[SE] keeping it lit

and my heart ran away with me

Ronin’s laughter brushes warm and breathless across his cheeks, the no carried on it like something fragile and brilliant all at once, and Remi can’t quite stop his brows from lifting in soft disbelief. Hope flickers there, tentative but unmistakable, and he has to narrow his eyes slightly against the literal radiance pouring off his husband, a boyish chuckle slipping free as he offers Ronin a hesitant, almost shy smile.

Then Mateo’s name is spoken, and the colour drains from him in a way no amount of sunlight can disguise. The laughter ebbs away, replaced by something quieter, heavier, and he exhales slowly before answering. "Flora has Enzo again," Remi says gently, certainty anchoring the thought. "And she’s always been quicker to forgive."

Mateo, though. His mouth tightens, a frown creasing between his brows as he gives his head a small shake. "Mateo is...different," he admits softly. "And I think—" He pauses, lips tugging down in a frown. Maybe the choices they'd made over the years with regard to their son had already made this decision for them, and they were being nothing but foolish for thinking the past could be righted. "Maybe you're right. Maybe it's too much to ever ask of them." Of Mateo, the son he'd dreamt to life and the one they'd both along the way left to grow wild on his own.

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)