Disclaimer: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles is the intellectual property of CLAMP

Author's Note: Well here it is, my major Tsubasa project. It won't pick up that high rating until later. I hate that when I indent for a new paragraph, fanfiction dot net won't pick that up, so I've decided to try a small separation in place of indentation. Let me know if that helps a little with the spacing or if it didn't matter in the slightest.

~ All That I Am ~

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Part 1, Chapter 1

"…Goddamnit."

-

New Chicago was a terrible city. It was cold, damp, and the crime rate was through the roof. Standing beneath the sickly yellow light of a flickering streetlamp, the tall, disgruntled man with his short spikes of dark-hair and his worn full-length black trench coat might have looked right at home, if not for the poorly drawn map in his hands, which he twisted upside down…again with another growl.

If nothing else was said of this man, he had loved his mother dearly. She had been like a warm light in his life and he would never speak ill of her, god rest her soul, but the woman couldn't have drawn a map to save her life.

Giving up with an irritated grunt as he shoved the crumpled paper back into his pocket, further crumpling it in the process, the man stalked on down the street in the direction he had originally been heading, narrowed crimson eyes just daring another mugger to try something. He'd already beaten down four of them in the last two hours and he was getting in a good mood for a fifth.

-

Coming to an intersection, the dark man noticed that the traffic had picked up slightly and the street lamps down either direction were in miraculous working order. Then he noticed why. Beneath those lamps milled prostitutes of all flavors, both to his left and right and cars pulled to the sides of the road, drivers closing deals and opening passenger doors. The man rolled his eyes but after two hours of searching he refused to avoid them now. It would have been a pain to come back the next day to find out the place he was looking for was just down this street so standing tall, he turned right and kept his eyes past the colorfully outfitted, and in some cases, genuinely attractive individuals and trained on the shops behind them.

The cat calls began almost immediately. The man frowned sullenly. He had kind of hoped he could somehow will himself to blend into the shadows, at least a little.

"Hey baby, good times right here."

"I can take it all sweetie."

"Customers aren't allowed to walk the street, little boy. I think someone needs to be punished."

The dark haired man cringed at the sharp crack of a whip to his left.

"Hyuu! What a cute puppy!"

Damn. The dark man realized his mistake the instant he'd made it. He looked. And now it was too late, far too late. The instant his head had snapped toward the voice it had been an unspoken invitation. And now that he saw the voice's owner, he could feel a pit of dread well in his stomach.

Gliding toward him as though the laws of gravity had lent him a free pass, was a willowy, fair-haired…something. Dressed in a flowing pale blue skirt that swayed as he moved and would surely have, on any other human being, fallen right off for as low as it was fixed, the dark-haired man could hardly think of this person as a man, not in the sense he had ever known. The blonde's chest was covered tightly by a pale blue bodice bearing the same swirling black design as the skirt and affixed to his arms were golden armbands that held up flowing sleeves that moved with the grace of his skirt as the blonde flowed toward him giving an almost underwater effect. It was mesmerizing to watch. And therein lay mistake number 2 because he could not tear his eyes away no matter how he wanted to.

The aquatic fairy finally reached him, aqua eyes glimmering with mirth above a smile that somehow solidified the feeling in the pit of the dark man's stomach to a full-fledged rock. And finally, finally his body did what he asked it to and crimson eyes narrowed in what the blonde obviously was not taking as threateningly but seemed instead to be interpreting as an invitation to get acquainted.

A pale hand slid up his chest intimately as striking blue eyes somehow adverted his attention from the hand to the face and the smile widened.

"Or should I say dog." The sultry voice slipped right through the man as it was intended to but the words themselves reminded the man why he'd turned in the first place.

"Get off me." he ordered, grabbing the thin wrist in his hand harshly and he would have thrown it back at the blonde, had he not slipped away before he could even finish speaking.

"I'm not here for that shit."

The blond had moved around him and now was wrapping himself around his arm. "Nyaa! I like it rough." In an instant the man was in front of him again, slipping that hand of his around his neck as he leaned up to whisper in his ear. "I'll purr for you."

The dark man blushed and shoved the other away. "I said no. I'm not here for that."

"I'm Fai, what's your name?"

The blonde's smile was making him sick again and the dark man contemplated ignoring him but that didn't really seem possible. Maybe if he just convinced him to leave, he could continue his search in peace.

"Kurogane. Now go away."

"Mmmm….I bet Kuro-pu could make me scream."

The dark man gave Fai a disgusted look and shoved him away. "It's Kurogane, not Kuro-pu and I have no intention of doing anything with you. I'm looking for a building, not a whore." Kurogane pulled the crumpled map out of his pocket and waved it under the blonde's nose as proof.

But instead of being deterred, the blonde's eyes widened with excitement and he snatched the paper away, dancing out of Kurogane's reach as he lunged to get it back.

"Well, that's different then!" Fai declared. "That makes this meeting destiny because I've lived in this city almost my whole life and there isn't anything I can't find." Fai made a show of studying the map, turning it this way and that and just as Kurogane was about to sigh and tell him it not to bother, Fai threw an arm in the air and shouted "That way!" pointing back the way he'd come and then proceeded to lead the way without any confirmation from Kurogane whatsoever.

"You know, you're lucky you found me Kuro-rin or you'd have been circling this city for ages though I'm not sure why anyone would want to go there. Are you sure you know where you're going Kuro-chuu?"

"Will you shut up with the names already?! I told you, it's Kurogane. Kurogane!"

"You know, Kuro-ta," Fai went on as though he hadn't heard Kurogane at all "I'm doing something nice for you, so it's only fair for you to return the favor, right?" Fai stopped mid-step forcing Kurogane to stop with him and smiled happily in Kurogane's direction.

Kurogane was quickly growing to hate that smile. "How much?" he grunted, figuring he knew the drill by now. One couldn't expect anything for free after all.

"Oh, it's nothing like that." Fai assured him, smiling in what Kurogane assumed was meant to be pacifistic. "I've been thinking of leaving this city for a while and you look like a traveling man, all strong and capable," he added, clinging to Kurogane's arm once more and feeling his coat sleeve for the musculature beneath. Satisfied at finding it, he continued "so take me with you."

Kurogane shook his arm violently and put his foot down. "Forget it."

"Oh, not for this, Kuro-wanwan, silly. I'll pay you in full when we back to your hotel. Anything you want, as long as you want. I'm very good. People have to order ahead for me on Saturdays. Good thing it's a Tuesday."

Kurogane stared down at the creature fondling his coat and wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Your mother must be very proud."

The smile widened but the eyes looked away and Kurogane thought he might have struck something so he pressed on. Anything was better than the disgustingly fake smile the blonde wore plastered to his face like he thought no one else could tell it was a cheep mask.

"I told you I don't want a whore. Especially not one whose already spread his legs for half the population and I wouldn't travel with you if I was hanging off a ledge and you offered to pull me up in exchange."

Maybe he'd went too far, Kurogane realized, when the face turned down to the sidewalk below. But it was too late to take it back now.

"I'll be submissive, if that's what you want." The blonde's voice was quieter now, subdued. "If you're angry, I won't complain if you're rough. Make me bleed or leave me tied but take me with you. I'll do it every night for you, anything. I'll be anything you want."

"Are you deaf or just stupid?" Kurogane growled, clearly punctuating every word in an attempt to get through to the blonde. "I told you I don't want that shit. Are you going to show me where this is or not?" And this time he succeeded in commandeering the map from the smaller man.

Fai let it go without complaint and returned his gaze to Kurogane's with an acquiescing smile.

"Kuro-pi's getting annoyed. We'll talk about it in the morning, then." and Fai patted his arm as though he were merely humoring the larger man, treating him like a child.

"Of course I'm annoyed!" Kurogane yelled. "I told you…"

"Aa, aa," Fai chided. "let's not fight." One finger was tapped against his nose as the blonde danced out of his reach, clearly anticipating his actions before he could even think them. Of course, that didn't stop Kurogane from doing them anyway and he gave chase after the other man who seemed to like this new "game" of his.

Fai laughed as he rounded a corner into an alley Kurogane had not gone down and when Kurogane attempted to follow he nearly slammed into the smaller man.

"What the hell!"

Fai didn't respond, just pointed silently to the wall ahead of them and Kurogane followed his extended finger to a broken, boarded window and a door he might not have noticed if not for its beaten knob. Above the door hung a faded sign and Kurogane could just make out the words 'Green Drugstore'.

"It used to be a pharmacy." Fai said, pulling Kurogane back from the pit he was sinking into as he realized that this was indeed the place on his mother's map. "Or that's what they used to call it. It was run by someone who didn't belong here…and then he left." Fai turned back to Kurogane finishing his statement with an upbeat tone and a smile to match. "It's been gone for a good five years or so now. You're very late Kuro-chii. I think your prescription's run out by now."

Kurogane frowned, looking back down to the map in his hands, catching himself hoping it could suddenly change itself to tell him what he should do now. He hated that feeling.

"Do you know where they went?"

Fai tilted his head to the side as he regarded Kurogane with a look of curiosity mixed with what might have been pity and if this hadn't been so very important, Kurogane would have told him to just forget it, damnit.

"No." Fai answered finally. "But then, I wasn't a customer either. Maybe somebody who was a customer would know…? I might be able to find someone tomorrow…if I had a good night's sleep first, in a nice warm bed…" Fai added pointedly, leaning toward Kurogane with a leering grin "…safe in Kuro-sama's arms."

"Forget it, I'll do it myself." Kurogane turned and absolutely refused to look back.

Fai laughed behind him. "Let me know how that goes Kuro-chan. If it helps, picture me."

Kurogane choked but to his credit, he did not turn back, merely stomped out of the alley and straight back to his cheep hotel, his face a dark crimson for nearly the entire trip. His only solace was that he had not allowed the blonde to see it.

* * *

Kurogane had purposefully chosen the closest hotel he could find to his general destination - which meant that when he climbed the stairs to his room, he was not surprised to find the door standing open and his clothes strewn across the rumpled bed.

Kurogane slammed the door shut behind him, scooped his clothes back into the duffle bag they'd come from and propped the room's single chair beneath the door handle to replace the lock that should have been above it but wasn't.

Pulling his trench coat off with a sigh, he reached into an inner pocket and drew out an envelope, sitting on the floor with it as he retrieved the letter from inside. With a care that he had not shown the map, Kurogane unfolded the letter and prayed for the memorized words to bring him some kind of new insight he'd somehow missed the dozens of times he'd read it before.

My Dear Beloved Son,

If you are reading this letter it means I have passed from this world. I am sorry I could not have been there for you longer but know that I rest happily with your father and am proud of the man you have become.

You have grown to possess all of the honor and courage that your father and I could ever have hoped for and thus, there is something I must ask of you, a task which you must complete in our stead, for the future lies in your hands and the time to seize it has finally come.

I fear you may not remember this, but when you were young, just after your father passed away, you and I took a trip to New Chicago together and there met a man named Kakei-san at his pharmacy called the Green Drugstore. He is a friend of the family and is holding onto another letter for you.

I ask you now to retrieve that letter from him and to follow the instructions I have laid out within. Be assured, it is very important to not only yourself and many other individuals involved, but also to the very world that you live in. I have every faith and confidence in you and know that you will succeed where others have failed.

This is my final wish, and my final farewell. Be well, my son. Find happiness and love and a life worth fighting for, for therein will you discover the meaning of true strength. Cherish everything and know that no matter where you go, you are deeply loved.

Kurogane refolded the letter and returned it to its envelope and in turn, the envelope to his coat pocket with a sigh. If this Kakei-san person was a friend of the family that would mean that his parents had to have crossed paths with him earlier in their lives. The problem was that Kurogane knew very little of his parent's lives before his birth and his mother seemed no more eager to divulge information now than she had been in all the years he'd known her. It all led him in a circle right back to the place he'd started from and that didn't help him one little bit.

He could take the blonde's idea and go door to door looking for past customers and past gossip but even Kurogane was willing to admit that was a bit of a long stretch. Obviously the blonde had known exactly who to talk to when he'd mentioned it and the logical thing to do would be to accept his help, take him to the next city with him and dump him off there.

Kurogane groaned and fell back onto the floor, hoping to get at least a little sleep before he subjected himself to an entire day of that idiot's company.

* * *

Kurogane was up and out of the room at the crack of dawn. This time he taped a note to his duffle bag when he left it sitting just where he'd left it yesterday: Touch it again and die. He could have locked it in his trunk with the rest of his luggage but he hadn't done that yesterday and he was far too stubborn to do it now.

Pulling on his trench coat, Kurogane tromped down the stairs and threw open the hotel's front door. A whirl of color immediately accosted his vision as a figure on the steps stood and twirled around on one foot to face him.

"Good morning, Kuro-woof! Isn't it a beautiful day!"

Kurogane was far too paralyzed by the thing in front of him to respond. It wasn't the fact that the blonde had obviously followed him to his hotel the previous night, or even that he had been waiting there for him for God knew how long. What short-circuited Kurogane's brain was the outfit Fai was wearing. A brightly rainbow colored miniskirt that could have been spotted three blocks away rested low on his hips beneath a sleeveless tye-dyed shirt. His neck was tied with a blue ribbon with a perfect bow resting against his left shoulder. He smiled brilliantly up at Kurogane like the loon he obviously was with one hand shielding his eyes from the non-existent glare of the sun. After a brief moment of early morning shock, Kurogane deduced that he could not deal with this and promptly turned right back around and reentered the hotel, letting the door close soundly behind him.

Muffled words that vaguely sounded of whining followed but Kurogane ignored them, determined to go back to sleep and try this again. Maybe the next time he left the building the world would have settled into some semblance of normalcy.

He never got the chance to test his theory however, because the blonde proved to be far more persistent than he had ever given him credit for - which was saying something after last night. Kurogane found himself glad that as soon as he left this city he would never see the people who were staring at him as he tried to out-walk Fai down the sidewalk again.

"Don't you have any dignity at all?" he hissed when Fai, inevitably, caught up to him.

"What do you mean, Kuro-chan?" the blonde asked, all innocence, like he hadn't the faintest idea of what Kurogane's problem might be.

"You know exactly what I mean." Kurogane hissed back angrily. "You did this just to embarrass me."

"Did what?" Fai persisted innocently.

"Wore that!" Kurogane yelled, finally losing his temper.

Fai grinned back, telling Kurogane that he'd gotten exactly the reaction he'd been hoping for and said "Doesn't Kuro-koi want everyone to know how happy I am to be with him? Bright colors say happy, Kuro-rin, you might try wearing them yourself sometime, then maybe you wouldn't be such a broody puppy." Fai crooned and he actually had the audacity to reach up and pinch Kurogane's cheeks.

Kurogane shook with rage and finally he shouted loudly and lunged for the blonde, chasing him down the sidewalk with promises of pain to the tune of Fai's unique tinkling laugh that floated back to him like the music of a wind chime.

Fai took shelter on the steps of a brownstone and by the time Kurogane caught up, he'd already rung the doorbell and shushed him. "We're here."

Kurogane glowered at Fai, trying to psychically convey murderous intent through the back of his blonde head until suddenly the door in front of them swung open revealing an old woman who looked up at Fai, blinking as she adjusted her glasses on her nose.

"Don't worry," Kurogane grumbled. "it isn't your sight, it's really him."

"Well I must say, I haven't seen anything so colorful since my granddaughter last visited." the woman replied to Fai who smiled down at her happily and after a moment she returned his smile and stepped aside to allow him entry.

Kurogane was dumbfounded. His only explanation for all this insanity was that the city must have been founded by mental patients who'd escaped their hospital. Regardless, he followed Fai inside and sat where the woman indicated them to sit on her couch, covered by an afghan that screamed of old people. She herself sat across from them in a plush armchair, waving her hand at a plate of cookies on the coffee table between them. Fai thanked her and helped himself to one while Kurogane waited patiently for the white rabbit to make its appearance.

"Now then," the woman finally stated, sinking into the chair comfortably. "I don't often get such colorful visitors." She seemed to be ignoring Kurogane entirely. "To what do I owe this visit?"

"Excuse me." Kurogane interjected, holding up a hand before Fai could answer. "I don't mean to be rude here but doesn't it strike you as just a little odd for two complete strangers to just show up on your front porch? I mean, who in their right mind lets this" and here he pointed over at Fai "into their house without a second thought?"

The woman smiled a him in much the way he imagined she must smile at children when explaining the obvious. "Child, at my age, one learns to age gracefully, judge people by instinct, and fear very little. Years of wisdom have taught me that I am in no place to judge others and that the only way to have an adventure is to take some risks."

Fai's smile widened and softened as he gained new respect for the old woman and took his turn to explain their visit.

The woman rubbed her chin as she sat in thought. "The Green Drugstore…" A moment passed in silence as she recalled the years and Kurogane and Fai waited and hoped for their clue. "There was a man who didn't work there, if I remember correctly. He made deliveries sometimes to the older customers. I met him out front one day while I was talking to my neighbor and he came to bring her medicine. He was a fine young man." She smiled with the memory. "Sort of like your friend there, only with a sense of humor."

Fai snickered at that but Kurogane didn't find it funny at all.

"I'm sorry but I can't seem to remember his name and my neighbor passed on last year too." She pitied her guest's crestfallen faces and endeavored to cheer them up. Reaching forward she scrawled an address on a piece of notebook paper sitting on the coffee table and tore the sheet off, holding it out to Fai. "You could try going there. Some of the ladies who met there for book club might have been customers of that store and especially the woman who lives there. I know she hired them out on an odd job a time or two. They did odd jobs, too." she explained and Fai nodded, accepting the paper with a smile, thanking her for her help.

As they left the woman's house, something she said stuck in Kurogane's head and refused to leave him alone. 'The only way to have an adventure is to take some risks.' He wondered if his mother had known all alone that this wouldn't be as easy as she made it sound. Just go pick up the letter and follow the proverbial yellow brick road. Yeah right.

"Kuro-chan, this isn't very far away." Fai was looking at the paper in his hands as they walked down the sidewalk. "Let's go there now."

Kurogane grunted in agreement and tried very hard to ignore all the people staring at them as they walked by. He was getting tired of it. Even if it was Fai's fault for wearing…that…it still wasn't any of their business. Finally, he snapped at a woman they passed who was watching Fai over her shoulder.

"Mind your own business."

* * *

The next address was a brownstone too but this time the woman who answered looked down her nose at them with clear distaste.

"Can I help you?" she prompted impatiently.

This time Kurogane took the initiative. "I'm looking for information on where the man who ran the Green Drugstore moved to."

"Drugstore my lily ass." the woman returned and Kurogane's eyebrows hiked to his hairline. If they hadn't just left mother goose's fairy tale land he might have expected this reaction a bit more, as it was, well, he had kind of expected more of the same. He chalked it up to naivety and resolved not to mention it at all.

"That person is lucky that he left. The item I purchased from him was defective and do you know what happened when I marched straight down to that dump to return it? He was already gone, that's what. It's what comes of having…people like that living among decent folk." And here she looked directly at Fai, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "One day soon, this city will cease to cater to the degenerates who walk the streets freely instead of knowing their place."

Kurogane was quickly getting disgusted himself. He hated people like this woman, who acted as though they were better than everyone else. If he were less of a gentleman, he'd introduce that snotty little nose of hers to his fist.

Fai, however, continued to smile amicably. "Perhaps if you could tell us where he went some of your problems could go there too."

The woman seemed to be taken aback that Fai had spoken to her and stepped back into the house. "If I believed that I would have broadcasted it on a loudspeaker years ago." she retorted curtly. "I heard once that he was going to California and it's just as well. California is very far from here." And at that, she slammed the door in their faces.

Kurogane growled. "It's also huge! Where at in California! Hey, bitch!" Kurogane was about to pound on the door when Fai took his arm and tugged him away.

"We'll keep looking."

"Hey," Kurogane challenged, turning on the blonde "why did you let her talk to you like that? You don't have to put up with that shit."

Fai smiled hollowly and looked away. "It doesn't matter. Getting upset over such small things doesn't help anything."

Kurogane yanked his arm away angrily and descended the steps in a huff.

-

At the foot of the steps they were met by a homeless man, pushing a shopping cart. He looked a little out of place in front of the brownstone with his unshaven face and multiple layers of clothing and Kurogane had every intention of ignoring him all together, but Fai smiled at the man and told him good morning and the man reached out, grasping Fai's arm as the blonde walked past. Fai stopped curiously and looked down at the man patiently.

"I heard what you said up there." He pointed up the steps and Fai politely glanced back over his shoulder as the man released his arm.

Kurogane was about to tell the man they didn't have time to waste on conversation when the man spoke again.

"That woman lives in her own world. That's why she said the thing she got from Kakei didn't work. Because that thing only works in the real world."

Kurogane started. "Kakei? You knew Kakei-san?"

The man nodded solemnly at Kurogane. "Kakei was a good man to people like us." and he grinned up at Fai who returned his smile understandingly. "He never should have given her that thing." he said, turning back to Kurogane. "She didn't deserve it. Would you like to see it?" he whispered conspiratorially.

Kurogane found himself nodding in spite of himself and the man reached down deep into his cart filled with garbage and soda cans. His hands returned clutching an unassuming wooden box. "It's luck in a box." he declared and Kurogane nearly fell over. Fai, on the other hand, marveled at the thing, eyes sparkling with wonder. "Just open it up and you have luck." the man went on confidently.

"Wow." Fai declared, eyes wide in wonder.

"Oh, please." Kurogane scoffed. "Don't tell me you actually believe that bullshit. Luck in a box? How lucky could it possibly be, you're still homeless old man." he pointed out diplomatically.

"Yup, that's just what she said." the man declared, jerking a thumb up the steps of the brownstone.

Kurogane did not take kindly to being compared to that woman.

"I'm sure it must work in mysterious ways, Kuro-tan." Fai said with conviction.

The man nodded in agreement. "Just look. It helped me find all of these." and the man waved a hand over his shopping cart filled with cans. "Why, I'll eat for a week just off this."

Kurogane rolled his eyes.

"Would you like to have it?" the man asked, taking Fai's hands in his own and placing the box between them.

Fai's eyes widened and he tried to let it go but the man had removed his hands already. "Oh, we couldn't possibly. How would you ever get by without it? And we don't have anything to give you in return."

Kurogane couldn't believe this ridiculousness. Why was he even still standing there, he wondered.

The homeless man shook his head resolutely. "No. It's been with me for near on five years now, ever since her majesty up there chucked it in the garbage. Luck is meant to go around. I'm sure someday you'll find somebody else who needs it more than you do and you can pass it on too. Until then, who knows, it might just save your life one day."

"He's just trying to get rid of it!" Kurogane yelled, trying desperately to bring some sanity into this situation.

"Nothing happens by chance." The man declared, giving him a stern look. "You think it was just coincidence that you came here today, now, when I almost never come here and met me? It was not. It was destiny. And it is destiny, too, that you'll find Kakei. And I'll tell you, he said he would like to see the new coastline again." With a nod, the man patted Fai's hands, holding the wooden box, and left them, walking slowly away down the sidewalk.

Kurogane forgot about the "luck in a box". He wanted to see the new coastline again. That meant Kakei-san had come from Japan, like his parents, and had crossed California to come here. Years ago, before he had been born, in his parent's time, a massive earthquake had carved southern California a new coastline. At least now he had a clue.

* * *

"Would Kuro-min like a muffin?" Fai asked, holding half of one out for him.

Kurogane stared for a minute. They were half-way back to his hotel and hadn't made any stops unless he'd been severely tuned-out and missed the entire experience of stopping somewhere to buy food, which was impossible as far as he was concerned. One eye began to twitch as he watched the blonde pull minute pieces off of the large blueberry muffin and place them purposefully in his mouth, cleaning his fingers with his lips as he retracted them.

"Where in the hell were you keeping that?!" he shouted.

Fai's grin widened lecherously and his half-lidded eyes sparkled beneath long lashes. "Wouldn't you like to know."

"Oh dear God." Kurogane turned back, regretting that he'd ever acknowledged the blonde in the first place and quickened his pace. He could feel the blonde quicken his own to keep up with him. "I am leaving this city right now, do you hear me? I'm not staying here a second longer."

"Ok." Fai quipped, walking with a slight bounce in his step that made his skirt's light material jerk about erratically…not that Kurogane was looking or had noticed. Kurogane glared at the people unfortunate enough to be walking around in front of him.

-

When Kurogane returned to his hotel room, he found that the contents of his duffle bag had once more been scattered across the bed, except that today, the duffle back itself had been put back right where he'd left it, with his note still sitting on top of it. Kurogane grabbed the note, crumpling it in his fist with a growl. Then he kicked the bed for good measure.

"Hyuu!" Fai fake-whistled from the doorway. "Kuro-sama left quite a mess this morning."

"I didn't leave it like this you idiot!" he yelled, turning his fury on the blonde. "Someone's been in here!"

Fai put his fingers in his ears and squinted his eyes at the noise. "Ok, ok, calm down, I believe you. Kuro-woof's bark is very loud."

"I told you it's Kurogane! Not Kuro-woof or Kuro-min or Kuro-tan. Kurogane!"

"Nyaa! Kuro-ta's angry."

"That's it." Kurogane threw the note across the room and lunged for the rainbow-colored annoyance.

Fai slipped away from him and danced across the room to the other side of the bed where Kurogane had him cornered. Fai tried to scramble across the bed, laughing as he went, but Kurogane caught him, clawing at his clothes in search of escape. With one arm, he threw Fai over his shoulder and with the other, scooped his cloths back into his duffle bag and grabbed it, kicking at the door as he strode through the doorway and down the hall. Some of the other doors opened as other temporary residents peered into the hallway, drawn out by the noise.

"Kuro-rin!" Fai whined, struggling fruitlessly from his shoulder. "People can see my butt!"

"It's your own fault for wearing the goddamn thing." Kurogane snapped back without remorse.

"But I'm not wearing any panties." Fai returned, a little quieter.

"WHAT THE HELL?" Kurogane dropped Fai who landed on the floor below with a harsh thud.

It only took the blonde a moment to recover and soon he was sprinting ahead of Kurogane. Once he got a safe distance ahead, Fai turned and grinned back at him. "Just kidding!" and he laughed as he ran off.

Kurogane narrowed his eyes at the empty hallway and snorted. "Idiot."

-

Kurogane was surprised to find Fai already lounging in his car when he reached it. There was a suspicious looking suitcase in his backseat that he distinctly remembered not owning, too.

"Do you mind telling me how you knew this one was my car?" Kurogane growled, exhaustion from dealing with the insanity named Fai seeping into his tone.

"I consulted the box-of-luck, of course." Fai answered him simply, holding the box up with a grin.

Kurogane rolled his eyes and threw his duffle bag alongside the suitcase in the backseat, going around the back of the car to the driver's seat. He obviously wasn't going to get a straight answer out of the blonde. He wondered why he'd even bothered to ask.

-

Kurogane's car was an old Scion model he'd fixed up himself with a retractable roof and a streamline design. He'd painted it jet black himself and he just might have painted a crimson dragon on the hood too, if he could draw at all. Which he could not.

Fai was crouched down in the seat, one foot on the dashboard in front of him in just such a way that Kurogane could not tell weather or not he actually was wearing underwear (not that he was wondering) but he was given a perfect view of Fai's long, slender leg, curving beneath the skirt's limit just past indecency (not that Kurogane was looking).

"Have you gotten in enough site-seeing, Kuro-min?" the blonde asked, a smile in his voice, causing a flare of crimson to heat Kurogane's face as he looked quickly away to start the car. "If you're leaving for California, you probably won't be back here for a long time."

"Try ever." Kurogane grumbled, throwing the car into reverse. "And I'm dumping you off at the next town so don't get comfortable."

"Yes, sir!" Fai mocked, straightening in his seat to salute Kurogane sharply.

* * *

The sheer amount of useless information that Fai had amassed in his relatively short life would forever astound Kurogane. First he had started babbling on about the history of New Chicago from it's final rebuilding right on back to something about a cow. He told it all backwards which would have been immensely confusing if Kurogane had actually been paying attention. He officially tuned out somewhere around a historic massacre. Not that massacres were a boring subject in Kurogane's mind, it was just that the way Fai told it was slowly killing Kurogane through boredom and he happened to be driving down the freeway going seventy miles an hour and he had told Fai to shut up at least three dozen times and he was starving but unwilling to pull over into a town because then he would have to directly acknowledge Fai's existence and was desperately trying to tune him out currently.

In an attempt to drown the other out, or at least distract him momentarily, Kurogane turned on the radio and cranked it up.

"Ooh! Kuro-tan! Can I pick the station?"

"Whatever."

Kurogane should have known better. Fai tuned the radio to some oldies station he hadn't even known existed and then turned it up louder.

Something 'bout the way the hair falls in your face
I love the shape you take when crawling towards the pillowcase

Kurogane decided it was time for dinner.

-

The sky was turning orange when they pulled into the parking lot of an out of the way restaurant. Fai licked the chocolate off of his fingers from the snickers bar he'd found tucked away in his suitcase. He'd offered Kurogane some of it, but he'd also confessed he couldn't remember putting it in there and Kurogane had declined. Actually, he'd tried to throw the damn thing out the window (they'd put the top up when evening had hit and the temperature had dropped) but that had been fifteen seconds ago and Fai had shoved the thing in his mouth instead.

"If you die of food poisoning from a goddamned laced chocolate bar because you couldn't waste a dollar's worth of questionable chocolate don't expect me to go out of my way looking for a hospital in the goddamned sticks." The dark man warned, closing his car door a little too harshly.

Fai smiled brilliantly back at him and clasped his hands together behind his back as he danced around in front of Kurogane. "Silly Kuro-puu. If I died, there would be no need to find the hospital."

It wasn't the reaction Kurogane had been wanting, in fact it irritated him to a degree even he admitted was probably disproportionate and instead of dignifying it with a return, he narrowed his eyes and growled at the other man. "Turn around and walk right, for gods sake, you look ridiculous enough as it is."

Fai laughed but he turned around anyway and walked forward, skipping slightly in a way that made Kurogane's eye twitch. "Aww, is Kuro-chan intimidated by my bold, straightforward approach at life?"

Kurogane couldn't resist. "I'm sorry did you just say the word "straight"?"

Fai's laughter rang across the parking lot.

-

The restaurant's interior was intended to provide its patrons with an old, down-home feeling, evidenced by checkered tablecloths and paintings of fields and farms, its walls covered in cheep wood paneling, but the impression Kurogane got was a tad less welcoming. Customers, seated in booth seats and at small rounded tables, stared openly at them (mostly at Fai) and then turned and whispered amongst themselves.

If Kurogane hadn't been so damn hungry, he would have turned around and left right then, instead he asked the woman who came to greet them for a small table and was led to one of the round tables in the corner of the restaurant's center space…where Kurogane had nothing to look at but Fai, unless he wanted to return everyone else's stares. Kurogane stared at the menu instead.

"Ooh! Kuro-rin!" Fai said excitedly, drawing Kurogane's frown from the menu to him. "They have a big desert list. Let's get pie and ice cream!" Under the table, Fai crossed his legs and Kurogane only knew that because the blonde's foot brushed against his leg on its way.

Kurogane's frown increased.

"Let's get chocolate sundaes with syrup and sprinkles and brownie bites! Can we Kuro-chii?"

"What do I care what you get?" Kurogane hissed back. "You're paying for your own food so eat the whole damn menu for all I care."

"Yay!" Fai cheered and raised his hand, waving it around like a maniac to catch the waitress's attention.

Kurogane buried his face in his hand.

-

Kurogane thought he would be grateful when their meals finally came; he wouldn't have to listen to Fai babbling on about…what clearly amounted to nothing, Kurogane assumed because it persistently went in one ear and right out the other, but then Fai spent the duration of the time it took him to eat his chicken parmesan trying to shove it off on Kurogane too. Finally, he got fed up and told Fai that if he tried that one more time he would be wearing it on top of his head.

When Fai finished off his soda and excused himself to the bathroom, Kurogane had to forcibly withhold his cry for joy. For a few blessed minutes he would finally be able to enjoy his dinner. Then Kurogane realized he had barely even touched it yet, thanks to the blonde. He hoped Fai got lost in there.

It was only a moment later that Fai emerged. Kurogane noticed, he told himself, not because he had been watching for the blonde, but because it was impossible not to notice Fai when he entered a room dressed like a frickin' rainbow. A few steps out of the bathroom, he was stopped by a middle-aged man and they spoke for the span of a few short words before Fai returned to their table. Kurogane made sure to look away quick enough so that Fai would not know he had been watching.

"Kuro-ta, I'm not feeling too well." he said, leaning over the table. Kurogane noticed absently, that his ass waved back and forth idly as he spoke, as if he had an invisible tail attached. "Would you be a dear and pay my bill for me?" He shoved some money in Kurogane's open hand, ignoring the questioning look the dark man was giving him with an avoiding smile. "I'll wait outside at the car, ok? Don't rush."

Kurogane watched Fai walk away with narrowed eyes. "Not feeling well, my ass." he grumbled, closing his fist around the bills Fai had given him. Still, Fai had finished most of his meal and he hadn't so Kurogane went back to his dinner, eager to get out of there.

Kurogane was waiting for his check when a crack of thunder sounded behind the restaurant's closed curtains. Standing with his coat, he went to the counter to pay there instead and quickly made his way outside.

Fai was there just as he'd said, leaning against Kurogane's car drenched from the rain and staring down at the droplets, illuminated by the parking lot lamp, as they hit the dark pavement at his feet. Kurogane paused to watch him for a brief moment. Gone was the arrogant, fake smile and the colors of his bright clothes were dimmed by the darkness and the rain. His hair hung heavy and straight, shielding his eyes from view. Kurogane shook himself and crossed the parking lot, drawing Fai's attention almost immediately but Kurogane was able to speak before the smile could spring back into place.

"What are you doing? You like getting wet?"

"I forgot that Kuro-rin has the keys." Fai said jokingly. The grin had returned full-force.

"…Idiot."

-

Fai said nothing of the rain or the shiver that passed over him as he fastened his seatbelt in Kurogane's passenger seat. "Did I give Kuro-chuu enough money for the meal?" he asked, feigning concern.

"Don't expect the change back." Kurogane informed him firmly. "I'm throwing it in for a motel room tonight."

Fai's smile shifted gears again but Kurogane tried not to give it too much thought as he turned the heater on and pulled out of the restaurant parking lot. "Yes." he whispered, too quiet for Kurogane to hear above the sound of the heater fan.

-

Kurogane told Fai to wait in the car as he pulled into the first available motel some miles away near the next town. At the desk, he was told that if he wanted only one room, he would have to settle for one bed also because it was all they had available. It was the goddamned middle of the week, Kurogane had informed the frightened girl behind the counter. They had single rooms with two beds. All motels had single rooms with two beds. Unfortunately, Kurogane's single room had only one bed. With a heavy sigh, he threw the door open and let Fai step inside before he shut it behind himself.

He had no intention of explaining himself to the blonde, or apologizing, or anything of the sort. Kurogane simply threw his duffle bag on the bed and proceeded to change into more comfortable clothes for bed. Fai drifted off into the bathroom and ran the shower and Kurogane, tired from the long day, lay back and drifted into a light sleep.

-

Sometime later, Kurogane stirred, unsure of what had awoken him, until he felt something soft press against the joint of his neck and shoulder. Looking down with bleary eyes he found a mass of fine, blonde hair. Kurogane had to blink a moment before he realized that Fai was straddling him, rocking gently against him while he pressed his lips against exposed skin. Kurogane went from unaware to wide awake in record time, eyes widening as he shot up, only saving the blonde from falling off of him by steadying hands gripping his shoulders.

"What the hell are you doing?!" he demanded, shock preventing the anger from sounding properly in his voice.

Fai, he noticed, did not raise his eyes to look at him as he took one of Kurogane's hands in his own, nuzzling it against his cheek and leaned forward once again, offering his lips to Kurogane's in a subtle kiss. Kurogane, to his own chagrin, was too stunned to respond but it didn't seem to deter Fai as he simply gave up that route and went another, slipping away, standing on his knees as he reached for the edges of the over-sized shirt he was wearing. He had it halfway up his torso before Kurogane's mind finally snapped and he caught it, yanking it back down with a growl.

"I asked what the hell you think you're doing." he repeated clearly, angrily, and Fai blinked back at him, confusion clear in his wide blue eyes.

"Giving you your payment." the blonde answered, as if the answer should have been obvious. "For bringing me with you, like I promised. That's why you paid for this room, with only one bed, isn't it? I know you fell asleep, but I thought you wouldn't have wanted it to go to waste…" Fai seemed suddenly unsure and Kurogane's frown deepened.

"I got this room because it was the only one they had and I told you I'm not interested in this shit."

Fai's gaze returned to the bed, or perhaps he was looking down at Kurogane's crotch since he was still straddling the larger man. "Please just let me. I don't want to owe anyone anything. I just want to be …free…" The last word was merely a whisper and Kurogane snorted.

"You don't owe me anything." he grumbled. "Now go to bed." And he shoved Fai off of him onto the other side of the bed, turning his back on the blonde. Then a thought occurred to him and he sat up again, turning back to Fai who had lain down facing the wall. "YOU'RE WEARING MY SHIRT!"

"Mmm…" Fai mumbled humorlessly. "You're welcome to take it back."

Kurogane growled in disgust and turned back to his side of the bed.

Long after Fai was sure Kurogane had drifted back to sleep, he continued to stare at the wall with hollow eyes and a hollow smile. "You're so…mean."

Kurogane spent the rest of the night debating on whether or not he wanted to know why.

-

Kurogane realized he must have fallen asleep when he awoke to the tip of his nose being poked by an intrusive finger. He growled as he swatted at the offending appendage and sat up. He didn't dare go back to sleep knowing that that crazy blonde had been awake while he slept.

A delighted squeal accompanied his movement as Fai waved something under his nose. "Wakey wakey, Kuro-puppy! Fai-Fai has food for you." he cooed and Kurogane could distinctly make out the warm smell of some too-sweet pastry within the confines of the brown paper sack being waved in front of him.

Kurogane did his best to glare up at the man, although he wasn't sure how menacing it could be while he was still half asleep. What was the deal with this guy? Kurogane had never - ever - slept through anyone moving about around him before, and this guy had gone out and come back with breakfast? That thought disturbed Kurogane greatly.

"You looked so cute sleeping, Kuro-min," the man went on and Kurogane felt his eye twitch at the word 'cute' "but if you don't eat soon your breakfast will get cold."

Fai was still dangling the sack in front of him and on their way from it to Fai's face in order to try that glare again now that he was more fully awake (and annoyed), Kurogane's eyes took in another notable sight. Fai was wearing pants; faded blue jeans with silver and black swirls decorating the pockets. Unfortunately, this stilled his gaze right around Fai's waist where the other could easily accuse it of resting a few inches lower.

Kurogane could literally feel the grin widening on Fai's face. It gave him a chill that worked its way down his spine ominously, portending doom.

"Is Kuro-woof having second thoughts about last night? Aww, Fai-kitty will take care of it for you but I'm not in the mood anymore so you'll just have to look but don't touch." Fai lectured him, wagging a finger at him as if speaking to an exasperating child.

Kurogane - predictably - turned red. "That's not what I…"

"Aww, it's ok, Kuro-chu." Fai consoled him. "I understand now. You're just shy." And Fai proceeded to smother him against his chest in an exaggerated hug, then just as quickly, pulled away. "Look, I even wore my special pants just for you."

Fai twirled around and Kurogane swore to himself that if he hadn't had his back turned he would have killed the blonde right there. Stretched across the back of his jeans, above and between the pockets, was a black and silver swallowtail butterfly and by the time Fai turned back, Kurogane had gotten out of bed and was making his way toward the shower, his urge to kill already gone.

-

From the moment Kurogane had exited the shower and continuing while he packed his clothes away and left the room on his way to the car, Fai tried to get him to eat the sweets he had discovered were cream cheese danishes, all the while talking around them himself. Kurogane had taken to ignoring him, because arguing with Fai, he had quickly learned, was an exercise in futility. You might as well be arguing with a rock.

Kurogane had already unlocked his car, thrown his duffle bag in the backseat, and seated himself in the driver's seat, Fai climbing in beside him, when he finally looked out the windshield and happened to see the hood of his self-modified, antique-model vehicle whose paintjob had, when he'd last left it, been flawless, shining black. Before he could even comprehend all of the not-black colors defiling his car's hood, Kurogane had thrown the door open and ran to the front of his car, staring down in disbelief at the elaborate artwork that had somehow appeared there overnight; a red and blue dragon entwined before a large, full, silver moon. The red dragon's wings were proper dragon wings, but the blue dragon had instead the mere impression of wings, thick blue shapes that spread out from its back without actually touching it.

Kurogane didn't need to think long on how it had gotten there, and when he looked up at his passenger's seat, his eye twitched with rage but Fai was no longer there.

"I don't know…" Fai said from behind Kurogane, startling him slightly. "Do you think a puppy and kitty would have been better?"

Kurogane screamed and gave chase; Fai was already escaping him, laughing as he rounded the vehicle while Kurogane screamed bloody murder after him.

It wasn't long before doors started opening and other motel patrons began to shout at them. When someone threw a coffee pot, barely missing Kurogane's headlight before it shattered on the ground nearby, he decided it was time to leave and the rest they could deal with somewhere else. Fai got in beside him again and Kurogane threw the vehicle into reverse before they could throw anything else at his already-violated car.

Kurogane spent the next several hours (after yelling at, threatening, and ordering Fai to return his car to its previous -black- state) sulking in silence and generally feeling sorry for himself because yelling at Fai seemed to have about the same effect as arguing with him. It helped his sour mood that every second he looked out of his windshield his vision was accosted by the monstrosity.

Fai meanwhile, busied himself with Kurogane's radio and his horrendous oldies channel that seemed to come in perfectly clear no matter how Kurogane tried to escape it (or maybe he kept finding new ones). It wasn't bad enough that Kurogane's vision was tortured , but his ears were harassed as well. Kurogane might have admitted that some of the singers weren't overly terrible, but then, he couldn't hear most of the songs through Fai's loud, obnoxious voice belting out the lyrics in a way that told Kurogane he was obviously doing it to annoy him.

"Come on Kuro-rin! Sing with me, you're no fun." and then he would proceed to sing along with lyrics that, like him, made absolutely no sense to Kurogane. "California rest in peace. Simultaneous release. California show your teeth. She's my priestess, I'm your priest."

-

They stopped at a Chinese buffet place for lunch, despite Kurogane's protests. He had wanted to get drive through at the nearby Taco Bell so that this insanity didn't have to last a single second longer than absolutely necessary (he was seriously considering seeing how long he could continue to drive without sleep until he passed out) but Fai had complained and insisted until they'd gone to the Chinese place instead.

The food wasn't bad, Kurogane had to admit. The sesame chicken was good. Fai's first plate was filled with nothing but sweets; every dessert they had on the buffet table had found its way to Fai's plate. Kurogane watched him eat it all discretely, waiting for the annoying comments to start but Fai spent more time playing with his jell-o, which he seemed to find disturbingly fascinating, than paying attention to him. Fai's second plate was real food; chicken and rice and vegetables. His third plate was junk food again and Kurogane realized by the third plate that he'd actually spent more time watching Fai eat his food (probably mesmerized by the uncommon silence) than eating his own. It was also during the third plate that Fai finally spoke up, smiling up at him brightly as though only seconds had passed since he'd last spoke.

"Let's rob a bank, Kuro-chan!" he declared excitedly. "Haven't you always wanted to rob a bank? It's the American dream! Let's do it!"

Kurogane stared back dumbfounded but when he finally opened his mouth to reply, Fai shoved a cream-filled puff inside, eyes sparkling with mirth.

"We'll need lots of guns Kuro-kun," Fai went on, ignoring the glare Kurogane was sending him as he realized he would have to swallow the sweet thing to get rid of it without making a scene. "and pin-stripped suits. With hats! And ties!" he added. "I think Kuro-sama would look wonderful in a tie, with a crimson silk shirt."

Kurogane took a gulp of his tea before addressing the idiot. "Why on Earth would I want to rob a bank?"

Fai blinked back at him as though the answer should have been obvious. "For the thrill of course," he answered. "Kuro-mun is so boring!"

"I am not boring! I just don't have any desire to get a criminal record." Kurogane argued. "I'm not even from this country!"

Fai seemed to be surprised by that. "Really?" he asked, true curiosity showing through. "What country is Kuro-rin from?"

"Japan."

Fai grinned again. "Ok, so what's the Japanese dream, then?"

"To be the best at whatever you do." Kurogane answered confidently.

Fai leaned forward to rest his chin onto the back of his hand with an easy smile. "Oh? And what is Kuro-puu best at?"

Kurogane hesitated. He wasn't sure but somehow, he felt something bad coming. "Kendo." he answered carefully. "And…I came to this country to find something important, so…finding that."

"Finding good things?" Fai asked, sounding as if he were checking for confirmation.

"Sure."

"Then Kuro-tan really is boring." Fai declared, his smile fading visibly though it stubbornly remained in place. "I already offered him the best thing this country has to offer and he didn't want it."

Kurogane remained silent, wishing he'd had that sense a few minutes ago.

-

Fai was silent for a time when they returned to the car, listening to his music while Kurogane split his attention between driving and looking over at the blonde, a strange pit of dread settling in his stomach that he was beginning to associate with Fai. Then, as Kurogane was glancing at him for the thousandth time, Fai suddenly unbuckled, rolling his window down and twisted himself until he was sideways in his seat and lay down, his head coming to rest in Kurogane's lap while his feet hung out the window.

It took a minute for Kurogane to get over his shock, the chill air beginning to fill the car from the open window. "HEY! What the hell!"

"Hmm?" Fai asked, looking up at him from his lap.

Kurogane made the mistake of glancing down at him and blushed faintly at the contact. Then he looked over at Fai's feet, dangling out of the open window.

"Get your goddamned legs in the car! You wanna get 'em cut off?!"

Fai merely looked up at him curiously so Kurogane reached down to roll up Fai's window himself. At that Fai pulled his feet back into the vehicle with a pout but he made no move to sit back up so Kurogane had to reach down and give his shoulder a push, since his leg was otherwise occupied with the gas pedal.

"Get up! Buckle your seatbelt! God, what would you do if we crashed? We're going 70 miles an hour you idiot!"

"So what?" Fai shrugged, turning his face away from Kurogane's harsh glare like a petulant child. "The only way to have an adventure is to take some risks." he recited and Kurogane's temper flared.

Fai lurched forward when Kurogane slammed on the breaks, making the cars behind him swerve around him, honking angrily.

"Ouchy." Fai whined, rubbing his forehead where a red spot was forming from his impact with the cup holders.

Kurogane brought the car to a dead stop alongside the interstate, throwing it into park and unbuckled, reaching over to pull Fai into a sitting position, reaching around him to refasten his buckle himself, and then rolled Fai's window back down before he turned around, leaning over the seats to unzip Fai's single suitcase.

Realizing what he was doing, Fai began struggling with the seatbelt frantically, crying at him to stop.

Kurogane threw open the suitcase, grabbed up the three candy bars he found there in the front and before Fai could stop him, threw them with all his might right past Fai's face and out the window.

Kurogane refastened Fai's seatbelt with finality and lingered just long enough to look him in the face, making absolutely certain his message got across loud and clear. "There's a difference between risks and stupidity and some things are too important to be stupid about."

That said, Kurogane returned to his seat, buckled himself and proceeded to pull the car back onto the road, rolling Fai's window back up as he did so.

Fai was silent for a moment, appearing frozen by the confrontation, until a hollow chuckle erupted from his throat and slowly turned into an uncontrollable laughter.

Kurogane scowled. He didn't think it was funny at all. But then he realized that Fai's laughter didn't sound like he'd thought it particularly funny either. It really sounded insane. The sound sent chills down Kurogane's spine.

After a moment the laughter subsided, leaving a lingering smile on Fai's face that Kurogane couldn't quite label.

"They weren't laced, you know." Fai said eventually, turning to look at him. "They were just candy bars."

"…like you need any more sugar."

Fai chuckled again but somehow the sound was much lighter this time and Kurogane returned his attention to the road, letting the sounds of Fai's music saturate the car, relenting to the inevitability of it. For a while at least, Kurogane couldn't find the energy to fight against it.

I'm falling apart. I'm barely breathing. With a broken heart, that's still beating…

Fai was going to be the death of him, Kurogane thought, long before this journey was over.

He had forgotten that he had intended to leave Fai behind a half a dozen stops ago.

Post whatevers: Songs featured in this chapter are: "Your Body is a Wonderland" by John Mayer, "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and "Broken" by Lifehouse. As always, if you liked, please review. The next installment is done but as the entire thing isn't, I won't be posting it for at least two weeks, depending on reviews.