Because I forgot a disclaimer last time, nyaa, let's declare this the official disclaimer for the whole story. :)

Disclaimer: Syaoran, Kurogane, Fai and Sakura and anyone else I may decide to thrown in, as well as their story of origin (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle) belong to CLAMP. The rest is mine, not yours, including this lovely TRC calendar hanging up next to my compy.

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From the Ashes - A TRC AU Drama/Sci-fi fic

Chaptire 2 - Whistle

Rated T for the yummy violence of the whole affair.

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Syaoran awoke to darkness. Cold, unfeeling darkness. He reached up to his face, feeling a slight ache in his arms as he did so, and rubbed his eyes. They were certainly open.

Possibly the worst part of this lack of light was the silence. He sat up, feeling an ache in his legs as well, and frowned. Was anyone there? He listened, sitting as motionless on the wooden surface he found himself on, reaching to hear even a slight breeze.

There it was. Faint breathing, slow breathing - two others near him, he could hear. Relieving, but disturbing at the same time. He could never hear such faint sounds before. But hadn't someone told him... Ah. That's right. His father had told him years ago...

When one loses one of their senses, the others become stronger, more efficient, to fill the void left by the missing ability.

So he really couldn't see, huh? He sighed, and let his head rest on his knees, as he sat crunched in a ball.

"So you're awake, eh? Boy?" A foreign voice - low, rumbling, strong...

"Uwah! Ah... yes, sir, but I'm afraid I don't know where you are, you see..."

"You're blind. I can tell, by the insecurity in your voice." The man cut his sentence short, completing it. "Also, you haven't made an attempt to get off of the table." Syaoran gasped. So he is observant... This new idea made him more worried than before. If he turned out to be an enemy, he knew his chances of eluding this man were slim to none. He had been taught how to fight, fairly well, actually, but things were different without his eyes to guide him.

"Where am I? Are you the one that pulled me from the debris?" He turned to face the source of the voice, hoping he was close to making eye contact.

"I don't know what debris you were in, or how you got there, just that that blonde over there dragged you in, dripping with blood, insisting you get medical treatment. This is my house, I suppose, and I'm sitting down here, not over there, kid." Syaoran jerked his head abruptly, at the sound of annoyance in the man's last sentence. Apparently his hearing wasn't as acute as he had previously thought.

"Thank you for your help, sir. I'm sorry I inconvenienced you. If there's any way I can make it up to you..." His voice trailed off, as the stranger let out a deep sigh. Both of them knew a blind kid wasn't going to be of much use to anyone, especially in a place as chaotic as their current locale. He closed his eyes, resting his head on his knees, and he could have sworn he felt the other man do the same.

Silence. The sound of air, as it passed through one, two, and a third person's body. Syaoran looked up again, towards the man he had spoken to, and slowly slid himself forward, trying to find the edge of the table. His foot shot off of the edge faster than he would have liked, and hit the floor. Sharp pain, shot up his leg, causing him to stumble, landing palms first, and scraping them against the hard-packed dirt.

This caused yet another spasm of pain, starting at his fingertips, cascading down his arms, and ending at his chest, in a great throb of pain. This caused him to cry out, a small scream, reduced to a whimper by the gritting of his teeth. He lay for a moment, the wind knocked out of him slightly, before struggling to prop himself up.

Before he could do so, there was a sting, like ice, gripping his arm, and helping him to a sitting position. Everything about whatever had gripped him felt wrong to Syaoran - the temperature, the texture, the lifeless quality of it. The second he regained his balance he withdrew his wrist, rubbing it slowly with his palm, as if it would help calm the shivers running down his spine. "That cold... was..."

"My hand... the metal one." The man finished Syaoran's statement, a sound of bitterness in his voice, for reasons unknown to Syaoran. If his hand was metal, what did that mean the rest of him would consist of?

As if he'd read his mind, the man further explained. "The other one's real, and so is one of my legs... I lost some limbs when the bomb dropped, and the whole building came down on us." he stopped abruptly, obviously unwilling to say more. Syaoran smiled. They both shared a common trait, in that they had both bore scars, from the same disastrous event. Strange coincidence, that there would even be 2 survivors, let alone for them to find each other.

"The man who brought me here... he's the other one I hear, right?" Syaoran pointed in the direction of the third inhaling and exhaling pattern. A grunt from the man served as his reply. "And your names? Yours and his, that is."

"Kurogane. And he's Fai, was it? Not too sure about him..." There was an air of distrust in his voice, and Syaoran sighed, wishing he could see if the one who had saved him really looked untrustworthy. He turned to face the sound of Fai's breathing, and froze. It had changed, the rhythm faster, and then he heard foot steps, approaching him and the one called Kurogane.

- - -

The blonde - Fai, was it? - Approached, and ran his fingers through his hair once more. He mouthed what looked like a whistle, and extended a hand, ruffling the boy's hair. He grinned, as the boy looked up in the direction he was standing in.

"Sir... Fai-san? Etou... Thank You very much for helping me. If there's any way I can repay you-" Fai placed a hand on both of Syaoran's, and gripped his chin with the others. He slowly twisted it side to side, shaking his head. He was telling him not to worry. So they have to communicate through touch, Kurogane said, smirking. Perhaps they weren't total fools.

He watched the boy's eyes widen, in understanding, as Fai continued, folding his fingers into a manner so that he was pointing with his index finger. He then jabbed it gently at Syaoran's chest. This confused Kurogane, slightly, and he stood and stared at the peculiar show the thin man was putting on.

"Me... my name? Is that... I'm Syaoran." He stared blankly at Fai, an apologetic expression on his face. It was obvious he felt guilty, for some reason, however pointless it may be. He had to get over this somehow. Kurogane raised an eyebrow as Fai leaned his gangly body over Syaoran, and whispered into his ear. A peculiar man, this one. He'd have to be careful with them both...

- - -

"Syaoran-kun?" Fai strained his throat, as if forcing the last bit of his voice out - a faint whisper in the boy's ear. "Fai." He withdrew, with this last word, and was seized by a fit of coughs. He really couldn't talk now: it was too much strain even for that slight whisper.

Fai winced, as each cough sucked air from his lungs, and he quickly turned away from the others, stumbling out the door of their make-shift shelter. He leaned against the cracked wall of a nearby building and attempted deep breaths. He stared up at the ashy sky, and counted in his head, as his breathing grew less and less shallow. What a pain, this bomb was causing.

When he regained his senses, he stood, and walked out onto what was once a cobblestone street. There was a few stones remaining in the street, and the rest lay in crooked piles, perfect tripping hazards for the unobservant. He smirked, and kicked a loose book, instantly regretting it for the pain that resulted, shooting up his leg.

He glanced back in the direction of the shelter he'd emerged from, and heard the voices of the two, Syaoran and Kurogane, both possibly questioning his condition. But what good would going back to them do? He couldn't explain himself in words, and they were both ignorant to sign language.

He was better off without them. With a sigh, he continued along the street, coming to a familiar building he recognized as the library. Most of it was in ruins, but the staircase leading downwards into the basement of it was still stable, causing him to wonder. Maybe he'd find something familiar inside. Anything but this repetitive black rubble.

Fai slowly made his way down the steps, taking care not to snag his clothes on any of the protruding pieces of wood and stone. Smiling, he found he could slip down inside easily, and did so, proceeding down another staircase, this one curved, a spiral that went down deep beneath the building. He observed it was made of an old wood of some sort. It seemed sturdy enough to proceed...

And then his foot fell through. Losing his balance completely, he stumbled, as the rest of the step gave way. The blonde came crashing to the ground, landing fairly well in a squatting position 12 feet from his starting point. This wasn't a terrible spot, he concluded. All he had to do was walk back up the stairs and exit.

Unfortunately, he realized, the stairs were nowhere to be found, and walls were in their place. He was some how inside the staircase. Well, this is not the best of situations, is it? Fai sighed, and stood up to measure the length he would have to jump to reach where he had come from. 5 feet, he guessed - 3 feet better than his best, and in pitch blackness.

Could he call for help? He smiled, sadly, shaking his head at no one in particular. That option was no longer his. But who would answer anyway? The blind child and the muscular stranger? He laughed at the thought.

But... I'm not quite sure I want to die just yet. Not like this, anyway... He sighed, and sat down, pondering his next move. It was like chess, and he was currently in check. A win or a lose depended on what he chose to do: How he would ask for aide. And then it struck him.

A whistle.

He had seen the children of the town do this before. It was a game, and music in a light and simple combination. A song, made by wind blowing between teeth and tongue in the appropriate manner, so as to create a song. Sound. The thing Fai needed.

If only he knew how. He'd watched it many times, their mouth curved into an 'O', the position they took, how their mouth shifted slightly with the changing notes... he remembered their faces, the notes they created in unison, a windy melody, and he mirrored it.

- phhhhhh -

It came out first as air, and as he adjusted the way he held himself, tucking tongue behind teeth, it shifted, and rang clear.

- pyuu... pyuu... -

A whistle. He'd found his chance. He shifted his positioning, changing the notes, thrilled, if only for that moment, that he'd achieved something. He then began to weave a song, recalling one of the songs before there had been any talk of war or bombs... he sang the words to match in his head, as he best remembered them.

Take me away, across time, to a town of wind...

Grant the dream of this white flower

Take me by the hand with your gentle fingers, guide me,

to a distant place, to be by your side...

He smiled, remembering the love song he'd heard since childhood, and whistled the tune, though the words grew fuzzy as the song progressed. It had been years since he had heard it, and yet the tune still remained, almost a part of his very being. He finished the song once, and without pausing began to repeat.

And as he continued the melody, he silently wished that his song had an audience.

- - -

"His name." Syaoran said, staring off in the direction Fai's seemed to have gone in, and frowning. "He told me I could call him Fai."

"Oh." Came the response from Kurogane. He seemed to Syaoran to be uninterested in finding out anything about their current situation, and this was in obvious contrast to his intentions. Still, perhaps a little prompting would create a different response.

"Kurogane-san?" He started, staring off in the opposite direction, so as not to annoy him with his inability to make eye-contact. "I don't think we can survive here, without water, and all of the toxins from..." His voice faded mid-statement, and Kurogane responded with an irritated sigh.

"And where do you want to go, kid? The rest of the country ain't much better, with all of these bombs they've made... not much still standing, I'm betting."

Syaoran sighed. The odds of finding a stable city after the waves of attacks that had hit their nation were unlikely. Many cities would be in the same sad state, and refugee camps would be few.

"But it couldn't really get worse..." He whispered, half hoping Kurogane hadn't heard him. And it seemed as if he hadn't, as neither said any more for a few moments. Syaoran merely sat, listening. All he could hear was silence, save for the sound of his and the other's breathing. Then something new came...

- pyuu... pyuu... -

A soft melody. The first music he'd heard in days. Was it.. whistling? He immediately moved to the edge of the table, and stood, unsteady on the rocky ground.

"Listen to that... there's someone out there. It could be Fai-san." Syaoran moved, as if to walk out the door, but the icy hand gripped his arm, holding him back. The metal rattled, as Kurogane tightened the grip on Syaoran's arm, as he flailed to get away. "What are you..."

"Stop. Remember you can't see. Don't go stumbling off in darkness. Now breath." Syaoran stopped fighting and inhaled deeply, reminded yet again of his newfound disability. "Remember your other senses. You can feel the way the air travels, around the things around you." His ears pricked up, fox-like, at the thought of this. He closed his eyes, and listened.

As Kurogane had said, he could feel the air. But in addition, he could sense the objects around him, living, non-living... So far, only 1 living being accompanied him. He turned to face him, and opened his eyes.

"Now we can walk." Syaoran smiled, as the grip on his arm was released, and he heard Kurogane stand and walk past him. "You can hear something, right? Follow it."

Syaoran nodded, as they stepped out on what sounded like stone. He froze, and instantly heard the soft 'pyuu' of the melody, and closed his eyes, walking towards it. By the sound of metal on stone, Kurogane had decided to follow him.

Within moments, the music grew louder, and Syaoran froze beside what he assumed was a building. He placed a hand on the wall, and called out to his companion. "You can hear it too, can't you?"

"Yeah, he's in here. It's him. There's stairs. Watch it." Syaoran blinked at the trust that had been placed in him, as he heard Kurogane enter the building. Though he couldn't see, the man had left him to basically care for himself. It was certainly a relief not to be treated as a cripple. He smiled, and clung tightly to the side of the house, to be sure he had support if he slid, and ducked into the building.

"Fai-san?" He called into the dim room, still listening to the melody. As he cried the name, the tune changed, becoming lighter and more quick. It was him alright.

"Oy! You down there?" Kurogane was calling downwards, by the sound of the echo, and the responding, 'phweeee' served as their yes. "Stay there, kid. I'll get him."

Syaoran nodded, in response, and stayed near the door, listening as the whistling melody faded, and the sound of creaking wood replaced it. Wooden stairs, was it? "Is he okay, Kurogane-san?"

- pwhee -

The answering cheerful whistle came before Kurogane's reply causing him to sigh. That's an annoying sound. The responding, annoyingly high whistling caused Syaoran to laugh. So they were all okay his new friends, of sorts.

- - -

Once all had made it out of the building, and on to the cobblestone street, Kurogane paused to ruffle the boy's hair. He wasn't at all the free-loader he was expecting. He'd done fairly well. "Not bad... but now where to?"

The boy's vacant eyes looked up at him, curiously, and the blonde cocked his head to the side in puzzlement.

"We're leaving this city." He said firmly. "Just say where we're going."

He smirked as Syaoran's eyes widened at his statement. Something about Kurogane's statement had an interesting affect on the boy.

- - -

"Why not east? There are several countries in that direction, we only just have to walk there."

Three pairs of eyes flashed, one with eagerness, another with amusement, the other, a combination of the 2.

"Then that's where we're headed."

With that statement, they turned and walked side-by-side away from the faint glow of the setting sun seeping through the gray sky.

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Note: The lyrics were translations from "Kaze no Machi e", a lovely Tsubasa song I chose at random.

Yawns 4 hours later than I would have liked, I finished this. Sakura is coming next chaptire, don't worry. :P