"What are you doing?"
The blond stopped humming and glanced up from the book he was currently squiggling into and cocked his head to the side, a lazy smile adorning his features. He was on his stomach, propped up on his elbows, and his feet swayed lethargically through the air--he wore a tank top and long shorts, showing that even he could be affected by the horrible heat on this world. Even Kurogane was uncomfortable, and he didn't come from a place that was supposedly below freezing year-round.
Fai set the pen he had been using down in the spine of the book, resting his chin on his palms.
"Writing," he answered simply. Kurogane fought the urge to heave a frustrated sigh--was there ever a time when getting any sort of answer wasn't like pulling teeth with this guy?
"Don't insult me," the dark-haired man replied. Fai smiled a bit more.
"Oh, Kuro-rin is curious about what I'm writing?" He crossed his ankles and chuckled at the murderous glance he received from the ninja. He knew Kurogane's pride would never allow him to actually admit he was interested, and he felt like being nice, so he answered without any further prodding. "It's a memoir."
"What would make you want to remember this?" Kurogane snorted, leaning back on the couch and stretching his arms out along the backside of it. It was too hot in this world, he decided.
"This is a very important journey for all of us," Fai said, pointing a finger at the ninja as though he were demonstrating just how important it was--it was hard to take him seriously with the lethargic smile and his head resting lazily in the other hand. "And besides," he added, grinning. "How else am I supposed to remember all my favorite nicknames?"
This did not sit too well with Kurogane.
"Don't write disgusting things like that in there!" He shouted, leaping to his feet and stomping over to the mage--Fai let out an infuriating chuckle and stretched out his arms and legs, rolling away as the angry ninja approached and grabbed the book off the floor, glancing over the page. Fai got to his feet and slinked over to the ninja, who was currently trying to decipher the words on the page, but no manner of squinting or turning the book could help his understanding of the characters. "What is this crap?"
"My language!" The blond chirped, plunking his chin lethargically on Kurogane's shoulder as he glanced over it and onto the page. The taller man had been exposed to Fai's native tongue when they had been in Yama, but he'd never imagined that a delicate-sounding language such as that could be matched up with this mess of symbols on the book's pages. Or perhaps Fai just had terrible handwriting.
"This is a language?" the ninja snorted distastefully. "It just looks like someone gave a pen to a kid and let them run with it." He gave a pointed glance to the man leaning on his shoulder. Fai looked over, his lower lip sliding out just a bit.
"Waaaaah!" He pouted, throwing his arms in the air and draping them over Kurogane's bare shoulders. His skin was white; even fairer than his face, flawless save for the small beads of sweat forming on its surface. "Kuro-woof is so mean!"
"Stoppit with the nicknames!"
"Of course, Kuro-sama" Fai said, smiling slyly. Kurogane made a noise that sounded similar to a cat choking on a hairball (an angry cat, of course) and looked back down at the book. At least the damn wizard had the decency to add the -sama, which was more than he could say for him most of the time. It was a miracle he hadn't run this magician through yet--was that what Princess Tomoyo was referring to when she told him to find 'true strength'? Because there had to be a better way to teach him patience than by forcing him to stay with one of the most i annoying /i people he'd ever met.
Of course, there were times when the mage had proven to be tolerable, and he could be a decent fighter... when he wanted to be. Or perhaps he was really better than he was letting on? Kurogane could never tell--despite his friendly outward appearance, this guy was nothing but mystery locked behind that lazy grin. He intrigued the ninja, but of course, he would never tell Fai that.
Maybe that's why he never beat him away whenever the blond hung all over him.
...Or perhaps if he did beat him, he would end up killing the wizard on accident and that damn curse would drain away at his strength. And that, most certainly, did not sit well with Kurogane.
"How the hell do you read this?" Kurogane asked, agitatedly turning the book again. Fai reached out and turned the book in what the ninja could only assume to be the correct way, and pointed at one of the indecipherable squiggles, reading it as though the taller man were a child, "Ku-ro-wan-wan was veee-ry man-ly too-daaay." He grinned. "See? Easy."
"That better not be what it says or I'll--!" Kurogane began, but Fai's chuckle cut him off, hot air going into Kurogane's ear. The finger that was still on the page slid off the book, his hand swaying above the ninja's belly. He slumped more onto Kurogane, the task standing on his own apparently being too much for him to accomplish.
"It's not," he said softly, smiling gently as he glanced over the words on the page again. "It's supposed to be sung." Kurogane glanced over as best he could at the face resting on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow.
"You said it was a memoir," he pointed out.
"Memoirs in my country are more like ballads," Fai explained, bringing one of his arms up and around Kurogane's neck, hand resting beneath his chin on the ninja's shoulder. "Music makes stories easier to remember, don't you think?"
"So this is music?"
"No, silly Kuro-pon! I can't write music!" The matter-of-fact tone in his voice was almost enough to make Kurogane rip off the arm that was wrapped around him. "These are only the lyrics."
"So you can sing?"
"Mmm... Not well!"
...This was re-god-damned-diculous.
"And you can't play an instrument." It wasn't even a question now.
"Kuro-sama, you're psychic! How impressive"
It was quite clear that Kurogane was rapidly losing what was left of his patience (if this wasn't True Strength, he didn't know what the hell else was) when he said, "So what's the point of writing a song that no one will hear?"
"Because even if no one else hears it," Fai replied quietly. "I'll still know how it goes, and I'll remember worlds like this one, or Yama, or Piffel, Syaoran-kun, Sakura-chan, Mokona, and Kuro-pyon..." He trailed off and chuckled, realizing he'd said too much. Kurogane could feel the mage's cheeks grow warmer and the blond pressed his mouth against the hand resting on the ninja's shoulder.
Aha, so he did blush.
"Still seems like a stupid reason to write a song," Kurogane grumbled.
"It has a good melody, though" Fai said, and the ninja could feel the magician's cheeks pull into a smile against his neck.
"Not like I'll ever hear it," he replied, shrugging and closing the book. He reached up and took the magician's wrist in his hand to pull it away from himself so that he could continue what could be considered a normal routine, but stopped when he heard a soft whisper in his ear. The beginnings of a song.
At times, he would slip back into his own tongue, and the ninja thought absently that the pork bun and the kids must've wandered out of range, or perhaps Fai was just singing the parts he didn't remember (or didn't want Kurogane to understand) in very convincing gibberish. He didn't know how long he stood there, with the magician draped over him and breathing lyrics into his ear, singing in a voice just above a whisper--he did know one thing for sure, though. The magician hadn't lied; he really was bad at singing.
...But the song did have a good melody.