And... here we have it - the last chapter. It's been quite a ride. :) This chapter is rated M, just FYI.
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and its characters do not belong to me.
the sands of Harasa
Chapter 10: A Ritual
It was surprisingly bright the next morning. Kurogane woke to a sandstorm swirling golden behind the barrier, and weak yellow sunlight on the temple grounds. The kids were asleep next to him, and so was Fai, who had curled up next to the wall, turned away from all of them. Mokona caught his eye and bounced up, paws outstretched.
"Shh," he said. She nodded, smiled, and pulled a bottle of water out of storage for him. He blinked at her, surprised. "Thanks."
When he was done with the water, he left the cap open, tilted it towards her. Mokona beamed and whispered, "Kurogane is nice when nobody is looking."
He frowned and growled at her, and she giggled.
"Have you seen the rest of this place?" he muttered. Mokona nodded, bounced onto his shoulder, and leaned in.
"It's a big, empty temple," she whispered. "There's a waterfall of light in one of the rooms! It's pretty."
"No traps?"
"Mokona was careful," she told him proudly, and hopped off from his shoulder. "Come look!"
He grunted when he stood, rolling his shoulders to ease the stiffness in his limbs. His stomach felt far better today. The spines in his foot were still there, but he'd got used to them by now, and the other scratches and burns were healing.
Kurogane left the bottle between Fai and the kids, stepping quietly behind Mokona into the antechamber they'd looked at briefly the previous night.
The writing on the walls wasn't something he could read. He scanned the room for potential traps, tested the give of the floor with each step he took, muscles tense and ready to spring. Mokona had bounced on ahead. He huffed; of course she wouldn't be afraid of traps—it was near impossible for anything to hurt her.
Kurogane made his way through dark, tall corridors with empty sconces on the walls, examined the empty rooms he passed, and eventually found himself at what he estimated to be the back of the building. The dim passageway leading to this room had been wide and straight, and there was a set of half-closed doors at the end of it.
Mokona had slipped between the wooden doors—there was faint light shining through the gap. Kurogane pushed a door open warily, senses on alert, but there was only dust filtering down onto the floor before him.
"Isn't it pretty?" the white thing asked in her tiny voice.
It was a room, wide and round, with cobblestone bricks circling through the floor. Four pillars rose up to support the ceiling; there was a round skylight in the very middle, shining a sliver of weak sunlight into a far corner of the room. Beneath the skylight was a large circle, outlined by dark, round pebbles between cobblestone flooring. More inlaid pebbles split the circle: north to south, east to west, and diagonals dividing the circle into eight equal parts.
"The feather is somewhere in this room," Mokona said, dancing on the edge of the circle.
Curious, Kurogane stepped forward, footfalls echoing in the chamber. There were eight other circles engraved into the main circle. These smaller circles were flat and a hand-span across, an inch deep, as if someone had meant for round tiles to be placed in them but never got around to doing it. Except there were swirls carved into these smaller circles, like they were meant to be seen.
"Why are they arranged like that?" he asked Mokona. Instead of there being one circle in each of the eight segments, the smaller circles were positioned unevenly in a curve of sorts. He followed the arc, looked up, and saw the splotch of sunlight on the floor. "It's a sundial."
A short round of applause echoed behind him. Kurogane looked up, found Fai leaning against the doorjamb. "Very clever, Kuro-run."
He straightened from his crouch. "Thought you were asleep."
Fai shrugged, pushed away from the door and stepped in. "I woke up."
"Fai, what do you think this is?" Mokona bounded up to the wizard, hopping into the hollow of his hands. "The feather is in here."
Kurogane stepped away from the little engraved circles, scanning the room for traps of any sort.
"It looks like it might have been set up for a ritual," the blond said thoughtfully, rubbing his chin. Blue eyes flickered over the circles, to the splotch of bright sunlight, and up at the skylight. "Based on the sun. And whatever ritual it is will take place in the circle."
"Huh. So we'll have about three hours before it has to begin," Kurogane said, following the wizard's gaze. He turned to Mokona. "Go wake the kids up."
"They're awake," Fai answered, smiling. "But they'll probably need food, Mokona, if you'd be so wonderful as to serve them breakfast."
Mokona bounced out of the room with a cheer, leaving Kurogane alone with the wizard. Fai wandered closer, eyes tracing over the various circles, and Kurogane watched as Fai peered at an engraved circle that was stained slightly darker than the others.
"You still sick?" Kurogane asked.
Fai glanced up, lips curved. "I'm better. The children as well. You?"
"Better. Enough to fight, at least." He grinned when Fai's smile grew wider, stepping out of the circle. "The kid better solve this today. I'm itching for a shower."
"Or a bath. Something warm." Fai glanced at him, looked away.
He didn't know what that look meant, only that it had something to do with him. It was enough to make his insides tingle.
Fai straightened then, turning to the doorway as if he'd had enough of this place for now. Kurogane followed, stopped him with a word. "Hey." When Fai turned, eyebrows raised, he continued, "what about those birds? Your magic?"
The wizard sighed. "I've told you to let that go, Kuro-pyon."
"Whoever is after you— Does the tattoo on your back change anything?"
Fai frowned and blinked, tilting his head to the side. "Of course not."
"Why even have it done, then?" They were close enough to touch, but Kurogane figured he didn't need Fai to bolt right now.
"Mind your own business." Fai turned on his heels, reached up to tweak Kurogane's nose. He jerked it beyond the grasp of cold fingers. "Don't stick your nose into places it doesn't belong, Kuro-pii."
He didn't bother arguing with that. When the time came, he'd stick his nose in whatever he damn well felt like sticking it into.
With Mokona around, breakfast was more decent than the slice of fruit they'd had the day before. She had crackers, canned corn and pickles to offer today. Fai whined at the pickles. Kurogane could see why the wizard would think sourness meant that food had spoiled. He'd had his fair share of pickles, though, and none of those were bad.
Fai shuddered and scrunched his face up, and passed vehemently on the jar of little cucumbers.
After, Syaoran hurried to the antechambers of the temple, determined to glean details about the supposed ritual, while Fai and Sakura did their stretches in the shade of the portico. Kurogane found a long-handled brush in one of the side rooms and took it upon himself to sweep up the ritual area. He'd been through rituals in Nihon—Tomoyo had her prayer rooms meticulously cleaned, and Kurogane would be damned if he didn't at least attempt to get the sand and dust off the cobblestone floors in that room.
The daub of sunlight had crawled halfway across the floor to the circle. Kurogane followed its path with his eyes, saw how it would pass through each of the smaller engraved circles on the floor. Was there supposed to be something there, when the sun reached each dip in the ground?
"Hey," he said, stopping by the second antechamber, where Syaoran was shining his flashlight slowly across the writing two feet above his head. "Are we going to need anything for that ritual? Worm heads or that kind of thing?"
"I'm still reading about it," the boy said, eyes fixed on the wall. "It's apparently a yearly ritual for bountiful harvests."
"Bountiful harvests," Kurogane echoed, thinking about the miles of sand around them.
"Fertile soil. I found some smashed pots in the other room," he continued, glancing at Kurogane. "I think there might have been some vandalism. Or perhaps they simply grew fragile with age."
"Right. Okay. So what do we actually need?"
The boy pulled a face, pointed to his side. "I have a feeling that the ritual details are over on that wall, but I need to study the history of the temple to really understand what this is about."
Kurogane sighed. "All right. I'll be back later."
He found Fai and Sakura out on the portico in a spar of sorts. Fai had set her in front of himself, and was demonstrating ways she could be held down. When Kurogane stepped through the doorway, the wizard brightened.
"Kuro-pon! Just who I needed. I want to demonstrate things so Sakura-chan has a better idea of what I'm saying."
"So you're volunteering to be a captive?" he said, and wished he'd phrased it differently, because something shifted in Fai's expression, too minute for the girl to notice.
"Well. I'll need you to attempt to hold me down. During which I'll show Sakura-chan how to escape."
There was stark irony in this situation, but Kurogane agreed. Fai stepped up in front of him, instructed Kurogane to grab him beneath his arms. Kurogane complied, pulled Fai tight against him, and the wizard was acting as if he didn't notice the press of their bodies when he told Sakura how she should throw her weight forward, to catch her captor off-guard.
It was something Kurogane was familiar with, of course. He'd done things like that before he'd decided that it was a lot easier just to eliminate all of Tomoyo's threats.
Fai rested his weight completely on Kurogane's arm. He was forced forward, upon which the wizard kicked at the ground to bring his head back toward Kurogane's.
He dodged it; Fai eased forward, leaning into his cheek. "I'm doing it slow so I don't hurt Kuro-wan, but in real life, you'll have to do this really quick, okay? Use the back of your head to smash your skull against theirs. If it hurts enough, it'll force them to let go."
"But I don't want to hurt you," Sakura said, concern shimmering in her eyes.
Fai was faced away from him, but Kurogane heard the smile in his voice anyway. "Kuro-rin and I know to expect that. We'll do it faster so you can see what it's like. Ready, Kuro-pon?"
"Yeah."
They repeated the move much quicker this time, Fai tight against him and throwing his weight forward, and Kurogane had to turn away and dart his hand between their heads so Fai didn't accidentally break something of his.
"See," the wizard said. "Kuro-pyon and I know what's coming, so we'll be able to take precautions to protect ourselves."
The princess nodded, and they spent the next half hour practicing different methods of escape. When she'd got fluent in one technique, they'd switch to the next, and double back to see if she remembered the previous methods.
Syaoran came dashing out through an antechamber in the middle of a wrist grab. He stopped and stared in horror as Sakura twisted out of Fai's grasp, her face lighting up in a smile when the wizard clapped.
"What did you find out?" Kurogane asked, to bring his focus back.
Syaoran shifted his weight between his feet. "Um, I just checked the ritual room. We have maybe half an hour until it starts, and, um, it's a fertility ritual."
"You've said that," Kurogane answered, nonchalant. "Do we need to go out and hunt animal parts?"
His suspicions only arose when the boy flushed, shaking his head nervously. "Um, no, it's not just that," he stuttered. "It, um, it requires fluids. Things like water and wine and, um, bodily fluids."
"So we bring a worm down," Kurogane reasoned. It couldn't be so twisted as to require human blood, could it? "Probably need to borrow that carpet again."
"Um, about that, Yuuko-san said that there's some carpet hairs that got shaved off. She wants extra compensation. A tassel got burnt too." Syaoran glanced at Souhi; Kurogane realized that it might have been his fault, when he hadn't had time to sheath his sword during their escape from the caverns.
"Fine. I'll pay. What do we need for the ritual?"
The boy closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his face so flushed he might have been the one suffering from heatstroke. "It requires, um, body fluids from coupling. It's a fertility ritual, you see."
There was absolute silence for a few moments. Kurogane looked between Syaoran and the princess. He hadn't thought they would get together like this, but. It probably wouldn't hurt to nudge them in that direction. Fai, apparently, had arrived at the same conclusion. His forehead was furrowed, and he wasn't smiling.
"No, no, it's not that exactly," Syaoran said, stammering so hard that Kurogane thought about sitting him down. "It needs, um, two men."
"I thought you said it was a fertility ritual." Kurogane frowned, glanced at Fai. There wasn't any reaction on the wizard's face.
Syaoran winced. "Well, that's what it says. There are eight offerings to be made—wine, water, and fluids from two different people."
"Like sweat?" Fai suggested helpfully.
"The thing about being in a desert is that sweat evaporates faster than you can collect it." Syaoran fiddled with a fold in his robes. "My guess is saliva. And, well."
"Shouldn't it be a man and a woman?" Kurogane said, disbelieving. "That's the whole idea of fertility, right?"
"Not in Harasa, no. Well, this place used to be full of fields, and it was the men who worked the fields..." The boy chanced a glance at Kurogane. "The thing of it is, they did that for a long time, and the land was bountiful. Someone changed the ritual midway though. I think it might have been the feather perhaps—" He paused to send Sakura an apologetic look. "But that part of the writing was scratched off. All I know is that it has to be two men."
Well, fuck.
Kurogane looked at Fai, who was pointedly looking at somewhere other than all of them.
"I'd, um, volunteer to be one of them," Syaoran said uneasily, brown eyes flickering between Fai and Kurogane. "But, um, I'm not sure if it's fine—"
"We'll do it," Fai said suddenly, full of false cheer. He turned and stepped forward, patting Syaoran on the shoulder. "Kuro-rin and I will be the noble sacrifices."
Kurogane snorted. Fai was pushing the boy in the direction of the chamber, though, avoiding his eyes. Sakura looked at him. "Is this really okay, Kurogane-san?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. It'll be fine. We might need a strip of cloth though. Maybe a few."
She blinked innocently and nodded. "Okay. I'll get that for you."
The splash of sunlight in the ritual room was a foot away from the first circle by the time they'd all gathered in there. Kurogane retrieved bottles of water and wine from Mokona, complied when Syaoran said to disrobe.
"It's part of the drawings," the boy said shakily, keeping his eyes averted. "But we can always use blankets and things like that."
"What else do we have to do?" Kurogane asked, when Sakura brought him a length of blanket, trimmed so he could use it as a makeshift skirt. He stripped to his underwear, tied it around his waist. Fai was still wrapped in his dusty traveling cloak. He waved off the boy's help when Syaoran tried to approach him.
"Some minor cleansing, I think. And some painting."
"Painting?"
Syaoran hurried off and returned to the chamber with two bowls of caked mud. "We add water to these to make it a paint. It goes on your faces and arms."
The entire ritual sounded ridiculous to Kurogane, but they were this close from the next world, and he really wanted his shower. So, he nodded. "Go prepare the paints in the next room. The wizard and I will do the cleansing ourselves."
"You know how to do a cleansing ritual?" the boy asked in surprise.
"Yeah. Tomoyo is the priestess of Nihon. 'Course I know how to do cleansing rituals." His mother had been a priestess, too, but no one needed to hear that.
Kurogane turned to the wizard when the kids left with Mokona. Fai was faced away, seated cross-legged on the edge of the circle with his hood drawn up. He hadn't said a word through all of this, though he smiled at Syaoran and Sakura when they talked to him. "Hey."
The blond sighed and lowered his hood. "Well, Kuro-rin, I suppose we may as well make this fun."
"We don't have all day," Kurogane muttered. He reached forward to help undress the wizard, who didn't look at him when he cooperated, shedding heavy fabric and thin clothes that had helped him cope with the heat of the desert. When Fai was naked, Kurogane handed him a cut blanket.
"How do you do the cleansing?" Fai asked carefully, wrapped himself up in the blanket. He was pale like moonlight, with dustings of pink sunburn across his skin. He looked the same, and yet different in the scant light of the room. What muscle he had was brought into sharp relief, like the planes of his chest and the lines of his throat. Kurogane knew he was lit in the same way—blue eyes lingered on his chest.
He turned to the bottles of water and cut blankets, folding a piece of blanket into a hand towel. "You're supposed to run purifying magic through the water. In our case, we'll make do with a prayer."
Fai blinked at him. "I've never known prayers to help."
He shrugged, muttered a short wish for protection and cleansing that his mother had taught him. Fai's eyebrows twitched; he said nothing, however, so Kurogane wet his cloth and dragged it over the wizard's face, cleaning dirt off high cheekbones and pale skin.
"I can do that myself," Fai murmured, looking away.
"I need you to be entirely clean," Kurogane shot back. "Unless you're going to clean yourself thoroughly, I'll do it."
Fai pursed his lips. "You should wet a piece of cloth for me too. That'll save us time."
Kurogane repeated the procedure with a new piece of blanket, wet his own again, and continued to wipe Fai down—his neck, his chest, his arms, and his back. The phoenix stared at him, regal and powerful, and he dipped his head in acknowledgement, stroked the cloth gently over bold black lines.
Fai was no less gentle with him. It was a remnant of Yama, perhaps, that the wizard cleaned his skin as though he were dressing a wound. The touch of cool wet was surprisingly refreshing. Then they pulled the blankets off, and Fai's throat worked when Kurogane dipped his washcloth down.
He was half-hard by the time they re-wrapped the blankets around their waists, and the kids appeared at the doorway.
"Mokona, keep these clothes in storage, won't you?" Fai asked, smiling at the white thing. "I'm not sure if we'll have time to put them on later. Sakura-chan will hold our cloaks for us."
The kids were staring at Fai's tattoo again. It couldn't be helped, though. The phoenix was regal and commanded attention. It pulled their eyes away from the carefully-blank expression Fai wore—perhaps that was its purpose, helping Fai hide in plain sight. Heaven knew Kurogane had been fascinated enough by it.
He had Syaoran paint whatever it was that needed to go onto his skin; Sakura took a little more time with Fai's drawings, tiny fingers trailing curls and dots over his arms.
It felt almost sacred, this ritual. They were completely silent. Even Mokona, who always had something or other to say, sat quietly to a side and watched.
Meanwhile, the shaft of sunlight drew ever closer to the first circle.
"We fill the first with water," Fai said suddenly, as though he'd caught Kurogane staring at the ritual space. When he raised his eyebrows, the wizard continued, "there are little carvings on the walls of the indent. The next has red stains—I'm sure that is for wine."
He wasn't about to ask what the other circles required, though he figured that Fai would consult the kid if he really didn't know. Or, they could work it out for themselves.
When the painting was done, the kids drew away, Syaoran with no small amount of trepidation on his face, and Sakura with a bright smile. She fanned at the damp paint on Fai's arms to help dry them; in this climate, Kurogane was certain that she needn't bother.
"The sun is almost there," Syaoran said nervously, glancing at the sunlight on the floor. They had placed all bottles and blankets on the outside of the circle, leaving Kurogane and Fai the only ones in its middle. "Is there anything else you need help with?"
Fai shook his head and waved him off. "We'll be fine, Syaoran-kun. Kuro-rin is big enough to protect both of us. You and Sakura-chan be good while you wait, okay?"
Kurogane snorted, watched as the kids nodded and left them with worried backward glances, Mokona rolling herself around in remnants of paint in Sakura's bowl. "So, the water."
Fai was crouched by the first circle, freshly-opened bottle of water in hand. Sunlight glowed bright on the cobblestone floor beside him. "Do you need to purify this as well?"
There wasn't very much time left at all. Kurogane grabbed it, said a quick prayer, and splashed water into the circle just as sunshine dipped its fingers in.
The water sparkled in golden light. Nothing moved, and for a long time, they watched as sunlight inched across the circle.
"Maybe it has to be fully illuminated," Fai said eventually. Kurogane hoped he was right. He hoped they didn't have to stay in this temple and wait an entire year for the right day—they would run out of sustenance long before that.
Neither of them spoke as they sat back and watched the sun's progress across the circle. At the bottom of the circular indent, the carved spirals looked as though they'd come alive, lit gold and bright in the water.
It felt like an hour before the splotch of sunlight covered the circle completely, and the water began to boil.
"Huh," Kurogane said. It shouldn't have been hot enough for water to reach that temperature, but he wasn't going to question it.
Somewhere in the temple, there was a loud thoom.
Fai looked up at the closed doors in concern. "Do you think the children are fine?"
Kurogane knew as well as he did that there weren't any other presences in here, save for theirs. The kids weren't running, and there weren't any shouts coming from the hallway. "Yeah."
They remained staring at the bubbling, sunlit water. Nothing happened after that, though.
"Guess we wait," Kurogane said, gulping a mouthful of water and handing the bottle over to Fai. The wizard's laughter was a huff of breath.
"Are we allowed to drink purified water?"
"Don't know. But we need spit for the other two circles, and it's not like we have much water left."
"Ever practical, Kuro-pi." Fai drank a sip, and another when Kurogane stared at him. "Think we'll have enough for the whole ritual? It looks like it'll take a while."
"Maybe an hour or two. Can't be that long." Now that they had an idea how the ritual worked, the tension in the air eased. Kurogane settled himself next to Fai, studied Sakura's paintings with a sidelong glance. "Princess draws well."
"Doesn't she?" The wizard stretched his arms out, looking at the lines and circles winding over his skin. He was far more relaxed now that the kids weren't in the same room staring at his back, and Kurogane was glad for that. "I think she did really well with that training earlier. Thanks for helping."
Kurogane shrugged. "We agreed to teach her. That's just part of it."
"I think she'll need to increase her speed. She seems afraid to hurt others."
"Yeah. Can't do much about that unless it's a matter of life or death, I guess. She isn't the type to want to hurt."
"If someone she cares about is in danger, though. If all of us are down." They fell silent, wondering how Sakura would be able to do much if the rest of them were already incapacitated.
"Question is, whether she cares enough about herself to put others in danger." Kurogane slid his glance over at Fai, who looked as though he was resolutely thinking about the princess and not himself. "Say she gets attacked and we aren't there. Kid is unable to protect her somehow."
Fai drew a sharp breath, lowered his gaze. "That's terrible."
"That's why we're training her."
The conversation continued in this manner, discussions on what they could to do improve Sakura's self-defense weaving into the sort of fighting style she'd be best at, to the sort of weapons she should use. The tightness in Fai's limbs seeped out the more they envisioned the princess as a little warrior, brave enough to fight on Syaoran's behalf. Kurogane noticed. The wizard talked briefly about her infection, too, but there wasn't anything they could do about that now. Kurogane felt a bit bad for not helping with it.
When the beam of sunlight crept up to the next circle, he said a prayer for the wine, and emptied a decent portion of the bottle onto stone. Again, nothing happened. Kurogane set the bottle down between them, rolled his shoulders. If the first circle was anything to go by, they had quite a bit of time before the bell struck. "Probably should've used some cheap wine," he said. "Not like the stone can taste it."
Fai snorted. "That isn't something I'd expect from a man who blesses the water we use."
Kurogane shrugged. "We use better wines as offerings to the gods or the dead we remember." That neither of them really cared about this land, or the temple, was something he didn't voice, but a sentiment they shared all the same. Tomoyo would chastise if she found that he'd skimped on the wine.
Fai glanced at him. "What is it? You're amused about something. I don't think it's the dead."
"It's the wine," he said. "In Nihon, we don't cut corners with offerings."
"Have you?" Fai asked, leaning forward. "I can't imagine that you have in your home world."
He shook his head. "I could've gone with more for this." Kurogane jerked his chin at the circle, steeped in burgundy wine and half-lit with sun. "But I figured the exact volume doesn't matter."
"More for us." Fai smiled, and there was a hint of white teeth. It made him look a little predatory, a little dangerous. Kurogane was staring again. "What sorts of wine did you have in your Nihon?"
"We call it sake. But there are other sorts of wines, like wine for cooking," Kurogane said. He thought that Fai might like the liquor where he came from. "We've had similar. The cheap ones are bitter. The expensive ones taste like fruit."
Fai nodded.
"What sorts of wine did you have?"
The wizard's gaze slid away, and he smiled. "I wonder."
"Tch. C'mon. It's just booze. Have we had it before?"
Fai raised his eyebrows. He poked Kurogane on the cheek, lightly, and sat back. "Perhaps."
"You have a really high tolerance for booze. So you must've had a lot before. The sweet sort." Because Fai did tend towards the sweeter sort of wines, and he had been pleasantly surprised to find them through the worlds, instead of being stunned by how much he liked their flavors.
Fai shrugged, and Kurogane briefly considered knocking him upside his head. "Kuro-pon has been watching me, it seems."
"Idiot. The booze in Yama was not bad."
The wizard grinned at that. "We should've brought some along with us, no? I think the children might like what we had."
"No way." Kurogane scowled, and Fai chuckled at the look on his face.
"They could stand to have their tolerance levels increased."
"Hell no." He could envision the kid trying to climb onto tables with various kitchen utensils, and he was not going to put up with that. "They better not get drunk the next world, you hear?"
Fai smiled at him, and said nothing.
Thoom. Bubbles rose from the middle of the wine, glistening in the sun.
"Sounds almost like a clock, don't you think?" Fai leaned back on his hands, eyed the bottle that sat half-full between them. "Are you going to drink that?"
"You think?" He smirked, finally reached for it. It was good wine, mellow, bitter, leaving a pleasant aftertaste on his tongue. It was a treat after all they'd been through in this world, and Kurogane sighed when it trickled warm into his belly. The wizard grinned when he handed it over, drank more than he had of water. "You're an idiot."
"Always, Kuro-sama."
They passed the bottle back and forth, taking care to savor it slowly.
"Delicious wine. We should have bought more of this in the flying rock world." Fai licked his lips, glanced at the pool of deep red that shone in the sunlight. "Although I wouldn't drink from that unless I were desperate."
Kurogane snorted. "You would if you were drunk."
"Then you'd have to stop me, of course." The wizard smiled loosely, one of those smiles that had Kurogane's stomach clenching. He wanted to kiss Fai, but all he had to do now was bide his time.
"If I don't?" he asked, throat tight. There were things Fai did when he pretended to be drunk, that Kurogane liked very, very much.
Fai slanted a fleeting look his way, licked his lips. He did not move away, however, and that spoke enough about the things he did want, that he couldn't hide. "You're supposed to be the responsible one, Kuro-wan."
Sunlight slid off the second circle, crawling across rough cobblestone. Past the doorway, there was no sound from the kids. Kurogane held the bottle of water up. "You gonna spit first, or me?"
"You. Set a good example." Fai grinned again, but it was bright this time, full of good humor. "Make it a big, rude glob of spit! I haven't seen that in so long."
Kurogane rolled his eyes, knocked the idiot lightly over the head. "Do it yourself. I don't have that much spit."
"Is that a challenge?" The wizard raised his eyebrows. "Can I really beat you that easily?"
Kurogane glared. Fai just had to do this, didn't he. He sipped a mouthful of water, swallowed. "That white thing. Can anything harm her? Physically or otherwise?"
Fai looked curiously over. "Is this a trick question?"
"No. I want to know if she's going to survive a place that's actually full of traps."
The wizard leaned backwards, tapped his chin lightly. "Well... She'll be fine. Knives and swords can't hurt Mokona, I don't think. You've seen that for yourself, Kuro-pi, with how much you torture that poor thing."
Kurogane scowled. "She deserves it. Steals my damn food all the time. She's a damn nuisance."
"You just don't want her wandering around a trap-filled temple by herself and getting hurt," the blond said, gloating, and Kurogane spluttered. "Kuro-pon loves Mokona."
"Don't say crap like that."
"Of course." Fai was laughing at him. He just knew it.
Kurogane turned to the third circle, spat into it. Saliva was hard to come by in a place like this. "Let's see you try to do better," he said.
"Surely you'd produce more if you thought about good food," Fai suggested. "Imagine a platter of raw fish, or those sour pickles."
The wizard shuddered. Kurogane thought about the sushi they'd had a few worlds back, when Mokona robbed an unsuspecting chef of his raw fish, and his mouth watered. He thought about Fai. That helped, too.
It was odd to see his saliva bubbling in the middle of the carved circle some time later, when the temple rang. Fai leaned in close to inspect the boiling fluid.
"It'll splatter on your face if you get too near," Kurogane said. The air smelled sweet, like wine, and it was very slightly damp.
"Are you worried about your spit getting on my face?" Fai countered, an eyebrow raised, and Kurogane had to turn away, cheeks warming. He hadn't thought about it that way.
By the time Fai contributed his own saliva, Kurogane was gratified to see that the idiot wasn't doing a much better job at all. Perhaps it was because he talked way too much, or perhaps it was merely a matter of whose mouth got wetter, and that was that.
When sunlight slid over the fourth circle, another thoom rang through the temple. The sound seemed to reverberate down to the very foundations of the building. Kurogane had never seen a temple react this way to sunlight and fluids in little hollows on the floor, but he'd been sent back through time and thrown forward again, and not much could compare to that.
"How do you want to do the blood thing?" he asked when the last vestiges of rumbling had faded away. "Wait. How are you even sure it's blood first, then the other stuff?"
Fai reached across the boundaries of the ritual circle, traced a finger along the cloth wrapping of Souhi's handle. "It's a fertility ritual, Kuro-rin. Of course the fertile body fluids come last."
"Blood is fertile," he pointed out. "In Nihon, they use pigs' blood to enrich the soil."
"Your people are barbarians." Fai took a slow sip of wine. Kurogane followed the drag of pink tongue across his lips, thought about tasting him.
"Where do you want to be cut?" he asked instead, studying the pale line of Fai's body. "On the wrist?"
"That would be an easy one, but you aren't going to get much blood out of it," Fai said. "The most effective way would be to use one of those syringes we've seen in the other worlds. Direct access to the bloodstream. Unfortunately, I don't think we have any with us."
"What then? Your elbow?" He reached over to take one of Fai's thin arms. The blond drew a slow breath; Kurogane rubbed a thumb along his forearm, following the green-blue veins just beneath the wizard's skin.
When he brought that arm up to his mouth and Fai still didn't pull away, he licked skin, tasted the sharp salt of dried sweat.
Fai went completely still. Kurogane pressed the flat of his tongue into the soft skin of Fai's elbow, felt the quick beat of his pulse there, and formed a seal around it with his lips. He sucked once, gently. Fai gasped, didn't meet his gaze, but he didn't have to look to know that he had all of the wizard's attention.
Kurogane scraped his teeth along skin, all the way down to Fai's wrist. There, he sucked wetly on Fai's pulse, and the blond shivered. "I'd still rather cut the wrist," he said against the ball of Fai's palm, breath puffing wetly. "Less cleanup."
"Yes." Fai's answer was a sharp hiss. He still wasn't looking when Kurogane unsheathed his sword with a slow rattle, guiding that pale forearm over the fifth circle.
He broke tender skin swiftly, careful not to cut into tendon. Crimson welled along the incision. Kurogane angled Fai's hand toward the circle, allowing thin blood to drip slowly down, dotting carved stone. It took a while for blood to pool; he swept his thumb over the veins to encourage blood flow, watching as the red grew to the size of a coin, and after a long while, into the size of his palm. When that happened, he turned the cut back up, licked it clean.
It tasted like copper. Kurogane was very slightly surprised by it, because Fai seemed so ethereal sometimes, with his wispy hair and liquid movements. (But he knew the wizard better, knew the way Fai arched and clenched and came, and there was nothing unearthly about that.)
Kurogane pulled away from Fai's arm, grabbed a wad of cloth to stem the bleeding. Fai didn't seem the least bit like he was hurting. "Thought you didn't like pain."
The wizard shrugged, smiled one of those narrow-eyed smiles that had Kurogane snorting. He wadded up a piece of cloth and used that to stem the blood flow, pressing down and counting.
"Forget it. Don't talk."
Blue eyes blinked at him; Fai's tongue darted out to wet his lips, and Kurogane's focus slipped. It sent heat scudding down his spine, that wet-rough tongue, when Fai licked him slow and wet and deliberate. He watched the way Fai stared at him through his lashes, grabbing for a strip of cloth and tying it tight around his wrist.
"Where— Where do you want to cut me?" he asked, barely getting the words out of his mouth. Fai blinked as if surprised, and took Souhi over, eyes sweeping over Kurogane.
Without speaking, he cradled one of Kurogane's hands, turned it facing up, and drew Souhi's blade over the tip of his thumb.
(Light crept over the fifth circle. The temple shook with an echoing thoom.)
Blood oozed out along that cut; Kurogane took his hand back, squeezed his thumb so it dripped into the sixth circle. This was far slower than Fai's cut had been. He hadn't thought the wizard would be that reluctant to hurt him, for how lethal he could be. Fai said nothing. When there was an equal volume of his blood spreading along the spiraling engravings, Fai took his hand, sucked his split thumb into his mouth.
It wasn't something the wizard had done before. His mouth was warm and wet, and Kurogane's thoughts took a sharper turn for the gutter, throbbing thumb or otherwise. He gulped, watched the way Fai's mouth worked around his finger, wished he had that further down.
Fai paused when Kurogane shifted to kneel before him. There was no hiding the press of his arousal beneath the thin blanket. It wasn't pitch-black here, however, and Kurogane knew that Fai much preferred doing this in the dark, where he could pretend that nothing was happening. (Like that really helped.)
He reached for the strips of fabric that Sakura had prepared, was stopped by Fai taking some to deftly bandage his thumb. When the wizard released him, he slipped the blindfold over wide blue eyes. Thin lips fell open; Fai did not move, and Kurogane brushed his hands past fine blond hair, tying layers of cloth securely behind Fai's head.
When he kissed Fai again, the wizard stiffened for a second. Then he leaned in, open-mouthed and needy, and Kurogane ran his palms down the sides of his face, tipping him up so their mouths meshed more thoroughly, tongues meeting and sliding, and Fai whimpered. The temple rang loud around them.
There was a longer stretch between the sixth circle and the seventh. He took his time kissing Fai, slow and gentle as he could make it—everything he needed Fai to know, that the idiot wouldn't accept.
Kurogane pulled the wizard onto his lap. The material of his blanket hitched up; he didn't care, allowed himself to press up and into Fai's thigh, grinding to soothe his ache. The blond sucked a shuddering breath, rocked his hips towards Kurogane so his own skirt loosened, hardly hiding anything at all.
He couldn't resist smoothing a hand up that thin chest, rubbing a nipple so Fai choked on a moan, hips snapping up at him. Kurogane knew that Fai had been hungry, and that made him hold back—he wanted to see how far he could push the wizard, to see how far he could go before Fai begged, or took Kurogane for himself.
A shiver of heat slid sweetly down his spine. Kurogane ran his hands along Fai's sides, lowered him down onto stone floor, kissed his way down that pale, smooth neck. Fai arched against him, nails skittering over stone. His breathing had gone shallow and quick; he was rolling his hips, asking to be touched where he strained against soft blanket. Kurogane reached into that makeshift skirt, felt his stomach jolt.
Fai was so very hard. That thought alone made him ache, made his touch linger along velvety flesh, stroking smooth skin and cupping soft balls, and Fai whined.
He caught Fai's wrists above his head, pinned them down, and licked down his chest, biting at a nipple. Fai arched, rocked his hips upward, grinding futilely into Kurogane's palm. He wasn't too far off from where Kurogane pressed against his own skirt, but Kurogane didn't allow him contact, instead licking over Fai's chest, following the shallow valley of his sternum back up to the hollow of his clavicles, curling his tongue in. Fai gasped.
The blanket fell loose around Fai's hips; Kurogane couldn't resist dragging his palm up along the flat planes of Fai's torso, up past coarse hair and the groove of his groin, to his lean abdomen and thin chest. Fai shivered, spread his legs beneath him, and Kurogane felt the press of his erection when he leaned in to kiss Fai again. That light pressure left a trail of slick along his belly. The wizard groaned, jerked his hips, and when that didn't distract Kurogane, he shifted his weight onto his feet, brought his hips up so his cock pushed insistently against hard muscle.
He felt all of Fai's desire in that touch, heat swooping past his stomach to pool between his legs. Kurogane caught his breath, pressed his palm on Fai's abdomen and pushed him back down to the floor, so the wizard whined and bucked, his body straining in protest. If you could see yourself right now, Kurogane thought, but kept it to himself. Fai wouldn't appreciate this sight half as much as he did.
When he kissed Fai again, the wizard licked hungrily at him, his tongue rough and wanting, and he squirmed beneath Kurogane on the floor, a thin sheen of sweat prickling across his skin. There was so much need in Fai, and his whimpering was starting to get louder, his flushed erection leaking clear fluid onto himself.
With a growl, Kurogane reached down to tug his own skirt off. He needed touch, and it got slightly better when he angled his hips down, stroking his own cock along Fai's. The wizard mewled, hips bucking, and Kurogane reached down to curl his fist around them. Fai's moan was strangled; he thrust hungrily into Kurogane's palm, wet skin catching his, and Kurogane had to close his eyes momentarily at the pleasure that feathered through his body.
It still wasn't enough by far. Fai whined when he released both his wrists and their erections, grasping narrow hips instead. This time, Kurogane leaned in, ground them together hard, and Fai's voice broke halfway through his groan. He tried rutting back, spine bowed, so their cocks dragged and pressed. It wasn't the best way to pleasure someone, with how he sometimes slid clean off, and it wasn't quite enough pressure besides, but it felt good, touching Fai intimately like this.
Fai was firm, solid heat stroking heavily against him. He slipped and drove along Kurogane's abdomen, trailing slick wetness, and Kurogane's stomach tightened. He wanted that inside him (his cock ached just thinking about it), and Fai appreciated any sort of touch, especially when it involved Kurogane between his legs. Kurogane pulled reluctantly away, slid further down to take Fai into his mouth. Fai was thick and heavy, and he thrust hungrily up, dripping slick onto Kurogane's tongue.
He hollowed his cheeks; Fai groaned and swore, hips bucking, almost choking Kurogane with his desperation.
It made him wet, this need. Kurogane could barely keep his thoughts on making Fai last, because he wanted to taste Fai's come, wanted to hear him cry out, and he couldn't think straight for the throbbing pressure at his groin.
He pulled off, curled a fist around Fai, licked down to his balls, and Fai thrashed beneath him, cock red and flushed and begging to be swallowed whole.
He couldn't hold back much longer. Kurogane sucked Fai back into his mouth, tasting every salty drop of wetness, and pressed a finger against the tight ring of his entrance.
Fai cried out, back flexing, head thrown back. Kurogane held still, tongue stroking across his tip so he felt every spurt of come, bitter and warm. When Fai fell limp against the stone floor, he pulled away, resisted the temptation to swallow, and turned to the seventh circle instead, emptying his mouth into it.
Fai's chest was heaving when he glanced back. There was one last circle to fill, an empty indent in an arc of drying fluids. He didn't care much about that, however. The wizard was stretched before him, sated, and all he really wanted was Fai.
Slowly, Kurogane crawled back to him, slipping his fingers beneath the wizard's head and lifting him up. The blindfold was still snug over Fai's eyes—he couldn't see, so it felt more like a secret when Kurogane leaned over to kiss him, soft and chaste.
Fai allowed the kiss, opening himself to Kurogane, and his hand came up to touch his cheek. It was surprisingly gentle; Kurogane's heart stuttered. He didn't want to stop this, when Fai was languid in his arms like that, allowing intimacies in his world of pretend. Fai could deny all he wanted—Kurogane was still kissing him, and this was real to one of them.
Thin fingers slipped down his jawline to his throat, tracing his collarbone down. Fai hesitated when he reached Kurogane's chest; it was as though he'd forgotten that he had a naked man with him, but that moment did not last. Kurogane kissed him again, and he sighed, trailed his fingers down his stomach, to the muscles of his abdomen.
It spoke of promise, that touch, and Kurogane could not help the quiver of his belly when Fai caressed him like that. His breath hitched; the back of Fai's hand brushed his erection, and Fai stilled again, as though struck by the fact that Kurogane was not only undressed, but also aroused.
He swallowed noisily, hesitated for a heartbeat, and curled his hand around him.
Kurogane released the breath he was holding—it came out in a rush—and tried not to move when Fai made his slow way along his length, to his tip, and back. Those fingers were very, very familiar with him by now; Fai could not hide knowing that it was him, or the entirety of what they'd done together, because he pressed firmly down with the pad of his thumb, all the way down the underside of his cock, and Kurogane had to stifle his curse.
Fai knew exactly what he liked, and it showed.
It showed in every sweep of his fingers, when he teased his head, to the way he stroked down the very middle of his balls, cupping them, to the way he rolled onto his knees, licking up the beaded wetness at his tip. Kurogane shivered, sat heavily down, because his legs were starting to shake just the slightest bit.
Thoom.
He didn't bother glancing over at the seventh circle, and neither did Fai. Instead, Fai opened his mouth, breathed hot along Kurogane's entire length, and he gulped, lifting his hips. The motion pressed him against Fai's face. Rather than pull away, the wizard rubbed his cheek against his erection, and Kurogane had to bite his lip. The expression Fai wore wasn't tense at all. He'd seen this face, knew the way Fai's eyelids fluttered shut when he did this. (For all his issues with intimacy, Fai really, really liked sex.)
With the blindfold on, the wizard allowed himself to pretend just a little more. He parted those red, red lips of his and took Kurogane inside, and Kurogane swore, his stomach clenching. Fai's mouth was wet and good, and he couldn't help threading his fingers through wispy fine hair, trying not to push Fai down because he needed more (but Fai liked that, too).
He lost track of time with each slow slide of that mouth, until Fai pulled away and he was harder than ever, and in sheer need of something, of more.
Fai reached blindly up for him, slight fingers catching the back of his neck. Kurogane leaned in to kiss him again, groaned when his other hand fell, wrapped around him andslid.
He came with a rush of pleasure, Fai purring low in his throat, fingers dragging every drop of come from him, and Kurogane couldn't think for a long moment. His body was wound tight; he didn't know how much of that stuff had got onto Fai, and he wasn't particularly keen on pulling away, but he eventually did, when the wizard's mouth slowed and brushed away from his.
The sudden cool air was a shock against his body. He glanced blearily around, found the daub of sunlight inches from the last circle, and reached over for Fai, scooping up the drips of wetness that had dashed across his skin. The wizard remained still; Kurogane watched the careful way Fai held himself together, pulled away when he was done.
After all they'd been through in this world, wiping his fingers on carved stone was considerably uneventful.
"Thought there'd be more we had to do," he said, voice slightly rough. "Like the temple turns out to be a trap and we have to kill another damn worm."
To his side, Fai snorted. "Maybe some things can be easy, Kuro-tan. Not everything has to be hard."
Kurogane kept his mouth shut. He made a grab for the bottle of wine, downed a mouthful, and handed it over. Fai brightened when the cool glass kissed his fingers; he curled his hand around it, reached up to pull the blindfold off.
There was little else to do but wait. Kurogane wet another two pieces of cut blanket, tossed one over to the wizard, and set about wiping himself down. There had been remnants of dust on the floor of the ritual room, and dirt had caught on their sweaty skins while they were occupied.
"I hope the feather will just appear. Then we can take it and leave," Fai sighed. He was pulling his robe back onto himself—the princess had taken their clothes away for safekeeping, and Kurogane wished they'd left at least a pair of pants around. He didn't feel prepared to take on a giant worm, half-naked as he was. "Get Sakura-chan some medical attention."
"That," he said. "I want a bath. Or some clothes."
"Or a long shower. Mm." The wizard had cinched his robe tight around his waist, though the heavy material parted at his knees, and a sliver of pale calf peeked through. "It's so easy to get used to simple things. We haven't had a proper bath in months."
"Yeah." A bed would be nice, too, but knowing their luck, it was probably too much to hope for. He leaned back on his arm, took the wine back from Fai.
"Aren't you going to get dressed?" The idiot slanted a glance at him, looked away. It was the closest they'd come to discussing the sex at all, and Kurogane knew they wouldn't. "The children could see you, Kuro-rin. For shame."
He breathed a sigh, got up to pull a long strip of blanket back around his waist. Sunshine was a finger's width away from covering the entire eighth circle; the room was still and silent around them, dim with shadows, and Fai was draining the last of the wine.
Kurogane shrugged his cloak on—who knew if the kids would return his clothes in time—and watched as sunlight slipped fully over the final circle. Pearly fluid bubbled stickily.
Thoom.
"That's weird as hell," he said. The rest of the fluids were in shadow, now. Their saliva had dried, and so had the patches of blood.
"So don't look." Fai set the bottle down, hugged his knees. His gaze was anchored somewhere across the room.
"Doesn't mean it didn't happen. The kids are gonna see—"
The temple began to rumble all around them. It was a deafening roar, so loud that Kurogane winced. The stones vibrated beneath their feet; dust shook free from the ceiling, sifting down like the thin sand in an hourglass. Fai scrambled up in a hurry, looking around. "The children!"
Kurogane snatched his sword up, squinted through the dust. Would they still find the feather if he destroyed the temple? "They're fine," he said. "Incoming."
Sakura and Syaoran burst through the doors a moment later, harried and wide-eyed. Mokona was tucked into the neck of Syaoran's shirt; the boy glanced around the room, sagging slightly when he caught sight of Kurogane and Fai.
"Hang on tight to those clothes," Kurogane said to the princess, who hugged the bundle in her arms tighter. "And get behind me."
The kids wobbled as they crossed the room; Fai stepped out of the circle, ushering them closer. There was a ear-splitting crack.
Above, clouds dragged over the skylight, cutting off the stream of light. The room was cast in darkness.
"Did the ritual end?" Syaoran asked, glancing up. "I read that it's supposed to rain after, but it's all desert out, and—"
"Quiet," Kurogane said, stretching his senses out. There was nothing around the temple. The sandstorm outside had not made its way in, and they were still safe. For now.
A hole had opened up some yards away, one that Fai was heading towards. Kurogane trusted that the wizard had the sense to move away in the face of danger. Even so, he couldn't help but keep a cautious eye on Fai, ready to spring in case he wasn't able to react quickly enough.
"Stay close to me," he told the kids. They turned their faces in his direction.
He remembered that they couldn't see in the dark, and grabbed the princess's hand, pushing it into Syaoran's. That done, Kurogane took Sakura's other hand, heading them off towards Fai, careful to lead them away from the hollowed circles in the floor.
"Mokona senses the feather!"
When he looked back at the wizard, all he saw was a stretch of empty floor. There wasn't time to react. Pale hair popped out of the crack the next moment, smeared with dirt.
"I have the feather," Fai said. He pulled his hand out of the crack, and there, glowing a soft pinkish-white, was the tapered triangle of the princess's memory. The kids gasped.
Kurogane strode forward with half a mind to haul the wizard to his feet. Fai managed on his own, however. He found his footing on the ritual room floor, straightened to his full height, and extended the feather towards Syaoran.
"It's your journey, after all," Fai said.
It didn't really make sense to Kurogane—Fai could return the feather to Sakura himself. He was important to the kids. Syaoran wouldn't mind.
But Fai would. Fai didn't want any of these connections, even if they had been forged, and even if he was steadfastly ignoring them.
"You found the feather though, Fai-san," the boy said earnestly. "You and Kurogane-san did the ritual for it."
The idiot gaped at him, mouth hanging open. Sakura stepped forward.
"Syaoran-kun is right." She smiled at Fai, cupping her hands together awkwardly, arms still full of clothes. She took the feather gently from Fai's frozen fingers. "Thank you."
They watched as the feather sank through the clothes into her chest. The princess fell forward; Kurogane stooped at the same time Syaoran moved forward to catch her, easing her into the boy's arms.
"I'll take the clothes," he said. Even if they didn't have time to put it on, he felt better for having them in his grasp.
"Time to go, everyone," Mokona cried. She soared into the air, glowing wings spreading from her back.
Kurogane felt the thin fingers curling into his forearm before he saw Fai. The wizard wasn't looking at him, huddled around Syaoran and Sakura as he was, but he hung on tightly to Kurogane all the same, afraid of another separation.
On his end, Kurogane grabbed on to the boy's shoulder, just in case. They could go without being lost for a while, and they could all use a hot shower.
He closed his eyes and hoped.
A/N: A few things to mention about this arc:
1. Harasa is a play on Sahara, if you guys haven't figured it out yet ;)
2. Fertility ritual was inspired by a prompt on clampkink. (Yours truly is a troll. I didn't think it was a suitable ending at first, but HEY. My real purpose in life is to make crack not seem like crack. LOL) The ritual itself was partly inspired by the drum beats and mood in "Kaze no Machi e".
3. Time is a theme touched on sparingly in this arc. :) It's in the title - the sand actually refers both to the sand in the desert, as well as the sand in an hourglass.
4. If you never realized it - the entire point of this arc was to get everyone so miserable that everybody had to sing together. ;)
5. Next arc is Piffle.
And a few writerly things:
1. We will be pausing this series for a couple months or so while I post my kurofai AU, titled more than a thousand times no. Look out for it starting next Thurs/Fri. :) It actually will be a nice break for me - shorter chapters, different style - because editing 9k-word chapters in 1-2 sittings is really a pain, and
2. I really need to start writing/publishing original fic/books. I'm not sure if I'm really good enough for that yet, but I kind of need something back from putting my writing out there, and fandom is starting to not cut it anymore.
tldr; I hope you guys enjoyed this arc, stay tuned for Piffle, and look out for the modern AU starting next week!