trc/wow, i am ashamed.
I have absolutely no excuse for this.
untitled tsubasa reservoir warcraft crack, 1/2
6,032 words, kuro/fai, fai/yuui, yuui/kurogane. warnings: incest, disability, kurogane being kurogane - utterly stupid crossover with wow. \o/
basics: the world name is 'azeroth' and it has 3 continents: the eastern kingdoms, kalimdor, and northrend. guess where on the map eastern kingdoms and northrend are by compass points.
The playable races of wow are divided into two factions, the horde and the alliance. this fic follows the alliance & the dragons, who are neutral. the alliance races are:
- humans: capital city stormwind, racial leader king varian wrynn. other humans exist but aside from the island nation of theramore (ruler jaina proudmoore) they are not important to the story.
- dwarves: capital city ironforge, racial leader king magni bronzebeard. stereotype: scottish vikings.
- night elves: capital city darnassus, racial leader priestess tyrande whisperwind. stereotype: moon-obssessed tree-loving hippies.
gnomes: not really relevant to the story, stereotype: mad inventors
draenei: also not really relevent, aliens from outer space, only aliance race capable of shamanism (communing and controlling the basic elements, fire, wind, earth and water etc).
dragons come in 5 colours & are ruled by an 'aspect' who has a title as well as a name:
- black - evil, ruled by Deathwing the destroyer (formerly Neltharion the Earthwarden). 1000s of years ago the black dragons betrayed the other colours and killed a lot of them. deathwing in particular is a nasty mfucker.
- red - occupied with preserving & protecting life. aspect: alexstrasza the lifebinder. boy red dragon names end in -strasz, girls in -strasza
- blue - occupied with magic. aspect: malygos the spellweaver. boy names end in -gos, girl names end in -gosa.
dragons can turn into humans and very frequently do. typically, none of the humanoid people know they're talking to a dragon until the *gasp* BIG REVEAL no matter how painfully obvious the hints are beforehand.
others:
- the lich king: big scary guy who can raise the dead and wiped out a couple of human kingdoms. is sitting up in northrend with a zombie army being generally effin freaky.
- kirin tor: a bunch of really powerful neutral wizards.
OK THAT'S ALL YOU NEED.
It was an earthquake that awoke him. Not a big one - the crystal wind chimes hanging by the window jingled faintly and no more - but that was sufficient, and Yuui sat up in his bed and focused. Stormwind City wasn't built on any earthquake hotspots that he knew of, and his magic never had been one of the earth and nature, but it didn't feel like a magical attack.
Strange, he mused, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand. Perhaps there had been an accident at the Earthshrine. Many of the new shaman training there were given to wildly inappropriate use of magic. Either way, it didn't feel like something he should be concerned about, at least not just yet, and he had other things to be getting on with. He needed to open up the shop below, for a start.
The pre-dawn light was too weak for him to go about his morning routine in peace, but here in his bedchamber he could use his magic in safety, and so he lit the lanterns on his walls with a wave of his hand. Today's outfit was laid out neatly on his dresser surface where he had left it, the neatly pressed black pants and long white tunic with the armband around the left sleeve, and he leaned over the edge of the bed, casting a curious look around for the accessory that would help him get over to it.
The stick was where he'd left it, laying crosswise along the foot of his bed. His prosthetic was propped up next to it, and Yuui flipped his bedcovers aside and used his core muscles to sit up. The stump of his left leg fit neatly into the prosthetic's cup, and he cinched the leather straps as tightly as he could around the remainder of his limb to bind it in place. It was an old-fashioned prosthetic, this, and he knew that the artisans in the Dwarven district were working on combining Draenei technology with newer combustion engines to create more sensitive and functional false limbs, but he'd seen Gnomish engineering first hand and had no particular wish for his leg to explode or otherwise violently backfire on him while he was trying to use it.
At least they weren't goblins, he mused, with their somewhat haphazard approach to safety protocols and their intense love of explosives. His twin had worked with a team of goblin sappers once. Six units of three sappers each, no survivors; fairly remarkable, considering all they'd wanted the goblins to do was build a siege engine.
By the time he finished lacing up his boots the sun had come up, and he winced at the sunbeams lazily slanting across the floorboards. He'd been slower than usual, and he'd have to work harder to get the bakery open in time to catch the apprentice magicians on their way to classes. Luckily he had a batch of pre-made dough cooling in the pantry... He'd get his assistant to light the ovens and do the pre-opening chores while he made his first batches of pastries, he decided, and reaching for his stick he climbed awkwardly to his feet.
Sakura was waiting for him outside when he unlocked the door, as he knew she would be. She smiled brightly at him when she saw him, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
"Good morning, Sakura," he said, mildly, and she bobbed him a quick curtsey that made him smile. She was too polite sometimes, this girl.
"Good morning, Yuui," she replied, undoing her long traveler’s cloak and picking up the basket of wood, crossing over to the big baker's oven. "Did you feel the earthquake this morning?"
Yuui nodded. "It woke me up," he said. "Do you know what caused it?"
"Yes! I heard some of the adventurers in the trade district talking about it," she said, her eyes sparkling. "You know the Kirin Tor, the mage circle?"
"I've been running a bakery in Stormwind's mage district for twenty years, Sakura," Yuui reminded her gently. "I know the Kirin Tor."
"Oh, of course." She flushed slightly, and Yuui smiled at her soothingly as he scattered flour over his work surface. "Well, according to these adventurers, the earthquake was them moving Dalaran."
Yuui paused with his hand half-in the sack of flour, sure he had misheard. "They moved Dalaran? A whole city? Wasn't that destroyed?"
Sakura nodded enthusiastically as she shrugged on her apron. "They're moving it up north - as in, to Northrend. The adventurer who seemed to know said they'd been rebuilding it behind a bubble for years. Dalaran used to be close to Lordaeron, didn't it? Before the plague?"
"Yes, it did," Yuui said absently, his mind not really on the fate of old Dalaran. Northrend. Why would the Kirin Tor move their city there? Because of the undead? Or...?
"I suppose we'll find out more from our customers," Sakura said wistfully, and Yuui glanced down at the workbench, the dough sitting next to it and his tools spread out across it. Of course, if anybody knew what the Kirin Tor were planning, Stormwind's mages would, and they would be here soon looking to purchase breakfasts.
He set Sakura to making spiced bread while he prepared a batch of pastries, and though they had to hurry, they managed to get a good six trays into the ovens in time for them to be fully cooked. Normally Yuui loved his job, loved the hustle of humans around him and liked the practically of baking, the scent of fresh bread and the feel of dough under his fingers, but today he found he couldn't concentrate. Not with those tidings.
There were more things in the icy continent of Northrend than the undead scourge, and he wondered uneasily what it was the Kirin Tor were after.
The apprentices didn't know any more than the adventurer Sakura had overheard, it turned out. They were fearful, though, and spoke in hushed voices of the blue dragonflight, but Yuui's attempts to find out what, if anything, the blues had done to prompt such a reaction were met with blank silence. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. They were wizards, and no matter how much they liked his pastries, to them he was just a crippled war veteran and baker. Those who knew who he truly was, and what he had truly done to earn his battle scars, were few and far between, and he liked it that way.
He had a visit from one such person at the tail end of the week, just when he was about to close down shop for the night. The whispers of the blue dragons' involvement had been scaling up, and in truth he had expected such a visit long before now, so when he heard the door chime as he was filling the washing tub with dishes he didn't order his visitor away, just lowered the bucket he'd been using to fill said tub and limped back into the main room.
"Mr Flowright," said the woman standing just inside the door, quietly. She wore silk magician's robes, cut in a style he supposed was fashionable now and made of high-quality fabrics. But then again, she was the ruler of Theramore and had the money to go with it. She held her wizard's staff firmly in one pale hand, and her head was tipped back proudly.
"Lady Proudmoore," he replied, and gave her a smile. It was a pale imitation of his brother's, but he meant it, which he supposed made all the difference. "Would you be so kind as to get the sign?"
She turned behind her and flipped the sign on the glass of the door from open to closed, and Yuui's stick clacked across the floor in time with the click click click of his prosthetic as he made his way to one of the tables against the wall. She moved with him, drawing the chair back for him, and he thanked her as he sat down.
"I suppose you've heard," she said, sinking into a seat opposite him, and he shook his head. Her eyebrows raised slightly, but she pushed it down. Her eyes were intent and studious on his. "Malygos has awoken," she said, and though he had expected the news, it still hit him like a sucker punch. Malygos, the Aspect of Magic. The Spellweaver. Head of the blue dragonflight. His father.
"And this is not good news," he said quietly, making it a statement rather than a question because she wouldn't be here like this if it was. Not the ruler of Theramore herself. "Did the King send you?"
She shook her head. "I remember your name from the war," she said. "Stormwind's King knows of you, though." She hesitated. "The Spellweaver has decided that mortal magicians are responsible for the invasion of our world by the demons of the Burning Legion, Mr Flowright, and the blue dragonflight have been abducting mages from all over. Reports at this stage indicates they are being tortured into servitude."
Yuui said nothing, but icy grief settled into his chest. That his kind could fall like this... he wondered what Fai was doing. If Fai was participating in this. They hadn't spoken for three months now...
Jaina tilted her head, her blonde hair tumbling in artful waves around her face, and said, "Given the proximity of your bakery to Stormwind's mage district, I cannot help but wonder..." She let the sentence trail off, but Yuui understood.
"No," he said, keeping his voice low but infused with steel. "I am not acting against you or any other mortal race, my lady. If you know who I am then you should know that I turned my back on my kind after the war."
"I will notify King Wrynn," she said quietly. "You will be known to SI:7, Mr Flowright."
Yuui narrowed his eyes. By that she meant you will be under surveillance, and he wasn't thrilled, but he didn't particularly see a reason to object. His flight didn't even know he still survived, much less where he had gotten to, with the exception of Fai; and the only other visitor he had came and went as he pleased, and he very much doubted a few human spies could stop Kurogane from doing whatever he wished.
"Your flight have crossed the Kirin Tor, Yuui," Jaina said, "But it isn't them you should worry about. The other flights have responded too. It could mean a war."
Like that was a surprise, Yuui thought. Alexstrasza of the red may be the Dragon Queen, but everyone knew her consort Korialstrasz was a member of the Kirin Tor as a human mage known as Krasus. He said nothing, however, merely looked away, because torture and abduction was something else entirely, and it hurt to think of Malygos sanctioning those actions.
"The Nexus is heavily guarded," he said, speaking of the home of his flight up in the frozen fields of Northrend. "I will remain neutral in this war. If you seek to use me as a spy, then I cannot offer you any assistance. Dragons do not look kindly upon cripples."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Jaina replied, and he knew she meant it. Leadership had hardened her, but it couldn't change her, and she had been famed for her empathy and understanding. He inclined his head, acknowledging her, and she rose, the chair legs scraping over the stone floor. "Remember this conversation, Mr Flowright," she added. "Your identity will be kept a secret from the wider Stormwind populace. You are not the first dragon to hide amongst its people, but I trust your intentions will be more honorable than the last."
He snorted at this. "Onyxia was a black dragon," he said. "They are different creatures entirely, and no friends of ours either."
"Even so," Jaina said, at the door, and he nodded at her as she left.
That night Stormwind Intelligence set three separate watchers outside his bakery, a night elf and two humans. Yuui could sense them as he got ready for bed, and he pondered closing the shutters before deciding against it. Let them see him for how he truly was, he thought, as he sat on the edge of his bed and fastidiously unfastened his prosthetic; let them see him as no different from any other veteran living in Stormwind, missing bits and eking out a living as best they could.
That night he was woken by another earthquake, and for a long time afterward he had difficulty getting back to sleep. Something felt wrong, and he didn't know what it was.
He was enjoying dinner when Kurogane more or less broke the lock on his door barging in, and the man's low, angry cursing made him choke on his food in laughter. Some things never changed.
"I hope you can pay for that," he said, not turning around. "I'm not buying another one out of my money just because you can't work out knocking."
"Yeah, yeah," Kurogane growled, kicking the splintered door shut after him and hitting it with the heel of his hand until it wedged itself in the door frame, which buckled. Yuui eyed it uncertainly, and the man took a step back to examine his handiwork before growling and stalking across the shop floor to Yuui's table. He drew himself up to his full height, folding his heavily muscled arms across his chest, and glared down at Yuui, who ignored him and carried on eating his meal. It was a good one, too. Sakura had fetched it in from the Blue Recluse inn before he let her go for the day.
"Is there something you wanted?" Yuui asked after he'd consumed half the dish and Kurogane hadn't moved, and glanced up to see a muscle twitching in the man's jaw.
"Yeah," said Kurogane, folding his arms. "I'm supposed to ask you if there are any other neutral blues. Alex wants to know."
"You have to be the only person who calls the Dragon Queen 'Alex,' Kurostrasz," Yuui remarked blandly, and watched the way Kurogane's mouth tightened at his true name. "No? How about 'Youou'? Is that not what that night elf priestess named you?"
"What Tomoyo calls me is none of your business," Kurogane growled. "I'm in human shape, therefore I'm Kurogane to you."
"Of course," said Yuui, lowering his fork. "I apologize. What did Alexstrasza send you for, again?"
"A list of neutral blues," Kurogane repeated through gritted teeth. "The war is ramping up. One of ours killed the blue bastard's consort."
"Saragosa?" That was a surprise. Saragosa had replaced their mother following her demise, and neither he nor Fai had ever taken to her.
Kurogane rolled his eyes. "Of course her," he said, impatiently. "How many other consorts does he have? Aside from the old one the undead King raised as a frost wyrm, I mean."
The fork dropped from Yuui's suddenly unresponsive hands to bounce off the wooden floorboards, and Kurogane's expression changed slightly as he realized he'd said something he shouldn't.
"The Lich King raised Malygos' former consort as undead?" Yuui breathed, and touched his chest with his fingertips, feeling horror and pain coiling through his ribcage in equal measures. Their mother... "Does Fai know?"
"No. I haven't seen that squirrelly bastard for decades," Kurogane said, pulling a face. "You know where he is?"
Yuui shook his head, and Kurogane scowled. "I haven't seen him for a while myself," he said, still sounding somewhat dazed. Their mother, a frost wyrm, an undead skeletal construct held together by nothing more than magic and rotting sinew; an unthinking slave to that bastard's will. His memories of Sindragosa were somewhat vague, but he knew she hadn't wanted this. Nobody would. "He's in hiding, I think... why?"
Kurogane paused before answering, which was unusual tact coming from the bloodthirsty red dragon. Reluctantly he pulled out the chair opposite Yuui and sat in it; it creaked ominously under his weight, but held. "Alex is sending a mixed army into the blue dragon's lair," he said, reluctantly. "Some of us reds, and some of the best mortal heroes Azeroth has to offer. It's... she wants to know about potential succession to the role of Aspect after Malygos dies. She doesn't want to eradicate you blues."
"Not I," Yuui said quietly, letting go of his knife. Delicious as the meal had been, he couldn't stomach it and the thought of his father, dead at the hands of Kurogane's flight. "And not Fai, either, although plenty will volunteer him. Maybe some of the younger dragons. Azuregos is still wandering around the wilds of Azshara over in Kalimdor, I believe, and there's the young blue who distinguished himself in the fight over the Sunwell..."
"I know the one," Kurogane said.
"Arygos too, maybe, though I wouldn't count on him. Tarecgosa perhaps, although I haven't heard from her since the war." Yuui paused, and sighed. "There aren't many of us left, Kurogane," he said. "The great war saw to that." And it had, with fire and blood and the unbelievable power unleashed upon them by one they had trusted; power that left wounds that could never be healed. His hand went unconsciously to the stump of his leg, and Kurogane scowled, noticing the gesture.
"You're not any less of a dragon because you're missing bits," he said impatiently, and Yuui chuckled sadly.
"I think my kind would disagree with you there," he said. "Except for Fai, once they realized the extent of my injury... well."
They hadn't been rude, at least. They had been distant. Blue dragons were creatures of magic and curiosity with lively scholarly minds, but they were still dragons. When they had realized how badly Yuui had been wounded they had been courteous and respectful, but in their eyes he could see that it would have been better if he had died. Perhaps they would have finished him off themselves, one quick bite to the back of the neck, if not for Malygos and for Fai. He had chosen self-exile, spent his time with mortals instead, because they were strange creatures and prone to accidents and damage and after warfare they were no stranger to those without limbs.
Kurogane sighed and unfolded his long limbs, and then smacked him lightly upside the head. "Both of you are idiots," he said grumpily, and Yuui smiled as he pressed a hand against the site the red dragon had not-so-gently struck him. "If I wanted to listen to endless whining I'd go hang around with the night elves. You're alive, right? That counts for something."
"Yes," Yuui said, mulling it over. He was alive, and he had... a lair, of sorts, even if it was just a flat over the shop. He had access to the Stormwind Royal Library, thanks to the head librarian's patronage at his bakery. He had a few humans he felt protective over, and when they were in his bakery his territorial instinct slumbered. He had Fai, whose love for him he had never doubted even when Fai was on the move and could not visit him regularly.
And he had Kurogane, old friend and casual bed partner and apparently the person who knocked the occasional sense into him. He smiled. "Yes, you're quite right, it could be worse."
Kurogane peered at him through narrow eyes, distrustful as always of that smile, and then grunted. Sometimes one could forget that, young as he was, Kurogane's life had not been a kind one, either. There was a reason the Dragon Queen kept him away from the Horde when she could. Yuui bent down and retrieved his discarded fork, stacking it neatly next to the knife on the plate, and began to rise awkwardly out of his chair, groping for his stick; Kurogane watched him and made no move to help, and he was grateful for that. He did this all the time without Kurogane there. For Kurogane to offer assistance now would be an insult.
"Thank you for bringing me news of the Nexus War," he said, quietly. "When you go back to your queen, will you tell her where I am?"
He had only met Alexstrasza of the red once, many many thousands of years ago now, shortly after the first great war when Neltharion of the black had betrayed them all so badly. She had offered to treat his wound, but she was so weak it was a miracle she could stand. Yuui had declined, but that was what he remembered; the dull lack of luster to her scales, her head resting on the grass with her eyes half-lidded, and her offer to expend some of the pitiful amount of strength she had remaining on a dragon of a different colour entirely. The Lifebinder, they called her, one who abhorred death in every form. The war must be hard on her.
Kurogane snorted and shook his head. "She won't ask," he said. "She knows. It's your brother whose location we want to know."
"I told you, he's -"
"- in hiding, yeah, I got that." Kurogane tipped his head back to peer up at the ceiling and let out a long huff of breath. A wisp of smoke escaped from his lips, curling lazily in the air. Yuui picked up his plate in his free hand, and limped over to the tub so he could wash it up for the night. He was about halfway across the room when Kurogane said, in an entirely different tone of voice, "Hey, blue."
"Hrm?" Yuui asked, turning around and almost fumbling the plate. Kurogane was leaning with an arm on the back of his chair, his gaze intent. Predatory, maybe.
"I'm not due back until tomorrow," the red dragon said, and Yuui felt heat low in his belly. Was Kurogane offering...? "Do you want to?" Kurogane jerked his head at the stairs leading up to Yuui's living quarters, and he expelled his breath shakily. It was hard to miss that gesture.
Sindragosa had been their mother, but Yuui and Fai had grown up knowing their father had multiple consorts. It had been drilled into them, as the most powerful blue dragons in the flight after Malygos himself, that they would eventually be expected to take a consort or two themselves; their kind had been decimated and repopulation was, they had been told, a group effort. After Neltharion's betrayal and Sindragosa's subsequent death, Yuui could never have attracted a mate if he tried, and Fai had avoided them on principle.
Then along came Kurogane.
It had been an accident, at first. Kurogane was most definitely not a female blue dragon of breeding age. He was also loud, dangerous, and willful; he had been sent on a mission with Fai by their respective Aspects and Yuui never knew quite what happened on that mission other than Kurogane had emerged with a long scar on one paw and with Fai as a more-or-less unofficial mate. It happened, of course, sexuality and gender could be... fluid among their kind, but nobody had ever expected it of Kurostrasz and Faygos.
And then Kurogane had been introduced to Yuui, Fai's most treasured secret, and nobody would quite have anticipated that Kurogane would end up mating with him too, but he had. And Yuui was grateful for it, because he was lonely and refused to take mortal lovers and having Kurogane there helped. He visited more frequently than Fai did, because he wasn't hiding from his own flight, and he was... good. Careful. Considerate, almost, which was not a word most would apply to Kurogane.
All in all there were very few downsides, and so Yuui smiled softly, warmly, and said, "Of course."
Spring in Stormwind was muggy and humid, to his eternal displeasure. The water vapor got in through the cracks in his windows, and the rain did endless damage to the wooden exterior of his building. The rumors and whispers from the Northrend expedition had been growing; a group of heroes were said to have infiltrated the scourge citadel Naxxramus and slain the Lich who ruled it, and as a consequence King Wrynn was set to be launching a massive assault on the Wrathgate, the defensive wall keeping the Lich King locked up in his citadel. The people of Stormwind were worried, and rightly so; day by day the able-bodied men and women in the city seemed to be lessening as the lines outside the military recruitment offices lengthened. The King had put his personal friend Lord Bolvar Fordragon in command, and some were saying he was working well with the horde faces also stationed there. Others were saying it was only a matter of time before betrayal struck.
Yuui himself expected a draft before the summer came, and with that in mind had had Sakura picked up by the Stormwind mages. It was a short-term measure, and he missed her terribly, but as an apprentice mage she would be studying for a good ten years before she was sent to the front lines, and it was the only way he could think of to keep her safe. Through her the mages found her good friend Syaoran Li, and at least she had company in class. The pair of them stopped off at the bakery every day, although Yuui forbade her from rolling up her sleeves and joining in. He'd put a piece of paper in the window advertising her job, but so far nobody had come to pick it up.
The Nexus War was escalating, like Kurogane had predicted. The Kirin Tor had indeed moved Dalaran to float in the skies of Northrend, and they required constant manning of their perimeter to keep them safe from blue dragon attack, as Yuui feared. Alexstrasza had marshaled her flight and moved to Wyrmrest Temple, the heart and home of all dragonkind, in an attempt to stop the blues from destroying the world on Malygos' orders. It broke Yuui's heart, but what could he do? He was a cripple and a recluse.
It was raining heavily that evening. Yuui was working late; without Sakura to help him set up shop in the mornings it was better to work late making arrangements than not open in time, and truth be told it was kind of restful, standing at the counter crafting delicate pastries to leave overnight with a mild chilling spell, the rain pounding on the roof. Well, Stormwind wasn't too far from the great jungles of Stranglethorn, he mused; surely rain was better than a blizzard, or hail.
When the knock came at the door he wasn't expecting it and jumped violently, managing to upend a whole tray of almost-finished croissants. Crossly he called out, "A moment!" and stooped to begin picking them up from the floor, biting back a grunt of pain as he did so. He'd spent too much time standing on his prosthetic lately, and it was beginning to irritate his skin. Strange, how human solutions could lead to human problems.
He took longer than the promised minute to cross the shop floor, his cane clicker-clacking his displeasure as he limped toward the door scowling. It was late - almost midnight, in fact - and whoever was calling should know better. It wasn't Kurogane, if only because his damn door was still intact, and it wasn't someone from SI:7, because the Intelligence Agency had pulled all their spies after making them sit around for months with him doing nothing more exciting than his job, so when he opened the door his first words were, "This had better be bloody important -" before he realized who was there.
Fai was wearing a traveler’s cloak, but he had the hood down and he was soaked. Water sleeted his hair to his skull and ran down his face in rivulets, and in a voice that had barely more heat than the rain, he said, "Malygos is dead."
"Come in," said Yuui, standing aside, and his twin brushed past him without another word. He shut the door and bolted it, and put up the sign in the window he only used rarely, and normally for public holidays: Closed for the day. Fai hadn't moved much past the entrance and was standing there, leaving a sad puddle on the floor; Yuui had to peel his cloak off him while his twin passively helped him do so.
"What happened?" he asked, and Fai drew in a deep, shuddering breath.
"It was several hours ago now," he said. "Alexstrasza's champions made it into Malygos' lair. They found an item in Naxxramus that allowed them to punch straight through the magical defenses; Malygos had forgotten he had given it to Sapphiron before he died, I think. Alexstrasza's brood assisted them. It was a bloody battle, but..." He broke off and raised his hands to his face. "Malygos is dead," he said again, muffled against his palms.
Yuui guided him over to a chair and helped him sit down. Fai moved like a dreamer, and Yuui could empathize. His own chest ached with loss. Malygos, my lord, he thought, and his heart throbbed with his grief, What did you become?
"I wanted to tell you," said Fai softly. "They want me to be the next Aspect, and I... I can't, Yuui, I can't -"
"Sssh," Yuui said, capturing his hands. "No. I know. It's safe."
Truth be told he couldn't blame his kin for wanting Fai to fill that position. After Malygos, whose power had been the stuff of awe and wonder, who had been said to have created magic itself and woven the very spells that set the world into movement, the pair of them had been among the most magically gifted of the blues. The two of them; two whelps from the same egg, born tangled together and thrumming with power, and with him a cripple naturally their flight would turn to Fai to succeed his father. Fai was talented and clever and old, and he had their respect if not quite all their hearts.
The problem was that Fai would make for a terrible aspect. He was strong but flighty, and his first instinct was always to run away rather than fight; he was protective of those he loved but not to the extent an Aspect had to be. He was not prepared, Yuui thought, and smoothed his hands over his twin's hair. It was identical to his; they had always assumed matching forms, ever since they had hatched together.
"What are you going to do?" he asked, quietly. "The flight is in disarray."
"Alexstrasza has ceased hostilities," Fai said. "Or offered to, at least, but there are still some who fight on in Dragonblight. I... I can't stay here, Yuui, not for long. I have to disappear, otherwise they'll find you and then they'll find me."
"I understand," said Yuui, although his heart ached to put his arms around Fai and cling to him, now and forever. He bit his lip and said, somewhat plaintively, "Can't you stay the night, first?"
Fai glanced up, wearing an expression Yuui knew by now had to be the same as his own: conflicted, torn. "I... I shouldn't," he said hesitantly, "But... Yuui, I..."
"You don't have to," Yuui reassured him, although his heart sank. It had been so long, and he wanted...
Fai glanced over at the door, the long fall of his hair rasping over his shoulders at the movement, and then lowered his gaze temporarily. "I shouldn't," he said again, "But I think I will. Had you heard about mother?"
Yuui nodded quietly and Fai let another shaky, lost breath. "He is desecrating our kin's burial sites," he said. "Mother was not the first of us he raised. We need to stop fighting with the reds and turn on him, pick up the bronzes and the greens too, but... we won't."
"Have you heard of this coming assault on the Wrathgate?" Yuui asked, and now it was Fai's turn to shake his head. He told Fai of the two armies camped there, at the foot of the citadel; of the incoming push into the Lich King's domain. Fai listened with his chin on his hand, his blue eyes narrowed. "... people here are afraid, Fai, and." Yuui hesitated. "There have been more earthquakes than usual."
"Earthquakes?" Now Fai lifted his pale eyebrows in surprise. "Earth magic has never been your domain. What do the alliance's shaman say? They do have some working with them, do they not?"
Yuui nodded. "The draenei brought several with them and installed them here when they joined the alliance, but so far they haven't said anything in public. Perhaps they have told the King what they know. I'm worried, Fai. Everything feels... tense, like something bad is going to happen."
"Have you told anyone this?" Fai asked, and Yuui shook his head. "Not even Kuro-grumpy?"
"I haven't seen him for three weeks," Yuui said. He didn't need to ask how Fai knew Kurogane had been in this house; Kurogane had a spicy aroma that lingered after him for some time, and despite their separation Kurogane was more or less his brother's primary consort. Or perhaps it was the other way around. "The earthquakes have been going on longer than that, and I - it's only lately that I've begun to be really concerned."
Fai made a small, thoughtful noise and looked away, and Yuui reached out across the table and took his twin's hand on his. They were orphans now, he supposed, and that hurt, but Malygos had been gone in spirit if not in presence for millennia. He wasn't sure whether or not he qualified as a real dragon any more, but he felt Fai's grief, and he wanted his twin to know that he was there. From the tight way Fai squeezed his hand in return, it was appreciated.
Their mating that night was strange and different, so unlike usual. Both of them found they needed to touch more than usual, Yuui skating his palms over Fai's skin and kissing more than he normally did, as if stockpiling to prepare for a long winter. This was always one aspect of mortals' lives dragons were willing to concede was better than their own; dragon mating was not pleasurable, done out of biological need and nothing in return. The humanoid races however were so sensitive, it was always... yes. Yuui tipped his head back and let Fai suckle a bruising kiss into the column of his throat.
Yes, he thought, mortals had this over his kind, any day of the week.
He dreamed of that terrible war again that night, the explosion of power that Neltharion had released. Their mother had been knocked far, far away, and the rest of them had tumbled and rolled through the air, concussive shockwaves battering them seemingly from all directions. He had righted himself, and he had been the first of their flight to see what remained of Neltharion once the smoke cleared; the glossy black hide covered in rents and tears, and he could see the fiery glow within. Magma seeped through the wounds like blood, and the black dragon Aspect's eyes had burned red with hate, and Yuui remembered the terror he had felt at that moment so vividly he woke himself up gasping. Fai was still asleep, buried face-first in the mattress, and quietly Yuui rolled over and curled against his twin's side.
He would take comfort where he chose to find it. There was no shame in that.
Fai was gone when he woke up the next morning. He didn't leave a note, or anything like that so easy to trace; instead, resting on the pillow he had used as his own the night before, he left a smooth stone with a hole in the middle. Human folk superstition held those to be good luck, Yuui knew. He put it in the box on the mantelpiece with the others Fai had left him over the years, and then he went back to bed, and he stayed there all day, shivering with the aftershocks of the memory. His leg ached terribly with the echoes of Neltharion's thunderous breath, and when he closed his eyes he saw ash, and his brothers and sisters dying around him.
-tbc
NO EXCUSE. WHATSOEVER. /hands
untitled tsubasa reservoir warcraft crack, 1/2
6,032 words, kuro/fai, fai/yuui, yuui/kurogane. warnings: incest, disability, kurogane being kurogane - utterly stupid crossover with wow. \o/
basics: the world name is 'azeroth' and it has 3 continents: the eastern kingdoms, kalimdor, and northrend. guess where on the map eastern kingdoms and northrend are by compass points.
The playable races of wow are divided into two factions, the horde and the alliance. this fic follows the alliance & the dragons, who are neutral. the alliance races are:
- humans: capital city stormwind, racial leader king varian wrynn. other humans exist but aside from the island nation of theramore (ruler jaina proudmoore) they are not important to the story.
- dwarves: capital city ironforge, racial leader king magni bronzebeard. stereotype: scottish vikings.
- night elves: capital city darnassus, racial leader priestess tyrande whisperwind. stereotype: moon-obssessed tree-loving hippies.
gnomes: not really relevant to the story, stereotype: mad inventors
draenei: also not really relevent, aliens from outer space, only aliance race capable of shamanism (communing and controlling the basic elements, fire, wind, earth and water etc).
dragons come in 5 colours & are ruled by an 'aspect' who has a title as well as a name:
- black - evil, ruled by Deathwing the destroyer (formerly Neltharion the Earthwarden). 1000s of years ago the black dragons betrayed the other colours and killed a lot of them. deathwing in particular is a nasty mfucker.
- red - occupied with preserving & protecting life. aspect: alexstrasza the lifebinder. boy red dragon names end in -strasz, girls in -strasza
- blue - occupied with magic. aspect: malygos the spellweaver. boy names end in -gos, girl names end in -gosa.
dragons can turn into humans and very frequently do. typically, none of the humanoid people know they're talking to a dragon until the *gasp* BIG REVEAL no matter how painfully obvious the hints are beforehand.
others:
- the lich king: big scary guy who can raise the dead and wiped out a couple of human kingdoms. is sitting up in northrend with a zombie army being generally effin freaky.
- kirin tor: a bunch of really powerful neutral wizards.
OK THAT'S ALL YOU NEED.
It was an earthquake that awoke him. Not a big one - the crystal wind chimes hanging by the window jingled faintly and no more - but that was sufficient, and Yuui sat up in his bed and focused. Stormwind City wasn't built on any earthquake hotspots that he knew of, and his magic never had been one of the earth and nature, but it didn't feel like a magical attack.
Strange, he mused, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand. Perhaps there had been an accident at the Earthshrine. Many of the new shaman training there were given to wildly inappropriate use of magic. Either way, it didn't feel like something he should be concerned about, at least not just yet, and he had other things to be getting on with. He needed to open up the shop below, for a start.
The pre-dawn light was too weak for him to go about his morning routine in peace, but here in his bedchamber he could use his magic in safety, and so he lit the lanterns on his walls with a wave of his hand. Today's outfit was laid out neatly on his dresser surface where he had left it, the neatly pressed black pants and long white tunic with the armband around the left sleeve, and he leaned over the edge of the bed, casting a curious look around for the accessory that would help him get over to it.
The stick was where he'd left it, laying crosswise along the foot of his bed. His prosthetic was propped up next to it, and Yuui flipped his bedcovers aside and used his core muscles to sit up. The stump of his left leg fit neatly into the prosthetic's cup, and he cinched the leather straps as tightly as he could around the remainder of his limb to bind it in place. It was an old-fashioned prosthetic, this, and he knew that the artisans in the Dwarven district were working on combining Draenei technology with newer combustion engines to create more sensitive and functional false limbs, but he'd seen Gnomish engineering first hand and had no particular wish for his leg to explode or otherwise violently backfire on him while he was trying to use it.
At least they weren't goblins, he mused, with their somewhat haphazard approach to safety protocols and their intense love of explosives. His twin had worked with a team of goblin sappers once. Six units of three sappers each, no survivors; fairly remarkable, considering all they'd wanted the goblins to do was build a siege engine.
By the time he finished lacing up his boots the sun had come up, and he winced at the sunbeams lazily slanting across the floorboards. He'd been slower than usual, and he'd have to work harder to get the bakery open in time to catch the apprentice magicians on their way to classes. Luckily he had a batch of pre-made dough cooling in the pantry... He'd get his assistant to light the ovens and do the pre-opening chores while he made his first batches of pastries, he decided, and reaching for his stick he climbed awkwardly to his feet.
Sakura was waiting for him outside when he unlocked the door, as he knew she would be. She smiled brightly at him when she saw him, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
"Good morning, Sakura," he said, mildly, and she bobbed him a quick curtsey that made him smile. She was too polite sometimes, this girl.
"Good morning, Yuui," she replied, undoing her long traveler’s cloak and picking up the basket of wood, crossing over to the big baker's oven. "Did you feel the earthquake this morning?"
Yuui nodded. "It woke me up," he said. "Do you know what caused it?"
"Yes! I heard some of the adventurers in the trade district talking about it," she said, her eyes sparkling. "You know the Kirin Tor, the mage circle?"
"I've been running a bakery in Stormwind's mage district for twenty years, Sakura," Yuui reminded her gently. "I know the Kirin Tor."
"Oh, of course." She flushed slightly, and Yuui smiled at her soothingly as he scattered flour over his work surface. "Well, according to these adventurers, the earthquake was them moving Dalaran."
Yuui paused with his hand half-in the sack of flour, sure he had misheard. "They moved Dalaran? A whole city? Wasn't that destroyed?"
Sakura nodded enthusiastically as she shrugged on her apron. "They're moving it up north - as in, to Northrend. The adventurer who seemed to know said they'd been rebuilding it behind a bubble for years. Dalaran used to be close to Lordaeron, didn't it? Before the plague?"
"Yes, it did," Yuui said absently, his mind not really on the fate of old Dalaran. Northrend. Why would the Kirin Tor move their city there? Because of the undead? Or...?
"I suppose we'll find out more from our customers," Sakura said wistfully, and Yuui glanced down at the workbench, the dough sitting next to it and his tools spread out across it. Of course, if anybody knew what the Kirin Tor were planning, Stormwind's mages would, and they would be here soon looking to purchase breakfasts.
He set Sakura to making spiced bread while he prepared a batch of pastries, and though they had to hurry, they managed to get a good six trays into the ovens in time for them to be fully cooked. Normally Yuui loved his job, loved the hustle of humans around him and liked the practically of baking, the scent of fresh bread and the feel of dough under his fingers, but today he found he couldn't concentrate. Not with those tidings.
There were more things in the icy continent of Northrend than the undead scourge, and he wondered uneasily what it was the Kirin Tor were after.
The apprentices didn't know any more than the adventurer Sakura had overheard, it turned out. They were fearful, though, and spoke in hushed voices of the blue dragonflight, but Yuui's attempts to find out what, if anything, the blues had done to prompt such a reaction were met with blank silence. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised. They were wizards, and no matter how much they liked his pastries, to them he was just a crippled war veteran and baker. Those who knew who he truly was, and what he had truly done to earn his battle scars, were few and far between, and he liked it that way.
He had a visit from one such person at the tail end of the week, just when he was about to close down shop for the night. The whispers of the blue dragons' involvement had been scaling up, and in truth he had expected such a visit long before now, so when he heard the door chime as he was filling the washing tub with dishes he didn't order his visitor away, just lowered the bucket he'd been using to fill said tub and limped back into the main room.
"Mr Flowright," said the woman standing just inside the door, quietly. She wore silk magician's robes, cut in a style he supposed was fashionable now and made of high-quality fabrics. But then again, she was the ruler of Theramore and had the money to go with it. She held her wizard's staff firmly in one pale hand, and her head was tipped back proudly.
"Lady Proudmoore," he replied, and gave her a smile. It was a pale imitation of his brother's, but he meant it, which he supposed made all the difference. "Would you be so kind as to get the sign?"
She turned behind her and flipped the sign on the glass of the door from open to closed, and Yuui's stick clacked across the floor in time with the click click click of his prosthetic as he made his way to one of the tables against the wall. She moved with him, drawing the chair back for him, and he thanked her as he sat down.
"I suppose you've heard," she said, sinking into a seat opposite him, and he shook his head. Her eyebrows raised slightly, but she pushed it down. Her eyes were intent and studious on his. "Malygos has awoken," she said, and though he had expected the news, it still hit him like a sucker punch. Malygos, the Aspect of Magic. The Spellweaver. Head of the blue dragonflight. His father.
"And this is not good news," he said quietly, making it a statement rather than a question because she wouldn't be here like this if it was. Not the ruler of Theramore herself. "Did the King send you?"
She shook her head. "I remember your name from the war," she said. "Stormwind's King knows of you, though." She hesitated. "The Spellweaver has decided that mortal magicians are responsible for the invasion of our world by the demons of the Burning Legion, Mr Flowright, and the blue dragonflight have been abducting mages from all over. Reports at this stage indicates they are being tortured into servitude."
Yuui said nothing, but icy grief settled into his chest. That his kind could fall like this... he wondered what Fai was doing. If Fai was participating in this. They hadn't spoken for three months now...
Jaina tilted her head, her blonde hair tumbling in artful waves around her face, and said, "Given the proximity of your bakery to Stormwind's mage district, I cannot help but wonder..." She let the sentence trail off, but Yuui understood.
"No," he said, keeping his voice low but infused with steel. "I am not acting against you or any other mortal race, my lady. If you know who I am then you should know that I turned my back on my kind after the war."
"I will notify King Wrynn," she said quietly. "You will be known to SI:7, Mr Flowright."
Yuui narrowed his eyes. By that she meant you will be under surveillance, and he wasn't thrilled, but he didn't particularly see a reason to object. His flight didn't even know he still survived, much less where he had gotten to, with the exception of Fai; and the only other visitor he had came and went as he pleased, and he very much doubted a few human spies could stop Kurogane from doing whatever he wished.
"Your flight have crossed the Kirin Tor, Yuui," Jaina said, "But it isn't them you should worry about. The other flights have responded too. It could mean a war."
Like that was a surprise, Yuui thought. Alexstrasza of the red may be the Dragon Queen, but everyone knew her consort Korialstrasz was a member of the Kirin Tor as a human mage known as Krasus. He said nothing, however, merely looked away, because torture and abduction was something else entirely, and it hurt to think of Malygos sanctioning those actions.
"The Nexus is heavily guarded," he said, speaking of the home of his flight up in the frozen fields of Northrend. "I will remain neutral in this war. If you seek to use me as a spy, then I cannot offer you any assistance. Dragons do not look kindly upon cripples."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Jaina replied, and he knew she meant it. Leadership had hardened her, but it couldn't change her, and she had been famed for her empathy and understanding. He inclined his head, acknowledging her, and she rose, the chair legs scraping over the stone floor. "Remember this conversation, Mr Flowright," she added. "Your identity will be kept a secret from the wider Stormwind populace. You are not the first dragon to hide amongst its people, but I trust your intentions will be more honorable than the last."
He snorted at this. "Onyxia was a black dragon," he said. "They are different creatures entirely, and no friends of ours either."
"Even so," Jaina said, at the door, and he nodded at her as she left.
That night Stormwind Intelligence set three separate watchers outside his bakery, a night elf and two humans. Yuui could sense them as he got ready for bed, and he pondered closing the shutters before deciding against it. Let them see him for how he truly was, he thought, as he sat on the edge of his bed and fastidiously unfastened his prosthetic; let them see him as no different from any other veteran living in Stormwind, missing bits and eking out a living as best they could.
That night he was woken by another earthquake, and for a long time afterward he had difficulty getting back to sleep. Something felt wrong, and he didn't know what it was.
He was enjoying dinner when Kurogane more or less broke the lock on his door barging in, and the man's low, angry cursing made him choke on his food in laughter. Some things never changed.
"I hope you can pay for that," he said, not turning around. "I'm not buying another one out of my money just because you can't work out knocking."
"Yeah, yeah," Kurogane growled, kicking the splintered door shut after him and hitting it with the heel of his hand until it wedged itself in the door frame, which buckled. Yuui eyed it uncertainly, and the man took a step back to examine his handiwork before growling and stalking across the shop floor to Yuui's table. He drew himself up to his full height, folding his heavily muscled arms across his chest, and glared down at Yuui, who ignored him and carried on eating his meal. It was a good one, too. Sakura had fetched it in from the Blue Recluse inn before he let her go for the day.
"Is there something you wanted?" Yuui asked after he'd consumed half the dish and Kurogane hadn't moved, and glanced up to see a muscle twitching in the man's jaw.
"Yeah," said Kurogane, folding his arms. "I'm supposed to ask you if there are any other neutral blues. Alex wants to know."
"You have to be the only person who calls the Dragon Queen 'Alex,' Kurostrasz," Yuui remarked blandly, and watched the way Kurogane's mouth tightened at his true name. "No? How about 'Youou'? Is that not what that night elf priestess named you?"
"What Tomoyo calls me is none of your business," Kurogane growled. "I'm in human shape, therefore I'm Kurogane to you."
"Of course," said Yuui, lowering his fork. "I apologize. What did Alexstrasza send you for, again?"
"A list of neutral blues," Kurogane repeated through gritted teeth. "The war is ramping up. One of ours killed the blue bastard's consort."
"Saragosa?" That was a surprise. Saragosa had replaced their mother following her demise, and neither he nor Fai had ever taken to her.
Kurogane rolled his eyes. "Of course her," he said, impatiently. "How many other consorts does he have? Aside from the old one the undead King raised as a frost wyrm, I mean."
The fork dropped from Yuui's suddenly unresponsive hands to bounce off the wooden floorboards, and Kurogane's expression changed slightly as he realized he'd said something he shouldn't.
"The Lich King raised Malygos' former consort as undead?" Yuui breathed, and touched his chest with his fingertips, feeling horror and pain coiling through his ribcage in equal measures. Their mother... "Does Fai know?"
"No. I haven't seen that squirrelly bastard for decades," Kurogane said, pulling a face. "You know where he is?"
Yuui shook his head, and Kurogane scowled. "I haven't seen him for a while myself," he said, still sounding somewhat dazed. Their mother, a frost wyrm, an undead skeletal construct held together by nothing more than magic and rotting sinew; an unthinking slave to that bastard's will. His memories of Sindragosa were somewhat vague, but he knew she hadn't wanted this. Nobody would. "He's in hiding, I think... why?"
Kurogane paused before answering, which was unusual tact coming from the bloodthirsty red dragon. Reluctantly he pulled out the chair opposite Yuui and sat in it; it creaked ominously under his weight, but held. "Alex is sending a mixed army into the blue dragon's lair," he said, reluctantly. "Some of us reds, and some of the best mortal heroes Azeroth has to offer. It's... she wants to know about potential succession to the role of Aspect after Malygos dies. She doesn't want to eradicate you blues."
"Not I," Yuui said quietly, letting go of his knife. Delicious as the meal had been, he couldn't stomach it and the thought of his father, dead at the hands of Kurogane's flight. "And not Fai, either, although plenty will volunteer him. Maybe some of the younger dragons. Azuregos is still wandering around the wilds of Azshara over in Kalimdor, I believe, and there's the young blue who distinguished himself in the fight over the Sunwell..."
"I know the one," Kurogane said.
"Arygos too, maybe, though I wouldn't count on him. Tarecgosa perhaps, although I haven't heard from her since the war." Yuui paused, and sighed. "There aren't many of us left, Kurogane," he said. "The great war saw to that." And it had, with fire and blood and the unbelievable power unleashed upon them by one they had trusted; power that left wounds that could never be healed. His hand went unconsciously to the stump of his leg, and Kurogane scowled, noticing the gesture.
"You're not any less of a dragon because you're missing bits," he said impatiently, and Yuui chuckled sadly.
"I think my kind would disagree with you there," he said. "Except for Fai, once they realized the extent of my injury... well."
They hadn't been rude, at least. They had been distant. Blue dragons were creatures of magic and curiosity with lively scholarly minds, but they were still dragons. When they had realized how badly Yuui had been wounded they had been courteous and respectful, but in their eyes he could see that it would have been better if he had died. Perhaps they would have finished him off themselves, one quick bite to the back of the neck, if not for Malygos and for Fai. He had chosen self-exile, spent his time with mortals instead, because they were strange creatures and prone to accidents and damage and after warfare they were no stranger to those without limbs.
Kurogane sighed and unfolded his long limbs, and then smacked him lightly upside the head. "Both of you are idiots," he said grumpily, and Yuui smiled as he pressed a hand against the site the red dragon had not-so-gently struck him. "If I wanted to listen to endless whining I'd go hang around with the night elves. You're alive, right? That counts for something."
"Yes," Yuui said, mulling it over. He was alive, and he had... a lair, of sorts, even if it was just a flat over the shop. He had access to the Stormwind Royal Library, thanks to the head librarian's patronage at his bakery. He had a few humans he felt protective over, and when they were in his bakery his territorial instinct slumbered. He had Fai, whose love for him he had never doubted even when Fai was on the move and could not visit him regularly.
And he had Kurogane, old friend and casual bed partner and apparently the person who knocked the occasional sense into him. He smiled. "Yes, you're quite right, it could be worse."
Kurogane peered at him through narrow eyes, distrustful as always of that smile, and then grunted. Sometimes one could forget that, young as he was, Kurogane's life had not been a kind one, either. There was a reason the Dragon Queen kept him away from the Horde when she could. Yuui bent down and retrieved his discarded fork, stacking it neatly next to the knife on the plate, and began to rise awkwardly out of his chair, groping for his stick; Kurogane watched him and made no move to help, and he was grateful for that. He did this all the time without Kurogane there. For Kurogane to offer assistance now would be an insult.
"Thank you for bringing me news of the Nexus War," he said, quietly. "When you go back to your queen, will you tell her where I am?"
He had only met Alexstrasza of the red once, many many thousands of years ago now, shortly after the first great war when Neltharion of the black had betrayed them all so badly. She had offered to treat his wound, but she was so weak it was a miracle she could stand. Yuui had declined, but that was what he remembered; the dull lack of luster to her scales, her head resting on the grass with her eyes half-lidded, and her offer to expend some of the pitiful amount of strength she had remaining on a dragon of a different colour entirely. The Lifebinder, they called her, one who abhorred death in every form. The war must be hard on her.
Kurogane snorted and shook his head. "She won't ask," he said. "She knows. It's your brother whose location we want to know."
"I told you, he's -"
"- in hiding, yeah, I got that." Kurogane tipped his head back to peer up at the ceiling and let out a long huff of breath. A wisp of smoke escaped from his lips, curling lazily in the air. Yuui picked up his plate in his free hand, and limped over to the tub so he could wash it up for the night. He was about halfway across the room when Kurogane said, in an entirely different tone of voice, "Hey, blue."
"Hrm?" Yuui asked, turning around and almost fumbling the plate. Kurogane was leaning with an arm on the back of his chair, his gaze intent. Predatory, maybe.
"I'm not due back until tomorrow," the red dragon said, and Yuui felt heat low in his belly. Was Kurogane offering...? "Do you want to?" Kurogane jerked his head at the stairs leading up to Yuui's living quarters, and he expelled his breath shakily. It was hard to miss that gesture.
Sindragosa had been their mother, but Yuui and Fai had grown up knowing their father had multiple consorts. It had been drilled into them, as the most powerful blue dragons in the flight after Malygos himself, that they would eventually be expected to take a consort or two themselves; their kind had been decimated and repopulation was, they had been told, a group effort. After Neltharion's betrayal and Sindragosa's subsequent death, Yuui could never have attracted a mate if he tried, and Fai had avoided them on principle.
Then along came Kurogane.
It had been an accident, at first. Kurogane was most definitely not a female blue dragon of breeding age. He was also loud, dangerous, and willful; he had been sent on a mission with Fai by their respective Aspects and Yuui never knew quite what happened on that mission other than Kurogane had emerged with a long scar on one paw and with Fai as a more-or-less unofficial mate. It happened, of course, sexuality and gender could be... fluid among their kind, but nobody had ever expected it of Kurostrasz and Faygos.
And then Kurogane had been introduced to Yuui, Fai's most treasured secret, and nobody would quite have anticipated that Kurogane would end up mating with him too, but he had. And Yuui was grateful for it, because he was lonely and refused to take mortal lovers and having Kurogane there helped. He visited more frequently than Fai did, because he wasn't hiding from his own flight, and he was... good. Careful. Considerate, almost, which was not a word most would apply to Kurogane.
All in all there were very few downsides, and so Yuui smiled softly, warmly, and said, "Of course."
Spring in Stormwind was muggy and humid, to his eternal displeasure. The water vapor got in through the cracks in his windows, and the rain did endless damage to the wooden exterior of his building. The rumors and whispers from the Northrend expedition had been growing; a group of heroes were said to have infiltrated the scourge citadel Naxxramus and slain the Lich who ruled it, and as a consequence King Wrynn was set to be launching a massive assault on the Wrathgate, the defensive wall keeping the Lich King locked up in his citadel. The people of Stormwind were worried, and rightly so; day by day the able-bodied men and women in the city seemed to be lessening as the lines outside the military recruitment offices lengthened. The King had put his personal friend Lord Bolvar Fordragon in command, and some were saying he was working well with the horde faces also stationed there. Others were saying it was only a matter of time before betrayal struck.
Yuui himself expected a draft before the summer came, and with that in mind had had Sakura picked up by the Stormwind mages. It was a short-term measure, and he missed her terribly, but as an apprentice mage she would be studying for a good ten years before she was sent to the front lines, and it was the only way he could think of to keep her safe. Through her the mages found her good friend Syaoran Li, and at least she had company in class. The pair of them stopped off at the bakery every day, although Yuui forbade her from rolling up her sleeves and joining in. He'd put a piece of paper in the window advertising her job, but so far nobody had come to pick it up.
The Nexus War was escalating, like Kurogane had predicted. The Kirin Tor had indeed moved Dalaran to float in the skies of Northrend, and they required constant manning of their perimeter to keep them safe from blue dragon attack, as Yuui feared. Alexstrasza had marshaled her flight and moved to Wyrmrest Temple, the heart and home of all dragonkind, in an attempt to stop the blues from destroying the world on Malygos' orders. It broke Yuui's heart, but what could he do? He was a cripple and a recluse.
It was raining heavily that evening. Yuui was working late; without Sakura to help him set up shop in the mornings it was better to work late making arrangements than not open in time, and truth be told it was kind of restful, standing at the counter crafting delicate pastries to leave overnight with a mild chilling spell, the rain pounding on the roof. Well, Stormwind wasn't too far from the great jungles of Stranglethorn, he mused; surely rain was better than a blizzard, or hail.
When the knock came at the door he wasn't expecting it and jumped violently, managing to upend a whole tray of almost-finished croissants. Crossly he called out, "A moment!" and stooped to begin picking them up from the floor, biting back a grunt of pain as he did so. He'd spent too much time standing on his prosthetic lately, and it was beginning to irritate his skin. Strange, how human solutions could lead to human problems.
He took longer than the promised minute to cross the shop floor, his cane clicker-clacking his displeasure as he limped toward the door scowling. It was late - almost midnight, in fact - and whoever was calling should know better. It wasn't Kurogane, if only because his damn door was still intact, and it wasn't someone from SI:7, because the Intelligence Agency had pulled all their spies after making them sit around for months with him doing nothing more exciting than his job, so when he opened the door his first words were, "This had better be bloody important -" before he realized who was there.
Fai was wearing a traveler’s cloak, but he had the hood down and he was soaked. Water sleeted his hair to his skull and ran down his face in rivulets, and in a voice that had barely more heat than the rain, he said, "Malygos is dead."
"Come in," said Yuui, standing aside, and his twin brushed past him without another word. He shut the door and bolted it, and put up the sign in the window he only used rarely, and normally for public holidays: Closed for the day. Fai hadn't moved much past the entrance and was standing there, leaving a sad puddle on the floor; Yuui had to peel his cloak off him while his twin passively helped him do so.
"What happened?" he asked, and Fai drew in a deep, shuddering breath.
"It was several hours ago now," he said. "Alexstrasza's champions made it into Malygos' lair. They found an item in Naxxramus that allowed them to punch straight through the magical defenses; Malygos had forgotten he had given it to Sapphiron before he died, I think. Alexstrasza's brood assisted them. It was a bloody battle, but..." He broke off and raised his hands to his face. "Malygos is dead," he said again, muffled against his palms.
Yuui guided him over to a chair and helped him sit down. Fai moved like a dreamer, and Yuui could empathize. His own chest ached with loss. Malygos, my lord, he thought, and his heart throbbed with his grief, What did you become?
"I wanted to tell you," said Fai softly. "They want me to be the next Aspect, and I... I can't, Yuui, I can't -"
"Sssh," Yuui said, capturing his hands. "No. I know. It's safe."
Truth be told he couldn't blame his kin for wanting Fai to fill that position. After Malygos, whose power had been the stuff of awe and wonder, who had been said to have created magic itself and woven the very spells that set the world into movement, the pair of them had been among the most magically gifted of the blues. The two of them; two whelps from the same egg, born tangled together and thrumming with power, and with him a cripple naturally their flight would turn to Fai to succeed his father. Fai was talented and clever and old, and he had their respect if not quite all their hearts.
The problem was that Fai would make for a terrible aspect. He was strong but flighty, and his first instinct was always to run away rather than fight; he was protective of those he loved but not to the extent an Aspect had to be. He was not prepared, Yuui thought, and smoothed his hands over his twin's hair. It was identical to his; they had always assumed matching forms, ever since they had hatched together.
"What are you going to do?" he asked, quietly. "The flight is in disarray."
"Alexstrasza has ceased hostilities," Fai said. "Or offered to, at least, but there are still some who fight on in Dragonblight. I... I can't stay here, Yuui, not for long. I have to disappear, otherwise they'll find you and then they'll find me."
"I understand," said Yuui, although his heart ached to put his arms around Fai and cling to him, now and forever. He bit his lip and said, somewhat plaintively, "Can't you stay the night, first?"
Fai glanced up, wearing an expression Yuui knew by now had to be the same as his own: conflicted, torn. "I... I shouldn't," he said hesitantly, "But... Yuui, I..."
"You don't have to," Yuui reassured him, although his heart sank. It had been so long, and he wanted...
Fai glanced over at the door, the long fall of his hair rasping over his shoulders at the movement, and then lowered his gaze temporarily. "I shouldn't," he said again, "But I think I will. Had you heard about mother?"
Yuui nodded quietly and Fai let another shaky, lost breath. "He is desecrating our kin's burial sites," he said. "Mother was not the first of us he raised. We need to stop fighting with the reds and turn on him, pick up the bronzes and the greens too, but... we won't."
"Have you heard of this coming assault on the Wrathgate?" Yuui asked, and now it was Fai's turn to shake his head. He told Fai of the two armies camped there, at the foot of the citadel; of the incoming push into the Lich King's domain. Fai listened with his chin on his hand, his blue eyes narrowed. "... people here are afraid, Fai, and." Yuui hesitated. "There have been more earthquakes than usual."
"Earthquakes?" Now Fai lifted his pale eyebrows in surprise. "Earth magic has never been your domain. What do the alliance's shaman say? They do have some working with them, do they not?"
Yuui nodded. "The draenei brought several with them and installed them here when they joined the alliance, but so far they haven't said anything in public. Perhaps they have told the King what they know. I'm worried, Fai. Everything feels... tense, like something bad is going to happen."
"Have you told anyone this?" Fai asked, and Yuui shook his head. "Not even Kuro-grumpy?"
"I haven't seen him for three weeks," Yuui said. He didn't need to ask how Fai knew Kurogane had been in this house; Kurogane had a spicy aroma that lingered after him for some time, and despite their separation Kurogane was more or less his brother's primary consort. Or perhaps it was the other way around. "The earthquakes have been going on longer than that, and I - it's only lately that I've begun to be really concerned."
Fai made a small, thoughtful noise and looked away, and Yuui reached out across the table and took his twin's hand on his. They were orphans now, he supposed, and that hurt, but Malygos had been gone in spirit if not in presence for millennia. He wasn't sure whether or not he qualified as a real dragon any more, but he felt Fai's grief, and he wanted his twin to know that he was there. From the tight way Fai squeezed his hand in return, it was appreciated.
Their mating that night was strange and different, so unlike usual. Both of them found they needed to touch more than usual, Yuui skating his palms over Fai's skin and kissing more than he normally did, as if stockpiling to prepare for a long winter. This was always one aspect of mortals' lives dragons were willing to concede was better than their own; dragon mating was not pleasurable, done out of biological need and nothing in return. The humanoid races however were so sensitive, it was always... yes. Yuui tipped his head back and let Fai suckle a bruising kiss into the column of his throat.
Yes, he thought, mortals had this over his kind, any day of the week.
He dreamed of that terrible war again that night, the explosion of power that Neltharion had released. Their mother had been knocked far, far away, and the rest of them had tumbled and rolled through the air, concussive shockwaves battering them seemingly from all directions. He had righted himself, and he had been the first of their flight to see what remained of Neltharion once the smoke cleared; the glossy black hide covered in rents and tears, and he could see the fiery glow within. Magma seeped through the wounds like blood, and the black dragon Aspect's eyes had burned red with hate, and Yuui remembered the terror he had felt at that moment so vividly he woke himself up gasping. Fai was still asleep, buried face-first in the mattress, and quietly Yuui rolled over and curled against his twin's side.
He would take comfort where he chose to find it. There was no shame in that.
Fai was gone when he woke up the next morning. He didn't leave a note, or anything like that so easy to trace; instead, resting on the pillow he had used as his own the night before, he left a smooth stone with a hole in the middle. Human folk superstition held those to be good luck, Yuui knew. He put it in the box on the mantelpiece with the others Fai had left him over the years, and then he went back to bed, and he stayed there all day, shivering with the aftershocks of the memory. His leg ached terribly with the echoes of Neltharion's thunderous breath, and when he closed his eyes he saw ash, and his brothers and sisters dying around him.
-tbc
NO EXCUSE. WHATSOEVER. /hands