In the same way that Kurogane could see-without-seeing, he felt more than saw the slight widening of Fay's gold eye, the silent hitch in the rhythm of his breath.
They hadn't been lovers in a long time, Kurogane thought - but there were a lot of similarities between their situations then and now. Once again they found themselves isolated without the kids, locked in a world they couldn't leave, just like Yama. This time they had Mokona, of course, which meant no weird sign language and pictographs, but they both spent a lot of time here simply waiting to pass the time until they could rejoin the kid and save the princess.
Sure, their situation here was less immediately stressful than Yama. They could communicate. No nightly wars. No one was harassing Fay for his hair colour here, either, and even if they were, Fay had said he would actually defend himself now, which was a change. Plus, they had a whole hot spring in Sen, too, and lots to drink.
But still, when all was said and done, they were waiting only until the day the world would let them leave, and then heading directly for Clow Country - and all they could do was hope that the time slippage Sen was so known for meant that they weren't too late to save everyone. No matter what, there was stress here, too.
That's why Fay had initially come to him in Yama. They had both needed to let off a little steam. And when Mokona and the kids had arrived, it had ended as abruptly as it had begun - and Fay had pretended that it simply hadn't happened at all.
But now Fay was wearing a furisode. Which suggested...
Tch. Fay managed to make everything annoying. It was a good night, Kurogane thought, to get drunk - but they had a feeding to attend to first.
"Just stop staring and get in so you can eat," he said testily.