"Have you heard, have you heard?"

A group of court ladies had gathered near a window, chattering like a flock of sparrows in excited whispers.

"It's the Princess' guard. They say that he's taken one of the barbarians into his bed! The two of them have been shacked up for days and haven't come out since!"

"A barbarian? Honestly, what is Kurogane-san thinking?"

Kurogane had to honestly fight the urge to jump down from his post on the roof and give the ladies a piece of his mind. He knew that the best way to deal with gossipers was to simply shut up and wait for something more interesting to occupy them, but it was more than a bit tempting to simply throttle the ladies and discourage any more behavior of the sort.

He did get a bit of satisfaction when he finally did swing down through the window and scare the living daylights out of the ladies. He figured it might at least teach them to be more discreet when they chose to gossip about a ninja.

Kurogane couldn't ignore the fact that people had been looking at him differently since the Iberians arrived three days earlier. He wasn't going to let it get under his skin, so he'd simply been going about with business as usual with the hope that everyone else had the sense to do the same. People had already begun to make their own conjectures about his behavior at the welcoming ceremony with sometimes humorous results. The theories he had overheard ranged from a kissing spell to a suggestion that he'd actually been in Iberia during his unexplained absence. None of them had any proof, of course, but one thing Tomoyo's court hated was admitting that hadn't the vaguest idea what was actually going on.

As he was moving through one of the many courtyards a commotion down the hall made him pause mid-step.

"You Goddamn Sodomite!"

Kurogane raced around the corner as his intuition screamed that something wasn't right, and was a bit dismayed to find that he'd been spot on.

Vecchio, his face red with anger, stood towering over Fay, who was wide-eyed in fear and backed into a corner.

"What were you thinking?!" Vecchio spat, looming over Fay menacingly. "All you people are the same, you're not even from Iberia yet you've wrecked our reputation with this country already with that sick little display of yours! We should have tossed you overboard when we had the chance, you degenerate, ignorant, arrogant little –!"

"Hey!"

The color drained from the Iberian's face at the sight of the black-clad ninja thundering down the hall towards him, and without a second's hesitation he took off like a thunderclap and lost his ridiculously plumed hat in the process. Kurogane just glowered at the retreating figure. While it had probably been a wise decision on Vecchio's part to run away Kurogane was more interested in making sure that Fay wasn't hurt than skewering the man, and Tomoyo wouldn't be happy with him if he hurt even one of her guests regardless of the circumstances.

In the meantime, he was well aware that a small crowd had begun to gather in response to the commotion. Despite obviously being shaken, it wasn't until Fay met his eyes that Kurogane realized that something else was afoot besides the shock of having just been verbally assaulted by someone he'd been traveling with for the better part of a year.

"Kuro-rin," Fay said quietly. "I think it's time I told you how I got here."

"Sure, but let's so somewhere less…" He glanced up again at the quickly-forming crowd of onlookers. "Buzzy."

Fay seemed to understand his sentiment and chuckled as he allowed himself to be lead away.

Oh great, Kurogane thought bitterly. The gossipers will have a field day with this. The idea of shacking up with Fay for a few days until this blew over was looking increasingly appealing – if only not to further test his quickly-deteriorating patience with humanity and run the risk of choking someone.

With the help of a few well-timed glares Kurogane managed to get Fay back to his room without any more trouble and get him seated. Fay simply lay against him for a few moments, and just as Kurogane was beginning to wonder if Fay had fallen asleep he finally spoke.

"How much of that conversation did you hear?"

Kurogane couldn't help but wonder what an argument between these people was like if that was a conversation, but he sensed now was not the time to bring that up.

"Enough." He replied quietly.

Fay sighed and moved closer, as if he wanted to have as little space between them as possible.

"Well, as that man said, I'm not from Iberia. I come from a land across the Northern Sea called Albion. My family was fairly wealthy, and I was expected to follow our family's footsteps like my brothers had, but all that changed about a year ago." Fay had begun to stroke Kurogane's hand again. "I heard through a rumor that an Iberian expedition was going to the legendary land of Cipangu, and I just had to be on that ship. It didn't make any sense at all, but I just couldn't ignore it."

Kurogane frowned.

"So your family just let you leave?"

Fay chuckled.

"Actually, yes. I was surprised, but my mother just told me that my heart knew what is was doing and let me go without a fight. My father was a bit more skeptical, but I always was the crazy one in the family. The old man was probably happy to get rid of me and focus on my other brothers."

Kurogane nodded. It was all starting to make sense in a sad, utterly Fay-like way.

"So," Fay continued somberly. "I left behind everything I had and went to Iberia. I thought I really was going crazy. My body wasn't listening to me, and it didn't make any sense until you…Well…" Kurogane could imagine the blush that must be covering Fay's face by now. He felt the need to push the story along, since Fay seemed too embarrassed by the memory of the kiss to continue on his own.

"So you got to Iberia. Then what? I don't imagine that they would let you onto their ship just like that."

Fay shifted and began to chuckle nervously.

"Wait…" Kurogane frowned. "You didn't…"

"I stowed away." Fay chimed in cheerfully. "Did I already mention that I was always the crazy one?"

Kurogane groaned. He really hated being right about this type of thing, but at least things were starting to make sense. Though he couldn't see Fay's face in their current position he was trying to imagine what his expression must be.

"Did the Iberians really threaten to throw you overboard?"

"Yes, they were quite mad when I revealed myself once we were safely out at sea. Our counties don't exactly get along." Fay had taken hold of his hand again and was lightly stroking it. "I was honestly afraid that they were going to kill me until I convinced them to let me stay, but that was only after I gave them a decent amount of money and showed off some of my abilities."

Kurogane raised an eyebrow.

"Abilities?"

Fay moved so they could see each other and held out his hand, muttering something under his breath. A plume of violet fire sprang to life and cast an odd glow over both of them until Fay shut his hand to extinguish it.

"I come from a family of mages, so I've known how to do this since I was a little kid. It's nothing special, but it was convincing enough to keep me on board. I don't eat that much anyway." Fay sighed and flexed his hand absentmindedly. "These are mere party tricks compared to what I used to be able to do, but perhaps that's for the best."

Kurogane bit his lip. He didn't exactly want to agree, but he couldn't easily disagree with the sentiment either. Even though it seemed like Fay was done with his story something was still bothering him, and worse, he knew there was no good way to ask it.

"So which Fay are you now?"

It didn't quite come out the way he wanted it to, but Fay understood.

"I'm both." Fay said with a frown, as if he were trying to find the right words. "I can't really explain it. There's only one real me, but it's like there are branches off the main tree in different worlds, and now I've got the memories of two different mes – the one who was born here and the one who traveled with you – in here at the same time." He tapped his head lightly. "Your princess can probably explain this better than I can, Kuro-mi."

Kurogane nodded, even though in truth he was having an equally hard time wrapping his head around it. Maybe he would ask Tomoyo for help understanding it.

"Is it hard… having two memories, I mean?"

"Not really." Fay said nonchalantly. "It's just taken some getting used it. That's one reason I've been sleeping so much."

Kurogane nodded. He had been wondering about Fay's lack of activity since his arrival, and he couldn't help feeling a bit guilty, since the entire thing really was his fault when it came down to it. He sighed and pulled Fay a bit closer.

"Are any of those memories going to be… problematic?"

"They won't be." Fay said with certainty, shaking his head lightly. "Once you're even a little bit removed from that sort of thing the memories are much easier to deal with. I'll be fine, and your princess has offered her help if I need it."

"I'm glad to hear that." Kurogane said gratefully. He should have known that Tomoyo would be on top of the situation – she was a psychic, after all.

But despite all the good things that had happened he couldn't completely get over the nagging fear that perhaps he could have done something more to prevent the bad. He didn't like the feeling at all.

He jumped when a warm hand came up to touch his cheek. He hadn't realized how much he was getting wrapped up in the past, but Fay had wisely brought him back to reality.

"Kurogane, I don't want you to feel guilty about what happened." Fay reached up wrapped his arms about Kurogane's neck. Now they were close enough that Kurogane could feel every breath against his skin. "Kuro-rin, it wasn't your fault, it was just my time to go. You have no idea how much pain was in that body. It was for the best."

"I'm here now, Kuro-pu, and I'm not going anywhere."

Kurogane hadn't cried since Tomoyo had taken him in, but he simply couldn't stop the tears. Every second they'd spent together – the moment they'd materialized in Tokyo with totally opposite goals, the first time they'd watched each other's backs against the Kiishim, the time Fay tried to comfort him but had been pushed away, the instant he felt Fay's weight disperse under his hands – it all came down to the three words that Fay kept repeating every time he kissed him: I'm here now.

Fay managed to lay him down, never losing the physical contact between them. Kurogane didn't remember falling asleep, but when he awoke the next morning Fay was still holding his hand and lying as close as their bodies would let them.

.o.O.o.

Author's notes: Like in chapter 1, I made a few historical references:

Barbarian: Called Nanban in Japanese, this was, in fact, what the Portuguese traders who came during the mid 16th century were called. By comparison to the cleanly Japanese it was a fitting description, and it was one of the few times that Europeans had dealt with a foreign people in a situation where they were considered to be the less sophisticated party.

Sodomite: The word "homosexual" didn't exist until the late 19th century, so "sodomite" was a catch-all description anyone who didn't follow the established sexual norms. Culturally Japan didn't have as much of a problem with homosexuality (this will be explored more in chapter 4) but Europe was dangerously homophobic during this time.

Albion: The ancient Latin name for Britain meaning "white", specifically referring to the White Cliffs of Dover. The real-life Britain had rocky relations with Spain and Portugal following Henry VIII's breaking from the Catholic Church that would eventually culminate in a war between the two countries 40 years later.

Cipangu: The Chinese pronunciation of Japan, Europeans only knew of this land through second-hand accounts from the Chinese via one Marco Polo (more on this in Chapter 4 too).