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Through a glass darkly - Long Live The Queen (6/6)
Prompt: Through A Glass Darkly
Parts: [prologue] [chapter 1] [chapter 2] [chapter 3] [chapter 4] [epilogue]
Word count: ~ 28,000
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, blood, terrorism, minor character death, major character death (somehow, but somehow not - it is complicated.)
EPILOGUE
The sun was rising and the neon-lights of Clow were flickering and dying. The city would soon be going to sleep. In the distance, out in the bone-colored desert, black sun sails turned towards the light, screeching like pained animals as the sand of decades ground in their hinges.
Half a year after the coronation of Child Queen Sakura, due to the relationships entertained by former King Touya from his exile as well as internal efforts from sides of a strong power in the underground left unnamed, the cogs of political change were slowly grinding onwards. Civil war was still a risk, but the probability had been lowered by far. Xiang was keeping to his own borders and fighting with internal conflicts, unable to attack Clow as it was.
Syaoran Li was nation-wide known as the hero to have rescued the former Princess single-handedly from one of the greatest act of terrorism in modern history, and pictures of him blushing profusely as he was personally thanked by the Queen were still circulated in the newspapers and on the internet.
Sometimes, Kurogane leafed through history books, half-expecting the name “Fei Wong Reed” to stand out to him in a place where it hadn’t been before, but it never did. And the one time he had asked Yuuko for it, he had told him that this was an information that he could not pay for, even if he sold his whole, shabby apartment.
Kurogane leaned in a corridor, his back pressed to a wall of glass – tall, isolated windows like these were a luxury in a city that got so hot you could not step outside two hours past sunrise. He and Syaoran were waiting in front of the biggest auditorium of the University of Clow.
The clock stood five to the 1st hour of morning, and students of the late night presentation streamed out of the room, filling the hallways campus with chattering and laughter. Kurogane pushed off the wall, searching the crowd with his eyes. It took a few minutes for the students to clear out, before he carefully stepped through the open door and into the room. Syaoran was following him like a shadow. Kurogane had the distinct feeling that for all that he hadn’t told the boy, Syaoran had a pretty good idea of what had happened between him and Fai.
Far down, in front of a sprawling screen, the professor stood. A handful of students had gathered around him, asking questions that he answered with a smile and great patience. A small bubble of normalcy seemed to surround them, the safety of the well-educated middle class that Kurogane had never felt. Kurogane watched the scene with detachment, like an audience watching a play.
As the last of the students left, Kurogane slowly made his way down, brushing past the girl that hurried in the opposite direction. He never took his eyes of the figure at the front. As he was busy shutting off the computers and the beamer, he only lifted his gaze far enough to meet Kurogane’s eyes when he was on the last few steps.
“Hello, there,” Yuui said with a smile, leaning against the desk. “A new student of mine?”
“Not really,” Kurogane said, stopping before he entered the circle with the desk in the middle. “But I have once known someone like you.”
Yuui looked at him, again, and his face changed almost immediately with the dawning recognition.
Kurogane stayed where he was, not daring to step down onto the stage, his heart hammering. After half a year, he would not have thought that he had missed him so much. The eyes, the slender build, the way the left corner of his mouth pulled up a bit higher than the right one when he was smiling. He was prepared to meet an entirely different person – one without the experiences at war, without the trauma of recent loss, someone who was, if not content then at least mostly satisfied with his life, with the normal problems of a normal man. Whom he met was a younger Fai, but someone who very clearly still was the same man.
He would not have thought that it would hurt this much. He had almost forgotten that Fai and Yuui were not two entities he could separate that easily, and the lines were beginning to blur. He felt dizzy.
“It’s you,” Yuui breathed, eyes wide and disbelieving. “I had almost thought I was going insane.”
“He – you – wanted us to meet. I didn’t manage, before now,” Kurogane said. It sounded like a weak excuse even to his own ears. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, I have to admit... it was almost surreal, when I found the recordings, the logs, everything filmed from the point of view of someone I might have become,” Yuui covered his mouth with a hand. He looked Kurogane up and down with a peculiar look. “You and me, we were-“
“Yeah,” Kurogane cut him off, throwing a look over his shoulder at Syaoran. The boy had a big, slightly embarrassed grin painted on his face. “Yeah, we were.”
Syaoran cleared his throat behind him.
“Syaoran Li,” he introduced himself and stepped – after one short glance at Kurogane – onto the slightly elevated stage. “I’m glad to meet you, again.”
“Glad to meet you, as well, Syaoran,” Yuui smiled. He seemed to still be swimming, out of his depth. Syaoran was trying his best to make it easier, Kurogane realized. “Glad to meet the both of you, though it certainly is a surprise.”
“Wipe that lying grin off your face,” Kurogane bit out in annoyance. Yuui laughed aloud at him in surprise.
“It’s just... weird,” Yuui admitted helplessly. He seemed more like Fai when he threw his arms up in the air, lines of confusion appearing on his face. “It feels like we have gone through a lot, together, when truly, we haven’t.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Kurogane said. He stood in silence on the steps, considering whether to take the last step down. He knew he would have to, immediately. He could not run away. “It might have been a mistake to come here-“
The look of hurt that flashed over Yuui’s face cut off his words more effectively than words could have.
“Please,” Yuui said, taking a step closer. “Let’s at least talk this through. Let me at least find out that I’m not a complete nutjob,” he said.
“Can’t promise things that won’t happen,” Kurogane shot back. Yuui took a moment to get it was a joke, then let out a long, relieved huff of held breath. There was silent laughter in his eyes, and something in Kurogane’s chest swelled, making it hard to breath. He was sure that Fai would have never been able to wear that kind of carefree look. Not after years of peace. It was as though meeting someone he had never met, before, and yet understanding the person he had come to love for a very short episode of time better.
Fai’s eyes had been mirrors. Yuui’s were the clear sky, still free of the damage that had embittered Fai so.
“How about we grab a cup of coffee,” he said, seeming calmer, more in control. “I think there is a lot of weirdness to get over, between the three of us and that crazy story I have on a data chip.”
“I think I might excuse myself from that conversation,” Syaoran deadpanned. “I have homework to do.”
“Brat,” Kurogane murmured, but was secretly glad for it. There was something in Yuui’s eyes that had not been in Fai’s, and that he was not entirely sure he was ready to find out about. But he was pulled into the circle of his presence. Fai had wanted them to meet, he reminded himself. He had grieved, he had gotten on with his life, he had been back in the mill. He had found that he didn’t want to spend his life without meeting this person, once more. He could not turn his back on this one chance of meeting him, face to face.
He finally took the last few steps into the circle of Yuui’s presence, pulling one hand out of the pocket so his trousers in order to shake his hand.
“Coffee, then,” he agreed. “And after that, I think we have a time machine left to destroy.”
The answering grin on Yuui’s face, warm, delighted and a bit reckless, was enough to tell Kurogane that he was making the right decision.
~the end.
Thank you for reading! How did I do?
Please score my fic according to these guidelines:
1. How in-character was this fic? (1-10)
2. How well did this fic fulfill the prompt? (1-10)
3. How much did you enjoy this fic overall? (1-10)
Remember that you must provide some form of identification (a link to a blog or profile on another site will suffice) for your vote to be counted!
no subject
I thought the fic was extremely in character. To often to authors toss aside characterization in the face of large complicated plots and I happy to say I did not see that here! Great Job!
I think your prompt in general was very vague thus leaving it very open to interpretation. I think the way you utilized it in reference to the differences between Yuui and Fai was done very lovely and overall very creative.
Overall I enjoyed this fic immensely once I figured out the world they were in. At the beginning I was constantly having to adjust my mental picture of how the city was constructed which throws somebody like me off while reading. It in no way hindered the finer point of the story but it was enough to stick out in my mind.
Scores:
10!
10!
9!
no subject
For one, I'm happy to hear of the parts you enjoyed - it feels like a long time since I've last written KuroFai, and I'm relieved to hear I'm not completely out of practice.
I will definitely keep in mind what you said about the world-building - I'm glad you're being straight with me, here, because I myself have felt that I was trying to tell too much at once and wondered how well the world would get across. It's helpful to know how you perceived it, and it makes me want to try to shape the next world I'm building more clearly from the beginning! :D
THANK YOU A TON, for your wonderful review as well as for your kind score! :DDD *happy* *not entirely sure she deserves it, but HAPPY* You honestly brightened my day, here! ♥♥♥