timing in times like these

The higher I climb the farther I fall when I do

I will clean up dinner all week, if you do most of the talking. It's a rather terrible bribe given that Ronin's kitchen standards are higher than Remi's and the Star ends up re-tidying things after the alchemist has done, but what else does he have to offer? Sex? As if Remi would have the willpower to withhold that should Ronin decline. Reaching for Ronin's hand, Remi gives it a squeeze, reinforcing his mental plea for help with a pulse of watered-down blue water—or at least that's how the emotion feels to him. It's sloshy and transparent in places, this feeling of uncertainty. Remi wants this, like he hasn't wanted something in a long, long time, and it feels strange to be beholden to a man like Cian, despite having shrugged off the offers of joining the Order for precisely this reason.

Reaching out, Remi knocks twice upon Cian's ornate floor-to-ceiling door, before stepping back that Ronin might go in first.