Disclaimer: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle (excuse non-capitalized letters) does not belong to me, and neither do any of its affiliated characters. And the card game go fish isn't mine either. (Do I even need to disclaim it?)
Sakura-Angel: Rarrrr. Pre-TRC. And hey, I'm sorry if 'Go Fish' doesn't exist in Kurogane's Japan, because it does now.
First try at Kurogane. And Tomoyo too actually. I would love feedback, since I don't usually write the tough-(but-secretly-soft-)guy type. Read on, and I hope you enjoy.
Companionship
"Do you have any twos?" She fluttered her eyelashes at me over the cards, like some innocent court maiden. Damn bitch.
"Yeah," I growled over the toothpick in my mouth. It was all I had to not chuck the card at her.
"That makes ten pairs, Kurogane-san. Where are all of yours?" She gestured with her palm to the sky, like they were lost.
"Shut up," I told her, looking at my crap collection. Three pairs.
"Kurogane-san. Is that any way you speak to a princess-priestess of th-"
"Shut up, Tomoyo."
She giggled. Giggled. Since when did Tomoyo-hime giggle? "You know I'm just kidding. I never see you like this, I guess I just can't help myself." Her smile was the widest I'd ever seen it.
I eyed her. She was really weird today. The hand holding my cards went limp in the wrist. "What's wrong with you?"
"Eloquently put, as usual," she said, rearranging her robes. Girls... "Nothing's wrong with me. Why would you think otherwise?"
I scowled. "You're so happy."
"And is it such a crime to be happy?" her voice carried an air of exaggerated astonishment. "Maybe I'm happy because I'm playing cards with my stupid friend!"
Friend? Stupid? "I am NOT stupid! And I am definitely not your friend, Tomoyo-hime."
"Kurogane, you wound me with such words." Her hand was at her heart in imitation of being hurt.
"Stop being so dramatic," I told her without looking at her. Somehow my eyes couldn't take the sight of her sad, even if it was fake.
"Kurogane, look at me."
I turned my head without a thought.
And just like that, my cheek had turned to come in contact with her lips. I froze stupidly, and cursed myself. What was she doing?
She got up off the ground, breaking the contact. I looked up at her, wondering somewhere in the back of my mind what I should feel.
She gave me a meaningful look, a look that made her seem sad and happy at the same time. She was every bit herself. "Your companionship means more to me than you believe."
I knew just how she meant the words to be taken. Companionship in the form of friendship. But also in something else, however small it was.
And I couldn't deny it - for both, I was glad.
"You're a little weird today," she said, mellow and joking.
"I was thinking the same of you." I squinted up at her.
She smiled then, and it was one of the most simple and beautiful things I'd ever seen.
So I grinned back.
