Next chapter on the 29th of September.
Fai stays there until he can't hear Kurogane anymore, staring at the rubble around him.
Eventually he stands, wind blowing his hair as his gaze shifts to the barren desert around them and far in the distance the only other remaining building.
The blonde goes inside.
The stairs seem endless as he trudges his way back down, closer and closer to the smell of blood and crude antiseptic.
Kurogane is thankfully nowhere to be found when he slips into the room holding the princess and gently closes the door behind him. The room is vacant excepting Syaoran, Sakura and Mokona, all three in various manners of unconsciousness.
The boy looks similar enough to the clone in this light that Fai hurts and bites at his lip, looking away from the way his chest gently rises and falls, pained expression on his face and Mokona on his arms as the cloak slips from his shoulders and that emblem is revealed behind where the small creature sleeps fitfully, murmuring Sakura's name.
Fai's gaze instead goes to the girl on the bed, face still twisted slightly in pain, clearly fighting his magic and whatever drugs they've given her, trying to wake up. He strengthens the spell on her and sighs in relief, dropping to sit on the bedside, as her brow smoothes just a little bit.
Maybe he has enough power still to keep her safe, asleep until they get somewhere they can heal her leg, unaware.
He knows even as he thinks it that it's a lie he's telling himself but lets himself believe it anyway, smiling painfully as he lifts her hand and presses a silent kiss to her bruised knuckles and then to the cuts on her fingertips.
"Why couldn't you all just let me die?" He whispers to her as he lays her hand down again and kisses away the dimple that appears between her eyebrows, feeling the tears he won't let himself cry in his throat and behind his eyes.
Behind him he hears Syaoran shift a little, heart beat speeding up a little as he blearily opens his eyes.
Fai looks away again, swallowing and tries to leave the room, saying nothing.
He tries not to catch Syaoran's eyes as he does but he grabs at his ankle, gripping firmly, a question rather than a demand and the mage can't help but go still, not breathing through the sick feeling that pervades him.
"You helped with her, didn't you?" He asks.
Fai can't respond through the horror rising in his throat that another person knows what he's done.
"I-" He starts to explain himself, looking down at the boy who holds the still sleeping Mokona close to his chest and smiles sadly.
"Thank you for doing that." He says gently, releasing Fai's foot.
The mage stands for a moment, confused, before fleeing the room.