I will pay the bill, you taste the wine

Let's not get lost in the dark blue
But darling if we do, just find me and I'll find you

Remi clucks his tongue as if Isla has struck him somewhere tender, though the affection in his smile rather gives him away. "That sounds like an insult," he says, raising his eyebrows down at her, "that I should be remembered for leading the Greatwood when it was more or less empty rather than for leading here." Still, his smile softens at the edges, because if he is honest, the idea that the half-feral thing he had been in the woods left a deeper impression than the governor he had once tried to become is probably fair.

At the word babydaddy, his nose wrinkles before he can stop it, the reaction genuine enough to betray the complicated little knot his feelings still make around Isla’s current love life. Not disapproval, exactly, not anymore, but certainly something tangled with history and protectiveness and the strange shape of loving someone through all the versions of their lives that no longer belong to him. To cover it, he gives a playful shudder and shakes his head. "You know what," he says, dryly decisive, "partner is a great term."

The onesie suggestion has his brows lifting again, and then a grin breaks across his face, boyish and bright despite the tiredness sitting beneath his eyes. "You really are wildly clever, you know that?" he says warmly. The compliment has barely left his mouth before one of the twins begins to cry, Carlo or Calan, he cannot immediately tell which, and within a breath the other has joined in with the fierce solidarity of newborns who have never once believed in suffering alone. Remi grimaces slightly, already shifting them with practised care, his hands gentle as he tries to soothe one and then the other, murmuring soft nonsense beneath his breath while the tiny storm gathers strength anyway. After a moment, he sighs and glances back to Isla with an apologetic shake of his head. "I think that means we had better be heading back."

the bastion

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

ISLA

"I wouldn't see it as an insult at all," Isla says sweetly, beaming up at the Bastion. "Let's be honest, before Flora - and Hadama, until he also left - Torchline changed hands pretty regularly. You were the last real leader of the Greatwood, though." Still a half-feral beast, but she can't help the way people choose to remember him (or the way he chose to present himself either, for that matter).

Her chosen term for Ever lands exactly the way she'd expected, Isla having to bite back the grin that threatens to spread across her face again. Instead, with an exaggerated nod and a raise of her eyebrows, she opts to take the easy path of agreement. "It is," she says. "Well then. I look forward to you babysitting one day soon so I can go out and enjoy a date with my partner."

She barely has time to enjoy the compliment he bestows upon her before one of the twins begins to cry, Isla immediately feeling a pang of maternal concern as she gazes down at them. But of course this is Remi's battle to fight, and so it's with an understanding nod that she turns to angle them back the way they came. "If you need to disappear at any point, go ahead," she tells him. "I promise I won't be offended."

And besides, given their conversation, she's hopeful that she'll be seeing him again very soon regardless.

~FIN

apres moi le deluge
after me comes the flood