the monsters turned out to be just trees

hope keeps us breathing, just to kill us in the end

"I want to be here." Remi objected simply and easily. As for back home? He'd made arrangements for Aoife, and Ronin was in jail. Anyone else could most definitely wait. "And I think I will try, just the same." Naive ignorance or simple boyish optimism or some other double-edged character trait; whatever it was, Remi was going no where.

Nuzzling against the summoner's neck to move the layers of his jacket, the alchemist rested his forehead against the skin of Loren's neck, closing his eyes and breathing deeply. "I am not leaving you Loren. And..you do not get to say that you love me only to demand I leave you right after." He added in a voice that was more vibrations against skin and cloth than anything else.