Shadow: Yuui and Fai's 'once upon a time' sections always seem to be stupidly long compared to everyone else…and Xing Huo just isn't Xing Huo. (The OOC-ness knows no bounds.) But someone had to do her role, and everyone else seems to have been booked up. *pulls face*
Warnings: Shonen-ai, boy x boy. If you don't like it, and read it anyway, please don't waste your time complaining. There will also probably be spoilers for the latest chapters of XxxHolic and Tsubasa at various points, and general magic, violence, woe, and the potential of bloody mayhem in the future. Just so you know.
Ever After
Chapter III: Witches And Their WaysOnce upon a time, a pretty long time ago, but before Valeria fell to ruin, two twins born of the Royal House were abandoned in the enchanted forest that bordered the edge of the kingdom of snow. They were ten when they were left amongst the morning mists cloaking the trees, blond hair catching and setting alight the first glow of the sun as it rose above the mountains far, far to the east.
They were children, true, in age, but in mind were wiser than many adults. Twins born to a kingdom that despised twins, raised by a people that hated them and wished them dead. Their childhood had been stolen from them in dribs and drabs of hushed poison, and the dagger had been driven in as they were whisked out one night into the harsh cold of the forest. Valeria was too pure to slay a child, too gentle to see death before its eyes, and so the twins were taken far away to die in the shadows where hypocrisy didn't have to see them.
"Fai…" Yuui was the youngest of the two, the most confused about the situation, clutching onto his brother's hand. Yuui had been sleeping in his bed when Valeria's King, their uncle, had ordered them to be taken to their deaths – only Fai had heard the pronouncement of their fates. Fai had heard, and Fai then had to tell his brother.
"Yuui -" Looking into a mirror of himself, Fai couldn't speak, so Yuui read the tale in the dusky shadows beneath too-bright eyes, in the tremble of soft lips and hands. The youngest twin hugged his brother, tightly, tightly, warmth in the cold forest. The story had no need of further words.
"Sleep," said Yuui, pulling his twin down into the moss, so Fai reluctantly slept, and Yuui kept vigil until the morning came on proper and the mist had faded away.
When Fai finally awoke the two twins set about trying to find their way out of the forest. Although they determinedly attempted to keep walking in a straight line (and so eventually find one edge of the woods) the forest itself seemed against them, obstacles placed in their path leading them astray and turning them around and around so they had no real clue which way was which anymore.
Lights appeared sometimes, between the shadows in the trees, the sound of soft whispers playfully lilting around and overhead with no discernible cause. Yuui murmured it was the wind through the branches of the trees but his hand tightened in his brother's all the same – both twins knew the stories of the enchanted forest well. Eventually, sick of the teasing whispers and lights, Fai summoned up a bird made of blue and white fire, the heat from flaming wings searing as the creature sprung into the air with an unearthly shriek.
There was a stunned hush. No more whispers came.
The twins wandered some more, and Yuui stumbled, falling into a thick tangle of blackberry thorns. The brambles scratched his pale face and hands, snagging his hair as he twisted about to get free, his own blood and the blood of his brother sinking in through the thorns as Fai attempted to aid his release. Both were scratched and torn when Yuui finally came loose, breathing heavily.
It was then they looked up and saw the house.
Resting in the shade of an enormous tree all wound with ivy it stood, its back moulded with the gnarled bark. It was a strange shape, both being made of and curving amongst the tree's many roots, walls made of dark woods that blended in well with the shadow.
Fai and Yuui stared at the house, having never seen anything like it before in their lives.
Yuui tugged on his brother's arm, motioning to the abode. "Maybe whoever lives there will know some place where we could go?" Neither twin had allusions of returning to Valeria.
Fai was hesitant. "We don't know who – or what – lives there." Messy curls hung over his face, childish fear shadowing his eyes.
"We won't find out if we don't knock."
They debated together, for a long while. Neither twin had truly done something so momentous without the other's consent before, and so they lingered, passing back and forth their reasons. They both quite missed the door to the strange house opening.
"…Children?" It was a woman's voice that spoke, sounding confused. "Children, what are you doing here amongst the trees?"
Fai and Yuui looked up, startled from their conversation, catching sight of the one who had spoken.
It was a woman, pale of skin and somewhat sharp of face, with dark eyes and dark, curling hair all around her face. Her dress was just as dark as her hair, a layer of frill about her legs, bodice tight and flattering. It was a strange fashion for the twins to see, but stranger yet for them to truly find another human amongst the woods.
Fai and Yuui looked at her dumbly for a few seconds. The woman looked back expectantly.
"…We're lost," Fai finally half-admitted, neglecting entirely to attach any sort of back-story to his words. "Could you point us the way out of the forest?"
"How long have you been lost?" The woman's dark eyes raked across the thorn-torn forms, face devoid of any emotion.
"Since yesterday." Another half-truth, half-lie. Yuui glanced at his brother out of the corner of his eyes, a little worried by his twin's ability to tread the thin line of grey with such ease.
"Have you eaten since then?"
The rumble of the twins' stomachs answered her question.
The two boys went inside the strange tree-house in the shadows when invited, sitting a little awkwardly in the twisted rooms they found, swinging their legs back and forth on slightly too-large chairs. Their hostess fed them odd, hot foods that Fai drowned in honey and jam, stirring in milk amongst thick cream and oats and purring contentedly. Yuui sweetened his concoction too, though nowhere near his brother's excess.
It made them tired, the food. Although he'd slept earlier in the day Fai found himself nodding off over his meal, slumping in his seat as his lashes fluttered, thick warmth stealing up from his stomach and filling his thin form. Yuui followed swiftly on his heels, both twins sliding into sleep at the table they'd ate at.
When they awoke, it was on clean sheets, curled together on a large bed in their undershirts. Their exterior clothing was at the foot of their bed, mended from the scratches of the blackberry thorns, and their hostess was waiting for them when they went down the stairs they found themselves at the top of, more food in hand. It was evening and the lights in the crooked house were on, and the three ate together. Their hostess told them her name – Xing Huo.
Somehow or other, the twins found themselves staying with the strange woman. Xing Huo never demanded anything of them; she let them out to play, fed them, gave them new clothes… She didn't speak much, although Fai swore he'd heard her talking to someone in her room at night, but Yuui had laughed and said there was no-one else for her to talk to. Fai had wanted to go check her room just to see, but her room was the one place Xing Huo had forbidden the children to go. She was creating something special in there, she'd told them, but refused to say what. When Fai pestered her with questions she gave them sweet cakes, and somehow or other both twins would forget their train of thought entirely, and let the matter drop.
About six months into their stay with Xing Huo, the whispers started up in the woods one day, when the twins wandered a little further from their hostess' house than they usually did. Yuui, mimicking what his brother had done half a year previously, summoned up a shrieking phoenix to cast into the air, but Fai frowned when he saw his twin's creation, shading his eyes to look up at the swooping bird.
"That's not as bright as mine was."
Yuui argued against this statement strongly so Fai summoned up his own phoenix to demonstrate, only to discover his bird was just the same as Yuui's.
Yuui had crowed, on their way home, that Fai's memories were getting worse with age.
Fai had frowned, quiet to himself, insistent both their birds should have been brighter.
Xing Huo, when they came in, gave them more treats and both twins fell asleep at the table. (They had the odd tendency to do that at night – Xing Huo said it was the fault of the forest; it exhausted everyone more than it should have done.)
Fai woke up sometimes, during the night. (Yuui never did.) The house they lived in became an even weirder place after dark, and Fai got the impression it was something he was never supposed to see, his mind crying at him to sleep as he tried to rise from the oh-so-welcoming bed Xing Huo had given his sibling and he.
One such night, Fai awoke to hear talking coming from Xing Huo's room. He snuck out of bed – defying the sleep that clung to the corners of his thoughts, spidersilk trying to bind him in the darkness -, creeping to the woman's door and peering around it. It was slightly open – only slightly -, but it had always been completely shut before.
"And today's amount?" That was a man's voice. Fai smothered his surprise, craning to see who it was that was speaking – but failed, miserably, only able to see Xing Huo's profile, the woman stretching out a gloved hand to someone (or something) in response.
"Here." A beautiful sapphire blue gem twirled lazily in the air above Xing Huo's palm, the shade of the summer sky, forget-me-not flowers. The colour made Fai smile, reminding him of his brother's eyes, the sparkle running across the stone's surface the trace of laughter common to both Yuui and he.
A thick hand reached out, and took the gem. "Another powerful collection."
Xing Huo smiled, her usual distant coldness. "The boys are growing – they seem to be an endless supply." Fai frowned. 'Boys'? But – "What need have they of this excess? They gain more power day by day, and would waste it on chasing away the fey of the forest."
Realisation hit Fai then, a cold icicle rammed straight into his abdomen and sending its arctic chill throughout his body. Then that meant that that gem was –
"How long will you keep them?" The man seemed amused.
"As long as you have need of them."
Their conversation ended. Fai ran back to his bed, shivering, and crept closer to his brother, trying to warm his heart. Yuui murmured in his sleep, but moved accommodatingly to accept Fai's chill against his own frame. Fai shuddered against him, wide awake, unable to sleep.
That witch was stealing their magic.
About a year into their stay with Xing Huo the witch – for that was what she was, after all – left the door to her room ajar slightly, as she went out into the forest to gather some fruits or vegetables or herbs or something. Fai had seen the door on his way out of the house with his twin; after checking Xing Huo was nowhere in sight he'd snuck back into the abode with his frantic brother at his side, pulling Yuui into the forbidden room with him.
The first thing that caught Fai's attention was the mirror. It was a massive, circular thing, easily twice his height at its diameter. It sparkled in the light coming into the room through the window, sunlight picking out the strange looping runes inscribed in the metal casing around the glass' circumference.
The first thing that caught Yuui's attention was the wall of blue to the side, various hues of the colour caught and stopped in looping, twisting cases, dripping, whirling through strange tubes as lazy sparks went with them.
"Is that-?" Yuui was entranced, horror-struck, a mixture of confusion and shock. Fai had never told him what Xing Huo had been doing, but Yuui seemed to recognise the blue stuff for what it was at once. "How has she been-?"
Fai hadn't actually figured that out – he didn't want to know. The witch probably did something whilst they were sleeping – she had to put drugs or magic or something in their food to keep them so malleable. "She gave it to a man in the mirror." Fai pointed to the glass, instinctively knowing he was right. That was the direction he'd seen Xing Huo speaking in all those nights ago, and the mirror just felt weird.
Yuui didn't ask how his twin knew; he just nodded, fixing his eyes upon the mirror, pretending not to see the somewhat lost expression on Fai's face. "How much did they take?"
"I don't know." Fai's tone was meek.
"How long's she been taking it?"
"I don't know." Meekness slid into bitterness, Yuui twisting his head around, slightly astonished, seeing his brother's face twist into hurt anger. Xing Huo had hurt them – made them think she'd liked them, when all along she'd been using them to get their magic –
"Fai-!" Yuui didn't know where Fai had summoned the lump of ice that was in his hands, water dripping from where the cold met warm skin, falling in thick droplets on the floor. Yuui didn't know where the ice had come from, didn't ask, just saw his brother's face move into such fury –
Ice glittered as it flew through the air, fuelled by rage and stupidly strong magic. The mirror smashed in a dreadfully loud crash, shards of glass flying everywhere, Yuui raising a hand to shelter his eyes from deadly spears of mirror.
Fai stood there on that day, glaring down at the broken mirror, a few pathetic pieces still clinging to the casing. The sun shone in and caught the hair and eyes of the vengeful angel, the little child who was then eleven. He bent down amongst the shards at his feet, rising with a long, sharp piece to twist in his hands.
"What have you done?!" It was the first time Fai and Yuui had ever heard Xing Huo raise her voice, tone somehow colder than it had even been lips thin and angry. Her large eyes were blacker than the night, and she was glaring murder at Fai. And then she dove forwards, a flurry of black curls and black midnight fury and –
The witch was dark; the prince was pale, and the mirror-mirror shard glittered beautifully in the sunlight until all was crimson red and black as Xing Huo gaped, mouth opening and closing, shard buried firmly in her chest.
"I -" Fai looked horrified by what he'd done, hands shaking as he stared at the scarlet decorating his fingers, the mirror's edge biting into his own skin. "I -"
Xing Huo looked down at herself, mouth eventually thinning once more. "…You've killed me."
Fai trembled. "I – I – I didn't mean -" Even if she had – she'd just rushed him and – he'd lifted and – then there'd been red, red, red – oh it was everywhere –
"I curse you, little murderer." Xing Huo reached out to touch his forehead and Fai flinched, but somehow couldn't draw away, his hands still clasped tightly to the shard that was killing the witch. "I curse you where it will hurt you the most – your brother."
"No!" Fai stopped his shaking at that, head snapping up and eyes wide, wild.
"Yes," Xing Huo insisted, looking at the boy who'd killed her, ignoring the other horror-bound twin in the room. Yuui was frozen in shock, anyway – he couldn't do anything. "He will grow older with you, and sicker, day by day. Before either of you see your twentieth mortal year he will be dead, and you will be unable to heal him. To heal anyone, ever again, for all your magic. You'll be the death of him."
"No!" Fai could do little else but repeat the word. "Take it back! Take it back!"
Xing Huo smiled – and then slumped forwards, dead. The weight hit Fai suddenly, the blond boy stumbling under the corpse and falling to his knees before shoving it to the side, hands slick with blood. He stared, despairingly, at the wall.
Yuui finally regained movement, seeing his twin fall, dashing forward to drape himself around Fai, trying to focus his blank-eyed brother on him. "Fai – Fai!"
Fai sunk against him, shaking, hands leaving red smears on Yuui's clothes as he clutched at his sibling, closer, closer, twin hearts beating as one. He could feel Xing Huo's curse in Yuui already, a black shadow, and he tried to push his magic towards it but – nothing. Nothing. The magic would not move, could not move. The curse of the misfortunate twins.
Slowly, silently, Fai began to cry. Salt and blood dripped on the floor, unforgiving. Yuui held his brother tighter. The world moved on.
One of the many talents Watanuki Kimihiro did not possess was an aptitude for singing. It had never really bothered the boy before – he could hum a tune to himself perfectly alright, and he'd never really aspired to doing great performances on-stage anyway. Yuuko, Watanuki's 'employer' (evil slave-master, in the youth's own opinion), didn't mind the slightly off-key tunes as long as they weren't being warbled out when she had a hangover, and so Watanuki could often be found humming to himself as he worked in the kitchen. (Singing was reserved for thoughts of Himawari, and Maru and Moro usually plugged up their ears about that point or started singing something louder about their mistress or love.)
Today was one such day Watanuki was humming; in a good mood because of the afternoon sunshine and the prospect of seeing his beloved Himawari-chan. (She really was a very cute girl.) He was busy making inarizushi for the bentou he was going to take, stuffing a selection of carefully-selected toppings into small pouches of hand-fried tofu before setting the finished pieces in the prettiest bentou box he'd been able to find.
"Nothing but the best for Himawari-chan~!" His long spoon was waved in the air with glee, as if defying the gods to offer anything less than absolute wonderment and glory on his crush.
Watanuki was, in fact, so taken with waving his spoon around and imagining Himawari's face when he gave her the bentou that he completely missed the small black paw sneaking the cooked inarizushi out of its place in the bentou box, and the happy scoffing sounds that followed straight after.
Watanuki, having finished his cooking, finally finished his spoon-waving flight-of-fancy, turning the oven off before him and going to pick up the inarizushi - only to find the whole box empty.
The youth gaped for a few seconds, bewildered. "But I -"
A black paw suddenly reached into the boy's line of sight, feeling around the empty bentou box for more sushi. Finding none forthcoming Mokona blinked up at the stunned chef from his position on the kitchen countertop. "Watanuki, make moooore. Mokona wants more tasty treats!"
Watanuki naturally exploded. "Those were for Himawari-chan!" The blue-eyed teen swiped for the little black creature, Mokona leaping out of the way with a wail.
"But Mokona was hungry!"
"You're always hungry!"
"Wah, wah – Watanuki's mean!"
Across the hallway and down from the insanity in the kitchen of Yuuko's shop and home the witch herself lounged, draped across her couch as she entertained Syaoran once more. Both woman and boy ignored the shrieking, wails and general chaos happening elsewhere in the house (although Syaoran did spare an idle thought to wondering how Yuuko still had a house standing if Watanuki always created such pandemonium when wound up – the crashes coming from the kitchen were ominous), Syaoran seated on a cushion before the witch, amber eyes looking up determinedly at Yuuko through the haze of smoke her opium had left in the room.
"So," Yuuko set her pipe down on a side-table, the piece making a quiet clack as it came into contact with the dark wood, "your price."
"I will do whatever it takes to save Sakura-hime." Syaoran's eyes had lost none of their fire since that morning – the flames seemed, in fact, to burn brighter, anticipating whatever hardships were to come.
"I have three items in need of retrieval," Yuuko said, meeting the boy's gaze head-on. "You will enter into my general service until such a time as they are returned to my person; that will be your price. Will you still make your wish?"
"Yes." Syaoran didn't need to think about it – he would do anything for Sakura.
"Then your first job can be one for the shop…" Yuuko rose from her lounging, moving into a more upright position, hands in her lap. "Row across the lake in the boat Maru and Moro brought you in on and bring back the customer who is waiting there."
Syaoran frowned, perplexed. "How do you-?"
Yuuko looked at him.
"…I'll be back shortly." Syaoran left.
Fai tilted his face up to the sky, feeling the sun on his cheeks, the breeze playing with his hair and white cloak. He actually had very little idea what he was doing there; Ashura-ou had woken him from his rest, spoken rather quickly of a witch who granted wishes who could help with Fai's problems if Fai were willing to pay the equivalent price –
Ashura had never mentioned a wish-granting wish before that morning. It surely would've made more sense for the faerie to mention this 'Yuuko' before then – Yuui had been asleep for years…decades…centuries, though Fai had long since given up on trying to exactly follow time. The world spun on around him and he remained un-aging, undying. After a while, time lost its concept. There was just pain, and hurt, and Yuui fast, fast asleep. (Fast, fast asleep and gone, and Fai didn't know where he was. Didn't know if Ashura's curse had taken effect – whatever its effects were.)
"…Are you here to see Yuuko-san?"
Fai looked down from the sky, startled from his thoughts, meeting the gaze of a young brunet standing upright in a boat that had landed on his edge of the lakeshore. "Indeed I am." He smiled, and the boy visibly relaxed. "Yuuko-san is expecting me?"
"I'm here to take you to see her." Fai didn't ask how it was the witch knew he was there, breezing forwards instead to clamber into the boy's boat, taking a seat as his little guide picked up the oars and started rowing them back across the lake to the island from which he'd come.
"You've served Yuuko-san long?" Fai didn't quite know why he was engaging in conversation with the boy – only the child just looked so serious.
A faint wash of pink touched the brunet's cheeks. "I've only been technically serving her for about ten minutes."
"Oh?" Fai smiled again, but there was no pressure in his question. It made sense that a witch capable of granting wishes would get an assortment of customers; what was it to Fai if one or two had came not that long before he himself? "Then I hope you enjoy your work…" He trailed off.
"Syaoran," the boy supplied.
"Syaoran-kun," Fai finished. "I'm sure it will be an interesting experience."
The brunet perked up a little, the boat reaching the witch's island and coming to drift alongside a small pier there. Syaoran hopped out to tether the craft, looking down at the blond still in the boat. "You've visited Yuuko-san before?"
"Ah, no." Fai moved out onto the pier as well, glancing around himself for the entrance to the shop Ashura-ou had told him of. "This is my first time."
"Oh." His companion deflated a bit, moving to lead the way when it became clear the blond really did have no true idea of where he was going. "It's this way."
"Thank you, Syaoran-kun." Syaoran was quickly becoming accustomed to the stranger's smile, the older male tilting his head to the side and beaming almost brightly enough to match the memory of Sakura in the boy's mind. Sakura had had a wonderful smile too, the last time he'd seen her. A perfect smile, that didn't leave a vague sense of disquiet like this man's did –
"…You never told me your name."
"Fai D. Fluorite," a sweeping bow, (someone didn't smile if they was something wrong though, did they?) the blond practically glowing in the afternoon sunlight with his white skin and white clothes, "please pardon my atrocious manners."
'Atrocious manners'? Fai D. Fluorite spoke like Sakura-hime did, like he'd been born and bred as a member of high Court. He rose from his bow with easy grace, comfortable with his pose and Syaoran glanced aside, not wanting to be caught staring. There was just something a little bit…off –
"The Mistress is waiting." Maru and Moro stood waiting at the front doors of the shop, their eyes the blankest that Syaoran had ever seen them as they spoke scarily in synch, unusually calm as they gazed at Fai coming up the path behind Yuuko's newest assistant.
"Is she now?" Fai stepped in front of the boy and offered one hand to each of the girls, Maru and Moro immediately latching on and looking up at the guest with solemn eyes. "Would you please kindly lead me to her then? It's not good to keep a lady waiting."
The twins did as bid, dragging Fai off without a backward glance. Syaoran followed them in, and carefully shut the front door behind them. Unsure of what else to do he headed for the kitchen, where Watanuki was clattering away to himself, Mokona having apparently scuttled to safety when the irate chef-servant-slave threw a pan at him (at least, that was what Mokona pouted to himself as he sat inside Yuuko's favourite vase in the hallway. Syaoran just side-stepped the talking vase and went to fetch a mop to clean up the mess the chaos of before had no doubt left behind).
"Kurogane, even as a wolf I can tell you're scowling at me."
Said wolf growled lowly in the back of his throat, refusing to rise from where he was crouched near the ground outside Tomoyo-hime's music-room, red eyes fixed pointedly on the smirking Souma sat opposite him. The princess' voice floated between them, lovely as always, but the melody completely failed to soothe Kurogane in any way. He was hot; he was uncomfortable, and that damn Souma kept laughing at him none-too-discreetly behind her hand. Had Kurogane actually had a hand of his own right then – instead of a set of four rather irritating paws – he would've grabbed one of his fellow shinobi's twin moon blades and used it to pin the woman in place somewhere far, far away – as it was, he was forced to sit and glare at her pointedly, and get accused of scowling. Like she could tell he was scowling, anyway. Stupid Souma.
Kurogane missed his opposable thumbs. Where was that stupid witch when you needed her?
Having lived in the middle of an enchanted forest abandoned by most of human civilisation for the stupidly large majority of his (almost equally) stupidly long life, Fai D Fluorite had not seen really enough representatives of the female half of the population to be at all proportional to his years. (And the female faeries had steered clear of him as well – Fai had the distinct feeling Ashura-ou had had something to do with that, but the point had never been raised as more than an idle mention.) And yet, still, the man-boy-youth-ageless wonder was ever utterly charming, knowing just what to do and say to whatever race or sex he came across. Sweeping into the room where Yuuko sat, Queen in state, he bowed so low even the witch had to absently wonder for a few seconds if it were physically possible for one of wholly human stock to be so elegant, the woman eventually passing the thing off as too much time beneath the trees, the fey influence.
"My lady~," there was a pleasing lilt in the prince's voice when he spoke, Yuuko noted, and a glitter of blue eyes from beneath his golden fringe. The child clearly liked putting on a show, playing for an audience, and who was Yuuko but to oblige? It was so dreadfully hard to find good players like herself, and Fai seemed someone she could easily bond with before putting him on his way.
"Fluorite-san," Yuuko didn't even bother to pretend she didn't know of the blond before her, summoning up every trace of her imperiousness to do a fitting match to her customer and guest – she had a reputation to maintain, after all. (She knew Watanuki would say 'elevate', as he thought her reputation really couldn't get any worse, but ah – Watanuki was always so fun to torment.) "You're late."
"My deepest apologies, my lady Yuuko-san," Fai straightened, hands clasped behind his back as he adopted the traditional pose of a repentant schoolboy (had the boy ever even been in school?), but his eyes were still laughter-bright, his mouth skilfully drawn down into a look of tragically-feigned woe. "It was my pet cat you see. She got stuck up a tree."
"A tree?" Yuuko only raised an eyebrow.
"Yes," a sage nod in reply. "A very big tree. So I felt deeply inclined to climb up after her – with supplies of course, in case I got hungry partway up. And then we had to eat the snacks before we could even possibly think about climbing down again, and then Chii needed a good snuggle when we reached the ground to help her deal with the trauma."
"It does sound very traumatic."
"And then I came straight here." Fai finished his words with another flourish of gleefully insincere pride, and Yuuko found herself in no great hurry to sit and work out whether the mage had just pulled that story from the afternoon air around him on a whim or whether he was actually being serious - it didn't particularly matter.
"What an eventful day you've had, Fai-san." Yuuko dropped some of her majesty, lounging back in her seat a little more with a lazy cross of her legs. The blond smiled sweetly at her – fake, but definitely sweet – for the shift of name, a nod to the familiarity even though they'd just – physically – met. (Fai, as a fellow magic user, would've been able to have felt her in the universal ether from the moment of his and his twin's conception, repressed as the child had tried to make his abilities for the largest part of his enchanted life. To live in frozen time, with frozen grief -)
"Here to make it even more eventful I hope, Yuuko-san." The laughter died, trickling away through cracks in the air and time, and my, didn't the children look solemn without their smiles painted on their faces? It twisted something sharp and bittersweet inside the heart and mind, stronger than any sake one downed to try and drown the burn. "I have a wish, and you were the good lady I was advised to come to with it."
"That's what I'm here for." Yuuko really wanted a drink, preferably of the alcoholic kind.
"I want -" Fai paused, words choking his throat as his body stilled and his breath caught, and then they all came tumbling out as he strode forwards, trembling a little as he looked down at the seated witch. "I want to make Yuui better – I want him well and awake and beside me and not ill and not cursed because I -" he faltered and then stopped completely, unable to go on, his hands shaking slightly at his sides, clenched tightly into fists. Forced to wish, as he was unable to heal himself…
Yuuko regarded him, her face a porcelain mask. "You cannot afford the price to break the curse." When Fai looked like she was going to interrupt she held up a hand, silencing the blond's protest before it had even begun. "You can, however, afford to pay for the opportunity to break the curse yourself, though it will be a long and painful process."
Fai laughed, more than a little bitterly, and sunk to his knees beside the witch's couch. "Yuuko-san, time stopped holding any true relevance to me a good many centuries back." He made no mention of the pain. The pain was prerequisite.
Yuuko touched a hand to the top of his head, a calming gesture. "The price of opportunity is time – a year, when trying to be exact, a little longer, perhaps, when the future changes. To leave your home and live with another I have in mind, bonded. Together, your prices should be enough to achieve your wishes."
"'Bonded'?" Fai tilted his head up to look at the witch, and Yuuko could see how it was someone could grow so attached to him.
"Marriage," she said firmly.
"Engagement," Fai returned a few heartbeats later, looking somewhat traumatised by the issue at all. To someone as fancy-free as the lost prince, it was probably a sentence worse than death. "Surely actual marriage is unnecessary?"
"An engagement would be sufficient, true," it was the vow – or even the promise of a vow – that would aid the children with their wishes, not the state of actually being wed. Yuuko allowed a small smile to shine through her features, a trace of her usual brand of 'evil' (as Watanuki called it), "but you'd make such a pretty bride, Fai-san!"
"Engagement," Fai repeated, though his smile had returned. "And I'll make the wish."
"Don't you want to know who your fiancé will be first?"
"I don't care."
"Very well." Yuuko's own smile was full-blown, content and inwardly cackling. Although it was the only way to get things done as they ought to be done it was still probably the most amusing way as well – Tomoyo-hime was going to squeal like there was no tomorrow when Yuuko announced the price. "I'll fetch him first thing in the morning."
Fai didn't bat a lash at the male pronoun – and why would he, considering what most of the fey whispered about him and Ashura-ou in the Court both were absent from? Fai did, however, look up at the mention of time. "He can't be brought by tonight?" His companion shook her head. "…Yuuko-san, what would be the price for bed and board here, in your illustrious establishment?"
The witch didn't miss a beat, quick to return their conversation to the jest it had been before. "Nought but your good company and a kiss for your charming hostess, of course," Yuuko was all play once more, extending a hand ever-so-graciously towards her blond guest. It wasn't every day one entertained royalty, after all, estranged as they may be.
Fai took it with a nod and raised it to his lips – and then paused, smile spreading over his face, using the proffered limb instead to tug himself the length of the witch's arm and press a swift, teasing kiss on Yuuko's cheek instead.
"My lady~" he stepped back and swept a courteous bow, relishing the somewhat stunned delight on Yuuko's face.
The witch smiled, gently tapping the youth before her on the arm with her fan for his mischief. "Flirt." Not that she had any complaints, particularly. Pretty young men could randomly kiss her all they wanted.
Fai's own glittering eyes would have been better suited for the devil, shadowed by the bangs of his wispy golden hair. "Only ever to the pretty ones, my lady."
The doors to the room slid open and Watanuki slipped through – Yuuko really have to sort out the child's habit of eavesdropping on conversations with customers. Maru and Moro were picking up bad habits, and they were such impressionable little girls.
"Watanuki-kun~," Yuuko saved the light scolding for later, trilling out her employee's name instead. "Fai-san's going to be spending the night here tonight. Make sure he's looked after properly."
"You accepted payment for my hard work again, didn't you," Fai bit his lip hard to quell the sudden laughter that threatened to bubble out of him at the image the boy Yuuko had called 'Watanuki' suddenly called up, the apron-clad youth sticking his hands on his hips and fussing beautifully, much like the old hens Chii liked to play with in the back-garden.
Yuuko grinned, suddenly aware that maybe her little employee hadn't been paying as much attention as he usually did when he'd been eavesdropping at her door, looking down most wickedly at Fai on the floor. "Watanuki wants payment!" She gasped, managing to feign shock quite well as she fanned her face. "I never knew he had it in him, Fai-san. I must apologise; it's so terribly forward of him."
"'Forward'?" Watanuki's expression took on the guarded look that the wary worldwide adopted when realising they'd just said something they probably shouldn't have.
"He's a bit young for my tastes, Yuuko-san…" Fai looked up at the boy, and Watanuki had the sudden impression of twin demons baying for his blood – a wicked witch and her devil-spawned assistant. "But if he insists~"
"I don't insist!" Watanuki flailed, back-stepping when the blond visitor rose from the floor and approached him. "Really! No insisting!" He had no idea what he was insisting he wasn't insisting about – but it involved Yuuko. Nothing involving Yuuko was ever a good thing.
"Aw~" Yuuko cooed, "Watanuki's shy!"
"I'm not shy!" Watanuki's back hit the door, and Fai was still approaching. Like lightning he'd slid the exit open, slipping back out and turning tail to run away as fast as he could. "I'm going to take the bentou to Himawari-chan!"
Yuuko laughed as her assistant fled, Fai smiling ruefully and returning to the witch's side. The woman petted him again, before leaning over the side of her couch to produce two bottles she'd been hiding there – sake. Her emergency provisions (for when Watanuki had left the building). She gave one to her guest, before uncorking the other and raising the bottle in toast.
"To the future."
"To the future," Fai more absently echoed, and took his seat once more. It was a lot to think on.
AN: I just…really don't know. Really. ^^;; Fai ran away with this chapter from the start, and then he started talking about his pet cat and Yuuko chimed in and…*flails* Stupid important chapters fling my 6/7 page limit straight out of the window… *mutter* I've split what was originally here into two – mostly because I didn't want this chapter so much longer than all the others. Apologies for the lack of Kuro-wanko; his bit's in the next chapter.
On a side-note: There are only about three points in this chapter that are unimportant to the plot ahead. (One of those points is about the cat.)
On a further side-note: Updates to this story always go via my LJ and the kuroxfai comm first - chapter seven's up there right now, and I'm generally more responsive there right now. (Link is my homepage on my profile, if you want it.)