Shadow: Longest chapter so far.

Ever After

Chapter VIII: Of Curiousity and Cats

Once upon a time, a few years ago, there was a child of neverwhere and nothing, pale, dark-haired and blue-eyed, an oddity in Nihon, the kingdom in which he was raised. He was called Watanuki Kimihiro, named by parents he'd never known, an impossible life sheltered from destruction by a change in kanji. He wrote his family name the same way he wrote the day of his birthday, and his given name proclaimed he was a prophet, one with Sight.

Watanuki Kimihiro didn't want to see anything. His looks were strange enough without him jerking back and flinching at what appeared to be thin air for most of the populace, doing strange dances in the middle of the street. The couple that looked after him despaired of his strangeness – not its existence in itself, but the loneliness it caused for Watanuki, the fact no-one wished to be the child's friend. The neighbourhood whispered cruel things behind their hands about the boy, and Watanuki paled, grew thinner, quieter, more withdrawn. He was plagued by spirits, demons – and he didn't dare to tell a soul. Everyone thought he was mad enough, without that being added on top of it.

Watanuki met a girl one day, shortly after his fifteenth birthday. She was a tiny thing, staring at a sakura tree where Watanuki knew the spirit of a deceased woman resided, and at Watanuki's approach she looked at him, solemn-eyed.

"Don't you think she looks sad?"

Watanuki thought the question could work just as well for the girl as for the ghost in the tree – he looked at the stranger thoughtfully, hesitating before speaking. If this little girl could see spirits too –

"The sakura tree is dying - she'll have to find a new home soon."

"She's been here a very long time…" The girl approached the tree, laying one hand on the bark. Her expression never wavered. "Moving after so long can be very scary."

"Have you come from far away?" Watanuki had never seen the child before, never even heard of her before, and everyone knew everyone's business in the town where he lived. Someone would've mentioned another strange child before then had the girl been around.

The strange girl didn't answer, still looking up into the branches overhead. "…I heard her worrying, so I came to see her. She sounded so sad…"

"About the tree?"

"About you." The child's solemn eyes finally looked down, meeting Watanuki's and looking right through him. "She sees you come by every day, and wonders when it is you'll be going to where you need to be."

Watanuki looked confused, glancing up at the spirit overhead, the ghost with sad, kind eyes. "…I am where I need to be." He didn't sound very certain – but then, why would he need to be? He'd always simply been there, the idea that he was needed somewhere else was totally foreign to him.

The little girl continued to look at him. "…Don't you have a wish?"

Life went on. Watanuki stuck to his daily routine, helping the couple that looked after hm, doing his chores, avoiding the spirits that chased him down and clung to him. The people in the neighbourhood continued to whisper, continued to avoid him. He passed by the sakura tree each day, seeing the tree wither, slowly die, seeing the sad dead woman sitting in the branches looking down at him, waiting.

"…I'm sorry." He approached her tree one day, placing a hand on the drying bark and looking up at her. "But where is that I'm supposed to go?"

She didn't answer him; she didn't speak; she never spoke. Her long hair moved with the branches in the wind, and still she was sad.

…Watanuki went back to the home where he'd lived as long as he could remember – but if asked to remember, he couldn't tell anyone anything about it, or the people that lived with him. Life for Watanuki was vague scenes between dreams, the idle knowledge that he somehow knew how to cook, how to clean, but didn't know who'd taught him, who'd bought the clothes he wore. He couldn't recall the names of the ones who'd cared for him, their smiles… Occasionally, if he really tried, he could remember someone whispering goodnight to him, hands in his hair, a kiss on the forehead.

Watanuki could never, however, remember how it was he ended up in the enchanted forest, however much he strained his mind trying to dredge up the fleeting past. The first thing he could recall was the shade deep under the trees, the dead silence all around him save for the quiet rippling of the lake before him, large and wide and just touching the edge of one of his shoes.

He rowed himself across the lake, not quite knowing why, finding a boat with oars further along the banks. The pier on the island at the lake's centre creaked when he stepped onto it, rhythmic as his own footsteps as Watanuki moved from wooden boards to the firmness of soil once more.

He wasn't to know it until later, but Watanuki had found the home of the legendary Witch of the Forest, the one who granted the wishes of those with burning hearts as long as an equal price was offered up for trade. No-one could find her abode unless they had a true need of her services – but of course, Watanuki didn't know that, didn't understand that, and was very rightly confused when two strangely hyperactive young girls burst out of the front doors of a building he'd just found, and dragged him into the smoke-filled depths.

The woman they took him to reclined on her couch like a Queen in state, lips tilting up into a lazy, satisfied sort of smile when the girls dragged Watanuki before her, her long body covered with the barest minimum of decency. A little embarrassed by her attire Watanuki didn't know where to look, fumbling out answers to whatever question the woman set him, falling neatly into trap after verbal trap. When she told him she granted wishes he told her that was impossible, so she took the watch he kept in his pocket and granted him his little wish, to know a little of his fortune. She read it for him and Watanuki suddenly believed –

"I wish," Watanuki Kimihiro told the woman, this woman, this witch, this person calling herself Ichihara Yuuko in one breath and telling him everything was a lie in the next, "to not – to not -" his wish was so difficult to phrase!

Yuuko caught his chin, holding his eyes with her depthless red. "You wish to not be burdened by your Sight?"

Watanuki nodded. "That is my wish."

Yuuko smiled at him – catlike and smooth, and Watanuki suddenly found himself feeling like he'd just agreed to be a feline's lunch. "Then you'll work for me, until such a time as your labour equals the price of your wish."

And so it was that Watanuki Kimihiro, the boy who could barely remember anything, the child he knew nothing of his past, became the indentured servant of Ichihara Yuuko, the wily, wicked and just plain weird Witch of the Enchanted Forest.

He complained about it constantly. Yuuko ignored him.

"Kuro-taaaaaan~!!" The warble came from the upstairs of Kurogane and Fai's shared home, a cheerful lilt that came from the bedroom and floated its way down the stairs, to where Kurogane sat reading some more of his mangayan. "Someone's at the door!"

"It's Kurogane!!" Kurogane was sick to death of the nicknames and yelling back about them. It had gotten to the stage where he usually let them slide by in a fit of apathy – but he drew the line at 'Kuro-tan'. He was not six years old; he wasn't the slightest bit 'cutesy', and if the mage for one instant continued to imply that the shinobi was in any way, shape or form female – "And answer it yourself!!"

"But I'm making the bed…" Fai's whine drifted down from the bedroom, the scent of the fresh air caught on sheets, curving billows of white catching the noon-time sun that came in through the window – or had come in through the window, anyway.

Glancing up, Kurogane could see the weather outside looking a lot cloudier all of a sudden. "I don't have hands." Turning a doorknob was always a little bit of a problem. And talking of the door – "Nobody knocked!" He should know – being canine had its advantages in the hearing department.

"I never said anyone knocked!" Fai was still lilting, his words edged with palpable amusement that had Kurogane gritting his teeth, stalking out into the house's corridor.

"Then how do you know anyone's there?"

There was only laughter from upstairs. "Answer the door, Kuro-chan! It's not nice to keep a lady waiting~!"

Growling, Kurogane went to the front door, fumbling for a long while to twist the knob before finally succeeding. A flurry of rain hit him directly in the face the moment he did so and without even looking as to who it was on the other side of the door the shinobi grumbled out a curse about the weather –

And then got promptly smacked over the head with a black umbrella.

"The rain isn't here to solely inconvenience you!"

Kurogane back-pedalled a few paws out of umbrella-range, glowering up at the frothy black ensemble the strange blue-haired girl was wearing at the door –

"Ame-warashi!" Fai breezed down the stairs (and he couldn't have done that a few minutes ago?), all smiles as he nudged Kurogane out of the way with one leg and pushed the door open wider to admit the glaring faerie on the other side. "What a pleasant surprise."

The Ame-warashi continued to scowl past him, gaze locked with a snarling Kurogane. "Your husband could do with some lessons in manners, bochamma."

"Kuro-tan's a lost cause, I'm afraid." Fai continued to smile, ignoring the hissed 'we're not married' from the wolf behind him. "Would you like to come inside?"

The rain sprite consented to being ushered inside, propping her umbrella up in the hallway before sweeping through to the lounge after Fai. The blond, to his credit, didn't bat an eyelash at the water that trailed in in the Ame-warashi's wake – but then, he was probably used to such oddities from faeries. (Kurogane, on the other hand, was a little distracted by it, wondering where all the water was coming from. Did the Ame-warashi keep a rain-cloud up her skirt, or something?)

Fai served up green tea and cake he'd made himself to their guest, and Kurogane sulked in the corner as his fiancé played housewife. The mage chattered like a woman – and when Kurogane passed a comment saying such, the little rain-cloud that Kurogane had decided had to be the Ame-warashi's twisted version of a pet took it upon itself to float gaily over the wolf's head to give Kurogane an impromptu shower.

Fai's laughter – and the stormy little rain-cloud – chased Kurogane out of the room.

The blond was still smiling when he turned to his houseguest, his eyes still bright with the laughter of seeing such affront on Kurogane's face when faced with indoor rain. "Mou…Ame-warashi-san, was there any particular reason for your visit, or were you just hoping to improve neighbourly relations?"

"There was a reason, as you have already rightly guessed." The rain-spite shook out the curls of her hair, reaching down to her waist to pluck open the purse she wore slung over her shoulder. From there she withdrew a pendant glowing white and periwinkle blue, the piece set at the end of a fine silver chain. "You associate with the forest witch, don't you? And know of her apprentice."

"Watanuki-kun?"

The Ame-warashi sniffed. "The black-haired boy that flails far too much."

Fai smiled. "Watanuki-kun."

"Could you see to it that this is given to him?" The rain sprite extended the jewellery she held. "It is a gift from the Zashiki-warashi, as thanks for the food he gave her. She is too shy to deliver it herself, and I have no business at the witch's island."

Fai's fingers closed around the necklace, the blue charm on its end warm in his palm. "I'll see that Watanuki-kun gets this."

"See that you do," the Ame-warashi sniffed, clearly put-out at having the Zashiki-warashi so (widely, in the rain sprite's opinion) distribute her favours.

"Kuro-pyooooon~" Fai breezed about the house looking for the wolf once the Ame-warashi had finished her business (and her cake) and gone, the pendant left in his care by the faerie tucked safely away in one pocket. He poked his head into the kitchen, the library, the bedrooms, but failed to see the brooding canine anywhere. Eventually he went to the bathroom, seeing a shadow behind the shower-curtain. "Kuro-wan-wan?"

The shadow spoke. "Go away, mage."

"And leave Kuro-wankoro in such obvious distress in the bathtub?" Fai shook his head with a smile, pulling back the shower-curtain – and then he trailed off into surprised laughter again, seeing the extraordinarily soggy wolf sitting glowering up at him. Clearly, the Ame-warashi's rain-cloud had done its work well. "Saa, did Kuro-chan decide to have an early wash?"

Kurogane bared his teeth. "What part of 'go away' do you not understand, idiot?"

Fai ignored the shinobi completely reaching to pluck up a nearby towel. "Kuro-pon will catch a cold if he just sits and drip-dries like that; I'll help you get dry." Kurogane backed up against the side of the bathtub, snarling, trying to get out of the way of the approaching blond. "Just…sit still -"

"Like hell!"

"Kuro-pu -"

They struggled. Fai attempted to catch Kurogane with the towel and Kurogane attempted to scramble away, both of them slipping on the wet surface of the bath. Kurogane was hard to hold onto and Fai was blocking the wolf's exit, and somehow the entire escapade resulted in Fai sprawled in the bath halfway across Kurogane's struggling form with his arms around the wolf, and Kurogane's wet nose pressing rather unpleasantly on the side of his exposed neck. They were both soaked through – Kurogane from the magical rain-cloud, and Fai from grappling with one who had been drenched by a magical rain-cloud.

Kurogane was, obviously, none too happy with the situation. "Get off of me!"

"Ugh…" Fai wrinkled his nose, feeling the dampness from his companion's fur seep through his shirt, "Kuro-wanko smells like wet dog."

The urge to bite the blond for his forwardness was strong but Kurogane somehow restrained himself – the only place within biting range at that time was Fai's neck, and crunching his teeth down there would probably kill the idiot. (Much as murder would undoubtedly be both fun and satisfying, their current positions would leave Kurogane with a bleeding – heavy – corpse on him should he carry through with his plans. That, and Fai was still necessary for curse-breaking, damn him.)

Kurogane settled for growling, wriggling and trying not to get floaty bits of gold hair stuck in his mouth. "Get. Off."

Fai continued to ignore him, disregarding the wriggling entirely and finally managing to use the towel he'd picked up, rubbing the fur of the wolf's back with absolutely no heed paid to the curses spewing from Kurogane's mouth. Fai's touch was brief but firm, towelling what he could of Kurogane dry, careful around the wolf's ears and eyes, hearing the chain around the enchanted creature's neck with the engagement ring on it jingle in time with their movements.

Kurogane hissed and cursed and snarled and skittered around trying to be free every second Fai was drying him, the whole process made entirely more awkward by his own protests.

Fai poked and pushed and prodded and squished him into submission, scrambling back himself after the ordeal was over and done with to clasp his hands together – ignoring his sopping shirt – and coo over the now exceedingly mussed-up and disgruntled wolf before him.

"Kuro-tan looks so cute when he's fluffy!"

Kurogane's resolve snapped then (as it always seemed to around Fai), and the wolf abandoned his previous reasons for not ripping the mage's throat out and leapt for the blond. Fai dived out of the way with his usual laugh, dashing out of the bathroom with his fiancé in hot pursuit.

The chase – yet again – was on.

"You're heading out again?"

Watanuki caught Syaoran just as the other boy was at the door, the brunet with his cloak over his shoulders, that determined set in his expression that usually meant he was off to do some training, or run an errand for Yuuko. Judging by how Watanuki didn't think Yuuko had been in any fit state to give out any errands – she was in her bedroom groaning about her aching head again -, it had to be the former option.

"To Kurogane-san and Fai-san's," Syaoran laid a hand on his waist – the place a sword would usually be buckled, although there was no blade there at the time, "training again."

"Your wish…" Watanuki was always hesitant bringing up such a delicate topic, but a question plucked at his mind, silver-bright and inquisitive in its presence, but hazy in definition. A question that didn't really know what it was asking, but felt a pull to this other boy with fire in his blood and heat in his eyes whilst its owner's gaze caught only the reflection of never-ending nights and lakes and dreams. "Sometimes Syaoran-kun seems like the sort of person who could answer his own wishes."

Syaoran considered that a moment, the silence pulling between them peacefully, the pets of the household all elsewhere, probably attending their hungover mistress. "I do not think…" Syaoran eventually began, hand still where his sword should've been, seeming a warrior, older, wiser, "all payments are granted to Yuuko-san. So logically…" the silence became thread-thin, a high string lightly touched that hummed in the air, just out of hearing, "all wishes are not made to Yuuko-san either." He couldn't stand back and do nothing himself.

"Sometimes some wishes have unforeseen prices…" Watanuki trailed over the words, paraphrasing a comment Yuuko had made, hearing the echo in Syaoran's sentiments. "The costlier the wish, the more you have to pay."

Conviction. "Sakura-hime is worth it."

"'Sakura'?" It was the first time Syaoran had mentioned the princess to Watanuki.

"Sakura," Syaoran repeated, smiling slightly at the memory, a pink tinge in his cheeks. "Like the flower. Sakura-hime."

Watanuki smiled in return, a blissfully happy expression that clouded his eyes. "She has a flower name, just like Himawari-chan. Where I come from, the sakura flower represents life – brief but sweet. Himawari represents warmth, nourishment."

"Really?" Syaoran stored that little bit of information away. "…Where I come from the sakura flower represents women…power." He didn't mention the meanings that were attached to the sunflower in Clow. He couldn't – not when Watanuki was smiling like that.

'Unhappiness in love' was such a cruel thing to have associated with your sweetheart.

One clearing. "Here?"

"No."

Another clearing. "…Here?"

"Nope."

And another. "What about here?"

"No~."

That was it. Kurogane ground to a halt, digging his claws into the grass of the forest beneath him and glaring at the unconcerned back of his fiancé waltzing along before him, Fai's hands tucked behind his airy head in a show of utter nonchalance.

"What," the wolf enunciated clearly, "is wrong with this clearing?" 'And the other twenty dozen we've walked through', hung heavily in the air.

Fai had announced - sometime after Kurogane had finally stopped chasing him (the blond had shut the bedroom door on the wolf's nose) and he'd changed into a dry shirt – that since today was such a lovely day (the clouds had disappeared alongside the Ame-warashi) they'd be teaching Syaoran in a different area of the forest than usual. It was, after all, such a terrible thing to be stuck in one place all the time, and Kuro-chan should just shh and be a good boy for Fai-mommy because mommy really knew best about these sort of things. Kurogane had bared his teeth and began trying to kill the other about that point and Fai had run off – giving chase had led them deep beneath the trees, and only after ten minutes running did Kurogane realise he'd been essentially tricked and he was doing what Fai wanted anyway.

…Bloody mage.

Fai turned slightly to regard the wolf with his bright – and, once more, far-too-amused – eyes. The two of them had long-since settled into a walk. "Does Kuro-tan not enjoy going walkies with me?"

Kurogane bared his teeth. "Do I really have to answer that?"

Fai only laughed. "Kuro-pu-pu -"

"It's Kurogane."

"Kuro-pon," Fai really did have selective hearing, "we need to do more couple things together. Or," he stopped walking, suddenly bringing the memories of a conversation on a rainy night into the sunshine afternoon of the forest, "do you prefer me when I'm 'faithless'?"

Silence.

Fai twisted away again, his face hidden by his hair as his voice took on its usual fake cheer. "Well, when this year is done Kuro-chan won't ever have to see or hear from me again." He started walking again.

Kurogane kept to just behind him, grumbling his complaints. "And we can call off this farce of an engagement."

"Aw, Kuro-sama doesn't want to marry me?" Fai adopted the pose of one who had been deeply wounded, clutching his heart with one hand and flinging the other palm overdramatically across his brow. "Kuro-pipi will be leaving me in a state of sin! Used and abandoned, left at the altar in shame -"

"There is no altar!" Kurogane rose to the bait every time, but he was determined the conversation wouldn't be Fai's win alone. "…It would take more than another ring on your finger to make you an honest man, anyway."

There was more silence, Fai's feet slowing, stilling, coming to a halt. "Kuro-sama -"

"Fai-san!" There was a pleased shout from across the clearing, a familiar brown-haired boy waving and coming into view. "Kurogane-san!"

"Syaoran-kun~!" Fai leapt across to the boy in bounds, his usual inane chatter spilling from his lips again as he greeted the boy.

Kurogane watched him go, whatever the mage had been about to say lost to the wind, to whimsy. Again.

"Good afternoon."

He turned when she called to him, the strands of his fair hair catching the breeze of their dreamscape, sunshine contrasted with those eyes of his, that beautiful colour that matched the summer skies.

"Good afternoon." His voice was soft, refined, his smile politely inquiring as he looked back at her, wondering who she was, why she had brought him wherever it was he was. He walked in dreams, yes, but only specific ones. Anywhere outside his usual sphere was the work of someone more powerful than him. "This is your daydream?"

"It is," Tomoyo looked contrite, approaching her guest. "My apologies for disturbing your rest, but I was asked to speak with you. People have questions…but first – manners." She smiled, welcoming, and extended a hand. "I am Tomoyo-hime, the Tsukoyomi of the kingdom of Nihon."

Her companion smiled in return, taking her hand and raising it to his lips to kiss it. "I am Yuui-ouji, child of a dead kingdom and an adopted son of the Faerie Court. It is my pleasure to meet you."

Tomoyo looked at him, suddenly wide-eyed. "You're a prince?" Kurogane was engaged to –

Yuui looked at her. "…I can see this is going to be a long conversation."

Tomoyo sat down, the bells on her headdress chiming at the motion. "Yes," she stretched a hand out to her guest, pleased when Yuui sat down opposite her. "Yes, it is."

The staccato beat of wood hitting wood echoed through the forest –

One- two-three-duck –

Carefully controlled breathing, feet on grass –

Two-two-three-block –

The wind through the tree-branches, catching the edge of Fai's discarded coat, Syaoran's cloak –

Three-two-three-hit –

Fai neatly side-stepped the stick that had been swung at his mid-section, shifting around the weapon as his partner's momentum carried them past him, using his own stick to lightly rap Syaoran on the back of the shoulders.

Kurogane folded his paws in front of him where he was lying, watching the display. "Kid, you're dead again. It's a good thing the idiot decided not to use a sword." (It had been less 'decided' and more out-and-out refused, Fai rejecting Kurogane's offer of a temporary loan of Souhi without even glancing at the blade. When pushed Fai had only given that infuriating smile of his, querying that wasn't it enough that he was fighting using Kurogane's style to train Syaoran without taking Kurogane's sword as well?)

Syaoran blushed, looking to the wolf. "I'm sorry, Kurogane-san."

"Don't apologise to me," Kurogane fixed his gaze on the boy, "it's your head that you'll be losing should you go into a serious fight."

Syaoran bowed his head, grip tightening on the stick he held. "…I'll do my best to improve."

"Ah, don't be glum, Syaoran-kun~." Fai curled an arm around the brunet's neck in a loose hug, smiling brightly when the boy looked up at him. "Kuro-chan is just showing how worried he is about you. He wouldn't want to see Syaoran-kun get hurt."

"He – I -" Kurogane jolted to his feet, spluttering at the blond. "Don't just decide these things for yourself, idiot!"

"See~?" Fai dropped his head to utter a perfectly audible stage-whisper in Syaoran's ear, teasing blue eyes locked firmly with Kurogane's red, "Big doggy is awfully fond of little puppy, even if he can't express himself very well."

"'L-little puppy?'" Syaoran's eyes were very wide, a blush on his cheeks again, though now for an entirely different reason.

"Ignore him, kid; his stupidity's probably infectious." Kurogane glared at Fai, hating the mage's fake smile, advancing on the man until the idiot uncurled his arm from around Syaoran's neck, stepping away from the boy and backing up. "As for you -"

Fai only smiled wider, delighting in the clear infuriation emanating from the wolf. "Hm, does Kuro-wanko want to give me a love-bite?"

"'Love-bite'?!" Kurogane choked and Syaoran worried that the canine had swallowed his own tongue for a few seconds - but then the wolf pounced forwards, sleek, angry, and Syaoran did the very, very smart thing and dived hastily out of the way, Fai having already set off with a cheery 'hyuu~', laughter bubbling as he swung himself up into the nearest tree –

And then he slipped.

"Fai-san!"

Fai fell almost in slow motion, one pale hand stretching for a grip, the next branch, fingers trying and failing to find something to hold onto. He was a blur of white and gold crashing down through the green and brown branches, smacking into the hard ground below, sprawled alarmingly still across the roots on the forest floor.

"Fai-san!" Worry jolted Syaoran into movement, but Kurogane was faster still, having been already on the move, at the fallen mage's side immediately.

"Ow…" Fai groaned when Kurogane gently laid a paw on his ribs, shifting so his companions could see he was still alive, bleary eyes flickering open at two (concerned, though Kurogane would deny it) faces. "I'm going to hurt tomorrow. Ah -" he winced slightly, pushing himself up into a sitting position, "I think I hurt now, as well."

"Fai-san," Syaoran crouched down beside the blond, a relieved smile touching his features, "I'm just glad you're alright."

"Thank you, Syaoran-kun." Fai stretched out a hand, his expression warm as he ruffled the brunet's already tousled hair. "I'm like a cat, hm? Always land on my feet."

"If you land on your feet after falling far enough," Kurogane growled, his irritation with the blond coming through once more now it had been ascertained Fai wasn't dead, "you'll break your legs."

Fai only laughed, stretching out a hand and laying it gently on the other's ruff. "So practical, Kuro-daddy. Can't you just admit you were worried about Fai-mommy for once?"

Kurogane shook off the hand. "What the hell did you just call me?!"

"Kuro-daddy," Fai waved the rejected limb laconically, lazily, knowing his fiancé's honour wouldn't allow him to attack someone when they were down. "Unless you'd rather be the mommy?"

"You – what -" even Kurogane seemed at a loss for words for a few moments, his voice taking on a bark of incredulity, "do you have no self-respect as a man?!"

Fai ignored the question, musing to himself. "Kuro-tan never really struck me as the mothering type…" he glanced at Syaoran, the boy looking rather lost at that moment in time. "What do you think, Syaoran-kun?"

Syaoran wanted very much not to think at all. Hopefully, if he gave it a few more seconds, the ground would obligingly open up beneath him and swallow him whole.

"Stop dragging the kid into your idiot games!!"

Fai continued to ignore their ranting companion. "That reminds me…" he reached into his back-pocket, pulling out the pendant the Ame-warashi had given him, "could Syaoran-kun please deliver this to Watanuki-kun for me when he returns to Yuuko's shop? It's a gift from the Zashiki-warashi."

Syaoran took it willingly. "Of course, Fai-san."

Fai smiled again and began pushing himself to his feet – only to let out a soft cry, leaning heavily on the tree-trunk beside him. "Ah -"

Kurogane grumbled at him, but his exasperation was relatively mild. "…What have you done, idiot?"

Fai laughed, letting his head fall back against the trunk, eyes shut, voice a little breathier than Kurogane would've liked it, considering the situation. "Only Kuro-sama could make an insult sound like an endearment."

"Mage -"

"I appear," Fai broke in before Kurogane could begin to complain again, letting his eyes flutter open once more, "to have twisted my ankle."

"Are you sure it's not broken, Fai-san?" Syaoran tried to inspect the foot the elder male was favouring, but Fai gently shooed him away, urging the boy to his own feet.

"It's not broken, Syaoran-kun, but thank you for your concern." Fai pushed himself up into a more upright position, smile still fixed on his lips. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to call an end to the training for today though."

"I'll help you back to your house." Syaoran was quick to let the mage lean on him, Fai putting his arm across the boy's shoulders once more for support and letting out a soft hiss as he put weight on his injured ankle. "Fai-san?"

"It's alright, Syaoran-kun." There was nothing else the boy could do to help, and there was little use in him feeling guilty either.

Kurogane groused, padding along at the side of his two companions as they made their slow way back to the house beside the waterfall. "It's the idiot's own fault, anyway."

Fai sighed rather melodramatically. "Daddy's always so cruel to mommy…"

"You -!"

"Himawari-chan~~!!" Watanuki beamed up at the girl in her tower – and then he caught sight of the golden bird perched on her window-ledge. "And Doumeki-kun."

"Watanuki-kun!!" Himawari seemed to be just as delighted to see the black-haired boy. "Doumeki-kun said he saw you coming – he has very good eyesight!"

Watanuki was torn. On the one hand, he could happily chime in with Himawari and praise Doumeki, thus pleasing Himawari. On the other…he wasn't about to praise the idiot bird simply because he could see long distances. Stupid eagle; he'd been showing up for a few weeks now – Watanuki never got any quality alone time with Himawari any more.

Watanuki went with a compromise. "I brought you a bentou!"

"Watanuki-kun is so kind~!" Himawari clapped her hands together, sparkles filling the air.

Doumeki leaned over the ledge, eyeing the boy on the ground. "Is there sanbei-jiru?"

"No!" Watanuki was affronted. "That's a winter soup!"

"Hn," Doumeki leaned back again. "Next time, make sanbei-jiru."

"I'm not making that for you!"

Himawari's eyes grew round. "Sanbei-jiru sounds so tasty!"

Watanuki practically swooned at how cute his darling looked right then. "I'll bring you some next time I visit, Hi~mawa~ri-chan~~!"

Doumeki stuck his beak in again. "Don't forget the daikon."

"I'm not making it for you!"

It had been just over three months, by Kurogane's internal reckoning. Three months since he'd disturbed the crystal case in the forest and been turned into a wolf, three months he'd been engaged to an idiotic blond mage with something seriously screwed-up in his airy head.

What exactly was wrong with Fai…Kurogane had hazarded a guess or two, but everything had been shot down in the face of the man's lies. Fai lied and lied and lied, and infuriatingly kept lying even though he knew Kurogane saw through him. No matter how Kurogane pried at the locked box that was Fai D. Fluorite he got little to nothing out of it, the mage a master at deflecting conversations from himself, silver-tongued and sharp. The man was smart – Kurogane had flicked through a few of the blond's books, and hadn't even understood half of what some of them rambled on about -, and the man was skilled – he was strangely intuitive, could dodge things thrown at him without looking, and fought pretty well using the techniques Kurogane coerced him into doing to train Syaoran. It made the shinobi wonder, what Fai's own techniques were like – you could see it in the way he held himself, that the mage knew how to fight -, but time and time again, Fai had avoided the issue, side-stepped the conflict, been rammed against the wall in the pitch-black darkness and outright refused when Kurogane couldn't see him, couldn't read the honesty that occasionally flickered in those unseen-blue eyes. During the day, to Kurogane, everything about Fai was grey. At night, when the colours came back, he couldn't see them. If only –

"Mm…" Fai stirred slightly in his sleep, twisting about from his usual face-down sleeping position to a sideways sprawl that looked actually somewhat acceptable to a person still wanting to breathe. Kurogane, in his wolf-form, beside him on the bed, turned to look at him for a few moments, wondering whether the idiot was awake yet. When Fai didn't make any further movements, the shinobi found it relatively safe to assume the blond was still asleep.

Ever since the mage had gotten drunk and Kurogane had dumped him in their bed Fai had actually slept in the bed every night, giving up the sofa in the lounge downstairs. Had it been anyone else Kurogane would've assumed that meant that the individual was trying to turn over a new leaf, but in all other things Fai seemed just as annoying as ever – more so, in fact, clinging onto Kurogane like a limpet and utilising his ridiculous pet names with ruthless efficiency.

Fai stirred again, a slight crease in his brow – the idiot was having a nightmare? It was too early for the blond to wake up; Fai usually gave it another hour or so before waking and heading down to the kitchen, whistling that stupid 'hyuu' noise he claimed was a whistle.

It was early for Kurogane as well – when dawn came he changed from man to wolf, the process waking him. He usually got up and shoved the clothes he'd been wearing as a human the night before into the wardrobe or the corner of the room (– invariably, Fai picked them up for him later in the day, either hanging them up again on a hanger, or putting them in the laundry basket). After that he'd crawl back onto the bed and go back to sleep, rising only when Fai's obnoxiously cheery not-whistling eventually wore down through the layers of his unconsciousness.

But today…today, Kurogane just hadn't been able to get back to sleep.

"Ash..ura-ou…" Fai, it appeared, was rather restless as well, calling out the name of strangers in his sleep. Kurogane frowned down at him –

Only for Fai to shift in his slumber again, moving against Kurogane's side and seeking the other's warmth, one of his hands burying itself in the wolf's fur. The motion slid him out from under most of the sheets, one blanket trailing across his torso but failing entirely to cover his bare legs in any way, Fai's nightshirt the only thing keeping his modesty right then. It was a wonder the cold didn't wake the idiot.

Kurogane let out a low, discontented noise of affront, a mild grumble that didn't really carry enough volume behind it to rouse his companion. It was wrong to blame a man for what he said or did while asleep, whilst at his most vulnerable, but being used as a cuddle-toy was not on his list of things to do that day. He shifted away.

Fai shifted closer, head cushioned against Kurogane's side, his brow smoothing out as he heard the steady drumming of the wolf's heart through his sleep, the inhale-exhale of the canine's chest.

That was intruding on valued personal space. Kurogane growled, the sound reverberating through him.

"Hn…" Fai's eyes flickered, the beginning of waking, and Kurogane turned his head away from looking at him, giving the other a little privacy to wake and hopefully swiftly disentangle himself, all the while trying to ignore the fact that Fai smelled rich and sleepy and warm, heavy with lingering drowsiness, fingers still tangled in dark fur in a distractingly good way.

Kurogane was sure, had he been human in body right then, he would've been analysing the bare stretch of those ridiculously long, pale legs as they shifted amongst the twisted blankets slightly differently – the soft sound of skin sliding on sheets was, to his mind, troubling enough, the added grey glow of half-lidded eyes was unnecessary, framed as they were by tousled hair.

As it was…Fai just smelled good, still half-curled and soft and kittenish, free of all scents but his own – and Kurogane's, now the wolf thought about it –

And then Kurogane groaned, a low rumble of pleasure in the back of his throat, one of Fai's hands having shifted unintentionally as the blond stirred, dragging down his companion's side and stomach in a lazy half-stroke, half-scratch.

"…Kuro…chan?" The sound seemed to draw Fai completely out of sleep - the man really was too slow with coming around to wakefulness; even the worst of shinobis back at Shirasagi were better-trained than this idiot -, both his hands thankfully (sadly) falling away from Kurogane's person as he pushed himself up slightly, propped up by his elbows. He yawned, his hair a mess. "Kuro-sama, what time is it…?"

"Too early," Kurogane said rather shortly, sliding himself away to the other end of the bed, as far as he could get from Fai without falling onto the floor. Irritatingly, this end of the bed was cold. "Go back to sleep."

"Hm…" Fai lay down again, pillowing his arms beneath his head, and regarding his bed-mate with a sleepy smile. "Kuro-chan is grumpy first thing in the morning, ne?"

"Go back to sleep." Stopping the stupid nicknames was of high priority.

"And here I thought Kuro-pon would like me a little more if I stayed awake to keep him company a little while…" Fai was already drooping, halfway to sleep already.

Kurogane growled at him a little, wondering why it was the idiot just couldn't do as he was asked straightaway, for once. "I like you the most when you were asleep." Asleep, the idiot (probably) couldn't cause any trouble.

"Strange…" Fai's voice was soft, barely above a murmur, his eyes completely shut and lashes dark against his white cheeks. "Kuro-sama keeps telling me he doesn't like me at all…"

Kurogane jolted at that. "You -" But Fai was too far gone, his breathing deep and even, sunken fast into slumber. Kurogane dropped the conversation.

He didn't really want to continue it, anyway.

Watanuki was ranting again, his motions erratic as he beat the living daylights out of whatever concoction it was he had in the bowl in his hands, Yuuko, drinking sake as she leaned back against the kitchen's doorpost, apparently not listening in the slightest.

"-and then the idiot bird demands I make him shougoyaki! Shougoyaki!! As if I, the great Watanuki-sama, have time in my busy schedule to make shougoyaki for the likes of him!"

"And yet," Yuuko calmly pointed out, draining the last of the bottle she was holding and setting it down on the table, "you're making shougoyaki, Watanuki-kun."

"I – well – I – that is -" Watanuki blushed slightly. "Himawari-chan said she might like some, and I thought I'd make some for her as a treat – and that stupid Doumeki isn't. Getting. Any. What kind of eagle eats pork anyway?!"

"Maybe it's just your wonderful cooking, Watanuki-kun~!" Yuuko reached over and stole a piece of the boy's ginger-flavoured pork, hmming in delight and letting little sparkles fill the kitchen around her. "Delicious as ever!!"

Watanuki smacked her hand with the spoon he was holding. "You'll spoil your appetite." He sincerely doubted it – Yuuko's stomach seemed bottomless, at times -, but he had to defend his cooking somehow.

The black Mokona hopped up onto Yuuko's shoulder, appearing from the hallway to whisper – loudly – in the witch's ear. "Watanuki is saving the food for his boyfriend."

Yuuko clutched her heart. "Watanuki-kun~! How could you?"

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"There, there, Mokona," Yuuko ignored her protesting employee, petting the mock-sobbing bun on her shoulder, "we'll just have to accept that Watanuki has taken his love elsewhere -"

Watanuki flailed, his spoon a lethal weapon as it went through the air, an extension to his own arm. "Like I could ever love that – that Doumeki!"

There was a sudden, pregnant pause.

"Who," Yuuko asked lowly, a slow, dreadful smirk stretching on her lips that had, alongside Mokona's matching evil grin, Watanuki's stomach plunging in sudden fear for his feet, "mentioned Doumeki?"

"…You…" words failed Watanuki, and the poor boy was sorely tempted to put his head in his hands and weep.

"I never mentioned any Doumeki." Yuuko delighted in torturing those in her service. She turned to address Mokona. "Did you?"

"Noo~ooo~." Mokona looked positively evil, the devil-spawn of the witch.

Yuuko continued to smirk. "Oh my…"

Mokona finished off the humiliation. "Watanuki loves Dou~me~ki!"

"I do not!!"

"Watanuki loves Doooouuuumeki~!!"

"I'm not in love with that stupid bird!!"

"Now, now, Watanuki-kun," Yuuko petted the boy on the head, Watanuki stopping his attempts to grab hold of Mokona and throttle him to look up at the woman. "There are more to things than originally meet the eye in most situations. How do you know Doumeki-kun's not secretly a handsome prince bespelled to look like a bird?"

"He's a jerk," the witch's employee grumbled, "so it doesn't matter whether he's a prince or not."

"Ah," Yuuko chided, "but didn't he save your life once, when that spirit attacked you looking like Himawari-chan?" Watanuki rued the day he'd ever told Yuuko about that.

Watanuki folded his arms, and looked away. "…He's still a jerk."

Yuuko only chuckled, and ruffled the boy's hair, motioning for Mokona to bounce away again. "He sounds like a good friend." Watanuki bristled, but Yuuko continued to pet him. "It's good to make friends, hm, Watanuki?"

"…Yes," the youth admitted, relaxing a little.

"Good! Now -" Yuuko pulled away, and Watanuki blinked open eyes he didn't realise he'd shut to find the witch expectantly waving an empty bottle in his face, "more sake, Watanuki~!"

Mealtimes with Fai were always an adventure and a half. Although the blond was obviously a good chef and could produce some delicious food he still took it upon himself to provide a surprise with every meal – usually sugary, sweet, and something Kurogane had to complain about. Fai was agreeable to a certain extent with what he made – when he discovered Kurogane couldn't drink or at anything too milky he'd cut most of those things out of his menus completely, something that Kurogane was silently grateful for -, but on the matter of breakfast, drinks and desserts Fai was unswervingly stubborn. The mage cooked, so the mage decided what they ate, and the mage decided what they ate was so sugary it induced cavities merely by looking at it.

There was only so much sugar the Kurogane could stomach and, one breakfast, he drew the line and refused to eat what Fai had made, pushing back the pastries and hot chocolate and huffily stalking from the room. Too caught up in his own grand departure, he quite missed the somewhat hurt expression on his fiancé's face.

At lunch, Fai served the meal as usual, though he was strangely silent. Kurogane, hungry after skipping breakfast, was eager to eat some of the rather tasty looking lamb the other had prepared, taking a big bite –

- And gagging, choking on the horribly salty flavour of the food. What had Fai done, dumped a whole bag of the condiment in?

Fai smiled at him. "Is something wrong, Kuro-wanko?" His eyes were glowing with a rich amusement that was more darkly-edged than normal, lips set with a vaguely triumphant curve. "Is the food not to your liking?" A challenge.

"…It's fine." Kurogane went back to eating, choking down his meal. He refused to back down from the other's dare by complaining, and so he swallowed his pride with every foul-tasting mouthful, Fai's pointed revenge for his constant complaints. It tasted disgusting but Kurogane ate it all, and then he ran off to be violently sick in the garden.

For dinner that night Fai served his usual good food, finishing the meal with one of his saccharine-sweet desserts. Kurogane ate everything that was put before him, thankful for edible food, his lesson well and truly learned.

Kurogane never – loudly – insulted Fai's cooking again. (He grumbled in the corners instead.)

"What," Watanuki asked as soon as he'd put down the tray of sake and snacks he'd been carrying out from the kitchen to the garden and pointing at the irritatingly familiar golden-eyed bird sitting in a tree there, "is he doing here?"

"Doumeki-kun is an emissary from the Faerie Court," Yuuko laid a hand on the bird's neck, disturbing the gold chain the eagle wore there. "He helps me organise wishes and collect prices."

"The Faerie Court…" Watanuki was aware Yuuko occasionally had members of the fey as customers, but usually the race kept themselves to themselves. He took a seat at the table his employer sat at. "I wasn't aware there was a Court."

"Oh yes, there is one," Yuuko nodded rather sagely, taking some of the sake and pouring it into a round cup for their guest before pouring herself some as well. "It's ruled over by Ashura-ou, their king – in theory, anyway."

"'In theory'…?"

Yuuko waved a hand, dismissing the issue. "You needn't worry about that."

Watanuki nodded, still curious – and then he noticed Doumeki wolfing down the snacks he'd brought out to the garden. "Hey, leave some for others, you pig!"

Doumeki continued to eat, ignoring Watanuki entirely.

"Hey!" Watanuki snatched away the tray of snacks, moving them out of the eagle's range. "Answer me, you glutton!"

"Watanuki-kun," Yuuko stole one of the mochi balls Watanuki was trying to pull away, "Doumeki-kun can't say anything when he's wearing the fey crest around his neck."

Her reluctant employee looked at her. "…He can't?" Yuuko shook her head. "Why not? Is it a spell?" The witch nodded, and sipped some of her drink. "Oh."

Watanuki looked at Doumeki, and Doumeki looked back.

Watanuki set the tray down with a clatter, and reached over rather aggressively to lift the chain with the crest on it from around the eagle's neck. For all he was huffing all the while, Watanuki's movements were very gentle, careful not to snag a feather or scratch any part of the bird's face.

He set the chain down on the table they were sat at, hearing the soft clink. "Now you can answer me, you idiot bird."

Silence.

"Doumeki."

Slowly, Watanuki turned, only to find the eagle having slunk around his person, Doumeki happily tucking into the snacks Watanuki had prepared.

"Say 'itadakimasu', you pig!"

"Itadakimasu," Doumeki said, beak-full, and kept right on eating.

Five months of living together, and Fai was still being a pain – a confusing, contrary, bewildering pain. He not-whistled and he warbled, endlessly vague when pressed for answers, avoiding any and all issues that were of relative importance, that were simply too personal for him to divulge. For someone who prattled about 'togetherness' Fai seemed quite determined to keep Kurogane and himself very much apart, his body prancing forwards to declare undying love for 'Kuro-wan-wan' with a fake smile firmly fixed in place whilst his mind took all its secrets and locked them deep, deep within the mage's labyrinthine self. It irritated Kurogane, but nothing he'd tried to do had gotten the blond to open up for any longer than a few seconds.

It was morning again, another day where the two occupants of the house would wage another stage of their endless war with one another, all without raising a single (truly) hostile finger. It was giving Kurogane a headache – or perhaps that was just Fai, hyuuing away a stupid little tune into the kitchen Kurogane padded into –

And promptly stopped dead in his tracks.

"Kuro-chan!" Fai had turned at the sound of the wolf's claws on the tiles, his smile sunshine incarnate, innocence all but radiating off of him. "Good morning."

"…That's my shirt." Kurogane's mind had temporarily shut down, caught on the long-sleeved white button-up the mage was wearing rather loosely and stalling between Fai's beautifully exposed collarbone and bare legs that went on for ever and ever and –

"It makes a good nightshirt." Fai's smile inched up another degree as he shifted, the shirt hem brushing his mid-thigh and if he stretched just a little Kurogane would probably be able to see –

He was a wolf. Lusting after scantily dressed men whilst in animal form had to be ranking highly on the list of things that were Very, Very Wrong in the universe, especially when said men were blond, blue-eyed and probably very, very bad to know. Kurogane was going to do the very sensible thing and put the whole affair out of his mind, remembering strongly that Fai was an idiot and a liar and a pest and a tease, slept around, drank all the alcohol, flirted outrageously, looked sinfully good to eat at the moment and had those wonderful hands that felt so good when being used to stroke and – this really wasn't working.

"Will a ham omelette be alright, Kuro-pii?" Fai had turned around again, his back to the wolf as he returned to his cooking, mixing eggs and milk in a bowl. "I can make you a few of them, if you'd like-"

Kurogane still hadn't moved from the doorway. "Why are you wearing my shirt?"

Fai tossed him an amused glance over his shoulder, far too coy for the shinobi's current disposition. "Would Kuro-rin prefer it if I took it off? My, how very forward of Kuro-pon, but then I suppose it's nothing daddy hasn't seen before – especially since he ogles me whilst I'm swimming -"

"I don't ogle you whilst you're swimming!" If Kurogane had been human right then, he would've been embarrassingly bright red – thankfully, his fur hid his blush, his defences slammed up as high as they could go. "I don't ogle!"

"No?" Fai turned around, still holding the bowl. "What does Kuro-pu do then? Because he's clearly doing something – my face is up here, Kuro-pervert." The blond pointed helpfully to his head, smile bright and eyes glittering with what could only be described as evil. "You've been talking to my legs since you came through the door."

Kurogane choked, and hastily averted to look at the wall just to the left of Fai's smirk, refusing to carry on that thread of the conversation. "…Wear your own damn shirt to bed."

"Aw, Kuro-daddy never wants to share -"

"My name is Kurogane." The wolf wasn't in the mood to be baited anymore; his growl then actually vicious as he locked gazes with his troublesome fiancé. "You'd think after this long even you would be able to get that through your idiot skull."

"Saa," Fai refused to drop his smile, "Kuro-tan is being grumpy again -"

"Stop," Kurogane told him firmly, harshly, cutting through whatever falsehoods Fai let fall from his lips. "Mage, have you ever – ever – told the truth before in your life?"

Fai stopped stirring, and his smile flickered.

Kurogane continued to glare at him. "I don't care what it is you're running away from – and you are running," the wolf insisted brusquely, seeing Fai about to attempt to protest, "but don't you dare try to convince me that everything's fine in your fucked-up little world. All the pretty faces you pull don't hide the fact that you're a liar – whatever the hell it is that you're so fixated on, get over it. The world goes on as usual, with or without your cooperation." The warrior turned around then, and stalked from the kitchen. He wasn't in the mood to put up with any more of Fai's stupidity that morning, regardless of how attractive and distracting the idiot tried to be.

Behind him, Fai quietly put down the bowl he'd been holding on the nearest bench, his smile still faltering, shaking with the trembles that ran through his arms. He steadied himself against the bench, and willed his legs to not give out on him, too shaky to even make it to a chair.

Kurogane always noticed the unnecessary things.

Bedtime that night was…an awkward affair, to say the least. When dusk fell Kurogane had changed form, pulling on some of his clothes to go outside and run through his exercises with Souhi once more. Fai had heard him go but, having really nothing better to do, had headed upstairs to bed, changing into his (own) nightshirt and slipping between the sheets, face-down as usual.

One of the biggest problem with the lights going out automatically at dusk – even when the days were relatively long -, was that Fai was hardly ever actually tired when he tried to sleep. He really wasn't in a walking mood – going out the door would probably lead him past Kurogane anyway, and the wolf had been distinctly cold all day – and there wasn't anything else he could do, save twiddle his thumbs in distraction.

Fai's heartbeat counted out the passing time, the drag of air into his lungs the minutes trailing by, quiet lulling the blond into a withdrawn daze, not really thinking of anything. The click of the bedroom door then, when it came, was jarring, infinitely loud to Fai's ears, a crack across his consciousness.

"You're still awake?" Kurogane's voice was rumbling, the man bringing with him the scent of the shower, the lingering breeze still on the edges of his skin. He'd washed after coming in from his exercises, and Fai's lips curled just a little bitterly at the knowledge. That was Kuro-wanko all over - considerate to the last.

"I'm awake." Fai raised his head answered the question even though he had the feeling it had been a rhetorical one – Kurogane seemed to be one of those irritating ones who could analyse breathing, or something equally exasperating to his avoidant housemate.

"I know," there was the sound of Souhi being put within reaching distance on what had somehow (disturbingly) become 'Kurogane's side of the bed', another's weight pulling down that end of the mattress. Instinctively Fai looked that way, head still on his arms, even though he couldn't see anything. "I'm just surprised you're not sleeping by now, babbling away to yourself." Fai froze. "You didn't know?" (So apparently the irksome wolf could monitor breathing.) "You talk in your sleep – the problem's always been getting you to shut up."

Fai's insides felt they'd been turned to ice, his usually quite-lively tongue suddenly feeling like a dead thing in his mouth. The only people he'd ever slept beside had been Yuui, Chii and Ashura-ou – Yuui had never mentioned anything, so he probably hadn't talked in his childhood; Chii was too sweet to ever mention anything, and Ashura-ou…

"Don't worry; you didn't say anything incriminating." Kurogane kept talking, strangely relishing in the horrified silence in the room.

And then Fai laughed. The sound was sliver-thin, a little sharp, definitely strained. "Silly Kuro-kun-kun…" his actual words sounded even worse. "Who could I possibly have to incriminate?"

"Yourself?" It was phrased as a suggestion, delicate, slender, a wonderful stiletto blade Fai thought would be much better suited in his own grip – but then, Kurogane seemed to delight in proving him wrong. The warrior could be clumsy in verbal sparring, but his directness tore away at the issue in such a way that most opponents would cower in submission rather than take on the scary, bulkier man head-to-head.

"Kuro-mu already thinks I'm guilty of heinous crimes -" the weight on the bed shifted then, rolling from the end where Kurogane was and moving closer to Fai. The fleeting, automatic urge to flee burst into the mage's mind then, crystal-clear that he had to get away, away, away, but he only got as far as tensing his arms to push himself up before he felt foreign fingers in his hair, an intrusion and surprise that robbed him of speech and compulsion for a few startled milliseconds. Short as the shock was its after-effects lingered unpleasantly, the feeling of being corned, of being held in place. Those fingers were easily capable of tightening and yanking and –

Fai was suddenly, strangely thankful Kurogane had touched his hair, and not his face. He stared blindly into the darkness, wishing he could turn his head away from where his fiancé was so unexpectedly closer, but didn't quite dare, feeling the challenge thrumming in the digits moving through strands of blond. (Had it been anyone else, Fai could've called the motions a caress, a pet, something soothing to send him off into sleep. It wasn't anyone else – it was Kurogane, the unknown factor, in the middle of what was hastily degenerating into a thinly-veiled argument.)

"I don't think you're guilty." Astute as he was – damn him -, Kurogane had to have heard the quickening in his companion's breathing, easily linking it his intrusive actions. "I think that you think you are. You can't run from yourself forever."

And yet Fai had managed to do so for a terribly long time. Once half a millennium had passed he'd stopped bothering to count, focusing on nothing, caught up in a current he'd never cared to break free from. He had one goal, and that could be reached in many ways. If he didn't stop, didn't think, his smile would never, never slip, and he could pass on by through the lives on more transient things, never hurting anyone.

Kurogane pulled on the blond's hair – gently but firmly -, and Fai acquiesced to the other's silent request in the black, following the tilt of his head and rolling over onto his back. He was freer then, for a few blessed seconds, but Kurogane followed him across and Fai froze up once more as warm breath hit the side of his neck, another body far too close. His magic stirred within him, protective, defensive, but he leashed it back.

"We haven't really…christened this bed yet, have we?"

"Ne, Kuro-myu…" the blond's own breath felt like it was stuck in his throat, words coming out as a smothered whisper in the darkness, "this is only a…an engagementafter all, so we needn't – needn't-" He'd only ever – he flirted yes, but Kurogane – he'd never… He'd flirted with Kurogane to push the other away – he'd seen at once the wolf wouldn't like his games, and so used them time and time again to drive a wedge between them. People were malleable creatures – time, experience and the fey had taught Fai that quite well. Pretty faces were tools for distraction, prettier words and smoother motions offering a form of control that was perfect for one who had lived his early life with no control over it whatsoever. As long as people looked at the shell – beautiful, willing – they were too distracted to care about the intricately ruined soul within.

A warm finger was placed over Fai's lips, and the mage fell silent, caged within the sheets over him and two broad hands, one at his mouth, the other still in his hair. He felt trapped, even when the finger on his lips fell away.

"I'm not a wolf at night." Kurogane really was entirely too close for comfort, a heavy, warm presence looming over Fai, the hair on the blond's skin standing upright, prickling with the knowledge of another body so near, his magic antsy in tune with his own feelings.

Fai laughed a little weakly, tilting his head to the side on his pillow again, inching away from his fiancé. The pull on his hair kept him from going too far. Although he couldn't see anything, he could feel Kurogane's red eyes burning a hole through him through the night – that was, of course, assuming the wolf kept the same colour of eyes when he changed form. "Believe me, Kuro-tan, I noticed." …If Kurogane actually was reciprocating on Fai's flirting now; he had a horrible sense of timing. Truthfully, this felt much more like Kurogane was attempting to prove a point –

"And yet, for all your forwardness at other times, you don't act on it."

Fai's lips pressed into a thin line, rankling at the words behind Kurogane's speech, turning back to look at the one he couldn't see. "I never got the impression Kuro-wankoro ever wanted me to act on it." His magic rose higher, cold fire inside of him, and Fai knew from experience that that could be felt by those even slightly receptive to magic, a change in the air, a warning. He tried to swallow it down, the furious chill hanging about his heart even as he forced a smile on his face. He raised a hand from where it had been curled, claw-like, in the sheets, pressing it against Kurogane's chest, feeling the shirt's cloth sticking to skin still slightly damp from showering. "But if that's what Kuro-piyuu wants -"

Kurogane yanked Fai's hair. Hard, with his fingers twisted in tightly near the roots so that Fai actually saw blinding stars for an instant and instinctively pushed against the one holding him, shoving Kurogane to the side. The action only made the pain worse, fire racing across Fai's scalp as it felt like some of his hair had actually been yanked out.

The blond rolled on his side, curling in a little on himself automatically, one hand cradling his then aching head as he kept his back to Kurogane. "Kuro-"

The other cut him off. "If you ever say something that stupid again I'll punch you." Kurogane's voice was completely unsympathetic, a low growl at Fai's back, a heavy, unsettling presence. The shinobi was irate – Fai had clearly listened to nothing that had been said that morning. That the mage could be such an idiot, offering his mask out on a careless whim –

"I was going to say…" Fai's own voice was still pain-laced, but colder, still angry. "Isn't hair-pulling usually a past-time of women?" He sat up on the bed, glaring down where he thought Kurogane was. "A direct blow seems a lot more like the manly Kuro-tan – or would you prefer to gouge out my eyes with your painted nails instead?"

Kurogane growled again, taking the jabs to his pride and honour with predictable bad grace. Discovering the mage actually did have a backbone under his idiocy was both a blessing and a curse – Fai could, quite apparently, be vicious with his quicksilver tongue.

"I think I left some of the laundry lying about earlier." Fai slid off the bed, striding around it – he knew the layout of the room; he'd left nothing lying about to trip over – and to the door. "I'll go put it away."

Kurogane sat up as well, loathing the blatant escape. "Mage -"

Fai ignored him, opening the door and stepping out. "I'll see you later."

It was worthless pursuing him when he was like that. "This conversation isn't over."

Fai left the room, and shut the door on him.

Kurogane wasn't really surprised when he found one of Fai's notes addressed to him the following morning, explaining why the blond had never returned to bed the previous night. Fai had gone to his home instead – and this time, he didn't give a time for when he was planning on coming back.

He was standing in the garden at night, fireflies around him brighter than the stars overhead. (At least there were stars this time.) The pendant Syaoran had given to him, that the brunet had said had been a gift from the Zashiki-warashi, was warm around his throat, the glowing insects drawn to it, to him, circling him in rings of light.

Watanuki tasted smoke on the air and turned, unsurprised to see Doumeki's grandfather sitting on Yuuko's porch again, the tip of his cigarette a red ember in the darkness.

"Doumeki-san," Watanuki bowed his head slightly, in deference to his companion's age. He hoped that Doumeki was the man's family name, that this Doumeki was the paternal grandfather of the bird-Doumeki he was (sadly) growing accustomed to in his daily – awake – life.

"Call me Haruka, my given name." 'Haruka' smiled, exhaling another mouthful of smoke, a haze that the fireflies darted through, drawing patterns in the wispy air. "It would be confusing otherwise, hm?"

Watanuki smiled back at him. "Haruka-san, why am I dreaming of you?" And then he remembered the man's words of their previous discussion. "Why are we here together?"

A pause as Haruka took another drag of his cigarette. "Perhaps you wished to speak with me?"

Watanuki went to take a seat at the man's side, kneeling down in the traditional pose, hands flat and relaxed against his thighs. "I'm not sure what it is I want to talk about," he admitted.

"Then talk about whatever you feel like." Another exhalation of smoke into the air, soothing in its regularity. "I don't mind."

So Watanuki talked about whatever came to mind, and Haruka listened. And in the morning, strangely content, Watanuki woke up.

"Fai!!"

The call was a delighted one, golden as the lazy sunbeams that slid in through the room's windows, catching strands of long gold as they trailed behind their mistress, Chii flinging herself at her beloved Fai the moment he stepped through the doors, her words a babble of happiness and joy.

"Chii," Fai instinctively caught the waif-like cat-girl, arms sliding safely around Chii's delicate waist as she spun her own around his neck, pulling his head down so she could affectionately rub his cheek against her own, cat ears tickling slightly where they touched skin. He breathed in, his eyes slipping closed, familiarising himself with her warmth, the smile in her voice, everything that he'd based the child in his arms upon. He shifted his head to the side, kissing her forehead fondly. "Chii."

"Fai never said he was coming home!" From any other person those words would've been a rebuke, but with Chii there was no scolding, only delight at a wonderful surprise, happiness that her beloved was with her.

"Indeed, he didn't…" A new voice joined the discussion, smoother, black like the sweep of hair the same shade as a raven's wing about a familiar pale face – Ashura-ou. The faerie's lips were curved slightly, a gentle smile, his eyes – such a dark gold – looking at the brighter golden pair in the room before him, the beautiful children.

"It was a whim of the moment," Fai spoke against Chii's hair, but his eyes were locked with his king's. "My apologies for the lack of warning before my arrival."

"You need never apologise for coming home." Ashura's steps were light, quick, his touch gentle as he brushed the back of one hand over the cheek Chii wasn't nuzzled under, smiling a little more softly when Fai dropped his eyes, assuming the action was prompted by guilt, subservience, bashfulness.

"This…" Fai couldn't meet the faerie's eyes then, his hold tightening on Chii defensively, automatically, the girl looking up at him, wide eyes reflecting her concern. "Ashura-ou, this isn't 'home'."

Something flickered across Ashura's expression then, but since no-one was looking at him, no-one caught it, too focused on Fai, the butterfly caught against the glass. "…Time passes quickly; the year of your bonding with that thing you currently live with will be over soon enough, and Yuui will be well and with us once more. That will be home then, won't it? What you've always wanted?"

"That is…what I have always wanted." The words seemed difficult to find, even as Fai carefully began unwinding himself from Chii, realising how closely he was clutching the girl, using her as a safety blanket against a mental concern.

Freed from Fai's hold Chii remained pressed against her creator's side, letting out the soft 'chii' sound that had given her her name. Her smile, when she looked up at Fai again, was hopefully innocent. "Fai will come home then, won't he? With Yuui? Chii would like to meet Yuui – will Yuui like Chii?"

"Yuui will love Chii," Fai assured the girl, pleased when the response to his words was a beam, a flash of white teeth.

"Chii," Ashura laid a hand upon the girl's head, smiling genially down at her when she looked at him curiously, "why don't you go make some hot chocolate in the kitchen to welcome Fai home? I'm sure he'd like a treat after his journey." Chii brightened at the suggestion, immediately scampering off and leaving the two males alone.

Fai slanted his eyes at his guardian, dropping slightly tentative words into the air. "…It's rather warm for hot chocolate."

"I'm sure you'll drink it regardless." Ashura took the boy's face in his hands, leaning down to place a kiss on Fai's lips – but the child shifted, the kiss landing on the corner of Fai's mouth instead. Ashura withdrew a little, contemplative. "…Your sweet tooth is the one thing about you that never changes." Everything else, however, apparently did.

Fai got cooler every visit, the smile the boy had worn since he was eleven having slipped away to slit its own throat in the shadows somewhere. Ashura couldn't think what caused it save physical distance; the boy had always been cold somewhere inside of himself, detached, but rarely had it showed on the surface so much. It couldn't be the one Fai had engaged himself too. Though the silver ring on Fai's finger gleamed brightly no answering glitter could ever be drawn from the blond's heart – Ashura had tried; Chii had tried, and still Fai danced through life like a doll, uncaring of exactly where it was he placed his feet. It had suited Fai to be affectionate before and Ashura-ou could see no reason why that suit should have changed –

"…I shouldn't have come here." Fai's eyes were blue, rimmed with shadow as he looked up at Ashura-ou for a flickering instant, and then straight past the Faerie King.

Ashura pitied the boy – pitied him and loved him, his own heart aching at the hurt Fai felt. What he would do for this child… "Where else would you have gone?"

"I could've stayed -"

Ashura's fingers dug just a little harder into the skin of Fai's face, a tiny amount of extra pressure. "With the wolf?" The faerie's tone was blank. "When he's forced you out so many times already?"

Despite himself, Fai found himself leaping to his fiancé's defence. "Kuro-chan didn't -"

"Fai…" Ashura kissed him again, a brush of lips against his temple. It was a soothing gesture, but Fai's heart quickened, a sudden mad flutter of bird's wings in his chest. He didn't – Ashura - "My Fai…don't you know what it is he's done?" Fai didn't want to know. He didn't – he didn't – "He's the one who took Yuui away – my curse is what turned him into a wolf."

It had been Kurogane-? Fai's stomach lurched then suddenly, heaved, and he thought he was going to be sick for a moment, stumbling back one step, two, pieces clicking together in his mind and leaving uncomfortable truths that clogged his throat, stole his breath. Kurogane – Kurogane – Kurogane –

Kuro-sama, Kuro-chan, Kuro-wanko knew, damn him, damn him, damn him, about the past, about Yuui, red eyes sharp and clear and knowing –

"Why?" Fai hated the sound of his own voice then, trembling, one of his hands against the wall for support, his hair in his eyes so that everything was all shadows and gold. There had to be a reason – Kurogane was so, so, so predictable in many ways, and to kidnap an enchanted youth and steal him away to places unknown didn't mesh with the honourable, growly person Fai had come to know, a broken mirror whose shards had got mixed up with pieces of a shattered vase.

"I don't know." Ashura was honest then, calm – how long had he known? Fai didn't know why the faerie had kept such a thing a secret; didn't know why Ashura hadn't kept such a thing a secret; didn't know what to think right now, something burning and aching uncomfortably in his chest. Why had Ashura told him? Why had Ashura told him now? Didn't Ashura trust Kurogane near Fai? Did Ashura not trust Fai near Kurogane? (The years kept away from others were sharp reminders then, slivers that dug into his already bleeding mind.)

"I…" Fai drew a breath, lost it, licked his lips and summoned forth will again. "I'm going to go help Chii in the kitchen." Ashura caught his sleeve as he went past – Fai looked at him, blue against darkened gold. "Please let me go."

Ashura let him go and Fai went to the kitchen, forcing another smile to meet Chii as she bustled about there. She was pleased to see him, as always, abandoning the hot chocolate to cuddle against Fai once more, soft and warm and Chii.

Her words were quiet. "Chii really misses Fai when Fai is gone."

Fai smiled at the girl, beckoning her a little closer and petting her on the head. Chii snuggled into him further with a contented sound. Fai's eyes were warm. "I miss you too, Chii."

"Does Fai really have to go again?"

"I made a promise…" And he tried to keep his promises, when he made them sincerely. (He didn't make sincere promises often.)

"But -" Chii struggled a little with any form of rebuttal against her precious Fai, "but Chii is worried about Fai." She plucked at his left hand, threading her fingers with his so that his engagement ring glittered, the light picking out the tiny runes it was inscribed with. "Fai still hasn't seen the one he's living with properly?" Fai had told Ashura-ou that his fiancé adopted a different form at night-time, but he'd never thought Chii had been listening – "When Kuro-chan is not a wolf?" Apparently she'd picked up his usage of nicknames, too.

Fai looked at their joined hands, mildly curious as to where his pet was going with this. "It worries you that I haven't seen him at night-time?"

"Chii is worried about Fai," the girl repeated simply. "Fai doesn't know who Kuro-chan is."

Fai strongly doubted Kurogane knew who Fai really was either – but then, Yuui – "What does Chii want me to do about it?"

Chii was sweet, and innocent, and completely ignorant to just how very demanding her request was, failing to understand the impact of her words and letting them trip out from her delicate throat, pressing a candle into Fai's surprised hands. "Look at him."

They made an amusing pair, the bristling boy and the impassive eagle – by everyone else's standards, anyway. Watanuki preferred not to think of Doumeki and himself in the same sentence never mind the same general physical vicinity, taking great pleasure in each stomp he took as he stormed along in high dudgeon, Doumeki flying from tree-branch to tree-branch to always keep just a little ahead of his companion, in Watanuki's sights (if the youth ever purposefully looked at him) and able to spot any problems that could potentially be coming up.

"Oi." The eagle spoke; Watanuki ignored him. "Oi."

"My name," Watanuki hissed, refusing to look up at the golden bird overhead, "is not 'oi'."

Doumeki, in turn, ignored the other's complaint. "This way is fey territory." They'd been travelling straight from Yuuko's shop for about an hour, Watanuki having begged a little free time from his duties (which Yuuko had sworn he'd make up again) to…go ahead and do some personal little mission of his own. Doumeki had tagged along with him (much to Watanuki's dismay), the eagle having noted the human teen had taken neither the Mokona nor the kudakitsune with him.

Watanuki grouched, wishing very much he was alone. "This is the Enchanted Forest." Stupid Doumeki. "Nearly everywhere is fey territory." Stupid never-ending forest, as well. But Himawari-chan had said she'd seen the clearing this way, so this was the way he was going. (Himawari wouldn't have gotten it wrong – it had to be Doumeki's presence that was making the journey seem so long.)

"Some fey are worse than others." Doumeki didn't try to stop Watanuki, knowing that the youth wouldn't understand him – or want to understand him, either. He'd seen the light that had come into Watanuki's eyes when Himawari had mentioned seeing a clearing full of silver flowers from her tower the week before, a certain stubborn set in the spastic teen's shoulder when the girl had sighed something about never being able to see one up close. Doumeki had known what Watanuki was planning almost immediately – it had just been a question of timing.

So there they were, the two of them, heading for the glade of silver flowers. It grew dimmer the closer they got to the clearing, the air becoming still. After a little while a strange fog appeared, hanging between the trees perpetually at utter odds to the summer day, tree-trunks damp with beads of chilly moisture.

It grew dimmer again as they kept moving, greyer, harder to see. The canopy was a vague shadow looming overhead, the distance an unknown, the ground lost in heavy curls of slow fog. Watanuki felt vaguely like he was floating – he would've believed he was, but he could hear the crunch and snap of twigs as his feet hit the ground. As for the terrible, nauseating miasma that hung about…

It really, to put it bluntly, gave Watanuki the creeps.

"Oi," Doumeki spoke suddenly after a long period of silence, and Watanuki jumped like a startled cat. (He made a noise that sounded like one too.)

"Don't sneak up on me like that!!"

Doumeki found it unnecessary to point out he'd been beside Watanuki the whole time, so there was really very little sneaking involved.

"You should be apologising to me, the great Watanuki-sama, for the trauma that is caused by your very presence!!" Right. "You, you who are not fit to– listen to me when I'm talking to you, you stupid bird!!"

Doumeki pulled away the wing he'd been using to cover his head and muffle Watanuki's ranting when he saw the black-haired youth had paused his tirade. "Oi -"

"How many times do I have to tell you, you jerk?! My name is not 'oi'!"

Again, Doumeki ignored him. "Are you going to continue on this way?"

Watanuki raised his chin resolutely, as if defying the eagle to stop him. "Yes."

They went on together again. The fog grew denser, thicker, and everything was shadow. Strange off-white ropes hung down from the branches overhead that glistened sickly when Watanuki drew close to them – he reached out a hand to touch one, but Doumeki stopped him, beating his outstretched limb away with one strong wing.

"Don't touch them." He didn't say why but Watanuki listened to him for a change (and if Doumeki ever brought the fact up that he'd paid attention to one he called a jerk on a frequent basis he was never going to admit that it was because the eagle's golden wings were the brightest things in this strange part of the forest, almost glowing in the gloom).

They went on again, Watanuki keeping an eye out for the flowers Himawari had spoke of and avoiding the ropes that hung around them, weird loops and strings that grew more and more prominent the further they went, nets of the substance everywhere.

And then Watanuki saw the flowers.

They were silver, like Himawari had said, large, with wide petals and blood-red stigmas and filaments. They grew together in clumps of about three or four, gleaming oddly and almost…wetly from between the ropes and strings of the substance Doumeki had warned Watanuki not to touch.

Watanuki leaned in to pick one – carefully, carefully, taking pains not to touch the glistening ropes that surrounded it – and as soon as he'd snapped the stem free the flower in his hand began to scream.

It was a dying shriek, painfully loud and high, startling Watanuki so much the youth stumbled back, still holding the screaming flower, colliding with a net of the rope behind him, becoming tangled and snarled in sticky bonds.

Doumeki flew down to tear him out immediately, batting aside Watanuki's flailing hands (that only served to get him more entangled) and ripping into the strands with his sharp beak. There was a strange chittering, chattering in the distance, in the fog around them, the sound of soft feet on twigs, on the soil, clicks and snips that became all the more audible as the flower's shriek finally began to quieten.

Free of the bonds, the ropes, the net, the web Watanuki stood, yanking off the last of the sticky strands that clung to his clothes and skin, not given the chance to glance around him into the fog before Doumeki was butting him in the bank, shoving Watanuki into a stumbling run back the way they had came.

Watanuki was a fast runner - escaping from spirits in Nihon had given him a lot of practice when he'd been younger -, his old instincts kicking in as he pumped his legs into motion, trying to avoid tripping over his feet or tree roots as he ran and ran and ran, escaping the noises behind him, the strange fog, the foul miasma. Doumeki flew at his side, golden feathers aglow and that was good in so many ways as it seemed like the bird gave light to see, it was bad, oh bad because the bird was so easily visible –

Watanuki and Doumeki burst out of the fog safe, unscathed, into the summer sunshine, but they kept up their fast speed for quite a while, stopping only when Watanuki staggered to a halt, leaning against a tree as he panted, Doumeki taking refuge on a branch above.

Behind them, in the fog, the chittering things seethed after the thieves, the destroyers, black eyes hot and angry as the legions came before them, telling them of what the intruders had done, of the golden bird they'd seen and the black-haired boy.

A grudge was born.

Yuuko was reclining in her garden when the portal opened beside her, her dark green kimono tied with its over-elaborate bow at the front, hem slashed far too high and revealing her pale legs.

"Ashura…" she wasn't really surprised to see the Faerie Regent on the other side, raising her cup of sake (ever on-hand) to her lips and taking a sip. Truthfully, she'd been expecting to be contacted a lot sooner.

"Yuuko-san." Ashura looked as lovely as always, strings of beads in his/her hair and hanging from his/her ears rattling as they moved slightly. (Ashura accepted being called by either gender usually, but Yuuko preferred to leave off all honorifics, neutral. Since it was Yuuko, and it was unwise to vex the witch, it was allowed.) The faerie didn't look happy. "I trust you know the reason behind my call?"

Yuuko only smiled. "…How strange of you to not send Doumeki-kun to see me, so that we could talk through the crest you have him wear." The fey preferred to flaunt their power aesthetically when they could; Doumeki's crest was just one way of showing off, talking between parties many miles apart without the use of new spells being drawn into the air. Crafting a new portal each time was, for the fey, considered rather inelegant, but when needs must…

"My messenger is currently absent at this time." Ashura's lips were a thin line, golden eyes serious. "As no doubt is your apprentice."

"Those events do tend to correlate, don't they?" Yuuko's smile turned satisfied. "Doumeki-kun paid his price of time in servitude; it is only fair he gains his return eventually."

"Equal trade, Yuuko-san – I know how your business works."

"Which is why," Yuuko returned, "you must pay the price if you wish to ask me questions about your father."

"I will send more wine as soon as Doumeki returns to Court – the nectar from the World Tree, three lanterns full." That was enough to rejuvenate at least twenty faeries, keep them magically safe and strong. The nectar from the World Tree, obtained only once a year, was part of what kept the fey alive for so very long.

Yuuko finished the last of her drink. "That is acceptable."

"My father's favourite…has left for the home I have given him?"

"That is where Fai-ouji resides, for the most part." Syaoran was always forthcoming with his tales when he returned to the shop. "He occasionally leaves to visit Ashura-ou."

"…But my father is alone in his house, for the most part?"

"With the magical creature Fai-ouji made, yes."

"…Why does he not return to Court, then? Surely there is nothing for him there?"

"Ah…" Yuuko met Ashura's gaze directly then, red and gold. Her expression was pitying, clearly seeing the almost lost look haunting the faerie. "Have you ever thought of it more of a case that is not what is not there for him, but what would be there for him were he somewhere else?"

The Faerie Regent frowned a little, following the subtleties the witch was suggesting. "…Yuuko-san, what is it exactly that you are telling me?"

Yuuko told the child directly, in return for the price, and Ashura immediately cut the connection between them as soon as it was done, the portal shattering in the air.

The garden was painfully quiet after that.

It took a fortnight for Fai to finally return to the house beside the waterfall, Kurogane noting the mage sitting in the garden when he looked out of the window one morning, a bunch of flowers in his hand as he looked up at the clouds overhead.

Kurogane didn't say anything to him, but he went downstairs and opened the front door, sitting on the step until such a time as his estranged fiancé would finally come back down to earth. They stayed like that for over an hour – silent.

And then Fai spoke. "…Does Kuro-chan know the name of these flowers?" He gestured to the blooms he held loosely in his grasp, an invitation for his companion to come a little closer to see them better. "Where I came from they were called Myosotis, but they have a more common name now."

Kurogane came closer, inspecting the flora. He'd trained himself to recognise different plant life, finding the skill useful as a shinobi. Many plants could be used in potions and poisons, and it was important to be able to tell helpful plants from dangerous ones.

"…Forget-me-nots," he said rather blandly, eventually, not needing the colour of the petals to be able to identify them. "The maiden's flower."

"For remembrance between lovers," Fai chided gently, "something that is common to both genders. For fidelity and enduring love as long as the petals hold their hue – and with forget-me-nots, that can be a terribly long time." He held the flowers a little closer. "I picked these myself, as I came here."

Kurogane only blinked once at that – he'd assumed the mage's absent lover had given them to him. "Then go put them into a vase," he said brusquely, "before they wilt."

Fai stood then, and went into the house, searching out a vase. Kurogane followed him in, unsurprised to hear the blond's exclamation when he entered the kitchen to fill the vase with water, Fai catching sight of the dishes that had been left near the sink.

"Kuro-sama is such a dirty doggy!" Kurogane was unrepentant, trotting after the other and sitting just inside the room, listening to Fai make a soft 'hyuu' at the mound. "…At least he didn't starve whilst I was away."

"I cooked at night-time," the wolf said in response, "and ate what I'd made the following day." It wasn't like he was a complete failure in the kitchen – it had just always made much more sense to let Fai cook during the daytime hours, as the blond had hands, and could see then. Although he'd had fingers at night, cooking in the darkness had been a horrible ordeal.

Fai clapped his hands. "Uwaaa~, Kuro-wanko is such a clever doggy!"

Kurogane huffed and lay down, resting his head on his paws as the other bustled about, putting the forget-me-nots in their vase on the kitchen table and tidying up some of the mess in the kitchen. "Only in comparison to you, idiot."

"Kuro-rin is calling me names again…"

"You've never stopped calling me names since we first met!!"

"It's because Kuro-pon is so fun to play with~." Fai laughed, and it sounded more…real than it usually did, a strange bubbling that echoed in the previously quiet house, filling it with a brightness that simply hadn't been there when the blond had been gone. The mage suddenly crouched, on-level with his fiancé, his tone almost fond. "Such a grouchy puppy."

After the first week, Kurogane hadn't really expected Fai to return to the house. He'd been planning on waiting a month before (reluctantly) returning to see the witch again, but then…here was Fai, speaking his usual nonsense, smiling his smiles framed by pale hair that had got even longer whilst he'd been away (and made the mage look even more like a girl).

"Kuro-sama must," Fai said, stretching out a hand and laying it on the wolf's neck during his companion's silence, idly smoothing down the spiky fur there, "come from a place where there is very little need for words, because his eyes seem to say everything for him." Never mind that his own did too; Fai shielded his eyes with his fringe and his smile, disarming pointed glances his way with his shatterglass mask. "If I…had something precious, Kuro-sama would be the one I'd trust with it, to look after it, to protect it."

Honesty. Kurogane could hear it sound in the mage's voice, an odd chime when the blond was sober and the light still shone outside the house. Did the man know-?

Fai went on, looking up properly, meeting the wolf's gaze with the most directness he'd ever managed. "Kuro-sama seems like the sort he always does everything with the very best of his intentions, to the best of his ability."

Kurogane didn't quite know what it was Fai was searching for in his expression. "I attack to defend what I hold dear, mage. And since what I defend is precious, I always give it my all."

Fai smiled again, sweetly, patting Kurogane on the head and standing. "We could all do with taking a lesson from Kuro-chan then, ne?" He went back to tidying the kitchen.

Kurogane remained sitting, watching him, but neither of them spoke again.

Maru and Moro were drawing Yuuko's long hair up into an elaborate up-style when Watanuki brought the traditional tray of drinks and snacks out to the garden, Maru armed with long ornamental hairpins that looked far too sharp to be going anywhere near the head, Moro with a decorative green butterfly she was fixing just above her mistress' right ear, to match the woman's kimono.

"Watanuki brought the snacks~!" The white Mokona trilled as soon as Watanuki came into view, bounding over happily to hop up onto the boy's shoulder and snuggle in a shameless attempt at begging for treats.

"At last…" the black Mokona brought a cup of sake to Yuuko as the witch couldn't currently move too far, trapped in place whilst her attendants worked on her. "I was dying."

"I left you snacks for whilst I was out," Watanuki defended, assuming his usual kneeling position at the low table in the garden as he poured out more sake for the babbling Mokona, "enough to last normal people a few days!"

"There wasn't that much…" The black Mokona pouted.

"There were five bottles of sake!And anotherfour in storage!!And all the fish I'd prepared for tomorrow!"

"But Mokona was huuuungryyyyy."

The white Mokona joined in. "Watanuki is mean and wants Mokona to staaaaarve."

"Mean Watanuki!" Her partner echoed her, bouncing on Watanuki's left.

"Mean, mean, mean!" His partner in turn echoed him, bouncing on Watanuki's right.

Watanuki flailed and tried to leap for both of them, only managing to land on his face on the grass with both Mokona bouncing on his head and back.

"Mean, mean, meeeeaaaan~!!"

"I'm not mean!"

Maru and Moro finally finished doing Yuuko's hair, settling down on either side of their mistress and giggling as they watched the Mokona torment Watanuki.

Yuuko downed her drink. "Watanuki, did you get what you set out to achieve this morning?"

"Yes," Watanuki shoved the Mokona off of him, shaking a fist at them when they only laughed, hopping over to the tray of snacks to help themselves, "I got a flower from a glade about an hour from here…it's the silver one in the vase in the kitchen."

Yuuko frowned at him slightly. "…Who told you about that glade?"

"Himawari-chan," Watanuki sighed, already dreaming of his darling's smiling face when he brought her the gift he'd fetched. She'd be so delighted –

"…Ah." There was a slight pause. "Did Doumeki-kun go with you?"

"He wouldn't leave me alone," Watanuki immediately complained, "the stupid jerk. And he'll probably demand some impossible type of food for the privilege as well. See if I make it for him – the great Watanuki-sama has better things to do with his time than cater to the whims of a gluttonous bird -" Yuuko suddenly seized Watanuki's chin with one hand, holding his head in place as she searched his face. "…Yuuko-san?"

The woman released him again. "Watanuki-kun -"

"Yuuko-san?" The black-haired youth repeated.

"We need more snacks," the witch finished, watching her employee face-fault.

"What?!" Watanuki flailed and looked to the table, only to see the Mokona waving up at him and offering him their empty plates. "You greedy -"

"More snacks, Watanuki!" Maru cheered.

Moro chimed in "More snacks!"

"Mush, mush!" The Mokona added, each taking up a perch on one of Yuuko's shoulders as the witch shooed her apprentice away, back to the kitchen.

Their laughter followed Watanuki indoors.

Kurogane was so honest Fai found himself trusting the wolf, even though it was stupid to trust and even stupider to take some relief from that trust, his mind relaxing itself quite without his own consent, trusting Kurogane and his honest, honest, honest red eyes.

He hadn't wanted to come back to the house beside the waterfall, not at first. He hadn't wanted to stay with Chii or Ashura-ou either, his mind tumbling about trying to make sense of things, trying to mesh the information Ashura had given him with the conclusions he'd drawn himself already, unable somehow to think of Kurogane as some foul thing that he could really, truly hate because – because it was Kurogane, and as vexing as the wolf could be, he was too straightforward, too open, too…too Kurogane to ever match up to Fai's image of the bastard who had taken his brother. (Kurogane could, of course, also be a bastard (Fai was missing some of his hair still), but it was of an entirely different sort to the image of the dark kidnapper Fai had painted in his mind.) If Kurogane had taken Yuui – yes, if – then…Fai trusted - slowly, reluctantly, Fai trusted – that he hadn't taken Yuui to do anything untoward, with any bad intentions.

When those thoughts had become clear in his mind Fai had felt pressed to return to his home with the wolf – and the thought that yes, somehow, the house beside the waterfall had become 'home' was not as distressing as it could have been, warmed with memories of teasing the ever-grouchy Kuro-wanko, Syaoran's determination in his lessons, the summer breeze, the smell of cake baking as they ate together, telling stories, the waterfall's rumble beside them. That was home.

This was home, in the darkness of their room at night, with Kurogane tired out from his exercises and asleep, a comforting presence instead of an aggressive one. Fai lay on his side of the bed, still awake, still thinking, turning over old conversations with Kurogane in his head. Under his pillow was the candle Chii had given him, the girl's concerns at the back of his thoughts.

'Look at him,' she'd said, because he didn't know Kurogane and Kurogane knew a little more of him. 'Look at him' and know him, trust him that little bit more, satisfy the curiosity that had always pushed up within him, to find out what Kurogane hid in the darkness.

'Look at him' and Fai sought out the candle despite himself, drawing a swift, shining sigil in the black that light the wick, the flame golden and bright and casting a pool of light around the bed.

And then, for the first time, Fai properly looked at Kurogane.

Kurogane was devastatingly handsome, along the traditional lines of tall, dark and undeniably sweet on the eyes. The face – strong, proud – matched the rumbling tones Fai had heard for the past six (it had to be six) months perfectly, the man broad of build and tall, taller than Fai, probably. He looked like the warrior Fai had always assumed him to be, someone suited to a sword in his hands, something to defend at his back.

His hair was black and spiky, the same shade as his fur had been when he'd been a wolf. A few strands flopped over his forehead almost endearingly, pointing to his nose, his firm mouth turned down in a slight frown, lips parted in sleep. Slumber softened the expression to something that was quite charming, Kurogane's brow relaxed, peaceful, the man undoubtedly on-guard even in his dreams.

Fai smiled, softly, more tenderly than he himself realised, liking the expression, liking the warm coil of genuine affection that curled through him contentedly, the more shadowy purr of attraction behind it, twining through his thoughts and arching up his throat, stretching to the end of his fingertips.

Kurogane was all hard edges cut by candlelight – shadowed, lit, dark, hot, the burning lick of melting wax sliding down Fai's hand, something golden-bright and intangible in the moment, the quiet, the still.

And then Kurogane woke up.

His eyes were red, blood-red, catching the flame's light and glowing. Fai almost dropped the candle he held in shock when his bedmate moved, a great cat trying to dive out of sight –

Blue magic bound him, familiar writing written into the air that clamped around Kurogane's limbs, locking the shinobi in place no matter how he kicked or struggled.

Kurogane looked furious. "Mage-!" the bonds tightened around him, digging into his skin, glowing brighter, brighter -

"I'm not doing it!" Fai protested, setting down the candle, his stomach churning because he recognised that magic, that aura, and stretched out a hand, weaving his own spell to counter that which was building in the air, even as he closed his eyes to the light that was blinding –

Too late. The light vanished as if it had never been, and when Fai opened his eyes again, blinking away the blue spots that haunted his vision, he was quite, quite alone on the bed.

Kurogane had gone.

A/N: Urgh…for various reasons, writing this chapter killed me. So please to be putting those pitchforks down some of you have picked up. I can see youuuu. *flails*

Note to self: invest in yet another notebook so that you can write EA work in one, and other TRC stories in another. This way, you are less likely to be typing up scenes for the story only to realise, about three pages in, that you are referring to Fai as a 'she', and it's completely the wrong story. Whoops.

And now, if any of you need me, I'll be in my safety bunker.