I'm really happy about the enthusiastic response I got to the first chapter. It's been a while, (or maybe it's the first time) since one of my stories recieved this much interest.

Review Responses, because I used to love doing them, and it's been a while!

Guest- Thank you for the praise. Don't worry, I will! (Continue writing, I mean)

Quiet Reader- Thanks! No one's ever called my writing 'lovely' before. I'm happy that someone is waiting for the next chapter.

NekoRyuuKo- I'm glad you liked it. I was kind of afraid for some reason that the first chapter was boring, so knowing that you thought it was awesome is a huge relief.

Gothic Girl- Don't worry, Kurogane is with Fai in this story. In fact, they're already dating by the start of this story. Hope you like it!

XamreiKH97- Probably nothing too interesting, but let's hope. Thanks for the review!

Vannya20- Thank you very much. I'm easily discouraged, so I'm really happy that you and others are enjoying it.

Snowe Whisper- My atmosphere must be changing, I guess.

Reader- It's gonna be interesting! (I hope) Thank you very much for the review.

StrayDogHowling028- I'm glad I'm not alone. Not that I felt like I was alone per se, but this fandom used to be so much more active, and since I'm such a loser I haven't moved on.

Dean'sAngel6- Yeah, this is after Fai became a vampire. This is after the end of the manga, when it's only Kurogane, Fai, Syaoran, and Mokona. I'm glad you liked the first chapter.

Chapter 2

It had stopped raining, but the wind hadn't stopped blowing. And everyone was still tired. In fact, their exhaustion had only gotten worse, after having to run away from their invisible opponent. Fai was the only one who'd managed some rest, and even that had only been for a few mintues.

"How are we supposed to find anywhere to stay?" Mokona asked, huddled under Syaoran's warm jacket. There weren't many people in the streets, and Fai figured it was because not only was it night, but also because the weather was terrible. Who would want to be out in it?

"I don't know." Syaoran answered, looking at Kurogane and Fai for any helpful suggestions. Kurogane grumbled under his breath, looking around, and Fai joined him, looking from one house to the next, searching for anything that might have been helpful to them. The howling wind made it hard to see anything, and Fai had to keep brushing his hair out of his face.

"Excuse me?" said a voice from behind them, turning them all around. Mokona disappeared inside Syaoran's jacket, a smart move, since they weren't yet sure if this was the sort of world where Mokona would be accepted.

Standing behind them was a dainty young girl, long red hair and clothes soaked from the rain, and further behind her, coming closer, was a young boy, also red headed, also dripping wet.

"Do you guys need some help?" she asked, Smiling politely. "You're looking a tad lost."

"In fact, we are." Fai said, stepping up automatically, smiling as charmingly as possible in his current condition. "My companions and I are traveler's, and we only just got here, and have nowhere to stay. Do you know of a place we might be able to go? A nearbye cave, maybe, or an abandoned home nobody is using?"

He hoped she wouldn't direct them back to the cave they had just fled from. The girl's eyes widened, and she repeated, "A cave? Don't be silly! I couldn't send you off to a cave."

"The caves around here are dangerous." said the boy who had been approaching, close enough now to hear the conversation. "You guys can stay at our place. Right?" The last word was directed at the girl, who nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! The downstairs is empty, after all, since our parents died."

So they were siblings. Fai had had a feeling, since they looked a lot alike. "I'm sorry about your parents." he and Syaoran both said, almost in unison.

The girl smiled, but Fai saw that it was tinged with a little sadness. "That's alright. It was a while ago. They'd be happy to let you stay there, I know it. Anyway, I'm Shea, and this is my twin brother Reya."

Twins. A twin brother. As always, the thought tugged at a string in Fai's heart, but he managed to pull himself together, and smiled. "It's nice to meet the two of you. I'm Fai, and this grumpy looking guy is Kurogane. This boy here is Syaoran."

"Nice to meet you." Syaoran said formally. "Are you sure it's alright to let us stay with you?"

Both the boy and girl nodded, and, as if the matter had been settled, starting walking off, hopefully in the direction of their house. The traveler's, after giving each other a few glances, followed after.

"Are you sure we should be taking their help so easily?" Kurogane, ever the cautious one, asked. "They might be dangerous."

"They might be." Fai replied, then nudged him teasingly. "But I think they're just good kids lending a hand. And Kuro-tan is just paranoid."

"Do you sense anything dangerous about them?" Syaoran asked before Kurogane could rant at Fai for being too trusting. The ninja glanced at the two twins, who were talking to each other about apples. After a couple seconds, he shook his head, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"See, we'll be alright." Fai said. After only about ten minutes, that Fai passed chatting casually with the twins, Shea and Reya stopped, in front of what appeared to be the largest home in the village. It was four stories high, and had a lovely garden stretched out beside it.

Inside his coat, Syaoran heard Mokona whisper, "They're rich!"

"This is it." Shea said, looking back at the group, and smiling at their stunned gapes. "Reya and my parent's were very well liked." she said. "My brother and I mostly occupy the first three floors, and our parents took the first. Now that they're gone, we don't go down there much, not even to leave the house."

"How do you get out then?" Kurogane asked, and Reya answered.

"Believe it or not, we've got a ladder attached to a second story window, and we go down that."

"Really?" Fai asked, picturing it. Both the twins nodded.

"Yeah. I can show you if you want." offered Shea. "Anyway, so, we won't be bothering you much, but feel free to come up and see us anytime!"

"How long are you guys planning on staying here?" Reya asked, and Syaoran stepped forward.

"We aren't sure. It may only be days, but it could also be weeks. Forgive us if we depart suddenly, without saying goodbye."

"Oooh." Shea said, looking at them as if they were shady characters. "Are you on the run from something? Or someone?"

"No." said Fai. "But we do have a habit of leaving unexpectedly, and sometimes we don't get a chance to say farewell."

"As thanks for letting us stay here, we'd love to help out around the house." Syaoran said, and the twins looked at each other for a couple seconds, before Reya spoke.

"Well, the place has become kind of rundown, since our parents died. If you could just help with the cleaning and repairs, that would be fine."

"No problem!" Fai said, clapping his hands together. "Kuro-sama and Syaoran-kun are great at pyhsical labor, and I'm more than happy to clean the place up. I'm also not bad at cooking, so if there's anything you'd like, just let me know."

At his words, almost simultaneously, Shea and Reya asked, "Can you bake chocolate cake?" The excited glimmer in their eyes was cute, and it was obvious chocolate cake was something they hadn't had since that last time one of their parents made it for them.

"Chocolate cake is my specialty, in fact." Fai said, and they smiled at him, while behind him, Kurogane started grumbling about he he'd better not try and get him to eat it, which, of course, only made Fai more eager to make it.

Once inside, something Reya had said suddenly came back to Syaoran.

"You said the caves around here are dangerous. Any particular reason why?"

Reya, who was looking around the room as if he hadn't seen it in a long while, (which was entirely possible) turned his attention to Syaoran. "Well, most of them are just old, and it's just dangerous to go in. But there's one, not far from town, that nobody goes into."

"Why's that?" asked Fai, coming closer. Kurogane had a feeling he knew where this was going, and he mentally cursed.

"Years ago, before Shea and I were born, there was a spirit that came to our town. It would possess people, and make them violent. People would hurt their loved ones. Our parents were the ones who sealed it. It's why we have this house."

"And it was sealed in that cave?" asked Syaoran, feeling nervous at the turn this conversation was taking. Reya, unfortunately, nodded.

"Yes. And so nobody goes in there, because the seal placed on it is easy to break."

"Why would your parents put such an easy seal on it?" Kurogane asked, frustrated. Why did this sort of stuff always happen to them, for God sake?

"It was the only known seal." Shea said, picking up for her brother. "It still is. So nobody goes in there."

"Didn't it ever occur to the people of this town that strangers might find it before that could be explained to them?" Kurogane asked next, and the twins looked at each other worriedly.

"Did you...go into that cave?" asked Shea, wringing her wet hair out worriedly. The three travelers looked at each other, not sure what to say. Fai spoke first, telling the first lie he had in a while.

"No. Kurogane's just tired and grumpy."

The twins sighed in relief, and, after bidding them goodnight, went upstairs. Once they were gone, Mokona hopped out.

"Oh no!" Mokona gasped. "We unleashed a bad spirit! What'll we do?"

"It's alright." said Fai automatically. "We'll find a way to seal it again. Tomorrow, after we get some rest, we'll just ask the twins how their parents managed to get the spirit into the cave, and we'll do that."

Now Fai was even less inclined to leave. Sure the spirit had seemed to be targeting him in the cave, but now, because of him, it was free to come back to this place, and harm that people that it probably blamed for it's imprisonment. And since Shea and Reya's parents were dead, that left a pretty good guess on who it would target instead.

"Come on." Kurogane said. "Let's get some sleep. We obviously have a lot to deal with tomorrow."

Fai followed the ninja to a large bedroom, while Syaoran and Mokona took a smaller one further down the hall. Walking through, Fai was once again impressed with the house. This floor alone had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a decent sized kitchen. He had a feeling the rest of the floors did too. There was no danger of a bathroom buildup here, since everyone could easily just find another one to use.

Fai crawled into the bed, resting his head on Kurogane's chest, and shut his eyes. It was hard to sleep, feeling so guilty, but eventually, listening to the sound of Kurogane's heart, he managed to drift off.

In his dream, he found himself standing somewhere dark. For a moment, he couldn't make anything out, but eventually, his eyes began to adjust, and he realized he was in the cave, in the hole he'd fallen into after knocking over the rock pile. Quickly, he spotted the dark figure standing in the corner, concealed by shadows. It had a human shape, which comforted Fai, but only slightly.

"You haven't gotten away." said a voice, the same voice that had chased him and his friends out of the cave.

"This isn't a dream." Fai said, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Is it?"

"No." said the figure, with a hint of laughter in it's voice. "It isn't."

"Are you planning on hurting the people of this town."

The figure, still cloaked in darkness no matter how much time passed, made a humming sound, as if thinking. "Maybe." Then, just as quickly, "No, I don't think so. That was fun the first time around, but this time, I've found something much more interesting, I think."

Already knowing where this was going, Fai said sternly, "I'm not going with you."

The figure's head cocked to the side, and there came a low laughter. "No?" More laughter. "Do you think I am asking?" it asked cockily, and sounding a little peeved, as if it wasn't used to being questioned or denied.

"I'm a boy." Fai said, feeling foolish at his words, as if they would change anything, hoping they would.

"I can see that. But I am not hindered by gender. Neither, I noticed, are you."

"What do you mean?" asked Fai, trying to sound calm. How could it have known about him and Kurogane? All the spirit had seen of the ninja was a very brief rescue. That didn't mean they were any thing more than friends. They were, of course, but how could it have known?

"That man, who came to rescue you. You're more than friends."

"How do you know that?" Fai asked, sounding more harsh than he probably should with a violent spirit. But the spirit just laughed again, and changed the subject. Or, more accurately, directed it back to the original subject.

"If you come to me easily, I won't hurt anybody." The voice rang around Fai the same way it had in the cave, as if coming from every corner, every crevice, even though the figure was standing directly in front of him.

It didn't sound like a threat, said so calmly, but undoubtedly, it was.

"You said you wouldn't hurt the people of this town."

The figure, which Fai still couldn't see, made another, "Hmm." sound, that Fai couldn't decipher the meaning of. It was like it was hiding something, and wasn't ready to share.

"You may as well give up. You won't get away."

"I will." Fai snapped back, and, to his surprise, the figure started to walk forward, coming closer, and slowly, it began to take shape. Finally, it was close enough for Fai to see, and his eyes widened, as he looked into Kurogane's eyes, which, while still the red eyes he knew, were definitely not the eyes Fai had come to love.

"No." the spirit said, Kurogane's mouth moving to form these words. But it wasn't his voice that left him. He leaned over Fai, a smirk gracing the features the blonde loved so dearly, and leaning over the still stunned wizard, he whispered directly into his ear.

"You won't."

Fai awoke, and automatically shot up, looking at Kurogane, who he was still resting on. For a brief second, the ninja was still asleep, but the moment Fai moved, Kurogane snapped awake, and, taking in Fai's panicked appearance, looked around the room, hand going to the sword beside the bed.

"It's...it's alright." Fai managed to say. "It was just a bad dream, Kuro-tan. That's all."

Kurogane looked at him, right in the eyes, just like in the dream. But this time, Fai knew he was searching for eyes. Giving himself away, Fai looked away, and his heart rate slowly returned to normal. What had the spirit meant by taking Kurogane's form? Was he planning on hurting him?

Or something else?

"You're lying." Kurogane said, and Fai looked back at him, and shook his head.

"I'm not. It really was a bad dream."

"But it was more than that. Wasn't it?"

He hadn't managed to get away with lying to Kurogane yet, but still, he had to try. Kurogane couldn't know that he, and Fai, and probably many others, were in danger. The ninja was a noble man, but Fai knew if he shared his had dream, Kurogane would abandon this town, these people, and get Fai out of there before anything could be done to save them. And Fai couldn't have that.

"No. It was just a bad dream."

Chapter two done! At first I kind of disliked it, but now, I think I'm liking it. Oh Tsubasa, I love you so dearly.

Awhile back, I read this fanfiction that said that we had a lot of stories where Fai was the one in danger, and Kurogane had to come to his aid. And I agreed. So this story is kind of, sort of, me putting Kurogane in danger, and Fai needing to help him. But Fai will be in trouble too, so it's also kind of not.