Your move

Ronin grinned automatically as Remi slid back into his usual cocky self, the hunter winking at him and shrugging his shoulders. "If only, eh? What you think, Remi? Can you make this novice archer a bow to work with? Something I won't snap or twang myself in the face with, if you please." He laughed. Nodding gently, Ronin shifted to sit back next to the other man, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Sensitive or not, it still made you feel bad. And for that I'm sorry. I hope that you two were able to work it out, especially after what happened." And he did, genuinely. Which just made the conflict that twisted through him all the more unwelcome. RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

Giving Ronin an appraising look, he reached over to squeeze one of the hunter's biceps, whistling low note under his breath as he shook his head. "Only if you start doing pushups." He responded with a wink of his own. The cold water previously in his stomach slowly heating again, for better or worse. "But archery, mm? Vai was an archer...I remember making specialty arrows for her. I suppose I could do the same for you. Or just a magic bow so that you do not need any strength or accuracy. Is that novice enough for you?" Remi added, with another nudge to Ronin's side.

"I think we did." Remi said, though didn't sound entirely convinced himself. They had...sort of discussed it, and then just moved onto other things.

i fell for your eyes

Coding base by Sky!

Ronin's jaw dropped, as if for a moment he genuinely did believe that he was weak enough to need to do pushups before drawing a bow. "Hey!" he said with heat in his voice and his cheeks, flashing Remi a sly grin and nudging him right back. "I mean... a regular bow would probably do it for now, until I'm used to it. Maybe we can upgrade it later." He shrugged his shoulders. Tilting his head as the talk of Ianto continued, Ronin shook his head helplessly. He wasn't one to beat around the bush, so what he was about to say would likely come out clumsily. "What aren't you telling me?" he asked. "You're happy, right?" RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

Remi raised a hand, as if meaning to create the bow at that very moment. In any other instance he might have too, such was his nature. Had there been a proper need he'd happily have risked his consciousness to try, but tucked into bed as they already were, even Remi knew it could probably wait. "Alright. In the morning then. We can figure out what length of sha—" —shaft you need was what he was going to say. Even a day or so before Remi wouldn't have hesitated. The two were not above boyishly crude humour, but just now with the vibrancy of Ronin's blue eyes so prominent in his mind and the way he'd thought about leaning across to kiss Ronin on more than one occasion in the past few minutes, Remi bit down on the words, clearing his throat. "—we can figure out the sizing in the morning." He clarified, cheeks flushed as he pulled his eyes back centre, readjusting the pillow.

The question caught him off-guard, and for a moment the alchemist continued to stare at the monochromatic pillow and sheets around him, nibbling the inside of his cheek. "I think...Knowing you loved someone once..knowing that they still love. It...I think it creates a sort of expectation of what things are supposed to be like. What you are supposed to feel." Now the colour flushed earnestly in his cheeks, and Remi was helpless to do anything about it save for raising his shoulder and rubbing his stubble-lined jaw against it.

i fell for your eyes

Coding base by Sky!

Remi might have hesitated but even as he cut himself off, Ronin was hiding his giggles behind the back of his hand. "Extra large. That's what you need. Gods Remi, you should know that. It's like you've never seen my... arrows?" Smiling ear to ear like a child and shaking his head, the hunter accepted that it was a weak attempt at a joke on his part at best. Ah well. Remi more than made up for it. Tucking his arms behind his head and gazing up at the ceiling, Ronin glanced across at his friend as he spoke, brow furrowing. "...Wanting to love someone and actually loving them are different," he said softly, nodding. "That... I don't know what exactly is going on for you, Remi. But it sounds difficult... but then again nothing you've ever done has been easy." RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

Caught between the strange tug of wanting to grin and laugh and respond with something filthy and feeling as though he was somehow betraying Ianto, all Remi could do was shake his head in helpless silence and try to contain his ever-widening grin. "Arrows?" He said finally, a mischievous spark back in his eye. "If that is the case, then apparently you have been keeping something to yourself." He added with a snort.

"I do not know what is going for me either." Remi admitted with a shrug, finding the easy honesty refreshing. Then, because Ronin had opened the door and he couldn't help it, he added, "You might even say I have got it hard." He said in a perfect deadpan, glancing over at Ronin but unable to keep the corners of his lips from twitching.

i fell for your eyes

Coding base by Sky!

Mouth dropping open in playful outrage, Ronin freed one arm to dramatically drape it over his eyes. "All the time we spent together, and you insult me so? Remi, I'm heartbroken," he joked, peeking over his forearm to smirk at the other man, though it faded at his admission that he didn't know what was going on either. "I wish I could help," he murmured, having the distinct impression that he might be muddying the waters even by being here. Ronin sighed, about to say something else when Remi went ahead and dropped them right back into filth again. Scoffing, Ronin shook his head at the alchemist. "No chance. I've seen you when you've got it hard. You aren't quite there yet." He teased. RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

Taking full advantage of his friend's posture, Remi flicked the ex-captain's nose as punishment for his dramatics. "I think you will live." He teased condescendingly, before letting his smile grow a touch more serious. "You are. Seeing you, both literally and figuratively, helps." Remi said, feeling as if even that statement was crossing a line somehow, if only because it distinctly solidified in the alchemist's mind that there was indeed a line.

A line he wanted to cross.

Now it was Remi's turn to let his jaw fall open. "Listen here." He said, raising his chin and letting his chest puff out indignantly. "You have seen me in the morning, and that time I was drunk. It hardly counts." What might count though, would be moving the pillow on his lap. But of course that would be to cross the line in a way he'd never be able to pretend was accidental, as he was currently doing with this banter.

i fell for your eyes

Coding base by Sky!

Ronin let out a sound best described as nyah! as Remi flicked his nose, and he rubbed at his face and shot a wounded look in the other man's direction. (He made sure to look especially pathetic now that his friend could see him again). Still, it wasn't a guise he could keep up for long, and knowing that he was able to help in some small way brought the warmth back to his smile. Warmth and mischief, when he realised he'd finally managed to outrage Remi in turn. "It doesn't count if you're drunk? Well, I better re-evaluate my life, then." He snorted, turning his head to arch an eyebrow across at Remi suggestively, playfulness dancing in his blue eyes. Even so, Ronin did grow a touch more solemn as he looked at the alchemist. "I was terrified, when Edy brought you in," he admitted. "I'm glad you're alright." RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

"Really. I just get my sight back—of just you, mind—and that is the face I am supposed to look at?" Remi retorted instantly, not buying at all the wounded soldier look, no matter how perfectly pouty Ronin could make his lips look, or how stupidly expressive his eyebrows were.

Mouth open to reply, but unsure how to proceed, Remi let his jaw scissor back and forth with mischevious frustration for a moment. "I just mean...I am not particularly at my best when drunk." He said pointedly. " I am sure you would say the same." Remi ventured with shrug.

Smiling softly, Remi nodded. " I am glad she brought me here, even if it meant waking...well. Everyone." He agreed, looking at Ronin and finding it both easier and harder to look at him with this new sight. "I am sure Phoebe might have had some tricks up her sleeve but...It was nice to be brought home to you." Voice wavering slightly and not just because of his accent, the alchemist let his eyes drop softly, fingers fidgeting against the pillow restlessly.

i fell for your eyes

Coding base by Sky!

"There is nothing wrong with this face, or any other face I choose to pull," Ronin said haughtily, lifting his chin as if to dismiss the alchemist's criticisms entirely. It was an easy thing to do when you used to be a baron. While he desperately wanted to titter and grin at the conversation of just what they were like when they were drunk, Ronin instead offered a shrug that was entirely meant to infuriating. "I can't say," he told Remi. "All I know is drunk-you. I've got no evidence of anything else." And nor did he expect any, his logical voice reminded him with a mental slap. The less logical part, of course, told him that being selfish sometimes was okay, and that Remi was the first person since Vanya to make him feel like he wasn't walking through the world all alone. Eyes dropping to Remi's fidgeting hands, Ronin had to resist the urge to reach out and try to still his fingers. "Home to me, huh," he murmured, liking the taste of the words on his lips. RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

"You say that only because you do not have to look at you all the time." Remi remarked with an unconvincingly annoyed roll of his eyes. Unsure of the waters they were in, Remi chose to take the shrug at the reference to their one sexual encounter together as just something in the past. It made his stomach twist unpleasantly....until Ronin continued. Properly speechless, not trusting his mouth to obey, Remi felt not unlike he once had, in rooms far, far from this world. Unable to act on the things he wanted to and conflicted about his feelings.

Cheeks reddening at the memory of their fumbling hands and lips in the kitchen, a few feathers sprouted uneasily in the alchemist's curls. Pausing though as Ronin continued, Remi glanced over with an adoring smile on his lips as he nodded. "Yes." He answered softly, the blush creeping across the bridge of his nose now. "—and Aoife and Sugar, of course." Remi added, as if to defuse the weight of emotion in the first word.

i fell for your eyes

Coding base by Sky!

"Isn't that a good thing? From what I've been led to believe by you, if I did have to look at me all the time I'd never get anything done," Ronin said with a sly half-smile, only to raise his eyebrows and tilt his head at the sudden feathers in Remi's hair. He knew the alchemist far, far too well by now, and seeing them worried him more than anything. "Remi, why am I making you nervous?" he asked softly, before realising he was just lying to himself that he didn't know the answer. "Yes, and them of course," he murmured distractedly. "...Remi, we both know how much is going unsaid here. I... you've made your feelings about Ianto clear, but I still get the idea that things aren't... as you hoped they'd be." RONIN if there's one thing i'm good at, it's surviving

Glancing across, Remi ran a hand through his curls though it did little to make the small downy feathers disappear. His eyes searched Ronin's for a moment, his head shaking ever so slightly. "Not nervous." He clarified in a low voice, unable to hold Ronin's gaze for long and keep his thoughts at all clear.

With a half-smiled that belayed his appreciation for Ronin's candidness as much as his awkwardness in the face of it, Remi sucked in a deep breath, forcing his fingers to cease their fidgeting. Though as soon as he started speaking again, they began to frantically pick at the threads of the pillow. "Is that all that is going unsaid?" Remi asked, hazarding a glance towards Ronin sounding both wry and bashful all at once.

Letting his eyes fall back to the safe place on his lap, Remi frowned slightly. "No...no they are not. And I think I would be alright with that, content at least...if.." The truth had never been a problem for Remi, not really. Not until coming to Caido anyways. Now it still wasn't so much of a barrier as was what his honesty would entail. Though...that was probably at the heart of most lies, anyways.

"..if not for you." He concluded simply, turning his too-pale gaze towards the hunter with something like resignation.

i fell for your eyes

Coding base by Sky!