Tsubasa Chronicle Fan Fiction ❯ Through Glass ❯ Memories Returned ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

A/N: Sorry this has taken so long! I'm still transferring stuff from ffn. And I'm still learning about formatting and stuff on this site. It kind of confuses me, but that's been a deterrent from posting. This only has six chapters right now anyway. It's been giving me issues and I seem to have lost inspiration. Sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience!

Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa, enough said.

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Two weeks. That's how long things were normal. Two weeks of contentment for Kurogane. Two weeks of health for Fai. And then it all came crashing down.

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“Wake up Kuro-snore!” Fai called from the doorway of their bedroom.

Kurogane grumbled at him and turned over to face the opposite wall. Fai thought he heard him mumble something about it being too early.

“It's not early Kuro-lazy,” the blonde chirped. “It's already eight. Come on,” the mage pouted at him. “Your breakfast that I worked so hard to make is getting cold.” He wandered over to the bed and yanked on the sheet.

“I'm not lazy,” Kurogane muttered. “You're just a freaking morning person.”

Fai's response was to sit on the edge of the bed and give him the sad puppy look. He knew he'd won when the taller man rolled his eyes and grumbled, “Fine. Why do you always have to pull the cute trick?”

“Because it always works,” Fai smiled.

“It works because you could pass for a girl if you wanted to,” Kurogane teased. “If I tried to do that I'd just look stupid.”

Fai turned and smiled over his shoulder at the red eyed ninja much the way a teenage girl might, batting his eyes just for the effect. “So?” he simpered. “I'm not big and strong like Kuro-mu, so I just have to use what I've got.”

“Honestly Fai,” Kurogane sighed. “You are the biggest flirt I have ever met.”

“Only for you, Kuro-koi. Only for you,” Fai teased. With that he got up and quite literally waltzed out of the room humming to himself.

Kurogane shook his head as he followed his lover down to the kitchen. “Why'd he have to be a morning person,” he muttered to himself. “Who in their right mind is that awake at eight o'clock in the morning?”

“Hey Kuro-puu?” Fai said over breakfast.

“Hm?”

“You know, since we don't have to work today we should go do something fun this afternoon,” he said.

“Ok,” Kurogane agreed. “Any plans?”

“Not really,” Fai said, shaking his head so that his silver-blonde hair fell into his eyes. “But I was thinking we should invite Sakura and Sayuron along.”

“That's fine with me,” the tall ninja said.

There was a brief silence and then “Hey Kuro-chii?”

“Hm?”

“Do you remember that day Yuuko came to visit us?”

This time Kurogane actually looked up at him. The normally cheery mage had an almost pained expression on his face.

“Of course,” Kurogane said quietly. “How could I forget.”

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon when the dimension witch showed up on their doorstep. They had only just moved into their new apartment and their neighbours Sakura and Sayuron had brought over lunch as a welcome to their new neighbours. Sakura, it seemed, was quite a skilled cook although she would never admit it. They had been happily discussing nothing when they had heard the knock on the door. Kurogane, not yet really trusting his new surroundings, had opted to answer the door himself instead of sending Fai. It was a good thing he had. The woman at the door probably would have scared the man.

“Ah, my dear Kurogane. It's been so long,” the extravagantly dressed woman crooned as she invited herself inside. “I see you've finally met up with all of the members of your old team. That's why I chose today to come and visit.”

“Team?” was all Kurogane could manage. Then he seemed to find his voice. “What the hell are you talking about? Who are you and why are you in my home?”

“Aw,” the dark haired woman seemed disappointed. “You don't remember me?”

“Have we seen you before?” Fai asked. In all the commotion he and their guests had followed Kurogane to the door.

“Yes,” the mystery woman answered. “My name is Yuuko. You may remember me as the Dimension Witch. I sent you here fifteen years ago.”

“What the hell?” Kurogane demanded, fed up with the riddles.

“Excuse me, mame, but you must be mistaken,” Sayuron said in a much more civil tone. “We don't know anyone by the name of Yuuko.”

“You do, you just don't remember. Let me explain,” the woman called Yuuko had said. She led them back to the small living room where they had been eating lunch. When they were all seated and paying attention she launched into a story about how the four of them had first come to her and how they had travelled between worlds. She said that in the end she had not seen fit to send them back to their own worlds. She said that she couldn't after their travels. So she had made them younger and sent them to this world. She had also kept their memories of their time together as payment for the chance to be reunited. However, after watching them for the past decade and a half she wished to return those memories to them. With their consent she performed the necessary incantation that would allow them to remember. When that was finished she issued them a warning before she left. “When I am gone,” she said, “your memories of your former selves will return. Be careful with those memories. They leave you with a choice. You can be who you've become, or you can be who those memories say you are. They may not all be wanted, either. Be careful about what you leave behind and what you take to heart. And above all remember that you chose this. I am not to blame for any ill consequences of your choice.”

Without any further explanation, Yuuko vanished. The encounter had left them all deeply spooked, but they brushed it off. That is, until that night when their memories returned in the form of dreams. Sakura's past as princess of Clow was revealed to her, as was Sayuron's past as an archaeologist from that country and a childhood friend of the princess. Kurogane remembered his training as a ninja and his allegiance to his princess, Tomoyo. Fai, however, found that he could not bear the memories of his life as a mage in Celes. In the following weeks he fell into a deep depression and it was all the other three could do to pull him back out of it. When asked later about the memories he would merely shrug and tell whoever had asked that what was done was done and there was nothing he could do to change that. He would tell them that things were different here and that he couldn't be happier in his new home with his Kuro-koi. His front was enough to convince the princess and her husband. Kurogane, however, often caught the mage staring into the distance, a look of pain darkening his pretty features. He had never been able to figure out what it was that had upset the man that much, but he was careful to keep a close watch over him ever since.

Kurogane sighed deeply into his coffee mug. To the untrained observer it would seem that Fai had forgotten the discussion altogether, but Kurogane knew the mage better than that. He could see that dark tint of despair in the mage's bright blue eyes.

“It's alright Fai,” Kurogane said gently. He got up and went to where the willowy man was sitting, wrapping his arms around his lithe frame. “Whatever it is, it's in the past. I won't let anything bad happen, you know that.”

Fai sighed almost imperceptibly and leaned back into Kurogane's embrace. “I wish I could just forget. I wish I had never agreed to that.”

“Come on,” Kurogane said, pulling Fai out of his chair. “Let's go.”

“Where?” the mage inquired.

“To do something fun,” the ninja replied, happy to see the small but genuine smile slowly spread over Fai's countenance at the suggestion.