Kurogane x Fai

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Pairing
Pairing: Kurogane x Fai
Alternative name(s): Kurogane/Fai, KuroFai, Kurogane/Yuui, Kurogane/Yuui
Gender category: m/m
Fandom: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Canonical?: debated
Prevalence: popular
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Kurogane and Fai D. Fluorite are secondary characters in the manga Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. They are the most prominent m/m ship in the TRC fandom.

Overview

Kurogane is a grumpy but protective ninja who has been cursed to weaken every time he kills someone, and Fai is a powerful magician with secrets who constantly puts on a façade of happiness. The two are forced into close proximity when they end up traveling across dimensions together--Kurogane with the goal of returning to his home dimension, and Fai with the goal of going anywhere but the dimension he came from. Their contrasting personalities and values initially cause friction between them, but as they travel they find themselves growing closer, largely because of their shared desire to protect the teenaged protagonist and his love interest. In the latter half of the series, both characters make significant sacrifices in an effort to preserve their found family, and Fai spends a significant chunk of the narrative resenting choices that Kurogane made on his behalf, but they ultimately reconcile after a violent confrontation with Fai's father figure. They end the series with an extremely close relationship, but while they are strongly implied to be romantically involved, the nature of their relationship is left fairly ambiguous.

The ship is usually referred to as Kurogane x Fai, or some variant thereof. However, Fai's birth name was Yuui, and he started using the name Fai as a result of events that occurred in his backstory involving another character whose name was Fai. In fics that feature both characters, writers may refer to the pairing as Kurogane x Yuui for clarity.

Canonicity

The authors of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, CLAMP, are ex-doujinshi creators notorious for their m/m works in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fandom and for the explicitly romantic relationships between male characters in previous works such as Cardcaptor Sakura. However, their work is also full of charged but ambiguous relationships and unconfirmed pairings, such as the Seishirou x Subaru relationship in Tokyo Babylon. While the relationship between Kurogane and Fai is undeniably central to their characters, what kind of relationship it is has never been clarified in canon.

Predictably, there is a lot of fannish debate on the topic.

I don’t think anything has been ‘confirmed’ for canon in regards to them, but I do think they’re as close to being canon without it being outright stated. In the recent Character Data Book, they’re relationship was described as ‘being reeeaallly good friends~ <3 ) so I think that says a lot lol

immortalwurst

Now to answer the question of whether KuroFai is canon or not.... personally, I don't believe so. I don't think that they're quite as canon as Touya/Yukito either, for what YamiSakura-san said above. However, as an AVID fan of KuroFai, I must say, that the manga and CLAMP are leaning quite heavily towards the possibility of KuroFai canon. I don't think I have to mention all of the subtext :D

Invisible_Writer

see i knew that they were totally cannon from the time i started reading (well when they come in) but seriously????Fai is ALWAYS like semi-flirting with Kurogane ( i mean with the nicknames the teasing...ext?) i think Kurogane mightve come to realize in Sakura country with all the time they spent together...and from then on i was like.. this is soooooooo canon i mean every scene theres some sort of.. well..relationship thing going on..and then Fai had to drink Kurogane's BLOOD?? i was just like OK if that's not smut waiting to happen I dont know what is. I could go on forever but I wont.... if there was a sequel.. there would be KuroFai..... one more thing CLAMP is not afraid to make their character FREAKIN FLAMING i mean Toya and Yuki?? COME ON!!

idocello

I don't think Fai is gay. I think he just always plays around like that with Kurogane because he likes to make him mad for his big, over dramatic reactions. That's why he always bothers him.

Fullmoon_Sagashite123

Themes and Trends in Fanworks

  • In canon, Fai frequently uses cutesy nicknames to refer to Kurogane, only stopping when he is angry at him. Fanworks often highlight and even exaggerate this behavior.
  • During a certain arc of the manga, Kurogane and Fai spend an extended period as part of an army while separated from the protagonist and unable to speak the same language as one another. Many fanworks speculate about their interactions during this time.
  • Hurt/comfort works addressing the character's backstories or the various injuries the characters acquire during canon are very popular.
  • Fai becomes a vampire in the latter half of the series, so various vampire-related shipping tropes are also common for fics set during that time.
  • The canon narrative often treats the main characters as a family unit, with Fai acknowledging this by referring to himself as "mommy" and Kurogane as "daddy." This is often the basis for domestic fics.

Example Fanworks & Fanac

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