[SE] a matter of strategy

and on to the glory at my right hand

"Just so we're clear," Ronin is saying, his feet propped up on his desk in the tower at the top of the Dragon's Nest and his fingers threaded obnoxiously with Remi's (like Michael and Holly in The Office), "we're both doing whatever we're told at the end of this season, and boldly going where we might never be seen again?" He's smiling, even though this is some sort of bullshit that their life has become.

"I just wanted to make sure," Ronin adds, shifting to sit properly but leaving his fingers twined against his husband's, "in case you decided you'd quite like to run the fuck off into the sunset. They'll find us, obviously, but it might be a fun fifteen minutes while it lasts."

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

"Last time I checked those were our standing orders." Remi replies, doing his best to sound militaristic if only because they were in Ronin's office and the atmosphere seemed to call for it. Perhaps that's why he was also holding one of Ronin's hands in both of his, tracing a fingertip down his husband's knuckles and then roaming up on the other side.

Perched atop of Ronin's desk and hunched forward that he might continue to fondle hold his husband's hand, Remi huffs out a brief laugh. 'Oh? You think we'd make it 15 minutes?' Though he looks up casually at this, there's a mischievous glint in his gaze as he wonders when they last were able to make it for 15 minutes.

"Who knows, maybe with Noah and Deimos along this will somehow go far more easily than we think. Phoebe is not coming." This latter sentiment is added belatedly. "Apparently she and Sunjata are both staying in the Haven, so.." Shrugging, Remi can only grin crookedly. "I am sure that is going to go smoothly for them both."

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

"Indeed," Ronin hums at their standing orders, trying and failing not to smile to hear his husband use militaristic terms. (Is it a turn on? You fucking bet). As for their making it for however long it might take for the gods to catch them, of course, his blue eyes flick up to briefly meet Remi's. "One can only hope," he says, his smile finally breaching the corners of his lips.

Deimos and Noah would be a good addition, though whether it makes any difference remains to be seen. Ronin can only hope. "Oho?" He barks out a laugh when the Lullaby mentions their two Frey chosens, and though he wants to be a little bit bitter about the fact they're exempt from the war, what's the point by now?

"I bet they end up with a kid," he says, half whispering it and finally leaning forward a bit to jot down some notes. "I guess we should decide how we're going to do this, when the war does come?"

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

"Mmmhmmm." Remi hums, extending his fingernails into small claws that he might scratch them softly against the sides of his husband's fingers. "Honestly, I do as well. Phoebe seemed utterly horrified at the idea but...well, they had a miscarriage once and were married. Stranger things have certainly happened." And, you know, both being demigods of Frey in a literal Adam and Eve-style paradise probably wasn't going to hurt matters.

Trying to decipher Ronin's writing upside down (or perhaps merely contemplating snatching up that hand as well), the alchemist sighs and retracts his claws with a nod. "I suppose so. I think we work well with Deimos, but Noah..." When last they'd all fought together the newly minted demigod had nearly died chasing after Wessex and Neron. "Have you trained with him? Has he settled into his abilities do you know?"

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

Ronin's fingers wiggle, naturally, at the careful scritch of claws against his hand, and perhaps the lettering on one of his words stutters just a bit. "Mm, you are not wrong there. I'm quite sure that stranger things have happened to us in the past year," he remarks, grinning up at Remi and putting his pencil down; it's almost entirely impossible to concentrate with his husband right here, and maybe that's why he brought him. Who can say?

As for Noah, Ronin lets out a long sigh and rolls his shoulders a bit. "I can't say I have trained with him, no. But he's helped me out a couple of times, building the skyport in Halo and those sorts of things. I don't know about his abilities, but he seems more settled in general, you know?"

Having turned a little to face Remi properly, his free hands settles comfortably on the other man's knee. "Regardless, though, I bet we'll be fine with you as our big and strong bodyguard, mm?"

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

Remi's agreement comes in the form of a slow inhale through his nose and a slow raising of his eyebrows; stranger things absolutely had happened to the pair, and would likely continue to happen to them simply by virtue of who they'd become these days. Not only did they put the fuck in fuck around and find out, but they put just about everything else in it as well.

Remi didn't know, though he'd take Ronin's word for it. "I suppose if we were smarter we would all have trained together before now." He mumbles, adjusting the red braid on the Huntsman's wrist in accordance to some metric that only Remi was aware of. Flaring his nostrils slightly but shifting his leg in Ronin's direction, the Lullaby can only offer a lopsided shrug. "Mmmm, you know how much I enjoy being relentlessly hit over and over and not being able to do a thing about it." Though there's a clear grumpiness in Remi's voice, he nevertheless leans forward, silently posturing for Ronin's lips to meet his own.

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

"If we were smarter, if there weren't relics always lurking around to find, if the Ascended didn't keep attacking Stormbreak and fucking around in general..." Ronin shrugs his shoulders, as if to say that they shouldn't really beat themselves up about it. Not when Caido kept altering their priorities.

Allowing the alteration of the red thread around his wrist, the Huntsman smiles sweetly up at his husband. "There is an innuendo in there, I just need to find it," he says. "And you don't have to, but you are the best at it. I promise to avenge you for every hair harmed on your head. Unless, of course, you'd like me to do it instead."

But then there's kissing to be done, so they can have that conversation afterwards. Tilting his head up to meet Remi's lips, Ronin is torn between rising to stand between his husband's legs, or pulling the Lullaby into his lap. It's a difficult choice, but in the end the need to be close wins out, and his chair creaks as he gets to his feet.

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

"Maybe I can help beat it out of you." Remi sweetly suggests, before grinning and giving his head a shake. "You are the much better doctor out of the two of us, I think. Never once have you taken advantage of me when I was injured and proposed, so..." He shrugs. "I will hold things and let monsters attack me while you soar about being the hero." It was what they were both best at, it was true, and so long as Ronin let Remi smash at least one thing to release his anger, the Lullaby could be counted on to serve as the tank for the team.

Wrapping his legs around Ronin's waist without even noticing he was doing it, Remi winds his arms about his husband's shoulders to draw him nearer still. It should be the sort of moment that they both commit to memory just in case, and yet death seems so laughably far off despite the battle they both knew they were walking into. Even though Remi's mind isn't agonizing over the details, he still relishes the strong warmth of Ronin's body against his and the softly persistent feeling of his lips.

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

Ronin wants to say that they are both heroes and they can both soar about during the war, it's just that they have slightly different ways of doing it; alas, his lips and tongue are very happily busy, and his words melt into little more than a soft moan. His arms slip around Remi's waist, grasping at his shirt as if trying to decide whether he wants to pull it over his head or simply rip it off his body, and his hips rock forward of their own accord.

"You are incredible," he mumbles against Remi's lips, managing to maintain enough self control to slide his hands down the Lullaby's sides instead. "And a menace," he adds, smirking. "All this time, and you still manage to derail me with one kiss. You sure you didn't secretly make a deal with Frey when I wasn't looking?"

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

Remi's shoulders roll and his back arches; to anyone unable to see Ronin's hands on his body, they might be tempted to think there was some sort of spider trickling up his spine or that an ice cube had been dropped down the back of his shirt for how much he seemed to be trying to shrug out of his own skin. It was all an effort to find himself tangled within Ronin's arms of course, and the Huntsman's moan was echoed by a spray of silvery red emotion.

"If I did, that would be your fault for taking your eyes off of me, now wouldn't it?" Remi counters. Shaking his head slightly so that his nose would brush against Ronin's, the Lullaby pulls in a breath that is meant to slow his heart rate and yet succeeds only in stoking some freshly lit fire. "Besides, you do not seem all that derailed to me. You are still on your feet, still breatheing.." Shrugging, Remi twists his fingers into Ronin's hair. "..and you certainly look good." He adds with an emphatic shake of his head.

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

"I suppose you've got a point, there," Ronin murmurs with a crooked smile, brushing his cheek against Remi's once the Lullaby is done giving him nose kisses. "And there are different versions of derailed, Remi. On my feet, breathing and looking however which way, I still can't concentrate on anything else but you." And he really doesn't sound like he minds that one bit.

Which probably goes some way towards explaining his decision to gift his husband with another kiss, though his emotions shine warm and golden through to the other man. There is passion there (because when isn't there?), but it's the kind that begs to savour every touch and every moment, rather than to have and be had with haste enough that the world might as well be ending already.

"If only I'd had the foresight to put a bed in this office," he says, sighing.

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

"You said derailed, I say being an attentive husband." Remi counters with a small shrug, sounding equally unbothered by what a distraction he's proved to be. At least he isn't a racoon right now.

Shivering the way you might do when suddenly forced into the sunlight from the cold, goosebumps erupt down Remi's arms as he leans into his husband's kiss. Remi would defy anyone to be as in love with their partner after so many years, deaths, false-starts and near-endings as he and Ronin had been through. But here they were, making out like two teenagers who had stolen away into an unlocked office to explore each other in ways that still seemed fresh.

"Yeah. What sort of Commander overlooks something like that?" Remi mumbles against Ronin's lips. "Here I thought you were a professional."

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

and on to the glory at my right hand

Honestly, Ronin doesn't think he'll ever stop wanting to sneak off with Remi to make out like two horny teenagers; he puts it down to the fact that they didn't get to have that when they were horny teens, so there's a lot of time for them to make up. "I am a professional. Maybe it's my work-life balance I need to consider," he mumbled right back to Remi, both loving and hating the legs wrapped around his waist for the delicious pressure it's causing.

"So we're going to war. You're going to hold the bad guys down, and I'm going to punch them. And then you're going to punch them. And then we win, and we respectfully unsubscribe from all this bullshit," he decides, just to make sure that's out in the open before they go any further.

"And for now... well. There's the desk. Or a bunk in the training barracks. Or we could play chicken with each other and try to get back home."

ronin

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

the lullaby

Love isn't all that it seems
I did you wrong

Having the strength Remi did, it was possible that he could break Ronin's legs simply by tightening his own. Could the Huntsman withstand the Lullaby? Probably, but gods did it ever put a strange set of boundaries on what would otherwise simply be teenage-pawing at one another. "We are going to do that. All of that." Remi agrees.

Similar to the way you can feel a scream rising up in the back of your throat, Remi could feel a widening itch burn up the back of his legs where it began to smoulder against the friction between their bodies. "..before that, though--" He manages, feeling vaguely lightheaded and handsier than he'd like to admit. "There is something else." Something other than desks and barracks and a race home; something other than the uncomfortable tenting in his pants.

"I..spoke to Hotaru." Tightening his calves instinctively against the recoil he assumed would come from Ronin, Remi spread his fingers against his husband's back as if to hold onto more of him. "About the twins. They are going to stay out during the war.."

I'll stay here with you
Until this dream is gone

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!