A/N: I am finally about to achieve my long-held ambition of writing a Tsubasa universe multi-chap fic! *Victory fist pump* It always bothered me in Tsubasa that Fai and Kurogane never ran into alternate universe version of themselves as they traversed space-time (it didn't even happen in the filler-filled anime), so I'm writing my own version where the dimension hopping couples Kurogane and Fai, Subaru and Seishirou, and Fuuma and Kamui each have a chance to encounter versions of themselves or their soul mates in other worlds and reach more depth (and find more humor) in their relationships because of them. For this first section from Kurogane's perspective, I was drawn to the Fai-sensei/Kurogane-sensei AU versions from Horitsuba Gakuen, and borrowed their characters to place alongside the original Nihon ninja we know and love. Hope you enjoy!

Rating: M for language, sexual situations, and eventual sex. Fuuma and Seishirou's personalities alone deserve an M warning.

Spoilers/Timeline: This chapter spoils the character of Yui, along with several small, non essential incidents of Tsubasa, Horitsuba, and to an extent RG Veda.

Disclaimer: The awesome multiverse belongs to CLAMP... ho-hum

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Kurogane

The world Mokona had dropped them off into this time was grating on Kurogane's nerves. He liked old fashioned kinds of places where the technology was simple and easy to wrap his head around, and the clothes were modest to the point where the mage and princess weren't prancing around with their midriffs exposed. But the moment they landed in this place in the middle of what seemed to be an advanced sort of market center, a group of teen girls wearing short plaid skirts and daringly low cut blouses swarmed their group to compliment their 'cosplaying,' whatever that was. Fai's fluffy winter coat seemed to be a huge hit, and some of the bolder girls had wrapped their arms around his waist to snuggle their faces into the warm fabric, while Fai had smiled down at them with his stupid little fake grin.

Kurogane didn't understand why, but he had wanted to punch something. Badly.

As usual, practicality had won out. They'd shaken off the crowds to go hunt around for a place for Sakura to exercise her gambling talents and earn them some quick money for lodging and clothes. This world had plenty of gaming dens with strange machines decorated with cherries and black and red wheels where people placed bets on which color a ball would land on when the spinning stopped. Kurogane couldn't quite grasp the rules of half the games, but the princess ended up doing well, as always. So well that the owner of the building asked them to cash in their winnings and leave before he called the authorities on them.

"So the money is paper again," Syaoran noted, looking at the bills with interest. "I'm not familiar with this language, but I've seen this number system before. It's one of the more straightforward ones, luckily."

After a few minutes, he had divided their funds up and given a brief lecture on how to identify each of the numbers and how their value was determined, which Kurogane had mostly ignored. The kid, princess, and mage took care of the majority of shopping, and on the rare occasion where Kurogane had to lend a hand, the meat bun could be convinced to use one of its secret abilities to determine how many bills or coins to hand over to the shopkeeper in each place they visited.

"Sakura-chan and I will find us some clothes at the market where we landed," the mage chirped, pulling off his winter gear to look less conspicuous. "Any requests Syaoran-kun? Kuro-wanwan?"

"How about something that covers you guys fully for once?" Kurogane grumbled. For someone who'd worn a handful of thick layers in his homeworld, Fai seemed to have an aversion to substantial clothing everywhere else, and too often had both men and women trailing after him, admiring the beautiful white skin of his stomach that he left openly exposed.

Fai smiled as if he knew exactly what Kurogane was thinking."Ah, Kuro-tan doesn't like sexy clothes? Maybe you could come along and pick out what you would like to see me in instead."

"Forget it."

While Fai and Sakura hunted down a clothing shop and Syaoran made inquiries about lodging, Kurogane wandered around from store to store, trying to get a feel for what kind of goods this world dealt in. There seemed to be pieces of technology available, though not as many as what Piffle had offered, and there were shelves filled with books in the country's unfamiliar native language. He found a few stacks of manga similar to the serial he'd been reading, and though he couldn't guess at the dialogue, he at least enjoyed the pictures as a momentary diversion. The heroine looked a bit like a younger version of the princess, and two of the minor characters uncannily resembled the king and high priest of Syaoran's world who kept showing up in the different dimensions they wandered, except that the fictionalized versions seemed to have more sparkles and flowers haloing their bodies.

"I want THIS calendar," a familiar voice came from a few shelves away from where Kurogane was reading. "This model looks just like Kuro-tan-sensei, doesn't he?"

At the sound of his name being used by Fai's voice, Kurogane snaps his book shut and grits his teeth. What the heck was the mage doing following him into the bookstore? If they didn't get new clothes soon, people were bound to start ambushing them for dressing up again, and they were going to be at the receiving end of even more unwanted attention. And why on earth was he calling him sensei? Kurogane hadn't instructed him in anything other than being quiet and shutting up.

"Put that away, Fai," came a more subdue version of Fai's voice. "What if Yuuko-sensei or one of the students saw you with that?"

Kurogane shifted his eyes to where the two voices originated, a display filled with a collection of calendars for the new year, most having some sort of natural theme, though quite a few were fronted by women wearing what looked like skimpy undergarments. Fai was leaning against the display, wearing a long white coat over a black turtleneck and holding up a calendar open to an image of a half naked man kicking a black and white ball into the air. Beside him stood another Fai, this one wearing a different kind of white coat and with slightly longer hair that needed to be tied back away from his face.

Kurogane's mouth fell open, and he took a step back into one of the stacks of manga. The books fell noisily to the ground, and the two Fais looked up in surprise to see who was causing the ruckus.

The Fai in the black turtleneck's eyes lit up as he met Kurogane's stunned gaze."Kuro-tan-sensei!" he called out, giving a cheery wave. "You didn't say you were going shopping after work, too! And wherever did you get that outfit?" He bounded up to the stammering ninja, and began pulling off his cloak to expose the clothes beneath. "If you wanted to cosplay, you should have asked me first! You know I've been wanting to try out maid-and-master with you. Or since you've already bought a samurai type outfit, I could dress as your forbidden lover!"

"There. Are. Two. Of. You," was all Kurogane could say as the additional Fai leisurely joined them, looking a bit chagrined at the other Fai's antics. Even when Kurogane rubbed his eyes, there were still two, and though they both looked similar to his Fai, there was something not right about them, something akin to the separation between the Tomoyo-hime he'd met in Piffle to the one he'd served in Nihon.

"Kurorin, have you been drinking?" Fai scolded. "It's Yui! You know, my brother?"

"I think I need to sit down," Kurogane said, backing into one of the armchairs nearby the bookshelf. The witch had warned him that this was a possibility, but it had never actually happened until now. He'd seen plenty of variations of the people they'd met in other worlds, put never copies of himself or Fai, or even the kid or the princess, other than the look-alike who had appeared in the manga. To see an alternate Fai— and even more disturbingly, an alternate Fai who came along with a twin— was a bit alarming, even without factoring in that this Fai seemed to know an alternate version of himself as well.

"Now that I get a closer look at him," Fai said as Kurogane attempted to sort out his thoughts, "doesn't this guy look a bit different than Kuro-tan-sensei? He doesn't even have the burn I gave him during that accidental explosion in the chemistry lab."

"If Kurogane-sensei had a twin, I'm sure he would have mentioned it when I first came to Horitsuba," the Fai named Yui said.

"But he looks almost exactly like him. Maybe he's someone who looks up to Kuro-tan-sensei as an idol and got surgery to copy off of his style?" Fai frowned down at Kurogane in disapproval. "I understand your obsession, but it won't work. Kuro-sensei belongs to me, and I'm not going to fall for you just because you look like him."

Something in Kurogane's heart stirred at Fai's words. The witch had said something along the lines of people in different dimensions growing under different circumstances, but still possessing the same souls. If that was the case, did the fact that this particular Fai had feelings for another him mean that the Fai he knew also cherished similar sentiments? That had seemed to be the case for Sorata and Arashi and Touya and Yukito, although the Fai he was saddled with wasn't as straightforward as they were. Emotional relationships were something he avoided, aside from his fatherly feelings for the kid and princess. Kurogane got the sense that Fai did not wish him to venture too close or ask too many questions, and he somewhat doubted that love could exist in a heart that had closed itself off to connection.

"Do you know about the other dimensions?" Kurogane asked out of the blue as Fai and Yui continued to study him with narrowed blue eyes. He knew it was a stab in the dark, but there was no way he would admit to being a 'Kurogane idol' or get out of the conversation with the feeble excuse of his supposed burn healing miraculously in the past few hours. Fai liked to pretend to be stupid, but he was obviously much more intelligent than he let on, and his twin, this Yui character, didn't even look like the type to bother masking his smarts.

"The dimensions?" Fai said, his brightness returning. "Of course I know! Yuuko-sensei talks about them all the time. She says that in another world, she keeps Watanuki-kun as a slave and has met alternate versions of nearly everyone at Horitsuba, including me and Kurorin. She says the Kuroin her other self met hates her even more than the one in this world does." Fai's eyes widen. "Nee, Yui, do you think that this might be the Kuro-tan that Yuuko-sensei was talking about?"

"I don't see why not."

"Do you know a Yuuko-san, Kuro-sama? Did she give you the power to travel between worlds?"

Kurogane sighed, wondering if it was safe to confess this sort of information to someone who was most likely an average civilian, but finally nodded when Fai gave him the pleading look he had always been weak to. If the Yuuko in this world had already admitted to knowing about her other self, the secret was most likely already fairly well known by the people in the Horitsuba place Fai was rattling on about. They apparently had little concern about the existence of dimension travelers, and weren't disturbed by the use of magic.

"Then you know the other me!" Fai cried, clapping his hands together. "Yuuko-sensei said you and me went off on a journey with one of the Syaoran-kuns, Sakura-chan, and white Moko-chan. Is Fai-sama here at the moment?"

"He's with the girl right now, finding us clothes to wear in this world."

"Oh. So you aren't cosplaying? These are your real clothes? Other me is so lucky. I'll have to get Kuro-tan-sensei to wear these fun outfits, too."

"If he has any sense, I doubt he'll do it."

"Hmph," Fai said, pouting. "You are really just like him. He never lets me have any fun at all." He turned to Yui. "Should we go look for Fai-sama, brother? He and I can exchange love advice about our relationship with Kuro-sama!"

"That might not be such a good idea," Kurogane interrupted him, folding his arms across his chest. "For one, I'm pretty sure that mage doesn't have a brother, and he might be confused by seeing you with someone who looks exactly like him. And there is no 'relationship' in the first place."

Fai looked crestfallen at this news. "You mean you and I aren't lovers, at all? There is a Kuro-tan in this universe who doesn't care about me?"

"Didn't say that," Kurogane grumbled. "Look, the you I know isn't exactly like the person you are. There's a good chance that there's something in his past he's still suffering from, and it makes it hard for him to want to invest his heart in people. Is there someone in this world named Ashura?"

"Two of them. One is my sempai in the science department, and the other is his son... or daughter. I can't quite tell, to be honest. He or she is a popular student at Horitsuba, and is dating the captain of the fencing team, Yasha." Fai tilted his head. "Why do you ask?"

"Have you had any issues with them?"

"Not in particular. Ashura-sempai has this weird habit of foretelling when bad things are going to happen and then going through odd lengths to prevent them, but it hasn't really effected me yet."

"Hmm. Well, there's a chance that it may have effected the mage. And he's the sort of person who prefers to shoulder his own burdens rather than trust in the people who want to shoulder them with him."

"That may be because he doesn't have a Yui at his side to look after him." Fai patted his twin on the arm, looking solemn. "Kuro-sama, I don't know if I can speak for the other me, but I know myself and my feelings for Kuro-tan-sensei well enough to say that if you continue to stay by his side and trust in him with your heart, he will eventually be able to find a way to the happiness he lost. But if you don't remain a part of his life, I doubt he will ever be able to feel the fullness in his heart that comes with being one with his most important person. Kuro-sama is the only man for me, and I'm sure it's that way for him, too. So please continue to get along with him, all right?"

Kurogane looked in Fai's eyes, the corners of his lips twitching just slightly into a smile. "In the place where I was born, I made a vow to use my strength to protect that which I love. I've never sworn anything I didn't intend to see through to the end, even if the person I wish to protect does not wish to protect himself."

Fai nodded, looking somewhat touched. Yui leaned over and whispered, "See, you're still being loved properly, even in the other worlds."

"But still," Fai sighed, tapping his foot, "I'm a bit troubled about all of this. The other me must be about ready to die of frustration. Traveling around the world with sexy-ninja Kuro-tan, but not being able to have him as a lover? Maybe we should go looking for him, Yui. I can share all the tips I've uncovered about the best way to get Kuro-sensei into bed."

"HUH?" Kurogane said, choking a bit at this pronouncement.

"When Yuuko-sensei told me about the two of us going on a journey in another world, it was months ago. And now you're telling me that we haven't even had sex yet? Even if something is troubling me, I don't understand how I could possibly resist the temptation. The Kuro-tan in this world and I started sleeping together only a month after we got our jobs." Fai grinned wickedly. "We were in the staff bathroom, and I pretended that my shower was broken and went into his. Things just sort of happened. You and I both look awfully good naked, you know."

Kurogane's face flushed, even though he tried to ignore the tightening in his lower body. He'd seen Fai naked before— an inevitability, after all their time spent journeying together— but he hadn't had the chance to see him in the showers in worlds like Piffle, hot water running in trickles down his body, a pink tinge rising to his skin at the heat...

"Stop teasing him, Fai," Yui whispered. "I think his nose is starting to bleed."

"No, no it isn't," Kurogane said quickly, covering his mouth. "Uh, well, I should probably go back. They're most likely done shopping for clothes now by now. By the way, what's up with you and belly shirts?"

"Belly shirts?" Yui said with a soft laugh. "Here, that's the least of his concerns. Your Fai doesn't... er... cross dress at all?"

"Cross... dress?" Kurogane repeated. An image of Fai wearing a waitress outfit like Sakura's in Outo suddenly popped into his head without warning.

"Kuro-tan-sensei still won't let me wear a maid dress," Fai sighed tragically. "He says he doesn't want me to do weird things in front of the students."

"Ah, yes. Please don't." Don't let anyone else see you like that, you idiot, he wanted to scream. This man wasn't his Fai, but he was fairly certain their bodies were pretty much the same.

"No fun at all."

As Kurogane at last rose out of the armchair, Fai gave a friendly wave, as did Yui, though the twin's was not so wide as his brother's. "Take good care of me, Kuro-sama," Fai said with a laugh. "And by the way, if things ever start heating up, there's a place right here—" he pointed to a spot on his neck "— that feels really good when you suck on it."

Kurogane kept his hand over his nose to catch the slight trickle of blood. "Uh, yeah. Goodbye."

When he left the bookstore, he crept behind one of the building's pillars to keep an eye on the entrance. Fai and Yui left just shortly after he did, Fai carrying the calendar Yui had tried to get him not to buy, and the two paused to sit on a bench so Fai could pull out a strange device from his pocket and speak into it for a few minutes.

A different world, but the same souls, Kurogane mused to himself. The same things that bind us together in this world exist in us at this very moment.

After a few minutes, the twins rose to their feet. A man was approaching them from the market entrance, clad in a strange black outfit that looked somewhat like the training gear he'd seen in Hanshin. Kurogane knew without giving the man more than a cursory glance who it was. He was familiar enough with himself and his own habits that it would have been impossible for him to confuse his figure with anyone else's.

While Yui held back, Fai bounded towards the man and threw his arms tightly around him. The man resisted, pushing him away and yelling about doing weird things in public, but it wasn't long before his arm had crept back around Fai's waist, reaching just slightly up into the fabric of his shirt to rest his hand against the skin of his stomach.

Well, Kurogane thought to himself with a snort. There's a reason for those stupid belly shirts, after all.

He turned his back on the happy couple and looked into the bustling common area. Syaoran was milling about like a lost puppy looking for him, and Fai and Sakura were descending the stairs, armed with shopping bags and dressed in their new outfits. Kurogane wondered how Fai would feel if he mimicked the behavior of his other self and put his hands on the skin he had once again decided to leave open to observation in this world.

"Kurooo-tan," Fai trilled after he and the princess had intercepted the kid. "I found a nice black outfit for you, and Syaoran-kun has information on 'hotels' for us to go as a base while we look for the feather. Did you miss me?"

"No," Kurogane said, honestly. "It feels like I didn't get a break from you at all."

"Daddy's so mean!" Fai's lips jutted out into a pout, but Kurogane was looking into his eyes, mourning the absence of the happiness that his counterpart wore so effortlessly.

Can I really be the one to return your happiness to you? Will the soul in me here really be able to touch the soul of the you your world made you to be?

He sighed and followed his group to the address Syaoran had found for lodging. A happy ending didn't come from nowhere. You started at Point A and made your way to Point B, but it was the journey that was uncertain even when the destination wasn't. He could take the wrong path, or Fai could block his entrance at any point; nothing was guaranteed. Even if his soul had managed to find its mate in one world, this particular body might fail to live up to the potential housed within him and lead him even further away from the point he wanted to reach. He couldn't be sure. He could only wish and hope and live with the intention of protecting that which his heart held dear, and believing the best would come of his efforts.

...if you continue to stay by his side and trust in him with your heart, he will eventually be able to find a way to the happiness he lost, Fai had said. Even the result of that could not be known, but it was promise enough to put his faith in. There was a world he still had yet to explore with Fai, a world where he could feel his mouth on that precious pearly skin and be able to hold him close even through his pride and harsh words towards the idiotic mage. And if it's a place I can go, he reminded himself, I can just go without waiting around for someone to take me there. And drag him along with me, if that's what needs to happen.

Kurogane glanced over his shoulder, at the two figures laced together, at the proof that Point B was a reachable place. He sighed and clenched his fists against his side, feeling a new wave of determination sweep over him. This conclusion was someplace he could go, and no matter how twisted the path he took to get there turned out, he was going to head down it without fail, to find his happiness and to be the source of his Fai's.

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Next Up: Subaru