I seriously just now looked back to the rest of my story and thought: man, this thing is short! And then I realized: I'm not describing anything! Sorry if that bored some people. Because I'm still in school and I'm still taking those awful essays, this fanfic seems to have become short and dull.

Forgive me!

(Also, I'm glad to have my ears still! XD I thank the reviewer that said that. Threatening me to write? LOL! That made my day, along with all the other reviews I've gotten. I hope this chapter ends up good to you too.)

Pain—a stabbing pain. Where—ACK! Where was it coming from? Red filled my vision in the absolute agony I felt. I bit back a strangled moan, squeezing my eyes tightly shut, but something kept my left eye from closing. Pain leapt to my head, causing me to cry out sharply. My hands clenched on some sort of thin fabric under my body.

"Fai!" an overly familiar voice cried out my name. I turned my head toward it on instinct, but something warm moved my head back.

"Don't let him move," a different voice commanded. It was a female, older than Kuro or me. "The blood's already bad enough. Hold him down."

I felt pressure on my cheeks, telling me that Kuro had complied with the woman's orders.

"—Hurts," I simpered.

"I know," Kuro-rin answered, wiping away any tears that escaped my eyes with his thumbs. His hands seemed cold for some reason, even though the air itself was much warmer. Something warmer than my tears covered my face also. "Please endure it for a little longer. Our medicine will heal you—I promise. I promise."

"I—Confused. What happened…?"

Something sharp jolted me, and I arched my back in pain. My lips parted for another cry, but it was muffled with Kuro's hand as it covered my lips. "Do you remember what happened?" he asked softly, probably to try and get me to ignore the pain. It didn't work. My hands twisted in the fabrics under my body, and my knees came towards my body in an attempt to escape the pain, like a fetal postion. It was futile.

"—Hurts," I repeated when he removed his hand from my mouth, with more force.

"I know," he repeated back.

It hurt me to hear the distress in Kurogane's voice. How could I reassure him…? Everything was fuzzy—my thoughts, even my sight when I opened my eyes. No, eye. The other wouldn't open for some reason. I looked at Kuro-tan in alarm.

Tears were streaming down his strikingly pale face. When he caught me looking, a giant sob escaped his chest and he held my face tighter in his hands. "Fai… Fai… It's alright now. You're fine. Don't worry about anything. We'll get you fixed up." His promises to me were broken up and they only confused me more. I was hurt? When?

And then I remembered:

The door busted down, wood scattering across the icy floor. Even with sawdust flying into our hair, we kept running. Kuro-burro grabbed my hand and propelled me through the balcony door. Once outside, the icy wind cutting into our clothes, Kurogane slammed the window shut behind him. It wouldn't get in their way for long, though. We had to move quickly.

He looked over the edge. "How the hell did we get this high up?! I swear… this castle doesn't even have stairs! We're like on the eighth floor or something."

"Magic," I told him breathlessly.

"Duh."

I squeezed his hand, my heart pounding deafeningly in my ears. I was scared out of my skin from what was going on right now, but at least this kept me a little warmer. The snow was blitzing around us wildly, and it was blindingly bright. I could only see Kuro-Kuro because of his black hair and cloak. "Kuro-tan," I whispered under my breath, shifting from foot to foot anxiously.

"Let's go," he told me, without seeming to have heard my tiny murmur. He squeezed my hand back, and leapt onto the balcony railing. "We'll jump."

His face was flushed from illness and the cold. I didn't want to see anything bad happen to him. I couldn't bear the thought of tumbling down several hundred feet and seeing him die in front of me like my brother. Raising my free hand, I traced in the air a spell. Purple symbols lit up the snowy sky, circling us and lifting us gently off the railing. The spell blocked the wind, and easily lowered us to the snow-covered earth.

Ginryu and Chi were standing there already, seeming to have been waiting for us. Almost instinctually, Kuro-puu threw me onto Chi, and jumped onto his own stallion. "We have to go!" he shouted to them, probably too ill to realize how stupid it was to be talking to horses. "NOW!"

Fortunately they were magic horses, and understood his words immediately. Ginryu reared and whinnied, whilst my Chi—thank God—only shook her mane and paw the frozen earth. If she had reared also I probably would have fallen right off.

They started to gallop towards the arena.

WAIT

The horses skidded to a stop in the middle of the arena, the snow about knee-deep and rising like a flood. The stallion and the mare backed off from a point that was glowing luminously blue, snorting mist and flattening their ears.

The falling snow was so thick that it cupped the light like a blanket as it pulsed and grew, growing into the form of a man. Ashura-O appeared from the light.

I gripped Chi's mane anxiously, shivering uncontrollably. She nickered back.

"Fai," he told me, almost in a scolding manner. He raised his arms to me as if he wanted a hug. "Why are you leaving so soon? Our guest hasn't even tried our liquor yet, my boy. You haven't lived until you've tasted our country's liquor!"

"We aren't leaving forever!" Well, at least I'm not. "Kurogane just needs to go back home to warm up and see those most precious to him! This world has gotten him sick, and he needs—!"

"Excuses!" Ashura tsked. He looked angrier than I could ever remember him being. Actually—he's never been angry before. But this was different. Malice seemed to come off him in waves.

"Screw you, I'm leaving!" Kurogane spat. He kicked his stallion in the sides, and the horse reared. Ginryu whinnied, running at full-force toward the king.

"NO, KUROGANE!"

I started Chi forward jerkily, but was stopped almost immediately to something bright flying straight at me. Red, blue and white filled my vision and intense pain filled me to the point where everything went black. I jolted backward from the hit, and everything went numb except for one feeling.

Warmth leaked away from me. Ice replaced it.

As the memories came back, the pain directing at my eye intensified dramatically. I groaned, gritting my teeth as more tears fell down my cheeks. I looked up at Kuro-tan with my face screwed up in agony. His own tears had dried up, but his eyes still held some sort of haunted look.

I glanced to my other side, where I could see the other person working on my left eye with sharp-looking objects and a water bowl at her side. She was thin but tall—even while sitting on the floor—with browned skin and pretty black hair. She reminded me of Kuro-burro, especially with those clothes she wore: thin fabrics with a crescent moon-shape over her heart.

Looking at her, studying her clothing, I was jolted with the realization—

"We made it," I croaked softly.

Kuro's warm hand touched my cheek—when he had stopped holding me down? I couldn't remember. My eye moved back over to his, blinking slowly as my thoughts sluggishly pieced itself together. Kurogane stroked my cheek some more, moving hair away from my face gingerly. "Yes, we did."

"Lucky you did, too," the woman piped in, "otherwise you would have died, child. Any other world would have left you for dead." Her voice was brisk, not all-too emotional.

Kuro-chi growled at her under his breath. She retorted with a comment I couldn't hear.

I continued to watch Kuro-tan. My eye refused to move an inch from him. "What's wrong with me?" I whispered to him, even though I could already feel the jabbing pain in my eye that told me just what was wrong. I only wanted confirmation.

"Your dumbass king stabbed you in the eye with magic. It was completely turned into— well, that doesn't matter much." I could hear a gag in his voice. …It must not have been pretty… "You won't be able to see anything from that eye anymore."

"But it's good to be able to see at all at this point," the woman added, swiveling a swab around in my eye socket.

"Shut up, Soma."

"I'm just saying what's true. Now, let me fix him up and I can leave you two alone for the rest of the day, alright?" Her voice wasn't very mad-sounding, but it didn't sound happy either.

Kuro grunted and said no more.

My breathing was harsh from pain and stress, and my chest ached from how rapidly it was rising and falling. I squeezed my right eye shut, hoping to pass out again. At least that would get rid of the pain. But no…I was wide awake, aware of every little move around me, every touch on my skin. I bit my lip hard so I wouldn't scream, and soon tasted blood.

Kurogane continued to stroke my face. He touched the point between my eyebrows, smoothing the folds there, and keeping my face as relaxed as possible. I turned to him again, but squeaked as one of Soma's blades slid over the inside of my socket as a result. Quickly I righted myself.

His hand was warm on my face. I wanted to lean into it, but I fought that. Pain was far more important to think about than his gentle touches. I settled with opening my eye and gazing over at him.

"There, done!" Soma said suddenly, taking the cold sharp things out of my eye and wrapping them in a soiled-red cotton cloth. She gently dipped a swab in water and finished cleaning out the socket before wrapping my useless eye with a cool white cloth. She collected the medicines and tools in her arms. "I'll leave some painkillers and sleeping herbs for you if he looks like he's in pain," she told Kuro, standing and bowing to him respectfully. "Call if you need any help."

Kurogane grunted and waved her off.

He reached forward and rested his palm over my empty socket after the woman left. "It's my fault," he mumbled, bowing his head and refusing to look me in the eye. "If I hadn't charged that madman…"

"Shh," I whispered. I shakily raised my own hand and placed it over his, which felt like a furnace to my icy hands. "He was mad at me for trying to leave. It's not your fault."

I took a moment to glance around the room, which was a lot different than in my world. It was fairly plain, yet with strange exotic designs along the top rim and the flooring was wooden. (Me: I don't feel like describing this anymore. But you all should know what these rooms look like anyway, if you've read/watched Tsubasa.)

"—doesn't matter," Kuro-Kuro was saying, so I snapped back to attention. "I should have stayed near you. I could have done something!" In his lap, his free hand clenched into a fist.

I closed my eye, holding his hand tightly. "It's too late to be feeling guilty," I told him. "It's… um, it's like my brother. I can't do anything about his death, so it's best to move on, right? The same goes here. I'll be like this whether it was what you intended or not." I paused to look up at him. "Nothing can be done about it," I stressed.

He sighed deeply, shoulders sagging. "I know."

I closed my eye again, giving him a half-smile. "I'm not in pain anymore," I informed him. "So I'm okay. How are you, though?"

"Awful."

I twitched, squeezing his hand tighter. "Are you injured?"

"I'm not hurt that way," he scoffed, turning his hand palm-up to squeeze back. "But to see you in pain like this… it also hurts me."

My smile widened a little at that. "Funny how we've only known each other for… how long? A week? I don't remember." I glanced at him. Kuro had settled down next to me on the odd floor bed, still holding onto my hand as if it was a lifeline. His face was every, every close to mine now. I blushed self-consciously.

He propped up his face with the palm of his free hand, looking thoughtful minus the sad look that still lingered in his ruby eyes. "I'm not quite sure myself, to be honest," he met my eye. "But it sure does seem to feel like an eternity, doesn't it?"

My gaze became relieved. "So I'm not the only one who thought that…" I murmured to him. I angled my head to the ceiling. "How long was I unconscious?"

He sighed deeply under his breath. "Princess Tomoyo was waiting for us when we landed, and we got here in a short time. According to the sun, you were probably out for a few hours."

"Wow," I said, amazed. "Only that long?"

Kuro-puu chuckled. "You may also want to know one other thing, mage."

I looked back to him. "Yeah?"

He looked down awkwardly, studying our entwined fingers. "About Ginryu and Chi—"

Something crashed just outside the room. The door opened, and two big animals came bounding at us. Huge hunting dogs. They barked and howled and skittered to a stop next to me. One was white, the other black. The black one trotted around us a few times with excited yips. The white one gazed down at me solemnly with deep green eyes.

I gasped. "CHI?!"

The hound huffed and shook its fur out. "It is wonderful that you're awake, child of magic. That wound you suffered was catastrophic."

"Eh heh heh," the black dog responded—obviously Ginryu. "You should've seen yourself, kid! A poor bloody mess! Little ol' Chi here had to lick up all the blood to keep it from drowning you."

Chi growled sharply, lashing out with a paw at her companion. "Who are you to call me little and old?"

Ginryu laughed, which came out with a wagging tail.

I smiled weakly, shocked by their appearances. "It's good to see you two again."

"Hell yeah!"

"Shut up, dog breath. He's in a bad enough state without your presence making things worse."

"HEY! Don't be mean! It was you who came in here in a rush."

"I WAS NOT!"

They started to chase each other around the room, Ginryu joking around and Chi racing behind yelling insults and threats. Their barking deafened me.

"OI!" Kurogane barked (pffftt… Kuro-woof), waving them off with his hand. "Fai needs rest, and this racket isn't going to help give him that! Quiet down or get out!" The dogs stopped running around, watching Kuro-burro with a mixture of shock and awe.

They bowed their heads to him, trying to show him that they were done bickering. Chi trotted up to me and nuzzled the cheek right below my wounded eye. I reached up and patted her muzzle.

"Forgive us for the trouble we caused," she whispered to me, licking the bandage. "Get some rest. You'll need it."

I smiled at her, nodding.

"What'd she say?" Kuro asked into my ear. My head tilted to him and I gave him a long look, just to memorize the shades of tan on his face, and the many different reds that glittered in his eyes. My smile faded except for a tiny tipping of the lips.

"Sleep," I informed him.

He cocked his head at me. Those eyes of his seemed to look straight into my soul, and I blinked to try and shake off an unrecognizable tension in my gut. I avoided his gaze.

Chi circled a couple times in place, her fluffy tail tickling my face numerous times before she finally settled herself down next to my head. Her warm breath fanned my face. Ginryu did the same on Kuro's side.

Kurogane looked from one dog to the other before he sighed. He lay back down and took both of my hands in his. "I'll stay right here," he promised me, squeezing my hands. I turned my head to face him, pursing my lips a little.

"Kuro-sama."

"Mm?"

I closed my eye and shuffled closer to him.

"I'll stay," I told him back.

I could hear the smile in his voice when he replied to that with: "Is that right? I'll hold you to that, idiot magician."

"Sure you will." I yawned.

He let go of one of my hands only to sling his arm over my shoulders. "Go to sleep," he commanded. "A quick nap isn't going to hurt anyone."

I nodded silently.

He was very warm, but it was also warm in the room. It was so unlike my homeland that I was entirely grateful that no one had thought to put blankets over me. I was already hot. In my thoughts, I faintly recognized how Kuro's heart thumped steadily in his chest. My thoughts began to slow along with the beats, and my head nodded slightly along with the sound. Kuro-pii started to snore gently.

My mind was peaceful. Throbbing from the past pain in my eye, yes, but peaceful. I was glad to be alive for the first time in my life. Alive, only because Kuro had been by my side, every moment of the way. To be alive was no longer just for the sake of my twin, but for this burly boy sleeping soundly next to me.

Kuro-tan muttered something in his sleep. I shifted again, tucking my head under his chin, and letting sleep take me. This time, I was ready to wake up and get on with my life.

Because this man was by my side.

DONE! (took long enough XD) So sorry for the wait. It's been taking me longer and longer to write these… and I'm only writing during the weekend on two different fan fictions. That's the only time I can actually sit down and think about writing. Oh well. This chapter's done! I hope you liked it!

Keep being awesome, guys!