Disclaimer: Tsubasa belongs to Clamp, not me.
.:.o.o.:.
Title: Behind His Smile – Chapter 2
Author: doxtater
Summary: After Fai under goes what appears to be a personality transplant; the others grow worried and wonder what's wrong with him. KuroFai, SS.
Rating: T
Pairings: KuroFai, SS
Warnings: Major Fai oocness, implied sexual situations between two men, language, violence.
.:.o.o.:.
Kurogane didn't hover, god dammit. He glared at Tomeo and pretended the accusation didn't bother him as much as it did. Its not like Fai was going to die from that wound. If anything, Kurogane should be jumping with joy, the longer Fai was unconscious the longer he didn't have to deal with the insane mage.
Tomeo shook his head and left the room, clearly uninterested.
Keiko opted to remain and gawk in horror at the state of the guest room.
"Do you think he'll be alright?" Sakura asked worriedly from a chair beside the bed.
Syaoran smiled at her. "I'm sure he'll be fine, princess. And once he wakes up, I'll go searching for your feather again, ok?"
Sakura smiled back.
"Mokona will too!" Mokona announced, bouncing in her lap.
Kurogane looked down at Fai. The mage looked somewhat pale and seemed to be in discomfort, the traces of a frown lining his features. Fai had been sleeping all day and… god dammit! Kurogane was not hovering!
Sakura gave Kurogane an inquisitive look, noticing him tense suddenly. "Kurogane-san, you've been in here all day, you should get some air," Sakura suggested, as if sensing his thoughts and deciding to contradict him. Kurogane sighed; he was getting paranoid so perhaps he should follow that piece of advice. Besides Fai wasn't going anywhere and did it really matter if he wasn't around when the mage finally woke up.
"Kuro-sama's worried!" Mokona said happily, a little to happily.
Kurogane stomped out of the room, ignoring the creature.
Once outside he leaned against the railing of the house's front porch and watched a stray cat nose around a house across the dirt road. He wished Fai would just wake up already so they could get the next feather and leave. It was just a little cut, why does he have to be a wimp about it and sleep all day? It was embarrassing enough for Kurogane to be associated with him when he was awake and being… well, Fai.
Kurogane heard the door open and glanced over his shoulder to see Tomeo joining him. Tomeo crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe, "So you and the blonde?"
"What about us?" Kurogane growled, looking back at the cat.
"He's a guy, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You know that for a fact?" Tomeo said, quirking an eyebrow.
In fact he did, but it angered Kurogane all the same. He turned to face Tomeo and snapped, "What the hell does that mean!"
"Nothing," Tomeo replied, giving the ninja a knowing smirk.
Kurogane was about to spout obscenities and accuse Tomeo was being a nosy bastard when the door opened again revealing Sakura, who seemed a little too somber to be ready to spread good news.
"Kurogane-san?"
"What?"
"Something's wrong…"
Damn.
ooo
Fai was staring up at the ceiling, breathing but otherwise immobile and seemingly unable to acknowledge anybody else's present, including Kurogane's, which annoyed him to no end.
"What's wrong with Fai?" Mokona whined, tugging at the sleeve of Fai's shirt.
Nobody said anything, nobody knew. Kurogane stared into Fai's eyes and was met by the same blank expression that greeted him earlier that day, before Fai had passed out, before he even noticed them.
"Snap out of it, you bastard," Kurogane said angrily, stomping from his place in the corner of the room and over to the bed.
Fai didn't respond.
"God dammit, get your lazy ass out of bed!" Kurogane demanded, shaking Fai's shoulder roughly.
"Kurogane-" Keiko began to protest but stopped when she felt a hand on her wrist.
"Perhaps we should leave the two of them alone," Tomeo suggested releasing his wife and opening the door in a gesture for everyone to leave.
Sakura, Syaoran, and Mokona looked at Kurogane, whose eyes remained fixed on Fai. "Just go," he mumbled, his voice low and threatening though he hadn't intended it to sound so.
Reluctantly, the three left the room with Keiko and Tomeo, leaving Kurogane alone with Fai
"Wake up, idiot mage," Kurogane said gruffly taking a seat in the chair Sakura had occupied until just recently.
Fai didn't.
Kurogane heaved a sigh, "I said wake up, bastard."
Fai continued to ignore him.
Kurogane leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms, glaring at the mage and contemplating other ways to wake him up.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Fai?" he muttered.
Fai closed his eyes and frowned uncharacteristically before opened his eyes again. "Kuro…?" he said weakly.
Kurogane rose from the chair and loomed over Fai. "About time you woke up!" he said angrily.
"What… happened?" he winced and brought a hand up to touch the bandage over his head wound, "Why does my head hurt?"
"You tell me."
"Hmm…" Fai titled his head and tapped his chin in contemplation, "Well I remember you were being rough, Kuro-pipi, but I don't remember hitting my head on anything." He paused for a moment before a grin broke out and he attached himself to Kurogane's arm, "Aww, was Kuro-pon worried!"
"Like I care what happens to you," Kurogane grunted, standing up and trying to pry the mage off of him. Unfortunately, the effort was to no avail.
"Waah! Kuro-tan!" Fai whined, grasping at the ninja's arm harder and staring up at him with overly dramatic puppy-dog eyes, "You're so mean!"
Kurogane clenched his fist and growled. "Stop it with those damn names!"
"But you love it when- err…" Fai grimaced and released his grip on Kurogane, falling backwards onto the bed. Dazed, Fai propped himself up on one elbow and clenched his bandaged forehead with his free hand.
"Let me take a look," Kurogane said, leaning over Fai and taking hold of the mage's slim wrist.
"Don't touch me!" Fai snapped, swatting Kurogane's hand away and rolling off the bed away from the ninja. He curled into a ball at the side of the bed and buried his face in his hands.
Kurogane blinked. What the hell…?
"Get out," Fai said, his voice muffled.
Kurogane remained where he stood, staring at Fai with outright rage. How dare he order Kurogane not to touch him when Fai never listened when he demanded the same? He opened his mouth to voice his opinion when Fai spoke again, this time his voice was softer.
"Please?"
Kurogane snorted. "Fine… whatever."
And so he left.
ooo
By the way Kurogane stormed into the kitchen, Sakura could immediately tell that her older companion was not happy. She wanted to know if there had been any progress in Fai's condition, but she felt hesitant to ask.
"Did the blonde wake up?" Tomeo asked instead.
Kurogane grunted a response and made for the front door.
"Kurogane-san!" Sakura called after him, causing him to come to a halt, "Is Fai-san alright?"
"I'm fine," came a voice from the doorway.
Sakura spun in her chair to give Fai a big smile and tell him how happy she was that he wasn't hurt. Something didn't sit right though when she saw him. Fai looked a little tired, his hair and attire being slightly disheveled; this was understandable. That wasn't the problem.
Fai grinned at them. But his smile was void of the usual cheerfulness she'd grown accustom too and was instead cold. When she thought about it, his smile was more of a smirk, a dark one at that, and it seemed alien seeing such an expression on the mage.
"Fai! You're awake!" Mokona squealed, launching at the mage.
There was a moment before Mokona left the table and landed in Fai's arms where Sakura thought she saw something odd. Fai's lip twitched and there was a moment when Sakura swore she could see something akin to disgust. But it happened so fast and was so out of character that she figured she'd imagined it. At the very least, if what she saw was real, it was probably just a moment of pain on Fai's part; he did have a rather nasty cut on his forehead after all. Mokona landed safety in Fai's arms and they shared a hug and nuzzled each other.
Then Fai's eyes drifted in Kurogane's direction. There was deviousness about the way they watched Kurogane and Sakura wondered if he was about to begin a round of teasing.
They seemed to hate each other- or rather Kurogane hated Fai; Fai, on the other hand, seemed quite oblivious to the degree of this dislike and quite content to see if he could get a rise out of Kurogane again sometimes only minutes after the ninja had finally calmed down after the previous round- but yet occasionally, that protective streak Kurogane pretended he didn't have would appear and he'd protect Fai, all of them, whenever the occasion arose. The difference between Kurogane protecting Fai (and Mokona too, for that matter) and protecting Syaoran and Sakura was that Kurogane always made such an effort to hurt the mage, who'd dive and duck and eventually win out when Kurogane finally had enough of even dealing with him at all.
It was odd really. There was such animosity between the two yet they did share a room quite often, sometimes to save on money and sometimes because they had no choice, like in this world for instance. On that thought, Kurogane must not hate Fai that much or else he'd probably have been able to corner Fai by now since they often shared such close quarters. Sure their rooms did get torn apart quite a lot, especially in the last few worlds, but everyday Fai would greet her with a smile on his face and he seemed perfectly fine, despite the occasional limp that didn't usually last very long anyways. Maybe once Fai was asleep and no longer able to tease Kurogane, he became a lot easier for the ninja to deal with.
"What?" Kurogane said angrily upon noticing the stare.
"Nothing Kuro-chi," Fai said giving with him a vague smile.
Kurogane narrowed his eyes.
"It's still early in the day," Keiko said suddenly, "You could go out and search for that feather again if everyone's still up for it."
Fai scoffed and sat down at the table. Sakura gaped at him, since when did Fai scoff? "I'm not," he announced yawning, "The rest of you can do whatever the hell you want."
Sakura continued to gape at him, unaware that Syaoran and Kurogane were doing the same.
"And why the damn not?" Kurogane demanded, moving to stand behind where Fai sat.
Fai looked up at him and grinned. "I don't want to," he said simply, "We should relax more, all we do is run around looking for those stupid feathers."
"What is wrong with you!" Kurogane grabbed the chair and turned it so Fai was facing him properly. He placed a hand on both armrests and leaned forward giving Fai a dark look.
"Nothing, I'm fine," he shrugged and began to pry Kurogane's fingers from the chair, "If you're all so desperate to get these feathers, then go with out me."
"Fai-" Mokona said softly, jumping onto the table and turning to face him.
"Fine!" Kurogane shouted at the mage, "You can stay here, we don't need you to find a damn feather!" He looked over at Syaoran and Sakura, "Let's go!"
With that said, Kurogane released the chair and stomped out the front door. After a long moment of confusion and shock, Syaoran, Sakura, and Mokona gathered enough of their senses back to follow Kurogane.
Once they were gone, Fai turned the chair back around and looked across the table at Tomeo and Keiko, who blinked at him.
"What?" he said scowling at them.
.:.o.o.:.
A/N: Having thought this chapter was going nowhere, I wrote an outline. I knew basically what was going to happen but I feel a lot better now that I have a better understand on how I'm going to get there. Yay! Now this chapters works.
Anyways, thanks to everyone who reviewed, I love them and they inspired me to write this chapter faster. Hope you enjoyed this installment and I hope the plot becomes a little more definite soon, I know where its going but I'm not sure if it came across very well in this chapter.