kageyambae

Happy belated birthday Xia! I'm sorry it's not done and to be honest it'll probably be a WIP for a while but this is the first of four mini stories that all compile to a larger story. Lucky for both of us I know how I work and wrote something can can operate as an independent piece before the rest of the story is introduced.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and once again I'm so sorry I'm late..... and I REALLY tried to fix everything in here so it reads easy but I'm still not sure it runs smooth. 
MWAH!

Rating: PG
Warnings: Cute kids being cute? 

~o~

This is the story of a boy and the first time he kissed him, the first time he kissed him, the first time he more than kissed him, and the last first time he kissed anybody.

~o~

His blade sliced through the air and made a dull thud on the ground when Kurogane brought it down to strike his invisible enemy. The seven year old was currently in the middle of an intense battle between himself and the Bat Demons! He had also been playing the game for the last hour; it had started when a note from the king showed up on his porch reading, “Great Warrior Kurogane. HELP! A bad man has kidnapped my daughter, the princess, and you must find her! You're reward will be a great big feast of dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets with mac 'n' cheese and maybe a trip to the ice cream shop. Thank You, The King.” He found these notes every Saturday morning after breakfast along with a stopwatch that beeped when he was supposed to come home.

He had run to the backyard to the 'outdoor toys' toy chest he mom had made for him and grabbed his foam sword (he wasn't allowed to have a real one, he had asked) and ran to the woods beyond his open yard towards his tree house. On the way he had slayed several dragons and decoy minions but he was growing tired of his game. He never got to rescue the princess because she didn't exist. And why would he rescue he same princess every weekend? - it was her fault for getting caught all the time! And why did he always have to rescue a girl? When he did get to her she could never fight and she just got in the way. More than once he had accidentally cut her in half because she got scared of a bug or something and got in his way. When this happened he had to rewind his game so he didn't go home crying like the fist time. (His father still liked to tell that story to which he would respond with a dramatic sigh “I was six, okay Dad?”)

He was now approaching the last stretch of his journey to the princess. He usually found her somewhere around his tree house and then they would spend the remaining time in his tree house waiting for the magic call to come home. Today, however he heard the sound of crunching leaves in the forest and he turned ready to battle whatever creature had followed him on his journey. He was surprised to find a blond kid emerge from the bushes running full speed. Kurogane lowered his sword and was then greeted by the ground as the kid ran into him causing them both to topple to the forest floor. The kid looked up with eyes that Kurogane had seen once when he was chasing a rabbit once he caught the rabbit he had let it go because of that look. Later his dad told him the rabbit must have been scared. The child turned to look in the direction they had come and it was then that Kurogane noticed the long ponytail of blond hair and suddenly ideas of playing games with a real princess ran through Kurogane's mind all he had to do was save this girl for real and he would be a real warrior!

The girl looked back at him frantically and then turned again to look behind herself and Kurogane followed her worried gaze to the direction the blond had come from. Then he heard a voice calling out angrily like he had just gotten up from a nap and couldn't talk right just yet. “Fai! Come home now!”

The kid looked at Kurogane who was still strewn underneath the other wondering how a warrior such as himself could have wound up on the ground. “Is that a 'bad man'?” Kurogane questioned, he could only save princesses from bad men.

The girl shook her head up and down slowly and Kurogane got himself up, grabbed his sword and put it in his belt loops, and took the girl's hand and began to run towards his tree house. The tree house was set in a low tree and had a small, cylindrical crawl grid to the hatch in the floor. They both got on their bellies, shimmed up the grid and into the house. Kurogane closed and locked the hole in the floor as the new girl crawled over to the window on her jean covered knees and tentatively peeked out the curtains. Kurogane joined her just in time to see a tall man with greasy dirty blond hair walk past where they had just been. The man reminded Kurogane of an ogre. A few moments later he came back and continued back through the forest from where ever he had come from. The blond sighed and collapsed against the wall next to the window, “That was close.”

“The ogre almost got us,” Kurogane replied siting back on his knees.

The blond furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment before her faced stretched into a dramatic 'o'. “Oh. You mean him. He's not an ogre. Just my step-dad.”

Kurogane frowned, “Aren't dad's 'sposed to be nice?”

“Real dads, yeah. I don't think step-dads have to be though,” the girl replied pulling her knees to her chest.

“Oh.” They stayed silent a moment, “What's your name?” Kurogane asked.

The blond smiled for the first time and Kurogane felt like he had belly flopped into a pool but instead of pain he felt warm, “Fai! I just moved here! Whoa! How do you make your face go all red like that?”

“M-my face is not red! You idiot!” His face was burning, maybe this girl was a witch because, well, girls never made him belly flop without water.

“It is to! Even your ears!”

Kurogane rubbed his face and when he was done he looked up with a frown, “You're annoying.”

“No. I'm Fai. Who are you?” Fai was now sitting cross legged facing him.

“I'm Kurogane,” he mumbled.

Fai broke out into a big smile, “Kuro-hiney?” She began to laugh and Kurogane only frowned in response.

“Kurogane,” he corrected clearly but it was already too late: Fai was rolling on the ground laughing making her ponytail come undone. “If you don't stop laughing I'm not going to let you play with me!”

That seemed to shut the girl up. “What are you playing?” Fai asked with renewed interest and she picked the leaves from the floor out of her hair.

Kurogane stood and took his foam sword out of his belt loop and thrust it toward the ceiling. “I'm a warrior and I have to rescue the princess! You can be the princess if you want,” he added as he brought his sword down.

This time Fai scowled “Why do I have to be the princess? I don't wanna.”

“But you have long hair,” Kurogane rationalized.

“So! That doesn't mean I have to be the princess.”

Kurogane looked down at Fai, “But I want to save you.”

Fai propped her head up in her hands, “What if I'm your friend instead and you come to rescue me but I already got out of the castle and now we're going to fight the ogre!”

The other smiled, “That sounds really cool! But if we're going to be fighting together what are you going to be?”

“What do you mean?”

The child warrior sighed loudly, obviously this kid didn't get out much. “Well you can't just be my friend. You have to have a way to fight.”

Fai thought a moment, “Well I could use a sword too.”

“You can't do that. I'm already a warrior you have to be something else.”

She thought again, “Maybe I could be a magician?”

Kurogane furrowed his brow, “What's a 'magician' going to do?”

“Well I could shoot fire from my hands and ice too!”

“Wow! That's really cool! Okay,” Kurogane looked out the window, “You go hide behind that bush and then we'll bump into each other and fight the Bat Demons!” Kurogane thrust his fist in the air for emphasis.

Fai frowned, “The what?”

Kurogane sighed and pinched between his eyes like his dad did when he asked something stupid (Like if he could jump out the window with his bed sheet and use it as a parachute. They had nailed his window shut after that.) “Just go with it, idiot.”

They played in the woods for another hour making comical 'wwwsh' and' kerkgh' noises as they battled back to back and Kurogane didn't slice her in half once! - but the stopwatch went off and they paused mid-battle with cannibal dwarfs to stare at each other. Kurogane sheathed his weapon. “Are you 'sposed to go home now?” Fai asked tucking some stray hair behind her ear.

“Yeah,” Kurogane replied disappointed. This was the first time he had ever gotten to play with another kid outside of school. He lived way on the outskirts of town and had to be driven to the bus stop each morning because it was so far. “You could come with me! The king told my dad to make dinosaur nuggets and mac 'n' cheese. And my sister isn't home, she's a witch.”

Fai's head popped up and he smiled as he ran up and took Kurogane's hand. “Your dad knows the king?!”

Kurogane's face suddenly felt hot again, “Yeah.”

“Well what are we waiting for then?” And Fai tugged them in the direction of Kurogane's house.

Kurogane's father was leaning on the porch railing by the stairs when the two children emerged from the trees. “I see my valiant son has brought back another warrior with him!”

The two raced each other the rest of the way to the house, “Fai's not a warrior. Fai's a magician.”

“Oh is that so?” Kurogane's father mused as he leaned down to get a better look at the boy his son had brought home with him. “You wouldn't happen to live in the new castle down the road would you?”

Fai smiled, “It's not a castle. It's just a house.”

“Fai's not a princess either, even if she does have long hair.” Kurogane chimed in.

“Wait I'm not a-”

Kurogane looked shyly at Fai, “I- I um like your hair.”

Fai blushed, “Thank you.”

Torihiro smirked down at the blond boy his son had dragged in, “Well my house isn't a castle either but we are about to have a feast. What do you say? Wanna join us?”

“Yeah! And after will you take us to get ice cream?” Kurogane asked in earnest looking up at his father.

He couldn't help but smile at his son. “I don't know. I think I might have to talk to Fai's parents first. We could take him home after we eat though. We'll get in the truck go to his house and if his parents say it's okay we'll all go into town and get ice cream.”

“No! It's fine. I'll just walk home.”

Kurogane came up and slapped Fai on the back, “Don't worry about it! My dad said he'll take you home and he will!”

Fai smiled tentatively at Torihiro's son and he couldn't help but smirk at the two boys. “Okay.” Fai replied with that same small tentative smile.

The other boy took Fai's hand and began to drag him inside, “C' mon! I'll show you my dinosaur collection, but I'm not sure if you'll like that kind of stuff.”

“Wait, Kurogane-,” Torihiro sighed. It was to late his son had already taken his new friend inside and he couldn't help but think that, perhaps, his son was misinformed.

“Hey dad,” Torihiro turned to see his daughter, Yukko off to the side of the porch. Since when had she even been there? “Is it just me or does Kurogane seem to think his new friend is a girl?”

“He'll figure it out eventually.”

~o~

Saturday had come again and Kurogane had already found the note from the king, this time it had been in the laundry room, but Fai was running late. Since Fai had moved in during the early spring they had ritualistically played together every Saturday on the condition that Kurogane didn't go get Fai. He had went there one Saturday when Fai was running particularly late and Fai had been so mad that she had sent Kurogane home. So he had learned to stay at his house and wait for his best friend.

About a half hour later Fai came sprinting from the woods, “Sorry I'm late!” Fai yelled waving a hand over her head.

Kurogane sprung up from the porch irritated and ran to meet Fai in the middle of the yard. “You're late! Now we don't have as much time to play! And we're at the most important part of the game too!”

“And which part is that?” Fai retorted slightly peeved that Kurogane was slightly peeved.

The boy crossed his arms about his chest, “We're at the point where the Bat King kidnapped and poisoned the wizard.” Fai always forgot where they were when they played.

“Oh! Well I'm sorry I'm late. Let's go okay?”

The two of them ran off into the woods together to start where they had ended last Saturday. This really was the most exciting part of their game so far, it was times like these he wished Fai could play during the week. He had had to wait and entire week before they could continue. They took their places and then realized they couldn't exactly remember how it had happened and started from the part where the Bat King kidnapped Fai and dragged her off. Fai yelled for Kurogane but he couldn't save Fai in time and the girl was whisked away through the portal to the evil King's castle. Kurogane ran around for a while slashing at trees and invisible henchmen in his valiant fight to the castle. Fai picked flowers in the clearing since there was nothing to do while he wasn't in the part. After a while they both decided it was about time Kurogane arrived at the castle and Fai laid down in the tree house which was actually the dungeon where he was supposed to be, turned towards the ceiling and shut his eyes.

Kurogane rushed in to the dungeon threw his sword aside in his panic and collapsed to his knees dramatically beside his friend. He shook Fai and he could tell Fai was trying not to smile as he did. “Fai you need to be serious!”

Fai giggled in response before responding, “Okay, okay.” She swallowed her smile and did a very god job of 'looking dead but not being dead.'

He hated it when Fai smiled an he loved it for the very same reason: it made his face burn. Fai's smile made his face burn even now. The blond looked like she was seeping beneath Kurogane and he couldn't help but wonder if his parents' faces burned like this when they kissed him when he was asleep or being tucked in. He supposed he could find out. It would be like tucking Fai into bed but then the thought struck him that when his mom kissed his dad good night she did so on his lips. In response to this new thought Kurogane changed the direction of his mouth and firmly planted his lips on Fai's.

His face felt like the sun but instead of embarrassed he felt elated though he couldn't understand why. Then he felt embarrassed when Fai shoved him backwards, “What are you doing?” the blond demanded angrily.

Kurogane struggled to find words seeing as he suddenly felt accused. “I-I.... It's not my fault! You're the princess!”

“I'm the princess?” Fai yelled in retaliation as she scrambled to her feet wiping her lips.

Kurogane stood too and threw his hands from himself, “Yeah! Because you're a girl!”

The blond looked at him indignantly, “I'm not a girl!”

“Are too!”

“Am not!”

“But you have long hair!”

Fai balled his hands into fists, “So that doesn't matter! I'm a boy! And boys don't kiss boys! I'm going home.”

Kurogane, too, went home. He slammed the door to the back yard, then the door to his room, and he flopped on his bed landing roughly on a toy dinosaur that he threw at the wall. Fai was a boy? He didn't even know! And now he might never see him again. Fai was his only friend really. At school people stayed away from him not because he was mean but because he was foreign. All the children at school had grown up in the same town able to walk to each other houses with no problem but he was isolated from them and that reflected at school.

Yet, even in all this he felt confused. Fai was a boy and he had kissed a boy but he didn't feel grossed out. Wasn't he supposed to be grossed out? Instead he felt he liked Fai even more. Like Fai now met some qualification he didn't know he had wanted the other boy to meet. He was supposed to save and kiss princesses not princes. Right?

There was a knock at his door and then it was opening. He could tell it was his dad by the way the footsteps sounded. “Did you and Fai have a fight?”

“Dad did you know Fai's a boy?” Kurogane asked he didn't mean to avoid his father's question his was just more important.

Torihiro raised an eyebrow, “Yes, yes I did.”

Kurogane sat up as quick as lightning, “And you didn't tell me?”

“I honestly didn't think it would take you so long to figure it out,” his father responded with an awkward rub of his neck.

And with that Kurogane flopped down on his bed again. “I must be an idiot.”

“Is Fai being a boy a problem?”

Kurogane turned his head so he wouldn't suffocate, “No. Just...” His small word hung between them for a moment. How could he ask his dad if it was possible for boys to like like boys? Would his dad be mad at him? What about his mother and sister? “What if a warrior doesn't wanna save the princess? What if he just wants to ride around and battle with a prince?”

Torihiro blinked at his son an didn't respond for a moment and in that moment Kurogane thought his dad might be mad. But his father wasn't and instead he responded, “Well, the warrior better stop wasting his time saving princesses then.”

Kurogane turned his head back into his pillow and growled and his dad patted his back firmly to comfort him. “Everybody is dumb.”

“Yeah? Wait until you're and adult.”

There was a knock at the door, frantic and loud and unrelenting. “C' mon. Let's go get that and then I'll let you help me make lunch.”

While Kurogane didn't want to do much, he also didn't want to mope alone. What he wanted to do was sit on the couch and 'not' cuddle with his father but he couldn't do that up here so he relented and followed his father downstairs to the back door where they found the knock coming from. His father opened the door and found Fai standing there breathing heavily, fists balled at his sides, and hair cut so unevenly that the oldest sucked in a breath and tried not to laugh and Kurogane felt like he had been punched in the stomach.

Fai walked past Torihiro and right up to Kurogane, thrusting a finger in his face. “I don't have long hair anymore so you better not think I'm a girl!” He retracted his finger and looked at the ground, Kurogane could see the tips of Fai's ears turning pink. Fai looked up again, “And if you do that again I'll-I'll never talk to you again! EVER!”

“O-okay,” Kurogane sputtered.