lodestar

RONIN

Ronin hadn't long gotten back from his meeting with Roana in the Labyrinth, of all places. The hunter had taken off the light armour, the bow and the quiver of arrows, had collected his daughter from the little house in the woods where Vervain lived, and had just put her down for a nap. Sugar was similarly dozing, Ronin wrinkling his nose affectionately at the dragonling and wondering if she would always keep to Aoife's sleep schedule.

Either way, it meant that the guildmaster had time to burn, and to think - and with the guildhall empty for now, he stoked up the fire and sank down to sit in front of it, warming his fingertips. Every time his mind tried to drift to where Remi was and what he was up to, he forced his mind elsewhere. It wouldn't do to turn it over again and again until he knew for sure what the outcome would be.

don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive

Coding base by Sky!

i'd bring you further roses

The sleep schedule of Aoife, steady as it had become, was ingrained into Remi's core such that despite the weightiness of his mood, his fingers were light upon the lock and the door. Opening it slowly (relieved to see that the guildhall was still a shadowy place of limited sight, but sight nonetheless), Remi turned and latched it equally as silently behind him.

The walk back from Ianto's had been treacherous not just for his wounded heart, but his body as well. He'd told Isla to remain at the guildhall, not wanting the conversation to be overheard even by friendly ears, but that meant navigating on his own. He hadn't thought that he'd be struggling home alone, as well though.

So there were multiple scratches along his arms, bare in the Longheat air, and tangles and other marks of the woods in his hair. Shucking off his shirt that was probably stained and slightly bloody, Remi trudged with surprising accuracy towards one of the couches and flopped down on it placing his head immediately into one of the pillows. He rumbled a note of acknowledgement to Ronin who shone like a beacon just to the side of him, and heavily exhaled into the pillow.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

RONIN

Hearing the door quietly unlatch, Ronin smiled to himself and waited patiently for Remi to make his way over, or upstairs, or... wherever he wanted to be, if he wanted to be alone. Glancing sidelong to the alchemist as he heard him flop into the couch somewhere next to him, Ronin let out a long sigh. "Now that is the grumble of a man who has had a shit morning," he said softly, turning properly to look at Remi.

"I take that it went badly." It was a statement, not a question, and Ronin's brow furrowed in a frown as he took in the scratches and marks of the woods all over Remi. "You couldn't see, out there?"

don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive

Coding base by Sky!

i'd bring you further roses

"Mmmmm." Remi groaned with all the articulation of a neanderthal. Not prone to the overly dramatic (and not really able to breathe given how dense the pillow was), the alchemist rolled over and up into a sitting position. Glancing toward Ronin, he couldn't help but smile despite himself at just how vibrant the ex-captain still was.

"No, I could not." He confirmed, glancing down at one of his arms and absently letting his fingers move across a particularly jagged scratch. Closing his eyes and letting his head hang for a moment , Remi exhaled a steady stream of air. "I never want to do anything like that again." He said wearily. "Not ever. If..we...this—" One of his hands rolled in a gesture meant to encapsulate the titleless thing that he and Ronin were, "—it cannot end. I can't."

Now. Wearily stated, what Remi said might have sounded like a man who had experienced heartache far too often in this past year or so, and simply wanted to shy away from it. To other ears though, a relationship without end might have also sounded like a marriage proposal. But the words left Remi's lips easily and honestly with no real thought about the implications. It was true, and he and Ronin had vowed that they were past lying as of the night before.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

RONIN

"Isla can sort them later. Or I'll clean you up," Ronin said of Remi's scratches, the hunter shifting to rise to his feet, only to flop down next to the alchemist on the couch. He wrinkled his nose as Remi spoke, first about not being able to see and then about whatever difficult conversation he'd needed to have with Ianto. Letting out a shallow sigh, he nudged the other man with his shoulder.

"Hey," he said. "You're talking about endings and things have hardly even begun." Smilnng softly, he glanced across to Remi. I don't want you to ever have to do something like this again either. So we're in agreement about that at least."

don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive

Coding base by Sky!

i'd bring you further roses

For a moment Remi sat in silence, his body rocking slowly back towards Ronin's as he was nudged. Then, raising his head, he laughed brightly and cheerfully. "That is where you are wrong." He said, glancing over at the hunter with a wry smile that both made his heart feel light, and simultaneously weighed it down.

"You are one of the only people in my life that I have not had to start over with. You even died and we more or less picked up where we had left off, when you came back. " Fixing Ronin with a weary grin, the alchemist shook his head. "Hardly begun, he says." Remi added, snorting slightly.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

RONIN

Ronin raised his eyebrows at Remi, as if to ask him exactly how he was wrong. Only then of course the alchemist went ahead and told him just what he meant, and... well. He had a good point. "Not quite as we left off," he murmured with a sly little smile in Remi's direction. "You tried to kill me at first. Then we had a drunken fumble. And then we picked up where we left off, and then some."

Yeah, that sounded more like it. "Whether hardly begun or well into it, though... I still don't have any intention of it ending." He reached out, absently teasing the twigs and leaves and other bits of Greatwood that had made it into the alchemist's curls. "Do you feel better for doing it?" he asked of what had happened with Ianto.

don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive

Coding base by Sky!

i'd bring you further roses

"Only once." Remi pointed out with a boyish shrug. "You can try to kill me anytime you like to even the score." He added mischievously. Biting back a retort about whether fumble was really the best choice of words, he conceded and nodded.

The alchemist's lips twitched slightly, half in disbelief and half in mirth. Was it that easy, then? To just..be with someone? In all of Remi's experiences, those remembered and those not, it hadn't been. But that was Ronin all over, having always been there. Having always made it easy, even when it wasn't.

Giving his head a playful shake and sending earthen debris scattering, only to magically collect it into a neat pile, Remi bit his lip. "It was the right thing to do. Even had this not...had you not wanted to...it would not have changed how I felt. It would never have been fair to him." He replied, words deliberate and his expression still wounded.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

RONIN

"Oh, is that so? How generous of you, Remi. I'll be sure to add it to my calendar for a rainy day." Ronin grinned and rolled his eyes, adding the debris he found in the alchemist's hair to the pile he had created. "I'm surprised there's not a bird's nest in here," he remarked, arching an eyebrow at Remi before sitting back again to hear him out. He'd be lying to say that he wasn't glad to know that the playing field was even now, that he wasn't stepping on any toes, but... it was hardly a happy occasion. Even Ronin knew that.

So when he reached out to slip an arm around Remi and shift to lie down on the couch, it was without any expectation of... well, anything. "Doesn't make you feel any better for it though, does it?" he muttered. "I'm sorry you had to do that, Remi."

don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive

Coding base by Sky!

i'd bring you further roses

"I would have expected more from you, captain." The alchemist quipped back. "Rainy day? Now I will know when it is coming. But since you have already taken the time to tell me how apparently strong I am, I suppose I will not worry."

Shooting Ronin a disapproving and scandalized look, Remi ruffled a hand through his curls. "And what do you have against birds all of a sudden?" He joked, feathers appearing en masse throughout his hair, though quickly disappearing again.

The arm behind and against him was not something new—they snuggled every night, after all—but as Ronin had pointed out, this was actually the beginning of something. Probably, anyways. Letting himself be tugged down, Remi halted himself before fully curling in and around Ronin as he normally did. Staring down at the ex-captain, Remi considered thoughtfully. "No." He agreed after a moment. "I think he did love me...but...it was the old me. I had not thought myself so terribly different until Ianto." Remi's smile grew sweet and sad then, the curve of his cheek cresting slightly as he gazed down at Ronin. "He asked me to leave, almost right away. The conversation could not have been more than a few minutes."

Pausing, Remi thought about leaning down to kiss Ronin, the concept still seeming so incredibly bizarre in that it couldn't possibly be allowed. "It was like breaking up with someone, on behalf of someone else. Someone I once was." He said, voice growing soft and distracted as he slowly leaned down, lips hovering just an inch or so above Ronin's. "Can..I kiss you?" He asked with a boyish grin, his eyes properly focused on the hunter in a way they could quite literally focus on no one else.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

RONIN

"Not a captain anymore. Perhaps I'm forgetting all my tactics." Ronin grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Besides, I'm starting out again from scratch. Cut me a little slack, oh powerful magician." Laughing at the feathers that sprouted in Remi's hair, the hunter reached out to ruffle a hand through his curls as well, though the feathers had disappeared again by then. "I have nothing against them, I just thought you might prefer not to have them living in your hair," he remarked.

Listening quietly as Remi talked about Ianto, Ronin sighed and continued to let his hand play with the alchemist's curls. "That makes sense, when you put it like that. But... I don't know. I don't think there's an old you and a new you. Maybe I'm privileged though; we've changed together, since we got here. Anyone looking in might think differently."

Blinking his eyes open (he'd been quite comfortably laying with Remi thus far), Ronin was surprised to find the alchemist so close. A crooked smile played over his lips. "How dare you make this awkward by asking," he said; for that was not their way. Things had continued so naturally since his return from the stars that Remi having to seek permission just... it didn't feel okay.

don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive

Coding base by Sky!

i'd bring you further roses

"From scratch, mm? That is not what Safrin made it sound like when she brought you back from the dead and said you were not quite a man anymore." Remi countered with a grin. "Then again, your new body is shockingly free of scars, so maybe you do have a point." He added, soothed by the familiar hands in his hair.

Nodding thoughtfully, the alchemist resisted the urge to say something corny like, and that is why it is you, for me. Instead, he merely scoffed with a lopsided grin. "You would find a way to make it about you." But that didn't mean Ronin was any less wrong. Everyone else had been in his life in fits and starts. Though from the very beginning, since the moment Ronin had emerged from the ocean, he'd always just been there. Through it all.

"Listen you," the alchemist scolded with a playful frown. "I am still mostly blind. Maybe you have something in your teeth, or horrific breath.  I was just making sure that you did not ruin it."

But, this was different. Maybe in time it would become their way, but for now, this was new. This wasn't a kiss born out of drunken loneliness, nor one stolen in a moment of urgency. And so, with the grin fading from his lips, Remi did indeed kiss Ronin. Romantic as he was, Remi was not so young anymore that he felt he needed to savor the newness of the experience, but he did want to remember it, especially if it was to be his last first kiss. His tongue at first was just a whisper across Ronin's lower lip, his pressure light. Even that though made something immediately kindle low in his belly, a warmth that temporarily sapped away his grief over what had happened with Ianto.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!

RONIN

"Tell me about it. I'm going to have to go out and get new scars so I can tell more stories about myself. What a pain." Ronin sighed, though he did seem obnoxiously content despite his protests. He scoffed right back at Remi at his accusation, the hunter pouting up at his friend. "I did not," he said. "I was just..."

His reply was cut off by Remi's lips, and Ronin forgot whatever lie he'd been about to make up anyway. Eyes slipping shut, he kissed the alchemist back, gently, slowly, completely. They weren't in a hurry for once - for the first time, in fact - and the hunter took the opportunity to enjoy everything about Remi's closeness. Not that he hadn't been intimate with him before, even without the kissing, but at the same time, they'd both established that this was very much something else.

Shifting to sit up ever so slightly, guiding Remi with him, Ronin let his fingers twist gently into the alchemist's curls, his free hand slipping down to settle against his lower back. Only when he was good and ready did he pull back enough to speak, colour high in his cheeks but it was more out of anticipation than nerves or embarrassment. "What were we talking about?"

don't close your eyes
something beautiful is still alive

Coding base by Sky!

i'd bring you further roses

Reviling in the feeling of strong and confident hands around him and a body he knew intimately below, Remi let himself be moved, propping a leg up on the side of Ronin to help support his weight. There was a tenuous sort of amusement about all of this; Remi having just returned home after a grueling conversation, Aoife asleep upstairs and Sugar slumbering somewhere nearby, that should have given the alchemist more pause than it did. As emotionally bankrupt as he was however, he did indeed let himself indulge in the hunter's lips and tongue and the feel of him pressed down against the couch.

However as Ronin pulled back, his cheeks practically glowing salmon in Remi's sight, the alchemist grinned. "About how unmarked your body is, I think.." He drawled mischievously, tendrils of magic slyly reaching out towards the kitchen, where shards of ice were kept to keep their meat cool.

"Ronin—" Remi whispered, his lips pulled back in a grin as his teeth pressed ever so slightly against the ex-captain's lip. He didn't need to feign the heat in his voice, but he didn't try to hide it either. His back arching slightly into Ronin's hand, Remi shifted his weight to try and create a gap between the couch and Ronin's lower back.

A gap that his hand was soon about to fill...

...with a handful of ice magically moved from the kitchen. With a laugh that his lips quickly stopped, he surged forward to capture Ronin's lips while at the same time pressing a palm full of ice against the hunter's lower back.

but it does you no good

Coding base by Sky!