Touching the Viking - KuroFai Harlequin 15 (iii/v)

[animangod]

Authours note: .
 

 

It had been a slight itch that had begun shortly after leaving the hilly valleys, the peaceful, oddly uninhabited lands that he’d awoke in after Fai practically kidnapped them to save their lives. Funny it started only after that place. However, Kurogane could not shake the feeling they were being watched, that somehow they were being followed. It sounded ludicrous, he told himself over and over, but the feeling of someone following them never really left.  However, Fai also seemed … flighty. Perhaps because he kept his guise up around others, but he never stayed anywhere for long. Guessing, Kurogane was sure he was running from something. The question was, what was he running away from, or maybe who, and why? But even when he asked, all he usually would get out of Fai was half-truths, cryptic answers or denials, rarely a straight answer. Then there was that business with Feiwan of the Dragon, Black Wings. How did Fai know? Did he really just hear the other say it? And for a mercenary, he was way too lax and friendly. There were just too many unknkowns and suspicious vagueness that came with Fai.

What he did get as an answer proved a few things. No one apart from Sakura were actually close to Fai. The man was distant, and even his so-called friends only saw a surface woman Fai. Fai hardly talked of himself, avoided any such mention of his past, often doing what he could to shift the focus of talk away from 'her' and onto other things.

However, Fai probably had an innate ability to just hear hurt a mile away, maybe smell pain. Something. Fai had been on the top deck, idly gazing at the waters before him, the white sails catching the breeze and driving them forwards. Kurogane was idly reading in the kitchen while Syaoran and Sakura worked on making a meal for later that day. Syaoran was peeling potatoes, when he accidentally knicked himself with the short blade. Kurogane looked up from his book when he heard the small sound of pain from his son. Within moments, Sakura stopped what she was doing, and held Syaoran’s hands with hers, prying the stained blade from his fingers, and taking the potato away as well, setting it aside.

“Don’t worry,” Sakura chided, before Syaoran could do or say anything or before Kurogane got out of the chair, “Most accidents happen in the kitchen. That’s why there’s a medical chest near the entry.”

She slowly escorted him to the table, as Kurogane rose to retrieve the medical chest from next to the door, when all of a sudden blonde hair and bright, concerned eyes met his. Fai stood in the doorway, and looked inside, studying the scene before him, eyes darting to take in everything, before the visible signs of him relaxing were present, and he voiced in an airy chirp, “Need any help?”

“All this fuss for [a] tiny scratch; I’m fine,” Syaoran tried to protest. However, it was three against one. Sakura lightly flicked him in the forehead. “Don’t argue. If we make a fuss, that means we care about you.”

Kurogane admonished himself and the half a smile forming on his face as he brought over the medical chest, setting it down beside the children. He then began to open up drawers, digging out the disinfectant, a clean cloth and some bandages.

Fai stood in the doorway, smiling fondly as Sakura lectured the youth some more with Kurogane tending to the injured finger, “I’ve watched many [men and women] die from a scratch. If you cut people in particular areas, it will nearly instantly kill them, armor or nay. So I don’t want to hear another peep out of you about how severe an injury has to be to be worth a fuss.” After her hard little lecture, Syaoran looked to his lap, and mustered out a “sorry”. Kurogane said nothing as he cleaned the wound before wrapping it up, but she smiled kindly, leaned over and gently whispered sweetly to him, “Not sorry; say thank you.”

“There, all better,” Kurogane said, standing back up and putting the remaining supplies back into the medical chest.

Syaoran paused for a moment, looking back at Sakura, before he looked to his parent. “Thank you, Father … for worrying about me.”

Kurogane stopped where he was, having never heard his son say that, but he couldn’t help the smile that emerged because of it. He ruffled the boy’s hair. “You’re welcome, my son.”

Fai moved from the doorway to the kitchen, and resumed where Syaoran had left off, taking a clean knife and resuming the peelings. “And don’t worry about the food, Syaoran. You just take it easy for a few minutes, alright?” called Fai from over his shoulder.

Syaoran began to say sorry again, but paused, “Thank you … Mother.”

Fai paused in his peelings to look at Syaoran and a small smile tugged at his lips, different than the one he usually wore, and Kurogane swore he saw pain in those eyes. Those bright blue, gentle eyes. It made little sense. “Of course.” Fai returned to staring at the potatoes and peeling them. “Syaoran, why don’t you go see where we are heading? Make sure we don’t run into any large monoliths peeking from the waters.” Fai suggested in a light voice, and Syaoran nodded.

“Alright.” Syaoran walked out of the kitchen, and up to the top deck,

Sakura returned to her spot, and resumed chopping the carrots she had been cutting up. Kurogane picked up the medical chest to return it to the where he had picked it up from, when over the shwip, shwip, shwip of Sakura’s knife, he could overhear her.

“Don’t look at him like that.”

Kurogane gently set the chest down, and turned to look at the two. “Like what?” Fai quipped quietly.

“Like he’s her,“ Sakura was interrupted with one hand coming over her mouth, and Fai standing otherwise stalk still.

Sakura let out a puff, her words muted. She swatted Fai’s hand away, before opening her mouth and speaking in another language. Kurogane could not make out the language, but Fai was holding deathly still, and it took all Fai’s strength not to just explode then from the taunting child. Instead, he steeled his resolve.

“Daring she-child,” Fai spoke before speaking again in that other language.

Sakura’s eyes widened as Fai spoke. “You’re cruel, Mother,” she whined, as if she hadn’t expected such a response, albeit she did.

“It’s fitting punishment.” She rose her bottom lip into a pout before turning to cutting the carrots, letting out a guttural grunt of discord at the other.

It seemed whatever just happened had receded, but there was tension and aggression in the air, and Kurogane was not too dumb to know that whatever was there, meant something. Not some trivial thing, but something that shook Fai, stirred him up something terrible. Fai got back to work on the food, and finished the potatoes relatively quickly. Once he was done, he chopped them into small chunks, and poured them into the huge cooking pot that was making small gurgling noises as the meaty broth came to a soft boil.

Fai stirred the stew a few times until he was satisfied for now, before leaving the kitchen. When Fai left, Sakura waited a while, before she turned to Kurogane. “Father… can I ask something of you?” she asked in one of those sweet voices.

Kurogane turned to the youth, confused as to when they’d started calling the other their parent as well. His life seemed to have really taken some twisted turn if now his son is calling their kidnapper, mother, and Fai’s daughter is calling him father. Strange indeed, even stranger, he thought, was his own attitude. He would not call it contentment, but perhaps more like pieces he didn’t know were missing were just coming in, and filling in tiny holes he didn’t know were there. He let out a grunt, “What do you want to ask of me? And I’m not your father, she-child.”

The girl had a knowing smile, and he swore she learned that one from Fai. “That’s what I want to ask of you.”

All Kurogane could manage at the moment was a dull “What?” as he stared at the teen.

She moved to the table and sat up on the ledge. “See. It’s pretty lonely just Mother and me, what with we are never anywhere civilized for longer than a fortnight , and well Syaoran is all sweet and well. I like him and he’s sooo cute, especially when he…” the girl paused, stopping herself from continuing on about his son like that “it’d be nice if you two stayed with us because you wanted to stay with us, not just because you have to. Mother would agree, if Mother would stop being so…” and she struggled to find an appropriate word, “obstinate in head and heart.”

“Why are you asking this of me?” questioned Kurogane with a raised eyebrow.

“Because… I think you make a great Father, and Mother needs you, as much as you need Mother.” The girl giggled, before taking on a coy glint to her eyes and voice. “Oh yeah, do Father and Mother already play each other in bed yet? I’m still waiting to hear the bedroom moaning.”

Kurogane turned quite red in the face, bristling at that last bit. “That… THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS LITTLE GIRL!” Kurogane stormed off, and he could still hear the bright laughter echoing in the kitchen, before the familiar sound of chopping.

***

Kurogane needed to clear his head some from what Sakura was just implying, just saying. He wandered into the study aboard the Mokona, and was only partially surprised when he saw Fai. The study was filled with hundreds of maps, many pinned to the walls, some tucked away in clay vases, the door having a target board on the back and one bookshelf to complete the walls. There was a sturdy workbench with a smooth finish that Fai was sitting at, in one of the nicer oaken chairs, leaning over, mutely staring at the maps spread on the table, a pen twittering in his hands, and a serious, somber look, not at all like his faux smile he usually wore daily. Alone, he let his guard done just a little. It showed on his face when he actually felt comfortable enough to be real.

“I swear your daughter has little filter between mind and mouth.”

Fai looked upwards from his current map, and made a lilting smile, “I agree. Most days, the most filter I receive is a muted voice. She is not afraid to speak what is in heart and head.”

Kurogane leaned against the most naked spot on the wall, having to close the study door to create a bare spot to lean on, “Speaking of which, she brought up a few valid points.”

“Did she now?” Fai set his pen in his ink jar, before intertwining his fingers together and leaning his chin on them, his eyes focused on Kurogane, “What valid points did she bring up?”

Kurogane was pretty blunt as the last one she had mentioned came out first, “You’ve never asked for sex, although you say you favor the flute in bed.”

Fai waved a hand dismissively, “Of course I haven’t. I was waiting…”

“You were waiting?”

“Certainly. Any sex I’d have you do forced would be bad for the both of us. And I may own you, but even property deserves respect of their wishes. You don’t see me forcing myself with my horses, now do you?”

“I don’t think I want to see.” Not that Kurogane had a problem so much with him having sex with an animal; he just didn’t want to watch Fai make out with one.

Fai smiled, humored. “I was waiting for you to either try to annul your end of the contract, or for you to actually desire sex with me. I won’t force that on you. To be perfectly honest, I do enjoy having the sound of your heartbeat to fall asleep to; still, until your end of the contract is annulled, I won’t force you to do much anything you do not desire unless your desires endanger my property or my daughter. However, as my property, that does mean you can’t just find any and use them for sexual gratification. You may only use yourself or myself for such purposes unless I say otherwise.”

 “How thoughtful.” Kurogane noted that Fai didn’t mention himself when he was speaking about endangering what belonged to him. As if, he couldn’t hurt what belonged to Fai, but that he could hurt Fai himself. Did Fai actually mean it like that? Hard to tell.

 “Is it?” Fai shrugged, before going back to his map, taking the pen from the jar once more and knocking off some excessive ink. He began to continue a thin line that followed an arched southeastern tilt. Kurogane walked around to Fai’s backside to view the map, graphing out the entire country of Hanshin(1) in very accurate details. Nearest lands were the Nihon Isles, where Suwa had been a part of. There was something about how Fai charted the two that made it apparent how small the Nihon Isles were compared to the other. There was some trade, but very little, and the Nihon Isles were comparably small to the larger Hanshin, like stepping stones to a giant boulder. Following the line from Hanshin, it headed down between two inlets, through the midst of open waters, before arriving in a geographically forested and citied land. Remembering the departure from the grasslands, Kurogane realized Hanshin had quite a nautical distance from the Nihon Isles. They must have stopped somewhere; Kurogane knew they had, a place with rolling hills of grass and a stone tower-like building that led to a corral. A beautiful land with thin air that felt so isolated, it made Suwa seem like a port town from the greater-sized Hanshin. But the map depicted no other place within traveling distance that fit the bill. The time frame, too; a single night to arrive and a week to reach Hanshin. Kurogane was no dolt, and even if the winds and sea favored the ship, time didn't. The nautical distance was too great.

Of course, having air-chi, he supposed Fai could just make the air thinner wherever he went, and might have sailed down to another of the Nihon Isles, only to seriously confuse him. However, it sure didn’t seem like he had been. One night, they’d gotten ready, and the next, there was absolutely no land in sight. He should have at least been able to see some land.

 “Isn’t there something wrong with the map?” Kurogane asked, pointing a finger at the particular map as Fai stared with him at the map.

“There is nothing wrong with the map,” Fai spoke in even tones.

“Something is missing.”

“No one has ever complained about the inaccuracy of my maps before, Kuro-stab. Are you saying my map making skills are inadequate?”

“I am not saying they are inadequate; I’m saying something is missing. After you left the Nihon Isles, where the Suwa lands a-were… you stopped somewhere… and then we left, to Hanshin.”

Fai said nothing, as Kurogane jabbed a finger closer to the map and stared at the back of the other. “Where did you stop before heading to Hanshin?” and added, “And don’t tell me nowhere, because I know you stopped somewhere.”

Fai tensed, swallowed quietly, before he found his voice. “There … is nothing to tell, Kuro-point. That place can no longer be reached.”

What, the bloody hell, is that supposed to mean?

“Can no longer be reached?”

“Aye, can no longer be reached.”

“How did you get there then?”

“Really, Kurogane, you ask such silly questions.” Fai stood up. “I think I am going to check on the stew.” He began to walk away. Kurogane growled low in his throat, and grabbed one of the male’s arms. Fai paused midstep, before turning to Kurogane, “What is it Kuro-water?”

Kurogane stared long and hard at Fai, “I don’t know why you really pretend to be woman, or why you are running away from whatever, I really don’t care, but don’t think you can evade the truth coming out forever.” Kurogane then roughly lets Fai arm go and walks out, hunching his shoulders and wearing his own trademark scowl, turning and glaring into startled blue eyes. “I will find out all your secrets, Witch.” He speaks with such determination, before he turns around and walks out, slamming the door behind him as he leaves.

Fai might’ve as well have had the wind knocked out of him from the look on his face. He took a few unsteady steps back, running into his desk, and as he leaned against it, his legs slid out from underneath him and he glided onto the floor. Fai put a hand against his face, and quietly laughed without any mirth, his chest heaving.

“Ah…Ha…ah ah ah…”  Fai was smiling, as he quietly spoke, “… how terrible, Kuro-sea. Please, don’t bother with knowing me.”

Fai didn’t come out of his study for some time; Fai didn’t even move for some time. Fai just sat there, numbly, holding his legs close to his chest. Why did Kurogane have to say such a thing? Was he really serious? Kurogane didn’t seem the type to lie, and with his loyalty and his stubbornness blazingly obvious, Fai felt the swordsman wasn’t just saying those words, that Kurogane had every intention of seeing his words through. If it weren’t for certain things, Fai thought he’d love that about the swordsman. Paying him the attention, but he really did not want Kurogane to know. He really wanted to be paid attention to by someone who truly cared for him, but feared it all the same. It would only cause the other pain; it’s why Sakura was the only one who he openly had allowed to mostly know. Yes, it would be better if the swordsman didn’t have to learn of such things. He wouldn’t stay forever. One day, he too, would leave him, Fai told himself. Everybody but Sakura always left him. That's why... no one else should have to, should ever be allowed to get close. No one but Sakura planned to ever stay with him permanently. 

Shakily, Fai pushed and forced himself to stand. Slowly, he finished getting to his feet. He only managed to slouch, partially seating himself on his desk.

An old memory surfaced.

~~~

When still younger, she would put a note in a bottle and place it into the sea by the port. It felt silly; like a children's game, 'Write your wish on paper, place it in a bottle and cast it to the Witch of the Seas. If she catches your wish, it will be granted'. She went every day, to the port and cast her wish into the sea. He would join her, sit nearby as she cast her wish each day, but never cast a wish himself.

"What do you wish for so fervently every day?" he asked her that particular afternoon.

The sun was descending to late afternoon. The waters were a deep blue, with splashes of green, and the gentle breeze blew the edges of blonde hair. The hill was grassy in the summer days, leading to the sandy decline. The two left the place known as home, only long enough for this. Soon, the two were to part, but this time was allowed each day.

"Do you really want to know?"

"Aye, I do really want to know."

She paused as she stared at the bottle, and turned to smile. "To always see you smiling."

Standing upright, he walked over and stood by her side. "I'll always smile for you."

She smiles, "What about you? Why don't you ever make a wish?"

"I don't need to do this," Words spoken harshly, then corrected as hurt was brought to her. "I mean... Why ask the Witch of the Seas when she who makes all my wishes come true stands before me?"

Surprise registered, but then a warm smile. "...Really... being here with you makes me the happiest."

Holding each other’s hand, the moment lasted that way until the chimes tolled, announcing the bittersweet departure.

~~~

Drink sounded good about now, but that would be a bad idea. Drink and memories never mixed smoothly. Instead, Fai decided to tend to the animals. That sounded like a better distraction. Quietly, he lurched forwards some, gripped the door handle, before managing to head to the stables aboard in a reasonable manner.

 

THE HISTORICAL CORNER:

(1) The map of Hanshin – Much like this world’s Greenland. The Nihon Isles are similar to the Ryukyu Islands, but geographically here are situated much closer to the other land giant. The third mentioned lands are closest to New Zealand. They will be present in next segment.

 

NICKNAMES:

Kuro-stab – Kuro-stinga

Kuro-point – Kuro-oddr

Kuro-water – Kuro-vatn

Kuro-sea – Kuro-harr