Disclaimer: Sadly, Tsubasa isn't mine. If it was, KuroFai would be more than just subtext. I don't own the song used for the titles either ("Abandoned Driveways" by Hawthorne Heights).
The sun was shining brightly on the weathered boards of Kurogane Suwa's wide back porch, and for some reason it was pissing him off to no end. He stood barefoot, feeling the rough wood against the soles of his feet. From the front yard he could hear the sounds of a moving van.
Great. Neighbors.
He sure as hell wasn't hiding, but he wasn't interested in going to see these new additions to the neighborhood. It didn't matter if it was some soccer mom who would constantly complain about the fading paint job of his house or some sniveling brats who wanted to see his sword collection every day; he was sure they'd be annoying.
"Kurogane-san!"
He looked up as a familiar voice called his name. The kids who lived next door to each other a few houses down, Sakura and Syaoran, were peering over his fence from the front yard.
He sighed and ran a hand through his unruly black hair. Knowing the kids, they'd want him to come greet the neighbors. Still, he could play dumb. "What is it?"
"Aren't you going to come say hi?" asked Sakura in her usual cheerful, innocent voice. Of course.
As she spoke, a third head joined theirs. It was pale but smiling and framed by tousled blond hair. The big, blue, haunting eyes found Kurogane's narrowed red ones and the smile grew.
"Hello, Mr. Black!" the blond chirped, waving like an idiot.
"I am not 'Mr. Black!'" Kurogane snapped; he could already tell this moron would make a point of annoying him from now on, "I'mKurogane!"
"Kurogane, huh?" the blond asked as the kids slipped away, "So what works? Kuro-chan? Kuro-rin?"
"It's Kurogane!"
The other man ignored him. "You can just call me Fai," he told Kurogane, draping himself over the top of the fence.
"Whatever," Kurogane snapped, stomping across the creaking porch to his back door.
"Hey, Kuro-tan! Don't leave!" Fai called after him.
Kurogane slammed the door shut behind him with a resounding bang!
Two days later, Kurogane was retrieving his mail from the box next to his front door when he spotted the kids headed up the street. He frowned to himself, wondering what they could be doing with the box Syaoran carried. His question was answered before he could even wave to the kids.
"Hyuu~! Is that for me?" asked a voice that grated on his nerves.
He peered around the corner of the house to see the lanky blond leaning on the railing of his own porch next door. A tiny fake smile was pasted on his pale face. Kurogane couldn't stop his eyes from drifting down to the smooth skin of his stomach, revealed by a too-short blue shirt and black pants that clung to the feminine hips. Swallowing hard, Kurogane pulled back.
Maybe it was a good thing he found Fai so damn annoying.
"Yeah, it is. Sakura-chan made it," Syaoran's voice called back.
Kurogane turned away, hoping to escape back into the house before the kids called attention to him. However, it would seem that fate had other plans for him.
"Good morning, Kurogane-san!" Sakura's voice called. Kurogane froze, knowing it was only a matter of time before-
"Kuro-myu?"
Shit.
There was a soft thump. Kurogane seemed unable to move; it was as if his body wouldn't listen to him. His brain was screaming at him to run, to get inside before his idiotic blond neighbor became unavoidable.
"Hyuu~! Kuro-chan, you should've said something! I didn't know you were out here," Fai sang from right behind him.
Kurogane turned slightly, glaring over his shoulder. "Yeah, and I was hoping to keep it that way," he grumbled. Unfortunately, his tone didn't deter the man.
The fake smile stayed perfectly in place. Kurogane frowned. Most people would at least drop the cheer-factor a little in the face of someone as grumpy as he tried to appear to Fai. If anything, the hollow grin widened.
"Aww, don't be like that Kuro-sama," he cooed.
"Will you stop with those damn nicknames!" Kurogane shouted, turning so he could tower over his new companion.
"Um...Kurogane-san...would you like to join us?" Sakura's voice broke through his anger and indignation. He blinked, surprised. When had the kids joined them?
"Uh...No. I'm going somewhere," he grumbled. He'd make any excuse to get away from the blond, who was now pouting with those big blue eyes of his.
He hurried into the house, trying not to look like he was running away, and all but slammed the front door behind him. Now out of sight of Fai, he stopped to take a deep, shaky breath. Stupid blond; he was too annoying for his own good-or Kurogane's, for that matter.
He shook his head to clear it and decided to follow through on what he'd told Sakura. Now that he thought about it, his fridge was looking sort of empty. He set his mail on the kitchen counter, grabbed his keys, and left, checking before he opened the door to make sure his porch was clear of innocent-yet-accidentally-devious kids and stupid, annoying next-door blonds.
His thoughts chased each other around his mind as he walked to the grocery store, and he tried unsuccessfully to block them out. Most centered around his new neighbor, causing his eye to twitch with irritation. The people he passed on the street scurried out of his way, noticing the furious gleam in his already-intimidating crimson eyes.
"Are you going to stomp around like an angry rhino all day or are you going to do something about your problems?"
The calm, knowing voice broke through his whirlwind of thoughts. His head snapped around to glare at the source, a tall, pale woman with long black hair and a knowing smirk. She stood almost lazily in front of darkened shop, smoke trailing lazily from the end of a long, thin pipe.
"What the hell would you know!" he snapped. It wasn't like him to go off on innocent bystanders, but she was hardly innocent after that comment, was she?
The woman just shrugged, that irritating smirk never leaving her pale lips. "I'm just saying you shouldn't be so quick to judge someone. You could give people a chance, you know? Especially him."
Kurogane whirled to face her, his glare intensifying. "What the hell? What do you mean?" he demanded. He'd never even seen this annoying woman before, so how could she know he was having problems with anyone, let alone a "he"?
"I'm sorry," the woman replied, not sounding even a little sorry, "I can't just give away that information. Like everything else, it has a price."
Kurogane scoffed. "If you can't say anything helpful, you might as well just keep your mouth shut," he told the smirking woman.
She offered a tiny, noncommittal wave as he turned away. "If you change your mind," she called after him without seeming to raise her voice, "just ask around for Ichihara Yuuko."
"Like hell I will," Kurogane grumbled to himself.
He continued going about his business, but he couldn't shake the encounter from his mind or the mood it had left him in. He tried focusing on other things, like how light his wallet felt after just a little grocery shopping or how, when he got back to his house, the way his air conditioner greeted him with its last dying breaths. He finally found himself glaring at the innocent TV screen; the machine was buzzing with static after the station had announced it was having technical difficulties. It seemed like the whole damn world was scheming to make his mood as black as possible.
An annoying voice drifted through the window, breaking his concentration as he tried to blast the TV into oblivion by sheer willpower. He glanced over the couch. Apparently the kids were just leaving the house next door. He sighed heavily, remembering the source of his irritation. Damn blond idiot and his annoying, overly-cheerful façade. It was like one of those catchy but meaningless songs on the radio; once it entered your head, you couldn't get it out.
He stepped out onto the front porch and waved at the kids as they passed. Over their quiet footsteps, he could hear the sound of the old, creaking front door of the next house shutting. He glared at the trees across the street, wondering if he should go see how the blond was doing. He knew there were other people in the house, but he'd never seen any of them. It bothered him, living in such close proximity to the unknown.
At least, he told himself that was the reason for this visit.
He stood in front of the closed door for a good twenty minutes, hoping no one was looking through the curtains at him. He raised his hand to press the bell several time, but never followed through. He wasn't chickening out or anything, he just...sensed it was a bad time.
Finally he took a deep breath, steeling himself, and pressed the tiny, round button. The sound of the bell chiming throughout the small house left him cringing with uncertainty. Is that moron even here? he wondered belatedly. It had been a while since the kids left, and he hadn't exactly been watching the house as he pondering the benefits of making this visit.
His question was answered when the door opened and a mop of blond hair appeared at his eye level.
"Kuro-tan?"
Even through his disgust concerning the nickname, Kurogane noticed that the blond's voice shook slightly under the cheerful note he'd somehow forced into it. He glared, deciding he wouldn't ask if the idiot wasn't going to say anything.
"It's Kurogane!" he snapped with his usual gruffness, trying not to lose his temper before he accomplished his goal.
"I just wanted to make sure you weren't scheming anything," Kurogane lied. He didn't know what exactly could have given him the idea that a falsly happy idiot like this was up to something, but he wasn't about the change his story.
"Aw, Kuro-rin was just worried about how I'm settling in," Fai cooed, reaching up to pat his spiky black hair, "How sweet!"
Before Kurogane could retort, Fai's sleeve slipped down, revealing five round, dark marks just inches from Kurogane's nose. His words caught in his throat as he recognized them; the pattern could only be the imprint of fingers digging into someone's arm as it was grabbed roughly.
"What's this?" Kurogane asked, tremors of anger and disgust shaking his deep voice. He took Fai's arm more gently than he would have just moments ago.
The blond tried to pull his arm back, but Kurogane tightened his grip, careful not to leave similar bruises.
"It's nothing," Fai lied. His face was turned down, causing his blond hair to fall in his sapphire eyes and shield his face.
Kurogane frowned. "Whatever," he growled, dropping the other's arm and stalking away. There was no sound from behind him, and as he reached his house, he glanced back to see the the blond hadn't moved at all. Kurogane's chest ached as he studied the blond shield.
"Can't help him if he won't help himself," he sighed. Even to his own ears, he sounded as if he was only trying to convince himself. Why was he such a damn bleeding heart sometimes?
That night he found himself standing at the window in his darkened bedroom. His chest was bare, but a small towel lay draped over his damp hair and another was wrapped around his hips. He was frowning in irritation, and his brow was furrowed in a way that was sure to give him premature wrinkles.
His scarlet eyes were focused on the lighted window on the other side of his fence. Every now and then, a certain blond would pass through his range of vision. His frown deepened with every round, reminding him of the situation he discovered.
He sighed, pulling the towel from his head and tossing it across the room. Futilely telling himself not to worry, he changed into something more substantial than a towel and crawling into bed, firmly shutting up the thoughts trying to chase each other around his head.
A/N: Sadly, there isn't nearly as much of this story done as I would like...I wanted to have a few chapters done before I started posting, but this is it. Reviews might encourage me though, ne? :3
Also, I could use a beta...