Masquerade

Part V. After Party

"Thank you," Sakura said warmly as she hugged the now-awake Mokona in her arms. "We're really grateful about everything you've done."

"It's no problem," Watanuki replied, giving them a smile. "You shouldn't really be thanking me, anyway."

"Doumeki-san." Sakura turned solemnly to face the taller male. "You saved our lives. We can't ever thank you enough for that."

"Have a safe journey," Doumeki said. He placed his arm around Watanuki's shoulders, but the shorter male didn't react. "I hope you find whatever it is that you're looking for."

"Mokona missed all the fun!" the small creature cried out sadly. "All Mokona was good for was finding the feather in the end, and it was just lying there on the ground!"

"You did a great job noticing it though," Syaoran comforted her hastily. "We were all so busy with Fai-san and Watanuki-san that none of us noticed that the feather had floated down from the chandelier, and we were all so relieved when you woke up. We were all really worried about you."

"To think that something had such an enormous power with my feather, and then it got even stronger by taking in Moko-chan and Fai-san's magic …" Sakura whispered, a frightened look on her face. "How did it happen?"

Watanuki gave a small shrug, one arm in a cast. "The Kleine has a long, bloody history. There were plenty of angry spirits that had lingered at the scene of their murder. When I worked there, I sometimes saw things, flickers of movement, but I never imagined …" He lapsed into an upset silence.

Kurogane interrupted the conversation impatiently. "This is all great, but can we move on? I want to get as far away from this bloody hotel as possible."

"Kuro-tan is just lazy and fat," Mokona proclaimed, bouncing over to perch on his head. Kurogane growled but couldn't raise a hand to swat at her. "He doesn't want to carry Fai anymore!"

"That's not it!" Kurogane flushed. He shook his head and tried to fling Mokona off, but she hung onto his hair stubbornly. "Get off!"

"Then Kuro-woof really likes holding Fai?" Mokona suggested cheerfully.

"That's not it either!" Kurogane roared, increasing his efforts to get the irritating thing off. "Don't call me those stupid nicknames! I get enough of that from the idiot!"

Mokona jumped down and landed on Fai's hands, which were curled up slightly against Kurogane's chest as he held him bridal style. "All work and no play makes Kuro-daddy such a dull boy!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" He growled at the energetic creature.

Mokona raised her paw enthusiastically and squeaked out loudly, "I'm sure that once Fai-mommy is feeling better he will have plenty of time to play with Kuro-daddy!"

"I'm going to kill you!" Kurogane bared his teeth. Mokona gave a happy squeal and bounded away, onto Sakura's shoulder. The brunette turned slightly from her conversation with Syaoran and the two inhabitants of this world.

"It's time to go to the next world!" Mokona declared, the witch's magic circle flaring up beneath them. "Goodbye!"

Everyone shouted out their goodbyes. Kurogane looked down at Fai and shifted his light body slightly in his arms. Under the pretense of checking the blond's breathing, Kurogane bent his head until he could press his lips gently against Fai's forehead.

"Sweet dreams, you idiot."

A/N - Uh, wow. So basically I'm not even going to try to apologize for such a long wait, because it was just sheer stupidity and forgetfulness on my part. I totally forgot about this fic, since I posted it all on LJ ages ago, and I only just realized I never finished it here because I was tidying up my fic folder on my computer.

Bit of an explanation of the ending, for those who haven't read Holic - Doumeki has the power to repel spirits, but this power doesn't carry over to humans, so when he shoots Fai, the shadows are hurt but Fai isn't (but Kurogane didn't know that).

Hope you all enjoyed this fic, seeing as it really wasn't my best work (and this part is so late) I churned it out in about a week, on top of NaNoWriMo, and I would have liked to have written much more and made it longer, but time just didn't allow it.