Kurogane paced. Up and down the house, back and forth, back and forth. His blood red eyes flashing in every direction, that idiot mage! Kurogane had of course not expected the young magic wielder to be exactly the same after all that had happened, in fact Kurogane had hoped that some of his facade could melt away, show a bit of his true side, so that maybe, just maybe, he'd let someone be close enough to him to help him, to heal him.

But this was too much, the facade had melted away completely, so now, it was even harder to get close to the mage, to try to heal him…

Kurogane paused in font of Fai's door for about the fifth time that night, was the man finally asleep? Or was he still pretending? The swordsman lightly pushed the door open, heading inside to see the truth for himself… Fai was still awake. His eye was closed and his breathing was even, but he was awake. Kurogane was sure of it. Why? Fai was still laying on his back. Fai never laid on his back to sleep, it was his stomach, stomach and face down on the bed.

"Mage." Fai's clear blue eye opened and he sat up on the bed.

"What's wrong Kurogane? I was asleep…" the blond rubbed his head, he most certainly looked like he'd been asleep…

"You were sleeping the wrong way." Kurogane said simply. Fai gave him a strange look as the mage stopped rubbing his head.

"There's now a right and wrong way to sleep?"

Kurogane wanted to growl, "No, that's not how you sleep, you sleep on your stomach. That's how you've always slept."

Fai frowned slightly, the sound of thunder sounding in the distance as the rain moved farther and farther away. The lanky man swung his legs over the edge of the bed gracefully, to stand up, glancing at the clock for a mere moment, checking how long he'd been asleep before he stood to his feet. The man came forward to Kurogane putting his hands out and cupping the other's face, "You always notice the strangest things about me Kurogane…" Fai's voice was soft, the very same as the smile that crossed his face at this time. The smile was not at all like the smile the man had used to smile when he had both of his eyes. This smile held pain and sorrow, and yet love within it. "It would be better if you would just ignore these things."

Kurogane stepped back, away from the soft warm hands that touched his face, "I can't. People can't just not see things that are so obvious Mage. You can't ignore something you know is happening." Kurogane knew this wasn't true, that Fai and himself had done it many, many times, ignored things that had been felt, wanted, seen, and things that had happened., so many things could be ignored, but he refused to let anything more happen to Fai. The loss of his eye to Syaoran had been enough.

Fai's hands lingered in the place that they had been touching Kurogane's face for a moment before falling to his side, "Well…then don't ignore it, just don't bother me about it…if I needed help with anything, I'd ask someone."

"Liar." Kurogane growled, this time he was the one to reach out and grab at Fai's shoulders shaking the smaller man back and forth slightly. "You used to act all happy all the time, that was false to avoid anyone trying to help you at all!"

Fai's eye searched over Kurogane's face as if looking for the reason why the man seemed to be able to see straight into his soul rather than just looking at his former smile like everyone else had… "If that were true Kurogane, why do you think I would ask for help now?"

"I don't think that…" the man leaned forward until their faces were mere inches apart, "I think if you keep this up someone is going to force help onto you until you accept it and finally heal, and get over whatever happened to you."

Fai leaned back and pulled away from Kurogane heading to the window and looking away from the man staring as the rain fell onto the roof and ground, now silent, no longer did the calming sound enter his ears. "No one will do that Kurogane, you are the only one who sees past me, and besides…" the mage shrugged as if his entire life was nothing, "I'm fine with me the way I am, I don't want or need help."

The larger man glared at the blond and turned around heading to the door, "Who says someone won't force it on you?" leaving Fai in that thought the man left the room slamming the door behind him.

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'He wouldn't really do that…would he?' this one question had haunted Fai's mind since the ninja had said it…he hoped desperately that the answer was: 'No he wouldn't, it was all words,' but Fai couldn't be sure, Kurogane didn't often go back on anything he said…

There wasn't even a chess match to distract him that day, the next one wasn't for a few days. So all Fai could do was walk around in his black clothing and stew more and more under these thoughts…

A few people watched the mage as he walked down the streets of Infinity his blond hair contrasting greatly with the black clothing the chess pieces of his team wore to separate themselves from the white teams.

"Hey, isn't he pretty?"

"Yeah, but I wonder what happened to his eye…"

Comments like this filled Fai's ears constantly, and he ignored them. The only think he could think of was the words that man said to him, he always had to make Fai think, remember, do things Fai did not want to do…

"What are you doing out here alone?" Fai's eye widened and he whirled around to see the very man he was thinking about behind him.

"Kurogane…" the red eyed man came up to Fai's side, lightly pulling at his sleeve to make him keep walking.

"You shouldn't be out here alone, who knows who will try to attack you."

"The key word in that sentence is try." Fai commented shoving his callous free hands into his pockets, looking away from Kurogane, he both wanted the man to go away and to stay…he couldn't decide which he wanted more.

The ninja made a face and whacked Fai on the back of his head. "Stupid mage." Fai glared and rubbed the back of his head, he had not expected the attack and thus had not been able to dodge like he usually could.

"What was that for?!"

"Your stubbornness!" Kurogane yelled, pushing the blond against a building wall, pressing his shoulders harshly against it, "You can't even admit you need help! Well guess what Mage? I'm not standing by anymore, who knows what damage you could do, I don't care if you need help or not, I'm forcing myself onto you…"

"Kurogane…" Fai breathed out, "That hurts…let go…" the black haired man roughly let go of his shoulders, but did not let Fai escape.

"Do you understand? I'm going to help you, meaning you will never be without me until you're healed."

"That's nice, I'll just have to ignore you." Fai said coldly, pushing himself off the wall and brushing off the sleeves of his jacket.

"Oh no…" Kurogane leaned forward whispering into Fai's ear, letting his breath hit it, "I'm going to make it so you can't ignore me…"

"Then it's not help, it's annoying." Fai forced himself past Kurogane and stormed down the street, leaving Kurogane to either leave or follow. He was becoming annoying, not only did Fai have to survive off him, he was trying to become closer to him, that was something Fai did not want. Fai didn't want to really become close to anyone…he didn't want them to be hurt.

Kurogane of course choice to follow his mage, it didn't matter what Fai wanted. Kurogane would make sure that there was improvement in his condition, if that didn't happen…well, the kid and the girl would start to notice, and then more problems would come from there.

All the ninja knew was that bad things would happen if he didn't help Fai. He didn't know what would come from it, and he knew it didn't really concern him right now, but Kurogane wanted to go home, and that he had figured out depended on all of them…not just him, as much as he hated to admit it. He wouldn't let Fai die physically, and the same went for emotionally.

Now all Kurogane had to figure out was what he could do to help the other man…this would be hard.

I did decide to continue it...I'm open to ideas, because I know where it's going to end, but I have little ideas for the middle, so please Read and Review.