Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa. CLAMP does.

Hallo! Asuka here, with more KuroganexTomoyo! Oh, how I loooove that pairing! SO MUCH! My favorite ever!! Just ask anybody who's seen my bedroom! Okay, all you rabid Kurofai fans out there, this fanfic is NOT for you. Like all the rest of my fanfics. The end, so long, have fun, read this. Woot.

By the way, this is before the series starts. A lot before. This is right after Kurogane's parents are killed and he becomes part of Tomoyo's guard. So they're both kids.

Temper

He hadn't always had a bad temper. There was a time when Kurogane was an average spastic young boy who liked swordfighting and climbing trees. Unfortunately, that time was far gone. He had become (as some people liked to point out more often than he would have liked) a very unpleasant person that not many would go out of their way to spend time with. And Kurogane, being a generally bad-natured boy, was okay with that. Or so he said.

No matter how bad-tempered, depressed, or angry someone becomes, having no friends only tends to make them more bad-tempered, depressed, and angry. So naturally, it was good for Kurogane that he only thought he had no friends. And thinking something and something being a reality are most certainly two different things. Kurogane wasn't very aware of this, but then again, most people who think something that isn't actually true are not aware that it isn't actually true.

So, when Kurogane was sitting alone in his room one night whilst all the other young ninjas were out for a celebration of their most recent success in battle, he was completely certain he was friendless. Therefore, his temper was worse than usual. And no one in their right mind had ever approached Kurogane while he was at the full height of his fury. Which meant Tomoyo was either insane or didn't realize that when someone shouted more swear words than she had ever heard in her entire life at one time it meant they were angry. Both of which being rather unlikely cases, Kurogane began to wonder what she was doing in his room while he was busy being angry at everything… including himself, the people who had killed his parents, and Tomoyo.

"Why're you here?" he asked bluntly. The princess sat down in front of him with her legs crossed, a rather unladylike position.

"To see you," she replied, just as bluntly. He growled and rolled his eyes, leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest.

"Yeah, right. You know everyone in the castle just thinks I'm a nuisance," he said.

"Maybe if you stopped being a nuisance, they wouldn't think that," Tomoyo pointed out. He glared at her, his face an expression of sudden realization.

"You think so too, don't you!?" he said, his voice much louder.

She only laughed. Laughed. At him. This served to infuriate him much more than anything else anyone had ever said or done, although he wasn't quite sure why. Tomoyo irked him more than other people, he noted. She acted like she knew so much more than him (Kurogane avoided thinking that she probably did) and she pointed that out almost constantly. She was more mature than him, even though she was younger, and she also made that obvious. But the one thing about her that annoyed him most of all was that she meddled constantly.

Tomoyo didn't just come into his room that day. She did it often, without knocking, and sometimes just sat there without even talking to him. She seemed to be around him constantly, despite the fact that Souma was her bodyguard, not Kurogane. She tried to make conversation with him on some occasions, although he never really replied but for a 'yes' or 'no'. She also told him not to call her 'princess' or 'Tsukiyomi', but 'Tomoyo', as though she wanted to be familiar with him. As though she wanted to be friends. And Kurogane, who often over-thought everything and assumed people had ulterior motives, thought she was only doing it to tease him.

"I don't think so," she finally said when she stopped laughing. "You're not a nuisance, Kurogane. Maybe a little bit defensive, but not a bother in the least."

"Liar," he said under his breath.

"What was that?" Tomoyo asked innocently, as though she had not heard him.

"Liar!" he said more loudly.

"How do you know I'm lying?" Tomoyo asked. She posed this question even more innocently (as if it was at all possible), batting her large, doe-like violet eyes. She shifted her position so that she was now kneeling, bringing herself closer to his height.

"It's written all over your face," he said smugly, his eyes narrowing in anger.

"You're bad at reading expressions, then," Tomoyo said. She moved closer to him, so that her side was brushing against his arm.

"Are you teasing me?" he asked.

"No," she said simply.

He still did not trust her. Tomoyo teased him a lot regardless of whether he wanted her to, and this seemed quite the same. Not completely, but mostly. And mostly the same constituted the same in Kurogane's mind at the moment. "Yes, you are," he said.

"Am not," said Tomoyo. "I told myself I wasn't going to tease you today."

"How come?" he asked, turning a little so that he was no longer touching her and so that he could look at her eyes again.

"Because. You looked unhappy today, and I didn't want to worsen it," she said.

"Tch… I'm fine," was all she got as a reply.

She pushed gently on his shoulder, not enough to even move him an inch. "You are the most stubborn person I know, Kurogane!" she yelped. He stood, taking a few steps away from her as he turned to face her, glaring daggers.

"Listen! Nobody here even cares about me! I'm just some orphan who's taking refuge here because you feel sorry for me! It's not because anyone even cares! I hate how you pretend like you care! I hate you!" he shouted. She just sat there, still in the same position, staring up at him. Her mouth was open a little, and she appeared stunned and taken aback. As the shock wore off, her dark eyes filled with tears, and Kurogane felt his anger melting away. Now he just hated himself for what he had said. Tomoyo lowered her head and brushed the tears away from her eyes with the long sleeves of her kimono.

Kurogane swallowed. His throat felt dry, and there was a lump growing in it that was due to guilt entirely. He clenched his fist and cursed himself with his whole heart for what he had done. There was only one thing going through his head. I just made her cry. This, aside from being something that he had never intended to do, made him feel like a horrible person. The sweet princess who had only ever teased him in playing was crying because of something he said. And that unpleasant feeling sunk into him and made him want to bite back the words he'd said.

At this point, he was mostly unsure what to do. Walking away would make him feel even worse. Apologizing would bite into his pride very hard. Both seemed like bad options. He crouched down to her level and lifted her face with his hand. He could feel his face heating up as he saw another tear rolling down her cheek and cursed himself again, both for blushing and her crying. "I…I'm sorry," he said. "…I didn't mean it. I don't hate you." His hand fell from her cheek and he bit his lip, looking away from her. That was all he could say. Anything else would have killed his already bruised pride.

Tomoyo smiled widely and threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight embrace. His entire body tensed, and he could feel his breath catch in his chest. "What are you doing?" he asked, his voice a little raspy. "I just made you cry, and now you're hugging me? What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing at all, actually," she said. "I'm just happy… because you apologized. And I could tell… that you don't entirely hate me."

He did not reply, but his body relaxing and becoming limp against her told her that he was also happy. He sighed, his breath tickling her neck. "Kurogane?" Tomoyo asked, her voice tentative and a little nervous. "Do you want to be friends?"

"You mean it?" he asked, his heart speeding up with the question.

"Of course, silly!" she laughed, releasing him enough to look at his eyes again. He smiled. It was one of the first times she had ever seen him smile.

"Yeah…" he said, "I do."