Title Promises.
Fandom Tsubasa Chronicle
Summary When Fai's past catches up with him, it is in a way that he hadn't been expecting. Fai, Kurogane, Taishukaten/Ashura-oh
Promises
It was rare to find swordsmen of any actual quality anymore, Kurogane thought as he downed his drink, a lazy smirk spreading across his lips. Oh, he was sure a small handful still existed somewhere, perhaps in a perfect, violent ninja world where everything was decided by the sword. They certainly didn't turn up in the worlds that Kurogane had the misfortune to travel through, worlds that happened to throw up magicians and thinkers and weirdos by the handful, but rarely ever actual swordsmen.
Which had meant that running into his current drinking partner when they had both happened to be in fantastically foul moods was quite possibly the greatest thing that had yet to happen on his current world defying tiki-tour. Kurogane couldn't quite remember exactly how the fight had started – quite possibly because the alcohol here was stronger than he had been expecting, he couldn't even remember the other man's name – but it had ended in sweat and a bone deep exhaustion that Kurogane had always found intoxicating. His drinking partner knew how to handle a sword, knew how it beat to a separate rhythm that could be harnessed and manipulated. Being able to fight, actually fight as opposed to toy or play with his opposition, had driven away months of frustrations and had meant that when it was over (and if Kurogane could not remember how it had begun, he certainly couldn't remember how it had ended) (although he was sure he had won), whatever animosity that had been there had been replaced by the sort of comradeship that only true, quality swordsmen could truly appreciate.
And he was perhaps a little drunk, which was perhaps a little strange. Generally, 'drunk' was something he didn't do, his body so finely tuned to perfection that little, silly things such as alcohol lost any real effect. It was more likely due to the high that followed such a fight, he reflected, although he was starting to forget the small details of that, as well. Normally he wouldn't be so complacent around someone who was actually competent, but –
The but was enough for him to realize that there was something very, very wrong – there should never be any buts. There never were any buts, not when just a single one could lead to losing absolutely everything, least importantly your own life.
But this? This was a but. With a growl, he turned to face the other man, his vision starting to fade just slightly around the edges. He was met with a sharp, vicious smile, before his drinking partner tipped his glass towards him in a mocking salute.
By the time his fingers were wrapped around the hilt of his sword, unconsciousness had already claimed him.
The boy was good, but Taishukaten had fought many times against entire clans that had been comprised of hundreds of men who were equally so. His skill with the sword had been perhaps greater than most Taishukaten had encountered, but there was still youthfulness there, a sense that the other man knew fighting but not battles, and it had been something that was so very easy to exploit. Kurogane had been clever enough in the end to realize he had been poisoned, but not enough so to have figured out that he had exhaled the poison long before they'd reached the bar. But Kurogane had thought he was fighting a swordsman, not someone far greater, and it had been that who had doomed him.
Still, he had checked the bindings several times before he had left, just to make sure there would be no unexpected surprises when he returned. The boy was more use to him alive than dead – at least he was at the moment, although his ultimate fate lay with someone else entirely.
Although, knowing Fai, that meant practically a death warrant.
He'd used some kid to deliver the letter, only half sure that Fai would even care enough to turn up. But Fai was already waiting for Taishukaten when he arrived, the setting sun turning usually blond hair a fiery, blood red. Whether Fai realized why Taishukaten had picked the docks, Taishukaten hardly cared. Even if Fai did realize, Taishukaten did not think for one moment that the other man would give a damn. He never had about anything, and Taishukaten doubted that Fai had suddenly put value in such things now.
Taishukaten had been expecting Ashura-oh back days ago. The other man knew how to take care of himself, of course, and Taishukaten wasn't so much as concerned as he was impatient for his return. He had expected the tired smile that slipped unwanted across Ashura-oh's lips as the other man slipped from his horse at the main gates, just as he'd expected Ashura-oh to have lost none of his elegance even after such a long ride.
What Taishukaten could never have predicted, however, was the small mess of a child that Ashura-oh carried with him.
Fai must have known the moment he arrived, and so Taishukaten said nothing as he waited for the other man to turn around. It was several, long minutes before Fai did, his gaze drifting away from the tumbling waves and towards him for the first time in over a year. And, he could still remember the cold emptiness that had shone in pale blue eyes even when Fai has still been a child, just as he could still remember how that emptiness had only ever retreated slightly around the edges whenever Ashura-oh was at his most paternal. Fai didn't do anything more emotional, didn't do anything more concrete, and yet …
There was no hiding the sorrow in Fai's eyes, nor the determination that stained them a strange shade of lavender.
"He is a demon child, and if you wish anyone else to accept him you will first have to change the entire fabric of the universe," Taishukaten said darkly as he glared at the sleeping boy. Ashura-oh was hardly moved by either his comment or his expression, but then, Ashura-oh rarely ever was.
"If I cared at all about what others thought of those I choose to associate with, Fai would not be the only person not here," Ashura-oh replied coolly, even as an unfamiliar softness crept into his gaze as he ran his fingers lightly through the boy's hair. "He is not the only one who has occasionally been compared to a demon, after all." The last few words were spoken quietly, and Taishukaten did not doubt that Ashura-oh was reflecting on himself. "The difference is that he is nothing but a shell, and will never be anything else." And Ashura-oh wasn't listening, but then, that had rarely ever stopped Taishukaten from speaking. "He will never be able to create anything; will only ever bring destruction to everything he touches. You're not usually this cruel, Ashura-oh." Ashura'-oh's lips twisted in a mockery of a smile. "Aren't I?"
"I wasn't expecting to see you again, Taishukaten." The voice was still the same, light and feathery and lyrical, so unnaturally perfect that it made Taishukaten's teeth grind together. "I never thought you would leave Ashura-oh if you ever found out where he was … where he was."
"You never have thoughts, that is part of who you are." Taishukaten smiled as he said the words, a dark, twisted smile that was more vicious than any sword could possibly be. "You are nothing more than a demon who has learnt how to mimic human emotions and actions whenever it suits you, but a demon still beneath the charade."
"Ashura-oh didn't seem to think so," Fai said, but as light as his words were, there was a heaviness in his tone.
"Don't you dare even speak his name," Taishukaten growled in response, his muscles tightening as he fought back the urge to kill the other man right here and now. "Ashura-oh was a fool when it came to you, a fool who somehow thought that if he only tried hard enough that he could somehow save you from your fate." He laughed harshly. "Your fate should have been at the edge of his sword, not salvation."
Everyone else had seen. Everyone else had known. But Ashura-oh, Ashura-oh …
"You're giving him a Chii doll?" he asked dubiously, looking down at the small blonde with pretty, loopy ears. "Ashura-oh, did you hit your head at some time and forgot to tell me?" His lover smiled lightly, patting the small doll on the head before turning to Taishukaten.
"You said once that Fai would never be able to create anything, I thought I'd prove you wrong." Taishukaten raised his eyebrows at that, but didn't say a word. "Besides," Ashura-oh added, his smile turning sensual. "If I managed to 'hit my head' as you so elegantly put it, I'm sure that you of all people would know about it." "It's your own fault for having such a hard headboard," he responded with a smirk, the Chii doll instantly forgotten in favor of something far more appetizing.
The Chii doll had proved a point in the end, but not the one that Ashura-oh had been aiming for. Chii dolls evolved into individuals in their own right given human contact, their personality influenced by those who raised them. But the Chii that Fai had been given had never morphed into anything different at all, remaining the obedient, empty doll that it had been when it had first been given to Fai in the first place.
"I know," Fai said, and it took him a moment to remember what it was that they had been talking about when memories of Ashura-oh lingered so painfully close. "If the choice had been yours, I would have dead long ago. If the choice had been mine, I would have been dead even before then." Taishukaten started at that, his gaze narrowing. Ashura-oh had stubbornly refused to tell Taishukaten any of the details of how or where he found Fai that fateful afternoon, and this was certainly something new. Fai shouldn't ever have had enough sense of individuality to ever think of his own death, but then perhaps this was just another one of his tricks. Or maybe Ashura-oh hadn't quite been as foolish as Taishukaten had been led – deliberately – to believe. "But in the end, Ashura-oh made that choice for both of us."
"You've changed." It wasn't a question. "You never had this level of awareness before." Fai was not stupid, had never been stupid even back when such simple things as emotions had escaped him, and so the other man did not wrongly interpret Taishukaten's comments as something positive.
"I know." So simple. So damn simple that Taishukaten wanted to wrap his hands around that pretty neck and squeeze. "I hadn't intended to, but the moment Ashura-oh-" Fai broke off with a shake of his head. "Where is Kurogane?"
There were some things that apparently stayed the same: Fai was still willing to manipulate others to get exactly what he wanted.
It was just too bad for the other man that Taishukaten had never been above such things himself.
"Tell me what happened in Celes and I'll consider telling you where Mr. Collateral is." Taishukaten smiled, although there was not a single ounce of warmth in it. "And if you even flicker from the truth I'll make sure that your friend is returned to you in pieces." He had thought that perhaps this Kurogane was enough of a liability to tempt Fai somewhere his magic would be nullified, but as Fai narrowed his eyes just slightly at the threat, he thought that perhaps the other man may have had some sort of impact on the demon. If that was at all possible.
"You followed me all the way here just to find out what happened?" For a moment, something that was almost pity –surely not pity – appeared in Fai's gaze.
"No." Cold. Unrelenting. "I've been searching for you so I can figure out how the hell to fix whatever it is that you did."
He had known that something was terribly, horribly wrong when the routes leading to the palace were deserted. The arching expanses that cut through the layers of cloud before concluding at the entrance of the floating castle were always bustling with travelers and small stalls, yet even the thin layer of dust that usually coated the marble roads had seemed to have fled. As their horses bounced anxiously from hoof to hoof, Taishukaten did not have to instruct his men to break formation and storm towards the palace. He was not, after all, the only one who had left someone behind, and if even the horses knew …
They were met with carnage. Blood and bodies and so much blood. Streaked across pillars, smudged in long gashes along tables and walls and windows, it was almost as though some disturbed artist had taken to the hallowed halls of the castle. For a precious few moments Taishukaten allowed himself to lose himself in it all, before hundreds of years of warrior training kicked in and he was flying to where he needed to be – both as a soldier and as a human. Ashura-oh hadn't been in his chambers, but then his lover was hardly the type of person to hide himself away. It wasn't his blood in the corridors, and if Ashura-oh, if Ashura-oh was dead then he would have known. Fai was missing as well, but the stink of the demon was everywhere.
"You were right when you said I had changed," Fai said with an airy smile. "But you were wrong as well. Ashura-oh, he-" there was emotion again in Fai's eyes, but it was gone before Taishukaten could identify which one. "He always believed in me, although I was never sure why. He used to say that that doubt was proof in itself that I owned at least one emotion for myself as opposed to siphoning ones that were convenient off others." Ashura-oh had never shared such information with Taishukaten, and a feeling of foreboding started to settle in. "I didn't realize it for the longest time, not until it was too late, that I had been slowly, slowly falling into myself just as Ashura-oh had always said I would." Fai's smile dropped as his serious gaze met Taishukaten's defiant one. "Because of that, everything that happened in Celes was entirely my fault. No-one else's."
No. NO.
Ashura-oh was always at his most beautiful when dressed in nothing but a plain, simple robe, his dark hair falling in rich contrast against the white silk. Taishukaten smiled softly as he buried his face in that rich hair, his arms snaking around Ashura-oh's waist as he pulled the other man's back against his bare chest.
"You really should come inside," he murmured, just a hint of suggestiveness in his tone. "The wind out here is chilly." Ashura-oh snorted at that, and Taishukaten allowed himself a small smirk in return. The wind that currently lightly whipped through Ashura-oh's balcony was hardly the sort of thing that had an effect on either of them, there had been too many battles fought on iced plains without anything more than thin armor for mere weather to impact on them. It wasn't a surprise then when Ashura-oh didn't move, although Taishukaten frowned when his lover did lean back into his embrace, allowing Taishukaten to support his weight just slightly. "Ashura-oh?" "I'm just a little tired tonight, Katen," Ashura-oh said quietly, twisting around in Taishukaten's arms so that they were facing each other. His lover's small smile was genuine, just as the tiredness that stained his gaze was. The smile turned a touch affectionate as Ashura-oh curled one hand in Taishukaten's hair, his fingers tangling in the pale strands. "Although seeing you like this makes me feel less so." "You've been thinking too much again," he accused his lover, whose smile morphed into a smirk. "Someone has to pick up your slack in that particular area." Taishukaten responded with a kiss, but it failed to have the effect it should have as it did nothing to rob away the seriousness in Ashura-oh's eyes. "You're thinking too much about him." He didn't say who in particular, and Ashura-oh hardly needed him to. "You care too much about him, you know." "Sometimes I think I care too much about the wrong people." The dry comment was not directed solely at Fai, but there was something in Ashura-oh's tone that Taishukaten couldn't quite place, something unfamiliar there that tainted it a shade a heavier. "Sometimes, I think the wrong people pay as a result." Ashura-oh's smile turned wry. "I can be a very selfish person when I want to be, Katen." Taishukaten smirked as he slowly moving backwards towards the bedroom, his arms still entangled around Ashura-oh's waist. "It's one of your best qualities."
"You do not think that I would honestly believe that Ashura-oh …" Taishukaten couldn't finish, too angry to say the words. Fai blinked in surprise at him, before smiling a strangely sad smile.
"He made me promise him three things before he broke the final two seals. The first that I –" this time it was Fai who broke off, his smile faltering. "That I try and live in a way he thought he'd never been able to teach me." That idiot. That fucking idiot. "Secondly, he made me promise that-"
"You would kill him once his little experiment was over." Taishukaten snarled. "If you hadn't done so already. That was what he was trying to do, wasn't it? Shock you into showing some human emotion at least once in your life, even if it took your savior losing his own soul – his own life." At the expense of his subjects, at the possible expense of Fai. At the expense of them.
"Sometimes I think I care too much about the wrong people."
That bastard. That absolute, utter bastard. And yet, the Fai that stood before him was nothing like the twisted doll that Taishukaten had last seen before that fateful trip. Not quite human, Fai was still partly there, shades of emotion creeping into moments where they never had before. Ashura-oh had sacrificed everything, and been right. He'd also been insanely wrong.
"It's one of your best qualities."
"You didn't kill him." It had taken weeks to break the spells that had hidden Ashura-oh away from them all, but even though Taishukaten hadn't been able to find a way to rouse Ashura-oh from his deep sleep, never once had he doubted that his lover was still alive.
"No," Fai replied with just a touch of wryness. "I like to think that by sealing him away that I was at least honoring the spirit of our promise, but once he breaks the seal …"
"You'll have to kill him." Comprehension suddenly dawned. "Which is why you're running away."
"If I'm to kill him, he'll have to find me first," Fai agreed with the smallest of smiles, and it was such an Ashura-oh way of dealing with the situation that Taishukaten felt as though his heart forgot to beat for a flicker of a second.
"Then keep running," he finally growled, a shallow smirk appearing when surprise returned to Fai's face. Surprise suited the other man well, very well. "How long will your barrier hold?"
"Not for much longer. If it had been anyone else but Ashura-oh …"
If it had been anyone other than Ashura-oh, neither of them would have cared.
"You just stay out of his reach; I'll find a way to reverse what he's done to himself." Taishukaten couldn't quite yet say the words to say out loud that Ashura-oh had deliberately broken the seals he'd placed upon himself to prevent his own demon blood from ever taking control, and he wasn't entirely sure he ever would.
"There is no way to reverse the breaking of the seals." Fai said the words matter-of-factly, but without the coldness that would have accompanied them back before all this had begun.
"You've still got a lot to learn about being human, demon child. Things such as hope." His reply brought no verbal response from Fai, but after a few precious seconds the other man nodded once in acknowledgement. "Now, if you excuse me?" They had nothing more to say to each other, and so nothing more was said. Turning sharply on his heels, Taishukaten strode away, sparing Kurogane a slightly raised eyebrow as he passed where the other man was leaning against one of the dock buildings. Kurogane simply smirked in response, although his gaze promised that things were hardly over between them.
"Taishukaten! Don't you want to know the third thing that Ashura-oh made me promise?" Taishukaten steps didn't falter even when Fai called out after him, nor did he turn around or stop when he made his own reply.
"I know exactly what it is, and that bastard can tell me it himself when this is all over." And then, the whirl of magic that had brought him here and which had cost him almost everything to momentarily possess wrapped itself around him and whisked him away once again.
Back to Ashura-oh. Back home.
Now, he just had to figure out how to keep his lover there.