I do not own Tsubasa. I do however own all the original characters, worlds and what not.

Chapitre 15: Firing Range

Twenty minutes later Fai stepped out of his room to visit the kitchen for a snack, he froze in the shadows as he watched Kurogane leave his room. Kurogane walked across the hall, knocked on Kyoki's door, then entered when Kyoki gave the 'ok.'

Fai tilted his head curiously. "I wonder what those two are up too..." Fai shrugged his shoulders and smiled as he made his way to the kitchen.

"Y-you know, you don't have to do this. Reo-" Kyoki began.

"I said I'm going to do it so I am." Kurogane told her. "I don't see how sleeping in the same room will help get her feather though." He laid down on the couch and closed his eyes.

"Reo already told us that it would improve the-"

"Yea, I heard. Still doesn't make sense."

Kyoki saved her game, turned off the system and then walked over to the couch and kneeled over as she tugged on his shirt. "Kurogane?"

"What?" He opened one eye to look at her.

"If you want, you can sleep on the bed and I'll take the couch."

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? I feel bad for this."

"I said I'm fine." He rolled over onto his side, his back turned to her.

Kyoki giggled. "You look like a kid who's pissed off."

He just snorted as she walked over to her bed, turning off the lights. She curled up under the blankets and went to sleep.

The next morning Fai was just coming out of his room to go get some breakfast when Kurogane walked out of Kyoki's room. The blond haired man ran over to him, grinning.

"Good morning, Kuro-sun. How was your night? Did you spend it the whole time in Kyoki's room?" Fai smiled his normal goofy smile.

"That's none of your concern, weirdo." Kurogane said as he stepped forward quickly, opened his bedroom door and slammed it shut.

"Kuro-pii, you're so mean to Mommy." Fai pouted, but then turned and skipped off toward where his breakfast awaited him.

As he skipped there, he ran into Yume who was coming out of the bathroom, not quite awake.

"Good morning, Yume-chan."

"Hey, Fai." Yume wiped the back of her hand across her eyes.

"Kuro-su and Kyo-su were together in their room all night together. Interesting, huh?"

"R-really? Cool. But... do you think they remember that talk we gave them? Cuz I keep thinking that they ran out on us during our talk. Though, I don't think I will be able to have that conversation again with them... too embarrassing."

Fai nodded. "Yea, I know how you feel about that. And... I think I had a dream where they ran off too. Do you think that-"

"Nope. We listened to the whole thing." Kyoki said as she walked toward them, only getting half of what Fai had said. "Don't you remember that you even dismissed us when it was all over, and then I ran to the bathroom since I really had to go. Maybe your dreams picked that part up with me running and integrated Kurogane into it too."

"Maybe..." Fai replied.

"Well, I'm going to go get some chocolate milk. If you excuse me." Kyoki waved once, then walked past them.

The two of them stood there, unsure what to say.

Moments later, Kurogane came out of his room and encountered the blonds in the middle of the hallway.

"What are you two idiots doing? You're blocking the way."

The two of them stared at him.

"Oh... right, yes, we are blocking the path." Yume replied with a bit of a British accent.

"Let's go eat." Fai said, looping one arm through Yume's and the other through Kurogane's. He then pulled the two along with him.

After breakfast Yume walked back to the hallway with their rooms. She stopped in front of her room, then turned and went to Kyoki's. She knocked on it, but got no answer.

"Kyoki-chan? It's me. I was wondering if you wanted to hang out for awhile since we haven't really seen each other very much lately." Yume knocked louder, but got no answer.

As she turned to leave, the door opened a crack. Yume thought that maybe her cousin had opened it a little; so she pushed it open some more only to find the room empty.

"She's not here?" Yume looked over her shoulder at Kurogane's room. "Maybe she is in there..."

She walked across the hallway and knocked on the door.

Kurogane answered it.

"Hello, Kurogane. Um, is Kyoki with you?"

He shook his head.

"I looked in her room and then I'd figure I'd try here. Thanks anyway. Later." She waved and ran back to her own room.

Kurogane was going to tell her she was with Reo, but seeing as the young woman took off so fast, he figured it wasn't anything too important, so he went back in his room and closed the door. He felt somewhat uncomfortable with leaving Kyoki alone with that Reo guy, but Kyoki assured him that nothing was wrong or going to happen.

Hours later everyone was gathered around, eating his or her lunches when Reo popped in, followed by Abel who was looking as bored and mad as ever.

"Since there is nothing to do today that is related to releasing the feather, I think we should all go swimming in the pool and get to know each other better and have some fun." Reo said happily.

"But we don't have any swimsuits." Sakura said sadly.

"Do not worry, Princess, for I have found you all some. So will you all come?" Reo asked.

Syaoran, Sakura, Mokona, Fai, and Yume said yes quickly and happily.

Kyoki looked at her arms. "Will there be umbrellas there?"

"Yea." Reo nodded.

"Then I'm in." Kyoki looked relieved.

"Daddy wants to go too, but he won't admit it." Fai said, pointing at Kurogane.

Kurogane growled.

"See, that's how he says yes." Fai lied.

"Wonderful. I'll have Abel put the towels and suits in your room. When you are finished getting dressed, meet with him at the end of the hall and he will show you where the pool is. Well, I see you there. Later." Reo then poofed away as usual.

"I'm not going." Kurogane snapped at Fai.

"Oh, yes you are. Because if you don't, Kyo-ku will cry, Kuro-ku." Fai said, grabbing Kyoki, and began to pat her head as if she was already crying.

"Huh? No I wo-" Kyoki started to say, but Fai's hand covered her mouth.

"Oh, yes you will. Don't hide your real feelings." Fai told her.

"Shut up." Kurogane snapped as he got up and left the room.

"Yay! Look how excited Kuro-ron is! He's has to rush off to go get ready." Fai said, standing. "Well, then I think I will go get ready too." He began to leave.

"I'll go with you. I'm already finished eating." Yume jumped to her feet and ran after Fai.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this..." Kyoki said.

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know... but I just am..." Kyoki sighed.

Twenty minutes later everyone (minus Kurogane) was out in the hall, ready for Abel to take them to the outdoor pool. Fai was currently wearing dark blue swim shorts that came down to his knees with a light blue t-shirt. Sakura was wearing a pink two piece bathing suit with the bottom being like small shorts. Syaoran was wearing black swim shorts that came down to around his knees. Kyoki was wearing a purple and black box pattern two piece bathing suit with the bottoms being like shorts; she wore a black shirt over the top and she also wore socks on her feet. Yume also wore a two-piece that was blue. Mokona also had a little swimsuit on as well and jumped on Sakura's shoulder as it tried to show it off.

"Isn't that guy who looks like that asshole coming?" Abel asked.

"Hmm? He's not here?" Fai sounded surprised.

"No... and he's not hard to miss. You really didn't realize that?" Abel began to wonder what the IQ of this man was.

"I'm going to go get him then." Fai turned.

"Fai-san, I really don't think he wants to come..." Kyoki said quietly.

"Yes, he does. He's just trying to be a big bad doggy." Fai said as he continued on his way.

"Aiyo. This will not be good. We should hide. Blood will be everywhere. Fai is going to be killed." Kyoki unwrapped her towel and knelt to the ground as she covered herself with it.

"What the hell are you doing?" Abel asked her.

"Trying to hide."

"It's not working." Abel began to wonder if she was a three year old in a twenty-something year old body.

"I know that. But I'm going to try it out just in case." Kyoki muttered.

There suddenly came some bangs and yelling from Kurogane's room.

"Should we... intervene?" Yume said.

"I wouldn't..." Kyoki told them. "It'll be over soon."

And she was right. Moments later, the sounds ceased and Fai exited, dragging a pissed off Kurogane.

"I got him!" Fai said as he gave another pull and Kurogane came all the way out of the room. He was now wearing black swimming shorts that came down to his knees.

"Kuro-kun had agreed to come." Fai smiled happily.

"No, I di-" Kurogane started.

"Yes, you did. Remember?" Fai whirled around and stared at him intently.

"Hmph." He looked away.

"See?" Fai turned back around and smiled. "Now let's go have some fun."

Kurogane caught Kyoki out of the corner of his eye as she emerged from her towel cocoon. "What the hell were you doing?"

Kyoki looked at him. "Ah... nothing... just... testing the... fabric of the towel... for... hidden reasons."

Kurogane chose not to comment on that.

Abel led the way.

As they were walking, Yume walked over to Fai and whispered: "What did you say or do to him to get him to come?"

"Oh, nothing." Fai told her.

"It is something. You got Kurogane to come and wear a swimming suit. What was it?"

Fai shook his head. "I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because you're a female."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"It was a guy talk, so you wouldn't understand."

"That's just rude."

"Yep, kinda." Fai said as the two of them laughed.

"What are you two laughing about?" Kyoki wondered as she wandered over to them.

"Oh, nothing." The two of them said.

Sakura, Syaoran, Fai, Mokona and Yume were all playing in the pool as Kyoki sat under the umbrella on the dry land.

Reo, who had moments ago played in the water with the others, came out and sat next to her. He was wearing black shorts with a red line down the sides of them.

"Hello, you looked lonely so I decided to sit next to you." He said as he smiled at her.

"Oh, I'm ok. I don't want to be a bother. You don't have to sit next to me, you know."

"I know, but I want to." He told her. "Besides, I need a break from the water for a little bit."

"I see." She said. Kyoki glanced across the pool at Kurogane who was cleaning Sôhi.

"Do you wanna go sit next to him?" Reo asked, leaning toward her so no one else could hear... not that anyone was listening in or paying attention to them at the moment.

"W-what?! N-no I don't. I'm fine right where I am."

"Right. Just keep telling yourself that. Anywho, the two of you slept in the same room last night, right?"

"Y-yes."

"But he slept on the couch and you on the bed, right?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"You two are difficult." He sighed.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Will sleeping in the same room as him really help us get the feather?"

"Huh? Oh yea. Definitely. You might not understand it right now, but when the time comes you will."

"Why can't you tell us now?" Kyoki wondered.

"Because you need more time to understand, and then I can tell you, and then you will understand it all." Reo responded.

"Oh... ok. So was that it? We don't have to do that again, right?"

"In order to get the feather as smoothly as possible, you need to until the time comes to get the feather. I know how silly it sounds, but it will help. And like I said, you will understand when the time comes. Understand?"

She nodded.

"Kyoki-chan! Come in and swim!" Yume called from the pool. "It's fun in here."

"I will... in a little bit..." Kyoki called back, smiling.

"You better." Yume stuck out her tongue and swam off.

"I'm surprise she hasn't devise a plan to grab me and throw me in there." Kyoki mumbled. "You really can't trust my cousin around water."

"Oh, she has. That was one of the other reasons I came over here was to warn you. Fai and Yume are planning on getting you in the water at some point today. But hopefully if I'm around them, I can keep them distracted from targeting you. Though, I don't know how that will work. Oh, look. They are in the corner talking." Reo said, looking at Yume and Fai who were off in the corner talking, as they talk, they kept glancing over in their direction. "Probably talking more about how to get you in the water. "I better go before they actually go through with it."

"No! Don't go! What if they... get past you and get me and throw me in there?!" She grabbed onto his wrist.

He smiled at her. "There is something you could do that will stop them."

"What? What is it?"

He glanced over at Kurogane.

Kyoki followed his gaze. "Kurogane?"

"Yep."

Kyoki relinquished her grip.

"Later." Reo then walked back into the pool where he was greeted by the other swimmers.

"Kurogane can stop them..." Kyoki nodded. She grabbed her umbrella and towel and walked around the pool and approached him. He was currently sitting Indian-style with Sôhi in his lap. "K-Kurogane...?"

"Hmm?"

"May... I sit next to you?"

"Do whatever you want." He told her without looking at her.

"Hehe, thanks." Kyoki unfolded the umbrella and set it up, then laid the beach towel out before sitting on it.

"Those two idiots are planning on throwing you in the water, aren't they?" He asked.

"Y-yes. You're very good at these observational things." She smiled at him.

He didn't comment.

"Hehe, I'm sorry for bothering you like this. I just really don't like going into water. I'm not afraid of it. I just don't like the feeling of being wet."

"Stay over there by me and they won't get you." He told her as he went back to work.

"A-all right." She nodded. She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her head on them. "Why aren't you swimming?"

"Don't want to. Besides, someone has to keep an eye on those idiots." He said, glancing at Fai.

Kyoki giggled. "You're like the lifeguard."

"Someone needs to watch them."

Kyoki nodded. "Especially Fai. I don't think I should trust him around water. You really can't trust my cousin around water. She's deadly with a water gun and a hose, I'm getting nightmares just thinking of what she would do with a pool."

"Huh?" Kurogane looked at her.

"Heh?"

"How can she be deadly with a water gun?"

"Oh, I don't mean life-taking-deadly, I mean a more... playful deadly, ya know?"

"...No."

"Then, I shall have to start from the beginning-ish. Back when were wee little things I would go visit my father during the summer where I spent up to two weeks at a time there. During that time I would go visit Yume-chan, or Yume-chan would come to our grandma's house. To keep cool during those hot months we would play with water guns or hoses or small inflatable pools. Normally the pool playing would be at our grandmas since they had the small pool and the water guns were mostly played at her house since there were many other children there who would play water gun fights with us. The kids at our grandmas would not play with me because... well... we won't get into that. Maybe some other day. Anywho, when we played the water gun battles, the teams would be split; I was usually on Yume's team since I didn't really know anyone there. So anywho, the point of the game was to shoot your opposing team with the water guns as much as you could. There really wasn't a winner or loser... since the point was to have fun and get wet. But Yume-chan... she... would appear to be on your side at one moment... then the next she would be shooting at you... her own teammate. So whenever we played that, I would hide in the branches of the tree in her front yard until it was all over. Then, two years ago I was at her house with some of her friends. The next-door kids kept bugging us, so I don't remember who it was, but someone got the hose and started to spray them. Somehow Yume got her hands on the hose, and she told the rest of us to go behind her garage... I think we were to lead the kids there and then she would spray them as they came between the fence and garage... I had a feeling that she was going to use that thing to spray us. I was going to go make a break for it for the tree, but I didn't want to leave the others and I didn't know where Yume was. So I stayed. Luckily, something happened, and Yume turned off the hose. But she told us that she had been planning to spray us. And then there was the inflatable pool and my watch. We were at our grandma's and her sister was over as well. We were fully dressed and I had this watch on that had Winnie the Pooh on it and I loved it to pieces. But then... her sister pushed me into the pool and my watch stopped working, so I locked myself in the bathroom. I know it was childish, but I was upset and sad. I know her sister did that, but they are in the same family... so Yume may be the same too. Oh no! I'm relative to them too? Am I the same like that with water? Maybe I should leave. You may not be safe around me."

Kurogane smiled, which made Kyoki gasp. "You're fine. It's that magician and your cousin we need to worry about, right?"

"Y-yes."

"Are there any sides she displays before she turns?" Kurogane asked, looking at Yume who was talking to Fai and Sakura.

"With a water gun, she will tell you to go one direction and says she will go in the other and meet you at the halfway point. But as you make your way to the designated location, she will sneak up on you and shoot you. But other than that, I can't think of anything. Sorry."

"That's good enough."

Moments passed with no talking.

Kurogane began to think back to a couple days past when he had overheard Yume congratulating Kyoki on dating him and how Yume had said something about Kyoki loving him for so long. He glanced at Kyoki who was looking at who knew what. He looked away and shook his head, thinking that there was no way she 'loved' him. Sure, she acted funny around him at times, really funny, but how could she, or anyone, 'love' him. It confused him. He was going to keep it to himself that he had overheard them in the kitchen, but he had to know for himself; and if it was true, he had to tell her that it wouldn't work out for the two of them. There were things he had to take care of before he thought about things like that.

"Hey, you?" Kurogane said, meaning to ask her right now about the other day.

Kyoki remained still and did not respond.

Kurogane poked her on her shoulder. She wobbled for a few seconds then slid to her right, her head landing on his lower thigh. She mumbled in her sleep as curled into a ball and slid her hand under her right cheek.

Kurogane's eye twitched. He sighed and looked up as Fai waddled to the side of the pool that was closet to Fai.

"Kuro-tan, wanna come play?" Fai smiled.

"No."

"Why not?" Fai whined.

"Go away." He threw a nearby stone gently at Fai's shoulder. The rock hit, and then bounced back on the cement.

"Kuro-run is such a meanie!" Fai cried out as he swam away.

I'm so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I've had this chapter written for a long while, I just haven't had the motivation to re-read it and edit any errors until now.

This chapter is somewhat of a side tour from the storyline. I thought that the Tsubasa group should have a relaxing fun day at the pool, so thus it happened. Muahahahahhahahaha!

Oh, and my cousin Yume, is really dangerous when it comes to water like Kyoki said. So if you ever meet my cousin and she has water, please just run away. She will turn on you so quickly. It makes me quite sad, to tell you the truth.

Anywho, I'll try to have the next chapter up a hell of a lot sooner than these last few chapters. .

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought about it! Yay!

Later!