Title: Tunnel Flights (p1)

Author: Smoke

Rating: PG-13 (Language, dangerous situations, mild sexual content)

Summary: For the Summer Challenge, I started a shiny new AU. (Lol I'm screwed.) I used the splash from ch 6.

A/N: Although I love motorcycles, I cannot talk very coherently about how they work, so these are future motorcycles that are similar to ours in that they have two wheels and go really fast.

There was a loud thump, a hiss, and a piece of piping fell to the ground with a clatter, closely followed by a lanky, blonde man. Fortunately, he didn't hit the ground. Another man, tall and dark-haired with red eyes, was in the way.

"Fuck! Ow!."

"Kuro-chan caught me," the blonde man said, smiling happily.

"What were you doing up there, idiot?"

The man pulled off his night-vision goggles and winked a blue eye at the man holding him. "You can let me down now, Kuro-tan."

Kurogane dropped him, rolling his eyes. "You're so weird, Fai."

Fai rolled across the dusty floor and picked up the length of pipe, waggling it at Kurogane. "See, Kuro-meanie, I was trying to get this."

"What's it for?" Kurogane said, curiosity finally piqued.

"Ah, Kuro-zoom's bike needs a new heat vent," Fai said. "And this pipe is dead." He pulled his goggles back down and walked over to the motorcycle that was in the center of the room. Whistling, he lit a welding torch and set to work.

"What happened to the old one?" Kurogane asked.

"Speak up, Kuro-tan, this thing is loud."

"I said, what happened to the old vent?"

"You burned through it in the race two days ago, Kuro-chan. Your engine runs too hot. You know if you can feel the heat you're supposed to slow down."

"Then I'd go slower," Kurogane pointed out.

"You wouldn't explode."

"I might lose."

"You wouldn't explode."

"I wouldn't make money."

"Kuro-chan is so reckless. You can't make money if you're dead."

"Tch," Kurogane muttered, ending the conversation without really admitting anyone was wrong.

Fai turned off the torch and wiped his face with a rusty, sooty glove. "Phew, this is hot. I wonder if we can get the fans working, Kuro-mi?"

Kurogane shrugged. "We can try. We've got enough electricity."

The blonde smiled at him. "Yeah, it was good of you to work so hard to get us a home next to the generators. You're useful!"

"Wasn't I useful before?" Kurogane grumbled.

"Mm, a little," Fai said, pushing his goggles up again. They pulled his hair, which was getting a little long, back from his forehead like a headband. He had soot, or maybe it was just dust, smudged on his face. It looked dark against his pale skin, but then again, most people were pale here. Kurogane had an almost tanned look to him, but it wasn't from sun, just his complexion. He hadn't been in the sun for years. None of them had.

"Try the engine," Fai said in a self-satisfied kind of way.

Kurogane did, pausing only to say, "You smell like engine grease."

"So what?" Fai said. "I love this smell."

The engine was running cooler now – At least you could sit on the seat comfortably. "Where's the brat?"

"Syaoran-kun is talking to Sakura-chan again," Fai said shortly.

"… Oh."

"Maybe you should talk to him, hm?"

"Fine," Kurogane said, walking over to the ladder on the far side of the room. "But I'm not good at this stuff."

The third member of their team was a teenager. He couldn't ride yet, at least, not quite as well as Kurogane. But he was a good, willing learner, all the more willing because he had a goal.

Kurogane paused and listened for a few seconds before going inside the room. He heard Syaoran, talking as usual, about the same things he mostly did. " – Going to learn to race, and get you a medic with the money. And then you can wake up. I was wondering – Fai-san said he's sure you can hear me. Maybe when you wake up, you'll remember what I said, Sakura-chan." A brief pause, and a sigh. "You have such a nice name. There are no more flowers. Only you."

Syaoran said these same things, or a variation on them, every night. It was like a ritual, as if treating her like she was awake would somehow bring her out of the coma.

Kurogane went down a few rungs on the ladder as quietly as he could, then made a point of being noisy on his way back up.

"Hey kid," he said too-loudly. "You up here?"

Syaoran came to the doorway of the room. "Yes. I was- "

"Yeah."

Kurogane noticed that the girl who lay on the cot on the floor was not wearing the dress she always had on. Instead, she was wearing overalls – Probably Syaoran's castoffs – in their team colors, white, black, and orange. "You changed her clothes."

"I closed my eyes," Syaoran said, turning slightly pink.

Kurogane had to admire this kid. He was pretty much the typical all-around good guy, dependable, honest, and noble. These were rare qualities Underground. It was a miracle he'd grown up so well, really. There weren't many kids his age who would go through all this stuff for a girl, either. It was wildly idealistic, and it appealed to Kurogane, which was why he'd agreed to let the kid stay with them.

"He fixed up my bike," he said finally, jerking a thumb in the general direction of downstairs and Fai. "Want to give it a go?"

Syaoran's eyes got wide. "You mean your bike? But you – "

"Yeah. You're not bad, you won't trash it."

- this is a pagebreak -

Underground, night was when you made it. The massive lights that lit up the bigger tunnels and spaces got dim after ten. Because team Tsubasa lived so close to the generators, Fai had actually figured out a way to stop the lights on one of the disused tunnels near them from going out. It made for a good practice track.

The motorcycle's roar echoed in the tunnel, so Kurogane, standing off to the side, had to shout to be heard. "Turn left… I said don't let up on the throttle so much!" There was a second when he thought the kid was going to fall, but somehow Syaoran righted himself and continued. Kurogane grinned. It was exactly what he would have done.

Syaoran stopped in a spray of dirt, the dust drifting up towards the light. "Was that okay?"

"You're getting there," Kurogane said. "Lean into the turns more. Give it one mo– "

Fai, who had just walked into the tunnel, interrupted him. "Kuro-tan, you should both go to bed. You have a big race tomorrow."

"I'm fine," Kurogane grumbled.

"Syaoran-kun has to go to sleep, it's very late," Fai said, solving two problems at once. "And I have to run a check on your motor before tomorrow, so let's go back, okay, Kuro-pon?"

"Don't call me stupid names," Kurogane said under his breath, but brought the motorcycle inside while Syaoran climbed back upstairs, presumably to check on Sakura before he went to sleep.

He sat on the floor next to the bike, Fai's toolbox in his lap, as the mechanic unbolted the wheel covers and switched the practice tires with the racing set. "Hey. Why do you think he takes care of her like that?"

Fai frowned and passed him a wrench. "Give me the next size down. Ah, I think it's something he just… feels he should do. Why shouldn't he?"

Kurogane found the required wrench and said, "Dunno. I guess it's a good thing to do. Just seems…"

"Like a lot of trouble to go through for – Hold this bolt – someone you've never spoken to?"

"Yeah. He's up there all the time, worrying about her."

Fai undid the last bolt and lifted off the cover. "Kuro-zoom is so bad to his tires. Anyway, he's read her letter, right? Sakura-chan seems like a nice girl to me. I think he loves her."

"What letter?"

"She had a letter in her hand. It was very sweet. That's how he knows her name, silly Kuro-chi."

"Huh. So it's because of that letter?"

"Yes. I think Syaoran-kun is a little romantic, isn't he?"

Kurogane nodded a little, despite the fact that Fai probably couldn't see him while concentrating on the bike.

"Besides," Fai said, "If I got caught in a storm and went into a coma, Kuro-chan would take care of me, wouldn't he?"

"You're my mechanic," Kurogane said, suddenly very interested in the bolts he was holding. " 'course I would."

"There you go, then!" Fai said triumphantly. "He just hasn't talked to her yet, that's all. Syaoran-kun is a lot like Kuro-chan. Very loyal and nice."

Kurogane shrugged to hide his embarrassment. "Are you almost done with that?"

"Give me another fifteen minutes and it'll be all ready," Fai reassured him. "I don't want it to spin out on the racetrack any more than you do."

- this is a pagebreak -

The race was over at Pipeside, where the water tower from up above had sunk deep into the soil from its own weight. At first, they'd been terrified it would bring radiation down with it, but it turned out to be clean. If it hadn't been, well, everyone living at Pipeside would be dead and rotting. As it was, a team lived there. Their colors were blue, green, and silver, their symbol a towering wave. They were also, coincidentally, team Tsubasa's rivals. Both teams had expert mechanics and skilled, risk-loving racers. It made their races intense and often well-attended. There weren't many spectator casualties. Unless the spectators were stupider than usual, that is.

"The engine should be able to take a little water but if it gets submerged completely you're screwed," Fai said, hurrying along beside his friend. "And be careful on the turns because this track is muddy and it gets slippery. And they fight dirty, so – "

"Fai," Kurogane said, stopping to grab the mechanic's shoulders. "I'll be fine. I've done this before. Why're you so worried, anyway?"

An air horn sounded. The race was starting soon. " I'll tell you later. Hurry! You don't want him to win, right?"

Kurogane glared at him, but headed for the starting line. Fai had been acting odd lately – Well, Fai always acted odd, he was a complete idiot even though he was a damn good mechanic – and he planned to find out what exactly was bothering him.

A cute girl with long, curly black hair walked out onto the track. She held up two flags, and a dead silence fell over the crowd.

The flags dropped.

Two engines roared.

The crowd exploded into screaming, cheering, delighted chaos.

Kurogane could not help but grin as his motorcycle shot forwards, blurring the walls and ceiling around him. The orange tint of his goggles, the air resistance that was almost like wind, the cool dampness of the waterworks nearby – It was almost enough to make him forget he was underground. He didn't know why so few people did this. It was exhilarating and real in a way nothing else was.

He could hear, above the engine and the wind, the other bike coming up behind him. He swerved to block the other racer, who cursed at him and tried to maneuver up on his right. There was a deep puddle ahead of them, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to avoid it without losing serious ground. Fortunately, he only got a little damp, and the engine stayed mostly dry.

There was one thing he was really worried about, and that was coming right up. There was a deep, tire-marked section of mud on the track. The other racer had home-track advantage, as he was probably used to staying balanced in mud, even at speeds like this.

Kurogane's fears were perfectly well-founded. The mud made the bike hard to control, almost like riding on sticky sand. His opponent zipped past him. By the time they were past the mud, the race was neck-and-neck with ten yards to the finish line. Kurogane gritted his teeth and bore down on the accelerator. It was over in a split-second – The race was a perfect tie. The Wave racer lifted his blue-tinted goggles and glowered at Kurogane. Kurogane glared back.

"Tie," announced the woman who was judging.

"I want a rematch," the Wave racer said, and Kurogane agreed perfectly.

"Yeah, a new track," he said. "Let's play it fair."

The Wave racer looked like he was about to punch Kurogane, which the racer privately thought might make for an interesting fight, but his mechanic, a girl with practical, short hair and thick overalls, grabbed his wrist and held on tight. "Stop it."

Fai came running over. "Ah, Kuro-tie, I should have remembered the mud!"

"Not your fault," Kurogane said.

"It's my job," Fai pointed out. "Hey, Kuro-mud's uniform has got on different colors now, hm?"

Kurogane looked at himself. Apparently team Tsubasa's new colors were brown, brown, and orange-brown. "Damn."

"I'm not cleaning it," Fai told him.

"Whatever. Let's go."

Fai picked up his toolbox from the mechanic's pit and followed the racer off the track and out of Pipeside. "You know," he said, "Team Wave's mechanic is really very talented. She's quite young but she knows what she's doing."

"You're talking like you're old," Kurogane said.

"I'm twenty-one. That is old, at least here it is."

This was true. There were very few people over the age of twenty-three Underground. They had mostly died when the radiation hit, twenty-three years ago. The anniversary of the disaster was in a week.

"Whatever," Kurogane said, not stunningly verbose in even his best moods.

Fai shot him a stunning smile and tied his toolbox to the back of the bike. "We're off their territory. Let's go, Kuro-woosh!"

Kurogane got on the bike and Fai got on behind him, wrapping his arms around the racer's waist. (This made Kurogane glad that Fai was behind him and thus could not see his face. He didn't know why he had these stupid fits of blood-to-the-face, only that Fai would never shut up about it if he knew.) "Don't forget to put on your goggles," he said shortly. "The dust gets bad."

"Kuro-zoom acts like I haven't done this before," Fai said. "Stop stalling, it's bad for the engine! Go, go, go!"

There was something nice about the comforting, human warmth of Fai behind him, Kurogane thought. But he wished the mechanic wouldn't yell in his ear.