And I'm back! Apologies for the long wait! Are you guys still reading this?! :) I'm also sorry for any typos you might spot.. I was falling asleep as I was editing this. It might be jet lag. :( This chapter's rating is probably more like M, just so you know. :)
SnowyOwl765 - Thank you for the comments! You'll get your answer this chapter. ;)
Speechless guest - your reply is on tumblr, as usual!
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me.
the sands of Harasa
Chapter 6: A Long Night
They were forced to make camp soon after sunset. Without a full moon to illuminate the land, it was difficult to locate a decent slope on the other edge of the dry wash, and Kurogane wasn't about to attempt a climb with the car in these conditions. So, he'd cleared a large circle from a patch of low shrub, and the kids had built a campfire in the middle of it. The murky yellow fire danced in its stone circle, fed conscientiously by the princess while Syaoran gathered more twigs for firewood.
Kurogane sat by the fire with the princess, cleaning Souhi with slow, rhythmic strokes of his polishing rag. "You ever thought about learning to fight?" he asked, studying her from the corner of his eye.
Sakura blinked up at him, features aglow with yellow light. "Sometimes," she admitted with a downward glance. "It feels like I'm in the way when you, Fai-san and Syaoran-kun have to fight to protect me."
"Don't get me wrong. I don't mean it's a pain to keep you safe," he muttered, looking to the side, where Fai was barely visible behind another boulder. From this angle, only wispy gold hair and the pages of a notebook were visible, propped on a cloaked knee. "Just that I think you'd be safer if you knew how to defend yourself. Can't keep relying on that luck of yours."
She nodded earnestly. "Will you teach me?"
"I've been talking about that with the mage," he answered. At least, whenever Fai had been in a decent enough mood to discuss the princess. "He's right though. It'll be easier if you learned his style of fighting. Especially since he doesn't rely on as much strength." At her nod, he continued, "learning to fight isn't just about the fighting. It's about honor codes. Ninja don't fight the unarmed. We don't abuse our abilities to stab allies in the back or harm the innocent."
"You were protecting your princess, weren't you?" she asked quietly, green eyes glimmering in the firelight.
He looked down at his sword—long and lethal, but a different one from what he'd started out with all the same. There was no replicating Ginryuu, with the charms worked into it from countless generations of his father's bloodline. "Yeah."
"I'm sure she was lucky to have you," the princess said. "You've been helping us all this way."
Not for the first time, he noticed that Sakura had the same eyes Tomoyo did. They had kind eyes, green and grey both, that reminded him of the way his mother had looked at him. It helped soothe the sting of Tomoyo's goodbye, and all his grievances about the seal on his forehead. Kurogane swallowed. "She— She sent me away."
"And you have been protecting me ever since. Thank you." Sakura laid her firewood to a side, reached over to cover Kurogane's hand with her smaller one. She was tiny, thin and fragile, and Kurogane was reluctant to hurt her in teaching her to fight. The bruise on her cheek had turned a dull yellow-green now, and the spots on it were vaguely visible.
He wasn't surprised by the calm in his chest when he looked at her. She was almost as important to him as Tomoyo. "I swore fealty to Tomoyo. I can't—"
"That's fine." She smiled at him, curled her fingers into his palm. "You're a cherished friend, Kurogane-san. I'm glad to be traveling with you."
He gave a short bark of laughter then. "You were born to be a princess," he said. "Diplomatic. Good. Kind."
(Sort of like Fai.)
Sakura smiled. Kurogane let his own grin linger, turned his hand so he held her fingers with his thumb. Being loyal to Tomoyo didn't mean he couldn't protect someone else at the same time.
"Princess," he murmured, lifting her hand and pressing warm fingers to his forehead. He had to bend at the waist to do so, instead of dipping his head, but that was fine. It was the same token of loyalty he'd given to the Tomoyo of Yama.
When he released her hand, Sakura got to her knees, leaned in, and kissed his forehead. "Thank you," she whispered.
He nodded, turned away for sheer lack of words to say. She settled back down next to him, feeding more wood into the fire. Smoke puffed into the cloudy sky above.
"What should I do first? To learn to fight," Sakura said a moment later. "Syaoran-kun said you tested his reflexes on a stream."
He smiled wryly. "Like I said, the first step of learning to fight is knowing the honor code behind it. We don't hurt the innocent."
"Do you and Fai-san share the same code?"
It was a simple question, and Kurogane realized that he did not know what Fai had been taught. He knew Fai enough, though, through their countless days of fighting in Yama, that Fai wasn't one to kill if he didn't have to. "Probably," he said. "What he does is mostly dodging. You'll have to get your reflexes up to speed. Your body needs to be able to keep up."
She nodded.
"You'll do the kata with me," he decided, reaching over her crossed legs to pull a straighter branch from the firewood pile. He snapped off the twigs along it, and fished a small dagger out to whittle the bark off one end of the branch. When that was done, he handed it to her, showing her how to grip the makeshift handle. "Whenever the kid does his exercises, you'll do them along with him."
"Fai-san doesn't practice like you do," she pointed out, gripping the branch with her fingers, turning it this way and that.
Kurogane shrugged. He got to his feet, flicked his gaze over to where Fai still sat. The blond hair had disappeared from sight now, and so had the notebook, but Kurogane spotted his shoes peeking out behind some shrubs. He was willing to bet that the wizard had heard their entire exchange. If Fai had nothing to say against it, then he'd start with the training now. It wasn't as if they had much else to do before the kids went to sleep. "Stand up. I'll show you some of the basic kata."
He drew Souhi and used it to demonstrate the first three kata. Sakura followed in his footsteps; he corrected her stances and the way she held the branch.
"It might not end up helping with the mage's technique," he said, "but it'll give you a sense of how to move. Either way, you need the muscle memory to react quickly in dangerous situations."
She nodded. When Syaoran returned to deposit more firewood, he got the kid to take over the princess's training. Kurogane watched as the boy and his princess practiced the kata together, Sakura with her branch and Syaoran with Hien. More often than not, Syaoran had to correct the way the girl stood, or the way she held her makeshift sword, but it helped reinforce what he knew of sword-fighting.
Halfway through, Kurogane had Mokona withdraw a long dagger from storage. It wasn't as heavy as his long sword or Syaoran's, but it did have a heft that the princess had to get used to.
The princess took well to the new weapon. She eyed it warily, without fear or calculation. Kurogane had known that she was someone he'd be proud to teach, but seeing the determined set of her jaw helped him realize just how much he wanted her to succeed with her training.
There were still no worms approaching by the time they got ready to retire for the night. Fai emerged from hiding and ushered the kids into the car to sleep, and Kurogane waited by the fire for him.
"I approve of the dagger," Fai said as he settled into the dirt next to Kurogane, watching ribbons of fire flicker before them. "Lightweight. Easy to transport. I don't really peg Sakura-chan as the sort to get bloody—"
"She will if she has to," Kurogane pointed out.
The wizard frowned at him. "But she's a princess, Kuro-pon."
"All royalty will get bloody if they have to." Kurogane looked pointedly at him; Fai glanced away, expression closed. "Tomoyo wounded me once." He held his left hand out, palm open so yellow firelight lit the vertical scar in its middle. It caught Fai's attention. "Was probably the only way to stop me then."
Fai opened his mouth, closed it. He wanted to ask about that scar, but he was caught between knowing and staying away. Kurogane could tell. So, he volunteered the information.
"My parents were murdered. I went on a rampage. The princess was late coming."
"Oh." The wizard's eyes clouded over; he blinked and turned his gaze away.
"Just saying that princesses can and will draw blood if they have to. And there's a way out of the darkness." Because Fai did have that haunted look sometimes, the one that Kurogane had seen on himself a long time ago. He didn't think he was anywhere close to helping Fai out of his past, but. He could try. "And you can teach the princess the dirty tricks. I can't do that for her."
Fai breathed a laugh then. It broke the heavy tension that had settled between them, turned it into something lighter. "What makes you think I know dirty moves, Kuro-tan?"
He snorted. "Of course you do. A person with your experience can't not know how to fight like that."
"You're very experienced yourself, Kuro-wan." Fai raised his eyebrows, looked at him from beneath his lashes.
It felt as if they weren't talking about fighting anymore.
"Tch." He focused on shoving more twigs into the fire. "Whatever it is, you're better at evading than I am. The princess can be flexible. She just needs to practice that too."
Fai hummed. He reached across Kurogane and picked up a twig, prodding at the fire so yellow sparks floated into the air. "I can see her evading a lot. She's small. It'll be easy for her to turn speed to her advantage. Can you imagine? Sakura-chan as an offensive type. Fast and lethal."
Kurogane grinned. "Now we're talking."
The wizard drew a sharp breath, glanced quickly away. When it didn't seem like he was going to answer, Kurogane shrugged.
"Didn't think you'd save her brother and his friend. Or their other selves. You know, back in Shura." He didn't really know where he was going with this, only that he wanted Fai to know he saw. It hadn't occurred to him to save anyone beyond Syaoran and Fai back there.
Fai shrugged, poked the charred remains of his stick into the ground, where it crumbled. "They're important to Sakura-chan." More quietly, "imagine if they died there. She'd be devastated."
"Yeah. Hey." Kurogane glanced toward the car, where the princess and the kid seemed to have fallen asleep. It was quiet. "Still need the fire?"
Fai blinked at him. He seemed to understand Kurogane's offer then, licking his lips and looking away. "Not right now, no."
Kurogane rolled onto his knees to empty a bowl of sand onto the fire. Fai helped. There was a bowl by his side, too. The fire went out with a quiet sputter, plunging them into near-complete darkness. Fai sank back onto his heels, bowl thudding next to his thigh.
He began to murmur, "we should—"
Kurogane leaned over and kissed him. It hadn't been all that long since their last night in Yama, really, but between Shura and Shara and this new world, Kurogane wanted very much to touch. He'd been thinking about this since the previous night; it felt like an awfully long time since then.
Fai fell silent, opened his mouth to him, hands coming up to grasp the front of his cloak. The kiss was surprisingly comforting. It was all lips at first, seeking and giving, until Fai slipped a hand into the folds of Kurogane's cloak, dragged nails down his chest.
They landed with a thump into soft sand, Fai dragging him down, mouth open and inviting, and Kurogane had to stifle his groan. Fai's mouth was wet and soft, like other things, and the slow slide of a thin hand down between his legs didn't help. He rocked into Fai's palm, shifted his weight onto one arm so he could return the favor.
It hadn't taken either of them much time to grow hard. He brushed his knuckles over the bulge in Fai's pants, heard the other's breath hitch. The kiss turned heavy, damp breaths puffing, and his fingers slid hungrily along Fai's erection, stroking it firmly so Fai's hips surged up, needing more. He whimpered breathlessly; Kurogane silenced him, fumbled with the buttons of his pants.
This wasn't the best place to do this, not when the car was so close, but he was reluctant to stop right now, when Fai's cock was sliding wetly against his palm. His own pulse throbbed in his pants; Fai's fingers were scrabbling at him, needing to hold on to something.
The wind picked up around them then, lightly at first. Kurogane ignored it, dipping into Fai's mouth and stroking him. Fai's breathing was broken, like he was trying to catch his breath but he couldn't, and he writhed under Kurogane, clawing at him, tight little moans sounding from his throat.
He pulled back slightly, heart pounding, half-thinking of relocating further down when the wind turned into a gale. Sand blew into their faces, into their eyes and mouths and pants, and Kurogane swore, pulling away. His eyes stung.
Sand came at them from all directions. He didn't know where it was blowing from, but the soft ground beneath them was turning into flying, stinging needles with every gust of wind. He sat up, shielding his eyes from the assault, felt the wizard splutter and do the same.
It was difficult to even breathe. There was sand up his nose and in his throat, annoying prickles of pain on vulnerable skin. Kurogane reached blindly for the wizard, pulling his hood over his head. "Car," he yelled over the wind, got a mouthful of sand for his efforts.
Where his hand had been sticky before, it was now covered in sand. He growled, hitched his pants up, hauled Fai to his feet. The wizard stumbled, one hand holding on to his pants. Kurogane kept his mouth tightly shut, waited for Fai to get himself decent, before grabbing his elbow and dragging him back to the car. Damn it. He'd promised the idiot, too.
He wrenched one of the doors open and shoved Fai in, waiting until the idiot had pulled his legs up before slamming it. It didn't take long for him to throw himself through the other door. The kids exclaimed at their appearance; the wind howled through the window on his side, sending sprays of sand into the car. Fai leaned over him to roll his window up.
"The hell was that?" he asked between bouts of coughing, blinking hard and trying to spit the gritty sand from his mouth and throat. The overhead light had come on in the car, but his eyes were tearing up too much for him to see a thing.
"Sandstorm. I'm sorry we didn't wake up until it was on us in full force," Syaoran answered apologetically. Both his seat and Sakura's had been drawn upright, and the princess was peering between their headrests at them.
"Are you okay, Fai-san, Kurogane-san?"
"Yeah." He was about as fine as being kicked in the gut, but it wasn't like this was new. Kurogane breathed a frustrated sigh, huffing breath after breath in an attempt to get the sand out of his throat. Having Fai all but sprawled over his lap right now was a rude reminder of what they'd been in the middle of. At least Fai was in the same situation he was. He was still hard, and there was sand in his pants.
The howling from outside cut off the moment his window was entirely rolled up. Fai leaned back into his corner of the backseat, working his tongue distastefully around in his mouth. He wasn't looking at Kurogane. "I think we'll be fine," he said, voice rough. "Do you have some water?"
Syaoran shoved a bottle of water at them. Fai took the first mouthful and handed it over to Kurogane, who did the same. It seemed a waste to spit water out in the desert, but he would much rather not swallow a mouthful of dirt. Instead, Kurogane emptied his mouth onto a clean patch of his cloak, and used that to wipe his face. There were still bits of sand in his mouth.
Fai swallowed his mouthful of water with a wince. "Well. That was an experience," he said in an attempt to be cheerful, looking towards the kids. "How long will the storm last for?"
The boy grimaced. "Anything from a few minutes to hours."
Outside, the wind whistled and threw bits of sand at their windows. It was completely black out, and they couldn't see past a few inches into the darkness. The light in the car flickered off after about a minute; Kurogane saw the way Fai shifted in his seat. He sighed, tipped his head back. It wasn't as if they could pick up where they left off. Fai brought his legs up, pressed his lips together.
Fai knew that the kids couldn't see in the dark. He wouldn't look like that otherwise.
After a while, the wizard tried on another smile. "We should be safe in here, shouldn't we?" he chirped. "Just for tonight, we'll try sleeping like this. It'll be safer, anyway."
The kids chorused an affirmation. Kurogane ran a hand through his hair, found it riddled with sand. Fai began talking about the storms they'd narrowly avoided in the other worlds, about dodging from angry crowds and animals and things.
Kurogane closed his eyes, breathed slow and deep, drawing himself into a doze. If there was something they needed him for, Fai would wake him.
The winds had died down by the time he woke. Kurogane looked through the window on his side, saw the shrub-covered landscape of the wash. A sheen of water glittered at the base of the shrubs, rippling and reflecting scant moonlight. He frowned. It looked peaceful out, though he hadn't heard any rain falling while he dozed. Hadn't the kid said that washes would flood? Perhaps they should have moved from this place, but the water level seemed hardly dangerous, and it wasn't rising. Kurogane glanced around the landscape, could see no sign of rain, only the scattered shapes of clouds in the sky.
In the front seats of the car, the kids and Mokona were breathing slow and deep, seats lowered partway back so they could sleep at a more comfortable angle. Fai was probably the one who told them to do that. He looked over at the wizard. Fai was still curled up in his seat, though he wasn't asleep. He turned his head when Kurogane moved; a brief acknowledgement. If the kids were asleep, maybe—
"Hey," he said clearing his throat so his voice came out easier. "It rained?"
Fai shook his head. The windows were dry. "The water just flowed through. There wasn't much of it, and the children were asleep, so I didn't think it was important enough to wake you."
"Huh." Kurogane moved to find a more comfortable spot on the hard seat, rolling his stiff shoulders. Something rattled behind him. He frowned, turned to look at the stacks of boxes behind the back seat. There was more than one presence there. "Do you sense that?"
Fai blinked at him, and his eyes sharpened. "Yes."
They were worms. Small ones. They were somewhere behind the backseat. It was enough to make his stomach turn. "Why didn't you sense them earlier?" Kurogane hissed.
The wizard frowned and looked away. "My thoughts were elsewhere."
But how had the worms appeared in the boxes?
He thought about the last time they'd seen the worms, remembered the splatter of gore across the windshield and down beneath the belly of the car. Kurogane swore, gripped his sword. He couldn't possibly use any of his attacks right now. "We need to kill these. Come on."
Kurogane opened the door quietly, headed around to the back of the car. The worms were buried deep in their supplies. He swung the door to the trunk open, lifted up the back window. The other passenger door opened and shut then, and Fai splashed through the water to join him.
"What do you propose we do?" the wizard asked.
He rolled his eyes. "You're the expert on these. You tell me."
Kurogane pulled the clean boxes out first, the ones that did not contain worms. There were only a couple of these, containing dried rations and bottles of water. He handed them to Fai, who slid them onto the hard plastic top of the car. The water and fuel drums were the next to go onto the roof. These, Kurogane hefted up himself.
He paused when he got to the last four cardboard boxes. They had been full of food supplies for the journey, but when he tried sensing their contents now, he could only detect the presence of worms. He exchanged a look with Fai; the wizard's expression was grim. "Shit," he muttered.
"Let's get them out, Kuro-pon," Fai said.
Kurogane tossed the cardboard boxes onto the flooded campground behind the car, clicked the door shut. A cloud of dense whitish vapor billowed out when he gingerly pried the first box open, almost hitting him in the face. He rocked back and held his breath, waited for the fumes to dissipate.
When he looked inside, all he saw were soaked, empty food wrappers and splatters of ichor around the insides of the box. The worms in there were dead.
Puzzled, he headed to the next box, dodging the dense vapors. This second box had some flatbread and fruit remaining, mostly chewed through. There was something alive in this one. He kicked the box to shake its contents up, drew his sword.
To his surprise, there was a little splash. Something exploded with a tiny pop. Ichor splattered out of the box, and there was no more living presence within.
"Strange," Fai murmured behind him. "Don't touch the last two, Kuro-sama. I have theories I want to test."
He snorted, but stepped back to let the wizard handle the other boxes. When Fai pried the third lid open, a small puff of vapor seeped out. Kurogane still sensed worms, however. He watched as the wizard snapped off a branch from a nearby plant, pushing it into the box.
"Here, I see a worm. It's not attacking." Fai prodded and poked, and then there was another pop, followed by a splatter of more gory fluids. Fai jerked away from the box. Kurogane frowned. Was there a way to kill these things? He watched as Fai jabbed again, and moved things around the box with a rattle. There was another pop, followed by another, and another. "Ha," Fai breathed. "I think I know how they die."
Kurogane approached the fourth box warily, waited for the wizard to ease its flaps open. There were three worms in here. Fai used his stick to flip away pieces of flatbread, until he exposed the first one. It was chewing greedily away, sharp teeth tearing into bread. Kurogane felt sick to his stomach.
Fai nudged at the worm so it rolled off, into the pool of water that had seeped up through the base of the cardboard. Two seconds ticked by.
Pop! The worm burst, sending ichor splattering and a cloud of vapor rising into the air.
"What."
"Mhmm. Looks like they can't be submerged in water." Fai riffled through the remaining food with his branch, unearthing the other two worms. Kurogane saw the way they rolled into the water, shuddered and swelled and exploded, covering the sides of the cardboard box with their innards.
"That's disgusting," he said. "And we're short of food."
"Unfortunately, yes." Fai poked around the ichor-stained remnants of their supplies, slanted a somber glance at him. "Would you eat this?"
Kurogane made a face. "Are you kidding? No. I'd rather hunt for food."
"You'll be the one hunting, then."
"Are you going to eat it?" Fai shook his head. "Then you should help."
"I can go without."
"Tch. You're eating, damn it." He rolled his eyes, followed as Fai made his way back to the car. The idiot did not answer. "So the other worms fled because of the flood. They sensed the water."
"That's what I'm guessing, yes." Fai began to move the boxes of food back into the car, taking care to set them down quietly. "The worms can't stand to absorb all this water. They'd burst. So they left. That's why Sakura-chan wasn't attacked earlier today."
"But they bit my leg." Kurogane glanced down at where his robes were growing dark with floodwater. "Blood doesn't kill them."
Fai shrugged. "It appears to be pure water that does it."
"Good to know." It wasn't as if they could carry around large quantities of water, but if there was rain, they would be safe from the worms. "You're not starving yourself, just so you know."
The wizard raised his eyebrows. "Kuro-rin is determined to shove food down my throat, is he?"
Kurogane glared. "I will if it comes down to that, yes."
Fai shrugged, turned to open the car door. Kurogane caught his arm.
"Hey," he said, when Fai looked back at him in question. "Do you have more birds? For your magic."
The wizard looked away, gaze downcast. "You should stop caring, Kuro-pon," he said quietly. "Seriously. We aren't in Yama anymore. We're not playing House with each other."
He dragged Fai nearer so the idiot stumbled a little, splashing water onto their robes. Kurogane brought his mouth close to his ear, so close he could smell the dried sweat and sand in his hair. "Maybe it's a game to you, idiot. It never was one to me."
Fai wasn't smiling when Kurogane released him. He didn't move, either. Kurogane stalked away, pausing to brush his robe open and unzip his pants.
"Peeing here, Kuro-tan?" Fai's voice wasn't back to that awful lilt, but it was filled with amusement all the same. "It'll go everywhere in this flood. That's very unpleasant. You don't want the children stepping in it."
"No," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm getting the sand out of my pants."
It had been uncomfortable sleeping in it, and he'd be damned if he had sand going up where it shouldn't. Kurogane brushed the sand off, looked over his shoulder, where Fai was still watching him.
"I'll bet you aren't feeling that great with all that sand, either. 'Specially if it goes up your ass crack."
Fai grimaced. "How rude."
"Is it?" Kurogane brushed his hands off, zipped his pants back up. "Tell me you'd rather scratch while you're making food for the kids."
The wizard stared at him, horrified. "That's just unsanitary, Kuro-rinta. I would never do that. How could you even suggest such a thing?"
"Then tell me you aren't itching." Fai had been wet, and wet and sand did not go well together.
"I refuse." But there was a pinched look about his face, now that his thoughts had gone in that direction. Kurogane snorted.
"Or do you want me to—"
Fai had curled his hands into his robes, holding them by his sides. "No! No. This is none of your business. Stop looking, Kuro-ron!"
He watched, amused, as Fai splashed his way to the front of the car and hunched over to see to himself. Kurogane returned to his side of the backseat, looking up in an attempt to glimpse the stars. There had been plenty out the night before, like a glittering blanket of speckles. Tonight, though, there were clouds, and they had only grown thicker and lower since he woke.
"Hey," he said, hand on the door handle. "It smells like rain, doesn't it?"
Fai glanced back at him, nostrils flared as he took a deep breath. Unease spread through his face. He looked up at the sky and along the wash, where the flood had probably come from earlier. There was no mistaking the heaviness in the air, the dusty wet scent that wasn't there before. It was a smell that they'd experienced through many worlds, and the farmers of Nihon celebrated its presence. "We should get out of here."
Kurogane pulled the door open and stuck his head in. "Wake up," he told the kids. "It's gonna rain."
They stirred. By the time Fai got to the driver's side door, he was back to wearing a calm mask, friendly and cheerful and helping Syaoran into the backseat as if there wasn't a flood hanging over their heads. "Kuro-rin needs to drive," he told the boy. "Sakura-chan, you can stay there if you want, but put your seat belt on!"
Kurogane busied himself with securing their remaining supplies. It didn't take long for Syaoran to see the ankle-deep flood around them, and the low clouds above. Kurogane didn't bother giving the kids reassurances, not when he didn't know how things were going to turn out.
The tension in the car had mounted by the time they were all strapped in. Kurogane started the engine, switched the headlights on. The car came with a brighter set of headlights; they did not illuminate very much further ahead, however. Shadows lingered on the opposite side of the wash, so it looked as though there were slopes to exit everywhere. Kurogane knew better, knew their surest chance of getting out was to fly, but Fai wasn't going to help with that.
The car kicked up water and sand when he gunned the engine. Driving with power behind all four wheels helped only so much; he was forced to slow down when they bounced roughly over the low brush beyond their campgrounds, hard seats sending nasty jolts into their tailbones.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
Next to him, Sakura peered out of her open window. He would have preferred Fai to be by his side in this situation—the wizard's magic was more far-reaching than anything he or the princess could do—but Fai had tucked himself behind Kurogane, looking warily out at the first fat droplets of rain falling outside.
It wasn't easy to see dips in the ground, not when they were hidden beneath a smooth mirror of water. Kurogane cursed each time they hit a rough bump, edging them ever closer to the wash in case there was a slope they could take out of this place. Lightning lit the low clouds from within.
It reminded him of that first week in Yama, when Fai had stripped and bathed in the rain, a thin, beautiful silhouette against purple-lit sky. Back then, they hadn't been faced with the very real possibility of being washed away by floodwaters.
"There was a flood in Yama when Kuro-rin and I were there," Fai said, as if hearing his thoughts. Kurogane felt a smile twitch his lips. At Sakura's pleas for him to tell more, Fai continued. "It rained for two days straight. We had to pack up and move the camp further uphill. Even the forest was flooded."
It wasn't the whole truth, but that was fine. What happened there was between him and Fai alone.
Rain began to fall harder, dense vertical lines in the polygon of their headlights. Kurogane set the windshield wipers going, scanned the land up ahead. There were going to be repercussions if they didn't decide on something, and soon. The water level around them was already starting to rise. "Hey—"
"The rain was so cold, and Kuro-wan shoved these horrid sour things in my mouth—"
"We need to find a way out," Syaoran cut in urgently. "This will flood."
Fai shut up. Kurogane huffed. "What's the next best option?" he asked.
"If we get caught in the flood, we need to anchor ourselves to something. Like some boulders that won't get washed away," the boy answered from the back. "Huge ones."
He frowned and peered through the rain, sweeping his gaze across the wash. The boulders around them were either too small or too far apart, nothing that would help hold the car down against a massive flow of water. Kurogane muttered a curse, revved the engine to turn them back to where he'd seen a cluster of boulders like the ones they'd woven through to get into the wash.
"Hurry, Kuro-pon!" Fai said, patting his shoulder.
"I know that," he snapped back.
The kid had warned about flash floods, water that gushed over the land like a dam had shattered. They didn't know how long ago the rain had started. Kurogane jerked the steering wheel so they swerved around protruding rocks in the ground, blinked away the rainwater that had begun falling sideways into the car. He couldn't close the window—he needed it to look out, and rain-streaked glass would only hamper his vision.
The windshield wipers slid back and forth, wiping water droplets away, only for more to take their place. Visibility was going down fast; they were still a quarter mile or so away from a decent cluster of boulders, and it felt like there wasn't enough time.
Tick, tick, tick, tick.
"There's a wave coming," Syaoran cried.
Kurogane swore, glanced over his shoulder. He saw the vague shape of a foamy crest in the distance, like wild horses charging them down. "Hang on," he shouted, stepped hard on the gas.
The car jerked forward. They bounced roughly over the low brush. Mokona flew out of the princess's hands, ricocheted around in the car with a wail. They tilted this way and that; someone banged their head against a head rest, and Kurogane grit his teeth, coaxing the car ever forward.
The wave front was closing in, faster than they could move. They were still a hundred yards away from the boulders, and Kurogane could not risk going any faster. They would have to stop before they crashed.
They heard the roar of water before it hit. When it did, they were still a handful of yards away; Kurogane jammed his aching foot on the brakes, swerved the car sideways so they didn't crash head-first into solid rock.
Frothing, muddy water slammed into the side of the car, tipping them sideways. Kurogane's stomach lurched. Water cascaded in through the windows, poured over their laps and splashed at their faces, gushing out through the other side. Except the other side of the car was tilted into the roiling water beneath, and Sakura was scrabbling at her seat belt, leaning up towards Kurogane, her face inches from swirling water.
Scarcely had he unbuckled her seat belt and yanked her up towards him when the second wave came down upon them, smashing over their heads and flooding the entire car with cold, icy water. It knocked the breath out of his lungs. Kurogane stretched out with his senses, eyes screwed shut—
Mokona's magical signature slipped out through the windows, sailing as certainly as the water took her away.
"Mage," he yelled, grabbing at his belt buckle.
"I can't," Fai gasped behind him. Water splashed. "She's going too fast. I can't— I— I lost her."
"We need to get that thing back," he snapped, securing one foot on the side of the dripping center console and one hand on the door handle to keep his balance the moment his seat belt snapped off. "Princess."
"I'm fine," Sakura said shakily, shivering hard in his grasp. "I'm worried about Moko-chan."
A quick glance to the back showed the kid drenched but otherwise leaning on Fai, his face the very picture of regret. "I'm sorry. I was the one who failed to catch her in time—"
"It's done. Tch. Save it." Kurogane threw his weight against the door. It wasn't enough to tip the vehicle back onto its other wheels. Rain pattered onto his face. "The white thing doesn't get hurt, right? Since she's magic?"
"As far as I know, she'll be fine," Fai said, his tone filled with forced cheer. "All we have to do is—"
His next words were lilting and familiar and complete gibberish. Kurogane sighed heavily. This had to happen, didn't it, with them losing food and caught in the middle of a flood. "I don't understand you, idiot."
It was quiet in the car, save for the tinkling of rain on metal doors. Fai heaved an identical sigh. "Idiot," he said in that accent of his.
"We need to get the car straightened out first." Kurogane turned the ignition off—no point having the vehicle run when they weren't going anywhere in this flood.
Another wave crashed through the windows right as Sakura tried to find her footing on the center console. Kurogane grabbed her around the waist, hanging on tight while icy water sluiced around them. The moment the wave passed, Kurogane shook water out of his eyes, surveyed the car again—the water level was higher, now. They couldn't keep hanging on in limbo like this. Even if the car were level, it wouldn't be safe for Fai and the kids to be stuck in it.
"Follow me," he said to the princess, beckoning at her. When she nodded, he opened his door, swung himself up onto the side of the car. "We're going up."
From this vantage point, he could see some distance out across the wash. The entire valley was swamped. Only boulders stood above the choppy surface of the water, and rain fell in sheets around them. The clouds were low and heavy, but the lightning had gone.
"Kuro-pai?" Fai frowned up at him through his window, looking between him and the princess.
"Up." Kurgane jerked his chin at the roof, reaching out for the princess. Sakura grabbed on, tiny hand in his, and slowly pulled herself out of the door. She yelped when her foot slipped on the hard seat, splashing into murky water. Kurogane braced his shoulder against the top of the door frame, wrapped an arm around her and pulled her out, holding her securely against his side. Water lapped at their feet.
Next to them, Fai swung his door open. He guided Syaoran out of the car with both hands on his waist, pushing him firmly to the side so he could shut the door. Syaoran protested; Kurogane took the boy's arm, stepped around him on the rock guard so the boy could be the one to guard the princess instead. Fai opened the door once more, unbuckled himself, and reached out with his pale, thin arms.
Kurogane waited until Fai had found his footing on the rock guard and shut the door, before tapping him on the arm. He pointed between both of them and the boulder the car had toppled against. "We're pushing the car upright."
Fai seemed to understand, looking between the kids, the car and the boulder. He squeezed around Kurogane to press Syaoran's arm firmly around the princess, chattering and gesturing for him to hold on tight. Kurogane understood it. The boy did, too. Fai smiled briefly then, looked back to Kurogane for his next command.
Getting onto the roof of the car wasn't as easy. Kurogane stepped on the driver's seat and the window ledge of the closed passenger door, heaving himself up onto the slick plastic roof. The other edge of the car had been lodged securely against a smooth, tall boulder. He shuffled to the side to make space for Fai, who struggled with the heavy folds of his cloak as he tried to clamber up.
Kurogane reached out for him. Fai took his hand and promptly tripped, and he would have slid ungracefully down the roof and smashed his face against grey rock had Kurogane not grabbed him.
As it was, Fai swung heavily into Kurogane's legs instead. Kurogane grunted at the impact, caught his breath.
"Okay?" he asked the wizard. Fai scrambled to plant his feet on the rock, smiling briefly at him. He patted Kurogane on the shoulder.
None of their attempts at leveling the car worked. They tried grasping onto the upper edge of the roof and pushing with their feet, but the car did not budge. Planting their backs flat against the roof did not help, either. In the time they spent trying to right the car, another three cold waves broke over the kids. Sakura was shivering hard when Fai turned to him, eyes large and worried. He pointed down at the boulder.
Kurogane crouched down when Fai did, braced his feet on the rock face. He curled his fingers into the lower edge of the car roof. Water lapped a few inches below. On the count of three, they pushed at the rock, backs and legs and arms straining. On the other side of the roof, the kids tried tugging at the car, flinging themselves away in an attempt to use their momentum to their advantage.
The car lifted off the rock by an inch, and fell back with a heavy creak.
Kurogane exchanged a look with the wizard. Something was working. They adjusted their feet on the rock, curled in close to the car and heaved.
The car rocked beneath them, arcing downwards with a great splash. Water sprayed into the air, showered onto them. He found himself stretched a foot over the floodwaters.
Next to him, Fai had allowed himself to fall into the water, scrabbling wetly against the car in an attempt to get to the kids. Kurogane gave him a leg up and followed behind, cold water soaking through his clothes anew. He found Fai holding Sakura's hand, rolled his eyes, and nudged the wizard to a side. Fai moved. Kurogane lifted first Sakura, then Syaoran bodily up onto the roof, where they huddled in a growing pool of water, teeth chattering.
Fai shrugged out of his cloak. He pulled his soggy notebook out, wrung the cloak dry, and draped it over both the kids so they'd be sheltered from the rain. It wasn't much help, though. They were now on a little plastic island, with hardly any protection from the elements. Their remaining supplies and blankets were in the car, thoroughly drenched. Fai was only wearing a thin shirt and a pair of pants.
A bottle of water floated out through a window. Now that the car was upright, the bottles of water were no longer trapped in the trunk. Kurogane swore, lunged over to grab it before it could get too far. He shoved it at the kids, plunged back into the chilly water. The cold ate into his bones. More bottles were bobbing in the car; he grabbed at them, pointed Fai to the other window, where there were bottles beyond his reach. The wizard stuck his head down, rescued what he could.
When all the bottles were accounted for, Kurogane peered into the murky depths of the trunk, frowned at the plastic drums bobbing on the water's surface. If the water level raised any more, the flood could take them away. Fai dropped into the water next to him, sending a wave splashing onto his face; Kurogane glared. Fai flapped his hand dismissively, lips quirked in a smile. He pulled the door open. Kurogane watched as the idiot waded in and knelt on the backseat, hefting the water and fuel drums up and over to him.
He wasn't opposed to letting Fai help, but Kurogane didn't think it involved staring at the curve of the wizard's ass when he shoved half his body into the back of the car, arms plunging into dark water. He swallowed.
Fai shoved a mass of blankets at him first. They were utterly sodden, and dripped when Kurogane heaved them onto the roof next to their other supplies. Next came the cardboard boxes. The wizard gave a flat stare when he pushed the boxes of food over. Kurogane glanced into them, couldn't see a thing past vague shapes beneath the water's surface. So much for having food that the worms had spared.
Even so, he slid the leaking boxes onto the roof of the car and joined the wizard on their crowded island. The kids stared at the boxes in dismay. He shrugged. "Nothing you can do there."
Fai smiled at the children and waved at their bottles of water—at least they still had those. He drained the water from the boxes of food, fit the bottles into them so they wouldn't go rolling off the roof.
Kurogane reached out for Fai's notebook, which laid forgotten in a corner. The wizard made to snatch at it. He sighed, pointed between himself and the kid and mimicked writing. Fai looked away grudgingly.
"If you'd used your magic and flown us out, none of this would've happened," he muttered.
The ink had not run in the notebook. Kurogane was inwardly glad; he hated to think all of Fai's efforts wasted, but perhaps the wizard had foreseen that his spells might be drenched. He separated a blank page carefully from the rest, tore it out, and took the pen clipped on the back cover of the notebook. No more food, he wrote as legibly as he could. Worms ate it. Wizard and I killed them. Worms die when in rainwater.
Kurogane handed the sheet to Syaoran, who fumbled with a flashlight. The sudden burst of cool blue brightness hurt his eyes. The boy read the note to himself, eyes growing wide. Syaoran pointed at "worms".
He wasn't keen on writing an essay, but the kids deserved an explanation. He thrust an arm up in the air, fingertips mincing together to represent a worm coming out of the ground. With his other fist, he punched the worm, ramming it flat. He tapped beneath his forearm—the path the worms probably took to get into the car. Kurogane glanced at the boy to see if he understood. Syaoran shook his head.
Fai snickered, took the notebook and pen back. Kurogane narrowed his eyes. "If you're so good at it, you explain."
With Syaoran's torch shining on soggy paper, the wizard drew the car on a slope, and a worm thrusting up to meet it. The next drawing was of the smashed worm, and little worm bits crawling beneath the car. Both Syaoran and Sakura winced; Fai sent a proud smile back at Kurogane. He huffed and turned away. Syaoran snapped his flashlight off.
The rain had eased by this point. Above, the clouds had thinned, and the floodwaters were still around them. It was cold, though. Kurogane shrugged his cloak off, wrung it dry. It didn't make sense to spend the night in wet clothes. So, he pulled his shirt off and wrung that out, too.
The kids were following in his example when he looked back, pants halfway down his legs. Fai was openly staring at him. He rolled his eyes, leaned over to hook a finger into the wizard's wet shirt. The blond gulped, dragged his eyes away, reaching down to pluck at the hem of his clothes.
Fai started with his pants. He kept his back to the kids the entire time, wriggling out of tight black material that seemed to want to cling even worse, now that it was wet. His legs were long and pale in the dimness. (Okay, so Kurogane was staring, himself.) He fumbled with the pants, squeezed them dry and got them back on, and finally pulled his shirt off.
Kurogane hadn't thought he missed seeing the tattoo. It was bold and beautiful on Fai's skin, the phoenix with its wings in front of itself, and he thought briefly about reaching over to trace its lines. It moved with Fai, rippling as the wizard brought his arms close to wring his shirt out.
"Kuro—" There was a flash of artificial light, and Syaoran's words cut off. Kurogane turned to see both kids gaping at Fai's tattoo.
He reached over, covered the flashlight with his palm. "Not your business," he said.
It wasn't as if the kids knew his language, but his sentiments got through to them. Syaoran flicked the light off and turned away, murmuring an apology; Fai hurriedly pulled his shirt back on.
"Look, we're stuck here for the time being. We need to conserve heat until the morning." It was dark, and he didn't have any other way of communicating this. Kurogane reached over for the flashlight, grabbed a cloak. "Share body heat."
Fai tensed when he shifted close enough that their arms touched, but Kurogane was waving the kid closer. When Syaoran shuffled into the space between his knees, he turned the boy around so he faced away, and sat him down. Fai's eyes grew wide when Kurogane draped a damp cloak around the three of them, waved the princess towards Fai.
It wasn't the best solution ever, but he managed to wind their cloaks in snug layers around them. Both kids leaned in for the heat. When Kurogane slid an arm around Fai's back, the idiot swallowed noisily, but did not complain. Maybe he was imagining it when Fai leaned closer.
Come morning, when the first sun of Harasa peeked over the sharp edges of the wash, Kurogane would find that Fai had fallen asleep on his shoulder, Sakura hugged close to himself.
A/N: So... yes, a very long night. I giggled at the pee discussion. I am gross.