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burningdarkfireTitle: Masquerade - Social Hour
Series: TRC
Pairing: Eventual KuroFai, hints of SyaoSak
Rating: PG - 13
Length: about 3000 words, chapter 2 (2/5 - expanded from 3)
Note: Based on Stephen King's The Shining. Written for Halloween Contest at kuroxfai_pop.
Series: TRC
Pairing: Eventual KuroFai, hints of SyaoSak
Rating: PG - 13
Length: about 3000 words, chapter 2 (2/5 - expanded from 3)
Note: Based on Stephen King's The Shining. Written for Halloween Contest at kuroxfai_pop.
Masquerade
Part II. Social Hour
Part II. Social Hour
"Fai-san! Kurogane-san!"
Fai looked up, distracted from their game of 'chess', as Syaoran had called it. The boy had explained the rules to both of them, then had hastily retreated when Fai had lost interest and started tossing the little pieces at Kurogane's head.
Now, the ninja was bent over the board, frowning intently as he studied the position of the knight his hand was hovering over.
"Kuro-pii," Fai whined, batting a hand lightly at Kurogane's outstretched one. "Hurry up and move! This game is so boring and the children are calling!"
"You owe me one game after that pointy cross thing nearly missed my eye," Kurogane snapped, eyes still glued to the board. "You're the one who's losing; don't tell me to go any faster!"
"But Kuro-chan!" Fai cocked an ear and then pointed at the landing on the second floor just as Sakura ran into view, Mokona in her arms. Syaoran followed not far behind, his face pale. "Sakura-chan? Syaoran-kun? What's the matter? Whatever it is, I'm sure Kuro-daddy here can help you!"
"No," Kurogane growled, finally snatching up the knight and knocking one of Fai's black pawns over. Fai swiftly plucked the knight off the board and moved one of his rooks onto its square. "Damnit!"
"Don't mind him," Fai told the two teenagers airily. "He's just sour about losing."
"I'm not losing!"
"Whatever you say, Kuro-tan."
"Fai-san," Sakura interrupted, and this in itself was so unlike her that Fai turned immediately to listen. "It's Mokona. She won't wake up!"
"Good riddance," Kurogane muttered, moving his bishop.
Fai slapped his hand. "Naughty Kuro-wanwan! You can't do that! Your king would be in check!" When Sakura opened her mouth to interrupt again, a distressed look on her face, Fai held his hands out for Mokona and the girl transferred the white creature into his hold.
The small white bundle was cold, much too cold for anything alive, even if it was created. Fai had a sudden flashback to the brutal winters of Celes, and the freshly fallen snow that he could pack into a snowball. Ashura would sometimes consent to having a quick battle, or one of the servants would be sent in his place.
When Fai was older, the snowball forts he had once built, when he was slowly regaining his lost childhood, were used to illustrate the plans for battle. Instead of playing outside in the gardens, he stayed inside with Ashura and listened attentively as the king explained to him how to deal with the frequent raids by bandits as well as the uncertain peace between Celes and Rhalik, the country to the west.
"Fai-san!" Sakura frightened voice jolted him out of his memory, and Fai blinked to see that he was squeezing Mokona. He hastily relaxed his grip.
"I don't know what's wrong," he said, turning her over. "Mokona," he called gently, but the bundle in his hands didn't stir.
"It's like –" Syaoran swallowed thickly. "It almost looks like the magic has gone out of her. Now Mokona is just an empty shell."
"Don't say that!" Sakura cried out, taking the body from Fai's hands and hugging it to her chest. "Mokona is Mokona, just like she always says!"
"If something truly bad had happened," Kurogane said, his eyes thoughtful, "That witch surely would have chased us down by now and demanded some sort of extreme payment for it. We just have to wait until the pork bun wakes up again."
"But Mokona was our only link to Yuuko-san," Syaoran pointed out worriedly. "What if she is trying to contact us, but can't?"
"She could, if she wanted to," Fai said quietly. "But perhaps the price for her is too great."
"You mean we might be stuck here forever?" Kurogane looked outraged at the very idea. "I paid that witch to go back to Nihon, not to be stuck in some hellhole for the rest of my life!"
"This place isn't so bad," Fai heard himself say cheerfully. "We're perfectly safe here, and nothing can hurt us."
"Yes," Sakura said, with little conviction. "I'm sure Mokona will wake up soon and we'll be able to leave. I'm sure everything will be alright." When Syaoran laid an arm on her shoulder hesitantly, she managed a small smile and repeated with a bit more force, "Everything will be alright."
"Can you call up the witch?" Kurogane asked, his eyes guarded as he watched Fai. "Use your magic."
Fai shrugged, lifting his lips up in an imitation of a smile. "No can do, Kuro-chu. I can't use magic anymore!"
"Won't," the ninja corrected, a frown settling onto his face.
A moment passed in silence, until Sakura shifted her weight slightly.
"You should get to bed," Syaoran said almost right away, as she sagged a little. "Princess, you look tired."
"It's nothing," she yawned daintily. "I can stay up a bit longer."
"Let's tell stories around the fireplace!" Fai suggested brightly. "I'm sure you have lots of good stories from all your travels, Syaoran-kun, or Kuro-rin, how about all your suspicious exploits as a ninja?"
"What do you mean suspicious!" Kurogane narrowed his eyes threateningly, but didn't get up. "What about our game?"
"I surrender!" Fai swept his hand across the board and sent the pieces flying onto the ground, scattering everywhere underneath the small coffee table.
"You idiot!" Kurogane cursed, and bent to pick up a pawn. Fai chuckled and threw his queen at the spiky head of hair. "Damnit! Don't throw things! Especially not pointy things!"
"I like this game much better!" Fai declared with a happy sigh. "Kuro-pon is just so much fun to play with!"
-
"You look troubled," Fai said conversationally. He crossed his legs and leaned more comfortably against the wall, bodies shifting underneath him.
Yuui wrinkled his nose slightly at the smell. "Something happened today; that's all. I'm okay now that I'm back with you, Fai."
"Tell me about it," his brother ordered, shaking back his long hair to watch Yuui. "It'll make you feel better."
"There's … a friend of mine," Yuui started slowly, unsure how to phrase it so that his brother might understand. "We can't wake her up, and we're not sure what's wrong with her."
"Perhaps there's nothing wrong," Fai said confidently, but Yuui bit his lip uncertainly. "She's probably just tired. All you have to do is wait a while, and she'll be back to the way she was before."
"Maybe …"
"Trust me." Fai stood up, and a smile distorted his face. Yuui forced himself not to shrink away in fright and instead got up as well. "Come on, I want to show you something."
"W-what is it?"
"Don't be frightened, Yuui," he said gently. "I just want to show you were I've been waiting for you to come back. I'm sorry if I scared you last time, but you surprised me; that's all."
Yuui rubbed his wrist absentmindedly but allowed himself to be led to a flight of stairs, and wondered dimly why he had never noticed them before. One set led down, and the other up.
"Aren't we going up?" He asked, as his twin started down. "Weren't you trapped at the top?"
"Oh, no," Fai said, tilting his head up with an odd sneer on his face that Yuui found frightful. "Ever since I fell, I can't get back up. I'm not allowed."
"Not allowed by who?"
Fai smiled again and shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Come on, follow me."
When Yuui hesitated yet again, Fai sighed a little impatiently. "Come on! There's nothing that can hurt you down there. It's perfectly safe."
But still, Yuui shook his head and closed his eyes, blocking out his dead brother's smile, and backing up until he hit the solid wall again.
-
Fai sat upright with a strangled gasp as his doorknob turned and a light flickered on. Kurogane peered into the room, an irritated look on his face.
"You were crying out," the ninja said by way of explanation. Apparently satisfied that there were no threats present, he turned to Fai with a look that reminded Fai, for a split second, of Ashura when he was about to scold Fai for scaring away the other noble children. "What happened?"
Fai shuddered. The more he thought about it, the less clear the dream seemed to become. "Nothing," he said slowly.
"That wasn't nothing," Kurogane replied, an irritated look on his face. "If it was another nightmare, just say so."
"No!" Fai said quickly. He noticed he was rubbing his right wrist and clasped his hands firmly together in his lap. "It wasn't a nightmare."
"You were screaming."
Fai shrugged and lay back down, pulling the covers over his shoulders again. "It was nothing."
"Are you sure?" Kurogane took a step into Fai's room.
Fai threw back his covers and glared at Kurogane. "I said it was nothing!"
The ninja blinked, a look of surprise on his face. "Right then." He turned to leave, a strange look on his face as he turned the door.
Fai clenched his fists, the nails digging into his hand. Kurogane was just so irritating sometimes, the way he would prod and poke into stuff that was none of his business.
He slowly became aware of a feather light touch on his shoulder, but when he turned, there was no one and nothing there, only his shadow cast onto the wall beside him.
-
Yuui had to grip Fai's hand tightly as they stepped down the staircase together. The first time they had gone down, Fai had let go and Yuui had gotten scared and run back to the top, and couldn't be coaxed to try going down again for days. Now, Yuui held onto his brother as he whispered reassuring things to him.
"There's something I want to show you this time," Fai said cheerfully as they walked through the torch-lit hallway the staircase opened up into. "Something that you'll like, I think. I had it made just for you."
Yuui managed a shaky smile, unable to copy Fai's brilliant, natural one. "If you made it for me, I'm sure I'll like it."
"Don't say that before you even see it," Fai scolded lightly. He pulled Yuui along a bit faster. "Let's go!"
Yuui trotted along obediently as his brother led him past several imposing closed doors. They stopped at last before one, and Fai raised his hand.
The word KLEINE glowed briefly, a pulsating red against the dark, nearly black wood, and the double doors swung open. Inside was a room just like the lobby of the resort, with a roaring fireplace on one side.
Fai led the way to the couches, Yuui following him less certainly. He saw the dolls when he was a few meters away and stopped, horrified yet compelled by their twisted likeness.
"Come sit beside me!" Fai patted the empty seat by his side. "Do you like it?"
Yuui was too stunned to answer the question. He crept past the dolls quietly, as if afraid they would wake up, but the Syaoran and Sakura look-alikes just gazed at him blankly with painted marbles for eyes and the Kurogane look-alike grinned menacingly at him.
"What did you do?" He managed to ask at last.
Fai pouted a little bit. "Don't you like them? I spent a long time trying to get them to look realistic."
"But this isn't realistic!" Yuui cried out. "They're, they're …"
"Scary?" Fai suggested, and Yuui thought he looked satisfied. "But your companions are scary, Yuui. They're trying to steal you away from me. See how they're always watching?"
Sure enough, the dolls had turned to look at him and Yuui thought they looked like they disapproved.
"But …" he said, confused. "Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun and Kuro-puu are good people. Mokona too."
"That's what they want you to think," Fai told him, in the manner of an older brother telling the younger how the world works. "We're lucky we're not like them, Yuui, we can count on each other no matter what. You'll always be there for me, right? I can count on you for anything?"
"… Right," Yuui agreed, his eyes trapped fearfully by the firelight reflecting in Kurogane's marble eyes. "Anything."
-
The weeks passed, and all four of them spent their time searching high and low in the hotel for any sign of the feather with no results.
"Maybe it's in one of the rooms," Fai suggested one day, when they met, tired and discouraged for a dinner that he had prepared. "We should open them up and check."
"Watanuki-san said not to," Syaoran replied uncertainly. "Maybe we shouldn't."
"He made it sound like there are frightening things in them," Sakura shivered. "Sometimes, during the night, I can hear laughter and then screaming …"
"Are you still having nightmares?" Fai asked, concerned.
Sakura shook her head. "Not anymore, but this place … There's just something about it …" She trailed off.
"Stop saying that," Fai snapped. He immediately regretted it when he saw the hurt on her face and the shock on everyone else's. He softened his tone and continued. "If you think about it that way, you'll get more frightened. We've looked all over, and we've found nothing wrong. There's nothing that can hurt us here."
"You sound like you're trying to hide something," Kurogane accused. "You haven't been acting normal since we first got here. What's going on, mage?"
Fai looked at Kurogane with distaste. Prying, always prying. Who was he to judge Fai? "Nothing."
"You need to stop saying that." Kurogane got up and glared down at Fai. "Maybe you really are an idiot and a fool and actually believe there's nothing wrong, but I don't believe that façade of yours. You do know something's up, but you won't tell us what it is."
"It's nothing," Fai insisted.
-
Later that night, Fai knocked gently on Kurogane's door. When the ninja opened the door and stared at him suspiciously, he lowered his hand slowly, and soon his eyes followed until they were focused on the ground.
"Sorry," he whispered. When little more than a small rush of air escaped his mouth, he cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm sorry. For how I acted at dinner tonight. I … I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what happened."
Kurogane stared at him incredulously. "What's wrong with you? Coming here to apologize?"
Fai shrugged listlessly. "Maybe you're right. There's something …"
The shadows moved.
They rose in unison at Fai's words, leaping upwards on the walls and prowling across the ground, and Fai could have sworn he saw them quiver in anticipation and lean forward. They rose as one, but Fai could see the tiny movements that disrupted the nearly perfect flow – it wasn't one shadow, but thousands joined together.
"There's something," Kurogane repeated.
"Nothing," Fai denied quickly, watching the shadows, his heart pounding. At that one word, they seemed to relax slightly. "Nothing, nothing, nothing," he chanted, but the shadows still lingered behind Kurogane.
"God damnit," Kurogane grunted, turning around to go back into his room. "If you're not going to tell me anything, go back to your own room."
"Wait!" Fai reached out reflexively and grabbed Kurogane's arm. "Don't go!"
Kurogane gave him a long level glare. "This isn't the time for any of your games."
Fai shook his head. "No, no, it's not a game; it's -" But the shadows were rising again and Fai tugged sharply on Kurogane's arm. "It's nothing! Come on!"
Thankfully, Kurogane followed, if not happily. "There had better be a good explanation for this!" He shouted, but Fai was too busy watching the walls around them.
The shadows surged and leapt like a single-minded predator, and Fai could hear the faint beating of wings as they chased him.
"Nothing," he tried under his breath, but the word no longer had any effect and the shadows didn't stop. "Nothing. Nothing nothing nothingnothingnoTHINGNOTHING! THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS PLACE!"
Ignoring the other man's exclamations, he towed Kurogane into his room, opened the light, and slammed the door. The shadows flooded in under the door and with a cry, Fai slammed his hand on the light switch and the room was filled completely by darkness, the moon blocked out by the thick and heavy curtains.
He strained his ears and eyes, but could detect no more signs of movement. As his ragged breathing slowed, he realized that he was clutching tightly onto Kurogane and that Kurogane had his arms around him, steadying him as he swayed.
"What was that?" Kurogane asked finally, his voice low and rumbling in the silence.
Fai closed his eyes and leaned forward, his fear rising as he managed to spit out a single word.
"Nothing."
-
A/N - I'm (obviously) not following the original storyline very closely XD Also, this fic has been expanded from the original three parts to four, with a fifth that's basically a short epilogue. (Gah, I'm killing myself here between this and NaNo XD)
Fai looked up, distracted from their game of 'chess', as Syaoran had called it. The boy had explained the rules to both of them, then had hastily retreated when Fai had lost interest and started tossing the little pieces at Kurogane's head.
Now, the ninja was bent over the board, frowning intently as he studied the position of the knight his hand was hovering over.
"Kuro-pii," Fai whined, batting a hand lightly at Kurogane's outstretched one. "Hurry up and move! This game is so boring and the children are calling!"
"You owe me one game after that pointy cross thing nearly missed my eye," Kurogane snapped, eyes still glued to the board. "You're the one who's losing; don't tell me to go any faster!"
"But Kuro-chan!" Fai cocked an ear and then pointed at the landing on the second floor just as Sakura ran into view, Mokona in her arms. Syaoran followed not far behind, his face pale. "Sakura-chan? Syaoran-kun? What's the matter? Whatever it is, I'm sure Kuro-daddy here can help you!"
"No," Kurogane growled, finally snatching up the knight and knocking one of Fai's black pawns over. Fai swiftly plucked the knight off the board and moved one of his rooks onto its square. "Damnit!"
"Don't mind him," Fai told the two teenagers airily. "He's just sour about losing."
"I'm not losing!"
"Whatever you say, Kuro-tan."
"Fai-san," Sakura interrupted, and this in itself was so unlike her that Fai turned immediately to listen. "It's Mokona. She won't wake up!"
"Good riddance," Kurogane muttered, moving his bishop.
Fai slapped his hand. "Naughty Kuro-wanwan! You can't do that! Your king would be in check!" When Sakura opened her mouth to interrupt again, a distressed look on her face, Fai held his hands out for Mokona and the girl transferred the white creature into his hold.
The small white bundle was cold, much too cold for anything alive, even if it was created. Fai had a sudden flashback to the brutal winters of Celes, and the freshly fallen snow that he could pack into a snowball. Ashura would sometimes consent to having a quick battle, or one of the servants would be sent in his place.
When Fai was older, the snowball forts he had once built, when he was slowly regaining his lost childhood, were used to illustrate the plans for battle. Instead of playing outside in the gardens, he stayed inside with Ashura and listened attentively as the king explained to him how to deal with the frequent raids by bandits as well as the uncertain peace between Celes and Rhalik, the country to the west.
"Fai-san!" Sakura frightened voice jolted him out of his memory, and Fai blinked to see that he was squeezing Mokona. He hastily relaxed his grip.
"I don't know what's wrong," he said, turning her over. "Mokona," he called gently, but the bundle in his hands didn't stir.
"It's like –" Syaoran swallowed thickly. "It almost looks like the magic has gone out of her. Now Mokona is just an empty shell."
"Don't say that!" Sakura cried out, taking the body from Fai's hands and hugging it to her chest. "Mokona is Mokona, just like she always says!"
"If something truly bad had happened," Kurogane said, his eyes thoughtful, "That witch surely would have chased us down by now and demanded some sort of extreme payment for it. We just have to wait until the pork bun wakes up again."
"But Mokona was our only link to Yuuko-san," Syaoran pointed out worriedly. "What if she is trying to contact us, but can't?"
"She could, if she wanted to," Fai said quietly. "But perhaps the price for her is too great."
"You mean we might be stuck here forever?" Kurogane looked outraged at the very idea. "I paid that witch to go back to Nihon, not to be stuck in some hellhole for the rest of my life!"
"This place isn't so bad," Fai heard himself say cheerfully. "We're perfectly safe here, and nothing can hurt us."
"Yes," Sakura said, with little conviction. "I'm sure Mokona will wake up soon and we'll be able to leave. I'm sure everything will be alright." When Syaoran laid an arm on her shoulder hesitantly, she managed a small smile and repeated with a bit more force, "Everything will be alright."
"Can you call up the witch?" Kurogane asked, his eyes guarded as he watched Fai. "Use your magic."
Fai shrugged, lifting his lips up in an imitation of a smile. "No can do, Kuro-chu. I can't use magic anymore!"
"Won't," the ninja corrected, a frown settling onto his face.
A moment passed in silence, until Sakura shifted her weight slightly.
"You should get to bed," Syaoran said almost right away, as she sagged a little. "Princess, you look tired."
"It's nothing," she yawned daintily. "I can stay up a bit longer."
"Let's tell stories around the fireplace!" Fai suggested brightly. "I'm sure you have lots of good stories from all your travels, Syaoran-kun, or Kuro-rin, how about all your suspicious exploits as a ninja?"
"What do you mean suspicious!" Kurogane narrowed his eyes threateningly, but didn't get up. "What about our game?"
"I surrender!" Fai swept his hand across the board and sent the pieces flying onto the ground, scattering everywhere underneath the small coffee table.
"You idiot!" Kurogane cursed, and bent to pick up a pawn. Fai chuckled and threw his queen at the spiky head of hair. "Damnit! Don't throw things! Especially not pointy things!"
"I like this game much better!" Fai declared with a happy sigh. "Kuro-pon is just so much fun to play with!"
-
"You look troubled," Fai said conversationally. He crossed his legs and leaned more comfortably against the wall, bodies shifting underneath him.
Yuui wrinkled his nose slightly at the smell. "Something happened today; that's all. I'm okay now that I'm back with you, Fai."
"Tell me about it," his brother ordered, shaking back his long hair to watch Yuui. "It'll make you feel better."
"There's … a friend of mine," Yuui started slowly, unsure how to phrase it so that his brother might understand. "We can't wake her up, and we're not sure what's wrong with her."
"Perhaps there's nothing wrong," Fai said confidently, but Yuui bit his lip uncertainly. "She's probably just tired. All you have to do is wait a while, and she'll be back to the way she was before."
"Maybe …"
"Trust me." Fai stood up, and a smile distorted his face. Yuui forced himself not to shrink away in fright and instead got up as well. "Come on, I want to show you something."
"W-what is it?"
"Don't be frightened, Yuui," he said gently. "I just want to show you were I've been waiting for you to come back. I'm sorry if I scared you last time, but you surprised me; that's all."
Yuui rubbed his wrist absentmindedly but allowed himself to be led to a flight of stairs, and wondered dimly why he had never noticed them before. One set led down, and the other up.
"Aren't we going up?" He asked, as his twin started down. "Weren't you trapped at the top?"
"Oh, no," Fai said, tilting his head up with an odd sneer on his face that Yuui found frightful. "Ever since I fell, I can't get back up. I'm not allowed."
"Not allowed by who?"
Fai smiled again and shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Come on, follow me."
When Yuui hesitated yet again, Fai sighed a little impatiently. "Come on! There's nothing that can hurt you down there. It's perfectly safe."
But still, Yuui shook his head and closed his eyes, blocking out his dead brother's smile, and backing up until he hit the solid wall again.
-
Fai sat upright with a strangled gasp as his doorknob turned and a light flickered on. Kurogane peered into the room, an irritated look on his face.
"You were crying out," the ninja said by way of explanation. Apparently satisfied that there were no threats present, he turned to Fai with a look that reminded Fai, for a split second, of Ashura when he was about to scold Fai for scaring away the other noble children. "What happened?"
Fai shuddered. The more he thought about it, the less clear the dream seemed to become. "Nothing," he said slowly.
"That wasn't nothing," Kurogane replied, an irritated look on his face. "If it was another nightmare, just say so."
"No!" Fai said quickly. He noticed he was rubbing his right wrist and clasped his hands firmly together in his lap. "It wasn't a nightmare."
"You were screaming."
Fai shrugged and lay back down, pulling the covers over his shoulders again. "It was nothing."
"Are you sure?" Kurogane took a step into Fai's room.
Fai threw back his covers and glared at Kurogane. "I said it was nothing!"
The ninja blinked, a look of surprise on his face. "Right then." He turned to leave, a strange look on his face as he turned the door.
Fai clenched his fists, the nails digging into his hand. Kurogane was just so irritating sometimes, the way he would prod and poke into stuff that was none of his business.
He slowly became aware of a feather light touch on his shoulder, but when he turned, there was no one and nothing there, only his shadow cast onto the wall beside him.
-
Yuui had to grip Fai's hand tightly as they stepped down the staircase together. The first time they had gone down, Fai had let go and Yuui had gotten scared and run back to the top, and couldn't be coaxed to try going down again for days. Now, Yuui held onto his brother as he whispered reassuring things to him.
"There's something I want to show you this time," Fai said cheerfully as they walked through the torch-lit hallway the staircase opened up into. "Something that you'll like, I think. I had it made just for you."
Yuui managed a shaky smile, unable to copy Fai's brilliant, natural one. "If you made it for me, I'm sure I'll like it."
"Don't say that before you even see it," Fai scolded lightly. He pulled Yuui along a bit faster. "Let's go!"
Yuui trotted along obediently as his brother led him past several imposing closed doors. They stopped at last before one, and Fai raised his hand.
The word KLEINE glowed briefly, a pulsating red against the dark, nearly black wood, and the double doors swung open. Inside was a room just like the lobby of the resort, with a roaring fireplace on one side.
Fai led the way to the couches, Yuui following him less certainly. He saw the dolls when he was a few meters away and stopped, horrified yet compelled by their twisted likeness.
"Come sit beside me!" Fai patted the empty seat by his side. "Do you like it?"
Yuui was too stunned to answer the question. He crept past the dolls quietly, as if afraid they would wake up, but the Syaoran and Sakura look-alikes just gazed at him blankly with painted marbles for eyes and the Kurogane look-alike grinned menacingly at him.
"What did you do?" He managed to ask at last.
Fai pouted a little bit. "Don't you like them? I spent a long time trying to get them to look realistic."
"But this isn't realistic!" Yuui cried out. "They're, they're …"
"Scary?" Fai suggested, and Yuui thought he looked satisfied. "But your companions are scary, Yuui. They're trying to steal you away from me. See how they're always watching?"
Sure enough, the dolls had turned to look at him and Yuui thought they looked like they disapproved.
"But …" he said, confused. "Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun and Kuro-puu are good people. Mokona too."
"That's what they want you to think," Fai told him, in the manner of an older brother telling the younger how the world works. "We're lucky we're not like them, Yuui, we can count on each other no matter what. You'll always be there for me, right? I can count on you for anything?"
"… Right," Yuui agreed, his eyes trapped fearfully by the firelight reflecting in Kurogane's marble eyes. "Anything."
-
The weeks passed, and all four of them spent their time searching high and low in the hotel for any sign of the feather with no results.
"Maybe it's in one of the rooms," Fai suggested one day, when they met, tired and discouraged for a dinner that he had prepared. "We should open them up and check."
"Watanuki-san said not to," Syaoran replied uncertainly. "Maybe we shouldn't."
"He made it sound like there are frightening things in them," Sakura shivered. "Sometimes, during the night, I can hear laughter and then screaming …"
"Are you still having nightmares?" Fai asked, concerned.
Sakura shook her head. "Not anymore, but this place … There's just something about it …" She trailed off.
"Stop saying that," Fai snapped. He immediately regretted it when he saw the hurt on her face and the shock on everyone else's. He softened his tone and continued. "If you think about it that way, you'll get more frightened. We've looked all over, and we've found nothing wrong. There's nothing that can hurt us here."
"You sound like you're trying to hide something," Kurogane accused. "You haven't been acting normal since we first got here. What's going on, mage?"
Fai looked at Kurogane with distaste. Prying, always prying. Who was he to judge Fai? "Nothing."
"You need to stop saying that." Kurogane got up and glared down at Fai. "Maybe you really are an idiot and a fool and actually believe there's nothing wrong, but I don't believe that façade of yours. You do know something's up, but you won't tell us what it is."
"It's nothing," Fai insisted.
-
Later that night, Fai knocked gently on Kurogane's door. When the ninja opened the door and stared at him suspiciously, he lowered his hand slowly, and soon his eyes followed until they were focused on the ground.
"Sorry," he whispered. When little more than a small rush of air escaped his mouth, he cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm sorry. For how I acted at dinner tonight. I … I don't know what I was thinking. I don't know what happened."
Kurogane stared at him incredulously. "What's wrong with you? Coming here to apologize?"
Fai shrugged listlessly. "Maybe you're right. There's something …"
The shadows moved.
They rose in unison at Fai's words, leaping upwards on the walls and prowling across the ground, and Fai could have sworn he saw them quiver in anticipation and lean forward. They rose as one, but Fai could see the tiny movements that disrupted the nearly perfect flow – it wasn't one shadow, but thousands joined together.
"There's something," Kurogane repeated.
"Nothing," Fai denied quickly, watching the shadows, his heart pounding. At that one word, they seemed to relax slightly. "Nothing, nothing, nothing," he chanted, but the shadows still lingered behind Kurogane.
"God damnit," Kurogane grunted, turning around to go back into his room. "If you're not going to tell me anything, go back to your own room."
"Wait!" Fai reached out reflexively and grabbed Kurogane's arm. "Don't go!"
Kurogane gave him a long level glare. "This isn't the time for any of your games."
Fai shook his head. "No, no, it's not a game; it's -" But the shadows were rising again and Fai tugged sharply on Kurogane's arm. "It's nothing! Come on!"
Thankfully, Kurogane followed, if not happily. "There had better be a good explanation for this!" He shouted, but Fai was too busy watching the walls around them.
The shadows surged and leapt like a single-minded predator, and Fai could hear the faint beating of wings as they chased him.
"Nothing," he tried under his breath, but the word no longer had any effect and the shadows didn't stop. "Nothing. Nothing nothing nothingnothingnoTHINGNOTHING! THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS PLACE!"
Ignoring the other man's exclamations, he towed Kurogane into his room, opened the light, and slammed the door. The shadows flooded in under the door and with a cry, Fai slammed his hand on the light switch and the room was filled completely by darkness, the moon blocked out by the thick and heavy curtains.
He strained his ears and eyes, but could detect no more signs of movement. As his ragged breathing slowed, he realized that he was clutching tightly onto Kurogane and that Kurogane had his arms around him, steadying him as he swayed.
"What was that?" Kurogane asked finally, his voice low and rumbling in the silence.
Fai closed his eyes and leaned forward, his fear rising as he managed to spit out a single word.
"Nothing."
-
A/N - I'm (obviously) not following the original storyline very closely XD Also, this fic has been expanded from the original three parts to four, with a fifth that's basically a short epilogue. (Gah, I'm killing myself here between this and NaNo XD)
