Words: 5,126
Warnings: AU!, angst, fluff, romance, mystery, violence
Summary: At the age of thirteen Kurogane's life changed when his parents died. Without anyone to take care of him there was no choice but to send him to an orphanage, Hallow Home for Orphans, there he met two weird blond boys. However that was the least of his problems, in the orphanage something strange was going on and, like it or not, Kurogane got himself pulled right into the centre of it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa or any of the characters involved, they belong to the masterful CLAMP. They also own other characters that are seen and mentioned in the course of this fanfic.
A/N: Sorry for the really late update, excuses at the bottom note. So here is the longest chapter yet as compensation for waiting for over a month! ;P This has the fluff I have had written from halfway through the first chapter, so be sure to read the end! OMG, is that plot becoming clearer I see!
Screams echoed through the hallway, people running and what sounded like crying. It was very noisy. Groaning in annoyance Kurogane got up from bed, threw on some clothes and walked out of the room, taking time to note that Himura was not present.
There was no one left in the corridor, but the noise was coming from downstairs now. Turning towards the stairs he saw two familiar blond heads, they were the only people standing on the balcony, one leaning up slightly to look over the banister whilst the other was kneeling on the floor peering down.
Sighing in annoyance Kurogane walked to the banister, trying to make his way down the stairs.
"Kuro-min!" A happy voice said from behind him.
Turning slowly, he saw that the boy on the floor has moved so he was facing Kurogane a fake smile in place.
"What," growling at the way he was called and the stupid grin.
The boy gestured empathically for Kurogane to come towards them, by this time the other twin was looking over at him a sour look clear on his face.
Screams erupted once more from downstairs, right under them in the entrance hall. Not because the blond wanted him to Kurogane walked over to banister, looking down only to see over two dozen children standing there. There were two men dressed in beige carrying a stretcher slowly towards the front door. A white sheet was draped over a body, it was not pulled up over the face so Kurogane assumed the person, child, was still alive. Red was staining the white though; obviously they had been able to stop the bleeding yet.
"Apparently it was an accident," the boy on the floor said, "There have been a lot of accidents."
Finally the men in beige had left the building after their slow trek.
The second sighed. "Let's go," he said, stepping away from the banister and making his way to the stairs.
The other stood up; he stared at Kurogane intensely before reaching out, touching his arm softly. "Be careful," he said before following after his brother, who sent Kurogane a venomous glare whilst the other wasn't looking.
Kurogane was surprised that when the twins reached the bottom of the staircase the other children parted seemingly automatically to let them through, some casting nervous glances in their direction. It was as though they were afraid of them.
In a few minutes everyone filed out of the hall. Something made Kurogane stay where he was, intuition maybe, whatever it was he listened to it.
Not too long after the children were gone the creak of a door sounded and two sets of footsteps could be heard.
"... we don't want to but it's for their own safety," an unfamiliar voice said.
"It's understandable, but please just a bit more," it was the voice of the woman who runs the orphanage, "we are very close."
A sad sigh. "There is only so much we can give."
"Please?" It was almost begging.
Kurogane saw the tops of their heads emerge from below the balcony; he noticed that the other person was a man dressed in navy blue nothing that he recognised as a uniform of any kind. Quietly he stepped away from the edge, so if they looked up he would not be clearly seen.
"...Alright, but only one more, after that I am not sticking my neck out for this any longer," the man's voice was gruff.
"Thank you," the woman basically panted relief clear. "It will work this time, I swear it."
"Whatever," the man said.
The footsteps stopped, the sound of the front door opening and closing. After that the woman sighed loudly before bustling out of the room.
For what must have been about five minutes Kurogane stood thinking about what he had just heard. It could be taken in many ways, different meanings flashed across his mind but nothing could be said for sure. The compulsion to stay was long gone but he stayed until children stared coming back up to get ready for school after finishing their breakfast. Just because they had seen an injured body did not mean their appetite was gone apparently.
It wasn't until Himura informed him that he had been instructed to take Kurogane to school that he realised he had no uniform, he was given one of the Himura's but was less than thrilled about it. The shoulders were too narrow and he was taller than the other boy, meaning the legs came up to short. It was uncomfortable and looked ridiculous, however there was no other choice as he had not been told what to do about a uniform. From the smirk Himura was sporting he knew all about it but was enjoying him being humiliated, obviously he was being vindictive as he got interrupted sucking on that Kudo kids face yesterday.
School was uninteresting, it was a fairly less run-down building than the orphanage and quite large. He had to report to the teachers' room where he met up with a middle-aged woman with a sickly sweet smile and sympathetic eyes, he hated that. When he was introduced into the class ("Suwa Youou." "It's Kurogane!"), who looked like a group of idiots, he noted that they all looked at him edgily as if they expected him to attack them, which was odd. His appearance at the time was not the least bit threatening.
He slung his bag, which he had from his previous school, on his desk at the back of the classroom then preceded to examine his classmates whilst completely ignoring the teacher. They all kept casting anxious looks at him every few minutes, only one was of any note and that was Kudo who met his stare once and turned bright red before turning away quickly.
During the whole lesson all he could hear was the droning of the teacher and some muttered comments between friends. Nothing of interest.
Lesson time when quite quickly and in what seemed like no time at all the bell rang for lunch break, Kudo shuffled over to his desk.
"I would like to apologise again for yesterday," he said softly, obviously still embarrassed.
Although the boys humiliation was relatively amusing it was not needed. Kurogane grunted in response.
"If you'd like I can help you catch up in class," the boy was smiling happily now, eyes bright and eager.
Kurogane just stared at the boy, how stupid was he?
"Oi, Kazahaya!" A voice yelled, there was Himura leaning against the doorframe a bored expression on his face.
"Shut up!" Kudo spun around yelling,
Himura scoffed, walking over to them. "Come on," he said, grabbing the slight boy's wrist.
There was a struggle for a few seconds before the boy was successfully dragged away. Why was it that everyone appeared to manhandle each other in this place?
Whatever it was none of his concern.
The other children in his class continued to stare at him weirdly before he had enough and decided to leave. As he did he overheard a couple of girls talking;
"He's from the orphanage too; wonder if he is part of that."
"He's kind of cool."
"You better not get too close, remember what happened to Sara?"
"... well he does look dangerous..."
Stupid girls, he thought as he left the room. True he didn't know what they were talking about but the idea that they wouldn't go near someone just because of the orphanage was ridiculous. He really didn't want anyone to get close of him, but it was the principle of the matter.
Walking through the halls he saw that everyone looked at him oddly, more than is normal just for someone that transferred in.
Enough was enough; he wouldn't be able to stand a whole day of everyone staring at him. With that thought in mind he made his to the school gates, no one even bothered to say anything when he casually left the premises.
Unfortunately he couldn't think of anywhere else to go as he wasn't in the mood to start exploring anything else in the dreary looking town. So reluctantly he went back to the orphanages, it felt like a very long walk and the fact that he dragged his feet most of the trip had a little something to do with that.
When there he went through the gates and creaked the front door open. Looking around he didn't see any of the staff (not that he had ever seen anyone but the supposed head of the orphanage). He took a few steps into building before he heard a noise, the shifting of cloth then –
"Hyuu~ Kuro-wan is a bad doggy!"
Groaning Kurogane looked up at the balcony and saw a small blond head poking through the banister, a wide grin on his face.
"What the hell was that noise you just made?" Kurogane yelled, forgetting about not being caught skipping school by any adults around.
The blond boy laughed somewhat manically before pushing himself up and tottering down the stairs. He stopped when he was three steps away from the bottom, probably because that made him taller than Kurogane.
"Why is Kuro-min back so early from school, has he been a bad boy?" The boy placed his hands on his hips and stared down at Kurogane, blue eyes sparkling merrily. "Did he get kicked out already?"
Scoffing Kurogane studied the boy, it was definitely the less homicidal one of the two, he wasn't wearing any kind of uniform. "Why aren't you in school?"
The blond laughed again. "Brother and I don't go to school," he explained, smiling softly, "we have a private tutor."
"Why?"
Shrugging the boy hopped down the last we steps and stood facing Kurogane head on. "It's better that way apparently."
Kurogane glared at that, there was no way that would be an explanation as to why he was allowed a private tutor and the rest of the orphans had to go to a school which treated them like plague infested rats.
"What's your name anyway?" Kurogane said trying to distract him so he could attempt to walk around the boy.
"You really have a bad memory Kuro-rin," the boy laughed, "I'm Yuui!"
"Really now? You were Fai yesterday."
"No I wasn't," Yuui said, confusion on his face.
"Yes you were," Kurogane argued.
Yuui leaned up, arm outstretched, he placed a cold pale hand on Kurogane's forehead. The action caught him off guard; the hand was soft and gentle making him remember all the times his mother had done the same thing, and that she would never be able to do it again.
"Well you don't have a temperature," Yuui said, withdrawing his hand, "it must just be that your brain is broken."
Snapping out of his sad thoughts Kurogane bristled in anger. "My brain is not broken!"
"Are you sure?" Yuui asked, faux-concern in his voice. "You can't even remember a simple name."
Rolling his eyes Kurogane again attempted to go around the boy however Yuui stepped in his way. Once more he made for the stairs but the blond got in front of him.
"What?" He growled out in annoyance.
"Why are you not in school?" Yuui crossed his eyes and raised an eyebrow at him,
"Because I don't want to be!"
"That is not good enough, you need to go to school otherwise you won't be able to fix your poor brain skills."
"Poor brain skills?" Kurogane shot back. "You definitely should go to school." Looking around Kurogane wondered where the boy's brother was. "Where is your twin anyway?"
"He's in a lesson at the moment!" Yuui chirped happily.
"Why aren't you there?"
Yuui grinned. "Because I'm ahead of him in studies so Ashura-sensei spends more time with brother."
"Ashura?"
Nodding. "Ashura-sensei is our tutor. He comes everyday but I have less lessons than brother." At that Yuui's eyes dimmed slightly in sadness, he looked lonely just as he had yesterday.
A small twinge occurred in his chest at that expression.
Unsure what to say Kurogane just stood there looking at the small blond boy who seemed so lost and alone in the world.
"What do you do when he is in private lessons?" Kurogane asked, curious.
Yuui turned and pointed to the landing he had come down from. "I sit up there."
"And do what?"
"Wait."
When nothing else followed that Kurogane just stared at the boy, what kid in their right mind would just sit waiting? Looking at the blond boy Kurogane reminded himself that from what he had seen the boy was not in his right mind.
Sighing Kurogane placed his hand on a small shoulder and used it to move the smaller boy so he could get passed him and up the stairs. As expected Yuui followed him, trailing a few steps behind, like some kind of duckling. Kurogane tried to ignore him and made his way towards his room however when he entered the corridor he stopped hearing the footsteps of the other boy.
Turning around he saw that Yuui had stopped just before the hallway opening. Blue eyes shone in confusion as he looked around himself. Confused Kurogane took a few more steps towards his room, he didn't want the blond to follow him so it shouldn't matter what he was doing.
A tiny squeak echoed down the corridor. Kurogane swung back around to see Yuui looking at him somewhat pleadingly one small hand slightly stretched out to him. On a closer look he could see the small appendage shaking.
Annoyed at the weird reaction Kurogane stomped over to Yuui, he grabbed the hand firmly and tugged the boy towards him.
"If you want to come then just do so, idiot," he grumbled dragging the boy to his room.
After only a few steps he felt Yuui cling to his side and a small sigh escape his lips.
For the rest of the afternoon Yuui sat on reading, after having an initial snoop round and finding a book about kendo amongst Kurogane's belongings he took to sitting crossed legs on the centre of the bed staring at it intently. Kurogane let him as it was quieter to just the boy do as he pleased. He however was leant against the wall thinking.
It was peaceful to just relax in the others company, not having to speak or doing anything. A small smile graced Kurogane's lips as he watched the small boy shift, for the past hour the number of times Yuui fidgeted had increased and Kurogane enjoyed the look of annoyance the passed over the pale face each time.
There was something comforting and almost familiar about the calmness that laid over the room.
Stomping could be heard outside.
"Fai!" A voice called loudly.
The boy on the bed tensed.
"Fai!"
Blue eyes glazed over. Then shot up from the bed, scrambling to the door, flinging it open.
"Brother!" He cried out, rushing out of the room.
Kurogane sighed and followed the boy; no doubt he will end up face first on the floor the way he was going.
Down the corridor he saw two identical blond boys embracing.
"Oh Fai," one breathed out, putting his hand on the others face to hold it still. "I was so worried when you weren't waiting for me; I thought something bad might have happened to you."
"I'm okay, I was just with Kuro-pu!" The other laughed.
Both boys turned to look at Kurogane who was just outside his room. one smiling and one glaring hateful daggers at him.
The angrier of the two focused back on his twin. "Never do that again," he said, "listen to me Fai!" The other snapped his attention back to the identical boy. "Never somewhere without me knowing. Never. Do you understand?"
Nodding.
Kurogane scowled at them.
"I thought your name was Yuui," he said gruffly.
That was necessarily a good thing as two pairs of blue eyes looked over at him.
The less homicidal of the two smiled over at him.
"No silly, I'm Fai!" He laughed.
This was getting ridiculous.
"What is your family name?" He asked.
"Motosuwa," they answered together.
Nodding in understanding he rearranged the names in his head, switching between what they called themselves was just confusing. "Motosuwa" was the more dangerous one that was for certain. Not that it mattered.
The twins stared at him for a few seconds before Motosuwa grabbed Fai's wrist and started to pull him towards the landing.
"Let's say goodbye to Ashura-sensei before he goes home," he said, Fai just nodded helplessly allowing himself to be led away.
When they passed by Kurogane Fai smiled over at him, though it was small and fake, whilst Motosuwa sent him a death-glare.
Kurogane just knew that he would be in for another threatening with a knife.
This was really not worth his time, all it caused was problems.
One of which being that he didn't know why he allowed the blond boy to stay in his room at all or why he felt so comfortable about it.
Trying to push that thought out of his mind Kurogane sighed and went back into his room. He lent against the headrest of his bed, thinking.
Sometime later Himura came into the room, glaring at him and setting up at a desk to do homework. Neither talked for a long time, eventually Kurogane fell asleep in his upright position, he could still hear everything around himself but he felt separate from it all.
Very relaxing.
The next morning went very similar to the first he was there; he was woken by Himura, got changed then went down to the cafeteria where he ate and lamented to himself about the noise before going to school. Surprisingly he didn't see the Motosuwa twins; they weren't even in the hall. Not that he looked.
School was boring however Kurogane decided to stay for the whole day, which certainly wasn't because that if he went back to the orphanage he might run into a blond nuisance. Unfortunately he did have to go to the deputy-headmasters office because he had skipped out of classes the previous day. After sitting through a lecture about how he should learn to be responsible and that it was a very important time in his life so he should take it all seriously, which all of his break period he was sent back to lessons.
Suffice to say this did nothing for his mood, which was somewhere between righteous indignation and fury. He tried to suppress his anger but when he heard all the other students whispering behind his back again it was all wasted effort.
When the school-day finished he stormed out of the classroom and walked back to the orphanage as quickly as possible.
"Yay!" An annoying voice greeted him when he arrived; unfortunately he was the first one back so he was alone with it again. "Kuro-tan made it through a whole day! I'm so proud!"
A blond limpet attached itself to his arm, clinging tightly.
Sighing Kurogane looked down to see sparkling blue eyes staring up at him.
"Leave me alone," Kurogane grunted attempting to push the thing off his arm. After a few minutes of trying, feeling more like hours, the boy giggled, let go and skipped back a few steps obviously finding get delight in annoying innocent people.
Loud noises came from outside, the sounds of children coming home, laughing, screaming and complaining.
Within seconds children burst through the doors, they glanced at them before either going through the main door or up the stairs.
Kurogane noticed that the blonds eyes were wide in wonder as he looked on at the people who basically ignoring him. It was as though they didn't see him as such a threat when he was alone. He found his very interesting, in an uncaring way.
Two younger boys came in laughing louder than the others; they kept pushing each other around ignoring the others who huffed at them as they collided with objects and people.
Unfortunately one of the people happened to be a startled blond boy.
The push was harder than the others and the little boy careened straight into the blond who only gasped before being sent backwards.
A loud crack echoed around the entryway as a pale head collided with the first step of the stairs.
Red liquid oozed out, staining the yellow hair pink.
Screams rang out from the girls drawing the attention of adults quickly who dashed into the room to see what was wrong.
The owner of the orphanage gasped and ran over to the boys side, picking him up, cradling the now unconscious boy in her arms. Blood spread onto her quickly.
"FAI!" A voice yelled.
At the top of the stairs stood the twin, who rushed down to practically accost the woman.
"What happened? What's going on? Who did this?"
Kurogane could see the panic clear on the pale face, he almost felt sorry for the little psycho.
"Please calm down," the woman said, walking towards the main door ignoring when Motosuwa stepped in her way to stare up at his brother. "We need to get him to Sakurazuka-sensei before he loses too much blood so if everyone would get out of the way."
Like that the gathered children parted, even Motosuwa moved to the side, instead walking next to the woman. They reached the doors and the woman quickly went through, leaving behind a trail of red.
Before leaving the room Motosuwa glanced over at Kurogane, sending him a glare filled with the promise of pain. Obviously he believed the whole mess to be his fault.
After they were gone the children mumbled amongst themselves gravitating away from the scene gradually.
For some reason Kurogane stayed to stare at the spot where Fai had hit his head. There was a puddle of blood glistening slightly before it dried.
A pain filled his heart, tightening around it like an elastic band.
Fear.
Which was ridiculous, he didn't want the boy to die but that was the same for anyone. It wasn't like he actually thought that Fai would die anyway, head injuries were dangerous but there is a fully capable staff (he assumed a the orphanage was still running) who could take care of it all.
So why had he been afraid for the boy.
Shaking his head, Kurogane headed back up to his room.
It was all stupid.
At breakfast the next morning he noticed that the twins weren't there. He couldn't help his interest in if the injured one was alright, it felt as though a small pit had formed in his stomach thinking about the blond boy covered in blood. Trying to stop those thoughts Kurogane focused back on his food, when that failed to hold his interest he got up and headed to school early.
He walked slowly, trying to delay the inevitable whispering which will follow him all day again. Although it had only been two days at the place he knew that he was in for at least two and a half years more years of the same.
When he entered the classroom all too soon he noticed Kudo sitting there reading a book, the only one in the whole room. The boy looked up at him, a shy smile lit his face, however he did not try to engage Kurogane in conversation, obviously learning from the ignorance he had gotten the previous day.
Classes were boring; it didn't even seem that the teachers were trying to make the information palatable.
Worst was art class. The airy-fairy teacher had decided that they all simply must know how to create paper flowers, like that was ever going to come up in real life. It involved a lot of folding, twirling and patience, none of which Kurogane cared for at that moment in time, his first attempt coming out as a screwed up ball.
Probably the most embarrassing thing about the whole ordeal was when Kudo came over to him and coached him through the process. Annoying the boy was better at explaining than the teacher and his second try turned out more like a flower. On the third, as making them was all they were doing for the lesson, he was told to use different colours so it looked like a real flower. It didn't look real but it wasn't half bad.
At the end of the lesson he felt compelled to put the last flower in his bag, discarding the other two.
Surprisingly Kudo had decided to stay with him for the rest of the lessons as Kurogane's hostility towards him had lessened somewhat after he had helped him not make a complete fool of himself in art.
He didn't like the boy though.
After school he was dragged along with Kudo to find Himura, who was standing by the gates with the loud boy Watanuki and his friend Doumeki. He stood there awkwardly as the boys talked, then got dragged along once more as they made their way to orphanage. The rest of the day turned out to be him pulled along to various rooms which all seemed alike.
Although he could have easily gotten away from them he couldn't be bothered so just went along with it.
He didn't see the Motosuwa twins at all that day.
During breakfast the following day he saw that twins were back.
White bandages were wrapped tightly around one pale head whilst Motosuwa looked to be fussing over his brother to the point where he was almost spoon-feeding him. Pulling his eyes away from the weird scene Kurogane tried to listen to what the two boys opposite him were talking about, that was fairly uninteresting.
He allowed himself to be lead to school and managed to stand half of the day until he came upon an unsightly scene. He had left Kudo to find the other boys by himself for lunch when four girls had backed the boy into a corner.
"As if it wasn't bad enough that you were dating one of the orphans you had to befriend the new one," one girl sneered, voice scratchy.
"Three of them!" The second screeched. "How could you be hanging around three of them?"
The third stepped forward, poking Kudo hard in the chest. "You're going to bring misfortune on all of us normal people."
"Don't touch him!" The last one cried out, cowering away from them all.
"She's right," screeching girl said, "who knows what he has caught from his boyfriend."
Kudo glared at them. "They haven't got any disease they are like us. In fact they are more human than any of you."
"Yeah right," the first scoffed, "you had better stay away from us normal people from now on."
Laughing the girls walked off.
Kudo collapsed against the wall, shaking as though he had run a marathon. Not wanting to see any more Kurogane turned away. Once more he left the school without any trouble from teachers.
When he arrived at the orphanage he stopped. He didn't particularly want to stay indoors, instead he went around the back to the garden.
Turning the corner Kurogane was not in the least surprised when he saw a blond sitting on a swing rocking it gently. Of course whichever way he goes the boy would be there, just his luck. He moved forward walking up behind the blond. When he was not too far away he heard a small giggle.
"You should stop skipping classes Kuro-pi," was said in between laughs.
Kurogane walked around the swing so he could look at the blond properly, who was smiling up at him, blue eyes shining brightly.
"And you should try going to some," Kurogane said back.
The boys smile got bigger and he started to swing properly, kicking his legs back and forth, bringing forth loud squeaks from the old chains.
"Who are you today?"
That made the smile freeze in place. "You know who I am, Kuro-chi," he said, his voice slightly rough, "I'm Yuui."
Kurogane grunted and just watching as Yuui continued to swing, the white bandage wrapped around the top of his head coming loose.
One of the first things your father gave me were flowers, after our first date I came down with a cold and he gave them to me in hopes that I would get better, Kurogane remembered his mother telling him this when he was little, he had just given her a bunch of flowers he'd picked from the garden.
Without thinking he reached into his school bag and took out the paper flower he had left in there. Closing his eyes he pushed it toward Yuui saying "here!"
The squeaking of the swings chains stilled. "What is it?" a curious voice asked.
Opening his eyes Kurogane saw that the flower was crumpled slightly, the blond was staring at it with interest.
"It's a paper flower; our lazy arse art teacher had us make them yesterday, so here have it." Kurogane couldn't stand to look at Yuui, so stared in the opposite direction.
A soft hand touched his and he felt the paper flower being taken carefully, gentle fingers lingered on his skin longer than necessary, at least he thought so.
"Why are you giving this to me?"
Kurogane could feel his whole face heat up; he had hoped the idiot wouldn't look into this too much. "Y-you...," he stuttered, cursing himself as he did so, "...you're head. You've probably got brain damage so this is in the hopes that it gets better."
Looking back over at the blond Kurogane saw a small real smile light up the face, the paper flower clutched tightly to his chest, a slight smile of his own formed from just looking at Yuui.
Small red patches graced Yuui's face. He suddenly shot up grabbing the front of Kurogane's shirt, without any warning he wrenched the tall boy down and slammed their lips together. It only lasted for a few seconds but it didn't matter, the feel of smooth lips against his own was enough. They pulled apart slowly, both panting slightly.
"Thank you," Yuui said shyly.
"Why did you do that?" Kurogane said, covering his mouth, eyes wide with shock.
Another small giggle, the blond tended to do that a lot it seemed. "I don't know," he said, "I've got brain damage, remember?"
Nodding Kurogane just watched as Yuui walked passed him, touching his arm lightly as he did so, and then skip off towards the building.
It wasn't until he could no longer see Yuui that it struck him.
He had just gotten his first kiss.
A/N: Aww, I love the end. Should do as I wrote it. But the fluffy KuroxFai(Yuui)! Anyway I am kind of hoping that the whole name switching bit will be less confusing now, and maybe some of you have figured out what is going on there. Would love to see the ending actually happen, many love to anyone that would like to draw Kurogane giving any Fai(Yuui) a flower, just so cute! (slightly tired, so expect crazy.)
Excuses as to why it is late; I have been feeling very fed up recently, along with some health issues that are not helping at all. However I have doctors soon so hopefully some of it will be sorted out then. Along with doing some writing for various things (things to publish in future mayhap) in between morbidity.
Hope you liked it and please review as I appreciate any input, and to know that someone out there is reading! x