[se] a little bit of love goes a long way tonight

the bastion

Swear I'll start using my words
If I don't lose, how can I learn?

Ronin had long since held the title of being the king of grand and thoughtful gestures, but that didn't mean the Bastion wasn't want to try and usurp his husband's crown, if only for a short while.

"Okay, now take a really large step—" There's nothing for Ronin to step over as Remi guides the Knight, blindfolded, across the beach, but the opportunity is too good to pass up. "Perfect, nearly there."

There is a little sandy inlet that Remi has taken pains to make even more private by adding large screens around its border to prevent Torchers who were out for a stroll from interrupting his plans. Placed in the center was the massive canvas (nearly the size of a twin-bed), surrounded by several lit upright sconces and volcanic rocks to help hold in the heat. Torchline might not have been cold during DeepFrost, but for what the Bastion had planned, he wanted them both to feel comfortable.

"Tadaaa." Remi announced, indicating that Ronin could remove his blindfold.

Can't heal unless your heart hurts
I'll try waiting my turn

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

even my darkness shines for you

Effortlessly trusting of his husband - for better or for worse as the case may currently be - of course the blindfolded Knight takes a comically large step over absolutely nothing as he's ferried along the beach. "If you have taken us all across this sand just to unblindfold me back at the boat..." Trailing off into a laugh, Ronin both does and doesn't expect Remi to have done just that.

Still, as they finally fall to a stop and he's allowed to remove his blindfold, the Knight finds himself blinking into the sudden light and having to wait until his eyes adjust before he can fully comprehend what the other man has arranged. "Is that...?" It's a canvas. Ronin, the artist, knows very well that it's a gigantic canvas, and it's with slowly dawning delight on his face that he realises what it might possible be used for.

"You didn't," he whispers, hooking an arm around Remi's waist to tug him close against his side, blue eyes alight with mischief. "In public?"

the

WHITEKNIGHT

Table coding by Sky

the bastion

Swear I'll start using my words
If I don't lose, how can I learn?

"Yeah? What would you do?" Remi counters, grinning mischievously at the blinded-folded Knight who will have to contend himself with feeling the Bastion's boyish delight rather than seeing it on his face.

"It is." Remi confirms, sounding smug and pleased that Ronin seemed to have pieced it all together. Tugged almost off his feet, the Bastion wraps his arms around his husband's neck before raising an eyebrow in an expression of utter innocence. "But I put up all these screens?" He protests, glancing over his shoulder as if to emphasize their presence. "And I am sure we can be quieter than the crashing of the waves." Whether or not that was true wasn't up for debate given the way Remi leaned forward to steal a long and slow kiss from his husband's lips.

"Besides, it is art. We are allowed to make art."

Can't heal unless your heart hurts
I'll try waiting my turn

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

even my darkness shines for you

"I would complain about it to you, very briefly, before deciding I didn't mind. Gotta get my steps in these days, you know," Ronin fires back with a bounce of his eyebrows, both his arms looping around his husband's waist as he leans against him. Glancing around at the screens as if seeing them for the very first time, he thinks a very well placed PRIVATE sign might have also been a good plan, but... well. If anyone looks, they'll soon understand it, if not necessarily regret it.

"Mm, I'm not so sure that's true--" the Knight begins, only to be thoroughly silenced by Remi's kiss. Surprised as always by the surge of love and desire that crashes through him - and their bond, coincidentally - as well as its intensity, Ronin pins the other man closer even as he forces his lips to part.

"We are," he agrees in a soft voice. "Torchline could use more art too, I would say. Where are the paints?"

the

WHITEKNIGHT

Table coding by Sky

the bastion

Swear I'll start using my words
If I don't lose, how can I learn?

"We both do. According to Flora, at least." Indeed, their daughter had reminded each of them at every occasion how poorly they'd done in the Tournament. It was two against one. TWICE. And you lost. BOTH TIMES.

Intoxicated by the Knight as strongly as the first time they'd ever been together, as the pair part, Ronin will see a coral flush dancing up Remi's cheeks and across the bridge of his nose, before deepening around his dimples. "Where are the...what?" Having let his hands roam around to give his husband's ass an appreciable squeeze, Remi grins and nods over one shoulder. "I tried not to get too many. I wanted the colours to feel holistic overall." He explains with a shrug. It might have sounded pretentious or a poor man's way of saying "this was all I could afford", but given that both men had found painting rather enjoyable over the years, it was no surprise that Remi took their palette seriously, even if they were literally going to fuck around on their canvas.

In a basket, Ronin would see several shades of blue (one so dark it looked nearly black), a few of green, white, and a tube of yellow with real flakes of gold.

"I also brought some gin, fruit, cheese, and pastries."

Can't heal unless your heart hurts
I'll try waiting my turn

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

even my darkness shines for you

"I love Flora, but I do not want to think of her right now," Ronin says gently, a mischievous smile on his face that brooks no argument. Besides, this might still count as getting their steps in, right? (A Fitbit might say so, not that either Taliesin knows what one is to be able to use it as evidence).

Wishing suddenly that he had his own paints and a canvas so he might capture and perfectly preserve the colour of Remi's blush, alas, the Knight can only bask in the real thing for as long as the other man will let him. And if nothing else, it will give him an excuse to bring a flush to the Bastion's cheeks again and again and again.

"Did you now," he hums, glancing towards the paints and gently ferrying them forward and towards them, even as warm hands try to draw Remi's shirt over his head. "Well. I can't wait to see what we make together. We can enjoy everything else afterwards, while we admire our artistry." Which is code for take off your pants, I don't care about gin as much as I care about the feel of you all over me.

the

WHITEKNIGHT

Table coding by Sky

the bastion

Swear I'll start using my words
If I don't lose, how can I learn?

A FitBit absolutely would say so, and if that isn't good enough for Flora, the Bastion is out of ideas.

Chuckling under his breath as he aids his husband in tugging off his shirt, the Bastion turns to encourage the Knight to do the same. "I am realizing now that I should probably have warmed the paint up ahead of time. I apologize in advance." Remi laughs, hopping on one foot to kick off one shoe and then the other, before starting on his pants.

They'd been together too long to shed their clothes slowly, but it was with no less enthusiasm than when they'd been much younger men. Quickly Remi, that is, the paintbrush, is entirely nude. Reaching for the middle shade of blue—Antwerp Blue, the colour he thought best approximated the colour of his husband's eyes—Remi turned toward Ronin with the tube held in one hand. "Come here." He beckoned, his voice charmingly soft despite the boyish twinkle in his eyes.

Can't heal unless your heart hurts
I'll try waiting my turn

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

even my darkness shines for you

"I'm sure we'll find ways to warm it up," Ronin says with a boyish laugh, wiggling out of his shirt and casting it aside on the sand, caring nothing for the state it and his other clothes might be in at the end of all this. And whilst the Knight might disagree - that there are definitely times where he'd undress his husband slowly and reverently, like a gift - here and now simply isn't one of them, and he's still laughing as he hops to try and kick off his pants.

More than content to be the canvas upon which Remi starts to paint, as he finds himself - at last - in a similar state of undress, Ronin doesn't need to be asked a second time. "Just remember, it's my turn after this," he warns, as if to pre-empt any mischief with matching energy, whatever the Bastion should decide. Nevertheless it's with a crooked smile that Ronin closes the distance between them, leaning in to drop a few kisses against the side of Remi's neck as he does so.

Whether this is meant to serve as encouragement or a distraction? He'll never tell.

the

WHITEKNIGHT

Table coding by Sky

the bastion

Swear I'll start using my words
If I don't lose, how can I learn?

With the tube held almost threateningly aloft at the Knight, Remi pauses thoughtfully as Ronin's warning is given. Seeming to rethink his plans—entirely of his own accord, of course—instead, the Bastion raises his shoulder with playful petulance to ward off the Knight's kisses.

Spurting out an entirely appropriate amount of paint onto his fingers, Remi lifts his gaze in an attempt to measure how accurately he'd selected this particular paint colour. No one shade could ever properly capture the blue of Ronin's eyes, not with their fae-bright hues or storm clouds, but Remi found he wasn't unhappy with his selection now that he could compare in person.

"We should be naked on the beach more often." The Bastion muses as he adds a bit of blue to the black ink spilling across his husband's shoulder. Using his hand as a palette, Remi paints across the various scars that silver Ronin's body with a faint smile.

Can't heal unless your heart hurts
I'll try waiting my turn

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

even my darkness shines for you

Lifting his chin at the tube of paint in the same way one might do to a sword levelled at them, Ronin nonetheless waits expectantly for his husband to make his choice, whatever that happens to be (and with whatever consequences). Scoffing as his kisses are summarily shrugged away once they begin, the Knight can at least attest to the fact that the paint is, in fact, quite cold.

He doesn't shrink away from the Baston's ministrations, but he does jump a bit as the pigment is streaked across his skin at first, unconsciously huddling closer - and perhaps transferring a smudge of blue onto Remi as a result, so sue him. "Should we?" he asks, voice pitched a little higher as his eyebrows raise to disappear beneath his dark hair. "In Deepfrost?"

Laughing and letting out a deep and stoic breath that has him starting to relax into the brushstrokes of his husband's fingers, it isn't long before Ronin can tune out the temperature for the feel of the man using him as a canvas. And maybe Remi is at risk of becoming bluer by the second, if the way the Knight keeps trying to sneak kisses is any indication.

the

WHITEKNIGHT

Table coding by Sky

the bastion

Swear I'll start using my words
If I don't lose, how can I learn?

"I see no reason why we shouldn't." Remi mutters casually, raising an eyebrow in return before brushing his palm over one of his husband's nipples as if to erase any evidence that it might be a little nipply out.

Doing his best to huff and seem appropriately bothered by the Knight's relentless affection (Remi had never been much of an actor, such that the adoration in his green eyes utterly gave him away), the Bastion continues to trace the lines of scar and muscle alike before pausing and frowning. "You know, I have just realized..." Biting at his lip and glancing at the canvas, before looking back at the Knight, Remi gives his head a little shake as his blue-coated fingers wrap around to firmly grab his husband's ass.

"It is not the front of you that is going to even be on the canvas."

Oops.

Can't heal unless your heart hurts
I'll try waiting my turn

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

even my darkness shines for you

"Oh you don't do y--Remi," Ronin yelps at the cold paint that covers one of his nipples, though far from cringing away, he only presses himself closer as if in revenge. More than happy to hassle the other man in his attempts to lovingly paint patterns along his body, only as the Bastion reaches around to grasp his ass does he realise the problem. And at that, Ronin can't stop his laughter from ringing around this clearing.

"You bastard," he quips, reaching down to grab at a tube of paint himself (it's the yellow, gold flecked one), squirting a generous amount of the colour onto his palm and trying to smear it over whatever part of Remi he can get hold of. Granted, he does also look between himself and the canvas, kombucha girling about it for a moment. "It could be," he reasons. It could be the front of him, if they are acrobatic enough.

the

WHITEKNIGHT

Table coding by Sky

the bastion

Swear I'll start using my words
If I don't lose, how can I learn?

Raising his eyebrows in a look of yes Ronin?, had the Knight's chest not been covered in paint, Remi might have followed up the gesture with a nip of his teeth. Not that paint was the worst thing he'd ever had in his mouth, but that invited a certain level of messiness he thought it best that they work up to.

"I am just thinking of the art!" Remi proclaims dramatically, and though he's absolutely flailing about, at no point has the Bastion made a single attempt to actually move away from his husband. Smeared with blue and still clutching the Knight close, now it's Remi's turn to inhale sharply against the cold paint as Ronin's hand distributes colour all across his shoulder and back.

"I suppose that is something we should have thought of first." Remi remarks with a laugh, glancing at the canvas before letting one hand slide up the back of Ronin's hip and giving the Knight's body a suggestive tug against his own. "I actually think you are supposed to put the paint on the canvas, before you...you know what." Remi raises his eyebrows leadingly, as if perhaps there were young children around whose innocence needed to be preserved "But I couldn't help myself."

Can't heal unless your heart hurts
I'll try waiting my turn

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

even my darkness shines for you

"You dip your sandwiches in wine, you wouldn't know art if it slapped you in the face with paint!" Ronin retorts, and by the flailing of his yellow-gold hand, he might really be the art in question if he isn't careful. Luckily he manages only to streak his husband with colour across the shoulder and back rather than the cheek and mouth, and as he's pulled against the Bastion, the other man will also find some very interesting handprints against his ass.

"You know," he admits, his own laughter joining Remi's as he follows his gaze to the canvas, "I did think that as well, but I just assumed you were being thorough." Still, as if to ensure they've made the effort, Ronin does flick some of the yellow paint from the tube at the canvas, where it flecks prettily across the pristine white. "Now you," he says, before making it a good deal more difficult by interrupting the process with a kiss.

the

WHITEKNIGHT

Table coding by Sky