A/N: Last chapter. Neither of the mirror chapters turned out how I wanted them to, but that's okay, I still think they turned out all right.
I'd like to thank all my readers and reviewers for reading and reviewing this story. Truthfully without you this story would have never gotten finished.
Even though it's the last chapter I still want you to read, review, and enjoy.
Zeit- Part One:
"What's that?" Kurogane pulled on Fai's arm making the blond stop walking. Kurogane didn't look very different than he might of in many of the other worlds. His hair hadn't changed, he wore the typical style and colors of clothes that he always did. In fact you might have thought that he was back in the Hanshin Republic if it weren't for a black glove that he wore over his left hand.
"What's what?" Fai on the other hand looked very different. He had cut his hair, but it was still longer than it had been for most of their journey. He wore black pants and a light blue sweater. He wore jewelry, lots of it. Bracelets and rings mostly, but around his neck there was a necklace that if you looked closely looked exactly like his staff had looked. It was hard to tell if he had two eyes or not for his blond locks fell in front of where the right eye was, but since he had a blue left eye it was obvious that he was once again intact.
"It's on your ear..."
"My earrings? You know I wear them Kuro-sama..."
"Yes, but it looks different...you pierced your ear again!" Kurogane grabbed and pulled harshly on the ear in question. Fai made a sound that clearly indicated pain and tried to pry his hand off.
"If you've figured that out don't pull on it! It'll get infected! Do you want that?" A couple of people on the busy city streets would pause to look at the pair, but would quickly walk on, it was almost rush hour and they didn't have time to gaze on a pair of strange people.
After a moment Kurogane let go of Fai's ear and the blond sucked his teeth as hemassaged the spot carefully. Fai had now pierced his ear five times. Each hole had a small stud in it that had a different colored jewel in each one. Red for Kurogane, pink for Sakura, green for Syaoran, white for Mokona, and purple for Yuuko. "Ouch...Kuro-sama is so harsh..."
Kurogane tsked, pushed Fai's hand away from the blond's ear, and very quickly, as if he were afraid of being seen he leaned over and kissed the spot before pulling back. "I'm sorry, okay? I just don't like you piercing your ear so much. No matter what the reason for it is."
Fai placed his fingers to the spot where he had felt Kurogane's lips a moment before. His face showed of shock and then it melted into a happy smile. "Kuro-sama may be harsh, but Kuro-sama is also very sweet."
"Shut up you idiot Mage." Kurogane looked away from Fai. Fai couldn't see his face, but ifhe had to guess he would say that Kurogane was looking away to hide the blush that his words had caused.
Fai reached out and took Kurogane's hand and pulled on it gently. "Come on now, home now."
They walked forward hand in hand. Actually, it more like Fai held onto Kurogane's hand and Kurogane just let Fai do this. Fai understood the reasoning behind that. Kurogane was still a tough guy no matter how many years passed or how many worlds they visited. He had an image to keep up. Fai used to have an image to keep up with, but he no longer tried to do that and just did as he pleased. He changed his style about once a month and pierced his ears to keep track of time. One hole for each year.
"Look Kuro-sama! We're here!" Fai smiled and pointed to a door with a grin that made him look like an emo-kid wannabe. He got no real reaction from Kurogane and he opened the door to a two-story store.
As they walked in, Fai swept his hair out of his right eye and revealed the golden colored eye that lay underneath. Fai hid his oddly colored eye when he went out of the house for two reasons. One was that he was a well known wizard, painter, and writer in this world and as such manypeople recognized him. The other reason was that if the people didn't recognize him they noticed the strange color of his eye and asked about it. Fai found it simpler to just hide his eye and half his face underneath his hair. "You going to run the store for a couple hours?"
"Yeah." At first it didn't really sink in what kind of store the pair stood in, but then you started to notice the katana's and different kinds of weapons behind the glass. This was Kurogane's weapon shop. It was something that he had started out of pure interest. After all Kurogane was a ninja at heart. The weapons were carefully crafted and bought. When they got here they were enchanted by Fai, andplaced in these glass cabinets that seemed to glitter like magic...
That was the downstairs. Upstairs was the living area and Fai's studio. Up there Fai would spend many hours of the day writing or painting. They ate up there and slept up there. It was all light and calm, modern but yet old fashioned at the same time...
This was their home in the world of Zeit. Zeit was a world that was said to be the hell or underworld of another world, but neither Kurogane or Fai could understand what was so bad about Zeit. It was a world that held a lot of magic and sorcery so people like Fai were not uncommon. It was also technologically advanced, almost to the point of being like Piffle in some ways. It was said to be filled with demons and oni, but those people that were called thatlooked like other people and the only difference was that a naturalelement influenced their magic.
The people here were open-minded. They mostly smiled and spoke to you. Odd couples such as Fai and Kurogane were not uncommon or were actually very common. They were ruled by a man who was said to be a little younger than Fai had been when he started to travel. This ruler was also said to be a very powerful magician of darkness, but the world only seemed to become lighter and brighter, not darker. The world was peaceful, hardly a hell.
"Have fun with the store Kuro-sama."
"You heading upstairs?"
Fai nodded. "Yep."
"Are we going to go back out today?"
Fai paused and looked back to his lover. "I don't know. Are we?"
After a minute of nothing Kurogane nodded. "Yeah. I want to take you out."
Fai grinned and nodded. "All right. I'll go shower and I'll write for a couple hours. Have fun down here."
"I will. Check on the Pork Bun while you're upstairs."
"I will." Since the time they gone to the suspended time in Clow, Mokona had been unable to hop from world to world at a constant rate like it used to be able to. Mokona now had to recharge. Which was why Fai and Kurogane had been in this world for years. They knew that Mokona had enough magic to world jump now, but they wanted to wait, just in case the next world they landed in wasn't as peaceful as Zeit.
Kurogane watched as Fai went on up the stairs and then looked in his window. He pulled up the shades and turned over a small sign that said 'closed' so that it now read 'open.' The shop was as neat as a pin, so the ninja didn't need to do anything else before going to stand behind a counter and wait to see if people would come in.
As always people came in and out of the store, but very rarely did he sell anything but the strange products that Fai had suggested he sell up front. Kurogane passed this off as people not knowing quality when they saw it. Fai, on the other hand, passed this off as people not being willing to pay for weapons that Fai had enchanted to not kill people under most conditions. Secretly Kurogane thought that Fai was probably right, but he would never admit it.
Kurogane watched as two girls entered the shop and looked around it in distaste. This was about the time that Kurogane really started to get annoyed. These girls weren't here for the shop at all. Instead, they had somehow gotten word that Fai the wizard lived here and wanted to see him... "If you're not here to even consider buying something please leave..." The please was a recent addition to Kurogane's speech. After three years Fai had finally convinced him that customers responded in a better manner if you used that word...
"Ah, we're sorry. We're looking for someone..."
"Who?" Kurogane cursed to himself as he heard the door in the backside of the shop open and the blond came out of it.
"Fai D. Flourite."
"Yes?" Fai immediately regretted answering to his name being called once he realized what exactly he'd answered to.
The girls looked to him and then ran up in front of him and started asking him about a thousand questions a second. From what Kurogane could hear they asked questions about his books, about his art, and about his magic. This couldn't be good. Fai looked like a cornered rat as he leaned back against the door as flat as he could. "Um...um...help?" The blond's eyes carefully glanced over at Kurogane as much as he allow himself to.
The ninja sighed and walked over pulling on their collars and turning them to face him. "This is not a store for asking him questions! If you want to speak with him write him a letter, or go talk to him during his time at the art center on Wednesday and Thursday, but do not interrupt his private life!"
"But!"
"No! Out! We're closed!" As Kurogane made sure that the girls found their way out of the store he heard Fai slide to the floor and a small whimpering noise came from his lips.
"I hate that..."
"I don't blame you...but you're the one that somehow became 'well known.'" The red-eyed man looked back to the blond. "You ready to go?"
Fai lightly nodded and pushed himself up to his feet and his long fingers reached up in front of his eye and pulled a good portion of his sunshine coloredhair down in front of the golden eye.
Kurogane chuckled, "Sometimes I wonder if you do that just because you're ashamed that you gave up your magic for my arm."
Fai gasped as if insulted. "Don't say that! That was one of my proudest moments! You know very well why I do that, and it has nothing to do with that. Don't even joke about that Kuro-sama!" Fai pouted and folded his arms.
The ninja shook his head. "Come on, let's go. I think after those girls we both need to relax..."
Fai's pout faded away and he gave a half smile as hecame up beside Kurogane. "So where are we going?"
"One of your favorite places. A place where you can drink." Fai grinned and laughed silently as they walked out the door and onto the croweded streets of Zeit once more.
Zeit-Part Two:
"Could you two stop making out so I can talk to you?" Two pairs of eyes widened and the pair instantly pulled away from each other. Fai threatened to fall back onto the floor, but Kurogane caught the back of his head before it happened.A pair of mismatched colored eyes looked to the person behind them.
Fai frowned. "Keita-san?"
"Who?"
"A magician in this world..." Fai slid slowly down onto the floor and tried to make it seem like Keita had not seen what, what he had seen. "Apparently the magician's in this world never learn to knock..."
Keita waved his hand dramatically and impatiently. Fai had always thought that Keita had a very Kurogane-like attitude most of the time, but if they were talking about looks...Keita looked like Sakura in a full grown, male body. He had that red-brown hair that came down just below his ears and wide eyes that had that glazed look to them, and in his own way he was pretty. "I did knock Fai, you just didn't hear me."
"I thought you said that you had wards up in this place to keep people out." Kurogane looked down to Fai with a raised eyebrow.
Fai nodded in agreement to the statement. "I do, but Keita's that kind of magician that can avoid them...he's slippery, like a ninja." Fai smiled up at Kurogane who simply ignored the comment about his profession.
"Actually I just took them down...even if you're the strongest magical fighter currently in this world, you're defense spells are still weaker than mine. If you would come to meetings more often, I'm sure we could work on that..."
"Keita-san...I'm not going to be in this world forever, coming to the meetings but once a year is pointless." Fai sighed and closed his eyes in slight annoyance. Keita was really a kind person, but he was a workaholic. He had about three jobs that he was constantly running to. To him almost everything was business and sometimes that also meant perfection. "What do you need me for?"
"Not much really. In fact nothing at all. I just wantto warn you. There are a few youngling vampires out and around. I know you used to be one of them, but these ones don't have E's to control them. You didn't get the full horror of being a youngling."
"Keita-san. Don't tell me what horror I did and did not get. Don't worry, both Kuro-sama and I can hold ourselves against a youngling. Especially ones that haven't been trained. In fact I'll be so kind as to bring them into the office if I run across any."
"All right. I wouldn't want you to be caught off guard."
"We won't. Thank you."
Keita spared them a small smile. "All right. I'll leave you be then."
"Keita. Repair my spells on your way out. I didn't waste two days of energy on them for nothing."
"I'll do that. Good day."
Keita disappeared from their view and Fai sighed sinking his head against his knees, not looking at Kurogane. "The moment is completely ruined isn't it?"
"Yeah."
"Damn. They so rarely come by too...It's Sunday, the shop's closed, the art center is closed, there's no way my editor's coming by. We have nothing to do."
"Sundays do tend to be boring. Why don't you tell me about Keita."
"Jealous?" Fai smirked back at Kurogane.
"A little. He can touch a part of you I can't. Your magic. Plus, you never mentioned him before."
Fai chuckled and turned around so that he was looking at Kurogane. "His name is Keita Mihara. He's said to be one of the few humans who can control magic in this world. He's related to the ruler by some unknown link, which does make him royalty in this world. We see each other about two or three times a year. He's not as strong as me in most magics and he only exceeds me in defenses and healing, which he obviously exceeds me in if he canheal peopleat all. He's a nice guy, busy, but nice. However, as nice as he is he will never be a light likeKuro-sama, not even close. Even if he was, he already has a lover, so there's nothing for Kuro-sama to be jealous of."
"He's a strong magician, right?" Fai nodded. "How old is he?"
Fai shrugged. "By his knowledge base I'd say he's probably twice my age. Somewhere around sixty. His magic is strong enough to slow his aging though, so I can't be sure."
"You don't look thirty..."
"Neither do you."
There was a short pause. "Yeah. I've been wondering about that... I don't seem to have aged in all seven years we've been here." The ninja gave Fai a suspicious look that most men would cower under.
Fai didn't cower. He placed a hand to his chest and grinned. "Is Kuro-sama saying that he thinks I have something to do with that?"
"Do you?"
Fai's smile faded from pure brightness to a more knowledgeable and sly smile. "Yes. I shortened my life so that our lifespan would be equal...as long as that's what you want."
"It's not what I want...but if I died before you...you'd be unhappy wouldn't you?"
"I would. My light and reason to live would be gone."
"Then I'm not angry, but I wish you would've told me what you had done."
Fai grinned in a idiotic way again and ran his fingers over his now seven stud earrings. "But I didn't want to worry you. I wasn't sure the spell would work..."
The pair stared at each other for what seemed like ages. Kurogane seeming to be almost angry, annoyed to say the least, but Fai just staring back at him for the sake of staring. After this 'age' passed Fai was the one who broke the silence. "Want to watch me paint? We've got nothing else to do right now."
"Sure...what are you painting right now?"
Fai stood to his feet, "You'll see." Fai pulled Kurogane up by the arm into a small room and while Kurogane was looking around at the other things that Fai had painted Fai pulled out his current project and then tapped Kurogane's shoulder.
Kurogane turned and looked at it. His face fell. Then his face brightened and he laughed. He wrapped his arms around Fai's shoulders and pulled the mage back against him so that they both looked at it. "That's your newest masterpiece?" He still chuckled.
"Hey, it looks good." Fai looked at the almost empty canvas. The only thing it held right now was a strangely familiar red circle and two black upwards curves near the bottom. "Do you like it?"
Kurogane nodded slightly. "I do, however the pork bun will like it more."
Fai grinned even wider and reached his hands up and placed them strangely on Kurogane's shoulders. He liked it when Kurogane laughed. It told him that his work for this future had paid off. It told him that they could be happy. The future seemed bright at times like these.