Tsubasa Chronicle Fan Fiction ❯ Reciprocity, Part I ❯ Chapter 9 ( Chapter 9 )

*** This chapter is short but it is the /very/ last one in Part I! Wow! Hope you like it and I'll do my best to get the next chapter of Part II up asap!

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa!

 

Kurogane paced. An animal in a cage, that's what he was. The longer he waited the more worried he became for Fai's welfare. The samurai had always trusted his instincts, but on this matter they were conflicted. He knew the pendant from Clow was somehow crucial for their escape, but sending the blonde wizard to fetch it could not possibly turn out well.

 

Every second the blonde man refused to return became more excruciating than the last. Had he made a mistake? Perhaps there could have been another way to get the necklace. Kurogane bitterly wished he would have brainstormed alternatives to this plan, but Fai had assured him he would be alright.

 

/Finally/, the door opened. Without realizing it, Kuro held his breath until the blonde mage appeared in the doorway, walking slowly towards him. He was moving slowly, as if it pained him and the samurai cursed silently. If Ashura had hurt him…

 

“Kuro-san, I've got it!” Fai told him, holding up the gem just as he stumbled to toward floor.

 

The dark-haired man rushed over to catch him and lifted the man in his arms to the bed. Fai looked pale and weak.

 

/God damn it./

 

Ashura would pay for any harm he'd caused this man. Maybe not now, not this day, but Kurogane would make certain that sometime in the future he made that man wither to his knees before him in anguish.

 

“Fai, are you alright? Fai?”

 

The blonde seemed dazed and winced as Kuro lowered him onto the mattress. Glancing down, he saw to his horror that the mage's robes were stained with blood.

 

“I'm alright,” came the man's faint reply.

 

“You are NOT alright! Don't lie to me Fai! What did he do to you?”

 

The imposing man's voice was like steel, rigid, unrelenting and laced with an undercurrent of wrath Fai had never experienced before. The fact that Kuro would be so enraged on his behalf crushed Fai's heart with an intense sweetness. To be have someone holding him who so deeply wished to love and protect him, it was more than the wizard could ever have hoped for when he sat alone with his despair just months before. But he didn't need Kurogane's revenge, it would be of no use anyway, not in the position they were in.

 

“Kuro, thank you for wanting to protect me, but it's ok, really. He didn't do anything that he hasn't done before.”

 

“That doesn't make me any happier, Fai. If he hurt you, I' swear, I'll kill him.”

 

The blonde lifted a hand to caress the other man's scowling face, with those strong, penetrating crimson eyes. “I love you, Kurogane, please don't choose a fight you can't win.”

 

“Don't tell me to forget this!”

 

His voice steadier now, Fai insisted, “It doesn't matter, if you're right about this pendant, then we can leave this place! We'll start a new life and put all this behind us!”

 

But the warrior's anger was building with each passing moment. Standing, he began to pace restlessly once more.

 

Just what kind of coward was he to send Fai back into Ashura's clutches? Maybe this `escape' business was all wrong. He'd never run away from a problem his entire life and here was a tyrant in power and Kuro was just supposed to let him abuse his lover and then slip away like a dog in the night?

 

“I don't know if I can just leave this, Fai. Ashura needs to be taken down. He needs to be punished and this land needs to be freed.” He turned back to Fai. “And you expect me just to sneak away and let him be!”

 

Fai sat up, his own temper, so rarely seen, flaring. “I didn't endure Ashura's advances so we could conspire about some foolish assassination attempt! You underestimate him, Kuro. You have to know the battles that you can win and those you can't!”

 

But this was something the samurai did not want to hear. Everything was coming to a head, the possibility for escape lay in his hands, but with the choice before him, it was not so easy to turn tail. It went against his training and his pride to do so. He had lost the battle with Ashura's armies, that was true and unalterable, but did he have to give up the fight completely?

 

“We don't even know how to use this gem! What if it doesn't work? And even if it does, what then? If we get outside the castle walls, what kind of life can we have, hiding away in some little village, pretending Ashura's tyranny doesn't exist?”

 

Fai's expression changed as Kuro spoke, his brows, pitched in anger, arched and his eyes softened in sadness. “All I need is you, Kuro. The rest doesn't matter to me- where we live, what we do, I don't care as long as you are with me. Can you not say the same thing for me?”

 

Kurogane stopped in his tracks, frozen by the longing and heartbreaking sorrow in his lover's eyes. Stepping to the edge of the bed, he sank to his knees before him, clasping the silky sheets as his head dropped in despair.

 

“I love you, Fai, as I've never loved anything in my life. But I am a warrior, I don't know any other way to live.”

 

Slender fingers slid gently beneath the man's chin, forcing his conflicted fiery orbs to meet Fai's cool gaze. “Nor I, but I'd like to learn… together.”

 

Then they were in each other's arms, Kuro clutching Fai to him.

 

“We will find a way, Kuro-chan!” the mage said, trying to sound cheerful. “Look!” he called as the transparent red stone in his palm suddenly glowed. “It happened once before, when I touched it with the blood on my hands.”

 

The samurai shook his head, frustrated. “But what does it mean?”

 

Fai shrugged, and offered the suggestion that perhaps Kuro's blood would help activate it further. Grabbing a brooch from the blonde's robes, Kuro stabbed his palm and held the stone in his hand.

 

Although the glimmer didn't fade, it did not increase either.

 

“There must be something else, something to release it's powers.”

 

But try as they might, the two men had no success in prying open the gem's magics.

 

As Fai held the stone, Kuro wrapped his own hands about his fingers and rested his forehead against them, his mind tired after searching his memory in vain for any clue that might help them.

 

As they sat on the bed together, an abrupt chill caught them and an overpowering feeling of power and rage.

 

“Ashura,” Fai whispered. Without saying more, they both knew: the King had finally sensed the energy from the stone, finally was aware that they had somehow gotten their hands on a potent source of magical power.

And he was coming to stop them.

If nothing happened before he arrived, they would be doomed. No other way of escape had presented itself and if Ashura /only/ destroyed the gem, they would be fortunate.

 

Finally, Kurogane let go of all his thoughts accept his love and need of Fai, praying for some sign to aid them in their escape. Though he abhorred the thought of being incapable of making Ashura pay for his crimes, deep in his heart he came to realize how short his love might be if this plan failed.

 

Ever since he and Fai had met, they had been victims of a love that never should have been. What were the chances that they ever would have met other than on the battlefield? The samurai had always assumed he would choose death over defeat, but now he knew had been lucky to survive, lucky to find Fai, and would be even more blessed if fate granted them just a little more time. Kuro never would have expected that he would loose in battle and live beyond that defeat to fall into a helpless, trapped love- certainly fate would hear his plea and take mercy on their love?

 

Unbeknownst to him, Kuro's anguish had spilled forth in hot, streaming tears, slipping down his cheeks and through his fingers, which were twined with Fai's.

 

“Kuro!” the warrior heard the man's voice call out in a breathless tone.

 

Opening his eyes, he saw to his amazement that the dimly lit gem seemed to have caught fire and now burned so brightly it filtered through their clasped hands brilliantly.

 

“My tears,” Kuro whispered.

 

“My blood,” Fai said softly in return.

 

There was a rattling at the door, but neither man headed it, for the light of the stone had exploded and surrounded them, searing through their bodies and blinding their eyes. The sound of a thousand raging floods poured into their ears.

 

Then silence.

 

Weightlessness.

 

Nothingness...

 

 

***On to Part II, Chapter 7! Reviews welcome!

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