There are times that walk from you

"Should I mope about it? Perhaps we can hole-up in your wagon and be bitter about the world for a few days." Remi said jovially as he was swiftly pulled against the fox. "I thought I was." The alchemist mumbled against Ianto's neck, his shoulders slumping. One of his hands came to encircle Ianto's upper back, his fingers trailing along the collar. "Neither of us could have known..how was I meant to be more careful?" He added in a low tone, as if to suggest that his fate was more or less inevitable.

Pulling back (likely more than he meant to, distances were hard to judge in the dark), he offered the fox a small smile. "There is one thing you could do for me...one thing I need." He said, lips pulling back slightly in a wanting-to-be-mischevious grin. "You could kiss me. If I try I will end up kissing the inside of your nose, or your jacket." He added, his voice a strange mixture of sorrow and optimism.

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Ianto

"You say that in jest, but it sounds like a fantastic idea to me," Ianto muttered, his voice a little muffled where he was holding Remi so close. Holing up in his wagon and just being for a little bit was everything his bruised psyche needed and then some. He tsked softly in response to Remi's protests, pressing his eyes shut. "I shouldn't be doing this," he mumbled, though he didn't loosen his grip at all. "I should have let you go, to keep you safe."

And yet, here they were, and as Remi asked for a kiss Ianto barely waited for him to finish speaking. Fingers gently winding through the alchemist's curls, Ianto carefully tilted his head up so he could lean in and kiss Remi properly. It was filled with as much need and guilt as it was passion, but it didn't make it any less real.

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"Jest? Never. Like you said, this is no laughing matter." Remi tittered with a laugh. Swallowing down a lump in his throat at the words he was about to say, he took a breath and managed anyway. "I would tell you to look me in the eyes, but that will not really work. But still, you leaving me would not keep me safe and you know it." Remi replied with a crooked half-smile.

At first Remi's lips were turned up in a smile, but soon the need and want to sob rose high in his throat making his lips quiver ever so slightly against the fox's. The hand which had been on Ianto's collar now wound into his hair, pulling the fox close even as Remi pulled his chin in slightly to take a staggered breath. "I whistled for your wagon, you know." Remi whispered against the fox's lips, his voice a tinge desperate. "I tried to find you.."

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Ianto

"Mm, you're right there. I know that too well." And he didn't sound at all happy about it, but it was at least comforting to know that... well, that Remi would be in danger whether or not he was involved with Ianto. He could be content in the knowledge that he wasn't making his life more difficult.

The fingers that threaded through his hair caused his lips to part in a breathy moan, Ianto pulling Remi closer and letting his eyes flicker open to gaze at the alchemist. He smiled sadly, all too aware that the other man wouldn't see it. "I know," he whispered. "I could hear you. But I couldn't... I wasn't allowed to..." Swearing quietly, he stopped trying to form the words and instead sank into the embrace instead.

"I have a gift for you. I think. I mean, I'd like to give it to you. Though it seems a great insult, now, to have you here to 'watch the sun rise'."

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Remi's breath hitched and his fingers tightened in the copper. "But you are alright?" He asked again, his nose gently brushing against the fox's as he leaned his forehead against Ianto's.

"Seeing you again is the only gift I need. Ahh, being with you. Knowing you are alright." Remi added hastily, swallowing down the word as if would somehow offend Ianto. Shrugging gently, the alchemist allowed himself to release the fox slightly, stepping back with a deep inhale. "It is fine. I...will have to get used to it, I suppose."

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Ianto

"I'm alive. And I can see. So I'm more alright than I can say for you," Ianto muttered only half jokingly, closing his eyes again as their foreheads gently touched. The injustice of what had befallen Remi was not lost on the fox, and foreign anger kindled low in the pit of his belly. He wouldn't forget what Arduinna had done. And even if it took the rest of his life, he would make sure there was retribution.

Stepping back as well, Ianto found Remi's hand and held it between his own. "Would that you didn't have to get used to it." He sighed, gently taking his gift from his basket to gently fasten it around the alchemist's wrist.

"It's made from the branches of a Wicker Woman," he explained. There are beads that you'll feel along it. Be careful with them, they're sap from the tree. Just a trinket, but... well. Happy midnight festival."

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Remi squeezed the hand suddenly holding his. "Would that my memories of you were not taken. Would that you were not left outside the barrier." He countered with a shrug. This was Remi's new normal now, he supposed. And like when he would lament about his lost memories and the fox would tell him that they could make new ones, so Remi could make a new way to interact with the world.

Hopefully.

As Ianto described what was being bound around his wrist, Remi stared blankly somewhere to the side of the fox's shoulder, smiling faintly as he tried to imagine it. "Isn't the sap hallucinogenic?" Remi asked, brows furrowing and his nose scrunching comically. "Though I suppose it does not matter for me." He added with a laugh.

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Ianto

Ianto snorted out a soft laugh, shaking his head before giving Remi's hand a squeeze to make up for the fact that he couldn't see the gesture. "You got me there," he agreed softly. "And the sap is a very potent hallucinogenic, yes. Luckily, the beads have been coated to keep the sap from contact you directly, or melting all over you. Still, you never know - you might see things if you touch it."

Not that Ianto would recommend it.

"Come on," he murmured, slipping an arm around Remi's waist and glancing up to Isla to duck his head respectfully to her. "Let's go enjoy the festival, and wait for sunrise."

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"I only have a star for you..." Remi said softly, reaching into his pocket and producing a small star, not unlike the ones he had created for the fox in the past. Though this one had an R and an I written in Remi's strange handwriting on the back. "New stars, for new memories." He said softly, fitting it into the fox's palm as he willingly let himself be lead away.

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Ianto

It was probably a good thing that Remi couldn't see right now - that way he wouldn't catch the way Ianto had to blink quickly and glance away as the alchemist produced the star. "Only? Don't you dare say it's only. It's perfect," he said gruffly, slipping the star into his pocket for later inspection, pressing a kiss against Remi's curls and walking them back into the heart of the celebrations.

{END}

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