Tsubasa Chronicle Fan Fiction ❯ You're Not Alone ❯ Chapter 03 ( Chapter 3 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

You're Not Alone 3 / ??
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters.  Yaoi, Lemon, Violence, Language, Angst
Disclaimer - I don't own Tsubasa or anything CLAMP related, don't make money off it.  Wish I did.

My other stories can be found under my author profile at any of my archive sites.
Archived at - adultfanfiction. net, fanfiction. net, and mediaminer. org ::: Anywhere else, ask!
Questions or Comments?  Email me at megami _ no _ remon @ hotmail. com  ((remove spaces))

// Blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - Apology to my OTHER fics' fans. *cough*  This one  keeps grabbing me...and i suppose I better do what it wants if I'm ever going to get inspiration together for my other chapters.  I can't very well sit down and write other people and have them sound like Fai and call it good....although Fai is so for the win.

I also wanted to state that I very purposely left Mokona out of the loop to cause this issue of a language barrier.  It was something of a personal challenge - how much more difficult it is to write a piece where your two main characters cannot use words to communicate!  However, it also provides some unique opportunities as well.

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A lifetime of hard training was the only thing that kept Kurogane from whipping around immediately at the sound of Fai's scream.  Had he so lost his focus, turned to see whatever dreadful sight surely awaited him, he would have died.  The need to SEE, the need to KNOW what had just happened to the wizard burned in him, tore at his soul with sharp, scrabbling claws.

Had he taken the moment to turn and look, however, he would have missed the glinting flash of the spider-thing's heavy claws slashing in at him.  He parried quickly, his katana banging off the stabbing limbs.  The creature let out an angry noise and reared up, attempting to bring it's sword-like stinger to bear.  Kurogane saw his opening and dove in, slicing up at the spindly-legged creature's body.  

His blade cut into the thing's belly , neatly finding the groove between two plates of the beast's exoskeletal armor.  The thing let out a high-pitched chittering shriek, a huge gout of thick, purplish ichor pouring from the wound.  Kurogane missed most of the flood of fluids, which turned out to be a good thing.  They hissed as they hit the ground, and he had to rip his cloak off hastily as the splatters of acidic blood ate through the material.

The whole process had only taken a matter of a few seconds, precious time Kurogane wasn't sure he had.  Judging this opponent to be finished, he whirled to regard Fai.

Another of the spider-things had come up behind the wizard.  It held his body  with it's claws and two of it's front-most legs.  It's chelicerae were buried in the juncture of Fai's neck and shoulder, the glassy surfaces easy to see now that they were painted in blood.  Fai's eyes were wide and horrified, his mouth still open, too breathless from pain and shock to scream again just yet.

Kurogane's eyes widened as he tried to determine the best way to attack the thing.  His feet were moving before his brain had come up with much of a plan, however.  This spider thing was hurting  his friend...no.  Not just that.  It was EATING him, right before his eyes.

Kurogane came in low and sprang up just before he crashed into the practically invisible web.  The spider-thing had the good sense to let go of Fai and turn it's attention to Kurogane, releasing the mage from its bite and swiveling its face towards Kurogane.  The ninja had anticipated this, however.  Counted on it.  The spider was in a bad position with its limbs mostly full of wizard and no time to react to a new attack.

The ninja let out a loud, wordless battle cry and swung his sword with all the force he could muster.  He hit the spider right between the eyes, dead center in its ugly face.  There was a moment of resistance, a moment where Kurogane feared its armor would survive the incredible blow.  Then there was a crack as his katana split through the thinner plates of armor on the spider's head, digging deep into the soft flesh inside.   The creature's body jerked weirdly, spasmodically as it's brain was cleaved and then dropped on the spot, dead long before it stopped twitching.

Kurogane scanned the area quickly, straining all his senses to pick up on the presence of any more of these hostile things, but all his searches revealed nothing.  He cast a quick look at both the spider corpses, but neither was moving.  He examined the one whose head he had just split, frowning when he noticed a trace of dark, green-black fluid oozing from the tip of one fang.  He abruptly turned his attention to Fai.

Fai felt a profound sense of relief.  The spider-thing's bite had been excruciatingly painful, but it was something he could live with.  It had been a terrible, terrible feeling to be caught, suspended and helpless in a web like a fly.  He hadn't been able to even turn to face his assailant.

This world wasn't so dead as they had assumed, obviously.  The creatures here had adapted strangely, were touched with magic of sorts.  How many other invisible species called this world home?  It gave the wizard some renewed hope.  Even though their first encounter was with something large, hostile, and dangerous....their mere existence provided proof of an ecosystem capable of sustaining life.  But still... such camoflauge, such strange creatures....being caught in a web... this surely was one of the stranger things Fai had experienced.

Then Kurogane's mouth was on his neck.

Fai let out a startled, undignified squeak borne of both pure shock and pain, his pale blue eyes widening to almost comic proportions.  A thousand expressions flickered rapid-fire across his face and his mind scrambled to catch up reality.

The first sensation to cleave through the fog was a white-hot bolt of something akin to panic.  Fai's body stiffened and he attempted to jerk away from Kurogane.  What in ...what was he doing?!  "L-let go of me!  What are you doing?!"  Kurogane let out a frustrated growl, surprised at how damn much the wizard could squirm within the confines of the web that still held him.  He pulled his head away and spat out a mouthful of tainted blood with a growl.  "Damn it, idiot mage, hold STILL!  You'll just spread the poison faster!"  This was exactly why he hadn't cut him down first.  He didn't want him struggling and flailing all over or fighting him off.  His iron grip clamped on to Fai again as he went back to making an effort to draw some of the venom out of the spider-bite.  It wasn't a flawless tactic, of course, but anything he got out now wouldn't go through Fai's system.  Gods only knew what would happen to him then, stranded out here with no signs of civilization and no way to treat him.

Fai's logic finally caught up with his madly flailing and utterly irrational fears and he stopped squirming as he put two and two together.  A rush of heat flooded his cheeks and he was glad Kurogane was behind him and couldn't see the vibrant blush.  Forget about worrying about what Kurogane was doing, what in the hell was he THINKING Kurogane would be doing?  The wizard was growing more than a little uncomfortable now as he tried very hard to turn his brain off, but to no avail.

Holy hell.

Fai needed to get the warrior away from him NOW, poison-treatment be damned.  This absolutely, positively could NOT be allowed to continue.  // For the love of all that's holy, what's wrong with me!?  We don't know there's any hope of finding any sort of treatments or medicines out here, so he's just trying to prevent as much damage as he can.  Just like Kurogane would for any of his friends.   Relax, you fool. //

But that didn't stop the tiny gasp that escaped him as his eyes squeezed shut.  He was pinned and helpless, held in an unforgiving grip that was probably a bit rougher than necessary - Kurogane didn't want him moving.  The burn in the deep wound at the base of his throat sent hot flashes through his system, matched only by the heat from the ninja's mouth on his neck.

Fai was utterly horrified by his reaction and did everything he could to bury it as quickly as humanly possible.

Kurogane released him a moment later, spitting out a last mouthful of blood, eyeing him, before mumbling something that sounded vaguely apologetic.  "I didn't want to hurt you but I don't want to carry your ass either."

The warrior lifted his sword and set to work cutting the web down, wondering how they were going to get the damn sticky stuff free of the wizard.  The strands proved to be surprisingly strong and sturdy, and showed no sign of wanting to come lose from Fai's skin.

Kurogane scowled when he finally got Fai free of the mess as much as he was immediately able.  He helped bandage the wound, and the mage turned his attention to the webbing covering himself.  Fai shook his arms with a scowl, trying to shake free some of the mess to no avail.  Trying to grab the strands and pull them free merely got them stuck to his hands as well and Kurogane was forced to cut his fingers free of each other.  Kurogane growled after he finished cutting Fai loose again - the damn idiot mage had managed to get himself more tangled up than when he had started, it seemed!

Fai smiled in a brief moment of triumph when his enchantment on his coat proved successful in causing the webbing to fall free, although it did nothing for the ones that stuck to the rest of him.  It was a start, at least.  A bit of careful trimming minimized the dangling ends.  Luckily, his hood had prevented the sticky mess from getting in his hair and Fai was very thankful for that.  He paused to entertain an image of Kurogane giving him a haircut with his katana and shuddered.

The wizard let out a little huff and pouted.  "Oh, what I wouldn't give for a nice river or stream or lake right about now....you know we'll die of thirst if we don't find something soon, don't you, Kuro-tan?"

Kurogane grunted in response, examining the corpse of one of the beasts he'd slain.  With a bit of effort he managed to pry off one of the glassy plates that made up the beast's exoskeleton.  Several tendril-like growths were attached to a fine mesh of organic tissue along its inner side.  They came together in something like a thick cord.  A bit of creative cutting with his katana revealed that this particular plate was ultimately linked to the one on the opposite side of the beast.  

"Huh."  The effect was interesting, at least, and Kurogane brought the two heavy plates over to show to Fai.  The wizard blinked up from his task of attempting to scrape some webbing free of his gloves when the glassy exoskeletal plates were plunked in front of him, still attached by the heavy mess of veins.

"What's this, Kuro-puu?" he murmured.  He couldn't contain his curiosity and he bent to pick them up.  A smile spread on his face as he figured out the secret of the spider-thing's  near invisibility.  Whatever passed in front of one plate sent a signal to the plate located on the opposite side of the creature, creating the illusion of looking right through the thing.  Fai was utterly fascinated  - he'd never heard of such an incredible mutation.  Much to his chagrin, however, the image reception stopped working after another few minutes, whatever power was left within this bit of the creature having been played out now that it was dead.  The plates now looked and worked more like simple mirrors.

Kurogane had gone back to the beast and begun examining it again.  His initial thought, prior to finding out the interesting effect the armor had, was to wonder if the thing was edible.  He rather doubted it, however, knowing that the spider was venomous and considering the nature of the acidic blood that obviously flowed in its veins.  Not eating was a danger, of course, but eating something that was potentially toxic was a worse bet right now.

Kurogane let out another little growl of displeasure and gave the downed beast a kick as he spit again, trying to clear his mouth of the bitter, coppery tang of blood and venom.  There was no sense staying here.  They needed to find some water and some food, the sooner the better.  He hated to move too much with the potential threat of exacerbating the poison that might be in Fai's veins, but he judged staying in the hunting ground of these monsters was the less safe option.

"Come on, idiot mage," he finally groused, stalking past Fai and shoving his sword back in its scabbard, having finished cleaning the blade.  Fai blinked at him and it didn't take the mage long to figure out that Kurogane intended to keep traveling.

"Oh, easy for you to just walk off, you're not all covered in nasty web stuff and starting to feel the effects of that spider bite.  So inconsiderate," Fai soon fell in step behind the ninja, however.  He paused only to wipe at his forehead and trudged after Kurogane.  He felt too warm and his stomach felt twisted.

Fai groaned at the prospect of moving on.  After a few steps, he knew it just wasn't going to happen.  He sank to the ground with a low wheeze.  His muscles were locking up, cramping painfully.  His lungs didn't seem to want to give him enough air, and the bite  in his neck ached.  His eyes were watering and he felt way, way too warm.  "Kuro-rin, I don't suppose you'd consider stopping to camp a bit early, would you?  I know we didn't get too far, but..." He managed a feeble smile to accompany his question, although another wave of fresh cramps hit him and he jolted, gritting his teeth.

Kurogane sighed softly.  // Damn.  I hope we avoided the worst of it, at least.  I didn't think I could get ALL the poison. but I hoped... //  "I can't understand your babble, mage, but I'm not going to drag you through the dirt when you look this bad.  Spiders be damned."  He sat down heavily, and Fai just gave him a relieved look before squirming out of his coats and curling up on top of them.  If any more spiders came, he'd just have to fight them off.

It looked like it was going to be another long night.

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A/N - Ah.  Yeah.  I had to.  Irony, Kuro-vampy sucking on Fai's neck, eh? eh?  Lol.  I know.  I just had to.   Sadly, sucking poison from a wound is not a very effective treatment.  I leave you with a song verse that reminded me of them.

I'm not gonna stand here and watch you go down
I love you to much, no I won't let you drownAnd it just comes with being the man that I am
So forgive me, forgive me for giving a damn
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