[SE] keeping it lit

and my heart ran away with me

As Ronin’s wings open and the world rushes back in—the salt wind, the smoke, the still-warm sand beneath their feet—Remi stiffens almost imperceptibly, the shift in atmosphere keenly felt. For a fleeting moment he wonders if he should never have said anything at all, if this fragile, dangerous line of thought might have been better left untouched. The notion is dismissed just as quickly; he has never been able to keep anything from Ronin, and he doubts he ever could. Still, without that golden radiance and the shelter of his husband’s wings, the cold reality of it settles more heavily on his shoulders.

He nods slowly, swallowing past the tightness in his throat, considering what it would mean to place something so enormous in the hands of their children. There is a brief, instinctive resistance to it—Flora and Mateo and Enzo ig were both capricious in their own ways, capable of fierce emotion and sharp rejection—but the thought resolves itself with quiet clarity. If either of them hated the idea, truly hated it, then no amount of hope or effort on his or Ronin’s part would ever be enough to stitch a new piece of family together without reopening old wounds, however unfair it might be.

"You’re right," Remi says softly at last, the words steady even if his heart isn’t. He leans in, pressing a gentle kiss to the corner of Ronin’s mouth. "Maybe another family dinner," he adds, thoughtful, before wrinkling his nose just a touch. "Though this time maybe without Kaisel."

remi

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)