stained starlight

cut up our losses into doable doses

ration our tears and sighs

"As long as I let you?" Remi chuckled, his hands wandering over Ronin even as the king planted kiss after kiss along skin which had long-ached for moments just like this. His husband
suddenly felt so real in a way he hadn't for days. Tangible, warm, and present. It was enough to make the alchemist's heart ache, his fingers holding perhaps too tightly against the man in his arms. Melancholy shivers trailed down Remi's spine as it all came to a close. The water would be turned off, the chill from outside (both metaphorical and literal) would find them, and the dreamy respite they'd found together beneath the water would indeed succumb to memory.

Intertwining his fingers in Ronin's as he stepped out of the shower, the alchemist gave his partner a crooked smile and nodded. But as Ronin turned to lead them to their room, flashes of blood splatter on tawny wings, of knuckles torn raw, of Ronin's smile would flash before Remi's eyes, wiping his boyish grin entirely from his face.

At some point in the night, the alchemist pulled himself from Ronin's tangle of arms and legs. He could feel his husband's heartbeat on his finger and against his back; a not quite rhythmic pulsing that had Remi holding his breath in wait for the next beat. Sitting up, Remi moved to the edge of the bed. Hands in his curls, he tried to slow his breathing much as he could. Feathers sprouted in his hair and for the first time, wings pushed out from his shoulder blades to wrap softly around his shoulders.

It was all suddenly too much.

Ronin dying.

Aoife's kidnap.

The murder of Skyler.

And the worst part? The knowledge that he'd do it again. That he'd let Ronin do it again. Even so, it was too much for Remi's fragile to heart to bare in the face of everything else happening. And so he cried silent tears, muffled by a cavern of feathers pulled tightly around himself.



~ FIN

Remi

Table coding by Sky, inspiration from Jae!