Pausing in his feed, Fay chuckles at that, his lips brushing Kurogane's wrist. "You did all right last time, if I recall." Fay's eye slid slyly over to Kurogane's face, attempting to gauge the other man's reaction, to see if, indeed, he had made the connection to Yama.
It was only natural to compare the two. It had been the only other time they had been apart from the children, not just in another place, but in another time as well, just waiting for them to arrive, and ensuring their survival until then.
This time though, they had Mokona, so there would be no excuses to fall back on the same coping mechanisms they'd employed in Yama. Fighting side by side, able to communicate only through simple words and gestures, pictures etched in dirt, then, late at night, bone tired from battle but alive with it also, they had fallen into each other. Lonely, frustrated, isolated, sure, there were elements of that in their current situation - they missed the children, they were stuck here and couldn't just leave when there were monsters at their door, but it wasn't like Yama, not really. That had been a lifetime ago, two lifetimes. They'd been different people back then, or, well, he had. Kurogane wasn't all that much changed from the day they'd met, although he was stronger now, impossibly so, beyond any strength that is of the physical. To Fay, it was one of his most endearing qualities, ol' reliable Kurogane.
He should apologise for Yama. For the way he'd acted immediately after - or the way that he hadn't. As soon as they were able to understand one another's words, they'd known Mokona and the others had arrived, and Fay, well, he'd stopped going to Kurogane more or less straight away. Those last fews weeks where Kurogane had insisted on testing Syaoran's abilities with a sword were almost on par with how distantly Fay had treated him following the events of Tokyo. It wasn't until everything had resolved and they were reunited againthat Fay had dropped his cold front and returned to the happy-go-lucky man they'd first met.
It...hurt to think about now. Kurogane hadn't deserved that. Fay owed the man his thanks. Thanks for not making it awkward, for not telling him no or making him beg (he would have), for going along with it, giving him exactly what he'd needed to keep from going out of his mind, for just indulging him in such a way, for not asking for anything in return, and... (almost regrettably now) for never mentioning it to him afterwards.