Shadow: I sat and rewatched some subbed clips from the Outo episodes the other day – whenever Syaoran does his little 'hai!' in reply to some command Kuro-pii gives him I just want to pick him up and cuddle him. Seriously, he really does look like a little puppy. ^^ (Or a 'little wolf', as his name cries out. So much Syaoran love~~ 3 ) Long(er) chapter this time – I had too much fun with certain sections.
Ever After
Chapter V: Binding Agreement
Once upon a time, so long ago barely anyone can remember it, a woman with a broken heart made a wish in the darkness of her dreams. It was an unconscious wish originally, as all wishes from her like really are, but it gained momentum when offered potential and the breath of further existence. Temptation is a dangerous thing, even for the powerful.
"Why?" She asked the one who, with one hand, had taken her whole world away, mockingly offering it back to her, re-shaped, with the other. Her hair hung long and dark around her face, shadowing the anger burning in her eyes.
"I owe you," he replied, ignoring her rage.
She shook her head, and looked aside. "I want nothing from you."
Once upon a time, shortly after the death of a dark-eyed witch in the forest on the edge of the dying kingdom of Valeria, a woman with far too much time weighing on her heart was pulled into a dream.
"Why?" The one who had pulled her there asked her, anger roughening his tone.
"I owed you," she replied, folding her hands in her lap, demure as she sat in her chair. Her hair was swept up at the nape of her neck, her eyes as cold and as clear as her conscience.
"This is the way it is, then?"
She nodded, simply. "This is the way you have made things to be."
He glared at her. "You once wished to change that too."
She paused for a little while, and then thought of the children that were, and weren't, and were to come. "I want nothing from you."
Once upon a time, five years before the fall of the province of Suwa in the kingdom of Nihon, a woman with a house full of magic and a garden full of butterflies dreamed of the past, dreamed of the present, and then dreamed of the darkness. She dreamed of the children, and once more her tired heart made a wish. It echoed through the dreams, wings spreading into the air, and took flight.
"Why?" He asked her when he arrived; standing in the reservoir opposite her, their reflections staring back at them from the unbroken surface.
"You owe me," she replied, the water of the lake lapping around her thighs, the crimson of her dress clinging to her legs, blood-red butterfly in the liquid cold.
"…He's dead," he informed her in his usual offhand manner, after a few moments pause. "You can dream your own dreams now."
She smiled at that, mirthless, dark hair loose and trailing around her form, pooling around her where it touched the water's surface. "Are you scared of the dreams of a dead man?" Her voice rang with mockery, picking at the other's flaws, insecurities. "Pay your debt to me."
He frowned, suspicious of this woman's every action. "Twice now you have told me you want nothing from me."
Her smile was fixed, her eyes distant to a time when she had been whispered something by a dreamer far more skilled than either of them. "I can wish for what I do not want." The expression slipped away, drowning in the reservoir below. "It is an easier thing than to wish for what you cannot have."
He scowled at her, hearing the mockery again, the chiding. "The moment I pay you everything will become something he cannot have. The worlds will change."
"Not everything," she gently corrected, a little quieter, the voices of those who were soon to never have existed at all still whispering their pleas in the forefront of her mind. "And everything must change in time, as all dreams must end." He looked ready to argue with her, to deny her this thing that would interfere with his dream, but her eyes turned colder, harder. "You owe me." And they both knew one should not, could not truly renege on their payments.
He scowled again, furious, but reached down to the water below him, the surface becoming harder, smoother as his palms approached, a perfect mirrored reflection. Although it was solid his hands slid straight through the barrier, reaching, feeling, before coming up once more, clutching a silent, dry bundle as the mirror broke with the sound of a million, million endless screams, shards turning to ripples and tears as that which wasn't became that which had never been at all.
He handed the bundle to her, the child within awake and crying, squirming as she held him. The dark-haired baby with shadows already in his dream-spun blue eyes, a child that now never should have existed, but did all the same. "My debt to you is paid."
She cradled the baby boy to her in the darkness, the child of neverwhere and memory only she would truly carry. The water lapped around her, lamenting that what was lost, her crimson dress the same shade as her soft flame eyes. "Yes…" She looked up from the boy in her arms, the baby quietening a little, as if sensing the serious feeling in the air. "Will you keep dreaming still?"
Her companion frowned at her, silent, before turning and leaving, melting back into the darkness from where he'd came. He would not give up his dream, she knew, even though now he had to build it anew.
Yuuko awoke from one dream to another in her shop and home, Maru and Moro looking over her protectively. The witch's dress was red, blood-red, and the baby in her arms was dark-haired with eyes so terribly blue. 'Watanuki', she named him, as the parents who never were had once whispered to her, asking her to take their child. 'Watanuki Kimihiro', to keep him safe, as this world murmured sweet curses to those not borne on its soil. The child, from that neverwhere, would be plagued by the supernatural, spirits and oni alike drawn to his strange presence.
Yuuko gently rocked the child when he cried, and took him to the kingdom of Nihon while he lay sleeping, to give to a family she trusted there. They would raise the little boy, and guard him, and he would come back to her. In time.
All the children would come to her, in time.
The orb phased out through the skin of Tomoyo's throat in time with her breath, glowing a beautiful lavender colour the same shade as the princess' eyes as it floated through the air towards the waiting Yuuko. The witch extended a small – open - locket towards the sphere, lavender light bathing the silver jewellery with its quiet glow before Yuuko closed the piece, sealing the radiance away – and Tomoyo-hime's ability to sing with it. The hall they all stood in seemed so much darker then, the expression on Souma and Kendappa's faces rigid, the bells on the empress' headdress utterly silent as the woman was so still. Tomoyo looked determined. Yuuko was unreadable.
Kurogane glared at the locket, hating all it represented. He was the one supposed to be protecting the princess, not the other way around. Tomoyo had done enough, when she had been so young. He had sworn with his life to serve her, to guard her, after she had given up her time to him, the orphan child of Suwa – and here she was making another sacrifice. The princess-miko loved her ability to sing; she and the empress would often sing together while one of them played the harp, guests and courtiers at Shirasagi drawing around in wonder to admire the beautiful melodies. And now…that could never happen again.
"And Ginryuu?"
The witch's voice drew Kurogane from his thoughts, the wolf's glare sliding from the locket held in Yuuko's hand up to the witch's face, the dark-haired woman utterly impassive as she gazed back at one who literally loathed her right then.
Kurogane nudged forward the wrapped bundle before him with his nose and a one paw, not trusting himself to speak. Yuuko stretched out her free hand – secreting the locket away somewhere on her person with the other -, the parcel rising into the air, cloth falling away as the sword came to the witch, revealing the sheathed Ginryuu. (Kurogane looked away when his beloved blade actually settled in Yuuko's grip – he'd wrapped the sword for a reason, so he wouldn't have to see it when he gave it up.)
Yuuko admired the beautiful sheath for a moment or two, the gorgeous dragon on the hilt, before taking it tightly into her hold, motioning for Kurogane to come closer to her. "It is time to go. Have you said your goodbyes, Kurogane? It will be some time before you set foot in this Nihon again."
The wolf stomped forwards, moving within requested range, but only just. He didn't want to be any closer to Yuuko than was absolutely necessary. "Let's just get this over with, witch."
"Very well." As Yuuko nodded her head her magic circle expanded beneath Kurogane and her on the floor, stretching out in glowing lines of power. Kurogane glanced down for an instant and caught sight of the phases of the moon, the elements, before looking up to see Tomoyo's sad smile, Souma and Amaterasu stoic –
And then he was gone from Shirasagi, from Nihon, and the faces of those women were consigned to his memory alone.
Yuuko left Kurogane stewing in her main lounge, shutting the sliding door in the wolf's grousing face with the stern order that he should think on how he was going to propose to his future-fiancé. (Yuuko stressed the 'romantic', and the 'endearing' approaches, but was privately placing her odds on a simple 'unique'.) His grumbles followed her all the way out into the garden, quiet rumbles that were at complete odds with the breezy spring air and the gold-and-white figure she'd come to fetch.
Fai was sprawled out contemplatively by the lakeside not far from the house/shop, lying on his side and staring out at the ripples on the water's surface. At first glance the pose seemed catlike, basking in the warm sunshine, but his eyes were really too sharp for that, deliberative.
Yuuko approached him, hands on hips as she stood behind. "Plotting your escape already, Fai-san?" Kurogane had only been there five minutes; surely Fai hadn't changed his mind already? Yuuko could see the many strands of the many possible futures; she could say what the most likely result would be in any given scenario, but the outcome was never totally certain. Vagueness had a horrible habit of lurking around key individuals - it could give even the most minor seer one hell of a headache.
Fai didn't answer her jest – didn't even look at her, in fact, his hand hovering just over the surface of the lake, never quite touching the water. "This island…is a very magical place."
Yuuko smiled, striking a pose. "I'm here, aren't I?"
Fai raised his eyes from the lake to look back over his shoulder and meet hers, solemn – and then his lips curved upwards into their usual mischievous grin. "Yuuko-san is a force all unto herself."
It was nice to be recognised for a change. (Maru and Moro were dears, but a little variety – some unbiased opinions - made a pleasant difference to the routine.) "Your fiancé-to-be is here."
"So soon?" The question seemed at least to be half-genuine as the blond rose to his feet; Fai had been preoccupied since Ashura's message earlier that day, caught up in dreams and memories that bled out in the strangely melancholy blue of his eyes.
"My, how time passes by when we're having fun."
Fai would've replied to the rather dry comment but his fledgling words were overrode by the call carrying in the air to them from the shop –
"Yuuko-san!" It was Syaoran's voice, the boy himself speeding down to the lakeside and the duo there with the light of inspiration in his eyes. He looked like someone with purpose, with an answer – Fai envied him fleetingly, before casting the useless feeling aside. "Yuuko-san!"
Yuuko had seen the boy with the same light in his expression before. "You have a wish, Syaoran-kun?"
"Yes, Yuuko-san." One could see the traces of the magnificent man Syaoran would become in his form, in the determined set of his jaw, by the very firmness of his speech. "My apologies for interrupting you whilst you were talking," Fai, behind them, waved a hand airily in the universal gesture for 'no problem' before tucking both hands behind his head and whimsically staring up at the sky, "but I would like to wish for a sound."
"'A sound'?"
"Something that could be put in a music box," Yuuko's youngest customer explained, "like a song. But a really beautiful one – that faeries would like to listen to."
Yuuko studied the boy silently for a few seconds, and then reached down the front of her dress (Syaoran blushed and quickly looked away whilst the woman rummaged), plucking out a silver locket. She swung it lazily back and forth on its metal chain before the brunet, watching the brown gaze following its arc intently. "There is a price."
"What can I pay?" Syaoran was rapidly becoming accustomed to the way the witch worked.
Yuuko shook her head and dropped the swinging locket into her free hand, curling long fingers over the piece and removing it from sight. "You have nothing equivalent in your possession at this time."
Syaoran looked frustrated, his plans spoiled, but then Fai spoke up in his bright voice, the two with him looking around to see the mage leaning against a glittering golden staff set with blue gems. Seeing he had their attention, Fai motioned to the staff. (Where had he drawn it from? Thin air? It looked remarkably solid for a creation of wind and moonlight, decorated with the crescent moon and stones the same shade as its owner's gaze.) "Perhaps, Yuuko-san, this could cover the cost of Syaoran-kun's wish?"
Syaoran looked a little flustered at the blond's generosity. "Fluorite-san, I -"
"'Fai'," Fai corrected, not looking at the boy.
"Fai-san," Syaoran compromised, "I couldn't ask you to -"
Yuuko cut him off, shaking her head at Fai. "The staff is too high a price for the wish."
The prince only smiled at her, painfully bright. "Ah~, but I have a wish too, Yuuko-san! You know," he looked at his staff, hugging a little closer to his chest, "this was made especially for me by the Faerie Court? I charmed it myself as they set the metal, and it's one of the strongest in this forest. You can use it for magic of all sorts, writing the runes in the air…"
"What is your wish?"
"For a little of your employee's time, if Syaoran-kun is agreeable." Fai looked to the boy, seeing the brunet's confusion. "I think I'd like some company in my new home, and Syaoran-kun seems as if he'd make a charming houseguest."
Again, Syaoran blushed a little. "Fai-san, my company really isn't worth the loss of your staff -"
"Ah, this thing?" Fai gave the aforementioned staff a poke, beaming at the boy. "It's powerful, yes, but I never use it. Rarely ever do any magic at all – I've sworn off of it. A recovering addict, if you will. Really, Syaoran-kun would be doing me a favour in helping me be rid of it."
"Fai-san -"
"Would you visit me at my new home, Syaoran-kun?" Fai's eyes were so very blue, intense, and Syaoran felt something tremble in the air. Something unravelling, old threads falling away as one strand stood out clearer than all the rest.
"I – yes, Fai-san; it would be my honour." Syaoran bowed his head.
The mage looked back to Yuuko, pleased. "Is this price acceptable to you, Yuuko-san?"
The witch had remained silent in the exchange between her customers, unsurprised by the events before her. Although no seer Fai's magical gift was strong, the prince intuitively feeling the jagged edges around Syaoran's place in the world – the blond could probably feel various forms of that same wrongness all around the island.
Yuuko nodded her head. "It is acceptable." The trade was done.
Kurogane was quite happily – alright, abandon the 'happily' and settle more along the lines of 'resignedly' – sitting by himself in the room the hell-spawned witch had abandoned him in, refusing to even attempt to do that which the demon-woman had bid him do – aka, thinking of ways to propose to the brother of the blond guy he'd taken from the forest that had landed him with this ridiculous curse. And, if his thoughts were a little long-winded, he was blaming it entirely on the pot of ire he was stewing in, monologue rant against life, the universe, witches, mikos and magical women in general going full-steam ahead in his mind. But, as he was slowly drawn from his internal soliloquy by an irritating poking sensation along his right thigh (or…whatever the name of the canine limb was in the place his human right thigh had been) and looked down, Kurogane came to realisation he was going to have to scratch 'magical women' from his list and extend the position to 'all magical things' – if the clearly-magical, lumpy, rabbit-eared white manjuu prodding him incessantly had anything to say about it, of course.
"What," Kurogane enunciated in his usual charming manner, words caught up in a terrific mixture of a snarl and fangs, "do you think you're doing?"
"Hi~!" The white thing chirruped, completely ignoring the swift, fiery death being promised by the wolf's tone. "Mokona is saying hello!"
"Go bother someone who gives a crap." Kurogane turned his back on the thing. "I've no time for talking manjuu."
"Mokona is not a manjuu!" This was proclaimed in a shrill huff, a sudden weight pouncing on Kurogane's back informing the shinobi, with a slow, creeping, horrified incredulity, that the talking manjuu was actually stupid enough to be thumping around his spine in its tiny temper. (Kurogane immediately tried using his tail to swat the damned thing off.) "Mokona is Mokona!"
"Get off!" The tail wasn't working.
Mokona wasn't taking the hint. "Mean doggy! Nasty doggy!" Thump – thump – thump.
"I'm not a dog!" Kurogane rolled over onto his back to try and squish the little pest that was bothering him, only for Mokona to wriggle around before the wolf could satisfactorily flatten it and bounce on the shinobi's stomach instead. "Get off of me, you stupid rabbit!"
"Mokona is not a rabbit!" One last thump drove all of the air out of Kurogane's lungs and then the manjuu was bouncing away, wailing nonsensical lies to the person standing in the open door and – oh. Oh dear.
"Yuuko-san, Yuuko-san!" Mokona was having a literal field day, sobbing theatrically into the witch's neck as she waved one paw at the awkwardly posed wolf in the middle of the floor. "Wah, the big scary doggy was mean to Mokona!"
"Was he now…?" Yuuko was outright smirking, Kurogane leaping to his feet (and out of the ridiculously puppyish position he'd been in), hoping against all hopes the witch hadn't seen too much of his display. (Defeated by a manjuu – if word ever got back to Tomoyo-hime he'd never live it down.)
"He was; he was!" Mokona babbled on, adding more fuel to Yuuko's glee, and Kurogane's rising discomfort. "Mokona was only trying to make the big doggy feel comfortable and he called Mokona nasty names!"
Kurogane dug his claws into the mat beneath him and glared at both the white bun and the witch. "How long were you there?"
"Long enough," Yuuko replied, smirk growing wider by the second as she petted the still-wailing Mokona. "Kurogane really brings an entirely new meaning to the phrase 'in the doghouse', hm?"
Kurogane growled, but the sound was drowned out by Yuuko's laughter and Mokona's giggles – if that manjuu ever got too close to him again Kurogane was eating it.
"Fai-san," Yuuko raised her voice, calling out to one beyond the sliding doors she'd (sneakily) entered by, "you can come in now – your significant other has finished trying to kill my housemate."
Kurogane was torn between snarling at the witch for the 'significant other' comment and looking to the door for the one he'd be tied to for the next year – he eventually went with the latter action, as growling/snarling/glaring at Yuuko rarely seemed to have any effect except amusing the witch even more than she already was.
'Fai' stepped into the room, a study in shades of grey and white. Kurogane's world was bleached of colour as he looked upon it with the eyes of a wolf, but he didn't need colour to be able to tell that the young man before him was an identical twin to the one sleeping back at Shirasagi. (The irony hurt a little – the one twin was the reason he was cursed, the other the means by which the curse would be lifted.) His vision told him that the young man before him was pale – of skin, hair and dress -, and that he didn't look a day over twenty. Who was this mage, exactly?
Something akin to surprise flashed through grey eyes when 'Fai' saw him, quickly hidden from sight as the youth smiled, sweeping a bow that made Kurogane's back ache just watching it – the stranger would put many of Shirasagi's courtiers easily to shame. "A pleasure to meet you – I am Fai D. Fluorite."
If nothing else, Kurogane felt a grudging admiration for one who could recover from discovering he was to be engaged to a wolf so swiftly – that was, of course, as long as Yuuko hadn't forewarned him.
"'D'?" He queried rather rudely, unused to the letter's placement and abandoning social niceties – Mokona had exhausted his patience. People of Nihon did not usually possess middle names.
"A Faerie title," Yuuko supplied, when it became clear Fai did not know exactly what the shinobi was inquiring, "for the most highly-ranked of their mages."
"You have faerie blood?" Kurogane eyed the blond suspiciously.
Fai straightened, seemingly amused at the tangible wariness coming from the wolf. "None, to the best of my knowledge."
"He's mortal," Yuuko echoed, "through-and-through."
"Through-and-through-and-through!" Mokona leapt from Yuuko's shoulder to Fai's, snuggling up to the mage's fingers when Fai raised his hand to absently pet her.
"From where?" Kurogane asked, ignoring the prattling manjuu – where were the blonds coming from? It just wasn't a trait in the bloodlines of Nihon, and the 'people' of the forest (judging by Yuuko) seemed to be dark-haired as well.
"Black-san has so many questions~!" Fai laughed the query off, preoccupying himself with the bun cuddling up to his shoulder.
"I know nothi – what did you just call me?!" Kurogane's irrepressible temper flared once more, fury mounting when the mage only continued to laugh.
"Black-san," Fai repeated the name with far too much cheerfulness to someone who wanted very dearly to shred him limb from limb at that moment in time. "You didn't give me your name, so what else was I supposed to call you?" The thread of an indulgent smile danced across the blond's expression.
Kurogane growled, and made sure to bare his fangs. "Kurogane." He wasn't going to be lectured on manners by some lanky magical twit.
"Kuro -" Fai tried the name, but the moment he stumbled across the third syllable a slow dread sank like a stone in Kurogane's gut – something the damned witch would probably pass off as a premonition, as hitsuzen, but Kurogane himself was quite content to dub sheer shinobi instinct – "Kuro-chan, your name is so difficult to pronounce!"
"It's Kurogane!"
"Well of course you can pronounce it." Fai had the cheek to look mildly offended at being thought of as an idiot (as was clear by Kurogane's tone), Mokona nodding haughty agreement from the mage's shoulder. "It's your name, Kuro-rin."
"Ku-ro-ga-ne! Kurogane!!"
"Kuro-chan, Kuro-rin…" Fai completely ignored the rising ire of the wolf before him, tapping one finger to his lips in thought. "Mokona, which do you think is cutest?"
The manjuu burbled, pleased at the attention. "Mokona calls Kuro-pu-pu 'big doggy'!"
"Kuro-wan-wan does rather bark a lot, doesn't he…?"
"My name is Kurogane!!" Kurogane was doing a remarkable impression of a bristling cat, considering he was currently supposed to be a member of the more canine species. "Idiot mage."
"Mokona has the rings!" The announcement cut through whatever teasing comment Fai was about to come out with, the prince and Kurogane turning to look at the white Mokona who chose that moment to hop from Fai's shoulder and land in Yuuko's waiting arms.
"All things considering," the witch's smirk seemed to be permanently etched on her face as she gazed at the two besotted men before her, "I think it would be best if we skip Kurogane's no-doubt well-thought-out proposal and move straight onto the engagement, before one or both of you destroy my house." Yuuko was rather fond of her house, actually. It kept all her sake nice and cool, and Watanuki always cooked up such tasty treats in the kitchen when he wasn't too busy flailing between the furniture over some petty grievance or other.
Mokona spat out the rings – both silver, and one looped on a chain of the same metal -, Yuuko catching them in her hand and showing them to her two human companions. "Well?" Her raised eyebrow was taunting.
Fai took his own ring, sliding it onto the appropriate finger and studying how the silver caught the light, metal decorated with tiny runes, a charm of binding. He didn't inquire as to the nature of the runes, didn't even ask why it was that Yuuko had chosen the volatile silver as the metal for the set – he just nodded, accepting the choice, and whatever it was Yuuko had seen that had led her to make the choice. He was quiet, for which Kurogane was thankful, perhaps seeing something solemn in the moment, perhaps dreaming of further ways to taunt his new fiancé in the future. (Kurogane didn't really care right then – it got the idiot to shut up.)
Kurogane had more difficulty. With no hands he couldn't snatch the ring from Yuuko like he'd originally intended, fumbling a little as he managed to hook the chain his ring was upon around one paw, the whole piece slithering helplessly to the ground.
Fai took pity on him, crouching down beside the wolf and picking up the chain, sliding the loop over Kurogane's head (and actually sparing a moment to avoid flattening the shinobi's pointed ears). This close the mage's scent was strong, a confusing mixture with layer upon layer of smells that had bothered Kurogane ever since the blond had entered the room. (The increased sense of smell almost – but not quite – made up for the loss of colour-vision.) Some layers spoke of the cold mountain heights, of snow and pine, some of the forest in the first sun after rainfall. There was the whiff of flowers and the itch of flour, something sharp and sweet in equal quantities besides, but overall there was a strangely familiar bitter musk like – like –
Kurogane couldn't place it, just like he couldn't place the shifting smile adorning Fai's face when the mage stood up again, the ring bumping against Kurogane's furred chest on its chain. Fai was unreadable.
"We're engaged now, right?" The blond had a soft voice when he felt like using it, something that could've been soothing if only it suddenly didn't sound so depressed. (Kurogane attempted to curb his offence at the depression a little – it wasn't as if he was looking forward to spending a year with the idiot either.)
"Do you consider yourself engaged?" One day – one day – someone was going to get a straight answer out of the bloody witch, Kurogane swore it.
Fai looked at the ring on his finger. "In this sense, yes." A visible bond.
"Then you're engaged." Yuuko's argument was far too simplistic for Kurogane's liking, but he didn't know enough of magical matters to argue against her. "Mokona will take you to your new home as soon as you are ready."
"I'm ready," Fai glanced down at the wolf beside him, Kurogane giving him a sharp nod in response. The sooner he was away from the witch and her insane retinue the better. "We're ready. Yuuko-san, please tell my -" the blond halted, faltering, as Mokona suddenly grew wings and Yuuko's magic circle appeared on the ground beneath their feet. He didn't know – he was still unsure of what to call the man who had raised him since he was eleven, cared for him, taught him, watched over him, slept with him. Too many titles – friend, father, betrayer, teacher, watcher, lover. The white light of Mokona's magic rose around them, slicing through his vision of Yuuko's suddenly solemn face. "Please tell Ashura-ou of my wish and its price." Even though, he felt, somehow Ashura somehow already knew. There had been too much knowledge in the faerie's eyes –
"Good luck," was Yuuko's only reply to the comment, and then Mokona swallowed them, and took them from the shop.
Syaoran visited Fai in his new home just as asked later that afternoon. He hadn't meant it to be so early, really, but when he'd absently asked Yuuko where it was the friendly blond man now lived the witch had just laughed genially and told him he'd find out when he went about his usual business. A little bemused Syaoran had set out for the waterfall he'd been at the other day, intent on finally retrieving the item Yuuko wanted from the Ame-warashi there, but had stopped short, beyond surprised to see a house sitting not that far from the tumbling water.
"Syaoran-kun!" Hearing Fai's voice Syaoran looked around wildly; trying to see the elder male, but couldn't see him anywhere. A twig dropped from nowhere and landed on the boy's head and Syaoran looked up, his confusion increasing when he saw Fai dangling there from a sturdy tree-branch, upside-down, waving at him with a cheeriness that could surely only come from at least partial insanity.
"F-Fai-san…"
"Did you know some breeds of wolves are really bad at climbing trees?" Fai's tone was far too conversational for the situation, the blond seemingly totally unbothered by the fact he was currently hanging upside-down in a stupidly tall tree.
"Fai-san…" That position really couldn't be very comfortable. "Why are you hanging upside-down in a tree?"
Fai beamed at him. "I tried sitting the right way up, but that got rather dull after the first ten minutes."
"Er -"
Fai suddenly swung himself upright, coming down the tree in a strange slither-scramble, almost hopping from branch to branch until he stood, both feet flat on the ground, and smiled at his guest. "Syaoran-kun is quick to visit; he really is a man of his word, hm?"
The brunet blushed at the quiet praise. "I…really didn't know you'd be here. I have a job to do for Yuuko-san," he admitted honestly.
"And so modest too!" Fai ruffled the boy's hair. "Do your best, Syaoran-kun." He paused, expression suddenly thoughtful as he surveyed their surroundings. "Are you here to see the Ame-warashi?" Syaoran nodded slightly. "She doesn't like humans very much; the top half of the waterfall is warded by fey magic to block off any mortals getting into the spirit mountain without invitation."
"I was hoping," Syaoran began, reaching into his shirt to pluck out the silver locket he'd worn over his heart, "that she might come to me. I heard she was looking for a song to put in a music-box for her friend, the Zashiki-warashi, so -"
"So you asked Yuuko for a trade." Fai looked admiring of the boy's intelligence, his eyes slipping closed when Syaoran flipped the locket open and the sound of a girl's voice, singing sweetly, sweetly, filled the air. It was beautiful.
Syaoran closed the locket again, nodding – and then his eyes widened when he caught sight of the curious wolf trotting out of the house beside the waterfall, called out by the locket's music. "Fai-san, that's-!"
Fai followed his line of sight. "Kuro-pon!" He waved excitedly at the canine, Kurogane stopping short at the nickname and baring his fangs in a distinct show of unfriendliness. "Ah," Fai sighed melodramatically, more to himself than anyone else, "such a grouchy puppy. Has Syaoran-kun met my fiancé?"
"That's -" Syaoran took another look at the wolf, and swallowed, "that's your fiancé?"
"Mmhm," Fai stretched with his indecipherable smile firmly in place, snatching up Syaoran's hand and dragging the boy off to meet the rather scary-looking creature that was scowling at them (could wolves even scowl?). "Kuro-tan -"
"It's Kurogane, you idiot mage!" The wolf ignored Syaoran entirely, snarling at his blond idiot instead.
"Kuro-tan," Fai continued on regardless, just as if the shinobi hadn't spoken at all, "this is Syaoran-kun." The prince motioned to the boy, smiling brilliantly. "I invited him to visit us now and then, between his work for Yuuko-san. Syaoran-kun, this is Kuro-yip," Fai gestured to the then-growling wolf. "Don't mind him when he yaps; his bark really is worse than his bite -"
"Do you want to test that?" There was a literal hell in Kuro-gane-tan-yip's eyes. Syaoran had to summon up every shred of his pride and manliness to avoid back-pedalling sharply, wanting to avoid getting in the irate animal's way when he exploded.
Fai put his hands on his hips, and his two companions had to blink for a moment to reassure themselves they were still looking at a man for a moment. He sighed, looking up to the heavens as if seeking patience there. "Kuro-wan-wan has no manners. Here he is, being rude to our first guest -"
Kurogane frowned. "Wait a minute -"
"Just as he's always rude to me, his poor fiancé, ever since we first met -"
"That was only a few hours ago -"
"And now he's waylaying poor Syaoran-kun when he's got a job to do!" Fai finished the exclamation with a flourish, pouting down at the wolf. "Kuro-pu, you're such an animal."
Syaoran didn't wait around to hear Kurogane's response, but he heard it all the same, even as he'd started climbing up the cliff face beside the waterfall. Kurogane could pack quite a lot of volume apparently, and the reason for Fai being in a tree when Syaoran had first arrived in the area quickly became clear as the blond dashed away below him after Kurogane's yell, an enraged wolf in hot pursuit. Fai hoisted himself up into a tree as quickly as he'd slid down the other one before, laughing gaily as Kurogane's paws scrabbled on the bark for purchase and waving brightly to Syaoran in the distance.
Syaoran…stared, for a little while. The engaged couple…he didn't know what had happened for the two to have entered such a weird agreement, but they both had to be stark raving mad. They seemed horribly ill-suited – and that was without factoring in the whole different-species thing.
When Fai looked away from his waving to resume taunting the infuriated Kurogane stalking around his tree's base Syaoran resumed his climbing, inching his way slowly up the rocks damp with spray. It was a slow, tiring journey, his limbs aching, his mind focused only on climbing higher up, up, up, to reach the halfway point, the ledge that ran behind the waterfall. There was a tunnel there that would lead to the spirit mountain, the home of the Ame-warashi.
Eventually, after what felt like hours, he reached the ledge. His hands were red from gripping the rocks so tight, cut in a few places where his choice of grip had been too sharp. Syaoran paused for a few moments to catch his breath, his pants drowned out by the thunder of the waterfall. Leaning back against the cliff face it crashed away to his right, a mighty river smashing itself to death on the rock bottom of the pool below. And then, wary of going too close to the tunnel leading to the spirit mountain for fear some fey magic would blast him back down the rocks, Syaoran opened the locket Yuuko had given him.
Music came out instantly, the lovely melody of a wonderful singer. A girl's song, her whole heart poured into it. It was a costly locket, to have such a wonder inside of it – a heart in harmony. Yuuko traded in hearts, Syaoran thought, because what were wishes but the heart manifested in desire? People placed their hearts in different things, their futures in their wishes, spoken or unspoken, simple or strong. A wish was a wish; a heart was a heart, and Yuuko weighed and took and gave and measured so that all things were equal. What kind of heart did the one have who dealt in hearts…?
"Human." A woman's voice interrupted Syaoran's mental ramblings, the waterfall's roar muted as someone stepped out from behind it on the ledge the brunet was resting on.
She had blue hair, the boy saw, curled around her rather stern-looking face, tied up in black ribbons that bobbed with her movement. Her dress was black as well, tight around the bodice and flaring out from her waist to her calves, lacy and ribbon-decorated as well. Her arms were bare, decorated with droplets of water from the spray, her fingers (cloaked in black gloves) holding rather austerely on to the handle of an umbrella the same colour as the rest of her outfit. Her eyes though…they were blue, liquid, rippling, the spirit of water shifting and changing as the dark pupils fixed on Syaoran.
The Ame-warashi. Summoned by the song from the spirit mountain, just as Syaoran hoped she'd be.
"Human," she repeated, as if she could possibly be speaking to anyone else. (Syaoran had read once, that the fey had a thing for being specific, but this was pushing things slightly, wasn't it?) She was a rather blunt faerie. "You – boy. Where did you get that locket?"
"From Yuuko-san, the Witch of the Forest." Syaoran smiled internally when he saw how the rain sprite's attention was captured by the jewellery in his hand. "Do you know her?"
"I know her," the Ame-warashi replied, heels clicking on the wet stone beneath them as she made her way over to the brunet, "but she never stocked anything like that when I last inquired of her."
"I'll trade it to you." Syaoran looked up boldly, meeting his companion's eyes as he let the song play on in his hand, weakening the Ame-warashi's resolve. The sound was lovely, perfect for the Zashiki-warashi's music-box. "Equivalent exchange."
"…You have something you want from me." The rain sprite frowned, the umbrella in her hand suddenly seeming a rather threatening object. "I should smack you for your impudence, human. What makes you think I want your song?"
Syaoran shut the locket with a quiet click, the music in the air ending abruptly, mid-note. "I'll just be going now, then. My apologies for troubling you." He made as if to start climbing back down the rock face.
The Ame-warashi grabbed his arm. "Wait." She looked aside, clearly grouchy at having been outmanoeuvred by a human. Syaoran realised he was doing nothing for his race in the faerie's eyes; he was being manipulative, he knew, but he needed to fulfil Yuuko's quest so she'd grant him his wish. "What is it that you want?" The rain sprite had to love the Zashiki-warashi dearly, to be willing to go to such lengths for her.
"…You have a pipe," Syaoran said, feeling a little humbled by the Ame-warashi's obvious willingness to do what she could for her friend, "decorated with a fox. Yuuko-san said you'd know which one she meant when I told you."
"I know the one." His companion folded her arms with a quiet 'hm', umbrella tucked under one puffy sleeve of her dress. "Am I making this trade with the witch or you?"
Syaoran wanted the pipe – but he only wanted the pipe because Yuuko wanted the pipe, and had made it Syaoran's job to fetch it. So Syaoran needed the pipe and oh – this made his head hurt. "A bit of both," the boy said eventually, firmly, "but the locket is mine to trade."
"Very well," with one hand the faerie began unscrewing the end of her umbrella's handle, the inside revealed to be hollow – aside from the something slotted inside. This, the Ame-warashi slid out – it was a silver pipe, decorated with symbols of a fox, which she waved in one hand (after screwing her umbrella's handle back on). "This is the pipe."
Syaoran offered her the locket and the Ame-warashi offered him the pipe, the objects switching hands and Syaoran hugging the pipe close to his chest. He didn't really care as to where the Ame-warashi had spirited the jewellery away to – but he did notice when the faerie went to the edge of the ledge she was standing on and peered down, lips pursed in a frown. (Syaoran could've sworn he heard her mutter something about 'noisy neighbours', but wasn't really feeling forward enough to inquire.)
"I'll be closing this tunnel up," the rain sprite spoke to the human beside her again, as stern as when they'd first met. "This place is not the same as it once was, especially if humans make it their business now to come and trade with the fey here. Tell the witch to seek the other entrances should she require the fey anymore."
"Yes," Syaoran bowed his head again, deferential to the highly-ranked faerie, only glancing up again once she was gone. Then, and only then, with the pipe carefully slotted into his belt, did he start making his way back down the cliff, warm delight at having completed his first quest for Yuuko bubbling in his chest.
"Hyuu~!" Fai cheered from the garden of his home the moment Syaoran set his feet on true ground once more, clapping his hands at the brunet's achievements. "Well done, Syaoran-kun!" The blond shot a pointed look at his canine companion – why were the two sitting together? Surely they'd realised they didn't get along by now? "See how easily things can be resolved with a little civil conversation, Kuro-pii?"
The wolf snorted, head on his paws as he looked determinedly into the distance. "Like I care."
"How cruel, Kuro-myu!" Fai pouted slinking closer to Kurogane's side. "You're really not interested – not even the littlest bit? Syaoran-kun could've slipped and fallen to his death!" Syaoran looked a little awkward as he approached the two, unsure of what exactly to do. It would be rude just to up and leave, especially after Fai had directly addressed him -
"He didn't, and stop calling me stupid names."
"Kuro-wanko is so cold to his poor fiancé; does he want Fai-neko to warm him up?" Fai nuzzled into the wolf's side and Kurogane yelped, leaping to his four feet and aside.
"Don't touch me!" The shinobi stalked away to the other side of the garden.
"Such a growly doggy…" Fai sighed again and Syaoran privately wondered (again) whether he'd agreed to visit a lunatic for an unspecified amount of time – but then, there was a sharp mischief in Fai's expression, intelligence behind the humour in his eyes. Apparently, Kurogane was fun to wind up. (No matter if Syaoran personally thought the exercise was suicidal; Fai seemed amused.)
"Kid," Kurogane's voice, snatching Syaoran's attention to look at the wolf. The canine had his head tilted slightly as he regarded the boy; his eyes narrowed in…thoughtfulness? (It was hard to read a wolf.) "Where's your sword?"
Syaoran stared. Again. It was getting to be a habit just recently for him. "…How did you know I have a sword, Kurogane-san?" He did have a sword of course, but he'd hidden it in the way his father had taught him to. How had Kurogane known-?
"Your stance, for one." The wolf's gaze was assessing. "And you've put that pipe in the place a sword would usually go on your belt, as if you're used to a weight there. You're a swordsman, so where's your sword?"
In the background Fai made a soft 'hyuu' noise as Syaoran drew his father's sword – his sword – from his left palm, holding the hilt tightly in his right hand as the metal of the blade gleamed in the light, sharp, keen. "This is it."
"Can you use it?" If Kurogane was impressed by the boy's magic he didn't show it, padding forwards to inspect the sword a little more closely. Syaoran lowered it to the grass for the wolf to better see it, sinking down onto his knees.
"My father once told me never to unsheathe a sword unless I had both the skill and the willpower to wield it." Syaoran didn't need to elaborate – his blade was naked.
"Wise words," Kurogane was a 'man' of few words – he approved of others who got to the point efficiently and expressed a worthy sentiment at the same time.
Fai wandered over to his two companions, catching the tail-end of a discussion on sword-folding technique, and the point of a blade. He pulled a face before leaning over the sword that had Syaoran and Kurogane so enraptured, trying to see the fascination they shared. "Nyaaa, Kuro-rin is so smart~! He knows such much about weaponry – much more than me."
"What did I say about those stupid names?!" Kurogane snapped, wriggling out of the mage's shadow. "And it doesn't take much to be smarter than you," Syaoran shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat, Kurogane looking back to the blade before him, "idiot."
Fai completely ignored the last chunk of the other's words. "But Kuro-rin sounds so cute!"
"It's Kurogane, damn you!"
"Grumpy Kuro-wan-wan barks too much~"
"Says the idiot who won't shut up?!"
"Yap, yap, yap…" Fai sank down into a crouch, disregarding Kurogane's temper entirely. "Kuro-myu should teach Syaoran-kun how to wield a sword even better, don't you think?" When his fiancé made to protest Fai looked at him, the edges of a smirk touching his lips. "Kuro-sama knows so very much about weapons after all; I'm sure he's very experienced one way or another. I'll help in any way I can, considering Kuro-chan appears to be lacking hands…" There was a vague 'right now' hanging in the air, but Fai didn't know that Kurogane really wasn't a wolf yet – did he?
"Fai-san," colour had risen in Syaoran's cheeks, the boy embarrassed as the blond stranger he'd only really met the other day once more tried to go out of his way for him, "Fai-san, I couldn't ask you or Kurogane-san to -"
"You have a wish, don't you?" Fai didn't know what it was Syaoran wished for, but the boy had the look of someone who was determined to see his choices through to the end, the strings of fate bound tightly about the boy whichever way Syaoran turned. "Let us help."
"I -" there really wasn't a way to say no to Fai when he looked so resolute, so solemn, "yes." Syaoran dropped his eyes, his voice quiet in gratitude. "Thank you."
Kurogane made another grumble under his breath, having really been roped into the enterprise without his say-so. He couldn't really back out though – the boy had acquiesced to Fai's insanity, and…Kurogane had his honour to think about, his pride. Stupid mage. The idiot better know how to wield a sword.
Night had fallen by the time Syaoran returned to Yuuko's shop, slightly less than sober. Fai had pulled out the faerie wine sometime after Kurogane had agreed to teach Syaoran, the three of them partaking a little more of the strong liquor than they probably should've done. Kurogane himself had been fine, lapping up whatever was poured out for him, but Fai –
Syaoran sweat-dropped at the very thought of a drunk Fai. The nicknames had come out to the fore, but Kurogane had quickly realised it was useless getting incensed at someone who just giggled at you and called you something even worse. (Now, if only the wolf could figure out that the same rules generally applied when Fai was sober.) As soon as Fai had started 'nyaa'ing Kurogane had hidden the wine, Syaoran downing what was left of his own drink and bidding the hasty goodbye the wolf clearly wanted of him, leaving Kurogane to deal with the blond lazily draped all over him.
"Syaoran-kun!" The Mokona seemed glad to see Syaoran home at least, leaping away from where they'd been pestering Watanuki to perch on his shoulders, one on each.
The black Mokona bounced up and down. "Syaoran-kun's home~!" This was perfectly obvious, considering Syaoran was standing in the room where Yuuko was lounging out on one of her couches, Watanuki attending her as usual with Maru and Moro dancing unhelpfully about – they could all see Syaoran for themselves.
"Yuuko-san," the brunet went to kneel before the witch, pulling out the pipe he'd received from the Ame-warashi that afternoon and offering it to Yuuko. "Here is the item you requested."
"Item?" Watanuki leaned over a little curiously, the cups on the tray he was carrying rattling slightly at the movement.
"Ah!" Yuuko clapped her hands together, straightening in her seat as she reached out to take the pipe from Syaoran. It slid open at her touch, a long, thin, white worm-like creature slipping out, blinking tiny jet eyes at them all. And then it set its gaze upon Watanuki.
There was only a blur in the air to mark the fact the creature had moved – Syaoran blinked and Watanuki 'kyaa'ed, and the tray of cups went flying as Yuuko's newest pet wrapped itself around Watanuki's neck and proceeded to shower the confused employee in kisses and hearts.
"Get it off of me!!"
"Aw~," Yuuko cooed rather unhelpfully, smothering her laughter with one hand, "I think it likes you, Watanuki."
Since the weird creature didn't seem to be hurting Watanuki – just…inconveniencing the black-haired youth, by the looks of it, although all that flailing the boy was doing was really quite unnecessary – Syaoran let it be, looking at Yuuko. "What is it?"
"Can't you guess?" Yuuko smiled at the brunet, for once forthcoming with information. "It's a kudakitsune – a pipe-fox. They're quite strong creatures spiritually; they make wonderful guardians."
"Off – off – off!" Watanuki pried the kudakitsune from his person, holding the wriggling creature at arm's length.
Yuuko tutted, stretching out an arm for the fox to curl sulkily around. "Don't be like that, Watanuki – you'll hurt its feelings."
"What about my feelings!" Watanuki flailed. "Look at the mess it's made of the floor!" The cups that had been on Watanuki's tray had been full of sake – sake currently staining Yuuko's no-doubt expensive matting. And guess who'd have to clean it up?
"Watanuki's mean!" The black Mokona suddenly said, voice disapproving.
"Mean, mean, mean!" The white Mokona chimed in, leaping across to bounce on Watanuki's head as punishment. "Watanuki threw those cups himself!"
"Mean, mean~" Maru and Moro weren't ones to let such an invitation to torture their mistress' employee wander by without their input.
Yuuko shook her head. "For shame, Watanuki."
"I'm not mean!" Watanuki began snatching up the cups from the floor, put-out.
Syaoran watched him storm out of the room, all righteous fury, and the room burst into giggles after he was gone. Really, he might've well have just have stayed at Kurogane and Fai's home – coming back to Yuuko's had just been trading one kind of insanity for another.
Fai was more than a little put-out when the lights in the room he was sitting in suddenly went out, magically-sustained light extinguished in half the blink of an eye. He'd been drowsing in the main lounge of his new home, sprawled out comfortably counting the beams in the ceiling above him when everything suddenly became dark – it was most inconvenient.
Sitting upright Fai heard footsteps in the room next to the lounge – that would be the kitchen, if he remembered rightly. "Kuro-pii?" He spoke to the darkness, literally unable to see an inch in front of his nose. This was beyond ridiculous; there was a moon outside, why wasn't there any light coming in through the windows? "Kuro-tan, did you do something to knock off the lights?"
"…What?" The footsteps moved from the kitchen into the hallway. That…was Kurogane's voice, but – why…why could Fai only hear two feet moving? Last time the blond had counted, wolves had four paws, unless Kurogane had suddenly learned how to walk on his hind paws.
"The lights," Fai patiently repeated. "Did you do something to knock them off?"
"…Not directly, I think."
'Think'? Fai's forehead creased in thought – this reeked of fey magic. Ashura had wished for a house for them that would suit all their needs…could this possibly be a 'need'? And if Kurogane was associated –
"Kuro-chan," the mage heard the door to his room open, someone stepping inside, "is…there some reason I can't look at you right now?"
A snort from the door in the dark. "So you're not as stupid as you look."
"Kuro-pu's being mean again!" Fai scolded, rising to his feet. "Just because he makes me work out what all his secrets are doesn't mean he can be nasty whenever he feels like it -"
"You can't look at me at night-time. Ever." Kurogane cut the other's lecture off, not in the mood for Fai trotting out a litany of his fiancé's (apparently many) failings. (He'd had the list five times already that day.)
"Oh?" There was blessed silence for a few moments, Fai considering the information given to him. "…Will Kuro-chii go 'pop' if I do?"
"Just don't," Kurogane ground out with his usual grace and eloquence.
Fai laughed. "I can't really see anything right now, Kuro-pop, least of all a grouchy puppy." He stepped forwards, trying to remember his way through the room by his memory alone. The blond really couldn't see anything. "If the lights are out I might as well just go to bed -" He tripped then (over what he assumed was probably the coffee table, judging by how it sent a sharp pain shooting up from his mid-calf when he smacked into it), anticipating the hard collision with the ground –
Strong arms caught him, Fai stumbling into a warm chest, nose hitting a cool chain resting there. The arms stabilised his body, but Fai's mind derailed for a good few minutes. (He was suddenly thankful for the darkness then – he was gaping, and knew the expression really would make him look like the idiot Kurogane had dubbed him as.)
"Kuro…" surprise robbed him of a nickname, his hand rising quite unconsciously to touch the cold ring he'd placed around a wolf's neck that very afternoon, only now - "Kuro-kuro?"
"It's Kurogane." The shinobi still had the same rumbling voice, irritation evident. Fai had become accustomed to the wolf's look of frustration, but – but –
"Kuro-wan-wan," Fai said lightly, fingers curling a little harshly around the other's ring, his own nails digging into his palm, "you're not a wolf right now, are you?"
Hot breath moved past his ear, stirring his golden fringe. "Do I feel like a wolf, idiot mage?"
No, no, no, no, no.
Fai released Kurogane's ring, palms flat against the other's chest as he pushed. Kurogane freed him from his grip at once, letting the mage step back; gain breathing room as his thoughts whirled and he fumbled for the door. "It's been a long and exciting day today, hasn't it Kuro-pii? I'm going to go to bed now so I'll be as fresh as a daisy in the morning -"
Kurogane had no time for his nonsensical ramblings. "Are you really going to run away from a confrontation with me for a whole year?"
Fai finally found the door, gripping onto the knob like it was a lifesaver. His tone was as playful as it had ever been, but it seemed hollower than usual, empty without the plastic smile beside it to back it up. Smiles were useless when people couldn't see them. "Is Kuro-chan going to insist on a confrontation that will make me run away?"
Kurogane – the very, very non-canine Kurogane – didn't answer. Fai went to bed, slipping away in the darkness like he'd never been there at all.
A/N: On a totally random note: I decided to go check out the Princess Princess anime online after reading the manga (on a sparkling recommendation, and on that point I'd like to say I like the manga art better), and the moment Kouno opened his mouth to speak my brain decided to kick in and yell 'ah! I recognise that voice!' So, off trotted I to wikipedia to research Tooru's seiyuu – a guy going by the name 'Jun Fukuyama'. Turns out he was the voice of Lelouch from Code Geass (*squishes him for that*), Aidou from Vampire Knight (*squee*) and Watapon from XXXHolic~~~~! Day is made. X3
…I should probably be saying more about the chapter here, but - *flaps hand* Let us all just accept the fact that I'm a lost cause.