Long chapter ahead, watch out!
Reader - you'll find out how they get out of their situation here... sort of. ;) So glad you've been enjoying the story, and thank you!
Speechless guest - your reply is on tumblr, as usual :P
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me.
the sands of Harasa
Chapter 7: A Day Without Words
Water glittered all around when he woke. The sky was more velvet blue than yellow, and the air was still, like the predawn quiet they'd witnessed in so many worlds. He was cozy on two sides, chilly on another, and his forehead had stuck uncomfortably to something warm that moved.
"Oi," Kurogane said, the vibrations of his voice carrying into Fai's forehead.
Fai snuffled and froze. His first instinct was to get away from Kurogane, but his movements were limited by something wrapped around him, and there was another heavy weight on his chest. He looked down, caught straggly ginger hair plastered to his front. Sakura.
Inches away, there was a similar mop of brown hair—Syaoran. The boy wasn't leaning on him, though. He was leaning on whoever Fai was leaning on, and Fai didn't want to think about this at all.
(Kurogane was warm and very comfortable.)
The kids were still asleep. Fai wasn't one to wake them when he didn't have breakfast ready and— There wasn't any breakfast. At all. All their food had been soaked in dirt-filled water the previous night, and there was no food for anyone. Dismayed, he lifted his head to look at Kurogane. "What do we do?" he whispered. "The children—"
Red eyes bore into him. He still hadn't got used to seeing them, after six months of staring at black eyes. Kurogane's eyes were so very red, and fierce, and beautiful.
The ninja answered in a low murmur, things that Fai did not understand at all. He heaved a sigh, bit his lip. When he wracked his brain for "food" in Kurogane's language and came up empty, he pretended to chew instead, glancing at the children and back at their warrior.
Kurogane lifted his shoulders by a fraction. The movement brushed Fai's shoulder, and he was reminded of how close they were. Sakura stirred the moment he tried to move away. Fai held himself still instead, pretended that he wasn't enjoying all the extra heat. His stomach squeezed.
(What had changed between them?)
Something moved at his back; Fai realized that it was Kurogane's arm, when it disappeared and Kurogane eased away, lifting his hand up between them. He drew shapes in the air, held his fingers horizontal and moved them forward, muttering, "Mokona."
Use your magic to levitate a blanket. Rescue Mokona.
All the tingling in his stomach fizzled into dread. Fai opened his mouth, had nothing to say. As it was, his magic still lingered between the plains and the hills, when he and Kurogane had flown to erase the first traces of it in this world. He couldn't risk using it again.
Kurogane lifted an eyebrow, his gaze flat. He twisted his hand to jab Fai lightly in the shoulder, drew in the air again, and looked pointedly at the car and the flood around them.
"I can't solve this," Fai murmured helplessly. But what Kurogane meant was that his magic could have prevented all of this in the first place, if he'd used it. "I can't risk more magic. You know that."
But of course Kurogane wouldn't know, and Kurogane wouldn't understand. The notebook lay sodden behind them. He couldn't use any of the spells now, not when the pages were wet—there wasn't enough energy in the wind to lift heavy pieces of paper.
If he had used his magic, though, they wouldn't have been caught in the flood like that. They would still have Mokona, and food with them. But he would also be leaving a trail for Ashura-tii to follow. Either way, Fai was the cause of all this, and Kurogane knew it.
He looked away, wishing he were anybody but himself.
It wasn't likely that Mokona would suddenly appear and translate everything he said, but Fai had been burned once, and he had no wish to say anything else that Kurogane shouldn't hear. He still didn't know how much the warrior had learned. And now the children had seen the phoenix. It wasn't as if Kurogane would tell them anything about it, but. It had felt strange, being half-naked in front of the children. Fai would much rather have every bit of himself covered.
"Mokona," Kurogane said again.
That Kurogane had to resort to using Mokona's name was a wonder in itself. Fai had read into the magic that made the creature. It was powerful magic, far more intricate than anything he'd ever created himself, and cleverly woven, besides. He knew how to manipulate her magic, could tell that it would take a great deal for any actual harm to come to her.
Still, she had feelings, and her heart of hearts was probably worried about them now, even if she thought she was on a grand adventure.
"Mokona," he said, patting his own shoulder to show that she would be fine. Kurogane narrowed his eyes.
Syaoran stirred then, stretching and yawning. Fai watched the boy blink himself awake, spine snapping straight the moment he realized where he was. Syaoran whipped his head around, eyes wide. "Fai-shen," he gasped. "Sakura-zu."
Kurogane set a heavy palm on the boy's head and ruffled his hair. The words he said weren't something Fai could pronounce, but he recognized them. It's okay.
It was still chilly out. Beneath the damp cloaks, however, there was warmth. Kurogane thought the same, apparently, because he placed a large hand on Syaoran's shoulder and pulled him back against his chest. Syaoran glanced up at Fai, apprehension in wide brown eyes. Fai smiled reassuringly back at him. "Kuro-mon is not that fierce," he said.
It shouldn't affect Fai, how much Kurogane cared for the children. But it did. Kurogane shared his concern; that resonated with something in him. It made him want to smile at completely inappropriate times. It made him forgive too easily. Kurogane made him forget.
Fai reached over to turn Syaoran's face towards himself. The bruise at his mouth had mostly faded by now, and so had the one on his throat. Both children healed extraordinarily quickly. He hoped Kurogane didn't pay attention to how he'd talked about those bruises... but Kurogane was always listening, wasn't he? As long as he didn't connect the dots, the ninja wouldn't realize that the boy and the girl were merely copies of other people. They were people themselves, but copies nonetheless.
"Fai-shen," Syaoran said, when Fai drew his hand back. He glanced at Fai's shoulder, before meeting his gaze again, reaching up to touch his own back. He wanted to know more about the tattoo.
Next to him, Kurogane huffed an amused breath. Fai elbowed him discreetly. "It's nothing really," he said lightly, flapping his hand to try and wave the boy's curiosity off. When Syaoran continued looking, Fai smiled brightly. "Yama."
That seemed to ease his inquisitiveness somewhat. Syaoran nodded and turned away, reluctant to rest his weight against Kurogane.
The silence lasted for all of minutes before Sakura woke. She turned and stretched; Fai smiled when her loosely-clenched fist came up to bump Kurogane on the cheek.
Sakura pulled her hand back, squirmed around to see Syaoran inches from her face and Kurogane the one she had accidentally hit. She flushed immediately, fumbling onto her knees and bowing and gasping her apologies.
Fai ignored the warmth in his chest, reached up to pat her on the head. "It's fine, Sakura-mis."
Her eyes grew wide. "Moko-mei?"
He shook his head, showed her his open palms. The girl's shoulders slumped. She glanced out hopefully across the glittering, muddy water, frowned at Fai when she came up with nothing.
Kurogane elbowed him, drew his fingers in the air again. Fai pouted. "You know I can't do that."
He unwrapped the cloaks to separate himself from Kurogane. It was chilly out, but nothing he couldn't withstand. Fai tucked the fabric back around Kurogane and Sakura to help preserve their warmth, but Kurogane was tugging at the ends to let himself out. He did, however, wrap the cloaks back around the children. Fai grinned at him, missing the words to tell the other that he would really make an excellent father.
He handed the kids a bottle of water, dug into the first cardboard box to see if there was any salvageable food. The waxed paper had gone translucent, and the flatbreads within were swollen, brownish, and they squished when he poked carefully at them. Fai winced. Kurogane handed the bottle of water back.
He was thirsty. The water tasted good, and he allowed himself the tiniest sip. Kurogane glared; he couldn't resist sipping a little more, wetting the rest of his mouth before twisting the plastic lid shut. "Don't be bossy, Kuro-lief," he said.
Syaoran had begun to converse quietly with the princess; at least the children had something going for them. Fai hated to think of either child struggling to talk with anyone else. (He'd always had—)
"Oi," Kurogane muttered, tapped him lightly on the chin. Fai blinked up at him; the ninja nodded at the food. "Tch."
"Always grumpy," he told the warrior, pulling the bundles of soggy bread out. Further inside the box, there were dubious, rehydrated pieces of fruit and meat, and two fresh fruits. Fai couldn't help but grin at that—they had edible food.
Kurogane's eyes sparked with interest when he rinsed the pear-like fruits with a bit of water. Fai pointed between Souhi and the fruits, straightened his fingers into a blade to mimic cutting them. The ninja was on the verge of protesting when Syaoran handed a short dagger over, smiling earnestly.
"You should learn from your son," Fai chided, reaching out to ruffle the boy's hair. Kurogane clicked his tongue and looked away.
Breakfast was very good, considering their circumstances. The fruit was sweet and juicy. Fai sliced quarters off his share for Sakura and Syaoran, who declined, and Kurogane, who took the fruit and shoved it into his mouth. Fai spluttered around the fruit, trying not to choke on it; Kurogane smirked in triumph.
(Kurogane's smile did funny things to his stomach. Fai was certain it signaled an oncoming stomachache.)
When they'd all wiped fruit juice off their hands, Kurogane stood up to look around them. One of the suns had risen now; it bathed the opposite end of the wash in gold. Fai drew Sakura to the side of the roof so they were facing away from Kurogane and Syaoran, and leaned in, pressing a hand to her belly.
At his questioning look, Sakura's curious smile fell. She shook her head. It was frustrating, this lack of a common language, but Fai figured that if he'd managed to live with Kurogane for six entire months, he could do the same with the children.
He reached around to grab his notebook, left open for a couple pages to dry, and sketched her bleeding cloth in a corner. Sakura winced.
As far as he knew, all their spare things were with Mokona, and Mokona was gone. He pointed at the sketch, mimicked wringing it in his hands. The princess stared at him in horror, glanced at the sea of water surrounding them. It would be like the pee he'd discussed briefly with Kurogane—bodily fluids would get everywhere there was water, and it was enough to make the princess cringe.
He pointed between the sketch and a bottle of water, scrubbed his hands together. She shook her head, mimicked lifting the bottle to her lips.
They needed, then, a new bleeding cloth. At least, a temporary one. Fai plucked at his own shirt, brought his hands together to signify folding it, and pointed at the sketch again. Sakura pursed her lips, looking down at her own clothes. He shook his head and pointed over at Kurogane, who scowled, none the wiser. From the way Sakura's lips thinned, she didn't completely disapprove of the idea.
There was still the matter of her infection. Fai drew a simple scale next to the sketch of her bleeding cloth, added an unsmiling face on one end, and a girl curled up in bed on the other, clutching at her stomach. In between, he drew an ant bite on an arm, making sure to include the insect so she had an idea what he meant.
Sakura watched as he did this. She looked down when he laid a careful hand on her thigh, before pointing along the scale, raising his eyebrows at her.
She took a deep breath, set her finger between the ant bite and the person on the bed. There was some pain, but he was relieved to note that it wasn't debilitating.
"Oi," Kurogane said, crouching down behind them. He nodded towards the other edge of the wash, where the second sun had begun to rise. Temperatures would start to soar, and soon.
Fai frowned, reached over to pluck at the sleeve of his shirt. The warrior blinked at him. He lifted his notebook, pointed at the sketch of the bleeding cloth, and tugged again. "Your shirt for the princess, Kuro-mon."
"Tch." The shirt came off easily. Fai wasn't staring at the lines and dips of Kurogane's chest. He wasn't. It wasn't like he hadn't seen the warrior naked, but. Kurogane was a feast for the eyes.
He grabbed at the shirt the moment it was free, turned back to fold it over on itself. When he was satisfied with its shape, Fai handed the makeshift bleeding cloth to Sakura, who blushed and murmured a word of thanks, bowing at Kurogane.
"Sakura-zu?" Syaoran asked, confused. Sakura flushed and glanced at him, shirt in her hands and without any privacy to swap her old bleeding cloth out.
Kurogane was the one to herd the boy's attention away. Fai watched as the warrior crouched down behind Syaoran, effectively blocking his view with his broad shoulders. It made him smile somehow. He patted Sakura reassuringly on the shoulder, waited for her tentative grin, before taking his notebook with him to Kurogane's side.
The warrior glanced up when he knelt. Fai held the flip side of the book up, drew Mokona on the blank page. Next to it, he drew one of Sakura's feathers and a plate of food. Beneath, he drew their animal representations—Big Doggy, Big Kitty, Little Doggy and Little Kitty.
Kurogane took the book over, sketched a block-like drawing of the car. Through the night, the flood level had dipped, but the hood of the car remained submerged. As far as Fai knew, the engine had to be dry for the machine to work. So, he wasn't surprised when Kurogane struck the car out with a decisive line.
The next sketch was a rectangle. Fai frowned until Kurogane pointed Big Kitty and Little Kitty onto it, and connected the rectangle to Mokona. They were to levitate a blanket with Fai's magic. His smile grew strained. The warrior looked flatly at him, turned the book around and jabbed a finger at the bleeding cloth he'd drawn, raising an eyebrow. They couldn't linger here, when Sakura had an infection and they had to get out of this world. As it was, they'd dallied for long enough. Fai glanced away.
Between blowing through to the feather with his magic, and using another tiny amount to fly them to Mokona, Fai would much rather choose the latter. It harbored a far slimmer chance of waking his King. His gut wrenched. "She'll manage for now," he said, hating himself for even thinking of prolonging the princess's discomfort. "It won't endanger her life."
(He really was the worst.)
Kurogane drew arrows between Big Doggy and Little Doggy next, pointing them towards the plate of food. He added swords and snakes—Fai assumed that Kurogane would take Syaoran out snake-hunting. Without Mokona, and without any food, this seemed the most efficient plan, even if the idea of eating an actual snake was absolutely repulsive to him. In Kurogane's language, "idiot."
Kurogane rolled his eyes.
Fai turned slightly, just enough for the princess to see that he was speaking to her. "Sakura-mis?"
She answered with a brighter string of words this time, and he turned the rest of the way, smiling when she stepped over to them, a bundle in her hands. There was relief in her eyes; some of the lines on her face had eased. Syaoran snapped his head up at her approach. Fai shuffled back, allowed the children to talk.
Kurogane turned to him then, handing the notebook back. It was still mostly damp. Fai's smile slipped. There was no way the four of them could remain waiting here an entire day, not when they'd either be baking beneath the sun, or soaking in tepid water that was still a disconcerting murky brown.
The warrior reached over for one of the discarded cloaks. Fai glimpsed the burns on his neck then, the ones he'd helped wash out a day ago. (It seemed an age since then.) "Kuro-elf."
Kurogane paused when Fai touched him lightly on the shoulder, probing at the burns along his neck. They reached up into his scalp as well, Fai was horrified to find, and the wounds were dark with dried blood. He had no salves for either Kurogane or Sakura—would the next world have medicine at all?
The ninja glanced at him over his shoulder. Fai gulped, stilled his fingers. Kurogane was a violent beast, and yet here he was, crouched beneath Fai, allowing his touch.
He backed away, patted the other briefly. "We'll have to go, it seems," he said. "The sooner, the better. I don't know how long we can last without food."
The children were huddled by a corner of the roof, peering at something over the edge. Fai turned away to pull a wet blanket from the pile on the far end. From the corner of his eye, he saw Kurogane shrug his cloak on. If he had memories of what they'd done while in that cloak, he wasn't acknowledging it.
Fai drew the ends of the blanket together, gathered most of it under his arm so he could squeeze it dry. "Syaoran-sha, make sure Sakura-mis doesn't fall in," he said, wringing thick cloth. Brownish water welled out, tinkled into the floodwaters below. It broke the still surface of the water. Fai blinked—he thought he saw movement beneath the surface.
They were small silvery shapes, darting to and fro like fish in water. There wasn't very much life force to them at all, he realized. Kurogane hadn't noticed them, and neither had he at first. "Kuro-pai," he began, turning to look at the warrior.
Three things happened at once. Something jumped out of the water at the kids. Kurogane drew his sword, ran his blade cleanly through it. Purple blood splattered into the water, and the silvery masses beneath the surface drew together, curling in on themselves like a little whirlpool. A droplet that had splashed up hung in midair for a second; a second silver shape darted up and into that droplet, and launched itself at Sakura. Kurogane swore, cut the creature down.
"Sakura-mis, Syaoran-sha, get back from the water," Fai said. As long as there was an airborne drop of water around them, they were at a disadvantage. They looked back at him, eyes large with uncertainty. He shoved the blanket at them, mimed wringing it dry. "That's all we have right now. Wring it, please."
They held it over the shallow water of the car hood and squeezed, tiny hands around the blanket. A few silver shapes drifted over. Fai's heart jumped to his throat. He crouched, wrapped his arms around the children's waists and dragged them back, mimicked wringing again. He pointed at the roof. "Do it here. Not over the water."
He didn't wait around for their nods; Fai got to his feet to stand by Kurogane.
If the fish weren't something they could easily sense, then the ninja needed someone to guard his back. Fai kept himself light on his feet, watched the waters around them. He hadn't seen creatures like this before. If the blanket dripped water, they could possibly be followed when they searched for Mokona, and attacked when they weren't looking.
A flash of silver leaped out again, headed straight for the kids. Kurogane cut it down; it fell back into the water with a splash. More silver shapes leaped to fill the droplets in midair. The ninja batted them off with the tip of his sword.
Purple blood swirled into the water around them, and the whirling mass of creatures grew in size with each ticking second. Fai knew they couldn't stay for much longer. The children were halfway done with the blanket.
"Kuro—" He was cut off when Kurogane's arm shot out for him, tugging him into his chest. Fai lifted his head just in time to see the warrior slicing through another silver fish. This one had attacked from behind—it hadn't been after Syaoran or Sakura. It had been targeting Fai. "Do you think they attack those who look in?" he asked.
Kurogane stepped around him, blade flicking through air to slice at two fish heading straight for Sakura. When he next glanced at Fai, he growled a string of words, lifted his sword and drew his finger through the air. Fight or do magic.
He wasn't able to choose. Several fish flew into the air at once from all sides. He swooped down, snatched Hien from Syaoran's waist, rushing through an apology even as he twisted around to sever the creatures headed for them. Behind, Kurogane was moving with him, falling into a style they hadn't practiced since weeks ago, since they adjusted their fighting to ride on Yasha's steeds.
It was exhilarating, when he knew exactly what Kurogane was doing behind him, didn't need to look to know the dance they were in. Kurogane barked the word for arrow; Fai ducked, so the other could take down the creatures above them. He focused on the ones lower down, sent them skipping across the water's surface with Hien.
The boy's sword was heavy, hot, and it had a single sharp edge like Souhi. Fai hadn't used one of these before. He could adapt, however, and he did. The children were sandwiched between his legs and Kurogane's, muddy water from the blanket dripping onto the roof of the car.
They defended the children like this for several minutes, until the last of the silver splashed down into the water and Fai leaned back, tapping Kurogane's shoulder with the back of his hand. "You're a pretty decent fighter, Kuro-pai. Not that you'll ever let a rabid animal get past you, of course—"
He turned back to check on the children's progress; Sakura gasped. Fai glanced down at her, saw that she was looking past him.
Silver flashed by, striking the back of Kurogane's thigh.
The warrior swore and reached down, swiping the squirming thing off his leg. It hit the water a few feet away, red-mouthed and glinting in the yellow sunlight, and the swirling swarm of fish migrated over, closing in on their brethren. There was a little red splotch on Kurogane's leg, where blood was seeping into the weave of his pants.
"Kuro-lord?"
Kurogane muttered dismissively, eyes still fixed on the water around them.
"We have to go," Fai said. The children had stopped wringing the blanket. He took it from them, grabbed a fold and shook it out. Kurogane muttered something at him, something that sounded like hurry up, but Fai was already scribbling runes in the air, magic pulsing hot in his fingers. The other sun was blazing down on them. If the fish were anything like the worms, they'd be pursued for Kurogane's blood.
Scarcely had the blanket begun to levitate next to the roof when the whirling mass of fish dissipated to surround the car once more. This time, they almost looked pinkish. Fai couldn't tell if it was a trick of the light, or if they'd changed colors, or what. The children clambered onto the blanket at his ushering, Hien back in its sheath, and he threw the remaining bottles of water onto the blanket with them.
One of the bottles rolled off the edge of the blanket; Syaoran gave a muffled exclamation, leaned over to catch it, and wobbled unsteadily. This blanket was never meant to support weight on its edges. Fai and Sakura yelped. The princess grabbed him around the waist, and the boy dangled over the edge of the blanket for long moments, out of reach of both Kurogane and Fai.
A silver streak shot out of the water then; Fai wasn't in time to cast a shield around the boy. It attached itself onto one of Syaoran's arms, and he cried out.
With a low curse, Kurogane vaulted onto the blanket. It bobbed beneath his weight; he hauled the boy back up, grabbed his arm and wrenched the fish off, flinging it back into the murky brown floodwater.
The fish were starting to leap from the water's surface when Fai scooped up the remaining cloaks, dumping them onto the blanket with the children. They called out for him; Kurogane swore and reached over, yanked him up by his arm just as he sent the blanket hovering higher.
Fai struggled with the soft edge of the blanket until Kurogane slipped a hand beneath his other arm and heaved. He got a knee on the blanket; it yielded beneath his weight, and he lurched forward, falling face-first into the hard plane of Kurogane's bare abdomen.
"Idiot," Kurogane said in Nihonese. He continued with another string of incomprehensible words, but there was amusement on his face when Fai glanced up (and promptly jerked away).
"You're the idiot," Fai shot back, and repeated idiot so the ninja could understand. Kurogane snorted. "It's a simple levitation spell. I had no time to inscribe runes to fortify the edges."
None of them could understand that, but that was fine. It was better that they didn't hear it. Fai remembered Syaoran's wound, reached over to grab his arm for a closer examination.
The wound was small but deep. It looked like a single puncture mark, and there was no way to tell immediately if there was poison involved. He pressed around the wound so blood welled to the surface of the injury, held his hand out for Sakura's wrapped bundle. She handed it to him, watched with trepidation as he dabbed fresh blood away.
And there, amidst crimson blood, was a thread of silver. His stomach twisted. Fai lifted Syaoran's arm higher, unable to help the odd angle. The blood and silver oozed out far too slowly like that.
Kurogane took Syaoran's arm, sealed his mouth around the puncture and sucked. He spat a mouthful of blood into the wad of cloth Fai held out. Syaoran winced. This continued for a handful of seconds; Fai's attention shifted to the warrior's thigh, that was still bleeding freely onto the blanket. "Sakura-mis, draw the poison from Syaoran-sha, please." He pointed between the girl and Syaoran's arm to get the point across, and she nodded grimly. "Kuro-sir. Turn around. Your leg."
Kurogane wiped his mouth off, rinsed it out with a mouthful of bottled water. Fai floated them away so the fish couldn't leap up through the splashing water. Next to them, Syaoran had frozen, but the princess was very determinedly taking his arm and mimicking what Kurogane had just done.
There wasn't really space on the blanket for Fai to treat the warrior's wound. Kurogane knelt to slow the progress of blood through his arteries; Fai tore open the hole in his pants, squeezed around the puncture with his fingers. It didn't work very well; he had little choice but to push his face into the crook of Kurogane's knee, closing his mouth around the wound.
The warrior's blood was thick and warm, heavy in his mouth. It tasted coppery, exactly like Fai's blood when he bit his cheek or his tongue, and it wasn't something he wanted to experience again if he could help it. This was far too intimate.
Fai sucked on the wound, spat blood out until there was no longer a trace of silver. Kurogane reached down to examine his thigh. Fai swatted his hand away, ran clean water over raw flesh. When he looked back at the kids, Sakura was wrapping a strip of fabric around Syaoran's arm, and they were both blushing.
He would have nudged Kurogane to get him to look, except Kurogane was watching him instead. The ninja reached over to wipe his mouth with the backs of his fingers. Fai froze; Kurogane tossed a cloak onto his head.
His stomach was doing funny flips again. Fai fumbled with the cloak, thoroughly annoyed with himself when he only succeeded in bloodying white fabric. Kurogane was in the middle of bandaging his wound. Fai left him to that, checking on the children to make sure they were fine.
"Moko-mei?" Sakura asked, looking between Fai and the flood below.
He nodded, drew Sakura's feather on his notebook, and showed it to Syaoran. At his upturned palm, the boy pointed in the direction they'd been heading in, brow furrowed. "Mokona-mei?" he said.
Fai flew them over to the edge of the wash, where he deposited water and blankets both in the shadow of a rock. Kurogane climbed off the blanket, stretched his legs. Syaoran and Sakura both attempted to follow; Fai caught the princess's hand, held her back on the blanket.
"We're going to look for Mokona," Fai said, holding Syaoran's gaze, then met Kurogane's eyes for the shortest instant. "Kuro-mer, you'll take care of Syaoran-sha. Find something to eat."
The warrior nodded when he chewed. Before they floated too far away, Fai stretched two fingers out at the suns of Harasa. He swung his arm up in an arc, so his fingers pointed at the zenith.
"We'll be back by then," he told Kurogane, gesturing between all four of them and pointing at the ground between.
Kurogane nodded again. Fai gave Syaoran a reassuring smile, drew the blanket back over the murky waters of the wash. The pair on land watched as they left. Fai turned to Sakura, showed her how to hunker down and hold on tight to the blanket's edge.
They flew slowly over the opaque waters at first, past craggy rocks, and as Kurogane and Syaoran disappeared from sight, Fai pulled them higher into the air, increasing their speed so the wind blew off their hoods and ran through their hair. Sakura laughed, eyes crinkled in delight. He saw the way she leaned forward in excitement, hardly a spark of fear at flying so far above the ground.
She was a natural at flying, he was certain. Perhaps not so much with complex machines, but if she was given something simpler...
She turned to him and said something, pointing at the water's surface. "Down?" Fai asked, pointing along with her. She nodded; he patted her hand, and the blanket tipped them toward the wash.
Sakura squealed. They skimmed inches over the water's surface, where Fai saw a silver shape or two and pulled them hurriedly back up into the air.
The princess beamed at him, cheeks flushed. She hadn't laughed at all this morning. He'd been worried that her infection was too unbearable—there was no way of curing it with what they had, and there was no going back for medication. Looking at her now, however, he was glad that he'd made the decision of bringing her along. She could stand to feel better, and it eased the weight in his chest when she smiled.
Like the music he'd played for Kurogane, this was something he wanted to do for the princess. She was important.
For how small she was, Sakura comforted him in a way Kurogane couldn't. She was bright and pure and wholesome, with her calm eyes and her gentle touch, and she felt like redemption. He knew he could never truly pay for everything he'd done wrong. With Sakura, though, it was as though he could, a little bit at a time.
Fai closed a hand over hers, and for the briefest moment imagined someone else's hand, pale and identical and beloved.
(He had flown with Fai once, a very long time ago.)
Flying with Kurogane was different from flying with Sakura. Kurogane had been watching him. The princess, however, was focused on flying, and he fed off her joy, remembered what it was like to be young again.
Fai whooped, looked expectantly at Sakura when he raised them higher in the air. She whooped too, and he grinned. This was turning out far better than he'd anticipated.
Kurogane discovered that Syaoran was quite possibly the best person for him to be stranded with. There wasn't truly a language barrier; all he'd had to do was pick a crooked branch off a shrub and sketch the words hunting snake for food on the soft ground. The boy had taken one glance and nodded earnestly, counting off the number of people they had to provide for.
Curious, Kurogane had enunciated the phrase. Syaoran had imitated it decently, pointing to each word to ascertain its pronunciation. It was so different from talking to Fai in Yama that he'd snorted, wishing the idiot were around so he could point out the sort of student Syaoran was, and knock Fai on the head. If the wizard had put in just a little effort, they could've been saying so much more in six months.
(Except, of course, Fai would much rather stay away.)
They had covered up their remaining supplies with twigs, taken what they needed, and begun to hike across the sparse land. Past the flooded wash, vivid red rocks towered above them, round-edged and layered, like someone had stacked together differently-colored clay and sanded them down at the same time. The ground dried slowly after the rain. The vegetation, where they could find it, was a deep green, but all of it was inedible hard wood and needle-like leaves.
Syaoran scribbled the word for water, raised his eyebrows. Kurogane shrugged. It did look like water ran in little occasional creeks here, pooling and seeping in the ground so trees could reach deep down with their gnarly roots.
It took some searching to find fresh tracks. With the lower terrain likely flooded, Kurogane headed them onto higher ground. They clambered onto gentle rocky hills, wound between steep cliffs and passed beneath great stone arches. The suns crawled slowly up the sky, shining stinging rays down on them.
When he sensed a large snake coiled in the shadow of a rock, Kurogane stopped the boy, wrote use your senses in the soft dirt by their feet. Syaoran closed his eyes, stretched his senses out. Kurogane watched with some pride when the boy's eyes snapped open, eyes bugging. He said something, pointed in the direction of the snake.
It wasn't as easy as trapping a snake, but Kurogane wasn't about to complain. He tread quietly on damp ground, avoided brushing against shrubs to keep his presence masked, and cut the snake's head off in a single swift stroke while the boy watched from the side.
Your turn next time, he wrote in dirt. Syaoran nodded, but he had paled by several shades. Kurogane sighed.
Fai would probably have killed a snake without qualm. Kurogane didn't know. They hadn't had the opportunity or need to do so, and he was curious. He wondered how the wizard and the princess were faring on that flying blanket, whether they had found the white lump, and whether they'd encountered difficulties. Fai would do everything he could to protect Sakura, Kurogane knew. What of Fai himself, though? Who would protect him?
Mokona wasn't here, and Kurogane had no chance of contacting that damn witch. So, there was still no protective charm for Fai.
The suns were closer to the zenith now than they were to the horizon. They killed a smaller snake—Syaoran struck out a second too slow and risked being bitten, and Kurogane watched on while the boy recovered, spun and regained the upper hand. Syaoran resorted to using a kick instead of his sword. It stunned his prey; he was forced to bear down on the snake with Hien, and Kurogane saw the warring determination and hesitation on his face when he dealt the killing blow.
After, Kurogane carried both snakes head-down, one hand tight around their necks to avoid leaving a blood trail behind. When they finally reached their landing spot, Fai and Sakura were nowhere to be seen. He bit back his disappointment, had the boy build a campfire so they could cook their kills.
"You and Fai-shen together," Syaoran said haltingly. Kurogane looked up from gutting the creatures, entrails to a side. (He wasn't ready to answer anything about him and the idiot.) "Fight very good."
Kurogane shrugged.
Syaoran struggled with his next words, sighed, and picked a stick up. You and Fai-san fight better together than alone, he wrote. Did you learn that in Yama?
"Yeah. Had no choice." He wasn't sure if he liked the compliment. He was a ninja through and through, and he had years of experience fighting by himself. Hell, he prided himself on his swordsmanship. What he looked like fighting with Fai at his back, though, was subject to an onlooker's prejudices. "What did we look like?"
When the boy frowned, Kurogane took the stick, rephrased his question in soft ground. Syaoran bit his lip, forehead wrinkled. It was different, he wrote. It looked like a dance.He hurriedly scratched that out, wrote in its place, like you had been practicing with each other for very long.
Kurogane quirked a smile, replied, six months. Four hours every night. Practice with the princess and you'll be the same.
The boy flushed crimson. "You and Fai-shen. Very close. Sakura-zu and I. We... we start at the same time."
On the ground, Syaoran wrote, we all met at the same time. Yet you and Fai-san are closer than the princess and I.
He blinked at that. It wasn't something he'd thought about consciously, but it was true, in a way. The boy and his princess were still blushing around each other. In contrast, he knew every inch of Fai's body. Kurogane shrugged. "There was Yama. Six months. Can't forget that."
Syaoran looked at the crackling fire. Kurogane sliced the meat into even pieces, spearing them through with twigs that he propped over yellow flame.
He took the stick back, wrote, envious?
The boy pursed his lips. After a while, he nodded.
Kurogane couldn't help barking a laugh. At Syaoran's crestfallen expression, he breathed in slowly. Whatever happened between himself and Fai was none of the kid's business, but he would be damned if he let Syaoran believe it was all sunshine and flowers with the idiot. It's not what you think it is.
He got an owlish look in response. Syaoran took the stick, stamped out the previous words with his feet, and wrote over them. You touch him a lot. And you fight flawlessly together.
"Tch." Kurogane reached over, ruffled the boy's hair. "Neither of those means anything."
Uncomprehending, Syaoran wrote, love?
He glanced away, heat creeping up his neck. So maybe it was love. And Fai didn't feel the same. What did that make it?
Something must have shown in his expression, because the boy backed away and waved his hands, as if he were trying to refuse a stack of goods. "Okay," he said.
Kurogane snatched the stick back, scribbled, teach the princess the kata. She's eager to learn. Can't help you with the love stuff.
Syaoran read it warily, as though he were expecting the words to reach up and bite him.
When he finally relaxed, Kurogane added, ask the wizard. He should know.
Syaoran nodded violently. He changed the topic with the next line, however. Will you supervise my training?
Kurogane grinned at that, tossed the kid a bottle of water. It was almost noon, and there was no sign of Fai and Sakura whatsoever. Maybe they found a lead, maybe not. Either way, he was prepared to hunt for them if they weren't back before sunset. "Drink up first."
They had been swooping through the air for a long while, looping around tall boulders and skimming the water's surface, until Sakura pulled her focus together and they'd begun following the flooded wash in earnest. The wash opened out into a wide plain, where the water thinned out and little plants and rocks poked up through the water's surface. Past that, the water converged again into a river that led to a wide, glittering sea.
Sakura gasped when they first glimpsed the horizon, for it was perfectly straight—they had found a sea in the desert, and she'd seen nothing like it. When she turned her bright eyes to the shore, Fai flew them down, close enough that she could almost touch the waves. (She had declared her love for beaches, once.)
Except dead fish bobbed along with the waves, and the shore was actually an accumulation of bone fragments, stretching as far as the eye could see.
"That's terrible," she breathed, peering in dismay past the blanket.
"It is," he agreed, "except I understand you now, Princess."
She turned with a wide smile, threw her arms around him. Fai smiled, pulled her close in relief. This meant their search was almost over, and they could head back, end this expenditure of magic. "Fan-ril! Moko-mis must be close."
"It does seem like it, doesn't it?" he said, grinning a little bit more honestly now. "Let's talk a bit more to determine which direction she's in, okay?"
Sakura nodded. Her expression fell. "I'm sorry that you had to use your magic to do this, Fai-ril. I know it's not easy for you."
He turned his grimace into a smile, fought down the vision of long black hair splayed wide. "Don't apologize, Sakura-mis. What's done is done. Let's focus on looking for Mokona, okay?"
She pressed her lips together. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"
"Anything, really," he answered, floating them this way and that to determine the boundary of Mokona's translation matrix. None of them had measured how wide it was, and without physical markers to pinpoint the spots he'd covered, it was next to impossible calculating Mokona's location from what he could see and remember. "Mokona's translation locus seems to be too large for a crude measurement, I think."
He ended up bringing them forward on a rough estimate, made on the assumption that the magical construct was floating on the surface of the sea. Fai dearly hoped Mokona wasn't far below. Nonetheless, he kept up with Sakura's chatter, both to distract her from her discomfort, as well as to ensure that they were still going in the right direction.
"You and Kurogane-ril fought really well back there, on the car," the princess said, her eyes bright.
"Oh?" He handed her a bottle of water; there had been little shade from the suns of Harasa, and it was horribly warm beneath his cloak. His skin felt too tight. Sakura drank a mouthful; he sipped some, kept talking so she didn't notice. "Why do you say that?"
"It looked like you knew when each other was going to move," she said. "And even when you didn't understand the language, you knew what he meant."
She ducked down in an imitation of his earlier move; he smiled wryly. "Kuro-mii said the word 'arrows'. In Yama, that meant he was going to take care of the arrows coming from above."
"You know each other very well, don't you?"
Fai glanced away, busied himself with adjusting the spellwork on the blanket. They sighed when the other half of the blanket curled further over them, increasing the area of much-needed shade. He had been getting slightly dizzy from the heat. "Well, we had to cooperate a lot in Yama, you know. Kuro-lief's language isn't all that easy to pick up. So we made do."
"That must have been difficult." She frowned, pouting a little.
He smiled, patted her hand. "It wasn't so bad. Don't worry about it."
"Okay." She fell silent, and he glanced about for signs of Mokona. "Do you— Well, I know you said you and Kurogane-ril aren't, um, intimate, but well, I wondered..."
"You wondered?"
"If you like him."
Fai raised his eyebrows so it wouldn't look like he was frowning. "Where did that come from? Kuro-pai and I are just really good friends."
Which wasn't really the truth, because he couldn't afford to be friends with anyone.
Sakura shrugged, looked guiltily away. "Syaoran-sha and I have been talking about you. We're curious."
He flapped a hand at her and smiled. "There's really nothing going on between Kuro-mon and I. Don't worry about it."
"But Syaoran-sha said—" The princess bit her lip uncertainly. He tilted his head, inviting her to continue. "Syaoran-sha said he's heard things at night. That was really because of the comic, though, but he also said that Kurogane-ril touches you a lot more these days. I was hoping that... that you're happy with him."
Fai blinked at her. It hadn't occurred to him that the children would talk about them, about him and Kurogane. That, and they really didn't make sounds at night... did they? Nothing happened between him and Kurogane. "Well," he said slowly, "Syaoran-sha must be mistaken, then. We're just good friends. Great fighting partners."
"I understand." She nodded solemnly, watched when he reached up to touch the tattoo through his robe. "About that... painting on your back. I— Well, I didn't mean to see it," she confessed. "But I wanted you to know that it's beautiful."
Fai cracked a smile at that. He turned his eyes back to the sea, kept his senses stretched for creatures and strange magics that could be lurking. "Thank you."
"Does it have a name?"
It couldn't hurt to let the princess know... could it? He licked his lips, answered, "it's called Nemi. But it's a secret between you and me, Sakura-mis. Don't tell anyone else."
She smiled when he winked. "Okay. I promise."
They sat in silence for a stretch, scanning the water's surface as they flew. Fai hadn't expected a sea in the desert, and there was no telling what sort of water was in it, when it left fish intact and dead. Lightning wouldn't explain the sheer amount of broken fish vertebrae on the shore.
"Did it hurt?" Sakura asked, glancing at his shoulder.
He smiled and shrugged. "Maybe a little. You aren't thinking of getting one, are you?"
She blinked several times, scrunching her face up in thought. "No," she said haltingly. "Something permanent like that... it should be meaningful."
Fai couldn't help the way his grin grew wide—the princess was more than he'd ever expected her to be. "That's right."
"What does yours mean?"
His smile froze then. "Is it okay if I don't answer, Sakura-mis? It really isn't that important."
She frowned at him; he changed the topic.
"How much did Kuro-woof teach you the other day?"
"Well... he taught me three of his kata," she said. "And I will be practicing them with Syaoran-sha."
"I'm supposed to teach you self-defense, am I not?" When she nodded, he continued, "I will need you to be very flexible. You said you were with a circus troupe briefly in Shara, right? So it's kind of the same thing—you'll do stretches every day, touching your toes, bending your back, things like that."
"You'll show me how to do that?" she asked hopefully. He dipped his chin; she grinned.
"With self-defense, Kuro-sir wants you to learn the most effective ways of fighting. So—"
There was a familiar, warbling sort of singing then, faint but unmistakable, and they exchanged a look. "Moko-mis!" Sakura cried.
They began shouting for the magical construct, Fai to the left and Sakura to the right, and it took little time for her to yell back, her voice lifting once she realized that help had come. Fai raised the blanket some; they peered down and spotted her against the bright sparkle of calm waves.
Fai was the one to scoop Mokona out of the water. He reached out for her paws, grabbed her, and set her on the spare blanket Sakura held between her palms. She wasn't really soaked at all, and when she emerged, she leaped first onto Fai. "Wasn't Fai not going to use magic?" she cried.
"Shh. We'll go back to Kuro-ris and Syaoran-sha now, okay?" He patted her gently, handed her over to Sakura, who cradled the white thing to her chest.
"How are Kuro-ris and Syaoran?" Mokona asked, her ears drooping.
"They're okay. They're looking for food for all of us," Fai answered, turning the blanket back in the direction they'd come. He poked his head out from beneath the shelter of the blanket, winced at how the suns had moved past the zenith. "Oops. I think we're late. Hang on tight, everyone!"
Sakura nodded, tucked Mokona into the well of her crossed legs, and held on to the edge of the blanket. He increased their speed, smiled when both Sakura and Mokona cheered. They didn't protest when he handed water over; there were two other full bottles on the blanket, but Fai had hardly swallowed any of it. It was fine, though. He was getting used to the heat.
Fai shook his head to clear a vague dizziness, licked his lips again. Beneath, the sea flew past them, and the plains were a pale yellow edge in the distance.
"Fai-ril? You look kind of flushed," Sakura said, leaning over for a closer look. "You need more water."
"I don't think so," he murmured, accepted her bottle. For how good the water tasted, though, it felt like there wasn't enough space in his stomach for it. He capped the bottle, gave it back. "Mokona, why don't you tell us about your adventure? It was very scary, wasn't it?"
The blanket dipped slightly when Mokona began to talk. It bobbed up again, and Sakura glanced over.
"I'm fine," he told the girl, smiling. Mokona frowned. "I just need to close my eyes for a bit. Sakura-mis, won't you steer the blanket?"
She nodded hesitantly, forehead wrinkled, but slid her hand over so he could hold it. It was how he'd let her direct their flight earlier. Fai squeezed his eyes shut against the headache building at the back of his skull, listened to the flutter of his heartbeat and Mokona's high voice. It was easy enough to follow Sakura's directions—up, down, left, right. For an instant, he listed to the side, and part of his face caught in the sunlight. It hurt. Sakura pulled him back into the shade.
Once they'd reached the high edges of the wash again, Fai sighed, swallowed against the vague unease in his belly. It felt far too warm in his cloak, and he could barely focus on holding the blanket up.
"Fai-ril?" Sakura shook him lightly. "Fai-ril? I see Kurogane-ril. He's coming over, we can stop—"
He wanted to land gently, but his vision grew black even as he opened his eyes, and he felt them crash into hot, hard ground. There was a shout; he opened his mouth to tell Kurogane to get Sakura, but all that came out was a croak.
Fai fainted.
A/N: A few notes about the chapter:
1. I based Syaoran and Sakura's suffixes on Mandarin forms of address ;)
2. The red rocks were inspired by Zion National Park. The sea in the desert with the fishbone shore is, essentially, the Salton Sea. Pics of both are on my Tumblr.
3. Re: Fai - I'm sure you guys were expecting it. LOL First instance without Kurogane mothering him, and he goes and does that.
4. This chapter essentially deals with the kids' reactions to Kurogane and Fai, among other things.
Lots of little things in this chapter... I hope you guys liked it ;)