head. With great difficulty, Fai bit back a squeal of delight that could have put even the most obsessed fangirl to shame.

…So…adorable…!

Kurogane stomped down the hallway to Fai's room and kicked the door open as hard as he could. Fai looked up calmly from the book he was pretending to read and smiled cheerfully at his visitor. Kurogane was not amused; his face was bright red and his whole body quivered with rage.

"Oh, Kuronyan," Fai said in a falsely innocent voice, "how nice of you to visit me! Is there something you wanted?"

Kurogane's breath was harsh and ragged from the effort it was taking him not to launch himself at Fai and strangle that scrawny blond to death.

"QUIT ACTING SO DAMN INNOCENT, YOU FUCKING MAGICIAN! I KNOW YOU'RE BEHIND THIS SO JUST ADMIT IT SO THAT I CAN KILL YOU!"

Fai closed his book before turning back to Kurogane, his expression one of polite puzzlement.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Kurochan. I've been in here reading this whole time."

"LIKE HELL YOU WERE!" he spat. "THERE'S NO WAY I'M FALLING FOR THAT LOAD OF BULLSHIT!"

"If you don't believe me, you can ask Syaoran kun or Sakura chan. They're downstairs, I think."

If it were possible for smoke to pour out of someone's ears, the room would have been so full of it that Fai wouldn't have been able to see his own hand in front of his face. Realizing that Kurogane was a hair's breadth away from an explosion, Fai arranged his face into an expression of shock, looking somewhere over the warrior's shoulder.

"Ah!"

When Kurogane turned to see what Fai was so surprised about, the wizard switched on his invisibility. Seeing that he had just been messed with, Kurogane spun back around to face Fai once more, grinding his teeth furiously. But then, it's awfully hard to look at someone who isn't even there.

"AAAAAAARGH! DAMMIT! I'M GONNA KILL THAT BASTARD!"

Kurogane walked around in an extremely bad mood for the rest of the day and Fai's continuous little pranks did nothing to improve it. Of course, being in a bad mood was the norm for Kurogane but today he was especially pissed off. Like the incident with their hands being stuck together, he was certain that Fai was the one behind the mischief. The only think he lacked was solid proof and without it, the slim blond could wriggle his way out of any corner, no matter how tight.

As usual when Kurogane got into one of his particularly pissy moods, Syaoran and Sakura did their best to stay far out of his way. They realized that their companion was one the brink of madness and a single word could cause him to detonate. Even Mokona, who usually took any available opportunity to mess with Kurogane's head, was wary of him and decided to play it safe with Syaoran and Sakura.

Unable to stand one more second around the others, Kurogane announced that he was going to bed early and thundered up the stairs, slamming his door behind him with all his considerable might. He tried to finish reading the magazine he had been distracted from that morning but found himself so angry that he couldn't focus on it. What could he do to relieve his fury? The old Kurogane's answer would have been a quick and simple one: "Something needs to die. Now." Unfortunately, his current self was unable to resort to that method as Tomoyo hime had him under a curse. Damn Tomoyo hime.

Eventually, he decided he might as well try to sleep and lay down on his bed. He fumed silently in the dark for quite a while but gradually felt his anger ebbing away. Apparently, the desert's cool nights had something of a calming effect on him. An hour later, he was sound asleep, unaware that his day of torment was not yet over.

So this was it; the moment he had been looking forward to the most all day was almost here. Fai had a hard time forcing himself to act normally in front of the children until they decided that they were tired and bid him good night. Once he heard their doors click shut, he allowed himself a small squeal of glee. As quick as a flash, Fai hurried up the stairs and found himself standing outside of Kurogane's door trembling from head to toe with excitement. With clammy fingers, he slowly reached out and turned the doorknob as quietly as he could. To his immense surprise (and delight), it had been left unlocked and he was able to squeeze inside without much difficulty.

Fai closed the door behind him as silently as possible and then made himself invisible to ensure that he would not be caught. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness but after a few moments he was able to see relatively well. Oh god. There he was. Seeing Kurogane's still, dark outline beneath the sheets made Fai's already fluttering heart go wild. He approached cautiously, pausing at the bedside to make sure that Kurogane really was asleep. Once he was convinced, he drew a shaky breath and very carefully lifted a corner of the blanket…

It was dark and quiet when Kurogane awoke next. He remained still, trying to figure out what had disturbed him. There was a suspicious feeling in the pit of his stomach and he didn't like it. But Kurogane remembered his training and didn't move a muscle. If someone tried to attack him, he was ready to spring into action and relieve them of their head.

How long he waited, he didn't know, as there was no clock in his line of vision. Finally, the ever-so-slight sound of the door being opened and shut again reached his ears, causing his heart rate to quicken. Someone else was in the room with him and son of a bitch; it had better not be that goddamn "poltergeist" again… Curiously, he focused his attention and tried to locate an aura. There was none to be found. Aw, hellz no. If that stupid piece of shit started bothering him again, he didn't care how intangible that ghost's ass was; he was gonna kick it. Really, really hard.

Kurogane strained his ears to track the progress the intruder was making across his room. Who- or whatever it was was close now. He heard the slight rustle of clothing right at his bedside and then silence. Wait a minute… do poltergeists' clothes rustle? Although he didn't know for sure, he found himself dubious. Surely not…

His visitor was leaning in closer to him, presumably making sure that he was really asleep. Kurogane did his best to pretend that he was oblivious to the presence beside his bed but wasn't sure he was pulling it off convincingly. Then, he caught a trace of something… a very light scent…one that he recognized. His mind raced as he attempted to match the scent with a source.

After considering and rejecting a multitude of possibilities, his brain ground to a halt as it identified a likely match. Holy shit. Kurogane didn't know for sure, but he was almost certain that his heart stopped as he realized who had come to visit him. Once the possibility of who it could be occurred to him, he became quite positive that he had the correct identity. Fai.

He heard the intruder take a slow, shaky breath which served to confirm his suspicions. It was definitely Fai. He felt a slight coolness on his back as a corner of the blankets were pulled back slightly. Then the mattress sank a bit lower as the weight of a second person was added to it. Kurogane felt the covers move a little as Fai pulled them back into place over himself. After a slightly nervous pause, the mattress gave a slight creak as Fai rolled over, placing himself right against the supposedly-sleeping ninja. Fai hesitated there, like he was waiting to see if Kurogane would react to his sudden appearance. Once he was satisfied that Kurogane hadn't noticed him coming in, he settled himself in.

Kurogane felt Fai's chilly fingers on his arm as the blond pulled it close to him. He snuggled his cheek against Kurogane's chest and his head rested just below the swordsman's chin, allowing his lips to softly graze the other's neck. Although Kurogane was stunned by Fai's sudden arrival, he couldn't make himself pull out of the wizard's embrace. For some reason, his muscles weren't obeying his brain's commands. Kurogane eventually gave up trying to force himself to break away, feeling himself blushing at Fai's soft touches. Maybe this wasn't so bad…but only because he could use the added warmth of another body. Nothing more.

Fai smiled to himself as his eyes slid shut. Although he had been sure when he had first entered the room that Kurogane had been asleep, he was equally sure now that he was awake. After all, he could feel Kurogane's sudden tension, could hear his heart pounding and could feel the heat radiating form his blushing cheeks. And yet the ninja made no move to pull away. In fact, if anything it felt as though he were moving closer. But just a little.

A/N: Oh, sooooooooo glad to be done with this piece of crap chapter! Yeah, it's all good. Ah, so I'm totally off to watch the bt of the Tsubasa movie I just downloaded, which, I'm told, has a shitload of KxF hints. Wheeeeeeeee!

Review, por favor!