cut our teeth and make our bones right here

we're always running scared but holding knives

(See, it's the complete opposite for me.) Silenced by little more than a whisper, the expression that flickers across Isla's face might be pain, or thereabouts, but the way she leans in to kiss the wendigo's neck says otherwise. "I'm glad it's a positive for you, at least," she whispers. "That's the whole point of it. I never want to feel like I'm letting you down." A strange admission, given their power dynamic, but then again, that's why Isla is a good doctor, and Grimm is not.

Feeling his muscles jump even if he manages to supress the flinch, Isla carefully spreads her palm across Remi's chest, as if to give him a chance to acclimatise to her touch. And as he trills something in Italian and draws the blankets over her as much as possible, she can't help but smile at the musical timbre. "Oh, so kind of like here when we say someone has a frog in their throat?" she wonders, having never been able to find the time to argue linguistic nuances with someone.

The other idiom, however, has her stumped. "Like a paintbrush? I don't follow." She grins, nuzzling closer. "At least a glove makes sense."

Isla

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

(Knew it).(See, it's the complete opposite for me.) It's not only why Isla is a good doctor and Grimm is not, it's also the reason the wendigo is beginning to fall in love with her and what will surely complicate their relationship going forward. 'You have never let me down.' Remi says immediately.

Laughing lightly as he pulls in a deep breath, Remi exhales slowly. "It's all..healed strangely." He murmurs apologetically of his flinching, before allowing his fingers to resume their journey on her back from beneath the blanket.

"Mm, just so." He agrees, before tucking his chin to try and peer down at her without much success. So, grinning up at the ceiling, the wendigo shrugs. "I think it must be because whatever it is, a dress or a shirt, looks painted on it is so tight or perfectly tailored."

Smiling boyishly now as all of his mother's old sayings suddenly came to him, the wendigo cleared his throat. "Minestra riscaldata translates to reheated soup. In conversation, you would say of two people that they are minestra riscaldata. What do you think it means?"

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we're always running scared but holding knives

Feeling her stomach flop with something very similar to butterflies (were Isla the sort to believe in such a thing), the doctor inhales a steady breath and lets it out again, before shifting to aim a kiss against his cheek. "And I never intend to." She punctuates the discussion with a further kiss towards his lips, and if they're caught in the sweetness of each other for another moment or two, so be it.

Parting from Remi enough to peer down at the scar tissue that mars his chest, Isla, brushes her thumb across a particualrly gnarled bit of skin. "But it healed," she murmurs. "Perfect things have never had to try at anything. This is proof you've surivived." Whether that will help the reality of his situation remains to be seen.

And besides, there are idioms to decipher. Hmming under her breath, Isla concedes the paintbrush remark and instead moves on to reheated soup of all things. "Does it mean that two people are well acquainted, maybe?" she asks. "Or... perhaps they discuss the same things over and over?"

Isla

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

Perhaps post-serum Remi will be able to hear what the sound of butterflies is like, though for now, it's with a startled surprise that he feels her lips against his cheek and then higher still, undone all over again by the impossibility of the moment. Isla; it has his skin coming alive all over again just to think her name, much less feel her pressed against him.

"A blessing a curse, I would say. I think Grimm might go easier on me if I did not heal so well, but that I do.." He shrugs, as if to suggest that it gave her license to be even more cruel if only because the evidence wouldn't last long. Against her back, Remi's fingers roam curiously, as if seeking out scars that might suddenly appear beneath. "If that is your definition of perfect, then you must have many scars." He murmurs gently, knowing that if nothing else, trying was certainly the sort of thing the doctor did regularly.

Smiling crookedly, the wendigo shifts ever so slightly onto his side that he might better be able to gaze down at her. With an adoring twinkle in his green stare, Remi gives his head a little shake. "No, but  I can see why you would think so." He says with a laugh he muffles into her hair. "It is not always romantic, but it means two people who were once together and are trying again? but that it does not go well. They are reheated soup. Good once, maybe not so good after they have gone cold."

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

we're always running scared but holding knives

"Grimm will go easier on you soon whether she likes it or not," Isla hisses against Remi's lips, before her kisses descend back down the column of his throat where she can nestle her face and relax against him. At the same time, careful fingertips trace the patchwork of his skin, as if lamenting the terrible job done in putting him back together again.

As for her own body, Remi will find her frustratingly scar-free, besides the long, thin mark along her left wrist usually covered by clothing or her lab coat. "Caught it on a broken window, back when I was a wild young rebel," she explains with a grin.

And then it comes to the idioms, Isla raising her eyebrows and peeking up at him to hear the real meaning of the definition he'd brought up. "I like reheated soup," she protests. "Though we're only at the beginning of things here. Are we even soup yet?" She giggles.

Isla

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

Remi's time spent with Isla went by in a flash, and though the wendigo did his best to try and savour each moment, still it all slipped through his fingers with far less intentionality than he'd have liked. In the hours which followed as the wendigo lay motionless on his bed, he thought of any number of things he desperately wished he'd done or said; images he wished he'd better cemented in his mind or moments he might have stretched out. Only a few hours later, the feeling of Isla in his arms was already melting away, and gods but he longed for her in a way he'd previously said wasn't possible as a wendigo.

Restless for the remainder of the day, Remi had agonized over what he wanted to say to the doctor when she next came in to check on him. Thinking she'd have come by before bed, the wendigo began to pace back and forth by the foot of his bed before it became obvious she wasn't coming. A day passed and then two, and when on the third day the interns nervously came into his cell, he'd demanded to know where Isla was. Of course, they left him without a word, though the glances they gave one another made Remi feel all the more uneasy.

Was it something he'd said? Done?

On the fifth day when he'd been shackled and tugged toward the exit, it was Ronin waiting for him at the end of the hallway, not Isla. Giving the hunter a weighty expression that tried to communicate far too many things at once and thus probably said nothing at all, he waited for his friend to finish signing him out that they might get a safe distance away from things to talk.

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

Things certainly had been going on at the medical wing, such that even Ronin had been restlessly waiting for the chance to actually see his friend for days now. (You know, since they'd been planning this whole go to the liquor store thing for what felt like forever). His shoulders relax automatically to see Remi appear without any new signs of injury, exaggerated, psychological or otherwise, and Ronin signs him out swiftly so they might begin walking towards the tunnels.

"How are you?" he blurts once they're far enough away that he might safely unleash the wendigo without raising suspicion. "And how is Isla? They said she was off sick." He didn't know the scientist took sick days, assuming that perhaps someone had intervened in her project to make her disappear for a time. But gods, honestly it's just good to see Remi again; he's not to know, of course, that the other man's affections now lay elsewhere.

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

"Sick? And you believe that?" The wendigo tutts skeptically under his breath before giving his head a stilted shake. "I cannot even get sick and I find it hard to believe that she would stay away this long, especially after..." Having kept to himself for what felt like an eternity, the words he hadn't meant to say spill out almost in their entirety before the wendigo can clamp his teeth around them. Certainly this wasn't how he planned on telling Ronin that he'd slept with Isla, especially not having just slept with Ronin twice the day before. "..well, you know." Remi concludes lamely, before drawing to a stop.

"It is really good to see you." In the darkness Remi's eyes flash an unsettling gold as they reflect the light, though the smile on his lips helps cut down the predatory air. "I thought...I mean, I assumed I would get to see you sooner and then when you did not come and Isla did not..I...." Truthfully, he'd utterly thought the worst. "Part of me wondered if something had happened and everyone was just...gone."

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

"Not for a second, but that's the line they fed me," Ronin murmurs, his brows furrowing only for surprise to send them right up again. "I do not know," he says, his voice dropping to the hushed whisper of gossip as he hurries them towards the tunnels. "But I can take a bloody good guess. Remi, that's--" He's smiling because he knows the wendigo has been lusting after the good doctor for possibly years now, but of course there's something bittersweet in the expression.

"Congratulations," he says eventually, clapping the other man on the shoulder. "But obviously... not. If she's disappeared," he quickly adds. "And I thought I'd have been able to see you sooner too, but apparently all of your outings are signed off by Isla when it's not for a hunt, and without her around, the science wing is basically useless."

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

Ronin's smile would have hurt the wendigo had Remi the capacity for feelings at that moment. Instead, the best he can do in response is to lower his eyes and bite at the inside of one cheek. "I did not mean for it to happen." He murmurs, almost apologetically before trying to shake off Ronin's clap of congratulations as if it were something damp and cold. "We were just going to go out, the way you and I did. But...then she had to drop something off in his apartment, and..." It was easy not to smile at the memory or to flush the way a human would have; as a wendigo Remi didn't even need to breathe or blink, making his explanation perhaps all the more chilling and less genuine sounding.

Rather stiffly the wendigo tries for one of Ronin's hands. "I..." Don't know what this means? Like you both? He could lean forward and kiss the hunter softly or even cup one hand against his jawline, but the movements would feel mechanical and though he'd never done it before, Remi was almost sure Ronin would be able to feel it.

"So...this is a hunt, then?"

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

"You don't have to make excuses for it," Ronin assures his friend, having paused just inside the tunnels where the light from undertown is less garish, the noise less smothering. "I have eyes - I've seen Isla. And to be honest I'm more worried about the fact that she's missing now..." What if someone had figured out what had happened? Surely that would have consequences for the wendigo as well, though.

Surprising no one more than himself, Ronin lets the other man take his hand, offering him a small smile for his trouble. "Well, it's the pretense of a hunt," he says. "I thought we could finally go to a certain liquor store, unless you had something else in mind? Some intense wendigo cuddles, maybe?"

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

"I just had not meant to blurt it out like that. Not after everything that we..." King Remi, he of the unfinished sentence could only shake his head before giving the hunter's hand a cold but intentional squeeze. "I know I might not seem like it, but I am sorry." And worried about Isla, but there was nothing he could do about that just now.

Grinning despite himself, and with Ronin's hand still in his, Remi raised a brow. "Intense wendigo cuddles, mm? As if there are any other kind." He would too, if the hunter wanted it of him, though somehow he doubted if either of them with find much satisfaction in Remi's overly stiff and far too strong arms.

"Certainly we could...you know, scout around topside, and if we happen to wander near to the liquor store, what of it?"

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Ronin

welcome to the playground, follow me
tell me your nightmares and fantasies

Simultaneously wondering what Remi has to be sorry about but also feeling glad to hear it, Ronin smiles down at their clasped hands and shrugs. "Hey, neither of us can say we didn't get what we wanted out of it," he points out, and before Remi can treat him to some too-cold, too-freakishly-strong, too-intense wendigo cuddles, the hunter steps forward to take the lead.

Changeling or not, Ronin is still warm and human, and though Remi is like hugging a marble statue, he's able to fit against him easily enough. "I'm happy for you. And I'll be even happier if we can get some good wine for you to try the next time you're human for an afternoon." Gods, presuming he can even continue that without Isla. "So let's go poach some liquor, yeah?"

sink into the wasteland underneath
stay for the night, I'll sell you a dream

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

Remi

Welcome to the wild, no heroes and villains
Welcome to the war, we've only begun

Frowning slightly before looking as though he was going to try and recall something he'd said earlier a bit like that gif of Nathan Fillion, Remi finds Ronin's arms around his shoulders and the words but I am not ready for you and I to end bubble up uncomfortably in the back of his throat.

Hugging Ronin back - gently - Remi sighs needlessly against his friend. "Gods, wouldn't that be nice." He mutters of the wine, before pulling back to smile softly in the dark. "Can I ask you something really stupid?" Knowing Ronin would almost instantly say yes, Remi releases his hold of the hunter that they might keep walking toward the ladder. "None of your...ahh...fae-things would protect against..." Remi would have blushed if he had the capacity, but as he didn't, the best the wendigo could do was visibly give himself a little shake.

"What if Isla really is sick, but it is from sleeping with me?" He wonders, voice low. "Like some sort of...wendigo std. But if that is the case then the reason you feel fine must be because of some...fae thing." But if there was no such fae thing, then Remi could finally shake off the idea that  Isla's disappearance was linked with having sex with him.

Higher and higher you chase it
It's deep in your blood, go and take it

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!