disturbed

the baffled king composing hallelujah

Ronin tsked in the back of his throat, shaking his head and smiling bashfully to Remi. "I feel as though if any of you knew me not five years ago, you'd eat your words," he muttered. Had he really grown so much, from ruffian to hero? To leader, if some were to be believed? Speaking of which... "Amalia visited the guild a few days ago. She asked me to reconsider... well. Everything we discussed," he admitted.

As the other man spoke again of Zariah and the sweet poison she laced her words with, Ronin worried his lower lip between his teeth. Eventually, he shrugged. "Honestly, Remi, it comes down to what you believe. If you have that conviction then I think you'll be able to refuse her. What is right and what is wrong is so nebulous, that you can only really follow your own heart." He smiled sadly, wishing it was easier.

"I believe what she is doing is wrong, and so I stand against it. What do you think? That's all that matters. That will help you make your decisions, and help you live with them."

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"If I knew you five years ago.." Remi's blush deepened as he shook his head. He liked to think his resolve wouldn't have wavered, that he might not have caved as he had apparently done with Loren and Ianto...there was something so relieving about the fact that he had compromised himself before Ronin. That he was able to stand confidently (ish) as the man he was today, if only because his mistakes had been made before. Not that there wouldn't be more of course but...Cutting off that line of thinking, Remi shot his friend a bemused smile that hardly seemed serious given the weight of what they were discussing. "I remember when we first came here and you said you were all but done with soldiering. Look at you now." He pointed out with a smile. "And if I remember correctly, I feel as though I was just told something about the point of what power and strength was..?"

Sighing softly and looking down at the gears, so much easier to assemble than all of this, he shook his head. "For years I was told following my heart was punishable by law." He reminded the ex-captain with a soft tilt of his head. "I think you are probably right I just...I suppose I do not have the practice that everyone else seems to."

Raising a brow, Remi hummed a thoughtful note in the back of his throat as he turned back towards Ronin. The wine on the ledge was completely forgotten about by now, but there were other intoxicants present that more than held his attention. "I think...there is merit to some of what she says and some of what she wants to do. Part of me, the naive part I suppose, wonders if she doesn't deserve a chance. A lot of what I think I heard the other day was fear and just....simple pushback against being told what to do. Some of it sounded childish, honestly. But if not her, then someone Ronin. People are being captured, killed...LongNight is a slaughter and no one has done anything about it. Not in three hundred years, apparently."

the baffled king composing hallelujah

Remi blushed and Ronin flashed him a crooked smile, nudging him as if to try to remind him to keep his mind out of the gutter if they were going to try and discuss something so serious. Still, he only groaned and nodded his defeat at the alchemist's point. He had said he was done. But apparently it was just as difficult for him to change his nature as it was for Remi. "You can take the man out of the army and all that..." He sighed. "I know, I know. I just... I remember, last time, how burnt out I got. I can't afford for that to happen again."

Rubbing at his forehead, he squeezed Remi's hand again and grinned. "You're right, you were told that. And look at you now," he reminded him. "We're getting married. If you can tell the world you're allowed to love who you want, why can't you tell a self-made royal that you won't let her push you around and burn you?"

It wasn't that easy - of course it wasn't. And neither was the Zariah situation, as Remi so effectively articulated. Ronin nodded reluctant agreement, though he still stood firm on his point. "She threatened our daughter," he reminded him quietly. "Easily, and without a thought. She calls herself the Merciless. I don't think that sort of leader is the one to think about saving lives during Longnight, do you?"

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

Flashing his friend a crooked smile, suggesting that, only days after their engagement for Ronin to imply that the alchemist’s mind stay appropriately above-board was far beyond a reasonable request.

”You are not as alone as you were last time.” Remi minded his lover, nudging him softly. Last time Ronin was in a fledgling relationship with Vanya, ducking her family all the while trying to take on a new role again Roana, under the thumb of an absolutely deranged and distant monarch. Though it wasn’t much better here, at least Ronin wa surrounded by more than just the likes of Koel and Loren.

Unable to keep the stupid smile at bay that immediately contorted his face at hearing Ronin so easily put voice to their plans, the alchemist tried to swallow down the thrill of joy he felt bursting upwards from his chest. ”Is it magic, Ronin? Is there even a way to know? I just..” Biting at his lip and rolling his eyes back helplessly, the alchemist shook his head. ”It all sounds so reasonable when she says it. The jail, the locks, the amulets...all for the greater good. “ But then, that was politics all over.

Ronin called Aoife ours and suddenly nothing had ever seemed so clear. Straightening, Remi turned entirely towards Ronin now, his too-pale gaze drowning against the overwhelming blue of Ronin’s. “No one who would threaten a child deserves to rule.” He concluded, mind and heart undeniably made up.

the baffled king composing hallelujah

Smiling at the nudge, Ronin nodded and gently pulled Remi against him again, careful of his injuries and leaning in for a gentle kiss. "I'm not," he agreed. "I'm not as alone this time, it's true." Drawing back, he let a playful grin tug at his lips, the buoyant joy that rose up in his lover's expression more than contagious. Still, the point he made was an interesting one.

"It wouldn't surprise me if it was something more than ordinary. You don't suppose she has someone else who can create magical items for her? Something to make her sound... I don't know, better than her words would suggest?" He arched an eyebrow as Remi listed off what he had made. "What do they do, those things you created? I know you mentioned them before, but it wasn't really the time to ask for details..."

Remi straightened up and met his gaze, and even before he spoke Ronin knew that something had clicked in him. He nodded quietly as he spoke, giving a quiet smile. "Then we have a lot to do, don't we?"

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

The flash of red-hot pain across his chest could hardly compare to the spark of love he felt for Ronin as the guildmaster pulled him close (though owwww, it did sting); the alchemist all but melting into Ronin's arms. You have no idea what you do to me, Remi's bleary-eyed gaze said as his lashes fluttered back open.

Inhaling sharply, Remi could only shrug. "The only other person I know who can even create things is Deimos. And he said he could not imbue them with magic yet...I...I do not see why he would lie." Remi said with a gentle shrug, though the notion that the likes of Ronin, Vai and perhaps a few others being the only ones he could really trust was already taking root in his mind. "The locks..." Remi's cheeks burned. Zariah had said not to tell, but then Ronin had said to follow his heart.

No one who threatened children deserved to rule.

"..the locks can only be opened by the keys I made. One is a combination set from the inside. The others require keys. She had originally asked if I could make it so only the abandoned could open it. The ink is just...well, that. It speaks in her voice and smells the way it smells." He shrugged again. "The crystals today...two of them, they...they store power if it is directed at them, to be used later."

Standing tall, and perhaps confident for once, in Ronin's gaze, the alchemist nodded. "Everything, I think."

the baffled king composing hallelujah

Ronin hummed an agreement about Deimos; the stern faced warrior was many things, but a liar was most definitely not one of them. (At least as far as the hunter had seen throughout their interactions). He waited patiently for Remi to find the words to explain what he had created for Zariah, absently letting his fingers play along his lover’s lower back and sighing softly.

And it wasn’t quite as bad as he had thought, Ronin meeting Remi’s gaze and nodding to him in confirmation. ”Best to caution others that those crystals exist, lest someone start throwing magic where it might be used against them. You included.” He reached out to brush a hand affectionately through Remi’s curls.

”For now, shall we look at those burns properly?” Hopefully they would be the last ones delivered to him by Zariah’s hand.

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

The alchemist winced at the thought that his own magic might bring harm to others, though couldn't be too properly upset with Ronin's fingers trailing along his bare skin. "I wonder if there is a way to remotely control the things I create...or...perhaps I should start building that into them.." Leaning his cheek against Ronin's hand, the alchemist sighed gratefully. "Or simply stop making weapons for people like Zariah." You can take the Northaven out of the alchemist, and all that. Only now the stakes seemed much higher.

Glancing down at his chest, Remi shook his head slightly. "I am alright, really. I will go and see Phoebe. There is a magical salve I made for Isla once, that will help." Raising a brow with a small grin, Remi raised a mischevious brow. "I would ask Vai, but she only just healed me from where she shot me with an arrow, so..." Trailing off with a shit-eating grin, the alchemist shrugged in Ronin's arms.

the baffled king composing hallelujah

The adoring little smile on Ronin's face said it all - at the mention of being able to work controls into the magical items he had created, Remi had all but lost his lover. That didn't mean Ronin wasn't fully supportive, of course (hence the smile), only that he would be somewhat useless as a soundboard for the matter. "Stopping sounds like a great idea," he contributed, helpfully.

Arching an eyebrow at the alchemist's reasons for not contacting Vai, Ronin was barely able to hide his smirk. "If she shot you, you probably deserved it," he remarked. "And fine, then. Go and see Phoebe. I would have thought you'd be jumping at the chance for nurse Ronin over here to take care of you."

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

Remi chuckled, leaning forward to press a gentle kiss against the hunter's cheek. He'd never go so far to insult Ronin's intelligence by suggesting that he was back to being the braun, but in the midst of all the alchemist was seemingly getting wrong for lack of experience, it was nice to know that there were still arenas in which he could hold his own.

Sucking in a surprised gasp of air, Remi tilted his head upwards letting his nostrils flare with feigned-outrage. "I am fine, thank you for asking." He sniffed, haughty look falling away into a grin. "I was helping her with her archery practice. Though...clearly she did not need it."

Grinning and pulling Ronin's hips against his own, (only because his chest was injured, and so lower down was really the only place they could be close...), Remi raised a speculative brow and grinned with boyish intrigue. "Oh? And tell me nurse Ronin, however would you take care of me, mm?"

the baffled king composing hallelujah

"Well I can see that you are fine," Ronin countered with a boyish grin, as if to explain why he hadn't checked that the other man was alright. "Though I could probably have told you that Vai didn't need practice without you offering to be a living target for her." Still, he knew that the witch was all kinds of important to the alchemist, and it didn't surprise Ronin that Remi had offered so willingly to be shot in the fucking leg for her.

Blue eyes smouldering as Remi pressed up against him, Ronin leant in close to press his lips against the shell of his lover's ear. "If I told you," he all but purred, "that would ruin all the fun of showing you, wouldn't it?" Drawing back, he raised a suggestive brow and smiled knowingly.

Little did Remi know that nurse Ronin planned for him to lie in bed not moving. Tit for tat, and all.

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"It is twice she has shot me as a lion now." Remi hummed thoughtfully. "If we ever find ourselves where big cats actually roam around, at least I know she will be well-prepared to face them."

Closing his eyes as a shiver pleasantly rippled down his neck to his shoulders and back, Remi's grip of Ronin's hips tightened for a moment as a lusty grin spread across his lips. "Well, Phoebe really is not all that skilled.." Lies, but who cares. "And who knows, I might slip and scrape my knee on the way home anyway, or find myself cursed again and be in need of your skills for all sorts of other wounds."

the baffled king composing hallelujah

"With a decent enough opening I have no doubt that Vai could shoot down a full grown dragon if she wanted to," Ronin said with a scoff, though thoughts of the huntress and her archery skills were quickly fading into the back of his mind, especially as Remi's grip on him tightened. Letting out a laugh under his breath, he nipped at Remi's ear before drawing back again to tilt his head expectantly.

"Oh, well, we wouldn't want any of that now, would we?" He grinned, straightening up from the workbench and thoroughly ignoring the wine he'd brought by now. "Come on, let's head back home. I can put on my sexy nurse outfit and everything." Hint hint. He was just naked.

all our lives i watched you search beneath the fallen skies

"Good to know that apparently, I need to reach much more mythical proportions to be of any use to her."

The teeth against the soft flesh of his ear sent another wave of shivers down his spine. Remi's body trying simultaneously to draw in a sharp inhale and moan at the same time. An act which merely lodged a bubble in the back of his throat that he hastily swallowed down. Leaning his cheek against Ronin as the ex-captain pulled away, Remi raised his eyebrows as his lips parted slightly, more than willing to indulge Ronin in this line of thinking.

"An outfit, mm? I know I said I liked your uniform before, but nurse will do." Having not forgotten the wine, Remi grabbed his glass and drained it, immediately leaning forward to kiss Ronin while the red-liquid was still warm on his tongue.