Fai woke him up with a kiss, which Kurogane twisted away from with a grimace as soon as his brain plugged properly in.

"Gross," he grumbled. "Do that after we brush our teeth."

"Mm," Fai sleepily agreed, wrinkling his nose a bit and smacking his lips. "Movies never seem to address the issue of morning breath in these scenes, do they."

"If your dating playbook is based on movies, this is going to go bad real quick."

"Passionately make out in public, never wear the same clothes twice, pretend STD panels and condoms aren't things that exist? But it's all so romantic," Fai laughingly mourned.

"Shoulda known when you proposed so quick," Kurogane groaned, and thwacked Fai in the face with a pillow as he rolled away. "What time is it anyway?" he asked, and then blinked in surprise as his alarm started peeping.

He shut it up with a solid thump of the heel of his hand and then turned curiously to his bedmate, who tended to be the second or third one to wake up, rather than the first. Fai shrugged.

"I'm kind of anxious about today. I fell asleep just fine, but woke up a few times during the night, and then the last time I woke up, listening to you snore and snuffle seemed like a better idea than trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep."

"Weirdo. And I don't snore," Kurogane said, and flipped part of his pillow so it would catch Fai in the face again before heaving himself out of bed.

"It was very cute snoring, not like hippopotamus-with-a-deviated-septum snoring. You drooled a little too."

Out of pillows, Kurogane peeled off the light sweatshirt he'd slept in and threw it at Fai's face.

A kiss and laughter seemed like a good way to begin the day, but the mood soon sobered. They didn't talk about it, but neither did they bother trying to hide the fact that they were both preoccupied by the thought of what it would be to go their separate ways for months.

A little sad, a little anxious, and mainly low-key terrified about leaving behind his infant expert, Fai split his time between calling his brother with last minute questions or instructions, and hovering around Kurogane as if afraid that the man would disappear from the building if they didn't maintain a direct line of sight. And Kurogane, honestly more upset over losing his daily dose of infant than having to change Fai's status from "boyfriend" to "long distance boyfriend", found himself taking care of the all the infant's wants and needs instead of letting Fai continue to practice his still relatively new uncle-ing skills. There was still a long drive to the airport to share, of course, and plenty of ways to keep in touch, but their unexpected adventure of playing family together in this house would soon end.

Fai might have happily malingered with a suspiciously convenient migraine or some such thing until they were too late to catch his flight out, but Kurogane kept them on schedule. An absent pout or three were Fai's only protest, and the last of those were pecked off as a sort of reward or expression of gratitude for - mostly - acting like an adult.

The baby was snugly bundled up and buckled into her car seat, and then Fai checked and re-checked the car's contents against a list on his phone while Kurogane swept the house and shop for any mislaid booties or bottles. Finding nothing, the shopkeeper jiggled the locks one last time and then made his way to the car.

"Aaawr!", the baby greeted him, flapping her arms excitedly as if he'd been gone for hours instead of minutes.

"Yeah yeah, we're moving," Kurogane replied.

"No, she's saying 'yay you're here, I missed you so much, please come to California with us'," corrected her recently appointed guardian, sliding into the passenger seat with a chuckle.

"I will get on that plane with you if you can prove she even knows that California is a place," Kurogane declared.

Various ploys of Fai's to get his little cousin to respond consistently to true and false statements about California got them a little past Elk Ridge, when Fai suddenly straightened out in his seat and grabbed onto Kurogane's right sleeve with an excited shout.

"GAH, what?!" Kurogane blurted, startled despite himself. He tried to shake Fai off with a few irritated twitches of his arm while the infant mya'd querulously in the back.

"I have an idea!"

"And instead of just saying so you try to make me crash the car?" Kurogane demanded. This made Fai shrink back into his seat with an apologetic cringe, though Kurogane's hands hadn't actually jerked them around at all on the road.

"Sorry, I'm so sorry," Fai babbled, and before he could launch into too much of a guilt-ridden speech, Kurogane reached over and gave him a rough tousle.

"'Least you didn't just remember you left your phone at my place. This idea better be a good one though."

"Ooh, if I did happen to leave my phone-"

"I'd drop you off at the airport, then send you your phone. Regular mail. After about a week."

"Do you want me to die?! Anyway, it is in fact a good idea. A great idea. The best idea ever."

"Uh-huh." While not doubting his boyfriend's intelligence or integrity, he didn't waste any energy getting proactively excited.

"It is! It solves multiple problems at once for all parties involved. Win win win. There is in fact no down side. I am a genius."

"Okay Hawking, what's your idea?"

"Not Einstein?"

"Spit it out."

"I'll purchase your shop, you can use the money to move to California, and Yuui will hire you as our nanny to help us with our Little Kitty!" Fai gave as dramatic a flourish as he could within the confines of the car and then paused with his hands up as if waiting for applause.

The baby actually clapped once and chortled, and Kurogane gave her a betrayed glare in the rear view mirror for having encouraged the blond.

"See?" Fai laughed. "She loves the idea."

"I don't," Kurogane retorted. "The hell are you going to do with a general store in Colorado?"

"Well, sell it probably. But I promise to do extensive background checks and in-depth interviews to make sure that your parents' dream goes to a deserving person who'll take really good care of it. Like, I'll make it a pre-requisite that all applicants have business degrees and perfect credit scores and also foster homeless dogs or volunteer at soup kitchens three times a week."

"And I'm just going to take this money and all this spare time I suddenly have and buy a house in California without knowing jack about the place except it's coastal and there's a really impulsive guy who lives there," Kurogane said flatly, still not on board to any degree.

"No no, my idea is even better! You can come live with us at the Sand Dollar. The suite across the floor from ours would be perfect! The end suites are a lot bigger than the rentals; like actual loft apartments instead of hotel rooms. You won't have any kind of commute to your new job except walking down the hallway. And you can pay Yuui a little bit of rent out of your nanny-wages if you don't want to freeload, which we would totally let you do, by the way."

Kurogane ignored most of the babble.

"And your brother who hasn't even met me yet is my landlord and employer because...?"

"So there won't be any power-play issues in dating me. And marrying me eventually. Ooh, and it'll be really easy for me to just move out of my room and into yours, too. No boxing up and packing everything into moving trucks and all that."

"Except that I'm not doing any of that, bird-brain."

"What? Why not?" Fai whined. "It's so perfect."

"If I'm going to get out of my parents' dream and start living my own life it's going to be my life, not jumping into yours. Hire a nanny if you want, but if I do end up moving it's going to be to a place of my own, with a job I go get on my own."

Fai was silent at this, and for long enough that Kurogane wondered if he'd been a little too snappish and actually hurt the man's feelings. The blond piped up again before he could decide on whether or not it would be worth it to take his eyes off the road long enough to assess his expression, however.

"I hate that I can't actually think of anything to say against that," Fai admitted grudgingly, and settled more comfortably into his seat. "Did my idea really sound so terrible, though?"

"Wouldn't be the worst thing, but it'd still be a mistake. Suppose I can stay at the Sand Castle or whatever-"

"Sand Dollar."

"-while I look for a job and a place of my own, though."

As soon as Fai forgot to be mock-offended at the naming mistake he noticeably perked up at the idea, and Kurogane added firmly, "As a regular paying customer in my own room."

"A room that I can visit you in, since you will be my boyfriend and not just a regular paying customer?" Fai queried hopefully.

"A room that you will respect the privacy of. We wanna go on a date, we can meet up in the hallway."

Fai dissolved into complaints about grizzly bears who were too attached to their caves for a while, and after that the next several miles passed fairly quietly. Fai spent a good bit of time twisted around in his seat to coo at his cousin or gazing out the window and humming along to whatever was on the radio. Now and again he reached over to trace circles against Kurogane's leg, watching expectantly until Kurogane could spare a scrap of attention from the road to give him a glance or drop one hand from the steering wheel to idly sweep his thumb over Fai's knuckles.

It took a bit to navigate the multitude of lanes at the airport, Kurogane being unfamiliar with the place and Fai not really having much solid knowledge to contribute. The hotelier was well-traveled and passed through this airport at least twice each year, but had more often been engrossed in his phone while sitting in the back of a cab than paying attention to all the turns and lane changes. They ended up circling the pick-up and drop-off loop three times before Kurogane managed to get into the proper lane and snug the Audi up to the curb decently near the desired carrier's check-in desks.

Kurogane grabbed Fai's - or rather, the baby's - carry-on bags and a lone suitcase out of the back and then helped the blond unhook the entire carseat assembly, base included. He noted a couple of outdoor kiosks for checking in luggage as well as plenty of carts for hauling items about when he glanced around, so he nodded to himself and then hunkered down by the car seat to begin his farewells.

"Bye Princess," he said simply, giving her a quick tummy rub to get her gurgling happily. When he unfolded himself, he found Fai standing so close that he had to take a half-step back just to avoid knocking into him.

"Take care," he began, but Fai laughed right up into his face, bright but rueful. He'd just been about to reach out and draw the other man back close, but the laugh gave him pause, and a pale hand smacked playfully at him before he could move again.

"Don't you dare leave me at the airport with nothing but a 'take care'," the blond demanded, all lop-sided smiles and a tiny wrinkle between his eyebrows.

"Wasn't gonna," Kurogane grumbled, scowling because it just sounded like a petulant schoolboy lie at this point, being that he hadn't been the one to make the first move toward a better farewell. And Fai certainly deserved one. A stranger would have merited a nod on a good day, and a respected acquaintance a handshake. A boyfriend deserved at least a peck and a hug he guessed, public place be damned, especially in the face of their extended separation and his recent family troubles.

And Fai, well. Kurogane could at least admit within the privacy of his own thoughts that Fai was...something else. Special, perhaps. Unique, certainly. Inexplicable.

And his to care for, however he saw fit.

"I'm not asking you to pick me up and swing me around while you serenade me or anything," the blond added, and Kurogane quirked one eyebrow up.

"You need to stop watching crappy romances," he said, even as he shuffled forward. Carefully hemming the carseat in with his own feet so he could be sure of the infant's location even with his eyes closed, Kurogane grabbed at Fai's elbows to draw him just another inch or two closer, guiding those slender arms about his own shoulders at the same time.

"C'mere," he murmured, and then added, "Careful; don't kick her."

Blue eyes widened a bit and quickly dropped downward, and Fai shuffled cautiously forward as if the carrier contained high explosives rather than a cooing baby barely visible among all the fleecy layers protecting her from the chilly air. Distracted as the blond was with matching his protective stance to his boyfriend's without jarring his little cousin, Kurogane found it the easiest thing in the world to lean in, catch Fai 'round the wait with one hand, and chuck his chin up lightly with the other.

He kissed that surprised little smile right off of Fai's mouth, closed his eyes and swallowed down the tiny giggle that bubbled up next, pressed them closer together chest to chest with one hand full of Fai's coat and the other sliding up to cradle the back of his head, and counted the appreciative hum as a mark toward a job well done. Fai's arms tightened around his shoulders and he turned the goodbye kiss into three, pulling back a couple of times just far enough to press back in a millimeter or two to one side or the other.

Before he could get self-conscious about becoming one of those eyesore couples that swap spit in full view of everyone and anyone as if they were doing the public a favor, he straightened up. The few inches he had on Fai let him break the kiss without needing to lean back exaggeratedly or push away, and when he opened his eyes Fai was still right there, smiling softly up at him.

"Text me when you land," Kurogane said, opting for practicality over sentiment, but his voice came out strangely soft. Fai grinned cheekily and Kurogane could feel an eye-roll coming up, but the little worry-line was gone so he chalked it up as a victory.

"You're going to miii~iiis me," the blond sing-songed. He didn't whine when Kurogane stepped away, and instead leaned down to start slinging bags over his shoulder and heft up the carseat.

"Looking forward to getting my house back to myself." Kurogane grabbed the suitcase and walked it over to a luggage check-in kiosk.

"You'll wish you'd come with us before the day is out."

"Be nice to enjoy some peace and quiet for a change."

"I won't be there anymore to play with you, shake things up, spice things up."

"Get back into my routine. Not have to worry about strangers proposing to me a couple of hours after meeting me."

"I should hope not," Fai huffed. "You're taken, mister."

Kurogane just made a vaguely affirmative noise, and it seemed to surprise Fai enough to derail his mental train. The teasing banter died off, and after Fai printed off boarding passes and got his suitcase checked, there was nothing left to do but part ways.

Fai gave him a last, quick kiss, oddly breathless as if in a resurgence of temporarily repressed nerves. Kurogane reached out to ruffle that mop of blond hair a bit and then wormed his hand into the carseat to give the baby one last jiggle, then turned away.

He walked back to the car so that he could drive up the mountain once more. Back to his home, full of memories that he would forever cherish but not let himself be weighed down by any longer. Back to a fulfilling job and familiar routine, and to the possibility of someday leaving them both. To a shop that he needed to clean and re-stock and consider selling so that he could chase a dream of his own. To clean mountain air and a startling new perspective, perhaps long overdue.

He glanced back as he opened the car door.

Fai was still standing on the sidewalk, looking a little lost despite his height and air and expensive clothes. It was in the wide eyes and faintly unhappy line of his mouth, and the tense set of his shoulders as he braced himself against the weight of his cousin's daughter. The infant herself was barely visible among the blankets, suddenly tiny and fragile and achingly precious now that she wasn't within reach, and about to be taken yet further away. Kurogane had to fight an unexpected urge to actually go with the two of them, watch over them and make sure they would be safe.

Fai smiled when Kurogane looked over, and before the other man could decide to give him a wave or anything, shook himself briskly, turned, and made his way into the airport, and this time Kurogane was the one who stood and watched him walk away. Back straight, hair tousled yet somehow stylish, steps steady as he strode through the doors and down the concourse toward the departure gates. Toward home, and his brother, and their work together in a small seaside community. Toward safety and shelter and comforting routine, toward new adventures with a sweet baby and a secret to keep carefully hoarded away.

Kurogane nodded to himself and got into the car. The baby would be fine, and the adults? Would figure things out.

Author's Note: To be continued later, either in a new story titled "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", or with little epilogue chapters added to this now-complete story. I had initially planned to continue the story right away, posting the next installment this very day, but I am entering into weekly co-counseling for an abusive relationship. It's a good, healthy step forward but it is exhausting and draining and I just can't write romance right now. I'm working hard to get out of an emotional, mental, and spiritual hell and when I sit down to try and write fluff I just start crying.

Thank you for reading and for your lovely comments, especially during a difficult time in my life. I hope to see y'all again sooner rather than later, and wish you all well in the meantime. Take care of yourselves, peeps.