all the eyes look up

RONIN

THE WHITE KNIGHT

"Oh... I don't like this place." Ronin's voice is swallowed up in the chamber, its echo immediately snuffed out by the pulsing rhythm of the walls. Automatically he steps closer to Remi, an arm slipping around him despite the way their damp clothes make any contact immediately unpleasant. He has to keep telling himself that the void is gone, that the Family is gone, but the weight of the Antechamber is much more than physical, and he finds himself double-checking every shadow regardless.

Stepping slowly and carefully across suddenly pristine flagstones, even the air here feels old, like it's been waiting patiently for company this whole time. Drawn by the sight of a broken pod, the firebolts that suddenly ignite around Ronin are entirely instinctive; every muscle grows taut, waiting to have to dodge or brace or attack, and he hasn't realised it yet, but he's holding his breath.

Only when it starts to scream in his lungs does he let it out in a shuddering sigh, tearing his eyes off the pod and instead keeping his gaze forward, towards the end of the chamber. "Is this where they all came from?" he asks, voice low and quiet now, like he's worried he might wake something up if he talks too loud.

now don’t you lose hope

I swear I never dream that we’re alone

I swear I still believe but I don’t know

REMI

The moment Remi steps into the chamber, something tightens low in his chest; memory without memory, instinct forged in the long shadow of a war they never quite got to fight in the way they’d braced themselves for. The humid heat of the Breach evaporates into something colder, older, something that feels like a hand pressed over the mouth of his soul.

As Ronin moves closer, damp clothes clinging unpleasantly where they press together, Remi leans in all the same, taking the weight of him without hesitation. The firebolts that ignite around the Knight don’t so much as twitch Remi’s expression; instead, his hand drifts to Ronin’s hip, fingers stroking a slow, soothing line meant less to quiet the flames than the man summoning them.

"Probably", he murmurs, voice subdued to match the thrum of the walls. The pulse in the stone seems to vibrate through his bones, and he lets out a slow breath as he scans the broken pods, the jagged openings, the emptiness inside them, the sealed ones that somehow look worse. "Hadn’t Vox mentioned there were more of them? Just waiting?" The thought makes something cold coil down his spine.

He gives his head a small, unhappy shake, as if to loosen the idea before it sets root. Then—because he knows Ronin, because he knows himself—Remi tries on a crooked smirk. It doesn’t quite reach his eyes but it carries the shape of comfort as he nudges Ronin lightly with his shoulder. "I bet at some point you would have been dragged down here to help," he says, keeping his tone just this side of teasing. Then he nods toward a random shadowed alcove, picking a spot with all the authority of someone inventing a history that never had the chance to happen. "And I bet you would have done something very heroic and charming over there."

His glance flicks back, sea-glass eyes softening as they study the firelight haloing Ronin’s face. "Probably saved us all while looking very handsome," he adds, voice wry but warm, fingers still ghosting steady comfort at the Knight’s hip. "Maybe you'd have even been given a new monicker for it."

Now don't you look so grand, runnin'
Through the reds of my traffic lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

RONIN

THE WHITE KNIGHT

"Yeah, I think he did," Ronin mutters of Vox, lip curling in distaste and his body leaning automatically into Remi's, as if the very space they stand in might somehow sink into all their exposed places and leave them stained purple. His firebolts flicker a touch as his husband - effortlessly as ever - offers his comfort, a few of them remaining at the ready, but no longer is the Knight haloed in a ring of celestial fire.

Instead, nosing a kiss into Remi's damp curls, he glances to the remaining pods; empty, innocuous, but somehow all the more foreboding for it, and lets out a sigh. "I hate to even imagine what would have happened if more of the Family had woken up down here."

Luckily for Ronin, the man at his side is doing plenty of imagining for them both, and it's less about emerging void-horror and more comical heroics. Trying and failing to stop the smile from twitching at his lips, the Knight presses another kiss to Remi's hair and gives him a theatrical groan for his trouble. "Not another moniker," he complains.

"What would it be, I wonder? The vorpal sword? The void cleaver? Oh, how about Ronin Taliesin, the Family Annihilator?" Grinning and shaking his head, they walk a few steps further through the strange chamber.

"If I had been dragged down here, it wouldn't have been without you. I bet you'd have held the line right where we're standing, looking totally unbothered while Pierce tried to punch you out of the island."

now don’t you lose hope

I swear I never dream that we’re alone

I swear I still believe but I don’t know

REMI

Remi inhales slowly through his nose, the scent of damp stone and something old enough to make his instincts bristle sinking into his lungs. For a flicker of a moment his mind begins constructing shapes—faces, limbs, silhouettes of the Family-that-never-woke—but he pushes them away with deliberate force, refusing to give the chamber the satisfaction of feeding those images.

Instead, he lets himself grin—boyish, crooked—as he glances sidelong at Ronin. "Vorpal," he repeats, wrinkling his nose like the word itself tastes wrong; too pretentious, too purple. The expression collapses almost instantly into laughter when Ronin offers Family Annihilator, the sound echoing strangely in the chamber before being swallowed by its heartbeat-thrum. Getting his laughter under control, Remi lifts a brow, smirk lingering. "I would have held the line only so you could revive whoever Pierce managed to kill with the Rapier," he says dryly.

His gaze drifts forward again, following the strange eldritch symbols pulsing gently on the walls. A sigh escapes him, quiet but thoughtful. "Do you think he made off with it?" he asks, glancing upward at Ronin with a tilt of his head. "Or do you think it’s lying around somewhere down here?"

Now don't you look so grand, runnin'
Through the reds of my traffic lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

RONIN

THE WHITE KNIGHT

Remi's laughter does more to shatter through Ronin's reservations than anything else so far. The sound is contagious, the Knight grinning boyishly in the wake of it, and already the Antechamber feels much less serious than when they'd initially stepped inside. "Thank the gods for you," he mutters, almost to himself, sneaking a kiss to Remi's cheek before he withdraws enough to look around properly. The firebolts all snuff out at last, but he's shining with a warm radiance now thanks to his husband's efforts.

"Ugggggh, that rapier," he groans when it's brought up, Ronin stepping along the side of the chamber now to examine the broken pods (and pointedly not stare into any of the ones that are still intact but empty). "I fully believe that asshole made off with it. He's terrorising some other world somewhere now with it in hand." And that thought isn't a kind one, really, the Knight sighing and glancing over his shoulder to Remi.

"In all seriousness though, if there are other worlds out there, I hope they aren't suffering because we let those fuckers go," he mutters.

now don’t you lose hope

I swear I never dream that we’re alone

I swear I still believe but I don’t know

REMI

Remi’s chuckle is warm and easy, right up until Ronin’s lips brush his cheek. The sound cuts off in a startled, almost twitterpated inhale that he absolutely fails to disguise, his breath catching as heat blooms across his skin. He glances back over his shoulder with a lopsided, half-melted smile, voice softening to something fond and teasing all at once. "No...you," he counters, letting himself drink in the sight of the overwhelmingly handsome man he married, lit now with a warm, steady glow instead of anxious fire.

He releases Ronin so the Knight can wander and investigate, running a hand through his dripping curls in an attempt to tame them (not even remotely successfully). When Ronin mentions the rapier again, Remi lifts his brows and exhales an exasperated sigh. "If nothing else," he says, tone matter-of-fact, "I bet whatever magic it had likely stopped powering it the moment the Family left Caido." Then, with a decidedly petty grin curling at his lips, he adds, "Hopefully he went to use it, nothing happened, and he immediately got his ass handed to him." The mental image pleases him far too much, and Ronin will feel the smug satisfaction pulse down the bond like a warm flicker of candlelight.

As for the heavier part—the other worlds, the guilt that tries to settle around Ronin’s heart—Remi shakes his head gently, curls dripping onto his shoulders. It’s not that he hasn’t thought about it; it’s that he knows better than to pretend either of them can solve the philosophy of multiversal ethics while standing in front of eldritch pods in a void-scarred cave. "Hopefully," he says quietly, "if there are other worlds, they pick on someone even more alien than they are, and the cycle stops." He pauses, before smirking. "Or perhaps they’ll come across an entire race of people who want to be enslaved, and it will all work out very nicely."

Now don't you look so grand, runnin'
Through the reds of my traffic lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

RONIN

THE WHITE KNIGHT

It's a refreshing thought, and one that Ronin evidently hasn't considered, that Wilde's Rapier would stop being able to harness Mort's power once it was... you know, out of Mort's jurisdiction, and the realisation is all over his face. "If only we could have harnessed some of whatever weird power Vox had to be able to see it happen from here," he remarks, not bothering to hide the smile that sneaks across his face in response to the smug satisfaction rippling through their bond. "I'd have watched it on a loop for days."

And no, he wouldn't have gotten bored even for a moment, not after the score he'd never quite been able to settle with Pierce.

As for the other matter, Ronin has long stopped trying to understand how Remi manages it, but with a few simple words and a couple of imagined scenarios, any guilt he'd been starting to feel completely melts away. "Where do you get off being the way you are, huh?" he teases, stepping back over to the Bastion to clasp his cheeks and bring him in for an obnoxious kiss. "Only you, in the depths of a weird alien island, can make jokes and have it seem completely normal."

now don’t you lose hope

I swear I never dream that we’re alone

I swear I still believe but I don’t know

REMI

Remi snickers, the sound echoing faintly off the pulsing stone as he nods along with Ronin’s delightfully vindictive fantasy. "I wonder if that’s the sort of thing Safrin could do," he muses aloud, eyebrows lifting. "Watching someone’s foolishness on repeat for entertainment seems very on brand for her." A shrug follows, soft and resigned. "And given how much the Family affected her...I would not be surprised if she kept tabs on them. Just to make sure they stay very far away."

He barely has time to react before Ronin’s hands are on his cheeks, pulling him forward into an exaggerated, obnoxious kiss that makes Remi’s laughter puff warmly against his husband’s mouth. Lifting his hands, smooths back Ronin’s damp hair with tender precision, his thumbs tracing slow lines along the Knight’s temples. He leans in until their noses brush, breath mingling, the warmth between them stronger than the pulsing gloom of the chamber. "Babe," he says, tone thick with affectionate amusement, "I am sorry to apparently be the one to tell you this, but this is normal for us now."

He grins, letting his forehead rest against Ronin’s. "Weird alien island, eldritch pods, imaginary vengeance, and you kissing me like we’re teenagers in a broom closet." His fingers slip lightly down Ronin’s jaw. "All completely normal for us these days."

Now don't you look so grand, runnin'
Through the reds of my traffic lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

RONIN

THE WHITE KNIGHT

Where once mention of Safrin's name would have had Ronin's jaw tightening and his body growing subtly tense, nowadays he merely offers an agreeable laugh, eyes twinkling with mischief at the idea of visiting the lady of the stars on a spite quest.

"Oh, of that I have no doubt. Not sure if she was able to keep tabs on them since they left Caido, but if she did I hope she's gotten to see every misstep and failure." And that she'd be willing to share a highlight reel if Ronin ever goes to her shrine with popcorn as an offering.

But - as usual, and it had often been a source of friction between he and the goddess - as Remi's hands brush through his hair and he leans in close enough to share breath, everything else falls away. The ominous, pulsing chamber they stand within, the layers of Starfall they've crossed to get here, the fights and losses they'd suffered at the hands of the Family; all of it is second to brilliant, seaglass green and a touch he chases like an addict with a craving.

"Well when you put it like that," he mumbles, turning his head to try and land a kiss to Remi's fingertips, "I suppose we ought to be glad that it's just eldritch pods and imagined revenge, instead of anything weird."

now don’t you lose hope

I swear I never dream that we’re alone

I swear I still believe but I don’t know

REMI

Remi chuckles, warm and boyish, shoulders lifting in a shrug that says he can picture every absurd detail of the scenario—him and Ronin showing up at Safrin’s shrine with a bucket of popcorn and a petty request—but also that neither of them would ever actually follow through on such nonsense. The image lingers anyway, delightful in its impossibility, softening the edges of the chamber around them.

Then Ronin’s lips brush his fingertips and the reaction is instant. Heat rushes through Remi like a spark dropped into dry tinder; belly warming, breath catching, his spine arching just a touch as a soft, shaky sound escapes him before he can stop it. His lashes flutter, and when he exhales, the laugh that follows is breathless in a way that betrays exactly how good that tiny kiss felt. "Yeah," he manages, voice low and a little wrecked before it smooths back into something teasing. "Weird would absolutely be a mood-ruiner."

He draws in a steadier breath, sliding one hand down Ronin’s arm in a lingering stroke before he finally pulls his gaze toward the far end of the chamber. The symbols on the walls pulse in a slow, eerie rhythm, and the door at the end—massive, eldritch, carved with something that looks far too alive—waits like a held breath. Remi lifts a brow, the expression half challenge, half invitation, violet light catching in his sea-glass eyes. "Ready," he murmurs, tilting his head toward the ominous threshold, "to see what's behind that creepy door?"

Now don't you look so grand, runnin'
Through the reds of my traffic lights

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

RONIN

THE WHITE KNIGHT

No, Remi, Ronin is not ready to see what lies beyond the ominous threshold at the very heart of Starfall, not when you're making noises like that and melting against him like every fantasy worth having. Grumbling a sound in the back of his throat and reluctantly tearing his gaze away from the man in his arms, the Knight rounds on the pulsing purple door, drawing his husband close against his side instead.

"I suppose," he mutters, as they saunter towards the very core of the island as if on some leisurely day trip somewhere, "it would be silly to leave before seeing the best the Family had to offer. I wouldn't want any gaps in my report to Flora either."

Even so, Ronin can't help but hover before this final door, nose wrinkling with distaste. "We get to treat ourselves after this, though," he decides, turning his head to kiss Remi's curls - and giving the door a good shove to send it silently easing open.

~FIN

now don’t you lose hope

I swear I never dream that we’re alone

I swear I still believe but I don’t know