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31_days2005-10-19 01:20 pm
still-ciircee.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2005-10-19 01:20 pm
[19-10-05] [Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle] A circle all the way around
Title: A circle all the way around
Day/Theme: 19th October 2005/ Birds in your garden
Series: TRC
Character/Pairing: Kurogane, Fai-->Kurogane/Fai
Rating: Pg-13? I don't know. There is Teh Boy Like in here and Kurogane swears some.
Author's note: This is the (un-beta'd) LAST part of my TRC AU. Previous parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five. I might put the whole smash up at FF.net...but if I do, I'll probably throw in some interlude-y bits that I've got laying around. Just for the curious.
Kurogane toyed with the remains of his spaghetti and listened to Fai prattle about Italy and Italian food, and restaurants in Italy, and cooking in Italy, and the fact that tonight’s sauce came out of a jar.
“Yo,” he interrupted. “We’ve got to talk.”
Fai smiled at him or, rather, in his general direction. “Somebody hasn’t been paying attention.”
There were a number of ways to short-circuit Fai’s ramblings and most of them were perfectly innocent. Kurogane chose the diciest of them anyhow. He pulled his t-shirt off and dropped it onto the table right next to Fai’s plate. “Yeah, you,” he challenged.
“Any reason why you decided to have a conversation while half dressed?” Fai asked his voice steady and even, if a bit higher in the octave than normal.
“I figured it was the best way to get you to look me in the eye.”
Fai’s eyes darted from the shirt, to his chest, and back to his face. “That works…how?”
Kurogane sighed loudly. “Don’t play stupid.”
A brief look of annoyance crossed Fai’s face. “Kurogane…”
“You’ll look me in the eyes because you’re doing you damnedest not to look anywhere else. I got your letter.”
“Obviously,” Fai huffed. He rubbed a hand over his face and then peered at him from between his parted fingers. “We don’t have to have this conversation, you know. We used to just drop stuff like this and that was the end of it.”
“Times change,” Kurogane glared.
“You know what hasn’t changed?” Fai asked rhetorically. “You. Yukito says you substitute teach and that you move every few months.”
Kurogane rolled his eyes. “I teach because I got the degree. I might as well use the damn thing. I sub because I move a lot. I move because I like to travel—which you already knew—and I do it every few months because you’re not around to keep me there. So if you’re trying to argue that I can’t commit, you’d better remember that last bit.”
Fai’s hand dropped to the table. “No,” he stated, clearly and firmly.
“Yes,” Kurogane argued.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not even thirty,” Fai said, as thought that answered anything.
“Well, me too.”
“Kurogane, you obnoxious twit,” Fai’s voice bespoke mentally gritted teeth. “If you’d wanted that sort of relationship with me, it wouldn’t have taken ten years. So if we got together now, we’d break up again and we wouldn’t even have the chance to stay friends because one of us would blame the other for the debacle that was our romantic entanglement. And I’m not even thirty so I’d be facing…oh…sixty-odd years with memories of how crappy we were together eclipsing the memories of how good we used to be and no hope of ever having anything good with you ever again.”
“You think the last ten years have been a picnic for me?” Kurogane rolled his eyes at him. “Look, I didn’t reject you out of hand ten years ago. I said I had to think. That should have been a big clue that maybe I wasn’t not a little interested. But no, you had to take it wrong and dump my ass.”
“After a year of ‘thinking’ you were still thinking and we weren’t even us,” Fai’s eyes shot tiny, venom-laced darts at him. “I didn’t want things to get ruined any more than they already were. I wanted the memories, at least. We’re trying to be friends again. Put your damn shirt back on.”
“No,” Kurogane shot back. “And if you don’t quit being stupid, I’m taking my pants off, too. I’m not,” he growled, “like the birds in your garden, Fai; I’m not going to fly away the second you open your door.”
Fai closed his mouth on whatever he’d been about to say and tipped his head to the side, a look of speculation flirting with a small smile. “That was very poetic, Kuro-mi,” he said at last, the grin winning out. “I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a sexual euphuism or not…”
Kurogane dropped his head onto the table. The frustration that had been knotting in his stomach dissolved into a helpless laugh. This was the Fai he’d lost. The one he’d missed so badly for so long. He lifted his head and caught the warm smile Fai threw his way. “We’ve got to be together,” he told him.
“Are you holding our friendship hostage for sex?” Fai asked, and Kurogane could see that it was only half-joking.
“Not anymore than you were,” he said and he reached out to grab Fai’s arm as Fai abruptly stood. “We can’t do this, Fai. We can’t ignore the whole issue where we sort of make each other hot and bothered.”
Fai twisted his arm and Kurogane loosed his hold enough so that he was holding Fai’s wrist and Fai was holding his. He wasn’t sure whose pulse was faster. “If you’d suggested a drunken, one-night stand…” Fai said with a dry laugh.
“We’d both end up as alcoholics.”
“I can’t lose you,” Fai told him, hand shifting to intertwine their fingers.
Kurogane tugged and brought him around the table. “Well, duh. Ditto. But I can’t do this half-assed, either and you’re a fucking masochist if you can. Come on, Fai, I was always the idea-man.”
Fai dropped to his knees and used their joined hands to brush the hair out of his face. “Yeah, and we always ended up in trouble.”
“At least we were together.” The tightness in his chest, the leftover remnants of a conversation unfinished ten years ago, loosened and fell away as Fai nodded. “We’ll start slow,” he smiled. “It’ll be fun.” He leaned forward, “We’ll seal it with a kiss.” He tipped Fai’s chin up and closed in.
With a blazing look in his eyes, Fai shook his head, dropped his hand, and scrambled back to stand a foot or so away. “No.”
“Fai…”
“No.” Fai planted his hands on hips. “We’re not sealing anything with a kiss. I invoke the Oath of the Ninja and demand that you state the Secret Twenty-Fourth Code.”
Kurogane laughed. He couldn’t help it. But he stood just the same. “I,” he began.
Fai folded his arms. “Sword.”
“I don’t have…” he bit off and then shrugged because Fai was right. The Oath did demand a sword. He picked up the butter knife on the table and wiped it on his pants before holding it out in front of him like a katana. “I vow on my honor as a Ninja and on my sword, the Silver Dragon, that I will devote my life to the task I have undertaken. I will die to complete it, if need be, and will never be swayed from it. If I even think of giving up, I will have to kiss Fai. On the mouth.”
“Twice,” Fai grinned. He stepped forward, arms outstretched. “Okay, now we...”
“Uh-uh.” Kurogane planted a hand on his chest and held him back. “I call upon the Master Mage-God of Celes and request the Twelfth Mythic Rite. You know… the one only the Wizard of Celes can do?”
Fai slipped closer. “I don’t have a wand,” he murmured, his face close.
Kurogane slapped the Silver Dragon into his hands and pushed him back. “There you go.”
“…the circle…”
He ignored Fai’s baffled yelp and pulled the other man’s shirt off. He dropped it at their feet and pointed to Fai’s designer mark on the back. “It’s even in gold. I’ll let you skip the dance, if you want, since we don’t have any bubbles.”
Fai was grinning as he kicked the shirt to lie flat and stepped back. “I’m going to stab you with this wand when I’m done.” But he raised the butter knife and began. “I, the Wizard of Celes, summon all my magic and all my will. Let the magic circle form, let the wand fill. I bind myself to this task and you. I will stand, I will fight, I will be true.” Kurogane could have almost sworn that the circle between them glowed, but it could have just been Fai’s eyes. “Until our purpose is complete,” he lowered the wand and pointed it at Kurogane, “we two together can not be beat.”
“And…?”
“And,” Fai stepped into his arms, “if I try to wimp out I have to kiss Kurogane on the mouth.”
Kurogane kissed him then, just a whisper of a kiss to seal things. To start them. Fai smiled at him and he grinned back. “Twice.”
Day/Theme: 19th October 2005/ Birds in your garden
Series: TRC
Character/Pairing: Kurogane, Fai-->Kurogane/Fai
Rating: Pg-13? I don't know. There is Teh Boy Like in here and Kurogane swears some.
Author's note: This is the (un-beta'd) LAST part of my TRC AU. Previous parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five. I might put the whole smash up at FF.net...but if I do, I'll probably throw in some interlude-y bits that I've got laying around. Just for the curious.
Kurogane toyed with the remains of his spaghetti and listened to Fai prattle about Italy and Italian food, and restaurants in Italy, and cooking in Italy, and the fact that tonight’s sauce came out of a jar.
“Yo,” he interrupted. “We’ve got to talk.”
Fai smiled at him or, rather, in his general direction. “Somebody hasn’t been paying attention.”
There were a number of ways to short-circuit Fai’s ramblings and most of them were perfectly innocent. Kurogane chose the diciest of them anyhow. He pulled his t-shirt off and dropped it onto the table right next to Fai’s plate. “Yeah, you,” he challenged.
“Any reason why you decided to have a conversation while half dressed?” Fai asked his voice steady and even, if a bit higher in the octave than normal.
“I figured it was the best way to get you to look me in the eye.”
Fai’s eyes darted from the shirt, to his chest, and back to his face. “That works…how?”
Kurogane sighed loudly. “Don’t play stupid.”
A brief look of annoyance crossed Fai’s face. “Kurogane…”
“You’ll look me in the eyes because you’re doing you damnedest not to look anywhere else. I got your letter.”
“Obviously,” Fai huffed. He rubbed a hand over his face and then peered at him from between his parted fingers. “We don’t have to have this conversation, you know. We used to just drop stuff like this and that was the end of it.”
“Times change,” Kurogane glared.
“You know what hasn’t changed?” Fai asked rhetorically. “You. Yukito says you substitute teach and that you move every few months.”
Kurogane rolled his eyes. “I teach because I got the degree. I might as well use the damn thing. I sub because I move a lot. I move because I like to travel—which you already knew—and I do it every few months because you’re not around to keep me there. So if you’re trying to argue that I can’t commit, you’d better remember that last bit.”
Fai’s hand dropped to the table. “No,” he stated, clearly and firmly.
“Yes,” Kurogane argued.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not even thirty,” Fai said, as thought that answered anything.
“Well, me too.”
“Kurogane, you obnoxious twit,” Fai’s voice bespoke mentally gritted teeth. “If you’d wanted that sort of relationship with me, it wouldn’t have taken ten years. So if we got together now, we’d break up again and we wouldn’t even have the chance to stay friends because one of us would blame the other for the debacle that was our romantic entanglement. And I’m not even thirty so I’d be facing…oh…sixty-odd years with memories of how crappy we were together eclipsing the memories of how good we used to be and no hope of ever having anything good with you ever again.”
“You think the last ten years have been a picnic for me?” Kurogane rolled his eyes at him. “Look, I didn’t reject you out of hand ten years ago. I said I had to think. That should have been a big clue that maybe I wasn’t not a little interested. But no, you had to take it wrong and dump my ass.”
“After a year of ‘thinking’ you were still thinking and we weren’t even us,” Fai’s eyes shot tiny, venom-laced darts at him. “I didn’t want things to get ruined any more than they already were. I wanted the memories, at least. We’re trying to be friends again. Put your damn shirt back on.”
“No,” Kurogane shot back. “And if you don’t quit being stupid, I’m taking my pants off, too. I’m not,” he growled, “like the birds in your garden, Fai; I’m not going to fly away the second you open your door.”
Fai closed his mouth on whatever he’d been about to say and tipped his head to the side, a look of speculation flirting with a small smile. “That was very poetic, Kuro-mi,” he said at last, the grin winning out. “I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a sexual euphuism or not…”
Kurogane dropped his head onto the table. The frustration that had been knotting in his stomach dissolved into a helpless laugh. This was the Fai he’d lost. The one he’d missed so badly for so long. He lifted his head and caught the warm smile Fai threw his way. “We’ve got to be together,” he told him.
“Are you holding our friendship hostage for sex?” Fai asked, and Kurogane could see that it was only half-joking.
“Not anymore than you were,” he said and he reached out to grab Fai’s arm as Fai abruptly stood. “We can’t do this, Fai. We can’t ignore the whole issue where we sort of make each other hot and bothered.”
Fai twisted his arm and Kurogane loosed his hold enough so that he was holding Fai’s wrist and Fai was holding his. He wasn’t sure whose pulse was faster. “If you’d suggested a drunken, one-night stand…” Fai said with a dry laugh.
“We’d both end up as alcoholics.”
“I can’t lose you,” Fai told him, hand shifting to intertwine their fingers.
Kurogane tugged and brought him around the table. “Well, duh. Ditto. But I can’t do this half-assed, either and you’re a fucking masochist if you can. Come on, Fai, I was always the idea-man.”
Fai dropped to his knees and used their joined hands to brush the hair out of his face. “Yeah, and we always ended up in trouble.”
“At least we were together.” The tightness in his chest, the leftover remnants of a conversation unfinished ten years ago, loosened and fell away as Fai nodded. “We’ll start slow,” he smiled. “It’ll be fun.” He leaned forward, “We’ll seal it with a kiss.” He tipped Fai’s chin up and closed in.
With a blazing look in his eyes, Fai shook his head, dropped his hand, and scrambled back to stand a foot or so away. “No.”
“Fai…”
“No.” Fai planted his hands on hips. “We’re not sealing anything with a kiss. I invoke the Oath of the Ninja and demand that you state the Secret Twenty-Fourth Code.”
Kurogane laughed. He couldn’t help it. But he stood just the same. “I,” he began.
Fai folded his arms. “Sword.”
“I don’t have…” he bit off and then shrugged because Fai was right. The Oath did demand a sword. He picked up the butter knife on the table and wiped it on his pants before holding it out in front of him like a katana. “I vow on my honor as a Ninja and on my sword, the Silver Dragon, that I will devote my life to the task I have undertaken. I will die to complete it, if need be, and will never be swayed from it. If I even think of giving up, I will have to kiss Fai. On the mouth.”
“Twice,” Fai grinned. He stepped forward, arms outstretched. “Okay, now we...”
“Uh-uh.” Kurogane planted a hand on his chest and held him back. “I call upon the Master Mage-God of Celes and request the Twelfth Mythic Rite. You know… the one only the Wizard of Celes can do?”
Fai slipped closer. “I don’t have a wand,” he murmured, his face close.
Kurogane slapped the Silver Dragon into his hands and pushed him back. “There you go.”
“…the circle…”
He ignored Fai’s baffled yelp and pulled the other man’s shirt off. He dropped it at their feet and pointed to Fai’s designer mark on the back. “It’s even in gold. I’ll let you skip the dance, if you want, since we don’t have any bubbles.”
Fai was grinning as he kicked the shirt to lie flat and stepped back. “I’m going to stab you with this wand when I’m done.” But he raised the butter knife and began. “I, the Wizard of Celes, summon all my magic and all my will. Let the magic circle form, let the wand fill. I bind myself to this task and you. I will stand, I will fight, I will be true.” Kurogane could have almost sworn that the circle between them glowed, but it could have just been Fai’s eyes. “Until our purpose is complete,” he lowered the wand and pointed it at Kurogane, “we two together can not be beat.”
“And…?”
“And,” Fai stepped into his arms, “if I try to wimp out I have to kiss Kurogane on the mouth.”
Kurogane kissed him then, just a whisper of a kiss to seal things. To start them. Fai smiled at him and he grinned back. “Twice.”