Disclaimer; I do not own Tsubasa, and my writer's pride beith but a pet for my reviewers to play with. And I lied last time, the OOCness is far worse in this chapter, in my opinion.

Unexpected Circumstances

Kurogane shivered as he entered the ICU. It was freezing, even colder than the air outside, as if death were waiting in every shadowed corner. Which, considering what had happened two days earlier, wasn't that unbelievable. The only other people in the wing besides the remaining patients were their doctors and relatives, which were, surprisingly, very few. One would have thought that after very narrowly escaping death the whole family would turned up.

"Kurogane!" The ninja looked up from the floor in time to see Kaylee running toward him and trip in practically nothing. The swordsman caught her just before she hit the ground, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"Watch out," he snapped, making sure she was perfectly still before letting her go. "What do you want now?"

"Fai's getting better!" she cried happily. "He should be awake by tomorrow morning!"

The ninja stared at her. He's getting... better.

"Right," he muttered, pushing past the girl and heading toward the mage's room. He noted with no small amount of relief that the room was empty with the exception of the wizard and himself.

"Damn mage," he growled as he sat on his bed and stared across the room at him. The smaller man remained completely still, the only sound that of his soft breathing. The swordsman didn't like it. He didn't like the silence that closed around them, or the strange sense of being strangled when the damn idiot hadn't responded when he'd spoken. It was unnatural, dammit. Before, even though the moron was comatose, there was never a moment of silence. There had always been people milling about, chatting with friends, checking up on patients. Now there was only the beeping of monitors and breathing to fill the empty space.

"Damn." the ninja muttered to himself. He'd been yelling at the mage to shut up since their journey had begun, and yet here he was, wishing he could hear the idiot's voice for just a second. It was stupid, he knew. But the silence was eating away at his nerves, and before he realized it he was talking to the mage in the bed across from his.

"Damn city," he growled. "I can't believe there's no automobile usage before six. And who in their right fucking mind volunteers at a fucking hospital's psych ward during the mornings, anyway? I swear, that idiot's almost as annoying as you sometimes. Hell, if she called me by all of those stupid nicknames of yours she'd practically be you."

He stopped and glanced over at the mage again. He was still asleep.

"Well, maybe not you exactly," he continued, scowling. "She's too stubborn to be you. And somehow I can't imagine you seated in front of a computer typing up a stupid children's story about princesses is distress and the knight that goes to save her and they all live happily ever after." The swordsman scoffed.

"Please tell me you aren't talking about me to a coma patient, Kurogane-sama."

The swordsman growled at the twenty-one year old as she sat on Fai's bed.

"What, you don't write shit like that?" he snapped. Makayla grinned brightly at him.

"Nope!" she replied cheerfully. "Never been good at happy endings, see."

"Right." Silence reigned as the writer checked the monitors the mage was hooked up to and jotted a few things down on a clipboard she was carrying.

"I thought you were up in the psych ward," the ninja offered after a minute. Makayla nodded.

"Volunteer work doesn't start until five," she replied, checking her watch. The ninja growled at her again.

"Then why the fuck did you insist on coming here at three in the fucking morning?!" Makayla smiled again.

"So I could check on Fai, of course," she replied easily. "And because I like the hospital, it's so… soothing."

The ninja almost choked. Yes, this chick was most definitely insane. This place, soothing? Soothing wasn't exactly the word he'd pick. Hell was more like it. Or insane. Not soothing. Never soothing.

"So how long have you been talking?" she asked conversationally. The swordsman grunted in response, causing the writer to frown and sit down at the edge of Fai's bed.

"You know, I wasn't going to be a writer," she said suddenly, running one finger across the wizard's cheek. "I wanted to be a director. You know, travel the world making movies. But something came up at the last second… and I decided I'd rather stick with my dad than travel."

The ninja raised an eyebrow.

"I should care?" he asked. Makayla grinned.

"No, I was just saying," she replied. Kurogane glared at her a moment longer before turning his gaze on the sleeping mage. He'd done something similar before, begun telling him about his past and then dropped it.

And, as if on cue, his chest began throbbing again.

"So what happened?" he asked finally. The twenty-one year old glanced up at him.

"Huh?" she asked, smiling innocently. The ninja rolled his eyes.

"You heard me," he snapped.

"I did," the girl agreed. "But I thought you didn't care."

"I don't. Tell me anyway."

"Nope!" the twenty-one year old cried cheerfully, leaping up from Fai's bed. "I gotta go check on a few other patients."

Before the swordsman could even think of what to say to this she was gone.

"Course," he said aloud to the mage, "she does have that annoying habit of keeping things from me."

Glancing at Fai again, he could've sworn he saw a smile.

--

He was still asleep. It was almost three a.m and the bastard was still out of it.

Kurogane couldn't decide if he wanted to throw something at the nurse who came in to check on them again or laugh at his own annoyance. Either way he'd feel like crap afterwards.

Why the fuck isn't he awake?! the swordsman resisted the urge to scream at the nurse, who was busy adjusting the moron's I.V. After a few minutes she left, leaving him to the tense silence that had settled in the room. Kurogane had long since abandoned his attempts at sleep and was instead pacing back an forth in front of the mage's bed, trying to figure out why everyone had flat lined almost simultaneously. Makayla probably knew something about it, with how troubled she'd looked when they'd arrived. Which meant it obviously wasn't normal. Yet everyone had seemed unconcerned afterword… so what the hell had happened?

Groaning with frustration, he grabbed Fai's chart and read it over. Someone - and he had a pretty good idea who - had translated everything into Japanese for his benefit, not that that helped much. Makayla had made it her job to teach them all as much as she could about the medicine of this world, but the ninja had never been one to remember anything related to healing.

Weird, though, he though, frowning. Ever since the dumbass's suicide attempt I've been able to remember some of it… why?

"Kurogane-san?"

The ninja whirled around, dropping the clipboard on the mage's bed. Syaoran and Sakura were standing in the doorway, both shivering and wet.

"What the hell happened to you?" he snapped, grabbing his blanket and tossing it to them. Sakura flushed and looked down at the floor, seemingly embarrassed.

"W-well, Makayla-san said Fai was supposed to wake up soon, and-" she started, still looking at the ground.

"We wanted o come see him," Syaoran finished for her, taking the blanket and wrapping it around her shoulders. "It started raining a few minutes ago, and we didn't have anything to keep dry under-"

"And yet the princess isn't nearly as soaked as you are," the swordsman cut him off. The archeologist flushed and grabbed a nearby towel in an attempt to distract himself.

The swordsman sighed and lay on his bed, hoping to get some sleep. If the kid likes her so much why doesn't he just tell her already?

"Kurogane-san, have you ever noticed how much like Fai-san Makayla-san looks?" Sakura asked suddenly. The swordsman stared at her.

"Hell no she doesn't look like that dumbass," he snapped. "For one, her hair's black, not blond -"

"Like Kuro-puu's!" Mokona emerged from Syaoran's cloak and leapt at the swordsman. "And her eyes are blue!"

Kurogane growled as he pulled the manjuu off him and threw him at Syaoran.

"I don't give a damn!" he snapped. "The moron could look like Tomoyo and I wouldn't even glance in her direction! Now leave me he hell alone!"

Silence filled the room. Awkward, uncomfortable silence that was only broken when Sakura suddenly dropped off to sleep. Kurogane growled softly as Syaoran scooped her up and deposited her on his bed.

"Why do you do that?" he asked suddenly. The archeologist raised an eyebrow at him as hr carefully covered the sleeping princess with a clean blanket.

"What do you mean?" he replied softly. The swordsman rolled his eyes.

"Take care of her like…" he paused while he tried to think of the phrase. How had Makayla put it? "Like a mother would her new born child?"

Syaoran looked shocked at his choice of words and let out a poorly controlled laugh.

"Shut up and answer the question," Kurogane snapped, scowling. The kid stopped laughing immediately and glanced back at Sakura.

"Why wouldn't I?" he asked. "She's my princess, after all. If she were to die my country would suffer greatly."

"Bullshit," the swordsman growled. "Now tell me the truth."

The archeologist looked startled for a moment, but then he smiled sadly at the sleeping girl.

"She's my best friend," he muttered, more to himself than the irritated ninja. "I love her. Why wouldn't I want her to be safe?"

The swordsman remembered how he'd said something similar when they'd first met, in Yuuko's shop.

"Love, huh?" Syaoran glanced at his friend and was startled to see that for the first time since Fai had been injured he looked… sorrowful.

The ninja felt Syaoran's gaze and scowled at him in an attempt to make up for lost dignity. The archeologist looked hurriedly away, and Kurogane couldn't help but smile triumphantly as he glanced at Fai again. Still asleep.

--

"Kurogane-sama!" Makayla's cheerful voice broke through the half sleep the swordsman had fallen into. He shook himself awake and glared at her.

"What?" he growled, taking note of his surroundings. Syaoran was asleep in a chair beside Sakura, who was in his bed, and he found himself, surprisingly, on the floor by Fai, who was still asleep. Makayla was leaning over him, her blue eyes clouded but an unfaltering smile on her lips. Like Fai's. Too much like Fai's for his comfort.

He hit her.

The writer stumbled backwards into his bed, shock etched into every inch of her face, causing Sakura to come awake with a start, which in turn woke Syaoran. She clutched at the shoulder his fist had come in contact with as she pushed herself off of the princess and frowned at him.

"What was that for?" she snapped at him, massaging her shoulder. He inhaled sharply.

What the fuck is wrong with me?!

--

"Are you alright, Makayla-san?" Sakura asked, worry filling her voice. The twenty-one year old smiled at her as she went to check that her shoulder was still intact.

"Makayla's fine, Sakura-chan," she said gently, stopping her finger's search for brakes or fractures. "And I'm perfectly alright, just a little startled."

She glanced up at the sound of the door being opened in time to see Kurogane leaving. He slammed the door shut behind him.

"Are you sure?" the princess persisted. Makayla smiled again.

"I'm fine, princess. See?" she insisted, flexing her arm. She regretted it instantly as the bone howled in protest, but she struggled to keep her face smiling so as to avoid worrying her friend. Syaoran frowned.

"I wonder what made him go off like that?" he muttered, staring after the older man. Makayla turned her gaze to Fai, who was crying in his sleep.

"He's afraid…" she muttered to herself. Sakura looked back to her, asking, "Huh?"

Makayla shook her head and frowned at the mage. "Nothing, forget about it."

--

Shit! ShitshitshitshitshirshitshitSHIT!! What the fuck is wrong with me?!

The swordsman growled at the male nurse passing by him. The man cringed slightly but continued on his way as the ninja passed by him. Kurogane glared at another nurse as he passed her.

What the hell is wrong with me, dammit?!

"Kurogane!"

Ah shit. Here comes Saku-clone to dig through my head.

"What do you want?" he snapped at Kaylee as she walked toward him. The smile she'd been wearing faded, and she looked down at the floor, apparently ashamed of herself for something.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I didn't mean to offend you."

Kurogane closed his eyes, counted to ten, and then imagined Sohi slicing through a demon's body. There, much better.

"It's not your fault," he muttered, glaring at a nearby payphone. Kaylee glanced up at him and smiled brightly.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the museum!" she said cheerfully. "They're having a special exhibit on ancient weaponry right now, and I remembered how you like swords, so I thought you'd be interested in coming with my nephew and me!"

The swordsman raised an eyebrow.

"Like on a date?" he asked. The psychiatrist flushed.

"N-no, of course not!" she exclaimed, turning bright red. "It's just that… well…"

"Well what?" the ninja growled. Kaylee turned an even brighter shade of red.

"I thought you were looking really sad lately, and…" she muttered, staring down at the floor. The ninja shut his eyes again. Great, he was worrying everyone.

"Why not," he accepted, shoving his hands into his pockets. "How much'll it cost?"

The girl beamed up at him.

"It's free, silly," she said. "Let's go!"

The ninja followed after her as she lead the way out of the hospital and down the street. A small boy was waiting for them at the corner leading to the museum. He grinned when he spotted.

"Aunt Kaylee!" he cried in greeting, giving the shrink a hug before turning to the ninja.

"Hiya, Mister!" he greeted. "My name's Seth, what's yours?"

"… Kurogane," the swordsman replied, nodding slightly in his direction. Seth grinned brightly, brushing his ebony hair out of his face to reveal bright red eyes.

"You look like my grandpa!" he said cheerfully as they started walking. " 'Cept your shorter than him and your hair's black instead of gray!"

The ninja nodded absent mindedly, not really paying attention. He didn't particularly care about how much like his grandfather he looked. He already knew there were different versions of him in each world, so there was no point in asking him about it.

"I mean, Mommy told me about you, of course, but I didn't really believe her," he continued. This caught the ninja's attention.

"Your mom knows me?" he asked, curious as to who could possibly turn out such a hyper active child.

"Yeah!" he replied, apparently pleased that he'd managed to capture his attention. "She writes stories about angels who were kicked out of heaven and demons who chase after them. They always make Aunt Kaylee cry."

The psychiatrist flushed.

"They're so sad!" she explained hurriedly. "Her last book was about an angel named Jason and his sister named Mayu, and demons called silencers captured her and killed her and when Jason found out about it he went to stop them and he died, too!"

The ninja raised an eyebrow.

"And this is a children's story?" he asked in disbelief. Kaylee nodded hurriedly as they entered the museum and got in a nearby elevator.

"The exhibit's on the top floor," she explained. Seth nodded energetically.

"It'll be so awesome! Mommy's using some of these swords in her new story, we were here a couple days ago," he said, grinning up at the swordsman. " You look like you know a lot about swords. Are you really a ninja?"

Kurogane glanced down at him.

"Who told you that?" he asked, not really caring. Kaylee sighed.

"Makayla did, didn't she, Seth?" she announced cheerfully. The ninja glanced down at the child. So this was Makayla's kid, huh? She'd never said anything to him about it before. Not that she would, of course. And this explained why she rented an apartment for them instead of letting them stay in her's. The elevator stopped and the three of them got off.

Kurogane was in heaven.

There were swords everywhere. Some were locked safely in thick, glass display cases, wile some were hanging on the wall with no protection at all. A brunette stood in the center of the room, a katana in his hands, allowing the spectators surrounding him to run their hands along the sheath. The ninja joined them and with a pang of annoyance realized the idiot was holding it wrong.

"Hey, moron!" he called to him. The man turned to him and smiled brightly.

"Yes?" he asked pleasantly. The ninja gestured toward the sword.

"You're holding it wrong."

"Oh?" the man grinned at him. "Would you happen to this Kurogane that Makayla was telling me about?"

"That depends," he replied, coming closer. "What did she say?"

"She told me that you were a master of the sword," he answered easily, still smiling. "You wouldn't mind demonstrating, would you?"

The swordsman's eyes narrowed.

"Demonstrate where?" he asked, curious.

The brunette laughed.

"Outside, of course," he chuckled. Kurogane grinned.

"Do you have something I can demonstrate on?"

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"Then I'll do it."

Within ten minutes everyone was gathered outside to watch the ninja. The man - a historian, it turned out, named Alex - had found several old crates of paperwork the ninja could use as dummies and had brought them out beforehand. Kaylee grinned as he took the sword Alex held out to him, a silver longsword with a phoenix engraved in the hilt, a single sapphire eye staring up at him. Smiling to himself, the ninja attacked.

--

Seth watched the ninja in awe. He was like a breeze, destroying each box and moving on to the next one in seconds. In under a minute all of the crates lay on the ground, utterly destroyed.

The four year old decided right then and there he'd become just as strong as the ninja.

--

Sakura watched Makayla worriedly as the author checked on Fai, a worried look crossing her face briefly before grinning broadly at the princess.

"He's fine, princess," she announced, plopping in a nearby chair and wincing as her arm hit the back of it and sent a jolt of pain through her shoulder. Sakura frowned. It was obvious that her shoulder was in pain, so why didn't she say anything?

"Makayla-san…" she said worriedly. The writer flinched.

"Just Makayla, Sakura-chan," she reminded. "It sounds weird when you add a suffix to my name."

Sakura blushed slightly.

"Well, um, Makayla, are you sure you're okay?" she asked. Makayla smiled at her.

"I'm perfectly fine, Sakura-chan," she said again. "My shoulder's only a little sore, it's nothing that a little Ibuprofen can't fix."

"Then I'm not apologizing."

Sakura jumped at the voice and turned to see Kurogane scowling at them, accompanied by Kaylee and a small black haired boy with red eyes, wearing a light blue T-shirt and a pair of denim jeans

"Seth?" the writer cried cheerfully, causing the princess to jump again. "I missed you!"

The little boy ran toward the author and climbed into her lap, giving her a big hug.

"Hi, Mommy!" he greeted, pulling away from her. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too, big guy!" Makayla replied, hugging him close. "What are you doing here?"

Seth grinned broadly.

"Auntie Kaylee took me to the museum with Kurogane to see the swords again!" he explained. "And Kurogane was so cool! Mr.Alex was holding the sword wrong and when Kurogane corrected him he was allowed to demonstrate outside, Kurogane I mean, not Mr. Alex, and he was so cool! Mr. Alex found some boxes of junk and Kurogane was allowed to cut 'em up, and he was so cool, it was like he was the wind or something, like a bullet quick, and he cut 'em all up really quick and then… well, then we got kicked out, 'cause he was actually cutting up really important paperwork, but it was so cool, Mommy, you shoulda seen him!"

Makayla laughed as she picked her son up an stood.

"I'll take your word for, it," she said, kissing his cheek. "I'm almost done, so why don't we go get some ice cream later?"

"Yay!"

Sakura smiled as the author sent the boy out with Kaylee and turned toward the Kurogane, who was seated in the abandoned chair by Fai's bed.

"Thanks," she said, smiling. "It's been a while since he was so excited about anything."

The ninja grunted in response. Sakura beamed at her friend.

"You never told me you had a son!" she cried. "He's so cute!"

"Thanks," she replied, giving the smaller girl quick hug. "Would you like to get some ice cream with us? I'm sure Syaoran wouldn't want you to be bored out of your mind when he got back from his feather hunt."

The princess blushed and glanced at Kurogane.

"Um, Kurogane-san, would you like to come?" she asked hopefully. The swordsman shook his head. The princess's heart fell. She'd been hoping to get him to cheer up a little.

"We'll bring you something back, okay?" Makayla spoke up. "Maybe some mint and chip."

"I don't -" the ninja began.

"Yeah, but you need to cheer up, and ice cream makes everything better," she interrupted. Sakura smiled at her friend as they left. Kurogane glanced at them once.

--

Kurogane sighed. It had been barely half an hour since they'd left, and he was still sitting there, unwilling to leave.

I love her. Why wouldn't I want her to be safe?

Syaoran's words came unbidden to his mind.

Good for you, kid. That doesn't help me, 'cause I sure as hell don't love this moron.

The ninja glanced up at the clock. It was barely one in the afternoon and he'd destroyed unknown amounts of valuable paperwork and probably bruised Makayla's shoulder. What was wrong with him?

Judging by how you described the pain you felt when Makayla kicked you, it wasn't just her attack that's hurting your chest.

Dammit. They were all wrong. He didn't love this idiot. There was no way he could ever love this idiot.

The sound of Fai stirring diverted his attention back to the magician. He was waking up.

--

Light? What's it doing here? Why can't I reach it?

The magician could feel a warm pressure on his hand, he could smell sweat and disinfectants, could hear someone speaking to him nd the loud beep of a monitor. But his eyes… they wouldn't open.

Slowly, he was able to distinguish the speaker as Kurogane.

"Mage! Goddamn it you moron, get up!" he was saying.

I'm trying to, Kuro-tan, he tried to say, but all that came out was a soft moan. The voice grew stronger.

"Mage, get up!" Fai realized with a shock that he was speaking directly into his ear, and now he could feel the ninja's warm breath on his neck as he whispered, "Fai, get up, please."

He's begging me, the magician realized with a shock. But why? He hates me. He's always hated me. He said so himself…

"Fai…"

Fai struggled to open his eyes, to look up at the ninja, and after a few minutes of intense effort they opened, just barely, but enough for him to see the swordsman. He tried his best to smile at him.

"I- I'm O-okay…K-Kuro-r-rin," he whispered finally. The ninja looked him over once before he smiled.

"I should've known," he muttered, leaning back. "You've been sleeping a while now, mage."

Fai linked once and then smiled weakly up at his friend.

"I can tell," he returned weakly. "But… why d-does my chest hurt?"

"Does it?" the ninja asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "I can't imagine why. You only had a fucking box cutter in your lung."

The magician laughed softly and struggled to open his eyes the rest of the way. He was laying in a hospital bed. Kurogane was seated beside him, his hand still clutched in the ninja's firm grasp. An I.V drip was attached to his arm, and another bed was a short distance away was another bed, probably another patient's.

"Never do that again," Kurogane growled suddenly, tightening his grip on the other's hand. Fai winced slightly as he remembered why he was here in the first place. He smiled coldly at the ninja.

"I was only trying… to do you a favor," he replied, trying to pull his hand from the ninja's grasp. Unfortunately, he hadn't quite regained control of his arms.

"You wanna do me a favor?" the ninja repeated. Fai blinked again and glared at him.

"Well, you-" he stopped as the ninja leaned forward until their mouths were barely an inch apart.

"You honestly think that would have helped anyone, dumbass?" he growled. Fai could hear the anger and pain in his companion's voice, could see it in his eyes.

"You said-" he started.

"I lied!" the ninja cut him off. "How could you honestly think I was telling the truth?!"

Fai didn't answer. Kurogane leaned back and glared at him, a soft growl rising from his throat as he clenched his fists. The magician closed his eyes against the expected blow.

Except that it never came. He cracked one of his eyes open in time to see the swordsman yank him off the bed.

"You're an idiot," he growled. And, before the wizard could think up a reply, he kissed him.

A/N; That was really long… but was the end worth it? I should hope so, I ended up changing the story line quite a bit for this… I hope you're happy!!

Reviews Continuation. Just so you know.