wonderland

say it's here where our pieces fall in place

Noticing a bead of blood on Ronin's lip, Remi's expression instantly faltered as his free hand moved as if to cup the side of his husband's cheek. It stopped, paralyzed suddenly by the ferocity of the hunter's gaze as it was levelled against him. "I—" He started to answer, but the latter of what felt like a two-pronged attack was about to begin.

Jaw having properly dropped, his eyes wide with surprise and a far too-naive sort of pain, Remi merely watched Ronin trump up the stairs, flinching as a door was slammed shut. If not for Aoife's cries, the alchemist might have stood for an eternity where he was. Quickly though he ran up to her room, taking the stairs two at a time. Opening the door and swooping his arms into her crib to pull her against him, Remi only recognized just how frantically his heart was beating with Aoife's body against his chest. On his finger, he could feel a similar rhythm pounding away in the next room.

"Shh, sweet girl. You shall have to live through many more slamming doors than this. Best get used to it now." He cooed, trying for a sing-song tone but finding his voice all but slipping away into a foggy whisper. There were too many accusations to sort through at once - being referred to as a whore, letting others share in his abilities, the still gulf-like disparity between what Ronin was capable of, and what Remi was. The anger. The hurt.

Breathing in Aoife's scent as if it might be the last sip of oxygen he might ever have, Remi leaned against the wall and let himself slowly slide down it. Staring bleakly at the empty chair where Ronin normally sat, Remi instead mumbled a half-hearted story into Aoife's curls as her hands pulled away at the many feathers having sprouted in his.