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+---- Thread: my love for you's a straight line (/showthread.php?tid=11595)
my love for you's a straight line - Remi - 06-27-2025
The sun’s just started its lazy climb, casting Torchline’s coast in warm gold and sleepy shadows, and the sand is already warm beneath their bare feet. The tide hums against the shore with the gentle rhythm of a long exhale, hels wheeling overhead, and the faint sizzle of oil from the breakfast taco stand still lingers in the air behind them.
Remi walks close enough that his arm brushes Ronin’s every few steps. One hand balances a wrapped taco—already half-devoured, the paper kissed with sauce—the other occasionally drifting toward Ronin’s to steal a pinch of slaw or fish when he thinks the Knight won’t notice. (He does. He always does.)
[say]"Mmm,"[/say] Remi hums around a mouthful, his seaglass eyes squinting into the light as he chews. [say]"Still the best fish tacos in all of Caido, even if I’m pretty sure that sauce is just hot seawater and veiled threats."[/say]
They walk a little farther before he tilts his head toward Ronin with a half-lazy smile. [say]"Hey, do you remember that wagon we lived in when we first got here?"[/say] His grin widens, boyish and crooked as he licks a bit of sauce from his thumb. [say]"Do you know what ever happened to it? I was just thinking about it the other day—how it used to creak every time we moved, and how we kept pretending we were definitely going to fix it."[/say] His voice is light, teasing, threaded through with fondness like an old, well-worn sweater.
He glances over, biting back a smile. [say]"What do you think? Think it collapsed into driftwood? Got turned into a fancy chicken coop?"[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Ronin - 06-27-2025
[say]"Are they? I wouldn't know - mine seems to be spontaneously disappearing at an alarming rate,"[/say] Ronin quips to his husband, glowering playfully at his straying hand and moving his own breakfast well out of reach so he can devour it without fearing for its integrity. [say]"You're right, though,"[/say] he mumbles after a large bite, wiping sauce from the corner of his mouth. [say]"And not even good threats."[/say] Still, the Knight is hardly going to complain, not with the morning sun drenching them with light and warmth and the whisper of the waves to accompany their stroll.
Finishing the rest of his taco in very good time (out of fear as much as enjoyment), only once he's finished and wiped his fingers off on a napkin does Ronin reach to snag Remi's hand in his own. [say]"Mm...?"[/say] He listens, relaxed and casual to the Bastion's imagining, a crooked smile slanting across his face.
[say]"Oh, maybe,"[/say] Ronin says, his tone one that suggests but definitely not, husband, [say]"Or maybe it's exactly where I left it all this time."[/say] Raising his eyebrows, gaze alighting with the mischief of a secret very well kept, he tugs Remi close enough to wrap an arm around him. [say]"Come on, I'll show you."[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Remi - 06-27-2025
Remi’s eyes narrow, suspicious and delighted in equal measure, even as he lets himself be tugged closer. [say]"If you’ve been hiding it from me all this time,"[/say] he says, mouth brushing close to Ronin’s ear as they walk, [say]"I hope you’ve at least been using it to house something important. Like a secret stash of my missing socks."[/say] He'd always blamed Sugar, but it wouldn't surprise him in the least to know that Ronin had been scheming up some long con.
His fingers tighten gently around the Knight's, and the smile that slips across his face is boyish in a way that’s rarely seen outside of mornings like this—mornings when the air smells like sea salt and grilled fish, and the world hasn’t demanded anything of them yet. [say]"And if it is where you left it, I swear to Mort I’ll be impressed,"[/say] he adds with a sideways glance, the corner of his mouth twitching upward. [say]"Then again, I suppose neither of us are surprised by my bad memory anymore."[/say] He presses in as Ronin wraps his arm around him, their steps falling into a lazy, sun-drunk rhythm.
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Ronin - 06-27-2025
[say]"I haven't been hiding it from you,"[/say] Ronin protests, [say]"so much as I've just been using it on and off since we moved back to Torchline."[/say] Which sounds awful and suggestive and vaguely threatening, and the Knight lets it hang in the air between them for a beat so he can offer his husband a sunny smile. [say]"I've just been using it to paint and to store canvases,"[/say] he clarifies, leaning in to smooch a few kisses to his husband's stubbled cheek. [say]"Kind of hard to find the space when we live in a floating house."[/say]
Heading off the beaten track from the beach and into the undergrowth, the Knight leaves his arm casually around Remi's shoulders and breathes in deep the bite of the salt and the sweetness of the flowers unfurling their petals to the morning light. [say]"Your memory is just fine,"[/say] he promises him. [say]"At least when it comes to the wagon. It's not going anywhere these days - pretty sure the wheel spokes have rusted, and they're half buried in sand anyway."[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Remi - 06-27-2025
Remi grins, teeth flashing as he lets out a low, amused sound. [say]"Mmm, well, if it’s more space you want, we could always tie a few extra boats to the Northaven,"[/say] he suggests, laughter curling into the edges of his words as he leans into the sudden fluttering of kisses. [say]"Turn it into a floating estate. One for clothes, one for painting, one for Sugar to hide her hoard of stolen things in."[/say]
His hand slips behind Ronin’s back, fingers toying with the hem of his shirt, and for a few perfect steps, it’s easy to pretend the world beyond the path doesn’t exist; that the salt and the light and the hush of leaves are enough. [say]"So have you actually been sneaking off to paint in here without my knowing, or simply storing paintings you've never let me see?"[/say] Either way, Remi will be offended, but better to hammer out the specifics before he accuses his husband of anything.
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Ronin - 06-27-2025
[say]"What, turn the Northaven into something like the Floating Marketplace in King's End?"[/say] Ronin asks with a grin, not at all sounding opposed to the idea. [say]"But instead of different stalls it's just different rooms of the house? We could tether up the Sugartide and La Verbena while we're at it, make it a family affair."[/say] Laughing now, if only because as much as he's on board with the suggestion, never could he imagine their children agreeing to such a thing, Ronin lets his fingers strum idly along Remi's upper arm and turns them down a much less-travelled trail through the undergrowth.
[say]"...Yes,"[/say] he says slowly in response to what exactly he's been doing out here at their old, old wagon, fully expecting to get no shortage of shit for it. [say]"Listen, you've got your lifeguard duties when you go and play with the pirate ships. And I've got... this."[/say] Shooting the other man a hopeful glance, he gestures vaguely ahead where a small, incredibly rickety shape almost overtaken by a tangle of vines is coming into view. [say]"Ta daaaa?"[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Remi - 06-27-2025
Remi tilts his head, expression thoughtful in the way only he can manage when humour and skepticism blend together. [say]"The marketplace in King’s End always looked like a graveyard for boats that got too sentimental to leave,"[/say] he muses. [say]"We’d never be so reckless. Besides, we could always just lift them out if they got stuck."[/say]
He chuckles as Ronin turns them down the quieter path, brushing a few stray leaves from his shoulder. [say]"Though gods, you’re right. I can already hear Mateo giving a twenty-minute lecture about moisture damage, and Flora threatening to throw a party on each boat just to prove a point."[/say] There’s no sharpness to it, no sting. Just a fond, exaggerated roll of his eyes like he’s learned to expect nothing less from their wonderfully infuriating children.
But as the shape of the wagon starts to take form ahead, Remi’s expression shifts. The breath he draws in is quiet but caught, a soft hiss slipping between his teeth as the vines part and memory spills into view. All of it comes back—not just the creaking wheels and the smell of damp wood, but the salt-soaked nights they spent huddled inside, the ache of starting over, the sharp joy of building something that was just theirs.
[say]"Alright then,"[/say] he says, softer now. [say]"Let's see what you've been hiding while I've been playing coastguard."[/say] Then, almost under his breath, as his hand grazes the old wood: [say]"I remember when you could barely finish a sketch without getting frustrated."[/say] His smile deepens, crooked and fond. [say]"Now look at you. With a secret studio."[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Ronin - 06-28-2025
[say]"Well I absolutely don't believe that,"[/say] Ronin objects, [say]"we've been reckless and then some lots of times, even in the past week alone."[/say] But he supposes he can understand where Remi is coming from when it comes to their potentially floating estate. And yes, there's always the advantage of being able to literally lift and shift things should the moment call for it. With those thoughts still dancing through his mind, he's smiling to himself as the wagon appears before them, letting the imagined sound of Mateo and Flora's scolding fade into his daydreams.
For Ronin it isn't quite as stark a shift down memory lane, given that he's been tiptoeing along to this place semi-regularly for a while now, though something softens in his expression to see Remi take it all in; the sun-bleached and sea-battered wood, the vines trying to creep through every knot and crack, the wheels long rusted and buried in the white sand. At what he's been hiding, though, Ronin's smile falters, and the Bastion will feel the sharp scratch of grief in all the places they touch long before the Knight is able to extract himself.
[say]"It's nothing groundbreaking,"[/say] he promises, moving to unlatch and open the wagon to reveal the canvasses. Mostly small, surrounded by clustered rolls of parchment from larger sketches that hadn't made it to paint, it's the faces of their children, mainly, that shine back out at them. Mateo and Flora, Seren and Enzo and Aoife - of course Aoife - in splashes of vibrant watercolour or smears of gouache.
[say]"Seren kept talking about making a studio,"[/say] Ronin says quietly. [say]"I was going to help her, but..."[/say] He shrugs. [say]"So I keep them here instead."[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Remi - 06-28-2025
Remi snorts, short and breathy. [say]"Reckless is our love language,"[/say] he agrees, though his grin dims a little as they reach the wagon, the half-joked words left to trail behind them like seafoam. He steps forward, still amused, still curious—but the emotion that curls up from Ronin the moment their hands brush is enough to stop him mid-stride.
The grief is sharp. It scrapes against his senses like wind through broken glass, and without realising it, Remi holds his breath. The latch opens, the wood groans, and the moment shifts, and...he finds he suddenly can't speak.
The watercolour gazes of children they’ve loved—still love, will always love—stare back at him with eyes too bright, too alive, to belong to memory alone. Seren’s hair like starlight. Enzo’s crooked smile. Aoife. He stops. His body stills in a way it rarely does, even his breath held hostage by the sudden and devastating quiet inside him. Then, without thinking, he reaches for Ronin.
His hand finds his husband’s with the kind of grip that would break lesser men, but the way his fingers tighten is less about strength and more about desperation. As if clinging to him might keep the ghosts at bay, even now. [say]"I didn’t know,"[/say] he whispers, the words dry and cracked. [say]"About Seren wanting a studio.."[/say]
He swallows hard, then pulls Ronin into him, arms wrapping around the other man like they’re on the edge of a cliff and the drop is real, and close, and hungry. Remi’s eyes press shut, his forehead resting heavy against Ronin’s shoulder as he exhales against the ache rising behind his ribs.
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Ronin - 06-28-2025
[say]"It was only a quick conversation,"[/say] Ronin says, having to clear away the roughness in his throat before speaking even as Remi snags at his fingers and brings with it the cascade of his grief, like a wall of sand falling away with the tide. [say]"It never really came to anything. A lot of what we talked about, what she wanted to do..."[/say] It had never gone anywhere, and the Knight's eyes lowers almost guiltily away from the children that gaze out at them, both dead and alive.
Letting out a deep sigh and turning into Remi's arms, he embraces him hard in turn, nosing into soft curls and holding him against his chest like they're a lifeline to one another. Like if they only hold each other tightly enough, they'll find a way to keep from bursting apart at the seams. [say]"Sorry,"[/say] he mumbles, half a laugh coming out with the apology, [say]"I didn't mean to put a downer on the morning. I forgot what was in here until we were right there, and..."[/say]
And they'll never be ready, not really, to look at those they've lost without feeling at least some part of those old wounds rip open.
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Remi - 06-28-2025
Remi nods, not because Ronin can see it, but because he feels it—knows exactly what he means. Those little moments, the offhand dreams shared by children who never got the chance to grow into them, echoing now like unfinished sentences. Their lives had always felt stretched out before them like the ocean, endless and full of time. And now? It all just slips away, like sand through open fingers.
He doesn’t let Ronin apologize—not really. Remi exhales roughly, shaking his head where it rests against his husband’s shoulder. [say]"Don’t,"[/say] he murmurs, voice low and raw. [say]"You don’t need to be sorry."[/say] His arms tighten once more, holding Ronin like the act might ward off the memory of all the times they couldn’t hold them.
His breath slows eventually, heavy and measured as his eyes flick back toward the wagon—toward the still, painted gaze of Seren, of Aoife, of Enzo. It’s too much and not enough, all at once.
[say]"They’re really good, you know,"[/say] he says after a long, hushed moment, though the words land quiet and awkward in the air. Like he’s complimenting the light in a mausoleum. Like he should whisper. He reaches out, hand brushing against the wagon’s doorway. His thumb hooks gently against a weather-warped edge of wood—too gentle to be deliberate, too knowing to be accidental—and a small splinter cracks off beneath the pad of his thumb. He doesn’t react. Just lets it fall into his palm, light and brittle like a memory.
[say]"One day,"[/say] Remi murmurs, eyes still fixed on the ghost-lit gallery inside, [say]"we should find somewhere for them. Somewhere they can...belong."[/say] His voice hitches faintly, because he doubts if either of them are ready for that.
[say]"Maybe a gallery in Haulani. We could name it after Seren."[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Ronin - 06-28-2025
Still feeling further apologies burn on his tongue and turn to ash, in the end Ronin huffs out a shaky sigh and nods against his husband's curls, holding him close and warm for as long as they both need to glue back together the parts of themselves that have started to crack open. He doesn't need to say it, doesn't even need to think it through the Attuned bond; everywhere they touch is like liquid gold melting together with cool bursts of starlight and deep fire. Gods, I love you.
[say]"You think so...?"[/say] Ronin smiles weakly, not noticing the flake of wood Remi collects from the wagon door, his eyes raising to the faces of their watching children, the majority of them from a plane so apart from their own that sometimes the Knight isn't even sure he's remembering them right. [say]"I forgot what good looks like, honestly. Sometimes I just need to... get it out."[/say] Stepping out of his husband's grip for just a moment, Ronin reaches to close up the wagon door again.
[say]"Yeah? I think I'd like that..."[/say] If he couldn't help her make a studio, at least he might be able to help keep her memory alive in a way she'd enjoy.
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Remi - 06-28-2025
Remi’s love answers back through every breath, every thread of golden magic stitched quietly into their bond. The ache remains—it always will—but wrapped in it now is something firmer, something steadier. He chuckles softly, pulling back just enough to see Ronin’s face. [say]"Yes, I think so,"[/say] he says emphatically, and there’s no room for doubt in the way his eyes glow with pride. [say]"They’re beautiful. You’ve always been better than you thought you were."[/say] Pausing, he smiles before adding: [say]"At just about everything, in fact."[/say]
At the mention of needing to get it out, Remi nods, the motion slow and thoughtful. [say]"I know what you mean."[/say] His voice softens, the words spoken more to the memory of who they both were than who they are now. [say]"Maybe we both need to make more things that don’t have to mean anything when we're feeling..."[/say] overwhelmed wasn't quite the right word, but the helpless way the Bastion shrugs suggests he isn't going to try and search for anything better.
He steps aside as Ronin reaches to close the wagon, and something in him aches as the door shuts—not in resistance, but in reverence. Like part of his soul is being tucked carefully away. Like grief and hope can be folded together and laid gently to rest. But even as it closes, something else stirs—newer, tentative, possible.
Reaching for Ronin’s hand, Remi laces their fingers tightly, grounding himself there. His thumb sweeps over the back of the Knight’s hand, and he leans in to whisper, voice threaded with emotion that doesn’t need to be loud to be heard: [say]"I love you."[/say] Then, taking a breath, his smile softens. [say]"So. What do you want to do with the rest of today?"[/say] he asks, tugging Ronin just slightly closer. [say]"Artist's choice."[/say]
RE: my love for you's a straight line - Ronin - 06-28-2025
Ronin's protests die on his tongue, melting into something warm and uncertain, but he letting himself enjoy the praise for what it is. If a faint pink does dust across his cheeks, though, that's between he and Remi, and he leans in to press a soft kiss to the other man's forehead. [say]"Maybe we do,"[/say] he agrees, making sure that the wagon is securely closed up before dropping back, leaving his arm wound around the Bastion as if worried he might lose this sense of calm if he lets him go.
[say]"Perhaps we can take up pottery together. We can always smash what we've made afterwards if it doesn't make us feel better initially,"[/say] he suggests, finally allowing them to separate enough to keep only their hands entwined, Ronin smiling at the words almost pressed to the shell of his ear. [say]"And I love you,"[/say] he whispers back, turning his head to sneak a kiss to Remi's face, wherever it might land.
As for what now, the Knight is already considering it as they slowly begin to meander away from the old wagon. [say]"All this time in Torchline,"[/say] he says slowly, [say]"and we've never once tried surfing. I think I'd like to give that a go - after we get liquored up though, obviously..."[/say]
~FIN