Author's Note

This was prompted for LJ's springkink community -- 6/5 Tsubasa RC; Kurogane/Fai; Sensual Massage; "I never thought it could be like this"

Warning Spoils up through Chapter 185

The scent of blood was unmistakable. The shiver it put up Fai's spine made him want to close his eyes. Instead, he watched the big man slouched now before him in the chair, eyeing him warily. Kurogane bled slowly, quietly, from where the metal arm attached to his body.

"You can't hide things forever when you're traveling in a group. It will only be harder on Syaoran-kun and Mokona if they find out later," Fai said.

"You're one to talk." Kurogane's eyes were narrowed.

Fai nodded, knowing his own pain wasn't physical, but still bled into the feelings of the rest of the group. He gave his sunniest smile. "That's why I'm the one telling you!"

The big man's head dropped at that.

Fai moved in and slid onto the armrest on Kurogane's right side. Under that black gaze, Fai peeled back the heavy, black mantle.

Softly he said, "We shouldn't waste this." At the grunt of consent from the bigger man, Fai lowered his head, and started licking away the blood that called to him. It was delicious beyond the mechanics of taste.

Kurogane turned his face away from where Fai worked, but the cool metal of his arm curled quietly about Fai's slenderness until he could lean against it as he worked. Fai's saliva, combined with the small healing magics that were now a part of his very blood, healed each wound he tasted and cleaned. It was the same when he fed off Kurogane's wrist, his own feeding healed and strengthened the source of his life. He worked the small magic, reinforcing the torn flesh, strengthening it to bear the weight of the new metal grafted onto it.

It was difficult. Different than the flood of magic he used to command, but oddly more satisfying. He'd never had healing magic before, only the destructive kind. Here he could see the flesh knit under his ministrations and feel Kurogane relax and breathe more deeply as he continued.

Soon, Kurogane's skin was bare of blood and torn tissue and the big man lifted his arm, flexing cables and joints with a sigh of relief. "That's better." The dark eyes turned on Fai. "Do you need a solid drink after that?"

Fai shook his head, and licked his lips, lightly rubbing a sticky spot with a finger that he then sucked clean. "I have plenty."

"Then here."

Kurogane took a grip on Fai's hips and planted him on Kurogane's knees. Not all the way back on his lap, and Fai perched there, confused.

Then he felt Kurogane's hand close on the back of his neck and he almost panicked, but the grip was so slow, so sure, he shivered once and stayed still. The grip tightened and then loosened and then did it again against tendons thrumming with tension and stress. Fai made a small sound of inquiry and then both hands were on his shoulders, thumbs rubbing hard against muscles so tight they ached without even moving.

Fai moved further into Kurogane's lap and put his head down and couldn't help but groan as those strong hands continued their ministrations. He rolled his shoulders and neck as the firm touch dug in deeply. He whimpered as he felt locked tendons crackling as they loosened.

"You okay?"

"Yes, Kuro-sama," Fai laughed softly.

The grip tightened and Fai's eyes closed, the big hands paused, gripped and then kept moving. Maybe, thought Fai as his eyes opened again, Kurogane needed the humor as well. Strong thumbs dug into the muscles on either side of his neck and then moved slowly down his spine, rubbing deep circles into the muscles on either side. The hard rubbing went out along the muscles all through his lower back, following the tension that spread across his narrow hips.

Kurogane pulled Fai closer to his body, and Fai went, unresisting, leaning back against Kurogane's chest. His head fell back against Kurogane's shoulder. The big hands slid up Fai's front. He had to close his eyes at the sensation so as to not make a sound. Those hands stroked the soreness away from the center of his chest out to the big joints of his shoulders.

Gradually, strong knuckles, one set warm, the other cool, worked their way down the contours of his breastbone, touching on and relaxing muscles Fai never even knew he'd had before this. Then they dug in against his abs and diaphragm, kneading and rolling; Fai had to let his breath out in order to allow those muscles to relax, to not fight the rough touch that released tension all around his center.

Kurogane's hands moved up along Fai's breastbone again, and moved to his throat. Fai swallowed as Kurogane took the tendon and skin on either side of his neck between his fingers, and kneaded the muscles that ran from his ears to points of his collarbone. That steady touch moved back up those muscles, and then kneaded behind his ears, eliciting another sigh from Fai. Calloused fingers made small circles in a line down his temples and over his sinuses.

The touches were firm, slow, and steady, unsurprising and Fai found himself relaxing against the bigger man, more and more. He'd never expected to find something like this; someone who knew everything that had happened to him, all the bad luck of his birth, his past, and all the death that had followed him, and would still touch him like this, hold him, care about him. He now had company on this road to an unknown fate, and it felt better than he had thought possible.

That was when Fai felt the overwhelming sleepiness. Rather than face it alone, he turned to lean against the broad chest behind him. Kurogane's arms, one warm and brown, the other cool and silver, wrapped around him and held him close.

And then it was morning...