They had been sitting on this train for three hours.

Three.

And this couldn't be like a typical train that had seperate little compartments that sat four or five people, noooo. Each compartment sat only two. As expected, the kid whisked the princess into a compartment, and Mokona followed closely behind, nestled inside Sakura's coat hood.

Not that either of the remaining two were necessarily complaining, but the single thought that was nagging at Fai's mind had started to grow tiresome. He tried to act as usual, but for the past few weeks he found his thoughts about the man sitting across from him becoming more and more prominant. In the middle of last week he made up his mind to tell him some time soon.

As the engineer declared only 20 minutes left until their destination was reached, Fai silently summoned his resolve.

"Kuro-tan?"

The dark-haired man had been staring blankly out the window. He turned his head lazily to the side, shooting the mage a questioning look.

"Well I... We've been traveling for a while now and... With all that we've been through in that time... What I'm trying to say is..." Fai sighed in frustration, stumbling over his own tongue, and banged his head lightly against the window. He took a deep breath and tried again. "Kurogane..."

Kurogane was taken aback. The mage never used his full name.

"I know you're not dense, Kuro-chan. I know you're perceptive, and it's driving me crazy that you haven't noticed, or that you're pretending not to notice."

Kurogane cocked his head to the side a bit with a look of genuine concern.

"Kuro-chan, you idiot." Fai's cheeks were tinted rosy pink, his palms were sweating, his mouth was dry. He pursed his lips and dug his nails into his palms, almost drawing blood. 'Hhh fuck it' he thought to himself as he leaned forward, grabbed Kurogane by the collar, and pulled his face close. "I... I fell in love with you!" Fai closed the gap, planting a little-too-hard kiss on the ninja's lips. His heart was racing faster than it ever had before as he released the shirt from his grasp and fell back into his seat. Slowly, his gaze lifted, until he was staring into wide crimson eyes. Kurogane was frozen in place.

Panic quelled up in Fai's chest, assuming the worst. Kurogane recognized the look in those sapphire eyes and snapped to, still gaping a bit. He felt his face flush red, and he looked off to the side before clearing his throat and replying, "Me, uh... Me too."