A//N: Nothing here you don't already know, R&R and so on.

Buzzt! "Begin!" The game started. Immediately Fai dashed to one side avoiding being hit before he swung his weapon around just barely missing his target.

"Weak." The mage heard Kurogane's gruff voice speak out.

"Heh, me or the enemy?"

"I meant the enemy."

Fai shook his head slightly taking on a defensive stance and then elbowing his adversary away from him, "You think everyone is weak Kurogane."

Clang! Clang! From both behind him and a ways away from him he heard swords movements. Both Syaoran and Kurogane had attacked. "Not everyone."

"Most everyone." Fai jumped in the air, once again swinging down his weapon...this team was weak, Fai had to admit, Kurogane was correct. This battle wouldn't last too long.

"Mage!" Kurogane yelled once Fai landed on the ground a good ten feet from where he began, "How many times?! Don't leave my side!"

Fai's only response to this was a chuckle as he began to dance with his enemy, fighting, handing blows back and forth until Fai hit him just right and the other fell to the ground in a heap. That wasn't so hard, he gets hit once a couple weeks ago and Kurogane never lets him do anything by himself again, that sounded about right.

The blond had been about to say some snide remark to Kurogane, something along the lines of not being an untrained child...but the words never got out, Fai completely forgot what he had been about to say as he quickly turned his head to look at Kurogane. Something wasn't right.

He studied the scene quickly, but carefully. It looked right...Kurogane standing there, sword over shoulder, his opponent on the ground looking at Syaoran, waiting for him to finish off his own enemy...the silly smirk on his face that said he'd won. Everything looked okay, everything sounded okay, but it wasn't. Fai knew something had happened while he hadn't been looking. Something in his vampire senses told him so.

But what?

Fai continued to think, what was it? He breathed deeply, he smelled blood. That was normal, and yet it wasn't. What wasn't normal? After a minute it sunk in. Blood, Kurogane's blood. Fai could smell it mingled with the others blood. He didn't look hurt...

Fai's eyes finally drifted to Kurogane's arm as a single drop of blood fell from the ninja's index finger onto the floor.

Fai wanted to vomit.

"Kurogane!" Fai yelled as he banged on the door to the man's room, "Let me in!"

"Oi, oi. Hold on." After a moment the door opened. "What do you want?"

Fai pushed his way into the room, not answering the swordsman's question as he slammed the door. "You..." he began. "Didn't even say a word..."

"About what?" Kurogane folded his arms and tilted his head to one side, giving Fai a look as if he had never seen anything quite like him.

"Don't give me that." Fai's hand reached out grabbing Kurogane's arm and yanking on it. "You're hurt!" Kurogane winced at the harshness Fai used.

"If you know that then don't be so rough."

"I'll be rough if I want to." Fai pulled at the arm more. "Show me."

"All right, all right, don't get so angry."

"I wouldn't be angry if you had bothered to show or tell us that you were hurt!"

"You knew anyway didn't you?"

"Only because I drink your blood to survive!" Fai's voice still yelled, but it was quieting, becoming less angry and more desperate as he spoke.

"Don't worry, it's not deep." Kurogane rolled his eyes as he pulled back his sleeve showing a bandaged arm that was stained with some blood. "It's stopped bleeding now."

"That's not the point!" Fai looked just about ready to slap Kurogane. "You promised to not get hurt!"

"I promised to not get hurt because of you." Fai shook his head.

"It's always my fault!" He clung to Kurogane's shirt. "I left your side, when you told me not to, you got hurt because I distracted you and you were trying to protect me..." Slowly Fai began to sink to his knees his hands still grasping to Kurogane's shirt. "I'm sorry..." All the anger was gone from Fai's voice as if he had changed personalities, but Kurogane didn't think that was it. He was pretty sure Fai was acting like this because this was what Fai really felt.

"Is that really how you feel?"

"Yes..."

"Then how are you going to make it up to me?"

Fai shook his head reaching out to Kurogane's wrist and holding it gently, "That would be impossible...there's nothing I could possibly--"

"Wrong. Cry."

Fai looked up at Kurogane's face as if he'd just said something insane. "I'm serious. If you're really sorry and if you're really this, if you're really sad and upset about me getting a cut because you think it's your fault, cry. Cry for me. Don't bottle it inside, don't act happy, don't act angry, don't act like you don't care, if you're upset, cry. Act how you feel."

"Is that what Kurogane really wants from me? Is that what Kurogane likes from me?"

"Yes. That is what I want."

Slowly Fai pulled himself to his feet placing his hands on either side of Kurogane's face, "I'm so sorry..." he whispered before collapsing against the ninja soft sobs were heard coming from the mage. They weren't loud or exaggerated like when Fai fake cried to get attention, these could hardly be heard.

Sluggishly Kurogane pulled Fai closer to him and sat down on his bed lightly rubbing the other's back for comfort. After a while the sobbing completely faded away and Fai's body was still. "How do you feel?" He lifted Fai's face up. The blond's eye still showed signs of crying, a couple tears lingering on his cheeks.

"I don't matter. Are you really all right?" Fai reached up to touch Kurogane's face, but his hand was grabbed by Kurogane's. He held the hand gently and smiled at Fai.

"I'm fine. Like I said it wasn't deep, it just bled for a while, and it really wasn't your fault. It was my carelessness, as he fell his blade happened to catch my arm. Barely a knick really, it just looked bad."

"It was still my fault." Fai said looking away.

"So stubborn." Kurogane chuckled resting Fai's head against his shoulder. "But I'm glad, I was unaware you could really, truly cry."

"I was too." Fai's hands gripped to Kurogane's shoulders and slowly pushed himself away. He looked at the ninja and gave a small smile, "I'm glad you're really going to be all right...I'll go to bed now...don't sleep on your left side..."

Fai tried to pull away from him but Kurogane held onto him tightly. "Stay." Fai blinked in confusion before he continued, "Sleep with me tonight. It'll help make you feel better won't it?"

Fai's smile brightened for a moment, but then it faded and Fai looked down-wards, "Kurogane...you need to stop playing this game..."

"Game?"

"Everything to you is a game lately. A game that breaks me, I dislike it. You're trying to find out more about who I am...in the game it's as if you hold a mirror up to my face and make me see all my reflections, make me feel everything at once, you follow me, you even say pretty words..." Fai tilted his head, "Didn't you say you hate pretty words?"

"Yes, I do hate them. To me, if you're going to say something you should just say it outright, but you love them."

Fai shook his head so slightly from side to side, almost as if he were hypnotized by a small pocket watch, "To me they aren't pretty. They are just pretty coming from you, because I remember that you don't like pretty words."

"I'm just trying to help you. It's not a game."

"It's a game. You push at me, offer your hand to me, give me everything I could possibly need, or everything you think I could need."

"Did you not just do the same thing? You came here to try and get me to ask for help."

"Yes, but I failed, I came here to try and help you and all that happened was you turned the situation around so that I was more important. I can't play. So...no. I won't sleep here. I won't sleep with you. It'll help your cause. I won't sleep near you, not until you either stop playing, or until I can play too."

"There's no need for you to play."

"So you say, I say there's no reason for you to play either. We are practically the same Kurogane. We are the same in so many ways...do you know why we are so close to the same?"

"Why?"

"Because we are so different. We are the same because we are so very different. Light and dark come together and they blend into gray, they become one...You are my light Kurogane. I don't care if that is a pretty word. It's true. You are light, I am so dark...if we become any closer we will blend completely. I don't want that to happen. Please Kurogane...stop this game."

Fai stopped and seemed to search for a word. He was silent for a minute and bit his lip, then he stuttered over the words until he finally got them out. "You were right...Kurogane, I do love you. I love you. More than anything in this world. If you love me too you will leave me and never touch me again, don't allow me to touch you, forget about healing me, forget about helping me..." Fai brought Kurogane's hand to his face, leaning into the warmth it gave off. "Everything I love turns to dust before my eyes after I touch it. Don't let it happen to you."

"It's not going to happen, even if I have to turn to dust and then turn back for you to see how important you are I will do it."

Fai chuckled as he let go of the others hand, standing to his feet. "Such pretty words." He walked away, going to the door. "Good night Kurogane. Heal. Or I'll never forgive you."

Kurogane smirked at this, "And you say you can't 'play the game.' You play just fine."

Fai shook his head no, "Expect me to be very happy in the morning. After all, it's the only thing I can do." With that Fai shut the door as he left Kurogane alone within his room.

"Maybe I should leave you alone...you seem to be either very tired or very frustrated..."

"A bit of both. 'Fai-chan' isn't exactly energizing, and he isn't exactly encouraging."

Yuui giggled. "Of course not...if he was I wouldn't be here now would I? Although I admit you seem to be at square negative two...at least to an outsider...I actually think you're doing very well. He cried, Fai-chan hasn't cried for real in a long time...Not since he was a child..." Yuui's face became serious for a second before he grinned widely again. "So really I think you're at square five!" He gave Kurogane a thumbs up.

"Then why did he tell me to stay away from him?"

"He sees the change in his own actions and seeks to reverse it, meaning he thinks that if he gets away from you he'll be okay and be able to fix himself..."

"Is he right?"

"Who knows? But you can't let him get away now can you?"

Kurogane shook his head no, "That you are right about Yuui. I can't let him get away, he needs the help."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"Do the opposite of what he told me to do..."

Yuui put a finger to his lips in thought, "So...basically you're never going to give him a moment of privacy?"

"That's right."

"That'll just make Fai-chan angry with you." Yuui laughed. "He's already angry enough that you got hurt and didn't ask for help..."

"That's nice. If he gets angry at that he should get angry at himself, now he knows how I felt when he got hurt, in fact he knows exactly how I feel constantly!"

Yuui shook his head, coming forward and poking at Kurogane's cheek. "Kuro-san. I don't think you should be telling me that, you should tell Fai-chan that." He stopped poking Kurogane and began to poke his own cheek looking up at the ceiling. "That'll probably make him sad, to know that he causes you such internal pain."

"My goal is not to make him sad. My goal is to make him see that other people care about him and that he's important..."

"I know, however that's not how Fai-chan sees it. Fai-chan thinks you're invading him, digging your way deeper and deeper into his heart, he's already getting to the point where he doesn't ever really want to be in a room that doesn't have you in it...but he's afraid Kuro-san, he truly is. Everything he said to you was true in his eyes, he thinks that if he allows you close you'll crumble right before his eyes, or that you'll somehow harm him. You and Sakura are the only light Fai-chan has left, if he lost that small amount of light...Fai-chan will become nothing."

Yuui sat down on the bed next to Kurogane, "You really don't grasp how important you are to him."

"He doesn't grasp how important he is to me either."

"No. He does. He just wants that importance to stop. He wants you to step away from him before harm befalls you. That's why he got so worried and upset today, you were harmed." Yuui's hands reached out and ruffled Kurogane's hair.

"What was that for?"

"Fai-chan's always wanted to do that to you...to feel the texture of your hair...it kinda made me curious too. It feels so course..." Yuui seemed to frown, feeling his own hair, "Fai's hair is so fine and thin."

Kurogane rolled his eyes, reaching out his hand and messing with Yuui's in the same way Yuui had messed with his. "Yeah...it is."

Yuui smiled not bothering to fix the mess his hair was in and hugged the ninja tightly before standing up. "Anyway, good night Kuro-san. Sleep deeply, you'll need it to deal with Fai-chan's hyper personality in the morning! After all, you need to keep up with him to stay in the game."

"Not you too...it's not a game! It's real life."

Yuui shook his head as he went on toward the door, "Real life is a game Kuro-san...everything is a game...and in that game...we are all pawns. Every single one of us."