A/N: Welcome back for our next installment! I'm glad you all enjoyed the last chapter, and for anyone who has read One Soul (or for that matter, the prologue to this story), please don't think that it's all downhill from here- our boys still have plenty of meaningful memories to make together as a couple. Once again, thank you so much for your support of this story, and I look forward to sharing more with you as we go along! Enjoy!

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Twelve: Infinitely Kind

It felt like he had slept for years before Fai woke him up sometime in the mid afternoon. It had only been a few hours total, given that they had stayed up as late as Fai's body could handle before drifting off together in their shared stupor, but Kurogane had slept so well that the quantity of it didn't matter so much. Besides, the sight of Fai leaning over him with an expression still half-way drowned in pleasure was so glorious that it seemed almost a waste to spend a single hour sleeping rather than gazing upon it and memorizing its every line and expression.

"It's still early," Kurogane murmured, running his thumb along the bottom of Fai's swollen lips. "I'm not working today, and I can go without food for a few more hours. You don't have to get up yet."

"I am planning on sleeping some more, but I'm thirsty." He leaned over and kissed Kurogane on the nose. "Get me some water, please?"

"You have two legs of your own, don't you?"

"Kurorin, do you really think I can move after last night? I suppose I could crawl to the well."

Kurogane sat up, placing a hand on Fai's forehead. "If I was overdoing it, you should have just told me."

"And have you stop? Not a chance." Fai twined his arms around Kurogane's torso, kissing his chest. "I don't have anything else to do today. I don't mind spending the day in bed until I recover."

"Fine, fine. But I'm going to need you to let go of me for a minute so I can get that drink for you."

"Mmm. If you promise to get back quickly."

Kurogane disentangled himself from Fai and pulled on the nearest clothes he could find, his hakama from the day before. It was a bit formal for a trip to the well, but better than going naked, surely.

The village itself was quiet when he stepped outside. The farmers were all occupied with their work, and any children playing outdoors weren't straying near the fields. He was grateful that there was no one in particular around to ask about what had happened the day before. Knowing Yuuko, the whole village probably knew at this point that he and Fai had fooled the government official and gotten married, just as Fai had always wanted.

Unfortunately, there was someone already pulling water from the well, and when the figure turned around to see who was approaching behind him, Kurogane recognized him as the Kei-something guy who had an interest in Fai. Kurogane glared at him for a moment, but stood his ground. It wasn't as if there was any competition between them; there was no dispute anymore that he was Fai's chosen, and no one else had been or would be considered in his lifetime.

"I hear you decided to take my advice after all," Kei-something said, not without a bit of resentment in his tone. "I should receive some compensation for giving up my happiness for yours."

"I didn't do it because you told me to," Kurogane said. "I did it because it was what he needed to be happy. Move aside."

"Hey, at least give me a moment to nurse my broken heart."

"Let me once again remind you that you barely even knew that guy. You'll get over it."

"To be fair, there can't be too many people around here with my... inclinations. Fai-san seemed like the surest option, but you just took care of that." He shook his head. "Maybe that cute Watanuki-kun who works with Yuuko-san will do. He seems like he'll be a delightful little handful in a few years."

"Oi, do you have a thing for people who are already spoken for?"

"Well, why not? It either breaks up two people who weren't going to work out in the first place, or nudges them together when one of them is being a bit slow. If it works out for me, it works out. If it doesn't, then I've done two people a good deed, right, Kurogane-kun?"

With a wink, Kei-something took his bucket of water and headed back to the fields. Kurogane snorted. He hoped Doumeki would be mature enough to deal with this imposition in a few years' time.

Back in their room, Fai was still laid up in bed, trying without much success to force his hair to lie flat. Kurogane offered him the cup of water he had poured and watched as he gulped it down greedily.

"You hungry?" Kurogane asked. "I can put some rice on to cook."

"Yes, please. I think you could just about manage something that simple."

"That's not something I want to hear from someone with rooster hair." Kurogane pushed his hand through it to rumple it some more. "You sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine. Sore, but fine. In fact, it's really not bothering me at all since it brings back good memories."

"Hmph. Don't expect a repeat performance today. You're resting until it doesn't hurt anymore."

"I know, I know. I wouldn't want to make things difficult for my attentive Kuro-tan!"

"Who's attentive?" Kurogane grumbled, but the fact that he immediately went to prepare their rice belied his show of gruffness.

When everything was finished, he returned to their bed and handed off the bowl of rice to Fai. Fai immediately began to shovel into his mouth, eating with all the grace of a starving man. Flecks of rice accumulated on the corners of his lips, which Kurogane brushed off with an annoyed snort.

"I know my cooking's not very good, but you could at least take a minute to enjoy it, couldn't you?" he asked.

"I haven't eaten anything since yesterday. We passed on Watanuki-kun's feast and were too busy playing to bother with dinner last night. Of course I'm going to be hungry!" He licked his lips and clapped his hands together. "You should hurry, too."

"Why?"

"Because I want to go back to sleep, and it's cold in here without Kurorin."

"Then put some clothes on."

"What's the point of that when I can have Kurorin's nice, warm body at my side?" He reached out to untie Kurogane's hakama. "Off you go."

"You're being spoiled."

"That's what you get for choosing me."

Kurogane sighed and pulled off his clothes, returning them to the pile on the floor. As soon as he was back in bed, Fai wrapped his arms around him, sighing in contentment.

"You know," he murmured, "I had a dream last night. I was in the sakura grove, at the place where we first kissed, and Yui was there. He told me that it was time for his soul to go somewhere else, but before he left, he wanted to say that he was happy for me. For us. And that I didn't have to worry about time or forever or how long I would be able to stay here at your side, because no matter what happens, my soul will always be drawn to find you. He told me that there's nothing to fear, because this world is infinitely kind."

"Hm?" Kurogane glanced over at Fai, but he had already drifted back to sleep, snuggled against Kurogane's chest. Kurogane wasn't sure he understood the meaning behind any of Fai's words. When he was younger, his mother told him that when someone died, the body rested eternally, and the soul knew either peace or restlessness until it was called on its next journey. He had never asked before what the 'soul's next journey' was, or what the purpose of such a thing would be, but he hoped that if Fai's dream was true, Yui had moved forward with more firmness of will and courage on his next path. Perhaps he would at last find the 'somewhere else' he was looking for.

As for the kindness and cruelty of the world itself, he wasn't certain. Yuuko was the one he left to muse over such things, preferring to concern himself only with life as he experienced it day-by-day. But he liked the way Fai seemed to smile in his sleep after speaking of a world of infinite kindness, one where he could always have faith in the love that had brought them here. Maybe the fact that they were together, holding each other in this moment, was the only proof they needed to know that such a world existed.

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A year passed. Though they were doing the very same things they had done before- Kurogane farming and Fai sewing- it was amazing how much their ability to be open with one another changed things. Now Kurogane no longer had to spend his days in the fields pondering over exchanges that would never happen, and when he came home, Fai no longer had to dance around tense subjects or avoid the simple acts of intimacy they had kept themselves from engaging in. Whatever thoughts they had, they could share with each other, whether they be simple observations or the more complex discussions that arose from Fai's gloomier days, the occasions where he fell back into his old line of thinking that he was a troublesome presence to Kurogane and that one of the village girls would have suited him better after all.

Nothing was perfect. With the way their personalities were, it was inevitable that Fai would push Kurogane too far from time to time, and that Kurogane's inherent gruffness would lead to misunderstandings. But now that they were more certain of one another and their feelings, it was easier to patch up these little wounds between them before they bled them dry. Kurogane had his pride and dignity, but compared to breaking that wall down in front of Yuuko, it was so much easier to sacrifice from time to time for the sake of bringing happiness to Fai.

And as acclimated as they were to being around one another, the act of joining their bodies together never lost its newness, no matter how often they were brought together. Even when Kurogane wondered if he had explored all of Fai there was to see, there was always something different unveiled, always something he had overlooked or that had perhaps never existed until the moment that it rose to the surface. Fai's body was not a landscape that could be mapped and labeled definitively; rather, it was like the earth itself, constantly shifting in subtle ways, always transitioning into something not better or worse but simply different from what it had been before.

The hanami picnic had also felt new that year. After the flood, there had been a note of solemnity to the event with so many familiar faces absent and the trees of the grove itself still recovering from the onslaught of wind and rain. Little by little, things had healed, but there was still a feeling of sadness in Yuuko at her blanket with just Watanuki beside her, with no Clow holding a parasol or Doumeki there to order out-of-season foods.

But with the grove in full glory, the shrine repaired, Doumeki returned, and a whole crop of couples united, the picnic once again held the spirit of joy it was meant to inspire. Fai and Kurogane and all the newly married couples were invited to eat beside Yuuko, and Watanuki and Doumeki hovered nearby, the former still stuck with the task of supplying food and drinks, and the latter tailing after him with his stream of ridiculous requests.

"Ah, now this is the life," Yuuko sighed, taking a long drink of her sake. "Watanuki's cooking, Doumeki's alcohol, and all the beautiful lovebirds we married last year." She lifted her cup, gesturing for a toast. "To the world! To everyone here who wishes for a brilliant future! Kampai!"

After draining her cup and asking Watanuki for some more, she turned her attention back to the couples gathered before her. "I see it has been a profitable year for all of you. Hirayama-dono will be pleased with how many pregnancies have been announced, although I'm sure it will be disappointing to him that the lovely Faye-san is not among them."

"It's not from lack of trying!" Fai joked, trailing his finger around the rim of his cup. "But I'm glad to hear we made it through without getting caught. I would have hated to cause you any trouble."

"Ah, I'm not certain Hirayama-dono in particular would have cared. But as I'm sure you noticed, he had rather loose lips to be entrusting something private to." Yuuko smiled to herself. "It's a shame that Clow couldn't have been there. He said he would only forgive me for provoking the two of you at that picnic years ago if you ended up together."

"It was still incredibly rude of you," Fai sniffed. "Inferring that I was such a flirt that I was giving girls the impression that I would rather be with them than with Kuro-tan!"

"Well, you were!" one of the girls at the blanket pointed out. A few others nodded.

"I thought it was a good way to make Kuro-tan jealous..." He glanced at Kurogane. "It worked, didn't it?"

"I don't remember anything about that," Kurogane muttered.

"It was only seven years ago!"

"A lot of things happened between then and now!" He was lying, of course. He remembered nearly everything important there was to remember about Fai, with the only exception being the very first moment, the beginning.

Yuuko smirked at Kurogane. "In any case, I knew I would have Clow's forgiveness from the moment he withheld it from me on that condition. That your souls would choose each other again was always an inevitability."

"Again?" Kurogane echoed.

"Those who know the world know that these are not the only conditions in which a soul can find happiness." She glanced at all the other couples looking at her with wrinkled brows. "And that goes for all of you as you as well. Whatever happiness and sadness you know in this life is not the only story imprinted on your soul."

"Yuuko-san's being obscure again," one of the men joked. "I've always wondered where all of your spiritual knowledge comes from, anyways!"

"Where it comes from?" Yuuko tilted her head. "I simply have a soul that has known the world in many worlds. Nothing more."

"You know I can't stand it when she gets like this," Kurogane muttered to Fai under his breath. "Can we go?"

"To see the trees, then?" Fai rose to his feet and took Kurogane's hand. "I suppose since we don't know about these worlds she's talking about, all we can do is enjoy our own."

There was already a congregation of young couples deeper in the grove, most of them around the same age as Kurogane and Fai had been seven years ago. Kurogane was only twenty, and rather young to have spent so many years of his life already working and settled down with one person, but he suddenly felt old as he looked upon the faces of all of those who were still at the beginning. It may have only been seven years ago, but he had come such a long way with Fai in that time that he felt more years had been carved within him than the two decades of his life.

Fai led him back to their tree, chuckling softly as they got closer. "I'm almost glad Kuro-chan seems to have forgotten a thing or two about seven years ago. I was so desperate back then."

"Huh. I haven't forgotten about that part at all."

"Kuroooo-tan!"

"It was fine. Even though you had an idiotic way of going about it..."

"... it worked in the end," Fai finished. "And it's not that I'm not grateful. I just wish sometimes that we had managed to find a way for this happen sooner."

"It happened how it had to happen given who you are and who I am."

"I know that. I realize that what happened with the flood and everything that came after can't be changed now. But to spend even a second being stupid and stubborn and keeping Kuro-tan at a distance..."

"Oi, we have time enough to make up for that."

"Yes. But I'll always want more." He reached up to cup Kurogane's face. "I guess I was lucky you were so strong, strong enough for the both of us. Remember when we first met Yuuko-san? She said that if I abandoned my true desire, it might abandon me. But you didn't."

"It wasn't in my interest to."

"You say it so simply. But I know it was more than that."

Fai stood on his tip-toes, brushing his lips against Kurogane's in the way he had years ago, gentle and undemanding, the sharp taste of sake on his tongue and the soft hum of his voice spreading through Kurogane's own mouth. This time Kurogane was able to kiss him back, to wrap his arms around his body and push him against the tree, returning the gesture with as much sincerity as it was given. There were other people around them, but the rest of the world seemed to fade away as they lost themselves more and more to the place where only they existed.

Fai broke away first. "Let's go home," he whispered, once again taking Kurogane's hand. "I want to be with you. Just you."

"You haven't had enough of that yet?"

"Never."

With a smile, Fai tugged him forwards, guiding him through the trees and the gently rushing breeze of sakura petals back to the path where they could find their way home, back to the only world they knew and loved.

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