"What will you do after this?"

Kurogane glanced over as Fai settled on the balcony beside him, pale in the settling night. "I’ll return to my duties here, of course."

"Of course." Fai’s mouth curled but there was something darker at the back of his eyes.

Kurogane was silent for a long moment before finally sighing. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the door post, looking up at the dark sky. "If we can’t recover your magic, then I’ll still be your prey. Will you mind living here?" Given that Celes didn’t exist any more.

It looked like Fai was thinking the same thing.

"I suppose not. It will have to be somewhere." Fai looked around at the screened walls and swooping roofs as if seeing them for the first time. "It’s a lovely world," he said, quietly. Regathering himself he added, briskly, "Still, I expect not to trouble you with that."

Kurogane couldn’t help rolling his eyes. "What trouble?" he growled. "It was my own decision and it wasn’t like you asked for it." He looked aside for a moment. "It isn’t any kind of problem."

Fai eyed him with rare exasperation. "Kurogane, I’m drinking your blood."

"I noticed." Kurogane looked at Fai levelly. "And?"

Fai opened his mouth and closed it again with a sigh. "All right. Fine. I know I can’t out-stubborn you, by now."

Annoyed, Kurogane snorted. "The only time you haven’t, that I’ve noticed, you were dying. And I said it isn’t any kind of problem."

Fai’s mouth tightened. "I don’t like injuring you."

"It’s practically a scratch, it heals right away, it barely even hurts," Kurogane said flatly.

Fai blinked. "It… doesn’t?" His shoulders relaxed a shade.

"No, it doesn’t." Kurogane looked at Fai for a long, thoughtful moment before holding out his hand. "Come here. I’ll show you."

After a moment’s hesitation, Fai slid closer and wrapped his fingers gently around Kurogane’s wrist. Kurogane’s mouth twitched and he curved a hand around Fai’s waist, pulling him closer. "More than that, tonight. It’s about time you stopped worrying about doing this." He drew Fai against his shoulder and tipped his head back, watching Fai through his lashes.

He wasn’t surprised at all when Fai stiffened.

"Kurogane…" Fai’s hand braced against his chest, but Fai didn’t quite pull away and Kurogane snorted to himself. He’d figured Fai would be hungry by now.

"It doesn’t," he said distinctly, "hurt."

"But…" Fai’s breath was brushing his throat now, as he leaned in. "Are… are you sure about this?"

A chuckle rolled through Kurogane’s chest. "Yes, I’m sure." He lifted a hand, threading his fingers through the fineness of Fai’s hair, urging him closer.

Softly, hesitantly, Fai’s lips brushed his throat and parted. Fai’s tongue stroked his skin and Kurogane took a slow breath, waiting for what was next.

When Fai bit down it was too sharp to be pain, too hot to be pleasure, and a raw sound caught in Kurogane’s throat. Fai stilled against him and he whispered, "Don’t stop." Slowly Fai’s hands slipped over his shoulders and Fai sucked gently.

The slow movement of Fai’s mouth on his throat made him shudder and Kurogane gradually slid down until he was spread out on the floor, Fai stretched over him. He’d thought this offer would prove to Fai that it was all right, and maybe it had; Fai wasn’t pulling away. And right now neither could Kurogane.

He hadn’t expected it to be so intense. Hadn’t expected that baring his throat for Fai would fold him in the same ringing rightness he’d felt renewing his oath to Tomoyo. A corner of his mind wondered if that was wrong. He pledged everything he was to his master; a person couldn’t do that twice, could they? But Fai… Fai’s life depended on him even more surely than Tomoyo’s. He’d taken that on willingly.

Fai’s teeth grazed his throat again and the thoughts spun away. Kurogane’s body pulled taut, hands tightening on Fai’s back. "Nnn. Fai…"

Fai made an inquiring sound, distracted and lazy, and it came to Kurogane that Fai was taking longer to feed than he usually did. And that Fai was definitely more at ease than he had been, lying warm and relaxed over Kurogane’s chest.

He remembered the brief word Subaru had made time to have with him, in Tokyo.

"It depends on how much of our instinct he has when he recovers, but since you’re his only prey he may become…" Subaru’s mouth tilted wryly, "territorial. It, ah, affects some people. "

Kamui, had taken a moment from guarding Subaru’s back to glance at Kurogane and his nostrils had flared as if testing a scent. "I wouldn’t worry about it, if I was you," he’d stated.

Kurogane hadn’t pressed for more detail, but maybe he should have.

Or maybe he didn’t honestly need to.

He slid his hands down Fai’s back and Fai nearly purred. The sound went straight to Kurogane’s groin. "Fai…" he groaned softly.

Fai stretched out over him, tongue sliding against his neck, coaxing. Fai’s teeth closed again, delicately, not breaking skin this time but holding his throat firmly and Kurogane moaned, sliding a hand down his own body. He started when Fai’s fingers closed on his wrist in a steely grip. "Fai?"

Fai made another pleased sound and slid his own hand under Kurogane’s kimono and between his legs. Kurogane gasped as long fingers closed on his cock, stroking him slowly. Those twins had an interesting definition of "territorial", he thought distantly.

He couldn’t deny responding to it, though, and he spread his legs apart, hips rocking up into Fai’s hand, and stroked the slim, hard lines of Fai’s body. The confusion of sensations, the pleasure of Fai’s hand between his legs, the heat of Fai’s mouth on his throat, made him light-headed, but he certainly didn’t want it to stop.

Fai’s fingers tightened on his cock and the sound Fai made now was lower, husky. His mouth turned hard and demanding on Kurogane’s throat, and the pure shock of that made Kurogane cry out. Heat struck down his spine like lightning and he moaned as it spun out into slow washes of pleasure that wrung him out over and over. It took a long time for that heat to release him, under Fai’s hands and teeth.

He lay quietly as Fai lapped at his neck, running his hands slowly up and down Fai’s back until Fai stilled too. Finally he chuckled. "Told you it was all right, didn’t I?"

Fai stirred and murmured, "You did." He didn’t look up from where he lay against Kurogane’s shoulder and Kurogane lifted a brow.

"So?" He ran his fingers through Fai’s hair, gently.

"I… think I would like living here," Fai said, very softly. His hand stole up, fingers brushing lightly over the bite mark on Kurogane’s throat.

Kurogane’s breath shortened a little at the gesture and he smiled. "Good."

They lay together on the balcony, silent, watching the moon rise.

End