#this? wild

[8]

EXCUSE ME THIS IS BEAUTIFUL AND IM CRYING

Kurogane paid his arm to keep Fai alive

And Fai paid his magic to replace Kurogane’s missing limb

I’ve done a complete 180 on this entire exchange – both because it wasn’t Free and that the cost was something significant.

There is so much in this gesture I don’t think I could summarise the full weight behind it even if I typed all day.

Fai’s magic was the THING of his past. It’s what stood at the centre of every single thing that happened in his backstory – and it was also his single greatest strength that he could rely on. It was won from suffering and pain and tragedy and, now, it has achieved the two greatest things it ever could; saving the lives of his family from a trap that should have killed them all, and restoring the missing body part of a man who loves him so fiercely he would sacrifice bits of himself to save Fai in return.

Fai’s magic has served every purpose it’s ever going to. Fai is more whole and happy without it than he EVER was with it in the past. Not only is he loved, but he’s not living a lie, or intending to die, or suffering under the weight of his ever looming backstory. Fai was always intending to trade his life away for that of his twin’s, but that’s over now, so the backstory has no chains to keep Fai trapped in sorrow or regret any longer. Fai is a free man, and he doesn’t need his magic as a constant reminder of everything he’s gone through. He’s trading it for something better.

ALSO I am WILD about the fact that with this trade Fai is doing the one thing he could never do with the magic. No matter how hard he tried his magic was only for destruction, not for healing. But now he’s traded it all away to Heal Kurogane of his biggest wound and thus MAKING his magic result in the healing he always wanted it to. Fai MADE his magic become worthy of healing, even though his backstory demanded that it would never amount to that.