Kurogane, Fai, Syaoran and Mokona had landed in a new world, a world of magic, with the written language of Japanese. This world used the same currency as a previous world, their Sakura card from Outo, to be exact, so they could temporarily afford to live here, and after a quick bite at some café, they went to find somewhere to stay for the time, and maybe some work. With the world using Japanese, that meant Syaoran was the only one who could work almost any job here. After securing a place to stay, which had the promise of room and board, Syaoran found tutor work in some dojo run by Ryuo, Kurogane got pulled over by Tomoyo, and Fai found work thanks to this world’s Ashura.

After, they meet back up with each other, the café they stopped at as the meet-up point, before Syaoran mentioned stopping at a library on the way home. Syaoran led the way to a cozy little place, off of the corner and not too far away from their temporary home. Syaoran gets himself lost somewhere in the ancient archives. Kurogane browses for a bit before finding some manga here, where the pictures on the manga moved about. He found a comfortable chair and began to watch and read the manga by himself.

Fai felt pretty useless here, because beyond very little of the language, he couldn’t read Kurogane’s language. It would be so much more helpful if he could manage to find a world where the Ceresian or Valerain language was more prominent than the English and Japanese filled worlds Syaoran and Kurogane excelled with. Or a way to convert their written language. But finding such documents proved scarce at best. And this world, a world he’d actually like to understand a little better, because it was a completely magical world, was completely written in Kurogane’s language. He could more than handle himself, for the most part.

After spending some time looking over reference books with Mokona, not finding anything of value to help with his particular illiteracy, Fai quietly asks Mokona to help him find some recipes books. Mokona peeped out of his coat to help, and before long, Fai was able to find a section of recipes, and began going through them, feeling a bit like an idiot for looking for the most picturesque books. After some flipping and reshelving the text-heavy books, Fai stared at one book he had upturned, trying to figure this one out, because sure as the rest, it was written in Kurogane’s language, but he recognized a couple of the words, and it had lots of pictures, and the particular page he had flipped to, looked like it should be a recipe for home-made ice cream. There were other recipes in it, there was one that looked to be some kind of meat stew, , and one that looked like some pressed pancakes, and a cake that appeared a little too lacy unless it was for setting some lovey-dovey mood (or for spoiling Sakura with an extravagant display of hard word, cake baking and magical lacery. There were a lot of different recipes and they all came with accommodating pictures.

Turning back to the cover, a red cover with a drawing of a bowl with a pestle inside, Fai asked Mokona what the cover said, and Mokona was more than helpful enough to read it for him: Recipes for Couples. Fai thought about it before deciding to see if he could check it out. Couldn’t hurt, right? Sure enough, he was able to borrow the book. Well, there was nothing left to do but to try making a recipe, right, Fai picking the first one he saw, the ice cream, and see what happens. Of course, Kurogane was on guinea pig duty. Whether he knew it or not. By the time they were all finished, Kurogane had found a few mangas to borrow, while Syaoran took more prying to pull him out without trying to check out the whole library’s ancient archives. They could always come back, after all, since Mokona’s earring wasn’t glowing. That night, Fai asks Arashi if he could borrow her kitchen for a little while.

*.*.*

Three days later, Fai is home first from work, dropping Mokona off at the library, and waits until Kurogane is home from his own work. Fai is not jealous at all that Kurogane’s work entailed being some body guard was it, for Tomoyo; if anything finding a reliable income through familiar connections was good. And Tomoyo was just the sweetest girl in any world, next to Sakura, Fai would argue. So he didn’t mind, and it came as no surprise either when Kurogane came back to their temporary home, temporary as long as they stayed there place of residing, which was provided by one Sora-chan, and his beautiful lovely darling, or whatever flattery he chose to describe his priestess of a wife that time. It came as no surprise when the ninja came home and Fai opened the door for him to see him half buried under gifts from his boss, because that woman could be as generous with her gifting as she was spirited and intelligent. Although, the flowery flowy dresses dangling off his human arm was a huge surprise at first, and Kurogane had to mutter, “…Tomoyo made them; they’re for our Sakura.”

Fai smiled understandingly, before helping the man unload his gifts, and carefully taking the dresses and putting them away for the time. “Speaking of, I made you something. I hope you like it.”

“…thanks.”

Fai is patient and does what he can to assist Kurogane before leading the way to the small dining area, where he predicted about when Kurogane would arrive, before going to get the item for him. Sitting on the table was a bowl of ice cream a dark, almost bitter-looking, brown.

Knowing Fai made it for him made him both curious what the mage managed to concoct here, and who had helped him, or if anyone did, and Fai took a stab in the dark in order to surprise him. Taking the spoon that was dipped into one of the scoops of ice cream, as there were two scoops in the bowl, Kurogane tried a small bite of the ice cream, before getting a huge surprise.

“Is this your idea of a sick joke, mage!?” Kurogane asked as he held his head with one hand, and some kind of pained look on his face.

“What are you saying, Kuro-rin? I just wanted to surprise you with something yummy. Did you get a brain freeze or something? ”

“Well, don’t – not if you can’t know what you are making.”

“I made ice cream. Kuro, what’s wrong with it?”

“Have you even tried it?!”

“Well no—I made it for you.”

“Try it and then tell me there’s nothing wrong with it.”

Fai shifted a little, seeming a bit disheartened, “If you don’t like it …I’ll just throw it out.”

“Oh no … you’re not getting off that easy…”

Kurogane made to move towards the man and grabbed for him. Fai noticed before ducking from Kurogane’s reach with a small squeak, and scurried away.

Fai shrank away from the advancing Kurogane and avoided his grip, making quiet little noises as he dodged Kurogane’s grip, using the furniture as a divider, and Kurogane not failing in the pursuit.

“Just what did you think you were making, mage?” Kurogane said chasing the flighty male.

“Ice cream of course. How was I supposed to know you would have a bad reaction to magical ice cream?”

“Are you sure you used the right ingredients?! How can you follow the instructions if you can’t read the language?”

“Just because I can’t understand your language, doesn’t mean I can’t read it, and the book had lots of pictures, helping explain to make all the different recipes.”

It was about that time Syaoran came home with Mokona, a few books in his arms; he looked at the older men who were now in the living room, and let out a sigh as not to Syaoran’s surprise, Fai was currently being chased by Kurogane, and upturning the furniture.

"Fai-san. Kurogane-san. What happened this time?" Syaoran asked, pretty much used to seeing and dealing with his companions’ antics, as he nudged the door shut so not to disturb the other people who lived around here.

“Ah. Syaoran-kun…” Fai paused and the distraction allowed Kurogane to catch Fai’s collar, and tug the blonde into a secure arm lock with a little ‘yeep’.

"Kid, this idiot borrowed a book from the library here; go get it from our room for me."

"Kurogane-san?"

"Get it kid! He made something, and I want to know exactly what it is he thought to make."

"Right...!" Syaoran was not about to argue with Kurogane, and is quick to disappear out of sight with Mokona and his own books while Kurogane dragged the magician with him.

“Cmon, mage...time for you to get a taste of your own medicine.”

“Alright, alright; if that will make you happy, I’ll try it too.”

Fai ducked out from underneath Kurogane, before staring at the ice cream that had given that pained look. Fai took the spoon and scooped out a bite, before trying it.

“Ohgod, that’s …” Fai looked as if he were wanting to get sick right there, covering his mouth with a hand, forcing the bite to stay down.

Syaoran came back down the stairs, and flipping through the book from the older men’s room, “Um, Fai-san…what recipe were you using?”

“The one of ice cream … it begins on the 73^rd page.”

Syaoran turned to the specified pages, and reads the recipe inside his head, before growing a bit pale. “Oh…”

“What the hell did the mage make, kid?”

Syaoran looked up to the two taller men, before holding out the book for Kurogane. Kurogane took it and read over the recipe that the blonde had made. Now it made sense why it felt like he’d taken a bite of Acid Tokyo, could feel the burns ache from Fai’s magic burning his back as the clone used them against him, of acidic rain pouring from the sky, and of ‘Kurogane’.

Fai was still waiting to find out, while feeling like a belittled child again. Like a child just wanting to make something special for someone, but since he can’t cook (or in this case understand what he’s reading) ends up screwing everything up, while everyone else shares in on the joke of why things went wrong. And he’s still waiting for an answer of his own.

“Fai-san,” Syaoran begins, “On some worlds, there is a saying ‘Vengeance is a dish best served cold’. Well, apparently, here, they take it quite literally.”

“So then…?” Fai asked with some hesitation.

Syaoran nodded, “The recipe is indeed for ice cream, Fai-san; an ice cream named Revenge.”

~the end.

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