The night was silent save for the howling of the wind and the distant whines from the barracks bellow. The wind played tricks on his ears, sounding more and more like the war cries by the second, couple that with the crying and the night was turning into a horrid echo of the morning's battle.

Kurogane shivered and pulled his collar up tight around his neck, ducking his head low against the cold wind. War was enough to break the strongest of men, so Kurogane made sure he was at least the strongest to have a chance at avoiding that dull fate. He was the strongest fighter, but the morning had been rough, and for a single night he allowed the fear to sink in with the cold. After all, bravery was only possible with fear.

"Cold, Kuro-wolf?"

Kurogane huffed in disappointment, though for a second it sounded like a sigh of relief. "What are you doing up here?"

"I took over for Subaru. He's with his brother."

Fai looked down just then, and Kurogane knew not to ask the obvious. They wait for a while, dreading a sound and fearing the silence.

After what felt like seconds and an eternity all in one, Kurogane felt a slight push against his shoulder and turned to find Fai nudging a bottle in his direction. If the smell wasn't enough, the glint in the man's eye was enough for Kurogane to figure out the bottle's contents.

"Where do you keep getting this stuff?"

"I have my ways," said Fai as he pulled out the cork and drowned down a gulp.

"I'm not sure I'll be drinking from that bottle then," Kurogane smirked and took the bottle anyway.

"It's nothing like that. Though with the cold, I'm not sure I'd object."

Fai lifted the bottle as if in cheers and Kurogane snorted in response. Even he wasn't sure if the sound was in agreement or rejection.

Fai laughed, "There's a reason people call me the Night Cat, you know!"

"Yeah, I know." A spy name… wasn't something Kurogane wanted to think about. Even with his hair cropped short, Fai was still a foreigner amongst them and the blonde's loyalty was his own damn business. Kurogane turned to the man and grinned, "It's your stage name, isn't it?"

Fai was definitely expecting something else entirely and after a single moment of shock, he literally burst out laughing, spraying alcohol all over himself and Kurogane!

"When did you– since when have you had a sense of humor?"

Kurogane shrugged feeling the alcohol's burn in his mouth and stomach. His cheeks felt warm too, though he wasn't sure why.

"We should get alcohol into your system more often!"

Kurogane couldn't agree more. He was smiling, feeling warm, and his mind was finally somewhat blank after the morning's horrors. They were still there, the images and the scents, standing vividly at the back of his mind. But the anxiety and the fear associated with them was quickly dissipating.

Kurogane reached over and yanked the bottle out of Fai's hands. He felt half as disappointed as the blond looked. "We should stop," he explained. "We can't get drunk on the job."

"Fair point…" Fai looked out at the no-man's land before them and his eyes darkened. It was a brief glance, normal-looking to anyone other than Kurogane. But Kurogane knew that it meant something. Those were his countrymen out there, his family perhaps, but the blond looked more determined than ever, with only a shadow of guilt clouding the fierceness of his blue eyes.

In a blink, it was all gone. Fai was smiling his usual bright smile that looked all the more foreboding against the night's blackness. It looked only slightly more honest than usual.

"You know…," the blond whispered with a disarmingly low voice. "There are other ways we can lose ourselves."

Night Cat schmite cat, they should have just called the idiot, Sneaky Bastard! Within second, the blond was literally rubbing against his fellow watcher, with a look on his face that could only mean one thing.

"Idiot! What do you think you're doing?"

Fai looked at him for a long time, smile softer than before but not quite honest. "I'm coming on to the man who killed nearly twenty men all on his own today. You need a reward, I say!"

"I didn't do it alone! And just because you saved my life with that rifle of yours doesn't mean I owe you anything."

That broke the smile right off Fai's face. Instead he was scowling, and it was one of the scariest things Kurogane had ever seen. It flashed of an honesty and anger that Kurogane would never have expected from the man.

"I would do a lot of things," Fai sneered, "But calling people out on life debts in the middle of a war is not one of them. What you think I go around asking every one of the men bellow for a little extra sexy time for simply doing my job—?"

"That's not what I meant!"

"I saved your life because I wanted to. I saved your life because if I have to watch another friend die I think I'll lose my mind." The blond man was shaking and Kurogane suddenly realized that it wasn't just anger anymore. He'd never understood another human being so much in his whole life.

Barely over a whisper, Fai continued, "And if it's you Kurogane, so help me God, I'll walk right out into that minefield and blow my fucking brains out."

The man's tears glistened in the moonlight and Kurogane lost only a moment before putting his hands on Fai's shoulders and looking at him in all earnest.

"It's okay Fai, it's okay. It's over for now and Kamui will be okay. The Li twins were my friends too, you know. So were Kusanagi and Fuuma. But we have to keep fighting. For them, okay?"

Fai sniffled, a soft smile creeping its way onto his face. He inched closer to Kurogane and his eyes wide in the moonlight, the black centers darker than ever and he blue as bright as a morning sky.

"I'll fight for you."

Never had Kurogane seen the man look so utterly honest, and when Fai leaned forwards and pressed his lips against Kurogane's, the warrior accepted wholeheartedly.

He wrapped his arms around the thinner man's waist and pulled him close and the blond opened his lips to venture a warm sleek tongue into Kurogane's mouth. They sucked and kissed and panted. Kurogane relished in the feel of another man's warmth. How long had it been? The war stretched out forever in his mind. There was only war and cold for as long as he could remember.

But Fai was warm. Warm and light and getting more venturous by the second. His soft hands were reaching under Kurogane's jacket, his legs wrapping around him until the blond was straddling him completely. Kurogane wasn't shy either, his lips trailing soft kisses at the blond's cheeks until he was sucking at the base of man's neck. Slowly and deliberately, relishing in the soft mewls that escaped Fai's lips. The blond seemed to lose it all of a sudden and lurched forward, kissing Kurogane with such wet passion that the taller man could hardly breathe.

"W-we—?" Kurogane tried to ask.

"Don't you dare tell me to stop!"

Kurogane chuckled deeply. "We just have to be quick, okay?"

Fai looked taken aback suddenly, eyes wide with lust but looking more crazed by the second. "Fine, nothing fancy. Just shut up and kiss me!"

Kurogane obliged with another soft chuckle, his breath hitching as Fai's moved with a fevered desperation, all wet lips and soft caressing hands. With a deep plunge of his tongue into Kurogane's mouth, his deft fingers began working on getting the taller man's cargo pants down. Getting the hint, Kurogane tugged Fai's belt just enough to tease at the blonde's growing erection. Fai gasped into Kurogane's mouth, not expecting the ministration.

"You don't have to," he whispered, not able to contain the blush creeping over his cheeks.

"I want to."

His voice almost breaking, Fai asked, "Are you sure you can't take me tonight?"

"And what, use snow for lube?" They both smiled. "I can't risk hurting you."

They kissed again, softly at first, sweetly and romantically. But the heat of their bodies rose desperately in the cold breeze. The feather light kisses soon gave way to bites and suckling's tugs. The soft caressing became desperate grasping movements, fingers digging, nails scratching.

Kurogane began to pump at Fai's erection and the other returned the favor until they were both a panting, gasping mess, two bodies flush against each other, breathing each other's scent, foreheads pressed one against the other.

It didn't take long for them to move in sync. "Faster," Fai whispered. "Harder" barked Kurogane. Fai's spasms began to overtake him just as Kurogane's vision began to blur.

They came. Kurogane grunted deeply, Fai cried out softly, and their voices joined seamlessly with the howling of the wind.

"Oi! Remind me to fuck the shit out of you when this war is over."

"I'll look forward to it."