disturbed

the baffled king composing hallelujah

Cognitive dissonance. That, Ronin felt, was probably the correct term for what he was feeling. Something had happened deep in the Spire after he'd left - something that left marks and that caused random shivers down his spine. It was a clamminess on his skin, a storm in his belly.

But at the same time, he and Remi had become so much more than what they were on that day. And he couldn't wipe the smile off his face at that. So it was on a breezy Leafchange afternoon that he shut up the guildhall early to drop by his friend's fiance's place, Ronin shouldering open the door and trying to hide his cheeky grin.

Behind his back he held a bottle of wine for them to share, the hunter clearly intending to distract Remi from any work he might want to do. "Hello?" he called.

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

The sound of Ronin's voice both made Remi grin, but also chuckle with good-natured frustration. Biting the inside of his lip and raising a brow as he gaze down at a random assortment of gears and lenses and the like, the alchemist laughed to himself softly before setting his tools on the workbench and spinning easily in his seat to face the direction of the door.

Because of all the time spent within his own guild, he could clearly make out most things within it. Ronin of course, was like a comet blazing towards him, all sapphire-blue eyes and a smile that quite literally was radiant. Leaning back against the bench and wiping some grease on his shirt (why he continued to wear white was anyone's guess), he tilted his head almost skeptically to the side.

"Don't you knock? I could have been working on a gift for you." Remi grumbled happily.

the baffled king composing hallelujah

"You are a gift, all on your own," Ronin said, his grin growing at realising how cheesy he was being but not caring one bit. Reaching out to set the wine down on the workbench next to whatever random assortment of... things that Remi was working on, the hunter leant in to steal a hello from Remi's lips.

Straightening up, he folded his arms across his chest and regarded the other man triumphantly. "I am here to distract you," he informed him, as though it was a mission given by the gods. "So pack up your stuff and I'll fetch us two glasses. What'd you say?" There wasn't really a point in the question; as if Ronin would take no for an answer.

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"I think perhaps you are still concussed." Remi quipped back, but the butterflies in his stomach that were migrating up into his throat told an entirely different story. Reaching for Ronin and not caring at all should any of the grime transfer onto the hunter, Remi happily held his lover with his lips and tongue as much as his fingers, savoring the easiness of freely kissing him in the middle of the day.

"Is that so?" The alchemist mused, his lips lopsided with happy amusement. "Fetch us glasses, mm? You mean I am not expected to make them myself? What a treat." He snorted as he stood, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

the baffled king composing hallelujah

"Perhaps I am! If that's the case, I'd prefer to stay that way." Ronin grinned, already meandering into the back room where he'd been countless times before, rummaging about with no particular sense of law or order and somehow managing to find a couple of glasses. Whatever else he had pulled out or accidentally rearranged in the process just... didn't need to be spoken about. Remi would find it later, probably.

"I do love to treat you." He chuckled, moving to lean against the workbench and uncork the wine so he could pour them both a drink. "How is artisaning going, anyway? Make many a thing? Invent any wonders today?"

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"Me too." Remi half-whispered in Ronin's wake, biting his lower lip as he watched the hunter stroll away from him with shameless appreciation. For as brilliant of a mind as the alchemist had, organization had never been his strong suit. So as the sounds of various things knocking against each other reached his ears, Remi merely chuckled, crossing his arms and waiting while trying to look properly impatient about the whole thing.

Growling slightly in the back of his throat, Remi moved behind Ronin as he uncorked the wine, wrapping his arms around him and resting his chin upon his shoulder. "Deimos joined." He murmured, pressing a kiss just below Ronin's lip before rolling to the side to lean against the work bench as well. "He can make things as well. Not magical things yet, but...perhaps one day." Remi shrugged as he picked up the glass of wine, tilting it forward to cheers the hunter's, appreciatively.

the baffled king composing hallelujah

Their affection was so easy, so casual that Ronin couldn't help but notice it all the more. Indeed, the feel of arms around him and a chin tucked upon his shoulder was enough to still his hands from pouring the wine for a moment, the hunter closing his eyes to fully enjoy it. "Oh...? For some reason I can't imagine Deimos making things. He seems more like someone to knock things over. Though that may be a terrible assumption on my part."

Turning to face Remi as he rolled away to lean against the bench with him, Ronin clinked his glass with the alchemist and took a sip. "It's good to see you with a place like this," he remarked. "I remember your tiny room in Northaven. This is... well. It's a world away - literally."

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

Remi nodded in thoughtful agreement. "I thought that too. When I first met him he helped me set up my shop, actually. He seemed much better with his hands than with magic then. It sounds like a recent development." Reaching around the side of his desk, he pulled out a beautifully ornate dagger with a unicorn on the top. "He made this for me." The alchemist noted, laying it down before the hunter.

Exhaling and looking around as well, a humble sort of blush crawling across the bridge of his nose, Remi let his head loll slightly back and forth in awkward agreement. "I did rather like my little room, thank you very much." Remi countered with a smirk. "Just because you got yourself stabbed just outside my door, did not make it any less quaint."

the baffled king composing hallelujah

"It seems we are all learning, as time goes on. Hopefully we become wiser, as well as more intelligent." Ronin smirked. Most of them, anyway - they all knew he was a lost cause when it came to wisdom and learning from his mistakes. For the most part, at least - he had proved he wasn't going to needlessly put himself in danger anymore. (On one occasion).

Arching an eyebrow at the dagger, Ronin ran a hand across the unicorn with one finger. He smiled and nodded, impressed. "I did not think you were the type to stab people, Remi," he remarked with a cheeky smile, nudging the other man.

"I am not judging your tiny room, only mentioning how different it is to this," he said, chuckling. "Though you can no longer prove I was stabbed, I think you'll find."

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"No?" Remi returned, an utterly filthy expression on his face as he cocked his head suggestively to the side. "Then again if you thought of it as stabbing I think I would have to reconsider my technique."

Humming a note of incredulity and skepticism, Remi placed his glass of wine down, his too-pale eyes alight with mischief. "I had better check, just to be sure." He mumbled through lips intent on doing things other than speaking. Lifting the bottom of Ronin's shirt up to reveal a stomach now well-punctuated with muscle but without the silvery remnants of scaring, the alchemist snorted thoughtfully. "Maybe a closer inspection, then." Lowering himself down for a moment, Remi traced the lines of muscle on Ronin's torso with his lips, before pausing at the place where once he'd had his hand, holding in the ex-captain's life blood. Staring for a moment at Ronin's stomach, Remi chuckled to himself before kissing the now entirely blemish-free area.

Glancing up adoringly, the alchemist shook his head slightly. "You have no idea how hard it was for me to walk with my arms around you that day."

the baffled king composing hallelujah

"Oh? I suppose you are right about that. It's less... stabbing. More like hammering." Ronin's laughter was just as dirty as the expression on Remi's face, and he bounced his eyebrows suggestively at the other man at the implication that there was checking to be done. "Make sure you look real close. Make sure I've not accidentally kept any scars left over." Impossible given he had seemingly received an entirely new body, but that didn't count right now.

Remi took his sweet time but Ronin barely cared, merely enjoying the attention as he sipped at his wine. "Ha - I can imagine," he said with a grin, letting his fingers play with the alchemist's mess of curls. "All our interactions back then seem particularly difficult for you. I am almost sorry for the way I marched out of the sea. Almost."

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"Hammering." Remi repeated, though there wasn't much weight in the word. Though he'd happily accept critique on his technique, he didn't think that's what this was. Nevertheless, Remi's mind was now quite definitively deep down in the gutter, as he considered leaving hammers about the guildhouse as a way to suggest when he wanted sex.

Remi groaned at the memory, half out of embarrassment and half out of wanting. Biting playfully against skin once marred by patterns of scarring, Remi leaned his forehead against Ronin's lower stomach and shook it slightly. "You were...well, you. And that uniform you wore, and I was..." With a helpless sigh, Remi kissed his way back up to Ronin's sternum before letting the hunter's shirt drop back down as he stood fully.

"..the way I was." He said with a shrug, grabbing at his glass of wine and letting the liquid drown out his laughter for a moment. "Maybe one day we will find another ocean, mm?"

the baffled king composing hallelujah

Ronin inhaled slowly and deeply as he sagged back against the workbench, head tilted back so he could try not to succumb to filthy thoughts and the feel of Remi's lips against his lower stomach. Still, let let out a warm laugh as the alchemist continued, the hunter arching an eyebrow down at him and flashing a shit eating grin. "The uniform? I never realised that got you hot under the collar, Remi. Noted. He winked.

Taking another drink of wine as the other man straightened up, he let an arm slip around Remi's waist so he could draw him close. "Mm, another ocean... I would like that. I'd like to show it to Aoife." He smiled, and it was clear that he wasn't actually thinking of the ocean at all in that moment. Clearing his throat, Ronin shook his head. "Sorry."

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"Listen you. When what you want is illegal and you spend your days fumbling to make it seem like all is well on the relationship front, it certainly does not take much." That being said, yes, the uniform definitely did it for him. Not as much as the man wearing it, but it was a nice touch.

For a moment Remi tensed as Ronin pulled him close, the burned skin on his sternum in an unhappy stage of healing. Hissing in a breath and swallowing down the flair of pain, Remi exhaled slowly and shook his head. "I was working on a smaller telescope that she could hold before you came in, actually." The alchemist murmured, his thoughts equally well muddled.