Notes: Very short part. I want to write this fic without being linear. Where they are, how they got there, where they're going from here - I've probably been reading too many drabbles, but that's how I picture this story. Moments. The next part will probably go back to when they first met instead of forward to where they're going next. I hope it's not too confusing to follow.
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Part 3: Shadows

Fay's earliest memory was of hiding under his bed. The dust hurt his nose and it was tight and cold. And dark. He'd been afraid of the dark because there were things in the dark. They whispered and tickled and they were going to tell on him for being under there. It was bad. He knew that and he'd crawled under there anyway. This time they'd tell and he'd really get in trouble. An arm would reach in like a snake, bite down on him, and pull him out for being bad. He was afraid of that, too, but he couldn't stay out there by himself because there were monsters on the shelves out there. They had bright eyes in the dark and he knew they were just waiting for him to come out. They'd jump on the bed and get him under the covers.

He was hiding and listening for one of them to fall on the bed. He heard the door open and then there were bare feet, knees, and finally eyes looking in at him. The things stopped whispering. He cringed back when pale hands reached toward him. He didn't want to be pulled out. But the hands were small, holding something even smaller and dark, setting it under the bed even though it was bad because it wasn't allowed inside at night. It mewed and walked the rest of the way to him on its own. Then he was left to hide in the dark. No arm, no tattling whispers, no forcing him back onto the bed where the monsters were waiting. Just him in the dark with a little warm ball clinging tight to his shirt, like it was as scared to be alone as he'd been.

Fay couldn't remember when he'd started sleeping on his bed rather than under it. Even now, when he knew those 'monsters' had been nothing more than glassy eyed dolls on the shelves of his room, he didn't like beds. Oh, he certainly had outgrown crawling into cramped little spider-infested holes to sleep, but he preferred to sleep sitting up, with his back and side firmly against two walls. Or on the floor, stretched out on the soft carpet of an empty hotel room in a large city where no one noticed his existence. The only time he ever actually slept on a bed was when Kurogane was lying beside him. Ironic, because Kurogane was from Japan, where mats on the floor were still more common than elevated beds.

He didn't mind sleeping on a bed if he was next to him, he even preferred it. He never dreamed with Kurogane there. Memories came instead, some painful to relive, but comfortable because he knew how they would end. His dreams were the future, possibilities and fears, and he never knew what he might see when he fought his way out. There were things he didn't remember that came when he was alone, mixed with those dreams, and he preferred to believe they were all the same. With Kurogane he knew what he dreamt was real. Kurogane grounded him in reality and he was grateful for it, even when it hurt.

He knew something had disturbed him the moment he woke because he woke sharply, fully aware of everything around him. Defensive and alert. Paranoid, Kurogane would say. As if he'd been touched. That was wrong because Kurogane never let him go when he slept, and no one else could come close enough for that. He opened his eyes, taking in the shadows and texture of the walls. The door was still locked.

A slow chill made its way over his arms, creeping through fine hairs and leaving bumps in its wake. Scratches on the stairwell. Sneaking, cautious, and pausing. Aware that he was aware. And Kurogane was sleeping.

Fay eased out from under the heavy arm that had half curled over his back during the night. Kurogane had been looking at him again. He did that sometimes, tracing the marks with his fingers or his eyes while Fay slept, as if the tattoo were some puzzle he hoped to solve. Fay wished he wouldn't. He felt it when he woke up, a tingling sensation on every inch Kurogane had traced as if he'd marked him somehow, whether he'd physically touched him or not. He worried that it might show where his own essence didn't. Kurogane couldn't be the only one who saw colors.

Kurogane's brows tightened faintly and he made a low sound in his throat. Fay leaned close enough to brush a hand over his temple, fleeting but firm. He needed to sleep now. No reason to wake up when he was so satisfied and warm. Too comfortable to bother. Nothing mattered enough to wake him. He was exhausted. Sleep was good, he needed that.

Fay slipped off the bed. It was proof of Kurogane's exhaustion that he did little more than draw his arm close over the empty space beside him. A fond smile spread over Fay's face as he dressed. He'd never been able to hide from him the way he could with others. Kurogane was impenetrable and true. He couldn't be manipulated or controlled. But he was very tired now and Fay hoped to use that. It was for his own good.

Despite his efforts, he made it only as far as the door before he felt those eyes light on his back. Sharp and angry. But the gaze was bitter, not nearly as heated as it had been last night. He didn't like the guilty wince that passed over his face so he stood motionless, unwilling to look back until his expression had settled.

Kurogane didn't bother to rise. He just watched him and wondered why Fay was even waiting for him to speak when he was so close to the door already. It wasn't as if he could catch him before he could hit the hall and disappear. If Fay ran now, he'd at least have a head start.

"Sneaking out?"

Fay closed one hand over the doorknob and turned to smile over his shoulder, "Just stepping out for a moment. I didn't mean to wake you. You're such a light sleeper."

"Don't," Kurogane said sharply. "I'll find you before you make it out of the country. We might as well go together."

That was unexpectedly blunt, even for Kurogane. Fay turned his back to the door, his full attention on the man watching him. He let his smile shift into one of curious amusement. "What makes you think I'd leave the country? I could have done that yesterday, if I'd meant to. I was at the airport, after all."

Kurogane didn't answer. Fay hadn't expected him to because, really, there wasn't anything to say to that. He smiled a little wider and listened closely to the hall just outside their room. Something was waiting out there. Benign for the moment. He hoped.

"Go back to sleep, Kuro-chan," Fay murmured. "I'll be back before you know it."

Kurogane didn't respond. He didn't say a word when Fay slipped out of the room, or when he returned a few minutes later with something curled in his hand and a thoughtful expression on his face. He hadn't even moved from his prone position on the bed. Fay wondered if that meant he'd resigned himself to having him run, or if he'd actually believed him when he'd said he would come back. Either way, Kurogane caught a hand in his hair and pulled him close when he crawled onto the bed.

"Did you miss me?" Fay quipped softly. "I'm sure the bed wasn't nearly as warm without me here."

Kurogane snorted and pushed the blonde's head down onto his shoulder. "Shut up and sleep."

"But I already slept," pouted Fay. "I'm wide awake now. It's not my fault you were up doing silly things when you should have been sleeping with me."

Kurogane summarily ignored him. He was well aware of how much Fay disliked his interest in that tattoo. Fay absorbed the colors of anyone he touched, if only for a moment, and it left a detailed record of all the people he'd been in contact with. Kurogane used that sort of record to find him, but he could also use it to find anyone whose colors Fay had picked up. And if he could do it, there was always the chance someone else could do it, to find Kurogane through him. As if Kurogane had any reason to hide in the first place.

What Fay didn't understand was that Kurogane had already left his mark on him. It was too late to take it back, not that he had any intention of doing so. He reaffirmed that mark every time he tracked Fay down. For someone as cynical and world-weary as Fay, he was amazingly naive when it came to simple things like the bonding that took place when two mutants had sex. No one who saw things the way Kurogane did would ever look at them without knowing exactly what sort of relationship they had. Kurogane was fine with that. What Fay didn't know, he couldn't obsess over.

Fay sighed, shifting into a more comfortable position against Kurogane's side. He wouldn't sleep again, but he didn't mind being close and warm for a few more hours.

"Say," Fay murmured, nuzzling Kurogane's neck and drawing a grumbled sound from him. "I was thinking of going on a little trip. I hear Vermont's very pretty this time of the year. Care to join me?"

Kurogane cracked an eye open to stare at the blonde hair visible just past his chin. If that was a joke, it wasn't amusing. "You serious?"

"Always."

"Sleep," said Kurogane. If Fay was still around tomorrow, he'd take the invitation seriously. For now he was just going to keep a tight hold on that blonde hair and get as much sleep as he could. "You'll need a coat," he muttered, just in case.

"Mm, we can go shopping in the morning," Fay agreed. And, maybe, he'd have a reasonable explanation thought up by the time Kurogane was awake enough to start asking questions.

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