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Watching in passive aggressive horror as magic swirled around in complicated patterns and shapes and language Kurogane couldn't understand was one thing, but he lurched forward a half step when Fai coughed and choked and spit up blood.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't have enough magic..." Fai stared at the ground, and then turned his frantic-eyed gaze on Kurogane. "I don't have enough magic."
Through everything that they had been through in this country, that look was one of the worst. "What does that mean!" he yelled over the crack and crumble of the interior of the castle collapsing.
"We can't get out," Fai whispered. And then with increasing volume, and panic, raw emotion tearing from between pink, bloodied, lips. "We can't get out, we can't get out, I can't get you out...!"
Kurogane caught the alteration - I can't get you out - but didn't say anything, casting his gaze to the expanse around them for anything. The kids were out, which was priority. They were safe, presumably, and wherever Fai had sent them, Kurogane trusted the mage's choices. But now... they were priority.
"We'll find another way out!" Kurogane yelled, grabbing Fai's arm.
"There is no other way out... My curse is trapping us, and... I can't get you out... the world is closing, collapsing..." Fai's gaze was, for once, unguarded, and the wild look creeping into his eyes was not comforting. Just for a moment, Kurogane wished that Fai would put that irritating mask back on.
"There's always another-"
"Not this time!" Fai yelled, and the volume and the emotion on his breath startled Kurogane again, when Fai looked so frail now, pale with his face tracked with dried tears and blood on his mouth, draped in the coat so large it nearly swallowed him, consuming him in darkness and shadows in the shape of white fabric and fur trim.
What was perhaps most startling, however, was his tone. It was-
The deafening crack was the only warning they had before a piece of the castle was crashing down; Kurogane was knocked off his feet and away from Fai, panic driving through the turmoil because the stupid mage where was he if he let go of him now he didn't know what he would do-
"Fai!" Kurogane threw himself back to his feet, whipping the dust and debris from his coat. "Fai!" His concern was unfounded, if they truly were stuck here, he supposed. But he was not a quitter. He would not stop looking for another way out until the world disappeared and took them with it. He was doing that with the stupid mage. He wasn't letting him quit, either, so if he had gone and gotten crushed-
"Ma-" Kurogane stopped, coming around some of the new rubble, ignoring the unease prickling at the back of his neck over the roar of the world. Fai hadn't moved from where he'd been, although he'd fallen to his backside, hands thrown out behind him to catch himself, wide-eyed, shaking, staring at the part of the roof that had just collapsed, barely two feet away. If Fai had been a few feet to the left...
Kurogane found himself breathing out in short-lived relief.
Fai laughed. An honest laugh. Tinged with desperation, nonwithstanding. "As if I could be so lucky!" Fai gasped, and he continued to laugh as Kurogane watched with something akin to horror.
He'd seen the different sides to the unusually cheerful blonde. He'd known since the beginning that that smile was hiding secrets. He'd seen him happy and sad and angry, contemplative and hurting as his eyes stared hungrily at his brother's body tucked beneath Ashura's cape. Kurogane didn't begrudge him the way he chose to deal with or not deal with his emotions, his past, his thoughts. They dealt the way they dealt, and coping was different to everyone - trust him, he would know.
But Fai's laughter was all wrong, in that same, crazed tone that his speech was quickly becoming familiar to. It made Kurogane's skin crawl, and he lifted his chin, climbing the distance and rubble between them.
"Get up," he said, no, ordered.
Still it was something that Fai took no heed to.
"Get up," Kurogane repeated. "We have to-"
"There's no point! There's no way out! This was the second part of my curse, this is what he wanted!" The grin was so wrong. "I'm trapped. We're trapped. We're going to die. I'm going to die-"
"You are not," Kurogane growled, grabbing the mage by his hood and hauling him to his lanky, long legs. "Move your ass."
Fai hummed. "It's useless, Kurogane."
That name again, huh? "Unlike some people, I don't give up." If it was a low blow, he wasn't worried about it now. "Move."
"Whatever you say~"
Maybe Fai was right; this was his world and his curse, and maybe he did know for sure if there was no other way out. But Kurogane trusted no one except himself (and the few chosen individuals), and he was not taking Ashura or Fei Wong Reed's words for it. Fai had been living with illusions and the ghosts of his past haunting him, altering his perception; Kurogane was not going down without a fight.
Fai stopped moving. Kurogane felt him stop, and jerked on his hand impatiently. "I said to move," he growled, snapping his attention back to the mage, who was looking at Ashura's body a few feet away. "Mage."
Fai chuckled. "See, Kurogane? Ashura... just tried to help me. He just wanted to make me happy. He just wanted me to smile. Everyone I get close to ends up hurt."
"... You didn't kill him," Kurogane said softly. It was not his proudest moment, the bloodlust and rage rushing through his veins as he'd charged, but he did not regret it. Would not regret it.
"But it's still my fault." He tugged free of Kurogane's grip, walking over to the body.
They didn't have time for this, and so, why was Kurogane glued to the spot? Why was he suddenly incapable of movement, as though stuck in a trance, watching as Fai knelt next to the body and stroked his fingers through Ashura's hair.
"I hope you had good dreams," Fai said softly. "I hope you have good ones, still." He brushed his knuckles against his cheek, smiled softly to himself. "I am sorry... that you met... us, The Unhappy Twins."
Kurogane frowned. So did Fai.
"Let's go," he interrupted, drawing Fai's attention.
The desperation in his eyes was no longer there, and the guy was no longer smiling.
"Ah, hell." Kurogane cursed, scrambling from his spot as Fai burst into tears. He should have expected that, and he did, but he was hoping... it would wait. Wait until they were safe, and until Fai was with someone who could give comfort better than he could. He was good for fighting, not affection. "... Fai."
Fai didn't look up and Kurogane sighed, kneeling next to him. "Fai, we have to go." He would have dragged him back to his feet, thrown him over his shoulder already if it weren't for the tears. The gut-wrenching sobs. It was too unnatural, and anything else was completely irrevelent. "You..." He didn't know what to say, so he tangled his fingers into Fai's hair, pressing his hand against the back of his head to drag him close, crushing him up against his chest with his arm tucked around his friend's thin body.
Fai gasped and choked, sobs muffled by Kurogane's coat. He didn't move away, but then, he didn't move at all. Arms limp at his sides, leaning against the ninja for total support. Kurogane gripped at the mage's coat; they had to get out of here...
But he couldn't move either.
Fai was crying into his chest;
the world was ending around them.