THE FRAGILITY OF A DECISION

Kurogane's blood red eyes flew open.

He sat up straight in one fluid movement, looking around in alert.

"Oh, Kuro-pii! You're finally awake!" Fai cheered at his side. Kurogane turned to his left to see him leaning against the wall, legs crossed and smiling at him with that stupid trade-mark smile of his.

"How long did I sleep?"

"Almost an hour." Lantis answered. "We were expecting you to sleep more though."

"I'm fine." Kurogane disregarded standing up.

"Um, Kurogane-san, maybe you should rest a little more." Syaoran said concerned.

"I just said I'm fine. We've wasted enough time. Let's go."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Sakura asked looking at him worried. He looked perfectly fine. The wounds were healed and the healthy tan color had returned to his skin, but Sakura was still worried about him. He ahd been in a terrible state. The minutes he had spent asleep had been torturing to his traveling companions, fearing perhaps he wouldn't awake…

"I'm all fixed up." Kurogane smirked at her. "You can keep an eye on me when we get your feather back."

Mokona jumped to Kurogane's shoulder, holding onto his neck with its tiny pawns. "Mokona was worried too." It whispered.

"Feh." Kurogane grabbed it by the ears and looked at it with a smirk. "I said I won't die of something as pitiful, didn't I? Don't underestimate me." Fai thought he'd be tossing Mokona to him now, but in set of such harsh treatment, what Kurogane did was gently placing it Hikaru's arms as the redhaired girl smiled at him.

"C'mon, let's go." He said, walking forward without even looking back, confident in that the others would follow him as a commander is used to the confidence of giving orders knowing they'll be followed.

Syaoran sped up to walk beside him.

"The priority is the feather." Kurogane told him with a cold, expressionless face that he wore sometimes when his mind was plagued by thoughts he didn't want to pay attention to. "Someone has to get it, even if the others are fighting. That person has to leave everyone else behind and get the feather."

"I understand." Syaoran said, determination evident in the tone of his voice as his brow forrowed in a firm expression.

"Yeah, you understand." The warrior said finally looking at him. "But can you do it?"

Syaoran maintained his gaze.

"I'll cover you, then." The warrior said. "You just focus on the feather."

"Ah! Mokona!" Hikaru screamed suddenly. Kuogane and Syaoran turned to the girl. Mokona's eyes were huge and black. It pointed with it's tiny paw ahead of them.

Kurogane lunged forward.

"The feather!" Syaoran explained, following him. The others followed suit.

Fortunely, this time, what laid ahead was actually a door. Kurogane used his attack to destroy it as Syaoran went ahead of him to jump straight to the feather.

He found himself in a large round room with… no floor. There was floor only around a meter away from the walls, then it was a black hole. In the center of the room, over a round white platform, the feather was held in a round glass container. Syaoran meant to jump over there, but suddenly he was attacked from his right. Lifting his sword instinctively to protect himself, he slided back by the impulse of the attack and hit the wall.

"There it is!" Kurogane jumped forward, ignoring the vast well the container was suspended upon, folding his legs by the knees to increase the speed of his fall as he, in an unexpectedly graceful movement, fell to the round platform on his feet and crouched. Grnning in satisfaction, he rose and took a step towards the feather.

Too late did he realize the platform wasn't actually that but a rock plate held up by magic; it flipped when he gave a step and he precipitated to the unseen bottom.

A sudden rush of whirling wind, and the ninja was set safely back on the ground at the others side of the well, away from the group.

"Good call, Fuu-chan!" Ferio smiled at her.

Fuu looked at him quietly. "It wasn't me."

"No… it was me."

They turned to see Fai, his arm still extendid, the palm of his hand up, fingers gracefully moving.

They didn't really have time to ponder on that new turn of events as a series of long legged, thing crratures lunged over them in an attack.

Spiders.

"Oh, this is disgusting!" Umi yelled grimacing as she swung her sword very ineffectively against one of the horrible things.

"Don't be a such a girl!" Ferio chided sliding one neatly in two.

"I AM a girl!"

Lantis pushed one off the edge with his arm as he sank his sword's light blade on other one's head. Swinging it to slice the head to the side, he freed the blade and focused on the next attack, when suddenly a light arrow passed over his shoulder. He turned only halfway to see the spider he had just geotten rid of, falling dead to the voide beneath them.

Fai retracted his right arm again, tensing the string of a bow made of white lightening, looking at lantis.

"Pushing them off won't work." He said shooting another arrow. "Destroy them."

The mage's eyes traveled to the other side of the room, where Kurogane seemed to be enjoying himself with the new turn of events, easily disposing of anything withing slicing range. He was smirking and his red eyes glinted; he was in his best moment, facing death and slicing it away.

A magnificent image, as the light sparkled in the silver blade of his sword and his black cape flowed around like a shadow, deep red eyes bright in the excitement of battle. He was… a warrior…

A spider was hanging upside down right in front of Fai's face. The Mage spared it a cold gaze as it shot it an arrow, and didn't even wait to see it fall dead to the blackness. He turned away from the void to make sure there were no monsters coming through the door they had just passed. The last thing they needed was to be trapped in here…

A sudden blast of pain and Fai looked at his left shoulder to see a claw erupting from it.

Now… that isn't supposed to be there…

"Fai-san!" Ferio cut the spider's claw with his sword, then swung it around to finish the creature. Fai lightly touched the razor-sharp thing in his shoulder and panted.

"It's alright." He muttered to the green-haired boy. "I was careless, that's all." He chuckled lightly. "Hmm. Kuro-tan is going to be mad."

"That's the least of his problems." Lafarga replied using his wind attack to get rid of four spider at once, watching the ninja with the corner of his eye, wanting to see him but not daring to take his eyes off his own attackers.

Kurogane was loosing ground. Not because he was being outnumbered or defeated; because the ground was actually disappearing. The small place of floor at his-their-feet was sliding inside the walls.

"What the hell's this!?" Umi stumbled as the ground moved.

"Another trap!" Fuu gasped as Ferio caught her by the arm to have her close and try to protect her.

"I'll say we've had quite anough of this." Fai said, suddenly cold, and his light bow disappeared. He fisted his hand, then extended his figners and crouched down to press his palm against the ground, frowning.

All around the room, from the floor, speers of rock shot up piercing the spiders and stopping the floor from sliding further into the walls. Only the few spiders that were hanging from their threads managed to survive, and even then some were impaled by larger speers.

There was a heavy silence after that.

"Well now, that's better." Fai said sweetly, when everyone turned to stare at him. "It was a bit annoying…"

The speers that were supposed to keep the ground steady were cracking. Fai sighed.

"I guess we better leave soon."

Again swirling his long fingers, Fai created a light platform where everyone could be safe when the ground disappeared. The only one out of it was Kurogane, that kept fighting, easily ignoring the added danger of the floor. Fai stretched the platform under his feet as he walked to the feather, his eyes switching between the glass container and the ninja.

"He's very powerful!" Hikaru said amazed, smiling at Syaoran. The boy didn't answer, still staring at the Magician's back, stunned that he would so openly use his magic. Fai had used tricks once or twice before, arguing it wasn't magic, but now, it was undeniable.

Only a step away from the feather, he raised his hands to take it, but paused and looked up. The silence was heavy, charged.

His eyes widened.

The next second something was pushing against his chest and he was flying backwards. It took him a second to realize it was Kurogane that had pushed him back in a jump, away from the fall of some kind of dense green liquid. Numbly, he looked at Kurogan'es shoulder and say it steaming.

"You're hurt!" he managed to choke.

"Guess what, your fault again." The ninja grunted, landing in the light platform gracefully. "Didn't I tell you to look around? Here." Fai turned to see Kurogane hand the feather over to Syaoran. "Make sure you don't lose it this time."

"Acid." Lantis observed quietly. He looked up suspiciously.

"Let me see that." Fuu said gently, reaching up to Kurogane's shoulder. He caught her hand and stopped her.

"It sting, but I'm not dying of it anytime soon. Can't you people wait to take care of something until the battle's done? Unless you're about to drop dead, it can wait."

"She's trying to help you." Fai chided a little crossly.

"Yep. Isn't it annoying that I don't let her?" glare.

Fai gritted his jaw and stared hard at him. He got what the ninja was telling him, he just didn't get why right now. Hadn't he just used his magic to help? Wasn't that what Kurogane wanted? Why was it so damn hard to please the man?

"You're angry with me about that again." The Mage said flatly. "Can it wait until we're back in land?"

"Sure thing." The ninja grunted out, glaring hard, and then turned around.

"Let's just get out of here." Ferio said taking Fuu's hand. "Back the way we came from?"

"Or straight forward?" Ascto asked, forming his magic circle for one of his friends to come out. This time it was the gigantic eagñe-headed monster. He mounted him, leaving the light platfomr had created. "Which is faster? I want to get out of here."

"Judging on the way we've made and the spparent size of the mountain from outside" lantis said. "We'll probably be better coming back where we came from. We might be less than halfway through the mountain and shouldn't risk any more battles."

"Why not?" Kurogane asked honestly, grazing his figners over the burn mark that kept steaming in a very bizarre way, obviously still burning him. Fai's eyes kept fastening over it, locked on the green thing that covered it. Acid, he decided finally, that had gotten stuck to the rough material of the cape and the ninja's clothes. He needed to get him out of there, now.

The question remained, why was he angry now? And why in the world did he kept sustaining stupid injuries? Had he gone stupid all of a sudden? Why so careless?

"Something wrong, Fai-san?" Hikaru asked gently.

"Aside from his head, you mean? Nothing at all." Fai answered too honestly.

"So we return." Lafarga said. "Let's go."

Fai narrowed his eyes at the ninja, then moved his hand, and the platform leaned forward slightly. Lantis crouched down, bringin Hikaru close to his body, while Syaoran and Sakura held onto Kurogane's apparently much solid form (even though Fai noticed him paler… but maybe it was just him…). Fai lunched the platform forward like a bullet of white light, closely followed by Ascot's creature where he had somehow (Fai wasn't sure how; the girl was hard to push around) managed to get Umi to mount behind him.

Some creatures had gathered in the hallway, but frankly no one had patience to fight them. They were wiped away by someone's magic, the one in the mood to use it, mostly Hikaru's whose mood never failed, and Lantis who was much eager to get Hikaru out of there, under that cold indifferent visage that failed much more than Fai's.

It was only about ten minutes after that that they shot out of the mountain and kept going as if it didn't matter, because Fai was upset and couldn't quite grasp at the magic he hadn't used in so long, so he just kept it flowing until he saw the ground approaching at a dangerous speed. The sun was dying in the sky in a flow of orange and pink shades, a fine line of red upon the horizon.

Then Kurogane yelled at him about stopping, idiot! And he realized he was being too careless.

They gently landed in the gardens next to the Castle, and the light magic dissolved.

"I'll go get Clef!" Hikaru chirped away, with Mokona in her arms.

"Now" Kurogane said unclasping his cape. "This shit stings worse than the other." And he sat down on a bench so Fuu could reach his shoulder. Fuu quickly rounded him and took a look.

"Oh, god." She said wearily. "It's still covered in acid. The cape is stuck to the skin, and the burnt mark looks nasty. I'll just use my magic."

"Don't 'just use your magic', girl." Kurogane said low. "Think. If your magic can help, then use it. If not, don't bother. I'll manage."

"I'm sorry." Fuu rounded him to look into his eyes. "I'm not that kind of person. I'll try to help you, with all my stregth. If I fail, then I'll try somethign else. But I won't walk away after failing at the first try. I'm not that person."

Kurogane calmly held her bright green eyes. "I'm not that kind of person either. I wasn't implying you are." He answered. "But you need rest. Look at yourself. I understand you want to help me, but if you're shaking of exaustation and about to faint, there's very little you can actually do. You've used enough magic today. I can wait a night. Think about that."

Fuu stared at him for a moment. "Why are you like that?" she asked softly.

"Like what?" the ninja asked, frowning a little.

"You say things, probably with good intentions, but you say them harshly, as if you knew no way of being gentle. I know you do" she said suddenly. "You were gentle with Sakura Hime when you were hurt. But why must you be rough always?"

"I just say things like they are." He shrugged. "What's the point in making them softer?"

"You softened it for her." She said softly, beginning to udnerstand.

"Well, she's fragile. You're not."

Fuu stared for a moment. It came to her that he had been watchign her, an probably everyone else, and had come to the conclusion that they were strong enough that he didn't need to protect them like he did with Sakura. Sakura, apparently, was the only one he was willing to keep innocent.

"Her magic probably won't help you."

Everyone turned to the Castle. Clef came walking quickly towards them, Hiakru behind him. The expression in his face was one of worry and severity.

"That acid, it's spider's saliva."

"What? I got drooled over? Great."

"Pay attention." Clef all but barked at him. "Our magic, the magic of Cephiro, can't get rid of this burn. Not while the acid is still acting. Before using Fuu-chan's magic, you have to clean that wound very carefully. The saliva rejects the magic, makes the skin inmune to it."

"I take it it's not as easy as just washing it off, right?" Kurogane arched an eye brow sarcastically.

"You can wash it off on the fountain in the Castle's central garden." Clef glared. The man was annoying! "It's very pure water. It'll take a while, but it'll work. Then sleep. The acid drains your power. Tomorrow Fuu-chan can help you, once the wound has been cleaned and you have rest."

Kurogane grunted. "Fine. See you all tomorrow."

"I'll help you, Kurogane-san." Syaoran said. Sakura followed him, she wanted to help too.

"Nah, you go get the feather into you and sleep." Kurogane ordered Sakura. "We'll leave tomorrow so rest. And you" he looked at Syaoran. "I fell off an edge, got stabbed, nearly lost a leg, almost died, then got burned, and you're the one that can barely stand?"

He looked at the boy critically. All in all, Syaoran had put up an admirably good fight, had never gave up, and had kept standing through it all ignoring minor injuries and worrying sick about Sakura and Kurogane. Seeing as the ninja had sustained pretty bad injuries, he had refrained from having his own taken care of, so Kurogane could be the centre of the attention. He was drained, and truth be told, he was barely holding his feet.

"Go to bed." The ninja said ruffling his hair, like he liked doing it, roughly but affectionately. "I'm fine. I can clean it myself."

"I know that you're fine, but" Syaorna looked up. "It's alright if you're not, too." He said shyly.

Kurogane stared.

Fuu smiled at the boy. "Well, I'll go rest then." She said gently. "So that tomorrow, I can heal you in the first try."

"I'll help him clean up and go to bed, Syaoran-kun." Fai said kindly. "So you two go get some sleep."

"I don't need your help."

"Quiet Kuro-wan." Fai chided.

"Don't call me that! Listen when I talk, I don't need your help!"

"Yes, yes."

"Listen!"

The boy nodded, starting off towards the Castle, but Sakura gently touched Kurogane's hand.

"Take care. Please?"

Kurogane nodded at her and the two kids went to the Castle.

"We should take care of that." Fai said, looking at the wound with a frown. "It must be killing you."

"Yep." The ninja answered briefly. "It stings like hell."

The ninja rised to his feet and they went to the Castle and to the garden. There, Kurogane sat in the edge of the fountain and leaned forwards, elbows on his knees. "It really does darin me." He said tiredly.

"Maybe." Fai said, carefully assessing the the wound. "Maybe it was the fact that you took all of the worst injuried today. You could have died, you know."

The ninja thought in that for a moment. "Nah."

"Do you think yourself inmortal?" Fai asked sighing.

"Yep."

"I'm going to have to yank the cape." Fai said. "It's going to hurt."

"Just do it."

"Well, I'll count to three." Fai said, gently grasping the cloth around the burn wound. "One…" and he yanked it.

Kurogane grunted and gritted his teeth, leaning down and blinking hard.

"Bastard." He growled.

"It hurts less when you're surprised." Fai said innocently, sliding the cape off the man's back and placing it to the side, folding it neatly. He leaned over the shoulder again.

"Liar."

"Now we need to take this thing off… I wonder why wearing a corset?"

"I'm not having this conversation again. It's not a corset and that's it."

Fai chuckled. "But anyway it has to come off. And it's stuck too."

Kurogane's patience ran out. He unclasped the armor that closed at his left flank and roughly teared it off the wound, tossing it outside.

"Kuro-pon!" Fai cried wearily, pressing on the wound that now bled a little. He hastily teared his hand away though, as the acid stuck to his own fingers. Blinking in sudden pain, he submerged his hand in the fountain and srubbed at it quickly. "God, its feels horrible! How can you take it all this time?"

"I guess I'm stronger than you." The ninja replied.

Fai spotted a cup in on the table near the fountain and got it. Filling it with the clean water, he carefully spilled it over the wound.

The ninja tensed visibly. It obviosuly stung, but it's not like he could stop the ministratios now. So he kept shedding the pure, cold water over the burn and washing off with his fingers the green substance, sticking it off the skin and tossing it to the water where it dissolved.

For a long moment they stayed like that, in silence while Fai occupied himself in cleaning the ninja's wound.

"Kuro-pon?" he asked pausing for a moment.

"Hn?" The ninja acknowledged, apparently dazed by the ministrations and the lack of strenght.

"You shouldn't put yourself in risk because fo me." He said low, seriously.

The ninja opened his eyes, but didn't turn to him. "I do that because you don't take care of yourself. If it really bugs you, stop putting yourself in stupid dangers. Then I'll stop protecting you."

"But why protecting me?"

"Because, idiot" the ninja snapped, now turning to look at him. "I told you if someone wants to take away the ones I want to protect, I'll kill them too."

"In Outo." Fai said. "I remember. That's why, today, I decided to use my magic. Because you said you wouldn't let go. But" he added, his hands stopping its motions and resting in Kurogane's broad shoulders. "I…"

"But." Kurogane grunted. Fai blinked. "Always 'but'. You say 'but' all the time. There's no 'but's in this. No exceotions. You won't die. Just accept it. Not while I'm around."

Fai kept quiet for a long moment, his hand still on the ninja's shoulders. He closed his eyes and sighed, feeling the strong muscles under his slender fingers, relaxing.

"That person I left behind." He said almost in a whisper. The ninja raised his head, surprised. "He also wanted to protect me. And I did something horrible to him."

"The person you're running away from?" Kurogane turned to look at him over his shoulder. "I told you I don't care about your past…"

"But you do." Fai cut softly. "You might not want to make me remember, but you do it all the time. You words, your actions—they're just like his. That's why I want to tell you what I did to him. So you'll uderstand."

"You just said you'll try to stay alive." The ninja protested.

"And I won't change my mind, Kuro-pin! Be quiet for a moment, yes?"

"There'll be no turning back later, Magician." Kurogane said severely, turning now fully to look at him straight in the eyes. "Once you start telling me, I want to hear it all. I won't let you elave until I've heard everything. So if you're not sure you're ready" he added rising to tower over the blond, considering the wound clean enough. "Don't start something I'll force you to finish."

He leaned won and grabbed the cape and the armor, and left the garden to head to his room. He stopped at the arc and looked abck over his shoulder.

"Thanks for the help."

Fai let himself fall to the edge of the fountain and stayed there, shaking a little. The intensity with which Kurogane carried himself was always a little overwhelming to the calm Mage. But the fire burning behind his red gaze that exact moment had shaken him. Obviosuly, the ninja did want to know about Fai's past, even if that probably wouldn't change how he thought about him or what he did around him. Bringin out to the open the blond's past was, for Kurogane, the search of an explanation.

Fai didn't know what he wanted. Didn't know what he expected. What would Kurogane say? What would he believe? Would he be angered? Would he call him a coward, a traitor? No. Kurogane only wanted to know, not to form a judgemente of the Mage, judgement he very well had already made on his own, but to know what ahd made him be this disfunctional, careless way.

Kurogane had reached by himself the obvious conclusion that Fai's fatalistic carelessness was due to some kind of old trauma that made him somehow believe his life was worth less than anyone else's. For a man as stubborn and energetic, such a thought was not only painful and difficult to understand, but also hypocritally absurd. Did Fai not realize that the kids cared about him? Did he not care at all if he hurt them? After all, Kurogane did everything for the kids, even if he refused to admit it.

Kurogane seemed to be built to handle things on his own. He had automatically assumed the role of leader of the little traveling group, father figure and sword teacher to Syaoran even if it hadn't been his primary goal, and fierce protector of the princess. Slowly, he ahd becomed more and more a guiding force to recollecting the feathers, forgetting his first idea of satying at a side and having Syaoran do everything on his own. That was probably because a warriori could never stay quietly away from a battle. And Kurogane was, more than anything else, a warrior.

He made the decisions and was the main influence in everything they did. If Syaoran meant to make a decision, it was him he turned for an opinion, not Fai. This was because Kurogane's firm, strong character made it easy for him to make inmediate decisions when the Mage hesitated, balancing between the choices. Inmediate assessment of the situation and an automatic decision of how to respond to it made Kurogane the ideal leader, for a huge army, and most certainly for a group conformed of two kids and a hesitant, fragile man.

Kurogane had warned Fai that he would make the decision for him if he hesitated to go on midway through his past history. He would not take pain as an excuse, nor would be leave the subject alone. Careful to allow the Mage to make his own choice about telling him and when, he had stopped him in the Garden, but Fai was wishing he hadn't. He had made his mind then and there, and now he had more time to think about it and was hesitating again. Fai wasn't like the ninja. He wasn't built to handle solitude and responsability. He could never enjoy being alone like Kurogane did, just sitting and thinking, or reading quietly. Silence crushed him.

Kurogane was lying on his bed. His shoulder stung like hell, even though it was perfectly clear now, and his head felt like it was going to crack open. He turned on his side, sleep avoiding him, trying to find a good position to oncentrate on shutting his mind off. But his skull throbbed painfully, bis shoulder sent waves of pain through his nerves and honestly, he was in a bad mood.

So when the door opened quietly and a dorm slipped in his room, he was awake and alert. He recognised Fai easily by the way he moved graceully across the room to his bed, where he stood looking down to the ninja.

"What is?" Kurogane grunted out.

"I've made my decision." The Mage said quietly.

Kurogane stared at him, then sat up. Smoothly moving back, he sat with his back to the headbord and crossed his arms over his bare chest.

"Can… I sit here with you?" Fai asked shyly. The ninja's quiet presence helped ease his nerves. He wanted to be close to him.

"Suit yourself."

Fai slowly sat down in the dge of the bed, clasping his hands together a little nervously. He breathed in, and then sighed.

"Alright. His name is Ashura…"

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Yes ladies and gentlemen, a cliff. It's because the chapter ended up being too long, so I decided to end it here. There's only a couple of chapters left for the story, though, so I'll update soon.

Loves!

Namariel, out!