TRC Fic: Untitled (Syaoran, Kurogane, Fai) PG Fai/Kurogane

[ciircee]

Well, this WAS going to be for 31_days November 1st (things you've never seen before) prompt. Only, I fell asleep and missed the deadline. Which probably doesn't matter because this fic is complete and total crack. Crack, I tell you! Birthed from lack of sleep and the fact that my mother-in-law was visiting which is a very special brand of horror.



Disclaimer: CLAMP is not this pathetic.

Dedication: To chelle_sama because she was the reason there is a Helpful!Kurogane to my Vertigo!Fai.


Can we say 'cracked-out'? I thought we could!

Father always told you to look for new things. Not ‘new’ in age, but new. Things you didn’t know before. New things were like love. Something special.

So you’ve always looked. And you’ve found and learned and loved it all. In some ways, despite the horror of it, traveling to different dimensions is a dream come true.

Until you find the one new thing that threatens to break your brain.

And it starts with Fai puking his guts out.

You’ve seen Fai throw up before. That isn’t new. But this time he’s sick, actually ill, and that’s a bit new. Only a little.

A little more new is the way Kurogane steps in and hauls Fai up the stairs and chucks him into bed. But that’s at least explainable, if for no other reason than Kurogane explains it to you by saying He can’t stay outside and who else is strong enough to carry him up there?

Before you can agree, Fai groans. The room won’t stop spinning he says and then he heaves so hard you think his internal organs are going to come up. They don’t (or, at least, you don’t think that they do) and the only thing that saves the bedroom floor is the bucket that Kurogane has already shoved beneath Fai’s head. Or that he’s yanked Fai’s head over. Probably both. You can’t really care because. Just because.

In part, you’re convinced that Fai is going to die (and Fai swears that he is) and Sakura-hime is sure that Fai is already dead and Mokona is hiding incoherently in your clothes and you want to get him out.

The fact that Kurogane clucks at the lot of you and takes command of the situation is perfectly normal and you’re very grateful. Especially since he seems to know what’s wrong with Fai. The room is spinning? and Fai nods. Gravity? and Fai points at the wall behind his head. Fever? To which Fai both nods and shakes his head.
That’s when the first crack appears in your sanity.

Kurogane smoothes Fai’s hair away from his face and presses his lips to Fai’s forehead, his eyes closed as he…lingers.

Even the withdrawing and the words Not much of one doesn’t fix it, though you’re relieved to hear You’re going to have a rough few days, but it’ll run it’s course. You learn that Fai has something called ‘vertigo’ and it’s not going to kill anybody.

Except you.

Because Kurogane seems determined to break you.

Or, maybe not. What Kurogane seems intent on, really, is Fai. You catch him helping Fai to the bathroom and (you suspect) helping him use it. You see him with a damp cloth, cleaning vomit out of Fai’s hair. You find Fai’s sheets, freshly laundered, drying on the laundry line in the back yard and you find Fai asleep in Kurogane’s bed.

And Kurogane is…

calm.

peaceful.

concerned.

quiet.

constant

THERE.

Always right there when Fai needs something. Always giving him water or broth or, after two days, weak soup. You discover that he reads to Fai when Fai isn’t throwing up. And when Fai is throwing up, he’s holding his head. He’s petting his head and…and…murmuring. Comforting.

But the worst comes in the middle of the night, when Fai is mostly better. You’re on your way to the kitchen for a cup of tea (you can’t sleep, the new thing, the breaks in your brain, are keeping you up) when you see it. Them. It.

There is light in the room that Kurogane has (recently) taken to sharing with Fai. Not much, a single candle glowing. Kurogane is sitting by Fai’s bed, sleeping. Fai isn’t. Fai is awake and poking at Kurogane’s shoulder. Kuro-min he whispers and you realize that Kurogane must be exhausted because all he does is twitch instead of wake up, shouting. Kuro-min?

’S matter? Kurogane’s eyes open, slowly. He’s already turned towards Fai. Like a flower with the sun. Need something?

For you to get some proper sleep, Fai tells him softly in a bed.

You can pass off the look Kurogane gives Fai as a trick of the lighting. Really. You can. Or, rather, you can try. Are you okay? Kurogane asks and you can tell Fai that his answer I’ll be fine isn’t going to work. You don’t have to because Kurogane is giving him another look. A thankfully familiar look that, basically translated, means you are Stupid with a capital S. And Kurogane tells him and so will I.

Since you’re pretty sure they’re going to keep staring at each other, trying to make the other back down and do as they're told, you leave and make yourself that cup of tea. You make the mistake of peering into Kurogane and Fai’s room again on your way back to bed. Kurogane is still sitting on the floor (and you didn’t expect any different) but Fai is now on his lap, held cradled with his head tucked under Kurogane’s chin and Kurogane’s cheek resting against his hair. They’re both draped in the blankets from the bed and fast asleep.

It’s not the fact that they’re both men that gets you. You’ve spent more time in the palace of Clow than almost anyplace else; you’ve seen the looks that the King and the High Priest have been giving each other ever since they were nothing more than the Crown Prince and the Priest Candidate. No. What really gets you, the thing that threatens to make your brain bleed, is how tender and sweet Kurogane and Fai look curled up together like that.

You’re pretty sure that part of your mind has become unmoored from reality (all of them) and is off by itself, gibbering over how a ninja and a magician can’t possibly look sweet or tender or, heaven help all of you, cute. Especially not together. Especially not looking like nothing more than a pile of cute, fuzzy kitties that have wrestled and nipped and played themselves out and fell asleep in a sprawl all over each other. It’s probably telling itself about how you’re hallucinating.

The rest of your mind (or what’s left of the rest of your mind) is sort of smiling because you really do love seeing things that you haven’t seen before.

Of course, you’re not sure you’re ever going to be able to sleep again. You decide to blame it on the tea, instead of on the new, special things (like love) that you've been seeing lately.

Surprisingly, you sleep just fine.