A/N: I've been batting this idea around of ages now and tweaking the universe to make it work better. I'm not 100% there yet but the first few chapters are mostly set up anyway. It's basically a domestic AU with bonus murder demons. So you know, if that tickles your fancy.

"You're so lucky, Fai-chan! Not only did you find yourself a well off man, but he's so handsome too!" Hokuto whispered to Fai, her arm around his shoulders. He wasn't sure why she was whispering, they were in the back room and Kurogane was all the way up front in the store proper.

Fai laughed and poked Hokuto playfully in the side. "I'm not dating him for his money, you know," he said.

Kurogane and Fai had been dating long before Fai knew the first thing about the man's bank account. They'd been set up on a blind date by a mutual friend and something had stuck. Back then Fai had been waiting tables and chasing his tail trying to make a name for himself as a journalist. Kurogane had been the only break in his life, the single shining star in an otherwise bleak sky. Fai wished he wasn't being dramatic, but back then not a single thing had gone right for him.

That was then, though, and now he and Kurogane were living together in a whole new city. Fai didn't need to work, Kurogane's job was plenty to pay all of their bills, but Fai was never the stay at home type, too much energy, too nosy to keep the world locked outside. He'd found himself a part time job at some little bistro just off of Main Street, he kept the apartment clean, and his boyfriend was the finest thing this side of the Pacific. Fai's life had finally turned around.

There was just one teeny, tiny, little hiccup.

"Oi, are you gonna give me back my boyfriend, squirt, or do I have to come back there?" Kurogane's voice carried easily to the back room and Fai slipped free of Hokuto's friendly hold with ease.

"Coming Kuro-darling!" he sang. "I'll see you Sunday!" Fai said, waving farewell to Hokuto and pointedly not hurdling the counter and leaping straight into Kurogane's arms.

Back before, when Fai's life had looked like a proverbial train wreck, he'd been doing everything he could to make a name for himself. He'd gone to school for Journalism, he'd done all of his internships, had a resume that wasn't entirely skeletal, and was charming (in his honest opinion), but not a single newspaper or magazine or online gossip column had wanted to hire him. So, Fai had been forced to try and find a story on his own that would be big enough to get his less than impressive blog noticed and jumpstart his career.

The biggest scoop at the time had been a string of gruesome murders. There were never any clues, no evidence left, only the mangled, bloody corpses the victims. There was no pattern to the kills - time, date, victims; nothing had matched up. The only thing that remained the same was that there were always multiple victims found at once, and that the murders had been violent. Extremely so.

The police had begun calling the killer the Silver Dragon.

If Fai had been smart he would have stayed as far away from such a thing as he could. Sure, he had self defense training, he owned a taser and a can of mace, but for his six feet of height he knew he was scrawny and honestly, not all that brave. Fai, however, was either a huge idiot or had not a shred of self preservation in him, because he had stuck his nose in everything and anything that could have lead him to this mysterious Dragon.

"You know," Fai cooed, slipping his hand into Kurogane's and tucking himself into his side. "You don't have to pick me up and walk me home. I'm a big boy."

Kurogane snorted and pulled Fai even closer. "You're a trouble magnet is what you are."

"But I'm a cute trouble magnet, right?" Fai teased as they made their way onto the street. Summer had ended and the wind was cool enough to have him wishing he'd brought more than an old sweatshirt.

"Don't push it," Kurogane said, the banter familiar and playful.

In the end, Fai had found the Silver Dragon. It had been an accident, a perfect case of wrong place, wrong time. It had changed his life. It hadn't been anything Fai had been expecting, or even something that Fai had thought possible. He, in all of his foolishness, had been searching for a murderer and instead had found so much more. He'd discovered demons and spirits and all manner of otherworldly things. He'd found a completely new layer of terror to lay over top his already horrifying world view.

He'd also found a love deeper than he knew what to do with.

"Are you going out tonight?" Fai asked. It'd been close to a week, and Kurogane didn't like to push it.

"I should be fine for another few days," he said, leaning a bit closer to Fai. "Especially if you're willing to keep me busy."

Fai leaned up and captured Kurogane's mouth in a kiss, nipping sharply at his lips as an answer. He still didn't like that Kurogane had to go out a few times a month, and he preferred to not think about it at all. He knew what Kurogane was doing, but it didn't get brought up or spoken about outside of Kurogane telling Fai he'd be late coming home. It wasn't as if Kurogane had a choice, and Fai understood that. Still, he didn't have to like it.

Kurogane hung a left, pulling Fai along with him, and continued down the street leading away from their apartment. Fai might not have been paying much attention to where they'd been going, but he did know how to get back home. He eyed Kurogane suspiciously. When after a full block he failed to receive some sort of explanation or guess something himself (their anniversary was a few months off, his birthday was well behind them, and the pet store for that cat he'd been wanting was on the other side of town) he tugged a little at his arm. "I know you had a long day at work but you do realize we're going the wrong way, right?"

"We're heading over to the old rail yard. Our company still owns it even though it's abandoned and there have been reports of people poking around in it," Kurogane said. "My manager asked if I could go and see if it looks like kids have been vandalizing anything and if so she's going to put in a police report."

"Ahh, so we're hunting delinquents are we?" Fai laughed.

If it were anyone else Fai would make jokes about what an odd date this was to take him on, and how unromantic of partner he was, but this wasn't just anyone, it was Kurogane. They were both acutely aware of how concerned Fai got if Kurogane was late coming home without texting before hand, and even then Fai always got a bit twitchy when Kurogane went out on nights he hadn't planned ahead of time.

There were plenty of good reasons for this. To anyone else Fai might seem like a neurotic, controlling boyfriend, but the life Kurogane led, especially in secret, was dangerous. To both of them sometimes. It was best that Fai be with him and know where he was and what he was doing when he could.

The railyard sat a few blocks from Main Street, rusting away among other decrepit warehouses and squatter apartments. The wire fence surrounding the area was a solid ten feet tall, topped with nasty looking barbed wire that not even Fai, in his reckless and impulsive youth, would have challenged. Beyond the fence a handful of rundown, useless train cars sat, eroding away and forgotten on the now useless tracks.

Together they made their way up to the closed gates, a heavy padlock the size of Fai's fist was hanging from a thick chain woven between the metal bars of the gate. "I don't think this thing would open even if you had the key," he said, jiggling the chains a bit. "Sturdy though."

"Cut that out," Kurogane snapped and the urgency in his voice was enough to keep Fai from rattling the chain harder and cracking a joke. "Look."

Fai stepped up next to Kurogane and followed his line of sight to what looked like an old cable van parked between two of the rusty train cars. At first glance Fai would have thought it was just another hunk of metal left there to waste space, but upon a more careful look the tires seemed new and there were definitely tracks. The van had been driven recently.

"How do you think they got in?" Fai asked.

"Don't know. There's probably a section of fence cut out that they drive through and refasten so no one notices. We'll let the cops figure it out."

And wasn't Fai glad to hear it. He didn't know if it was a bunch of rowdy teens looking for simple thrills or something worse, but the less involved he and Kurogane were the better. The last thing they needed was the cops snooping around their lives, especially if Kurogane was going to have to go out soon.

They hadn't gotten two steps away when Fai heard the faint wails of a child coming from inside one of the hangers.

"Do you hear that?" Fai asked, already turned around and pressing an ear against the fence. "It sounds like a little kid!"

He heard Kurogane curse under his breath. "I knew there were people in there."

As long as Fai had known him Kurogane had always been very good at knowing if there were people around him. At first Fai had just thought it was a bunch of lucky guessing and paying too much attention to things around him, after he'd learned the truth, well.

"Why didn't you say something? Hurry up, we have to get in there, they're hurting a little kid!" Fai said. He didn't know how they'd get in but Kurogane managed plenty of getting into places he had no business being, and if pressed Fai was more than capable himself. He hoped Kurogane had been given keys or something useful by his manager.

Without a word, Kurogane scooped Fai up into his arms and dashed along the fence until they were out of view of the street. Fai looped his arms around Kurogane's neck and held tight. He was never really going to get used to the bursts of inhuman strength and speed Kurogane showed. For the good of both of them it was a rare occurrence, but even if it were an everyday thing Fai felt as if it would still send him reeling for a second or two.

They landed silently on the other side of the fence, Kurogane's jump clearing even the barbed wire effortlessly and his landing disturbed not a pebble of the gravel that littered the rail yard. He set Fai on his feet carefully and motioned for him to stay quiet and follow after him.

As they drew closer they could hear what was very clearly a man shouting something Fai couldn't quite make out while a small voice wailed in fear. There was a sudden crescendo to the noise and a ruckus before everything went silent for a moment. Fai and Kurogane both froze. They had enough time to share a puzzled look before the silence ended and the piercing shrieks of a child were heard again, louder and more frantic than earlier.

Throwing caution to the wind Fai ran into the warehouse, Kurogane cursing and at his heels. What they found he wished he had never seen.

A little girl who couldn't have been older than five or six dressed only in a filthy nightgown stood crying over a man, sprawled out on the ground and very much not moving. In the little girl's hands was a crowbar and both she and it were covered in blood.

"Oh dear god," Fai said, the words leaving him on a gasp.

"Ahh, shit," Kurogane added, sounding far less horrified and much more exasperated.

The little girl finally seemed to notice them through her tears and startled with a squeak that jolted her body enough to unbalance her and send her tumbling down onto her rear. Her green eyes were wide and frantic as she tried to scramble backwards away from them while still clutching on to her crowbar. She hadn't stopped crying and the tear tracks on her cheeks were clear, cutting through the grime and blood on her face.

Fai took a few slow steps towards her, keeping his hands in front of him and trying for a comforting smile. When he was just out of arm's reach of her he knelt down and held out his hand. "It's okay," he said gently. "We're here to help you. We don't wanna hurt you like that man."

Behind him Kurogane hadn't moved. "Were there others?" he asked and Fai was thankful he didn't bark out the question and kept his voice low and nonthreatening. The little girl glanced up at Kurogane quickly before refocusing on Fai, who kept smiling. Then, she nodded and Fai felt ice drop into his veins. "Do you know where they went?"

She shook her head. Fai didn't like this. He threw a meaningful frown back at Kurogane. They needed to get this girl out of here.

"What were they going to do with you?" Kurogane asked, this time he sounded angry.

The girl swallowed, her whole head bobbing with the motion. "Th-they said someone was gonna b-buy me."

Fai was not a man quick to anger but in an instant he was seeing red and the rumbling growl he heard from Kurogane told him he was feeling much the same way. Selling a child! What sort of heartless, soulless monsters were they dealing with here? "Where is your family, sweetheart?" Fai asked.

The girl's lip began to wibble and she curled in on herself before she started bawling again. "G-gone!" and it was the most heartbreaking sound Fai had ever heard.

"Hey, hey," Fai said, scooting closer to the poor child. She didn't put up a fight when he gathered her up in his arm and eased the crowbar out of her small, pudgy hands, handing it over to Kurogane who had finally moved closer. "You're okay, you're gonna be okay."

He had no way of making her okay or fixing anything, but the weeping little girl in his arms didn't need to know that. She needed comfort and safety and Fai was going to do what he could to give her that much, even if it was only a bunch of pretty words.

One of Kurogane's hands came up and brushed some of the hair out of her face, his large hands bigger than her whole face. He watched her over Fai's shoulder for a few moments and then something in the air shifted. Fai held his breath and willed whatever was about to happen to not, but much like the rest of his life, things did not go his way.

"Fai," Kurogane said slowly. They both knew Fai wasn't going to like what came next. "Do you remember what I told you about how things like me came to be?"

He couldn't breathe and he held the little girl closer to his chest, like he could shield her from reality. He nodded.

"Give her to me."

Fai pulled away suddenly, took a handful of steps back and away from Kurogane. "No! She's just a baby, look at her! Kuro-sama, she's just a little girl!"

For his part Kurogane did look sorry. "Exactly, she's young, very young. You know we have no control over this, Fai, now give her here."

"No," Fai said weakly, shaking his head, but even as Kurogane took slow, measured steps towards them Fai found he couldn't move his legs. In his arms the little girl was still, sniffling quietly into his shirt. "Kurogane please, no."

"It's not up to me, you know that." Kurogane's hands were warm as he pried Fai's arms open and lifted the girl out of them easily. He held her with one arm and lifted her chin with his other hand, leaving Fai standing beside him, trembling and useless. Even from the odd angle Fai could see how her pupils had begun to narrow and the subtle glow the green of her eyes was taking.

Blood spilled by young hands created monsters, violence the trigger to a deep, otherworldly survival reflex that changed humans into something more. It made them strong, fast, gave them amazingly keen senses and turned them into a thing of nightmares so that they might no longer be afraid. Blood on young hands made claws sprout. Kurogane was living proof of this and now this poor girl shared the same fate.

Kurogane had been alone, he'd told Fai. He'd had no teachers and by the time he'd found another of his kind he'd been nearly an adult. Fai would not let this child go through the same hardships and the way Kurogane tucked a few flyaway strands behind her ear neither would he.

"Alright, princess, do you know if those men plan on coming back soon?" She nodded and the grin that slashed its way across Kurogane's face held no mirth and chilled Fai to his bones.

It was all over terrifyingly fast after that. Kurogane had had enough time to stash Fai away in a dark corner before the sound of tires on gravel drained the color from what he could see of the small girl's face. Kurogane took her with him and Fai turned his back on the carnage that ensued. He screwed his eyes shut and curled in on himself and told himself that every one of those men deserved to die, for that little girl was not their first, but she would be their last.

There was screaming, bones broke and they begged for their lives.

The girl recognized the man who had slain her older brother, Fai heard her tell Kurogane. And then Fai heard Kurogane instruct her, he heard Kurogane teach her how to feed like he fed. One by one the broken, pleading voices died out and Fai told himself they deserved it. He didn't have a hard time believing it.

When Kurogane came to get him Fai did not feel for the mangled corpses on the warehouse floor. He only spared them a passing glance before he focused on two pairs of glowing, inhuman eyes, red and green, familiar and new.

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