#it's funny because these two remind me of fai and kurogane so much

[plounce]

hey do you think that kurogane ever calls fai 'yuui' and do you think fai ever calls him 'youou'?

hmm… so to start off my answer on this, i’ll have to quote a post i made last year about how the two of them avoid calling each other by any name:

from the start of the journey and to present canon, fai and kurogane both avoid calling each other by their names - although neither are using their real name, at least not since their Backstory Trauma Incident. youou took up the “kurogane” use name when he entered tomoyo’s guard after the sacking of suwa and set his focus to becoming physically strong; yuui took up fai’s name after setting into his quest to resurrect fai.

by not calling each other by these false names that represent their messed up pasts, kurogane and fai are shown to be the best at understanding each other as well as being key to overcoming their individual traumas and completing their character arcs. so that’s interesting and i’m in hell

so basically, throughout all of canon, kurogane calls fai wizard/mage/etc. in turn fai calls kurogane kuro-tan/kuro-sama/etc, except when they’re emotionally distant during infinity. that significance of using kurogane’s “proper” name (his assumed name, we eventually learn) is meant to drive a wedge in the emotional closeness between them. it adds another layer of distance.

so in keeping with this theme, in post-canon… nah! i don’t really think that they do. for starters, and to be a bit nitpicky, kurogane’s “true” name is very tied in his lord/vassal relationship with tomoyo (and also stuff about returning to his childhood/hereditary ideals etc). i don’t think he’d ever really see a reason to tell fai, especially because he enjoys the pet names so much (you know he does - also because it’s a very everyday reminder of their bond).

i think when they get married in nihon (or renew their vows) (or have a “proper ceremony, especially as you’re getting married to a foreign prince!” as tomoyo commands, mostly because she wants to be in charge of it all; fai is delighted and swept along, kurogane grumbles and grouses and follows, of course) tomoyo uses “youou” when she’s presiding, and since mokona is there fai knows it isn’t some nihongo word he’s unfamiliar with and he’s like……………. WHAT? 

of course tomoyo sees fai’s brow furrow that tiny bit when she says youou, and after the ceremony she is both lightly scolding kurogane for not telling his LIFE PARTNER his actual name, but also OH how DRAMATIC! kurogane’s barking back IT’S THE LORD/VASSAL RELATIONSHIP and fai’s laughing along because he gets it now, and it’s actually very funny and he LOVES having tomoyo around to pick on kurogane with.

he brings it up later - kurogane’s learned to be conscious and careful of fai’s feelings in the years they’ve spent together, knows that there’s some times he should make an effort to be delicate - and explains it as fai gives him his full attention (he’s still eager to learn about his new home, and all that time with syaoran has rubbed off on him). and then fai thanks him for trusting him with that piece of him and that he’ll keep it safe, “but you’re still my cute widdle kuro-tan!!” and kurogane swats at him, and fai laughs and laughs.

as for yuui… hm. i feel like fai’s self-identity is so muddled now after years of “being fai” that he… kind of is? in his own, new way. he’s doing his best to own his identity, to be free for the first time in his life. and everyone still calls him fai for convenience’s sake. except, of course, for kurogane, who calls him wizard/mage/etc. i think fai would probably re-tell kurogane his birth name - huddled in the quiet, intimate dark - because, well, “you don’t need to use it if you don’t want to - but i thought it’d be good to tell you under different circumstances than when you first learned it. of my own free will.”

kurogane considers this, considers fai’s steady, calm gaze. not the forced placidity of before: this is trust. this is good. there’s fear still haunting fai’s head, beaten into the grooves after years of mistreatment, and that’ll probably never go away. he gets how fai doing things entirely of his own will is new and important to him, and kurogane very much approves of fai learning what autonomy and agency feel like.

kurogane says it once - tests it, sees how it feels in his mouth as he looks at his partner. on fai’s part, he hasn’t been called “yuui” very much at all; it’s weird to hear it spoken aloud and directed at him. it’s almost foreign. it sort of permanently is, now that valeria and celes and ashura and his brother are gone, dead and forgotten by all but a handful of people.

kurogane says it bluntly: “do you want to be called yuui?”

he thinks for a long moment. “i’m not sure. i’m fai to all of you, which means a lot. but… i feel like i need to be my own person.”

kurogane scoffs. “you are your own person. always have been. you don’t have to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. and anyway, you’re the wizard no matter what, so it doesn’t really matter to me either way.”

“oh? just ‘the wizard’? how boorish! i’m married to you, and you think of me as ‘the wizard’!”

“stop that.”

“my heart is rent in twain! oh, kuro-brute, your dispassion wounds me!”

“i’ll show you wounding.”

“oh, kuro-sama, i wouldn’t - mm - exactly call this wounding, really very much - the opposite - no don’t tickle me -!!”

(side headcanon: fai is very ticklish. kurogane isn’t. it’s the only effective recourse kurogane often has against fai’s teasing, with the added benefit of touching each other, and making fai laugh. you really have to press kurogane to get him to admit it, but his dignity can be worth seeing fai laugh and smile. the wizard deserves to. except if the avenue is kurogane’s hair being lime green. that one wasn’t worth the cackling. that one was worth the couch fai got exiled to.)