He’d been a kid and stupidly in love (as in love as a seven year old could be) with the older, annoying, crazy, ridiculously idiotic blond. The kind of love a little kid felt might not have been the same kind of love he felt years later, staring down the barrel of a gun at blue eyes and blond hair flying in the wild ocean wind, but it had been love, of a sort. He'd been in love with his stupid, naive vision of the world and what lay beyond the horizon, too. That idiotic, idealistic dream he'd fostered for years. He'd been in love with that too.

Fai had been 14 at the time, a cabin boy on a naval vessel that docked in Kurogane’s hometown of Paloma. Kurogane had spent a lot of time playing at being an explorer, pounding up and down the docks and generally getting in the way of the more experienced sailors, pestering them with questions. Where is this ship going, what’s the cargo and how much is there, how many feet is the mainsail and how long is the forecastle deck? Do you all take turns at the helm, or was there one man whose job it was to steer? Is the figurehead supposed to be a woman or a man, and why did this ship have one when that ship didn’t?

Usually he was brushed off. Of course he was, he was just some pest who didn’t know when to shut up and let the real men go about their work. Fai had been lounging in a tiny rowboat tied up at the dock, straw hat pulled over his face to block out the sun and one leg hooked over the side to let his toes trail in the water.

“Hey,” Kurogane said, standing four-foot-four in oversized sandals and canvas breeches. He’d just been swimming and had his shirt slung over one shoulder, hair dripping, a grim, determined line of a mouth beneath an annoyed gaze that he fixed the blond with. “What are you doing?”

“Sleeping,” the blond answered, tipping up the brim of the hat to look up at him with eyes like the ocean and a smile like a the curve of a wave crashing against the cliff-side. He wore one glove, not two - dark blue and made of a thick material.

“Is that your boat?” Kurogane asked testily, hoping to apprehend a criminal and maybe get into a scrap defending the property of the sailors he admired so much. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down the other boy, curious about his odd colouring but refusing to admit it. Hair like sand, eyes like the sea…

“No, but it’s a good place to nap, isn’t it?” Fai sat up, breeches rolled up to scraped knees and feet plunged into coils of rope at the bottom of the boat, leaning back and grinning up at the younger boy.

Kurogane’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t got time to nap.”

“Oh? You’re pretty little, what’s keeping you so busy?”

“Shut up! I’m not little!” Kurogane snapped, little hands clenching into little fists. “I’m learning how to be a sailor.”

“Why would you want to do that?” asked Fai, tipping up the brim of his hat. “It’s pretty dull.”

“…You’re a sailor?!” exclaimed the smaller boy, quite spectacularly flipping out. “Why aren’t you working, then?!”

“Shore leave!” the blond declared, standing up in the boat and bending his knees to balance better as it rocked wildly. Kurogane stared, dumbstruck.

“I-idiot! Don’t stand up like that in a boat!” he cried, dropping his shirt in a heap. “That’s one of the first rules of seamanship!”

“Hey, I’m the sailor, not you,” Fai remarked cheerfully, the boat rocking back and forth beneath his feet as he swayed along with it, hands in his pockets, as though he was perfectly used to being on unsteady ground. “What’s your name, little guy?”

“I’M NOT LITTLE AND WOULD YOU QUIT THAT?!” Kurogane said, jerking forward to grab at the ropes tied to the dock post in a frantic attempt at getting the boat to quick rocking quite so much. Fai laughed at him, touching the back of his hat to keep it in place.

“Quit what?”

“Either sit down or get out of the boat, you’re gonna fall and hit your head!”

“You don’t need to worry about me, I’m a seasoned sailor!”

“You’re too damn young to be that and shut up! I’m not worried!”

“That’s a pretty foul mouth for such a little guy!”

“I’M NOT LITTLE YOU DAMN- GAH!”

The docks were an inch shorter than it probably should have been and tide was high, and so naturally the water had splashed up through the planks. Kurogane’s foot slipped at a crucial moment and he went stumbling over the dock, falling right into the stranger’s chest and effectively knocking them both back into the water.

Pushing the stupid older boy away once they’d sunk to the bottom, Kurogane kicked off the ground and broke through the water’s surface, gasping for air and cursing, scrambling up onto the top of the upturned rowboat. Fai emerged seconds later, clutching at the boat and sucking in a breath.

“See? An experienced sailor would never have done that,” Fai said, laughing as Kurogane clawed at the dock to keep the book from tipping again.

“S-shut up!” Kurogane grumbled, pulling himself up onto the dock. Fai shoved him up by the seat of his pants and then followed, plunking down next to the cursing, blushing boy and wringing out his hair. “You’re the idiot, here! They shouldn’t let idiots on the water to begin with!”

“Ahahahaha! You’re a really funny guy, little kid!”

“It’s Kurogane!” Kurogane snapped, stumbling to his feet after the blond. Fai peeled off that singular glove and waved it in his face.

“Kurogane doesn’t fit such a cute kid!”

“I’M NOT EITHER OF THOSE THINGS!” Kurogane growled, slapping Fai’s hand away. The glove loosened from his grip at the unexpected slap, falling from his fingers and caught up by the wind, slapping against the water’s surface. Fai’s laughter died immediately as he watched the glove drift further from the dock, carried by a wave out to sea.

Without another word he had dove headfirst from the dock, hat flying off his head (Kurogane running after and catching it, yelling at the blond not to be such a damn idiot) and a splash of water hitting Kurogane across the face.

“What the hell are you doing?!” he shouted.

Fai ducked under the water, swam a few paces, and then emerged, front-stroking his way through the water neatly.

“I’m getting my treasure back!” he called, the final word half-cut off as he dove down again. That stupid glove had floated out a long ways, and it was a solid ten minutes before the blond, swimming gracefully through the jade waters, reached the dock again and pulled himself up. He stood, gangly and loose, with the sun at his back as he pulled the sopping wet glove back on, breathing heavier.

“That was stupid! What do you need one glove for?” Kurogane snapped up at the older boy. Fai smiled down at him obliviously.

“What do you need spiky hair for?”

“…THAT’S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING!” Kurogane roared, chucking the straw hat back at the blond. “Just take this back and leave me alone!”

“You caught it before it fell, right? That means you rescued it,” Fai said, twirling the dripping hat around one finger. Then, surreptitiously, he plunked the wet hat down on Kurogane’s similarly wet crown.

“Hey!”

“So this can be your treasure now!” Fai declared, shoving the brim over Kurogane’s face. “As a reminder of our adventure together!”

“SHUT UP!” Kurogane said, shoving the brim of the hat up. “This wasn’t an adventure! This was just an annoyance!”

“Really?” Fai said, blinking down at him. “You didn’t have fun going swimming?”

“THAT WASN’T SWIMMING, THAT WAS-!”

Someone called Fai’s name and he looked over his shoulder, hands shoved easily in his pockets.

“That’s me,” he said, turning back to Kurogane and patting him on the head. “I’ve got to go, we’re shipping off tomorrow and I need to help.”

“I can’t believe YOU’RE a sailor!” Kurogane grumbled, kicking off his sandals petulantly.

“All my life!” Fai said, turning and walking leisurely towards his ship. Kurogane paused a second before grabbing up his shirt and sandals, ripping the hat from his head and trailing after him.

“How the hell did you manage that? You’re skinny and stupid!”

“So mean, Kuro-tiny!”

“…WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!” Kurogane roared, frozen to the spot in his rage as the blond sauntered onwards. Flustered, he ran to catch up, waving the hat around indignantly. “DON’T JUST WALK AWAY!”

“Do you prefer Kuro-petite? That’s French, have you ever been to the French islands?”

“…N-no!”

“You should go, once you’re a sailor. They’re beautiful.”

“…Shut up! I’ll go where I want! My father’s got a ship, you know,” Kurogane said, hoping to impress the older boy so he’d shut the hell up. He hopped up onto one of the dock posts and leapt to the next one immediately, trying to keep up with the blond’s easy stride. “He’s a cartographer!”

“That’s pretty cool,” Fai said, coming up to the gangplank of a large three-mast ship swarming with casually dressed brutes. “This is a-”

“Merchant ship?!” Kurogane flipped out, depositing Fai’s hat back on his head. “You must go all over the place!”

“…I get around,” Fai said, smiling away. “We’re almost to the end of our route, though. We’ll be in this port on the way back in a few weeks.”

“Like I care,” Kurogane said, huffing and turning away. “Go on your cruise. I’ve got sailor things to do!”

“Good luck, little-Kuro!” Fai called after him, waving obnoxiously. Kurogane grumbled and pulled the brim of the hat over his head to hide the embarrassed blush. It was only hours later, when he strode into his seaside cottage and his mother looked up from rolling dough to comment on the appearance of the hat that he realized he’d taken it with him without complaint, and promptly cursed the damn thing and the stranger altogether, hoping he’d never have to see that stupid blond head again.

He did, of course. Only because that damn dock rat was prowling Kurogane’s docks fairly often, the route taken to deliver silk and spices back and forth between the mainland and the colonies rarely changing. Since he couldn't avoid him - he WAS hanging out in Kurogane’s territory, after all - he decided that he might as well get something out of it. He drilled the blond on life as a sailor, where he’d been and what his job was on board, what man did what and how young the youngest crew member was. How far along the coast had they sailed, and did they ever cross the entire Western ocean?

Then, sometimes, Fai would let Kurogane go out in a rowboat with him and fish in the shallows. Legs dangling over the boat, Kurogane would ramble on and on about his father, who was a brave sailor charting the land far away, making maps, and in whose footsteps he would eventually follow.

“Kuro-li wants to make maps?” Fai asked, tugging on the line as he thought he felt a nibble. Kurogane glared at him.

“I’m gonna sail around the world,” he said determinedly, punching one fist in the air. “Someone else can make the maps, I’m just gonna sail and see everything I can! I‘ll sail to the end of the world!”

“That’s your dream? To see the end of the world?”

Kurogane paused, looking determinedly over the vast expanse of sea to the sun hugging the ocean line, casting a wavering orange hue over the water‘s surface. It sounded stupid, didn’t it? Then, swallowing, he nodded.

“I want to see it. The end of the world.”

“That’s a nice dream,” Fai said simply, smiling. Kurogane looked away and grunted.

"Hn."

“I’ll cheer you on!” Fai declared, plucking at the fishing line. “I think you caught something.”

Kurogane pulled up his line and glared at the tiny minnow clinging to his hook. Stupid little guy! He flicked at it and then went about removing it from the hook just as Fai reeled his own line in, that stupid glove on the one hand, smiling away at the large trout wriggling on his hook.

He looked over to Kurogane, who was yelling at him to shut up before he’d even opened his mouth, pitching the minnow angrily back into the ocean.

He trailed home afterwards, a line of fish that Fai had given him to take home for supper (not out of pity he told himself) over his shoulder, sand clinging to his wet feet. He ducked through the poor alcove of the beachside hut and greeted his mother, who was tying a bow in his sister’s hair.

“There we are, don’t you look lovely?” Kurogane’s mother said, putting the finishing touches on the simple red bow. The child smiled at her reflection at the bit of glass propped up against the wall, nodding.

“Thank you, mommy,” she said, giving her mother a kiss. Kurogane coughed to make his presence known.

“Oh, Kurogane, you’ve returned,” Kurogane’s mother remarked, straightening. “And you’ve brought dinner! How thoughtful.”

“It’s from that idiot at the docks,” Kurogane grumbled, not feeling quite right about taking credit. He laid the fish down on the table for his mother to take care of and went over to poke his sister in the shoulder.

“Oniichan!” Hikaru cried, turning from her reflection to throw her arms around her brother. “Thank you for the fish!”

“Just shut up about it, it was nothing,” Kurogane said, ruffling her hair and messing up the bow deliberately. Hikaru pouted but didn’t make any move to right it. She punched Kurogane lightly on the shoulder, giving him a tiny determined look and clenching her hands into fists.

“I’ve been practicing my sword fighting!” she declared. Kurogane scoffed. “I have! I promise I’ll get stronger! Then we can spar with each other!”

“I’m not gonna spar with my sister,” Kurogane said, pouting. Hikaru tilted her head to the side, giving him a clueless look.

“Why not?”

“’Cause I’ll hurt you and you’ll cry, that’s why,” he said, turning away in a huff. “And that will be troublesome.”

“No,” Hikaru said, smiling brightly. “You’d never do that.”

“How do you know?” Kurogane said, giving her a wary sideways look. Her smile intensified and she clutched her hands behind her back, shrugging.

“Because you’re not a mean person,” she said. “I just know it. You‘re my oniichan!”

Kurogane stared at her for a moment before huffing and turning around.

“Just practice hard,” he said. “’Cause I won’t let you beat me just ‘cause you’re a girl.”

“I will!” Hikaru declared, smiling brightly as she trailed after her brother.

“Hey, what’s this? I come back and my brat’s acting like some kind of big shot?”

Kurogane grunted as a large hand descended on his head and shoved the hat forward, temporarily blinding him. He scrambled to push the hat off, flinging it to the ground just as surely as he flung himself at his father, throwing his arms around his waist (he wasn’t tall enough yet to reach any higher) and calling out “father! You’re back!”

“Oho, not too much of a big-shot to hug your old man, I see!” his father said, laughing as he somehow managed to reach forward and catch the straw hat as it fell (he was just good at EVERYTHING Kurogane thought, hugging tighter) and touch his son’s head with the other hand.

Hikaru had run to hug her father in exactly the same form as her brother, snuggling up silently. Kurogane’s father smooshed the hat back down on his son’s head in order to free his hand to pat her hair back tenderly.

“The hat’s a new addition,” he remarked as he peeled his children off of him. “Trying to make a statement?”

“N-no!” Kurogane declared, ripping it off and tossing it onto the table.

“It seems our son has made a friend who gave it to him,” Kurogane’s mother remarked, wiping her hands on her apron and approaching her husband. Her hair was swept up in a messy bun, and Kurogane’s father tucked a coil of hair behind her ear lovingly, leaning down to kiss the shell of her ear softly before letting his hand rest against her cheek.

“A friend, hmm?” he said.

“H-he’s not a friend!” Kurogane snapped, batting at the hat. “He’s just some idiot!”

“An idiot who gave you a hat that you kept,” Kurogane’s father remarked dryly, grinning down at him. “For you, that means you like them.”

“I DON’T!” Kurogane had his little temper-tantrum, but before he could get very far his father had looped an arm around his neck and was mussing up his hair with his fist, laughing boomingly.

“Aww, just admit you’ve got a girlfriend,” he said, laughing uproariously as his son tried in vain to deny it even as he struggled against his father’s grip.

“It’s a guy!” Kurogane choked out, kicking his legs at his father in an attempt to get him to let go.

“Boyfriend, then!”

“DAD!!”

“Bahahahaha, don’t kick, you brat! I’m gonna be stronger than you for at least another decade so you‘ll have to get used to it!”

“I’ll get stronger faster than that!”

“Prove it!”

“Kurogane’s got a boyfriend?” Hikaru asked, looking obliviously up at her mother, who was quietly chuckling. “But Fai is a lot older than he is.”

“H-Hikaru-!”

“Into older men, eh?! You sly dog,” Kurogane’s father laughed, almost overcome with amusement as his son, red from exertion and hair sticking up in all directions, finally managed to fight his way free and whirl around to face his father, hands clenched, glaring.

“He’s just some moron who bugs me!” he assured his father. “And he tells me about sailor stuff. That’s all!”

“Sailor stuff?” his father repeated, tilting his head to the one side. “I told you, you’re too young to come out with me yet.”

“I‘m much stronger than the last time you saw me,” Kurogane ground out, fixing his father with a determined gaze. “And I’ve learned a lot from the guys at the dock!”

“Have you?” his father said, looking down at him with a vaguely fond look of his own. “I’ll want to hear about it at dinner.”

“Yeah!” Kurogane said, nodding vigorously. “You’ll see, I’m ready to go with you!”

“I’ll take you out the moment I feel you are,” Kurogane’s father said, and Kurogane couldn’t stop the grin on his face and he nodded again. “Now, where was I?”

He turned back to his wife and placed his hands lightly on her waist, pulling her delicately closer and nuzzling the side of his face into her neck. She laughed and twined her arms around his neck, pressing her cheek to his head with a light blush. Kurogane wrinkled his nose in disgust, grabbing his sister’s hand and pulling her away.

“That’s gross,” he told his parents, who were only half-listening. “C’mon, Hikaru.”

“But father’s home!”

“We’re not gonna stay and watch such a disgusting sight,” he replied, tugging her protectively along. He heard his parents chuckle.

“You’ll change your tune one day, kid,” Kurogane’s father said, watching them go. “Don’t wander too far, got it? We’re only in port for a few days and I want to see you kids too.”

“Got it,” Kurogane said, tugging his sister along.

It took him a years (still stuck in that stupid town, still unable to convince his father he was ready to see the world) before he realized that he was in love with that idiot.

He’d just turned nine and that idiot had been sixteen. He’d been sitting on the edge of an unused dock with his sister (at the time, six), trying to teach her how to fish, when he’d seen a familiar figure walking along the beach, his fishing rod over his shoulder, one hand gloved and the other shoved in his pocket. His heart skipped a beat in recognition and he leapt to his feet.

“Fai!” Hikaru had cried out instead of him, her cheeks colouring a bit as she waved frantically at the older boy. Fai didn’t see, however, and continued walking until he’d reached the boat docks. He thrust his fishing rod into the sand and left it there unattended as he clattered down the dock towards his ship. Kurogane handed his fishing rod over to his sister.

“I’ll get him, that moron,” he said, taking off down the docks towards the shipping bay. When he found Fai, partially obscured by a web of rigging that they were repairing dockside, he was in deep conversation with the strangest-looking girl he’d ever seen. She was tall, probably a few years older than Fai and draped in an elegant purple cloak made of a kind of silk that shimmered in the sunlight. Coins clattered noiselessly in the wind, sewn with golden thread into the fabric and framing her painted face. She was smiling with amusement at Fai, an intricate butterfly tattoo on her forehead and temple that framed her glittering crimson eyes.

She pulled her hood back, revealing an intricate hairstyle adorned with jewels and coins, before she placed a ringed hand (tattoos running up the pale arm that revealed itself as the purple fabric slipped down it) on his cheek and leaned in close to press their lips together.

For a second he was struck dumb, and his heart was beating painfully faster and he didn’t know why, which only made him angrier (was he angry? Yeah, he had to be) and more disgusted. He turned away with a grimace from the sickening sight and tore off down the beach, teeth ground together, hands clenched, rushing right past his confused sister and onwards until he couldn’t see the docks anymore, just the tops of the sails like strange clouds on the skyline.

He sunk down to the ground, fisted his hands in sand and glared down at his feet for a long time.

The next time he saw Fai, he hit him. The blond had been walking under the docks and Kurogane had chucked a fishing tackle (hook removed) at the back of his head once he’d emerged.

“Owww, Kuro-ruu,” Fai whined, rubbing at the back of his head.

“That’s what you get for kissing weird girls!” Kurogane barked, leaving Fai blinking in bewilderment as the younger boy turned and ran off as fast as his tiny legs could carry him.

The merchant ship was away for months, then, and Kurogane spent a lot of that time moping. Even though he’d decided that he hated Fai - and who said he’d ever felt otherwise?! - for going around and kissing witches (must have been a witch, he thought) he was still frightfully bored and his heart hurt sometimes, which was annoying. He punched himself in the chest as though to tell his body to cut it out, but it was no use. He missed that stupid moron, and thinking of him sailing around, taking Kurogane’s dream for granted and doing it with HER, that damn witch, just made him angry enough to want to punch a wall.

So he did. And then his mother came up to ask him what was wrong and he snapped at her, which in turn made him feel terrible and he went to the market for her to make up for it, even though he hated shopping. It was during one of these abhorred market visits that he ran into Fai again, although as soon as he did he turned right around and started walking in the other direction.

“Hey, hey! Wait up, Kuro-tin!” Fai whined, hurrying after him with a canvas bag slung over his shoulder. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“NO!” Kurogane snapped, walking faster. “Leave me alone!”

“Grumpy!” Fai remarked, finding it quite easy to match Kurogane’s rapid pace. “What’s got you into such a bad mood, huh? Your father make you stay home again?”

“JUST SHUT UP!” Kurogane growled, realizing he was wearing that damn stupid hat and pulling it off his head indignantly. He thrust it at the blond, who took it back, puzzled. “I don’t want this anymore.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s probably covered in the germs from all the witches you kissed,” Kurogane snarled, stomping off. Fai laughed and trailed after him.

“What makes you think I’ve kissed so many girls?” Fai asked amusedly. Kurogane came to a stop near the edge of the market, glaring darkly at the other boy over his shoulder. “Hmm, girls. Last girl I kissed was Yuuko,” he continued, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

“Witch,” Kurogane grumbled to himself. Fai laughed loudly and patted him on the back.

“The term is shamaness! And Yuuko’s not so bad, she’s-”

“I don’t care,” Kurogane interrupted him swiftly. “If I wanted to hear mushy stuff I’d listen to my parents gushing over one another.”

“You sound a little jealous, Kuro-pii,” Fai said, amused. Kurogane whirled around sputtering wildly and flushing red.

“W-w-w-what the hell kind of crap are you sprouting now?!”

“Hey, I got you a gift,” Fai said, changing the subject as Kurogane was still flailing at the thought of being jealous over such an idiot. He plopped the hat back down on Kurogane’s head and set his massive bag down on the sand, rummaging through it obnoxiously. Kurogane scowled up at the brim of the hat, waiting for what seemed like forever (getting more irritated by the second) before Fai had pulled himself free of the bag’s mouth with something clutched in his hand.

“Hold out your hand,” Fai said, holding up his fist.

Reluctantly, Kurogane did. Fai cupped his hand - and they never touched, not really, and Kurogane’s face went red again - and deposited something pointy and solid in his hand. He curled back his fingers and looked down at the star-shaped compass, the needle curved and quivering as it adjusted itself toward the northern coordinate.

“Well? Is it a good enough present for you to forgive me?”

“…It’s girly.”

“Kuro-taaan, it’s a present! You’re supposed to say ‘thank you’!”

“Does it even work?”

“Of course it does,” Fai said, poking the glass face of the star-shaped compass, still cupping the other boy’s hand to steady it. “I thought you could practice with it before you go out on your own. Besides, your father sails north. This way you’ll always know what direction he’s in.”

Kurogane stared down at the gift for a long time, shifting it this way and that to watch the arrow.

“…It’s not that girly, I guess,” he said, and Fai smiled.

“That means ‘thank you’ in Kuro-speech,” he said, gathering up his bag and straightening. “I’m only giving it to Kuro-rins, so there’s no need to be jealous, okay? Kuro-ruu is my favourite person to spend time with.”

“I’M NOT JEA-” Kurogane began, before he was struck dumb (and his heart was beating faster, and he wanted to hit it again but that would make it obvious) by the last part, his entire speech of protest dying spectacularly in his throat. “I’m -- hn.”

“Ahahaha, did Kuro-min want a kiss too?”

“SHUT UP! THAT’S THE LAST THING I WANT!” Kurogane snapped, shoving the stupid girly compass in the pocket of his breeches and turning to go home. Fai waved after him.

“Next time I see you I’ll give you one, if you’re good!” he called, and Kurogane (red as the sun itself, god-damn-it) yelled back at him to shut up and go kiss himself.

“That’s a fine compass you’ve got there,” his father said when he was in town one year and Kurogane was sitting by the fire, playing with his present. The firelight danced over the glass surface of the object, but Kurogane was thinking more about the person who had given it to him than the coordinates it was giving.

He was eleven, and not really that interested in kissing. But that didn’t mean he wanted Fai to go around kissing other people. If it meant he had to kiss the stupid idiot to get him to stop going around kissing witches, he’d do it, so long as Fai didn’t tease him too much about it and they got to go fishing afterwards.

“Yeah,” Kurogane said thoughtfully, twisting it this way and that.

“Fai give that to you?” his father asked, peering over his shoulder. Kurogane nodded. “It’s a good tool. You should keep it close. You never know when a compass’ll come in handy.”

“…Hn.”

“Speaking of gifts, I have something for you too,” his father said, clapping his son on the shoulder. Kurogane stared up at him. “Dunno if it’ll be as good as a gift from your special someone-”

“WOULD YOU STOP CALLING HIM THAT?!”

“-But I think you’ll like it.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah, c’mon,” Kurogane’s father said, grunting as he lifted his son up and hauled him up the stairs under his arm, Kurogane kicking and complaining all the way. He finally set his son down on the floor of his poor study - their cottage, after all, was painfully tiny - and went to his desk beside the large window. He pulled open one of the larger drawers and withdrew a scroll, faded and yellow, although thick, confident lines of ink had leaked through the paper.

“It’s your dream, right? To sail as far as you can sail,” his father said, looking down at him seriously. Kurogane looked up at his father and nodded. He was handed the scroll and unfurled it with hands and seemed suddenly clumsy and small. Great, lush lines of ink illustrating coordinates and islands and wave patterns had been lovingly inked onto the aged parchment, depicting miles and miles of charted sea, starting with the western border with Paloma and stretching until the page suddenly went blank.

“It’s empty for you to fill it in,” his father said meaningfully. “If it’s your dream, go after it, and chart the last stretch of the journey.”

Kurogane poured over the map for a long time, drinking in every beautiful detail before he looked up at his father with a determined gaze and promised him that it would be done. His father smiled fondly at him.

“I think you’re ready,” he said. “You want to come with the crew next time we sail?”

Kurogane’s heart leapt and he nodded vigorously. His father cracked a grin and crushed him to his side, messing up his hair violently.

“AUGH, QUIT IT!”

“That’s the spirit, kid.”

Fai was less impressed than he had imagined, but he was so happy he didn’t care. He was twelve now, Fai was nineteen, and after a lengthy delay due to reports of heavy ice in the north he was finally ready to set out on his first journey.

“Hyuu, so Kuro-jin will finally be a sailor,” he remarked, hanging over the side of the rowboat and Kurogane swam alongside it. “Pretty cool.”

“Yeah, so don’t go crazier while I’m gone,” Kurogane said, doggy-paddling up to the boat and grabbing the edge. “I’m going to sail further than you’ve ever sailed.”

“Oh, yeah?” Fai asked, amused, before leaning over and kissing Kurogane chastely on the forehead. Kurogane flailed and lost his grip, falling back into the water and ducking under the boat, coming up on the other side as Fai laughed.

“W-what was that for?!”

"As a sailor, you'll have to get used to the unexpected," Fai explained.

"I DON'T NEED YOU TO TEACH ME!"

“Besides, I said it, didn’t I? Next time I saw you I’d give you a kiss. That was for luck on your journey,” Fai explained, leaning back in the boat as though he intended to sleep. Kurogane grumbled, submerged in water up to his nose, and let pop a few irritated bubbles.

“You’re an idiot,” he mumbled, tipping his face up to speak.

“You always say that, Kuro-swim,” Fai remarked coolly. “I wonder when you’ll finally grow out of idiots.”

“…Hmph.”

And Kurogane realized, then, staring at the graceful hand and the awkwardly bent arm hooked over the lip of the boat and trailing in the water next to him, that he probably never would, actually. That maybe that kiss hadn’t been so bad, and maybe Fai wasn’t completely intolerable, and maybe he kind of liked him, a little.

And then he realized all at once that he was hopelessly in love with the blond, had been for a while, and was therefore very, very much in trouble.

“Damn it,” he cursed, kicking at the boat again.

“What’s that, Kuro-fish?”

“Nothing. Just shut up, would you?” he told him, dunking his head underwater so that Fai wouldn’t look and see him blushing. Damn it.