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Fanfiction: English as a Second Language
Title: English as a Second Language
Characters: Fye, Kurogane
Rating: PG
Summary: He was already tackling his ex-wife, custody over their two small children and his new life alone, he was expecting a mysterious foreign lodger to be a hassle… quite the opposite… A single chance encounter brought them together for the better.
Disclaimer: If I were Clamp Kurogane and Fye would not have gone unmentioned for 3 months x.x



They didn’t see the children for another week due to personal arrangements, school or nursery commitments, visits to relatives, their mother perhaps realising how quickly and how willingly her precious children were stepping away from her, preferring their father’s company to the home she’d worked her fingers to the bone to rebuild for them. Regardless of the reason, it left a strange gap, the flat sitting quietly and undisturbed, lying in several consecutive dim twilights, dulling the surroundings as Kurogane and Fye lay about with nothing better to do than allow themselves to be entertained by the TV or a film rather than two hyperactive children, lighting the room and busying them with their youth. The quiet served a strange purpose though, unintentional and personal – a breathing space for the two of them. Without the children to distract them, they found themselves coming closer together than usual, talking to each other about themselves and their lives, little moments in comfortable surroundings in which to announce themselves, relate their stories and tiny facts close to their lives.


Fye hated wasps and Kurogane was allergic to cats. Kurogane went abroad once to America when he was a student and broke his wrist falling down a flight of stairs at the hotel after a night out. Fye went on holiday to Italy once when he was a kid and somehow got trapped down an old hole in the middle of nowhere. He was now mildly claustrophobic although quick to point out this only applied to incredibly confined spaces he can’t get out of. That was alright because Kurogane got stuck up a tree once as a kid and broke his left arm trying to get down. Heights don’t exactly faze him now but it was a bit of an awkward memory since he was only 6, before Fye was even born. The only bones Fye had broken were his ankle while he was practicing gymnastics when he was 13 and landed badly; another time, when he was 7 and going ice-skating for the fifth time before he ceremoniously tripped over himself, slammed into the ice and snapped two ribs.


“I’ve never been ice-skating,” Kurogane responded with nothing more to say, no continuation to give or story to tell.


“We went every winter. There was a rink in the town centre that opened before Christmas. We spent hours there,” Fye smiled, warmly and contentedly, yet with a melancholy taint, piercing back into the soft reaches of his memory, happy and innocent. “It was so much fun … not when I broke my ribs of course.”


Kurogane raised an eyebrow. “We?”


And Fye blinked in mild fear, realising what he’d just been talking about, what revelation he’d come close to opening up to Kurogane and his lips tightened, pursing as he shook his head and fell silent.


Although to be fair Kurogane had never spoken much to him about his own family and didn’t see the need to, didn’t see the point. So there was no point in pestering Fye after details on his personal life when he was barely willing to give his own.


“We should go ice-skating, Kuro-chan,” Fye suggested pleasantly, a sweet and distracting smile, a pressing desire to become closer to the man shining softly through, reflected in endearing eyes.


Kurogane smirked, a little twitch of his mouth, unprepared to tell Fye how little he’d want to try ice-skating or how strangely willing he was to allow him of all people to teach him.


***


“We never did get to go ice-skating,” Fye sighed the next winter, breath curling into tendrils from his lips, arms folded on a bench by the rink.


“You didn’t?” his brother exclaimed in mild surprise then grinned wickedly, cheery and cunning. “That would’ve been sooo romantic!”


“If it wasn’t romantic when we went ice-skating then I don’t see how…”


“And you could hold hands and spin about in circles with him holding on to you as you skated all the way through sunset and into the night,” he continued, voice rising and sinking adoringly, mockingly, sitting between somewhere between humorous and an annoyance as a friendly joke.


Fye smiled. “Finished yet?”


His brother frowned, his eyes now narrowing, dimming seriously and reflectively as he stared right into him, every teasing edge removed and wiped away, before he finally averted his gaze, taking a long and pensive drag on a cigarette. He exhaled it all in a wide and steady breath, releasing something from himself before he revealed, “You’ve changed. I didn’t want to say it before. I could feel it but I didn’t want to point it out. Maybe it’s a good thing, I thought, maybe he’ll settle a little more into himself the more time he spends back home. But you’ve not, you went to Japan and you came back a new person.”


Fye remained silent, stared towards him without uttering a word or changing expression, revealing surprise or discomfort, as his brother inhaled on his cigarette once more as if using it like a punctuation point, a form of structure in his speech, lingering before moving on to the final message – “He changed you. And then you came back, this new person indebted to him. You couldn’t forget him if you wanted to. And I really don’t know whether to be pleased or angry.”


“I don’t see how it could be a bad thing,” Fye eventually told him. “I’m happier this way, I feel better about myself. I’m more confident and independent than I’ve ever been and I spend less time regretting or wanting things. This is better, I’m not even doubting it.”


His brother paused and sighed, watching his ashes crumble and simmer away between his fingers. “That’s why I’m pleased. It’s what you needed. But you’re going to leave us again. You’re going to leave this country entirely. Every time you talk about him there’s an edge of your voice as if he’s the only man for you in the entire world, out of every person on Earth the one you’ll love the most. And, you know, I’m happy for you, I really am, but at the same time I can’t help but be worried and disappointed about the whole thing.”


Fye bit the inside of his lip, slightly unsteady but soon burst into smile, stating emphatically. “I still don’t know how it’ll work out. I’d call you. At least once a week. And I’d email you all the time.”


His brother smiled, smirking wistfully. “Yuui, if I were that worried then I wouldn’t be letting you go full stop. Just get him and never let him go for me, okay?” He winked, a playful end, a light and knowing reassurance before returning to his dwindling cigarette.


Fye grinned, vibrant and hopeful, shining with gratitude, coming to stare happily towards the sky with a thoughtful rise in his voice. “You know, I told him my name was Fye.”


Yuui smiled, reflecting on how strange it had been to hear Kurogane make the name his own, as Fai laughed, smoke spilling like clouds from his lungs.


***


“Are we meeting them later?” Fye asked perched on the bench, fingers tucked beneath his legs in the hope of warming them slightly, a light frown upon his face, uncertain as to whether he should be preparing to greet someone or if their tiny and disjointed clique of two would remain unbroken.


Kurogane tucked his phone away, frowning in frustration, biting it back as he replied in a bitter tone, “Probably not. I don’t know.”


Fye sighed, annoyed with this woman without ever having met her, his breath spilling from his mouth in small and gentle clouds in the frozen air, a borrowed scarf draped tentatively around his neck beneath thin flicks of hair. Finally, decisively, he stood up, energetically bounding over to Kurogane and latching on to his arm with determined enthusiasm, grinning optimistically as he declared, “We can still enjoy ourselves, right?”


Kurogane nodded lightly, a thin and awkward smile against his face, shaking Fye off his arm too casually for his liking, tolerating and accepting his cheer, even welcoming it perhaps…


It had been about five months since Fye had first set up camp in Kurogane’s living room and by now he was a part of his daily life – breakfast, work, dinner, bed, children, divorce and somehow surrounding it all like a strangely befitting frame, setting it all into a vaguely pleasant new perspective was Fye. It was hardly surprising since he saw him every day, spent time with him more than anyone else, living with that smile, soft, probing yet acutely sentimental, constantly behind his door. He’d grown into something more than routine, something Kurogane depended on, all without knowing the true person behind his smile, the person he was before he arrived in Japan, who he’d been and what he’d become, what had driven him to the other side of the world. Their relationship had grown and morphed, flourishing delightedly as the months passed, shaping itself into something difficult to define – somewhere between friendship and a caring sort of … family thing… Kurogane had no idea. He didn’t know where it could progress from there and he didn’t know whether he wanted to find out or not. It would be difficult to say whether it could continue any further without anything beginning to strain, without them both opening themselves, spilling out their entire lives and worlds to each other. Even then what would that mean for both of them?


Kurogane was certain that things couldn’t continue the way they’d been going for the past few months; not without changing drastically at the very least.


Yet there was something in his guts, in the back of his head, niggling, warning, instructing him to give Fye space, to allow things to come to pass and watch very carefully as they did so, judging at each step. He could allow everything to fall into place from there.


Fye was running from something and no one can run forever after all.


***


The trip to Ueno Park had surprised Fye, mostly because it seemed like the direct opposite to Kurogane’s usual take on a day out. Kurogane would drag you to a more local piece of greenery and spend several hours in coats with balls and half degraded swings and climbing frames, taking casual wanders with Fye if it was only them, small and un-aspiring conversation as their entertainment within an unimpressive yet personal world. This place seemed a little grand for his liking. Either way that day, for the first time since he’d arrived in Japan, Fye D. Flowright (later to be nicknamed in a fitting play on words Fluorite by his colleagues) became a tourist.


He hadn’t expected Kurogane to pay any sort of attention to the exhibits in the museum being too much a man of the present, unconcerned with the past, not seeing any reason or purpose in admiring its plunders and spoils, its stories and treasures surviving the years and shared with him, a link to a different time. Neither was he the type to try to interpret the depth of the world, admiring its many mysterious or scientific interests so god only knows why he’d even come to the museum. Yet he seemed entertained enough to follow Fye about, watching his small and attentive wonder, paying each and every exhibit a certain due care before moving on. Sometimes he’d ask question, others trying to engage in conversation but due to a distinct lack of vocabulary bar that learnt from films and DVDs, this soon gave way and caved in, replaced by something a little more light-hearted.


“I’ve seen enough ninja films to know when I see a ninjato, Kuro-puu,” he said in a rolling voice, partly offended.


“You seem to know a lot about this,” Kurogane pointed out in mild surprise, folding his arms and watching as Fye made his way about the weapons exhibit noting each sheathed or sharpened edge, each ornate and lavish hilt.


“Ooooh it’s just little things that I’ve read,” Fye insisted, waving his hand as though brushing away Kurogane’s observation and then turning to grin, playful and devious, scanning him up and down. “Actually I think that you would make a good ninja. You’re very dark and mysterious…”


“I’m what?” Kurogane blurted, confused at the sudden and random change of subject.


“Ah but you’re too loud!” Fye sighed, crossing his arms, a ponderous pout settling against his face before he came to smile towards Kurogane again, immature and pleasant. “You could be a samurai.”


Kurogane smirked, almost in an endearing way, for once accepting the joke and delivering his own. “And you like eating sausages and drinking beer, right?”


“Natürlich!” Fye exclaimed brightly, laughing, continuing to bumble about the room with an enthusiastic air, sticking out like a sore thumb amongst all of the silent and sober-faced visitors. “But you would be a good samurai. You’re loyal and protective.”


“Uh-huh,” Kurogane mumbled, throwing his words over his shoulder without noting them, watching him as he absorbed the pattern in a decorative screen and then whipped his head about, staring and analysing him in a similar fashion, scanning him from head to toe, with a half-formed smile, commenting, “And you’re a little serious and defensive… not to mention big and strong…”


By this point Kurogane was unsure whether he was just rambling in a non-offensive way or trying to rile him. Either way he didn’t have much of a response other than to raise his eyebrows and ignore him.


And Fye usually responded to Kurogane ignoring him by poking him.


But he stood there, looking fairly unfazed, watching this joke deteriorate with a faintly melancholy smile as he passed the other exhibits, staring uncertainly into Kurogane from time to time as if wondering what reaction he’d intended to provoke out of him.


***


“Did you want to come here?” Fye asked, a gentle enquiry settling chillingly in Kurogane’s ears, withholding a darkly cold edge.


“If I didn’t then would we be here?” Kurogane pointed out, voice low and rumbling between gulps of food, homemade by the two of them, comforting in its imperfection.


“Well you didn’t want to for yourself,” Fye said, clutching his chopsticks in frozen fingers, turning a faint hue of red in the cold as he gripped them, carefully, precariously bringing balls of rice from box to mouth, bridging the icy air.


“Then who is it for?” Kurogane asked, avoiding eye-contact, staring off in painful knowledge of the answer.


Fye smirked, lips pressing tightly against each other as they twisted into a gleeful and victorious smile. “You planned to bring the children, ne? But that doesn’t seem like you. Mio would have been alright but Usui is just like you – no patience and sometimes loud. He wouldn’t like it. You wouldn’t come here for the children. That’s only your excuse.”


Kurogane finally glanced over to him as he paused, savouring and swallowing a bite of food, a triumphant and contented smile pressed into his lips, his eyes slowly slinking over to meet his, softening and gleaming kindly. “You came here for me. You thought I would like it here.”


Kurogane suddenly became absorbed in a thermos flask of miso soup, eyes turning to stare harshly over the winter scenery, the families and tourists flocking the park, trying to hide from his own thoughts there, blanketing himself with indifference. He was brought sharply back as Fye laid a cold and slender hand against his fore-arm, nearly causing Kurogane to splutter his soup, glancing urgently over to Fye, feeling himself shudder under his skin as Fye’s fingers drifted slightly over his arm.


The blonde was staring at him, kindly, innocently, a faint devious rise in his lips betraying his intentions to snatch Kurogane’s attention, although its shallow curve conveyed something more personal – gratitude. “Thank you,” he stated simply, continuing preciously with a short, “You’re right. I like visiting museums.”


Kurogane nodded, muscles tensed awkwardly, and mumbled, “Good,” nearly breathing a sigh of relief as Fye removed his hand, continued eating his lunch, a shallow and blissful smile, blonde strands of hair swaying against one another, a polite and silent little dance in the cold air.


His eyes raised, spying the thick clouds in the air as a single snowflake drifted lazily down, settling warmly and comfortably against his nose, melting against him, trickling down his nose in a quaint and humbled manner.


“Cold?” Kurogane enquired, a quick glance to the side as his companion huddled his shoulders against the snow, falling steadily and preciously between the trees, tiny beacons whispering, touching purely and innocently.


“A little but that’s what soup is for, right?” Fye said, his voice-raised, grinning and snatching the thermos flask from Kurogane’s hands.


Kurogane glanced critically towards him and his lame excuse. He still hadn’t managed to acquire a taste for miso…


He packed away his lunch, setting it down by Fye’s feet nonchalantly and removed his jacket, a thicker lining to shelter him from the cold. “I’m going inside,” he announced, dumping the jacket by Fye’s side and standing up, moving back towards the building.


He was gone before Fye could protest, before Fye could point out how caring he was, how sweet he was underneath it all and he would rile and stomp away. Slowly, deliberately, Fye picked up the jacket, far too large for his frame, fastening each button with loving care and patience, smoothly bringing his arms across himself, breathing in his scent imprinted into the jacket, lying against him almost as an assurance. Fye smiled sadly thinking about it all, he nearly laughed thinking about how perverted he was getting, cuddling himself up in Kurogane’s jacket. He sat warily and acutely feeling a bubble of warmth, a small pocket of happiness rise within him, unsure whether to banish it or nourish it.


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***

a/n: Okay some more little questions. I've never been to Japan let alone Ueno Park so I have absolutely no idea what it's like or what's in the museum but it was amusing enough to write so I hope it's vaguely accurate? Also I'm not sure whether or not 'Natürlich' is a very natural thing to say in German although it seemed like the right sort of response so please correct me if I'm wrong! It should mean like 'Of course'.

So things are starting to build up =) Hope you're still enjoying it! The kids return in the next chapter.

Edit: Deleted a few comments from a chain, hope it's easier to read now ^^'