"Why do you always hide behind that damned smile?" Kurogane asked as he downed half a bottle of sake in one quick gulp. "Do you really think you can fool me?"

"Why do you always insist on putting me under a microscope?" Fai retorted, still working on his fifth bottle while Kurogane was at least up to his tenth.

"I want to know what makes you so scared to show me the real you," Kurogane answered.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate to be studied?" Fai glared at him with piercing blue eyes. "Or, for that matter, how much I hate you?"

"You hate me, huh? Why?" Kurogane asked, grinning wolfishly, as if he was proud of being hated.

"A lot of reasons," Fai replied.

"Well the feeling's mutual," Kurogane finished his bottle and popped open another. "So what is it about me that you hate the most?"

"The way you're always analyzing me," Fai admitted, after a moment of thought, "or maybe the way you're always so serious. So what do you hate most about me?"

"The way you can't be honest about anything," Kurogane responded bluntly. Not a moment of thought had to be put into this answer. He had thought it out far in advance.

"If you want the truth about me, you could just cut me open and study me from the inside." Fai eyed the set of knives Kurogane had been given when they entered this world, "After all, you certainly have the tools to do so."

"You're a waste of time and space," Kurogane said bitterly.

"Yet you refuse to let me die," Fai pointed out. "Why do you want me to stay alive if you hate me that much?"

"Dunno," Kurogane shrugged. "Probably because the kid and the princess would be upset if you died."

"Don't pretend like any of us mean anything to you. Don't pretend that you give a damn. We're just an obstacle you have to overcome in order to get home," Fai argued.

"Quit it with the melodrama already. The fact that I hate you at least shows that I give a damn about you. If I didn't care, then I wouldn't hate you so much."

"You think that's enough for someone like me?" Fai let out a hollow laugh.

"What do you want from me then? Do you want me to wish you were dead? To want to kill you myself?" Kurogane cocked an eyebrow.

"I heard once that it's the greatest feeling in the world to die by the hands of the one you love," Fai mumbled solemnly.

"What's that?" Kurogane asked.

"Nothing," Fai flashed a feline smile.

"You love me, huh? Tomoyo-hime told me once that love and hate were essentially the same thing. Maybe that's why that feeling's mutual too," Kurogane said.

"What?" Fai blinked in surprise.

"We both hate and love each other... I wonder... which do you think is stronger? Love or hate?"

Fai opened his mouth to answer but Kurogane didn't give him time todo so. He reached over and pinned Fai to the floor. He kissed him passionately as he ripped through the line of buttons on Fai's shirt. After a few moments, he pulled away.

"So do you feel aroused or repulsed?" Kurogane asked. "Do you love me or hate me more?"

"Keep going," Fai breathed heavily.

"You love me then?" Kurogane whispered tauntingly in his ear before biting his earlobe.

Fai gasped. He replied in a wavering breathless voice, "I'm not sure."

Kurogane pulled away in surprise at Fai's uncertainty. "How far am I going to have to take this before you make up your mind?" he demanded.

"I don't know but let's find out," Fai pulled Kurogane back to him and tore Kurogane's shirt over his head.

Kurogane never got an answer that night, not even after they had sex. Fai fell right to sleep there on the floor beside him with amazing ease but Kurogane stayed awake for hours with an uneasy mind. When he woke up the next morning, everything was gone - the empty bottles, Fai, the "evidence" of what had transpired. Kurogane sat up and looked around for any sign of Fai but, of course, there was none. He sat there for a few minutes, his mind empty of thoughts.

"Oh, you're awake," Fai smiled as he walked back into the room. "Breakfast is on the table, Kuro-sama, so go get it before it gets cold."

Kurogane stood up and grabbed Fai by the wrist as he walked by. "You can't just pretend last night didn't happen."

"I don't intend to. Last night was fun," Fai smiled slyly.

"Do you have your answer to the question yet?" Kurogane demanded.

Fai nodded. "I love you... but I still hate you a little too. Not as much as I did."

"I can live with that," Kurogane grinned. "Want to go up to my room?"

"Alright," Fai smiled felinely and happily followed Kurogane up the stairs.