[SE] sweetest tongue has sharpest tooth

gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer

Ronin has promised to do better this Leafchange. He's a demigod of Vi now, you know, and he's got much better coping mechanisms than previous iterations of himself. Besides, there's so much going on in the world that he really doesn't have time to worry about things like being a luxere and the equivalent of a teenager's hormones that tend to flood him at this time of year. Starfall is on the horizon. Wilde's Rapier has been stolen. They are fighting a tug of war with the void in certain regions, and all of that is far too important to entertain his moods.

The sun rises lazily that first morning in Leafchange, and Ronin lasts about ten minutes before it all falls apart.

Later (in Deepfrost) he'll apologise to the young man who had been crossing the beach who had dared to approach the Northaven, a basket of candles and sage in his hands to offer them something to help cleanse the houseboat and protect it from wayward spirits. The basket is still there, on the sand, but the young man is long gone now, running down the beach as Ronin glares after him, a crown of glowing antlers on display and his hair still mussed from sleep. "Yeah, that's what I thought," he growls, crouching by the basket to examine what's inside.

bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator

RONIN

babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine

Honestly, Remi hadn't even thought his husband would last 5 minutes let alone 10, though the additional time gives him the chance to finish brewing them each of a cup of coffee. Shirtless he leans against their doorframe, eyeing his husband affectionately as the Knight leans down like some feral predator in the sand. Remi really shouldn't be as delighted as he is at the start of each Leafchange, but it's impossible to deny the way it makes him feel for Ronin to act as if he's a piece of property to carefully covet and guard. It probably has something to do with it being such a departure from the Knight's otherwise charming and polite attitude, but gods if it didn't rile the Bastion up nearly as much as the rest of the world seemed to rile Ronin up this time of year.

"Coffee?" He calls. Raising his eyebrows, his curls also mussed from sleep, Remi smiles boyishly as he holds out Ronin's mug as if to try and entice him away from the beach.

it felt like somethin' holy, like souls bleeding

gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer

Ronin is busy curling his lip at some distant couple daring to stroll along the beach at this time of morning when he hears Remi's voice, the Knight rising stiffly to his feet. He clutches the abandoned basket in one hand as he returns to the other man's side, though not without a couple of suspicious glances over his shoulder. "Sorry," he mutters, not sounding it one bit, dismissing his crown of antlers so he might draw Remi flush against him, pressing a kiss to his cheek that somehow manages to seem possessive.

"Coffee sounds good," he agrees, though the glance he gives his mug suggests that he fully expects Remi to feed it to him, since doesn't plan to let the Bastion or the basket go. "What are all these for, do you think?" he asks, nodding down at the sage and the candles. The young man hadn't exactly been given time to explain given the circumstances.

bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator

RONIN

babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine

"No you aren't." Remi chuckles adoringly, his smile deepening the dimples on his cheeks as he spreads his arms to make room for Ronin while keeping their coffee safe. Shrugging his shoulders to unfurl his wings, Remi wraps one around his husband's shoulder to keep him close as the other stretches out in an attempt to block the beach from view.

Realizing belatedly that he was meant to aid in his husband in drinking said coffee, Remi chuckles under his breath before blowing on Ronin's mug to cool it. "Mmm?" Peering into the basket and frowning at the candles and bundles of sage, the corners of Remi's lips twitch as he shakes his head. "I'm not sure. Maybe it's a new festival that Flora and Hadama have come up with? We all light our candles at the same time or something?" Of all the things to safeguard the Northaven from, ghosts certainly wouldn't rank high on the list, not given who and what Remi was. Then again, if this was a new festival, he could see Flora intentionally leaving the pair out of it in an effort to continue punishing them.

Content to let those thoughts drift away in order to better pay attention to the man pressed against his chest, Remi leans forward to drop a kiss against the top of Ronin's shoulder, his lips lingering against the still bronze skin a good deal longer than was necessary.

it felt like somethin' holy, like souls bleeding

gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer

"No, I'm not," Ronin agrees, frowning over his shoulder as his view of the beach is blocked by the fan of warm, tawny wings; he turns back away from it with a reluctance that only fades once he feels Remi's lips against his shoulder. "I feel like Flora would have just sent us a letter if that was the case. Or maybe just set the boat on fire given how she feels about us lately," he says with a weary sigh; luckily - as will be the case for the entire season - he's soon distracted by his husband.

"Well, we'll light a candle and burn some sage. Just in case," he decides, already ushering Remi back into the houseboat while simultaneously trying to squeeze his ass and take a sip of the too-hot coffee. The result, naturally, is that he only half-manages all of the tasks, relying on his husband to pick up the slack. "Then we're going back to bed." It isn't a question.

bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator

RONIN

babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine

"Maybe." The Bastion concedes with a small shrug, the word whispered in the space beneath his husband's jaw. "But she has lots of role models to pick from when it comes to being petty, and simply keeping us out of the loop seems on-brand." Well I sent you the basket, it isn't my fault you didn't know what to do, he could hear her arguing.

"I am sure Vai said something about sage being used for cleansing. I recall her drying large bundles of it fairly often in the Greatwood about this time each year." Remi murmurs, straightening enough for Ronin to take a sip of his coffee before trying to do the same from his own mug. The squeeze of his ass has the Bastion humming encouragingly as he tilts Ronin's mug. "Well, if we're going back to bed, not need for all this coffee, mm?" Said as if the reason for being in bed was going to back to sleep, the Bastion shrugs as he edges into the Houseboat, tucking his wings in tightly against his back and setting both of their mugs down.

Plucking out one candle and a bundle of sage from the basket, Remi sets them on the table before glancing over his shoulder toward his husband. "Care to do the honours?"

it felt like somethin' holy, like souls bleeding

gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer

Unable to argue with that, it's with a good natured grumble that Ronin pouts down at the mystery basket, setting it on the counter once they've made it more-or-less into the houseboat. It allows him to give more attention to his coffee and Remi's ass, the Knight's wicked fingers slipping up to ruffle through the feathers of his husband's wings. "Drink the coffee or don't - I feel confident that I'll be able to keep you up either way," he murmurs against the warmth of one of the appendages, smiling a kiss against one wing before stepping back.

"Cleansing - that sounds about right, actually," he agrees of the sage, raising an eyebrow to see both candle and herbs produced. Shifting his fingers into crimson feathers, he reaches out to douse each object in flame until they are both merrily alight. "I'll take that one," he decides, rescuing the candle and blowing out the sage so it can smoke and... do its thing, Ronin supposes.

"Did Vai say to just wave it around or something?" he wonders with a smirk, going to set the candle on one of the window sills.

bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator

RONIN

babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine

Sipping in a surprised breath to feel Ronin's fingers against his wings—given the size of their houseboat rarely did Remi have them out indoors, and as of late he'd only partially shifted to fly to Starfall—the sensation had a shiver shaking him down to his very core. "Keep me up, or get me up?" He clarifies in a slightly ragged voice before clearing his throat and focusing on the task at hand (if only to get it over with more quickly).

Looking skeptically at the sage, the white trickle of smoke that curled up from the edges was remarkably pure despite the continued smouldering of it the pale green leaves. "I don't recall, but I suppose that is the best way...?" Lifting the bundle, from the other room Oria suddenly appeared, her tiny face illuminated by the force of her smile. Drawn to the sage like a moth to flame, the spriggan flew across the room, tugging the bundle from her bonded's fingers and spinning in lazy circles that had the sage billowing out and upward.

"She says that yes, that's exactly what you're supposed to do." And that she was going to do it, apparently. "If it really does cleanse, I wonder if we can use it to cleanse Jack from Flora's life." With a humourless smirk, Remi rolls his eyes before glancing at the window sill Ronin had placed his candle into. "If the sage is for cleansing, what do you think the candles are for?"

it felt like somethin' holy, like souls bleeding

gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer

"Yes," Ronin says with a wicked smile over his shoulder where he's setting down the candle. Melting the wax at the base enough to keep it upright on a plate he's found, he leaves it burning in the window where, based on the size of it, he imagines it will remain all day and night before getting close to going out. Turning back in time to see Oria go spinning away with the sage, it's with raised eyebrows that he watches her herb dance for a moment before his attention drifts inexorably back to Remi.

"If that's right, we'll probably need to sage more than just the houseboat," he points out. The Ark, The Hanged Man, Flora's house... it'll be a lot of work. And Ronin has already made it clear that their bed is his next destination, so whatever they decide, it will absolutely have to wait. "The candle is for light, obviously," he says, slinking past Remi and catching him around the waist to ferry him along.

bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator

RONIN

babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine

"Do you think if we shove it down his throat that will work...?" Remi wonders, itching at the stubble on his chin and feigning an expression of being deep in thought as Ronin's arms wrap around his waist. "And you're sure you want to go back to bed?" Pausing just as his knees press against their mattress, the Bastion tilts his head, his shoulders rolling to dismiss his wings.

Knowing full well what Ronin was like during Leafchange, Remi had learned as many coping mechanisms to help the Knight deal with things as Ronin probably had. They could go for a run or the sort of flight that would make their muscles and lungs burn if they flew high enough, or they could even spar to try and work some of the tension from Ronin's body and mind.

Or..

"We could always get dressed and go for a stroll along the beach? Maybe a swim?" Intending to provoke his husband's instincts by suggesting being in public, Remi shrugs thoughtfully. "Maybe we could go check up on Isla." Not that he had any lingering feelings for the Remedy, but she was the only woman he knew he could safely tease Ronin with.

it felt like somethin' holy, like souls bleeding

gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer

"There's always a chance, so they say," Ronin grumbles, though if it isn't quite obvious by now, he is increasingly distracted by his husband's presence. "I'm sure," he murmurs, brushing his nose against Remi's and acting as if he might drag them both down into the soft, plush sheets when his husband has to go and start teasing him. (In the right headspace he'd realise, of course, that the Bastion is doing it on purpose and precisely to get the reaction Ronin is about to give him. Sorrows).

With blue eyes darkening and his brows drawing together, the Knight all but bullies Remi into bed to pin him down, the growl in his throat a barely caged thing. "I'd like to stay in bed," he says, the soft timbre of his voice one of a predator; his luxere shift might be responsible for his Leafchange madness, but it's entirely backed up by the dragon in his blood.

By like, of course, he means he'll fight anyone who tries to peel them out of it, and before Remi can drip further provocation into his ear, Ronin leans in to silence him with a hard, greedy kiss.

bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator

RONIN

babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine

One might think that after so many years Ronin's reaction wouldn't come as a surprise such that Remi would be able to savour the success of his teasing, and yet as it has always been for the Bastion, he's entirely undone by the blue of his husband's eyes, never mind the rather brutish way he's shoved down onto the bed. It fills him with the saw raw and shaky sense of awe he often experienced when the pair were first dating when his mind would try and contemplate the impossibility of a man like Ronin liking him, much less wanting him, and yet the body pinning his to the bed left no room for any such doubt.

Lifting his chin a touch defiantly as he pulls in a quick breath, there's little time to bask in the oil slick feeling of his husband's emotions beginning to seep between them before Ronin's lips begin to crush his own in a kiss that has Remi's emotions growing similarly feral in response. Fighting back with his tongue in defiance of the kiss as much as to deepen it, the Bastion traces the familiar contours of his husband's impressive physique with the sort of pressure that would no doubt have others flinching away in pain. "Well, you've got me in bed now." Remi hisses, nipping at the Knight's lower lip. "Now what?"

it felt like somethin' holy, like souls bleeding

gladiator, picked a fight with the gods, i'm a giant slayer

Remi's emotions similarly flood through Ronin, his bones vibrating with the same shaky awe, the almost reverent doubt at the situation they find themselves in, and the Knight drags his lips towards his husband's ear as if to trickle his words directly into it. "I like you, and I love you, and I want you so bad I'd burn this boat down if it got your clothes off faster." Grinning and trailing kisses back towards Remi's mouth, he's content to argue back with his tongue right until the Bastion nips at his lower lip, causing him to huff out a breath of outraged laughter.

"Now," he says, grappling for Remi's wicked hands so he might pin them above his head and let him kiss him in peace, "I'm going to show you exactly how much I want you, until the rest of Torchline hears it as well." Already the other man will be able to feel Ronin's need for him through their clothes, the Knight rolling his hips and sinking his weight into Remi so he might blaze a further trail of kisses down his throat, aiming to bruise and mark and claim for his own.

bone shaker, dominator, freight train, wreckin' ball, i'm the gladiator

RONIN

babylon lovers hanging lifetimes on a vine

Each word dripped into his ear has heat beginning to simmer low in Remi's belly, with every minute shift of Ronin's body above him only encouragingly the slow broil of his arousal. Exhaling a sharp exhale of breath into the Knight's dark bed-mussed hair, Remi stretches out beneath him, his muscles taut with anticipation as he fights to keep feral declarations of love caged behind his teeth.

Once again jutting his chin upward as his hands are pinned, had Remi not retracted his wings to save on space, they'd have been flared defiantly outward by now in an instinctive attempt to make himself seem larger and thus more difficult to dominate. It was a funny thing, to feel the urge to fight against Ronin's ministrations despite being wildly turned on by them, but such was the nature of the beasts that lingered and stirred inside of the Bastion's bones. No doubt the Knight was experiencing precisely the same sort of tension, if not for utterly opposite reasons.

The increased weight against him has a ragged moan dragged from Remi's throat, against which his hands instinctively begin to struggle in Ronin's grasp, wanting nothing more than to pin the Knight's body in place above his in an attempt to cage the heat that bloomed between them. "If you do that they might think one of us is in trouble and come running." Flooding their bond with thoughts of their front door bursting open, of nosey Torchers with their faces pressed against the windows, of someone taking Remi away, the Bastion grins wickedly as his teeth snap together hoping for his husband to silence the sound with another kiss.

it felt like somethin' holy, like souls bleeding