New memories & old wagons

i'd bring you further roses

Rather than looking, Remi simply inhaled the warm air with a deep and resounding hmmmmmmmm of approval. "When I came through I had a few herbs with me...but I can safely say that is not a smell I thought I would ever taste again."

Pushing the kettle back, Remi took the opportunity while Ianto had his back to him to let his eyes softly wash over the fox's frame. Biting the inside of his lip he couldn't help but wonder about the things Ianto had said. As it was, despite the fact that Remi knew he'd been with men before, he couldn't remember it. Which made him feel boyishly awkward in a way he hadn't felt for years.

"That sounds horrible." Remi agreed softly, unable to imagine having to deal with the strange disruption of going from Northaven to here, and having to do it alone. "I wonder why you were not with us..."

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

it's not what it looks like

Replacing the kettle once he had poured the water, Ianto placed the lid upon the teapot and let it sit and brew for a few minutes. "Ah, well. If you should ever need any tea, I'm more than happy to provide. Free of charge, but only for you." He winked. "Don't tell anyone where you got it, or they'll all want some." Nibbling the inside of his lip, he reached out to pour them both some tea into the cups at last, breathing in the steam deeply.

"Mm," he said, very much not wanting to recall how horrible it had been, and the events after which had eventually led into his current situation. "I don't know. I don't even know how we got here in general," he muttered, shrugging his shoulders. "Every shrine I've visited doesn't give any answers, even when they answer the prayer."

i'd bring you further roses

"How generous." Remi said with a grin, letting his smile widen as Ianto turned to pour the tea. "Of course I will not tell. No one will believe me when I tell them of our entirely professional relationship, if I do." He added, almost testingly.

Clearing his throat and leaning back slightly, Remi too nibbled the inside of his lip. "I believe the way I heard it...the Voice, ahh, a goddess of sorts within what was the barrier, brought us here. She...pulled us, somehow. Our information, all the things that make us who we are, and made us here." Running a hand through his curls, he shrugged. "I do not pretend to understand it, but it seems as though there is no going back, so.."

Glancing across to the fox, Remi sighed to himself. "I suppose this is home, now."

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

it's not what it looks like

"Ah, yes," Ianto said with a smirk, lifting his cup to his nose so he could inhale the sweet scents of the tea. "If only they knew we snuck out here into a wagon just to drink tea and make jokes at each other." He chuckled, before lowering the cup again to let the liquid inside cool down a bit. In the meantime, it seemed that Remi had quite the tale to tell.

Listening intently, it was clear that Ianto had not heard about anything like this Voice, the fox shaking his head slowly. All he had been told about was this danger that was within the barrier. No one seemed to know much more than that, and for apparently good reason. "I suppose it is," he murmured. "Thank you though, for telling me. It... at least I know I'm not waiting around for all of us to go back to Northaven."

i'd bring you further roses

To this, Remi had nothing to say. Instead he merely looked down with a bashful sort of smile on his face. "No, you are right. Though I hardly think they would believe that anyhow." The alchemist said finally with a shrug that seemed to punctuate a thought that he hadn't actually said out loud.

"Would you?" Remi asked with a naive sort of curiousness. "Go back, I mean. Northaven was not necessarily the best place for people like us." Gay. Commoners. Shapechangers. Take your pick. Whatever it was that Northaven had going for it, it didn't often extend any of those things to men like Ianto or Remi.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

it's not what it looks like

"What makes you say that?" Ianto asked with a smirk, sipping at his tea once it was cool enough and savouring the taste of it. "Our entirely professional relationship would be compromised, if people didn't believe it. Then again, though, they haven't seen my wagon." He chuckled, though there was a quizzical look on his face as he considered Remi.

Would he go back? To that Ianto could only wrinkle his nose and shrug. "Perhaps," he said vaguely, absently touching a hand to the leather collar about his neck. He had been born a slave, sold on as a slave to Warren, freed upon falling into the Greatwood only to shackle himself up all over again. At least in Northaven Remi had remembered him.

"It's easier, now that the barrier is down and I realised all of you were behind it, I suppose."

i'd bring you further roses

Remi raised a suggestive brow as his eyes gently moved to the blanket-den in the back. The math seemed clear enough to him: the two of them who had apparently all ready slept together, were really just drinking tea and making jokes in a magical wagon which happened to be bigger on the inside? Suuure.

As Ianto touched the collar around his neck, for the first time Remi considered that it might not just be some strange sort of fashion statement that the fox had adopted during all of his time alone.
Blowing gently on his tea, Remi looked down into it and tried to exhale slowly rather than in the sighing stream that his body wanted.

"Are there things you are not telling me...because you do not want to? Or because I do not remember you?" Remi asked a touch sadly and nervously, his sea-glass gaze gently roaming up from the lip of his cup towards the fox.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

it's not what it looks like

Ianto followed his gaze over to the blanket den, arching an eyebrow right back at the other man and drumming his fingers lightly upon the table. His questions hit like hammer blows, Ianto frowning into his cup, his hand slowly clenching into a fist on the table. "Both," he confessed. "My circumstances are such that telling anybody too much might put them in the sort of trouble they can't easily get out of," he muttered. "With strangers I don't much care, but I will not involve you." Of that the fox sounded utterly certain.

"...And you don't remember me." He shrugged simply. "I was so happy to see you, in the Greatwood. But... really, I feel just as alone as before." Rubbing at his forehead, he shot Remi a sad smile. "Sorry. I didn't want you to feel guilty about anything. It's not your fault."

i'd bring you further roses

Remi's brows knitted together and then softened sadly to see Ianto's clenched fist on the table. Looking at it, the alchemist wanted to reach across and take it, to unfurl the fingers but...he still felt that same absurd shyness, and so he kept his fingers laced around his teacup.

Remi couldn't help but smile at what he interpreted as a strange sort of protectiveness, though quickly it faded into a grey and brackish sort of feeling of uselessness.

Indeed, what Ianto said next only punctuated that further. Watching the way the fox rubbed at his forehead, the man's eyes safely blocked given Remi a reprieve in which he could gaze unabashedly at the fox. "I do want to know you again. And...to know what came before." Remi said through a smile that was meant to be encouraging as well as gentle.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

it's not what it looks like

Ianto let his hand drop away as Remi spoke, the fox arching an eyebrow as if unsure what to make of what Remi was saying. His glance towards the sleeping area at the back of the wagon, his references to their previous relationship, wanting to know what came before... it was giving the fox one helluva headache to keep up with it all. And with the sudden raw turn in conversation, he didn't really know how to response.

"I'm afraid I don't follow," he murmured eventually, itching at the stubble on his chin. "Are you sayin' you want to sleep with me? I mean... you hardly know me, in comparison to before."

i'd bring you further roses

"Ianto!" Remi said with an indignant laugh. Though as his gaze searched the lines of his friend's face and he saw something like genuine curiosity or confusion there, the mirth fell away and Remi found himself similarly running his hand through the scruff on his cheek with a sigh.

"I just..." Taking a breath, Remi looked down at the cup before him, watching the way his breath caused gentle ripples to form. "There was a man here that I was...with—" So saying, the alchemist's eyes were locked on the cup, not wanting to see Ianto's reaction to his words. "—and when I lost my memories of him he..he did not take it this well. Actually, after Ronin died he decided to erase all memories of me in response. I think he thought it was a helpful thing to do." Remi admitted, ruffling a hand through his curls and turning a shy and uncertain gaze towards the fox before continuing. "He asked one day if I wanted to know him after that...and I said no. With Loren too, from what I have heard, were he to come back I do not think I would want to know him. But.."

Biting the inside of his lip hard enough to keep the smile spurred on by tentative affection and fear from shakily spreading, Remi hazarded a glance up in earnest now. "...but I do want to know you again." His finger traced a circle around the top of the cup. "That is all I meant."

Which was of course not a no to the question that had been asked of him.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

it's not what it looks like

Running his fingers through his coppery hair, Ianto heard Remi out with a furrowed brow and quiet curiosity. He paused only once to sip at his tea, setting the cup down gently and shifting to sit cross-legged on his cushion, leaning his elbows on his knees. "I think I remember you saying as much, once before, though without so many details," he murmured as the alchemist spoke of his previous lovers, shrugging and gazing into his tea. In truth Ianto was uninterested - he was not a jealous man, and besides which, he and Remi had never really been anything.

No matter his feelings, feelings that had blossomed somewhat in his time wandering the Greatwood alone, this was not Northaven and Remi did not remember him. "Ah... well. That is good to know," he agreed with a lopsided smile as Remi confirmed what he had meant. Not a no, but very much not a yes either.

"So what are your plans, now? You can see through illusions, and the barrier is down."

i'd bring you further roses

"Ahh..my apologies." Remi said with a slight wince. "My memory..." Gently he touched his forehead with a guilty glance across the table at the fox. "I am more forgetful now. I am sorry for repeating it." Only that wasn't right. What Remi was sorry for, was forgetting the fox. He was sorry for whatever he had done that had taken the mischievous and enigmatic man who had spied him before in the forest and made his smile disappear almost entirely.

As Ianto asked of the future, Remi turned to gaze back towards the bed area again in an effort to try and re-balance his thoughts. "Honestly...I sort of just want to be. I hear there are storms to the south and west? And from what you have said the Fae want nothing to do with us. The barrier might be gone, but we seem just as stuck as we were, but.." Tracing a shape on the table, Remi frowned inwardly before glancing across the table at the fox in earnest now.

"I do not want to fight...I do not want this conflict, this tension between outlanders and naturals. I do not want a war, and I do not want to plan, and I do not want gods stealing my memories from me." Remi's gaze was searching, looking deep into the blue for a long moment. Though for what exactly, perhaps he didn't even know.

"I know it is selfish and maybe even cowardly but..." With a small shrug, Remi bit his bottom lip with a helpless sort of lopsided smile. "I do not know that I want to be in this story anymore."

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

it's not what it looks like

"No need to apologise," Ianto murmured, waving it off and running an absent finger around the rim of his teacup. "It was a terrible thing, to happen to you. Would that I could do something to make it better, at all." He sighed, shrugging his shoulders. Ultimately, though, he could not. Memories were beyond even that of his godmother, for all of the power she wielded (or at least, the power Ianto assumed and believed she did). Cupping his chin in his hand, he sighed and gazed across the table at his friend.

"I am not one to judge cowardice," he said, snorting softly. "I run the moment things get tough, I'm not afraid to admit it. If you tire of the story, then my door is always open. I'm not sure my story is any better, though. And war may come, whether or not you wish it." Such was the nature of things.